Hey Nuggies! Well I really shouldn't be doing this, but here I am writing another fanfiction since I have writers block on a few of my other ones, and because this won't leave me alone. Here is your warning: this will be SLASH! Not too sure on if it'll be M!Preg or not, but at this moment I have not thought about it.

Main Pairing: AshxPaul

Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)

Rating: M (to be safe)

Chapter Warning(s): None

Disclaimer: I do not own pokémon, it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.

DevonEHFuller, I am well aware that Pokémon cannot revert back to previous evolutions. I didn't make myself clear enough during the writing, but I meant it as a collective of his Pokémon; those were the ones that had evolved, past and present.

Sakihinata, Doesn't he though? Lmao

UnendingNoiz716, Nope!

MidnightHunter74, Good guesses, but none of those apply nor does your soot theory.

Rozielrie, That's basically what I did!

wolfdragonmoon8976, Of course! The Bulbapedia, the site I usually use to help with my descriptions of pokémon and such, even has this, "Zoroark will hide its Zorua young in its mane to protect them and carry them around" in their biology section on Zoroark. Seeing as Zoroark sees them as the pups of the pack he's going to have that instinct to put them in his mane.

Enjoy!

Ash sighed as he walked out of the infirmary. Jerry had been a bit more helpful when it came to what the pokémon was. The engineer had described it as cat like in appearance and had a coin on its head. The only pokémon he could think of with that description is Meowth, but Meowth is white, not black. It could be that the poor cat is dirty, but when it comes to situations that he gets into it's not the case.

Ash decided to have Pikachu and Zoroark go with him down into the inner workings of the ship since they were both small, well his fox could change into something small, and Zoroark had a keen sense of smell that could help find the pokémon among the scent of the machinery. His other pokémon with the exception of a few would cause too much damage if they came down or were healing. Ash made sure to pack potions, bandages, food, water, and a few pokéballs in his bag before leaving the rest of his pokémon in his room with instructions not to make a mess. He also made sure to send Paul a message about what he was doing just in case Paul needed him for anything.

Zoroark, having disguised himself as a Rattata, rode on his right shoulder as Pikachu had claimed his left shoulder as his perch. The inner workings of the ship was tightly compact and hot because of all the machinery working to keep the ship going. The bottom of his shirt was already soaked in a few spots from how many times he's had to wipe his face to get rid of the sweat.

Ash walked up and down the rooms and hallways that Jerry had mentioned he had seen the creature in, but so far he had not seen the creature at all. He had however found what looked to be a nest. It had a few torn and dirty workers' uniforms and trash from what looked like food containers from the food places on deck. There were shed claws and whiskers as well as black fur all over the clothes. The only other objects he had seen was a small pile of coins that only confirmed what pokémon he was dealing with.

A deep growl accompanied by a hiss afterwards cut through the normal sounds of the machines working. Slowly turning around Ash was greeted to a peculiar looking Meowth. Its fur was completely black and that also included its nose and paw pads, but the koban coin adorning its head was still bright and gold. The Meowths' eyes also gleamed a bright amber as well as the creature stared at him with a scared emotion in its eyes.

Ash saw the Meowths' eyes hone in on his pokémon making the fur on the back of its neck stand along with the fur along its spine. Black claws flexed as the Meowth let out a warning snarl. He felt Pikachu tense up on his shoulder along with the disguised Zoroark, but Ash kept calm though. Him tensing up would give the Meowth the wrong message.

Before Ash could calm his own pokémon the Meowth leapt towards him making Pikachu smack the cat away with an Iron Tail while Zoroark changed his disguise to a Houndour. The disguised fox sent a Protect to surround his trainer while Pikachu engaged the Meowth. Zoroark crouched in front of Ash ready to defend his trainer in case the cat managed to get away from the mouse.

Ash simply watched as Pikachu darted in and out of range of those dark wicked claws as the electric type sent out charges of electricity to the cat in hopes to paralyze it. Pikachu knew better than to release a lot of electricity around machines after exploding a generator at a Center when another Pikachu startled him.

"Zoroark, release Protect and use Dark Pulse!" Ash ordered as he saw Pikachu get slashed badly by Meowths' claws. The disguised fox let out a bark and charged in between the cat and his pack mate as he released a Dark Pulse. Zoroark managed to push the cat back enough for their trainer to attend to his smaller pack mate.

Ash quickly applied a potion and bandages to Pikachu before telling the mouse to rest in his bag after grabbing one of the balls he had packed. "Move!" Ash yelled to Zoroark as he threw the red and white ball towards the cat. Thankfully the homing technology in the ball managed to smack the cat just perfectly on its shoulder. The teen watched silently as the ball jiggled once then twice before the ball broke revealing a pissed off cat.

