Prologue

"Gary, it's locked!" she yelled into the Xtransceiver. "Something is attaching it to the panel!"

"Get a scan on it," the teen on the other end of the video call responded. He hastily began typing at his keyboard to figure out what the problem was.

The girl in question lowered her wrist to scan the casing in front of her. Inside the glass was an unconscious, blue, baby Pokémon, struggling to survive. The scanner on her wrist traced a red light over the casing and the panel in front of her.

A much taller, lean teenage boy with black hair was digging through the drawers of a desk at the other end of the room. "I think I might've found something important," he said into his own Xtransceiver and holding up a USB.

The girl turned her attention away from the other teen in the room and back to her own Xtransciever. "I'm sending you a code that seems to be the unlock," the boy said quickly, "but Nick, you need to get out of there fast. Putting in that code is going to alert the whole system."

Clenching her teeth and ignoring the caller on the other end, Nick pulled up the code on her Xtransceiver and began typing in the numbers on the panel.

"Nick, you have to start moving!" he warned her again.

The teen on the other side of the room was already stuffing his pockets and opening the window behind him. "Let's go!"

But it was too late. The sirens started to blare, and footsteps could be heard coming down the hallway as shouts of orders were being made.

"Nick!"

"Got it!" she exclaimed, the case detaching from the counter at last. She opened the bag she had on her back wider and carefully lowered the case inside.

"Hold it right there!"

The girl in question turned around slowly to see five Team Galactic grunts level their guns at her face. Her eyes widened and her throat tightened.

Walking through the door at last was the one person in this world that Nick truly had no mercy for.

It was Pokémon Hunter J.

The black-haired boy was crouched just below the window, watching the scene with clenched teeth. "Don't you dare move," another teen hissed through his watch. "If you do anything, you'll get her killed."

The boy narrowed his eyes but continued watching.

"Why am I not surprised that you were the infiltrator?" the silver-haired hunter mused.

"Why am I not surprised you're working for Team Galactic?" the brunette shot back.

"Working for them?" the hunter questioned. "You're funny, kid. They work for me now."

Nick's eyes narrowed, but she took a tentative step backward. The grunts in front of her adjusted their weapons, and Nick froze.

"Uh uh uh!" J said, holding up a hand. "Take another step and you and that stupid Riolu die!"

Nick bit her lip, looking over her shoulder behind her. Out the window was a storm of pouring rain and the black, choppy waters of the ocean below. Looking back at J, Nick smirked.

"Do it!" came Gary's voice through the Xtransceiver.

Nick was already bashing her elbow through the glass as bullets began to fly through the air.

Fumbling with her belt, Nick clicked the Pokéball she needed just before she hit the icy waters below. "Lanturn!"

With a huge splash, the girl broke the surface of the murky waters below.

Before Nick could lose her breath, the dolphin Pokémon lit the water as she caught the shaking girl on her body, rising quickly to the surface. Lanturn started to swim as quickly as possible toward the shore ahead of her, but behind them were the other Galactic grunts following on their own Pokémon.

Squinting her eyes through the storm, Nick faintly saw a gigantic blue Pokémon in the distance and someone riding it out into the water. There was another figure standing on the shore, waving their arms frantically. Lanturn made a dash for them.

Nick struggled to breathe against the ice-cold of the ocean around her, and realized she had also been gripping onto her Lanturn with only one hand, the other holding her side.

The voice of Gary was cutting in and out on her wrist until it finally went dead.

Lanturn shook a bit against the current from when the Gyarados passed them by, and Nick saw Misty as she charged at the grunts that were following behind them. There was an explosion of light as Misty called out a command. She saw several trainers – including Ash, the black-haired boy – flying or swimming on the backs of Pokemon as they collided with Team Galactic.

As Nick approached the shore on Lanturn, two other boys sprinted out of the woods to meet her.

She looked up at the two of them, the older of the two boys pulling her to her feet. Nick smiled up at him until she hissed in pain.

Pulling her hand away from her side, he felt the blood dampening the black outfit she wore and turning the water around her red. Recalling Lanturn for Nick, the younger of the boys helped pick up the girl as the older one – struggling to keep his breathing even – called out Arcanine. The two heaved her up onto the Pokemon and tore away into the woods.

