Little Changes-Part One

Caden blearily opened his eyes for the third time. Through a broken window, sunlight blindly met his eyes before he blinks clearly. He stared straight at the ceiling on the bed he was placed in. He could tell he was back in the medical room...or had been moved to a different on. His body felt sore, unmoving.

"I feel like a mushed potato that has been mashed, preserved, then mashed again before putting me in an electronic mixing bowl and mixed for four hours long before scraping me out, flattened and bashed by a rolling pin...then mashed all over again," he groaned.

"You can say that again," a voice spoke next to him, one he had only heard twice, "But to me, it felt like being supercharged by tons of lightning strikes, given a dozen energy drinks, and being fed tons of sugar all at once. And once the crash comes in....Ughhh....I hate this feeling,"

"Nice to hear you again, Pikachu," Caden joked, then chuckled when he heard the hitch of the mouse's breath, "But then again, I might just be having auditory hallucinations and didn't actually hear you saying something about lightning strikes, energy drinks, and sugar,"

"You wound me, Cade," Pikachu sighed, but there wasn't anything negative behind those words.

Silence filled the air between the two as they lay on their respective medical beds.

The room they were in wasn't worst to wear to say. Just a bit run down with cracks and lack of windows and a door. The boy had no idea if he should consider this an improvement to what should have happened to the Pokémon Center, or he's just as worst as Ash Ketchum. After a short thought, he decided he did less damage than the owner of the body he was forcibly hosting.

The two of them heard footsteps coming and Cade forced himself to a sitting position just as Nurse Joy came around the corner and entered the doorless entrance followed by Officer Jenny.

The two sets of eyes stared at him and vice versa, looks of surprise meets the look of deer in headlights.

"I'm getting arrested, aren't I?" was the first thing Caden said out of the blue.

"Huh?!" the two women taken aback for a while before the blue hair officer shook it off and recomposed herself.

"Young man, you're not getting arrested," she cleared her throat and pulled out a pen and a notepad, "Rest assure, I am only here to ask some questions and I would like your full cooperation,"

Caden breathed out in relief. Inside his mind, he was mentally hitting his head on an imaginary wall for his stupidity. He'd just asked them if they were going to arrest a ten-year-old. Ten!

Although, the worst-case scenario would be having your Pokémon journey license revoked.

He looked at the officer with a neutral face, ignoring the inward self-scolding, and nodded.

"Alright then," Officer Jenny walked over and took a chair from within the room and sat next to the boy, clicking her pen and started the first question.

"First question: Do you recall what happened when Team Rocket were invading the Pokémon Center?"

It was there that Caden recalls all that had happened last night, with five percent of it involving him, Pikachu, and an indefinite amount of electricity that could bring Zekrom to shame.

'How am I supposed to explain that?!' he thought.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Samuel Oak was taking a long sip on his coffee mug as he sat in his working area nervously tapping his fingers on the desk. He had been looking through the data and conversed with all of the newly journeying trainers of yesterday, keeping him updated with their status. However, he finds one thing worrying. And no, it wasn't the bet he made with his grandson about Ash capturing a Pokémon on the first day.

It was the lack of call from Ash himself, the only one he hadn't talked with yet. Sure, Ash was known to be a very difficult boy to be reminded, tends to be forgetful, gets into trouble and all that. But he knows well enough that the Ketchum kid isn't entirely an airhead.

"Maybe I'm just worrying for nothing," he said to himself, straightening his back against his chair, his eyes staring up to the ceiling while looking through his memories, "That boy has a big future ahead after all,"

Indeed, the professor thought, Ash has a bright future ahead of him. He could still remember that boy with a Pikachu. The enthusiastic energy, his determination, and who can forget the boy's companions-

Samuel jolted forward so fast he almost spilled his coffee. He placed his empty hand on his head with a baffled look as he replayed the memory again. Confusion only heightens as he realized something was wrong. He may be old but he knew that memory like clear water.

"Ring-ring-ring! Ring-ring-ring! Phone call! Phone call!"

He was pulled from his trance when the monitor's telephone system starts beeping. He composed himself and pressed the button to receive it.

"Hello? This is Professor Oak speaking," he started.

"Hey, Professor, this is Ash,"

Relief and delight poured in the old man's heart and turned on the video call, "Ah! Ash, my boy! I didn't expected you to call,"

The face of a familiar spikey black haired boy came to view, who seemed confused, and he could have sworn he saw a glint of amusement in those squinting eyes, "Professor, have you grown a few new gray hairs at the back of your head?"

