Crossroads - Between a Mermaid and a Princess Chapter 3: Alola! Welcome to Melemele Island!, a pokémon fanfic

Crossroads – Between a Mermaid and a Princess.

By Fox McCloude.

Part 3: Alola! Welcome to Melemele Island!

Alola region…

The ship was approaching the Melemele Island port. The previous day, after being extremely busy with the special events in the cruiser, Ash, Misty and Serena decided to spend the last night before arriving to their destination relaxing on deck, stargazing and enjoying the night marine breeze while having dinner outdoors. After a good night of sleep, the trio was ready to begin their vacation in this tropical paradise.

"Attention all passengers, we're about to dock in Melemele Island. Please report to the deck for disembarking. Thank you very much for travelling aboard the S.S. Anne."

"We're almost there," said Misty. "Time to pick up our stuff, guys."

"Misty, what was the name of the hotel we're staying at?" Serena asked.

"It's called Hano Grand Resort," the redhead replied. "According to this, the chain opened a second one in Melemele, and it's the most luxurious hotel in the entire island. It even has its own private beach, I'm dying to get there."

"So am I. Aren't you excited, Ash?" Serena turned to the boy, who was getting his stuff into his bag.

"Sure, of course." He still hadn't told them he had visited Alola for a long season. He already knew the place, although after so many years, things surely must have changed a lot. He couldn't help but wonder how the friends he met in the Trainer School were faring since he left. Maybe he'd like to stop by the place, if only just to take a peek and the memories.

Having packed all of their belongings, the trio left the cabin and went straight to deck, ready to disembark. All passengers whose stop was this place were already heading for the long boarding ramp going down to the dock, and as always, the two girls were happily clinging to Ash's arms. They had been doing this during the entire week, wherever they went, so at this point he had gotten used to it and simply accepted it in resignation, although admittedly, he actually enjoyed it.

Once they stepped on land, the first thing Misty did was calling a taxi to take them to their hotel. As they were driven through the streets, the three of them looked through the windows at their surroundings, the girls marveling themselves at the sight of the city, while Ash and Pikachu noted how little things had changed since they last came to the region. The buildings now were a lot higher, but in essence, the place was still mostly the same. Meanwhile, Serena and Misty couldn't help but get interested in how, aside from cars and other traditional vehicles, many of the locals used Pokémon as a means of traveling around, either by riding them or having them pulling carriages. This wasn't unheard of in their home regions, although they had never seen so many people doing it in the same place.

"Would you look at that?" said Misty, pointing a couple of Tauros pulling a rickshaw-like carriage.

"People seem to like using Pokémon for transport here a lot," Serena commented.

"It's a way for them to work together," Ash piped up. Both girls looked at him.

"Do you know something about it?" Serena asked.

Ash stared at her for a bit before answering. "Yeah, believe it or not, Mom and I came here on vacation once. I actually spent a long season here, back when Alola didn't even had its own Pokémon League." He confessed.

The two girls stared at each other. That was new: none of them was aware that Ash had come to this specific region. Was it that nothing interesting happened in this place? Still, they didn't feel curious enough to press forward anymore, so they just sat back in silence the rest of the trip to their hotel.

Once they got to their destination, they paid the taxi driver with their own money, given that it wasn't included in the service of the prize Misty had won. Carrying their baggage, the three looked to the building before them: four stories high, and occupied a terrain twice as wide as Ash's neighborhood, by his estimation. And that was just the main building, without taking into account the additional facilities, as well as the private beach and a golf course, among other things.

"Alright, here we are." Misty stretched her arms. "Come on, time's a wasting!"

The redhead was the first to enter the reception, followed closely by her two friends. She seemed the most eager, which made sense considering she had won the prize and these vacations had been her idea in the first place. She handed over the certificate, and the receptionist searched in the computer to check its authenticity.

"Room for three people, three weeks' time, and all services included." The receptionist registered their data, and then she grabbed the keys and gave one copy to each of them. "Room 311, on the third floor. Please enjoy your stay with us."

"Thank you," The redhead said. "Come on, you guys."

Taking the elevator to the third floor, the trio looked on both sides of the corridor, until they reached the right room. Misty opened the door, and they had to admit it was pretty good: a giant-screen TV, very comfy-looking couches with a nicely decorated table, and the balcony gave a splendid view of the beach. Only one problem, though: there were two beds, a single and a double one.

At this, Ash assumed that it was obvious who would occupy which, so without saying a single word he went towards the single bed and placed his baggage on it.

"Hey, wait a minute," said Misty. "Who gave you the rights to claim the single bed for yourself?"

"The rights?" He turned around. "Isn't it obvious? I'm a guy, you two are girls."

"You're kidding, right?" The redhead placed her arms akimbo. "What's the matter? Are you afraid of sharing a bed with one of us?"

The boy felt the color going up to his face, and he wasn't the only one: Serena also turned red-hot at that comment. And not exactly because she was afraid, but because a part of her was didn't dislike the idea, and she was rather embarrassed to admit it. How could she have those thoughts?

"Misty… I don't have any problem with that." Serena tried (futilely) to hide her 'actual' thoughts on the matter.

"Serena, don't play innocent." Misty grinned. "You'd love that, wouldn't you? And I can't deny I wouldn't mind at all. It wouldn't be the first time we'd sleep so close to each other, right?"

Of course, Misty didn't mean it that way. During their travels together, they always slept in separate beds and sacks, but usually very close to one another, and occasionally Misty felt tempted to get a little closer or do something while he slept, like holding his hand or even stealing a kiss. She never followed through with it, though.

'Great, here we go again,' Ash thought, looking sideways at Pikachu.

"Pika." The electric mouse gave him a look that said 'Don't count on me for this'.

Alright, he was on his own. He had to think of something, fast. Maybe there was way to solve this… issue. He pulled out something from his pocket, it was a coin. The girls looked at it with interest: it had the carving of a Unovan Legendary Pokémon, Kyurem.

"Let's decide this the old-fashioned way, a coin toss." Ash proposed. "If this Kyurem comes up, I keep the single one. Otherwise, you'll have to decide which of you girls has to share bed with me."

The boy almost hated himself for saying it that way, but it any case, it wasn't like there was a much better way to say it. Misty wondered if there was a trick, and stared at Serena with an interrogating expression. The Kalosian girl simply shrugged, making it known she was fine with it. Both girls nodded, and Ash tossed the coin, catching it back and covering it with his hand. Waiting for a few seconds, he removed the hand to reveal the result…

"Darn, Kyurem came up." Misty pouted. Serena just giggled nervously.

