Ash's Just Reward Chapter 7
"Entire sentence." = Normal talking.
"Entire sentence." = Psychic talking.
"Entire sentence." = Powerful being talking.
'Entire sentence.' = Person's thoughts.
Professor Kukui was having the time of his life.
The last few days had been absolutely chaotic, with things that he could have never imagined happening right in front of him. And the worst part was, to the person who seemed to be at the epicentre of this craziness, was treating it like it was just another weekend.
Probably because to him, it was, based on what he had told them.
So Kukui was now helping him deal with the aftermath of what had just happened, as the trainer in question now had a huge collection of some of the rarest items in the world, and he needed help sorting all of them out. Kukui had personally volunteered to sort out the TMs, as he was eager to look at what moves that Ash now had to make use of.
And if he was honest, he was a little bit jealous.
Looking at the discs in front of him, he was impressed by the moves that were here. Mega Punch, Dragon Claw, Earthquake, X-scissor, Fire Blast, Ice Beam, Flash Cannon; this was just some of the moves that Ash now had to add to his arsenal. And these were impressive moves as well, with these being the kind of moves that the Elite 4 and Champions of other regions would prioritise to be a part of their move set due to how powerful they were.
And now they belonged to the same trainer whose starter just floored the region's guardian protector.
Kukui looked over to where Ash currently was, as he was dealing with the fallout from the Triple Mews (something else that Kukui was having trouble wrapping his head around: somehow Ash had gained the attention of a Pokémon whose existence was heavily disputed amongst the scientific community, and one of them was even some sort of fan). Because apparently, Mew's had the ability to make Pokémon evolve, so Ash now had to help a bunch of his Pokémon deal with their new bodies.
Kukui admired that about Ash, a lot of Pokémon trainers wouldn't go this far with helping their Pokémon, or at least not at the same level as Ash. When most trainer's Pokémon evolved, they kind of expected the Pokémon to adjust to it on their own. But not Ash, Ash made sure they were comfortable in their bodies. He was currently helping his Seismitoad get use to having arms, and was showing him how to use them.
It was then that Kukui spotted the Mew that was still sitting on his head, who was watching Ash and his interactions with his Pokémon very intently. Kukui watched as the Mew giggled to itself as Ash tried to show Seismitoad how to use his thumbs, and failing spectacularly.
Chuckling to himself, Kukui turned back to the TMs that were piled in front of him to finish sorting them out. And as he sorted the TMs into types, he couldn't help but wonder what moves that Mew knew and could use.
Pikachu was enjoying some lunch, while he watched Ash struggle with the newly evolved members of their family.
After the Mews had come and gone, bringing with them a storm of madness and chaos and then disappearing like they had never existed, everyone had taken a break for lunch. With the huge amount of Pokémon present (and with one of the Mews still here and acting like a pseudo-hat for Ash), it took a solid hour (even with the help of Ash's friends) for everyone to get their lunch. And now they were just enjoying some food.
Pikachu was just sitting with some of the other members of their extended family enjoying some food when Meganium came over. Pikachu watched as she sat down, and was surprised that he had to crane his neck to look her in the eye now, even when she was seated. That was gonna take some getting used to.
"Hey Meganium, how you doing?" Torterra questioned, as he spotted Meganium sitting down. He wanted to make sure that she was comfortable in her new form. He knew that evolution could be tough.
Meganium looked over to Torterra, before looking down at herself.
"I'm… I'm alright. It's weird that Mew was able to make me evolve like that, but this isn't too different to what I was when I was Bayleef. I wasn't ever quick, that's for sure." She thought out loud, as she continued to assess herself.
Torterra nodded, content with the fact that she was happy with her evolution, and went back to eating. However, Pikachu was curious about something.
"Does this mean that you'll let up on the whole 'Ash tackle-hug' or what?" Pikachu questioned, letting a cheeky smirk cover his face, which Meganium responded to by sticking her tongue out at him.
As she went to continue eating, she was interrupted by Heracross suddenly jumping on her back, trying to suck the sap out off the flower that had bloomed on her neck. Which she responded to by smacking him right off.
