Hey again! Just wanted to quickly mention I consider Ash, Goh and Chloe as teenagers somewhere around 16 years old, even though the actual anime likes to say otherwise.

Chloe awoke from her slumber in an unfamiliar place. She looked around and the only thing she saw was pure darkness, with nothing else present to fill the empty space.

"Huh? Where am I?" She thought out loud.

The purple haired girl walked around for a bit, in search of any sign of life. Eventually after a while, she found Ash and Goh just standing there in the middle of the darkness, both with unreadable expressions on their faces. She ran towards them and said: "Hey guys, where are w-"

Chloe was interrupted by the sound of one of Ash's Pokeballs opening and the appearance of Ash's Lucario, stopping her right in her tracks. Lucario starred at the girl somewhat menacingly and stood firmly in front of Ash and Goh, almost trying to tell Chloe not to come any closer.

"Hey! What was that for Ketchup!" Chloe shouted at the trainer. Ash laughed in an uncharacteristically manner, and Goh started talking.

"We decided you won't be coming with us to the Crown Tundra, sorry not sorry!" He said sarcastically with a small laugh. Chloe stared at them, thinking they had gone insane and replied:

"Huh!? What's wrong with you two? And why are you acting so strange?" She asked.

"Pfft, we're not acting strange..." Started off Ash. "We just realized there'd be no point in bringing such a useless trainer like you to our research mission." He shrugged.

"WHAT?!" She was about to lash out at the smirking Pallet Town native but was once again stopped by Lucario.

"These two are right. You'd just be a hindrance and another thing we'd have to worry about…" Added Brandon, seemingly appearing out of thin air. Chloe was too baffled to speak as she kept trying to get past Lucario with very little success.

"Well I think we're done here, let's go guys." Ash said as he turned away from the Vermillion City girl alongside Goh and Brandon.

"W-What!? Hey, wait! Just hold up for a second!" Chloe once again tried to push past Lucario, who now got tired of her weak attempts to get past him and shoved her to the ground aggressively.

"How about you go back to tending the plants at school Chloe? It seems to be the only thing you're destined for in life..." Her childhood friend said jokingly, earning a somewhat demonic laugh from Brandon and Ash.

"Goh…" She said, quietly and weakly from the ground.

"Alright fun's over…" Yawned Ash. "Lucario, get rid of her with an Aura Sphere." He said, still not looking at her. Chloe didn't have time to argue when Lucario suddenly sent an Aura Sphere on a crash course towards her. She stared wide eyed at the blue ball and screamed.

"NOO!"

"EEVEE!"

Chloe quickly stood up from her bed and looked around frantically in distress. It took a while before she fully came back to her senses, but after realizing she was back at the Pokemon Center, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh… j-just a dream… geez…"

The purple haired girl quickly checked her Rotom phone. "8am!? Great… Now what am I going to do until we leave…"

Chloe layed back down on the bed exasperated and thought back to the dream. It was so strange, and even though it was clearly a dream, she couldn't help but think more deeply about it. A hindrance to Ash, Goh and Brandon? As if. Yeah maybe she wasn't the best trainer… ...or the best researcher… ...or the best traveler...

She shook her head and forced herself to forget about it for now. 'Just a dream, just a dream…' she repeated in her head a couple times. She laid there for a few more moments, until she noticed her only Pokemon was no longer on her bed with her, and then went wide-eyed when she realized her Eevee had flown across the room due to her waking up so fast. She got up and quickly went to check on her starter. "Eevee, are you alright!?"

"Eevui…" Cried her pokemon in an exasperated manner, laying head first on the floor of the room.

"Sorry about that… I just had the weirdest nightmare…"

*BANG*

Chloe jumped and screeched at the sudden sound, still a little startled from whatever her dream was. The sound seemed to have come from the glass doors, so she stood up and walked on over cautiously to inspect. She scanned the balcony and eventually found the object that was most likely the origin of the sound. Chloe opened the door and picked up the small trinket that collided with the glass doors and looked at it strangely.

"A tin can? Where'd that come from?"

"Alright! That's your first hit! Nice going!" Exclaimed a familiar voice.

Chloe looked down to the battlefield behind the Pokemon Center and saw none other than Ash standing there with a couple dozen small metal cans, some of which he held in his hands, and others which he kept in a cardboard box. In front of him, Lucario stood there a good distance away from Ash with his eyes closed, looking really focused on something.

