RMS Olympic - 1352 hours local time - Day 21 of Ash Ketchum's Pokemon Journey
Three weeks isn't a long time. Ash spent nearly 7 years on the move. But for Ash, looking back, it was like he wanted to just stop.
Hiding his secret from Misty wasn't easy, but now that she knew… well, she was still asleep.
And he had been kicked out of the infirmary more than once for visiting her. He was worried, but the doctors booted him out for one reason: she would wake up when she woke up.
Ash was forced to wander the ship and was drawn into more than one battle.
While he was out… Misty woke up.
'He tricked me.' was her first thought. True, Ash had been evasive, and had not talked about much.
"He might not have said anything, but he didn't manipulate you into anything you didn't want to do." came… her own voice?
Misty sat up to see… herself, leaning against a wall, wearing a yellow jacket with her usual outfit on. "Who…" she started before the 'other' Misty raised her hand.
"I'm not really here. I'm in your head." she 'said'. "Ash has met a LOT of people that left a psychic imprint on him. Side-effect of Mewtwo's…" she paused. "Right, you haven't been there yet."
"Mew-who?" Misty asked before groaning and laying back on the bed.
"Long story: Ash has the details. Take my advice and rest." the mental projection said. "As for Ash… well, the only worry about his intentions is that they're too honorable for your liking. He wants to be your friend. That's it." With that, she huffed. "Damned Latios. You had to make him make that oath."
Misty looked at the remnant of her other self from the last timeline. "You…"
"I loved him. Just as you're going to," the mental projection admitted. "He's just too nice for his own good. And if I didn't know better, dense as Brock's Geodude. Being in his head helped." She shrugged. "I'll tell you what we were up to. Got nothing better to do."
RMS Germanic - near the Oblivia Region - 0754 Hours Local time
Obvilia was one of the three Ranger Union regions. Trainers were never from here: always passing through. Here, people used capture stylers to bond with wild Pokemon.
Shadow Pokemon took poorly to that and the Rangers were put to the sword, as it were, by the corrupted creatures.
This was lost on Goomy and Sylveon as the former fired dragon attacks at her, doing nothing, but that was kinda the point. Goomy could wale on her without risk of injury and invent new ways of using the attacks he had access to.
"Let." 'You take this too seriously.' Grace's robin said as she nested on a towel.
"Sylveon!" 'Let Goomy train! He wants to be a Goodra!' the Eeveelution said as Goomy fired off a burst of dragon embers, looking pleased with himself.
"Goo." 'Weakness breeds creativity.' he said. Ash certainly knew that: he encouraged it in his matches, which kept him in top form.
Some would consider this idiotic. But flexibility was key: relying solely on power made you slow and predictable.
"Attention all hands: this is your captain." came a call over the room's intercom. "We will be docking at Dolce Island within the hour. Relief personnel, you are requested to be ready to depart. All other passengers, for your own safety, do NOT leave the ship: there is a level 4 infestation on Dolce Island."
"FLETCH!" 'HIDE YOUR WIVES AND DAUGHTERS!' Grace's robin screeched as it ducked under a bed. Whatever this 'level 4' was, it was bad.
"Froak." 'I will investigate. I shouldn't be too long.' Froakie said, everyone looking at him...only for him not to be there.
"Goomy." 'Goddamn ninja.' the snail said. "Omy." 'No one leaves this ship until we get to Kanto. That or Ash randomly appears out of nowhere.'
"Pan." 'Well, it won't take too long to fix any of the damage the ship took during the trip.' Pancham said as he chewed on his stick. "Cham." 'Then we can finally meet Serena's mate!'
"Goomy." 'I prefer Ash's mates, personally.' Goomy said knowingly.
Out of all the Pokemon from Kalos, Goomy was not the one to strongly support Serena. Instead, he supported having Misty, Serena and all of Ash's other female 'friends' being part of his family.
Goomys were polygamious. And anyone that had a Goomy line Pokemon was bound to endure their 'tastes'. It was why anyone that had a Goomy had to either train it out of them or put up with it.
Or they were Ash and focused more on learning the region's quirks.
Smoke dominated the skylines of the region. Shadow Salamances were sadly common, burning everything in sight.
And thanks to the cultural bias against the Pokeball, which was literally the only way to deal with a Shadow Pokemon, the region was basically set to burn.
Two larger ships were also docked, offloading cargo and what looked like weapons. This was going to end badly.
Froakie noticed they all had the same flag flying from their masts. The same as the flag from the Germanic's.
Someone was trying to clean up the mess. Valiant. But foolish. The violence of man would only make the Shadow worse.
Froakie didn't need all of his memories to come to that conclusion. These things seemed to thrive off death and violence.
"Go back, little one."
Froakie jumped at the gentle voice of a young woman, who stood behind him, with pale skin, a white sundress and sunhat covering white hair and green eyes. "Go back to your friends. It's not safe here." she said, sounding rather drained and sad.
