Previously:
"Stupid twerp! You pay for that!" Jessie shouted angrily and nodded to James. "James, it's time. Morpeko has time to show how it's doing in the real battle."
"All right, Jessie," James said, picking up the Pokeball. He magnified it and threw it into the air. Then a small, Pikachu-like Pokemon appeared in front of him and again had as red eyes as yesterday.
Jessie looked at it smirking, and then said to Ash, "You probably know what time it is now?"
"Yeah," Ash said, turning his cap and there was the determined look on his face. "Let the battle begin"
After that, Team Rocket didn't wait long. "Morpeko, let's go!" shouted Jessie, pointing Ash to the Pikachu-like Pokemon. Upon hearing the order, Morpeko generated a strong electric shock, from which current was thrown everywhere.
One stream rushed towards Ash, and he had to rush into the ground for shelter. "Lucario, cover me! Greninja, Water Shuriken!" he shouted and the two Pokemon nodded.
Ash got up from the ground and set off to run towards Team Rocket. At the same time, Lucario avoided Morpeko's electric shocks by forming small Aura shields with his hands. Greninja, on the other hand, formed shurikens, which he threw towards Team Rocket, causing them to plunge aside.
Behind the hill, Serena watched as Ash rushed towards the battle, and she felt strange courage awaken inside her. I have to help him, she thought decisively and got up. "Braixen, Sylveon, let's go!" she exclaimed and rushed after Ash, the Pokemon behind her.
Serena ran along the grassy slope and dodged the electric shocks throwing by Morpeko. They hit the ground near her and left burnt spots in the grass. She tried not to pay too much attention to them and kept her gaze only tightly forward.
But then she suddenly felt her feet hit something hard that was among the hay and she fell to the ground. "Braixen!" exclaimed Braixen when she saw this and hurried to help her trainer. She held out her hand to Serena and was just helping her back up when she noticed something approaching from above.
It was again one of those electric currents from Morpeko and it was coming straight towards Serena and Braixen. Neither had time to dodge it, and it had hit them directly if Sylveon hadn't been there.
She ran in front of Serena and Braixen and formed a shining shield in front of them with her feelers. The electric shock hit it and disintegrated into small lightning bolts, but Serena and Braixen remained undamaged. As it passed, Sylveon lowered her feelers and the shield disappeared.
"Thank you, Sylveon," Serena said gratefully and Sylveon smiled and gently touched Serena's cheek with her feeler. Then Serena stood up and took another determined look on her face. "Come on, let's move on!" she said and the Pokemon nodded.
She continued down the slope until she finally got to the side of Ash. He quickly noticed Serena's arrival and said, "You should have stayed behind the hill"
"And stay out of all the fun? No way, won't work," she said with a smile and Ash noticed that her blue eyes twinkled a little mischievously. It made him smile, too, and he said, "Well, then you can help me beat that creature. It's a little tricky to do anything here when you have to dodge those electric shocks all the time."
As a guarantee of their words, they again had to jump out of the way of one electric shock. As she got up from the ground again, Serena noticed that Team Rocket was nowhere to be seen and it made her a little confused.
"Where have Team Rocket gone? Shouldn't they command their Pokemon?" she asked and Ash snorted.
"They're over there," he said, pointing to Team Rocket's robot, and Serena turned her gaze there. She wasn't really surprised to see Team Rocket in its control room watching events from a safe distance. "They disappeared there almost as soon as this started."
"Typical," Serena muttered and jumped out of the way of another electric shock again. "Well, then we have to take care of this all ourselves. Braixen, Flamethrower!"
Meanwhile, as Ash and Serena battled Morpeko, the two people sneaked in silence from behind the hill to Pikachu's cage. Chloe and Freja had decided to release him (Gou and Lucas had been left behind the hill to guard against other threats) while the others were fighting, and had finally gotten just below Pikachu's cage.
"Pika?" said Pikachu wondering when he saw the girls, but Freja put her finger in front of her mouth and whispered, "Shh... we came to release you. Don't make a sound."
"Chu," Pikachu said, nodding after understanding the situation, and then Freja looked at Harold sitting on her shoulder. It had finally woken up and now looked ready for action. "Harold, use Peck for that lock," Freja whispered to her Pokemon and he nodded.
