A/N: Hey guys. I accidentally put two chapters together last update, this is me fixing that. My bad.
As the sun began shining through the window, Tyrel was already up and ready to leave his room. He checked out of the pokemon center, thanking Nurse Joy for everything. He took a moment to breathe the morning air before heading next door to the pokemon gym. To his surprise, Max was waiting at the door for him, bags packed and everything.
"Alright, let's go!" Max cried, walking away, holding some kind of machine in his hand. Tyrel stood dumbfounded for a second before running to catch up with him.
"You know where you're going?" Tyrel asks.
"Yep. I've got a PokeNav. I used it a while back when I traveled through Hoenn and Kanto, it works fine. I take it we're heading through Oldale town?" Max was still looking at his PokeNav, hitting a few buttons.
"Yes, and we'll be taking a riverboat around into Slateport. It's faster than walking the trail." Tyrel reached down and pulled Max slightly toward him, helping him to avoid running into a sign. "Watch where you're going."
Max looked up for a second, then gave Tyrel an embarrassed look. "Sorry, won't happen again." He gave the PokeNav one more look-over before closing it and putting it into his pocket. He grabbed the straps on his backpack and walked on, remembering the voices he had heard last night.
The two of them walked on in silence for a few hours. Max's thoughts bounced around from excitement to sorrow as he thought of being able to see his friends again, and then thought of Jirachi and what kind of trouble he might be in. It was obvious to Tyrel that there was something going on with Max, but he wasn't going to press anything.
The two of them came upon Oldale town and were in and out of the small town within a few minutes as they continued on their trail. Soon the sun was hot overhead. A short ways out of Oldale they discovered a small brook.
"Hey Max, what time is it?" Tyrel looked up at the sky to get a bit of an idea. Max pulled out the PokeNav to check.
"Just about noon. Why? What time does the ferry leave?" Max checked the PokeNav again. "At the rate we're going it should only be another hour or so walk."
"Not for a couple more hours. We've got some time, why not rest here for a bit?" Tyrel asked, taking his pack off and fishing out his lunch.
"Sounds great, I'm starving." Max set his pack down and sat on a nearby rock, pulling his sandwich out of his bag. Max began digging in as Tyrel opened up a few cans of pokemon food and set them near the stream. He pulled his pokeballs off of his belt and threw them into the air, letting his pokemon out.
"A metagross! No way!" Max ran up and examined the pokemon as it ate its lunch. "Metagross are the coolest!"
Tyrel laughed, "Yeah, I've had him since he was just an egg."
"I didn't know metagross had eggs…" Max was still looking over the giant pokemon.
"Neither did Professor Birch, that's why he gave me the egg."
"You know Professor Birch? And he gave you an egg!" Max looked at Tyrel with envy, "That's so cool! Why'd Professor Birch have a beldum egg though? And why'd he give it to you?"
"Well I also hatched my charmander from an egg. She was actually my first pokemon. I found her egg on Mossdeep island near my house. Being so young I didn't know what kind of egg it was, and to my surprise neither did Professor Birch." Tyrel took a bite out of his sandwich.
"Professor Birch didn't know what kind of egg it was? Why wouldn't he know something as simple as a charmander egg?" Max had forgotten completely about his lunch.
"Because they're extremely rare here in the Hoenn region. How often do you see a charmander around here? And how would an egg find its way all the way to Mossdeep Island?" Tyrel took a rather large and dramatic bite of his sandwich, noticing that Max wasn't eating. "After it hatched, Professor Birch told me that one of his assistants had found another egg in the ruins near Oldale and wanted to know if I'd look after it for him. It took quite some time, but it eventually hatched into a beldum."
"Woaahh…" Max continued to look on with envy. Tyrel simply pointed to Max's hands and he noticed his sandwich was falling apart. He quickly pulled what was left of it together and took a bite.
"After that I decided I wanted to figure out everything I could about pokemon breeding. Why was there a charmander egg on my island? Why was there a beldum egg in some ruins?" Tyrel finished off his sandwich as his glaceon came up and sat next to him. "I started searching through Sinnoh for beldum to find any answers I could. We tried a gym match once, but didn't have much luck."
Max chuckled, remembering his times with Ash and the gym battles he had. "Not everyone's cut out for battle, I guess."
