What's up guys and gals, Busenburg here! I want to welcome you to my retelling of Ash's adventures beginning with Hoenn. I know, I know, it isn't an uncommon story, but every retelling is made unique by the person writing it. With that said, I hope y'all give this a try. Fair warning, I am not terribly great at writing the beginning of stories. It has always been hard for me to get a story started, with that said I aim to get better with each chapter. Well, enough of my rambling, please enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer – I don't own pokemon.

The Journey Continues

It's been a few days since the end of his journey through Johto with Brock and Misty, the emotions of the day they went their separate ways still very real to him. Ash laid in his bed, the gifts from his friends laying on his nightstand and Pikachu asleep next to him. He had been spending his time with his mom, his pokemon, and at Professor Oak's lab, but he had gotten to a point where the urge for adventure was gnawing at him. The dilemma he faced with this wanderlust is that he wanted to be more prepared for his next adventure since he had decided this would be his first adventure without Misty or Brock traveling with him. He knew of the Hoenn region thanks to Harrison and knew that he wanted to go there, but he wanted to learn of the region first. By the time he made up his mind, the sun had set and night had fallen on the rural town of Pallet. Knowing that Professor Oak would be able to help, he decided, before he fell asleep, that he would visit the lab in the morning.

The sun rose early in the morning as Ash and Pikachu left for the lab. As he entered the lab, he ran into Tracey, who was organizing research for the Professor. "Hey Tracey!"

"Hey Ash," the pokemon watcher did his best to wave with his hands full, "What can I do for you?"

"I was wondering where Professor Oak is." Pikachu nodded his head confirming this thought.

"He is out in the field doing research," Tracey, out of habit, motioned to the back doors.

"Thanks Trace!" Ash and Pikachu walked out to the field full of pokemon. The two spotted the older man observing a group of paras and approached him from behind, "Hey Professor, do you have any information on the Hoenn region?"

The older man, taken aback from not hearing Ash approach, turned to face the young trainer, "I have a bit Ash, what kind of information are you looking for?"

"I was hoping to learn about the Pokemon League and landmarks there, and what pokemon are in the region." Ash and Pikachu looked eagerly at the pokemon expert.

"Well, I unfortunately haven't had the privilege to study pokemon from the region, but I do have a colleague in Hoenn. I could ask him for more information on the region," the professor paused for a moment before asking a question of his own. "Ash, normally you just jump straight into a new adventure. Why are you gathering information on the region?"

The trainer thought for a moment before answering, "Well, I guess I want to plan my adventure beforehand and learn more about the pokemon I have; which brings me to another request I have."

"What is the request?" Oak looked at the trainer quizzically.

"Can you teach me more about pokemon?" The trainer and mouse looked with determination at the professor.

He stood there for a moment before a proud smile broke out on his face, "Absolutely Ash! Gary comes here every morning at eight. You can join him in his studies! You can also help Tracey in caring for the pokemon here at the lab!"

Ash and Pikachu jumped a good couple of feet in the air before yelling thanks at the older man and running home.

Ash entered his home and was met by the smell of his mom and her mr. mime making lunch. He immediately went to the kitchen to tell his mom the news, "Mom! I am going to be going to Professor Oak's lab every morning to learn from him about pokemon before I start my new journey!"

His mom smiled at him and wrapped him in a strong hug, "Oh that is wonderful sweetie!"

"Mom… your crushing… me," Ash managed to get out words while Pikachu jumped off his shoulders onto the table to converse with mr. mime.

"Oh, sorry sweetie," she let her son go and continued to cook with a smile on her face. After a few moments, she placed the meal on the table. It was a casserole of various vegetables with a mouthwatering aroma.

Ash and Pikachu immediately began devouring food until they were full. After a moment of idle conversation, he made a request, "Mom, I am going solo on this new journey. With that in mind, I would like to learn how to cook."

