Chapter Text
Despite being able to see the skyline of Jubilife for a few days now, actually being in the massive city was something Ash was not prepared for.
He had never gotten to experience a city, only ever living in Pallet or Twinleaf Town - and very recently adding Sandgem to that small list.
The sheer size of everything left Ash staring in awe. The buildings were even larger than they had seemed a few days ago while on the road, and even then they were nearly too big to comprehend.
“Never been in a city before?” Dawn teased, seeing his stupefied expression.
Ash absentmindedly nodded, still trying to take in everything. The billboards, the windows, even most of the people stood head and shoulders above him - everything was larger than life.
The billboards were advertising all sorts of interesting products, too. From TMs with multiple uses, to rare candies which would make training pokemon obsolete, to products that Ash had never even heard of. What exactly a Poketch was, Ash had no clue, but he was pretty sure it was too expensive for him.
In fact, everything in Jubilife seemed a little too pricey for him - if pokemon centers weren’t a free service for all trainers, Ash was somewhat worried that he would have to camp outside the city for the night.
There were also billboards advertising to non-battlers. Dawn seemed to be enthralled by a few certain advertisem*nts regarding poffins, as well as the date of a contest that would be held in a few weeks.
Barry didn’t care for the city - he was practically dragging them to the pokemon center, eager to get a move on for the next route.
“Guys,” he whined, much to the amusem*nt of Ash and annoyance of Dawn, “We have to get to Oreburgh as soon as possible! Why would we waste a day here?”
“Because, Barry,” Dawn began, rolling her eyes. “There’s more to life than battling. I want to see the sights! I’m sure Ash agrees with me here!”
“No way!” Barry tried to argue. “Ash is a trainer! There’s no way he cares about dumb stuff like that! There isn’t even anything to see here! There isn’t a contest, what do you possibly want to see?”
Dawn just rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to even dignify you with a response.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
As the two continued their bickering, it slowly got louder, causing others on the street to glance at them. Ash sighed, seeing as it was now his job to break them up. He wasn’t sure how serious the two were right now, but it might get pretty ugly if he didn’t intervene.
“Hey guys,” Ash interrupted, trying to catch their attention, “Let’s just go to the pokemon center and figure out what we’re doing later.”
It didn’t work, at least not at first. A few more attempts and Ash had their attention, thankfully getting them to knock it off before even more eyes were on them. The three of them then quickly made their way down the street, doing their best to avoid any extra attention from passersby.
–
“So…” Barry began slowly, “Where do you want to visit?”
Dawn rolled her eyes at him. Once they had gotten to the pokemon center, their arguing had continued for a little bit, before Barry finally yielded to Dawn.
So here Ash was, nose buried in a brochure of the city he had picked up in the lobby. He didn’t really care to visit anywhere in the city, especially since Jubilife didn’t have a gym, but he certainly did not want to get involved in their argument. Besides, it might be nice to go sightseeing with his friends.
If they didn’t start arguing again, at least.
“Well, I’ve heard about a few different places, not that you’d care.” Dawn snarked at Barry, who merely stuck his tongue out at her. She ignored him, and continued. “There are a few museums. Apparently Jubilife is super old, and has a ton of history.”
Ash wasn’t too impressed with that one. History was cool, sure, but this was a massive city - they had to have something interesting to do with pokemon!
“Also,” Dawn continued, “There is the Jubilife TV station. It’s a ways away, but apparently they do a ton of promotional stuff for trainers - lotteries, interviews, that kind of stuff. Might be fun to check out.”
Barry finally smiled when Dawn proposed going there, his eyes lighting up at the possibilities.
“What kind of lotteries?” He asked, surprisingly eager.
Dawn merely shrugged. “I don’t know. It doesn’t say. Do you want to go check it out?”
“Absolutely!” Barry cheered, “Free stuff, and the chance to be on TV!”
Dawn rolled her eyes fondly at his antics, before turning to Ash.
“Are you coming too?” she asked, “I don’t think Barry will wait too long now that he’s riled up.”
Ash blinked, somewhat surprised and a bit hurt. He had assumed that all three of them going was a given, since they had been traveling together the whole time anyways.
Apparently not. It was little things like this that made Ash feel like a third wheel more than usual.
Realizing that Dawn was still waiting for an answer from him, Ash quickly nodded. Even though he didn’t really want to, it seemed like it would be worth it to go. The promise of free stuff called to him - despite making a decent amount of money off of the trainers he had been beating, he wasn’t exactly loaded. Being a trainer was expensive. Food, pokeballs, potions, etc., were all relatively cheap but prices added up quickly. And that was without factoring in things like TMs and other expensive products that most trainers could hardly afford.
“Alright, let’s go!” Barry exclaimed, “There’s no time to waste!”
Dawn giggled at his antics, their previous argument forgotten as quickly as it had appeared. Ash just sighed to himself.
–
Thorn chirped happily in Ash’s arms as he, Dawn, and Barry walked down the busy streets, trying to make their way to the Jubilife TV building. Dawn had her head buried in a ridiculously large map, while Barry was twitching at the pace they were going.
Ash smiled down at Thorn as she soaked up the rays of sunlight shining down on them, clearly happy. He would have liked to have Wick out with them as well, but combining fire and crowded streets tended to end poorly.
Toiling over the pokedex all night and during his free time had taught him a lot about his pokemon (and pokemon in general for that matter) in a short time. Apparently budew could grow quickly, but only given the proper conditions. For one, battling a lot, like all pokemon, was a necessity. Also, they needed plenty of sunlight, something to do with their biology and the bud on their head, as was the case with several other grass-types. Finally, and what was probably the oddest thing the pokedex had told him, was they needed a lot of ‘positivity’.
From what Ash could gather, which wasn’t much, it just meant that budew needed a lot of positive reinforcement, affection, and commitment from their trainers. The pokedex had also said that this was a phenomena that impacted certain pokemon more than others, but even it did not have enough information on the topic for it to make sense to Ash.
So he gave up on trying to figure out exactly what it meant. He got the basics, and it just seemed like stuff he should be doing anyways.
Ash was kind of surprised at how friendly Thorn had been, if he was being honest. Thorn was pretty menacing (as menacing as a budew could be) when it came to battling, but outside of it, she was a much more cheerful pokemon. It was not something he had expected after how aggressive she was when they first met.
He was pretty sure Dawn still held a slight grudge against Thorn for that.
“We’re here!”
Shaken out of his thoughts by Dawn’s announcement, he looked up at an absolutely massive building. Nothing in Jubilife was small, the buildings especially, but this one stood above even the tallest skyscrapers. Above the doors (there were three pairs of them), a large, stylized neon sign read ‘Jubilife TV’.
“What are we waiting for?!” Barry exclaimed, walking straight into the building. “Let’s go inside!”
Dawn rolled her eyes, but a small smile spread across her face nonetheless and followed soon after. Ash blinked before hurrying after them, realizing he was about to be left behind.
He quickly pushed his way through the doors, and walked in behind his friends.
The first thing he noticed about the building was that it was crowded. Dozens of trainers were gathered around, each talking in their own little groups, or with individuals wearing suits who seemed to work here, if the little nametags they all wore meant anything. There were a few people gathered around a weird machine that Ash couldn’t make out the purpose of, but all of them were holding out their trainer cards to it. There were also maybe a half dozen people who looked seriously out of place. They all wore the same, odd uniform, that almost looked like a space suit, and had matching cyan hair - cut the same exact way. Despite the large number of people, everyone seemed to be doing something.
Everyone except for them, that was.
“Hello there!” A cheerful voice called out, carried far above the chattering of the other trainers present.
Ash looked over to the source of the voice, a young woman who was sitting behind a desk near the entrance. She smiled at them and waved them over, laughing slightly at Barry’s overenthusiastic “Hello!” that she received.
