The Kalos Region.
Like many other regions, a beautiful place where people and Pokémon live in harmony, reflecting each other's thoughts and feelings. When people smile, Pokémon smile. And when Pokémon cry, you'll find that people cry as well.
And here, a certain young man is about to arrive at Professor Sycamore's Pokémon Laboratory. A young man seeking new dreams, and new adventures.
Standing in the biggest city in Kalos, Lumiose City, was a young man who looked about 15 years old. He had on a blue jacket with white highlights, a dark blue shirt underneath the jacket, navy blue pants, black and red shoes, black and red fingerless gloves, and a red hat with a white half-Pokéball symbol on it. He also had a hopeful look on his face. On his shoulder, a yellow rat with three brown stripes on its back going perpendicular to its spine, two red spots on it's cheeks, and a tail that looks like a thunderbolt.
He walked into the building, and was immediately greeted by a small library with a couple of researchers here and there reading on a few different topics while other researchers were carrying small Pokémon through hallways, doorways, or using them to look for specific books to read.
Honestly, it just looks like every other laboratory in the world, the kid thought.
"Ash! I've been expecting you!" the child heard from one of the hallways to his left.
Ash looked for the source of the voice, and he sees Professor Sycamore, the lead professor of the entire Kalos region. He was in his mid-30's with wavy black hair, wearing a blue dress shirt underneath the signature white lab coat that can be seen on any professor known in this world. He also had on a pair of black pants and a yellow belt holding it up.
"Welcome to the Kalos region, Ash! Quite different than Kanto, isn't it?" Sycamore asked.
Nodding his head, he said "Quite, Professor. It seems that each new region contains its own share of adventures, with new places to explore, new friends to make, and new Pokémon to befriend."
"Quite so, Ash," The professor says with a smile on his face, his hand scratching Pikachu behind his ear, earning a content "CHAAAA-aaaaaaaaahhh…" from the little electric mouse. "And speaking of Pokémon, why don't we get you set up with another starter Pokémon?"
"Yes, I do believe it is time." Ash responds.
The Professor then steps aside, and reveals three Pokéballs on the table.
"These are the three Kalosian starter Pokémon; the Fire-type Fox Pokémon Fennekin, the Grass-Type Spiny Nut Pokémon Chespin, and the Water-Type Bubble Frog Pokémon Froakie."
Ash thinks for a while, and after looking at all three Pokémon, something nagged at the back of his mind.
Suddenly, he felt nauseous, and grabbed onto the table.
The professor's face went from a patient look to one of worry. "Ash, are you alright?"
Ash takes a few deep breaths. "Prof…" He takes a few more. "I'm not…"
And that's all he can muster before he blacks out completely, the last thing he hears is his best friend trying to get his attention before he's lost to the swirling void of his mind.
Ash wakes up to a black void, with a feeling in the pit of his stomach similar to that of someone free-falling, yet he felt no rush of the wind past his ears.
He looks down, and he sees a platform of some kind. He feels as if he's moving at a thousand miles an hour, yet the platform he's falling towards makes it look like he's slowly floating down, at around 5 miles per hour.
Then, he touches the platform with his feet, and he sees the three Pokémon standing before him. Then, they immediately evolve into their final forms, yet with slight alterations.
Greninja was in his usual ninja stance, except he was holding a sword made of three different materials. One side of the sword was made of a material that glowed a bright white, the other side was a dark purplish-black material, and instead of a normal cross-guard and handle, it was two razor-sharp spiked pointing outward, and a third going down the handle that the Ninja Pokémon was holding, as if he were combining the moves Cut, Night Slash, and Water Shuriken into one sword.
Delphox was in her usual stance, looking slightly to the left with a smile on her face, and a huge yellow tail with a red 'dress' made of her fur covering her midsection and feet. Except instead of a stick or a branch in her hand, she had a staff made of a wood-like material that had a pointed bottom section, and two branches forming out of the one for the top foot and a half, which then split into four smaller roots that held in place a perfectly cylindrical Ruby approximately four inches in radius.
Chesnaught was standing tall and proud with his fists ready to strike, and he smiled in a bloodthirsty-like way that made you think that he was born for battling, and that he knows nothing else. He was his usual white and green body, but instead of a cream-colored shell, it was a blackish color that reminded Ash of obsidian, and the spikes on both his shell and his arms, as well as his claws, were pure diamond. Guess that explains why he had that smile; he thought he was indestructible.
Suddenly, a powerful being appeared. It was a huge, white being with a blue scarf, and a body that reminded him of an enemy that he used to read in a book when he was younger. It had a strange symbol on his forehead as well; a four-sided throwing star with an upside-down heart as the bottom piece.
