I really wanted to wait until I had written chapter 8 before I posted this story, but I decided that I wanted to at least get the first chapter up before it became too inconsistent with the show. So for those of you who have been desperately anticipating it, I give you Ash: The Last Stand.

Some things you should know:
For those that were enticed by my blatant plagerism of the Mastercard ads, I better tell you what this story is really about.  It's my take on Ash's final journey, returning to where it all began - Kanto.  There's very little more I can say than that.  Expect to see old friends, new gyms and various other aspects.  It is a culmination of many aspects I feel would need to be resolved in order for Pokemon to move on without Ash.  And of course there will be Pokshipping and varoius other ships that I come across along the way (probably mostly Manga and Oak).
Character ages (for this chapter at least).
Ash: 16
Misty: 17 (almost 18 - statutory rape much Misty?)
Brock: 19.5
Dawn: 11

And so . . .

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokemon and to be honest, the idea isn't even that original, but I at least hope I have a refreshing take on it.

 Ash: The Last Stand – All Things Must Come to an End

Ash sighed as he turned in his bed, trying to avoid the bright morning rays that creaked through his window.  He had been back in Pallet for a week now after placing 4th in the Sinnoh League, and he was bored.  Bored.  Bored.  BORED.

There was never anything exciting in Pallet, he knew that, but he just didn't know where else to go or what else to do.  There was Orre perhaps, but it was so far away.  Every time he left for another region, he felt the tug of home trying to make him stay, only this time it wasn't just a tug, it was almost like full on restraints.

'Maybe I could go visit Misty,' he wondered to himself, the thought of restraints bringing the redhead and her mallet to mind (in a non-dirty way).  Today was after all, a very special day for the two of them.

Today was his 16th birthday.  It was officially six years since he began his Pokémon journey with his Pokémon buddy Pikachu.  It was six year since the two of them had been chased by a gang of fierce spearrow and jumped into a waterfall to escape them.  Six years since Misty had fished him out of the river and vowed never to leave his side until he returned her bike.

'Liar,' he thought sourly to himself, but he didn't really mean it.  He knew she had her responsibilities and as much as he wanted her with him (especially if he eventually planned to travel as far away as Orre) he knew that he couldn't take her away from those.  If the gym were taken away because her sisters were unable to cope without her presence, Ash knew he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

Although, knowing Misty, she'd probably make some vow about never leaving him until he had returned her gym to a place of honour and Ash would do everything in his power to smutty it's name.  It seemed an almost perfect plan, but he suspected that he might need Pikachu's help to work out the finer details and the electric loving mouse would surely not approve.

He heard a soft knock on his door, and the voice of his mother, alerting him that she wanted him up.

'Whatever for?' he sighed to himself, 'just another boring day in Pallet.'

"C'mon Ash," he heard Brock call, an unmistakable edge of mirth in his voice.  "We've got a surprise waiting for you in the kitchen"

"Surprise?" Ash asked, sitting up in his bed.  He could certainly get up for a surprise.  Surprises weren't boring, in fact, they were the opposite of boring.  And all the best surprises always happened in kitchens.  Maybe Brock and his mum had made him some sort of enormous chocolate fudge filled cake with a mousse centre – the cake of his dreams which he had described to the pair on enough occasions for them to know exactly what it consisted of.

Without thinking, Ash jumped out of bed and raced to the kitchen, his mouth watering at the thought of his dream cake sitting there waiting for him.  But alas there was no cake, only friends waiting in the kitchen to wish him a happy birthday.

The two girls, who had been chatting away happily in the kitchen, turned their heads at the sound of his entrance.  Dawn, the younger of the two, covered her eyes and screamed 'unclean' as she ran out of the kitchen.

The other just sat there smirking at him.  Ash's jaw dropped.  He couldn't believe what he was seeing.  He wondered briefly if he was still sleeping and this was all some happy dream, but then she spoke and he knew it was no illusion.

"I didn't realize they even made those in your size," she scoffed, her blue-green eyes lighting with amusement as they took him in from head to toe.

