Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Pokemon—please support the official release.

AN: I was inspired to write this story after reading Working Sinnoh With Skill by 0 Jordinio 0.

PROLOGUE

I ended each of my meaningless days by reclining in my chair and thinking about nothing. I pushed my whole back on the chair, its velvety cushioning supported me, soothing my muscles.

An in-built massage system in the chair sensed my weight and scanned my body, determining which muscles were tightest and in need of the most relief. A compress patch on my knee applied pain relief to a nasty injury I had suffered in a car accident at a young age.

Nothingness came to me in gradual waves. I imagined it was like the seaside waves that flowed gradually towards the shore, covering it bit by bit until finally, there was just water, settled and gentle.

I felt the pain in my knee fade and the tightness in my muscles dispersed. Nothingness came to me easier now. Thinking of nothing made me calm, and calm was something I needed.

2100 had just started a month ago, and at first, people were hopeful. The start of a new century. Maybe there would be a change. Fewer proxy wars between superpowers in the East and West. Fewer natural disasters from a climate and planet that teetered on the brink of destruction.

Well, none of that happened. The world was still in the same chaos it had been in for the past two centuries. The sun still barely cracked through the thick smog in the air that reached deep into lungs like poison, spreading a rattling cough among all those too poor to afford a proper mask.

I was fine, though. As far as material need went, I didn't want for anything. My parents had been in the last generation to grow up in the green age, when the birds still chirped and forests were still tall. They had made a fortune taking advantage of the planet they lived on and off the backs of the middle-class workers.

When they had me, they had gifted me those memories. I grew up with stories of "playing the system" and "working every legal loophole". My parents wanted me to grow up in their image.

To escape the constant pressure of living up to the "high-standard of this family", as my dad would say, I turned to virtual reality.

The video game industry let me enter into worlds that were not my own, where I could make my own choices. Where there were no overbearing parents telling me to "keep studying" or dragging me out to meet a girl from another "respectable family". I threw all his free time, money, and passing into it.

I pushed my rolling chair up to the desk and reached forwards and put on my VR headset. The sleek design of the visor fit snuggly around my head. I heard a click as the headset synced its electrical signals with my nervous system, allowing me to truly experience an entirely different reality through not just sight and sound but also smell, taste, and feeling.

Without thinking much about it, I gave a mental command for my computer to boot up and start Pokemon Journeys, not knowing that I would never step back out.

o0o

Floating.

That was what I felt as my consciousness drifted through what felt like nothingness. Around me was darkness. A murky darkness that seemed to have substance, shimmering almost like waves of black water. But I had no arms to move with, no body even to feel and touch. It was just my mind's eye that seemed to drift and see.

I felt an incredible sense of disorientation. It was like I was in a fever dream, there around me shaky and straddling the line between reality and imagination. Here, a voice resonated through my head, etching into the very essence of my thoughts.

"Oh great otherworlder, I hope you may forgive us for pulling you from your world, but our need is dire."

I couldn't tell whether the voice was male or female to whether it even belonged to one person or not. It was a little distorted, filled with static.

"We grant you flesh and blood to walk among us. We grant you knowledge so that you may understand us and this world. We call upon you to deliver us from our woes. Our world lies—"

The voice crackled before cutting off. As soon as the voice stopped, the world returned.

A flash of colors invaded my mind in an instant as the darkness disappeared. It was incredibly disorienting gaining all five senses and a body in a single instant and I wondered it was a miracle that he did not immediately vomit his guts out.

When I opened his eyes, I looked around startled. I processed things in chunks. First, I was outside. Second, it was nighttime. Third, I was not where I had last saved. Fourth, I was lying in a field next to a small pond, but this was far different from any game. None of my senses were dampened.

In fact, they were sharpened. I could so very clearly hear the wind rustling between the branches of trees. And the trees around me, their bark and their leaves were so vividly clear, so incredibly green and brown and detailed beyond anything computer graphics could provide. I could feel the soft and moist dirt under my bare feet. I could smell the earthiness of the dirt.

As absolutely unbelievable as it was, I knew this wasn't the game. And not just because of my senses. Whatever crazy fever dream I had hadn't just talked to my head, it had given him knowledge. I knew that I had been summoned into an entirely new world and part of the summoning ritual involved limiting any panic or confusion in being brought to a foreign world.