"Well, I guess that means I get to keep the single bed." Ash grinned.

As they began pulling out their stuff from their bags, the boy once again pocketed his coin. What Ash didn't tell them, however, was that the coin actually had Kyurem on both sides. Except that on one side it was Black Kyurem, and on the other it was White Kyurem, although those differences we're not so glaringly obvious without the color. Only Ash knew well which one was which. Lucky for them they didn't think of checking if it was a trick coin.

Really, having to spend his vacation with these two would have its issues, even if the two were his closest friends. Meanwhile, the two girls also unpacked their stuff on the double bed.

"Alright, with that out of the way, what do we do now?" Misty asked. "We've still got the whole afternoon, and I think I'd like to go out somewhere."

"I agree." Serena nodded. "I'd like to know the place as well, what do you think, Ash?"

"Sounds good. In fact… I think I know a place we can visit. Maybe we'll run into some old friends who'd love to meet you girls."

Serena and Misty exchanged confused looks. Friends of Ash in Alola? Well, he always had a great talent to make friends with everyone, everywhere. Maybe they were interesting people.

A while later…

Once again, Ash found himself strolling through the streets of the Alola region, with Misty and Serena firmly clinging to his arms. He couldn't believe it had been so long since he first came here on vacation with his mom, and ended up staying for a whole season. He had no regrets, of course. Despite how many years had passed, things hadn't changed as much as he imagined; in fact, the place they were going to was practically the same as when he left, except for some minor remodeling. They were standing in front of the entrance.

"Pokémon Trainer School?" Serena asked, as she stared at the place.

"I spent a season in this place," Ash replied. "I wonder how is everyone doing since I left."

"You being you, I'm not surprised you'd have to go back to school," Misty quipped.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ash glared at her, eyes squinted. "On second thought, you don't have to answer."

"Pikachu," the electric rodent said. He then started giving off sparks involuntarily, as if he felt something. "Pi?"

"What's wrong, Pikachu?"

"Maru, maru!"

Pikachu suddenly tensed upon recognizing that cry, knowing exactly whose it was. Suddenly, a small, round-shaped hedgehog-like Pokémon, colored white and gray with brown and yellow spots came to them. Serena and Misty had no idea what it was, neither why all of a sudden it jumped on Pikachu to… nuzzle on him?

"Pika, pikachu!" The rodent on the ground cried out, the spiked furball already on top of him.

"Maru, toge, maru!" The hedgehog happily jumped on top of his belly.

"Togedemaru, get back here! You can't just go running off like…!"

In that moment, two people whom Ash perfectly recognized arrived at the scene. A short, portly young man, though not quite as much as Ash remembered him, with short, messy orange hair (a much lighter shade than Misty's), round face, and small beady eyes. His companion was a young woman around the same height as Misty and Serena, with light blond hair tied in a ponytail, pale skin and baby blue eyes. After them came a Pokémon that Misty and Serena would have recognized as a Ninetales, except that its fur was all white-bluish instead of the traditional yellow they knew, and the tuft on its head and tails were different, wavier, like clouds. Although they couldn't deny it was very beautiful. Still, the two newly arrived humans quickly looked at our hero.

"Ash? Ash, is that you?" asked the boy.

"Sophocles, Lillie, what's up?" Ash greeted them. "Long time no see."

"Ash! What a nice surprise!" The girl quickly ran towards him to properly greet him. "It's been so long, seven, eight years?"

"More or less." Ash smiled, until in that moment, he felt that again. "Owwwww! Misty!"

"Ash… won't you introduce us to your friends?" The redhead once again had that smile of hers in her face. Serena just shook her head and giggled nervously, a small sweat drop rolling down her temple.

"I was about to," Ash replied. "These are my friends. Misty from Cerulean City in Kanto, and Serena, from Vaniville Town in Kalos. Girls, these are Lillie and Sophocles, two of the friends I told you about here in Alola."

"Hello, nice to meet you both," said Lillie. "We need to tell the others, surely they'll be happy to see you."

"We can all meet up after class, so we can get to know each other." Sophocles suggested.

"After class? Don't tell me you're still attending the Trainer School."

"We're not students anymore, Ash," Lillie said. "We're teachers now."

"Really?" The Pallet trainer was quite surprised. "Wow, seems like I've missed out many things."

"And we'll be happy to tell you everything," said Sophocles. "But right now, we're running late. Togedemaru, let's go."

"We should go too, Shiron." Lillie talked to her Ninetales. "We'll see you after class!"

And not wasting a second more, the two entered the faculty along with their Pokémon, although Sophocles had to grab his Togedemaru by force so she wouldn't jump on Pikachu again. They had a class to arrive, quickly. As they walked away, Serena and Misty approached Ash.

"You've got some nice friends." Serena commented.

"And you've got yet to meet the others." Ash added. "You'll like them when you know them."

"You're always making friends everywhere, aren't you, Ash?" Misty quipped.

"Is that a bad thing?" he replied.

Misty snickered at that. No, making friends everywhere was not a bad thing at all. Making female friends… that was a different story. In any case, both girls were anxious to meet Ash's Alolan friends. What kind of people would they be?

After class…

The morning flew by, and after midday Ash, Misty and Serena were at the teacher's break room in the trainer school. Here they could finally get to meet the rest of Ash's friends, who were also, unsurprisingly, teachers at the school. Aside from Sophocles and Lillie, the others were: Mallow, a green-haired, dark-skinned girl who taught nutritional principles for future trainers to better feed their Pokémon; Kiawe, a tall, red-haired young man, specialist on battles and who taught combat strategies (Serena and Misty noticed he too wore a bracelet very similar to Ash's, albeit with a red crystal); and last but not least, Lana, a blue-haired girl who, like Misty, had a passion for Water-type Pokémon, and didn't take long to make friends with the Cerulean Gym Leader, sharing tastes in many particular activities. They all had many stories to share with Ash.

"This is incredible," said Mallow while serving everyone a scoop of her secret stew. "Who would have guessed you'd become a Frontier Brain and a Gym Leader at once?"

"It was Scott's idea, actually," Ash replied. "He said Pallet Town would gain more notoriety that way, and would bring in more challengers. I'm not complaining: the pay is excellent and keeps me and my Pokémon in shape."

"I'm very glad for you." Lillie smiled. "One day we'll have to travel to Kanto to see that Battle Coliseum with our own eyes, right, Shiron?"

"Nine, nine!" The white-blue fox nodded happily.

"I'm very interested in that Pokémon Showcase stuff, too." Mallow added. "It sounds really fun, I'd like to try it sometime."

"We could make a performance for you if you want." Serena offered.

