Return to Pallet Town

The Ketchum brothers were welcomed home by Delia, Prof. Oak and Tracey once they got back to Pallet Town. Delia had prepared a welcome home meal for her sons and everyone was digging into it.

"You did very well in the Silver Conference Ash." Prof. Oak said.

"Yeah and I especially liked watching the battles Lugia and Celebi were in." Tracey said. "It was cool watching legendary Pokemon battle."

"I figured that it wouldn't have been fair if Lugia and Celebi didn't have the chance to fight in the Silver Conference." Ash said.

"You're right about that Ash." Prof. Oak said. "Every Pokemon deserves a chance to battle alongside their trainers, otherwise they'd feel neglected and left out."

Ash agreed.

"So Ash, are you going to travel to another region?" Delia asked.

Ash and Tomo explained their intent to go to the Hoenn Region next.

"I've heard of the Hoenn Region." Prof. Oak said. "Prof. Birch from the Hoenn Region is a friend of mine and he talks to me about it and the Pokemon all the time."

"The funny thing is though Ash and Tomo already have Pokemon from the Hoenn Region." Tracey said.

He was right; Tomo had Wynaut and Ash had Latias and Latios.

"Speaking of Pokemon." Delia said. "I have two new Pokemon I would like you to meet Ash, Tomo."

Delia's two new Pokemon were a Ledyba and a Marill.

"Wow, when did you get these two Pokemon mom?" Tomo asked.

Delia explained that a few days ago she found Ledyba enjoying the nectar from her flowers and Marill was playing with her garden hat.

"I found them to be so adorable that I had to catch them for myself." Her sons agreed.

After finishing the meal, Ash and Tomo decided to go and visit all of their Pokemon in Prof. Oak's ranch.

"I must say Ash there is one Pokemon who is very anxious to see you again." Prof. Oak said.

"Latias right?" Ash asked. "Are she and the Latios egg okay?"

"Yes they are fine." Prof. Oak answered. "And the Latios egg will hatch any day now."

Ash decided that he would wait till the egg hatched before heading to the Hoenn Region, because he was going to take them to Hoenn and Tomo agreed with the idea. All of Ash's and Tomo's Pokemon were happy to see Ash and Tomo. The brothers released their other Pokemon from their Poke Balls and ended up with two surprises; Ash's Flaaffy was now an Ampharos and Tomo's Sunkern was now a Sunflora. After returning Flaaffy to Prof. Oak's lab it evolved and Tomo's Sunkern wanted to evolve into Sunflora the other day.

"I had a Sun Stone in my office, so I evolved Sunkern with it, if that's okay with you Tomo." Prof. Oak said.

"Of course." Tomo smiled.

He didn't mind because he was happy with his new Sunflora.

Just then Ash was hugged by what looked like Bianca from Alto Mare, but of course it was really a disguised Latias.

"I still find it amazing that Latias has the ability to change her form." Tracey said.

"Hey Latias you been doing okay?" Ash asked.

Latias nodded yes. Her egg was being looked at over in the lab and it looked healthy too.

"I can't wait to see Latios hatch." Ash said. "Although I find it sad he'll grow up without his father around."

Ash was thinking about Latios, who gave up his life to save Alto Mare. Prof. Oak and Tracey heard the story and also thought it was a shame that Latios wasn't here.

"There's no doubt though." Prof. Oak said. "This baby Latios will definitely grow up to be as strong as his father."

"And I will make sure of that." Ash declared. "Besides I did promise Lorenzo and Bianca that I would."

Just then Prof. Oak received a phone call. It was Delia on the phone; she wanted Ash to come home because there was a delivery at home for him.

"I wonder what the delivery is." Ash said.

When he and Tomo returned home, the delivery was a Pokemon egg for Ash and it was from Sabrina of Saffron City. The egg was white and green.

"Wow, now I have another Pokemon egg." Ash said. "I better thank Sabrina as soon as possible."

So he called Sabrina and thanked her. Sabrina explained that the Pokemon in the egg was a psychic type Pokemon, but she didn't tell him what it was.

