Rayquaza45: Hey there, readers. Chapter 3 is now available for you to read. I know it took a little longer than you'd like but you got in in the end, right? So please read it and write a review.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or any of its characters.

Chapter 3: Familiar Reunions

"LEAF!" Ash and Gary exclaimed simultaneously.

"Took you long enough." She said with a heart-melting smile on her face as she then put her hat back on.

Gary came out of shock and looked right at her. "You've really changed your look."

Ash suddenly hung his head down low and stayed silent. Gary was clearly happy to see her and got up in the front.

"Dawn. Brock. This is Leaf Green; she grew up in Pallet Town alongside me and Ash." Gary said.

"Hey there Leaf. My name is Dawn."

"I'm Brock and it's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you guys." She said with the same smile.

"So Leaf, how long has it been since we've seen each other?" Gary asked.

Leaf pondered the question, even she didn't know exactly how long. "Since before we left on our journeys."

Gary shrugged. "So what have you been doing all these years?"

"I traveled through Kanto first. After that, I went to Hoenn and then Sinnoh. Now I'm collecting Johto badges for the Silver Conference. I just got my 6th from the gym leader here. I found out about the tournament so I decided to enter!" She replied.

"You traveled to Hoenn before Johto?" Gary asked.

"Yeah." She said. "Everyone goes to Johto after Kanto, but I wanted to be different."

Gary smiled. "Yeah that's definitely something different."

"Thank you." She said.

Gary started to stare at her. "Bye the way, do you still have him?"

Only she and Gary seemed to know what he meant. "Yeah. Let's go out and I'll show you."

On the way to the empty field outside of the battle tower, everyone had something on their mind. Gary and Leaf were clearly determined to catch up with each other. It took all of Brock's restraint to keep himself from coming on to Leaf, but at the same time; even he knew better that to anger Gary. Dawn simply just wanted to get to know her better. More specifically: why had neither Gary nor Ash ever mentioned her? Ash, meanwhile, was keen to stay quiet for a while longer. Something was clearly on his mind, since he's usually the first person to talk.

Leaf took a pokéball out of her bag and tossed it into the air. "Come on out!"

The large flash of light that came out of the pokéball turned into a very large and intimidating pokémon with a….flower.

"Saur!"

"This is Venusaur. My very first pokémon." She proclaimed. "After Gary took a Squirtle, I came in and chose Bulbasaur."

"Pikachu!" Pikachu exclaimed, as it ran up to the Venusaur, who paid no mind to the small electric rodent.

As Leaf looked around at Brock, Dawn and Gary she turned towards Ash. She noticed he was unusually silent, not at all like the boy she had once known. While Ash was lost in thought, she suddenly showed up right in his face.

"Hey Ash! Aren't you happy to see me?" She asked, giggling slightly.

"Whoa! Uhh…no it's not that Leaf!" He replied frantically.

"So what is it then?"

"It's nothing!"

Hearing this, Leaf backed down for the moment. "Okay that's fine….for now." Calling Venusaur back into its pokéball, she then turned to face the group. "So where are you guys staying?" She asked.

"We we're just thinking about going to the pokémon centre." Gary answered.

"That's doubtful." She said. "The centre is filled with other trainers staying over for the tournament."

Dawn was totally shocked. "What? How could an entire pokémon centre be filled? Those places are massive!"

"Trainers are coming from all over to participate. The centre probably doesn't have anymore rooms available." Leaf explained.

Brock stood up in front and turned to face the group. "So what do we do now guys?"

Leaf got back in the front. "Let me help!"

"You know a place?" Gary asked.

"My family has a vacation house here in Olivine City." She explained. "There'll be more than enough rooms for you guys."

"Sounds good right?" Gary said in a questioning tone as he turned to the rest of the group. Everyone, including Ash, nodded.

"Pika!" The electric rodent on Ash's shoulders exclaimed.

"I've already invited a few other trainers that I've met to stay there." She revealed. "I hope you guys don't mind."

"No, we're good." Dawn said. "The more the merrier." The boys nodded their heads in agreement.

"Alrighty then, let's go!" Leaf said, taking off to go running to the hills.

