In the small town of Pallet, home to the legendary Professor Oak, a house remained for years. But inside, it has changed dramatically in emotion. A woman lived alone with a single pokemon by her side, frequently visited by the Professor for company. But now, she had many children resting in the house for weeks at a time. They weren't hers, just friends. A certain teenage female, a brunette named May, sat in a room filled with pokemon posters, cards, toys, figurines and broken alarm clocks. She wore a light blue blouse with sleeves half-down her forearms, along with green short-shorts with an orange strip around the bottom's edge. To top it off, she held her hair in the usual upside-down V shape with a green bandana with a small pokeball imprint on the side. For hours each day, she would sit down on the small bed and look around the room, remembering the better days of her childhood.

"May?" she heard a feminine voice call to her. She looked to the door to see a head of short orange hair looking in. "Do you want to be alone?" she asked.

"No, I don't mind. Come on in." she said, patting the bed beside her. The female stepped in and sat down. Misty now wore deep yellow pants ending just under the knees, with a yellow t-shirt with the bottom tied off to the side. "What are you doing today, Misty?" May asked.

"Oh, I don't know...maybe watch TV...go fishing..." Misty said quietly. May nodded, looking at some photographs on the wall.

"I can't believe he has pictures of those moments." Misty said, giving a quiet chuckle. "After all these years of us being mad at him, he kept pictures to remind himself he still owed us new bikes." Misty giggled. May joined in, it was true. The pictures showed a boy laughing nervously while looking at a bike burnt to a crisp.

"Yeah...those were the days..." May said quietly, rubbing her arm.

"Come on, May, we have to move on. No matter how much we wish, it's not going to bring him back. After five years, I doubt he'll just walk through the front door and say 'Hi, I'm home!'" Misty said, giggling behind her hand.

"You're right...but these five years have been so difficult...I just feel someone's listening to our prayers, and is going to bring him back." May replied.

"You could be right, May, but for now we have to stay strong. It's what he would want." Misty told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. Suddenly, there was a tapping at the door.

"Misty? May? Are you in there?" a feminine voice rang.

"Dawn? You can come in." May said. The door opened up and a blunette girl stepped in, holding her hands in front of her. She wore a pink sleeveless top with three small red hearts on the left front side, along with tight pink pants.

"Can you come downstairs for a few minutes? Ms. Ketchum wants to talk to us." Dawn said quietly, pointing out the door.

"Okay, we'll be right down." Misty said. Dawn smiled and left the room, then Misty stood up. "Come on, May, let's go." she said, pulling May's hand.

"Alright, alright." May said, standing up and walking to the door. Misty followed the brunette out the door and down the stairs.

"Oh, girls, thank you for coming down on short notice." Delia said, smiling at the girls as they sat on the couch beside Dawn.

"No problem at all, Ms. Ketchum. What can we do for you?" Misty asked.

"Oh, I wouldn't like anything from you, really. I already have enough helpers with the cooking and cleaning around here." Delia said, pointing into the kitchen. At the same moment, two figures stepped into the doorway. On the left stood a man with slightly darkened skin and short, brown spiky hair. He wore a dark orange vest with a light brown undershirt, along with dark brown cargo pants. His name was Brock, former Pewter Gym Leader. And on the right stood an equal-aged man with short, green spiky hair. He wore a black dress shirt with patching pants, with two yellow buttons down the chest with an open collar, leaving a green bow-tie and open wrist cuffs.

"No problem at all, Ms. Ketchum." the brown-skinned man said with a smile. His eyes were currently black lines, so no one knew his real facial expression.

"I'm very pleased to have helped." the green-haired man said, giving a bow.

"Oh, Cilan, will you cut that out?" a feminine voice spoke. Everyone turned to see a light brown-skinned girl close the front door behind her, holding a basket of fruit varieties. She wore a white blouse top with the wrists larger than they should have been, with pink lines around the wrists and a pink collar. A pink skirt around her waist with a pink bow on the side, and white leg-warmers. She had a large amount of hair behind her, two ponytails emerged the top with yellow hair clips.

"Iris, it's what a gentleman does." Cilan replied as she walked into the kitchen past him.

"Yeah, whatever you say. I say it's just a habit you can drop anytime." Iris said childishly, crossing her arms after putting the fruit on the table.

"Thank you for finding some fruit, Iris. I know there's no major forest around here, but some fruit can be really nice on a day like today." Delia spoke, pointing outside at the sunlight.

"No problem at all, Ms. Ketchum. I enjoy the outdoors anyway." Iris said with a cheerful smile.

"Your cheerfulness is something you can drop anytime, Iris." Cilan chuckled.

"Hey! Excuse me for being nice, Mr. Dress-Up!" Iris replied hastily.

"Now, now, you two. Don't start this again." Misty said, holding her head. Iris huffed and turned away from Cilan while he laughed.

"Come on, Cilan, remember what we've talked about." Brock said as he stepped back into the kitchen.

"In or out of the kitchen?" he asked as he followed him in. Dawn, Misty and May giggled at their behavior, while Iris glared at them.

"What? I don't suppose you fight with anyone?" Iris asked.

