Chapter 2:
Ash Ketchum watched as the plane descended towards the runway of the Lumiose Airport. It was around nine A.M. in the morning and he had not gotten a lot of sleep on the plane ride. Unlike the last time he had arrived in Kalos, where he traveled with the reporter Alexa, this time he was traveling alone with Pikachu sitting next to him. Ash and Pikachu were eagerly anticipating their return to the Kalos Region for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost was the fact that there was a tournament called the Champion's Tournament, which was going to take place in Kiloude City, in a facility called the Battle Maison. This tournament was open to anyone who had won a League or a Battle Frontier competition, which Ash had. He was planning on using his victory in the Kanto Battle Frontier a couple years ago as his entry pass to the tournament. Second, and just as important, was the fact that he had made close friends during his first trip to Kalos and he was eager to see them again. He had greatly missed them after first leaving Kalos to continue his journey several months ago, particularly Serena. There was something different about this group of traveling companions from all of the others, before and since.
"It's gonna be great to see Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie again, won't it Pikachu," Ash stated, grinning in anticipation of the meeting. "It's been far too long," he added quietly.
"Pika pika," Pikachu agreed, looking up at Ash and nodding.
"It feels like it's been an eternity." Ash said seemingly distantly. Pikachu nodded in agreement. "I'm finally back in Kalos. Time to fulfill our dreams that began on that fateful day four years ago."
"Pika," Pikachu answered excitedly, clenching his fingers into a fist.
Indeed, it had been a long journey. He had gone through many different regions, having taken their Gym Leader Challenges and having made it to the Pokémon Leagues of those various regions. However, victory had always eluded him, save for the Orange League, which was only recently recognized by the World Pokémon League as being a legitimate league. The good news was, though, that anyone who had won the Orange League was now viewed as a League Champion, even if they had done so before its inclusion in the official World Pokémon League. Now, with that League Championship, as well as having beaten the Battle Frontier, Ash finally had a chance to participate in the Champion's Tournament and become a true World Champion. He knew that it would be difficult, but he had a team that could do it. He had decided to bring his Kalos Team with him since he viewed them as not only his strongest team, but also for nostalgic reasons since he was returning to the Kalos Region. Still, he had his secret weapon ready to go for the tournament that would start in about a week. He wanted to take the time before the tournament to reconnect with old friends.
He had heard so much about what Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie had been doing since he had left. Serena had become the Kalos Queen, having won the Pokémon Showcase Master Class, defeating the previous Kalos Queen, Aria, in the Master Class competition. Also, like Aria, she had become an idol and already had a Number One bestselling CD out and one of her songs, Power of Dreams, was Number One on billboards. She had also performed several duets with Aria and despite them being rivals for Kalos Queen, they were actually pretty good friends. They had made a joint CD that was already burning up the charts.
As for Clemont, he had heard that Clemont had invented a new training tool called Super Training. It was a program that could be put into a Player Search System and allowed Pokémon to compete in holographic games that could train them in certain attributes such as speed, power, or endurance. It had already been exported to the Hoenn Region. He had recently received a phone call from an old friend, May, telling him about it and how he should try it. He had heard that it was also going to be exported to Kanto, Johto, Sinnoh, and Unova in the not too distant future. He was looking forward to trying it out with Pikachu and the rest of his team. Perhaps he would even have some Super Training competitions with his previous companions. He also hoped that it would help prepare his team for the upcoming tournament and possibly give him a leg up on his competition.
The final few minutes of the flight when the plane finally touched down on the runway went by far too slowly for the now fourteen year old boy and his best friend. He did his best to wait patiently for his plane to arrive at its gate, but he felt as if he were losing precious time waiting for the plane to land so they could disembark. Eventually, he saw the scrolling scene outside the window slow until the plane came to a complete stop.
After a few more minutes, the pilot spoke over the loudspeaker, "Welcome to Lumiose City. We hope you enjoyed your flight."
That was Ash's cue to unbuckle his seatbelt and make his way over to the boarding tunnel. Before heading over to the tunnel, though, he reached above him so he could grab his backpack. He had packed light, being able to fit all of his essential clothing and supplies inside his backpack. Once he had grabbed his backpack, he made his way over to the boarding tunnel, waiting in line with the rest of the passengers.
