Chapter 3: A Toxic Surprise

"Flight 809 is now boarding for the Alola region, please have your boarding passes ready at the front of the line."

As he stood waiting in line, Ash started to think about where he was going to go first, and what he was planning to do. Since his flight was landing in Melemele island, it was only practical that he started his trip there. It worked out nicely, since he definitely wanted to visit the Alola region's famous professor, Professor Kukui.

After that, though, he wasn't quite sure about what to do. In the past, he hadn't been much of a planning person, but in recent years he discovered that having a bit of forethought often had its uses. He pulled up a map of Alola on his phone to compare the four natural islands. He noted each island's particularly interesting or distinguishing features, such as Akala Island's massive volcano and Ula'ula Island's sky-high, snow-covered mountain peaks.

He reached the front of the line. Pikachu hopped onto his shoulder as he handed his boarding pass to the woman up front.

"Your Pikachu is very cute," the woman commented as she scanned Ash's boarding pass.

"Thank you! This little guy here was my very first Pokemon," Ash said, scratching Pikachu's head affectionately.

The woman smiled. "You know, Pikachu is very popular in the Alola region. In fact, there's even a park called Pikachu Valley on Akala Island. You two should check it out," she said.

Ash smiled back and nodded. "Thank you! I guess Akala Island will be our second destination."

He walked into the plane and found an empty window seat near the back. After taking out a snack for himself, he shoved his backpack underneath the seat in front of him and buckled his seat belt. Curious about Pikachu Valley, he started looking up means of island-to-island transportation. One of the cheaper and certainly more entertaining options he found was Mantine Surfing, an activity that the locals and tourists did for transportation and for fun.

Alola is lookin' pretty interesting, Ash thought.

"Hello everyone, this is your pilot speaking. Although we're looking at clear skies for the entire trip to Alola, please fasten your seatbelts as we are taking off soon, thank you."

A number of Fletchling and Pidgey were chirping in the trees above her as Serena was walking back home. She felt tears coming on and did everything she could to hold them in, so her mom didn't have to see her cry. I feel like I've made a mistake, she thought. Her head was now spinning with more scattered thoughts and emotions than before, and somehow she felt more stressed out than ever.

She passed by Rhyhorn, who was fast asleep in his usual resting spot in the front yard. As she opened the door to her house, she realized she didn't think of what she was going to tell her mom. Hopefully she forgot about it, Serena thought, though she knew that was highly unlikely. Grace had a habit of remembering some things too well. Serena walked inside. Luckily, Grace still wasn't in sight as Serena started to make her way up the stairs quietly. She managed to get to her room and close the door before having to interact with her mom. Whew.

She grabbed a bag of potato chips and curled up in bed. Then she took out her phone and noticed she had a missed call. "Clemont? Huh," she said, wondering what her old traveling companion would be calling for. She called back.

*Ring, ring. Ring, ring*.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Clemont. You called earlier? Sorry, I was kinda busy," Serena said.

"No worries, Serena. I was just calling to ask if you'd talked to Ash recently," Clemont replied.

Serena almost choked on a potato chip.

"Serena?"

"Yeah, sorry, uh no, I haven't, why?" Serena answered, barely able to form a sentence at that moment.

"Just wondering. He called me earlier today and asked about you. Apparently he's on his way to the Alola region."

Serena couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Sorry...you said he asked about me?" she asked.

"Yeah, he just wanted to know how you were doing and such. Nothing huge, but I just thought I'd let you know since he didn't seem to be too keen on calling you himself."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"No idea, that's kinda what I wanted to ask you. But honestly, it's not really any of my business, I just thought you should know in case something important is going on here."

"Hmm, no, nothing important...that wouldn't make sense, I mean we haven't talked in so long," Serena said with a sad tone.

"Well, alright. Maybe he'll call you at some point, who knows."

Ash stared at his phone. There's still time, he thought to himself.