Mallow became excited at the idea. "That would be wonderful! Sometimes we have live entertainment in our restaurant, we'll have to book a night for you."

"You won't regret it. It was no coincidence that she won the first Master Class Showcase in Kanto." Misty commented.

"By the way, Ash, would you like to try the new Island Challenge sometime?" Kiawe intervened. "In the past few years we've been trying to improve and make it more interesting."

"More interesting?" Ash arched an eyebrow. "I like the sound of that."

"Maybe that way you can prove that you're deserving of that Z-Ring Tapu Koko gave you." The red-haired young man added.

"Hey, don't tell me you're still mad at me for that."

Serena and Misty stared at Kiawe, puzzled at his remark. What was he talking about? The others, meanwhile, just laughed as they remembered all the matter.

"Of course not," Kiawe replied. "But I'm still thinking it was a little unfair that you got it just as soon as you arrived, when I had to pass all of those trials before being able to use the power of the Z-Crystals. Even more considering you're not an Alolan native.

"Are you serious?" asked Ash. "Let me remind you that, in the end, I did earn my right to use it legitimately, or are you going to deny that?"

"No way," Kiawe replied. "Still, I can't help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, you might not have grown too dependent on it."

The tone of that remark was more than enough to light that spark inside Ash everyone in the room knew very well. Especially Misty and Serena, and the former rolled her eyes, knowing what was coming next. Obviously, he'd want to smooth things in the most logical way a person as mature as him would do: with a Pokémon battle.

"If you're so sure, how about we have a battle, right here and now?" Ash said. "I'll show you that I don't need this. Even better, to make it fair, I won't use this either."

He removed not only the Z-Ring, but also the Mega-Ring from his other wrist. Kiawe watched that with interest: so he wouldn't use Mega-Evolution against him either? This would be fun.

"Alright, then let's go outside." Kiawe concluded. Ash nodded and the two of them immediately left for the courtyard, followed by Sophocles. Meanwhile, Misty, Serena and the other girls stared at them, each of them with a different reaction.

"Men, they always want to solve everything with fighting," said Misty.

"I think we should go, I had enough battles in the cruiser for the time being." Serena proposed. "In the meantime, how about we get to know each other better?"

"It's a wonderful idea." Lillie smiled. "Actually, we were all planning on having dinner at Mallow's family restaurant tonight."

"Since you three came along, I'll have to prepare extra rations." The green-haired girl smiled as well.

"That's great for me," said Misty. "And you, Lana, so you're a Water-types trainer as well?"

"Yes. Would you like to meet my Pokémon?" the bluenette asked.

"I'd love to," Misty answered. "So then, what time should we be going to the restaurant?"

"At dinnertime," said Lillie. "We'll all meet up at the restaurant at seven, until then, you can go with Lana. We'll take Serena, if she agrees."

"Of course." The Kalosian girl nodded.

Without further ado, Serena left with Lillie and Mallow, while Misty tagged along with Lana. Meanwhile, outside, the boys were preparing for their Pokémon battle. It seemed that everyone would have something to keep themselves busy for the rest of the afternoon. Not bad considering they had just arrived to the island.

At the courtyard…

The students had begun gathering up around the show about to start. They had to clear the whole place to give them enough room, and of course, asking permission from Professor Kukui to have that battle. It was lucky it happened during a break hour, since nobody, absolutely nobody, would want to miss it out.

Ash and Kiawe were on opposite end, with Sophocles in the very center, ready to act as the match's referee. Around the lines of the battlefield, there were lots of kids watching in excitement, waiting impatiently for the match to begin.

"The battle between Kiawe and Ash is about to start. Each one of you can only use one single Pokémon, and the match will end when one or both Pokémon are unable to keep fighting. Let's decide with a coin toss who chooses first." With this, the portly young man pulled out a coin, and tossed it in the air. After catching it, he placed it on the back of his hand and covered it with the other.

"Heads." Kiawe chose before Ash.

"You got it. You want to choose first, or after Ash?" Sophocles asked.

"Let him go first. Let's see what he's made of." The redhead folded his arms.

Ash of course had already thought who he was going to use. After all, since they had reunited very recently, they didn't have many chances to battle in the Coliseum yet. No doubt that he wanted to show what he was capable of. Taking one of his Pokéballs, Ash revealed his choice.

"Tyranitar, I choose you!"

The green dinosaur-like Pokémon materialized, and some who saw it tried to take cover, but strangely enough, it didn't kick up a sandstorm. Didn't it have the Sand Stream ability?

"Interesting. Alright, my turn now. Turtonator, let's go!" Kiawe threw his own Pokéball. The dragon turtle appeared as well, glaring at his opponent.

"Start!" Sophocles, raised both arms.

"Tyranitar, begin with Earthquake!" Ash ordered.

"ROAAAAARR!" Tyranitar raised a leg and stomped with great force, making the earth rumble and sending out a seismic wave.

"Turtonator, Protect!" Kiawe replied.

"Nator!" In response to his adversary's Earthquake, the dragon turtle surrounded himself in a green energy dome. He held it up until the earth stopped shaking, and glared back at his opponent in a daring way.

"Now, Flamethrower!"

Turtonator fired off a flaming torrent against Tyranitar, who just stood there. He wasn't an evasive Pokémon after all; his strength lied more in tanking the damage rather than dodging it. Nevertheless, over the years Ash had learned to adapt to other battling styles, not limiting himself to speedy and evasive Pokémon capable of delivering high-powered attacks, and Tyranitar was no exception. Even though Turtonator's Flamethrower was powerful, he held on firmly, enduring the damage.

"Tyranitar, use Crunch!" Ash yelled once the fire attack ceased.

"Turtonator, Shell Trap!" Kiawe called in response.

Tyranitar began running opening up his jaws and covering his fangs in a dark energy for a powerful bite, while Turtonator turned around and faced his shell to protect himself. Tyranitar sank his teeth at full force in the neck, but even though Turtonator groaned in pain, the spikes in his shell began burning up, creating a fiery blast so powerful that it sent Tyranitar flying backwards.

"Again, Flamethrower!" Kiawe commanded, and once again Turtonator shoot the fire stream.

"Hidden Power!" Ash replied at once.

Tyranitar's Hidden Power was Psychic-type, and he used it to lift Turtonator from the ground to cause him to miss the Flamethrower. Next, he slammed Turtonator making him fall on his shell, and immediately Ash called for another Earthquake, which the dragon turtle had no choice but to endure. Not that it was too much of a problem: Kiawe had trained him to endure attacks as strong as or even stronger than that, and once it ceased, he was back on his feet, ready to continue.

