4 months ago from Present time, Galar Region

Ash was trying to ignore the slight headache he had been having for quite a while now. He seemed to be the only one affected for some reason. Everyone they had passed along the way, were all oblivious to whatever was causing this suffering

However, Ash had some suspicion it had something to due with what happened to Kanto. Also speaking of Kanto, the Pallet native had yet to find a way to contact his mother or anyone else he knew was in Kanto at the time... In reality, the reason why he hadn't actually found a way to communicate was because he was scared at what news he receive

Gou hadn't pushed to contacting his family or Chloe either. It was like he too wasn't ready for what was to come either. Ash could only just hope that nobody close to them had suffered... but he knew that wasn't the case as he remembered the voices of Misty and Brock all to clearly in his mind

"-to go?" Gou's voice said, snapping Ash from his thoughts

"What?" Ash asked in confusion, ignoring the headache as it got stronger and saw the worried expressions on Goh and Pikachu

"I was asking where you wanted to go. Are you alright? You've been acting strange the last few days. I mean you barely eat and sometimes I can hear you screaming at night" Gou said as he knew what Ash's respond would be since they had this talk a few days ago

Gou didn't believe they were in fact nightmares as Ash claimed they were. Ever since that day in which they found out about Kanto, Ash had become more secretive and closed off

Ash was about to respond until he suddenly fell to his knees and clutched his head tightly

"Pikapi!" "Ash!"

He had a bad feeling that something was about to happened. Suddenly people were heard screaming as Gou looked around for the cause as Pikachu tried to comfort his trainer still on the ground

Looking around he saw various people and Pokemon trying to fight what he now realized were the infected. The question was; how did they even get here? Both Kanto and Johto had been closed off... unless either one of two things happened, 1) there was no one left to guard the defense put in place or 2) while escaping, the infected may have gotten onto one of the many ships which wouldn't be that surprising since it seemed they were smart, maybe to smart...

Hearing a scream, Gou saw a horrifying sight of a young girl, probably 9 at best have a Pokemon unknown to him suddenly slash at her arm as he unconsciously moved his hand towards his mouth. Gou made no move to get his pokedex or tear his sight away as he saw the Pokemon sweep the defenseless girl of her feet and to his horror saw the Pokemon break her tiny body as the girl went limp

"St-s-stop i-it" Ash suddenly said as Gou turned back to his friend as saw him slowly release his Drizzile and Dragonite, doing his best to explain the situation. The two Pokemon soon joined in the fight, but not without glancing at their trainer

"Ash we gotta move" Gou said, grabbing a hold of his friend as he helped the teen back onto his feet. Leading them away from the fight, Gou felt like a coward... but knew that nothing he did would be enough. He did release a few of his Pokemon and asked them to help as many people as he could, but to make sure not to allow the infected to get a hit on them

Turning back towards Ash, he looked concerned as he saw him still holding his head. Whatever it was that was affecting the raven-haired teen, he hoped it would be over soon. Ash was in no condition to go out there and as much as he wanted to go out and do more than just sent his Pokemon, he knew Ash wouldn't be able to defend himself... not that he was saying Pikachu wasn't enough!

Hearing an explosion, Gou looked through the window only to duck as an infected was thrown into the building they had been hiding in. Pikachu jumped in front of the two humans, his cheeks sparking as he looked ready to defend his trainer and their friend

Soon more infected were thrown inside and Pikachu was now losing his confidence. He had seen powerful Pokemon outside be taken down by these zombies, Pokemon fully evolved even lost to a couple of lower level infected... it seemed whatever had caused them this, also made them stronger

Pikachu's eyes widened as he saw a Spritzee suddenly move towards them at lightning-fast speed. The electric type wished at that moment to have learned a defense type move like protect as he wasn't able to block or stop the incoming attack as it sent him flying towards Gou, who caught him. Pikachu felt ashamed of himself for allowing that to happen... he was fast himself, yet couldn't stop a simple attack like tackle to hit him

Ash had heard the cry of his starter get hit and turned towards him as he saw the yellow mouse in Gou's arms. However, that left them defenseless since there other Pokemon were outside fighting and Scorbunny wasn't going to be a big help here since he didn't have much battle experience

Once again, a sharp pain ran through his head. He hated this, hated being useless and unable to do anything. Not to mention this killer headache, which he had yet to understand and figure out what was causing it

"Pikachu, move!" Gou suddenly said as Ash lifted his head up slightly and saw Pikachu trying to defend or at least throw out the infected. Based on the way they acted, it was almost of if they were zombies... and the only way to defeat a zombie was to kill them

"Pika!" the yellow mouse cried out again as he was once again hit head on, but this time he wasn't so lucky as to be thrown into Gou as Pikachu was slammed into the wall hard and falling unconscious

Ash not wanting Pikachu to become a mindless drone, did something he never thought he'd have to do. Taking out the pokeball with the small lightning bolt sticker, he aimed it at Pikachu as his starter was returned to his pokeball after so many years

Now the question was, how were they gonna get out of this one without the help of their Pokemon?

Unova Region, Nimbasa City

Hilda sighed as she and a couple other trainers fought against the infected. Dodging a hit that would have knocked her out and most likely caused her to become a victim, made the brunette narrow her eyes at the group of mindless beasts

It had happened a month ago, the first city to get hit was Castelia City and it made seen to be honest. Many boats arrived there and one of them was a boat with the escaped survivors of Johto. However, it seemed that the people and Pokemon who thought they were finally in the clear... would soon join in with the infected as it seemed the boat had been carrying around a few infected Pokemon

Due to this, her friend Hilbert, who had been in Castelia City warned her about the infected now in Unova... before he unfortunately got bitten and infected himself. Hilda had wished she could have been there to help him, but was in Driftveil City at the time and had no way of reaching him in time

Suddenly she felt herself get thrown across the street and into the abandoned Pokemon Center. Hilda tried to stand up, but felt unbearable pain shoot up her leg as she looked down and saw her ankle now broken and twisted in a way she didn't know was possible

Knowing she was trapped since she wouldn't be able to run, the brunette limped over towards the still functional transfer machine and with slight hesitation placed all her Pokemon into the PC. Sighing at the fact that they wouldn't suffer this horrible fate, Hilda slowly pulled out a couple of items she had gotten a couple of days ago and with as much strength and speed, placed them in different areas in the room

With that the brunette closed her eyes, sliding down to the ground and send silent goodbye to everyone she knew as she pressed the button on the device currently in her hand. The items she had placed were now blinking as she waited a while for the infected to get closer and she knew they were since she could hear many of them running towards her. It seemed they could smell her blood and were now heading mindlessly towards their doom... maybe they weren't so smart as she thought

Once they were close enough, she pushed the button again and the Pokemon Center she had been at, was no more as those were still alive and not yet infected heard the explosion and saw the various pieces of debris raining down

Hilda had bought some time for the people to escape, but at the cost of her own life. Among those to see the explosion was none other than Rosa, who had a couple of tears streaming down her face at the though of someone who had been her friend, now dead

"Hilda, your sacrifice won't be in vain" Rosa said, as she turned away with a new plan in mind

Sorry for the delay in posting a new chapter here! I have no excuse other than working on other things. Anyway we are back to the past, with Ash, Gou and Hilda making appearances! Now the we see two regions suffering the effects, with Ash being the most affected by this and I'm sure many of you can guess why. I will explain why this is happening to him when the reason is revealed in the fanfic. Also I'm so sorry for killing off Hilda, but I needed someone to make a sacrifice and did a pull a name out of a hat thing. Till next time, where more characters make appearances!