Chloe quickly checked the time on her rotom phone which said around 9pm. She sighed. They still had an hour left before they landed in the tropical region of Alola, the commute being quite a bit longer than she originally thought. Chloe was starting to feel a bit drowsy from all the flying, same with her companion Eevee. She looked at the two boys sitting next to her only to find Goh completely asleep with Grookey on his lap and, to very much her surprise, Ash was still awake and talking with Pikachu while occasionally checking his Rotom phone. Chloe had always known that Ash was a pretty heavy sleeper so she was really surprised to find him still being active, especially when Goh was out like a light. She decided to ask him about it.
"How long has Goh been sleeping?" Chloe first asked.
"Probably no longer than fifteen minutes. He was looking through his phone ever since we got on the plane so I think that tired him out." Replied Ash with a grin on his face.
"To be honest, I'm really surprised you stayed awake longer than Goh, you always seemed like the heavier sleeper."
"Well in most cases you'd be right." Said a laughing Ash. "But the exceptions are when me and Pikachu are going to a different region. There's something about traveling to a place, even if we've already been there, that just gets us super excited!"
"Speaking of which..." Chloe felt a sudden urge to learn more about the Pikachu trainer and she felt it was the right time to do so. "You seem to know a lot about Alola, and also when we went to Hoenn for both the Friendship Festival with Jinny along with her Feebas and also for the Water Pokemon Athletics, you seemed to know your way around the place, have you been to these places before?"
"Well to tell the truth… I've traveled to a lot of places before coming here as a researcher, so it's only natural that I remember some of them."
"It feels kind of weird though, you never seem to talk about your previous travels, or heck, even the people you've met before, even with Goh." Chloe insisted. "Don't you like talking about your past? Surely you must have great stories to tell, and I just find it a bit strange you don't seem to mention them—"
"Okay let me stop you right there Chloe." Ash interrupted uncharacteristically, which made the former shudder a bit by his unusually firm and assertive tone. "I had a feeling you would eventually think that, but let me clarify for you. It's not that I don't like talking about my past, on the contrary, I have some fantastic memories and stories from my travels that I would love to share with others like you and Goh for example, it's just that I've always been more focused on what's ahead of me instead of what's behind me, because in the end, what matters is not what you have accomplished in the past, but what you could accomplish in the future. I will never not acknowledge what I have done in the past, like for example, I know not everyone can say they have been a part of stopping Eternatus alongside the champion monarch Leon from destroying the entire Galar region. I have accomplished a lot of things before and those things mean a lot to me, but if I stay too focused on my past, I will never be able to accomplish greater things in future. I want to be a pokemon master, to be the greatest like no one ever was alongside my friends, and to do that, I need to stay focused on the goal that's currently ahead of me. That's why I'm working towards my future as a trainer without dwelling too much on my past. I love my friends and all the people I met during my travels and I wouldn't change a thing about my journey so far, so please don't get the wrong idea about me and my previous experiences.
Chloe simply stared at Ash, she just couldn't believe what he was saying. All this time, she thought he was just another trainer who just liked to battle and that there was nothing too special about him, but the way he explained his goal, how he was so focused and dedicated to achieving his dream, maybe he was a bit more than what could be seen with the naked eye. She kept staring at him unconsciously for a while, so Ash eventually started feeling a bit bad and said:
"Sorry! Maybe that was a bit too rude, didn't mean to shock you so much." Ash said back in his normal cheerful tone.
"N-No no, I-It's fine." Chloe awkwardly stubbled her reply.
'Just what kind of person is Ash really…' Chloe thought.
"Goh… Goh we landed… Goh!" Chloe sighed. "Just how sleepy was he before going on this flight?" She asked slightly frustrated.
"Don't worry, I know how to wake him up." Ash then gave his signature toothy grin. "Hey look! Is that a Mew outside?"
In a blink of an eye, Goh immediately got up from his seat and pushed Chloe away to look at the plane window. "Mew!? When!? Where!?
"Wow…" Chloe quietly said.
"Works every time… Come on, let's get out of here." Ash said whilst dragging a still very confused Goh out of the plane.
Finally exiting the Melemele airport, the streets of Heahea city were still pretty lively even though it was quite late at night, with bright lights illuminating the alolan night sky at every turn. The trio decided, after a lot of insisting from Ash, to get to the nearest pokemon center, book their rooms and explore the city tomorrow. On the way to the pokemon center, Ash was stopped a couple times and was asked for a few pictures once in a while, which greatly confused Chloe and Goh. They were just about to arrive at the pokemon center when a little boy no older than 7 and his mom stopped and talked to Ash.
"H-Hi… um... a-are you t-the r-real Ash K-Ketchum." asked the little boy.
