Chapter Text
Chapter One: A Heinous Betrayal or something
The beginning of the end began near the end of the middle of an otherwise uneventful day.
A young man named Ash Ketchum was walking briskly down a wall-traveled dirt trail. On his shoulder was his faithful partner Pikachu. The pair were the best of friends, as inseparable as two peas in a bottle of superglue. As the two crested a gentle hill, a small settlement of houses came into view. This was Pallet town, Ash’s hometown and, surprisingly to anyone familiar with Ash’s sense of direction, it was exactly where he was intending to go. Seeing he was, miraculously, not lost geographically, Ash stopped for a moment to be lost in thought instead.
Ash was returning home from the Kalos Region, a region on a separate continent entirely from Kanto, where everyone inexplicably spoke the same language Ash had grown up speaking. While in Kalos, Ash had entered and competed in the regional Pokémon league, traveling through the country while gathering 8 gym badges and eventually fighting alongside his Pokémon team in the Lumiose conference. He was returning from Kalos because after this arc Ash’s canon accomplishments would become impressive enough to make the entire premise of this story much, much harder to justify.
Anyways, for those of you who don’t remember, and somehow missed the days, weeks, months, and years of resulting outrage from the entire Pokémon community, Ash had lost to his friend and rival Alain in the finals, but it had been a very narrow thing. All in all, Ash was fairly proud of this accomplishment.
Ash also remembered the friends he’d made along the way. His Pokémon, Hawlucha, Noivern and Talonflame, who were currently housed in the pokeballs hanging off Ash’s belt, Goodra, who was living like a king in his swamp, and of course Greninja, who was working with Zygarde to restore order to the balance of nature, after Team Flare had nearly destroyed it. Ash also couldn’t forget about his new human friends. Serena, Clemont and Bonnie. Ash cared about all of his friends very much, and knew they cared about him in turn.
Ash was snapped out of his thoughts by Pikachu poking him on the cheek.
“Huh? What is it buddy?”
Pikachu made a series of gestures and noises that Ash understood perfectly, thanks to so much time spent together.
“A race home? Right, how could I forget, we always have a race in these kinds of adventures.”
Pikachu hopped off of Ash’s shoulder and settled into a combat stance, Ash grinned at him. “Ready! Set! Go!”
The pair raced the rest of the way to the Ketchum residence, neither holding anything back. Pikachu won quite easily, because while Ash was pretty fast for a kid, Pikachu was pretty fast for anything and knew Quick Attack to boot. The yellow rodent spent about a minute waiting for his trainer at the front door.
Ash finally caught up and knocked on the door. It opened, and Ash’s mother gave her son a crushing hug, joyfully welcoming him home, before running off to make lunch.
Ash looked around and noticed something incredible, standing in his mother’s living room was basically everyone he’d ever met. All his old traveling companions, most of his greatest rivals and, for some reason, Drew.
Ash was most surprised to see that Clemont and Bonnie were amongst the group. How in the world had they beaten Ash to Pallet town?
“Hey guys! Gary, Misty, Brock, May, Max, Drew, Dawn, Paul, Trip, Iris, Cilan, Clemont, Bonnie.” Ash said cheerfully, addressing each of his friends by name in the order he met them because clearly that was the only proper way to do things. “What are you doing here? Is there a party or something? Ooh! Are we celebrating my getting runner-up at the Lumiose Conference!?”
“Actually.” Iris mocked, “We’re here to tell you to quit, you little kid. You can’t win anything, you pathetic failure. Stupid child. You have to give up. Little kid.”
Ash temporarily forgot about all of his accomplishments, including winning the orange island challenge, defeating the frontier brains of Kanto, and constantly placing top 8 or better in national championships for the most popular and populated sport in the history of ever. Iris’s words cut Ash deeply to his very core and he became very upset.
“Yeah, you stink Ash.” Said Max, who was a brat. “I’ll conveniently be a trainer myself in a few days, and I bet I’ll win a championship league on my first try, like a real trainer. I can’t believe I ever looked up to you.”
May nodded in agreement with her brother’s words and leaned against Drew while glowering at Ash, presumably to subtly show that May and Drew were dating, even though that relationship wouldn’t be at all relevant at any point of this story.
“No offense, Ash, but you are really stupid.” Said Dawn, being incredibly offensive.
“Yeah, you're a total failure who deserves to die alone and forgotten.” Said Paul, sweeping every speck of character development he’d ever received into a trash bin and setting it on fire.
