Just something random. Don't own Pokemon.
This has Contestshipping and Pokeshipping, so don't flame about ether.
The ages I have no idea about. Let's just say that Drew and May are around 17, Ash is about 20, Misty is around 22, and Brock is about 24.
Chapters 2, 4, 8 and 10 are based on Ash and Misty's story and Ash's father while chapters 3. 6. 7 and 9 are focused on Drew and May in Johto, no doubt Soledad and Harley will probably also make appearences. The rest of the chapters, including final chapter 12, revolve around both.
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Five Years Later - Life After The Anime
Chapter 2 - The Hobo Master
Ash woke up early and headed to the Kanto Television Broadcasting Network (Channel KTBN) to appear in filiming for Brock's show. Misty was not watching the show, but was out shopping and had taken her Pokemon to a Pokemon water park. Ash and Brock both got ready as the cue came up for them to start. The theme music played and the programme began. Brock came on wearing a frilly white apron, with the show's logo on the front.
"Welcome to Pokecooks! I'm your host, ex-Pewter Gym Leader Brock! Today, we have a very special guest. Starting out from Pallet Town with his trusty Pikachu at the age of ten. over ten years have flown by of him trying to achieive his dream of becoming a Pokemon Master. I am very lucky to say I have travelled with this trainer in a number of reigions. He has almost broken the record of travelling through the most reigions (which is ten by Red for all you fact fans)! Here he is, Ash Ketchum!" Applause erupted from the audience as Ash walked onto the screen, Pikachu perched on his shoulder. Ash almost tripped up over an unseeable object behind the camera and Pikachu leapt onto the cooking table.
"Hey, hi Brock, the audience and those watching at home!" Ash greeted. Upon hearing his stomach, he added, "When do we eat?" Brock shook his head at this typical comment of Ash and turned to introduce Ash's Pokemon.
"Ash's current Pokemon team is Pikachu, Charizard, Feraligatr, Sceptile, Torterra and Ambipom!" As Brock called out the name of each Pokemon, they smiled and did a cheesy pose for the camera. Ambipom ran straight to the audience - to steal someone's hat. This person was an older, brown haired girl wearing a blue top and a short red skirt. She almost always wore her white hat, the one which Ambipom had stolen.
"What is that Pokemon doing?" The girl yelled, pointing at Ambipom, who was making faces at her and mocking her. "Doesn't that man know how to train his Pokemon? Pokemon Master? Yeah, right!"
"Argh no! Get back here Ambipom!" Ash cried out, darting after the mischevious Pokemon. The girl quickly followed Ash. Ambipom turned around to laugh and gloat at the growing number of humans trying to catch him until...
SMACK!
Ambipom ran straight into... Torterra! The giant turtle Pokemon didn't feel anything and it was only when Ash asked Ambipom if it was OK that Torterra realised and was very embarassed. The purple Pokemon was slightly dazed as the person from the crowd took their hat back, while Ash repeatedly apologised and returned his Pokemon, with an embarassed look on his face. Brock sweatdropped and decided to have a break, secretly praying that nothing else went wrong when they returned on the air.
After the advertisements had ended, PokeCooks returned and everything seemed to be going smoothly. Ash's Pokemon enjoyed their Poffin and Brock managed to cook a big Pecha berry cake for human tastebuds. However, that did not mean the show was truely saved. The last thing to almost go wrong was one of the later sections of the show when the audience asked questions to the guest or Brock about anything.
"Hey, I heard you were planning to propose to the Cerulean CIty gym leader? Is this true?" A tall, lanky, cocky boy asked, slightly adjusting his white hat. Ash and Brock turned pale and froze, staring at eachother, how did this teenager know? "It's the latest rumour in all the best magazines!" he added, as if answering their silent question. A few people stared and the brown haired girl with the white hat coughed which sounded like a disguised laugh at the fact that a boy would read a magazine containing that sort of information.
"Hey, would you look at the time?" Brock gasped fakely, changing the subject swiftly and looking at the clock hung up on a nearby wall. That's all we have time for on PokeCooks! Join us next week when I will be accompanied by Sophie from Cerulean City, accompanied by her first Pokemon, Ashura the Charizard and her other Pokemon, who have travelled through four reigions in around three years! That sounds pretty impressive! See you all then!" The programme ended with more rounds of applause, the theme music, and credits. Ash and Pikachu decided to take a walk near Viridian Forest, as they wanted to walk around for a while and get a little bit more exercise.
On the outskirts of Viridian Forest, Ash was reminiscencing about the beginnings of his Pokemon journey, where he won his first battle against Jessie, James and Meowth, where he caught Pokemon for the first time, when Misty began to follow him...
