Chapter 01: The Beginning of a Legend
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Disclaimer: Pokémon is the Property of by Satoshi Tajiri
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Our story starts in the country town of Pallet. While this may be a small town, it is a famous one. It is the home of many great Pokémon Trainers, as well as their sponsor and mentor, Professor Samuel Oak. The Pokémon Professor not only brought the town notoriety, but protection as well, being a former member of the Elite Four and Champion. And unfortunately, that is why one small family moved to Pallet.
Delia Ketchum had sought out her old mentor when she had realized her ex-fiancé had found her after she had hidden herself away from him. When he had shown up at her door, demanding to see his child, Delia panicked and fled. Luckily for Delia, her daughter Ashlyn had been at her preschool when he showed up and she was able to knock him out of the way and run.
After she had called a friend to pick up her daughter, Delia went back to their apartment and quickly packed everything she could fit in her van, leaving the furniture. She could pay someone to get the rest later. The trip from Crimson City to Pallet Town was a long one, and it was tough on both mother and daughter. Especially on poor Ashe, who was only four years old and not understanding why they were leaving.
Ashe had been told that they were moving and to say goodbye to her friends, and that it would be a long time before she saw them again. With her mom not answering her questions and the silence that persisted throughout the nine hour drive, the little girl became increasingly agitated with everything that was happening. When they pulled up in a small town outside a large ranch house/laboratory, Ashe was hurried out of the van with only her blanket and Pikachu pokédoll. When the old man that owned the house ushered her into a room with a boy a little older than her and a preteen girl, Ashe was as upset as she could be.
She could hear her mother and the old man argue with each other, Ashe clenched her fists. Normally, Delia treated her like the most precious thing in the world, which had slightly spoiled the four year old. There was a good reason for the spoiling as well, Ashe was not the average four year old, and everyone who knew her knew it.
Ashe was smart, very smart. Well above the learning curve of most children her age. This was something Delia encouraged with gifts and treats, as the young child soaked up everything that was taught to her so fast that she was usually done with the assignments for the entire week when they were assigned by her preschool teacher. Opening the door, and ignoring the two older kids who were confused by the entire situation, Ashe marched into the room where her mom and the old man were arguing.
"This is entirely reckless of you Delia! Not only have you endangered your daughter, but you have uprooted her entire life so suddenly and without explanation! I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop when she comes out of shock!" the man yelled, their voices louder now that she was right outside of the room they were in, the door wide open allowing her to see her mother and the old man.
"I am doing what's best for her!" Delia screamed at the old Professor, "I won't tell her because it would break her heart! Do you know what she believes? That he's on...!"
A sudden sniffle caught Delia's attention as she started yelling. Both adults turned to the open door where Ashe stood in plain view, anger and tears showing on her face. She opened her mouth to say something, only for no sound to come out. Delia and Oak stared at the little girl, who turned and ran out of the building.
The two adults chased after the girl, following her to the edge of the woods across the road from the Ranch. Before they could follow her, she sped up, a slight glow encasing her body. Even as they stared in shock, several wild Pokémon came out of the underbrush and trees to impede their path. Even the Pokémon knew the child was special, even if it was just from that small display.
"Delia, we need to go back to the lab and get Arcanine to track her," Oak said, worrying about the ability the child displayed.
"But my baby..." Delia cried, terrified of what could happen to the girl.
"It's the quickest way to find her, I'll follow on Dragonite." Oak promised, worried about the display of power the little girl had displayed. It had looked like a Quick Attack to him, and if that was true the child was even more special than her mother thought. Moving back towards the lab, Oak went up to his room where six old and well-worn pokéballs sat on a special stand next to his bed. Grabbing two and heading back outside, he took a deep breath and released his old friends.
"Arcanine, Dragonite, I need your assistance." Oak said as he held up Ashe's blanket, "Delia's daughter has run off into the forest, and we need to find her before she gets hurt. Arcanine, find her scent and Dragonite and I will follow you in the air."
Arcanine took a sniff of the child's blanket before sniffing around. When he found the trail, the old fire type let out a bark and started following it. Climbing up on Dragonite, Oak handed the blanket back to Delia.
"Don't worry, we'll find her." Oak said, trying to reassure his student, "Let's go Dragonite."
Delia watched as her mentor took off to find her daughter, trying to shake the ominous feeling welling up in the back of her mind.
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Ashe sniffled as she curled up at the base of a large tree deep in the woods, ignoring the Pokémon who watched her curiously. While they were mostly Rattata, Pidgey, Caterpie, Nidoran, and a single Mankey, several old and more evolved Pokémon looked down at her as well. Ashe sat there for a while crying, angry at her mom for not telling her why they had left.
After her tears had dried up, Ashe stood up and tried to remember which path she had followed to get to the tree, before choosing one and walking deeper into the forest, several Pokémon following her. To them she was an unknown element, a human that could use Pokémon attacks. Tales had been told for generations about special humans that fought like Fighting and Psychic type Pokémon, though they were thought to be gone from this world. As the human girl walked down the path, still sniffling, word spread quickly about her.