Ash looked down and blushed as he realized what she was referring to.  In his haste to get his jaws around his dream cake, he had forgotten to dress and now stood before her attired in nothing more than his Pikachu covered boxer shorts.

"They don't," Ash replied, blushing as he tried to glare at the girl before him who just smiled at his uncomfortableness, looking perfectly at ease in the situation herself.  "Mum makes them specially."

She laughed, pushing herself gracefully out of her chair in a fluid movement.  His eyes followed her every move – he couldn't help it.  She was wearing a DRESS!  He couldn't even remember the last time he had seen her in a dress, especially a dress like that!  It was sort of short (well knee-length is short), and sort of tight (especially around the chest area) and sort of low cut (mildly so), and even though she wore it with chucks and a waistcoat, she looked undeniably feminine.

'Shit! Misty's a girl!' he thought to himself.  'A hot girl!'

He tried to force such thoughts of his best friend out of his head.  In fact it wasn't the first time that such thoughts had occurred to him, although they usually came in the privacy of his own room and not usually with such force and conviction as the real thing standing before him.  He desperately tried to think of really, really gross things, like Brock in a bikini.  That seemed to work.

Before Ash knew it, Misty was standing right in front of him, her lips quirked in a small shy smile.  And then without warning, her arms were around him and Ash was forced to desperately turn his thoughts to the bikini clad Brock in order to stop himself from melting at her touch.

"Happy birthday Ash," she said quietly, close to his ear before pulling back.

Ash smiled at her, hoping that the look on his face wasn't as goofy as he felt.  Misty's hug had left him feeling all warm and tingly in a very nice way.  He wondered what he had to do in order to get another one.

"Thanks Myst," he told her with a smile.  "I guess today's a pretty special day for us too, eh?" he asked, looking at her hopefully.  He hoped she understood his meaning.

Her eyes seemed to glisten a little, and she returned his smile.  "Of course," she told him.  "It's the day that you, me and Pikachu first met. 

"How could I forget?" she added, her eyes narrowing for a moment.  "You STILL owe me a BIKE."

She was in fighting stance now, and Ash certainly wasn't backing down from this one.  He hadn't had a good fight with Misty in ages, and it was always good to get him the mood for adventure.  If there was just one thing you could say about Misty, it was that things were never boring when she was around.

"If you didn't want it destroyed you should have said that before I took it from you," he retorted.  He had almost mastered the art of an argument over the years.  He could keep his own with Misty, and that was what mattered.  It hardly mattered anymore who won.

"It was IMPLIED," she muttered, raising her voice.  "If I had known that was your intention all along, I would have let you drown in that river."

"Like you had a choice," he replied.  "I don't know why you're so mad, you're the one who broke their promise."

Misty stopped, surprised by his words.  She stepped out of her fighting stance, and looked at him in confusion, her head tilted cutely to the side.  "What promise?" she asked.

"I . . . uh . . . um," he stuttered, unsure what to say.  He hadn't meant to let that one slip.  She wasn't supposed to know that he thought like that.

"Ash, is this about the gym?" she asked, her eyes widening a little as she saw the scared look come onto his face.  "Do you resent me for leaving you in Hoenn?"

"What? Of course not Misty," he replied, taking a step closer to her as he noted the look of sadness in her eyes.  "I just, wish you hadn't sometimes, ok?"

This seemed to be the right thing to see, and Misty's mood immediately brightened.  She smiled at him wholly and gave him a quick hug to show her appreciation.  "Go get changed," she told him.  "We've got to go see Professor Oak."

"Dawn you can come out now," he heard her call as he headed back upstairs towards his room.

Brock sniggered as Ash walked past him.  "Why do I think you planned it like that?" Ash asked the older boy, glaring slightly.

Brock just laughed more openly.  "Well it wasn't my intention for Dawn to be in for an eyeful, but yeah, pretty much," he joked, turning back to his breeder magazine before Ash could say anything else.

