Six days remain until the league tournament begins.


Diego woke up in his bedroom the next morning, his friends more or less forced him to come back to Pallet Town with them. His mom allowed the twins to use the guest room for the night while Jack shared Diego's room. Jack wasn't in the room when Diego awoke though, granted Diego did wake up at around nine in the morning.

He got dressed and went downstairs, his mom had already made him breakfast. She had a huge smile on her face. Diego's sister, Janie, wasn't there but she's currently waiting for whoever wins the tournament to face her, at least that's what Yellow told her son.

"Are you ok, mom?"

"I'm just fine dear!"

Diego could feel his mother's excitement, the question he was asking himself was why was she so happy? He felt as though slmething else was missing too...

"Where are the others?"

"Oh I asked them to go pick up a few things for me in Viridian City. They might take a while, why don't you go and train for the tournament. But be sure to be back by six, I need you here for something important!"

'I love my family and all, but why did my friends have to drag me all the way home for no reason?'

Diego left as soon as he finished his breakfast, flying back to the Indigo Plateau on his Charizard.

"Ok, he's gone!"

Janie, Jack, and the twins all came out of various closets and even underneath the kitchen sink holding various party favors.

"Did he honestly forget today is his birthday?" Reneé asked.

"Well, he does tend to forget things when he gets excited." Yellow replied.

"That's my little brother for you." Janie chuckled.

"What are we waiting for?!" Julia asked in excitement. "Let's set this party up!"


Diego spent several hours training at the Indigo Plateau, several other trainers there battled each other or used various other machines, power items, etc., to power up their pokemon. Diego mostly kept to himself though, he didn't want anyone else to know his strategies.

While he was there he managed to see Minh and Harry, both of whom he recognized from the Grand Festival, they didn't see him though, or at least Diego didn't think they did. One peculiar trainer who did lock eyes with Diego was a mysterious young man with blond hair that went down to his shoulders in a style that resembled a mullet. His eyes were baleful and cold and he had a sort of towering and menacing disposition despite being ahout the same height as Diego.

As soon as they made eye contact, the young man left with a hint of a smirk on his face. He couldn't quite explain this feeling, but Diego felt some kind of adrenaline. It definitely wasn't fear or panic, the beat way Diego could describe it would be anticipation for battle against that trainer!

Diego's attention then shifted to his PokeNav, which received a text message from his mom.

'Come home dear, we have a surprise for you!'

Genuinely curious, Diego left the training center and began to head back to Pallet Town.


Diego's Charizard landed in front of his home, from his front window he could see some sort of smoke billowing inside his house. Panicking he rushed inside.

"Now!"

The smoke was instantly cleared by a Butterfree flapping its wings, which were glowing white. The smoke cleared, revealing a party set up by everyone!

"Surprise!" They all cheered.

"Woah, what's all this?!" Diego asked.

"Dude, don't you know what today is?" Jack asked.

"No?"

"It's your birthday, you idiot!" Janie laughed, flicking her little brother's forehead.

"It's my birthday? ...It's my birthday!" Diego said, still trying to comprehend exactly what happened. Julia had a wide smile on her face as she handed Diego a birthday card, the names of all the trainers they graduated the Vermillion City Pokemon Academy with had been signed on it alongside messages by them wishing Diego a happy birthday. Those that would also be participating in the tournament wished him luck and hoped that they would battle.

Diego brought his friends together for a group hug as they began to celebrate. Diego's sister and mom watched as one of the two men of their family enjoyed his birthday. Yellow looked out the window, her expression changing from a smile to one of wonder and anticipation. Janie noticed her mother's shift in attitude.

"Do you really think dad is coming?" Janie asked.

Yellow didn't have a proper answer, her husband was always an enigma, ever since he started his journey across Kanto decades ago.


The party went on until twilight, the young trainers enjoyed themselves alongside Diego's mom and sister. A knock at the door caught everyone's attention...

