"Welcome To Iron Island, Ash!" Riley welcomed the young boy as he and the newly born Riolu walked into the—and we put it as kindly as possible—floating giant rock.
The child looked around with a frown after the long trip from Kanto. "Where's papa?" He asked honestly for what felt like the one hundredth time during the trip.
Riley and Lucario huddled together for a bit.
'Riley, what are we going to do?!'
"We stick with the original plan, help train Ash to be an Aura user and go from there."
'I mean about Master Phoenix. What happened was tragic—'
"It was tragic, Lucario, but we have to trust that the two of them will come to their senses. They just need time." Riley assured him. "And Ash needs someone to look out for him."
With that they both turned back towards the child.
'… Riley, Ash is gone.'
Or rather; where the child was previously standing.
The two Aura users quickly resorted to using their powers to track the young boy. They quickly found him and the new born Riolu walking towards the main cave of the island.
The young boy looked around his new surroundings and then climbed on top of a rock. Iron Island was different from Pallet Town. Despite how vast the small town was to him, it never felt as empty as this place.
He missed his dad. He missed his mom. When would he see them again?
It was then he heard grunting sounds coming from behind him. And he saw the red Riolu struggling to climb up after him.
Ash helped the Pokémon up and the young Pokémon smiled at him in thanks.
'T-Thank you!' He squeaked.
"You're welcome." Ash found himself smiling at the Pokémon. No matter what, Pokémon always seemed to make him smile.
'Are we going on an adventure?' The Riolu asked.
Ash looked around again. He no longer saw a plain old rock, but rather a treasure island filled with secrets underneath like the stories his mom told him before he slept.
"Oh wow! Yeah! There's gotta be treasure in there!" Ash spoke up as he ran towards the cave entrance with the Riolu following close after him.
Ash may have potentially lost his parents, but at least…
He had a new friend.
[Chapter 2: Friendship Building]
After that debacle with the Ultra Beasts, Professor Oak and Lillie's mother were surprised to find the two children drenched in water. After a change of clothes and an explanation as to what happened to make them both soaked to the bone, Professor Oak surprised them all.
"I was hoping to tell you all when you came back, but I suppose now is a good time as any." The old professor spoke up. "When I received the data from your Foundation, Lusamine, I recognized a similar event that happened here over seven years ago."
The professor, out of respect, said that he wasn't going to reveal the details of that event, but he did say that Ash's family is related to Ultra Wormholes like Lillie's family was.
It was one of the reasons he asked Ash to come back to Pallet Town. The Ultra Beasts seemed to react strangely to the ability of Aura, but he never had a chance to fully test it out until now.
Lusamine, on the other hand, was worried for Lillie. Ultra Beasts were creatures not to be trifled with and they were lucky that they came out mostly unscathed, but she was thankful towards Ash once again for not only helping them, but saving her daughter.
Since she wasn't at the best of health, Lillie explained to Ash the entire story of what the Ultra Beasts were and what they had gone through. However, there were some parts that were skipped over for specific reasons.
Ash and Rojo were amazed at the tale—to put it as short as possible. But they found themselves very sad for Lusamine who had Ultra Beast poison in her blood due to the event.
In return, Ash explained his powers, the concept of Aura, towards the two women from Alola. He said that some people were born with a strong soul that was powerful enough to manifest into the physical world through powers. He began a tale with one of the greatest Aura Guardians, Sir Aaron and explained that Aura had given him and other Pokémon special abilities that most did not. He went on to explain that his father was an Aura user and that he learned to harness his Aura on Iron Island where he spent years training it.
He ended his exposition in saying that he wasn't fully complete with his training to become a fully fledged Guardian, but for this last leg, his godfather wanted him back in Kanto to help out Professor Oak.
The entire day was spent with explanations and stories to catch everyone up on the same page, so they basically talked the day away and decided to start planning and tests tomorrow.
Early that next morning, Lillie found herself observing Ash closely as he devoured the food that Professor Oak happily prepared.
The idea of humans being able to use Pokémon like abilities sounded farfetched, even though she had her own adventure that really went out there.
'Hey, Ash, pass the gravy!' Rojo asked as Ash did so for the fighting type to put on his food.
"Careful, Rojo, we don't want you having another stomach cramp. Remember that one Christmas?"
'I seem to recall you challenging me and losing horribly in that pie eating contest.' The Riolu had the advantage of being able to speak while eating without sounding rude.
"That's only because you cheat with talking through Aura and distract me with conversations." Ash pointed back.
'You dare challenge the Eating Master, peasant?' Rojo declared with staged arrogance.
"You're reign of gravy terror ends today, you mad man!" Ash took on the challenge of his old friend.
"How are you able to do that?"
The two froze as they looked back up and remembered they were eating right in front of Lillie.
"Are you talking about eating?" Ash asked innocently.
The blonde girl shook her head and pointed towards Riolu. "No it's just I've only seen a Rotom be able to speak human language because he was in control of a specially designed PokéDex. I didn't know there were Pokémon that can communicate without technology."
"Well Aura allows me to communicate with almost any Pokémon, not just letting Pokémon speak in human language." Ash explained.
That caught Lillie's attention. "You can talk to any Pokémon? Does that mean you knew what the Ultra Beasts were saying?"
Rojo and Ash looked at each other at the mention of that.
'They… if they were capable of speech, we definitely didn't understand what they were saying.' Rojo mentioned.
Ash nodded. "To us they sounded more like sounds than actual words."
There was a knock on the door and Professor Oak went to see who was at the door.
He blinked after he opened the door and he saw a large group of people wearing white uniforms and some wore masks, but then the famous researcher called out to Lillie. "I believe the Aether Foundation has finally come here with your luggage."
That was an understatement as Ash and Rojo saw a large amount of fancy and well dressed people with expensive and never before seen equipment come inside the lab.
Two of them came up to Lillie and even bowed to her. "Miss, where is the president?"
"She's in the next room to the right." The blonde girl answered as most of the workers paid respect to her and promptly left.
The two boys, who had lived their life on a rock of an island, stared at Lillie in stupor.
"What?" The blonde girl eventually asked the two frozen people.
'Are you a princess?' Rojo asked out loud.
Lillie opened her mouth to find a way to answer that, but somewhat struggled to explain. "Well, no… but I have been called that before…"
"Ahh there you are children," The two looked at Professor Oak who was walking up to them. "I've been calling Bill, but for some reason he hasn't been answering my calls. I tried calling Daisy, my granddaughter who works with him, but I'm getting the same results."
