Disclaimer: Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

Author's Note: Welcome to the sequel to Wanderlust. If you haven't checked that out, you'll probably not know what's going on, and you should probably at least skim most of that to keep up, even if the first few chapters are weak. Wanderlust, and this story by definition, diverged after AG192 (Home Is Where The Start Is!), and everyone from the AG-or-earlier cast is aged up by two years. By now, Max is twelve-and-three quarters, having left home nine months prior to this chapter; May is just about to turn 15, having competed in the Johto Grand Festival; and Ash is 17, having won the Lily of the Valley Conference off-screen. In addition, I've also tampered with the ages of the XY and XYZ cast, but those aren't captured by a simple 'two years older than stated'. You'll see me mention their ages when relevant.

And now, on with the show.

Chapter 1: Grandiose Lumiose

"Ultimately, the differences between the two Mega Evolutions are irrelevant for most Trainers right now. Mega Stones are rare, and there are only four known instances of Charizardite X or Y. If you run across one of them, be sure to write to Pokémon Illuminated, and we'll be sure to feature your account in one of our next issues!"

The sound of a speaker popping made Max Maple look up, away from the magazine he had been given for Christmas. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are approaching Lumiose Airport and will shortly start our final descent. it is currently fourteen-thirty six local time, and our landing should be in approximately fifteen minutes, ten minutes behind schedule," the Captain of their plane informed everyone. "The local weather is sunny, with temperatures just below freezing and snow forecast for overnight."

The Captain's deep voice was replaced with the pleasant voice of one of the flight attendants, telling them to secure their luggage, put seats and tray tables right, and so on. Max had heard that before, and he tuned most of it out to fully wake his best friend next to him. "Hey, sleepyhead," he said, poking the taller teenager in the shoulder, "time to wake up."

"I'm up," said Danny Birch, Max's best friend for quite a few years now, voice sluggish with drowsiness. "We already landing?"

"You slept for three hours," Max told his friend as he put his magazine away, stowing his small backpack under his chair where it was safe. "I don't know how you do it," he added. Truth be told, he was a bit envious of Danny's ability to sleep. Max felt fine now, but he had been up for nearly fifteen hours already. It'd be pretty embarrassing if he crashed on the way to the Pokémon Center.

"Well, I'm not complaining," Danny told Max smugly, stretching as best he could in his window seat. "Just try not to fall asleep on the streets, okay. That might hurt a bit."

"Ya think," Max muttered, but any further reply was cut off by the flight attendant asking them to fasten their seatbelts now. Another attendant started moving, picking up cups and glasses.

All too soon, both of them felt the plane start to descend. Neither of them said anything for a spell, until… "Whoa!" Danny exclaimed rather loudly. "Lumiose is enormous."

What little Max could see from his seat next to the aisle confirmed it. Even from what he could see, it just looked several times bigger than Mauville was. Of course, he knew that already, having checked the area of both cities in the respective region guides beforehand, but as he had found out many times, knowing something and seeing or feeling it were very different things.

Even if it involved Pokémon attacks.

Approximately two hours later, the two teenagers exited their shuttle transport from the airport, getting out near the central Pokémon Center on Magenta Plaza as the last ones to leave the bus. In fact, they got off close enough that they could see it right in front of them; a four-storey sprawling building that was bigger than any Pokémon Center Max had ever seen, though one of the ones at the Indigo Plateau came close. It only caught their attention for a moment.

To their left was Lumiose's defining feature: the marvel of engineering that was Prism Tower. Towering over the rest of the town at nearly a thousand feet – a thousand – tall, the white tower housing the Lumiose Gym was currently not lit up yet, but Max knew that the panes in its sides would emit soft light once the sun actually set.

Right now, however, he was just in awe at the sheer size of it. Jirachi it was huge.

"Jirachi, huh. You must be from Hoenn," came a voice from behind them.

