Chapter Text
June 1997: Year 1 of Ash Ketchum Journey
Ash has been stuck in his mind for quite some time now. He had never seen a Pokémon as big as that, leaving him curious. Since starting this journey, he has seen many Pokèmon he never knew about.
"Hey, I think I see Vermillion City!" Ash came out from his musing at his older traveling companion's Brock voice. He didn't consider him a "Friend" yet, and while he did appreciate him, his last friend was that girl from the summer camp he attended years ago; he definitely didn't consider Brock and Misty friends, especially Misty. The girl annoyed him to no end, cute and obnoxious, tho he will never admit he finds her cute. He did pity her, and if much of what she said many times about man was true, she was used just as much as his mother. And if he had to be honest, he could see that to be true. His mother did explain to him many things before starting his journey, especially about something called sex. He was ten, nearly 11, and his mother warned him about the action consequences. This was why he still allowed her to follow him despite how she annoyed him so that she wouldn't be a victim of other people again, and that was why he stopped Brock from flirting with her as well; he could understand the desire to find a mother figure for his sibling, but he wouldn't let him use anyone in such a way trapping them in a situation when they cry. He could remember vividly his mother crying for a reason he never understood until he started his journey.
"Yes! And in time for the annual cruise on the St. Anne. If we are lucky enough, we will manage to get on board!" Said Misty excitedly as she fantasized about the cruise. Ash did wander about it; he had never been on a cruise before.
"Then I will find a handsome, good man, and my luck will finally turn around."
"And instead, I will be able to find a beautiful young lady to ask her hand!" Ash narrowed his eyes at the two and instantly interjected.
"I'm sorry to break your fantasies, but we don't have time for a cruise. I have a league to prepare for." He said, a bit annoyed; every time the two said this kind of thing, it irritated him. Couldn't they see the consequences? The pain they will bring to themselves and others?
Misty then turned toward him, growling with a fist clenched.
"Grrr! You're so insufferable, Ketchum! It's not like we can't make a deviation since you have to wait for next year's conference! Besides, prepare? You spend more time goofing around with your Pokémon than anything else! You're not preparing!" Pikachu climbed down from his shoulder and nodded with a positive Pika; it made Ash's eye twitch at his starter action; he didn't understand why, but somehow Pikachu instantly liked Misty and, far too many times, chose to listen to her rather than him, it made him feel so betrayed. For example, when they stopped him from criticizing that AJ guy for his brutal method of abhorrent training, he wished in part never to have met them. But he won't ditch them; he wasn't a fool. He needed Brock and wouldn't let someone else end up like his mom, crying because they have a young child, lost their liberty to live life, and have been abandoned by the man who got them pregnant.
"I'm not goofing around. It is as much as training as anything else!" He shouted back, losing his temper. Brock let out a sigh at the bickering. Those two couldn't go a day without making at least five scenes. Yes, he counted five as their minimum. No, he was not joking.
"Ok, you two, stop it; we are close to Vermilion City. And Ash, there are always trainers on the cruise, even from other regions. They have an entire area with a dedicated battlefield, even for Pokémon trading." Ash scowled a bit. He knew in the end, he had no power over the decisions, so he relented and nodded, but inside, he felt his blood boiling. One day, they would get in trouble because of their decisions; he knew it. Then they saw a rectangular black shape appear before their eyes, making the group blink...
"Guys, did Brock's breakfast have something hallucinogenic in it, or is there a black rectangular floating in front of us?" Ash asked, on edge.
"No, I see it, too. Also, nothing was wrong with my breakfast!"
"Can you blame me for thinking so if a black rectangular appears in front of me out of nowhere?" Ash drily responded with a snort, making Brock scratch his cheek sheepishly.
"What do you think it is?" Misty asked, intrigued. Both boys shrugged, clueless.
"It might be the doing of a Pokémon." Said Ash, at which point Misty narrowed her eyes.
"Well, thanks for stating the obvious, captain obvious." Ash only answered with a dry look.
