Hi everyone, and here's chapter four!

I kind struggled with this one as it is a battle orientated chapter so I took inpiration from another of my stories (not on this site) to write the Santalune Gym Battle. This one is more game based in structure and appearance whilst a certain Ash technique makes its appearance. Now, for your questions/statements.

Firstly, No... Ash will not have a Lucario as a Mega. There are more than just Lucario's out there as Mega choices, he will have a steel type Mega Evolution though.

Secondly, Mairin will obtain more Pokemon. I have three new additions awaiting her in the wings of future chapters.

Next, to the random guest, sorry but Ash will have a fully evolved team by the end of this. So, no stopping at a second stage just because of design. And, as a quick note, this story will be roughly 55 chapters long due to my planning so... not gonna be a short one.

Finally, the thing with Serena and Clemont, who will be appearing soon enough. They still have their anime plots but instead of Ash, it's someone else who is helping them, which causes problems when they receive an item back that wasn't there in the first place. In two chapters this will all make sense but until then, please be patient as I am only one person and I don't have the time to make a chapter a day. The Clembot situation will be solved by the next chapter whilst this stories protagonists are on Route 5 back to Lumiose.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy.

Fantastical Flashes

"Do you even know where you're going?!" Alain's words seemed to be ignored as Ash and Mairin ran on ahead of him, rushing through the streets of Santalune City in the direction of the Gym with no regard for his lack of running experience. Although he would never classify himself as physically unfit, Alain was not a runner. Unfortunately for him, his two travelling companions were. Mairin had shown herself to be energetic with a lack of being able to keep still unless she was forced to.

"What do you think?" Pikachu, who was happily clutching his trainer's jacket as the latter ran, smirked cockily back at the older trainer.

"Nope! I have no idea," Ash stopped running and jumped up onto a nearby fountain, pointing his finger forwards with a smile on his face which couldn't make anybody angry at him. "But if I keep on moving then I'll have to find it someday, right?"

"Yep! Well, not unless your stupid ass gets us lost again but, you've been getting better at that lately." Ash couldn't help but continue to smile as the fountain exploded with water behind him, the timed pattern having turned itself on with the water droplets in the air sparkling in the sunlight. It was the perfect time for a photo apparently. A flash of a camera brought the Kantonese duo out of their special moment as they latched their eyes onto a blonde haired lady with a camera in her hands. "Yo, lady, we only do paid photographs. That'll be a tenner thanks."

"Pikachu…" Ash muttered sternly under his breath as the female looked at them in admiration.

"You two seem to be very close, almost like family in a way… I just had to take a picture, sorry." She apologised without meaning it, eyes landing on her camera in a moment of guilt. "A bond like that is hard to find nowadays."

"Ash is like that with all of his Pokémon," Mairin interjected proudly, puffing out her chest even though she wasn't the one she was talking about. "It may help he's a Sensor!"

"Mairin!" Alain scolded her as the woman's eyes widened. "It's not a sensible idea to tell everyone you meet that. Some people don't see Sensors as normal people and do horrible things to them. Do you want to put Ash in danger?"

"No…" The youngest of the trainer group stared at the ground meekly, tears threatening to form from her eyes. "I… I… I'm sorry… I wasn't… thinking…"

"Alain! Leave her alone!" Ash stepped up this time, glaring at him as he pulled Mairin into a hug. "It's okay, you didn't know but now you do. Just think about it in the future, okay? Alain is as guilty as you are," he turned on Alain with a confident smirk. "Remember when you met her down the lake?"

"But she didn't seem to be anything scary…" He was sweating buckets even though it was a cool day overall. Ash rolled his eyes and huffed.

"Yeah, you realise that the bad guys always use the innocent and cheery ones as much as any other person." Mairin burst into laughter at the lecture Alain was getting. "Anyone can be a spy; they just need to be good actors or actresses to convince people about their fake roles in society." They stopped after realising that the woman had burst into fits of laughter at their act.

"It's okay, I'm a Sensor too, a Visual one," Her own eyes made their way back to her camera. "I noticed you and your Pikachu a way away and thought it would make a beautiful photo. My name's Viola." Everyone introduced themselves which lead to Viola's next question. "So what kind of Sensor are you? I told you mine so it's only polite to answer back."

"How do we know you're not faking it?" Alain inquired, still sceptical about this woman.

"That five day old stain on your scarf is quite prominent to me." Viola smirked as Alain checked his scarf for the stain that he had washed out; to him his scarf looked normal. "The colour of blue is slightly darker than the rest of the scarf, and it seems by the flaky appearance that it's dried ketchup."

