Okay so here is Chapter 21. This is just a transitioning chapter, so nothing too awfully exciting, and there are a lot of stops and starts just to kind of get things moving. The next chapter is pretty good though, at least I think so anyway. :)

Anywho, enjoy! :)

Chapter 21: A New Beginning for Us All

I found myself sitting on a bench behind Ash's trainer's box an hour later. The only problem was, Ash wasn't inside it. We had gone to the stadium under the impression that Ash was already there, but when we arrived, realized he wasn't.

"Where is he?" Misty questioned under her breath, tapping her foot. We had been informed that when Richie had called earlier today for Ash, it was in fact an imposter. By now we were all very worried about Ash, and wondered where he was and if he was okay. It was an extremely stressful wait, but after a while, he arrived, and if he had been even a second later, he would have been disqualified.

Ash was in an odd situation, Pidgeotto was too weak to use in battle and so was Pikachu from his previous encounter with Team Rocket, which was the reason why he was late; so he had a limited number of Pokémon to choose from.

It was a back and forth battle in the beginning. Richie knocked out Squirtle. Ash knocked out Butterfree. Richie knocked out Pikachu, who despite being worn out, insisted on battling. Ash after a bit of contemplation sent out his Charizard.

"Oooh" I said, scooting to the edge of my seat. I hadn't seen Ash's Charizard before, and it didn't disappoint. The big thing easily forced Richie to call back his Charmander, and after only a few minutes, they were both on their last Pokémon. Richie called out his Pikachu and the entire audience was quiet.

"Sparky, tackle" Richie called. But his Pikachu had to stop short because Charizard was in fact lying down on the court.

"What?" I questioned, wondering if something was wrong with Charizard.

"That's what always happens. Charizard just simply doesn't listen to Ash" Brock whispered to me.

"Please Charizard" Ash pleaded, "You won't have to ever listen to me again if you just battle right now".

Charizard yawned, and didn't move.

You could have heard a pin drop in that stadium; no one knew what was going to happen.

"Charizard refuses to battle, Richie is the winner" The referee announced.

All three of us gasped, waiting to see what Ash would do. He returned Charizard and tilted his head down. I could tell he was devastated, and I felt my heart sink for him. I think in that moment, I decided to help Ash train Charizard, so he didn't have to go through this again. It was the worst way to lose, almost like it wasn't fair.

He reluctantly congratulated Richie and we all went back to our room. That entire night and into the next day, Ash never left his room. He was very depressed, and that worried all of us, including his mother and Professor Oak. Misty finally was fed up with it and walked into his room.

"Ash, how about we go get some lunch" she said with a smile. He turned over to face the wall.

"I'm not hungry"

Misty looked a little irritated but continued.

"Well how about we go for a walk"

"Go by yourself" Ash answered. Pikachu was sitting on the bed across from where Ash was laying and had a worried look on his tiny face.

"C'mon Ash" Misty said, putting her hand on his arm. He violently shook it off and I could tell Misty had reached her last straw.

"ASH SNAP OUT OF IT" she yelled.

They continued to yell back and forth, Ash was now standing up so they were only a few inches apart in their little spat. We all watched from a few feet away, contemplating whether or not to intervene.

"Well" I started, "She got him out of bed at least"

Brock nodded and went over to restrain Ash before he did something he regretted.

"Ash, stop it" he calmly said.

"She started it" Ash said shooting a glare at Misty.

"Only because someone was being lazy and having a bit of a pity party" she said looking down at Pikachu.

"ARE YOU CALLING ME LAZY?" Ash yelled.

"I wasn't talking to you Ash, I was talking to Pikachu" she said with a smirk.

They continued yelling until the poor tiny Pikachu had had enough.

"Chuuuuuu" he grunted while shocking us all with a very powerful thunderbolt. I now knew what one felt like, and I started to feel a little bit bad for Team Rocket.

The TV turned on with the jolt of electricity and showed that Richie was about to have his match. Ash had basically snapped out of his funk with that thunderbolt but was still a bit mopey as we headed down to watch Richie.

"He lost" Ash said in disbelief after watching a close match between Richie and his opponent.

Ash disappeared for a while afterwards, and we finally found him at the edge of a lake with Richie. He had apparently talked some sense into Ash. The old look of determination now burned just as bright in Ash's eyes, and I smiled to myself, knowing that he was more pumped than ever to become a master.

The closing ceremony was beautiful, huge fireworks lit up the sky, and signaled not only the end of a competition, but a new beginning for so many trainers that had competed.

By the next night we had made it back to Pallet town. There wasn't much to do, so we just relaxed, and got some training in. Ash and I had started training together, not against each other, and it benefited us both greatly. Ash kept begging me for a battle but I declined. I figured it would be a while before I decided it was the right time to battle Ash again, and that irked him. By the end of day three back in Pallet both of our Pokémon had gotten much stronger, and my Venipede had evolved all the way into a Scolipede, and was now an eight foot beast.

Ash was still determined but I could tell he was slipping back into depression. He had nowhere to go now, no gyms to battle, and so his newly found enthusiasm was almost put to waste. I think Ash's mother realized this too and talked to Professor Oak who had the perfect solution.

"Can I see you all in my lab please?" Professor Oak said, grinning over the phone.

"Sure" we all said in a chorus.

It was cool having my Pokémon at Professor Oak's. They obviously were very happy there, and I was relieved to know they were in good hands.

