A/n: I'm just going to have a spot of fun on the premises of 'what if Ash didn't get reset' for Unova. I honestly don't mind Best Wishes, but I've also been wanting to read an Unova AU for a while. There's Kanto ones, Hoenn ones, and even Sinnoh ones although Sinnoh is pretty hard to improve from, but sadly no Unova. So bear with me while I make a little AU just for the heck of it :)

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"Alright!" Ash exclaimed as he jumped down onto blessed, solid ground again. Their plane, which had been carry himself and Pikachu, as well as his mum, Professor Oak, and about thirty other people, had finally landed. Spinning, Ash did a mini victory dance, throwing his fists into the air, "We've finally arrived!"

They were in Unova. Real, Unovan land. How awesome was that?

He was brimming with excitement. He'd thought, after Sinnoh, that there were no regions left, and Ash had been planning on challenging Kanto again when Professor Oak came with news about the new region that had opened.

He'd mentioned something about Unova having had a non-interference policy for the past few decades, and how they'd never allowed foreigners in but the board had recently rescinded the law and blah blah blah. Ash hadn't really been paying attention.

All he cared about was that there was a whole new area to explore, and dozens of new pokemon to see. Professor Oak had explained enough about that. Apparently because Unova was so closed off and so far away, all the pokemon had evolved differently, so Ash was sure to see creatures he could have never even have dreamed of.

"Gaah, I'm so excited!" Ash bumbled out, ducking his head to suppress his toothy smile as he clenched a fist to his heart. He couldn't wait to get started.

"Pika pi!" Pikachu agreed as he also jumped down from the plane, landing beside Ash. His voice was equally as enthused.

Ash turned and grinned at his partner. It figured that it would be his oldest companion that always understood him. The grin slipped off his face however, when Pikachu's expression suddenly turned into one of wariness, and the small mouse pokemon turned towards the end of the docks.

"Pikachu?" Ash questioned, his tone suddenly turning more serious. His enthusiasm didn't exactly die down, but he did manage to suppress it for the moment. He recognized the semi-confused, semi-worried expression on his partner, and it never bode well. "What's the matter?"

Pikachu didn't respond. Instead he bounded towards the head of the peer, stopping only at the very edge. And then, he raised his gaze to the heavens.

Ash quickly went after Pikachu, noting vaguely out of the corner of his eye the other passengers of the plane making their way to the terminal. His mother and Professor Oak were among them.

He stopped by the mouse pokemon's side and followed his partner's gaze. His eyebrows raised in surprise. Quickly approaching the docked planes was a dark, swirling cloud, with a center that was glowing faintly blue.

The dark haired boy blinked, wondering if he'd seen the cloud coming in, but all his memories pointed to a clear sky as they docked. The cloud had literally appeared out of nowhere.

"Chaa," Pikachu growled low in his throat, sparks of yellow electricity cracking from his cheek pouches.

Ash knew that it couldn't be a good thing. Most unnatural phenomenon which upset pokemon rarely were.

But he didn't back away. The cloud didn't feel… dangerous.

No, that wasn't quite right. The cloud did feel dangerous, but just not like it was going to put them in danger. Ash wasn't sure how to explain it, just as he wasn't sure how he knew he'd seen Ho-oh when the clouds cleared the first day he became a trainer or how he was able to locate Rilou during the race against Hunter J. It was his instincts that saved him more than a few times during his pokemon battles, and it was his instincts which helped him survive encounters with the various crime syndicates throughout the regions, and his instincts at the moment weren't telling him to hide.

Instead, he took a step forward, almost entranced by the massive black cold, "What is that…?"

And before anyone could really answer, Team Rocket struck.

They'd changed their motto, again, and it was with some annoyance that Ash ripped his attention away from the awe inspiring cloud to deal with them. They'd captured Pikachu in some kind of electricity nulling device, and of course, Ash didn't have any other pokemon to deal with them because he'd left them all back in Kanto!

"Don't I ever get one day free from you guys?" Ash asked with some aggravation. He knew he was kind of being unfair, because Team Rocket wasn't even that bad when push came to shove, but seriously! This was his first day in Unova. His! Why did Team Rocket always have to try and ruin everything?

James opened his mouth to reply, but before they could, the air above them cackled ominously. Instantly five pairs of eyes were drawn upwards. Sometime during the course of their engagement the cloud had floated directly above them.

There was a strange sort of sound, and then, out of nowhere, the center erupted.