"KETCHUP?!" Pikachu shouted suddenly at the idea of the delicious sugary treat. "WHERE?! TELL ME OR I'LL STEAL YOUR KEYSTONE, ALAIN!" A well timed slap to the back of the head brought the electric type out of his ketchup induced madness.

"If you try to steal Alain's Keystone, Mega Ring included or not, I will put you back into your Poké Ball for a time out." At the sight of Pikachu's horrified expression, Ash couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, I went there."

"Ash Ketchum you motherfucker…" Pikachu didn't know whether or not to be angry, surprised or extremely impressed. "When did you grow a backbone?"

"Auditory, huh?" All attention was back on Viola, who looked extremely impressed. "They aren't that common, less than Visuals are. I guess that shows how you are so close to your Pokémon."

"I'd be close to them even without the ability," Suddenly, the true purpose for being in Santalune re-entered his mind and, since Viola seemed to be a local, it made sense to ask her for assistance. "Hey, Viola, do you know where the Santalune Gym is?"

Her eyes sparkled for a while, but only for a short while, before she answered. "Of course, just turn left ahead and you'll be there. Anyway, I have to go." She waved her hand and turned to leave. "It was nice meeting you." With that, she left as the group decided to walk the rest of the way for Alain's sake. As she turned the corner, Viola smirked to herself; this challenger was going to be interesting.

~0~o~0~

"Is this really it?" Mairin asked looking at the greenhouse like structure of the Santalune Gym, noting it's lack of space compared to the larger greenhouse right behind it that seemed to be full of flowers.

"I guess so," Alain turned to Ash, who was more knowledgeable with Pokémon Gyms than he was. "Are they normally this small?"

"No, Gyms are usually huge due to the battlefields and extra areas…" He frowned as he stared at the building. "Maybe Kalos' are different from the ones I'm used to in other regions." Ash took a deep breath and began smiling anyway. "Well then, let's find out!" He said as he pushed the doors open.

Walking through the doors into what seemed to be a room from any Art Deco gallery, the group noted that there seemed to be nobody around. Pictures of multiple bug types, professionally captured and breath taking to look at, hung from plain white walls and, apart from that, there was nothing in there to suggest a battlefield of any kind. Ash spoke his thoughts as he looked around. "So… what do we do?"

Mairin began tapping lightly on the walls, trying to hear if any were hollow with secret passages behind them. "This is the Gym, right?"

"It should be," Ash walked to the centre of the square room, trying to figure out what on earth the puzzle behind this was. "Maybe the leader is testing challengers by…" All of a sudden, there was nothing holding him up and he fell down through a shoot, screaming in shock all the way down with Pikachu parodying the Eric Cartman swearing scene from that South Park movie with Satan and some weird guy. He thought he was going to die until he landed with a bounce on some kind of ground that felt sticky to the touch. "By trying to kill them, I should have guessed with my luck." Pikachu, upside down in her lap groaned in agreement, his lunch almost regurgitating on him.

"Ash!" Mairin called from up above. "Are you okay?!"

"Yeah, I'm fine!" He shouted back in a reply. "There's something down here to catch you!" There were a few minutes of silence before the two could hear a cheer and, a moment after that, felt someone land next to them whooping loudly with excitement. A moment after that and another person made their way down to join them.

"That was so cool!" Mairin was already on her feet, stumbling on the material that was keeping them from falling further. "I wanna do it again."

"I'd rather not," Alain groaned at her, literally turning a shade of green from bouncing so heavily on the net. Taking a look around, Ash realised they were on a giant spider's web, quite fitting for a bug type theme – hinting at the typing the Gym Leader specialised in, which branched out into some kind of maze. By the long observation he was getting from the maze like structure, it seemed as if the goal was to reach the closed tent. "Are any of you good at two dimensional mazes?"

"What, because you're too stupid to work it out for yourself?" Pikachu hiccupped as if he was drunk, which didn't have any reasoning behind it, the electric type just wanted to sound drunk for some apparent reason.

"I'll ignore what you said about my lack of intelligence." Ash huffed, crossing his arms.

"I'll try it out." Alain said kindly, acting a lot more like he was the day Ash had met him. Pikachu began to laugh at his trainer, also commenting on his lack of a sense of something called direction causing Ash to narrow his eyes and pout.

He wasn't that bad with directions, after all it only took him ten times of getting lost in the woods surrounding Pallet to find a suitable place to play with the wild Pokémon whilst also knowing that home wasn't too far away. "Shut up Pikachu." However, he turned to Alain with a smile. "Thanks a lot, I owe you one."

