Hey y'all, a new story from me. This story diverges in DP152 with all of Ash's pokemon attacking the chains and then rapidly from there.
This is a very old plot bunny of mine that I recently started refining and before I knew it I had a whole chapter. Can't guarantee fast updates but I do still have plenty of ideas for it. Please let me know what you think!
Constructive criticism is welcome, flames will be laughed at.
Ash gritted his teeth, knowing that what they were doing wasn't working. Even with Cynthia's Garchomp they just weren't strong enough to break the chains of Dialga and Palkia. Making a split-second decision, Ash threw out the rest of his pokemon; Staraptor, Gliscor, Monferno, Grotle, and Buizel appearing in front of Ash with a cry.
"Help us break the chains guys!" Ash shouted as he pointed toward the massive red chains encircling both of the legendary Dragons. All of Ash's pokemon turned to this task, including Pikachu, who had jumped on Gliscor's back to get a better vantage point for his thunderbolts to hit the chains. Ash even turned to Azelf, as the lake guardians floated behind Ash and his friends. "Please Azelf, help us break the chains and free Dialga and Palkia!"
The legendary being nodded to Ash and it moved from its brethren to use its powerful psychic-type moves to help break the chains. Suddenly, however, Dialga roared with rage as it fired a massive pulse of energy directly at Ash and his friends. Uxie and Mesprit were able to throw up shields of protect that kept Brock and Dawn safe, but Ash's suggestion to Azelf proved to be his own undoing, as there was no one to stop the powerful dragon-type move from blowing Ash nearly clear off of the mountain.
Fortunately for Ash, his reflexes kicked in and he was able to grab onto a pillar as he bounced off it, his whole body feeling bruised and beaten. Ash still felt like something was pulling him backward though, and looked behind himself only to gasp. The move had not simply dissipated when it hit him, but had formed what appeared to be an unfinished portal, something swirling and crackling with lightning and energy but not fully open yet. Before Ash could begin to pull himself away from the portal, he heard Dawn scream out his name in panic.
Ash looked up to see Palkia roaring in rage as well, not to be outdone by Dialga. It fired its own move at Ash, who flattened himself against the ground and let the move sail over his head. Even as Ash sighed in relief and began to pull himself upright he felt the pulling suddenly become much stronger and he felt his feet leave the ground.
Ash panicked as he flew backward toward the portal. There was nothing in his way, and therefore nothing to grab onto to stop his path. As he neared the portal Ash realized there was nothing to save him this time.
All of his pokemon, having noticed his plight, were sprinting or flying toward him, but they were most of the way across the landing and Ash knew they wouldn't make it in time. Unhooking his belt, Ash flung it as hard as he could, his pokeballs scattering around the belt on the ground. Calling out, Ash screamed one last command to his pokemon before he was sucked into the portal.
"Break the chains! Don't let Cyrus win!" With his last command given, Ash flew back into the portal. The last thing he heard before darkness took him was Pikachu screaming his name.
As the light returned to his vision, Ash found himself maybe twenty feet in the air above an endless ocean. Turning himself as best he could, Ash hit the water hard and submerged for a moment before he pushed his way up to the surface. Looking around, all he could see for miles were the open seas. Ash began to panic before he remembered almost forgotten survival training from before he became a trainer.
'If you ever find yourself in open water without a water or flying-type pokemon, don't panic. Begin to tread water and call for help. Your chance of survival drops with the more energy you exert and the chance of a friendly pokemon bringing you to land decreases.'
Ash slung his backpack off of his back and in front of him, glad that he had sprung for the pack that was buoyant and had waterproofing so that his supplies wouldn't get waterlogged. He had a feeling that wherever he was, he was going to need them. Treading water, the 14-year-old started to call for help, hoping that he didn't instead attract a pokemon like gyarados or sharpedo, who would be more likely to tear him to pieces than help him.
Though he called for what must have been hours, nothing had come to his aid. Ash was beginning to lose hope when a few hundred meters in front of the trainer, he saw a white head pop out of the water and begin to bob up and down. Shouting with all the might that his hoarse voice could muster, Ash called to the pokemon.
Out of curiosity if nothing else, the pokemon moved closer to Ash, and within a minute was in front of the trainer. Ash could have cried in relief, it was a dewgong. Dewgong were as a rule friendly to both people and pokemon, and outside of rare cases had a friendly disposition. They were also known to sunbathe on beaches, so even if the pokemon couldn't take him to civilization it could probably take him to dry land.
"Hi Dewgong, I'm, well, I'm stuck out here and I don't think I can last much longer. Do you know where any humans live?"
The dewgong tilted its head at this, before bobbing up and down in the water, clapping its flippers in front of it and letting out a cry that sounded positive. Ash breathed out a sigh. Maybe he had a chance after all, not that he knew where he was.
"That's great! Do you think you could take me there?"
Dewgong looked conflicted at this, and continued to bob in the water for a moment before nodding hesitantly, clapping its hands a little less enthusiastically.
