After parting ways with Serena, Bonnie and Clemont, Ash had finally arrived home in the Kanto region, specifically Vermilion city,
"Well, Pikachu, we're nearly home," Ash exclaimed, turning to his little Electric partner, Pikachu jumped upon his trainers shoulder and smiled,
"Pikachu," the Mouse Pokémon said, happily. Ash had to make his way through a few cities until he was home but that wasn't such a bad thing, he was just about to make his way out of Vermilion city when three strangers stood in his way,
"Excuse me, are you Ash of Pallet Town?" the woman asked, she had green ball ball earrings that looked similar to Jessie's of Team Rocket, but Ash didn't think anything of it, he merely nodded and glanced at Pikachu, confused, "I thought so, step right this way, your carriage awaits," but Ash told them that he hadn't booked nor ordered a carriage,
"Professor Oak got in contact with us and told us to pick you up, now step lively," the man said, ushering the young trainer into the Ninetails drawn cart. Unknown to the five of them, they were being watched by a very familiar coordinator, she began to follow Ash and Pikachu through the city.
The man and woman arrived at the outskirts of Pewter city and Ash asked if they could stop, so the smaller man obliged and pulled the two Ninetails to a hault, allowing Ash and Pikachu to get some water. The three waited back at the carriage and hatched out the rest of their plan,
"Final phase of the plan, when Pikachu hops off the twerps shoulder, we grab it, got it?" the female whispered, the two males nodded and snuck up behind Ash who was drinking at a water fountain, whilst Pikachu was waiting patiently for his trainer to finish so he could have a turn, after about two minutes, Ash wiped his mouth with the back of his glove, allowing Pikachu to jump onto the fountain, only to be grabbed by a huge pink hand from behind, Ash spun round to see a giant robot had appeared, right where the Ninetails carriage had been, "Prepare for trouble, we're early today,"
"Make it double, the early bird catches the Pikachu they say,"
"To protect the world from devastation,"
"To unite all people within our nation,"
"To denounce the evils of truth and love,"
"To extend our reach to the stars above,"
"Jessie,"
"James,"
"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light,"
"Surrender now or prepare for an out of this world fight!"
"Meowth, that's right,"
"Wobbuffet,"
"Team Rocket!" Ash shouted in anger, no matter where he went, it seemed that Team Rocket were there, "Let Pikachu go, now!"
"Okay, just as soon as you grow up!" Meowth sniggered, pushing down a few buttons on the control panel, which caused a second hand to appear and swipe through the air, Ash jumped out of the way, but the third swipe, smashed him right into the side of a confectionery stand. He groaned as he struggled to his feet, clutching his left knee. He had to get Pikachu back, so he told his partner to use Thunderbolt, but it did nothing, "Haha, unlike you twerp, Team Rocket learn from their mistakes. Now, let's see you dodge this!" Meowth laughed, thumping a big blue control down. The energy from the Thunderbolt that Pikachu had previously used, Team Rocket had somehow managed to store inside the robot and were about to release it upon Ash, when suddenly,
"Now Crogunk, get up close to their machine and use Brick Break!" shouted an all to familiar voice, Ash turned to his left to see a taller boy, running towards him, he immediately put Ash's arm around his shoulder as he could see he was limping a little, "You know, you could have called me, instead of making a scene," the boy joked, making Ash smile, Brock certainly hadn't changed. The two boys watched as the poison dart frog used its command, creating a big explosion, causing the machine to blow up but not a blast off. Team Rocket set off towards Viridian Forest, with Pikachu still in their possession, the two boys gave chase, but with Ash's twisted knee, it was hard to get very far. As they entered the forest, Ash felt something, something strange that made him stop, causing Brock to look at him, "Come on, Ash, we've got to get Pikachu back!" and they hobbled along down the path again. Jessie who was leading the trio, turned back and laughed at the twerps,
"You really shouldn't laugh at other people's demise," a hooded figure said, stepping out from the bushes, "Buneary! Come on out!" the female shouted, tossing one of her pokeballs in the air, when Buneary saw Pikachu, trapped in a cage, she was even more determined to help and called to him. Pikachu looked at the rabbit-like Pokémon and noticed something he remembered seeing a long time ago, causing him to gasp, "Use Dizzy Punch!" the move knocked Pikachu's cage out of Team Rocket's grasp, much to their dismay. Ash and Brock had finally caught up with them and Brock told Crogunk to use the move he had used previously to break the cage open whilst Buneary froze Team Rocket in a shard of ice, Pikachu clambered out of the cage and used Thunderbolt on Team Rocket who were encased in the block of frozen water,
