To keep up with the standarts I expect from myself because of my later chapters in this story, this chapter has been rewritten.
ENJOY
Pokémon doesn't belong to me.
Please R&R
Pallet Town in Kanto was one of the smallest and most remote towns the region had, despite its wonderful wildlife, excellent cuisine and the Pokémon laboratory of one Professor Samuel Oak. Or at least it used to be that way.
In the last few years Pallet had come to more attention thanks to two young men who had caused quite the ruckus in the Pokémon circuit. And it was one of those two young men, a boy of fifteen years of age, who at this point returned to his hometown after another exciting journey.
Much had changed since the boy had decided, three years ago, to give travelling alone a try. Gone were the red league hat, fingerless gloves and hoodies, replaced by blue jeans, black sneakers, a simple white Shirt with a dark-blue open jacket. The attire showed off that he'd started to fill out nicely too. At thirteen, when he'd started his journey alone, he'd been rather gangly, having just had a growth-spurt. He'd always been rather fit, but now, if one concentrated, they could see the not unimpressive muscles moving under his shirt. A dark blue hat, looking rather similar to the one the legendary Aura Guardian Sir Aaron used to wear, now helped tame his wild raven-black hair. The only things that had remained the same, were the boy's auburn eyes, that glowed with life and compassion, and the Pikachu on his shoulder.
Smiling softly, the teen thought back to his recent achievements. After almost six years of being a trainer, he'd finally won the Indigo League and had been allowed to try and challenge Kanto's Elite Four. Having just so managed to win against Lorelei and her Ice-Types, he'd only managed a draw against Bruno and his Fighting-Types. And a draw was the same as a loss when it came to the Elite Four.
"Pika!"
Jerking himself from his memories at Pikachu's shout, a smile broke out over his features and he fell into a run. In less than half a minute he'd reached a familiar house and pulled a key out of his pocket. "Finally home Pikachu, huh?"
The mouse nodded eagerly and cheered: "Pika-Pik-Pikachu!"
Unlocking the door and pushing it open, he walked in and called: "Mom, I'm home!" But the house was silent. As a matter of fact, not even his mother's Mr Mime came to greet him. "That's strange", muttered the trainer to himself, "Mom knew I was coming home today." Immediately he was alarmed.
Like on every other on his journeys, he'd managed to run into a conflict involving legendary Pokémon. He didn't really want to think back to it. Let's just say it involved Raikou and a lot of electricity and leave it at that. The other reason for his alarm was, same as they had been for years, Team Rocket. Again, same as on any of his other journeys, the trio had often tried to steal Pikachu. And even though all their plans were still failures, they'd definitely gotten smarter over time. Their Pokémon were also quite a lot stronger than they used to be, making it sometimes quite a challenge to beat them.
Jessie's Pokémon had turned out to be quite powerful after the woman had finally really trained them. Wobbufet was a strong defence while Sviper and Yanmega always were able to keep Pikachu on his toes. And last but not least her newest, and strongest, Pokémon, Shedinja. James didn't improve that much in terms of battling, but got to know how to heal Pokémon fast and effectively, thus training his Pokémon towards it. Chimecho and Mr Mime were true specialists at this point, only outrun by his Blissey, but he barely used it, since he considered it to be too sensitive to be used in battles.
Meowth had also evolved, he really had. Not entirely by his own choice, but it had been evolving to safe Jessie's and James' life together with him and Pikachu, or not evolving.
Because he and Pikachu had helped them out that time, Team Rocket had left without making them problems for once, and had even left them at peace for the two weeks that followed. Persian, although he was still called Meowth, was quite strong, and still able to speak the human tongue, even though with a deeper and more serious voice.
While the teen was lost in his memories and worries, Pikachu saw a piece of paper on the ground. Running up to it, he saw that it was note. "Pika-Pikachu!", called the Pokémon and his trainer looked at him. Seeing the note next to his starter, the raven walked up to it and picked it up.
"Dear Ash", he read out loud. "I'm very sorry that I can't be at home when you come back, but Professor Oak needed my help up at the laboratory. Why don't you come over? Mimey is with me as well and I can cook there too. Love, Mom." Ash smiled at that calming down immediately and turned to his starter. "Well Pikachu, I guess we pay Professor Oak a visit then, don't we?"
The Electric-Type nodded eagerly and jumped onto his shoulder in one great leap. Both ran out of the house and through Pallet Town. After a short while they finally reached Professor Oaks lab on the top of a hill. He knocked at the door and almost immediately an aged man opened it.
"Hey Professor", greeted Ash with a grin.
"Pika!" The Professor smiled brightly and gave the boy a hug.
"Ash, it is wonderful to see you again", greeted the old man. "Oh, but where are my manners, come in come in." He led Ash into the house and continued: "I take it you found your mothers note?"
"Yeah, she wrote she's here to help you with something?" He looked at the man questioningly.
Professor Oak nodded and answered: "She indeed is. I know I wouldn't have been able to complete this in time without Delia." That was when the Professor opened another door and led Ash and Pikachu into his rather big backyard. Well, somewhere all the Pokémon he took care of had to stay. The moment they walked out, Ash froze dead in his tracks when a lot of voices shouted so loud his ears started ringing.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASH!"