Ash yelled as the cat managed to get past Zoroark and latched onto his hand with sharp teeth. Just as he felt the sharp teeth scraping against his bone Zoroark managed to pull the cat off him, but not without tearing his hand up further. Ash gritted his teeth as he wrapped his hand up with the leftover bandage before giving Zoroark further commands.

"Zoroark Dark Pulse again then use Extrasensory," Ash called out as the cat turned from the disguised fox to himself once more. Ash moved out of the way just in time for the cat to miss its jump and end up in the way of the Dark Pulse. The dark energy served to disorient the cat enough for Zoroark to nail it with dark psychic energy. Ash watched for a moment as the cat wobbled on its feet a bit before landing face first into the steel floor. The teen slowly approached the cat to make sure it was truly out before tapping its body with another ball. This time though the Meowth stayed inside the ball.

Ash nodded and turned to Zoroark. "Good job!" Ash praised as he gave the disguised fox a good scratch behind his ear, "Let's get to Nurse Joy to get you two checked out before I go to the infirmary to get my hand looked after." The fox simply let out a bark before following his trainer out of the room.

"Welcome everyone to the fights before the semi-finals!"

Ash stood with the others that managed to get this far in the tournament. It was the sixth day of the tournament and there were eight of them left to fight to win. Ash was proud that his pokémon had gotten this far in the fight since there were a few times Ash had thought that they would get beaten only for his pokémon to pull through. So far only Seadra, Nidorino, and Zoroark had fought since he was saving Pikachu, who had just finished healing, Charizard, Krookodile, and Doublade for the tougher fights.

"Today these lovely trainers will fight until there are only four trainers left to fight tomorrow. These battles will be three against three! We hope everyone is ready! Let's start!"

Ash turned and walked off the stage towards his designated fighting area. He was followed by a girl a few years older than himself named Louisa D'Angela, a Kalos native. He had seen a few of her fights already and had picked Charizard, Krookodile, and Doublade to fight her. She had mostly used grass and bug types in her fights and he hoped that she wouldn't change that strategy in this fight.

"Hmph."

Ash turned his head as he heard the noise and saw D'Angela close to him. "What?" Ash asked as he stopped near their arena.

"You're hand," she said as she flipped her hair over her shoulder, "I've trained my pokémon not to bite the hand that feeds. I guess not everyone is as good a trainer as me."

Ash licked his lips before biting the inside of his cheek to keep himself from snapping at her as she walked away. She didn't know the circumstances that caused the wound on his hand. Her derisive words just fueled his want to win. Ash stepped up onto the stage when he was prompted and pulled out his first pokéball.

"This battle is between Ash Ketchum of Kanto and Louisa D'Angela of Kalos. As stated before these fights are three on three! The battle ends when all pokémon on one side are all knocked out. There will be no substitutions, no potions or revives, and no battle items. Each round will begin with a new pokémon from both trainers," the referee of the battle announced as D'Angela pulled out her pokéball, "Alright trainers send out your first pokémon!"

Ash watched as D'Angela threw her ball and let out one of the weirder looking pokémon he had ever seen. It was on the smaller side and very round, but its upper half was covered in plant-like armor and had a few spikes along the armor as well as sharp looking teeth. The rodent like pokémon gnashed its teeth together a few times as it let out a hiss. The appearance of the rodent made the crowd around them clap and cheer.

If that was how that small rodent was going to be greeted then he wondered how they would react to Charizard. With a smirk as sent out his beloved albino who released a loud roar as he spotted the small prey. Charizard spread his wings to make himself seem bigger and let out a snort of ruby red fire as the sun glinted off his snow white scales. Silence fell in the crowd before exclamations and words spoken in awe could be heard.

"Let's let this battle begin!"

Ash didn't tell Charizard to do anything at first, as he trusted his pokémon to do what he thought he needed to do, and watched as Charizard whipped his powerful tail around and nailed the rodent on its stomach.

"Quilladin!" D'Angela yelled as the armored rodent was tossed away. She let out a sigh of relief as Quilladin rose back up quickly from where it had fallen with only a small wince. "Okay Quilly! Use Seed Bomb then go in with Brick Break!"

The small rodent was quick in shooting off several glowing seeds from its mouth towards Charizard before charging forward right behind them. Its paw glowed as Charizard waved his wings to use the wind to push back the seeds only to be hit by the Brick Break on his stomach.

"Grab it!" Ash commanded and saw Charizard quickly grab the paw of the Quilladin, "Flamethrower!"

