"Now that everyone is here Master James has some announcements to make." Hopkins said as everyone turned their attention to James.
"Thank you Hopkins." James nodded to the butler. "First off the thank you all for joining me and Jessie for the holidays before the Wallace Cup." James started
"Thanks again for inviting us." I added.
"Which brings me to my next announcement. We have just received word that Professor Oak and Professor Birch granted us permission to have all of your Pokemon here with us. The yard and Pokemon house are big enough. What are the holidays without them?" James added getting a happy look from May and I.
Indeed what is a holiday like this without your whole family, I sighed internally. I was so happy to be able to celebrate with them all this year... this will make my gift even better.
"I couldn't agree more." May said happily
"Finally, I hope you don't mind if my parents come by for a little." James finished his announcements.
"Oh, Your parents are coming?" I asked surprised. I haven't seen them since Kanto. It wasn't the best first impression.
"Yes, they have turned into fans of yours. Plus they have some things they want to discuss with you." James continued.
"I don't mind. I haven't really met them properly yet anyway." I responded.
"Then it's settled." James said.
"Now I believe Master Ash has an announcement too." Hopkins nodded to me.
I then went into my bag… "Rowlet can I get in my bag please?" I asked, barely withholding a sigh. Rowlet woke up and hopped out so I can get the contents. I then pulled out 4 red boxes with a green bow on each of them. Rowlet then proceeded to jump back in the bag and fell asleep again. With an excited smile I walked to Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbufett giving them a box each.
"Aww Twerp, these should really be saved for Christmas." Jessie said while looking at the gift.
"Trust me when I say this, These are gifts you definitely want to open now." I replied.
"Fair enough." James said.
"On three?" Meowth asked.
"Sure." Jessie responded.
"One, two, three!" They all said in unison. As soon as they removed the top a light emerged from all four of them and from the light emerged an Arbok, a Weezing, and two Victreebell
"A-arbok?" Jessie asked in shock. Arbok made a happy noise
"Weezing? Victreebell?" James asked in equal shock.
"How?" Meowth asked. Wobbufett looked in the box he was holding and found it contained a pokeball and a small mechanism that triggered the ball once the box was opened.
Shock turned into joy as they all ran to hug their old friends who happily reciprocated and Victreebell restraining itself for once. "How is this possible?" James asked.
"Perks of being a Ranger, Ace Trainer, and reluctantly The Saint. I asked other rangers in Jotoh and hoenn to find them. Your Victreebell was mated to the other one." I explained.
"What happened to the Ekans and Koffing they were protecting?" Jessie asked.
"They were transferred to Professor Oak's Lab. they will be safe there." I answered.
"I see." James said.
I smiled and walked back to the group. "I think they need a moment." I told them quietly as Hopkins nodded and walked everyone back into the building.
"I must thank you again for doing Master James such a massive service. I haven't seen him like this in a long time." Hopkins thanked me.
"It was no problem. I am glad for them too." I replied.
"While we wait, why don't we get your pokemon here." Hopkins suggested.
"That would be great. Thanks." I thanked the butler who nodded and led the group to a video phone with a Pokemon transfer device. Which was right next to the back door.
"Why don't you let out all the Pokemon you have on hand and we will get started." Hopkins said as he turned on the video phone.
Dawn, Riley, Zoey, and I walked out to the back yard, which was a lush green field, a water fountain, and a large garden. The fountain spills off and made a small creek to a pond. "Everyone come on out." I yelled as all four of them threw their Poke Balls in the air.
Besides the egg and Pikachu, Ash had Jolteon, Litten, Rowlet, Buizel, Pupatar, Turtwig, Chimchar, Staravia, Gligar Crawdaunt, Squirtle, and Kingler on hand. May had her Blaziken, Skitty, Glaceon, Munchlax, Beautifly, and Kirlia. Zoey let out her Misdrevous, Shellos, Finneon, Leafeon, and Ralts. Glameow was already out. Besides Lucario, Riley called out Scizor, Magnazone, Probopass, Bronzong, and Empoleon. Dawn let out Pachirisu, Ambipom, and Buneary. Gloom was still with Oak and Piplup was out of his ball.
"Now guys, we are going to get everyone else, so behave." I told them as all the humans returned inside.