"It would take time away from my research anyway," Tyrel replied defensively. "Anyway, almost as soon as we found another beldum, they joined and evolved into a metang. Not long afterward we encountered a wild metang that helped mine evolve into this metagross. We had a rough patch for a bit when he wouldn't listen to me, but we settled our differences and he's been a great pokemon ever since."
Charmander and Metagross had finished their meals and Metagross was wading through the water, dodging ember attacks from Charmander, a game they would play quite often.
"Then of course I got another egg while in Sinnoh that hatched into an eevee. It startled me by evolving into a glaceon while we were training near Snowpoint, a place known to have strange properties. The three of us having been roaming the world conducting our research ever since." Tyrel gave Glaceon's head a pat. Glaceon responded by burying her head into Tyrel's leg.
Max was thinking over everything Tyrel had said and suddenly got a perplexed look on his face. "If you've had Charmander for so long, how come your eevee and beldum evolved so much sooner?"
"These are the kinds of questions I want to be able to answer. I honestly can't tell you why because I don't know. Maybe Charmander doesn't want to evolve, maybe she can't evolve. Who knows?" Max was a little disappointed with this answer, but let it be and just finished his sandwich.
The boys sat and watched Metagross and Charmander play in the water. Eventually Glaceon joined them and all manners of splash fights and games of tag took place while the boys just watched and laughed. Little did they know they weren't the only ones watching the pokemon play. Not far away, a familiar pair of eyes peered through a set of binoculars with no-good intent.
"Looks like da kid's got a metagross, a glaceon, and a charmander. Da boss would pay big for any of those pokemon." Meowth lowered the binoculars as Jessie and James appeared behind him. "But we're not going to catch just any one of 'em, we're gonna catch every one." James and Jessie laughed quietly.
"It'll be a lot easier than trying to battle that twerp too," Jessie mentioned, "These kids will never see us coming!"
"I kinda miss the twerps though, even though they caused us so much trouble," James said sullenly, "We may have been blasted off more times than any of us can count, but those were our twerps. Sometimes I wish the boss hadn't re-assigned us…" None of them had recognized Max after a few years.
"Oh quit your whining," Jessie commanded, "The twerps all split up anyway and started being all lazy. We're lucky he didn't just fire us."
"Yeah, besides, once we get dese pokemon back, da boss'll be so happy that he'll give us a huge promotion and we can pick wherever we want to go!" Meowth closed his eyes and began daydreaming about sitting on Giovanni's lap and pushing his persian out of the picture.
"What are we waiting for, let's go!" Jessie climbed out of the bush they were hiding in and James and Meowth followed.
At the stream, Tyrel and Max were putting their packs back on and getting ready to go. Suddenly a voice was heard coming from behind them.
"Hey! That's a great-looking glaceon you have there!" Tyrel and Max turned to see a spiky-haired boy with an umbreon.
"Thank you," Tyrel replied, "your umbreon looks good as well." The boy walked up and knelt down next to Glaceon and began petting her.
"Did you evolve it from an eevee?" The boy asked.
"Yes, which I hatched from an egg" Tyrel answered matter-of-factly
"Mine too. They're great pokemon, aren't they?" The boy stood up and introduced himself. "My name's Gary Oak, and I'm sorry to interrupt. I was just passing by and couldn't help but notice your glaceon."
"Gary Oak…" Max thought for a second, "Hey wait! Isn't your grandpa Professor Oak?"
"That's right. He's the one who inspired me to become a Pokemon Professor myself. Do you know him?"
"Yeah! My friend Ash knows him really well! He's there with him right now, as well as my sister and a few other friends!"
Gary chuckled, "So you're Max, huh?"
Max paused for a second before answering. "Uh…yeah, how'd you know?"
"Ash told me all about you. We've known each other since we were kids. He said he traveled through Hoenn with you and your sister. I'm actually on my way there now to meet up with him for his birthday. I was supposed to be there yesterday, but got a little caught-up. Funny I'd run into you here, huh?"
"Wow! That's just where we were going-" Max stopped to correct himself, "Well, that's where I was going, Tyrel's taking me to the ferry."
"Nice to meet you both," Gary said, "If you're heading to Kanto, I take it that means you're heading to Slateport right now?"
"That's right," Tyrel answered, "If you're going the same way, why not join us?"