"You have indeed become strong as a psychic Ash." Sabrina said. "And I can tell that you will become even stronger in the future."

"Thanks Sabrina." Ash said before hanging up.

As soon as the phone was put down, there was a phone call from Tracey.

"Get to the lab quickly Ash, your Latios egg is about to hatch." Tracey said.

"Okay, I'll be right there." Ash replied.

Ash, Tomo and Delia quickly made their way to the lab to watch the Latios egg hatch.

Latias, in her real form was in the lab and watching her egg glow.

"Don't you worry Latias." Tracey said. "It will be okay now."

Ash, Tomo and Delia arrived just in time as the egg glowed very bright. Everyone watched as the egg transformed into a baby Latios.

"In all my years, this is the first time I've seen a baby legendary Pokemon hatch from a egg." Prof. Oak said.

Latias nuzzled her baby and introduced him to Ash. Ash slowly and calmly held his hand out to Latios to pet it. Latios liked Ash's pets and accepted him immediately.

"It's obvious Ash." Prof. Oak said. "This Latios will now consider you as it's adoptive father."

"I will never be able to replace his real dad." Ash said. "But I will take good care of Latias and Latios."

"We should call Lorenzo and Bianca and tell them that the egg hatched." Tomo said.

"Good idea." Ash agreed. "After all, they were the ones who entrusted Latias and Latios to me."

So they contacted Lorenzo and told him that the baby Latios had hatched safely. Lorenzo was relieved and said he would share the good news with Bianca.

"You take care of Latias and her son Ash." Lorenzo said.

"Don't worry I will." Ash replied.

After speaking with Lorenzo, Ash used his empty Dive Ball that he got from Lorenzo and used it to capture Latios and then sent him out again.

"Latias, Latios there is something you two and I are going to do now." He said.

He took out his psychic journal and showed them some pages, which explained a psychic having a bond with their psychic type Pokemon.

"This way you two will be able to communicate with me telepathically." Ash said.

"I've seen this before." Tracey said. "You once explained to me that you did this with Lugia before you went to Johto."

"That's right." Ash nodded. "I have a psychic bond with Espeon, Lugia, Girafarig, Mewtwo and Celebi. So now I will have it with Latias and Latios and when the psychic type Pokemon in my egg hatches, I will have a psychic bond with it too."

Ash then placed his hands on the faces of Latias and Latios and closed his eyes to concentrate on his psychic powers. Latias and Latios did the same thing too. Then Ash and the Eon Pokemon glowed blue and a few minutes later, it died down.

"It's done." Ash said. "I can now communicate with Latias and Latios telepathically."

They did a test to see if it worked and it did.

Just then there was a knock on the lab door.

"I wonder who that could be?" Prof. Oak said.

Tracey went to see who it was, but what he saw was shocking. A pink cat Pokemon and a multi-colored butterfly were lying in front of the door and they were injured. Tracey picked the two Pokemon up and showed them to the professor.

"Oh my, we better treat them immediately." Prof. Oak said.

Thanks to Prof. Oak and his equipment, the two Pokemon were healing well. The cat Pokemon was a Skitty and butterfly was a Beautifly.

"These are Pokemon you would usually find in Hoenn." Prof. Oak said. "I'm surprised to see them here. But they will be okay now."

Delia was commenting how cute the Pokemon were and she decided to keep them for herself.

"I love cat Pokemon and this Beautifly will like my garden." She said.

So it was agreed that Delia would become their owner. Ash passed his Moon Ball and Love Ball to her. As Skitty evolved due to a Moon Stone, the Moon Ball would work on Skitty. And the Love Ball would suit Beautifly since Delia likes it so much. So as soon as Skitty and Beautifly were better Delia used the Moon and Love Balls to catch them.

"What a day we've had." Tomo said.

"We've seen a baby Pokemon hatch, I got a egg from Sabrina and mom got two new Pokemon."

"Yeah but in two days time Tomo." Ash said. "You and I will head off for Hoenn and we will have more fun there."

"I can't wait." Tomo smiled.

Neither could Growlithe.

So the journey in the Johto Region was over, but a new journey would soon begin for the Ketchum brothers.