Pallet Chapter: Anabel

**"Pallet Chapter: Anabel"** is the thirty-ninth (forty-first in Archive of Our Own and Royal Road) chapter of *Pokémon Reset Bloodlines.* As Ash continues his preparation for the final gym match in Viridian City, he comes across a trainer that makes him rethink his previous thoughts about Red, and make a decision to help Boldore. Meanwhile, Anabel's attraction for Ash continues to grow, and she begins to consider more the possibility of a relationship with him without leaving the others out of it, as well as trying to find a goal for herself to do in the future.

## Plot

In Celadon City, Paul has decided to treat himself to a fancy steak meal, as reward for winning his eighth Kanto gym badge. He's rather pleased with his efforts, especially since Erika wasn't an easy opponent. He thinks about Ash and Red; recalling that they haven't been seen for a while, he assumes they probably found out what they lacked and decided to fix that up before trying to get their final gym badges. He's hoping to fight either of them in the Indigo League, even more than the likes of Koga, who's a favorite to win this year. On the other hand, he still considers Gary a small fry who isn't worth his time. With the League three months away, he hopes to find an area with magnetic fields to add another asset to his team. Like him, many others are also preparing for the upcoming league, one way or another.

Alex Davis is having a sparring match against Otoshi, with the former's Alakazam clashing against the latter's Doduo.

Midori's friends have forced him to pose in his boxers for Monet to paint him, after they noticed he was feeling physically inadequate during their beach trip, and later when they challenged the Matcha Gym. While he appreciates their thoughts, he's extremely embarrassed and suspects they just want to keep him that way for a while, knowing that they're all attracted to him and he himself finding them attractive. Suddenly Mikey shows up and Rana decides to challenge him to a battle.

Ritchie is having a match of his own in a Battle Club, with his Pikachu, Sparky, fighting against Duplica's Ditto in an evenly matched ground, albeit he eventually wins out with a Charge Beam trick they both know. After the battle ends, Ritchie asks Duplica if she plans to challenge the league, to what she replies that no, she doesn't, as she and her Ditto are more into the entertainment business, but is always ready for a rematch if he wants. She then changes her clothing in the blink of an eye to turn into a female version of Ritchie, making him wonder if she's like him or just a very good master of disguise.

In Matcha City, Elwood comes out of the gym with his seventh badge, having temporarily separated from his sister Aideen, who returns from Saffron City to confirm the rumors they heard; namely that Sabrina was defeated by a challenger and a Buster squad was able to arrest her, and she adds that Ash's name was mentioned strongly suggesting he was the one, much to Elwood's surprise. Aideen decides to enter the gym to earn her own seventh badge. Elwood wishes her luck while mentally pondering that he needs to ask Ash about the story of how he entered that gym and came out not only alive, but with a badge in tow.

In Viridian City, A.J. and Jeanette decided to challenge the gym and won Earth Badges, after hearing the aforementioned rumors in Saffron; and currently A.J. cheers on Jeanette as she battles to win a Scizorite, wanting to have a Mega Stone of her own after the Beedrillite he borrowed from him didn't quite give her the best results, culminating with her victory and ordering a large amounts of pizza for dinner to celebrate later.

Elsewhere, Kaia has finally earned her seventh badge. Despite her blindness, she has managed to pull through with the help of her Pokémon, mainly her Arcanine, Crobat, and Squirtle nicknamed Thinker. Despite the difficulties, she's happy to have them in her life as a new light to illuminate her path ahead.

Lastly, the heir of Silph Co. and multiple winner of several League Conferences, Alexander Silph, is intrigued by the news that someone conquered the Saffron Gym, one that not even he himself was able to, and despite not having memories, he does have a recording to prove that he tried to. His AI Cepu confirms that, indeed, Ash Ketchum has a Marsh Badge to his name, and he's part of the wave of talented rookies who's highly likely to stop his efforts during the upcoming Indigo League, so Alexander decides to take actions in the matter.

