Poke New Year pt. 1

Poké New Year

Author's Notes: Happy New Year everybody! This chapter is written by Ryu The Weredragon (that's me), tazkol master of emeralds, Rainbowdragon, and Light the Lucario and edited by Ri2. Amazingly, we got this written in five days. That's a new record for me! Hope we can pull something like this off again in the future (though we probably won't.)

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It was December 31st, New Year's Eve, in the world of Pokemon. Ash had managed to finish the Sinnoh league early to come home for the holidays and was surprised to see that many of his closest friends had congregated in his hometown of Pallet for a New Year's Party. Misty, May, Max, Norman, Caroline, Ritchie, Gary and Drew were all there, along with a few new faces around that he didn't recognize.

Even Tory, a childhood friend from before he had become a trainer, had returned home. Tori's blue eyes remained bright as ever and his brown hair had been cut from when they had last known each other - he used to sport the same look as Ash, but now his hair was cut more "normally". He claimed he used to have the same problems as Ritchie about being mistaken for Ash. Ash thought he looked a bit pale and sickly, something that worried him a little, but he was glad to see him just the same.

"Hello D... Dawn. It's T-Tobi from school. Your mom asked me to deliver this dress you wanted from home for tonight, I wouldn't have stuck around but Delia insisted, she took my Salamence away just to make sure," a smaller almost nerdy boy said timidly as he handed Dawn a box. His hands where shaking and his face was beat red but Dawn didn't even seem to notice him. He almost collapsed when her hand grazed his as she took the box and went inside to change. "Ahhhhh…she touched me…she touched me…"

Sean, a trainer who retired from the Pokémon League trek, came down to see his best friend Misty, who had invited him to the party.  He was wearing a normal black baseball cap with a red long-sleeved shirt and blue jean pants.  He only had one Pokeball on him, containing his faithful Typhlosion, Serene, who had single-handedly won many of his battles.

Misty looks up to see her childhood friend and smiled a bit as she shook his hand. "It's been a long time, Sean.  How have you been?" she asked.

"Very well. Just wondering, is that your boyfriend over there?" He pointed to Ash, causing Misty to turn red.

Later on that evening, and after a severely painful beating for Sean, the Ketchum house was packed with people as food and drinks were set out, music played, people chatted, and Mimey stumbled around dead-drunk. He really couldn't handle his liquor.

Standing in the corner was a strange man who only referred to himself as Michael Cornelius Twoson, but he preferred to be called Mike. Ash, Misty and Brock found him curiously familiar, but couldn't place him as anyone they'd met on their travels.

Tobi walked over to Mike "Excuse me, sir?" he said

"Yes?" Mike asked.

"Are you a psychic by any chance?" Tobi asked shyly.

"...Why yes, I am. How did you know that?" Mike asked, somewhat alarmed. Had this child seen through his disguise? That meant he'd need to do another mass brainwashing. Or blow up the house. Possibly both.

"I'm a low level empath" Tobi explained "I realize it may go against your morals, but could you do me a favor?"

Mike frowned suspiciously. "What kind of favor?"

"That girl over there." Tobi pointed to Dawn. "Could you tell me w-wh-what she thinks of me?" His face turned beet-red.

Mike raised an eyebrow at the odd request.

"I've really missed you on the road, Misty", Ash said as he took a sip of soda. They both blushed when he realized what he said. "I mean your Gyarados would have made things a lot easier."

Misty frowned. "Is my Gyarados the only thing you missed about me?"

Ash started. "Ack! N-no, that's not what I…I mean, I missed other things, too!"

"Like?" Misty asked.

"Um…" Ash's mind raced as he tried to think of an answer that wouldn't get him pummeled.

Sean grinned as he watched Misty's reaction and wondered how he could get the two together. Sadly his plotting was interrupted when his lovesick Typhlosion decide to come out and glomped him, interrupting the lovebirds' meeting.

Tory sighed. "I wonder when people will realize that if they don't butt in, nothing's ever going to go forward with those two..." He had a minor coughing fit. Quickly realizing he was coughing up blood, he excused himself from the area.

Drew sat on the couch admiring himself in a pocket mirror. May sat next to him. She had seen the interaction between Ash and Misty, and it was giving her ideas. She looked at Drew, and a blush slowly crept up her face.