"Turtonator, use Draco Meteor!"

"NATOR!"

Turtonator aimed his jaws upwards and fired off an orange giant meteor on top of Tyranitar. It exploded and began raining in dozens of smaller shards pouring furiously on the dinosaur, who couldn't do anything but to try and cover himself while the meteor rain fell on him mercilessly. Ash had to admit it was impressive, that was a pretty powerful attack. But as he knew perfectly, that power came at a prize: the next use would significantly lower its effectiveness.

Tyranitar managed to endure the attack until the end, although it did make a number on him. He could still fight, but he had to be careful: Turtonator still had his Shell Trap move and if he recklessly approached, the counterattack would be brutal. Ash still was keeping an ace up his sleeve: last month he had taught Tyranitar how to use Hyper Beam, and one of those at point-blank range should be enough to seal the encounter (and a good substitute for Z-Moves, since he didn't have any chances to practice any of those with him).

"I'm impressed, Ash." Kiawe smirked. "Normally after one of Turtonator's Draco Meteors the opponent doesn't get back up."

"We've trained hard in endurance," Ash replied with a smirk of his own.

While he was more inclined to fight with fast and agile Pokémon, he had learned to take advantage of Pokémon who lacked such advantage in favor of a great defense and resistance, to make up for that. Aside from Tyranitar, Ash had others who suffered a lot due to not adapting to that (like his Torterra), and had decided to retrain them to use their maximum potential. If they couldn't avoid getting damaged, the training was centered in enduring it.

"Tyranitar, Hidden Power!"

"Turtonator, Protect!"

Turtonator managed to raise his barrier, saving himself from Tyranitar's Hidden Power in the last second. Immediately, Ash commanded him to charge with another Crunch attack. Kiawe's natural reaction was to respond with another Shell Trap, but Ash wouldn't fall for the same trick twice, and he knew exactly what to do. Another of the tricks he had learned from using a Pokémon who was strong but slow to move, was breaking off an attack and switch it for another right in the middle to catch the opponent off guard. He usually did this with physical contact attacks.

"Earthquake!" Ash called.

Tyranitar broke off his Crunch attack, and stopping at a fair distance from Turtonator, he stomped on the ground again, causing another tremor. In doing so he triggered Turtonator's Shell Trap, but it didn't do any good since Tyranitar was completely out of the blast radius.

"No!" Kiawe gasped.

"Now go, Crunch!" Ash replied.

Tyranitar roared, and once the fire from Turtonator's explosion ceased, he charged again to bite his neck, his fangs once again engulfed in Dark-type energy. Turtonator groaned in pain, while Tyranitar violently tilted his neck and threw him at the other side of the field. The dragon turtle got back on his feet, glaring at the dinosaur. They had only one more attack to decide the match.

"Turtonator, Draco Meteor!" Kiawe called.

"Tyranitar, Hyper Beam!"

That was all they had left: using their strongest attacks. Kiawe knew that using the Draco Meteor for the second time, the power would be much lower (and the fact Tyranitar had taken the full brunt didn't help), but it was still the strongest card he had. Meanwhile, Tyranitar began charging a yellow-orange energy in his jaws. Kiawe clenched his fists; could that be enough to defeat him? If only they could use the Inferno Overdrive. Unfortunately, Tyranitar beat Turtonator on charging up his attack, and fired the Hyper Beam at full, hitting Turtonator before he could even launch his own attack. Turtonator fell on his back, the Draco Meteor energy being completely wasted, and unable to get back up. Everyone remained silent, surprised at what had just happened. Even Sophocles forgot his duty of referee for a moment, the excitement for the battle getting the best of him.

"Turtonator is unable to battle!" He declared raising his left arm. "Victory is for Ash and Tyranitar!"

"Incredible! How could he beat Mr. Kiawe?" One of the kids exclaimed.

"That Pokémon is super cool! And it didn't even need to pull off a Z-Move!" Another added.

In the middle of the cheering, and one or two who wept over the defeat of their teacher, the kids fathered around the two combatants, congratulating both of them for their effort, and Ash for his victory. Kiawe accepted his defeat with dignity and recalled his fallen Pokémon.

"You did a good job, Turtonator," he said as he walked towards Ash, who along with Pikachu still congratulated Tyranitar. "That was a great battle. I take back what I said before. Maybe I'm the one who relies too much on the Z-Move."

"Hey, you both did well, don't worry about that." Ash assured him. "Since I don't have any Crystal for Tyranitar to use Z-Moves, we tried to compensate somehow."

"I can see that, yes." Kiawe nodded. "In any case, congratulations. I see now that being a Frontier Brain is not just for show."

The two gave each other a friendly handshake, while the school kids ran around Tyranitar to see him closer. It was understandable; any aspiring trainer would become excited seeing such an amazing battle like that from up close.

"Alright, everyone, the break's over and there's nothing else to see around here!" Sophocles suddenly spoke in an unusual stern teacher tone, which definitely didn't quite fit with him. "Everyone back to class, there's still one more hour before going home!"

The kids began dispersing, some of them muttering in annoyance that they were still wanting for more. But the teacher had spoken, they had to go. Meanwhile, the three friends would have to spend their time and get ready to get going for the meeting at Mallow's restaurant, since the path over there would be long. Looking on the bright side, the excitement of the battle definitely served to open their appetite, so they would eat plenty of food once they met up with the girls.

At Lana's house…

After leaving the school, Lana took Misty to her place, although not without making a stop for one of the favorite activities of both Water-type trainers: fishing. Lana explained that she often went to catch Pokémon this way to take to her classes and make demonstrations, and with Misty's help, she could do it twice as fast. The best part was doing so by riding on Lana's Lapras, since the Alolan resident knew exactly where to find the best fishing spots, both close and away from the shore. Of course, Misty didn't buy her story about once managing to hook a Kyogre that unfortunately got away. She was a funny girl, though, and she liked that.

The best part, though, came when Lana brought out her own Pokémon to help them in luring more of the local fish. The Pokémon in question was a mermaid-marine lion hybrid, with a white upper body and a blue mermaid tail. It had a very beautiful, long light blue hair, with pearls adorning it as well as the neck. Misty has instantly charmed upon seeing her: it was so precious and elegant. Lana told her it was called a Primarina, a dual Water-Fairy Pokémon. Aside from her Azumarill, Misty hadn't many of those type combination at her gym, and she couldn't help but wish one of those for herself. Another more, along with Greninja, she had added to her mental list of "Pokémon to eventually catch".

