As familiar a sight it was, Chloe felt like it had been a lifetime since she last set her eyes on her home in Vermilion City. It had only been a week since she hopped on the bus with Ash to Pallet Town for the spring break, but so much had happened in the course of the seven days that Chloe couldn't say that the simple building wasn't a sight for sore eyes.

Ash stood at her side, smiling widely in that way that always made her smile, as well, Pikachu copying the same expression. On her shoulder, Eevee seemed to be copying them as well. She couldn't even begin to stifle the giggle that grew up from her stomach. 'I guess all four of us have that same sort of smile on our faces now, don't we?'

Only Yamper, yawning at her feet, seemed to have a different expression on his face, but sometimes Chloe thought Yamper's expression was hard to parse. The puppy's thoughts always seemed to be his own, even if they ran along fairly predictable lines.

She opened the door, holding it open wide enough for Yamper to toddle inside and for Ash to grab, holding it for her as she stepped inside.

"Mom! Dad! Parker! I'm home!"

There was the sound of a book dropping to the ground in the next room as Professor Cerise came scrambling across the house. "Chloe! You're back!" He threw his arms around his daughter, pulling her into a tight hug while incidentally jamming his face between hers and Eevee's. "I missed you! You didn't call back after that first morning! You're not hurt are you? Did your phone break?"

"Dad, you're crushing me," Chloe squeaked out as Eevee giggled excitedly.

Her mother walked in, her tablet pen tucked behind her ear. Parker followed behind, his video game controller in his hands. "Welcome home, sweetie," her mother said, much more calm than her father. "Did you have a good time?"

Chloe just laughed it off. "I'm not hurt, and no my phone is fine, Dad. And thanks, Mom." She shot a look over her shoulder (and her father's arms) at Ash. "It wasn't exactly what I expected, but I had a lot of fun out there."

"Hey, Ash and Pikachu!" Parker said, pushing past his Mom to approach the older boy. "I hope my sister wasn't too boring for you."

Ash gave Parker a pat on the head, ruffling his hair. "Nah, Chloe was a big help! Wasn't she, buddy?"

"Pikachu!" he responded.

"There was a little trouble," Chloe said as her father finally released her, "but it wasn't anything that a little clear thinking and will power couldn't make its way through."

Ash snorted. "Well, I think clear thinking probably saved the day," he said, winking at her.

She winked back. "I dunno. Something can be said about having the heart to make it through."

The two of them giggled, their experiences like a secret that bound them together, making the rest of Chloe's family just watch them for a moment before Chloe turned back to them.

"Oh! How was your time on Cinnabar Island? Did you all have fun at the beach?"

Parker put his hands behind his head and groaned. "As if," he said. "It rained basically all week. I think the only one of us who could have had fun at the beach like that was Yamper and he was with you."

"Yamp!" the Puppy puffed out his chest proudly. Eevee hopped off Chloe's shoulder and stood next to him, puffing out her chest as well.

"That bad, huh?" Chloe said, a wry smirk on her face. "It only rained once while we were in Pallet Town. I guess we were lucky."

Ash chuckled. "I wouldn't go THAT far," he said, clearly remembering what happened in the rain. The two of them looked each other in the eyes again, both remembering the cliff falling away and Ash's daring rescue, followed by Chloe's patience in tending to his wounds afterwards.

'As harrowing as that entire experience was,' she thought to herself, 'I think I really was lucky to have such an incredible experience with you, Ash.'

Ash, seemingly knowing what she was thinking, smiled gently into her warm green eyes. "Well, maybe a little lucky," he chuckled.

Once again, Chloe's parents and little brother seemed like they weren't in on the joke. "You guys are awfully chummy, huh?" Parker pouted, glaring at Chloe from the side of his eye. "Maybe there's something you guys would like to tell us?"

"There'll be plenty of time for that later," Chloe said before turning to her mom. "Hey, can Ash stay for dinner? It is pretty late and knowing Goh, he probably won't have anything set aside for Ash when he gets there."

