Well, it happened. I'm so glad I came up with a contingency plan for in case this actually happened, which it did. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, *SPOILER ALERT!* the next few chapters will not be in the order the episodes were released, but I will do my best to be as true to the timeline as possible while also making it an enjoyable AU. Again, SPOILER ALERT for those who haven't seen the new episodes or are waiting for them to actually air on TV. *STEVEN UNIVERSE AND POKEMON ARE NOT OWNED BY ME*
"Alright Kingdra use bubble beam!" Lapis's voice echoed across the plot of land. The dragon pokemon obeyed its trainer and fired a steady stream of bubbles from its snout at the purple bat in the sky.
"Dodge and use confuse ray Crobat!" Brock commanded.
Standing by the field Brock and Lapis were battling, James acted as referee as Ash, Misty, Pikachu and Peridot watched.
"She's really gotten well adjusted to that Kingdra," Misty whispered to him as Kingdra managed to dodge the confuse ray attack.
In the two days since Arceus had gifted her the pokemon, Ash had been coaching her to train nonstop out of worry. Jasper's main goal was to get her, and he knew it was only a matter of time she came for her again, so he wanted her to be ready for when that time came.
"Use dragon pulse!".
But Crobat was far too fast for the water pokemon, and gracefully dodged it with astonishing speed. "Use cross poison!" his trainer ordered, and with an even greater speed, Crobat assaulted Kingdra with its poison attack, creating a small explosion.
"Kingdra is unable to battle! Crobat and Brock are the winners!" James declared.
"Kingdra return" Lapis said, sounding disappointed in herself. "You did great" she reassured her pokemon that she wasn't upset with it.
"You did great Lapis" Ash told her once he rejoined them on the field "Crobat is one of the fastest pokemon there is there was no way Kingdra was going to outspeed it, but you put you put up a great fight nonetheless, I'm proud of you"
"Thanks," she quietly answered him.
"Ash!" Peridot exclaimed, holding her tablet in the air to show him a message she received from Steven, "Steven just messaged me to tell you "it's time", what does that mean?"
Ash took a deep breath, "I've been dreading this moment. Alright, thanks Peridot, now I've got to talk to Sadie"
He met Steven outside the Big Donut, looking just as miserable as he was "what's getting to you bud?"
"Connie's still mad at me, she hasn't talked to me since the night Arceus and Rose gave us our pokemon. What's getting to you?"
He sighed again, "Lapis is just, I don't know, she just seems quieter lately. Like, she's not even there, I'm really worried about her. Now come on, time to tear this bandage off" he pushed open the door to the restaurant where Sadie was working with Serena and looking miserable, but her eyes lit up when she saw the two enter.
"STEVEN! ASH! I'm so glad you're alright! Wait, where's Lars!?"
"Sadie, Lars is still in space"
"WHAT!?"
"Yeah, but don't worry, he's with some nice Gems who are on the run from their Homeworld overlords, as well as those two girls who were there that night we were taken. But May and Dawn had a change of heart and are protecting him, not that I think he's going to need it. Oh I wish you coulda seen it Sadie, he gave his life to save us. Wait-"
"HE DIED!?"
"Well yeah, but Steven brought him back to life. So now he's pink and has a portal in his head that we can use to see him any time"
"Well, I'm glad he's still, technically, alive. You guys told his parent's right?"
"Well, you're kind of our practice run"
"Oh gosh, I better go with you guys, Serena do you mind holding down the fort while we do this?"
"Sure, no problem"
The trio exited the shop, leaving Serena to herself, and began to make their way to the Barriga household. "Let's do this quick, I can't be away from work for too long"
"Woah, what's that?" Ash then asked seeing a large crowd of people surrounding Fish Stew Pizza "is Kofi having a sale or something?" Pushing through the crowd, he saw Jenny, Kiki and their grandmother Nanefua were addressing the crowd with picket signs and megaphones. "Jenny, Kiki, what's going on?"
