Of all the ways to enter Viridian City, getting chased by your own Spearow for hours was not considered one of those options.
Ash Ketchum missed that memo.
The young teen was seen sprawled on top of a Pokémon Center couch with very little care of how stupid he and Riolu looked to stop the horrid feeling of being exhausted beyond their minds. On a table nearby them, Spearow preened her feathers nonchalantly.
'We shall be working on your stamina daily! And then, we will engage in combat to ensure that even the fleshy can fight alongside me!'
Ash and Riolu wanted to argue that, they really did. It's just that neither had the energy to do anything but groan.
After getting some rest, Ash, Riolu, and Spearow walked, or flew in Spearow's case, out of the Pokémon Center. This time, since no one was exhausted or focused solely on their comrades, the trio had a chance to view the city.
For one, it was definitely bigger than Pallet Town. The young teen had a bit of a culture shock. Being out in the countryside, he was used to grass plains as far as the eye could see, peace and quiet, and not that many people.
Viridian City was the exact opposite, people were nearly everywhere to the point it felt like a sea of humans. Cars and people shouted over each other, and bright billboards decorated buildings that reached the sky.
'Yeesh! You fleshies are everywhere!' Spearow, while perched on Ash's shoulder looked around and was obviously unnerved by seeing a lot of Ash's kind.
'That is technically how we felt when we were in your home.' Sitting on Ash's other shoulder, Riolu responded. 'At least we don't aren't forcing weird food down other people's throats.'
Spearow turned to the fighting type with obvious confusion. 'What weird food? Did you guys eat things off the ground or something? That's mostly on you two then.'
The emanation Pokémon wisely said no more as it seemed like Spearow was unaware only she and her clan ate dead insect Pokémon.
However, what the trio didn't know was that they were currently being watched.
Ash looked around before noticing some balloons fly into the sky with some flying Pokémon cleaning them up. "Is there an event here?"
It was then the boy had his attention caught by a poster near a building. It was a tri-colored poster with symbols in the shape of the three legendary birds of Kanto: Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. Even though there were many commercialized products, this one poster caught Ash's attention simply due to the fact he swore he saw it before in the Pokémon Center before he sprawled himself on the nearest empty couch.
"The Three Gyms of Viridian City?" Ash raised his brow as he read this out loud. This city had three gyms? How exactly did that work?
Yet, Ash was rather excited to learn the very first town already had that many Gyms. After all, how could he get to the Pokémon League without badges? "Well, I guess we should challenge one of these gyms! I bet I can get three badges right off the bat!"
At this point, a young man with tanned skin, wearing blue-themed gear, came right in front of Ash and his Pokémon.
"Hey there!"
Ash blinked. The sudden appearance of this person confused him, but he still responded to the greeting. "Hi?"
"I just overheard you wanting to challenge one of the gyms here in Viridian City?" Before Ash could even nod, the young man went on and pointed in the distance to a large white and blue building with the Articuno Symbol on it. "Then you should definitely challenge the Mystic Gym! It's filled with some of the most tactically brilliant trainers and Pokémon there!"
The teen seemed interested in the description of the gym. "Wow? That sounds really interesting!"
"Don't listen to that Mystic Scum!" Ash and everyone else turned around to see a dark-skinned girl wearing red-themed clothes. "Kid, if you want a real gym with strong trainers and Pokémon, head over to the Valor Gym!" The girl pointed over to the large building with a Moltres Symbol on it.
It was then that the first guy shouted out loud, "Back off, Valor Jerk! This kid is going to the Mystic Gym!" Ash was wondering why the blue guy was trying to speak for him when he wasn't even sure he'd go anymore. However, Ash and his Pokémon soon found out more blue-themed people were coming behind the guy after he said that.
"You Mystic Punks were just trying to force him to go to your gym!" When the teen turned around, he noticed there was now a gathering group of red-themed people.
'Aw come on, we just got out of a blood feud between two different groups!?' Riolu threw his hands out in the air before both parties started shouting at each other and calling each other names.
The teenage trainer took this chance to leave since the rather hot-blooded people were already taking out their Pokémon.
When they were a safe distance away, Ash scratched his head. "That was weird."
Spearow, after flying to get away from the tense building situation, flew and landed on Ash's shoulder opposite to Riolu. 'I too wonder why I can understand all those fleshies when I was sure at least one of them would speak gibberish like normal.'
"Wait, you can understand them?" Ash looked to Riolu. "Did you do that?"
'Yeah. I think I did? Hard to remember really…' The small one tilted his head upward.
Seeing as how Spearow seemed to understand humans, Ash spoke to Spearow again. "No, I meant why were those guys trying to get me into one of those gyms so much?"
Riolu shrugged at the rhetorical question. 'Who knows? There's something weird about those gyms then, isn't there?'
'Ah wait,' Spreaow pointed towards another building in the distance. 'Neither party talked about the yellow building, didn't they?'
"I kinda don't wanna run to the same problem again… but I really, really want my first badge." Ash blurted out his options.
Regardless, the boy made his way towards the large building with yellow-themed colors instead. To his surprise, it looked emptier than he imagined.
However, the young boy tensed when he saw a young woman walk out with reading glasses in front of her green eyes, purple hair that was long enough for her to tie a sizeable bun at the back of her head, and yellow-themed clothes that seemed styled like the red and blue people he had seen earlier. Then she spotted him and his Pokémon.
"Oh hello. May I help you?" The woman greeted with a smile.
Automatically liking this place for the obvious lack of overzealous people, Ash breathed a sigh of relief. This was momentary as his excitement came back and he declared, "I'm here to challenge the Gym Leader of the name of this gym that I was never aware of!"
Ash's two Pokémon looked at him weirdly. "What? I never actually found out the name of this place." The teen told his party.
The sound of the young woman giggling made the three look back at her. "Sorry, it's just… ah never mind. Our team Leader should be free for a gym battle inside. Just mind the mess."
Mess?
Despite the interesting choice of words, Ash followed the young woman back into the build—
"Holy!?" Ash cried out as he saw a lobby room filled to the brim with incubators filled with eggs. There were some other people who were wearing yellow who noticed the newcomer but seemed to get back to their own business.
"Hey, guys!? Anyone see our Leader?" The purple-haired woman asked as she shouted out loud.
"I saw him," One of the guys there pointed to a now empty spot. "Uhh, okay—no. I don't know where he is now."
Riolu, sitting on Ash's shoulder, pointed over towards a spot not too far from the empty area but was covered in incubators. 'I sense someone there.'
