"Hello?"

"Professor Ivy, it's Ash Ketchum. We met a few years ago, when I was traveling around the Orange Islands?"

"Ah, yes I remember you! How could I forget the only trainer who's beaten Drake in an official battle?"

Ash blinked as he looked at the woman on the video call. While he hadn't seen her in a few years, the professor looked almost exactly like he remembered her, barring some dark bags under her eyes. This information threw him though, since he was sure that someone would have taken Drake's throne by then, since they had battled over five years ago.

"Really? No one has beaten Drake since then? I mean, he was strong, but…"

"Drake has gotten considerably more powerful since you last fought, although it does help that the Orange Islands don't tend to have very many battling visitors, since Alola is considered to be a much more accessible tourist destination. When I spoke to Drake recently though, he mentioned that he wanted another battle with you, since he wanted to see how much you've grown since then! But I doubt you called to inquire about that, and while it is good to hear from you, I do have some things I need to take care of today."

"Of course! I actually called to ask about a lapras that I used to own. I wanted to see him, since he mostly wanted to stay with his pod to protect them, but I realized that I had no idea where I would find him. Professor Oak suggested that I call you, since you might be more aware of that pod's migration patterns."

"Sure, I'd be happy to help with that, although I may need to give you a call on a different day so I can look into that in more detail, since I don't have the information readily prepared. Variants in lapras are quite hard to study, since they spend all their time migrating, so they aren't a major focus of my research. Why don't I spend a bit of time looking into this for you, and then I'll call Oak's lab and give him the information. The only thing that I ask for repayment is for you to give Drake a call sometime soon. Then maybe he'll stop bugging me about wanting someone new to battle."

"That sounds great! I'm always up for battling! And thank you so much for your help with lapras. Even if you could just give me a general area that would be very helpful."

With this, Ash made some short goodbyes to the professor, and hung up. Looking down at Pikachu, who was on his lap and appeared to be quite bored, he motioned towards the door. "Go on buddy, I still have five more of these to go, and none of them are going to be very interesting." The mouse didn't take long to respond to this, bounding off of Ash's lap and going outside.

Amused by how quickly his partner fled, Ash picked up the phone and dialed Anthony's number, which he had to look through his first pokedex to find, since he had never bothered transferring the information.

"Hello? Oh Ash! Didn't expect to hear from you today. How are ya?"

"I'm doing great Anthony, how are you and Primeape?"

"We're doing fantastic! Although I don't know how much more I can teach Primeape, he's won the P1 title four years in a row now, and seems to be getting a bit bored. Why don't I go get him and then you can talk to him yourself." Anthony stepped away from the phone for a minute, and when he reappeared, it was only in the background, as the screen was filled by a furry pig-monkey.

"Ape! Primeee!" Primeape screeched as it started to bang on the screen, only to stop as Ash held up his hands and Anthony grabbed the pokemon's arm.

"Primeape! I'm not in the screen, remember? It's just a moving picture." Luckily, the pokemon did seem to remember this after a minute, and calmed down slightly, only occasionally banging on the screen. "Anthony says that you've been doing a great job at the Grand Prix, but you've been getting a little bored recently. I was wondering if you would want to come and train with me again?"

This seemed to get the pokemon excited once more, and Primeape screeched before banging his fists into the ground and jumping at Anthony. Quickly, the fighting-type turned back towards the image of Ash and nodded his head in fast succession.

"Well Ash," Anthony laughed from behind Primeape, "I'd say that's a yes. I don't have his pokeball though, so you'll have to swing by here and get him. You remember where the place is, right?"

"Yep! I'll be there in a few days or sooner. Primeape buddy, I'll see you soon, okay?" Primeape screeched at this, before turning and nailing Anthony in the gut, causing Ash to wince in sympathy and quickly hang up the phone. 'At least there hadn't been any surprises so far,' Ash thought, before once more picking up the phone to call the officer Jenny who watched over the squirtle squad.

"Jenny? It's Ash, sorry I haven't called in a couple years, but I wanted to check on how Squir-no, Wartortle was doing."

"Well hello Ash, good to hear from you. Wartortle has actually evolved into a Blastoise now! While this would be good normally, it does mean he's a lot slower and can't get to any fires as quick, so he's been feeling a little off. I'm glad you called actually, maybe you can ask him what he wants to do now, since I'm not sure the rest of the squirtle squad need him as a leader as much." Jenny turned and yelled out into the police station, "Blastoise, get in here! Ash is on the line."

Ash watched in amazement as a massive blastoise lumbered up to the screen, although he was sure it was his old squirtle from the triangular glasses adorning the pokemon's face. "Buddy, you evolved! That's awesome!"

