AN: Hi guys, here's chapter 3 of Pyrite. I've actually got exams coming up soon, so this may be the last chapter until the 18th onward. To compensate, this is far longer than my previous chapters. I hope you guys enjoy!
Two-hundred and twenty-thousand Pokedollars. Despite paying for college tuition, buying an apartment, and living in the most expensive city in the Kanto region, Ash was still better off than most residents of Saffron city. To put it simply, being a strong trainer who adventured paid off tremendously well, especially with all the items that Ash had accrued over the years. He still had a lot of stardust and other rare items left, and a buyer who gave him a large cut for bulk purchases.
Earning potential was part of the reason why many parents would send out their children at the ripe age of ten, despite the emotional and physical toll it took on them. Ash had succeeded on this front, and hence money was no issue for him.
But where would he go? He knew that he hadn't yet recovered from, and it would be foolish to drop straight into a Pokemon battle, and he knew that he had to prepare for his journey.
It was true that Ash hadn't done this for a long time, but adventuring was a part of Ash: it wasn't just something he could forget.
His closet revealed the outfit he last wore in Kalos but he found that it didn't fit him anymore. While Ash hadn't grown very tall- the lack of proper nutrition and exercise in his prime growing years had taken its toll- he was still measurably larger than two years ago.
In his adventuring backpack, he found his sleeping bag and tent, along with various toiletries. Ash actually remembered when he packed it, after his mother's death. He was planning to leave the day after her funeral, and retreat into another region. But he just couldn't. While he wasn't able to remain in Pallet Town, he couldn't bring himself to leave Kanto. At the airport, the moment before the flight boarded for Alola, Ash chose not to board and left. For two years, the bag was packed and ready to go.
Ash only had a minimal amount of clothing: he had two pairs of jeans, one pair of shorts, one pair each of sport shorts and pants, three t-shirts, a jacket, trainers, and hiking boots. All of it easily fit into his bag.
After packing his laptop, telling his College he was taking a leave of absence, and turning off the main light and gas switch, Ash was ready to go in less than thirty minutes. But he paused outside the door. He could feel the bright midday sun, but something was wrong. Expired Trainer ID in hand, Ash was ready to leave. Why was he stopping?
"Oh! My underwear." Ash slapped his forehead as he realized his simple mistake: the one he had made numerous times before. This time, however, his mother wasn't there to remind him.
Ash sighed at the bittersweet memory while rummaging in his pockets for his key. Ash cursed as he realized that today really wasn't his day. He had left his keys in the apartment.
Cursing on the elevator to the guard's office and back, Ash was finally ready to leave fifteen minutes later. Before he left, however, he did a sweep of the house to make sure he wasn't leaving anything. He paused as he realized he had left his cap hanging in his wardrobe. He gently took it into his hand and considered putting it on. Shaking his head vigorously, Ash merely pushed it into his backpack.
Expectations of a grand start thoroughly dashed, Ash started heading for the PokeCenter. After a brief fifteen minute walk, it came into view. Lance and the Kanto government had started a program last year to urgently renovate all PokeCenters to include more space for patients and their trainers and incorporate the latest healing-stimulation chambers and surgical machines. Ash remembered how a year ago Kanto's treatment fatality rate had reached a five percent: the highest of all regions by far.
From first glance, it was evident that the center had been renovated: now composed of three floors instead of just two. While the sliding doors weren't new, the smell definitely was. Pokemon centers tended to have an undertone of disinfectant. This one, however, didn't.
"Welcome to our Pokemon Center. We can heal your Pokemon back to perfect health, shall we heal your Pokemon?"
Ash had to admit, the phrase was nostalgic. It was long-winded, and it sometimes preceded the painful treatment of his Pokemon, but it was nostalgic nonetheless. The phrase, however, was tinted by a little bit of surprise.
"No thank you, ma'am. I'd like to reactivate my trainer ID since there's no currently no professor present."
The regulations of the Pokemon League stipulated that if a Professor was not available to renew a trainer's license, then a Pokemon Nurse was qualified to do so on his or her authority. Nurses, however, weren't able to grant a new trainer a license: for that they'd have to fill out paperwork and send it back to the Pokemon league for approval.
