ML54: Hey, guys! So, this is an idea that just popped into my head and I decided to give it a shot. Clearly it's an Alternative Universe story and, as always, I don't own pokémon. Enjoy!
A Chance Encounter
It was just a normal day in Sinnoh. The sun was just rising over the forest, waking a certain group that were making their way to Jubilife City.
However, the peaceful morning was soon torn apart by distressed, feminine screams coming from a certain blunette's tent.
A black haired trainer looked up from training his yellow mouse-like pokémon in concern and headed over to said tent. "Dawn, are you okay?"
"Don't come in here, Ash!" A voice shrieked back, causing said trainer to fall back in surprise.
"Um...Why not?" He asked, confused. His yellow companion jumped onto his shoulder, also concerned.
"[Hey, what's up with Dawn?]" He asked his trainer.
Before Ash could answer, Dawn yelled out: "My hair is a mess! I can't come out until this disaster is fixed!"
There was a pause of about five seconds, before Ash sighed. "Aw c'mon, Dawn. It can't be that bad."
"No, it's worse! Now leave me alone to fix this!" She finished, causing Ash to let out one more, exasperated sigh before giving up and leaving her be.
"Okay. Just don't take too long. We've got to get moving soon," He said, then walked over to another person, a spiky haired, dark-skinned man, who seemed to be cooking food.
"Is Dawn okay?" The man asked, to which Ash nodded.
"She's fine, Brock, she's just having a bad hair day," He replied, to which Pikachu nodded in agreement.
"[Yup,]" Pikachu said. He then hopped off his trainer's shoulder to go talk to a purple monkey-like pokémon and a turtle-like pokémon. "[Morning, guys!]"
"[Good morning, Pikachu!]" The turtle replied pleasantly.
"[Yo,]" The monkey grinned, tilting her head. "[So...Dawn's got bed head, huh?]"
"[I wouldn't mess with her if I were you right now, Aipom,]" Pikachu said, noting the mischevous look in the monkey's eyes. "[She sounded really upset.]"
"[All the more reason to mess with her! It'll be all the funnier!]" Aipom exclaimed, rubbing her hands together at just the thought of it. "[It'll be so much fun!]"
"[Um...I'm with Pikachu on this one,]" The turtle piped up, looking worried. "[I don't want to get on anyone's bad side...]"
Aipom looked to the two of them before huffing and folding her arms. "[Alright fine, you pair of boy scouts, I'll just go bug Ash instead!]" She said, before getting down on all fours and rushing off.
Pikachu sighed, exasperatedly, before giving the turtle a grateful smile. "[Thanks for the help, Turtwig.]"
"[Oh, it's okay. I know how embarrassing it can be when you look all messy. I didn't want Dawn to get all flustered,]" He explained, kicking up some of the dust under his foot.
"[Yeah. Also, Dawn was acting all scary before and I didn't want her to start yelling again,]" Pikachu said, sheepishly.
Before they could continue their conversation, they heard Dawn yelling for Piplup to use bubblebeam. Then noticed some weird rustling going on in her tent.
Before they could go over to see what was going on, Dawn emerged from her tent with her hair in its usual fashion. Piplup, a blue penguin-like pokémon, then got out and rushed up to them. "[Hey, what do you guys think? I certainly did wonders, huh?]" Piplup asked, proudly, lifting his beak up to the sky.
Pikachu and Turtwig looked over at Dawn for a few seconds, before Turtwig said: "[Um, forgive me, Piplup, but Dawn looks the same as she always does.]"
"[What?! No way, her hair is way shinier and cooler than before!]" Piplup argued, indignantly. When they continued staring at him blankly, he turned away. "[Hmph! Some people just don't understand fashion!]"
"[...Sure, let's go with that,]" Pikachu sighed, rolling his eyes. He then noticed Aipom in the corner of his eye. She was creeping up behind Ash from the ground, while said trainer was distracted by his conversation with Brock and Dawn.
She caught him looking and gave him a sassy wink…
...before jumping onto Ash's shoulder and stealing his hat.