But drained as she sounded, her voice was not a plea. It was a command. Almost as though it came from Ash himself. Roars from outside of the city forced him to head back regardless.
He couldn't get back if his ship sank.
Kanto Region - near coastline between Prima Vista and Vermillion City - 1417 hours Local Time
Team Rocket was formed over 50 years ago. Madam Boss, as she was referred to, took a bunch of thugs and reforged them into an organization whose end goal was the conquest of Kanto. Her children, Giovanni and Delia, were the heirs to this, but Delia was not only not interested in the family business, she was actively opposed to the conquest of the region.
But while the URN was long dead, Lance and Cynthia were working on bringing it back. The only way to secure Kanto was to isolate it from the other three regions. By the time they could get someone to the closest area, Johto, they could have total control of the region and have solidified their hold to repel an attack of that scale.
But they had to isolate the Ranger regions (easy, as they couldn't even help themselves) as well as Unova, Kalos and Galar. Even now, while they were still recovering from the Cipher War, they could still take down a Rocket-controlled Kanto. The Team wasn't strong enough to repulse them.
But the first step to that was making sure no one got to Kanto they didn't want to. That and crippling the only competitor in the shipping business, Pernon, would give the Team room to expand. And eventually, the ability to take over the rest of Nihon.
At least, that was the plan. Archer's plan. Giovanni was content with control of business in Kanto, terrified that his sister would get involved and destroy them. Pfft. Delia hadn't seen battle in 20 years. What threat was she?
"Sir, the guns are ready." a grunt reported as he stood before Archer looked at the tugboats they had turned into gunboats with recoilless guns and anti-tank missiles mounted to them. It wasn't GREAT, but as all the proper surplus not in use by the Kanto League Navy were in Hoenn, it would have to do.
"Ready the grunts." Archer ordered. "We're putting Pernon's pride on the bottom.'' With that, he stared at the flagship of the Pernon Line in the distance: the RMS Olympic.
It could take them time to get in range, but when there was a nice big hole in the ship...Well, Archer took too much pleasure in killing up-close.
RMS Olympic - same time
"Misty hates me." Ash said as he stared out to sea. Once more, he had been kicked out of the infirmary and told to explore the ship and have Pokemon battles. Charmeleon agreed.
Ash wasn't in the heart for it. He just let them do as they wished for training. The trainers seemed to understand, though how Ash's were able to fight like veterans of the Leagues confused them.
"Pikapi." 'It sounds like you actually want it, Ash.' Pikachu said as he sat beside his trainer. "Pi." 'And I wonder why.' Pikachu constantly teased Ash behind his back for his vow of celibacy, but he worried for his trainer.
After all, the guy was putting himself through enough stress BEFORE the time reset. A girlfriend would help with reducing his stress to something manageable, someone to confide in and...destress with.
Ash, of course, was refusing to do all the healthy things. Pikachu blamed Brock. He set all the wrong examples. He was too aggressive, too flirty and too stupid to get a hint to stop. Misty, Max and Croagunk stopped him from being too much of an idiot. While Ash was not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to romantic hints, he wasn't so stupid that it took a kiss to do it either.
It usually took him about three to four months to pick up the cues. Serena was instantaneous: he knew her, but pretended to forget about her. BIG mistake, as the kiss showed.
"Well… she'd be safer if she went home." Ash said. "Have you seen what we run into every week?"
"Pika!" 'Apply that logic to us!' Pikachu cried. "Chu-pi!" 'You're going to be dragging US into fighting Mewtwo, that iron-masked bastard, Altomere and everything else!'
"If not us, then who?" Ash retorted. "Who's going to keep the world from getting worse?"
It sounded so pretentious, so arrogant. But the sad part was… he wasn't being arrogant or prideful. Who WAS going to do it? Who would save the world from Lawrance III's greed and ignorance? Who would stop the Marauder from doing damage to the past and future? Who would stop the thieves from killing Latios?
Who would stop Cyrus' madness again?
"Pika…" 'Point taken. But why not have Misty and the others help?' the yellow starter asked.
"I've put enough people in danger over the last 6 years. She's better off finding someone to love." Ash said. "Someone better than me."
Pikachu scowled and smacked Ash with his tail, hardened by iron for good measure. His trainer was too noble and too stupid sometimes! "Pikapi!" 'She doesn't want someone better! She wants YOU. The idiot stupid enough to blunder into her life and take her on a whirlwind tour of the world.'
Ash bowed his head. "Maybe she does. But I don't deserve her." he finally admitted.
Before Pikachu could try and smack sense into him, a hatch in the teak decking opened with a large gun mount coming out about five feet from them, it's barrel spinning and whirling like…
"COVER YOUR EARS!" Ash said before doing so, Pikachu following just as the whirring gun fired, a long and loud burst of fire echoing across the deck. The trainer glanced out to sea, finding a trail of light arcing towards something coming at the ship. An explosion thundered in the distance as the object was hit.