“I don’t recognize any of you, do you have an appointment with someone?” She asked kindly, her smile getting even brighter at Thorn, who was curiously looking around as best she could while still resting in Ash’s arms.
A bit of heat rose in Dawn’s face. “Uh, no,” she began uncertainly, “We heard about this place at the pokemon center, you guys do promotional stuff for trainers, right?”
The woman’s smile got so wide that Ash thought her face might split. How could someone smile so much?
“We do!” The woman’s gaze flittered across the trio once again. “Are all of you new trainers?”
“You bet!” Barry exclaimed proudly. “We’re all from Twinleaf Town, and we just made it here. I’m Barry, that’s Ash, and that’s Dawn.” Barry finished, introducing the group.
“Twinleaf, huh?” The woman repeated, a little surprised. “I’ve heard it’s a nice place.”
The woman blinked suddenly, before clearing her throat.
“Where are my manners? I’m Julie, it’s a pleasure to meet you!” Julie began, blushing a little. “And we at Jubilife TV are always excited to hear from new trainers! Most of the trainers who visit these days are either veterans or are regulars who simply hang around Jubilife most of the time. We have a few different activities for trainers to do here, but since we haven’t heard from new trainers in a while -”
“We would love to interview each of you!”
Ash, Dawn, and Barry each jumped at the new voice, taking all three of them off guard. Julie merely smiled at the newcomer, who seemingly appeared out of thin air behind them. Ash turned to look at him, and did not know what to make of the man before him.
He was very tall, towering over the group, but that wasn’t his only defining characteristic. He wore a bright purple suit, which stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the rather mute colors in the building, and his sharp face bore a wide grin.
“Mr. Pierre! What a surprise!” Julie greeted, seeming much less taken aback then Ash and co. had been. “What brings you down here?”
‘Mr. Pierre’ smiled, walking around the group to stand in front of Julie’s desk.
“You know how I am,” he began cheerily, his voice bearing a thick accent from somewhere Ash couldn’t place, “I just can not sit still upstairs! I came down for a breath of fresh air, take in the people, but I realized we had some new faces!”
Ash just kind of stood there, unsure of what to make of the byplay between the eccentric man and Julie. A glance at Dawn and Barry told Ash that he wasn’t alone. After a few moments, Mr. Pierre turned to them again. His face kind of reminded Ash of a weatherman, who had mastered that signature TV smile.
“Apologies! I believe introductions are in order! I am Mr. Pierre, as Julie said, but please call me Jacques!” He greeted, his energy reminding Ash of Barry. “If I heard correctly, you are new trainers, yes? How new exactly?”
“A little over a week.” Ash hesitantly replied. “Are you sure you want to interview us? We haven’t exactly done anything noteworthy.”
Jacques waved off Ash’s concerns without a second thought. “Nonsense! Jubilife TV is the largest television station in all of Sinnoh! We’re on so many different channels at the same time that we are always in need of new content! New perspectives, new faces, new ideas! People love it when they see new trainers on the show, wide-eyed and eager to make a name for themselves whether it be on the contest stage or at the Lily of the Valley! Besides, as I’m sure Julie told you, we haven’t heard from rookies in a while! This is a great opportunity for all of us.”
Despite Jacques’ rather… encouraging speech, Ash was still rather unsure about the whole interview thing. It just felt weird to him - he was basically a nobody, he didn’t think anyone would want to hear from some random kid from Twinleaf Town.
A quick glance at Dawn and Barry had told him they did not share such reservations.
As though he was able to read Ash’s mind, Jacques continued on, undeterred.
“Of course, we will need to discuss your compensation for working with us,” he said with a sly grin, “I’m sure we would be able to come to an agreement that benefits all three of you.”
Hook, line, and sinker.
While Ash was not one to necessarily care about money, being a trainer did have its fair share of expenses. The League was willing to cover a lot of bases for trainers, eager to promote the trainer lifestyle, but that was mostly the basics. Pokemon centers, a few minor tournaments outside of the conferences, supporting breeders, etc. However, with a big team came a big budget.
Heck, the whole reason he decided to come visit Jubilife TV was because of the promise of free stuff a trainer could use!
And so, he agreed. He still wasn’t sold on the whole idea of being on TV, but he’d have to get over that eventually anyways. It’s not like the Lily of the Valley Conference wasn’t televised to millions of people, afterall.
“Splendid!” Jacques cheered, “We’re so excited to have you on board!”
“Are we going to have to dress up for our interviews?” Dawn asked somewhat nervously, which surprised Ash. She looked like she was chomping at the bit moments ago.
Jacques waved off her concerns with a chuckle. “No no, nothing like that! We want to see you naturally, in your element,” he explained, “people can relate to each of you that way. No one, at least no one in our demographic, will be able to relate to someone telling them about training while they’re wearing a suit fit for a wedding and enough makeup to make a feebas look pretty!”
Ash didn’t know what a feebas was, but the message wasn’t lost on him. It made sense to him, he supposed. He didn’t know what he’d think if he saw Barry in a suit, but it wouldn’t make him take the boy seriously.
“Now then,” Jacques began, clapping hands together and beginning to walk towards a large hallway. “Do come with me, everyone! Time is money, and time is being wasted!”
As the trio quickly fell in line behind Jacques, Ash wondered just what he had gotten himself into with this.
–
“Quit slouching! Show off some confidence!”
Ash was beginning to think he’d go mad. He had been sitting down for nearly twenty minutes, while Jacques nitpicked his position the entire time. He didn’t need a wardrobe change, apparently, but he needed a posture one.
At least Thorn was still out to keep him company. He had tried to return her once they got to the interview room, but Jacques had insisted she be a part of the interview, once again talking about relating to the audience before rattling off some other terms he had never heard before.
At least Thorn seemed to enjoy basking in the bright lights that had been hung from seemingly every corner of the room, all centered on Ash.
“Perfect! Don’t move a muscle!”
Jacques broke Ash out of his thoughts with that shout, and he involuntarily tensed up, not wanting to have a repeat of earlier. His mind quickly wandered to his friends, and wondered if they had to go through the same painstaking process he had endured for the past few minutes. They had split up quickly, Ash being dragged away by Jacques to a room far down the hall, while Julie had come over from her desk and taken Dawn into a room. That just left Barry, who had been whisked off by another employee who had appeared out of nowhere to interview him.
Ash was slightly jealous of them at the moment.
Jacques clapped his hands together, getting Ash and Thorn’s attention.
“Now then,” he began, his tone softening slightly, “Are we ready to begin?”
Thorn squeaked happily, just enjoying the moment. Ash, however, was much more hesitant - his face heated up and he couldn’t help but grimace at the churning feeling in his gut. What if he couldn’t figure out an answer to a question? What if he said something stupid and made a fool of himself? What if -
Ash cut himself off, and took a deep breath. Thorn still sat happily in his arms, so it was likely she hadn’t noticed his internal struggle, but a quick look at Jacques told him that he had certainly caught wind.
“Are you alright?” Jacques asked, concerned.
Ash tried to wave off his concerns with a nod, but he wasn’t buying it. Ash imagined that he looked as bad as he felt.
“Listen,” Jacques said, “everyone gets nervous their first time doing something publicly, whether it be appearing on TV or battling in the conference for their first time. It’s just how people are. If you want, we can go through a practice interview quickly before we do the real thing.”
While his accent made it a little tough to take him seriously through that speech, the offer to rehearse had Ash feeling his chest loosen up a bit. There was a much smaller chance of him making a fool of himself if he knew what the questions were and he had some extra time to think them over. He nodded at Jacques, and the man grinned.
“Alright, no problem! I’ll just go through the motions of a regular interview, take all the time you need to answer anything I ask.”
Jacques took a deep breath, before his TV smile returned and he took the seat opposite Ash.
