A/N: Okay since the "Aim To Be A Pokémon Master" series isn't planning to bring back Greninja and a few of my favorite characters anytime soon and considering it's Ash's final journey-
I decided to make one myself.
My first Pokémon fanfic ever, I hope it is enjoyable! Here we go~
The night was a starry one. The full moon shined brightly in the sky, it's calming light falling on a lake surrounded by the tall trees and a natural garden of wild-flowers growing near it.
The occasional light breeze softly brushing against the water and making the flowers move in an ever so slight way, created a mesmerizing scene.
The water pokemon present in the lake jumped in and out of the water every now and then. The other forest pokemon like Flabébé, Florges slept near or in the flowers grounds. Other pokemon like Trevenant, Oddish, Rattata, Spewpa gathered close and slept near trees while the bird pokemon peacefully rested upon the tree's branches and their nests. It was a quiet yet peaceful scenery.
All of this was being seen by a silent observer who himself was perched on a high branch from a tree which was slightly taller than the other trees present at the location. The blue ninja pokemon slightly leaned on the tree as he stood up on the branch itself and stared at the beautiful moon. It eyes visibly soften a bit as if it were remembering something.
However within mere moments a huge explosion is heard from the back, making the dual type snap back to full attention.
He turns towards the direction of the noise which came off from a relatively near area and immediately sees a huge dust cloud forming. A cacophony of loud cries are heard coming from the local pokemon from the place of explosion. and the bird pokemon groups flying away from the spot as fast as they could.
Without wasting any further time, Greninja leapt from one branch to another to reach the site as quickly as possible.
As it jumped, another figure joined in albeit the ground heading towards the same direction as Greninja. It had small canine body which had a primarily black body and green at his neck and eyes area. Greninja noticing the figure, jumped down and ran along side it on the ground.
"I feel huge vines pulsating there."
'Squishy' aka Z1 telepathically said to the frog pokemon who said nothing in response.
"Ninja. Grenin?" The frog pokemon asked.
"Our friend had to attend a very important issue which required his urgent attention. I believe he should be back by sunrise"
Upon hearing the response, Greninja nodded and focused on reaching the spot.
However as they neared the location, another explosion was heard at a distance.
Squishy immediately used its cell vision and spotted vines growing at a rapid speed and destroying its surroundings.
"More vines at the north east"
"Nin, Grenin. Greninja, Grenin."
"Are you sure?"
"Gren"
Upon hearing the response, the canine pokemon leapt and dashed towards the direction of the source of the explosion.
Within minutes, another much louder noise was heard from the same place Greninja was heading and it increased its speed immediately.
As Greninja neared the place, a wild vine appeared right in front of him, slamming towards him. He quickly dodged and used cut on it, successfully cutting through it. Another vine grew right up suddenly from where he stood, only for him to high jump and dodge it.
The vine somehow enlarged itself in size and length and headed towards him directly, coiling itself to trap the ninja pokemon in.
However with years of training and experience of on how to deal with these wild plant life, Greninja swiftly dodged the vine, mid-air and used it as a medium to gain ground back and when he neared the main stem connected to the ground, he slashed cleanly through it, rendering the vines useless as they fell on the ground lifelessly.
The place became quiet immediately. The pokemon who went into hiding slowly poked their heads out of the bush or ground for some. Greninja gave them a calming look, sending a "All's Well here" kind of look which the creatures slowly started to believe in and eased up but refused to enter the ring of destruction and slowly moved away.
The dual type looked at its surroundings. Many trees were uprooted from their very grounds and thrown around carelessly, the one which remained firm on the ground, had themselves completely crushed with only a tiny bit of their trunk remaining. The forest floor which once had soft grass and small flowers growing on it, now lay barren; devoid of any sign of life. The trees which did manage to survive the assault were withering down in a fast pace which was all too familiar for the ninja pokemon.
