Breeder Drew
Well-Known Member
Adaptation: An Advanceshipping Story (R)
After having the passion to write, and continue, what I consider to be my most promising work, I feel a need to edit, revise, and fix the story to something a bit more realistic. I hope you enjoy, and I hope this fanfiction lightens up your day as fanfictions such as countless others have done for myself.
Adaptation
The news doesn't surprise me anymore. Honestly. All you see everywhere is new disasters, every day, everywhere. It's almost overwhelming to see the tests that humanity faces every day. But somehow, we get through it all. We overcome it. The obstacles put in our way are just temporary, nothing permanent. And even when they do harm us, we grow. We change. We face the threat, and we adapt to it. I am Ash Ketchum, and this is how I adapted.
Chapter 1, Part 1: Delia's Wedding
As I crawled over the hot, hard rocks of the desert, I noticed that there was a complete lack of wildlife. Nothing at all. We seemed to be alone. I looked back at Brock, and his expression told the same story as mine. The small, yellow rodent Pokemon known as Pikachu was hopped up on my shoulder, sweating profusely. This was the only time since receiving him that I had considered putting him back in his Pokeball. His sweat had the sleeve of my black t-shirt drenched and smelling horribly. I couldn't wait until we reached our destination.
Brock and I had met back up after I completed my quest in the Kalos region. We'd been traveling for a good week now, mostly by tram and boat. This was one of the rare instances where we had to walk to get somewhere.
"Shouldn't this desert have run out about a mile ago?" Asked Brock, now questioning our map's accuracy. It was obviously not recent, with the date at the bottom saying "1985", but we figured it would be accurate enough to at least get where we were going.
"Must've had a lot of desertification in twenty-seven years," I muttered under my breath. Talking was wasting energy, which was what we needed most right now. "I knew we shouldn't have bought it from the shopkeeper. He was… odd." It was true, he was incredibly strange. He seemed very happy to get the map out of his own hands, even giving us a seventy-five percent discount. Buisness must've hit a low point if he was having sales that low.
"Look, let's just hope we have enough time to change into the wedding clothes." Brock said. Today was the day that my mother was getting married. She had met a man named Darren on a shopping trip while in Johto. They had been dating for almost a year, and Darren had proposed about six months ago. The wedding took a while to plan, especially since the wedding of Mom's dreams wasn't really financially feasable for our family. Darren mustered up the money, coming from a rich family, and paid for it all, much to Mom's delight.
I've never liked Darren. He is sarcastic and cruel, especially to me for whatever reason. Mom hates that we don't get along, but Darren is well-liked by her friends and the residents of Pallet Town, so I guess one opinion wasn't really enough to sway her. It wasn't the fact that she was marrying him that got to me; I was happy as could be for her, especially since she's never been married or even in a real relationship. It was the fact that Darren was going to be my legal father that I hated. I couldn't stand the man, let alone call him "Dad." As far as I'm concerned, I don't have a father. He left my mother when he found it she was pregnant. I don't ever want a father. It's just fine with me and Mom only.
It's not like I ever really see my mother anyway, what with me being gone all of the time. In the seven years that I've been training and battling with Pokemon now, very little of that time has been spent with my mother, and that's probably my deepest regret. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something happened to her while I was gone.
"Ash, look, there's the town!" Brock interrupted my thoughts, obviously exhausted. We made one last dash towards the city, while checking on the map for the church that Mom and Darren would be getting married at. Luckily, the church must've been constructed before the map was made, as we found it fairly quickly.
As I walked up to the rather small church, one thing was apparent; it hadn't been re-painted in years. Chips of brown stuck around the white paint, notifying to me that the church was built out of wood. Interesting that it had survived so long, as Celadon City, where the wedding was taking place, was prone to tornadoes and hurricanes. The city had a grassy theme to it, probably because of Erika, the local gym leader.
