There were a lot of benefits to being a Pokémon trainer, meeting new friends, exploring the world, finding treasures, and learning new skills were just a few examples. Unfortunately, the downside meant that, in places like this, Ash Ketchum was being forced to listen to a debate on what the best turtle pokemon was.
Now, as a native to Kanto, he was partial to Squirtle, not that he'd ever agree with Gary Oak out loud. Squirtle was one of the Titans of Kanto, easily becoming a powerful Pokémon. It may be a pure water type, but it was the king of defense, its shell almost impenetrable. If someone tempted it out of its shell, Blastoise could send water out of its shoulder cannons, which could punch through steel.
On the other side of the debate was Paul Murphey, who argued that the Turtwig line was superior. Which, again, made some sense. Torterra was a grass/ground Pokémon, and a powerful titan itself. It typically had a calmer demeanor, but those who mistook its gentleness around its young as weakness were in for a brutal surprise.
Depending on the environment, and the skill of the trainers directing them, neither was superior to the other. Both could technically win if the conditions were right.
The two idiots seemed to be trying to whisper-argue for the whole opening ceremony. Again, he got it, he was bored too, and wanted to go explore with King, but no, instead, he was stuck sitting between two bad tempered newbie trainers.
How all three of them were trainers when Gary and Paul couldn't stop arguing about stupid stuff, he didn't know. Yet, here they were, three people who shouldn't be here, yet were fortunate enough to get to experience luxury.
This cruise, as he'd found out, was for Pokémon trainers exclusively. Most of the passengers had been trainers for years, or were prodigies of some kind, but not them. No, in Ash's case, his mom was invited, since she was still mostly active on the scene, and she was allowed to bring three guests, her son being one, while Professor Oak and Gary were the other two. It was all luck that his mom had been having a good day when the tickets came, and an even better one today. The only thing was, Gary and Ash had to be trainers themselves to get on the ship in the first place. In Paul's case, his older brother Reggie was a talented trainer, and had gotten tickets for the two of them.
Paul had been a trainer for a few weeks before his older brother Reggie, had gotten the tickets for the SS Alice. He'd already caught three Pokémon, not including his starter, Turtwig. How the purple haired boy had gotten his hands on a Beldum, an Elekid, and a Magby in the span of three weeks, Ash had no idea. But, he was the most experienced of the trio right now.
To be fair, in order to get on the SS Alice, one had to have a Pokémon, preferably a trainers license, but Ash knew that their were exceptions. It was the only reason Ash and Gary had their own starters a full month before they were supposed to. Gary had been presented with the Squirtle that had been on hold for him early, and hadn't stopped talking about how, together, he would be able to win the Indigo League.
Ash, on the other hand, was given a choice. He could take the Bulbasaur that was reserved for him in a month, or, he could take a young Pokémon specially bred just for him. This Pokémon was the child of his mom's Mr. Mime, and his dad's Mr. Rime, so no one knew which way it would evolve. He'd decided to take the Mime Jr., nicknamed King, as his original partner.
King was young, very young, only a few weeks old, but the Pokémon had a huge personality stuffed into the tiny body. No one knew if he'd be a powerful psychic or not, but Ash didn't really care if he was or not. Sure, everyone thought he wanted to be a Pokémon master, but that wasn't important in the slightest. No, he'd only said that so that he could piss off Gary, and if it happened to make people think less of him, well, he wasn't against it.
His true goal was a lot less vague than simply being a Pokémon master. Hell, he'd never really understood what that meant, besides being the champion of a region. He wanted strength, yes, but he couldn't care less about being the absolute strongest. No, he wanted to be strong enough to figure out what had happened to his dad and twin brother.
Both had disappeared when he was three, meaning his memories of them were vague at best. He did remember when his mom found out his dad and brother hadn't made it to Alola. He did remember having to attend a funeral for them when he was five, a full two years after they disappeared. He did remember growing up missing something, wondering if it was his fault that they had vanished.
The whole family was supposed to go, but he'd been sick, so Delia had stayed back with him while his twin and his dad went on their vacation. They headed down to Cinnabar Island, before their boat to Alola was supposed to leave, to explore a bit. It should have been smooth sailing, since his dad, while not really a trainer but a researcher, was powerful in his own right. His dad was intelligent enough to get a doctorates in variation mutations, and had a team packed full of Pokémon from all over the world.