No sooner after Riolu pointed, something suddenly popped out of the many incubators like a Digglet. "AHA! Here you are, Burrito Soup, you wily rascal you!" He looked to be a handsome young man in his mid to late twenties with spiky, short blonde hair, pale skin, and deep blue eyes. Despite his looks, he seemed to act like a child on Christmas morning as he jumped out and started doing a merry jig after finding one specific egg.
The purple-haired girl noticed the young man and then quickly called out, "Spark!"
When the woman wearing glasses called out to the guy, Ash's eyes widened and he quickly pointed to Spark. "He's the Gym Leader!? I thought he'd be older!"
The purple-haired girl had a smile on her face that looked like she had been practicing that smile in cases where she needed to fake happiness. "I wish he acted at least half his age."
While the purple-haired girl said this, Spark, the leader of the Gym turned around. "Oh, Jana! Who is that beside you? Come on in! I just gotta put this guy near his brothers and sisters… now where did I put Burger Lord and Condiment Princess?"
"Sir, please. You have a challenger." The adolescent named Jana calmly said as she pointed to Ash.
Spark looked back at the boy who then noticed the Pokémon on both of his shoulders. He moved up to the young teen quickly and pointed to him. "Whoa! You got both Pokémon on your shoulder! That's pretty cool dude!"
"Huh? Uhh, thanks?" Ash didn't really know how to respond to that. However, his subconscious seemed to be taking cues from his mother's lessons as he then needlessly responded with, "I like your jacket."
"Wow! Thanks! I've been sleeping in this for like five days straight!" Well that was frank. The Gym leader of the yellow-themed people then look back at Ash as he fixed holding an incubator he found. "So you want a challenge huh? How many badges do you have?"
"None. This is my first one."
Spark's smile seemed to grow brighter even hearing that. "Really!? That's super cool! Alright, let me get you my no-badge team!" He then spun on his heel and pointed towards a door that led to the back.
Ash blinked in surprise. "No-badge team?"
Spark seemed to pause at the question before a huge grin came across his lips. "It's my team to fight trainers based on the number of badges they have. Like say you have three badges: trainers with three badges have at least half a team with stage one evolved Pokémon and have a medium amount of battle experience, so as a Gym Leader, I have to prepare a team accordingly to meet their strength level."
Ash and his Pokémon seemed to understand. Yet the woman assisting Ash looked impressed. "Great job, sir. You actually explained that very well."
Spark gave a small laugh and rubbed the back of his head. "Hey! Battling is a lot easier to understand than all those formalities Candela and Blanche do."
"So," Ash began, making everyone look at him. "It's not your best team?"
The leader of the yellow gym was caught off guard for a moment. "No, it's not." He said honestly.
Jana sighed and spoke up after hearing that. "What is your name, challenger?"
"Huh? Oh, it's Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town."
She acknowledged his name before continuing. "Believe it or not, the three gym leaders of Viridian City are all basically at the level of Elite Four and Champion with their best team."
The teen and his Pokémon seemed surprised at such a statement and then they looked at Spark who was scratching his cheeks with one of his gloved hands. "Oh come on Jana, you're over-exaggerating a lot."
She seemed to give a look of disbelief to her leader. "Sir, I am not. Ask anyone else and they'll say the same thing."
The young teen was shocked at the revelation. The young man in front of him was just as good as some of the best trainers in Kanto and Johto? "You're as good as the Elite Four!?"
Spark seemed actually hesitant to talk about it, but he did start speaking. "It's kinda a stretch to say that, but at the same time… I am confident enough to battle them toe to toe."
The young teen was in awe that someone that strong was in front of him. However, he turned to look at both Riolu and Spearow. "What do you two think?"
'I don't think he's lying about that.' Riolu mentioned that since he was the Pokémon who could sense emotions, it was more than likely that Spark was telling the truth.
'He doesn't seem very warrior-like at all!' Spearow began before staring hard at the blonde gym leader. Spark noticed this and gave a kind smile and waved at the flying type. 'On second thought… there's something about him that reminds me of my father.'
Ash saw how powerful Fearow was. If there was something in Spark that made him similar to a powerful Fearow like that, then he really must have been that strong!
But if he was really strong, it meant that Ash was basically fighting him with a handicap. And that did not settle well with the boy. If he wanted to be the best, like no one ever was—then how could he fight someone of the skill of the Elite Four with a handy cap? "Spark, how many badges do I need to battle your best team?"
"What? Well, my best team? The rule between the three of us and Professor Willow was ten badges would be needed to challenge our best teams, but at the same time, the highest record of getting badges in a single region was ten in one League period. During that time, our organizations didn't exist yet."
"Ten badges…" Everyone turned to Ash as he repeated it out loud. They all then saw him smile with a bright fire in his eyes. "Alright, I'll do it. I'll get ten badges before the League is over and challenge you before I get into the league!"
Ash's declaration stunned even the people outside back in the egg-filled lobby.
However, Spark seemed to be the only one reacting differently as he suddenly laughed a bit. "Whoa! I've never heard of determination like that in a while. But I do have to say that there's an interesting rule about the three gyms here. If you take one of the gym challenges, you can only take that one and not challenge the other two. It's to prevent trainers from getting three badges in one area. Which means you might have to go somewhere else if you really want to battle my best team."
That made Ash think hard. If that really was the case, he needed to get those badges much sooner! "Where's the closest gym besides Viridian City?" Ash instantly asked.
"Hey, Ash?" Jana spoke up to catch the teen's attention. "I like ambition as much as the next person, but I think there are some things you're overlooking. Are you even aware of Teams Valor, Mystic, and Instinct?"
The young boy and his Pokémon tilted their heads in sync.
Jana took that action as a resounding no to her question. "Ah. In that case: welcome to Team Instinct's Headquarters, or as you know it: The Instinct Gym."
Ash did wonder why this building was bigger than he imagined when it came to a gym building.
"What are Teams Valor, Mystic, and Instinct?"
"I got this, Jana." Spark took over the conversation and started to lead Ash back to the lobby.
It turns out that it all started with Professor Willow, a renowned scientist whom Ash heard Professor Oak talk about several times. Like most scientists, he wanted to research specific topics. However, instead of being like everyone else, he had the idea of spending his funding on his three promising assistants, the Gym Leaders of the three teams. The three assistants then took Professor Willow's idea—in getting more help to get more data—and ran with it. They created organizations: Teams Instinct, Valor, and Mystic to recruit trainers from all over Kanto to join in and be a part of something greater and positive for the world.
Now the total sum of members that The Three Teams have totaled around a million, and they've only been active for a few years in Kanto alone.
Trainers joining the teams get a lot of cool perks such as discounts on trainer goods, access to team databases that include battle records, Pokémon data, and great information and tips in areas all around Kanto.