“Yeah, you suck. (Insert food metaphor here) give up on your dreams, doing otherwise would be (insert another food metaphor)” said Cilan. Ignoring the now flaming trash bin next to him.
“You're so stupid, nobody ever taught you how to be a good trainer, so you’ll never amount to anything.” Said Brock, who’d taken Ash under his wing and been the boy’s mentor for several years, facing countless life-or-death challenges and myths made real along the way.
Misty opened her mouth, presumably to add to the insults and injury, but the only noise that came out was a horrible, eardrum rattling screech of such pitch and volume that, aside from breaking all the windows in the Ketchum household, also had the unintended effect of making whatever actual words she was screaming completely indecipherable.
Ash stumbled as if physically struck. The completely unforeseen betrayal by all his closest friends hitting him like a truck full of other, smaller trucks, which broke through the windshield of the first hypothetical truck upon impact to hit him even harder for an impressive vehicular combo attack. “Guys... why? Why would you-? Bonnie, Clemont, you can’t possibly think-”
Bonnie, who had not even a day ago been in tears at the thought of being separated from Ash, whom she’d come to care deeply almost as another brother over the course of their journey, glared at Ash with a look of absolute disgust. Clemont put a hand on his sister’s shoulder and pulled her back. “Don’t come any closer. Your old ‘friends’ told me all about you, freak. How long did you think you could keep your secret, Oh Chosen One?”
Ash blinked, needing a few moments to work out what Clemont was talking about. After a minute, Ash remembered that one prophecy from Shamouti island, which had in a bizarre twist been referring to him instead of the apocalypse when saying ‘the world shall turn to ash’ Ash wondered why Clemont would be bringing that up, Shamouti had been a thrilling adventure, sure, but it happened a long time ago, and Ash hadn’t really given it too much thought since.
It was also only debatably canon.
“Ash. Ever since you began your journey, the world has been plagued with evil team after evil team and rampaging legendary after rampaging legendary.” May said menacingly. “And you always wind up right in the middle of it, fighting against whatever evil of the month is trying to end humanity. Face it, Ash. You are the reason all this is happening. That's the real reason we’re all here, to kill you. If we can end you, the world will be at peace.”
Ash raised a hand. “Eh? That’s… that's- that is- so stupid. Wh- no, wait a minute. Your response to realizing I keep saving the world over and over again is to kill me and hope that stops people from trying to take over the world in the first place? I mean, even putting aside the moral question of murdering your friend in cold blood, shouldn’t you be, like, absolutely, 100% sure that this will actually stop this from happening. More evidence than a Lugia calling me ‘Oh Chosen One’ literally once and it never being brought up again? And also, if this is the real reason you're all here, what's with being so mean to me earlier anyways?"
“I mean, we also all hate you.” Said Trip, shrugging.
“Yeah, we all like Gary now, moron.” Screeched Iris, grabbing said boy’s arm. “He’s our new ringleader, unlike you, you insufferable child. He’s a real Trainer. Little Kid. Unlike you, he catches all kinds of strong Pokémon and actually knows what type advantage means. Child. Stupid.”
Gary blinked. This whole time, he’d been totally silent.
This! makes! no! sense! Gary thought, frantically, staring at the purple-ette hanging off his arm. Who even is this girl? Why is everyone being so mean to Ash? Aren't they all supposed to be friends? I was just in town to visit my Gramps, and decided to swing by to see how my old buddy was doing? What is this? Is this some cruel prank? Am I having a fever dream? Are they all being mind-controlled? Is it Aliens? Have I stumbled into an alternate dimension? And what's this about me being an actual strong trainer? I’m retired! And, what do they mean ringleader? I don’t even know most of these people!
Still. Nearly half a slightly terrifying, possibly mind-controlled ladies were now staring at Gary with looks of adoration. Gary decided to smile and nod along with whatever happened for the time being. He’d figure out how to make it up to Ash later. Assuming that Gary was awake, and this was actually happening, which he highly doubted.
“So, yeah.” Brock said darkly. “Gotta kill ya, sorry not sorry. Go Steelix!”
“Blaziken, the stage is yours!” May screamed.
Misty made a sound like a million thunderclaps, threw a pokeball, and released Gyarados.
“Mamoswine, spotlight!” Said Dawn, her hand shaking slightly.
“Haxorus, let’s go! Crush this stupid, dumb, immature, ugly, untalented little kid!”
