A Miracle in the Making

by King_of_Spartans

Summary:

A year after defeating Leon and winning the World Coronation Series, Ash Ketchum begins to reflect on what and where his journeys has brought him, and he isn't exactly satisfied with it. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for him, the women in his life are going to ensure he has plenty of satisfaction in the near future, and after waiting several years, some are no longer content with waiting.

Notes:

A/N: I understand very well that some of the content you read in this fanfic may be disturbing to some readers, so all I can say is that before you begin reading, please look at the tags and understand what type of story this will be, and that I can only hope that the tags provide a fair assessment of this work.

Chapter 1: The Beginning of Everything

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls! It’s been a wild Grand Festival, but I’m excited to announce that the Kanto Region officially has a new Top Coordinator!”

 

A loud round of applause erupted from the stands of the Indigo Plateau, the home of the Indigo League Conference and birthplace of several Champions and Top Coordinators reign of their position, and today, one more ascended to their ranks.

 

For a group of people previously sitting in a private room, now all standing and clapping with the rest of the crowd, they couldn’t be more merry at having the last of their friends join them on the biggest stage.

 

“Making it all the way to the very top of the mountain after just making her professional debut just a little over a year ago, please welcome your newest winner of the Ribbon Cup, Chloe Cerise!”

 

The camera’s focused their attention on the long maroon-haired teenage girl proudly raising the Ribbon Cup to the sky, joined on stage by her trusty Eevee, Espeon, and Umbreon, prompting the applause and cheers to rise to new levels.

 

In the private viewing room, another young girl, this one having long dark blue hair, raised her fist to the sky, “Way to go, Chloe! We knew you could do it!”

 

Not too far away in the same room, two more girls collided in an exuberant hug, one having long turquoise hair that sprouted from the top of her head almost in a Z and the other having short honey hair capped with a gray hat, each squealing about how the girl that they had both taken under their ropes now joining them in one of Kanto’s most prominent positions.

 

By the viewing window at the front of the room, a light brown haired girl covered by a pink bandana twisted her head to smile at the only man in the room, “Well, you’ve got quite the track record now, Ash. All of your traveling companions back from your traveling days now enjoy some of the loftiest pistons in all the regions.”

 

The blue haired girl let out a laugh, “I don’t think we can give him all the credit, May. After all, we all know how long it took him to win a league, and now Chloe’s blown us all out of the water!”

 

The boy spluttered, “Must I remind you that I became Champion of the Orange Islands when I was still 11, Dawn! I was still only a year into my journey at that point!”

 

Dawn dismissively waved her hand, “Please, we all know that doesn’t count. The Orange Islands doesn’t even qualify as its own region, so how could it qualify for its own tournament and champion? Drake, and even you, may be known as the Champion of the Orange Islands, but that title is nothing like Cynthia’s or Diantha’s, much less your well-known ones.”

 

The honey haired girl separated from the other girl as she prevented Ash from providing a rebuttal, “May does have a point, you know. I mean, just look at us all in this room. May’s the Top Coordinator of Johto, Lisia’s the Top Coordinator of Hoenn, Dawn’s the Top Coordinator of Sinnoh, and of course, who could forget about Ash being the reigning World Monarch?”

 

The turquoise haired girl, now identified as Lisia, giggled as she bumped shoulders with her honey haired counterpart, “And who could forget you being the Kalos Queen, eh Serena?”

 

“Not to mention Zoey’s the Top Coordinator in Unova, and now Chloe is the Top Coordinator of Kanto too!” Serena added.

 

“And that’s just the people in the stadium!” Dawn started listing off her fingers, “Brock’s a registered Pokemon Doctor, Misty just joined the Kanto Elite Four, Max is already doing well in League Tournaments, Iris is the Champion of Unova, Cilan is an S-Class Connoisseur, Clemont is doing well as Lumiose City Gym Leader, Kiawe had succeeded Olivia as Kahuna of Akala Island, Lana became a Trial Captain under Kahuna Hala, Sophocles joined Clemont with their shared love of inventions, and, well, I would say Lillie and Mallow have also rose up in the world, becoming the Wealth Manager and Personal Chef of the most famous man in the world!”

 

Ash’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, “That’s weird. From what Anabel and Giselle tell me, they’re busy enough doing that stuff for me, but this is the first time I’ve heard about them doing it for someone else.”