"Wow! You get all those gears and perks for joining one of the teams?" Ash cooed in awe.
The leader of Team Instinct nodded with a smile. "Yeah, we're kinda like sports teams for Pokémon Adventuring!"
"Sir," Jana sighed after fixing her glasses. "That is a gross simplification of what the three Teams stand for."
"Tell that to Candela and Blanche! They've been bragging about which of their trainers are going to win the Pokémon League this year, and none of our members have ever made it to the top 16 of the previous few!" Spark actually pouted after saying that. He was obviously a bit peeved that no one from his team made it that far yet.
Jana shook her head before turning to Ash. "I know some people would like to go into their adventure blind and experience it all by themselves. But if you really are gunning to challenge our Leader, it's probably in your best interest to take every advantage possible to get ten badges quickly with help like ours at your disposal."
Ash thought about it for a second. It really looked like a good idea, and his mother always said to never be afraid to ask for help. "Alright, can I join Team Instinct?"
"Wait," Spark of all people interrupted with a curious look on his face. "I'm just curious, why did you choose the Instinct Gym when in reality, both Mystic and Valor Gyms are more popular?"
In response to that, Ash thought back to his experience with that weird group of people that tried to sway him heavily into going into one of the gyms before and explained it to the Instinct Gym Leader.
"What!?" Spark seemed shocked and insulted after hearing that. "Now hold on a second! I admit that some of Blanche and Candela's followers are a bit zealous, but they shouldn't turn you away from seeing how great they are! I would like you to choose my team after seeing what the others have to fully offer!"
"Spark!?" Now it was Jana's turn to be surprised as she yelled to her leader. "Are you sure it's a good idea to turn away potential new members when Instinct has the lowest membership among all three Teams?"
"Come on, Jana, Ash should have a proper non-biased choice on which team he wants to join and that means that he should see the best what my friends have to offer!" Spark turned to Ash. "Please allow me to take you to meet my best friends. I wouldn't want you to make a hasty decision without knowing everything about all three teams since we don't allow anyone to switch over even if they quit."
Ash was surprised about that little tidbit. "O-Okay. What exactly is the difference between the teams?"
"Gimme a sec," Spark quickly dove back into a pile of incubators and after a few seconds, came back out with like half a dozen incubators attached to his back with rope. "Okay! Sorry about that, I always make sure to take some of these guys with me when I'm going out of the gym. Now, what was your question again?"
Briefly, Ash wondered how eccentric the other two were if Spark was this weird.
There were three figures in a dark alleyway.
"Ugh! Why are we doing this in the middle of the day!? There are too many trainers and the Gym Leaders of all three Public Kanto Teams are only a few blocks from each other!" One shouted before kicking a can with enough force to pierce a hole through solid brick of an abandoned house.
"Their advantage is also their weakness." This person raised a palm that started to glow. The can came back out of the hole and the shattered bricks fixed themselves as if it was never broken in the first place.
The can rolled to a third person's foot. Then they picked it up and made the aluminum item stand up on their pinky finger and spun it in place. "Sword is right, Morph. Our mission is not to wage war, but for reconnaissance. The last thing we want to do is alert some of the strongest trainers in Kanto, sans the Elite Four and Champion that we exist." A loud crunching noise echoed through the area, yet an invisible force did act with no one touching the poor item. However, the can changed shape into that of a dagger with its point laying on the figure's pinky as if it wasn't even bothered.
This third figure flipped the aluminum blade and then threw it into the ground, shattering the aluminum item instantly. "Remember: after twelve years we've finally found traces of the dissenters. If our time is to come, they must be eliminated before they amass power to undo everything we've worked for. We are not here to make any mistakes."
The other two remained silent after that.
"Good. We will wait for Shield and Spear to secure an escape route and then proceed as planned, are we clear?"
They nodded.
"Hey, Rattata!?" The three snapped their head towards one of the entrances. There, a child just ran in looking frantically around.
"Rattata? Rattata, where are you!?" the small boy looked around the alleyway, but so no sign of any living thing, let alone a small rat.
All that was in that dirty alleyway was some kind of shattered silver stuff scattered on the ground.
"We'll stop by here first." Spark motioned to Ash as he pointed towards the Mystic Gym.
Ash thought that besides the colors, the buildings looked exactly the same. Boy, was he wrong on that! The Mystic Gym was more filled with people than the Instinct Gym was and it was filled state of the art equipment!
There were people on hoverboards, devices that looked straight out of something from a Sci-fi movie, and he even swore he saw people battling hologram Pokémon? Not only Pokémon but there were these huge-eight-foot tall, sleek and thin, robots that seemed to act like mobile training dummies. It was really like something out of a sci-fi movie.
Spark lightly elbowed Ash out of his stupor. "Pretty cool huh? Blanche has always been the brainiac of our group. They've collected technology over the world in helping their research on evolution."
That is super cool, but at the same time— "… Why don't you have any of this stuff, Spark?"
Ash noticed Spark starting to sweat profusely. He then suddenly laughed in a way that seemed forced, "W-Well it's not like I spend my funding on incubators for more eggs! Ahahaha…"
The leader of Team Instinct started coughing all of a sudden when he noticed Ash and his Pokémon staring at him. "Okay, let's go inside."
Despite being the leader of a rival Team, a lot of people from Team Mystic seemed to respect Spark. The two along with Ash's Pokémon ended up walking into an elaborate room with a giant holo map of the entire region with a blue-themed androgynous person with white hair and tanned skin looking over it while holding a high-tech tablet.
"Hello, Spark," the person began as they never took their eyes off the tablet or the holo map, seemingly processing data. "To what do I owe this surprise visit? I doubt you got your head stuck in a Shelder again."
"Thanks again for that!" Spark happily said instead of saying that he wouldn't do it again.
Blanche, the Leader of Team Mystic, sighed and turned around with a small smile. "I guess you wouldn't be you if not for that. Who is your friend?"
Spark lightly slapped Ash's back as he said, "This here is Ash, and I'm showing him around all the teams before he chooses!"
The white-haired gym leader looked to Ash with an unreadable stare before turning to Spark.
'Whoa, I didn't sense any emotion from her at all! ... Is it a girl? Or guy?' Riolu whispered near Ash's ear before Blanche spoke up.
"He came to you first? You should have recruited him to your team. You are the team with the lowest number of members." Spark's membership must have been a bigger problem than Ash thought if the rival team leader said the same thing as Jana a while ago.
"Come on, Blanche! It's fair he gets to know what each team offers first!"
Blanche sighed, obviously having similar conversations with their friend before that ended in a similar fashion. However, when Blanche looked at Ash the second time, they raised her brow and moved closer to stare at the boy.
