Hello everyone here is the next chapter. I hope you all enjoy it. Have a great new year.


As daylight broke the next morning May's eyes slowly opened, she stretched her arms above her head. A smile crept onto her face, the emotions from yesterday's contest still coursed through her veins. Though it wasn't a true knockout or points loss, beating Drew gave her more confidence. Sure she'd beaten him before, but now it was on a different level with everything that had happened recently and with having Ash as her boyfriend and biggest supporter. That thought made her smile get even bigger, if that was even possible. Everytime she thought of having Ash as her boyfriend, or she heard him call her his girlfriend her heart fluttered and a smile would come upon her face.

She was lost in her thoughts about Ash when noise snapped her back to reality. A stretching groan, a soft thump and grumpy grumble came from the other side of the room. She giggled when she saw that Ash had started to wake up, when he stretched his blankets shifted causing Pikachu to fall to the floor.

"Pika pi pi chu pikachu!" The electric mouse said while rubbing is backside glaring at Ash.

"Hey its not my fault you moved lower into the bed and I am too sorry." Ash replied sitting up.

"Pi pika cha." The mouse said now stand with his arms folded.

"Oh my snoring isn't that bad." The raven haired trainer said scooping up his starting pokemon and began tickling the electric type. Pikachu began to giggle madly, he then released a small electric currant that caused Ash to twitch and laugh uncontrollably.

May smiled and giggled at the exchange, she couldn't help but think that Ash would make a great father. May hid a slight blush, as she briefly thought of act of her and Ash becoming parents together. She was lost in thought and trying to gather more pure thoughts when Ash's voice brought her back to reality.

"May?! Oh May you there?" Ash asked as he stood up in front of her.

"Oh, sorry Ash I was just lost in thought." May said sweetly. "Are you ready to go train before we head out?"

"Yeah I am." Ash replied slightly confused, "What were you so deep in thought about you didn't hear me right in front of you?"

Fighting back another blush May gave Ash a soft kiss, "Just about what the future might hold for us." With that May stepped into the bathroom to get ready for training.

After quickly getting ready the pair headed to the training fields. They called out their pokemon and gave them instructions for some conditioning training. After the pokemon began May and Ash stepped to the side to do their own exercises.

"You're doing great May, you've came a long way since we first started." Ash complemented as he was doing push ups.

"Thanks, but I'm not nearly where you are." May said grunting slightly from the push ups, she had been pushing herself hard trying to reach Ash's level.

Ash chuckled, "May I did a training routine kinda like ours but more intense everyday for the last five years. Don't push yourself too hard or you might pull something." Ash stood up offering May his hand, "Lets so some cool of stretches and we can get on the road again."

May smiled as she to his hand, "That sounds good to me Ash, but I'd like to see this workout routine."

"I'll show you one day." Ash replied as the began stretching. Once the finished up and recalled their pokemon the went to see Nurse Joy and have their pokemon healed. Once they were cleaned and ready they headed out the door on the road once more hand in hand.

The next few days consisted of waking with the sun rise doing light training, eating breakfast, they would walk until it was time for lunch. They would stop eat and relax for an hour or so before continuing down the road. Once they found an area to spend the night they'd set up camp trianing until the sun began to set. Once they stopped training they'd have dinner and cuddle next to each in front of the fire until it was time to go to sleep.

On a cool morning Ash woke up before May and he quietly got dressed. There was somewhere he was looking for in particular but he didn't want May to see what might happen. Pikachu, Lucario and Meowth silently walked behind him as he made his way through the trees. Finding a small clearing Ash closes his eyes and opened his senses to the surrounding area. After a few minutes he located the the spot in particular he was looking for, but before he could start in that direction he heard a noise behind him.

He slowly turned around and was greeted by an angry May, "Just where do you think you are going and what did you leave me at camp?" She asked with her arms folded, her glare cut into Ash and made him shrink back.

"I uh, I just..well there's this thing..." Ash stammered out.

"Well what is this thing that is so important that you can't tell your girlfriend about?" May asked angrily.

Ash looked to his pokemon for help but they slowly backed away leaving their friend on his own. Looking back at May he let out a small sigh, "May there is a place I need to visit to help heal an old friend and I'm not so sure how it will go. Honestly I didn't want you to get hurt or scared at what could possibly happen."

May's glare softened slight, "What do you mean heal an old friend?"

"It will be easier to show you." Ash said crypcryptically. "Were I'm looking for is just down the path, when we get there everything will be explained." Ash help out his hand as May took it they walked silently down the trail.