The teen was stunned. He had completely forgotten, that his sixteenth birthday was today. He stared for another few seconds, before a bright smile appeared on his face. It widened even more when he saw that all of his friends, family and Pokémon where here to celebrate with him.
His mother was right in the middle of the group, a bright smile plastered over her face as well. Next to her stood Brock and Tracey, both with small grins and crossed arms. On his mother's other side where Misty, Gary, May, Dawn and Max. Gary had his arm around Misty's waist which had the orange-haired girl blushing, but she grinned brightly at Ash at the same time. He also saw Zoey and Barry in the group and even Paul and his brother were here. His eyes widened a fraction more when he also saw a familiar blonde in the group.
Alright wow, thought the teen, I mean, who can claim that they had the Sinnoh Champion at their party? This is awesome! I wonder how Mom managed to contact Cynthia. Then his gaze wandered to the edges of the group and he faintly heard Pikachu call out a greeting. Of course all of his Pokémon were there as well. Ash didn't know what to say and after finding his voice he finally stammered out: "You-you guys…"
"Happy Birthday Ash", said his mother and hugged him tightly. Ash hugged her back immediately breathed in deeply. It had been almost a year since the last time he'd actually had physical contact with his mother. It was so great to see her again.
"Mom", whispered the new sixteen years old. "Th-Thanks."
Delia Ketchum smiled at her son, then Dawn shouted: "So let's get the party started!" They turned on the music and the party started. Not too long after the start, Barry pulled Ash to the side and asked the question that Ash was sure had been on everyone's mind.
"Hey Ash, you haven't shown us your new Pokémon yet."
Looking around at everyone's expectant expressions, Ash grinned and removed five Pokéballs from his belt. They sailed through the air and five Pokémon appeared. The first one was his Riolu, whom he'd met in Sinnoh and had joined Ash a little over a year ago, the only other Pokémon except for Pikachu he had taken with him on this journey.
The second one was a fox with cream-coloured fur, red eyes and nine tails beautiful tails. "Ninetales", called the Fire-Type softly and looked at everyone around her curiously.
The next gave a lout cry of: "Dodrio!" It was a three headed bird with long and strong legs.
The third one was a golden lion like Psychic-Type Pokémon called Hypno.
And last but not least his sixth Pokémon was a Kabutops. He had gotten it after he'd helped some scientists when Team Rocket had tried to steal many ancient Pokémon from their facility.
Everyone stared at his new Pokémon in awe for a few seconds, then his old Pokémon deemed the waiting enough and came forward a bit. Infernape walked up to Ninetales and started a conversation. Both seemed to like each other already. Dodrio was immediately welcomed by Ash's other Flying-Types, despite the fact that he couldn't fly, while Hypno got somehow roped into a game of tag with Totodile and Corphish. Not that the unusually playful Psychic-Type seemed to mind. Kabutops was nicely greeted by Gabite, whom he seemed to find common ground with, since both of them were rather rare Pokémon.
Happily Ash watched how all of his new Pokémon were welcomed into the family. It was nearly midnight when Delia called them to slowly let the party come to an end. At that precise moment, Ash was lying on the ground for the tenth time since the party started. Why? Because Bayleef had jumped onto him for the tenth time. Currently Pikachu, Infernape and Sceptile tried their best to get the big Pokémon off of her trainer.
After a while they managed it and Ash got up, when he felt a tug on his jeans. Looking down he found Riolu staring up at him with a puzzled expression. "What is it Riolu?" The small Fighting-Type shrugged and gazed around nervously. Something's wrong, realised the teen immediately and scanned their surroundings as well.
Suddenly there was a huge flash of light in the night-sky and everybody screamed in fear. The light vanished already in the next second and everyone present saw three figures crash to the ground not too far away. An instinct honed by years of helping every Pokémon as best as he could, Ash ran forward and up to the three newcomers. He glanced back and found Pikachu and Riolu following him, May, Gary and Misty not too far behind. No wonder Riolu was so nervous, thought the teen just before he reached the three figures.
But upon seeing just who had arrived, his muscles locked up and he staggered to a halt, his auburn eyes growing wide. A chocked gasp managed to escape his closed up throat at who he saw lying in front of him. It were three small Pokémon, three small legendary Pokémon. A pinkish feline, a green fairy-like Pokémon and a small blue-coloured Pokémon.
"Ash what's-Oh Arceus above!", screeched May who reached him first. Her scream had everyone else freeze in their positions and also made the pinkish Pokémon stir.
Glazed blue eyes flickered over each present human and Pokémon, before they rested on Ash. "We, we made it", whispered a soft female voice in everyone's head.
Kneeling down Ash placed a gentle hand on the Pokémon's shoulder and asked: "Mew, what happened? Who did this to you?"
Mew gasped hard, the light in her eyes flickering dangerously, but before she blacked out, she managed to gasp: "A great evil…is approaching. We need help, we…we need you…Ash…" With that the legendary closed her eyes and stilled.
In panic Ash wrenched his head around and called: "Someone get Professor Oak. Mew, Celebi and Manaphy are badly injured!" He heard how someone turned and started to run but didn't even bother to turn his head enough to see who it was. All he did was hope and pray that those three legendries would be alright.
Ages:
Ash - 16
Gary - 16
Misty - 16
Brock - 22
Tracey - 18
May - 15
Max - 13
Dawn - 14
Paul - 16
Barry - 14
