Author's note: So. I'm Cattobus. This is my first ever story, so it'll probably be rubbish. Also, as an extra note, all the characters will be OOC, except for my OCs who will never settle on a constant personality. I'm British, so I speak British English (duh), so some stuff will be spelled weirdly/mean something else. I'm not going to reveal all the shippings that will ever appear, but if you have an issue with same sex pairings then you may not like the story.
The shippings I'm willing to reveal are:
Pokeshipping (Ash x Misty)
Leafgreen/Oldrivalshipping (Gary x Leaf)
Contestshipping (Drew x May)
Ikarishipping: (Paul x Dawn)
Wishfulshipping: (Cilan x Iris)
That said, this is an adventure story, not a romance, so the shippings will not take centre stage. The reason I called it 'pretty much au' is because it's technically in the anime universe, but as I said in the summary, I'm '...well, let's not go there' so I've made some changes. I think that's everything, so please review, I don't care if it's negative as long as it's helpful, and you're not just hating.
[Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon, or the song Anima Libera]
Chapter One- Not Your Average Prologue
A young girl sits at a computer, typing out a story. She pauses as she has an idea.
A good idea... she thinks, and continues to weave her tale, chuckling occasionally. The girl laughs louder when she realises what the characters will think of this idea.
A very good idea... she inwardly snickers, now typing furiously, as if the keys are hot coals.
Let the fun begin...
Ash Ketchum was on a roll. He was racing through Kalos at a terrific speed. So it came as a surprise to him when, being challenged to a battle by a wild Abra, he was losing.
"Urrgh!" growled Ash. The battle had been going on for ages, and he was no closer to victory than he was at the beginning of the battle. Indeed, victory seemed further away than before, for the Abra was stronger than he had first anticipated.
He was glad it was only him there, he had left the others at a Pokémon Centre, while he had wandered off to do some training, Bonnie might have ended up getting hurt trying to approach the Abra, who would probably have attacked her without second thought.
"Pikapi!" yelled Pikachu, jerking Ash's attention back to the battle at hand.
"Thanks, bud." Ash murmured, trying to focus. The Abra had noticed Ash's momentary distraction though, and used it to its advantage, charging a powerful Psychic.
"Pikachu!" screamed Ash, hoping that his partner would be okay, but knowing that the battle was over.
"Pi..." mumbled Pikachu, who was clearly unable to battle. Ash ran over to him and knelt down beside him.
As Ash worried over Pikachu, quiet applause filled the air. Ash's head whipped around, searching for the source of the clapping. A hooded figure was standing not far behind him.
"Well done." said the figure. "It's been a while since Solon had a worthy opponent."
"Who are you?" Ash demanded. "What do you want from me?" The figure ignored the questions and asked one of their own.
"Are you Ash Ketchum?"
"What's it to you?" Again the figure ignored him.
"Well, are you?" they asked. Ash sighed.
"Let's say I am. What now?" he muttered.
"Well Ash, I need you to come with me." the figure answered.
"And if I don't?" Ash asked.
"I see you aren't going to come willingly then."
"Not if I don't know what's going on!" The figure seemed to think about it for a while.
"I'm basically kidnapping you. Now you know what's going on, so let's go!" the figure cheered.
"Okay." Ash said, apparently satisfied with the answer. Then he paused. "Wait, what?"
The figure sighed.
"I really hoped it wouldn't come to this... Solon?" The Abra, who was apparently named Solon, passed the figure a frying pan.
"What's that f-" Ash didn't get to finish his question, as he fell over, seeing stars.
The figure sighed. At least it's getting easier.
It picked up Ash and Pikachu, and nodded to Solon. The Abra nodded back as it teleported them away.
Ash woke up in a large room with white walls. "...Where?" he mumbled, blinking. As he looked around, he saw the room was quite big, and had a couple of sofas. And on one of the sofas was-
"Hey, Ashy-boy!~" Gary Oak, in all his hedgehog-headed glory.
"HEY!" Gary yelled, when he realised what the narration had said about his hair.
"Wait, what?" Ash muttered. "Narration?"
Gary rolled his eyes. "You seriously don't notice the running commentary on what's going on?"
Ash was quiet for a bit. Gary smirked, Ash was making himself look stupid.