"Why isn't he answering?" Ash asked only for the older professor to shake his head and say he doesn't know, but it's not sitting well with him.
"We'll have one of the men here drive over to Cerulean City and pick him up from there. The phones must be down or something." Professor Oak explained.
"Wait, I want to come along." Lillie stepped up. "I… one of the reasons why I came here was to help get a cure for my mother, but also to start my own adventure."
With determined eyes she spoke up again. "Professor Oak, I would like to be a Pokémon Trainer. Please give me a Pokémon."
Professor Oak rubbed the back of his head. "Unfortunately, I no longer have any prepared starter Pokémon."
"What? Really? Are you sure there are none left?" She pushed a little harder.
The professor saw the disheartened look on her face and thought about it a little more.
He sighed as if he was giving up on something. "There is… one Pokémon left."
The old professor walked on towards a different part of the lab where Lillie and Ash followed after him. He reached for a Poké Ball with a lightning bolt emblem and gave it to Lillie.
"There is a Pokémon there but I have to warn you that it's not very…" The professor paused for a second, trying to find the words to use next. "Cooperative."
Lillie seemed confident as she recalled something in her past. "I've had trouble with 'uncooperative' Pokémon before."
She threw the ball out and a Pikachu came out of the ball.
"Aww, it's a Pikachu!" The blonde girl cooed before she hugged it close.
"Wow good for you, Lillie!" Ash congratulated the girl on her first Pokémon.
However, Professor Oak started to speak with some unease despite the happy event going around. "Oh you'll see…"
No one but the old professor saw the vein popping on the electric mouse's head before it suddenly unleashed a powerful shock on Lillie, Ash, and even Rojo who was unfortunately in close range.
Professor Oak went on talking while the three were getting shocked. "It's also known as an electric mouse. It's usually shy but can sometimes have an electrifying personality."
The electric mouse stopped shocking all three of them, the surprise shock made the Riolu fall to the ground and into a paralyzed status.
"I-I see what you mean…" Lillie managed to squeak out.
"Shocking isn't it?" The professor dryly finished.
"W-Why didn't you warn us?" Ash weakly asked as he remained in the same position as he was being shocked.
"Believe me dear boy, I've tried." Professor Oak spoke up before taking out several unused Poké Balls and a PokéDex. "Now take this. Your Kanto Pokédex and some Poké Balls."
Lillie slowly reached for them, "T-Thank YOOUUUU!" But the moment she made contact with the professor, the Pikachu shocked all of them again.
"YOOUURRR WWELLCCOOMMME!" Professor Oak managed to still be polite despite being hit with high voltage.
Such a gentleman he was.
After that debacle, Lillie was in the process of telling her mom that she was going with one of the drivers to Cerulean City and that she was finally starting her journey as a Pokémon Trainer.
In the background of that conversation, Professor Oak decided to ask Ash something. "Ash, I know this might seem a bit much, but do you mind accompanying Lillie to Cerulean City?"
"You know, I've never seen any town besides Pallet even though I was born in Kanto." Ash admitted. "So I would love to go."
'Do we have to go with that punk!?' Rojo sneered as he leered at the Pikachu nearby Lillie.
"Rojo! We help people in need." Ash tried to reason. His answer made his fighting type Pokémon pout and fold his arms. "We'll go, Professor."
"Good. It's just that…" Professor Oak looked towards Lillie as she then looked to Pikachu.
"Okay! Time to get in your Poké Ball, Pikachu!" She got the sphere and threw it at her new Pokémon—only for it to kick it back easily right back into her hand.
"Huh?" She threw it again, but this time he bounced the ball back with his head… then his palm… then his leg again…
"That's actually some really good precision that Pokémon has…" Ash mused with a hint of being impressed.
"Not helping!" Lillie yelled back as she threw the Pokémon Ball back and Pikachu hitting the ball back into her palm, making an impromptu game of catch between the two.
"Get. In. The. Poké Ball!" After finishing that last word, she held the ball in her hand and put her free hand on her face. "Oh Arceus, it's Nebby all over again…"
Pikachu took this moment to shock Lillie, and by proxy, Ash and Rojo again.
Professor Oak had the foresight to carefully hide behind one of his equipment before the attack was launched. "Ash! This was why I wanted you to go with her!"
"I think I see your point!" He yelled over the pain.
When the attack finished, the two kids fell into the ground from the shocking experience.
Afterwards, Professor Oak found some rubber gloves lying around his kitchen and let Lillie borrow them to help drag the unwilling Pikachu in one of the Aether foundation cars (Which was technically a Limo, further making Ash wonder how rich was Lillie?). Ash and Rojo were asked to come along as well to help Lillie out.
However, while in the back of the fancy long car, Lillie was having a lot of trouble convincing her new Pokémon to get into the Poké Ball.
"Well, not all Pokémon like being in a Poké Ball?" Ash, even though this was the first time he was in a limo, offered this advice to the girl as she seemed already tired at the beginning of their ride.
'Here, let me try.' Rojo walked up to Pikachu. 'Hey there, maybe we got off the wrong foot there. Even I go in my Poké Ball sometimes. Who knows? Maybe it's not as bad as we think."
The Pikachu narrowed his eyes at the fighting type. It seemed like besides humans, he also didn't seem to respond well to other Pokémon.
"Chu Pikachu Pika." The Pikachu answered back which loosely translated into, 'Like I'm going to listen to you or your stupid looking owner.'
Pikachu did not expect the fighting type to use Sucker Punch (not the move, an actual sucker punch) right on his cheek after he insulted Ash in front of the Riolu.
'You take that back you little rodent!' Rojo furiously screamed as he then tackled the Pikachu and electricity started flying as the two started rough housing at the back.
Lillie and Ash ducked one bolt of thunder and the blonde girl asked, "Ash!? What's going on!?"
"Rojo has a temper problem sometimes. He's usually a great guy though, trust me." Ash spoke up as he put up an aura shield to stop the electricity from hitting the two of them.
The emerald-eyed girl noticed the shield and quickly realized something: "You could have shielded us this whole time!?"
Ash's heterochromia eyes widened. "Oh right. That completely slipped my mind!"
It was then, over Rojo and Pikachu fighting, there was an intercom on from the driver.
"Umm, Miss? We're almost at Viridian City. I'm going to have to gas up there before we make our trip to Cerulean City."
