A New Season

"Scyther!" The green mantis Pokemon had scorch marks across his body as a result of his opponent's Fire type attacks but despite that it still had enough energy reserved to slice a Pokeball in half with his scythes as it flew at him!

"Oh come on that was my fifth one! Pokeballs don't grow on trees you know!" Zach groaned out as he turned to look at Scorbunny, the Fire type Pokemon was sweating and bruised up from the attacks that Scyther had unleashed, the ball had dragged on for longer than the two of them had hoped but Scorbunny's eyes were still shining full of determination as she didn't want to let her trainer down! His eyes soon took notice of her legs which were wobbling and looking like they were close to collapse, he let out a defeated sigh as he gave one final look at Scyther before reaching for Scorbunny's ball and activating the recall button. "You did great, Scorbunny. Thanks for sticking with me and not giving up," He didn't want to call it quits either but he didn't want to risk hurting Scorbunny by making her continue to fight and Riolu wouldn't be much better off thanks to Scyther's Flying type attacks!

Scyther stretched out his arms and lifted up his head before letting off a victory screech. "Scyther!"

Ash had been watching his friend attempt the capture and had found himself growing quite interested in the Pokemon, it had a strong battling spirit and no doubt would make for quite the new teammate! But it did feel a bit rude intruding on an attempted capture even if Zach had given up on it.

"You don't mind if I capture Scyther instead do you?" Ash asked curiously, turning to face his friend who shook his head in response before letting off a light smile.

"Nah go ahead, it's clear fate doesn't want me owning that Pokemon." Zach stuffed his hands into his pockets before stepping aside and allowing Ash to take over.

Ash took a step forward and smiled while his eyes looked Scyther over, the Bug Pokemon stared right back at Ash with a battle hungry expression as the trainer began reaching out for a ball on his belt.

"Pignite I choose you!"

Pignite burst out onto the field with flames igniting from his nostril as he stared his opponent down.

"Scyther!" Scyther's scythes began glowing light blue as they fired off blades of energy at his opponent!

"Dodge it and use Fire Pledge!"

Pignite leaped out of the way before slamming his fist onto the ground, causing pillars of fire to erupt from the ground and rush towards Scyther, soon trapping him as the pillars had him surrounded and began closing in before merging together as the flames met as they struck their opponent!

"Scyther!" The Bug type cried out in pain.

The fire would soon fade to reveal Scyther still standing but completely motionless as he stood there, his skin coated in soot. A cough emitted from his throat before the Pokemon fell forward, landing face first in the dirt as Ash let out a victory cry.

"Alright, welcome to the team-Pignite?" Ash's attention was briefly diverted to Pignite as the faithful Fire type's Pokemon had become engulfed in a bright blue light, his body becoming bigger and bulkier before the light faded to reveal that Pignite had evolved into Emboar!

"Emboar, the Mega Fire Pig Pokemon. The final evolution of Tepig, this Pokemon has mastered fast and powerful fighting moves and deeply cares about its friends." Zach's Rotom Phone spoke up as he scanned the newly evolved Pokemon.

"Wow, such power... someday that'll be you, Scorbunny!" The Fire type's eyes lit up with amazement as she stared up at Emboar.

"Scor..."

"Rio..." The jackal Pokemon had a similar expression as his partner due to it's Fighting typing.

"You did it, Emboar!" Ash threw his arms around his newly evolved partner before letting out a light grunt as Emboar returned the hug, crushing Ash up against him.

"Embo!"

"P-Pika..." Pikachu flattened his ears lightly as he spoke to Emboar, asking him to let Ash go.

Emboar sweated lightly as he didn't realize his newly found strength, releasing Ash before stepping back and bowing his head in apology.

"No worries," Ash grinned before reaching for a spare Pokeball and chucking it at Scyther, the Bug type disappeared in a beam of red light as the ball hit the forest floor and began shaking for a bit before shortly chiming afterwards to announce the capture complete!

"Alright, we just caught Scyther!"

"Pi Pikachu!"

"Embo!" The two Pokemon posed alongside their trainer while Zach and Riolu stared at him with raised eyebrows until Zach noticed a Pokeball still intact on the ground a few feet away from where Scyther had previously been standing.

"At least one survived," He went to pick it up and as soon as he did his Rotom Phone chimed up to alert him of a capture.

"Caterpie, the worm Pokemon. It's easy to catch and grows quickly, making it a recommended Pokemon for novice trainers."

Zach sweated upon hearing the Pokedex entry before placing Caterpie's ball next to Riolu and Scorbunny's. "No kidding, I wasn't even trying to catch it!"

