Ash being a Zorua has been done before. Not too many times and I'm not sure whether I came up with the idea first and went looking or if I found one and it inspired me originally.

Wherever I first got the idea, it doesn't matter too much. I decided to take elements from multiple sources to create this so if something doesn't line up with the anime, I probably meant for it to be that way. Like naming your Pokémon, because honestly that make a lot more sense than just calling your Pokémon the name of it's species.

Also, yes I know there is a story called "Master, Pokémon?" which has a similar premise but I'm taking this in my own direction. I did get the inspiration to finally write this from finding that story though.

Pallet Town…

Delia looked at the little Pokémon she had just exchanged for with an old friend from Unova. Truth was she had stopped traveling for her Pokémon journey a few years ago so most of her Pokémon were starting to get a bit of cabin fever. So it hadn't taken too much prodding for her friend in Unova to convince her to let Blastoise (or as she had always called him, Shelldon) stretch his limbs and travel again for awhile.

But a trade of course required a Pokémon in return so her friend had sent her a Pokémon he had caught rather recently but hadn't been able to train properly yet. From what he had explained to her during the call the Pokémon he had sent her was actually pretty young and he had been concerned to find it so far from its natural habitat, especially without a trainer. Naturally he had thrown a poke ball at it and caught it.

Admittedly that was not the choice Delia herself would have gone with but it seemed to have worked well enough considering the Pokémon she had just traded for was running around trying to investigate everything around him.

Delia sighed and pulled out her old Pokedex, hopefully it would be able to identify him, really she should have asked her Unova bound friend more about the Pokémon he was sending her.

The dex lit up and a picture appeared that matched the Pokémon currently exploring his new home. "Zorua." The familiar digital voice spoke up. "The tricky fox Pokémon. Zorua hides its true form by changing shape into people and Pokémon, and loves to surprise people."

Delia looked up from the Pokedex entry and compared the image to the Pokémon that had finally seemed to notice her and was now staring at her intently. So he could change shape like a ditto or something? She should probably ask the professor about it the next time she saw him but she needed to get her new companion settled in first.

"I guess I'm going to need a name for you, huh?" Delia asked the Zorua rhetorically. The fox-like Pokémon made snickering noise and seemed to grin. Well based on the laugh alone she could call him Joker or something.

Then again while hearing a Pokémon snicker like that was rather unusual he didn't really look like a "Joker", besides she could do better with names. She wasn't ten years old anymore, thinking of pun names for Squirtles. Personally she thought Shelldon had always had a bit of a chip on his shoulder because of it.

She took a good look at the little Zorua who seemed like he was starting to get a bit bored of her and had begun sniffing at the carpeted floor. Likely because he was used to walking around on either pavement or grass. His fur was a soot like gray and mixed with bits of red it reminded her a bit of cinders and ash.

Well naming him Cinder could work but it sounded more like something you would name a ground or fighting type Pokémon. Then again Ash made you think of fire typically, but he certainly met the bill when she personally thought of ashes.

"How's the name Ash sound?" She asked the Zorua, thankfully regaining his attention. The small dark furred fox looked confused but seemed agreeable to the name.

Now that she had a name for Ash, she needed to figure out what kind of food he ate. He wasn't from Kanto after all, so it might be hard to find one that suited a Pokémon from Unova. Once again she was probably going to have to speak to "Professor Pokémon" himself, Samuel Oak. It was unlikely that he would mind though, he loved learning about Pokémon after all. Especially rare and unusual ones, and one from Unova would likely qualify in that regard.

Still, she was a bit concerned about the whole changing shape thing the Pokedex mentioned, it would probably be fine though.

Four years later…

"Ash!" Delia called looking around the tricky fox Pokémon. He had certainly become bolder and wily as he grew, thankfully he had reached full size and wouldn't be getting bigger any time soon, at least until he evolved.

Unfortunately for her, his ability to change shape was some sort of illusionary ability and it made finding him when he went off somewhere a pain in the neck. Not that she was bitter or anything, she had run into problems while raising all her Pokémon, and Ash wasn't causing any trouble really, he was just a bit… adventurous.

So far he had only been able to make himself look like Pokémon he had seen before, and normally he had trouble remembering to compensate his tail into the change, making him somewhat easier for her to locate. That is if she could figure out where to look for him first. On the bright side he knew not to run off too far so it shouldn't be too hard.

While his trainer searched for him, Ash was experimenting with his illusion ability, in the past he had only been successful in making himself look like other Pokémon, but he had been working up to his ultimate skill! The ability to make himself look like a human!

Truth be told, his desire to do this had been inspired by his trainer who he honestly thought the world of. He had known her for as long a she could remember and he couldn't even remember what life had been like before knowing her. If he was able to pretend to be human then she wouldn't have to put him in his pokeball anymore. They may comfortable but they were a bit short on open space for his taste.

That was the only problem he had really, the fact he wasn't able to get out too much, not that he blamed Delia, she just didn't travel much anymore. Her adventuring days were behind her. But that didn't mean anything about his adventuring days! They hadn't even started yet!

That was another reason why he wanted to be able to change his shape to a human, if he could do that then he would be able to travel around without being worried about people targeting him because they thought they could catch him or something!

He looked at the reflection of himself in the water. His own furry features stared back at him. He concentrated and leaped into the air a bit to give himself some growth room. He applied his allusion and landed back on the ground…

… and promptly fell over.

He growled in frustration. How did humans walk around like this all the time!? There was no balance while standing on two feet!

Not one to just roll over and give up, he pushed himself back up, carefully holding his arms out to try and keep balance in the awkward standing position. He grinned for a moment but it quickly faded as he began tipping over again.