Erika was a strong trainer, one I respected more than most. She was a kind woman with a good heart, but a fierce mean streak during battles. Others have compared me to her at times, though I don't prefer grass Pokemon. They require a lot more care than other Pokemon, which is something a lot of people (like myself) simply don't have time for. Of course, being a gym leader, Erika probably has more time for those kind of things.
As I entered the church, I noticed that two tuxedos were thrown out onto a pew. I quickly realized that those were Brock and I's. Mom had prepared Brock with a dark black tux and brown tie. My tuxedo was the same color, only with a red tie. Personally, I thought they looked like a politician's daily wear and was very reluctant to put mine on. Brock seemed to like his, however, and rushed to the bathroom and threw it on immediately.
"Got to look nice," He told me. "You know, just in case Darren has any hot girl relatives, you know?" Typical of Brock. I laughed a bit, wondering wether or not it was a joke or if he was being completely serious. I assumed the worst, and went with the last option.
Mom hadn't invited my more recent traveling companions (mostly because she had never met them). Besides, they stayed in Unova, rather than come along with me to where ever I would go next. It didn't really bother me; they had their own dreams and ambitions, just like I did, but I found it sort of odd that Iris would miss my mother's wedding, invited or not. She was always into that kind of thing. I really don't know why. Weddings are some of the most boring things on earth.
After putting on my outfit, the wedding was about to start. After leaving the bathroom, I noticed that there were far more people here than I had originally thought there would be. A lot of Pallet Town citizens were there, to support Mom, and a few older friends of mine were there too. Mom had a tendency to become friends with my friends, so it didn't surprise me. I noticed that Dawn was sitting in the front row, squealing in delight. She waved at me, and I sheepishly waved back. I figured she would've came and adjusted my suit, her being the perfectionist she was. I walked away, and decided to take a seat in the second row next to Brock. Brock looked incredibly dissapointed for whatever reason.
"There's no hot girls!" He cried.
"Hot girls don't come to weddings, Brock. You have to go to a baby shower if you want hot girls."
I should've known. I'd seen the pictures of my mother's baby shower, and some of the women there looked less than… modest, to say the least. Dad wasn't there, though. It would've meant more to me had no one showed up other than my father for the shower. All I ever wanted growing up was a father. I remember, every Christmas I would ask Santa (whom I still believed in at the time) for a Dad. Anyone would do. I guess I was always just missing that father figure in my life. I've wisened up since, and now that I don't want a father, it seems that I'm going to get one.
The church door opened once again, and I looked back to see who would be gracing us with their presence. It happened to be none other than the one and only Gary Oak, a rival and on-again-off-again friend of mine. Seeing him seemed to rekindle feelings of friendship rather than feelings of competition, however, and I walked up to him to greet him.
"Hey, Gary!" I spoke to him. "Been a while since I've seen you around."
He turned around to look at me, and I noticed something different about him. Instead of wearing a purple t shirt like he usually did, he was wearing a black tuxedo with some sort of green flower attached to the pocket. He seemed far more gentleman-like than he had ever appeared before.
"Hi, Ash," He said to me with his signature raspy voice. "How are things going for you?"
"Decently, as of now." I remarked. "Pikachu is doing fine. I just left Kalos and heard about the wedding last minute."
He looked at me with hard eyes and smiled a big grin.
"You don't seem to excited about this wedding, Ash. In fact, it looks as though you're attending a funeral. Why might that be?"
"Because it is a funeral." I conceded. "It's my happiness's funeral."
"Really?" He remarked with a slightly smug grin on his face. "I would've thought that would have died long ago. Like, somewhere around the tenth time I beat you in a Pokemon battle, eh Ash?"
I frowned a bit and punched him in the arm. "I significantly doubt you have beaten me ten times, which is a number I doubt you can even count to, Gary. How about we talk about a more significant number"? I remarked, this time with my own grin. "One. One Orange Islands League Championship, which happens to be one more you have from any league."
