For this story, J will be eight years older than Ash and trainers leave at age 13. That should be enough.
Also, character bashing galore. It's a dark fic, after all.
"Mistress, we are near the town."
"Excellent. Prepare plans for the extraction."
J stretched her arms above her head, gaining winces from those that heard the cracks that were emitted.
Perhaps she should relax in this quaint little town.
Pallet Town. Known residence of the world famous Professor Oak.
And her target.
In, retrospect, the woman felt that she was going soft. After all, robbing the old coot of baby pokemon?
She might as well retire in shame.
She was about to join her men in the raid when she saw a boy running away from his home, followed by several thrown bottles flying at him.
'Abuse,' she mused. 'Not a pretty thing, but what can be done?'
She narrowed her eyes.
'The real question is, why do all these people see this, and not do anything to help?'
[Boss, we are in position. Any further instructions?]
"Change of plans, boys. Try to make this a stealth raid. After the extraction, I'll be doing a solo recon on the area, so leave without me. I'll tell you when and where to rendezvous when the time comes."
[Roger that. See you later, boss.]
J donned her casual wear, which involved a black t-shirt, black slacks, a wrist watch that also doubled as her cannon in disguise (although it had a limited amount of uses and was far less efficient), and black boots. Noting the rather chilly weather, which was in tandem with their raid (as most non-ice pokemon tended to be more lethargic in the winter), she also donned a black trench coat for good measure.
Curiously following the boy, she was astonished to find that he was being beaten by his peers when he tried to seek refuge with them.
'Well, well, if it isn't Jane. You know what time it is ... time for your beating '
Her fists unconsciously clenched as the scene brought out memories of her abuse. Sympathizing with the boy, she decided to intervene.
As she walked up to the group, her fury slowly rose as she heard their words.
"... yeah, that's right, you little freak! Your mom's always causing so much damn noise, and we can't sleep. Not to mention, your so damn weird! How does it feel now? Think you're so special? You're useless! A waste of this world! Hell, I bet that no one would miss you if you suddenly disappeared," jeered one of the boys.
"Enough."
When the word was uttered, the group froze at the dark tone. As they slowly turned their heads at the speaker, their blood froze as they saw the death glare being emitted by J.
"Get out of here, brats," she snarled. "Or I swear to Arceus, I will sic my Salamence on you. And trust me, he hates everyone ... but me."
The group beat a hasty retreat before J looked at the boy. Numerous cuts ordained him, and the scars were not pretty.
She bent down to his level. "Hey, kid, you alright?"
The boy slowly raised his head. "Y-Yeah. Who ... are you?"
"Just call me Jane for now. You need any help?"
Ash shook his head. "N-No, I'll ... I'll be alright." With that, he did something that shocked J.
His eyes lighted a pale blue and he placed his hand on his wounds. Slowly, teh cuts resealed themselves, and he was left with only some faint scars.
"It's alright to be weirded out ... I'm a freak, aren't I?" the boy muttered sadly.
J blanched. Here before her was an Aura user, and at such a young age at that.
"Kid, do you know just what the hell you just used?"
"N-No. A few years ago, I suddenly found out that I could use this when I clutched my injuries one day."
"Oh for the love of ... kid, you can use friggin' Aura. Do you know how amazing that is?"
The boy looked at her in amazement. "What is that?"
"It's this really rare thing ... um ... basically, you can use this thing called Aura. I can't really explain it since I can't use it, but I'm more than willing to give you a few books on it."
She caught her statement. Charity? Had she suddenly gone soft?
"Thank you!" the boy beamed before giving her a large hug, which she uneasily returned.
"... By the way, kid, what's your name?"
"Hmm? Oh, my name is Ash Ketchum!"
"What's the deal with your mother, anyways?"
"She ... went crazy after daddy disappeared. I love mom, but ... she hurts me really bad. She constantly drinks beer and she throws the bottles at me. Even if I fix the injuries, it still makes me really tired ... and the pain is still there."
J frowned. Clearly, not only did Ash suffer from bullying, he also suffered abuse.
She thought about what to do before making up her mind.
"Ash, I'll be leaving soon. You want to be a pokemon trainer, though, correct?" Seeing him nod, she continued,
"I'll try to visit you frequently if possible, but if I can't, I'll give you a list of things you must do, alright? This is all to help prepare you for your journey."
Seeing his wide eyes and his rapid nodding, she suppressed a chuckle. Soon, she left and called for her ship with a slight smile on her face.
She wished she could be as innocent as he was.
Three years passed by in a blur. Although he was still abused both by his peers and his mother, he now had a 'sister' who looked after him.
