AUTHORS' NOTE: SecondarySamuel and I have talked, and we have both agreed that Ash and Mallow were both 17 at the time of the story's events. However, the sex act in Chapter 1 was completely consensual. Also, SecondarySamuel wrote this chapter. This is his first time properly writing Ash and friends, so if anyone (especially Brock) acts OOC, he does apologize. Also, the genetic condition described in this chapter is completely fictional.

Two weeks had passed since Ash and Mallow got down and dirty, and it had also been one week since the two and their friends had graduated from the Pokémon School. Mallow was fairly happy with how her life was progressing at the moment. Eventually, she would hopefully find herself working for a restaurant - or perhaps running her own.

However, that was at the back of her mind right now. What she was focused on right now was the fact she had been feeling quite nauseous for the past few days, and she couldn't figure out why. "Why do I feel bad, why do I feel bad…" she thought to herself over and over.

It took a few minutes of thinking, but eventually, she suddenly remembered what she and Ash had done two weeks ago, and she froze up in fear and worry. She couldn't be pregnant… couldn't she? But as the seconds passed the realization that she could be pregnant began to set in, and Mallow was overtaken by a tsunami of fear. "Oh Arceus, no…" she mentally mumbled.

But Mallow decided she shouldn't jump straight to conclusions. The first thing she did was head down to the chemist and buy a box of twenty-something pregnancy tests. Immediately bringing them home, she made her way into the bathroom and unboxed one before peeing on it. After a few nerve-wracking minutes she checked the screen, and her heart sank. A pink plus was displayed on that screen.

Hoping it was just a false alarm she went through the entire box of tests - but all of them, without fail, returned the same pink plus. Once Mallow checked the final test in the box and it had the same pink plus, the reality finally set in for the greenette. She was pregnant… and Ash was the father. Mallow couldn't help but put her face into her hands and mentally curse herself. Why? Why did she and Ash have to be so careless? But Mallow knew one thing - she would have to tell Ash about this soon.

So, the day after Mallow learned of her pregnancy Mallow sent Ash a text message.

"Ash, I need you to come to my house immediately I have something very, very urgent to tell you."

"OK I should be there in about five minutes."

Sure enough, five minutes after Mallow sent the text, the sole Ketchum boy arrived at her front door with Pikachu perched on his shoulder. Mallow began with "Hey Ash…" looking somewhat nervous and fidgety, which was rather unlike her. "...I need you to come to my room. We have something I need to tell you in private." She then took Ash's hand and pulled him upstairs to her room.

"W-what's going on?" Ash questioned.

"Ash, I don't know how to properly explain this to you, so I'll just get straight to the point. Ash…" she hesitated for a second, "I'm pregnant."

A few tense seconds passed before Ash spoke. "A-are you sure?"

"Yes. I went through an entire box of pregnancy tests to make sure and all of them came out positive."

Ash fell silent again. Mallow could see the mental gears turning in his mind before he spoke again. "Oh man, oh man… what do we do?"

"I'm not sure," Mallow conceded, "but we can get through this. I know we can. But… we're probably going to need our friends' help."

"Agreed."

And so that afternoon Mallow texted all of their mutual friends to meet her at Mallow's house. It wasn't long before Lillie, Lana, Kiawe and Sophocles had all gathered in Mallow's living room to hear the big announcement.

And once she had gathered up the confidence, she told them the news and explained that she and Ash would be taking some time to focus on getting through their situation together. Her friends were somewhat shocked, by pledged their support, Mallow was their friend too, after all.

Now that that part was over, Ash and Mallow knew that their families needed to know too. So, sitting together, Ash had his Rotom phone video call Delia over in Pallet Town. After the initial greetings, Ash stated he had something important to say, and he gave Delia the news, all whilst keeping his shoulder protectively around Mallow. They discussed the situation for a while before Delia delivered her verdict on the situation.

"Ash, I don't know what on Earth you were thinking when you knocked Mallow up, but I'm your mother, so whatever happens, I'll be there for you. At least promise me you'll take responsibility for the baby you and Mallow will have soon."

"Ok, mom. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it, son. Be grateful I choose to forgive."

Now the hardest hurdle for Ash and Mallow had been cleared, all that was left was to tell Mallow's father and brother. Ash didn't remember much of that encounter, but he did remember that their reactions were similar to Delia's, initial disappointment followed by support. Once it was all over, Ash and Mallow both felt quite a bit more confident than before all the talks.

