Latest update:Augest 21 2016
*Most likely dropped, but gotta have hope*
Summary:When Ash disappeared 5 years ago, his friends were distraught to say the least. When he reappears in the fifth Pokemon World Tournament, they thought they'd be happy to see him. They weren't wrong, but then they weren't really expecting such a different person either.When Ash disappeared 5 years ago, his friends were distraught to say the least. When he reappears in the fifth Pokemon World Tournament, they thought they'd be happy to see him. They weren't wrong, but then they weren't really expecting such a different person either.
Link:https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12055160/1/Rippling-Eclipse
Word count:34k
Chapters:3
****Rippling Eclipse****
"Dawn!"
Dawn Berlitz, a young, and extremely good looking (if she did say so herself) Coordinator, hummed gently to herself as she glanced at the person calling her name with some interest.
While that in itself was not something surprising considering she had ranked fairly highly in many of the Coordinator contests she had entered despite her young age and was something of a protégé to Wallace and his wife, Winona, the 18 year old young woman had only just arrived at this particular region of Johto, and as such had not really expected anyone to recognize her that soon.
Of course, as she watched the person who had called her name out, bob and weave her way through the crowd towards the little cafe where she had been spending most of her time lately, she immediately recognized the bright orange hair, cut in a sophisticated bob style that was all the rage recently.
Dawn smiled faintly as the Gym Leader of Cerulean city entered hearing range, "Misty, it's good to see you again."
"I'm hilariously tired." The water trainer announced bluntly, ignoring the whispers that had suddenly started up around them as she plonked herself down in the nearest chair in a very unladylike manner, causing Dawn to smile nostalgically, "Sitting on a Lapras all the way to Johto is a massive pain in the ass. Literally."
"You couldn't just take a boat?" Dawn inquired sarcastically.
Misty winced, "I might have procrastinated a little."
Dawn stared at her, "In other words, you got lazy. Then you forgot. And by the time you unforgot, all the boats were fully booked." She summarized succinctly.
"Touché." Misty commented with a wry smile as she slouched over in her seat with exhaustion.
The prodigious water trainer had never really been one for feminine things, even after all these years although only a blind man would consider the slender and well-dressed Gym Leader anything less than graceful or feminine.
They might not have a lot of interaction during their younger years, but after... he had disappeared shortly after he had decided to tour the Kalos region. The members of their somewhat exclusive little travelling club had sort of made it a habit to meet up at least thrice a year, mostly to share any information they might have gotten or just to spend some time with Delia, especially Iris and Cilan who had been the last ones to see him in the flesh.
The fact that there was little to no information on the...ah...reason for the founding of their exclusive little travelling club at all did nothing to stop some of them from meeting up anyway and gradually becoming fast friends.
Which was why it was not rare for visitors to the Ketchum residence to bump into various rather famous and highly skilled trainers often lounging in the hall, or in Brock's case, helping Delia cook up something interesting, and then promptly spend the rest of their visit in complete and unthinking awe in the presence of these partial celebrities.
In the months after Ash's disappearance, it had become something of a dark joke amongst his friends, one started by Brock who had began to call their little gatherings to see if anyone could figure out where Ash had gone to, as a club meeting of people who were fortunate enough to travel with a and take part in the tumultuous clown fest that Ash Ketchum called his life.
Needless to say, entry was by invite only.
"What about the Unova gang?" Dawn inquired to the slightly older woman who had just waved a waiter over so that she could order another cup of black coffee.
Misty, who was generally acknowledged as the leader of their club beside Brock due to their seniority, was also the one who usually organized their club meetings, shook her head a little sadly at the thought of their two friends, "Last I heard, Delia told me they had just arrived from Pallet last night, so Delia wanted to let them rest one night at least before they came here as together."
None of them blamed Iris or Cilan, least of all Delia, for not staying with Ash and keeping him on the beaten track a little longer, but it was obvious that the many reassurances they had been given had nothing whatsoever to stop their own conscience from giving themselves a beating.
Amusingly enough, it had been Delia who had literally slapped some sense into the two of them, and reminded them that Ash would not have been happy to know that two of his friends were blaming themselves like that, and he would like it even less to know that they were putting their lives on hold to take care of an old woman like her.
As Dawn peered in to her cup, she smiled to herself. In their club, it had, surprisingly, been Delia who was the most unaffected by his disappearance, because as she had put it, her son had been going off and disappearing for long stretches of time regularly ever since he was 10 years old. If she got in a panic every time he did that, every single strand of hair on her head would have gone white by the time she was 32.
Delia knew her son was a little flaky even at the best of times, but she also had very little doubt that he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself... even if he did have to eat grass and drink rain water just to survive… mostly because he was utterly incapable of boiling even water without breaking a pot in the process.
Sometimes, Dawn wished she had the old lady's steely determination.
"What about May and Max?" Dawn questioned as she idly stirred her cup of hot coffee, her eyes drifting over the large HD screen mounted on the idyllic, vine covered wall that separated them from the rest of the restaurant's customers. The program currently showing was a re-airing of the interview with a representative from a new region's Elite 4.
Though why they decided to choose a quivering wreck of a woman more concerned with hiding behind her Cradilly rather than answering the reporter's questions, even if she was an Elite 4 member, eluded Dawn entirely.
It had been on the news pretty recently hadn't it?
She recalled reading about it in passing in some magazine during one of her trips to Hoenn. The place had apparently just ended a decade long civil war and looked like it was a complete and barren mess from what few pictures the reporters had gotten during the interview. Apparently they had rebuilt enough that they were now confident enough to try and inviting some fresh blood to the region as well as reconnecting to the rest of the world.
