[The next morning]
The sun had already dipped below the treetops when Ash stepped outside.
The air felt thick, but not heavy. It was full in a way that reminded him of freshly turned soil. From the raised walkway, the dorm compound unfolded like a small village nestled between jungle and sea. Narrow paths of stone wove between lanterns shaped like Lileep budding from poles. Low wooden buildings with angled roofs creaked gently in the evening wind.
It was a new place. But the silence felt familiar.
He moved quietly with his hands in his pockets, listening.
Behind him, the others were still settling in. Doors opened and closed, bags rustled, water ran, and low voices passed between nearby rooms. Chloe's laugh floated faintly through the open windows. Green was arguing with Gary about drawer space. Yellow was humming something soft. Even Goh's pencil scratches were audible through the thin walls.
Dinner was held outdoors beneath a covered pavilion strung with paper lanterns and flickering bulbs. A long wooden table stretched under the canopy, flanked by benches worn smooth by rain and time.
Above them, the sky deepened to indigo. The first stars began to appear.
"Welcome to Hoenn!" Birch declared again, this time with a raised mug and a piece of grilled pineapple balanced on his fork. "You're all still alive and not covered in bug bites yet, so I'll take that as a good sign."
Ash sat between Chloe and Yellow, both of whom were eyeing the local dishes with wary expressions. Across from them, Goh poked at a bowl of seaweed salad as if he expected it to move.
"Is this supposed to be purple?" he muttered.
"It's natural coloring," Chloe replied. "Some coastal algae pigments—"
"It looks like poison," Gary said loudly, cutting her off.
Green rolled her eyes and reached for another helping. "It's full of iodine. You'll live."
Yellow sniffed a leaf delicately. "It smells like the ocean…"
"That's because it is the ocean," Birch said cheerfully, his mouth half-full. "This entire region lives off it. Fish, trade, weather... everything starts there."
"Then maybe we should start there too," Ash said quietly.
Birch raised an eyebrow. "Planning our itinerary for me, are you?"
Ash only shrugged. "Feels like the kind of place that doesn't wait for you to be ready."
Birch chuckled. "You're not wrong."
Later, after the meal had ended and the dishes had been cleared, Professor Birch unrolled a large map across the table. The students gathered around with half-full glasses of juice and cups of cooling tea in hand.
"Tomorrow," he said, tapping the forest just west of their location, "we start here."
It was Petalburg Woods.
"A temperate rainforest," he continued. "Thicker than anything you saw in Johto, and with an entirely different ecosystem. Expect heat, moisture, and more bug-types than you can name."
The announcement sparked a mix of excitement and mild apprehension, which lingered through the night and into the next morning, as Birch led them out past the dorms and through Littleroot Town itself.
Unlike the imposing wilderness they'd glimpsed on the map, the town was calm, its pace slow and familiar. Birch guided them all through its narrow paths, his excitement as boundless as the open fields surrounding the sleepy village.
He pointed out landmarks with the same enthusiasm one might reserve for legendary ruins. Here, however, the "ancient wonders" included the single Poké Mart, the wind-worn community board, and Old Man Toku's Tauros shed. Still, in Birch's eyes, every corner held a story, every building a piece of a larger mystery waiting to be solved.
"See that patch of dirt over there?" he said, gesturing to a bare spot next to the flower shop. "That's where I first spotted a wild Shroomish this far south. Completely out of range, according to the textbooks. It changed my entire hypothesis on migratory spore patterns."
Green blinked. "A patch of dirt changed your theory?"
"A patch of dirt and a persistent Pokémon," Birch replied with a grin. "That's how science works. Discovery in the most unexpected places."
Ash stifled a laugh as they rounded the corner toward the edge of town, where the tall grass of Route 101 stirred in the breeze. Here, Birch's tone shifted from lively to reverent.
"This," he said, stopping, "is the threshold. Beyond this point is the wild. Unmapped. Untamed. Dangerous, yes; but full of potential."
