- Ever wondered what happened to Misty after Ash left the Kanto region? She had a lot of time to herself and decided maybe being a gym leader wasn't for her after all, and decided to set off on a new adventure…-

Prologue

A petite red-head stood completely still in a field, the warming wind blowing delicately on her pale skin. The trees shook lightly and the long grass rustled. Small creatures ran across the fields as far as the eye could see them, and the sun began to set on the horizon. It was summer. How long had she been there? She wondered to herself. Her red bike pressed up against a tree nearby, however this is not the first bike the girl had attained in the last two years. She looked over at the bike with a hint of sadness, her sea-blue eyes also had a glimmer of hope in them, that maybe a young dark-haired boy would run along any minute now and take it, like once before. It had been almost three years since he came into her life, since she travelled far and wide with him. She'd met so many new people, so many new companions, but now it was time to move on. She turned around to her bike and took one last look at the sunset and rode away towards Cerulean city, where the water-type pokemon gym waited for her.

As she arrived, she placed her bike on the wall and stepped towards the door. She shook the handle but it was motionless. Surprised, she reached into her bag and pulled out her key, placed it in the lock and walked inside. She was too distracted by what she saw on the table to take her key out of the door. She saw more keys. At that moment she read the note attached to them, it was a goodbye note from her sisters, saying how they had planned to go out on an adventure together, and leave the gym to her. She looked around almost expecting them to jump out and say 'joking!' but when a good ten seconds had passed, she picked up the keys and slipped them into her bag, along with the note.

As she walked up the stairs she realised that maybe she didn't want to be the only person at this gym anymore, and at that moment she felt a pang of jealousy for the dark-haired boy, who was in the Unova region by this point. She decided not to move on, but to join him once again.

Chapter One: The Gym Situation

Misty was awoken early that summers morning, after being up all night deciding how to track down her dear friend Ash, the harsh sunlight shone into her face from the window. She rolled on her side, attempting to shield herself from the un-wanted morning, but her alarm went off just as she did so. She reached out and grabbed the alarm clock and peered sleepily at the time.

"6am?" she shouted loudly, suddenly bolting upright and becoming so awake that she didn't realise her pokemon Psyduck fell from her bed. It hit it's head with a loud 'PSY'. Misty almost fell out of bed and got dressed quickly, then ran through the house grabbing her bag and poke balls in unison. As she bolted out the door, Psyduck followed slowly behind, plodding along. Misty had planned to leave the Kanto region today, but she had a major problem…new challengers would challenge the gym from all over the world everyday and if there was no gym leader, complaints would be made and she would ultimately lose her title completely. She had organised a competition in the town centre today at approximately 6:00am, to decide who will fill in for the Cerulean city gym leaders until one of them were to return. As she raced into the town square, the place was already filled with potential water-pokemon trainers. She skimmed their faces until she laid her eyes on a long blonde haired girl who looked young and fresh faced. She didn't know how well this girl would do, but there was something about her deep green eyes that had Misty drawn to her. She didn't look strong, but appearances can be misleading.

"You!" she shouted, pointing at the girl. The whole crowd stopped chattering and fell silent and turned around to stare at Misty. The blonde girl looked startled and pointed to herself puzzled. "yes, you. Blonde girl. Step into the middle, the rest of you make a large circle around her! She will be the first contestant." The crowd did as she said almost instantly but the girl was hesitant to move to the middle, after a concerning look from Misty, she did after a few minutes passed.

"U-Ummm…Misty-sama?" the girl chirped quietly. Misty looked up at her. "I don't think I'm ready to be a gym leader. I just…I just came here to watch in hope that I might get to meet you." Misty smiled at the girl.

"Don't doubt yourself yet, you haven't battled, I'm the one deciding who's going to be the new gym leader. There was a time when I was just like you, that's why I like you, now please prepare yourself." The girl nodded and reached for her poke balls. It appeared that she only owned two. Misty still continued to scan the large crowd for a stand-out face, until she stopped dead as she saw one she recognized. "Brock?" She shouted loudly from across the crowd. Brock looked up and smiled at her as she ran over to him. They greeted each other with a hug then Misty put her hand on her hip. "Listen, we need to catch up after this, I have…I have something to talk with you about."

"How about why you're giving up the gym?" Brock gestured towards the crowd gathered around them. Misty nodded.

"Listen, it has something to do with it, I'll explain all later." Brock sighed heavily then agreed. Misty smiled and ran back to the girl in the middle of the circle. She finally picked out a tall boy with long dark hair and bright blue eyes. She stepped back to the side and told them to begin their battle.

"So it's…" She looked at the girl first before looking to the boy standing opposite her.

"B." The boy said cooly.

"Rin" said the girl almost under her breath. Misty heard a few giggles in the crowd but chose to ignore them.

"Okay so it's B vs. Rin! Battle…start!" As soon as Misty's words hit the crowds ears, they cheered loudly and B reached into his pocket and threw his first poke ball.

"Do it Gyarados!" he shouted confidently. The pokemon roared loudly and Rin almost fell back with fear. After she contained herself she stepped forwards and threw her own poke ball timidly.