 

All of the girls in the room simultaneously fell to the ground in a heap, eyes rolling at the adorable naivety of their best male friend.

 

Letting out a chuckle as she got back to her feet, May playfully punched Ash on the shoulder, “They don’t do it for anyone else, Ash.” Her arms crossed over her chest as she waited for Ash to connect the dots.

 

“But if they only do it for me…” Ash rubbed his chin in thought before seemingly a lightbulb appeared over his head, “That would mean that I’m…” Ash shook his head in disbelief. “No, I can’t be!”

 

Serena questioned, “Who else could we be referring to? Leon’s popularity only ever extended to Galar, and even that has diminished over the past few months, Steven and Wallace have always been a package deal, although Steven is more well known for being the heir of the Devon Corporation and Lance used to reign atop, but he’s past his prime.”

 

“You’re only saying that because you’re my friends, aren’t you?”

 

Lisia rolled her eyes, “Ash, take it from someone who's heavily plugged into the media: you’ve been the biggest male sensation since you became the Champion of Alola.”

 

“But Galar-”

 

Lisia scoffed as she interrupted Ash mid-sentence, “Galar has always and will always be isolationist compared to the other United Regions. You can say it’s geographically based being even farther away than Unova or you could blame it on their culture, but the fact remains that all that Galar has ever cared for are themselves. Either way, they couldn’t care less if a foreign champion came to their region unless it was to battle their champion, so at least they, and the rest of the world, saw their precious undefeated champion lose before their very eyes.”

 

Ash’s smile tightened as he stared silently at Lisia. It had been a recurring message throughout the past several months that he was the first true World Monarch, given that the World Coronation Series had only ever taken place in the Galar region due to its unique Dynamaxing phenomenon, leading to only the Galar Champion ever competing in the exclusive tournament, and oftentimes winning it. In comparison, this past Series had featured every single Regional Champion of the United Regions with the single exception of Paldea.

 

And Ash won it.

 

Ash had continuously expressed privately to his friends that Leon was the World Monarch before him, but having been informed by Alexa that the opinion had originated from, and had the full support of, Alola, he had been advised to not to speak about such a topic to the media, and to dismiss it if it was ever brought up, but that didn’t stop Ash from feeling like he was leaving Leon out to the wolves every time he heard it.

 

As if feeling the sudden tension in the room, two dark-haired girls, previously sitting on each side of the only entrance of the room and only distinguishable by their hair style, simultaneously rose to their feet with grim looks, leading the womenfolk to all gain a saddened expression upon their face without a single word spoken.

 

They all knew what that meant.

 

Ash sighed. 

 

Even though the title of World Monarch was not associated with a single region, meaning that it was a title that carried no direct responsibilities with it, that didn’t mean it didn’t come without its own connotations. According to Anabel, he was expected to attend the occasional conference, but thankfully not all of them, meet with the regional champions, both as a group and independently, semi-frequently to discuss important matters that could impact the United Regions, participate in various promotional battles to keep his name relevant and in good standing, deliver inspirational speeches, that were of course created by his personal PR team that Ash was to, under no circumstance, ever stray from, and, worst of all, meet with the sponsors and brands to distribute his personal likeness and that of his team to the masses.

 

No.

 

Worst of all was the fact that Ash couldn’t go on his journeys anymore, as every action of his life was instead dictated by someone else.

 

This meant that there was an entire group of people, entirely composed of his old friends and companions, that now devoted their entire lives to managing his, and Hilda and Rosa were just one part of his traveling security team, assigned to stay with Ash wherever he went. Just outside the door, Zinnia stood waiting, ensuring that none, not even waiters or servers, would enter their private room, Solana and Kahili were roaming the stadium for anything suspicious, and his own League-assigned Officer Jenny was on standby in the vehicle.

 

Unfortunately for him, attending the Finals of the Kanto Grand Festival was already a delay for the promotional battle that Giselle had accepted on his behalf weeks ago, and the other party, the winner of the most recent Ever Grande Conference, had forfeited his right to challenge the Elite Four of Hoenn and Steven Stone in order to challenge the World Champion to a full battle, and had already been waiting several weeks for Ash’s schedule to clear. This meant that Ash was going to have very little time to prepare for the battle, but considering that this battle now meant his, already limited, time with his friends was going to be cut short, he was going to be using a few members of his primary team, if beyond the one was even necessary, that would be more than glad to stomp their opponents into the dirt.