Ash's stomach growled audibly at this exact moment, enough for everyone to turn to the boy who now had an embarrassed look on his face. "I guess snacks aren't enough to go by when breakfast was so many hours ago…"

"Pikapi…" Pikachu sighed, bemused. He shook his head and shot Chloe an apologetic gaze, which she returned.

Chloe's mother smiled at her, giving her a knowing smile. "I don't have any problems with it. But I will need you to help cook if we're making enough for everyone!"

"I'll be more than happy to help, Mom," Chloe said with a wide smile. "As long as someone can occupy his time while we cook."

She once again looked at Ash, who grinned back. "Well, I can always do a little bit of trainin'! Can I use your backyard? I'm not sure Dragonite an' Lucario sparring 'll be fine in the front yard."

Parker's jaw practically fell off his head. "Dragonite and Lucario?! Wait, you have all your Pokémon with you?"

Ash chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. Chloe spoke up in his place. "If you mean the ones he's caught since he started working for Dad, then yeah. If you mean the ones he's caught since he started as a trainer, then not even close."

Ash grinned like a cheeky Mankey, rubbing the back of his head, and Chloe could only giggle. The thoughts of Ash's somewhat lengthy list of exploits had been something that made Chloe's stomach twist in knots, but the experience in the last two days of their excursion taught her something about him that no amount of trophy explanations could.

'No matter what happens, no matter where he goes, there's always a place for me. At the lab, at home, with Eevee and even with him. I just have to work to find that place with Pokémon at my side.'

"Wait, Chloe!" Parker said, turning to her. "What do you mean? How many Pokémon has Ash caught? I wanna see 'em!"

Ash put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I can talk to 'im if you want, Chloe," he said. "I'll go ahead and get started training outside." He raised a fist up above Parker's head toward her.

She raised her own fist and met his. "Don't blow his mind like you did mine," she responded with a familiar coolness. "Mom and I'll get dinner going."

As the two sides split up to go to their own destinations, Professor Cerise and Yamper watched them go, with more than a little puzzlement on the man's face.

"...very interesting…" he thought out loud.

"Yamper."

"Ohmigosh ohmigosh ohmigosh!" Mika was beside herself at school that coming Monday. Chloe had just finished explaining everything to her friend that had happened - Ash's exploits, their adventure in the wilderness, and even the battle they had. However, her friend was tied up in one thing.

"You kissed him!" she squealed, delighted. "I can't believe you kissed your crush like that!"

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Four things," she said before she began holding up fingers. "One, he was unconscious. Two, it was an emergency situation and he could have died. Three, that's just how CPR works, you've had the same lessons that I've had. And four, it was just the logical thing to do in that situation. So all of that together, and it wasn't a kiss. It doesn't count."

"You kissed him~!" Mika teased in defiance of Chloe's logic. "You love him~!"

She just glared back at her friend. "Will you be quiet for a second and listen to what I'm trying to tell you?" she said.

"All I'm hearing is that you took VERY good care of you boyfriend," Mika said, grinning ear to ear. "I imagined a lot of things could happen out there in Pallet Town with no internet, but I never imagined anything like that!"

An audible sigh. "Why isn't the part with Team Rocket the least believable? Or the Z-Ring?"

"Because I don't want to live in a world where such a thing as a talking Meowth doesn't exist."

Mika could be strangely stubborn.

"Well, you need to listen up because I'm not going to be here if you need me to repeat myself."

Mika blinked at Chloe, her blue eyes reflecting Chloe's irritated expression.

Chloe opened her mouth and began explaining the talk she had with everyone just a few hours ago.

"I want to help with research."

Chloe stood there in the lab just as her father began explaining the day's work to Ash and Goh. All three of them turned to her, as well as Chrysa and Ren, her father's assistants.

"Wanna run that by me again?" asked Goh, blinking.

Chloe was firm. "I want to help with research. I know I still have school, but I want to try and figure out a way I could go on more trips, to see more of the world. If I want to take finding my own way to live with Pokémon seriously… if I want to help Eevee find her way, then sitting around, waiting for stuff to come to me isn't going to make it come any faster."

Her father stroked his chin. "That sounds a little like you're getting impatient, Chloe. Are you sure this is what you want?"