"Quiet Ash, Grandma's about to speak" his friend told him sounding angry.
"One week ago, aliens nearly abducted the whole town!" the elderly woman told the crowd through her megaphone "and what did Mayor Dewey do about it? That's right: jack and squat! And that is why you should vote for me, your favorite Nanefua, for mayor of Beach City!" The crowd began to cheer at the old woman. "Now when I say, "Do we want Dewey?" you say, "No!" Do we want Dewey?"
"NO!" everyone in the crowd except for Ash, Steven and Sadie chanted.
"Okay, good job"
"I'm going to Lars's parent's house, I'll meet you guys there!" Sadie had to shout to the boys so they could hear over the crowd, then slinked out from the angry mob as it began to move down the boardwalk chanting "Down with Dewey!" repeatedly.
"Oh Arceus what have we done? Come on bud, we've got to fix this"
"Alright, but first, we have to tell Lars's parents"
After informing Lars's parents that their son was alive, the two made their way to the Dewey house, the first time Ash had been there since Buck threw him his birthday party. Outside, the mob from Fish Stew had organized and were still chanting in front of the Mayor's office window.
"This is not good. My gosh I've never had an opponent before. Even when I ran for Mayor of High School, I ran unopposed. Probably because I made up the position."
"Wait, you mean to tell me you were running for reelection against absolutely no one for the past year?" Ash asked the nervous wreck before him sounding completely confused as to the stupidity of the situation.
"If only we'd warned you about all this abduction stuff sooner, then everything would be fine now. We really dropped the ball"
"Uh, you're right Universe, it is all you guy's fault"
Ash just gave an annoyed look at him for his statement, then came up with his own solution "maybe we could hold a town meeting or something? We'll tell everyone how it was all our fault and you had nothing to do with it."
The Mayor thought for a moment "alright boys, having a scapegoat sounds good, plus the whole town respects you Ketchum and an endorsement will boost my credibility. Very well then, the ball's back in your court, just don't drop it again"
A few hours later, Mayor Dewey brought the "mayor mobile" towards the boardwalk with Ash and Steven by his side and Steven addressing the crowd through his own megaphone "so in conclusion, Mayor Dewey had nothing whatsoever to do with the abductions. Everything was my fault because I unknowingly provided some space Gems with a list of names and put everyone in danger. Mayor Dewey would never do anything to purposefully endanger the town. He basically just keeps a low profile and doesn't get involved in much of anything". Ash wished Steven hadn't said that last part.
"Yeah, well maybe he should be involved!" A woman in the crowd screamed
"He's the Mayor!" Another man screamed as the crowd began to boo him.
Steven looked around worryingly "uh, thanks for listening and please vote for him in the next Beach City election!"
The Mayor nervously grabbed the megaphone from Steven's hand, "okay, hello, thanks for coming! Wow, this whole abduction business was a real close call huh? But look around you, everyone is safe and accounted for"
"That's not true!" Sadie screamed from the crowd with Lars's parents standing beside her "what about my friend Lars?"
"Who?"
"Oh Arceus please stop talking" Ash thought to himself after hearing the Mayor's stupid response.
"What?! Lars! Lars Barriga? Mr and Mrs Barriga's son! Did you even know he was still missing? Did you know he was still somewhere is space? What kind of mayor doesn't know when his own people are lost in space!?"
"The donut boy? Is that why the donut shop was closed this morning?"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up" Ash continued to whisper to himself.
"Do not worry!" The mayor exclaimed "I shall do everything in my power to hire a NEW donut boy!"
"Oh my sweet Arceus are are you really THAT dense?!" Ash finally screamed out loud at him, effectively making the situation worse.
"Yeah, Ash is finally asking the REAL questions!" Mr. Fryman said from the crowd.