That idiot probably would have been one of the first few to jump on the boat and kick off a new episode in his life, Dawn noted to herself with a slightly nostalgic smile.
"Da… Dawn?"
Her startled eyes drifted back to Misty and she smiled sheepishly, "Sorry, I drifted off a bit there."
Misty scrutinized the younger woman, "You haven't been resting properly have you?"
"It's that obvious, huh?" The dark haired woman pouted mutinously, "There were some programs back in Celestic that I just had to finish filming before I rushed over here."
Misty merely sigh in resignation, "Just make sure you sleep early today alright?"
Dawn cheered up against instantly, "Of course."
"Anyway, as I was saying," Misty rolled her eyes at Dawn's exaggeratedly attentive expression, "May and Max are arriving later today." Her powder blue eyes twinkled, "I heard that Max is bringing a friend. A girl friend no less, who happens to come all the way from Kalos."
Dawn's eyes went wide, "A girlfriend?"
"Nope. A girl friend. The kind that still has a space between the two nouns," Misty smirked, "Though it's not going to stay for long if May has anything to say about it, irritating accent or no."
The coordinator's brows slowly rose, "May? Funny, I actually thought she'd be opposed to it."
"Look at it from her point of view. The sooner Max gets attached to someone else, the sooner she gets to go wherever she wants instead of having her little brother tag along every time she tries to go somewhere." Misty remarked dryly.
"Oh…" Dawn pouted again, "That makes sense I guess. I don't really know since I've never had siblings.
"Now I'm hurt." Dawn yelped when someone added to their conversation. She yelped even harder as that someone began ruffling her perfectly coiffed hair affectionately, "I always did think of you like my little sister. My slightly less irritating little sister that is."
A lithe form clad in a form fitting black dress slid into the free chair, her dark amber eyes sparkling with mischief through the curtain of pale yellow curls.
"Cynthia!" Dawn protested loudly, only for the older woman to wince a little.
"Why don't you yell a little louder?" She commented wryly, "It's not like we don't already have enough people staring at us."
Dawn blinked and looked around the room as discretely as she could and finally noticed that the entire place had gone silent in favour of staring at all three of them, before she buried her burning red face in her palms with a groan, "This is all your fault. You said you wanted to rest in the hotel room." Dawn grumbled accusingly.
"I got bored." Cynthia replied offhandedly before she turned to Misty and gave her fellow Pokemon league member a warm smile, "Misty, it's been a while."
The water trainer who had been simply observing the two women interact with amusement merely nodded in response, "I knew you were coming, every single Gym Leader, Elite Four and Champion was invited to the World Tournament, so of course you'd be here too, but Dawn neglected to mention to me that the two of you were coming together."
"It was a coincidence really." Cynthia admitted offhandedly, "I wasn't really planning on attending at all since I just came back from exploring the Mirage Caves and trying to understand how it could appear and reappear like that. But I bumped into Dawn back in Celestic, and when she heard I wasn't going to come, she refused to budge until I changed my mind." She glanced at the flushed girl pointedly, "Much like another younger sister of mine. So here I am."
"So that's why I didn't see your name on the roster." Misty commented as she eyed the slightly older woman, "You don't intend on telling the organizers that you're here at all, are you?"
"Not really." Cynthia sighed quietly, "To be perfectly honest with you, it's not like I haven't already done the whole Growlithe and Ponyta show for the past five World Tournaments. It's gotten to the point where I'm almost wishing someone would come along and just take the bloody title from me just so that I wouldn't keep getting all these annoying invites that I can't outright refuse every time I'm doing something."
Misty's eyebrows rose slightly, "You want to stop being the Sinnoh Champion?"
"Well not really." the pale blond woman remarked with another gusty sigh, "I love the job and everything it represents. To be the Champion is a reflection of your skill and dedication, it is a representation of your dedication to the embetterment of our world, both Human and Pokemon alike, and it is a crystallization of all my efforts in the 28 years I've been alive. What I am not a fan off however, is the red tape and the whole Growlithe and Ponyta routine that comes with it."
"Because all she wants to do is hide in some ruins somewhere looking at dusty books or climbing caves in the middle of Arceus knows where looking for obscure, rare Pokemon." Dawn deadpanned, "And if someone comes along that wants a battle, all the better. Because the very fact that they managed to reach whatever Arceus-forsaken corner of the world she happens to be hiding in at that moment usually means that they're going to be either pretty damn lucky, or pretty damned skilled."
"She makes a wonderful little sister, don't you think?" Cynthia murmured admiringly, "Summarizing all my words up like that for me."
"That she does." Misty agreed with a loud snort as she drained her cup of coffee, "Which brings us to the here and now. The two of you in the same place isn't exactly good for this kinda conversation, so we should probably go somewhere else no?"
The other two took one look around them, noticed the fact that the crowd had already somehow doubled in the half an hour they had been here, and the fact that most of them were already gearing up for a full blown autograph session.
They immediately agreed without hesitation.
****Pokemon****
"So where are we going?" Dawn questioned as the three of them walked down the boulevard lined with leafy maple trees.
"Do you mind if we went to the stadium?" Cynthia suggested, "They've already started the preliminaries to see who gets to join the Tournament and I'm kinda curious if there's any good talent this year."
Misty squinted at the darkening sky, "It looks like it's about to rain. I don't really care I suppose, as long as there's shelter."
