A/N: I've seen the latest episode of the XY anime, with English subtitles, naturally. My God, that ending... Well, for the sake of spoilers, I will not disclose what's gonna happen, but there's videos up on YouTube, and I guarantee you that it's gonna be very exciting (and frustrating at the same time)!
Anyway, the newest episode has inspired me to start working on the second chapter of this story! ENJOY!
P.S.: Before I begin, I would just like to say that Ash/Serena has gained an official English name: AmourShipping! :D :D :D :D :D
P.P.S.: Sorry for the slightly long wait! I was being delayed by my schedule.
"Serena?" Clemont asked. "Do you even know which way we're going?"
"Yep!" Serena replied confidently, struggling to hide her blushing face from Ash, Clemont, and Bonnie. It had been a couple of hours since her embarrassing outburst in front of Ash and Clemont, and the rookie Trainer decided to avoid any further humiliation by taking the lead of their group. Unfortunately, it was all just a spur-of-the-moment decision, and as Serena trekked further into the woods, with her friends trailing behind her, she began to regret walking away.
"Why?" she thought angrily. "Why, oh why couldn't I just sit back there and talk it out like a normal person, instead of walk off like an idiot? Oh, I hate this..."
"I never knew you knew your way around these woods, Serena," Ash said. "And I thought you just started your journey-"
"It's all a matter of instinct, Ash," Serena interrupted quickly, feeling a strong surge of warmth rush up her face. Her entire head might as well burn up...
"Well, we are going in the right direction towards Cyllage City," Clemont pointed out, adjusting his glasses. "Maybe we should just continue on ahead."
"In the middle of all these woods?" asked Bonnie, worriedly surveying the tall trees and dense shrubbery as her Dedenne retreated further back into the protection of the satchel it was safely kept in. "They look so thick and scary, Clemont. I think we should a better route, with more sunlight..."
"Don't worry, Bonnie," said Ash, raising a fist in determination. "If any scary Pokémon come out, I'll just have Pikachu scare it off with a Thunderbolt. Simple as that!"
"Pika-pika!" Pikachu added, smiling in agreement.
"Oh, really?" Bonnie's eyes shimmered with admiration; even in the darkness, they appeared to glint strongly. "Thank you, Ash! That's so kind of you!"
Serena watched as Ash started talking with Bonnie about how to deal with powerful, wild Pokémon that she couldn't handle. It sounded just like a father giving some advice to his daughter. A smile crept onto her lips, so tiny that it was unnoticeable even in the sunlight that broke through the thick leaves hanging from branches that were overhead. She began to think that if Ash was that good with kids, then she wondered if he'd be a great father for...
Before she could delve any further into this developing fantasy, the rookie Trainer shook her head to clear her thoughts, now disturbed by the givings of reality. How in Arceus's name could she start thinking about children so soon, when she was still a child herself? ...Well, her mother always called her a unique person. Who wouldn't, not after all of the intellect she displayed in kindergarten? An outstanding girl in the literal sense, a teacher once described of her.
And yet...
Serena stopped in the middle of the trail that was made barely visible from the large blades of grass. Dead ahead, the trees were growing thicker, and the faint traces of light were easily overwhelmed by the grasp of darkness that threatened to devour these golden rays. She felt her legs tremble.
For her entire life, she was afraid of forests. The fairy-tales her mother read to her in her childhood always depicted the trees as tall, mighty monsters that tormented any wanderers without any mercy, through their immovable frames and the outstretched and long-reaching claws that were their branches. And if that wasn't enough, the trees always heralded and sheltered their minions, creatures that lurked around in the night, preying on those who surrendered to the trees' willpower. Even if the forest was well-lit, Serena would have a hard time stepping inside the uncharted territory if she were alone...
"Serena?" a voice asked, barely reaching her through the defensive barrier her psyche set up. "Is everything alright?"
Registering the voice in a few seconds, Serena glanced over her shoulder and saw Ash standing beside her, a curious expression etched on his face. A new barrier of defense was quickly, instinctively set up as her lips curved into an innocent, cheerful smile.
"Yes, everything's alright, Ash!" she replied. "Thanks for asking. On ahead!"