Harold cooed softly and flew silently to Pikachu's cage. Pikachu watched with interest as it landed on the edge of the cage and settled firmly into it. Then its beak began to glow and it hit it towards the lock of the cage.
There was a clank when Harold's beak hit the lock and Freja thought hoping that her simple plan would have worked. But when Harold moved, she was disappointed to find that the move of her Pokemon had not made a single trace to the lock.
"Try again," she whispered and Harold nodded. It cooed softly again and repeated the recent move. But when the result was again the same as the last time, Freja began to think about what the lock, and at the same time the whole cage, was made.
Meanwhile, as Freja and Harold tried to break the lock on the cage, Chloe had to watch with her Yamper for distractions. Yamper had also been tasked to handle Morpeko's electric shocks, as as an Electric-type Pokemon, they hadn't much effect on it. Chloe, on the other hand, was given time to think about recent events.
She still remembered the events of the morning and especially the feeling when Gou had looked at her and offered to help her find her own goal. She remembered that she had felt a nice, fuzzy feeling in her chest and stomach at the time, which she had felt many times when she was near Gou. She also remembered the one day in Ballonlea when they had accidentally fallen on top of each other and the feeling it had caused. She remembered all these things and wondered what was the reason for that feeling.
However, Chloe was not Ash, from whom it took an eternity to think about the cause of one blush. No, Chloe was smart enough to realize that there was a very clear and sensible explanation for the feelings that, however, she didn't want to believe at first. Am I in love with Gou? she thought in amazement and stared at the Yamper standing in front of her, sniffing the grass distractedly. Is this what it is? And if so, does it really feel like that?
Although Chloe was pretty sure, she decided to ask later someone who would know better. Serena can help, she thought, and watched as Serena shouted her Sylveon to do Fairy Wind. She knows more about these things.
It didn't take very long for Morpeko to lie faint on the ground, spirals at his eyes, and Ash and Serena watched it with their Pokemon. "Well, it was such a match then," Serena nodded her hands on her hips and Ash nodded.
"Yeah, it was," he said and Lucario stepped beside him. "Luckily it's over, I'm starting to get a little hungry"
"Wrong, twerp, again," however, there was a sudden sound from Team Rocket's robot direction and Ash and Serena turned confused to look in that direction. They saw Team Rocket members walking towards them with angry expressions on their faces and Ash wondered what they had now come up with. "This is anything but over and you will soon notice it"
"But we defeated Morpeko," Ash said, but Jessie snorted arrogantly. "Who said Morpeko would be our only Pokemon?" she said with a malicious grin and, to the surprise of Ash and Serena, brought up one Pokeball. James did the same and Meowth's mouth showed the widest grin to date.
"I didn't seem to tell you how we circled through whole Kanto and Johto and even Hoenn until we got on your trail," Jessie said, spinning the Pokeball in her hand. "Most of it was a complete waste of time, but not all. Namely, we found a couple of members who were happy to rejoin our group."
"Oh no," Ash said, but Jessie grinned viciously and exclaimed, "Oh yes! Arbok, welcome back!"
"You too, Weezing!" exclaimed James, and then they both threw their Pokeballs in the air. And soon the Pokemon who had accompanied them on Ash's first journey had appeared in front of them.
"Looks familiar, right twerp?" said Jessie as Arbok hissed menacingly at Ash and Serena. "What if I tell you they're also a lot stronger than before?"
"It doesn't change anything," Ash said, but Jessie just laughed. "Really? You haven't managed to get Pikachu back yet. That stupid owl hasn't managed to break the lock on our cage made of material that can withstand anything. And there's only one key to it that I have. So it really doesn't change anything?"
"No, and this ends now," said Ash, who began to get irritated little by little. "Lucario, Aura Sphere!"
"Happens, Master," Lucario said, throwing a blue Aura ball at Jessie's Arbok. However, Jessie managed to dodge the move and shouted, "Wobbuffet, Mirror Coat!"
"Wobba!" said Wobbuffet and jumped in front of Jessie. Its body began to glow in different colors, and when Lucario's blow hit it, it bounced away. Too bad it happened to bounce towards James' Weezing and hit it.
And then... the result was complete chaos.
Lucario's Aura ball hit Weezing directly into its eyes and blinded it for a moment. In a panic, however, he released from his mouth a toxic gas that immediately spread throughout the environment. It made people cough furiously and Pokemon react in different ways.
