Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon.
Land Hoenn!
"Team Rocket!" Ash stood in a defensive stance and reached for a pokeball while raichu's cheeks began to spark.
The three panicked at the sight before them, "Whoa! Easy Ash, we aren't here to cause trouble!" James managed to force his words out while attempting to hide with Jesse and meowth.
"How do I know you are telling the- wait, did you just call me Ash?" Ash moved his hand off his pokeball and raichu stopped sparking.
The three peeked out to see that they were no longer in danger, "Yes I did," James spoke with some confidence.
"None of you have ever called me by my name before," Ash eyed them with suspicion, "If you aren't here to cause trouble then, why are you on this ship?"
Meowth stepped forward and was about to speak when all their stomachs growled, "Can we tell ya over some food? We haven't eaten since breakfast."
"Sure, sounds good," Ash and raichu nodded to each other and kept a close eye on the three all the way from the upper deck of the ship to the mid-level restaurant.
Once they were seated and the waiter brought them appetizers, Ash brought them back to the question before, "So, why are you all on this ship?"
Jesse spoke for the two who were currently cramming their mouths with food, "We quit Team Rocket several weeks back. We wanted to follow the dreams we have, and let's face it, we are horrible criminals." James and meowth nodded their heads before continuing to work on the appetizers.
"So, what do your dreams have to do with being on this ship?" Ash sat with curiosity patiently waiting for an answer to his question.
"Oh right," Jesse took a drink of water before continuing, "After we left Team Rocket, we took some time to figure out what we want to do with our lives. On our way through Vermillion, I noticed an ad for a cruise to the Hoenn region. Once we had researched it more, we all found dreams to chase there!" Jesse spoke with enthusiasm that Ash hadn't ever seen from her or James.
"We took all of the money we had saved up and bought two tickets for this ship, thankfully we don't have to pay for meowth since he is a pokemon," James patted meowth on the head taunting him to which the cat swiped at him nearly cutting his cheek.
"I may be a pokemon, but I'm still smarter than the two of ya put together," Meowth took another bite before taking over the conversation, "In case you were wondering Ash, Jesse's dream is to compete as a Pokemon Coordinator in Contests. James and I on the other hand decided we want to get stronger, so we are taking on the gyms in Hoenn in hopes of making it to the conference in Hoenn and getting the opportunity to take on the champion of this region."
Ash and raichu looked at each other and smiled, "Looks like we might see you in the League conference in that case!"
James and meowth smirked as well, "It does! We look forward to the challenge, but we don't plan on losing!"
The meal continued with all five of them consuming enough food for a large family before calling it a day and retiring to their cabins.
Ash and Raichu awoke the next morning in an almost hung over state from consuming so much food the night before. The duo began a workout routine to start the day before their stomachs began to growl forcing Ash to stop and shower. Once Ash had gotten dressed, the two friends headed for the breakfast buffet being served on the top-most deck of the ship. As soon as they piled a tray with enough food for a family, Raichu spotted James and Meowth, also with a tray piled high with various breakfast food, sitting near a window. Ash saw where his friend was looking and walked over to the two, "Hey guys!"
With mouths full, both replied with a greeting that the people around them were disgusted by. The four sat devouring their meals until the piles of food had disappeared. James took a drink of orange juice before breaking the silence, "So, what do you two have planned for the day?"
Ash rubbed his chin, "I'm not sure, might just relax. What are you two up to?"
"James brought up testing out some of the talent on the battle deck, but otherwise not much," Meowth with a slight cocky grin.
"That's not a bad idea!" Ash and raichu both became excited at the prospect of getting a bit more training in before they reached port in Littleroot Town.
"We are going up there now to watch some matches if you two feel like coming along," James got up from his seat and meowth followed suit.
Ash and raichu thought about it for a moment, "We'll be up there sometime around noon. We are going to relax on the pool deck for a little while!"
"Suit yourself!" Meowth and James went toward the battle deck while Ash and Raichu took an elevator down a couple of levels to the Lugia deck. The elevator took them to a lobby area that opened out to a deck with two pools, two water slides in the shape of gyarados (one red and one blue), and various drink and snack bars. On his way out on the deck, he saw a sign that said Pokemon allowed and encouraged. He thought about who he had with him and let totodile, bayleef, and primeape out. They grabbed a small spot a bit away from the entrance to the slide and laid out and relaxed.