"No need, it's my pleasure." Alain lead the way as the group of three, and one Pokémon, made their way around, trying to avoid the dead ends as much as possible. To be honest, it wasn't really that hard. Water droplets made to look like dew drops showed the correct path, something the older trainer had pointed out ten seconds into their journey to the tent. As the final drop fell, they were climbing up the last thread to be greeted by the same woman from earlier.

"Hello again, it's great to see you, welcome to my Gym," Viola chuckled at the trio's expressions, Pikachu's was the greatest. She noted Alain's lack of interest and turned to the excitable younger two trainers "So which one of you two want to go ahead and challenge me first?"

"I'm not challenging!" Mairin hastily spoke up, shaking her head sadly. "Ash here is. I'm still figuring out what to do yet."

"Don't worry about your future yet. Have a look around and think about whether it's the right thing for you before you choose to do something with full commitment," Viola gave the red head a nice smile with closed eyes with a small, gentle parting of her lips. She then turned to her challenger with her confident grin returning. "So Just you taking me on today? Well I'm ready when you are Ash."

"I was born ready!"

~0~o~0~

Just beyond the tent was a set of stairs that lead to the battlefield, which was the greenhouse from earlier that was just behind the Gym. Flowers and trees lined borders at the sides of areas reserved for any spectators and the hanging lights from above looked just like water droplets. Alain and Mairin took their place in the spectator zone whilst Ash and Viola took to the opposite sides of the field, a referee standing in place in their own spot, ready to serve the Gym Leader.

"My camera is posed and set for the perfect snapshot," Viola gently rested the said camera against her chest, reaching for her Poké Ball containing her first partner. "Either I'm going to picture your stunning victory or crumpling defeat. Once more, are you ready?"

"I am!" Ash answered, hand clasped around the sphere from which his first choice would come from. He knew that Pikachu would be a bit too overkill at the moment due to his veteran status and, from what he had guessed, the Gym would contain a part flying type. Sure, Pikachu would be good right now but he was sure that both Froakie and Fennekin could win this for the team.

"This is a two on two match with no substitutions from either side," Viola studied her challenger for any sign of shock but noted there was nothing, just unwavering determination. She could tell this battle was going to be a good one. "And, I have the choice whether or not to use more than the four move restriction that Gym Leaders may or may not follow according to the rules. Also, you get the first move. Got it?"

"Got it!"

"Alright, let's begin!" She flung her first Poké Ball towards the centre of the field. "Surskit, close up!" The blue, four legged water skater formed, swaying gently from left to right.

"Fennekin, let's do this!" Throwing the Poké Ball into the air, a red light burst forth, bringing the female fire type out as she stared at her opponent.

"A Surskit huh? A nice challenge." She turned back to her trainer with a grin. "I hope you remembered those egg moves of mine!"

"You know I did," Ash took a deep breath and grinned, it was time to do what he did best, kick ass in a Pokémon battle. "Fennekin, let's start off with Flame Charge!" Fennekin did as she was told and surrounded herself in a fiery coating as she charged towards Surskit. Viola shook her head at the idea, why was the boy using a fire type move on a part water type?

"Surskit, dodge please!" However, Fennekin was faster thanks to the added speed boost and sent Surskit flying. "What?"

"Fennekin's pretty fast thanks to our training," Ash grinned as Fennekin stuck her nose up at her opposition tauntingly. "All I needed was one level of boosting to make her faster than your Surskit."

"Well then, it's time to slow you down!" Viola nodded at her partner who was no back on its feet. "Surskit, Ice Beam manoeuvre!"

"Fennekin, dodge quickly!" However, it was quickly revealed that the fire type wasn't the target of the move, the ground was. Soon the floor of the Gym was covered in ice, which the poor Fennekin began to slip and slide on whilst Surskit seemed perfectly happy. Ash growled as he realised he had to do something quickly or else he would leave his partner out in the open for any attack, which is what Viola was planning.

"Quick Attack!" Surskit gracefully skated over the ice before increasing its speed, aiming for Fennekin who was hit multiple times in an onslaught of the attacks.

"That can't be good for Fennekin, right?" Mairin worriedly asked Alain, who was clutching the barrier in front of him with worry.

"No, multiple attacks like that are slowly wearing her down, Ash has to do something quickly or else he's as good as handing Viola her first victory…" He replied, gritting his teeth together as he got whirled up in the tension of the Gym battle, seeing how trainers could enjoy these battles.