Delia smiled from ear-to-ear with excitement and wrapped her arms around her son once more. After Ash struggled for a moment, she released her grip, "Yes! I would love to teach you to cook! We can do cooking lessons after you come from the lab every day!" She had already thought of several things to teach him as they continued to talk until Ash decided to go tell his pokemon of his decision.

The next couple of weeks were spent with a consistent schedule for Ash and his pokemon. In the mornings, he would meet up with Gary and the professor studying pokemon habitats, eating habits, etc. This was improved upon by Oak's colleague, Prof. Birch, sending information of pokemon native to Hoenn. They would then take a break from studying. Ash used this break to meet with his pokemon and have them practice new techniques and battle each other to improve their ability to react to battle situations. He would also help Tracey during this time in dispersing the various foods for the different types of pokemon. This would be followed by him going home and his mom giving him cooking lessons. She also mixed in some lessons in manners since he wouldn't have Misty or Brock to correct him in social situations.

During this time, Ash made a couple of phone calls and was reunited with his charizard, squirtle, and primeape. Those three pokemon were eager for a new adventure and were in a position that they had learned as much as they could where they were training. During a few training sessions, his squirtle, cyndaquil, and bulbasaur all evolved. Each were impressed with their new forms and the power that came with evolving. All his pokemon congratulated them on their new forms. This, however, made Pikachu start to seriously consider evolving, especially when bulbasaur evolved. After a few more training sessions, Pikachu remembered that on their first adventure Ash had obtained a thunderstone from the Nurse Joy in Vermillion City. While Ash was assisting Tracey one day, Pikachu went with ivysaur to find the stone. After some searching, they found it in Ash's nightstand wrapped in white cloth. They took it back to the field behind Oak's lab and all the pokemon gathered around Pikachu and the stone.

"Are you sure this is what you want to do?" Ivysaur asked the question that was on everyone else's mind. They had been just sitting there for five minutes, but it felt like an eternity. Pikachu was clearly still deciding if this is what he wants.

"You don't have to evolve y'know, but I believe you are as strong as you will ever get without evolving," charizard offered his input as well with several of the others agreeing with the statement.

"I know I don't have to, but, like you said, I'm as strong as I will ever get," Pikachu looked at his teammates and then to the stone several times before he just closed his eyes and touched the stone.

The sound of a pokemon evolving caught Ash and Tracey's attention causing them to rush over to the clearing Ash's pokemon commonly used to train.

After a few moments of bright light, an orange mouse was stood in the middle of a group of pokemon. Raichu opened his eyes and looking at his teammates. Wartortle walked up to the mouse, "Well? How do you feel?"

"I feel a bit stronger," he looked over his new form noticing he was slightly taller than before.

"Well, give it a test," primeape walked over to a large rock and gestured to it. Raichu nodded at the fighting type and felt the electricity coursing through him before he unleashed a thunderbolt more powerful than he had ever been able to achieve. It easily blasted the rock into many pieces. "Holy shit!" The pig monkey pokemon jumped out of the way of the incoming rock pieces.

"Sorry!" Raichu looked where the rock was and the charred ground around it from the electricity of the attack.

"Don't apologize! That was incredible!" The fighting type walked back over to the group and held out a fist to the electric mouse, to which raichu fist bumped with a proud smile on his face.

Ash and Tracey made it through the trees to the clearing just in time to see an orange mouse launch an incredible thunderbolt at a rock causing the rock to just blow apart. "Whoa!" Both Tracey and Ash exclaimed in awe of the power that was displayed. Ash looked back at the group of pokemon, specifically at the orange mouse among them, "Pika- I mean, Raichu is this what you wanted?" The mouse looked at him and nodded with affirmation. "Well then, I can't wait to see what else your new evolution is capable of," Ash stepped forward to his new Raichu and rubbed his head feeling the static come off his fur. Tracey reminded Ash that they needed to finish tending to the other pokemon first before he could begin training with them. The rest of the day went as planned with Ash doing more testing of his best friend's new form than real training.

After a month of learning and training had past, Ash was ready to begin his new adventure. He and Raichu woke up early, like usual, and grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading to the lab.

