Fanfic / Pokémon: The Great Adventure

Shipwreck in a sea of faces
There's a dreamy world out there.
Dear friends in higher places,
Carry me away from here.
Travel light, let the sun eclipse you,
For your flight is about to leave.
There's more in this great adventure
Than you ever believe …

To the sky, Owl City

A Pokémon: The Series Alternatve Universe in which a mysterious man washes in Pallet Town and becomes a father substitute/mentor to Ash. Written by Elia 41. Currently has two sequel, Pokémon: Mystery of the seas, and Pokémon: Legends of Johto.

"It all started by a rainy evening ..." A classical beginning fit for a fairy tale. This Fan Fiction isn't a fairy tale. It is a tale about a boy growing and traveling across Kanto all the while making friends and enemies. The author first intended it to be a twist on the rather classical 'Ash orphaned and adopted by a Legendary' thing, even mentioning two works that served as inspiration to her, and later turned it into a full rewrite of the first Pokémon season.

The fic can be read here.

This fic contains the following Tropes:

• Action Mom: Delia, who was a Rocket scientist and descends from Sir Aaron.
• Affably Evil: Team Rocket is only evil because they are criminals. That apart, they are pretty nice guys, especially around Ash.
• Apparently Human Merfolk: The Naiads, a race of Ancients that look human except for their blue hairs and gills on their neck. They also have a second protective lid.
• Artifact of Doom: The Tide Pendant, which ends up in Misty's ownership. It holds the power of a god and was said to have sunk an archipelago the size of the Orange Islands in a single wave. Also, as Misty notes, wanting to abuse its power with every use is a constant threat.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Ranking in Ash's crew is determined by one's strength and loyalty to him. So, while Fearow was incredibly strong, his hatred for Ash placed him at the bottom. Charizard and Clefable, however, are both powerful enough to stand against Legendaries and will die for their Trainer, hence the reason they co-lead the group while Ash is away.
• Author Appeal: The author really likes music. Nearly every chapter starts with a song and all battles have a theme. Her preferences are mainly Toto, Phil Collins and various James Bond themes for the songs. The battle themes usually come from Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy, but there's also some Pokémon here and there...
• Badass Adorable: Axew, once he got his first attack. Butterfree's pink son, Hard Candy, also counts.
• Badass Crew: The group and their teams. Silver is an old and powerful Aura Guardian with Elemental Aura, Ash is also an Aura Guardian and kicks ass more than the other way around, Misty is a Badass Normal who recently received the Tide Pendant (which also doubles as a Weapon of Mass Destruction), Brock is one of the Eight Challenges and even Tracey can hold his own. By "Legends of Johto", Gary has joined as the resident Psychic.
• Badass Family: Ash's family is this. On his father's side, the whole family leads one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Kanto. On his mother side, the entire bloodline can be traced back to Sir Aaron, the legendary Aura Guardian of Rota whose mother was an Ancient. Both lines were known for their powerful affinity with Aura.
• Bilingual Bonus: Odin and Blitz's names. In French, Articuno's name is ArticOdin and Blitz means Lightning in German.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Ash's attempt to catch Mewtwo with the Master Ball ended with him and Clefable on their butt.
• Cannot Tell a Lie: Reshiram, the Dragon of Truth, is literally incappable of lying, as per his nature. Everything he says is taken as face value by the Council.
• City in a Bottle: Averted with the Eight Underwater Cities. They are domed underwater cities of Ancients, but all of them remain aware of the outside world and help the victims of shipwrecks, though they give them a memory-altering serum once they leave to keep their existence hidden. Also, some survivors have the option to stay and become part of the population, such as the mother of New Naibel's Nurse Joy.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Thunder Stone Lt. Surge gave to Ash after their Gym Battle is later used to evolve Pikachutwo into Raichu, solving his Clone Angst.
• Coming of Age Story: The plot behind the entire series. This is basically Ash growing up under the tutelage of a mysterious man, facing various trials and the reality of life to become stronger as a Trainer and later, an Aura Guardian.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: A good deal of Silver's fight, and later Ash's once he starts getting stronger. The fight against Giovanni is a subversion: Ash won 6-0, but Giovanni proved to be more than a match.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: While not exactly a good reason, Ash's supposed father, Bruno, did have a reason why he went on a journey and never came back: he found out that Ash is actually the son of his brother, Giovanni.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Mightyena, who is the Team Mom despite being a Dark-type; Silver, who wears black but is Ash's Parental Substitute; Thanata, who is a Dark Aura Master and an old friend of his and Stellan, who was Silver's very own mentor.
• Death of the Old Gods: The Ean gods weren't exactly old, but they all died sealing the rifts threatening reality, leaving the Eans/Ancients godless and without any divine support. It is later revealed that, aside from the elemental gods who were Killed Off for Real during the ean war, the other five are slowly coming back to life. Nathea was the first to return and Troban is also living in the Reverse World alongside Giratina, though he is an amnesiac teenager.
• Despair Speech: Gary gives one to Ash during their fight after the boy sees through his masquerade. Unstoppable Rage ensues.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The battle against the Legendary Birds at Sylph Co Building. Also, Silver vs. Mewtwo.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In the fifth chapter of Mysteries of the sea, Silver reveals a darker side of the Pokémon World to the heroes: the fact that poachers and hunters kill some Pokémon for their jewels and hides. The author makes a parallel with real-life practice of hunting animals for their fur and ivory.