"Sure." Gary and Tyrel shook hands and they set off. Max pulled the PokeNav out for a second to check their path while Tyrel recalled all of his pokemon.
Not far off, Team Rocket hid in the bushes, watching everything. Jessie was upset at Gary's arrival. "Grrr…It's the twerp's friend. There's no way we'll be able to get past him."
"Hold on a second, dey said dey was headin' back to Kanto to see the twerp, right?" Jessie and James nodded as Meowth talked, "So we follow 'em, stow away aboard the ship and when we get to Kanto, we steal everyone's pokemon! Da boss'll have so many pokemon, he won't have any time to run tings anymore! He'll put us in charge while he takes time off just to count how many we brought 'im!" The three of them giggled for a second before returning to the binoculars to see where the boys are going.
Tyrel, Gary and Max had already taken off on their path, drawing ever closer to the boat that will take them to Slateport city. Team Rocket followed, sticking to the shadows and remaining out of sight. Max's thoughts were temporarily distracted as he got to enjoy some nostalgia as he travels with his new friends, maintaining the PokeNav and enjoying a nice, sunny day.
In Kanto a familiar scene was taking place. A certain boy and his ninetails were chasing a haunter through the streets and small shops of Pallet Town, attempting to retrieve the boy's backpack. The difference was the determination the boy saw in his haunter, who hadn't turned around to insult him once, which was unusual for the unruly pokemon. The streets and shops were all the same as the day before, and the boy might have been able to guess where the pokemon was headed if he wasn't so focused on keeping up with him.
Across town at Professor Oak's lab, the group was getting packed for a trip to Johto for the day. Ash's mom had bought six tickets for the magnet train in Saffron, which would take them to the heart of Goldenrod City: the shopping and fun capital of Johto and Kanto. Ash arrived ready to go and Misty, May, Dawn and Brock had all gotten their things together for the day.
"This is going to be so much fun!" Dawn cried, "I've never been to Johto before, let alone Goldenrod City!"
"I only got to pass through it in my time in Johto, but it looked like a blast!" May said, gleaming with anticipation, "There's so much shopping to be done!" She and Dawn grabbed hands and jumped for joy.
"Not to mention all the beautiful girls!" Brock began daydreaming, "There will be so many beautiful women just waiting for a young and handsome man like myself to ride by and sweep them off of their feet! Oh man, I won't be able to pick just one! But there's plenty of love in my heart to go around-GAH!" Ow ow ow!"
Misty instinctively pulled Brock out of the room by the ear, "There's plenty of air in your head to go around, too."
"Well I'm going to go straight to the trainer store!" Ash grinned with joy. "Maybe they've got some new and fancy pokeball for me to try out! Or maybe they've got videos of me in the Silver Conference! Or the Lily of the Valley Conference!"
"I bet you I can find one of those 'Pokemon Personality' books," Misty said, "It's so exciting to find out what kind of pokemon personality you have!" As they continued to pack, they all dreamt of the exciting times they would have in Goldenrod City. That was, until Delia spoke up.
"Hey Tracey…is that what you're wearing today?" She noticed that he hadn't changed since breakfast.
"Wait, what? Oh no, I'm not going!" Tracey waved his hands back and forth defensively. "I've got way too many things to do here, there's no way I could take the day off."
"But I bought you your ticket!" Delia cried, frustrated. "Ohhh, now what are we supposed to do?"
Professor Oak emerged from another room in the lab. "I'm sorry Delia, but I really could use Tracey's help around here. We were planning on excavating the land around the pond and expanding the waters for the water pokemon."
"I understand Professor, but that means I bought an extra ticket for nothing…" Delia frowned.
"Don't worry, mom. Maybe we can exchange it at the train station!" Ash gave his mom a thumbs up in hopes of cheering her up.
"I wish. Read the ticket." Ash held his ticket in front of him and read aloud.
"Mmm…Saffron…Goldenrod…Oh, non-refundable. Dang. That stinks…" Ash frowned as well and the group remained silent for a moment.
May suddenly screamed and the group turned to see what was wrong. Deja vu set in as they sew her lift off of the ground and wiggle in place. This time, however, she hovered toward the door.