“Crustle, evaluation time!” Said Cilan, mercifully not adding a food metaphor.
“Luxray, battle time!” Said Clemont.
“Serperior, I choose you!”
“Electivire, stand by for battle!”
Ten powerful Pokémon emerged in flashes of light, surrounding the raven-haired boy and letting out powerful battle cries. Despite the Ketchum family’s fairly modest house, all ten very large Pokémon were somehow able to fit inside the living room with no issues whatsoever.
What happened next was no less than absolute chaos. Since there’s no kill like overkill, each of the traitors ordered their Pokémon to use their strongest respective attacks on Ash. Had they been successful, Ash likely would’ve ended up with a striking resemblance to his namesake. However, As the traitors had all given their orders in unison, all that the Pokémon could hear was a jumble of noise, and Ash was able to use the momentary distraction to jump out of a nearby window and escape unscathed.
A moment later, the side of the Ketchum house exploded as the traitors’ Pokémon got their acts together.
Ash stumbled away from the wreckage. Frantically thinking of someplace he would be safe.
There was a roar as the traitors burst from the ruins of the Ketchum household, powerful Pokémon launching attacks indiscriminately, caring not for the picturesque peaceful small-town vibes Pallet Town normally went for.
Dang! Ash thought, kind of wishing he knew a couple more swear words. We really need someplace to hide.
“What about Professor Oak's lab?” Asked Pikachu, somehow reading his trainer’s mind. Ash could understand Pikachu perfectly because they were somehow reading each other’s minds. “He’s always been nice to us, and could probably help us out somehow, he is The Pokémon Professor, after all.”
“Good call Pikachu.” Said Ash, breathlessly, dodging a wayward flamethrower from Misty’s Gyarados and evading a thunder from Paul’s Electivire in a frankly astonishing display of agility. “Let’s go to Professor Oak’s lab.”
So they went to Professor Oak’s lab.
“Professor Oak!” Said Ash, waving to the old man as he came into view. The boy had thankfully somehow managed to dodge and completely lose a dozen angry Pokémon trainers in the space of one sentence, so he had some breathing room now. “All my friends hate me for some reason, and they just blew up my house! Can you help me?”
“Of course I can, my boy! I’m The Pokémon Professor, after all.” Said Professor Oak, smiling at Ash with a sort of grandfatherly affection that he would shortly afterwards fail to show his actual grandson.
“He went this way!” Screamed the distant voice of Max, who was a brat. “Get him!”
Thinking quickly, Professor Oak grabbed Ash by the hem of his shirt and hurled him into a nearby shrubbery.
There was a sound like an earthquake accompanied by large clouds of dust rising from the earthy road as the army of traitors and their Pokémon stampeded into Professor Oak’s property, each of the group's eyes glowing red with really badly explained and completely unjustified fury.
“Where? Where is he?!” they yelled at once with the voice of the legion.
Professor Oak lazily pointed in the opposite direction. “I think he went that way.”
“Thank you, sir.” came the reply, again spoken in perfect, eerie unison.
There was a sound like an earthquake accompanied by large clouds of dust rising from the earthy road as the army of traitors and their Pokémon stampeded off of Professor Oak’s property, each of the group’s eyes still glowing red with really badly explained and completely unjustified fury.
A moment later, a huffing and puffing Gary Oak staggered into the corral, nodded hello to his grandfather, (who wholly ignored him) spotted Ash’s shoes poking out of the shrubbery, shrugged, and staggered off after the others.
Ash abruptly realized that he was lying on something much softer than any shrubbery had any right to be.
The raven-haired boy glanced down and saw a very beat-up Serena lying beneath him. This was somewhat confusing to Ash, partially because he had no idea why anyone would beat up Serena, who was generally a very nice person. Partially because the last time he’d seen Serena, literally yesterday, she’d been boarding a plane bound for the Hoenn Region, and last Ash had checked, Professor Oak’s shrubbery was decidedly not in Hoenn.
“Serena!” Ash gasped, quickly trying to roll off of her. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there- what are you doing here?”
Serena seemed strangely unbothered by their current position, lying chest to chest, red in the face, and covered in dirt in a rather uncomfortable shrubbery, she pressed her hands against his shoulders but otherwise made no effort whatsoever to push Ash off. In fact, the young trainer could’ve sworn that the girl was deliberately making it harder for them to separate themselves. How odd. Ash wondered what reason Serena could’ve possibly had for doing that.
