Catching up with his friends on Route 2 Shauna spotted Ash first.
"Oh, hi Ash! We caught so much Pokémon! Trevor especially."
"Yeah, I caught a bunnelby, a fletchling, a spewpa, a zig-"
"Give it a rest Trevor." Serena hushed him, making the shy boy shrink back. "So Ash, do you know how to catch a Pokémon?"
"Yeah, I do. Remember Gary back in Kanto?"
"That arrogant little boy? I wish I could forget. He was so annoying." She rolled her eyes.
"He's a prodigy back home. He didn't become champion but he won the Pokémon League a year before I moved."
"Let me guess, he let the fame get to his head and treats you like dirt for not having been a trainer there?"
"Not exactly. He doesn't even acknowledge I exist." Ash replied solemnly. Serena growled as she punched her palm.
"Ugh! If only I could punch his stupidly pompous little face in!" The blonde girl calmed down quickly though as she crossed her arms. "Oh well. You're here now, so don't worry. I never disrespect my friends."
"Uh, what about me-"
"Anyway, here's what we're doing." Serena went on, unknowingly failing to acknowledge Trevor's existence. "We're playing a game, except for Trevor since he's caught one of everything already on this route. We're trying to see which one of us can catch the most Pokémon by the time we reach Santalune City. Here's some pokeballs." She handed five to Ash and Shauna.
"Yay! If I find lots of cute Pokémon, then all catch as many as I can, and we'll become friends!" She cheered.
"Well, good luck. Especially you Ash." She winked at him, making the boy blush.
"Come on Trevor, watch me make more friends!" Shauna tugged the smaller teen along, whom was yelping from surprise. Ash groaned. Taking his time, he caught a bunnelby, a fletchling and a scatterbug. Once he entered the forest and found his friends again, it became a real game then. Since Shauna was already paired up with Trevor, he went ahead and found Serena.
"Hey Ash, what's up?" Silent for a few seconds, he spoke up.
"Serena, is Trevor your friend?"
"Yeah, why?" The girl inquired from his question.
"Well, despite calling him a friend you don't seem to treat him very well." Ash told her. Looking left and right, she walked to him and whispered in his ear.
"Believe me, he is my friend. I'm just hard on him to toughen him up. The day he stands up to me and demands I treat him more respect is the day I consider all that worth it."
"Isn't it wrong though?"
"Maybe, but even with Shauna he's a wimp if she gets too excitable, so he's not going to grow a spine on his own or positive reinforcement alone. There was one time I was too harsh and he ran away crying. I apologized and we're good. He just needs to know that the world can be tough, so he needs to learn that if he can stand up to his friends, everyone else won't be as hard since we'll be there for him."
"Hey guys!" Shauna called out to the two. "Trevor beat his first trainer!" Serena smiled.
"His first win, and I wasn't even there." She then turned to him. "Please keep this a secret."
"O-ok." Ash mumbled. She grinned as the two turned and spotted Trevor coming up, apparently tiring himself out from the effort.
"I did it...I won. Raiden...beat a fletchling."
"Did you now?" Serena said as she walked up to him. He shrank away and prepared for more down putting, but was instead patted on the head. The red head opened his eyes. "Good job squirt." She then walked away, winking at Ash.
"See, even Serena thinks you did good! Isn't that great?!" Shauna asked her shy friend. He chuckled.
"Yeah, it sort of is." So that's how they spent all day, catching all that they wanted in the forest. In the end, excluding Trevor whom caught one of everything he didn't have prior to the forest, Shauna won as she captured six Pokémon.
"Yay! So many friends! I'm going to love you all so much!" The pink clad girl giggled with excitement. Serena spoke to Ash.
"I heard about you and Shauna's battle. Looks like you've got good potential."
"Look at how much data I collected. So many new entries! This is going to be a snap!" Trevor said excitedly.
"Say, I realized something." Ash spoke up. "We navigated through Santalune Forest in the exact same way that mom and I get through Viridian Forest in Kanto. This forest ripped off our forest!"
"What do you mean?" Trevor was the most confused of the bunch.
"Look here." Ash got out his laptop for them all to see and went to Bulbapedia to show them Viridian Forest. "See, the exact same layout."
"Huh, I've forgotten about that." Serena remarked.
"Why is the forest so white and lifeless?" Shauna asked.
"There's only so much you can make and render on handheld games around 20 years ago. Had it been made on the Nintendo 64 then it would've been really something, along with everything else back then."
"Good thing nature evolves into something better every couple of years." Trevor said.
"Forests don't evolve Trevor, they just grow better. Well, no point crying over digital milk now. Let's resume our journey." The blonde haired trainer got up and walked off, followed by her friends. Ash sighed as he put his laptop away and went along with them.
