11.1
Ash Woke Up just as he was about to go into Professor Oak's lab to pick up his first Pokemon. Sending out a ping, he immediately got two back from inside the Lab, as well as one from the general direction of the Orange Islands. As the one from the Islands was no doubt Tracey, he decided to focus on the ones from the Lab. One obviously had to be Pikachu, but that there was another was only moderately surprising. 'I guess that means Professor Oak is Awake,' he thought to himself, walking in.
As he did so, he couldn't help but notice a few strange changes. For one thing, it was a bit more ornate than he remembered it being. For sure, Professor Oak was the world's leading Pokemon expert, but that didn't really translate into money. Besides which, the Professor liked living humbly, and spent most of his money on the Ranch to expand the habitats for the Pokemon who lived there, as well as the lab equipment.
There were also an almost disturbing number of clocks all over the place. Either the Professor was doing something time-related (Had he Awoken in the past during the thing with Celebi?) or somebody had replaced him. Truthfully, Ash was betting on the latter. 'Probably Doc Brown again, what with all the clocks,' he thought as he walked in.
The person he saw was decidedly not Emmet Brown though. No, he was a fair bit shorter than him. He was wearing plaid pants, a white jacket and hat, and a sweater with an almost absurd amount of question marks on it.
"Well, you're definitely not Professor Oak," Ash commented as the other noted his appearance.
"No, I'm not. This is an interesting Loop though. And my Loop memories have revealed something interesting. This is the Pokemon Loop, isn't it? Are you the Anchor?" he asked in an accent Ash recognized as Hub-standard Scottish.
"Well, it's one of them. And no, I'm not the Anchor. He's in there," Ash said, motioning to the machine that kept the Pokeballs for the Starter Pokemon.
"Ah, the fourth Pokemon I had ready. Very well then," the other said, going to open it. As he tried to remember how to do so, Ash decided to say something.
"So who are you anyway? I've never seen you around," he noted in curiosity.
"Oh, I'm a fairly new Looper. My Loop just activated, with me as its Anchor," the other said.
Ash grinned. "Always nice to meet someone new. I'm Ash Ketchum," he introduced.
"Well met, Ash. As for myself, my name is a bit of a secret. I'd give you my usual alias, but I've actually been called Professor before, so you can just keep referring to me as that," the Professor offered.
"Alright. So, Professor, what's your Loop like?" Ash asked.
"Oh, pretty standard compared to most Loops. I go about righting wrongs, and traveling around. I've been called a bit of a chessmaster in the past, and quite frankly, I understand why. I have a bit of a knack for manipulating people," the Professor said, opening the center that contained Pikachu's (hated) Pokeball.
Ash raised a brow. "Isn't it a bad idea to tell me that then?" he wondered.
"On the contrary, the best manipulators can be known as such and still get people to do what they want. It's best you watch out for those types, Ash," the Professor advised, handing over Pikachu's Pokeball.
Ash immediately opened it...and got shocked as Pikachu came out. As he fell to the floor, he couldn't help but ask, "Why do you keep doing that, Pikachu?"
"Tradition," Pikachu replied. "I got the Ping, is the Professor Awake?" he wondered, turning around to find the other Looper in the room. Upon noticing him, he immediately went deadpan. "Ash, why is the Doctor standing right there where I got the other Ping?" he questioned.
"Because he's the visiting Looper?" Ash said rhetorically, getting off the floor and putting his hat back on. "I guess that's your normal alias then?" he asked.
"Yes. I understand you've met me before, Pikachu?" the Doctor asked in clarification.
"Yeah, it was a while ago, and the Daleks were trying to use some Tentacruel to...Hey! Don't change the subject! How can you be Looping?! You've got more time travel trouble in your Loop than 500 Dialgas!" Pikachu exclaimed.
"Well, obviously, it was patched. Zurvan, my Admin, received some rather generous help from Jormungandr and managed to get my Loop off Read-Only," the Doctor said.
"I don't believe this. Twilight said that you were Looping last time she was here, but I thought she was just trying to prank me," Pikachu muttered.
"It was a shock to me as well when I found out about the Loops. Even more so when I started. Still, I think it's been a pretty interesting experience. It's refreshing, being the inexperienced one. Makes me almost feel young again," the Doctor reminisced.
"Anyway, what are you going to do this Loop, Doctor?" Ash asked.