Yellow opened the door and had to step back, her eyes going wide. A man stood at the door, a Pikachu that was perched on his shoulder jumped off and greeted Yellow's Pikachu, Chuchu, with a loving nuzzle. The man wore a brown coat that was unzipped to reveal a red long sleeved shirt, he also wore blue jeans and brown boots. His brown hair surrounded his head in a neat but somehow also wild set of sideburns. The hair on top of his head was covered by a red cap.

"R-Red..."

"Dad..."

Diego's facial expression changed to disapproval.

"Daddy!" Janie cheered as she went to go hug her father, the young trainers thought it was rather funny how a young woman who was almost twenty years old was squealing with joy like a child.

"W-what are you doing here?" Yellow asked, her husband didn't verbally respond, instead he entered the building and walked towards his son, locking eyes with him for a moment before giving him a hug as well.

The other three trainers were in absolute shock as they saw the living legend right in front of them though their shock quickly transformed into a barrage of questions, though Red didn't answer any of them as he was still his usual quiet self.

Diego backed away from his father, the look of frustration unwavering from his face as he reached for one of his pokeballs. Red smirked a little as also took oit a pokeball and motioned for Diego to follow him outside...

"What was all that about?" Reneé asked.

"My husband is a man who prefers to go straight to the point and my son has always been a bit resistant to him due to the fact that Red is neber home. He's always busy with his work and travelling around the world." Yellow replied.

"What does he do for work anyway?" Jack pondered.

"I don't know all the details but supposedly he works with trainers that are indescribably powerful." Janie replied. "So powerful in fact that even some of the Pokemon League Champions are below them."

"And we get to see someone that atrong battle?!" Julia said enthusiastically. "What are we waiting for?!"

Julia grabbed her friends by their wrists as they headed outside to watch the battle. Janie and Yellow followed them outside.


Diego and Red faced each other in front of their home, staring each other down for a moment before Red's Pikachu jumped forth to battle. Diego sent out his Raichu, which somewhat surprised his family, but it was a pleasant surprise.

"Raichu, use Quick Attack!" Diego ordered.

Raichu dashed forward like a speeding bullet, Pikachu didn't appear to avoid. But as soon as it looked like Raichu hit Pikachu, the smaller electric mouse had actually leaped upward at a speed that almost nobody could see.

"W-wow! That's fast!" Julia gasped.

Pikachu landed right by his trainer, who revealed that he had been wearing a Z-Ring. As he activated the accessory, Pikachu jumped onto Red's shoulder, giving him a high five with his tail and then fist bumping him before jumping skyward, glowing with electricity.

Once Pikachu was at an ample altitude, it created six orbs of electricity that varied in color. Red's Pikachu smirked as it let out the orbs of electricity at Raichu. Both Raichu and Diego were too awestruck to counter.

"What... is that?" Janie asked. "Mom, I know you have a Z-Crystal for Chuchu but..."

"There are two Z-Crystals Pikachu can use. Mine allows it use the move Catastropika, so long as Chuchu can use Volt Tackle. However there exists another Z-Crystal for Pikachu that are strong enough to handle it, named after the trainer who discovered this special Z-Crystal. It's known as Pikashunium Z; it allows any Pikachu that is strong enough to use it to turn their Thunderbolt attack into what you're looking at now."

The six lightning bolts converged into a rainbow colored bolt as it headed for Raichu.

"Ten-thousand (10,000) Volt Thunderbolt!"

The moment the lightning bolt struck Raichu, it exploded into a bright light that enveloped Pallet Town for a moment before it faded, leaving Raichu knocked out and unable to battle.

"Well that was certainly overkill." Jack sighed.

"Yup, that's definitely Diego's dad." Reneé chuckled.

Diego recalled Raichu back into his pokeball, he no longer looked angry, but he wasn't really happy either. Red walked over to Diego and placed a hand on his shoulder, a more solemn look on his face.

