Time for yet another installment in this epic (not) series. To tell the truth, I really don't know how long this series is going to be or what exactly I'm going to do with it. I'm currently in the process of finishing series that I left discontinued, starting with this one. I have a few plot points in my mind, but I'm not sure if I am going to use them or not. Well, let's get started.

-

After arriving in Cerulean City, our heroes met up with two of Misty's older sisters again. After spending a few minutes at the gym, they finally made it to Bill's cottage. But getting the Tri-Passes would be no easy feat. They had to catch a very hard to capture Abra. After a few mishaps, the Abra decided that it wanted to be with Brendan. And so, with passes in hand, they set off for the Sevii Islands!

-

A Series of Events… Episode 5: A Pallet Town Reunion at the Sevii Islands!

-

"Oh, wow…" May said softly in amazement as they left the harbor. "Look at that building! It's pretty!"

"That's the Pokemon Net Center, I believe…" Brock replied, rubbing his chin. "It's like a huge Pokemon center, except it also is the building that's responsible for Kanto's PC connection with Hoenn!"

"Wow! That's so neat!" May shouted in excitement.

"Yep, Brock's right on the mark…" Brendan said, nodding. "I was there when Lanette made a connection with this place… Never thought I'd see it in person… This is where we'll find Celio, by the way…"

"Well what are we waiting for?" Ash asked. "Let's go!"

-

"Well hello, everyone!" Celio said cheerfully. "I hope that it didn't take you too much trouble to get here…"

"Eh, not really…" Ash lied, chuckling nervously as they walked into the building. "Wow, this place is big…"

"Now I suppose that you are all wondering why I summoned you here…" Celio began. HE gave a playful glare. "Actually, I only summoned Ash, but the rest of you just had to tag along, didn't you?"

"Well if you take Ash, you get the whole package!" Brock joked, grinning.

"Very well, then…" Celio replied, opening a drawer. "This actually helps Ash out a lot, because this job is much too for just one person… I actually already had partners lined up for you, but the more the merrier, I guess…"

"Partners?" Ash asked, raising an eyebrow. "Who are they?"

"Oh, you'll find out…" Celio said with a chuckle. "Anyway… The mission! Team Magma and Team Aqua are back…"

"Whaaat!" everyone screamed.

Celio cleared his throat. "…Anyway, before I was interrupted… The two organizations are under new leadership. I don't know what they are up too, but Team Magma has stolen the Ruby Plate… I suspect that Team Aqua will do the same with the Sapphire Plate."

"So you want us to guard the Sapphire Plate while also trying to find out the whereabouts of Team Magma and the Ruby Plate?"

"I was just about to say that!" the man shouted, getting a tad peeved. He walked over to Ash and gave him another pass, plus 3 maps. "So Ash, take this Rainbow Pass and these extra map pages, go to Kin Island and hook up with your partners… While you are off searching for Team Magma on the other islands, the rest of you will help me watch the Sapphire Plate."

"Hey no fair!" Brendan shouted. "I've got a mission as well! I have to go to Floe Island and put two Abra in the breeding center!"

"Oh for goodness sakes…" Celio smacked his forehead. "Tell you what… Go with Ash to Kin Island and get me some berries… Then I'll see what I can do. Sorry, but these passes don't grow on trees…"

"All right, sir!" Brendan shouted. "Thank you, sir!"

-

"Don't worry guys, we'll be back!" Ash promised, waving as the ship took off.

"Good luck, Ash!" Misty yelled over to him. "We'll do our best on our part!"

-

After arriving on Kin Island, the duo split up. Ash went over to the house that his new partners supposedly lived in, while Brendan headed off to Berry Forest. As Ash knocked on the door to the house, he raised an eyebrow as a pink haired teenage girl wearing a green one piece dress opened the door.

"Taylor!" she said happily. "You're back!" hugging him, she caught him off guard.

"Um, what?" he asked in confusion.

"Pika…" Pikachu muttered, shaking his head.

The girl tilted her head, confused as well. "Hey, wait… You're not Taylor…"

"No shit, Lostelle…" replied a familiar voice, from behind the girl.

Ash, finally recovering from that unexpected hug, looked past her and gasped. "Gary! What the hell are you doing here?" He then gave him a look of puzzlement. "And how do you always manage to be one step ahead of me?"

"You're just too slow, 'Ashy-boy'…" Gary smirked cockily, reverting to his old ways as a joke. "Always have been, always will be…"

"Say that again, you bastard!" Ash shouted angrily, stepping towards him.