Having finished, they headed for Lana's house. She needed to prepare her class for the next day, though it wouldn't take long. Afterwards, they'll head for Mallow's family restaurant for the reunion.

"Your family doesn't mind that you bring strangers to visit?" Misty asked as Lana opened her door.

"Don't worry about that." Lana assured her. "They're not here now, anyway."

"They're not here? That's not very reassuring." The redhead looked away.

"My parents are on vacation abroad, and my younger sisters are now undergoing trials in other islands. They'll take a while to return anyway." the bluenette remarked. "Plus, they know of Ash, and anyone who is a friend of his is a friend of ours."

"I appreciate that, thanks." Misty smiled.

They entered the house, and Lana told Misty to make herself at home while she went to put away the Pokémon they caught as well as archiving the notes for the class she'd have the next day. Misty dropped herself on the couch, as she glanced to her surroundings. The place was quite quaint but homely. The walls were full of photos, of Lana herself and her friends (some of them including Ash too). The one who caught most of her attention was one showing her with a pair of twin girls, very curious. Not just that, the twins looked a lot like her mini-clones. The only ways to tell them apart were the number of tips on the bangs falling down their temples (the right one having two, and the left one only one) and the picture on the shirt of each one (one having a Shellder, the other a Slowbro). Outside of that, she couldn't help but think they looked quite adorable.

"Thanks for waiting." Lana brought a couple of cold drinks and gave Misty one of them.

"Thank you." The redhead took a big sip. "Ah, that was refreshing. By the way, in that photo over there… are those girls your sisters?"

"Yeah, they are." Lana nodded. "Harper and Sarah."

"They're really cute. Just like you, the resemblance is amazing." Misty commented.

"You wouldn't believe how much of a hassle they could be at times," said Lana. "They could never stay still, especially with Pokémon they found cute. I still remember the first time we brought Ash and Pikachu to visit."

"What happened?" Misty asked with interest.

"They began pulling on his face and pinching him everywhere. Obviously he got angry, and ended up zapping all of us." Lana recalled. "Though that wasn't the worst part."

"Really? Then what was it?" asked Misty. Lana blushed slightly before answering.

"Well… they assumed Ash was my boyfriend. That was really embarrassing." The bluenette admitted.

Misty gave her an inquisitive glare. "Hmm… Lana, do you like Ash perchance?"

"What? No, of course not! I mean, I do like him as a friend, but if you mean that I like 'like' him in that way… I assure you that's not the case."

Misty kept staring at her for a bit, as if she wanted to know if she was sincere. She didn't quite buy her story, and still kept her glare. Lana couldn't help but feel a little intimidated, and even though Misty didn't go violent or something, Lana couldn't quite shake off the feeling that she could explode at a moment's notice.

"Lana… tell me the truth. Do you like Ash, if only a little?" the redhead asked.

The bluenette swallowed before answering. "Why do you ask? Do you like him? Wait, so…"

"Yeah, I do." Misty nodded. "And it's not just me, Serena likes him too. In fact… part of the reason for this little vacation was so we can 'compete' for him fairly. We did agree on some things, though: the first, any potential competition, outside from us two, has to go. You get my drift?"

"Oh… yeah, I see." Lana couldn't help but chuckle a little. "Alright, in that case, I assure you, you don't have to worry about me, or any of the others, for that matter. I assure you, none of us sees Ash as anything more than just a friend."

"I'm glad." Misty smiled. "In any case, if you don't mind me asking, what do you think of him?"

"I won't deny it, he's grown very handsome over the years, and he always was really nice to all of us around here," said Lana. "But like I told you, he's just a good friend, and… he's not even my type."

"Oh, then which kind are your type?" Misty asked with interest.

"You really don't think that I'll tell you, do you?" Lana was still a little embarrassed. "Plus, having two younger sisters who want me to get a boyfriend, that'll just give them more ammo to tease me."

Misty giggled at that. "You know, I'm the youngest in my family, but my sisters used to tease me a lot about it too. They always said I had a thing for boys younger than me. Granted, they weren't too far off, but it's not like Ash is that much younger than me."

"So you have sisters too? And they're older?" Lana asked. "I wouldn't mind switching places. Having to babysit Harper and Sarah could sometimes be an annoyance, especially when my parents went out."

"Trust me, you wouldn't like it." Misty assured her. "Not with the ones I have, at least, especially considering that the one who keeps the gym running is me."

They both laughed. They couldn't believe they were comparing each other with their family situations. They did share something in common, though: each one had her days when she wanted to be an only child.

"Anyway, changing the topic, since you helped me catch Pokémon for the class tomorrow, how about that I give you one as thanks?" Lana offered. "You can pick any you want, and you said you wanted to take one as a souvenir from Alola."

"Yeah, I did say that." Misty smiled. "That's really kind of you, but… I think the Pokémon I liked the most was your Primarina. Obviously I cannot take her, being your lifelong partner and all, right?"

Lana became thoughtful upon hearing this. After a while, she smiled in a way that somehow intrigued Misty.

"Hold on, I think we can solve that. Wait for a bit."

Not saying a single word, Lana ran off to the back of her house, while Misty just waited for her. What was she up to? A few minutes later, the bluenette came back with a Pokémon Egg Case. The egg inside the capsule was completely dark blue, with a wavy light blue and an oval white spot. Misty stared at it in confusion; why did she bring it all of a sudden?

"My Primarina laid this egg a few months ago." Lana explained. "I was planning on giving it to my sisters, but they said they didn't want it. If you want it, it's yours."

"Are you serious?" Misty beamed.

"The temporizer says that it should be just a few days away from hatching, one week tops," said Lana. "Much better that way, you can make it see you first."

Misty couldn't utter a single word. Lana's Primarina really enamored her, and now Lana was giving her an egg. Something else to give Ash credit for: he really knew how to choose his friends, wherever he went. Smiling, the redhead took the case very carefully.

"Thank you so much." She smiled. "I promise, I'll take good care of it."

"I know you will." Lana smiled as well. "Hey, since we still have time before we meet up with the others, do you want to go for another ride on my Lapras? There's a reef where we can go for a dive, I'm sure you'll love it."

"Do you have to ask? What are we waiting for, let's go!"

Misty could barely contain her excitement of the moment, while she placed the egg case inside her bag. She almost felt like a girl with a new toy. Maybe she was too far away from Kalos to get her own Greninja, but at least she could take a good souvenir from Alola. She could barely wait for the egg to finally hatch.

Mallow's family restaurant…

The remaining trio of girls had gone directly to the place. Mallow's family, like Lana's, had gone on a little vacation too, so she had seen herself in the need of running the place on her own. Between that and her duties in the Pokémon School, she has a little short of hands, so Serena and Lillie offered to help with the clients.

