Hello everyone! Guess who's back and ready to post more updates to this story? First off, let me apologize for making you all wait for an update to this story. For those of you who saw my two author's notes that I made and then deleted, you all know that quite a few things happened to me over the past couple of months. The first instance was that my flash drive was stolen. Thankfully, some merciful soul decided to take it to the university police department which doubles up as the lost and found section. Still, that whole ordeal sent me to a minor depression mode that was hard to get out of even after getting back my beloved flash drive. As such, there was that long hiatus moment which I'm surprised all of you were patient and understanding of.

Secondly and of less concern in terms of my lack of updating is the fact that I'm getting ready to graduate this spring! Once this quarter is over, I will have officially finished everything I need to do in order to walk the stage with my English degree in hand. Oh, that's definitely a happy moment for me. Still, that also means I have to really hunker down this quarter and make sure I don't make any fatal mistakes that may cause me to not walk the stage this spring. I've already been in college for five years; I don't want to stay for another extra quarter and burn through more of my parent's money.

But yeah, my depression moment has finally passed. It's now replaced with the stress of college and trying to make sure everything is in order for me to properly graduate and walk the stage. Wish me luck on that front! But apart from that, there isn't really anything else that should pose as much of a distraction from me belting out more chapters for this story. Just keep in mind that I am still in college and not going to be posting all this as frequently as you would like for me to do. I'm only one person with priorities to manage, after all. In terms of my important business, this unfortunately falls to the bottom of the list of importance. Still, I'm not going to ignore it long-term and will work on it whenever I can.

Speaking of which, I did post a new story on here that is based on the Kingdom Hearts franchise. I titled it "Of Light and Darkness". It only has a prologue as of now and hasn't really gotten into the main storyline, but it is going to deal with the supernatural, one of the few genres I've never tried and giving it a hand at. I'll probably be switching back and forth between the two, although I'll admittedly be working more on this since I have a better grasp as to what I'm doing with this than I am with "Of Light and Darkness".

jjjd: Thanks for reviewing my story. It's just too bad that you caught onto my story during the middle of my depression moment, but I'm glad you still enjoyed it all the same. Hopefully, you're still interested in it and have been patient enough with me to see this new chapter. If not, then I hope you enjoyed what you were willing to read before deleting my existence from your mind.

But yeah, that's all I have to say. Thanks again for being amazingly patient with me during my time of depression and whatnot. It really means a lot to me, and I hope this chapter is somewhat enough to make it up to all of you for the wait. Until the next update to this or any of my other stories on here everybody!


Chapter 7: A Familiar yet Unfamiliar Face

"Okay, that was the worst time ever!" Ash exclaimed. He let out a sigh as he leaned against the railing and stared out at the ocean. Pikachu was standing precariously on the metal bar, his ears occasionally twitching at the sound of the waves hitting the ship's side. "I don't know about you, but I'm about ready to jump ship."

Like they had promised Brock, they both came back to where they first found each other. They had spent the last hour asking around about the Charizard incident in Pallet Town. Just as the gym leader had warned about, he got a lot of strange looks. He even managed to get the attention of the ship's security who threatened to arrest him in for inciting unnecessary fear amongst the passengers. Last he checked, he was still on their watch list for any further signs of stirring up trouble. All he could do now was act casual and keep from drawing more unwanted attention to himself.

"I wonder if Brock's having better luck with this. If not, then I guess he's at least acting a lot more casual than I was," he sighed as he scratched behind Pikachu's ear. The yellow mouse then quickly moved onto the teen's shoulders, his paw poking at the exposed neck to signal for the scratching to continue. "You really love it when I do that, don't you?" The Pokémon merely purred in contentment.

"Ha, bet you can't catch me!" a child suddenly shouted, breaking the peaceful oceanic silence of the ship.

"Hey, no shoving!" another whined.

"Sorry; gotta do what I can to win, you know?"

"Oh, you're so dead when I get you!"

"Uh oh, he's mad now! Run everyone!" Ash and Pikachu heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind them.

Both teen and Pokémon looked towards their right where the footsteps were heading towards and saw a few kids running about on the deck. They were practically shouting at each other between fits of giggles, the adults paying them little mind and some Pokémon deciding to join in on the fun. Despite the storm of confusion that was going through his mind, he could not help cracking a smile. Even Pikachu wanted to get in on the fun but held himself back, knowing that now was not the time.