Ashe walked further into the forest, getting scared as more and more Pokémon started watching her, not letting her out of their sight. As the sun began to set, Ashe panicked and started running down the path. As she ran, several of the older Pokémon began running after her. Terrified that they were chasing her through the bushes and trees, Ashe ran as fast as she could, not seeing the drop in the path as it went down a hill. Tripping, Ashe rolled into a cave, stopping right at the opening.
As she sat up, Ashe noticed several Zubat and Golbat watching her, being woken up by her crashing into their cave. The colony of bat Pokémon glared at her, angry at being woken up. Before Ashe could get out of the cave without further problems, one of the Golbat flared its wings scaring the child. Ashe screamed and ran, whipping the bat Pokémon into a wild frenzy, ready to get rid of the intruder now that it had truly disturbed the entire colony.
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Not far from the coastal forest where Ashe was, an ancient and powerful being was speeding along the bottom of the sea. It pressed itself harder and faster than it should have, but its chosen was in trouble. It had to save her.
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Ashe ran as fast as she could, never stopping to watch as the Pokémon from the forest attack the swarm. They managed to stop most of the Zubat and a couple of Golbat, but a Crobat, the colony's leader, blasted its way through. Though it slept in the very back of the cave, Ashe's scream had echoed loudly enough to anger it in to chasing the source. As it saw its target, the Crobat gathered up several Golbat and chased after the human girl, herding her to the bluffs.
Ashe tumbled out of the forest, trying to duck as a Golbat dove at her. They didn't stop as she scrambled to her feet as one let off an Air Cutter attack. The remainder of the swarm circled her, pushing her back to the edge of the cliff behind her. Looking down, Ashe saw the waves breaking against the rocks hundreds of feet below, and tried to turn around and run only to be blocked by the Crobat.
Several of the forest Pokémon, mainly several Raticate, a Nidorino and Nidorina, and the Mankey, attacked the rest of the Golbat attempting to reach the human child, only to be beaten back. The Raticate and Nidos occupied the Golbat's attention, forcing the mid-level bat Pokémon to focus on their attackers rather than on harassing the human. Mankey, on the other hand, had charge the Crobat itself, only to be hit with an Air Slash from the four winged bat. As the Air slash cut deep into its side, Mankey saw something that it had been trying to prevent.
Crobat dove at the young child once more, Ashe took a reflexive step back and screamed, falling off of the cliff. Despite its injuries, the Mankey raced to the cliff ready to dive in after her, only to stop as the water below the girl started swirling, moving upwards to gently catch her.
Pushing the child upwards, a haunting melody echoed across the bluffs, empowering the forest Pokémon and terrifying the bat Pokémon. The swirling vortex of water dispersed as the Pokémon causing revealed itself, catching the girl on its broad back. With a roar, the large silver draconian Pokémon let off a powerful attack, killing the Crobat and several of the Golbat in a lance of silver energy as they attempted to flee.
The forest Pokémon quickly retreated to the edge of their home, giving the large Pokémon room to land. As Ashe slid off of its shoulders, it turned its head to watch her. Ashe sat there, press hard against a tree as its head snaked towards her. To her, it was a giant Pokémon that had just killed several others and could easily eat her. The Pokémon let out a soft, low call that turned into a soothing melody, relaxing the child as it slowly drew closer. As the short song ended, it touched the crest of its head to her forehead and allowed it's thoughts to be heard.
'Do not fret child, I will not harm you. I am here to protect you.' the giant rumbled, its mental voice sounding like a distance storm, 'I am Lugia, the Guardian of the Seas.'
Ashe looked in awe as she gazed at the Pokémon. Her teachers had told them the legends of the Pokémon World during story time, the stories of the Legendary Pokémon themselves, and she was touching one of the Guardian Duo!
Before Ashe could start asking questions, crunching underbrush and wing beats were faintly heard by the Pokémon in the clearing. Lugia turned towards his chosen and began singing again, 'Sleep child. The humans are coming to take you home. While I may not be near, know that I will be watching over you and that when I am near, I will never let you come to harm while I still draw breath. Sleep my chosen. Sleep she of the Silvered Soul.'
As Ashe nodded off, Lugia noticed the Pokémon closing in. Satisfied that they would protect her for the few minutes it would take for the elderly human and his partners to reach the bluffs, Lugia bowed his head and swept a wing lightly over the slumbering child, 'Ensure that she takes these with her when the human and his Pokémon get here, they are my gift to her.'
With his chosen safe and human help on the way, Lugia threw himself backwards off of the bluffs and into the sea, diving fast and deep to return to his home in the islands to the far south. As he left his songs echoed along the bluffs one final time before slowly fading away.
The Pokémon of the forest began to clean up the corpses from the battle, the carnivorous Raticate claiming the dead bats for their own to feed themselves and their young while the Nidos and the Mankey stayed near the slumbering child, protecting her while they waited for the human.
