Chapter Text
Hocus Predicament
” Ugh, what happened. Lily, is that you? How did you get so big?” Ash asked, wobbling slightly on unsteady legs.
Looking up at the girl in question, Ash saw her staring down at him with a look of combined shock and confusion. She kept staring for a while before eventually pulling out her spell book and rifling through the pages in a panic.
Deciding to leave the girl to her panicked reading, Ash turned his gaze to where his companions had stood when the yellow mist enveloped them. But instead of finding Misty and Brock, he found two unfamiliar Pokémon in their place.
The first was a small lizard. The Pokémon’s body stood on four clawed feet, two pointed extensions hanging from their head. Their body was mostly pale yellow, with the exception of their claws, tip of their tail and top of their head, which was a deep black.
Moving to the next Pokémon, Ash was honestly unsure if they were a Pokémon at all. They looked more like a child’s unfinished sandcastle. But the large mouthlike hole, as well as the two pebble-like eyes currently darting around in confusion, convinced him of their aliveness.
“Wow! I've never seen Pokémon like you two! When did you get here, I didn’t see you around before?” He asked excitedly, running forward to greet the two… Which happened to be more difficult than first thought, for some reason he couldn't run like usual.
The two Pokémon stared at him, his excited question snapping them out of their haze. They kept staring for a while, slight bewilderment shining behind their eyes. Eventually the lizard found their voice and spoke up in a familiar sounding voice. “You can talk?”
“Yeah?” Ash answered, confused at their question before swiftly realizing that he had just understood the lizard. “Wait, I can understand you! That’s so cool! You're like Meowth, just less annoying.”
“How do you know about Meowth, did they try and kidnap you?” The lizard continued, concern playing in their tone.
“No? Or well kinda, they have captured me a bit here and there. Mostly they go after my Pikachu.” He answered. “They never succeed though.”
“Your Pikachu?” They asked before a sudden realization shone behind their eyes. “Wait, Ash!?”
“Uh yeah, that’s me. Do I know you?”
“What happened to you? Why are you a flowery Sandslash all of a sudden?” They continued, ignoring the question.
“What happened to me? I mean I think I shrank from the spell but other than- Wait, what do you mean flowery Sandslash?” Ash started answering, before his mind managed to process the second question.
“You look like a tiny grass-type Sandslash! A bit cuter maybe? You’re seriously telling me you didn’t notice?” They spoke.
“I think I would have noticed if I was a Pokémon.” He scoffed in reply.
In response to his confident denial, the lizard elected to simply point at his feet with a dumbfounded expression on their face. Humoring the Pokémon, he did as they wanted.
Blinking slowly as he saw white furry paws in the place where his feet had been just minutes prior. He turned his gaze back to the lizard in shock, hoping ignoring the new state of his feet would cause them to revert to their natural form.
But nope, when he looked down again, there they were, still in their furry white glory. The only natural course of action would be to panic, which he did, of course. His panicked screaming, managing to gain the attention of the sentient pile of sand.
“W-wait, if that’s Ash, then that must mean…” They spoke, looking at the panicking hedgehog. Holding up a sandy limb in front of their pebbly eyes confirmed their suspicion, and after sputtering in shock at the grainy appendage, they too joined Ash in his panic.
Seeing the screaming sandcastle and hedgehog caused the lizard to try and avert their eyes in an attempt to not laugh at their antics. But their head turn caused them to notice a new detail about themselves, the black tipped tail vibrating out of their backside. Staring at the appendage for a moment, another scream was added to the panicking opera.
Their screaming performance carried on for ten long minutes, only ending when the amused mouse watching the show eventually grew bored. “Okay it was funny the first few minutes, but now its just annoying!” He shouted at the trio, gaining the attention of one grassy hedgehog.
“Pikachu, I can understand you!” Ash shouted as he ran over to the rodent, managing to completely forget the source of his panic. “That’s so awesome buddy, there’s so many things I want to talk about!”
“Yeah, that’s awesome Ash.” Pikachu spoke, hugging the excited hedgehog. “But uh, you sure you're alright? You got over that whole species changing thing pretty quickly.”
The mouse felt the Pokémon in his arms stiffen as he reminded him of the predicament he found himself in. Before the predicted shout could ring out from the hedgehog, the mouse bopped him over the head with a resounding yell of. “Knock it off! Screaming won’t help!”
“B-but it’s distracting!” Ash retorted, nursing the bump on his head with a paw.