“Hello Sinnoh! My name is Jacques Pierre, and you’re watching Jubilife TV, straight from Jubilife City!”
Ash thought it was weird that he was talking to a camera that was turned off, but whatever. It was too bad Ash failed to notice the red blinking light on the top of the camera, signaling that they were currently being recorded.
“- and today I’m joined by Ash and Thorn!” Ash blinked as he realized he had zoned out for a moment, and Jacques was still talking. “Say hi, you two!”
Ash waved weakly while giving out what he hoped was an acceptable greeting. Thorn just chirped at the camera.
“Now then! Where are you from, Ash?” Jacques asked, sounding genuinely curious. Ash wasn’t sure if it was a true interest or he was just playing along for the practice interview, but he just went along with it.
“I’m from Twinleaf Town, but before that I moved to Sinnoh from the Kanto region.” Ash responded, feeling slightly more at ease than before. He wasn’t sure why, but some combination of Thorn’s cheeriness and Jacques’ odd personality made this much more bearable than he originally thought.
“Wow, all the way from Kanto? I’ve been there before, and it is a positively beautiful region!” Jacques gushed. “Now, you told me you are a new trainer, correct?” At Ash’s nod, he continued. “How long have you been a trainer for? Is little Thorn here your starter?”
Ash idly pet Thorn as he answered, the small grass-type having wiggled out of his grip and now sitting happily in his lap. “I’ve been a trainer for a little over a week now, so I’m still getting used to a lot of stuff.” He responded honestly. “Thorn isn’t my starter though, I just caught her on Route 202 a few days ago, but she’s really strong!”
“I’m sure, she looks absolutely radiant! And if you train her well, one day you may have yourself a roserade strong enough to match the champion’s own!”
That statement took Ash off guard, but he tried to laugh it off with a shrug. Cynthia was a monster when it came to battling, and even though he himself dreamt of becoming a Pokemon Master one day, the thought of him ever competing against her seemed crazy.
“Now that we’ve got introductions out of the way, let’s talk about what it’s like being a trainer…”
–
The practice interview went on for quite a while, and by the time Ash was done answering all of Jacques’ questions he was ready to call it quits and -
“And done! Marvelous job, young man!” Jacques exclaimed, cutting Ash off guard.
“What do you mean we’re done?” Ash questioned, “That was just a warmup?”
Jacques shook his head fondly. “I told you that so you would loosen up,” he explained, “and it worked! You did wonderfully once those nerves of yours disappeared.”
“And don’t worry,” Jacques added, reading Ash’s thoughts, “We weren’t actually live, we still have to edit it and all that lovely stuff that comes with TV production, so no one will see you failing to sit in a chair properly!”
Ash sagged in relief. He did not want all of Sinnoh able to see him freaking out at the thought of a mere interview.
“Now then, if you’ll come with me, we have some papers to sign!” Jacques threw his hands up in the air for emphasis, and began to walk out of the room, where Ash quickly followed. “And once you’ve done that, we can discuss compensation!”
Oh right. The whole reason that Ash had agreed to do this whole thing. He had nearly forgotten that he was going to be rewarded for his participation in this, and all of a sudden it seemed like a small price to pay in exchange for something that would most certainly be worth it, if Jubilife TV’s sponsorship of trainers actually meant anything.
Barry had picked up where Dawn left off in the brochure while they were walking to the station earlier, and had rattled off the kinds of things they had given away in the past - special pokeballs, TMs, evolutionary stones, the like. Ash had been hyped up by it at the time, but now he wasn’t sure if the interview he had given warranted something of such value.
No use in getting himself worked up about it though, worst case scenario they gave him a few hundred pokedollars or something, and even that was well worth the trip in Ash’s mind.
Suddenly, Jacques stopped right in front of him, making Ash nearly stumble right into the taller man’s back. He caught himself, however, and suddenly had a pen and paper shoved into his face, courtesy of Jacques.
“You just need to sign these to give us the right to put your interview on television, as well as a few other minor stipulations.” That last bit was said quickly and quietly, but Ash was still able to make it out.
At Ash’s questioning stare, Jacques backpedaled. “It’s nothing, really,” he tried, “just some clauses like how you will give preferential treatment to Jubilife TV over other broadcasting networks, are able to accept sponsorships from us if you so wish, things like that.”
Now Ash had seen his fair share of sleazy businessmen before - his mom always had people lurking around her restaurant back in Kanto, trying to buy the surprisingly successful establishment - so he knew that he should probably read this contract a few times and make sure he wasn’t about to sell his soul to a TV station.
After rereading the paper once, twice, and then a third time, Ash finally signed the contract. It didn’t seem like anything too bad was in it, and most of it was just him agreeing that Jubilife TV could use his likeness on television.
“Excellent!” Jacques smiled, before quickly taking the paper back and handing it off to a coworker. “I’ll be right back, sit tight!”
With that, Jacques walked away, and Ash was alone. He had finally recalled Thorn after they had left the interview room, and so he only had his thoughts for company for the moment. He wondered if Dawn and Barry had taken as long as he had, and what kind of gifts they were getting for their interviews.
Looking around, he realized he was in the atrium of the building that he was in when he had first arrived. There were less people now, but he saw more of those weird cyan-hair lookalikes, and now that he got a closer look at them they kind of weirded him out. They all looked the same, beyond just the hair and the suits - if Ash didn’t squint, he’d assume they were mannequins.
“I’m back!”
Ash jumped at the voice, and spun around to see Jacques, big smile and all, holding his hands behind his back.
“I was informed by Julie that both of your friends have already left,” Jacques informed Ash, “so we have no reason to wait! Here you are!”
He took his hands out from behind his back, revealing a rather small box. It was a pale green, with a big pokeball on top bearing the Jubilife TV logo. He handed it to Ash, and he quickly realized that the box was pretty heavy for its size, almost dropping it in surprise.
“I suggest you open it now,” Jacques said, “there are some items in there that may need some explaining.”
Ash wasn’t sure what that meant. He knew he wasn’t an experienced trainer, but he doubted that he was so green that he didn’t know basic training items. Regardless, he set the box down on a nearby table and took the lid off.
He blinked at the assortment of items inside the box. The first thing he noticed was the smaller box inside of it, completely white with no labels or markings of any kind. Next were a handful of what seemed to be pokeballs, but they looked like they were painted blue, and had red ridges on both sides of the top of the ball. Finally, there was one item that he did recognize - a TM case. It was empty, but it was still valuable. TMs cost a lot of money, and to even use them a case was needed, both to store them and transfer the knowledge of the move to the pokemon.
It was probably worth a few thousand dollars on its own, ignoring the other things in the box with it.
“Are you sure I can… just have all this stuff?” Ash asked cautiously. It seemed too good to be true.
“Of course!” Jacques responded cheerily, “Jubilife TV is here for trainers, after all! Had you merely shown up earlier and introduced yourself as trainers, we still would have given you something!”
It kind of made sense to Ash. Trainers were the lifeblood of the Pokemon League, so it was obvious that they would be supporting newbies any way they could. It wouldn’t shock Ash if the League subsidized companies like Jubilife TV if it meant they kept supporting trainers.
Either way, Ash wasn’t going to protest too much about all this free stuff.
“So what is all of this stuff?”
Jacques’ eyes gained a sharp glint. “First off, the great balls. They’re like regular pokeballs, but better - easier to catch stronger pokemon, more durable, very stylish, and they’re one of the newest commodities on the market for trainers!”
Ash looked back at the great balls in surprise - he didn’t expect them to be anything more than a vanity item.
“Next up is the Poketch,” Jacques continued, “It’s a new invention - newer than the great balls. Sort of like a mini-pokedex in a watch. It can tell you the time, send messages, has a memo pad, the list goes on! It comes with a manual on how to set it up and see all the applications it has. In the future, new updates are expected as well, so be on the lookout for those! You can mix and match which applications you want to use at any given moment as well, to perfectly suit your needs.”
