Hey Nuggies! Well I really shouldn't be doing this, but here I am writing another fanfiction since I have writers block on a few of my other ones, and because this won't leave me alone. Here is your warning this will be SLASH! I have decided though that this will not have M!Preg.
Main Pairing: AshxPaul
Rating: M (to be safe)
Chapter Warning(s): None
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only!
Please don't forget to head over to A03 for the discord link! You don't need an A03 account to do it.
Enjoy!
Ash couldn't help but feel as though he was being watched. A couple of days had passed since the Closing Ceremony and he already had to say goodbye to Paul, who needed to get back to Sinnoh to help his brother with a new pokémon. He was in the pastures with his pokémon, Larvesta in his lap, and the others playing and sparring, when he first felt it. The skin crawling, hair raising on the back of his neck, hyper awareness that he only associated with being watched or in danger, but he couldn't find what was watching him.
He had first noticed it that morning after arriving at the lab and greeting Oak. He paid that initial feeling no mind, but now that he was aware it was going to bug him and make him paranoid until he found out what it was. When he tried to find it with Aura it did give him an interesting find. It was like a void in the vastness of life. When he messaged Riley, who had taken Aster and was escorting the small Aura User to Rota, about it all Riley could say was to be careful and that whoever it may be could be using an Aura Blocker.
Ash admittedly had to dive into his books to find out what an Aura Blocker was and just as the name suggested it blocked their Aura from being sensed. If used right it would hide the person that wore the Aura Blocker as it masked the users Aura to match their surroundings, but if used wrong it caused anyone to uses Aura to see a void. It was completely different than seeing the deadened forest, then he could see budding life as the earth began to repair itself, while this void was just that. Nothing.
Every time he sensed the void he tried his best to not look in its direction, to not make it seem like he knew that they were there, but any time that he could pass it off as just looking around it was as if the being that wore the blocker was invisible. A void in Aura, and invisible to the eye.
It wouldn't bode well.
Just earlier that day, a welcome distraction from the void being, Gardevoir had her Egg. He had been grooming Noivern when she popped up, arms full of her Egg, and a tired but pleased smile on her face. He could feel her satisfaction, love, and happiness dancing through her Aura, and that was the only reason Ash didn't rush her to Oak to make sure the birthing went well. He would leave it to Gardevoir to determine when Silver would get the egg, or if she kept it until the Ralts hatched. Either way he would welcome Gardevoir back into the traveling team with open arms with either outcome.
At the moment though, Ash was in his room folding newly washed clothes and getting ready to leave that night for a red eye flight to Unova. With the time differences he and Oak would be getting into Unova airspace by six the next morning, and to the airport the plane belonged to at eight. From there it was thankfully a few minutes drive to the place Oak had booked for them. They would have a few hours between landing and their meeting with Juniper to pass in which they could shower, eat, and rest or explore the town.
Since it's a short trip Ash decided to go light on travel companions. He was taking Noivern, Pikachu, Nidoking, Zoroark, Larvesta, and Aegislash while the others stayed behind to relax, heal, and have a bit of downtime before they head off for Alola. Charizard in particular was staying behind just in case his albino baby catches something while they were in Unova or even Paldea if they have to go there. He did give his pokémon a very light training regiment to follow so they keep in good shape. He still needed to go over the videos the League had sent him of his fights and figure out where everyone needed to work towards. He also wanted to get Snom and Larvesta, if he is able to after being seen by Juniper, to evolve.
"Ash, honey! Come down and have lunch!" Ash heard his mother call up the stairs.
"I'll be down in a second! I just have a few more things to pack!" Ash replied and hurried to get his things. He exchanged Aura books, having finished the few he had taken with him in the first trip back home, for the ones Riley had given him, and made sure he had all his chargers, notebooks, healing items, a few empty pokéballs for just in case moments, and a few other miscellaneous items before heading down. He greeted Silver, who was carefully brushing Eevee, before sitting down at the table. Eevee had finally been released from observation the other day and was able to come home. The pure awe and love Silver had on his face the day Leafeon placed her tiny kit in his lap was one Ash would remember forever. He made sure to take a picture for Silver, and if he also made it Silvers' contact photo, well, who was to blame Ash.
"You're all packed and ready to go when Samuel gets here?" Delia asked Ash as she placed his dinner in front of him.
"I think so, just a few more things to make sure I have packed, but that should only take a few minutes," Ash replied with nod.
"Well I hope that everything goes well," Delia said, "I do hope you can come back and stay longer."
