I feel this requires a few sentences of preamble.
This fic starts a couple of years before the series and includes a lot of obscure characters. From forgotten rivals to characters of the day.
It also has a companion piece on Ao3 called Pokemon Forum: BattleNET but is completely legible without it.
I still encourage you dear reader to check it out. But for now, please enjoy today's fanfic chapter… or prologue rather.
Ash kicked his feet and stared at the computer screen. Annoyance filled the eight-year-old to the brim and threatened to spill out.
"It's been two hours!" He whined and willed a new message to appear. "Why is nothing happening?"
Delia momentarily paused her normal cleaning routine to pat her son on the shoulder. "It hasn't been that long sweetie. You can't expect people to find it so quickly! It will take time."
He pouted both at her and then at the computer but did not move from his spot. She shook her head with a bit of amusement and continued her chores.
To tell the truth, she wasn't sure this silly little idea would work out. But it still seemed like it was worth a shot.
She'd been worried about her son ever since he'd had a falling out with his longtime best friend Gary Oak. Both herself and the other boy's grandfather, Professor Oak, had tried to pry the context of their fight out of the two but to no avail.
Suffice it to say, they no longer considered each other friends.
There were other children in the neighborhood of course, but despite her best efforts, Ash seemed resistant to actually becoming friends with any of them. It was a little bit worrying and she was worried about his social life. Kids should socialize and have friends, simple as that.
When he had suddenly run up to her spouting the idea of an online forum for kids who wanted to be Pokemon Trainers, she had been rather taken aback. Delia was still unsure where he had come up with the idea, but it could help with his friend situation, and expose him to other children his age who shared his interests.
She hoped.
After a few days of thinking it over and finding a good host for the server, (not to mention installing a few parental controls) Pokemon Forum: BattleNET was now live, with a link posted on a Pokemon-themed message board or two.
Her son's excitement was now warring with the reality that he would need to wait until someone else actually joined.
For the sake of Ash's short attention span, she'd prefer it happen sooner rather than later.
Two days later, on the other side of the Kanto region, a boy not too dissimilar to Ash scrolled through a message board about Pokemon Trainers.
He wasn't allowed to post on it, or at least his parents wouldn't let him and he had yet to figure out a way around their dastardly parental controls.
As he clicked through tab after tab, one caught his attention.
"BattleNET?" He whispered to himself and clicked on the extension.
There was a message about a forum for kids who wanted to be trainers and a link… He clicked it and found a pop-up that kept him from his goal. Age and his parent's contact information? Boring.
For a moment he was going to click off. Something stopped him, he wasn't sure what. Maybe it was the vague hope he might be able to actually type back to someone else who wanted to be a trainer. Maybe it was divine intervention. Or maybe it was just boredom.
"Mom!" Ritchie Gettem hollered for her attention, and a few minutes later, miles away, the computer in the Ketchum living room dinged with a notification.
A day after BattleNET's first addition, another member found her way on.
Ritchie and Ash had been messaging each other nearly nonstop since he had joined. Delia had found herself almost as ecstatic as her son was! Even better, the phone call with Ritchie's mother had been polite, pleasant, and productive.
She had confirmed a few things for the other mother and they had shared contact information. You had to be careful with the internet sometimes, it was why she had put her foot down to make sure that pop-up came up if anyone clicked the link.
There were probably still ways around it, but the idea was to make it more trouble than it was worth to anyone besides a real interested user around the right age.
Delia was actually at work when it happened, Ash tucked away in a corner of her diner's kitchen where he could message his new friend in peace.
As the lunch rush finally filtered out around three and she was able to stop for a breather, her son's messy head of hair poked over the counter. "Psst. Mom! Are you on break?"
She sighed and straightened, "Yes I am, Ashey. What's up?"
"Someone else wants to join!" His eyes practically sparkled. "I didn't want to bother you while you were busy!"
"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow. "How long have you been waiting?"
"Since one! Please!" He begged and she found herself slightly impressed by his patience.