All of a sudden it made sense to Ash why they would have wanted him to sign a contract. If Jubilife TV would treat the average trainer like this, and give them all of this stuff at what was basically just free publicity for the trainer, of course they would want those trainers to stick around.
“And you’re sure I can have all of this?” He asked again. He didn’t want to look a gift ponyta in the mouth, but this was more like a gift mamoswine.
“Absolutely! Now if I were you, I’d get going! Your friends must be waiting for you, and those gym badges won’t earn themselves!”
Ash nodded at him in thanks, before walking to the exit. Right before he left out the front doors, he realized it was kind of rude of him to leave without saying goodbye. He turned to at least give Jacques a wave, but the man wasn’t there. After quickly looking around for a moment and not seeing a trace of him, Ash just shrugged, turned back around, and left the building.
Weird.
–
When he got back to the pokemon center, he was greeted by both Dawn and Barry waiting for him at a table in the lobby, a small map splayed out on it. They quickly waved him over, and he hurried to their side.
“Ash, we think we’ve mapped out where we want to go from here,” Dawn began, “Oreburgh is the closest city from Jubilife, and from there Hearthome City isn’t a long journey either.”
“Yeah! Plus, there’s a contest in around three weeks in Hearthome that Dawn found! If we hurry we can get in enough training that we crush the gym in Oreburgh and Dawn can win that contest!” Barry chimed in.
“That is,” Dawn interrupted, “if Ash decides to come with us. We only agreed to travel to Jubilife together, remember?”
“Yeah, but why wouldn’t he?” Barry countered, ignorant to the sinking feeling Ash was definitely portraying on his face, “We’re friends, right?”
That last part was directed at him, and suddenly the focus of the conversation shifted to Ash. He gulped, distinctly uncomfortable.
“Of course we’re friends!” He attempted to reassure. “But I… uh… decided on heading up to Eterna City from here.”
He was, in fact, unsure of where he wanted to go from Jubilife - Sinnoh was vast, and there were plenty of routes out of Jubilife - but Eterna was both the route he had planned the most around and was a route Dawn and Barry weren’t going.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like them, far from it. They were his best (only) friends he had since moving to Sinnoh, but he knew the feeling wasn’t mutual. To the two of them, Ash was an acquaintance at best. He had been, and would likely continue to be, a third wheel while traveling with them. He still enjoyed the journey that they had been on together, but knew the discord between them that had popped up at times would only get worse. Plus, it meant he could travel at his own pace, train when he wanted, and experience things for himself.
Barry looked shocked by what Ash had said, but Dawn didn’t look too surprised.
“Are you sure?” Dawn asked. “You’re welcome to come with us.”
“Yeah, I’m sure.” Ash tried to force a smile, but it came out awkward. “Sorry.”
“Seriously?” Barry glared at Ash, recovering from his earlier surprise. “You’re gonna ditch us?” He whisper-yelled the last part, trying not to garner the attention of the other trainers in the pokemon center.
“I-it’s not like that!” Ash placed his hands out in a placating manner, though it seemed to do little to calm Barry down. “I just think -”
“You just think you’re too good for us, huh?!” Barry accused, incensed, before scoffing. “Whatever. Have it your way.”
Barry then stomped away down the hall, presumably to the room he had rented out for the night. Ash just stood there for a moment, stupefied. He didn’t think that his decision to split up from his friends would be taken well, per se, but he definitely didn’t expect Barry to react the way he did. Ash wanted to follow him, and try to explain himself, but he knew it would be futile. There was no way he could talk to Barry right now, especially since he thought Ash was leaving them for being ‘better’ than them.
A few moments later, Dawn came up behind him, pulling him out of his thoughts. He turned to her, unsure what to do. She sighed, looking at her feet.
“I’m so sorry about that,” she began, clearly embarrassed.
“It’s not your fault,” Ash quickly reassured, despite being just as embarrassed as her, “I didn’t think it would be a big deal.”
“It’s not, but you shouldn’t blame him.” Dawn continued, finally looking up to meet his eyes. “It was definitely an overreaction, but he has a good reason for being upset. He buries his head in the sand when it comes to things like this. I can try and get him to talk to you, if you’d like.”
Ash quickly shook his head at that. It would probably just lead to the same result again, and he’d had enough awkwardness for one day.
“Are you okay with this?” He asked, clearly referring to himself departing from the group.
Dawn smiled sadly. “I could kinda tell it wasn’t going to work out after a few days,” she said, “It was obvious that we just weren’t clicking like Barry and I have, you know?”
“Yeah.” Ash agreed, not knowing what else to say. The awkward silence that followed didn’t soothe his nerves either, and decided now was a good time to make his exit.
“Anyways,” he began again, catching Dawn’s attention, “I should probably go now, uh, sorry again about this.”
Dawn gave him another small smile in return, gave him a soft wave, and went down the hall to where Barry had gone, leaving Ash alone again.
This time, for good.
–
Route 204 was a breath of fresh air to Ash, both literally and figuratively. Despite spending less than one day in Jubilife City, the staleness of the air hadn’t gone unnoticed to him. The quicker he was back on the road, the better. He was a bit sad that he didn’t get to spend a night in a real bed, though.
It was also odd traveling by himself. Waking himself up wasn’t too hard, and getting to set his own walking pace was nice, as well as the opportunity to challenge all the trainers he saw, instead of having to take turns with Barry. However, he couldn’t ignore the slight twinge he felt in his heart whenever he thought about his friends.
Regardless, he made his choice, and he had to live with it. The company his pokemon gave him was more than enough, especially since he let Wick and Thorn walk with him most of the time (Thorn usually ended up being carried by him after an hour or so, but he didn’t mind).
The extra time to himself did give him another advantage - letting him figure out how the Poketch he had been given worked. Despite not being the best with technology, the Poketch was rather simple to set up. He hadn’t put too much time into it, but he had gotten the few apps that Jacques had recommended installed, like the notepad, clock, etc.
It had been a little less than a week since he left Jubilife, and he was still very far from Eterna City, but he did come across somewhere else of interest - Floaroma Town. Floaroma Town was far from a major human settlement, but it was notable enough to be prominent on most maps and contained a pokemon center, which meant a good night's sleep for Ash. If he could, he would have brought a mattress with him after realizing just how uncomfortable the cold, hard, ground was to sleep on - especially compared to a real bed.
The moment Ash stepped foot into the town, however, he knew something was off. Floaroma Town was supposedly a quaint little settlement, rather close to nature, and overall a very quiet place, at least according to his map.
The town he stepped into was far from that.
There were a lot of people. Easily several dozen that he could pick out, and he had barely set foot in town. That would’ve been somewhat surprising on its own, since Floaroma was a very small community, but nothing too weird. Sometimes trainers congregate.
The weird thing about it was all of them were the same as those he had seen at the Jubilife TV station - same space suit uniforms, cyan bowl cuts, blank faces. Most of them were simply walking around, some alone, some in groups. A good portion of them were also at work on several large machines strewn across the ground. They each looked like the generator his house had to pull out whenever the power went out, although much larger and much more advanced, and had dozens of wires crossing in and out of each of them. They each created a loud whirring noise, contributing to the idea that they were very out of place in the otherwise quiet town. All of this would have kept Ash on high alert on the best of days, but there was one other thing.
Each and every pair of eyes was on him. Watching him.
He had never been a fan of horror movies, but he certainly felt like the main character of one the moment he stepped foot into Floaroma Town.
–
It took a little bit more time than he hoped to find the pokemon center - he couldn’t find a sign directing him to it, and he absolutely was not talking to any of the creeps watching him and more likely than not following him, but he was walking fast and the town was small, so it wasn’t too long before the familiar red roof was in Ash’s sights. He heaved a huge sigh of relief as he entered the building, before balking at seeing even more of the cyan-haired people.These ones didn’t seem as interested in him, thankfully, but he still felt their eyes boring into the back of his skull as he walked up to the counter, which was miraculously being tended to by a Nurse Joy.