"Let's keep moving. If it's the doing of a Pokémon, it should disappear while we are out of their range." At Brock's calls, the trio made their way toward the city, except that when they arrived, they saw a massive black rectangle in the sky after their own disappeared.
"Brock, something tells me that this Pokémon range is really Big." At Ash's somewhat nervous answer, the older group member nodded equally anxiously.
"Hey, you three!" The three turned toward the voice, and Brock instantly began to blush and have a bit of a dopey face.
"Officer Jenny." the officer pulled over with her bike, and Brock, before he could begin flirting, felt his ear being pulled down, at which he started to whimper in pain.
"Listen, Don Juan, there is a time and place for a rejection, and now is not the place or time." Misty almost snorted at Ash's roast as Brock felt stabbed in his chest. Professor Oak and several regional professors sneezed for some unknown reason. Jenny blinked, confused, before feeling a bit amused.
"Ahem." She did have to stop them despite how amusing the scene was, and she was surprised at how they stopped, as nothing had happened.
"While I find you three amusing, I have to ask if you have experienced the appearances of these rectangular objects outside of Towns as well."
"Towns, so this isn't contained in an area?" Questioned Brock.
"I'm afraid not. Since it is most likely Pokémon-related, we Jennys are on the case, and no single population center is spared of them, even in other regions, as the rest of our extended family confirmed. By your answer, I suppose you also encountered them on the roads." The three nodded at the officer.
"Yes, although not as big as the one above Vermillion, we did find one smaller appearing in front of us," Brock answered as the officer assumed a thinking position and pondered the situation.
"This is alarming. Listen, you three. Until further notice, no trainer is allowed to leave the towns they are in. Also, if any of you are here either for the Gym or the Cruise, I have to inform you that both are closed until further notice."
"WHAT!?" All three shouted at once.
"My gym battle..." Said Ash, depressed.
"The cruise beautiful ladies.../Handsome guys..." the two gym leaders said. As Pikachu tried cheering up Misty, Ash again felt a stab at seeing his starter doing so.
"Sorry to disappoint you on your journey. Anyway, you all should find a place to stay, either at the Pokémon center or a motel." The officer then sprinted away with her bike, leaving the Trio alone.
"Well, there's not much we can do about it. We should head to the Pokémon center and see if a room is free." Brock said as the two nodded.
Kanto hour 21:00 JST
"I can't believe these things are still here; it's been 13 hours!" Said Ash as he plumped down on the mattress, looking at the screen placed so that all three could see what was in it.
"It's Weird that the league still hasn't discovered who is behind this." Misty said a bit anxiously.
"They even have the G-Man, the Interpool, and the Ranger regions helping out, and still they found nothing." Brock added, slightly pondering what Pokémon could be behind this.
But at that moment, the rectangle came to life, showing a slim, pale young man with shoulder-length lavender hair styled up into several sharp points. A pair of red sunglasses conceals his eyes. The young man wore a suit consisting of a black dress shirt, red tie, white and lavender coat, fluffy black collar, white pants, and dress shoes. He also wears a pair of lavender gloves and two red bands that lay around the arms of his coat. The three stood and stared at him.
Similarly, this was happening all across the globe, in several homes worldwide, and even in remote places where traveling trainers were either waking up, finishing their lunch, or preparing to go to bed based on their time zones.
"Greetings, spectators! My name is Lear Kelian."
Within an instant, the Interpool and the Ranger Union began searching for the young man. The Ranger Union was already sending out a few missions to their rangers to investigate the man, and the G-Men were doing the same thing. Meanwhile, figures moving within the criminal underworld silently took note of this new player.
"You must be wondering who I am, what is happening, and why these screens appeared everywhere."
The people in the technology field looked in wonder. Screens were something they had yet to release to the public, a piece of technology they were studying to minimize cost, maximize production, and minimize quality to maximize replacement and gain more money.