Then, without any warning, Ash threw one of the cans into the air and Lucario shot an Aura Sphere, presumably trying to hit the can, although it missed by quite a bit.

"Back to another miss… Don't let up Lucario, you're improving! You just have to focus harder on your Aura."

"Brawrr…" Cried quietly the fighting steel type as it kept it's eyes closed and prepared another Aura Sphere.

Eevee eventually got curious and went to join Chloe on the balcony, jumping on her head and looking down at the field.

"Well, since I doubt we'll be able to go back to sleep, let's go check on what exactly he's doing with all these tin cans." She said, looking back at the metal can currently in her hand, as her partner Pokemon replied with a happy cry.

Chloe went back inside alongside her Pokemon and quickly got changed, fixed her hair, and started making her way down to the battlefield. As she got out of her room, she noticed the door to Ash and Goh's room was slightly opened. She peaked her head inside the door frame and noticed Goh still out like a light, sleeping happily with Grookey in his arms, and Pikachu also sleeping in the corner of the room. She chuckled lightly and closed the door quietly as she went downstairs. The main room of the Pokemon Center was completely empty, apart from Nurse Joy adjusting something behind the counter, who quickly noticed the Vermillion City girl make her arrival to the lobby and gave her a warm smile.

"Good morning! Another early bird I see?"

Chloe gave a small laugh and replied, looking at the tin can in her hand: "Yeah, I woke up from a dream when this hit the door to the balcony, and when I saw Ash outside, I figured I should check out what he is doing this early in the morning."

"That's fair enough, he's been at it for half an hour now, I wonder what's got him so determined to train at this time... Anyways, I have to go get some stuff in the back, the door to your right should lead you straight to the battlefield."

"Alright, thanks Nurse Joy." The women in question simply replied with a smile and wave and left to another part of the Pokemon Center, and Chloe made her way to the field.

As she was walking, she thought back to Nurse Joy's question on why Ash would be up so early. He typically wakes up pretty late, so it really was strange behavior for him. She thought back to last night when she overheard his conversation with Lucario, and presumed that was the main cause of his early wake up. Guess he wasn't kidding when he said he wanted to train with Lucario more.

She chuckled as she finally arrived at the battlefield, and soon saw Ash with a new batch of tin cans in his arms and Lucario standing in the exact same position as before, still with his eyes closed.

"Stay focused, you're getting there!" The trainer said, trying to motivate his Pokemon as much as possible.

Lucario let out a quiet cry and, after a couple seconds, Ash threw one of the tin cans into the sky. Lucario immediately started building up an Aura Sphere and, still with his eyes closed, shot it towards the can. Unfortunately, it missed again, to which both trainer and Pokemon simultaneously sighed.

Suddenly, Ash got hit with a small trinket on the head. "Ow!... Huh?" He looked around for a bit and eventually found Chloe standing next to the battlefield alongside Eevee with a smirk on her face.

"You should really watch where you're throwing those, that one hit my balcony door..." The Vermillion City girl said.

"Oh, so that's where that one went, I wondered why it never came back…" Chloe deadpanned as Ash recalled Lucario, telling him to take a break and picked up the can Chloe threw at him. Ash then went to sit on the bench that was just beside his companion.

"So, care to explain why you're up this early Ketchup?"

"I have a name you know?"

"What was that Ketchup?" Chloe said, pretending to not have heard him. Ash sighed, knowing there was no point in arguing. Both Kanto natives had visibly calmed down from yesterday and they were no longer fighting, although that didn't mean they were particularly very respectful towards each other still.

"Well... I really wanted to get some training in today, so I decided to wake up earlier to get a head start."

"8am seems a bit excessive though, especially since we all stayed up quite late last night." Chloe commented as she sat down on the bench as well, petting Eevee who took a seat on her lap to get some extra sleep.

"Yeah I guess, but since we're going to the Crown Tundra later, I won't really have a lot of time to train, and I really owe this to Lucario after that battle against Brandon."

Chloe considered mentioning the fact that she had overheard his conversation on the balcony last night, but opted to keep quiet and listen.