He had hoped that he would be able to ask Nurse Joy (or anyone normal he saw, for that matter) what was going on, but it seemed that would have to wait. Instead, he simply settled for requesting a room for the night, and was more than relieved to get away from all the prying eyes. Wick and Thorn were released as soon as he began settling in, the Budew quickly cozying up next to Wick for warmth in the drafty room - even with the fire on his tail out, Wick was very warm. At least he didn’t seem to mind judging by the lack of reaction he had, beyond just shifting around on the very appealing bed.
Ash was just about ready to join his pokemon for a long awaited good night’s sleep, before realizing something even more terrifying than being stalked by a few hundred people earlier today.
He forgot to call his mom.
Ash didn’t mean he just forgot to call her today - he left Jubilife so quickly, that he forgot to call her then too. It had been well over a week since he last talked to her, and he knew his mom. She would be freaking out over him pretty soon, if she hadn’t already, and was certainly preparing to give him an earful.
He didn’t want to put it off any longer, and so despite the sweet allure of the bed, he made his mind up.
“I’ll be right back.” He called out to his pokemon, intent on letting them get their rest after a full day of battling and traveling. Thorn was already out cold, and Wick seemed to be right behind her, lazily raising his head up at Ash and giving a thumbs up (Ash wasn’t sure where he picked up that gesture) before collapsing back onto the bed.
He walked right back out into the atrium of the center, and quickly found the room the video phones were located in. He punched in his mother’s number and hit the call button, but nothing happened. Instead of the ringing that accompanied all standard video phones, Ash heard nothing, and the screen remained dark. He tried one, two, three more times before giving up on that phone, and then gave up completely after trying another phone only to get the same result.
He considered giving up and just going to bed, but something kept him back. Something about this whole situation made him feel off - made him know something was wrong.
“Excuse me, Nurse Joy?” He asked, grabbing her attention away from a small stack of papers on her desk. “Is something wrong with the phones?”
That was apparently the wrong thing to ask, as all of a sudden every pair of eyes in the center was once again on him.
Nurse Joy fidgeted for a moment, before nervously speaking. “I’m sorry, but the town has been experiencing significant telecommunication issues recently.” She spoke with her voice clipped, as if she had practiced that line. “The source is currently unknown, and we are unsure when these issues will be resolved.”
Ash just nodded dumbly. It wasn’t as if he believed her, though - he just didn’t want to act wrong in front of all the prying eyes. He didn’t trust anything in this town right now, least of all the…
Gang? Army? Clones?
Whatever they were, his gut screamed at him that they were dangerous. He didn’t want to be on their radar even more than he seemingly already was.
The walk back to his room may have been short, but it may as well have been an eternity to Ash. Call him paranoid, maybe, but getting jumped was not on his to do list. Even the thought of sleeping here didn’t sound too great anymore, but he didn’t exactly have another choice. It was late, and he certainly wasn’t walking around this place after dark.
So, reluctantly, he finally settled in for the night, hoping to enjoy a bed for at least one night before setting out on the long journey to Eterna City (and getting away from this town).
Unfortunately, Ash soon realized that it would be a very sleepless night.
–
“What do you mean I can’t leave?!”
The man sneered down at Ash, a clear air of superiority hanging around him and the three others guarding the gate to Route 205.
“As I said,” the cyan haired man boredly spoke, “Galactic Corp. is currently undergoing important research and development at the Valley Windworks. Therefore, Route 205 is closed to all passerby until further notice. No exceptions.”
Ash grit his teeth. Since when could some big company come along and shut down an entire route of a region? This whole thing just seemed so ridiculous. Did they just take over this entire town so no one could interfere with research at a wind farm days away? Why not just guard the Windworks? What was going on?
Unfortunately for Ash, he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to get an answer anytime soon. At least he knew why all these Galactic people were being so creepy around him. Sort of.
He stomped away from the Route 205 gate, wondering just what he was going to do from here. Ash really didn’t want to turn around and head back to Jubilife, both because it would mean he wasted time coming here, and there was a chance he ran into Dawn and Barry after explicitly telling them he was going to Eterna City. He’d look like an even bigger jerk.
Ash decided that he’d stay one more day in Floaroma Town because of that. It would give him some time to look around and see if any normal people actually lived there, as well as buy some more supplies for the trek through Eterna Forest that he had planned on.
And if Route 205 was still closed off by those Galactic workers tomorrow, then he would just suck it up and head back to Jubilife. Maybe he’d go to Canalave from there.
A yelp of pain broke Ash out of his thoughts, his head immediately snapping towards where the sound originated. He couldn’t see who or what the yell came from, but it was close. His brain screamed at him to leave it alone, to not get involved in this creepy town any further, but was overruled by his heart, telling him someone was in trouble and needed help. He rushed past a few buildings blocking his sight in a hurry, coming across a scene that made his stomach churn.
An old man, probably even older than Professor Rowan, was on the ground in front of two Galactic workers. There weren’t many others around them, and those that were simply walked past the scene, not even sparing the old man a glance. The workers were seemingly taunting him, and it made Ash’s blood boil.
“Hey!” Ash called out, catching the attention of all three people. The old man looked shocked, while the two Galactic employees looked surprised for only a moment, before their looks turned smug. “Leave him alone!”
“Get lost, kid,” One said co*ckily, eying up Ash with clear disdain. “Before you get yourself hurt. Didn’t your parents teach you to stay out of other people’s business?”
Both of them pulled off the single pokeballs on their belts, releasing a Zubat and a semi-feline, purple pokemon Ash recognized as a Stunky. The Zubat hissed from being released into the sunlight, before making a weird clicking noise that made Ash want to cover his ears. The Stunky simply sat back on its haunches, content to wait for Ash to react.
He speedily released Wick and Thorn in response, not willing to be bullied by these stuck up weirdos. Wick quickly realized the situation he was in and growled at the Stunky, while Thorn took a moment to bask in the sun and flowers. A few seconds and one command from Ash later, though, and she was up and ready to fight, glaring menacingly (cutely) at the opponents.
“Take out the Budew and then go deal with the runt,” The man who had released the Zubat ordered coldly, causing it to shakily fly its way over to Thorn.
The Zubat looked horrible, so much so that Ash pitied the poor thing. However, he wasn’t just going to allow it to hurt Thorn.
“Stun Spore! Wick, get away and deal with the Stunky!” Ash called out to his pokemon. Thorn began shaking out the yellow particles from her bud, while Wick rushed to intercept the Stunky, which had already begun its charge at him. The Zubat attempted to flutter away from the Stun Spore, but it reacted too late, soon becoming surrounded by the paralyzing agents and falling limply to the ground.
Meanwhile, Wick and the Stunky had engaged each other, taking turns furiously scratching at each other. Stunky’s trainer was shouting orders, but Ash (and the Stunky apparently, seeing the lack of reaction from it) couldn’t make them out.
“Ember!” Ash ordered, causing Wick to spit out a small fireball right into Stunky’s face, causing it to immediately recoil in pain, before another flurry of Embers and an Absorb courtesy of Thorn knocked it out.
Ash’s first reaction was to immediately congratulate his pokemon for beating those two without any trouble, but he suddenly realized that they were no longer alone.
At least two dozen more Galactic workers had shown up during the battle, each of them brandishing at least one pokeball in their hands and a fire in their eyes, cold stares boring down on Ash. One of them, who wore a slightly different uniform, with the dark gray and white colors inverted, stepped forward towards him. He released a menacing Floatzel, covered in scars and garnering a dark look in its eye, causing Wick and Thorn to stand protectively in front of Ash.