"What the hell was that Heracross?" This caught the attention of Bulbasaur, who was seated a few meters away from where Meganium was.
"Oh yeah, that's something you'll have to get used to. He does that a lot." Bulbasaur muttered, before glancing over to where Heracross was to make sure he wasn't about to try anything on him.
Pikachu just chuckled, leaning back and looking over his pseudo-family. Only in Ash's Pokémon family would they overlook the sudden appearance of multiple rare Legendaries to talk about their evolutions and things they find mildly annoying.
And looking over at the Pokémon who belonged to the Alolan crew, he guessed that they were the only Pokémon who could do that so casually. So he decided to see how they were dealing with all of this.
Approaching the Alolan Pokémon, he couldn't help but chuckle as they clearly flinched when he got closer. Apparently being blessed by a Pokémon God of Thunder and becoming a powerhouse (even more than he normally was) was enough to put the others on edge.
"Hey guys, how are you lot doing?" Pikachu questioned, eager to break the ice to help calm them down a little bit.
In response, he just got some very uneasy looks; clearly, he didn't do a very good job.
"How are we doing? HOW ARE WE DOING? Today has been one of the craziest days of our lives and all you can say, is how are we doing? We're doing just peachy!" Popplio shouted, clearly unnerved by what he saw.
Raising his paws in a defensive manner, Pikachu started slowly walking closer to them, determined to help them get through this adjustment period. It wasn't the first time he had seen Pokémon freak out over his life and its strangeness, so he knew how to approach this.
"Easy Popplio, I know this is weird, but you have to understand. This is Ash's life. This is what we do. This is our normal. I know that's hard for you to take in, but please don't freak out about it."
"And why shouldn't we? We've met around half a dozen Legendaries in a day, and we're only just eating lunch." Turtonator weighed in, not content to just let this slide. They were just getting used to the idea of Ash being a favoured person to their local guardian, something that was considered to be extraordinarily rare even by their Region's standards. And now the Legends of the world were coming because of him?
That's just bizarre.
Shaking his head, Pikachu (who had just gotten close enough to actually interact with them) just walked up and patted Turtonator on his leg.
"What you lot are forgetting is that this is basically a job for us. You heard Latias earlier, Ash is the Chosen One. That is a big thing: we all know that. We're born with this information for crying out loud!" Pikachu began, gaining some agreeing nods for his effort.
"We found out that Ash was the Chosen One during the first year of our adventure, which was about four years ago now. And we never really give it much thought, but its essentially our job to save the world. It's why, even before Zekrom, I was extremely powerful. Because I'm a Chosen Pokémon, and I need to be strong to help Ash. That's just how it is." Pikachu carried on, drawing in everyone's full attention as he explained to them how things were.
"We've saved the lives of dozens of Legendaries over the years, and that's overlooking all the times we've gone out of our way to simply help random people we meet. I mean, the main thing we were worried about a few days ago was finding a way to properly cure Lillie of her phobia of us." The mention of Lillie caused the young Alolan Vulpix to perk up, as her tails began swaying from side to side.
"And even now, as Legends are coming from across the globe to give Ash gifts that most people would kill to get, he is probably more concerned about the fact that some of us aren't used to their bodies." And to emphasise his point, Pikachu pointed over to where Ash was, and how he was trying to help Garchomp get adjusted to his new body, with varying degrees of success.
"So I know it's weird, but just do what I do: take it in stride. It's much easier that way. You also get to have a bit of fun with it."
This left the Alolan Pokémon quiet for a moment as they mulled over Pikachu's words. Was it really that easy? They were dealing with Gods afterall, and yet Pikachu and the other Pokémon in Ash's family weren't that bothered. Could they get used to it?
This thoughtful reflection was interrupted by the young Vulpix.
"I think they're nice. I like Miss Latias. She's nice to Momma, so I like her."
