When Ash woke up the next morning, he found himself staring at the roof of his and Serena's tent. It was dim in the tent, as always, and it took a moment for Ash's eyes to used it.
He had no idea how he had ended up in the tent. The last thing he remembered was that he had been outside and stared at the campfire and hold in his hand the stone given by Lucario. He didn't remember anything about the time after that. He thought he had fallen asleep and someone had carried him inside the tent. Who, he didn't know.
Ash sat up and noticed that Serena or Pikachu were not in the tent. He thought they had woken up earlier and gone out to do breakfast or something, so he didn't think about it anymore. Instead, the cause for thinking was caused by quite another thing. Namely, he felt something in his fist.
He raised his hand in wonder in front of his face and opened his fist to see what was inside it. With his now-opened palm rested the same, strange stone that Lucario had given him last night. It hadn't changed during the night in any direction, and he hadn't really expected it. Its fuchsia red streaks seemed to glow strangely in the dim light of the tent, but Ash thought it was only because of his imagination. It would be nice to know what this stone really is, Ash thought and spun the stone with his fingers.
Then he stopped it and yawned and stretched his hands. He put a stone on the floor of the tent and stood up. He noticed his clothes in a neat pile next to his backpack on the floor and wondered how he had really ended up in his nightwear. He remembered sitting in front of the campfire in his normal clothes...
However, he did not stay to think about it anymore, but took his clothes next to his back and dressed them. He then pressed his cap on his head and, after thinking for a moment, also took that peculiar stone from the floor, and put it in his pocket. Then he looked around once more and finally stepped out of the tent.
As Ash stepped out of the tent, he was greeted by Serena and her bright smile. She just put breakfast to Yamper, and Gou, Pikachu and the other Pokemon also ate their own breakfast.
"Morning Ash. Did you sleep well? Lucario, by the way, brought you to the tent at night, you had fallen asleep by the campfire," Serena said, smiling and walking past the tent. As she passed Ash, she pressed a light kiss to the boy's lips and Ash tasted a hint of strawberry in it.
"Really?" he asked, touching his lips as Serena bent down to give Yamper his bowl. "Yep. I woke up to it," she stated, watching as Yamper began to eat his food with a good appetite. Ash's stomach growled commandingly as well, but first he did another thing.
"Everybody out!" he exclaimed as he threw his Pokeballs into the air and his Pokemon appeared in front of him accompanied by various cries. He quickly gave them food and then sat down at the table himself and started making breakfast for himself.
But as he poured the juice into his glass, he suddenly realized something. He glanced quickly in the direction of his Pokemon and the sight made him frown.
"Where's Lucario? He wasn't in his Pokeball, and I don't see him here, so where has he gone?" he asked in wonder. Gou, who was browsing his Rotom and feeding Sobble the dried pieces of berry, replied without looking up, "He went into the woods. I don't know why. Maybe he went to train," and Ash scratched his head.
"I see," he said, trying to solve why Lucario had gone into the woods alone, but couldn't come up with any decent solution. Maybe he really went to train, he thought, and watched as Pikachu squeezed ketchup over his bread. That would be so like Lucario...
He felt Serena sit next to him and also started making herself breakfast. Then they ate for a moment in peaceful silence until Gou suddenly turned his gaze to Ash and asked, "Why were you even here yesterday alone? I mean, what made you fall asleep in front of that campfire?"
"This," Ash said, digging from his pocket the strange stone Lucario had given him yesterday. He placed it in the middle of the table and Gou, Serena and Pikachu stared at it with interest.
"What is it?" Serena asked, but Ash just shrugged. "I don't know. And Lucario didn't know either," he replied as Gou picked up the stone in his hand and looked closer at it. Its fuchsia red stripes shone specially and created an interesting glow on Gou's face. He put the stone back on the table and Sobble and Pikachu came curiously to take a closer look. "But I've never seen a stone like that before and I think it's pretty special."
"Neither do I," Serena said, watching Pikachu and Sobble explore the stone with interest. Sobble was just about to take it in his hand, but then Serena exclaimed, "Don't!" and Sobble startled in fright and climbed over Goun's head to safety.
Ash and Gou turned to look at Serena, Gou looked at Serena angrily and Ash was amazed. "Why did you yell like that? Look what happened," Gou said angrily, pointing to Sobble, who was shaking on his head. "You know Sobble doesn't like sudden sounds or movements. You scared him!"
"Sorry Gou, but it just occurred to me that maybe the Pokemon shouldn't touch the stone," Serena explained apologetically and Ash looked at her confused. "Why?" he asked and Serena looked at him with a slight smile.
