My apologies for lack of updates. They will be coming a bit more frequently now.

Chapter 11

4 weeks later:

The ship was slowly drugging across the Indian Ocean heading straight for Kanto. Inside his cabin, Ash was laying on the bed staring up at the fan as it slowly turned. Pikachu was curled up at the end of the bed fast asleep. It was extremely late at night, but a certain memory was keeping Ash awake. It was the memory of May and Max's mother's funeral. About an hour after he checked on Pokemon, their mother went into cardiac arrest and passed. It was so quick nothing could be done. After the funeral which took place 15 days later, Norman asked him, Brock and Morris to take him over to Kanto. The death of his wife was getting everyone extremely riled up, especially the military because no one was going to take the death of the wife of a gym leader lying down. Norman said that come this time next week the hills would literally be crawling with every police officer and military personnel in the country searching everywhere for Team Tech and Green Earth. In fact it was true, earlier before they were out of range of the radio, the news alerted them that the Honner League along with their government in light of this had issued a shoot to kill order for all members of Team Tech and Green Earth.

Ash stepped out on to the ships deck. The full moon was floating at the apex of the sky. In about a week according to the ships schedule, it would dock at Vermilion. Normally, it would make a stop over at Olivine in Joto, but this ship due to the number of people from Kanto aboard was heading there nonstop. Earlier he had spoken to Brock and Morris about the map. It was decided that first off they would head for Lavender town. Morris wanted to check in on his family who he hadn't seen in years. Then using routes 9 and 10 they would work their way to Cerulean and then down through Mount Moon to Pewter and finally taking routes 2 and 1 to Pallet, using a new path they had heard about that bypassed Viridian completely.

Ash decided to go and talk to May and Max. Their cabin was right below his. The stairs were extremely creaky, but this was an extremely old ship so it wasn't too surprising. At the very least the ship was clean.

When he exited the stairwell, he heard voices coming from the deck. It looked out the port hole to see Max and some strange hybrid having a battle. The reason why the hybrid was so peculiar is that he looked almost like a normal human, the only difference was the dark purple skin and glowing red eyes.

Max yelled out, "Yanma! Double team then solar beam." The bug instantly complied and began to circle around the hybrid's sableye at extremely high speed.

The hybrid smiled and said, "Your way too easy. I'm ending this." In a eerily calm voice he said, "Sableye, self-destruct." Sableye detonated causing a huge cloud of fire and smoke to engulf the entire deck. When the smoke cleared Max was in shock. Yanma was knocked out, but Sableye was still standing.

Max exclaimed, "How is that even possible? After using self destruct the Pokemon who uses it should be knocked out as well."

The hybrid said, "Don't make me laugh….if you are really as smart as you say you would have figured out the trick."

Max said, "What do you mean?"

"It's a simple trick, even an amateur like you should be able to get it. It's called a Lum Berry. Any Pokemon holding it that gets knocked out is instantly revived with a small amount of health. You said before the match that you knew a lot, but I see your just a little brat who blows a lot of hot air." replied the Hybrid.

Ash stepped out and said, "You should apologize, just because you won a battle does not mean you can be a jerk."

The Hybrid said, "Who the hell are you supposed to be? The Police?"

"I'm Ash from Pallet Town and I'd like to challenge you to a battle. If I win you must apologize to Max here."

The Hybrid laughed and said, "If he's your friend you are probably no better in battle than he is. I Daniel Fenton of Stone Town accept. Let's make this quick, one-on-one with no rules or limits."

Max said to Ash, "Careful Ash, this guys a ghost type trainer, and he knows quite a few tricks."

Ash nodded and said, "Don't worry Max, I've faced ghost types before. This will just be like practice."

Daniel nodded and said, "I'm going to make you regret thinking that this is just practice."

Daniel then enlarged a great ball and opened it up, "Gengar--Go!"

Ash looked at Daniel's Gengar, it was somewhat larger than a usual one. He took a quick scan and almost freaked at what he saw. The Pokedex said level 65.

Daniel said, "I doubt you will be able to counter the first Pokemon I ever got. Of course, he is the one who gave me the weird virus, but personally I don't give a darn, it just gives me a stronger bond with him. Now what are you going to bring to the party?"

Ash's mind went into over-drive. Thinking to himself, Damm I never encountered a ghost type this powerful before. I hope this will work. Then he yelled out, "Go Crawdaunt!"

Daniel took a step back and quickly scanned Ash's Crawdaunt. He then said, "A dark type--good thinking. But my Gengar is 20 levels higher than him. Now Gengar show them that little trick we came up with."

Suddenly Gengar disappeared into thin air and Ash yelled, "Crawdaunt careful. Be ready to move at the slightest moment."

Daniel replied, "No good, Now Heaven and Hell!"

Suddenly two after images of Gengar one out of the floor and the other out of the ceiling collided with Crawdaunt pushing him back several feet. The after images merged back together and Gengar slowly floated back to the floor. Daniel smiled and said, "I'm surprised your Pokemon is still standing. Very few opponents of mine were able to survive that attack. I'm finishing this. Sludge bomb"

Ash yelled, "Shadow Ball with everything you have left!"

Both attacks collided causing a huge explosion. When the dust settled both Daniel and Ash's Pokemon were knocked out.

Daniel stuttered "How the hell--you've got to be kidding me, a double knock out--but Gengar was 20 levels higher than you."

Ash said, "This isn't the first time he's done this, Crawdaunt really hates losing."

Daniel nodded and recalled Gengar, "We shall battle again, that was just a lucky brake, since no one won I don't have to apologize."

Before Ash could respond, Daniel opened up another great ball revealing a Banette. "Banette teleport us back to our room." In a flash of light both Daniel and his Pokemon were gone.

Ash went to Max and said, "Are you o.k.?"

Max slumped on to the deck rubbing his hand through his fur, "I don't know, it's just that with Mom dead and having to leave home, I've been kind of off lately. Dad told me to be strong and train to the best of my ability, but I guess it wasn't enough."

Ash replied, "I've had those days as well where I thought I wasn't good enough." Then he had an idea, "Hey Max, did I ever tell you about the time I actually met a Lugia?"

Max instantly perked up and said, "You met a legendary Pokemon? How did that happen?"

"It's a long story, I'll take you back to May and tell you both."

Authors Note:

It took me a long time to think this up, consider this chapter a transition between the first half and the second half of my story. I will admit it's a bit shaky. Anyhow, Please read review and comment.

Next:

Kanto

Rave Drifter