Hearing Ash's voice, the pokemon whipped off his sunglasses and gave a toothy smile. "Toise, blastoise!" Here the turtle began to pose his arms as though flexing, and fully extended his cannons, showing that they were quite a bit longer than they originally appeared. But here the pokemon paused, rubbing his chest self-consciously. Looking down, he mumbled "blas-las, toise."

"I bet you're even stronger than before! But Jenny did mention that you didn't feel like the squirtle squad needed you around as much? Guess even they could grow up after years. Well if you don't feel like you want to keep fighting fire, would you want to come back with me?" Ash asked this hopefully, knowing that the last couple of times he had talked to his pokemon about this, he had wanted to stay with his old friends. This time however, his words seemed to get through to his pokemon, and the water-type grinned, while giving Ash a claws-up.

"Great! I know that I still have your old pokeball around here somewhere, and I'm in Kanto right now so I can come by and get you in person. It'll probably be a few days, but I'll see you really soon buddy! Bye Jenny, I'll see you soon enough."

"Thanks for calling Ash, I look forward to it."

Hanging up the phone, Ash sat quietly for a minute, not entirely expecting the result he had just received. He had expected Blastoise to want to stay with his friends, and definitely wasn't expecting him to have evolved again, although he was quite pleased that the pokemon wanted to come with him once more.

Dialing the number for the Saffron gym, Ash thanked his lucky stars that having Liza send Charizard back to Pallet was a quick request, as he could already feel the headache that the next conversation was going to give him.

"Ash Ketchum."

"Sabrina, I, uh, didn't expect you to pick up the phone."

"I knew you would soon contact me, although I did not know in what method until just now. You are calling to inquire about Haunter."

"Um, yes, I am."

"You will come and see him and me. We have things to discuss, as much has occurred since we last spoke. I expect you here in no more than a week." Sabrina abruptly hung up the phone, leaving Ash stunned for a moment, before he slapped his hands to his head and groaned.

"Ugh. I should have guessed how that was going to go. And what do I have to discuss with Sabrina? I haven't talked to her since the first time I visited Kanto, and I was just a kid then. Well, whatever. I need to call Keanan before it gets too late in Kalos." Nodding to himself, Ash picked up the phone one final time, and dialed in the one number that he had remembered to put in his newest pokedex.

"Oh Ash! Good, hadn't heard from ya in a little while, figured you'd check in soon."

"Hey Keanan, how's Goodra doing? And the swamp of course?"

"Your Goodra's gettin' mighty powerful powerful from defendin' the swamp, and seems to be gettin' strong in other ways from fightin' that Florges that live here now. Swamp's doin good now that he be around, although he lookin' lonely sometimes too. Ain't much around here like him."

"Well then could I speak to Goodra if he's around, Keanan? No offense, but I would like to hear from him too."

"Yea, I'll go find him. Be back soon." Ash noticed that as Keanan walked out of the small cabin, he hadn't remembered to turn off the phone, and even left the door slightly ajar. Humming to himself, Ash busied himself by taking out his pokedex and flipping through moves that a Blastoise or Primeape could learn, since it had been many years since he'd trained either of his old pokemon. Although, he didn't know what moves the two of them knew, so he'd have to check before teaching them anything new. Hearing a noise from the phone, Ash looked up, assuming that Keanan had returned. In actuality though, someone else had entered the cabin, and looked quite pleased to see Ash.

"Ninja. Gren." Somehow, maybe through his connection with Ash, Greninja had sensed that he might be able to talk to his trainer, and found the quickest way to do so.

"Greninja! I didn't expect to see you. How'd you know I was talking to Keanan?" This proved to be the correct question to ask at the moment, as Keanan pushed the door of his cabin open and stepped inside, followed by a massive, dripping dragon. The dragon smiled as they saw Greninja. Greninja gave Goodra a nod, and then looked back and Ash and pointed at the dragon-type.

"So you asked Goodra? I guess that means that you're about done with your work in Kalos then?" Seeing his pokemon nod, Ash gave a short laugh before looking towards Keanan, who seemed a tad confused with the whole situation. "Sorry Keanan, Greninja is mine too. Didn't expect him to show up, but I guess he's been talking with Goodra."

"Alright there, then it's fine by me. Just were a bit confused that it shown on up here when I weren't even gone that long." Here the ranger let out an annoyed huff at Goodra, who had picked him up in their massive arms and was currently hugging him. "Hey slime-ball, I ain't your trainer, he's in there!"

Goodra looked over at Ash's face displayed on the screen and let out a happy cry, before unceremoniously dropping Keanan on his butt and slopping over to where they thought Ash was. However, they did see a tad confused when they couldn't actually touch Ash. "Goodra! Goo?"

"Goodra, I'm not actually there, I'm back in Kanto. I wanted to see you and see how you had been doing on your own. Are you doing okay in the swamp." A happy trill came from the slug-like pokemon as they shook their massive head up and down, flinging slime and swamp water everywhere. Ash winced in sympathy for the amount of work that Keanan was going to have to do to put his cabin back in order.