"No fair, we were just getting started!" moaned James, who shivered as he spoke, Jessie told him to stop whining and as for Meowth, he was too cold to have an input, but the trio all screamed that they were "blasting off again,". Meanwhile back down on the ground, Pikachu had jumped into his trainers arms and was nuzzling him affectionately,
"Is everything okay?" the girl asked, approaching the boys, Ash nodded and thanked the hooded character, "No need to worry," Ash blinked. No need to worry, no need to worry and then it hit him! Only one person used to say that and that was Dawn! She got within a few feet from Ash and raised her hand, he returned her greeting with a high five. She removed her cloak and began walking with the boys back to Pewter City. As they left the boundary line of Viridian Forest, Ash felt it again, he could feel something or someone watching him and it was more than just one, "Hey Ash, you alright?" Dawn asked, breaking his train of thought, he quickly nodded, not wanting to worry either of them, he turned to look back at the forest one last time and then ran to catch up with his friends, "So how have you guys been?" Dawn questioned as they reached the Pewter gym and Brock's home. Ash explained his previous journey through the Kalos region to Dawn who was intrigued, as was Brock of course as this was the second journey he hadn't been able to accompany Ash on, Ash mentioned that he had bumped into Pokémon connoisseur Cilan, "Oh, you mean that tall guy with the green hair? Ash, no offence or anything but his Pansage and him were a weird duo," Dawn commented, suddenly Brock chirped into the conversation as well, he explained that he had also met Cilan, when he was training in Johto at the Pokémon doctors school. Now it all made sense, Brock thought to himself, that's why Cilan had reminded him of Ash, because the pair had travelled Unova together, then it was Brock's turn to talk, but his talk wasn't about journeys or travels,
"Why don't we all stay at my place tonight and then travel again tomorrow?" Ash, Dawn and Pikachu all nodded in agreement, "One thing though, we will probably have to camp out in the garden as my house is never empty," he said smiling. Dawn looked at Ash, hoping for an explanation, but he simply said she would see what Brock meant when they went inside, "Hi everyone, sorry I got waylaid," the older boy hollered, opening the front door. Dawn poked her head round the door to see nine faces, which were all staring at her, "Ash, Dawn, meet the family. This is Forrest, that's Yolanda and Salvadore, over there's Tommy and Cindy, in the other room, you've got Timmy and Suzie and outside, there's the twins, Billy and Tilly. Guys, you all remember Ash, right?" the nine siblings nodded, "This is Dawn, she's a coordinator that we traveled with in Sinnoh," Dawn waved at the siblings when one of them took her hand and proclaimed his love to her, kinda like Brock used to with Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny, but unlike Brock who ended up with a Poison Jab to the ribs, by Crogunk, Forrest was merely dragged away, enduring no pain by Crogunk, Dawn laughed nervously, whilst Brock tried to hide the embarrassment of his brother and Ash and Pikachu just laughed, apparently, it ran in the family.
Brock told his friends to make themselves comfortable in the crowded living room, whilst he, with his siblings help, prepared dinner, Dawn asked if she could do anything as she liked to make herself useful, then Ash suggested that they bring out their Pokémon so Brock's younger siblings could play with them, Dawn agreed, liking the sound of that idea. So the two trainers went out into the back garden and released their Pokémon to Billy, Tilly, Timmy, Suzie, Tommy and Cindy, leaving Salvadore, Forrest, Yolanda and Brock in the kitchen, Dawn still had the same Pokémon as before, unlike Ash who had caught new, different Pokémon,
"Guys, I want you all to meet a very good friend of mine, this is Dawn and her team, she's training to be a top coordinator one day," Ash explained to his own team, Dawn looked at them all, she had never seen any of these Pokémon before and was intrigued,
"So Ash, what was Kalos like?" the blue haired coordinator asked, propping her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands, she watched in admiration as he explained his previous journey to her. She remembered back to when he and Brock had left her in Sinnoh, as Buneary had been asked to be part of a photoshoot for the magazine "Pokechic", she had then travelled to the Hoenn region and had taken part in a few contests, then her mind began to drift to when she had received a call from the Sinnoh champion, Cynthia, to come and stay with her in her villa, there she and Piplup had been reunited with Ash and Pikachu and had met his new friends, Iris and Cilan. She remembered leaving them to head onto Johto and remembered something that Cynthia had told her, "When every life meets another life, something is born," those words kept playing in the back of her head.