"Yeah that's me…" Ash responded, clearly uncomfortable in this situation
"C-C-Could I-I have a p-picture please?" Added the little boy
Ash slightly reluctantly accepted and took a picture with the little boy, much to the delight of the mother. Meanwhile, Goh and Chloe just stood there in pure confusion.
"Um Goh? Does this happen often?" Asked Chloe.
"Well I definitely didn't see this exact situation last time we went to Alola, but people do seem to know Ash quite a bit, never seen people asking him for pictures before though…" Chloe decided to not dwell on it too much for now and they continued on their way to the pokemon center.
Finally arriving at their destination, the trio got two rooms, one for Ash and Goh and one for Chloe. They decided to first unpack and then meetup in the lobby to decide plans for tomorrow. Ash seemed awkwardly in a rush, but the other two once again didn't pay it any special attention.
"So what are the plans for tomorrow?" Initially asked Chloe.
"I say we stay in Hau'oli city for a bit and go visit the beach, I wanna see if I can find a Sandygast, or maybe even fish up a couple water types." Said excitedly Goh.
"That sounds fun, you guys can go a bit earlier, I'll go visit Professor Kukui's house and meet up with you guys later."
"Why do you have to go visit the Professor's house?" Chloe asked Ash.
"They're like a second family to me, so of course I have to visit them!"
"Okay sounds good…" Chloe said, wondering what exactly Ash was referring to. "Well if that's all, then I'll see you boys tomorrow, don't be late."
"Alright, see ya tomorrow." Ash and Goh said simultaneously.
The professor's daughter was getting increasingly more suspicious of Ash. Ever since they landed, he has been acting strange, people asking for pictures with him, seemingly in a rush to avoid public places, visiting a "second family". She had the feeling he was hiding things from them, probably a lot more than she and Goh may have originally thought. She understood why he didn't want to talk so much about his past experiences thanks to their conversation back on the plane, but it still felt like Ash was specifically trying to avoid them knowing about his past. She wanted to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible.
Morning came faster than expected, and unfortunately for Chloe she was the first awake, meaning she had to wait for the boys to get ready. On the bright side, this gave her a lot more time to straighten her hair, something that her mom showed her how to do not too long ago, so thankfully she could get it done before anybody could see her awful bed hair. After 15 minutes of waiting in the lobby, the two boys showed up, and after saying their partial goodbyes to Ash, Chloe and Goh departed for the beach. The beach was pretty crowded, but they had managed to find a decently secluded spot on the north side of the beach. An hour had gone by, and whilst Chloe rested under the umbrella, Goh managed to catch a Sandygast, a Wingull and a Finneon. Chloe and Goh both started wondering when Ash was going to arrive, since they had also recently planned to visit the shopping district soon. Fifteen minutes later, Ash finally arrived at the beach.
"Hey Ash. Took you a while." Said Chloe.
"Sorry about that! They were telling me they were going to visit Ula Ula island for a while, so they gave me a spare key to the lab in case I wanted to go get something. Hey, do you know what Goh is doing? He seems to be pretty frustrated about something over there."
Chloe turned around towards the ocean, only to find Goh visibly very angry on the back of his Dewgong trying to fish for some Pokemon.
"Yeah… I think he's been losing his mind trying to find a Huntail, he's been fishing for at least like 30 minutes now."
"JUST HOW HARD IS IT TO FIND A HUNTAIL IN THIS PLACE, IT SAYS ITS SUPPOSED TO LIVE HERE IN THE MELEMELE SEA SO WHY CAN'T I FIND ONE! GAH!"
Ash, Chloe, Dewgong and even Grookey currently on Goh's shoulder, all sweatdropped.
"I mean he isn't wrong…" Stated Ash. "They do live here in the Melemele sea, it's just that they are pretty rare, he'd probably have an easier time catching one in either Hoenn or Unova…"
Five more minutes passed and Goh still hadn't managed to catch a Huntail, but he did manage to catch a Gorebyss, Clamper's other evolution, so he was decently satisfied. They stayed on the beach for 30 more minutes and played a game of Pokemon Volleyball. Goh, Chloe, Grookey and Eevee were up against Ash and three of his pokemon, Lucario, Dragonite and Pikachu. They all had a great time, apart from Lucario who kept accidentally popping the ball with the spikes on his arms.
"I-It's okay Lucario, we have plenty of other beachballs." Tried consoling Ash whilst Lucario just looked down at the floor exasperated after breaking another volleyball.
After the game ended, Chloe and Goh told Ash about their plans to go to the shopping district. He seemed a little reluctant, likely due to the fact he didn't want a repeat of yesterday where people kept asking him for pictures, but eventually accepted. They were currently all packing up their stuff and getting ready to leave.