“You want a different distraction? Talk to her, you know, the one who turned you into a Pokémon?!” Pikachu shot back, pointing at Lily who was still occupied by rifling through her spell book.
“Yeah… Yeah I’ll do that.” Ash answered, momentarily catching his breath. “Just, let me go and get Misty and Brock first.” He continued, turning his attention to the now hyperventilating lizard and sputtering sandcastle.
Some encouraging words managed to calm the pair down, at least momentarily to face the source of their problems. So, after some failed attempts at moving from Brock, they approached the witch.
“Lily!” Misty shouted, breaking away the girl from her possessed reading. “Can you explain what happened to us?” She asked, unable to hide the agitation in her voice.
“O-oh yes, I'm sorry!” She hastily answered, nearly dropping her book with how fast she whipped to face them. “The spell was meant to let you read a Pokémon’s mind. but the spell continues on to the next page and its too smudged up I can’t read it! But I don’t understand why this happened…”
“You don’t understand why we turned into Pokémon?” Brock asked.
Lily shook her head at the question. “No, you turning into Pokémon is the expected result. But you should’ve turned into Pikachu, I don’t understand why you didn’t!” She spoke, rifling through the book once again.
Hearing a rustle from the edge of the clearing, the group turned their attention to the sound. There they saw the same Aipom which had supplied the tears for the botched spell, they had decided to stick around to see what they would be used for. Looking at the ape, they saw as the Pokémon stood up, yawned, before turning into a pile of purple goop and sliding into the woods.
“…That would explain the unexpected results…” Lily spoke, eyes still glued to the spot where the Ditto disappeared.
After a moment’s staring, Ash’s mind snapped back to the topic at hand. “Are we going to be stuck like this?” He asked meekly.
“Oh no, don’t be silly. You’ll be back to normal, just as soon as the spell wears off!” She answered promptly, waving off the question as if it was obvious. “…I hope.” She continued quietly, a flash of uncertainty shining across her face.
“And how long is that?”
“Oh, not too long, about a day or so.” She answered, looking as if she was about to go into further detail when she was interrupted by a peck on her from Murkrow. Apparently, the girl understood what the peck meant, because her face immediately lit up in panic. “Ah, I forgot! I’m sorry, I need to leave on urgent matters. Here, take this, it’s my number. Call me if there’s any difficulties with the spell. Ta-ta!” She continued, hastily pulling out a pen and paper and writing something down before depositing it on the hedgehog’s head.
After that, all that was left was a cloud of smoke, and the silhouette of the girl barreling down the trail far ahead. After a bit of staring, Misty plucked the note from the hedgehog’s.
“Can you read this?” She asked after a moment, holding the paper in front of Ash’s eyes.
He gave it an attempt, he really did. But the witch’s handwriting was best described as chicken scratch, and even that was generous. Shaking his head, the lizard showed it to Brock, hoping the sandcastle would have better luck. As expected, he didn’t.
“She said it was temporary right?” Ash asked rhetorically, gaining a nod from the other two, he continued. “Then let’s not worry about that right now, this is awesome! There’s so many things I want to ask Pikachu!”
And with that positive notion, the group decided to drop the matter for the moment. Setting camp for the night, they used the not from Lily as kindling for the fire, hoping to get some form of use out of the paper.
They decided to stay at the clearing for the next twenty-four hours, letting the spell wear off before moving toward Ash’s next gym battle. So after a long day of playing and talking with their Pokémon, they tuckered in for night in their sleeping bags, ending their first and only night as Pokémon.
…But that isn’t exactly what happened. Exactly one day after their transformation, they stood ready to transform back. But nothing happened, and one night turned into two, and two into three.
On their third day in the clearing, the trio of transformed humans sat at edge of the glade, looking at their Pokémon playing without a care in the world.
“We’re stuck, aren’t we.” Ash spoke after a prolonged silence.
Two slow nods from either side of him.
“Does this mean I don’t need to pay back your bike?”
“No.”
“Drat.”
“What a twist of fate! The trainers become the Pokémon!” Professor Oak laughed on the other side of the video phone. “But as for your question, I don’t think there is a way to turn you back. Not with science at least.”
Having waited for three days in the forest, with some urging from Pikachu, the group finally felt the urge to leave the forest. They elected to ignore the mass number of stares they gained as they entered the Pokémon center as three rare Pokémon riding a Bayleef with no trainer in sight.
“There goes my dream of becoming a Pokémon master…” Ash spoke sadly, the flowers near his head drooping as he spoke.