One of her employees kept an eye on the front as she stepped into the back and she read over the notifications on the screen.
A quick glance at the messages helped solve the mystery of Ash's patience. When the notification had come up Ash had wanted to grab her immediately but Ritchie pointed out he'd said she was at work.
'Yeah, she's kind of busy. Guess we can wait…' Well, BattleNET already seemed to be paying dividends.
As she looked at the potential new member she hummed. "Casey Cotyu…" The phone number looked like a Johto extension. Time to make another call then.
Casey had been forced to wait two hours after finding the link to the cool "Pokemon trainer forum!" It had been agony, she had barely survived the wait!
As soon as her dad had spoken to the lady on the phone she had dived in and immediately asked the two most important questions.
'Do you like Pokemon?' The slightly more important one, just barely.
'Do you like baseball?' Also vitally important.
Thankfully, the answer to the first was a resounding yes and questions immediately began spouting in both directions about favorite Pokemon. It wasn't until several minutes later that Casey realized her second question had gone unanswered.
She could not allow that to fall under the radar! Any friend of hers must have an appreciation of the noble sport of baseball! Not to mention the greatest team in the world, the Electabuzzes.
That might have something to do with her lack of real-life friends. Maybe she shouldn't be as firm with the terms and conditions.
Now that she forced the baseball issue she received slightly more muted responses, neither of the other two users, Ash and Ritchie, seemed to dislike the sport. But then Ash mentioned his favorite team was the Magikarps!
With that, she had to ask the only question that mattered. 'Are you lame? You better not be lame!'
After assurances from Ash that he wasn't lame, they were able to continue chatting. A new and perhaps unexpected friendship began blossoming between the three.
The first of many to come.
Inevitably, a playdate was set up between Ash, Ritchie, and Casey.
While talking online was great, it was still good for kids to interact with their peers in person and Delia found the parents of the other two agreeing with her on that front.
They ended up at her house as the meeting ground, mostly because it served as a good middle ground, Casey was from New Bark Town in Johto, and Ritchie was from Frodomor City in eastern Kanto.
As the parents interacted, the kids began verbally poking at each other's appearances now that they were seeing each other in person for the first time.
"Why do you have purple hair?" Ritchie asked Casey. "Your dad doesn't have purple hair."
"Mom has purple hair." She defended, "At least it's more interesting than your hair. Your hair is boring."
"It's not boring!" Ritchie sounded so offended at the insinuation that Ash started laughing.
"And what about you two!" Casey waved a hand between them. "You look pretty similar!"
"Do not!" Ash jumped in. "We don't look alike at all."
"We do both have spiky hair I guess?" Ritchie considered and got an elbow in the side for working with the enemy.
"Yours is brown and mine is black! What's your jersey for anyway?" Ash switched from Ritchie to Casey. "We're not going to a game or anything."
"I always wear this!" Casey loved her yellow and black striped garment. "I wear it to school, wear it to bed, wear it to baseball practice…"
"Hey, we should play baseball," Ritchie suggested, "Ash, do you have the gloves and stuff?"
"Yeah in the shed!" He nodded, "but mom said she was gonna get snacks, after that?"
"Are they good snacks?" Casey checked that was important to know.
"Mom makes the best food! She has a diner!" Ash reminded them and Casey felt a little silly for asking, of course, she had good snacks.
That left them sitting still for a moment, which as anyone who has ever dealt with children will know is far too long for them to be left sitting still.
"What do you do for fun?" Ritchie asked Ash after pulling at a loose string on his sock in an effort to entertain himself.
"Uh, well I've been talking to you guys a lot…" He reminded them, "I used to talk to Gary but he's a jerk and you shouldn't talk to him! Oh! I help out at Mom's diner sometimes! I can take orders!"
"Oh, that sounds cool!" Casey leaned forward. "How fast can you take orders?"
"Not very fast…" Ash looked downtrodden but shook it off. "What else… looking around the edges of town for Pokemon is a lot of fun! Professor Oak's lab is pretty cool too! But we might run into Gary there, so… Well, if Shelldon's feeling nice he'll let us climb on him!"
