- 7 Years Ag0 -

"Something's wrong..." Ash thought as he looked around the living room, his eyes moving from each person to person that took up the packed room. Surrounding the ten-year-old were all of his traveling companions, his rivals and even other trainers he had formed bonds with. To the left was Brock and Misty, both leaning againest the door frame that lead into the kitchen, and both sporting unreadable looks - or at least Ash couldn't read what they were feeling of thinking.

Standing in the other door frame, the one that lead to the front door and the stairs was May, Dawn, Zoey and Max, all four of them were avoiding eye contact with Ash for reasons that Ash couldn't figure out, so he mentally shrugged and looked towards the two sofas, where sat Iris, Cilan, Cameron, Trip, Paul and Barry, all of them looking at Ash with blank looks, and finally, to the left wall stood Richie and AJ. Ash noticed that the only people really missing from the room was his Kalos traveling companions as well as Gary, Tracy, the Professor and his mom - but it was to be expected, as Serena had left for Hoenn and Clemont and Bonnie had remained in Kalos: as to why Gary, Tracy, the professor and his mom weren't around, Ash hadn't the faintest clue.

"Wow! Did you all come to see me? Thats great! It's great to see you all again!" Ash exclaimed, pushing the bad feeling into the depths of his stomach as they looked around the room with a wide smile.

"PIKAPI!" Pikachu exclaimed, snapping Ash out of his trance and making him look up, only to see the many concerned faces of his running companions, "I thought back again, didn't I?" Ash mused a loud, earning nods form his pokemon, each of them sporting a concerned look, making Ash smile as he shook his head and slapped his hands againest his cheeks lightly, "Sorry about getting you all worried - let's just keep running okay?" Ash said as he began running once more.

All the stopped pokemon looked at each other in concern, including Pikachu - none of them really knew what happened that day, as they had all been at the ranch, and because Ash refused to talk about it, but they knew whatever had happened had to have been bad.

"Alright! Fall in!" Ash exclaimed as he came to a stop: watching as the pokemon he had run with stop, each of them panting softly, and as Talonflame and Staraptor flew down in front of him, having heard their trainers call. Ash cleared his throat as he looked from pokemon to pokemon, "Today is endurance - Talonflame, Staraptor?" Ash started, looking to the two flying pokemon as they looked at their trainer.

The duo flapped their wings as they hopped in front of their trainer, allowing Ash to tie rocks to their wings using vines he had woven into ropes, "Fly as long as you can with these rocks attached to yours wings okay? Try and stay up as long as possible, but don't hurt yourselves okay?" The two male flying types nodded as they flapped their rock bound wings and took to the air - all be it slightly slower than before thanks to the added weight of the rocks.

Looking towards the river, Ash whistled softly, watching as his three water pokemon appeared from from under the water, each of the completely soaked, making Ash smile, "Alright guys, its endurance training today - instead of swimming atop of the water, i want you to swim againest the current under the water as best you can - remember, push yourselves, but don't hurt yourselves" Croconaw and Dewott nodded as they disappeared under the water to begin their trainer. Floatzel on the other hand looked at Ash slowly, making Ash shift his feet from the knowing look from the water weasel pokemon, "Don't worry about me Floatzel, i'm okay" Floatzel didn't look convinced, but nodded and dove under the water, resuming his trainer.

Sighing in relief that his water weasel pokemon hadn't pushed the boy, Ash made his way back over to the edge of the forest, letting out a high pitched whistle and watching as Sceptile, Levanny, Heracross, Servine emerged from the tree's, "It's endurance training today - Heracross i want you to fly through the trees as fast as you can okay? Leavanny i want you to run through the tree's under Heracross" The two bug pokemon nodded as they saluted their trainer before disappearing back into the forest.

Looking at Sceptile and Servine, Ash nodded with a smile at the two pokemon, "Alright, i want you two to search for berries today - but don't worry i will have you doing some endurance training afterwards" Ash reassured his two grass pokemon. Sceptile frowned, twirling the twig around in his mouth as he did so - personally, he hated searching for berries with Servine: not only was it a fairly boring job, but he didn't really get along with Servine, he found her to be a little stuck up.

Ash shot Sceptile a look after noticing the frown on the Hoenn native pokemon, "I know you don't want to, but we need more berries, we are running short of supplies - Sceptile, your good at finding berries amongst the bushes, and so are you Servine, so, please, try and get along and work together?" The two grass pokemon looked at each other momentarily until Servine huffed and turned her head away, disappearing back into the density of the forest. Sceptile's eye twitched as he watched the grass pokemon disappear but sighed and nodded towards Ash before leaping back into the tree's and disappearing himself.

Sighing softly as he watched the two grass pokemon venture into the forest, Ash ran a hand through his short but wild black hair, "I need to find a way to get those two to bond..." Ash mused to himself as he walked over to his two no-longer sparring pokemon, "Alright, Hawlucha and Infernape - its endurance training today. Infernape i want you to work on how long you can hold you can keep your Flamethrower going, and Hawlucha i want you to supervise okay?" The duo nodded, fist bumping as they ventured of to find an area to train.

Ash smiled as the two fist bumped, grateful that at least some of his pokemon got along as he walked over to his remaining pokemon, "Since endurance is today's goal, i want you each to find decently sized rocks or boulders and bring them to me," Each pokemon nodded as they dispersed, reassembling in front of Ash once they had each found decently sized boulders/rocks.

Nodding to himself with a smile, Ash, using the last of his woven rope, tied the rocks to each of his pokemon before standing up, "Now i want you to run, run for as long as you can and as fast as you can with those boulders/rocks attached to you, okay?" Each pokemon nodded as they dispearced and began running around the clearing.

Stretching himself, Ash wondered around the clearing, picking up decently sized rocks/boulders and slipped them into his ripped up jeans pockets, (He is wearing the outfit he wore in Kalos) before taking a deep breath as he joined his pokemon - he saw it fit to train himself as well as his pokemon.

"Sceptile!" "Servine!" Ash and his pokemon came to a halt at the sudden cries of the grass type pokemon, their eyebrows raising in confusion, "What the-?" Ash started, only for his eyes to widen as a large explosion ricocheted throughout the area, the ground heaving slightly and the air becoming filled with dust and debri.

"Shit..." Ash cursed, reaching into his pockets and pulling the rocks out as he coughed from the dust, moving an arm up to shield his eyes, "Is everyone okay?!" A loud cry from each pokemon confirmed Ash's question, but the missing sounds of Sceptile and Servine made Ash worry as the dust began to settle.

"Once the dust had fully settled, an eerie silence followed, "Shit...whats happened?" Ash cursed once more, looking to his pokemon, each wearing a look of concern. Shaking his head, Ash began running towards the forest that his two grass pokemon had disappeared into, weaving in and out of the tree's.