They came upon a rock formation at the edge of the path when Ash stopped and faced it. "This is where you were sneaking off too?" May asked in confusion.

"May I want you to stay behind me and Lucario for a minute this might be ugly." Ash said, May looked even more confused but did as Ash asked. He pulled a poké ball from his belt and through it high in the air. As the white light faded a mighty roar filled the sky as orange wings emerged, a flaming tail whipped through the air and a pillar of fire shot straight up. Charizard landed in front Ash, he looked around for a moment and he recognized this place. Anger, sadness, bitterness and an over feel of negative emotions flowed from the fire type pokemon.

"Charizard, I need you to calm down buddy." Ash started but was cut off by Charizard's deafening roar and wild Flamethrower launched in all directions. Ash and Lucario both put a shield of aura to protect everyone from the flames, May now understood what Ash had been talking about. Ash was shouting over the noise trying to calm his friend down but was having little success.

Charizard's rage was consuming him, this painful memory had haunted him for years. It was part of the reason he acted out after evolving and it caused him so much heart ache. Suddenly through his rage a heard a voice, "Charizard calm down, its all going to be ok. We are all hear for you, your family is here for you."

The voice came from May, her smooth soft voice had cut through his rage allowing the others to be heard. "Charizard I know this is a painful place for you, but this is where we met, where we became friends all those years ago. I brought you here to help you let go of your pain and to help you move on from it." Ash said lowering his shield and walking up to the flame pokemon. Ash released the rest of the pokemon he had with him, Blastoise, Venusaur, Butterfree, and Pidgeot. May followed Ash and stood next to Charizard. "See bud we are all a family and have each other's backs through everything that happens."

Charizard looked at his oldest friends and grinned, tears formed in his eyes as the all came close to him letting him feel their support. They stood quietly together as more tears ran down Charizard's face, after a short while he stood tall drawing his full height. He knew that his friends would always be there for him and that would never change. Turning and facing the rock he once sat upon. he heard Ash speak, "Go on, let it all out and let go of your pain."

Charizard pushed all his pain and hatred out into a white hot vertical column of flames that stuck the rock formation. The heat was so intense that everyone could feel sweat forming on their foreheads. Charizard cut off his attack revealing a melted mass where the rock once stood. He felt a weight lifted from his shoulders and his mind quieted down.

"That feels better now doesn't it?" Ash asked running his hand over Charizard's neck. He pleasantly rumbled in response before turning to the other pokemon and speaking with them. After a few more minutes Ash recalled his pokemon and they went to clean up camp and have a little breakfast.

"I'm glad we could help Charizard with that, and thank you for helping him May." Ash said as they headed towards the Pokemon Center. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you, I just didn't want anything to happen to you."

"I'm glad I could help, and I understand why you did what you did, but Ash you need to realize that your friends can take care of themselves. We also can take care of you if the need ever arises, you don't always have to be the lone hero." May said as she wrapped her arms around him.

Ash smiled at his girlfriend, "Thank you May, I just want to make sure that everyone is safe and taken care."

They went to the transfer machines and switched their teams around for the next leg of their journey. Ash sent Venusaur, Blastoise, Pidgeot, Butterfree and Charizard (the fire type wanted to return to the lab to rest and finsh his healing) back. He kept Pikachu, Lucario, Meowth, and received Sandshrew, Krookodile, Donphan, and Snorlax.

May kept Glaceon, Blaziken, and her Ralts. Sending back her Venusaur, Sewaddle, Florges, Wartortle, Swanna, and getting her Ninetales, Ampharos, Shelder and Sawsbuck. Once they collected their pokeballs they began down the path again, they traveled until lunch time. They stopped in a grove of trees were they released all of the pokemon. Ash set to starting a fire to cook, May sat in the grass brushing Glaceon's fur relaxing.

Ash cooked them a thick hearty stew and poured food into all the bowls for the pokemon as well. "Ash this is so good." May complemented.

Ash rubbed the back of his head, "Thanks May, but its just a simple stew."

"It may be Ash but is so delicious." May said happily with a full belly.

While they finished eating lunch they discussed the next part of their route to Vermillion City. Once the cleaned up lunch and repacked the backpacks, they trained for a few hours.

Ash spent the majority of his time working with Sandshrew, the ground type may have been young but his desire to get stronger impressed them all. Donphan and Krookodile focused on helping him with ground type attacks while Snorlax had a special gift that all of Ash's pokemon learned from. Snorlax had helped all of Ash's pokemon learn stronger defenses by showing them tricks he learned when he was younger. He also had helped some of the larger sized pokemon learn how to use their size with speed giving the better dodging skills. Meowth, Lucario and Pikachu would join in occasionally either giving advice or having short battles to test speed. When they weren't helping Ash they would join in with May's training.