While they were taking a break, Mallow decided to sit and talk to Serena for a bit, and ask the Kalosian girl a few things about herself. She had heard quite a bit from the Pokémon Showcases from Kalos, and she felt quite excited of talking to someone who had already taken part in them and won.

"Pokémon Showcases sound really amazing," The green-haired girl said.

"They are." Serena nodded. "Although I have to say, Pokémon Contests are really exciting too. And they helped me understand a bit more the excitement of battles, like Ash does."

"How was your experience with them?" Mallow asked.

"Well… it was almost like when I first started in Pokémon Showcasing." Serena confessed. "At first, I was really panicked, in front of so many people and a million light-years from my comfort zone, and sometimes I just didn't know what to do. But then, I reminded myself why I was doing it. I promised myself that I'd be stronger for Ash, knowing that no matter what, he'd never give up until the very end. He always faced every challenge with courage and determination, so I had to do the same. Otherwise, I'd never be able to stand before him again."

Mallow looked at her with her hand on her chin. "Hmm… tell me, do you like Ash?"

Serena looked away, blushing slightly. That was something anyone could see. Of course, for Serena it was much more than just 'liking' him: her feelings for Ash were beyond a simple attraction. She considered him the most important person, her role model in life.

"I don't blame you, these years had been quite nice to him." Mallow winked at her. "If only he wasn't taken already…"

"What do you mean?" Serena didn't quite get what she meant by that.

"Oh, don't play innocent on me," Mallow said in a mischievous tone. "You and Misty vying for him, aren't you? I know of those things."

"Well… yes, we are." Serena admitted.

"Tee-he, who would have guessed that he would have grown so popular? Well, since we're at it, would you like me to give you a hand?" Mallow offered. "Can you cook?"

"A little bit. I mostly bake sweets, though."

"In that case, how about that I teach you some of the best Alolan dishes so you can impress him? You know what they say, the path to a man's heart is through his stomach, and we know how big of a glutton Ash is."

Serena couldn't help but giggle at that. Obviously anybody who knew Ash knew of insatiable appetite, and his Alolan friends were no exception.

"As long as you don't make that electric stew again." Lillie intervened. Serena stared at her in confusion, while Mallow slightly pouted. "Hey, that once I said nothing because we're friends, but seriously, only Sophocles would enjoy getting electrified while he eats."

"You're missing it out." Mallow shrugged. "Hey, Serena, would you try it? I'm sure you'll love it."

"Uhm… I think I'll pass, but thanks anyway," Serena replied.

Suddenly, Mallow lost a bit of her usual enthusiasm, as if she remembered something. "By the way, Lillie… how's your mom?"

Lillie adopted a similarly somber expression, but she smiled warmly shortly after. "She's recovering at a good pace. The doctors said she should be able to return in a couple months."

"I'm glad to hear that." Mallow smiled too.

"Excuse me, what are you talking about?" Serena asked. "Something wrong with your mom?"

"An incident of several years ago." Mallow explained. "Lillie's mom was affected by… the Ultra Beasts."

"Ultra… Beasts?" Serena her head in confusion.

Mallow and Lillie exchanged glances, as if asking one another if they should tell Serena. Only a few within their inner circle (Ash included) knew the whole truth about this incident, and they preferred to keep it that way. Nonetheless, if Serena was Ash's friend, they could definitely trust her with that secret.

Mallow began to relate the story. "The Ultra Beasts were Pokémon that came from another dimension. One of them, known as Nihilego, somehow infected Lillie's mom."

"Infected?" Serena clutched on her chest. Lillie decided to take over for Mallow and continue.

"I don't know exactly what happened. When I was little, my mom sometimes could be strict and stern, but in general, she was always kind and sweet with me. But one day… she suddenly changed. She turned cold, obsessed with having everything and everyone under her control, myself included. I think it all began when… when my dad vanished in the Ultra Space"

"What's the Ultra Space?" Serena asked.

"That's what they called the dimension where the Ultra Beasts came from." Mallow explained. "We believe that Lillie's mom had the Aether Foundation research them to try and find him after he disappeared."

"Or at least, that was at first." Lillie continued. "When my mom first made contact with that Pokémon, Nihilego, everything just went downhill. She became fixated on finding and controlling the Ultra Beasts, and I think she didn't even know why. Somehow… I think Nihilego took over the wishes of my mom, and twisted them, making her forget why she was doing that in the first place."

"Oh, by Arceus…"

"If it wasn't for the Island Guardians, and for Ash… we might have not saved her," said Lillie. "Still, whatever Nihilego did to her, it caused unimaginable physical and emotional damage. She took years to recover; in fact, while she's already physically well, she's still very withdrawn and almost doesn't interact with people. Worse still, she doesn't even smile…"

Serena clutched on her chest again. She couldn't help but feel sorry for Lillie. She loved her own mother dearly, and she couldn't fathom what Lillie had been through after almost losing hers in such a horrible manner. Something inside the Kalosian girl made her feel the urge to help her new friend.

"Lillie… is there something I could do for your mom?" Serena adopted a determined expression. "Maybe… do you think she'd like one of my performances?"

"One of your performances?" Lillie and Mallow stared Serena.

"When I finished my journey with Ash, even though I had already decided what was my dream, I realized something else." Serena's voice was quite firm. "The actual reason I wanted to become the best Pokémon Performer in Kalos, was to make people smile."

"Really?" Lillie smiled. "You'd do that… for my mom?"

"Hey, if you're Ash's friend, then you're my friend too." Serena smiled back with conviction. "Isn't that something he would do too?"

"Thank you… thank you so much." Lillie hugged Serena with huge gratitude.

"We better get a high definition camera," said Mallow. "We'll need it to record your performance and send the video to Ms. Lusamine."

"Don't worry about that." Serena pulled out her own camera. "I'm always carrying it on me, if I do something for my PokéVision channel."

"Well then. Do you need a stage or something?" asked Mallow.

Serena looked around. "Outside is fine, we need enough space. If that's OK for you."

"Alright. Lillie, give me a hand over here!"

"Sure." The blonde nodded.

While the two Alolan girls took some chairs outside for the eventual public, Serena let out her Pokémon. Soon enough, the quintet formed by Delphox, Pancham, Sylveon, Roselia and Froslass gathered around their trainer, ready to listen to what she had to say.

"Alright, guys… we've got a lot of work to do here."

