"What the… Get off me!"

Jade flung whatever creature had startled her across the room. However, it landed agilely on its feet and peered at her through curious red eyes. It was blue, black and white. It stood on its hind legs and balanced with its front legs. Even though it had woken her up and startled herscared her to death, Jade had to admit that it looked pretty cool.

"Jade, are you okay?" Ash burst into the room. "I heard you shouting and I th- oh! It's a Riolu!"

"A… Riolu?" Jade blinked.

Ash shook his head sarcastically with a smirk and handed Jade the Pokédex so she could use it. She flipped it open and pointed it at Riolu.

"Riolu, the Emanation Pokémon. Riolu uses its aura powers to communicate with other Pokémon, and in some rare cases, humans."

"That's pretty cool…" said Jade.

"Speaking of which, Jade, when I was travelling around a region called Sinnoh, I found out that I could communicate with Riolu's evolved form through aura. Maybe if I touch Riolu I'll be able to find out what it wants," suggested Ash.

Jade nodded and Ash held out his hand to Riolu. After looking Ash up and down suspiciously, Riolu closed its eyes and its floppy black ears seemed to levitate. It glowed a pale blue colour and so did Ash. When they both opened their eyes again, Ash eyes were sparkling with excitement.

"Riolu wants to travel with you, Jade!" said Ash. "How about it? I think it'd make a great addition to your team!"

Riolu was looking at Jade expectantly, shifting from foot to foot. A welcoming smile spread across Jade's face and she held her arms out. Riolu jumped onto the bed next to her and smiled when Jade petted it.

"Of course you can come with us, Riolu!" said Jade. "In fact, we're on our way to another town…"

Jade suddenly remembered Serena's anxiety about their next destination. She fought back the lingering feeling of unease and smiled.

"Ash, do you think the others will be waiting?"

"Oh yeah! I totally forgot. They're all downstairs. Come on, Jade!" Ash grinned and held out his hand. Jade was glad to take it and she let him lead the way.

"Hello, dears," smiled a friendly-looking, withered old woman in a pink robe. She held a wooden staff that curled into a spiral at the top. "Welcome to Geosenge Town. This is a place of many mysteries, attracting tourists from all over the world. May I take you to our most valued monument, the Eviolite Rock?"

"Sure!" said Ash, punching the air. Jade tutted at his boyish overexcitement that gave her no choice but to smile. "Why's it called that?"

"Let me tell you the story while we walk," replied the woman. They all began to walk, with the old woman walking in front at a surprisingly brisk pace. "Long, long ago, probably around the time that Pokémon came into this world, a series of asteroids crashed into Earth. The bigger asteroids formed cities like Cyllage City and caves around Kalos. They affected other regions too, of course, but their effect on this region is the most curious. The biggest asteroid that hit this town, now called the Eviolite Rock, had a strange property. It the most noticeable as they hurtled towards Earth, for it was not only the biggest, but it was glowing with a peculiar, ethereal light. Embedded into this asteroid are special rocks, no bigger than a PokéBall. We've only just discovered that these peculiar stones allow certain Pokémon to reach a level of evolution called Mega Evolution. When a Trainer's bond with their Pokémon is strong enough, and the Trainer is in possession of the right Mega Stone, the Pokémon may Mega Evolve. Its powers become stronger than you could ever imagine and they even change their form slightly."

"Mega Evolution, huh?" enthused Ash. "How long does it last when they change form?"

"It's only temporary. Normally Mega Evolution is needed for battles, and it lasts until the end of the battle in those cases."

"It sounds so cool. Hey, look at all of these rocks!"

The group had reached a circle of high, pointy rocks that reminded Jade of Stonehenge back home, a prehistoric monument in England. In the centre of the circle of rocks was a bigger rock that glowed with a silvery blue light. Even from a distance, she could see that many smaller rocks were stuck in it. Jade felt slightly dizzy when she got close to the rocks, but she wanted to get even closer to them. She felt like they were calling her. Whatever their tour guide was saying, Jade had no idea since her voice was muffled and distant, but Jade edged closer and closer to the tallest rock in the centre. She placed the palm of her hand against the smooth stone and her eyes widened with shock.

A blurry image of a dark-haired man in a lab coat assaulted her mind. Jade knew she'd seen him before, and rather than hallucinating, there was something solid about this experience that made her think it must be a memory.

"You're known in your school for your intelligence, Jade, and that's why I chose you as my… lab rat. Now, I'm aware you can't move but that's the sedation kicking in. When you wake up, you'll be in a very interesting place indeed, a place that I know very well…"

Jade was brought back to the present when a rough hand dragged her away from the stone. She sat back on the cool grass, panting and trying to get a bearing on her surroundings.