"Preliminaries huh…" Dawn huffed quietly, "It's been a while since I've seen one of those." She admitted.
"Neither have I." Misty added quietly, "Since every single one of us, with the exception of Max, are either Gym Leaders or have already won a Competition or two, and thus have a slot reserved anyway, I tend to just come when the actual thing starts."
"And the kid tends to blast every one that fights him to shreds anyway. Which kinda defeats the purpose of cheering for hm." Dawn deadpanned.
"It probably helps when you have several Gym Leaders, two world class Co-ordinators, one of which happens to be his sister, and the Unova Champion no less, teaching you a couple of tricks before you start your journey." Misty commented with a smirk.
Cynthia blinked, "Max? As in THE Petalburg Gym Leader's son? That Max?"
"Yuuup." Dawn drawled, "He was a brat back then. Now despite everything, he's an even bigger brat if you can believe it or not."
"I only know him because of Norman." Cynthia admitted, "Haven't really heard anything else about him."
"I'm not really surprised," The raven haired woman commented, "When he lost to Drake in his first try at the Ever Grande Conference, he almost quit on the spot even though everyone, including his sister, was trying to tell him that making it to the Head of the Hoenn Elite Four on their first attempt was pretty damn good for a freshie. He eventually bounced back after a couple of years doing a very good Cloyster act, then decided to start over in Unova with May. He's doing pretty well if May's general cursing is anything to go by, but you don't really keep up with other regions do you?"
"Not really." Cynthia hummed to herself, "So is he strong?"
"To date, Drake has been the only person to beat him that badly if that means anything." Misty noted offhandedly, "He's also currently tipped to be the one to beat the Unova Elite Four in this year's Vertress Conference."
Dawn smiled with great satisfaction, "If he does, he gets to fight Iris. The very same person who taught him most of his tricks." She grinned evilly, "I can't wait to see her kick his ass all over the field."
"He'll probably surprise you." Misty commented lightly.
As the three of them continued walking to the stadium, Cynthia merely listened to the two of them with a slightly wistful expression, "Actually, now that I think about it. I was actually disturbing one of your club meetings wasn't I?"
"Realize it sooner, stupid sister." Dawn deadpanned to the older woman as the three of them walked down the boulevard, "How are you the Sinnoh Champion when you're this absent minded?"
"Ouch." Cynthia agreed blandly, "So any change on the situation?" She inquired curiously.
"Not really." Misty remarked with a heavy sigh, "He's still missing. Has been missing for the past five years. Will probably be continue to be missing for the near future too."
"Cheer up," Cynthia replied sympathetically, "I've talked to him enough times to know that he can take care of himself." She paused, "Or rather, Pikachu will take care of him."
"Sounds about right." Misty giggled quietly.
"Besides, just because there hasn't been any news doesn't mean that he's not around." Cynthia chirped encouragingly, "He might even be wondering about this very town right now, completely lost and starving."
"Yeah. That sounds totally like As-Ah!" Dawn yelped as she walked into a broad shouldered man who had been standing on the path with a slightly dazed expression.
Or at least she thought he was young. She couldn't really tell from her spot on the curb as she rubbed her sore behind.
The fact that the guy, covered entirely in a thick and raggedy travelling cloak that concealed his frame was also sporting a massive spiky beard, covering everything but his eyes and his eyebrows and looked like it hadn't been washed in ages didn't really help.
The man blinked his reddish brown eyes a little blearily before he gasped and hurriedly bend down, "I'm so sorry." He muttered apologetically in a very gruff and coarse voice as if it hadn't been used in a while, while he helped her get up, "I was just so hungry I sort of spaced out…." The man blinked as he finally got a good look at the svelte woman, "Dawn?"
The aforementioned woman blinked perplexedly as she moved a couple of steps back to distance herself a little from the somewhat pungent smelling man, "Do… I know you?"
The man continued to stare at her.
"Holy shit."
He shifted slightly to stare at Misty.
"Holy. Shit."
Then he stared at Cynthia.
Then he stared some more.
"Marry me please?"
Misty and Dawn stared at him stupidly while Cynthia took a surprised step back as she pointed herself, "... Me?"
"Yeah?"
"What."
Misty frowned before she suddenly stepped forward much to Cynthia and Dawn's confusion.
Their confusion only increased as Misty's stare slowly intensified until she suddenly turned a remarkable shade of angry red before the passionate red head grabbed his beard and very roughly yanked the yelping man down to eye level with an angry hiss that vaguely reminded Cynthia of a rampaging Gyarados she had fought once before.
"Ash Ketchum."
The man whimpered, "Uhm… Hi Misty?"
"You have some DAMNED good explaining to do before I yank your beard out one hair at a time."
Dawn and Cynthia stared blankly.
"What?"
****Rippling Eclipse****
"So good. Oooh… So, sooo good."
Cynthia very carefully sat as far as she could from the young man making the disturbing grunting as he liberally shovelled everything on the table into his gaping maw, making sure not to make it look like she was incredibly disgusted by his eating habits. She shouldn't have bothered really, Misty had already made it very clear she disapproved and Dawn was sitting on the other side of the room as it was, her sensitive nose made her eyes water just from being in the same room as the man who was supposedly their old friend.
"Sorry bou' that." The man mumbled through an entire mouthful of pasta, "I din't really get a chance to eat or clean up since I wander'd into town yesterday."