Meanwhile, outside there was a small yellow bird with a couple of pom-poms on the wings, peeking through the window in curiosity, and becoming interested in Serena. It was a Pom-Pom Style Oricorio, which for some reason felt drawn to that girl, and he didn't imagine what it was about to see.

At nighttime…

Once the whole group had gathered around the restaurant, the dinner started at once. Again, Ash and Misty started competing on who of the two would eat more, and when the time for the malasadas came, they began tugging on the last one to see who got to eat it. Kiawe, who couldn't stand it anymore, grabbed a knife and sliced it in half, causing both of them to go falling backwards. And Mallow couldn't resist and prepared her electric stew, which (surprisingly) came out much better this time, although both Misty and Serena, while they enjoyed the taste, they complained about feeling those sparks inside their mouths. The Gym Leader actually had her jaw go numb for a moment, and couldn't talk. Lillie, meanwhile, decided not to taste it, arguing that 'she was full'.

"Alright, now we've all eaten, it's time for a special surprise!" Mallow announced. "Ladies and gentlemen, if you were so kind to go to the restaurant's backyard, we've got a special show for you."

Lana, Kiawe and Sophocles exchanged glances, wondering what it could be. Speaking of, where was Serena? The Kalosian girl had vanished for the past ten minutes or so, after talking to Mallow and Lillie. Ash and Misty, on the other hand, had already and idea of what she was up to. Everyone came out, and a couple minutes later, Serena appeared, ready for the show.

The Performer-Coordinator had already dressed up nicely for the occasion: she was wearing an outfit very similar to a baton twirler uniform (the baton itself included), wearing a white blouse leaving her midriff exposed, a red skirt with yellow folding, knee-high white boots and matching arm-length gloves, and a flower crown adorning her hair. Ash raised an eyebrow, taking his time to admire her.

"She looks very nice in that outfit," he said. And right then, he felt Misty's accusing glare without the need of turning around. The chill it caused was more than enough.

"Would you say the same to me if I wore a similar one?" the redhead asked.

"Hmm… I don't know. Why don't you get one and we find out?" He suggested. Misty apparently decided to take him up on his suggestion, since she immediately smiled.

"Alright, I'll get one of those when we go shopping."

"Shopping… and I'll get to carry everything, will I?" Ash commented. Misty just giggled without giving him a response, turning his attention back to Serena.

"Pika…" The electric rodent sighed.

Aside from Serena, Delphox, Pancham and Sylveon, 'the Original Three', had already dressed up for the performance, wearing marching band hats over their heads. Roselia and Froslass were not going to take part in this; they just helped in placing the sound equipment and the speakers for the music, and then went to take a seat with the rest of the public.

"Video running!" Lillie said, already with Serena's camera in hand. She really hoped this would help in cheering up her mom.

"This is a special performance, coming to you from the Alola region, for all of my friends, old and new. I'd like to specially dedicate it to Ms. Lusamine. I wish you a swift recovery, and allow me to say that you have a wonderful daughter. Let the music roll!"

CLICK! Mallow, who had the equipment remote control, pressed the play button. The music was an instrumental version of a song named "Dream Dream", the most recurring theme Serena used for her performances. In fact, Misty recalled she used it for both the Cerulean and Master Class performances.

"Here we go!"

The performance started with Serena and Delphox the middle, dancing in perfect sync as they spun around their batons and threw them up in the air a couple times. They then took distance amongst each other to throw the batons to one another, while Pancham and Sylveon took the center. The latter launched a Moon Force attack to the former, who got on the floor and began spinning on his back while making a Dark Pulse around himself.

"Hey, that's my Counter-Shield!" Ash said with a smile.

"They've been practicing." Misty commented.

It wasn't only good for battling and Contests; Pancham's Counter-Shield quickly trapped the Moon Force and redirected it up into the air. Next, when she regained her stick, Delphox aimed at the combined attack and launched a Mystical Fire, making it explode in a rain of luminous and dark particles. The public stared in awe at this; in fact, many people who were just walking by heard the music and upon seeing those "fireworks" decided to approach and see what was going on. They weren't the only ones: from the restaurant's rooftop, a little yellow bird enjoyed the show as well.

In the interlude, Pancham used Stone Edge to make appear a huge stone pillar below his trainer, being extremely careful not to hurt her, while Serena threw her baton up into the air and continued her dance. Sylveon jumped high to catch the baton with her ribbons and give it back to Serena, who then jumped off the pillar and while still in the air, Delphox used Psychic to slow down her fall and help her make some spins and twirls until she touched the ground again.

"Wonderful." Lillie commented as she continued recording. She had no doubts; her mom was going to love this.

Ash and the others were quite impressed. Serena, meanwhile, was too focused on her performance to notice that the crowd watching had begun to increase. And the small yellow bird on the rooftop had also begun dancing to the music, unable to hold back the excitement.

"And now, for the grand finale!" Serena announced, as she stepped aside to make way for Sylveon and Delphox.

Both of them stood facing each other, launching Moon Force and Mystical Fire at the same time. This combination was dangerous: the attacks had to be perfectly equal in power so as to not to cause an explosion. It took them a long time to perfect it during the Sinnoh Pokémon Contests, but it was well worth it. The fire and the lunar energy combined together into an energy, plasma-like sphere, leaving everyone with their mouths agape.

Next, Pancham appeared delivering a Power-Up Punch to hit the sphere upwards. Sylveon and Delphox jumped to send it back with a combined Flamethrower and Dazzling Gleam, powering it up even more. Pancham continued to respond with Power-Up Punch, as if they were playing some kind of vertical ping-pong. The song was about to reach its end, and Serena knew they had to end this fast since the small panda required a lot of effort to pull off those moves.

Delphox and Sylveon landed, each one on one side of Pancham, and together they launched their attacks one last time to power up the sphere. The final touch: Pancham jumped to send it flying with one last Power-Up Punch, at full power. The sphere flew up into the sky, exploding into a burst of infinite colors, an amazing fireworks show.

"Wow… that looked like a supernova." Misty commented.

Ash glanced at her, and nodded in agreement. 'Supernova' seemed like a proper way to describe it. All spectators became completely spellbound, while Serena and her Pokémon gathered up in the center, making the final pose.

"Finish!" She announced with a bright smile. It was then that the applause and cheering from all the people started, and Serena noticed she had more public watching than at first.

"Bravo! That was spectacular!"

"We want more! More!" a girl cried out.

"Where did you learn to do that?" A little girl who escaped her mother approached her. "Can you teach me?"

"Your Pokémon are so cure!" said another. "Can I touch them?"

Serena could only giggle nervously. She didn't imagine she would drag more public with her show. Well, if they wanted more… Delphox, Pancham and Sylveon were already exhausted, but luckily for her, Froslass and Roselia were still available.