"Ash, Ash… Calm down…" Gary said calmly, crossing his arms. "You never could take a joke, could you?"

"I'll show you a joke, you jerk!" Ash growled, clenching his fist as his old temper came out.

"Please don't fight!" Lostelle pleaded. Sighing, she thought of what she could do to get this 'Ash' fellow to calm down. "Are you two… hungry?"

"Pika! Pikachu!" the electric mouse shouted in excitement.

-

Meanwhile, a lost Brendan was wandering through the dark, thick forest. "Great, just great… Damn it, I got the berries, but I don't know how to get out of here! Too many bushes and turns and--" Suddenly, he heard some twigs snap and the rustling of bushes. "Who's there!" He began to shiver, but wait, why be afraid? He had his pokemon to defend him! Reaching for his pokeballs, he gasped as he realized that… He had forgotten them somewhere in the forest! He screamed as a tall, shadowy figure came closer… closer… closer… "Stay away!"

"Whoa! Calm down!" the shadowy figure stepped into the little light there was, revealing his face. He wore a red cap with a white hollow semi-circle upon his short brown hair, matching vest with black t-shirt underneath, blue jeans, and red and white sneakers. He held up Brendan's missing pokeballs. "You drop these?"

"You find him yet, Taylor?" a brown haired young woman ran up behind him, dressed in a sun hat that had reversed colors to the man's, sleeveless blue shirt, red mini-skirt, blue socks and sneakers that matched her hat. "I see you did… Hello, there! My name is Omi, and this is my boyfriend Taylor!" she said in a kind voice, wrapping her arms around Taylor. "Sorry that we scared you! Are you lost?"

-

"So… Ash, right?" Lostelle replied, putting a plate of food in front of him. "You're not Taylor, but you sure dress like him…" She smiled as she set a dish of assorted berries and an open bottle of ketchup on the ground. "Here you go, Pikachu! Gosh, you're a cutie!" she cooed, petting him.

"Piiii, pika!" Pikachu replied, blushing slightly with one of his hands behind his head.

"So, this Taylor… What's he like?" Ash asked, taking a bite of his food. "Mm, this is good… These berries came from the forest?"

"Yes they did, and thank you!" Lostelle said, happy for the comment on her food. "Anyway, um… Taylor is really cool! And nice, and handsome, and he's just the best!" The girl said dreamily, sighing. Her moment of bliss quickly turned into a moment of anger. She began to tightly squeeze a plate she was holding in her hands. "But then that hussy, Omi came along and took him away from me!" She furiously broke the plate into pieces, growling. "Damn it, she makes me so mad!" Just as quickly as she slipped into anger, she slipped back into happiness. "But still, Omi is so nice! I do like her, I'm just a tad jealous…"

Ash stared at her with a look of fear, becoming quite uncomfortable. He turned to Pikachu, who had a 'creeped out' expression on his face. He then did a double take towards Lostelle. "Wait, Taylor? And Omi? They wouldn't happen to be from Kanto, would they? Pallet Town specifically?"

Gary began to snicker, as if he knew something that the other didn't. Ash glared at him. "And just what are you laughing at?"

"Oh nothing, nothing…" Gary replied, telling a bare-ass lie.

"Um…" Lostelle began, putting a finger to her mouth and making a cute 'thinking' face. "I think so… Why, have you met them before?"

Ash grinned goofily as he came to a sudden realization, putting a hand behind his head. "Eh, you could say that, I guess!" At that moment, the door opened, and three people entered. Ash's eyes widened as he stood up. "Taylor! Omi! I knew it! What are you guys doing here?"

Taylor and Omi blinked rapidly as they stared at Ash. "Ash Ketchum? Mr. Big time hero?" Taylor asked. "You're our other partner for that mission that Celio sent us on?"

Ash walked toward them. "I guess I am… So, this is where you went all those years after you won the league?" He turned to Omi. "And have you filled up the Pokedex like you said you would?"

"No, but I've seen every known pokemon there is!" Omi admitted. "It's just catching them all that's the problem!"

"Actually, I bet you haven't seen all of them…" Ash taunted. "What about the legendaries?"

"Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo and Suicune…" Taylor muttered to himself. "I'm still overwhelmed with how powerful they were…"

"Just a minute…" Brendan began, confusion evident in his and Lostelle's faces. "Just how do you four know each other?"

