Reborn Into Pokémon With An Odd System

After about an hour-long ride they were a little more than halfway to the city, Max kept looking out in the woods thinking about how Lance was doing. After spacing out he felt a pat on his shoulder, when he turned around he found Ash looking at him "Are you alright Max, there's no need to be scared since I'm here with you."

Max quickly stopped himself from laughing "I'm not scared I was just wondering about a friend of mine that left home yesterday to have a mini journey. He's looking for his first two pokémon and I was just thinking of how he might be doing."

Ash nodded and brought out his hand "You sound like a nice friend, how about we become friends as well".

Max laughed "What do you mean 'become friends' I thought we already were" he shook Ash's hand and the two began laughing.

Ash looked at Max like he wanted to say something but he hesitated. Max looked at him and smiled "What's up Ash? Do you want to say anything?"

The young kid with spiky hair nodded "I was just wondering why I haven't seen you around, you're from Pallet Town as well right?"

Max gave a slight nod "Yes I am, as for the reason that you haven't seen me it's because I can be pretty shy around some people. I've seen you around when you were running away from wild Pokémon though haha."

Ash turned red and began to search for a way to defend himself "We were just playing tag"

Max raised his eyebrow "Right, well looks like both of you didn't know the rules that Pidgey was pecking at your head over and over. In a game of tag wouldn't that mean that after it pecked you once it should have been trying to fly away from you."

Ash just lowered his head in defeat and nodded "Yeah that was pretty scary it didn't stop following me till I got home."

Professor Oak couldn't help but laugh as he was hearing the two young boys get along. Max turned and faced Ash "It's my turn to ask something, what's the reason that you came to the pokémon camp. I mean it's obvious that you came to learn about pokémon but is there another thing that attracted you here?"

After thinking about the question Ash nodded "Well you see my father went off to become a pokémon trainer, I haven't met him yet but I figured that if I travel then one day I might be able to meet him."

Max nodded "It's a big world are you sure that you can meet him that way?"

Ash gained a confident gaze and nodded "I know that it's unlikely but if I become a Pokémon Master and everyone talks about me then he just has to know about me as well right."

Max began to remember the thing he had done to meet his first parents and sighed. He had gotten over them and now that he was living with Lex and Maria he no longer felt a need for them. In the end, he decided to let the young kid have his dream in the end who knew he might actually pull it off someday. He nodded "Yes that's highly possible but you also have to think about something, It's your life as well, if you want to become a pokémon master then go ahead but there is something I have to warn you about."

The young kid's eyes stared at him without blinking and asked: "What is it? What's the warning?"

Max gave a slight smile "Well you see I won't go easy on you since I also want to become one of the strongest. I might not have a reason as serious as yours but I'm doing it because that's what I want to do and there is no way that I'm going to back down."

Ash's eyes became wide and soon he began laughing "Your right Max, then let me tell you that from now on my dream is to become the Pokémon Master and the reason is because that's what I want to do with my life."

Both of them nodded and gave each other a fist pump and began looking at their side of the forest as the car sped off towards the city.

After another hour they arrived in Viridian City and the Professor stopped at a fast food place called The Char Burger. He parked the car and led Max and Ash inside, while they got in line they looked at the menu. When they were up Oak ordered a Poli Burger which had both the bread and stake with the swirl burned into them, then he pointed to them "Hurry up and order it's on me."

Ash immediately showed an excited smile and began to order. Max, on the other hand, didn't feel comfortable with the idea of having someone pay for him when he had money so he waited till Ash had finished and ordered their special Charred Burger separately and paid. When he turned around he found Oak giving him a gentle smile while Ash gave him a thumbs up.

They sat down and began eating in silence until Oak began trying to break the Ice "So while we were driving I heard about both of you having a small competition in the future."

Max and Ash looked at each other and then back at the professor and nodded "Yeah, Max helped me realize that even if I do enjoy the idea of becoming a Pokémon Master I still had the reason for finding my father behind it. From now on I will become a Pokémon Master because that's what I want to do for myself just like Max. I'm sure that my father will come back when he completes his dream as well."

Oak gave Ash a small nod and then looked at Max "What about your other goal?"

He could feel Ash's gaze as if waiting to hear what his other goal was, Max just shrugged and looked at the Professor " I plan to travel all over, I'm sure that I will be able to find someone who fits what I'm looking for."

Ash looked at him confused, "Are you searching for a certain pokémon?"

Max couldn't help but laugh on the inside while Oak gave the young spiky-haired boy a humorous look. Max simply shook his head "No it's something more special than that, you'll understand when you get older."

Even though he was still curious Ash simply nodded and continued eating. Oak looked at both of them "After you turn 10 make sure that you go to my lab and get your starter pokémon." They both nodded with an excited smile.

After they finished the group began to leave the city and arrived at the forest after a 45-minute drive. They took a trail that led towards the forest and stopped when they found 6 buildings that were built on a clearing. The Professor looked at both of them and smiled "This is where the camp will take place since we are a day early the other kids will start arriving tomorrow morning."

They got out of the car and started following Oak who was walking towards the biggest building that was in the center. When they opened the door the first thing they saw a tall man with blue hair that had a lab coat. When he saw Oak the man quickly ran and gave him a hug "Long time no see professor, how has your research been going."

Professor Oak laughed "Everything is good Vlad, I've been having a lot of different discoveries that we can talk about later with a nice cup of tea, so how has my star pupil been doing?"

Vlad looked at his teacher and smiled "Well all the pokémon here are friendly and healthy so my work here has been easy. There have been some Arbok sightings but Flareon is taking care of it."

Oak nodded and patted his students back "You did a good job raising it so I'm sure that all the kids will be alright."

Professor Oak brought Vlad and introduced him to the kids "Ash, Max this is my student Vlad who recently became a pokémon researcher. Vlad this is Ash and Max who are really talented and wish to become the strongest pokémon trainers.

Vlad gave them a smile and shook there hands "Nice to meet you, I'm sure that you two will do great things in the future. For now, you can choose any of the rooms from the buildings on the left since at the moment it's only you two.

Both of them nodded and ran out of the building trying to find a room that they wanted. There were 4 people that could fit inside each room which had two bunk beds. They chose a room that was farthest from the building that Vlad seemed to occupy and began getting their things out of the car.

Both Ash and Max began talking about some of the funny things in their lives and played some card games with the deck that his father had told him to bring. Before they knew it had turned late and after they ate Max and Ash chose the top of the two bunk beds and got ready to sleep.

Max simply looked at the ceiling and before he fell asleep he whispered: "I look forward to meeting you tomorrow Serena."