"I agree, I think ASH should be Mayor!" Someone in the crowd screamed. To Ash's horror, the crowd then began to chant "Ash for mayor! Ash for mayor!" Over and over.
"Woah, woah, woah, wait! I am NOT capable of being mayor! Don't endorse me because I don't want that job!"
"Well then Nanefua should be mayor!"
By now the crowd had grown into a small riot, throwing tomatoes at the Mayor and chanting either "Nanefua for mayor!" or "Ash for mayor!". Eventually Mayor Dewey's bodyguards were able to dissolve the mob and send everyone home, but not before Mayor Dewey got a tomato to the face. As the sun began to set, Mayor Dewey had looped the video of his tomato encounter over and over, as Ronaldo had posted to his Tubetube channel.
"How did this get on the internet so fast? I didn't invite any press to this"
"Well, at least only like twelve people have seen it" Ash tried to console him.
"TWELVE PEOPLE!? That's half the town! I'm finished! I don't know of any political figures who have made a comeback after getting a tomato to the face! How would they settle this in your world Ketchum?"
"Well this would normally be solved with a Pokémon battle, but I don't think-"
"THAT'S IT! Ketchum, train me to become a great pokemon trainer! The people love you for it, imagine if I were one!"
"Mayor Dewey I don't think that the people of this town like me just because I'm a Pokémon trainer-"
"We have to try!" the mayor screamed reaching for Ash's belt.
"Hey don't touch me!" Ash responded shoving him and getting into a skirmish with the mayor.
"Stop both of you!" Steven finally broke up the fight. "Look, tomorrow's the big debate. You still have one more chance to get back the town's love and respect."
"But Steven, some of the things people have been saying about me are really painful and mean"
"We've just got to change the conversation. We can start with this" Steven told him, taking a book out titled How to Talk To People. "We're gonna prepare you for this debate, even if it takes all night!"
When he saw Steven was serious, Ash took out his phone and texted Peridot "not going to be coming home tonight, tell Lapis not to worry".
After a few minutes, Peridot responded with "okay, but she's been isolating herself on the silo all day anyway. We're all a little concerned"
Every bone in his body was telling him to go to her, to help her, to be there for her. But he knew he had to fix the political mess he and Steven made, and had to stay for the time being. When Steven was finished, he had made good on his promise that it would be all night, for it was already morning, and all three of them were exhausted.
"Alright, today's the day. You've got your note cards, you look great, and if anyone brings up the alien invasion thing I wrote a bunch a bunch of Ocean Town jokes for you to use"
"Aw shucks Universe, you're like the son I never had."
"You… have a son"
"I know that, you're just different from him is all"
The town debate began, Nanefua approached her podium confidently while Dewey nervously crawled over towards it and slouched over. Ash turned to see a considerable amount of people came, two of them even held "Ash for mayor" signs, much to his disdain.
Dewey awkwardly cleared his throat "People of Beach City. You might think that being a mayor is a fine and glamorous sort of thing. I can understand why my opponent would want the position. But I've been mayor of this city for a decade, and I know some things that Ms. Nanefua does not. You see, when you're the mayor, you get blamed for everything. When the boardwalk has termites, it's the mayor's fault. When aliens steal people, it's the mayor's fault. When the mayor crashes the mayor mobile into the only cell tower in town, it's the mayor's fault. Most people can't handle that kind of pressure, but I can. So, I say to you, Beach City citizens, just enjoy our wonderful ocean breeze and don't worry about a thing. Just let Dewey "do" it for you"
The crowd murmured and applauded his statement. Ash even found himself impressed a little by how mature the mayor seemed. Then it was Nanefua's turn to speak.
"You know, Mayor Dewey, you are right."
"I am? A-about what?"
"I have blamed you for too many things, and that is not helping. Blaming our problems completely on the mayor is not getting us anywhere. When one of us suffers, the town suffers. When you suffer, Mayor, the town suffers. So, no longer will I point my fingers at you. I will extend all my fingers on both my hands to everyone here today and ask that we share responsibility for the welfare and safety of Beach City, together! Thank you."
