I yawned widely as I stumbled into the kitchen the next morning - the smell of pancakes drifting into my nose. As I walked in A say Sycamore facing the stove. He donned his usual dark purple shirt, lab coat absent, his hair slightly more unruly as it brushing it after waking uo had slipped his mind.

"Morning" I said

"Good morning" he replied chirpily

"Always the morning person" I smiled sleepily as he pushed a plate of pancakes towards me "not that I'm complaining"

"I woke up early to finish some work" he shrugged, his long fingers curling around the mug off coffee in his hands and I got the urge to reach over and lace my fingers through his. I blushed and dropped my gaze to the plate, shovelling some pancake in my mouth to push the thought away.

"So what are you thinking of doing on your first day in Lumiose?" he sipped his coffee

I shrugged "No idea"

"Well, I have a lot to do but I could give you the Lumisose by night tour?" he smiled

I felt my heart rate quicken "that would be great"

He opened his mouth to talk but got cut off when someone entered the room, we both turned to see Jessica "Professor, you have some visitors"

"Alright" he smiled "excuse me" he addressed me before following Jessica out the room. I just sat alone as I finished my breakfast before heading in the same direction as him. As I walked into the foyer of the laboratory I saw him talking with four kids.

"Ah, Hailey just on cue" he grinned and I raised an eyebrow "you four, there's someone I'd like you to meet" he said as I stopped by his side and looked at the kids he was talking to - probably ones he'd given starters to "you guys, this is Hailey Storm" two of them gasped while the other two looked mildly confused.

"Nice to meet you!" one of the confused ones said, he had a Pikachu sitting on his shoulder "my name's Ash" he stuck his hand out to me and I smiled, shaking his hand.

"Hi, Ash, I'm Hailey"

"Ash, do you know who that is?" his blonde friend hissed

He frowned "No.."

"Hailey here is the current league Champion of the Kalos Region" Sycamore explained "she's an amazing trainer"

"Ah, Augustine, you're too kind" I smirked, blushing a little.

"Woah, it's an honour to meet you, Miss!" the other confused girl said

"Just Hailey's fine" I smiled awkwardly

"So you're the Trainer I'll have to beat to become a Pokemon master" Ash said and I raised my eyebrows as his male friend hissed for him to be quiet "and I will be a Pokemon master!"

I smiled, cocking my head a little at him "well, I look forward to our battle, Ash" the four of them seemed to be staring at me in awe "I'm sorry, I didn't catch the names of the rest of you"

"Oh, where are my manners" his blonde friend spoke "my name is Clemont, this is my sister Bonnie"

"And I'm Serena" the girl chipped in and I smiled warmly at them "oh, Professor, I nearly forgot!" she said, producing a wicker basket and opening it, the smell of almonds wafting into the room and I felt my mouth water "I baked Macrons"

"How nice" I smiled "how about you come in for some tea?" I looked over at Sycamore who smiled kindly

"I still have some work to do, so I'll have mine a bit later" he said

"Can we see what you're working on?" Serena asked excitedly

"Of course" he beamed, moving to leave "make yourself at home - Hailey, would you show them to the Library?"

"Sure" I nodded.

x

I smiled fondly as the kids talked as I sipped my tea, thinking back to the beginning of my own Pokemon journey and I found myself having a sad, wave of heavy nostalgia. I sighed as I took a gulp from my tea. Those days seemed miles away now. Serena and Bonnie had gone to offer the professor a Macaron and I watched as Ash and Clemont talked about training.. I dropped my teacup as there was a huge crash and it smashed on the floor.

"What the heck was that?" I exclaimed, getting to my feet and dashing out the room from where the huge smashing noises were coming. I burst into the Garden to see the Gates blown off and my eyes widened, Ash and Clemont quick on my heels as I ran out the gates. No one in sight. We saw one of Sycamore's Chespin's down the street and I ran behind Ash as he talked to the Grass Pokemon.

"Where is everyone?" Ash said

"The Professor is missing!" came Jessica's worried call from behind us

"Serena and Bonnie too!" Ash said, eyes wide. Chespin started squawking and pointing at the truck that was crashing down the street and it clicked in my head. They'd been taken. I suddenly felt a wave of nauseated worry.