"You're Ash Ketchum?" The Nurse was looking from the expired ID to Ash repeatedly. It was said that after his Mother's death, the young trainer had gone into seclusion, with multiple rumors stating that he had died.
Ash nodded his assent. With that, the surprise was gone, and the Nurse started evaluating Ash for the renewal of his trainer's license. This was a key step to prevent Pokemon abuse, and normally took a few days, a reference, and background checks. Ash, however, would probably be an exception, since he was so well-known for his multiple adventures and eccentric habit of leaving his old party aside.
"It's been a year since your trainer ID expired, could you tell me about why you didn't renew it before it did?"
Ash stared at her, giving her the classic Are You Serious?. The Nurse, however, was unfazed.
"I asked you a question, Mr. Ketchum, and if you don't respond you'll have to get your license renewed elsewhere. I don't care how well-mannered you were two years ago; I need to know if the Ash in front of me is qualified to train Pokemon."
Damn, there was that medical professional demeanor appearing. Ash had hoped he'd be able to avoid this question.
"Ma'am I let the trainer license expire because I didn't believe I was in the right frame of mind to be training Pokemon properly." This was complete bullshit. He didn't renew his license because he couldn't stand the thought of battling and adventuring again: a sentiment he still partially held.
The Nurse raised one of her eyebrows inquisitively, "and now you believe you are?"
Stand straight, puff your chest out a bit, look right into their eyes… and smile. "I do."
With the aftermath of his concerned friends continuously inquiring about his mental state, Ash had learned how to lie. The trick, he found, was to present something believable and portray confidence. After all, confident people don't lie, right?
After a few more seconds of observing Ash and ruminating, the Nurse decided to renew his license. When Ash reached out to take it, however, he felt some resistance as the Nurse looked into his eyes.
"I don't think you're being honest with yourself, but I'm giving you this license in the hope that it will help you change so that you can be. I wouldn't do this, but you could say that this is a thank you from a Nurse to a trainer that cared deeply about Pokemon."
Ash regressed to the blank persona that he had developed over the last two years and listlessly shrugged while accepting the card.
"Do the new Pokemon Center's have a Bill's PC?"
The Nurse nodded. "Take the first right and then you should see first three rooms in the hallway marked 'PC Room'"
"I guess the queues got too long with just one. Have a nice day."
Ash was right, there was a fairly sizable queue of three people waiting per room, so Ash decided to get the messaging done first.
"Hi Lisa, this is Ash. I'm at the Saffron City Pokemon Center, could you send Charizard over through Bill's PC?"
While he was waiting for Lisa to respond, Ash thought about which other Pokemon he should take. Pikachu was a definite choice, no questions asked. Despite having the force to take down legendaries, the mouse could still curtail his attacks enough to barely bruise a starter pokemon. That and Ash just missed his traveling companion.
At this point, Ash had no idea how well he could battle or train at the moment and decided to take his strongest and hardiest pokemon for now, as they would be able to deal with his errors the best.
To that end, Sceptile- who had previously defeated Tobias' Darkrai- was an obvious choice. Greninja… even if Ash knew where he was right now, he didn't want to risk battling with the bond. Infernape was a mainstay, with his Blaze ability, he was extremely powerful.
WIth four pokemon decided, Ash only had two slots left on his belt. Looking at his team composition, he decided that he needed a tank and a speedster. To fill the speedster role, Noivern was the fastest Pokemon Ash had available, but Ash had two quality tanks available. Ash had access to both Snorlax and Krokodile, who were both top-tier tanks. Ultimately, Ash decided that taking Krokodile would be a better choice since he sweatdropped at the prospect of carrying enough food for Snorlax.
"Hi Tracy, this is Ash. Please send over Pikachu, Sceptile, Infernape, Noivern, and Krokorok." He paused before sending the message: even he knew it would be too socially inept to not comment on Oak's death, but what could he say?