Nick was only vaguely aware of the commotion still raging on in the water as she slipped into unconsciousness.

"Please… Hang on."

Eight months earlier

A warm breeze blew around the cliff as the sun set over the ocean below. A warm glow painted a young girl in a brilliant orange, her blue eyes sparkling in the light.

This girl was about to start her Pokémon journey.

The only thing was… this was a very different type of journey than she had ever been on before.

Playing the games all her life, she reveled at the chance to try the newest generation of Pokémon. But with this new generation came the greatest change the games had ever seen before.

Pokémon Florid and Pokémon Ashen were the newest additions to the franchise. Both games had a new mechanic of trainer classes. As trainers themselves leveled up, players had the option to spec their level points into one tree of the seven unique classes: trainer, breeder, type specialist, ranger, coordinator, performer, or researcher. Each class allowed the player to choose a unique career path in the world of Pokémon, and allowed players to enjoy being whatever type of trainer they wished to be.

Each game – unlike the older counterparts – had its own unique twist to the world of Pokémon.

Pokémon Florid was a more traditional Pokémon game with a turn-based battle style where trainers collected eight badges before taking on the Elite Four and battling the Champion or had the option of choosing a different class journey. However, both Pokémon Florid and Pokémon Ashen utilized the most advanced virtual reality technology the world had ever seen. And in Pokémon Florid, the player chose what region they played in for each save file.

Pokémon Ashen had its own set of unique rules. The game – while also virtual reality – included the latest in artificial intelligence technology. Creating a game to please a wider audience of Pokémon fans, Pokémon Ashen was instead based on the anime; the battles were no longer turn-based and more free-style, players could travel between multiple regions, and finally, players could interact with characters from the anime in real time. Through the game's unique AI program, characters would have some knowledge of the adventures they had during the course of their time in the anime, and players could choose two companions to accompany them on their journey.

This girl, preferring the name Nick, had a history with Pokémon. The excitement coursed through her as she watched the scene before her change to a lush forest of Pokémon around her, with a very familiar pink Pokémon darting between the trees.

Watching the scene change again, Nick looked around her in awe as she was transported to a stadium lit up at night with fans cheering all around her. Before her were all of the final evolutions of the starter Pokémon throughout the generations of the game. The scene shifted again to the first one, and a small transparent window popped up in front of the girl.

"Welcome," the message read in English. "To begin your Pokémon journey, please accept the terms and conditions of your full body scan."

Nick quickly pressed her finger to the blue "Accept" button on the screen in front of her. "Please wait a moment." the window read. In a few seconds, the scan was complete, and a new window appeared.

"Please enter your name, age, and home." Then, a transparent keyboard appeared just below the window.

The girl quickly typed in "Nick", "18", and "United States", onto the keyboard in front of her. The computer took a moment to recognize the information until a new menu appeared.

"Please choose from the following", it read.

The first set of options were starting regions. Nick selected Kanto.

The second set of options were class. She chose Trainer.

The last set of options were for companions. Taking a deep breath, Nick pressed the boxes next to the names "Ash Ketchum" and "Misty".

"Thank you," the window read. "Welcome to the world of Pokémon, Nick!"

[Author's Note 5/27/16]: Hello again everyone! I hope you all like the Prologue of my newest story! Obviously the Prologue is much shorter than the actual chapters will be, so don't be disappointed! I also just wanted to bring up a few points you're all probably wondering that isn't made clear here and there's not enough room in the summary, unfortunately.

There's going to Pokeshipping, Contestshipping, Ikarishipping, Wishfulshipping, and eventually Geekchicshipping! Each of Ash's old companions will be visited at some point or another, and I'm really excited to write about each of them!

Just stay patient with me while I try writing in the third person for the first time! I'm really excited for this, so I hope you all enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing!

[A/N 10/7/19]: Been awhile since I revisited this! But now that I actually have the story planned up to the point, I had to go back and edit some specifics here! Ultimately the plot is the same but some details are changed! Greninja is no longer in Ash's party and it's a little clearer who is present at that point in the story!