Author's Note: Hi, this is my first fic and um, well, it's a reboot/canon divergence!AU, mixing anime, manga, movie and game canons, as well as some little bits about the novels. Note that this story takes place two years after the anime would have started, so a lot of onetime characters won't be showing up here. Ash started his journey... and it didn't go well, so I'm not following the anime's plot beyond the basics, and the movies. in game canon, it would be around HGSS time period. If there are events you want to see from the anime, please request in the reviews and I'll see if I can work it in. The same goes for original characters, but I need to make a form for that. so maybe wait on those.

Pairings are currently undecided or if there will even be any. The rating is currently T for swear words, canon-appropriate violence, and a few other little details.

There is a character in this story that's technically not an OC but isn't in the list and feels more like one, so that's what I'm labeling them.

Ash isn't the same kid he was in the anime, but he's still himself, and that allows for a bit of dorkiness. Small canon change including he nickname certain Pokemon.

Please review and let me know what you think, or just read on and enjoy. Thanks everybody! Have fun!

Chapter One: Before the Dawn

-It is never to early to go for the gold, even when everything around you is pitch-black.-

For the third time in a row that evening, twelve-year-old Ash woke in a cold sweat. He didn't sit up this time, but the bandaged stump on his right side tried to move, thumping uselessly against the sheets as he breathed. His other arm moved to grab it, but on his stomach, something began to stir. The creature shifted off of his stomach and rolled, long yellow and black ears twitching. It made a high-pitched yawn, blinking open beady eyes.

"Again, long-face," it squeaked, rolling onto its back again, sparks flying from its white cheeks. "I swear, we need to get you a Hypno or something, so you don't kick me off of the bed."

Ash gave a low groan, debating throwing one of his pillows over the Pokemon's head. Instead he readjusted his position on the bed, sure that his twitching had stopped. "I don't have my stupid aid in Chase, you're wastin' yer breath." He yawned. "Go back to sleep..."

"I'd rather have stayed asleep in the first place," Chase replied, the Pikachu scratching one of his ears and looking out of one of the bedroom windows. The sky was lighter than it had been the last time they had gone through this nightmare scare, but there was still no sign of the sun. With a sigh, the Pokemon decided to just get up. He could sleep on the walk, anyway. Leaving Ash already snoring, he hopped down and almost yelped. Nearly stepped on a screw.

Would it kill this guy to pick up after himself before he fell asleep? Always waited until the last damn minute.

With tender footsteps, Chase scampered out of the room into the... already lit hallway. Well, that was anti-climatic. He had been planning to sneak a berry run but this was just as good. He leaped down the banister and slid to thump onto the floor. He stopped just inside the kitchen, thumping his tail against a wooden chair. The woman by the sink turned and smiled, loose brown waves of hair scrambled about her face and nearly dipping into the mug she was drinking from. Tea, smelling of Rawst leaves and Pinap seeds. Odd combination, but the mother of his trainer was very much an odd woman.

Even so, she was a good human.

"Looks like no one's getting any sleep tonight, huh?" she said, and Chase took that as his cue to step over to her, running to her slippered feet and crawling up her leg. She offered him the tea and he grimaced, shaking his head no. He already couldn't sleep like the dead, that stuff mandated him clinging to a tree branch for hours. "Too many nightmares... new journey jitters, I suppose." Chase nodded, yawning. Delia smiled, scratching behind one long ear. "My boy's going back out into the wide world. I should be grateful I had him the extra year or so I did, huh?"

"You love 'em, miss," Chase said, knowing she wouldn't understand, knowing she just couldn't. Ash couldn't either, most of the time, without the aid in. "You shouldn't wanna let him go."

Pokemon trainers. The Peter Pans of the world, fulfilling their dreams of adventure no matter the danger, it was practically a requirement for any kid who could do it to go out there and fend for themselves in the wild. No one had to go of course, but what else could they do with themselves until the age of sixteen?

Chase had heard the spiel often enough through the doorway, worried mothers wondering about the boy holed up on his room, tinkering with his wires and sometimes setting off the smoke alarm. Though the woman next to him took these people seriously, the Pikachu knew better. Those humans were just stupid.

She sighed, either catching his drift or talking to herself. "Well, his father went, and we see where that got him. Ash will do well... sure, he'll have his problems." She laughed. "Boy can't go a mile without getting dragged into someone's mess or his own. But this time, he'll really have you with him, right Chase?" Delia looked down at the small Pikachu, brushing at his fur. "You're going to protect my son."