"Who's Shelldon?" Ritchie asked and Casey tilted her head in like fashion.
"Shelldon is Mom's Blastoise! She got him when she was a trainer! He's cool! But kind of lazy." Ash snickered as he thought of the big water-type that was normally found dozing in their backyard.
"Does he battle?" Ritchie asked the important question.
"Not anymore." Ash kicked his feet. "I've seen him use attacks though! They're super strong!"
"We should have a battle." Casey declared and stood with hands on her hips.
"But we don't have Pokemon." Ritchie reminded her.
"We can be the Pokemon!" Ash jumped up and onto the idea with eagerness.
"I'm an Electabuzz! Obviously!" Casey announced.
"Bulbasaur." Ash decided.
"Charizard!" Ritchie grinned and roared.
Thus the battle began.
The only warning the parents in the kitchen got came too late. Partly due to the poor timing of the microwave beeping. They rushed in after hearing a series of thumps and found the wreckage of a battlefield.
The couch cushions had been pulled up to be used as ammunition or protection. Casey had her arms and legs trapped behind her back and wrapped up in a blanket but was inching her way toward the boys like a particularly vicious Metapod.
Ritchie had managed to contain Ash in a headlock and bore some injuries from an earlier part of the battle, on his face unfortunately so they were very easy to notice. But despite the damage he had received he now remained standing.
Ash was punching blindly behind him with one hand, and tapping the ground with the other in the universal sign of surrender. The fact he was still swinging did offset this gesture though. There was also a slight red mark on his face that resembled a foot.
"Oh no…" Delia whispered, dreading what had happened.
Ritchie perked up when he saw the parents. "I won! Charizard is the best!"
"You jerk!" Casey squirmed. "I beat you! Electabuzz is super effective against flying-types!"
Ash had escaped now that Ritchie loosened his grip. "Type doesn't matter! I beat you fair and square Casey!"
"You tied me up with a blanket and said Vine Whip!" She hissed.
"Vine Whip can be used to tie up opponents! I saw a Tangrowth do it once!" Ash protested.
"I still win." Ritchie crossed his arms smugly.
"Liar!" Casey insisted. "Ash was down and I had you down! But he got back up!"
"Bulbasaur are sturdy!" The local boy declared.
When it became clear that the fight was simply the result of a game and not any serious conflict there was a slight sigh of relief from the parents. Also, a firm talking to about taking things too far, but the gathering was able to continue without further disruption.
While Casey and Ritchie were the first to join, they were certainly not the last.
A month after BattleNET's creation Tate Fulan in Hoenn stumbled across the link.
"Hey, Liza," He called his sister only to get no reply. He glanced around and realized he was alone in the room. The psychic-boy rolled his eyes, 'Hey, Liza!'
Mirrored annoyance struck him back. 'What? I'm making a sandwich.'
'Why didn't you offer to make me one?' He fired at her.
'Cause you didn't ask!' He hadn't even known she was making any!
When she, at last, returned to the room, mouth full of tasty toasted bread, he was able to share what he found.
"What a forum for trainers?" She blinked. "Oh, people who want to be trainers? Hey like us!"
"Yep. Wanna check it out?" He prodded.
She got an infuriating grin on her face. "Poor baby brother, couldn't decide without me?"
"I was gonna join even if you said no, I just figured you want in too." He crossed his arms.
"Let's check it out, might be fun."
Barry Carmen from Twinleaf Town grumbled as he swiped through posts about the best League Battles. Wrong all of them! None of them appreciated the pure awesomeness of raw unstoppable power! Everyone was just complaining about tactics and strategy.
Strong Pokemon were better than any of that nonsense! Ask anyone! Except for his dad, cause he might say no, which would mean Barry was wrong and he couldn't allow that!
Going through the comments on a particularly offensive post, about how Shuckle had the potential to be stronger than any other Pokemon, he came across a comment with a link.