 

Perhaps he was unleashing his aggression onto the wrong targets, but Ash couldn’t care anymore.

 

He didn’t participate in the World Coronation Series to take the title of World Monarch. He had done it to challenge the most powerful trainers in the world, and unfortunately, he won.

 

—---

 

“What an absolute show of dominance by the reigning World Monarch! Challenger Steele has had all six of his pokemon swept by a single pokemon of Ash Ketchum!”

 

Ash nodded in gratitude towards his pokemon, “That was very well done, Annihilape. I’m proud of you. Take a good, long rest.”

 

Annihilape let out one final, gastly scream of victory before he was recalled back into his pokeball, banging on his chest as he did so as Ash fought to contain himself. Annihilape had only rejoined him as Primeape just a month after he became World Monarch, and had quickly been evolved by his dedicated trainer friends that kept his pokemon sharp, meaning that this was Ash’s first official battle with him in over eight years.

 

Not that it really mattered. 

 

According to Liza, Annihilape came into this battle as a member of his third tier pokemon, so technically Ash wasn’t even supposed to use him for this battle, but Ash would say that he was leaving as a member of his second tier. Admittedly, he was probably still at the lower range of that tier, but for him to already be a candidate for his Championship Team was already quite the feat.

 

All being said, his new Paldean form really did help him out in this battle. With a dual typing of Fighting/Ghost, he took very little damage, if any, from most of the attacks from his opponents Nidoking, Heracross, and Golem, and his Flygon, Swampert, and Magnezone weren’t enough to do the job either. Even still, both Ash and Annihilape were perfectly willing to let their fists do the talking for this battle, and neither the Flygon or Magnezone flew high enough to be out of the reach of Annihilape’s unshackled arm.

 

Even still, Ash was very proud of the progress Annihilape had made since rejoining him. He wasn’t anywhere close to his first tier, but Ash could only think of five trainer pokemon outside of his own four that could possibly be in that tier, and those were the ace’s of Cynthia, Leon, and Steven Stone: Garchomp, Charizard, and Metagross respectively. 

 

His own Charizard and Garchomp were in a fierce competition with Leon and Cynthia’s to be the apex of their species, but none came close to his Pikachu or Greninja.

 

They were one of a kind, and in more ways than one.

 

There were also Anabel’s Gardevoir and Espeon, the former of which being her own primary ace and having recently defeated Diantha’s own ace without the use of Mega-Evolution to make her the apex of the species. The rest of her team was none too shabby either, with her still having the same Alakazam and Metagross she originally defeated him with during his time challenging the Battle Frontier, but she had also added a Gothitelle and Delphox to her main team, while still having Xatu, Starmie, and Medicham in rotation. 

 

Briskly clasping hands with his visibly shaken opponent, Ash congratulated him on winning the Ever Grande Conference and welcomed him to challenge him again in the future if the opportunity arose, but Michael Steele could only stammer in response. Ash could understand it. He was discouraged at almost being swept by Tobias in the Lily of the Conference Semi-Finals, but that was with a Darkrai and a Latios, and Ash had been the only trainer that had gotten through his Darkrai.

 

His opponents' pokemon were just plainly out typed, out trained, and outmatched, and everyone could see it.

 

The Ash from only a year ago could emphasize. 

 

He couldn’t afford to.

 

Just a week after Anabel came back into his life as his personal secretary, she had beat it into his head that he currently stood at the pinnacle of all pokemon trainers; past, present, and future. Every single move he made in a professional match would be analyzed by trainers around the globe, and all of his pokemon would be searched for their weaknesses. Of course, not every match held the same stakes or quality of opponent, so Ash was fortunate that most of his pokemon were still able to professionally compete in these battles.

 

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for all of them, most notably being his Tauros Herd. With the exception of the Chief Tauros, the leader of the Herd, they were all at the very bottom in terms of the tier ranking Liza had created for all of his pokemon. This wasn’t to say that they were weak, far from it. They all wouldn’t be out of place in some of the final rounds of regional conferences, but most couldn’t stand against the type of pokemon that a league winner would have. 

 

Giving a customary wave to the audience to announce his departure, Ash swiftly walked to the entrance where Hilda and Rosa were waiting for him with satisfied expressions on their faces. Being two of the top trainers that he had personally faced in Unova, Ash knew that they loved to battle just as much as he did, and he privately believed that either one could come on top over his old friend Iris to become Champion of Unova , and yet, for some reason, they chose to give up challenging the gyms to protect him. 

