Chapter 2 - Mega shocks

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Ash slowly made his way through small path that was placed in mountain cliffs. He couldn't find other way to get closer to waterfalls, so he determinately took small path. Rocks were wet from water that seemed to be everywhere, but that didn't stop him from moving. Sun was setting and everything seemed to glow orange from last sun rays. For moment, Ash wondered how will he find his way back in the dark, but he knew that he can't turn back now.

Sound of crushing water grew louder as he went closer and just as he came to turn in the path, sun disappeared behind lower mountains on west, but Ash was blinded by intense orange glow in front of him. When light faded, Ash mouth fell open when he looked at creature that looked like Gyarados, but he knew that it was Mega Gyarados.

Mega Gyarados looked bulkier than its previous form. The fins on its face, its barbels, and its crest were longer. A large spike extends downward underneath its chin, and it has a black underside. The yellow spots along its body were replaced by raised red scales that run with a single red stripe below them. Two large white fins were on its back, similar to those on its face. Most of the other fins along its back disappeared, except for the one near the tail. Instead, it now had four white, pointed fins near is tail: two on its back and two on its underside.

Ash gasped and suddenly two purple eyes focused on him. Mega Gyarados roared and launched at Ash who didn't even manage to react before Pokemon stopped only inches from him and moved his fin so that it touched Ash's face.

"Huh?" Ash gasped when he realized that Mega Gyarados isn't attacking him, but saying hello. "Do I know you?" Ash asked.

"Gyarados!" Voice yelled and Ash flinched. Not far behind Gyarados, standing on end of path was girl. Her flaming orange hair tied into pony tail, her cerulean eyes full of worry while her outfit combined from yellow hudded shirt and denim jeans seemed to be half wet from water that was splashing from waterfall close to her. She looked quite startled when Mega Gyarados moved back. "Ash?!"

Ash's heart stopped and restarted. "Misty?!" He found his voice. "What the hell? This is your Gyarados, right?" Ash asked in shock while Pikachu jumped to Misty. She hugged him and then he took position on her shoulder.

"Yes, that's mine Gyarados." Misty crossed her arms. "Ash, what are you doing on this side of region? Last time we spoked you said that you are heading west, not east."

"That was month and half ago." Ash replied. "By the way, what are you doing in Kalos?" He still looked shocked.

Mega Gyarados floated back to Misty and his form changed back to normal. She reached her hand to catch stone that fell from his head. "I came yesterday to find this." Ash moved in her direction and Misty jumped from rock that she stood on and landed on rocky path almost in front of Ash. She held dark yellow stone with blue and red S shape in middle of it. "It's Gyaradosite."

Ash noticed that she had key stone in form of bracelet. Stone was colourful while bracelet was made from blue material. "So, you can now use Mega Evolution?"

"Yep. It will fit well with my job." Misty smiled. "I tried to reach you, but it seems that someone doesn't know what charger is for."

"I know what charger is for, but I kind of lost it." Ash admitted.

Misty rolled her eyes. "I can bet that some Pokemon was involved in that." Typical Ash, always getting into trouble.

"It was!" Ash quickly replied revealed that she got reason right, but then his face changed. "I'm sorry. I promise that I'll beg Clemont to invent charger that can run on Pikachu's electricity, then I'll be able to charge my phone."

"You better do." Misty threatened. "No, come on, let's move from here before we turn into water from all this soaking." She looked at waterfall that was quite close to path. Water was crushing down from high cliff and small droplets seemed to rain from surface where water crushed into stones.

"One problem with that. I can't see the path anymore." Ash looked back.

"Oh I missed your slow brain. We'll take Gyarados to get us back." Misty sighted.

Ash slapped his forehead. "Right, sorry. I'm still in shock to think straight."

"I know just a way to fix that, but it will work for me as well because I'm so hungry that I could eat a Tauros." Misty grinned.