"Ash, you still want to become a Pokémon master right?"

"Absolutely!" Ash happily answered the Professor.

"Well, I think I know exactly where to send you"

Ash leaned forward, eyes wide, waiting for the suggestion.

"Gary just went on over to the Johto region, and I think you might like to go too. It has the same inner workings of the Kanto region. Eight gyms, eight badges, and then you can enter into the Pokémon league. Plus, there are lots of new Pokémon for you to see and capture."

I think Ash could've burst out of his skin with happiness.

"Yes! I'll go!"

"Very well then, would you three like to go with him?"

Brock and Misty both nodded then turned to me. Brock looked worried that I would say no, but I nodded yes also. I would love to go to Johto; I wanted to get a look at all of the regions.

"Okay then, I will get you some tickets and other things you will need, and have them ready by tomorrow morning."

Ash skipped and whistled all the way back to his house. I grinned, knowing that I was going to get to go on yet another journey, and I would be experiencing a new region with other people who hadn't been to Johto before. A new journey for us all in a way.

"Cool, Johto huh?" N said when I was talking to him that night. He could tell that I was very excited and his face lit up at the sight of my smile.

"I'm going to get to see a lot of new Pokémon!" I said happily.

He chuckled, "Yes, the Johto region has a lot of unique Pokémon"

I could tell N was sad that I was going to be gone for a while longer, but he was happy that I was happy. I did miss N, but I was having so much fun, I was hesitant to go back just yet. I yawned.

"Well you should be getting to bed" he said, leaning back in his chair.

I nodded, "Goodnight N"

"Goodnight love" he said, his lips twitching into a smile.

I hung up and looked over to see Brock standing in the doorway.

"So he calls you love, huh?" Brock said, looking a little irritated, his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, sometimes" I answered, putting my X-transceiver down and scooting over on the bed so he could sit down.

"Don't you think that sounds a little old fashioned?" he sat down next to me, still a bit awkward because we were talking about N.

I thought for a moment, "Yeah, N is a little bit old fashioned himself". I had never classified N this way but now that it was brought up, it was quite true. He never really acted like a normal guy, and that is what set him apart from the rest.

I could tell Brock didn't want to talk about N anymore so I carefully climbed into his lap. Brock sighed and I could tell he was happy that I was showing I did in fact return his feelings. Brock still acted like we were just friends, but he wanted more. I kept trying to show him that the feeling was mutual, but it still hadn't seemed to sink in. He wrapped his arms around me.

"Are you excited about going to Johto?" he asked, pulling me in close.

"Yeah, I am totally stoked" I answered, and made a face at my odd choice in wording.

Brock chuckled and yawned.

I climbed into bed and he did too. For the past couple of nights I had fallen asleep with my head on Brock's chest, just like I did with N, and we both really seemed to like it.

I smoothed out a wrinkle in his shirt and adjusted my head.

"Are you excited about going to Johto?" I asked.

He chuckled, "As long as I'm with you, I will have a great time"

I blushed at his romantic comment and my eyelids started to droop, soon pulling me off to sleep.

The next morning we headed over to Professor Oak's lab and he was standing at the front door to greet us with some things in his hands.

"Okay, I am going to keep this short because you kids need to catch a boat in about two hours. Anyway, this is your new pokedex Ash; it will have all of the information about Pokémon from the Johto region in it."

He handed Ash his new pokedex. Ash looked like he could explode with excitement as he gingerly put the pokedex away.

Oak turned now to Brock. "Okay, since you seem to be the one taking care of everyone else, here is some stuff for you. A map of Johto, information about the gym leaders and Pokémon league, a book about some places to go and see in Johto, and finally all four tickets for you all".

Brock happily stuffed all of the things into his already overflowing backpack.

"And last but not least, here White" my eyes widened as Professor Oak handed me a small card. "This is your pass to Johto; Juniper sent it over this morning. As you know trainers from Unova have to have different passes for so many different things that I think I have lost count, but this should suffice for your trip. Um, I was briefed on the rules, and they seem to be the same as in Kanto." He gave me a smile.

The pass looked almost identical to my one for Kanto, but had information on Johto instead. I smiled and thanked him before slipping it into my bag.

My traveling companions looked perplexed as to why I needed a pass and they didn't, but turned their attention back to the Professor as he started to speak.

"Anyway, there wasn't a boat directly to Johto, so you are going to have a layover in the Orange Islands. Unfortunately the layover is about a week and a half long, but you kids should get some relaxation in anyway. Information on the boats and when they leave, and also on the Orange Islands is in that book I gave you Brock."

Brock nodded.

"Okay, you have fun!"

We all started to head out as we would almost have to run to catch our boat, but I stopped to ask Oak a question.

"Oh, what about my Pokémon? I mean, how do I transfer them here instead of to Professor Juniper?"

I figured this would be the last time for a while that I got to talk to Professor Oak and wanted to get all my Duckletts in a row.

"Oh don't worry, Juniper set all that up so they automatically come here. She also sent you my number in case you need to call for anything." He gave me a warm smile.

"Thanks!" I said dashing out the door.

Pretty soon we had made it to the docks. It would take the rest of the day and a night to get to the Orange Islands. Ash's mom waved a teary goodbye to us all and before we knew it we were out of sight.

I smiled and leaned over the railing. Yes, this would be a new journey for us all indeed.