Sylveon, who was Fairy-type and therefore very vulnerable to Poison-type moves, was most affected by the gas. Now Weezing's gas made her cough violently and fumble around. Eventually she fell to the ground and Serena shouted in horror, "Sylveon!"
She coughed and ran to her Pokemon and squatted to help her. Sylveon lay faint on the ground, but to Serena's relief, breathed normally. However, Pikachu, a prisoner in a cage, did not know this, so when he saw Sylveon fall to the ground, he thought the worst had happened.
In his distress, he began to hack the cage with his hands, causing a sudden movement to frighten Harold. It had almost fallen asleep tired of beating the lock, but now it still shook awake, cooed loudly, and set out to fly fast away.
Its movement made Chloe's Yamper interested in it and it set out barking to chase it. Followed by Chloe, who tried to stop her Pokemon by shouting at it, "Yamper, no! Stay, stop!" Freja, on the other hand, was too stunned to move anywhere, and she left her mouth open to stand under Pikachu's cage, while the prisoner of the cage desperately tried to get out of his prison by beating its door with his tail.
Yamper wasn't the only one interested in flying Harold. Jessie's Arbok was also interested in it and rushed up to catch it. However, Harold didn't like it, and scratched Arbok's face with his sharp talons, leaving behind three nasty-looking scratches. They made Arbok roar in pain and meander around half-blind. Yamper became interested in it, of course, and somehow managed to bite Arbok from his tail.
It made Arbok roar louder in pain and look guilty with his gaze. It quickly found Yamper and revealed its sharp, poisonous teeth. Then it took a breath and set out to crash towards Yamper.
"No!" exclaimed Chloe and tried to run to her Pokemon. However, she didn't get very far, as she managed to stumble into a rock and fall to the ground with her face. Yamper, on the other hand, didn't realize dodge, and Arbok approached it at a brisk pace. But suddenly, when Arbok was almost hitting Yamper, a white figure rushed in front of it and kicked it straight in the face.
"What..?" said Chloe, raising her head from the ground when she heard Arbok hissing in rage. To her surprise, she saw Scorbunny standing defensively in front of her and her stupid Yamper.
Suddenly she felt someone squat next to her and ask, "Are you okay?" She recognized the speaker by his voice as Gou and looked up at this. He had reached out his hand to help Chloe back up and the flashback from Ballonlea flashed again in Chloe's mind.
"Yeah," she said and grabbed Gou's outstretched hand. He helped her back up and at the same time Chloe noticed that her hair had opened. They now descended along her back and the flower stuck in them had fallen. However, Chloe didn't care, but asked, "Where did you come from? I mean, didn't you and Lucas stay behind the hill?"
"We came to help you when we realized that things weren't going very well here," Gou explained, then nodded toward Pikachu's cage. "Lucas went to help Freja with Pikachu's cage. He said that his Infernape is good with locks."
Chloe looked in the direction pointed by Gou and true. There, Lucas stood with Freja and instructed Infernape, who tried to break Pikachu's lock open. However, a voice from the other direction made her turn her gaze away from it and back to the events ahead.
Arbok had apparently recovered from Scorbunny's kick enough to be able to hiss at them angrily again. It flashed them its sharp venom teeth again and hissed at them in a warning way. It made Gou step defensively in front of Chloe and Chloe move her Yamper closer to herself.
"Don't do anything," Gou whispered to Chloe. "If we don't make sudden movements, it may not attack"
"Is that what you think?" Chloe whispered back, but still stood still. She had to admit that Gou's speech made sense.
Gou's plan would certainly have worked really well if there hadn't been a variable. That variable also had a name, and it was, again, Yamper. Namely, it happened to smell some interesting scent from Team Rocket's robot and suddenly set off like a rocket to run towards it.
"Yamper, no!" exclaimed Chloe when she saw it and went running after her Pokemon. She caught her Pokemon before it got to Team Rocket's robot, but by then it was too late.
Yamper's sudden movement had been enough to catch Arbok's attention and now it hissed more viciously than before. Then it opened its mouth a little bigger and spat out a bunch of poison darts from its mouth.
"No!" exclaimed Gou when he saw that the darts were flying at a rapid pace towards Chloe and Yamper, who were too frightened to move. He tried to run to them, but managed to stumble into the same stone that Chloe had stumbled upon.