"Yes ma'am," the Pikachu said, balling up one paw like a fist. "Always."

Delia seemed relieved even though she didn't understand. "You'd better or I won't leave your Berry Juice in Ash's bag!"

"Not nice!"

She laughed at his put-out face and turned to look out the window to watch the sun lighten the sky. Not long after that, Ash came downstairs, yawning and rubbing his eyes. Delia looked at him and smiled, only to wrinkle her nose seconds later.

"Ash! Wash up, your bandages are falling off!"

"But wha's for breakfast?" he mumbled, mussing his already messy hair.

"You know perfectly well what's for breakfast, but if you don't at least get dressed, you're not leaving at all!"

Chase snickered.

"Chase, that all of the batteries?"

"Unless you swallowed any, yeah."

Ash rolled his eyes. "Very funny, you cheeky little-"

"Well, if I ain't cheeky, I ain't yours!"

"Don't make me take out the hearing aid," Ash muttered, not being serious. He knew how much his partner hated having no one to talk to. He adjusted his toolkit one more time, putting it in his battered green bag. He fiddled with the zipper for a few moments, bag shaking on the desk. Chase sighed and went to help.

He wrinkled his nose as he put his weight against the bag. "You really wanna bring this tattered thing with you?"

"Come on, it's classic League merchandise!" Ash protested, managing the old zipper after another minute of effort. "Only thing I've got left that fits from back then..." His face fell for all of five seconds before he bubbled up again. "Humor me, buddy!"

Chase sighed. "You're getting a new one when you can afford it. I ain't sleeping in that thing."

Ash hugged him in the crook of his armpit. "You're the best mouse a guy could ever nearly die for!"

"I'm gonna die if you keep choking me in your sweat!"

Ash let him go when Chase gave up and decided to zap him on the arm, laughing. "You're no fun sometimes!"

"Speak for yourself." Chase pawed at his tail for a moment, then glanced at the covered object next to a stack of Pokemon study guides and mechanical repair manuals. Ash followed his eyes and then looked away from it, fingers trailing over his empty shirt sleeve. "You gonna hesitate now?"

"N-No!" Ash glowered at him, and the Pikachu raised a diminutive eyebrow. "Of course I'm not, it's just a bunch of metal and wire!" Chase wisely decided not to remind his sometimes dunderheaded friend that wires had copper in them and let him go on. "But... it's also their metal and wire and plastic thing and it don't... it doesn't replace the real thing, okay?"

Chase rather thought a fake arm was supposed to do that, but he had little solid memory of Ash with two normal arms, so he really had nothing to compare it to. "You don't think that when you're using it." He knew the thing was a bit heavy sometimes, and was murder to fix, but last he checked, humans needed two arms like he needed his tail.

"That's cause I don't use it much!" Ash groaned, patting his blue vest to get the jitters away. "Look, buddy, just help me attach the thing so we can go. I don't even think the professor's up yet but you never know."

"We did once see him up at sunrise taking someone's Ponyta for a chase of the stars." Chase hopped up to the stack, tugging at the mechanical contraption with his tail. He half-carried it over, watching Ash undo the bandages. "How's your eye, Ash?"

"Fine," the human said distractedly, toying with the socket of the arm. "Can you hold this steady?" Pikachu crawled up, yanking on Ash's arm socket. After a few minutes, and one gentle Pikachu shock, Ash flexed the mechanical fingers, pulling the skin colored glove over the arm. He grimaced at it. "Okay, I can deal with it now... probably."

"Just don't accidentally throw a Pokeball with it," Chase joked and Ash laughed.

"Pretty sure this dumb thing will stop me." He pointed at his right eye and then went to grab his bag. "Well then," he said, grinning. "It's finally time, Chase! We're going on a journey! For real this time!"

Chase pumped a fist in the air. "All the havoc I can wreak! To chaos!"

"To chaos!" Ash agreed. "And to Mt. Silver!"

"Mom, why are you following me?"

"Oh, what?" she laughed, adjusting her hat to block out the sun. "Does it bother you?"

Ash scratched his head. "Well, you're my mom..."

"You act like your mom wasn't an ace fighter back in the day."

"...Shut up Chase."

Chase wore a smug smirk for the rest of the walk as Delia laughed at them both. "You two really are best friends."

"Mom!" Ash protested, trying to not smile and failing. "Stop pointing out the obvious."

"Then maybe Ashy-boy shouldn't try to be so obvious then?" This suggestion was made from the hill above, voice slightly nasal from allergies. Ash looked up and saluted the teen sitting on the wooden fence.