"Jade? What on earth happened? You just zoned out!" said Ash, bending down in front of her and holding her by the arms. "I was so worried about you."

"I'm okay. Sorry about that," replied Jade, embarrassed. She blinked and her breathing started to return to normal. She accepted Ash's hand when he offered to help her up and was grateful that nobody asked any questions. Even she was still trying to figure out what just happened.

"Anyway, I've told you everything you need to know about Mega Evolution, and you've seen some of the mysterious stones," said the old lady, clasping her hands together. "Now I have a gift for you, young lady."

She was looking at Jade through her round, thick-rimmed spectacles. She reached into her robe and pulled out a stone on the end of a string cord. Jade took it gratefully and, upon closer inspection, she saw that it was a perfectly round shape and it shone with an eerie glow similar to the one coming from the Eviolite Rock. It was a golden yellow with intertwining red and blue stripes in the middle.

"Why did you give me this?" asked Jade, but she looked up to see that the old woman had disappeared.

"Well, she was weird," remarked Ash, scratching the back of his head. Then a low, faint rumble could be heard. "Oh, damn, I'm hungry!"

That night, Ash, Pikachu, Jade and Riolu were the only ones still up. Everyone else had gone to bed and they were sitting around the campfire.

"It's good to see that Serena's being nice to you now," said Ash with a subtle smile. "She was only worrying about me. She's known me since we were kids, when we were in summer camp together, and she witnessed a horrible event back then. Look, I can see myself telling you everything eventually anyway so I might as well just come out with it – when I was about six years old, my dad just disappeared."

"Disappeared?" repeated Jade in disbelief. "Where to?"

"Nobody knows. Thing is, he was an esteemed researcher. He wasn't really interested in Pokémon, though. His interest was other worlds, like parallel dimensions and stuff like that. My only guess is that one day he found the answers he was looking for and he took off to some other place."

A wave of sympathy washed over Jade and as she was hearing Ash's dreadful story, she took his hand in hers. His large brown eyes met hers gratefully and he carried on.

"So yeah, since you came from another world, Serena assumed you were gonna hurt me like my dad did."

Jade's stomach lurched. Her memory of how she'd got to this world was foggy – what if she was some kind of weapon? What if she'd been sent to hurt Ash? But then, as clear and pure as a bright summer's day, she spoke the truth before she even realised what the truth was:

"I care about you too much to hurt you."

A silence ensued between them as Ash squeezed her hand in return, as if to say 'thank you'. After a few minutes, though, Ash began to speak again with a meaningful look in his eyes.

"After that absolute coward of a man deserted me and my mum, I've struggled to believe anyone when they've said that they care about me. My dad was supposed to love us but then he deserted us, and since then the strongest emotion I've felt has been hatred. I hate him so much, but my God, Jade, ever since you walked into this world you've taught me every day that love… I mean, friendship… most certainly can be stronger than hate."

Jade's heart soared when she heard Ash's words. She'd been bullied in her own world and misunderstood by her pressurising parents, but now she was finding out that she was not alone in this world.

This world is where I'm meant to be, she thought, smiling. Just as she was about to get lost in the sweetness of what had been said between them, she noticed a harsh brightness by her side.

"Riolu! What?"

"Jade, your Riolu is evolving! They evolve with happiness!" Ash grinned and put his arm around her shoulder as they watched the magnificent spectacle. They watched Riolu grow and shrink, grow and shrink, several times until its figure became more solid and the glowing subsided.

"Riolu has officially evolved into a Lucario!" cheered Ash. "I wonder why Riolu evolved so quickly, though."

To satisfy his own curiosity, Ash reached a hand up to touch Lucario and they both glowed pale blue while Ash read Lucario's aura.

He turned to Jade and said, "Riolu evolves when it's happy. And Lucario says that it's so happy to see true friendship. Its old Trainer was cold and had no friends, and he treated all of his Pokémon abusively. So Lucario's relieved to have finally met a kind, happy Trainer… And a beautiful one at that." Ash winked.

"Oh, stop it!" said Jade, pushing him away playfully. But she wasn't one hundred percent sure that she wanted him to stop flattering her.

Later that night, after a couple of hours of getting used to Lucario and bantering, the duo and their beloved Pokémon went to their separate rooms. And they both fell asleep happier and feeling more loved than they had ever been.

That is, until everything that Jade knew about the Pokémon World vanished overnight.