Disclaimer:- Hello everyone! This is Aerial Ace, and my first fanfic is about Pokemon....which i don't own except the new characters in the later chapters. If I did own, I will never be writing this Fanfic.

The Returning

Ash returned to Pallet town, after participating in his latest Pokémon League, the Sinnoh League.

"Yeah!! We are at last at home, Pikachu!" he shouted. "Pika Pika!!" the electric mouse Pikachu replied with a smile on his face, perched on his trainer's shoulder. Ash looked at his pokemon, and smiled. "Our journey has at last finished and here we are where we begin our journey..." Pikachu nodded in agreement. "Piiikachuuu.."

Ash turned his gaze a hundred feet to the wooden gate in the south, which marked the beginning of his hometown, Pallet. Around a few months ago, he had left this place with Pikachu to tour the Sinnoh region. "We are finally home..." Ash looked down to the ground, as if recollecting the memories of his childhood, all those years back. "Chu...." Pikachu too began his own recollection. The first time he met Ash four years ago, the pokedex calling him stupid, as also the attack of the Spearow flock was still fresh in his mind.

Ash suddenly shouted, "We are finally home!" with closed fists in air, and startled Pikachu so much that the poor pokemon fell out of shoulder and landed with a thud on the ground. "Chaaa…" His trainer turned to look at him, and started running towards the gate. "Hey Pikachu, let's see if you can keep with my speed!" Ash told his pokemon, while simultaneously running towards the gate. "Pikachu!!" Pikachu answered excitedly, as he too started running after his trainer.

***

"Pikachu, why isn't anybody home?" Ash scratched his head in disbelief, as he stood in front of, if he was right, the door to his home. "Pika, Pikachu?" was the reply his electric mouse gave. After running continuously for 200 feet, all he wanted to do was slurp some ketchup. "Chu…"

Pikachu suddenly said, "Pika, Pika!" as he jumped onto Ash, then onto the roof of his house. "Hey where are you going?" Ash asked his buddy, as Pikachu simply gave another one of his 'Pika' and extended his hand and stretched out two stubby fingers, pointing to something. "Huh?" Ash turned in the direction Pikachu referred to, and saw a familiar farmhouse atop a small hillock in the distance; a single storied building with a staircase that extended from the base of the hillock on which it rested to its own entry door. Four huge blades of a windmill rotated periodically due to the clockwork on the first floor.

Ash smiled widely as he saw the familiar structure. "Of course, Pikachu! You are a genius!" he said, as he broke into a jog towards the structure. "Pikapi, chu!" shouted Pikachu, as it followed its trainer.

***

Ash and Pikachu were soon at the door of Professor Oak's lab cum residence. And panting! Ash was bent in his hip and was holding his knees and panting as if he had ventured into fresh atmosphere after a million years. "Pikachu, remind me not to get excited the next time we return from our adventure, okay?" he asked the yellow rodent.

"Pikachu pika chu chu…" Pikachu replied. Ash nodded in agreement. Pikachu broke into silent laughter filled with mischief when Ash turned to knock at the door. His trainer hardly knew that his pokemon had just cursed Oak's next 50 generations…..

Ash knocked the door, but surprisingly, it was not locked! The door was very close to its frame, making an impression that it was closed. The trainer sighed. "First, I run for almost ten minutes non-stop, then I climb this stupid hillock, and then I find that this door is-" Before he could complete, a shocking jolt of electricity ran through his body. When the attack finally stopped, Pikachu tackled in his stomach, and he fell down the hillock, landing with a thud.

Pikachu then turned and opened the door. He said in Pikachu tongue, "Man, Ash had been standing behind this door for five minutes without opening it and then had the nerve to waste time complaining…this was a correct lesson for him," and stepped into the house. Meanwhile, Ash got up and ran up the stairs without wasting another minute, as if understanding why his Pikachu did this to him.