Ash walked in the doors of the lab met by silence. No Tracey, Gary, or Professor in sight or in any of the rooms. He walked out to the clearing his pokemon stayed in only to find that all but ivysaur and phanpy were missing. "Hey guys, where is everyone else?" Ivysaur and phanpy just made gestures that would indicate everyone was just relaxing elsewhere. Ash took the answer and decided to do the same. He sat with phanpy, ivysaur, and raichu and just enjoyed the calm breeze that would sweep through the trees from time to time.

At some point, Ash had laid down and fallen asleep waking up sometime around five in the afternoon. The sun was close to setting as he looked around and saw his three pokemon all resting near him. He was going to just let them rest but the roar of his stomach caused the three to be drawn out of their dreams. As they awoke, their stomachs also began to growl having slept through a good part of the day. "Guess we are all hungry," Ash and his pokemon chuckled, "I bet mom has leftovers at the house! Let's go get some!" The pokemon cheered and followed Ash back home.

Ash walked in the door expecting to immediately be hugged by his mom, but was instead embraced by the same silence as the lab. "Huh, this is weird. First, no Professor Oak, Gary, or Tracey; now no mom or mr. mime? Where is everyone?"

Ash continued to look around the house while his three pokemon stayed in the living room. "Ya know, it is nice that Ash is stalling time for us," Ivysaur hopped on the couch and spoke to the other two.

"True, but he will start checking around town soon. I hope they finish setting up before he gets close," Raichu also took a seat on the couch.

"Why are we keeping him away from everyone again?" Phanpy, still a bit young, was still confused by the concept of a surprise party.

"We are trying to surprise him with a birthday party, if he finds out before it is set up and everyone is ready the whole party is ruined," Ivysaur tried to make it sound more dramatic by emphasizing the word ruined.

"Oh okay, I gotcha!" The long nose pokemon began to move around with excitement and pride having been giving such an important job.

"Well, I guess mom went out to the market or something since we appear to be out of food. We will just walk around town and find something I guess," Ash was very confused where everyone was but wasn't too worried about it. He figured they would pop up eventually.

After about an hour of walking around town, Ash spotted one of his childhood friends walking down the lamp lit road as night had finally fallen, "Hey Leaf!"

The girl turned to face him and waved him over. She had beautiful long brown hair coming down from a white hat bearing a red stripe around it and a red half pokeball, a light blue tank top with black trim, a red skirt, light blue socks, and red and white sneakers. "Hey Ash, what are you up to?" She was kind of nervous talking to Ash, always has been, but managed to find a way to get used to talking to him since Ash stuck around Pallet a bit longer this time around.

"Nothing just out walking," Ash realized at that moment that Leaf is the first person he has seen all day. "Leaf, do you know why no one is around today? I have I missed something?"

She couldn't help but giggle a bit, "Here, follow me!" She turned and led him to town hall.

Ash looked around confused as to why they were at town hall, but he continued to follow Leaf inside. At some point, he lost her and just started wandering around looking for her, he opened the back door to the building, that normally was just opened to an empty field, to everyone in town yelling surprise to him. "What's going on?" Ash looked around at the tents and lights set up under the moonlit sky confused.

"Oh, come on Ashy boy, you don't know what today is?" Gary approached from his left alongside the Professor and Delia.

"Should I know?" Ash, still confused, felt bad he forgot something apparently important.

"Sweetie, today is your birthday," as Delia told him, Ash felt a wave of embarrassment wash over him. "Happy birthday honey!" She pulled Ash into one of her famous bone crushing hugs.

After she let go, Ash looked around amazed that the whole town helped put this together for him. He saw his pokemon intermingling with the local's pokemon and told the three with him to go ahead over there while he visited around with everyone. Ash walked around thanking everyone and enjoying himself before his journey began. He spent a good portion of his time with Gary and Leaf talking about what they planned to do. Gary was going to help his grandpa at the lab with research while Leaf said she will head out in a couple of weeks to Hoenn to start her new journey. After the party died down, Ash went back home with raichu thinking of the new adventure they would be starting tomorrow.