“That doesn’t necessarily have to be the case.” Oak spoke up, causing Ash to perk up. “You see, a few years ago there was a case of a Pokémon wanting to take on the gym circuit over in Sinnoh. The league didn’t know what to do, but after some deliberation drafted a set of rules specifically for so called ‘trainer Pokémon’ to follow.” Oak paused to clear his throat and make sure he had the hedgehogs attention before continuing.
“A trainer Pokémon does not count toward the ordinary team limit of six, unless they themselves intend to participate in the battle. In which case they must notify the judge of their involvement beforehand. If the trainer Pokémon is knocked unconscious, the match will be put on hold until they are revived and fit to lead once more. With the exception being if they are the last Pokémon, in which case they will be helped to a Pokémon center along with the rest of their team. During battle, the trainer Pokémon must announce their moves in some way before use.”
“So, I can still become a Pokémon master?”
“Yes, you can Ash.“ Oak answered with a large smile.
Hope renewed by the words from the professor, Ash could barely hold back his excitement. But before he started hopping around the Pokémon center like a hedgehog possessed, he asked one burning question still on his mind.
“What happened to the first trainer Pokémon? The one from Sinnoh?”
“Well, in the end it turned out it was all one big advert for a business the Reuniclus’s trainer had opened. They thought the idea of a trainer Pokémon endorsing his product could give his business a lot of attention, which it did. I’m sure you have heard of the Pokétch?” Professor answered, gaining a nod from Ash. “But the legislation is still in place, so it should be no problem. Now, call your mother while I register you and your friends. She sounded quite worried when I shared the news.” He finished with a laugh as he turned off the feed.
When Oak had the time to message his mom, Ash didn’t know. But staring at the black screen, he realized he probably should call her. With some help from Bayleef, he hopped up on the table and typed in her number before hitting call.
The phone barely beeped twice before Delia’s face appeared on the screen. “Oh Ash, is that you? Are you alright? You didn’t hurt yourself, did you?” She started fussing immediately.
“Mooom! I’m fine, just a bit… different.” He answered, thankful for the white fur covering his reddening cheeks.
“Are you sure? I don’t want my baby lying about his health to me.” She continued, worry clear in her eyes.
“I’m fine, I promise. It was a bit weird at first, but talking to Pikachu and the rest of the team is awesome! Heracross apparently loves messing with Bulbasaur, but don’t tell her I said that!” Ash answered with a snicker. “But I was a bit sad at first, I thought i wouldn’t be able to continue following my dream. But according to Oak, I can! And it’s all because of this guy over in Sinnoh a couple of years ago.” He continued, his excitement blooming again.
“That’s great Ashy, and I promise not to tell Bulbasaur.” She answered with a smile, zipping her mouth jokingly. “But you can tell me more about it tomorrow, you look tired.”
“I’m not tired!” He protested tiredly.
“Ash, your flowers are closing and you nearly fell of Bayleef. Go to bed” Delia admonished with a sigh.
“Fine…” He grumbled with a pout.
The next day, Professor Oak had finished printing their new licenses. And after a quick use of the item transporter, they were in hand, or perhaps paw would be more fitting.
Looking at the licenses, it showed a lot of information, from their birthday to something called… nature? But that wasn’t interesting, what was interesting was what Pokémon they had become.
According to the license, Misty had become a Helioptile, an electric-type originating from Kalos. Brock had become a Sandygast, a ground and ghost-type from Alola. And Ash had become a Shaymin, a grass-type they believed originated from Sinnoh.
The amount of information on Ash’s license was far less than the one found on Misty and Brock’s. All it really said was that Shaymin were known as the gratitude Pokémon, they could release toxins from their body using a move called ‘seedflare’, and that they were exceedingly rare.
“Exceedingly rare was something we already knew. You’d be hard pressed to find someone as dumb as you in all of Kanto.” Misty spoke from over his shoulder.
Ash would normally have shot back a clever retort to that jab, but right now his mind was preoccupied by staring at the small digital screen. This little rectangle was all he needed to continue his dream, a dream he had believed was practically over for the past two days.
But Professor Oak had given him hope again, he could kiss that old coot! Next stop, Blackthorn city. Then, the league!
“And both trainers are down to their last Pokémon! Will Gary Oak take home the win with Blastoise, or will Ash Ketchum turn this around with his final Pokémon!” The announcer shouted.
Ash tapped the ball, returning Heracross. “You did great out there Heracross, get some rest.” He spoke before turning his gaze toward Gary on the other side of the field.
“Come on Ashy-boy, send out your next Pokémon. Let’s finish this!” The other boy taunted, generating a roar out of the Blastoise on the field.
