Chapter Text
“Nggh…” Melia groaned as she blinked open her eyes at sat up, looking around. She quickly noticed she was in the guest room at Venam’s house with Ash in the other bed, his Charizard standing defensively over him with crossed arms. Melia tried to remember what happened before she fell asleep but her mind was drawing a blank. Melia rubbed her eyes and with a yawn, stood up and made her way downstairs to see Ren wearing safety goggles as he poked and prodded at… a robot girl? While Tesla and Chastity talked and Venam was strumming her guitar.
“Uhh what’s going on?” Melia yawned out and Venam looked up from her stringing of her instrument and immediately put it down to hug her best friend, “Not that I don’t appreciate hugs, but I don’t remember going to sleep? When did we get home?”
“I can explain, dear. Someone had called me down to the sewers for reasons I can still only speculate on and fought with me in front of what seemed to be a Garufan Vault. As the battle was finishing up, your group found me and you and young Ash seemed to be possessed by strange magic and led us to this,” Tesla motioned at the robot that Ren was tinkering with as Pikachu poked his head in the door, “We also got Ash’s Pokemon yesterday morning and they’ve all been taking shifts watching their trainer. You both have been out longer than a day.”
Melia blinked in confusion before making her way to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat as Ren looked ready to throw his tools into a wall.
“I don’t get it! This android girl activated in the sewers but now it’s as if her entire battery needed recharged. But this fuel source is so strange to me, agh!” Ren bemoaned in frustration as Venam poked at the android girl in the face.
“I’ve said this before, but this is so weird. The Garufan people were ancient, right? So what’s up with them having an android?” Venam questioned and Tesla shook her head.
“The Garufan civilization is something we still don’t fully comprehend. Perhaps even more recently someone put the poor girl in there, but all we can do is speculate for now.” Tesla hummed before making her way out of the room with Pikachu following her upstairs as Chastity pinched her nose.
“Well the league is currently on our asses to try and get answers about this. If we don’t give Alexandra something substantial by tomorrow morning, she and her brother will come to investigate themselves.” Chastity informed with worry in her tone as she felt that a girl, even if an android, didn’t deserve to be poked and prodded.
“Not that asshole, Damien. The fucker is always criticizing my battling,” Venam swore as she gained an annoyed look in her eyes, before switching tones to a different topic, “Speaking of the league, is there any leads on Uncle Deagen?”
“His last sighting was on Neverwinter but after that, even Kreiss and Martin lose the trail. We tried to get into contact with his brother, but have gotten no response. Alexandra is beginning to think of making Keta step down and letting his daughter, Aelita, take his gym leader mantle.” Chastity provided and Venam sighed as she continued to watch Ren try to figure out what was going on with the android girl. As she watched, she could only remember the day she first met her friend and saw his tinkering hobby in full force.
As blaring music played loudly, a young brown haired girl smiled widely as she and her blonde haired, slightly younger, friend watched with joy. Her mother had decided to retire from the music scene and was going out with a bang alongside her bandmates.
“Veronica, this is so cool!” The young blonde girl’s eyes seemed to sparkle as the band continued to play, unable to take her eyes away.
“Haha! You’re right Melia. My dad would disagree but I love when momma plays!” Veronica stated as the song playing began to die down.
“Now, with this being our last concert, I would ask for our young audience members under the age of fifteen to please leave, as the next few songs are our early work which were much more graphic,” Veronica’s mother asked politely and children began to be ushered out of the venue. Veronica grumbled and crossed her arms as she and Melia sat on a bench outside, clearly disappointed they couldn’t stay for the whole concert.
“Miss Chastity sings really nice.” Melia complimented and Venam puffed out her chest proudly.
“That’s my momma!” Venam proclaimed with a smile on her face before glancing around, “Wanna see if we can sneak back in?”
“Huh? I mean…” Melia tapped her feet on the ground, clearly debating the idea, before shaking her head, “But that’s a bad thing to do.”
“Fiiiiiiine. Guess we can listen to a recording tomorrow.” Veronica was disappointed but didn’t want to make her new and best friend upset at not going along with her shenanigans. Then she noticed a black haired boy tinkering with his phone on a nearby bench, with an almost identical girl watching him do so in intrigue.
“Renny, mom said not to hack into stuff again,” His sister stared intensely at her twin brother who rolled his eyes.
“Come on Reina, it’d be cool to listen.” The now called Renny stated as if it was simple as he let out a small cheer, “I did it, let’s listen.”
“See they’re listening in too!” Veronica tried to continue but Melia just looked at the twins with a tilt of her head, both confusion and recognition on her face. Veronica just shrugged and walked over to Ren after his sister walked off, not wanting to listen to songs their mom said not to.
“Hey are you listening to the concert? Can I listen too?” Veronica asked and Ren lit up with a smile and thus a friendship had sprouted between the two.
