Promise on a Luvdisc, Chapter One: The Master's Challenge

Disclaimer: PGM Studios (AKA Me, myself, and I) does not own Pokemon or any of its associated characters. The Pokemon games are copyrighted to Game Freak, Nintendo, and Creatures Inc.; The Anime is property of Taijiri Satoshi-sensei, TV Tokyo, and the (horrible) dub belongs to 4Kids Productions.


Eien ni furu yukiga aru nara
Kimi he to tsudzuku kono omoi Kakuseru no kaNA?

Hold me tight Konna omoi nara
Dareka wo suki ni naru kimochi
Shiritaku Nakatta yo
I love you Mune ni komiageru
Fuyuzora ni sakebitai
Ima sugu kimi ni Aitai yo

If there were an eternally falling snow
This feeling I have for you, could I hide it

Hold me tight, strong enough to break me
If we meet in a biting cold blizzard
I won't feel cold, and
I miss you everytime I think of you
This scarf that I knit for you
I'm holding it alone tonight

- Eternal Snow, from Fullmoon wo Sagashite (Searching for the Full Moon). By Changin' My Life


Five Years Later...

"Delcatty, Blizzard!"

The icy attack hit the Roselia head on. It toppled over, unconscious.

BUUUUZZZZ!

"The judges have spoken; this battle is finished!" Vivian declared. "And the winner of this year's Grand Festival is May and her Delcatty!"

May and Delcatty bowed amid earsplitting applause.

"Hey, Drew, is Roselia okay?" she asked.

"Hmmph, fine. Good battle," he replied, shaking her hand. "Next year, though, you won't be so lucky."

"I'm looking forward to it. What's a little competition between friends?"

"So, May, this is your second Grand Festival win. How do you feel?" Vivian asked, presenting her with the trophy.

"I feel great! In fact, I may even challenge the Pokemon Champion at the Hoenn League!" she joked.

"Which brings up another question. What's it like to be friends with the Indigo Plateau Champion, Ash Ketchum?"

"We've known each other for so long now that it's like he's not the champ. I know his tactics so well, I bet I could beat him easily," May looked at the camera. "You hear that, Ash? You're going down!"

"Heh, yeah, right," Ash said, watching the Festival on TV. "She may be a great coordinator, but she's nothing compared to me at battling."

"If anyone's gonna take you down, it's gonna be me," Gary said from next to him.

"Well, you'll have to wait until next year for that chance, I'm afraid," Professor Oak said, coming into the room.

"What do you mean?" they asked in unison.

"Gary'll be taking Ash's place at the League this year," Delia said, holding up a letter.

Ash leapt up, snatching the paper out of his mother's hands. "From Elite Four member Lance... Your application for the Master's Challenge has been accepted! Awesome!" he exclaimed. "You hear that, Pikachu? We're finally gonna become Pokemon Masters!"

"PI!"

"Not so fast, you've gotta go through a series of physical tests and battles before you even get to challenge the Elite Four," Gary said.

"Whatever. You'd better not lose to some kid, Gary. I don't want to lose my title just because you were careless."

"Sure. Whatever."

"It won't be easy, Ash," Tracy said. "I hear the current Master, I mean Mistress, became the Johto League Champion when she was only eleven; she's got a perfect winning streak."

"Sounds like Drak- Wait, did you say Mistress?"

"Uh-huh. The Pokemon Mistress is Crystal Star of New Bark Town."

"So she's a girl. That oughta be easy enough," Ash shrugged.

"Not technically. Remember how tough Mist-" Gary clapped a hand over his mouth. "Stupid, stupid... Sorry, Ash."

But the damage had already been done. Ash put down the letter silently and headed outside.

"Me and my big mouth," Gary groaned. "Now he's gonna be moping for the rest of the week."

"Chu, pika pi" Pikachu reprimanded.

"Still, I wonder where she is," Tracy said, absentmindedly scratching Pikachu behind the ears.

"Who knows. Probably London or Rome."

"Nah, New York or Chicago sounds more like the place an Idol Master would be."

Gary fiddled with his Elite Four badge.

"So... Is this Crystal really that good?"

"She's gotta be. I mean, beating Lance at her first major competition... Also, I've heard that she's Lance's girl."

The League member fell out of his chair.

"Lance's girl?"

Gary picked himself up, smoothing out his shirt.

"There must be at least a five year difference between them!"

"Seven, actually. You remember the boy that came here with Professor Elm a few years ago? He's a childhood friend of hers. Told me that she's always idolized Lance; carried around a scrapbook with pictures of him. I think he was rather jealous."

"One thing's for sure; the Dragon Champion isn't gonna be too willing to let Ash get to her that easily..."


"Luvdisc? Where are you?"

Ash closed the back door, calling in the direction of the pond.

"Luv!" it chirped, surfacing and swimming up to him.

"Hey, there, little guy. Brock sent some of your favorite Pokemon food. Susie put something in it to make your coat all nice and shiny," he said, bending down.

"Luvdisc!" the heart-shaped smiled, then sped to the other end of the pool.

"Hey, where are yo-"

A blast of water interrupted him. Ash, soaked, glared at the center of the water. A red fin appeared, and then the rest of his Feraligator. It looked about to pop from all the laughing it was doing.

