Hello, and welcome to my new story, Something More?: A Pokemon Story.
Something More?: A Pokemon Story
Episode 1: Surprise!
It's a quiet and cool morning in Pallet Town. It's the middle of spring, and a certain person is watering flowers currently. That person is Delia Ketchum and Mimey.
"These flowers will look awesome in a couple of months, right Mimey?"
"Mime!"
"Thanks! Oh, look at the time, its 9am, usually Ash is up already. I'll go check on him. Mimey, can you continue watering the flowers?"
"Mime Mime!"
Delia goes inside to check on Ash, who is in his room awake, but on his computer.
"Ash, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, why?"
"It's just you're usually full of energy and kind of loud. What's going on?"
"Nothing much, just watching YouTube."
"Okay, just checking. Also, something came in the mail for you."
"What for?"
"Looks like a letter from someone. I have no idea what's in it. Anyway, here you go."
"Thank you, let's see what's in it."
Ash opens the letter and the letter reads:
Ash, meet me at Professor Oak's laboratory at 10:30am. Thanks -S.
"Huh, who is S?"
"I don't know mom, but the letter is addressed directly to me, so I should get ready and head over there."
"Okay Ash, love you."
"Love you too, Mom."
Ash heads out to Professor Oak's lab about 45 minutes early, arriving there about 10am.
Author note: In every episode, I will put a song of the day. I am a fan of rock music, with a little bit of country music mixed in. The songs will mostly be unrelated to the episode, but if it's warranted, I'll put one that is related.
Song of the day: Paradise City- Guns N' Roses (1989)
"Professor Oak, Tracey, where are you guys?"
All of a sudden, Ash rears a thundering herd, a sound he is all too familiar with.
"Well, I guess the Tauros are happy to see me."
The herd of Tauros slam into Ash, sending him flying, with Ash landing next to Professor Oak.
"Ugh, you guys knew they were coming didn't you."
"Yes we did, my boy. How have you been."
"Well, besides the Tauros slamming into me, I'm doing fine. How about you, Professor?"
"I'm doing fine, although you're here early. Stark contrast than when I first met you, huh?"
"Yeah, don't remind me. In the meantime, where can I find Tracey?"
"He's inside doing some minor research. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you had a quick chat."
"Okay, thanks Professor."
Ash goes and finds Tracey, who instead of doing research, is passed out on his desk.
"Tracey, Tracey wake up."
"Mhm, I'm not hungry right now, honey. I'll eat later." (in his sleep)
"Damn, he must really be tired. I'll try again, Tracey."
"Ugh, what's going on? Oh, Ash, hello."
"Sorry I woke you up. Research taking a toll or just tired?"
"It's fine, and I'm just tired. Played with the Pokemon all night. How have you been?"
"Alright, although the Tauros gave me that one greeting."
"Well, they're happy to see you. Anyway, how come you're here?"
"I got a letter from someone named S saying to be here at 10:30am. Figure be here in case its urgent."
"Not a bad idea, but its almost 10:30am, so let me take you where the person will be."
"Okay, thank you. Although I got a question, well two actually."
"What's up?"
"Number one, is it somebody I know?"
"Fairly well. What's the other question?"
"What were you dreaming about?"
"Umm, let's not talk about it."
"Okay. Noted."
Ash and Tracey arrive in a small room, and Ash has a deja vu moment.
"Wait a minute, last time this happened, Dawn came out and surprised me? Tracey, what's going on? Is Dawn here?"
"No, she's not here, someone else is. Turn around."
"Okay, let's see who it is. No way!"
"Hi Ash, been a while."
"Serena, what are you doing here?"
"Been wanting to see you. How have you been?"
"I've been fine, I'm even better now!"
"Okay, Ash, Serena, I'll leave you two alone. See you."
"See you later."
"Ash, we need to talk."
"I didn't do anything wrong."
Ash and Serena get to talking.
"So, what do you want to talk about, Serena."
"About you and me."
"Okay. What's up."
"I'm thinking of going around Kanto to participate in the contests here, and I thought that since you live in Kanto, you could, you know…"
"You know…what?"
"You could come with me. What do you say?"
"Do I even need to answer that, Serena? You know what my answer is. Of course I will."
"Awesome. Just what I needed to hear."
"Glad to hear it, Serena. In the meantime, wanna take a walk?"
"Sure, why not."
Ash and Serena take a walk around Pallet Town throughout the day, arriving at the house around 6pm.
"Mom, I'm home, and I brought a guest with me."
"Okay, be there in a minute."
"Delia, it's me!"
"Wait, I know that voice..Serena, is that you?"
"In the flesh, how have you been?"
"Been great, how about you?"
"Been always. I almost became Kalos Queen, travelled around Hoenn, Sinnoh, and about to go around Kanto. I asked Ash if he wanted to go along and he said that he would."
