Somewhere near Sinnoh, October 6, 9:21 AM

"Good girl, we're almost there." Seth patted his Flygon's neck as she flew. He yawned slightly, the lack of sleep finally getting to him. He wanted to shut his eyes for just a moment, but he refused to accept such a luxury while his faithful Pokemon was in similar condition

He tapped a few commands into his PokeGauntlet, and a map appeared. The beeping marker, indicating his location, revealed the shrinking distance from the beaches of Sinnoh! Seth shook himself awake and though, Might as well practice. He focused on the palm of his hand and a small ball of bluish light appeared. His eyes flashed blue, green, turquoise and silver, as he made it dance around its fingertips.

He saw a small flock of Tailow fleeing and he raised his hand. He didn't particularly enjoy it but he created five other orbs and suppressed them until they were the size of marbles. He shot one at each of the members of the flock, causing them to vanish. A normal person would see just empty air, but Seth saw something different. He saw the Tailow, flying in a loop in an invisible bubble, oblivious to the fact that they were trapped out of sync with time. Seth also saw the energy that was the future of those Tailow, float around until it vanished. Seth snapped his fingers and the Tailow reappeared. They flew away, apparently startled while Seth waved goodbye. He lay against Flygon's neck and tried to catch his breath.

Right as he broke his promise and fell asleep, his PokeGaunlet began to let out a soft melody and a picture of his best friend with the caption, "Ass-face" appeared on the screen. Seth lifted his PokeGauntlet to his face. "Miss me?" Jayden asked with a smirk as his face popped onto the screen. Compared to Seth, Jayden looked even worse, the effects of the tap on his back from the Witch of New Island having left Jayden with chronic narcolepsy. The restless and sudden sleep had exhausted Jayden, who remained fun and optimistic, due to his playful and comedic nature.

"Not particually, I can actually hear myself think." Seth smiled down at Jayden and the latter acted offended.

"Why, I oppose that statement; I'm known for my quietness." Jayden replied and laughed at his own joke. Seth laughed along but Jayden's eyes immediately narrowed.

"You alright?" Jayden asked, concerned.

"It only hurts when I laugh." Seth dodged.

"Really? 'Cuz it sounds like your ribs didn't heal right, and your anxiety attacks are still affecting your breathing pattern." the slightly taller, skinnier teen responded.

Seth sighed and replied, "Have I ever mentioned how much I hate that your Dad taught you anatomy to a university degree?" Jayden grinned and snapped his fingers. Seth felt his ribs move painlessly and fix themselves. Seth said his thanks.

"Don't mention it. Just keep safe, keep calm and try to stay alive." Jayden ordered.

"I'm worried about the others; we should've stuck together. They know we're more powerful together! This might be the opportunity they'll be looking for, to spread us out so we'll be easy to take out. I might have to go full out, and you're too far away to counteract it."

"I know. Your upbeat idea does make sense, but it's too late to get the old team. We'll get new allies faster this way, I've weighed the cost with the rewards. Just make sure that you don't transform. I could teleport, but I just had an attack and it's a bit much to power up now. Head to Sinnoh, I'll head to Kanto, and when you have the others, call me back." Jayden told him.

"Sir yes sir." Seth gave a mocking two finger salute and hung up.


Pewter City, October 6, 11:45 AM

Ash walked up the hill, his arm bound in a layer of gauze. After the incident at the stadium, he prepared for war. He already retrieved his Pokémon, who seemed not to be infected by the epidemic, but they could still be killed by the zombies, and he already knew any of them would do so to protect them. So he trained to learn his power better. Then he went off to find his friends. He already was assured that May, Max, Misty, and Iris were okay.

He didn't know where Brock was, but he had to see if he was still in his hometown, even though they City was in a state of emergency. Ash walked onto the peak of Pewter Hill. From the view of the hill, Pewter looked normal. The day was sunny, the clouds were white and in few numbers, and the weather was nice. But Ash had a gut feeling that behind that wall of buildings, was a hell hole. Obviously, the raven haired teen ran forward. In the last year, Ash had grown taller, about 6' in height. He also grew more fit, finally snapping out of that babyish body he once had.

Ash vaulted over a car and remarked on the scene, "Dammit!" The once flourishing city was overridden with undead humans. They had grayish skin, clumps of hair and a rotten smell. The worst was their eyes, which were human, but had the gaze of intense fright, which, upon decayed bodies, was horrible to see. Ash focused and sent a ball of bright blue energy into a group of zombies. Those in the front of the group were vaporized. The next row was broken like toothpicks, the next row was thrown back many feet and the last row was pushed back a few yards.