But then suddenly, a white, small figure crashed past him and towards Chloe and Yamper. He watched in amazement as Scorbunny stood in front of Chloe and Yamper and spread his hands protectively to his sides. And then, he realized with wide eyes, it received all of Arbok's poison darts, leaving Chloe and Yamper unharmed.
Scorbunny hadn't originally planned to do it, but after seeing how much that human girl meant to his trainer, something inside him commanded him to do so. However, he was by no means strong enough to be able to receive poison darts unharmed. So when they hit him, he was badly poisoned by them.
But something prevented him from fainting as a result. He fell to his knees on the ground, and though he felt the world revolve around him, he did not faint. No, instead he got back up and cried shrilly. And began to shine a bright light.
Gou, Chloe, and Arbok watched in amazement as Scorbunny's body grew taller and changed shape before their eyes. When the light finally faded, a newly evolved Raboot stood in front of Chloe and Yamper, and angrily looked at the Arbok in front of him.
Gou instead took his Rotom from his pocket and scanned Raboot with it:
"Raboot, Rabbit Pokemon and an evolved form of Scorbunny. Fire-type. Its thick and fluffy fur protects it from the cold and enables it to use hotter fire moves"
"Nice," whispered Gou and put his Rotom back in his pocket.
Meanwhile, Arbok tried to scare Raboot with a hiss, but its hisses no longer scared him. Instead, he formed a huge fireball with his paws and then kicked it toward Arbok. Arbok's face had an amazed look before the ball hit it directly in the face. It made it sway back and forth until it finally fell to the ground fainting. And when its heavy body crashed to the ground, Raboot also fainted and the battle was finally over.
"Key, please," Ash said, reaching out his hand to Team Rocket. They stood in a depressed-looking line, next to the Pokemon, who had taken more or less hits. Arbok's face was adorned with a large, red burn that was perfectly circular, and Meowth examined his claw that had broken at some point in the battle. Ash, on the other hand, didn't look depressed, but angry, and he just wanted to get Pikachu out of the cage.
"Fine," Jessie said, picking up a small, metallic key that she dropped on Ash's outstretched palm. He squeezed it into his fist and then turned to look at the others. "Come on," he said and the others nodded.
They went for a walk towards Pikachu's cage, where he still was. Infernape hadn't gotten the lock open, not even by trying to melt it, and Ash had to admit that Team Rocket had finally managed to build a durable cage. However, they never get Pikachu, he thought dryly and spun the key in his hand.
Behind Ash came the others, who all looked pretty tired. Next to Serena was Sylveon, who was awake again, but still looked a little weak. Chloe had lifted her Yamper into her arms so he wouldn't just run somewhere again. Harold slept soundly again on Freja's head and she had said it would probably not wake up until the next day. Lucario and Greninja watched irritably as Infernape tried to charm Braixen again, and Gou spun in his hand Raboot's Pokeball where he had returned his Pokemon.
When they finally got to Pikachu's cage, Ash turned to Team Rocket again and asked them to lower the cage. At first, it looked like Team Rocket would refuse it, but then Meowth turned and walked over to the robot. He stepped inside it and climbed into the control room. After a moment, there was a jerk as the "tongue" holding the cage landed and the cage was lowered to the ground.
Ash didn't wait. He squatted to the ground and pushed the key into the lock of the cage. He turned the key and soon there was a click to indicate that the lock had been opened. Ash then pushed the door open and Pikachu, who was finally free, jumped into his arms.
"Pikapi! Pika chu pika pika!" he exclaimed as he reached Ash again and Ash laughed as he hugged Pikachu. "Hey buddy, did you miss me?" he asked his Pokemon and this one nodded. "Pikachu!" he exclaimed and climbed back onto Ash's shoulder, then rubbing his head against Ash's cheek.
But then he noticed Team Rocket, who had been trying to sneak away now that no one was watching. His happy look turned angry, especially as he remembered what had happened to Sylveon, and he said bitterly, "Pika chu!" He then jumped off Ash's shoulder and ran to Team Rocket.
They weren't really excited to see Pikachu's angry look, especially as his cheeks sparked electricity. "Nice Pikachu, you don't want to hurt us," Meowth said, but Pikachu didn't listen to him.