Upon turning around, Max saw a teenager, about as tall as Danny was, but obviously a year or two older, leaning against a lamppost a few feet behind them, arms folded. He had blonde hair and round glasses, and he was wearing something that looked like light-blue overalls under a same-colour winter coat. "Well, am I right?"

"You are," Max confirmed, shifting his carry-on luggage to his left hand and extending his right. "I'm Max, from Petalburg in Hoenn, as you guessed." They shook hands, and Danny introduced himself as well. "How'd you guess?"

"Well… One, jirachi is a Mythical Pokémon associated with Hoenn and two, the airport tag on your backpack is colour-coded for the Home Regions area," the teen started, prompting Max to take a look at the red-and-white tag hanging off of one of the zips. "It's a simple process of deduction." Rapid footsteps announced the arrival of someone else. "And now it's time for us to introduce ourselves. My name's Clemont, and this," he said as he stepped aside to reveal a girl wearing a bright yellow coat, "is my little sister Bonnie."

"I'm not your little sister," Bonnie huffed. "I'm eleven."

"And I'm fifteen, so you are my little sister," Clemont told her. Bonnie made a quick rude face, but dropped it when Clemont looked at her. "Bonnie, these are Max and Danny. They just arrived from Hoenn, and if I were to guess… They're here to go for the Kalos League."

"Right again," Danny confirmed. "More deductions?"

"Kind of," Clemont admitted. "But boys can't go for Pokémon Showcases, so Trainers like you coming here tend to do it for sight-seeing or the Kalos League. You don't look like sightseers." The teen pushed his glasses up his nose. "Call it an educated guess." Around them, street lights started to switch on. "So, want to get a room at the Center and see inside Prism Tower? It's quite a treat, I'll have you know."

"Isn't Prism Tower closed?" Danny wondered before Max could. "Back home, all Gyms are closed in the week between Yule and New Year's."

"It's the same here, but I can get you in no problem," Clemont said, a smirk dancing on his face.

"My brother's the Lumiose City Gym Leader," Bonnie blurted out, showing her tongue to Clemont when he turned towards her. "He can do anything he wants with Prism Tower."

"Not anything Bonnie," Clemont said, sighing in a way that was very familiar to Max, though he couldn't place it. "But yes, I am the Lumiose Gym Leader. Off for the week, which is why I'm here and not there."

Max snorted softly. Figures that the first person they ran into was the local Gym Leader. "Well, I'm game. Danny?"

"If you don't fall asleep."

Max scowled at the unapologetic Danny. "I'm good for now. Don't want to fall asleep yet anyway." The cup of tea he'd picked up at the airport helped in that, even if it had been very bad.

"Ah, jet lag," Clemont said. "You'll be fine. Going back is easy to fix. Going forward is the hard part. Sure found that out when I went to Sinnoh last summer," he added in a mutter. "Anyway, let's go get you a room."

After dropping off the luggage and getting a quick tour through the general Pokémon Center – they had wigglytuff as Nurse Joy's aides here apparently – the four of them walked up to Prism Tower. "Wait a second..." Clemont said, pushing his sleeve back. Max saw a glimpse of a digital watch. "Ah, it's nearly five. This way. You're going to like this."

He sat the group down on a bench at the edge of the circular square, ignoring Danny's question about what he was doing. Bonnie didn't look like she was going to give them any answers either, and so Max and Danny had to wait.

They didn't have to wait long. Close-by, a set of bells rang, first in a cheerful melody, and then they rang to tell the time.

And with every chime, part of Prism Tower lit up with a soft white light, until the fifth chime lit the brighter light in the tower's top. "Pretty cool, huh."

"Worth it," Danny agreed, and Max nodded. "Does it stay lit up all night?"

"Until eleven, except for the top, which is dimmed," Clemont told them as he led them to one of the entrances to the tower. "It's a courtesy to those living nearby, so they aren't blinded by the light if they have to get up in the middle of the night, or are trying to sleep." They reached the entrance, a simple pass code panel to the side of the entrance.