"Pi! Pikachu!" The electric type was pushed towards one end of the car and started charging up a lot of electricity.
Rojo, not backing down, started creating a Focus Blast.
"Rojo!" Ash screamed from behind his purple bubble, but his Pokémon wasn't listening to him right now. The aura adept clicked his tongue and increased the power of the shield around him and Lillie.
It was good timing too since the two small Pokémon unleashed their attacks.
*Boom!*
The limo windows exploded from the impact, causing the driver to stomp on the breaks.
Out of the explosion, Pikachu jumped out of one of the windows and started running as fast as he could go.
Ash quickly opened the door for him, Lillie, and Rojo to get out of the smoking Limo. The driver quickly got out and looked at the state of the car.
"Rojo, did you remember we were in a Limo!?" Ash scolded his partner after they all came out.
'You heard what he said! I wasn't going to let that slide!' His Riolu shouted back.
"W-Where is Pikachu?" Lillie asked as they all looked around. It looked like they had arrived in Viridian City.
"Here, I'll check—what?" Ash closed his eyes before he realized he couldn't sense the aura around him. There was this thick presence in the air that was preventing him from using his Aura to scan for life forms. "I-I can't find him! This has never happened before."
'Same here; something is off with the town here…' Rojo noticed that he was also having trouble with his aura.
Lillie looked worried as she glanced around the City. "Oh he can be anywhere by now." Some trainer she was turning out to be, not even a day, and she already lost her first official Pokémon.
"Lillie I'm so sorry, I didn't think that would happen." Ash apologized as if this was his fault this happened. "I should have done more to stop the two."
"What? No, I'm sorry. I guess I was just expecting that being a trainer would be just like…" She trailed off, recalling her friend back in Alola.
Wait… why… why did I think I could be a trainer like them? They could all do amazing things, so why… why did expect I would become like them so easily?
Those small thoughts planted into Lillie's mind.
"I can still help!" Ash insisted, making his Pokémon look at him with surprise.
'Ash, I don't think—'
"It's the least we can do, Rojo. I'm sure Pikachu didn't get that far. I'll look this way and you stay with Lillie incase this weird feeling lifts!" Ash spoke up as he picked a random direction and started running before his red Riolu could stop him.
'Wait—! … Dang it, I screwed up again…' Rojo slacked with frustration that looked to be directed towards himself. He looked shyly towards Lillie and held his arm. 'I'm sorry, Lillie.'
The blonde girl felt horribly guilty as her mind started to see things differently. Her two new friends were trying to help her even though it was her fault for insisting on a Pokémon from Professor Oak when he tried to warn her there was no Pokémon ready for her. It was her fault for trying to force the Pikachu that obviously didn't want anything to do with her. And now? Ash was off in a place he probably had no idea where to go trying hard to help her, and here she was impairing her own journey to help her mother.
"No… I… I'm sorry." She stuttered before feeling the need to leave, the guilt was overwhelming and she couldn't think properly at this moment. "I-I need some air!" She shouted as she ran away from the trouble she believed she caused so fast and so soon.
The red Riolu looked on with surprise before running after her.
"Miss?!" The driver called out but saw the two leave his sight. He sighed and looked at the car, wondering how exactly he was going to push this towards a gas Station.
It was then he noticed a motorcycle and on it was an Officer Jenny.
"Car troubles?" She asked him.
"Yeah…" The answered her.
"Well we better hurry. Viridian City is under a curfew."
The driver blinked as he looked up to the sky, it was slowly becoming sundown. "Wait, under Curfew? Why?" He asked.
"Viridian City has been having some trouble recently with missing Pokémon. But the police have it all under control and it will be lifted soon." Officer Jenny explained.
However, the driver was around long enough to realize that when Police say they have it under control. They more than likely only say that to calm down the populace, so how would Mistress Lillie and Master Ash be when they don't know that there's something causing a curfew in this city?
Rojo followed after Lillie who was just sitting on a bench with a sad frown.
"I'm sorry about that." Lillie talked as Rojo jumped on the same bench as her. "It's just… I guess I was expecting too much of myself. I wanted to be like my friends back in Alola who were all amazing trainers that I didn't realize… it was actually a lot harder being a trainer than I thought it would be." As she calmed down, she was able to clearly think of her situation and while she felt bad, she knew this wasn't the right way to react.
Rojo found himself chuckling. 'You're a lot like Ash in that regard.' That caught the Alolan girl's attention as the fighting type swung his legs in the air and kept talking. 'I think Ash mentioned to you that I have anger issues, but Ash has this nasty habit of his as well in that he always thinks everything is his fault.'
Lillie looked at the red Riolu strangely.
'It's a long story, but Ash blames himself that his mom and technically his dad are gone. He always wants to help people, because I know, he doesn't want to cause any more trouble to anyone.'
Lillie was surprised. She thought Ash was just a really nice person. She didn't know he wasn't so caring for others out of the kindness of his heart, but to remove the guilt in his.
'It's kind of why I get so ticked off at people who insult him. He cares for others more than himself, and it hurts me to think he doesn't see himself as nothing but a burden who is worthless if he isn't helping other people.' Rojo spoke up before looking to her. 'I don't know why I said all of that. I've never told anyone that, even Ash.'
Lillie ended up petting the red Pokémon. "Because you care about him, and he does care about you. I think you told this to make me feel better and it has. Thank you, Rojo."
The fighting type turned away from her smile. If Lillie didn't know any better, she wouldn't have thought that the small Pokémon was being embarrassed at the compliment.
'I'll help you find that Pikachu. I guess I should apologize.' That last word came out very painfully to the aura Pokémon.
Lillie nodded in agreement. She was now determined to find her Pokémon and make it work. Sure the electric mouse may not like her, but she was going to do her best to understand if they really weren't meant to be.
'So how are we going to find him?'
It was then the blonde girl realized that for some reason, they couldn't find Pikachu in the City with Ash and Rojo's Aura ability. Actually, now that she looked around, this place was surprisingly empty for a city. Where is everyone?
A voice called out to the two. "Lillie! Rojo!"
Rojo perked up and looked over towards a direction behind him. 'Ash?'
Lillie quickly followed the voice, but she was surprised to see Ash with someone new.
A few minutes ago in a different area, Ash was lost. There was nothing more to say than that.
Truth be told; the only city he's ever been to is Canalave City and while the Sinnoh city had its advantages, it was still a fairly small and humble city when compared to how vast Viridian is.