"Well, I consider myself a bit of a polyglot-" he started, before Ash interrupted.
"A what?" he asked in confusion.
"Someone who can speak a lot of languages. We're polyglots, Ash," Pikachu pointed out.
"Oh."
"Anyway, as I was saying, I was hoping to take this Loop to, while I'm not doing my in-Loop job, learn the Pokemon language," the Doctor summarized.
"Don't look at us, we're not sticking around for long," Pikachu stated.
Ash had a better idea though. "I got a ping from the Orange Islands that was probably Tracey. He's Professor Oak's lab assistant. I can ask him to come over here," he offered.
"Stupid Pokeball…" Pikachu grumbled. Pokeballs in some variants tended to muffle far-off Pings, and it looked like this was one of them.
"I would be very appreciative if you would," the Doctor graciously said.
Ash grinned. "Don't mention it."
11.2 (Detective Ethan Redfield)
"What were you thinking?" asked Pikachu as he stood side by side by Professor Haruno.
The two stood in the entrance way to Sakura Labs as Ash continued pushing up against the wall, trying his hardest to shove the wall out of his way. They could hear the steady rhythmic murmurings as he put his back into his attempt. "Karp, Karp, Karp, Magikarp."
Sakura gave a smug grin. "Well, he asked me if I've ever turned humans into Pokemon."
Shouting echoed from the lab behind her. "I don't remember saying I wanted to be shown the results of your experiment, nor did I want to experience it firsthand. And finally, I know I didn't want have my brain swapped with a Magikarp!"
Pikachu returned to his trainer's water tank and patted the Magikarp wearing Ash's hat. "Don't worry, Ash."
He turned to Sakura and glared. "You can fix this, after all."
Sakura shrugged. "No can do. The machine I used needs a year to recharge since I haven't modified the power source in about...ten million loops."
Pikachu gave her an incredulous look. "You can't just change the power source right now?"
"Sure, if you're not worried about the device exploding by accident and Ash being a Magikarp for the whole loop. It was, admittedly, a temperamental experiment."
Ash slapped his face with his fins. "Great, I'm stuck as a Magikarp for a year."
Pikachu glared at Ash, "At least you don't have to take care of your human body. Guess who that is going to fall to?"
And thus, the Pallet vacation loop from hell began.
11.3 (Inkweaver22)
Ghetsis stood resolutely in his office, listening to the sounds of his screaming minions and explosions as someone stormed Team Plasma's supposedly secret base. He refused to be intimidated by the sounds of mayhem and carnage. The only reason he had released his Hydreigon was to get the first strike in, really!
He could hear a single set of footsteps approaching from down the corridor, and then silence as they stopped in front of his door. Ghetsis tensed as he prepared for a battle. Without warning, his door, and most the wall surrounding it, exploded inward.
As the smoke settled, a figure could be made out. An order to attack was on the tip of his tongue before it died at the sheer absurdity that stood before him.
A smaller than average Ursaring wearing yellow shorts and a blue backpack was standing there holding an equally downsized Moltres shotgun style.
The first thought that ran through his head was to question why these Pokemon were so far away from their own regions.
The second was a question to his sanity if wondering about their region displacement was his first thought when it should be the furthest thing from his mind.
The third was surprise at how the small Moltres seemed to fire a flaming egg from it's beak, which then proceeded to shatter over him and catch his thick robes on fire.
Ghetsis' Hydreigon looked on in confusion as it's master rolled around on the ground like a flailing Magikarp. It turned and snarled at the two strange Pokemon who had done this, preparing to fire off a Dragon Pulse. The Moltres, however, had already fired another egg. This time it was light blue and prismatic. Needless to say, the Ice Egg was Super Effective.
Ghetsis, having put out the flames, stood with a frustrated growl before receiving the same treatment as his now frozen dragon.
The Ursaring-Moltres duo simply made sure he would stay frozen for several hours before leaving as police sirens blared in the distance.
N tried his hardest not to laugh at the recording Banjo and Kazooie were showing him. He failed spectacularly however when he saw the look on Ghetsis' face when the bear and bird were unveiled. This was definitely one of his favorite ways a visiting looper had taken down his father so far.
"So what next?" Kazooie asked once he had calmed down.
"Well, we could always take on the Gym challenge and collect all the badges."
"Wait, there's collectibles here?" Banjo asked with a gleam in his eye.