But, the two never came home.
He wanted to find them, or at least, find out what had happened to them. Which was why he'd chosen Bulbasaur in the first place. The Bulbasaur line was always underestimated since they couldn't shoot water out of their shoulders, or fire from their mouths. No, their specialty was in the powders they naturally produced. Poison, sleeping, paralysis, all of them would be open to him if he had a Venusaur by his side. It would make it so much easier to sneak into places he probably shouldn't be to find his answers.
Besides, he'd still get Bulbasaur in a month, he just had to be patient. He wasn't exactly good at that, but it would be worth it to get his hands on the one starter he'd had his eye on for the last year.
He glanced down at the small pink Pokémon napping on his lap and hid a smile. No, it may not have been exactly what he had in mind, but he liked this a lot. King may have been more of an indulgence than a key player, but he didn't need to be anything else.
The king, after all, didn't need to be anything powerful, just intelligent enough to lead his troops, and charismatic enough to make them want to follow him. No, King would be perfect for his future role, he just needed some time to grow into it.
Which was fine, he had a month to get a good grasp on the Pokémon before he was officially setting off. That was plenty of time. He wasn't entirely sure what role Bulbasaur would play in his... game, but he'd learn.
Life, he'd learned, was a lot like chess. People usually fit into one of the six categories, and while they could change, they usually didn't. For example, Gary was a Knight. He made strange leaps of logic that Ash struggled to understand sometimes, but more than that, his decisions were extremely weird sometimes.
The man Gary idolized, his grandfather, had a Charizard. Both of his parents had started with a Charmander as well as his sister. It was well known that Charmander was supposed to go to Gary, but, a few weeks ago, he'd suddenly changed his mind, choosing Squirtle. Ash still had no idea why the brunette changed his mind with so little time left before they went on their individual journeys.
A sudden shove to his shoulders had him tear his mind away from his thoughts, and back to the beautiful buffet room. It was filled with circular tables that held six people each, all spaced out just enough that everyone could fix comfortably in place. He felt eyes on him, before turning to his mom, who had Gary shove him.
She mouthed at him to go up to the stage, and, without questioning it too much, he adjusted his sleeping partner in his arms and stood, heading towards the stage as people clapped politely. What was going on?
Oh, it must have been time for the raffle, he realized. He'd seen it on the pamphlet that they were doing three drawings a day for random prizes. The most common seemed to be special items, like evolution stones, or potions, but they would still be useful either way, for a newbie trainer to have.
The man on the stage, late thirties, thinking brown hair, an impressive mustache, and a pot belly, watched him come with a big smile that didn't match the bored look in his eyes. He had a single Pokémon, a Wingull, on his shoulder that he clearly was used to. This was their captain, Zander Earls. He'd clearly done this hundreds of times before, and, even if he had once been passionate about the boat or sealife, he wasn't anymore.
Ash took the voucher, with an equally fake smile on his face, before heading back to his seat. Only once they had moved on from the raffles to the safety lecture, did he actually look at it. He had no idea what exactly he won, but there, in giant golden letters said three words: 'Tiny Terror Trio!'
What did that even mean?
He couldn't stop thinking about it for the entire safety lecture. As soon as they were released, he bolted towards the Exchange Counter. Ash knew he could turn in the ticket anytime he wanted on the cruise, but he was a firm believer in getting things done as quickly as he could when he could.
The woman at the counter had a plastic smile as well. She looked like she would rather jump overboard than deal with anyone else, but if he put it off, he'd never be able to focus on King. For all he knew, the items could be something useful for fairy/psychic types.
Instead, he was greeted with a slightly raised eyebrow, and a look of pity as the woman took his voucher and his trainer id. He really, really didn't like that look.
She disappeared for a few minutes into the closet behind the counter, closing the door.
King was curious too, unable to stop shifting in his grip, and seemingly sensing his trainers unease. The small mime looked up at him with big, black eyes, head tilted as if asking what was going on. He just smiled down at the baby Pokémon, rubbing a hand on King's little blue hat before focusing on where the lady disappeared.