Sean and his Typhlosion where having a nice dinner together.  Sean always treated Serene as an equal and she ate at the table with him, rather than on the ground like most other Pokemon. Gary and Dawn were having a very interesting conversation about Pokemon Contests. They seemed like they were really bonding, much to Tobi's dismay.

Ash's Pokémon where scattered around the room having their own antics. There was a brief scare when someone smelt something burning, but it just turned out that Charizard, Squirtle and Sceptile where branding Grottle for some reason. After the fires had been put out, Charizard was made to go outside until he admitted his mistake and promised not to set the house on fire, Squirtle chatted up the ladies, and Sceptile spent time throwing cards, which spun at terminal velocity into the walls. Max sat watching, mystified by the ninja Pokemon's skill.

Pikachu wasn't as energetic as usual. He seemed a bit depressed and lonely for some reason. The others found it odd that he didn't even react to Bunneary's flirting like he usually did.

"Man...Maybe it was a bad idea to come back," Tory muttered to himself. "When I break it to them, it's only going to ruin everyone's fun. I probably should have just died alone."

"Gengar," something said from the shadows as a Gengar floated into the room. That's no way to talk, the words blared through Tory's mind. Trust me, I died alone. It's not fun. At least, not until the hot Ghost-babes showed up…

Sean was walking by with his Typhlosion when he over heard Tory's moping.  "What was that about dying alone?"

"...I'm terminally ill. This will be my last New Years. I'm going to die in a week," Tory said quietly.

Sean was shocked by this information. As he tried to think of something to say that didn't sound like a cheesy platitude, Serene gave Tory a soft lick to cheer him up. "Thanks," the boy said quietly.

Tory sweatdropped. "Gee, thanks for the encouragement, Gengar. Now I feel much better about my imminent demise."

There was a knock at the door. Everyone stopped, wondering who it could be. "Ash, get the door, please," Delia said.

"Why do I have to get it?" Ash whined.

"Because I'm your mother and I said so," Delia said.

Ash sighed. "Oh, fine."

Ash went over to the front door, opening it and causing everyone to instantly shiver as a huge gust of snow and icy wind blew through the room. A tall, dark figure rushed in and slammed the door shut before everyone could freeze to death. "I guess my coat wasn't good enough, ugh, my feet hurt, walking is such a pain," the newcomer grumbled, stomping his feet to get the snow off of them and unfortunately getting them all over the carpet, something Delia would later make him pay dearly for.

"Oh, Nathan! It's nice to see you again," Ash said, welcoming the non-trainer to the party. Nathan couldn't trust himself with a Pokémon.

Nathan smiled. "Same here. We only saw each other a couple of times but it was nice of you to invite me over, thank you."　

"Yeah," Ash said.

Plotting revenge against Nathan, Delia went around the house giving out little sheets of paper and pens. "What are these for?" Tobi asked

"To write down you New Year's Wish, silly," Delia responded.

In the world of Pokémon, it's a tradition to write your wishes for the new year on slips of paper on New Year's Eve, so that the gods of the Pokémon world would know your deepest desires. Someone who was worthy would be granted their wish on New Year's Day, much like the Japanese tradition of Tantaba.

Nathan blinked. "New Year's wish? Oh boy, that</I> little tradition?"

Sean smiled at the paper and looked at his Typhlosion lovingly.  "I wish for Serene to find a happy mate...The last few ones broke her heart. I want her to be really happy," he whispered as he wrote down his wish, oblivious to what would make her really happy.

"...There's only one thing that I regret in my life. I may not be alive for much longer, but..." Tory murmured, writing his wish. "I wish that I could fall in love."

"Because…" Tory paused. "Oh damn, why didn't I write that down? Too late now."

"Shut up, Gengar," said Tory. Gengar cackled and stuck out his tongue.

"I wish she would know how I feel," Tobi whispered as he scribbled his wish down.

Mike quietly wrote something on his paper, without letting anyone around know what it was he really wanted.

Nathan looked at the paper quietly, thinking about how much his feet hurt. I wish I could travel from place to place more easily then walking, that way my feet wouldn't be sore all the time, Nathan thought to himself. He wrote it down.

"I wish I could be more beautiful," Dawn told herself as she wrote her wish down. She was already quite pretty, but her terrible self-esteem issues blinded her to this truth.

"Pikachu's been down in the dumps lately. I could easily wish for something for myself, but I really just want him to feel better..." Ash said.