Getting through security was tedious and slow, but he knew it was necessary with the eruption of the Galactic Federation Civil War. Kalos was not in Cyrus's line of sight but the Legendary Pokémon present could still tip the balance of a battle so airport security was thoroughly checking all incoming and outgoing passengers to make sure that no one was either on a watch list to go join Cyrus or any other criminal organization, for the Kalos Region was still concerned about the remnants of Team Flare, for while they had been beaten and their plans seemingly stopped, they were not dead and their leader, a man named Lysandre, was still at large.
Eventually, Ash and Pikachu made it through security without any issue. His backpack was scanned for any illicit items, but nothing was found. He had been questioned about Pikachu being outside of his Poké Ball but Ash explained that Pikachu did not like Poké Balls so he always traveled outside of his ball. An Alakazam was there to ensure that Ash was telling the truth and when the Psychic-type Pokémon nodded in confirmation, Ash was allowed to continue. After finally making it through security, he was met by his friends, Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie, along with a pudgy bipedal Dragon-type Pokémon with a mauve underside with a lavender dorsal side called Goodra.
Serena was a girl the same age as Ash with honey blond hair and blue eyes. She wore a light pink sleeveless dress with a white collar and a black sleeveless undershirt underneath. The dress was tied at the collar by a blue ribbon that Ash had given her just before she debuted in her first Pokémon Showcase. Over her dress was a long red vest with large red pockets. She also wore long black stockings that came up to her thighs but not quite up to the dress's skirt, brown shoes, as well as a pink-red fedora with a black hatband on her head. Lying on the floor at her feet was her pink backpack that had a black Poké Ball design on it.
Standing next to Serena were Clemont, Bonnie, and Goodra. Clemont was the Lumiose City Gym Leader and the same age as Ash and Serena. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and wore a blue and yellow jumpsuit with white and black shoes. On his back, he wore a black and white backpack that stored his inventions that he referred to as "Clemontic Gear." Sitting next to him was his little sister, Bonnie. She, too, had blonde hair and blue eyes. She wore a dark brown to almost black sleeveless shirt, a black ribbon on her chest, a white skirt, black shorts that went almost down to the knee, and pink shoes. She also carried a yellow satchel. As for the Pokémon, Goodra was a Pokémon that Ash had befriended during his first trip through Kalos, but had gone to live at his swamp after having protected it from a Florges. He had visited Ash on occasion after his Kalos trip, but it had been quite some time since he had seen his friend.
When Ash had finally made it through, the group had rushed over to meet him, with Serena hugging him quickly, causing him to blush, Clemont to look perplexed at why she was hugging him, and Bonnie to giggle mischievously. "How was your trip?" Serena asked after disengaging from him.
"It was fine, if a little slow," Ash answered.
"How did you do on your other journeys?" Clemont asked.
"I did okay," Ash answered, sheepishly. He had not won the other League, but given his victory in the Orange League just after he had participated in the Indigo League, he was able to enter the Battle Maison's Champions Tournament.
"Did you catch any new Pokémon?" Bonnie then asked, looking up at him in anticipation.
"Some," Ash answered. "But I only brought my Kalos Team." He then looked over at Goodra and added, "And I left a slot open, too."
Goodra grinned and cried, "Goodra!"
"I had intended to visit you at the swamp but since you're here, I was wonderin' if you wanted to join my team for the Battle Maison tournament."
Goodra nodded and gave a cry of affirmation. Serena then handed Ash Goodra's Poké Ball, and Ash recalled the Dragon-type Pokémon into the ball. Bonnie did not frown as Ash recalled Goodra into his Poké Ball, but she had hoped that Ash would show her a new Pokémon from a foreign region. She then noticed that Ash was wearing a black Mega Ring on his left wrist. "You're not wearing your Mega Ring," she noted. "Does that mean you're not using any Mega Pokémon in the tournament?"
Ash shook his head. "Charizard's back at Professor Oak's lab. Since Charizard has access to two Mega Evolutions, Professor Oak wanted to study him a bit more. As such, I decided to just come with my Kalos team for the time being, but don't worry, Charizard's just a phone call away and I'll still be calling him up for the later rounds of the Battle Maison Tournament so you'll still be seein' a Mega Evolution."