Charizard let out a roar as he followed his trainers command and released a rather low powered Flamethrower. The albino reptile knew his opponent was a grass type and his trainer has trained them to subdue their opponents, not kill. Even with the Flamethrower at a lower level the intense heat and damage the fire did to the grass type was enough to leave it with a burn and passed out. Charizard let his opponent drop from his claws and let out a victorious roar towards the opposite trainer.

"This match is over! Ash Ketchum wins! Trainers recall your pokémon and send out your next fighters!" the referee yelled over the crowd cheering for Ash. Ash nodded and sent Charizard a smile before recalling him. His albino baby, while not having to do much, did very well in his fight and would get a treat when they returned to their rooms.

Ash looked over to where Paul was standing with Riolu tucked away in his jacket to keep eyes off of him and sent him a smile as he saw his boyfriend look at him. This time Ash and D'Angela sent out their pokémon at the same time. D'Angelas' pokémon was huge and stood on four legs. Most of its body was covered in a magenta colored armored exoskeleton while its underside was covered in dark gray armored exoskeleton. It had two long bent horns on its head that dripped in poison and they only matched the two large horns on its hind end. It had four pairs of fore-claws that led up its segmented neck.

Krookodile saw the larger opponent and let out a snarl as he whipped his tail. The croc eyed the poisoned horns and other spikes before the referee called for the fight to begin. Ash honestly didn't see anywhere to command Krookodile to hit it besides its main body, but even then Scolipede were known to have many smaller needles along its body that could inject its poison when attacked in its blind spot.

Krookodile was going to be in for a long hard fight.

"Scolipede! Use Cross Poison!" D'Angela yelled as she threw her arm out towards Krookodile. Ash blinked a couple of times at the action. It just seemed so silly to see.

"Dodge it Krookodile," Ash said as he saw the large horns on its head beginning to glow, "then use Crunch."

The large croc let out a deep hiss as he did as his trainer asked. Krookodile was slower than he wanted to be, but he managed to dodge the charge of the Scolipede. The large reptile turned as the Scolipede ran past and managed to dig his teeth onto the mid section of the bug. He bit down harder only to cause its exoskeleton to crack under his teeth before having to release it when it kicked his side with one pointed foot.

Krookodile let out another hiss as the bug landed a Cross Poison on him before dashing out of the way of his tail. The croc bashed his tail on the ground a few times in anger making cracks in the stage flooring in hopes that if the bug charged again its pointed feet would get stuck in the cracks.

"Scolipede use Sludge Bomb!"

Ash narrowed his eyes as he saw how quick the bug spat out bubbling purple acid onto the stage and warned Krookodile to keep away from it. From what he knew of Scolipede the exoskeleton on the bug-type could withstand the acidity of its poison so it could easily walk through its own poison without any damage to itself.

"Krookodile Earthquake," Ash ordered as the Scolipede continued to shoot globs of poison over the entire arena. Krookodile jumped a few times on the arena and managed to make some of the poison fall through cracks in it, leaving the croc room to move.

"Poison Sting and Cross Poison back to back!" D'Angela said as she smiled widely.

"Krookodile use Foul Play and then Assurance if you get hit," Ash replied as the bug began shooting hypodermic-like needles towards the croc. Ash watched as the two large pokémon shot their moves one after another at each other while the Scolipede slid along the poisoned arena and avoided the cracks in it.

Krookodile did manage to hit the bug a few times with his tail when it got too close, but it didn't do much to slow it down. Assurance couldn't land on the Scolipede, as it moved too fast to even land, and Foul Play only did so much when his opponent kept skating out of the way. Ash could tell that Krookodile was getting frustrated and if he were honest so was he. This was just a bad matchup for Krookodile.

"Scolipede! Venoshock!"

Ash cursed under his breath as Krookodile got hit head on by the Venoshock. Poison instantly took an effect on Krookodile if the purple hue on his cheeks and the glazed look in the crocs' eyes told Ash anything. Krookodile didn't have much time especially if the Scolipede landed another Venoshock.

"Krookodile, you're poisoned," Ash said softly, but just loud enough for his reptilian friend to hear, "You don't have much time left to fight so you need to go all out even if it's on one last move. Get in close and use Crunch on its midsection again then full power Fire Fang when you're attached."

The poisoned croc let out a small whine as the poison spread further. Even as hurt as he was he followed his trainers commands. With speed the croc didn't know he had he managed to get close to the bug and crunched down on the bit of broken exoskeleton he had broken before. With a loud snarl Krookodile flared his Fire Fang with as much power as he could manage causing the Scolipede to cry out and fall.

