Shadows of Unova Chapter 1 (Patreon)

Pocket Monster parody: Patreon Reward

Shadows of Unova

Team Plasma has a terrible plan going, they seem to be "liberating" pokemon by creating Shadow Pokemon. Their hearts have become closed, when they enter the RAGE state they may even attack their trainers. They get abandoned and the shadow mons fall into the hands of Team Plasma. Ash comes to Unova and learns of this problem. Thanks to his aura powers he can sense Shadow Mons, and with Juniper's help he gets a device that can catch Shadow Pokemon and he works to cleanse their aura of evil. Ash/Trainer/Mon

Chapter 1

Things were heating up in Unova, even Team Rocket in Kanto were taking notice. Team Plasma, on the surface they talk about Pokemon Liberation and act like a charity of sorts, but its all a cover for their illegal experiments.

Shadow Pokemon…

A phenomenon popping up in the Unova Region. Pokemon start acting strange, using “Shadow Moves” these moves seem to be more powerful than regular moves, so a lot of trainers weren’t complaining. That is until the Shadow Pokemon goes into RAGE mode, they stop listening to their trainers and even turn on them. They go wild, destroying their monster balls, and some trainers straight up abandon them.

Team Plasma has been using these Shadow Mon attacks and outbursts as signs that Pokemon are not meant to belong to humans! On the surface it seems innocent enough, but Giovanni knew better, it took a criminal mind to recognize a criminal mind.

He had solid intel that Team Plasma was collecting these shadow pokemon after they’ve been Liberated/Abandoned. This means they are behind the phenomenon and had a way of controlling the shadow pokemon. To what ends he didn’t know, but this gave vibes of it being a prototype, they were experimenting while increasing their numbers.

Giovanni wasn’t about to let another group become a threat to him, so he made moves to deal with Team Plasma.

-x-

The Shadow Pokemon phenomenon was a real problem, to the point Professor Juniper was working on a way of countering it. She managed to build a device that lets someone see a Shadow Pokemon’s aura, and even built a capture machine that overwrote a Pokemon’s capture. One issue she was facing is how to cure it.

She reached out to an old friend of hers and called in Professor Oak. He agreed and brought along a trainer he believed could help. Juniper could use all the help she could get. She’s even offered trainers a Unova starter if they’d be willing to help her. Only two trainers applied.

Her efforts with the Unova League were tied up in red tape, best she had was an unofficial pass with her Snag Machine. She needed more data on this phenomenon to get more support, with Team Plasma claiming this is a natural thing for Pokemon to go through she had to counter them, but without funding and backing she had limited resources to do research or build evidence. Plus without a Cure her efforts felt dead in the water.

The Unova League essentially just wanted to keep the world from mass panic so weren’t confirming or denying anything. The League Tournament was still on, Gyms and Battle Clubs were still operating normally. They had a big project going on, trying to normalize double battles and introduce triple battles, the league even raised the carry limit to 9.

Samuel Oak arrived with Ash Ketchum. He came with his partner Pikachu and his little buddy Gible. The little ground dragon wanted to continue traveling with Ash, since they had so little time in Sinnoh together. His other pokemon were left back at Oak’s lab, under Tracey’s care while Samuel was away.

They went to Juniper’s lab and learned of the situation. She was looking to enlist trainers to become Shadow Busters. Ash felt a little weird at the idea of catching other trainer’s pokemon. “It has to be done, people can’t see the shadow aura without tech, and if the Pokemon rages it’ll attack the trainer and anyone around it.” The snag machine only worked on Shadow Pokemon so it couldn’t be used to steal pokemon.

It made Ash feel a bit better at the idea. Juniper and Oak discussed a means of curing the Shadow Pokemon. From her data the monster’s heart has somehow become closed, unable to connect to it’s trainer or other pokemon. They stop gaining experience and can’t learn new moves. The shadow moves seem to be corrupted versions of moves they had.

The two other trainers who answered Juniper’s call had arrived.

Trip Shooty, a new trainer from Nuvema Town, he was eager to start his journey and one day face the champion Alder one day. He took on the job, but showed his arrogance by demanding things of Juniper. Trip gave her his camera to be modified with tech that’d allow him to see Shadow Aura.

The dirty blonde haired young man had a goal of documenting his entire journey and using his camera he could look for Shadow Pokemon without being suspicious. Juniper’s offer of paying for monster balls and storing the Shadow Pokemon he catches was a good deal.

Stephan Kenyan arrived and he was also a new trainer, but unlike Trip he had a pokemon already a Blitzle. He was given a scouter device to detect shadow aura. He was willing to help out, he had a friend who’s Shadow Pokemon went berserk and attacked him so he was willing to help.

They were both still aiming for the Unova League but were willing to help out. “I’ll help as well!” Ash raised his hand. The two trainers looked at him, and were shocked to see a Pikachu on his shoulder and a Gible at his side. Such pokemon were not common in Unova.

Trip took pictures of the three. “Hmm…”

“They look pretty strong!” Stephan said.

Ash smiled. “They are, Pikachu has been my partner for a long time, and Gible was my last catch in Sinnoh!” He had all sorts of Pokemon from Kanto to the Orange Islands, to Johto, to Hoenn, and recently Sinnoh.

“That seems pathetic, you’ve been in how many leagues and haven’t become a Champion Candidate?” Trip mocked.

Ash crossed his arms. “I’ll have you know I won the Orange Island league!”

Trip shook his head. “Never heard of it, what’s there to brag about if you won some tournament in some boonies!” His words annoyed Ash and things seemed about to escalate into a fight. “We don’t need some loser getting in our way.”

