Note: I will be uploading 2 chapters today as I will be on a cruise trip next week.
Please enjoy. Like, share, comment, the works.
Johto chapter 3: Two in a Blue Moon!
Thankfully, it hadn't started raining, yet.
After another night at the monastery, Ash and Yellow had set off back to Ash's house first thing in the morning. They were both accustomed to travelling long distances on foot, and the route was quite scenic, even with lack of sunlight. The area leading up to Lake Moon were acres of farmland. Patches of the sheep like Wooloo and the large cow like Miltank dotted the open pastures.
The pair took a moment for lunch during the trip. They sat next to a small tree close to the roadside. A group of Cherum, small Pokémon that resembled purplish flowers, frolicked about. They were quite content to ignore the humans and continue about their business in the field.
"So Yello', when 'id you dec'de to beco' a Poké' 'ainer?" Ash said, muffled from a mouthful of sandwich.
"Less 'decided' and more 'thrusted upon'. I was asked to well…" She chuckled "to find Red".
"Wow, you two go way back, huh?"
"We've known each other for years. I first met him even before then. He saved me from an angry Dratini and even helped me catch my first Pokémon," she pulled out a pokeball from her belt. It was a pokeball unlike any Ash had ever seen. The top of the ball, which was usually a fixed red-metal covering, was more like a translucent red tinted glass. He could see the Tiny Raticate who sat inside the ball.
"Wow, what a weird pokeball…" Ash was slightly amazed at the sight, it was just so uncanny.
"Another interesting difference in our worlds" Yellow said, letting the Raticate out. It was a large, rat-like Pokémon with a plump, fluffy body, slender tail, and sizable incisors at the front of its jaw.
"Ratty, my first Pokémon"
Ratty walked up to Ash, sniffing the trainer intently.
"Hey Ratty" Ash said, mouth now clear of food. "Nice to meet you."
Ratty called to Ash with mild enthusiasm before turning towards the field. He began running back and forth, following the Cherums intently. Pikachu and Chuchu, having finished their bowl of Pokémon food, joined Raticate on his chase. Totodile sat back with the trainers, gazing at the sky in what looked to be an almost drunken stupor.
"So, you had to go find Red before?"
"Ya. He got into some trouble with a nasty set of trainers. They called themselves the elite four, led by their troubled leader, Lance" Yellow said. Ash' eyes widened when he heard Lance's name.
"Lance?! But…" he stopped himself. It was easy to forget the entire "two worlds" thing that he had only woken up to yesterday.
"I know about your elite 4, and I even understand that the Lance from this world is a regional hero. Our Lance however had a vendetta against all humans, especially Pokémon trainers. He had captured Red, and it was one of Red's friends that got me to go find him."
"Wow… that's amazing," Ash said. Yellow nodded.
"I will say, it was tough. I had to fight a lot. And I just hate battling…"
"Y'u hate...!" Ash broke into a coughing fit, trying to force the words through the sandwich in his mouth with little in the way of dignity. He gave himself a moment to chew and swallow. "You hate Pokémon battles?!"
"Yes. I don't like hurting other Pokémon or seeing my Pokémon hurt," Yellow sighed. She figured this was coming.
"Well ya but…" Ash paused for a bit. Of course, he felt that it was weird. Pokémon battling wasn't just fun, it was a way to connect with your Pokémon beyond almost anything else. But Yellow wasn't the first person he had met who shared this sentiment, and he had come to respect the viewpoint, even if he just couldn't understand it himself.
"Well, I don't really get it myself, but you clearly love your Pokémon," Ash motioned towards Chuchu, who had come up next to Yellow to check in on the trainers. "They don't seem to mind all that much, so I guess it's not my place to judge."
"Thanks for understanding," Yellow said. Ash raised his hand as she tossed him another sandwich.
After another hour of travel, they finally made it. Standing on top of a small hill, the duo were able to finally see Lake Moon, with Ash's house also in view behind the dense tree line. Pikachu ran up to Ash, giving him a somewhat concerned look.
"Pika…"
"Don't worry buddy," Ash responded with a sincere smile. "We're home again. And this time, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you or Totodile." Pikachu turned his head towards Lake Moon, not quite comforted by Ash's words. It wasn't himself nor the other Pokémon that he was worried about. Looking back at Ash, he noticed that the trainer was also looking towards the lake, his eyes intently scanning the area.
