The sun was high in the sky, blindingly bright and unrelenting in its heat. With little cloud coverage and high humidity from recent rainstorms, it wasn't exactly the sort of day most people would be exercising in. However, Ash was hardly 'most people'.

"Keep it up, Pikachu! You're doing great!" She called out to her starter, who was wobbling as he stood on his tail and hovered a couple feet above the ground. The little Electric type was focusing intently on channeling his electricity through his tail, adjusting the charge as necessary because the metal and minerals beneath him were affected by the ever-changing electrical pulses saturating the ground.

He had finally gotten Magnet Rise functional, but not yet battle-ready. He was making good progress now that he could actually levitate, and Ash was sure he'd be able to master it. Turning away, she observed the rest of her team, hiding a smile when she saw Charmander splayed out on a rock, happily soaking up the sunlight.

Thanks to the TMs she'd gotten, Oberon had learned Toxic, Hypnosis, and Dream Eater, and was working on perfecting each of those moves. Once he did that, she'd give him Disable, Grass Knot, Dazzling Gleam, and Dig. That would bring his move set up to sixteen, and make him a dangerous opponent.

Titania had received Aromatherapy and Toxic via TM, and she'd already mastered them. Now she was working on Dig, and later Ash wanted Pikachu to teach her Iron Tail. Other than that she was just honing her skills as much as possible, refining her moves and working on shortening the time it took to use them, as well as getting more power behind each of them. Ash also wanted her to start working on some combination moves, once she'd worked on her power levels. Her total move set would number thirteen, although Ash was considering teaching her more later on.

Pikachu was still struggling with perfecting Magnet Rise, but he had learned it, so Ash had gone ahead and given him the TMs for Toxic, Grass Knot, and Discharge. He worked on those whenever he needed a break from his main task, and so far only Grass Knot needed some work. Once he finished all that, and learned Protect from one of the others, he would have eleven moves.

Alto had surprised Ash with her progress, learning and mastering Dragon Pulse on her own, which made getting Draco Meteor down much easier. It needed more work, as it wasn't accurate yet and lacked the power necessary for competitive battling, but it was getting there. She'd also mastered the TMs Ash had used on her already: Solar Beam, Toxic, and Ice Beam. Once she got Draco Meteor up to par, Ash was going to give her Dazzling Gleam, Rain Dance, and Aerial Ace. That would be a stunning sixteen moves in total, and the dragon showed no signs of wanting to stop there.

Houndoom had learned and mastered Shadow Ball, Solar Beam, and Toxic, the last being easier due to his previous experience with Smog. He was now working on shortening the firing time for Solar Beam, narrowing the attack and working on his accuracy. Ash planned on giving him Hypnosis and Dream Eater next, hoping that Oberon would be able to help him harness the psychic energy necessary for the moves. The combo would round out his move set at thirteen moves.

Frogadier was so close to evolving, having learned Cut on his own, and then getting Aerial Ace, Toxic, Ice Beam, and Rain Dance via TM. He had almost perfected all of his new moves, would probably only need a week more to do so. Then she would give him Grass Knot, and upon evolving he should learn Water Shuriken, and have the Dark typing to make learning Night Slash easy. In total, once he'd evolved he should have fourteen moves.

Basically, one month of constant training had brought her Pokemon to unbelievable levels of strength. Most beginner trainers, when it came to teaching their Pokemon moves, maxed out at five, and then they'd regularly use whatever new ones their Pokemon learned naturally. Not Ash; she had been preparing for her journey since she was five years old and bounding after Professor Oak, hungry for knowledge. She knew that in order to become a Pokemon Master, she had to know her Pokemon inside and out, she had to be prepared to bring out the best in them, to help them rise above their weaknesses and enhance their strengths.

It wasn't just the Pokemon that were training, though. Ash had buckled down and started training her aura like Bruno had advised her to; meditation to help her control it, katas and drills to train her body in using it. She practiced until she could sense her surroundings down to the individual twigs on the trees around her, until she could coat her fists in a visible veil of shimmering blue light. She memorized the auras of her Pokemon, that she could now sense. And then she trained some more. She sparred with her Pokemon, now, dodging and redirecting their attacks (all physical and no proper moves, she was still human, after all).

Ash had never felt so strong.

XxXxX

Ash had never felt so small.

She'd been curious about the power plant, and once she saw that the wild Electric type Pokemon were friendly so long as she didn't get too close, she had decided to explore a bit. She'd never seen a power plant before, and since this was a decoy most of the main passages would be open so Pokemon could get in and out.