"Gah! Aipom!" Ash cried out in annoyance, getting out of his seat to catch his quirky pokémon. "Get back here with that!"
"[Oh! Not again!]" Pikachu groaned, before chasing after her. "[Aipom, cut it out! This is, like, the fourth time this week!]"
"[Yeah, and his reaction gets funnier and funnier!]" Aipom shot back, laughing.
Meanwhile, from the bushes near the group, a brown rabbit pokémon with cream fluff adorning its: waist, feet and the tips of its ears was eating an oran berry. Happily enjoying the morning sun.
Boy, is it good to get away from my brothers for a while, she thought to herself, grabbing another berry from the bush. I swear, if I had to wrestle Toby for another pecha berry, I might've just decked him in the nose.
She sighed and looked up to the sky, watching the clouds roll past. "[Maybe I should look for a trainer today...After all, it's gotta be more exciting than here,]" She mumbled to herself in a scratchy, tomboyish voice, liking the idea. "[Yeah...Maybe. After all, those boys won't miss me.]"
Making up her mind, she got up and started to hop to where she remembered the old road was.
I wonder what having a trainer will be like, She continued to think to herself. I mean, some of the girls around here say that trainers are awful creatures that make us fight to the death but...I don't know, that sounds a little farfetched.
She suddenly heard, what sounded like, a cry of distress and rushed over to where she heard the noise. "[Oh no! She sounds like she's in trouble!]" She said to herself.
After about a minute or two, she peeked her eyes out of the bush and saw, what could've been, one of the strangest things she'd ever seen.
There was a black haired trainer and a yellow mouse like pokémon, a pikachu if she remembered correctly, chasing a purple monkey pokémon. The purple pokémon, whose species she didn't recognize, was holding a hat in its hand-like tail.
The whole scene was rather amusing and she openly started giggling as a piplup was smacked out of the way by the purple pokémon. And then a potato somehow found its way into the air.
All of a sudden, though, the pikachu managed to grab the hat from the monkey, said hat landing on his head. He then dove off the picnic table to grab the potato out of the air.
The rabbit blinked as the mouse did three front flips and landed in the middle of the road.
Huh, neat, She thought to herself, grinning. She appreciated a good show of skill and, judging by how well the pikachu made that landing, he clearly had a lot of it.
He looks like he could be a good opponent, She continued, getting giddy, her ears punching the air in anticipation of her reveal. Yeah! Definitely!
She then started to hop lightly, getting ready to jump out and challenge him to a battle. Alright! A one! And a two! And a-
"Look out!" She turned to the left and noticed a human machine driving down on a straight path towards the mouse. Said mouse looking like a deerling in the headlights as it came towards him.
Three! The rabbit finished, jumping out of the bushes and tackling the pikachu out of the road. The machine rushing past the pair of them, the wind barely brushing the bunny's foot fluff as it passed.
"[Phew, that was close! You were almost a pikachu sandwich!]" She said, grinning at the yellow pokémon next to her. "[You okay?]"
"[Huh, oh yeah, I'm f-]" The yellow pokémon mumbled before he looked up at her. He then seemed to pause and stare at her.
This caused her to blink and tilt her head in confusion. Uh...What's up with him?
Wow...Who's that? Pikachu thought to himself, staring at the rabbit that had just saved him. Noting her brown, sparkling eyes and her cute little pink nose. Her pristine brown fur and her poofy cream fluff. She's...really pretty…
"[Um, hello? Earth to whoever you are?]" The brown pokémon said, waving her paw in his face. That's when he realized that he had been staring at her and started laughing, awkwardly, and looking away. Hoping to hide how red he felt his cheeks getting.
"[Y-yeah, I'm c-cool. Uh thanks for s-saving me,]" He said, standing up on wobbly legs and offering her a paw up.
She blinked, but accepted the help. "[Uh sure, no problem...Are you sure you're okay? You're acting awfully strange.]"
