Chapter Text
"Hey guys!" Ash waved as he walked into the classroom, Pikachu lazily perched on his shoulder. Kiawe nodded a greeting, walking in as he returns his charizard and realeases turtonator to join the other pokemon playing.
Togedemaru, chirping with delight, immediately began rolling toward Pikachu. The electric mouse squeaked back and jumped down to greet the other Pokémon. The rest of the class chorused an ‘Alola!’ before Rotom-dex zipped in, buzzing a greeting as well.
“What do you think we're going to do today?" Lana asked, waiting for the professor to come in and start class.
“Pop!” Popplio squealed from its spot in Lana's arms, blowing a small bubble.
"Bzzt! Well, according to my calculations–!" Rotom started to answer before Kiawe cut him off.
"Yesterday the professor said we were going to talk about Pokémon from the Kalos region," Kiawe answered and Rotom-dex did the closest thing it could to a pout.
"Cool!” Ash smiled, letting his Pokémon out of their Poké Balls, “The Kalos region had loads of cool Pokémon!" Appearing in a flash of light, Lycanroc bounded over to its owner, tail wagging and eyes begging for pets, while litten pranced over at a much more self-satisfied pace.
"You say that about every region you go to, Ash," Mallow sweat-dropped, the others sharing her sentiment.
“Stee,” Steenee nodded sagely, agreeing with its trainer.
"Well, that’s because it's true!" Ash puffed out his chest, turning his attention to litten who was weaving between his legs, waiting to be picked up.
"Yup, okay," Kiawe scoffed slightly, unimpressed. Ash cocked his head as Kiawe walked off to his desk. He opened his mouth, about to question why Kiawe sounded so disbelieving when Professor Kukui entered the classroom, shooing Ash away to his own desk while he took his place at the front of the classroom.
"Alola, class!”
“Alola, professor!”
Kukui smiled, “Today we’re going to go over the Kalos region. Now, does anyone know what makes the Kalos region so spec–”
He was cut off by a knock on the door. The professor tentatively called out, “Come in?”
The door swung open, revealing Principal Oak struggling with a large box he was carrying.
"Alola, everyone! Sorry for interrupting class, but my cousin sent me this for the class to watch!" The principal quickly dropped the box off on Professor Kukui’s desk before dashing back out the door.
"Have fun!" Is all he said before shutting the door, leaving no room for any questions.
"Uh-’ well, okay,” the confused professor absentmindedly scratched the back of his head, “I guess instead we’ll watch what Professor Oak has sent us.”
“That was weird. What do you think that was all about?” Mallow leaned over to Lana as Professor Kukui inspected the box. Lana shrugged.
“Who knows? I can never tell what the principal is thinking.”
“I hope they’re videos about how Kalos’ electrical systems are so efficient! I’d love to learn about Lumiose Tower!” Sophocles interjected, ecstatic at the prospect of learning about such a famous electric-type gym.
Professor Kukui shook his head fondly, opening up the first flap of the box as–
Everything went white…
A blinding light filled the room, so bright that everyone in the room had to close their eyes or look away, gasps of shock echoing around the room…
When the last of the light finally dimmed away, the trainers and their Pokémon realized they were no longer in the classroom.
In fact, they may not have even been in Alola anymore.
Instead, they found themselves in a completely unfamiliar room, resembling a giant theater room with one massive couch facing a TV, the box from before sitting innocently in front of it.
The class was on high alert, none of them quite sure how they got there. Lycanroc and litten yipped and mewed, seemingly panicked. Lillie turned to Ash, hoping to ask him to quell his distressed Pokémon, but alarmingly she found nothing but open air where the trainer had been.
"Ash!?" Lillie exclaimed, scanning the room for her missing friend. It seemed wherever they had traveled, Lycanroc, litten and Rowlet had managed to come with them, but Ash and Pikachu had not.
The class quickly dissolved into panic.
Kiawe let Turtonator out of its Poké Ball, ready to take on any foreign threats, however, Turtonator was much too big to stand comfortably in the room, so Kiawe quickly called it back. Mallow, Lana, and Lillie clung onto each other. Snowy’s temperature dropped, affected by the stressful situation, and she readied a Powder Snow, in case it needed to defend Lillie or the others. Popplio did the same for Lana, ready to protect her even through its fear. Steenee stood by Mallow, confused but supporting its trainer with its presence. Togedemaru spun around Sophocles’ feet, frightened and worried.