This caused the Alolan Pokémon crew to relax a bit. She was right afterall. Despite how weird this entire situation was, the Legendaries had been really nice. Latias had been friendly to them whenever they had interacted, even though she seemed adamant on staying near Ash. Zekrom, for his brief visit, had been somewhat brutish but had been very upfront with everything: he showed up, gave Pikachu the gift, showed him how to use it, and then left. Which wasn't that bad, all things considered. And the three Mews had been really playful, just wanting to have some fun. They have been a bit competitive, but most Pokémon were.
So overall, they hadn't had any real problems.
Before they could reflect on this further, a bright light suddenly appeared, forcing them to cover their eyes with whatever limbs they possessed. Pikachu however, could only chuckle. They hadn't even finished lunch.
"Heh, talk about persistent. Let's see who it is this time."
Ash was busy helping Garchomp get used to his new body, as he had grown several feet in just a few minutes, going from shorter than Ash's leg to close to twice as tall as him: something that made things very difficult for the normally clumsy dragon.
Garchomp had always been a little bit clumsy when he wasn't battling, as it seemed that when he wasn't focusing on an opponent, he struggled to do things without breaking something. For example, when he was at Oak's lab, he would commonly end up breaking the back door into the lab whenever he was called in for a check-up.
And now he was close to four times his previous size. That wasn't helpful.
He also had longer arms and legs, along with much more powerful muscles to carry himself with, something he would have to get used to as well. Especially since Garchomps were capable of flight. That was something that he had to learn how to do.
Garchomp then suddenly spotted Ash coming back with something, and began paying attention to him again.
"Ok Garchomp, here's what we're going to do. You seem to get better at things when we focus them on battles, so I've got this TM that we're going to teach you to help with your mobility."
Garchomp nodded to this, Ash had a point. He seemed to learn better when they were training for battle than anything else, so doing it like this might be more productive. But he wondered what TM it was.
Before he could find out though, they were interrupted by a bright flash of light. Using his fin to cover his eyes, Garchomp began getting ready for a fight. While the chances were that it was simply another Legendary, he didn't want to take the risk.
When the light finally died down, Garchomp looked from over his fin to see a giant horse like Pokémon with giant multi-coloured horns. And while he couldn't honestly say that he was familiar with who this Legendary was, he was getting a strong fairy vibe from it, so he didn't really want to fight it.
Hopefully, it was just another Legendary looking to gift Ash, otherwise he was in trouble.
'Not again…' Ash couldn't help but groan to himself mentally. As much as he really liked the gifts he was receiving and was incredibly grateful for them, he just wanted a moment to relax and recuperate. Afterall, he did have a Mew currently nestling in his hat right now while he dealt with the aftermath of the last gift.
Taking a deep sigh to prepare himself, Ash turned to the source of the light to see who had arrived, and was genuinely surprised to see who it was. It was Xerneas, the Legendary of Life and guardian of Allearth Forest.
Who should be a tree right now, if memory served Ash right. Then again, it wouldn't be the first time he remembered wrong. According to one of the Mews, an entire section of his memory had been wiped out, so he wouldn't rule it out.
As Xerneas landed in front of Ash, he faintly heard the sound of someone passing out, probably one of his school friends as they were shocked by the sudden arrival of the embodiment of life.
And yet he wasn't that surprised: strange how life works.
Deciding he should be polite, he patted Garchomp's leg so that he stopped charging up whatever attack he had planned (since Garchomp looked ready to attack) and went to greet Xerneas.
"Hey Xerneas, how you doing?"
Smiling at the casualness of the young man in front of her, Xerneas nodded in response, glad to see the protector of life was well.
"I am well, protector of life. I hope I have not come at a bad time?" She inquired, as she could see the weary, tired look in his eyes. And also a Mew on his head.
That probably explained the weary, tired look in his eyes.
Ash just shook his head, muttering something about 'a long day'. And then he spent a few seconds just staring at the top of his head, almost with an accusing look (even though it was probably not a serious look).
It was then that Xerneas noticed the presence of another Legendary, and looked to her right to spot a familiar red dragon. Xerneas was rather fond of Latias, the young Legendary who knew the value of life. Despite losing her brother about three years ago, she refused to let it get her down, and continued to enjoy her life: something that she respected greatly.
