Ash Ketchum lay on a grassy hill one sunny day, looking at the sky. His faithfull friend Pikachu lay next to him, snoring soundly. Misty Waterflower stood at the bottom of the hill feeding her Pokémon. Ash sighed and began to make shapes of Pokémon out of the clouds passing by.

As he watched the clouds from below them, he remembered what they were like from above. Ash had made friends with the rarest Pokémon in existence. Ho-oh, the legendary Fire Bird Pokémon, was one of Ash's best friends.

Because of Ho-oh, Ash had met it father, Rick Ketchum, or Richard Ketchum which he hated to be called. Rick was the worlds number one pokémon Master, the World Champion. He was almost identical to Ash, apart from being an adult and that he looked a little different.

Ash and Ho-oh were also connected in an unusual way. Years ago, when Ash was only a few years old, some of Ho-oh's ancient powers had been transfered to him. Only a few months ago had Ash discovered this, and it was something that changed his life. He discovered that if he or Ho-oh were hurt in any way, they would feel eachother's pains. They shared eachothers stregths, weakness' and Ho-oh seemed to share Ash's stubborn attitude.

When they first met they had been captured by Team Rocket, but after they escaped Ho-oh killed the Team Rocket leader, Giovanni, while the rest went into hiding. After that a portal had opened from another demension, and evil Pokémon came. Dark Ho-oh, Dark Lugia, Dark Moltres, Dark Zapdos and Dark Articuno were the first to come. They blocked out the sun and ever after they were defeated, Ash, Rick, Misty and Ho-oh had to travel around to find the five Orbs of Darkness so the world wasn't covered in darkness. Unfortunately they Dark legendaries had returned for a showdown, in which Ash and Ho-oh sent them back to their realm with the power of Rainbow Flame, the strongest known Pokémon attack that drains the energy of the user. After all that it all had to be explained to Mrs. Ketchum, who wasn't to happy at all.

Yes that last few months had been the most exciting of Ash's life, but unlike Misty he had a strange feeling that it wasn't over. As long as Ash possessed these powers, it was most likely that there would be action, no matter how much they tried to avoid it.

Ash sighed as he remebered his friend. Sure, Ho-oh was a pain sometimes, and hot-headed, and too sarcastic for it's own good, but nonetheless Ash and Ho-oh were best friends, and Ash missed it, having not seen it for a few months.

"Hey Ash" Misty called up. She had just returned all the Pokémon and cleaned up. "You hungry?"

Ash sat up. "You bet, I'm starved" He said and looked down at Pikachu, who had just awoken from his deep sleep. "But your hungry too huh buddy?" He smiled as Pikachu replied with an excited 'Chu!' and watched his little friend run down to Misty's side and begin eating an apple she had handed to him. Ash stood up and began walking down the hill towards them.

Suddenly, something didn't seem right. Ash froze in his footsteps as he reached the bottom of the hill and looked behind him, but there was nothing behind him. But still, he knew they were being watched. He carefully scanned the area and the forest nearby.

"Ash? Are you ok?" Misty asked walking over beside him.

Ash didn't listen, he just continued to look along the forest, until he saw something glint. He narrowed his eyes and looked more carefulyy to see what it was. It was a gun! "Get down!" Ash called knocking Misty to the ground, and not a moment to soon. A gunshot was heard and Ash felt something dart past his arm.

"Pikapi! Pikachu!" Pikachu called running over to them.

Ash looked back to were the gun was, and saw it repostioning. "Let's get out of here!" He called pulling Misty to her feet, picking up Pikachu and running as fast as he could, pushing Misty ahead of him, away from that area. Behind him he heard another shot an something hit the ground just behind him.

There was a rustling of bushes and footsteps following them, and the gunshots continued. Pikachu clung to Ash's shoulder as hard as he could and Ash glanced back every now and then, but didn't see who was shoting.

Why were those people after them? What had they done? Well whatever they were doing, Ash was their target, and he knew it. He was just putting the others in danger.

He took Pikachu from his shoulder and placed him on Mistys. "Let's split up, I'll go this way you go the other" Ash said pointing to a path to the left as they came to a crossroad. "We'll meet at that Pokémon Center we saw earlier"

Misty nodded, but Pikachu was confused. [Why did Ash give me to Misty?] He thought, but he couldn't concentrate on the matter, Misty and Ash had gone down the different paths.

Just like Ash had thought, the people folowed him, and not the others. He narrowed his eyes, but continued to run, getting more tired every minute.

Suddenly, Ash felt a piercing pain in his shoulder as he heard a gunshot and he cringed in pain. It was not like getting hit by a powerful Pokémon attack, but it was close enough. He couldn't stop, he had to keep running. He forced himself to keep going, but his feet seemed to be getting heavier and he was begining to slow down. Eventually Ash stopped and fell to his knees and then to his side.

It had been a tranqulizer they had shot him with, and it was taking effect. His vision blurred and he heard someone come up behind him. He felt two arms grab his shoulders and lift him up. Then, all was black...