"This match is a draw!"

Krookodile let out a small whine as his trainer carefully, to avoid the puddles of poison, approached him. He closed his eyes and leaned into the small touch on his jaw as Ash praised him on a job well done and promised to get Nurse Joy to look over him as soon as he could as well as a nice meaty treat for dinner. He thumped his tail a couple of times before he was recalled into his ball for a nice long rest.

The referee spoke up to announce that they were going to clean and fix the arena before the next fight which thankfully didn't take too long to do.

"Trainers send out your next pokémon!"

Ash took a deep breath as he released Doublade only to see that D'Angela had released a Scizor. The large insectoid was jittery as it moved from one foot to the other. Its large pincers opened and closed with a soft metallic sound he usually heard from his Doublade when she came out of her sheathes. His twin swords crossed themselves before floating apart while her ribbon flowed with the breeze.

"Begin!"

Doublade darted towards her opponent just as the referee finished telling them to start. Her opponent was larger than herself and maybe just as fast as her. Doublade must admit that she felt a small sort of smugness as her blade cut through the hard exoskeleton of the Scizor making the bug let out a Screech in pain.

"Shadow Sneak," Ash said as he saw the Scizor ready an X-Scissor. Doublade let out a metallic screech that made the Scizor and the others in the area cringe before she fell into her own shadow. She darted into the shadows made by the ship's railings, which covered a good portion of the arena, and watched as the other trainer commanded the bug to keep moving.

Doublade laid in wait only for a few moments before darting up towards an unsuspecting Scizor. She had hidden just under the bug and managed to surprise it a bit. She lashed out with one sword as the other held back one of the pincers. Doublade slashed at the bug a few times before blocking the Iron Head the Scizor sent out.

"Scizor! Use Brick Break!" D'Angela yelled as she saw the swords being sent back. The Scizor vibrated its wings creating a buzzing sound as one of its large pincers glowed.

"Iron Defense Doublade!" Ash called out, "Then use Night Slash!"

The twin blades hummed as the swords went back into their sheathes before producing a round metallic sphere around herself for protection. The Scizors' pincer bounced off of the shield once it made contact, but did leave a crack in it, not that it mattered since Doublade released the defence and slashed at the Scizor with a dark energy covered blade.

The bug let out another Screech as it let out another X-Scissor this time hitting Doublade with it making the twin blades grind out a metallic sound in pain. The two steel types went back and forth hitting each other and blocking the others' hits until the two moved back away from each other.

"Scizor Hyper Beam!"

Ash gritted his teeth as he told Doublade to use Iron Defense again as the bug pointed its open pincers towards the twin swords. He didn't know if her defense could handle the Hyper Beam, but this was a good time to find out. None of the others knew the move and if Doublade fell from the attack he still had Charizard to fight. There was also the chance Doublade would make it through the attack and could unleash a full powered attack on the bug while it was paralyzed from using the move.

The crowd, and Ash, didn't have to wait long before Scizor unleashed the attack. The burst of light that left Scizors' pincers was accompanied with a loud banging sound when it hit Doublades' shield. Dust and other debris covered the two pokémon making it hard for anyone to see the two. Ash waited and watched with bated breath for the debris to clear.

The teen let out a sigh of relief as he saw that Doublade was still up and going, but she did have a few dings and dents to her handles and scratches to her sheathes and plaque. Ash smiled as he saw her leave her sheathes and let out a loud call that made the paralyzed Scizor cringe.

"Doublade, finish it! Use Solar Blade!" Ash called out.

Doublade let out a hum as she began to gather the energy from sunlight. Solar Blade was a new move her trainer had wanted her to learn, and she finally managed to do it right before they got on this boat. She would win this battle for her trainer. Even if it meant exhausting herself.

The twin blades glowed a bright green in color as she charged towards the bug. The other trainer yelled for her Scizor to move, but the bug wasn't able to and thus had gotten the full blast of her Solar Blade. She slashed once with her right blade and then again with her left blade one after another.

After her last hit she waited a moment seeing as the Scizor had only fallen to its knees only for her opponent to fall face first just a second later. Doublade twirled her blades around and sheathed herself once the human watching the battle announced that she had won. Her ribbons fluttered and wrapped around her trainer's wrist as she floated back over towards him.

"You did fantastic," Ash praised as he placed his hand, palm down, on the middle of her sheaths, "Take a rest. I might need you again in the later fights."

Doublade nodded and sent her trainer a soft look just before she was recalled into her ball.

"This battle is over! Ash Ketchum from Kanto wins and moves on to the semi-finals!"