Chapter 2

The Coming Storm

9 teenagers looked at each other, surmounting tension made the air seem warm and hazy. It seemed like minutes pasted, then hours and before they knew it, the tournament might as well have been over due to double disqualification. Finally Brock spoke, "Zed?" and like that the world came crashing back to its normal state of chaos and perpetual movement. All of the other Trainers moved their gaze to the older looking of the 4, with confusion, and then it happened. Brock and this "Zed" embraced each other and began laughing in an eerily similar fashion. "Hey Brock-o long time no see man! How have you been?" Zed exclaimed in a louder than necessary tone. "I've been great man, traveling with Ash over here for well jeeze 5 years? What are you doing here Big Z?"

Max, Misty and May all looked at each other with confused sideways glances "Brocko?...." "Big Z?....." "Brock what's going on here? Who is this guy!" The three exclaimed.

"Oh yeah sorry guys this is my cousin Zed, he's a fellow Rock pokemon trainer but was always better at than I was" Brock said, the last part with a little sigh, "Yeah I used to clobber you when we were kids playing with your Pop's Pokemon hehe" Zed exclaimed pushing his fist's on his hips and laughing, "He really knows a lot about rock pokemon…and cooking" Brock looked almost depressed till he felt a hand on his shoulder, "Yeah but you care about a Pokemon's overall care much better than I do" Zed said with a smile before slugging Brock in the arm, both of them then shot up erect and laughed, fists pushed firmly against their sides and elbows pointed out.

"Well I suppose insanity runs in the family, wonder if Zed's as girl obsessed as Brock is" May chortled, hands folded neatly behind her back, "The real question is, is he as poor with them" Max added in a very smug voice, "What do you think Misty?" he added. But Misty wasn't listening, her aqua colored eyes were transfixed on the girl standing next to Pete holding the Eevee.

She was very pretty, her slender features were enlightened with the smile she wore as she laughed at Brock and Zed's antics, even her eyes seemed to smile. Her hair was a blue color that hung just above her shoulders. A green hoodie covered the upper half of her body and a pair of Capri pants finished off the bottom half. For some reason Misty knew her but from where?

Ash wasn't to sure what to do, here he was the farthest he had ever gone in the Pokemon League, and he was face to face with his soon to be rival, who to be honest was extremely intimidating but at the same time, quite easy to be around. This is when Pete did the most unusual thing, he extended his hand, almost in a mechanical way.

"Hey, I'm Pete and this is Raichu, guess were gonna be rivals pretty soon…" and with that Raichu jumped off his shoulders and on to the ground, Pikachu joined him, they sniffed each other for a moment before cooing, and began shaking tales and making noises. Strange enough Raichu actually wasn't much bigger than Pikachu, and looking at the two standing next to each other, Raichu was clearly not the normal size, it should be.

Before they knew it Eevee had jumped down and was bucking up and down, the two electric rodents danced and played. Eevee Eve Eve eee, Rai Rai Chu chu Rai, Pika pika chupi Pikachu!

"Well I'm starved, I think we should go eat" Zed proclaimed rubbing his stomach, no one else to disagree, the awkwardness between Ash and Pete seemed to be fluxuating between extreme and nuclear, but seemed to be ignored. Zed and Brock walk side by side arms swung over each other's shoulders, May, Misty walked together while Misty kept a sideway glance transfixed on the girl who was one again holding Eevee. Max and the other young man who had accompanied Pete talked amongst themselves, well actually Max was giving the young man a crash course in "Pokenomics", this was not the ideal situation for either trainer. Ash stayed a foot behind Misty and May but kept quiet. Pete on the other hand walked all the way behind the group, hands shoved deep in his pockets and head sunk as low as it could without looking depressed.

How could either of them find themselves in this sort of situation? Of course neither Ash nor Pete could say no to Brock or Zed, they were their best friends and did EVERYTHING they could for them, besides it's not like they were even listening anyway.

Meanwhile at the Restaurant

"YOU'RE ERIKA!" Misty shouted slamming her hands on the table, the girl who was with Pete and his group, held a fork to her mouth still dripping with food, as she eyed up at Misty. "I am…?" The girl looked confused, until Misty explained to her how she knew her. "Oh Misty! Of coarse now I remember, haha it must have slipped my mind" May and Max looked between each other quite confused, as did Pete and his group of friends, finally all eye landed on the girl known as Erika, "Oh well you see, when I was younger I was the Gym leader at Celadon City, and Ash and Misty here came to challenge me for a badge, its been awhile Ash" Erika smile, Ash grinned, at the idea of sitting at the same table as a renowned plant trainer, Misty smiled at the fond memories of traversing Kanto with her two beast friends, and Brock well Brock sort of laid on the floor sulking that Erika had forgotten to remember that he was with Ash and Misty.

Pete just sort of twisted his food around with his fork, the fact was he was the most hungry amongst the group, but couldn't find the will to eat anything. Ash was the same way, it may have due to the fact, he was in the finals for the first time ever, or because he was sitting not 5 feet from his rival sharing a meal. Misty on the other hand, had been shooting Pete glances all night, admiring his person, she had to admit she liked what saw, and that half brained Ketchum hadn't spoken more than 5 words to her all night. Tom, the other guy who was with Pete sat and smiled as he listened to Max ramble on about his first year as a trainer and about Pokemon ethics and battle strategies, it must have been torture for the young man, but he just smiled and listened contently.

Once the food was finished and they had their after meal coffee and tea, everyone had become quite friendly, even Pete and Ash had exchanged some words about their endeavors collecting the 8 badges here in Cali, which the both had to admit was the most difficult of all the regions they had ever traveled to. The consensus of the group was to call it a night until Zed interrupted, "Hey guys common the nights still young, and I here theres a performance down by the Lake tonight to kick off the festival!" He grinned "What Festival?" May inquired, "Well the final match isn't until the day after tomorrow, so they have a festival to celebrate another year of the Cali Pokemon League and all the trainers who worked to get here, and it all starts tonight with a cook out on the beach and live music!" "ooo that sounds so romantic" May cooed, clutching her hands together, "Maybe I'll meet a guy who'll take me out on the lake in a row boat and sing the words of my favorite song to me!" May was gone, stars in her eyes and cheeks a ablaze, Max sighed and everyone laughed, they all agreed to go, and hell even to stay together, but had to grab their beach stuff and agreed to meet in the lobby of the Pokemon Center in half an hour….

Authors Notes: Hey all, sorry it took me so long to complete the second chapter but school started to kick my ass, =) but I finished and here ya go. To clear up any confusion, yes the Erika is the same Erika from the games and show, but in MY universe she is and has always been Ash's age or a year older, so yeah…deal =) I'll definitely have more to talk about later, cause I have some technical elements to explain, but until then enjoy! Pleae R&R!