 

Although he was often annoyed as they stuck by him almost every single minute that he was not on his property, he felt content knowing that if anything did happen, he would have the two of the strongest trainers he knew by his side. 

 

As he was guided to the room where the media would be allowed to ask him a few questions, he took a moment to page through a packet of responses that Alexa had already prepared for any relevant question that was expected. If it was not relevant, Kahili would strike down the question and move onto the question, and if it was not expected, Ash was allowed to make use of a combination of answers to satisfy the question. 

 

At no point or circumstance was Ash allowed to stray from the notes.

 

It was a fair reaction, Ash had to privately admit to himself, especially when he considered that the first meeting with the media after he became World Monarch was how he ended up with all of his friends rushing to his side in the first place.

 

—-

 

As he collapsed bonelessly on the plane destined to take him home, Ash allowed himself to breathe out a sigh of relief, ignoring the amused smiles shared by his bodyguards and Mallow, his personal chef that now traveled with him everything. Kahili and Jenny were in the cockpit piloting the private plane that had been gifted to him by the Aether Foundation, one of the many things Lusamine had done for him since resuming her role as the Head of the Aether Foundation, while Hilda, Rosa, Zinnia, and Solana took various seats around him.

 

At that thought, Ash felt himself sink a little bit further into the soft cushions of the plane. After Ash had become Champion of Alola, Lusamine, her son Gladion, and her daughter, his friend, Lillie, had left the shores of Alola to find their husband/father, having recently discovered through Tapu Fini that he was in fact not dead as they had all believed for years. 

 

Unfortunately, it may have been a kinder fate if he had been.

 

Just a few months after leaving Alola, not too long before Ash had reached the Masters Eight, they finally found him, but he wasn’t the same man he had once been. He didn’t have a single memory of any of them with a case of amnesia, and he was in the final stages of terminal cancer. Merely a week after seeing Mohn for the first time in a decade, he had peacefully passed away in his sleep.

 

Heartbroken, the entire family had thrown themselves back into work, drowning out the thought that if they only knew he was alive sooner, they would’ve had more time with him . Lusamine had resumed her role as Head of the Aether Foundation, Gladion had gone off to challenge more of the Leagues in the United Regions, and Lillie had been wallowing in despair for several weeks before Ash had his incident with the media, providing her the opportunity to become his Wealth Manager; a task she dove head-first into and never looked back.

 

In addition to arranging for Ash to have his own private transportation, Lusamine was also one of the key pieces in arranging for many of his friends to spend their lives helping him, and she even gifted him a private island a few miles northwest of Melemele Island. Of course, it was nothing compared to the four major Islands of Alola, but it was plenty of space for his pokemon to roam freely, and he was sure that Professor Oak was glad that he no longer had to wrangle them himself.

 

Of course, with all of the pokemon that he had, there were several more of his friends that Lusamine had recruited to take care of them while Ash was away, and Ash was thankful for them. Not only did his pokemon seem more content than ever, several had finally been able to break through the evolution barrier, including Annihilape himself not too long after his arrival on the island.

 

To Ash’s understanding, there were three levels that his friends had separated themselves into: Breeders, Caretakers, and Trainers. 

 

Suzie was a famous Pokemon Breeder that Ash had first met when he was still in his early days of traveling that was having troubles with Team Rocket, an incident that actually ended up rekindling Suzie’s passion for Breeding. She had later decided to open a joint salon with another Breeder named Zane, a decision that she eventually ended up regretting as it cut her journey short. After selling her stake in the business and traveling for a few more years, she had been looking for a new opportunity, and after hearing that Ash had needed people to look after his pokemon, and knowing that several were the among the best that their species had to offer, had leaped on the opportunity and became the Head Breeder of Ash’s Island.

 

Leaf was the trainer that had selected Bulbasaur as her starter on the same day Gary had picked Squirtle and Ash received Pikachu, but her path had been different. After breezing through the Pewter City Gym and Cerulean Gym, she realized that the challenging gyms weren’t what she wanted to do in life, and had actually been inspired by Suzie to follow the path of breeding. Ash admittedly had lost contact with her for several years after that, both of their lives having pointed in opposite directions, but she had once been one of his closest childhood friends, and he was happy to know what she had also found her calling in life.

