Ash, Gary, and Green were walking back through Route 1, exactly the same as how they started their journey.
Brock and Misty took Abra so they could go do some stuff and go back to their homes/Gym for the holidays, and Yellow decided to stay with Wilton, of course after explaining everything about what happened.
But they all agreed on a meeting point and day and they all have a phone some way or another so they can keep in contact.
As for Gary and his cheerleaders, well after the car thing happened he told the 6 to stay in Viridian and he would come back in a day or 2 with another car, and blah blah blah, the point is they stayed in Viridian.
And the nice thing was one of them lived in Viridian before going with Gary so they have a house, not much else needs to be said about everything.
As they were walking they looked around and started chatting a bit since this was technically the first time they all traveled together since they left Pallet.
"Man, can you believe how time flies?" Green said looking at the scenery, especially now that all the birds flew north thanks to the colder weather, she isn't straight-up scared of birds anymore but they do still make her uncomfortable.
Gary still looked bummed about his car, "I mean yeah I guess, though didn't you get your Spearow around here?"
"Yeah, though he doesn't really want to come out right now, you know since it's so cold right now, and I guess most of his flock are gone too," Ash said, holding his arms behind his head as Pikachu looked around slightly reminiscing about his time here before Oak took him.
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense, though it really is kinda weird to think we all technically got our badges at the same time, and the fact that all 3 of us qualify for the league is also pretty weird," Gary said, looking towards the path.
"Welp, anyway I have a bunch of stuff to do once we get home, I'll warn you now boys I'm not losing this time," Green winked
""Righhhht,"" Ash and Gary said at the same time
"Anyway, you guys wanna run a few battles to get some practice?" Gary asked.
Ash smirked, "Sure, I'd pay to see you and Green duke it out, so how about the winner gets a run back on me, though you'll just lose again."
"You're on" Green smirked
"Yeah and that was months ago, time I show you who the true best is!"
"Say that after one of you wins," Ash said as he put on an overly obnoxious tone, "How could a young prodigy such as myself be seen bullying the weak."
Green almost spat out holding in a laugh as Gary just punched Ash in the shoulder, "Dude, never do that, you have no idea how many dumb kids I met who sounded exactly like that, and I wanted to hit them in the teeth so many times."
"Yeah well let's be honest at least it's not as bad as P-*thuk*" Ash started as suddenly he crashed face-first into nothing.
Gary and Green looked confused seeing Ash take a step back and hold his nose, "The heck just happened?"
As Ash held his nose Gary stepped up and felt the place, feeling a wall despite it being clear, "What's with this, it feels like there's a wall?"
Ash rubbed his nose, "Seems like it, can't believe I got caught off guard though, I guess I'm still a bit drained after the Gym."
"Oh yeah, that weird thing you can do, now that I think about it the fact that you never fell for any prank when we were kids is kinda a giveaway now," Green said.
"Yeah tell yourself that, anyway I wonder what this did?" Ash looked up, half knowing the reason.
When they looked up they saw a humanoid Pokemon scaling the air, it was the greatest character, the true main character in all of Pokemon, Mimey the Mr. Mime!
"Huh, I guess that's why, Mr. Mime. I wonder what one is doing all the way out here?" Gary said.
Ash rubbed his nose and pulled out a Pokeball, "I don't know but I do know one thing, dibs!"
—
{Pallet town}
Classes were over for the day, and everyone left to do their own things whether it be go get some food, or go play around, or whatever. Bianca, Cheren, Hilda, and Rosa were walking together to go to Pallet House, the restaurant run by the Ketchum family.
In fact, it was the only restaurant in all of Pallet and after Oak put in a lot of money so that all students could eat free, it was making bank and it expanded more than once, though even though it was quite popular, the only 2 people who ever worked their were Delia and Ash, and now Delia was alone since Ash left.
When they got in they saw Dawn and May on one table with Paul sitting alone like he always does.
The 4 Unovan kids went over to Dawn and May's table and grabbed seats to talk.
Rosa sneaked behind Dawn and grabbed her in a playful hug, "Hey girls you hanging out without us!"
Dawn slightly flinched but relaxed when she saw Rosa's pigtails, "Seriously Rosa you need to stop doing that."
"Hmmm, I don't wanna!" Rosa playfully said as the other 2 sat down.
"Rosa please could you calm down, we came here to eat not to annoy everyone," Cheren said as he adjusted his glasses.
Hilda nodded, "Seriously Rosa you need to stop doing that, especially when they ask you not to."
Rosa pouted and stuck her tongue out, "Boo, all of you are party poopers, I'm just doing this for fun, tell them, Bianca!"
Bianca slightly stuttered, "W-w-well I don't see the harm in it I guess"
Hilda pointed at Rosa, "That's not fair you know fully well Bianca is incapable of disagreeing with anyone."
"Hey, t-that's not true right?" Bianca asked, looking at everyone.
"No no she has a point," May said as everyone, even Dawn nodded.
As they were all discussing a random person in a red hoodie and a Pikachu on the shoulder walked in, he took his hat off and put it on a stand before walking to the back room.
They all noticed that and talked amused themselves, "Do you think Ms. Ketchum finally hired some staff?"
"I suppose it's possible," Cheren said adjusting his glasses.