Clemont punched in what had to be twenty digits in no time at all. Even if Max had wanted to try to figure out the code, he was sure he would have lost track by the third digit. They went in, Bonnie first and Clemont last, stepping into a dimly-lit room. "Soft lights!"

The Gym Leader's call caused the lights to brighten, revealing that they were in a reception area with three other exits: the other faces of the tower's base. In the centre of the room, a pair of glass cylinders shot upwards into the ceiling. "The Gym's up two floors," Bonnie told them as they walked to the elevator at the bottom of one of the cylinders. "And there's observation platforms on nearly every floor above that. Lots of people walk in just for that when we're opened."

They entered the spacious elevator, Clemont making to press a button, but pausing. "Actually. Do you want to have a battle before we go up? Lumiose is more beautiful when the sun has fully set, and that's going to be a while. Not a Gym Battle, of course," he added for a reason Max didn't know. "Just a friendly match, no strings attached."

"That's okay," Danny said. "I'm not sure I want to fight a Gym Battle when I've been here for three hours." He poked Max's shoulder. "Ash might though."

Max snorted. That sounded like Ash alright. "I'm with ya on the Gym Battle. How about we all do one battle against each other? One on one?" The others agreed, and Clemont pressed a button, sending them upwards.

They exited the elevator on a floor that reminded Max of Wattson's Gym, only far creepier in the dim green light. The electricity arcing through various tubes didn't help either, but at least that gave a clear clue to the Gym's type, for those who hadn't read up on the Gyms in Kalos. "Creepy much?" Danny remarked, apparently thinking the same thing Max was.

"See, I told you it's creepy," Bonnie told her older brother. "Why won't you change it?"

"Alright, alright. I just thought it was a cool way of showing my Type." They reached the entrance to the arena, the door once again locked, a panel to the side again. Clemont held a triangular thing – his badge, probably – up to the panel, and a scanning noise echoed through the hallway before the door opened without a sound. "If you're a challenger, you let your trainer data on the Pokédex be scanned. That way, I know who's in and how many badges they have, which is important for picking the right Pokémon."

"And if they don't have any badges yet?" Max wondered as they stepped into a very spacious arena. The floor was a lot more sandy than he was expecting from an Electric-type Gym, weirdly, but maybe that was the Kalos standard. "I mean, we don't have any Kalos badges, but sending a beginner squad out would be..."

"A bad idea?" Clemont finished for him. "It detects all badges, not just Kalos ones. So for you, it'd pick up on the eight Hoenn badges you probably have. Come, I'll show you." The Gym Leader led them over to a computer set up out of sight. "Can you give your Pokédex to Bonnie, Max? And Bonnie, can you go to the scanner?"

"Sure!" Bonnie said, accepting the miniature computer. "That's a weird design. Ours are much better."

"Bonnie..."

"Alright, alright," the pre-teen girl said, walking off.

"Right, so, when a Pokédex is scanned, I get a notification." As if planned, a pop-up appeared on screen. When Clemont tapped it, a programme opened, showing the badges Max had received in Hoenn, in order of acquisition. "If you have badges from more than one region, the newest region would be on top. So if you'd scan your Pokédex after getting a Voltage Badge, you'd see that first, and then your eight Hoenn badges."

Bonnie returned, giving Max his Pokédex back before pushing between Max and Clemont to see what was on the screen. "Oh, that's a cute badge," she said, pointing to the first badge and pressing it. Immediately, the Mind Badge enlarged, and underneath it, some data appeared, like the date Max had got it, the Gym Leaders that gave it out, and the location. "Tate and Liza? Two Gym Leaders?"

"They're twins. You fight them in a Double Battle," Danny told her.

"Oh, I see." Bonnie pressed her finger to the screen again, pulling up Max's general trainer data. "Clemont, this is weird," she said, pointing at Max's date of birth. "Why is the year first?"