"Yes. As this is a game loop, there's only eight badges for every region. This isn't a static loop so we should be able to visit all six of the ones these kinds of Loops have."
"Well what are we waiting for?" the Ursaring said as the Moltres in his backpack rolled its eyes. "Let's get to collecting!"
11.4 (AbZHz101)
As Ash and Pikachu watched the sleeping Legendary fitfully doze, their rage boiled over and became deadly calm. Neither Looper held any love for Cipher, but the stunt they had pulled this Loop actually managed to kick Ghetsis off the second position on their collective "Shit List." Cipher was truly an organization to be reviled, though the fact that it did not often appear made the Loops they had with it all the worse.
"Ash?" Pikachu asked, voice completely neutral. "You still have those maps of all of Cipher's facilities right?"
"Yeah, though I can't think of something worse than usual for those psychopaths," he replied, pulling out the maps that they had created and laminated for whenever they needed to deal with Cipher and Team Snagem and handing it to Pikachu. "What really bites me is that, this time... It came out of the friggin' blue! Usually if we have to deal with Cipher we hear about them in Johto at latest! This time, if it weren't for Silver... we might never have found out."
Pikachu grunted in agreement. They had reasoned long ago that death was too good for anyone who knowingly aided Cipher. Their usual solution was to tear down each facility one-by-one, tie up all the employees, break all the Pokeballs, summon Celebi and let the abused Pokémon determine their own justice. Surprisingly for all their anger, never once had the Pokémon killed even one of their oppressors. And after the Pokémon were done and wandered off to live their lives, the police moved in. Now though, they had to think of something worse.
After a moment, Pikachu clicked his tongue in disgust. "Well, I can't come up with anything off the top of my head, and I definitely don't want to leave this open-ended," he muttered.
"So you'll be back in... two hours?" Ash tried to calculate.
"There abouts," Pikachu agreed. 'Get ready, scum,' the Anchor mentally snarled. 'For I AM CUTE. FURRY. ELECTRIC. VENGENCE!'
Out in Prof. Oak's "backyard" Ash pulled a Time Flute from out of his pocket. Silver watched in silent awe as Ash put the ancient relic to his lips and called upon Celebi's aid. It was the first time that he had ever been in contact with another "Legendary" other than Mother. He watched as the Sprite playfully soared around both him and Ash, giving both a surreptitious wink as she did so. Suddenly, the surroundings were covered in a pulsing green light. It felt like... Forest, Life, Freedom... It was simply put, amazing! Then it trailed off almost playfully, enticing in its own way.
'Yeah, I'm going out on a limb here and saying that that didn't work,' Silver heard his "other personality" deadpan. Hesitantly, though already sure of the answer, Sliver opened his eyes and gazed at his still black feathers. It made him feel ashamed at the looks of shock from Celebi, Ash, and Pikachu. Even out of that place, he was still useless, helpless, defective XD002.
"{I don't understand,}" Celebi muttered to herself. "{His aura didn't even ripple! Usually, I can feel resistance when somemon doesn't want to open their heart again, but he didn't. It actually felt as though his heart was already open...}"
"{So is there anything you can do?}" Pikachu asked.
"{Not without seeing him before he became like this, and I doubt his mother would take it well if I even insinuated that something like this could happen to him,}" Celebi sighed. "{The most I can do right now is send word to the others and see if they either know of a way to fix it or can figure one out. The only other known method of treating Shadow Pokémon is for them to bond with a trainer, but given the results just now, even that is up in the air.}"
As Pikachu and Celebi were speaking, Ash noticed tears starting to form in Silver's eyes. Ash knelt down and pulled the Pokémon close. "Hey, don't worry, Silver," Ash said even as the tiny Lugia's tears again began to wet his jacket. "We'll figure this out, all right. You know, I'm sure your mother's on her way right now." At that Silver began to cry harder, he hadn't even considered having to face his mother like this! Even though she had been through the same process, Celebi could return her to normal, not like him! "We're not letting you go through this alone," Ash continued softly, considering taking a detour to Orre and ringing a couple of necks before deciding against it. It wouldn't be good if Silver got the mistaken impression that Ash wanted to hurt him. Ash's gut churned at Silver even considering the idea.
11.5 (ZephyrValgale)
The first thing Pikachu noticed when he Woke Up was that he was bipedal. The second? He was female - or, at least, he appeared to be.