The old professor let out an indignant squawk and looked behind him to see the screen behind him and across his table of experimental (and sometimes cooking) equipment on with Ash in it before furiously typing on the keyboard with flaring ears, grumbling about the young Ketchum's remark. He forced himself to calm down as the camera was now in proper position.

"Ash, you know it's not nice to point at people," he lightly scolded the boy.

"But Mom said I should always tell the truth and it's wrong to lie to anyone," the boy replied with an oblivious face. Again, he could have sworn the boy's eyes were giving him a look of mischief beneath that face.

Samuel decided to brush it off and instead change the topic with a smile, "Anyways, I'm glad to see that you got to Viridian City safe and sound. I didn't expected it to take you nearly two days to get to the destination,"

The boy looked down from his screen and stayed silent. The professor frowned at this and realized something was off.

"My boy? Did something happened?" He softly asked.

"It's....more than a something, Professor," the boy said with a hint of sadness, "You see...."

Ash told him what had happened, sometimes pausing and hesitating before continuing on. All the time, the boy didn't look at him and kept his eyes on the floor. He could see the boy's shoulders shuddering every now and then.

When it was done, Samuel found himself in deep thought.

"Ash...look at me," he slowly said, not trying to sound discomforting to the kid.

The kid slowly did so, eyes looking anxious and a bit scared.

"Do you blame yourself for what happened?" Oak asked.

"On some of it," the boy said timidly, "I was too slow to react when Pikachu got hurt, and I felt like I wasn't strong enough when those Team Rocket tried to rob the Pokémon Center..."

Oak hummed at those words, "Would you like to drop out from your Pokémon journey-"

"ARCEUS, ABSOLUTELY NOT!"

*Crash!*

"Ah, my back..." Professor Oak rubbed his backbone when he fell off his chair after that unexpected outburst. He looked back to the screen as Ash's cheeks went pink in embarrassment before the boy looked away sheepishly and scratched his cheek.

"S-sorry, Professor," he said.

"I think I should be apologizing as well for making you that upset," Samuel said sitting back on his chair with a chuckle, then stopped with a curious look, "Ash, did you just said Arceus back there?"

The boy froze stiff before him, eyes widening in horror as if he made a mistake.

Fortunately for the kid, a saving grace rescued him on a nick of time.

"Pika!"

Samuel watched the boy turned his head towards someone off screen. Then a blur of yellow launched to view as a familiar Pikachu latched themselves to the child's jacket with a happy squeak. He observed as the boy smiled and hugged the mouse, the affection mirrored back with the Pikachu hugging and nuzzling Ash's face.

"I know, buddy. I missed you too," Ash said to Pikachu before the mouse scampered up to the boy's shoulder.

"Well, looks like you tamed the beast," Professor Oak joked, laughing a little.

What he didn't expected was Ash looking at him with a flat look which the Pikachu mimicked and responded, "Says the old timer with decades of experiences and knowledge about Pokémon but couldn't even handle a single Pikachu," the boy said to him in a monotone voice.

Samuel's felt his dignity had broken apart and was now sulking over the boy's words.

"When did you became such a cruel child, my boy,"

"Not sure, but I think Pikachu was rubbing off on me," Ash replied.

Said mouse tried and failed to keep his own laughter from coming out of his mouth.

Oak shook off the cloud of depression above his head and sighed, "Well, I'm just glad you and Pikachu got together well in a short time," he then looked at Ash with a serious tone, "One more thing,"

The professor watched the boy freeze up again, looking a bit nervous.

"Ash...did you caught any new Pokémon during your first day?" Oak asked.

The boy and the Pikachu blinked for a moment, then looked at each other, then back at Oak.

"Kind of?" Ash said with an unsure expression.

"Kind of?" the professor repeated in confusion.

"Technically, I haven't caught them yet, but they decided to join me," Ash said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly, "Believe it or not, they more of bumped into me than the other way around,"

The boy then pauses and leered at the old man, "Don't tell me you and Oak Tree made a bet, didn't you?"

Now, it was Samuel's turn to be nervous.

"W-well, yes,"

"And it resolves around me?"