Ten minutes later, Ash had exited Saffron city and was walking in route 7. He didn't think that it was a good idea to release his Pokemon in the city, especially after he hadn't seen them after for so long. Ash mentally hoped that no trainer would catch and force him to battle. With the team he had now, the Pokemon Center would have to work overtime on the poor trainer's pokemon.
After finding a quiet and relatively isolated spot, Ash released his Pokemon one by one. First was Pikachu.
Pikachu guessed that Gary and Tracey were simply transporting them to another area temporarily after Oak's death, so he was surprised when he was released into the open. A larger surprise, however, was seeing his trainer in front of him.
"Hi Pikachu"
"Pika pika."
Ash couldn't speak Pokemon, but he could understand them, and none better than his partner of 6 years. Two years was a long time, but it wasn't even half the time they had spent together. Pikachu took his customary spot on Ash's shoulder, and it was as if they had never separated.
Next was Sceptile. He had always been the cool and collected type so Ash wasn't particularly worried about his reaction. After observing his surroundings and acknowledging Ash with a bow of his head, Sceptile went back to chewing on his stick. Ash chuckled, "Some things just stay the same."
Ash released Krokorok after, who was happy to see the trainer who gave him his sunglasses and confidence. Then came Noivern, and then it was Infernape.
Charizard was last, and Ash was worried that he would incinerate him. He was, however, proven wrong: he lightly singed him. Grinning, Ash noted that Charizard's control had really developed while he was gone.
With all his Pokemon in front of him, Ash felt… a little more like himself. He was confident that his Pokemon could handle themselves, but he still wasn't clear on whether he would be able to battle properly. He needed a place to safely battle a little, and there was only one person nearby him who could do that. He was Ash's longest traveling companion and the big brother that Ash had never had.
Ash collected all but Charizard and Pikachu into their PokeBalls.
"Charizard, let's go to Pewter city."
It was time to see Brock.
Half an hour later, the sun had started to set, and Ash had arrived in Viridian city. It was nostalgic since this was the first gym he had faced when he started his journey.
He passed the sliding doors and was exposed to the large rock field, and a Brock casually sitting on a lawn chair.
"Hi Ash, how are you doing? I've been waiting for you."
"Wait, how'd you know?"
"Gary told me that he had given you a letter that might get you to start a journey. As for why you're here, let's just say I know you pretty well Ash." Brock smiled, and Ash realized how thankful he was to know him.
"Brock, I need your help. I need to know if I can battle."
Brock nodded. "That's why I met you out here. We can talk about how your two years have gone later." He took a spot on the opposite side of the field.
"Call out your Pikachu, we'll do it like the old times: your Pikachu versus one of my Onix. It'll be a one-on-one battle."
Pikachu hopped to, and Brock released one of his Onix, that he kept for when Steelix was too tired to battle or if he had to hold back a bit.
"Alright Ash, let's get this started! Onix, rock throw!"
"Pikachu dodge!"
Onix slammed his tail into the ground, causing rocks to shoot up towards the Pikachu. Per Ash's command, Pikachu attempted dodging. What Ash failed to realize was that his Pikachu had not battled for two years, and had thus atrophied a bit. He cursed as he realized that this may have been why Brock called on him to use his Pikachu instead of his Charizard, who was training at Charicific Valley. Pikachu was buffeted by the last two rocks and was now an open target.
"Onix, stone edge into Iron tail!"
Pikachu was hit by more rocks and then impacted by the full force of the largest non-mega terrestrial Pokemon.
It was true that Brock was never a top-tier trainer, but he was stronger than people gave him credit for. Ash realized, however, that he didn't know what Brock had been doing the past two years.
Pushing the momentary melancholy out of his mind, Ash attempted to comprehend his situation. Pikachu had taken two full-force hits and wouldn't be able to take another. Ash struggled to think of what he could do, and he found some passable plans, but he couldn't call anything out. It was the same as two years ago: Ash couldn't battle.
Brock ceased his attacking and confronted him. "Ash, what are you doing? Pikachu's in the field getting battered, and you're freezing up."