They stood quietly for a moment, letting the sounds of distant cries and rustling leaves wash over them. A Taillow soared overhead, wings slicing through the blue sky, then disappeared behind the treetops.
Yellow stepped forward first, the brim of her hat casting a soft shadow over her eyes as she peered into the grass. Her voice, when she spoke, was quiet but certain.
"What kind of bug-types live here?"
Birch's eyes lit up. "Excellent question. Wurmple are the most common. You'll find their silk threads trailing between branches like invisible bridges. But keep an eye out for Nincada burrows. Their tunnels run just beneath the roots. And if you're lucky (or unlucky) you might spot a Dustox flock heading to roost. Or worse, Silcoon nests. Stay clear of those. They're territorial."
He gave the group a conspiratorial grin. "And if you hear clicking, that's a warning."
Everyone glanced at each other.
"Clicking?" Goh asked, already pulling out his notebook.
"The jaws of a hungry Ariados," Birch said simply.
Chloe raised a brow. "That's supposed to be reassuring?"
"No," Birch admitted. "But it is fascinating."
They lingered there a moment longer, on the edge of Route 101, the town behind them glowing softly in the early evening light. The wind carried the scent of damp earth and unseen leaves baking in the last warmth of the day.
Then Birch turned, clapped his hands once, and grinned.
"Well, no sense just standing here," he said. "The school's waiting."
Ash lingered a moment longer before turning away with the rest, casting one last glance toward the tall grass. The air seemed to hum with possibility, but the forest would have to wait.
"Right, right," Birch said, already halfway back up the path. "The jungle will still be there tomorrow. But today, we start with something even more thrilling."
He turned with a grin.
"Orientation."
Groans rose from the group like synchronized birdsong. Gary let his head fall back dramatically. Yellow sighed with faint disappointment. Even Chloe gave a theatrical roll of her eyes.
"Come on," Birch laughed. "It's not just paperwork and rules. You'll want to know how not to get mauled by a Seviper before the semester ends."
"That does sound useful," Goh admitted, scribbling something in his notebook.
The school building sat nestled behind a ring of flowering trees just past the dorms: a modest two-story structure of polished wood and pale stone, with open-air corridors and wide eaves. It was built into the hillside, blending with the terrain rather than overtaking it. A mossy rock garden lined the entrance, and the occasional Skitty lounged on shaded windowsills like they owned the place.
Inside, the air was cool and shaded, with fans turning lazily above. Birch led them through a breezeway lined with glass cases, each one filled with curious items: molted shells from foreign bug-types, faded field journals, pressed leaves and fossil fragments. Ash paused briefly to study a strange, spiraling horn labeled Relicanth (juvenile?) before being ushered along.
They entered a large, open room that served as the main classroom. One wall was almost entirely made of sliding panels, thrown open to let in the breeze. The opposite side held a massive chalkboard layered with maps, diagrams, and half-erased notes from what looked like years of overlapping field studies. Desks were arranged in a loose semicircle, clustered like campfires rather than in rows.
The classroom wasn't empty.
As Birch swung the door fully open and motioned them inside, Ash noticed three people already seated toward the far side of the semicircle. They looked up as the group filed in.
One of them, tan-skinned with windswept dark hair and a confident slouch, raised a hand in casual greeting. "You're late," he said with a grin.
Birch snorted. "Brendan, don't start."
The girl beside him gave a small wave, her hair tucked into a red bandana and her expression bright with curiosity. "Hi. You must be the Kanto group."
"Yup," Green replied cooly.
But Ash barely registered the reply. His attention had snagged on the third figure: a boy with pale green hair and a delicate, almost fragile presence. He sat with his hands folded neatly in his lap, his soft smile not quite reaching his eyes.
"I'm Wally," the boy said, voice polite and almost shy. "It's nice to meet all of you."
"..."
"!!!"
'What the—?!!!'
Ash was surprised. First he met Ethan, Lyra, Vincent, Kris, and Casey. That had been weird, sure; but they were all about the same age. Almost. Close enough that you could wave it off as some strange cross-regional trainer program.