She shook her head. "I'm not impatient," she said, keeping her eyes trained forward. "I know it's going to take a long time to find out where I fit into everything. And I'm okay with that. But my week out into the wilderness with Ash taught me one important thing: not everything I learn can be found in a book, or in a single building. I need to… expand my worldview. I have to be more proactive. I'm tired of letting stuff just happen to me. I'm ready to take things into my own hands!"

"Eievui!" her Pokémon chimed in, as excited and confident as her trainer.

"I think she should do it!" The only voice in agreement came from Ash. "Chloe's ready for the sorts of stuff we do! Maybe even more!"

Goh put his hand to his chin this time. "Well, it's not like I said she couldn't come along," he said. "In fact, it'll be fun having Chloe around. We'll be able to get even more data with a third perspective!" The more he spoke, the more excited he became. This suited Chloe perfectly.

"And have you had her cooking?" Ash boasted. "She's definitely got my vote if she's able to keep cooking for us!"

Both boys high fived, and Chloe only laughed. "Gee, next you'll be asking me to do your laundry. I'll be a research fellow just like you guys, not your maid."

Goh grinned widely in her direction. "Oh, I don't think you'll need any extra motivation to cook for Ash, Chloe."

Chloe felt her cheeks warm up, but she kept her gaze focused forward. "And what do you mean by that?"

"I think it means he wants you to cook for him, too!" Ash, ever oblivious, said.

"Oh brother…" she sighed.

As Goh and Ash descended into a discussion about Parker's current whereabouts, Professor Cerise turned to Chloe, a thoughtful look on his face. "Are you sure about this? It'll be pretty tough juggling school as well as trips…"

"I'm sure, Dad," she said. "It's like you said. Sometimes it's the effort that counts."

To that, he could only smile. "I see Ash has been a great influence on you, as well."

Her cheeks only burned hotter. "C-C'mon, Dad, not right now."

He chuckled. "What I mean is, you saw how Ash pulled Goh out of his shell, and now he's done the same thing for you. That boy is something special. We're very lucky to know him."

Chloe nodded. "Yeah. We are."

"So that's that," Chloe said. "I still need to work out the details with our teacher but you'll be seeing less of me each week because I'm going to help them with Pokémon work."

Mika blinked in her direction. "Wow… you've changed a lot, Chloe."

She hesitated. "I feel like everyone's been saying stuff like that lately," she replied, frowning. "I'm seriously not that different. I'm just trying to be more active, you know?"

"You're right," Mika said. "It's good for you to get out there more. It's almost like you're growing up ahead of me."

"Mika," Chloe said, frowning. "Don't be like that. Don't be sad just because I'm not going to be around as much anymore. I promise I'll still be here the other days of the week."

"You better," Mika replied. "I'll want to see all the pictures of the Pokémon you meet while you're not at school. I wanna see them, too!"

Chloe sighed. Of course, if it wasn't boys, Mika's interest was squarely focused on Pokémon.

"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

It was a few days later, and Ash's partner leapt into the air under the cloudy Galarian skies before discharging a bolt of electricity at a curious Pokémon made up of six smaller Pokémon. Goh's Pokédex called it Falinks.

Chloe just thought it was a pain in the neck.

Having just pulled Eevee away after she had been copying Goh's Grookey with harassing the poor thing, she shielded her Pokémon from the explosion as the Thunderbolt sent the six troopers of Falinks in different directions, with their Captain bouncing down the hill towards the river like an empty can kicked down the road.

"I'll get this one!" shouted Goh over his shoulder. "You guys get the others!"

Ash nodded. "Got it!"

"Good luck, Goh!" Chloe shouted as he chased after the captain bouncing down the hill.

Ash turned to Chloe and grinned. "Let's find all these guys and get them all together so we're ready when Goh comes back."

Chloe sighed, putting Eevee down. "Right," she said, looking over and seeing one of the Falinks flailing its short, stubby legs in a bush. "Are things always this disorganized on research trips?" she asked, picking the Pokémon up.

Ash stroked his smooth chin. "Uh… sometimes, I guess. But that's part of the fun of doing research, you know?"