She just hadn't expected to stumble onto Zapdos.

The mighty Thunder Bird stared down it's sharp beak at her from its perch, having apparently decided to nest in the power plant's central area. It's crackling yellow and storm-cloud black feathers appeared to fan out, miniature lightning bolts dancing across their surface.

Neither of them moved for a long minutes, Zapdos sizing her up, and Ash trying to appear as non-threatening as possible. She could feel her heart beating rapidly, breathing shallowly as she attempted to calculate the odds of her escaping should the Legendary decide it didn't like her.

'Chosen.'

Ash jumped at the voice, the sound of a thunderstorm and static warped into speech. Much like with Lugia, her brain stuttered to a halt.

"Hi?" She squeaked.

Zapdos' eyes narrowed, but she was relieved when it didn't seem to be in anger. She relaxed a bit when it cawed out a laugh, and took a tentative step closer.

'Fear not, Chosen. I will not harm you.'

Well that was nice. "Sorry to bother you… sir?"

'Humans and your language systems,' Zapdos snorted. 'You are not bothering me, Chosen… In fact, this saves me the trouble of tracking you down to see you for myself. Come here.'

Now thoroughly confused, Ash did as she was told, carefully climbing onto the platform Zapdos had built its nest on top of. Respecting the boundary of the nest's edge, she circled it till she stood directly in front of the Legendary bird. It eyed her contemplatively for a bit, then tapped the top of her head with its beak, startling another squeak out of her.

'Lady Rainbow did not exaggerate the power of your aura… It heals,' Zapdos murmured, if the sounds of distant thunder could be called murmuring. 'You would do well to learn that art, Chosen. When you have time, head for the once-kingdom of Rota. They've a long history of aura guardians, they are sure to have records you will find useful.' Settling back into its nest, Zapdos twisted its neck to pluck at its wing, pulling free a single black feather, one yellow band on its outer edge that it then presented to Ash. 'My gift. Should you see my sisters, remind them Shamouti's remembrance approaches. Fare thee well, Chosen.'

That was a dismissal if Ash had ever heard one, so she pressed the feather beneath the other two and ducked into an awkward bow, then made her way back to the floor where Pikachu waited anxiously. He jumped onto her shoulder as soon as both feet touched the metal, and with one last look at the Thunder Bird, she turned on her heel and left.

She sort of hoped this wasn't going to become a regular thing, but had the sneaking suspicion it already was.

XxXxX

"Try controlling the size and location of it," Ash said to Frogadier, motioning to the successful Rain Dance he'd summoned. "There's no point in using a bunch of excess energy if you can hit only where you need. Nice work on the speed, if you can consistently keep it under three seconds you'll have the advantage. You're doing awesome, bud. Oi, Oberon! Leave Pikachu alone, you goof, he's working! Go practice Disable with Titania if you need something to do!"

Rolling her eyes at her little prankster, Ash patted Frogadier's shoulder and moved to Alto, who was working with a miniature Draco Meteor in her efforts to perfect the move. It was coming along nicely, with Alto now able to control each individual meteor's direction; she just needed to work her way up to full power while maintaining that accuracy and control.

Turning to survey the clearing her team was training in, Ash nodded to herself when she realized that everyone was making excellent progress. Charmander was helping Houndoom by setting up and rebuilding targets, since the bigger Fire type's paws weren't capable of doing to. Both Eeveelutions were sparring, with Oberon listening to her earlier words and trying to perfect Disable.

It was a month and a half into their training camp. Pikachu had finally mastered Magnet Rise and was now working on improving his power levels so he could fire off other attacks while keeping his control of it steady. He wasn't as fast as he could be with it yet, but they still had time, and he was quickly getting the hang of the new fighting style. In two weeks, she had no doubts he'd be ready to fight the final Gym match.

Sinking to the ground, Ash pulled out her PokeNav, opening up her note app. She'd taken to inputting whatever ideas she had at random to work on when she had spare time. Several pages worth of ideas and corrections spanned the screen, and she idly scrolled through them yet again. The Viridian Gym was well known for its powerful Gym Leader, who would refuse any challenger that didn't already have seven badges. It was rumored that the man was as strong as most Champions, and he preferred Ground type Pokemon. Someone of that caliber would have trained their team to fight past their weaknesses, and surpass any type advantages their opponent would try to use.

