AN: Thank you to Dwayne -Tails-Junior for the idea!
Prologue
The wind clawed angrily at the raven haired boy's face, but he didn't care. He had to get his companion back. He reached behind his belt and fingered one of the tiny capsules. The deep pink haired woman in front of him did the same. He tightened his hold on a singular ball. The woman, with a smirk on her face, pulled out hers.
"Go, Seviper!" she yelled, throwing the ball onto the battlefield. The ball grew bigger in mere seconds and produced a black snake-like creature from it. "Seviper," it hissed. The raven-haired boy copied her smirk. "Go, Donphan!"
The woman furrowed her brow as sweat dripped down her forehead. She decided to call an offence first. She looked up at the giant snake. "Seviper," she called. The creature looked back at her obediently. "Use haze!" The creature nodded and sprayed out a cloud of black smoke out onto the battlefield.
The boy frowned. "Donphan, lay down and use rapid spin!" The elephant-like creature layed down on it's side and performed the attack, causing it to create a sand tornado, and blow away the black smoke. The woman fidgeted nervously with her satin gloves. "Seviper, dig!" she commanded, as the snake drilled a hole in the ground and went in it.
"Stay on alert Donphan," The raven haired boy eased the creature. Donphan nodded. Suddenly, the ground behind the elephant blew up, and outside came Seviper. "Tackle!" The woman yelled. Seviper used its head to tackle the stone elephant, and the creature flew across the field."Donphan!" The boy screeched worriedly.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps behind his back. "Misty chooses Staryu!" Another ball was thrown onto the field, though this time, it revealed a star-shaped creature adorned with jewels. A redhead popped out from behind the raven-haired boy. "Misty?" he spoke dazedly. The redhead, Misty, winked at him. "Don't worry. I got this, Ash!" she told him.
She turned back to the battlefield. "Staryu, use watergun!" she yelled. The pokémon tilted its upper point towards the large snake and sprayed out a stream of water at its face. Seviper gasped as it tried to push back, though failed and ended up getting soaked and laying on the ground.
"Seviper! Get up!" The pink haired woman cried. A blue haired man tapped her shoulder. "Jessie, we have to go," he whispered. The woman scrunched her nose angrily. "No way! Now, I've got to beat them! You know, James, maybe if you helped me, we'd be winning right now!" she scolded him. James sighed and enlarged his capsule. "Go, Cacturne!" he yelled.
The ball produced a tall creature with spikes that made it resemble a cactus. "Cacturne, use pin missile!" The creature held out it's arms and started firing shiny needles from it's spikes at Donphan. Jessie smirked. "Seviper, use iron tail on Staryu!" She pointed at the star shaped pokémon. Misty and Ash both looked at their pokémon. "Dodge!"
Donphan and Staryu quickly jumped out of the way. "Staryu," "Donphan," Misty and Ash looked at each other simultaneously. "Rapid spin!" Staryu turned itself horizontally and started rotating in the air like a frisbee. It quickly ran into Seviper, who screeched in pain. Donphan quickly curled up into a ball and tackled Cacturne, who in turn, rolled back from the force. "Cacturne!" James yelled. "Use bullet seed!" Cacturne spit out seeds from its mouth. Misty smirked.
"Staryu, use psychic and turn the bullet seed right back!" she commanded. "Hya!" Staryu yelled as it complied to its trainer's wishes. The bullet seed blew up both, Jessie and James, along with their pokémon and a cat-like creature. "We're blasting off again!" they yelled as they flew up. Misty and Ash waved them goodbye. "See ya," Misty smirked.
Ash looked around. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "Pikachu!" He grinned, opening his arms out for the little rodent to jump into. Sure enough, he complied. "Pikachaa~" he nuzzled his nose into his trainer's neck. Ash smiled and pet the mouse. "You good buddy?" he asked. Pikachu nodded.
Misty smiled and looked up to the sky, as her expression changed into a frown. "Ash," she called. "We better get going. I think it's about to rain," Ash followed her gaze and nodded slowly. "Yeah, let's go," he said, jogging up to where the redhead was.