"It really made me realize that I still have a lot to learn as a trainer. Yeah, I might be in the Hyper Class already, but if I'm being realistic, I'm not even close to the likes of Leon or Lance yet. I still have a lot to do if I wanna accomplish my dream of being a Pokemon Master…" He said as he stared up at the sky.

Ash's statement made Chloe think. 'If Ash isn't even close to reaching his dream, where does that leave me? I don't even know what my dream is yet...' She thought to herself, as she stared at the ground frowning. Ash quickly noticed her silence and said.

"Thinking about your own dream huh?" Seemingly reading her mind.

"T-That's n-none of your business Ketchup!" The purple haired girl replied flustered, looking away from him, which caused Ash to laugh out loud.

"Don't worry… sometimes it takes time to find who you really want to be in the future."

"Easy for you to say, you've had a dream to chase since you were little …" Chloe said while pouting.

"True… but I've met plenty of people who took plenty of time before they found what they wanted to do."

"Considering you're friends with Goh, I highly doubt it." She firmly said.

"I'm not joking. For example, there's this girl I traveled with back in Kalos that when she decided to leave home, she didn't have the slightest idea of what she wanted to do, but after a while, she found her goal, and chased after it with everything she had."

Chloe was still skeptical. "Okay... but if you say she didn't have a dream when leaving her home, then why did she leave in the first place?"

Ash chuckled, scratched the back of his head nervously and said: "Well, there were two reasons actually. First was because her mother was a really successful Rhyhorn racer, and she wanted her daughter to be the same, so she left to avoid having to train with her mother. The second reason was actually because she wanted to find me."

Chloe looked at him strangely so he explained further. "Basically, she saw that I was in the region, and she recognized me as a childhood friend from a summer camp back in Pallet Town, and she wanted to see me again and return something I gave to her back then."

Ash's explanation only made Chloe look at him even more strangely. "Wait so, let me get this straight, this girl that you traveled with, had no idea what she wanted to do in life, so she left home to go find a random guy she suddenly remembered existed, traveled with him for a while, and somehow, she found what she wanted to do because of it?"

The Pallet Town trainer nodded as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "Yeah, and she even got really close to accomplishing her dream of becoming Kalos Queen!"

The purple haired girl was starting to get a bit irritated. "How is that supposed to make me feel better about my future when your example is your girlfriend from Kalos who just randomly found her dream running around randomly throughout an entire region!?"

"Hey! I'm just trying to help!" Retorted angrily Ash. "Look Chloe, first of all, she's not my girlfriend, and second of all, the reason she found her dream in the first place was because she exposed herself to new experiences by traveling and exploring the world. If you just sit there and complain about it instead of actually trying to find what you want to do, it's obviously going to take a long time before you find it, and you'll be stuck tending the flowers at school whilst everybody else enjoys themselves!"

'How about you go back to tending the plants at school Chloe? It seems to be the only thing you're destined for in life...' The words from her dream rang in her mind. Chloe looked down at the ground, defeated. Ash immediately regretted snapping at her, as she knew she was just frustrated and had just made it even worse for her, so he sighed and kneeled down in front of her.

"Look, you're right, I don't really know what you're going through, I shouldn't have tried giving advice on something I know little about, so... I'm sorry." Ash then stood up and spread his arms, back in a more cheerful mood. "But hey! You have plenty of time ahead of you, so just take it slow and I know you'll be fine, I believe in you!" He finished cheerfully trying to cheer her up.

Chloe looked at him for a while before eventually letting out a small laugh and saying. "You're right, thanks Ash, a-and I'm sorry too... about how I acted yesterday."

The Hyper Class trainer looked at her in absolute shock. "D-Did you just call me by my actual name!?" He said, completely ignoring her apology.

"Don't get too used to it Ketchup." She replied harshly, causing Ash to let out a small laugh as well. Chloe picked up Eevee in her arms and then stood up. "Welp, I think I'm going to check if any stores in Hammerlocke are open yet, since I doubt I'll get back to sleep."

"Sounds good, see ya later Chloe!" He exclaimed as he said goodbye.

Chloe only replied with a wave as she turned around, and then said: "Try not to tire yourself out too much."

"Yeah yeah whatever…" He replied as he pulled out a Pokeball. "Lucario, come on out!" The fighting-steel type then appeared from it's Pokeball, looking newly refreshed and determined.

