Happy Halloween everybody! I decided to feed this plot Bunneary that kicked me in the face to remind me it existed!
Now, this fic is a one-shot set in an AU of Zorua Trainer. Yes an AU of an AU but I figured it was better to keep it separate rather than mess up the main story with a Halloween chapter that breaks the plot.
This fic could be read on its own, it's coherent enough, but I recommend reading Zorua Trainer first. There are some spoilers for later stuff in that fic and I planted some, "Hold up," moments that make sense if you have the context.
Anyway, please sit back and enjoy!
Zorua stumbled down the street, weighed down both by pain and despair.
He could still hear the echoing mocking words of the Purloin who had beaten him. "Someone else trash" and "pathetic little fox." They stung less than the raking claws but they still served as a painful memento lodged into his brain.
The streets were hardly quiet in the city, there was always some noise coming from somewhere. But his alley, well, it wasn't his anymore. The alley he used to call his home opened onto some backstreets off the beaten track for most humans.
Other Pokemon made use of them but at this time of night they were hunkering down in their own shelters or digging through the day's garbage, whatever suited their purposes.
Aside from one friendly Trubbish, Zorua didn't have anyone he could go to for help. And to get to Trubbish he would have needed to go the opposite way through his old home.
Unfortunately, he doubted the Purrloin would be willing to let him pass through.
So he forced himself to keep going. Desperate to put as much distance between himself and them as he could.
An angry, stupid part of him wanted to run back and try again. Force them from his home, reclaim his torn-up box, and send them running. But he'd already tried that and knew what the result would be.
The grumble of his stomach reminded him he was still hungry.
"Shut up." He muttered under his breath, if he had the presence of mind left he would have questioned telling his own belly to be silent.
His vision started to go spotty and his legs nearly buckled under him. He lurched toward the side of the road and all but collapsed on the curb. Zorua had already been tired, he wouldn't be able to keep going much farther.
With a struggle, he pushed his working legs back under him and looked around for some form of shelter. Just for the night. He would feel better after he got some sleep. He could find some food tomorrow. He could check if the Purrloin had found a better place to live.
Then he tripped trying to pull himself over the curb and twisted one of his rear paws, collapsing to the ground again.
A flickering streetlight was his only companion as he gave up.
He sniffled and sobbed, alone, hurt, cold, and hungry.
As his sight began to darken his despair gave way to fury. How dare they. Any of them. All of them. The humans who would only sometimes deem to throw him scraps as he starved, the Pokemon who looked at him with distrust and disdain, the Purrloin who had stolen the only home he'd known for his brief life.
In another life, a man from Kanto found him and caught him. Zorua would be taken to a Pokemon Center and have his injuries healed, the man would send him to a friend living in Pallet Town where Zorua would live his life, the misery of his early life fading into a distant, unhappy memory.
In this life, that man was running a day late.
That night Zorua died, his heart filled with rage and spite.
The next day, Zorua awoke with eyes burning gold and vengeance fueling his soul.
At first Zorua was ignorant of the changes. He just knew he felt great, his injuries were gone, his hunger was a passing bad dream, and more than enough energy to try to take back his home once again!
But something stopped him, a whisper in his mind. "You'll just fail again."
Cold fury pumped through his veins but the thought was enough to make him stop and think. He couldn't just attack them up front again, he needed to be cautious about this. No, not cautious, he needed to be ruthless.
Zorua saw his reflection in a pane of glass as he paced, the city coming to life around him. It took a minute to realize that he was looking at his own reflection. His fur had gone from black to white, a few hints of red remained but they seemed to flicker like flames. A big fluffy scarf of fur wrapped around his neck.
He gently touched the glass with his paw, watching the reflection do the same. As he stared into his own golden eyes something burned brighter than before. Melting his rage, a pure, passionate hatred.
Claws came out and he shattered the glass, ignorant of the potential property damage, the shards passed through him to no effect. Not that he cared. Zorua stalked away, imagining the twisted things he could do to his once tormentors.
That evening, strewn out on the street near the alley that they had colonized, three Purrloin would be found, horribly brutalized, not from regular attacks but from tricks and traps, poisoned food, falling debris, and even a freak dumpster fire.
No one would ever know the cause, save for the furious white-furred Zorua who delighted in every second of his revenge.
But as he turned his attention to other targets, maybe the diners at that local open-air eating place, he would be stopped by the capture of a Poke Ball.
His first reaction was to burst out, how dare someone attempt to stop him as he met out his (incredibly fun) vengeance on everyone around him!
The issue was the ball was very comfy, he felt warm and safe and like no one could hurt him inside.
And however much he had changed over the last twenty-four hours, no matter how much he now took sadistic glee in making others suffer like he had, there was still a tiny part of the baby Zorua that just wanted a safe place to sleep at night.
At that moment, the longing for safety won out over the craving for spiteful violence.
"'Hey Delia Don't Catch, could you take care of this weird Pokemon for me?'" Delia Ketchum quoted to herself as she lay flat on her back. "'If you never use that stupid nickname again, sure! In exchange, could you keep an eye on Shelldon? He's been going stir-crazy with nothing to battle around here!'"
What had she been thinking?
