When Ash got home he saw his mother sitting down at the table and she looked up at him and asked "so, you've decided to leave again, haven't you?"

"Yeah" Ash said solemnly.

"When were you going to tell me?"

"Well, now. Although you seem to have known about it beforehand anyway."

"Well, you've never been able to keep a secret from me Ash. Besides, I always knew that it would only be a matter of time before you would want to leave on your next journey. Heh, you're just like your father that way."

"Really?"

"Yes. Well, since I figured that you'd be going soon I decided to make you some new clothes for this journey as well."

"Eh?" Ash exclaimed.

"What? You didn't think that I would let you wear just any old thing that you can buy from a store, did you?"

"Well, I think that I can afford..."

"Oh forget that, these ones will be better suited to travel than anything that you could get in the Pallet Town Department Store anyway."

"Well, alright then" Ash said. "So, they're upstairs in the closet next to your bedroom if you want to try them on before you leave."

"Alright, thanks" Ash said as he went to see the next set of travelling clothes that his mother had created for him. When he got up there he opened the closet he found a vacuum sealed bag that he'd never seen before. He took the bag down and into his room. He opened it and spread the clothes out on his bed. He found, to his pleasure, that there was no distinctive colours or patterns on them. On his bed was a pair of black jeans, a black shirt, black shoes, a blue cloak that you could unzip and take the sleeves off just above the elbow and, to his shock, a hat eerily similar to the one that he had worn at the insert movie 9 contest name here as well as the one that he had seen Riley wearing in the Sinnoh Region. Ash quickly donned the clothes and went downstairs to show his mother. When he got there his mother looked him over once, twice and then, after she gave him the whole 'you look great' speech, he said, "thanks a lot."

"That's fine, I'm always happy to make you some new ones. So, you better go and choose which Pokémon that you are going to be using."

"Nah, it's already taken care of."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Garchomp is going to swing by tomorrow and then he and I'll fly to the Charcific Valley to pick up an egg that Charizard wants me to have before heading to the Unova Region."

"The Unova Region? That's that region up north that only recently opened its borders to Pokémon trainers from the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh Regions, right?"

"Yeah."

"So, I take it that you are going to enter the Unova League?"

"Yeah," Ash dragged out, "I'm not really sure."

"Eh? Ash Ketchum, unsure of something?"

"What? I'm not allowed to be unsure of something?"

"Well, it's just that usually you are so sure of yourself, that's all."

"Yeah, well, it's a new region and nobody around here really knows much about it, so I don't know if the Unova Region even has a Pokémon League."

"Well, alright then" Delia said, content that her son was indeed her son.

The next day Garchomp did as Ash had requested and flown to his house at 7 o'clock. Ash was already up and ready well before Garchomp arrived and was waiting outside his house when he got there. Ash walked up to him as he landed and rubbed Garchomp's head, receiving a light bite in return. Ash laughed and said "alright, that's enough of that." Garchomp released his head and turned away from Ash, and then went down on all fours, allowing Ash to step up onto his back and get into the stance that they had discovered would allow Ash to remain standing on Garchomp's back at the high speeds that they would be travelling at. Ash bade his mother, who had stepped onto the porch as Garchomp landed, farewell as Garchomp took off and then, after circling Ash's house three times, making sure that Ash would be able to redistribute his weight as needed, headed towards the Charcific Valley.

Two hours later Ash, on Garchomp's back, came in sight of the Charcific Valley and, not three minutes later, were landing in the crater that makes up the Charizards' home. Ash and Garchomp were met by five very large, very angry, Charizard. They made their displeasure at the intrusion of Ash and Garchomp, mostly Garchomp, into their home and training ground. They made their anger known by roaring at the tops of their voices, a roar that was consequently laughed at by Garchomp. Needless to say, the Charizard didn't take too kindly to Garchomp's dismissal of the threat that they posed. They each shot a Flamethrower at Ash, as they blamed him for Garchomp's behaviour. Garchomp stood in front of Ash and fired his own flamethrower at theirs, completely negating them. Garchomp then let out its own angry roar at the Pokémon that dared to attack Ash. The Charizard took a step back at the rage that the pseudo-legendary Pokémon was displaying due to their actions. At this point Liza arrived on Charla's back, along with Ash's Charizard flying beside them, coming back from picking up some food for herself in Cherrygrove City. At the appearance of Liza the Charizard looked down and away as if they had not just been trying, unsuccessfully, to intimidate Ash and Garchomp. Liza frowned at them and said "alright, what were you five doing?" They all tried to convey their own versions, all false, of what happened. Knowing them to be lying, Liza turned to Ash and asked "alright Ash, what were these five idiots trying to do?"