"Dawn, are you even listening to me?" Ash asked, clicking his fingers in front of her, drawing her attention back to the present, she smiled and waved it off,
"Of course, no need to worry," whenever Dawn used that phrase, Ash couldn't help but laugh,
"When you say "no need to worry" that's when I worry the most," he replied, chuckling.
Meanwhile, Piplup was trying to impress the children by showing off, but things weren't working in Piplup's favour as the twins began to pull at the little penguins arms, causing him to shout out in distress, Pikachu came to his rescue and tried to get the younger children off of him. Suddenly, an electric net covered the four of them, lifting them up in the air, causing Billy and Tilly to cry out. Ash and Dawn heard the cries and ran to the furthest point in the garden to see Brock's baby siblings caught up with Pikachu and Piplup in a net, they also then heard three evil cackles of laughter and looked up to see Team Rocket.
"Team Rocket! Let the kids go!" Ash shouted, drawing Brock's attention from the kitchen, causing him and the other three to run out and gasp,
"No way twerp, these kids are kind of cute, so they will become new members of Team Rocket!" Jessie explained, dropping the captives into a glass container and picking Tilly up, who began to scream, her twin brother, somehow managed to climb out of the box and began pulling Meowth's whiskers, which make him fumble and press the wrong button, "Meowth, what did you just press?!" Jessie demanded, as she tried to quieten the baby girl down, Meowth didn't know. Brock began to run towards the trio when he was stopped by his brother,
"Let me handle this, Brock. You work on getting the twins back," Forrest said, confidently, at first Brock was unsure, but after a while, he nodded and crept round to the trio, "Rhyperior, get ready for battle!" he shouted, tossing a pokeball in the air, releasing the large brownish-grey Pokémon,
"Gourgeist, show the miniature twerp whose in charge!" Jessie shouted, throwing a pokeball in the air, "Now Gourgeist, use Shadow Ball!" the Team Rocket member ordered, her Pokémon used its attack, but Rhyperior was fast for such a large Pokémon,
"Dogde it, now use Dig!" Forrest commanded, the drill Pokémon used its two hands and dug under the ground, Jessie was stumped and didn't know what to say to do next, suddenly, Gourgeist was thrown into a tree, clearly taken by surprise at the sudden emerge from the found, "Now Rock Wrecker, let's go!" Forrest shouted, behind him, his six younger siblings watched in awe at their second oldest brother, so was Dawn for that matter, she couldn't quite believe that Forrest was only ten years old, he battled like he had had years of practice, she then turned her attention to her friends. Jessie and James had put the twins back in the glass container, with Piplup and Pikachu, whilst Meowth was still fumbling around with the control manual. Ash clambered onto Brock's shoulders and made eye contact with Pikachu, who then informed Piplup and the two children, Ash told them not to make a sound as he lifted Tilly up and out of the container, swiftly followed by Billy and Piplup. Brock took the babies and Ash the two Pokémon and they snuck back over to where Dawn and Brock's family were and watched the battle between Jessie and Forrest, draw to a close, "Alright Rhyperior, let's finish this up with Megadrill!" the boy shouted. The group watched as Team Rocket blasted off into the sky for the second time that day.
"Hurray! You did it Forrest!" his siblings shouted and screamed in joy, they hoisted him up onto their shoulders and carried him inside, Ash watched, clearly impressed with his strategy, grass type moves were strong against rock/ground types, but even though Forrest was at a disadvantage, he still managed to beat the evil trio, Brock watched in admiration, his little brother had come a long way and he was proud to say that he was the leader of his families gym, Brock then put his hands on his friends shoulders and together, they walked inside, smiles beaming on their faces.
After tea, Brock had to put his siblings to bed, whilst Ash and Dawn were setting up camp in Brock's back garden, Ash had just taken his hat off, when Dawn asked him what kind of people he had met in Kalos, Ash said he would tell her once Brock was with them, it only seemed fair, Pikachu and Piplup were snuggled up in between Ash and Dawn, waiting for the stories to commence.