Ash felt a little bad that he was asking this wild pokemon to do something it obviously wasn't sure about, but if he didn't then he was sure to drown, so he squashed that feeling down. Gripping his backpack, he painstakingly swam over to Dewgong and slung his backpack onto his back before gently gripping the sea lion pokemon. Dewgong barked out something that Ash somehow knew in the back of his head meant 'grip tighter' so Ash held on tighter as Dewgong began to swim in the opposite direction which it emerged from.
After a few minutes of holding onto the fast pokemon, Ash felt his eyes begin to droop. Holding on as tightly as he could to Dewgong, Ash passed out.
Blinking his eyes open, Ash blearily stared at the chansey sitting in a chair across from him. It appeared to be attempting to knit, quite unsuccessfully he might say. As Ash tried to sit up and coughed in response, the chansey alerted and sprang out of the chair, gripping the knitting needles tightly. The chansey waddled over to Ash and gently pushed him back into bed, pointing its knitting needle at him threateningly. Ash slowly held up his hands and laid back down, which seemed to please the pokemon.
The chansey then, having sufficiently cowed Ash, waddled out the door, calling out as it did. Before Ash could try to move again someone walked into the room. The person standing across from Ash was about as nondescript as possible. The man had brown hair cropped close to the sides of his head, dark brown eyes, pale skin, and no other particular features that Ash noticed. He was wearing a white button-up shirt, black pants, and brown dress shoes. The only striking thing about the man was his trenchcoat and even that was colored in brown.
Ash realized who the man looked like, and before he could clamp his hands over his mouth he blurted something out. "Are you from the International Police?"
The man looked amused at this and nodded. "Indeed, I am. You may call me Watcher. I can see that you have another question. Ask it."
"Do you know an agent by the name of Looker?"
This question did not seem to amuse the agent as much as Ash's previous question and seemed to cause the man a great deal of confusion. "Yes I do, but he's my much junior partner and not a full agent yet…we'll get to how you know that name. First off, do you know where you are and can you tell me the date?"
Ash started to realize that something may be very wrong here but figured it would do him no good to lie, and answered honestly. "Well I don't know where I am other than maybe a Pokemon Center, and the year is 20XX, I don't know what day it is, but it should be March." Ash saw Watcher's eyes widen at the date he gave and sank a little lower into the bed. "This isn't another time-travel incident is it?" Ash groaned out, before mumbling "And without my pokemon too, what am I going to do."
"Another time-!" The agent exclaimed briefly before he gathered himself. "We will be getting back to that in a future debrief. Firstly, I do need to tell you that it isn't 20XX, but 20XX. If you're telling the truth, which I will verify shortly, then you are indeed 5 years in the past. Currently, we are in the Pacifidlog Pokemon Center, in a back room which the head nurse here was kind enough to lend us. A dewgong dragged you through the doors, where nurse Joy was able to get you into a bed, and then the dewgong fled back to the water, but it has been hovering around the center for the last 2 days while you slept. Any other questions before I begin my debrief"
Ash shook his head, slightly in shock that this time he hadn't traveled in time but also space, and looked to somehow be in a more serious situation than with Sammy and the Dark Marauder. The agent then reached into his pocket and pulled out a shrunken pokeball, which he enlarged and tapped to release a short alakazam into the room.
"My partner here will verify the truth of your answers. I suggest you start with the events that led you here to land in the ocean in the first place and then if I have clarifying questions I will ask them."
At this Ash hesitantly began talking about the events that occurred at the Spear Pillar, explaining how Team Galactic had captured the lake guardians with the help of Hunter J and forced them to make the red chain, and how Ash, Dawn, and Brock were teleported into Team Galactic's facility before being saved by Cynthia's Garchomp. Ash describes how they freed the lake guardians and started working to break the chains before he was blown back by an attack from Dialga and then sucked into a portal that was made of the combined energies of Dialga and Palkia.
Watcher kept mostly silent through Ash's story, occasionally asking for clarification when Ash left an explanation short or skipped over something. After Ash had finished saying that he then found himself in the ocean with no land in sight Watcher nodded and appeared thoughtful.
"I don't have any reason to doubt your story. Alakazam sensed that you've been truthful in your story, and your trainer ID that we pulled from your pokedex provided a description that we've been able to match with a boy named Ash Ketchum, who currently lives in Pallet Town and attends its local school.
It also provided us with records of your wins at registered League events. You're quite the talented trainer, aren't you Mr. Ketchum? Top 8 in both Johto and Hoenn and a win over the Battle Frontier. Quite a list of pokemon as well. It was recorded that a pikachu was your starter?"
Ash nodded at this, looking embarrassed when Watcher was reading through his list of accomplishments. "It's not a big deal, I mean anyone could have done it. But I do miss Pikachu, I hope I can get back soon!"
Watcher sighed at this, and looked at his alakazam for a long moment before turning back to Ash. "Mr. Ketchum. No, Ash. I'm afraid to say that it is unlikely that we have any way for you to get back to your time. The very few records we have of people who traveled through time have stated that those who were shunted into the past remained there. Even though you're only a few years back from when you departed, you'll likely have to live through those years again."