"Uuhhhh?" Ash seemed a bit nervous at the intense stare.
Eventually, the white-haired scholar stood back up and placed a hand on their chin. "I feel like I've seen you before. By any chance were you one of Professor Oak's recent assistants?"
Ash was surprised that the leader knew that. Did they meet before? Wait, Spark said that he was originally the assistant of Professor… Willow…
The young teen snapped his fingers. "Oh! We actually met before! Two years ago when you visited Professor Oak's lab with Professor Willow! I forgot about that!"
"It's alright. We were only there for an hour since Pallet Town wasn't too far from Viridian. Have all four of you started your journey? It does explain why one of you asked to join team Mystic quite recently."
"Huh?" Ash was caught off guard by that. "One of my friends is here?" Who was it?
Blanche picked up the tablet again and pressed a few things on it. "Ms. Maria Indra Sundance."
Ash seemed to smile when he realized it was her. "You mean Mary? She's here? She's my best friend!" Out of the other three, Ash found getting along with Mary easiest of all, even if she was really weird sometimes.
"She's currently two floors below us. I could call her if you like?"
"Sure! I haven't seen her in a few days." Ash began with a smile.
Spark raised a thumbs up to Ash. "See? One of your friends already is in one of the teams!"
"Hmm…" Ash looked back to Blanche. "Do you know about Gary and Emily?"
The white-haired gym leader seemed thoughtful for a second before shaking her head. "No, I only met Ms. Sundance."
The door behind them opened up and instead of one person, there were three. One of them on the very right was a girl with brown hair with a short ponytail on top and brown eyes carrying a Piplup in her hands. She was wearing a blue T-shirt that had a Team Mystic Symbol on it, white shorts over black and blue leggings, pink shoes with black straps, white bows and soles, and she had a white bag pack with one strap tied in a knot.
On the left was a boy with gray eyes, and mid-length green hair with bangs. Unlike most people in the building, he seemed to be wearing normal clothes like a white short-sleeved dress shirt over a green long-sleeved undershirt, black trousers, black shoes with green soles, and a green backpack with connected straps. Riolu noticed that besides that young man was a Lucario who smiled and did a small wave at the same species.
And in the middle of the three, having grown in the past three years was Ash's friend, Maria Indra Sundance, or she preferred to be called, Mary. In the three years, her hair had grown long enough for her to have two front bangs on her side while the rest of her hair was tied up in an upper ponytail where the bottom of her hair still reached the top of her shoulders. She wore a light blue bell shirt, wore a light blue skirt above black-long pants, and wore white sneakers. There was a Charmander near her feet and she was carrying a large white duffel bag with Poké Balls on the ends.
Ash brightened when he saw his friend and waved. "Yo, Mary!"
The stylish, silver-haired girl's eyes widened as she saw a familiar face. "Ash!? What are you doing here!? I thought Professor Oak said he ran out of Pokémon!" She then noticed that Ash didn't have zero Pokémon, he had two on his shoulders.
Ash briefly explained how he and Riolu came to be after he overslept.
Mary sighed at the reason why she didn't see him that morning despite being super excited at wanting to go on his journey like the rest of them. "You overslept the one day you weren't supposed to?"
The young teen laughed as he rubbed his head. "Yeah! My bad!"
Blanche, seeing the two friends act like that, turned to Spark with a sense of understanding and annoyance.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Spark innocently asked, oblivious to how much that conversation would fit him and either her or Candela.
However, the studious leader of Team Mystic simply said, "You really should get that young man on your team."
Back with the conversation between the two Pallet Town kids, Mary smiled. "I am glad you got to start your journey after all, Ash! I really did try to wait for you but then I was left with Charmander here and he really seemed to like me and I couldn't really say…"
"It's alright, Mary!" Ash said. "I know you were really looking forward to this journey too! What kind of best friend would I be if I stopped you from doing that?" the boy said with a bright smile.
"Ooooh?" The girl that came in with Mary gave a mischievous smile as she grabbed Mary's shoulders from behind. "You didn't say that your best friend was a boy.~" Her smile could make a Gengar's smile look harmless and plain.
The silver-haired girl seemed to panic and quickly turned. "W-What!? I-I already told you, Verity!"
"Actually," The boy among the three that entered began. "You simply said on random occasions that there were things that reminded you of your friend which in turn almost constitutes as pinning for—"
"Aaha! AH! AH!" Mary suddenly waved her hands and started making weird sounds. "Sorrel!"
Sorrel seemed to take in the information and came up with something in his mind. "Ah, my apologies."
Mary groaned and buried her face in her hands.
Ash, and Spark, didn't seem to really notice the context of that conversation and instead greeted the other two. "Are you friends of Mary? My name is Ash Ketchum; it's nice to meet you! The two here are my friends Riolu and Spearow."
The brown haired girl giggled. "Yep! My name's Verity Verona and this here is Piplup!"
The green-haired young teen calmly introduced himself. "My name is Sorrel Decakles, and this is my partner Lucario." He finished as he addressed the other blue jackal Pokémon beside him.
Mary looked over to the Spearow who seemed to be staring very hard at her. "So Ash? I didn't know you already caught another Pokémon. I still didn't know which Pokémon I want in my team or not."
Ash laughed nervously. To be honest, it was more the other way around where Spearow wanted to join him. Not that he'd say it when she was in a good position to poke his eye out should he insult her or her honor.
"Oh that reminds me, how about Emily and Gary?"
The silver-haired girl blinked. "Oh. They already took and joined Team Valor's no-gym badge challenge and are heading to the next place with a gym. I stayed behind because there were some books here I wanted to read."
It was at this moment that Sorrel spoke up. "This is when we met her and seeing as some of our goals coincide, we decided to travel with her."
"Yep! Mary here is a great battler! We watched her earn her first badge here and it was awesome despite the type advantage against her!"
Ash started to think hard after hearing that all of his friends had a badge except him. "Hmmm… I really need to hurry then."
"Hurry?" Mary tilted her head slightly at the sentence. "Are you battling one of the gym leaders here?"
"Huh, yeah. After I get ten badges."
Ash responded simply. However, no sooner than he said that, everyone in the room except him and Spark had their eyes widen.
"WHAT!?"
"You're actually going for the ten-badge challenge!?" Verity's shock mirrored all the others in the room except Spark and Ash's Pokémon. "Are you crazy!?"
When Verity said this, she immediately backed off as Spearow started squawking loudly and scaring the brunette back. 'You dare challenge my honor!? I shall peck out your eyes for such an accusation of strength! Have at you!'
"No! Spearow, don't!" Ash said as he grabbed his new second Pokémon and tried to calm her down. Briefly, the young teen seemed to notice that other than him, no one seemed to understand what his Pokémon were saying.