Instead, he jumped in the air and exclaimed, "PikaCHUU!" Then a big electric shock went from him toward Team Rocket's members, and James sighed, "Let's go, again."
And then Pikachu's Thunderbolt hit them and sent them on a familiar air flight again. "We're blasting off again!" they shouted until they disappeared somewhere accompanied by a flash.
Somewhere in Glimwood Tangle:
"Rockruff, stay still! I'll never get this done if you swing all the time!" snapped a brown-haired girl sitting on a big, shimmering mushroom, trying to draw a small, puppy-like Pokemon. This tried to stay in place while two small mushroom-like Pokemon peek from behind the near bush. They interested Rockruff very much, and staying in place felt awfully hard at the time.
The girl grunted as Rockruff moved again and dug a small eraser out of her brown bag. As she began to brush out the mistake, Lucario, sitting next to her, rolled her eyes. "I saw that, Lucia," the girl said to Lucario, without looking up from the drawing. However, Lucario, named Lucia, only shrugged and then stretched out her arms.
On the ground, next to that big mushroom, lay the white Alolan Ninetales and watched lazily Rockruff's attempts to stay still. She yawned and stretched her paws. Although Glimwood Tangle was a dark and gloomy place, they had managed to find a square where the sun was shining and which was actually quite warm. Indeed, Ninetales had conquered a place where the sun was shining as warmly as possible and taking a nap. Her trainer had always wondered about her love of the heat, especially when she was part Ice-type, but Ninetales didn't care. She just liked the sun, shining it no matter how warm.
But suddenly, in the middle of a stretch, she heard something from above and moved her ears in the direction of the sound. Her trainer noticed it and asked, dropping her sketchbook on a mushroom, "What's the matter?"
"Tales," Ninetales said, looking up at the sky. Her trainer did the same and tried to see something different in it. However, she didn't distinguish anything to worry about, and she said, "It was probably just some Flying-type Pokemon, nothing more..."
However, her sentence broke when a flash appeared in the sky, and then something big plunged toward the earth. Ninetales and Rockruff quickly jumped out of the way as it crashed to the ground, and their trainer looked at what had dripped from the sky with her eyes wide.
Two people and four different Pokemon had fallen in front of her. She saw from the pile a magenta-haired woman, a purple-haired man, and a normal Meowth. In addition to that, among them were Wobbuffet, Arbok, and Koffing, and she distinguished that Arbok had a big burn on its face.
She stared with her mouth open at these people who had fallen from the sky, and her amazement only grew by the fact that Meowth could speak. "Do you have any band-aid?" she heard it ask, and the purple-haired man added, "Yeah, and something to eat? I'm a little hungry."
I can say that the girl forget her drawing pretty quickly after this.
"And then, I tried to hit Mewtwo with my fist and..."
"I'm sorry, WHAT?!" exclaimed Freja in the middle of Ash's sentence and Harold on her head moved in his sleep. Lucas also looked very stunned and Ash scratched his cheek a little embarrassed.
It was night and the group had lit a campfire around which they now sat. Freja and Lucas had set up their tents (both had their own) next to the other's tents and planned to spend the night with the others before continuing their journey in the morning.
They had just eaten and now they entertained each other by telling different stories. Ash just told a story about how he had tried to hit Mewtwo with his fist and the reactions of others to it were priceless.
"Yeah, I know, it was silly," he said with a laugh and Gou rolled his eyes. "Honestly, what were you thinking then?" he asked and gave Sobble, sitting on his shoulder, a piece of dried Pecha berry. It gladly accepted it and began to chew on it, while watching those around it.
"I don't know, I was pretty stupid back then," Ash said, staring at the fire. Next to him, Pikachu had curled up close to Sylveon. Pikachu had been very worried about Sylveon after what had happened in battle and wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. For Sylveon, of course, it had worked well and Serena had noticed that there was clearly something between the two.
"But eventually, you became the Champion," Lucas said admiringly. "I never would have thought I'd spend an evening by the campfire telling stuff with a real Champion!"
"Carefully Lucas, or Serena becomes jealous," Freja said with a smile as she noticed Lucas looking at Ash so admiringly. "We don't want any love triangles here"
"Don't worry, Freja, Serena have nothing to worry," Lucas said with a grin as Gou and Chloe snickered and Serena blushed slightly. "I admire him just as a Champion, it's nothing else"
"Well, good thing that thing became clear," Freja said, stroking the sleeping Harold. Then she suddenly turned to Serena and said, "Serena, you haven't said anything yet. Could you tell us a story next, please?"