At this, Ash cast his gaze downward, eyes welling up with tears. "Do you mean…"
"Yes Ash, I'm afraid it is unlikely that you'll ever see your pokemon again. Indeed, now that you've brought it to our attention, we of the International Police are honor-bound to stop Team Galactic from rising into a position to wield such power."
Seeing that the young trainer was downcast at his statement, Watcher sighed, running his hand through his hair. "If it makes you feel better, think of it this way. There is still an Ash in this world, and it is likely that, as long as you don't interfere, he'll capture the same pokemon you did. If we all do our part, then he's unlikely to face the same hardships you did. Now, on the matter of hardships, I would like you to tell me of any other encounters you've had with time travel or legendaries."
Ash wiped his eyes of tears, and with a shaky voice began to tell Watcher of his many encounters with legendaries.
Ash slowly walked out of the Pokemon Center, keenly aware of Nurse Joy's eyes on his back, as he was still weak from Dialga's attack and his journey through the seas on Dewgong's back. After he spent hours telling tales to Watcher and his alakazam, the man had taken his leave, teleporting out from Ash's room. The man had not left before informing Ash that he would be back tomorrow and warned the trainer not to leave Pacifidlog Town. Nurse Joy had informed Ash that he was well enough to move around, and it may do him some good to go for a walk.
The trainer walked despondently through the town, eyes affixed on the skyline. He wasn't sure what happened now. All he knew was that he wasn't supposed to interfere with his younger self's adventure or timeline, 'to prevent paradoxes' as Watcher said. Ash guessed that this made sense, considering that Watcher described his adventure with Sammy as a 'closed time-loop' and what had just happened to Ash as more like 'being flung backward in time by a legendary with more power than strength.' Ash guessed that Watcher wasn't from Sinnoh after that statement, since he knew most Sinnohans would never be so irreverent about one of their native legends.
All of this made logical sense to Ash, but the boy couldn't help but despair for himself and his pokemon. He hoped that they were alright, but after talking about his adventures for once, he agreed with Watcher that it probably would have been better for Ash's health if they had never happened.
While Watcher said that there was no way for the International Police to stop some of the occurrences (like Ash's meeting with Celebi), they were able to immediately get agents monitoring some of the key figures, like Lawrence III or Archie and Maxie. And Cyrus of course, there was no forgetting the man who had caused this whole mess to begin with.
Still staring at the skyline, lost in his thoughts, Ash failed to realize that something was in front of him until he bumped into it. Looking down, Ash saw the dewgong that had saved him bark up at him happily. Kneeling on the bamboo floats, Ash carefully reached to stroke Dewgong's silky fur, laughing gently as the pokemon pushed its head into Ash's hand.
"Hi again you. Thank you so much for getting me here, I wouldn't have made it without you. Nurse Joy said that it was dark when you dragged me in, you must have swam into the night to get here. I owe you my thanks."
As he said this, a resident of the town walked past them, startling Dewgong and causing it to jump into the water. The resident chuckled as they passed by. "Nice pokemon you got there kid. Little shy though, ain't it? Have a good evening."
Ash chuckled as he walked to a more solid platform and sat down, letting his shoeless feet dangle in the water. Dewgong carefully poked its head up out of the water and looked around for more people before it dragged itself out of the water and lay next to Ash.
"Is that why you didn't want to come to the town?" Ash asked the water-type, who nodded cautiously before plopping its head down on Ash's lap in a demand for pets. "I guess you're shy around people you don't know. I wonder what makes me different," Ash questioned, before shrugging and giving in to Dewgong's demands for strokes.
"I don't know how long I'll be around here," Ash said to Dewgong. "But when I leave you're welcome to come with me." Dewgong barked happily at this, clapping its fins together and doing a twirl on its tail.
Ash smiled bittersweetly. He was always happy to make a new friend, but he couldn't help like he was betraying Pikachu and his other pokemon by acquiescing so quickly to his stay in the past. He knew that he wasn't, he was just letting his younger self capture them in proper time, but it still felt wrong.
Ash shook his head, for once he just didn't have a choice in what he did. Watcher's warnings on not interfering with the past were clear, and Ash got the sense that the International Police would be watching to make sure he didn't interfere. He wasn't more important than the timeline, and Ash understood that, it just still hurt. He wasn't sure it would ever stop hurting.
Clearing his head, Ash stood up, dislodging Dewgong from its perch on Ash's lap, which it barked at him unhappily for. "Sorry Dewgong, but I have to head back to the Pokemon Center for the night before I catch a cold on top of everything else. I have a feeling that you'd be more comfortable sleeping in the water but I'll come find you again tomorrow okay?" This got a happy clap from the sea lion, causing a more light-hearted smile to break out on Ash's face.
"Goodnight Dewgong!"
Ash only had time to wake up and eat most of a quick breakfast in the center's small cafeteria before he felt a hand on his shoulder and he was whisked away back to the room he slept in the night before.