But this?
Brendan. The male protagonist from Hoenn. From the third and sixth generation.
May. The other half of that same protagonist duo. Red bandana, unmistakable.
And Wally. The rival. Not just any rival either; the official one, stamped and sealed by whatever cosmic rulebook (*cough* Nintendo *cough*) decreed it so.
Ash stared at them, stunned.
'Why are they even here? Meeting the Johto crew made some sense. Proximity, age group, League structure, whatever. But the Hoenn trio? They've got to be at least two or three years younger than us. They shouldn't be anywhere near our bracket, let alone in the same classroom. And May? She's supposed to be living in Olivine right now, she's not even meant to move out to Hoenn for another couple of years!'
'What the actual #$%& is going on with this timeline?!'
Oblivious to Ash's bewilderment, Professor Birch clapped his hands with excitement. "Great! Looks like almost everyone's here. Let's do a quick round of introductions before we get started. Name, and maybe a fun fact if you're feeling brave."
He beamed at the group and gestured broadly. "Go on, don't be shy. Let's start with the Hoenn group."
Brendan tapped a finger to his chest with a grin. "Brendan, Littleroot Town. Fastest time in Professor Birch's running shoes. Just saying."
May rolled her eyes but smiled anyway. "I'm May, from Olivine City. I recently moved to Petalburg City because my dad became the gym leader there."
Wally sat a little straighter, folding his hands neatly in his lap. "I'm Wally, Verdanturf Town. It's really nice to meet all of you."
Ash stared at them, his brain still trying to reboot.
"Very well," Birch said with a nod. "And from Kanto?"
Ash blinked, caught off guard. "Uh... I'm Ash, from Pallet Town. I'm great when it comes to anything about Pokémon, and my goal is to become a Pokémon Master."
Green gave him a flat look, arms folded. "Green, from Pallet Town. I want to specialize in Pokémon evolution when I'm older."
Gary shrugged, hands in his pockets. "Gary, also from Pallet Town. I also want to be a Pokémon Master."
Yellow shifted shyly, holding her hat brim. "Yellow, from Viridian City. I'm good at understanding Pokémon's feelings, and I want to help injured ones recover."
Goh grinned with excitement. "Goh, from Vermilion City. My dream's to catch every Pokémon in the world, starting with Mew!"
Chloe adjusted her bag strap, speaking calmly. "Chloe, also from Vermilion. I'm still figuring things out, but I want to learn more about what makes each Pokémon unique."
Birch nodded along as each of them spoke, clearly pleased, then clapped his hands once more."Perfect! Now that we all know each other, let's get you oriented, both literally and academically."
The rest of the introductions passed without incident, but Ash kept glancing sideways at the Hoenn trio, as if looking too long might make them dissolve into thin air. No such luck. They were still there, flesh and blood, occasionally whispering to each other when Birch's back was turned.
The professor launched into an enthusiastic overview of the campus. "First off, your base of operations: this building. You'll spend plenty of time here when you're not in the field. We have three classrooms, a shared lab space, and the archives. Oh, you'll love the archives. We've got field notes dating back to the first settlers, not to mention fossil rubbings from places even I haven't been allowed to visit."
He gestured to the chalkboard behind him, which was layered with overlapping diagrams. Some were maps of local routes, others were sketches of Pokémon anatomy, migration arrows crisscrossing in bright chalk. At the center was a rough sketch of Hoenn itself, the coastline curling like a half-closed fist.
"The field program here is different from what you might be used to. In Kanto and Johto, research is often structured around gym cities, League regulations, and established routes. Here, we work in reverse. We start with the wilderness, map the unknown, and then connect it back to civilization. Every expedition you take part in is designed to gather data that will eventually shape how trainers, scientists, and even the League itself interact with this region."
Ash leaned forward slightly. It was rare to hear a professor talk about the wild as if it came before the League, not after.