"That's just how it's done in Hoenn," Clemont replied. "Anyway, eight badges and probably the Hoenn League earlier this month, right?" Max and Danny nodded. "Okay. That gives me a good idea of what to expect, but why don't you two go first anyway. Show me what Hoenn has to offer."

"You want to go all out?" Danny asked, addressing Max. "Or just training spar."

"Let's do all-out," Max replied, grinning. "It's been too long since we had shields around." That had been before leaving for Ever Grande, back home in Petalburg. "At least, I'm assuming you have those here as well."

"Sure," Clemont said, tapping a few keys. A panel slid away, revealing a pair of bronzong. "Whenever you're ready. I'll be the referee."

Max made to walk to one end, but Danny put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Bonnie," he said, "why don't you choose our Pokémon. That way we'll have a fair battle."

"You just don't want to see another grovyle against marshtomp," Max grumbled half-heartedly, but he unclipped all six of his pokéballs anyway, as did Danny. "Here, choose."

Bonnie took the capsules, holding onto them while the teens put the five other Pokémon back on their belts. She handed both of them back, Max receiving ninjask's pokéball. As long as it wasn't aron in Danny's hand, he would be fine.

It was masquerain, and he opened the battle with a wide Gust, sending out waves of wind that also kicked up a lot of the sand on the arena floor. The attack buffeted ninjask, who wove with the incoming wind, before darting downward, avoiding the sneaky Stun Spore masquerain had tried to release overhead after the Gust.

A quick but weak Shadow Ball was easily stopped by a defensive set of Bubbles. Ninjask would have to get in close. "Double Team," Max ordered.

Ninjask split into four, each copy moving independently, and roughly surrounded the masquerain. Danny's Pokémon did nothing to disrupt any of the clones, instead only moving through the air, alternating quick glides with beats of its wings. Max wasn't sure what Danny waiting for him, but he was certain it wasn't good. "Slash."

The moment two of the clones moved in, masquerain spun on his axis, unleashing a Bubble attack that wrapped itself around him in a small cylinder, quickly obscuring him from view. One clone popped only one bubble – that was a fake ninjask – but another shot through the wall twice, and came out protesting if the buzzing sound was any indication.

Then, as ninjask flew away slower than Max wanted, masquerain landed a Quick Attack that ninjask didn't dodge. Max's bug righted himself a bit lower, and flew over to his trainer, still buzzing.

Ninjask's wings were wet. That explained a few things. "Fly the water off and send some Shadow Balls in," Max ordered, spotting another Gust incoming. "Watch out for Stun Spore too."

True to Max's prediction, masquerain tried another Stun Spore, this one specifically aimed low to take advantage of ninjask staying close to the ground, but Max's bug rose vertically, spiralling upward until it was above the masquerain, sending in a Shadow Ball that scored a glancing hit.

Above. Of course! It was a cylinder, not a cocoon. Max whistled once, and ninjask flew down, using the Gust as a speed boost. "Double Team into Slash again," Max told his Pokémon softly. "But wait for my mark to attack for real."

Ninjask flew off again, once more splitting into four, and masquerain treated that the same way he had done before. Two clones flew in, and that, too, elicited the same response as before, and a cylinder of bubbles surrounded masquerain. "Get in from underneath, Fury Swipes!"

The real ninjask revealed himself by putting on a burst of speed and making impossibly tight corners to dive into the open bottom of the cylinder, launching the masquerain out of his protective barrier. "Fury Swipes all-in!"

Masquerain tried to get ninjask off, but he couldn't manage. Gusts were avoided because ninjask was too fast, and all over him. Stun Spore took time to start. After being hit three more times, Danny's Pokémon tried to get away with a Quick Attack, but while masquerain was fast, ninjask was faster, seemingly effortlessly keeping up in an intricate dance that stopped when ninjask's movements forced masquerain to go too low to the ground. One little nudge sent ninjask tumbling, but it also forced masquerain into the arena floor, where it landed hard, skidding.

