A/N:
This story takes place in an alternate timeline near the end of the B/W anime series.
Ash ages accordingly from his first anime appearance.
Red's Party: Charizard, Pikachu, Gengar, Lapras, Articuno, Espeon, and Snorlax
Ash's Party: Charizard, Pikachu, Krookodile, Torterra, Oshawott, Starraptor, and Victini
"I've had enough," Ash had said.
Ash Ketchum was a 23-year pokemon trainer. He had journeyed around five different regions and encountered a lot of pokemon.
He had received all of the region's gym badges, and was the champion of the Hoenn Battle Frontier and the Orange League. He was also champ in a lot of other tournaments and events.
He had encountered a lot of legendary pokemon, and also had many bouts with Team Rocket. But he decided that his journey around the world of Pokemon finally ended.
His last companions, Iris, now a Dragon Master, and currently in Blackthorn City, and Cilan, a gym leader in Striaton City, now somewhere in Johto had left long ago.
He was going to follow Alexa to the Kalos Region, but something had made Ash want to go back home, and stop the adventure.
"You're not going to Kalos anymore?" Alexa had asked.
"After much thinking, I've decided it's time I settled back at home in Pallet Town. Besides, Professor Oak asked me to work at the lab," Ash had said.
"Then I wish you good luck, but I wonder whatever happened with 'I wanna be the Pokemon Master'"? Alexa had asked.
"I feel like the task is unachievable, and I've already done much that would make me feel like one already, I'm sure the Pokemon at home miss me, and I miss them, and I'm tired from all the journeying," Ash had replied.
Alexa only gave him a simple nod and headed off to the Kalos Region. But Ash didn't even know if the decision was right, or if it would even last.
A month later, Ash was back in Kanto.
His return and announcement of stopping his journey had shocked most of his friends there. But eventually they learned to accept the truth and live on.
"I'm looking forward to battle you!" Gary Oak had said.
"Come visit your Pokemon soon!" Professor Oak said.
Before he knew it, a day had already passed since his return.
Oak had asked the night before for him to come to the lab, something Ash knew he should do soon.
As he got dressed, he woke his very first pokemon and friend, Pikachu up.
"Pika..?" the small electric mouse grumbled.
"Time to go see all our old friends," Ash said.
Pikachu only nodded in agreement. It seemed the tiredness of the journey had an effect on him too.
As Ash started opening the door, his mother, Delia, appeared out of the kitchen.
"Going to see all your old friends?" Delia asked.
"Yeah," Ash said in a simple voice.
"Come back safely!" Delia shouted.
"Okay!" Ash replied. As Ash walked to the lab, he saw the mailman walk by. Curious, Ash stared at the mailman as he walked over to his house and put a wrinkled letter in the box.
"Pika-Pika!" Pikachu said in an angry voice.
"Who would have the decency to put a wrinkled piece of paper in the mail box…?" Ash asked himself. He pushed the thought away and went to the door.
As Ash opened it, he saw two familiar faces.
"SURPRISE!" they said.
"J-J-James? And J-J-J-Jesse?" Ash asked.
Without a doubt, it was the two Team Rocket members. Ash hadn't seen them for a month, which had seemed like a good thing, but if they were going to be in Professor Oak's lab, surely they would've had a crazy disguise.
But something was different, they weren't even hiding.
"What's going on here?" Ash asked. Pikachu suddenly got angry and growled as electricity grew around his cheeks.
"Oh, Team Rocket disbanded after many of their plans kept failing, especially because of us," James admitted.
"But I think that we found something better to do, which was to help Professor Oak!" Jesse said.
"Meowth! That's right!" a third familiar voice said.
"Wobbuffet!" a fourth voice also yelled.
Pikachu looked at Ash in confusion, as if he were waiting for a reply to zap them or not.
"Stand down, Pikachu. I think they aren't bad guys anymore," Ash said, patting Pikachu.
Pikachu calmed, but kept a suspicious look at the former Team Rocket members.
"ASH!" another voice said.
It was Professor Oak.
"You came!" Oak said.
"Of course," Ash replied. But as he glanced around, he said "Why is James and Jesse here?"
"They came with glad tidings! I hired them to be lab workers, and they turned out to be excellent!" Oak said.