Ash still remained frozen. Brock took a deep breath and continued. He might regret doing this later, but Ash had to at least get started.
"Oak, and Delia both wanted you to become a Pokemon Master, and now you're failing them. You're failing your pokemon, your mother, the person who taught you about Pokemon, and now you're betraying yourself, too. What Pokemon Master's afraid of battling? Don't you want to become a Pokemon Master?"
Something clicked in Ash: just earlier today he was determined to become a Pokemon Master, and a few hours later he was chickening out of a battle.
"Come on, did those two years only teach you how to run away?"
"God damn it!" Ash was tired of running away: he'd spent two years running away from his problems. Maybe now was the time to stop.
"Pikachu, full force Volt Tackle and Quick Attack into Iron Tail!"
Two years ago, Ash had been at the forefront of Pokemon battling, despite not holding a champion's position (barring that at Orange Island) because he had founded combination attacks while messing around with his Pokemon. He had tested moves and found that some synergized well together, while others wouldn't. For example, he found a Water Pulse followed by a Flamethrower was a bad idea and would curtail the effectiveness of the flamethrower (presumably as water leftover in the Pokemon's release area would absorb excess heat due to its high specific heat). However, an iron tail would be amplified by a volt tackle, since it would build greater momentum and the built-up charge from the volt tackle would be distributed more easily to the opponent as the iron-lookalike that formed on the tail conducted better.
Ash realized that his two years in university weren't useless: he understood the reasons behind why combination moves worked better or worse and could manipulate physical conditions in ways most trainers simply didn't know weren't coincidences.
Following up on new (although unethical) research, Ash had found out that Ground-type pokemon were actually susceptible to damage from electric attacks; however, their body was composed of highly nonconductive material, which prevented high amounts of current from being generated. If ground pokemon were truly unaffected by electric attacks, they wouldn't suffer micro-stuttering caused by the high voltages delivered, it was merely that the current was too low to measurably affect them. This ultimately caused the stopping of the industrial practice of using ground pokemon to ground electric flow.
This meant that electric pokemon simply needed huge amounts of electricity, which would explain the anecdotal tales of a Zapdos damaging ground pokemon with electricity; something that was previously thought of as mere exaggeration. Pikachu, while unassuming, had taken on multiple legendaries before.
Pikachu didn't know all of this, but he trusted Ash implicitly and impacted the attack to the best of his ability. Brock was surprised when he realized his Onix, a ground pokemon, was being lightly shocked in addition to being battered away. He had thought that the resistance his pokemon had to the attacks would allow him to catch Pikachu in a bind.
"Onix slam!" Brock realized his plan was foiled and attempted to quickly end the battle. After all, Pikachu was extremely battered.
But Ash was relentless; multiple attacks were flowing into his head, and Ash wanted to use all of them.
"Pikachu blind him with Thundershock, then use Agility into a Double-Edge!"
Brock realized that there was no way his slow, gargantuan pokemon could dodge the combination. He had to stall Pikachu, and then reduce his mobility with a sandstorm. "Onix, Dragon Breath to keep him away! Use a sandstorm right after!"
"Pikachu, Electro Ball into his mouth!"
Onix's were a hardy pokemon, but his insides were still softer than his outside. Pikachu had launched his attack faster than he could, and Onix paid the price. Convulsing for a second bought Pikachu enough time to land his attack, and the powerful blow knocked out the giant.
Right after the battle ended, Ash was panting on the floor with his Pikachu next to him; the exertion had gotten to them both.
"Good job Pikachu," Ash praised as he rubbed Pikachu's head.
"Chaaa…"
Brock walked up to the seated pair after recalling Onix, smiling wholesomely. It wasn't the same as before, but at least Ash was battling again. Maybe he should've called out his Steelix, instead; Ash was still strong.
"So, how does it feel to be battling again?"
Ash smiled gratefully at Brock. "It feels great." He stood up now, his height coming short of Brock's tall stature. "So, how have these last two years treated you?"
Brock laughed. "Great, I'm just about to get assigned a Pokemon Center for residency, since I just completed my studies."