Having nodded off at some point, he was awoken by a leaf brushing against his face. He looked down to see that bayleef had laid her head on his chest and fallen asleep. He just laughed a bit and rustled her awake before getting up and gathering his things to head up to the battle deck. He returned bayleef and looked around seeing raichu, totodile, and primeape sitting in the hot tub. "Hey guys, you three ready to head up to the battle deck?" The three jumped out of the tub out of excitement and Ash returned the two while raichu walked ahead of him waving to a small, pink cat pokemon on the way.
The duo walked out on the battle deck to see a few battlefields with trainers, young and old, practicing moves and techniques. They noticed one of the battlefields had a large crowd around it. As they were walking toward the group, they noticed Jesse and wobbuffet laying out on lounge chairs and approached them. "Hey Jesse!"
The magenta haired woman peaked over her sunglasses to see ash and Raichu walking up, "Oh, hey Ash! Enjoying yourself?" She gave him a friendly smile before pulling her sunglasses back up.
Raichu went over and started talking to wobbuffet as Ash pulled a chair over, "Yeah I sure am, are you?"
"I can't complain, this is the first cruise I have been on that we haven't been stowaways," she chuckled a bit, "I assume you are here to practice before we land in Hoenn."
"Yep! James and meowth told me they were heading up here!" He looked around for a moment, "Speaking of those two, where are they?"
Jesse pointed to the large group of people, "They started a small winning streak a little bit ago and attracted a bit of a crowd."
"Really? Come on raichu!" Ash quickly headed toward the crowded battlefield with raichu tailing behind him.
"Slugma is unable to battle! The winners of this match are James and meowth!"
James and meowth high-fived enjoying another win before the cat sat down, "Okay James, I'm exhausted and need a break. Care to stop for the day and pick it up tomorrow?"
"Yeah meowth, we can st-"
"Hey, we wanna take you two on!" A guy and girl walked out on the battlefield opposite James and meowth. "And we aren't taking no for an answer!"
James looked at the two trainers and then back to meowth, "You can still take a break meowth, I can use growlie and get him some more experience." The cat nodded and walked out of the crowd over to Jesse and wobbuffet to relax. "Okay, which one of you two am I battling first?"
"Both of us, we challenge you to a double battle!" James looked to his bag where he was keeping growlie. "You do have another pokemon don't you?" The guy asked his question in a mocking tone.
"Yes! Of course, I do!" He reached in his bag and began pulling the lone pokeball out.
Before he turned to face the two trainers, Ash came from the side, "Hey James! You need a partner?"
James sighed in relief at hearing Ash's voice, which he thought was a weird sensation, and turned with pokeball in hand, "Yes, I do!" As Ash got closer to him, James thanked him for the assistance.
"Can't let you have all the fun, can I?" Ash patted him on the shoulder and took his position.
The guy across the field looked a little annoyed that someone came to help James but played it off, "Doesn't matter, we can take the two of ya!" He stood there with a cocky grin that made Ash smile.
"James, let's beat these two, I want to wipe that smug grin off his face!" James nodded and both sides looked to the man acting as referee.
He walked over to each side and got their names before returning to his position, "This battle will be Jane and Steve of Johto versus Ash and James of Kanto! Trainers please send out your pokemon!"
Jane and Steve sent out a flaaffy and sudowoodo respectively.
"Let's go growlie!" James sent out his growlithe that Ash and raichu recognized from a previous journey.
'Hmm, I guess that is the only other pokemon in his party. It doesn't have a type advantage against either pokemon and is weak to the sudowoodo.' Ash looked at raichu who was having the same thought and nodded to him. "Let's get 'em Primeape!" Ash sent out the fighting fiend of his team and looked over to James, "We can take the sudowoodo, you two just focus on that flaaffy!" Primeape looked like he was communicating the same message to growlie before turning his focus to the rock type.
"Got it!" James turned his focus to the electric type.
"Battle begin!" The referee raised both arms signaling battle as the crowd began to cheer.