Neither was a particularly rare occurrence, but he - she - wasn't usually wearing a black dress or a like colored witch's hat. Nor did she usually have an octagonal box that simply exuded power. Looking around, she noted that she was in Prof. Oak's lab, and saw Gary nearby - informing her that this was, at the very least, a game loop. Ash was also present, and a quick ping showed that he was, as usual, awake.
"Well, at this point we just need to battle Gary and find a place to talk." the rodent-cum-witch thought to herself, as she prepared to fight.
The battle was completely one-sided. Let's skip ahead a bit.
"Ash?"
"Yeah?"
"Who in their right mind would even think of a time stopping maid?"
"Are you still sore over losing?"
"Yes, I am, ze."
Pikachu sighed, and facepalmed.
"And I hope that tic doesn't stick, ze."
The journey so far had been relatively quick - with the numerous loops the duo underwent, they had been through Kanto-centric game variants before. After capturing a puppet - the name for the Pokemon replacements - that appeared to be a green-haired shrine maiden in blue-and-white garb on Route 22, Brock was no trouble whatsoever. Misty was even less of a threat - his 'Dex said the puppet, a Chibi Sanae, was Water/Grass, and that Pikachu was still Electric type. Even Gary wasn't that difficult, as Pikachu wasn't one to be beaten by the same trick twice.
However, neither trainer nor mouse-cum-witch was expecting the scene that greeted them at Bill's cottage.
For one, the sign outside said that it belonged to one ZUN, but the duo chalked it up to general loop wackiness.
As such, they did not expect what was inside. As they stepped in the door, the duo noticed three things.
The first was that the building reeked of alcohol.
The second was the numerous bottles of assorted alcoholic beverages.
The third was the presence of a green-capped man, passed out on the floor and clearly drunk.
"Pikachu, you want to just find some other way onto the S.S. Anne?"
"Sounds like a better idea than getting a ticket from this drunk, ze. I've seen Snorlaxes that are more responsive that that guy."
11.6 (theburper)
Oshawott had been having a hard loop. The normal enemies in the dungeons were as strong as Munna's gang, and the hard enemies had scaled equally. It had taken a while, but he had finally gotten to the evil mastermind.
None other than an unawake Mewtwo.
"HAHAHA! Foolish otter! You shall never defeat me, and you shall learn the true meaning of despair!"
"The...true meaning of despair? That 's utter Tauroscrap." With that, he pulled out two swords fashioned like icicles that gave off an ominous aura.
"THESE are the true meaning of despair!"
"Well, let's just see how you do against a full strength psychic attack!"
With that, the feline fired off a huge blast of physic at the otter.
Only to find out when the dust settled, Oshawott was completely unharmed.
"These swords have so much despair that they give me a dark subtype when I wield them."
"Now it's my turn." Oshawott charged at the Genetic Pokemon and attacked.
"Ice bringer!"
Oshawott was recuperating back in Paradise when Virizion approached him.
"Where did you find the Bittercold swords? We haven't seen it at all. And more importantly, why is time repeating?"
11.7 (fractalman)
Ash winced as the memories kicked in. High-school again?
Then Misty-in-name-and-looks-only grabbed his arm and said "Oh Ash, you simply must go out with me!"
Then 'May' came in to yell "Stay away, he's mine!"
'Misty' tilted her head. "I suppose we can...share"
Ash tried to slink away by using aura to make his arm slippery, only to find that his special abilities were firmly and thoroughly restricted. He groaned, resigned to the fact this would be a long, and awful, loop.
Pikachu, meanwhile, was having the time of his life, as all the girls lined up to give the strange, but definitely cute yellow mouse belly rubs.
11.8 (AbZHz101)
Chikorita was snatched from her sleep by the screaming of her two teammates, a Pikachu and their newest member a strange Totodile that Pikachu had found last week. They were running around and in general freaking out unsure of what was going on. Just another day for the all female Rescue Team.
11.9 (crossoverpairinglover)
"Skilled you are, oddly yellow mouse, but not skilled enough."
Pikachu, struggling to his feet, found himself being restrained by a powerful telekinetic attack that came from no psychic attack, his lightsaber out of his reach.
No, it came from the power of the Force itself.
And the Force in question came from the short, green alien lifeform with the glowing green blade; Jedi Grand Master Yoda.
Or in this timeline, the soon-to-be Grand Emperor Yoda of the Jedi Imperium; the Jedi Theocratic Government a looping Obi-Wan Kenobi had decided to try out as a replacement for the Republic.