Back in Pallet Town, Ash continues to do some wrestling training with Iris, and when she has him pinned down, he comments that she seems better now. She lets go of him, seemingly not understanding, and he explains she seemed to have something bothering her but he's glad she seems to have sorted it out, making her smile. The two continue their training, with Iris suggesting they should bring Anabel and Misty to do this as well. Ash comments that they might be a bit hard to convince, thinking that he's barely managed to get used to see Iris shirtless and he's nervous about seeing Misty and Anabel that way and/or getting pinned down by them. Right then, Iris begins to attack him using Dragon Breath, signaling him that it's time to enter the powered part of the training has begun.

Later, Ash talks to his Pokémon, thinking about waiting one more week before they take on the Viridian Gym, while also considering his odds of meeting a Moltres given their recent encounters first with Articuno and then Zapdos. He's confident they won't be running into one as they're not near any volcanoes, and even if that's the case, they have Squirtle, Kingler and Boldore to handle it. The first two seem confident enough, but the latter seems doubtful. Before he can ask about it, however, Jigglypuff starts to sing and has to be woken up by Misty about an hour later, while wiping out the marker stains off his face.

That night, Anabel is having difficulties to fall asleep, despite being tired. When she tries to force herself to sleep, she accidentally enters Ash's dream. Unknown to her, the aforementioned dream starts as a memory of the Old Timeline, of the time he met Gary in the Viridian Gym after he was defeated by some "evil" powerful Pokémon. However, things take a turn for the strange when the place where the "evil" Pokémon is supposed to be clears off and reveals a trio of Ducklett, who look anything but evil, until they blast her with Water Gun and expel her from the dream. Back in the real world, she decides to try and do what she did before, and this time she enters Delia's dream, which is about her frantically running around the kitchen and complaining about the large amount of zucchini all over the place. Anabel just stares until a zucchini falls on top of her head and snaps her out of the dream once more. Back in the real world, she realizes more or less what's happening and decides to try it one more time to be sure, this time entering Iris' dream. The dream starts out fairly normal, with her just doing some wrestling training with Ash. However, the dream shifts into a different terrain when both of them stop wrestling and suddenly kiss each other. Anabel isn't sure what she feels, either embarrassment of being witness to Iris' sexual fantasies, or jealousy at seeing her kiss the boy she likes. Iris continues to enjoy it a bit more until she notices Anabel's presence, and this causes her to wake up, sending Anabel back to the real world as well. She immediately teleports to where Iris' was sleeping to explain her what happened.

Iris quickly deduces that Anabel entered her dream, and the telepath explains that she had no idea how she did it, or even that she could do that until tonight, and apologizes for intruding. Iris admits that it was an enjoyable dream, and never had one like that before, and then asks Anabel if it was as bad as she thought. Anabel quickly deduces what she means, as she's talking about what she told her about sharing Ash in a relationship. Anabel tries to dodge the question at first, until Iris gives her a look that cuts her off, but admits that no, it didn't feel as bad as she thought. However, she did feel jealous at seeing her with Ash, which Iris replies that she just needs to learn to not feel jealous at all. Anabel explains that jealousy and envy are natural emotions in people, and while Iris might not feel it, she and Misty do, and they can't just get rid of it that easily. Iris then asks Anabel about the possibility of just being them, as well as any girl who ends up traveling with Ash, but nobody else. That does sound better than just sharing Ash with any woman, but still doesn't solve the problem of jealousy. Iris asks if Anabel has somebody else, which hits her home as she realizes that, being a Bloodliner, she can't really talk to many other people. Iris however remains certain that all of them can be happy, and not at the expense of any of the others. Anabel decides to humor her and says that, assuming that Iris can convince her of her ideas, she'd still have to do so with Misty and Ash himself. Iris replies that she already has a plan for that.