"Well we don't know how it can react with Pokemon," she explained and Ash began to understand. "I guess I get it. Pokemon shouldn't touch it because we don't know if it can cause evolution or something," he said and Serena nodded.
"Gotcha," she said, smirking, but Ash still looked a little confused. "But Lucario touched on it. Then why didn't anything happen to him?" he pondered and Gou let out a voice reminiscent of a mixture of laughter and snorting.
"Lucario now is special. I bet he can defeat the Legendary Pokemon with just eye contact and move mountains with his "awesome Aura powers," he said, making quotation marks with his fingers and grinning smugly. That grin, however, suddenly turned into a grimace as someone hit him firmly in the back of the head.
"OUH! Who did it!" Gou exclaimed angrily, rubbing his head and turning quickly to see who was the culprit. The turn caused Sobble to drop from Gou's head and lie on the table. "Sobb," it whimpered quietly and Serena felt sorry for it.
However, Gou found himself staring directly into Lucario's eyes, whose expression said he had clearly heard Gou's utterance. He had a blue stick in his hand, made of Aura, and Gou's gaze shifted to it, a little nervous. He chuckled nervously, but Lucario just grunted and turned to look at Ash.
"Your friend should learn some manners, Master," he said a little contemptuously as Gou lifted Sobble into his arms. At the same time, he rolled his eyes at Lucario, muttering something vague. However, Ash didn't want to continue that conversation any longer, so he quickly changed the subject, saying, "Yeah. Where were you, by the way?"
"Training," Lucario said simply and didn't explain it any further. He sat down, but Ash, however, didn't believe it for a moment. He wanted to ask Lucario for a better explanation, but something in Aura Pokemon's gaze said the matter was over.
Instead, he contented himself with sighing and saying, "Yeah. Fine." He took in his hand a glass of orange juice that Serena had just poured for him, and was left staring grumpily at his strange stone on the table.
His grumpy mood, however, changed abruptly when he heard his Rotom suddenly begin to ring. He took it from his pocket and saw that Rotom informed him of a new video call and that the caller was Sonia.
"Sonia? Why is she calling?" Ash muttered in wonder as he watched the screen of his Rotom. Gou, Sobble in his arms, Serena, Pikachu, and Lucario also moved closer to Ash to see who also called Ash. Then Ash muttered, "Well, soon it will clear" and pressed the "answer" button.
Sonia's face appeared on Rotom's screen. She seemed to be somewhere in a very cold place as there was snow around her and she was wearing an orange and very warm-looking onesie. However, she didn't seem to be smiling, but was looking a little serious.
"Hi Ash. And the others too. Good that you answered. I have an important thing for you," she said when she saw the trio and the Pokemon. As she spoke, her breath froze in the air and it looked like she was in a place with a really hard frost. "And I'm sure it will interest you."
"What is it about?" Ash asked puzzled and Serena and Gou also looked confused. Pikachu, who had climbed on Ash's shoulder, also said in wonder, "Pikaa.." "And where are you by the way? I don't recognize that place."
"In a place called Crown Tundra, but it doesn't matter now," Sonia said, digging something out of the pocket of her orange onesie. It was a small piece of paper and the trio seemed interested. "What matters more it's this paper," she said, straightening the crumpled paper straighter.
"What is it?" asked Ash and Sonia smiled a little mysteriously. "Do you remember those runes out there in the cave Stow-on-Side? Those whom I began to translate? Well, I've now got my translation completed, and it read here"
She waved the paper in front of the screen and the trio glanced at each other. "What does it say?" Serena asked, sounding interested, and Sonia began to read the note.
"It's some kind of prophecy, and it goes like this:
"When myth becomes truth, a one man shall mark the destruction of power, and a breakdown shall bring forth an Eternal night. And as soon as ash rains from the sky, the young one shall mark a time of peace and a world of light"
After Sonia had read the prophecy, the trio looked at each other in great astonishment.
"Did you understand anything about that?" Serena asked, but Ash and Gou shook their heads. Pikachu and Sobble also didn't seem to understand the prediction anymore and even Lucario was pretty confused looking. "Because I didn't understand anything"
"Sonia, do you have any idea what the prophecy could mean?" Ash asked, but Sonia shook her head as well.
"I'm sorry, but no. At least not yet. That's why I came here, where I am now. I thought maybe I could find something here," she explained, and the trio nodded. "Nothing has been found yet, but a friendly man named Peony has promised to take me to one interesting place. In fact, we have to leave right away, so I probably have to end this call."