"Good morning Ash," Watcher said, before pointing to the other man with him. "I brought junior agent Looker with me this time, as you were already familiar with him. Looker nodded to the teen before taking out a notepad.
"Now, Mr. Ketchum, I've been debriefed on the events you discussed with senior agent Watcher yesterday, but is there anything else you need to tell us? Or any questions you have for us?"
"I do have a couple of questions," Ash said, nervously tapping his fingers. "I got that I can't go home, but what am I supposed to do now? I can't just sit around here for five years, and I don't have a sponsor or any savings to keep traveling now. I still have my pokedex and camping supplies but that's about it, I don't even have any pokemon food, Brock carried all of that."
Watcher chuckled at this comment. "I shouldn't be surprised that you're thinking about getting back on the road again, but somehow I am. You kids really can bounce back from anything. Well, this pidove-tails nicely into our next discussion. Agent Looker?"
"Yes sir. Well to start Mr. Ketchum, we would like you to take on the Hoenn League this year. The conference is in about 6 months and it would go a great way to legitimizing your existence in this time. We've already gotten a bit of background on you and informed the Hoenn League of your existence, as required by international treaty. All we need from you now is to pick a new name and then modify your pokedex to match this, something Professor Birch will be able to do. Everything else can be discussed later, likely after you compete in the Conference, as I have been reliably informed that we will be very busy until then." Looker side-eyed Watcher at this comment, the other man simply smiling mildly.
"Alright," replied Ash, "I guess that all makes sense, but can I still have Ash as part of my name? I don't know how well I'd respond to a new name, I'm not a spy like in the Unovan movies. And that still doesn't answer my question of how I'm going to pay for anything."
Looker cast his eyes downward at Ash's questions, and his whole body began to shake. For a moment Ash was afraid that he somehow upset the older man, before to his surprise, Looker burst out laughing and handed a smiling Watcher a small handful of cash.
"Should've known not to bet against someone with a xatu," Looker muttered, before looking back toward Ash. "Yes, it's possible to still have Ash in your name, we expected that to be what you wanted so we prepared a suitable name. How does Satoshi Ashes sound to you? That way you can still go by Ash." Ash thought about this for a moment before nodding at Looker, who scribbled something down in his notebook.
"For your second question, well, we would provide you with funds. The International Police Force would like to apologize for our failure to send more than one agent to an event that required children to step in, regardless if the champion of the region was involved or not. To compensate you for this we will provide you a stipend for your and your pokemon's food and any other care that they need that is not covered by a Pokemon Center. In addition, since you are no longer attached to a sponsor who can care for any pokemon beyond the initial six all trainers are authorized to carry, we will extend your carry limit to eight pokemon, though this can be either repealed or extended depending on your performance at the conference."
Here Looker paused and looked to Watcher, who nodded at him, before continuing. "In addition, we will sponsor any travel to different regions that cannot be completed on your own, so that your travels do not line up with those of your younger self. The locations to be traveled to can be discussed after the conference, and are not contingent upon your performance. We apologize for not being able to provide housing, but we can't exactly set a fourteen-year-old up with a house without a lot of people asking questions. Do you have any other questions?"
Ash looked a bit overwhelmed at the amount of information and consideration the force was showing him but bravely carried on. "Where am I from?"
Looker winced at this question and turned to Watcher, who took over.
"Well, you can't be from Pallet Town, since such a small town would be able to recognize your name, but we still needed you to be from Kanto since your accent would give you away otherwise. So you're now a proud former resident of Saffron City. Specifically, well you're now from an orphanage. Your mother was a ranger and died 12 years ago with no immediate family, leaving you behind. You saved up money for years to be able to afford a ticket out of Kanto through working odd jobs and landed in Hoenn."
Ash deflated at this, suddenly realizing that there were more people he'd never see again. Brock, Misty, May, Max, Dawn, and even his mom. This proved to be too much for Ash, and everything hit him all at once, causing the teen to burst into tears. Looker awkwardly looked at Watcher, who murmured something to the younger man, who left the room, only to return moments later with a pokemon flopping its way along the ground behind him.
Ash looked up at the odd sound, tears still streaming down his face, only to see Dewgong, who stared at Ash with concern etched into its big eyes. Ash fell to his knees and clutched at the pokemon, who let out a long moan at the obvious sadness on the teen's face and rubbed her nose along his cheeks.
After a few minutes, Ash appeared to be all cried out, and looked up at Dewgong, who barked and licked his cheeks, causing Ash to giggle weakly. Ash peered up at the agents, suddenly embarrassed.
"I'm sorry for my outburst," the teen mumbled. "It won't happen again."
"Don't worry about it, kid," Watcher said, voice suddenly a bit gruff. "I can't say many of us would do much better when faced with losing our entire life in an instant. Now then, we do have to get moving soon, since Professor Birch is quite busy and agreed to make time for us today. We don't want to keep him waiting for too long or he might wander off to do field research."