Ash sent another wave of energy at the crowd. They thinned out, but the several more rushed him in its place. He began to huff and breathe heavier as he climbed for higher ground. He was exhausting himself with every blast and these son-of-a-bitches kept coming at him.

"Crap." Ash muttered as more and more came flooding the streets around him.

"Trust me, Ash. Put everything on the line! Release your power" A voice begged in his head. Ash was almost out of it, but the voice soothed him, and calmed him. The voice was familiar, he recognized it, but he knew if he wasted anymore time dwelling on it, the zombies would get him.

He took a deep breath and concentrated on his energy. He felt it swelling like a balloon filled with water. He felt it grow and grow. Right as the first zombie grabbed his leg, the balloon burst.

The wave crashed down on everything, blasting the ground around him part, making him the center of a seven meter blast. The water subsided and he fell to his knees.

"Haha, I did it!" He yelled, dropping down exhausted. The creatures rushing to the sight of the blast saw the exhausted teen collapse. Thirty excited zombies rushed down from all directions.

"No, it's too little too late." he said horrified. He tried to move, only to find that he couldn't even lift an arm anymore. He shut his eyes and waited for the pain.

"Not bad kid, but let me show you how it's done." Ash's eyes burst open. A black haired hid wearing baggy brown pants that stopped an inch above his ankles, a sleeveless red gi top with an open cut, revealing the upper half of his torso, and a marron sash tied around his waist, seemed to drop in right in front of Ash . He held his left hand past his right eye and brought it around, pivoting in the process. The edges of the crater burst, obliterating nearly every zombie in the vicinity. All the others ran towards the perpetrator.

Though the zombies were running at superhuman speeds, the mysterious savior blocked the first super-fast punch with ease and then, even faster, delivered a hook kick to the zombie's skull, shattering it. The teen began to race around the city, sending powerful punches, uppercuts and kicks to the undead bastards. In less than a minute, he reappeared in front of Ash, dusting zombie debris off his clothes. The sound of a zombie's growl filled Ash's ears. Jayden looked to the side and his normally auburn-colored left eye changed. The whites and iris vanished, only to replaced by a swirling mass of color, every color that seemed to exist in fact. The zombies glowed white before vanishing.

"Now that's how it's done. You did pretty good for a rookie." Ash began to fade out before Jayden tapped his skull. Ash felt his wounds vanish. "All right come on. Don't pass out on me; I don't wanna carry your sorry ass all the way to Viridian." Jayden told him. When Ash finally did pass out, Jayden threw him over his shoulder and muttered "Looks like we got a long way to go." And with that, the conscious teen became enshrouded in a blue aura and shot off into the sky.


Twinleaf Town, October 6, 11:45 AM

"Charge right in they said! It would be fun they said!" Seth said in anger, looking down from his perch.

He was still a block away from the research facility where a group of survivors had locked themselves up. However, there was no way he could get in and smuggle all of them out. His senses buzzed and turned on his heel. He couldn't see them but he sensed them not far; they'd be here in twenty minutes, tops. He'd have to do this quickly and quietly.

A small smirk appeared on his face as he thought up an idea to buy some time. He landed on the street and rolled to disrupt the momentum. His hands touched the ground, it was about time he recharged, and he had put it off for too long. The process required too much life force, too much of something else's time. He took a deep breath in and felt the surge of energy as the time flew into his body, healing all his cuts and bruises, some leaving scars and others just fading. His fatigue flew away as he opened his eyes. He took a step back and walked away.

Then a five meter wide gap cracked and tore itself apart collapsing on itself, turn to dust and sand and scattered in the wind. He was immortal, but at a price, and the power was a drug. More intoxicating than anything, he could feel it tempting him to use it. But he merely shook it off and let his eyes shine gray. He was in control for now but he could feel his "friend" wanting to come and play.

He jumped a good twelve feet in the air grabbing a pole and swinging a bit before landing on the window sill of the facility. He slowly opened it to show it was a storage closet. He hopped down, and brushed himself off, and walked into an argument.

"We should get out of here, head to the mountains, it'll be safer there." A boy brown haired complained.

"Snowpoint is too cold for anyone of those to get there." A purple haired boy agreed.

"We don't know that Paul, and you've seen what I can do, we might be able to help!" A blue haired girl argued back.

"Yes we know you're a freak, and that you can shoot those bolt things or whatever, and you grow limbs but what happens if your head gets cut off or if you're just like an endless meal to them! You'll die!" Paul yelled back.