Birch paced slowly as he spoke, his voice rising and falling with enthusiasm. "The next few weeks will be a mix of theory and practice. You will learn field safety, species identification, and environmental ethics alongside your actual expeditions. That means understanding how to cross Ariados territory without becoming part of the web, how to keep a Wurmple from becoming Cascoon bait, and yes, how to tell when a tree is just a tree and not, say, a sleeping Tropius."
Gary raised an eyebrow. "That last one sounds oddly specific."
Birch grinned. "Experience is a very patient teacher."
May smothered a laugh, while Brendan leaned back in his chair with a knowing smirk. Wally, on the other hand, seemed content to simply listen, his attention fixed politely on Birch as if nothing else in the room mattered.
"Also, from what I know, Elm split you into groups, right?" Birch asked.
"Yeah, he did." Ash answered.
Birch shook his head.
"Well, not this time. Things will be different. For now, you'll all be working together as one unit, watching each other's backs and learning to rely on one another."
Yellow brightened at that. "So everyone stays together?"
"Exactly," Birch confirmed. "It will give you a chance to learn each other's strengths before we start experimenting with different combinations."
May glanced around the semicircle with a curious smile. "Guess that means we will be seeing a lot of each other."
Brendan smirked. "Hope you can keep up."
Gary gave him a look that was half challenge, half amusement. "That goes both ways."
Wally's smile remained faint but steady, his gaze flicking briefly toward Ash before returning to Birch.
The professor clapped his hands once more. "Right, before anyone gets too comfortable in their seats, we have a short walk ahead. I was going to show you the supply wing and the lab, so you would know where to find equipment for tomorrow, but I am afraid I cannot. Brendan, Wally, May, can you guide them?"
"Sure," Brendan said, hopping to his feet with the easy confidence of someone who knew every loose floorboard in the place. "Come on, I'll give you the real tour. Not just the 'don't get mauled by Seviper' version."
"Hey," Birch protested lightly, "the Seviper rule is important."
"Yeah, yeah," Brendan waved him off. "I'll throw it in somewhere between the good stuff."
May stood as well, adjusting her bag and giving a warm smile toward the Kanto group. "It's not far, but there's a lot crammed into the supply wing. Birch keeps… well, everything in there."
"Everything?" Goh perked up instantly.
"Everything," May confirmed. "You'll see."
Wally rose more slowly, brushing invisible dust from his trousers. "I can take the rear," he offered softly, his tone polite, almost deferential. "So no one gets left behind."
Ash caught that glance again, quick and almost shy, but with something behind it. Not quite curiosity, not quite recognition. He filed it away without knowing why.
They stepped back out into the breezeway, where the late sunlight slanted across the wooden floorboards and painted warm streaks across the glass cases. Outside, the sound of cicadas swelled, layered with the soft rustle of leaves from the ring of trees around the school.
Brendan led the way, pointing out things with casual familiarity.
"That's the archives," he said, nodding toward a sturdy door marked with a faded brass plate. "Only open in the afternoons unless you have a research permit. Birch basically lives in there."
Chloe slowed to peek through the frosted window, her curiosity piqued. "What kind of research?"
"Mostly field logs, old expedition maps, and data nobody's digitized yet," May said, glancing back at her. "You'd be surprised how much of Hoenn's been half-mapped for decades."
Brendan smirked. "Some of it's probably half-wrong, too."
Gary muttered, "Sounds like my grandpa's attic," earning a quiet laugh from Yellow.
The walkway curved, opening into a shaded courtyard where a small fountain trickled over river stones. Wally slowed, trailing his fingers briefly in the water before following again. Ash noticed that he moved lightly, like someone always conscious of how much space they took up.
They reached a pair of wide double doors at the far side of the courtyard. Brendan shouldered one open.
"Here we are. Supply wing."
The air inside was cooler, carrying the faint scent of old rope, machine oil, and something herbal, dried leaves hanging in neat bundles from the rafters. Shelves stretched along the walls, stacked with labeled crates, weatherproof bags, coiled nets, portable cookstoves, and glass jars filled with preserved specimens.
"Whoa," Goh breathed, already drifting toward a shelf stacked with field cameras.