"Ready for some more training buddy?"

"Brawr!"

As Chloe was slowly making her way to the center of Hammerlocke, she thought back at the words Ash said to her. 'Maybe he's right, and I am being too stressed out for nothing… Still though… Ash didn't feel like his usual self there, he's always so cheerful and happy all the time, yet from what I saw just a minute ago, he acted pretty serious and wasn't afraid to tell me what he actually thought I was doing wrong, and pretty rudely at that…' Chloe shook her head and decided not to think much of it as she entered a small cafe to find something to eat.

A few hours had passed and it was now 10:45 am. Goh had woken up a little while ago and was currently helping Ash continue to train with Lucario, with Pikachu and Grookey watching from the sidelines, when Chloe finally came back to the Pokemon Center. After she went and checked to make sure Goh had woken up and saw he was no longer in his room, she figured he'd be at the battlefield with Ash. To no one's surprise, the research partners were both there, Goh now helping Ash in throwing the tin cans into the air. This time though, Lucario was in the middle of the field, eyes closed, and Ash and Goh were at both sides of him.

"Ready Goh?" His research partner nodded. "Alright... Now!" They both threw multiple cans into the air, and Lucario immediately used Double Team, as half of the clones shot Aura Spheres at the cans to his right, and the other half at the cans to the left. Lucario only hit a few, but there was clear improvement from earlier this morning. Chloe decided to interrupt the two boys.

"Ash! Goh!"

"Oh, hey Chloe!" They responded simultaneously, looking at her, but they both flinched when a couple cans that Lucario had missed hit their head.

"I just came back from exploring Hammerlocke, I'm assuming you both already ate breakfast right? Brandon should be here soon."

"I have." Quickly replied Goh. "And since Ash woke up way before me, I guess he has as we-

Goh was interrupted by the sound of Ash, Lucario and Pikachu's stomachs rumbling. The three looked at each other briefly before suddenly sprinting out of the Pokemon Center to go get breakfast at a cafe. Chloe and Goh both sighed.

"Guess he was so focused on training that he forgot he hadn't eaten…" Commented Goh.

"Yeah… But didn't Pikachu wake up with you, why hasn't he eaten?" Asked his childhood friend.

"He was going to but, when he saw from the balcony that Ash was already training, he ran straight down to the field and shocked him with a Thunderbolt because he didn't wake him up to help him with training Lucario, so I guess the thought of eating breakfast also didn't cross his mind…"

"Those two…"

"Welp, we better get our stuff ready for when Brandon's comes." Suggested the researcher.

"Right!" Replied excitedly Chloe.

"Pi Pikapi!" Shouted the electric mouse while running, looking behind him.

"Yeah Yeah I'm hurrying!" Exclaimed Ash, running just behind his best friend, still with a piece of bread in his mouth.

He checked his Rotom Phone only to find he only had two minutes left before 11am, so he rapidly picked up the pace, since he knew that Brandon took exploring and traveling pretty seriously and didn't feel like getting an earful from him about being late.

After a little while, Lucario, who was also running with them, barked at Ash and pointed in front of him, signalling that they were close to Pokemon Center. Once they had finally made it through the doors of the building, Ash, Lucario and Pikcahu all stopped to catch their breath as they spotted only Chloe and Goh, and the trainer and his Pokemon were now hopeful that Brandon hadn't arrived yet.

"Did… Did we... make it in time? Asked Ash through heavy breaths.

"Three minutes late Ash." Suddenly said a cold voice. The trio consisting of Ash, Pikachu and Lucario all flinched at the same time, stood up straight and slowly turned to their left, where they saw Brandon leaning on the wall, arms crossed.

"O-Oh... H-Hey B-Brandon…" Said Ash, extremely uncomfortably.

"You of all people should know to be punctual when it comes to being somewhere at a certain time. Geez, how can two relatively new trainers be better at being on time than the Alolan Champion for crying out loud…

"Wait wha-"

Ash suddenly started coughing uncontrollably, catching the attention of the other people at the Pokemon Center. "I-Its n-nothing g-guys h-hehe…" He said waving his arms frantically in front of him.

Chloe and Goh glanced at each other, wondering if Ash had gone insane. "O-Okay… well, anyways, I packed your stuff Ash, so we can leave right away without you having to go back to the room." Said Goh, moving on from Ash's antics.