Chloe flipped the small Pokémon in her hands around. The trooper looked up at her and it's eyes began to sparkle happily. "Lili?"

She frowned at it. "I'm not your captain…" Sighing, she brought the trooper back to Ash and Pikachu, who had already gathered the other four and sat it down with it's partners.

The five Falinks troopers all looked around at each other, confused and unsure. They were chattering among themselves nervously. Ash stood over them, hands on his hips. "Hey, c'mon. Goh's got your captain, I'm sure they're fine!"

"Pikachu!" his partner called out to the troopers.

All five of them turned to Pikachu and fell silent. 'This is so weird,' Chloe thought. 'What a strange Pokémon…'

After the silence ended, each of the troopers, one by one, began to move and file in line behind Pikachu, looking much like how the Pokédex said a Falinks should look, if it weren't for the electric mouse at the head of the line.

"Pika!?" he called out in shock, wagging his tail to try to force the troopers back. All they did was lean back (in sync) to avoid the flapping tail, all while watching Pikachu closely.

"Hey, stop that!" Ash called, stepping close. He picked up one of the troopers and set it aside, so that it wouldn't be following Pikachu around. When he did, the next trooper in line walked up to take its place, and so Ash set that one aside. While he did, the first moved to the end of the line, Chloe watched with despair as the cycle continued. The line of troopers grew one longer when Eevee began copying them, standing in line behind the Falinks until Ash had to pick her up because she was standing too close to Pikachu.

"E-Eevee!" Chloe called out. "Don't make things more difficult than they already are!" Already, her illusions about what researching would be like were getting dashed upon the rocks of reality.

Another few weeks had passed, and Chloe sat next to Goh in a huge stadium in the Sinnoh Region. The crowd was excited for the main event to begin, but Chloe couldn't help but feel nervous in the pit of her stomach. 'I knew it was the World Coronation Series but I guess I didn't think it would be this hugely popular… she thought, looking at the monitor.

The announcer came on over the speaker system. "Today, we have an Ultra Class Battle! And here we have our two trainers for today's match!"

Doors on the bottom of the battlefield opened up, and platforms rose carrying the trainers on them. On the far end of the battlefield was a young man with dirty blonde hair, wearing a jacket with a serious look on his face. On the closer side, Chloe could look down and see the back of Ash's head.

The display in the middle of the stadium began showing highlights of the first trainer. "Currently ranked 27th in the world, he's the Sinnoh Region's strongest Gym Leader! It's Volkner of Sunyshore City!"

The crowd whipped into a frenzy of cheers around the two Kantonians for Sinnoh's hometown hero. Chloe grimaced. "I guess this Volkner guy's pretty popular, huh…?"

Sitting on the railing in front of her, even Eevee began to dance and cheer.

The display changed again, this time showing the ranking of the second trainer: 99th. "His opponent is a newcomer to the Ultra Class. Ranked 99th in the world, it's Ash from Pallet Town!"

The crowd quieted down their enthusiasm with a few polite claps.

Goh chuckled darkly. "I guess there's not much love for the away team, is there…?" he joked, looking around.

Chloe shook her head. "Then we've gotta be the ones to make some noise!" she said. Standing up, she cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone. "C'mon, Ash! Show them that you're the one who's gonna battle Leon!"

"Eievui!" she began shouting as well.

"Uki! Gruki!" Goh's Grookey began smacking his stick against the railing as well in an attempt to drum up a beat.

Goh smiled at his friend, amused. "Yeah, you're right." He stood as well. "You can do it, Ash! Send this Gym Leader to the showers!"

Again, time kept on skipping by, and while things seemed to be going fairly well, this particular trip was an exception.

'This day just gets worse and worse,' Chloe thought.

First, they ended up getting chased by a horde of Roggenrolla into this mineshaft. Then, they were attacked by a Ferrothorn. And then the explorer they met turned out to be a Pokémon Hunter and betrayed them, and now they were all stuck to the wall by his Galvantula's Sticky Web.

"At least this cannot get any worse," she said.

As the hunter wheeled his wheelbarrow full of Larvesta eggs away, Goh called out at him. "Hey! Give those back!"