At that comment, Ash's stomach growled. "He he, I guess that some things never change." He replied and Misty laughed.

"I see that we have a lot of catching up to do." Misty smirked as she climbed on Gyarados's back, Ash following her example.

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Bonnie watched Serena as she paced around their room. Serena seemed to find pattern that she followed without a flaw. She would pace from her bed to Bonnie's and back, then she would go to the window, take short pause to look outside and then, she would sigh and resume her pacing. Bonnie sighted and wondered if Miette will be in town as well. Serena used to get all worked up when Miette is close by, but Bonnie knew reason for Serena's frustrations around other girl.

Clement seemed to work around one of his gadgets, but Bonnie noticed that her brother would take short look at Serena and then frown. He is so dense. Bonnie sighted. She would notice a way that Clemont acted when Serena said something nice to him, but at least he was the one to show some emotion, unlike Ash who wouldn't show a thing. He is dense as well.

"Can you stop doing that?" Clemont finally snapped at pacing girl.

Serena flinched and stopped. "What?"

"Stop doing that! You are making me nervous and I wanna concentrate on my work." Clemont replied.

"But I'm only walking around." Serena blinked.

"No, you were pacing." Clemont corrected her. "So please, cut it out."

"Fine." Serena snapped and walked to bottom of her bed. She took a seat and crossed her arms. Clemont got back to work and everything went well for good five minutes, then Serena started tapping with her slipper against floor.

"Argh!" Clemont threw his hands into air and then reached for his hair, like he's trying to pull it out. "I can't believe this!"

"What's with you now?" Serena innocently asked.

"What's with me?" Clemont pointed to his face and then turned finger in her direction. "What's with you? You can't find peace ever since we left Ash behind."

Serena looked at her hands crossed in her lap. "I'm just worried."

Clemont frowned and shook his head. He didn't know what else to say to her. He didn't saw that Serena's cheeks flushed a little when she realized that she been thinking about Ash again.

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Ash and Misty ended up in first fast food restaurant that they could find. Both of them were so hungry that they couldn't wait in ordinary restaurant. Pikachu didn't want to leave Misty's side, but she didn't mind, she loved her Pika-pal. She even spoiled him with a bottle of ketchup and Ash agreed to let him enjoy.

"… so, I have only one gym to defeat before I can enter the league." Ash told her shorter version of everything that happened since they spoke.

"You been busy." Misty replied as she munched on her pommes.

"Did you expect anything else?" Ash smirked.

"Nah." Misty admitted. "Although, I am surprised that I still didn't stumble upon some legendary, it is your thing to get stuck in that kind of situations."

"Been there, done that." Ash's ego went sky-high, he loved telling stories about legendary Pokemon to Misty. Unlike his other friends, she always seemed to understand what can be on stake. "But it's same old story anyway. What I want to know is how did you know that you'll find Gyaradosite here?"

"I think that Tracy accidentally slipped that information, but maybe he told me on purpose. Later, he said that he only wanted to give advice and that he slipped, but I don't believe him." Misty tapped her chin.

They continued their meal, enjoying in silence. Ash had many questions on his mind, but he knew that food always comes first. Misty wasn't far from that opinion either.

As they were finishing their meal, Ash looked at his best friend and spoke before he could stop himself. "You know, you look different." He froze second that his words were out because Misty looked at him.

Misty blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Umm… your hair looks longer." Ash quickly replied, feeling sudden heat in his face.

Misty smiled. "Yours looks shorter."

"I had haircut week ago." Ash scratched his neck.

"So you know what that word means?" Misty mocked.

Ash shook his head. "It seems that I do, but you don't."

"You are improving." Misty prised. "On throwbacks, they are coming quicker than before." She added.

"You are slacking." Ash fired back. They didn't even realize it, but their words sounded low and mocking, or in other words, they were flirting.

"I can slack when I'm on vacation. It may be only three days, but it's nice to get a rest." Misty replied.