Ash chuckled at this, standing up. "That certainly sounds like the Professor. Reaching into his backpack, Ash gasped to realize that the spare pokeballs that were previously there were gone. "Where did my extra pokeballs go!"
"Ah, we did have to confiscate those Ash," replied Watcher. "They were all registered to your previous trainer ID, and since we'll be wiping that clean and removing all record of your previous pokemon we couldn't have you wandering around with an ID that will soon be registered to your younger self's pokedex. Instead, why don't you take these, they're currently unregistered but will soon be registered to your new ID."
Watcher reached out his hand, handing Ash eight diveballs.
"Thanks!" Ash happily said, grabbing the diveballs and storing all but one in his backpack. "But why diveballs?"
Watcher just smirked at this, turning away and walking out the door. "My xatu had a feeling you might need those in particular."
Ash appeared to be confused by this and looked to Looker for clarification, but the junior agent simply shrugged and replied "Don't ask me. I'm used to him making cryptic statements and blaming them on his xatu by now. It's probably a consequence of spending too much time with only his psychic-types for company before I was assigned to him. Now catch your dewgong and let's check you out of here so we can get going."
Ash turned to Dewgong and kneeled back down to get on the pokemon's level. "Are you sure that you still want to come with me Dewgong? I love to battle so we'll be doing a lot of that but I can't promise where we go after our six months here is up. And we might have to talk to a lot of people along the way."
Dewgong clapped happily at the word battle, but then looked down when Ash mentioned talking to people. The pokemon only looked down for a moment, however, and soon barked bravely at Ash, obviously willing to face its fears for its new trainer. Ash smiled at this, before gently pressing the diveball against Dewgong's head, the ball shaking twice before dinging for a successful capture.
"Yes," Ash quietly said, "I caught a Dewgong!" Laughing at himself slightly for the silly phrase, Ash walked out to the lobby to thank Nurse Joy for all of her help and to prepare to talk to Professor Birch.
"And…done!" Professor Birch announced, placing Ash's pokedex down on the table in front of the trainer. "Go ahead and scan your dewgong to make sure it still works."
Picking up the pokedex, Ash pointed it at Dewgong and pressed the button to scan the pokemon.
Dewgong, the Sea Lion Pokemon. Its streamlined body has little drag in water. This pokemon can swim up to eight knots even in frigid water. This pokemon is female.
"Oh good! I didn't mess anything up." Professor Birch said, causing Ash to sweatdrop and look at the professor. "What? Professor Oak is the one who's good at all the technology stuff, I rather like my field research."
"That being said, I would love for you to keep in contact with me and let me know what pokemon you end up catching. I'm sorry that I won't be able to let you board any pokemon with me, but my pastures are still in the middle of being developed further and I simply don't have the space for the amount of pokemon an experienced trainer like yourself could end up catching."
"I'd be happy to keep you updated Professor, but I don't have a phone so it might be infrequent."
At this, Watcher looked up from where he'd been having a mental conversation with his alakazam. "Ah, I knew we were forgetting something. I actually have an Xtransceiver for you Ash. That way we can contact you when we need to and you can give us a call if anything happens." Watcher handed the watch-like device over to Ash with a smile before turning toward the door.
"If you'll excuse me, I must speak with Looker before we depart. Please meet us outside when you're finished with your conversation."
Ash turned back to Professor Birch, who had been examining Dewgong while writing something down in a notepad. "Fascinating," Ash heard the professor mutter. "We so rarely see Dewgong this far south. Usually, the only ice-types we see here are the snorunt and spheal lines, and even they are largely confined to Shoal Cave. I wonder why she wandered so far south."
Noticing Dewgong was uncomfortable with how close the professor was, Ash spoke up. "Um, Professor, would you mind moving back a couple of feet? It's just that Dewgong is a little shy around new people."
To his credit, Professor Birch moved back immediately, before writing something else down. "Well, that's interesting as well! Usually, dewgong are quite social, even around new people. Not to the extent of a spheal of course, but overly friendly nonetheless, not shy. Not to say that there's anything wrong with being shy of course!" The professor hurridly stated. "It's just an unusual character trait."
"Now," Professor Birch said, shutting his notepad with a click. "I understand you are to take on the gym challenge?" At Ash's nod, he continued, "I would suggest heading southwest of here from the beach by Oldale Town and taking on Brawly first. There are plenty of pokemon to capture on the way and if you travel by holding onto Dewgong it should only take a few hours. Longer if you stop overnight on an island of course, but I do remember that it takes a while to get used to traveling by pokemon on anything besides a lapras."
The professor chuckled at his own comment here, before continuing. "If you had north after Dewford Town you'll hit the coast in front of Petalburg Woods, but if you skirt along the coast you'll end up just north of Rustboro City. Unless you're used to traveling with an ocean-dwelling pokemon already that is. I did notice you had a lapras in your, let's say past life when I was clearing out your pokedex, but it was noted as released."
"Ah, no Professor, Lapras was the only pokemon I had who couldn't move that well on land before, and we were in the Orange Islands the whole time that she was with me."