The trainer again stood for sometime against the door. He had mixed feelings about opening the door, beyond which he knew stood his mom, Tracey and the grand old man of Kanto, Professor Oak. Probably with a cake, getting ready to celebrate my loss in the Sinnoh League, he thought. He just trembled when he remembered the worst loss in his trainer history. No, 'The worst loss for any finalist in the history of any pokemon league,' he had heard the commentators speak.

"Should I even enter this place?" he thought to himself. He had the best chance of running away. Pikachu was not with him, he could just keep all his other pokeballs at the doorstep and run away; he could not afford to look in the eyes of those closest to him. The news of his humiliating defeat had been published in the front page of the newspapers throughout the nation. Gosh, what must they be thinking of me?

"Ugh, what am I thinking? Mom could die if I did not return!" And shaking away all doubts he opened the door.

***

Ash stepped inside the lab, and was surprised to find it deserted. "Now where is everybody?" he groaned, with his arms on his hips.

The living room with a huge sofa, a huge cupboard with huge books, and a huge screen of an LCD were all that he could see. No human, no cake, no decorations. Not even Pikachu. He shouted, "Are you guys playing some sort of game on me?" No answer came, but he heard his electric mouse's pikas and surely, Pikachu emerged from the passage to the kitchen, with a bottle of ketchup in his hand. Pikachu looked at Ash, raised his bottle in a sharing gesture and said, "Pi ka ka pi?"

Ash smiled, "Some things don't change, do they?" and scratched him behind the ear. "PiiiKAAaaaa…." Pikachu loved that.

"Say, Pikachu, did you see anyone when you went in the kitchen?"

Pikachu stopped licking the bottle. It had actually not seen anyone in the house! "Pikachu, Pi chu…" he said bluntly. His trainer appeared to be in deep thought. It just hoped he had not taken it negatively. "Pikachupi, chupi ka chu," Pikachu said. Ash replied, "Pikachu, I hope you are right. Let's just hope they do not desert me." He paused. "Hey, I think they may be in the next floor!" and ran towards the stairs in the next passage. Pikachu threw the bottle and followed pursuit.

He climbed the stairs, and kept his hand on the door knob of the floor, and without giving it an afterthought, twisted it and pushed the door inside. And…

"SURPRISE!!!!!

Ash and Pikachu were welcomed by none other than his mother and Professor Oak! There stood Delia Ketchum, a middle-aged woman, wearing a frock, a yellow undershirt and a sweater, and an evergreen smile that made Ash's day. Besides her stood the greatest authority on pokemon, Professor Oak in his trademark white shirt. " Mom?! Professor Oak?!" "Pikachu, piikaachuu??" said the trainer and his partner.

Delia threw her arms open, and her son ran straight into her arms. She embraced him tightly, he embraced her tighter; she replied by tightening her hug. Ash tightened too. The two simply stood like that for quite some time.

Meanwhile, Professor Oak had Pikachu perched on his shoulder. He asked, "So how are you doing, my old friend?" scratching the Pokémon's ear.

"Pikachuuuuuuuu…Pikachu!"

Oak laughed heartily. "I don't understand what you say, Pikachu. But I take that you are doing well, right?"

Pikachu simply looked away. "This old fart has spent his whole life studying pokemon, and he can't understand my speech? I have already cursed your next 50 generations, now make that 250!" he said in Pikachu tongue.

Oak sweat dropped. "Pikachu, I may not understand your speech, but it sounds as if you were rude to me…"

Now Pikachu sweat dropped.

Delia and her son broke away from their embrace. Delia now knelt down in front of her son, her hands on his shoulders, to have a better look at his face. Ash was crying; it had been a long time she had seen his face properly, let alone cry. Though he was around 14 years of age, his moist face looked the same as the face of the ten year old Ash. "Oh Ash, you look ten years old when you cry!"