15 minuets later we all returned with the rest of our Pokemon. Riley, Zoey, and Hopkins were all helping me carry a pile of Poke Balls. Jessie, James and Meowth joined soon after Dawn was carrying one Poke Ball and May had two. Dawn and May let out Gloom, Wartortle, and Venusaur. Look at that her Ivysaur had evolved.
I threw my first pile letting out Frogadier, Bulbasaur, Polteageist, Granbull, Skarmory, Miltank, Typhlosion, Sceptile, Froslass, Honedge, Slowking, and Ninjask. I was soon handed the pile Zoey was carrying and threw them in the air too. Those contained Noctowl, Torkoal, Glalie, Vibrava, Mawile, Shedinja, Slowbro, Nidoqueen, Tauros, Swellow, and Snorlax. Riley then handed me my third pile, which had Primape, Heracross, Hitmontop, Pidgeot, Feraligatr, Donphan, Nidoking, Zangoose, Altaria, Espeon, and Magcargo.
Pikachu for some reason took a few steps back as I was about to throw the last pile... I honestly should have seen it coming. Why don't I ever learn? The last pile had Sylveon, Kingler, Glaceon, Krickitune, Meganium, Muk, Charizard, Mightyena, Houndoom, Plusle, and Minun. As soon as a certain few pokemon spotted ash. he was promptly flame throwered on and tackle hugged by Muk, Houndoom, and Mightyenna.
That stopped as soon as Dawn screeched at the top of her lungs and hid behind Riley.
"Why do you have a Pulse and Minun? Ash, you never told me you had those Pokemon." Dawn yelled. By now everyone was looking at her weirdly. Dawn realized this almost immediately. "I am so sorry, I didn't mean to loose my cool like that." Dawn apologized.
I got up, dusted myself off and made my way to Dawn. "Is everything ok Dawn?" I asked as gently as I could.
"Yes, it's just, I have a fear of Plusle and Minun since childhood." Dawn explained.
"Do you want me to recall them?" I asked. Plusle and Minun gave an understanding look and distanced themselves a little.
"No. They are part of your family. I would never ask you to keep them away because of my own trauma. I am just going to have to confront it." Dawn responded, looking away. Dawn then explained her past with a Pulse and Minun and about Diamond dandruff being what DD meant. Dawn was surprised to hear no one laughing and Jessie gave her a hug.
"You poor thing, I would be traumatized too. A lady's hair is their treasure." Jessie said.
"Thanks." Dawn said as she hugged back.
Plusle said something which Meowth translated. "Plusle here says that it is very uncharacteristic of a Plusle or Minun to attack unprovoked. He thinks that you might have accidentally hurt them when you grabbed them."
Dawn's eyes widened. "I didn't even think of that. That would make so much sense… What have I done?" Dawn asked close to tears. The next moment she steeled her nerves and walked to the two electric types slowly. Plusle and Minun froze knowing that if they moved it might not end well for Dawn. As soon as Dawn got close enough to them she took a deep breath, knelt down, and pet the two on the head gently. After a moment Dawn smiled. "This isn't so bad."
"Nothing to be afraid of." I told her reassuringly, as Dawn got up again.
"Thanks." Dawn said.
"Now that that's out of the way. It is time for our Pokemon to come out." James said as he and Jessie threw their Poke Balls.
Meowth then noticed something and panicked. "Wait! Jessie! Stop!" Too late. James let out Cacturn, Carnivine, Mime Jr. Growlie, Mareanie, Weezing, both Victreebells and Chimecho who all promptly dogsled on James minus Weezing. Jessie let out Dustox, Yanma, Mimikyu, Arbok, and Seviper. It was then that everyone knew why Meowth was panicking. Seviper laid eyes on Zangoose who just looked confused.
it took 15 minuets of Jessie, James, Meowth, Hopkins and all of their pokemon holding back Seviper to get her under control. Zangoose then realized why Seviper was so aggressive towards him. he explained that his father was a Seviper, which calmed down Jessie's Seviper who decided to think on that information.
"Now then, I shall show you all around the house and your rooms." Hopkins said as he gestured for everyone to follow.
Before they went into the house I saidÑ "Have fun and be nice to each other." To which multiple cries were heard.
Inside everything was decorated for the upcoming holiday. Garland, a giant tree, ornaments, wreaths and more everywhere.
"Your family certainly goes big for the holidays." Riley commented.