“Now, now!” Stephan tried to intervene. “We could use all the help we can get.”

Juniper stepped in. “That’s enough boys!” She brought out the starters, Snag Machines, and the monster balls. Trip got his Scope Camera, Stephan got his Scouter. “Ash I’ll prepare a scope for you soon.”

The starters were Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott. Ash scanned them with his Pokedex and learned about them. Juniper gave Trip and Stephan their own dexs. “You can choose a starter as well Ash, while looking for shadow pokemon you’ll also need to catch wild pokemon to build a strong team to face the challenges ahead and achieve your own goals as well.”

Ketchum thought they were all cool so had a hard time deciding. Trip took photos of each of them. Oshawott seemed eager to be chosen, but in the end Trip picked Snivy.

Stephan looked up the Pokedex, looking at the evolutions of the remaining starters. From that he picked Tepig, crushing Oshawott again.

“I’ve decided I want Oshawott!” Ash declared loudly.

“That’s the only one left, what a loser!” Trip mocked.

It didn’t matter he was Ash’s first pick regardless. Pikachu and Gible welcomed him to the family. Oshawott was happy to have a trainer and jumped into Ash’s arms. “Good pick!” Stephan said, giving him a thumbs up.

“Thanks Stefen!”

Stephan twitched. “It’s Stephan actually, but whatever…”

They were each given a Snag Machine. SNAG being an acronym, Shadow Neutralizing Attack Gauntlet!

Juniper brought the boys into her lab. “This is a wild Shadow Pokemon we managed to retrieve.” He was behind a blast shield, she pressed a button and the shield was raised.

Trip and Stephan used their gear. Through the Shadow Detector Lens, the two could see the aura of the pokemon. It was a twisted dark purple color. “Who’s that Pokemon?”

Ash brought out his Pokedex.

Dexter: Patrat the Scout Pokemon, a Normal Type. Extremely Cautious, in packs one of them will always be on lookout protecting their nest. Using food stored in cheek pouches, they can keep watch for days. They use their tails to communicate with others.

“So you learned about Patrat, good for you, doesn’t really help the cause without a scanner.” Trip said.

Ash looked at Patrat. “Are you talking about that weird purple aura?” Trip and Stephan were shocked, as was Juniper.

“Ash...you can see the Shadow Aura?” He nodded.

Samuel chuckled. “Ash learned to see and read aura in the Sinnoh region, seems to be quite useful here as well.”

They didn’t have time to discuss this as Patrat broke out of his cell, without the blast shield it was just too strong. “I’ll handle this, Snivy go!”

Trip battled the Shadow Patrat, but soon found the terror of Shadow Pokemon. “Use Vine Whip!”

It’s eyes glowed dark and Snivy flinched. “What?!”

“That was Shadow Glare, it can make a pokemon flinch and even leave them with paralysis.” Juniper explained.

Shadow Patrat launched a Shadow Blitz hitting Snivy hard. “No Snivy, fight back with Tackle!” Snivy was shaky, it took a lot of damage from the hit.

The next hit came with Shadow Fang. Snivy was knocked out. “What...just happened?”

Juniper stepped in. “Shadow Pokemon are very tough, it’s best to battle them with two Pokemon.”

Ash’s eyes widened. “Professor Juniper...it’s aura is changing it’s now all red!” He declared.

Shadow Patrat went after Trip and Snivy, going into full rage mode. “Pikachu use Thunderbolt, Gible use Dragon Pulse!” The two attacks hit, but didn’t do as much damage as he expected.

Juniper explained. “When in Rage Mode, a Shadow Pokemon’s offensive and defensive power double.” Attack and Special Attack, Defense and Special Defense, even Speed all gain a boost from Rage mode.

“Pikachu use Iron Tail, Gible use Rock Smash!” Pikachu’s Steel move was stopped by Shadow Glare, as the Electric type flinched. Gible surged forth and hit the Normal type hard. The shadow pokemon could stop one of them but not both of them.

Gible tried to do another Rock Smash but got hit by Shadow Fang, which caused the move to be Disabled. Pikachu came in with a Quick Attack and hit the Normal Type away. Stephan was impressed with Ash’s battling and Oshawott felt he gained a great trainer to help him grow.

Patrat hit Pikachu with a Shadow Blitz, and got slapped by Pikachu’s ability Static, causing him to be paralyzed. Ash activated the SNAG Machine, it infused a monster ball with energy and Ash unleashed the ball. It hit Patrat and sucked him up, after a few jiggles the catch was confirmed. “Alright!” The ball flew back to his hand and Ash could still see the dark aura radiating through the ball.

He called out his new Pokemon. “Ash wait!” Juniper said but it was too late. Patrat was still in RAGE mode, quickly turning on his trainer.

Ash showed no fear, and his aura flared. “Patrat!” He called out to the little guy and the aura helped pierce through the darkness and reach him. Patrat snapped back to his senses. His heart was still closed but it had opened up a little bit.

Juniper was stunned. “Amazing!”

Trip huffed. He got his pokemon treated and he left to get another Pokemon. Next time he wouldn’t lose to a Shadow Pokemon. Juniper had tech to bring a Pokemon out of Rage Mode, so if it happened they needed to be returned and sent to her for treatment.

“We’ll need more data to find a cure.” The more Shadow Pokemon they could find and she could study the faster they can figure out a solution.

“We’re on it!” Ash and Stephan said.

As much as Stephan wanted to have a battle with Ash, he wanted to train up his new Tepig first. Oak offered to remain and provide what help he could.

To be continued