"When do you think we can get back to playing around like that, buddy?" Pikachu gave a small shrug while staring longingly at the happy scene before them. "It kinda feels like only yesterday when we last had fun like them." The yellow mouse gave him a small whack on the head before letting loose a series of squeaks. "Oh, come on! Cut me some slack. How was I supposed to remember that after what we went through? After what happened yesterday, I feel like it's been longer than a day since we had a chance to relax!"

"Well, it looks as though the two of you are quite close. It's quite a refreshing thing to see, especially in these terrible times."

Surprised by being addressed so suddenly, both turned around and saw a familiar face, one that they were not expecting to see onboard the ship.

"Professor Oak!" the teen exclaimed. "I didn't know you were on this ship." He earned himself a couple of glares due to the volume of his voice, but he was quickly disregarded when they noticed the professor alongside him.

"Well, I never thought anyone would be that happy to see me," the man chuckled lightheartedly, his expression showing no signs of recognition. "I'm just one of many Pokémon professors who contributed to the study of Pokémon, after all. In fact, I wouldn't imagine my field of study in Pokémon behavior would be of great interest with most your age.

"But I'm rambling at this point, and I'm afraid I'm starting to sound self-centered. I'm sorry to be intruding on what seemed to be a moment of bonding," he quickly apologized. It was hard to tell if he noticed or simply missed Ash's look of disbelief, although he could have simply been used to it after years of excited new trainers starting their journeys. He merely came to the duo and put his hands on the railing. "I just found it interesting to see a trainer as young as you having such a profound connection with your Pokémon. I just couldn't help connecting that with my work. Do you mind if I asked how old you are?"

"Uh, I'm fourteen, but I'm not a trainer yet. I'm still studying for the license test, but I think I'll pass on the first try."

"Is that so? You must be studying quite a lot to be that confident. And I'm guessing that your Pikachu will be your starting Pokémon?" The teen nodded while Pikachu squeaked happily in response. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you get your Pokémon? I would suspect that you had him since he hatched for you two to have such a close bond."

"Oh, I didn't have him for that long," Ash explained, a reminiscent smile gracing his lips. He had since relaxed after noticing that the Professor Oak standing before him had the same kind of temperament as the one he knew. "He was already a Pikachu when I found him, although I think he just evolved from a Pichu since I saw a flash of light a little before that. I'm guessing him chewing my house's wires and getting a jolt helped him out. I wouldn't have even known he was there if he didn't cut power to my room." The yellow Pokémon gave a shrug when the teen shot him a playful glare. "That's when I took him to get checked out and thought it'd be fun to have him as my very first Pokémon. I had to convince my mom, but she agreed when I said I'll be the one taking care of him."

"That sounded like a brash thing to do. It's normally not a good idea for one to just take in a wild Pokémon when you're young and not yet a trainer. Would I be right in guessing that you didn't use a pokéball to catch him?"

"Nope, nothing like that. Actually, he's still hasn't seen the inside of a pokéball. I tried to make him go into one mom bought me so he'd officially be registered to me, but he made it clear he'll never go near one. In terms of capturing, he's still a wild little thing. But he wants to only be my wild little thing, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Hmm, a highly unorthodox way to capture a Pokémon," Professor Oak mused with a look of intrigue. "It's rather uncommon these days to see one so willingly join with a human; it's actually quite refreshing to see a capture done in the days of Sir Aaron, if I must admit. Still, I suspect that you ran into problems trying to tame him."

"I did have some help from a family friend, but it was kind of hard. He loved shocking me whenever I got close, so I learned to give him his space. I think it was like a couple weeks before I started thinking he didn't want to be with me and left my bedroom window open. That way, he'd have a chance to leave whenever he wanted to. Strangely enough, he just kept his distance from me but never tried to leave. He never told me why he wanted to stay even though he didn't really like me." Pikachu let out a few happy squeaks in response, comments that Ash frowned at in response. "That was your reason? You only 'tolerated' me because you loved my mom's cooking? And here I thought the whole time I grew on you just enough to convince you to stay." The mouse caught onto the playfully sad tone and nuzzled Ash's cheek. He was then taken into the teen's arms and hugged affectionately.

"But how did you two manage to become as close as you are now?" the professor asked. The two did not notice, but he seemed to be lost in thought. "I doubt your mother's cooking was the only reason why he willingly chose to stay."

