Chapter Text
The world of pokemon.
A world full of wonder and mystery where people and pokemon coexist with each other and live their lives alongside one another. From the coordinators who perform with grace and style, to the trainers who battle to prove the strength and spirit of them and their pokemon, to even the common folks who live a less exciting but nonetheless fulfilling existence with their loved ones. While each of these categories might have a different style of life, they are all connected by their bond with other people and pokemon.
One such person happens to an individual known as Ash Ketchum. A young 16 and a half year old Kantonian with raven-black hair, tanned skin, orangish-brown eyes and the unique characteristic of zigzag patterns on his cheeks. He started his adventure in his home region of Kanto at the age of 10, much like his fellow trainers, and ever since then his life has been one of never-ending adventure, happiness, and some sorrow. He’s had many encounters, both good and bad, formed strong friendships and rivalries, and touched the lives of almost everyone who meets him.
And right now, he was currently in an airplane with his mother Delia Ketchum and Professor Oak, heading to the Unova region. Professor Oak apparently got a message from one of his colleagues, Professor Juniper, and decided to invite the two Ketchums along for the trip. This was a pretty common occasion as the Oaks and Ketchums have always been close family friends, but with Ash’s father being... absent, and his own children and grandchildren occupied with their own lives, Samuel Oak has become somewhat of a constant in Ash and Delia’s lives. Delia was looking through a pamphlet provided by the in-flight services while Ash and his best friend Pikachu were looking out the window in anticipation for when they would be landing in Unova. Professor Oak on the other hand was going over some research papers that he brough along in preparations of his seminars; he might know many things about the native Unovan culture and local pokemon, but it never hurts to review and double-check.
“Are you excited about heading to the Unova region, sweetie?” Delia asked her son with smile, though she already knew his answer.
“Of course I am, mom!” Ash said cheerfully, “According to Professor Oak, Unova is an isolationist region.”
“Mm-hm, and they didn’t open up their borders with other regions until a few years ago, if I recall correctly.”
“Which also means that there is going to be a whole new culture to explore and pokemon I’ve never seen before!” Ash finished, punching the air in excitement, “I just can’t wait to see what life in Unova is like! Right, Pikachu?”
“(You got that right, buddy!)” The yellow mouse agreed.
Delia could only smile and giggle to herself at her son’s joy, though her smile was tinted slightly with sadness. After the years of traveling, her son has definitely grown and matured as both a trainer and individual. It was nice to know that no matter much he might’ve changed, Ash was still the energetic and childish young boy who loves and wants to understand pokemon with all his heart. It was saddening to know that some of this growth has happened without her involvement and came from a source of suffering and loss. A certain blue jackal capable of telepathy that Ash met during his Hoenn travels came to mind before Delia quickly shook her head; even though she wasn’t able to be there to support him through the hard times on his journeys, he had his traveling companions to pick him back up after he gets knocked down.
‘All I need to do is be there for him when he needs me,’ The older Ketchum thought to herself before saying out loud, “How much longer before we land, Samuel?”
“Huh?” Professor Oak looked up from his papers, clearly not hearing what she said.
“Oh sorry! I was just wondering when the plane was going to arrive in Unova.”
“Oh no, it’s fine Delia!” Professor Oak reassured, “I should be the one listening. If the plan is continuing at the pace it’s currently going without any detours, we should be arriving in half an hour.”
Hearing this, the raven-haired boy and his partner got more excited and went back to looking out the window. Seeing this, Delia and Professor Oak smiled in fondness and amusement before going back to their pamphlet and research papers. Unbeknownst to researcher and mother-son duo, a trio of people wearing trench coats were eyeing them with grins on their faces from a few aisles in front of them.
“Attention passenger, we will be arriving in Unova soon so please return to your seats and make sure that your seatbelts are fastened,” A flight attendant announced over the plane’s communicators, “Thank you for flying with us. We hope to see you all again soon!”
The moment the plane landed and slowed to a complete stop, Ash wanted nothing more than to undo his seatbelt and get out of there immediately. Unfortunately he had to wait patiently for his mom and Professor Oak getting their luggage before he can make his way into the aisle. It didn’t helped that Pikachu was as impatient as he was, but unlike the raven-haired human, that yellow rat betrayed him by hopping on to Oak’s shoulder to skip the waiting. Ash gave his partner a glare to which Pikachu stuck his tongue out in response. Delia gave them a look and was pleased when the two immediately stopped before they could start any arguments.
Once they got their luggage and got off the plane, the three humans and one pokemon made their way through the airport towards the exit. During the whole process, Ash couldn’t help but feel as though someone was watching him. Pikachu felt the same as his trainer, but since they couldn’t find anyone looking at them, the two partners decided that they were probably being paranoid and dropped the subject. They immediately saw a young woman with light brown hair and wearing a lab coat holding up a sigh with “Samuel Oak” once they exited the airport. A few minutes later, the two parties were properly introduced and the woman was revealed to be the Professor Juniper that Oak mentioned, much to the mother and son’s surprise.
“No offense but you look so young. Are you sure this is the Professor?” Ash asked Professor Oak bluntly.
Despite the shocked faces his mother and Oak were giving him, Professor Juniper just laughed it off and explained how there were actually two Professors in Unova, with the other one being her father Cedric Juniper. According to the female Professor, who decided to reintroduce herself as Aurea Juniper to avoid confusion, she and her father studied the origin of pokemon as well as their distribution and biology. Cedric and Samuel were old friends and Aurea was introduced to the Kantonian Professor by his father.