After the sunrise, Ash wakes up and heads for the clearing Iris chose for their training. When he arrives, however, he finds her not only with her Pokémon, but also Anabel, who looks rather nervous. At first, Ash assumes Iris wants to put him to fight Anabel physically, and Iris says that since he already got over being nervous with fighting her, he'll now do the same with Anabel. After they both take their shirts off, Iris gives Anabel a look to do the same, and she reluctantly does, giving him an eyeful of her while thinking that perhaps things can't get any more awkward, until Iris takes her pants off revealing she's wearing a pair of boxers that Ash recognizes as his, but before he can ask about it, Iris jumps him as she explains to Anabel the right way to attack a distracted opponent.

Elsewhere, Misty helps Ash's Kingler improve his swimming while training with her Golduck, as Ash asked her to help his Water Pokémon, so they all are practicing swimming laps at Oak's lakes, with only her Psyduck having troubles as he clings to Gyarados' back while screaming in terror. However, she gets distracted when she sees Ash approaching, a bit dazed and a complete mess, and she almost gasps in horror until she realizes what must have happened: more training from Iris, and Ash explains she now dragged Anabel into it. Misty almost wants to feel annoyed and berate him for getting distracted with Anabel's body and getting hurt, but refrains as she knows it'll only make him feel worse, thinking that Iris could have done even worse and tried to fight him in the nude. While she's happy with the improvement in Ash's physique, she feels the urge to tell Iris to tone down the training just a bit, but she suspects she's going this way due to Sabrina (and later that Zapdos) still being recent. She tells Ash that she's done there so he can take a break, and Ash amusingly remarks that he thought Iris would have roped her instead of Anabel for that training first, and Misty admits she would probably have done so. She then decides she's gonna ask to Anabel about what happened later.

After finishing her training, Misty asks Starmie to contact Anabel so they can meet up to talk. She finds her petting Eevee under a tree and evidencing the aftermath of the training, albeit she looks better than Ash with just her hair slightly messy and some minor bruises in her arms. Anabel lets Eevee go and approaches Misty, and the redhead goes straight to the point about the latest training. Anabel assures her that she didn't want to but Iris dragged her into it, and Misty tells her she's surprised Iris went to her first, explaining that perhaps would have gotten into it first. Misty then tells Anabel about the time she and Ash boarded the S.S. Anne, and how she dragged him into going in a swimsuit shopping spree, having fun by seeing him flustered but also feeling good to see that he found her attractive, and not in a lecherous way. Anabel admits that she too didn't mind that Ash looked at her while they were at the beach, but adds that he also looked at Misty and Iris the same way. Misty points out that Anabel is also very pretty and nice herself, so it makes sense that Ash notices that. Anabel asks if that means that Misty doesn't mind that Ash looks at other girls, which Misty admits that perhaps she does a bit, but since he's not in a relationship with her, she's not going to hold it against him. As they spot a few members of Pidgeot's flock flying nearby, Misty suggests they do some meditation training, since after the workout she needs something more boring and quiet, and Anabel accepts.

Later, after Anabel finishes her training with Iris. Anabel complains about the yellow bruises in her arms, which Iris retorts that those heal, and she prefers that instead of something worse. Anabel catches on that Iris' tone sounds like she means grave wounds like losing a limb. Iris then asks her to look into something, recalling the dream she had a few nights before and she wants to be certain that it's just a dream and not a memory. Anabel assures her that it is that, just a dream, adding that there's no way she can convince Misty to embrace nudism that way. When Iris points out she got Anabel to agree about her relationship ideas before, Anabel replies that it's different, trying to shake off any thoughts that might give Iris even more weird ideas.

The next morning, Anabel wakes up and finds Delia preparing muffins for breakfast. Delia explains that Ash has gone off to Oak's lab to run an errand. After offering her some blueberry muffins, Delia asks Anabel what she plans to do with her life, as she's interested in knowing the goals of her son's friends. She already knows about Misty's but not hers or Iris'. Anabel admits that she doesn't have that much of an idea of what she wants to do. Delia understands, citing that she had many disparate ideas for her life before she had Ash, adding that very few people are certain of their future lives at age fifteen. Anabel adds that, due to being mute, there's very little she can chase after without risking herself to expose herself as a Bloodliner, or worse, getting chased by an angry mob, causing Delia to cringe as Anabel realizes she was probably imagining her own son in such a situation. Anabel quickly apologizes, adding that she's content with having friends to have fun with. Delia suggests that perhaps she could try something to make some change in the world, perhaps telling her own story so other people can be more understanding and spread good things, perhaps opening a blog with the help of Ash's Pokédex.