Still, the difference then was that he could sense people's Aura when he was brought to Canalave to be home schooled by Riley. For some reason, there was this weird energy that was suffocating his ability to sense other people's Aura and he couldn't even find the aura of Lillie's Pikachu.
Now that he thought back, he really felt guilty. Ash recalled that Rojo was his closest friend growing up and the red aura Pokémon was always different from most Riolu besides his look. Riolu and Luacrio were said to be in legends that they were noble and just Pokémon who always stood by the righteous.
In fact, Ash also assumed that as well when he saw his father's Lucario, Crescent, and Riley's Lucario. However, Rojo seemed to have something that the other Lucario didn't have: Rojo had a bad temper. It all started one day years ago, when Ash was starting off his aura training with Rojo back then.
The lesson was simple, talking to wild Pokémon. However, a very rude Geodude insulted a young Ash and made him feel bad.
What the rock type didn't know was that while Ash was feeling sad, the Riolu got ticked off and attacked him, demanding that he apologized.
That was when they all learned of Rojo's short temper, something no Riolu or Lucario had ever been previously recorded with.
Eventually, they learned Rojo got especially angry when one thing happened: whenever someone insults Ash, he snaps and loses his cool.
The aura user in training should have done more to calm down his friend the moment the insult escaped the Pikachu's lips, but he didn't and now they were behind because of it.
He felt really bad about it.
"H-Hey *Hiccup!* there sunny! *Burp!*" Ash's heightened senses looked over to a man who clearly seemed drunk and staggering over to him.
"Y-You look exactly like my wife. You know that right?" The man slurred as he wonkily walked over to the young boy.
Not knowing how to respond to such an open statement, Ash decided to ask the man if he saw a Pikachu pass by.
The man burped the smell of beer before pointing in front of him and Ash. "Ain't that one there?"
Quickly, Ash turned towards where the old man was pointing, but suddenly slouched when he realized it was just a Weedle.
"Weeeedddlllleeee." The small insect Pokémon droned on.
Oddly enough, Ash heard the dual type and immediately noticed something wrong. The Weedle had just said, 'I obey your command' in a manner that almost seemed like brainwashing.
So of course the old man would react first and quickly grab Ash and point back to the Pokémon. "Now listen here, sunny, I'm gonna teach you how to use a Poké Ball and capture that there Zapdos."
"That's not a Zap—"
"Now the key is that you gotta weaken the Pokémon before ya catch it. Don't just throw it and expect to instantly capture the guy on your first go." The flushed man then threw a Poké ball, and despite how he couldn't even stand up straight, the ball landed directly on the Weedle and actually caught the small Pokémon on the first try.
"Yahtzee! You've been such a good friend that I want you to have my first born." The man motioned to the Poké Ball on the ground before the drunk leaned on Ash completely and seemingly losing all semblance of consciousness.
The kind boy knew he couldn't just leave this old man just anywhere, so he just… propped him near a tree and took the Poké Ball the old man threw at the Pokémon.
He opened it up and once more, the Weedle droned on about obeying something, though it didn't (or rather couldn't) do much to escape from Ash. The Aura user in training wanted to try something and tried to focus his Aura on the Weedle. There, he sensed the strange fog like power over the mind of this small Pokémon.
Ash raised his brow at the curious power he was sensing and decided to try something. He gave a portion of his Aura to the bug type to shield him from this weird air around them. What he did was like undoing a spell as the eyes of the Weedle looked like they came back to life after being cloudy and hazy.
'W-Wha? Where am I? Who are you? Where's the boss?'
"Whoa! Whoa! Easy there. My name is Ash."
'Ash? Where am… am I in the human city?' The Weedle looked around the buildings that surrounded him.
"What do you mean by that?" Ash asked.
"I-I was in the forest but then I came here. H-how did I get here!? I'm scared!'
The Aura user quickly tried to soothe the panicking Pokémon. "Okay! Okay! Calm down. I promise I'm not going to hurt you, but I need your help with something. What is the last thing you remember?"
Weedle tried to think really hard, but for some reason he was struggling to recall what happened. 'Well, I remember being hungry—yeah, I was hungry since I hadn't eaten today and none of the others wanted to share with me, so I scurried around, trying to look for something when… I found myself looking towards the City that everyone kept saying to stay away from.'
Ash was curious about that. "What do you mean, staying away from town?"
'For the past week, Pokémon have been going missing whenever they go near the town and never returned. I would have stayed away too, but I smelled something really good and…' The small bug type's stomach started growling. 'Ooohhh. Next thing I know, I'm somehow in front of you.'
"I think I keep a few berries with me incase Rojo gets hungry, but I don't think he'll mind if I share you some." The raven haired boy spoke up as he took out an Oran berry and gave it to the small bug type.
'R-Really!? Oh thank you!' The Weedle admitted before attacking the blue berry.
Ash; however, tried to use his aura again. This time, instead of feeling for other's Aura, he tried to look at the energy that was suffocating the entire town. He felt this large dome like area that was suffocating the air of this city and for some reason, it felt like it was spreading from a random, tall building in the middle of the city.
Now he thought this might be a little rude, but the young Sinnoh boy—for just a second—removed his protective Aura over the Weedle.
'I obey the call…' The Weedle looked towards the direction of the building Ash sensed the focus of energy from and started waddling towards it.
Ash quickly put back the Aura Shield over him.
'Huh? What was I doing?'
Ash removed the shield.
'Yes, master, I obey…'
Ash put the shield back.
'Am I starting to have Amnesia!?'
The gears in Ash's mind started to crank. Why was it that he didn't see people around when they all first came to town? And why did it look like this Weedle have a need to go to that random tower in the distance?
It seemed like without Aura, the Weedle would look like it would go in a trance. With that in mind, Rojo probably was still acting normal because he had a natural Aura protecting him.
But Lillie's Pikachu didn't have Aura, so if it was like this Weedle…
"Weedle, I think you just helped me find someone!" Ash spoke up as he tried using Aura again. He couldn't sense Aura under this field before, but now that he knew he was under some kind of strange dome of energy, he could pinpoint Rojo's Aura within this dome.
'Wait, how did I help yoooOOUUUU!?' The little bug type screamed as Ash suddenly ran as fast as he could, making the poor bug type Pokémon hang on for dear, small life.
If Ash's Aura detection was working properly, he would have noticed two figures following him.
The Aura user eventually saw Lillie and Rojo and called out to the two, making them look towards him.
"Guys, I think I know where Pikachu went!"