As the four walked to the city, they were impressed to see their first viewing of it. The buildings were made of grey stone with brick pathways in between them and appeared to be European style. The place smelled nice with many flowers decorating the area and it was topped off with a roselia statue which was part of a fountain.
"It's so beautiful!" Shauna marveled.
"Indeed." Trevor agreed.
"So, what's there to do in this town?"
"What else? Shopping, along with the gym battle after. Come on!" She dragged her friends to the city, though had to wait for Trevor to catch a bidoof, an azurill, a burmy and a dunsparce. Once they were in the city and at the clothing store, they were able to use Serena's debit card to buy some hats which were at 75% off. Ash is now wearing a black baseball cap with a pokeball logo on it, Serena a pale pink felt hat, Trevor a beige outdoor hat and Shauna red fedora. They were even able to get roller-skates in their favorite colors!
"Neat!" Shauna remarked.
"I do admit, I feel both cooler and safer with an outdoorsy hat on." Trevor admitted feeling better about himself. Serena slapped him across the back.
"Great to hear Trevor."
"I must say Ash, you sure look handsome with that hat." The pink clad, red fedora wearing girl flirted with Ash, fluttering her eyelashes. Ash blushed and looked away.
"Uh, thanks."
"Oh buck up Ash! She complimented you. What's the matter, can't take a compliment from a pretty girl?" Serena laughed, making him feel embarrassed. "I do think you pull it off as well too."
"It's not that I can't. I just never received one before. I was nothing remarkable back home. At least compared to Gary." Ash explained, resulting in his friend losing her frown.
"Don't worry Ash! Now you're surrounded by friends! Bring it in you!" Shauna tried to cheer him up by hugging him from the side, though her approach was not very subtle or soft as she picked him up and swished him left and right in a aggressive manner.
"Shauna! Put me down!" Ash pleaded, and she did. "Look, I appreciate the friendship, but can you do so in a way that doesn't throw me almost literally?"
"Okay!" She agreed, though Ash wondered if she actually got it.
"Alright, since the first gym leader is here, who wants to go first? Me!" She volunteered, though Ash and Shauna tied with her. "Dang it. Okay, let's rock paper scissors for it." The three went through two rounds, and Serena won. "Yes! Witness me win my first badge!" But first, Ash and Serena went to the Pokémon Center to get healed up and then register to enter the Pokémon League, and then they went over to the green roofed gym, they were in what looked like an art gallery room with a fireman pole in the center leading down a floor. A man greeted them.
"Hello, who might be challenging Viola today?"
"Me. This is going to be my first gym badge." Serena answered.
"Okay then. Just go down this pole and we'll let Viola know of your arrival."
"Great! Yeah!" She cheered as she jumped on the pole and slid down. Ash and Shauna went next, though when Trevor tried to go down, he lost his grip and fell on his back. Nobody helped him up as they were awestruck by the beauty of the room. It was like a green house filled to the brim with trees and flora, along with a battle field in the center. A spotlight turned on, and on the other end of the room was a woman walking in, wearing a white tank top, cargo shorts, boots, and hair shaped like the general form of a bug.
"That determined expression...that glint in your eye that says you're up to the challenge...it's fantastic!" The gym leader came up close and started taking pictures of Serena with her camera, whom was first surprised by this, but quickly shook it off to pose, liking the attention. "Just fantastic! I understand that this is your first gym battle. Fantastic! Whether it's the tears of frustration that follow a loss or the blossoming of joy that comes with victory...they're both great subjects for my camera! Fantastic! This'll be just fantastic!" Having taken enough pictures, she went back to her corner of the field. "Now come at me! My lens is always focused on victory-I won't let anything ruin this shot!"
"You got it!" Serena accepted. A female florist came up to referee while the trainer's friends sat on the sidelines.
"The battle between Serena the challenger and Viola the Santalune gym leader is about to begin! Each side will have six Pokémon to use and-"
"Six? But this is just the first gym. Usually it's two or three." Trevor pondered with a whisper. Ash shrugged.
"Now let the battle begin!"
"Krikitune, go!" Viola let her first Pokemon out, which was a bipedal red and black cricket with thin scythes for arms.
"Foxie, I choose you!" Serena sent out her Fox Pokémon, Fennekin, whom was colored grey with deep red tufts of hair coming from her ears.
"Fennekin!" She cried out.
"Use Ember!" Shooting off a few sparks of flame from her mouth, it dealt super effective damage against the bug type, and it fainted after giving a cry of pain.
"Krickitune is unable to battle! The winner is Foxie!" The announcer declared.
"Oookay." Serena accepted, if confused on how it fell in just one shot.
"Return. Dustox, go!" Now it was a green winged purple moth with yellow compounded eyes.
"Ember, again!" Foxie spewed more fire which definitely hurt the purple moth, but it survived this time.
"Use Confusion!" Viola ordered. Its eyes glowed, and the fire starter was surrounded by a blue outline before being picked up. She tried to escape, but was thrown down at the ground, being dealt some damage, though not a lot.