However, she stood still, expecting Ash or Clemont to take the lead now. Instead, the entire group stood still, waiting for the next move to be made. Serena blinked, a new heat flooding her entire head as she struggled to hold back a physical reaction at bay.
"Oh, no! They expect me to go on ahead! What should I do, what should I do, what should I do?"
"It definitely looks like there's something going on with you, Serena," said Clemont. "It's okay if you tell us, you know."
"Yeah!" Ash added. "We're your friends!"
"Friends..." Serena thought, now placing slight hatred on the word. However, she replied calmly, "Sorry. It's just...I'm afraid of forests..."
"Afraid of forests?" Ash had an eyebrow raised. "Why is that, Serena?"
"Shouldn't he have an idea, after he saved me from the forest when we were younger?" Serena sighed within her mind. "Then again, he barely remembered me..."
"Maybe we shouldn't pry further, Ash," Bonnie piped up, mentally relieving Serena. "It's probably something private." She quickly took Serena's hand and smiled up at her with one of her wide smiles. "Come on, Serena, we'll be with you each and every step of the way!"
"Yeah!" Ash and Clemont added simultaneously.
After looking from Bonnie to Clemont and then to Ash and Pikachu, Serena smiled. Though she didn't get what she expected for a reunion with Ash, Serena knew that she couldn't have asked for a better group to travel with. It was certainly better than traveling alone with just her Fennekin.
"Thanks, guys..." she replied, nodding at them all, but to Ash in particular, though the Trainer didn't notice.
Elsewhere in the same forest, Adam and Floyd marched through the thick plants and shrubbery as they made their way across the infinite sprawl of tall trees. Earlier, the incline they were taking ended, and they were forced to venture inside the perilous body of the forest, much to Adam's anger and Floyd's dismay. The two of them had since lost track of the time ever since the two of them first clambered through the itchy brush.
Finally, the two stopped beside a tree to catch their breath. Floyd leaned against the tree trunk, while Adam looked up at the cloudless sky to formulate a new plan.
"What do we do now, Adam?" Floyd asked once he regained his breath. "This is, like, the trillionth tree we've passed now. I think we're lost."
"Shut up, Floyd, don't give me that nonsense!" snapped Adam. "We can't possibly be lost in this deathtrap forever!" He fleetingly checked his watch again, only to be met with the same results: its frame was terribly scratched from the tumble out of their lost jeep, and its time-calculating system no longer functioning. "DAMN IT!"
"We should've stayed with the jeep..."
"That thing was engulfed in flames, you dimwit! Unless you wanted to be Kalos Fried Human for the wild Pokémon here, we had to hightail it!"
"Kalos Fried Human..." Drool began to pool around Floyd's jaws, which were slightly ajar. "...I'm hungry...I must have food..."
Adam's eyes widened as he deduced his accomplice's current thinking. "Don't you DARE think about it, you fool! Do I look tasty to you?!"
"Yes- I mean, NO!" exclaimed Floyd, his stupor breaking. "Oh, Adam, we gotta get outta here! I don't think I can handle the forest any long-" Suddenly, he stopped in mid-sentence, his nostrils flared. He raised an eyebrow as he looked around, asking, "D'you smell that, boss?"
Adam began to smell the air and suddenly caught an odor. "Something's burning..." he replied suspiciously.
"Smells like barbecue..." Drool was now dripping from Floyd's lips.
"You idiot. This is a vast forest! There can't possibly be an Arceus-damn barbecue in the middle of-"
"I know barbecue when I smell it, Adam!" interrupted Floyd, who now succumbed to the insatiable hunger that taunted him. "And I shall eat to my heart's content!"
With a cry of joy, the amateur thief sped away, leaving behind a cloud of dust in his wake. Growling in anger and annoyance, Adam sprinted after his accomplice. As he continued passing the trees, he noticed that the plant-life was becoming thicker, and there was less and less light. The burning smell was becoming stronger now...
"Damn it, Floyd," he thought. "You're setting yourself up for a nice little lunch now! Maybe I should stop running after him. He's definitely done for now-"
His thoughts were cut short when he saw Floyd, immersed in a blast of sunlight. Adam stopped just in time to avoid plunging down the face of a cliff. The burning smell was now dominating his olfactory senses, almost overwhelming him. It didn't take long for Adam to spot the source of the smell.
