Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was the middle of the night, but Professor Samuel Oak was still busy working in his lab. Normally, the aging professor would have gone to bed by now, but given the current circumstances he couldn't rest just yet.

The professor worked quickly yet methodically as he set machines, connected wires and fiddled with tubes. The only sound coming from the room were the various noises from the machines he was working on, and the anxious pacing of his unexpected guest behind him. Once he was done, he closed the clear box he was working on and flicked a switch.

"There, that should be it." Samuel breathed.

That prompted the guest to come up behind him, trying to peer over his shoulder. "Is she...?"

"Yes. She should be fine now." Samuel confirmed. "You can look," He said, quickly stepping aside so that the bedraggled woman can stand beside him.

The two stood in silence as they watched the little bundle inside the machine. The newly-hatched Zorua was almost drowning in all the cushioning that surrounded her, but they could still see her breathe slowly as her tiny body recovered.

"Thank you Sammy," The lady sagged in relief, tears evident in her voice. "I was so worried..."

"Yes." Samuel mused. "It must have been quite the ordeal you've had to deal with... Hanako." 

The woman froze. "H-How did you-?"

"Well, there's only so many people who would come to my place in the dead of night with a little Zorua. And you're the only one in that group who still calls me 'Sammy'."

There was a moment of pause before the woman disappeared, with a familiar shiny Zoroark standing in her place. But for as tired as the human disguise looked, the real Hanako looked even worse. Her mane was an absolute mess, and various cuts and bruises littered her whole body.

"Dear Mew, Hanako." Samuel took the sight in. "We need to get you to a center, or at least the med bay. Here, let me bring you to-"

"NO! I'm not leaving my kit!" Hanako growled uncharacteristically for the normally gentle Zoroark. She stopped, seeing the professor's reaction, and wilted in place. "S-sorry Sammy."

"It's all right my dear, I understand. I should have taken that into account." He placated her. "I might have some potions in this room. Let me go look for them."

Silence reigned as the professor looked for the medical supplies and the Zoroark looked after her kit in the incubator. Eventually, Samuel found a few odd potions and berries he could give to her as well as sme bandages.

"Tell me," He said as he started treating her wounds. "How did you get here? Last I heard you were up in the Sinnoh Region."

"I was. Just until a few days ago, I was there." The Zoroark talked, trusting her friend with her wounds and her story. "It came out of nowhere... One day I was fixing my nest and the next... they came."

"They chased me for miles. Told me some nonsense I didn't understand and attacked me when I tried to flee. They said they would spare me if I gave them my egg." She hissed in anger recalling these events. "Like I would let them."

"I ran as far and as fast as I could. They chased me for a long time. Then my egg hatched. I couldn't risk it. I lost them someplace north of here and went here. I knew you could help her, I trust you."

Samuel felt touched at that admission. "You were right to bring her here. Any longer and there would have been some serious consequences on her health."

Hanako looked down. "I want to keep her safe. But I don't know where to go. Maybe somewhere in the south would do?"

Like a bolt of lightning, a bold idea struck Samuel. "Why don't you stay here?"

She looked shocked. "Here? In the lab? I wouldn't want to impose. Especially after keeping you up so late!"

"It's no bother." He reassured her. "But I don't mean here in the lab. I meant here in Pallet Town. As a human."

The Zoroark was stunned.

Samuel pushed on. "That disguise you came in. It's perfect. No one would ever suspect you, and whoever was chasing you would stick out like a sore thumb in here."

"I can help you get set up here too. You can even help me here in the Lab as a job. You were really helpful when I was working out in the field." Samuel offered. "There's plenty of ways I can help your kit too."

She breathed. "I want what's best for my kit. I think... I'll take you up on your offer."

Samuel smiled. "Welcome to Pallet Town, Hanako."

"Delia."

"Hmm?" He asked.

"Call me Delia. If I'm going to go underground, I might as well go all the way with a new name." The Zoroark explained.

"Of course. We can workshop a surname for you too." Samuel agreed. He turned to the incubator, where her little kit was resting. "What about your daughter? Will you be giving her a new name too?"

"I haven't given her a name yet. I was too busy trying to survive." Delia confessed. She slowly got up, walked to her daughter, and pressed a claw to the glass. "I think... Ashley. Ashley is such a beautiful name..."

Samuel got up and looked at the little kit. A Zorua with an ash-black coat, a mysterious connection to others, and a familiar-sounding name.

"Yes, Ashley fits her just fine."

Chapter Text

-4 years later-

On the outskirts of Pallet Town, but close to the Oak Laboratory and Ranch, was the Ketchum Household. It was an idle curiosity of the residents in town. The young lady who lived there was very private, and didn't speak much about herself or her relationship with the Oaks. This of course, lead to many rumors and speculation about the curious woman. But for all their gossip, none of them even came close to the truth of what she was hiding.