"Hey, you alright?" Yellow placed a supportive hand on Ash's shoulder.
"Ya, let's get going," Ash said as they began to make their way down the grassy hill. They walked past the lake, staying away from the waters edge, and keeping an eye out for the Gyarados. If it was still there, it didn't bother them this time. They made their way past the treeline and into the open field leading up to Ash's house. Ash couldn't help but feel a bit energized upon seeing his humble home.
"Hey Yellow, I'll race ya there!" He said as he broke into a sprint.
"Wait?! What!? Ash!"
"hahaha!" Despite the long walk Ash couldn't help but feel energized. Pikachu and Totodile were close behind him, with Yellow and Chuchu trailing close behind.
The pair quickly closed in the rear side of the house, with Ash reaching the door first. He continued his raspy laugh as he tried to catch his breath. Yellow quickly reached the door as well, laughing in turn.
"You're… such… a… child…" Yellow said through bated breaths
"Ya… I've… heard that… before."
"I'm… sure you have," Yellow finally caught herself "So… you have a key or did you…"
"No sweat," Ash said as he reached underneath the doormat, grabbing a small key that was hidden underneath.
"Classic," Yellow said as Ash unlocked the back door. They made their way inside, their Pokémon following behind them.
"Just take a seat over there, I'll quickly grab my things and we can head out," Ash said, gesturing past his small dining room and towards the living room.
"No rush," Yellow said as she sat down on a white couch in the center of Ash's living room. A small coffee table lay in front of it, facing a television that hung on the wall.
"Nice place."
"Thanks," Ash was about to move up the stairs before he noticed that something was off.
"Wait a second… There was a set of candles that I left on the coffee table. Looks like they're missing…" Ash was perplexed. The door was locked, so surely no one had broken in. Even then, why steal a set of candles?
"Must have been the merge…" Yellow pondered.
"What?"
"Yes, I'm sorry, I should have explained earlier," She said, leaning back on the couch. "I mentioned that people and pokemon suddenly appeared, but something weird sorta happened to everything else. Items and objects seemed to both appear, and disappear as well. things from both worlds were seemingly brought over at random."
"What… like..?"
"It's hard to explain. The effects weren't drastic, maybe because our worlds are so similar. Like someone might be missing a photograph of themselves, and find someone else's photograph sitting in the same spot," She shrugged. "Sorry I can't be more clear…"
"Don't worry about it," Ash replied. He was very aware that no amount of explanation would make any of this make any sense. Through right now he was just concerned as to what else might be missing. There were a lot of mementos he would hate to lose…
"But at least you still have all your pokémon, right?" Ash said
"Yep. Everyone's pokémon carried over, thankfully," She replied. She could only imagine the fallout of millions of people suddenly losing some, or even all, of their pokémon in an instant. Still, the situation was just too confusing to truly grasp. She did hope that the professors may provide an answer, and sometime soon. Speaking of Pokémon professors…
"I almost forgot to mention that Professor Oak and.., well... Dr. O messaged me this morning. They're sending some people here to help us."
"Oh, cool. Who's coming?" Ash said, halfway up the stairs already, with Pikachu following close behind. Totodile and Chuchu stayed downstairs with Yellow, patiently sitting on the couch next to her.
"Some of my fellow dexholders who would be very interested in meeting you, and someone who I hear you are very familiar with."
"You're gonna tell me who that is?"
"Nope."
"Pika!"
"Thank goodness, just like we left it Pikachu,"
Thankfully, Ash's room hadn't been affected by the merge. Everything had been left where it was, for better or worse.
Ash's room wasn't that much larger than the other rooms in his household, and he was quite happy with that. A sizeable bed sat in the corner of the room next to a large beige dresser, all backdropped by soft gray walls. Over the dresser was a small shelf that stationed his various achievements over the years. Various plaques containing the many gym badges that he had accumulated in different regions sat beside his crowning achievement, a trophy awarded to the Alola league champion.