"Wow, that's great! Where are you hoping to go?" Ash was happy his friend had been progressing with his life. He knew that while Brock had enjoyed Breeding, being a Pokemon Doctor had been his real calling.
"Well…" Brock scratched his head. "I was hoping for an assignment on Hoenn's Battle Frontier, there are loads of battles so I'll get lots of experience, and…" Brock started running his hand over the back of his head, and Ash could swear he was blushing. "I've been getting pretty close to Lucy. We've been calling each other a lot and meeting up whenever either of us was traveling. I asked for the assignment to that Pokemon Center since my grades and reports were pretty good; so, if I do get assigned there I'm planning to ask Lucy if she'll go out with me."
Ash's face was contorted between a jaw drop and a full-on grin. "Lucy? Pike Queen Lucy? The same one that everyone thinks is super rude?"
"Hey, she's not really rude… just kind of passionate. And she's really nice to me."
Ash just started laughing. After a moment, Brock joined him. It felt as if they were traveling together again.
Wiping a tear off his eye, Ash continued, "I was going to ask you to travel with me somewhere, but I'm happy for you Brock."
Brock smiled but then sighed. It was time to talk about Ash's journey. "Thanks, Ash. About your journey, though, I've been looking into it since Gary told me about you today."
Ash nodded and beckoned for Brock to continue.
"So, I contacted a few of my gym leader friends in other regions, and they told me that Sinnoh's regional tournament's starting in a few weeks. Although your badges have expired, since you've already gone through the region you should be able to breeze through it fairly quickly, especially if you use Charizard to fly from time-to-time. I think a tournament would be good for you since it'll tell you where you stand. That, and I don't think you should stay in Kanto for a while. You're too well-known here."
Ash had to admit, Brock's words made sense.
"I called in a few favors with some guys I know at the league and got you a plane ticket since time is of the essence. The plane leaves in 3 hours, Ash."
The prospect that Brock had left his studies so fast to help Ash, and even booked him a ticket, made Ash realize just how great of a friend Brock was to him.
"Thanks, Brock, I don't even -"
Ash was interrupted by the entrance to the gym shattering.
Drew, May, and Misty entered the gym, and Misty called out to Ash.
"Ash, you've got five seconds to explain why you're here gallivanting with Brock and not by Gary's side. When Delia passed away, Gary was by your side throughout the whole affair. And now you're here just… smiling and chatting with Brock? You know what, I'm not even giving you five seconds. Come with us now Ketchum, and you too Harrison!"
Ash hesitantly stepped forward and put an unsure smile on his face. Misty was impulsive, and as an adult, her anger was no joke. Pikachu, despite just finishing a battle, entered a crouched battle stance again. He would have to face Misty, but she was acting far more aggressive towards Ash than he had ever seen before, which was something he couldn't accept.
"Hi, Misty, May, Drew… I actually spoke with Gary already, and uh… he said that there was something he wanted me to do, and he doesn't want to see me, so I'm going to Sinnoh to -"
"God damn it, Ash! His grandfather just died! This is not the time for you to be playing catch up on Pokemon in Sinnoh, be there for him! First, you run off somewhere away from all of us and left all of us alone to deal with Delia's death and the aftermath, and now you run away from Gary in his moment of need? What kind of a fucking friend are you?"
Misty was normally a loud person, but now, Ash could feel the heat on his face. He actually felt Misty's shouting resonating within himself, and he started clamming up. Thankfully, Brock attempted to interject placatingly.
"Now, Misty, I understand you care for Gary and are upset by Oak leaving us. I know that he trained you and gave you your first pokemon as well, but there's no need to get angry at Ash. I talked with Gary about this earlier, come into my office, I'll brew some tea, and I'll tell you everything. Just let Ash leave now since he's got a boat to catch in a few hours."
'Wait, I'm not leaving on a boat though…' Ash thought.
Misty was still irate, but she seemed willing to listen to Brock. May, however, was not.
