Hello everyone. This is my first real attempt at a Pokemon Fanfiction.

As long back as I can remember, pokemon has been such an important part of my life, especially fanfiction made for it. So I hope this story will bring you satisfaction, and if it does, it will prove two things for me: 1: That Pokemon Fanfiction is still popular as it was when I was younger, and 2: That amourshipping is alive and well in the community.

Don't forget to review and send any ideas you would like to see in the story; I will see if it could fit in what I have planned and will be sure to add it to your liking.

Please read and enjoy!

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It was almost sunset when Hilbert finally decided to check his voicemails, receiving two in the span of three hours, the last being over a day ago

Clicking the first one, ""Hilbert, its Red, what the hell am I hearing about you quitting in the middle of the day for no damn reason? You know how many conferences I had to cancel to sort this out? Jamie almost had my ass when he heard that…"

The message seemed to fade away as Hilbert set his phone down and sat down on his couch, facing the window that overlooked the Castelia City Skyline. The sun was setting to the west, but it felt incredibly dark already. Down below, he could hear cars slowly grinding through traffic, impatient drivers yelling louder than explouds to tell the people in front of them to move. But like the message, Hilbert ignored them, only hearing his thoughts.

By the time he had finally decided to go through with his plan, thinking he couldn't go turn back now, Red had calmed down.

"Alright, alright I lost my cool right there, but it's OKAY! We are all human, and we do stupid things smetimes. Fortunately for you though, you can actually fix your stupid thing."

He went into his room on the other side of his Swanna Apartment, one of 200 new luxury apartment units built to house Castelia city's wealthiest residents. Having lived there for three months now, Hilbert was a prime example of what people in his field of expertise could get if they worked hard... or inherited.

Dropping his phone on the bed, he continued to quietly listen to Red's message.

"Go to Jamie, tell him that you felt sick today, and you couldn't think or act properly, and that idiot from the 20th floor got you angry again. It's not the best story I could make up, but Jamie is a smart guy; he won't let go of the firm's youngest… and most talented trader."

From his side of the closet, Hilbert took out a backpack -one that he hadn't worn in years- and began to stuff clothing into it.

"Hilbert listen, I uh… heard about Hilda, and I feel you man, I really do. But this does not mean you have to throw out your whole life, when in fact it hasn't even started yet… Call me back, we need you here."

After stuffing another part of his bag with his toothbrush, paste, and deodorant, Hilbert took his phone and headed back to the living room, where in a cabinet under the TV, he pulled out a small box. Opening it, amid a small clutter of things, he pulled out a pokeball, still covered in dirt from his last time using it. Interested, he took a whiff of it: soil, grass and smoke.

The smell of adventure.

Making sure he got everything he needed, as well as picking an apple from an assortment of fruit on the table, he stopped right before the door.

"What the hell am I doing?" he thought, hand struggling to twist the door knob. "If I do this, there might be a chance I won't be able to come back. My name would mean nothing anymore, regardless of my skill."

"I could stay. To hell with her, I could figure this out here!" Realizing that he didn't listen to the last voice mail, also left by Red, he pressed play and pulled it up to his ear.

"Hilbert, what the FUCK? You told Jamie WHAT? Call me right now damn it, otherwise you won't get out of this whole mess entirely-" Hilbert shut it off before he could hear anything else.

Well, I guess I actually can't go back. For the first time in a week, Hilbert grinned a little, and closed the door behind him.

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Not too long after the sun rose in Vaniville Town, Grace was in the kitchen, carefully cutting vegetables for the morning's breakfast. After pouring several eggs into a bowl and swirling them, she realized that someone was missing. She looked up to see her Fletchling sitting by the open window.

"Fletchling, wake up Serena for me, won't you? I tried once already, but once is never enough with her." Fletchling nodded and flew to Serena's room. Squeezing inside, the small bird pokemon found Serena, just as Grace suspected, still sleeping amid a couple of stuffed toys, and a blanket covering up to her nose, while her hair covered the rest.