Danny returned masquerain, sending a thumbs up. Max returned ninjask, thanking him for his awesome speed.

"Pretty good battle," Clemont praised them when they met up, Max and Danny shaking hands. "I don't get to see an aerial battle often." He smiled knowingly. "For some reason, people don't like to use Flying-types in here."

Everyone let out a short laugh. "Why'd masquerain faint? You didn't hit it that often," Bonnie asked afterwards.

"Max does all sorts of crazy stuff with ninjask," Danny replied with a smirk. "The speed makes ninjask hit hard, and masquerain is lighter, so he'll come off worse."

"Of course," Clemont said. "Force is mass times acceleration. Ninjask isn't that heavy, but because it's so fast, any contact move does a lot of damage."

"Exactly," Danny agreed. "As long as your opponent is lighter. Aron just shrugs everything off."

"Aron are about as heavy as I am," Clemont told Bonnie, who nodded. "Max, want to fight me next?"

Max agreed, and they walked back to the boxes. Both of them took out a pokéball and threw them up into the air, releasing clefairy, which prompted Bonnie to let out a cry of "it's so cute!" and a magneton, to Max's annoyance. He'd been hoping for something land-bound, and something that didn't resist everything clefairy could throw at it.

That was what Metronome was for, though. "Metronome," he ordered as Danny gave the signal to start. He kept an eye on the magneton, unsurprised when he saw the signs of a Flash Cannon.

Flash Cannon met Tri Attack, the triple elemental attack and the silvery-white beam equally matched and causing a small vision-obscuring explosion in the middle. Clefairy had already broken off the attack by then, hopping sideways and unleashing another Metronome. This one summoned a white ball that she flung upwards, where it sparked golden, causing the field to light up harshly.

Sunny Day was good at least. Perhaps he'd get a Fire-type move too?

Magneton hadn't been doing nothing, and a Flash Cannon barely missed clefairy, who jumped over it. Her jump did mean a red ring was unavoidable. "Encore, then Metronome."

The Encore hit, locking magneton into Lock-On for a short spell. The Electric-type threw itself into a bodily tackle to hinder clefairy, but while that did block clefairy's Metronome for now, Max's Fairy-type just jumped away half an arena before using the attack again.

Max wasn't expecting the Weather Ball. Magneton wasn't either, and it ate the fiery ball head-on, followed by a quick Magical Leaf as it made its way back to clefairy, trying to ram itself into her. Clefairy, once again, jumped away, a red ring following her all the way to Clemont.

Then Max saw a yellow-green orb form in front of magneton. "Disarming Voice!" he shouted across the arena.

The attack exploded the Zap Cannon in mid-air, blocking Max's sight of clefairy. Magneton followed it up with a Sonic Boom, and Max couldn't tell if it hit or not. He didn't hear anything, which was good. "Metronome!"

A pink-and-yellow streaked ball of energy shot forward a few seconds later as clefairy launched herself into a Giga Impact, straight at the magneton that had been moving closer to her in an effort to land a Lock-On. That happened, but then the Giga Impact hit home, sending both of them to the ground, dust blocking Max's sight of the Pokémon again.

The crackle of electricity was a bad sign, and before he could react, a second Zap Cannon slammed into clefairy's back.

The cry clefairy let out wasn't one of pain. It was one of agony.

Max ran onto the field, only half noticing the shields falling. Clefairy was lying on the ground, smoke coming off of her in small ringlets. She was shaking, and every shake caused a small whimper to escape her lips, even after Max lifted her up. "It's okay, it's okay," he whispered, "it's over." Footsteps around him announced the arrival of the others, but Max ignored them, taking a good look at his clefary's back.

The scar looked inflamed, worse than anything Max had seen since the night he had saved clefairy.

He returned clefairy, locking her in stasis for good measure, and finally looked up again. Around him, the three others wore worried expressions. "Old injury," Max said, quickly adding an explanation of how he had caught clefairy. "Guess magneton's Zap Cannon hit it just wrong." He shrugged. "Risk of the battle. You were probably winning. I had nothing to really damage magneton."

