Hi guys! I didn't ever expect to upload this this soon but with everything going on related to COVID-19 and being quarantined, I've had the idea to maybe release a few of my drafts to help give people something to do! Maybe pass the time, check out my other stories, give you inspiration for that fic you've been wanting to write.
I hope you guys enjoy this story!
Also, I don't own Pokemon! This is just a non-profit story for funsies!
I'll Get Up Again
Chapter One: We All Fall Down
"Well, I guess you're pretty strong after all. Strong enough for a place on my team." Shamus said with a big smile.
Ash felt his heart break as Pignite smiled broadly back at his old trainer. He waited, expecting a rebuttal from Pignite or a take-back from Shamus but neither came. He heard Pikachu whisper in shock when Pignite looked at him with his eyes downcast.
"Nite." He said, glancing between his two trainers.
Ash's heart clenched at the plea. He felt Pikachu's ears drop and refused to look back to Iris and Cilan, who were taking care of Snivy for him.
"You heard it, that's what it wants." Shamus taunted, smirking. Pignite nodded, a sad smile on its face.
"I- I don't- "Ash stammered. He wasn't sure what the right thing to do was, but he could feel his spark to fight back diminishing at Pignite's obvious trainer preference.
Pignite stepped forward between them and looked around, finally facing Ash and smiling up again.
"Pignite, Nite." Pignite said with a nod.
Ash reached for his belt and took off the fire-types ball, staring at it as he thought deeply. Would it really be the best thing to do to let Pignite go back to Shamus? It was what Pignite wanted, but Shamus was a terribly abusive trainer. Tepig had been left for dead, like Charizard been way back when.
Paul, for all his faults, never wished death upon his Chimchar.
"Are you the kind of trainer who honors his Pokemon's feelings or not?" Shamus goaded.
Ash's hand clenched on the Pokeball just as Iris approached the two of them.
"Hey Ash, Snivy is- huh?" Iris started, only to stop as she felt the strange tension in the air.
"I- "Ash stammered again, and Shamus groaned out in response.
"It's not that difficult to see, Pignite wants a strong trainer that can handle its power. You're just not it, kid." Shamus taunted. "Us tough guys gotta stick together, right?" He asked Pignite, who's ears twitched in happiness at the encouraging words.
"What?!" Iris shouted in surprise, looking to Ash. She expected a rebuttal, for Ash to tell Shamus to buzz off. But his hand clenched on the Pokeball tighter.
"Is this really what you want, Pignite?" Ash asked, looking at the ground so the brim of his hat cast a shadow over his eyes.
"Pignite!" Pignite responded happily at first, only to look at Ash with a somber expression after. "Pig?"
Ash gave out a small, forced chuckle.
"Yeah, that's okay." He looked up at Shamus and Pignite again, holding back tears. "As long as you're happy." Ash held the button in the center of the Pokeball down for five seconds, then it exploded open with a blue light that coated Pignite's body.
As it faded, Iris recognized the blue as the permanent release mechanism to differentiate from the white light that coated Pokemon upon simply being called out. Ash minimized Pignite's old ball and tucked it away on his belt, giving one last look at the pair before turning swiftly around and running off.
Iris watched as Shamus smirked while Pignite's ears dropped, but the starter didn't move to follow his old trainer.
"Jerk." Iris spat at Shamus before she turned to leave too, paying the two no further attention.
She had to find Ash.
It had been hours since Shamus and Pignite had left Astilbe Town, and Iris had no luck in finding Ash and Pikachu anywhere. She was certain she looked everywhere in town and the route ahead, even using her Pokemon and Ash's that he never returned from eating breakfast.
"Cilan," Iris called out as she returned to the Battle Club. "Have you heard from Ash yet?"
"I'm afraid not. Not since he gave me Snivy to look after." Cilan responded, gesturing his hand over where the grass snake lay calmly.
All the gang's Pokemon, except for Pikachu, were huddled out and eating lunch. Neither Iris or Cilan felt ready to break the news about Pignite yet, and they were mostly glad only Ash's Pokemon seemed to be really questioning his prolonged absence.