“Don’t you worry Gary, this next one will knock your pants off!” He shouted back before turning to Pikachu.
“You think you're ready?” The mouse asked, voice strained from his earlier battle.
“I don’t know, its exciting. My first real battle!” Ash whisper shouted in reply. “I’m just afraid I'm gonna lose, everyone did so great. I don’t want to be the one who ruins it.”
“You're going to do great out there man, think of all the training we did. Confidence is key, now go and get them!” Pikachu answered, clapping the hedgehog on the back with a large grin on his face.
Ash smiled at the mouse’s words before turning to the field with a confident expression on his face. “I send out Shaymin!” He shouted before jumping out onto the field.
“In an unexpected turn of events, it appears the trainer Pokémon Ash Ketchum has decided to send out himself! Was this perhaps a last-minute decision, or a planned decision to throw his opponent off his guard? It remains to be seen!” The announcer screamed to the cheers of the audience.
“When I said to finish this, I didn’t mean it so literally.” Gary joked. “Are you sure you can handle Blastoise?”
“Don’t look down on me! I did special training with Charizard for this.” Ash shot back before muttering quietly to himself. “I can still see the flamethrower when I close my eyes…”
“We’ll see about that!”
After their little bout, the referee signaled for the start of the battle. After a quick countdown, Gary made the first move. “Blastoise, start this off with hydro pump!”
Blastoise immediately shot out a powerful jet of water toward the little hedgehog. An attack which Ash barely dodged, he had gotten some special training, yes. But that didn’t put him on the same level as his own or Gary’s Pokémon!
And of course, he knew this. He knew he would need to level the playing field, and that is exactly why he learned the moves he did. Having dodged the attack by the skin of his teeth, Ash announced his first move.
“Sunny day!” He shouted, closing his eyes in concentration moments later two white orbs appeared before him. He whipped his head upward, shooting the orbs toward the sky. When the orbs had reached the clouds, the pillowy piles of steam dispersed, and the sun’s rays seemed to intensify.
“You wouldn’t happen to know solar beam would you Ash?” Gary taunted, thinking he had figured out his plan.
“You’ll see.” Ash responded with a grin.
“Blastoise, move in with rapid spin into skull bash!” Gary ordered.
The turtle shot forward with blistering speeds, causing Ash to dive for cover. But the hedgehog was too slow. Blastoise had anticipated his dodge and adjusted his trajectory for the dodge. In the middle of the dodge, Ash came face-to-face with eighty-five kg of tortoise.
With a cry of pain, Ash was launched backwards. Gritting his teeth through the pain, he righted himself in the air before calling out his next move. “Growth!” At his shout, he called on that mysterious power inside and his form shone with a light green for a moment.
Glow dissipating, Ash felt himself grow stronger, twice fold! “Energy ball!” He continued, forming a green ball in front of himself, he shot it toward the Blastoise.
“Dodge to the right and counter with a hydro pump!” Gary ordered.
The giant turtle easily dodged the attack and promptly began charging up another jet of water. But Ash had been counting on this. “Energy ball!” He announced again, shooting out another green ball towards where the turtle was now standing.
This energy ball was clearly larger than the one he shot out before. He had purposefully held back on the first one so he could put more strength into this one. And now, Blastoise was stuck in place charging his hydro pump.
Sadly, the same rang true for Ash. As the energy ball hit its mark, so did the hydro pump. Being shot back from the attack, Ash once again gritted his teeth in pain. The attack hurt, that was for sure, but thankfully he resisted it.
The same could not be said for Blastoise, the turtle screamed in pain as the ball collided with him. Recovering from the attack, Blastoise shook away the smoke before glaring down at Ash in irritation. “You're going to pay for that!” Blastoise shouted, although it was clear the turtle was enjoying himself.
“Try it!” Ash taunted back.
Gary couldn’t help but smile at Ash’s attack, there was some form of pride in that smile. “Alright Blastoise, no more holding back! Get close with another skull bash rapid spin!”
Blastoise once again shot forward, but this time Ash was wise to his speed. He knew he couldn’t dodge it, so he didn’t try to. Staring defiantly at the approaching tortoise, Ash announced another energy ball before swiftly shooting the ball at the tortoise.
His attack managed to knock Blastoise out of his attack, but that didn’t stop his momentum. The mass of turtle hit him head on, launching the tiny hedgehog across the field again. But breaking the attack had lessened the strength of the attack massively, and Ash managed to land without much trouble.