As Diego looked up at his father, he smiled a bit and returned the hug his father gave him earlier. Everyone headed back inside for dinner and enjoyed the rest of the evening celebrating.


Red left the following morning, he didn't say where he was going but everyone was able to see him off and wish him farewell.

Five days remained until the league tournament began.

Janie was picked up via helicopter to head back to Indigo Plateau, leaving just the main group. The twins and Jack were also packing up to leave.

"My mom said she would help me train for the league so I'll be staying here for a while, where are you guys going?" Diego asked.

"Seeing Red made me want to battle him and I know he liked hanging around Mount Silver so I'm going there as soon as possible, he's definitely going to be there!" Reneé replied.

"I don't know about that." Diego responded. "My dad is a mystery, nobody knows where he goes. But Mount Silver is definitely a tough place to go into so that should give you some intense training!"

"Well that's just one of the places our Aunt Cynthia recommended us to train in." Julia added. "She told us that Ilex Forest over in Johto has a seasonal migration around this time of year. Nobody knows why, but the bug pokemon that come are super powerful! She sais we could go there and that she could pull a few strings to habe a friend of hers come and train us too!"

"That's way more interesting than what I was gonna do!" Jack chuckled. "I was just going to go train back in Victory Road!"

Jack sent out his Fearow and was ready to fly back to the Indigo Plateau but he noticed neither of the girls were preparing to do the same.

"Are you coming?" Jack asked.

"Actually, no. We planned on hiking over to where we planned to do our training. It'll take a day for us to get where we plan to be so we can clear our minds and think of strategies." Reneé answered.

"So I guess we won't be seeing each ither again until the tournament?" Diego questioned.

"I guess so." Jack answered.

The group said their goodbyes to each other and shared ine last group hug before going their separate ways.

"Jack wait!" Julia called out. "I know you're going to the opposite direction but would you mind dropping me off at the Saffron Magnet Train Station?"

"Oh! S-sure!" Jack stuttered, his face quickly blushing.


Once the pair arrived at the Station, Julia was lucky enough to find that the next train would be leaving in a few minutes.

"Thanks so much, Jack! I'll see you in five days, okay?" Julia said happily.

"Wait!" Jack called out.

"What's wrong?"

"I just want you to be careful while you're in Johto." Jack answered. Julia gave her friend a sweet smile before giving him a hug.

"Hehe, don't worry about me, I'll be fine!"

Julia gave Jack a kiss on the cheek before heading to the train. Jack placed a hand on his cheek as he could feel his heart melt as the two waved each other goodbye.

Once the train had gone, Jack flew back to the Indigo Plateau on his Fearow. The next five days would have to be spent training diligently for the tournament.


A factory several miles away from the Indigo Plateau was being used to transport and move several machines in and out of it. One of the things being worked on with in the factory was a large machine obscured by shadows.

Several TDS grunts stood behind Singularity and Andromeda as they looked at the machine. A scientist approached Singularity, a clipboard in his hand.

"All tests have been successful, sir. The MD is fully functional!"

"Excellent. The Indigo League Tournament is beginning soon. Dakota will be acting as our mole. Once the time is right then we make our move!" Singularity said

"By any chance, does Dakota know he will be our like?" Andromeda asked.

"Of course not! If he was aware of all this he would likely quit and we can't have that!"

One of the grunts looked at five large glass containment chambers that stood at the left side if the bosses, they were large enough to hold a person in but were full of a clear green liquid and five human hairs. What was most ominous however was that these five containers were labeled...

'Sandra'

'Max'

'Pandora'

'Simon'

'Ryan'

'Jack'

The containers were kept in a larger cube made of plexiglass with steel edges. A label was on one if the edges...

'Project Dark Mirror'


I hope I was able to make Red's appearance in this story, as well as the chapter itself, wnjoyable to read.

But with our group separating until the tournament begins, what will happen next?