Team Flare Headquarters, Lumiose City outskirts

A car screeches to a halt in front of a large, 3 story building. The building has several sections on the first floor split into wings named after their respective cardinal direction. Several vehicles are parked in front of the main entrance. Ash steps out of the car, adjusts his collar and hat, and takes a deep breath in.

"Thanks for the ride, Goh. I'll see you tomorrow." Ash walks into the building while Goh drives away. Various grunts can be seen in the lobby, talking, eating, playing cards, or standing around idly. Ash walks all the way down the hallway and hits the button for the third floor. As music plays, he mentally prepares himself for the upcoming week.

Ding!

The door slides open and Ash walks to the end of the hallway to a door labelled "Lysandre's Office." He opens the door and walks in. In front of him were two people. Seated at a desk sat Lysandre, the boss. Sporting orange, fire-like hair with both an intimidating face and outfit, he certainly fits the bill for his lion motif. Standing next to him is a woman with short honey-blonde hair and blue eyes. She wore a red fedora, a pink skirt, and red vest (for reference, it's Serena's XYZ outfit).

"Welcome, Mr. Ketchum. I see you've come for your mission?"

Ash salutes "Yes sir."

"Very well. Your mission is simple, just escort my daughter Serena and keep her safe for a week. Upon-"

Ash finally noticed Serena and ended up forgetting entirely about Lysandre's words. She is certainly one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen. Goh wasn't kidding when he said most men would kill to be with her. Though there was something else about her, almost like he'd met her once before, a long, long, time ago…

20 years ago,

A young Ash runs across a field, chasing a Poliwag. He was attending a summer camp being hosted in his hometown. It was quite an eventful one, too. To Ash's right he sees Gary chatting with some other kids, probably bragging about how awesome he is. To his left he sees Goh running off into the woods, while a maroon-haired girl chases after him. In front of him was the Poliwag in question. The tadpole-like creature jumps into the forest with Ash following closely behind.

"Poliwag, come on out!" Ash stopped running and walked carefully so as to not trip over any roots. After a bit of searching, Ash heard a noise. Thinking it was Poliwag, Ash ran in it's direction. As he got closer, Ash realized the noise sounded awfully human. In fact, it almost sounds like someone is crying. Ash walks into a small clearing, to see a girl wearing a straw hat holding her knee. A trickle of blood can be seen coming from it.

"Hey, what happened?" Ash asked with concern.

"I hurt my knee!"

Ash bent down and checked her knee. The wound isn't too bad. He takes out a handkerchief and wraps it around the wound, saying "Here, this will help." He then waved his hands like he's performing a magic trick.

"Feel better, feel better, right away! Now try and get up!"

The girl tries to stand, but stumbles. "I can't!"

"Cmon, keep trying! Never give up till it's over!"

The girl tries again, and this time manages to stand on two feet.

"See? What did I tell you? Now lets go back to the adults, they must be worried!"

Ash held out his hand. The girl nervously takes it and the two walk out of the forest together…

Earth to Ash

"Earth to Ash!"

"Huh?" Ash snaps out of his daydream and sees Lysandre staring at him with a raised eyebrow.

"I finished briefing you five minutes ago, you just stood there staring at me. Is there a problem?"

"No sir, I just zoned. Sorry about that."

"Good. My plane is leaving in an hour, I'll be leaving now." Lysandre stands up and picks up a suitcase. "Goodbye, Serena, I'll see you next week," Lysandre waves goodbye as he leaves the room.

Ash looks at Serena. "So you want to do anything?" Serena shook her head slightly. Suddenly, a growl is heard. Ash chuckles. "I guess you didn't have breakfast huh? Come with me, I know a place that sells some tasty stuff." Serena nervously follows Ash out of the building. Occasional grunts stopped and stood to attention, though Ash suspects it's not for him. He quickly leaves the building with Serena and towards his car. The engine rumbled to life, and the car drove off towards the city. (For reference: Ash's car is a 1997 Chevrolet Camaro)

20 minutes later

Ash stops at a 1980s style diner. It is a bit on the small side, but certainly looks like the kind of place where you'd unexpectedly find your new favorite meal or coffee. Ash parks and steps out of the car, and notices Serena isn't moving from her seat. 'Is she seriously expecting me to open the door for her?' Ash thought. He taps on her window "Hey girl, I ain't no chauffeur, open the door yourself!" Serena looks at her side of the door for a second, before finally opening it and stepping outside. The two enter the diner. Ash took a deep breath in. He can already smell the coffee and bacon. "Sit down." Ash gestured towards a seat and walked to the counter. "Hey, welcome back Ash." The woman at the counter greeted him. She had lemon-blonde hair braided towards one side. "Hey, Bonnie. I'll take two orders of the usual."

"Sure, coming right up."

Ten minutes later, Bonnie came back with two plates and a pitcher of orange juice. On each plate, sat a slice of toast, an egg sunny side up, two slices of bacon, some baked beans, and a pad of butter and jam. "I'll take it."

Bonnie smirks "Look at you being the gentleman. Trying to impress your new girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend! If I try anything with her, her father will probably kill me!"

