200 meters from the entrance to Mount Moon, Kanto Region - 0805 hours local time - Day 5 of Ash Ketchum's Pokemon Journey
"Pidge." 'Ash, I need to go.' Pidgeotto said before they came up to the summit of the hill, where the entrance to Mount Moon beckoned.
"Go?" Ash asked. "...You don't mean-"
"Pid!" 'No, not THAT! It's...well, it's my flock.' the raptor said. "Pidgeoootto!" 'If that damned Fearow gets ideas-'
"Spear." 'Doubt it. If that flock was mine, they're long gone now.' Spearow said, having been swapped back in for minor training with Ash while Charmander… terrorized the ranchers. "Row." 'Those insane bastards haven't been seen in a week now, I think.'
"Noct." 'I'm… sure your flock will be fine,' Noctowl stated calmly. "Owl." 'If… they are anything like you, they can handle themselves…'
Pidgeotto cooed at the unintended complement, but sadly, Ash knew otherwise. "Pige." 'They're not exactly good at fighting.' she said. 'I'll guide them to the ranch and come right back.'
Noctowl wanted to protest, but Ash spoke up first. "Go ahead." he said, smiling sadly. "Bring them to the ranch and stay there for a bit." Ash then felt wind on his hair for the first time in a week as his hat suddenly disappeared.
"Man!" 'HA! Got your hat!' cried a small monkey-like Pokemon that put the hat on his head as he jumped down, dancing.
"Hey! You little-" Ash was about to protest, before he noticed what exactly what stole his hat… a Mankey. But not just any Mankey… but one he hadn't seen in a very, very long time. "...no way… Primeape?"
"Man! Mankey!" 'Hehehehe! I knew I'd run into you if I stuck around here!' One of Ash's more… troublesome Pokemon exclaimed, jumping up and down.
Guilt struck Ash, as he had not returned to Primeape back in the other timeline. He completely forgot.
The little monkey Pokemon stopped jumping, noticing Ash looking down. "Man." 'Hey, what's wrong?' the fighting-type asked as he hopped over. "Key?" 'You look like-'
"I forgot about you. I forgot." Ash said, choking. "I-"
SLAP!
Pikachu's tail smacked Ash in the back of the head. "Pika." 'You have 50 Pokemon. You can't possibly be expected to keep all of them on your mind at all times.' Pikachu reasoned. "Chu." 'You are not perfect.'
"Man-key!" 'Hey, it worked out for the best! You'll love the results!' Mankey cried, jumping and putting Ash's first hat back on his noggin. "Man." 'Though I'll have to evolve AGAIN for it to work. Mind explaining what the hell caused THIS?'
"Pika Pi." 'Remember Team Rocket?' Pikachu said, as Mankey nodded. "Pika." 'Turns out there were other groups like them all around the world - and one group, called Team Galactic, tried to literally end the world to create some 'perfect world.' Ended up resetting the timeline, but Celebi was able to help send us back in that timeline to try and fix it… so that meant we all had to go back to our… pre-evolved states.'
Mankey paused as that processed… before cracking his knuckles. "Man-Key." 'Just give me the word Ash,' He said, "Key!" 'I am ready to crack some fucking skulls open! I mean… I know you don't actually understand-"
"You'll probably crack a lot of skulls open, Primeape…" Ash said, with a small smile as Mankey blinked.
"...Man?" 'Holy shit, did he understand me?'
"Spear." 'It's how you old guard were brought back.' Spearow said as he hopped on ash's other shoulder. "Spearow-spear." 'Apparently, Celebi tied your minds to Ash's and sent you back in time. ALL of you, from Pikachu to Noctowl and Arceus knows who else he caught. I never got told who: there was never time.'
"Man?" 'He didn't catch you?' The fighting-type asked, confused.
"Spearow." 'New catch in this timeline, apparently. Not regretting it, though.' the bird confirmed. "Row." 'I'll give you a bloody history lesson when we go back to the ranch, unless Ash wants type-advantage in that damned cavern.'
"Up to you, Primea-Mankey. Could get a early start on that skull smashing."
"Mankey!" 'I like the sound of that!'
"Alright."
The group finally emerged from the treeline, sizing up Mount Moon as is towered over them. The very first time Ash came here, he helped Seymour protect the Clefairy that called the mountain home from Team Rocket. Speaking of the bespectacled scientist, where was he?
Misty, who was tending to Starmie, noticed him and Ash was prepared for the uncomfortably affectionate hug. Instead, she was just confused, thinking he was just behind her the entire time.
That was a really bad thing, Ash noted: she needed to heal, but she couldn't stay near him. He was a danger magnet and with the new rules of reality, she was more likely to get killed.
"A new capture?" she asked, a minor tremor in her hand from realizing Ash wasn't within arm's reach for a while.
"Yeah..." Ash half-lied. Primeape, or rather Mankey at the moment, was an old-timer he...forgot. He was half-tempted to take that handmade abomination in his pack and shoot himself in the foot for that. "Let's go to the Pokemon Center up there: I'll send Spearow back to the ranch, we can rest our teams and go through the caves."
"Man!" 'Awesome! I've missed Brock's cooking!"
"Pika pi…" 'We have a lot ot fill you in on…'
Dust and the click-clack of pickaxes filled the caverns of Mount Moon. Team Rocket grunts carefully uncovered fossils, packing them into containers and bringing them over to a Rocket paleontologist to identify and categorize.
A man in a white version of the Rocket uniform, mixed with a suit much like Giovanni's, smirked as his grunts dug and gathered money from the rocks, his green hair standing out among the rabble.
"Administrator!" cried a grunt, almost in terror as she ran up to him, panting before saluting. "Sir, we have received a messenger from the boss, demanding to meet with you!"
"Calm down. I'm sure it's something mundane." Giovanni had ordered radio silence on this op to try and prevent Brock from detecting their intrusion into the mountain, which meant that he had to send runners. Still, the Boss sending a messenger to him meant something was up.
At least, he thought that, until he saw WHO had been sent.
The long red hair and the close-cropped blue of those...IDIOTS that just would. Not. DIE.
They had been shot at in Hoenn with bazookas (as in actual Super Bazookas!) and were still alive. They once stepped on a land mine from the Cipher Wars and were not dead.
They poked Whitney's Miltank and even after the pink terror used Rollout on them AND Whitney tried to kill them with high explosives, bullets and her cast-iron bat, they DID NOT DIE.
So why the hell were Giovanni's official bullet sponges - Giovanni literally called them that during a meeting of the admins five years prior - HERE and not pissing off the Leagues somewhere else?!