"Wanna talk about being a good trainer?" He read the comment, which was in reply to someone else wondering how people came up with this stuff. "Well duh, what kind of question is that?"
Better than talking to Dawn or Kenny about contests. Those were dumb.
Bea from Stow-in-Side in Galar chugged her water bottle after practice and tapped through her feed. Cool battle, boring battle, karate tournament, karate demonstration, Pokemon training tips?
That caught her eye and she paused and dug a little deeper.
"BattleNET?" She glanced at Machop, currently downing a whole gallon of water. "That sounds right up our alley."
Her partner shrugged and gestured that she could do what she wanted. He was probably just salty that she had managed to win their spar today.
"Could be interesting at least." She decided and followed the link.
Nemona Mencía from Paldea only need to see the words 'battle' and 'Pokemon' then she was impossible to exorcise from the forum's active members.
Sophocles Mamane, currently living in Hau'li City but nominally from Ula'ula Island, was on the fence when he found the link to BattleNET.
On the one hand, he was only kind of interested in being a Pokemon Trainer. It seemed like a neat idea, but he had a lot of other stuff to do and inventions to try.
On the other hand, it might be fun to show off his technical expertise to a bunch of novices in the craft.
In the end, he too joined.
Time went on and more members slowly began to join BattleNET.
About a year after the first creation Delia had eased up a little on the parental control. She remained the only active moderator on the forum but now she would only try to get parent or guardian contact information from active users.
There was an occasional hiccup but for the most part, the server filled with kids around the same age group as Ash, give or take a year or two.
It was a better experiment than she could have hoped for. Ash had friends his age he was constantly talking to and about, they even shared his interests and helped him develop some new ones!
Nemona had suggested to him he should learn more about cooking so he would be able to take care of himself better on the road. He'd even started helping her out in the kitchen both at home and work!
As a martial artist (even a young one), Bea had some interesting ideas about the nature of winning and losing that Ash seemed to internalize.
Liza and Tate were surprisingly insightful and also (if the other kids could be believed) weird in a funny way. They brought a level of shenaniganry and playful banter to the table certainly.
The lessons went both ways too. It was interesting to watch all these kids develop into the trainers they were hoping to become.
A part of her had held out hope that Ash would patch things up with Gary, but after the first time Casey and Ritchie had come along to Professor Oak's summer camp she realized that any chance of reconciling things would have to wait until the boys were older.
It made her a little sad, even if she was glad Ash had made other friends.
And still, he was making new ones every time a kid clicked on the BattleNET link.
She was learning a bit herself, about different parts of the world and the people living there, and she was pleased Ash was being exposed to this early. It seemed like it would do him a lot of good in the long run.
"Let's go! Let's go!" She was pulled out of her thoughts by Ash's chanting.
"Alright! I'm coming!" She calmed him.
"It's the league! Come on!" He was practically pulling her out the door.
"I know!" Delia laughed. "Promise to make sure to listen to Ritchie's parents okay?"
"I promise!"
"And don't get into any more battles!"
"I won't!"
"And please don't bother the participants!" She finished.
Ash stayed stubbornly quiet at that last request.
Giselle Yuto was a tough sell to join BattleNET, at first anyway.
For too long she had been surrounded by meatheads who didn't know the first thing about being a Pokemon trainer, insisting on outdated systems like the gym challenge.
When this BattleNET had first cropped up in her feed she'd ignored it but finding it referenced a few other places made her wonder if it might truly be worth investigating.
Now she had a slight hope that this was a forum for real trainers and not just a bunch of lower-class plebeians running around the woods with electric mice.
The most surprising part of this story is that she stuck around after realizing she was wrong.
Although we shouldn't give her too much credit. It was mostly because she enjoyed making fun of the others.
Astrid Bristol, a native of Santalune City in Kalos had been sitting in the park when she found the link.
"Do you want to be a trainer?" She stared at the question and then at a Scatterbug that had crawled up onto her bench, "What sort of question is that of course I want to be a trainer, who wouldn't want to be a trainer?"
"'Attabu?" The Pokemon gave her a questioning look.