"Try not to touch everything," Brendan warned without looking back.
Brendan's warning lasted all of five seconds.
"Hey, look at this!" Goh called, holding up a strange-looking metal cylinder with a hand crank.
"Put that down before you trigger the signal flare," Brendan said flatly.
Goh froze. "…Signal flare?"
May snorted. "Don't worry, they're not armed. Birch learned his lesson after the Wingull incident."
Yellow tilted her head. "…Do I want to know?"
"Probably not," Brendan said, sliding open a drawer to reveal neatly packed coils of climbing rope and carabiners. "Short version: never test-fire anything inside the building."
Ash moved through the aisles with his hands in his pockets, eyes skimming over rows of gear. It wasn't just the usual field supplies, there were oddities tucked between the standard-issue items: a worn leather satchel with Johto embroidery, a box labeled Aipom deterrents in Birch's messy scrawl, even a cluster of apricorns that looked like they'd been preserved in resin.
May trailed after him, offering occasional explanations. "That crate's for water sampling kits. Over there's the bug-type handling gear, like gloves, nets, and pheromone spray."
"Pheromone spray?" Ash repeated.
"Yeah," Brendan called from another aisle. "It's either that or be followed by a swarm for three days. Your choice."
Brendan grabbed a stack of folded maps. "Alright, this is the important part, navigation. Every route in Hoenn's a little different, but you should always carry a map and compass, no matter how many gadgets you've got. GPS fails, batteries die, and before you know it you're waist-deep in a swamp wondering how you got there."
"Speaking from experience?" Gary asked.
Brendan grinned. "More than once."
May rolled her eyes. "And whose fault was that?"
"Not mine," Brendan said immediately, which only made her laugh.
Ash found himself watching the easy banter between them, but his attention kept flicking back to Wally. The boy didn't speak much, yet he seemed to be listening to everything, storing it away like a secret.
Brendan clapped his hands together. "Alright, last stop: gear checkout. If you need something for tomorrow's trek into Petalburg Woods, you sign it out here." He pointed to a logbook sitting on a counter beside a box of stubby pencils.
Goh was already halfway there. "Dibs on a camera!"
"Noted," Brendan said dryly.
May leaned against the counter, arms folded loosely as she watched Goh scribble his name into the logbook. "Try not to drop it in a river," she said.
"I won't," Goh replied without looking up.
"You say that now," Brendan murmured, flipping the logbook toward himself to check the rest of the entries.
Chloe stepped up next, scanning the shelves thoughtfully before picking out a small field kit. "Just basic tools for now," she said, signing her name.
Gary took his time, moving from shelf to shelf until he found a compact pair of binoculars. "These should be enough for spotting from a distance," he said, jotting his name quickly.
Yellow hesitated before choosing a small canvas pouch. Inside were neatly wrapped bandages, small jars of antiseptic salve, and a roll of gauze. "I'll keep this with me," she said softly, holding it close.
Ash was one of the last to step forward. He scanned the racks until something caught his attention: a sturdy, weatherproof journal with a loop for a pencil along its spine. He picked it up, feeling the weight of the blank pages, and signed for it without a word.
Wally waited until everyone else was done before approaching. He reached for a folded, laminated map of the Petalburg Woods and a compass with a faint scratch across its face. "I'll bring these back in the same condition," he murmured to Brendan.
"You'd better," Brendan said, though his tone was more amused than stern.
Once everyone had their gear, May pushed the logbook closed with a soft thump. "That's it for the supply wing. Tomorrow morning, you'll be glad you didn't skip this part."
Brendan started toward the doors again, glancing back at the group. "Before we cut you loose, there's one last stop: the lab."
The word caught Ash's attention. "The lab?"
"Yeah," Brendan said as they stepped back into the courtyard's warm light. "Where Birch keeps all the specimens, samples, and half-finished projects he swears he's going to get back to one day."
May smiled faintly. "It's… organized chaos. Emphasis on chaos."