"I'll let officer Jenny know what's going on" Jessica squeezed my arm before she took down the street. Ash in the mean time sending out his Fletchling to search for the truck, just as Chespin noticed the trail of broken Macaron pieces leading in the direction the truck went.

"Serena must of left them" Clemont said

"We should follow them" I said, they nodded and with that we took off down the street behind Chespin - who paused to eat every piece Serena had left. I reached for my Pokeballs, sending out Ninetales, he didn't pause before running after me - I never got over the trust they had in me. Eventually we reached the end of the trail, we were totally panting messes but we noticed the truck that had driven away from the Lab was there.

"Come on" I motioned them and we snuck around the outside of the building towards the door, trying to be as silent as we possibly could. I leaned down and looked through a large crack, when my eyes fell on Sycamore all fine and well I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding in.

"We've got to get them out of there" Ash hissed

"Hold on, if we rush in we'll just get caught too" I ran a hand through my hair while my brain ticked, trying to come up with a plan. I didn't have a lot of time before there was a loud clatter and I winced, turning to see Chespin had fallen into a pile of cans "well, that did it" I sighed, before grabbing on to my Ninetales and throwing my leg over it's back.

"May aswell rush it now" I rolled my eyes as Ninetales ran into the room. I jumped off when I got there, Team Rocket seeming a little distracted my saying their motto so I ran over to Sycamore. Ash and Clemont behind me.

"Are you alright?" I asked worriedly, grabbing at the sticky substance they'd tied him in and yanking my hands away when it wouldn't budge.

"I'm fine" he smiled kindly "thank you for coming"

"I'm here for one day and I'm already looking after you" I smirked at him and he chuckled as I tried to yank off the web substance to no avail and I sighed shortly, losing my paitence "Ninetales, use ember - and try not to hit him in the face"

His eyes went wide "Hailey wait, there's got to be ano-" too late, my Ninetales spat a ball of fire at him and it burned away the web without any third degree burns.

"See" I smiled, brushing the ash from his shoulder with my hand "nothing to worry about, I know what I'm doing - I would never hurt that pretty face of yours" I grinned, patting down the flames on his shoulder before he saw them and helped him too his feet. I saw a little bit of colour rise to his cheeks and then I realised what I'd said, not that I had time to be embarrassed as Team Rocket were now yelling at us.

I heard their laptop click and my eyes went wide when I saw what was obviously Sycamore's research flash on the screen. I got in to my battle stance as their Meowth ran towards a huge shape as high as the ceiling covered in a tarpaulin.

"What is that?" I sighed

"Nothing good" Sycamore said, pulled me away from it. The tarpaulin fell off as it booted up to see a huge Meowth robot with giant claws.

"You're right" I said, my voice strained "it's nothing good"

"Oh, it's marvellous!" Sycamore explained and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes "it looks powerful"

"Woah! I know they're our enemy but that's a super cool invention" Clemont pitched in as it moved towards us

"How about we stop fangirling and start running?" I tugged on Sycamore's coat

"This isn't the time for you two to be impressed!" Serena added as we started running for our lives away from the Machine. I felt my lungs heaving as I ran, retracting Ninetales as I did.

"It's no use" I panted, as we came to a stop "we need to fight this thing, not get squashed by it!" I reached for my PokeBalls, grabbing Glaceon and throwing her out "Glaceon, hyper beam, now!"

"Glaceon!" she chirped, sending a huge beam on light from her mouth, hitting the Meowth. I watched in horror as it retracted, bounding off the silver plate and shooting back at us. Heading directly for Sycamore.

"Look out!" I screamed, pushing him roughly over and then screeching as the now doubly powered Hyperbeam hit me directly in the chest, knocking me to the floor.

"Hailey!" Sycamore was lifting me up and I clutched my ribs in pain.

"Jesus, I feel bad for all the Pokemon I've battled" I wheezed

He chuckled "are you okay?"

"Not particularly" I winced, watching as Ash tried his luck attacking the huge machine. I was in pain but I still flushed when Sycamore lifted me up bridal style - I did however feel a little nauseous so I didn't find the energy to complain as I felt myself passing out against his shoulder - his worried tone only slightly coming through the the dark wave coming over me.

"Hailey?!"