Inside the living room, a female Zorua kit. A small standing mirror stood by her side, while dozens of picture books and human magazines were spread haphazardly around them. The kit screwed her face in concentration. After a moment, she disappeared, replaced by a blobby-looking human figure.

"Ughhh... This is so hard," Ashley complained, flopping down to the carpet. She eyed her misshapen illusion critically in the mirror, giving it a quick smack. "Nyeh- Ack!" The mirror didn't like that, falling on top of her and bursting her from the illusion.

It was natural for young Zorua to practice their illusion and get it wrong the first few times. But this was no ordinary practice. For you see, Ashley wasn't just experimenting with a human illusion, she was trying to perfect it.

Zorua were protected by their disguises, and humans were (according to her mom) the best disguise to take to hide. But being human was so much more complicated than being anything else! They were so varied and had so many complicated parts to them. Mom wouldn't settle on her just doing a perfect copy of another human, she had to make her own human disguise.

And it was so hard!

Ashley managed to wriggle out from under the mirror, crying out in victory. "Ashley Ketchum wins!" She giggled, before kicking the mirror for good measure.

She defeated the evil mirror but she hadn't defeated her inability to make a good human disguise yet.

... Maybe it was time for a break. Didn't mom buy some Pokeblocks yesterday?

Set on the idea of snacks, Ashley abandoned her human disguise study and began looking for those delicious snacks.

Ashley searched the entire house for a crumb of her favorite treat. But no matter where she looked, she couldn't find any sign of it anywhere! 

She didn't want to go back to studying so she tried to look again. As she looked through the cabinets again, she opened one she forgot to do last time and found something amazing.

A tiny little hole where sunshine was coming out of.

Ashley gasped. "Outside!" Ashley had never been outside before. Mom didn't want to bring her outside until she could make her human disguise. She didn't know why, she could do Pokemon just fine, but she insisted. That's why she was working so hard earlier to do it.

But now, there was an exit to it that Mom didn't know about! There were no locks or curtains or anything the other exits had.

What mom didn't know couldn't hurt her...

It was a tight squeeze, even for a tiny Zorua like herself, but she forced it to work. She wasn't going to let this opportunity get away from her! After a bit of struggling and squeezing. She finally popped out on the other side.

She was outside.

"OUTSIDE!" Ashley cheered. Everything out here was so bright and weird, unlike her home. But it was a good kind of weird! Even though the grass was tall and the sun was hot, she was too excited to care. She was out! She could play!

Ashley spent the next few minutes laughing and prancing around in the slightly overgrown backyard of her house. She didn't have any toys or playmates to play with, but she didn't mind. She was having so much fun on her own.

Soon, she stopped dancing and started hunting. She'd always heard of buried treasure, maybe some was hiding somewhere here in her backyard! She was going to find something cool and keep it as a souvenir for today.

But as she began looking for something shiny to keep, she overheard something odd.

"Over here B!"

"I'm coming!"

Were those... humans?

Ashley was excited. She'd only ever seen one human before, the Professor that Mom was friends with. All the other humans she'd seen were from the TV or the pictures she had.

On instinct, she sneakily made her way to the fence where she heard the humans. They seemed distracted so they didn't hear her approach. When she was close enough, she peeked through a small hole on the fence to take a peek.

Behind the fence were two girls. She couldn't see their faces from where she was, but she could still differentiate them. One had brown hair in a 'ponytail'. She was wearing shorts and a shirt and had a round box in her hands. The other girl had short yellow hair and was wearing an orange dress. She was running to the brown-haired girl looking a little tired.

"I'm here." Yellow-haired girl said, looking very tired.

"You are!" Brown-haired girl cheered before handing yellow-haired girl the box. "Happy birthday!"

Woah, it was the yellow girl's birthday? Her own birthday was just a few days ago!

"Silly, my birthday is in a few days!" Yellow said, but she took the box anyways. "Wow!" She exclaimed as she took out a pretty hat from the present. "Thank you so much Hilly!"

"You're welcome!" Brown said. "I wanted my best friend to be ready for our big Pokémon adventure!"

Ashley gasped. These girls were going to be Pokémon trainers?

She'd heard about them before on the TV and in her books. Humans who worked with Pokémon to travel the world and win lots of big competitions. It sounded so cool and exciting to her! She wanted to be one as well. But she was too young and she had to be a human to do it. That was another reason to work on her human disguise more.

Yellow wore the hat. It looked really nice. "I'll treasure it forever!"

"You better!"

Was a hat important to being a trainer too?

"Now! What starter are you going to pick! I'm gonna get a Charmander!" Brown announced.

"I don't know, they're all so cute!" Yellow said. "But if you're picking that, maybe I should pick-"

"BIANCA!!!"