"We should stop by the Pokemon Center first so we can leave all our stuff there first, don't want to carry too much stuff whilst we are shopping." Suggested the Hyper Class trainer.
"Yeah good idea Ash." Complimented Goh. "It's not like you to go somewhere prepared..."
"Says the person who didn't bring Dive Balls to catch water type Pokemon." Retorted Ash with a grin.
They all laughed and were soon on their way to the Pokemon Center. It wasn't a very long trip and surprisingly Ash wasn't stopped once, much to his own relief. They left all their beach stuff along with their Pokemon in their rooms, only keeping Grookey, Eevee and Pikachu. They were about to leave when Ash suddenly had a strange feeling he should bring a couple pokemon, but he didn't know why. There was this strange sensation inside of him silently telling him that he should, and that he might regret it later if he didn't. He hesitated for a while, but eventually decided to bring his Lucario, Dragonite and Gengar, just to be safe. Five minutes later, the trio arrived at the shopping district. Everybody had different expressions on their faces when outside the huge building for the first time. Ash's was one of surprise, as the mall was quite a bit different since the last time he went here, having now a lot more stairs to access different levels of the mall, Chloe's was one of beyond excitement, thinking about all the things she could shop for, and finally, Goh's was one of fatigue, knowing already Chloe's expression meaning he was going to have carry a lot of bags.
'Why did I agree to this?' thought desperately Goh.
They spent the next hour visiting different shops, from jewelry, to hats or even clothes. It was safe to assume Goh was bored, but he decided to stay for Chloe's sake, she's never been to as many places as himself and it's only natural wanting to buy souvenirs. He noticed Ash didn't seem tired at all, even giving Chloe a bit of information on certain items he had seen before such as a Corsola necklace, much to the latter's delight. Goh decided to ask him about it while they were both waiting for Chloe to pay for the stuff she was going to buy.
"I'm surprised Ash, you surprisingly don't seem bored doing all this shopping stuff, I'm getting pretty bored myself, and knowing you, you are probably itching for a battle right about now."
Ash shook his head. "Nah not really, this isn't anywhere near as bad as my previous experiences here. Remember Lana, Mallow and Lillie? Well once I practically got forced into shopping with them and let's just say it wasn't the best experience in the world, but it was fun nonetheless, it's nice to take a break once and a while and just walk around. You know somebody once told me if a person only looks at what is in front of them, then they will lose sight of what is important, so I try to avoid that by just relaxing and taking it easy from time to time."
Goh was slightly taken aback, but then simply smiled and said "Never knew you could say mature stuff like that Ash…"
"Hey!"
Chloe was silently listening in on their conversation whilst paying for her stuff at the cashier, and once again, Ash showed a lot of maturity and wisdom, another thing that differentiates him from other trainers. She smiled and after grabbing her bags decided to suggest a food break, since she was also getting kind of hungry. The two boys obviously accepted and they quickly made their way to the food court. After grabbing their food, the trio sat down at a table under an umbrella.
"Ash, you sure you gonna be ok eating all that food?" The Professor's daughter asked while looking at the massive tray of food Ash had brought.
"Don't worry Chloe, when it comes to food, there's never enough for Ash and Pikachu..."
"Tahts... raight!" Ash said with a mouthful of food, making it barely possible to understand what he was saying.
"Pika!" Approved his best friend in a similar manner.
"Anyways… what should we do after this?" Goh said whilst moving on from Ash's strange eating habits. "I can't imagine we will be shopping the whole rest of the day, it's only midday after all."
"Oh I know!" Ash exclaimed. "Let's go ride some Mantine!"
"Oh yeah! I saw that in one of the flyers on the plane, it seems like fun, what do you say Goh?" Asked Chloe.
"Sounds like a pla—"
Before Goh even had the chance to finish his response, a huge booming sound came from the sky. The trio looked up to see some sort of crack in the sky, and from it, was emerging a huge, massive and menacing creature. After fully exiting from the hole in the sky, it landed straight in the middle of the mall, thankfully not landing on anyone currently eating. It had a black body and was mainly round with a large, yellow mouth in the center taking up most of its body. Additionally, large pincers coming out from it's mouth resembling hands were flailing around everywhere, occasionally hitting a couple tables and chairs. Finally, just above its mouth were two glowing, blue eyes with a yellow, diamond-shaped marking between them, forming some sort of head towering over them. The trio simply stared directly at the absolute monstrosity now standing in front of them.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me…" Ash said as he was the first to speak whilst looking at the new arrival.
