Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Intermission: A tale of a time long gone by.

Dear diary,

For some reason, I was feeling particularly nostalgic after seeing him on the television. He never even bothered to call me or any one of us for that matter but I suppose we reap what we sow.

Looking back, my life has always been full of ups and downs. I was forced to become the head of the family as a teen yet still managed to chase my dreams to successfully. I even managed to marry such a beautiful woman and have such great kids.

"Honey? What are you writing?"

"Nothing dear. I just felt like writing a diary for some reason."

"Oh okay then. Anyways, I'm going to shop for some groceries, so just look after the kids for me okay."

"Sure. Be safe dear."

Where was I? Right, the success of my life. In retrospect, the biggest reason why I became so successful was probably him. He was the reason why I gathered enough courage to face the world and it's challenges.

I mean it will be strange if you hang around someone who has saved the world multiple times without any hope of recognition yet still manage to remain a coward. In a way, he changed me for the better and I am pretty sure that I'm not the only one who feels that way.

Yet somehow, somewhere along the way, I or rather we forgot all about it. I suppose our success and his failures got into our head and fuelled our arrogance further until we simply stopped caring about him.

I mean, it isn't strange for one of the best, most paid doctors on the planet or the Top Co-ordinator of Hoenn or Sinnoh to want to do nothing with a washed up Pokemon trainer without a single league championship under him. Yes, we forgot about all he did for us.

It wasn't a lack of effort on his part that we didn't meet up anymore since he did try to keep in touch but we didn't want to. After a while, he stopped trying and we started to forget.

Then spring arrived for the gang and everyone started settling down. I got married, Misty followed soon after, and one by one everyone settled down. Even Serena ended up marrying Calem within two years after I did. He wasn't invited to a single one of these weddings.

Then the kids arrived and we forgot all about him. Rightly so as he had disappeared somewhere much to the chagrin of Gary who was pretty much the only one who still cared about him.

"Dad, I'm home."

"Welcome back honey. How was the school?"

"It's pretty boring dad. They are only teaching things that I already know. If it wasn't for this stupid rule banning us from becoming trainers until we take the class, I'll probably have won a league by now."

" It isn't easy you know, to win a Pokemon league. Your brother hasn't been able to win one even though he has been training for two years now. "

" Yeah but I'm better than him. Anyways, what are you writing dad? And where's mom? "

" This is just a small journal of mine that I keep for fun. Your mom went shopping. "

" Okay, I'm going to Catherine's house to play. Tell mom for me. "

" Sure. "

The next time I saw him was in the Indigo Plateau. Five years had passed since his disappearance and he was pretty much a forgotten name. I didn't even recognise him at first until the screen introduced him as Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town. He had a completely different air about him.

His opponent was a Sixteen year old kid named Jackson who was a rising star in the circuit after he had came in second in the previous years Indigo league. The kid was arrogant as they came yet for some inexplicable reason, I felt myself rooting for him.

He was uncharacteristically quiet even when the kid was relentlessly mocking him at his incompetence. Everyone thought he was simply posturing until the match began and the next thing we witnessed was a completely one sided massacre.

I knew Sceptile ever since he was a Treecko but I never knew that he was capable of such violence. All three of Jackson's Pokemon was beaten down to an inch of their lives without Sceptile taking as much as a single attack's worth of damage.

To be honest, saying that I was shocked would be an understatement, I was completely bewildered if anything. He didn't even stay for the handshake afterwards which was something that I thought was possible.

However, this stunt proved to be a drawback as many people started hating him and rooting for his defeat afterwards. However, all of that was in vain since he completely nuked the competition in a way only Tobias ever accomplished, by beating every single round with a single Pokemon.

At least, Tobias used a Darkrai, he o the other hand used regular Pokemon. And by the end of the month, Ask Ketchum had his first League Championship under his belt.

However, this was just the beginning. Many had expected him to challenge the Elite four but instead he went ahead to Johto for some reason.

His reemergence was a shock to most of us but we weren't able to get in touch with him anymore. He was content with ignoring us like we didn't exist. He had became the biggest topic of discussion and so some reporters digged up our past connections with him and continuously questioned us and him about it.

"While I used to be familiar with the people you mentioned, it was nothing more than a brief intersection in our lives. I am not close enough to any of them to consider them an acquaintance, much less a friend." He had said, in an elegant tone that I didn't know he was capable of.

To be fair, we deserved it after we had unilaterally cut our ties with him but it did hurt us a bit to think about. The biggest hit was on the girls, for whom he was something akin to a brother. They had forgotten about him in their glory yet still, the events of thei childhoods were too significant in shaping their lives for them to completely forget about it.

The next few years saw his rise into the very forefront of League circuit. First to fall was the Johto League. Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos follewed soon afterwards and before anyone knew, Ask Ketchum became the first grandslam champion in history. In six years, he cleanly sweeped all the leagues without as much losing a single Pokemon.