It would seem that she fulfilled her promise to let the young Chosen One catch her and let her join his adventurous little family.
'Good, I'm glad she gets to enjoy herself.' Xerneas thought to herself.
"I'm glad you are free, I know you are very tired. I bumped into Zekrom on my way here, and figured that you had had a long day. For that reason, I've requested that I am the last Legendary to pass on a gift to you today. I figured you could use the break."
This caused Ash's face to light up as gratitude seeped into him. Again, as much as he appreciated these gifts, they were exhausting. He had dealt with three separate gifts today alone and he was exhausted. He needed a rest, and he could already tell that he was going to sleep well tonight.
Noticing the gratitude on Ash's face, Xerneas carried on.
"As for my gift, I figured I'd give you something that not only shows my appreciation, but the trust that I have for your skills as a trainer."
Xerneas then began charging up her power, causing her horns to glow with a rainbow tint, before six small objects suddenly appeared. As soon as they appeared, they floated down to Ash, nestling around him.
"The greatest gift I could give is life, and the purest form of life is new life. So, I entrust these eggs, which would normally I would take into my custody so that they can be raised, to you. I know that you will bring out their potential, as well as give them a fun, full, happy life. I leave the rest for you."
Ash just looked at Xerneas in shock. This was a big deal. Pokémon eggs were extremely rare, and Ash knew this. Despite being a trainer for over five years, he had only ever hatched three: Donphan, Scraggy, and Noivern. He had seen other being hatched as well, but they belonged to other people. So Ash knew how much trust was involved when these eggs were given out.
Now that she had done what she had came to, Xerneas bid her goodbye, and then disappeared in another flash of light. Leaving Ash to deal with a half dozen unhatched eggs.
However, before he could so much as guess as to what kind of eggs they were, a large portal suddenly ripped into being behind Ash, catching everyone's attention.
"What the hell!?"
"What the hell!?"
This ripped Garchomp out of the daydream that he had been having: he had been thinking about how much better he could chew on rocks now that he was so big and how much fun he could have. But now Ash was freaking out, and Garchomp was instantly primed for combat.
Turning behind him, he spotted what seemed to be some kind of rip in the air, and energy was pouring out of it. Someone was trying to teleport to them.
Garchomp was instantly on guard, ready for whatever came out of that hole. While he may have been clumsy normally, in battle he was much more precise. And now he got to test his new body.
Suddenly, a large boulder came flying out, barrelling towards Ash. Thinking quick, Garchomp charged up a Dragon Pulse, and fired it at the boulder: destroying it before it could hit his trainer.
Nothing happened for a moment after that, but Garchomp knew that this wasn't a sign of him being in the clear. Whoever launched that attack was still on the other side of that portal-thing, and they meant business.
Suddenly, a red blur dashed out of the portal, and smashed into Garchomp, sending the large Dragon flying back. As he crashed into the ground, he briefly heard Ash cry out his name in shock.
'Ow. That hurt.' Garchomp thought, as he got back on his feet. Whoever that was, certainly packed a punch.
'I wonder what kind of Pokémon that was?' Garchomp thought, before getting a look at his attacker. And the subsequent dropping of his jaw.
What stood in front of him was a Pokémon unlike anything he had ever seen. It had three legs, two arms that was absolutely covered in bulging, red muscles, and had the head of a bug; not unlike that a Beautifly, only more aggressive looking. This wasn't a Pokémon, it was a beast.
And clearly, it had no qualms about fighting fairly, as it launched itself forward at Ash, intent on hurting, and possibly even killing him.
Not letting the shock of this beast's appearance stop him for long, Garchomp leaped forward and crashed into it with a Rock Smash. However, this move wasn't that effective, as the beast simply shrugged it off and hit Garchomp back with a Mega Punch, causing him to dig a trench in the earth with his body as he flew back.