A waterfall of blue light burst from the center, plunging directly on top of them. The small metal cage holding Pikachu exploded, making Ash cry out as both he and Pikachu were sent to the ground with the force.

He felt himself black out for a moment before waking up to blue, lots of blue. Wincing, Ash quickly checked himself to make sure nothing was broken before stumbling to his feet. They were in an odd blue ring of some sort, with the light splashed onto everyone's faces like those high rise aquariums. Team Rocket was also on the ground, but what caught Ash's attention wasn't them.

"Pikachu!" Ash shouted worriedly. His partner was radiating or drawing in the odd blue light, but either option didn't look good.

And then, suddenly, Pikachu let out a cry and forced up a thunderbolt into the clouds. The clouds near the center dispersed, revealing a hidden black figure in the center.

Ash's eyes widened as an odd sensation shuddered through his body. He felt his breath catch as the feelings that had hit him when he'd first seen the cloud were multiplied by a hundred. Awe, wariness, warmth, trepidation, sorrow, terror, sanctuary.

Before he could fully process the impressions however, the creature in the clouds must have felt that it had had enough. With a flap of its powerful wings, the dragon like figure shot itself towards the heavens. A great torrent of wind came barrelling down as a result, dispersing the clouds and unfortunately, doing much more than that.

Ash and Pikachu both cried out as they were knocked to the ground once again, the wind sending them skidding. Ash groaned as the sky cleared and pushed himself to a seating position.

Brown eyes widened when he saw Pikachu laying motionlessly a few feet from his side, and within a second Ash was beside his partner, on his knees and already scooping up the electric mouse pokemon in a delicate hug.

"Pikachu," Ash said worriedly, subtly scanning the pokemon for any injuries. There didn't seem to be any, but one couldn't tell from just eyeballing alone. "Pikachu, are you alright?"

He felt guilty about the whole thing. He didn't know why he hadn't just run away when he'd first seen the cloud. Any normal person would have done that, right? And now, Pikachu was hurt.

As if reading his mind, Pikachu's eyes fluttered open, and the small electric pokemon smiled up at him as if to tell him everything was alright.

"Pi pika chu," he piped weakly, before putting his puny arms up for a hug. Smiling, Ash did so, and his oldest pokemon nuzzled him back eagerly.

Their little moment however, was broken by more serious matters.

"Ash!"

"Ash!"

Ash looked up from his pokemon, just in time to see his mother and Professor Oak skid to a halt in front of him. He realized that they must have come back from the terminal to check up on him.

"Are you alright?" His mother asked, worry lining every inch of her voice.

Ash felt a stab of guilt pierce his heart. He'd done it again—he'd put himself in danger directly in front of her sight.

Normally he could kind of get away with it because she didn't know and would never know, but this was just plain stupid. Although Ash didn't exactly see the danger in his habit of acting first and thinking of the consequences later, at the moment, looking into his mother's distraught face, he almost wanted to be able to change it.

He smiled back at her weakly, "Yeah, I'm alright."

"And you're sure that nothing happened to you?" Professor Oak questioned, sounding equally as worried. Thankfully he didn't quite pull at Ash's heartstrings the way that his mother did.

Ash was able to give a more realistic smile this time. He raised his arms as if to show himself off, doing a little spin with his body, "Yes see? Still the same amazing self as always."

Professor Oak laughed, "Gary's rubbing off on you."

Ash made a face in reply.

They talked a bit more, about the cloud, about what he had seen. Ash could tell that the worry still hadn't completely disappeared from his mother, but she was getting lighter with every sentence and he could live with that.

Soon another woman came to join them on the pier. Professor Oak introduced her as one of Unova's own pokemon researchers, Professor Juniper. She was apparently their transport for the day.

When introductions were done and luggage was unloaded from the plane, they were off to a place called Nuvema Town. Professor Juniper drove them all in her jeep, which was pretty wicked awesome cool. Ash made a note to get a jeep in the future.

On the way to Nuvema Town, Ash couldn't help but marvel at all the pokemon they passed. Even though a lot of them were very similar to the types he'd seen in the other regions, they weren't the exact same. That entertained him for a good chunk of time.

That was, until Pikachu's electricity started acting up again. Ash's attention was drawn from wild pokemon watching to his own pokemon watching. He couldn't help but wonder if maybe that storm had affected Pikachu in a not-alright way after all.

Thankfully Professor Juniper offered a solution, "Let's do a checkup on him when we reach the labs, alright?"