That was a rocket. Someone was attacking the ship.
"For one FUCKING day…" Ash spat, FINALLY having enough to use a far heavier curse (his Pokemon swore like sailors; it was a wonder he didn't) "Can I have some FUCKING PEACE FOR ONE FUCKING DAY?!"
Clearly, whoever was shooting at the ship disagreed, firing more missiles at the ship.
"Pika." 'Well, no rest for the wicked.' Pikachu said, waiting for the inevitable boarding action as the deck guns spun up again.
Ash sighed. The universe saw fit to have him solve every problem, didn't it?
RMS Olympic - C-Deck
While the TRio sucked at many things most of the time, disguises were not their worse talent. In fact, if Ash hadn't had the near decade of experience in seeing through their many outfits, he wouldn't be able to recognize them on sight.
But they were VERY good at what they did, so they evaded detection with ease, disguised as stewards and Meowth as a Rattata hunter.
There WAS a reason Alola hunted the little bastards down, now, only letting a controlled population exist due to their uniqueness.
Back on topic, the Trio heard the hard anti-missile countermeasures going off and wondered what was going on. They told the Boss about the twirp's victory over Surge and his subsequent cruise ticket gift, so he cancelled the attack. For some reason.
They didn't ask. As stupid as they could be (and they could be VERY stupid) once the Boss gave an order, it was to be OBEYED.
"Got eyes on two tugboats." Meowth said quietly as he looked out a porthole, his Unovan accent barely audible as he looked at the two boats in question, which moved a bit too fast for your normal towing vessel. That meant modifications. "Q-boats."
"Armed boats? Well, that screams Team Rocket." Jessie said hauntily, proud of the organization she was a part of and how it would eventually conquer Kanto. "But I thought the Boss cancelled the attack. Because of the brat and all?"
"Rogues! Oooh, I hate it when that happens!" James said, the bluenette remembering the last time someone betrayed Team Rocket to try and take control.
It ended poorly, as Giovanni still controlled the mob.
"I see blue. It's Admin Archer. He's on one of the boats." Meowth reported as he dropped to the deck, James pondering.
"What do we do? Archer's our superior!" he bemoaned as another explosion rocked the ship/
"But we answer to THE Boss now! And he ordered us to keep tabs on the kid!" Jessie snapped. "We're not getting involved."
"You's got a point, Jessie: don't want to piss off the Boss." Meowth said, agreeing. Pissing off Giovanni was a bad idea. The pain never ends.
All three nodded, deciding to leave Archer to twist in the wind. They did not want to test the man in charge of the Team. Testing Giovanni was a good way to get yourself killed.
RMS Olympic Infirmary
"Give Ash credit. At least his life is never going to be boring," Astral Misty (for lack of a better term) said as the sound of muted gunfire entered the little medical area. "A lot different from my timeline, that's for sure."
Misty groaned as she got out of bed, using a wall to steady herself. Ash might have tricked her, but he wasn't some evil mastermind. Just a confused and hurt young man.
"And where are you going?" her imprinted self asked from her position leaning near the door.
"Out. Ash needs my help." she said. "And if he's half as selfless as you say he is, he's going to get himself hurt saving this ship."
"Oh, he's far from completely selfless. Him pushing you away was him trying not to be like his father." the projection said. "But… when it comes to helping others, he'll do what he can to save the day."
Mt. Moon, the attack by Team Plasma… Saving her from the Spearows and that crazy swordsman… yes, he did tend to do that.
"Go. He needs you," the fragment said before disappearing, Misty looking around for her bag. She had a war to fight.
Team Rocket gunboat - same time
Optically guided missiles were impossible to jam when using trailing wires. The only way to get rid of them was to actively destroy them.
The Olympic's anti-piracy countermeasures included 18 radar-guided revolver cannons, which was making Archer's life suck at the moment because they were doing just that: blowing up his missiles.
It was infuriating! They had deck guns, but few shells and his people weren't sure if they wouldn't just blow off their makeshift mounts.
"Damned army-surplus bullshit." Archer said as he snarled, motioning to the deck crew. "To hell with this. Load the gun!"
"Sir, we might sink the ship firing this thing!" one of his peons said. Archer just shot him in the head for speaking up instead of obeying.
"LOAD THE GUN!" he barked, knowing the active defenses wouldn't stop a 105mm shell. And the hull was not durable enough to handle heavy cannon shells. It wasn't a warship.
Terrified into obeying, they began loading the gun.
Ash did not like this timeline.
He started to dislike it the moment he had to deal with guns being a thing, then everything started piling up on him, from Misty's condition, to Shadow Pokemon, to his ancestry to Mt Moon. In the end, he decided he HATED this timeline.