 

Bianca had been born and raised on the small island of Alto Mare, not far off the coast from Johto, and lost her parents at a young age in a boating accident, leaving her with her grandfather, Latios, and Latias. Alto Mare had been a destination of his when he had been traveling through Johto, and had coincidentally arrived on the island at the same time as two agents of Team Rocket who were trying to steal the Soul Dew and the Eon Duo. Having previous experience with Team Rocket and knowing they were trouble, Ash had tried to help, but even he could do nothing but watch as Latios sacrificed himself to save the city, becoming the new Soul Dew himself. With a member of the Eon Duo lost, a new pair of Latios and Latias had arrived on Alto Mare not long after Ash had left, apparently sent by Ho-Oh to protect the Soul Dew. Latias had been wanting to leave Alto Mare to explore anyways, but it had taken several years for her to convince Bianca to join, but Bianca had eventually relented, much to her future relief.

 

Having taken Kiawe as her official apprentice not long after Ash became Champion of Alola, it had not taken long for Olivia to decide to officially pass on all of her responsibilities to the next generation, and she had not been the only one seeking out a successor. Nanu had taken on Plumeria as his successor, Hala had officially begun training Hau, although he had not yet retired just yet, and of course Hapu had just become the Kahuna of Poni Island. As for Kiawe, although he didn’t share her gift of communicating with Pokemon, he was more than capable of handling the duties of a Kahuna, and Olivia had never intended on leaving Alola anyways, so she was nearby if he ever needed anything, but for now, she was more than happy to spend her life just taking care of pokemon as the Head Caretaker of Ash’s Pokemon.

 

After the incident in the Orange Islands on Shamouti Island, Melody had stepped away from her role as Festival Maiden, as least officially considered she had actually been the Festival Maiden in their prophecy of old alongside Ash as the Chosen One. Inspired by Ash, she had finally dared to leave her home and travel the world, and while she had never felt the urge to become a pokemon trainer, she had found plenty of success at quelling the rage of the most difficult pokemon with her music; a skill that was very much needed on Ash’s Island given the competitive nature of his pokemon.

 

After being in Samiya itself, the home of her ancestors, before it returned back to the depths of the sea, Lizabeth's original dream had come true, but had quickly found herself desiring a new dream. Lizabeth eventually decided to pursue being a water-type specialist to aid in their shows, acquiring several water pokemon from all over the United Regions. However, disaster struck while Lizabeth was away as the rest of her family got into an accident, her grandfather and father dying before they made it to the hospital while Meredith only sustained minor injuries, protected by her Poliwrath. Unfortunately with only two members remaining, the show could no longer go on. Heartbroken, Lizabeth had reached out to May, who had heard that Lusamine had been searching for old friends of Ash to run the island and in turn directed Lizabeth and her mother, and had been overjoyed to take care of so many different pokemon she never met before, even if most weren’t water types, particularly the Galarian fossil Dracovish.

 

The competitive nature of his pokemon had only been fueled by the five successful trainers Lusamine brought in that Ash had almost all competed with: Kris in the Johto League, Katie in the Hoenn League, Lyra in the Sinnoh League, Astrid in the Kalos League and Liza had been a powerful trainer herself before becoming the Caretaker of the Charicific Valley, having specialized in Fire types. In only the few months since starting to live on the island, almost all of his pokemon had been able to reach their final evolution stages, the only exceptions being those who didn’t wish to evolve, including Rowlett, Corphish, and Buizel. Much to Ash’s surprise, the five girls had even managed to convince Blastoise and Venusaur to reach their final forms, and although they had put their competing days behind them, they were still perfectly willing to battle.

 

Liza, who had assumed the role of the Head Coach due to her experience, had been the one to decide to break his pokemon into tiers, a decision which Ash suspected was made to partly understand what level every pokemon he had was at and partly to inspire some of the more reluctant pokemon to realize that evolving would allow them to have more power. Ash had always preached not evolving pokemon just for power, believing that the wishes of the pokemon mattered most, so while the method was a little underhanded, it had repeatedly been confirmed to him that all of his pokemon evolved of their own volition. 