Venam wishes those days were still the present. She eventually introduced Melia to her newfound friend. The two both were excited to talk about different Pokemon facts while Venam practiced her guitar. They’d have fun all around the city and just enjoy life. Those were the days. But now they were older and now Melia felt a weight on her shoulders she didn’t understand (and wouldn’t share despite Venam’s pleas to open up) and Ren had withdrawn a bit more into himself, especially after his dad’s death and his town’s newfound xenophobic behavior. And of course Venam had her work as a gym leader and despite pushing a lot of paperwork onto her mom, she still wanted to become a better leader and eventually see that all kids she sees on the streets have an enjoyable childhood like she did. That and to see her friends have true smiles once more, even Ash, who all hid beneath a mask of false smiles. To see them be happy would be worth being a gym leader.
Ash groaned as he woke up, rubbing his eyes to see Charizard, Greninja and Pikachu playing with a deck of cards, he thinks it was Uno (Greninja seemed to be winning at the moment) whilst Bayleef gently groomed Eevee, holding the squirming canine with her vines. Ash stood up, gaining the attention of his partners who all immediately jumped on him, making the trainer laugh at their affection. This noise eventually attracted Melia to pop her head into the doorway, with her Togepi, Hapi, laying on top of her head.
“Glad to see you’re awake. How are you feeling?” Melia asked as she let herself into the room, sitting down on the second bed in the room and Hapi quickly jumped off her head and began jumping around the room, excited to see the other Pokémon.
“I’m feeling a bit groggy. What happened?” Ash rubbed his forehead as he watched as Hapi and Eevee began to try and tackle one of Charizard’s legs, who snorted flames out of his nose in amusement.
“Apparently some ancient Garufan magic? I’m still not perfectly sure myself.” Melia rubbed the back of her neck, frown adorning her face as she still could not remember exactly what had happened for herself.
“Charizard, did I get possessed again?” Ash asked his buddy and Melia looked concerned at this casual statement before Charizard rolled his eyes and shook his head as Hapi and Eevee scrambled up his tail onto his back.
“Ash the more you make statements like that, the more I get concerned,” Melia worried about her new friend and the amount of trouble he seemed to get into. Getting possessed isn’t a common occurrence, even in the presence of ghost types.
“It wouldn’t be the craziest thing that happened when I got to a new region. Kalos probably takes the cake for that,” Ash stated and Pikachu let out a sound of agreement, “Yeah, I know it was reckless bud, but I couldn’t not jump to save you. Even if it was off of Lumiose Tower.”
“…” Melia stared at him before realizing he wasn’t joking and she began to lecture him as downstairs, Venam looked up in concern. Before shaking her head and refocusing on Ren and the android girl.
“That’s one loud Melia lecture,” Ren noted before he sighed and set his tools down, “Still nothing. Are we sure that wasn’t a group hallucination that happened? Because nothing is working to wake this girl up and Tesla is coming over later to check on things and give the league an update, “I’m going to get some fresh air, or whatever you can call the city air.”
As Ren slammed the front door in his frustration, Ash and Melia poked their heads down the top of the staircase with Hapi and Ash’s Pokemon doing so as well. Until Charizard joined in, that is, as him leaning over had knocked everyone over and down the stairs into a big pile of humans and Pokemon. Venam let out a cackle as she saw Hapi land on top with a proud smile.
“I see sleeping beauty boy is awake,” Venam remarked as the pile stood up, with Pikachu staying on Ash’s shoulder even after getting free. Pikachu let out sound of laughter as Ash raised an eyebrow.
“Sleeping beauty? Isn’t it early?” Ash wondered as he stretched his arms and Bayleef huffed in disbelief at this statement.
“Yeah, early today, you went unconscious two nights ago,” Venam deadpanned and Ash glanced at Charizard.
“Again I ask, I didn’t get possessed again did I?” Ash deadpans and Venam snorts at the nonchalant question, but she couldn’t blame him for asking. As she was about to make a comment, suddenly the android’s eyes opened and stared at Ash for a moment.
“Mmmnnnn…” The android girl groaned as she blinked her eyes, sounding tired and out of it, before gaining a more robotic voice, “Where am I?”
“Ack!” Venam leaped back in surprise, slamming into the floor as Ren opened the door and had a twitching eyebrow.
“Of course they activate as soon as I leave for five minutes. Why not?” Ren threw his hands up in disbelief as the android girl stared at him, “Can I ask why did you activate?”
“I apologize, my memory bank restoration protocol is currently at 0% completion, so I can not answer the question without key context,” The girl apologized with a bow, “My name is Ana, Autonomous Nanotech Amplifier. It is a pleasure to greet you all.”
“Autonomous Nanotech Amplifier? That’s a mouthful. How about Ana, yeah that’s a good name.” A bright pink haired girl smiled and Ana could only tilt her head before nodding, accepting her name.
Ash shook his head, deciding to try and think on that strange memory later, as Ana sat down on the couch looking around with curiosity etched on her sleek and untouched face.