"Don't look at me like that, of course, you'd want to be a trainer too." She tapped the link and began filling out her info. "Thanks for the talk."
The very confused Scatterbug decided to find a new bench.
Iris from Unova had actually gone seeking out BattleNET, or rather a place like BattleNET.
Ever since her battle with Drayden, her partner and friend, Excadrill had taken to ignoring her and treating her with, well, disdain. It hurt her and she could only blame the fact he didn't think she was a good trainer anymore.
So she resolved to get better.
She'd gone looking for tips and tricks and watching battles, trying to figure out what she did wrong and what she could do better.
A forum full of kids like her who wanted to become good trainers? Seemed like the place to be!
It took a few weeks of tossing around ideas and suggestions before they finally hit upon her problem with Excadrill. Or rather what the real problem was.
The Excadrill problem had been in and out of focus since she joined, normally a new suggestion was offered every day, but today they had been talking about how Pokemon who didn't want to listen to trainers didn't technically have to. They could just run off, or refuse, and sometimes if a trainer tried to force the issue, it ended badly.
No one had even brought up Excadrill and her specifically, but Iris realized what she needed to do in that moment.
Not sure how to begin, she released him and sat down.
"Hey, Excadrill…" She started and swallowed. "I know I've said sorry before but, well, I think I get it now. I was apologizing for the wrong thing wasn't I?"
Nothing, he remained in his inactive state.
"I'm sorry I made you battle." She said. "Even though I knew we were gonna lose. I'm sorry I was so stubborn and refused to give up even though there was no point going on except you getting more hurt."
"I don't… I'm sorry it took me so long to realize that was the issue too. I don't really expect you to forgive me just like that but… could we at least try working together again? Please?"
She looked up and nearly toppled backward when she saw him out of the inactive state. His gaze was still fairly cold but… it was a start.
Cameron from Unova, Joey from Johto, and Mikey from Kanto, more members!
All were active participants who eagerly joined in conversations, asked questions, and sometimes got into dumb arguments. But that was expected from a forum full of children who were hyper-fixated on Pokemon.
Beyond them were a few… stranger surprises.
In a hidden garden surrounded by the walls of a city built on the water; a red and white Pokemon borrowed her human friend's tablet. She'd heard of trainers before and was a bit curious about what exactly they were.
When she found a reference to BattleNET she read through the description.
Kids who wanted to become trainers? Right, but how old did you have to be and what exactly did a trainer do?
As she tapped the screen gingerly to move on, the link embedded in the post highlighted and suddenly she was being asked for her name, username, age, and hometown.
For a moment she was going to just close it.
But a certain rebellious spirit she normally kept under lock and key around her brother and few human friends bubbled forth.
It wasn't like she had to use her real name right? And what was age anyway? She didn't keep track of years.
Latias soon found all she wanted to know about trainers and more! As well as making friends outside of Bianca and Lorenzo for the first time in her life. The fact she was able to keep her true identity a secret added to the allure of it, although she had to be careful lest Bianca get suspicious about her using her tablet so much.
Unfortunately, her anonymity was not to last forever.
Lorenzo and Bianca came to visit one day, which was not too out of the ordinary, but once Latios left to do his "patrol" around the city. Bianca brought up her phone and held it up to Latias, with a familiar site on it.
"Latias, what exactly is BattleNET?" The human girl asked. "And why was I contacted by a woman named Delia Ketchum who wanted to talk to my parent or guardian?"
Uh-oh.
"Coming off a bit confrontational." Lorenzo cautioned with a chuckle.
"I just want some answers," Bianca admitted and stuffed her phone away. "When did this happen? Is this why you keep asking for my tablet?"
"Yeah…" Latias bobbed and while neither human could understand her, they knew her well enough to get the message.
"Well, it seems like Delia, the mother of the boy who started this site, wants to confirm you are who you say you are since you're so active," Lorenzo explained a bit. "But that's a little complicated huh?"
"I mean I'm not who I say I am…" Latias admitted and was ready to say goodbye to her one link to the outside world.
