Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or any of its associated properties. If I did, well then I'd have a whole lot more money for starters.

Staring out the window of the plane, Ash sighed as he watched the region that had been his home for the last year disappear from sight. Maybe it was because he didn't travel around as much, or had more close friendships than usual, but Alola had become more of a home than any of the regions he had traveled through, except for maybe Kanto. Turning to his partner, Ash smiled.

"Well Pikachu, I can't say that we've quite had a journey like that before. And even though we didn't train quite as hard as usual, I still think we did really well in the first Alola League! Although I wish we could have managed to beat Hau…"

"Pikapika, chupika Pikapi!"

Hearing this, Ash laughed, "I guess you're right as usual Pikachu! Second place certainly isn't bad, and I'm really proud of Incineroar and Melmetal for evolving and giving it their all! I was just wondering if we could have won if Poipole was still with us. We never did find another pokemon that fit as well with our team as it did." As he said this, Ash couldn't help but be reminded of all of his other pokemon that had gone their separate ways throughout his journeys.

"Hey buddy, how long has it been since we've checked up on most of our friends?"

Pikachu appeared to think about this for a second, before holding up two digits and shooting Ash a questioning glance.

"Yes I am thinking about Pidgeot and the others. And two years seems about right. I wonder how they're all doing now. Maybe we should try to check on them when we get home!"

"Pikapi, Pikachu!" Pikachu cheered while smiling broadly at Ash and pumping his little fist.

"I guess that's a yes from you! Well, I know that the last time we checked on him, Primeape had won a couple of Grand Prix titles, but Anthony said that he and Primeape wanted to try to win one or two more before moving on. He seemed excited to train in other ways though. Pidgeot wasn't around when we were about to leave for Kalos, but when we were leaving for Unova she said that the flock was getting stronger, and she wouldn't need to protect them for much longer."

While Ash was thinking about what else everyone was up to, Pikachu curled himself up in a ball before squishing his face into a circle. "That's right, Squirtle! Or Wartortle now I guess. Man that's gonna be weird. That was a couple years ago though, so I wonder if he's still a wartortle. And I wonder if Charizard is back in Pallet Town right now or if he's at the Charific Valley. Well at least he's easy to get in contact with."

"I know Goodra and Greninja are in similar situations to Wartortle, since I have their pokeballs. At least Keanan is stationed nearby Goodra's swamp, so I can call and check on them. I don't know exactly where Greninja is, but through our bond, I've been feeling him work less and less, so maybe he's almost done!"

Ash didn't seem to notice Pikachu shift a little grumpily at the mention of Greninja and his special bond with Ash. The mouse seemed to quickly recover though, and pulled on Ash's hat to attract his attention to him, as he had once again begun to pantomime different pokemon. Pikachu started by sticking out his tongue and pulling down his eyelid until Ash seemed to get the picture. Then he tried to stretch his back out into a circle with pointing his ears together. Finally, he kept his ears together, but smooshed himself together and tried to look grumpy.

While this had gathered amused looks from other passengers, Ash wasn't quite as amused, and in fact had a look of great concentration on his face. "Well, the first one's easy. Haunter, right?""Upon Pikachu's nod, Ash continued to speculate. "I don't know about the last one, but what did you mean with the second one?" Pikachu thought about this for a minute before pointing down at the ocean and pretending to sing. "Oh duh, Lapras! Well if the ears together was a horn, then was the grumpy one Larvitar?"

"Chu, pikapi!" Pikachu said while holding his paw in a thumbs-up position.

"Great! But did you forget that we didn't technically capture Haunter or Larvitar, and Lapras said that he wanted to stay with his pod? No? Well we can always check in with Sabrina for Haunter, and fly to Mt. Silver to check in on Larvitar, since the rangers should know where they are. I don't know where we would go to find Lapras though, since the last time we saw him was in Johto. Maybe Professor Oak would know what the normal migration patterns of lapras are…" Here, Ash trailed off, looking thoughtful. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask about them. Thanks buddy," he smiled, rubbing Pikachu behind his ears. "Either way though, we have to introduce our new friends to everyone else before we can look for our old ones, and we can't do any of this until we get back home. So how 'bout you and I get some shut-eye, since it's gonna be a long flight." With this, Ash leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep and beginning to dream of all of his friends, both new and old.

Hey y'all! This is the prologue of a story that I've been writing in my spare time recently. This chapter is much shorter than the rest of them, although I don't really know how long the average chapter will be. Next one will up relatively soon though! Let me know what ya think about this concept.