• Eating the Eye Candy: when Melody meets up with a bare-chested Ash on his way to the showers, she just can't help commenting him on his athletic body... and touch both the six-pack on his stomach and those muscular arms of his.
• Enemy Civil War: for a given value of "enemy", Giovanni's Rocket faction is only "evil" because they're criminals. However, the aptly-named Rocket Rebels are evil and seceded because they thought Giovanni wasn't evil enough. It led to a merciless feud between the two that went as far as bombing the Viridian Gym. Fortunately, Ash's Aura Powers awakened ...
• Epic Fail: Literally. Ash may have failed to catch Mewtwo with the Master Ball, but it was still pretty gutsy of him to use Clefable as a decoy to launch himself the ball point-blank. Failed? Sure. Kudos for trying? You bet!
• Fiction 500: just where does Silver's money come from?
• Foreshadowing:
  • During his training with Lorelei, Ash stumbles across a book called Mysteries of the sea. When asked what his favorite part, Ash answers with the theory regarding Shamouti Islands being the "Cradle of Life". Fast forward to the sequel, which happens in the Orange Islands. What is it called? Pokémon: Mysteries of the sea.
  • As early as the second chapter, we're clued in that Ash has Aura powers. First, his reflexes become inexplicably sharper when in danger, but when the Spearow flock attacks and Ash stands between them and Pikachu, he can feel a strange energy welling in him as his hands glow blue. Silver even wonders about it afterwards. Had Pikachu not interfered, it is very likely that Ash's powers might have awakened right then.
  • The same way, there are clues regarding Ash's nature as the Chosen with a Golden Heart in the very first story (Ash isn't acknowledged as such before Mysteries of the Seas). First, he witnesses Ho-Oh on his first day as a Trainer, potentially because Ho-Oh had come checking on his Chosen. Then there is the way he gets Fearrow to become loyal - Fearrow is even convinced he's the Golden Heart afterwards, much to the other Pokémon's disbelief. Finally, there is his Whoopi Epiphany Speech during the First Movie, which is basically his powers as the Golden Heart manifesting without the Heart Flute.
• Gargle Blaster: Delia made one for her restaurant that looks exactly like water, which is what Ash mistook it for. The first thing he suggested after he woke up was that she serves it in a smaller glass and call it Hydro Pump. It is made of one shot of gin, vodka, white rum, cointreau, triple sec and lemonade. Ash complained he felt like a Gyarados was firing Hyper Beam in his head.
• A God Am I: An interesting variant with Mewtwo. Legendary Pokémon are all considered natural gods, with only their level differing, but along with that, all of them 'stand' for something such as truth and ideals, sea, land and sky, victory, protection, arts and so forth. Mewtwo was a god (Legendary) since his birth. It is only after being sternly scolded by the Council and ordered to atone that he received an attribution. Now Mewtwo is the god of artificial Pokémon.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Thanks to the Ancients breeding with the inhabitants of the Pokémon world, several of them, a Nurse Joy included, can be seen in New Naibel. As a subversion, the Ancients counted several races among which were the humans, so unions between humans from Eä (the Ancient world) and humans from the Pokémon world don't count.
• Heel–Face Turn: After the incident with James's parents, both the Rocket Trio and Ash's group become fast friends. Giovanni even orders the trio to keep an eye on his son.
• Jerkass Gods: As far as Silver is concerned, the Legendary Council is this to him as he more or less sees himself as their collective slave. The truth is that some Legendaries, like Darkrai and Lugia, do feel sorry for him and wants to alleviate his burden. Dialga and Palkia, however, hate him.
• Lampshade Hanging: During Axew's first training session, Pikachu explains the kid what STAB is. Axew is quick to note how it sounds exactly like 'to stab', and Onix to wonder if the humans had Fun with Acronyms on this one.
• Little Bit Beastly: Some Ancient species like the Felians and Tree-walkers have animalistic traits. The Nurse Joy of New Naibel is a tree-walker hybrid, which can be told from her tail and eyes.
• Mineral MacGuffin: the Tide Pendant is a big translucent turquoise holding the power of a dead god.
• Music Soothes the Savage Beast: Lugia's Song makes every Pokémon stop whatever they're doing at the moment to listen to you. They may heed your words or not, but apart from cases of deep-seated blood frenzy, a Pokémon hearing you sing Lugia's Song will always stop and listen. Ash's version is closer to the trope due to him being The Empath specializing in taming wild Pokémon.
• Olympus Mons: Silver has an Articuno called Odin and Blaine has an Entei born after Cinnabar's volcano errupted. Mewtwo and the Legendary Birds caught by the Rocket Rebels also come to mind.
• Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: During the Council gathering, one Legendary mentions this is what happened to mankind thanks to science and progress, something they blame the Ancients for. Another notes that the Legendaries' influence can still be felt and active and some scientists actually recognize the Legendaries play a role as gods keeping the world intact.
• Parental Abandonment: Simon's mom is dead and Ash's father never returned. Ash's father is later revealed to be Giovanni, who leads Team Rocket
• Precursors: The Ancients, a civilization of very advanced humanoid aliens who migrated to this world three thousand years before the story and set the bases of the modern world. By the time of the story, everyone thinks they're gone. They introduced Aura to the world and Silver is one of them, just like Sir Aaron's mother.

• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Pikachu delivers an epic one to Charizard after his rampage sends Ash in a coma. Silver also gives one to Mewtwo after he sends Ash to the roof. Then there are the two Scyther and Silver give to Ash to make him snap out of his pacifism.
• Serious Business: Pokémon have a set of unwritten rules such as never revealing your True Name to someone who isn't your Trainer, never hurting your Trainer, listening to someone singing Lugia's Song or never breaking a promise made on Reshiram, and are dead-serious into respecting them. Breaking them is severely punished, with death in the case of Reshiram's promise or the most extreme cases of hurting your Trainer.
• Shout-Out: One chapter describes the crew going to watch a movie. The movie is based on Legend Of The Guardians The Owls Of Ga Hoole.

• Stepford Smiler: Gary is revealed to be a Type A. On the outside, he is an arrogant jerkass brat who thinks he's the best and everyone owes him 'cause he's the son of Professor Oak. On the inside, he is madly jealous of Ash's bonds with Silver, his friends and his Pokémon and can't understand how a little nobody like the kid became stronger than he is. When Ash calls him out on it, he breaks into the Despair Speech above and snaps. Hard.

• Technician vs. Performer: Clefable and Hitmontop. Clefable is a huge Action Girl who loves learning new punching attachs and showing them off while Hitmontop has weak but very precise attacks and, appropriately enough, the Technician ability to power those moves.
• Training from Hell: Ash's four weeks of training with the Elite Four. With Bruno: heavy physical training that ended with him and his team facing a giant Steelix. With Lorelei: hours and hours of reading books with practice in the afternoon, something Ash isn't used to. With Agatha: dropped in a haunted and very hostile powerplant to climb his way up the food chain and optionally defeat a giant Haunter. With Lance: a little of everything and especially amplifying Ash's empathic skills. Note that Lance also put the kid against his Gyarados, and he had troubles even with the beast holding off...
• Ultimate Blacksmith: The Legendary Blacksmith is an Ancient of incredible powers who forged many artifacts that appeared in various legends over the ages. His main creations, however, are the World Disk he offered to the Legendary Council as a peace offering from his people and Heart and Soul Flutes, properties of the Chosen with a Golden Heart and the Chosen with a Silver Soul. Ash currently owns the Heart Flute.
• Underwater City: New Naibel, as well as the other seven Underwater Cities built by the Ancients in the Orange Islands. Except for the main buildings, which are made in more solid material, it is also a Domed Hometown.
• Weapon of Mass Destruction: The main use of the Tide Pendant. The Ancients destroyed one of their countries in a single attack with it. Kinda normal for a gem hosting the powers of a god...
• What the Hell, Hero?: Pikachu's speech to Charizard also had shades of this, and it was highly deserved as the dragon had broken a major rule among caught Pokémon: never hurt his Trainer.
• Whoopi Epiphany Speech: Ash delivers an absolutely beautiful one during the fight between cloned Pokémon and their originals that doubles with Talking the Monster to Death. And it works!!! The best part? The boy isn't speaking, just playing Lugia's song with a flute — t's his heart that's doing the talking.

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