Story Notes:
DISCLAIMER: Pokemon and all associated characters are copyright Nintendo. Story and original characters are copyright me: MrPirate461, CommanderW, and/or any other aliases I may use in the future. No copyright infringement is intended.This is my first story here on AGNPH. I was going to wait until I finished it to post, but I changed my mind. As a result, Chapters 1 and 2 are already finished, and chapter 3 is almost done. Note that updates will happen as they happen; I have a lot of things to balance, so chapters may take a while to write. Please tell me if you like it; the bigger my ego is, the faster I write!Minor updates to Chapters 1&2; cosmetic on both, and something so it will mesh with my next fanfic in the series.
A New Player
Chapter 01
A New Player
Alenna rested the foot of her staff on the ground. 'There. I'm finally done with that lot.' As a Wizard-Warrior of Glenach, she sought out and disposed of the dark forces that popped up all over the realm. She had just finished dealing with a particularly nasty group of various dark beasts - imps, goblins, minotaurs, and the like. Suddenly, she heard a whooshing sound. "Oh HELL!" she yelled. "Not now. Now is not the time for this. It just isn't fair!" However, her yelling had no effect on the Rift that had just popped into existence. Wearily, she sighed and turned to face the Rift so she could Seal it. She began the ritual. It was somewhat complicated, and there were points where if you weren't careful, very bad things could happen. Unfortunately, Alenna was tired from fighting all the monsters. At one of these points, she made a mistake...and got sucked into the portal.
Ash Ketchum was sitting in a cafe at Lilycove. He didn't notice when the door opened. People were going in and out all the time. Since that wasn't of concern to him, he paid no attention to it. Someone sitting next to him, however, brought him back to his senses. "Hello." the woman said. "I'm Alenna. What's your name?" She was slender, but strong, with long, platinum-blonde hair that cascaded down past her shoulders.
"I'm Ash. Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town."
"You looked like you could use some cheering up, so I came and sat over here. Care to tell me what's wrong?"
"I just met you and you expect me to pour out my deepest troubles."
"Yup."
"Huh...That's kinda hard to argue with...Eh, what have I got to lose?"
"Probably a lot less then what you stand to gain."
He glared at her.
"OK. Well, it's my goal to become a Pokemon Master. To do this, I've traveled since I was 10 years old. During that time, I made a lot of friends. Right now, I'm heading home, and saying hi to most of the friends that I made."
"Most?"
"Well, some of them were traveling, or started their travels, so I don't know where to find them. Some of them have just...disappeared. And one of them...I can't visit her or something might happen...something bad."
"So...you're missing your girlfriend, huh?"
Ash was taken aback. "Wha-she's not my girlfriend....She can't be."
"What was that last part?"
"She can't be my girlfriend."
"And why not?"
"Because - no! I can't tell you, can't tell anyone."
In a secret garden, far away from Ash and Alenna, a pokemon sat on a branch. She was vaguely bird-like, with very short and soft red and whitefeathers that looked and felt like fur; you could only tell they were feathers upon close inspection. She sighed. It wasn't that she couldn't leave the garden; the new arrivals could protect the Soul Dew as well as, if not better than, she could. No, this was something else entirely. She missed Ash. Oh, sure, the other Latias and Latios were fun to play with, and there were always Bianca and Lorenzo, or she could go explore the city, either invisible or in human form.
However, these diversions paled in comparison with anything she did with Ash. When he was with her - it was like an empty place inside of her that she hadn't even known existed was filled. Even when her brother died, she was able to bear it because Ash was there. Now, whatever she did, she felt lonely. Oh, if only they could be together forever.
Unfortunately, Ash was a human. From exploring the city and listening to the people talk, she knew that such relationships were frowned upon. They were, apparently, abusive. But, Ash wouldn't do that to her. She knew, without knowing how, that he was the kind of person who truly cared for all pokemon, provided they weren't attacking him or someone else; even then, he only fought them to protect himself or others. The problem then became, how to have a relationship with him, with so many people against it. Or maybe...maybe the question was, did Ash feel about her the way she did about him? She loved him, that was for sure, but did he love her back.... No! He did love her; she knew it!