Ash then proceeded to make his way towards the Pokémon Center not too far away. He wanted to contact Professor Oak and his mother to let them know that he had arrived safely and without incident. This allowed Clemont and Bonnie to depart the scene.
"Hey, where are ya goin'?" Ash asked, seeing Clemont and Bonnie head south.
"We have to get back to the gym and make sure that everything's set for any future challengers while we're out," Clemont answered. "Also, Professor Sycamore wanted to talk to you about your Mega Ring. He said that he could upgrade it so you should go to see him after you talk to Professor Oak and your mother."
Ash nodded and watched as the siblings departed. He could not help but shake the feeling that they were hiding something. However, he did not mind all that much. He turned to his left and saw Serena siding up next to him, smiling.
"You're not going with them?" Ash asked.
Serena shook her head, her smile showing her barely contained happiness. "I'm staying with you. While the city's mostly the same as it was the last time you were here, there have been a few changes and openings. I'd like to give you the guided tour, if you don't mind. After all, isn't it a week until the competition in Kiloude City?"
"Yeah," Ash answered nodding. "And I wouldn't mind the tour at all."
Serena's smile got even wider and her eyes lit up with delight. "Really?"
"Sure," Ash answered, giving a nervous chuckle. He could tell that Serena had some feelings for him; he just did not know how far they went and what kind of feelings they were.
His first stop was the North Pokémon Center. When he stepped inside, he found that it was sparsely populated. There were two technicians, one male, the other female, working on PC in the corner while a few other Trainers were gathered at several tables. The technicians working on the PC were dressed in brown pants and gray shirts and had on blue hats with rims that obscured their faces so it was difficult to identify them. The man had short, lavender hair, most of which was hidden by the cap that he wore, and green eyes. The female technician had magenta hair, though the cap that she wore made it so Ash could not tell that whether or not her hair was short or long. She also had blue eyes.
The moment Ash entered, they took notice of him and stopped what they were doing, huddling close together and whispering something before they got back to work. While both of them wore the standard uniforms of technicians, but they were constantly watching the entrance to the Pokémon Center and had taken notice when Ash had entered, zeroing their gaze in on the boy.
When Ash had entered, he was immediately met by a Venusaur, who recoiled in shock at the sight of him, for he had nearly collided with the Pokémon. Ash was just as surprised at the sight of Venusaur and stopped to avoid the impending collision. Back at the PC, the technicians seemed to scowl as the Venusaur went over to meet the boy and blocked their view of him. Serena came up to Ash from behind and asked, "What's wrong Ash?"
Ash turned around and, without a word, stepped to the left so she could see the large Grass/Poison-type Pokémon standing before them. After a second, the Venusaur recovered from its initial shock and made its way over to a bench not too far away and stood in front of it. Ash carefully made his way into the Pokémon Center, not wanting to be surprised by any other large Pokémon that may have been outside of their Poké Balls. He was quickly followed by Serena, who was just as surprised at the sight of the Pokémon and stared at it as Ash made his way over to the telephone.
As he made his way over to the telephone, he scanned the rest of the Pokémon Center for more large Pokémon, beginning to feel that the appearance of that Venusaur was suspicious. Surprisingly, he found just that: large Pokémon. Over in the corner on the same bench that Venusaur had parked itself in front of were a Tyranitar and a Garchomp. Ash saw the Venusaur standing close to them. Not too far away from them were a Jolteon, Starmie, and Chandelure. Ash was put on edge at the sight of the Chandelure, remembering his own encounter with its pre-evolved forms of Litwick and Lampent in a mansion in Unova where they had literally tried to suck the life out of him and his friends. These Pokémon, however, were not acting hostile in the slightest, though, just the opposite. They were very calm and content with each other's company. Still, there was something about those Pokémon that was different, but it also seemed familiar to Ash, though he could not put his finger on what it was.