The next morning came rather quickly due to how late the party ran last night. Ash woke up mildly tired but excited that today was the day for his new journey. He and raichu went downstairs in no real rush since he didn't have any lessons or training today, and his boat wouldn't leave till three in the afternoon. "Good morning mom," Ash entered the kitchen and was immediately smacked with the pleasant aroma of his mom's home cooking.

"Good morning sweetie," Delia smiled at her son and set the last of the food she prepared for breakfast. "Are you ready for today?"

"We are more than ready!" Ash and raichu displayed their confidence with fists raised before they began eating. The lessons in manners Delia had run him through had taken effect has Ash didn't just destroy his food, though he did still eat at a rather speedy pace.

"Do you have any plans before you head to Vermillion to catch your ship?" Delia asked as if hoping Ash would be out of the house for a bit.

Ash didn't notice and just responded normally, "I was going to help Tracey and relax with my pokemon today before heading out. I'll need to stop back by for some things I'm taking with me though."

"Sounds wonderful! I'll see you in a little while!" Delia waved her son out the door before having mr. mime bring out her sewing supplies.

Ash and Raichu went out to the field to help Tracey tend to all the pokemon one more time. After tending to everyone, he went to the clearing his pokemon were staying at. Some were training while others were just resting or visiting. Raichu went over to phanpy, ivysaur, and totodile, while Ash went to work with wartortle and Quilava. After a little while, Gary, Tracey, and the Professor came out to the clearing.

"Hey Ash!" Ash turned to see the group heading his way.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Ash walked to them meeting them roughly in the middle of the clearing.

"We were just wanting to say one last goodbye before you head to the Hoenn region," the older man spoke for the group and gestured behind him to a large portion of the pokemon at the lab who had followed the group there.

"You have done a lot to help us out and we will miss you around the lab," the pokemon watcher gave a slight bow of gratitude.

The group then went silent for a moment before Gary spoke up, "Ash, you know I don't do goodbyes, so I will send you off the only way I know how." Ash looked at Gary confused before noticing him reach for a pokeball. A grin crept on Gary's face, "I challenge you to a pokemon battle!"

"I accept!" Ash grinned as well while he ran through his pokemon deciding who he wanted to use.

"You two never cease with this rivalry," the Professor chuckled slightly, "Very well, I will act as referee for this match," Professor Oak stepped over to the side with Tracey next to him to give Ash and Gary room.

The other pokemon of the lab gathered around in the trees and on the grass to watch. Ash looked over to his pokemon and pondered before deciding on heracross. "Okay Gary, I have chosen my pokemon. Are you ready?"

Gary held out a pokeball with a confident grin, "You know I'm ready."

"Trainers, choose your pokemon!"

"Go Heracross!" Heracross flew on the field in front of ash.

Gary threw his pokeball at the same time, "Let's go magmar!" The spitfire pokemon stood on the field in front of Gary. When the pokemon saw each other, they each gave a look of respect before getting in a fighting position.

"Well, it looks like we will have a rematch from the Silver Conference Gary!"

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

The two trainers grinned with excitement waiting on the Professor to give the word, "Battle begin!"

"Heracross, use double team!" Heracross created many copies of itself surrounding the fire type.

"Trying to confuse magmar, eh? It won't work! Magmar cut through the copies with flamethrower then follow that up with fire punch!" The fire type launched streams of fire at all the copies forcing the real heracross to have to dodge the stream leaving it wide open for the fire punch. The hit knocked the bug into the air leaving a scorched mark on its side.

"Stop yourself with your wings!" Heracross caught itself before it hit the ground, instead hovering in place, "use take down followed up with brick break!" The bug launched toward magmar at an impressive speed catching him off guard. Heracross slammed into the fire types side knocking him into the air for a moment before slamming him to the ground with a glowing white arm.

