Hey, guys! I'm back again with another chapter, but you already know that. Anyway, let's get to the chapter!
As soon as Ash woke up, he immediately forced Serena off him before throwing the covers on both him and her.
"Get up," he said with a monotone voice. "Now."
"Why?" Serena asked, moaning in annoyance, having just woke up.
"We're getting a head start because I want to make up for yesterday. You know, when we stayed in bed for ages," Ash told her.
Serena nodded before watching Ash launching himself out of bed and rushing into the bathroom with his clothes to take a shower.
"I really don't want to get up," Serena whispered to Pikachu who nodded, agreeing with her.
Half an hour later, now being half-past eight, both Ash and Serena left the Pokémon centre after packing everything they owned and showering.
"Let's go and get breakfast," Ash told Serena, who nodded.
"Good! I'm hungry!" She told him, to which Ash and Pikachu chuckled a little.
"Pika, pi," Pikachu said, to which Serena pouted.
"I know everything doesn't revolve around me, Pikachu," Serena muttered, a little solemn.
"It's okay, Serena," Ash said, smiling as he placed his hand on her shoulder before giving her a quick peck on the cheek, causing Serena to giggle. "He was just joking, right, Pikachu?"
Pikachu nodded as a response, making Serena smile. "Let's get breakfast from the same place we had lunch from yesterday?" Serena suggested, to which both Ash and Pikachu nodded despite Pikachu having already eaten at the Pokémon centre.
Half an hour later, both Ash and Serena had eaten, now not starving to death, they were ready to take on the day.
"So, what's the plan?" Ash asked Serena, surprising her a little.
"Why are you asking me?" She asked him, evidently confused. "You're normally the one who comes up with the plan," she told him, to which Ash shrugged.
"I have come up with one, but I want to see what you come up with," Ash told her as they both left Santalune city, starting to make their way down Route four.
"Well, I guess we could reach somewhere close to the end of the route, then stop and train?" Serena suggested, shrugging a little while she watched Ash contemplate the idea.
"That could be a good thing," Ash said, pausing for a second. "I was originally thinking of something similar," he said.
"That's a coincidence," Serena stated, to which Ash laughed.
"Or it's the obvious thing to do," Ash said, making Serena sigh.
"Shut up, Ash," she muttered, pushing him a little.
"Okay, okay," Ash started. "How about we rush to Lumiose city, catching any Pokémon we would like to train, and then we can come back to the route so we can train after checking into a hotel?"
Serena shrugged as a response. "How long should it take to get to Lumiose if we don't stop walking?" Serena asked, to which Ash paused for a few moments to think.
After a minute or so of silent walking, Ash responded to Serena's question. "If we don't stop walking, then we should reach Lumiose city by about two in the afternoon," Ash told her, to which Serena smiled.
"Okay, then we can stop for lunch at twelve?" She suggested, to which Ash nodded.
"Of course. We were going to anyway," Ash told her. "It's not healthy to skip meals, after all."
The two of them stayed silent for a few minutes, simply enjoying the breeze which was running through their hair.
A few Pokémon ran past Ash and Serena, usually playing with each other. All of the Pokémon were slightly mediocre, being Pokémon that Ash or Serena had already caught or Pokémon that they had no interest in catching such as Flabebe and Skitty.
However, a little further down the route, Ash noticed a certain Pokémon that he took an immediate interest in. "Serena," he whispered, tapping her shoulder and pointing ahead of them. "Look at that," he said, to which Serena followed his finger and saw a Ralts.
"I didn't know that some Ralts live here," Serena whispered back, slightly amazed.
"I didn't either," Ash muttered before grabbing Fletchling's Pokéball. "I'm going to catch it," he said before he sent out his Pokémon.
"Good luck, Honey," Serena said, to which Ash smiled, giving her a quick kiss before slowly walking forward, motioning for Fletchling to follow him as Pikachu jumped off Ash's shoulder and onto Serena's.
While Ash and Fletchling were sneaking up on the Ralts, both Serena and Pikachu had their fingers crossed. Seeing as neither Serena nor Ash knew that they could find a Ralts on the fourth route of Kalos, they both assumed that it was rare.
"Fletchling, use Growl," Ash whispered to his Pokémon, who nodded before flying a little closer to the Ralts and using the attack lowering move.
Surprisingly, the Ralts didn't notice that its attack statistic had been lowered, still waddling around and interacting with other Pokémon.
Ash, being slightly perplexed that the Ralts didn't acknowledge their existence, commanded Fletchling to use Growl again, believing that the move may have not made contact.
Fletchling obliged, using the move again, but seeing as Ash and Fletchling were a tiny bit closer, they both noticed the blue aura surround the Ralts, telling them both that the attack was successful. However, for a second time, the Ralts didn't notice despite its attack statistic being lowered for the second time.
"Use Tackle, I guess," Ash told Fletchling, who nodded before flying forwards, slamming into the Ralts, making it stagger.