"Ah, the Orange Islands, a wonderful place. I went on vacation there with my wife once before you know, though it was before we had our son. Say, you didn't know Brendan, did you Ash?"
Nonplussed by the sudden change in topic, Ash replied, "Sorry Professor, I don't think we ever met. I traveled through Hoenn with a girl named May Maple and her younger brother Max, but they aren't supposed to move here for another few years."
"No matter, where was I. Oh yes, non-terrestrial pokemon. The first thing to remember is that until they're used to it, and sometimes even then, they will always be at a disadvantage outside of water. Some of them, like Sharpedo, simply don't have the body types to be able to move out of water without serious water-manipulation, which is an advanced technique. Of course, diveballs will help them a bit, giving them some water to be manipulated right out of the gate, but they'll all need practice to move and fight outside of water."
"Dewgong will have it easier than some others though, since I assume your lapras sometimes hit the ground with an ice-type move to slide around?" Ash quickly nodded, causing the professor to continue his ramble. "Oh good, then you're already familiar with the most common technique for ice-type pokemon. Dewgong should be able to do this as well, provided she has an ice-type move capable of such a feat."
"The most powerful technique for moving around on land that ocean pokemon have though," said Professor Birch, "Is surf. I highly suggest you have your pokemon learn this move as soon as possible, as it will give her the option of both flooding the battlefield to her advantage and providing a way to move around the field once you master the move.
"For any pokemon that you may acquire who are water-types but don't have the advantage of slick fur or hard scales letting them slide around I suggest speaking to Wallace. He's currently the gym leader in Sootopolis City and is a fount of amazing ideas for training pokemon most people wouldn't see in competitive battle because of their difficulties on land."
"Now," the professor paused, taking a gulping breath. "Any questions?"
Ash was only slightly stunned by this rant, having heard Professor Oak go into lecture mode more than once, but it always made him amused. The real shocked one was Dewgong, who stared at Professor Birch with a slightly vacant expression, tongue hanging out of her mouth. Ash nudged her chin, causing it to shut with a click, and the pokemon to turn to her new trainer, embarrassed.
"No Professor, you were quite clear, but I do appreciate the information. I think we'll follow your advice and take on Brawly first, and then we'll see where the waters take us after that, but Rustboro sounds good as a follow-up. Right, Dewgong?" Ash crouched down next to his new pokemon and muttered in her ear "We'll get to swim a lot if we go this way." This obviously pleased Dewgong, as she clapped her flippers happily and barked at the professor, who chuckled good-naturedly.
"Oh good, well don't let me keep you! You still need to catch that teleport to Oldale Town!"
Ash headed out the doors after returning Dewgong, walking up to Watcher and Looker, who appeared to be waiting for him.
"Sorry if I kept you waiting."
"It was no problem, Ash," Watcher said with a smile. "Now, is there anything else you need before we leave? Looker has already put his number in your Xtransceiver, as he will be your contact going forward. In addition, money has been credited to your trainer ID, which you can access through your pokedex. We will refill it every month, but expect you to notify us when you catch a new pokemon in case the amount needs increasing."
"No, that all sounds good, I was just wondering if I could catch a teleport to Oldale Town before you leave, since Dewgong and I aren't used to battling on the land yet and we were going to head out to the ocean from the beach nearby."
"That sounds reasonable to me. If you would hold on for a minute, we will be off momentarily."
With a flash, the four disappeared from Littleroot Town and appeared on a beach with what Ash assumed to be Oldale Town in the distance.
"Oh, thanks for getting us right here! I just figured I'd walk from Oldale Town out here."
"It was no trouble Ash, now, we really must be going. There's a lot of work to be done in the coming months and we should get a headstart. Looker?"
"Right. Goodbye Mr. Ketchum, please feel free to contact me if you need anything."
In another flash, the three disappeared from view, leaving Ash alone on the beach. Well, Ash thought to himself, here's to new experiences.
Ash lounged on the beach of the small island he and Dewgong had stopped on for the night. It was really more of a rocky outcropping, so he had set up his tent in the middle of the island just in case the tides rose in the middle of the night, but it was nice to be able to relax in the warm Hoenn sun for a moment.
Dewgong had shown off her moves well, and while the pokemon wasn't used to regimented battling, Ash guessed that it wouldn't take her long to get used to it. Aurora beam gave her a good tool to move around on until they could take the time to learn the more powerful ice beam, and headbutt was a good move to knock foes silly if they got too close.
Sheer cold was a powerful move for low-level battling, often freezing the opposing pokemon so intensely that they could not continue the fight. It tended to be less effective in higher-level battels of course, since it was inaccurate at best and wouldn't knock out a strong pokemon quite as easily.
Aqua tail was a great jumping-off point for surf, as the move already had the user summon water around the tail to attack, so the next step was to work to convert that into summoning water all around the user's body, then they could work toward expelling that water in all directions and greater quantities.