Ash yelped as he landed in the water this time, the shock of cold liquid caused him to lose focus on his appearance and revert back into his original shape. Fortunately for him, the water wasn't too deep so he was able to just push himself back out again. Although now his fur was soaked and weighed him down significantly making him sigh. He apparently needed way more practice before he would properly utilize his illusion.

He trotted out of the water and shook himself out as best he could on dry land. He was still significantly wet but at least his fur was no longer dragging him down. Ash didn't think about having fur all that much, it was part of him after all, but he would admit he was a bit envious that humans didn't have to worry about it when getting wet.

"Ash!" He heard Delia call him and perked up, he knew she would have found him eventually but he was hoping to have more time to practice, he had wanted to surprise her!

But when she came into view he sighed and decided he would have to try another day. Running off now would just be mean.

"Just where have you been?" Delia demanded when she arrived at the clearing, bending over so she could give him a proper inspection. "And why are you all wet!?"

Ash said nothing and just pouted at her, trying to look as innocent and adorable as possible. She was less likely to scold him if he did that.

Delia sighed. "Well, it's not like you can tell me anyway, come on let's go to Professor Oak's lab."

Ash was silently annoyed, not about the fact that they were going to the Professor's lab, he liked that place, it gave him plenty of new ideas about what kind of Pokémon he could attempt transform into. He was even getting better at making sure his normal tail didn't appear on whatever he made himself look like! No, what annoyed him was the comment about not being able to tell her things. He wanted to talk to her, it wasn't his fault she couldn't understand him!

The lab hadn't really changed since the last time he had been there, of course it never really changed much, apart from maybe a few desks or tables moved around and various stacks of papers and books in different spots. But it was familiar enough for him to navigate around it without help anymore. Back when he was younger he had managed to get himself lost among the machines and had panicked quite a bit. Fortunately Delia and the Professor had found him after a short while.

The humans had left him alone in the main room of the lab, giving him a chance to keep on practicing where no one would be around to spy on him. Ash decided to ignore the fact that the use of the word "spying" was a bit of a stretch given the fact that the only reason he was trying to hide it was so he could surprise his trainer and maybe to use it as a disguise and trick a few people as a joke.

When the humans had left the room Ash hopped over to the middle of the room. Replicating the attempt he made at the lake he stuck his arms out as soon as he could and used them to make sure he didn't topple over again.

It was a bit shaky for a few seconds but he managed to find equilibrium and not fall over, frontwards or backwards. Ash's grin once again returned, this time one of victory! Slowly he started moving his arms down, trying not to upset his delicate balance.

"Great, another human!" Someone commented.

Ash, startled fell over once again and his illusion collapsed leaving him in his normal shape. Darn it all, and he was so close this time! He scrambled to his feet and glared around to give whoever it was that had surprised him a piece of his mind.

"Okay, what's the big idea!?" Ash demanded locating the target of his aggression. It was another Pokémon, a yellow one with a few black markings and red cheeks. It was smaller than he was and had a head clearly too big for its body.

"Wait a second, I thought you were a human!" The yellow Pokémon pointed at him in confusion.

"Well maybe if I had a bit more practice you wouldn't be able to tell the difference." Ash responded in a tone that clearly said who he blamed for not having more practice.

"Well maybe if you weren't making yourself look like a stupid human, you wouldn't need practice." The smaller Pokémon said, hopping down from the ledge it was standing on and coming up to Ash. Small sparks of electricity lit its cheeks up and it pressed its head against Ash's attempting to intimidate him.

"Well maybe you should mind your own business!" Ash shouted back, pushing harder against the other Pokémon.

"Well maybe I will!" The electric type responded but didn't appear to be backing off any time soon.

Ash, not particularly wanting to get into a battle in the middle of the lab because he wanted to be able to come back and didn't want to make Delia look bad, came up with another idea. Snickering he jumped back from the yellow Pokémon applying an illusion as he did so. When he landed, he appeared to be an exact replica of the other Pokémon, save for the sly grin that split his face.

"H-how are you doing that?!" The electric Pokémon demanded. "Cut it out!"

"Maybe if you weren't such a jerk." Ash teased snickering again. Hah! That what he gets for ruining his training!

"Why you!" The other Pokémon leapt at him knocking them both over and causing Ash to lose concentration on his illusion forcing him out of his new appearance yet again. Oh this guy was so going to get it!

When Delia and Professor Oak finally returned to the room they found two small Pokémon rolling around biting and scratching at each other and that most of the room was kind of a mess at this point.

"Well I see Ash has met Pichu!" The professor laughed awkwardly.

And that's where I'm cutting it off for now.

To be honest this was my effort to get the idea that's been rolling around in my head, out of it and let me focus on some other things because this was the only thing I could think of any time I brought up a document to start writing something. And I figured, what do I have to lose? Maybe people might actually like this!

But yeah, this was my first attempt at a Pokémon fanfiction, but not my first fanfiction whatsoever. So I'm not new to the site, just new to the category. Hopefully it turned out okay, because I'm a bit biased here.

Anyway, the idea behind it is simple, Ash is a Pokémon and he goes on his journey, makes new friends ect. It would certainly explain why he never ages! (Although apparently in recent anime episodes Brock and Misty have returned and they're the same age too, I haven't been watching like I used to)

I'm not sure if this is going to be continued or not, I have plenty of other stories that demand my focus and I actually have no plan for this one. Basically, if you want to see more of it, let me know and I'll see what I can do!

Well next week I should be able to update one of my other stories that haven't been updated in awhile. Maybe MT or SS, possibly GG.

Until next we meet! See ya!

~FriTik

R&R