While he did, Blanche turned to Spark.
"He wants to take the ten-badge challenge?"
"Yeah, I was surprised when he first asked about it too."
"Spark," The white-haired leader asked with a certain amount of seriousness. "Ash has never once given the impression he knows about us as much as the public usually does. Does he know how strong we really are?"
"Do you even realize how strong the Three Gym Leaders of Viridian City even are!?" Verity yelled back at Ash when Spearow was calmed down and told no one was challenging her honor.
"I heard they were around the Elite Four Level, and I wanna fight someone like that at their best!" Ash simply said.
"Wait Ash," Mary began a little nervous. "I don't think you know, but all three Gym Leaders have a Legendary Pokémon in their team!"
Flashes of the mysterious Pokémon that stopped the battle between Spearow's Clan and the Pidgey Clan came back into the mind of all three who were present there. Spark and the others had a Pokémon of that caliber in their team?
Ash turned towards Spark with a flat look and simply asked, "They do?"
Spark gave an equally disbelieving look. "I was surprised as you to find out I had a Legendary!"
Blanche slapped their forehead. "You didn't realize you were carrying a Legendary Pokémon for almost twenty years!" But then she sighed and looked at Ash. "But it is true. Candela and the two of us have had certain conditions met before we became the leaders we are today and one of them is the result of befriending legendary Pokémon. But I feel the need to state that it is not only our legendary Pokémon that makes us at the level we are now. All of us, even Spark, are capable of being capable trainers without them."
In response to that knowledge, Blanche, and everyone else was surprised to see Ash smile. "Really?! Now the more I want to battle you with your best team!"
"Aww shucks, Ash! You're making such a big deal out of it!" The Leader of the Instinct Team blushed and rubbed the back of his head.
Verity shouted again in disbelief. "Are you crazy!? You can't win against that!"
Ash turned toward his Pokémon first. "What do you two think?"
'To fight against a god!? Ambitious, heretical… yet how my pride as a warrior demands this challenge be met! I say we must prepare and get stronger!' Spearow declared, but again Ash noticed that almost everyone seemed to not understand her beyond the normal squawking… except… Sorrel was it? He seemed to be silently watching in the back.
Riolu said something as well. 'Hmm, I dunno. But at the same time, how cool would it be to meet another legendary!? I wanna see how that'll play out!'
Hearing both answers, Ash turned back to Verity. "Verity, I appreciate you saying that, but I am going to be the next Pokémon Master!" The young teen gripped his fist tightly and declared in such a way that didn't sound like an empty ego, but a determined fact. "How can I chase my dream and let go of a chance to fight against a Legendary Pokémon!?"
Everyone was stunned at the declaration. However, the first to act was Spark who seemed actually excited after the bold declaration. "Well, when you put it like that, I can't wait to battle you!"
There was a sigh from Mary before she gave a small smile towards Ash. "You really haven't changed at all these past three years, Ash."
"Oh, thanks?" Ash assumed that was a compliment. "You haven't changed much too, Mary."
Everyone but Ash and Spark noticed the sound of invisible glass shattering when Mary seemed to weakly freeze mid-smile.
"… Spark, let him join your team."
"But we haven't even gone to Cand—"
"Spark, let him join your team."
Blanche immediately repeated after Spark tried to ask.
Ash, obviously oblivious to Mary's predicament, then continued talking. "I mean, you're still that amazing person ever since we've been kids!"
It was at that instant that Mary moved from disappointing shock to a startling shock after hearing such earnest praise so easily. "T-T-Tha-Thank you?" She turned her face away from her childhood friend in which her travel companions noticed the amazingly red face of hers.
The raven-haired teen looked worriedly over to his friend. "Mary? Are you sick again? It kinda sounds like you have the same fever from three years ago."
(Aahh, youth.) Blanche sighed as she saw one of her newest members deny she was sick.
It was at this moment Verity squealed and then hugged the silver-haired girl. "Aww, that was so adorable! I can see why he's your best friend." She said with a familiar Cheshire smile.
"Verity!" Ms. Sundance half shrieked, half had her voice crack as she called out that name.
It was then that Spark heard his phone beeping and fished past one of the incubators he was carrying to fish it out. It seemed like he had a text message but then his eyes widened at what it was.
"The heck?" Spark began in a tone that was different from the usual jovial nature of the yellow leader, as everyone turned to him, he looked to Blanche. "Blanche, I got a message from you."
"Excuse me?" That surprised the Mystic Gym Leader. "I've been with you these past few minutes and I never made any motion to call you on your phone while you are right next to me."
It was then that all members of Team Mystic in the room suddenly had their phone ring at the same time. There was something ominous about that action since while the three were checking their phones, Blanche quickly looked at Spark. "What is the message?" She asked with urgency.
The fellow Gym Leader read aloud what was on his phone. "Spark, there are some anomalies in my new security system that need immediate action. As such, when you see The Mystic Gym in Lockdown mode, do not panic, it is simply an inconvenient and unplanned drill."
Sorrel raised his hand and showed his phone. "Leader, we just had a similar message sent to us about the same Lockdown happening."
"What!?" Blanche cried out. "There are no anomalies in the security system!"
And then suddenly the lights and power of the room were cut and every one was found in complete darkness.
"So umm," Ash seemed to speak up in the darkness. "I may not be the sharpest knife in the crayon box, but I think this might constitute as one?"
Suddenly, the room lit up with red lights and sirens blared around the room. Blanche hurriedly ran for the holo map in the middle of her office and quickly activated it. No sooner than she did, around a hundred or so pop-ups came, all of them with mass warning signs as sirens started to blare.
"I'm being hacked!" She cried as she started to type down on a nearby holo keyboard. "Something has bypassed all my security systems somehow and is trying to delete all my research and data!"
Everyone started to panic as Blanche said that. However, the Mystic team Leader far showed signs of defeat on their face. "I concede that you did well, hacker, but that is all I'm letting you do!" Their typing became more furious, and as it did some of the pop-ups started to leave. The screen showed a 3D image of the gym they were in. On one floor, there was a beeping red light.
Seeing that, Blanche quickly turned around. "Spark, the hackers are inside the building! It's the only way how they were able to spring such an attack without any of my firewalls activating to warn me! The hackers have me cornered here, but with that message, they obviously didn't expect you to be here, so please stop them!"
Spark quickly placed all the eggs he was carrying down on the floor and looked unnaturally serious. "You got it, come on guys!" Spark said as started to lead the four kids toward the area on the map.