Ash's eyes were soon drawn to a girl that was standing near the bench close to the Pokémon. She looked to be the same age as Ash. She was dressed in a simple black sleeveless dress that came down to just a little above the knees. She had long black hair that fell to the middle of her back and blue eyes. She was beautiful by any definition of the word, possibly one of the most beautiful girls he had ever laid eyes on, and that was saying something considering some of the traveling companions he had traveled with, especially Serena. What surprised him even more as he looked at the girl, though, was that while she was, indeed, beautiful, the feelings welling up inside of him were not romantic in nature. He could not identify them at all, but it was nothing like the feelings he had for Serena, or any of his other female traveling companions, to say nothing of the prospect that it was anything like the feelings that a previous male traveling companion, Brock, had for anything that even remotely looked female. For the life of him, he could have sworn that he had actually recognized the girl from somewhere.
He then saw the Venusaur go over to the girl and it began to talk to her. He could not tell what was being said, for Venusaur was keeping its voice low. The girl then made a response, for Ash could see her lips move, but he could not make out what was being said. He soon saw the girl surreptitiously look over Venusaur's shoulder over at him. He quickly averted his gaze, not wanting to appear to be staring and causing her to become upset. However, he would soon have other things to worry about, for trouble was soon to arrive since it did not take long for Serena to notice that Ash had been staring at the girl for quite a while. She was not amused.
"Hey Ash, who's that?" she asked flatly, snapping him out of his reverie.
He turned to see Serena glaring at him, her hands on her hips, showing her displeasure at him staring at the girl. "Uh, I don't know," Ash managed to stammer, not knowing why Serena was so angry at him at the moment. It was not like he had any feelings for the girl.
"Really?" she retorted, not believing his answer and unwilling to let him off the hook.
"I really don't know," Ash insisted. "It's just that for a fleeting moment, I could have sworn that I recognized her from somewhere."
Serena was quick to notice that the girl's head perked up as Ash had said those words, despite the fact that he had said them quietly enough that they should have been out of earshot. That girl must have had incredible hearing.
Ash wasted no time making his way towards the videophone hoping to somehow avoid Serena's wrath for a few moments and give her a chance to calm down, him not realizing that she was simply jealous of the other girl and worried that she may have tried to steal him. When he reached the phone, he quickly dialed the number of Professor Oak. He knew that since it was an intercontinental long distance call that he would have to pay a noticeable fee for it. He would worry about that later, though. Soon, the face of Professor Oak, a man with gray hair appearing to be in his late fifties to early sixties appeared on the screen.
"Oh hello Ash," the professor said jovially. "How was your flight?"
"It was fine professor," the boy answered.
"Is everything okay? Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Uh, not right now. I just arrived and am getting settled in."
"Well, happy birthday," the Professor wished. Just as he had made that wish, what looked to be a purple blob of sludge came into the view. The purple blob of sludge had two eyes, a large mouth, and two arms with hands, all of which looked to be made out of sludge.
"Muk, muk," Ash could hear the creature growl in the background. He could only smile as Muk, one of his Pokémon, came into view.
"Oh no," the professor uttered as if he were in the middle of a horror movie. For him, that was what taking care of Ash's Muk was, for Ash's Muk had a way of showing affection that often meant smothering him to the point where it was difficult to breathe, not to mention him being covered by a creature that had what amounted to a body made out of toxic sludge. While that had been useful in defeating threats to the lab, it was also tremendously inconvenient since Muk had a great deal of affection for the professor.
As for Muk, it crawled up Professor Oak's back and reached his head and quickly began to smother him. "Muk, muk, muk," the Pokémon continued.
"So, is everyone still okay?" Ash asked, having to suppress a chuckle, seeing that at the very least Muk seemed to be doing fine.
"Mmfff, mmmf, hmmmf," he could hear the professor grunt as he tried to get Muk off of him. Eventually, he was able to crawl out from underneath Muk and rejoin the conversation. "Well, as I was trying to say earlier, everyone here is doing quite well." He then took note of Pikachu, who was standing right next to Ash. "And I can see that Pikachu is doing well, too."
"Pi-ka-chu," Pikachu cried exuberantly with a massive smile.
The professor then turned and noticed Serena standing in the background. "Oh, is that your girlfriend from Kalos?" he asked.
Ash's face immediately turned red and the professor could only smile. "I see," he said, knowing, answering his own question. Ash could only look down, not able to deny it.