"She seemed, nice, I'm sure she'd understand if we explained things." Lorenzo shrugged as Latias and Bianca both choked on air.
Not exactly what she was expecting, but she wasn't about to complain.
"Pokemon Trainers catch Pokemon?" Hoopa stared at the device Meray had given him. "Hoopa used to catch Pokemon too! Does that make Hoopa a trainer?"
"Maybe a retired trainer Hoopa." Meray chuckled at his logic.
"Hoopa is lots old." The Pokemon admitted. "Hmm, oh Hoopa found something!"
"Video of a league maybe?" Baraz suggested from the next room. "I think we showed you some when we were younger."
"No," Meray glanced at what Hoopa had found on her phone. "It's a link to something? BattleNET?"
"It says for people who want to be trainers." Hoopa pointed out. "Is being a trainer a job?"
"Something like that," Baraz admitted, glancing through the door frame. "More of a licensed traveling adventurer I suppose."
"Oh, that sounds fun!" Hoopa decided and pressed the button. "...the shiny box is now asking Hoopa's name."
Meray let her old friend continue playing around with it, not seeing the harm. Hoopa was a bit too much "Hoopa" for most people to take him seriously.
Things did get a bit complicated when they got a call from the forum's moderator. But it all worked out in the end.
While distance meant that not everyone on the forum could meet up in person, at least a few of them were able.
"Nice to meet you Mr. Drayden, sir!" Cameron stiffly bowed to the Opulucid City gym leader.
"About time," Drayden grumbled. "Iris has been gushing about the friends who helped her get back on the same page with Excadrill."
"He's tried visiting a few times." Iris pointed out. "But he kept getting lost."
"Roads are hard to follow." Cameron kicked at the ground.
Drayden raised an eyebrow. "Does your phone not have a GPS?"
"I lost one or two on the way…"
"Bases full, can the home team win the day? Or will the visitors from the other timezone take the victory?"
"I'm the only one on base!" Joey pointed out. "Ratatta would be too if you let him play!"
"Bea's Machop didn't want to play." Nemona reminded him from her position as catcher. "So then the teams would be uneven."
"You two are ruining my commentary!" Casey complained.
"I'm ready whenever you are!" Bea called from the pitcher's mound.
"Promise not to send it through a tree this time?" Joey asked from third base.
"Hmm." The Galarian thought about it. "Nah."
Casey was lucky that she had good reflexes. Unfortunately for the tree behind her, it did not have any reflexes at all.
At least it was nice of Nemona's parents to pick up Bea and bring her along on the trip. Having rich parents was useful sometimes.
Ritchie sat next to Mikey and Eevee at a table as the other boy's brothers through a ridiculous party about evolution.
"And this is normal?" Ritchie checked with the younger boy.
"Every month." Mikey sighed. "They haven't tried forcing me to evolve Eevee yet, but it's coming."
"Have you tried running away from home?"
"I've considered it a few times." Eevee gave Mikey a worried nuzzle and the boy smiled and gave the normal-type a head rub.
"Seriously, I'm pretty sure I got enough room in my basement for you and Eevee."
"Alright, I've gathered you all here for a reason," Ash announced as Ritchie and Casey sat on a log.
"Yeah." Ritchie nodded, "'Cause of Professor Oak's camp."
"That we are attending," Casey reminded him.
"Not that!" Ash waved his arms, "I'm talking about BattleNET! Which of you did it!"
"Did what?" Casey genuinely had no idea what he meant.
Ash held up his phone, "Why is everyone calling me Boss? Or the Boss?"
She hadn't glanced at her phone since she got to camp, a bit of a personal rule. She snorted as she read through Joey getting into an argument with Sophocles about how "cool" the "Boss" was. "Do you want us to start calling you Boss?"
"No!" Ash swung his arms in the negative. "I don't want anyone calling me Boss!"
"Why didn't you ask them to stop?" She tried.
"Because he likes being called Boss even if he knows he shouldn't." Ritchie jumped in, having been a little quiet.