I got the feeling that I was supposed to know more, like where I was and what I was supposed to do, but something had gone wrong, leaving me free to do as I pleased.

My first reaction was to crawl over to the lake and look at my reflection in the water. I realized then how distinctly different I was. In games, I played as a character model that I had created which I modeled after my own features.

Now, instead of my light brown hair, I had dark black hair, slightly tan skin, and brown eyes with two distinctive lightning bolt-like markings underneath each one. He was Ash "fucking" Ketchum.

But I already knew that, I thought. Thanks to the info-dump that had been poured into my mind, I knew I was Ash Ketchum before I had seen my reflection. Still, knowing something, and seeing it, were two different things.

I didn't mind my new body though. It felt as natural as if it was my own. So, I looked away from my reflection and came face-to-face with a Bison. No, not a bison...I was staring at a Tauros.

It was stunning. I had never, ever dreamed that I would see a Pokemon in real life. I had always seen them in virtual reality and in video games and movies, but I hadn't ever imagined I would be standing in front of a real Pokemon and be able to touch it.

"Hey, Ashy-boy!" a voice called.

I looked around until I saw Gary Oak striding across the field towards him. Gary, that's right, his Electivire just thrashed Pikachu, I thought pulling my hand from Tauros' mane. After the battle, I had given Pikachu to Professor Oak to heal and took a walk.

"Gary, is Pikachu healed?" I asked, despite knowing that the battle between the two Electric-types was actually pretty tame, all things considered.

"He's fine," Gary said with a dismissive wave. "What we need to talk about is you."

"Me?"

"Yeah, you," Gary repeated, scoffing. "It's great that you won the Battle Frontier, but that doesn't mean you can relax. There are all sorts of tough Pokemon in Sinnoh that you don't even know about yet, believe me. The world is a big place."

I frowned as Gary spoke. The words on the surface seemed like helpful advice, but the patronizing tone Gary was using irked me slightly.

"Anyway, I got to be going back to Sinnoh," Gary said. "Too much stuff to do, you know? I never seem to have enough time these days."

What a dick, I thought staring at Gary's back until my old "rival" disappeared over a small hill. I hadn't missed Gary's dig at me laying about at Professor Oak's ranch. Well, I'll show him.

I sauntered around Professor Oak's Ranch silently and swiftly. In-game, Pokemon trainers stored their Pokemon on Bill's PC, letting them switch Pokemon at any Pokemon Center. Here, my Pokemon were kept at Professor's Oak's. Of course, a Fee was taken from Ash's winning to pay for room and board, but for the amount of Pokemon Professor Oak was letting me keep at the ranch, the fee was minuscule.

All around me, the Pokemon Ash caught called to me and a few even ran up to me. They all looked so happy to see me. That just made my resolve stronger.

"Okay, listen up!" I clapped my hands to get the attention of the Pokemon. Ash had dozens of Pokemon at the ranch so there were more than a few missing from my impromptu meeting.

That was fine. Pokemon had some sort of universal language that let them speak to each other. My new friends would tell the other Pokemon about my plan.

"I've decided to head to the Sinnoh region next," I said, looking around. My eyes lingered on two Pokemon in particular. Heracross and Snorlax, who was lazing in the shade. "We won't be leaving for a few days," I continued, catching the eyes of many more of my Pokemon. "So, I'm going to put together a list of the six Pokemon I'll be taking with me."

I could see it the moment I finished speaking. The surprise and shock. Up until now, most of the Pokemon were left at Professor Oak's when Ash started a new journey in another region. That was going to change. If I wanted to win the Sinnoh League, I couldn't just use the Pokemon I caught that year. Trainers trained their entire lives to win a Pokemon League. A few months wasn't enough to train a new team to that level.

"We're going to win this one," I said, to my Pokemon. God, was that a great thing. My Pokemon. My real Pokemon. Because I was now living in a world where Pokemon existed. "Until us, no trainer in Kanto has ever beat the Battle Frontier. And that's because of you guys."

I was still going to catch new Pokemon, but leaving my powerhouse Pokemon at Professor Oak's ranch stopped right now. Besides, the experienced Pokemon can help me train the new recruits, I thought as my Pokemon cheered at the news.

Yeah, with me behind the wheel, Ash Ketchum would become the Sinnoh League Victor.

What do you think of the Prologue?

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Thanks for reading!