"Well, it did kind of take some time for us to get used to each other," the teen admitted as he scratched one of the mouse's ears. "It was like he'd rather see me as an enemy than a friend every time I approached him. It wasn't until I went to the beach for a school project did we get a chance to actually become friends. I was doing a report on water Pokémon when a Tentacool came onto the shore. I was curious about how it could travel outside of water and ended up getting too close. It threw a Poison Sting at me and I immediately felt woozy. That was when Pikachu came out of nowhere and protected me. It ran away but not before letting loose a cheap shot Poison Sting when Pikachu came to check up on me. I jumped in the way before it hit him, but I ended up getting another dose of poison. I don't know what happened next since I passed out and woke up in a hospital. I learned later that he had a bad feeling when he heard about me going to the beach and decided to follow along. Boy, was he ever right about that. He ended up running back home to get my mom, and the doctors said he saved my life. I never forgot about that, and he remembered how I risked my life for him. We were both kind of reckless that day, but it was because of that we became as close as we are today."

Instead of responding back, Professor Oak kept quiet and seemed to still be further lost into his thoughts. In fact, his gaze was facing towards the ocean and distant as though he were recalling an old memory. Ash took notice of the unusually long silence and looked quizzically at the older man.

"You know, what you told me sounds a lot like something I've heard of once before," he finally said, his gaze still fixed towards the waters. "There was a young boy who went through the same thing last year when I was still working at my lab back in Pallet Town. He also found a Pikachu with the same attitude behind his house. Of course, Pikachu as a species usually have a wary nature whenever they're around unfamiliar people or Pokémon. Still, the story of the beach incident sounds almost exactly like what that boy went through. It's interesting how similar both your circumstances were."

"Really? Wow, that's a freaky coincidence!" Ash replied with feigned surprise. He had a feeling the young boy was him but kept the thought to himself. At the same time, he wondered if this meant he somehow managed to travel back in time and was experiencing a moment when he was supposed to be eleven but now involved in a different experience. He decided to test his idea by asking, "Are they getting along now, or are they still kinda distant?"

"They came to good terms after that incident. However, I don't know how they're doing now. I would assume they're still friends, but I haven't seen to him or his family since last year. That was the last time I saw them before the fire destroyed their neighborhood."

"Wait, are you talking about when some Pokémon suddenly appeared and went on a rampage?" the teen asked. All thoughts of him having been in a time traveling sci-fi situation came crashing down upon being reminded of what he learned yesterday.

"That's the one, my boy. The town was taken by surprise when a group of Pokémon suddenly appeared and went on a rampage. One particular neighborhood was caught off-guard, and everybody in it had no chance to survive. That boy and his family died during the initial attack, and it was all I could do to get my Pokémon to protect the survivors. The town never recovered from the devastation, and everyone who survived are finding impossible to recover. My grandson seems to have been affected the worst, however," the professor added in a somber tone. "That boy was his best friend, and he's still trying to get over his death."

"I-I'm sorry to hear that, professor. I didn't know that's how bad things were. But what about Gary? Shouldn't you be with him? I know you're busy, but now can't be the best time to be away from him. He probably needs your support more than ever now!"

"…I don't think I ever told you my grandson's name," Professor Oak said as he gave Ash a strange look. "How did you know?"

It took a second for Ash to realize what he had said before the meaning of the professor's question could sink in. He had become so relaxed speaking with him that he dropped his mental guard. Because the Professor Oak that was next to him did not know he was Ash, especially learning that the one he was familiar with died a year ago; there was no way he should have known of Gary's name. Pikachu sensed his panic and poked at his neck to calm him down.

"Uh, I learned it from some people I overheard talking about it sometime ago," he explained, his brain working again thanks to the sudden feel of the familiar paw. "I knew you had a grandson, but I never knew his name. I heard some people talking about the fire Pallet Town suffered and heard Gary's name mentioned along with yours. That's when I took a guess that it was either one of your aides or your grandson. I didn't mean to say he was your grandson just now; it just accidentally slipped."

"Hmm, I'm not surprised people would gossip about me and my family," Professor Oak murmured with a frown. Much to Ash's relief, he seemed to accept the impromptu explanation. "It does make sense they would as a way to try and make sense of something that is beyond their comprehension. I'd prefer it if they left both me and my family out of their gossip circle, but I suppose it can't be helped.

"But yes, Gary is my grandson. And I can see where you're coming from when you say I should be staying by his side during these hard times. However, it's already been a year since the incident. He hasn't made much progress in moving on. In fact, he seems to only be getting worse. I can only assume that being around those he finds familiar continually reminds him of the things he lost."

"But how can you be sure that's best for him? Leaving him alone could actually make things worse!" Ash was remembering when he met Gary yesterday and saw how angry he was in both actions and words. He still treated his Pokémon with respect, but everything else seemed like nothing more than an irritation. It was like he was a shell of his former self, his compassion for Pokémon still intact but his ability to relate to others now nonexistent. Granted that the Gary he knew already had some problems being around people he did not know, but it was nowhere near the level of animosity he sensed yesterday.