Greninja bent down and grabbed a bit of soil from the ground only to realize the soft loamy soil is now completely sandy, it has transformed into so due to the abnormal nature of the vines which makes the soil infertile and takes away every bit of fertility and moisture away from it; making the soil absolutely useless and in a way sucking the life away from it.
Greninja fists his hand as the last bit of soil escape, his eyes narrowing. He knew if this kept going on the forest will no longer be a forest and will make many pokemon habitat-less. He knew he had to talk to Zygrade about this but he also knew they weren't unaware of the imminent crisis themselves.
And that's when he suddenly notices something on the ground, shining under the moonlight.
The frog pokemon approaches the object which seemed like it had been placed there for a while now and was a bit rusty looking.
He carefully tries to pick the object but realizes how strongly it was planted to the ground. Finding this very dubious, Greninja tears it out of the ground and then looks at the device carefully.
It resembled almost like a syringe of sort some black liquid inside it. He then notices a small appendage poking out from the device's side almost completely hidden out of plain sight, eventually coming out fully like a worm out of its little burrow; the tip of this appendage revealing a camera whose focusing ring which rotated in and out and within one second, started to blink in red light.
Feeling extremely suspicious for obvious reasons, Greninja tries to throw the device off only for it to latch onto his hand further as a rubber like material came off from its compartment, wrapping itself around the dual type's hand completely.
Before he could react any further, it electrocuted the pokemon for agonizing minutes before eventually making it fall on its knees.
Greninja panted and looked at the device at its hand which now had a timer of '10…9…8…7-' seconds going on as time passed, he managed to look around his entire surroundings one last time only to notice the entire place was lit by similar red blinking lights with a timer ticking. This indicated the entire place being filled with similar devices which were perhaps camouflaged. The moon is shining rather brightly today.
"...3…2…1…0." And the forest area bursted into explosion.
At some forest, Ash and his friends are sitting by a camp-fire as Brock stirs the food cooking over it and Misty puts plates and cutlery over the table along with Pikachu who volunteered to help as Ash completes putting out the plates for the pokemon on the ground.
"Hey Ash, can you put more twigs and branches in the fire?"
Brock says as he notices the flames getting a bit dimmer.
"Yeah, of course" Ash replied as he rushed to the bundle, they collected beforehand.
As he picked them up and made his way to Brock, he suddenly felt a pang of pain hit him near his neck for a second, only for it to disappear completely and replace with a bit of tiredness. This distracted him so much that it made him forget what he was doing at that time, making a lot of the wood fall off his grip. He stares at the full moon aimlessly with a blank expression, unaware of what he is doing.
"Ash?" His friends call in concern.
No answer.
"Pikapi…? Pikapi!" Pikachu leaps onto his best friend's shoulder which successfully snaps the latter into reality.
"Pi- Pikachu?" Ash says softly in an almost surprised daze.
"Are you feeling alright?" Misty asks, concerned.
"Oh uh- I am sorry! I might have zoned out!" Ash replied sheepishly as he subconsciously rubbed the back of his neck where he felt the sting before.
"Today has been rather eventful too. That wild Fearow chasing us…then Professor Oak calling us to deliver a parcel to Professor Sycamore. I think we all can use some rest" Brock reasoned.
"Yeah…that must be it" Ash reasoned though deep in his heart, he knew that was a total lie. He stared at the starry sky again.
When he open its eyes, he saw himself surrounded by fire.
His vision blurry and body weak, possibly burned and paralyzed from the explosion and electrocution from the device it held previously.
Memories starting to come back as to what happened before he got knocked out but how much time has passed in between was completely beyond him.
He checked his hand which he used to hold the device, it was badly burned and needed immediate treatment.
Pushing other thoughts aside, Greninja tried its best to stand, only to fall back. He tried again and with with struggle, managed to get up.
Letting his injured hand rest, he used his other hand to summon a water shuriken in order. First he needs to extinguish the fire in order to make his escape. He was sure Zygrade would understand. But before he could do anything, a loud human voice shouts out.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the infamous Greninja!" A Green haired woman dressed in an orange outfit yelled.