"Alright, alright!" she said. "I can make another performance if you want, but give me some minutes to prepare, alright? Froslass, Roselia, please help me here!"

Lucky for her to have expanded her team to five members. For Pokémon Showcasing the maximum was three, but it never hurt to have some reserve backup for futures, or in this case, for an extra performance if the public wanted a little more. Mallow moved in to give her a hand as well; in fact, her own Tsareena seemingly wanted to get into the show too. Serena would have accepted gladly, but he wasn't used to perform with Pokémon that weren't hers and she preferred to rehearse first to feel more confident.

"Looks like Serena just became the new local celebrity here," Misty commented.

"I'm not surprised, she's got talent." Ash nodded.

While they prepped for the second show, the small Oricorio on the rooftop was still looking in expectation. He loved that talent showcase, and felt an urge to try something like that, but he didn't dare to get close, being too shy with people. But maybe, just maybe, that girl would let him join in the fin. Would he dare to approach?

Meanwhile, in an apartment at the other side of the city…

For many, the Alola region was a tropical paradise and the best place to go on vacation around the world. For her… it felt more like a prison.

How long had it been here since she got here? Seven, eight, nine years? She had already lost count. It was a real miracle having survived that horrid experience. How she didn't end up crushed by the water pressure, or ripped apart by the vortex that swallowed her when her ship imploded was a mystery, but she wasn't interested in knowing the how or why she survived. What mattered was that she had survived, and because of that brat and his friends, she was now in the ruin.

When she woke up, somehow she was in a fishing boat. The vortex in the lake somehow dragged her into open sea, and she was found floating in a state between life and death. She was in shock, but fortunately, it wasn't too hard to feign amnesia to convince those fools to help her. She had to: she was too weak and had lost all of her weapons along with her ship. She had to get them to feel mercy for her, those poor naïve fools were her only chance of survival.

The only advantage of having arrived in Alola was the fact that nobody knew who she was, thus it wasn't too hard to assume a new identity. The hardest part was having to play the 'nice and honest citizen' part with everyone, at least until she recovered economically speaking. After she was declared legally dead, all of her assets and funds were frozen. She couldn't go back to the old business, not yet at least.

After a long and tiresome (mostly in the emotional department) day, she dropped herself on her bed, checking out her smartphone. It hadn't been easy, but thanks to a mixture of enduring those 'goody-two-shoes' jobs, some favors in the underworld and one or two lucky strikes in gambling, she had slowly recovered. In a few months, maybe one year tops, she'd have enough to leave this hole and go back to her original operations. Her only true enjoyment: finding rare and valuable Pokémon to sell for the highest bidder. Years ago, she wasn't called Pokémon Hunter J for nothing, and she preferred to call herself as such, at least while in private.

"Who would have guessed I'd run into you after so many years?" She checked her phone's memory card.

Opening the image viewer, she looked up a photo showing a young man, with black hair and slightly tanned skin, with two girls around his age, each clinging to one of his arms and smiling widely, while he had a nervous expression. She only saw him in passing at the docks today went she went for a walk. She couldn't care less who those girls were or what their relationship to him was. What really mattered was that there was no mistaking him: he was the same brat Ash Ketchum who ruined her plans in Sinnoh.

"The brat has certainly grown up?" Once again she spoke aloud, not to anyone in particular.

J was quite surprised: what were the odds of running into him? Doing some digging around the internet, she learned that the boy had gotten himself quite a name in the Kanto region, winning the Indigo Conference and assuming a position as a Frontier Brain, establishing in Pallet Town something called the Battle Coliseum. There were even rumors that he wanted to aim for the Regional Champion title. He hadn't wasted his time, he certainly had grown stronger. Even so… this looked like a golden opportunity to get her revenge.

What should she do? Facing him directly didn't seem like the wisest choice. Her Pokémon (of the few things she could rescue from that incident) had gotten rusted due to the lack of exercise for so many years, although in the past few months she had managed to get them back into shape somewhat, they were still a far cry from their prime. On the other hand… these two girls coming with him, maybe there was a way to get to him through them?

J smirked evilly. For now, all she could do was keeping an eye on him. She didn't dare follow him at the time to avoid looking suspicious, but she had other ways to find him. Grabbing her laptop, she opened an application and using her personal password, she got into the security feed of all the city. Even with a simple personal computer, hacking that system was easy if you knew where to look for the backdoor. Too many cameras to look at once, but with a facial recognition program, using the photo from her phone as a base, the search wouldn't take more than a few hours, maybe just a couple days at most, to determine his movements and where he could be.

"Ash Ketchum… you will pay dearly for what you did to me."

To be continued…

Author's notes:

*PHEW*, once again, I apologize for taking so long with the update for this story. In my defense, things have gotten pretty hard around here, too much to do and never enough time (although translations take me less time and effort than writing from scratch). At least I finally finished.

With this chapter I wanted to cover some specific points. First, now that they've arrived in Alola, Serena and Misty get to know the friends Ash made here and they begin interacting with them. Second, I want each and all of Ash's Pokémon to get at least some screen time, in this case I took the chance with Tyranitar, putting him to battle against Kiawe's Turtonator. Also some spotlight for Serena, putting her in her strong point of Pokémon Showcasing. Don't worry, I'll have her in a couple battles later on her own to show off her contest battling style and how much it has evolved. I'd like to thank ZeekLaerers since, just like in the prologue, he helped me give a grand finale for the show, I really needed it. Also, I'm establishing now the Pokémon Serena and Misty will take from their journey in this region. The choices weren't too hard: with Misty, she's one of the few of Ash's female companions who didn't get to catch a starter (the closest being when she fought Ash for who got to keep Totodile), and Serena, Oricorio seems like a perfect Pokémon for her performance, and I chose the Pom-Pom form to give her elemental coverage (she doesn't have an Electric-type). Lastly, I promised there would be no drama between the girls, but no story is interesting without a conflict, so well, who better than Pokémon Hunter J, one of the few villains who actually tried to KILL Ash to provide a source of threat? Hey, if Team Rocket survives getting blasted into the sky, explosions and falling down ravines, who says J couldn't have done the same? For now she'll only wait, but will eventually make her move, in due time.

Alright, that's all for now. Thanks for the reviews to Omnistar, Kori A Grayson, Jriya and to a couple of Guest(s) whom I'd recommend that the next time try and identify themselves so I can properly thank you individually. I'll try and get the next part in a month tops, although I'll first write it in Spanish and have also to attend other compromises (in and out of here). See ya around.