“Well, I came to Pallet to congratulate you on getting runner up at the Kalos League, but.” Serena’s normal pleasant features shifted into something that could only be described as ‘stormy’ “Those awful, deplorable, subhuman slime molds that dared to ever call themselves your friends started saying all these mean, horrible things about you!” Serena’s expression shifted back to normal. “I tried to stop the traitors, I really did, but they were too much for me. Those horrible, no good very bad traitors did all this to me, Professor Oak has been kind enough to let me hide in this shrubbery for the last hour and a half or so.”
Ash managed to get to his feet and hauled Serena to her feet as well. “You’ve been laying in the dirt for an hour and a h- Professor Oak knew this was going to happen? Why didn’t he warn me! Those guys tried to kill me!”
Professor Oak, The Pokémon Professor who was a professor of Pokémon, shrugged. It didn’t explain anything.
Ash turned back towards Serena, who had evidently not noticed that she hadn’t let go of Ash’s hand yet. “And, while I'm glad you’re here, and that you don’t hate my guts or anything, how’d you get to Pallet town, anyways? Weren’t you going to the Hoenn Region?”
Serena smiled at him. “It’s all because of the ship!”
“What?”
Serena pointed. There was a ship slowly sailing away from the shore of Pallet Town. Squinting, Ash could barely make out the words ‘S.S Amour’ inscribed on the boat’s hull.
“Oh.”
“Also, I'm madly in love with you.”
There were many Pokémon-related similes that could be used to help describe Ash's reaction to this. I, the author of this story, will now use literally all of them.
Ash’s pupils widened to the size of Electrodes. Butterfrees flapped around in his stomach in a frenzied dance battle. This information came completely out of left field for Ash, like a pop fly in a Pokébase game, this was because he was as dense as a Geodude. Still, Ash was as happy as both a Clamperl and a Horsea learning of Serena’s affections for him, which burned like the tail of a Charmander. Or a Ponyta. Or any number of fire-type pokemon, really. However, since this revelation was more shocking than Pikachu’s Thunderbolt, Ash, like the e in Aerodactyl, was silent.
Ash’s stunned silence only lasted about two and a half seconds, but it was enough for Serena to assume that the trainer from Pallet was rejecting her outright, and was possibly and in fact, probably, thoroughly disgusted by her very presence.
Serena let go of Ash’s hand and turned away, but quickly, before any drama, plot or character development could occur at all whatsoever, Ash grabbed her again and pulled her close.
“I love you too.” Ash told her. This was true. Ash did in fact deeply love Serena in a romantic way, romantically, from the depths of his very soul. He always had, ever since their first meeting Ash only vaguely remembered at a summer camp they had attended when they could not have been older than nine. The only reason the veteran trainer who had faced down region-spanning terrorist cells, city-destroying natural disasters and literal gods without so much as hesitating hadn’t told Serena this before was because he’d been too nervous to tell her how he felt.
Serena squealed in glee and threw her arms around Ash, cuddling closer and beaming up at him. The two of them made eye contact, and an unspoken agreement passed between them. Ash cupped Serena’s cheek with one hand and she leaned in, pursing her lips.
Ash’s heart started beating unhealthily quickly, Serena’s eyes closed, the gap between them began to shrink.
“Hey Ash! How’s it goi- oh. uh. I can… I can come back later.”
Ash rapidly pulled his face away from Serena’s to glare at whoever had interrupted them. He vaguely recognized the flustered-looking guy who’d spoken, one of Professor Oak’s assistants.
I feel like I know this guy. Ash thought to himself. What's his name again? Teddy? Trip? No, that's a different guy. Todd? No, that's a different, different guy, I know it starts with a T…
“It’s me, Tracey! It's been a long time, hasn’t it?”
Ash blinked a few times. Tracey, Tracey… it rings a distant bell. “Have we met?”
Tracey stared at him. “It's… Ash, buddy, it's me. We’ve known each other for ages.”
Ash stared.
“Pokémon Watcher? We met when you caught Lapras? Guy with the Scyther, Venonat and Maril? Traveled the Orange Islands together? Is any of that ringing a bell?”
Ash continued staring.
“Ok fine, I’m the guy that replaced Brock for one season.”
“Oh yeah! Tracey! How’s it going?” Ash said, snapping his fingers.
Tracey sighed. “I mean, it was okay until you totally forgot I existed. I would ask how you're doing these days but, uh.” The Pokémon watcher glanced at Serena, who was hanging off Ash’s shoulders and silently mind-willing him to leave her and Ash alone. “I guess you’ve got other things on your mind right now. I can leave.”
