"Huh, that's… weird," Ash said. "I wonder where we are?"

"You wonder where we are," Pikachu replied. "I suppose that's on form for you, Ash."

"Hey, that's cool!" Ash realized. "Pikachu, I can understand you better now!"

He frowned. "Also, uh… hey!"

Pikachu stuck his tongue out.

"But, seriously, this is kind of weird, right?" Ash asked. "We just… ended up on a beach."

"Yeah, true," Pikachu agreed. "I can remember something like this happening a few times, but the combination of things is new… I wonder where the others are."

"Yeah!" Ash said. "If the others ended up lost all over this place, we'll need to find them! And then we'll need to find out how to get back home!"

He shrugged. "Or, at least, be able to send messages back home. Or maybe we are home, just in the past. Or the future! One of the two, possibly both. But it's more important to find out how to get home if the others aren't here, because they might be getting worried."

Ash took a step, and fell over.

"Oof," he said, rolling over onto his back and spitting out sand. "I didn't expect that to happen."

"That's because you're not used to walking on four legs, Ash," Pikachu told him. "You're going to have to get used to it now."

"How is that possible?" someone asked.

Ash and Pikachu both looked over, and after an embarrassed noise an Eevee came out from behind a rock.

"Sorry," she said. "I was… just passing by, but… um. How exactly can a Shinx not be used to walking on four legs?"

"Oh, I wasn't always a Shinx," Ash replied, rolling back upright. "In fact, I used to be a human until, uh, maybe five minutes ago? Maybe less? I don't remember the change though, I was just suddenly a Shinx."

"Humans aren't real, right?" the Eevee said. "I don't think they're real…"

"Maybe not here," Ash replied. "Uh. Maybe this is before humans showed up wherever here is, if Celebi or Dialga sent us back in time. Or maybe this is somewhere where humans don't exist, and any human coming here gets turned into a Pokémon by magic!"

He inspected himself. "I guess I'd have expected to be a Pikachu if it was magic, though, that's more like what I'd expect. Anyway, if you're local, do they have gyms here?"

"...what's a gym?" the Eevee asked.

Ash looked suddenly crestfallen.

"There aren't any gyms here?" he asked. "What about… totem trials? Challenges? Are there Battle Facilities?"

"There's Crossroad Town?" the Eevee told them, now confused. "What are all those things you're talking about?"

"They're the best!" Ash said. "A gym is where a trainer and their Pokémon challenge the Gym Leader, as a kind of test of how good the trainer and Pokémon combination is at battling at the right skill level! It's a great way to push yourself and your team to grow further, past where they were before, and if you get eight badges from a region you get to take part in the Pokémon League – and beating that means you get to face the Elite Four, and then the Champion. I'm the Alola Champion, and Pikachu was with me when I became the World Monarch!"

He sniggered. "I bet Dragonite would love to give me a hug now, right? I'm smaller which means it's a different kind of hug. And she loves giving everyone hugs."

"That's true," Pikachu agreed. "She would."

Eevee looked completely lost.

"I understood only some of the words of that explanation," she told them. "What's a trainer? What's a gym leader? What's a world monarch? A Champion? Is Alola a place or a thing? What's an Elite Four?"

"You don't even know what a trainer is?" Ash asked, then slapped his forehead with a paw. "Oh. Duh! No humans means no Pokémon trainers!"

"And it means you'll need to train yourself, Ash," Pikachu said. "Unless we take turns being the trainer or something."

"Yeah, that's a good idea!" Ash decided. "We both know that a trainer – Pokémon bond is super important!"

He got a contemplative look. "Hey, Eevee, are there any old stories about… Solgaleo, Lunala, Buzzwole, Kartana… Necrozma… I guess Hoopa… what are the other Ultra Beasts, those too…"

"I don't even know what most of those Pokémon are," Eevee admitted. "I've heard of Hoopa in a story though?"

"There we go!" Ash decided. "That's how we can find out how to get home, or call everyone through to join us depending on what we decide!"

"Parent, is there a reason why you did it that way?" Giratina asked, looking up from the World-of-Pokemon. "You have called upon chosen humans to become Pokémon before, but always you took their memories to avoid causing them distress."

Arceus looked back at Giratina.

"When my sibling said that this Chosen One of theirs could help, I looked upon the world line of fate for Ash Ketchum," they replied. "Backwards and forwards, and in great detail. And I decided that there wasn't really much point. He's going to sort everything out anyway."

Giratina considered.

"Fair enough," they said. "He does seem to be fitting in well."

"You would not believe the things I've seen," Arceus confessed. "This might actually be a vacation for him."

AN:

Gee, Ash, how come you get two Partner Pokémon?

An "original" PMD setting concept.