"Well, I don't know about girlfriend, but she is a close friend," he eventually answered.
"Hello Professor Oak," Serena proclaimed, entering herself into the conversation as she leaned over next to Ash, causing him to give a bashful smile.
"And you must be Serena," the professor said, giving a kind smile. "Ash had said a lot about you. He views you as a very close friend."
Serena gave a shy smile and then looked over at Ash, beaming. For a split second, she noticed the professor looking past her curiously. He seemed to be focusing on something behind them. When she turned around, she noticed the girl that had grabbed Ash's attention earlier. The moment she had turned, though, the girl looked away and went back to talking with her Pokémon. Ash could not help but notice the professor's pause, either.
"Is everything okay Professor?" Ash asked.
"Oh, yes, everything's fine," Professor Oak answered, snapping out of his reverie. Ash looked back and saw nothing, the girl and the Pokémon having moved to a different area of the Pokémon Center. Looking back at Serena, he continued, "Serena, I must say I enjoyed your performance in the Pokémon Showcase Master Class. I have also bought your CD, as has Ash."
"Ah, that's nice," Serena stammered in reply, blushing in embarrassment.
Professor Oak gave a friendly chuckle. "Well, it's good that you arrived safely, Ash. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"No thanks," Ash answered. "Everything's fine."
"Well, good luck in your tournament next week," the professor wished before Ash hung up the phone.
Once he had hung up the phone, the screen went blank. He then went to dial the phone once more time, this time dialing his mother's number. He waited for a few seconds until the face of his mother appeared on the videophone. She had auburn hair and amber eyes. She put on a kind smile, as was usual for her, since he had always known his mother to have a cheerful personality. "Hello, this is the Ketchum residence," she began.
"Hi Mom," Ash began, stopping so that she could ask him all of the relevant questions without interruption.
"Hi honey!" she proclaimed cheerfully. "How is everything? How was your flight? Have you gotten everything squared away? Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Well, I just got here, Mom, but so far, everything's fine," Ash answered. "The flight was boring, though. They just didn't have any movies that I liked or wanted to see."
"You could always take a book or use that time to catch up on some educational materials," Delia suggested. "After all, you're only one month away from your middle-school equivalency exam."
"Don't worry Mom, I'll be fine," Ash assured her as best he could. Truthfully, though, he had not been putting that much thought into his supplementary educational materials until fairly recently and he had a lot of catching up to do.
"Oh, by the way, how are your friends?" Delia then asked.
"They're all fine."
Delia then gave a knowing smile as she looked to Ash's side and saw Serena standing next to him. "Oh, it looks like you've got a girlfriend," she said with a mischievous smile. "My boy is growing up so quickly."
"Huh?" Ash asked, not knowing what his mother was talking about at first. It took a few seconds for him to realize that she was talking about Serena. He looked over at her and her smile filled his view as she stared into his eyes. His eyes went wide with shock and he soon looked back at his mother and gave a nervous laugh, Serena giggling all the while. For a moment, Ash thought that he could feel the smile of another person in the area. Had he looked behind him, he would have seen the girl in the black dress smiling as he was talking to his mother, as well as his embarrassment at Delia calling Serena his girlfriend, as well as Serena staring at him, smiling and giggling. As she continued to focus in on Ash and Serena, the Tyranitar came up from behind her and made kissing noises and gave a few grunts, likely commenting on how Ash and Serena made a nice couple, or that the girl should make a play for Ash. The girl was not amused.
"I'm wearing hard shoes," she told him, turning to face him, her stern expression showing that she was not amused with his comments. The Pokémon then placed his hands over his groin to protect it from an attack, which only prompted the girl to note, "Your knees and legs are now open to attack." She then tapped the heel of her foot, letting him know that it was very hard, possibly made of metal.
At that point, the Tyranitar backed off, obviously having done something embarrassing enough to warrant physical discipline in the past, or she had sparred with him and had taken advantage of a weakness in his defense that the Pokémon would never forget. The girl then focused back in on Ash as the Chandelure came up to her. To an outside observer, it would have looked like Chandelure was trying to drain her life energy, but the reality was that Chandelure was telepathically making a report to her. Her eyes narrowed as Chandelure gave its report.