The Pokemon, which was supposedly a Zorua, was young, full of energy, and for lack of a better description, filled with a craving for unnecessary violence.
Oh, he had lured her into a false sense of security with that cute fluffy look and those big curious eyes, but the moment she let her guard down he had transformed from adorable fluffy ice cream baby into a tornado of mayhem and destruction.
Delia was now down several lights, a pantry, three chairs, a couch, and two tables.
Some of those things she'd been forced to sacrifice. As Zorua ravaged the pantry, she had gone to her drawers and basement to collect armor. This armor was literally a bunch of pots and pans strapped together by zip ties and the heaviest coats she could find to help cushion her arms and torso.
A bit toe was her reward for forgetting to put on boots,
As she hopped around clutching her injured foot Zorua jumped on top of the oven and started fiddling with dials. The burners blazed to life on the highest setting and one of the packages Zorua had carelessly tossed aside from the pantry caught fire.
Both human and Pokemon screamed in terror and forgot their quarrel, instead desperate to keep themselves from burning.
Thankfully two years of cooking experiments had taught Delia to keep a fire extinguisher on hand and while Zorua tried to put out the fire with a wooden spoon (why?) she blasted it with the foam.
There was a blissful moment of silence as they waited to make sure the fire was truly out before the soot-covered Zorua leaped at her and started biting.
Honestly, she counted that as a win, considering Zorua was no longer destroying her house and belongings.
Still lying on her bed, she turned her head to her side and raised her arm, the ash-covered fluffy Pokemon still latched on and trying to bite through three layers of snowcoats. "Zor…" He growled as he chomped.
A lot of people would be filled, rightfully so, with scorn and anger at the actions of Zorua.
But as Delia looked at the little Pokemon a deep sadness filled her. She knew Pokemon were intelligent, just as much as humans, albeit in different ways sometimes. Zorua wasn't a feral animal lashing out, he was a thinking being who was angry and trying to cause harm.
In some cases that would make it worse, if not for the fact that her friend had confirmed that Zorua couldn't be more than a month old with the Pokemon Center he'd checked in with.
What kind of life had this Pokemon lived that led him to act like this? What had happened to him? How much had he been hurt that his first thought after getting to a new place was to begin attacking it before it could hurt him?
Delia was no expert on psychology, human or Pokemon, but she knew enough to see that her new Pokemon needed help.
"Alright listen you," Delia sat up and Zorua paused his biting for a brief moment. "You need help, and I'm going to help you."
Zorua stared at her. Golden eyes like embers burning in the ashes he was still coated with.
"I don't know what happened to you. I don't know why." She braced herself and wrapped the little guy in a hug.
"But I'm going to do my best. I won't let you starve, I won't hurt you, I promise to keep you safe." She swore.
At first Zorua was frozen by the act but struggled as she spoke, screeching a bit and clawing at her makeshift armor. But she refused to let go and soon the barrage began to weaken and the Pokemon began to shake. Something wet began to drip through the layers on her shoulder.
"I'll take care of you, it's okay." She started rocking the crying Pokemon. A memory came to her, of her mother when she was little, unbidden she started to sing. "~Sleep tight in mommy's arms.~"
Zorua slowly stopped sobbing as she continued the song and soon his breathing became steady and she felt him relax. Carefully she stopped hugging and just held him, his fur was still gray from soot and ashes but twin patches of white shown through under his eyes.
"Welcome home… Ash." She decided on the nickname.
Perhaps not her most creative. But hey, neither was Shelldon.
"Ash don't set anything on fire," Ash complained as he paced around the lab waiting for his trainer and her weird tree friend to return. "Ash please don't give panic attacks to the other Pokemon with Curse. Ash, thanks for finding Arnold but did you really need to kidnap one of his eggs?"
Why does he need so many rules? He only kidnapped one of Arnold's eggs! And it wasn't even a kidnapping, the mother had agreed to it. Sort of. He may have used some creative interpretation of her words.
Pidgey was cool at least. She even called him Uncle Ash. Although her fascination with sharp objects was a bit worrying.
She'd grow out of that, right?
"Who are you talking to?" A voice cut through his monologue and he glared around to find the source.
A Pichu sitting on a bookshelf looked down at him, "You're talking to yourself ain't ya? You're one of the crazy ones I bet."
Ash's eye twitched.
Behind the three-inch thick, Hyper Beam proof, one-way glass Delia chewed her nails. "This is a bad idea." She said, not for the first time.
"Probably." Professor Oak agreed. "But they could both use healthy outlets for their aggression."
"This is healthy?" A Thundershock hit the glass and a huge illusionary Scary Face filled the room for a moment in a flash of red.
"Less expensive than them taking it out on furniture." Oak pointed out.
Delia was silent. Ash had clearly been a bit eager for battles lately. She couldn't pinpoint exactly when the idea of battling had come into his head but it wasn't unusual to see him using his illusions to sneak around town to pick fights with the native Pokemon.
Fortunately, he had a poor understanding of what Pokemon actually were native to Pallet Town so tracking him down wasn't too difficult. Especially when he disguised himself as Scrafty or something.
"I wonder what they're saying…" Professor Oak mused to himself as the violence continued.