The three of them turned around to face this being of great power, and got in their battle stances.
The being looked at them, and then at Ash.
No, not looked. He glared at him.
And Ash knew that he was coming for him.
The three Pokémon noticed this, and as the white being reached out to a petrified Ash, the three Pokémon leaped into action.
Delphox started chanting a spell, Chesnaught positioned himself between the being and Delphox, and the Greninja leapt at the being in an attempt to keep it distracted.
However, before any of the Pokémon could do anything, the huge being unleashed a flash of bright light that blinded the four. Once they could see again, Ash saw the three Pokémon held in the air, their hands and feet stuck to four balls of whitish-lavender orbs, unable to do anything. The huge being then closed it's hand, reeled back, and struck each one of them, earning cries of pain.
As they were struck, the orbs holding them in place seemed to have disappeared, sending them flying backwards and into the void.
However, just before they could get too far, the being then stretched out it's arms long enough and fast enough to grab all three of them, instantly halting them and giving them whiplash, and bringing them back to the platform and the great being. It then threw them up in the air, causing all three of them to give cries of fear as they were thrown upwards at incredible speeds. Noticing how high she was getting, the Delphox pressed its dress between her legs to keep Ash from seeing under it. On their way down, the being looked like it was ready to throw something. As the Pokémon were on their way down, the being then swung it's arm down, both hitting the three Pokémon and increasing their speed, damaging them from both the impact with the being's hand and the platform itself, causing the platform itself to crack around them.
Ash looked at the three Pokémon on the ground. Chesnaught's shell had cracks in it, the diamond spikes cracked and broken in several places. Delphox's dress was in tatters, her staff snapped in two as the ruby stone rolled over to Ash's feet. Greninja's sword was broken in the three pieces, and those pieces further broken into shards of their former forms.
Ash looked upon all of them with hopelessness. If these three Pokémon, who were at their final evolutions, couldn't stop the great being in front of them, then what hope did he, a normal human being, have?
Suddenly, a bright light shone on Ash, causing the great being to shield its eyes and back up, causing it to trip over itself and fall over the edge of the platform.
Then, a majestic woman's voice spoke to Ash from the source of the light, which was too bright for him to see, saying "If you had the power to save these Pokémon… would you?" the being asked. Before Ash could respond, the voice also said "Think before you speak, for your answer may induce actions whose consequences you may not like."
And without a moment's hesitation, Ash said "Yes, I would. Helping others is what I do on a daily basis. I would give my life if it meant someone else would live."
"What are you called, child?" The mystical voice asked.
"My name is Ash Ketchum, Champion of the Orange Island League, first victor of the Battle Frontier, and Aura Knight-in-training."
"Ash Ketchum…" the voice repeated. "Sounds like an appropriate name. However, I think 'Chosen-One' has a better title than the others."
Ash kept looking up at the bright light as he said this, and an object starts floating down from the light source. As it gets closer, he can start to make out what it is. It gets within reach, and he can make out a black and grey device with gold trimming similar to the Unova Pokédex, yet instead of the bottom half being just the grey casing, it has a completely black casing with a rainbow-colored symbol that completely matches the symbol on the being's forehead, except this one was upside-down.
The mystical voice then said "Use this HeartDex wisely, Chosen-One."
Ash reaches out to grab it, yet before he does, he asks "What does this… 'HeartDex' do?"
The voice goes quiet, then the female voice says "See for yourself."
The voice goes quiet, and just as Ash grabs the Fusion Loader, the light disappears, and the laws of physics applies to the device in his hand.
There's two buttons on the device; a blue button in the shape of the symbol on the white being that feared the light, and a Pokéball button. Pressing the third button, the device pops open, scans the three Pokémon, and deposits this information:
Delphox, the Fox Pokémon. Using pyrokinesis, it generates a fiery vortex of more than 2900 degrees Celsius, incinerating foes swept into this whirl of flames. It can also gaze into the flames started by it's Flame Staff to achieve a focused state, which allows it to see into the future. This Delphox is female, and has the ability 'Magician', which allows this Pokémon to steal an item from an enemy that it hits with an attack. This Delphox is Female, and has the ability Magician.
Greninja, the Ninja Pokémon. It appears and vanishes with a ninja's grace. It toys with it's enemies using swift movements, while slicing them with throwing stars it creates from compressed water. Thrown at a high enough speed, these stars can split metal. This Greninja is male and has the ability 'Protean', which allows it to change it's typing to the move it last used. This Greninja is male, and has the ability Protean.