She was just ending the call when Ash suddenly exclaimed, "Wait!" and Sonia looked at him in amazement.
"What now, Ash?" she asked as Ash took from the table the special stone that Lucario had given him yesterday. He had just remembered it and it had occurred to him that Sonia might know what it was.
"Do you know what this is?" he asked, showing the stone to Sonia and Sonia looked at it for a moment. Then she smiled and said, "Sure. Those are called Wishing Stars. They cause the Dynamax or Gigantamax form to Pokemon. Where did you find it? They're not very common."
"Lucario found it, not me," Ash explained, and Sonia glanced at Lucario standing behind Ash. This nodded in confirmation. "He found it near one cave"
"Oh, okay," Sonia said, nodding at the explanation and then smiling. "If you want more information about those, ask Grandma. She knows. But now I have to stop. Ash, good luck with the next Gym battle, I hope it goes well. See you if we meet! Bye!"
And then she ended the call and left the trio and the Pokemon in a little confused silence.
After Sonia ended the call, the trio and Pokemon stayed for a moment to stare at Rotom's black screen. Finally, Gou broke the silence by saying, "I don't know about you, but I thought that prophecy sounded like a riddle. Especially the point, "A breakdown shall bring forth an Eternal night" sounded interesting"
"Yeah," Serena said, looking thoughtful. "I, on the other hand, am pondering the point where there was talk of the myth becoming the truth. It somehow sounded special."
"Yeah," said Gou, and they stayed together to think about what the prophecy might mean. However, Ash did not listen, for he had been left to spin and stare at the stone he had received from Lucario, which he now knew to be the Wishing Star.
"Whatever the riddle means, I'm sure that the adventures are not over," he muttered quietly and stayed to think was Wishing Star related to prediction in any way.
They ate their breakfast to the end in silence, each pondering the riddle told by Sonia. Shortly thereafter, they dismantled their camp and packed their belongings and set out again to march towards Ballonlea.
They walked along the forest again and followed a small sandy path. Serena led the crowd with her map, which was in her Rotom, and Ash and Lucario walked behind her, Pikachu on Ash's shoulder. Behind them came Gou and Sobble was on his head. The party was very quiet and the only sounds came from their feet walking on the sand and from Serena's occasional instructions.
Ash had been left to bother where Lucario had really been when he said he was "training." He looked at the Aura Pokemon passing next to him, and decided to ask about it. And this time he wanted to hear the truth.
"Lucario?" he said through Aura and Lucario grunted in response. Ash didn't start wandering around, but went straight to the point, "What did you do this morning in the woods? I don't think you were training alone"
"It's not your business," Lucario grunted, but Ash didn't give up. "Why not? What is so secret that you can't tell me? I'm your trainer, after all!" he exclaimed, but Lucario didn't seem to change his mind.
"Because it's not the right time yet," he said and Ash looked grumpy. "Then when is it?" he asked, but Lucario simply replied, "When I say so. And go faster, I think it starts to rain soon and I want to get to Ballonlea before it." And Ash knew that Lucario wouldn't give a single answer anymore.
Lucario was right. As they walked, gray clouds began to form in the sky again. They covered the sun, which had just happily shone, and made the mood of the crowd a little apathetic. They also made them walk faster, as it seemed like it would soon start to rain, and they wanted to get to Ballonlea before that happened.
However, luck was not on their side. It didn't take long for the first drops of water to already fall on them. Soon more began to fall and the wind also started blow harder. They now walked in a disgusting drizzle that wet their clothes and hair and caused water to drip drops from the tips of their noses.
But the rain didn't just remain a drizzle. It grew all the time, and soon turned from a drizzle to a decent pour. It watered them even more and it and the cold wind together made them freeze down to the bones and cores.
As the clouds covered the sun, the forest in which they passed was quite dark. However, there came as a surprising relief, as at some point strange mushrooms began to appear next to the path, shining a strange light and thus illuminating the passage of the travelers.
They would have stopped to admire them if the rain had not been so heavy. Instead of admiring the mushrooms, they just accelerated their pace and now they were already running along a path that had turned muddy under the influence of rain.
But soon, to their relief, they began to see the roofs of the buildings in front of them, lined with tall, shimmering mushrooms. They accelerated their pace, ignoring the mud that wet their shoes, and continued to run towards the town waiting in front of them.