"He's been gone all day. I'm starting to get worried." Iris admitted, looking down.
"I'm sure he just needs a minute, Iris. Besides I know he can be stupid, but he can handle himself just fine." Cilan rebutted.
Iris couldn't help but wince at Cilan's phrasing, but he had a point. He was a veteran trainer and he was likely with his most veteran Pokemon. There wasn't many problems she could see keeping those two away for long. Well, no physical problem.
It was the other kind that she was more worried about.
Ash and Pikachu wandered aimlessly through Twist Mountain, left alone with their thoughts. Neither were overly concerned with the route back; they had gotten out before, and they had been lost in worse caves. All they could think about right now was Pignite.
"Where did I go wrong, Pikachu?" Ash asked suddenly.
"Pika?" Pikachu looked back at him from the ground.
"Where did I go wrong this time?" Ash repeated. "We've done this same thing before. Charizard and Infernape were both abandoned too, and they came with their own problems, but nothing like this would've happened with them, d'ya think?"
Charizard was disobedient and unruly, but he had never expressed interest in being released or given to another trainer throughout the whole thing. Ash vividly remembered yelling at Charizard in frustration to just 'fly away then' if he wouldn't listen, but the fire-type merely scoffed and turned his head. It was that moment that Ash knew he wasn't ready to give up on Charizard yet; he would just have to work harder.
Infernape, meanwhile, barely had any such behavioral problems. He was a timid thing outside of battle, but always friendly. He never would have left his side after getting caught, let alone join back up with Paul. If for no other reason, Infernape was too stubborn for his own good much like his trainer. His pride never would've let him return to the trainer that once shunned him so harshly. But Pignite was excited out of his mind at going back to the trainer that had previously left him tied to a post with his mouth wrapped shut, unable to escape, eat or even cry out for help.
"Pikachu Pika, Pikachuchupi PikaPikaka!" Pikachu replied, ears drooping. "Pikachu Pikapi?"
"So, you think it's time to stop playing around then, huh?" Ash repeated, humming in thought. "Yeah, maybe. It does feel like half of our problems wouldn't exist if we weren't taking it so easy."
Unova, they decided, was a breather.
After how intense Sinnoh had become between their rivalry with Paul, their encounters with Team Galactic and their run at the championship during the Lily of the Valley Island Conference, Ash and Pikachu had agreed that taking it easy might be best. They had poured so much into Sinnoh and it paid off, but truthfully, Ash and all his Pokemon had been exhausted after trying so hard to keep everything and everyone together. They'd never admit it, but Ash knew his Pokemon better than he even knew himself and they were tired, just like he was. He also knew that he couldn't stop traveling no matter how tired he was, but he could change it up a bit and travel for fun this time. The plan was to catch new Pokemon and use them while giving everyone at Oak's lab a rest, which everyone agreed with. A journey on autopilot, of sorts.
It was going great right up until the five-minute mark when some legendary hidden in dark storm clouds had seemingly targeted them out of nowhere and took away Pikachu's electric attacks. Luckily, they were restored quickly enough with the strange drawback of being harder to control for a while. According to Pikachu, it felt like he was constantly overloaded with electricity and needed constant discharge, making all his electric attacks weaker due to the lack of focus and control.
But Pikachu might be right. If he hadn't been trying to coddle his team so much they would have been better prepared for a lot of scenarios and maybe with the right training Tepig's confidence could have been salvaged enough to the point he didn't think Shamus was the only indicator of his worth.
"Pikachu-Chupikaka." Pikachu continued.
"Do you really think we can just jump back to where we were? There's been a lot of-." Ash cut himself off, freezing in place. Pikachu mirrored him, ears twitching. "Did you hear that?"
"Pika." Pikachu agreed, glancing around them. He stepped forward just a bit to scout ahead when the ground gave out from underneath them both.
One long fall later and the Kantonian duo roughly landed on the floor below, each groaning in pain. They stood up regardless, ignoring the dust all around them as they inspected their new surroundings.
"You alright, buddy?" Ash asked, glancing down at Pikachu.