"I know I'm taking a risk leaving him on his own, but I think it's best for him to not be around familiar faces right now," the professor admitted with a sigh. It was clear that he was having reservations about his decision but was determined to see it through. "I've tried for the past year to bring him around, but nothing's worked. This is the last thing I haven't tried, and I just want to at least hear him talk again. Of course, I only made this decision after taking my studies in the sciences of Pokémon behavior into consideration and applied what I could to the situation. If I didn't have a background in some field of behavioral science, then I would never have even considered leaving his side."

"But what about having him see a psychiatrist? That has to be better than just leaving him alone without any family."

"He has his sister with him. They never really get along, but I assume that will work to his advantage at getting better."

"His sister?" Ash took a moment to process this information and tried to remember if he saw Gary's sister yesterday. However, the only girl he remembered seeing at the lab was the aromatherapy lady. "I thought she was out in the Hoenn region studying to become a Pokémon trainer."

"And how do you know that?" the man asked, once again shooting him the strange look from when he mentioned Gary's name. "I've only just mentioned that my grandson has a sister, but I never said what she was doing."

Pikachu could not help smacking a paw to his forehead after seeing Ash put his foot in his mouth again. Meanwhile, the teen was busy panicking again about giving out too much information and making it clear he knew more than he should.

"Uh, I just happened to run into her while I was vacationing there!" he quickly explained while trying to steady his voice. "We talked for a bit while in line for lunch, and she mentioned you being her grandfather. She also said something about her having an annoying little brother back in Pallet Town, so I figured that was the same girl."

This time around, Professor Oak seemed less convinced with this explanation. In fact, he took the chance to further study Ash's face as though he had just noticed something interesting. This only succeeded in making the teen more nervous, and the yellow mouse squeaked softly before nervously leaning his arms on top of Ash's head.

"…You know what?" the old man finally asked, breaking the awkward silence between them. "The more I think about it, the more I become reminded of the boy I mentioned earlier. I know it's impossible, but you share quite a lot of similar looks and mannerisms with him. Even your Pikachu has the same kind of attitude that I remember the boy's Pikachu having. It's too close of a match for me to pass as coincidental."

"B-B-But it is a coincidence!" Ash stuttered, shattering whatever attempts he made at sounding convincing. Not even Pikachu's attempts at calming him down via constant poking of his head was helping. "I mean, you said that boy p-passed away in the fire last year. A-And I would guess that he was your grandson's age since you said they were friends. I've heard from random people that Gary's only thirteen now, but I'm fourteen. I-I can't be that boy you're thinking of unless he was older than him!" He finished his panicked explanation with the most fake and awkward grin he could muster. His yellow Pokémon had since given up on trying to calm his friend and simply hid his face in the mass of black hair.

"Even your panicked responses are the same," Professor Oak calmly replied, clearly not at all fazed by the panic attack. If anything, he seemed surer of himself after witnessing that moment. "Were it not for the fact that you're older by two years, I would say that I'm convinced you're that boy. In fact, I'm willing to overlook the age now and say that you are him. I would ask for your name to confirm my suspicions, but I suspect you'll only lie about it now. The only question that remains then is how is this possible? Granted that I've had my fair share of strange things happen to me when I was your age, so maybe I can apply one of those experiences here. Perhaps Celebi is the reason for this?"

"Hey, Ash!" Brock's voice suddenly cut through the heavily awkward air. Both Ash and the professor were startled out of their musings and looked towards the Pewter City Gym leader who was walking towards them. His face looked serious as though he just learned of something he was not supposed to hear.

"Oh, thank god you're here, Brock!" Ash sighed dramatically before making his way to the older teen. Pikachu squeaked in protest as he nearly fell off of his perch and tightly gripped Ash's shirt collar to stay on. Amazingly, the teen did not seem to register the sudden weight his collar was putting on his neck and kept on moving. He then said in a hasty whisper once they were close enough, "That's Professor Oak behind me. We were just talking, but things are starting to get real awkward between us! The me he knows died last year, but he's figured out I'm that boy and is starting to scare me with questions!"

"C-Calm down, Ash!" Brock demanded as he placed his hands on the other's shoulders. "I can't understand a thing with you being panicky!" He then looked back from where the teen came from and saw the Pokémon professor staring at them with quizzical eyes. He then greeted in a calmer tone, "Ah, it's good to see you, Professor Oak. I never thought we'd run into each other here."