Her son kept on crying silently. "Mom, you are right. I don't just seem to be a ten year old, I act like one, too." He looked at his mother's eyes, which reflected the worry that her face amplified. "I am…sorry. Not that I am worth it." He looked down again. "Thought I could be a Pokémon Master…huh. I couldn't even defeat the person whom I should not have lost to. What the commentator said is still echoing in my head." Now, he turned his head to the left. "I deserted you and went on my own journey. I destroyed all your hopes. Not only that, but the whole of Pallet's." He now turned his head to the right. "I was called the worst trainer to ever come to the finals! I lost my whole team, but Paul did not lose even a single pokemon!" Now, he turned up. "I am the most useless…." He stopped. He looked at both his mom and Oak, and was surprised that they were laughing in their cheeks. What annoyed him the most that even Pikachu was biting his lips! When Ash eyed him, he hid under Oak's shirt.

Ash lost his cool. "Pikachu, why the heck are you laughing?" The Pokémon Professor patted Pikachu and said, "Ash, if you are done with your neck exercises, let's eat something, shall we?" At that instant Delia and Pikachu started laughing at the top of their voices. Now, Ash was really pissed off; he shouted once more in anger, "Fine then," and turned behind to walk away. Instead, he bumped into someone and fell down. "Ugh.." he groaned, while the three people behind him roared with laughter.

"Ash, I came all the way from Sinnoh for the sole sake of meeting you, and when I finally come here, I find you trying to walk away? What kind of friend are you?" he heard the someone he bumped into say. He looked at the person. He was a boy in his late teens, with brown spiky hair, black half-sleeved shirt on his upper body and a pair of green, baggy trousers on his legs. "Gary!"

"The one and only," as the old rivals got up, smiling in appreciation.

"When did you enter?"

"When you were ranting about leaving this place!"

Ash felt embarrassed. "Well, just wait till I defeat you in another pokemon battle!" and enlarged Torterra's pokeball.

Gary simply stared at him. "Weren't you going to give up battling a few seconds ago?"

"Oh, well, I forgot…." And scratched his head.

"Ash, you really do act like a child sometimes, you know," He heard his mother say. Delia's son replied with a small laugh, "Yeah, I guess so…"

"Now, you go and change, while I bring something for you…." and she exited the room.

"Yeah, good bye, Mom," Ash sighed. While he still had the guilt of losing, he felt much lighter, now that he was with his friends. Meanwhile, Pikachu jumped on his head, feeling hot inside Oak's lab coat. That old fart must be real cool, he thought in Poketongue.

"Ash, you should have called your strongest pokemon for the final match." Ash may forget Pikachu's voice, but not this one. At the door, stood a young adult, wearing a green shirt, red shorts and his signature white headband. "Tracey!" Ash jumped up and stood in front of his friend from the Orange Archipelago, greeting him. "Tracey! Nice to meet you!" He looked at his green hair. "Weren't your hair black?" he asked scratching his own head in confusion.

"Well, I decided to have a little change." He put his arms on his waist and turned back, not willing to show off his huge grin to Ash. "You don't expect me to look at pokemon my whole life, do you?" The trainer somehow felt he had heard that one somewhere. He dismissed it and asked, "Well, what was wrong with my Sinnoh Team?"

"Well…" Tracey gulped at this question, as he had no sensible answer for that, and him advising a seasoned trainer would look silly. "You should have used your more experienced fighters for the match like sceptile, corphish, snorlax, heracross, and others, you know. I think you held back by not using them." Ash began to look down again in disbelief. I did not expect Tracey to say that…. Meanwhile Professor Oak shook his head. He remembered Tracey actually practicing in front of the mirror what to say when Ash reached Pallet. He was always bad at lightening things up and this was definitely his worst attempt. He looked at Gary hopefully and his grandson nodded, as if getting the signal.

Tracey's Pokemon Watcher senses told him that he had struck the wrong chord. Crap! My hard work went down the drains! What do I do now? "Hey Ash, it doesn't matter now. The good thing is that you know you tried your best, and tried your best. It's not your fault Paul was so strong…" Ash glanced at his friend and opened his mouth to protest, but before he could, Gary cut in, "Hey forget it now, guys. What happened cannot be changed…for now."

