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His hands dashed across the keyboard in a familiar motion, the sun still shining brightly in the sky outside his window. He’d been Ash’s class for a month now.
Sophocles found Ash possibly one of the most intriguing individuals. And while he didn’t think that he’d find, well, tons, on the kid, he thought it’d be worth just checking out his trainerfind.net just in case there was something fascinating. Worst came to worse, he’d just find a team log from one of the old conferences Ash did say he took part in, or a few miscellaneous achievements.
After all, it was bad practice to update your own trainerfind.net, so you only got a good profile if you were really special.
He clicked on the page, which appeared as the first suggested trainer even as he typed the name into their search, and swallowed thickly as a wall of text, images, and blue citations filled his screen.
A helpful little text box appeared at the top of the screen, signed off by a trainerfind.net administrator.
Please only add information with suitable citation and relevance. Additions will be reviewed by system administrators.
That was not a great start, Sophocles. Only famous trainers got that treatment. Even his older brother, Molayne, didn’t need to have his page checked that often. The page started off with a character description, which, like most, just read off the general information from his Pokedex with some added citations, like his mother’s name, the lack of his father’s name, his close friends and relatives.
Added below was his trainer history, which was extensive. Beginning with detailing his Kanto badges, and Kanto conference performance in the blow-by-blow descriptions usually reserved for Champion’s conference performances, Sophocles found himself hooked by the time he realised they were describing his Johto journey. As he scrolled down, he stopped by an interesting citation - an interview clip from Lance.
He clicked the link, and found himself on the news channels clip, titled ‘ Kalos Hero Mentioned By Lance In 5 Year Old Interview’
It had almost five million views, Sophocles whistled, as the interview appeared to be on an older radio show.
The interviewer had started by asking Lance about the Lake of Rage incident. A beat of silence followed, while Sophocles idly amused himself by scrolling through the comments, where people were wondering how Lance knew him.
“Yeah, so, that was a while now ago, after the Hoenn chaos. Forced evolution, actually, and since the G-Men were tied up, I got to deal with it with, actual no help. Pryce was busy, I guess, so I was left tying up loose ends in the area. Some kid was around, and I’ve found out that kid has no self preservation. Didn’t really back then, but he was immeasurably helpful in helping the Shiny Gyarados.”
The interviewer paused. “So, are you in the habit of recruiting children? Did you offer him a job?”
“Pfft, like he’d take it. Not G-Men material. He’s just kind. And anyway, I told him to not to help. He was the idiot who got captured, had to get rescued, ran out of a car- like, man, when I say he doesn’t sit there and follow common sense. And the Hoenn incident, I mean, he didn’t even know I was on a mission. He had managed to get accidentally captured by a terrorist organisation.”
“Ash hasn’t had the best league history, has he?” The interview continued, while Lance simply scoffed. “He could sweep the Sinnoh league, which I think he’s on now, if he wanted. He insists on training a whole new team every time. That takes skill - to take an entire team to conference level in one league term.”
Sophocles felt his mouth drop as he quietly closed the tab, and returned to the trainer history. What did he get in the Sinnoh League, then?
Semifinals.
And he lost to a guy with two legendaries. Sophocles felt like his fingers were going numb in shock as he scrolled to Unova.
The lower placement somehow was more reassuring than anything to Sophocles. But then the Kalos league placement was next, and then finals sat there in mocking white text.
That was impossibly good.
His Kalos league description was extensive, before a citation leading to a long news article written by Malva, sort of biographical, sort of autobiographical, popped up, titled, The Kalos Crisis Insider : What The Public Didn’t Know, and the True Savior of Their Region.
Sophocles decided that at that exact moment it was time to read a full news article.
The Kalos Crisis begun in the Conference’s reward ceremony. Families gathered for the crowning moment of their Kalosian King, their proudest moment, watching a medal being draped around the man called Alain’s neck. By him, the shining star of uniqueness, with a silver medal, Ash Ketchum, without a lick of disappointment on his face.
Some say there was warning, but, that’s a lie. There wasn’t. In a beat of silence, the air felt moist, and the walls crumbled apart to thick, red, twisting vines. And at that moment, the world would crumble to Team Flare’s twisted ideas.
I’ll begin my account later. My part was later, and while I admit I did a lot before, this story isn’t mine. I take you to the well written word of Bonnie Citron.
- The walls were dusting apart. It was hard to breathe as Ash and Clemont bolted to escape, with Ash trying to calm Alain down, and everything. We had to find Mairin, (Alain’s friend) who was kind of the main event, despite not doing a thing wrong. I was worried, because my friend (Squishy, a Pokemon, AKA, the Zygarde Core 1) had run off. It was scary. We were looking up, at the tower, staring at the strange lights, while the city was crumbling apart around us. It was home. It was everything I knew, and it was falling apart. I was determined to find him, and so, me, Serena, Ash and Clemont had split up. Ash went with Alain. I went with Serena and Clemont.