'I'm so glad I'm tougher now, more than anything really.' Garchomp thought to himself as he shook his head to clear the dizziness. If he hadn't of evolved twice into his final evolution, he doubted he could have survived that attack. But then again, he was barely standing as it was now.
Looking at the beast again, he weighed his options. Chances were that this was some kind of really powerful Pokémon, so he needed to be careful. At the same time, he couldn't afford to be kept on the back foot. All he had done so far is react, and each time he had been beaten into the ground. Which wasn't good.
However, Garchomp's spirits were reaffirmed when he heard a familiar force in the background, one that had a confident and competitive tone to it.
"Alright then Garchomp, if this Pokémon wants a battle, then a battle it will get. Use Draco Meteor!" Ash was up and ready for a battle: now it was on.
Smirking, Garchomp charged up the powerful attack, before launching it into the sky. The beast seemed unfamiliar with this move, and went to move in for its next attack, before the Draco Meteor broke up and slammed into it, bringing it down.
However, it didn't work for long, as the giant beast suddenly launched up and dashed into Garchomp.
"Quick, dodge it!" Ash yelled, trying to help Garchomp against the insanely powerful foe.
But Garchomp wasn't used to his new body, so he wasn't able to properly make used of his new speed, and was still hit by the beast, sending him flying back.
'I'm in trouble, I'm in real trouble.' Garchomp thought. He now had black of the edge of his vision, and was having trouble focusing. If he didn't sort himself out, he was going to get KO'd. And quickly.
Suddenly, he heard Ash yelling something, before he heard something plop next to him as Ash chucked something to him. Looking down, he saw that it was the TM from earlier.
"Garchomp! Use the TM! It'll help you get the edge on him!"
'Right, of course. Mobility training. Now's a good a time as any.' Garchomp thought to himself, touching the TM and letting the information flow through into him.
Aerial Ace – Flying Type move – Physical attack – Guaranteed hit
'Oh, it's on.'
"Now Garchomp, use Aerial Ace to give yourself a boost in speed!"
Seeing that the beast was making another attack run, Garchomp charged up an Aerial Ace and aimed it at a nearby tree. Just before the beast could attack again, Garchomp launched the attack, and practically flew out of the way. Just before the attack landed, Garchomp cancelled it and turned mid-air, stopping just before the tree with Aerial Ace still charged.
Seeing an opportunity to attack, Garchomp leapt forward again, and this time slashed the beast in the side, sending it flying back with a roar of pain.
'How do you like them apples?'
"Quick, use Dragon Pulse again before it could recover!" Garchomp heard Ash order, to which he responded with a nod.
Charging up the range attack, he fired it at close to point blank range, inflicting heavy damage upon the aggressive bug like beast. But it seemed to power through the attack, driven by rage to defeat him.
And it seemed to be adapting, as this time it hadn't just hit Garchomp with a fighting type move, but an Ice Punch. Which was enough to send Garchomp sprawling.
Crashing into the ground, Garchomp wondered what the hell it took to beat one of these things.
And Ash would have been wondering the same thing, had he not been concerned for Garchomp.
Garchomp: the Pokémon he had caught as a Gible in Sinnoh, who had a dream of mastering a move that should have been impossible for him. Admiring his determination, Ash swore to help him master the move, as so he did. When Gible had decided to join Ash, he had been incredibly happy, as the little dragon was very much like him. He couldn't bare to watch him get beaten around like this, even if he wasn't the same small dragon he once was.
And that was when he noticed that the Mega Ring that the Mews had given him was glowing, resonating with power. And it was synching with the stone on Garchomp's neck. Seconds later, a ball of energy suddenly surrounded Garchomp and began changing him, giving him yet another power up.
Mega Garchomp had entered the battle.
Garchomp suddenly felt a surge of power flow through him, making him ignore all the damage he had taken previously as he felt like a new Pokémon. He was ready for Round 2.
Hell, he even felt lighter on his feet.
And as the beast went to deliver another strike into the downed dragon, he decided to make the most of this new power, and slashed upwards, catching the beast in the face: leaving a deep cut.