...To say that had gone horribly wrong was an understatement. Anakin Skywalker was frozen in Carbonite, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and C-3PO were dead, and the only Loopers left were Pikachu (Or Jedi Padawan Pikachu to be specific, Pikachu having been learning the use of the Force this loop) and R2-D2, who was toppled over on his side a few yards behind Pikachu.
The looping blue and white droid was beeping pitifully.
"You opposed the necessary steps that the Jedi had to take to prevent the terrible futures that former master Obi-Wan spoke of. This is the ultimate treachery," the tall and imposing MCU-Fury-look-alike Mace Windu (he even had an evil eyepatch this loop) said. "The Jedi have no room for those who disobey the council, the will of the galaxy. Now, you die." Mace Windu ignited his purple blade.
"Disobey, you say. You talk like you're my master, Windu. I may have masters, Windu, but they aren't you! Lightning Release Armor!"
Blue electricity covered Pikachu as he channeled his chakra from his former days as the Raikage, building up his power to the point the Force was shattered around him, freeing him and causing Pikachu to erupt from his bindings.
"This power, not seen before I have!" Yoda said in shock as Windu swung his blade.
"You can dissect the corpse!"
"Raikiri!"
A concentrated flicker of electricity formed on Pikachu's tail, glowing blue as Pikachu spun and met the blade head on, matching its power.
"What?!"
Behind the two's clash, the R2 unit uprighted himself and glared.
"Beep Beep!"
This translated into Thunderbolt, as R2 took advantage of that variant loop as a Pikachu to unleash a powerful electrical attack at Windu.
A electric attack that hit just as Pikachu used a substitution to replace himself with the legendary log.
Windu was quickly fried with a lethal dose of electric power.
As a sizzled Jedi fell to the ground, Yoda glared at the two electricity users.
"Die you will!" The little imp charged at the two at an inhuman speed. The droid and mouse exchanged a brief glance before the droid started glowing in the electric coating of Volt Tackle while Pikachu sped ahead.
Yoda swung his blade at the charging Pikachu, who used his long since honed spin technique (Developed for that pesky Rampardos) to get behind Yoda and charge at him from behind as R2-D2 went for the front.
"BEEP BEEP/ DOUBLE LARIAT!"
Yoda was beheaded by the powerful combination of electrokinetic force.
The Jedi's takeover soon became disorganized, allowing for the Clones to take care of the majority of the Jedi forces.
"Beep beep beep."
"Pika, Pika-Chu."
Pikachu, exhausted from his battles against at least half the skilled Jedi of the order with R2, and then the other skilled half with R2 and a just freed (and very pissed off) Anakin Skywalker, found himself dining at a famous little hole in the wall on Coruscant, Dex's Diner, with his new buddy in arms, R2-D2.
Said Dex, a four limbed, gray and pot bellied alien, was absently cleaning dishes.
"What's the deal, letting a droid eat here?!" a human diner complained of the R2 unit as the four armed alien shrugged.
"Hey, the guy helped stop the crazed Jedi who killed my pal Obi-Wan. He could be freakin' Nute Gunray having fried nerf steak with General Grievous and I'd let him have it on the house!"
11.1 - "You can always judge a man by the quality of his enemies." Yes, the Doctor is Looping. I'm actually helping out with that. Not sure if he's out of character or not though, since I've never seen any of Sylvester McCoy's serials.
11.2 - Oh, Sakura. Innortal ruined you. It's nice that you're getting better and all, but I'm sad we'll never get to use your original personality unless you're not Awake.
11.3 - Oh, hi Banjo and Kazooie. When is Microsoft ever going to let Rare put you in a good game again?
11.4 - AbZHz101 is the writer of Silver Oxide. As I like that story, I asked him to write a Loop based on it.
11.5 - Zeph is an RL friend of mine. Keeps trying to get me to play Touhou, but after all I've heard I'm kind of iffy.
11.6 - Oh, hi Virizion! I was wondering when you'd start Looping. (Except not really since I don't have Gates to Infinity...yet)
11.7 - High School AUs, the bane of every Looper who isn't already from such a setting.
11.8 - Yeah, the Mystery Dungeon Loopers' codes are really glitched up...except for Chikorita. Probably because she's from the Anime special rather than the baseline.
11.9 - May the Force be with you, Pikachu.