Nathan chuckled. "Hey, at least you aren't being selfish right? Unlike me…and pretty much everyone else…"

"Yeah," Ash agreed.

Misty scribbled down her wish without saying anything. Everyone knew what hers was anyway, everyone except the person it was directed to. I wish to be with Ash, she thought to herself.

"I wish for true beauty", Drew said as he wrote his down halfheartedly, not really putting his heart into his wish.

"I wish that people would stop mistaking me for Ash" Ritchie said as he wrote down his wish. Delia promptly looked down at the boy she was hugging, let go sheepishly, and went to find Ash.

"I wanna be really awesome when I grow up", Max declared as he wrote his wish down.

Brock wrote I wish for a harem and to be really attractive! Yeah, that's it! He dared not speak aloud because he was afraid of what the others, especially the women present, would say. He was correct to think so.

"I wish I was young again," Oak said as he jotted down his wish.

"My only wish is that you knew who your Father was," Delia told her son after she made sure it was Ash.

"Yeah, me too," Ash said.

"I thought your wish was for Pikachu," Nathan said.

"Oh, right. Never mind then," said Ash.

"My wish is already fulfilled, but... I guess I kinda wish Scyther would feel better about himself," Tracey stated as he watched a rather morose elderly Scyther sitting on the couch trying to grab a bowl of chips hovering just out of reach, Tracey's Venonat laughing the whole time.

"Hmmph... I wish my worthless Pokémon would become stronger," Paul said as he glared at his Electabuzz, who lost yet again in an arm wrestling match against Ash's Squirtle, despite trying to cheat by using Thundershock.

"I wish I knew more about the world around us," Gary wrote. "To answer questions like...why are dark types the way they are?"

"Say, shouldn't the Pokémon get a turn?" Ash asked.

Professor Oak shook his head. "How? Most Pokemon are illiterate, not to mention lack opposable thumbs." Quite a few Pokemon who were in fact literate and had wishes of their own heard this, and swore to punish the Professor for his sweeping generalization at a later date.

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Ash said, sweatdropping.

Tory laughed. After all these years, Ash hadn't changed a bit. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

- - -

The mountaintop was lit up so brightly that if not for the cloud cover the lights would have been seen for miles. Hundreds of mews danced and merrily cheered in the air as the legendary Pokemon held their own New Year's party.

Celebi and Dialga where talking about the future (literally!). Palkia sat with Darkrai and Cresselia. Giratina and Shaymin danced to the Mews' music along with Lugia and his wife. Silver was flying around excited to see his whole family. Ho-oh and her three hounds sang to the gentle humming emanated by the Mews' while the three idiot birds lay in the center bound and gagged. Beside the three elemental birds Groudon and Kyogre where also forcibly contained, and Manaphy was playing in a solid steel crib. Rayquaza and Latias had snuck away earlier to get some alone time, prompting Latios to look for them, unsuccessfully. Heatran and his twenty-seven beautiful wives sat in the corner drinking and laughing and having a great time.

In the very center of it all hovered Arceus with his queen, the original Mew beside him. "My children," Arceus said in a voice as faint as a whisper yet the area dropped to dead silence in a nanosecond to hear it. "As always, the time has come for us to bestow a gift on deserving mortals to commemorate the holy day and the ushering in of the New Year. Will the marked Mew please come forward?" Arceus called out

A jet black Mew flew towards him from the group surrounding the mountaintop. A silver crescent moon mark sat on her brow. "What is your name, my blessed daughter?" Arceus asked softly.

"Mewn, have you chosen the mortals we will bless this year?" he asked.

Arceus looked up to the cloud of mews "Is there any disagreement among the Mews as to this selection?"

"And among you, my children?" Arceus asked, directing his attention to the various legendaries

"I don't like him," Groudon somehow shouted through his gag. The other gagged legendaries mumbled and shook, showing their agreement

"Shut up, you five don't count," Lugia stated.

Arceus turned to the Mew at his side. "…And you, my Queen?"

"So be it then, at midnight tonight, the household of the Chosen One shall receive our blessing. So I have said, and so it shall BE!" a ripple went through time and space at Arceus' last word, causing Dialga and Palkia to sneeze.

The cloud of Mews began pairing off to what would be the start of a massive orgy, Arceus and his mate as well as Lugia and his family left hastily, preferring to have their own celebrations in private.