"What the hell are you three doing here?!"
"Archer!" Jessie yelled. "We've been sent by the Boss! He told us to tell you to stop everything and pull out! Boss' orders!"
"Yes, I heard you the first time." Archer rolled his eyes. "Did he tell you why?"
"Not really." James said. "He just told us to tell you."
"He kinda sounded nervous!" Their talking Meowth stated.
The greenette groaned. The TRio, as the media referred to them as, were known for two things: their inability to just DIE and being slightly crazy. For all he knew, this was them suffering another session of their collective insanity and if he took their 'message' as truth, Giovanni would contact him in a week and ask why he wasn't doing his job.
So, he erred on the side of reason and for lack of better term, basically gave them the finger.
"Jessie, James, I am not in the mood for your antics." Archer declared, his voice having a slight edge to it now. "So, I suggest you either pick up a tool and get to work or you can annoy someone else!"
Meowth scowled. "Hey! If the Boss finds out you disobeyed orders, he's gonna be pissed!"
Archer waved a dismissive hand. "I said bother someone else."
The TRio looked at each other. "The Boss said no Team Rocket should be in the Mountain right?"
"Right…"
"And we're Team Rocket, right?"
"Right..."
They quickly got the hell out of dodge.
Archer huffed. Like Giovanni would order them to leave when they had an almost literal goldmine to harvest.
Mount Moon Entrance - 0845 hours Local Time
There were Geodude EVERYWHERE.
There was also a huge amount of Zubat, far more than Ash had ever seen, roosting on the ceiling.
"Mi..." 'New friends?' asked Mimikyu as she looked at the massive colony of bats on the cave roof.
"Pika." 'No. There's too many to catch and Ash doesn't want to catch any more Pokemon if he can avoid it.' Pikachu explained, hoping Mimikyu didn't get depressed.
Thankfully, she wasn't. "Mi!" 'So it's a members-only club!' she cried cheerfully.
Pikachu blushed at the cuteness. "Pika." 'Sure, let's go with that.''
Ash shook his head at the banter that only he and other Pokemon could understand. There were some, albeit minor, benefits to this entire situation. He allowed himself a small smile as he looked around, looking for the pink fairies that inhabited the mountain-
"Clefairy!" ' 'ello there!'
A pink form looked at him from behind a rock, smiling as the fairy-type looked at him and seeing if he was 'evil'. Clefairies were sensitive to emotions, after all. Not to the degree of the Togepi line, mind you, but sensitive enough.
Eventually, the fairy-type decided he wasn't truly evil, though judging by the frown, the Clefairy noticed that he had certainly been TOUCHED by it on a number of occasions. Ash winced at remembering his brief 'contact' with the King of Pokelantis and his own stupid choice to release him from that Pokeball prison.
In his defense, he thought a Ho-oh was trapped inside, but he knew better now.
"Oh, a Clefairy!" Misty exclaimed, noticing the pink ball herself.
"Clef!" 'Follow me good ones!'
Ash shot his pokemon a look. "Let's see where it's going."
"Pika!" 'On it!' Pikachu darted forward, with Mimikyu following closely.
"Mi!" 'Are we getting new members?' she asked almost childishly. That brought up a question, though.
"Pi?" 'How...old are you?' asked Pikachu.
"Mi?" 'I don't know. A few years? I never counted.' Mimikyu answered as she hopped along.
Ash paid little mind to the discussion, instead following the Clefairy through small grags in the rock, Mimikyu hopping from rock to rock, following Pikachu.
Ash's nose began to bleed from the overflow of knowledge in his skull again, this bit coming from Boldore, Celebi apparently not having done a good enough job to keep it from effecting him physically.
He cursed under his breath, pinching the flow closed. Ash watched as the Clefairy came to a stop amid a group of Clefairy, and the giant Moon Stone.
He heard Misty come to a stop beside him. "Whoa… What is that?"
"It's a Moon stone." Ash answered without really thinking. "A giant one, too."
"Pika!" 'Ash!'
The trainer turned to his starter to see the electric mouse and his dark imitator beside a group of fairies, some of which looked… injured.
Some looked like they were hit with rocks, others...with bullets.
This reminded Ash of why he hated guns. All they did was hurt people and Pokemon. But who did this? Hunter J was a big one, but unless she changed drastically, she didn't unduly injure money-making Pokemon.
"Clef-ary." 'They've been hunting for us and the Moon Stone for weeks. The black people with red Rs don't respect the will of the Creators.' One of the Clefairy said, tugging on Pikachu's arms. "Clef." 'We can't hold them back forever. Please, thunder mouse, convince your trainer to help us drive them out of our home!'
Pikachu shot Ash a look. "Pika…." 'Ash… I don't think this is just the idiots.' He growled dangerously.
"Yeah…" Ash didn't have a lot of experiences with Team Rocket outside the idiots, but he knew that they were… marginally smarter. And with this new universe and and how things were, the actual Team Rocket was probably much more dangerous.
"Where are they?" Ash asked the Clefairy. "Cle?" 'Can he...understand?' the fairy-type asked.
"Pika, Pika-pi." 'It's a long story, but he understands every word you just said. What do you need us to do?' Pikachu asked.
Pewter City - 915 hours local time
Brock put down his pen, sighing as he rolled his shoulders to work out the kinks. He was no paperpusher, but the League's politics demanded paperwork be done by all gym leaders within the alliance. Kanto was on the cusp of unification once more and Brock knew it, but until there was a centralized and unified government, Brock was more or less the military and political leader in Pewter.
Not a good combination for most. Sabrina was noticeably...unhinged, but loyal enough to the League.
But that meant that he, alongside volunteers and Officer Jennys, were the only ones to protect and patrol the area. The only reason he hadn't nabbed that murderous ronin in the forest was because he was sneaky, he knew when to pick his fights, and as Brock went in with a full team of Rock-types, nothing the ronin had could touch him.
But now the murderer was gone, done in by the very forest he claimed as his own. The Gym Leader also patrolled the caves of Mount Moon. Sadly, due to the new league season opening, he couldn't do it as often as he liked.
Paperwork for Pokemon injuries, damage to the gym, complaints about noise, gym licence renewals...it did not END.
That, fortunately, was about to be put aside, not that he knew it.
"Sir!" said a Jenny as she walked into his office, before going into a salute, albeit begrudgingly. Brock HAD hit on this one before and the Jennys did not forgive nor forget.