"Sorry I was a long time guys, Tilly was a nightmare tonight," Brock said, as he slid the patio door that was painted a bright blue shut, "So what did I miss?" he asked, clambering into his sleeping bag and zipping himself up, Ash then explained his journey through Kalos, with Clemont, Serena and Bonnie, "Reminds me of our travels through Hoenn with Max and May," Brock said, reminiscing the adventures from the past,
"So who were they?" both Brock and Ash turned to stare at Dawn, "I mean what were their goals? Like mine is to become a top coordinator, Brock's is to become a Pokémon doctor and yours is to become a Pokémon master. What were their dreams?" Dawn asked, explaining her question,
"Well, Clemont was the Lumiose city gym leader, but he left his robot "Clembot" in charge while he was travelling with me, his sister Bonnie was too young to own any Pokémon, but she was caretaker of Dedenne, that's a fairy/electric type Pokémon that Clemont caught, right Pikachu?" Ash asked his partner,
"Pika," the yellow rodent answered happily, a smile tugging at his mouth,
"Yeah, so I suppose he went back and resumed his position as gym leader," Ash said, putting his hands behind his head, remembering the two siblings, in a way, Brock was right, it had been like travelling with May and Max, "The only difference with these two was that Bonnie was always trying to get Clemont a girlfriend or her words were and I quote, "Your a keeper, will you please look after my brother?" and Clemont used to get so embarrassed, he eventually would grab her with his Aipom arm that he kept in his backpack, Clemont always considered himself a bit of a scientist, except his experiments would normally always explode," that made Dawn burst into laughter, she could just picture Ash's hair becoming a frizz ball, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot Serena," causing Dawn to stop and listen in curiosity again, "It turned out that I knew her from Professor Oak's summer camp, when we were both very young, she had fallen and injured her leg and I helped her out of the forest and then, thanks to her, I won my first badge in Kalos. For a while, she didn't really know what she wanted to do, but after talking to Shauna, a girl we met at Professor Sycamore's summer camp and listening to her talk about becoming Kalos queen, I think Serena set herself a goal of becoming Kalos queen and a top Pokémon performer,"
now that caught Dawn's attention. She asked him what the difference between a performer and a coordinator was, Brock seconded the question as he too had never heard of a Pokémon performer before, "Well, I guess, coordinators try to make their Pokémon look the best they can where as a performer doesn't really battle, but instead they put on a showcase to show off their beauty and skill, in the performance, there are two stages; the first one is known as Theme performance, the activities can vary depending on the specific showcase tournament and the second part of the showcase is known as Free style performance, the trainer and her Pokémon perform alongside each other, using the Pokémon's full abilities, in a way, the second part of the performance is like the performance stage in a contest, only difference is, eyes are also on the trainer, not just the Pokémon," Ash explained, taking a sip of water that he had taken from the fridge, his voice was beginning to ache as he hadn't stopped talking, but his friends egged him on to continue, "Oh and the audience chooses who they think is best with a pokelume, there are two types of classes; Rookie and Master, you have to earn three princess keys to be able to attend the master class and Serena did it!" what did he mean by that? Dawn asked her friend to elaborate, "She made it to the master class!" Ash said, a smile spreading across his face. Brock and Dawn were impressed, Dawn wanted to meet this Serena girl, she sounded kind of similar to herself. Ash then let out a long yawn and rubbed his eyes, looking at his best friend who was curled up with Dawn's best friend, he smiled warmly and scratched Pikachu between the ears, making him smile in his sleep,
"I think we should follow their example, don't you think?" Brock asked, stifling a yawn of his own and pulling his pillow from under his elbow and into place at the top of the sleeping bag, Dawn and Ash followed his lead and they all laid down and watched the night sky before drifting off to sleep.
Ash woke to find himself in the middle of a forest, he didn't know which forest, neither did he care, all he knew was that he was in a forest, alone, he tried to call Pikachu, but found he had no voice. Suddenly he felt something, the same something he had felt twice today, his head was telling him to ignore the feeling and resume his search for his friends, but his heart was telling him to follow his instincts. His heart won and he wandered down the forest pathway, arriving at an abandoned shack, he walked up to the door but found it wide open,
"I knew you would follow your heart, young guardian," a voice whispered in the darkness, Ash turned around to see a girl about his age and his height, approach him. He stood his ground and tried to use his voice again, but the words when they came, didn't come from his mouth, they came from his head, like he was talking telepathically, "Its okay, it takes a bit of getting used to, but you'll get used to it after a while," the girl said, she too was talking telepathically, she motioned for him to sit and still dubious of where he was, hesitantly sat down on the plush cushion, "Now, I can tell you have a strong Aura inside you," she said, beforing getting closer to the stranger, he didn't look like an Aura guardian, in fact, he didn't look anything like she was expecting him to, "My my, we do have a strong Aura, don't we? The same strength as Sir Aaron..." she trailed off, deep in thought. She then touched his temples gently and the two both closed their eyes, Ash could feel her warm fingers through her closed in gloves and he sensed that they weren't alone,
"Oh no you don't!" growled a second voice, Ash's eyes bolted open, as did the girls and the two got to their feet and sprinted to a clearing in the forest, she pushed Ash to the floor and apologised for her actions, Ash gasped when he saw her create an Aura Sphere and aim it at him...