"Wait, you said that you arrived yesterday, so that means that you have only two days before getting back." Ash replied. "That's not fair."

"Don't tell me that you missed me so bad that you want me to stay longer." Misty said. "Well, I think that we are even with visits, it's payback for your short visit before you went to Unova." Misty smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. She loved when she could visit Ash, or when Ash visited her and she wanted to spend all that time with him.

"I been at Cerulean for three days on that visit." Ash complained.

"It's not my fault that I didn't know where you'll be." Misty replied.

"It is." Ash whispered.

"It's not."

"It is."

"It's not." Misty's temper started to rise. "You lost charger and still didn't replace it."

Ash looked down. "Fine, you win this one."

Misty blinked at his quick defeat. "Look, let's just say that we are both to blame. You are to blame because you didn't buy new charger to charge your phone and I'm to blame because I didn't try harder to reach you."

"Are you suggesting a truce?" Ash asked, grabbing last two pommes and stuffing them in his mouth.

"For now." Misty grinned, she also finished eating. "Hey, aren't you traveling with somebody? Why weren't they with you?"

Ash nearly jumped. "I told them to go to Pokemon centre before I got closer to waterfalls, but seeing you, I forgot about them and I said that it won't take long before I return."

Misty chuckled. "I would love to meet them and you can tell me more about them on our way to Pokemon centre." Misty said.

"Yup." Ash got up. "I'll go pay and we can head there."

"Wait!" Misty stopped him. "I need to give you money."

Ash shook his head. "No way, I'm paying. My way to say sorry for forgetting." He said and went for cash desk to pay.

"Oh Ash." Misty sighted, but at same time she could jump from joy. Ash's gesture was small, but to Misty, it meant a world.

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Ash walked first into lobby of Pokemon centre with Misty right behind him. As Ash looked around, he instantly noticed someone that shouldn't be there.

"Clemont?" Ash asked as he went to area that looked like large living room. Boy in question was sleeping leaned on sofa.

"What's he doing here?" Misty asked.

"I donno." Ash replied and gently tapped Clemont's shoulder. "Clemont."

"Hey Ash." Clemont sniffed and yawned. "Did I fell asleep?"

Ash nodded. "Why are you here?" He asked.

"Serena seems to have one of her moments, I guess that pressure get to her more than she shows." Clemont said. For some strange reason he didn't want to tell Ash that he is the reason for Serena's strange behaviour. "So, I came here and I guess that I dozed off. "

"I hope that she's all right." Misty said.

Clemont jumped, noticing that Ash had company. "Umm… don't want to be rude, but who are you?"

"Oh, this is Misty." Ash gestured at her. "She's the one I told you about."

"Gym leader?" Clemont asked. "Nice to meet you, I'm Clemont." He added and yawned.

"We can chat in the morning." Misty smiled. "But now, I'm sending you both to bed." She looked at Clemont and she instantly noticed how tired he was. She didn't want a poor boy to get sick because of lack of sleep.

"But I'm not tired." Ash complained.

"I don't wanna hear complains." Misty put her hands on her hips. "We can have breakfast together and then we can get to know each other and talk."

"Fine." Ash agreed. "See you in the morning then. Is 9 o'clock too early for you?" He winked.

"You know that I'm a morning person." Misty winked back. "See you in the morning boys." She tapped Ash's shoulder and walked away.

Ash looked after her. "Night, Mist." He whispered. He looked at Clemont who was already half asleep. "Come on, let's move from here."

Clemont nodded and lead back to their room. He was thankful that Misty was good observant. He was completely exhausted and he could barely stand on his legs.

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Note: Second chapter's done and now we have our mysterious figure. I'm still playing with few ideas for Serena and Misty's meeting, but I think that their rivalry will be epic.

And yes, this story is basically Pokeshipping vs. Amourshipping. What shipping will win in the end? You'll have to wait and see *evil laugh*.