"Are you sure it's them?" she asked in an almost dark tone.
Chandelure bobbed up in down in affirmation.
"I see," she eventually said. "Keep monitoring them, but stay out of sight. I'll have to get dressed for the party soon."
Chandelure then looked over at Ash and Serena and asked the girl a question.
"I don't know," the girl answered. She then took out a small datapad and activated it, the hologram of Serena's face appearing on it. The only difference was that the Serena on the datapad had long hair, while the Serena with Ash had short hair. "However, I doubt that an idol who has a top selling CD is Chosen Hero material."
Venusaur then came up to her and made a comment.
"That's a twentieth century TV show, not real life," the girl answered, turning to the Pokémon. "Singing won't end wars or be all that useful against a truly evil enemy. Besides, I get the feeling that something's off here."
"Saur?" the Venusaur asked. "Saur venusaur saur?"
"Gut feeling," the girl answered.
Back at Ash, Delia was suppressing a laugh as she saw Ash blush over her comments about Serena being his girlfriend, something that Serena was doing nothing to even remotely convince Delia otherwise.
"Well I wish you luck in the World Tournament and with your girlfriend," Delia told her son, smiling and giving mischievous laugh.
"Aw, c'mon Mom," Ash almost whined before smiling, himself.
"Be safe and have fun, honey," Delia wished. "And good luck."
"Thanks Mom," Ash finished, smiling. With that, he hung up the phone. As he did so, he began to look downcast. A part of him was beginning to feel bad about leaving Pallet Town so soon after he had returned from his last adventure. He would make it a point to stay home a while longer and catch up with his mother once this tournament had concluded.
After hanging up the phone, he rose from his seat and turned around to see the girl heading over towards a dressing room, being followed closely by her Pokémon. As he watched her go, he could not shake the feeling that he knew her from somewhere. He also strongly suspected that she was eavesdropping on his conversations with his mother and Professor Oak. He did not worry about the girl any further and, instead, prepared to leave, Serena joining him.
As Ash left, the two technicians rose from their computer and proceeded to follow Ash. As they did so, the girl that had seemingly been focusing in on Ash 'accidentally' knocked into them and caused the female technician's hat to fall off and her hair to unfurl, revealing a long strip of magenta hair, and also revealing her to be Jessie of Team Rocket, though Ash would still not have likely recognized her. The girl, however, was not so dense and she looked at them in the eye, not bothering to apologize.
"Hey, watch it!" Jessie cried, turning to glare at the girl and possibly even threaten her some more.
"You three stay away from him," the girl commanded in a low, cold voice as she walked by them, her Pokémon following her, staring at the woman and the other two as they passed.
It took Jessie a few moments to realize that the girl that had run into her was none other than Leaf, the bane of Team Rocket.
"Uh, James," she stammered, her eyes wide with horror as the girl headed into the dressing room, "I think that was Leaf."
The faces of the other two Rockets went ashen. "Leaf? Here?" James stammered.
"What would she be doin' here?" Meowth, the bipedal cat-like Pokémon with tan fur and a single gold charm on his forehead asked.
"I don't know, but I think she has a thing for the twerp," Jessie answered. "There's no one else she could have meant just now."
"Dat's not good," Meowth complained. "If Leaf's protectin' da twerp, we're in for a woild of hoit if we go after 'im or Pikachu."
"Yes," James echoed. "But still, why would she stick her neck out for him like that? She's never been seen around him before. Who is he to her?"
"Who cares," Jessie answered. "She just told us to not go after the twerp. She didn't actually say anything about Pikachu. We know the twerp's going to a party, a party where there are guaranteed to be tons of Pokémon since the twerp has lots of friends. Why go after Pikachu now when we can catch not only Pikachu, but a ton of others later on? And if we do it surreptitiously enough, we won't risk running into the twerp and angering Leaf."
"Because Leaf might be there," Meowth retorted. "You saw her starin' at da twerp durin' da phone call."
"She can't know where the party is located since even we don't know," Jessie told them, not letting the horror of the prospect of facing Leaf get to her, despite her initial terror at the sight of the girl. "We'll go in, get Pikachu and as many other Pokémon as we can, and get out without raising an alarm. Maybe we'll get a Mega Evolution capable Pokémon and/or some Mega Stones in the bargain as well."