"I hope everything goes well too," Ash said softly and tried not to let his mind wander into the 'what if's', "We should only be in Unova for a couple of days if it goes well. If not, then Oak said he would book us the soonest flight to Paldea to speak with Sada and Turo. If we have to do that then it would be closer to a week and a half to two weeks before we can get back and that's if everything goes well then. I don't want to think about it if Plan B doesn't go well."
"Then don't focus on if it goes bad," Delia said as she sat down across from her son, "Focus on the positives."
"Easier said than done," Ash muttered before taking a bite of food.
"Everything is easier said than done, Ash," Delia said and she would have said more if a knock didn't sound from the front door. He watched his mother walk to the door as he hurried to finish his food and saw Oak standing there when she opened the door.
"Samuel!" Delia greeted with a wide smile, "Please come in! Are you hungry? Thirsty?"
"I'm good Delia, thank you," Oak said as he walked in and greeted Silver before turning to Ash, "Ash, my boy! I'm afraid we will have to leave a bit earlier than we planned. Alakazam has decided to not teleport us to Saffron so we'll have to go by my car instead."
"Why did Alakazam decide not to teleport us?" Ash asked as he got up to put his plate in the sink.
"Oh he's blaming it on being old. He's complaining about his knees and back," Oak said with a sigh, "There's nothing wrong with him. Alakazam just wants to take a nap and give me a hard time as usual."
Ash laughed before telling Oak that he would be right back with his things. It would be a roughly six hour drive barring no stops and if they wanted to get to the airport and get through everything there then they would need to get there about eight tonight to make the flight. Ash changed into more comfortable flying clothes before shouldering his bag and making sure that he had all the pokémon he was bringing. Larvesta was going to be traveling in a special tank, one that Oak had to have a custom one made, that Ash was going to carry. Ash would have had him traveling in a ball, but the one time he had placed Larvesta in one and then released the bug had Larvesta writhing in pain and having a hard time breathing. So the special tank it was.
After a quick goodbye to his mother and cousin, Ash was led outside where Oak had parked the car in front of the house. It was a simple car, old like Oak, but Oak could never part with it no matter what his grandson wanted. Ash had heard many fights between the two about it since Gary wanted his Grandpa to sell it to buy him a convertible, but at least Oak was more sensible than that. He didn't want to think about how getting a convertible would have affected Garys' ego.
They were about an hour down the road when Oak mentioned that Queen Ilene messaged him about Riley and Aster. The two had made it safely to the Kingdom and were resting. She also found a lovely couple that could take Aster in until the little boy was old enough to start really getting down to Aura Training. Queen Ilene had also been given all the information Ash had given Riley about what Aster had been through and more about the Corruption. Thankfully he hadn't had any more contact with the perverted Aura and Queen Ilene and the couple that were taking Aster in gave him permission to keep in contact with Aster.
Thankfully the drive went by quickly and smoothly and soon enough Oak, Ash, Pikachu, and Larvesta were in the plane, settled, and ready to hopefully get answers.
Ash felt restless.
They had made it to their hotel, well it was more of a bed and breakfast than hotel rooms over an hour ago, but after eating and taking a quick shower to get rid of the plane feel, he didn't want to rest. Unlike Oak, who had muttered something about four hours to Ash before bee-lining to his room and has not made a sound since. Deciding to leave a sleeping Larvesta in his room, with Zoroark to watch over him, left Ash here, wandering the forest around Nuvema Town for the next two hours.
The town reminded Ash a lot of Pallet Town. It was small, quaint, but there was a feel of being more modern than his little hometown. The houses were newer and the overall feel of the town made it feel as though it had only been established within the last couple of decades despite the town being older than Pallet. He had spoken to a few of the more friendlier townspeople and heard that the forest around their little town had been more agitated as of late.
Of course being an OFRT, and a naturally curious person, Ash had to walk around and take a look.
The forest did feel weird once he had stepped off the path, which would have been stupid seeing as he wasn't familiar with this forest, and had an almost stagnant air to it. The wind didn't rustle the trees, pokémon didn't wander around in the underbrush, and the overall feel of the forest screamed that there was something wrong. Ash swore he could hear his own heartbeat as he kept walking and made sure to keep alert just as Pikachu and Nidoking, who Ash had let out to walk with him a bit, did.
They had been walking for around half an hour before Nidoking stopped. Upon turning around Ash could see how tense the large reptile had become and started to look around to see what had set Nidoking off. Pikachu sounded off a soft chitter in his ear and Ash did his best not to wince as sharp nails dug into his shoulder. He turned his head as he heard Nidoking move only to see that the large reptile moved closer to him as if to protect him from whatever had set them off.