Sophocles was taking notes, trembling in excitement as he jotted down the account in summarised, bulletpoint fashion, for future reference. This was incredibly interesting, and as the clock ticked on, Sophocles didn’t even notice it was almost midnight.
To continue the story, we’ll follow our protagonist. Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, the 2nd Place Kalosian Conference Placre, and the proclaimed hero of Kalos, by all standards of my own. Let’s go to the word of Alain.
- I was there. The plan was to find Mairin, but we got interrupted by a Team Flare Admin. She told us that they were after Ash himself (and me, still under partly Lysandre’s orders) allowed them to take him and me to Lysandre, on top of Prism Tower itself.
That had been an uncomfortable helicopter ride. I had betrayed him, well and truly. He didn’t sound mad, in fact, all I remember was watching his shock, his confusion, the genuine hurt in his voice, the trust he used to have.
It didn’t make it worth it.
Sunset had come. I remember it well. He was on top of the tower, like in some old Galar religions, tied up in horrible, cold, mental spheres, unconscious, surrounded by his Pokemon.
Lysandre was smug. He was a very smug person - always in the right, never wrong, eerily convincing in that business man way. A handwave and a smile, and everything would be correct. Ash first checked on his Pokemon.
He yelled at me, to tell him what was going on. I had never felt so much shame in my life. He lectured Lysandre on things. Then told me to answer him, but I couldn’t speak. I physically couldn’t speak.
Lysandre had continued speaking. When I tell you in my heart of hearts that Ash stopped blaming me for anything the second I dropped to my knees, completely destroyed by the fact I was the reason any of his plans succeeded, I can tell you for certain that kid has a stronger heart than any.
Sophocles’s eyes widened at the text. This was incredible. Absolutely incredible. He breathed out. He skimmed down through the rest of the article, visibly cringing up at Alain’s very vivid description of torture, cursing out his vivid imagination as he flew through the rest of the article.
At the bottom, much to his excitement, were more links for more articles.
He glanced at the 1 AM glaring menacingly at the corner of his taskbar, and defiantly pressed F11 to put the website on full screen. He breathed out as he leaned closer to his screen, scrolling through article after article.
The Orange Islands - A Dissection of Ash Ketchum’s Insane Indigo Victory Lap.
What Happened in the Unova League - A Team Plasma Discussion.
Hundreds of Confidential Incidents Revealed - Why is Ash Ketchum There?
Shamouti Island - The Myth Of Chosen Ones
The Power Of Aura - An Ash Ketchum Study.
Champions And Ash - The Mysterious Child Hero
There seemed to be a limitless supply of articles that mentioned Ash Ketchum, much to Sophocles’s delight. He typed out to search for more, before realising the result was of a social media platform, on a sub-page dedicated to Ash Ketchum.
He clicked into it, spotting hundreds of comments of people who had apparently met Ash Ketchum.
Ash saved my brother!
Fun Fact about Ash: he’s absolutely insane as a trainer.
I met him at a contest!
Oh, he goes to those all the times. Supportive king!!
Sophocles feared for his sleep as he searched through as many group chats as he could find. He wasn’t going to chat, not in a million years, but it was oddly intriguing, in a morbid manner, to read through the hundreds of accounts of people who had seen Ash in person. There were always consistent adjectives.
Brave. Bright. Brilliant.
He went back to videos online, rapidly scrolling through the long list of hour long video essays.
A twenty-hour-long one?
Sophocles bookmarked it for later, while his mind drifted over to the occasional things Molayne would know due to his league file access. Lance’s interview flashed back in his head as he sat up, and quickly brought up the website.
A little poking couldn’t hurt, right?
The amount of information on Ash’s secret league file was frightening Sophocles. He was digging through files, idly copying-and-pasting things to another document for future saving.
His heart raced as he still dug through the different folders, completely ignoring how far deep in the league’s system he had gone.
A knock at the door broke him out of his stupor.
Sophocles looked at the page again. Oh, Tapu, he had hacked into actual G-Men servers, in his pig-headed one-way thinking. Quietly, he pulled out his chair, and trudged to his door, breath caught in his throat.
He seriously hoped it wasn’t an officer on the other side of that door.
His hand shakily opened the door, before he stared in bafflement at Ash Ketchum rubbing his eyes, holding a phone, speaking to an irate Lance.
“I’m, it’s just my friend, Lance. I’m sure he wasn’t compromising security. Yeah, I’ll talk to him.”
Ash hung up, folding his arms, where Sophocles stood there, frozen in awkwardness.
“Lance phones me if there aren’t any G-Men, just to check it out. You know, if you wanted to know stuff about me, you could have asked.”
Sophocles shut the door after a quiet nod, and faceplanted the floor.