Greninja's eyes narrow in anger and disgust upon recognizing the Team Flare member. He lets out a hiss ferally.
"Happy to meet you too." Bryony says sarcastically. "However, we can keep this talk for a later time. Right now, why not have have visit to our headquarters?" She snaps her fingers and as if taking her queue, other 3 team flare grunts dressed in their uniforms jump outside in the view of the Kalosian water starter pokemon. They don't waste a single second and throw their pokeballs out, revealing their pokemon, ready to attack.
"But since its a 1 pokemon vs 3 pokemon, why not let the match become a bit more fair? Besides it will protect your forest which you work so hard to protect!"
"Jellicent, use water sprout!"
"Barbaracle use Water gun!"
"Clauncher, bubble now!"
However Greninja paid no attention to these. Even if he ignored the fact, all these attacks which were meant to make the match "fair" were aimed at his direction (only for him to dodge at the last minute) but he knew they weren't planning to make this fair or save the forest. It was just to not harm their own pokemon with fire and not letting him escape. He threw his water shuriken on the ground, creating a temporary smoke screen to give himself time to run away while also confusing the others.
"Oh not so easily!…Bisharp use metal sound to the left!" Bryony said as she pressed her lens device twice and threw her pokeball revealing her partner.
Greninja's eyes widen but it quickly counters by using double team effectively dodging the move and then hitting Bisharp dead on its head with acrobatics making it fall on the ground. However he lost his smoke cover completely. Without missing a beat, Greninja summons a huge water shuriken (much to its own surprise) using one hand and throws it at the barbacle who was too late to dodge the attack and immediately fainted as well.
"Everyone launch your attacks! No mercy!" Bryony yelled as she returned her unconscious Bisharp in its ball and took out another.
"Liepard go!"
Greninja could have sworn he saw a smirk on her face.
Ash felt a shiver run down his spine. Suddenly feeling even more exhausted, his eyelids growing heavier by the second. He stopped eating and put his spoon down, as he stared at the bowl filled with food in front of him.
"Something feels wrong…" he thinks to himself.
"Pi?" Pikachu first noticed his friend acting weird and immediately ran to him.
Lucario felt a change at his trainer's aura and neared his trainer as well.
Misty and Brock who were talking suddenly became quiet and looked at their friend who looked uncomfortable and distracted but what concerned them the most was Ash just staring at the food and not gobbling it up in one go like he usually does.
This lead to other pokemon to notice as well.
"Ash…are you really sure you are okay?" Misty's concern growing by the second.
"I can give you a check up if you want-" Brock offers gently.
Snapping back from his thoughts, Ash immediately puts his hands in front of him "No no no! I am completely fine! Just not feeling hungry now that's all!"
Judging by the looks the others gave him, it became very obvious that they aren't going to buy that, Ash sweat dropped. However another wave of exhaustion hit him, to slightly bend his head front and he suddenly realized his hands and feets were becoming icy cold.
Greninja panted heavily. He successfully managed to knock out all the grunts pokemon however this Liepard…was a completely different story. Not only has it grown much stronger than the last time but it had learnt a couple of new tricks as well and due to his own injuries…he is not countering its attacks well.
"Even after all that damage and battling, the fact that you are still standing and capable of fighting is very impressive. I will give you that" Bryony said emotionlessly. She added "However I suggest you to stop using double team because with our new technology, we can see through it. Literally."
Greninja ignores her talks and aims another water shuriken, double its normal size, and aims it at the Liepard.
"Counter using Dark pulse!"
The Pokémon immediately obeys and aims the attack.
Both attacks cancel out each other and the impact causing both the pokemon shift backwards a bit and stop attacking for a while to restore their own stamina.
That's when Greninja noticed something, strange red marks have appeared on his arms and are spreading throughout his body albeit very slowly. The dual typed pokemon's eyes widen as it realizes the implication.