Taking a quick look at her, Fletchling used peck on her head, quickly waking her up and causing her to scream. She fell out of her bed, and grabbed her forehead, quietly cursing her mother's tactic. "How many times have I told you? Stop waking me up like that!" To her response, Fletchling simply gave her a soft 'ling.' Seeing her moment to strike, Serena pounced at Fletchling, missing entirely and landing on her small table, defeated.

Hearing the commotion from downstairs, Grace chuckled. "Finally… Serena! Come downstairs and eat! We have training today!"

"Right! Aww, it couldn't have been a rainy day" Serena sighed as she went over and opened the blinds looking outside to find it being a beautiful day. "Well, at least it's warm," she told fletching, who happily agreed.

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"Excuse me ma'am, what train goes to Vaniville town?"

Meanwhile in Lumiose City Airport, Hilbert tried to find any form of transportation service to Vaniville town. After finding out that there wasn't even an airport in that area, and the main road in that direction was undergoing repairs, Hilert found himself forced to ask for train details at a booth just outside the terminal. The woman behind the booth smiled, and said "I'm sorry, sir but there currently isn't any rail service heading into Vaniville town. You would have to travel there on foot."

"What? No train? Dam it, well thanks anyway" After nodding goodbye to the worker, Hilbert walked up to the edge of the sidewalk, looking over to see Lumiose City in the near distance. A clear contrast to the towering skyline of Castelia, Lumiose city only had a single tower that dominated the city from above, Prism Tower.

"Wow, it hasn't changed one bit." Hilbert made his way into the city, taking in the sights around him. Most of the buildings seemed to be composed in larger complexes, with each section designed differently than its adjacent. As he continued to walk through the streets, he eventually came to the city center, and the location of Prism Tower. Surrounded by trees, small gardens and even a few courts where trainers continuously battled against each other, the amount of space made Hilbert a bit dazed.

"Step right up, step right up!" Hilbert looked behind him to see a group of people crowding around an old man standing on a box. "The great duel between Furfrou vs Drilbur is upon us. Taking bets now, taking bets. You got money, you got the ability to make more!" Hilbert pushed through the crowd to try to get a closer look, and found two trainers completely surrounded by a dense group of people, readying their pokemon for battle. On one side was a grey Furfrou, a pokemon Hilbert had seen once before in a fashion show. On the other end was a Drilbur, a pokemon native to Unova.

Even before the battle had started, both pokemon gave each other determined looks; Furfrou growled, while Drilbur sharpened his claws between each other in anticipation for what's to come.

"Hey what are the odds to Drilbur winning?" Hilbert asked the man on the box, who looked at him and grinned. "Drilbur is the favorite this round my boy, with the odds for it, four to one. "

"Alright, put in 100 for Furfrou." the men around Hilbert gasped, as if he had said an insult to them directly. "How dare you try to go against us!" one growled, but the old man stopped him, walking up to Hilbert, the latter dwarfing the man's height of 4'6'' by more than a foot.

"You got some confidence kid. I like it. But is your money where your mouth is?" the man asked, extending his hand to see. Hilbert smiled, pulling out a crisp bill and handed it to him. "When I win, will you have enough to reward me?"

The old man, chuckled, and without saying anything -only giving a firm nod towards Hilbert- climbed back onto his box and continued. "All bets are closed folks! You know the drill. Remember the three J's: No Jeering, no Jumping, and ABSOLUTELY, no Jennies!" The crowd silently cheered, and the old man directed the fight.

"This battle is between the pokemon Furfrou and Drilbur. Trainers begin when ready."

The drilbur's trainer went first. "Alright Drilbur, use fury swipes!" Drilbur sprung into action, running towards Furfrou with claws drawn.

"Furfrou, dodge quick!" Furfrou jumped above Drilbur just as it arrived, landing behind it by three feet. "Now use headbutt!" With that command, Furfrou tackled Drilbur head on, hitting it in the back and throwing it to the edge of the arena. Drilbur quickly got up, and faced his rival.

"Drilbur, rapid spin!" Drilbur took a quick step forward,bringing his claws together as he jumped and began to spin rapidly, hitting Furfrou in the side and causing it to yelp. "Now use mud slap!"