"Mary, Verity, Sorren, go to the main lobby and alert the rest of your team about what's really happening!" It spoke volumes that even though he wasn't their leader, the three quickly followed what he had said. Ash and his Pokémon ran and ran until they reached one of the main libraries of Blanche's Headquarters.
There was a person seemingly chilling in front of the main doors to the library. "Oh hey, what's up?"
"Look," Spark began as he pointed to the door. "I need you to move, the HQ is under a cyber attack and Blanche traced them back here!"
To the surprise of Ash, the Mystic member started laughing. "Oh, that's a good one, sir! We already got the message that this was a surprise drill!"
"It's no joke! I need you to move out of the way!" Spark began.
Before anything could be said, there was a growling sound that caught their attention. Everyone turned to Riolu who was usually so docile, and was now glaring and snarling angrily at the mystic member.
Ash instantly got what his Pokémon was implying with his actions and pointed. "Spark, he's with the hackers!"
"Damn, I wasn't expecting a Riolu!" The fake Mystic member instantly said as he dropped his façade. However, before he could reach for something in his pockets, he was suddenly shocked by a bolt of lightning before Ash could blink.
The young teen was surprised that already five Pokémon were out on Spark's side: a Jolteon, Magmar, Tangela, Raichu, and a Pidgeot.
Next, all Spark did was point toward the door before his five Pokémon blasted the doors down.
The library itself was huge, and in the distance in front of a large computer screen was a cloaked man touching something that seemed to access some kind of file.
There was a sigh shown by the body language of this hooded figure, but they didn't move or turn around. "What was the phrase again? The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men/ Gang aft a-gley."
"What?" Ash tilted his head before both he and Spark noticed another hooded figure walk in the path between them and the one near a computer.
"My ally is simply saying we didn't expect the Leader of Team Instinct to make a surprise visit. How unfortunate, but all the same. We cannot let you interfere." As the hooded figure lifted his head a little, there was a glow of purple where the man's eyes would be.
"More than interfere," Ash, Spark, and their Pokémon turned around to see the Fake Mystic member back up as if he was never attacked at all. However, he did start moving around his jaw as if the shock had damaged him more on that than anything else. "We're making sure none of you live. …That was a cheap shot, bastard."
"Who are you people? You're definitely not Team Rocket." Spark began as he noticed the situation around him.
"Do you really think we're going to answer that question? It's two-on-one!" The fake man began.
Ash began to frown as it was obvious he wasn't counted. Unfortunately, he didn't really have a way to refute that.
"Ash," The teen looked at Spark as he noticed a very serious look on his face he never saw before. "Aim for the guy in the computer. Whatever's he doing, stop it. I'll cover you the entire time."
"Oh please, that kid won't be long in this world!" To the surprise of both Spark and Ash, the fake Mystic member threw six Pokémon balls out… then his body started to run into liquid! A Houndoom, Trevenant, Beedrill, Ariados, Shiftry, and Purugly appeared from the spheres, yet the man who turned into liquid seemed to reform into that of an Exploud.
"What the—did he transform into another Pokémon?!" Ash cried out in surprise before he saw Spark throw his hand out.
"Ash, move!" The blonde Leader of team instinct cried out before pushing the kid. As he did, a slash of purple energy cut through the area Ash was in previously and even blasted through the wall back in the hallway.
"Yep," Spark began as he stretched his fingers and looked towards the second cloaked figure who now was holding a glowing purple blade of energy. "You guys are definitely not Team Rocket."
The hooded stranger wielding a purple construct spun his blade before taking a sword stance with his hand pressed out and the blade above his head. Then—instantly teleported above the back of Spark with his blade ready to cleave his head off.
With amazing speed, Spark ducked, and a vine shot outright for the man mid-air before he teleported again and slid near the Exploud.
Ash noticed the tense air between Spark, his team, and the strange people with superhuman abilities. However, that was not his job to sit and gawk. "Riolu, Spearow, come on!" Ash cried out as he and his Pokémon ran for the guy in front of the computer.
Noticing the boy, the figure on the computer grunted. "The Leader of Team Mystic is better at handling my cyber attack than I thought. I need full concentration while Sword and Morph are obviously going to be warded away by the Instinct Leader."
"Spearow, Aerial Ace!" Ash pointed for the flying type to start looping mid-air then suddenly vanish. However, the boy and the others didn't know that there were already objects moving toward the hacker.
Instead of hitting the intended target, Spearow ended up ramming right into a humanoid-looking robot like the ones Ash saw in the outside lobby of the Mystic Headquarters. It dented the outer shell of the bot's torso, but it still stood at a towering eight feet tall height and tried to grab the flying type until she backed off.
"These combat sentries of the Mystic Team's practice room should hold you off a little longer." The man on the computer stated as he seemingly continued to fish the computer. Around two other Sentries walked up and all glowed with the intent to attack Ash.
Riolu dashed forward and hit one of the robots square in the face with a Force Palm. The attack dented the face somewhat, but the giant robot quickly motioned an arm to grab the small fighting type, only for the Emanation Pokémon to slip out before being caught.
Spearow continued fighting the one she first attacked. But it seemed like, despite her speed, the robot was adapting to her attacks like the other one was soon adapting to Riolu's.
Ash was about to give an order until the last robot came up and actually tried to punch him into the ground. The raven-haired boy avoided the fist, but he noticed the obvious crater where he was originally standing.
"Man, maybe those movies where robots take over humanity might have been on to something." Ash quipped before he rolled to dodge another strike from the robot.
The trainer started to run, but not just run, survey the area around him while the chaos was going around. Riolu and Spearow were struggling against their robot attackers. Spark and his Pokémon were in heavy battle with the attacker's allies. And it seemed like the robot chasing after him was not relenting beyond attacking him.
Wait, he could use that to his advantage. Ash flipped his cap backward and ran, running like he never ran before deeper into the library.
'Fleshy, where are you going?!' Spearow cried out before ducking from another swipe of the machine.
Riolu fired a Vacuum Wave right for the joint knee of the robot he was facing, forcing it to stagger and fall. He then used that pause to shout back at Spearow, 'Trust him! He has a plan!"
Meanwhile, the fight between Spark and the other super-powered beings and their Pokémon raged on. Despite being outnumbered, Team Instinct's Pokémon were keeping pace with that of the opponent's and even had a slight advantage. Their teamwork was far better than their opponents; however, even while things were getting destroyed, it still seemed like neither side could pull off a divisive move.
"Sword!" The Exploud turned into a Bisahrp and pointed at the man wielding the energy blade. "What are you doing!? Finish it already; he doesn't have a dark type!"
The hooded figure raised a palm toward Spark and his Pokémon. To the surprise of many, psychic energy shot out and held them all in place.
"P-Psychic!?" Spark managed to blurt out.