May was working on new combinations and fine tuning some of her old ones. Lucario would work with Ralts helping her learn to control her psychic powers and to focus them. Glaceon was helping Shelder learn Hail while Sawsbuck and Blaziken worked out ways to combine their fire and grass attacks for duel contest rounds. Ampharos, Pikachu, Ninetales and Meowth worked on overall strength trianing so they had power to match the flash of attacks.

May and Ash feeling happy with the training they'd done for the day, they recalled their pokemon and set out again. They pressed hard through the day, until they reached the town where Ash had met Blastoise (Squirtle then). They passed through the streets as Ash retold the story of that adventure showing May where the events had taken place. After checking into the Pokemon Center, Ash sent Meowth back to the lab so he could spend time with Meowstic and brought Blastoise back. Setting out for the fire station, they met up with Officer Jenny and the Squirtle Squad. Blastoise happily reunited with his old friends and talked with them about all their adventures.

"Wow Ash, Blastoise looks amazing. Traveling with you after leaving the squad really paid off." Officer Jenny said while they sat around a table.

"Thank you, but working with you and the Squirtle Squad taught more than I could have alone." Ash replied.

"What do you mean by that Ash?" Officer Jenny asked with a questioning look.

Ash looked at the two womens curious faces and began, "I'll explain what I mean, when I was on my journey with all my pokemon it was a lot to take on being in charge of such a large group. Pikachu and Venusaur helped me tons buy it was still a heavy work load. At the time he wasn't one of my strongest all my pokemon respected Blastoise (then Squirtle) because he was on of my original pokemon. He took charge of water types and taught them how to work as team for training purposes or for double battles. When Squirtle evolved into Wartortle the respect grew even more for him throughout all my pokemon." Ash paused for a moment to take a drink and then continued, "One day while we were trianing in a deep section of forest in Sinnoh there was a group of young wild pokemon playing together a little bit away from us. I guess one of their attacks missed or was more powerful than intended but it managed to catch a dead tree on fire. Wartortle quickly got my water types organized and started to put it out. It had been a dry couple of weeks and soon the fire was getting out of control. I was helping with my other pokemon to fight it, when Wartortle started to give orders and got everyone on the same page. They began to make headway on it and had the edges contained. Then from in the fire we heard pokemon crying, I rushed into the flames looking for whatever pokemon was there. The fire quickly circled around me when I found a couple of small Burmy, they had been caught in a tree and couldn't escape. I grabbed them and turned back towards my pokemon but I didn't have a path to get back. I tried to call out to my pokemon but they could barely hear me over the flames, suddenly I seen a bright light that even shone through the flames. A massive Hydro Cannon blasted into the flames extinguishing most of the fire that was around me. I ran to my pokemon and they all were staring and Blastoise who stood tall in the light. Once I was clear we began the fight again, but now Blastoise used his new found strength to douse to fire with powerful water attacks. Within a few more minutes the fire was completely out and It was because of his drive and leadership qualities that he evolved."

The group looked over towards Blastoise who was looking slight embarrassed with all the attention he was getting. The Squirtle Squad looked in awe at their former leader and May and Officer Jenny were impressed with what had occurred.

"Ash, I can't take all the credit but thank you for your complements. You have done an incredible job training all your pokemon." Officer Jenny said smiling at the raven haired trainer.

"I agree Ash, I've seen how you train and its that drive that makes you and your pokemon strong." May said squeezing her boyfriend's hand.

"Thank you both, it means a lot to me." Ash said. They stayed a bit longer before bidding farewell to Officer Jenny and the Squirtle Squad.

They left town and headed towards the lighthouse area. It took a few days to reach them light house and they decided to stop early once they reach it to relax before going to Vermillion City the next day.

"May I'm going to get water at the stream" Ash called to May who was training with her pokemon.

"Ok Ash." May said looking over her shoulder. Pikachu scampered up onto Ash's shoulder as they headed towards the stream, Lucario chose to stay near the fire meditating.

A few minutes later the duo had came to the stream, Ash knelt down to fill the canteens when suddenly his aura sensed something coming. He quickly dove to the side and came to his feet in a fighting stance. Pikachu stood in front of him with electricity crackling from his cheeks. The unknown person stood up to full height before laughing in a loud deep laugh.

"Seems you've grown a lot baby, but you still have a baby Pikachu." The man said.

