A/N Hello Guys. I'm Rikku Maikeruzu and this is my story about Max. We see so many stories about Ash and Max here hardly gets any stories about him so say Hello to my story, Max's Journey : Arc 1. In this story ash was 13 when he got to Hoenn and May was starting her journey later than most at 14 because she at the time just wanted to travel the world and in the mean time max tagged along to get real world experience before leaving on his own journey when he turned ten. In this story at the end of the battle frontier max had just turned nine and went home to spend alot of time at home while he waited to turn ten and during this time May went through the Johto contest circuit and Ash went through the Sinnoh league and at the beginning of this story Ash starts his Unova journey while Max starts his journey in another region. So now that we've got the timeline straight on to the disclaimer and onto the story. MAX!

Max : Rikku doesn't own pokemon or any other series that may appear in this story. Please remember to review at the end of the chapter.

Hi! My Name's Max Maple. About a year ago I traveled around Hoenn and the Kanto region with my sister may and our friends Brock and Ash. During that time Brock taught me, May and Ash how to cook saying that there was gonna be a day when he wasn't around to cook for us and didn't want us to starve without decent food. About three weeks ago my dad surprised me by remembering a story I told him about a Ralts I promised to catch when I became a trainer.

Flashback : 3 Weeks Ago... Norman's POV

"Max I have a Surprise for you!" I said "What is it Dad?" Max asked "Do you remember telling me a story about a Ralts you promised to catch when you became a trainer? Well since you're headed to johto for the start of your journey I went and found that Ralts and caught it as your starter. Pokeball Go!" and in a flash of light that Ralts Max told me about appeared and when it layed eyes on my son it charged at him and glomped him happily while my son just stood in shock and soon a grin broke out on his face and he hugged it back and said "It's so nice to see you again. Thanks Dad."

I grinned and said "After catching your little friend I found this as I left. It's a mega stone called Gardevoirite and realizing what it was I fitted it into a necklace for your friend there to when when she evolves into a gardevoir and I then went searching far and wide until I found a Key stone which I fitted into a pendant on this chain for you to wear. The findings and chains for both are stainless steel so you won't have to worry about either ones rusting. And now for the final surprise."

As I spoke I reached into my pack and got out an incubator and said "I pulled a couple strings with an old friend in johto from before we moved here when you were a baby and he sent me this egg. But I won't tell you what's in it as I want it to be a surprise. Now we just have to start buying up supplies and in about three weeks when you turn ten you can start your journey with a bang." "Thanks Dad. I can hardly wait till it hatches." Max said

End Flashback

Anyways now Holly and I (Holly is what I nicknamed the Ralts) Just got off a plane at the New Bark Town Airport and now we're on our way to Professor Elm's lab to get my pokedex and officially become a trainer and get myself registered for the Johto leaugue."

Knock Knock Knock! CRASH!

I knocked on the door to Professor Elm's Lab and heard a loud crash. I turned the knob on the door to see if it's unlocked and since it was I let myself in to see if the Professor was alright. "Professor Elm? Are you alright?" I asked as I came in. "Yes I'm fine. I was just startled by the knocking and accidentally knocked over a few things." Professor Elm said as he walked in from the back. When he saw my face he looked perplexed for a second until a look of recognition flashed across his face and he asked "Aren't you Max Maple?" "Yeah how'd you know." I asked

"I'm an old friend of your father's and a few weeks back he called in a favor from about ten years ago saying that his son was starting his pokemon journey and was wondering if I could send him an egg with a starter pokemon from this region over to him as a gift for your tenth birthday. He also called this morning saying you were on a plane here and gave me a description of you so that if you got lost I'd be able to recognize you. I was planning to head out to the airport to pick you up but I guess I lost track of time. Hehe. Well what can ya do? Anyways I take it you're here to register as a trainer and for the Johto league?"

"Yeah That's about right but since I hear you're the leading expert on pokemon eggs I was wondering if you could give that egg you sent over a checkup as well. Also would you mind telling me which starter it is?" I asked "I can do everything except tell you which one it is as I promised your father I wouldn't tell. The only hint I was allowed to give was that it's a Johto starter but not which one. Sorry. That being said follow me and we can get started." Elm said and I followed him into another room with several machines. "Place the incubator on that machine and it'll scan the egg for the checkup and come with me and answer a few questions for you trainer registration and I'll take a picture of you for your photo id aspect of the pokedex and put it all on your pokedex and you'll be registered as a trainer." Elm said and a few dozen questions and a camera flash later I was handed my pokedex and he took me to the registration terminal to register for the Johto league and once that was done he handed me a badge case, and five pokeballs

Next he looked at the readout from the machine that scanned my egg, smiled and said "Checkup complete! The egg is in perfect Health. Also from what I can see you won't be wondering what it is for too much longer as it seems to be extremely close to hatching. Give it a few days and it should be hatched by then." "Really? I can hardly wait! I know you can't tell me what it is or what they are but does it have egg moves?" I asked "Yes it has four egg moves. Here we are researching chain breeding and when your father called in the favor I figured we could spare an egg from our group we were studying. I have to say that egg you're holding is straight out of the cream of the crop." Elm said "Really? Thanks. But isn't that a bit much for a favor?" I asked "Not when your dad saved my life from a wild Houndoom that was about to kill me it isn't." He replied "Wow my dad did that?" I said

"Yup! He sent that thing running scared with it's tail between it's legs. I'd never seen anything like it before then. Needless to say before this I owed him big time. If I had to hazard a guess I would say he'd been saving that favor just for something like this." Elm said "Wow. I gotta say that is quite the story. Stories like that are part of the reason I wanted to start my journey in Johto. I wanted to see the place my parents grew up in and what better way to do that then to travel through Johto." I said

s"Well that's a pretty good reason to be here. By the way in that a keystone around you neck?" Elm asked "Uh yeah. My dad caught me a Ralts as my starter and as he left the place he caught it he found a Gardevoirite so he decided to do some searching and found this so once Holly is a Gardevoire she should be able to mega evolve." I said "Well so young and already you have a Keystone and a mega stone. Even with the circumstances behind obtaining them the fact you have them is quite remarkable." Elm said "Thanks Prof. Well I've gotta get going. I'm gonna sleep at the pokemon center tonight and tomorrow I'll head out. Bye Professor Elm." I said as I left. "Goodbye Max. And good luck too.!" Elm called after me as I left.