drax and the gang had parted ways with joe a while back. they'd stopped for lunch while drax checked the map.
"we've got a little ways to go before arriving at vermillion." he said. "though there is this river nearby id like to check out." brock looked over in confusion. "why's that?" he asked. "i wanna take a look at it. ive always enjoyed watching nature." drax replied. "its nice to stop and take a look at your surroundings every now and then."
rustling from a nearby bush caught the groups attention. a small plant pokemon came out from the woods. probably attracted by the smell of food. "an oddish?" drax said. "seems kind of young." said serperior. drax reached over and grabbed a sandwich. he handed it to ralts. "go give it to the oddish." he said. ralts nodded and walked over to the oddish.
oddish looked warry for a moment but began eating the sandwich after a while. "She says she's from a sheltered area where abandoned pokemon live." ralts said. "interesting." said drax. "that probably means its kept off the radar for trainers. abandoned pokemon dont trust trainers all that much. drax walked over to the oddish and sat cross legged in front of it. "let me guess, your trainer called you weak then ditched you?" he asked. oddish was a bit nervous but answered. "y-yes." she said. "i figured as much. sorry you had to go through that." drax said. "you doing better since then?" oddish's eyes widened. "you understood me?!" she asked. "made a translator so i could understand any pokemon within a 20 foot radius." drax answered.
"anyway hope you enjoy the fo-" drax cut himself off as he raised an arm in time to stop a vine wip from hitting him. the vines began retracting into the bushes until two larger thorn covered vines lashed out and grabbed them. with a hard yank grifist pulled the smaller pokemon out of the bushes and into her waiting hand. it was a bulbasaur. grifist had made sure to grab it by the top of the bulb to prevent any surprise solar beams.
"alright you little hellion." grifist said. "what gives you the right to attack my trainer?" bulbasaur didnt answer. his vines came out again but froze when he heard growling. he felt a strange and terrifying presence. one that screamed of a bigger and more powerful pokemon. he was in the territory of a monster. "I'd pick your next move carefully, frog." said titana. she was now standing directly behind grifist. her eyes glowing a menacing red as she glared at the bulbasaur. "but i'd be fine if you didnt." she said with a malicious smirk.
drax looked over at oddish. "friend of yours?" he asked. "s-sorry. he doesnt like humans very much." oddish said. "its fine." drax said. "if hes in the same boat as you, i dont blame him." drax stood up and walked over to grifist. "let him go." he said. "if hes smart he won't attack again and just go about his business."
grifist gave the bulbasaur a warning look before dropping him. bulbasaur got up and slowly made his way to oddish. now a bit nervous around the obviously stronger pokemon. he began to urge oddish into the bushes. she protested a bit but eventually relented.
"you cant force the other pokemon to hate humans like you do, you know." said an unfamiliar voice. everyone jumped at the voice. except drax who moved his cloak aside to reveal his backpack. which now had two glowing green eyes that were looking directly at bulbasaur. everyone was shocked at this aside from drax and elesa who knew what it was.
"i dont know what happened to make you hate humans, but not all of them are bad. and you refusing to believe that is going to cause you lots of regret in the future." the backpack continued. "you need to move on from whatever happened to you and stop letting it define how you see humans." bulbasaur was silent for a moment before speaking uo for the first time. "never thought id be lectured by a human's suitcase. you make some good points but it will take me quite some time to trust any humans." he said. "i wouldnt expect results right away." said the backpack. "but making an effort shows how much you've already started changing for the better. work at it and someday. you'll learn to trust humans again." with those last words the backpack's eyes disappeared and it fell silent.
"what was that?" ash asked. "that was grinade." drax said. "he's the ai in my backpack. you've met him before when he gave pikachu the human speech serum." that was a lie. elesa knew it was a lie. grinade was more than an ai. why was drax hiding it? drax got up and his bipedal pokemon followed suit. they began cleaning up the remnants of lunch.
ash's zorua and pikachu jumped up to his head and shoulders respectivly eevee took ash's other shoulder while butterfree returned himself. "how are you not struggling?" aaked elesa. "yeah, dat doesnt exactly look very comfoirtable." said meowth. "they arent that heavy." ash said. he seemed perfectly fine.
"ash thats 55 pounds worth of pokemon on your upper body." drax said. ash just shrugged. "im starting to wonder if you're even fully human." misty said. "thats a good point." drax said. "we've see your mom but not your dad. your dad isnt a pokemon is he?" drax asked sceptically. ash began sweating as he firmly kept his mouth shut.
"wait, he actually is?!" said brock. ash slowly turned around and then booked it dow the path. "i will neither confirm nor deny!" he shouted as he ran at top speed. "oi, stupid. vermillion city is the other way!" drax shouted. ash pulled a 180 and went the other way. not losing any speed as he went. "he's definatly part pokemon." drax said.
drax then looked down as a tug was felt on his cloak. ralts was there tapping her hands together nervously. drax rolled his eyes good naturedly. "all right." he said he scooped ralts with one hand and placed her on his shoulder. he then looked over at elesa who was narrowing her eyes at him. "what?" he said. "i dont think ash is the only one who's part pokemon." she said. "shes not that heavy." drax said. "ralts are usually 15 pounds." brock deadpanned. "i spend the majority of my time with a heavy exosuit on my upper torso. my physical strength is pretty high." drax deadpanned back. "that's fair." said jessie.
drax then pulled out a watch like device. "this beauty here will allow me to turn into pokemon once its done though." he said. "i call it the pokeshifter." everyone gaped at him. "you're making a watch that can turn people into pokemon?!" shouted meowth. "why do i feel that something like that has been done before?" misty said.
meanwhile in another multiverse, an alien frog sneezed.
"anyway off to vermillion city." drax said. everyone sweatdropped at his casual admitance of such an incedible invention and then dropping the subject.
so yeah no bulbasaur for ash. yet. no pokemon village either. i will be making choices like this throughout the story. things will change. not everything but it will be noticeable. see you next time.