Drilbur quickly hit it with hard scoops of mud, delivering powerful direct hits on Furfrou, who barely had time to even get up. The old man chuckled and looked at Hilbert.

"Seems to me that you might not see your money again, sport!"

"Don't count my money just yet, old man. Furfrou is still in this!"

Furfrou's trainer quickly responded to the mud slpas. "Furfrou! Use bite!"

"Drilbur, use your claws to keep Furfrou's mouth open!" As soon as Furfrou got close, mouth open to bit, Drilbur did as his trainer told him, using his claws to hold Furfrou's mouth open and keep it on its hind legs.

"Furfrou, sand attack!" With its hind legs, Furfrou hit the ground hard, and kicked sand into Drilbur's eyes. Drilbur let go of Furfrou and began to claw at its eyes, trying hard and quickly to get rid of the dust.
"Now use Bite!" Furfrou went in one more time, this time biting hard on Drilbur, and then throwing him across the field once more. As the dust settled, it was clear that Drilbur was beginning to show weakness. Nonetheless it still managed to face Furfrou and growl.

As Drilbur's trainer ordered it to use mud slap, a child walked up to the old man and whispered something in his ear. As soon as the kid pulled away, the old man screamed "Disperse!" Almost immediately, everyone within the crowd began to walk in different directions. The trainers put their pokemon back into their pokeballs and ran, as sirens were becoming louder.

Before Hilbert could react, trying to keep on his feet as people pushed at him to leave, he saw the Old Man jump off the box and hide between two kids, putting on a hat provided to him. "Hey, where's my money, old man!" To that, the old timer snickered. "You know the rules boy! If there's a Jenny, no money! Hehe! See ya fella!" And to that he disappeared among the crowd.

"ATTENTION! THIS IS THE SITE OF AN ILLEGAL POKEMON GAMBLING RING! STOP WHERE YOU ARE!" As Hilbert heard Jenny's voice on the speaker, he groaned, trying to make his way past other people. He could see that the police, led by Officer Jenny, were beginning to surround the arena, but Hilbert began to run towards Prism tower.

"Hey you! Stop!"

"Holy hell man, I can't go back to jail!" one man yelled to another as they began to shift to head right. "Tony said he'll be waiting for me when I come back, and I don't know what that means!" Hilbert saw a door heading into the tower, and as Jenny caught the man who was worried about Tony, he headed inside.

Realizing no one was there, he quickly began to search for a spot to hide on the second floor. The interior of the tower was much different than its exterior; instead of stone and glass like it was outside, the room Hilbert was in was covered in green metallic walls and power converters. He heard the door open downstairs, and thinking there was no other choice, squeezed in behind two power converters, hoping that no one would find him.

He could hear radio chatter, as a lone set of footsteps drew closer. The footsteps finally entered the converter room, slowly getting closer as whoever they belonged to was looking through each little corner and hole. Once she was a converter away from seeing him, Hilbert thought he was done for.

"Red was right," he thought. "My life has ended before it even began. I should have stayed in Castelia City!"

Suddenly, to his left, he heard a robotic voice call. "Welcome to the Lumiose Gym. How many badges do you have?"

"Oh- I'm not here to battle, this is an investigation!"

Jenny.

Suddenly her radio crackled with activity. "Report" Jenny ordered, to which another officer responded, "Officer Jenny, we need your help! Jesse is escaping through Central Street!"

Officer Jenny hesitated before saying anything. "Copy. I'm heading to your location! That old man won't get away this time!" Hilbert could guess that she took one last look at the room before heading downstairs, because it took a couple of seconds before her rapid footsteps headed downstairs and right through the door. The second he heard the door shut, Hilbert slowly squeaked down to the floor, relieved.

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Almost every day in Vaniville town, in the large area that made up Grace's backyard, Serena was forced to ride and train upon Rhyhorn, following the steps of her mother, a famous Ryhron rider. Serena was holding on for dear life as Rhyhorn bucked its legs, trying as hard as it could to get her off.

