"Useless. That's what 13 year old Ash Ketchum thought of himself whilst staring out of the airplane window, 5 Pokémon Leagues and had he ever won one? No. On top of that, he had never even been in the finals. "Ash!" A voice squeaked, it belonged to one of his newly made friends; who he had met in the Decolore islands. "Sorry Alexa, I'm kinda upset that I lost again." His voice was filled to the brim with sorrow and despair, he felt... he felt like a waste of space and that's what he had told himself for the past 4 hours. "Ash, I understand you must be disappointed-" Alexa paused carefully thinking about her next words, but they never came because Ash had turned his head back to the window, not wanting to listen to a pitiful apology. As he looked out of the window a large mountain caught his eye, he hadn't seen it on the way to Unova due to the weather being very overcast, the current weather didn't match to his emotions instead the weather was portraying a very happy day, but in Ash's mind this could have been one of the worst days of his life. The mountain returned to his thoughts, 'Where is that? Because that isn't Kanto, Johto, Hoenn or Sinnoh and it definitely can't be Unova... A new region perhaps?' Ash was deep in thought not even realizing that Alexa had been forcefully prodding his left shoulder. He kept his gaze focused on the mountain, he couldn't see the ground due to how high up the aircraft was flying. By this point Alexa had gotten tired of Ash ignoring her so she decided to slap his arm, this earned his attention, "What was that for?" He complained. Alexa smiled and giggled, "Now I finally have your attention." She paused again to peer over Ash's shoulder and gave a firm nod, to nothing in particular. "I see you were staring at that mountain over there." Alexa continued, Ash sighed 'No, matter how much I want to her be quiet; she sure is observant.' He thought then spoke, "Yeah, do you know where that is?" He quizzed her expecting no answer but Alexa knew, "Ash my friend, that mountain is the highest point in the Kalos Region." The word region granted Alexa, Ash's full attention. "How do you know that?" He asked curiously, Alexa laughed and fell back in her seat, "Don't you remember, that's my home region. I told you a while back." She replied with an ear-to-ear grin. Ash delved back into his thoughts...
"Ash, don't be upset you lost." Iris comforted him, Cilan nodded and place a hand on Ash's shoulder. "Well Ash, there's always my home region's league." Alexa chimed in from the back of the group. "I've probably tried it." Ash commented with an emotionless expression. "Oh come on, where has that positive attitude gone. Anyway I'm from the Kalos Region. They have a league you might want to try your hand at." Alexa added.
"Oh yeah... I remember now." Ash stated, his face had a flush of red, due to being embarrassed that he forgotten about that. Saying that Ash usually forgot a lot things, his frown literally turned upside down as he continued. "I'm going to try and beat the Kalos League." Alexa's expression eased, "That's the spirit, your determined personality never let's you down." She praised. Alexa turned back to her magazine, which was published by her press company a few days prior; she had never gotten round to reading it as she was focused on getting back to Kalos, but now she had spare time, a lot of spare time, she decided to read it.
"Pika, Pi." An excited voice shouted, "Tile, Helio." Another voice shouted, this time slightly higher pitched.
Pikachu bolted through the small gap between the aircraft's seats, whilst being chased by Helioptile, running towards Ash and Alexa. People all around the area of row 34 and 35 of the aircraft gazed at the two Pokémon playing and having fun. Pikachu looked back towards Helioptile, he came to a quick stop because he noticed Helioptile was looking very tired. "Heli-op-tile" She panted between breaths, then curled up in a ball in the middle of the aisle. As Helioptile lay down she felt a paw touch her, it belonged to Pikachu. "Pika, Pi, Pikachu?" He asked her stand and get up so they could return to their trainers, Helioptile shook her head; signaling she was to tired to move. "Pika." He softly sighed, Pikachu wandered over Helioptile and began to move her, when she licked the side of his face...
He froze. Electricity sent sparking out of his cheek pouches, he turned away with a prominent pink hue sprawled across his face. "Well, Well. Looks like somebody has taken a liking to somebody." A voice commented, Pikachu slowly turned his head to the origin of the voice, the sound had come from a brown-haired girl, wearing a black and red shirt with a high, white collar along with grey jeans and brown, short-heeled boots, it was Alexa. Pikachu hid his eyes behind his paws, also covering the considerably large blush spread across his cheeks. Alexa knelt in front of Pikachu, "Don't worry, I won't tell Ash." Alexa whispered sofly in Pikachu's ear. "Pi, Pikachu." He was relieved, so he loosened up a little. "Let's get back to our seats now." She suggested as she stood up, whilst picking up Helioptile. The three arrived back at their seats and Pikachu hopped on to Ash's lap. Ash was surprised by the sudden contact, never the less he smiled, "You know Pikachu..." Ash paused "Pika?" Pikachu asked concerned of the weariness in his trainer's voice. "...I want to try and beat the Kalos league-"
"Pika, Pi!" He exclaimed loudly
"Whoa, I didn't think you'd be happy to travel again." Ash's tone soothed, losing the shakiness that was present in his voice. "Pika pi, Pikachu." The yellow mouse added, "I know, you love exploring new regions and I do too. I just hope we can win league." Ash replied. The mouse nodded, then Ash proceeded to pet his head earning a soft coo from his Pokémon. After a few minutes Pikachu began stop cooing and snoring followed in it's position, "I bet he's tired." Alexa suggested, Ash dipped his head in acknowledgement. "Well you should probably get some rest too. After all we are going to be on this plane for another 8 hours, plus it'll be good for you." She followed up. He couldn't disagree with her reasoning, Ash sure was tired and after his brain being run dry like a river in a desert; he wanted to recuperate and be ready to see his Mum. So he closed the red curtains over the window which provided him with some darkness, then Ash shut his eyes drifting off into sleep.