"You do?!" Lillie stood up in surprise before pointing towards Ash's shoulder. "Wait, is that a Weedle?" She asked as she picked up her PokéDex and it explained what a Weedle was.
"Oh whoops! Sorry about that!" Ash apologized to the bug type as he gently placed him down.
Rojo raised his brow. 'Ash, why does this Pokémon have some of your Aura?' He pointed towards the dizzy looking thing.
"That's what I'm trying to explain. First, I've gotta see if I can use that Translator trick, so Lillie can understand him." Ash snapped his fingers, and suddenly Lillie could hear the voice of the Weedle.
'And thus the world around me mocks my presence, revealing it can split itself into three and rebuke my existence thrice over…' The dizzy Pokémon somehow started speaking like a poet.
Lillie raised her brow. On one hand, she was surprised that the Weedle was talking, but on the other hand, she was getting used to it thanks to Rojo and previously Rotom. What she wasn't used to, was the surreal feeling of hearing a Pokémon speak in poetic words.
"Okay, to make a long story short. I'm going to remove my Aura around this Weedle and see what happens to him." Ash spoke up as he did so.
The bug Pokémon suddenly stood up straight and started slowly crawling towards the direction of a tall building. 'I obey the command.' It droned on emotionlessly.
Ash then placed his Aura to protect the hairy bug Pokémon and it looked around itself. 'Oh heavens! More giants tower before my miniscule presence!'
"Maybe I've been doing the Aura thing too much on his mind…" Ash noted as the bug Pokémon seemed to still be speaking with slightly above average vocabulary.
Lillie looked to Ash. "Ash, why did that Weedle suddenly looked hypnotized?"
"It's why Rojo and I have been having trouble trying to use our Aura. There's this weird energy around the City and it's making Pokémon go to it. The only reason why Rojo isn't affected is because of his natural Aura is acting like some kind of shield that's preventing it from affecting him." Ash pointed towards the building. "I think your Pikachu might have gone there."
With that the four of them, Ash had the decency to properly carry the Weedle this time, ran towards the building that Ash pointed to.
It wasn't very grand or tall in comparison to all the other buildings plus this building actually looked very old and had a condemned warning all around it with fences and such.
The four were one block away, hiding behind one of the other buildings as they looked at their target from a corner.
'The strange energy here it's so dizzying…' Rojo spoke up as he rubbed his head to somehow mitigate the headache he was having.
'Concurred, my crimson compatriot.' The Weedle commented.
"Ash, I have a bad feeling about this." Lillie spoke up. What was making the Pokémon head towards this place?
"I know. We can't just go in," Ash spoke up before he suddenly signaled everyone to move back behind the corner.
There were some flying Pidgeys and a few Pidgeottos that started circling the building. A few seconds later, the door of the condemned building opened and all of the flying types went in through the door.
"W-What was that?" Lillie asked after they saw the doors close after them.
"This place must be the place where your Pikachu went if it doesn't have Aura like Rojo." Ash placed his hand on his chin. "But something isn't right; what's making Pokémon go in to such a random building? And why?"
'Do you think we should go in?' Rojo asked.
"Pikachu might be in there! So we have to help him!" Lillie spoke up.
Ash spoke his thoughts out loud. "Well I don't think we can sneak in without tipping whoever is inside off. And I don't think sending just Rojo and the Weedle alone would be a good idea."
'I can be careful!' Rojo defended.
"That's too risky! There's gotta be some way we can all get in without raising alarm. If only Lillie and I could… oh…" Ash's features started to slowly brighten.
'I find the look in your irises very disturbing.' Weedle commented.
'I'm with Shakespeare on this one.' Rojo spoke up.
It wasn't helping either of them as Ash recalled something on his way here and quickly looked over towards Lillie.
"Lillie this may sound weird, but how rich are you?"
The emerald eyed girl just gawked in a stupefied expression.
'I have got to stop letting Ash make all of the ideas.' Rojo spoke up with Weedle around his neck as the two Pokémon and trainers made their way towards the condemned building.
"I'll stop making ideas when someone bothers to actually help me out with them." Ash whispered back.
It took a bit, but they all got past the fence via Rojo pressuring his aura onto the simple lock and forcing it to open.
'Hark! We trespass onto dangerous territory with little reinforcements to back us! Woe to us! Woe to us!' The Weedle lamented.
'Hush! We need to start talking like we're hypnotized, remember?' Rojo silenced his back up as they walked closer towards the building.
"Ash, may I just say that this plan is even stupider than the one you had back in Pallet Town?" Lillie harshly whispered to the boy.
"It was the only thing I could think off with little options!" The boy defended. "There's no way we're just letting these two go in alone!"
"Could you at least have thought of a better plan than…" Lillie was flustered and red, not that Ash noticed. "This!?"
In case one was not fully aware, Ash and Lillie were in a Tauros costume for two which was technically a cardboard cutout meant to cover two people as they wore the hind legs as pants.
How convenient of Ash to find an open costume store while he was bumbling around the city looking for Pikachu.
Ash was currently walking the front legs while Lillie was working with the hind legs. This was obviously a new experience both of them never wanted to go through again.
As the 'three' Pokémon walked towards the condemned building, the main entrance opened up for them.
"It looks like it's working." Ash whispered.
"It really shouldn't be." Lillie wiped some sweat off her forehead.
"If there are cameras nearby, I'm betting they aren't giving us a close look. Otherwise, they would know our fur would be made of plastic." Ash deduced. "Anyway, we all have to be quiet. Rojo, you and Weedle have to keep saying 'I obey' and stuff like that."
'I obey.' Rojo droned off in either very well acted sarcasm, or very good acting, Ash couldn't tell which.
As they all walked down the dust, and broken building, they soon came across something none of them were expecting.
There was a high tech looking elevator in the middle of a condemned building and it didn't look like it could go any higher than the first floor. This only meant that if the elevator didn't go up… they were both going down.
"Okay, I did not see that coming." Ash whispered softly to Lillie as the elevator opened up for all of them.
'Aww man.' Rojo whispered as he moved forward, the elevator opening up for them. He, Ash, Lillie, and Weedle walked into the elevator and felt it going down a few levels it was also making the bad feeling in their stomachs feel even worse.
"Ash?" Lillie spoke up with obvious worry. This was starting to look far worse than she imagined.
The raven haired boy knew this and started working his head into over drive. "I'm thinking! I'm thinking!"