"Hehe, keep telling yourself that, Ash"

Ash sighs and brings the tray to the table and sets the plates in front of himself and Serena. Ash immediately digs in ravenously. It was only when he finished his eggs and bacon and halfway done with his juice when he noticed Serena hadn't touched her meal yet. She looks at the food with confusion on her face, like she has never seen it before.

"Is something wrong?"

"This food looks strange to me. I never had it before. Dad always gets me croissants and coffee for breakfast"

'Oh crap, she's one of those girls? God dammit boss, you spoiled her.'

"Alright, let me show you." Ash picks up his piece of toast and spreads his butter and jam onto it. Serena slowly does the same. "Now eat." Ash takes a bite out of his toast, while Serena nervously takes a small one. Her eyes widen and her mouth turns into a smile. "Good, isn't it?" She nods and quickly finishes the toast, followed by the bacon and eggs, washing it all down with juice.

"Thank you, that was delicious. Can we come back tomorrow?"

"We can come back anytime. Bonnie won't mind."

Serena smiles at the thought.

'Alright, guess this week won't be so bad after all. Maybe I can get her to remember me?'

Suddenly, the doors flew open and two men wearing ski masks walked in, one armed with a gun and the other holding a bag.

"THIS IS A ROBBERY! HAND OVER YOUR MONEY, AND NO ONE GETS HURT!"

The robbers started walking towards individual customers, demanding they hand over their possessions. Ash sighs and looks at Bonnie. She nods, and Ash nods back.

"Alright Serena, I need you to stay calm and don't say anything, alright?"

Serena nods. "Okay."

The robbers approach Ash. "Hand over your wallet bub."

Ash stood up and sizes up the robber with the bag. At 6'1, he makes the robber look like a runt. The second robber spoke up. "I said hand over your wallet! Or I'll shoot!"

Ash replies calmly "Or you'll what?"

"I said I'll shoot!"

"Really? With the way your hands are trembling your more likely to hit your partner or the wall than me."

Ash examined the robber closely. His hands are trembling, and his stance is flawed. His eyes appeared unfocused and there was clearly sweat on his neck. These two clearly did not expect any sort of resistance.

"Didn't you hear me? I said, hand over your money! You don't want to get shot, don't you?"

Ash replies "I'll give both of you a chance. Get the hell out of this diner or I'll get you out in body bags."

"Oh yeah? You're unarmed."

Ash grinned. Fast as a Arbok, his hand shot out and held the first robber in a chokehold. His other hand drew a pistol and aimed it at the other robber. "You were saying?"

Before the second robber could even reply, Ash pulls the trigger. BLAM! The robber dropped dead, blood flowing from his forehead. The remaining robber gasped "You killed my partner! You monster! How could you do that?"

Ash whispers into the robber's ear. "Here's a tip. Guns are for action, not threats. When you draw a gun, you better be prepared to shoot it. Not like you'll use this tip though." Ash fires again. BLAM! He throws the body of the robber on the floor and wipes the blood off his face with a napkin. He looks around the bar. Serena has her hand over her mouth, clearly terrified by the act of violence that just occurred. Bonnie looks unsurprised, almost amused. The other customers are either shocked, or hiding under their tables. He picked up the robber's bag and tossed it on the ground. "Alright everyone, get your stuff back." He walked over to the counter and paid the bill, leaving a generous tip for the trouble. "Don't tell anyone, Bonnie. I'll call the guys." Bonnie nods and puts the cash in the register. Ash picks up his phone and dials a number.

"Hey Goh, get the cleaners over to Bonnie's diner. There's been an incident. Nope, I'm fine, just popped a cap in two buffoons. Alright. Thanks. See ya."

Ash hangs up and walks to Serena, offering his hand. "Let's get out of here."

"Okay."

"Bye Bonnie! I'll tell your brother you said hi!"

The two walked to the car and rove off into the street. After about 10 minutes, Serena broke the silence.

"Mr. Ketchum, why did you have to kill them?"

"Because they were bad people."

"Bad people?"

"Welcome to the real world, Serena. Not everyone will be nice to you. Not everyone will serve you breakfast, do your laundry, and treat you kindly. There will be people like that who wants to hurt you, steal your stuff, and basically make your life miserable."

"But did you have to kill them?"

"Yes. And I don't feel bad about it either. I gave them the choice. They chose death. If I hadn't done anything, those bad guys would've stolen everyone's money, maybe even kill us."

"But you killed them, doesn't that make you a bad guy?"

"Yes, but-" Ash stopped. Serena is right in a way. Ash has never been the most righteous man in the world, and he's the first to admit it. He'd been killing since he joined the gang. Killing is what got him to his current rank. He never thought too much about it. But the way he described bad people in the real world, that's pretty much describing himself. 'Guess I'm a hypocrite' he brushed these thoughts aside. "Look Serena, just know that whatever I do, it's to protect you. That's what your father wants me to do, and I won't fail my mission."

Serena nods "Okay Mr. Ketchum."

"Oh, and just call me Ash."

"Alright, Ash."

Ash looks at Serena, and chuckles to himself, and drove into the city. This will be an interesting week.