"Remember Viridian Forest, Pikachu? This was where I caught Caterpie and Pidgeotto! I wonder how Pidgeot and Butterfree are doing now..."
"Pi..." Pikachu agreed quietly and nodded. They continued down the path until they saw a strange man in his late fifties begging out on the street. Ash would have normally ignored this, but he stopped. Something was watching them. The stranger had noticed Ash and Pikachu's presence, and as he saw Ash's face, he instantly knew who Ash was. Ash however, had never seen the man in his life. A smile curled on his lips as he stood up and turned around, patting his stomach which was covered with raggy brown clothes. Suspicious items, (that if I described, I'd have to put this fanfic's rating up), along with a single Pokeball, that appeared to be empty. Pikachu's ears twitched and Ash finally realised that it was indeed something other than the strange man that was watching them.
"Oh! A Pikachu! He owns a Pikachu, how tasty! Wow, I haven't eaten in a week!" The homeless man giggled strangely. Ash and Pikachu slowly stepped away. They were anxious to get away from the dangerous situation, their hearts pounding in fear. Suddenly, Pikachu was swiftly taken from behind by a Raichu, which knocked the smaller yellow Pokemon to the ground! The Raichu seemed to belong to the man and before Ash could do anything, Pikachu was taken away! Ash stood, filled with horror, wondering why such a mentally disabled would want to eat a Pikachu, especially considering that he already had a Raichu. Cursing to himself, Ash sent out Charizard. Charizard yawned and stretched his wings, awaiting orders from his trainer. Ash jumped onto Charizard's back and the orange dragon Pokemon began to take flight in the direction Ash was pointing to.
"Hmm? Aww, looks like the show's over. I guess I wouldn't have missed much anyway. Knowing Brock, the next guest would probably just be some girl for him to obsess over..." Misty sighed as she sat down and turned on the television. She flicked through a number of channels until reaching an informative-looking programme called "The Ultimate Pokemon Master - Where Is He Now?". Misty thought it would be a good idea to watch it and tell Ash about the programme once he returned. She let her Pokemon play in the main gym area, which was connected to the house which Misty and Ash lived due to a new rennovation of the gym, which was just the addition of a living area to make Misty's Gym Leader role more convinient. Starmie, Corsola, Gyarados, Azumarill, Politoed and Psyduck showed off their Water skills to eachother and the other Cerulean Gym Pokemon as Misty began to watch the programme she had found.
Meanwhile, back in Viridian Forest, Ash continued to pursue the homeless stranger with Charizard. Finally, they cornered him as he tripped over and swore loudly, causing any nearby wild Pokemon to scatter. Pikachu lept into the air quickly and sat on his usual spot on Ash's shoulder. Charizard growled at the stranger, which simply ordered his Raichu to attack. Ash recalled Charizard as Raichu used Charge. Pikachu narrowly dodged Raichu's next Thunderbolt that it unleashed, and used Agility to boost his speed. The now much faster Pikachu began to almost confuse Raichu with his speed. but Raichu recovered from the shock and managed to whack Pikachu by using the move Slam. Ash realised at this point that although this man was a bum, he was skilled at Pokemon battling. Pikachu was knocked down to the floor and tried to get up. Raichu once again started to use Charge. While Raichu charged electrical energy, Pikachu saw this as an opening to attack and quickly attacked using Return. Raichu was knocked back with so much force, it hit a tree which shook dangerously, luckily not breaking. The stranger recalled his Raichu and stared at Ash in an eerie way, almost as if inspecting him, until seemingly realising something and stepping back in shock, almost tripping over a nearby rock.
"Y-you! I-I-I KNOW YOU! I know you even more than I previously thought!" He gasped, continuing to step back. "Your mother must have... no, she wouldn't..." The man began to talk to himself, talking too fast for anybody to understand and with a low voice, until Ash interrupted.
"Erm, how do you know me?" Asked Ash curiously, Pikachu was wary of the stranger, glaring at his flithy face under a tangled black mess of hair. The stranger had some same facial features as Ash himself. The man recovered from his shock and laughed, his wheezy voice demonstrating a smoker's cough afterwards. Ash thought the man was really too strange to be taken seriously, but decided to listen to what he had to say.
"Well, when I was your age, I was just like you. I got my first Pokemon, which was a... erm... I can't totally remember... I think it was my Raichu... anyway, what happened was I became a Pokemon Master. I was fifteen years old! Then I met a woman, had a kid, and now I'm here. That kid, you know them pretty well..."
"WHAT? You? Hahahaha!" It was Ash's turn to laugh now. He and Pikachu sniggered at the thought of a 'Hobo Master' while the homeless man's temper flared up at the two. He coughed at them, snarling and baring dark green teeth.