"I can tell. If not by the fact that you're currently spraying everyone here with a good chunk with your lunch every time you talk, then by the fact that Dawn can't even sit in the same room as you without breathing." Misty noted sarcastically, one heeled foot tapping impatiently as she waited for him to finish."
Ash grinned apologetically, simultaneously inhaling everything on the table at the same time.
"So you've at least been back in civilization for a day now at least." Misty concluded ferociously, "Why haven't you at least contacted your mother?"
"To be fair, it's not like I didn't try the moment I entered town." The bearded man rummaged around in his pocket before placing a cracked and weathered watch on the table, "The Nav broke down on me ages ago. Now I just carry it as a memento. Same with the Pokedex." Ash said gruffly beore he swallowed an entire bowl of soup in one go, "Tried to see if Nurse Joy would let me use the one at the Pokemon centre even without any identification on me, but she just thought I was just someone trying to bum off her place." He placed heavily cracked and damaged Pokedex beside the PokeNav, its red shell was just barely visible through the dirt and grime.
"Suffice to say, I didn't really have enough currency to use a public phone either."
Misty buried her face in her palms, "Oh Arceus…. Hurry up and finish your food. You can use my Nav to call her once you're done."
"No, no. I can do it now." The tall man said, his great big bush of a beard quivering with what Cynthia assumed was a great grin, completely at odds at way his voice cracked and sounded remarkably like two Tyranitars grinding on each other.
He hurriedly wiped down his face with the offered napkin before gingerly accepting the PokeNav from his old friend, making sure to do with his clean hand.
With almost shaking hands, he waited for the Nav to finish dialling when a face he hadn't seen in five years popped upon the screen.
"Hey, Misty." The woman promptly chirped, "Is there something wrong, honey? You called just this mor…." The brown haired woman with the friendly face stared at the face plastered on her screen in confusion.
Unless Misty had suddenly grown a beard, this person certainly wasn't her one of her son's closest friends.
"Hey mom. It's been a while."
Her mouth clicked shut as she stared at the shaking screen.
Just barely, she could see something shining in the man's familiar reddish brown eyes.
"Ash?"
The great beard attached to her supposed son's face rustled as if he was grinning widely.
"The one and only."
The two of them stared silently at each other, upper lips wobbling, "Are you… are you with Misty right now?"
"Yeah. I'm with her at…." The tall man blinked before he looked up to squint at Misty, "Exactly where are we again?"
As one, every female in the room, including the one on the screen, face palmed.
Misty snatched the PokeNav out of his fingers with a hiss before smiling kindly at the quivering woman, "Hey, Mrs. Ketchum. We're still at the Johto PWT. Don't worry, I won't let the idiot take even one step out of Silver town before you arrive."
As Ash took back the PokeNav, he could only smile stupidly at the screen.
"You promise you won't leave right?" Delia quavered, showing that she hadn't been as composed as she had looked the entire time.
Ash merely shook his head vigorously, "Not for a very long time to come." He croaked.
As the call ended, he leaned back into his chair with his eyes closed and his shoulders sagged as if a great burden had been lifted from him.
"Hey," Dawn suddenly thought of something in the silence, "Where's Pikachu? I haven't seen him since I bumped into you."
Ash snorted as he reached over to the cloak and pulled it back to reveal a terribly worn backpack. Unzipping it, he reached into it and pulled out a lump of yellow fur before dropping it on the table with a loud thud.
Said lump of yellow, motionless fur with black stripes and a zig zag shaped tail attached just lay there on its face.
"Lazy bastard hasn't woken up since this morning."
Dawn cringed, "You sure he's not dead?"
Ash merely grinned as he nudged Pikachu with one large finger, rolling the little yellow rat onto its back where it began snoring happily, "Very sure. He stuffed himself on some Pecha berries in the forest this morning, so I don't expect him to wake up anytime soon."
Ash grunted as he ran one hand along Pikachu's bulging tummy, "So I'm in Silvertown huh. Guess I wandered into the right town somehow. Lucky me."
He leaned a little to the left so that he could squint out at the sun, "Hmmm… about time too."
While the women were watching in stunned silence, the dark haired man got up and began to happily gathered up all the leftovers and wrapping them all up in the tablecloth.
"Wait, wait, wait. Where the hell do you think you're going?" Misty stood up indignantly, "You still haven't answered a single question."
"Can that wait until later?" Ash questioned with an innocent tilt of the head, "I'm going to be late as it is."
"Late for what?!"
"For the match obviously." The significantly taller man replied cheerfully, "Why else would I be here?"
****Pokemon****
"Mr. Ash Ketchum, are you ready?"
The dark haired man looked at the referee blankly for a moment, "Oh. Oh! Yes, yes. I just have to find the right… Ah there he is." Grinning triumphantly, he finally pulled out a worn and damaged Pokeball from his backpack.
"Sorry," Ash apologized shamelessly, "I tend to lose track of my balls a lot."
The referee stared at him before sighing.
[Ladies and Gentlemen, are you ready for today's fifth Preliminary Match?]
At the ensuing approving thunderclap of applause, the two commentators grinned.
[Today's Match is one Ash Ketchum against a regular competitor in the global Pokemon League. So far, Ritchie has made his name well known from placing in the Top 8 in almost every single Conference he has participated in. It certainly looks like Contender Ash has his work cut out for him today hmmm?]
There was another roar of applause as Ritchie's fan made their approval known.
"So it's Ash Ketchum hmm?"
The younger one glanced at his senior, "What's up, Cotton?" He asked, making sure to keep the mike away.
"Nothing much…. The name is familiar, but I can't really place where I heard it from."