"You should see what halloween is like. we have a full on interactive haunted house." James responded. After showing everyone the dining room, living room, Pokemon house (Where a few of the Pokemon were hanging out and was also decorated with a huge tree in the middle). They were shown to their each individual room. James and Jessie took one of the master bedrooms nearby. They all met in the pokemon house where it was decided that some pokemon were allowed inside if they so choose. Pikachu, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Chimchar, Turtwig, Litten, Egg, Rowlet, Buizle, Espeon, Glaceon, Jolteon, Sylveon, Plusle, Minun, Polteageist, Piplup, Buneary, Glameow, Lucario, Skitty, Wartortle, Meowth, Wobbufett, Mimikyu, and Mime Jr. were the only ones that went inside. everyone else either was too big, preferred the pokemon house, or in the case of Muk and Magcargo, too dangerous to be inside. after a bit they all went inside and started chatting. over some hot beverages.
"I hope you don't mind me asking where the nickname twerp came from?" Zoey asked.
"We don't mind at all. but please listen to the end before you say anything." James responded. When Zoey nodded James continued. "Before we came to sinnoh, Jessie, Meowth, and I were a part of the criminal organization Team Rocket." Zoey gasped but bit her tongue to hear the rest of the story. "We first met Ash as a newbie trainer having just gotten pikachu, who was injured at the time, to the pokemon center. Our mission was to rob the pokemon center. It was a failure and Pikachu ended up blowing up the pokemon center using my koffing at the time. This made everyone look at pikachu with an incredulous look, making pikachu blush. Since then we have tried and failed over and over again to steal Pikachu. Ash and his friends kept getting in our way, hence the nickname was born." James finished and Jessie took over. "We have followed Ash through Kanto twice, Jotoh, and hoenn. Despite all that, on our last ever attempt at getting Pikachu, he spared us, cleared our names because we ended up doing more good than harm, and we got away from Team rocket and got married. and here we are now. We still call him twerp out of habit and as a term of affection now." Jessie finished.
"Wow." Zoey said before coming up with the words to say. "I am sure you had your reasons to join such an organization, but I am glad you turned your life around." Zoey Said as the couple smiled at her in thanks.
"Speaking of which, whatever happened to Jessibelle?" I asked, recalling James dreadful past.
"I could have sworn I told you." James muttered.
"Who is Jessibelle?" Dawn asked.
"My crazy, controlling ex-fiancé and the reason I went into team rocket in the first place." James responded shuddering a little.
"Wait, what?" Zoey said not expecting that.
"It isn't uncommon for people with money to have arranged marriages very young." James responded before continuing. "She was arrested and charged with doing illegal things while in a cult to try to use black magic or something to get me to love her. I think she almost sacrificed someone. Anyway, after that my parents were rightfully frightened and broke things off. which jessibelle's parents understood completely. Jessie won the hearts of my parents and the rest is history." James finished
"Arceus… even I would join Team Rocket if it meant escaping from that kind of fate." Riley muttered, Lucario nodding his head besides his partner.
"Anyway enough about that. Let's move on to something happier." Meowth suggested.
They chatted for a while, then had dinner. the pokemon eating outside with the others. Another butler arrived not long later along with James's parents.
"James my boy, it has been a while." James's father said as he walked into the room with his wife.
"Pa, Ma, You two seem well." James responded hugging both.
"So are these your friends you were talking about?" James's mother asked.
"Yes they are. You know one of them already." James responded.
"Indeed, although we did not leave a good first impression. I don't even think we introduced ourselves. My name is Martin." Martin introduced himself
"And I am Madelyn." Madelyn introduced herself.
"I'm Ash, and these are Dawn, Riley, May, and Zoey." I introduced everyone.
"It is very nice to meet you all." Martin said as he sat down with his wife.
"So, what brought you here?" I asked as the food was served.
"We knew James was spending the holidays here, so we decided to travel here. Plus we had other reasons. One of which we would like to discuss with you young Ash." Martin explained/
"You are aware of what happened with Jessibelle right?" Madelyn asked. When I nodded she continued. "Well after that incident, we took another look at our lives and realized we made a terrible mistake and we were incredibly out of touch with reality. We decided that after James married Jessie that we better ourselves. We started hosting charity events where most if not all of the profit goes to charity." Madyline finished.
"That is quite noble of you. But how does that tie into Ash?" Riley asked.
"We were wondering if you would consider your title for the good of the community?" Martin asked me.
"Title? You mean as The Saint?" I inquired.