"I'm not so convinced," Ash admitted.
"Then you haven't been seeing the news boy! They disbanded after you quit your journey and some other stuff happened," Oak said.
"That's good I guess, but where's Giovanni?" Ash asked.
"He went into his secluded beach house," James said.
"Cool," Ash said.
"Everyone else went looking for a job," Meowth added.
"Yeah, thanks for the information," Ash said, slightly smiling.
"Now that that's done, let's go see all your Pokemon," Oak said, beckoning Ash to follow him. James, Jesse, and Meowth followed them.
After a while, Ash stepped out of the laboratory, intending on battling Gary. He brought along Krookadile, Charizard, Torterra, Oshawott, Starraptor, and Victini came out of nowhere and decided to follow him; and of course he had Pikachu with him. But before he battled with Gary, Ash wanted to check out what the wrinkled letter was all about.
As he opened the mailbox, it was empty.
"Mother must've gotten a hold of it," Ash said to Pikachu. The Pokemon sniffed at the fact.
As Ash opened his door, his mom was right at the door.
"This was for you, apparently the sender said that this was only for you to read and nobody else," Delia said.
"I'll look at it," Ash said, grabbing the letter.
As Ash closed the door in his room, he already felt that something big and challenging was coming up. A renewed sense of adventure, but Ash didn't quite know what it was.
Ash then opened the letter, which had a mysterious stone in it. There was also a paper with words…
"Let's see this…" Ash read out loud.
"Dear Ash Ketchum,
I am sure that you are reading this alone, if not, then go somewhere secluded and start reading.
I'm requesting a battle with you, at the burnt fields and the lake near Route 1. You better be there, and if not I'm sending a Pokemon to pick you up.
Inside this letter is also a Mega Stone, something you have probably never heard of. It's used on a certain Pokemon, some Pokemon you'll find out soon enough. I expect you to use it in the battle.
You have one hour to get there, and until then you cannot contact any other person or ask Professor Oak about the stone or whoever has given you this letter. Forget your battle with Gary Oak, you don't need to worry about that. I'm your biggest problem and probably your biggest challenge yet.
The battle is a 6 on 6 battle, and once one Pokemon on either side loses both trainers transition to the next one. May the best trainer win…"
Ash felt like it was a trap, but something in his mind told him to go. Ash had never backed down from a challenge, and he wasn't going to start today.
"Pikachu, let's battle this trainer," Ash said.
"Pika!" Pikachu agreed.
As Ash neared the burnt fields, he was trapped in a big fog.
"What's with this fog…?" Ash asked angrily, trying to push through and see.
Just then, Ash saw a blue beam of pure ice coming straight at him, and Ash dodged it. The fog started clearing afterwards.
"What was that…?" Ash asked. And then Ash saw a familiar giant blue bird.
"Articuno?" Ash stammered.
As the fog cleared more, a trainer with similar clothing to Ash was revealed, with an Articuno flapping its wings above him. What was more shocking was a Pikachu on his shoulders.
"Who are you?" Ash asked.
The trainer didn't reply, only signaling for Articuno to halt. The trainer then released a Charizard, who then melted the ice on the lake. The ice floor then turned into water. And then, the trainer took out a Pokeball and out came a Lapras.
"Hmm, in that case, let's go Oshawott!" Ash exclaimed, releasing Oshawott into the water.
"A water battle," Ash said quietly, the other trainer nodded.
"Before we begin…I'm Red, now let the battle commence," Red said.
"Alright!" Ash said. "Oshawott! Use Water Gun!"
"Dodge it!" Red replied. Oshawott shot a scream of water at the Lapras, but it simply veered away from it and came towards Oshawott.
"Body Slam!" Red said. The Lapras hit Oshawott with the side of its body, causing Oshawott to fly back a bit.
"Oshawott! Hit back with Razor Shell!" Ash yelled.
Oshawott took his shell off and then started to charge his shell…Oshawott leaped up into the air and brought the shell down on the Lapras with full force. Lapras tried to dodge, but Oshawott had made Lapras move back a bit.
"I see," Red said. "Lapras! Hydro Pump!"
"Oshawott! Counter with your own Hydro Pump!" Ash said. The two Pokemon blasted a large beam of water at each other's direction. It was a standoff, but Lapras had the other hand.