“I mean, most of my friends just told me they hated me and tried to kill me, like, 5 minutes ago.” Ash replied. “That… kinda sucked, if I’m being honest.”
“What?” Tracey yelled, shocked. “Wait, Who? How? Why?”
“Misty, Gary, Brock…” Ash listed, tailing off. “Everyone but you and Serena here, really. They all yelled at me for a while and told their Pokémon to kill me.”
Tracey, who’s character wasn’t important or memorable enough to drastically alter for the sake of the plot, was stunned. “That's insane! How could they do this? Why would they do this?”
“Y’know? It really wasn’t all that clear. Something about a prophecy? Anyway, do you know where the professor is? I have things I need to talk to him about.”
“Sure.” Said Tracey. The young artist turned in a half-circle and pointed. “He’s right there.”
Professor Oak had been standing politely in the same spot where he’d been this whole time after he’d told off the traitors. He waved at Ash and smiled.
“Oh.” Ash said. “Right. Hi, Professor.”
“What can I do for you m’boy?”
“Well, some of the stuff those guys told me, it got me thinking. I need to take my training more seriously if I ever want to amount to anything.”
Tracey watched the two interact and nodded, knowing he had fulfilled his purpose. With slow, purposeful movements, he exited the clearing and walked into the depths of Professor Oak’s laboratory. After taking many twists and turns, he arrived in the most desolate, hidden hallway of the complex. At the far end of the hallway was a cobweb covered door, unmarked save for a simple wooden sign nailed to the front, reading: The Void of Forgotten Side Characters.
After one last lingering look at the outside world, Tracy gave a small smile, pushed open the door, stepped through the threshold, and was never heard from again.
“Ash, you’re already dedicating basically your entire life to training Pokémon.” Professor Oak was saying. “Plus placing top eight consistently in national championships every season. Not to mention that, compared to the reigning champions, you’re still quite young. It takes most trainers decades to reach your current level, if they ever do at all. After all, your still only te-”
“A teenager!” Serena interjected quickly. “Because he definitely isn’t still ten.”
Professor Oak suddenly remembered the first, foremost and unalterable law of Pokémon anime fanfiction, inscribed into the very essence of the fandom: Thou Shalt Age-Up The Characters.
The Pokémon professor nodded. “Ah, yes, of course.”
Ash, who was definitely not still ten, shook his head. “No, I realize now, I need to train harder than ever. Professor Oak, I need to find someplace to train, someplace that will push me and my team to their very limits, with nothing around to distract me from my goal of growing stronger.”
“Hmm.” said Oak. “I do know a place. Have you ever heard of Mount Reallydangeroustallrock in the Orre region?”
“I have now!” Ash said. “I can train there?”
“Of course, Mt Reallydangeroustallrock is known for its powerful wild Pokémon population and insanely bad living conditions, the perfect place to send a child looking to push his limits in a sport. Why, it’s even better than Mt Silver! There’s only one catch, Reallydangeroustallrock is so dangerous and so tall and so rocky that the Pokémon League requires all trainers to have a set skill level and a special passport before there allowed to train there.”
“Huh. Well, that is a problem.” Ash said. Far from sounding disappointed, the young trainer had a spark of excitement in his eyes, an inner fire fueled by the thrill of a concrete challenge to overcome. “What do I need to do to prove my strength to the league? Is there some sort of test? A mission of some kind I need to complete?”
“Oh don’t be silly, conveniently, you’ve already met every possible quota and challenge the Pokémon League might impose on a young trainer over the course of your journey! I’ll write up a letter to the Pokémon league and we’ll have you at Mt. Reallydangeroustallrock in no time at all!”
Ash’s inner fire dimmed a little. “Oh, okay then. Thank you, Professor. Now, I need to round up my Pokémon! I need to decide which ones to take with me first. I want everyone on my team to benefit from this.”
Serena hummed curiously. “Oh? I thought you generally started each new adventure by leaving most of your Pokémon here in Pallet Town and building up a new team wherever you wind up.”
“Well, yeah, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot in these last few minutes, and I’ve come to an epiphany. I've realized that I need to change literally everything about myself and my training methods if I want to improve, and this is a big part of that. I have also concluded that I need to start using big, intelligent words such as epiphany more frequently.”
“That’s hot.” Serena commented, hanging off Ash’s arm with a dazed look on her face.