"You two..." their trainer growled. "Why I oughta..."

Something slammed into him from behind. Ash toppled into the pond, landing on his chest with a big splash. He broke the surface, gasping for breath, to find his Meganium laughing as hard as the others. He couldn't help but grin.

"Well? Did it work?"

A purple-haired man stepped out from behind a tree.

"James? What th- DID YOU GUYS SET THEM UP FOR THIS?" Ash roared.

"Geez, boss, we were only trying to do you a favor," Jessie scoffed, jumping off the tree. "We saw your little dark-cloud act, and thought we might be nice for once. Hmph. Show a little appreciation, why don't you?" Shecrossed her arms, sticking her nose up in the air.

Ash groaned.

"Sometimes I wish I didn't offer you guys that job as League guards..." he muttered.

"Perr... What's done is done!"

Something cream-colored came flying down from the tree, landing squarely on Jessie.

"GET OFF OF ME, YOU OVERGROWN HOUSE-CAT!"

Slash.

The former- Rocket's face became a pattern of red, crossed lines. She screamed in agony.

"WHY YOU...!"

Jessie had to be held back by James to keep her from jumping on the Persian.

Persian grinned.

"Heh, heh... That'll teach you to show some respect."

Ash shivered. As amusing as this was, the sun was starting to go down, and the water wasn't exactly at a pleasant temperature. He climbed out, his clothes sticking to him.

"You three better get to wherever you're staying. It's going to be dark soon."

"So what? We're not scared," Jessie declared.

"Hoo, hoo."

She and James grabbed onto each other.

"What was that?"

"Err... Maybe we should get going.."

"See ya!"


The Master Building loomed in front of them. Despite having wanted this for years, Ash was a bit hesitant.

"Nervous, Ash?" Claire called from the front.

"A bit."

"Ah, don't worry. Who knows, you might not even get to Crys. You have to battle two former Elite Fours, and then four current Elites; one from Kanto, one from Hoenn, and two from Johto, as that's the current Master's region. After them, you have Lance. If you manage to beat him, you can have a go at Crys."

"What, I have to battle nine people in a row?" Ash was bewildered.

Claire snorted.

"'Course not. After you beat the two former Elites, you get a night's rest, and the next day you go against the current Elite Four. Between them and Crys, you get two nights' rest."

Ash sighed in relief.

"Have your Pokemon ready? You're gonna be using the same six all four days."

He nodded. Pikachu waved from his shoulder.

"Alright, then. Here we are."

She drove through the enormous gates, arriving at the front doors.

"Just go through here," Claire told him. "You'll have an hour to make any last-minute changes to you team lineup, and then you'll enter the first arena."

"Got it."

"Good luck."


The lobby was huge. The ceiling was so high that Ash felt dizzy looking up at it. Scattered throughout were Pokemon Transfer Machines, and a Nurse Joy sat at the front counter. She wore a small brooch in the shape of an "L" along with the usual dress and cap. Paintings of former Masters decorated the walls. Right above one of the couches was a large painting of Lance, looking to be around sixteen. Looking dignified in a red cloak, he had a Dragonite behind him.

"Mr. Ketchum? It's time for you to go in," a voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, right."

Joy handed him his Pokemon, fully refreshed and restored. Pikachu jumped on his shoulder.

"Thanks."

Ash's eyes strayed to the portrait behind her, of a young, teenage girl with light blue hair and sea green eyes, a determined look on her face. A fierce looking Feraligator was behind her.

"That's our current Master, Miss Star," Joy said, following his gaze.

She pressed a button, and a pair of doors on his right opened.

"Miss Lorelei is expecting you right now. Go right in. Good luck!"

"Mmm."

Ash pocketed his Pokeballs and stepped through the doors.

And was met by a piercing wave of cold.


Hello, everyone! This is the first time I've gotten ANY reviews for my stories. Thanks, you guys! Anyway, this was sort of an introductory chapter, telling you about what the gang's up to now that they've grown up. In the Manga, Jessie and James quit Team Rocket and got married.The only picture of them after that shows the two of them with Meowth, and Jessie's pregnant. ) 'Course, I'm setting this for waaaaaaaaay before that. So, they're still just teammates at the moment.

Misty really DOES have a Luvdisc; she and Daisy both have one in the Anime. It was told in one of the special episodes that hasn't been released in North America yet.

Crystal is sort of an OC, sort of not. Her name and looks are based on the Crys(tal) from the Pokemon Adventures Manga. Her Pokemon are based on the Pokemon I own in my Crystal version. And the Lance part? Well, in a movie that wasn't released outside of Japan (Raikou: Legend of Thunder), she's the main female character, known as Marina (Dani), and idolized Lance (Yes, she DOES carry around a scrapbook with pictures of him. :)). Her childhood friends were Jun'ichi (Jackson) and Kenta (Yoshi), who's the male character from Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal Versions. Her current personality is of my imagination, though. And about her skill, c'mon, I gotta give Ash a challenge, right? All the Elite Fours are gonna be pretty tough. Don't worry, she's my only (part) OC in this fanfic. Which is veeerrrrrry rare. I usually put LOTS of OCs in my stories. .

Not much A x M in this part. Don't pelt me with tomatoes, please! It's coming up! I promise!