Leaf's family house was an elegantly designed log cabin. Leaf explained that it was complete with lights and various other technological marvels, just on the outside. Leaf opened the door to the inside of the cabin, which they saw had a fireplace, which was burning bright, a kitchen and appliances, living room furniture, and a staircase which presumably led to the upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms. Just then, two people came down the stairs. Evidently, they had heard to conversations going on downstairs and wanted to see what was going on. One of the two was very easily recognized.

It was a girl wearing an emerald green bandanna, an orange and red orange sleeveless T-shirt with a black collar, black bike shorts, black socks, and red and white sneakers. She also had a green purse attached to her waist in addition to her belt.

Ash, Dawn and Brock were flabbergasted. "MAY!"

"Oh wow." She said with a totally amazed look on her face. "Ash. Dawn. Brock."

Ash suddenly came out of his emotionless shell and smiled. "This day is just one surprise after another."

Leaf looked puzzled. "You guys know each other?"

"That's right." Ash started. "I traveled the Hoenn region alongside May."

"Are you guys here for the tournament?" May asked.

"You know it!" Ash replied.

Gary stepped up. "Ahem. Ash, aren't you going to introduce me?"

Ash suddenly became aware of Gary. "Oh right. May, this is Gary. I've known him since I was a kid. Now he's a researcher."

"Nice to meet you, Gary." She added.

"So are you participating in the 'Battle Spirits Tournament' too, May?" Brock asked.

"Of course. And so is he." She turned to her left, where there was an unknown boy standing. "This is Brendan Birch."

Brendan was a teenage boy. He was as tall as Gary, thus slightly taller than Ash. He wore an odd white hat with an emerald green headband, orange gloves with green wristbands attached, an orange and black t-shirt and black pants which seemed to be covered by a thicker pair of black pants that only extended to his knees.

"Birch?" Ash asked.

"That's right." He said. "My father is Professor Birch, the leading pokémon researcher in the Hoenn region."

"I've met your father, Brendan." Ash told him. "How is he?"

Brendan laughed a little. "I'm sure he's fine now."

Brock looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Well he's kinda forgetful and I had to help him out a while back." He revealed. "In fact, that's when I met May."

Dawn suddenly got excited. "Tell us about it!"

"Actually, I haven't heard this story either." Leaf said.

"Why don't we all sit down?" Brendan suggested. "It's a pretty long story."

There were three couches. One designed for three people and the other two designed for two people. Gary and Dawn sat on a two person couch, Gary pretended to be tired and put his arm around Dawn. The gesture did not go unnoticed by Ash. He himself sat down and Leaf joined him on the couch. He started blushing but Leaf didn't seem to notice. On the three person couch, Brendan sat in the middle with May on his left and Brock on his right.

Brendan leaned forward. "Well it all started about nine months ago."

(Nine Months Prior)

Brendan had just come back to his home in Littleroot Town to see his father. He'd just set another record for consecutive wins in the LaRousse City battle tower. He decided to visit his father's lab just to surprise him. It was approaching evening as he arrived at the front door and knocked. However, instead of his father, the assistant opened up.

"Brendan?" The assistant asked. "How're you doing?"

"I'm fine." He replied. "How's my dad."

"Hum…well."

"What's the problem?" Brendan asked.

"Professor Birch went out to work with a trainer about your age." The assistant started. "But he hasn't come back yet."

"You think something might've happened?" Brendan asked.

"I hope not." He said. "But this wouldn't be this first time. I'm sure he and this other trainer might be able to handle it."

"Okay that settles it. I'm going to find him!" Brendan declared. "I'm not leaving this up to some nobody."

As Brendan ran off into the forest, the assistant followed him.

"Brendan! Your father went into the mountains!" He shouted.

"Why didn't you tell me that earlier!?"

Brendan quickly turned around and headed into the mountains. The assistant didn't follow as he had to stay at the lab, but said he'd send help if Brendan called for it. Brendan's shoes, made by the Devon Co., enabled him to run a lot faster than normal and add some extra bounce to his steps. They'd gotten him out of tight spots many times before.

The mountains were inhabited by many pokémon. Most of them were harmless Skiploom, Mareep and Ponyta. However, there seemed to be several packs of Mightyena and Houndour roaming the area. At the middle of the mountain, Brendan heard what seemed to be a trainer ordering their pokémon to attack. He hurried up to the spot and was horrified at what he saw.

