No beta reader, nor any current idea of what the overarching plot is looking like. Suggestions are appreciated.
Future Pokemon Master??" The man laughed, "You look like all you're going to be is a waste!" He threw out a Pokeball, and out came Aggron. The girl threw her pokeball and a Weezing came out.
"Aggron, metal claw!/Weezing, Toxic Sludge!" Aggron began to charge Pikachu, it's claws shimmering as it brought its claws up. Weezing puffed out its cheeks and widened its eyes before spitting out a purple semi-fluid out towards the mouse. Rosa gasped, not used to seeing two pokemon go against one, especially such a big duo against a Pikachu.
"Pikachu!" Ash called, determined, "Dodge using Quick Attack and then use Iron Tail!" Pikachu gave a "PI!" before charging out of the way, becoming a blur and jumping up being the Aggron, much to the large Pokemon's surprise.
"Pika-CHU!" Pikachu's tail slammed down into its neck, causing the Aggron to fall flat on its face. Weezing shot more toxic sludge at Pikachu.
"Pikachu, jump and use Thunderbolt!" Ash commanded, Pikachu leaping into the air as the sludge hit Aggron, his yellow fur sticking out as he began to spark.
"PIIIKAAAACHUUUUUUU!" A massive bolt of Lightning sprouted from the mouse, crashing into the Weezing with a thunderous boom. The two trainers who owned the Aggron and Weezing watched in abject confusion, and slight horror as Weezing fell to the ground, beaten. Pikachu landed, and scampered back to Ash, leaping onto his shoulder.
Ash looked at the two trainers, his smile no longer present.
"I won, you should probably get your pokemon to the Pokemon center." Ash said slowly, before furrowing his eyebrows some more. "And don't harass my friends again."
With that intimidating, but short warning, the two trainers retrieved their pokemon and ran away. Ash continued the tough act until they turned a corner, to which he gave a relieved sigh, and turned towards Rosa and Cynthia, only to be met with Rosa in his face with stars in her eyes.
"That was so cool! With the way you and your Pikachu took down their pokemon so fast, I'd think I was watching a Champion!"
Ash gave a small laugh, ignoring the stinging sensation that came with losing in Alola. He almost was Champion.
"Pikachu and I have been together for seven years, we've just learned how to work that well." Ash said, Pikachu giving a "Chu" in agreement. Rosa turned to Pikachu with wonder, Pikachus not being all that common over in Unova.
She was pulled back a little by Cynthia, who gave a small smile, to which Ash returned.
"Hello Ash, Pikachu, how have you been?"
"We've been doing great, Cynthia. It's been a while, hasn't it?" Ash asked, to which Cynthia gave a small laugh.
"Yes, I'd say it has been."
Rosa looked confused for a moment, turning to Cynthia with a raised eyebrow.
"You know him?" And then some things clicked in her mind and she leaned forward slightly. "Is he that trainer you always talk about? The one th—" Cynthia covered Rosa's mouth, giving a forced laugh, not that Ash noticed.
"Yes, Rosa. He's that trainer." Cynthia didn't realize why she said that. Nor did she know what she herself meant. Before she could further question it, her brain suddenly lost what she was thinking about at all.
Ash knew something was funny with this situation, but didn't press on it. Instead, he asked, "Who's this, Cynthia? You know her?"
The girl with two buns in her hair turned towards him, giving a nod.
"Yeah! We met in Undella town, and it was slightly scary to be challenged to a Pokemon battle suddenly, but hey, it all worked out," Rosa said with a nervous laugh, to which Cynthia raised an amused eyebrow.
"You had come at a rather bad time, and you entered my house without permission. What did you think would happen, hm?" Rosa drooped slightly, Cynthia smiled victoriously, and Ash laughed loudly.
"Yeah, that does sound pretty dumb." Rosa straightened her back and puffed out her cheeks, but her retort was cut off by a yell from the distance.