The cliff overlooked a wide, vast landscape. Usually, it would be colored fully green from the trees that decorated it; a single river, colored in a dazzling, glittering blue, would snake around this landscape. However, this beautiful sight was now made perverse from the fire that spread rapidly from tree to tree, devouring everything in sight and reducing it to reddish-orange ashes. Adam spotted a flock of Flying-type Pokémon frantically flying away from the thick, charcoal-colored banks of smoke.
"What in Arceus's name?..." Adam asked in shock.
"Whoa," said Floyd. "Whatever it is, it's definitely no barbecue..."
Adam growled in annoyance as he pulled out his walkie-talkie and pressed a button to contact Nick and Lloyd.
Serena felt a little safer wandering through the dark forest, now that Ash was taking the lead of the group again. Watching as he confidently marched down the small pathway of soft dirt and soil, she could not help but feel jubilant inside. As long as he was with her, she had no reason to be afraid of forests anymore! Serena's smile became even wider than it was before, and her walking was energized with a slight skip as she made herself closer to Ash, as if he were her personal shield.
Just then, Ash abruptly stopped in his tracks, and Serena bumped into him. "Whoa, Ash!" she exclaimed, blushing. "Why'd you stop?!"
Then, she heard Ash and Pikachu both sniffing the air. "D'you guys smell that?" he asked.
"Smell what?" Clemont asked.
"There's this burning smell in the air..."
"Burning smell?" replied Serena. "I don't smell any-" Just then, a strange odor filled her nostrils. It smelled like burning wood at a distance. "Okay, now I smell it."
"Come to think of it, I smell it too," Bonnie added.
"I don't really-" Clemont began to sniff the air. "Okay, never mind, I caught it." He continued smelling. "Hm... That smells a lot like barbecue..."
"A barbecue, in the middle of this forest?" Ash asked, looking concerned. "I don't think so. Think something's up?"
"It's probably nothing, Ash," replied Clemont, shrugging. "Let's just go on ahead."
The group resumed walking, although Ash looked reluctant to continue the trek. However, after a couple of minutes of this passed and the smell grew stronger, Serena began to hear panicked noises and looked across her shoulder. Then, she gasped in horror at the sight.
Many forest Pokémon were running towards the group.
"BONNIE, OVER HERE!" screamed Clemont as he embraced Bonnie in his arms. The four all flinched as the stampede thundered straight towards them.
The next thing Serena heard was a chaotic storm of noises that viciously hammered away at her eardrums with the power of drills. Her nostrils were filled up instantly by dust kicked up into the air by the Pokémon. She was forced to try covering both her ears and her nose at the same time as the Pokémon continued sprinting directly past her, miraculously not trampling her over in the chaos. Once the last of the Pokémon, a Spoink, bounced past her, Serena opened her eyes and was greeted by a dense cloud of dust. She accidentally inhaled a breath of dust and began coughing as a result.
"Ash?" she called. "Clemont? Bonnie? Are you guys alright?"
"We're fine, Serena!" replied Ash, to her relief.
"Same with us!" Clemont added.
As the dust began to clear, Serena watched the silhouettes of Ash and Clemont, the latter of whom was holding Bonnie's hand, approach her.
"I wonder why those Pokémon were running away?" Clemont asked as Bonnie let go of his hand.
"Whatever it was, it must've spooked them good," replied Ash.
"Arceus, what is that smell?" Clemont covered his nose with his arm, as did Ash, Serena, and Bonnie; the burning smell was now stronger than ever before. For some reason, it was extremely dark and smoky. The four glanced at the direction from which the Pokémon came, and immediately saw the source of their fear.
About a mile ahead, a fire was blazing furiously, growing larger by the second and spreading fast.
"Is that a FIRE?!" exclaimed Serena fearfully.
"That fire is definitely what's scaring the Pokémon!" Ash cried as he pulled out a Poké Ball. "Froakie, I choose YOU!" He threw the Poké Ball into the air, unleashing the Bubble Frog Pokémon, which croaked at its Trainer. "Froakie, quick! Use Water Pulse on that wildfire ahead!"
Froakie nodded and leaped into the air, creating a blue sphere of energy between its hands. It then fired the sphere at the fire, hitting it and exploding into a wave of water that doused all of the flames within its area. However, the Water Pulse only extinguished a small part of the fire, which continued to blaze across the trees and plants. Froakie continued using Water Pulse, only to be met with a stronger blaze, as if it was growing stronger in response to the attempt to put it out.