Gary turned to Ash. "You wanted a battle, right? Then I will give it to you," and held up a pokeball, "I have not been training for some time and am not in touch. So, it will be much easier for you to defeat me, and perhaps renew your confidence."

From the seriousness on his old rival's face, he could see that Gary was really genuinely serious, and it was something he could never fake. Ash shook his head. "Gary, I am happy that you want to battle me, but I don't want you to battle me out of sympathy." Gary knew this was going to be Ash's answer, as he had his own pride as a trainer, and lowered his pokeball.

Ash continued, eyeing Tracey with eyes narrowed, "I may have agreed with you, but I am sure that my pokemon were perfect for the job. I know it because I have raised them myself. It was me who left out somewhere…" He felt his stomach grumble softly. "I am feeling hungry. Let's go down. " With this, he started walking towards the door. Gary put his hand on Tracey's shoulder, and whispered in his ear, "What were you doing in front of the mirror exactly? Practicing your dialogues or thinking about having your body pierced for show off? The next time you feel giving words of encouragement to someone, come to me. I promise to feed you to my Blastoise!" Tracey gave a weak smile.

As the sulking trainer reached the door, he heard someone say, "three!" from the other side of the door, and the door burst open. "What the-" he began, but stopped and raised his eyebrows to the fullest extent as his eyes fixed themselves on the boy and girl who entered the room.

The boy was around 10 years of age, with a green shirt, dark shorts and his trademark thick glasses and hair leaning to one side. He essentially would have looked like a miniature Tracey without those specs. The girl was around two years his elder; she wore an orange sleeveless top, blue shorts and fingerless gloves. There was a green bandana tied around her hair, and two locks of hair lay dangling on either side of her face.

Both of them had huge smiles on their face.

"May…Max!!" He exclaimed, his tone rising with the last word.

May, the sweet little girl who they last saw at the Wallace cup, banged her foot on the ground, "Max, do you know something?"

"I am all ears, sis!"

"When I started my journey, I didn't know a thing about pokemon"

"Ya, that's why you told your Torchic to 'mushroom'."

"But three boys came forward, and taught me the ways of Pokémon. You know them, right?"

"Ash, Brock and…me?" He looked at his sister questioningly.

May smiled in agreement. "Yes, you too Max. Next, do you know the person who taught me how to catch pokemon?"

"Ash!"

"The one who once said, 'never give up', 'there is always the next day', 'hard work has no substitution'?"

"Ash!"

"Who was the one who saw the almost invisibly faint light emitted by a charmander's tail when in a cloud of Gastlies?"

"Ash!"

"Who was the one who was a total optimist even when confronted by a gaining Groudon?"

"Ash!"

And lastly, who was the one who taught us to always be focused on our goal, and the other things simply follow us?"

"That would be Brock!" May looked at Max questioningly. Max explained, "That man would run after girls and forget everything else. If he would run after everything else, the girls would run after him just like that!" and he snapped his finger to stress 'just like that'. May slapped her forehead.

Ash, Gary, and Tracey laughed their hearts out. Pikachu jumped on May's right shoulder, glad to have seen her after such a long time. Professor Oak smiled at the sight of the next generation of trainers gathered in front of him. Better leave them alone, and exited the room quietly to see what Delia was doing.

For the next few minutes, the five youngsters chatted a lot. May and Max were introduced to Gary for the first time, Tracey showed some of his sketches to Max, and he wondered when he would be able to draw as well as him. Pikachu, on May's shoulder, was the first to notice that Oak had left the room.

"I choose you, Grovyle and Munchlax!" Max shouted, summoning his pokemon. It turned out that he had just started his journey to conquer the Hoenn League. His Wood Gecko pokemon and Big Eater pokemon materialized from their pokeballs. "Guys, meet Grovyle, my starter I received as a Treecko from Professor Birch."

