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“Stoooooooooop!”
You all know how the story goes.
“Ash!” “Oh no…”
A mysterious letter. The strongest trainer.
“PIKAPI!”
A clone finding their purpose, anger, vengeance, and trying to prove who they are.
A sacrifice.
“Pikapi!”
A tragedy.
You all know how it started, how it ended, and what came of it.
A lone boy, petrified on the floor, turned to stone. With his trusty starter trying in vain to shock stone back to life.
You know the story. You know how the tears of people and Pokémon alike at this young man’s sacrifice brought him back to life.
So why is that boy changing, as the tears breathe new life back into him? Why is he growing? Why is his skin turning into steel, his biology morphing into that of a mechanical being?
Best to turn back the clock by a few thousand years.
A lone fight in a distant corner of the universe caused a bit of metal to break off a mechanical being’s body, which was then sent hurtling towards PokéEarth and lodged into the ground for a few millennia before being used in the machine to create the world’s strongest Pokémon, recycled for the clone’s own machines.
A rainbow feather, dropped by the legendary Phoenix on Ash’s first day as a trainer, kept as a good luck charm.
So how does this all create the changes before you?
The latent revival abilities of Ho-oh, simmering in the feather, utilizing the dormant piece of Living Metal, and using the tears of people and Pokémon as a catalyst of power to create something new.
As the tears suddenly began to flow towards Ash, the forgotten feather in coat pocket – unpetrified – begins to glow, absorbing the shard of Living Metal stuck in Ash’s arm from when he fought with the cloning machine to retake his Pokémon and begins to transform him.
Pikachu stared in shock as his Pikapi slowly changes before his eyes, going form a human boy to a robot the size of an adult man. He’s no longer stone, that much is obvious, but he still reaches out to poke Pikapi experimentally, cautiously.
The sound of Ash groaning startles Pikachu a bit as the boy turned mechanical being slowly stirs. Everyone appears to be holding their collective breath as he slowly gets up.
“Ow, my head… What happened?” Mewtwo stares at Ash as he slowly gets up, holding his head in one hand, seemingly not noticing the fact that he is now radically different.
“Pikapi!” Ash’s head suddenly whips around to look at Pikachu, smiling widely at him.
“Pikachu! You’re okay!” Ash grins, moving to hug his starter before pausing as he takes in his hands. His suddenly metallic hands and not human ones.
“What the…” He slowly turns his hands around, looking around at the rest of his body, staring at the changes made to him.
For one, there were suddenly a lot more moving parts to his body. Not in the sense that he had sprouted new limbs alongside turning into what appears to be a very advanced robot, but more in the sense that he can see wheels built into his legs, pieces of metal that look to be protective – like armor – around his joints.
His inspection continues with an air of someone who is very clearly fighting down a panic attack as he slowly gets to his feet, noting how he seems to be taller – not by much, he’s sure he’s still shorter than Lieutenant Surge, but that isn’t hard, more like he’s the size of Professor Oak, or maybe Blaine or Koga, adult-sized.
Ash notes that he doesn’t need oxygen anymore, because with how long he’s been holding his breath he would’ve passed out by now, but that isn’t surprising when he’s suddenly been turned into a robot after running in-between two attacks that were aimed to kill.
His inspection is cut short as Mewtwo floats down in front of Ash, and he looks up, wishing that he could cry but he has a frustrating lack of tear ducts to do so.
”I am so sorry…” Mewtwo’s mental voice rings out as he stares at Ash with sorrow in his eyes.
“Are you sure about this Pikachu?” Ash looked down at Pikachu as they stood atop a hill overlooking the camp they made for the night.
“Pika pika!” Pikachu grinned as he looked up at Ash, before making the jump up to his shoulder. He’s had a bunch of practice getting used to Ash’s new height, just as Ash has had a lot of practice getting used to his new body during their trip through the Orange Islands.
“Alright, here goes.” Ash shakes himself off, before breaking into a run down the hill. Before he gets too far however, he jumps into the air and his body begins to shift, transforming.
What hits the ground isn’t a humanoid robot, but rather a very sleek-looking motorcycle with a Pikachu on the handlebars crying out happily.
“Are they really doing that again? That’s the fifth time today.” Misty sighs as she looks up the hill to watch Ash and Pikachu having fun.
“Let him have his fun Misty, he just got the transforming part down.” Brock chuckles as he makes lunch for everyone – even Ash, whose diet has suddenly moved onto the metallic side of things. They tried making rice balls for him once, but it ended up gunking up his systems.
“I suppose, I just hope-“ Misty is cut off as Pikachu gets a bit too excited and lets off a Thunderbolt, electrocuting Ash which startles him into changing back into his humanoid form, sending Pikachu flying where he’s caught by Misty.
“Ugh…” Ash groans as he lays on the ground, sparking slightly as his body works through the electrical charge it was given. “You need to remember not to do that Pikachu…”
“GIVE! HER! BACK!” Ash shouted as he punched at the crystal created by the Unown. Misty and Brock run up the stairs to reach him just as he lets out a frustrated yell, one of his arms suddenly transforming into a sword that glows blue before slicing through the crystal with Sacred Sword.