Anabel borrows the aforementioned device to ask for help in setting up a blog where she can place a positive image of Bloodliners so she can come out cleanly about it in the future. The Pokédex refuses on the grounds that his function is to help Ash, not anybody else. Anabel tries to argue that this blog could be helpful to Ash, but after being met with more rebuttals, she appeals to the device's pride, suggesting that he's refusing to help her because he can't, and in doing so manages to convince him. The machine realizes a bit too late that she employed reverse psychology on him, but ultimately complies. Once it's been set up, however, she finds a bit hard to actually write something. She finally decides to start with an entry about how Bloodliners are feared by the people at large, and many assume the worst of them by default, but there's more to them than the public view, what they feel, what they actually think and many things people don't know, either out of ignorance or misunderstandings. She then reveals that she herself is a 15-year-old Bloodliner who is trying to find her own voice in many ways, and despite her abilities she makes mistakes, laughs, listens to music and makes many things that "normal" people also do. She wants to make this blog a meeting point for Bloodliners and normal humans alike where they can be friends, share stories with each other and have fun, a salon of sorts, and she'll be open to answer questions about herself, ready to answer them honestly. After rereading the post, she decides it's good enough for a start, and the Pokédex suggests she should have a persona people can know her by. After thinking for a bit, she signs the post as "Salon Maiden" before hitting the send button.

In Viridian City, Ash talks to Pikachu about how Delia wants to throw him a grand party on the last day he's gonna stay in Pallet Town, which is why she's decided to buy their groceries alone and refusing Ash's help. Ash for a moment dreads that his mother wants to give him a surprise that she'd ask for Iris' help, which would probably entail more training. Suddenly, a stranger dressed calls out to having seen Ash on TV. Ash turns around and senses something wrong with the guy, but nonetheless tries to be polite. The guy's attempt to be friendly and cheery only strikes Ash as being more and more strange, until he challenges Ash to battle with some Pokémon he "got on vacation". Ash accepts despite his wariness.