"What the…eh, hey!" Ash yelled as he made a run for May. He was too late as the door swung open and she floated outside. The group all followed after her, hoping to reach her before anything happened. Outside May was floating along even faster now, only a few feet off of the ground.
"Waaahh! Not again!" After a few moments, she felt herself falling toward the ground and braced for the impact. Instead she felt herself crash into someone, sending both of them backward into the ground. She shook the impact off and looked to see Mason lying next to her, panting heavily with Noone by his side.
"Sorry…about…that…" Mason sighed between gasps.
"What's going on!" Ash yelled as he made his way down the hill next to May. "Hey, what's the big idea!"
"I'm fine Ash, don't worry" May said as she stood up and brushed herself off. "The ground around here is softer than usual," she said as she looked down to where Mason was still laying. "Lucky me, huh?"
"I don't think luck had anything to do with it," Mason said, his arm still over his eyes as he panted heavily. Suddenly Poof appeared in front of May, smiling as big as he could. May jumped back, startled for a second, but relaxed when he moved closer to hug her. He started glowing red as Mason recalled him into his pokeball, the backpack dropping to the ground once again.
"I really am very, truly sorry about that," Mason grunted as he stood up, "he obviously wasn't ready to leave without saying goodbye. I made the mistake of taking my eye off of my pack for a second and he was off." As he spoke, Misty's azurill came racing past Ash and May and jumped into Mason's arms. He gave it another tug on the ear and it cried out in happiness, kicking its leg.
"Don't worry about it," May said, "I'm pretty sure you took the brunt of the fall anyway."
"I'll have to thank him for that later," Mason said with a smile. He continued to pat Azurill's head as Pikachu climbed off of Ash's shoulder and joined Azurill with Mason. Everyone laughed as Mason struggled to hold the two pokemon for a few moments.
"You know, the pokemon all seem to really like you, and Poof obviously likes May," Brock began, "you wouldn't happen to be busy today and tomorrow, would you?" Everyone turned to Brock, confused as to what he might be getting at.
"Aside from the normal schedule of just walking to wherever the trail leads, no. Why?" As Mason spoke Azurill hopped down and ran back Misty, Pikachu following shortly after.
"We happen to have an extra ticket for the magnet train," everyone's faces lit up as they realized what Brock had planned, "and it also happens to be non-refundable. If you haven't got anything planned, why not join us? It's going to be a blast!"
"Sounds like fun, lemme just check with the boss lady." Mason looked down to Noone, who looked back with a gleaming smile and a nod. "I guess Noone doesn't want to go, so we won't be going with you." Noone let out a low growl and rammed into Mason's leg, sending him stumbling a few steps. "Okay! I was just kidding! We're in."
The group all jumped for joy, celebrating as they returned to the lab. Mason got changed into some more comfortable clothes and met up with everyone in the kitchen where Delia was going through a quick checklist to make sure everything was set.
"Come on Mom! We're ready, I promise! Can we just go?" Ash whined, growing impatient.
"There! All set!" Delia chirped as she put her checklist into her purse and opened the door, "Time to go! Everyone load up into the van!" The group all ran out of the lab, yelling their goodbyes to Tracey and Professor Oak as they went. They piled into the van, ready and eager for the trip to Goldenrod. As soon as they were all strapped in, the van sped off on the road to Saffron.
Somewhere far off on a small island lay the rubble of a once-operational flying fortress. The remnants were those of the Flying Palace, owned and operated by Pokemon Collector Lawrence III, who was obsessed with capturing Lugia and the legendary trio of birds to add to his collection.
Having lain on such a small and desolate island, the remains of this giant machine had been undisturbed for years. A man now stood amongst the scattered and broken pieces, holding a picture and digging through the rubble. For a moment, it seemed as though he was ready to give up, until he spotted an object in the distance. He made a run for it, scattering torn and smashed garbage as he went. He cleared as much trash off of the object as he could and examined it. It wasn't not operational, but in tact. He grinned as he pulled out a PokeGear and makes a call.
"Sir, I've found it…Yes sir, of course…It won't run right now, but it's fully intact and…Understood. Immediately." The man put the PokeGear away and pulled out a remote control, pressing one of the buttons. A submarine appeared near the coast and a crew of men rushed to the scene. "Pack it up. Be careful, it needs to remain intact."
The man walked off, at first chuckling, and then burst into maniacal laughter.