They did not wait long as an elderly Arcanine stepped through the trees, spotting the child. Ignoring the three Pokémon around her and the several Raticate around the clearing, the old fire type through its head back in a howl, this was answered by a call that none of the Pokémon recognized. A scant few seconds later, a large dragon crested over the trees and landed with a thump, leaning down to let the human on his back slide off.
Professor Oak was astounded by what he assumed happened. When the trail had led to a cave with several injured Pokémon around it, he had feared the worst, and was surprised when he saw the telltale flash of a high powered attack to his south, close to the bluffs. Now that he saw the trench and the dead and injured Pokémon, he feared the worst as he spotted the still form of Ashe lying behind a Nidorina and a Nidorino, and a Mankey standing over her protectively.
The Nidos allowed him to pass quickly and the Mankey hopped off to the side to allow him access. When he scooped up the child he was relieved, a few scrapes and bruises, as well as a cut or two, but Ashe would be fine. As he turned to take the child back to her mother, the Mankey suddenly started to yank on his lab coat.
"Yes?" Oak asked, startled over the sudden contact. The Mankey pointed to were Ashe had been lying, where a small leather sack now sat with something shiny lying on top of it. Reaching Down, Oak realized what the shiny object was.
"A Silver Wing..." Oak whispered as he took a better look at the ground. In the fading light, he saw the deep impressions of a heavy Pokémon, one that would have been big enough and powerful enough to use the attack that he had seen earlier. Tucking it and the small bag into his inner pocket to give to Ashe later, after he impressed the severity of having the feather of a Lugia, he cradled the child to him as Dragonite took off, Arcanine having already returned to his pokéball.
'You are more special than anyone truly knows Ashlyn. I promise I will do whatever it takes to help you reach that potential.' Oak thought as Dragonite flew over the forest back to his laboratory.
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Nearly a week after Ashe's 'adventure' through the woods, the child was found sitting on a rock near the laboratory's back door. When Ashe had woken up the day after she ran away her mother decided to explain why they had left. What she had told her daughter was that someone had threatened to take Ashe away from her mother, so her mother had taken her and ran to the safest place she could think of. Now that Ashe knew they were here to stay she felt bad about causing her mother the Professor so much trouble when she had ran away.
While her mother and the Professor were arranging for them to move into a small ranch house nearby, Ashe was fiddling with the device that had been left with her Silver Wing. While the Silver Wing was safely locked up in the Professor's safe until they moved into their new house, he encouraged her to try out the little instrument.
It had turned out to be a small ocarina made from two shells, one attached to the other. As she played with the shells, she found she could twist the smaller shell and that by plugging the holes in the larger shell while blowing into it she could play different notes. She was absolutely delighted as she made music, however disjointed it might have been.
Slowly she started to shift into a rough version of the song Lugia had sung, stumbling over the notes as she tried to remember them. Taking a breath, Ashe frowned down at the instrument when a flutter of wings caught her attention. Looking up, she saw a colorful bird Pokémon, it's most notable feature being that its head was shaped like a music note.
"Chatot!" it cried, raising a wing in greetings.
"Hi," Ashe said, a little shy with an audience. As she and the Chatot had a staring contest, Professor Oak and Delia watched along with Chatot's trainer.
"Why did you do that Alex?" Oak asked, confused at why the man had sent his Pokémon out to help Ashe.
"As you know I'm writing my thesis is on the Legendary Pokémon, and what's she's trying to play, as well as the instrument, is related. I recognized what she was trying to play because during my research in the Orange Islands I met a group of people who have a festival where they play that song in honor of the Guardian of the Sea. Chatot knows the tune, so he can coach her through it." the tall blond college student replied, watching as Chatot decided to start singing.
"Cha cha~ cha~ chat chat ot~~ cha~ cha~ cha cha cha cha~~" Chatot sung, repeating the notes over and over until Ashe could play them in the proper order. As the Three adults watched on, all three knew she was special.
Alex believed that she was a very smart and very able girl, being able to go from playing with an instrument to learning to play a song. Delia's eyes shined with happiness as her daughter found another thing she was good with, though she would have preferred that Ashe would learn the violin or piano. Only Samuel Oak had an idea of the truth, seeing as the child had been in contact with the Legendary Pokémon Lugia.
'I know that I'm right about her,' Oak thought as he watched the Pokémon start gathering around the child, half-smiling at hazy memories from his childhood, 'I'll speak with Delia tonight about taking over Ashlyn's education, I'm sure I can convince her.'
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Author's Note: I'm on fire! Holy crap on a stick. Anyways this is the beginning of the Tomboy Master rewrite. Only major changes to it are the old first chapter will be changes as about half of it will be the new third chapter. Chapter one, this one, focuses on Ashe and introduces Alex, one of my three ocs, his part is small until the actual league draws closer. Chapter two intros Griff, my villainous oc to replace Jessie and James, seeing how, as you may or may not remember, team rocket has a different relationship with Ashe along with Giovanni. That's next chapter so chapter four will be back to being the start of the old story.