"Okay," Meowth eventually said skeptically, not wanting to risk Jessie's wrath but still feeling that they were taking an unnecessary and foolish risk. James also eventually agreed to go along with her plan. Once they were ready, they departed the Pokémon Center and proceeded to follow Ash so they would be able to find out where his party would be.
As Team Rocket departed, Leaf stood by the dressing room and watched as they left, Chandelure relaying their plans to her. Their plans caused her to scoff. They could not possibly be that stupid. Still, they could turn out to be useful to her since she did not know where the party was yet, either, and she wanted to arrive before Ash and his friends did. To that end, she took Starmie and Chandelure aside and told him, "Keep an eye on those three. If they make a move on Ash, stop them. If they lead us to the party's location, relay it to me."
"Chandelure?" the chandelier-like Pokémon asked.
"I'll be staying here until you two report back."
The Pokémon nodded and proceeded to make their way out of the Pokémon Center. As they departed, Leaf then made her way into the dressing room. She needed to put on her uniform for Ash's birthday party. After all, she did not want to be recognized by the paparazzi or by anyone else at the party if she could avoid it.
Back outside, Serena excitedly took Ash on her promised tour of the city. The tour around Lumiose City was fun, if not necessarily brief. Serena guided him around all of the new sights and sounds, circumnavigating the city in a clockwise fashion, something that he was quick to pick up on. It was almost as if she was purposefully avoiding certain areas of the city, particularly the inner city. She had told him that a café with an orange roof called Lysandre Café was bustling with activity. She had told him that apprehensively, though, since that had been one of the hideouts of Team Flare. Despite Team Flare having seemingly been beaten while he had still been in Kalos on his first trip, the lack of knowing the final fate of Lysandre concerned him. And it seemed as if it also concerned Serena, too.
Next, she told him about all of the cafés that had opened up in the city, as well as the businesses. They took tours inside and Ash tried some of their light fare, mainly fruit sandwiches. Serena was surprised that he actually seemed to not be eating as much as before and taking things a lot more easily. She had remembered him as being almost gluttonous at times and the only reason he was as slim and as toned as he was was because he was always on his journey. She began to worry that he may have known about the surprise party she, Clemont, and Bonnie were throwing.
After touring the café's, she took him on a Gogoat shuttle ride, the two of them riding the goat-like Grass-type Pokémon to the southern part of the city. She then walked down Vernal Avenue a bit until she came across the Stone Emporium and took him inside. The Stone Emporium was a store that sold a large variety of Mega Stones, almost always at exorbitant prices. Ash had cringed when he saw the prices that they were going for. Unfortunately, he had seen a Mega Stone that he was kind of interested in: Charizardite X, a Mega Stone that would allow Charizard to Mega Evolve into a different type of Mega Charizard, Mega Charizard X, rather than Mega Charizard Y. He had battled a Mega Charizard X before and, with the right moves, Mega Charizard X was highly difficult to nearly impossible for any non-Legendary or Mega Pokémon without a type advantage to defeat.
He continued to look at the Mega Stones and noticed both a Blastoisinite and Venusaurite on display. They were priced at one million Poké Dollars. His eyes went wide at the price. He did not have that kind of money on him. He sighed, guessing that he would have to wait to get either the Venusaurite, Blastoisinite, or any of the other desirable Mega Stones, particularly the Charizardite X, until after the tournament, assuming he managed to place high enough to get any prize money.
As he was looking around, he noticed Serena talking to the shopkeeper. Apparently, they were on good terms, really good terms since the prices for Mega Stones for her were significantly less, only about ten thousand Poké Dollars.
After a while, she went up to him and asked, "Did you find anything you liked?"
"Nothing in my price range," the boy answered. "Did you find anything?"
"I don't have any Mega Evolution capable Pokémon at the moment," Serena answered. She could not help but notice that he was focusing on the Blastoisinite and Venusaurite. "Do you have a Venusaur and Blastoise?" she asked.
"I have a Squirtle and a Bulbasaur," Ash answered. "Bulbasaur has shown no real interest in evolving and Squirtle is still leader of the Squirtle Squad as far as I know."