"Well, there was Paul and Kenny..." Dawn put her finger to her chin.

"As well as Tracey..." Misty added.

"I always fought with my brother." May said.

"Wait a minute. Didn't you want to talk to us, Ms. Ketchum?" Dawn asked.

"Oh, about nothing important. I just wanted to say thank you for staying here and livening this house up, I was in the dumps since...that..." Delia said, trailing off quietly.

"It's okay, Ms. Ketchum." Misty said, pulling the woman into an embrace.

"We're all sad." Dawn said, joining them.

"He'll come back, I know it." May added, joining as well.

"Thank you, girls. At times, I think you three could be my daughters." Delia said, pulling them closer. "Wait...where's Iris?" she asked, looking around.

"Iris, calm down!"

"I will not, mr. barbie boy! You're such a child!"

The four women laughed together at the sound of the argument between the two Unova natives. May looked out the window with a weak smile, wondering. "...Where are you...?" she thought sadly.

"All right, despite the argument, dinner is served!" Brock called out. Suddenly, everyone was in the kitchen at the table.

Across the sea, on a small island in the ocean, a man sat on the beach. He had his legs crossed, his arms extended to the sides. His head was low, his face hidden in a shadow. He wore a simple black t-shirt with brown cargo shorts. His lips moved in slow movement, while a quiet humming noise came from his mouth in a gentle tune. In the trees behind him, three figures moved swiftly through the branches. His head turned slightly, then a grin appeared on his face. Suddenly, the three figures burst from the trees and charged for him. He lifted his head with a glint in his eye, then jumped to his feet. He turned around with his hand extended defensively, then quickly side-stepped. A figure blurred past him but he grabbed it and spun it back towards the others. Another jumped over it and darted for him with a glowing fist, he held his hand out and let it crash against his open palm. It forcefully hit him, but he grabbed it and pushed it back. The third figure held its arms back, then threw a blue pulsing sphere of energy. The man reared his hand back, clenching it into a fist, then thrust it forward. The fist collided with the energy, then burst through as the energy imploded, firing the power back into the three figures.

"Well done, you guys." the man spoke. The three stepped towards him, then bent to one knee. "You did well, better than usual. You're certainly learning from this, and I hope you learn to be stronger from this." he told them. he turned around and held one arm forward, and one to the side. "You've learned the technique of sneaking, surprising, and are able to adapt to the environment for your victory. But, you still lack the sensibility of gaining your opponent's weakness. If we continue this training, you will be able to learn your opponent's greatest weaknesses within seconds. Take for example, this. Floatzel!" he called out, then a figure emerged from the trees. It was a human-sized weasel with two tails and a life preserver around its neck. "Take this as an example, you three. Floatzel is very agile and quick to think underwater, thanks to its two propeller tails. However, for stopping abruptly from danger it uses the life preserver around its neck. For close combat fighting, it uses the scales on its arms to slice the air and scare its opponent away, however, the problem with that is a psychic-type easily stop its arms in midair for defense. A strategy against that could be water-type attacks such as aqua tail or hydro pump, more attacks like sonicboom could be used with improved gymnastic skills." he said, looking the weasel down. He took a few seconds to observe the pokemon before him, then he stepped towards it. "The answer is simple. The agile speed is the tails, and the defense is its preserver. Those are the two weakest spots, because underneath that powerful strategy lies a sensitive spot in the pokemon." the man spoke, then straightened his fingers together, and used his spare hand to lift the preserver. Then the man jabbed his fingers into its skin, Floatzel gave a quiet grunt as it stumbled back. Floatzel grinned to the man, giving a thumbs-up. "And that, you three, is how to evaluate your opponent's skills in a few moments." the man said, looking back at the other three pokemon.

"Fernape!" one spoke, thrusting a fist forward. It was a brown monkey pokemon with gold circle plates on its chest and shoulders, as well as its wrists. Its head was brightened by the large flame atop its head, with a long tail and strengthened legs.

"Scep sceptile!" another called, raising an arm and revealing a glowing blade. Its body was one like a large lizard, with two grass blades on its arms. It had sharp claws and large forelegs, with clawed feet as well. Its head was grooved downward, and a large bushy tail came from its backside.

"Gli gliscor!" the third called out. Its body was one like a bat, with large fangs and pincer claws. Its body was skeletal, joined together with black cape-like wings. It had short legs, but a long tail with another pincer like a scorpion.

"I am proud of you three, believe me, but you must continue your training if you want to be able to defeat any opponent." the man spoke, looking out towards the vast open sea beside them.

"Gli gliscor? Gliscor gli gliscor." the bat-like creature said in its native tongue. The man looked back, then shook his head.

"No, nothing. I'm fine, Gliscor. Come on, let's join the others. You too, Floatzel." the man spoke, waing the three towards the trees.

"Flo floatzel, zel float." the weasel spoke, putting his hand in front of the man.

"Resting, you say? Don't worry, I've taught you four well enough to be stealth through the trees, right?" the man asked. The four grinned and nodded, then they jumped into the trees. Not far off the coast, a small bird carried an envelope in its claws. It had a certain destination in mind, as it saw the island become larger in the distance.

END