Hi! For those that follow my Genshin fics, I know this isn't what I usually write. But do expect some more Aeqing content soon after this!
For those that don't, ignore the note on top. This fic won't be updated too often, as I want to write for my other fics, but I won't neglect this forever. I have a duty to the Amourshipping fandom, after all. As for why I made this, well, I thought that it was extraordinarily disappointing that Serena has like no representation at all in the Sun and Moon series, so I'm here to attempt to fix that. This story starts off with Ash already in the Pokemon School and friends with everyone. Think of it before they travel to the Kanto region, except it's the Kalos region because yes. Short underscore lines indicate scene change. Hope you enjoy.
"Ash! Wake up! You're going to be late!"
"Rotom… Give me like five more minutes…"
"We can't afford five more minutes! School starts in fifteen!"
"What?!"
Ash's eyes shot open as he sat up, spilling his faithful partner to the ground.
"Pika…" Pikachu complained, looking up at his trainer.
"Sorry, Pikachu," Ash apologized. "We gotta hurry if we don't wanna be late!"
Ash threw on his normal clothes, and rushed out the door, grabbing a sandwich on his way out. He sprinted towards the school, Pikachu perched happily on his shoulder, sighing and enjoying the breeze that flew by as his trainer ran towards the school.
As the Pokemon School came into view, Ash sprinted through the gates of the school and ran up to his classroom.
"Sorry I'm late!" Ash shouted, gasping for breath. "I woke up late and didn't have much time to get here, sorry."
"It's all right, Ash, just take a seat," Professor Kukui smiled. "You're not late at all. We were just about to get started."
"Thanks, Professor Kukui!" Ash replied happily. As he sat down, Sophocles and Kiawe greeted him.
"Hey, Ash."
"Hiya, Ash!"
"Hey Kiawe, Sophocles."
"All right, class! Today we'll be going over some topics we've never seen before!" Professor Kukui proclaimed. "I know some of them will really get you guys excited! Now, a first question. How many of you have heard of or been to the Kalos region?"
Lillie and Ash both raised their hands, and Professor Kukui pointed to Lillie first.
"So, Lillie, you've been to the Kalos region?" he inquired.
"No, but I've read a little bit about it in my books!" Lillie exclaimed. "I know that there are Pokemon there that can't be found in Alola, and the weather range is quite diverse!"
"Very good, Lillie," Professor Kukui nodded. "How about you, Ash? You've been there?"
"That's right!" Ash said happily. "I traveled through the Kalos region about a year ago! Everything was so different there from Alola. The food, the Pokemon, their traditions, even the people!"
"That's amazing! So, a question for you. Do you know Lumiose City? You say you've been in Kalos, after all."
Ash smiled remiscently. Of course he'd remembered Kalos. It was where he started his journey with Clemont, Bonnie, and most importantly, Serena.
"Yeah, of course! Lumiose City is really well named, it's luminescent at night. It's a beautiful city, and it has the Lumiose City Gym, which is located inside Prism Tower!"
Kukui looked impressed, and nodded. "Indeed. You mentioned the Lumiose City Gym; mind explaining what a Gym is to the class?"
Ash smiled giddily, excited to relive part of his Kalos adventure.
"A Pokemon Gym is a bit like the Grand Trial on the islands! The catch is that there are eight gyms in the Kalos region, and each Gym must use one specific type of Pokemon. For example, the Lumiose City Gym can only use Electric type Pokemon, such as Luxray or Heliolisk, whereas a Gym like the Snowbelle City Gym only uses Ice types, such as Avalugg and Abomasnow." Professor Kukui frowned. Those were the Pokemon those Gym Leaders actually had in their possession. Was it simply a coincidence? "After you beat the Gym Leader, instead of getting a Z-Crystal for your efforts, you get a Gym Badge. If you collect eight badges from all eight Gyms in the region, you can compete in the Pokemon League!"
"What's the Pokemon League?" Kiawe asked, interested. "Sounds like a competition."
"That's right!" Ash grinned. "The Pokemon League is full of strong trainers from the Kalos region! The Pokemon you use don't have to be from Kalos, so hypothetically, you could use Turtonator in the League if you got all eight badges."
"That's so cool!" Sophocles said excitedly. "I wonder if I'd be able to compete."
"There's a catch, though," Ash replied. Sophocles tilted his head curiously. "You have to have six pokemon. The preliminary and quarterfinal rounds consist of three-on-three battles; the semifinals and the finals all consist of a Full Battle, which is six-on-six."