"Well, if I didn't know better, I would say that they were trying to protect their nests, but, they were trying to show off to those females over there" Ash said, nodding at the female Charizard that had absolutely no interest in what was going on. Although one did seem to be staring awfully hard at Garchomp.

Liza sighed and apologised, saying "I'm sorry Ash, the thing is, it's just entered into the Charizards' mating season and tensions can be rather high at this time."

"Yeah, I know how it is with the Ursaring, I would assume that it wouldn't be too different with the Charizard."

"No, not really...wait, how do you know about the Ursar..."

"Well, when I was in the Johto and Hoenn regions, I seemed to somehow run into a few forests that the Ursaring were using during their mating season."

"I...see..." Liza said.

"Well, that's in the past though, you told me that you had an egg for me?"

"Yeah. That's right!" Liza exclaimed, having completely forgot about why Ash was actually there. Ash's Charizard and Charla had a sweatdrop appear at the side of their heads and Ash covered his eyes with his hand and shook his head. "Alright, follow me" Liza said as she walked off. Ash found his sight lowering as he followed behind her. He had to keep shaking his head to get the thought 'god she has one sexy ass on her' out of his mind. As she walked Liza said "I almost didn't recognize you when I first saw you."

"Yeah, a lot of people tend to say that."

"Well, I don't blame them, you have grown quite a bit since you first left Charizard here all those years ago."

"Yeah" Ash said, thinking back over the times that he'd had with Charizard, the most notable, when they had fought alongside each other against a Dragonite. Garchomp, whom Ash still hadn't recalled, Ash's Charizard and Charla, all followed behind their human trainers, Charla being restrained by Charizard from attacking Ash as she saw him checking out her trainer. Liza turned into a chamber off of the main hallway that they had been travelling down and, as Ash entered after her, he looked around and, all he could say was "wow!" as he saw a large room, at least 10m2, the walls completely filled by Pokémon eggs.

Liza laughingly said "yeah, that's what I said the first time too. I suppose I don't need to tell you that this is where all the Charizard store their eggs. They store them here because it is a lot warmer than it is outside. Now, for your egg." Liza walked over to an egg near the front of the room and picked one up. She walked back to Ash, handed it to him and said "here you are."

Ash looked at it, and then looked at all the other ones and said "this one looks kind of different."

"Yeah, I know," Liza said, "It's not often, but one in every insert odds of getting a shiny Pokémon from an egg Pokémon eggs will give birth to what we consider a 'shiny' Pokémon."

"Oh yeah, I remember reading something about them in the Professors' research data back home. He was using my Noctowl, along with a few of Gary's Pokémon to formulate his results."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I don't think that he's ever really considered the possibility of one of the Regions' starter Pokémon being a 'shiny' Pokémon though."

"Well, here's living, kind of, proof that it can indeed happen."

"I guess so" Ash said.

"Well, if you'd like to follow me a bit further, you can exit through this tunnel instead of going back up to the top."

"Why would I want to do that?" Ash asked, frowning in confusion.

"Well, those Charizard that Garchomp ticked off before, they're, basically, in charge of a few other problematic Charizard and they might try to attack you again, even with me, Charla and Charizard with you."

"Well, alright then" Ash said, placing the egg in his bag.

When they reached the end Liza turned to Ash and said "Well, it's been good seeing you again Ash" as Ash got onto Garchomp once again.

"Yeah, it's been great" Ash replied before taking off of Garchomp, heading towards the Unova Region.

Authors' Notes:

To those of you whom are about to review complaining about the lack of Pikachu in this story, don't. Pikachu is
currently taking care of its children at Professor Oak's Laboratory.