"Don't you see that the Larvesta are mad?" Ash asked him.

"Who'd give these up? I can sell these and get rich!" the Pokémon hunter said, mocking them.

The Larvesta that had emerged from the nearby mineshaft blew their flames out at the hunter, missing him by a wide margin. But there were plenty of other things around that could burn from their heat, catching on several wooden platforms and old crates from the gold rush era.

"Those eggs're gonna get burned up!" Ash said, still struggling against the Sticky Web.

Goh struggled against the web as well. "The Larvesta are so angry, they're putting everyone in danger…!"

"We're in danger, too!' Chloe shouted, also struggling against the web as the burning platform crept ever closer to where the three of them were stuck.

Goh stopped and watched the fire closely. "Wait, this could be our chance…!"

Chloe and Ash looked down at the flames as well as the licked towards the edges of the web.

"This is totally crazy," she said. She couldn't tell if she was sweating from the dangerous situation or the heat getting that much closer to burning her hair.

Ash nodded. "I get it! We break out when the webs are just weakened enough!"

"Pikachu!"

"Gruki!"

"Eievui!"

The Pokémon were in favor of the plan.

Goh watched the flames crawl closer and closer. "Just a little bit more…"

"Now!"

Ash and Goh shouted at the same time, and Chloe leapt out as well, breaking the web and freeing the three of them.

Goh quickly took charge of the situation. "Ash, Chloe, you two get the eggs back from the hunter! I'll handle the Larvesta!"

"You've got it!" Ash said, rushing off.

Chloe nodded to her longtime friend. "Be careful, Goh!" And then she went chasing after Ash and the hunter.

Ash held his hand out forward as he and Chloe chased after the hunter. "Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

"Piiikaaachuuu!" cried Ash's partner, unleashing the blast of electricity from his body. The electricity arced and the hunter let go of the cart to avoid getting shocked. Chloe leapt forward and grabbed the cart to make sure the Larvesta eggs didn't spill out and get damaged.

As she let out a sigh of relief, Ash stood up to the hunter. "Do you still wanna fight?"

"Pika, pika!" challenged Pikachu, still sparkling with electricity.

The hunter turned down another tunnel and ran off, fleeing from the scene. "You brats'll regret this!"

Chloe sighed in relief. "C'mon, let's get these to Goh and the Larvesta!"

Ash nodded and they began running back as quickly as they could.

From what Chloe saw, Goh seemed to be holding his own with the Larvesta when they arrived, gesturing to them with his hands. "Goh, we've got em!" she called out.

Goh nodded and gestured to Ash and Chloe. "See, they're safe and sound! We got them back from the bad guy!"

"Pikachu!" he added, pleading.

Goh reached out to the Larvesta. "So please, stop!"

"Uki! Ukiuki!" chatter Grookey towards the Larvesta.

But it seemed like their words weren't reaching the Bug- and -Fire-types, as the Larvesta began preparing another Fire-Type attack for them and their Pokémon.

"Don't do it!" Shouted Goh. "Please, you have to stop, Larvesta!"

Goh locked eyes with the Larvesta as they continued to power up their Fire-type moves.

"Be careful, Goh," Ash said.

"Maybe we should leave…?" Chloe asked, turning around with an "Eep!"

The Larvesta stopped charging their attacks and calmed down, staring at Goh.

"You understood me…!" he said with a sigh as Ash rolled the eggs over to them. Ash and Goh quickly unloaded the eggs from the wheelbarrow

"We did it, Ash!" Goh said, smiling.

"We sure did," Ash replied, also smiling.

The two boys chuckled at each other before Chloe interrupted them.

"Uh, guys? What about this?"

Ash and Goh turned around to see that the wooden staircase they were previously attached to was now completely engulfed in flames.

Both of them gasped. "If this keeps burning…!" Ash said.

"Right," Goh said, already reaching into his pockets. "C'mon guys, we need you!"

He threw two Poké Balls into the air that opened up to his Intelleon and his Krabby.

"I choose you, Dracovish!" Ash shouted, bringing out his Fossil Pokémon.

Chloe looked at her Eevee. "We need your help, too!"

"Vui!"