"Uhm…come on Dewott." as the pokemon appeared, the crowd looked on in interest as this was a Unova region pokemon. Misty became wide-eyed for a second, even she had never seen it before. B grumbled under his breath then looked smug.

"Who cares if she has a fancy pokemon? Gyarados is still going to take her down! Go Gyarados, use bite!" the dragon pokemon charged at Dewott alarmingly open mouthed. Rin shook her head and focused on Dewott.

"Dewott! Use razor shell!" as the pokemon used the powerful move, almost instantly knocking out B's Gyarados. B spat on the foor in disgust and pulled out a second poke ball.

"no matter! Plenty more where that came from!" said B as Misty and Brock as well as the other bystanders looked shocked by this new pokemon. Misty looked at the girl. She had potential but it was too soon to speak yet, as she had only defeated one pokemon. A highly-levelled Blastoise appeared from the poke ball from B's hand. Misty became more hooked on the pokemon battle now. "Blastoise! Use water gun now!" a powerful water gun hit Dewott with strong force, forcing Dewott to fall back.

"Oh no! Dewott!" The crowd roared as the battle became more interesting. Dewott got back on it's feet and looked ready to battle for Rin. They obviously had a strong friendship. "Use rock smash now!" shouted Rin. Dewott used the smashing punch move on Blastoise but it didn't seem to have much affect. B laughed and pointed towards Rin's pokemon with a smile.

"Use water gun again Blastoise and finish it!" shouted B. Rin gasped and quickly thought about how she could counter attack, but not quick enough that Blastoise had knocked out her Dewott. She ran to it's side and sympathetically told it to return. B made a half smile and Rin sighed, throwing out her last pokemon.

"Okay Emolga, it's up to you!" the flying/electric mouse pokemon appeared. The crowd craned their necks to get a good look at it. People were using their cameras and a few of Professor Oak's students tried to use their pokedex to get some info, but this was a pokemon from the Unova region again. Misty had a thought at this point, that maybe it would be best for Rin to come along with Misty in her search for Ash in the Unova region, she could be a great help if she was from there and knew about the pokemon, also she was a strong trainer, but maybe not suited for a gym. On the other hand she thought B would make a good gym leader, but she would want him to battle a few more people in the crowd first. The two pokemon fought until Blastoise fainted, along with B's three other pokemon who were weak against Rin's Emolga. B looked annoyed and was about to walk into the crowd when Misty ran over and grabbed his arm.

"Wait B! I need you to battle more people." She explained to him. He looked at her confused.

"But…I just lost to a little girl." he said. Gesturing towards Rin's new popularity in the crowd. Misty shook her head and called Rin over.

"Listen B, I think you have the potential to be the gym leader here. I want you to battle more trainers until I'm satisfied you have enough power, Rin, I need you to help me find a friend in the Unova region. You're from there right?" Rin nodded. "Great." B stepped back into the circle and battled more and more trainers until Misty was satisfied he was the one.

After a few hours had passed, she showed him around the gym, told him how to deal with things and gave him the gym badges to be given out to winning challengers. He thanked her and she said she would come back and check on him in a few weeks to make sure he was doing okay. As it became late morning, she met up with Brock and then him, Rin and herself went to lunch to discuss her plans for the rest of the day. As they arrived, Misty sat down across the table to Brock with Rin next to her. They ordered their food and Misty got straight down to business.

"Listen Brock, this is Rin. She's going to help me on my adventure in the Unova region." Misty explained, gesturing to the blonde girl beside her. "Rin, Brock is a good friend of mine."

"How do you do Brock" said Rin as she smiled timidly at him. Brock smiled back and started to talk.

"The Unova region, eh? Why do you want to go there? If you're hoping to get gym badges then wouldn't it make more sense to go to the Johto first?" Brock asked, looking confused. Misty shook her head as a waitress placed their drinks on the table. Brock became enhanced with the beautiful waitress and completely lost track of conversation. Misty became agitated.

"Brock are you listening!" Brock looked up startled and Misty laughed. "Haven't changed a bit, eh? The reason I want to go to the Unova region is because I want to find Ash! It's been such a long time!" Brock's interest rose at this point.

"I guess that is where he would be by now…how long has it been? Two years?" Brock looked across the table at his red-headed friend.

"Almost three." Misty showed sadness in her blue eyes. Brock looked nostalgic.

"Ash?" added Rin. Misty and Brock both looked at her quickly.

"Yes Ash…Ash Ketchum. He's a very good friend of ours. Do you know him?" Misty looked hopeful but Rin shook her head.

"No I don't, I have heard of him though, you see my sister Elena is the electric gym leader in Unova and she battled him only yesterday. She told me before I came here to see you." Misty and Brock looked at each other.

"Do you think you'd know where we could find him then?" Misty asked excitedly. Rin nodded.

"I have a good idea. He'll be heading for his forth badge now. We'd better leave for Unova today, if we have any hope of catching him. It's a long journey." Both Misty and Brock exchanged an excited look.

"Are you in then Brock? Do you want to come too?" Brock smiled and Misty knew instantly it was going to be a yes. Later on that day, all three of them boarded the boat that would take them to Castelia City in the Unova region, where hopefully, they would be able to find Ash.