Ash closed his eyes and thought about what he could do when the idea came to him like a bowling ball to a pin. He had to attack and defend at the same time. Thank goodness he had taught every one of his Pokémon THAT technique, Froakie and Fennekin included. "Fennekin, Counter Shield!"

Fennekin grinned and rolled onto her back, spinning as she sent out embers in every direction, creating a spinning wall of flames that also melted the icy battlefield. Viola's jaw dropped and she realised she was no longer dealing with a beginner. That technique had never been used in front of her before, meaning that Ash must have invented it himself. It was impressive to say the least. Surskit had tried to get as far away from it as it could, but a few, strong, stray Embers hit it harshly, causing moderate damage.

"That was incredible…" Viola said calmly, really impressed with her challenger.

"Thanks," Ash smiled back, before grinning proudly at Fennekin. "Counter Shield works wonders for us doesn't it?"

"Oh yes," Fennekin shook the dirt from the ground out of her soggy fur slightly, most of it sticking into the fur and made her muddy, not that Fennekin actually cared. "The Gym Leader wasn't expecting that."

"How about we give you a taste of your own medicine, Viola?" The blond woman tipped her head in confusion at the rhetorical question, what were they talking about?" "Fennekin, Hypnosis!"

The psychic waves instantly put the bug type to sleep, much to Viola's distress. This left Surskit open to what Ash believed would be the finisher of this part of the match. "Alright, now… Ember Charge!" Fennekin started up a Flame Charge again, this time twirling in the air and adding Ember to add to the damage taken. The swirling jet of fire smashed into Surskit, sending it flying back into a wall and into a state of unconsciousness.

"Surskit is unable to battle, Fennekin wins." The referee announced, which caused Mairin to whoop happily at the fact her friend had already won a round.

"He beat it! He really did!" She grinned, stopping as she noticed Alain's stern expression.

"Fennekin is exhausted and is still feeling the damage from all those Quick Attacks," he noted intelligently. "She won't last much longer and Ash still doesn't know what her second Pokémon is."

Viola returned her Surskit and thanked him quietly before turning to Ash. "You're quite strong, but I don't think you can beat me."

"We'll see about that!" If there was anything Ash hated, it was being undermined just because of appearance or age. In fact, some of the youngest trainers in the world were some of the best out there, taking up positions such as Gym Leader or Frontier Brain.

"Time to meet my other partner." Viola threw a Poké Ball with one hand on her camera. "Vivillon, wide shot!" A pink butterfly like Pokémon formed in front of the challengers, fluttering up in the air happily.

"I'm sorry but you'll have to continue, okay?" The rules of a lack of switch out really bothered Ash, he would have liked to give Fennekin a rest before bringing her back out when she was ready.

"It's okay. I can at least hurt this flying bug somewhat."

"Great, Counter Shield, once more!" Fennekin once again made a spinning shield, with Vivillon flying away from it, trying to dodge the rogue embers that flew out from it.

"Not happening again," Viola seemed a lot calmer than earlier. "Vivillon use Sleep Powder!" Fluttering its wings harshly, Vivillon sent spores towards the fire type. Some burnt up in the flames, some didn't and those that didn't caused Fennekin to stop spinning and fall asleep.

"Fennekin, please wake up!" Ash knew what Viola was doing as he had just done the same thing; she was trying to take the fire type out. But with Fennekin deep in her slumber, there was no way she was waking up any time soon.

"Vivillon, Solar Beam!" With the level of sunlight from the greenhouse windows, the lack of attack meaning Vivillon could charge up in peace and the damage that Fennekin had already sustained; one attack was all it took to end this round.

"Fennekin is unable to battle, Vivillon wins!"

Ash ran onto the field, taking Fennekin up into his arms. "Don't worry about a thing, you did amazingly for your first battle, I am so proud of you. Have a nice rest." He recalled her to her Poké Ball to rest with a promise he'd let her out once they had won.

"Fennekin tried but Surskit had already taken its toll on her," Viola placed her hands on her hips. "Now, let me see who you believe will take down my Vivillon."

"With pleasure! Froakie, I choose you!" Immediately, the water type took a defensive stance as he formed on the battlefield, looking over Vivillon judgementally. True, Ash hadn't used him in the battle yet officially other than training with each other, but Froakie wanted to prove to his new trainer that he wasn't useless and that he didn't want to leave him like all of the other trainers he had been forced with. "Alright, jump up and grab Vivillon, and don't let go!"

Froakie followed his instructions, using his lower leg strength to fly upwards into the air, grabbing into the butterfly Pokémon's torso. Vivillon tried its hardest to shake him off but he refused to let go, with the two just flailing around in the air.