"Sudowoodo, use rock throw!" The rock type began forming rocks and launching them across the field at the fire type.
Growlie looked in horror at the large rocks heading its way. "Primeape, karate chop!" The pig monkey pokemon jumped in front of the scared fire type and began destroying incoming rocks with glowing white hands.
"Flaffy use thunderbolt!" The electric sheep sent a current of electricity straight for the fighting type.
"Growlie use ember at flaaffy!" The puppy pokemon launched a barrage of small fire balls causing a small explosion, "Now use flame wheel!" He shot out of the smoke from the explosion and charged at the electric sheep surrounded in fire.
"Sudowoodo, use rock tomb!"
As sudowoodo prepared to launch boulders at the fire type, Ash yelled out, "Use cross chop!"
Sudowoodo managed to get a few rocks off before taking the powerful fighting type attack.
As the rocks neared growlie, he used all the force he could muster, slammed into the side of flaaffy leaving a scorch mark, and avoiding the boulders landing around him.
"Discharge!" The, now hurt, flaaffy launched a surge of electricity around herself hitting the other three pokemon. All three were knocked back by the surge but quickly returned to their feet.
Sudowoodo stood up but appeared to have received paralysis, "I told you not to use that move!" Steve looked beyond pissed at what was assumed to be his girlfriend or friend of some sort.
Jane fired back, "Well, maybe you should do a better job at protecting my flaaffy, thanks to you she's hurt!"
Ash nodded to James and both decided to take this opportunity to get a free shot in on both pokemon. "Use close combat!" Primeape made a beeline for sudowoodo.
"Growlie, use fire fang!" Growlithe charged for flaaffy with teeth flaming.
Both pokemon landed their hits with primeape's being too much for sudowoodo causing the pokemon to faint. "Sudowoodo is unable to battle!"
"What?!" Steve looked at his rock type lying on the ground, "This is all your fault!" He returned his pokemon and stormed off.
Jane looked at the field before her, "I forfeit, I'm not going to see flaaffy get hurt anymore." She returned the electric type and ran to the elevators.
Everyone looked around, mildly confused, "Jane forfeits, your winners are Ash and James!"
Ash and James high-fived while primeape gave growlithe a look of pride. James took a break after that while Ash decided to train some more with totodile and let his pokemon out to be filled in on the situation with Jesse, James, and meowth after charizard almost barbequed them. The remainder of the trip was filled with Ash helping James train with growlithe and meowth.
After several days, the captain announced over the intercom that they have reached Littleroot Town. Ash and raichu, along with Jesse, James, and Meowth, got off the ship and looked around in excitement at landing in Hoenn finally!
The group walked to the Town of Littleroot so Ash could stop by the Birch Research Lab. When they reached a point where the road split toward the research lab, James, Jesse, and meowth stopped, "Well, Ash this is where we part ways for now!"
"Really? So soon?" Ash looked at the group.
"Yes, my first contest is in a few days and we need to get there in time for me to practice!" Jesse responded in an excited tone.
"Oh right! Good luck Jesse, I hope to see you all around," Ash and raichu waved at the three as they walked out of the Town and out of view. "Well, time to meet Professor Birch and get this journey started buddy!" Riachu nodded and the two walked up the road to the Lab.
The duo reached the door and knocked waiting patiently for a response. After a few seconds, a man with green hair and glasses opened the door, "Oh hello, how can I help you?"
"I'm looking for Professor Birch."
A larger man walked up behind the previous man, "You found him! Who might you be?"
Ash looked over to the much livelier looking man, "My name is Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town in Kanto!"
"Pallet Town? You must be the trainer Professor Oak has been telling me about! Please, come in!" Ash and raichu followed the two scientist into the facility.
Birch and Ash went to the lobby to talk while his assistant Joshua ran some tests on raichu for his thesis on electric type pokemon. Once Joshua and raichu had joined them, they sat around trading a few stories, with Birch sharing his embarrassing experience earlier that morning, "I was researching some poochyena, and I guess I encroached too far causing them to use bite on me. Luckily a young lady starting her journey today was able to command a torchic I had in my bag and saved me!" Birch simply scratched the back of his head out of embarrassment.