When the elevator opened up, the group of Pokémon was surprised to see an elaborate, underground lab. Weedle was doing his absolute best not panic and give away any sign of his weak character from showing while Rojo was mentally swearing he would get back at Ash if this somehow kills him.
From a small peep hole in the Tauros costume, Lillie gasped and spoke up. "Ash, look at that!"
There was this extravagant room with large amount of Pokémon all staring at this huge machine. On the machine was a Drowzee dancing and wearing a helmet that was connected towards the machine, as if it was amplifying his powers.
"My my, what do we have here? I've never seen that Pokémon before." A feminine voice called out.
Weedle was startled, but Rojo maintained his composure as he did his best to look forward and pretend he was under control.
Ash also had to control the Tauros face to not move an inch lest the suspect something was wrong.
Lillie tried to safely peek out one of the holes, but she couldn't properly see anyone from the angle she was in.
A new male voice sounded in. "A Tauros? I mean sure they aren't common here but—"
"Not that Pokémon, Clutch!" The female corrected quickly.
"It's Butch!"
The female voice seemed to ignore her ally. "I mean that Pokémon that's carrying the Weedle. If I'm not mistaken that's a Riolu and a red one to boot. That is a really rare catch. Looks like our Drowzee machine is working wonderfully to hypnotize all the Pokémon within the city."
The two humans inside the Tarous costume were shocked to learn that they had purposely built a machine that hypnotizes Pokémon.
"Anyway, have the two Pokémon on standby here. We're running out of room here, so move that Tauros into one of the other rooms.
"What?" Both Ash and Lillie wondered in their minds before a giant claw came from above them—then crushed their cardboard costume right down the middle.
"HOLY MILTANK!?" The male voice cried out as he thought he saw the claw crush a live Tauros like nothing, but then as the cardboard fell, Ash and Lillie were exposed out in the open.
Rojo silently placed his palm into his face. 'I knew that costume wouldn't work.'
"What the—intruders!" Now that the Ash and Lillie were out of the costume, they had better views of the two people that were previously speaking.
One was a blonde female with purple eyes and a strange pig-tail style while the other was a green haired man with brown eyes. The two of them were wearing what looked to be a black uniform with a bold, red letter R on their torsos.
"Drowzee, surround them!" The male cried out, making the psychic type move the large group of Pokémon to turn viciously towards the trainers.
Lillie gasped as she saw on top of a Hitmonchan, there was her Pokémon! "What are you doing to these poor Pokémon and why!?" She demanded of the two.
"What? Do you two not know of Team Rocket? We're infamous in both Kanto and Johto!" The female bragged.
"Well, I'm from Sinnoh." Ash spoke up as he started surveying the area around him, trying to buy as much time as he could to think of something, and it seemed to be working.
"And I'm from Alola." Lillie added along.
"Oh really? Well in that case…" The female and the male smirked darkly before all the lights in the room shut off.
Lillie yelped while Ash and Rojo quickly went on guard. However, two spotlights appeared right on top of the two adults with dramatic music blasting around them.
"Prepare for Trouble!" The female started.
"And make it double!" The male finished.
"Here's our Mission, so you better listen!" They both shouted out at the same time and soon, there was dramatic background music as they continued their double monologue.
Rojo just stared and asked. 'What are they doing?'
"To infect the world with devastation!"
"To blight all people in every nation!"
"To denounce the goodness of truth and love!"
"To extend our wrath to the stars above!"
"Cassidy!" The blonde female finally introduced herself and shortly after her, the man shouted out his name.
"And Butch!"
"Team Rocket circling Earth all day and night!"
"Surrender to us now or you'll surely lose the fight!"
"RAAATTICATE! (That's right!)" A Raticate jumped in between the two after they finished the main double monologue.
…
…
"Team Rocket?" Lillie managed to speak up, not knowing how to respond to all off... that…
'I really liked their background music though.' Ash mentally thought to himself.
"We usually have to thank tourists like you for bringing in such rare and exotic Pokémon." Cassidy mockingly said. "But since you've stumbled into our little secret…"
All the hypnotized Pokémon snarled at the four of them.
"It looks like we have to discipline such naughty children." Cassidy giggled.
'Ash, I take it back, do you have any more plans?' Rojo placed his arms up as the four of them came closer together.
"Huh? Hey Cass, why isn't that rare Pokémon under the influence?" The male team Rocket member pointed towards Rojo.
"Oh, good eye, Cliff."
"It's Butch!" Her green haired ally quickly commented.
Rojo started to sweat as he lifted his palms out and they started glowing red.
"Drowzee, why isn't that Pokémon disobeying its trainer?" Cassidy asked the psychic type on the machine.
'Odd, I can't seem to make it work… let me just…' The machine around Drowzee started humming louder as more electricity stared pumping out and the creepy psychic type's eyes glowed a vibrant purple.
The instant that happened, Rojo fell into his knees and started screaming and clutching his head in pain.
"Rojo!" Ash cried out and ran towards his frien—but then an electric attack from the mind controlled Pikachu made him back away from his partner.
Weedle was thrown out of Rojo's shoulder and Lillie made a motion to catch him as he was falling.
'This experience grows more foreboding with each moment!' The Weedle worryingly cried out.
"Ash? Please tell me you have something to get us out of this?!" Lillie looked over towards Ash and once more, just like the time when they were attacked by the Ultra Beasts, Ash had a look in his face that wasn't fear.
There was clear focus in the boy's eyes along with hints of anger. "You're going to pay for this…" Ash pointed to team Rocket.
"Oh? And what are you going to do about it, little man?" Bucth mockingly taunted while Cassidy and by proxy, all hypnotized Pokémon laughed.
Despite how bad their situation look, Lillie watched as a smirk slowly spread on Ash's face.
The raven haired boy pointed undauntedly at his opponents in this bleak situation. "I'm going to show you a magic trick!"
That gave everyone pause as Ash stepped back towards Lillie and Weedle. "Shield your eyes." He whispered soft enough for the girl and bug type to hear.
Ash then placed his hands together as he formed a purple Aura Sphere, shocking everyone in the room that didn't know him.
"Now!" Ash yelled as he threw the sphere up high and instead of just exploding, it flashed banged mid air with everyone else looking at it except him, Lillie and Weedle.
"Aaah! My eyes! My eyes!" Butch whined as he started rubbing his closed eye lids.
"You little brat!" Cassidy roared, "Everyone fire! I don't care how; hit that brat!"