Now back on his feet, Mega Garchomp jumped back, getting space between him and his aggressor. He may have been powered up, but he wasn't foolish.
The beast however, was not sharing the sentiment, as it charged forward in reckless abandon.
Going on his own initiative, Mega Garchomp used the same trick again, using Aerial Ace for a boost of speed: but in a different direction.
This time, he went up.
Launching himself into the air as the beast planted its fist into the ground where he stood seconds ago, Mega Garchomp thought that now was a good time to use a move he had learned upon evolving.
Earthquake.
Coming down with enough force to shake the very earth itself, he crushed the beast underneath his own weight, and hit it with enough force to bury it deep into the ground, accompanied by a powerful shock wave.
A few seconds later, the dust cleared, and the beast seemed down for the count. Still somewhat conscious, but no longer capable of fighting back.
Not trusting this, Mega Garchomp charged up another Aerial Ace, planning on knocking him out for good.
"Wait!"
The sound of his trainer snapped him from his attack.
'Wait? Why wait?'
"Garchomp, you won. There's no need to attack a downed Pokémon." Ash said, trying to reign in the dragon.
Mega Garchomp slowly came to the realisation that he had almost attacked a defenceless Pokémon, something that he normally would never do. Realising that he had been caught up in the battle, he nodded slowly and backed off from the beast, much to the beast's surprise.
But before either of them could react, another boulder smashed into Garchomp, sending him flying. It would seem that in all the chaos, they had forgotten that there was still a massive portal just a few meters away.
And now there were more of the bug like beasts coming out of it.
But before they could get too far, a powerful Thunderbolt smacked one square in the chest, sending it flying back into the portal with ease. It was followed shortly by a Flamethrower, hitting another one and causing it to slowly get pushed back to the portal. Soon, dozens of attacks were being launched at the attackers, keeping them on the back foot.
The original beast had gotten up by now, and was staring at both Mega Garchomp and Ash, almost as if it was confused. After a few seconds of reflection, the beast turned and flew back to the portal, causing its brethren to join it in its hasty retreat.
Now, all they were left with was the sudden silence from the mass attack, as everyone tried to figure out what exactly they had been attacked by.
"Sir! Sir! It's an emergency!" A police officer yelled, running with a hastily made report in his hand.
His boss, the man in a long, grey trench coat he was currently running to, was in the middle of drinking a coffee when he heard the young man shouting.
"What? What's the matter?" He asked hastily, not liking the fact that he wasn't being immediately told what the matter was.
"We just had a confirmed Ultra Beast Incursion on Melemele Island. Reports say that it was an attack by at least one UB-02: Absorption, possibly more. What should we do?"
Eyes widening at the mention of one of the dangerous Ultra Beasts, the man in the trench coat stood up in shock.
"I want a plane to Alola booked now! And I want a team of our strongest officers on standby, just in case. We need to contain this now!"
Nodding his understanding the police officer ran off, determined to fulfil his orders.
The man in the trench coat quickly turned to the safe that was in the room, and quickly punched in the combination. Inside, was a couple of Ultra Balls, a Black Flute, and a lone police badge with one word printed onto it: Looker.
Hey everyone, how we all doing today? I'm procrastinating really badly at the moment, so instead of doing my uni work, I did this. Honestly, time well spent.
I decided to mix it up a bit in this chapter, including the first of (hopefully) many great battles. Because afterall, what's the point of Ash getting all these gifts if he's not going to use them?
I had a lot of fun writing this, as I much prefer writing combat to dialogue, so I hope you like what I've produced. I know it might not be the Pokémon you were expecting, but I thought I'd try and be a bit unpredictable.
For the next chapter, I'm gonna request a different kind of suggestion. Since there won't be any legendaries showing up next chapter (at least to give Ash a gift), I figured I'd ask you something to do with the eggs. There are currently 6 eggs, and I want to know what Pokémon you'd want to see hatch from them. I've got about three or four already chosen in my head, but I'd like to see what you've got to say.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I look forward to reading your reviews, so peace out – TWoS.