"Torchic, that's the fire type starter for this region, right?"
"Yes, it is Ash," Joshua sipped his fruit tea, "In addition to torchic, you have treecko the grass type starter, and mudkip the water type starter." Upon hearing its name, a mudkip came out from underneath one of the lab tables. "Hey little guy, I almost forgot you were here!" Joshua picked up the affectionate starter.
"Joshua, why is mudkip still here? I thought we had three trainers starting their journey today?" Birch looked at his assistant with confusion.
"Three trainers did start today; the mayor's son didn't show up today. I called to make sure he was coming only to learn the mayor let his son pick from any pokemon in the region to start with and selected that over coming here to pick," Mudkip looked sad at hearing he was not chosen to travel.
Ash reached his hand out to mudkip and the water type looked at his hand a moment before rubbing his head against his hand, "Well, if there are no more trainers starting today, would I be able to take mudkip with me?" As soon as Ash finished his sentence, mudkip jumped his arms and affectionately cuddled up to the raven-haired trainer.
Birch and Joshua just laughed, "Well Ash, it's hard to say no when mudkip clearly wants to go with you." Birch got up and grabbed mudkip's pokeball off the counter and handed it to Ash, "Just take good care of him."
"Yes sir," Ash returned mudkip to his pokeball and put it inside his jacket. After some more small talk and recommendations from Birch Ash got up with raichu following suit, "Well, I should get going if I want to get to Oldale Town before dark! Thanks for everything guys!"
As Ash put his hand on the doorknob, Birch spoke up once more, "Hey Ash, I have a small request to ask of you"
"Okay, shoot," took his hand off the knob and faced the researcher.
"Beyond Petalburg City is Petalburg Woods, a normal habitat for bug and grass type pokemon as well as pokemon like slakoth who enjoy the dim lighting the dense forest provides. I assume you will hit it on the way to Rustboro City to take on the gym leader of that area," Ash nodded so Birch continued, "People have been reporting strange sightings in the forest."
"Strange sightings? Like what?" Ash and raichu both gave Birch their complete focus.
"A disappearing figure of a male roughly about thirteen or fourteen, reports of a rhyhorn inhabiting the area, and spikes of electricity within the forest," Birch took a sip of water before continuing, "I just need someone to check it out for me since I'm needed here in Littleroot."
"Well you can count on us," Ash held a fist up in affirmation, "Isn't that right raichu?"
"Rai-rai," raichu mimicked Ash's gesture.
"Excellent! Just call here when you reach Rustboro with any news!" Birch walked the two outside and waved them off on their journey.
A few hours later
Ash and raichu were walking along a road through an area of open plains with a few areas of trees scattered around. The duo was planning to stop for a moment when the shriek of someone nearby caught them off guard. They quickly ran in the direction of the screaming noticing a girl with a red bandana and a torchic that looked in rough shape; opposite them were a group of angry looking quadrupedal pokemon, large and small. He recognized the smaller ones as poochyena from talking with Birch earlier in the day, and assumed the larger ones to be the evolved forms. He saw three of the poochyena began to charge torchic with glowing white teeth and reacted immediately, "Raichu, use thunderbolt!" Raichu shot off a yellow-orange tinted bolt of electricity that struck the ground in front of the three smaller pups. The group of pokemon turned their focus to Ash and raichu and began to growl, "Well, doesn't look like you all want to talk about this and walk away." Ash took a step back and removed two pokeballs from his jacket, "Come on out!" In a flash of blinding light, charizard and primeape stood ready for a fight, "Still want to fight?"
The poochyena started to back off at the sight of the stronger opponents, but the larger pokemon weren't backing down. Ash simply sighed, "Oh well, you three can take care of this right?" Raichu, primeape, and charizard all nodded, "Okay, just don't go overboard!" The three shot off toward the larger hyena pokemon. With attacks clashing and the opposing pokemon taking several hits, Ash ran over to the trainer and her injured torchic, "Hey are you okay," Ash asked as he pulled a small vile out of his bag and began treating the chick pokemon.
"Yeah, I-I'm okay," she looked at her pokemon with sadness in her heart, "Will torchic be okay?"