Chesnaught, the Spiny Armor Pokémon. It's tackle is forceful enough to flip a 50-ton tank. When it takes a defensive posture with it's fists guarding its face, if can both withstand a bomb blast, and shield others from the same blast. This Chesnaught is male, and has the ability Bulletproof.
Lucario, the Aura Pokémon. It has the ability to use a unique power called Aura, which resides in all living things. It can sense the aura of others around it, allowing it to see what it normally couldn't with just its eyes. They can use Aura for offensive and defensive moves, and to also sense the thoughts and emotions of those around it. This Lucario is Female, and has the ability Inner Focus.
Ash looked around, and saw that the only things around were the giant white being towering over him, the three Pokémon that were lying at his feet, and himself…
But as he looked around, his eyes were suddenly fixated on the ruby sphere lying at his feet from the staff of the Delphox.
Reaching down to grab it, he stopped when he heard Delphox make a pleading sound while looking at him, as if he shouldn't do what he was supposed to do.
But every cell in his body overrode those thoughts as he picked up the sphere.
Immediately upon contact, he could feel the power oozing from the sphere. He looked at it, and he could see a small, black silhouette in a meditation pose, floating in the middle of the sphere.
As he held the sphere, the HeartDex started to glow a dim red glow before the black turned to crimson, and Ash closed his eyes as a single word repeated itself in Ash's mind.
Opening his eyes, he then said "Ruby."
Immediately, the being obtained glowing red eyes as the sphere shattered, covering the entire area in a white flash that lasted for all of two seconds.
As Ash could see, he looked upon the magnificent form of a Lucario unlike any other; Instead of a blue color scheme with the tan chest, she had red in both places. Her eyes seemed to be carved from rubies, and the spikes at her chest and hands were made of pure gold.
She took one step forward… and then promptly collapsed into the floor.
Before the white being could do anything, Ash was already by her side. Ash put his left hand to her back and his right to the back of her head as he closed his eyes, his blue aura pulsing into the Lucario as he could sense her lack of energy.
It took all but three seconds for her own aura to accept his, but then it started gaining a red-like infection as it spread through his aura into his body. His vision gained a red-like tint for a split second before going back to normal.
The Lucario was trying to get up, to which point Ash grabbed onto her right arm and helped her stand. When she stood, a slight blush on her face, she nodded to him, causing him to let go of her as she stood on her own, hunched over. Within seconds, he heard a low growl, which quickly turned into a loud scream of rage as she roared into the darkness above, creating a pulsing wave of red energy that caused Ash to stumble onto his rear end.
The great white being just stood there, either unimpressed or uncaring, as he was unaffected from the aura pulse. Then, a flash of white blinded everyone again, and when Ash found his sight again, he saw the same situation that the three Kalos starters were in before; the Pokémon was suspended fifteen feet above the platform, spread-eagle, with wrists and ankles held firm by balls of energy.
Out of mild curiosity, Ash looked at the back of the HeartDex, and found a camera on the device. Pointing at the great being, the device scanned the being, and spewed out some information.
Twilight Thorn, a Giant Nobody with multiple thorns and strong fists. It has the ability to dodge many enemy attacks and to summon Creeper Nobodies to his side and to create a huge ball of energy, which he uses to throw at his enemies.
After the Dex said this, the being, now known as Twilight Thorn, took a closer look at the red being in front of him, then reeled back his fist in an attempt to punch the Lucario just like he did the other three Pokémon.
But what Thorn didn't expect was the fact that that she swivelled her body around her left arm, keeping that one orb from moving, and somehow managed to hit the fist coming at her with an even greater strength than Thorn anticipated. This caused thorn to spiral backwards into the void behind him about thirty feet away from the platform before he stopped moving and regained his balance.
He then extended both his hands towards the Lucario, and dispersed the orbs holding her in place by grabbing her and throwing her into the darkness above them.
Doing the same as before, Thorn prepared to slam her into the ground on his way down, but yet again, he wasn't prepared for the red Lucario's counterattack.
The red Lucario started gathering energy into her fist as she reached her highest point from the throw, and just before Thorn could impact her, she summoned a giant fist made of pure red aura, which she used to pummel Thorn into the ground just before altering her body's angle to land on her feet, which cracked the platform even further and caused no damage to the Lucario herself.
The Thorn fell face first into the platform at the opposite end of the platform from Ash, and then he fell off the platform itself.
Thinking that it was over, he sat down and brought out the Heartdex. He was about to press the red button again, but the Lucario growled, and started to look around as if she were confused.
Ash looked at her, confused, before bringing up the HeartDex and said "Twilight Thorn."
The information he learned earlier pulled up, and as he was reading through it, one section of the information confused him slightly.