The airplane lowered towards the runway, preparing to land after a lengthy 12 hour flight; the tires screeched on the tarmac. The noise of the rubber coming into contact with the floor caused Ash and Pikachu to stir, Pikachu slowly moved out the ball he had curled up into during his slumber where as Ash rubbed his eyes and peered around the aircraft cabin, artificial lights had taken the place of the warm and sunlight being radiated from the center of the solar system. This caused Ash to look around for a clock, so he could tell what the time was. As he gazed, Ash noticed to his immediate left Alexa was still sleeping soundly, he decided to give her five more minutes peace and quiet. His eyes drifted to the right spotting a digital clock displaying the time as 01:32. Ash spread the curtains that covered the airport's several runways, all with lights to guide the aircraft for safe landing and flying. Ash's plane rolled along the tarmac and parked in gate 35.
A constant whirring of plane engines woke Alexa, she rubbed her eyes and stretched, as did Helioptile. A noise, which was a soft ding, covered the aircraft cabin and the pilot's voice followed. "Hello, this is your Captain speaking and we have landed in Vermillion City; I hope you've had an relaxing flight. The time is currently 01:35 and it's a bone shivering 3°c outside so I would recommend wearing a jacket. Never the less thank you for flying with Air Kanto." The pilot's voice cut off and a barrage of conversations arose, Ash and Alexa stood from their seat and made their way off of the aircraft.
Whilst Ash was walking towards the airport, after striding down the stairs that lead them onto the ground itself; a cold, brisk wind blew and began to separate his hat from his head but Ash held his hand on top of his hat and started to power walk, causing Alexa to walk quicker.
Ash entered the airport and warm air encircled his body causing him smile, almost immediately after he entered the airport, he heard "Ash! Over here!" It was none other than his mother, she was wearing a thick, black coat leaving the bottom half of the outfit to be finished by a purple skirt and white-orange canvas shoes. His walked turned into a sprint as he darted into his mother's arms. "I've missed you so much Mum!" Ash exclaimed as he reciprocated the hug, "Same here Ash, you know every time I see you after coming back from these journeys I see how much you have grown." Delia responded whilst gesturing to his clothes, which consisted of his signature red hat, a blue and white jacket and black pants; albeit they were little on the small side now. Ash and Delia separated their hug as Alexa walked over, "Hi, Mrs. Ketchum pleasure to meet you, I'm Alexa." She introduced herself, "No no, the pleasure is mine and by the way please call me Delia." Ash's mother replied. There was a brief silence until Ash piped up, "Hey Mum, do you want to see my new Pokémon?" Delia smiled and exclaimed "Sure, you know how much I love seeing your new friends." At that instant Ash produced five Pokéballs from his belt and tossed them into the air revealing his Pokémon. Delia stood awestruck at her Ash's Pokémon and gazed towards a certain Thorn Monkey, "Ash who are these Pokémon, I've never seen them before." Delia questioned, Ash walked over to the left of the group of Pokémon. Ash began to introduce his new Pokémon "Firstly we have Simisage, a grass type." Simisage energetically hopped up and down on the spot then landed on one foot, "Next is Palpitoad, a water and ground type." The Vibration Pokémon span around and stopped, Delia had a faint smile on her lips as Ash introduced his next Pokémon, "Over here, we have Accelgor." Accelgor swiftly moved to Delia and stood firmly next to her, "Mum, it looks like she has taken a liking to you." Ash smiled widely "Well aren't you a cutie." Delia stated whilst rubbing the Pokémon's head, then added. "Please continue Ash."
He wasted no time in doing so, "My 4th new Pokémon is a Krookdile." Ash introduced a black and red crocodile, Delia didn't like the look of Krookodile too much; but she still smiled. "And last but not least we have Chand..." He paused realizing Chandelure had disappeared, so he looked around for his ghost and fire type "...He always does this, Chandelure is a bit of a prankster." Ash concluded.
Hidden in the shadows Chandelure was laughing to himself, but his laughter ceased when Ash gazed in his direction and pointed to him. The ghost revealed himself and flew to Ash's hugging him. "Your good at being a joker you know." Ash praised, Chandelure smiled and released Ash from the hug, the two boys walked over to Delia and Alexa, who were conversing, "So are we ready to go?" Delia questioned, earning a nod from Alexa and a thumbs up with a smile from Ash. The group of 3 walked through the airport, swerving between groups of travellers and trainers.
After a five minute walk through the large building, Ash, Delia and Alexa had made it to the parking lot.