"Ash, you've changed. Earlier, friends were your biggest concern, and here you are running away from Gary, your oldest one. Let's not pretend on what it is, you're running away Ash. This attitude of yours has poisoned Max as well, and he's spent the last two years depressed that his idol's run away. I'm not going to let you run away, for your sake and all of ours. Drew, grab him and let's go."
Ash, at this point, was open to visiting Gary. It wasn't like he didn't want to: he did. It was just that Gary was in pain, and didn't want to relieve his memories. Furthermore, Ash thought the best thing he could do for Gary was honor Oak's wishes and achieve his goals, which he needed to work on immediately to achieve. But still, visiting him and consoling him couldn't be too bad, right?
Brock, however, intercepted Drew. Drew was a tall, toned, and overall good-looking male, but Brock was even taller.
"The Sinnoh regional tournament's in a few weeks and Ash's badges have expired, I'm already unsure if Ash has enough time to get them all again. He doesn't have a day or two to spare, and if he goes back to Pallet town, he might not leave again. He's just worked himself up to leave, I can't have you guys risking taking that motivation away. You're all saying he's changed, but I think if we want Ash to go back to how he was, adventuring is crucial."
Brock had a calming effect on people, and May and Misty may have been convinced to at least calm down were it not for Drew acting up next. To put it simply, he'd been pining after May for a long time, and after she called him to go with her to Pallet town, he'd finally thought she'd started reciprocating her advances. His ego was unable to deal with May looking up to another man, who was currently blocking him off. To put it simply, right now Drew looked bad in front of May.
"That doesn't matter. His journeying's not more important than being there for his friend. Step aside, Brock."
He attempted to push Brock out the way, but the former Gym Leader was like a rock: he wouldn't move. Frustrated with his coordinator-bolstered ego bruised, Drew took a swing at Brock.
Brock had experience treating fighting-types, and the flailing around they would do while going under an anesthetic was far worse than the punch of a glorified pretty boy. Brock was normally a calm person, but now this outsider had gone so far as to swing at him to get at Ash. He had also noticed the eyes he was giving May a few years ago, and finally, his big-brother instinct kicked in. Brock swung back and knocked Drew clean off his feet; unlike Drew, Brock's muscles were trained to transport heavy pokemon. He realized his mistake when Drew crumpled at his feet, perhaps if he had simply taken the blow May and Misty would've admonished him, but now the altercation between the two parties had just turned violent, and he could see the two women drawing reaching for their belts.
As quick as he could, Brock released all the Pokemon he was carrying.
"All of you, rock slide now! I want a wall of rocks blocking them off from us! Steelix, press against it to make sure it doesn't collapse."
The gym was partitioned into two halves, and Steelix almost immediately felt the brunt of water pushing on the rock wall. Brock noticed him struggling to keep up the wall, and instructed him to Mega Evolve, increasing his size and strength.
Brock, however, knew that he wouldn't be able to hold off Misty and May. May was just a coordinator, but Misty was a bonafide Gym Leader who held a type advantage against all of his Pokemon. He grabbed Ash by his shoulders and shook him intensely to get him out of his stupor.
"Ash, you need to go, now. Misty may use her authority as a gym leader to try and crack down on boats leaving for Sinnoh, but since you're on a plane you should pass through the cracks if I stall her long enough. Once you're in Sinnoh proper, she hopefully won't be able to do anything to you, just quickly find a gym leader or other Pokemon League official you know from there."
Ash, however, couldn't move. His friends were actually fighting over him.
"Brock, it's okay, I'll just -"
"No! Ash, if you go there, you might never go back out and journey. Go now Ash and don't return for a while, I promise that this will all resolve itself: I just want to see my friend back, and you'll get that way through battling and adventuring."
Ash still didn't budge.
"Ash, come on, do I have to remind you of Oak and your mom's aspirations? Go -"
The wall burst a hole, and high-pressure water started pouring out the leak. Brock turned to the wall and asked his Golem to seal it up.
"Ash, I'll stall them here for now. Take the back exit; if you want to go, you have to go now."
Ash gulped and remembered that his mother wanted him to be a Pokemon Master, and so did Oak. Also, Oak's goal needed achieving, and Brock wanted his friend back. Damnit, he had to go, even if it meant being a bad friend to Gary and betraying Misty and May's trust.