Rosa sat down on a chair, "I mean she has been working everything alone since Ash left, so I wouldn't put it past her."
"Yeah I kinda felt bad, but it looks like she's finally getting some help!" Bianca said, smiling happily.
They heard some commotion then the person walked out with about 4 dishes in his arms and the Pikachu was waddling behind with another and began taking them to other people. Some of them thanked him and then looked at the person in shock, but before they could say anything he already walked away.
Eventually, the person came up to them with a notepad to take their order saying, "Oh it's you guys, I assume the regular?"
At this point they were confused since this guy never took their orders as fair as they could tell, then they finally got a good lock on him, his hair was tied back into a small ponytail looking like he let it grow out, and the distinct marks on his cheeks made it clear.
"Ash!!!" they said in unison.
"Sup," Ash said casually as Pikachu delivered a plate to a young girl, to which he was rewarded with a head pat and a fry.
"W-w-w-what are you doing here?" Dawn asked.
"Helping out, what else, anyway so I assume your regulars."
"Oh y-yeah," Hilda unintentionally said before snapping back, "Wait that doesn't answer the question."
Ash held his hand out, "Sorry I can't talk, I'm on the clock, anyway I'll bring out your drinks and put in your order."
Then he walked over to Paul who had become increasingly more salty since he came back, he hadn't even told anyone what he did, "So Paul you want your regular?"
Paul looked at Ash up and down and frowned, remembering his brother giving up being a trainer, "What are you doing here, don't tell me you ended up giving up."
At the other table, they all wanted to yell over at Paul for asking something so insensitive, but they had to admit the thought did cross their minds.
Ash wrote something down and nonchalantly answered, "Nah, I'm just done already, I'm good to go for the League so I thought I should come back and help my mom out."
That caught everyone in the restaurant's attention, including other customers who were asking why Ash was back, Paul gave a genuine look of surprise, "W-what?"
Ash finished writing and reached into his pocket pulling out a badge case and showing it to him, "Yeah I got all 8 main Gym badges so I'm good to go, with time to spare, anyway I'll be back with your drink."
As everyone in the restaurant watched Ash walk back like he said the most casual thing in the world Paul couldn't help but clench his teeth, HE, the person who never took anything seriously was already done months early while he was stuck listening to useless classes about things he already knows.
At that moment Paul made up his mind on one thing, he is going to graduate early.
—
{Ashtwo and friends}
They arrived in the Blackmarket, admittedly Ash hadn't been here before but apparently Enid did, so she took the lead much to her happiness.
The information they got was minimal; they only knew that the new group called themselves the 'Raiders' and they worked underground, other than that nothing they didn't even know what those 'Boosters' were made of.
So they went into disguise dropping the Team Rocket uniform to remain unnoticed and went into some of the shops and actions to look for anything and to butter up some higher-ups to give them information.
Enid didn't like it, mainly because she wasn't the one to come up with said plan, but she had to admit it was pretty good, especially because it meant Jay had to keep his mouth closed.
And so they did look around and participate in the auctions, the auctions themselves sold a lot of things that Ash didn't really need or he knew were a scam, for example, a set of 'high' quality evolution stones, Paintings stolen from Kalos, a trident for some reason, Ect.
Then there was the Pokemon auction and the shops, of which they sold Pokemon from other regions and 'mystery' Eggs, but it didn't take a genius to know that was a scam and they kept the good Pokemon for themselves, not to mention it was marked up so high you could buy enough Pokeballs to make a catch chain and get a shiny.
So none of them actually bought any Pokemon, though they did all see some that were interesting but those were overpriced.
However one good thing did come out of it, Enid managed to 'seduce' one old guy with as she said, 'womanly charms' to spill something about 'Boosters', and that was that they had a factory where they got sold directly to people so that they can get distributed above ground.
That meant that no matter how hard they looked they wouldn't find anyone selling these 'Boosters' in the Blackmarket, so if they wanted to find it they would need to go to the factory directly and potentially deal with these 'Raiders' directly.
It didn't take much to find out where the factory was, they just asked someone directly and they gave the exact place, which also made them salty since that meant they wasted a bunch of time for nothing.
But when they went they saw a large factory, it looked more like a warehouse, from them they could see crates being lugged around by random people and into trucks to be shipped out, the place looked more fortified than a fortress.
"Man looks like we've got our work cut out for us," Jay said
"For Once I agree with what just came out of your mouth," Enid coldly said.
"I'll take that as a compliment, but seriously how are we supposed to take all of those guys out, I know we're all pretty strong but I don't know if we can take that many."
Enid didn't want to admit it but Jay had a point, "So what now?"
"Well, the mission wasn't to eliminate them, just to find how 'Boosters' are made and if they can be refined to not have drawbacks," Ash said, "Then we will know if we need to destroy them or form a partnership with them."
"So what do you suggest?" Enid said still slightly resentful
"Well, we should cover both of your brightly colored heads and plan for a stealth mission."
Enid felt her eyes twitch, the thought of the main character hiding her beautiful hair was full but she didn't have a better plan.
Jay however was much more enthusiastic, "Oh yeah, does that mean we get to be ninjas, oh I need to get a scarf like yours bro, then I'll be a true ninja!"