When she came back with a tray, he silently panicked. No, absolutely not. He had a plan! He couldn't afford to have it destroyed like this so early! The Tiny Terror Trio... were Pokémon. He'd be responsible for three more Pokémon, on top of his baby. Shit.
It was obvious now that they were in front of him. Of course a prize called the Tiny Terror Trio was a trio of Pokémon. Of course they were. Items were not typically associated with terrorizing people, like he assumed these three were. On the plus side, they were likely small, very small if their title had the word tiny in it.
"Here you go!" She chirped, voice happy, but eyes full of pity. That wasn't good. Was there... something wrong with these three? Were they a misbehaving trio? Probably, he admitted to himself. He really, really didn't have time to raise three more Pokémon right now, not when he'd just gotten his starter.
He carefully shifted King on his shoulder, before turning back to the red and white balls sitting innocently on the tray, as if they hadn't just torn his plans to shreds by existing. No, he told himself firmly, it wasn't their fault he was under prepared. They hadn't asked to be registered under his trainer id.
He carefully took his new team members, clipping the Pokéballs on his belt. For a moment, he was tempted to say it felt right, the weight sitting against his hips, but no, he had to be hallucinating. Even if it wasn't the fault of his new Pokémon, he still needed time to prepare himself before introducing King to them. There was no way he was introducing himself to new Pokémon when he was surrounded by people. Absolutely not.
Instead, he started speedwalking towards where his mental map told him his room was. They all had their own rooms, thankfully, so he only had to hold himself together for a few more minutes. He couldn't even appreciate the magnificence of the luxury liner, too busy panicking to notice the delicate lanterns hanging from the walls, casting shadows down the dark hardwood floors, or the occasional large window that had breathtaking sights if he just turned his head.
Instead, he silently suffered. His anxiety felt like someone had multiplied it by ten, and he needed to process how these three would fit into his plans. Which, he couldn't do until he met them.
Ash frowned as he walked, glancing over to King out of the corner of his eye. How would King react to not one new Pokémon in a month, but three new members within a few days of being partners? Was King strong enough to subdue the other three if something went wrong? No, he knew that King was far from ready for a fight. King was still too young to hold his own against pretty much anything.
Part of it was his fault, if he'd went with Bulbasaur instead, King would have had a little bit of time to mature. Chances were, in a month, King would have been battle ready. There was no way he wouldn't be, especially since he was already able to mimic those around him with little problem. But he didn't, he made the decision to go with his Mime Jr, and now, he had to figure out how to make this work without a powerful starter from the beginning.
Originally, he'd planned to see which side his Pokémon favored more over their two week cruise, either his psychic side, or his fairy side. He had a workout plan from the professor on how to help a Pokémon learn how to harness their energy. He wanted to spend as much time getting to know his new partner as he possibly could, so that, when they returned to Pallet Town, Ash would be able to venture out a bit and slowly help King build the experience he needed to become the King of his group.
He wasn't really sure how well King would do around other Pokémon either. Considering how delicate his starter was at the moment, if something went wrong, King could get hurt badly enough to pass away. King was only just over three weeks old, which, sure, in the wild meant he was old enough to defend himself, but baby Pokémon like him were exceedingly rare in the first place. It didn't help that they had only been partnered together for three days.
To his annoyance, both of the turtle club members, as he was going to call them, were waiting impatiently outside his room. Gary, with his long sleeved purple shirt, black jeans, spiked light brown hair, and sharp black eyes, seemed to be staring into his soul. They didn't like each other, he and Gary hadn't gotten along since they were six, and yes, they had been forced together often enough over the years that they still knew exactly what to say to piss off the other. He was leaning against the wall outside of Ash's room, arms crossed and a glare fierce in his eyes as he watched his... new rival maybe?
Paul, on the other hand, with long shaggy purple hair that curtained his face, cold dark gray eyes, seemed to be more curious than angry for once. He was wearing a teal t-shirt with a purple jacked half way zipped over it, grey cargo pants, and matching purple shoes. To be fair, he wasn't at all interested in getting to know Paul, so why were they both here?