J insisted on him learning as much as possible about pokemon before embarking on his journey, showing an uncharacteristic amount of concern for the boy. Luckily, what Ash lacked in social charisma he more than made up in his adaptability and knowledge. Within the first three months, fueled by a desire to make J proud of him, he succeeded in learning as much as he could from the books she lent him.
As for Aura, she scrounged whatever keepsakes she had that mentioned it and gave them to Ash. Although it wasn't much, it did teach him how to communicate with pokemon.
Meanwhile, she made it clear that he was, under no circumstances, to leave without any knowledge of self-defense. She taught him how to do basic hand-to-hand combat as well as how to hold his ground against a person up to 3 times his weight. Although this was slightly underwhelmed by the sheer fact that he was still pre-pubescent, upon a further analysis it was actually more than enough to protect him from others that would hurt him. Perhaps it wouldn't work against a Machamp, but against a criminal, it was ideal.
"Well, Ash, now that today is your birthday, I suppose that you'll be going to the professor to get started?"
"Yeah. Although, I'm not counting on a pokemon, since he hates me like almost everyone else here. He's probably gonna give all the starters to other trainers and give me some run-of-the-mill pokemon he recently caught for me. Jerk."
J frowned before smirking. "You know, since it's your birthday, I might leave you a 'special present' ... one that will make all those noobs that got the starters look at you in envy."
"Really?!"
"Hell yeah-" she got out before she was almost choked in a huge hug.
"Thanks sis."
"Anything for my little bro."
As Ash left for Professor Oak's place, J felt her smile falter. She had been keeping her occupation a secret for these three years.
How would he react to the news that she is a Hunter?
"Oh, it's you," grumbled Oak.
Truthfully, he was hoping that Ash had forgotten about today so he wouldn't have to give him a pokemon. There wasn't really any reason behind it, besides the fact that Ash had in some way garnered the contempt of essentially everyone in the town.
"I have a pokedex for you, but I'm afraid we're all out of starters ... and maps ... and pokeballs ... and potions ... you'll have to make do without them. I can give you the pokemon I caught the other day, however it is extremely ill-tempered."
"Yeah, sure," repleid Ash in false cheeriness, rolling his eyes internally. For Arceus's sake, Oak was a professor. How would he ever run out of anything?
Oak randomly grabbed a pokedex and a pokeball, not noticing that he had grabbed a pokedex that was a recent shipment from Kalos.
"Here you go, now get out. I have important work to do."
Ash snorted quietly before taking the objects and leaving. 'Like what, researching on how many pizzas it takes o make an elderly man obese?'
He walked out before opening the pokeball, revealing a Pikachu.
"Hey, there, my name is Ash, and yours?"
The Pikachu looked at Ash before releasing a Thundershock. 'Insufferable human! First you capture me while I was eating and now you mock me?!'
"Whoa! I didn't mean any offense, really. I just wanted to know your name."
'You can understand me? Wait ... can you use Aura?'
Ash nodded, thankful for his training. He created a small ball of Aura, that would never amount to teh effect of an Aura Sphere, but it was enough to convince the Pikachu.
'Whoa ... okay, sorry about before,' it said while scratching its head. 'Y'see, I really hate being stuck in that infernal contraption. But anyways, my given name is Loch.'
"Nice to meet you, Loch"
'Charmed. Anyways, where are we going first? You actually seem nice, to be honest. I might actually put up working with you.'
"We'll be visiting my sister at first before heading out on our journey."
Ash and Pikachu soon headed back home, as Ash had decided to opt against putting Pikachu in that 'infernal contraption.'
"Hey sis!"
"Ash? A Pikachu? Hmm ... they're fast and have Volt Tackle as an evolutionary bonus ... very interesting. You ready for your present?"
"Yeah!"
"Okay, first, to make up for what that idiot Oak decided to leave out. First give me your pokedex."
Ash haded it to her, who raised an eyebrow at the advanced technology but made no comment. She tweaked it a little before handing it back.
"Here, it should enable you to keep up to eighteen pokemon on you at a time. Although I doubt you'll ever fill it, it will keep your team out of Oak's meddling.
"Now, I've pack your bag for you. Inside are your clothes, food and water, ten pokeballs, various berries, and five potions. Should be enough to last you until you earn enough money to buy your own things."
"Wow," said Ash, who was stunned. "I'm ... I'm really thankful for all this."
"No probs, and hey, I didn't even give you your pokemon yet." She took out a pokeball and released it.
"Alright Bisharp, battle stance!"
A Bisharp came out and saluted J.
"This is my honorary brother, Ash. I'm leaving you in his care, understand? You will be working for him as if you were working for me."