"But at least I won't die a coward!" The girl yelled. Paul's hand raised and swung down at her.

I was halfway across the room in a second, and my hand was gripping at his arm, but mine wasn't the only one, a tall dark skinned man like me had his arm as well.

"Who do you think you are?!" Paul roared. I kept my emotions under control, and they were still gray.

"Shut up Paul! He's just a passerby who's just a decent person." The dark man said, releasing his grip on Paul's arm and offered his hand to me. "My name's Brock Takeshi, nice to meet you."

"He's just a punk who shouldn't but into others business." Paul muttered.

"Seth, Seth Gray. Are you Misty Waterflower and Dawn Berlin?" Seth asked, but he already knew, he was told they'd be together.

"Yes. But, how do you know our names?" Misty spoke up.

"A friend and a way out, do you know yet? You do, but you obviously have no experience though." Seth said glancing at Dawn.

"What do you mean?!" Dawn said, apparently offended.

"Do you have any training with your powers? Any clue why you have them? Or did you just think that you were lucky?" Seth replied, but he already knew. "You're not even suppressing your aura; the infected will be drawn to like a lighthouse especially with all three of you here."

"What do you mean three?" Gary asked. Seth recognized him from a lecture he had heard a thousand times about his research on Dialga.

"Brock, Misty, and Dawn they aren't like you and neither am I. You want to call it freaky, be my guest." His eyes flashed red as he glared at Paul. "I can get out of here though, and there's a pack of zombies coming this way who'll clean this place up really nice, unless I can get you out of here."

"Fascinating... I'm with him. I'm curious to see what exactly you're implying. Is it a blessing or a curse?" Gary asked, looking like his grandfather posing a theory.

Seth sighed, and glanced at his PokeGaunlet, he was running out of time anyway. "It depends! But let's leave now!"

"What makes you think we'll listen to you?" Paul demanded.

"Paul, you wanted a way out, he's offering, but what makes you think you think you're special?" Dawn asked.

He felt a cold feeling and zombies burst through walls, flooding in from all the windows and doors.

"Now you've done it!" Seth removed his jacket, lifted his hand to his eye, and pulled it back. His eye was crimson like blood. Gusts of winds pushed all the forces back, a sphere in the center of the room held the people inside safe. The zombies who touched the sphere vanished while the others were thrown back.

The pressure alone kept the wild things at bay. Seth hadn't perfected his emotional time yet and it mostly just caused fear. After all, Seth was afraid and with time, fear spreads. And fear is powerful.

He raised his hand, and several ghostly swords danced around him, he grabbed one and the others disappeared.

"Let's begin lesson number one." He flew at each zombie so fast, he only appeared at the moment his attacks hit. The creatures couldn't react let alone catch him.

Every one of them lay around him beaten or broken. His eyes still red, as he held his hand to his face and laughed with relief.

"S-Seth?" Dawn approached, slowly.

His eyes were just red no pupils no irises, just red, as he glared at her he lifted his hand towards her face. His hand touched her cheek. He prepared to use time on her before feeling the energy of Jayden's transformation on the other side of the ocean. The blue energy filled his view and he looked at his target. His hand withdrew and his eyes faded.

Seth collapsed onto his knees. "What happened? Did I hurt you?" Seth asked her, concern in his eyes.

"No, no just a little freaked out. What happened back there? You went berserk!" Dawn asked alarmed.

"Lesson number two: Don't lose control." Seth told her and picked up his jacket.

He traced a circle in the air, and field appeared. He typed in some PokeGauntlet and it flashed. He had a lock onto Jayden's location, above Viridian. He could use the knowledge to teleport to a nearby building. "Are you coming?" He asked one foot in the portal.

"I'm going with the kid who can fight." Brock said and entered in. One by one everyone entered until only Dawn and Paul were left out.

"This is madness, you've seen what he can do he's a freak!" Paul shouted.

"So am I." Dawn said confidently and I offered her my hand as I helped her through the portal.

"Last chance…punk." Seth told him smirking. Paul grumbled and walked in as well.

Seth stepped all the way in and the portal closed behind him. He looked towards the sky and all the clouds swirled around a certain area.

"So where are we going?" Misty asked.

"See that place where it looks like a tornado might touch down at any moment?"

"Yeah, we should steer clear right?" Misty asked.

"Nope, we head straight there, and hope he isn't in a bad mood." Seth said completely seriously.

"Who?" Dawn asked.

"My best friend." Seth replied, looking apprehensive.

"This is what you guys signed up for." Paul muttered.