That being said, they were police. There were rumors they were all clones, grown in tubes under Indigo Plateau, waiting to be awoken and unleashed like an army of clones.
In reality, they all looked alike due to a genetic defect. They only started looking different when they got to their late 50s.
"What is it Jenny?" Brock asked, waving off the salute, grateful for the interruption from the accursed paper.
"One of our volunteers just radioed in. He spotted two Team Rocket members leaving Mount Moon."
Brock sat up straight. "Team Rocket? Did he have a description?"
"Yeah, and, well, it's them."
"Oh great. The TRio. Did they have anything?"
"Well, that's the thing. They rushed in, stayed for thirty minutes, then rushed out." she said, confused but attentive.
"That doesn't make any sense. Usually those idiots are used by the Rockets to stir up insane amounts of chaos and cause nothing but trouble." Brock said before thinking about it.
Those three were relatively high-ranking grunts. Not admins like that asshole Archer or that bitch Ariana, but generally when they had more Rockets working with them, they were in charge. But they were still grunts and that meant they were used for everything from making his life hell to...
Acting as couriers.
"Get the militia ready." Brock said, referring to the citizens of Pewter that would usually join the police in dealing with Rockets. While the ancient cities of Pokelantis and Pokemopolis were more famous, there was a more powerful nation that operated in Kalos called Rhōm, which wasn't exactly Pokemon-savvy, but they had the most dangerous citizen-armies that ever existed. The early kings and queens of Kalos wiped them off the face of the earth after they gained the loyalty of Pokemon, but the model of their legions existed to this day and was used, loosely, in much smaller number and with concessions to a modern world, by the militias of Kanto. This included Pewter.
"I think we have a Rocket operation running right under our noses. We're gonna evict them."
Jenny nodded, turning to leave, before seemingly remembering something. "Oh, and the volunteer said that he spotted two trainers entering the mountain."
Brock blinked. "Oh no."
Ash and Misty. They had, unknowingly, walked into a warzone. 'Damn the League and their paperwork! I should be out there, making sure Pewter and all the trails leading out of it are safe, not tied to a desk!' he thought as he got up and retrieved his pokeball belt.
There was no time to lose.
Mount Moon - Roughly the same time
"Get them, RattaTA!" The Rocket grunt yelled as he was hit by Pikachu's Thunderbolt, sending him and his Pokemon sprawling.
"Charmander, destroy the equipment! Mankey, cover him!"
"Char!" 'Yes! Destroy everything!'
"Mankey!" 'Come on ya idiots! Let me smash your heads in!"
It had been a session of sneaking in for the trainer pair, as unlike the Clefairy clan, they could move around faster and with their Pokeballs could carry a small army without getting spotted. That came to an end when a Grunt spotted them and raised an alarm.
"Pika?" 'Well now what are we going to do?
"They're all about profit right? Then we make it unprofitable for them. Destroy the gear and anything they can make money off of." Ash said, releasing his entire team to cause all kinds of hell.
It made sense: if this world was screwed up in so many ways, Giovanni would not be happy losing his money-making operation but even more angry that his equipment was destroyed as it was not easy to replace in any way.
It would help the police take down the Rockets and might make life easier in the long run if their operations were hamstringed. It might also want Giovanni to kill him, but to be honest, Ash was beginning not to care about Giovanni's rage: he had faced the bosses of four other groups and came out with his skin attached, Cyrus having technically 'won', but when the man went insane and died soon after, it was no victory.
"Pika!" 'You heard him! Wreak havoc!'
"Charmander!" 'That's what I want to hear!' The small fire dragon let out an Ember as his claws took on a metalic sheen and grew, charging at a small hoard of Rattata, sending purple bodies flying.
"Mankey!" 'Save some for me!" The Fighting-type shouted, hopping in alongside his fellow Fire-type, taking out Machop, Sandslash, Koffing, anything that came close.
"Owl!"'Stop running ahead you idiots!" Noctowl covered them from any flying types, his Steel Wing carving through air and enemy Pokemon.
A small explosion made Archer's eye twitch in annoyance. 'The LAST thing I need right now.' he mentally groused before a screaming Grunt smacked into the ground at his feet.
While he and Giovanni were not… friends, they did share a similar vice. They enjoyed it when people suffered a painful fate.
Except the TRio, because they were basically impossible to kill.
And while he would have enjoyed the grunt's suffering another time, things were blowing up. His things. His very important, very expensive things.
They were compromised. But all was not lost. They still had a good amount of fossils.
"Pull out! You all, grab as many fossils as you can, you, hold off the intruders as best as you can. We're salvaging everything we can." the admin ordered before more things began exploding.
Of course, he knew who to blame for this one: the local Clefairy, who had been giving him nothing but headaches for weeks. If it wasn't Brock being a pain in the rear, preventing him from continuous operations in fear of having Brock's infamous rock-types sicced on him, it was those annoying fairy-types and their annoying moral code that was as fickle as Giovanni's cat the first time Archer tried to rebel against the Rocket Boss.
His first Houndour did not survive the encounter.
That said, he had to cover their escape. To be honest, there was really only so much a grunt could do. He did have a lot of mining explosives.
"You three! Grab the mining explosives, and lay them along our escape path!"
A shadow bolt slammed into one of the Zubat, followed by the one that caused it, a Pikachu, to Iron Tail a Koffing with a Quick Attack boost. At this moment, Archer figured out WHY the TRio 'ordered' him to GTFO of Mount Moon.
Standing orders for all Rocket personnel: stay the hell away from Shadow Pokemon. "Pikachu, look out!" cried a young man with a League cap on his head, who was commanding the Pokemon attacking the Grunts.
'A Shadow Pikachu commanded by a trainer. This is either bad or VERY bad.' thought Archer as a beam of cold nearly hit him in the face, cast by a Clefairy using Metronome as the pink Pikachu lookalikes attacked his troops from gaps in the rockface.
"Houndoom, Faint Attack on that Pikachu!" Acher called, sending out one of his Pokemon, and the large Dark/Fire type raced forward, weaving through the chaos to hit the former Shadow Pokemon.
"Pikachu! Mimikyu, use Scratch!"
Archer was astonished to see an Alolan pokemon, the infamous Disguise pokemon, no less, slap his Houndoom, causing it to flinch away.
"Mimi!" cried the ghost-type, causing a minor cut near the dark pup's left eye, right before he was smacked by a pin fired by a Beedrill, buzzing up above and giving aid to the ghost-type.
"Burn the Beedrill down!" Houndoom complied, letting loose a Flamethrower.