“Recall your pokemon,” The man ordered, eying the trio with distaste. “If you don’t, things will get very ugly in a few moments.”
The Floatzel grinned savagely at that line, erasing any hesitation Ash had. Wick and Thorn were strong, but it would be laughable to say they could defend him from around 30 pokemon, especially not that monster of a Floatzel.
He was at their mercy. Despite Wick and Thorn’s pleas, he recalled them as soon as he could.
The man gave Ash a fake smile. “I’m glad we can be reasonable about this,” he said serenely, “Many other trainers have resisted us recently, and I would hate to add a child to that list.”
He then glared at the two workers who had caused Ash to step in in the first place, causing them to squirm.
“Get the f*ck out of here,” He snarled, “And if I see you two doing this sh*t again, I’ll be the least of your worries.”
They both scrambled to recall their pokemon, and ran as fast as they could away from the small crowd that had formed. Once satisfied, their boss(?) turned back to him.
“As much as I would love to brush this incident under the rug and let you go with a warning, I’m afraid I have strict orders on how to deal with any interference in our mission.” The man was clearly enjoying making Ash sweat, and it was working. It wasn’t like he had any other choice but to stay and wait, though. Running and fighting were both out of the question, and there was no way he could talk himself out of whatever this was that he had gotten himself into.
“Therefore,” He continued, seemingly taking a moment to pause and enjoy the sound of his voice, “I am afraid I will have to take you into temporary custody. Don’t worry though, you will be released once we are finished here, should you come peacefully.”
“Okay.” The words sort of tumbled out of his mouth, unable to believe this was happening. Was he being arrested? Kidnapped? All he had done was try to defend that old man who was being pushed around, what was going on? “Where are you taking me?”
That last part sort of slipped out, and the man just chuckled.
“You’ll find out in a moment. Now come with me. Everyone else, back to work.”
As Ash reluctantly began to follow, the old man finally decided to try and call out to them. However, his cries were ignored, and the Floatzel putting its scarred paw on Ash’s shoulder forced him to pay no heed as well.
Ash hoped the man would be okay, or at least wind up better off than whatever fate he had been sentenced to.
–
Ash looked up at the Valley Windworks with a mix of awe and fear. The compound was massive, consisting of several massive wind turbines, power lines, and a handful of large buildings all protected by a massive metal wall. All of the buildings were painted the same greenish-gray coloring, and beyond a few windows, looked very bland, very unpleasant, and very unwelcoming.
He had been taken back towards the Route 205 gate, where a truck was awaiting, and was ordered to get in. He did so, albeit very reluctantly, as this seemed like a great way to end up vanishing without a trace. However, he had been allowed to hold on to his pokemon, and that gave Ash some comfort. The ride had taken around two hours (he kept track thanks to his Poketch), before they finally stopped at the Valley Windworks and escorted him towards the complex.
There were four of the Galactic people surrounding him and leading him to one of the larger buildings, each with no discernable features from the others. He had considered trying to fight them off with Wick and Thorn once he had seen the truck drive away, but even if he did fight them off there were definitely more of them inside the Windworks. Plus, for apparently being a prisoner, nothing bad had really happened to him. A small part of his brain tried to reason that this was a normal thing, and he had interfered with something important to deserve this, but he knew better.
Once inside, he had been led through hallway after hallway until finally being let into what seemed to be a cafeteria, or at least used to be. On one side of the large room, dozens of scientists sat at large tables, doing anything from working on papers together, to sleeping, to simply sitting in silence. On the other, around half a dozen trainers were spread out, with a large divider between the two halves. There were about as many Galactic workers as scientists, with most just clinging to the walls and observing the room. Some, however, were actively interacting with the scientists, seemingly contributing to the papers being worked on.
Ash was told to go sit with the other trainers. Most of them looked much older than him, and the only one Ash assumed to be his age bore a fierce scowl, accompanied by a hard glare that made some of the Galactic workers flinch and look away whenever the trainer caught wind of them staring at him. These options for company didn’t exactly thrill Ash, who was rather antisocial already, so he just sat alone like most of the other trainers.
Unfortunately for him, one of the trainers - the one Ash assumed was around his age - decided to get up and walk over to him. At first, Ash just ignored him, hoping that he was just walking past him, but when he stopped right next to him and cleared his throat, Ash knew he’d have to talk to him.
The boy had neck length lavender hair, which when combined with his permanent scowl made him look much older than his height and build would make you think. He wore a light indigo and black jacket, with a cyan undershirt, and baggy black pants. Six pokeballs sat on his belt, all gleaming bright red under the large fluorescent lights in the cafeteria.
“Um, can I help you?” Ash asked, trying to be polite.
“Where did they take you from?” The boy asked, speaking coldly and concisely.
“What?” Ash wasn’t the best with people, but even he knew this was a weird way to start a conversation.
The boy rolled his eyes. “Team Galactic. The people holding us hostage. Where did they take you from.”
“Uhh… Floaroma Town.”
The boy nodded, seemingly to himself, before continuing. “That means that they have all of Route 205 on lockdown, then. They grabbed me as I left Eterna Forest.”
Ash had half a dozen questions rolling around his head at the moment, such as what Team Galactic was and what exactly the boy knew about them, but one stood out more than the rest.
“Excuse me, but who are you exactly?” Ash questioned, trying not to come off as rude.
“Paul.” The boy grunted, responding without looking at him. He was seemingly still lost in his thoughts. “I’m from Veilstone.”
“Nice to meet you, Paul.” Ash responded, feeling a little less uncomfortable knowing the boy’s name. “I’m Ash, from Twinleaf Town. Do you know who these people are, exactly?”
Paul’s eyes narrowed, but whether it was due to Ash asking a question or the mention of their captors, he wasn’t sure.
“They’re a group of losers who work for the Galactic Energy company, employed as the muscle of the organization.” Paul explained, taking a moment to glare at the grunts around the room. “They’re all pretty pathetic though, as I’m sure you know. If they brought you here, they think you’re a threat to whatever they’re doing and want to ensure you don’t interfere. If you were weak, they’d just force you to leave them alone through force.”
“But I didn’t do anything!” Ash protested. “How can this be legal?”
“Do you think they care?” Paul’s glare was definitely directed towards Ash this time. “Are you seriously naive enough to think these assholes care? You could have stepped on the wrong blade of grass and they’d call it reason enough. Of course this isn’t legal.”
Paul huffed, before sitting down next to Ash. “They’ve definitely done something to keep the League from hearing about this, though. No way they should be able to get away with this for anything more than a day.”
Ash blinked, a new question being brought to the forefront of his mind. “How long have you been here?”
“Only two days,” Paul replied. “Some of the others have been here for longer, though. Apparently they’ve also been recruiting some of the trainers here.”
Ash gulped. There was no way he would ever work with these people, and he wondered what would happen when he said no. The image of the battle scarred, savage Floatzel grinning cruelly at him popped into his mind, and he held back a shudder.
“I think they did something with the phone lines,” Ash said quietly, as to not alert the Team Galactic personnel observing them. “In Floaroma Town, I tried to use the video phones, but none of them were working. I asked Nurse Joy about it, and she seemed really nervous when answering me. Plus, there were a bunch of Galactic people in the pokemon center when I asked, and they all immediately started staring at us.”
Paul nodded, and said nothing for a few moments. “It’s more likely they’ve set something up to interfere with the radio signals across Route 205. You came from Jubilife, right? Did you see any Team Galactic members in the city?” At Ash’s nod, he frowned deeper. “That means they’ve likely set something up in Jubilife and Eterna to disrupt the connection between the two cities. I saw a ton of them in Eterna.”
“So what do we do?”
“Nothing.”
That took Ash for a loop. “What do you mean nothing?!” He hissed. “Are we supposed to just sit here and wait for someone to rescue us?”