"We left Pallet Town on the same day! Gary left first, Taylor and I traveled together, and poor Ash overslept…" Omi said in reply. "We were all friends growing up! Well, except Gary… He kept putting us all down…"

"Hey, Gary wasn't that bad…" Taylor said in defense. "I used to be kind of a wimp, getting picked on all the time, and Gary would often bail me out… Why, I remember that one time that both Gary and Ash helped me out…"

-Flashback-

A young Taylor, of about 7, was wandering in the fields outside of Pallet. He had made a bet with some older kids that he couldn't last an hour alone in the wild pokemon infested fields. He looked around worriedly as a pack of Spearow landed near him. They began to get closer and closer to him, and he became more and more frightened. Suddenly, without warning, they all swarmed him, attempting to peck at him. "Waah! Somebody help!" He tried to run away, but tripped on a rock and fell. He waved his arms, trying to swat them away, but these Spearow seemed really agitated for some reason.

The older boys, who were standing a few feet away, began laughing at the poor boy. "Boy, screwing around with those birds and then getting Taylor mixed up in the resulting riot was great!" one of them replied, tears running down his face with laughter.

"Hey, you leave him alone, you jerks!" Ash screamed, plowing down the boy as he ran over and slammed into him shoulder first. "Pick on someone your own size!"

Just when Taylor thought he was done for, Gary came running over with a big stick, screaming his head off as he swung the stick wildly. After effectively scaring the birds away, he looked to Taylor plainly. "Hey… you okay?"

"Yeah, thanks Gary…" Taylor said timidly, small peck and scratch marks on his face and arms. He slowly got up and smiled. "I thought I was a goner!"

"Yeah, well don't expect me to do it again, you wimp!" the grandson of Professor Oak snapped. "You're gonna have to learn to stick up for yourself!"

Just then, Ash walked up. He was a bit bruised and had a small trickle of blood going down his mouth. We wiped it off before grinning proudly. "We sure showed them, didn't we?"

"Whatever…" Gary muttered, arms crossed and back towards Ash. "You got the crap kicked out of you… The only reason they left was because they were getting bored of beating you up…"

"Say that to my face, you poop-head!" Ash screamed, stomping his foot.

"Is that the best you got?" Gary teased. "My grandpa has better insults than that!"

Omi sighed as she watched them. "Boys… Come on, Taylor…" she said softly, carefully dragging him along. "Let's take you home…"

-End Flashback-

"Wow… You all seem like you were all really close…" Lostelle said, tilting her head. "And you haven't seen each other in all these years?"

Gary nodded. "Well, they've all had encounters with me at least, but this is the first time in ten years that Ash has even seen Taylor and Omi…"

"But we certainly heard the tales of each other's adventures!" Taylor chimed in. "Ash, how many times have you saved the world?"

"I think I lost count…" Ash said modestly, chuckling.

The ringing of a phone came from another room. "I'll get it!" Lostelle said as she ran over to the phone.

"So, how should we go about catching Team Magma?" Ash asked, sitting back down onto his chair.

"I don't know…" Omi said with a sigh. "We have no idea where they are… No clues, no hints of where they might go, or even why they took the Ruby Plate in the first place!"

"Hey Ash!" Lostelle shouted from the other room. "It's for you! Some squinty guy is on the other end and he looks kind of worried!"

"Er, must be Brock…" Ash said as he sat up and walked over to the phone. He gave his thanks as the girl handed it to him, then he smiled at the screen. "Hey, Brocko! What's up?"

"Ash, something really bad just happened…" Brock said gravely. "Now, promise me you won't get too upset when you hear this, but--"

"What?" Ash asked, becoming more nervous. "What is it?"

"Team Aqua attacked us." Brock said quickly. "They outnumbered us, stole the Sapphire Plate, and then they…" he paused for a moment, wondering if he should tell him right now. He decided that telling him was the best thing. "They kidnapped Misty, Ash… I'm sorry…"

Ash's lip trembled as he let the phone receiver drop to the floor. "N-no… Y-you're just joking around, right?"

"I wish I was…" he said, looking away. A lone tear ran down his face. "Damn it Ash, what are we going to do?"

Ash fell to his knees, holding back his tears with difficulty. "N-no, Misty…"

"Is something wrong, Ash?" Brendan asked, a look of concern on his face.

Ash's worry and sadness quickly turned into anger. Standing up, he turned around and glared, a fire in his eyes that hadn't been seen in years. "New mission: We're going to find both Team Magma and Team Aqua, and then take them down!"

To Be Continued… And the events get darker...