"Beedrill, dodge! Noctowl, Steel Wing!"
The Bug-type darted away and a Flying-type replaced it, cutting into the canine's flank, causing it to howl in pain.
Archer swore. "Houndoom, use Smog to cover the area!"
His pokemon complied, using the poison move as a makeshift Smokescreen.
"Fall back!" Archer ran, passing the explosives and accepting a detonator from one of the grunts that set them up.
The admin flipped the detonator switch open, arming the explosives. "NOCTOWL, STOP HIM!" cried a girl that had escaped his notice. A girl that-
'Shit, the Waterflower brat!' Archer thought, right before air slammed into him, almost knocking him off his feet and nearly making him lose the detonator. Which, at this point, would be a good thing, as pissing off Brock Slate AND Daisy Waterflower was a very Bad Idea, as Daisy wasn't as stupid as she often pretended to look and was still dangerous enough to be a threat to most of the grunts AND to an Admin. Having two gym leaders on his ass - and by consequence, Team Rocket's - was not a good thing.
Too little, too late, though, as his thumb pressed the switch down, setting off the explosives.
Brock looked up as a fireball erupted from the side of Mount Moon.
"Oh no…" He slammed on the hood of the truck he rode in. "Double time!"
Ash coughed, looking down at Misty as rocks bounced off of his back. "You okay, Misty?"
Misty groaned, a small cut on her forehead bleeding and soaking her hair. "I-I'm ok." she said before hugging him, her...assets not doing Ash any favors. But like a certain meme, he crushed it with ease, looking back at Mount Moon. "The Clefairy!" he yelled before looking back to see nothing but collapsed rocks and - creeply and horrifyingly to Ash - the occasional hand or leg from a Rocket Grunt.
He killed them. He killed so many people. 'OhArceus,please,no-' Ash thought before getting the usual Pikachu tail smack. "Pika!" 'You didn't kill them! That green haired asshole did!' he practically roared.
Even with his starter slapping some sense into him, Ash couldn't help but stare at the rubble in shock. Which was why he saw the rubble shift, and a small pink hand stick out.
"A survivor!" Ash shouted, scrambling forward, grabbing rocks and shoving them out of the way, uncovering a bruised, dirty young Cleffa.
"Cle-cleff..." 'Mama? Papa?' asked the young fairy-type. Ash winced and really felt depressed. He just orphaned a Pokemon, something he never wanted to do and wanted to just-
SMACK! "Pikapi!" 'Ash, stop it! You are not responsible for this! The Clefairys knew what might happen and accepted it!' Pikachu reasoned.
Ash sighed. "You're right." He looked back to the little Cleffa in his arms, giving out another world-weary sigh. "I'm sorry, little one, your mom and dad aren't… aren't here anymore."
"Cleff-a?" "Oh… are they coming back?"
Ash's heart seized up. "No… they're not. I'm sorry."
The baby fairy didn't seem to understand until she looked at the rocks. And promptly began screaming in terror. Something Ash could relate to.
He wanted to do the same thing.
Boots hitting the rocks caught the attention of the humans, Ash nearly reaching for the handmade gun before seeing it was just Brock, carrying a rifle of some kind before he, too, relaxed. "Oh, thank Arceus you two are alright." Brock muttered before seeing the rocks and the dead grunts. "Good lord. What happened here?!"
"Team Rocket was here. They were digging something up and attacking a Clefairy colony." Misty said, Ash redoubling his efforts to calm the Cleffa down. "We offered to help the Clefairy, but..." The rubble was self-explanatory.
Brock sighed. "Did you see who was leading them?"
Misty shot Ash a sympathetic look. "He had green hair, a white uniform, and had a Houndoom."
Brock growled. "Sounds like Archer. He's been a plague for years." he said, confusing Ash as the Cleffa had wailed herself to sleep. Brock noticed. "Right, you're from Pallet. Archer's been raiding the roads for years. Lack of air travel makes commerce a pain."
Ash did not want to know how screwed up this world was and left it at that.
"The road through Mount Moon is blocked thanks to those bastards." the Gym Leader stated, knowing the roads through the mountains better than anyone. "And no one's stupid enough to go OVER Mount Moon without the right gear, so...you'll have to go through Rota if you want to get to Western Kanto."
A chill washed over Ash and he began hyperventilating. Rota. He had died there, and had no wish to go back to that damned tree. If that Mew forced his hand, there'd be hell to pay.
He jumped as Brock laid a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, you alright Ash?"
Ash took a deep breath and gave a shaky nod as Pikachu climbed up on his shoulder. "I'm fine. Everything's just… catching up to me."
Brock sighed, writing Ash's reaction off as stress. 'Today's going to haunt him for the rest of his life." He thought. "I should contact one of the League psychiatrists."
He was going to have a LONG day...
Viridian City - Gym
"I ordered you to get out of that damned mountain!" Giovanni yelled at Archer after the man got past the Pewter teleport dampeners, which prevented him from just teleporting out with the fossils.
Which he lost ANYWAYS.
"I was following orders." Archer retorted.
"The TRio was sent to tell you to pack up, and what did you do? You told them to fuck off! Now we've lost valuable, irreplaceable equipment, and at least ten percent of our grunts are dead, trapped, or left in the 'care' of the Clefairies. What do I have to do? Appoint those idiots as my personal messengers!?"
In all fairness, Archer had a point: those three were known for their collective insanity, so Rocket Admins tended to ignore them. That being said, pissing off Delia Ketchum was a BAD IDEA. Archer was worried about the Waterflowers, but they had NOTHING on the boy's mother.
Archer should have known that.
"Look, from now on, if the TRio tells you to do something, you do not question it, you do it. Pass that on to the other Admins as well. Also, tell them, direct from me, to not engage Ash Ketchum if at all possible. Pass that on to everyone."
Archer rolled his eyes. "Yes sir."
"Do not disobey me, Archer. Team Rocket has many enemies." Giovanni leaned forward slightly as he finished. "Ash Ketchum's mother is one I would rather not face."
Archer internally scoffed. He feared the brat's mother? No wonder he wasn't getting anywhere. 'I will have your head, boy. You and your girlfriend.' Archer thought as he saluted Giovanni. 'Well...your head. Your girlfriend, though...' With that thought, Archer turned and left.
Vanille Town, Kalos Region - 1109 hours local time
"Goomy!" 'I demand to know WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL IS GOING ON!' Goomy cried as he looked at the fancy-dressed Serena.
"Huh. Mom, why do we have a bunch of wildings on our lawn?"