Just as he was about to say something, we saw a girl in a green dress walk out of the church's bathroom. Her chestnut hair feel gently to her shoulders and her brown eyes pierced the air with a sense of confidence about them. I knew after one look that it could only be May Maple, my friend and travelling companion for two years of my journey. She looked stunning in her outfit, and it was like seeing her in a whole new light.
I had thought romantically about her once or twice on my journey, but those were just passing thoughts, memoirs of a simpler time. Seeing her again seemed to bring some of those thoughts back from the grave of my conscience. She had an air of maturity about her that no other woman I have seen since carried. My mind began to race. I knew I had to approach her, to say something. It would just be common courtesy, I told myself. I knew, however, that this was something more.
I looked over to my right, and, of course, Gary was staring at her too, with a slightly different look in his eyes. He seemed to lick his lips a little bit, like a predator on the prowl. It unnerved me a bit, seeing someone looking at a woman like that. At May like that.
He poked me on the shoulder, forcing me to look at him.
"Yo, Ash." He remarked. "Who is that hot babe over there? The one in the green dress?"
I rolled my eyes, feeling annoyed and feeling slightly jealous.
"That 'hot babe' over there is my friend, May. I don't think she's your type, Gary." I remarked with squinted eyes pointed in his general direction.
"What, the hot, deep, personal type? I think she looks plenty fine to me, Ashy boy." He said with an air of arrogance about him.
"No, Gary. I mean the arrogant, conceited type."
He stared daggers at me, and then said to me, "You know what, Ash? I'm going to go talk to Mary-"
"May." I corrected him.
"Whatever," He said. "Either way, by the end of the night, she'll be swooning for me. You can mark that with the official Gary Oak seal of approval."
"Whatever, Gary." I muttered and walked away as he approached her. I couldn't hear the conversation they were having, but it seemed to be going all too well for my tastes. However, just as I was about to approach her, the sound of a loud bang approached my ears, knocking me to the ground in surprise. I looked around, seeing everyone in the church having a similar reaction. It seemed as though the loud "bang" I heard was the unmistakable sound of a bomb.
After having the passion to write, and continue, what I consider to be my most promising work, I feel a need to edit, revise, and fix the story to something a bit more realistic. I hope you enjoy, and I hope this fanfiction lightens up your day as fanfictions such as countless others have done for myself.
Adaptation
The news doesn't surprise me anymore. Honestly. All you see everywhere is new disasters, every day, everywhere. It's almost overwhelming to see the tests that humanity faces every day. But somehow, we get through it all. We overcome it. The obstacles put in our way are just temporary, nothing permanent. And even when they do harm us, we grow. We change. We face the threat, and we adapt to it. I am Ash Ketchum, and this is how I adapted.
Chapter 1, Part 1: Delia's Wedding
As I crawled over the hot, hard rocks of the desert, I noticed that there was a complete lack of wildlife. Nothing at all. We seemed to be alone. I looked back at Brock, and his expression told the same story as mine. The small, yellow rodent Pokemon known as Pikachu was hopped up on my shoulder, sweating profusely. This was the only time since receiving him that I had considered putting him back in his Pokeball. His sweat had the sleeve of my black t-shirt drenched and smelling horribly. I couldn't wait until we reached our destination.
Brock and I had met back up after I completed my quest in the Kalos region. We'd been traveling for a good week now, mostly by tram and boat. This was one of the rare instances where we had to walk to get somewhere.
"Shouldn't this desert have run out about a mile ago?" Asked Brock, now questioning our map's accuracy. It was obviously not recent, with the date at the bottom saying "1985", but we figured it would be accurate enough to at least get where we were going.
"Must've had a lot of desertification in twenty-seven years," I muttered under my breath. Talking was wasting energy, which was what we needed most right now. "I knew we shouldn't have bought it from the shopkeeper. He was… odd." It was true, he was incredibly strange. He seemed very happy to get the map out of his own hands, even giving us a seventy-five percent discount. Buisness must've hit a low point if he was having sales that low.
