There was something about this place that was strange. It wasn’t the people, it wasn’t the towns and cities, and it wasn’t the fog that rolled in off the ocean every morning. It was the fact that Ash, now a retired Pokémon master, but only at the young age of 18, had not seen or heard from any of his friends, past and present in years. He had only run in to Misty once throughout his final steps to be a master; and that was in the Hoenn region. Brock had returned home to Pewter City and got married and May had just seemed to have faded in to obscurity after being forced to return home because of illness. Alas, after losing the champion of champions match in Zigzagoon City just two years ago, he too had faded in to nothingness. Which wasn’t a problem for Ash, he’d had his time at the top and he’d accepted that his time was over. He’d grown up.

Ash never lost his love of travelling, and continued to travel just to battle and meet new people and help young trainers who were just starting out. This, coupled with him growing up had turned him from a simple ten year old boy in to a grown up man. He was well built, with his t-shirt fitting tightly around his body as to see his biceps and chest. His hair was now cut shorter than what it used to be and he now prefers to gel it down and stick up the fringe. He used to joke that he had modelled a previous style on his hero, Adolf Hitler, but really it was just a simple side parting that he liked.

Lying on the grass in the shade overlooking a vast, sprawling valley, Ash smiled at all the great memories he had with all his closest friends: Brock, Misty, Tracey, Gary. But he still had no way of contacting them. There had been a massive reshuffle of area codes in the Kanto region while Ash had been away, and with Professor Oak no longer around after suffering a heart attack, and with Oak also being Ash’s only form of passing on progress to his friends and family in the region, the numbers he had on his cell phone were useless. Ash closed his eyes and took a nap.

Five minutes later, he was awoken by his cell phone vibrating in his pocket. The number was familiar. It was Professor Oak’s old cell phone number. He picked it up and cautiously answered it?

“Hello? He asked.”
“Hey Ash” replied a friendly voice. Ash could recognise it from somewhere. “It’s Tracey.”

“Oh! Hello! What’s up?”

“Something simple: What’s happening is, we need some people to head over to the Professor’s old country residence in Red County to tidy it up and do some work on it before I can sell it on to someone.”
“Sell it off?” Ash asked “Why?”
“Well, being Oak’s heir and next of kin, I’m still trying to organise his assets and property. I’ve not got any use for any of his country homes except the one just outside Vermillion City and I can’t handle them either. So I’m requesting you and some others go up there to do something with it. There’ll be 3 others besides you. I hear it’s not too far from you. You just have to go up to Fort Gibson then east to Jackson Bay. Call me on this number when you get there: 0140-4221-555.

“Ok then Tracy.” Ash acknowledged. “I’ll do that. I’ll start off up to Fort Gibson now, and stay the night there. Then I can make my way off to Professor Oak’s place.”
“Thanks a lot, it’ll be a big help. You don’t know how much crap I’ve had on my plate over here.”
“I like to help where I can.” Said Ash modestly
“That old Ketchum modesty: Love it. Anyway, see you later friend.”

“Bye.” Ash put his cell in his pocket, picked up his bag, slung it over one shoulder and headed up the trail towards Fort Gibson.