"So then…" Ash began. "What shall we do with the baby?"

Mallow thought for a second before speaking. "I wasn't sure before… but now I've decided I want to keep them. We'll get through this together, you and me."

"Yeah… you and me." Ash planted a kiss on Mallow's cheek as he rubbed protective circles on her belly.

It had been four weeks since Mallow's pregnancy was revealed… and it became apparent to them that something was not quite right. The most obvious problem was that Mallow was growing much faster than a typical pregnant woman could expect. She was only two months along, yet she already looked like she was at full-term. Concerned, their friends were able to schedule an ultrasound appointment for them at the Pewter City Hospital, where Ash's old travelling partner Brock was working.

"Ah, I've been expecting you!" Brock chimed happily as he led Ash and Mallow into the examination room. "Long time no see, Ash!"

"Long time no see to you too, Brock." Ash replied.

"And you must be this Mallow girl Ash was telling me about?" Brock said to the greenette, who replied "Yes, that's me."

"Anyways, I say we get into this!" said Brock, who was thankfully managing to restrain his typical flirty nature. "Lie down on the examination table and pull your shirt up, please."

Mallow did as she was told, and Brock squeezed some gel onto her stomach before rubbing it in, Mallow shivering at how cold it was. The he took a wand and placed it on Mallow's stomach before flicking a switch, activating the black and white screen - well, actually mostly white. Upon seeing the image, Brock froze up.

"Uh, Doc? Is something wrong?"

"This doesn't look like anything I've ever seen!" Brock exclaimed.

"W-what do you mean?"

"This looks more like you're having multiple babies." Brock explained.

"Wait, multiple babies?!" Mallow exclaimed. She had not been expecting news like this - and now she was worried beyond belief. "H-How many are we talking about?"

"Let's see… I can see one, two, three…"

Ash and Mallow could only feel nervous chills wracking their bodies as Brock counted.

"...eight, nine… nine!" Brock turned to them. "Okay, I know this will come as an utter surprise to you two - I admit, this came as an utter surprise to me too - but you two are expecting nonuplets! That's a whopping NINE babies!"

And upon Mallow hearing that, she suddenly felt lightheaded before passing out. Thankfully, she awoke a few seconds later from Ash calling her name. "Mallow, are you alright?!"

Mallow simply stared back like a Deerling in the headlights as the news sank in. A few seconds passed before Mallow spoke. "T-this has to be a glitch! How in Arceus's name is that even possible? The machine is broken and I'm really just having one baby, or I'm just dreaming and I'm going to wake up soon… right? Right?"

A few seconds of silence passed before Brock spoke. "Nope. You are definitely having nonuplets. I'll admit. I've never seen something quite like this before."

Words formed and dissipated from Mallow's mouth. "Oh no… no no no… how are we going to handle this? I don't think we can! One baby is a handful from what I've seen, but NINE? How? How?"

And hearing the panic in Mallow's voice, Ash attempted to soothe her. "I'll admit, I'm scared myself. But, we have our friends. And we're going to need all the help we can get from them."

"Yeah." Mallow agreed.

Brock suddenly spoke up. "Hmmm… now that I think about it," He pulled out a syringe. "Could I please have a sample of blood from you, Mallow? I'm going to use it to run some DNA tests. I'll call you in a week with the results."

"OK." said Mallow nervously. She offered her arm to Brock and winced as the syringe pierced her flesh. When it was all done Brock left the room and the couple followed shortly afterwards.

The first thing they did upon getting home was to summon their friends for an "emergency meeting" as Mallow called it, where she dropped the bombshell news on them, using Brock's ultrasound pictures to back up her statement. Although everyone was utterly shocked by this revelation (Lillie even fainted), when Mallow asked for all the help, she could get from them they all rallied and promised to help her through this journey. After all, that's what friends do, and Ash and Mallow couldn't thank them all enough.

A week later they got the phone call that explained everything. What Ash and Mallow learned was that the latter had Extreme Hyperovulation Syndrome (OHOS), a genetic disorder where a woman's ovaries release multiple eggs with every period cycle. Brock told them only one in five hundred million women had this condition, and Mallow had probably the most severe case to the disorder seen to date.

At that point, any doubt they were not having nonuplets vanished. This pregnancy was going to be more intense than either of them had expected.