"So Caterpie was your first catch? That takes me back, when I first started on my journey several years back I actually captured a Caterpie of my own as my first catch." Ash looked up at the sky as he said that, remembering the last time they had seen each other. "I haven't seen him in years, I hope he's doing okay wherever he is."

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Zach asked with a confused expression.

"I'll tell you some other time," Ash waved it off, figuring it best not to put the pressure on Zach that Caterpie might leave him someday when he'd just captured the Pokemon. "We should get going, they're going to start the exhibition match soon and I don't want to miss it!"


The pair soon arrived in Vermilion City which had changed quite a lot over the years since Ash had last seen it, skyscrapers now donned the cities skylines while the city had seemingly grown in size as well. Ash had been expecting things to have changed upon hearing that a giant stadium was now in the middle of the city but a change of this scale? Vermilion looked more impressive than Celadon now! There also appeared to be a Pokemon laboratory present as well but Ash saw no need to plan a visit right then as there wasn't really any reason to.

They had gotten a change of clothing shortly after arriving, ditching their dojo outfits for something more befitting of the cooler Kanto weather. Ash was now wearing a jacket with a white and blue color scheme, the top half being blue while the bottom half of the jacket was white, underneath of which he wore a black t-shirt. Along with a pair of gray track pants, black fingerless gloves, and a pair of blue/white sneakers. Completed with the hat that he wore back when he first started his journey.

Zach on the other hand didn't seem to put much care into what he'd selected, simply going with a black hoodie which he'd chosen due to the climate being a lot cooler than Galar, along with a pair of blue jeans and black/white sneakers.

As they got closer to the stadium Ash felt a hand reach out and grab his shoulder as a unfamiliar voice spoke out. "Thought I'd see you here, Ash!"

Ash jerked his head and noticed somebody who appeared to be a younger version of Norman outfit and all only with glasses, the voice was different but to be expected as it had been years since he last saw the kid. "Max!"

A smirk crossed Max's face as he nodded his head in confirmation, a Gallade now visible by his side. "You never did give me that battle you promised,"

Ash couldn't help but sweat lightly. "About that, I sorta forgot..."

"Don't sweat it, I suppose you're entering the Pokemon World Championship which would mean that the two of us are rivals now. So a battle between us is inevitable!"

"Yeah cause I'm gonna win!" Ash declared, clenching his fists with determination while Max shook his head and sly smirked with a teasing tone.

"Oh Ash, I know your battling style all too well so beating me won't be easy!"

"I welcome the challenge!" Ash's eyes soon focused upon Gallade. "And I'm assuming that is the Ralts you bonded with back then?"

"Yep, I beat the Hoenn League with him... on my first try I might add!" Max smirked causing Ash to lightly glare at him for a moment. "I lost to Steven obviously but I'm not giving up, I'm gonna win this thing and beat Steven!"

"Not if I do it first!"

Zach's eyes darted between the two as he stayed silent, deciding it best not to say anything lest he get dragged into it.

"Well how about we settle this with a battle? My Gallade versus Pikachu, one on one. Once one of them is no longer able to continue, we'll know who the victor is!"

"You're on, let's go buddy!"

"Pika!" Pikachu's cheeks sparked as he landed right in front of Ash, Gallade leaped out in front of Max and took a defensive stance.

"Uh guys, battling in the middle of the street like this isn't a good idea." Zach suddenly spoke up, pointing out the crowded street around them.

Ash rubbed the back of his neck as he realized his friend had a point, he'd just gotten carried away from the excitement of Pokemon battles. He may have matured over the years but battling would never cease to excite him that way!

"There's a Pokemon Center right over there, should be a practice field you can use if they're like the ones back home."

The three headed towards the Pokemon Center where they'd find the practice field conveniently open, most likely due to the fact that anyone who would be using it was already at Vermilion Stadium. Ash and Max each took their position on opposite ends of the field with Pikachu and Gallade taking their own positions as they stood before their trainers.

"Hey new guy-"

"The name's Zach,"

"Alright, Zach. Do you mind counting down for us?" Max asked.

"Sure I guess," Zach took his place on the side of the field and took a quick look at Ash and Max before proceeding with the count down. "Three, two, one... begin!" He waved his arm, signaling for them to start the battle!

"Alright Pikachu let's start off with a Quick Attack and-"

"Hypnosis!"

Gallade's eyes shined a bright blue coloring as he stared directly into Pikachu's eyes, Pikachu tried to move or even close his eyes but found himself unable to do so. His legs began trembling as bags started appearing beneath his eyes before the electric mouse stumbled forward and fell face first against the dirt as Ash could hear the familiar faint sounding snores that Pikachu made when he slept. Ash gritted his teeth while clenching his fist, he had never come up with a proper strategy against Hypnosis but who could blame him? Not many trainers he'd come across utilized that sort of attack, in fact Max was the first in literal years!