"Pika!" Pikachu replied, scurrying to Ash's shoulder and rubbing his cheek. "Pika, Pikapi?"
"Yeah, I'm fine too." Ash paused and turned to look around while Pikachu jumped back down to the floor. "That's weird. It looks pretty bright in here still, doesn't it Pikachu?" Ash walked forward as Pikachu scampered around the floor sniffing around.
"Pikachu Pikapi!" Pikachu cried suddenly.
Ash sprinted over to where Pikachu had run and found himself at the entrance to a large hollow cave deep inside Twist Mountain. In the center of the room was a white behemoth of a Pokemon that Ash had only ever seen once before.
"Uh oh. It's a Regigigas." Ash noted as Pikachu backed away from the room. "I hope us falling through the roof of its cave didn't- "Ash was cut off mid thought as the pattern of dots on Regigigas' front flashed red.
"Pikachu!" Pikachu cried again, taking on a defensive stance.
"Wait, maybe it won't attack." Ash held his hand out to signal Pikachu to ease up but kept his feet frozen in place.
Ash and Pikachu watched as the behemoth started to move slowly, standing to its full height and reaching twelve foot tall. Regigigas moved slowly for about half a minute; it seemed to be taking in its surroundings and knocking off the sleep it had just awoken from. Just as Ash and Pikachu glanced at each other again, Regigigas shot off a Hyper Beam straight from its arms as it aimed out at them.
Ash just barely reacted with enough time to lunge to the side, scooping Pikachu into his arms and jumping away. He landed roughly on his back but quickly rolled over and got to his feet, sprinting again to dodge another Hyper Beam from the awakened golem.
"We might have a fight on our hands. You up for it, Pikachu?" Ash asked his partner.
"Pi Kachu!" Pikachu replied, squirming out of Ash's hold and onto the ground. His cheeks sparked as he took a battle stance, glaring at the Colossal Pokemon.
Regigigas' eyes flashed again as it turned slowly in the direction Ash had sprinted and lifted its arms again, putting them together like a cannon and shooting out another black and purple beam at Pikachu. It was a dangerous gamble, but this was the best time to see where Pikachu measured up power-wise to the golem-like legendary. Better to find out now that later in the battle.
"Thunderbolt!" Ash ordered and luckily Pikachu seemed to be on the same page and was up for the challenge.
With a mighty cry, Pikachu fired a zigzagging bolt of brilliant yellow electricity that collided with the purple beam of incoming death in midair. Ash was pleasantly surprised when they pushed against each other until they exploded, neither buckling enough to let the other one through.
Well, at least that proved Pikachu couldn't be totally pushed around.
Regigigas seemed to beep with anger and dropped its arms, waiting the recharge period out at a safe distance.
"Pikachu, Quick Attack!" Ash took another turn.
Pikachu shouted back affirmatively, bolting off at Regigigas while a white trail followed behind him and his little yellow form slammed into Regigigas' chest and bounced backwards, putting distance between them again and landing smoothly on his feet. Just as Pikachu landed, Regigigas moved again and shuffled forward at a startlingly fast pace for such a large Pokemon.
"Block with Iron Tail!"
Pikachu coated his tail in a bright white light and swung to meet Regigigas' left arm that had been pulled back before, colliding with the titan's orange fist. Seeing that Pikachu was starting to struggle under Regigigas' physical might, Ash quickly called out again.
"Thunderbolt!" And the reply was instantaneous.
Crying out again, the Mouse Pokemon released a brilliant yellow flash out at the legendary and being closer seemed to help a lot. Just when it seemed that the titan would stumble back, it's right arm pulled back and swung violently at Pikachu, who was still busy holding off its other fist.
"Pika!"
"Pikachu!"
Ash and Pikachu's startled cries mirrored each other's as Pikachu was flung through the air and sent roughly into a stalagmite rising off the floor. Ash darted over to him, checking over his partner as quickly as he could without losing focus.
"Can you keep going?" Ash asked, dropping from the small ledge he was on to the ground by Pikachu as he righted himself.
"Pi!" He said, turning back to Regigigas and sparking his cheeks as menacingly as he could manage against something that weighed nine hundred pounds more than he did.