Just as he was about to try and use Aura to sense what was around them, a loud and sudden cacophony of barks, growls, and snarls erupted from the silence of the forest. Turning to his left Ash saw a large mixed pack of hounds running after something small. Several large Houndoom and Mightyena along with their pups rushed past them leaving a large dust cloud in their wake. Ash, not even second thinking about it, rushed after them with Nidoking right behind him. Whatever they were chasing was small, had looked to be in bad condition, and the last thing he wanted was for it to get eaten by the aggressive pack.
"Pikachu, get in close with Quick Attack and let loose a Thunderbolt! Get their attention away from the other pokémon!" Ash yelled just loud enough to be heard over the sounds of the pack. The mouse jumped off his shoulder and dashed forward quickly before releasing a bolt of lightning causing the few pokémon in the back of the pack to cry out.
"Leave them alone!" Ash yelled once he had gotten the packs' attention on him, "Aegislash protect the pokémon! Nidoking, defend them!"
The large sword, once released from her ball, immediately went into defensive mode and tucked the small pokémon between her blade and her shield for all around protection. Nidoking, who had caught up, turned and whacked a Mightyena to the side away from Aegislash as Pikachu let loose another Thunderbolt. As the two pokémon fought against the pack Ash slowly made his way around towards Aegislash. He winced as he caught sight of Pikachu smashing a Houndooms' face into the ground with an Iron Tail before jumping to his next opponent. The pack was large and while it would have been overwhelming in any other instance Pikachu and Nidoking were dominating the fight. There were a few injuries to Pikachu, but none of them looked to be serious, and Nidokings' scales were thick and hard enough that his injuries were all superficial.
Just as Ash was about to call for Pikachu to use Thunder, one of the largest Houndoom released a loud Howl causing the pack to retreat. In just a few minutes the five were left alone in the silence of the forest. With the pack and all their ruckus leaving made the forest come back to life just moments later. Bird pokémon released their calls from the trees, small bug pokémon skittered along the forest floor, and grazing pokémon came out from where they had hid.
The danger had passed.
"Aegislash, good job! You two as well!" Ash said, giving praise to his pokémon for a job well done. Pikachu jumped back up onto his shoulder and gave the side of his head a nuzzle causing the hair on his head to rise from the excess of electricity. Aegislash slowly lifted her shield up, after Ash had asked her to, to reveal a small brown and white pokémon, curled up and shaking. Ash made no move to touch them as he didn't want to get bit by the scared wild pokémon so instead he calmly spoke to the pokémon and sent out calming Aura.
Ash watched as the small pokémon lifted its head and peered around. It was small, puppy-like with light brown fur covering its body, darker brown paws and muzzle and had white fur covering its neck and tail. The pup was so skinny and its bright sky blue eyes were unfocused. Slowly and gently Ash touched the pups' back making it jerk and turn to look at him, but made no other movement. Ash ran his fingers over tangled, matted fur, before slowly starting to pick the pup up.
Seeing as the pup was too out of it to care, Ash stood up and hurried back the way he came. The pup needed help.
"Well, I wasn't expecting you for a couple of more hours, but seeing as you came here with an emergency I'll let it slide," Juniper said, a smile on her face and her tone and Aura gave her away as joking before giving the injured pokémon a look, "Now how did a Rockruff, like you, end up here, little guy?"
Ash, having no knowledge of Unova and where any Centers were at, had taken the Rockruff to Junipers' lab to be seen too. He explained the situation as he laid the lethargic pup on one of the tables and backed away so as to not crowd one of Junipers' assistants as he looked over the pup. Juniper, who had moved to sit behind her desk to send an email, paused as she looked at Ash.
"A pack of Houndoom and Mightyena?" Juniper asked and started to type quickly on her computer.
"Yeah," Ash said with a slight nod, "We must have fought at least ten of them. Three Houndoom, two Mightyena, three Poochyena, and two Houndour. I don't know if that's the entire pack, but that's just who we fought against."
"Thank you for letting me know," Juniper said as she used her mouse to click on a few things, "I've been trying to get someone from the League out here to take care of whatever is in the forest. A few towns folks had come to me in concern and one even had her Delcatty killed."
"Hopefully they finally get someone out here," the assistant murmured as he gently wrapped Rockruffs' leg that held the needle for the IV, "Rockruff is a bit malnourished, has a small concussion, and has a few gashes that needs cleaned before a potion can be used on them. Other than a few concerning scars, and barring any behavioral problems, Rockruff is free to go after a few hours with strict observation. I'd like the bag to be empty before this little guy goes."