"Well, to answer all three, I'm a King from a Kingdom on an Ultra World Lightyears distant from yours." Everyone in Interpol froze at that statement. Meanwhile, in the Alola region within the Aether Foundation, no one dared to breathe; their president stared at the screens in wandering.
"Faba, I want you to start researching the signal's origin for this screen; if we find it, we find an Ultra Wormhole," Said a beautiful woman to a shady-looking man.
"Yes madame Lusamine!" Shouted the man as he left the office.
Meanwhile, in the Kanto region, the leader of their criminal syndicates, the president of the Rocketto Industries, and Gym Leader Giovanni perked up as he began to stroke his pokémon and lifelong partner, Persian.
"Domino, go and ask Doctor Namba to start investigating this manner." The man asked a gorgeous blonde woman, who nodded affirmatively before leaving for the organization's science department.
Meanwhile, the scientific community panicked as they received information they knew nothing about. What were the ultra-worlds spoken of? This was their principal question. The rest of the world's population was even more confused.
A wealthy collector, busy procuring the necessities for his following collection, studied the words. Not knowing their meaning, he began his own research; after all, his plans could not be hindered, and he wondered what kind of rarities this could lead him to gain.
"Ultra World?" Whispered Ash, both confused and curious.
"A King and even attractive!" Shouted Misty in glee as Ash looked at her blankly.
"Really? He just revealed to be behind this and you think about that? Besides, he is way above your league." Ash commented drily, making Misty growl; Brock began to feel a headache.
"Why, you brat! And what would you know about that? You can't even recognize a pretty lady in front of you!" She fired back before trying to pose to emphasize her beauty; Brock would have commented if he hadn't seen Ash looking at him with his hand, ready to pull his ear, making him flinch and shiver.
"And where is this pretty lady? All I see is an annoying brat." Ash snarked back, making Misty growl at him, ready to strike with a mallet.
"Okay, you two, that's enough! We can't get kicked out by Joy because of you two bickering!" The two flinched before scoffing and looking back toward the screen, making Brock sigh in relief while massaging his forehead. 'Those two sometimes act like an old married couple.' Brock thought.
"Ultra Worlds are exactly what their name says; they are Worlds, from different to nearly identical to your own when a different version of each of you spectators has different or similar lives, or when someone among you might have never been born... However, comparing them to being like the entire family of Joy, Jenny, and Don George is more accurate. Those versions of you are more like distant relatives you never met, so similar to you yet different."
This left the entire scientific community with their jaw dropped as they began to take notes and theories.
"Wooow... Does it mean there might be Pokémon there we never saw? Maybe even regions! What is it like meeting with another me? How does it work?" Ash found himself whispering. He always liked science despite never being good at it in school, but he did know some things. His mom was Oak's old student, and their family friends were scientists. One does end up getting to understand a thing or two.
"And this is what I call my new Project! Pokéverse Vision! The lives and events in trainers' lives chosen by my team happening in other Ultra Worlds are turned into entertainment, documentaries of Ultra Worlds with their unique habitats and history, and on and on! And that includes my own Ultra World, even your past, thanks to the collaborations of trusted members of our team and their Celebies!"
The mentioning of Celebi caused mixed reactions, especially the implied Time Travel; while many had never heard of Celebi, the few that did know of its myth were surprised to learn the Pokèmon might be real; the Ranger Union, the Interpool, and the G-Men began to panic thinking of the hunt for the mythical pokémon increasing even more, while people in the criminal underworld decided to increase surveillance. In contrast, civilians felt panic at risking the exposure of their past and lives just because a crazy King wanted some amusement. Meanwhile, a woman in particular began to receive multiple contracts and chuckled.
"And eventually even more, from full-blown tours and Pokémon Competitions of all kinds! And eventually, it will culminate with the expansion of my current project, the Pokémon Masters League!" Despite what was revealed up until then, every competitive-oriented trainer felt excitement and curiosity in every region.
"Pokémon Masters League?" Ash murmured, awestruck, before sporting a grin.