"ASH!" The trainer in question froze, before turning to find Misty skidding past a corner, Brock slipping and almost falling. Pikachu leapt off Ash's shoulder while Ash whispered a small prayer to Arceus. His shoulders were grabbed and Ash knew there was no mercy.
"Ash Ketchum!" Misty screamed in his face, much to the horror of Brock, Cynthia, and Rosa. "We leave you alone for a few moments and you already get into another fight?!" Cynthia quirked an eyebrow at that comment.
"Another fight?" Cynthia questioned, while Misty let go of Ash and sighed. Ash quickly took a few steps back while Brock waved at the Champion.
"Ah come on Misty! It wasn't that bad! Besides, I met with these two!" Ash defended, to which the Water trainer huffed and deflated.
"Fine, Ketchum, but you better be careful from now on!"
Ash gave a small, nervous laugh. Oh, how he knew that'd go.
"I'll do my best, Mist," Ash told her with honesty. Misty's heart skipped a beat again, and the champion of Sinnoh felt a pang of jealousy.
"Oh? 'Mist'? And why do the rest of us not get nicknames, Ash?" The champion asked the trainer, to which he went blank faced. Her tone was a dangerous one. One that Ash realized was what trainers meant if he had ever seen the scary side of Champion Cynthia. Her face was one of innocence, but the sweet tone made him uneasy. He gave a slow, uneven laugh, before scratching the back of his head.
"I'd never really thought about it."
Cynthia blinked, and Rosa snorted. Brock chuckled, and the raven haired trainer was allowed to live for his response.
So, turns out that Rosa knew Iris. Ash was quite surprised to learn about this. Apparently, Iris had become the champion back in Unova- Ash was going to let her know how proud he was when he had the chance. And how annoyed he was that she didn't tell him. Also turns out she wanted to join Ash's team! .. As did Cynthia, funnily enough. Brock and Misty were givens, at least to Ash. He didn't know what to do though, since there were a limit of six members per team. This would be devestating if the right people paired up, and everyone knew it.
Speaking of those three, Brock, Misty, and Cynthia, went back to the center to report the incident. That just left him, Rosa, and Pikachu.
Rosa shifted awkwardly, Ash did the same, and Pikachu gave a sigh.
"So.." She would begin, turning her eyes to look at Ash, "You seem familiar. Before we met familiar, I mean."
Ash nodded in slow agreement.
"Right, I feel the same way about you," He confessed, scratching the back of his neck. Rosa squinted. Her pokeball shook violently. She didn't notice.. much.
"It's strange, isn't it?" She told him, a lingering feeling in the back of her mind coming to fruition. She then felt it just.. vanish. … Weird.
"Yeah, it is.." Ash noticed Pikachu was silent; Thinking. He could feel it through their bond.
They had formed a bond as soon as Ash knew he had aura. He figured it'd be useful; It has yet to fail him. Then again, he hadn't tried using it other than just bonding with his pokemon. He hadn't tried talking to them or anything.
Rosa looked away from Ash, deep in thought. Her mind tried to connect to memories that.. didn't exist? No, buried. Really buried, she'd need to find someone to help her with that. Now that she thought about it.. there.. were quite a few things she forgot.
The pokeball shook violently again, stopped by her grabbing it. She didn't need that drama popping up again.
Little did she know that the pokemon would do more than just bring some drama.
Ash and Rosa found Iris in a battle-happy state. Gone was reasoning and logic, there was only dragons and glory.
Ash watched patiently as Iris and Haxorus decimated the enemy team in the training fields. The snobbish boy on the other side of the field begrudgingly paid money to the rather simply dressed dragon master, before heading off.
Ash gave a smile, standing up, and waving towards her. Rosa snapped awake, and looked up at Ash in horrid confusion before realizing what was going on.
"Hey Iris! I think you aren't a little kid anymore!"
The Dragon Master that had just wiped out an entire team with her first pokemon shattered, twisting around to get a look at Ash as the friend he knew well. She gave a knowing smile, obvious to anyone.