“Yes.” Paul replied coolly. “Stop crying. Do you think the League wouldn’t ever notice that communications between two of the biggest cities in Sinnoh suddenly completely stop? Pokemon can sometimes mess with the systems, but for a week straight at minimum? They’ve definitely noticed. Besides, there are plenty of trainers that either turned around after seeing these creeps, and could have told someone, or are strong enough to just fight through them. It’s just a matter of time before someone from the League gets to the Windworks. And they won’t be happy.”
–
What Paul had told him made sense to Ash, but that didn’t mean he was happy about it. He didn’t just want to wait and hope that eventually the Pokemon League would notice. He didn’t want to stay locked in this room any longer. He didn’t want to comply with Team Galactic. He really didn’t want to keep his pokemon cooped up in their pokeballs. They weren’t allowed to be out, and they were completely safe in the stasis pokeballs provided, but they were his only source of comfort at the moment.
It had been a few hours since he had arrived, and nothing had changed. Grunts still kept a vigilant watch over the small group of trainers (especially Paul), scientists continued to work diligently on their papers, and there continued to be a dull thud echoing through the room.
Wait, what?
It was faint, so he had to focus hard to hear it, but there was no mistaking that a dull echo was reverberating throughout what seemed to be the whole facility. After a few more moments of random thuds, there was a loud groan, followed by the sound of metal twisting and bending. A few moments later, an ear splitting alarm sounded, accompanied by a flashing red light, causing every scientist to immediately halt their work and run through a set of double doors at the other end of the room, with most of the Galactic grunts following. The rest of them, however, exited the other end of the room to run towards the noise, leaving Ash, Paul, and the other trainers alone in the suddenly empty room. The moment the last grunt ran out, Paul immediately stood up and hurried to the door as well.
“Where are you going?” Ash questioned. He had stood up as well, but had yet to move out of both a fear of running into more Team Galactic members as well as a lack of an idea how to get out of here.
“Are you an idiot?” Paul snapped back. “It has to be the League. Who else would willingly break into a power plant being occupied by the biggest company in the region?”
Paul then turned and walked through the doors, not waiting for a response. Ash, not wanting to be left behind and feeling like his best chance was with Paul, decided to hurry up and follow. Paul seemed to know where he was going, and pretty soon they had made it to the entrance, or what was left of it.
The door to the Windworks seemed to have been ripped off of its hinges, and dozens of grunts were flooding out. However, just as quickly they were being tossed aside by a massive Venusaur that was slowly making its way across the battlefield towards the building. Accompanying it were several dozen other pokemon, mainly grass-types, but there were other, more diverse pokemon alongside it including a bronzong, a luxray, and even a tyranitar. Any resistance the small army encountered from Team Galactic and their pokemon was quickly dispatched, meaning it was only a few moments before the entrance was open.
The Venusaur reached the building first, but even with the door and several pieces of the wall torn off, there still wasn’t enough space for it to comfortably get into the building. However, that quickly changed when two of its vines simply destroyed the remnants of the front wall, allowing it to march in unimpeded. It stopped and glanced around, before its gaze landed on Ash and Paul. It grunted something towards the Bronzong that had floated in beside it, and in a moment half a dozen Ace trainers were in front of the two of them.
“Oh thank Arceus!” One of them exclaimed at the sight of the two of them. “Are you two ok?”
Paul nodded, and Ash quickly followed suit. The Ace trainers asked several rapidfire questions at the duo, with Paul answering all of them. After finishing, all but one of the trainers hurried further into the Windworks, with a good portion of the pokemon that had arrived following them. The Venusaur and the Bronzong stayed back, however. A few moments later, and a new face showed itself to the duo.
The woman was tall, standing at least a head above Paul (who himself had a few inches on Ash), with short, orange hair that reached to her ears except for her bangs which reached to her shoulders. She wore a green hoodie, cut off around her midriff, as well as baggy orange cargo shorts and large green boots. All in all, a very bizarre outfit.
At first, the woman seemed to miss Ash and Paul, instead focusing on the remaining Ace trainer. Despite her odd choice of clothes, she still gave off a very intimidating aura and commanded an air of respect.
“Status report!” She said, sounding professional and commanding and angry all at the same time.
The Ace trainer saluted her. “Squads 2 and 3 have breached the facility, ma’am! Most of the grunts have been subdued, but more are likely on the premises.” He then took a moment to gesture towards Ash and Paul, before continuing. “These two made it to the exit on their own, we are currently searching for others held captive!”
The woman nodded and turned to face them, but paused as she took a look at the duo.
“Paul?” She asked, slightly confused.
“Gardenia,” He replied with a curt nod, “Good to see you.”
Gardenia, as the woman was now identified as, sighed into her hand. The Venusaur noticed, and shuffled over to stand by her. Gardenia smiled at it and began to rub its head. “I guess it makes sense that you ended up here. The League -”
“What is going on here?!”
Gardenia tensed up for a moment, before immediately spinning around to face the newcomer. Or rather, newcomers. Her Venusaur immediately reacted, moving in front of her and extending its vines with a growl.
The two made a strange pair, for sure. They were both obviously members of Team Galactic, or at least Galactic Corporation, whatever that difference may mean. It was a young woman and an old man, both donning unique variants of the standard Team Galactic uniform. The woman had short, red hair put up into an odd style that curled around her face, and had a thick skirt that hardly moved when she walked. The man, however, looked very similar to the scientists that had been working inside the Windworks while Ash was held there, with the only difference being his Team Galactic uniform and that he seemed to be much older than most of the scientists.
The man seemed to be the one in charge, if the way he marched across the complex to fearlessly confront Gardenia meant anything. The woman quickly followed, an irritated frown on her face.
“Leader Gardenia, you better have a damn good reason for interrupting our work!” The man spat out after trying to walk right up to her, only to be stopped by her Venusaur. He carried himself with a large air of arrogance, ignoring the dozens of wiped out grunts and pokemon in his path. “We have a permit -”
“Are you insane?! I don’t care what legal bullsh*t you have!” If Gardenia seemed mad before, she was downright explosive now. “You locked down an entire route, sabotaged League communications, and kidnapped trainers!”
“We did no such things, and even if we did we were well within our right to!” He argued back, almost as if he wasn’t concerned by her attitude or the apparent numerous laws that had been broken. “We signed a contract with -”
“Do I look like I care?” She hissed venomously, her hands twitching to her pokeballs. The red haired woman took notice, and in a moment released two of her own pokemon - a Purugly and a Golbat. They didn’t attack yet, instead staying close to their trainer.
Gardenia froze, before quickly turning back. “Get those two out of here!” She ordered, causing the Ace trainer to nod fervently. He froze for a moment, eyes glowing pink in sync with the Bronzong hovering nearby.
“Close your eyes,” He said, his voice carrying a deep echo. Ash quickly complied, and in a moment felt the world around him disappear as he was teleported away.
–
The Floaroma Town he was teleported to was much different than the one he had initially arrived in. Instead of the occupied, busy, loud town he had experienced, Floaroma Town was surprisingly peaceful, and very empty. It was a far cry from a few hours ago. Even the generators were cleaned up.
Once he had gained his bearings, he immediately released Wick and Thorn, who were ecstatic to see Ash okay. He was more than happy to spend the rest of the day spending time with his pokemon after what had happened.
A few hours after returning, a group of Ace trainers had arrived back at the town as well, with the other trainers that Ash had seen in the Windworks. They had all been given a debriefing, letting them know that the Pokemon League officially apologized for what had occurred, as well as giving them the go ahead to traverse Route 205. One of the trainers that had returned after Ash asked about what was going to happen to Team Galactic and how this had happened in the first place, to which they were all told it was classified information. Ash didn’t mind too much as long as he never saw them again, but something told him this wouldn’t be the last time he would encounter Team Galactic.