Meanwhile, in a 5-star Hotel Room in Saffron City, another Trainer from the same City as Ash and a rival of the guy, while he enjoyed his luxurious meal, found himself feeling interested in the competition. If he won, Pallet Town would become Gary Town in an instant, finally showing he was better than his grandfather and ancestor.
"But for now, you all can enjoy the Pokéverse Vision. I will personally contact the various league associations to discuss the competitions and the rest, even the organizers of the Battle Frontier, for more info."
While very few knew what the latter was, the trainers who did knew were about to change their training regime and schedule if it came down to it.
"I suggest getting comfortable. In 5 minutes, we will be watching the first Ultra World! AHAHAH, ENJOY THE SHOW VIEWERS!" The young king concluded with a snap of his fingers as the screen went black, and only a countdown of 5 minutes appeared on it.
Ash felt excitement like never before.
"Yes, I can't wait!" He exclaimed enthusiastically.
"Ash, you do realize that we could see really compromising things against our will, right?" Ash snorted at Misty and gave her a look.
"Yes, I do, but we can't exactly do anything about it. Better to just take the good that comes from it." Misty winced because it was true; they had no real choice in the matter.
"I have to agree with Ash on this one. Besides, I'm curious if we will see other versions of us and what their lives are like... Maybe I'll be married to a beautiful lady!" The group teen said with a goopy, blushy face. At that point, Misty found the idea more promising. Maybe she'll meet the prince of her dreams.
The various chairmen and presidents of their region's Pokémon Leagues contacted their elite fours and champions to discuss the event together. And what it will all lead to.
The various researchers and Pokémon professors began to get in contact with colleagues and seniors instead.
3 Minutes before the first vision.
"Madame Lusamine." The man said as he entered the office.
"I assume you found the signal point of Origin?" The man gave a nod.
"Yes, I traced it back to some satellites. Unfortunately, I haven't found the specific location yet." The woman nodded with a frown.
"I see..." The woman then picked up a phone and began to make a call.
One minute before the first vision.
Professor Samuel Oak, the inventor of the Pokédex, was having a good day, at least until now. Well, it was still a good day, but before it was relaxing, he was studying Ash Krabby; it was smaller than the one Gary caught, but he was impressed by other qualities the little guy had; then the screens appeared, and panic settled across Pallet Town, he had to spend some time at the small local radio station to calm down the citizen with his brother. He returned to the lab and ended up doing a videoconference with a few of his friends, Professor Juniper and his Daughter Aurea Juniper from Unova, who had finally graduated and taken up the mantle of her father, Elm from Johto, Ivy From the Orange Islands, Birch from Hoenn, Rowan from Sinnoh with Sycamore Rowan old student now a professor in the Kalos region. And from Alola, his cousin Samson Oak, and Kukui, the new professor researching Pokémon moves.
"I wonder why Lear is doing this; it seems odd for someone to go to this length," Ivy commented, slightly anxious about the young man's actions.
"I'm more worried about what Team Rocket could do with this; who is to say they aren't already tracking down the signal to find a way to go into these Ultra Worlds to obtain Pokémon who don't exist in this world?" Oak's statement did cause those who had Team Rocket activity in their home region to shiver a bit.
"And yet this is slightly intriguing; he claimed there are multiple Celebies in his team." Aurea Juniper said that being a researcher focused on the historical side of the world to learn if a mythical Pokémon is real made her wonder if more were and if they would see them.
"Pokémon Hunters, especially J, will see this as an opportunity." Rowan's comment broke the excitement of seeing Pokémon that no one could verify were real.
"And I fear what Team Rocket would do if a Celebi fell into their hands." Elm said fearfully.
"Well, for now, We can only wait and leave the G-Men, the Ranger Union, and the Interpool to take action; what we can do is ensure that if a Trainer shown in the screens exists here, to report it to the league to ensure their protection and that criminal organizations don't get their hands on them."
Yes, they could do nothing but wait. However, Oak felt a strange, foreboding feeling.
[To Be Continued...]