"I tell you, no lies ever leave these lips! I WAS the Kanto Pokemon Master! Even before Red and the other colour named lot showed up. Even before that caped Dragon type training idiot replaced me! It was all about me, ME!" He yelled furiously and insanely. "Just remember the name 'Marcus', that is me, my name. Ask your mother, ask Oak, they KNOW who I am!" He added, and after that small speech, Marcus the homeless man ran off, leaving Ash and Pikachu to stare into the distance. Ash suddenly realised that he was supposedly the father of one of his friends, and he suddenly felt sorry for whoever it would be for them to have such an insane father. Ash sighed, slightly tired of all the events that took place that day and commented about this. Pikachu agreed, nodding his head. The two decided to return home as the sun was almost fully gone, the red tints in the sky reminded Ash of Misty's hair... Pikachu sighed, his trainer was pretty much useless when it came to romance, almost as bad as Brock himself, but at the opposite extreme.
When Ash and Pikachu returned from Viridian Forest, they found that Misty's face was pale. Ash suddenly began to worry. He fired her lots of questions rapidly until Pikachu had to lightly shock him for a signal to be quiet. Ash was also not the sharpest tool in the box... his stupidity still remained.
"I was watching a television show today. About a homeless man who used to be a Pokemon Master. His name was Marcus... Ketchum..." Misty explained slowly. She went on to describe the ex-Pokemon Master's features, which were exactly the same as what the stranger Ash and Pikachu encountered had. Now it was Ash's face that went pale and when Misty began to ask about how Ash is feeling, Ash and Pikachu described the day's events. including Pikachu's capture, the man's appearence and the things that he said, and his claim to have known Ash and be called Marcus. Ash was a quite concerned that after all those years, he'd finally met his father, and it seemed that the first meeting had not gone off to a good start.
"May, you're going to have to try harder than that!" Drew retorted, flicking his emerald hair, watching May practise for the contest that would take place later on that day. "Even Harley could come up with something better!" May felt quite stung by Drew's comment, but tried not to show it. However, Drew did notice and sighed to himself, feeling, strangely, slightly guilty. "OK, OK. I'm sure you'll get through. After all, it wasn't THAT bad, keep it up!" He exclaimed, smiling. May looked and was shocked, for he wasn't just smirking, he was actually smiling! She blushed once more and continued her training. She was slightly better thanks to Drew's unsually uplifting comment, and this reflected in the sudden enthusiasm she showed when resuming her co-ordinating practise. He didn't know why, but seeing May smile made Drew smile as well. Infact, he liked her smile even more than the irritated face May showed whenever Drew would wind her up or tease her. He leant against a wall, continuing to observe May's co-ordinating skills and to offer advice when needed. After a while, he joined in too, giving his Pokemon some fresh air and exercise. Beautifly and Masquerain got along especially well out of Drew and May's Pokemon, playing together, fluttering around together and showing off their moves to eachother. Drew noticed that the two Pokemon were in love almost instantly. Unfortunately, May didn't, and Drew could tell.
"Hey, Drew, don't you think we should get along as well as Beautifly and Masquerain?" May asked, not realising the obvious. Drew almost jumped when May asked this question, but he retained his usual posture and flicked his hair.
"Erm, I dunno. Maybe... one day..." He replied, trailing off into his own thoughts. It was at this moment that May realised and quickly apologised. Drew flicked his hair again and told May to focus on training and not romance, as distractions would cause May to lose points.
After a while, Drew suggested that they should take a small break. The two co-ordinators sat in a nearby patch of grass as they watched their Pokemon play together. Drew lazily laid back and began to look at the floating clouds in the sky, trying to avoid eye contact with May, who was watching the Pokemon, due to the awkward silence between them caused by May's question and his reply. Drew secretly scolded himself for being strange towards May.
After around fifteen minutes, Drew stood up and looked at his watch. It would be another three hours before the contest, and so suggested that he and May should train their Pokemon as much as possible, and to go over their final routines to be used in the first Johto Grand Festival contest of the year. Both May and Drew were desperate to win, and their Pokemon shared the determination of their trainers.
End of chapter 2! Chapter 3 is coming soon and I hope it will be longer. The next chapter will focus around Drew and May, yay! Oh yeah, the boy that asked Ash a question was supposed to be Brendan and the girl was Green (Blue if you're Japanese) if you didn't notice, and I DID put in a self-insert. I wanted to add more words... XS!
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Preview of chapter 3 - Let The Contest Begin!:
"You're doing much better now that I'm here to give you tips." He said, smirking at May. Notcing her temper flare up, he retaliated by handing May... a rose! "That's for your... Blaziken, yeah.Yeah, it's for Blaziken. Well done to him." May stared at Drew. It was obvious that those roses weren't just for her Pokemon, and they both knew it...