The real star of the show though, was Dewgong's encore. Ash wasn't quite sure why his pokemon had picked the move up in the wild but it was a boon for competitive battles. Encore locked the foe into using the last move that they attacked with, so if they used a move for movement or to switch up attacking styles then your pokemon could lock them into that move. It allowed for more fluid movement and battling while forcing your opponent into a predictable attack pattern. Of course, it wasn't a perfect move, since if a water-type locked an electric-type into using thunderbolt then they would simply keep using the move until their foe was unconscious, but used sparingly it was a powerful tool.
Ash had already begun Dewgong's work on surf, and the water-type seemed to be making great strides with the initial parts of the move since water was already moving up her body and beginning to surround her rather than sticking to her tail like when she executed an aqua tail. Ash did figure it was time for a break though, and called out to his pokemon.
"Hey bud, come up here and relax for a while. I'm sure you're a little tired from all the travel today and I want to tell you a story."
Dewgong barked at Ash before letting the water dissipate from her body and flow into the ocean, pulling herself up onto the beach and laying beside her trainer. Laying her head on his lap Dewgong stared up at Ash with big dark eyes, waiting for the story.
"I want to tell you about my first journey. It's about a boy from Pallet Town, and his loyal electric-type named Pikachu…"
Ash had spoken to Dewgong for hours the previous night, about his first journey, his pokemon, and his friends. It had felt cathartic to speak to his new friend about his old friends and helped to remind him that despite losing them, he hadn't forgotten them, and he wasn't alone. Dewgong had made sure of that, licking his cheek or headbutting him whenever he seemed to get too melancholy. Ash smiled from his position holding onto Dewgong, he had certainly gotten lucky when she heard him out in the ocean a few days ago.
The trainer was glad to have his Xtransceiver now that he was traveling on the seas of Hoenn since the device had a map and GPS that accurately tracked his location as long as he was close to or within the borders of the country. For once he was significantly less likely to get lost as he traveled, as long as he remembered to use the map of course.
Looking into the horizon, Ash saw a blue and gray mass that could only be one thing, a wailord! Smiling, Ash lowered his head close to Dewgong's ear to whisper in her ear. "Hey Dewgong, do you want to go say hi to that wailord? They're usually pretty friendly."
Dewgong barked something back at Ash that he was pretty sure was an agreement, and shifted slightly so that she was swimming in parallel to the wailord. As they got closer, however, Ash saw something sticking out of the side of the pokemon and a net on top of the water-type. Straining his eyes, Ash caught a glimpse of two boats on each side of the wailord, just as one fired something else into the side of the wailord, who let out a devastating cry as it was struck and began to bleed sluggishly from the wound.
"Shit, those are poachers. Dewgong slow down!"
Dewgong listened to her trainer here before barking quietly at Ash. "I don't know what we should do here, I mean we have to help it but we haven't even battled together yet and there's a lot of them."
Ash worried his lip for a moment before steeling himself. "It doesn't matter, we're stopping those poachers. Dewgong I want you to trust me on this, do you see the boat with the harpoons? Go underneath that one and use sheer cold as strong as you can directly upwards at the back of the boat. That should knock its engines out and stop it from moving. Then come back to get me and we'll go after the other boat." Ash slid off of Dewgong's back as he said this, grabbing his backpack and using it to keep himself afloat.
Dewgong nodded at Ash and disappeared under the water, heading toward the boat before Ash quickly lost track of her. Before his pokemon could attack the boat though, Ash caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. It looked to be a mantine catching a wave and taking off. Assuming that the pokemon was simply getting out of the area before it too could be attacked, Ash ignored it, only for the same mantine to appear in his view seconds later as it flung a blade of wind at the net on the wailord's back, slicing it in two. This enraged the poachers, as one of them swung the harpoon gun around to take a shot at the mantine, which luckily missed and splashed harmlessly into the water behind the wailord.
Before the poachers could resume shooting at the wailord, however, the boat shook violently before stuttering to a stop as ice began to creep up the sides and back. Dewgong quickly appeared beside Ash with a bark and Ash climbed back on top of his pokemon. Pointing toward where the Mantine had landed back in the water and was quickly gaining speed, Ash called out.
"Get me close to that mantine Dewgong, it's trying to help the wailord and I think we could do more together."
Dewgong did just that, swimming at her top speed and just barely managing to get parallel with the mantine, who turned as if to attack them.
"Wait!" Ash called out to the flying-type, "We're not with the poachers, we're trying to help Wailord too. I just had Dewgong disable one of the boats and I was going to have her stop the other one too but we need to take out that harpoon gun before it can hurt Wailord anymore. Can you help us out?"
Without even stopping to think the mantine nodded, gesturing with a fin for Ash to get on its back. Ash dropped off of Dewgong and swam over to Mantine, who had paused in the water for a moment.
"Dewgong, you get under the other boat and do the same thing again okay? If you can't manage another sheer cold then use aurora beam and target the rudders. We need to stop the boats from circling Wailord or escaping. Mantine and I will take care of that harpoon gun. Got it?"