The room was in minor disarray. Stray shirts and odd items littered the floor. It wasn't all too messy, though he knew his mother would disagree. Ash went over to a modestly sized shelf sitting on the opposite side of the room, grabbing a red backpack that leaned against the wall next to the door. On the shelf were various items of even more varying importance. Most notably was a small wooden Teddiursa doll gifted to him by a close friend and the item that he was set to pack, a large photo album. Inside were various photographs that had been taken of him, his friends, and his pokemon throughout his journeys. He had only bought the album recently, but some of the images inside were more than a decade old. He placed the album into his bag. Memories of the people he loved to be with him wherever he went.
Next was his dresser, being careful not to stumble over the large snorlax bean-chair that sat near the middle of the room. He packed his clothes and various other odd items that he would need for travelling. He took a glance on top of his dresser, finding his phone sitting where he accidently left it. Picking it up he checked his messages. There were dozens of messages, all from different people. Glancing through, he noticed they all shared a similar theme.
Ash?! What happened? Hope you're feeling better!
Heard from the professor, hope you get well soon.
Stay strong bud, we're all rooting for you!
"Pika!" Pikachu called to him from the other side of the room. He ran up to the bed, pointing at the clothes, then at Ash's shirt.
"Huh?" Ash looked down, not even realizing that the shirt he had borrowed from the monastery had become stained on his trip to the household. He wondered if some of them were from yesterday.
"I guess I should change now, huh?"
"Chu!" Pikachu brought a pair to the trainer.
"Thanks buddy," Ash said, taking off his jacket.
Vague notions clouded Yellow's mind. She was thinking about a… a book? It was a book on Ho - oh, or birds in general? Suddenly the book ceased to be, replaced by thoughts of warm soup, or…
The sound of footsteps woke up Yellow from her brief and confusing nap on Ash's couch. She wiped a bit of drool off her lip as Ash rushed down the stairs, Pikachu resting on his shoulder.
"Alright, ready to head out," Ash said.
"Totodile!" Totodile leaped in excitement off the couch.
"Good, good. Now we just need to wait for…"
BANG BANG BANG. Yellow was interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on the front door.
"Looks like one of ems' here," Ash raced to the door. He smiled when he opened it, being greeted by an all too familiar face.
"Long time no see, Ash," said the man at the door. He was half a foot taller than Ash, and wore a brown leather jacket and beige jeans which complemented his spiky brown hair and dark green eyes. "Glad to see you're doing okay."
"Gary!" The two trainers shook hands. Ash was ecstatic to see a familiar face "So the professor sent you, huh?"
"Something like that. More accurately, I volunteered," He gave Ash a sly smile. "Someone's gotta take care of you of course. Who knows what kinda shape you're in since the incident."
"Bet I'm in a good enough shape to beat you!" Ash replied.
"Posturing Ash? That coma really took it outta ya, huh?"
"Oh like you're a stranger to having a big mouth," Ash chuckled. Gary followed suit.
"Hey Ash, you should probably let him in," Yellow called from the living room.
"Right, right…"
"Hey Yellow!" Gary called as he entered the household, removing his black shoes near the floor mat at the door.
"you've met already?" Ash asked
"Yeah," Gary responded. "I was with my grandfather when the 'merge' happened, so when Yellow contacted her world's professor Oak, I was there too. Hey…" He looked at Ash, his expression suddenly quite serious, his voice uncharacteristically reticent. "It's good to see you're alright."
"Thanks," Ash said as they moved towards the couch. Gary took a seat on the opposite end to where Yellow was sitting, while Ash leaned up against the wall.
"So Ash, I heard you and Gary were rivals back in the day," Yellow said, hoping to spark a conversation to kill some time before the dexholders arrived.
"Oh ya" Gary answered for Ash. "We used to get pretty heated."
"Only 'cause you were so obnoxious."
"Guilty," Gary said, as prideful as he was embarrassed. "What can I say, we were kids, and it's not like you were much better," He pointed to Ash with an accusing finger.
"Gary, you had cheerleaders," Ash retorted
"Cheerleaders? Really?" Yellow said, giving Gary a judgmental glare.
"Well there were certain benefits to being the grandson of a world famous professor. Couple of the local pallet town girls used to follow me around."
Yellow rolled her eyes as Ash shook his head, though the smile on their faces indicated that the humor of it was not lost on them.