“Growth!” He announced, strengthening himself once more. Gary had clearly figured out staying ranged wasn’t going to work. So, after another order for rapid spin skull bash, Ash knew he needed to take a risk to win this.
“Synthesis!” He announced as Blastoise was gearing up to launch himself. Basking in the sunlight, Ash felt the damage he had taken during the battle begin healing itself. But he didn’t have time to enjoy the sun for long, at least not now, maybe after the battle?
With a confident grin, he ran straight at the approaching Blastoise. Gritting his teeth in preparation, he jumped straight toward the rapidly spinning turtle. Using the momentum of the spin to launch himself upwards, Ash ignored the pain from taking the attack head on and called out his next move. “Growth!”
His body was shining green as he launched upward, he corrected himself midair. Forcing his mind to begin working through the pained fog, he began charging his next attack. He put everything he had left into this attack, and with his strength boosted to his limits, the ball grew to a colossal size.
“Energy ball!!!” He shouted, shooting the car-sized attack down toward wide-eyed Blastoise. Just before the attack hit, Ash heard Gary call out a panicked “Withdraw!”
As the energy ball hit its mark, it exploded in a green light before covering the field with dust. Falling down to the ground, Ash didn’t have enough energy left to right himself.
Landing roughly on the ground, he panted deep gulps of air as he waited for the dust to clear. And when it did, he saw Blastoise coming out of his shell, shaking from the strain of holding himself upright.
What was that turtle made of solid steel?! Forcing himself to stand on shaky legs, he glared with a defiant look at the turtle. They simply stared, neither having the energy to spare for an attack.
Eventually, under the bated silence of the audience, their staring match reached their conclusion. With a nod of acknowledgment, Blastoise fell over, kicking up a cloud of dust as his heavy body hit the ground.
“The winner of the round, and thus the match, is Ash Ketchum!” The referee announced, holding out a green flag in the direction of the Shaymin.
Ash’s ears buzzed, he couldn’t hear his own thinking over the applause of the crowd. The feeling was… indescribable. Like the smell that hits your nose while walking through the woods after heavy rain. Or the feeling of crawling under your covers during a chilly night. It was…
Awesome!
“I knew you would win; you kicked that turtle’s butt!” Pikachu cheered, running over to hug the victorious hedgehog.
“You did amazing Ash; you had me at the edge of my seat the entire time.” Brock said, sliding over from the side of the field.
“I really thought you would lose, but you proved me wrong Ash.” Misty added, tail vibrating in excitement.
“Thanks for the faith in me Misty.” Ash spoke, sticking out his tongue at the girl.
“I said you proved me wrong!”
Turning away from Misty, Ash looked toward the other side of the field, hoping to talk with Gary. But the boy had already disappeared. Feeling slightly disappointed at the disappearance of his rival, Ash didn’t have time to dwell on those feelings.
The post-battle adrenaline keeping him awake, finally left his body, and with it went his consciousness.
“Do you really think it was a good idea to leave the rest of the guys with Oak? Bayleef and Cyndaquil looked really sad when you left.” Pikachu spoke as they wandered down the path toward Littleroot.
Ash nodded. “Yeah, I think it’s best for all of us. It wouldn’t feel fair to start out with a group as strong as them. Besides, they're just a transfer away!” Ash answered, gesturing with his head toward the small bag on his grassy back.
“I guess… I still don’t understand how you guys stand those balls.” Pikachu spoke with a shudder.
“And I don’t understand how you don’t like them, they're so comfy!”
“I wont question you, and you won’t question me. How about that?” Pikachu answered.
“Deal.”
After having beaten Gary in the Johto league, Ash woke up in the Pokémon center surrounded by his team. After another round of congratulations, Ash managed to squirm his way out of the Pokémon pile to seek out Gary.
After a bit of searching, he eventually found the boy sitting by the lake near the stadium. Gary had spoken about the feelings he had about his loss, and about the boy himself. And after a heartfelt speech, they handed over half of the rusted pokeball from their childhood. Ash could feel that half rattling in his bag now and couldn’t keep himself from smiling.
“You couldn’t have kept Bayleef at least? It’s going to take us aaages to get anywhere like this.” Pikachu complained from beside him.
“I’m sure we’re going to find someone to help with that soon. And if we don’t, I promise I’ll transfer in Bayleef buddy.”
“Good, another day of this and our paws are going to fall off.”
That Ash could agree with, they had only been walking for an hour or two at most and his paws felt as if they had been crushed under a rock. Deciding to take a short break near a stream Ash took a quick drink before laying down to relax.