"Magmar, use flamethrower while its close!" As soon as the fire type hit the ground, he opened his eyes and launched a stream of fire at the single-horn pokemon three feet away.

Heracross crossed his arms to try and block the attack to no avail. The stream engulfed the bug type launching it back to the other side of the field. "Heracross, are you okay?" Ash called out in worry. Heracross stood up on shaky legs, his body glowing a slight red. Ash's worry subsided, "It's over now Gary."

"What do you mean?" Gary was visibly confused by Ash's shift from worry to confidence. His pokemon was on its last leg with one more attack dropping it. "Never mind, Magmar use smokescreen!" The fire type filled most the field with black clouds of smoke.

"Heracross, fly near the top of the smokescreen." The pokemon flew above the smoke waiting for Ash's next instructions.

"Now! Use fire punch!" The fire type jumped out of the smoke with a fist of flames aiming for the airborne bug.

"Brick break!" Heracross launched itself toward magmar with its right arm glowing a brighter white than before.

The two pokemon each managed to nail the other with their respective attacks launching each other to the ground on their sides.

"Heracross!"

"Magmar!"

The two pokemon remained motionless on the ground. "Both pokemon are unable to battle, this battle ends in a draw!" Professor Oak raised both his arms.

Ash pulled heracross' pokeball from his belt and returned him, Gary followed suit. Tracey ran over to the two trainers, "Here I'll heal up your pokemon!" He took the two balls and ran to the lab.

"That was an excellent battle you two!" Oak applauded the two trainers.

"Thanks gramps, but I need to have my pokemon work on reacting to attacks," Gary put his hands in his pockets with a satisfied smirk.

"I need to work with my pokemon that have limited evasive moves to protect them from taking so much damage," Ash made a mental note to work on that more in Hoenn. "Anyway, thanks for a great battle Gary!" He held out his hand which Gary returned the gesture.

"Anytime Ash, you better go far in the Pokemon League in Hoenn so I don't feel as bad about this draw!" Gary gave Ash a pat on the shoulder with the same smirk.

"I will! No doubt about it!" Ash gave the same confident grin he gave his mom that morning. His pokemon all called out as well radiating the same confidence.

Tracey came back out with both pokeballs, "they should be good to move around, but I would avoid any serious battling for a few days."

"Thanks Tracey!" Ash returned the pokeball to his belt. "Hey professor, what time is it?"

The older man checked his watch, "It's five till ten, what time does your boat head out?"

"At three o'clock, I suppose I should go gather some things before heading out!" Ash was about to head back to his house but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Actually Ash, I have a surprise for you. You come as well Gary," Oak led them back into the lab and into a room with complex looking machines. "Would you two please hand me your pokedexes?" Both handed their devices to the professor and after a few minutes received solid red devices with a pokeball design on the end with the center circle being a light blue. "Boys, this is the most up-to-date version of the pokedex. Every new trainer in the Hoenn region starts with this particular model, I already transferred your data from your previous dex into the new one!"

"Wow thanks professor!" Ash already flipped his open and was working through some of the new features of the dex.

Gary looked confused at the device, "Uh Gramps, why did I get one? I'm just helping you research."

"Well Gary, it's true I need someone to research pokemon for me, but I know you enjoy the thrill of traveling. This way you can still travel and help me!" The professor smiled as he watched a smile grow on his grandson's face.

"Thanks Gramps!" Gary began playing with the device a bit to figure out what else was new other than the design.

"One more thing boys," the two trainers stopped playing with their dexes, "I have also increased the amount of pokemon you can have on you at a time. You two can now have nine pokemon on you at any given time!"

"Really?!" The two were blown away thinking that the limit for pokemon was always six no matter what.

"Well, it'll help with research and with training. It's a win-win the way I see it," the older man checked his watch once more.

"Ash, you should probably get going if you plan on getting there early!"

"Oh, you're right! Thanks again professor!" Ash ran out the door back toward his house.

"Good luck Ash!" The two Oaks waved at the raven-haired trainer.