"I was waiting for you to bring your full team, but then I realized you cannot bring out your strongest Pokémon without harming the other people in this building," Sword spoke out. "However, it seems that even while you are here, you posed no real threat to us with these many people being our unwitting hostages."
The Bisharp laughed as he threw his blade hand out while all his other Pokémon had this dark glint in their eyes. "Now I think I'll start by scarring that pretty face of yours!"
However, Sword suddenly dropped his hold when he swung his blade and used it to cut a large book thrown his way.
Bisharp and his Pokémon turned to see Ash's Riolu picking up large books from the library, tossing them in the air while avoiding the sentry, then in one fluid motion, performing three powerful kicks to send the books flying right toward the figure called Sword!
Sword easily cut the three books, but this allowed him to drop his hold and allow Spark and his Pokémon to get back on the offensive.
Mid-air, Riolu smiled at what he accomplished but then noticed the sentry jumping out to reach for him while he couldn't move out of the way. However, Spearow flew in and was able to whisk the fighting type away before he could get caught.
Riolu, while being carried by Spearow and being chased by the two sentries, had his eyes widened. 'Spearow! Ash has a plan for us! Keep moving and I'll tell you about it!'
Back in the main computer, the hacker seemed to work frantically to download something.
"Damn. They brought back mass communications." The hacker said. "Fine. That was not our purpose but it does cut our time window considerably. I'll simply lock down the hallways on this floor. That should buy us enough time to complete the download…wait. What is that bloody sound—"
"Hello!" Ash cried out as he ran past the hacker and stopped right at his side with a smile.
The hacker raised an arm in front of the teen. The arm started charging up a Zap Cannon attack near the boy's face. "Be gone, child, these robes are quite hard to clean when there's a mess."
Yet to the surprise of the hacker, he noticed Ash was not at all worried. Surprised, caught off guard? Maybe… but he was still staying place.
That was when he heard the sound of metal behind him.
The hacker had forgotten he had set the Sentry to attack the boy and get rid of anything in its way. In this case: that was him.
As soon as the hacker turned, he was swatted aside and away from the computer by the Sentry robot he programmed to ward off the teen. In this case, he could practically feel the sting of Irony—or actual plated steel— in this situation before he flew into the wall.
"Z!" Two of the protectors cried out as they saw their ally get attacked and Sword teleported right for the man, cutting the strength tying down Spark and his team.
"Oh wow, that worked!" Ash cried out in surprise as he jumped back from the large robot trying to stomp him like a bug. That was part one of his plan, now for part two. "Spearow, Riolu, now!" He cried out before he realized his back had hit one of the book stands—which momentarily stopped his movement.
The robot towered over Ash with both of its massive arms overhead with the intent to crush the boy. Yet in a blink of an eye, Riolu ridding on top of Spearow rammed into the side of the robot with their speed and attacks. The combined weight of both Pokémon at the speed they were going, caused the robot's side to be completely dented in and fall to its side.
Ash released a gasp he didn't know he was holding and looked at his Pokémon with a relieved smile. "It's a good thing Professor Oak had me study velocity and weight while working as his assistant."
The three looked back to their right where the other two sentries were catching up with them. 'It's going to be really hard to pull that same build-up-speed tactic on those guys if we really want to beat them!' Riolu cried out.
Meanwhile, Sword picked up Z. "Are you alright?!"
"Ugh!" The other figure gasped as he got back up. "I'm fine! But my head is ringing!"
Suddenly, the shift-shaper and his Pokémon were found to be regrouping and facing Spark and his Pokémon.
"Z, tell me you did the damn thing!" Morph cried out as he then started to transform into an Alakazam. "I can sense the lockdown undoing itself! We've run out of time!"
"I-I did." Z stood up as he and his teammates looked on to the incoming leader of Team Instinct.
"There's no way I'm letting you all escape!"
Z put one of his hands out as if he was about to snap his fingers. "You don't get that choice." Then he did snap them together. The sound made the two sentries chasing after Ash freeze.
"Warning, Self destruct in 3…" Ash and his Pokémon looked in surprise at the frozen robots before trying to run. Spark noticed how the robots were now chasing the young teen and then noticed the hackers starting to gather psychic energy to teleport out of there.
"2…" Spark didn't have a choice. He turned and pointed towards the robots chasing Ash. "Guys, save Ash and stop those bots!"
"1…"
"0."
Everyone in Viridian City noticed the explosion come out of Team Mystic's base.
Blanche had finally entered the Main Library with a majority of her team members behind her. To the surprise of many, there was now a gaping hole that looked out into the city with both Spark and Ash looking through it with their Pokémon.
"You know," Spark began as they looked out to the view of the city and heard the sounds of sirens coming their way. "I still haven't brought you to Candela yet."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. What's she like?" Ash seemed to continue the mundane conversation despite their current situation.
"Funny thing is that she's usually more exciting than Blanche." The blonde man turned his head around and then did a small wave to his fellow Team Leader who was walking up to them. "Sorry, Blanche, they got away."
Ash turned around and bowed. "I'm sorry, it was mostly my fault."
"It's alright. Things would have been much worse had you two not been here in the first place. Still… did you find any sign of who they were?"
The two trainers looked at each other before looking back to the leader of Team Mystic. "They all had superpowers."
"… What?"
"Ash!" Mary, followed by her friends, ran up to her friend with obvious worry on her face. "Are you alright?"
The raven-haired boy nodded. "Yeah, guess all those self-defense classes that Emily's Uncle put us through actually paid off after all." The young teen laughed.
"Oh my gosh, Ash, I was worried! These sounded like terrorists and you were already facing them!? What if they decided to kill you and not play around? Are you sure you aren't bleeding anywhere?" Mary cried out as she went closer to Ash and seemed to study the slightly dusty boy if he was actually hurt and just didn't notice.
"Mary, I'm alright—"
"But you couldn't have been!" She shouted back with her eyes near tears. "I was worried for you! What could I say to your mother if you had gotten hurt here!? You're always so reckless!"
The teen actually flinched at how dear her words had been. He had forgotten about his mother for a second. If anything did happen to him, what would happen to her? Ash lowered his head slightly in shame. "S-Sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry."
The silver-haired girl seemed to flinch when she saw the usually chipper boy down in the dumps. "I-I am sorry. I didn't mean to snap like that."
Ash returned a small but earnest smile. "No, it's fine. I have always been reckless out of all of us. Thanks, Mary, you're always looking out for me. You're a great friend."