Ash grabbed Lillie's hand. "Come on! It won't last for long!" He told her as Pokémon around them started blasting around wildly around.
"Ash, where are we going!?" Wait, didn't she ask this yesterday? But they were going away from the elevator, which was their only means of escape!
Ash pointed towards the large machine manned by the Drowzee. "Take that down and we can free all the Pokémon!"
"How!?" Lillie asked as their only Pokémon left was a Weedle who seemed unable to use lower level vocabulary.
Ash let go of her hand as she stared running and took something out of his bag pack and tossed it to the Alolan girl, it was a well crafted silver rod with a button. "That's a collapsible staff, my uncle gave me to practice martial arts, figure out a way to jam that machine!"
"W-What? Wait, what about you!?" Lillie asked as Ash came to a halt.
"I'm buying you time…" Ash took a fighting stance as all the Pokémon and Butch and Cassidy finally regained their sight and saw their intruders near the hypnosis machine.
"What the—everyone stop those brats now!" Cassidy cried out as all Pokémon fired a large amount of focus fire on the two.
Ash clapped his hands together and created a large purple Aura barrier. Expending this much Aura to stop that many attacks wouldn't last long at all, so Ash tilted the barrier to slant to his right. Instead of stopping the attacks, they would angle and slide towards a different direction and hit the wall behind the two, causing the room to shake and tearing a huge hole in the wall, but not hitting them.
The guardian in training gasped for breath before turning towards the twelve year old. "Go! I can't do that again!" Ash barked as he ran towards the crowd of Pokémon to draw their attention.
Lillie and Weedle quickly made their way towards the machine and the Alola girl spotted something she could jam the staff into to stop the machine from functioning correctly. She quickly stretched the staff to its full length and tried to stab it into the machine. However, she found herself unable to move as she brought the staff up.
In fact, she could barely move her entire body except her eyes. She quickly focused to see Drowzee psychically holding her from destroying the machine with his psychic powers.
Weedle saw this and quickly fired a String Shot—
And it didn't even hit close Drowzee and landed awkwardly onto the floor to his side.
"We-Weedle?" Lillie managed to stammer.
'Sorry, I don't work well under pressure.' The bug type deflated before he was also pinned down by the psychic type.
Things weren't going well for Ash as he was soon overwhelmed by the large amount of Pokémon and pinned down by an Ivysaur trapping him in vine whip.
"Oh how cute, you two tried to play heroes." Cassidy and Butch laughed. "Well nothing personal, but we can't let either of you two just walk out of here."
*Fwoosh!*
The Drowzee on the machine turned towards the sudden red glow heading his way and was hit in the stomach by a thrown Focus Blast.
The impact of the attack exploded and caused the psychic type to get blasted into the wall because he let his guard down.
Cassidy and Butch quickly turned to where the attack came from and saw the Riolu standing up and gasping for breath.
With the hypnotic Pokémon focusing on Lillie and Weedle, Rojo was able to get his bearings straightened out and saw what his friends were doing. Putting all of his power, he threw the Focus Blast like a base ball right for the distracted Psychic type.
'What would you do without me?' Rojo commented to Ash with a smirk.
Ash smiled as he was suddenly dropped by a confused Ivysaur while Lillie and Weedle were freed from their psychic hold.
"Uhh, Cassidy?" Butch asked his partner as all of the Pokémon they once controlled were now free of their commands and slowly asking among themselves what was going on.
"Let's make a run for it!" Cassidy exclaimed before the two bolted towards the main elevator.
Ash made a move towards them, but was distracted with the fact the elevator seemed to be moving before they made their way towards it.
"Later twerps!" Cassidy cried out as the elevator door opened, but out came a Nidoqueen and Golem walked out and rebuffed the two members.
Ash and Lillie were shocked two beautiful young women step out from behind the Pokémon.
"So this is where you Team Rocket grunts have been holing up the past week. Do you have an idea how much Blue is going to nag on me for screwing up the town while he's on vacation?!" This woman had brown long hair and blue eyes while wearing stylish clothes.
"I don't think Blue is the type of person to nag in the first place, Green." A feminine voice came from a blonde girl who looked smaller than the other woman, but she was wearing something like a bugcatcher's clothes that were all yellow and she was wearing a straw hat on her head.
"That's not the point, Yellow! He's just going to give me this condescending stare!"
"Doesn't he always do that?" The smaller woman gently asked.
"Well yeah, but this time he'll have a valid reason to!" The woman named Green growled before pointing towards Cassidy and Butch. "You two are going to feel my wrath for this!"
"W-Who the heck are you!?" Cassidy shouted back.
"Consider me the Temporary Gym Leader of Viridian City!" Green clenched her teeth before pointing at them. "Nidory, knock them out cold!" The Nidoqueen quickly grabbed the two of them and then slammed their heads together, effectively knocking them out cold.
The Raticate tried to fight back, but the Golem stepped in and promptly slapped the rat away into a wall.
With that over, Yellow looked over to both Ash and Lillie. "You two, thank you so much for helping us in this case."
"Huh? O-Oh you're welcome?" Ash spoke up, before he realized that he was still in a room filled with confused Pokémon. Quickly he looked and saw Lillie's Pikachu still on top of a Hitmonchan.
It occurred to him then that the day wasn't over.
Later…
"Amazing, you have the power to understand Pokémon's emotions and heal them?" Ash asked as Yellow healed up Rojo's terrible headache.
"I've always been born with this ability. Though this is the first time I've heard of an Aura user." The straw hat girl explained.
'Are you kidding me? Your power is a million times better!' Rojo stood up back on his feet. 'You have no idea how instant healing would have been sooo much preferred.'
Yellow giggled at the Riolu's complaint since it prompted Ash and him to argue in front of her. She then looked over towards one corner of the room where Ash's friend was talking with a Pikachu.
"Is she going to be alright?" Yellow asked as she felt annoyance coming from the Pikachu.
"Lillie is going to be fine." Ash confidently said when he looked over to their direction.
"Listen, I want to say I'm sorry with how I handled you. I didn't take your feelings into consideration and that was really rude of me." Lillie started off as she kneeled towards the Pikachu.
The Pikachu was actually listening to her now, especially since he noticed how bad she and the others looked after trying to save him and the others. He didn't really like her, but she was starting to look more like a decent person.
Lillie sighed as she placed Pikachu's Poké Ball in front of him. "If you really don't want to be my Pokémon, then I'm fine with that. I just want you to know that I really, really wanted to be your friend."