Professor Kukui frantically tried to calm the group of teens and Pokémon. He reached for Rowlet, who was fluttering aimlessly and scattering feathers across the floor. The grass-type continued blindly babbling until it eventually slammed face first into the professor, who decided he was done handling things peacefully.
"EVERYONE, STOP!" The Professor shouted as he tucked a still squabbling Rowlet under his arm, "I know this is scary and new and just an altogether weird situation, but we all need to calm down."
After a few more reassuring words from their teacher, the class calmed, but didn’t quite lose their edge.
"We need to figure out where we are,” Professor Kukui mumbled to himself, “but the box is the only other thing that came with us, so maybe what is inside could give us a clue," he waited for any objections, and upon receiving none he slowly, slowly kneeled down to open the mystery box fully.
Kiawe and Lana crept forward, curious but cautious, as the rest of the class stayed farther away. When the professor opened the box he saw a bunch of… DVD covers?
Sure enough, there were 23 DVD cases, each numbered and named. The familiar face on each of the covers made him double-take, but he put it aside for the moment. He picked the first one up and opened the case. In it were 52 disks each named and numbered as well.
"So this must be what Professor Oak wanted us to watch..." the professor mumbled, his voice echoing in the silence of the auditorium.
The moment of relative peace was shattered by a loud crash followed by pained groan.
"Ash, are you okay!?" a strange voice asked, filled with worry.
“Pikapi!”
That voice was more familiar, and it prompted Pokémon and person alike to spin around to face the ruckus.
There stood Ash, unharmed but confused. Pikachu stood by his feet, hackles raised and electricity sparking from its cheek pouches, but the fight all but faded from its eyes when it saw the others in the room.
"ASH?!" the group shouted as Ash's Pokémon began to swarm him.
"Hey guys?" Ash waved, still visibly confused, before tending to the Pokémon who were trying to get as close as possible to him.
Rotom-dex, having recovered from the shock of the flash of light, flittered around Ash, taking data, "Bzzt, Ash!” it cried, “In the last ten minutes you have miraculously grown two inches, how is this even possible!?"
"Uh, yeah. This is Rotom,” said Pokédex approached the strange boy to shake his hand, “but I don't know how we're here though, we were just in Kanto." Ash mumbled, shocking the group.
"Ash, what do you mean, you were just in class with us!" Mallow gaped at Ash, confusion swimming in her eyes.
"No…" Ash said slowly, "I haven't been in Alola in,” he took a moment to count something on his fingers, “nearly five months?"
That went over the group like a bucket of ice water had been dumped on them.
" What is happening?" Kiawe bursts out, done with the confusion, "Because you were clearly in class just a few minutes ago, but apparently you haven't been in Alola for half a year and–!” the fire-type specialist pointed an accusing finger at the new face in the room, “who is that? "
The boy stiffened, intimidated by the ferocity behind the question, but Ash just looked more confused, "Wait-wait-wait, what!? What’s the date?" he questioned, and Rotom-dex was proud to answer.
"Bzzt, it’s 15/10/2864!"
"Okay, so it’s time travel again… that might explain some stuff…" Ash brought his hand up to his chin in thought, while the boy next to him mouthed ‘again?’, "We’re from about a year and a half in the future, so that explains why litten hasn’t evolved yet and why I grew in ten minutes."
The group, while skeptical with such a vague explanation, nodded slowly.
"Even if we did time travel, it doesn't explain how we got here," Kiawe crossed his arms, continuing to glare at Goh distrustfully.
"Uh, well, I may have an answer for that," the professor chimed in from behind the group. He pulled out a piece of paper from the box and began tentatively reading.
"I have decided to have Ash's new friends watch his past travels. While you are here in this little pocket dimension, food will appear during the scheduled breaks every five episodes. Time will not continue outside while you are in this pocket dimension. Have fun! -Professor Oak." Kukui read the letter, glaring slightly.
While the students relaxed, realizing they weren’t in direct danger, Ash stiffened. Goh, noticing his friends distress, grabbed Ash's hand, eyes questioning ‘you okay?’ Ash relaxed slightly with Goh’s hand intertwined with his and nodded, shooting him a small smile.
Goh felt his cheeks heat up slightly but, oblivious as always, Ash didn’t seem to notice.