"Well when they evolve, with those stones, you'd be able to Mega Evolve them."
"They're still out of my price range."
"I could put in a good word to the shopkeeper," Serena offered. "They consider me very stylish here since I've done a lot of things in Lumiose City."
"Well, being the Kalos Queen and having the Number One song on the billboards will get you noticed," Ash said, giving a kind laugh. "Don't worry about it, Serena. I've already got a Charizardite Y for Charizard and he's my main Mega Evolution anyway."
Serena gave him a smile but she also clearly showed that she had wanted to do or get something for him. "Well, is there anywhere else you want me to take you?" she eventually asked.
"Not right now," Ash answered. "I'd better be getting to Professor Sycamore's lab so I can upgrade my Mega Ring and get a TMV Pass."
"Oh, that reminds me, I've got some errands of my own to run." Serena then looked at Ash affectionately, her smile never leaving her. "Don't be too long."
"Hopefully it won't be," Ash answered.
The two of them then departed the Stone Emporium, with Serena turning north, heading towards Prism Tower, while Ash went south to make his way over to Professor Sycamore's lab. As Serena departed, he could not help but notice that Serena was hurrying towards the Prism Tower. He smiled her way as she departed. She had been very friendly with him and had done nothing to dissuade his mother of the prospect of them her being his girlfriend. Heck, even before coming back to Kalos, he had been wondering if his feelings for her were different than they had been for any other girl.
It did not take long for him to reach Professor Sycamore's lab, for the large gray building was right across the street from Vernal Avenue. Before crossing the street, Ash made certain that no cars or Gogoats were coming. Once he was certain that it was safe to cross, he crossed the street and headed into the lab.
Inside the lab, he was immediately met by Professor Sycamore's assistants: Sina, a young black woman with black hair, that fell past her shoulders, gray eyes, and wearing a white long sleeved shirt and skirt and Dexio, a young Caucasian man with brown hair, blue eyes, and wearing a white dress suit. When Ash entered, he noticed the two standing by a table with a single computer console. They immediately looked up from their work when he arrived.
"Welcome Ash," Sina proclaimed in a friendly tone. "It's been a while since you've been here."
"Yes it has," Ash answered, thinking back on his last visit to the lab. "Is Professor Sycamore around?"
"Actually, he's away at the moment," Sina answered.
"He's at Hotel Richissime," Dexio told Ash. "He's hosting an event for some famous people. If you hurry, you should be able to reach him."
Ash looked puzzled and then said, "Well, it's that I'm here to upgrade my Mega Ring. Could you help me with that?"
Dexio shook his head. "I think you would have to go to Anistar City for that," Dexio explained. "Anyway, Professor Sycamore wants to talk with you, anyway so you should go to Hotel Richissime to meet him. He said that it had something to do with the Champion's Tournament."
"Okay," Ash said, skeptically. He did not want to be running around Lumiose City on his birthday. Either way, though, if he wanted to meet up with Professor Sycamore, he would have to head on over to the northern part of the city. As such, he promptly exited the lab so he could call a cab to take him to the hotel.
While Ash was inside the lab talking to Sina and Dexio, Jessie, James, and Meowth of Team Rocket waited, listening to the conversation. As soon as they mentioned that Professor Sycamore was at Hotel Richissime, the trio grinned.
"So, it looks like the twerp is headed to that hotel in the north," James commented.
"Good," Jessie said with malicious satisfaction. "That'll be the perfect place for us to capture Pikachu and the other Pokémon."
"And with Leaf not bein' dere since she doesn't know where da twerp is, we should be able ta get away scot free," Meowth added.
"Yeah!" the trio exclaimed before rushing off to make their way to the hotel so they could infiltrate it before Ash arrived.
As they left, they did not notice a chandelier-like Pokémon phasing from the lab's outer wall, along with Starmie, who had situated itself up on the lab's roof. Chandelure watched as they departed and the two Pokémon telepathically relayed everything Team Rocket had learned to Leaf. Through their connection, she then told them to rendezvous with her at the hotel since she intended to invite herself to the party. After all, the party was in celebration of Ash's birthday, and she would not miss it for the world. And she would in no way let Team Rocket ruin it.