Being called wilds snapped the group of of their shock. "Froakie!" 'We are not wildings! We just want to get to our trainer!' Froakie cried out.
"Someone's uppidy." Grace said, looking at the motley assembly of Pokemon. Fletchlings could be caught anywhere, but Goomy were native to swamps alone. Hawlucha were normally forest-dwellers and finally Noibats lived in caves. All of which were too far for them to just meet up at random and nowhere near Vanille.
Serena kneeled and picked up Froakie. She did not look...ok. There was a slight twitch in her right eye which happened at random and there were slightly dark circles under her eyes, which was more a sign of makeup hiding how bad it was. "Maybe we can send them to Ash." she said, thoughtfully yet impulsively, like there was some ulterior motive behind it.
"Froo-kieee." 'Uhhhh, I think something's up with Serena guys." Froakie said cautously.
"Haw?" 'How so?' the fighting hawk asked.
"Froak." 'She's got bags under her eyes like she's not sleeping well and she's… twitching.' the ninja replied, with a well-timed twitch, which only unnerved him more.
"Well, if you want to give them to him, just chuck a ball-" Grace started before Goomy torched her with a weak Dragonbreath.
She was fine, before you start wondering. It was enough to get a point across, not injure.
Serena blinked before coming to a conclusion. "They know Ash!" she said cheerfully. A bit TOO cheerfully, if you asked Froakie: it was actually scaring him. "And they clearly want to be only caught by him." she then added more coldly, which made Goomy shudder slightly.
"Gooooo…" 'This is scary…."
"Froakie!" 'You're telling me: I'm being held by her!"
Grace brushed off some ash from the Dragonbreath. "Well, that poses a bit of a problem. The next passenger ship to Kanto doesn't arrive for another two weeks, and even then, it's a five month trip."
"Oh I don't mind." Serena smiled, readjusting her hold on Froakie to hold him like a teddy bear, much to his discomfort.
That made no sense to them. Ash and Pikachu arrived her by jetliner the last time. "Flet?" 'Can't they fly?' asked Ash's tiny robin. "Fletch." 'Do I look like a Talonflame to you? There's no way I can fly them to Kanto.' Grace's bird retorted.
"Goo?" 'What about airplanes?' asked the dragon.
The seemingly royal Fletchling chirped in annoyance. "Flech." 'There haven't been operational airlines in almost 70 years! Not since those assholes from Orre unleashed their FUCKING plague on the rest of the world!' replied the bird. "Flechling!" 'Don't you already know that?!'
Hawlucha was not in the mood. "Haw." 'Pretend we don't.' the hawk retorted.
"Flletch...ling..." 'How can you all be so...oh, never mind. Just get inside.' Grace's bird chirped before flying in. "Supposed that answers that." Grace said. "If Fletchling says you're good, you can come on in!"
"Froak." 'She DOES have brain damage." Froakie deadpanned.
"Well Serena," Grace continued as they led the pokemon into the very pretty home. "If we are going all the way to Kanto, perhaps you could start your journey there."
"Mom!" Serena shouted semi-indignantly, although the Kalos 'mons could see that see was chomping at the bit to spend more time with Ash.
"There is the option of staying here-" Grace started before Serena glared at her, nearly snarling at the very IDEA of staying in Kalos rather then going to Kanto and to Ash.
While they were happy to see Serena wasn't in the mood to stay and wait, her aggression towards her mother, which in the other timeline was mere annoyance, was shocking to Ash's Kalosian team.
What in the name of the Creation Dragons and their Lord Father Arceus happened to Serena? Ash's mate was seemingly more bi-polar than a Malamar and almost as angry as a Primeape.
Grace led them out to a courtyard, where they were greeted by a…
"Vui!" 'Hi!'
A brown fluffball with legs, a playful panda, and a fiery fox.
All faces Ash's team knew well. This was Serena's team.
"Goo-my..." "Why… are they here already? This… doesn't make… sense." The poor slime dragon sounded confused and mentally defeated, what with all the brain-fuckery that was going on.
"Hawlucha." 'It actually does.' the fighting/flying-type said. "Lucha-hawlucha." 'For some screwy reason, Serena is some sort of noble. It makes sense that a noblewoman have her team with her. Even if Serena being a noblewoman makes no damned sense to US.'
It was ironic, but it made sense. They didn't have any idea what the hell was going on, but the facts they did have fit perfectly.
The world was, for lack of a better term, beyond fucked, therefore, more extreme measures of self-defense were required. Thus, Serena had her team with her before she even left Vanille. How Serena was a noble made no damned sense, but hey, in this world, what DID?
"You know," Grace said as Ash's pokemon said hello to Serena's "With how these four act whenever we mention Ash, I can't help but think they have some sort of destiny bond with the boy."
While she wasn't wrong, as they were meant to be together, in this case, they just wanted to go home. And Kalos was not home.
Serena smiled. "We're going to Kanto! And I can finally ask Ash to..." she trailed off before just smiling.
"You're not marrying him. He's below your station, Serena." her mother retorted.
Grace actually got a more powerful Dragonbreath for THAT comment, setting her shirt arm on fire. Serena couldn't help but giggle. "Really defensive about Ash are you?"
"GOO. MY!" 'Higher than you, bitch!" retorted the snail before firing off a burst that actually HURT.
Near Ecruteak City - Johto Region - 1749 hours local time
The egg was surrounded by rocks and dirt to keep the forest from lighting on fire and basically ruining everyone's day.
Seriously, forest fires suck.
This idea was Cyndaquil's brainchild, as hauling around an egg would only slow them down. Her idea was basically 'hatch Phanpy' so he could run himself instead of needing to be carried.
"Toto?" 'You sure this will work?' asked Totodile, who watched as Cyndaquil grabbed the egg from Heracross and with difficulty placed it in the makeshift firepit.
"Quil!" 'Of course it will!' retorted the fire badger.
Heracross shook his head and turned his attention to the trees. Now that he finally had time for a break, he could indulge himself for a bit. However, was a bit too zealous in his mission to get to the sap and ran headfirst into a tree.
"Dile!" 'Arceus, Heracross, control yourself!"
"Hera…" 'Sorry.' "Hera-" *PLOINK*
Heracross blinked as something bounced off his carapace, and turned to see a very large pine cone lying next to him. That had eyes.
"Pineco." said the cone, which was more of a pained groan. Until they evolved into Forretress, they weren't the most durable of Pokemon.