"No, Ash! Unlike you I matured!" The toned trainer called back, to which Ash gasped in mock offense. Haxarous spun around, locking eyes with Pikachu, before those two ran at each other. Ash got up and began to walk towards Iris, Rosa watching intently from the side. She felt slightly confused, but didn't question it. This must have been their way of talking.
Ash got close enough to Iris to be within punching distance, and extended his fist forward. Iris bumped it, and they both did a little roar, to which Rosa began trying not to laugh. Iris then wrapped Ash in a hug, which he hesitantly returned after a moment.
"You've missed so much, Ash!" Iris cheered as she pushed Ash away and kept her hands on his shoulders. "I became the champion of Unova! Of course, some girl-"
"HILDA KICKED YOUR ASS!" Rosa shouted from the stand, to which Iris violently moved Ash out of the way. A devious smile made it's way onto Iris's face. One of friendliness but also rivalry.
"Oh? Didn't she kick yours too?" Iris asked, her smile becoming a coy one as Rosa clearly sputtered, standing up and aggressively walking over.
"Why you-!"
"Come on, you really wanna show Ash who's boss?"
The two girls got face to face, glaring at each other before they broke out into laughter and hugged each other.
"I missed you, Iris. It's been boring without you."
"I know, it's been boring without you too."
They both broke away, before turning to a very, very confused Ash and Pikachu. He shook his head, snapping himself out of it.
"We really need to catch up, Iris."
"So this idiot-"
"Hey! Come on Misty, it wasn't that ba—"
"He decides his best solution is to jump on the back of a Zapdos, that we still don't know why it was there, and wrangle the bird into listening to him and go away."
"If I didn't, Zapdos would have destroyed Professor Oak's Lab! It wasn't my fault that he appeared during our reunion! At least Brock knew what risk came along when just us three meeting up with Tracy and Gary!" Ash pouted, to which Misty gave a short "HAH".
"As if it's your need to almost die trying to take care of the legendary electric bird!" Misty retorted. Iris raised an eyebrow, looking over to Misty in confusion.
"Wait wait wait- near death experiences with Ash are normal?"
Brock snorted. He snorted hard. Iris, Misty, and the freshly acquired Rosa (who was absolutely fascinated) looked over to him.
"You've never told anyone else about your adventures outside their respective regions, have you, Ash?" Brock asked.
Ash felt sweat pop up on his forehead as Iris glanced over to Ash, a stare burning into his face. No, he hadn't told them, he didn't think it was important. Of course things slipped from time to time, be it them hearing it from others or myself, but he always told them not to worry about it.
"What does he mean, Ash?"
"Yes, Ash, what does Brock mean?" Misty chimed.
"You've almost died more than once?!" Rosa exclaimed, shooting up and onto her feet.
"Uh—"
Saved by the bell, the front doors opened with a bang, two people stepping into the pokecenter. They were arguing. Loudly.
"Well maybe if Kirlia hadn't teleported—"
"Your Blaziken's Torchic shouldn't—!"
"Well Kirlia-"
Ash smiled as he shot up, finding the source of the arguing immediately. Brock was sitting back, a small smile on his face.
"Hey!"
Both voices stopped arguing, and the two whom they belonged to turned and faced Ash before essentially tackling him in a hug.
"Ash!" They both cried. It had been a while since Hoenn, but Max and May never forgot how much he did for them. Or others. Or just- Because he wanted to.
May felt a buzzing in the back of her mind before it was just- Gone. Max's pokeball containing Ralts shook violently, before it calmed down. Max's face contorted in confusion, before his eyes widened, then went back to normal. It wasn't noticed by anyone but Brock, who raised an eyebrow at the young boy. He shook his head, and then jerked it outside. Brock opened his mouth into an O shape before nodding. Kirlia then hopped out of the ball.
"HEY! Ashy boy!"