'…creates a huge ball of energy…'
'Wonder how long it takes to charge up an attack that sounds that powerful.'
Unfortunately, he was about to find out.
As soon as he thought that, the platform tilted rather quickly, causing Ash to tumble down from the center to the edge of the platform.
Just before he fell over the edge, the Lucario grabbed onto Ash's left arm while punching a Metal Claw into the platform to slow their descent. Once they stopped sliding down the platform, which was just inches away from the edge, she roared in anger and strain. He looked over, and the Thorn was on the other side of the column that the platform they were battling on was on, along with a huge ball of energy bigger than he was. He cocked it back, prepared to throw it, and probably kill Ash and his new Pokémon.
Ash looked down at the fusion loader, and he figured that this was more of an emergency than anything.
Ash pushed the blue button.
It was surrounded by a mystical white light for a split second, and then it elongated to about four feet long before the light was absorbed into what was being created, and then Ash found himself holding a four-foot-long blade that looked a little bit like a blade, a key, and a pokemon he'd only seen a couple times before.
The weapon he was holding was mainly white with a golden circle about seven inches in diameter with two golden parenthesis on either side connected by four golden spikes, and where the spikes met the parenthesis, four jewels were fused into the gold; one green emerald, one red ruby, one blue sapphire, and one yellow amethyst. The "blade" itself reminded him of the Legendary Pokémon Arceus, with a gray patch of metal about six inches long three inches from the handle, and half of the crossguard symbol on the end to make it look somewhat like a key as well as a sword, except it's got another spike protruding from inside half of the golden circle, and crossing over Arceus' forehead. And even though he's seen Arceus before and she never had one, her muzzle was golden on the blade.
As he was holding the blade, he was filled with confidence. She noticed this, smiled, and started swinging Ash back and forth a little. Ash noticed this, caught on to her plan, and he swung himself forward, into the void between them and Twilight Thorn as the Twilight Thorn threw the giant orb of energy at Ash.
Pulling back his arm, he used his own momentum to throw his KeyBlade at the orb with even more force than him swinging at it could, which caused the orb to explode with energy, knocking Ash back with a little bit of force, and throwing the Twilight Thorn into the void.
Somehow, as they were falling further down into the void, they hit another platform that looked exactly like the one they were fighting on. Both Ash and the Twilight Thorn hit the platform on their back, and a few seconds later, Ash found the Lucario landed on the platform on his feet and helped Ash up to his own. Looking at the Twilight Thorn, it steadily got to his own feet, and turned around to face them.
Suddenly, the three Kalosian starters fell onto the platform, all in their battle stances as they faced the Twilight Thorn. Chesnaught had his shell fixed, Greninja had his sword repaired, and it seemed like the Magic Staff Delphox has re-grew itself. As they all took us their stances, the keyblade dissipated in a flash of light to reveal a small chain around his left wrist that sported a small keychain with a symbol that was the exact shape, albeit slightly smaller, of the symbol on the back of the HeartDex and the forehead of the Thorn.
The Twilight Thorn then started stumbling around in place like a drunk person would, and then it started to dissipate into black orbs as it fell over, completely dissipating before it hit the quadet.
However, once it completely dissipated, a dome of bluish-black energy formed around the platform. Then the energy started to slowly creep towards the center, trapping the four.
Delphox threw a flamethrower at the dark barrier, however it did no damage, the flames turning into black as soon as it touched the barrier, and travelled up the flamethrower like a flame to a hose shooting gasoline. As soon as the black energy touched the Staff that Delphox shot, the pokemon froze in place, the black energy beginning to surround the pokemon. Once it was engulfed in energy, it dissipated into more black energy, which continued to spread at an even quicker pace.
The remaining four were surprised, and started backing away from the darkness, Greninja staying close to Ash while Chesnaught was trying to bat away the darkness with a couple Vine Whips.
Unfortunately, the darkness clung on to one of the vines as it was being withdrawn, which started crawling it's way further up the vine like a virus of some kind, turning the Kalosian Grass starter into more black energy.
Greninja started firing short bursts of Hydro Cannon, and somehow held up the most while the red Lucario fires Aura Sphere after Aura Sphere at the void, somehow slowing it down yet not stopping it. Suddenly, Greninja jumped up to avoid the black void from touching his feet, yet miscalculated as he jumped right into the roof of the dome.
Ash and the red Lucario were back to back in the middle of the platform, the darkness closing in on them from all sides.
Ash clenched his fists. He started to get angry. Angry that after all he did, after finding out he could do all these things, after battling something nobody could've dreamed of, that he would be defeated. And just as he was about to come up with a couple more ideas on how they could defeat Thorn, his only weapon to help defend himself disappeared on him.