“Nice to meet you too, uh, Ana,” Melia greeted her and Hapi gave a sound of enthusiasm as Ana stared at her intensely.
“Analyzing… analysis complete. Greetings, user related to registered ####, ####,” Ana gave a smile as strange sounds came from her mouth, and Melia just let out a sound of confusion, not quite understanding what that meant.
“Related to? I guess your grandma or someone knew Ana in the past, Mels.” Ren theorized but silently took note of how the robot spoke in ancient Garufan. Was the Garufan civilization advanced enough to create androids? Something to research at the library later.
“I mean, maybe?” Melia shrugged her shoulders, not quite certain herself and Ren could understand that, after all they all had known she never knew her birth family. The only family she had was Professor Jenner, and Ren could tell that the professor was trying more and more to push Melia away for some reason. But he did give her a briefcase yesterday in case of emergencies, so he at least still cared.
“Pika!” Pikachu waved at the android girl whose eyes blinked at the sight.
“Subject matter; Pikachu. Running combat analysis… complete. Combat tier of Pikachu: High Legendary. Processing information,” Ana analyzed and Ren could only look at Pikachu with renewed curiosity. He knew Pikachu had beaten a legendary before, as his Alolan League final battle had shown. But to be ranked a high legendary, among the likes of Kyogre and Reshiram? That was not what he expected.
“Uh, Ana, you don’t need to analyze everything. We’re friends here, as long as you want us to be,” Ash brightly smiled at her and the robot girl froze before glancing down.
“Emotional processor core damaged. Repairs necessary, but can be activated,” Ana stated before a switch seemed to flip in her eyes as they grew with curiosity and a look of anxiety, “Uh hi… where are we? This building looks like a Hiyoshi City structure. Is that our location?”
“Hiyoshi City?” Tesla entered the room with Chastity on her heels, with a look of pride at Ren, who couldn’t help but feel it unearned, as he hadn’t even been present when Ana had turned on, “I’ve not heard of such a city. It could’ve been destroyed in the calamity decades ago.”
“Calamity? I…” Ana seemed to shrink in on herself, “My memory banks… I need to know what happened to my friends. But I can’t even remember their names. What happened to me?”
“Oh dear,” Tesla sat next to Ana and pulled her into a hug, ignoring the cold metallic exterior she had, “We’ll help you figure that out. Maybe I could ask…”
Before Tesla could even finish, Venam snarled at the older lady, surprising Ash as he fell backwards, “Don’t you even dare suggest going to that bitch Saki. We can figure this out on our own. We don’t need her help at all.”
“Veronica,” Chastity warned her daughter as Tesla let go of Ana, gripping her own shirt tightly, “Calm down. You know you could get in trouble if something bad happens in the city. We need to be cautious here.”
“You know what, no.” Venam snapped as she stood up with a venomous glare in her eyes, “You just keep going on as if nothing happened. As if that fire never happened. As if dad never left us behind! Fuck right off, I’m leaving. I’ll be back in a few days.”
With that, Venam slammed the door of the house, leaving a stunned and quiet house behind her. Ana shrunk into herself from this. As this happened, Chastity fell to the floor in a sob, Tesla kneeling down next to her friend to comfort her.
“I’m sorry,” Ana apologized but Ash put a hand on her shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile.
“It’s not your fault, Ana,” Ash assured her and Ana could only stare up at him with wide eyes.
“Ana, it’s not your fault. Nobody here blames you,” A black haired boy told Ana as she knelt next to a grave, her own name engraved into the tombstone.
Memory Bank Restoration: 5%
Ana pulled Ash into a hug, and Ash kindly returned it. Melia seemed to pace back and forth.
“I’m going to find Venam. I can’t just leave her alone while clearly hurting,” Melia went to leave but Ash stood up as well, not noticing the way Ana almost tried to reach out for him to stay but held herself back.
“I’ll help you. I owe it to her for letting me stay over,” Ash stated as if it was a simple fact and Melia could only give a nod in agreement before the two and their pokemon (now all back in their pokeballs excluding Pikachu) ran out the door to find their friend. Ren let out a sigh of exasperation at this.
“I’ll hold down the fort, help get Ana here adjusted,” Ren said as Ana looked at him with clear thanks in her eyes as Tesla helped Chastity shakily stand up.
“I’m going to make some tea. Thank you Ren, for being very level headed about this,” Tesla thanked as she helped Chastity to the kitchen as Ren sat next to Ana.
“Heh, I didn’t introduce myself, did I? I’m Ren, Melia and Venam call me a nerdy tech wizard, nice to meet you.” Ren introduced himself and Ana gave teethy smile at this.
“It’s nice to meet you too.” Ana responded and Ren could only outwardly smile, while in his mind he worried. He knew Venam and Melia were both struggling, but he never expected Venam to snap so suddenly. He just hoped his best friend was okay and that they could help her through things she clearly locked away.