Seth had to control himself; he couldn't kill him. He wasn't that person, but a small voice in his head said he could be.


Viridian City, October 6, 12:52 PM

Jayden landed on the ground with a light thump. Ash slid off his shoulders and landed softly on the floor. They were in the middle of the roof floor of the Delibird Delivery Service. The afternoon sun warmed Jayden's skin. He felt his energy return and sensed Ash's energy rise. His body was encased in a blue aura. Jayden exhaled calmly, and felt his energy cool down and return to it's normal, human-like state.

He snapped his fingers and his clothes returned to normal. He snapped again and Ash's clothes mended themselves. Jayden snapped for the last time and Ash awoke with a start.

"What?! Where?! Who?! Wha-...Where am I?" Ash asked, bringing his fists up.

"Viridian City. You're safe now." Jayden replied, digging through his inventory for some food. However, in a second, Jayden had flown to the other side. Ash stood where Jayden was, his fist extended. "I'm not your enemy, dude!" Jayden cried out waving his hands. Ash charged, rashly, and Jayden entered his battle mode; he didn't think, but he flipped over Ash's head, grabbed his shoulder, spun him around and then caught his punch. A shockwave erupted from the punch, sending the roof gravel flying. Jayden just looked on stoicly and punched Ash's jaw. He felt it crack and Ash went flying into the next roof, where he collided with the cement wall holding the billboards. The stone cracked and shattered, leaving Ash in a 3 meter wide crater.

Jayden's eyes went all colorful and he leaped to the next building. Ash fell down and Jayden's power healed him. "Now are you gonna do that again? Or do you want me to actually try and send you to the forest?"

Ash got up, wiped some blood off and sat down angrily. He then looked into the sky, where a blue, silver, green and turquoise tornado touched down on the roof. However, no wind or gusts came at all. When it vanished, Ash gasped in awe. "Misty?! Brock?! Dawn?! Gary?! Paul?! New Guy?!...wait! New Guy?"

Jayden snickered before calling to all present, "Welcome to the Guardian Corps!"


New Island Ruins, October 2, 1:32 AM

The man in black walked slowly past the charred circuitry and stepped over the lifeless remains of an unlucky soul stuck in the explosion. Behind him, the mighty, yet half-blind Nefario followed while Hunter J skidded on the ground. After fighting Jayden and Seth on the Island, nearly a quarter of a year ago, Nefario had lost sight in one eye due to nerve damage, while J had lost her heart, requiring her to take a constant supply of energy from the ground.

The trio stopped in front of the main computer, which remained unscathed. In front of them, lay the ashes of their life's work. The man clenched his fist, before opening it up again to turn the computer on. The bright holographic screen popped to life and Nefario whistled.

The man smiled as he accessed the data folder and spoke, "Now, let's see who our young friends are!"

The data folder opened and a voice spoke out, stating the words on the screen clearly:

Accessing Data Folder. Audio Cover initiated. Beginning audio cover of Project AS Candidates: First Edit.

Candidate 1: Jayden Yagami. Possessing the ability to alter the space-time continuum at will, he also has universal knowledge and a mastery in all forms of martial arts (power generated). Also rumored ability to transform into even stronger forms. His pleasant demeanor, good looks and humorous attitude hide a ferocious warrior who savagely ended the crisis in Goldenrod City single-handedly. He is a fighter who has yet to be matched in terms of skill, intelligence or power. Class S threat.

Candidate 2: Seth...Last Name Unknown. Possessing ability to access the realm of time to act as a gateway between different spaces. Can control time to pause, rewind, and go forward up to three days. Future sight rumored. Known to access Primal Mode where he enters a state of unstoppable rage and power, sending anything he touches into the darkest portals of time. Only known cure: Jayden Yagami. Seth is a combatant who cannot be harmed by normal means. Class A++ threat

Candidate 3: Ash Ketchum. So far known abilities include enhanced senses, super strength, increased durability, super speed, power sense and aura blasts. Not yet deadly or dangerous and only strong enough to deal with a stage 2 zombie. Class D- threat.

No more audio cover available. Initiating data recovery.

The computer began updating it's files while the trio stood there, absorbing the knowledge they just received.

"So we have Jayden and Seth to worry about. That's good." Nefario stated.

"No. It isn't!" J and Nefario looked at their leader in puzzlement, "Seth is nearly a Class S Threat and Jayden already is. Two more levels and the computer will force-destroy the project. Of course, only the Crystal can do such a thing. We need to find it and destroy it!" J nodded and Nefario grinned while rubbing his knuckles, a huge crater in the wall behind him.