Pikachu softened at her tone and started to make eye contact with Lillie. Even though he didn't want anything to do with them, they still went out of their way to help him when he was under mind control, which was one of the nicest things someone has done for him.
Still he looked over to Ash's direction and locked eyes with Rojo. The red Riolu locked eyes with him back before putting a hand at the back of his head and rubbing it sheepishly.
'I guess I was a bit of a jerk too. I'm sorry for how I treated you guys.' The Pikachu spoke to Lillie thanks to Ash's translation trick.
The blonde girl brightened up greatly. "Does this mean?!"
'Yeah yeah. If you're willing to go that far for me, it would be mean if I just left you now.' Pikachu admitted before he was suddenly picked up and hugged by Lillie.
"Oh thank you! Thank you! You have no idea what this means to me!" Lillie cheered as she finally bonded with her Pokémon. All it took was a life threatening event with brainwashing involved—oh gosh that actually did happen.
Green stepped back into the room. "Alright everybody! Just stay here until Officer Jenny picks you all up and returns you to your trainers! As for you two!" She pointed to Lillie and then Ash. "Some guy wants a word with you," She motioned back to the room she came out from. "There's a video phone right there you can use."
Ash and Lillie looked at each other before following Green's instruction and finding an open Video Chat with a familiar face.
"Oh, Young Mistress! It's good to see you safe!" It was their driver who brought them to Viridian City in the first place.
"Are you alright?" Lillie asked the employee since she didn't actually know this man's name.
"I'm alright. However, we have a problem. The car has been damaged, and we don't have the papers to rent a new one and the damages to the car would take two weeks to fix!"
Rojo and Pikachu looked away bashfully at the mention of that.
"But we need to get to Cerulean City!" Lillie spoke up.
"Unless you want to travel over there, which will take less than a week, then we're out of options."
Lillie's eyes widened at what he just said. "I'm sorry, can you repeat that please?"
"About traveling over there by foot? Why, young mistress?"
Lillie huffed with new determination. "Time is off the essence. If we can no longer travel by car… Ash and I will make the journey by foot!"
"Whoa! That sounds like fun!" Ash excitedly said. He's always wanted to go on a grand adventure and it looks like he actually was getting his chance to.
"Are you sure?" The driver asked.
The girl from Alola nodded. "Yes! Prepare a room in the Pokémon Center; I'm going to talk to Professor Oak about this!" The new trainer boldly declared as she hung up on him.
She then turned to Ash. "Umm Ash? Do you mind if I ask you to follow me still?"
"Are you crazy!? I would love to! I've always wanted to go on an adventure!" The boy smiled.
A warm smile spread on the girl's face. "Thank you, Ash. I wouldn't have gotten Pikachu back without you."
"Well I wasn't much help. I almost got all of us in trouble." Ash tried to be humble.
"But I mean it. Thank you." Lillie said more sincerely.
Ash paused as he looked at her like that. To be honest that was the first time he was thanked that sincerely. It felt nice.
"Ehh, don't mention it. I mean—isn't that what friends are for?" Ash returned, openly calling her a friend for the first time.
…
'Um hey, so is anyone else really hungry right now?' Weedle, who was on Ash' shoulder asked everyone as he coiled in closer. 'I'm like super hungry right now.'
As soon as he said this, the group realized they were all hungry from the trails of today.
"Alright, we get to the Pokémon Center, eat then we call Professor Oak and tell him our plan, everyone in agreement?"
"Yeah!" They all cheered.
[?]
"S-Stay away from that machine! You have no idea what you are doing!" He yelled as he was pinned to the ground.
A tall and imposing man stood over the scientist. "We are trying to be one with the universe, why shun something that can change people forever?"
"That was a mistake! This machine was never meant to do that!"
"It was a gift from the True One, a gift… we shall share to the world…"
{Author Notes}
Whoo. This chapter was hard to write.
I bet many, if they choose to read this far, are surprised with Lillie's first Pokémon: Ash's Pikachu!
This is an alternate timeline, of course, so there's going to be a lot of different things I hope to put that make this story even more interesting and fun to read.
There's obviously a lot about this chapter I wanted to put to build up the story.
First was the fact that I was giving what was usually Ash's best friend, to Lillie as her first Pokémon. Now, with the fact that Lillie moved to Kanto to help her mom, I couldn't see a repeat of the Spearow Attack that made Ash and Pikachu bond so well. However, I knew that something had to happen to make the two bond, and I thought it would be a great idea to bring back the Episode where Cassidy and Butch mind control Pikachu against Ash.
Next was the fact I thought First Episode Pikachu would have an interesting relationship with Lillie after Sun and Moon. (Spoilers! If you somehow by now choose to avoid everything else so far.) Think about it, Lillie was inspired by the player to be a Pokémon Trainer, she looked up to them as amazing, wonderful trainers and it only makes sense that she would want to be like them.
However, Pikachu shatters this idea because of this fact: everyone starts out differently. Pokémon are different from each other, and Lillie and Ash are going to find out that Journeys are more than just strange adventures.
Also, Ash is actually keeping the Weedle. I'm not kidding. The Weedle scene is based on the old games were (I kid you not) a drunk man tries to teach you how to catch Pokémon in fire red and the first games. The party for these two are not going to be standard in anyway either by stats, or character.
Now two chapters in, and we're starting a fresh new adventure (that may or may not involve badge collecting—WHOA. STOP THE PRESSES.)
Before I end, I would like to thank everyone for reviewing and following and favoriting this story. I do appreciate it.
However, there are some things I need to address.
St. Elmo's Fire told me to change a few things and I do appreciate it, but I decided not to completely change how I make line breaks. From previous experience, these types of line breaks allowed me some more flexible form of writing that isn't set in stone and allows me to make some 'bizarre' structures. And if they are jarring, I can change them in such a way they don't have words in them anymore. Second, he also asked me to set the story under a specific Anime category, and while that may make this story easier to find, I would rather not do that since this story takes on elements from the games (Lillie), Anime (Ash), and Manga and it wouldn't be fair to the others.
Sceptileman12 had a comment that made me smile. I've never actually seen an Ash and Lillie ship before. Though, it does sound like a lot of fun.
AngelMaster14, thanks for the questions and showing interest in this story. I have some ideas to what you're asking and I hope I deliver.
Mandriel – Thanks for the kinds words, but actually, there are a lot of stories where they give Ash aura.
Anyway, thanks for reading.