"HEY! That was uncalled for!" exclaimed Ash. "And to answer your question, Gare-bear," he continued, "Of course I notice it. I just ignore it, because, to the best of my knowledge, no-one else hears it, and if I acknowledge it, people will think I'm crazy." Gary's jaw dropped. He stared at Ash, dumbstruck. He looked like a fish. "SHUT UP!"
"Wow," a voice from behind Ash chirped, "Ash got smart!"
Ash turned around. On a sofa similar to the one Gary was sitting on perched Dawn, Misty and Iris.
"Oh, hey guys!" Ash grinned at his former travelling companions. Misty was holding her mallet, an angry glint in her eye.
"Not smart enough..." she growled.
"Yeah, such a kid," Iris agreed.
"At least he's making progress," a new voice interjected, "June, on the other hand..."
"SHUT UP, GRASSHEAD!" yelled the brunette in question. "AND MY NAME'S MAY, NOT JUNE OR ANY OTHER MONTH!"
"All this fighting will leave a nasty after-taste" mumbled the other green-haired man in the room.
"Yeah," added a certain dark haired Casanova, kneeling in front of Iris, "I haven't been able to ask this fine lady's name in all the commotion!"
"Croa-GUNK!"
"Then again, maybe that's a good thing..."
"Hey, will you guys be okay if I leave you for a while? I've got two more people to pick up." The hooded figure, who had somehow not been noticed standing in the corner, spoke up. Everyone in the room froze. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife. Seriously, though, the silence was getting awkward... Brock chuckled at that one. Drew finally voiced the question on everyone's mind.
"Who the heck are you?!" And after the silence broke, suddenly every question anyone had was voiced.
"Where are we?!"
"What do you want from us?!"
"Where's Pikachu?!"
"Why is Ash smart all of a sudden?!"
"Where dem girls at?!"
"Does the guy I like like me?"
"Is there a toilet?"
"Can you take the hood off?"
The figure sighed. If it had known there would be so many questions, it would have left without announcing its departure.
"Drew, I'll answer that later. Same for Gary and Iris. Ash, you're sitting on him. Misty, your guess is as good as mine. Brock, far away from here. Dawn, heck yeah, if we're talking about the same person. Cilan, go into the hall, second door on the right. May, sure, if it helps..." As it answered May's question, it took off its hood to reveal a dark skinned girl with long black hair and dark blue eyes.
Gary whistled. "A chick, eh? Who'd have thought?" The fig- girl ignored him.
"And now, I really must be going... Solon?" As she called for her Abra (and Cilan excused himself), she pulled her hood back on. And then she vanished, teleporting away to who knows where.
...a while later...
"You liar, that was longer than a while..." Brock groaned.
The hooded girl had teleported back into the room to find Ash being violently electrocuted by Pikachu, May poking Drew in the back repeatedly, Misty holding her mallet with a mad glint in her eye, Cilan composing a haiku about his current situation, Gary flirting with Dawn, Iris humming 'Anima Libera' [Anima Libera by Emi], and Brock sitting in the middle of it all, the still small voice of calm.
The unnamed girl had been observing all this for a while before Brock made his observation. When he did, she just laughed.
"Only one more person to pick up, then I'll explain," she promised.
"Thank Arceus..." sighed Brock. The girl laughed again, before laying a purple haired boy on the sofa, and disappearing.
...a while later...
"Closer to a while, but still..."
The girl sighed. Finally, she thought, Everyone's here... She dropped a brown haired girl on a chair. Looking around, she saw that the situation was much the same, except for the fact that Iris was now singing not humming, Pikachu was visibly calmer, Misty had put her mallet away, Ash had a large bump on his forehead, and Dawn was fawning over the boy with purple hair, who was now awake and grumbling about troublesome females. The girl walked into the middle of the room, and took a deep breath, pulling her hood off.
"EVERYONE! SHUT THE HELL UP!" Everyone in the room froze. "Thank you. Now, I'll tell you what's going on as soon as she-" At this point, the girl stopped, gesturing to the unconscious brunette, "-wakes up." Then the girl paused. "Um, that's all I needed to say. So until she wakes up, just do whatever, I gue-" She was cut off by the purple haired man, who, clearly tired of everything, had punched her in the side of the head. Seeing stars, the girl fell towards the ground. The last thing she remembered before blacking out was a female voice wondering whether to catch her before she hit the ground.