"I-err...wait, when did you-"

"Professor Oak," Ash was now staring at him with a cold, calm glare that could make a Ghost-Type flinch, and made the professor shut up, "I just survived a near death situation, faced a large brute man with a gun, and here I find you and Gary treating my first day like this,"

Oak was starting to question when did the boy became so terrifying as the professor was now cowering behind the desk.

"T-to be fair, me and my grandson didn't know that that happened to you," Professor Oak stammered, "But please, don't take the betting seriously-"

"How much?" Ash asked without a beat, "How much did you two betted on me catching my first Pokémon while my life was in danger?"

"What's this about a bet?" a voice asked as a Nurse Joy walks over, carrying an open laptop.

On the screen was Delia Ketchum. And she doesn't look happy.

'Oh,' Samuel thought.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

"You are a menace!" Pikachu said as he hollered on the floor of the waiting room. Of course, no one else but the boy understood what the mouse was saying.

"Not gonna lie, that was quite brutal," Misty said, giggling to herself.

Caden blushed faintly in embarrassment as he, Waterflower, and Pikachu were lounging as they waited for three Pokémon in recovery. Itt has been a few minutes since he called Professor Oak. And Delia too.

Conveniently, there was a note with the older Ketchum's number on it. Quite a few notes actually. It seems Delia has prepared even back-up phone numbers in case Ash forgets.

Expectedly, Delia scolded "her boy" for not calling her yesterday, and even more so about what happened last night. Never underestimate Delia's fury, Caden would never forget that.

Fortunately, this didn't cost Ash's journey as she allowed him to continue. His heart was still coiled by thorns of guilt for making her worry and pretending to be his son spiritually.

"Ash, are you okay?"

Oh yeah, Caden managed to introduce Ash's name to Misty properly today. And then got a surprisingly and unnervingly calm talk from her about her bike.

Cade couldn't decide if that was better or worst than Banshee Misty...

Caden instantly ingrained to his mind to NEVER let Waterflower know about that nickname.

"Overwhelmed," he responded vocally with a maybe too high of a pitch in his voice, "I'm...still overwhelmed about last night,"

"Yeah, same here," Misty said, putting her arms behind her head and bringing her right leg on her left thigh as she contemplates, "I didn't expect something like this to come around until you fell above me out of nowhere,"

"That one was a mystery to me," Caden said, Pikachu climbing from his trousers to his shoulder as the boy frowned in confusion, "I don't even have any Psychic-Types on me and yet one randomly teleports me to you? It sounds too...too..."

"Nonsensical?" Misty offered.

"....Yeah," the boy said.

The three of them sat in silence for a short moment.

Then Cade pulled an Ash.

"Wait, what does nonsensical mean?"

Misty somehow slipped off her seat and fell down upside-down, feet on the air. Caden could even hear the sound effect for the face fault.

Pikachu doubled again and fell to the boy's lap.

Cade couldn't help it and laughed along.

Misty, back on her feet and one eye twitching, pulled out her mallet menacingly, "Ash..." she spoke slowly.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," Caden chuckled and waved her off, then looks to her, "On a lighter side, what are you planning from here once Staryu healed up?"

"Following you, what else?" she said to him like it was obvious, then scrunched her face, as she uses the hammer as a resting cane, "You know, for a ten-year-old, you sounded a lot older for your age. Kind of,"

Caden blinked, then looked down at Pikachu who was looking with the same question.

Surely, it wasn't that obvious....right?

"Mr. Ketchum, Miss Waterflower,"

The two looked up as Nurse Joy and her Chansey came over with a stroller. On it were a Pokéball, a Spearow with a wing-sling, and a Rattata.

"Here they are," Nurse Joy happily said, "Thank you for waiting,"

Caden nodded, looked to the two Pokémon before making eye contact with the Spearow.

The gaze lingered for a while before two sets of Pokéballs were set before him and the Rattata.

"I am not going to force the both of you," Cade spoke, "But if anyone of you, or both of you, wanted to join me, then you are welcome to,"

Rattata stared at the boy, then down at the Pokéball, then sneaked a glance at the Spearow.

Rattata had some...mixed feelings towards the bird. On one hand, if she joined and that bird joined, things will be difficult. If she joined and he didn't, good riddance. If she left and he joined, he might do something. If both of them left, then that's it.

On the other hand, however....

Rattata looked at the Spearow once again. The bird was, for the first time of their species, showing hesitation. She could see the conflict in those eyes. then it settled in a steeled decision. She knew what he would choose. And she would choose the same thing.

In sync, they tapped the white buttons.