A/N: Gary and Leaf come back into this one! I love writing Leaf, and this will be the first time I've written Gary so should be... Interesting to say the least. I have a poll in the field now, should I use ORS in this story? They'll be in a few more chapters.

Disclaimer: 나는 아무것도 소유하지 (Korean)

An Alternate Universe

Last time on our adventure, Jessie and May fought for the Slateport Ribbon, with May and Beautifly getting over the line, in Rapidash racing terms, by a short half head against Dustox. What will happen this episode? Tune in and find out!

I wanna be the very best,

Like no-one ever was,

To catch them is my real test,

To train them is my cause,

I will travel across the land,

Searching far and wide,

Each Pokemon to understand,

The power that's inside,

Pokemon! It's you and me,

I know it's my destiny,

Pokemon! Oh, you're my best friend,

In a world we must defend,

Pokemon! Our heart's so true,

Our courage will pull us through,

You teach me and I'll teach you,

Po-ke-mo-on,

Gotta catch 'em all,

POKEMON!

We awaken with our heroes at Slateport City after May won her first contest yesterday, what do we have in store for them today? The whole group had a lie in, seeing it was a Sunday and they had no hurry to get to the next city in a hurry.

Ash was, as usual, the last one to get up, waking up with a big yawn and looking around at the empty room before getting dressed and going out front to see a couple of familiar faces in front of him, a big grin splitting on his face as he ran over and gave his cousin a famous Ketchum hug "LEAFY!" Ash exclaimed loudly

Leaf coughed, choking out "Ash. Air. Please," her face going a bit red from the tightness when Ash released her and looked a bit sheepish as he scratched his neck a little bit.

"Heh. Sorry Leafy."

"You've certainly inherited your mothers hugs Ash," Leaf grumbled before smiling with a small glint in her eye, "how many badges do you have now, little cousin?"

Ash smirked and showed his three badges, "How about you Leafy? How many badges do you have?"

"Four. Petalburg, Rustboro, Lavaridge and Mauville. I'm heading down to Dewford next for that badge. Lavaridge was really tough, but luckily I've gotten someone to help me out with fire and flying types."

Ash looked proudly at his older cousin, who in turn glanced over her shoulder at the other member that had joined them, "Gare-bear, I haven't seen you silent for this long in, well, ever. It's kind of refreshing to not here your arrogance for once."

"Haha, very funny Leaf," Gary sneered at the older girl, with a tint of redness on his cheeks, "well Ashy-boy, I heard you have the Tyrogue now. What do you think so far?" Gray asked his long time rival, speaking professionally for once.

"He's obviously distrustful of everyone and it'll take time but I'm confident I'll be able to break out of his shell. I'm not going to enter him into fights for a little while, I need to get his trust, then I need to train him," Ash replied, a frown creasing his face and looking intently at his rival.

"I thought you might say that. If it wants to evolve, which of the three would you prefer? -Chan, -Lee or -Top?"

"I'll let him decide, but I have a lot of attack based Pokemon already, so a defence based one could be better for my balance and that would be Hitmonlee."

Leaf looked at the pair intently before moving over and poking Ash on the arm, "Hey cousin, we still haven't had a battle. Why don't we head to the battle facilities here in the Pokemon centre and have one?"

Ash glanced at her, a smirk rising on his face as he looked at his cousin with determination. "You're on Leaf. 3-on-3 good for you?"

Leaf nodded and the group headed down towards the battle arena, Brock going over to the referee's box and the others sitting in the stands, eagerly waiting for the battle to begin.

"This will be a 3-on-3 battle between Leaf Green of Pallet Town and Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town with no time limit. Both players are allowed to substitute. By virtue of a coin toss, Ash will release his Pokemon first," Brock called out to the stadium.

Ash glanced at the Pokemon on his shoulder and nodded, who leapt off said shoulder and stared at the opposite end intently, "It shouldn't surprise you that my first Pokemon is my Pikachu Leaf, he's my starter and best friend."

"Not at all, let's pit our starters against each other. Come on out Serperior!" Leaf cried, bringing the regal snake out in front of Pikachu.

Ash quickly whipped out Dexter to scan the Pokemon. "Serperior, the regal Pokemon and the evolved version of Servine. Serperior's glare can halt it's opponent's movement. It increases the solar energy it absorbs."

"Okay, Pikachu, let's start off with agility and double team, Serperior is a fast Pokemon so we need to boost our speed!" Ash cried out to his faithful companion, who zigzagged towards Serperior before creating illusions of himself.

Leaf stayed calm and focused, "Okay Serperior, use Leaf Storm on all the Pikachu's!" she shouted, her starter Pokemon following the order, much to the shock of everyone except May, who looked confused.

"Why are you guys shocked? Isn't that a really powerful move?"

Drew glanced at her and quickly stated, "Leaf Storm is powerful but it significantly reduces Serperior's Special Attack every time she uses it, so her next move won't be as powerful," he explained.