Twenty minutes later they were on the one road in Pallet Town, heading towards Professor Oak's lab.  The two girls walked in front, with Dawn showing off her pinplup to Misty who seemed very interested to her credit.  The boys walked behind them, with Ash discretely considering the length and shape of Misty's legs and trying to figure out what it was about them that seemed to fascinate him so.

It was something about Misty's legs in particular.  He'd seen other legs before, and they had never interested him to the extent that Misty's seemed to.  Dawn and May both had legs that didn't seem the least bit intriguing, but something about Misty always had.

He wondered if it was perhaps the length, as Misty seemed to have exceptionally long legs, which accounted for most of her height.  They were almost the same height now, he and Misty, and while he was pretty sure Misty was almost through growing, Ash had five good years of growth spurts left in him. 

Moving along, he thought maybe it was their particular shape.  Misty had very toned legs, he decided from his careful observation.  He could almost see the muscles working as she moved.  He guessed that it was all the time she spent around water because he could see it in her arms as well and suspected that all the muscles in her body had been honed to such an extent.

Finally he thought maybe it was her colouring.   Misty had this lovely creamy peach sort of complexion; where as a lot of the other girls he knew were sort of tan like him.  Misty was sort of, milky and soft looking, if it made sense to describe such a girl as Misty as milky or soft.

"Finally," Brock chuckled beside Ash, making the younger boy blush lightly.

"Finally what?" Ash asked quietly, not quite understanding but sure that Brock had just caught him staring at Misty.

Brock laughed again.  "You finally discovering girls," Brock replied in a low whisper.  "Well, more like girl," he added, taking on an expression of mock thought.

"I was just thinking about something," Ash tired to argue back, even though it didn't really justify his actions in any way.  Misty's legs left very few brain cells to spare in formulating a good argument.  "Like why are we going to see Oak again?" he asked.

"Misty's idea," Brock replied and Ash furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.  "You'll have to ask her," Brock added, "if you can tear yourself away from her arse long enough to talk to her face to face."

"I wasn't staring at her arse," Ash hissed lowly, glancing at Misty in the hopes that she wouldn't hear.

"Sure," Brock drawled, rolling his eyes.  "If it wasn't her arse, then please do tell what it was about Miss. Waterflower that suddenly had you so fascinated."

"Keep your voice down, she'll hear you," Ash hissed again, breathing a sigh of relief once he was sure Misty was oblivious to the perverted conversation they were having behind her about her behind.  "If you must know, it was her legs."

"Ahh, so you're a leg man," Brock said sagely.  "No wonder May didn't appeal to you," he added jokingly.

"Why would May appeal to me?" Ash asked looking confused.

"Never mind," Brock said, shaking his head.  "I'm a tits and arse kind of man myself," he said.  "Never really got legs, but to each his own."

"I'm not a 'leg man'," Ash replied.  "I'm not even sure what that means.  It's just . . . Misty's legs.  They're . . . interesting," he finished lamely, a fresh blush crawling up his cheeks.

Brock laughed.  "So you're not a 'leg man', you're just a 'Misty man'," Brock conceded, "and Misty just happens to have a nice set of pins."  Brock wiggled his eyebrows at this, which somehow quelled the urge in Ash to punch Brock in the face.  The way he said it seemed to indicate that Brock wasn't thinking about Misty like that, and the only person that Ash needed to injure for having improper thoughts was himself.

"It's ok Ash," Brock said, becoming serious as they neared the labs.  "I won't tell anyone.  Well, except for Tracey but you know I've gotta tell Tracey.  He's been waiting for this moment even longer than I have."

Ash was about to reply, but it was at this moment that Dawn and Misty turned around to face them.

"You two are being awfully quiet," Misty said, her eyes narrowing suspiciously.

Dawn nodded in confirmation, now holding Misty's baby azurill in her arms.  "I don't think I've ever seen them this quiet," Dawn said, mirroring Misty's suspicious glare with one of her own.  "Do you think they're planning something?" she asked, turning to Misty with a somewhat worried expression.