Gary, breaking his staring contest with his new rival, glanced over at him and grimaced, before locking eyes on his belt that had, just minutes ago, only had one Pokéball clipped in place. Now, it had four. He was pretty sure the other boy could read the dread on his face, because he burst into loud laughter.
"Damn, Ashy-boy. You are freaking out, huh?"
He glared at the brunette. "Shut up."
Despite their best efforts, the two had been paired for practically everything their entire lives. His mom and Gary's gramps were good friends, after all, so, to those who didn't know any better, the two of them should be too.
Neither of them hated the other, but they weren't exactly anything other than half hearted rivals and occasional chess partners, on Ash's side. They had both been introduced to the game after each boy had broken a leg when they were seven, thanks to their stupidity and a group of Tauros.
Gary won the first game. And the second. And the third. But by the fourth, Ash started really understanding how each individual piece had to work together in order to win. He'd spent months practicing against himself, reading book after book on chess, even watching a few chess tournaments, before he challenged Gary again, and won.
Then, Ash realized something, watching Gary scream at the board and flip it over in a show of temper. They didn't have to get along. They didn't have to force themselves to spend time together just to make their adults happy. They were allowed to have different interests, different goals, so long as they kept up their status quo.
See, Gary Oak only cared about winning whatever they were doing. He wanted to be a Pokémon Master, stronger than his gramps had been. He wanted to escape the shadows of his dead parents, who had been researchers, just like his sister. He wanted to be the strongest, even if he didn't really say it.
Ash, on the other hand, didn't care about being the strongest, he cared about learning as much as he could, in hopes that something would help him figure out what happened to tear his family apart. He wanted to be strong enough to protect himself, and his family, but he didn't care about getting recognized for it.
With that realization, the two had settled into a rhythm of bickering, more than actually fighting.
Which was why it only stung a little to realize that Gary, his Squirtle, and even Paul, could help. He would need help to subdue his new Pokémon, if they went rogue, because there was no way he could do it by himself.
He mentally thanked Arceus that most prize Pokémon were weak, so that even the most inexperienced trainer could handle them with a little bit of help. With the rare exception, most prize Pokémon were either young, or hand fed, so that they could bond with their humans better. As long as he hadn't gotten, say, a Gyarados or a Snorlax, he'd probably be alright.
Probably.
Then again, this was a Trainer's convention, so who knew what he'd end up with. Maybe a trio of Magikarp. He could deal with that.
He blinked hard, sighing again, eyes falling to the ground so he wouldn't have to look at the people he was about to ask for help from. He hated asking for help, but he and King just couldn't handle it by themselves. Even if they could, the chances of King getting hurt, or killed, wasn't low enough to feel comfortable with the risk.
"Can either of you," he paused, swallowing heavily in shame, "stay close by, just in case they go rogue?"
"What?" Gary asked in disbelief, jaw dropping slightly.
"Can't your Mime Jr. help?" Paul asked, half a second later.
Ash shook his head. "No, King is too young to take on a new Pokémon just yet. He hasnt figured out how to harness the energy of either of his types yet. Besides, I have no idea what any of them are, if any of them, or all of them, are violent. If this was a breeders convention, then maybe, but..."
"The Pokémon are meant to go to a trainer." Paul understood, it seemed. "Yeah, that makes sense. I know that you've only had your partner for a few days, and you don't have anything else, right?"
Ash shook his head. "Not yet. I do have a second Pokémon waiting for me, but I can't get it for a few more weeks, at least."
Paul nodded thoughtfully, running a hand over his belt for a second. "Three on one isn't good odds, especially if you just started out. Fine, I'll stand in the corner with a couple of my team, just in case. Don't want you maimed yet, right?"
"Right, thanks Paul. Gary?"
To his surprise, Gary just looked at him like he was an idiot. "You forgot something important, Ashy-boy, again"
"And whats that?"
"You can look at your Pokédex to see what is registered to your trainer id, dumbass." Gary said slowly, as if talking to a toddler.
Ash stiffened. That... was a good point. He could do that, couldn't he? As soon as they were registered to him, he immediately had access to their information, at all times, just like with King.