"The same goes to you, Brock," the man said, opting to skip the kind greeting. "I never thought you'd leave Pewter City unattended after learning about what happened to Pallet Town. But that's neither here nor there. More importantly, did I just hear you call your friend 'Ash'? Do you happen to know where he came from?"

"I'm sorry, professor, but I'm afraid your questions are going to have to wait," the gym leader brusquely replied. What calmness he was speaking with disappeared and was replaced with a more serious tone. "Right now, there're more important things we need to take care of. If we don't, then the lives of everyone onboard will be at risk!"

"What're you talking about, my boy? I don't–"

An explosion suddenly echoed through the calm seas and rocked the entire ship. Ash and Brock barely managed to grab ahold of the railing to steady themselves, but the professor was not as lucky and fell hard onto his back. Pikachu was holding onto the railing from the ocean side for dear life after nearly being tossed overboard by the violent motion. Passengers and Pokémon alike were scattering about in a panic, most of them screaming in confusion over what was happening.

"Damn it; they moved quicker than I thought!" the gym leader growled. The ship had stopped rocking. Thick black smoke was now rising into the air from the front of the ship, and people were further driven into panic by the sight of it. "I was hoping to get you to come and help me before they did it."

"Wh-What're you talking about?" Ash shouted. His body was running on autopilot when he rescued Pikachu and hugged him protectively to his chest. "How did you know something like this was going to happen?"

"Because I overheard them talking about it while I was trying to look for information!"

"What are you talking about?" Professor Oak groaned as he picked himself off from the floor. "Who did you hear talking about this?"

"Attention passengers of the S.S. Anne," a voice suddenly blared over the ship's intercom. Those who were not too engrossed in their panic stopped and listened to what was being said. "I regret to inform you that this ship is now the property of Team Aqua. The new crew will make themselves known soon enough and come with instructions that I suggest you follow. Until then, I ask that you all be on your best behavior." The person who was speaking let out a deep pirate-like laugh before cutting off the transmission.


Well, that's it for this chapter everyone. What did you think of it? Let me just say that the original dialogue between Ash and Professor Oak was just a single page. However, I decided to expand upon it as much as I can. The reason being is because I wanted this to further add to Ash's confusion as to what was going on. He knows who Professor Oak is and is good friends with him; that was already clear from the first chapter. Then he runs into a different version of the professor and is struggling to figure out how much of a difference there is between the two. Of course, that leads to a couple of "insert foot in mouth" moments that make this version of Professor Oak suspicious and Ash unnecessarily nervous about everything.

Like I said before, things might get a bit confusing every now and then, and those are all "on-purpose" confusing moments. However, I suspect some of you have at least a slight idea as to why such confusion is happening. some of you have said time travel; others have said dimensional hopping. I won't say if any of you are right with your guesses; I will say, however, to keep on reading and keep on guessing about what is happening.

And yes, Team Aqua is making an appearance in the next chapter. I've just finished watching Pokemon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, so I know a bit about the Team Aqua leader and his temperament. To be honest, he was never supposed to make an appearance in this chapter. However, I finished watching that movie recently and am now going to try and put him in as successfully as possible. And with him in the next chapter along with his crew means more action is going to happen! Stay tuned for the next wonderful battle scene!

And yes, I know Pichu are only able to evolve when they've garnered a high enough friendship with their trainer. However, that only accounts for captured Pichus. In terms of the wild ones, they must be able to evolve somehow for there to be wild Pikachus to be caught. In this case, I had Pikachu evolve thanks to him gnawing away at an electrical cable and being electrocuted. Hey, whatever works, right? That and I heard the wire part was in the manga version of Pokemon. However, I never read a single manga volume of Pokemon, so I don't know how accurate that information is. The same goes with Gary's sister; he supposedly had one in the manga, but I don't know what her name is. As such, I wrote her part in a way where her name doesn't need to be said. It's not like she matters, though, since she doesn't play any role whatsoever in my story.

I also decided to give a little background info on how Ash and Pikachu met and how they became such good friends. I grew up on the idea eighteen years ago that Pikachu didn't like Ash at all thanks to the pilot episode of Pokemon. As such, I thought I'd pay homage to that first episode by having their first couple weeks together be portrayed as pretty rocky until both risked injury trying to save each other. Hope that homage ended up working out well.

And that's pretty much it. I hope you all liked this new chapter. Please don't forget to leave a review before you move onto the next story that you want to read. It really does help me gauge what you as readers think about the new additions and any mistakes or concerns that you may have with the new chapter. Thanks again for being patient with me for all this time, and I'll see you on the next update to this or any of my other stories on this site!