The path to the lab curved uphill, past another row of shaded windows and the scent of something sweet drifting from the trees above. Cicadas sang louder here, and somewhere in the distance a Wingull cried out over the sea.
Wally fell into step beside Ash this time, his gaze still mostly forward but his voice just audible over the hum of insects. "Have you been in a place like this before?"
Ash thought about it for a moment before answering. "Not exactly. Closest was Professor Oak's lab, but this feels… different. More like it's part of the wild instead of apart from it."
Wally gave the smallest of nods, almost as if he'd been expecting that answer.
When they reached the lab doors, Brendan shoved them open without ceremony, and the smell of earth, dried leaves, and a faint chemical tang drifted out to meet them.
Inside, the room was a jumble of labeled jars, terrariums stacked in neat rows, trays of pressed plants, and shelves sagging under the weight of books and binders. A slow drip echoed from somewhere in the back, where a row of tanks held murky water and flashes of movement beneath the surface.
May stepped inside first. "Welcome to Birch's second home."
Ash followed, eyes sweeping over everything at once. "This… is incredible."
May smiled faintly at Ash's awe. "Careful," she said, stepping aside so Yellow and Chloe could enter behind him. "If you stop to look at everything, you'll be here until next week."
"That's not a bad thing," Goh said immediately, already leaning over a terrarium where a pale-green Silcoon hung from a branch like an ornament. "Is that alive?"
"It's in stasis," Brendan answered, pulling a stool over so he could reach a shelf stacked with specimen jars. "Birch uses temperature control to slow their development. Lets him study their pupal stage longer."
Gary raised an eyebrow. "Sounds… a little creepy."
"Science usually does, if you don't know what you're looking at," Brendan said, setting the jar back with casual precision. "Just don't shake anything."
Ash drifted toward the back, drawn by the faint splashing from the row of tanks. One held a slow-moving Relicanth, its mottled hide blending perfectly with the stones lining the bottom. Another was full of silt, the only sign of life a sudden flicker of pale claws before the creature buried itself again.
"That's a Corphish," Wally said quietly, coming to stand beside him. "They like to dig when they're stressed. Makes them feel safer."
Ash glanced at him. "You spend a lot of time here?"
"Sometimes," Wally admitted. "When I'm well enough to travel, I help Birch with field samples. The rest of the time…" He gestured vaguely at the shelves. "I study. It's not the same as being in the wild, but it's close."
Something in the way he said it, calm and almost resigned, made Ash want to ask more. Before he could, Brendan's voice rang out from the far side of the lab.
"Alright, rule number one: if you break it, you label it. Rule number two: if you spill it, you really label it."
Yellow looked up from a case of pinned insect specimens. "Why?"
May grinned. "Because sometimes what you spill keeps moving."
Chloe closed the notebook she'd been sketching in. "I'm starting to see why Birch wanted us to know the safety rules before sending us out tomorrow."
"Exactly," Brendan said, hopping down from the stool. "You think the jungle's dangerous? This place has claimed more than one pair of perfectly good boots."
"That's because you left them too close to the soil cultures," May said with mock reproach.
"They were fine until the Shroomish got curious!" Brendan shot back.
Ash found himself smiling despite the strange timeline tension still gnawing at the back of his mind. For now, at least, the chaos felt… comfortable. Like he'd stumbled into the middle of someone else's long-running routine.
Wally glanced toward the door, the late sunlight spilling across the floorboards. "We should head back. Birch will want to make sure you're settled before tomorrow."
Brendan clapped his hands. "Right. Field packs by the door before breakfast. Boots on, sleeves rolled, bug spray in reach. Petalburg Woods waits for no one."
"And," May added, walking past Ash with a knowing smile, "bring water. Lots of it."
They stepped back outside into the deepening evening. The air had cooled just enough to take the edge off the day's heat, and the cicadas were giving way to the first chorus of night Pokémon. Through the trees, the dorm lights glowed warm and steady.
Ash took a last look back at the lab, its windows catching the last streaks of gold in the sky. Tomorrow, the real work would begin.