"Come on Pikachu, fight it!" Ash shouted out, desperate for Pikachu to wake up so they could show Max what they were made of.

Max looked on with a smirk before throwing out his arm. "Psycho Cut!"

Gallade's forearms began glowing light blue as he started to swing his arms repeatedly, sending multiple blue colored blades of energy flying through the air where they'd shortly meet, striking Pikachu's body as the mouse continued to sleep soundly.

"Pika..."

"Pikachu, fight it and use Thunderbolt!" Pikachu's cheeks sparked and for a moment it appeared that it had worked, only for it to turn out to be a false alarm as Pikachu was clearly dreaming.

"Close Combat!" Gallade rushed forward and began repeatedly punching and kicking Pikachu at a incredible speed!

"P-Pika..." Pikachu began to stir as he opened up his eyes, looking weakened but still able to fight as he regained his footing and gave Gallade a light glare as his cheeks began to spark.

Max's eyes widened as he'd thought that Pikachu would have been out long enough to beat him.

"Let's try this again, Hypn-"

"Close your eyes and use Volt Tackle, quick!" Pikachu closed his eyes and began racing forward, chanting out as his body became surrounded in the familiar glow of electricity as he charged directly at Gallade!

"Teleport!" Gallade's body glowed a bright white color before disappearing from view, causing Pikachu to continue charging forward before crashing against a nearby tree trunk, apples began falling from the tree not long afterwards, several of them landing on and conking against Pikachu's head as he got buried in an avalanche of fruit!

"Oooh, that's painful!" Zach flinched from the sight.

"Pikachu?!" Ash rushed over and began tossing the apples aside in order to get to his best friend, Pikachu's face was soon uncovered to reveal the electric type's eyes reduced to mere swirls as he let out a cry.

"Chaaaa..."

"Ha! I knew I could beat you!" Max had a cocky grin across his face as Gallade took his place by his trainer's side. "You're a great strategist but you don't have much experience dealing with status effects!"

Ash didn't say a single word as he lifted Pikachu up, he couldn't believe that Max of all people had managed to beat him. And Max had made it look so easy too! Perhaps his time in Alola had made him a bit rusty after all, the region was nowhere near as battle focused as the other regions! This wasn't the end though, he'd fight his way through the World Championship and then challenge Max again once he was ready, perhaps the two of them could have a bigger battle as well, they only made it a one on one as they didn't want to miss out on the exhibition match.

"...Oh Arceus, the exhibition match!" Ash shouted as he jumped back up onto his feet. "We're gonna miss it!"

"Not if it's Cynthia that Lance is fighting, there's no way he'd cream her!" Zach paused for a moment before snickering lightly upon realizing what he said.

Max rolled his eyes at that. "Let's just go,"


"Hyper Beam!"

"Gya!" Lance's red Gyarados' mouth glowed brightly before firing off a powerful blast of orange-yellow colored energy which exploded upon impact of the opponent! A Mega Gardevoir was pushed away by the blast, her breath growing heavy as she was nearing the last bit of her strength.

"One last shot, we can do this! Moonblast!" Diantha ordered with a throw of her hand.

A pink orb of energy began forming in front of Gardevoir's hands before she fired it at Gyarados, the water serpent let out a cry of pain before collapsing with a thud, its eyes reduced to swirls but Lance kept a calm expression as he reached for a ball.

"You all may have thought that Gyarados or Dragonite was my true secret weapon but you were mistaken," Lance flashed Diantha a smirk before tossing the Pokeball forward as it burst open to reveal a Charizard, Lance's first Pokemon! "I've been waiting for a special occasion to show him off but it appears you have forced my hand." Lance pulled up a sleeve on his jacket to reveal a Mega Ring which he activated with the touch of his finger. "Charizard let's show the world our friendship, Mega Evolution style!"

Charizard let out a roar as a bright pink light engulfed and surrounded the Pokemon as he began changing form, the light soon fading away afterwards to reveal the Mega Evolution known as Mega Charizard X!

"Hey the battle's still goin-Aw, Cynthia's not there!" Zach groaned out as the group arrived and took their seats in the upper stands.

"So Lance does have Mega Evolution, interesting..." Max noted with a light smirk.

Ash's eyes were locked onto Mega Charizard X as he had a brief flashback to his previous encounter with the Pokemon, he'd always lost against the form previously no matter how hard he tried! His fists clenched lightly while Pikachu patted his friend's shoulder in a supportive manner, remembering that fight all too well.

