Review Responses:

Ri2: Stop getting ahead of me! (Chapter 1 review) No. (Chapter 4 reviews) Ho-oh is Ash's guardian, it should be obvious, I assume you are referring to the cloaked figure, Wally equals Max, yes it's starting, and Ash is very, very stupid.

Generic Reviewer: I'm not really bashing May. All I've done is remove her from the focus of the story.

Joanne Beverly: Thanks again!

Blue Mountain League

By Gigawolf1

Chapter 5: The Journey through Space and Time

Ash and Misty followed the directions on the map from the waterfall in Ever Grande. Finding the small cave situated behind the torrent, they clambered inside. Following the twerps was Team Rocket. The three of them had to follow at a distance, and when they got to the cave, they found an opening that was obviously too small for any of them to enter. However, as they tried anyway, they found that it was much larger than it first appeared. "It feels like it opened up to let us in. I don't like this," whined James. He had been ignored, but a figure on top of the cliff overlooking the sea heard him just fine, and climbed down after them.

As Ash and Misty walked through the cavern, they saw many a wondrous site: Fossils of Kabutops, Omastar, Armaldo, and even Cradily. Truly astounding was the perfectly preserved Aerodactyl swooping down on an Omanyte and ancient Slowpoke while a Pidgeot and Arbok looked on. "That's all, folks," whispered Ash to himself, thinking about the song that had made it easy to remember the names of most pokémon. Misty looked at him with an annoyed stare, and he stopped. They had both been wondering where they were, but neither had wanted to ask.

Team Rocket, however, was more than willing to ask anyone they came across where they were, or where they were headed. Unfortunately for them, there were only five people in the cave. As they slowly moved through the tunnel, they also saw the fossils. Meowth would never tell anyone that he had been sure that the remains of long-dead pokémon had been watching him. He thought no one would ever believe him, and that it was only his imagination. Little did he know that, while he was right in thinking that no one would ever believe him, the fossil pokémon had been watching him…

A lone figure stood at the entrance to the cave. The passage to Ever Grande had been a long one, but he had done it: He had managed to dig from the mountains straight into Hoenn. An accomplishment like that had to be rewarded, and so he took out the berries from his pack and ate four Watmel Berries. The juice was so good he just had to grin, but then he heard some noises in the cavern. He quickly put away the Watmel Berries, washed his face, and stood in a dominating way over the hole in the ground. He looked into the darkness, and gasped.

Ash and Misty were grumbling and moaning from their struggles in the tunnel. They had been forced to climb rocks, pass chasms, and work together, just to find that they had taken the wrong path. They had also been forced to go back the way they had come, and just barely missed Team Rocket. As they emerged from the hole in the ground, they heard a gasp. Looking up, Ash accidentally let Misty drop back down into the cave. He shouted "Misty!" before dropping back into the darkness. "Don't worry, Misty, I'm coming! I landed on something soft…" he yelled before realizing the 'something soft' had been Misty. The figure just listened, as an act of incredible violence was committed in the dark.

Team Rocket was not far behind, and was almost in the chamber below the hole when Misty's yelling caused a cave-in, effectively forcing Jessie, James, and Meowth to take the long way. They had no idea that they were being followed, or that the man following them just pushed the few boulders out of the way and entered the chamber as Ash and Misty were leaving it for good.

"Hello. My name's John. Welcome to the Blue Mountain Range! You look tired; you must have gotten lost. You have no idea how many people have become lost in there!" he said without wanting a response. He needed to get them out of there, NOW, before he had a chance to get out and ruin everything.

"Hi. My name's Ash Ketchum, and this is Misty. I'm from Pallet Town, and this is my pokémon… Hey, where's Pikachu?" Ash had quickly turned from excited to worried. He looked over John's shoulder to see the Electric Mouse Pokémon, sleeping. 'Must have gotten ahead of us somehow,' he thought.

"My job is to make sure everyone who comes here gets to the first town. The main problem is that many people here aren't exactly, well… They aren't very welcoming. Most of them think that, since outsiders have a tendency to try to capture the rare pokémon, they shouldn't come here. Even though all of them came from elsewhere…" said John, still wanting desperately to get away from the hole in the ground.

When Team Rocket finally got out of the cavern, they saw that the boulders had been moved since they had been there last, which was around an hour earlier. As they left the cave, they saw a brightly lit road leading into the night, and so they followed it until midnight, when a Noctowl used Hypnosis to put them all to sleep.

AN: Ah, finally in the Blue Mountain Range. Soon, the League will begin! If you want to know more about this place, read the prologue!