The anticipation around his Elite four gauntlet was dampened hard by Mrs Ketchum's untimely death. This was the second high profile death in Pallet Town within two years as Professor Oak had thrown the towel after living well into his eighties. He wasn't distasteful enough to deny us access to the funeral but it always seemed that there was a world of difference between us. The girls wanted to confront him but a single look from that haunting brown eyes cowed them into submission. He didn't wish to make a scene and we weren't able to challenge him.

The Kanto Elite four was the first to fall as even they were unable to keep up with the extreme pace and strength of his Pokemon. He even beat Lance with just half his team. This was because he subbed his Pokemon after they beat two of Lance's Pokemon, not because they lost the fight.

However, what followed was one of the most controversial decisions in the history of the Pokemon league. He, instead of taking up the mantle of the champion, left the position to Lance and went off the grid again. There was a rule that stated that Elite Fours could only be challenged once every year and so he reappeared next year to challenge the Johto Elite Four.

By this point, Johto was speculated as a warm-up for the Steven fight and this was justified when Charizard became the first Pokemon in history to single-handedly sweep an entire Elite Four and Champion. Lyra, the Johto champion stepped down out of sheer embarassment afterwards and Lance had to pick up the position again.

The build-up to the Steven fight was perhaps one of the biggest events in history, even more than the Decennial Pokemon Masters World Championships. Steven had been the champion for almost two decades now and people were looking forward to see whether the "Strongest Champion" would be dethroned.

The league cashed in on the hype and the fight was decided to be held in an open stadium for the first time in history. The tickets were sold within ten minutes of opening and even we were hard-pressed to find some.

The battle that unfolded was a stuff of legends. For the first time, he used all six of his Pokemon as a mark of respect for the old guard. It was a 6-0 defeat for Steven but all six matchups were exceedingly entertaining. This was also the match where he did the impossible by mega evolving multiple different Pokémon in the same battle, a feat previously thought impossible. The last fight between Mega Charizard and Mega Metagross was Earth-shattering to say the least.

This battle became the most televised event in the history of the world with as much as 80 percent of the entire population of the world watching it somehow, at least up until then. Steven announced his decision to step down as the Champion and Ash by now was already heading to Sinnoh.

Now for all the hype the Steven fight received, it paled in comparison with the following Tobias fight. In a way, he was back to where it had stated to go wrong for him. The build-up to the fight was already in full force half a year before the fight was even announced. By this point, the Elite 4 was nothing more than a formality and no one even entertained the idea of him losing to one of them, not even the Elite 4 members themselves. Even Cynthia, who was serving as the number four of the ite 4 was not taken seriously. Tobias and his Darkrai had proven that she wasn't invincible by any stretch.

The Sinnoh branch of the league capitalised on the hype by using the fight as an inaugural ceremony for their new League Stadium. However, the fight wasn't what everyone expected it to be. Tobias, who had a team of six legendary Pokemon couldn't even beat one of Ash's Pokemon. Charizard looked like he was making a statement that the only reason Ash lost their first fight was because he wasn't there. It took Five of Tobias's Pokemon to finally beat Charizard, marking his first loss after the resurgence but Sceptile cleaned up his remaining Pokémon without any fuss.

This fight was boring when compared to the Steven fight but even so, it beat the Steven fight's record as the most televised event in history. By this point, he had already ended all discussions on who the greatest Pokemon trainer of all time was but he still wanted more.

Unova and Kalos fell in the next two years as History made way for the first ever person to become champion in all six of the main regions.

In twelve years, he had accomplished enough for himself to be remembered throughout history but he still wanted more. Orre and Alola, two small island archipelago regions rose to prominence after he went there to train for the World Championships.

There wasn't any doubt that he was the absolute favourite to win but nonetheless, the tournament was conducted with utmost sincerity. By now, he had nothing left to prove and so he indulged the fans as he made his way through the tournament. A tiny bit of the old Ash came back as he started looking like he was having fun again. All thirty of his registered roster made their appearance as he went through the tourney and several fan clubs were formed for his Pokemon.

To no one's surprise, he defeated Steven, the previous World Champion in the final once again in a clash of the Titans to be crowned as an official Pokemon master. Steven announced his retirement from the battle circuit on the same occasion marking the end of an era.

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if we hadn't turned our backs on him. Would he have had the same amount of success he have now? Were we the ones holding him back?

I guess that's all I have right now. I guess some things in life just isn't meant to be. I am happy now and I think he is happy as well. So all's well that ends well.

Yours lovingly,

Brock.

"You okay there Brock? I thought I heard a crashing sound." I asked Brock. There was a loud noise just now that woke me up.

"It's no big deal. I just had a weird dream." He replied.

" If you say so. " I said as I went back to sleep.

Uh hello. I guess it's been an year or so since I last wrote this. I guess I was too out of touch to write it. Anyways, this is purely a filler chapter just so that I can get back on touch. The next chapter will have a timeskip. I believe I have improved as a writer from the last time I wrote this.

If anyone is reading this, feel free to mention your favourite Gen 2 Pokémon. I need it for some story purpose.