Ash recognized the man and relaxed he posture, "What the hell Lt. Surge? Why did you jump out at me like that?"

"Well I wanted to see how good you've gotten and plus its fun to sneak up on people now and then." The gym leader said.

"Ok I can understand that, but what are you doing out here and how did you find me?"

"How I found you is easy, I knew you were coming my way so I used my old training to track you down. As to why I'm out here is a different matter." Surge replied while sticking down on a boulder near the water. "Have a seat and I'll explain what I mean."

Ash sat down with Pikachu on his lap looking at Surge trying to figure out what he meant.

"Well I guess I'll start from the beginning. I received a phone call from an old friend the other day. I'm guessing not long after you departed from Cerulean City, this friend told me they'd witnessed both your battles and were troubled by them." Lt. Surge said lookin at Ash with a serious expression.

"What do you mean this person was troubled by my battles? I won them both, and just what does it matter to them?" Ash shot back feeling a little on edge from the comment.

"It concerns them because you will eventually battle them and they are concerned. You disappeared for five years Ash, you left to train to become stronger and to push yourself further then ever before. I'm going to be blunt and I agree with what my friend said, If the power you're showing now than everything you did was a waist." The electric gym leader held up his hand to silence Ash before he could argue. " Now don't get me wrong both Brock and Misty are powerful trainers but you should have been able to beat them easier than you did. I'm not sure if you held back consciously or unconsciously because they're your friends or if you didn't grow as much as you thought. If you come to my gym with type of battling I'm afraid you will lose to me again. I've been training all out since my phone call, I'm going to push you harder than you have ever been pushed by a gym leader. If you hold back at all even the smallest fraction I'll know and I will bring you crashing down." Lt. Surge paused to let his words sink in for a moment. "Ash think of it this way, yes you leaving was hard on you, but it was even harder for your family and friends. If this is all you have accomplished then if were them I'd consider it an insult to go through that pain and not see you succeed."

Ash quietly sat there listening to the older man, then he spoke, "I haven't thought about it that way. I understand what you are saying, iI give you my word I will never hold back again in any battle. The only thing I can think of is my pokemon and I held back because we weren't training like we use too and because it was a different battle environment." He finished looking down at Pikachu.

"Well then I've done my job Ash, remember you gave me your word. That's a big promise to make and you better not break it." Surge said standing up and holding his hand out to Ash.

Ash stood and shook Lt. Surge's hand, "I'll be ready for our battle and I will show you what our training did for us."

With a chuckle the mountain of a man turned to leave. "I look forward to it...baby."

Just as he was about to disappear into the trees Ash called out, "Who is your friend Lt. Surge?"

"If I told you they'd hunt me down and I'd rather not have that happen." He replied with a smirk and small shudder. "But don't fear them they only want to see you at your strongest." With that he vanished into the shadows and headed back towards his gym.

Ash sat back down for a moment then looked down to his faithful starter, "Pi do think he was right?"

"Pi pika chu cha cha pikachu pika." The electric type said.

"Yeah maybe we have slacked off and pushed as hard as we use to. Well I guess that's over, we'll push harder than ever. We can't let everyone down, after all we did to them the least we can do is win every damn league." Ash said with a new blazing fire in his eyes.

A voice called out from behind Ash and he turned so see May wearing a slightly worried look, "Ash there you are. Is everything ok? You've been gone for a bit."

Ash walked over to May pulling her into my arms and gave her a soft kiss, "Yes everything ok. I was just having a chat with Lt. Surge. He came out to find me."

"What would he need to talk to you about Ash?"

Ash stepped back, pulled his hat off amd with a light sigh ran his fingers through his hair. "He wanted to call me out on my battling, I guess an old friend of his has watched my first two gym battles. I didn't realize it, but my pokemon's power isn't where it should be after all our training. since coming back we haven't trained like we use too and haven't been pushing ourselves to our limits." Ash could see the worry and questions in her eyes, so he wanted to put her at ease, "No I'm not going to leave again. I couldn't ever leave you like that again, we're just going to increase out training regiment. I'm going to run up to the lighthouse transfer machine to get my pokemon for the gum battle."

Ok Ash, I'll come with you so don't get lost again." May said adding a wink. The couple linked arms. The quickly made their way up to the lighthouse house where Ash called Professor Oak to exchange his pokemon. Lucario and Pikachu stayed with Ash of course, he planned on using Sandhrew, Donphan, Tauros, Venusaur, Scrafty, and Pikachu wanted to have another go at Lt. Surge. He kept Krookodile for training help. Once they were all set, Ash offered May his hand and headed back to their campsite.