And finally in front of them was visible Ballonlea and its strange, shimmering mushrooms and pretty wooden houses. However, they were not left to admire them, but ran along the flooded paths of the town straight towards Pokemon Center, where they would finally be awaiting shelter from the rain.
Ash snatched the Center's door open and held it open until a soaked party got through it. Then he rushed inside himself, soaked Pikachu on his shoulder, and slammed the door behind him.
The wet crowd was left standing with water dripping into the doorway and Nurse Joy hurried to them quickly. "You're soaked!" she exclaimed when she saw the trio and the Pokemon. Her gaze shifted from Serena's wet hair, glued to her face, to Ash's water-dripping cap, and she shook her head. "Wait a minute and I'll get you dry towels to dry yourself on."
Having said that, she turned back and set out to get towels. After she disappeared behind her counter, Indeedee following, the trio glanced at each other and Pikachu jumped off Ash's shoulder. He shook most of the waters of itself like a dog and also Lucario shook most of the waters off of itself. Gou, on the other hand, panicked for a moment, for he had not seen Sobble anywhere, and he was afraid that this had fallen somewhere in the woods.
But then he noticed the air waving strangely next to him and realized Sobble had just become invisible due to the rain. And soon Sobble was visible again in his normal way. That's when Nurse Joy also came back with a big stack of dry towels in her arms, and handed them to the trio.
"Here. Take these and dry yourself on them," she said, handing everyone a towel and they thanked her. "I also recommend changing the dry clothes as soon as possible. I don't want you to catch a cold."
"Thanks," Ash said as he dried his hair on a towel. Serena and Gou did the same and Lucario had put his towel over his neck. "We would also need a room for ourselves. Is it possible?"
"Of course," Nurse Joy said with a smile and then nodded at Indeedee at the counter. This searched for something for a moment, and then stepped up to the party with the key in her hand.
"Dee," she said as she handed the key to Ash and Ash thanked her. "Here's the key to your room. You'll find the room left on the corridor. And if you need anything else, just ask me," Nurse Joy explained with a smile and Indeedee nodded in confirmation.
"Thank you and we ask," said Ash grinning, and then the trio and Pokemon set out in search of their room.
They quickly found their room and stepped into it. The room was very similar to the numerous other rooms in the Pokemon Centers they had been in during their trip, but there was one exception in this room.
Namely, instead of four single beds, this room had one large double bed and one smaller bed. Serena thought that Indeedee had sensed that she and Ash were a couple and therefore knew how to give them such a room.
Gou immediately announced that he would take a small bed for himself. He reasoned with a grin that because Ash and Serena were a couple, sleeping in the same bed would not cause them any problems. Finally, though, he added that if they started producing any sounds other than snoring, he would fade into the lobby's sofas to sleep. This made Lucario let out some sounds like suffocated laughter, Pikachu grinning mischievously, Ash staring at Gou confused, and Serena blushing bright red and wondering how many pairs that Indeedee had put in situations like this.
After all, the rest of the day went very nicely for them. They each took a warm shower and changed into dry clothes. Then they decided to go spend time in the lobby of the Pokemon Center, as Ash had decided not to challenge the Gym until the next day.
The lobby was quiet when they arrived there. Only Nurse Joy and her Indeedee were present. However, it didn't bother them, they settled comfortably on the couches in the lobby, the rain dropping on the ceiling and Nurse Joy bringing them hot cocoa after a while.
However, it did not remain completely lazy, at least for Ash. Lucario started teaching him teleportation. When Ash asked was it was even possible, Lucario replied disappearing from that place and appearing on the other side of the room after a while. The trick made Ash very excited and he wanted to learn right away how to do it.
But Lucario didn't even let Ash learn it right away himself. Instead, he gave him small items that Ash had to move to the other side of the room. As Ash grumbled about this, Lucario explained that it was dangerous to start moving himself from place A to place B if he didn't know exactly how it was done.
"You could split in two along the way, and it's not a very nice thing," he said seriously, and it made Ash grab a little pencil on the table and learn how to move it from that place to Nurse Joy's counter.
After all, it wasn't as easy to do as Ash had imagined. He hadn't made the pen move a meter. The biggest achievement was that he had made it disappear in half. And by the time they finally went to bed that night, Ash was so tired that he had time to say tired "Good night" when he had already fallen asleep in his bed. Gou joked that now at least he didn't have to be afraid of extra noises, but Serena muffled him with her sharp gaze.
And it didn't take long when everyone was already in a deep sleep, the rain dropping happily to the ceiling and mushrooms glowing outside of Pokemon Center.