"I'll eat your worst heckin' nightmares you rancid rat." Ash howled.
"Big talk coming from an idiot in electrocuting range." Pichu exploded in a barrage of yellow light.
"Wrong way." Ash used Shadow Sneak to come up behind Pichu and knock out the other Pokemon, winning the battle.
As he stood triumphant a wonderful thought occurred to him, this had been a lot of fun!
And Pichu was clearly a very deserving target for his violent tendencies. Therefore he should spend more time with Pichu, so they could fight more!
This was the best idea he had ever had.
"...and that's why I hate humans." Pichu finished summarizing his tragic backstory.
It had taken over a year of battling, and eventually talking about their personal reasons for their spitefulness but eventually Ash managed to drag Pichu's reason for hating humans from him. Truthfully it was a bit better of a reason than he had.
"Humans do suck." Ash agreed with him. "Except for mine. She's perfect."
"You sure about that?" Pichu quirked an eyebrow.
"Positive." Ash didn't say any more on that subject. "Now, what are your plans?"
"Plans?" Pichu was confused.
"Well, think about it, you hate humans, I hate everyone. We should team up and destroy all humans. But not mine, every other human except mine." He decided to clarify a very important point.
"That's…" Pichu must have been marveling at his genius for how speechless he was. "A bit radical."
"Not as radical as the specifics!" Ash gleefully started explaining some of his plans. "See, first we find the place where the humans get all their water from, and then we get some Muk to start living in it, which will completely poison the supply!"
"Can Muk swim?" Pichu asked, his eyes going wider.
"I mean, maybe?" Ash shrugged. "They're made of goop. I don't know. Alright, next plan. We track down their leaders, and then remove them, permanently, and I can take their places! Then I can just tell the humans to walk into the ocean and since I'm their leader they have to listen to me!"
"Why do your plans involve water?" Pichu asked in a quiet tone.
"Only those two! I also have fire plans! I like fire." It was true, it was warm and pretty looking. As long as he wasn't actually on fire, that ruined it a bit. "So, we find where big groups of humans like to hang out, and we set one on fire and then make them run inside-"
Pichu slapped a paw over Ash's mouth and stared at him with what Ash now realized was horror. "What?"
"We can't- that's messed up!"
"Oh, I'm sorry." Ash rolled his eyes. "I thought you wanted revenge on the humans?"
"NOT LIKE THAT!" Pichu stretched his face downward. "Look, aren't there… less horrible ways to get revenge?"
"Less horrible?" Ash blinked. "Why? Everyone is horrible. They do terrible things. That means it's okay to do terrible things to them."
Pichu gaped at him. "We need help. Like. So much help."
"You're right, more Pokemon would make this easier! We should find a fire-type, they can help with the burning!" It was impressive how good Pichu was at coming up with ideas.
"Dragonite." The electric-type muttered and stumbled away, "Need to find Dragonite, he's smart. He knows how to fix brains right?"
"My brain doesn't need fixing!" Ash grumbled. "And neither do my ears for that matter!"
Ash stared in the mirror. Familiar golden eyes stared back at him from an unfamiliar face.
"So…" Pichu glanced at him. "Is therapy helping."
"Am I bad a person?" Ash watched his illusionary face twist into emotions and flinched away, imagining them on the face of one of his victims.
"Ehhhh…" Pichu waved his paw a bit.
"I…" Ash felt tears welling up.
Dragonite had sat them down and worked through their issues, bit by bit. Months had passed and slowly he had taught Ash something he'd never really understood before. Empathy.
He'd never killed anyone, yet at least. The closest he'd ever come were the Purrloin who had stolen his home when he was little. Up until recently, he'd held the memory of crunching bones and foaming mouths close his heart with fondness.
Now he was picturing others in that position. Delia, Pichu, Pidgey. He didn't like it. He didn't like it at all.
They were in the bathroom of his house, or technically Delia's house but he lived there too so whatever. He stumbled back against the tub and tumbled in, bursting the human-shaped illusion Dragonite had suggested he create as a form of exposure therapy.
"Pichu." Ash stared at the ceiling from the empty tub. "I don't want to hurt anyone anymore."
"Errr…" Pichu hopped up on the side of the tub. "Maybe don't go that far?"
"What?" Ash looked up at him.
"I've been talking to Dragonite too you know. He's been forcing me to confront my feelings,"Pichu stuck his tongue out at the word like it tasted bad. "And I finally get it. Not all humans are bad. But there are some bad ones."
"There are bad Pokemon too." Ash muttered.
"Exactly." Pichu nodded. "What was it you said back then? "It's okay to be terrible because everyone is terrible?" Or something?"
Ash averted his gaze. "I was wrong."
"Obviously." Pichu agreed. "You're kind of crazy. Considering I'm pretty sure you're an actual ghost and not just a ghost-type that makes sense. But even if not everyone is terrible, there are terrible people out there. And they would deserve some vengeance."
A flicker in his heart. "People who deserve it."
"Really deserve it." Pichu insisted. "Like the poachers who took my first family when I was little. Or the jerk who captured me as I was saying goodbye to my Mom and sister."