Ash sends out Ambipom, while the first Pokémon the tourist throws is a Raichu, albeit looking different one from the usual one. The Pokédex informs Ash that this is an Alolan Raichu, a regional variant that's a dual Electric/Psychic-type, much to his surprise. The Raichu begins with Electro Ball, which Ambipom dodges and counters with Shadow Claw. The tourist shouts in concern, but again, Ash feels something odd with it, before he compliments Ash's abilities. He then calls out for an Electric Terrain. Ash then briefly overhears a digital voice, but gets focused on the battle as Raichu prepares to launch another Electro Ball at Ambipom, who jumps up to dodge, only to get Raichu get in front of her and throw the Electro Ball, sending her spinning her backwards. As Raichu prepares to fire another Electro Ball, Ash orders Ambipom to use Counter Shield, blasting the Electro Ball back at Raichu before going for a Double Hit, knocking Raichu out. The tourist screams in excitement, only for Ash to get the same odd feeling from before, but as he insists to continue the battle, he has Ambipom take a rest and sends out Boldore. The tourist sends out a Pokémon that Ash's Pokédex identifies a Golisopod, a Bug/Water-type from Alola. Before Boldore can attack, Golisopod uses First Impression, knocking her back by surprise, and then goes for a Poison Jab while she uses Iron Defense to deflect it. She immediately counters with Return, punching Golisopod in the chest and making it flinch and curl up as if taken heavy damage, but quickly uncurls as if mocking them. The tourist then orders Golisopod to use Water Pulse, which Boldore counters with Rock Blast. As the Electric Terrain fizzles out, Golisopod uses another Water Pulse, and Ash orders Boldore to dodge it and get ready while he replaces the crystal on his Z-Ring. This time, the tourist speaks in a way that doesn't seem odd to Ash when he recognizes the Z-Ring. They perform Breakneck Blitz, but much to their shock, Golisopod escapes it by using a Substitute, and hits Boldore with two Water Pulses, knocking her out. Ash once more feels something off, not only in the attitude of the guy, but also how that Substitute seemed something practiced, and he takes note to keep it in mind for his future Z-Moves. The tourist sends his third Pokémon, which Ash's Pokédex identifies as a Midday Lycanroc, a Rock-type, and Ash sends Pikachu. Both Pokémon collide against one another with Quick Attack and Accelerock, with Pikachu winning out the clash and the tourist commends him for his strength. As Lycanroc uses Bulk Up, Ash orders Pikachu to use Thunderbolt. Lycanroc dodges and charges with another Accelerock, which Pikachu counters with another Quick Attack, but this time Lycanroc had a slight edge. Ash has Pikachu use Wild Charge and then shift to Iron Tail, channeling the electric power to Pikachu's tail to deliver a hard blow at Lycanroc's shoulder. Capitalizing on the advantage, Ash orders Pikachu to use Thunderbolt, hitting Lycanroc again for heavy damage at point-blank range. Lycanroc uses Accelerock once more to break Pikachu's attack, and Ash realizes that Pikachu is at a disadvantage in raw power, regretting having already wasted the Z-Move before. When Lycanroc uses Bulk Up and charges with Accelerock once more, Ash decides to counter with Wild Charge boosted with Quick Attack. The electric film however changes color mid-charge, and Ash recognizes that the attack has changed into Volt Tackle, powering it up enough for Pikachu to knock Lycanroc out of the battle. Ash finally gets up and tells the guy to drop the charade and tell him who he is. As it turns out, he was using a device with an AI to change his voice, and reveals he was hoping to analyze Ash with six Pokémon, though three of them doesn't seem like a bad sample, and he's impressed Ash managed to defeat two of his Beta Pokémon with three of his own, realizing he'll have to use an Alpha team against him in Indigo. The guy then teleports away, leaving both Ash and Anabel in shock. Ash asks Anabel if she read his thoughts by any chance, and she reveals to have picked up his name: Alexander Silph. After relaying this info to the Pokédex, the device explains that he's the heir of the Silph Co., a genius with technology and winner of several League Conferences. Ash then mentions what this Alexander guy said about Beta and Alpha teams, and the Pokédex explains he splits his Pokémon in tiers: the Beta teams are well-trained yet relatively weaker Pokémon that he uses during early rounds, and the Alpha teams are the stronger ones he reservers for later rounds or against stronger opponents should he face them in early rounds. Ash then realizes this guy used a deliberately weaker team to gauge his strength, and while he was technically winning it left a bad taste on his mouth. The words Red said to him before come back to haunt Ash. Anabel reminds him that both still had valid arguments, and reminds Ash they should go back to the Pokémon Center to heal his Pokémon.

At the Center, Ash is left in the waiting room, getting a lot of nervous looks from other trainers due to Togepi breathing a Flamethrower, so he recalls him when he notices the Chansey at the front desk. Nurse Joy then comes up with Ash's Pokéballs and Pikachu, and informs Ash she recently got a trade circuit machine running in the back of the center. She did some checking on Boldore while healing her, and thinks that perhaps she could benefit from it, adding that a trade circuit machine is more reliable than others when some trainers could easily run off with another's Pokémon. Ash still has his doubts, recalling his own experiences about how he let Pikachu decide whether he wanted to use that Thunder Stone, and how he gave the Razor Fang to Gligar so he could save them, but in the end, it always came to his Pokémon to decide about it. Anabel comes up and tells him he's worrying too much about the ramifications. She reminds him that it's Boldore's choice whether she wants to evolve or not, and if she does, Anabel has a Pokémon who doesn't mind evolving today as well, showing her Kadabra's Pokéball to emphasize her point. Ash then brings Boldore out and asks her the question, and when she says yes, they place the balls in the machine. Both quickly turn around and then return to their owners, and as soon as they open, Kadabra evolves to Alakazam, and Boldore to Gigalith. Ash then asks her if it was worth it, and she nods while stomping on the ground to confirm it.