"Sounds good!" Juniper said with a gentle smile and nod, "Now, Ash, why don't you go get your Larvesta and come back. We can speak a bit before the person I'm waiting on to get here to see if my hypothesis is somewhere in the right ballpark."
Ash nodded and gave Rockruff a gentle scratching behind one of his floppy ears before leaving the lab. It was a weight off his shoulders that Rockruff was going to be okay. The pup was cute and he definitely had a big case of puppy eyes, but it concerned him a bit that he hadn't heard even a single bark coming from Rockruff. At least the pup was going to be taken care of now.
The walk to the bed and breakfast they were staying at took no time at all and upon entering his room Ash saw Zoroark curled up around Larvesta, who had turned to look at him. Ash felt a little relief enter him as he saw Larvesta shake his abdomen, which he learned that Larvesta did that when he was particularly happy. He greeted the two as he unlocked that cage Larvesta was in and pulled the fire moth out gently. He ran his fingers through the soft white fur before reaching over to give Zoroark a few ear scratches.
He left Zoroark out of his ball as he led his illusionist out of the room and outside of the building after releasing Aegislash and Nidoking to relax in the room. The walk, much like leaving the lab, was quick, but Ash did his best to walk a little slower so Larvesta could relish in the sun rays. It was appreciated if the little wiggle Larvesta did was any indication. Upon entering the lab, Ash and his trio of pokémon were greeted to chaos.
Papers laid on the ground, the table Rockruff was on was on its side, the pole holding the medicine bag for Rockruff was on the ground, and the pup was snarling and growling as he cornered Juniper and her assistant. Before Ash could do anything Zoroark leaped over the table and got between the Rockruff and the humans with a deeper snarl of his own. Ash watched as Zoroark forced Rockruff back a few steps, but the pup saw it as a challenge and lunged at Zoroark, teeth on full display. Zoroark, having helped raise Riolu, met the unruly pup head on and swiped the Rockruff to the side. Zoroark stood over the smaller pokémon, still snarling, until finally after a few minutes the Rockruff extended his neck and rolled onto his back exposing his belly.
"I was only gone a few minutes," Ash whispered as Juniper and her assistant cautiously moved away from the corner, "what happened?" Ash watched as Zoroark bent down a bit and gave the Rockruff a chuff before picking the pup up in a typical parental hold, one that he had seen Persian pick Luxray up in when she was still a Shinx. His illusionist took Rockruff to a corner of the room and laid down before starting to groom the pup.
"I was getting a blood sample while Noah used one of our scanners to see if Rockruff belonged to anyone," Juniper said as she started to pick up the scattered papers and Noah, her assistant, picked up the table and medicine pole, "We must have startled Rockruff, or pushed against his boundaries, and the next thing we knew we were in the corner with Rockruff advancing on us."
"Thank you for saving us," Noah said, "the both of us don't have our pokémon with us today." Ash nodded and turned to look at Zoroark. He hoped his illusionist didn't get too attached as it could very well be that Rockruff already had an owner.
"Did you find anything out while I was gone?" Ash asked.
"Not much," Juniper said as she placed her papers on her desk, "Haven't had time yet to run the blood tests. You find anything Noah?"
"Rockruff is approximately eight months old," Noah started off, "the machine places his location of birth at the Green Meadow Daycare between Nacrene City and Striaton City. Records show that Rockruff was supposed to be in the care of a Jake Rogers, but there's a police record stating that Rockruff was removed from his care on the charges of pokémon neglect and running an illegal pokémon fighting ring."
"Who was supposed to have Rockruff?" Juniper asked as she got up to look at a machine, one that Ash assumed had all of Rockruffs' information.
"A rescue called Big Hearts for Tiny Paws, it's a facility between Mistralton City and Icirrus City," Noah replied, "Rockruff was given to them four months ago while the rest of Rogers' pokémon had to be put down due to aggression or had succumbed to the neglect they received."
"And there's nothing after that," Juniper said with a scoff, "Not even a police report stating that Rockruff was missing. What the hell is our Region turning into?"
Ash turned to look at Pikachu before turning to see Rockruff, who had fallen asleep, and Zoroark. He saw the look Zoroark was giving him and he cursed his heart and all the push over tendencies he had when it came to pokémon. 'A large heart with lots of love to give,' is what his mother had told him when he was little and had shown up with yet another injured pokémon in his arms. He let out a sigh and shook his head.
"If it's no problem," Ash said, breaking up the hushed voices of Noah and Juniper, "I can take Rockruff in temporarily."