That delightful flicker threatened to burst into a flame. It almost did. Except now Ash knew better, it was not to be trusted. Not entirely. He needed to study it first, learn how to use it, correctly.
Ash lay back. "Can I think about it? I… I think I need to learn how to be nice first."
"Huh." Pichu tilted his head. "How do you do that?"
Ash frowned. How to be nice? That seemed like it was easier said than done. Ash had tried being nice before, he remembered trying to be nice and nothing good ever came of it.
There was someone though, someone who was nice and kind and wonderful in every way. "My Trainer-Mom."
"...did you always call her mom or is that new?"
The hard part about asking his trainer(-mom) for help in learning to be nice was the language barrier.
Fortunately, they found the perfect solution, The Bernstein Bewear's Learn the Alphabet! The subtext about Originism was weird but whatever, they talked about how sounds worked.
There efforts were discovered by Delia fairly quickly. She walked in one day with Pidgey on one shoulder and a collection of stake knives in the other. "Ash, did you give Pidgey the key to the knife box again- what are you doing?"
"Re-e-ding." Ash sounded out carefully and became emboldened by his success. "Reading!" He declared gleefully and looked up at his trainer-mom with delight.
Delia gasped and dropped the knives, (which was very unsafe) and clutched her cheeks. "Did you- how- that's amazing! How did you do that?!"
"Pidgey no! Pidgey put those down no!" Pichu yelped as the flying-type went for the blades now free for the taking.
"Stabbing time!" She gleefully flew out of the room with the other Pokemon hot on her tail feathers.
"Book." Ash didn't trust himself to speak full sentences yet.
"I… well, I'm impressed, to say the least!" She sat down next to him and rubbed his head. He nuzzled into her touch, filled with delight. This was a weird feeling, it was like when she told him he did a good job of following the rules, except there had been no rules and he had come up with the idea on his own.
"I am a bit curious though." She admitted thoughtfully, "Why?"
Ash paused and thought, trying to think how to phrase it. "I… am not… good. You are. Good."
"Who told you that you weren't good?" Delia sounded stern, not directed at him for once. At least not intentionally…
"I did." The more he spoke the braver he was to use more words. "I think of bad things. Doing bad things. I plan to. I try to. I want to learn how to nice."
He flinched and kicked himself. "How to be nice. I want to be nice."
"I… you're not bad Ash, for having bad thoughts. Everyone has bad thoughts, even me."
"But would you do them?" He looked at her, his golden eyes digging in.
"Did you ever do your bad thoughts?" She asked instead and picked him up into a lap hug. "You may have wanted to do them, even planned to, but did you ever?"
"...once." Ash admitted.
"Would you do it again?" She asked.
The Zorua thought. He thought and thought. He knew the answer. He didn't like it, but he wouldn't lie. Not to her. "Yes."
Delia took a deep breath. "Alright then, you want to learn to be nice? Niceness lessons? How to be a moral upstanding young Pokemon?"
"Yes!" He repeated, more earnestly.
"Then you're going to see what other kids your age act like, they'll be nice and they'll be mean. They're two sides of the same coin! The good and the bad Ash, you can't have all of one and none of the other." She explained.
"I need less of one and more of the other." He claimed.
"But you will always have both." She reminded him. "You need to learn how to balance them. You can't just get rid of a part of yourself or pretend it doesn't exist."
"Why not?" He pushed her arms away and used an illusion to turn into his new human disguise. "I can pretend to be anything!"
"I-" Delia stared. "What?" She stared at the child sitting in her lap.
"Oh, surprise!" Ash waved his arms and grinned at her, playful mischief in his smile. That disappeared as he considered if that was bad. Was it? It didn't hurt her. It just confused her. That was okay, right?
"I am very surprised." She admitted with a laugh and hugged the apparently human boy. "I love you, Ash."
He leaned into the hug, content sitting with his human for a bit. "I love you too… Mom."
Ash looked into the classroom, saw the eyes of twenty human children staring at him, and immediately backed out. "I changed my mind, I'm an evil spiteful ghost and I don't need to learn to be nice."
"No you're a regular human boy, age seven, now go make some friends." His trainer encouraged and he stumbled in, eyes darting and counting the exits as fast as he could. He could probably squeeze through one of those windows…
Oh wait, he was a ghost, he could just go through them.
"Children this is Ash Ketchum." The teacher announced, a portly bald man with a beard, the nametag on the desk labeled him Mr. Lancer. "He's new."
"Why are his eyes glowing?" A girl with brown hair near the front asked.
"I have a condition." Ash instantly claimed. Shoot! That was a terrible cover! Where was Pichu when he needed him?
A glance outside answered the question. Pichu was in a tree pointing and laughing at him.
"What condition makes your eyes glow?" A girl with a big puffy red hair bun asked.
"...death," Ash answered truthfully, lying was a bad thing right? Well, illusions were also sort of lying? But he needed those… Uh… Moral gray area.
A few giggles filled the classroom. "You're funny Ash!" A boy he had seen around Professor Tree-Name's lab stood up and pointed at him. "Good news, you're my friend now! Sit down here, Chase, move you're being replaced."
"What?!" The other boy gaped and Ash panicked. No! Replacing friends was a bad thing!