"Wah! What the -" Ash bolted upright in his sleeping bag, he looked around him, he was back in Brock's garden again, he looked over to his right see Brock dreaming, about girls, Ash had no doubt and then, he glanced over to his left and saw Dawn, she was lying facing the deceased fire and finally, he turned his attention to the two Pokémon who when the trainers had fallen asleep, had been sleeping close together, but now, they had separated, Piplup being near Dawn's head and Pikachu, close to the corners of Ash's pillow. Ash glanced around, it was still dark, it felt as though he had been asleep for hours, but it had only been fifteen minutes or at least that was what the clock that hung outside red. He laid back down, wondering where the dream had come from, he looked up at the star filled sky, before closing his eyes again.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Viridian Forest, the girl couldn't quite believe it, she thought she had encountered the great Sir Aaron, but actually, it had been a boy who possessed the same aura as Sir Aaron, but how was that even possible? She had always been taught that to possess a strong aura like Aura guardian Aaron, you had to train to learn how to harness the strength of that aura, but the boy was neither an Aura guardian or one in training. She laid in her bed and decided that first thing in morning, she would have to find him before her evil twin sister did, she sensed that he was closer than she thought, but for now, she needed to get some more sleep. Unfortunately, her sister was closer than she anticipated, her evil sister planned the same for the morning.
"Come on sleepyhead," Ash could feel himself being shaken gently, he forced his eyes open and came face to face with Dawn, who was dressed in the same outfit as every day, he smiled a goofy smile at her, before sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eyes, his eyes were scanning the scene for Brock, but his nose told him that he was in the kitchen, obviously cooking, he scooped his hat up and placed it on his head and was about to make his way towards the kitchen, when he felt a hand yank him back, "Brock's making breakfast for his family first, we've got to wait. If you want to do something, help me tidy all this away," Dawn said, indicating to the sleeping bag and pillow. He began to tidy the stuff away, when he thought he heard a voice, it was similar to the one who had spoke to him in his dream, he shook it off, not wanting to think about it and carried on with his duties, he took it upstairs to Brock's old bedroom and opened the door, it was empty, so he stuffed it into the cupboard and turned around, but what he saw in front of the door froze him to the spot, quite literally. It looked like the girl from his dream, but she had a darker aura emanating from her body, Ash felt that this wasn't the girl from his dream but instead, the voice that had growled at them, he ran to the window, but found himself pinned against the wall by the girl, she was about to whisper something to him, when the bedroom door creaked open, Ash squeezed his eyes shut and when he reopened them, he found Pikachu and Dawn, standing in the doorway, "Hey, you okay? You've been up here for a while, maybe the thought of food has got you being even slower than usual?" Dawn suggested, smiling. She turned away and walked down the stairs, followed promptly by Ash and a perched Pikachu, Ash took one last look in the room, before pulling the door to a complete close,
"Pikapi?" Pikachu questioned, looking at his trainer, concerned, Ash tried to brush it off, he didn't want to worry Pikachu or his friends. Even though Ash said he was fine, Pikachu had a difficult time believing it, but he didn't push his trainer, when he was ready to talk about it, he would. The pair bounced down the stairs and the smell of food brought Ash back to his senses, he took a seat at the table and dived into the plate that was breakfast, Brock watched him and smiled, clearly some things would never change, Dawn knew she had been right as she took a second seat at the table.
"So where are you two going exactly?" Ash asked, taking the last bite out of his toast and running his hand down his jacket, Dawn told him that she had to go to Cinnabar island and Brock explained that he had to go back to Johto as he had to pick his results up from the doctors school, so he had to get to Saffron city to pick up the Magnet train. The duo agreed to accompany Ash to Pallet Town and then, they would head their separate ways, Ash had missed the company of two of his bestest friends and they set off towards Ash's home town.