"Sounds pretty tough," Kiawe smiled. "I want to take it on sometime! I may want to watch a couple of past ones to get a feel for how it works." Ash froze up and paled, before Kukui came to his aid.
"You might have the chance sooner than you might think," Kukui smiled. Kiawe tilted his head curiously.
"What does that mean, Professor?" he asked.
"You'll find out in a couple of days," Kukui replied mysteriously. "In the meantime, why don't we go out and practice some battling? There's not much more for me to teach after Ash explained Gym Battles and the Pokemon League so concisely."
"Yeah!" the students cheered. As they charged for the door, Kukui called Ash back.
"Ash, a word if you please."
Kiawe turned, and Ash waved him off. "I'll be out soon, don't worry."
"All right, but don't take too long!"
"Won't!"
Ash turned back to Professor Kukui, who was regarding Ash warily. "What's up, Professor?"
Professor Kukui opened his mouth. "Ash, those Pokemon you gave as an example to the class… They weren't just random, were they? For an Electric type, you easily could've mentioned Pikachu, couldn't you?"
"I… I guess I could've," Ash mumbled. In truth, he'd simply remembered a couple of the Pokemon his friends had used in battle. "But you're right, the Pokemon I chose weren't random. I've… I've met those two Gym Leaders before. I've seen those Pokemon they use."
Professor Kukui nodded, satisfied. "That's all I wanted to know. You're in for quite a shock come the following two days."
"What's that mean, Professor?" Ash asked.
"You'll find out," Professor Kukui said mysteriously. "In the meantime, why don't you test out your abilities against Kiawe? I'm sure he wouldn't want to keep waiting for you."
"Yeah, of course!" Ash shouted, tearing out the door. "Thanks, Professor!"
Kukui smiled inwardly, before sighing quietly. He'd heard a bit from the principal's cousin, who was currently residing in the Kalos region. He'd heard of the League and Pokemon Showcases from Professor Sycamore, and seeing as they were visiting in a couple of days, he knew Ash would be excited to visit again.
What the Professor didn't know was that Ash would indeed be very happy when they visited Kalos, but not for the reason he believed…
"Turtonator, use Flamethrower!"
"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!"
The two attacks collided with a bang, and smoke clouds filled the air.
"Pikachu, don't let up! Use Quick Attack and then use Iron Tail!"
"Turtonator, use Dragon Tail!"
Pikachu dashed forward, his body shining with white light. Turtonator raised his tail, beginning to glow a bright orange. As Pikachu dashed forward, Turtonator slammed Dragon Tail downwards, throwing more dust into the air. Pikachu dodged it, then slammed his tail into Turtonator's leg, causing Turtonator to stumble and drop to one knee.
"Turtonator, no!" Kiawe yelled desperately. Ash smiled in return.
"Pikachu, let's finish this! Use Thunderbolt!"
"Piiika… Chuuuuuuuu!"
"Turtooo…!"
As the dust settled, Turtonator was on the ground, evidently knocked out. Professor Kukui raised his hand in Ash's favor.
"Turtonator is unable to battle, meaning Ash wins! Congratulations, Ash, Pikachu!"
"Alright, buddy! We did it!" Ash yelled ecstatically.
"Pika pika!" Pikachu agreed cheerfully.
"Hey, buddy, you okay?" Kiawe asked Turtonator, patting him on the head.
"Turto…" Turtonator groaned.
"Thank you. That was a great battle. Now, return." Kiawe recalled Turtonator into his Pokeball, and turned to Ash with a smile. "That was a great battle, Ash. Thank you."
"It's all in good fun," Ash replied happily. "Great battle to you too."
"Professor?" Lillie asked, nose in a book.
"Yes, Lillie?" Professor Kukui replied. "What is it?"
"What's a… Pokemon Showcase? It says here that Kalos has those as well, but it doesn't really give a clear explanation on what they are."
"Why don't you ask our resident Kalos expert, Lillie?" Kukui replied cheekily. Ash jerked his head towards Professor Kukui, before turning to Lillie.
"Sorry, I didn't hear the question… What was it?" Ash asked sheepishly.
"Lillie wanted to know what Pokemon Showcases were, as they had them in Kalos. I'm sure Ash would know all about them."
"Professor? What do you mean?" Ash asked bemusedly. Kukui smiled, chuckling.
"Oh, I've seen you watching showcases at home when you think I'm not listening or watching. Always starring a certain young blue-eyed honey blond performer, might I add."