Before Ash could finish his sentence Dewgong had disappeared below the waves once more, leaving Ash on the back of a wild pokemon.
"Alright Mantine, are you ready? I want you to gain speed again and leap over the boat, and try to hit that harpoon gun with an air slash. I know you have good aim but you'll also need a powerful hit to take it out. Think you can do it?"
Mantine cried out and began moving once more, darting through the waves and leaving Ash clutching to the pokemon as they gained more and more lift. As they got close to the boat the pokemon leaped from the water and flew over it, and with one powerful flap of its fins, threw out a much more powerful air slash than before, striking the harpoon gun head-on. The gun fell apart on impact, and the poachers screamed in rage, letting Ash know they had been successful.
The teen pumped his fist and nearly fell off of Mantine but was able to catch his balance and stay on the ray. Ash looked over to the other boat and saw frost creep up the sides of it as well, as a slightly winded Dewgong popped up beside Ash.
Ash began to congratulate the two pokemon on their work before two flashes of light appeared in front of him. It appeared as if the poachers had pokemon after all, as a whiscash and a carvanha charged at the trainer and his allies.
As Ash called for Dewgong to fire off an aurora beam, Mantine surprised him by immediately shooting off what looked to be a series of bullet seeds at the whiscash, which groaned in pain and flinched back. Dewgong did obey Ash's order and fired off an aurora beam, which didn't hurt the carvanha much but did slow it down, which was Ash's goal.
"Dewgong keep hammering it and try to headbutt it with your horn! Mantine, I do have an idea if you want to listen to me." Ash felt Mantine nod below him at his query, so the trainer continued. "Get over that whiscash and use air slash to flinch it and try to land in front of it. Whiscash open their mouths when pretty much anything appears in front of them and then you could shoot a bullet seed into its mouth."
Mantine took off immediately, using its fins to simply jump out of the water and over whiscash, who peered at them with vacant eyes. Mantine pumped its fins one more time to hit the other pokemon with an air slash, before flopping down in the water in front of the water and ground-type. Just as Ash predicted, Whiscash's mouth opened almost involuntarily, and Mantine took great advantage of this, firing a bullet seed directly into the catfish pokemon's gullet, knocking it out instantly.
There was no time to celebrate, however, as Dewgong was still fighting with the carvanha, which must have been stronger than it appeared, if not well-trained. The pokemon had slammed into Dewgong and was now attempting to bite his pokemon so Ash called out another order.
"Dewong let it bite your head and ram your horn into its mouth!"
Hesitating slightly at the order, Dewgong almost didn't follow the order until carvanha was right on top of it, but at the last second turned and took the bite attack directly to the head, but retaliating with a powerful headbutt that forced the fish to let go and knocked it flying, as it slammed into the side of one of the poachers' boats. The poachers, noticing their pokemon were unconscious, returned them, but failed to send any other pokemon out.
Ash breathed a sigh of relief. They must have been relying on their weapons to trap Wailord and not their pokemon. Slipping off of Mantine, Ash swam back to Dewgong, who looked a little worse for wear but not anywhere close to unconscious yet.
"Great job you two, you handled that perfectly. Now, let's go check on Wailord."
As Dewgong and Mantine swam closer to Wailord, Ash noticed that both of the harpoons had fallen out of the side of the massive pokemon, and the wounds were now bleeding sluggishly. Sidling up to the side of Wailord's head, just below eye level, Ash gently placed his hand on Wailord's side.
"Hi Wailord, my name is Ash. Can I use some potion on those wounds of yours?"
The wailord groaned at this and sunk lower in the water, letting Ash get a better angle at the harpoon wounds. Ash grimaced as he looked at them. He knew they looked nasty but they had barely penetrated Wailord's thick layers of blubber. Taking out a potion from his backpack, Ash sprayed it on the punctures, which closed them almost instantly.
"There we go, Ash said after Dewgong had taken him back to Wailord's head, "All closed up, you're free to go now sweetheart."
Rather than moving and getting far away from the poachers, Wailord let out a happy groan and bumped Ash and Dewgong with the side of its head, knocking them back nearly ten feet. It bobbed up and down in the water after this, somehow appearing to look like a puppy despite being nearly fifty feet long and weighing several tons. It then did the same to Mantine, knocking the water and flying-type even further, before letting out a happy groan.
Dewgong seemed to get the measure quicker than Ash and pointed with a flipper to her diveball that was attached to Ash's new belt. She then pointed at Wailord and Mantine, who were looking at Ash with eyes that seemed to be sparkling, before pointing at her ball again.
"Oh," Ash said with a small voice. "They want to come with me?" Wiping the eyes that had started watering slightly, Ash smiled. "Well, then I guess I have to make a call!"
Poking at his Xtransceiver, Ash selected Looker's number and then held the watch up to his face.
"Ash? I didn't expect to hear from you so soon. Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, everything is fine, I just ran into some trouble and might need a hand here. On a related note, how big did you say that food budget was again?"
Please let me know what you think!