He turned around to look at the red Lucario, and she turned around to look at Ash. And Ash saw something in her that he didn't expect at this point.
A need to keep him safe.
As if she wanted to protect him more than herself.
And then it started to grow in Ash, turning his thoughts from anger to courage.
This Lucario didn't want him to die.
There's no reason why he should give up.
Then, a red-black fireball ignited and floated between the two, and the darkness stopped it's advance as if it were afraid of this light. Ash looked around at the darkness that stopped, then back at the Lucario, her own confidence building up Ash's.
Ash smiled, and so did the Lucario.
Taking a second to think, he said "Ruby… I choose you." Ash said, holding up his hand to one side of the flame.
The pokemon smiled, one of pure joy, happiness, and something else that he didn't catch as she brought up her canine hand to the other side.
Then, as one, they brought their hands towards each other, touching the red-black flame and grasping each other's arm, causing the red-black fire to explode around them, destroying the darkness and turning their vision white at the same time.
Suddenly, Ash opened his eyes, and found himself in a room he didn't remember entering, lying in a bed he didn't own, with an IV in his left arm connected to a heartbeat monitor on the left side of the bed.
It was a simple room, a queen-sized bed, a desk next to a window, and a set of double doors about five feet away from the bed.
He looked down to the foot of the bed, and saw his little Pikachu sleeping peacefully.
Looking over to his right, he saw a bulge underneath the sheets, the sheets rising and falling slightly as a slight snore came from the bulge.
Lifting up the sheets, he saw something that made his heart leap for joy.
Lying on her side, cuddled up to his side, was a small red and black riolu, with pieces of gold along her forearm, and a band of blue around her neck while her eyes were a crimson red to match her fur.
He smiled at the sleeping pokemon, a blissful look on her face. He decided to see if he could get a couple more hours of sleep after that, and wrapped an arm around the little riolu, only to have the riolu snuggle into him slightly more as she smiles in her sleep.
The next morning, he was leaving the Professor's lab out the front door after explaining everything to the Professor. Unfortunately, he couldn't make the device or the key-blade-thing reappear, so he didn't really have any proof of what he dreamed of. This, in turn, caused him to shrug his shoulders and pretend that it was all a dream, opting not to tell the professor in favor of not being sent to the nuthouse.
Coincidentally, he also found a small steel chain wrapped around his left wrist with the same symbol as both Thorn and the HeartDex dangling from it; a constant reminder as to what happened in his dream, one that he couldn't take off his wrist no matter how hard he tried.
Ash took a deep breath, and started walking towards the Lumiose City Pokemon Center to have him registered to the Kalos Gym Challenge and Kalos League, then off to the Lumiose City Gym to challenge the Gym Leader there.
He looked over to the Riolu walking beside him, a happy expression in her eyes, though he wasn't quite sure why.
They passed by many shops on their way to the lab. Clothing, jewelry, accessories, candy…
Ash stopped at the candy store when he heard a "Pika!" from his starter on his shoulder. Looking to his side, he confirmed that she wasn't walking with him.
Looking behind him, he saw that she had her paws against the glass of the jewelry store. Walking up and looking inside, he saw that she was looking at a ruby in the shape of a teardrop, attached to a silver chain.
Staring at the ruby, Ash notices that it looks awfully familiar. Reaching down to pick up Riolu, Ash turns her to look into her eyes, and something clicks in both his mind and his soul.
He reaches out to her paw, his mind unknowingly reaching out to her own, and their auras fuse together as their minds form a mental bridge. His eyes momentarily flashing red while hers momentarily flashing blue, he then heard a new voice in head.
…shiny…
Shaking his head, he looked left and right to find the owner of the voice, sounding like it belonged to a small female child, before the voice spoke again.
…shiny… stone…
Ash looked back at Riolu, and saw her looking at the pendant again while still in Ash's arms.
Is that… her? No, it can't be. Sure, she's looking at the ruby in the shop, but I must b-
…ruby?
His eyes widened as he finally put two and two together as he looks down at the red riolu in front of him.
"...A Ruby is a type of jewel that is found underground. They aren't the most common of the jewels that can be found, but they're far from the rarest."
I like rubies.
Ash just chuckles, and says "Yeah, they are pretty great. C'mon, my little Ruby. Let's get to a Pokémon Centre. I might've slept the last two days, but I feel like taking a quick nap before starting on our journey."
Ruby, now catching onto the nickname that he gave her, gained the biggest smile she could possibly muster before hugging her trainer in a tight, yet loving embrace.