Ash whirled on the boy. "It was you wasn't it!"
"I have never done anything wrong." Ritchie asserted. "Ever. In my life."
"You didn't choose Team Electabuzz." Casey reminded him of their first (and last) trip to a baseball game.
"Or Team Magikarp!" Ash added.
"That's because you two went crazy!" Ritchie insisted, using his hands for added effect. "You're on one side, he's on the other. I pick one and things get worse! Can't we just sit down and enjoy a baseball game?"
"You're just talking crazy." Casey pushed him off the log.
"I'll be the one laughing in six months!" He pushed himself up.
The other two scowled at the reminder. "Wait." Ash paused. "I thought your birthday was in five months?"
"It is, but the Kanto league season doesn't start until the end of March." Ritchie dusted himself off and stood proudly. "Don't worry I'm sure you young whippersnappers will catch up."
"One of us will at least." Ash rubbed his nose and Casey debated how easily she'd be able to hide their bodies after murdering them.
"Stupid birthday. Stupid league schedule." She crossed her arms and huffed. "It's just three months!"
"Four younger than me." Ritchie poked her shoulder and she swatted at him.
"My point is who cares! Why do I have to wait almost a whole extra year to be a trainer when I'm barely any younger!" Casey's frustration with the state of affairs was obvious.
Ash thought for a moment. "Have you tried lying about your age?"
"Yes," She leaned back so far that her upper back and head hit the ground. "Dad noticed."
"What if we lied about your age?" Ritchie suggested.
"We could try it at least." She sighed, "Any idea who you two are taking as starters? Distract me from my misery."
"Pikachu!" Ritchie immediately answered, "One Pikachu in particular!"
"Oh right, the one you found in your walls as a Pichu?" Ash remembered, "We thought you died."
"The power went off for like six minutes!" Ritchie protested the reports of his death.
"That's exactly what a ghost would say!" Ash insisted.
The other boy adjusted his hat and grumbled, "Who's your starter then?"
Ash froze, "Uhhh…"
Casey pushed herself onto her elbows. "You still haven't decided yet have you?" She deadpanned.
"It's on my to-do list. I'll figure it out by the time I get to the lab."
"Assuming you get there on time." Ritchie 'innocently' added.
"You do seem allergic to getting up on time." Casey agreed.
"I can get up just fine, you'll see! I'm gonna be a Pokemon Master!"
Hey, let's just make a quick prologue to explain how all the characters ended up knowing each other and interacting!
Oh sure, shouldn't be more than two thousand words!
Oops.
So… a bit of explanation.
As I mentioned when I last updated Zorua Trainer, recently I have started a chatfic on ao3 called: Pokemon Forum: BattleNET. It's been a lot of fun to write and is basically an awkward love letter to the obscure characters of the Pokemon anime.
You saw quite a few major ones in this chapter, but there are plenty of characters from across the anime and even the games.
The issue is, while I have been writing that fic nearly nonstop, fanfiction net does not allow chatfics. And on top of that, the interactions and ideas I've had for that story have given me an itch to turn it into a proper fic.
So what to do?
Last night, I had the idea for this, a companion piece that covers the real-life events Beyond the screen of BattleNET. Thanks, Doogle for the name.
And you can also thank Doogle for BattleNET in its entirety because she came up with the idea that turned into BattleNET.
Well, the original name "BattleNET" was from Lupercus. Who also came up with the name for Cerulean Scales. Also Legends of Ash. Although that was just an option- oh nevermind.
Anyway. This fic is going to be mostly focused on the changes that result from the existence of BattleNET. I don't want to go quite in-depth as some of my other fics but I want to explore this world that's forming around this silly forum.
The next chapter covers the start of a few journeys, BattleNET has been paced a lot faster than my other stories so I hope to keep that up here. If you enjoyed this feel free to check out my other stories, or well, Pokemon Forum: BattleNET itself!
Until next time!
Discord: discord . gg / 4TVYnwxs5
~FriTik
R&R