"'Kay, then use Quick Attack again!" He said, pointing towards their opponent.
Again, Pikachu sped off heading towards Regigigas like a little yellow bullet trying to poke a hold in a mountain. Regigigas' fist glowed orange again, but Ash was faster.
"Watch out for that Crush Grip! Jump and keep going!"
Regigigas attempted to slam its orange fist into Pikachu a third time, but Pikachu reacted too quick and jumped over it at the last minute, running up the titans arm as it struck the ground with enough force to create a small crater. The electric-type ran up his opponents arm, slamming into the side of Regigigas' head with his attack.
"Great job, follow up with Iron Tail!" Ash swung his arm, indicating the way Pikachu should strike.
Before Pikachu could even bounce off the mountain of a Pokemon, the command was carried out, mimicked in the same direction Ash swung despite not seeing his trainer. Pikachu's iron-coated tail slammed into the exact spot his Quick Attack did, with any luck it would start to feel physical attacks soon.
Regigigas swung its arm again, hitting Pikachu away with the raw power of arms the size of tree trunks. Even without using an attack, the maneuver flung Pikachu through the air hard enough that only his experience let him bounce off a section of stalactites on the caves ceiling and onto the ground again. Regigigas turned to watch as Pikachu landed, charging immediately as an orb of blue energy formed above its head.
"Aim your Thunderbolt at the ceiling!"
Pikachu complied, trusting his trainers judgement and fired another bolt of electricity at the top of the cave. The force behind it was enough to cause another small cave in, dropping boulders and sharp stalactites down into the charging Regigigas' path. Ordinarily a Pokemon with such physical prowess would be able to shrug off such an assault no problem, but the way this Regigigas channeled its Zen Headbutt worked in Ash's favor.
If he could burst the sphere of energy above its forehead before it rammed Pikachu, the attack would be cancelled regardless of how physically powerful Regigigas was. That's why most Pokemon that used it tried to channel the energy inside the top of their heads, like Roark's Rampardos, as it eliminated a weakness to be exploited in the attack.
It worked like Ash hoped, and one of the many rocks falling down landed directly on the orb of psychic energy, bursting it and stopping the Zen Headbutt in its tracks.
"Now, Electro Ball!"
Pikachu began channeling his electricity into his tail, forming an orange-yellow orb of pure electricity, and quickly pivoted on his front legs, spinning his body to shoot the sphere off his tail at breakneck speeds at Regigigas. But Regigigas seemed to be just shaking out of its stupor and forced its fingers to shine bright white, slamming them down from above the orb and shoving it into the ground. It exploded upon impact, stunning Regigigas enough that its arm recoiled back but it didn't move from its spot.
"That was Knock Off." Ash murmured.
He watched as Regigigas beeped again and slammed its arms into the ground hard enough to split it. The whole mountain shook and pointed light blue pillars of rock sprouted from the earth beneath them and raced towards Pikachu at incredible speeds. Before either could blink, Pikachu was impaled and thrown towards the cave ceiling by Regigigas' Stone Edge.
"Hang in there, Pikachu! Push off with Quick Attack and use Iron Tail on the ground!"
"Pika!" Pikachu agreed, flipping around to push off the cave ceiling with as much force as he could muster. His body was outlined in white again, but it was lost on his tail as it glowed independently just as bright only for that to be lost too once he started his descent, leaving behind a trail of white in his wake.
Pikachu slammed into the rocky ground, tail first, with enough force to send tremors throughout the mountain. The entire cave shook, rocks coming loose everywhere, and the ground cracked and buckled under the force of the attack. Regigigas' Stone Edge shattered, going in every direction. Regigigas seemed unfazed as shards of the rocks scraped against its hard body, but Ash had to dive to the ground to avoid those that flew towards him.
Regigigas stepped forward as if to go after Pikachu and the cave floor shook under its weight, being already massively unstable, and seemed to almost buckle right there.
"Pikachu?" Ash called out as he stood, worried for his partner.
"Pikapi!" Pikachu's affirmation carried to his ears as the dust started to settle.