His father was lying up against a rock, appearing to be unconscious. In front of him was teenage girl, about the same age as himself. She wore a red t-shirt with a dark blue circle around her neck, dark-blue shorts, a white mini-skirt, red and yellow sneakers, a red bandanna with a white pokéBall print and dark-blue and white gloves.

He'd never seen a girl so cute in his life.

She was ordering her Blaziken to attack a Steelix which seemed to be causing them a lot of trouble. The Steelix must've been the reason for his father's condition. Despite the type scenario, the girl's Blaziken seemed unable to defeat the wild Steelix. Brendan came out and made his presence known to the girl. They'd never met before but she seemed happy to see him.

"What happened here?" Brendan asked.

The girl started facing him directly. "I was out here with the professor and this Steelix attacked us!"

"Let me help!"

"Be careful. This Steelix is tough." She advised.

"No sweat." He said as he took out a pokéball and tossed it into the air. "Come on out!"

The large flash of light turned into a Swampert, the fully evolved form of the Hoenn region water-type starter, Mudkip. The Swampert looked over at the Blaziken standing on its right. Both the pokémon and their trainers nodded their heads.

"We'll need to work together for this."

"I've got it!"

"Swampert! Use water gun on the Steelix!" Brendan commanded.

"Blaziken! Use flame thrower!" The girl ordered.

Both attacks collided with the Steelix's chest. The large pokémon apparently hadn't anticipated the attacks. Both the flame thrower and the water gun caused the Steelix to go down. It seemed that it had fainted. The trainers then turned to each other.

"My name's Brendan." He said. "And you're a pretty skilled trainer."

"Thank you." The girl smiled as her eyes started to glisten. "My name's May."

Brendan put out his hand. "Well May, it's nice to meet you."

May took his hand and shook it. "You too, Brendan."

All of a sudden, the Steelix came back up, angrier than ever. It seemed that the attacked hadn't knocked it out after all. Brendan, May and their pokémon looked up at the grumbling pokémon. All of a sudden it smashed its tail into the mountain side which caused a rock slide. Blaziken tried to get May and the professor out of the way while Swampert did the same with Brendan. Blaziken, however, was not as successful. It had managed to get the professor's unconscious body out of harms way but it had sustained significant injury while protecting its trainer.

May herself was nowhere to be seen.

Brendan got up and started looking around. "May? Where are you? MAY!"

She was nowhere to be seen and her voice could only be heard in a very faint manner, as if she was a mile away. Brendan suddenly started fuming with anger. His eyes flared up and his teeth were gritted. He then turned to face the Steelix.

"Swampert! Use Hydro Cannon." He yelled.

Swampert let out a massive stream of water from its mouth. Hydro Cannon was the ultimate water-type move. Steelix, being part ground-type, was susceptible to this amazingly powerful attack. The Steelix couldn't defend itself and was knocked out instantly.

Searching around, May was discovered to be buried underneath Blaziken who himself was under a pile of rocks. He noticed that her clothes had been pretty torn up, but he opened his backpack and knew exactly what to do. Brendan called the assistant, telling him that he'd found the professor and that other trainer who had accompanied him. By the time the rescue team arrived, Brendan had finished and May and Professor Birch were taken away.

May awoke in a hospital room all alone a few hours later. She was wearing a very strange set of clothes. They had a very small resemblance to the ones she was previously wearing but they were obviously not the same. Though the clothes were admittedly comfortable and well designed, she hated to think of how she came to be wearing them. Brendan entered the room soon after.

"Brendan?" May asked. "What happened?"

"Well," He started. "The wild Steelix attacked us again and knocked you out. I took care of it and turned my attention to you. I just gave you some basic first aid. Your clothes had also gotten torn up in the damage so I altered my own unworn spares to make you a new outfit. I hope you like it."

May smiled as she inspected her new clothes. "Yeah. They're great. Thanks so much."

"You're welcome." He replied.