"Vivillon, get Froakie off now with Psychic!"

"Use Lick quickly!" Before the blue glow could immobilise him, Froakie managed to lick his tongue over Vivillon's face, pulling a face at its yucky taste. Sparks danced across the bug/flying type's body as it threw its target at a downwards angle, with Froakie using his quick thinking to use his Bubble move to slow down his descent. Without injury, Froakie landed gently, only to be hit in the back of the legs by a sneaky Solar Beam from Vivillon.

"This shouldn't be too…" Whatever Viola was going to say died on her lips as she gasped in shock. "How is Froakie still standing?!" In fact, the Solar Beam hadn't really seemed to have done all that much accept anger the water type starter.

"Not a direct hit, does a bit of damage but not enough to hurt him badly," the next course of action formed within Ash's head, it was time to use Froakie's speed to confuse that bug type. "Double Team, then Quick Attack!" In a flash, multiple Froakie were littering the battlefield before all of them went after Vivillon using the priority move. No matter where Vivillon went to try and avoid the move, it would just fall into the direct path of another one. It didn't help that the multiple Quick Attacks caused a blinding white light meaning that it couldn't see anything and Viola couldn't see it.

"Vivillon! Stay still!" Viola instructed, panicking slightly. "Once you've done that, spin and use Solar Beam to destroy all the copies and hit Froakie!" The bug nodded, stilled itself before focusing and spun on a pivot, firing the beam of light energy out into the mass of water type copies, which dispersed upon impact. Unfortunately, Froakie couldn't dodge in time and was hit head on, making him lose all momentum from the Quick Attack and thus fall back to the ground.

By now, it was obvious that both sides had taken considerable damage, Froakie with being hit by two Solar Beams, one of which was whilst he was a water type, and Vivillon having being attacked from all sides by multiple Quick Attacks, the next hit was going to be the most crucial.

"Water Pulse!"

"Vivillon, use gust to keep Froakie from hitting you!" By flapping its wings quickly, Vivillon had manged to use a concentrated Gust, with Froakie using his strength to stop himself from being forced to the ground. Right now, there was nothing the starter could do but conserve energy for the next attack. Vivillon was moving too much; hopefully the side effect from Lick earlier would be coming into play right about…

Now

Vivillon froze, unable to continue the Gust as paralysis set into its system, rendering it useless. Viola just stared, and smiled, she knew how this battle would now end. Froakie continued out his earlier order, forming a sphere of water between his hands before throwing it at Vivillon. The sphere and its face connected, knocking the part flying type to the ground, were it remained, eyes swirled.

Even though Froakie had won, it had been a close one. He was panting heavily, only just able to remain standing. If the paralysis hadn't stopped Vivillon when it had, Froakie would have been blown across the Gym and knocked out. As Viola recalled her Pokémon, with Mairin cheering loudly in the background, Ash picked up Froakie and smiled proudly at him after releasing Fennekin back out in celebration.

"Way to go buddy! You won it for us!" Fennekin and Pikachu looked up at their fellow teammate with pride.

"You are quite the battler," Fennekin smiled, obviously even more impressed with the water type than she had ever been. "I believe we will be great comrades in the future."

"I have to admit, you weren't half bad," Pikachu was slapped around the head by the fire type, something she had picked up from Ash. "That was a lie, you were fucking awesome!"

"Wow, you actually praised me…" Froakie looked sceptically at Pikachu suddenly. "Who are you, and what have you done with the real Pikachu?"

"What the fuck man? I was giving you an actual compliment!"

Alexa's words from before rang through her head, coupled with what Viola believed would have been her response if she was there. "What did I tell you, Viola? You'd have a tough time getting around Ash's tactics."

"Well, I should have listened to you more then," Viola rolled her eyes at the mental image of her sister and called the referee over, who was holding a tray with a badge inside of it. "Here, proof of beating me fair and square in a Gym battle. This is the Bug Badge; cherish it as your first step to Kalos League participation."

"Thank you ever so much." Ash couldn't help but let out his excitement by striking a pose and yelling, "I got the Bug Badge!" much to the looks he received from the onlookers. Froakie and Fennekin joined in by jumping up and agreeing with a "Yay!" whilst Pikachu went for the good, old fashioned, "Fuck yeah!"...

He got a nice slap for that one.

Alain and Mairin looked at each other and began laughing, realising this was one of the many quirks that made Ash who he was. It would be something they'd have to get used to, and most likely would pretty quickly. After all, if that battle was anything to go by, they were in for some amazing acts of strategy in the future.