"Are you getting lonely though Goodra? I know that Greninja was going to come back soon, and I have some other old friends who are coming back too. If not that's okay, I just wanted to see how you were doing."

Goodra seemed to be in great thought here, or as much as the dragon could. After a couple minutes smiled and nodded again, looking at Ash with another great smile.

"Awesome! But uh, could I talk to Keanan again?" Seeing Goodra move to pick up the ranger, Ash started, "Goodra, it's okay, Keanan can probably get up on his own."

Probably slower than if Goodra had helped, Keanan made his way back to the phone. "Real strong pokemon ya got there Ash. So I take it ya want me to get these here pokemon to ya?"

"Yeah, that would be awesome. I still have their pokeballs though, so maybe if you get them to Professor Sycamore's lab in Lumiose then he could help?"

"Yea, I can do that. Gon' have to wait 'bout a week though. Just made my supply run and ain't got time for a little while. Then should be able to get them up there for ya."

"That would be totally fine, I'm just happy that you can help! It would certainly take them a lot longer to do so on their own. Greninja, Goodra, I'll see you both real soon okay?" With Greninja nodding at him and Goodra waving one of his massive arms, Ash smiled and hung up the phone.

Turning, Ash went to go find Professor Oak. Deciding to check his office first, Ash went deeper into the labs and was happy to find that he had been correct in his guess. In fact, the elderly professor had been snoozing behind his desk. Hearing his office door open though, he started and sat up, glasses askew.

"Oh Ash, back so soon?"

"Professor, I've been back for over an hour. Pidgeot decided to come back, and I've made all my phone calls. Actually, I do need your help with something. I'm going to be gone for a few days, maybe a week, while I'm picking up my pokemon who are scattered around Kanto. Charizard can fly, and is going to be coming from Johto soon, but Goodra and Greninja are in Kalos, and can't get back quite so easily. I still have the pokeballs that they're registered to, so I was wondering if there would be a way that you could help get them here from Professor Sycamore's lab?"

For anyone else, the speed at which Ash was speaking at would have been far too much to deal with upon just waking. Samuel Oak however, had been dealing with Ash since he was a young teen himself, and was very much used to the teen's energy. "Well Ash," he started, sitting up and stretching. "Normally you would be right, and you would have to go get the pokemon yourself. However, since you said that the pokemon would be getting to Sycamore's lab, that makes this much easier. If you give me Greninja and Goodra's pokeballs, then I should be able to talk with Augustine myself and get them back here. It may take a little finagling of the transport system, but certainly shouldn't be a problem for me."

"Thank you Professor! I think they should be there in about a week," Ash said while handing over the pokeballs to the professor, since he had gathered them before talking to the older man. "And I should hopefully be back in a week at the latest, since I'm going to be taking Pidgeot to ride on."

"Alright then Ash, make sure to tell your mother that you're leaving for a while, and more importantly, that you're coming back soon. Otherwise she might get worried and come bother me about it!" Oak let out a chuckle while saying this, although one tinged with worry.

"Don't worry Professor, I'm going to go get Pikachu and Pidgeot, and then go find her before I leave, since I want to get my friends back as soon as possible!" Ash waved goodbye to Oak, and walked out of the office and to the open air of the fields. Spotting Pidgeot sitting by the entrance with Bulbasaur and Pikachu, Ash walked towards the small group.

"Hey guys," Ash said as he plopped on the ground next to his pokemon, Pidgeot reaching over to preen his hair. "Pikachu, I think it's about time we go and get our old friends. Bulbasaur, I know we haven't been back long, but not to worry, we should be back in about a week. I can count on you to take care of things around here and let everyone know that we'll be back real soon right?"

Seeing his pokemon nod, Ash smiled. "Thanks, I knew you'd say yes but I didn't want to just spring it on you." Standing up and holding his arm out for Pikachu to jump on, Ash turned to Pidgeot. "Hey girl, are you ready to get going? We'll have to stop by mom's restaurant first but then we'll be heading east."

Pidgeot spread her wings and let out a cry, making Ash laugh as he climbed onto her back and carefully gripped some feathers on the back of her neck. Before kicking off however, he turned back towards Bulbasaur.

"Oh and Bulbasaur, Charizard will probably beat us back, so you're in charge of him!" Ash quickly tugged on Pidgeot, causing her to take off just as Bulbasaur whipped his vines towards where Ash was just a second prior. Laughing as Pidgeot took to the skies, Ash smiled. Now that he was going to get his old pokemon, he was sure that everything could only go smoothly from here on out.

A/N: Got another chapter for y'all! I don't have a backlog for this story, so these chapters are simply coming out when I write them, which means they're coming as the mood strikes me. Let me know what you think, and thanks for reading!