Danny and Clemont gave Max looks that told him that they saw through his nonchalant attitude. "You were so lucky with the Sunny Day and Weather Ball," Clemont said. "I thought I was fighting Valerie for a second there."

"Valerie?" Max and Danny echoed.

"Laverre's Fairy-type Gym Leader. Her clefable knows Sunny Day and Flamethrower and that completely caught me off-guard the last time we had a battle." Clemont's smile was a bit forced, Max felt. "It's a silly thing to expect, but after last battle, I wasn't sure what to expect from both of you."

"Will clefairy be okay?" Bonnie asked.

"It's nothing Nurse Joy can't fix," Clemont told her. "It's the risk of battle, as Max said. Sometimes, Pokémon are injured. Trainers try not to do that, but it happens." The Gym Leader enlarged a pokéball. "Danny?"

"You're on."

Clemont's Pokémon caused Max to grin openly. It would be interesting to see how Danny dealt with this manectric. Froslass was pretty good at dealing with Max's manectric by now.

The first moves on both sides were predictable. Froslass summoned Hail, shutting off any remnants of the Sunny Day and making sure she was harder to hit. Manectric used an Electric-type ranged attack: Thunderbolt if Max wasn't mistaken. He should really get on teaching that to his own canine.

It didn't matter for froslass, used as she was to dodging Thunder Waves as an opener. She vanished into the Hail, only to reveal her position moments later, firing a Shadow Ball.

Manectric hadn't been standing still, but it kept a distance, dodging the Shadow Ball with ease and returning fire with a white orb from its mouth. The orb shot up, exploding into a wide net that revealed froslass. Odor Sleuth did its job once again, as it had done many times for Max's manectric in her battles with Danny's Ghosts.

A Powder Snow put white on the floor, but manectric avoided it, taking a deep breath and unleashing a Flamethrower that immediately melted the snow near it, nearly scorching froslass. The canine followed it up with a Thunderbolt that did threaten to hit, but froslass got a Protect off at the last second.

The recoil from the attack bouncing back made manectric jump a tiny bit, but Danny didn't exploit that. Instead, he ordered froslass to send Shadow Balls in. She obeyed, weaving around the arena as she formed the orbs, making sure that she avoided staying in one place for any period of time. She did move closer to her opponent, and Max wondered if Clemont would take the bait.

He did, ordering a Discharge. His manectric ran in, fur sparking, but froslass traded being hit by that for getting off a Confuse Ray.

She looked better than she had after the last time she'd been on the receiving end of that attack, but that had been close to three weeks back, and Max knew froslass was one of Danny's favourite Pokémon to train. Probably had spent time working with her over the break.

The Ice-type flew off, high into the air, putting distance between her and the confused manectric. She had to avoid an aimed Thunderbolt, but the next Thunderbolt was aimed at Max, blinding him for a second as the shields in front of him thrummed with power to contain the electricity.

When Max's vision of the field returned, he saw froslass execute her preferred strategy of freezing the entire field with a powerful Icy Wind, the powerful move bearing down on manectric as well. What was new, however, was her following it up with a Shadow Ball volley. Sure, manectric avoided most of them, and from the look Max got of its eyes, the confusion had cleared, but Danny liked waiting, wanting his opponent to make a mistake.

A Thunderbolt arced up, but froslass was too fast, dropping straight down to avoid it. She ended up right in front of manectric, blasting it with Icy Wind before weaving around it to avoid the Flamethrower, instead delivering a bite with Ice Fang into the canine's flank, using Protect to avoid most of the Thunderbolt retaliation.

Manectric was breathing heavily as it stopped the Thunderbolt, and it still had froslass right next to it. It tried to Discharge, but froslass rammed a Shadow Ball straight into its chin, and that was too much.

"Great battle," Clemont said as he walked up a minute later, both of them having returned their Pokémon. "Amazing reaction times on that froslass. You must have trained her well."

