Chapter 2: return to pallet
timeskip: two years later.
a tall young man with raven black hair walked over the porch of a small house in pallet town. a pikachu sat on his shoulder, sniffing up the fresh air...
Ash was now nineteen, and finally after three years of training, officially an elite four. he started wearing an eye-patch over his right eye, and instead of his usual cap, he now wore a wide black- and green bandanna around his head. (if you want to know how it looks, just type in lavi (from d. gray man) on google pictures. same hair too but then black.) he wore a silver chain, with six cherish balls around his neck, and he wore a black and green trenchcoat. when he entered the house through the back door, he saw a woman sitting by the table, looking at a picture.
"looking at a picture of dad won't bring him back, you know..." his voice was soft.
delia turned around, startled at first, but then smiled a sad smile. "I know, but red always was quite unique. did you get to meet him, during your training with Cynthia?"
"yes. we met him on mount silver. he told us, that the day of his return wouldn't take long anymore..."
his mother's sad smile turned into a cheery one. "he said that? then I guess, I'll have to wait only a little while longer then." seeing his mother smile, he couldn't help but smile himself. "yeah..."
for the first time in three years time, he hugged his mother, and a tear escaped his good eye.
"finally, we'll be a family again..."
his mother sat back down and he sat down next to her.
"so. tell me what you've been doing these past three years." delia said, taking a sip from her drink. Ash sighed a bit and started recounting the important events.
"well. first I've been allowed to become one of the sinnoh elite four under Cynthia. then I started gathering allies and trained along with them." his eyes gained their old warm amber colour in remembrance. "though some of my allies are quite... interesting, to say the least."
(flashback)
"METALFACE!" an angry female roar was heard throughout the victory road after another explosion rocked the cave system.
Ash sat next to a white-haired man, sharing a drink and watching the other two argue.
"take it easy icy midget. gi-hee-hee-heee!" a black haired man laughed out. a petite black haired woman chased him with a white sword made of ice.
"YOU BLEW MY FUCKING SUITCASE UP! AND STOP CALLING ME MIDGET!"
Ash sweatdropped while pikachu facepalmed.
(flashback end)
"yeah... let's keep it at interesting shall we? anyway. after a year of training with my pokemon, I traveled back to kanto and started training my aura inside the tree of beginning. mew was great company, but the regi's were something I had to get used to. seriously, those three may be legendary class pokemon, but they are scary as hell."
he then started recounting the exercises he had to do, and the events of the last year of his disappearance.
three hours later.
"MOM! I'll be at Oak's ranch for a bit!" Ash yelled from the hallway. his mother came out of the kitchen, and waved him goodbye. "allright, but don't be late for dinner!" Ash smirked, and began to run towards the old man's laboratory.
when he arrived, he got greeted by a green and pink flash, crashing into him, pushing him to the ground. it was a meganium, who seemed very familliar. a shock of recognition went through Ash's mind, and his eye shot open in shock.
"B-BAYLEEF? YOU EVOLVED ON YOUR OWN?!"
"ME-MEGANIUM-ME!" the flower dinosaur stood over him, with tears in her eyes, and started headbutting him. pikachu cracked up, and dropped on the floor, holding his sides in laughter upon seeing his best friend, the elite four, getting his ass handed to him by his own pokemon.
when Ash finally got up, he petted her head, and she purred in delight. it was clear to him that she missed him during the past two years. a fifty seven-year old man in a white lab coat came running out of the front door.
"me-meganium, don't go running off again... at my age, I can't keep up-" he stopped mid sentence, when he saw the stranger petting the meganium of his own protegé.
"it seems she has taken a liking to you... strange, because the only ones who are allowed to touch her, are her own trainer and me... normally, she headbutts the living daylight out of anyone else who touches her."
Ash laughed. "yeah I noticed that."
"wait a second... I get the feeling, that I know you from somewhere... have we met before?" Ash laughed again. "that is correct, Samuel... we've met before, and you know me very well. I guess I can't blame you for forgetting. after all, it's been three years already. fourty-six years if you count our little time travelling adventure with celebi."
Oak kept pondering for a bit, before his face turned into an expression of complete shock.
"Ash?! IS THAT YOU?" by now, Ash joined pikachu on the floor, rolling around in laughter.
after Ash told Oak what happened three years ago, and what has happened in those three years he was away, Oak's normally kind face was now a mask of complete seriousness.
"hmpf. so that's why you suddenly disappeared back then. by the way, did you catch any new pokemon?"
"yup, I sure did. you don't train under Cynthia without picking up some new friends, ya know? COME ON OUT GUYS!"
Ash threw nine pokeballs up into the air, and a very powerful team appeared in front of the old recearcher. Ash's team consisted out of: a metacross, a mega-garchomp, dragonite, mega-alakazam, mega-gengar, primeape, salamence, bearctic, hydreigon and of course pikachu.