"Water Pulse isn't working well enough!" Bonnie cried after Froakie made another try, only to be met with the same results.
"Oh man, if only we had at least one more Water-type Pokémon..." commented Clemont.
"Clemont, quick!" Ash exclaimed. "Can't you invent a device that'll put the fire out?"
"I didn't expect to come across a wildfire, so I didn't bring the supplies necessary for building a firefighting device!"
"Are you JOKING, Clemont?!" screamed Bonnie in frustration and outrage. "We actually NEED your stupid inventions, and you don't HAVE any?!"
"Hey, don't blame me, Bonnie! I can't look into the future, you know!"
As Clemont and Bonnie continued to argue, Serena glanced over her shoulder and gasped. The wildfire was coming towards them, and at an unnaturally fast speed.
"GUYS, WE GOTTA RUN!" she screamed, already bursting into an all-out sprint.
She heard Ash, Clemont, and Bonnie following close behind, and Froakie still continuing to fire Water Pulse attacks in order to ward off the fire. Billowing clouds of thick, charcoal-colored smoke were already starting to overwhelm her eyesight and nostrils, Serena began to feel disoriented, and she covered her nose and eyes with her arm. However, her lungs already reacted to the foreign smoke and the strong burning odors, and she started coughing.
Worried that she might accidentally separate herself from Ash and the others, Serena glanced to her side and saw that the smoke had become so thick that she could only see the silhouette of the closest person, who appeared to be crouched over for some reason while running. Praying to the heavens that the silhouette belonged to Ash, she quickly grabbed the person's hand, tightened her grip on it, and continued to run faster, feeling much safer now that she was holding his hand.
Running in a random direction, Serena refused to stop until she felt the heat that was emanating from the wildfire fade away. Once it did, she stopped immediately and collapsed to the dirty ground, and as she did so, she heard her companion doing the same thing. Opening her eyes completely, Serena found herself staring into a vast sky, whose blue was now made perverse by the rising columns of smoke. Ashes and embers fluttered in the air, carried by the small breezes, resembling small wraiths.
"The sky looks so ugly..." Bonnie's voice moaned.
Groggily, Serena nodded in agreement. "Tell me about it... What do you think started that fire?"
"Maybe some scared Fire-type Pokémon or something..." Bonnie paused. "Serena? Where's Ash and Clemont?"
Upon hearing the question, Serena sat up and looked around. Ash and Clemont were nowhere to be found. To make matters worse, she realized that she ran directly into a part of the forest that was already devastated by the wildfire, which then moved on. Everything around her was lifeless and black, with no signs of that familiar green anywhere. Dark smoke hung over the ground, resembling an eerie blanket of fog. The frames of the trees appeared sunken, completely stripped naked of their leaves, moss, and bark, now fully resembling tall, pitiful monsters with multiple long, clawed arms... Serena shivered for a moment, despite the fact it was still a bit hot.
Even through that bleak, dead landscape, she couldn't see any sign of Ash, Pikachu, Froakie, or Clemont anywhere. Out of concern, Serena stared at Bonnie, who had now sat up on the ground as well, and quickly realized that she grabbed her hand, not Ash's...
"Where are they?" asked Bonnie, looking increasingly worried of her current predicament.
Trying her best to look confident, fearless, and mature for the sake of the younger girl, Serena stood up and replied calmly, "I don't know. But don't worry, Bonnie. We will find them." She looked down at Bonnie, smiled, and kindly stretched out her hand. "Come on, let's go look for them."
As Bonnie grabbed her hand, a brief memory suddenly flashed across Serena's head... She was back in the forest, her leg wounded, and a younger Ash was towering over her, having just bandaged her leg. With a kind, gentle smile, he stretched out his hand towards her...
"Serena?" Bonnie asked, bringing Serena back to reality. "Are you okay?"
"Huh?" Serena shook her head and smiled. "Oh, I'm fine, Bonnie. I was just...thinking. Now, where should we start looking?"
"Why don't we go back from the direction we came?"
"I believe we were using this direction to run away from the fire. I doubt going back to the fire would solve things, now would it?"