"Grovyee.." Grovyle greeted the others.

"And this is Munchlax. Ash and Pikachu, you must be familiar with this Munchlax." He paused to see if they remembered or not. When Pikachu recognized him, he continued, "Ash, this was May's Munchlax first. It has since joined my team." Pikachu leaped from May's shoulder, and started conversing with its old friend. After some time, they were joined in by Grovyle. Meanwhile, Gary and Tracey congratulated Max on the way he had raised Grovyle.

May elaborated for him, "Well, you know how close Max and Munchlax were back when we travelled, right?" Ash nodded. "When Max went away to select his very first pokemon, Munchlax wrecked havoc in the Gym. He calmed down only when Max returned. Seeing how close they were, I decided to let Munchlax travel with him."

Ash got the details, but one thing struck him. "So you returned to Petalburg to see Max off?" Then, another thing struck him. "Hey, shouldn't you be at the Grand Festival in Johto right now?" he asked.

May agreed. When did Ash become so intelligent? She looked away."My parents wanted me to be home to see him off. Right now, you are right, I should be at the Grand Festival. And Max should be at Mauville for his third Gym." Now, she turned to him. "But we thought it was more important to meet my best friend and Max's source of inspiration when he needed us the most." She smiled from ear to ear. "And you see, I was right after all. And about the Festival, I have a few days off before my next match, you know."

Ash couldn't do anything else but smile.

"Hey, come down, all you youngsters! We have a special surprise for you!" all of them heard Professor Oak say, and they dashed downstairs.

When everybody came, he motioned them to follow him. "Grandpa, is the lunch in the Corral?" Gary wondered. He, his Grandpa and Tracey had planned out the whole party, and Mrs. Ketchum had had made the whole lunch. But, with the arrival of May and Max, he was not exactly sure the Professor had been wholly truthful to him. His belief was confirmed when Oak replied, "Gary, there's something more…"

The group passed the kitchen, and into the study, before reaching the open door that lead to the Corral. Pikachu's sharp sense of smell caught an interesting scent, causing him to grin in happiness. It then ran out of the door. The remaining group followed him.

Mrs. Ketchum was already present as expected with the buffet she had promised. "Welcome to the buffet, kids," she spoke, "It's about time you came." The buffet was laid on a roughly rectangular table which Oak had lent just for this Buffet. There was space for ten humans to sit, four along each length and one along each breadth. Likewise, wooden chairs were kept along the table. "Thank you Mrs. Ketchum!" Gary, Tracey, May and Max exclaimed like obedient children. And "Thanks, mom!" Ash thanked her like an obedient son.

Without another word, Ash sat down at a corner and attacked the large Magikarp fry kept in front of him. Seeing his trainer got Pikachu excited, and dived into the 'Cater Pie' when Ash opened the lid. The others took their seats and helped themselves to the Land Sharpedo soup, the Krabphish fry, the roasted Mareep, and the staple rice balls.

"So, you guys ready?"

"pip-lup!"

"buneeary!"

"Mamooooo!"

"cynda!"

"chi-ppa!"

"Toke!"

Out of the blue, the earth started shaking with a rumbling noise. "What the-" went Tracey, as he was thrown out of the chair. The other stood up to avoid the same fate as Tracey. The rumbling sound was growing in a similar fashion to the stampeding of Ash's Tauros. "Over there!" Max pointed to the huge bulldozer charging right at them, his keen eyesight registering the image and instantly recognizing the pokemon from the many books he read. "That's a Mamoswine!

Ash observed the pokemon closely. It had a huge pair of tusks jutting below its nose; it was indeed a Mamoswine. And a Mamoswine could only mean one thing-"Dawn!"

"Pika!" Pikachu cried and leapt from the table in excitement.

Max was utterly confused. "What dawn? It's one o'clock!" No one paid attention to him.