Ash smiled gratefully at her, though she couldn't see it because he was sitting in the back and she was well, driving. If she saw his smile that would have meant that she looked back, and that was dangerous. "Thanks!"

Thankfully they made it back to the lab without anything happening to Pikachu, and all the preliminary test results seemed promising. They were interrupted by one of Professor Juniper's assistants who declared that a starting trainer had arrived, and Ash found himself caught in the excitement.

Now that he'd confirmed Pikachu was alright, there was nothing to keep him down anymore.

He left with Professor Juniper to greet the new trainer, giving a happy apology to Pikachu for leaving him to conduct more tests. Pikachu grumbled and glared, and Ash silently promised to buy his partner some of the best treats next time in town.

They exited into a large, spacious waiting room. A boy with sandy brown hair and orange clothing who looked about his age was taking pictures of just about everything, but no one else was within sight.

"Hi, Trip!" Juniper greeted, smiling happily as she walked in. By her side, her assistant wheeled a cart of three pokeballs into the room.

The boy instantly turned around, tucking away his camera as an answering smile erupted on his own face, "Hello, Professor Juniper. At last, the day when I too start the journey as a pokemon trainer as come."

"Woah, you're the starting trainer?" Ash exclaimed, realizing just then that this wasn't just a random guy waiting on Juniper. "Aren't you a little too old?"

Trip turned a glare on him, "And who are you?"

"This is Ash Ketchum, from Pallet, Kanto," Juniper introduced cordially, before turning with a twinkle in her eye towards Ash, "and the starting age for a pokemon journey in Unova is sixteen. I hear it's different in Kanto?"

"We start at ten," Ash confirmed. He didn't know what he'd do if he had to wait another six years to begin on his pokemon journey. He shot a grin at the other boy, "Nice to meet you, Trip."

And then the professor brought out the pokemon.

Ash spent a good chunk of time fussing over each of them. He'd never seen any of them before, and they all looked great! Remembering his own woes over whether to pick charmander, squirtle, or bulbasaur, he tried to be as helpful as he could in advising Trip into which type of pokemon to choose.

"Woah, Tepig is so energetic. Aww, and look at how cute Oshawott is! Oh oh, but Snivy is so cool!"

Trip was a lot more decisive than Ash. Ash grinned as Trip almost immediately picked Snivy, realizing that it meant that the other boy had actually given his choice a lot of thought before even setting foot in the lab.

Juniper handed out the rest of the needed equipment to Trip, including five empty pokeballs and a pokedex to help him with his travels. When that was done, Juniper headed back towards her inner sanctuary, just as Pikachu rushed out.

"Pika pi!" The small mouse pokemon exclaimed as it ran out of the actual labs and onto Ash's shoulder.

Ash laughed as he reached up to scratch his greatest friend, "Pikachu! Are the examinations over?"

Trip's eyes widened, and he dug out the pokedex he'd just put away. "What's that pokemon?"

It rattled off some information that wasn't exactly inaccurate, though rather useless in Ash's opinion. And then Trip began taking pictures.

"What are you doing?" Ash asked in confusion as Trip walked around him, snapping pictures all the while.

"This is why hillbillies are troublesome," Trip sighed, shaking his head. "Listen! A Pikachu in the Unova region, that's an incident!"

Now it was Ash's turn to snort, although his was in good humor. It was kind of a silly assumption to make, considering that Pikachu had come straight for him, a trainer from Kanto. But, well, he'd made a lot of mistakes when he was younger, so it was only fair to cut everyone else a fair amount of slack.

"It's not an incident," he replied bemusedly, reaching up a hand and scratching the back of Pikachu's neck. The small mouse pokemon let out a 'chaa' of contentment, curling up against his shoulder. Ash laughed, "Pikachu is my number one partner."

Trip's eyes glittered with something that Ash knew only too well, "Is it strong?"

"Of course he is."

"Pika pika!"

Ash grinned at his pokemon, before turning back to Trip with a gleam in his eyes, "Want to try him out?"

Trip's eyes widened, and then he smiled, "Yes."

Now this, Ash could handle. Trip might not have had the sunniest personality in the world, but he was an enthusiastic trainer. He allowed Trip to show him to the battle grounds, not at all surprised to see that it was directly outside of Professor Juniper's lab. He still wasn't sure why every research facility had a pokemon battle arena in their backyard, but maybe it was to sate trainers like Trip and himself?