Misty shook her head.  "If it was just Ash I'd say yes.  But Brock knows better than to mess with my mallet and even Ash couldn't convince him to think otherwise.

"C'mon," she said, linking her arms through Ash's and pulling him forward.  "We're almost there.  Now's no time to stop."

"Not until you tell me why we're here," Ash said decidedly, digging in his heals.

"Pika," Pikachu chirped in, standing resolutely with his master.

"It's a surprise," Misty said simply.

"I think I've had enough surprises today," Ash replied, crossing his arms over his chest as Misty let go of his arm and put her hands determinedly on her tiny waist, making her figure stand out even more through the fabric.

"You saying I wasn't a good surprise?" she asked, a look of mock hurt crossing her features.

"You were the best surprise Misty," he replied without thinking, his voice turning low and sweet almost on its own accord.  "You were such a good surprise Misty that I won't need another 'til at least next year."

Misty seemed to soften at this, touched be his sweetness.  If it were anybody but Ash, she would have sworn the boy was flirting with her.  But she knew better.  Ash didn't think about things like that, and he probably didn't even realize what he was doing.  He was probably just playing on her nature to get his way.

She sighed.  It had worked.  "I know you were planning on going to Orre," she started, scowling slightly, "but I was talking to the Professor the other day and he was saying something about why you hadn't re-entered the Pokémon League already."

Ash nodded.  "It's because I still need to enter two more leagues," Ash explained to her.  "The Orange Islands isn't credited remember, so I've only earned four credits and I need two more before I can re-enter here in Kanto."

"Right," she agreed.  "That's what I told the Professor, but then he told me that the league had finally gone and recognised Orange Islands after Lorelei got on their case about it."

"But I'm still short one credit," Ash interjected, inwardly happy that he was one step closer to the one league that mattered most to him.

"If you would let me finish Ash," she said, making a face at him.  "Leagues aren't the only things that count as credits.  There's a test you can take, and if you score over 80% on it, it will count towards your league credits."

"You mean to say that you dragged me out of bed on my birthday to do a test?" Ash asked indignantly.  Misty was worried for a moment that he wasn't nearly as pleased about the turn of events as she was until a wide smile spread over his lips and he had his arms wrapped around her, picking her up off the ground in an exuberant hug.

"Thanks Myst," he cried happily.  "You've made this the best birthday ever."

And with that he dropped her down to the ground and raced ahead of them into Oak's labs.  It really was the best birthday ever.

Misty, Brock, Dawn and Pikachu sat on the grass outside the main lab, waiting while Ash took his test.  All three of them looked nervous for their friend, especially Pikachu, but none more than Misty.

Misty knew that Ash wasn't exactly book smart; heck you couldn't even call him street smart.  But the one thing she was sure he knew about was Pokémon and she knew that no amount of study would make any difference to the outcome of this test.

She hoped there was a section on Pokémon languages or Pokémon calls – she knew he could ace that without even thinking.  For some reason Ash seemed to excel with languages, even those of an entirely different species.  He always knew exactly what a Pokémon was trying to tell him even when their own masters were struggling to understand them.

"So," Brock said, drawing her away from her thoughts.  "Does this mean you'll be coming with us?" he asked hopefully.

Misty shook her head sadly as she absentmindedly ran her hand over Pikachu's fur.  "I've still got my responsibilities with the gym," she sighed sadly.  "But at least with you guys being in Kanto I can come see you more often.  It took me almost two weeks just to get to Sinnoh, and so by the time I got there, I was lucky if I could stay a day.  Daisy was not happy about being left with the gym for a month."

"True," Brock replied thoughtfully.  "We'll never really be more than a day away.  You could just close the gym for the weekend, seeing as it's slow then anyway, and catch up whenever you feel like it."

Misty nodded.  "And Orre would have been even further away," she complained.  "I doubt I would have ever gotten the chance to see you guys if you went to Orre.  There's no way I could convince my sisters to look after the gym for three months so I could visit for a day.  Heck, I wouldn't trust them not to run the thing to the ground in that time."