The crowd exploded into applause, chanting her name. Dewey wasn't clearly prepared for this and dropped Steven' notes struggling to pick them up. "Uh, did you ever notice how people from Ocean Town?" He began to read before setting the card down in defeat "Oh, who am I kidding? Beach City deserves a real mayor. Someone wise and collected like Ms. Nanefua"
Ash and Steven both looked at each other shocked, all their hard work had been for nothing.
"I withdraw from the race. You can find the key to the city under the city welcome mat." He shook her hand, and then just walked away as the crowd cheered for its new mayor.
"Mayor Dewey, what're you doing?! Y-You can't just throw the election like that. W-We could still win!" Steven attempted to protest his decision, although Ash understood it fully.
"Well, I know it's not very traditional to do that in the middle of a debate, but why drag it out?"
"We could have won! I really believed in you! I really believed in us!"
"Well, you were wrong. What do you want me to say?"
"How about, "I'm sorry. We were in this together, and I let you down."
"Come on boys, You both know she's gonna be a better mayor than me. It was the right thing to do."
"I guess, but... I still feel betrayed. That's probably how Connie feels."
"And how Lapis probably feels to"
Dewey looked at them confused, "Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about, but I've got to find a new job."
"Wait Mayor Dewey" Ash said before he walked off
"It's just Mr Dewey now Ash, what can I do for you?"
He extended his hand out, "sorry for fighting you last night, I'd be honored to train you to be a great pokemon trainer. And consider you and Buck invited to me and Lapis's wedding"
Dewey shook Ash's hand as a sign of respect "thanks, but I've got to find me a new job, and try to be a better dad to Buck. Well, good luck boys."
Steven took out his phone and began to call Connie, while Ash turned back to the barn without a word and found Lapis on the silo as Peridot told him she'd be. "Hey" he quietly said climbing up and sitting beside her.
"Hey" she quietly answered.
"You seem really upset about something. Was it something I did? You know you can tell me anything right? Tell me what's wrong, and I vow I will fix it no matter what it is".
"That's the problem, it's something that can't be fixed. When we were Lash, I saw everything, everything you fear will happen. Complete annihilation, all out war. Ash, the last time I got caught in war I was trapped in a mirror for ten thousand years! Now I'm facing another one, and facing the destruction of everyone I love, you, Steven, Peridot, Brock, James, Misty, everyone. I'm facing becoming trapped with" she paused and began to tear up before she could say Jasper's name. "I don't know if I can face that. I don't know if I can do this. I can't bare the thought of being forced into another war!" She began to cry into his shoulder.
"Lapis, whatever my destiny is I know it is with you, and I promise you that I won't let you get caught in this war. I promise they won't take you. I promise they won't take me." He held his future bride closer and looked to the sky, worried for when Team Rocket and Homeworld arrived, and how he was going to make good on that promise. He then remembered something that made him chuckle.
"What is it?" she asked
"This town almost made me the mayor" he choked through his laughter. Lapis then couldn't help
But laugh with him because of how funny the whole situation was. "There's that smile I love to see" he pointed out as they were both now giggling and smiling, he topped the perfect moment off by kissing her passionately, a kiss she was happy to return. "You know what, let's just do it now"
"Do what?"
"Let's get married, right here right now"
She giggle snorted, "okay, what do we have to do?"
It was then when he realized, neither of them had any idea what they were supposed to do, he had seen a wedding on TV and it seemed so easy to do, but it was obvious they had no idea, "you know what, maybe we should give it a couple more days"
"Agreed" she said, pecking him quickly on the lips then making her way to bed.
Before he could leave the silo to join her, he quickly pulled out his phone and searched on the internet "what do you have to do to throw a wedding". "Oh man" he said to himself once he saw just how many steps there actually were.