"Look, let's just hope we have enough time to change into the wedding clothes." Brock said. Today was the day that my mother was getting married. She had met a man named Darren on a shopping trip while in Johto. They had been dating for almost a year, and Darren had proposed about six months ago. The wedding took a while to plan, especially since the wedding of Mom's dreams wasn't really financially feasable for our family. Darren mustered up the money, coming from a rich family, and paid for it all, much to Mom's delight.
I've never liked Darren. He is sarcastic and cruel, especially to me for whatever reason. Mom hates that we don't get along, but Darren is well-liked by her friends and the residents of Pallet Town, so I guess one opinion wasn't really enough to sway her. It wasn't the fact that she was marrying him that got to me; I was happy as could be for her, especially since she's never been married or even in a real relationship. It was the fact that Darren was going to be my legal father that I hated. I couldn't stand the man, let alone call him "Dad." As far as I'm concerned, I don't have a father. He left my mother when he found it she was pregnant. I don't ever want a father. It's just fine with me and Mom only.
It's not like I ever really see my mother anyway, what with me being gone all of the time. In the seven years that I've been training and battling with Pokemon now, very little of that time has been spent with my mother, and that's probably my deepest regret. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something happened to her while I was gone.
"Ash, look, there's the town!" Brock interrupted my thoughts, obviously exhausted. We made one last dash towards the city, while checking on the map for the church that Mom and Darren would be getting married at. Luckily, the church must've been constructed before the map was made, as we found it fairly quickly.
As I walked up to the rather small church, one thing was apparent; it hadn't been re-painted in years. Chips of brown stuck around the white paint, notifying to me that the church was built out of wood. Interesting that it had survived so long, as Celadon City, where the wedding was taking place, was prone to tornadoes and hurricanes. The city had a grassy theme to it, probably because of Erika, the local gym leader.
Erika was a strong trainer, one I respected more than most. She was a kind woman with a good heart, but a fierce mean streak during battles. Others have compared me to her at times, though I don't prefer grass Pokemon. They require a lot more care than other Pokemon, which is something a lot of people (like myself) simply don't have time for. Of course, being a gym leader, Erika probably has more time for those kind of things.
As I entered the church, I noticed that two tuxedos were thrown out onto a pew. I quickly realized that those were Brock and I's. Mom had prepared Brock with a dark black tux and brown tie. My tuxedo was the same color, only with a red tie. Personally, I thought they looked like a politician's daily wear and was very reluctant to put mine on. Brock seemed to like his, however, and rushed to the bathroom and threw it on immediately.
"Got to look nice," He told me. "You know, just in case Darren has any hot girl relatives, you know?" Typical of Brock. I laughed a bit, wondering wether or not it was a joke or if he was being completely serious. I assumed the worst, and went with the last option.
Mom hadn't invited my more recent traveling companions (mostly because she had never met them). Besides, they stayed in Unova, rather than come along with me to where ever I would go next. It didn't really bother me; they had their own dreams and ambitions, just like I did, but I found it sort of odd that Iris would miss my mother's wedding, invited or not. She was always into that kind of thing. I really don't know why. Weddings are some of the most boring things on earth.
After putting on my outfit, the wedding was about to start. After leaving the bathroom, I noticed that there were far more people here than I had originally thought there would be. A lot of Pallet Town citizens were there, to support Mom, and a few older friends of mine were there too. Mom had a tendency to become friends with my friends, so it didn't surprise me. I noticed that Dawn was sitting in the front row, squealing in delight. She waved at me, and I sheepishly waved back. I figured she would've came and adjusted my suit, her being the perfectionist she was. I walked away, and decided to take a seat in the second row next to Brock. Brock looked incredibly dissapointed for whatever reason.
"There's no hot girls!" He cried.
"Hot girls don't come to weddings, Brock. You have to go to a baby shower if you want hot girls."