Later, the group is having a party at Pallet House. While she's having plenty of fun, after dancing around so much she's gotten her feet hurting and decided to take a rest for a bit near the snack table, while she watches Misty and Delia singing a duet in the karaoke. She's surprised that Misty has such a good singing voice, while feeling a tad envious for being able to sing, unlike her. Meanwhile, she spots the same girls from the welcome party playing tug-o-war with Ash, wanting to dance with him, but then Iris drives them away. She thinks to herself that she's actually not annoyed at seeing Ash dancing with Misty or Iris, unlike those girls, which is perhaps because they don't know the real Ash like Anabel and the others do. Suddenly, however, she gets a strange feeling piercing through her mind, like a lightning, and seeing that everyone is too busy having fun to notice, she slips away quietly to check it out.

As she cautiously checks the outside, she recalls the feeling, it was like an electrical sensation, but not one she picked up from the Zapdos they encountered before, and upon reaching a grassy hill where she tracked the disturbance, she finds a patch of disturbed ground that seems to be from a Dig attack. A few seconds later, the one responsible comes out; a Pokémon she's never seen before and by its looks, seems like an Electric-type. The Pokémon then attacks her and she's forced to defend herself using her powers, but then the battle stops, and she realizes the Pokémon could have easily killed her had it been his intention with his overwhelming power. The Pokémon then begins to talk to her telepathically, and she replies in kind, surprising him even further, before introducing himself as the original Raikou who was resurrected by Ho-Oh centuries ago in the Burned Tower along with Entei and Suicune. Anabel asks why he's here, and he explains that he's a servant of Ho-Oh who's come to observe the birthplace of Ash Ketchum. Raikou then kneels down for Anabel to hop on his back, and then takes her to a hill where they can see overlook Pallet Town. Raikou explains that Ho-Oh wonders if Pallet Town has produced two humans who change the world, the first of which Anabel assumes to be Professor Oak, and then inquires if Ash is some sort of "chosen one". Raikou however discards this, as there are many humans who are just as pure-hearted as him even in the town itself, thinking that the notion of a chosen one is a misconception many humans believe in. Raikou explains that Ho-Oh has foreseen a change coming to the world, and it's heavily tied to those like Ash, Anabel and the other girls, and that Ho-Oh hopes that Ash can stand out as an example for others to follow in order to lead the world to a bright future. Anabel asks if he knows why there are more Bloodliners, but Raikou doesn't know, although he seems to suspect it might be tied to an event that happened in Kalos three millennia ago, as well as certain meteor showers. Raikou then jumps away, leaving Anabel alone with her thoughts, and she then returns to the party before anybody notices her absence.

In a warehouse district of Terracotta City, Koga assists the local police with the arrest of a crime boss named Frank Gipani, whose Pokémon he ends up confiscating as Frank is taken away with the police's authorization. With the Indigo League coming up, he's done well with his training to enter the Elite Four, and now he's focusing on expanding his options for the tournament. Frank's Pokémon, while unlikely to obey him, could still be useful for breeding Pokémon that could throw off his opponents who didn't expect species like Scolipede, Alolan Muk, or Salazzle.

## Continuity

* First appearance of Alexander Silph and Frank Gipani.
* It's revealed that Paul has his eight Kanto gym badges, qualifying for the Indigo League.
* Anabel begins writing her blog under the alias "Salon Maiden".
* Boldore uses Breakneck Blitz for the first time.
* Pikachu's Wild Charge evolves into Volt Tackle.
* Ash's Boldore and Anabel's Kadabra evolve through round trade into Gigalith and Alakazam respectively.