They took their sides, with Ash closest to Juniper's facility and Trip with his back to the forest.

Trip tossed his newly acquired pokeball, and a moment later a beam of red light erupted from the machine, unveiling a proud green creature with a lithe, curved body. "Go, Snivy!"

"Pikachu, you ready?" Ash asked, and with a nod, his partner hopped off his shoulder and onto the battlefield.

Pikachu crouched in an offensive stance, only to be taken off balance by the flash of a camera.

"Eh?" Ash exclaimed, giving an odd look at his companion who was snapping up photos like he'd never see tomorrow, "Why are you constantly taking pictures?"

"I'm documenting my journey. Especially since this is Snivy's first battle."

Really.

Ash blinked, and it was all he could do to suppress an excited grin. He was getting to like Trip. The other boy seemed to care a ton for his pokemon as well, if he was documenting them. His eyes glittering, Ash made his reply, "This is our first battle in the Unova region as well. I'll give you first call."

Trip smirked, "Don't underestimate me. Snivy, Vine Whip!"

Twin coils of steely shoots emerged from Snivy's neck area, thrashing towards Pikachu at lightning speed. Ash had seen that attack many times before though, and even though it was coming from an entirely new pokemon, he knew how to deal with it.

"Pikachu, Quick Attack!"

The yellow mouse pokemon sped towards the starter, easily avoiding the vines as he reached a speed where the vines could only hit the afterimages.

"Snivy, dodge!"

The grass type pokemon quickly let up on Vine Whip, just barely moving out of the way for Pikachu's Quick Attack. Snivy didn't manage to avoid it completely, but he'd also managed to not take the full damage. With no further orders from his trainer, Pikachu sprang back, awaiting Ash's next command.

This wasn't a League battle though, so Ash didn't feel the need to make every second count. There was plenty of time to have fun.

"Your Snivy is quite fast," Ash grinned.

"Your Pikachu isn't bad either," Trip grinned back, before slashing his arm outwards in command, "but I'll show you something you'll regret. Leaf Tornado!"

Ash's eyes widened as the winds picked up and a moment later, a torrent of leaves went barrelling toward Pikachu.

"Pikachu, dodge!" He screamed.

Thankfully the little guy was fast. He'd managed to go up against a Latios and draw, after all. Pikachu flung himself to the side, just barely avoiding the tunneling leaves.

Ash smiled grimly, "That was a cool move. I'll show you a cool move in return. Pikachu, Volt Tackle!"

Pikachu grinned, his cheeks sparking. Suddenly the little mouse pokemon took off, dashing towards Snivy in an all too familiar run. Any second now electricity would wrap around the smaller creature, creating a powerful force that was not to be taken lightly.

Except, the electricity never came.

"Pi pi pi… pi?" Pikachu trailed off in confusion as he slowed, his move never quite taking hold.

It was a mistake. Snivy, sensing the moment of distraction, slammed into Pikachu, tossing the other pokemon to the other side of the field. Pikachu hit the floor with a loud thud, sending up plumes of dust.

Ash's eyes widened, "What the…?"

Back when Pikachu had first been learning Volt Tackle, it'd been a common occurrence for the move to fail in the middle of a battle. But that had been over a year ago, when he'd still been travelling Kanto for the Frontier Brains challenge. Pikachu hadn't had a problem with the move since.

Trip also looked confused, but his was more of a contemptuous rage. "Are you even taking this seriously?"

"Pii," the mouse pokemon whimpered as he tried to get back on its feet. He looked winded from the direct hit. Despite the fact that Pikachu had participated in the most battles out of all of Ash's pokemon, his power of defense itself was still pretty low. They mostly replied on speed, which meant not getting hit, so that blow had to have hurt.

"Alright," Ash murmured to himself, feeling the first hint of worry. He couldn't imagine why Volt Tackle wouldn't work, but he also knew that it wasn't really a time to ponder it, "Let's try something a bit more familiar. Thunderbolt!"

Pikachu narrowed his eyes, gathering up his energy, "CHUU!"

…and again, nothing happened.

"Is this some kind of strategy?" Trip asked derisively, the sense of comradeship he'd experienced earlier from the battle quickly fading in the face of what was happening. "Commanding moves that it doesn't even know how to use?"

Ash gritted his teeth, "Pikachu, Iron Tail!"

His mood boiling to match his trainer's, Pikachu's tail glowed white with power, and without wasting another second, he pushed himself towards Snivy, tail out to strike. Snivy managed to dodge it, abet just barely, but the fact that the attack didn't hit didn't really matter.