It was the next day now, and after finally getting a well deserved good night’s sleep at the pokemon center, he was ready to head out for Eterna City. However, it seemed fate had other plans.
“Excuse me, young man!” A gravelly voice called out to Ash as he stepped out of the pokemon center, causing him to jump in surprise and turn towards the voice.
It was the old man he had seen yesterday being harassed by Team Galactic. He was waving Ash over, and had a small bag tucked under one of his arms. Ash quickly hurried over once the old man began to cough, but he was quickly waved off.
“I just wanted to thank you, young man, for standing up for me yesterday,” He began hoarsely, “Who knows what would have happened if you didn’t put yourself at risk and interfere? I’m so sorry that you were taken by those awful men because of me.”
“It’s no big deal!” Ash tried to downplay his actions, feeling slightly embarrassed at the praise and apology. “I just heard someone yell and ran to help, anyone would do the same.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, young man!” The old man spoke with conviction now, standing up straighter. “So many of the young people today are too focused on themselves to care, too selfish to worry about anything beyond their own interest! It’s a shame, really. I don’t have much, but I wanted to repay you for helping me.”
He pushed the small, brown bag he was carrying into Ash’s arms, despite his protests that he didn’t need to be repaid. Ash took a look into the bag, and saw several jars filled with thick, orange-yellow honey.
“I run a small honey shop here in Floaroma, and trust me, that’s the good stuff! Slather some honey on a tree, or just carry it around for long enough, and the bug-types will come from all over Sinnoh for a taste!”
Ash quickly put the honey carefully away in his backpack, making sure not to damage the glass containers. It would suck having to clean that up.
“Thank you, sir.” Ash said politely, bowing his head to the man.
“So polite! Like I said, it’s a gift. No need to thank me!” The old man guffawed, before beginning to cough again. “Well, I don’t want to trouble you anymore, young man. I best be on my way. But before you go, may I know your name?”
Ash smiled. “It’s Ash, sir. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
The old man nodded, stroking his beard thoughtfully. “Ash… I’ll have to remember that for this year’s Conference. You’re going to go far kid, I can tell!”
He then made his way down the road, leaving Ash alone to smile at the retreating man. It seemed like it was his time to finally head out, so he let Wick and Thorn out to enjoy the weather and travel with him. The walk to the edge of Floaroma was quick, and Ash was excited to finally put this part of his journey behind him.
“Hold up!”
It seemed like that would have to be put on hold for now, though.
“Paul?”
He didn’t know why Paul wanted to talk to him. He hadn’t exactly been friendly in the short time he’d known the boy, and he hadn’t talked to him more than once.
Paul took a glance at Wick and Thorn, who returned the look curiously. Paul just scoffed before looking back up at Ash.
“I wanted to battle, but seeing your sorry pokemon is making me rethink that.” Paul ignored the growl coming from Wick and instead narrowed his eyes at Ash. “I wonder what kind of threat Team Galactic saw from you to bother wasting their time with?”
Ash wasn’t someone who was usually quick to anger, but this was different. This kid he had known for less than a day just comes along and insults him and his pokemon?
This wasn’t just about a battle this time. This was personal.
“We’re battling!” Ash said, louder than it needed to be. Wick and Thorn cheered in agreement, while Paul just shook his head.
“Whatever. Your funeral.” He taunted, picking up one of the pokeballs on his belt and priming it. “Just don’t start crying once you lose. Elekid, standby for battle!”
With a flash of light, Elekid appeared on the ground between Ash and Paul. It was yellow and had a small, ovular body with tiny, thin legs and surprisingly large forearms for its size. Its arms, legs, and stomach fur were coated in thin black stripes, and it had a black lightning bolt emblazoned in its fur. Finally, the most unique thing about it were the two unique antennae atop its head - the two thin, hard, prongs that Elekid used to generate and discharge electricity that were so iconic in the modern world.
Ash looked down at Thorn with a grin. “Do you want to take this one?”
Thorn charged in front of him with a roar (a squeak), and faced down Elekid with a harsh glare.
“Finish this quickly. Quick Attack into Fire Punch.” Paul ordered. Elekid immediately complied, dashing forward in a white blur too fast for Ash to track.
“Stun Spore!” Ash called out quickly. Before Thorn could react, however, Elekid slammed into her hard enough to send them both tumbling. Elekid recovered quickly, and quickly slammed a flaming fist into Thorn hard enough to send her flying.
“Thorn!” Ash called out, worried. She rolled for a moment, before coming to a stop and slowly getting up and shaking herself off. “Water Sport! Then use Extrasensory!”
Thorn quickly let out a bit of water from her bud, which helped put out the small cinders that remained on her. Her eyes then glowed pink, as she attempted to grab Elekid in a psychic hold, but it quickly broke free. At Paul’s orders, it once again got close with Quick Attack and hit her hard with Fire Punch.
This time, however, Thorn didn’t get up. Ash recalled her with a grimace. She didn’t even get a hit in.
“You’re up, buddy.” Ash said to Wick, trying to force a smile for his friend. Wick roared out a challenge to Paul and Elekid, to which Elekid just smirked.
“Ember!” Ash yelled out. Wick quickly spat out a few flames, all of which were easily dodged by Elekid.
“Swift. Follow up with Thunder Punch, Shock Wave if it’s still standing.”
“Destroy them with Fury Swipes!”
Elekid spat out several small, fast moving stars that were all headed directly for Wick. Wick was able to destroy a few of them with some well placed slashes, but he was quickly overwhelmed and knocked onto his back.
As soon as Wick got back up, Elekid was already there mid swing, striking Wick clean across the face with Thunder Punch. Wick was launched back again, and stayed down for several seconds before Ash’s encouragement and worried cries forced him back to his feet, swaying slightly. Wick took a deep breath, and suddenly a red aura blazed around him.
Blaze was activated.
Ash hadn’t seen Wick be in a tough enough fight yet for his ability to activate, but it seemed like now was the perfect time to test Blaze out.
Wick roared.
“You got this Wick!” Ash cheered, “Ember!”
Wick’s Ember, which was more of a flamethrower than a fireball, easily overwhelmed the small Shock Wave Elekid had sent his way, with Elekid barely dodging the inferno.
“Get in close and finish it with Brick Break!” Ash barely heard over the roar of the fire, but it was enough.
“Meet it with Blaze Kick!” He cried out desperately. Elekid quickly weaved his way through the leftover fires, already dying without the fuel provided by Wick, fist glowing white. It jumped high, prepared to finish Wick for good, but was barely caught by Wick’s extended leg, which was absolutely smothered in flames.
The stalemate only lasted a few moments. Wick was weak, and this was the first time he had been able to properly use Blaze Kick. The force bearing down upon him was too much, and Elekid’s open hand hit Wick square in the forehead, knocking Ash’s starter out immediately.
Ash recalled him a moment later, dread filling his body. He had lost his first battle, but it wasn’t just that. He was absolutely crushed. And he was crushed by Paul.
“That was pathetic,” Paul sneered at his still shocked opponent, “At least Team Galactic could hit my pokemon. You’re a joke.”
When Ash didn’t respond, Paul just turned around and walked away, recalling Elekid as he did so.
Ash was alone.
He wasn’t sure how long he stood there, dumbfounded by the ease at which Paul beat him, but it was a while. It took him some time, but he slowly came to a realization.
Paul was right. He was weak.
Sure he had beaten everyone else he fought, but what did that matter? He and his pokemon weren’t strong enough to beat Paul. They weren’t strong enough to protect him from Team Galactic. They were weak.
That was okay though. Everyone started from somewhere, even Pokemon Masters. This was just theirs. They would get stronger. They would train harder. They would make it to the Lily of the Valley Conference, and they would fight as hard as they could every step of the way.
And eventually, they would avenge this loss to Paul.
His new rival.