Even if that durability came at the expense of being insanely easy to set on fire. Steel was the WORSE combination typing a bug could ask for. Just ask Tracy's Scyther: he wanted nothing to do with a Steel Coat.
"Pine..." 'Ok, that hurt...' the Pineco said before looking around and seeing the others, including Pokemon that were not native to his part of the forest. Totodile knew what the bug-type was thinking: they were trainer Pokemon.
"CO!" 'A trainer! THANK ARCEUS! CATCH ME!' cried the pinecone, much to the confusion of all. Most Pokemon ran or fought. This...was not usual.
"Cyndaquil?" 'Uh, we don't have a trainer?'
"Todo." 'Yet,'
"Pineco…." 'Oh… damn. I was really hoping there would be a trainer.'
"Hera-cross." "Why do you want to be caught?'
The large pine cone shook itself. "Pineco." 'Hey, the world's pretty shitty.' "Pineco-pine." 'A trainer would care for me, protect me and all that stuff!'
Chikorita would have raised an eyebrow in the style of that sci-fi guy if she had eyebrows. "Chic?" 'That makes no sense. You want to be caught? While we're making our way to our trainer, we put up a fight when he tried to catch us!' she retorted, coming up with an excuse for why they were together on the spot.
"Pine." 'Shadow Pokemon are EVERYWHERE, especially here in Johto. Don't you all know that?' asked the Pineco.
More mysteries. They had no idea what was going on and their objective was 'get to Ash', not 'learn the history of the world'. They didn't even know what a shadow Pokemon WAS. Was it the shadow of a Pokemon or something?
Everyone froze as a roar tore across the forest. They all knew that roar: it belonged to a Tyranitar, but it sounded different. Dark. Evil. Corrupted.
"Pine-co." 'That. That's a Shadow Pokemon."
"Chic?" 'So what do we do?'
Another roar sounded, this time much closer.
"Pine." 'Run.'
A hyper beam tore through the forest, Heracross barely getting Phampy's egg in time before they began fleeing as trees fell apart, followed by a fast moving, PISSED OFF looking Tyranitar.
There would be Godzilla/Gojira jokes being thrown left and right by the Ashmons, but at the moment, they were running for their lives.
"QUILLL!" 'I'm having flashbacks to Ilex Forest and that PSYCHOPATH Rocket here!' Cyndaquil screamed. "CYN!" 'Starting to think we ran into Shadow Pokemon before!'
"Chika!" 'No shit! That Scizor was just like this!' Chikorita replied, making them realize that the world was VERY screwed up if these things were EVERYWHERE.
Another hyper beam set several trees on fire, preventing the majority of the group from escaping forward, which was their only option, as turning...well, the Tyranitar would catch up and then their lives would not be very happy for long.
"CHIKA!" 'I am not dying here!'
The Tyranitar locked onto them like that robot from that sci-fi movie and opened its mouth to charge another Hyper Beam-
Only to get a faceful of someone else's Hyper Beam.
The group jumped and looked up to see the serpentine form of a Dragonair snake across the sky above.
"That's enough of that!" They heard a voice call out.
Riding the serpentine dragon was a woman with a cape and wearing what would normally be considered a rather scandalous jumpsuit, with light blue hair. Some of them recognized her, as they had fought her in the past.
Clair Wataru, cousin of Lance, Dragon-type gym leader of Blackthorn City. "I would suggest leaving." she said, addressing Ash's team. "I will deal with the Tyranitar."
The Shadow Pokemon charged up another attack, this one being pitch black in color as it glared at the Dragon-type pseudo-legendary.
"Dragonbreath!" Clair called out, and Dragonair opened its mouth and let loose a powerful stream of purple flames.
The Shadow Tyranitar let loose a pitch black beam that looked like a Hyper Beam. The two attacks slammed into each other, but the black beam punched through. Dragonair saw it coming and easily dodged out of the way.
"Dragon Tail!" Clair commanded as she hopped off her ride. The pseudo-legendary darted forward, its tail glowing with power and slammed it into the rampaging dark-type's side. It roared, bringing it's head around as chilled air escaped from it's maw.
"Crap, Ice Fang! Get out of there Dragonair!" Clair commanded. Meanwhile, Heracross was trying to lift all of them out of there and fly off.
Sadly, the rules of insect flight hit him like a truck and he could only get a few dozen feet away before having to drop them.
"Hera..." 'I hate being me.' Heracross stated.
"Pine." You and me both!' Pineco said as they got a bit further before watching the fight, Dragonair's tail turning silver with an Iron Tail, smacking the rock-type in the face. Clair, now on the ground, pulled out some form of weapon. It was big and long, with Clair pumping some kind of action before shouldering the weapon and firing with a 'THUMP', which hit the Tyranitar after a moment, causing an explosion that hurt the insane quasi-legendary. Sadly, it was a rock-type.
And rock-types don't injure easy.
But she wasn't done. As her dragon let out another Hyper Beam, she worked the action and fired again, hitting the Tyranitar on the head, sending it stumbling into the Beam. She did it again, hitting the monster's arm. As the smoke cleared, it roared.
A ball of dragonic energy slammed into the Shadow Pokemon's face, making it rear back before Clair racked the weapon and fired again.
"Cynda." 'We need to leave.' declared the fire mouse as the battle continued. As they were, they had no chance in facing the Shadow Pokemon and they would be of no help to Clair.
"Her." 'I hate to run from a fight… but you're right.' Heracross nodded, "Cross." 'Plus… it looks like Clair's dealt with these… things before…'
"Pine." 'Not here. Must be visiting that jackass in Goldenrod with the Miltanks.' the Pineco added. While they did not agree that Whitney was a 'jackass', the Miltank certainly WAS.
Thick Fat was just unfair in a Pokemon that already had insanely high defensive abilities and weighed half a metric ton.
"Chika!" 'Let's just find Noctowl and get the hell out of here before that monster finds us AGAIN!' Chikorita yelled as the fight continued, a final explosion being heard as they fled the scene.
Pewter City Gym - Slate Residence - 1921 Hours local time
At least Brock's siblings were still alive. Ash could comfort himself with that thought, as Brock's father wasn't there and he never knew what happened to Mrs. Slate.
"You have so many Pokemon!"
"Usually shadows are scary, but your Pikachu's really cool!"
"Aww, this little Mimikyu's so cuuute!"
Ash smiled slightly as the young ones gathered around his Pokemon who were, for the most part, rather complacent about being around kids - to be expected given how they've had to put up with him for so long.
He wasn't exactly the best when it came to everything. It was why he kept up the journey.