Goh gestured towards the flames. "Intelleon, Snipe Shot! Krabby, use Bubble Beam!"

"Dracovish, use Water Gun!"

"Eevee, use Water Gun, too!"

The three trainers, each with their Pokémon, threw their all into fighting the blaze growing around them, unaware of the golden Pokémon approaching who would save them from that unfortunate fate.

Chloe felt exhausted, lying on the couch in the lab, with Eevee also lying on her lap.

"It feels like it never stops, Eevee…" she said, listening to the rhythmic keyboard tapping of Chrysa and Ren as they entered in more data from the research that was done the previous week. "Those blue obsessed weirdos were something else, not to mention everything that came before…"

"Eievui…" she cooed, curling up.

Chloe sat up, looking at the Pokémon. "But things are going well, right? I feel like we're seeing so much more than we used to.

Eevee rolled over onto her back, as though she was seeking a belly rub, which Chloe then provided.

"But still, it's not so bad, right…? It just goes to show how big the world really is. I guess it's something I never really considered when I said that I wanted to be part of it."

Ren chuckled from his desk. "Well, sometimes I feel like Chrysa and I get the better part of the deal, since we just come in and do our work. We don't have to worry about travelling all over and doing any crazy competitions or anything."

Chrysa giggled. "You know there's times you're jealous, like when Ash and Goh get to go someplace nice."

"Guilty," Ren admitted, laughing.

"Someplace nice, huh?" Chloe thought out loud. "I wonder when we'll go somewhere like that…"

Her mind began running through all the regions they had skipped through on their excursions. She honestly felt like she spent more time on planes than in the regions they visited. 'Just once, I'd like a chance for things to slow down, so I can enjoy where we go. We're always so busy… I just want to slow down and really take a region in, you know?'

Just as she was thinking these thoughts, the door opened, and her father walked in, with Ash and Goh following behind.

"Hey Chloe!" came the cheerful greeting from both the boys, but Ash frowned at seeing her exhausted like that. "Are you feelin' alright?" he asked.

She sat up, waving off his concerns. "I'm fine! Just thinking about some stuff, I guess."

"Look out, Goh," Ash joked, throwing an arm around the other boy's shoulders, "she's going to put you out of work with all that thinking she's doing."

Goh sneered back. "Well, given how little you think, I still think we're running at a deficit."

The two boys laughed at each other, and Chloe stood, cracking a grin herself as well. "Someone needs to keep you both grounded," she said with a shrug as she approached the two of them.

The holographic projection behind her father began to beep, and Chrysa's tapping became more furious. "Professor, we've got a phone call," she said.

Professor Cerise turned to the projection. "Put it through, Chrysa."

She nodded and tapped a few keys, and a screen projected onto the hologram, showing a tanned, muscular man in a white hat.

"Alola!"

Chloe was a bit surprised at the man and took a step back. Ash and Goh, however, recognized the man instantly. Ash, especially, had an excited smile on his face. "Professor Kukui! Alola! Good to see you again!"

Professor Kukui waved to Ash. "It's great to see you again, Ash! You, too, Goh!" he said cheerfully.

Chloe shrank back into the background of the call, not sure what to make of this 'Professor'. Her mind instantly went back to the image of Ash playing the ukulele in the moonlight, when he quietly explained how the Professor would sometimes play ukulele songs for him at night. It suddenly dawned on her that this man kept coming up when she spoke with Ash, and she knew very little about him.

The realization filled her stomach with a feeling of dread. It was as though this man's appearance on the screen was an ill presage for the events that were going to come to pass.

"Since you're already here, we can Cut to the chase like a Quick Attack."

"Is there some sort of big event happening in Alola, Professor Kukui?" Professor Cerise asked, adjusting his glasses to look at the screen.

"Sort of," he replied through the screen. "Really, it's something I wanted to Lock-On and tell Ash directly as soon as we heard the news."

Ash, excited as ever, grinned happily. "The news? What's going on?" he asked.

The next words echoed through Chloe's head far longer than they echoed through the halls of the Cerise Laboratory.

"We just got word from Lusamine! They found Mohn! Lillie is coming back to Alola!"