I should've known. I'd seen the pictures of my mother's baby shower, and some of the women there looked less than… modest, to say the least. Dad wasn't there, though. It would've meant more to me had no one showed up other than my father for the shower. All I ever wanted growing up was a father. I remember, every Christmas I would ask Santa (whom I still believed in at the time) for a Dad. Anyone would do. I guess I was always just missing that father figure in my life. I've wisened up since, and now that I don't want a father, it seems that I'm going to get one.
The church door opened once again, and I looked back to see who would be gracing us with their presence. It happened to be none other than the one and only Gary Oak, a rival and on-again-off-again friend of mine. Seeing him seemed to rekindle feelings of friendship rather than feelings of competition, however, and I walked up to him to greet him.
"Hey, Gary!" I spoke to him. "Been a while since I've seen you around."
He turned around to look at me, and I noticed something different about him. Instead of wearing a purple t shirt like he usually did, he was wearing a black tuxedo with some sort of green flower attached to the pocket. He seemed far more gentleman-like than he had ever appeared before.
"Hi, Ash," He said to me with his signature raspy voice. "How are things going for you?"
"Decently, as of now." I remarked. "Pikachu is doing fine. I just left Kalos and heard about the wedding last minute."
He looked at me with hard eyes and smiled a big grin.
"You don't seem to excited about this wedding, Ash. In fact, it looks as though you're attending a funeral. Why might that be?"
"Because it is a funeral." I conceded. "It's my happiness's funeral."
"Really?" He remarked with a slightly smug grin on his face. "I would've thought that would have died long ago. Like, somewhere around the tenth time I beat you in a Pokemon battle, eh Ash?"
I frowned a bit and punched him in the arm. "I significantly doubt you have beaten me ten times, which is a number I doubt you can even count to, Gary. How about we talk about a more significant number"? I remarked, this time with my own grin. "One. One Orange Islands League Championship, which happens to be one more you have from any league."
Just as he was about to say something, we saw a girl in a green dress walk out of the church's bathroom. Her chestnut hair feel gently to her shoulders and her brown eyes pierced the air with a sense of confidence about them. I knew after one look that it could only be May Maple, my friend and travelling companion for two years of my journey. She looked stunning in her outfit, and it was like seeing her in a whole new light.
I had thought romantically about her once or twice on my journey, but those were just passing thoughts, memoirs of a simpler time. Seeing her again seemed to bring some of those thoughts back from the grave of my conscience. She had an air of maturity about her that no other woman I have seen since carried. My mind began to race. I knew I had to approach her, to say something. It would just be common courtesy, I told myself. I knew, however, that this was something more.
I looked over to my right, and, of course, Gary was staring at her too, with a slightly different look in his eyes. He seemed to lick his lips a little bit, like a predator on the prowl. It unnerved me a bit, seeing someone looking at a woman like that. At May like that.
He poked me on the shoulder, forcing me to look at him.
"Yo, Ash." He remarked. "Who is that hot babe over there? The one in the green dress?"
I rolled my eyes, feeling annoyed and feeling slightly jealous.
"That 'hot babe' over there is my friend, May. I don't think she's your type, Gary." I remarked with squinted eyes pointed in his general direction.
"What, the hot, deep, personal type? I think she looks plenty fine to me, Ashy boy." He said with an air of arrogance about him.
"No, Gary. I mean the arrogant, conceited type."
He stared daggers at me, and then said to me, "You know what, Ash? I'm going to go talk to Mary-"
"May." I corrected him.
"Whatever," He said. "Either way, by the end of the night, she'll be swooning for me. You can mark that with the official Gary Oak seal of approval."
"Whatever, Gary." I muttered and walked away as he approached her. I couldn't hear the conversation they were having, but it seemed to be going all too well for my tastes. However, just as I was about to approach her, the sound of a loud bang approached my ears, knocking me to the ground in surprise. I looked around, seeing everyone in the church having a similar reaction. It seemed as though the loud "bang" I heard was the unmistakable sound of a bomb.
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