"Well, there's absolutely no records on this guy. He's probably just another one who got lucky and received an invite." Pepper remarked cheerfully.
"I suppose so…." Cotton replied doubtfully.
Back on the field, the referee sighed.
Back in his day, a pokemon match was just him and his colleagues and the two trainers. Nowadays, all the kids needed to have all the fancy smancy new spangled technology as well as those two commentators stating the obvious every few seconds.
He missed the old days.
Still, he had a job to do, and he intended to do it well, air headed commentators or not.
"Are the two Contenders ready for the Preliminary matches?" the old man dressed impeccably in a referee's suit called out loudly.
On the opposite side of the field, a red haired man with a cap on his head stared disbelievingly at Ash.
"Ash, is that really you? I mean I knew I was supposed to fight an Ash Ketchum today, but I didn't think it'd be you."
"Uhm…. yeah?"
He squinted at the other guy.
"Sorry… but who're you again?"
"I'm Ritchie dammit!"
"Oh! Of course I remember you!"
The two men stared at each other for a long moment.
"You don't remember at all do you?" Ritchie deadpanned.
"Not really. No." Ash admitted with an embarrassed smile.
"We fought at the Indigo Plateau dude!"
"In my defence, that was ten years ago. But now that you mention it…. You used to have a Pikachu didn't you?"
"Yeah, Sparky." Ritchie grinned widely, "He's not here today, though it would have been interesting to see him go up against your Pikachu again."
Ash grinned enthusiastically, "Should I take that as another challenge after this one?"
"Of course." Ritchie replied good-naturedly.
"Ahem…" The referee coughed, "If the two of you are done…?" He trailed off with a pointed glare that had the two younger man chuckling in embarrassment, and the audience, who could hear their every word broadcast on the speakers loud and clear, giggled loudly.
"This will be a regular 6 on 6 elimination Match. No restorative items are allowed during battle and no switching is allowed until a match is over. Are we clear?"
Taking a far more serious mein, Ritchie nodded, all his focus on Ash who was idly scratching his armpit.
"Then, Contender Ritchie will have the first pick. Go!"
With a move that spoke of years of experience, Ritchie flung a Pokeball out.
In a flash of light, an absolutely gargantuan Tyrannitar announced its arrival with a earth shaking roar.
Ash simply observed the specimen with great interest. Its thick hide was battle scared and a deep jewel green while its armoured tummy was a deep sapphire blue as opposed to the light purple that it usually was, showing its decade of experience in battles. The Tyrannitar itself was easily over 3 metres tall and an absolutely perfect specimen of an Alpha male of its kind.
Nodding with approval, Ash casually lobbed his own ball onto the field.
When the flash died down, the audience went silent.
A Rattata sat on its hind feet, casually nibbling at an itch on its tail.
"Ash?"
"Mmm?" Ash looked up absent-mindedly as he idly nibbled on a drumstick he pulled out of the large tablecloth sack on his back.
"Are you sure you didn't pick the wrong ball?"
"No. Not really?" He glanced at the drumstick and scowled, "Damn it's cold already."
Ritchie grimaced as he glanced at the Rattata pitifully, "Very well. Tyranitar, finish it! Stone Edge!"
Play Pokemon – I Believe
The massive Tyrannitar snorted derisively before rearing back with another earth shaking roar as shards of sharp rocks began levitating around him, each one as large as a full adult male human and then let them loose.
The massive rocks hurtled towards the seemingly unaware Rattata when there was a bright blue flash between the two combatants.
All at once, there was a heavy thud as Tyrannitar collapsed with a groan.
[What… the… hell?] Cotton breathed with disbelief.
Everyone seemed to agree with the announcer as the referee finally shook himself awake from the shock and announced the victory to a grinning Ash.
[Did everyone see that? A Rattata. A tiny, scruffy, little Arceus be-damned Rattata just downed Trainer Ritche's Tyrannitar, a consistent contender and highly valued member of Ritchie's team in every Pokemon League he has participated in so far! And in LESS THAN A SECOND.] Cotton practically yelled into the mike with excitement, [Can we get a replay of that!?]
On the screen, the exact moment when the Tyrannitar let loose appeared as the scene played in slow motion.
As the rocks hurtled across the screen, blindingly fast even with the video already slowed down, Rattata could be seen glancing at the rocks. Its reddish brown eyes gleaming as it hunched over.
Just as the rocks hit, the puffed up crest on its head glowed a deep red. Bracing against the heavy impacts with its tiny body, a bright blue flash, the signature activation of a Counter, a move that Rattatas were not usually born with Cotton noted, blinded the screen.
As the screen slowly dimmed again, the Rattata, wounded but definitely still in the game, could be seen hurtling towards the still unaware Tyrannitar, stopping a split second with near perfect timing before the bright blue glow slammed into Tyrannitar with crippling force before it body slammed the reeling green dinosaur and tearing the last bits of consciousness from its opponent.
[I don't believe. I'm seeing it and I STILL DON'T BELIEVE IT. WHAT THE HELL IS HE FEEDING THAT RAT AND WHERE CAN I GET SOME!?] Pepper roared into his mike while the audience mere gawped at the screen dumbly, [WHAT IS WITH THAT INSANE SPEED AND TIMING?!]
Meanwhile, Ash simply smiled to himself as he opened his arms wide and laughed when Rattata jumped straight into his arms with a happy squeak.
"You did good. Very good." Ash murmured, "You surprised all of them!"