The Pallet Town trainer sighed, returned Lucario to his Pokeball, and finally replied: "Thanks a bunch Goh…"

"Alright, let's get going then." Brandon said, leaving the Pokemon Center, soon to be followed by Goh, Chloe and Ash with Pikachu on his shoulder as always.

While the group made their way to the Hammerlocke Station, Goh started conversing with Brandon, asking him things like how was the job of being the king of the Kanto Battle Frontier, or how he caught a Regirock. Ash noticed this and was happy that his research partner and Brandon were getting along quite nicely. Ash smiled at the scene of Goh excitedly showing Brandon his pokedex, stretched out his arms and let out a yawn.

"You really shouldn't have woken up early today…" Started off Chloe. "You will probably be out like a light by the time we make it to the Crown Tundra."

"I'll be fine~" Assured Ash, dismissing the claim from the purple haired girl. "But yeah I might sleep on the train so I don't get too tired..."

"Great, now it's just gonna be me and Eevee all alone on the train ride there…"

"What do you mean? Goh and Brandon will be there as well, you know."

Chloe sighed. "Judging by the fact Goh hasn't even noticed I was here since Brandon arrived at the Pokemon Center, I'll doubt he'll keep me much company…"

"Can you blame him though? Brandon is a pretty interesting guy, and even a little bit famous at that, so it's only natural he wants to know more about him." Ash smirked and then finished by teasingly saying: "And aren't you used to being alone all the time anyways?"

Chloe blushed slightly and exclaimed angrily: "Hey! I'm not alone all the time! I have friends at school you know!"

"You do realize you're saying that as you're talking to a person you almost never talk directly to because you are alone right now…"

Chloe was about to retort but found she didn't have a reply, so after a while, she held her head. "Geez, I never knew you were so mean Ash…" she said, noting again how out of character Ash was acting with her.

"I'm only mean to you because you're easy to frustrate, and I find that really funny!" He said with a huge grin on his face.

"Why you…"

As the pair continued to bicker in a "friendly" manner, Goh and Brandon looked at the scene occurring behind them.

"Chloe's sort of right you know, I don't know about you, since you've probably known him longer than I have, but I've rarely seen Ash purposefully try to provoke someone before…" Goh whispered to Brandon.

"Hmm, I have seen him try to get on someone's nerve a few times in the past, but I will admit that it definitely is a rare occurrence, and from what I have seen since yesterday, it seems like Ash acts this way occasionally when he is with her…" He replied, thinking.

"I don't know if that's a good or bad thing…" Admitted Goh, slightly worried about his out of character behavior.

About 10 more minutes went by and the group had successfully made it to the Hammerlocke Station. When they got to the counter, Ash, Goh and Chloe turned in the tickets they bought yesterday that were still valid because of the whole Team Rocket incident, whilst Brandon bought a new one. Once they got to the station that had the destination of the Crown Tundra, Ash noticed how big the trains were and commented. "Woah, I never knew the trains would be this huge!"

"Since it will take us quite a while to get to the Crown Tundra, the trains on their way there are always quite a bit larger than one's that travel shorter distances." Explained Brandon, as Ash simply looked in awe.

The Pallet Town trainer only got more excited when Goh told him that they had their own mini cabin separate from everyone else, something that was actually written on their tickets, but of course, Ash hadn't realized, something that the rest of the group were not surprised to hear in the slightest. Five minutes later, the train they were supposed to take started boarding passengers. The group of four were the first people to board the train, and after being greeted happily by the staff, Ash ran straight to their cabin. When the trainer opened the door, he looked excitedly at the space they had all to themselves. Now it wasn't anything too extravagant, a little bit of furniture consisting of a decently sized table, two long couches either side of it, a sofa in the corner next to a huge window, and finally a wardrobe to keep their stuff, but it was definitely nice that they had it all to themselves.

"Wow… this is awesome!" He exclaimed.

"Ash, you really gotta learn to calm down sometimes..." Goh said, coming into the room as well. "But you're right, this room is pretty cool."

"Alright, this trip is going to be awesome! Crown Tundra, here we come!"

Goh, Chloe and Brandon, who had just come into the room, all simply watched on, holding their heads at Ash's usual self.