She suspected that every single Pokemon on the man's team would have unbelievable physical strength, which meant she needed to ensure her team could evade and withstand anything he could dish out. Withstanding would be the more problematic version; none of her Pokemon were built for taking hits like the ones Ground types were known for. They were far stronger than most of their kind, but the Gym Leader's Pokemon would be the same. So she needed to make sure her team would be fast and agile enough to slip around attacks while not wasting any energy. She'd need to build up their stamina, as well, she was certain.

As a trainer, her duty was to prepare her Pokemon for whatever they might face. She would not fail them.

XxXxX

"Serena, dinner will be ready in ten!"

"I'll be down soon!" Serena hollered back, still seated at her desk. The honey-blonde sighed, eyeing her tablet. No new messages from Ash. She'd probably gotten caught up in training again and not made it back to Fuchsia that day… Sighing again, she shook her head and stood. No use hovering, with the time difference Ashka would be sleeping now, so Serena stretched and glanced around her bedroom. "Mimi, time for dinner."

"Bunear? Bu bun, buneary!" Mimi bounded out from Serena's closet, a yellow ribbon clenched in her paw. She waved it at her trainer cheerfully.

Giggling, Serena took it and carefully looped it into a bow around Mimi's neck. "I see you found the ribbon stash. I should get you some real accessories, the next time Mama takes us to Lumiose City. They have really cute stuff in the stores there!"

Mimi trilled, pleased with the idea, and Serena scooped her up, nuzzling her happily. Mimi was a tiny Pokemon, only about seven inches tall if you didn't count the height of the one upright ear, but Professor Sycamore had said much of it was due to not enough food before she'd been caught, and that with time and proper care she would grow more, as she was still very young. She was still the most adorable Pokemon ever. She was sweet and cuddly, and as into fashion as her trainer was. Serena didn't feel like she'd ever be able to repay Ash enough for gifting her the Buneary.

Before getting her trainer's license, Serena had just been aimlessly trying to escape Grace's Ryhorn racing lessons. She didn't hate racing, and she even loved Ryhorn, but… she wasn't a racer. She didn't want her life to revolve around a dirt track and heavy jumpsuits. Maybe she didn't have a solid idea of what she did want to do, but the only way to find something that she truly enjoyed would be to travel and see all the things she'd never be able to see in Vaniville Town. But she'd been stuck, because her mother refused to let her give up the race training without knowing that she was passionate about something else.

And then Ashka called her.

It had been years since she'd last spoken or seen her friend, and yet it didn't seem to matter. Ashka supported her immediately, offered to help, even went out and found a rare Pokemon that she willingly gave to Serena, wanting nothing in return. Ashka had always known her dream, way before they even met, and while Serena was a little jealous, seeing her friend's drive was also inspiring.

"You know, Mimi," she said as she went down the hall, "before you came, I really didn't have anything. No dreams, no real hopes, no goals. You gave me hope that I can find a dream for the both of us."

"Bun?"

Giggling softly, Serena rubbed her chin over the soft fuzz atop Mimi's head. "I love you, Mimi."

"Bunear! Bun buneary bun!" Mimi squealed, squirming so she could wrap her little arms around her trainer's neck, returning the affection. Rubbing the pink fur on the end of the little Pokemon's ear, Serena smiled at her mother as she rounded the doorway into the kitchen.

Grace grinned back, pausing to pet her daughter's first Pokemon. "I still can't believe Ashka caught you a shiny Pokemon. She's such a good friend to you, Ser, I'm happy for you. You need more friends."

"I don't know, Mama," Serena said, teasing, "she's set a pretty high friend standard."

"That's for sure." Snorting, Grace waved her daughter into a chair at the table. "Still, her traveling alone for her first League worries me. You couldn't convince her to find a group to go with?"

"She's already so far ahead of pretty much everyone her age, though. She only needs one more badge before she qualifies, and she still has at least three months left, and even then she's behind her own plans because of the SS Anne…" Serena's face fell at the reminder, absently placing Mimi down in front of her little pink food bowl. She'd heard the news reports, about how the ship sank, how many lives were lost. It chilled her, thinking that her best friend could have been one of those who didn't make it, who were still missing.

A gentle hand mussed her hair, soothing. "I know… she's a tough girl. I'm glad you're going to wait and travel Kalos with her when your older, I don't know what I'd do if something like that happened to you."