Laying in the grass, he couldn’t help but reminisce about Brock and Misty. It felt so empty without them here. If they were here, Brock would have whipped out a whole kitchen and started preparing some form of five-star meal while Misty would complain about her bike all the while forcing him to dodge repeated thundershocks.
That gave him pause. He couldn’t believe he missed Misty’s ranting. With a shudder, he forced himself to stand. He’d rather focus on the pain in his paws than that right now.
Thankfully, a familiar trio decided to make their entrance. Some things were as they always were it seemed.
*Insert motto*
“Team Rocket! What are you doing here!” Ash shouted, glaring up at the rockets in their balloon.
“Did ya think going to a different land would stop us?” Meowth answered.
“A little change in scenery isn’t enough to stop us from snagging that Pikachu of yours!” Jessie continued.
“New world, new opportunities as they say!” James finished.
“You're never getting Pikachu!” Ash shouted, charging up an energy ball.
“We’ll see about that!” James answered before he pulled out a remote. Clicking the remote, black smoke began pouring out of the balloon, blocking Ash’s view. The sudden smokescreen causing Ash to miss his attack.
During the ongoing smokescreen, a black claw shot out and grabbed the coughing Pikachu from inside the cloud of smoke. “Ash!” He shouted as he was dragged away.
“Pikachu!” Ash shouted back, he needed to help Pikachu! But he couldn't with all this smog in the way. But suddenly, as if the universe listened to his request, the smog began dispersing. At the same time, Ash began feeling as if something wanted to explode from within him.
“We did it! We did it!” Team Rocket chanted as they danced around in their balloon. Pikachu hung from a rubber rope at the bottom of the balloon, trying his hardest to break his restraints.
“We should have gone to Hoenn ages ago!” James said.
“Only one day and we already captured Pikachu!” Jessie added.
“Team Rocket is back baby!” Meowth spoke.
But before they could continue to celebrate, their attention was drawn by a shout from the ground. “Hey! Give me back Pikachu!”
“Oh, it’s just da twerp.” Meowth said, wiping his brow.
“Is it just me, or is he glowing?” James pointed out.
“Indeed, he is James.” Jessie answered.
“Ya don’t think that signals something bad for us?” Meowth added.
With that realization, the trio turned to the small hedgehog with fear-filled eyes. But before they even had time to beg for mercy, their vision was filled with a blinding green light. And then, they were airborne.
“It seems the grass twerp learned a new move.”
“Indeed Jessie, it truly is a new beginning”
“It certainly threw me for a loop!”
“Team Rocket’s blasting off again!”
Cushioning Pikachu’s fall with his body, it didn’t take long for the mouse to start with his questions. “What on earth was that move? It was like a supernova!”
Ash furrowed his brows in thought. First, he had absorbed the smog Team Rocket shot out. Then he felt like he was about to explode. Then he exploded. “I don’t know.” He finally answered.
“You don’t know?”
Ash shook his head. “No, it just… kinda happened? Kind of want to do it again.”
“Not anywhere close to me, I don’t want to risk getting hit by that thing.”
Meanwhile, arriving in Petalburg City was a small Lizard along with an unfinished sandcastle. Moving through the city, they ignored the stares from the townsfolk amazed by the talking unfamiliar Pokémon.
“You think Ash will be happy to see us?”
“I’m sure he will be.”
Bonus!
“Oh, Rainbow hero, you who have overcome trials and tribulations. You who have struggled through storms and across perilous mountains arrive at the end of your journey. Now, let us begin this battle of the age- Why are you a Pokémon?” The phoenix of rebirth spoke.
Ash looked down at his tiny furry body before looking back up at Ho-oh. “It just… Kinda happened?”
“What do you mean it ‘just kinda happened’? That doesn’t just happen!” Ho-oh shot back, gesturing with their wings in irritation. “And you! Why didn’t you inform me of the fact my Rainbow hero had become a Shaymin?” They continued, pointing with their wing at Ash’s shadow.
“I didn’t feel it necessary my liege.” Marshadow spoke, rising from the shadow.
“You didn’t feel it neces- Okay no, I don’t buy that! You're trying to say you told me of his dinner plans but not his species? Tell me the real reason!” They retorted, not believing the living shade.
“I thought it would be funny.” They answered.
“Well, no one’s laughing!” Ho-oh shouted over the cackling from a nearby mouse. Pinching the top of their beak, they addressed the Shayming standing awkwardly on the ground. “Just, tell me what happened…”
“Well, there was this witch…”