Pikachu was in the center of a large crater, deeper than he was tall, looking no worse than he did after getting hit with Stone Edge.
"Electro Ball and follow it!"
Pikachu leapt into the air and spun quickly around, firing the sphere of electricity on the tip of his tail as quickly as he could and firing it off. Then, he jetted off behind it with a Quick Attack, keeping a few paces behind. Regigigas used Knock Off again, pinning the Electro Ball to the ground and letting it explode in its palm.
The weakened ground shook again, but neither Ash nor Regigigas paid it any mind.
"Thunderbolt!" Ash switched tactics.
Pikachu quickly skidded to a stop right in front of Regigigas's white log of an arm and fired off a powerful point-blank Thunderbolt at its face. Once again, it seemed like it bothered the titan-like Pokemon as it recoiled back under the force. Until it cocked its wrists and held them out, creating a dome made of orange hexagons around it that was surprisingly flat and reflective enough to direct Pikachu's attack upwards. More boulders began to fall as the cave floor above them started to collapse in on them.
"Pikachu, Counter Shield!"
Immediately, Pikachu started spinning on his back while letting loose bolts of lightning form his cheeks. This seemed to be enough to deflect a large amount of the rocks coming his way, just as they bounded off Regigigas's Wide Guard they were deflected away from Pikachu. Unfortunately, neither attack could last forever, and Ash darted over to get closer to his partner when Regigigas dropped its Wide Guard and started using, of all things, Brick Break while wildly swinging its arms around.
It worked for a bit, turning most of the falling rocks into dust, until it struck the wall and the ground while swinging. There was yet another cave in, and this time Ash, Pikachu and Regigigas all fell through to the level below.
Iris and Cilan glanced at each other as they felt tremors go through the ground beneath them. All the Pokemon around them too seemed uneasy with the shaking.
"It feels like it's coming from Twist Mountain." Iris noted, turning back to face the mountain she and her friends had exited just recently.
It looked different somehow, less crowded with boulders from a distance. Before Cilan could give his own input, they heard sirens in the distance. Iris and Cilan glanced at each other and shrugged.
"If there's sirens and shaking, we both know Ash'll be there eventually." Iris reasoned with a weak smile.
"If he's not already." Cilan mumbled back, returning his Pokemon to their Pokeballs.
"Let's go." Iris announced, mirroring him and getting the attention of Ash's Pokemon.
Krokorok quickly ducked down and scooped Oshawott, Snivy and Scraggy onto his back and took off galloping on all-fours after Iris and Cilan.
By the time the group arrived at the outskirts of town again, there was already a group of people gathered along with more pouring out behind them. There were three Officer Jenny's already on the scene, their bikes parked over the trail leading back into Twist Mountain.
"Everyone calm down, it's most likely a small earthquake with some aftershocks. Those aren't new to this area." One Officer Jenny was announcing while the others seemed to be looking at the mountain.
Iris and Cilan glanced at each other.
"Does Twist Mountain look different to anyone else?" A guy's voice shouted above the masses.
Murmurs of agreement swept through the crowd and Iris couldn't help but agree that something was different about the mountain. Just before she could put her finger on it, the ground shook and the mountain seemed to vibrate in the distance. Rocks began to fall down the cliff-side and clouds of dust kicked up, with chunks of the mountain crumbling apart.
'Ash, where are you?' Iris couldn't help but wonder urgently.
This will be an AU if you couldn't already tell, but just going forward. Everything up until BW077 has happened nearly exactly as it did in canon with some small tweaks but becomes canon divergent moving forward. I'm open to trying to continue this further for you guys just like everything else if you guys seem to enjoy this one, so let me know how you feel.
I will be updating "A Hero's Rebirth" soon, don't worry! I've just hit a big block in the story and up until recently I've been focusing on what was supposed to be my last year of university, but we'll see how that goes. Just keep an eye out for it and other stories to be uploaded soon!
I hope you guys are all staying safe and healthy! Best of luck to you guys, hope this helps keep anyone from going stir crazy! Don't hesitate to leave a review behind with your thoughts/feelings!