"I guess..." Bonnie looked around. "It's very scary, Serena. I can't see anything from far away. What if there are angry Pokémon near?..."
"It's okay, Bonnie, I'll protect you." As she spoke those words, Serena remembered Ash saying the exact same words to her back in the forest. She shook her head for a second time, and then she took out her Poké Ball, throwing it into the air. "Fennekin, GO!"
The Fox Pokémon emerged from the Poké Ball, barking kindly at its Trainer. Just then, one of the ashes in the air flew inside one of Fennekin's nostrils, and it instantly sneezed out a small sphere of flames, which then exploded and lit up the barren ground with small flames, causing Bonnie to scream.
"FIRE!" she shrieked, hugging Serena's leg tightly. "FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!"
"It's okay, Bonnie, that's too small of a fire," replied Serena, smiling and stroking Bonnie's hair. "It'll go out soon."
Indeed, it only took several seconds for the flames, too tiny to sustain themselves for any longer, to flicker out and die, reducing themselves into wisps of silver smoke. Fennekin trotted to Serena's side and sat down, patiently awaiting its first command for the day.
"Alright, Fennekin," Serena said, "we're gonna find Ash and Clemont. If any Pokémon attack us, I want you to protect us. Okay?"
Fennekin barked in agreement. Serena nodded before wandering across the barren area with Bonnie in tow and Fennekin trotting beside them.
Serena began to think about what had happened to Ash and Clemont. Obviously, she and Bonnie were separated from them during the chaos of fleeing from the fire. Hopefully they weren't hurt during the escape. If so, they were obviously gonna start searching for the two of them as well.
They passed a tree.
Serena looked up at the sky, remembering that Ash would be more than likely to send out his Fletchling to search for them. However, she only saw fluttering ashes.
They passed another tree.
Her eyes followed one piece of ash without any particular reason, watching it twirl and spin in the air, like some graceful ballerina.
They passed another tree.
She lost sight of the ash, which was obscured by the tangled, barren branches of the trees.
They passed several trees.
Her surroundings became darker than usual, and she realized that they must be going deeper and deeper into the forest. She felt Bonnie's grip on her hand tighten.
They passed more trees.
Serena looked up, and in a moment that lasted for only a split-second, she felt her heart skip a couple of beats. In that exact moment, she thought that the trees were alive, the arms that were their branches reaching towards her with nasty, eerie, sickening creaks, ready to claim her and Bonnie as their next victims. She remembered reading about the Elder Tree Pokémon, Trevenant, recently. The artwork of them was really frightening that it haunted her dreams for many weeks since...
They passed even more trees.
She could imagine these trees turning into Trevenant and grabbing her, eating her alive, granting her a torturous death...
"Serena, watch out!" Bonnie screamed.
However, it was too late: Serena, distracted by her heightening fear, bumped into a tree and fell to the ground. She looked up and screamed: for several seconds, she saw a Trevenant towering over her, growling at her. Instinctively, she curled up into a fetal position on the ground as her last resort, her hat falling off in the process.
"GO AWAY, TREVENANT!" she screeched. "YOU DON'T SCARE ME!"
"What're you talking about, Serena?!" asked Bonnie. "Serena, you're scaring me!"
Fennekin barked its Trainer as it ran up to her side in concern. When Serena refused to unlock her current position, the Fox Pokémon shot a small Ember attack, which hit Serena's hair and instantly exploded, showering the honey-colored strands with embers. The Trainer's attention was instantly caught; screaming in horror, Serena stood up and began quickly swatting at her hair to put out any potential flames. Once she was successful, her hair was comically unkempt, with tufts sticking out and wisps of smoke issuing from underneath. She blinked and glanced at Bonnie and Fennekin, both of whom were staring at her.
"Serena, are you okay?" Bonnie asked.
Serena stared at the younger girl, then sighed heavily and slowly sat down against the tree she bumped into.
"Yeah, I'm okay," she replied. "It's just...my fear of forests just got to me."
"Oh, yeah, I forgot you were afraid of forests." Bonnie flashed a small smile. "Don't worry; Fennekin's here to protect us, isn't it?"
Fennekin barked in agreement. Serena looked at her starter Pokémon and, noticing its unwavering demeanor of confidence, nodded back at it, smiling.