Leaf smirked as Pikachu was knocked back, "Okay Pikachu, quick attack and chain with Iron Tail!" Ash growled.

Pikachu rushed in and whacked Serperior with his metallic tail, causing serious damage before Leaf smirked and ordered Serperior to use Leaf Storm again, which was more powerful than the first, fainting Pikachu, much to the shock of everyone in the stand.

"I thought you said it would decrease Serperior's Special Attack," May said weakly.

"Normally that would be the case May, but my Serperior has a different ability to most of the others, called Contrary. It means that stat changes have the opposite of normal effect, so every time I use Leaf Storm, his Special Attack increases."

Ash glared and pulled out his next Pokemon, "Okay then, come on out Charizard!" Ash shouted, knowing that his most powerful Pokemon was necessary in this battle, "use Flamethrower!"

Charizard glared at the Unova starter and let out a torrent of flames directly at him. Serperior survived by a whisker and countered with Leaf Storm again, which had decent effect before Charizard burned it to a crisp with another flamethrower.

"You may have beaten my starter but I have a special Pokemon for Fire types! Come on out Rhyhorn!" Leaf cried, bringing the insurance policy of her team into the ring.

That was a great battle between the pair, Rhyhorn eventually overcoming the Fire/Flying type with a well placed rock tomb, Charizard also doing a lot of damage to the rock type. Ash looked determined and brought out his final Pokemon.

"Come on out Treecko!" He shouted, "Use Mega Drain!"

Treecko did as he was told, draining his opponent's energy quickly as he absorbed the nutrients, fainting the rock type due to the damage Charizard had done.

Leaf's final Pokemon was one from the Sinnoh region, an Ice/Grass type named Abomasnow. May whipped out her Pokedex to scan it. "Abomasnow, the Frost Tree Pokemon and the evolved form of Snover. Abomasnow appear when snow flowers bloom and return to places unknown when the petals fall."

Ash looked at Treecko and then back at Leaf, nodding his head in acknowledgement that she was likely to win this. "Okay Treecko, he may be big and powerful, but he's going to be slow, use quick attack!" Ash shouted, not going down without a fight. He was Ash Ketchum after all.

The battle was short but fierce. Ash and Treecko battled their hearts out and tried to damage Abomasnow as much as they could with a little bit of success. Abomasnow's power was within her ability to steadfastly take the attacks and then counter after Treecko was a little tired, using Blizzard to faint Treecko.

"Treecko is no longer able to battle, the winner of this round and the match go to Leaf and Abomasnow!" Brock called out.

"Great battle Ash, I'm sure if you had Pidgeot here you would have been much more successful with your strategies," Leaf told her cousin with a grin on her face, "Abomasnow is a powerful Pokemon. Maybe when Treecko becomes Sceptile they can have a re-match."

"Treecko will hold you to that Leafy, he loves to battle and won't stop training to catch up with Abomasnow and in particular Serperior," Ash commented.

The gang headed back to the main part of the Pokemon Centre and Ash and Leaf got their Pokemon healed.

Gary approached Ash from behind and laid a hand on his shoulder, making Ash jump a bit. "Hey Ash, can you release Tyrogue for a second, I want to test something."

Ash did so and released the fighting type, who immediately looked up at Ash with something that wasn't quite trust yet but not mistrust either. Gary nodded and grinned.

"That's what I thought. You two will make a great team. Good luck for your next gym battle Ashy-boy, you're going to need it against Wattson. He's an electric type leader."

"I know Gare-bear, I can handle him," Ash smirked back.

After that, everyone went to bed once more and went off into the night with dreams of the next day already surfacing for them.

A/N2: What did you think? Angry that Ash lost? Happy that he did? I made him lose because of a few reasons. Leaf is a more experienced trainer and it would be no surprise that her Pokemon are more powerful because of it and Treecko is only starting out, hardly strong enough to beat an Abomasnow yet. Next chapter they'll split, Ash and co will head North, Leaf will head south-west and Gary will... I don't know. Probably go with Ash to discuss Tyrogue. Please review guys! I'm not far away from having 40k words!

Ash: Pikachu, Totodile, Tyrogue, Charizard, Treecko, Aron; with Oak: Taillow, Pidgeot; 3 badges

Misty: Golduck, Gyarados, Politoed, Togepi, Mudkip, Carvanha

Brock: Steelix, Forretress, Lotad

Sabrina: Kadabra, Mr. Mime, Haunter, Ralts, Meditite

May: Torchic, Beautifly; 1 ribbon

Drew: Roselia, Vibrava, Masquerain; 5 ribbons

Jessie: Arbok, Shellder, Swinub, Wurmple; 1 ribbon

James: Weezing, Chimecho, Machop, Sableye; 2 badges

Leaf: Serperior, Gloom, Seedot, Abomasnow, Rhyhorn; 4 badges