He gestured to the mob, "None of them thought you'd win, but you did. That's how far you've come. Do you regret it?"
The little purple rat shook its head vigorously and nuzzled Ash's chin happily while his trainer chuckled.
"You feel like you can go on? They ain't gonna look down on you anymore, so there goes one of your trump cards. Still feel like you take on the world?"
Rattata nodded determinedly before jumping back on to the field with a spirited growl as Ritchie sent his next pokemon in, a hulking Snorlax that seemed more than happy for a fight, contrary to the usual sleepy laziness its species were known for.
"Atta boy. Same rules then." Ash nodded approvingly, "I won't help or give you orders. This battle is yours and yours alone. Now show me how far you've come."
The referee eyed the Rattata with newfound respect.
"The second round between Contender Ritchie and Ash begins now!"
Rattata howled as it sped towards the Snorlax, its beady eyes gleamed as the Snorlax hefted one fist back.
"Snorlax, that Rattata knows Counter, so don't attack first! Let it come to you!"
Rattata's eyes gleamed even more as a white glowed surrounded its tiny body.
"It's coming Snorlax, ignore the Quick Atttack and focus on finding out its position once it's exhausted, then hit it with Hyper Beam!" Ritchie cried out with surprising calm.
The white ball of energy that was Rattata slammed into Snorlax before speeding away and then slamming into Snorlax again despite its efforts seeming to be completely useless in the face of Snorlax's great bulk. Rather than give up, the determined little purple rat merely slammed into Snorlax again and again and again and again until it skidded to a stop next to Ash podium, panting heavily with exertion.
"There Snorlax! Hyper Beam!"
The Snorlax merely stood still, causing Ritchie to gape at its disobedience.
And then, it slowly keeled over with a thunderous crash, revealing that it had already lost the last shred of its consciousness.
"What!?" Ritchie breathed dumbly.
[I DON'T BELIEVE IT. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THERE'S YOUR SECOND MIRACLE OF THE DAY!]
"It wasn't a Quick Attack." Ash noted quietly while Ritchie glanced at him sharply.
The taller man simply smiled thinly, "You're mistake was assuming Rattata was using Quick Attack. It used the speed from Quick Attack yes, but only so that it could hide the fact that it was just trying to get close enough to Snorlax, while the glow from Quick Attack itself hid the fact that he was using Super Fang. Then you made the further mistake of assuming that Snorlax's bulk would protect it from Rattata."
"My Snorlax is one of the toughest Pokemon alive. A Super Fang isn't going to take him down anytime soon." Ritchie protested heatedly.
Ash shrugged, "That's true I suppose. Or it would be if Rattata only used Super Fang once that is."
He pointed at Snorlax, And Ritchie finally noticed the multitude of bite marks on the poor Sleeping Pokemon, "Rattata hit him six times. Five of those were Super Fangs, the last was a Hyper Fang. Your Snorlax was unconscious long before either of you realized what Rattata was doing."
"That's not fair! What kind of Rattata would be able to do something like that?!"
The dark haired man smiled proudly as he petted the exhausted lump of unmoving fur that was Rattata, "The kind that used to be a useless failure."
Ritchie gritted his teeth and flung a Pokeball out, summoning his strongest Pokemon out.
An absolutely colossal Charizard, battle scared and highly experienced, roared intimidatingly as the flames in his eyes showed a terrible intelligence gleaming behind it.
The dark haired trainer watched the Charizard for a moment before he squinted at the sky.
It was already getting a little cloudy and thick fat drops of water were already falling.
He patted his backpack.
"Feel like a rematch against an old friend?"
The backpack twitched before two yellow ears poked out.
"Pika?"
"It's Ritchie. Zippo's helluva lot bigger than I remember though."
"Pika."
Ash grinned, "Try not to go overboard."
The little yellow rat yawned as it jumped out of the backpack, slapping Ash with its tail in the process for that insult.
Glaring at the rat for a while, Ash sighed in resignation as he pulled his ragged cap lower so that he could shield his eyes from the rain, though anyone looking could see the thin smile pulling at his lips.
"Sorry Ritchie, but there's no shelter. Not from this storm."
****Rippling Eclipse****
Ash yawned tiredly as he exited the bathroom.
He was tired and more than a little ready to just fall asleep in the first bed he had in the past two months, but he fully expected that he'd have to go through an interrogation first.
Dawn's open mouthed awe and Misty's calculated gaze told him as much.
That said, he felt a lot more capable of facing down the two of them now that he had bathed and shaved for the first time in months.
He was definitely rather gratified by Cynthia's thoughtful look though.
Still, might as well get on with it.
Stepping out of the glass shower, he looked around and frowned.
Shrugging on a bathrobe, he gingerly poked one head out of the shower, "Uhm… Misty? Dawn?"
Cynthia who was sitting on the sofa comfortably with Rattata snoozing contentedly on her lap looked up, "They went out for a while."
"Uh… why?"
"They predicted you wouldn't have any spare clothes, so they went out to get you some."
"That doesn't really explain why my clothes are gone…"
"They already burned that mess." Cynthia deadpanned, "How long have you been wearing those rags?"
Ash winced, "For the past 2 months give or take?"
Cynthia gave him a disgusted look at his admission.
"It's not my fault." Ash mumbled, trying to protect the last of his dignity, "I kinda had a full luggage bag… which I lost…. Along with all my money… And then I got lost… before I could contact anyone…"
The pale yellow haired woman stared at him.
"You seem to get lost a lot don't you?" She commented critically.