"Why is there a limit to friends?!" Ash demanded.
"I'm very important." The boy leaned back in his chair, rubbing his nose.
"So are friends!" Ash claimed.
"New kid stood up to Gary!" Another boy called out.
"He's so cool!" A girl with black hair in a ponytail looked at him with stars in her eyes.
By the end of the day, Ash was somehow the most popular kid in school. He was still very confused about how this helped him learn to be nice. But he liked the feeling it gave him.
Two years later Ash, Pichu, and Pidgey lounged under a tree in the front yard.
"So everyone in my class is becoming a trainer." Ash made conversation.
"Why?" Pichu asked while Pidgey engaged in her usual habit of carving things into the tree with a sharp object.
"Adventure? Fun? Battles?" Ash listed a few of the reasons.
"Violence," Pidgey muttered darkly, not looking up from her work.
"Those are good reasons." Pichu agreed. "Do you think you're nice enough yet?"
"Nice enough for what?" Ash was content in his niceness. He had learned it was a balance. Think horrible things about people and then say nice things to them while also sometimes hinting at the horrible things.
It was a careful dance. But hurting people was bad.
"The whole do terrible things to terrible people thing." Pichu waved a paw. "Remember?"
"Do violent things to terrible people." Pidgey mused. "Beautiful violence."
Ash and Pichu were used to her odd ticks by now. "I… I guess." Ash nodded. "Yeah, I'm a good person. But there are bad people. We can make them regret being bad people."
"Without burning," Pichu suggested and Ash frowned. But burning was fun. Pichu saw his expression and relented. "Okay, maybe a little burning."
Satisfied Ash hummed. "I guess I could become a trainer, then we could travel around and find terrible people."
"Huh, good idea. If a bit stupid." Pichu decided.
"How can an idea be good and stupid?" Ash asked him.
"You tell me." The other Pokemon shrugged. "But yeah, gotta be ten or something right? We can set off in a year and become reapers of vengeance or something. What do you say Pidgey?" He looked at the flying-type.
She dropped the ice pick she'd been using. Her head twisted 360 degrees to look at the two boys. "The pact is sealed. I will join with you for glorious carnage in three hundred and sixty-five moonrises." Her head snapped back and she flapped away, the image of broken bones carved into the tree.
"I worry about her sometimes," Pichu announced.
Convincing the humans in his life had been a bit of a hurdle, but with copious amounts of "look at how adorable I am," Delia eventually cracked and Pichu had the ingenious idea of using Professor Tree's curiosity against him. He'd never sponsored a Pokemon being a trainer before!
And with Pichu as his set starter, he was able to bypass the limited amount of Pokemon available!
Apparently, there were only supposed to be three, a Bulbasaur, a Squirtle, and a Charmander, but since more than three kids were becoming trainers this season Professor Oak had to expand his roster.
But other than noticing Gary getting a Squirtle and two of the others getting a Pikachu and Eevee (who they named Peach and Evan respectively) Ash was more focused on his own upcoming journey.
Of course, he'd get to release a bit more of his darker side whenever they came across bad people, but the idea of traveling was fun too!
"Huh, I was kind of expecting Pidgey to have come back by now." Pichu mused from Ash's head as they walked down the road. "It's been a year right?"
"Just about." Neither of them had expected her to actually disappear for a whole year. Truthfully it was kind of concerning given they had spent a considerable amount of time and energy curbing some of her more dangerous tendencies over the years. "Maybe a few more days? She didn't say a year she said moonrises."
"Where did she even come up with that?" Pichu complained. "She gets this from your side of the family."
"I guess. Also, do you think the hat is too on the nose?" Ash switched topics. He wasn't used to wearing actual clothes, fur and his illusions normally had him covered. Literally.
Pichu looked at the black cap bearing a skull and crossbones. "I think it's fine. As long as you don't add an eyepatch."
"Why would I need an eyepatch?" Ash wondered then shrugged. "Let's just go look for people doing bad things. I want to fuck them up."
Pichu fell off his head.
"WHO TAUGHT YOU THAT WORD?!"
"Arnold," Ash answered truthfully. He'd learned a lot of useful phrases from the Pidgeot. He'd also forced Ash to take an oath never to say any of them around their trainer. "How do you know it?"
"The old man." Pichu meant the professor himself. Huh.
As they continued and Ash eventually dropped the illusion so he could save his energy, they began to hear rumors from the local Pokemon.
Troubling rumors.
"Spearow causing trouble huh?" Ash hid his sadistic grin in his neck fur. "I think we found our first targets."
"Should I just start attacking any Spearow we see or should I look for that are actively doing stuff?" Pichu asked and looked around. "Oh there's one." without another word Thundershock raced over the grass and struck something.
"...what?" Ash hadn't even been looking in the same direction.
"Huh," Pichu looked over the treeline as dozens of specks rose from their perches. "I think I made a tactical error."
"Fuck." Ash agreed.
"STOP SWEARING!" Pichu raced after his friend.
They were both pretty quick Pokemon, but their enemies had air superiority on their side and quickly caught up. Ash was spared some of the damage whenever the flying-types made the mistake of using a normal-type move but Pichu had no such luck and quickly bore more injuries than his ghostly friend.