Trying to hold back sobs, Ash recalled Pikachu and ran out the back door, trying to ignore the shouting match between May and Misty and Brock. Once outside, he released and mounted Charizard.
"Charizard, we need to go to the airport. As fast as you can."
Charizard could hear the sounds of a battle starting right next to him, so he quickly abandoned any notion he had of acting up and launched himself into the air.
While Charizard was flying, Ash was ruminating on what he should think about Misty and May's actions towards him and Brock. He found, however, that he was too shocked to actually decide anything and his mind was occupied with arguments with himself, and no small amount of self-pity and sadness. Charizard rode hard and flew for two hours straight to the airport. After dropping Ash off at the entrance, he was recalled and took his well-deserved rest.
Observing the police officers stationed at the airport, Ash lowered his head and walked slowly to the counter. There, he asked for the planes taking off in an hour's time for Sinnoh. Thankfully, there was only one, and Ash was asked for the ticket. After he showed his trainer ID the person at the desk stopped asking questions and handed him his boarding pass, telling him to run for the gate. Brock, had done his work, and for it, Ash ran like hell.
Along the way, Ash realized just how many people were affected by his desire to be a Pokemon Master. Now, there was one more added to the toll: Brock. Ash had to become a Pokemon Master, there was no more room for uncertainty: he was going to Sinnoh.
Furthermore, his mother was dead, Gary was grieving and didn't want to see him for a while, Brock may have been arrested, and Oak was dead. Misty would not want to see him again and may even try to stop his progression on his adventure with her authority as a Gym Leader. His reputation as someone who ran away from his friends would also spread within Kanto, and he would find it even more difficult to travel. So, when Ash reached the gate, he didn't hesitate to pass the sliding doors and enter the airplane.
After all, there was nothing left for him here.
AN: And that's a wrap. 5300 words: this chapter was really hard to write and took me quite a while too. I apologize for the physics breaking into the chapter, I always planned to include science here and use it as an advantage for Ash, but I have an exam on Friday for it so I may have gone a bit overboard. And yes, the Pokemon world will be a bit different to canon, I hope you enjoy the differences I put in.
The "betrayal" is here, though I tried my best to make it seem at least somewhat reasonable. I didn't want to characterize it as a straight up betrayal either, just Misty and May wanting to prevent Ash from doing something he'll regret later (avoiding Gary) and Brock wanting to protect Ash's dreams and help him get out of his slump. I tried making the characters in-tune with their anime equivalents, just reacting to situations their anime counterparts would never have to. So, while this isn't a straight up betrayal, this is definitely going to have ripple effects down the storyline. I also hope you guys like the effect that it's had on Ash, even though it was only three people that were there to "betray" him.
With this, we've finally finished the "exposition" part of the story, and now we can start with the adventure proper. Now, Ash feels that he has to battle and adventure to become the Pokemon Master, and I think it'll lead to some interesting decisions and actions down the line. For those of you waiting for Cynthia's introduction to the story, you'll see her soon. When I had actually first thought up of the story, I planned for Calem to be there confronting Ash with Serena and Misty, but I just didn't think that Serena would approve of being so aggressive to Ash, especially while he was still grieving. This said, having Cynthia and Serena as pairings each resulted in vastly different storylines. For this specific story, I liked Cynthia's character and it allows me to do stuff (due to her Champion status) that I can't with Serena. I think you'll see what I mean a few more chapters in. For reference, I plan for this book to be around 26 chapters and have two (maybe three) sequels. It's planned (somewhat thoroughly) but it's also tentative, so if one of you guys suggest something really good, I might deviate from the overall storyline a bit by adding onto it.
It's 6 (am) here, and I'm now turning into sleep since I can't remember anything else to add (if I do, I'll update the AN). I'm not planning for the next chapter to be so long, but exams take days out of my time. I'm hoping to post the next chapter by the 19th since my exams end on the 17th.
I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, thanks for your favorites and follows, and I look forward to your responses! Have a great day (night)!