"Pika..." Pikachu told Ash that things would be different this time,

"Flare Blitz!" Mega Charizard X's body became surrounded in bright blue flames, soon blasting off through the air like a missile before slamming his body against Mega Gardevoir, knocking the Psychic/Fairy Pokemon down and putting her out as the bright pink light engulfed Mega Gardevoir before fading away as she reverted back to her normal form, swirls in her eyes as Diantha walked forward to check on her.

Lance's Mega Charizard X shot a flamethrower up into the sky before letting out a victory roar as the crowd roared out alongside him!

"That was incredible, I've got to get a Mega Evolution of my own!" Zach's eyes were lit up with excitement.

"Heh, good luck with that. You'll have a real hard time finding a key stone let alone a Mega stone outside of Kalos and Hoenn," Max smirked.

Zach immediately turned to Ash and clapped his hands together, for a moment it looked as if he'd even get on his knees and beg as he asked Ash the question. "Can we please go to Kalos or Hoenn soon?"

"Sure thing, I've actually been meaning to get my hands on a Mega Ring but it just sorta slipped my mind during my Kalos adventure." Ash rubbed the back of his back as he let out a nervous laugh. "Besides if trainers like Diantha and Lance have Mega Evolution then I'm to assume that other competitors will also be utilizing it. Best to keep an even field with the competition!"

The crowd soon went quiet as a well dressed figure stepped out onto the battling field with a microphone in his hand, his eyes scanning the crowd for a brief second as he began speaking into the microphone.

"Thank you all for attending the exhibition match as you all know I started the Pokemon World Champion alongside my good friend Mr. Goodshow, may he rest in peace, in order to unite trainers from all across the world but I've realized with how big and popular this event has gotten that it is no longer fair to only let the top eight compete in a tournament once the season is near its end, no... this year the top 100 will all enter a massive battle filled tournament where the winner will be declared World Champion!"

"Who is that guy anyways?" Ash muttered out, he'd seen matches of the World Championship before but had never actually seen the man speaking before.

"That's Chairman Rose, current chairman of the Pokemon League and founder of the revamped Galar League." Zach informed his friend. "He used to be quite the battler back in his day but he's retired now."

"And a refresher of the rules as I'm sure there are trainers looking to join up this season, using your Rotom Phone you can seek out challenges anywhere they're located across the entire Pokemon world! You have to be within a close distance to do so, but once you track a challenger down you can select the 'challenge' button and they must accept else risk forfeiting and giving up some of their points! Of course there are some special circumstances, no trespassing or doing any illegal acts to reach another challenger, if you're discovered doing so you'll be automatically disqualified from the competition. And if you're in the hospital, we have a special button that'll lock you out so nobody will bother your healing process. Also all World Championship matches will be viewed and recorded by my special Rotom Drones to ensure that there is no cheating!"

Rose snapped a finger and a yellow drone with Rotom's familiar face across the front of it appeared by his side, hovering in the air.

"Registration is now active and quite simple, all you have to do is synch your Rotom Phone or Poryphone with the official Pokemon World Championship app so we can make sure all your Pokemon are legally obtained and also receive any necessary information that all official Leagues require. Let's make this our best year yet, the 2020/2021 season starts now!"

The screen above the field lit up to showcase various competitors as they signed up from across the world, Ash could even make out a few familiar faces as he saw Paul, Korrina, Lt. Surge, the eldest of Brock's siblings, Barry, Palmer, Brandon and various others flicker by.

"And done!" Max put away his Rotom Phone before giving Ash a challenging look. "I'll see you soon, Ash. I've gotta get to work on grinding up my rank!" He got up and left, not giving Ash much of a chance to say goodbye as Ash had been busy registering himself for the competition. Ash was about to speak up only to realize Max had already disappeared within the crowd, he looked towards Zach and for a moment thought he was registering as well only to realize that he was merely playing Magikarp Jump.

"Hm? You're done?" Zach glanced at Ash before pocketing his own Rotom Phone. "I'm ready to get going whenever you are-er... where are we going exactly?"

Ash realized that he had a point, he had to start building up his rank somewhere but where?

"Why not start with Kalos? I haven't heard from my friends there in a long time!"

Zach didn't have an issue with that and so the two companions began heading to the Vermilion docks in order to get Ash's new journey properly underway.

I hope Emboar's enough to stop complaints of Ash losing, if Max had lost then he wouldn't be a threat at all. But yeah, I basically confirmed that Mega Evolution will be happening. It won't happen for awhile but I promise that it will, patience is key.