As Ash's hatred peaked like it hadn't since he was a little Zorua in Unova, he spotted a ledge, and running water winding away from it. "That way!" He hollered, not bothering to maintain the human language.
They went over the cliff, and Ash ran through the water-types he knew the most about and picked a shape that would let him swim faster and hold onto Pichu. Turning into a Frillish he wrapped some tentacles around Pichu and used the others to help propel them downriver.
He counted himself lucky he didn't have to deal with that weird breathing thing anymore, but Pichu didn't have that advantage so he knew he had to surface soon.
Narrowly avoiding the chomp of a Gyrados they were sent down one of the tributaries of the main river and Ash decided to take his chances and come up.
Just as he was about to push them toward the shore, something slimy and strong tightly grasped one of his tentacles.
The strength of the grip was enough to make the illusion burst and Ash was left in his natural shape and unable to hold on to Pichu. He Mightyena-paddled and looked for what had grabbed him.
He registered some sort of humanoid shape, but wavey and with a greenish tint. The sunken eyes looked just as surprised to see him as he was to see them.
That surprise quickly vanished and was replaced by fury. How dare this disgusting thing try to stop him from saving his friend.
Whatever it was recovered as well and he heard a young feminine voice. 'Jooooiinnn meeeee.'
"GET LOST!" Ash screamed into the water, muffling his words, and used Hex. The thing screamed and writhed under the water and he paddled his way to Pichu, and using his head nudged them both to the shore.
Pichu hadn't been wholly unconscious and had been attempting to paddle with his stubby arms. As soon as they hit dirt he rolled over and hacked up more water than seemed possible for a Pokemon his size.
"What was that voice?" He managed in between coughs.
"Dunno, someone grabbed me down there." Ash explained and started shaking himself out. "How you feeling."
"Promise you won't call me a hypocrite?" Pichu requested.
"No," Ash told him the truth.
"I feel like shit." Pichu returned the favor.
Ash was about to fulfill his destiny and call Pichu a hypocrite like he deserved when the water erupted behind them.
"FEAR MORTALS! FOR THE WRAITH OF THE RIVER DRAGS YOU TO YOUR WATERY GRAVE!" A voice echoed around them as the two were once again soaked to the bone.
"NOPE!" Pichu used an electric attack, unfortunately catching Ash up in it and shocking everything around them.
'OW WHAT THE HECK?' The same voice Ash had heard under the water echoed in his mind again as he worked through the residual sparks.
"Oh come on! I've been practicing that for two years! Redo!" The voice that had told them to "fear" complained.
Now that he heard it a second time he identified it as that of a Staryu.
'Why the heck can attacks still hurt me? How is that fair? Who's idea was that?!' The mind voice complained and ranted.
Ash soon found the source. The entity he had seen under the water was on its hands and knees on the riverside next to them.
Now that there wasn't as much murky water in his eyes he could see them clearly. She seemed to be a young human girl, around the age of Ash's classmates. But the similarities quickly became scarce.
Her skin was a sickly green and looked bloated and torn in places, but no blood dripped out. Her clothes were stained, and she was missing her left shoe. Her orange hair waved in the air as though floating underwater. There seemed to be a wire of some sort wrapped around one of her arms.
Also, there was a Staryu. But he looked pretty normal.
Pichu looked at the girl and the water-type. "I have several questions."
"My title is Staryu."
"That was not one of them."
'Alright, alright, I feel better now.' The girl stumbled to her feet, then looked around and gaped. 'Are… are you serious?'
"What?" Staryu looked at her. "Oh, hey Misty! You can go on dry land!"
One of "Misty's" sunken bloodshot eyes twitched. 'We have spent, two years in a river because river ghosts were supposed to fade into nothing when they stepped on dry land.'
"...Misty I think the book lied to us."
'NO DUH STARYU!' her mouth didn't move as she spoke but her expression changed and the volume of the words in his head increased.
Pichu and Ash had watched this entire exchange and now bore witness to Misty apologizing to Staryu for losing her temper. She did not however apologize to Ash and Pichu for trying to drown them. Which was fine. Ash wasn't feeling very forgiving.
"Bravo, you can stand!" He mockingly congratulated them, switching back to human language. She seemed able to understand Staryu but why take a chance on her missing out? "That's really impressive! Especially for someone has intelligent and capable as you are."
The two turned there attention to him. "I mean really, for a girl who lives at the bottom of a river you clearly have a lot of worldly experience. I bet your parents are really proud! Assuming they weren't the ones to drop you in as soon as they saw your disgusting face." He bared his teeth.
'My Dad would never-'
"Ah, Daddy issues got it. Never had one myself but hey they seem like a whole mess of problems. What with them going off to get milk for decades. Must be a real problem for you. Did yours ask you to wait here? Not realizing you hadn't learned how to stand yet?"
'I know how to stand!'
"Only took you, what did he say? Two years? Good time. Maybe in another six, you'll be able to walk! Shame you never learned how to swim." He took a guess based on the ghost comment she'd made and her general appearance.