"What? The one who thinks I am a poet!" Gary exclaimed.

"Dawn… the one who defeated me at the Wallace up, right?" May asked Ash, who nodded. She looked closely, and spotted a girl riding on the Mamoswine. Hmm…the blue hair is unmistakable. It's indeed Dawn.

"Piplup, use bubblebeam," Dawn ordered her starter and best friend, a small penguin with the most disproportionate head among all pokemon.

"Pip-lupluplupluplup!!" Piplup launched itself from the still running Mamoswine's head and launched an array of colorful bubbles into the air, through a glowing beak. Mamoswine slowed down after remembering what came next. "Nice job Piplup," Dawn caught her Piplup, who again made its beak glow for another attack. "Now Mamoswine, spin and use ice shard!" Keeping Piplup on the larger pokemon head, she jumped of Mamoswine.

"Mammooo!"

The Tusker stopped and started spinning, and launched several shards of glowing ice all around it from its mouth. As it continued doing this, Dawn took out three pokeballs. "Pachirisu, Buneary, and Cyndaquil, GO!" She did not order her pokemon what attack to use henceforth, as they already knew after a whole week of practice.

"Bunear….ryyy" Buneary shot an ice-cold beam from its mouth, which froze Piplup's bubblebeam attack. The Bubbles gained weight, and started falling down.

"Chi..Pa!" Pachirisu, the only other electric type ever owned by Ash's traveling companions, discharged white electricity from its twin pouches on its cheeks, and balanced the falling solidified bubbles in air. Its electric bolts literally danced in the space around it, thus making some bubbles fall down, while others jump higher than the others. This, combined with the rainbow-color of the solid bubbles made it a sight to behold.

Meanwhile, Mamoswine had completed making a huge igloo using its ice attacks, a perfect hemispherical cave, and it was still spinning, albeit more slowly. The igloo was closed everywhere, except at the top, for providing the pokemon space to spin, and a small opening at its side. It soon stopped spinning.

"Cynda…quill!" Cyndaquil's back burst into flames, which engulfed it own body. It curved into a wheel-like shape, dashed towards the small opening with a flame wheel attack, and entered the igloo. The flaming wheel moved in circles around the central Mamoswine. The ice acted like glass and refracted the light from Cyndaquil. With the smaller pokemon moving round and round, the light increasingly became redder as it approached nearer the opening, and increasingly dimmed as it move away from it. The alternate waxing and waning simply looked beautiful.

Dawn at last stepped in, giving the order, "Piplup, now use whirlpool!"

"-Lup!" Piplup released the stored energy as water from its glowing beak, which shot ten feet in the air, then expanded into a conical shape while simultaneously spinning like a vortex. It should have been classified as a real whirlpool only if it had been at a water body, but the attack was still called whirlpool. The makeshift whirlpool was as large as the igloo itself, and droplets of water fell off it as the water whirled around Piplup.

"Now Buneary, grab Pachirisu and Bounce into the whirlpool!" Dawn ordered next.

Pachirisu, who was still balancing the bubbles with its Discharge attack, was carefully lifted by Buneary, careful not shock itself, on its ears. It did this with such mastery that the pre-occupied Pachirisu could not feel a thing, and continued balancing. "Bunnee…" the rabbit crouched down, focused all its might into its little feet, while at the same time trying not to disturb Pachirisu, and "Reeee!!" it jumped about twenty feet in the air, right into the center of the whirlpool where the rotation was minimum, and floated on account of its light weight and added buoyancy of its woolly fur on its hips. All the while, Pachirisu still maintained its balance and consistently discharging its electricity, showing no sign of fatigue what-so-ever.

With a light revolving inside ice, its intensity changing with the passing second, and a whirlpool seemingly emerging from the ice, at the center of which white lightening danced with frozen balls of ice again, the tower of elements stunned everyone. The performance left everybody, human and Pokémon, young or old, mesmerized.