Ash grinned, clenching his fists in victory, "Yes! As long as it's not an electric type move, I can contin—"

He stopped mid sentence as his mind flashed back to a similar scene, where he had pushed and pushed even when his pokemon could no longer be pushed. He was making the same mistake again, forgetting the state of his pokemon for the sake of his battle.

"Wait, stop! Stop stop STOP!"

The battle stopped. Both pokemon turned to look at Ash, Snivy looking aloof and Pikachu looking heartbroken.

"Pika pika!" Pikachu cried, shaking his head as it spread out its little arms.

"You want to continue?" Ash asked in confusion.

"Pika pi. Pii!"

Ash bit his lip worriedly, "Are you sure?"

Pikachu nodded decisively.

Ash sighed, looking back at his challenger, "It looks like Pikachu doesn't want to leave you with the wrong impression about Kanto pokemon. But I'm worried about him. I really did want our first battle to be a lot more fun."

Trip narrowed his eyes, "Are you using this as an excuse to stop a losing battle?"

Ash grinned, "Hardly, but I'm going in for the kill. Pikachu, Quick Attack!"

"If you could have, you already would have! Snivy, counter with Leaf Tornado."

Ash's lips curved at the response, "I've already seen that move Trip. It won't work a second time. Pikachu, use Iron Tail to execute a Body Slam. Counter the Leaf Storm with spinning!"

Trip blinked at the confused commands, "What are you…?"

But whatever Trip thought didn't matter. What mattered was that Pikachu understood.

Having long since gotten used to his trainer's strange commands, Pikachu knew exactly what Ash meant by his words and executed them perfectly. Using Iron Tail, Pikachu sprang up directly in the path of the coming Leaf Storm, spinning as he did so. Months of training for the very same move in Sinnoh allowed him to pass directly through the eye, the spinning helped along by Snivy's attack lending to his momentum.

Trip's eyes widened, "What the—"

But it was already too late. Pikachu had already body slammed into Snivy, and with the added momentum of three attacks, the grass pokemon didn't stand a chance. With a cry of pain the grass pokemon staggered backwards, his attack letting up with his loss in concentration.

"And now," Ash cried, timing it perfectly, "Flip and use Iron Tail!"

Sticking out one paw onto Snivy's body to use as a grounding point, Pikachu flipped his body over, his tail glowing white with power. Snivy didn't have a chance to recuperate before the mouse type pokemon slammed down hard steel onto his head, knocking him out instantly.

Pikachu made another flip and landed on two paws, giving a small bow, just as Snivy collapsed behind him.

Trip fell to his knees, eyes wide as he stared up at Ash, "What was… that combination?"

"My own, very cool moves," Ash replied with a wink just as Pikachu ran out of the battlefield and scampered up his arm. And then, he shook his head, "Sorry, I didn't mean to go too hard on you. Look, don't worry about it. It took me years to get here. You're doing way better than I did when I first started out."

"That's not—" Trip began, only to break off into a sigh, "Is Pikachu really in bad shape?"

"Yeah," Ash replied worriedly, scratching his pokemon's cheek.

"So it's not even at full power, and you still managed to defeat me," Trip said grimly.

"Look, look, like I said, you just don't have the experience yet," Ash quickly assured. "Heck, it took me forever. Anyway, I've got to run. You're going for the Unova League too, right? I hope we'll see each other on the way for Gym Badges!"

With one last wave at Trip, Ash raced back into the lab facilities. As much as he would have loved to give advice to a new trainer, Pikachu mattered more.

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Note about Trip: I'd almost apologize for making Ash own him so hard, but who can honestly say that they didn't want to see that? I hate just rewriting a bunch of scenes to make Ash seem super powerful, but I'm so mad about what Best Wishes did with Trip! Honestly, if they couldn't top Paul (which I admit, is probably impossible to do) then they could have gone with a no-rival thing. It worked fine for AG/Hoenn. Trip honestly had no business being a rival. Gary was Ash's childhood friend/enemy, and Paul was Ash's opposite in so many ways that Ash just had to prove himself. Why did Ash even want to beat Trip so badly? So yeah, kinda taking out my aggression about him here. The Junior Cup was especially frustrating. Trip showed some promise when he became obsessed with strength, but then he mellowed out at the end..?! But hey, I don't hate on Trip. I just don't like him as Ash's main rival.