Separate Paths

Today was the gang's last time together. With the Terracotta Contest now over, it was time for everyone to start on getting back to their homes. Now they were waiting for a boat to take Max and May back to Hoenn.

Right now, everyone was having a last picnic lunch together in a park and everyone had their Pokémon out. All the Pokémon were tucking into Brock's Pokémon food.

"Everyone, there's something I need to tell you all." May spoke up.

"What is it, May?" Ashlyn asked.

"I've been thinking about this for a while now and I've decided to enter the Johto Pokémon Contest, by myself!" May announced.

"By yourself?" Ashlyn asked.

"But what about Max?" Alain asked.

May turned to Max, "I'm sorry Max, but you can't come on a journey with me this time. If you do, I'll start depending on you. I want to travel on my own to learn to be more independent, catch new Pokémon friends, find my own battling style and try out new tricks with my Pokémon old and new. That's why I want to go on a new journey on my own." She explained.

"You're right, May." Brock agreed.

"Sounds like a good plan." Ashlyn stated.

"You already know that Drew and Solidad are probably waiting for you over there." Alain said.

"And Harley too." Ashlyn added, grimly.

"I'm not sure that's a good thing." May commented, sheepishly.

At that moment, Max got up from his seat and started walking away. May was about to call out for him when Ashlyn placed her hand on her shoulder. May turned to Ashlyn who shook her head.

"Max must be thinking of his own journey." Brock guessed.

"I'll talk to him." Alain offered as he got up.

"Okay." May accepted.

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Alain followed after Max. Then he spotted Max who was sitting on a swing when he caught up to Max.

"Upset that you won't be going to Johto with May?" Alain asked.

"Yes," Max replied, "and the truth is I have been jealous of you, Ashlyn and May. You three get to participate in battles, contests and tournaments, but I don't get to do any of those because I'm still only nine years old."

"It's true it's tough to have to wait to be ten years old to be a real Pokémon trainer because I hated it myself when I had to wait to be ten years old." Alain admitted, "But you only have one more year to wait and then you'll be doing plenty of things with your Pokémon. How about this? Why don't you and I have a Pokémon battle together now? Think of this as a farewell gift." He offered.

"It's a deal!" Max beamed.

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So Max and Alain had their last Pokémon battle together. Max used his Loudred and Alain used his Blaziken.

"Blaziken, use Scratch!" Alain ordered.

"Loudred, Mega Punch!" Max countered.

This was cheering Max up because he was battling with Alain, which he hadn't done for a long time. Blaziken and Loudred put up a good fight with each other. Then suddenly Loudred glowed and evolved into an Exploud.

"Cool I now have an Exploud!" Max cheered.

Ashlyn looked at Exploud on her Rotom phone:

[Exploud, the Loud Noise Pokémon. The evolved form of Loudred. Its howls can be heard over six miles away. It emits all sorts of noises from the ports on its body.]

Alain and Max decided to call their battle a draw and stopped the match. Max was happy with the battle as well as getting an Exploud.

"Thank you Alain," Max thanked him as he hugged him around his waist, "best goodbye present ever."

Alain smiled softly as he returned the hug. Soon enough they let go of each other.

"So what will you be doing when you get home, Max?" Brock asked.

"I'll be having Dad teach me about being a gym leader," Max answered, "and when I turn ten, I'll work hard and go on a journey to make myself and all my Pokémon strong. And once I've grown up, I'll become the new gym leader of Petalburg City!"

At that moment May realized that the boat for Hoenn would be coming soon. Everyone picked up all their things and food and returned all their Pokémon (except Tesla). Brock made packed lunches for May and Max for their journey home.

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Soon the boat had come and now it was time for May and Max to leave Kanto. Ashlyn, Alain and Brock said their goodbyes to May and Max, wished May lots of luck in the contests in Johto and wished Max lots of luck on learning to take care of Norman's gym. Max and May said their goodbyes too to Ashlyn, Alain and Brock. While the boat was leaving the gang waved to each other until May and Max were out of their sight. That was the last time that May and Max were to ever journey with Ashlyn, Alain and Brock.

"Well, they're gone." Brock said.

"Yeah." Ashlyn agreed, sadly.

Alain held onto her hand, and she gently squeezed it back.

"Chu." Tesla chirped sadly.

It felt all so soon because it felt like only yesterday the second Kanto journey started.

"Well we better go too. Alain and I need to get back to Pallet Town." Ashlyn decided.

"And I need to head back to Pewter City." Brock said.

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Ashlyn, Alain and Brock came to a route where a sign post laid. One sign showed Pewter City to the right and the left showed Pallet Town.

"Well Brock, it was nice travelling with you again." Ashlyn said.

"I hope we'll get to travel with you again soon." Alain added.

"It was a great adventure." Brock agreed.

The duo said goodbye to Brock and made their way to Pallet Town and Brock made his way to Pewter City. So Ashlyn and Alain were walking back to Pallet Town alone.

"I can't wait to get home. Mom and her Pokémon will be happy to see me." Ashlyn beamed.

"I take it that you'll be going to the Sinnoh region next?" Alain asked.

"I will but not yet," Ashlyn confirmed, "But I need to do my aura training."

"I'm sure you'll do great, Ashlyn." Alain encouraged.

Suddenly they saw a blast of electricity in the sky.

"That looks like an electric Pokémon is in trouble," Ashlyn said, "Let's go!"

Ashlyn, Alain and Tesla ran over to see what was going on.

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The trouble turned out to be Team Rocket, who had caught an Electivire in a net. The net was electric proof and Electivire couldn't use its electric attacks to get out. Ashlyn, Tesla and Alain were cross with this and were about to command Tesla to help Electivire.