"Ok May I'm going to start training. Don't be alarmed when we start but it gets a little extreme." He said lightly pressing his lips to her forehead. Walking to the far side of the campsite he called out all his pokemon. "Ok guys we've had something has changed and been brought to my attention. It wasn't anybody's fault but my own but since returning our trianing has faltered slightly so from now we're going to push ourselves to our very limits every time. So without further ado let's get at it."

May was slight shocked to see how fast and hard the training began. Krookodile summoned massive boulders that weighed tons, the larger pokemon began to attack them, push them and lift them as high as they could. Ash trained right next to them with obviously smaller size and next to him Sandshrew was giving it everything he had to keep up with the rest. They switched up training by launching focused powerful attacks at the boulders doing their best to shatter them into small pebbles.

"Come on everybody keep pushing harder we can't stop yet!" Ash yelled out over the attacks while pummeling his stone with aura covered fists. The group keep intensifying their training over the next few hours.

May watched before deciding she needed to start training again and she took a few ideas from Ash's current training. Her pokemon and her began to utilized things in they found in the clearing and began to lift and attack them in flashy ways. They weren't in the shape Ash and his pokemon were so they had to end before the others.

The sun had just set when May had finished cooking dinner, she went to where Ash was training and then area was completely thrashed. All of the pokemon and Ash were sweating and exhausted but they kept going past their limits edge. Ash was starting to wind everyone down for the night so they could rest and eat, but Sandshrew was determined to finish crushing his the last part of his boulder. As he let lose an attack he fell to one knee from the strain and Ash ran to his side immediately.

"Sandshrew are you ok?" Ash asked with his voice full of concern. He was proud of how hard the ground type had pushed but he was very worried that the he had injured himself. "Come on buddy let's call it a night and get some rest, I'm so proud of you and of all you did."

Ash reached down to pick him up, but the ground type pushed his hand away and forced himself to his feet.

"SANDSHREW!!!" The mouse pokemon's cry echoed through the clearing as he began to glow. He put forth all he had, the feelings of safety he felt with Ash after being saved, the love his new family had given him, and his will to be the best. Everyone looked on in amazement as Sandshrew's body grew in size, his claws lengthened, and spikes sprouted from his back.

"Sandslash!" The newly evolved pokemon said clashing his claws together.

"Sandslash, you evolved. I'm so happy for you." Ash said hugging his pokemon, "Now lets finish off that boulder. Use Crush Claw!"

The mouse pokemon sprang forward with his claws glowing brightly, he slammed them into the boulder. For a moment nothing happened then suddenly the rock shuddered before shattering into tiny pieces. Ash scooped up his pokemon into his arms holding him close as Sandslash fell asleep immediately after such an exertion of energy.

"Sandslash you did so amazing today, thank you for everything you did today. That goes for everyone, you all did amazing today and pushed as hard as ever. May thank you for cooking tonight and I love you so much." Ash made his way towards his girlfriend before gently laying his pokemon near the fire to rest. Ash pulled May in close and kissed her passionately, "May you are my reason to get stronger. I now understand what I need to do, I put you and everyone else through so much. I owe it to you, them and all pokemon to win everything and prove we're the best."

"Ash I love you too, so much. You don't have to do all of that, you've already proven yourself. We are all so proud of you and all you've done. Now get something to eat and then we'll get some sleep." May said giving him a soft kiss. Ash made his rounds feeding the pokemon and leaving a bowl next to Sandslash. He had made it a point when he was gone to make sure everyone was fed before himself. May was impressed she remembered the Ash that was first to eat and last to clean but now he was the

polar opposite.

Sandslash had woken up shortly after Ash sat down and began to eat with everyone else. Everyone finished eating and the cleaned up dinner Ash finally laid down feeling exhaustion from training washing over him. May covered him with a blanket before laying down near him, she felt an arm come around her pulling her close against Ash. She blushed feeling him so close to her but she soon was sound asleep. All the pokemon settled in for the night quickly falling asleep and soon the clearing was filled with sounds of sleep and happiness. Ash couldn't help but be full of pride for all his pokemon and be amazed at how hard they worked. The last thought to cross his mind was the smell of May's hair and the happiness he felt holding her.


As always thank you for reading. I appreciate any reviews and comments. until next time.

Ash's pokemon: Pikachu, Lucario, Sandslash, Donphan, Venusaur, Scrafty, and Krookodile.

May's pokemon: Glaceon, Blaziken, Ralts, Ninetales, Ampharos, Shelder and Sawsbuck.