"Pokémon talk"
"Normal speech"
'thoughts'
"Pokémon moves"
Fifteen minutes later, Ash finally finished his talk with Professor Oak and rejoined his friends outside in the reserve. The actual discussion itself had only taken about five minutes, but it had taken significantly longer for the elderly man to get through his expletive-laced rant about Ash's ex-friends' behavior towards him. Ash was impressed; he hadn't known Professor Oak could swear like a sailor, but here they were.
In all honesty, Ash didn't know why everyone else seemed so bothered about the fact that a few of his friends no longer believed in him. Perhaps he should have cared a little more, but he just couldn't bring himself to do so. If seven people didn't believe in him, it was far from the end of the world. After all, there were still several billion others who might. The fact that he hadn't even asked for their criticisms made their so-called betrayal even more meaningless.
"I don't know what they expected," he laughed to himself. "Maybe they thought I would have some sort of epic meltdown if I found out that my friends had turned on me? Seriously, I'm sixteen, not six. I don't need to throw a fit like some sort of crybaby every time the slightest thing goes wrong."
What made it even more amusing was the fact that Misty had looked to be on the verge of throwing a temper tantrum herself when she'd stormed out of his house. Ash laughed at that–she had come to his house, hoping to break him, and instead, she had been the one to lose her cool. At this point, he wasn't even surprised. She had always been good at riling up trouble, but never being able to follow through.
When he arrived back in the corral, he found his friends and Pokémon playing with each other happily. Bayleef and Snivy were getting to know Sawyer's Sceptile, whom Ash was surprised to see wasn't much taller than Bayleef. His own Sceptile and Charizard appeared to be getting acquainted with Greninja, while Oshawott was talking animatedly with an amused-looking Hawlucha. Every so often, Ash noticed that Hawlucha and Sceptile would glance over towards Greninja and Bayleef, although their eyes never met. It seemed odd, but he wasn't about to ask. Knowing him, it was probably something he was too dense to understand anyway.
"Hey, everyone," he greeted the rest of the group. "So I've got good news and bad news. The good news is, I asked Professor Oak to remove my carrier limit so I don't have to run to the Pokémon Center every time I want to exchange a Pokémon. The bad news is, I still have no idea where I want to go for the next part of my journey, and a few of my former friends betrayed me, but that's no big deal."
"Didn't Professor Oak give you any suggestions?" Iris asked.
"He suggested the Alola region, I think, at least once he got done with cussing out Misty and those guys, and boy was there swearing," Ash said with a chuckle.
"Did he really curse?" Alain asked in amusement. Ash nodded. Alain then asked, "What did he say?"
The younger teen winced. "I'd rather not repeat it. There are children around. I will say; however, I haven't heard someone swear quite that spectacularly in my entire life."
Everyone else laughed at that. Ash gave them all a moment to calm themselves down before carrying on with his announcement.
"So, as I was saying, he did suggest the Alola region," he continued. "But then he mentioned that they don't have a Pokémon league and that I'd be going to school there, so I think I'll pass on that. I'm sure the school is nice and all, but I was hoping to travel around if you get what I mean. If I'm going to spend my entire time in one place, I might as well just move to Mount Silver and freeze to death."
"Do you have any ideas, then?" Serena asked.
Ash shook his head. "Not really, no," he answered. "Usually when I come home, I always try to choose a region I haven't explored yet. Unfortunately, this time it looks as though Alola is the only place I haven't gone to yet."
"When's the next league tournament? Maybe you could travel through that region," Gary suggested.
"The next league will be in Hoenn from what I hear, but it won't be for another two years," Sawyer spoke up. "The entire Pokémon league is taking a short hiatus. I don't know why, although I've heard rumors that it's because they're working on constructing a league for Alola."
Hmm, it would be kind of pointless to spend two years in Hoenn, Ash mused. Now that I think about it though, I did say that I would take my Pokémon to see more of the world. Besides that, I'd like to see if I can earn my Kanto badges for real this time, and all my Kalos Pokémon has not seen too much of this region yet. Yes, that sounds like a good idea.
"Ash? Do you have any ideas?" Brock prompted, snapping the raven-haired trainer out of his thoughts.
"Yeah, actually, I do," he answered. "I think I'll just revisit all the regions I've traveled through so far, at least until it comes time for the next league tournament. Maybe I'll run into some more friends there."
"But what if you run into one of them?" Dawn asked worriedly.
"Well, we're probably going to cross paths eventually, seeing as most of them are trainers, Max is planning on becoming a trainer, and May's his sister," Ash said reasonably. "It's not like I can hide from them. Besides, if we do run into each other, what's the worse they can do? Tell me I'm a terrible Pokémon trainer? They've already said that, so it's not like repeating it will give it any more meaning."
"I still can't believe you're not at all upset about this," the blue-haired coordinator admitted.
"I mean, I'm not going to lie and say I'm thrilled," Ash admitted. "But really, Dawn, let's put things into perspective. Seven people don't believe in me. Seven people out of, what, seven billion in the entire world? That's nothing. Besides, I'm not dying, I'm not living in a cardboard box on the side of the road, and I'm not working some dead-end job at a fast food restaurant. So really, I'd say things are going pretty well for me right now."
"Good point," Dawn agreed. "So, where do you want to travel first?"
"Kanto," Ash said instantly. Seeing the confused looks on his friends' faces, he added, "I have some old friends here I need to meet. Besides that, there are quite a few gym battles I need to redeem myself on."
"I look forward to our rematch, Ash," Brock chuckled, already knowing that the Pewter City gym would be one of the Pallet Town native's challenges.
"Pikachu looks forward to meeting your Steelix again too, I'm sure," Ash joked.
The two friends laughed, and Ash turned around and walked back inside to get the rest of the Pokéballs. Unfortunately, in his amusement, he wasn't paying full attention to where he was going and ended up walking straight into a window.
"Ow..." he groaned, rubbing the back of his head. "You know what, change of plans. Before I go anywhere, I'm going to see if I can take lessons on how to walk properly." Just then, a young boy, about Ash's age, walked up to the Lab and entered it and he said, "Hello, Professor Oak, I'm here for my Pokémon." At this point, Ash and Brock walked in and saw the new arrival and Ash said, "Hi there, starting Trainer?" The boy nodded his head and said, "My name is John, just turned 10 today, so my mom wants me to get my starting Pokémon." Just then, Professor Oak walked in and said, "Ah, John, your mother called ahead and said you wanted a Pokémon, come with me and I'll show you the Pokémon you can choose from." Professor Oak then led John to the Pokémon he could choose from, and Ash and Brock decided to follow.
