Hello everyone, this is my first story on FF. I've been reading around for a bit and decided to try my hand at writing one myself. However, this is my first story so I'd appreciate it if you refrained from flaming about how bad it is and instead gave me tips on how to improve it. Thanks :)

"It's been four years since he left, hasn't it?"

The others turned to see who had spoken.

"Brock… Please don't bring that up… You know how much it hurts us all, even now", a voice replied, clearly understanding what Brock had meant by 'he'.

"I understand Max, I feel it too, but don't you think we should move on already? It's been four years since he disappeared and we're still moping whenever his name is mentioned", Brock replied, while gazing into the starlit sky above the group.

The group of people lying on the top of the grassy hill, staring up at the sky, was rather large. There were three guys and three girls in the group, and they were all gazing at the beautiful starry sky, all seemingly thinking about the same thing.

"I know what you mean Brock, but some of us just can't move on so easily, if you know what I mean. Ash helped all of us a lot of and if we hadn't met him, we probably wouldn't be where we are now", Dawn said.

Misty, Max, Brock, May and even Gary inadvertently flinched at the mention of his name. Dawn, noticing this, quickly apologized and they went back to thinking, each in a world of their own.

'I just wish I could see him again, even if only to see that he is safe. Why did you leave us, your friends, Ash? It was a rough time for you but yet you refused to allow us to help you through it…' Brock thought.

The group of friends normally didn't all travel together, as large groups were often annoying and slow, but there was a very good reason for traveling together now. They had all been sitting around at home for a while, unsure about what to do, when Professor Oak notified everyone about a competition that was being held in Kanto, at the indigo plateau.

The whole group had been at Pallet the day before to celebrate Gary's victory in the Orange League.

What was interesting, however, was the fact that the whole group was participating. In the previous leagues that they had travelled to, only Max entered, mainly because the others preferred to watch, not battle.

Max had become a pretty good trainer. When he began his journey, he managed to place in the 32 in the Hoenn league, even managing to overcome his father to get a badge. Then, he managed to place in the top 16 in the Kanto league and finally placed in the top 16 again in the Johto league.

He owed most of it to Ash, however. The raven-haired, energetic boy had really influenced Max's battle style, and he would be lieing if he said that he didn't learn a lot while travelling with him.

The competition itself was a rather important one. It was called the "Tournament of Arceus", and was held only once every 50 years. There were no requirements for entering, besides owning Pokémon, so naturally, each tournament was filled with so many people, the venues at the Indigo Plateau couldn't house them all and some had to sleep outside.

It was a competition with rookies and elites alike, and even the champions participated.

One week later

"Yeah! I'm ready to win this thing!" Max shouted as he pumped his fist into the air.

"Max, you do realize that this competition will have the best of the best participating, right? There's no way you'll beat one of the elites!" May replied, annoyed at his brothers constant boasting about how he was going to win.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, they may be good, but that's what I've trained for, to be better than good!" Max said with a smirk on his face.

The others sighed, knowing that arguing would be useless.

"Max, you know you can be so stubborn sometimes! Almost as stubborn as As…." May said, trailing off as she realized what she was saying.

The group immediately stopped, their faces obviously revealing the pain inside them as they were reminded of that name.

"We need to keep moving guys." Gary said, breaking the silence.

As they approached the end of the path, they finally arrived at the magnificent Indigo Plateau, the site of the annual Indigo League, and soon to be the site of the TOA (Tournament of Arceus).

The Indigo Plateau was a stunning sight to behold. The stadium itself was massive, and the town around was quite big for a town that was built only to support the stadium. Like most towns in the Pokémon world, it was quite green, and looked like it was one with nature.

The group entered the main building in the area, the general reception hall.

"Hmm… According to this guide book to the TOA, we will need to register our name and Pokémon here, to be entered into the competition." Brock stated, while looking at a book titled "Your guide to the Tournament of Arceus"

The doors to the hall burst open rather abruptly as a girl around the age of 16 ran into the room.

"Excuse me, is this where I register for the tournament? Oh please tell me I'm not late!" She said to the receptionist, panting and clearly showing signs of exhaustion.

"Yes this is, but may I ask why you're in such a rush? You have until next week to enter and the tournament has an unlimited amount of spaces for entrants." The receptionist clearly replied.

"WHAT?" The girl shouted, "YOU MEAN I RAN ALL THIS WAY PANICKING BECAUSE I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO BE LATE FOR ENTRY FOR NOTHING?"

Gary walked up to the girl for a reason none of the others understood and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, Leaf, is that you?"

I hope you enjoyed that. I'm not sure when I can get another chapter up but hopefully it will be tomorrow. I plan on putting Ash into the next chapter though!