"I'm not surprised he would say that. Let me go make dinner."
"Oh, let me help you."
"Be my guest, Serena."
All of a sudden, Pikachu comes downstairs from the familiar voice and jumps in Serena's arms.
"Ah, Pikachu, how have you been?"
"Pika!"
"That's great to hear. I'm going to help Ash's mom. In the meantime, go play with Ash, and Ash, invite your other Pokemon. I want to see them."
"Yes, ma'am", jokingly.
To himself: "If Serena wants to see my other Pokemon, she's in for a surprise."
About 45 minutes later, Ash returns with literally all of his Pokemon on hand.
"Hey Serena, you want to see my other Pokemon real quick before we eat?"
"Sure, be right back Delia."
"Now, before I show you, how many Pokemon do you think I have?"
"I don't know, about 25, 30?"
"Try about 80."
"WHAT?"
"Everyone come out!"
Quite literally every single one of his Pokemon comes out and says hello. The thing that stands out is obviously the 30+ Tauros, which shocks her.
"Wait, how did you get more than 30 Tauros?"
"There is a Safari Zone here in Kanto, and me and a couple of other people I was travelling with caught 30+ Tauros all together. The dude who ran the place was a total prick."
"Why?"
"He had a certain "method" of persuasion to scare us."
"Should I ask?"
"You probably shouldn't."
"Okay, I won't ask."
Muk comes over and makes Ash fall to the ground.
"Muk!"
"Ah, Muk, nice to see you too."
"Um, Ash, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Okay, let's go eat."
Ash, Delia, Serena, Professor Oak and Tracey, the latter two of which Delia personally invited, eat dinner. They soon get to talking.
"So, Serena, how's Grace doing? Is she still up to her Rhyhorn racing?"
"She's fine, but she's mostly retired from Rhyhorn racing. She said that she accomplished a lot and that there wasn't much left to do."
"That's good to hear, although I was going to ask her for some tips on Rhyhorn racing. I was going to learn it."
"And then give it up after a week, right mom?"
"Well..no. I was going to…give it a try."
"And then say it's too hard, too tiring. I know you too well."
"Damn, he's good."
Everyone laughs at the mom-son banter.
"How's Misty doing Tracey?"
"She's fine. She still deals with the three sisters who think that handing out badges for fun is the way to run a gym."
"Not surprising at all. So Serena, you said you participated in Hoenn and Sinnoh, right?"
"Yeah, I did."
"Was there anybody I know that you ran into?"
"Oh yeah, plenty of people. Drew, May, Dawn, a whole bunch of people. All three of them gave me some sound advice about contests, and they even recommended to do the contests here in Kanto."
"That's nice to hear. How are they?"
"Drew was okay, although he has a major ego, but won the Johto Grand Festival. May is at the top of the world right now. She was runner-up in the Johto Grand Festival, won the Hoenn Grand Festival her second time around, and then was third in the Sinnoh Grand Festival. Dawn won the Sinnoh Grand Festival and nearly won the Hoenn Grand Festival, but May got the best of her."
"May vs. Dawn in the Hoenn Grand Festival. That must've been a great show."
"It was. I lost to May in the semi-finals, but she's good and told me to not get down on myself."
"Awesome. How do you think you're doing in Contests?"
"Alright, considering I was in the semi-finals in the Hoenn Grand Festival, I'd say I doing great. I wonder what Kanto has in store for me."
"When I travelled with May, she tried the Kanto Contests and they're a whole new breed on the Contest Stage."
"Oh, fun, more people to worry about."
"I mean, they're not that bad, they're just tougher than Hoenn and Sinnoh. Don't worry about it."
"Alright, not to rain on anybody's parade, but its getting late. We should all head to bed."
Everyone agrees, and goes to bed. Later that night, Ash is out like a light. However, Serena still wants to talk.
"Hey Ash, you still up?"
"Mm, what's going on, you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, just want to talk."
"Alright, hold on."
For context, Serena was sleeping down the hall in the corridor.
"I just want to spend more time you, that's it."
"Oh, I'm that magnetizing, am I?"
"I mean…"
"Anyway, what did you want to talk about?"
"How I missed being with you all the time."
"It has been 7 years since we split ways, so understandable."
"True. But, I truly did miss being with you. I missed all of the laughs and banter that you would always start. I really missed you, Ash."
"I did as well, I must admit. I got older and realized that the "incident" at the airport was your affection coming out. You love me, don't you?"
"Damn it, you took the words out of my mouth. Yeah, I do."
"Love you too, Serena."
Ash and Serena share a quick kiss.
"Wow, Ash, you're not dense as a rock anymore."
"Like I said, I've grown."
"True, let's get some rest."
That's the end of Episode 1. The second episode will be out shortly.