"No offense," Noah replied, "but this is a Unova pokémon, having been born here. You're a Kantonian who, I can only assume, travels around the Regions. I don't even think our legal system here would let you."
"I'm the exception," Ash said as he turned on his watch and showed them his work identification, "I'm an OFRT. In the line of my work I'm allowed to take any pokémon out of an unsafe situation, no matter what is going on."
"That sounds like a Rangers' job," Juniper said as she moved to sit at her desk.
"It kind of is, but I don't have as much authority as they do. I'm basically a hybrid of a Researcher, a Trainer, and a Ranger," Ash said, "My boss is Professor Oak if you want to ask him more about it."
"Perhaps I will," Juniper replied with a small nod, "It sounds pretty helpful. I wonder why Unova doesn't have anything like that."
"Perhaps because Ash is the first OFRT ever," came a familiar voice from the doorway.
"Professor!" Ash greeted as the older man walked further into the room.
"Hello everyone!" Oak greeted and took a seat near Ash.
"The first OFRT?" Noah asked.
"Yes! I proposed the topic to Lance, who then saw the benefits of having a few individuals with those kinds of credentials," Oak said, "Lance left me to choose who would be the first person to take on the position and see how well that kind of work would work. Ash has shown marvelous work so far, and we're hoping to get more people into OFRT work because of what he has accomplished. Because of Ash we have quite a few new topics to bring up at the next conference!"
"Amazing!" Juniper exclaimed, "I'll be sure to keep an eye on your progress and see if I can talk Alder into implementing something like it here. I know I could use a few people like that. Now to switch onto the topic you both are originally here for!"
"Yes!" Oak said as he pulled down a USB out of his pocket and handed it over, "This is all of the information I've taken of Larvesta since he started falling ill. I don't have anything on there from yesterday or today, but there's nothing much to update on. His condition hasn't changed."
Ash watched as Juniper plugged the USB into her computer and turned on a projector which displayed on the far wall. Ash couldn't make heads or tails over all the information as it was all on medical jargon that he didn't know, but he did look at the progression of pictures Oak had taken. He guess he never realized just how much Larvesta had grown. The baby moth was at least twice the size he was when he had first gotten sick and his abdomen was getting greener each day. Larvestas' fur also seemed to gain volume as it was thicker than it had been last time Ash had seen him, and the bumps along Larvestas' abdomen at least seemed to have stopped growing for the moment.
"This seems well out of our jurisdiction," an unfamiliar male voice said, breaking Ash out his thoughts. Turning in his seat Ash saw an older man, who looked remarkably like Juniper but with lighter graying hair.
"I believe so too." Juniper said, "Dad, do you think Sada and Turo would know about this? You've been helping them with some of their work."
"I think this may just be up their alley," the man, Junipers' Father, replied and when he saw Ashs' confused face he introduced himself, "Dear me, I seemed to have not introduced myself. I'm Cedric Juniper, I specialize in pokémon distribution and their biology. Please call me Cedric."
"I'm Ash," Ash replied and shook Cedrics' offered hand, "So what exactly do Professors Sada and Turo study and why do you think they can help us?"
"For a time both she and her ex-husband studied the lore of Paldea, which focused on the Great Crater of Paldea, a place no one is allowed in unless given special permission from their League," Cedric explained, "but the two began to branch out. Sada preferred to focus on Paldeas' past and what pokémon were like before they became their present selves. Turo on the other hand focuses on Paldeas' future and how their actions today could shape the future of Paldea and the pokémon that reside there."
"So how does that explain what's going on with Larvesta?" Ash asked and carefully ran his fingers through Larvestas' soft fur. The little moth had fallen asleep in his lap and he didn't want to wake him up.
"I believe I'll leave that up to them! It's a bit wrong to reveal another Professors' work before they even reveal it to the public themselves," Cedric replied, "I may work with them a bit on their works, but I have had to sign a NDA to do so. I can promise at least that Sada will have a solution to the problems Larvesta is having."
"So when's the soonest flight we can get?" Ash asked, his heart skipping a beat as they could finally get a solution to whatever is ailing Larvesta.
"Before we can think about flights, let's get a message out to Sada and Turo," Oak said, "We want to make sure that they can meet with us before suddenly showing up in Paldea."
Ash, not really liking the answer, nodded before turning away to hide his expression, but he was sure the adults around him knew how he felt anyway. He looked over at Zoroark, who had fallen in a light sleep next to Rockruff, and took a deep breath. He could wait. He could be patient. Ash may not like it, but he could do it.
He would do anything for his pokémon.