 

Ash’s first tier, the most powerful of all his pokemon, were the ones that cemented themselves as either the apex of their species or competing for it, and had become known to the wider world as the Four Pillars of Ash’s reign as Monarch. These had originally included Greninja, Charizard, and Pikachu as just the Pillars, and had come to include Garchomp after the coaches inspired him to reach the top. After a while, the media had officially dubbed them as the Four Pillars, and the name stuck.

 

Of course, Ash couldn’t have a full championship team with just four pokemon, but there were several pokemon that competed for the last two coveted spots on his primary team. At the moment, those spots were filled by Lucario and the recently evolved Serperior, but Sceptile, Infernape, Pidgeot, Krookodile, Melmetal, Samurott, Tyranitar, and most recently Annihilape could all compete for them, although Pidgeot was too content with her flock to battle too often. Tyranitar had previously been the newest to (re)join Ash’s team, having previously been the Larvitar Ash had raised in Johto but decided to leave behind so she could be with her mother. Larvitar had apparently thought she had been left behind because she wasn’t worthy to join Ash’s team, and pushed herself to be the most powerful pokemon on Mount Silver, and had rejoined Ash shortly before his battles in the world championship series.

 

With all of the promotional battles Giselle had been scheduling, Ash also had another group of pokemon that could match up with the teams of other champions. Obviously this tier consisted of the remaining pokemon that had made Ash the monarch, those being Gengar, Dragonite, Dracovish, and Sirfetch’d, but also featured the pokemon that made Ash champion, Naganadel, Incineroar, Lycanroc, and Rowlett, as well as Venusaur. Staraptor, Torterra, Noivern, Feraligatr, Talonflame, and Gliscor. 

 

Not all of Ash’s battles were against champions, so Ash had been advised by Alexa to only use the pokemon in his fourth tier against the champions of various conferences. Most of the pokemon that fell into this tier had either stepped away from battling or retired, but Ash still had enough for a full team with Snorlax, Typhlosion, the Chief Tauros, Seismitoad, Emboar, Gigalith, and Heracross, while Blastoise, Lapras, Glalie, Goodra, and Buizel were content on the island.

 

Unfortunately, Ash had several pokemon in the fifth tier, a tier made out of pokemon that wouldn’t be out of a regional tournament champions roster, but not powerful enough to reliably defeat most of the pokemon that came their way, and that wasn’t something the World Monarch could apparently afford. Semi-fortunately, a lot of Ash’s pokemon that fell into this tier were no longer interested in battling, like Meganium, Scrafty, Noctowl, Swellow, Kingler, Unfezant, Leavanny, Butterfree, and Torkoal, but Donphan, Hawlucha, Corphish, and the rest of the Tauros Herd still desired to battle, and not just underneath the coaches. For now, they were content sharpening their skills on the island, but deep down, Ash knew that wouldn’t last forever.

 

With all of the different people Lusamine brought in to help care of his pokemon, there was only one person she trusted to manage all of them, and that was Wicke. Having discovered that the role of Head of the Aether Foundation wasn’t for her during Lusamine’s temporary absence, Wicke had been the one that Lusamine had entrusted the role of preparing the island for Ash to, and had so much attachment to the island that she didn’t want to leave. Wicke had originally been offered the official role of one of his secretaries, but Wicke was more than done with that type of responsibility, and was plenty satisfied being the Pokemon liaison. 

 

Suddenly hearing the crackle of the plane speaker, Ash jolted out of his thoughts and lurched forward, but slowly leaned back into the chair as he heard Kahili’s voice, “Attention, this is your captain speaking. We have entered Alolan airspace, and received confirmation from the Green Team C that the path is clear. We will be descending shortly.”

 

Stuck on Kahili’s words, Ash's thoughts wandered to some of the more controversial people that Lusamine had brought in. In a twisted, logical way, he could understand her thought process.

 

After all, who better to ensure his pokemon wouldn’t get stolen than people who have experience trying to steal them?

 

Of course, the four most experienced with that task, James and Jessie and Butch and Cassidy, had apparently retired from Team Rocket following Ash’s ascension to become World Monarch, but there were several others that had long since been in prison, due to their involvement in other, more villainous, deeds. Lusamine, presumably after recruiting the former vice-president of Marco Cosmos, Oleana, to replace Wicke, had seen the advantage of using criminals as household security. 

 

Some of them Ash didn’t have an initial problem with. Malva had realized that Lysandre was insane and had helped to uncover the remaining Team Flare members before turning herself in, and Anthea and Concordia had both been manipulated by Ghetsis to raise N the way that he wanted, but had also helped in taking Ghetsis down in the end.