"Couldn't stop the timeline from changing, could you? Oh NO, everything had to go straight to hell!" Ash spat as he crouched and got past the midship defense guns, the loud gunfire being somewhat cancelled out between the two turrets. "I just want to go home."
Pikachu glared at his trainer. "Pikapi?!" 'Is there a reason you're complaining, Ash?' he asked.
"Yes! I want to go back to our timeline, back home!" his trainer retorted. "Back to Alola, even if it was boring as hell, in a timeline we know!"
Ash wanted familiarity. Pikachu couldn't blame him. This timeline DID suck.
"Pika." 'Well, we got to live with it. Maybe we can get it changing for the better.' Pikachu suggested to lift his trainer's spirits. Ash snorted out a laugh.
"Maybe," he said. "But we gotta survive-"
He never finished that sentence as the ship lurched, hit by something. "Pi!" 'The hell was that?!'
"Something those guns couldn't stop." Ash said as the ship lurched again, hit by another… whatever it was from the other side. "Oh, that's GREAT."
Proton was not an idiot. He read between the lines: an operation cancelled on either sinking or seizing the Olympic? Ash fucking Ketchum, son of that bitch Delia (and he was STILL smarting at that kick between the legs and it had been 20 Arceusdamned years!) was on that ship. So when Archer decided to go through with the op, he went along to help.
Or rather 'kill Delia's spawn because he knew better then to go after the bitch herself'. While Archer thought Delia was out of the game, she was NOT. Her Pokemon were still well-trained and fit for combat and she… well, no one wanted to remember THAT incident from 8 years ago.
"Put that out of your head, Proton," the admin said to himself. "Just keep shooting."
They had already punched through two compartments. Four more and the ship would be doomed. 'Ah, five.' Proton thought, reminded that this was not the Olympic's ill-fated sister. 'They made it harder to sink.'
And while she was sinking, they would loot the saferooms and passengers. Proton, of course, was more interested in killing the boy.
The gun fired again, but the mount snapped, the rusting metal not able to handle the recoil, the cannon falling to the deck, making the converted tugboat begin to tip over.
"Get to the boats! We're boarding that ship!" Proton ordered as the grunts ran for the assault rafts, fearing for their lives.
Ketchum would die and his parents' legacy would die with him.
RMS Olympic - Bridge - 1421 hours Local Time
Captain Hiroshi Sakurai was an old hand in the Pernon Line, used to fending off would-be pirate lords on the seas.
Team Rocket was new to him. Well, new in the sense that they were after Pernon's big ships.
"Report!" he demanded as the ship started to go down by the bow, holed in six places by anti-tank guns.
"Flooding is pretty bad, Captain," his XO said as he ran back into the wheelhouse. "We've got water up to E-Deck. We're evacuating everyone to the safe areas, but bulletproof armor won't do them any good if we sink!"
"I know, damn it," Hiroshi said before the radio operator came in, practically screaming bloody murder.
"Sir! Sir!" she sputtered as she came in, smacking into the telegraph base, hurting herself. The captain got her to her feet as she held her side.
"What is it?" he asked sternly. He wasn't in the mood for surprises.
"Call… radio…" she muttered before he put her on the decking, going to the radio room, mindless of the increasing angle of the deck. While the old Morse Code transmitter was long gone, the Marconi Room was still home to the ship's telecommunications, including a refurbished army-surplus radio.
Working for the top tech man in the world had its pluses.
"Hello? Hey, lady! Where are you?!" came a voice from the radio speakers, making Hiroshi scowl. He knew that voice.
Archie Aogiri. It was bad enough the bastard was the leader of Team Aqua, Hoenn's aquatic ecoterrorists. What made it worse was that he was from Orre. No one trusted anyone from there. Even people with their blood were scorned.
But more importantly, the bastard wanted the Olympic as his aquatic base.
…Well, that was one way to get help, as Hiroshi picked up the mic. "This is Captain Hiroshi Sakurai. What do you want, Archie?"
"Ah, the man in charge! Good!" came the voice of the Aqua Boss. "You seem to have a Rocket problem, Captain!"
"What are you doing here, Aogiri? You're a long way from Hoenn." Sakurai demanded.
"You know I want that ship. Perfect place to live out Lord Kyogre's enlarging of the seas. And I can't have it if it sinks," Archie replied. "Refloating it isn't as easy as teleporting it out of a desert."
"You want the ship? You'll have to take it from Team Rocket first," the captain replied.
"That's the idea, Captain…"
Team Aqua submarine U-2003 - same time
"That's the idea," Archie finished as he looked at his crew, eager to claim what was theirs as the sub surfaced, speeding towards the ocean liner.
"We're taking that ship! For Lord Kyogre!" he cried.
"FOR LORD KYOGRE!" came the reply.