The Journey Continues

Into the Pokéverse

"W-What? Where did he go?" Serena stared blankly at where the Wooloo once stood.

Arven rubbed his chin. It had all happened so quickly that no one was exactly sure what went down. "It was obviously something to do with the terastallisation."

"Ash..." Her voice trailed off. Walking to the spot where he had disappeared, she reached her hand out, hoping to feel some sort of lingering presence. There was nothing.

Gary spoke up. "There's only one other example of a Pokémon fading into thin air in that way that I can think of. It's more of a rumour, really. There have been witness testimonies, but no one has ever captured concrete proof of its existence. Its name is Missingno. According to people who've tried scanning it, it's a ???-type, but every Pokédex that's scanned it stopped working before it could be uploaded to the cloud."

"Are you saying Gloria's Wooloo terastallised into the ??? type somehow?" Arven asked.

Serena's eyes widened. "Oh Arceus..." Realisation hit her that her friend was gone too. She broke down. "I was so close..," she cried, "of course Ash would run in to save someone he just met..."

"That is quite the Ashy-boy thing to do..." Gary remarked.

"Pika-pi..." Pikachu added. His trainer had run into the portal without him.

Arven stood solemnly as Gary crouched down to mourn beside Serena, who was knelt down, hands on her face, sobbing. But while the young Oak mourned the thought that this may be the last time he saw his best friend, his mind lingered on. Things don't just disappear. They had to have gone somewhere.

...

Ash woke up. Slowly gaining bearing of his surroundings, he realised he was laid down on some grass. He groggily looked over to his right and found Gloria laying there too, still unconscious, with her arms wrapped around her Wooloo. He checked up on her, measuring her pulse. Her heart was still beating. For all intents and purposes, it did appear as though they were still alive.

Gloria's eyes fluttered open. She felt the wool of her Pokémon in her arms, and instantly felt relieved. Her view wondered and spotted Ash standing next to her. "Where.. are we?" She asked.

"I'm not sure," Ash admitted. "Wooloo started disappearing, and you disappeared alongside her. I followed you."

Gloria was taken aback. "Ya idiot, why would yer do that?"

Ash raised an eyebrow, "To make sure you're alright."

"H-huh?" She was a bit bamboozled. "But now ye're stuck 'ere with me. We literally just met."

He shrugged. "It's the right thing to do in that situation."

Gloria sighed. "Well, ye're here now. What do we do then?"

Ash looked around the area, and noticed they were in a forest cleaning. He examined their surroundings closer, taking note of the type of tree and their positions. "I think I recognise this forest." He put his hand to one tree which jutted into the clearing slightly, then took a few steps back, looking towards its base. Searching the depths of his memory, he found a scene from his childhood that matched this exact location - that of when he met Serena. "We're in Viridian Forest."

"Where the feck is Viridian Forest?" Gloria asked.

He looked back towards her. "We're in Kanto, near my hometown." He pointed to his right, "If we go this way, we'll make it back to Professor Oak's lab."

"So did we just teleport half way across the world?" She questioned.

"I guess so. Let's go."

Eventually, they were able to escape the forest, and found themselves on Professor Oak's ranch. Immediately, they were noticed by Ash's Swellow, who swooped in from above to welcome them. "Woah, hey buddy!" He greeted his Hoenn Pokémon. Soon, others sensed the commotion, and a small crowd of Pokémon gathered around the two. "Gloria, these are all my Pokémon! There's Krookodile, Bayleef, Hawlucha, Tauros, Tauros, Tauros..." He went on to introduce everyone to his new acquaintance.