"I did have help for that," Danny said drily, pointing at Max. "He's got a manectric as well."

Max knew a cue when he heard one, and he sent his own canine out. Bonnie cooed, immediately crouching near her, asking if she could hug the Electric-type and doing so when manectric answered with a fond lick. "She's probably one of his strongest Pokémon," Danny told the others. "Definitely helped him in the Hoenn League."

"She is and she did," Max confirmed. "Missing her in the round of 32 was a huge loss."

"Isn't the Hoenn League one of the bigger Leagues?" Clemont asked. "Biggest in the Home Regions, if I recall?" Max nodded. "And you made it to the round of 32?"

"Youngest to win five matches since our current Grand Champion," Danny added, making Max blush slightly. "He's got a future. I'm just there to ride his coattails."

"You had bad luck in the draw," Max retorted for what felt like the sixteenth time. "Going up against a pro in the round of 128."

"Regardless, even the round of 128 in a tournament that big is impressive," Clemont interrupted the argument. "And the sun has long set by now. How about we go up."

Five minutes later, the four of them stood on the highest observation platform, looking out over Lumiose. In the distance, Max saw the lights of the airport they had arrived at, but in between Prism Tower and the airport, he saw endless streets twisting and turning, and so many different kinds of buildings. It was like looking at three different cities at once. "See that?" Clemont said behind him, and Max turned around to check what the Gym Leader was pointing at. "That's Professor Sycamore's lab in the distance."

"The… Orange building?" Danny asked, allowing Max to locate what they were talking about. "Where does he keep his Pokémon?"

"There's a ranch a few kilometres out of town. Years back, the laboratory was on the edge of town, but as Lumiose grew..." Clemont trailed off, shrugging. "You need to go there, don't you? To set everything up. Want me to take you there tomorrow?"

"Yeah! And you can show clefairy!" Bonnie agreed. "Pleaaaaaase?"

Max grinned. "We'd get lost otherwi-iiiise," he said, a huge yawn interrupting him. His own watch told him it was five to six, meaning he'd been up for over eighteen hours already. "I think it's time to go to the Center."

"You're tired already? It's only six," Bonnie said. "Didn't you sleep on the plane?"

"Couldn't." He'd tried alongside Danny, but the plane's noise movement had been too much. It was sort of strange: he never had problems sleeping on a boat, which Danny did. And he had stuff to think about. "I woke up just before midnight Kalos time and haven't slept since."

"Well, going to bed sounds like a good plan. How about we meet at the same place we met today," Clemont said as he called the elevator back up. "At ten?"

"Should be okay," Max told him.

The lift arrived, but Clement blocked the way in. "Well then. Danny, Max, have a good rest, and because I didn't say this earlier: welcome to Kalos."

~~§~~§~~§~~§~~

Name: Clemont
Age: 15
Type: Electric
Location: Lumiose City, Prism Tower
Signature Pokémon: heliolisk, luxray.
Typical format: 3v3

Information: The Lumiose Gym Leader may be the youngest of the eighteen Gym Leaders, but the teenager has earned his position, bringing constant solid strategies to battles with challengers and fellow Leaders alike. Like Elesa in Unova and Wattson in Hoenn, his Gym's central location means he faces a lot of challengers every year, handing out the most badges despite being averagely strict in handing them out.

From: Poképedia's Kalos Gym Leader Profiles

Author's Note 2: Welcome to Kalos indeed. Any echoes of the first XY episode are wholly intentional, but don't expect me to regurgitate the anime plot. It wouldn't be fanfiction otherwise. You'll see what I have planned, eventually.

The boys' current Pokémon, with those on hand right now underlined:
Max: grovyle, baltoy, manectric, ninjask, clefairy, bagon, poliwag, vulpix, natu.
Danny: marshtomp, froslass, dusclops, gulpin, aron, skorupi, whismur, magnemite, masquerain.