"We can do this Foxie! Ember once more!" She attacked again, and unable to take a second shot, it fell as well.
"Dustox is unable to battle! The winner is Foxie!"
"Return. Spinarak, go!" Now on the field was a half meter tall green and black spider with yellow and black striped legs.
"Again, Ember!" Attacking with another fiery offense, the spider took it as well as the cricket and fell in one shot.
"Spinarak is unable to battle! The winner is Foxie!"
"Return. Ledyba, go!" This bug type is essentially a ladybug floating in the air with its wings.
"Use Ember again." After taking a hit from the fire attack and surviving it, the gym leader ordered,
"Use Comet Punch!" Flying at the Fox Pokémon, Ledyba punched her in the face twice, though the attacks were pitifully weak.
"Ember." Serena repeated, getting a bit bored from how easily she was winning. Once Ledyba was defeated, she then sent out her penultimate bug type.
"Beautifly, go!" It was a beautiful butterfly, flapping its colorful wings and-oh. It fell already. And Serena didn't say anything that time.
"Beautifly is unable to battle! The winner is Foxie!"
"Alright, now prepare to behold the beauty of my ace! Vivillon, go!" This one was another butterfly, but it had wings that were more purple with colorful scales dotting it.
"Ember." Foxie gave the same attack again but this time Viola did something new.
"Dodge it!" And to her credit, she did just that. "Gust!" Flapping her wings, Vivillon produced a strong gust of wind the blew the fire starter back. However, it was that wind attack the pushed Foxie to the brink as a red aura surrounded her, and she howled louder than normal.
"Alright, your blaze ability activated! Quick, use Ember!" Serena requested, getting excited again.
"Counter with Gust!" Viola pleaded. Vivillon started up some more wind, but the trainer was ready this time.
"Jump over it!" Leaping over the gust of air, Foxie blasted the butterfly with fire, and she fell to the ground from a powered up super effective move.
"Vivillon was unable to battle! The winner is Foxie, and thus the victor is Serena!" The announcer exclaimed. But Serena was not all that happy. She did smile at her starter though.
"You did good Foxie. Take a good rest." Then she turned her attention to Viola. "Uh, what was that? Half of your team didn't even put up a fight." Viola just laughed at her complaint.
"I get that from everybody. Especially those with fire, flying and rock types. But can you blame me? My first and second level teams suck in battle. In fact, Beautifly didn't faint. She died, simply from just how awful she was as a Pokémon overall. All of my weaker Pokémon do that. I have to refill my first and second level teams every week."
"Then...why are you a bug specialist?" Serena questioned, seriously lost on why her Pokémon were as bad as she said.
"I'm more than just a gym leader you know. I'm also a photographer. I appreciate my Pokémon as beauties, not battlers. Though once I fight with my fifth level team and above, that's where I really show the strength of the bug types in battles such as Pinsir, Scolipede and Scizor, so you better watch out if we have a rematch."
"Ah. Alright then." Now that made more sense.
"But that aside, you did fantastic! Take this to prove that you won against me." Walking up to Serena, she handed the young teen girl a copper colored beetle shaped badge with two green dots.
"Thank you. Check it out guys, I got it!"
"Yeah, way to go Serena!" Shauna cheered. Trevor smiled. But the one that she appreciated the most was when Ash said,
"You did great!" She blushed and giggled.
A/N: And that was that. So, apologies to any bug lovers if I've given you disrespect based on that I wrote about some of them. But I have also acknowledged that there are really cool and powerful bugs that wouldn't die from being lame so it balances out. So, what do you think of me giving Serena a tough love attitude to Trevor? On TVTropes about 'tough love', especially in the playing with tab, it says that a downplayed version is although there's no physical abuse there are a lot of verbal put downs to make the person better. Basically she's acting like a critic of sorts. I thought this seemed more appropriate than the parody entry. I don't think throwing Trevor off a cliff or anything as extreme just to make him more social and less shy about everything would work. It would just make him hate Serena and have a phobia of cliff faces. Plus, she has shown, thanks to me, she can give him positive reinforcement so it's not like she's constantly tough on him. What do you think?
And the big question. Will Ash pair up with Serena or Shauna. Well, let me just say that if I asked you guys there would be way more amorshipping than whatever ship Ash and Shauna have so that's not even a factor. But in a story like this, why should I go for something vanilla as just automatically going for Ash X Serena? For a parody story this flavorful, we need...a love triangle! Serena and Shauna competing against each other for his affection! I will need help though because I've never written a love triangle before, or at least prolonged one past one chapter. How should either of the girls, the tomboy and the girly girl approach him throughout the region and how would they interact with each other? Nothing below the belt that could threaten their friendship though. I'm leaving drama for the action pieces. They'll have to win him and fight each other honest and fairly. Review please!