"Sup, Gare-bear?"

Gary scowled. "Don't call me that," he said without any real venom.

"Then no cutesy names," Ash shot back, sticking out his tongue. "You know the rules."

"Screw the rules," his rival said, brushing back spikes of brown hair. "I have connections."

"Language," Chase said in mock shock, and by Gary's feet, a black Pokemon tittered its amusement.

Gary scoffed and Delia chuckled behind her hand. "Behave boys, is your grandfather awake, Gary?"

"Someone just dropped a collection of thirty Tauros on him," Gary said dryly. "He's looking for the farms that were having a shortage to send them around. I picked a bad time to finish doing his fieldwork project."

Ash tried not to laugh and his mother didn't even bother. "Perfect timing," she chirped. "I'll go and see if I can give him a hand. You two play nice now." Both boys snorted at the idea.

Gary barely waited for the woman to make it through the door before flipping down to the road. "Whaddaya say, Ashy-boy? Ceremonial battle for the road?" The Pokemon jumped down after him, ear rings fading in and out of view. "Or should I call it a ceremonial loss?"

"In your dreams maybe," Ash replied, dropping Pikachu to the ground.

Chase bounded over, raising his paws into curled fists. "To chaos!" he roared, well, squeaked, at the opponent. The Umbreon snickered again.

"Raise the armies of the dead," she fired back. "And we shall teach the legions of the angels to fear our might!"

"Chaos!" they cried together and Ash and Gary both had to facepalm.

"Our Pokemon are insane," Gary decided, pocketing the Pokeball he had been toying with.

"Be thankful you don't know what they're saying," Ash said with a sigh. "Chase, war cry over! Fight now!"

Chase rolled his eyes and crouched. "Humans don't understand the seriousness of expressing fighting spirit," he decided.

"But they do understand the importance of fighting!" Umbreon lunged, preparing to bite into Chase's flank, but Chase ducked and spun, smacking his tail to scratch into her side. She twisted her body, getting pushed back and landing on her feet.

"There they go!" Ash shouted. "Slowpokes, for real! Chase, get 'er!"

"Blackie, keep him away with your nails!"

"CAT FIGHT!" Chase squeaked, jumping back on his front paws, gathering electricity around his tail. Blackie batted him off, sinking her teeth into his ear. Chase squeaked and tried to shake her off. "I'm trapped in your pits again Ash!"

Ash groaned. "Electrocute her! She's a girl, she can take a better hit than you!"

Chase rolled his eyes and headbutt Blackie in the jaw. Electricity sparked from the white cheeks and burst out, sending Blackie flying back. Chase tackled Blackie, and they rolled on the dirt road, kicking up grit and clawing at each other's faces.

"Guess we can't play around, huh?" Gary asked, covering his eyes. Ash ducked under the brim of his hat, coughing his agreement. They both couldn't stop grinning, however. "I thought you had more strategy than this, Ashy-boy!"

"You try strategy when your Pikachu is a psycho," Ash grumbled. "Chase, you love your tail right?"

Chase blinked, then grinned, kicking Blackie off with all four paws. He swung himself off after, tail glowing silver as he swung it. Blackie caught it in her teeth and muffled a yelp of pain. Chase squeaked, trying to shake her off and failing.

"Throw him!" The Umbreon happily obeyed, tossing the metal tail and Chase to spin up.

"Thundershock!" Ash shouted in alarm, seeing Chase's eyes spinning.

"Dark Pulse!" Gary said with a smirk.

Chase recovered himself and managed to fire. Blackie dodged, rolling as it continued to charge a mass of black and purple around her mouth.

"How'd you manage to get that TM?" Ash couldn't help asking as he ran to catch Chase.

"Luck that some idiots always drop their TM discs?" Gary offered. "You surrenderin', Ash?"

Ash looked at Chase, who was scratching his ear and whining about his fur, and at Blackie, who seemed to be fidgeting with the attack, and sighed. "Probably should, since I actually need to get through Viridian this time 'round. We'll forfeit."

"Never thought I'd hear Ash tell me he forfeits in anything," Gary mused, kneeling to scratch his Pokemon behind the ears. Umbreon let go of the attack, whining in relief. "You really oughta get Chase back on the leash."

"I'm not having another Spearow moment, Gary," Ash muttered, grinning. "I don't think either of us want a repeat of that." He glanced at Chase, who shuddered at the memory of dozens of beaks piercing skin and ripping off fur and no, they weren't having another Spearow moment. It was a fast way to have gotten to Viridian, but that was not happening again.