"Hey! What do you three think you're doing with my Pokémon?" Gary called out.

"Playing?" James lied.

"Yikes! That must be the trainer!" Meowth exclaimed.

"Gary!" Ashlyn gasped.

"Electivire, use Iron Tail!" Gary called out.

Electivire broke the net apart with Iron Tail and set itself free. Team Rocket was surprised on how strong Electivire was.

"Now Thunder Punch!" Gary ordered.

Electivire electrified Team Rocket with Thunder Punch and sent them flying into the air.

"First we turn over a new leaf and now this!" Jessie complained.

"Do you think we'll ever learn?" James whined.

"I'll let you know next season." Meowth retorted.

Wobbuffet appeared and saluted, "Wobbaffet!"

"WE'RE BLASTING OFF AGAIN!" The trio shouted before they disappeared into the sky.

DING!

"Those three idiots are never going to learn that they can't beat us." Ashlyn commented.

"I'll say." Alain agreed.

"I agree," Gary agreed, "Long time no see, huh Ashlyn?"

"Yeah. So what are you doing here, Gary?" Ashlyn asked, "I thought you were doing research in Sinnoh."

"I was, but I came back to see Grandpa and tell him what I have been researching about so far." Gary answered.

Ashlyn looked at Electivire on her Rotom Phone:

[Electivire, the Thunderbolt Pokémon. The evolved form of Electabuzz. It pushes the tips of its two tails against the foe, then lets loose with over 20,000 volts of power.]

"Where did you find Electivire?" Ashlyn asked.

"In Sinnoh. Come over to the lab and I'll tell you about it." Gary offered.

The duo agreed they would, but they wanted to see Delia first. Gary said goodbye to them and said he'll be waiting. Ashlyn, Alain and Tesla knew there were a lot of stories to tell and share once they got back to Pallet Town.

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When Ashlyn, Tesla and Alain got back to Pallet Town, they stopped at Ashlyn's house first. But Delia and her Pokémon weren't in the house.

"Mum must have gone shopping and her Pokémon must have all gone with her." Ashlyn guessed.

Since no one was home, the trio decided to go to Prof. Oak's lab instead. But when they got to the lab, they saw no one in the lab, not even Tracey.

"That's strange, where is everybody?" Ashlyn asked.

Suddenly a bang of party poppers made Ashlyn and Alain jump with fright which made Ashlyn clench onto Alain. It was Tracey and Mr. Mime.

"Welcome back Ashlyn, Alain and Tesla." Tracey greeted.

"Mime mime!" Mimey greeted as well.

Prof. Oak, Gary, Prof. Sycamore and Delia entered the room, and so did Delia's Persian, Yamper, Ledyba, Marill, Beautifly and Delcatty.

"That was a surprise." Ashlyn blinked as she let go of Alain.

"Sorry Ashlyn, Alain, Tesla, but we decided to give you three a proper welcome home." Prof. Sycamore apologized.

Ashlyn smiled softly, "Thank you, everyone."

Ashlyn handed over her plaque of Frontier Symbols to her mum and told her she won the Battle Frontier challenge. Alain handed his to his dad. Ashlyn and Alain even told everyone that they would become a Frontier Brain in the future, but not now because they wanted to continue travelling first.

"Well I look forward to see you as a Frontier Brain, Ashlyn, Alain." Gary said.

"I take you wish to go to Sinnoh next, Ashlyn?" Tracey asked.

"Yes, but there's something I need to do first before I go there. I want to train my aura power first." Ashlyn declared.

Ashlyn explained to Gary and Tracey about her discovery of having aura powers.

"Oh yes, Grandpa told me that you found out that you are related to the aura guardian Sir Aaron." Gary remembered.

"I heard of this too." Tracey added.

"Me too." Delia added.

"Well you see while I was still at Rota, Sir Aaron's Lucario told me to train my aura before he died." Ashlyn began. She had told everyone about Lucario too. "So I decided to train my aura before I start heading over to Sinnoh."

"I call that a great idea, Ashlyn," Prof. Sycamore agreed, "When you've got amazing powers it's always best to learn and understand what powers you have in case you have trouble with them."

Tracey, Prof. Oak, Alain, Gary and Delia agreed.

"Ashlyn, while you were travelling around Kanto, I contacted my friend Prof. Rowan in Sinnoh and told him about your aura powers," Prof. Oak informed, "and in Sinnoh, there's an aura guardian who can help you train your power. His name is Riley and I had Prof. Rowan contact him for me."

"Have you got a reply from him yet?" Ashlyn asked.

"Yes, I got an answer from him yesterday," Prof. Oak replied, "Riley said that once you came back to Pallet Town, you must go to Rota and Riley will train you there."

"I understand. So Rota is where I'll go before going to Sinnoh, I'll head over there tomorrow." Ashlyn understood.

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So next day, Ashlyn was ready to head over to Rota alone. She left her other Pokémon at the lab; she was only taking Tesla and Cobalt (Lucario) with her. Tracey and Alain wished Ashlyn luck with training her aura. Delia, Prof. Sycamore and Prof. Oak told Ashlyn to be careful and to always listen to Riley. Ashlyn bid farewell to everyone and headed off for Rota with Tesla and Cobalt.

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Pokémon Caught: Shiny Arcanine (Sonia)(F), Magmar (Fuji)(M), Hisuian Zorua (Yuki)(F), Sprigatito (Fleur)(F), Aipom (Shantae)(F), Aipom (Luffy)(M)