Now, it's time for the icing on the cake. Dawn took out another pokeball. "Togekiss, Shockwave!" she shouted, as yet another pokemon emerged from the pokeball. This pokemon was a flying type, the Togekiss. It had colorful shapes on it lower body, which would make it an ideal creature for toddlers to have, especially those with problems in remembering Geometrical shapes.

"Kissii--" went the bird without a neck and beak, and flew with it wings wide open and its body positioned in a vertical direction, as the Shockwave attack can only be launched horizontally, which was not its motive. It released a shockwave vertically when it reached the igloo, then took a turn around the whirlpool; released another shockwave, again vertically, beside the whirlpool; took another turn, and this time positioned itself right on top of the whirlpool, and released a 'MASSIVE' shockwave-the perfect icing on Dawn's cake of a hyper-performance.

"Whoaaa!" went Max, "That is absolutely marvelous!" Gary simply hung his lower jaw. May shook her head. Man, she is far better than what I was at her level. Tracey, who had never seen a contest performance before, fell down due to the captivating sight. Meanwhile, Pikachu was not at all surprised. Grovyle and Munchlax looked at each other; they asked Pikachu what he felt about the performance. Pikachu replied, "Oh, Ash, me and Brock were the one who suggested this combo, back when we were touring Sinnoh. Actually, we suggested it just a week and a half back." He grinned widely. "And you would not be shocked if you had known Dawn." Max's pokemon again looked at each other in surprise. The electric mouse continued, "But what does surprise me is that she mastered something as difficult as that in just one week."

Grovyle argued, "Hey, but that does not look that difficult."

Pikachu answered, "Well, you will see…"

Professor Oak and Delia were watching the view from the other end of the table. Oak asked Delia, "It's truly breath-taking, isn't it, Mrs. Ketchum?" Ash's mother did not say anything, but simply nodded. "Yes, it truly is breath-taking," she said after a second. The elder man observed her face closely; there was unmistakable evidence that there were huge droplets forming in her wide open eyes. And smiling too. It struck him that she was not looking at Dawn or her performance. Her eyes were locked on the single figure that was still sitting on the chair, who was now surrounded by his own friends, three of them from faraway lands. "Ash"

So, the view of seeing Ash happy is breath-taking for her, not Dawn's stunt. The emotional scene between the oblivious mother and son made him remember his own mother, whom he could never see except in photos. He thought, Oh man, now I know why mothers are so important….Their hearts are always with their children. He looked at the heavens, perhaps missing the person whom he had longed to see during his own childhood. "Your son has made some pretty good friends, Delia." Mrs. Ketchum looked at the person who she deemed as her father, though they were not related by blood. She beamed happily, the dam which held her tears finally broke. She replied, "He surely has, Professor Oak…"

Meanwhile, Togekiss had grown weary of using Shockwave, and tilted slightly due to fatigue. "Kiss…Tokii!" It fired one of its Shockwaves, and lost its balance. "Toke!!!" It shouted, as it went into the whirlpool, its wings tired of using an attack that its element was week against, non-stop. It crashed onto the dancing bubbles, got shocked by Pachirisu's Discharge and got knocked out. Pachirisu lost its balance as Togekiss's fainted form crashed on it, and both itself and Buneary got caught in the current of the vortex. Togekiss later joined in.

As for Piplup, things were going to get worst. Pachirisu was still using Discharge when it fell into the whirlpool, so the poor penguin got the worst shock of its life. "Pipluuuuup!!!" it cried out in agony, as the electricity coursed through its small body. "Mammo??" the Tusker wondered what happened. As it was partly Ground, the electricity unaffected it. But, the whirlpool crashed onto it, and it fainted instantly. "Mammmooooo!" Piplup, Buneary, Togekiss and Pachirisu crashed on Mamoswine with the whirlpool, who lost his balanced and crushed the igloo under his weight.