Battle Bond.
'"But…how?"
"Wondering how did that happen?" Bryony grinned slightly.
"Hmm…do you remember that device which you picked earlier?"
Greninja stays quiet but high on guard.
"It contained a chemical which can not only destroy the flora and fauna of this place but an additional chemical which our team worked on for years…" Her grins grows wider.
"It has a neurological chemical compound which tricks your brain into thinking you need urgent power-"
Greninja's eyes widen in shock.
That means-
"Yeah, that's right. It forces your instinctual senses out and causes a forced battle bond. However seeing your current state…I'd say it was 40% success." She shrugged.
Greninja could feel his rage starting to bubble inside.
This woman truly had no idea how dangerous the plan was, not just for her but for him and Ash as well…
"Even though it had a…slow effect... if the theories and hypotheses about Battle Bond were correct then…you should be starting to share your pain and exhaustion to your trainer as well while also deriving their power" She let out a small chuckle.
"Even if it's a very small part of it considering your lackluster transformation."
Greninja didn't wait to hear any more of her non sense and summoned a huge water shuriken with all the strength it had and aimed to throw it at her direction.
"Cross Poison" heard Greninja, a second too late to dodge the move which came from the back. This made him slump on the ground as he struggled to look back. His vision growing blurry by the second.
"Ah, Celosia. You are one early bird!" Bryony remarked mockingly.
"Hmph apologies for the late arrival. I got occupied while trying to capture Z1." The person referred to spoke, her partner Drapion following her closely along with a few grunts.
Pushing all his exhaustion aside, Greninja tried its best to get back on his feet.
No…it can't be-
His uninjured hand glew up as a water shuriken got created.
"Oh atleast tell me, you captured it" Bryony exasperated.
"I did and it is safely secured unlike you who is still playing with the target." Celosia said smiling much to the other woman's irritation.
Using this time, Greninja threw a water shuriken at the Drapion who took the attack with almost no effort and assumed battle position.
"Enough is enough. Drapion use confuse Ray, Now!"
Unfortunately just before Greninja could leap out of the way, the paralyze he got during the explosion hit him again, making him frozen at his spot as the attack hit him and everything started to turn even dizzier than it already was and the sounds around him sounded distant.
"...still struggling..."
"...Metal Cla…"
And then darkness embraced him.
A/N: And….that's that's wrap for today! Yk I suddenly felt a strong compulsion to write this fic 2 days ago and never in the history of writing have I completed one chapter this fast lol
The idea also came suddenly as I was chilling during the evening drinking hot chocolate-
(The timeline on when the story is based is probably after Aim To Be A Pokémon Master: Episode 5.)
I did put a few headcanon ideas in this fic. The most important being the one relating to the vines. I think they absorb essential nutrients and fertility, killing the life around it and acting more like an parasite. That is the reason why Zygrade chose Greninja for the job who would not only be able to detect them but kill them before they can do much harm other than destroying the soil's fertility. Second being, Greninja or Ash can derive power from each other at any time they want since they are always 'connected'. That would also explain why both of them fainted at first. Since during the bond phenomenon, they cycled energy between them keeping them both stable enough but when one fainted, this created an energy imbalance, making the other person faint too.
So ig via training and understanding , Both Ash and Greninja managed to learn when they would hit their limit and notified each other earlier and lowered down the energy transfer so incase one faints, the other won't.
However since both of them were understanding and consensual about it, both of them didn't face much problem even when separated however when the neuro-chemicals engineered by Team Flare entered the affair, it pretty much did exactly what Bryony said. It tricked Greninja's brain into initiating a battle bond without any consent causing problems for both Ash and Greninja.
Anyway, I hope you guys find this interesting! Please leave a heart if you enjoyed the story and a follow for more!
And please don't forget to share your thoughts/review in the comment section! They are highly appreciated :D
See you all in the next chapter!