Misty stared at him. Then she fell to her knees and a cascade of red liquid poured out of her eyes as sobbing filled his mind.
Pichu looked between them. "Holy shit."
Staryu took a moment to process the words hurled against his companion and then hurled a barrage of stars at Ash in the form of Swift. These did nothing of course. Being a ghost was pretty useful sometimes.
"Your horrible words will not avail you against me you fiendish creation of dark works!" Staryu seemed blissfully unaware of how ineffective his attack had been.
"I mean, I bet they would "avail" me," Ash claimed. "But it might be more fun for me to just beat you up!"
"I'll sit this one out." Pichu decided and sat down. "My everything hurts."
At the reminder of his friend's injuries, Ash felt his desires split. The whole point of this journey was making people who do bad things suffer, and attempted murder fit the bill. But his friend was hurt and leaving him in this state was also a bad thing in of itself.
While he debated with himself, the cries of a certain species of flying-type echoed on the wind.
That helped him make up his mind a lot faster.
"Pichu we need to get you to Viridian City. Uh…" He looked around for the road or path and spotted an old rusted bike leaning against a tree. "Oh, that might work. Come on!" He switched into his human illusion and hopped onto the bike."
'What… huh?' Misty's ghostly voice echoed in his mind again.
Still feeling spiteful, and also just a tad mischievous, he looked back. "I'm a Zorua, I died way younger than you, and I only ever tried to kill the ones who killed me. Try not to drown anyone else or I'll have to come back!" He waved, dropped Pichu into the basket, and took off peddling, wincing a bit at the scraping metal shrieks from the rusty bike.
As the two Pokemon took off, Misty and Staryu were left staring after them while the Spearow flock passed overhead.
'Maybe trying to drown people who end up in my river is pretty terrible…' Misty accepted.
"It was fitting though! A damsel drowned by a monster before her time, now reaping vengeance upon the living!"
'Yeah, but it turns out I can leave the river.' She stood up a bit shakily. 'Which means I can go back to being a trainer. Maybe I can go home and become a gym leader like we planned?'
"It would be nice to go home." Staryu mused. "But perhaps we should familiarize ourselves with the changed world! It's been many moons since you found your water resting place!"
'Hmm.' Misty thought then was struck by a realization. 'Hang on, that rusty bike- THAT WAS MY BIKE!'
Her head whipped toward the departed pair. 'And those jerks took it!'
"They are truly foul individuals!"
'I mean we kind of did need a talking to about the trying to drown people thing I guess.' Misty realized. 'Might have gone a bit too far with that. But he didn't have to be such a colossal jerk about it!'
"Indeed! Shall we pursue them?" Staryu agreed.
'Of course!' Misty felt the ectoplasm pumping in her veins like her blood once did. 'No one insults the Wraith of the River!'
Perhaps unsurprisingly the bike didn't get them very far before it literally started coming apart under Ash. But that was fine, he still had working legs. He just grabbed Pichu and kept running,
But the Spearow hadn't exactly gotten any slower.
Soon they were right on top of the pair and Ash had a few moments to wonder if dying again would hurt any worse than the first time when Pichu suddenly leaped into motion.
The electric-type had realized that the Spearow were going to catch up, and they would get completely slaughtered. Seeing as this whole mess was his own fault, he decided he had to be the one to try and stop it.
He squirmed out of Ash's grip, and jumped off his shoulder and into the air, charging as much electricity as his little body could carry. Just when he felt stuffed to the brim, a bolt of lightning came down and added just that little bit extra "oomph" to his attack.
Never before had Pichu fired off that much electricity, it blew away the storm that had rolled in and lit the world like a second sun. As his body started shutting down, he thought he never would again.
I wonder what a ghost-type Pichu, looks like. He thought to himself as he hit the ground, the Spearow falling down around him. I guess I'm about to find out…
Ash had been knocked back by the force of the attack as well, but he hadn't taken the brunt of it. His illusion hadn't stood a chance and he came to his paws shakily. He saw the Spearow on the ground and Pichu, unmoving.
The Zorua raced forward to his closest friend and quickly checked him over. He looked even worse than he had before, and it took him a moment to realize that there was no rise and fall to his chest.
He was no stranger to death, but he had perhaps forgotten just how unfair it was. This wasn't how things were supposed to go! This was supposed to be the start of their grand adventure! They were going to be vigilantes going across the land punishing all the worst elements of the world!
Pichu was supposed to be okay.
Tears fell as he nuzzled into his friend's body, unwilling to leave. He wasn't sure if the Spearow were alive or not, at the moment he didn't care. He just wanted to spend a few moments with his friend, desperately wishing to thank him for all the time they'd spent together and for showing him how much more there was to life.
So focused on this was he, that he didn't notice the majestic Pokemon that flew overhead, nor did he notice the embers that sparkled with all the colors of the rainbow that drifted down until they landed on Pichu's still chest.
He did notice when Pichu's body shined with light, a rainbow of colors washing over him for a moment. Ash stepped back as heat battered him away from his best friend's corpse. He squinted against the light, and to his eyes, Pichu seemed to shift and grow.
The light faded, and his friend got up and rubbed his eyes. "What just… Ash?" He looked at him, "Am I dead too now?"