"Um guys?" Chloe asked nervously. "Any idea what in the world is that thing or why it just came from a hole the sky?!"
"How are we supposed to know wha—"
"I do." Ash simply said.
"WHAT!?" Exclaimed both Chloe and Goh at the same time.
"But I think I'll save the explanation for later. I think right now we should, you know? Run."
Ash, Goh and Chloe immediately ran as fast as possible away from the creature along with everybody in the mall, whilst it tried it's best to catch up to them, eating and devouring anything in sight. Ash knew he had to call his father figure as fast as possible, so he pointed to a little hallway just off of the main court area and brought his companions with him. Ash then got out his Rotom phone and dialed a number. It took a few moments but the person on the other end eventually responded.
"Hey Ash!" Said the familiar voice of the alolan Professor. "Why is it so noisy, is everything alright or did you break the washing machine again?" He joked.
"Not really, a Guzzlord showed up from an ultra wormhole at the mall and I could REALLY use some help right about now... Any way to contact the ultra guardians?"
Professor Kukui immediately went serious after realizing the state of this situation Ash was now in. "Unfortunately that would bring us no good. They are all out of the region at the moment. Lana and Mallow went on a trip with their families to Unova, Lillie, Gladion and Lusamine still haven't come back from looking for their father, Sophocles went to Hoenn to visit a space laboratory and Kiawe is on a trip to Kanto to visit Blaine, the fire type gym leader."
"Just great…" Ash sighed. "Sorry to interupt your stay on Ula Ula Island, but I'm really gonna need the Masked Royal to show up soon."
"On it, but it will take me a while to get there so you're gonna have to stall for a bit."
"How though?" Ash was unsure of what to do. "It's literally devouring half the mall!"
"We have no choice, you are the only one around that can do anything about it right now. You surely have pokemon on you right now, Pikachu at the very least, and you fought that thing before so you at least know how to slow down it's rampage, or at least distract it for a while, I'm sorry but it's our only option."
Knowing he didn't really have a choice, the trainer sighed and said: "I'll try, but please hurry Professor."
"I'll be there as fast as I can."
Ash then ended the call only to see Goh and Chloe's confused expressions, obviously not understanding a thing about Ash's conversation or what was happening right now.
"Ok Ash, we're gonna really need you to explain what on earth is happening right now. Guzzlord? Ultra wormhole? The Masked Royal? Just what is this?" Chloe said, practically demanding answers.
"There's no time! We're on our own for a good part of this so…" Ash then, in a moment that shocked both Goh and Chloe, left the hallway they were hiding in, faced the black creature now running towards them, gave a toothy grin, which probably wasn't adequate for the situation, and said:
"We're gonna have to fight it!"
Silence, just pure and utter silence, took over the entirety of the mall. The only sound that was heard for a while was the faint breeze of the wind flowing through the food court. It took a couple moments before the rest of the group fully comprehended what Ash had just said, but when they did...
"ARE YOU NUTS!?" Both suddenly exclaimed Goh and Chloe. They were going to fight that thing?
"It's not like we have a choice here..." Ash started. "If we don't do something about it now, then it's probably going to eat the whole mall before we get some help."
"But we don't even have pokemon to even stand a chance against this thing at the moment." Cried Goh. "Eevee and Grookey couldn't even scratch that thing, and no offense but I doubt pikachu can handle that thing on its own, it's almost the size of a dynamax Pokemon for crying out lou—"
Goh was then interrupted by the sound of three pokeballs opening, followed by the familiar sight of Lucario, Dragonite and Gengar, all looking just as ready to fight this monstrosity as Ash.
"Like I said, we don't have a choice." Ash said calmly with a determined look on his face. He quickly threw a key at Goh who awkwardly caught it. "Here's the plan, since you know where the Professor's house is Goh, you bring Chloe along to go get some help from the Pokemon there, in the meantime while the Professor gets here, I'll stall this thing and make him do as little damage as possible to the mall. Got it?"
Goh was once again taken by surprise by his fellow researcher, it happened a few times during the time he was travelling with him, but sometimes, he was just something else. He may act like a little kid at times, but in terrifying situations, or when people need his help, he is always there to give his 110% no matter what he is up against. He couldn't have asked for a better friend and companion.
"You sure are one of a kind Ash. Alright, let's do this thin—"
"EEVEE!"
Goh, seemingly not being able to finish a sentence today, was once again cut off, this time because of a desperate scream coming from Chloe's Eevee. The trio looked up, only to find a piece of debris being thrown by the monster, and it's trajectory was going straight for the only female of the group, alongside her partner pokemon.
"CHLOE!" Exclaimed the two researchers even though the subject didn't seem to hear them, being completely paralyzed by fear.