"Cynda??" the fire pokemon stopped in its tracks as water leaked through the igloo. The next instant, the igloo caved in. "Quill!!!" went the small pokemon, as the crushing weight of the Mamoswine flattened the pokemon.

Meanwhile, the others simply looked at what had just happened. "See what I mean?" Pikachu said with a smirk to Grovyle and Munchlax, who swallowed nervously.

***

For the next few hours, the guys simply enjoyed themselves. They lazed around eating the buffet, and it would have surely taken a lot of time to eat such a huge meal, even by the eight people already present.

Ash was the center of attraction with no doubt….He had even said that if losing was so much fun, he would continue to lose for the remainder of his life, and the others had thrown him to the shoe rack in the living room. Ash got up, learning his lesson. He dusted is shirt, and remembered an old friend who would have paralyzed him for life, had he said this in front of her.

He went to the study, and asked aloud, "Hey guys, why you didn't call Misty to the party? And Brock, too? The last time I came home, Misty was already here." "Pika, Pikachupi?" Pikachu asked them too. Oak, his mother, Tracey and Gary had a look of disappointment on their faces the moment he uttered the word 'Misty'.

May and Max uttered, "Oh, Misty…" as the image of the red-head sprang up from their memories. "The Cerulean City Gym Leader, I presume?" May asked. "Cerulean City….Gym Leader…" Dawn scratched her head for a while, trying to remember where she had heard the name, "Oh yeah! The one who gave that phony lure to you, right?" she said, remembering seeing the lure she saw when she caught Buizel, who would later be traded to Ash.

Ash got troubled on hearing the adjective 'phony' given to his best friend's lure. He glared at Dawn with the coldest eyes. "Dawn, don't dare you say phony to Misty's lure ever again," he said through a low pitched voice that sent shivers down Dawn's spine. "Yes sir!" she replied abruptly.

Then, Professor Oak spoke up, "Brock is in Pewter, he said he had some business to attend to. He will be coming later today." He looked at Gary, who shook his head. Oak took a deep breath. They had explained to Brock everything about the surprise party, and had given him the most important task of bringing Misty. If Brock can't convince her, then it's no use. He looked at Delia for support, and she nodded, signaling that there was no other choice. Okay, its better to tell him now than to keep it hidden from him. Before he could go on to tell, Tracey cut in, "Professor Oak, its almost five! You remember what is on TV at five, right?"

Oak said, "Of course! Its better to show than to tell," and proceeded to the passage that led to the living room. May, Max, Dawn, Gary, Tracey and Mrs. Ketchum went to the leaving room at once, leaving Ash alone with Pikachu. "Pika, pikka pi? Pikachu!" Pikachu asked him, climbing to his head. Ash did not understand what Pikachu said, but he and Pikachu thought very similarly, and his mouse was thinking exactly what he was thinking. "I don't know what they are hiding about Misty, Pikachu. I think whatever happened must have been really bad," and started walking towards the living room.

Out of the blue, the high pitched voice of his mother sounded from the living room. "Mother!" Ash shouted, as he kicked his heels to the living room. What he saw baffled him; his mother was up on the sofa in fright, May and Tracey had blocked Max's and Dawn's eyes with their hands, while Gary was near the TV with a remote in his hands. The TV was on, yet no channel was running.

Ash took a few steps further, and saw the source of the commotion with an open mouth and raised eyelids. Besides the door, lay Professor Oak, and on top of him lay a charred, black body of a six-foot tall man.

So This is the first chapter of my story. I know its pretty long, and if you hate reading long chapters, then pity me who had to write it!!

Ash's age is fourteen, as I think it took him a year at Kanto & Orange, another at Johto, another at Hoenn and the BF, and another at Sinnoh. So, if he was 10 at his debut, then he must be fourteen now.

And Ash's and Dawn's teams are those which have been depicted in the newest opening-The Greatest Everyday.

So, so long till the next chapter, which is going to take another week or so. Till then, good bye!!