He immediately pulled his id out of his pocket, flipping the Pokédex open and going to his registered Pokémon. King was there, and apparently, he was still just a level three, with a decent special attack for his age, his ability, Soundproof, and his attacks, Pound and Copycat, all laid out for him to see.
Along with King's information, was three more info cards, one for a Rookidee, one for a Dreepy, and one for an Impidimp. His head tilted slightly. He'd heard of them before, but not often. None of them were native to Kanto, that much was obvious. Apparently, they were all level 5's, so he was right thinking that they would be stronger than King, at least for now.
He clicked on the first one, Rookidee. Apparently, it was a flying type, a tiny ball of feathers, like most flying types starting out. It, she, knew three attacks, Leer, Peck, and Power Trip. Her ability was Keen Eye. If he knew anything about flying types, especially young ones, it was that they had two settings, skittish or mean. Still, he guessed she would be the easiest to handle because the other two...
Well, the second of the trio, a female Dreepy, was both a ghost type, and a dragon type. He mentally dreaded working with her, since ghost types were notoriously difficult to handle for new trainers, and dragon types were known for their bad attitudes. She knew four attacks, Astonish, Infestation, Quick Attack, and Bite, but despite that, she couldn't learn any other moves naturally, so he'd have to spend a lot of time either working with what she had, or getting a few TM's so that she could have a better range. Her ability was Infiltrator, which he knew nothing about.
The last one was Impidimp, a dual fairy/dark type, and a notorious troublemaker. With his ability of Frisk, he'd be perfect for sneaking in and stealing things. He knew three moves, Fake Out, Bite, and Confide.
Overall, they were a young, inexperienced trio, but they had the potential to grow into powerhouses, with a bit of work.
His eyes moved to King, he wasn't sure how the three of them would fit into his dream, if they could, but he'd try. If worse came to worse, he could either trade them for something else, or leave them with Professor Oak. He really didn't want to, though, not when his mind was busy clicking away ways that the three could be so useful to his dream.
It hit him, just then, that he was officially a Pokémon trainer with a powerful, yet very young, team that would depend on him to grow. Sure, he'd intellectually known it, but he hadn't really been alone with King since they had been paired together, it had only been three days, less really, since he'd gotten King after dinner. He'd spent time with King, kept him out of his Pokéball to grow and learn, but it hadn't hit him yet that King, and his new trio, were completely dependent on him now.
He swallowed hard, and passed the Pokédex over. Gary took it, and Paul, the tall bastard, looked over his shoulder at the information.
After a minute, Paul backed away. "You can't find them in Sinnoh. I don't know where they're from, but its not Sinnoh."
"Galar." Gary said quietly, "I think they're from Galar."
It made sense, Galar was both one of the regions with the widest variety of different species, and one of the most secluded. Everything in Galar was a big production, at all times. Even Professor Oak, who had spent some time in every region, rarely talked about his time in Galar.
Now that it had been said, though, Ash understood a bit more, and laughed just a bit bitterly. "My dad was from Galar." He said almostly silently, then gesturing with his free hand to his partner. "King has parents from both the Galar and Kanto regions, we don't know which one he actually takes after yet, obviously, but its still kinda funny that these Pokémon are from the same place as mine might be."
Gary got it, as he sometimes did, but Paul just looked confused. "His dad's dead."
Ash shrugged at that, ignoring the bitter sting with years of practice. Maybe, maybe not, he didn't know yet, but he'd find out soon enough. "So are his parents." It was only fair, after all. He may have enjoyed the bitter scowl a bit too much, before getting back to the topic at hand. "Now, how should we do this?"
Hello, I know I said I wouldn't post anything new on here, but I couldn't help it. I adore this story and currently have seven chapters up, I think, on AO3 under the name FictionAuthorofFiction. I'm going to be uploading at least part of it every day or so until I catch up to where I am over there. I think that this account would be better served as a Pokémon only site, but if you want to read something different, go ahead and check out the other one. I write in quite a few fandoms (Harry Potter, MHA, FMA, and Daria to name a few.) Hope you enjoyed the story.
Final note: He does get several Pokémon at the same time. If that bothers you, feel free to pick one of my other stories to read instead, because it's kind of a part of a plot point in the story that makes more sense the further you read.
Thanks for your support everyone!