"W-Wha…" Ash said, frozen. Had Kukui really seen him watching Serena's old showcases? That wasn't good. "A-ANYWAYS! BACK TO THE QUESTION! To answer your question, Lillie, a Pokemon Showcase is a bit like the Kalos League in terms of format, but different in ideals. The first round is the Theme Performance, where a group of three performers have to complete a task given to them by Monsieur Pierre, the manager. The performer that does best moves on to the Freestyle Round, where both the Trainer and their Pokemon will show off their talents and bond in a choreographed routine. When everyone's done competing, the audience will use a little device called a Glowcaster to vote for whoever they thought did best. The devices will send little balls of light to little keyhole symbols above each performer, and whoever gets the most votes gets the Princess Key, which is like a Gym Badge. After receiving three Princess Keys, they get to challenge the Master Class, which is where all the top level Performers compete for the title of Kalos Queen!"
"Wow! That sounds really interesting. I'd like to see one sometime," Lana said excitedly. Then she narrowed her eyes. "Or maybe you can show us one of those clips you were, as Professor Kukui put it, avidly watching at ho- Hey, Ash, wait!"
It was too late. Ash had already run off the campus, tearing across the road, leaving nothing but dust in his wake.
"Professor Kukui, what was that all about?" Mallow asked, curious.
"Ah, he's probably a little shy about it," Kukui chuckled.
"What's her name? The Performer he watches."
"I'm not sure, really," Kukui said, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "I've never gotten close enough to see it clearly. Selene? Selena? I can't say I remember, truthfully."
"Don't worry about it, Professor," Lana said mysteriously. "We'll get it out of him somehow…"
"Oh, man, this is bad! This is really really bad!" Ash thought in a panic. "How will they think of me now? Why did Kukui tell them that I watched those? What'll they think of me now?"
"Pika…" Pikachu said, sensing his trainer's distress.
"What do you think I should do, Pikachu?" Ash asked of his loyal partner. Pikachu shrugged noncommittally.
"Yeah, you're right," Ash said. "I'll just say that she's my favorite Performer! I won't exactly be lying, will I?"
"Pi-Pikachu!" Pikachu cried happily, and jumped onto Ash's shoulder.
"Thanks, buddy," Ash said, patting Pikachu's head. "Besides, her showcases really are great. You wanna watch one?"
"Pikachu." Pikachu nodded along.
"Alright so did any of you have any idea that Ash watches showcases?" Mallow asked, hands on her hips. The entire group, minus Ash, was sitting around a table in Mallow's restaurant.
"To be fair, I didn't even know what a Pokemon Showcase was before today," Lillie said sheepishly.
"Neither did I," Lana said. "They are only apparent in the Kalos region, though, so I'm not surprised that we haven't heard of them."
"To think that Ash has an idol that isn't a Champion or a battler is quite strange to me," Kiawe admitted.
"Same here," Sophocles agreed. "He doesn't seem like the type to watch that kind of girly stuff."
"Hey, now, Sophocles, anyone can watch those, you know," Professor Kukui said. "They're not only for girls. I've seen a couple of them, and they're actually quite beautiful. The Kalos Queen, Aria, can put out quite a performance."
"Huh. Do you think Aria's the one that Ash watches?" Lillie asked, tilting her head. "It seems plausible, given that she'd be one of the most famous people in the Kalos Region."
"It's not," Professor Kukui said, shaking his head. "The Kalos Queen has red hair. The Performer Ash watches has honey-blonde. They're two different Performers, no doubt about that."
"Hey, Professor?" Sophocles asked.
"Yeah, Sophocles?"
"How come you're quizzing us on Kalos all of a sudden?"
Professor Kukui smiled. "I wanted to save the surprise for tomorrow, but I guess the cat's out of the bag at this point. We're going on a field trip to the Kalos Region tomorrow! It's for the Pokemon School's 20th anniversary! The original plan was to go to Kanto to visit Principal Oak's cousin, but the principal's cousin is currently in Kalos, so the plans were changed."
"So that's why you were asking us about Kalos! I can't wait to see all the different Pokemon there!" Kiawe said excitedly. Kukui smirked in his direction.
"You're in for even more of a shock than most of us," Professor Kukui said. "Make sure to bring that Charizard of yours along."
"Why?" Kiawe asked curiously. "Do they have Ride Pokemon over there too?"
"You'll get your answer soon enough."
"I'm home!" Kukui called into the house.
"Hi, Professor Kukui!" Ash called back.
"Ash, I'd like to ask you something, if you don't mind." Kukui said.
"Sure!" Ash responded enthusiastically.
"How would you feel about going to the Kalos Region tomorrow?"