"Oshawott! I have an idea! Use your shell to shield yourself!" Ash said.
Oshawott then got his shell out and held it at his front, shielding him from Lapras's attack, but it was getting pushed back.
"Now! Aqua Jet!" Ash yelled.
Oshawott then lunged at the Lapras with great speed, and pushed through Lapras's Hydro Pump and struck Lapras, making it faint.
"I win the first one!" Ash declared. Red nodded.
"You did good over there, Lapras, get some rest," Red said, kneeling down at his Lapras' side, then returning it to its Pokeball.
"You too Oshawott," Ash said, doing the same.
"Now, let's continue this battle," Red said.
"I'm up for it," Ash said with a determined look.
"Gengar, you're up," Red said, throwing another Pokeball on the floor.
"Gengar!" the Gengar exclaimed.
"Hmm, let's go! Krookadile!" Ash yelled.
The two pokemon glared at each other before they ran at each other.
"Gengar! Dark Pulse!" Red cried.
"Krookadile! Dodge it! Then use Crunch!" Ash yelled.
After exchanging some moves back and forth, Ash had won the second battle. The battles kept going on for hours, which both trainers exhausted.
Red had managed to win against Ash's Torterra, Starraptor, and Charizard X with his Snorlax, Espeon, and Charizard Y, respectively. Ash's Victini and Red's Articuno had knocked both of themselves out, making it a tie and the score 3 to all.
Ash learned to use the Mega Stone, and since Red used it on his Charizard, Ash had did the same. After much fire-breathing and flying, it was Ash's Charizard that went down.
"It's the final battle! Come on out Pikachu!" Red shouted.
"You get out there too buddy!" Ash said to his own Pikachu.
The two Pikachus glared at each other before both Red and Ash commanded them to use Quick Attack. The speedy Pokemon darted back and forth, each trying to make a proper hit.
"Pikachu! Use Electro Ball!" Ash said. Pikachu charged up a ball of electricity and hurled it at Red's Pikachu.
"Use Iron Tail to hit it back at him Pika!" Red commanded.
"Hit it back at him with the same move!" Ash countered.
Both Pikachus kept passing the Electro Ball back and forth with their Iron Tails, like a game of soccer. Except if one of the Pokemon is hit, they'll take actual damage.
Ash's Pikachu managed to hit Red's Pikachu, but the latter jumped high in the air and smacked Ash's Pikachu in the face with an Iron Tail. The Pikachus jumped back and without a command from their trainers, they used Thunderbolt. Their energies created a thunderstorm, causing the residents of Pallet Town to wonder how the nice weather suddenly turned bad.
The two Pikachus were at a standoff, each trying to overpower the other. Both of them cut off the attack at the exact same time, and started to rush at each other at full speed.
"VOLT TACKLE!" both trainers yelled. The Pikachus shrouded themselves in electricity and crashed into each other. A great wave of electricity spread across the town, shutting down most of its electricity.
"Goddamn it! I was gonna watch some trainer beat the Kalos Region's Pokemon League!" a loud resident yelled in fury.
As the dust and electricity cleared, both Pikachus were still standing, but barely. After struggling to get up, both of them fainted.
On the other hand, Red and Ash weren't looking so good either, each one with ragged clothes and caps. But they both had a great big smile on their face, knowing that it was a good battle with a good outcome.
After washing up and cleaning up and healing their Pokemon, they sat on Ash's rooftop.
"Would you consider going back to a trainer?" Red asked.
"No, I've already made my decision, I'm going to try doing something else," Ash replied.
"Like what?" Red asked.
"I'm still thinking," Ash said.
"I've recently decided to pause on the journey, it's taken a large toll on me. How bout we do somethin' together?" Red suggested.
"Really?" Ash asked.
"Yeah, it'll be fun," Red remarked.
"Then I guess we're all set, let's go meet with Misty, then find Brock and we'll have a hike. Afterwards, we'll go to Liberty Garden and explore," Ash decided.
"Sounds great to me!" Red exclaimed.
They both got down from the rooftop, said goodbye to Oak and the two former team rocket members, Jesse and James. From there, they walked down the dirt path to find Misty in Cerulean City, not as random stranger/rivals, but as good friends.