Serena woke up to silence. She lay on her back on the Pokemon Center's bed and stared at the ceiling. Even though she had just woken up, she didn't really feel tired at all. In fact, she felt very refreshed and energetic.
Serena turned her head and saw Ash sleeping soundly beside her. He had wrapped his arms around Serena, apparently in his sleep, and now breathed calmly against Serena's shoulder. Serena smiled at him and pressed a light kiss to his forehead before carefully removing his arms from around her and getting up to sit.
She let her gaze go around the room and saw their backpacks beside the door leading to the bathroom. She saw Gou snoring in the bed next to the window with Sobble on his stomach and a blanket dropped on the floor. He snores with his mouth open and Serena's mind came to Snorlax. The thought made her giggle and she covered her mouth with her hand so she wouldn't have laughed out loud.
She got up from her bed and walked quietly to the window. As she did so, she remembered that morning at Stow-on-Side when Sonia had given her that rune, and the thought made her smile.
She opened the curtains a little and looked carefully out the window. Because Ballonlea was located in the middle of a dense and tall forest, she could not see the sun. Instead, she saw several mushrooms glistening in different colors, which she looked at with interest. She also noticed that the rain had stopped during the night, and only the puddles formed on the paths were in memory of it. What kind of day is this going to be? she wondered as she closed the curtain and walked over to her bag.
She lifted her bag off the ground and lifted it on her shoulder. It was still a little damp but not wet. With her bag on her shoulder, she stepped to the door of the room and opened it silently. She then stepped outside the room and closed the door silently behind her, leaving Ash and Gou and their Pokemon to sleep in peace.
Serena walked silently down the hallway toward the Pokemon Center's lobby. She had suddenly had a strong desire to bake something and she wanted to surprise Ash and Gou with something self-baked. Macarons, perhaps, she thought as she stepped toward Nurse Joy's counter to ask for directions to the kitchen. They like them.
Upon entering the lobby, she saw Nurse Joy behind the counter. Noticing Serena, this one smiled at her and asked yawning, "Good morning. Did you sleep well? Oh, and how can I help you?"
"Good morning. And yes, yes I slept," Serena replied with a smile and Nurse Joy nodded. "And about helping.. could you tell me where I find the kitchen? I'd like to bake something and surprise the boys before they wake up"
"Of course," said Nurse Joy, and then pointed to the hallway that was almost directly across from Serena. "Straight down that hallway and then to the left. The kitchen is the first door on the right. You'll find ingredients in the cabinets. They're freely available, but let me know what you used," she advised and Serena nodded with a smile.
"Thank you. And I will," she thanked with a smile and set out happily stepping in the direction advised by Nurse Joy.
Serena quickly found the door to the kitchen. It was the kind of door that didn't have a handle, but that opened by pushing in both directions. At the top was one small window and in the middle of the door was a small metal sign that read in black, "Kitchen"
Serena stopped in front of the door to improve the position of her bag. Then she stepped forward and was just pushing the door open with her hand, when suddenly it swung open and hit Serena and made her sway.
She lost her balance and fell to the floor. "Ouh, it hurt a little," she muttered, rubbing her forehead where the door had hit. Then she heard someone say, "I'm really, really sorry! I did not know that you were there! I did not mean to hit you like that!" and she opened her eyes, which she had instinctively closed, to see who had spoken.
In front of her stood a girl, unknown to her, with brown, long, wavy hair, and dark blue eyes, looking at her a little worried behind black-eyed glasses. The girl was wearing blue jeans, red sneakers, and a white-purple, long-sleeved shirt where Serena noticed a few flour stains. Next to her stood a Pokemon unknown to Serena, resembling a little puppy, who came curiously to sniff Serena.
"It doesn't matter. It was an accident," Serena said calmly, but the girl didn't want to let it just be.
"No, it was my fault," she said. "Here. Let me help you up," she continued, reaching out the hand to Serena and Serena grabbed it gratefully. The girl pulled Serena up from the ground and the little dog-like Pokemon barked a little.
"Thanks," Serena said as she got back up, and the girl nodded with a smile. "You're welcome. I should learn to look more closely in front of me. I am sometimes a little clumsy," she said, smiling a little embarrassed, but her smile suddenly turned into a giggle as she noticed how her Pokémon had been very curiously sniffing Serena.
"Rockruff seems to like you," she said with a laugh as Pokemon sniffed with interest at Serena's bag and Serena looked at it with interest.