The next afternoon, Professor Birch and May were all healed up. The professor thanked Brendan and May prior to going back home to see his wife. May and Brendan spent the next several hours talking. Soon after it was time for them to go. May was going to Johto to participate in pokémon contests and had only stopped in Littleroot Town to meet the professor. Brendan was on his way to Sinnoh in order to set more battle tower records. After all, he was a competitive trainer. May mentioned that her old traveling buddy, Ash, told her that he was going to Sinnoh as well. Though alas, he and Brendan never met.

After exchanging their goodbyes and phone numbers, May and Brendan parted ways. They made sure to call one another as much as possible though they knew that they would one day meet up again. But until such time, calling would have to due. This may very well have been the start of a long distance relationship.

(Present Day)

"After I found out about this tournament, I called May." Brendan said.

"I told him I was participating and I found out that he was coming too." May added.

Brendan started laughing. "But when we got here a few days ago we couldn't get rooms at the pokémon centre."

"Thankfully for us, Leaf let us stay here, where we've been training ever since." May said.

Leaf started giggling. "I didn't even know that May knew Ash at that point."

"So now we're all together." Dawn added.

"Best friends." Ash proclaimed. "Reunited!"

Everyone else looked happy except Brock.

"I guess that means we're all going to be competing against each other."

"Brock." Gary started with a chuckle. "That's the whole point of tournaments. We fight to win."

"It's not like the competition can really get to any of us that badly, right?" Leaf asked, already hoping for a particular answer.

"I guess you're right." Brock admitted. "Maybe I'm just over thinking it."

"I'll say." Brendan said, laying back with his hands behind his head. "So the tournament starts in six days. I guess we're living together until then."

"Sounds like a plan." Ash said.

"Pika!" The electric rodent exclaimed in agreement.

Leaf took everyone upstairs to show them their rooms soon after. Since it was a large house she assumed she'd be able to give everyone their own room, though she later found out she couldn't. She turned around to face the others.

"OK. I didn't realize this but there're seven of us and only six bedrooms. Someone has to share." She told everyone.

Gary and Brendan spoke out at the same time.

"I'll do it." They both said.

They were clearly trying to get a room for themselves and their 'others'. However, Leaf decided to humiliate them for kicks.

"You guys wanna share a room with each other?" Leaf asked. "I guess that settles it."

"Huh?"

"Wait!"

"Okay!" Leaf said. "The rest of us can get our own rooms down the hall."

Ash, Brock and Leaf went down the hall to get their bedroom of choice. They got room numbers one, six and two. May and Dawn stayed to talk to Brendan and Gary.

"I had no idea you'd share with a guy just to give us our own rooms, Brendan." May said is a thankful tone.

"Gary, I was thinking the same about you." Dawn admitted.

"Anything for you, I guess." Brendan said, trying to make the most of a bad situation.

"No problem." Gary said. That clearly wasn't his intention but Dawn seemed to think so and he just hated to disappoint her.

May and Dawn took rooms three and five. That left Gary and Brendan to take room number four. An extra bed had to be brought to the room from the basement since there was originally just one. Brendan flipped a coin to decide who got to use the big bed. Brendan lost the toss, which resulted in a fight. They were forced to go to bed soon after since everyone else got angry.

"If you try anything funny I'm going to kick your ass!"

"You too!"

The next morning was mild. Temperatures were forecast to be in the low 20 Cs, unusual for a city with a beach.

The house was stocked with food that seemed like it could last well into next year; this only encouraged an eating competition between Ash and Gary while everyone else looked too scared to put themselves in the area. The competition resulted in a mess which Ash and Gary were forced by Leaf to clean up.

The area behind the house was relatively large. May had already mentioned that she and Brendan had been training there since they arrived so Ash decided that he would do so too. Shortly after noon, he called everyone together to discuss this.

"Hey guys." Ash started. "What do you say about training for the tournament here?"

"I've already been doing it." Brendan said.

Dawn gave Brendan an irritated look and turned back to Ash. "But otherwise, it's a good idea."

"It shouldn't be a problem." Leaf started. "But be careful with fire-types. If you burn this place down, I'll burn you down."

Ash wondered whether Leaf was joking or not. "We'll be careful."

So now the training was to begin and continue for six days…..right after lunch.

Rayquaza45: Okay, so how did you guys like this chapter? I'd like to see a more reviews on my story, you have all the time you need but the sooner the better. Please don't take this to be a bad thing cause every author wants feedback from their readers. Take care!