His other hand morphs into a cannon that suddenly flashes blue as it launches a Dragon Pulse at the illusory Entei across the room.
“You took my mother from me. It’s time you gave her back.” Ash growls as he steps forth, the lower half of his face covered by metal plates as Pikachu sparks angrily on his shoulder.
“So you’re a… Transformer? What even are you?” May blinks as she stares at Ash as he casually rolls along beside her in his motorcycle form.
“Eh, Transformer might be the best word for it. I used to be human before I did something stupid and got transformed into this.” Ash hums, Pikachu casually napping on the seat of his vehicle form as he rolls along. He had offered to give May a ride since he and Pikachu accidentally wrecked her bike testing what all he can do – he had begun developing a move he called Electro Drift that used his vehicle form as the base.
“What kind of stupidity causes you to turn into a robot?” May stares at Ash, before the Transformer pauses.
“I’d… Rather not talk about it yet.”
“Officer Jenny! My darling lo-“ Brock suddenly chokes off as Max grabs his ear and drags him off.
“Er, officer… Why are you putting a lock on my friend’s bike?” May doesn’t want to say what Ash is outright, but given the fact that his vehicle form currently has a wheel lock on it she might have to spill the beans.
“Illegal parking in front of a police station. We’re gonna have to impound it and your friend can pay the fine for it later.” Officer Jenny calmly states after radioing the tow company.
Of course, Ash chose that moment exactly to wake up from his nap and transform back into his humanoid form, stretching as the lock falls to the ground, along with Officer Jenny’s ticket book.
“Ah, that was a good nap… I needed that after training with Pikachu last night! Eh? Why are you staring at me?” Ash blinks as May and Pikachu facepalm.
Ash slammed through the wall of the Megarig, sparks flying around him as he drove down one of the struts holding the device draining Giratina’s energy from it.
He had one shot at this, since he left all of his Pokémon aside from Pikachu on the ground with Brock and Dawn.
As he drove, he let energy build in his wheels, electrifying the support strut below him, before turning onto his side and slamming into one of the arms holding Giratina, dislodging it as he transformed and jumped into the air.
Transforming his arms into swords, he let the familiar energy of Sacred Sword fill them as he sliced downwards, cutting the arms neatly in two and releasing Giratina as it fell back towards the ground.
Of course, Ash forgot one crucial component to his plan.
He was also falling.
“Pikaaaaaa!” Pikachu screamed as he held onto Ash’s head as they flipped over and over.
Ash’s mind flew a mile a minute as he tried to figure out a way out of this, as he’d rather not test if his robot body could survive a two mile drop down. He might, but Pikachu certainly wouldn’t.
Of course, his body had a trick up its sleeve and Ash found himself glancing at his arms as they started to fill with energy. Scrap metal from the Megarig fell around him, slowly being drawn in and absorbed by his Living Metal body to form… Something. Ash didn’t know what, but a computer that suddenly flew into his chest uploaded schematics to a jet that was revealed to the public earlier that year….
And Ash found himself Transforming.
A boy turned robot fell from the Megarig.
And a jet took his place with a Pikachu in the cockpit.
“Whoa! So you can disguise yourself as well!?” Zorua grinned as he jumped around Ash as Brock and Dawn watched with fond amusement.
“Only into two other set forms, but yeah!” Ash grinned as Pikachu relaxed on his head. They had found the excitable Zorua last night on their way to Crown City, where they decided to take a detour to watch the Baccer World Cup.
“I can’t wait to show you to Meema! I bet she’d love to meet you!” Zorua giggled, before falling into a somber mood. “I miss Meema…”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure she’s looking for you right now. We’ll just keep an eye out for her, okay?” Ash smiles softly as he puts a metal hand on Zorua’s head and begins to ruffle his fur.
“Pika…” Pikachu nods, still relaxed, but completely sure that they’ll find Zorua’s Meema.
“Right! No need to worry!” Dawn smiles after sharing a quick look with Brock.
“You’re right! She’ll find me! I know she will!” Zorua perks back up, eyes shining.
“It’s been a weird journey, hasn’t it Pikachu?” Ash hums as he sits down at the edge of the camp, away from where Clemont, Serena and Bonnie are asleep so as not to disturb them.
“Pika pika.” Pikachu nods, watching the still water of the lake with his trainer.
“We still need to find out exactly what I am… But that can happen when it happens. For now, I’m just glad that I’m still here.” He smiles, idly tapping the metal simulacrum that’s his hat. It’s been with him this entire journey, even transformed.
“Pikapi.” Pikachu moves into Ash’s lap and settles down, curling up and falling asleep as Ash looks down at his starter and one of his oldest friends with a soft smile.
He then looks up into the sky to watch the stars, humming to himself as he gazes out.
As he does so, he can see a meteor shower start, streaks of fire crossing the sky.
It’s a beautiful night to be alive.