Pikachu glanced up at him. "Pika pi?" he asked.

Ash chuckled and rubbed Pikachu's tail, much to the Mouse Pokemon's delight. "It's nothing, buddy. I just can't wait to get to paradise, that's all," he said.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please ensure your seatbelts are fastened, we are taking off now," the pilot said over the intercom. "Please also make sure that all electronic devices are completely turned off or set to airplane mode."

"Oh well," Ash said, switching his phone to airplane mode. He felt the plane picking up speed and eventually lifting off the ground, a sensation he had come to love. But it was hard to enjoy it now with so much on his mind.

After about an hour in the air, Ash fell asleep.

Dinner consisted of meatloaf, a side of mashed potatoes, and an extremely long, awkward silence between Serena and her mother.

It's not that Serena didn't want to talk about anything. She just felt like her mother wouldn't fully understand the situation. After all, things were now a lot more complicated than when Serena had first told Grace about everything that had happened.

Grace was being careful not to initiate an explosive conversation with her daughter. She knew Serena was going through a tough time and didn't want to start another argument if she didn't have to. She said her piece earlier; now was the time to let Serena figure things out on her own. Though she'd be lying if she said she wasn't curious about what Serena talked about with Calem.

Surprisingly, Serena broke the silence. "Dinner's great mom, thanks," she said quietly, chewing slowly on a small piece of meatloaf.

"You're welcome, honey," Grace replied.

Another awkward silence.

"So, tomorrow's not gonna be another lazy day, is it?" Grace joked.

Serena managed the tiniest hint of a smile. "Definitely not. You're right, I can't get lazy or cocky if I wanna win," she said, sipping from her glass of water.

"Is that what you want?"

Serena looked up. "Is what what I want?" she asked.

"Is winning all you want at this very moment?" Grace persisted.

Serena raised an eyebrow. "Um, I'm not sure what you mean, mom. You know that I want to become Kalos Queen again," she said, though deep down she knew that she wanted something much, much more than that.

Ash woke up to the sounds of people screaming and an extremely loud alarm. His eyes flew open and adrenaline immediately starting flowing through his veins. "What's happening?" he shouted, frantically looking around.

"The pilot's lost control! We're slowly being sucked into, that-that thing!" a man two seats down shouted, pointing out the window.

Ash quickly looked out the window. His jaw dropped. Slowly but surely, the plane was gravitating towards a massive, dark, rotating...Ash didn't know what to call it.

"It's a wormhole!" someone shouted.

Okay, it's a wormhole...what the heck is a wormhole? Ash thought.

"We're all gonna die!"

"Someone save us, please! Save us from that thing!"

Ash's brain was desperately trying to think of a plan. Everyone around seemed too panicked to think clearly. People were grabbing for the oxygen masks that were dropping from the ceiling. Ash took one for himself and put another one on Pikachu, who was staring at the wormhole. "Pika...pikachu," he said.

"What is it, buddy?" Ash asked, but Pikachu didn't answer. It just stared angrily out the window.

"Pidgeotto, fly us out of here!" a man shouted as he opened one of the emergency exits, causing the pressure inside the plane to go completely out of whack. The man released his Pidgeotto from its Pokeball and was gone in an instant. Now that there was a hole in the plane, things started flying out at incredibly high speeds. Hats, luggage, purses, Pokeballs...all flying out the doorway.

What an idiot, Ash thought, feeling his ears popping immediately. Okay, think, Ash, think, Ash was becoming more panicked. Out of the six Pokemon in total that he had brought with him, Charizard was one of them, so he and Pikachu could easily escape if he left now. But Ash was thinking about how he was going to save these other people. I have Sceptile, Oshawott...Oshawott!

"Oshawott, come out and use Ice Beam!" Ash commanded, his ears popping more painfully now. There was no time to lose. Oshawott appeared in a flash of white light and froze the emergency exit, covering the entire doorway with ice. "Great job, Oshawott."