"Oh, me? I don't know," Serena said in surprise, but Ash, who was sitting next to her, turned to look at her and said with his eyes shining, "Yeah, tell us a story about your Hoenn journey! That would be really cool!"
"Yeah, that would be," Gou also said and Chloe nodded and said, "Yeah, I agree."
"All right, all right, I'll tell you," Serena said with a laugh and Ash exclaimed, "Yes!" Serena smiled at him until she took a breath and said, "What would I tell you then? Hmmm... Oh, now I know! I'll tell you a story about how I met Absol."
"You have Absol?! You never told me about it!" Ash exclaimed after hearing it, and Serena shrugged. "You never asked," she said casually, but Ash still looked excited.
"Cool! Where is it now?" he asked, blinking around, as if looking for Absol with his gaze.
"He's with Professor Sycamore. He doesn't really like traveling, so I thought it was best to leave him to the Professor's care," Serena explained. "I can ask him to send him next time we get to the Pokemon Center. But now shut up, or I won't tell anything at all"
*The whole story at the end of the chapter!*
And so, Serena told how she had met Absol while she was in Hoenn and how it had first growled for her. She told how she and May had searched for it and eventually found it in a small and grim side street. She told how she had won its trust with ice cream and how it had eventually become her Pokemon.
When she finally finished, the others looked at her with their mouths open in amazement. "Wow, Serena! It was an awesome story!" said Ash and Serena smiled at him.
"Thank you, Ash," she said and pressed a small kiss to Ash's cheek. "And the best part about it is that it's all true."
"Yeah," Ash said with a smile and pressed his hand to Serena's kiss. "And the fact that..."
However, his sentence was broken, for just then there was a terrible cry from the nearby. It made them all startle violently and Sobble almost fell off from Gou's shoulder. Pikachu and Sylveon, on the other hand, starled awake and Braixen lit her branch ready for battle.
"What was that?" asked Freja and stroked Harold, who miraculously was still in a deep sleep. "I don't know, but it didn't sound very good," replied Ash, who had Team Rocket in mind.
"It heard from there," Gou said, pointing behind a nearby hill. They looked at each other and then they set out to sneak cautiously towards the hill.
After reaching the top of it, they settled on the ground and peered carefully at the other side of it, fearing what might be found there. But contrary to what they assumed, there was no Team Rocket or any other criminal gang behind the hill.
Behind the hill was not Team Rocket or any other criminal gang, but a group of Houndours who seemed to harass some little Pokemon. The leader of the Houndoures, the big and malicious-looking Houndoom, seemed to be growling instructions to the members of its pack.
The little Pokemon, harassed by the Houndours, seemed to be crying in fear. When one of the Houndours moved slightly, they distinguished that the Pokemon seemed to have blue hair and a white, tutu-like dress.
"Is that Kirlia?" whispered Serena as she recognized the Pokemon. However, she wasn't quite sure about that, because usually Kirlia wasn't that color. "Even though it has blue hair?"
"I don't care even if it were Arceus, those Houndours have no right to bully it that way," Ash stated tensely and got up. "Hey! Yes, you! Leave that Pokemon alone!"
His yell made the Houndours turn in his direction and growl at him when they noticed him. However, Ash didn't care much about it, as he set off briskly toward them, hands in fists on his sides.
However, he didn't even have time to go down the hillside as a fireball flew past him, creating a warm glow in the darkness. It hit leader Houndoom in the face and made it howl. Ash, on the other hand, looked behind him and saw Raboot standing on the top of a hill with a similar fireball in his hand and a furious look on his face.
Seeing what had happened to their leader, the other Houndours began to growl angrily at Raboot and everyone else. However, the growl stopped pretty quickly as fireballs started flying towards the faces of others as well. Eventually, the herd seemed to decide it would be better to disappear from the spot, as a leader Houndoom growled something for its herd and then they set off to run away.
After the Houndour herd had disappeared somewhere into the darkness of the night, the others also came out from behind the hill. Serena was the fastest and the first to reach the Pokemon harassed by the Houndours. And find out that she had been right. For Kirlia it was.