"Oh cool! We get to see Ash's journey!" Sophocles exclaimed, excitement painting his features.
"Regardless, it doesn’t seem like we get much of a choice Once we're here, it says we can't leave until we're finished, apparently," Kukui took his glasses off and ran a hand down his face, exasperated. He better be getting a raise.
"Well, if we're going to be here I want to know who he is," Kiawe stared at the boy holding Ash's hand, leveling him with a glare that rivaled the heat of a thousand Wela volcanoes.
"Oh! This is Goh, my partner!" Ash introduced. Goh’s face went red as just Pikachu snickered at the two.
"Partner?!" The teens gasped in bewilderment. Kukui buried his head in his hands.
"Yeah..?" Ash said, surprised by the shock of the group.
"So Ash can notice when people like him!" Lana snickered. Ash’s eyes went wide.
"What?" he asked, caught off guard.
"Well, I mean, you're dating, right?" Mallow asked, noting the alarming shade of red the boy was turning, but Ash shook his head, “No? We're friends; we're research partners!" Ash excitedly explained. The group deflated, sweat-dropping.
"You'll get there one day, Ash," The group murmured to no one in particular.
"Anyway! Goh, this is my Alolan family!" Ash tugged Goh closer to the group. The boy nervously tried to pull himself together.
"Alola!" The group greeted warmly, and Goh smiled.
"I'm Mallow!" Mallow, ever the friendly one, held out her hand for Goh to shake.
"Lana," the blue-haired girl stated simply, her eyes dancing with amusement.
"Hello! My name is Lillie! It’s very nice to meet you," Lillie smiled warmly at Goh. Snowy yipped a short ‘vul!’ in greeting.
"I'm Sophocles," the shortest boy grinned at Goh, equally as amused as Lana.
Professor Kukui, having abandoned his crisis, approached the group, "I’m Professor Kukui. Nice to meet you!"
"Kiawe,'' the taller boy grunted, still glaring at Goh. The researcher sweat dropped, growing more and more uncomfortable under Kiawe’s gaze.
"Goh! You need to meet my Alolan Pokémon!" Ash said, pulling Goh to meet the now-settled Pokémon.
Goh, with wonder in his eyes, pulled out his Rotom-phone to scan the new Pokémon.
"This is litten," Ash scratched litten behind the ear before moving to pat a very round bird on its head, "this one’s Rowlet, and–!"
Goh struggled to scan every new Pokémon and keep up with his friend as he began giving an orange Lycanroc belly rubs.
"And this is Lycanroc!" Ash introduced. Goh squinted at his Pokédex, the machine only showing him two forms that this Lycanroc definitely wasn’t.
The professor picked up on his confusion and explained, "This is a new evolution of Rockruff that had previously gone undiscovered Well, undiscovered until Ash."
The professor grinned and ruffled Ash's hair, making him laugh. Fondness filled Kukui’s features.
"Woah..." Goh gawked, stars in his eyes as he looked between all of Ash's Pokémon.
"Pika-pi!" Pikachu shouted, giving Ash a flat look. He returned the expression.
"Goh already knows you, Pikachu." Ash playfully rolled his eyes at his Pokémon’s antics. Pikachu snickered.
"Shouldn't we start watching?" Kiawe crossed his arms, pointedly not looking at Ash or Goh.
"I guess we should. We’ll never get out of here if we don’t start. Let's all get comfortable first." Professor Kukui gave Kiawe a sad smile, understanding the younger one’s mood.
The group of teens headed over to the couch, where they started to settle in. Goh sat himself next to Ash, right at the end of the couch. Kiawe sat on Ash’s other side, glaring at nothing in particular. Next to Kiawe, Lillie placed a hand on her friend's arm, a knowing smile on her face. Mallow sat next to Lillie, intertwining their arms and letting Lana lean on her shoulder.
Sophocles settled next to Lana, leaving Professor Kukui the last spot, right at the end of the couch.
Rowlet nestled in Ash's backpack, sat by its trainer’s feet, cooing contentedly while litten curled between Ash and Kiawe (causing his glare to harden yet again) and Lycanroc laid itself right across t Ash's feet.
Pikachu, as always, was sitting on Ash's lap and Rotom-dex was hovered around the group absentmindedly, yet eager to collect more data.
Professor Kukui slotted the first DVD into the console beneath the TV and went to sit with his students.
The screen lit up, and the journey began.