"Yeah, she'll be just fine," Ash smiled as torchic began to look a lot healthier, "She will just need to be checked at a Pokemon Center as soon as you reach one." Ash finished administering the medicine about the same time that his pokemon walked over to them, "Are we good?" Charizard, primeape, and raichu nodded pointing to the fleeing pokemon, "Good! What were those pokemon anyway?"
"The smaller ones were poochyena and the larger ones were mightyena," the girl, now holding her pokemon, answered with fear still present in her voice.
"Mightyena, huh," Ash pulled out his PokeDex and read it over, "A dark type, wouldn't be a bad idea to snag one up since I don't currently have someone with that typing."
Ash became so lost in thought he forgot there was another person around, "Excuse me, I don't think I caught your name before."
"Huh?" Ash looked over at the girl, "Oh right, I'm sorry," he scratched the back of his head, "my name is Ash Ketchum and I'm from Pallet Town in the Kanto region!" Ash received a small jolt of electricity before realizing what he forgot, "Oh right, and these are three of my pokemon!"
The brunette giggled at the sight, "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you Ash, my name is May Maple and I'm from Petalburg City here in Hoenn!" Torchic started to stir a bit and opened its eyes, "And this is torchic!" The fire type wiggled out of May's arms and went to the other three to converse with them.
Ash and May went on talking while the four pokemon talked and played for a bit. The sky over Hoenn began to glow a beautiful orange before Ash realized what time it was, "Well, it's gotten a bit late, I guess we are camping out for tonight guys and we will start our trek early in the morning!" His three pokemon all cheered a bit at their first night camping out in the new region. He reached in his jacket and sent out the rest of his pokemon, minus mudkip. With the six pokemon out of their balls, and bayleef, noctowl, and totodile being introduced to torchic, Ash called his pokemon to come in closer, "Hey guys, I want you all to meet our first teammate here in Hoenn. Come on out mudkip!" The water type materialized facing Ash and quickly rubbed against his leg before turning to see the group of pokemon. Under normal circumstances, he might've fled at the sight of such a large and intimidating group, but he recognized raichu and gained some confidence to meet the team.
During this, Ash noticed May walking around the area rather franticly, "Is something wrong May?"
"Well, I need to get home as soon as possible before my parents start worrying too much. The only problem is I can't find my bike," after a few moments looking, she noticed the charred corpse of what was once her bike, "What happened?!"
Ash ran over and noticed the problem, "Guys! I thought I said to not go overboard!" Charizard and raichu saw the bike and tried to look ashamed but couldn't quite cover up their laughter. Ash looked back at May expecting her to be angry, but she looked like she was holding back laughter as well, "What so funny?"
"Nothing, it just looks likes this isn't the first time this happened to you," she smiled and took a seat on a nearby stump, "I guess you'll just have to accompany me back to Petalburg tomorrow."
"Sounds fair," Ash smiled, began unpacking his camping gear, and getting dinner started.
After a little while of playing with her torchic, Ash's totodile, and mudkip, May was drawn to the pot Ash was using to cook. The scent was mouthwatering, much to May's surprise, and she sat across from Ash as he put the finishing touches on dinner.
"Alright everyone, dinner is served!" Ash's pokemon all came to the fire and grabbed a bowl of a stew made from berries Ash kept on hand. Everyone sat enjoying the warmth of the meal on a breezy evening, except May who was looking the stew over, "Something wrong May?"
"No, I'm just looking at what you used for the stew," she took her spoon and stirred it before scooping some of the meal into her mouth. With a look of shock, she devoured the meal and held her bowl out to Ash, "Can I have more?"
Ash laughed, "Sure May, you can have as much as you want!" After the stew was all gone, everyone laid out in the grass stuffed from the meal. Most of the pokemon, and May, had fallen asleep including mudkip, who was laying on Ash's chest, and noctowl, who was keeping watch. Ash looked to the clear sky at the stars shining brightly, "Here's to our best finish ever, Pokemon League Champions!" With dreams of the league and adventures to come, Ash fell asleep not knowing someone nearby had been watching him.
"League Champion, huh? Maybe you can help the cause."
Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Feel free to PM me or post a review with questions or comments for the story!