The Bisharp nodded before holding out a hand to Ash. What it did not expect was for Ash to pull it into a hug, which it hesitatingly returned.
J suppressed a laugh. "Alright guys, I've gotta go. See ya." With that, she left with unnatural dexterity, leaving the three outside of the house.
"What's your name?"
'My name is Chrome. Although I don't expect you to understand me.'
"Nice to meet you Chrome, I'm Ash."
The Bisharp blinked before looking at Loch. 'I'm not imagining things, am I?'
'Aura.'
'I see. In that case, Ash, please be advised to note that the birth names we give you are ... sacred, to say the least. Although I trust you, and I'm sure that the Pikachu does as well, please avoid using it in the presence of humans that we don't trust.'
Ash blinked. "Why, is it important?"
Chrome let out a slight wince. 'It's ... a hereditary tradition. We can't really say much more, even to an Aura user.'
Loch nodded. 'Yeah, to be honest, even though I gave you my birth name, I'd feel more comfortable if you'd use it only when we're alone.'
Ash frowned slightly but wiped it off his face. "It's okay guys, that's fine."
He took out the pokedex. I guess I'm supposed to scan you with this? I don't really know, this is all pretty new to me, even after all that studying."
After opening the pokedex, he scanned Loch with it.
[Pikachu, the Mouse Pokemon. This Pikachu is a male. This Pikachu knows Thundershock, Growl, Tail Whip, and Quick Attack. This Pikachu has the egg moves Reversal and Volt Tackle; however, they have not been unlocked yet.]
Ash whistled. "Wow, that's really impressive. As Sis expected, you have Volt Tackle."
'It's all in the genes, buddy,'
Ash then scanned Chrome.
[Bisharp, the Sword Pokemon. This Bisharp is a male. This Bisharp knows Night Slash, Stone Edge, Swords Dance, Metal Burst, Iron Head, Metal Claw, Slash, Payback, Poison Jab, Iron Defense, Guillotine, and the egg move Psycho Cut, which has been unlocked.]
Ash and Loch's mouth dropped at Chrome's moveset, who merely smirked.
'It's called training. You can close your mouths now.'
"That's ... that's amazing! Did my sister really teach you all that?"
Chrome smirked. 'Yeah, and for that, I owe her a lot. She may not be the friendliest trainer I've seen, but trust me, her methods work. At least she's fair.'
What Crhome didn't mention was how her double life operated. Somehow, unconsciously, he felt that the kid deserved to hear it from J herself.
Loch groaned. 'Wonderful. Simply wonderful. I go around feeling as though I'm the cream of the crop and the next thing you know, I find someone who has me beat in terms of practicality. Wow. Hey, by the way, what's you're training regimen?'
'It involves attacking entire trees and logs ... and stone structures ... and metal ... and quite a lot of insanely hard things. I wouldn't recommend it for a speed-oriented fighter as you.'
Ash rubbed his chin. "Well, maybe, for Loch, we can work on learning Agility. The concept is pretty much the same as Quick Attack, although now you're not ramming something and transferring momentum into force. You use the momentum built up by your rapid movements and instead slowly store it. It's effects aren't exactly long term, because eventually the rush will wear off and you'll be more or less around your original speed, but it does keep you in shape as well as serving as an escapist mechanism."
'Why not just rely on Quick Attack?' pondered Chrome.
"Quick Attack won't leave you any reserves. It's about transferring a limited amount of your kinetic energy into force. The remainder is used as a cushion to soften any recoiling. Likewise, Take Down does not have this limitation and as such hurts the user. It's like comparing sprinting to marathoning. Using Quick Attack exhausts your energy rapidly, though you do end up traveling faster, but Agility paces yourself so that you can make the most of it."
'I see,' nodded Chrome. He was glad that his trainer was well versed in theory, not wanting a complete newbie.
"Also, Loch, I want you to try Iron Tail. Thankfully, with Chrome, we can use him to set up an example of what you should do.
"As for you, Chrome, you seem to be well rounded. I can tell that you're a physical-oriented person, but at least you have Stone Edge for range. Hmm .. have you tried throwing Psycho Cuts and Night Slashes before?"
'The thought has occurred to me, though I have never tried it.'
"Regardless, it would be nice for you to try learning this, as it gives you more mobility and unpredictability. What I do want you two to learn is Magnet Rise. Both of you are weak against Ground-type attacks, but if you can avoid them, it would be a huge advantage on our side.
'I concur,' nodded Pikachu smugly. 'Do you concur.'
'I concur.'
This won't be the only new fic I'm starting. There will be others, bringing me back to a large number of current fics.