"Those were some wild times," Ask said
"Hey Yellow, maybe when we meet some of your friends, you can tell us about some of your early adventures," Gary said
"Chu!" Chuchu called in approval
"Oh I'm sure there'll be time for that. They should be here any min…" Yellow was cut off by the sound of a car horn blaring from outside.
"Who's making all that racket?!" Gary asked.
"Oh boy…" Yellow sighed. "He's here."
Waiting outside on Ash's sizable driveway was a large, black jeep. The shiny, near stainless hall marked it as quite new, and quite expensive. Even as the trio and their pokémon exited the house, it continued to honk loudly. They could vaguely see a man through the windshield.
"Yellow, is this one of your friends?" Ash asked, somewhat hoping the answer was no.
"Gold!" Yellow ignored Ash's question, although it was also likely that she didn't hear him over the blaring horn. "We're right here! Stop!"
The blaring stopped to the relief of the trainers as well as the pokémon who had been covering their ears. However the car door didn't open. Rather, Gold popped up through the jeeps sunroof. Ash and Gary finally got a good look at him. His hair was spiky and black, stuck in a hat he wore backwards, complimenting his loose fitting orange sweater.
"Well I had to get your attention somehow, straw hat gal!" Gold yelled back.
"Straw hat gal?" Ash asked quietly.
"He likes his nicknames…" She responded to Ash before turning her attention back to Gold. "You could have just called, you know! Why don't you come out here and introduce yourself properly."
"Whatever you say!" He leapt out of the jeep and onto the roof, raising his arms to his side in exuberance.
"The name's Gold! Good to meet the look-alikes!"
Gold hopped off the jeep and landed on the ground with little in terms of grace. The trainers began walking towards each other, meeting in the middle of the driveway.
"So, this is the Red and Blue look-alikes? Huh?" Gold said as he got closer to Ash. Really close.
"Different eyes, different hair… but you got the look down, mostly," He pulled at Ash's jacket. "Senior Red always preferred the color… well you know."
"Um… excuse me?" Ash didn't know how to respond to the sudden invasion of personal space.
"Huh, I'll guess you'll do," Gold backed up, giving Ash some breathing room. Finally, Gold expressed a sign of formality. He stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet you Red-look-alike."
"The name's Ash" Ash shook Gold's hand. "Good to meet you, Gold"
"Nice to meet you too, Red-look-alike."
"Guess you ain't calling me Ash any time soon huh?" Ash released his grip and adjusted his hat.
"Sorry bud, not how I roll," Gold looked to Yellow "I like this one. He's smart". Gold reached out his hand to shake Gary's. "Blue-look-alike?"
"Pleasure," Gary shook Gold's hand. He didn't even bother to give his real name. "Guess I look like someone named Blue from your world."
"You can see for yourself," Gold said, pointing towards the roof of Ash's house. The group turned around. Sitting on the triangular rooftop was a man who looked almost exactly like Gary, though he was wearing a brown coat that was similar to Ash's and his jeans were purple instead of brown.
"um… who's that?" Ash asked. "How long have they been up there?"
"That's Blue, and he's probably been up there the whole time," Yellow responded, not at all being surprised.
Blue leaped down from the rooftop, landing with far more grace than Gold did from his jeep. He glared past the other trainers, looking directly at Ash. Ash could swear that he was staring right into his soul, his gaze far more intense than any he had received from Gary, or any of his other rivals for that matter.
"So, you're the Red of this world, are ya?" He said. His voice was deeper than Gary's.
"Yeah, my name is Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town," Ash said, his voice steady and stern. He was not sure why he felt the need to say his full name with such tenacity, but something about this Blue almost instinctively fired him up. It almost felt like how he felt when he would run into Gary during his early travels, all those years ago.
"And the names Gary, by the way," Gary said, slightly insulted by his look-alikes' sudden and somewhat rude entrance.
"Of course…" Blue said, not even glancing in Gary's direction. Now Gary felt very insulted, though he also felt that something was off about the trainer. This behavior almost seemed like a cover, but for what? He also noted that Yellow and Gold hadn't said anything yet, opting to just observe the current interaction.
"Well, Ash from pallet town…" He reached into his coat "If you're gonna prance around looking like Red, you better have at least an inkling of his talent."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Ash said, his jaw clenched in both annoyance and anticipation.
"Show me your strength," Blue said, taking out a pokeball. "I challenge you to a battle!"