“Actually, that won’t be any issue at all whatsoever either! I can simply give you this brand new PokéExMachina, the newest and greatest of the Pokédex line.” Professor Oak said, handing Ash a new device. “This is the PokéExMachina. It has all the features of the Pokédex, Pokénav, Pokétch, Rotomdex, Rotomphone, iPhone 74, Fitbit, Nintendo Switch and toaster oven combined into one! In addition, it also comes with a Pokémon translator, a GPS, a calculator, and a high-tech teleportation array! And as an added bonus, if you press this button here, it will remove the six-Pokémon team limit, allowing you to take as many Pokémon with you as you please. You can also program it to compliment you whenever it’s turned on.”
The PokéExMachina emitted a cheerful jingle as the Professor of Pokémon opened it. “Beep. Greetings, exalted master Oak, supreme overlord of all matters of knowledge and wisdom- and might I say that your hair looks lovely today? Beep.”
“Wow.” Ash said, staring at the PokéExMachina. “How come not everyone uses this? Or like, criminals. Why would people like Team Rocket bother with the six Pokémon limit if it can be taken away at the literal press of a button?”
“Because it’s overpowered as heck and ludicrously expensive! You’re very lucky I’m giving this to you completely for free!”
“But that doesn't really- never mind. Uh. I guess the only thing left is to find some way to test my skills once my training is finished.” Ash turned to look at his old mentor. “I don’t suppose you’re also hanging on to a ticket to some absurd, super-strong worldwide tournament I could enter?”
“Why of course I do! I’m The Pokémon Professor after all!”
“Yeah, that’s about what I figured.”
“Yes, the Pokémon Legend Omega Tournament, or PLOT, for short, will be taking place in X years at the base of Mount Silver, only the strongest, most elite trainers from across the world will compete there, such as, for example, literally everyone you’ve ever met. Every single one of them made the cut.” Mused Professor Oak. “Yes, that will do nicely.”
“Yeah, that’s awesome!” Ash said, getting psyched. “X years huh? Perfect! That’s an arbitrary enough length of time for me to get some serious training in, but not so arbitrary that I’ll be waiting forever or have any meaningful maturity progression before the tournament!”
“Yeah.” Said Serena, nodding. “Good old X amount of time. Where would timeskips be without it?”
“Anyways, I’ll be off now. Let me just write you a quick recommendation letter to the Pokémon League to let you train on Mt Reallydangeroustallrock. Serena, would you like to train with him?”
“I’d love to stay with Ashy, but I'm not really that strong of a battler. I doubt the Pokémon League will allow me to be in their top secret, elite-only training location.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m sure as long as Ash is with you, you’ll be alright. I can convince them; I am The Pokémon Professor after all! Anyways, I’m off. Be back in X minutes.”
Serena watched the Professor of Pokémon leave, then turned towards her new boyfriend. “So, where were we?”
Ash blinked, a little confused. “I mean, we were in Kalos a few days ago?”
Serena’s smile became a little thinner. “More recently, just a few minutes ago, before what's-his-name interrupted us?”
“We haven’t moved.” Ash told her, scratching his head. “We were just standing right here- are you feeling okay?”
Serena developed an uncontrollable tick in her left eye.
Ash kept thinking for a few moments, then blinked. “Oh! We were about to kiss right? Sorry, I … kinda forgot about that.”
“You…forgot… I can’t believe-! Actually, wait, no. I can believe that. A lot is happening really quickly. It's like a story that's rushing from plot point to plot point without bothering to stop and develop anything.”
“That seems sort of specific.” Ash noted, then he awkwardly took a step towards her. “Uh, do you still want to-?”
“Arceus, yes.” Serena replied.
The two leaned in, and suddenly, an enormous golden spotlight shone down from the heavens and bathed them in absolute luminescence.
An other-dimensional portal, glowing in an infinite multitude of colors, materialized in the sky, a complete alphabet of shiny Unknown that teleported into the area slowly circled the wormhole, beginning to sing a heavenly hymn in fluent Latin. A blinding light filled the universe for a moment, and a shimmering, white, quadrupedal Pokémon, clothed in golden armor and ringed by eighteen plates that positively radiated elemental power, emerged from the portal, shining brilliance pouring off his form in waves. The Legendary Pokémon, for that's what this being was, began to descend slowly to the earth.
“THOU CALLED?” Arceus thundered.
Serena couldn’t quite figure out whether to be impressed, scared, reverent or annoyed.