Ashley nearly jumped out of her fur as she stumbled away. What was that? Who was that? Why did they sound so angry? It sounded like it was getting closer. Did it have something to do with Yellow and Brown?

Curiosity won out against her fear. She had to know. She scrambled back to her feet and peeked through the fence again to see what was happening.

There were two new figures in the area. One was a big man, who had dark yellow hair and seemed very angry with something. The other was a little boy with light yellow hair trailing behind the older one. Yellow and Brown froze, and it looked like Yellow was shaking a bit.

"H-hi Daddy-" Yellow tried to greet him.

"What did I TELL YOU, Bianca?!" The man roared, getting in Yellow's face. "I told you that you were NOT ALLOWED to BECOME A TRAINER!" I FORBID IT!"

"B-but Daddy-!"/"But Mister White!-"

"And I told you NOT to talk to this GIRL!" The man cut them off by pointing at Brown, almost hitting her in the process. "She's a BAD INFLUENCE and I FORBID IT!"

As the girls quivered in fear, the man seemed self-aware as he looked out to the distance. "You're lucky I caught you near the Oaks." He grumbled. "We will be having words later, young lady! You better not miss dinner..."

With that ominous threat, the man stormed away, leaving the kids exactly where they were.
"... How did he find that out? We were being so careful..." Brown mumbled.

"Hah!" The boy said, reminding them all of his presence. "I told him! Daddy deserves to know!"
"Alby!" Yellow gasped at the betrayal.

"Stupid girls like you don't deserve to be trainers. You're just going to lose." The boy laughed, before following the man away.

The girls stood there in silence. Yellow shook violently before falling to the ground in a blubbering mess. "W-w-why are they so mean?! I just w-wa-wanna be a t-trainerrr..." She sobbed.

"I don't know B, I don't know." Brown said as she awkwardly kneeled down beside her and started rubbing her back.

Ashley stumbled away from the fence in a daze. Her ears were still ringing from the loud shouting, but that wasn't what bothered her the most.

Were girls not allowed to become trainers? That man and that boy who seemed related to Yellow were very certain of that. She and Brown got scolded and hurt for trying to become one. Borwn wasn't able to defend Yellow in that, so what if they were right?

Ashley hadn't decided yet, but being a trainer sounded fun. But would she even be allowed to be one because she was a girl? Was it a boy's only thing?

She hadn't even noticed she'd made her way back to the hole until she nearly bumped against the wall. She'd been so caught up in her thoughts trying to process everything she'd learned. It seemed so unfair! But what can she do?

Then an idea struck her.

If girls weren't allowed to become trainers. Maybe she needed to become a boy to do it. She stared at her dusty-red paws. She was a girl Zorua but a Zorua still. Maybe she can do something about that?

With a new goal in mind, she squeezed back in the house and began to work.

-

Several hours later, a gentle but deliberate knocking noise came from the door. The door opened as a young woman carrying various shopping bags stepped into the house. She locked the door and dropped her illusion, revealing the shiny underneath. "Ashley, I'm home!"

"Coming!" Ashley's distant voice called out.

Delia smiled as she unpacked the groceries. Acting human was hard, even with the years of practice she now had, but it was all worth it to keep herself and her kit safe.

She hoped that Ashley would learn to pick up that skill as well.

"Mom!" Delia turned to the sound and nearly dropped some things in shock.

The voice was Ashley's but the figure was completely different. Standing in the hallway was a young boy with a wide toothy grin. His whole body looked dark, even with the lights in the house, but a quick look at his messy familiar ash-black hair told her everything she needed.

"Ashley?"

"Tada!"

"Oh, look at you!" Delia scooped up the little boy in her arms and nuzzled him close, enjoying the squeals of laughter and protest from her disguised kit.  "I'm so proud of you!"

Once the celebration was over, she looked at her kit and asked a simple question. "It's a nice disguise honey, but why did you pick a boy disguise?"

"Oh. Well. They're cool! And I wanna be a boy!" There was something else in Ashley's voice that she picked up, but she wasn't sure what it was since she couldn't see through the still-smiling illusion. But this seemed very important to Ashley so she will support it.

"I see," She nodded. "But we'll have to change your name for it."

"Huh? But why?" Her kit asked.

"Well, Ashley is considered a girl name, and a good boy disguise should have a boy name!" Delia explained. "Let's see... how about Ash? It's close to your name and suitably boyish."

"I like it!" It seemed like Ashely- no Ash's eyes shone even through the illusion. "I'm Ash Ketchum! Ash, Ash, Ash!" She- no he, cheered as he danced around the room.

Delia chuckled at her kits enthusiasm. He was certainly more energetic and excited about illusions now. She wasn't sure where that suddenly came from, but she knows she will do her best to support him to be the best Zorua he can be.