It was also why...
"Is she your girlfriend?"
He would never get romantically involved.
"Sorry. Misty's just my friend." Ash said, stressing the just ever so slightly. He was very, VERY good at lying when it came to romance in any form. Well, at least with children.
"Alright, everyone, leave him alone." Brock said, gently guiding them away from Ash. "Why don't you say hi to his Charmander? You don't see too many of those around Pewter."
"Yeah, because you're a rock-type gym leader." Forrest said as he gave Mimikyu a brief petting. "No one in their right mind would bring a Charmander here." Ash felt mildly insulted by that comment, but let it slide as Brock got him away from the crowd of what Ash privately called 'Brocklings'.
"You want to be more than just her friend, don't you?" Brock suddenly asked once they were out of earshot of the kids.
"I told you I'm not-"
"You want to, but you keep telling yourself something along the lines of 'She deserves better' or 'Why would she want me to begin with'" Brock interrupted, shaking his head. "Yeah, I've heard that line before, Ash… went through a similar phase when I was getting with Philena. Trust me when I say its not healthy to keep those kind of things bottled up inside you… you don't want to plague yourself with 'what if's' and 'what could be's."
"And is it healthy to basically abandon them because you can't keep STILL?" Ash retorted, somewhat angered. "I cannot STOP moving for more than a couple of days. I think that's called 'a terminal case of wanderlust'!" Ash winced, more enraged at himself for his lack of emotional control then at Brock's attempts to 'ship' him and Misty. His argument against could be visually pictured as a submarine firing a torpedo at a cargo ship or something like that.
"Well, I can't argue too much with that." Brock said. "You'll settle down eventually, though."
"Ask my mother about that. She always said I could never sit still and I made it halfway to Viridian when I was a kid." the Pallet trainer said, remembering his 'local' past and as a result his nose having a small blob of blood just barely being held in by his nose hairs.
"Sounds almost like you're one of the legendary beasts!" Brock joked, not noticing Ash plugging his nose to stem the flow.
Nearby, at the treeline, a chill passed through the air as a padded foot stepped onto the earth, bringing a dampness to the air.
A dull heat and a charge in the air joined it, the three forms giving off a sense of legendary power.
The three Legendary Beasts stood together, watching the young Pokemon trainer that had grabbed their attention.
They had been watching him, on and off, for years. Suicune, mostly, saying he was pure of heart, even for a child. A sign he would retain his core innocence until his dying breath. Then that day happened.
So far, Entei was surprised the boy was out of Pallet Town to begin with. They thought he'd never leave after what happened.
'It has begun.' Entei declared. 'Though he seems more... worldweary than before. As though he had somehow gone further then even we have.'
'Ha! Impossible!' Raikou said, looking at the boy as he spoke to the Pewter gym leader almost as an equal, like a grand sage of old. Before the Shadow… 'Something happened.'
'Indeed, brothers. He has… changed. And not for the better.' Suicune stated as she looked at the man in a child's body. He was always more aware than most children of the world around him. He had even noticed Suicune and her brothers more than once.
Then Ash Ketchum's eyes turned to the treeline. And he saw them.
And his expression turned from confusion and slight awe to hate. Raw, undisguised hate. Suicune wondered what had happened before she noticed the gaze wasn't directed at all of them.
It was solely directed at Entei.
The Fire Beast blinked at the sheer animosity directed at him. Ash stared him down for a moment longer, then blinked and shook his head, moving out of sight to join his host.
'He… seemed like he knew you, Entei.' Raikou noted.
'Impossible. I've never been seen by the boy before, let alone done anything to deserve such a look of hate.'
'We shall find out sooner or later.' Suicune declared before thinking about how it was more like Entei's form inspired his loathing. There was only one Entei in the Johto/Kanto area… wasn't there?
Was there a Shadow Entei that stumbled into his life and did something without their knowing?
Ash tried to shake out the thoughts of Molly's Entei and what it did. Kidnapping his mother, attempting to kill him, Bayleef, Totodile and Quilava, shoving him to his certain death with Pikachu and nearly breaking Charizard's neck: of course he didn't like it. And while he tried not to blame Molly for it, he was only human.
And she DID bring that thing into existence in the first place with help from the Unown, so Ash did have a bit of a grudge. But no one noticed.
The young man sighed, rubbing his eyes and forehead, resting his tired eyes. Brock noticed this.
"Still thinking about Mt. Moon?"
Well, not at that moment, but all those deaths still weighed heavily, so he rolled with it. "Yeah… You know, when I left Pallet, I didn't expect to run into a murderous psychopath and a Rocket army."
"60 years of struggle and pain. But the world's getting better. Professor Oak says by the time I have grandchildren, new trainers won't need guns to save them from Shadow Pokemon." Brock said, sighing. "I only wish it was sooner. A century of paranoia, not knowing who or what you could trust...It's disgusting that we live in such times."
'It's disgusting that it happened because of me.' Ash thought, blaming himself for the timeline and the state of the world in general. If it weren't for Celebi sending him back, time wouldn't be a mess. 'Forgetting someone?' a part of his mind whispered. 'You wouldn't be in this position if it wasn't for Cyrus~'
Ash growled for a moment, before blinking and giving his forehead a small smack. Where did that come from? Nevermind.
"Wait, did you say psychopath? Did you-you went through the Viridian Forest?!" Brock said after fully processing what Ash said.
"Yeah. To be honest, I didn't know about the Samurai." the young trainer answered, half-lying. He did expect to see the Samurai at some point, just not...insane and murderous.
"...You are INSANE. Either that, or living under a rock." Brock stated ironically. "That crazy son of a bitch has been there for almost 10 years. We had to make a new route just because of him chopping people up!"
Ash winced. "Well, he got unlucky with the Beedrills this time. They… well." Ash didn't finish. Beedrills were known for short tempers and their massive stingers.
Mostly the stingers.
"Say no more." Brock said, knowing just what most likely happened to the sword-using nut. "You took his swords, though."
"Misty got caught in a rope trap and I used them to cut her free." Ash explained. "After the Beedrills showed up, I just forgot to drop them."
"Well, at least I can show these to the League and reopen the path through the Forest. Mind if I borrow those?" Brock asked.
"Keep them. I don't know how to use them anyway and I'm carrying enough as it is." Ash said, wanting nothing to do with them.
"They belong to you now, Ash. They might make you less of a target for anyone stupid enough to attack you if they know you killed the Samurai." Brock said, Ash ready to object. "I know you said the Beedrills killed him. I believe you. But if you have a reputation for taking down a serial killer who plagued Viridian Forest for years before you even fought your first gym battle, they'll think twice before attacking you."