Pikachu panicked and scrambled to think of something to say to the pretty girl. "[Oh I'm fi- fine, how ab-about you? You dat- I mean doing okay?]" He answered, awkwardly rubbing one of his arms with the other. Said action helping to calm his rapid heart-rate.
The girl tilted her head at him for a bit, before shrugging it off and grinning. "[Yeah, I'm fine. Not my first time playing torchic with the metal boxes!]" She then put her wrists on her hips. "[Anyway, I cha-]"
"Okay, but your pokémon need to look before crossing the road!" Pikachu blinked and looked up at a stern-looking Officer Jenny looking down at him. Vaguely he was aware of Brock being dragged away by a purple toad-like pokémon.
"[Okay, sorry, Miss Jenny,]" Pikachu said, respectively.
"Yeah, that was a close call. I'm glad you're okay, buddy!" Ash said, crouching down to get more eye level with his partner. "And thanks for getting my hat back, you're the best!" He continued, retrieving his hat.
Pikachu blushed, feeling the eyes of the pretty pokémon on his back. "[All in a day's work!]"
Ash then noticed the other pokémon and smiled at her. "And thank you too. If you weren't around, Pikachu might've been seriously hurt."
"[Oh uh, sure no problem!]" She said, suddenly a little more bashfully. Almost as if she weren't expecting a thanks. "[Think of it as my good deed for the day!]"
While this was happening, Pikachu started looking over the girl a bit more. He didn't recognize her species, but he couldn't deny that she was pretty. And, with her acting as bashful as she was now, really freaking cute as well. And the way the sun was reflecting off her coat of fur…
He suddenly caught himself when he noticed her looking at him again and she pointed at him. "[Oh yeah, that's right! I challenge you to a battle!]" She challenged.
"Huh, what's up?" Ash said, getting his pokédex out of his bag. Quickly he scanned the rabbit.
"Buneary!" The mechanical voice announced, before it continued: "The rabbit pokémon. When sensing danger, it extends both ears as an alert, and when cold, it curls up and goes to sleep."
"[Hey! I am not that lazy!]" She argued, folding her arms at the implication. "[Anyway, I want to battle!]" She said, enthusiastically jumping up and down and pointing to Pikachu.
"You want a battle?" Ash asked, to which she nodded. Ash grinned and adjusted his gloves. "Well alright! It'll be cool to catch a buneary!"
"[You can try!]" She called back, teasingly, bouncing far enough away to start the battle.
"Hold on, Ash!" Dawn interrupted, getting in the way just as Ash was about to call out a move. "Maybe I should try and catch this buneary. After all, I only have Piplup and I need another pokémon to be ready for the Jubilife contest."
While they were talking, the buneary started to tap her foot impatiently. C'mon! I wanna battle already! What's taking so long!
"Alright Dawn, you can try first," Ash relented reluctantly. Dawn smiled and thanked him before motioning to Piplup.
Not wanting to disappoint, Piplup nodded and jumped in front of Dawn. "Okay, Piplup! Spotlight!"
"[Wait, what?!]" The bunny asked, shocked. "[But I wanted...]"
"[You ready to go down, bunny-girl!]" Piplup declared, cockily. "[Cause I'm gonna beat you and you'll join team Piplup and Dawn!]"
The buneary blinked, before sighing. "[Alright, fine. Guess I'll have to go through the small fry to get to the battle I want then.]"
"[Small fry!]" Piplup cried out, indignantly. "[I'll have you know I'm my trainer's strongest pokémon!]"
"[Didn't she just say that you were her only pokémon to that boy over there?]" She replied with a deadpan expression.
Piplup blinked, before grunting, clearly frustrated, and charging at her with a peck. Not even waiting for a command from Dawn. The rabbit grinned and stepped to the side, holding her leg out.
And, almost predictably, Piplup tripped over and fell onto his face. "Oh no, are you okay, Piplup?" Dawn asked, worried.
"[Yeah, I'm fine! I'm-]" He said, before the rabbit slammed her ear into his face and sent him back at Dawn's feet. "[Okay, I'm not fine!]"