Ash crouched down in a corner and began to mope, "I try. I try my best. But somehow, the map always brings me somewhere else. Why? WHY ARCEUS? WHY!? WHY DID YOU MAKE NORTH SO HARD TO FIND?"
Cynthia smiled at the dark haired man's comical sobbing.
"Now I know why you always need to be travelling with people." She observed dryly as she ran one finger along the Rattata's unusual red crest.
"Most Rattata's don't have this crest do they?"
"They don't." Ash warily left the safety of the bathroom, making sure to wrap his bathrobe a little tighter around him, "This one had a particularly horn…. aggressive Vigoroth as father as far as I can tell."
The little purple rat squeaked and stretched contentedly under Cynthia's ministrations.
"So that's why he knows Counter."
"Pretty much." Ash replied as he allowed Pikachu to hop onto his shoulder. Smiling to himself, he scratched Pikachu's chin for a moment before it abandoned him in favour of Cynthia.
"That doesn't really explain how he can do what he did in that match though." Cynthia observed critically, her hands now fully occupied by Rattata and Pikachu.
Play Pokemon – Lugia's Song
"It wasn't easy." Ash admitted blandly, "Using moves like that consume far more of his focus and stamina than it would if he had just used one skill at a time, roughly three times more at my best estimate. That's why the first thing I had him do was endurance training. Even then, the first time we managed to do it, he was out like a light for an entire day just from doing that combo a single time." The dark haired man explained simply.
"On the bright side, as a Rattata, he is already naturally fast, and since he refuses to evolve into a Raticate, he's actually a lot faster than most people expect. The problem lies in the fact that without evolving, he's far squishier than a normal Raticate and he reaches his stamina limit far faster as well."
"So why didn't you evolve him?" Cynthia asked curiously.
"He didn't want to, so I didn't see any reason to force him to do it either." The dark haired man replied with a crooked grin, "Probably had something to do with the fact that most of his pack were Raticate's that regularly bullied him."
"His pack were bullying him?"
"Something like that." The dark haired man simply shrugged, "When I found him shortly after I hit land in Sinnoh, a bunch of Raticate were biting him relentlessly. After I chased them away, I tried to heal him, but he wouldn't let me close." Ash grinned nostalgically, "The little guy was feisty as hell. Instead of going somewhere to rest, he chased the Raticates down. Of course, he got beaten down again, and this time it was bad enough that he couldn't stop me from helping him even if he didn't like it."
He leaned over to scratch Rattata's chin and the little rat pokemon purred even louder, curling up into a tight ball of contentment on Cynthia's lap.
Ash quirked one eyebrow when he noticed Cynthia was watching him curiously through a curtain of pale yellow hair.
"Yes?"
"You're… different from what I remember."
The dark haired man grinned, "Should I take that as a compliment?"
"It was a compliment." The pale yellow haired woman replied casually, "Back then you were already pretty talented with Pokemon. You instinctively knew how they felt and you responded accordingly…."
"But I was reckless? Naïve? Wasting my potential? That just because I was able to understand how Pokemon felt didn't mean that I was going to the best Pokemon Master?"
Cynthia stared at him blankly, "Well… those aren't exactly the words I would have used…"
Ash shrugged casually, "It was one of the first few things someone told me to my face when I arrived in that Arceus forsaken place. Her exact words that I should get the hell out of there because being able to empathize with Pokemon wasn't going to help me win a battle, or stop someone from shooting me in the head for that matter." He smiled a little grimly at Cynthia's shocked expression, "It took me a lot longer than necessary to understand what she meant. And it cost me far more than I'm willing to pay."
"What… where did you go exactly? A lot of people were rather worried when you went missing just like that." The Sinnoh Pokemon Champion inquired curiously.
"It was a horrible place." Ash admitted without hesitation, "Unlike almost every region I've been to, Pokémon were pretty scarce there. Mostly because almost all the water there has more poison in it than water. Even the plants were downright deadly, and entire sections of the continent were practically closed down because the plants have consumed them whole. All this simply meant that the locals there rarely ventured outside of the cities that were still intact."
Cynthia blanched at the grim picture Ash was painting, "But… But didn't the local Gym Leaders, the police, or even the Elite Fours do anything?"
"Most of them were, but they were pretty much at their limit just keeping the place from becoming Orre 2.0 and stopping it from turning into a full blown anarchy." Ash replied with deceptive calm, "The problem here is that the local gang and the sole reason the entire bloody region is such a complete clusterfuck, Team Meteor, already had an iron grip on the whole place when I arrived. The fact that what Gym Leaders or Elite Four that weren't fighting them were on their side instead was just the Cherrim on top of the Grimer cake."
"How did you even get there?" Cynthia frowned, "I can't imagine any of the existing shipping companies having any regular communications with a place like that."
"They don't." The dark haired man murmured absent-mindedly, "On the day I was supposed go to Kalos, I accidentally got on a ship that just so happened to be making one of its monthly supply runs to the Opal Ward that day."
"You got on the wrong ship." Cynthia stared at him in a deadpan manner, "Really?"
Ash laughed a little bitterly, "And the best part was that I didn't even notice that there was no one else on the ship other than myself, the captain, and two mute sailors until the entire fucking ship exploded in a terrorist attack before the goods could be unloaded."
"What!?"
The dark haired man sighed as he leaned into the couch with a glassy smile tugging at his lips, "I lost everything in my backpack that day. My Pokedex and PokeNav were trashed, but Pikachu and I were alive, albeit hurt and burned badly, but alive. My only other consolation was that I had already sent all my Pokemon to Professor Oak before I got on the ship, or they…."