Sadly, it made sense. Ash didn't like it, but it made sense.
"I'll borrow them, show them to the local scouts and give them back." Brock said as he gathered the two blades. "Besides, you might need them if you want to make any headway in Rota."
Ash furrowed his eyebrows. He didn't remember any swords in Rota. "What, is someone going to challenge me to a sword fight?"
"No, but the fact that you've got his swords will tell them that you've beaten him. Even in Rota, that's bound to impress them."
Ash sighed. He really didn't want to go to Rota, see as he had actually died last time he went there, if it wasn't for that damn Mew.
He had no problems with the species in general. Hell, they were possibly the mother of all Pokemon that weren't the Creation Trio or Arceus, so without Mew, Pikachu and the others wouldn't exist. But that little bitch of a Mew kidnapped Pikachu for no good reason beyond a playmate, which Pikachu didn't want.
That led to all four of them DYING, plus the TRio, before Mew brought them back. All for nothing, though, as Lucario gave his life to restore life to the Tree of Beginning.
That entire debacle was Mew's fault. The only bright spot in it was that he was reunited with Sir Aaron, which wasn't much of one.
With Mt. Moon's tunnel network collapsed, there really was no way to get to the other side and to Cerulean. Still, if that Mew popped up, he was going to shoot first and ask questions later.
"Well," Brock began, standing up. "It's getting late. You two are welcome to stay here for the night. Getting to Cerulean via Rota will take a while."
Misty stiffened at Cerulean. Brock, knowing the story behind that, gave her a clap on the shoulder and a comforting smile.
Ash sighed. "I'll see how my Pokemon are doing. Then..." he trailed off. "I just hope you have separate rooms for me and Misty..."
Brock struggled to keep a straight face.
Entry 6: Brock Slate
Gym leader of Pewter City and one of the top eight Gym Leaders in Kanto, Brock is a hardy young man and one of the youngest Gym Leaders in recent history. Despite the disappearance of his parents shortly after his 14th birthday, Brock became noteworthy for training under Bruno of the Kanto/Johto Elite Four and winning the AS54 Indigo Conference shortly afterward. After reopening the Pewter Gym, he slowly rose into the top 8.
Ash Ketchum recently won his first badge from Brock, which is no easy feat, as while Brock is only in the top eight, it does mean Ketchum is more then a match for the four-badge teams of the bottom ten. By now, it should be clear that engaging the boy is suicide.
Entry 7: The Legendary Beasts
The Volcano Beast. The Thunder Bringer. The Master of the North Wind. These fanciful titles for the Legendary Pokemon known as Entei, Raikou and Suicune are not entirely exaggerated. Entei is known to increase the ambient temperature of a given area just being there and Raikou is known to cause thunderstorms wherever it goes. Suicune is often seen purifying corrupted bodies of water, even known to remove the most base corruptions from it, even chlorine from swimming pools.
However, not even the Legendary Beasts are immune to Shadow corruption, as 90 years ago, Cipher's first attempt to take over and break free of the Orre region included the capture of their local Legendary Beasts and the Ho-oh of Orre. while the former were captured by a local mercenary named Wes and purified, the latter disappeared into the ether.
Long term surveillance of Pallet Town has revealed the shocking presence of long-term visitations by the local Legendary Beasts, Suicune in particular having the longest of any visitation. While it is unclear if this has anything to do with rising trainer Ash Ketchum, it is not unlikely that the local Ho-oh has some plan for the child
Team Rocket cannot afford to anger the League AND the legendaries. Avoid engaging them and Ketchum. (PS: This means you, Vicious.)
Takeshi Yamato: Another chapter down. And Ash is going to need to make a detour.
Ron the True Fan: In all honesty, this entire FIC is a detour. Seriously, when we started this, Ash just evolved Torracat. By now, he should have gotten somewhere closer to Sword and Shield.
Takeshi Yamato: Yes. Well, that's the thing with setting up backlogs. By the time we're done with this, readers, you should be able to get a chapter a week, barring any major snafus.
Ron the True Fan: Depending on RL delays. In the meantime...enjoy an omake.
(Omake: Never Leaving Well Enough Alone)
Ash's day had been horrible. Guilt over the Clefairy colony and adopting that Cleffa because her parents were gone wasn't helping.
Maybe it would be better if he just faded away.
"Excuse me?" a man asked as he came to a stop in front of Ash. He wore a very weird outfit, which was a lot even by Ash's low standards of normality. In fact, the outfit was the oddest thing about him. He looked very nondescript. "I'm looking for an Ash Ketchum. ...Such a weird name."
"I'm Ash." he replied. The man sighed. "Thank god. I've been looking for you for weeks." he said. "My name is Daniels. I'm here to fix a problem."
"A...problem." Ash repeated. "Yes. I'm what's called a 'temporal agent'. My job is to preserve history and...well, your timeline isn't supposed to exist." Daniels said, showing some piece of technology that showed a massive tangled mess Ash assumed was the flow of time. "Now, normally, my superiors would just want the timeline in question purged, simply because it's easier that way, but my co-workers discovered you were here."
Ash decided to humor 'Daniels'. "And why?" he asked, not particularly caring.
"Well, I figured I would recruit you as a temporal agent, seeing as this timeline's about to be erased. I can't bring anyone else, but you would make a valued member of the-"
All of a sudden, a giant bolt of electricity slammed into 'Daniels'.
"PIKA!" 'LIKE HELL YOU WILL!' screamed Pikachu as Daniels was electrocuted.
And that was just the first wave of pain. And let it be known the Authors enjoyed every second of it. (WHACK!)
"Free!" 'You are NOT taking him away from Misty!' Butterfree cried as he was released form his ball by Pikachu, then he fired off a cloud of spores, coating the man in them before kicking the man in the face.
"Pidg!" 'DIE!" Pidgeotto screeched as she blew a Gust into Daniels, sending him flying into a building.
Daniels landed on his face...then looked up to see a cute rag-covered being. "Mi. Mi. KYU!" 'NEW FRIEND!' cried Mimikyu.
"What in the hell happened to you?" asked David Richardson, one of the TIC's more...competent agents.
He and his team were called 'Daniels' Clean-Up Crew' because while Daniels got jobs done, they were sloppy and left loose ends.
No one liked loose ends.
"I don't remember. But it HURT..." Daniels said as he fell onto the floor, groaning in agony.