Oak could not believe his eyes. not only had Ash managed to capture some of the fiercest, most untameable pokemon, but he also managed to evolve several of them into their highest forms: the fabled 'mega-evolutions'. even Samuel knew that only a handful of pokemon could attain this level, either through extremely rigorious training, or through a mega stone.
"Ash... how did you-"
"mega stones." Ash interrupted the professor. "a few months back, Cynthia and I were searching the kalos region for new gym leader potential, and we stumbled upon a massive cave, where the raw ore of these beauties grew. gible, who just evolved into a garchomp a few days before that, couldn't resist the temptation and ate a piece. since then, Cynthia and I have kept the cave a secret and bought the ground above it, making it ours."
Oak tapped his chin and hummed.
"if it's not too much trouble, would you mind if I take a piece? there isn't much known about those stones and I would just love to find out more about them."
Ash chuckled a bit and stuck his hand in his coat pocket. he pulled it back out and handed Samuel a large round rainbow-coloured orb.
"I knew you'd ask that. so I prepared a piece for you. consider it a thank-you gift for taking care of my pokemon for three years."
Oak pocketed the stone with a smile and led the new pokemon to the garden.
Ash's old pokemon immediatly surrounded his new team, and welcomed them to the 'family'. alakazam sat in meditation under a tree, next to sceptile and venosaur. metacross and bearctic were giving the smaller pokemon piggy-back rides, garchomp, dragonite, salamence, hydreigon and charizard were lazily flying around. primeape was wrestling with emboar, and gengar was holding a scary-face contest with feraligatr.
all in all, it was a lot of happy noise, like the old days.
"professor, what is all this ruckus?"
"yeah gramps, what's all this noise?"
Oak turned around to the two men who entered the ranch. the first wore a green shirt, and brown shorts. around his head was a red headband, had black hair parted in the middle and he was holding a sketchbook in his hands. the second wore a blue shirt, and black pants. he had a green-yellow yin-yang necklace, and spiky brown hair.
"Tracey, Gary. an old friend decided to visit. you guys recognise him don't you?" both young men glanced at Ash, whose eye turned stone grey again.
"can't say I do... wait a sec... n-no way!" Gary seemed to recognise the one eyed stranger."A-A-Ash!?"
Ash growled and made attempt to leave, but he was stopped by Tracey. "you're not going to run away again ketchum!" Ash glared at the artist, and growled.
"move sketchit, or I'll make you move." Tracey, slightly taken aback, laughed.
"not today, wimp! I challenge you to a battle!"
"HA! do you now? very well.. I guess I've got some time to squash you like the pathetic insignificant pieces of shit you are. I'LL TAKE YOU BOTH ON AT THE SAME TIME!"
Oak agreed to ref the battle. "it'll be a two vs. two vs. two battle. you know the rules."
"this'll be a piece of cake." both men said in unison. Gary sent out electivire, and Tracey sent out scizor.
"fine... metacross crush 'em!" the three pokemon stood across each other.
"scizor use x-scissors!"
"electivire, thunderpunch!"
"metacross. dodge with teleport, and then use body slam."
the two opposing pokemon attacked in perfect sync, but missed as metacross vanished into thin air with a blue flash. the steel golem-spider appeared above them, and dropped himself on top of scizor and electivire with his full weight, knocking them both out cold.
"both scizor, and electivire are unable to battle. please send out your last pokemon."
"AAAAGH! GO ARCANINE!"
"AZUMARILL GO!"
"metacross, you did a perfect performance as allways, please rest. wreck them, primeape."
"azumarill use hydro pump!" the water bunny fired a high-speed stream of water at primeape, and it connected. before Ash could react, arcanine shot a blast-burn at his monkey.
an explosion followed, and Ash laughed like a lunatic. when he calmed down, his lone eye, gained a blue-ish gleam.
" do you know what the strong point of a normal/fighting type is? they hardly have any weaknesses. water, fire, or even electric attacks are ineffective against a well-trained normal/fighting type."
the smoke cleared, and they saw primeape standing completely still. eyes closed, soot covered it's fur, but other than that, no physical harm was done. Gary and Tracey could not believe their eyes. Ash gained a nasty smirk.
"my turn! primeape. use close combat on azumarill, and then follow up with a mach punch!"
primeape opened his eyes, and ran at high speed towards azumarill, who tried to dodge, but wasn't fast enough, and got hit by a high-speed volley of punches and kicks. in one smooth move, primeape turned towards arcanine, and with a roar he unleashed a giant copy of his own fist, connecting with the flaming canine pokemon. once again, both pokemon were defeated with only one move each.
"the winner is Ash... although, that was quite expected..."
both men returned their pokemon.
"gramps, how could you've already known the outcome of this battle?" Gary asked, pouting over his loss.
"because Ash is the sinnoh elite four leader, you bleeding imbeciles!"
Ash grinned. "now guess who's worthless, huh?"