"Now what?" a woman asked frantically, unable to get ahold of herself. She seemed to be hyperventilating, and her eyes were filled with fear. Ash rushed over to her and tried to calm her down. "You need to stop breathing so fast!" he said. "We don't have as much oxygen in here!" But it was no use. The woman passed out, falling face-first onto one of the seats. Oh god… Ash thought. This is horrible.

The plane was approaching the wormhole at a much faster rate now. It was likely only a matter of a few minutes before the entire plane would get sucked in for good. No one wanted to find out what happened after that. Ash ran up the aisle to look for help. He was clean out of options at this point.

Suddenly, a massive tentacle broke through one of the windows. "AH!" Ash shouted, taking a step back. "What the hell is that thing?"

"Everyone get off! This thing is gonna kill us!" someone screamed.

*CRACK*

Ash turned back to see someone's Hitmonchan punching through the ice Oshawott had made. He was about to stop them when he realized that maybe getting outside the plane was exactly what he needed to do.

"Pikachu, get into your Pokeball," Ash commanded. Pikachu looked reluctant, but knew that this was no time to be stubborn. Ash carefully put Pikachu's Pokeball in his bag. "Now Charizard...get us closer to that thing! I wanna see what we're up against," he commanded as he released Charizard from its Pokeball into the air in front of him. He took in a deep breath as he jumped out of the plane, hopping onto Charizard's back. As fast as he could, Charizard dashed around the side of the plane, and Ash saw what was possibly the strangest Pokemon he had ever seen before.

It looked like a jellyfish, but absolutely nothing like Jellicent or Tentacruel. Its translucent head was decorated with stars, and it had about a dozen tentacles. Four of them were longer and more towards the front of its body, as if they were its arms. Ash was so in shock that he hadn't noticed it had released what appeared to be a liquid toxin from its body directed towards him and Charizard.

He couldn't speak, he was still holding his breath. Charizard cried out in pain, and immediately turned around, flying away from the strange Pokemon. Ash didn't know what to do at this point. There were still people in the plane who needed saving, but he didn't know how long Charizard could handle carrying multiple people, especially after getting hit with that poisonous attack. But Charizard made the decision for him. The Flame Pokemon flew past the plane towards the water below, and didn't look back once. Whatever that weird Pokemon was, it's toxic power had definitely made an impression on poor Charizard.

Ash held the tears back as he tried not to think of all the people on the plane. Helpless, dying...or worse? At this point still, no one could identify what the wormhole was.

Charizard had finally flown down low enough so that Ash could breathe, but he still couldn't speak. What just happened? he thought, his mind unable to make sense of what had transpired just moments ago. All those people...I couldn't save them…

For once, Ash Ketchum was unable to save the day. As Charizard's condition began to worsen, Ash was unsure if he was even going to be able to save himself. "Hang in there, Charizard...just a little longer, okay?" Ash pleaded, when in truth he knew it was possible that they could be hundreds of miles from Alola. Charizard was as tough as they come, but the toxic substance still lingered on its left wing, and it was ugly. Ash knew he needed to get Charizard treated immediately...but he was in the middle of the ocean, with no land in sight whatsoever.

No land, that is, for about ten minutes when Ash could barely make out the faint outline of an island in the distance. Thank god, Ash thought with a huge sigh of relief. Charizard was now barely flying above the ocean water, its claws skimming the surface as it struggled to stay airborne. They flew on for a few more minutes before Charizard collapsed and Ash was forced to recall it to its Pokeball to protect it from the water.

"Thank you, Charizard," Ash said, now forced to tread water. Now, he had to depend on little Oshawott if they wanted to save themselves. "Oshawott, come out!" he shouted as he released the Sea Otter Pokemon from its capsule. Holding onto each other, Ash and Oshawott slowly began swimming towards what Ash hoped was land.

"Not too much further, buddy. We can do this."