"Come on Serena! You're doing great! Keep your legs on him!"

Despite the praise from her mother, Serena was in no position to even put her body on the saddle fully. After one final minute, Rhyhorn finally succeeded, jumping so hard that Serena was pulled off and launched into the ground, face completely in the dirt.

Even with her face still on the ground, Grace could hear the anger leaving Serena's body, as she began to say, "MOM! I HATE THIS!" to which Grace could only sigh and shake her head.

"Get on again."

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As soon as he thought it was safe to leave, Hilbert squeezed out of his hiding spot and left the room, ignoring the voice coming from a monitor asking him for the number of badges he has. He went downstairs, and as he opened the door, he saw that the police presence had mostly disappeared, save for three cops loading those unfortunate enough to get arrested into a truck. Officer Jenny was nowhere to be seen.

Not bothering to risk his time with the police already there, Hilbert left for the other direction, heading down South West Street as quickly as he could. Once he thought he was far enough, he took a seat by a tree, out of breath.

"Jeez, that was close."

"Are you alright?" Startled, Hilbert jumped to his feet and was prepared to run again, but was surprised to see that the person who asked him that was not officer Jenny, but in fact an entirely different woman. She was slender, with dark green eyes and light brown hair, with some curly tufts protruding from her head. And she wasn't wearing a police uniform.

"Quick Hilbert, say something that doesn't draw attention. Quickly!"

"...YEEEESSS" Hilbert responded, then giving his most sincere, Gengar-wide smile, which turned out to be more attention-seeking that he planned.

"Are you sure? You seemed to be having trouble breathing"

"Yes, I'm fine, thanks." Hilbert said, finally catching his breath and began to breathe normally. "I don't usually jog but I figured today would be a great day to start. Turns out its harder than I thought."

The woman chuckled, which made Hilbert smile a bit.

"Well I'm glad that you're taking up jogging. I'm Alexa by the way."

"Nice to meet you Alexa." Suddenly an idea popped into his head.

"Say Alexa, can you actually help me with directions to Vaniville town?" Hilbert asked. "I've been meaning to meet someone there, and I need the fastest route possible."

Alexa smiled. "Of course! All you have to do is take Route 4 down to Santalune City, and then just walk along Route 3 until you reach Vaniville Town. It's the fastest way there on foot!"

"Wow, thanks Alexa, I appreciate all the help."

"Anytime.. You didn't tell me your name, actually" Alexa said, to which Hilbert laughed, internally hitting himself.

"Sorry. It's Hilbert! Until next time Alexa!" And with that, they parted ways, Hilbert reaching the end of the block before looking back and waving once more. Alexa waved back, delighted to help, until suddenly, a memory popped up in her head.

"Wait a minute… Hilbert… From Castelia City?" She looked up to see Hilbert was already gone amid the crowd, as her smile faded away and disappointment filled her chest.

Now, Alexa wondered, where is Ash?

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After three more tries to calm Rhyhorn down to let her ride him, Serena was pushed one last time until her mother, slightly frustrated, decided that she needed a break.

Serena groaned, exhausted from the grueling hours of failing without end. "This would be a lot easier if you told Rhyhorn to calm down instead of thinking I can do it without fail."

"I can't be there every step of the way, can I?" Grace hit back, laughing at the face her daughter gave her. "Don't worry, you'll get it eventually."

While Serena smiled at her mother's confidence, deep down inside, she dreaded that she would get it. She didn't want to, and yet that's what she will have to do anyway. As her mother stepped inside the house to begin cooking lunch, Serena looked back outside one last time. Rhyhorn had already walked back to his small house in the front, and Fletchling was with her mother, so for a moment, she was alone. She looked up to the sky, and thought something; a dream that made her feel strong and independent. But when Grace called her inside to get cleaned, the dream disappeared from her mind, and she went home.

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END

This was supposed to be a draft for two chapters, but I felt like that it flowed so well with each other that I decided to keep it together!

I hope you enjoyed Chapter One. Each and every review will be read and any feedback and suggestions will be appreciated.