"Correct. I am aware you don't like it for various reasons, and that is understandable. A title can be a burden. I can attest to that. But I also attribute a majority of my success with Charity due to it." Martin explained.
"So you are suggesting that Ash can use said title to help those in need." Zoey piped in.
"Precisely. I don't have any details yet but it would certainly be welcome." Madelyn added.
"I never thought of that before." I admitted. I was surprised that I hadn't thought of it. "This opens up a whole new world of possibilities. I like it. I won't even charge for my time." I answered happily.
"Excellent. Don't worry about organizing everything, you can leave that to us. otherwise maybe help out wherever it is convenient." Martin said. as they finished dinner.
When they got back to the dining room there were more presents under the tree. "We also got a little something for everyone." Madyline explained.
"You did? But we didn't get you anything." Dawn panicked.
"It is alright. We only want autographed photos of Ash, Zoey, May, and yourself." Martin explained confusing everyone.
"That makes sense for Ash and maybe May, but why Dawn and I? No offense Dawn." Zoey asked. Dawn nodded and turned back.
"We see big things coming from you two in the future." Madilyn explained.
Both girls shrugged and continued on.
On Christmas morning, everyone got ready and sat down to open gifts. Dawn recieved a beautiful yellow dress for contests, she knew right there and then that she would use it for the Ribon Cup. She thanked Martin and Madilyn for the beautiful gift. James' parents then gave May a gipsy costume for May and a burdeau suit for Zoey. Riley recieved a Key Stone from them and a Scizorite from James, Jessie and Meowth. The ex-Team Rocket trio gave the girls jewelry and accesorries that matched perfectly with their new contest outfits. I got a Mawilite and Sceptileite.
"Mega evolution?" Zoey asked as she looked at the stones.
"We were able to find someone that sells Mega Stones and Key Stones. We thought you would be able to effectively use them in the future." Martin explained.
"They are beautiful." Dawn commented.
"I really should make a Mega Ring for me to wear with it in. With the Z-ring and the Poke Nav I no longer have space for the Key Stone bracelet." I commented.
"Here is a catalog you can look through later." Martin handed it to me.
Then more gifts were opened!
I got a Dusk Stone from Riley, a Razor Fang from Zoey, a Friend Ball from May, and a Pikachu sweater from Dawn. I got a Leaf Stone fot Dawn, she got a Moon Ball from May, training weights from Riley, and a Piplup sweater from Zoey. May got a Torchic pin from me, a notebook from Riley, a make-up pack from Zoey, and a Blaziken sweater from Dawn. Zoey got a Dawn Stone from me, a scarf with a Glameow on it from Riley, a Dream Ball from May, and a Glameow sweater from Dawn. Jessie got Yanma collared glasses from me, a Nest Ball from May, a Jesalina Plush doll from Dawn, a Mimikyu Princess Doll from James, a Wobbufett Princess Doll from Martin and Madilyn, one part of a pair pen from Riley, and a Wobbuffet sweater from Zoey. James received a Premmier Ball from May, a Mime Jr. Sweater from Zoey, the other part of the pair pen from Riley, and lot of bottle caps from everyone else.
Meowth walks in not long after everyone put on their sweaters. "Hey everyone, come outside." Meowth told us, soon everyone followed him. Outside, surprisingly it was snowing. It was quickly discovered that it was due to a combination of Rain Dance and Hail making it snow around the property. Ice Beam froze the nearby pond. Finneon luckily was in the fountain. Magcargo and Meganium were by the nearby flower garden, making sure it got enough warmth and protection. Everything else was blanketed by easily 5 inches of snow.
"How long has this been going on?" I asked them shocked.
"About an hour." Meowth responded. "They wanted you to have some winter fun today."
"That sounds like fun." Zoey said.
Everyone went inside to change into winter gear. We spent all day outside. making snow forts, snowmen, snow angels, snow pikachus, snowball fights, ice skating. they had lunch and dinner by the garden which was kept warm. Some Pokemon took breaks there or hung out there. At nightfall all the Pokemon had one final gift. Using moves such as Electro Ball, Psyshock, Water Pulse, Flash Cannon, Energy Ball, Moon Blast, Dragon Pulse, Shadow Ball, Flame Burst, Swift, Focus Blast, Pin Missile, Air Slash, Dark Pulse, Icicle Spear, Rock Blast, and Poison Sting, producing varying different colors of fireworks.
Bringing an end to a wonderful holiday.