"I… I don't know." Ash announced, still struggling to process what just happened.
The Pokemon in front of him looked at his paws. "Wait, why am I black and white, and what's this glider thing?" Emolga asked utterly as lost as Ash.
Still a bit baffled by recent events, the pair did eventually continue onwards to Viridian City. Regardless of Emolga's unexpected change of species, he should still probably get a check-up considering everything that had just happened.
There was a brief debate about nicknames and whether Ash should just keep calling Emolga Pichu despite the change but in the end, they decided to just follow convention. Emolga was an Emolga now, which meant his name was Emolga.
He still complained about it a little bit.
But the only slow down they ran into on the way to the Pokemon Center was when Officer Jenny stopped Ash to verify that he was not a "Pokemon Thief." Which led to a completely different discussion.
"Why are they 'Pokemon Thieves?'" Emolga asked, having moved from Ash's head to his shoulder. "What, do you call people who kidnap humans 'Human Thieves?'"
"I think that's something else." Ash admitted with a frown. "You're right though, that is a little weird. Just call them kidnappers or something."
Whatever the correct terminology should be, as the moon rose over the horizon they arrived at the Pokemon Center. And found someone perched outside waiting for them.
A Pidgeotto wearing an oddly shaped hockey mask and clutching a machete in her claws was stationed on the railing of the entry stairs. "The last moonrise passes, I have come to fulfill my oath."
They stared for a moment and the flying-type waved her wing and in a much lighter tone said. "Hi Uncle Ash, what happened to Pichu?"
"I died," Emolga told her.
Ash blinked in recognition. "Pidgey! You evolved? Congratulations! Where have you been for the last year? We were kind of worried."
"I said I would be back-"
"In three hundred and sixty-five moonrises." Emolga rolled his eyes. "I remember, where'd you get that mask?"
"I had to make a special order." She admitted. "No seriously, what happened?"
"We'll explain inside, I think we need to talk to Nurse Joy a bit…"
Trying to get the machete away from her was a bit challenging and Ash was a little concerned about the red staining the blade but decided that was a tomorrow problem.
Explaining that he needed to change his registered Pokemon from Pichu to Emolga was a bit difficult. Especially when she accused him of abandoning Pichu and he had to explain, no he did not abandon his best friend. His friend just died and then was reincarnated somehow.
Immediately.
They should probably look into that at some point.
This confusing argument was interrupted by the arrival of another visitor.
'I'd like to make sure my trainer registration is up to date please.' Misty's ghostly voice requested. She glared at Ash, daring him to say anything. 'I'll deal with you in a minute.'
"Try it." His grin split his face.
"Uh…" Nurse Joy stared at the obviously dead girl. "Name please?"
'Misty Waterflower.' She identified herself.
Nurse Joy typed on her computer for a moment. "It says here that you've been missing, presumed dead for the last two years…"
'Well, that's wrong.' Misty claimed. 'There's nothing to presume, I'm very obviously dead, can you fix that for me?'
"Hold on, now that we're able to leave the river, I wonder if there's a way we can fix that…" Staryu mused. "Ask her if she knows where we can get a diamond!"
'We would need my body in order to cast True Resurrection.' Misty reminded her partner and then turned to Ash. 'Alright, you horrible little monster. I acknowledge you might have had a point that drowning people just because I drowned was a bit uncalled for… But you didn't have to be such an asshole about it.'
Ash shrugged. "Would the message have gotten across if I hadn't?"
'Also you stole my bike.' She glared harder.
"That was yours?" Emolga asked. "You really should take better care of your things."
Then the lights flickered and the roof exploded.
Three shapes entered emerged from the shadows, under a spotlight, and entered into a glorious presentation of their goals and desires.
"Jessie!" The woman introduced herself.
"James!" Said the man.
"Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"
"Meowth, that's right!" The final member of the trio spoke up.
"Now hand over all of your Pokemon." The man pointed at them.
His counterpart smiled. "If you know what's good for you that is. But we're more than happy to fight for them."
Ash stared at them and then looked at Emolga, Pidgeotto, Misty, and Staryu.
"Wow!" He started, "You guys are completely fucked!"
You know I originally meant to go all the way to like Vermillion City for this but then I kept thinking of things to add and time started getting short so I had to make some sacrifices.
It's interest because you kind of get a peak into some things I only thought of after I had already written Zorua Trainer, like Ash meeting Pidgeotto as a Pidgey, (I actually think that idea came from COAL) Elaine and Chase as other Pallet Town Trainers, and Ash actually going to school and meeting other human kids.
Also I normally don't like the overuse of swearing in my fics (and I think I kept it to a minimum here) but someone suggested Hisuian ZoruAsh is ZoruAsh but allowed to say "fuck" and I couldn't get it out of my head so...
Now I have it marked as a complete oneshot for the moment, but I have been toying with the idea of adding another chapter next Halloween, sort of a yearly special. We'll see I suppose.
But I hoped you liked the story! I feel like the tone sort of leapfrogged around at times but as a oneshot I think it's perfectly acceptable. I hope you all enjoyed it! Maybe you're new and might want to check out the real Zorua Trainer fic too!
R&R
~FriTik