"Heard that whole flock was imported to Unova a month after that," Gary said with a roll of his eyes. "Nice and crispy now."

"Ewww!"Ash groaned. "I didn't need to know that! They really do fry every bird over there, huh?"

"Pretty much," Gary said, glancing up at Professor Oak's lab. "Come on, I'm sure grandpa's done by now. You need to get a new Pokedex, right?"

Ash blushed and nodded, picking up Chase again. "It's upgraded now, right?"

"More software than hardware, but yeah." Gary went back up the steps with a low yelp as Blackie went around his legs. "The memory is still too small to get more than three regions worth of Pokemon right now without an upgrade. By the way, speaking of upgrade... you sure you want to have Chase with you on the League circuit?" He glanced at the Pikachu as he went to the door. "He ain't exactly standard fare, ya know."

"It's not his fault!" Ash defended, mussing up the fur on top of Chase's head. "If it weren't for those creeps..." Ash looked outside of Pallet Town. "If it weren't for him..." Ash went quiet, which Gary decided to appreciate until the silence became really awkward.

"Well, we'd probably still hate each other," Gary muttered sheepishly to break it. Ash looked up from his glowering at the dirt and a playful smile crossed his face.

"What, are we friends now?"

"... I prefer the term close acquaintances."

"Those are two words I didn't know you knew."

"Speak for yourself!" Gary hit him over the head. "I'm surprised you could open a dictionary without crying."

Delia opened the door and sighed. "I said to behave. Are you both still ten?"

"Yes," they said automatically and stopped wrestling each other. Ash tried to not laugh at his mother's pout and glanced at Gary, who had his all-knowing smirk on again. There must have been a synapse in the brain that made that happen on a whim. Or something. Whatever.

"Well, you woke up on time this go-around, didn't you, Ash?" Oak said as they entered the room. He was trying to muss down his gray hair, his wall phone dangling off of its holder and beeping dully. Chase leaped to return it to the cradle. The thing drove him nuts!

Ash laughed. "Couldn't stay asleep this time! And I can't break my alarm either!" He laughed again and the professor offered him a benign chuckle. It's good he can make a joke, the man thought. If Ash can still joke about near death experiences and who knows what else, the rest of us are fine.

"I'm sure you'd find a way to sleep through anything if you try hard enough," Oak remarked with a sly chuckle, getting up and heading towards his computer. "Can that eye of yours sync to the computer, Ash?"

"It's not that good," Ash grumbled. "I'm lucky it knows I can blink."

Gary muffled a snort at his dramatics and Professor Oak sighed. "Shame, but don't worry, we can work with it. Here." He tossed a red device and Ash fumbled for it, ending with Chase diving to save it.

"Hey, you're the one who kept telling me that it was valuable!" Ash protested, grabbing the Pokedex and protectively cradling it to his chest. "I don't want to lose this one."

"You'll lose what marbles you've got before you lose that, you idiot." Chase licked at his paws, rubbing them over his head.

"You're not going to lose it this time, Ash," Oak said, trying not to smile. The kid bouncing up and down in his pajamas with the temperamental Pikachu tied to a rope was not this young man with messier hair and a cheeky partner at his ear. "You've grown up a little."

"Of course he has," Delia said, hugging her son into her arms. At ten he would have resisted, but now he hugged her back. "He's my son."

Her son, not his.

"I'm gonna do you proud this time," Ash said, looking at everyone in the room. "I'm gonna do everybody proud... and kick Gary's butt at the League."

"Hmph!" Gary scoffed. "Can't wait to see that, Ashy-boy!"

Ash squirmed free now and grinned. "Just you wait and see! I'll become a legend!"

"We have to get out of town before that can happen," Chase said snidely.

"Oh, who asked you?" Ash went to the door. He took a deep breath and pumped his fist. "All right, we're going! And this time, we'll come back on our own feet!"

His mother smiled as Chase jumped to Ash's back. "We know. Call once in a while!"

"You got it!"

Running out the door, through the streets of his hometown, Ash knew it wasn't any different than it had been the first time he had set off. But it seemed a lot smaller, the world a lot bigger than the many small houses. He passed by school children heading off the way he had come from and Chase waved. The kids waved back and he tried to contain the shout in his lungs and failed.

"To chaos!" he yelled and he heard the echoing giggles behind him. "To Indigo Plateau!"

To revenge.

The last one was a secret for now.