Ash swallowed harshly, "Either way, I couldn't even let anyone know I was at least still alive because there wasn't any way to get a signal out of the region with Team Meteor locking down all the signal towers. The only saving grace was that the first person met there, Professor Ame, was helpful enough to lend me a comm device that worked within the region and some supplies."
Frowning, Cynthia leaned over to touch his shoulder.
Ash grinned weakly, "I'm fine and everything turned out alright anyway. Granted, it took about five years, but eventually Team Meteor were defeated and the continent finally re-established some measure of contact with the rest of the world." He pursed his lips, "The first thing I did was try to contact Mom. And when that didn't work, I jumped on the first ship back to reality."
"And promptly got lost again." Cynthia noted with an amused smile.
Ash merely guffawed, "For about 2 months." He agreed through tears of laughter.
"So how did you manage to register for the PWT when you couldn't even call anyone?" The pale yellow haired woman inquired curiously.
The 22 year old trainer grinned, "I didn't. I knew it was happening of course, because some of the Gym Leaders from that region were invited as part of the whole re-establishing communication process, and they told me, but I wasn't registered until today. I just went to the receptionist and hoped that I could still register even without a Pokedex."
"And that worked?" Cynthia pointed out doubtfully.
"You saw for yourself didn't you?"
Cynthia chuckled softly at Ash's cavalier grin when Pikachu's ears twitched.
Ash instantly paled.
"Crap."
Lunging at Cynthia, he grabbed her by the shoulder and forced her down when the door exploded inwards.
Coughing at the amount of smoke and dust swirling in the room, he glanced at the windows and groaned as he saw a slight fluttering outside.
Then he looked at the balcony and sighed when there was a very elegant looking Froslass hovering in midair and grinning at him as it breathed out gusty blasts of wind to block any possible exit with ice.
Resigning himself, he shielded Cynthia the best he could, uncomfortably aware that he was only wearing a very thin and fluffy bathrobe and sighed heavily.
"Ketchum. You have a pair of very big ones don't you?" A voice growled as a red headed woman with armour attached to her right hand and wielding a sword stalked through what used to be the main entrance, a timid looking woman with violet hair top toeing in behind her while a peppy looking woman with blond hair bounced in next to them.
Ash grimaced, "That's two…"
The windows cracked in a flurry of supersonic waves before they shattered with a loud tinkling, allowing a man with violet, spiky hair to alight from a large grinning Crobat.
"Three…."
The final figure made her presence known with a flourish as Froslass built a spiralling column of ice for her trainer to ascend.
"Four…"
He was in deep shit wasn't he, Ash mused to himself.
Three was probably the most he could handle with Laura there, but Four was pushing it.
"What the hell!" He vaguely heard Misty shrieking as the water trainer and Dawn appeared in the doorway, pokeballs at the ready for a battle.
Ash merely placed his face in his palms with a heavy groan.
Wonderful.
How absolutely wonderful.
Dawn gasped as she recognized the tearfully angry violet haired woman as one of Reborn's Elite Four, the very same one that she had seen on the TV this morning.
What the hell was she doing here and assaulting one of her friends no less?
Ash meanwhile looked around him before wincing, "Really, Laura? Four Gym Leaders? Really?"
"To be fair, Laura didn't agree either." The red head with the white fringe wearing an armoured gauntlet on her right arm grinned evilly as she closed on in a paling Ash before she grabbed Ash by his lapel and dragged the taller man down to eye level, "But everyone here knows that how slippery you can be when you want to be."
"This is going to hurt isn't it, Titania?" Ash commented blandly.
"That depends, Master Ketchum…. Imagine our surprise when our Champion suddenly went missing two months ago. We tracked him of course, all the way to Sinnoh. Where he went missing. AGAIN. And then reappearing in Johto, two entire fragging continents away, of all places." The woman who was apparently named Titania bellowed point blank at Ash, "Care to explain?!"
"Champion?!" Cynthia squawked from behind Ash.
Titania shot Ash the evil eye before she let him go, "I can see you didn't even bother telling your friends about this. Typical."
"In my defence, I never really accepted the position." The dark haired man in questioned hedged.
"Mere formalities. You shut down the rebellion, you reunited every single Gym Leader in the region and then you handed Solaris' ass to him on a silver platter. As the saying goes, if you break it, you bought it." Titania brushed his protests off casually.
"Somehow, all that just makes me feel even more like running away." Ash commented blandly.
"Why do you think we brought not two, not three, but four Gym Leaders here, Master Ketchum?" Titania replied as she curtsied with a mocking grin, "Any less and you'd have knocked us all out before you went on your merry way. Probably disappearing for another half a year or so again." The angry red head muttered that last part under her breath.
"Wait, wait, wait. What the hell is going on here?" Misty cut in sharply while Dawn seemed she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, "Why does everyone keep referring to Ash as a Champion?!"
Taking pity on Ash's friends, Corey smirked and bowed, Julia, Serra and Laura taking the senior Gym Leader's cue to curtsy as well.
"Ladies." He began with a cultured voice, "I'm honoured to present to you Reborn's very own scruffy vagabond of a Pokemon Champion; Ash Ketchum."
The three of them stared blankly at Ash.
Ash awkwardly waved at Misty, Dawn and Cynthia.
"Uhm… Oops?"
****Rippling Eclipse Chapter 1 End****
Link:https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12055160/1/Rippling-Eclipse