She sat on the ground and sobbed softly with small hands covering her eyes. Serena squatted next to her and the resulting movement apparently made Kirlia notice her. But when she saw Serena, she looked as frightened as she did with the Houndours.
Serena noticed it and hurried to reassure Kirlia. "Hey, don't be afraid, I'm not going to hurt you," she said quickly and Kirlia calmed down a bit. It made Serena smile at her, but the smile faded as she glanced at Kirlia's feet.
There was a pretty big wound in the right leg of this that resembled tooth marks. Serena thought one of the Houndours had bitten it, but didn't really know why. Kirlia did not really appear to be the usual prey of the Houndours. Though, there might have been some dumb individual among others or something.
"Did the Houndours that to you?" she asked, pointing to the wound, and Kirlia nodded. "I knew it," Serena muttered to herself, then opened her bag.
She took a small spray bottle-like bottle from her bag and said, "This might sting a little, but it should help," Kirlia nodded a little uncertainly. Serena then sprayed the substance on the wound and Kirlia closed her eyes.
Kirlia moved a little as the substance hit the wound but recovered quickly. "There, you can open your eyes," Serena said, and Kirlia opened her eyes. The wound had not completely disappeared, but the bleeding had stopped and the wound now looked clean. "It should heal in a few days if it's allowed to rest. I can put patch on it if you want."
"Lia," Kirlia said, nodding and Serena smiled. She dug a small packet of patches out of her bag and put one on Kirlia's wound. After she put the patch in place, Kirlia stretched her legs straight and examined it more closely. She seemed to like the result.
"Serena! Is everything all right?" there was a sudden cry of Ash and Serena and Kirlia looked up. Others had apparently been making sure the Houndours had certainly disappeared from the scene. Serena nodded and said, "Yeah! No worries," Ash smiled at her.
"I've never seen Kirlia of that color before," Chloe said as she arrived. "Don't they usually have green hair?"
"Yeah," Gou said, scratching his head. Lucas instead cleared his throat and said with his arms folded, "I think this Kirlia is shiny."
"Shiny? Wow!" said Ash, but Serena only nodded. She liked this Kirlia, whether it was shiny or not. "Serena, why don't you ask Kirlia to join us?"
And so it was that Kirlia became part of Serena's team. This, however, did not occur until the morning, when the group was packing their things and made their departure. So, let's jump straight into the morning
"Ash! Have you seen my bag? I can't find it anywhere," Serena shouted, scratching her head. She still had the bag in the evening, but it had disappeared somewhere during the night, and Serena didn't know where.
"No, but it can't be far!" Ash answered and packed Gou's tent with Lucario and Gou. Lucario, though, wasn't really help, for he sulked after losing the bet with Greninja. Namely, Gou and Chloe had not become couple in three days, which meant that Greninja was now allowed to take Braixen on a date, and Lucario could not murder him because of it. Greninja reminded him from this every three seconds.
Serena, instead, muttered, "Strange," and bowed under their portable camp table to see if the bag had fallen there. However, it was not visible and Serena began to get frustrated.
Suddenly she felt a tap on her back and was so surprised that she hit her head on the table. Rubbing her head and muttering to herself, she came out from under it and turned. She saw Kirlia standing in front of her, holding in her hands nothing more than her bag.
"My bag!" Serena exclaimed and tried to take it from Kirlia. However, she lifted Serena's bag out of her reach, and as Serena watched in silence from the side, she dug something out of there. Which was Pokeball.
"Kir lia lia," Kirlia said and offered the ball to Serena. Serena blinked a few times until she realized what Kirlia meant.
"Do you want me to catch you?" she asked and Kirlia nodded. "Lia lia!" she exclaimed and gave the Pokeball to Serena. This looked at her for a moment until she smiled and pressed the ball against Kirlia's forehead.
Kirlia disappeared inside the ball and then Serena watched it swing three times in her hand until it finally stopped and clicked to indicate that Kirlia had been successfully caught. Smiling wide, Serena pointed the ball to the ground and let Kirlia back out.
And so Kirlia became Serena's sixth Pokemon on that journey.
"Ash, good luck with the sixth Gym Battle. I can say it was pretty cool," Lucas said winking and Ash grinned.
"I keep that in my mind," he said, nodding. Then it was time for them to say goodbye to Lucas and Freja, who went in a different direction than others. "And the next time we meet, we'll battle!"
