After Ash's Sinnoh journey, he decided to take a break from challenging Pokemon Gyms to learn more about the Pokémon that he currently had and level them up some more before challenging gyms again. This tale starts after his break was over...

"See ya mum" Ash called out behind him to his mother as he ran off with Pikachu following after him.

Delia said to herself "that Ash, off on another journey, even if he has done it before." Ash, however, was on his way to professor Oak's laboratory to pick up his Pokémon.

25 minutes later Ash arrived at professor Oak's lab and knocked on his door. To Ash's utmost surprise professor Oak didn't open the door, Gary did. Gary, who had only stopped in at Pallet Town to visit his grandfather on his way to Viridian City was just as shocked as Ash. Gary, seeing Ash said "hey Ash, what's up?"

Ash replied "I'm going to challenge the Kanto league again, so I came here to pick up the Pokémon that I'm going to use."

Gary, stunned at Ash's proclamation asked "really, why would you do a thing like that?"

Ash replied "well, as you know, my ultimate goal is to become a Pokémon master, and one of the steps that I can see to that, is to become champion. According to Pokémon league rules, the only way to become champion is to beat your 'home league,' and then battle the current elite four. Only after that can you challenge the champion to a title match."

"So that's why you took your break, I thought that it was odd that you decided to 'take a break,' only to spend it all training your current Pokémon."

"Yeah well, you know me."

"So, who are you going to take?" Gary asked.

"Well, Pikachu obviously..."

"I never thought you wouldn't."

"Yes well, I'll also take Sceptile, Garchomp & Infernape..."

After waiting about a minute or so for Ash to continue what he was going to say Gary asked "who else?"

"I really don't know who else I should take, maybe I'll leave them as floating spots.. wait a minute, can I borrow your phone for a minute?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

Ash said "thanks, come on, you'll want to see this too."'

"See what?" Gary asked.

"Wait a minute & you'll... no, actually on second thoughts forget it."

"Forget what?"

"Well, I was going to call Liza over in the Charcific valley and ask her to send Charizard over, but then I remembered that he has a thing for her Charizard."

"Oh, so Pokémon can actually fall in love then."

"Yeah, Dawn's Buneary fell for Pikachu before we even saw it. It was kind of embarrassing to tell you the truth."

Both Ash and Gary laughed at that & then Ash decided to get on with what he went there for and said "right, time to get those Pokémon then."

Gary echoed Ash and said "right, let's get going."

"What d'you mean, 'we'?"

"Didn't you hear then?"

"Hear what?"

"The Pokémon league asked me to become the Viridian City Gym leader."

"Good on ya Gary, guess I'll be battling you at some point then."

"Guess so" Gary replied.

At this point they reached Professor Oak's pokeball storage facility. Ash went to get the pokeballs of Sceptile, Garchomp and Infernape while Gary went over to a different location in the room and got the pokeballs of Electivire, Umbreon, Magmar and Scizor. The both of them then left Professor Oak's lab together.

5 minutes later, on their way to viridian city a Pidgeot suddenly landed in front of them. Gary stunned at the docile way it was acting, and never having seen it as a Pidgeot asked Ash "do you know this Pidgeot Ash?"

"I don't know..." Ash then has a flashback to when he told his Pidgeot to stay with a flock of pidgey and Pidgeotto to protect them and then said to the Pidgeot in front of them "wait a minute, is that you, did you come back?" The Pidgeot, seemed to understand Ash and inclined it's head a little as if to answer Ash in the affirmative. Ash then flung his arms around it and said "good to see you again buddy. So the flock is safe then is it?" Pidgeot once again inclined it's head and this time made a cawing noise as if to add more weight to what it was saying. Ash then turned to Gary and said "so do you want a lift?"

"A lift, what do you mean?"

Ash then turned to Pidgeot and asked it "can you give a ride to Gary?" Pidgeot, once again, answered in the affirmative and turned around so it was facing away from Gary so he could get on its back. Ash then reached around to his belt, which had all his pokeballs on it, grabbed one and called out "Garchomp, I choose you" and threw the pokeball away a few feet. When the pokeball hit the ground, it opened up and Garchomp came out of, it then closed again and went back to Ash's hand. Ash then put it back in his belt and said to Garchomp "I'm gonna need a lift." Garchomp got on all fours and let Ash stand on its back before he took off.

Seeing Ash took off, Gary said to Pidgeot "fly Pidgeot." Soon enough Gary caught up to Ash, who had seen that he was pulling away from them and had told Garchomp to slow down a bit. Gary said to Ash "that Garchomp of yours is really fast."

Ash replied "yeah well, one of the things we worked on was its speed flying."

"I can tell, Pidgeot is supposed to be one of the fastest flyers around but your Garchomp blasted past it by miles."

"Yeah, well Garchomp jumped the gun a bit too, so that might have something to do with it."

"Possibly, so where are you going after Viridian?"

"Pewter City."

"Pewter City huh?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, I heard that your friend, you know that one that had the Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny issues, has taken over the gym again and is beating all comers. Misty's no pushover either."

"Well, that's no surprise."

"Heh, I guess you've reigned in that temper of yours after all."

"hngh, it's not only my Pokémon that've gotten stronger."

"I can tell.. ah, there's Viridian City."

"So it is, okay then, Garchomp, Pidgeot, let's go." The two Pokémon and their riders then began to circle down to land next to the Pokémon Centre. When they landed Gary said to Ash "you'd better put Pidgeot into a pokeball before someone tries to catch it."

Ash, having completely forgotten about that fact in the excitement of meeting his Pidgeot again gasped and said "oh god, I completely forgot." Garchomp and Gary had sweat drops appear on the side of their faces at that bit of information. Ash, seeing this got two pokeballs out, stretched out his arm with one of them in the respective hand and said "Garchomp return." He then got the other one and lobbed it at Pidgeot, the pokeball moved from side to side a few times and then clicked, signifying to them that Pidgeot was captured. Seeing that the recapture was successful Ash, once again lobbed the pokeball and called Pidgeot out. Pidgeot appeared out of the pokeball and Gary put his hand on the space between Pidgeot's neck and its wing and said "thanks for the lift Pidgeot." Pidgeot indicated that it was no problem for a friend of Ash's by nodding it's head and cawing. Ash then said to Pidgeot "right then, I'm gonna need you to give me a lift to Pewter City Pidgeot." Pidgeot, once again cawed and then turned its back to Ash, who after he got onto Pidgeot's back, turned to Gary and said "well, see you in a while."

"It'll be a full 6 on 6 battle, with substitutions allowed."

"Good to know, you better not lose till then Gary."

"Heh, sure thing Ashy-boy."

"What was that!?"

"Heh, just kidding. Seriously though, all of the Kanto gym leaders have gotten a lot stronger since we first took them on."

"Well, there'd be no point in doing this if they hadn't, would there?"

"I guess not. Well, as I said, see you soon."

"Yeah, see ya" Ash said, and then said to Pidgeot "right, onto Pewter City."