Now, who could she ask for advice? The other Latias and Latios knew even less about the outside world than she did. Lorenzo was nice, but he wasn't exactly up to date with the current world. Bianca, though...she was Laia's best friend, besides Ash, and she was fully aware of how people felt about things. She would be able to help!
In another part of the garden, a brown-haired girl with a green shirt was sketching a Latios by the name of Keldan when she heard a voice in her head. ~Bianca? I need to talk with you.~
"Just a second Laia, let me finish up here." She painted a few more brush strokes and said, "Okay Keldan, that's enough for today." He gave a cry and flew off. If he could have talked, he would have said that she could paint him anytime; he didn't mind sitting still, and loved the attention. However, so far Laia was the only one who had telepathy. Someday, though....
Bianca walked over to where Laia was swinging, sat down by the tree, and said, "Alright Laia, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?
~Well, you see, I have this Pokemon friend. She's...well...in love with her Trainer,~ Laia said, blushing furiously. Bianca just sat and listened. ~She's pretty sure he feels the same way, but she doesn't know how he'll react if she tells him, or how to do it. Even if he feels the same way, she has no idea how they'll carry on a relationship. Can you help?~
"Well, what I'd do is to see what his reaction is to reports and stories of human-Pokemon relationships. If she thinks it wouldn't give her away, she could cause him - one way or another - to read a human-Pokemon love story, and see what he thinks of that." Bianca made a decision. "As for how you should tell Ash..." Laia froze. "...I think the best way would be for you to tell him the whole story about how this happened."
After a moment, Laia said ~Am I really that transparent?~
"No," Bianca replied, "but when I saw you kissing him on the dock, it was pretty obvious."
Laia was silent, then jumped on Bianca and hugged her fiercely, crying. ~Oh, Bianca!~ she said. ~I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have kept it a secret; I should have told you! But I thought you might be against it, and so I didn't. Oh, I'm so sorry!~
"Shhh, shhh," said Bianca, comforting Laia. "There's nothing to be sorry for. I do wish that you had told me why you were so unhappy sooner; I was worried for you. But what's done is done, and all the tears in the world can't change it. The best thing to do now is to see how to get you and Ash together."
When Laia had stopped crying, Bianca continued: "Now, as I see it, the biggest problem we have here is how you two can carry on a relationship when so many people are against it."
~Bianca, why are people against human-Pokemon relationships?~
"Well, a lot of them are abusive. Either the human, usually the Trainer, gets a kick out of 'doing' Pokemon, or the Pokemon gets a kick out of 'doing' humans. Compared to how many of these there are, there are very few relationships based on mutual love and respect. Unfortunately, this causes everyone to assume that all human-Pokemon relationships are abusive."
~But why? Can't humans tell when relationships like that are abusive and when they aren't?~
"Well, most people can. Some could, but since all they hear about are the abusive ones, they don't bother looking. Some would ignore it even if they did see it, usually because they're so disgusted by the thought of it, but sometimes because - well, I don't know why. Seeing is not always believing. And there are some people who are bound by law, so even if they did see it, and understand it, and sympathize, they don't have a choice. Pokemon abuse is illegal virtually everywhere, but definitions of abuse vary. There are places where there is no such thing as sexually abusing Pokemon; on the other hand, there are other areas where any human-Pokemon relationship is classified as abuse. Most places are somewhere between the two, usually leaning toward the latter. As long as you stay away from the places where all relationships are illegal, your telepathy should get you through just fine."
Bianca took a breath, smiled, and continued. "I know that the Orre region is very lenient; on the flipside, the Fiore and Almia regions tend toward the more severe extreme. If you stay in the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh regions, you should be fine."
Laia gave a delighted cry, hugged her friend again, and said, ~Thank you so much, Bianca! You've been so helpful to me.~ She flew up and away, picking up speed as she went. ~I hope I see you again soon.~
Bianca jumped up and started running after Laia, arms outstretched as if she could stop the Latias from leaving. "Laia, wait! You're not ready! What if Ash is coming here! What then! Laia!"
As the Latias flew out of visibility, Bianca stopped running, doubled over with her hands on her knees to catch her breath, and a soft whisper of thought faded into her mind.
~Farewell.~Chapter End Notes:Whew! I'm glad I previewed that. Did you know that if you paste a ' - ' from a text document, it looks like ��