 

However, everyone else had not only supported their leader until the end, but they had also committed far more worse deeds in the name of said leader. 

 

Ariana, former Executive of Team Rocket, had been a key instrument in obtaining Mew’s DNA to biologically engineer the clone Mewtwo. Domino, former Elite Officer of Team Rocket, had assassinated anyone in Giovanni’s way for at least a decade. Annie and Oakley had been the pair that tried to steal the Soul Dew that resulted in Latios’s sacrifice. Shelly, former Admin of Team Aqua, and Courtney, former Admin of Team Magma, had nearly sunk Hoenn in their quest to control Kyorge and Groudon. Mars and Jupiter, former Commanders of Team Galactic, had assisted in Cyrus’s attempt to destroy the universe and make a new one in its place. Aliana, Bryony, Celosia, and Mable, Team Flare’s former leading Scientists, had all been complicit in Lysandre’s goal to eradicate most of the world’s population, both people and pokemon.

 

And then there was Hunter J, the most prolific Pokemon Hunter that the world had ever seen, even managing to capture the Regi Trio to get to Regigigas, and the Lake Guardian trio so that Team Galactic could get to Dialga and Palkia.

 

Needless to say, Ash had prior experience with all of them, and he had helped put all of them behind bars. However, Lusamine believed that it would be best if they were watched over so they didn’t try to continue their evil deeds. 

 

After all, Jessie, James, Butch, and Cassidy had escaped prison everytime they got sent there for the past decade, and Domino had successfully done so quite a few times as well. 

 

Considering Ash’s previous encounters with them, and being one of the main participants leading to all of their defeats, Lusamine had argued that he would be in the best position to deal with them, and with all of the regional Champions authorizing their transfer to Alola to be watched by Ash, Lusamine had gotten what she wanted.

 

To Lusamine’s credit, Ash hadn’t seen a speck of dirt out of place, but Ash had also barely been on the island with all of the traveling across the regions he did. Most of the information regarding them he had received had come from Anabel, but that information had almost made it seem like they were entirely new people, but he had to believe her.

 

Malva, being the former criminal that Ash was most tolerant of, had assumed the role as the Security Director, meaning that all the others operated under her command. The remaining criminals were divided into four different groups, each active in eight hour shifts, with a new team going out every four hours. From what Ash understood, Team A, consisting of Officer Shelly, Anthea, and Celosia, could deploy at midnight, Team C, consisting of Hunter J, Bryony, and Annie, would start at 4am, Team B, consisting of Officer Courtney, Oakley, and Aliana, would begin at 8am, and then Team D, consisting of Officer Domino, Mable, and Concordia, would start at noon, meaning that six would be on duty at any given moment. If there was an emergency, Team E, made out of Officer Mars, Ariana, and Jupiter, could be called into action, but they primarily operated as Ash’s legal team, but given their probationary service, they weren’t leaving the island in any case.

 

Ash didn’t understand the necessity of the complex schedules that Malva organized, but he was grateful that she took protecting his pokemon so seriously. 

 

Hunter J herself had proven that even the strongest pokemon could fall given the proper intellect and resources, and Ash didn’t want him or his pokemon to make the same mistake.

 

Ash had only accepted their presence on his island after Anabel and Latias had done a psychic scan on all of them, with the former being the world’s most proficient psychic type trainer and the latter being a legendary psychic dragon, so they were the primary person to go to regarding them, not that he ever needed to. 

 

Perhaps they had changed in prison after all?

 

Ash had always tried to see the best in people, just as his mother had always taught him, and that was why he had dealt with Jessie and company for the past decade. He had realized pretty early on that they were more nuisances than evil, and if bothering him daily trying to steal Pikachu and his other pokemon kept them from doing evil deeds, he was perfectly fine with that, even if there had been a few close calls. 

 

Seeing the island coming closer, Ash felt a smile across his face, temporarily forgetting about his worries. 

 

His island would never be Pallet Town, but it was still home.

Chapter 2: A/N Note

Hello All!

 

Unfortunately, this isn't a new chapter, but instead an announcement that I think I started the story in the wrong moment of time, so the new chapter one is very different than the original one. Whenever I get the second chapter done, this 'chapter' will be deleted.

 

Thank you for reading!