"Definitely!" Lucas laughed, and then he and Freja turned and set out in the opposite direction.
The foursome watched them go for a moment until Serena asked, "Shall we go?" The others nodded and so they set off for Circhester and Ash's sixth Gym battle.
How Serena met Absol
"It was my third week in Hoenn and I and my new friend May, yes Ash, I know you know May, but that's not the main thing now, were just walking together out of the Contest Hall. I was pretty apathetic because I had just lost really badly and of course I was really disappointed. May tried to cheer me up by suggesting that we go try a new ice cream flavor that the local kiosk had just started selling, and eventually agreed to it"
"Well, we then picked up those ice creams and went for a walk towards the park where we could eat them and spend some time together. However, we never got there, because at that time strange noices started to be heard from the nearby market and we saw people gathered there."
"Our curiosity woke up, of course, and of course we went to see what was caused it. We thought there was a show or something. Well, there wasn't show. When we got through the crowd, we were surprised to see Absol standing in the middle of the crowd and it growling pretty angrily to everyone who tried approache it"
"I immediately saw that Absol was not used to people or the urban environment. I don't know how it had gotten into the city, but it didn't belong there. I also saw that it was scared and therefore growled so angrily. Of course it didn't help, that some of that crowd tried to catch it with Pokeballs and sent their own Pokemon to battle it"
"Well, Absol was not able to be caught and eventually it managed to break through the crowd and run somewhere to escape. Some tried to go follow it, but gave up pretty soon. Eventually people scattered around and all that was left was me and May."
"May suggested that we go to the park now, but something in Absol was left to bother me. That's why I suggested we go look for it. May wasn't very excited about it at first, because she wasn't really amused to run after the angry Absol along Hoenn. However, I was stubborn, and I finally threatened to go alone if May didn't come. Well, in the end she agreed, and we set out in search of Absol"
"The task wasn't really as difficult as we imagined. We just had to follow the fallen trash cans and the horrified-looking people and Pokemon, so we got to follow Absol. Eventually we found him hiding in a small dark side alley, retreating against a brick wall."
"Of course he growled and threatened us too, but I wasn't going to back down. Contrary to all reason, I slowly walked towards Absol, as he was still growling at me. May didn't come after me, she was too scared."
"So I then walked alone toward Absol, who hadn't calmed down at all. I tried to speak to him in a calm voice and tell him he had nothing to worry about, but I don't think he was listening to me. At least his growl didn't tell it. Nonetheless, I finally got right next to him and squatted in front of him"
"Hi," I told him. "My name is Serena. You don't have to be afraid of me, I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to help you." I don't know if Absol believed my words at all, but still he stopped his growl and just contented to glare at me"
"I didn't really have a plan beyond that, but luckily I didn't need it. Absol noticed I still had ice cream in my hand and moved with interest towards it. Of course it had already completely melted and flowed along my hand, but I got the idea again. For a continuation of my plan, I broke a piece of my ice cream waffle and handed it towards Absol"
"Here," I told him, handing the piece. "It's for you. Taste it. It's good" At first he was very skeptical, but eventually he moved towards my hand and snatched a piece from my hand"
"I watched him eat it and seemed to like it. After he got the piece eaten, he moved towards me in the hope of another piece. That's when I came up with the next part of my plan."
"A-a, you have to follow me if you want more," I said to Absol and stood up. I held my melted ice cream up on my head so Absol couldn't intercept it by jumping. My suggestion made Absol growl, but I stayed hard"
"Well, then you don't get any more ice cream," I said to it and turned to leave. It was, of course, just a show, but I thought it would make Absol change his mind. I was right. Namely, I felt a small and insecure push on my leg and knew that Absol would follow me now"
"So I led him to the nearest Pokemon Center with my ice cream. Of course May was horrified to see that Absol was following me, but I didn't care. When I got to Pokemon Center, Nurse Joy checked Absol and found it to be perfectly fine. She also said Absol didn't have a trainer and that I could be that if I wanted to. "Absol seems to trust you," she said as she handed me one Pokeball. "You could become a good team."
"I didn't have to think about my decision for long. When I asked Absol if he wanted to become my Pokemon, and when he answered yes, I caught him for that Pokeball given by Nurse Joy. And that was the story of how I met Absol."