Ash's face contorted into a competitive grin as he turned from May, and found Gary standing in the doorway. His silhouette was pronounced from the sunlight pouring through, before the door shut and Gary walked forward. Ash and Gary stood a foot away from each other, before Gary put out his fist. Ash bumped it and they entered a one sided hug before pulling back.
"Couldn't resist, could you, Gare-Bear?"
"Oh, please. I can do both research and battle— Though, you're the main focus this time around. We all know how often you attract every kind of attention."
May squinted at the two, not at all appreciating how she was put off to the side. She got right at Ash's side, and poked him in the side.
"Hey, you forgot to say hi to me."
Ash looked towards May, looking down only slightly as his eyes opened a bit wider. He hadn't said Hi, he knew that for a fact. He fumbled an apology as May's irritation turned into amusement, before she ended up giggling, then laughing as Ash slowly came to a stop, squinting his own pair of eyes towards her.
"… Now that's just mean," Ash pouted, to which everyone around him started laughing in their own ways.. except for Max and Brock, who were outside.
"Kirlia says something just erased an emotion- No, entire memories from May's head. Like- Memories that were coming back, meaning they were already erased."
Brock recoiled slightly. Then his brain registered what was said. Then he blinked. And again. And his eyes opened for the first time in a long time as they widened, Max watching on with wonder at the odd display.
"Wait— Like, gone gone?" Brock inquired, worried severely for what was just removed. Max shook his head, Kirlia did the same
"No, that's not possible, but wiped, yes. The mind is able to recover memories and emotions but whatever did this is keeping tabs apparently," Max replied, much to the sudden protectiveness of Brock. The spiky haired man looked back towards the Pokecenter containing his friends. He crossed his arms, frowning.
"That's.. really not good."
Max gave a nod.
"No, it's not."
Someone was watching Ash, the only problem was that they needed to figure out who. And then Brock's gaze went blank before recovering, as did Max's.
"What—" The spikey haired boy turned towards a confused Max, "Max? What are we doing out here?"
Max's eyes widened as he felt Kirlia unveil a mental shield from his recent memories. He swallowed nervously. That.. wasn't good.
"I- I dunno, Brock. Let's just go back inside, alright?" Brock looked at his young friend strangely before giving a nod.
"Alright."
'That's not good,' Max thought, 'Not good at all.'
Max tried to ignore and block the clear lurking in his head as he walked back into the Pokecenter. His Kirlia whined through telepathy.
"THAT DAMN KIRLIA!" Mewtwo roared as he tried to hold back his anger and irritation. Oh, how easy it'd be to just.. get rid of the problem. Or, how easy it'd be to try. He couldn't get rid of the Kirlia's memories, it somehow resisted him. He couldn't even touch it with psychic.. anything. He'd be more impressed if he wasn't so angered. It wasn't like he could just replace the Kirlia, all psychic pokemon have unique connections. It would feel different, even if he chose the closest thing to that prticular Kirlia.
Mewtwo's mouth flew open as a mental scream flipped through the air around him, startling passer-bys and pokemon alike. Mewtwo then cursed loudly.
Years of work; Undone in as little as a few days, possibly.
Mewtwo screamed again, this time out of annoyance and tiredness. Something this large couldn't be tampered with, he'd need to outright erase, at bare minimum, a month from everyone's memories. Make them forget the island even existed— But the memories run too deep. He knew this. He knew he couldn't just erase them or alter them. The dragons would stop him anyways. Or try to. But Mewtwo didn't want to fight dragons with champions at the current moment, especially when those champions are some of the ones that he had to erase or block memories for.
Mewtwo purple eyes dulled as he realized there was no getting out of this. This wouldn't stop him from trying, but… no, it was a useless endeavor, now.
Mewtwo sighed.
'Curse your charisma, Ketchum.'
Now he had to figure out what to do.
If this story reads like I have no idea what I'm doing, it's because I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm just trying my best. Stand by for part 3.