"You're right," she said. "I'm sorry. I just- I just panicked, that's all." Her smile widened as she stared at Bonnie. "Thanks for reminding me that, Bonnie."
"You're welcome, Serena. Now come on, we gotta find Ash and Clemont."
"Right." Serena stood up, took Bonnie's hand again, and walked across the lifeless landscape, with Fennekin trotting beside them.
As they did so, Serena began to feel a pang of worry well up within her. Without Ash around to energize her self-confidence, she didn't know what to do, now that she was stranded in the middle of her worst fear, its terrifying qualities now amplified by the devastating effects of the wildfire. Looking at Bonnie, she knew that she was lucky she actually had someone other than Fennekin with her, otherwise she would be mentally dead by now.
"Oh, I just hope that I find Ash soon, 'cause otherwise, only Arceus knows what's gonna happen to me and Bonnie in the middle of this forest..."
She shuddered, just by thinking about the consequences.
"How in Arceus's name did that fire start, anyway?!" screamed Floyd as he and Adam successfully evaded the wildfire by leaping into a river.
"Does it look like I KNOW, Floyd?!" Adam snarled. He then began slamming his arms into the water in a fit of rage. "DAMN IT! If only I had a Water-type Pokémon in my team, then we wouldn't be sitting here in this Arceus-damned river like a bunch of Ducklett! Of all the...DAMN IT!"
"I wish we had the jeep..."
"Well, you can thank Nick for that later-" Adam suddenly blinked as a realization struck his mind. He furiously slammed his fists into the water again, showering himself and Floyd with water. "ARCEUS-DAMN IT, NICK! It was the damn fire on the jeep! Nick crashed it into a tree, and BOOM! WE HAVE A WILDFIRE!" He clenched his fist in fury. "Oh, when I find that accursed Nick, I'm gonna tear him apart, without mercy! I'LL TEAR HIM LIMB FROM LIMB!"
"WATCH OUT!" screeched Floyd. Both of them dove into the water and swam further down the river, just seconds before a burning tree collapsed on the spot the two had been previously standing at. After a couple of minutes spent swimming, Adam and Floyd rose back to the surface, gasping for breaths of fresh air.
"Oh, I'll kill that Nick if we get outta this deathtrap alive, that is!" Adam growled.
Then, he noticed that the entire landscape surrounding them was no longer ablaze; instead, it was displaying the handiwork of the wildfire in all of its horrifying glory. However, he dismissed the bleak lifelessness of the area and merely stepped out of the river, quickly and methodically calculating a new strategy to use for the current situation. He was followed by Floyd, who, to the contrary, looked extremely concerned about the absence of life.
"Oh my Arceus..." he moaned in horror.
"I know, our situation looks bad, now shut up," snapped Adam. "I'm thinking."
"Boss, are you seeing all of this destruction?"
"Does it look like I give a Tauros?"
"But-"
"SHUT UP! I said I'm thinking!" He ignored Floyd's sad and horrified expression as he laid out his new plan. Adam smiled devilishly and stared at his accomplice. "Okay, new plan. Now that we're being hindered by this fire that we started, we're gonna have to use it to our advantage. This fire is wiping out all of the plants and clearing out all of the Pokémon that live here, right? Well then, no wildlife means no obstacles that will confuse or further hinder us in our quest to get outta this forest. So, we just explore the landscape and look for a safe route outta here and back to civilization! I'll contact Nick and Lloyd..."
As Adam procured his walkie-talked and established his connection with Nick and Lloyd, Floyd sadly glanced over his shoulder and gasped.
He could see two people heading towards them.
A/N: Adam's quite a calculating psychopath with no regard for life, I must say. What does that mean for our heroes? And who do you think are the two people heading towards him and Floyd? Their accomplices? Serena and Bonnie? Ash and Clemont? The next chapter shall tell all! And Serena's not-so-little fear of forests will obviously develop more as the story progresses, so expect more of angsty scenes with her having to deal with her current predicament!
I'd like to thank those who reviewed (cannot answer reviews right now, sorry):
Wasabi (guest reviewer)
Sleepy16
PokemontrainerY
Zombienuat
Feibush Melech
The Legend of Chocolate
Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter! TheCartoonFanatic01 is out. PEACE!