Usually, hearing that last word sometimes gave her a weird and upsetting feeling. However, this time she felt a warmth and ease when Ash spoke so sincerely again. Mary had the need to move some of her hair behind her ear before she looked back down at the floor. "… You're a great friend too. And I'm not saying that you shouldn't rush into danger when someone is in trouble… but please try your best to stay safe?"
The raven-haired teen smiled wide. "Aww come on, Mary, you know I don't purposely try to hurt myself."
The silver-haired girl seemed to relax a little more. "I seem to recall that one time when you tried to ride a Ryhorn down a mountain path." She said with accusation rather than pointing out a fact.
"Okay in my defense, I really thought it was a great idea at the time."
It was then that despite that little outburst, Mary found herself laughing. Even though a scary life-and-death experience, Ash was still Ash thankfully. He's probably not going to stop having these strange events happening, but at the same time, it was usually better for him than for anyone else. She was still going to worry, and she probably still would—as would his mom. But it was nice to know that Ash really did have a good heart.
"Daww, I didn't know Mary could act so cute!~" Verity cooed as she watched her friend act like a mother hen towards her friend after the rather personal back and forth.
Sorrel smiled but sighed and shook his head at his friend's reaction. Who exactly were those people that could organize an attack who were considered indisputably the strongest Gym Leaders in Kanto?
And more importantly…
The green-haired teen walked up to Blanche who looked at him with some amount of curiosity. "Yes, Sorrel?"
The green-haired young man inhaled, making everyone look at him seriously. He then asked plainly and clearly, "Leader, what exactly was the purpose of the cyber attack and infiltration?"
"… I'd have to check. As soon as the cyber attack ended, I saved the files and made my way here. I do not know what the purpose of this attack was."
Inside an inconspicuous truck, three people were in the back, silently waiting on the vehicle's floor.
In the driver's seat of the truck, there were two people, one driving and one riding beside him.
"So, Larry, how are the kids?" The driver asked the one next to him without taking his eyes off the road and traffic.
One of the members inside the truck seemed to be the one to respond to the driver. "All things considered, not as bad as it looked despite us actually alerting Kanto's finest of our existence."
Morph seemed to scoff at the answer. "We were made complete fools by baby-faced children! Powerful trainer or no, we should have been able to kill all those against us, but we lost to some slacker and a brat!"
"The kids are fine. Shelia is thinking about getting a Poochyena for them to play with." The one next to the driver spoke in response to that. It didn't take much to figure out that the two in front were pretending to have a conversation with each other to further hide the fact there were people behind them.
"Regardless," Z began as he lifted up a USB drive. "We have the system software we need. Now it's only a matter of time until we find the traitor and where he hid the heretics."
As the sun was setting, Ash and his Pokémon stood in front of Spark inside the front courtyard of the Instinct Gym after a really long day. "So, I decided I wanna join Team Instinct."
"Oh thank Arceus." From the side, Jana gasped in relief to which made Spark smile earnestly.
"Thanks for joining Team Instinct, Ash! I think you'd make a great member!" The leader of Team Instinct declared before Jana came in with a box that she handed to Ash.
"That box has a few things inside like just some shirts, shorts, and caps with our symbol on it. You don't have to wear them but just know they're there," Spark fished his pockets and took out a fancy cylindrical device that was just twice the size of a Poké Ball. "This gadget is a Portable Storage Access or PSA."
The teen took the object and scanned it carefully. To his surprise, it felt rather light, but he could tell the technology was something like the most up-to-date technology. "What is it?"
"You've heard of the Pokémon Storage System, yeah?"
"The one the famous Bill made?" Ash did recall Professor Oak mentioning it to him several times. His Pokémon Storage system was invaluable to every trainer in the world… according to Professor Oak. He just took the man's word for it.
Spark nodded. "Blanche, Professor Willow, and Bill worked to create a portable version of that system for anyone joining Teams Instinct, Valor, and Mystic. You can still only carry Six Pokémon at a time, but now you can switch any of them any time you want."
That now meant that a trainer with that could travel with his entire party at his disposal if he wanted to. That was a really cool gadget.
Jana started speaking up again. "There are also a few books inside the box you are carrying that are just formal stuff about being in the Team Instinct organization. And there's a Poké Nav you can use for the purpose of having an easier time accessing the data that Team Instinct has."
"Wow, can I really have all this stuff?" Ash asked in awe at what he received.
"I told you there were perks of joining a public organization." The older member of Team Instinct nodded as she said this.
"Thanks a lot! This is really great!" The teen said before looking up at the sky. "I gotta go now. I'm long due for a phone call."
"Alright, good luck, Ash!" The Leader of Team Spark and his friend waved goodbye as the young teen left, now an official member of a team.
…
Despite his earlier act of bravery earlier that day, Ash Ketchum was somewhat hesitant when he sat in front of a public video phone in the Pokémon Center.
'Why are you just staring at nothing?' Spearow tilted her head as she pointed to the screen. 'Is this some kind of fleshy tradition or something?'
Ash sighed. "Sorta… but it's also something I gotta do." The teen pressed some numbers and then waited a bit.
The screen popped to life, signaling that the person he was calling was answering the phone. "Ash?"
The raven-haired teen gave a genuine smile when seeing this person. "Hey mom, you would not believe what happened these past few days."
+Author Notes+
So yeah, some world building, some plot introduction, some character development, but surprisingly… no official trainer battles yet and I'm three chapters in a Pokémon fic. Is there a record for that?
I thought I'd briefly explain my inclusion of the three teams from the Pokémon Go phone game. The idea of actually having a 'good' team in the Pokémon world really interested me. Teams Valor, Mystic, and Instinct got me wondering what kind of impact they would have on the world if they were put into like the major game worlds. It opens up a lot of new branching out in world building that is like new territory. Hopefully, I can write it so people still enjoy it.
An introduction to some of the antagonists of this story! Of course, they're laying low for now, so there isn't much known about them. Though it is weird that the trainers of their ranks actually have super powers like teleporting, shape shifting, and the ability to control machines and such? How and why do they have powers like Pokémon?
Lastly, the OCs. I'm a little on the fence about this since this is one of the most stigmatized things in Fanfiction. To be fair, it usually deserves most of its stigma, but I sincerely do enjoy OCs that are amazingly well written. And I hope you are enjoying the OCs I have now.
Maria Indra Sundance, or Mary for short, is the more obvious one as she's the first OC that I've decided to develop and half introduce first.
To some of you, she may seem like a Serena Clone, and I did base some things off her, but I promise that she is more involved with the story plot instead of being just a potential romantic interest.
Emily, and even Gary affect the overall story plot of what I have planned.
Like I said, I wanted to do my own personal spin on the Pokémon Journey stories that you see a lot here in Fanfiction. Anyway, please review, Follow, Favorite this story. Thanks.