"It was very selfish of you," Brock said sternly, "but to be perfectly honest, I don't think any of us really wanted to go to Orre.  Even Ash."

"Why not?" Misty asked.

"It's like you said," Dawn said, entering the conversation.  "It's just too far away.  And it's a lot more rural.  It could be months between Pokémon Centre's there, and I'd never get to call my mum."

"And I think now is the perfect time in his life for Ash to give the Pokémon League another go," Brock added, a secret smile on his lips.  "I think he's been realizing a few things lately that are gonna give him that extra drive in the end.  Things that might have hampered him or been forgotten if he were in Orre."

Misty looked at him curiously, trying to understand the meaning hidden in his words, but before she had the chance to question him further a very pleased looking Ash ran out to meet them, holding a piece of paper in his hands.

"Check it out guys," Ash said, handing the piece of paper over to Misty.  "Full marks.  That means I've got my final credit and I can enter the Pokémon League.  Professor Oak is registering my pokedex as we speak.

"And you know what else," he added, smiling smugly at Misty.  "Because I did so well, I get to choose a starting level Pokémon to add to my team."

Misty rolled her eyes.  Something about the look Ash was giving her told her she wasn't going to like his choice.  "Well lets see it then," she commanded, looking bored.  'Please don't be a bug,' she begged silently.

"Well seeing as you asked so nicely Myst," he teased, throwing the ball into the air.  "I choose you, Scooby Doo!"

On command, Scooby Doo, a gaseous purple ball floated before them.

"A Gastly?" Dawn asked surprised by the choice.  "Oh I get it.  Scooby Doo! Of course."

"Since when did you name your Pokémon?" Misty asked, surprised for other reasons.

"Since I was trying to draw out the suspense," Ash replied, smiling at his new Pokémon.  "Guys this is Scooby," he said, indicating to his Pokémon.  "Scooby this is Pikachu, Misty, Brock and Dawn."

"Ga-Gastly," the gaseous purple ball replied happily.

"Wow, a ghost Pokémon," Brock said, an impressed look on his face.  "That was a really good choice.  It's going to come in really handy when we get to Saffron and you'll be able to train him against Noctowl in order to hone in his physical attacks."

"You know what they say about great minds, Brock-o," Ash laughed.  He watched Pikachu and Scooby who were now engaged in deep conversation.

"So when do you think you'll be heading off?" Misty asked, looking a little sad as she asked the question. 

"Tomorrow morning," he replied.  "What about you?"

He didn't need to ask her if she was going to stay with him because he already knew the answer.  Misty would be heading back to the gym and he would be heading out on his journey once more.  Only this time it wouldn't be long before their paths crossed.  And if he suddenly had the urge to see her, he could make a quick detour through Cerulean without setting him too far back.

"I can stay until then," she replied, her voice quiet.  "You can walk me to the bus stop in the morning."

He nodded, a small smile on his lips.  "Thank you Misty," he said sincerely.

"I didn't do anything," she replied with a shrug.

He returned her shrug.  "Well thanks anyway."

Brock sighed rolling his eyes at the pair.  He didn't know what he was going to do with those two.  "C'mon," he said, gathering his friends together.  "This is our last day in Pallet.  I say we hit the beach."

~ to be continued ~

I felt I sort of had to justify somehow why Ash hadn't re-entered the Indigo League earlier, and I think that the idea of 'credits' made a lot of sense.  Obviously if you got far enough at IP you'd get an automatic entry into next year (or that in itself would count as your six credits) but that's not really much of an issue here. 

And sorry if Ash is a tad OOC with the whole language savaant thing, but I guess the kid has to be good at something.  And if you like Dawn, she'll get more lines later - depending on my mood.  I kinda feel like I should include her out of obligation, and I suspect it shows.

Let me know what you all think.  And I'd also like to know which Pokemon people think should definitely be included in Ash's team.