"That's why I'm going to prepare myself," Serena replied firmly. "Speaking of preparation… do you think we could go camping sometime? We've never gone before, and I don't want my first try to be when I'm starting my journey. I think it could be fun, like a vacation, we haven't gone on one in a while."

"Ooh, nice idea! Maybe we can get Calem to come, he's supposed to be taking a few months break, surely he could spare a weekend to spend some time with us."

Smiling at the mention of her older cousin, the girl nodded. "Yeah, maybe we could call him－"

"No need!" A familiar voice chirped, causing both females to whirl towards the front door. A tall, lanky teen shut the door behind him, kicking off his shoes. Blue eyes sparkled with fondness, and Calem Xavier slipped his hat off his black hair, dropping his backpack by his shoes and hurrying over to his already-standing cousin and aunt.

"Calem!" Serena laughed, jumping at him for a hug. He lifted her off her feet with ease, still a good foot taller than she was. "I missed you, how have you been!"

"Hey, Serry-Berry," the boy beamed, leaning over to add Grace to the embrace. "I've been good, just finished a little adventure close to Frost Cavern. Did you know that Basculin can literally break themselves out of an ice cube by flexing those chompers of theirs?"

"No I did not."

"Me neither. Glaceon wasn't happy about her favorite moves not being effective. And－ohhh my, who is this cutie?" Calem's voice rose in both disbelief and admiration when Mimi hopped up onto Serena's chair, curious about the newcomer.

"Her name is Mimi," Serena introduced, catching the Buneary when she jumped. "Ash－you remember, my friend from the summer camp?－gave her to me recently. She's my first Pokemon!"

"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Mimi," the teen said seriously, shaking her little paw and hiding a smile. "I thought Ash was from Kanto, though?"

"Apparently she found Mimi in the Safari Zone," Grace explained.

Calem whistled, impressed. "And she just gave the little tyke to you? I need a friend like that, get me some shinies nice and easy. Congrats on becoming a trainer, Serry-Berry, I'm happy for you."

"Thanks," Serena replied, a little bashful now, sinking back into her chair as her family followed suit, finally digging into the food on the table. Eyeing her cousin, she paused. She'd been wanting to ask her mother, but maybe Calem would be of help to pull this off. "Hey, Calem? You've been to other regions, right? How much does it cost to fly to some of the eastern ones?"

"Wanting to pay Ash a visit? It depends on when you book your ticket, if you did it now it would be pretty cheap, like 17,000 Poke or so. If you waited till it was time for either of the Indigo Conferences, it could get up to 45,000 Poke per ticket easy, and that's not including hotel prices."

"Mama, do you think we could go see Ashka compete?" Serena bit her lip, trying to figure it she could do any odd jobs to save up. "Since its her first League, I thought it would be nice if we could go support her."

Grace hummed in thought, taking a bite off her plate. "Indigo holds their conferences right after the New Year, I think…? Yeah, that's actually perfect. Kanto's having a Pokemon Sports convention right after it, and I was invited to speak there anyways. We can just go early, and you can spend time with Ashka while I'm at the convention! And you, Calem, can keep an eye on the both of them and make sure they don't wander off," the woman added dryly.

Serena flushed, but knew better than to protest. It only happened one time, and that was just because she hadn't wanted to leave Ash after the summer camp ended, so the both of them had hidden in the woods near Professor Oak's lab. Shaking her head, she smiled. Her mother had given the okay, so she'd be able to see Ashka again, and pretty soon!

"I'll finally get to see her Sylveon in person," the honey-blonde sighed happily, giggling when Mimi softly headbutted her for attention.

"Whoa, what? Sylveon… wait, that's the new Fairy type Eeveelution Professor Sycamore was talking about!" Calem yelped. "You're saying Ash is the trainer he's been been freaking out about? The one who discovered the rest of the Eeveelutions? Then she's got an Espeon, too, right?"

"Yep," Serena smirked, popping the 'p' and gloating over the fact that she was friends with 'the mysterious trainer with ultra rare Pokemon' that her cousin's friend group had been going wild over. "Mimi played with them a lot, didn't you, Mimi?"

"Bunear," Mimi nodded cheerfully, oblivious to the nearby trainer's pouting, causing the girls at the table to laugh.

Serena smiled wider, excited now that she was going to be able to reunite with Ashka. Maybe she should bring a gift… she could check out the stores near Professor Sycamore's lab next time she went to let him study Mimi. Decided, she settled back in her seat, and told herself to be patient. Three or four months wasn't too long… maybe…