He looked down at the young woman with whom he'd travelled with when they were just kids. "What're you doing here in Sinnoh, Misty?" he asked. The fiery gym leader faced him, smiling. "Well, my sisters decided that they wanted to take a break from their world tour since they weren't getting their 'beauty sleep' " Misty rolled her eyes as Ash chuckled. "So they came back to the gym and said that they would take responsibility for it again. So, I decided I'd travel around on my own for a while." she explained.
Ash nodded and gave her his signature lopsided grin. "Well," he started. "You wouldn't mind a travelling partner now, would you?" he asked hopefully. Misty giggled. "No, not at all," she smiled brightly. Ash's eyes widened and he blushed a little and looked away. Misty stared at him curiously. "Are you alright?" she asked. Ash nodded quietly, not saying a word as they entered the Pokémon Centre. Suddenly, he felt a pressure on his chest.
"Ow…" A familiar female voice in front of him complained. Ash blinked. "May?" The brunette in front of him looked up, placing the voice immediately. "Ash?" she spoke uncertainly. Ash swallowed and nodded. May grinned. "Ash!" she threw her arms around him as a friendly gesture. "May! It's been so long!" Ash smiled. "How have you been doing?"
May smiled. "Well, you know, just…this and that," she said. "And, I've been travelling with-" she paused as she looked behind the raven-haired boy. "Misty? Is that you?" she asked. Misty laughed and nodded. May's eyes lit up with excitement. "Awesome! So nice to see you again, Mist!" she hugged her friend. Misty responded back immediately. "Me too, May. Me too," she murmured.
"So, what's going on here?"
The group turned back to see a very tall green haired male tapping his foot impatiently. Ash blinked. "Um. Who are you?" The man smirked. "What? It hasn't even been three years man. Forgot me already?" Ash looked closer before his eyes lit up with recognition. "Drew!" he placed. The green haired teen applauded him. "So nice to see that you remembered," he spoke sarcastically.
Ash laughed and shook his head as he went in for a hug. "Bro, you got so tall, how the hell was I supposed to recognize you?" he grinned. Drew chuckled. "I don't know dude, my face?" Ash snorted. "Yeah, probably," he laughed. Drew smiled. Ash looked up at the clock. "Guys," he turned to Misty and May. "Why don't you go get a table? I'll be right back; I have to call my mom," he said. They nodded. "Sure," May grabbed Drew's arm and led him through the door.
Misty stayed behind. "Do you mind if I said hello?" she asked hopefully. Ash smiled softly. "Nah, of course not," Misty grinned. "Thanks," she said, looking into his eyes. The raven haired boy stared into her cerulean eyes as he shifted closer. "Mhm," Suddenly, a man pushed past Ash, making him fall on Misty. He got up immediately, his face bright red. "S-sorry,"
Misty giggled. "It's quite alright, Ash," she walked up to the videophone and tapped in Delia's number. Ash chuckled a little and sat beside her. A few seconds later, a black screen with white writing showed up on the tiny screen. "The participant on the other line is unavailable. Please try again later, thank you." Ash and Misty exchanged worried glances. That wasn't normal; Delia was always there to talk.
"Let's try again," Ash suggested, tapping in Delia's number again. "It's probably just a glitch," he said, trying to ease the wave of uneasiness that had spread across the room. "Y-yeah," Misty forced a smile. A few minutes later, the same screen showed up.
"Okay, this isn't normal…" Ash replied worriedly. "Hey, Ash," The redhead pointed to the muted T.V where the news was playing. "Look," Ash squinted as he struggled to see the subtitles, though he read the headline clearly: "New Cult Arises In A Attempt To Rule Over All Pokémon: Kanto Is First." he read fearfully. Meanwhile, Misty had already approached Nurse Joy. "Hey Nurse Joy," she called. The nurse scurried over to the front desk. "Yes?" she asked politely. "Is it possible to turn up the volume?" Misty asked. "Sure," the nurse turned up the volume.
"A new cult called Team Peoples has arose: Kanto has been the first victim to be attacked. Southwestern Kanto has been wounded hugely, and some have even been taken captive. It is predicted that…"