“Even so, I would like to apologize for my son’s... straightforwardness,” Delia said giving a deep bow, “He’s a good kid, he just lacks manners sometimes!”
“Hey!” Ash shouted in protest.
“Relax, Mrs. Ketchum, it’s fine,” Aurea reassured, “He’s not the first to ask me that question. You can blame my father for my status as Professor, since I inherited his intelligence and curious nature. Ash’s blunt honesty is actually quite refreshing in a way.”
Ash gave Delia a smug look that said “I told you so” to which the older Ketchum gently slapped her son on the shoulder while pouting. After a quick laugh at the mother-son interaction, the group of four humans and one pokemon got into Professor Aurea’s jeep and began their drive towards her lab in Nuvema Town. Ash looked to the sides in amazement at the large groups of local pokemon as they drove by. There was a herd of Deerlings led by a Sawsbuck, a family of Patrat sharing berries, and a flock of Pidoves flying by above them. It was times like these that the younger Ketchum felt gratitude towards Professor Oak as he technically forced him to read up on a book that the older man had on Unovan pokemon.
“I’m gonna take a guess and say you’re enjoying yourself so far, Ash?” Aurea asked, eyes looking at Ash through the rear-view mirror with amusement.
“Yep! When I heard we were going to Unova and that there were pokemon that I’ve never seen before, I couldn’t wait!” Ash grinned with Pikachu copying his trainer.
“I can see why that would excite you,” Professor Aurea smiled, “We’ve been getting more pokemon from other regions migrating to Unova ever since we opened our borders several years ago, but many of us Unovan natives still get all worked up whenever we see pokemon from other regions. Like your Pikachu for example.”
“Really? Hear that buddy? You’re celebrity here in Unova!”
“(As things should be,)” Pikachu puffed out his chest in pride, much to the amusement of the human passengers of the jeep.
After some more driving, the jeep slowed to a stop in front of Juniper’s lab and everyone got out. Ash was about to say something to Professor Juniper when something grabbed Pikachu from his shoulder. Everyone lookied up in surprise as they saw what seems to be a hot air balloon—one that Ash recognizes all too well. Inside of the familiar hot air balloon were the three people in trench coats that were stalking them on the plane and the airport. The younger Ketchum couldn’t help but mentally curse himself for not trusting his guts back at the airport. Now they have Pikachu in their grasp and no doubt the box they’ve trapped the yellow mouse in was shockproof, meaning he’ll have to use the... secret weapon...
“You three! Who are you folks?!” Professor Juniper demanded, not knowing who the trio are the way her guests do.
“I’m so glad you ask,” A haughty female voice said as she and her companions discarded their disguises.
The trio was none other than Jessie, James, and Meowth—Team Rocket members who have been both a nuisance and occasional ally to Ash and Pikachu during their travels. They looked the same as always, with the exception of looking older like Ash did and having a black Team Rocket uniform instead of the white one that the raven-haired boy was used to seeing on them. While he was busy pondering why they had the outfit change, the trio was doing their usual motto but changed up because “new region, new motto.”
“Now that we’ve gotten what we came for, we’ll be taking our leave now,” Jessie declared once they finished their motto.
“We were given an important mission from the Boss so no more dilly-dallying,” James added.
“So now we’re out of here!” All three said together as the hot air balloon began to float away.
All four humans on the ground quickly raced after the balloon, shouting at Team Rocket to stop and give back Pikachu. Naturally the trio refused their demands and even taunted them by waving Pikachu’s glass cage in front of them. The yellow mouse grit his teeth but sat still, knowing for a fact that they made his cage shockproof, meaning that he’ll have to trust his trainer to save him.
“I really wish I brought Mimey along with us,” Delia lamented, “If he was here, he could’ve held that balloon in place for us to catch up to them!”
“To be fair, we didn’t expect running into Team Rocket and assumed this would be a normal vacation,” Professor Oak pointed out, “In hindsight, we should’ve seen this coming considering how they’ve been following Ash for over several years just to get his Pikachu.”
“You’ve dealt with these clowns before? And for that long?!” Juniper couldn’t help but exclaim when she heard how long they’ve been following Ash.
“It’s a long story that we’ll tell later. Right now we need to get Pikachu back!”
“Which is easy said than done since you don’t have any other pokemon on hand to stop us,” James told them mockingly, causing the older Ketchum and Kantonian Professor scowl since he was right.
Unbeknownst to everyone else, Ash and Pikachu had matching grins on their faces. Contrary to what James said, there was in fact another pokemon that the raven-haired boy had with him. Ash pulled out another Poke Ball out of his pocket, musing to himself how the others were in for a surprise, before tossing it into the air. The Ball opened which caused a blinding white light that made everyone besides Ash and Pikachu close their eyes or look away. Once the light died out, everyone looked back and their expression morphed into one of shock and surprise like Ash anticipated. The pokemon opened its eyes and glared up at Team Rocket, clearly recognizing the trio despite it being a long time since it last saw them.
“It’s been a while, girl,” Ash said gently to his pokemon, “Time for a welcom back warmup!”
“(With pleasure! This will be my comeback battle as one of your family!)” The pokemon declared with a loud caw.
To Be Continued...