The Ralts cried out in pain, turning around and using Confusion, dealing a lot of damage to Fletchling as the Ralts was level eight while Fletchling was only level five.
Ash, scared that the Ralts would overpower Fletchling and make it faint, reacted on impulse and lobbed a Pokéball at Ralts, turning it into energy which was sucked up into the red and white ball.
The ball shook three times before stars erupted from the top, making Ash, Serena, Pikachu and Fletchling sigh in relief.
Ash ran forward, scooping up the ball before releasing the Pokémon and scanning it with the Pokédex.
"Ralts, the 'Feelings Pokémon'. If its horns capture the warm feelings of people or Pokémon, its body warms up slightly. This Ralts is male. Its moves are Growl, Confusion and Double Team. Its ability is Synchronize."
Ash sprayed the Ralts with a potion, healing it a little before he got a little notification on his Pokédex which read: Fletchling learned Quick Attack.
"Well done, Fletchling," Ash said, petting his Pokémon who chirped at the action.
"That was lucky, Ash," Serena commented, rushing over with Pikachu.
"I know," he replied. "I freaked out a little when Fletchling got really hurt, so I hoped that I'd be lucky enough to capture it, and it worked."
Serena nodded as a response, watching as Ash sprayed Fletchling with a potion before returning both Fletchling and Ralts to their Pokéballs.
"I have a question, Ash," Serena said after Pikachu jumped onto Ash's shoulder.
"What is it?" Ash asked her, to which she shrugged.
"I don't know the best way to word this," she started, "but why haven't you used Pikachu in battle yet? Is he a really high level, or something?"
Ash sighed. "The thing is," he started, "there's been this weird occurrence every time Pikachu and I have gone to a new region."
"What is it?" Serena asked him, to which Ash shrugged before he continued walking down the route, Serena following.
"We don't know. But, every time we go to a new region, Pikachu's level gets reset to ten. His moves stay the same, though."
Serena looked confused. "What do you mean?"
"Every time we enter a new region, such as Kalos, Pikachu's level gets downgraded from whatever it was before to ten."
Serena had a look on her face which screamed that she was confused. How was that possible? It seems so unrealistic. However, Serena had the idea to scan Pikachu with her Pokédex, and after she did, she saw that his level was only ten, much to her confusion.
"He does have really powerful moves," Serena commented before listing them. "Iron Tail, Thunderbolt, Quick Attack and Double Team. That doesn't seem right for a low-levelled Pokémon."
"That's what I mean," Ash told her, sighing.
Serena, getting slightly annoyed by the fact that Ash couldn't even come up with a theory, decided to drop the subject before checking the time, seeing that it was just a few minutes past ten.
By the time one-o-clock rolled around, they had almost reached the end of the route. They stopped for lunch, quickly packing everything away as soon as they were finished before they hurried to carry on along the route.
As soon as Ash, Serena and Pikachu had reached Lumiose city, it was around two-o-clock, just as Ash predicted.
They entered the hotel, obtaining a room to stay in before healing there Pokémon and heading back to the fourth route.
"So, how long are we going to train for?" Serena asked Ash, who shrugged.
"Let's try to get our teams to the same level," Ash said, to which Ash nodded.
"Everyone at level ten, then?" Serena suggested, pointing as Pikachu as he was level ten, the highest of the Pokémon with them at the time.
"Sure," Ash said before they both sent out all of their Pokémon and giving them a briefing on what they were going to do. "We're all going to be an equal level," Ash told them, letting Serena continue where he left off.
"As soon as we tell you to start training, think about your weakest move and try to either improve its quality or try to see how effective it is currently, then you need to think about ways to improve it," Serena told them, watching them all nod in sync. "Go on, then!"
Each of the Pokémon ran in separate directions, some running over to rocks and tree stumps to practice attacking them with various moves while the other Pokémon did different things such as jumping, trying to get higher and higher.
Ash and Serena, being the loving trainers they were, decided to join in with the training as they'd agreed to do.
"What should we do to train?" Serena asked Ash, who responded by dropping to the floor and going into a push-up position.
"This, I guess," Ash said before starting to exercise, Serena dropping next to him a few moments later.
The two of them continued doing push-ups, finishing at thirty with arms that felt like they were dragging trains.
"What now?" Ash asked Serena, who shrugged.
"I don't feel like moving a lot anymore, so let's do sit-ups," she said, motioning for Ash to do the exercise while she held his feet down, having a little rest.
Ash did fifty sit-ups before forcing Serena to swap positions with him, to which she moaned but obliged, doing forty-six before giving up.
"Come on, Serena," Ash said, pulling her off the floor. "We need to keep training."
There we go! Another chapter! Honestly, I have no idea if there's anything I need to comment on, right now... I'm just going to end the chapter. Anyway, leave a review with anything you want in it, as I will approve. Yes, even 'hate.' It's merely constructive criticism, so I'll be happy to hear about what I need to improve. BYE!