While this was going on, Pikachu just kept admiring the brown bunny as she went about her battle. She was dodging Piplup, expertly, and had a determination that he rarely sees in other pokémon.
She's fierce...and cute...and pretty...and…
"[Yo, earth to Pikachu?]" Aipom asked, waving her tail hand in front of his face. "[You okay, bro?]"
Pikachu's cheeks started to get tinted a darker red and his heartbeat started to pound away. Her voice is pretty, her eyes are pretty, she's…
"Piplup! Use bubblebeam!" Dawn declared. Piplup, obediently, fired a volley of bubbles towards the buneary.
Who merely grinned and started to use them as stepping stones. And Piplup realized, all too late, that she was now close enough to punch him in the face with her earagain.
She's an awesome battler...she's so...so...cool, Pikachu thought to himself before he yelped, feeling a sharp pain in his backside.
He turned to glare at Aipom, who whistled innocently as she withdrew her tail hand. "[About time you came back to us, Romeo. Liking what ya see, eh?]"
"[I uh...don't know what you're talking about,]" Pikachu shot back, turning away to hide his red face.
"[Don't try and hide it, buddy, you've been staring at her since she got here!]" Aipom teased, grinning mischievously. "[Oh, my little Pikachu's growing up!]" She continued, pinching his cheek.
Pikachu slapped her paw away and grumbled. "[I...I don't...]"
"[Pikachu has a cruuush! Pikachu has a cruuush!]" She teased, before noticing that Piplup had been knocked out and grinned further. "[And Pip's been knocked ooout!]"
Pikachu, seeing an opportunity, leaped onto Ash's shoulder to get away from the monkey. But now she's put the thought in his head, it wouldn't go away.
Do I have a crush? He thought to himself, feeling his heart start to hammer in his chest. Especially hard when the bunny's determined eyes set their sights on him. She's looking at me! Oh Mew, I think I'm gonna...I'm gonna…
"Alright, Pikachu! It's our turn now! I choose you-Eww!" Ash interupted himself as Pikachu suddenly vomited on his shoulder. He flinched as it seeped down his jacket, but his concern overpowered his annoyance. So, instead of reprimanding the mouse, he turned to ask:"Ah man, are you sick, buddy?"
The buneary blinked, growing concerned now, forgetting about the battle she wanted. Aw, poor guy. Must still be in shock about that metal box. She thought to herself, sympathetically.
"I'm sorry, Buneary, but I'm going to have to battle you some other time. I need to look after my buddy, here," Ash said, snapping her out of her thoughts. She then just nodded, happy with that, and turned to leave.
When Pikachu saw that, he panicked. He didn't want her to leave yet! He hasn't really talked to her! He doesn't even know her name! There's no way he was going to let that happen!
He suddenly, with new found energy, jumped off of Ash's shoulder. "[N-no! I can go! Just uh...ate too much earlier or something!]" Pikachu cried out, getting in a battle stance.
The buneary turned back and tilted her head at the yellow pokémon. Man, this guy's acting weird.
Ash was having similar thoughts, but just gave Pikachu a smile. "I mean, if you're sure, buddy," He said, catching a washcloth that Brock had thrown him to clean up Pikachu's mess.
Pikachu nodded, his cheeks sparking with electrical energy. "[For anything!]"
"Alright, you ready, Buneary?" Ash declared, pumpimg his fist in the air, excitedly.
The rabbit blinked, before grinning and unrolling both her ears. "[Bring it on!]"
ML54: Hope you guys enjoyed this! And don't worry, I haven't abandoned Mystery Dungeon, this is just something for me to work on to keep me interested in things. I'm just working on two fics now!
Pikachu: See, this sounds like old MewLover coming back.
ML54: It's just two this time! I promise. Please review and keep on keepin' on, guys! :D
NOTICE: Okay, so I finished this chapter up and I was happy and then today my laptop decided it didn't want to work anymore. So, uh...depending on the situation, and whether I can find and use a working laptop/computer, I may not be able to update for a while. I'm really sorry, I'll try and find something to do some stuff on. Sorry.