Ash ran in the door to his home, "Hey Mom, I'm home!"

Right as he spoke, Delia came out from the living room, "Hello sweetie, are you gathering your things?"

Ash nodded, "I'll be back down in a second, thankfully I don't have much to gather!" He ran upstairs leaving a dust cloud behind him.

"Mr. mime, go get it!" Mr. mime saluted and brought out a figure covered in a sheet.

After a few moments, Ash returned downstairs to his mom, her pokemon, and a sheet covering something, "Uh, what's that?"

"Just a little something I have been working on," she revealed a mannequin wearing stone washed blue jeans, a black t-shirt, a light gray jacket with a red pokemon league logo on the back, a red hat with a white pokeball design, and black and white sneakers. The figure also had a black, green, and white plaid patterned backpack. "Ta-da!"

"Wow!" Ash was speechless, he was so use to the outfit he wore for his first three adventures that he didn't give changing his appearance a second thought.

"Well, go try it on!" His mom handed him the clothes off the mannequin and waited in the living room for her son to return.

"Okay, how do I look?" Ash returned in his new outfit looking over himself.

"You look handsome," Delia pulled Ash into a bone-crushing hug for a moment before releasing him, not wanting to wrinkle the new clothes. "I did add extra pockets on the inside of the jacket since you can carry more pokemon with you now."

"Professor Oak told you?"

"He informed me yesterday," Delia smiled before looking at the clock. "Oh, you should get going sweetie, wouldn't want you to be late!" She hugged him once more before ushering him out the door waving goodbye.

Ash returned to his pokemon in the clearing, "Okay everyone, it's time for our new adventure to begin. Letting you all know, the professor increased my pokemon capacity to nine. With that said I am only taking six of you until I make it to the first town outside of Littleroot Town, which I believe is Oldale Town." All the pokemon looked around excitedly at each other, "Would anyone like to volunteer to stay here until that point?" Snorlax raised his arm followed by heracross who wanted to relax a few days. Kingler, ivysaur, and the tauros Ash decided to keep, leaving the rest for the research of the professor, also volunteered, leaving ten to choose from. "Okay then, in addition to raichu and charizard, I will be taking primeape, bayleef, noctowl, and totodile. Everyone else I'm sorry, but I will be rotating you all out to make sure everyone has a chance to travel Hoenn multiple times." After a few more moments and one take down from a larger grass type out of excitement, Ash recalled the pokemon joining him minus raichu and charizard. They climbed onto charizard's back and readied for flight, "To Vermillion City!" The fire type shot off the ground and flew at incredible speeds toward the port city.

A couple of hours later

The two pokemon and their trainer landed near the dock in the busy port. Ash recalled charizard and set out toward The Aqua Queen, the vessel that will be his home for the few days it will take to get to Littleroot. The boat was rather large and had many water types featured on its side, some of which Ash didn't recognize. Boarding had already started so Ash joined the line and made his way to his cabin on board. Ash had settled in and decided to go for a walk around the upper deck. Raichu walked beside him the whole way, both marveling at the beauty of the sea and the different activities available on the ship, which included a pool and battlefield among other things. As they turned a corner, they ran into a man and woman, "Oh, I'm so sorry-" Ash stopped his sentence immediately recognizing the lavender-haired man and the magenta-haired woman, "Team Rocket!"

Ash's current party – Charizard, Raichu, Primeape, Bayleef, Totodile, Noctowl

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! To all of you who made it this far, if you would like a part in the creation of this story please PM me a character of your own creation. Just tell me the character's basic info (age, name, gender, etc.), their alignment (good or bad), pokemon (4 primary moves for the pokemon), hometown, and goal for that character. Feel free to be creative and I will work on a way to incorporate your character. I believe that is all for now, thanks again and I will see y'all next chapter!

PS – If you are one of the readers from my other story, I am working through writer's block on that current chapter. I hope to have a new chapter of that out eventually, but I will be working on this story until I get inspiration for that chapter.