"Rockruff?" she said in wonder and took out her Rotom. Then she scanned a small and curious Pokemon with it:
"Rockruff, Puppy Pokemon and Rock-type. This Pokémon can bond very strongly with its Trainer, but it also has a habit of biting. Raising a Rockruff for a long time can be challenging"
"Yep," said the girl, taking Rockruff in her arms. It licked the girl's cheek and the girl giggled a little. "That's completely true. While Rockruff looks like a harmless furball, it can be a real beast, especially in battles and..."
However, the girl's sentence was abruptly interrupted and a horrified look spread across her face. "Battle! Oh, no! I'm late!" she exclaimed. "If I don't leave now, I won't have time before... I have to go! It was nice to meet you, bye!" And before Serena had time to say anything, the girl had already started running down the corridor and Serena was left to look confused behind her.
"Bye...," she said slowly and then sighed. She then improved the position of her bag again and finally pushed open the kitchen door and stepped inside. And shortly after she had already started making macarons, she realized she hadn't even asked for the girl's name.
"Did I get it right now? So she just shouted something about of a battle and then started running away?" said Gou biting the pink macaron. Serena nodded and also took one of the macarons from the tray on the table. They had disappeared strangely quickly.
When Serena had finally returned from the kitchen after baking the macarons with her Pokemon, she had found the boys lying on the couches. They had just eaten breakfast and Ash was again practicing using Aura with Lucario. But when Serena had appeared to them with a tray full of macarons, the training had been forgotten very quickly.
"Yep, and that's why I didn't even have time to ask her name," she said, putting the macaron in her mouth. She watched as Pancham and Skwovet fought over one of the macarons, with Eevee and Pikachu sweatdroping next to them. "I'm also wondering what she had baked. It would have been nice to bake together."
"Yeah. And new friends are never a bad thing. It would have been nice to..," Ash, on the other hand, started, but his sentence suddenly broke when a tray on the table flew to the floor as Greninja and Lucario began to fight again over some little thing. On the rush of the trio to separate the fighters from each other, Yamper plunged into the macarons on the floor and had time to eat at least 10 before Serena got to clean them off the floor.
Shortly afterwards, the trio decided to head towards Ballonlea Gym so Ash could earn his fifth Gym badge. He was still a little grumpy because of Greninja and Lucario, but that mood quickly evaporated as they walked along the paths of Ballonlea.
Namely, along the paths grew mushrooms as they had never seen before. They grew in all sizes, from very small to huge, and they shone in all kinds of colors. Various Pokemon, most of them Fairy-type, ran around them and the paths anyway, and Ballonlea's pretty wooden houses created a magical atmosphere with them.
It didn't take long for them to find a Gym. Ballonlea was not a very big place, and the Gym easily stood out from the houses. They looked at it from the outside for a moment, as they had done at each Gym, and then stepped inside.
The gym was dim inside and was lit by many different lights reminiscent of mushrooms growing outside. They looked at the Gym with their heads tilted until they heard someone coming towards them.
They turned their gaze to the newcomer and realized this was one of the Gym employees. This one smiled at them as she arrived at them and when she reached them, said, "Hello! Welcome to the Ballonlea Gym. How can I help?"
"I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, and this is my partner Pikachu," Ash introduced himself and Pikachu on his shoulder said happily, "Pika!" "I'm here because I want to challenge the Gym Leader to the battle to earn my fifth Gym badge!"
"Oh, I see," said the employee nodding. "Gym Leader Opal has a battle going on now, but you can go wait in the stands for that time"
"All right, thanks" Ash said and then they set off for the battlefield and the stands.
They quickly found the field and the stands. They stepped into the stands and sat down to watch the match currently going on the field.
To the left of the field was Gym Leader Opal, an old and dignified-looking lady. She was wearing a pink-mint, striped dress, a mint hat, and a bushy, purple puff around her neck and white shoes with purple bows. In her hands she had the same colored bracelets as her dress and a pastel-colored umbrella hung on her left wrist.
She had white hair as well as bright blue eyes that still twinkled brightly despite her old age. Now they also had a bit of a smug glimpse, as the referee just declared, "Ninetales is unable to battle, so the winner of this round is Alcremie" and the challenger called Ninetales off the field. Then she threw another Pokeball into the air and exclaimed, "Lucario, I choose you!" and the Aura Pokemon, well known to them, appeared in front of the challenger.
Next to Ash, Lucario tensed as he saw another Lucario. Serena, on the other hand, was even more tensed about recognizing the challenger's voice. And when she looked more closely, she was right.
The challenger was the girl she had come across when she went to the kitchen.