Hey everyone! Thanks for the reviews!
Amy47101 does not own pokémon.
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The Adventure Saga
The Reality of Serenity
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Calem figured the gym would be hard, especially since he was at a disadvantage with his Froakie. Thankfully, he was at an advantage with Fletchling... But then he realized the psychotic gym leader, Viola had a Surskit. Regardless, he now proudly sported his Bug Badge on the inside of his jacket, glad that he decided to challenge the gym in the morning. This gave him the rest of the day to travel down to Luminose to visit Prof. Sycamore.
Shoving his hands in his sweatshirt pockets, he walked down route four, careful to avoid elderly gardner's who wielded their hedge clippers like weapons. He shuddered as they glared at him while he walked by, almost as if saying; 'Better stay outta my flowerbeds you rowdy whippersnapper!'
He looked across the path to see a girl in jeans and a purple T-shirt, sporting a black and white ball cap on her head and black sneakers on her feet. She had dared to step in the flowerbeds, right smack in the middle of a bright pink pack of flowers, much to the gardner's distaste.
"Budew, Mega Drain!" she yelled. Whatever was across the field let out a cry of pain, and her Budew let out a chirp from the HP it had received. She enlarged a pokéball from her pink purse, and tossed it to the pokémon across the field. Calem waited a few moments, hearing the telltale 'Ding!' indicating that she had captured her target. He decided to continue on as the girl picked up the pokéball, clipping it on her belt, and turned, her face lighting up as she saw him. "Calem, hey!"
"Seré...?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as she jogged over to him.
"Yeah! Listen to this, I caught a Ralts just now! I remember when I was in Hoenn I wanted to catch one sooo badly, but Dad wouldn't let me leave Slateport without a pokémon. Of course, he wouldn't give me a pokémon to begin with, which sucks, ya know?"
"I suppose you won the Bug Badge, huh?" Calem said. Serena nodded.
"Yup!" she proudly sported her badge to him, hooked on the strap of her halo caster. Calem took his chin in his hand thoughtfully.
"Seems I live next to someone with some potential." he mumbled, before smiling himself. "I also won the Bug Badge."
"That's great! We should battle sometime!" Serena said with a determined glint in her eyes. The walked down the quiet route in silence for a while.
"I almost didn't recognize you." Calem said. "I'm used to seeing you in that red and black outfit." Serena shrugged.
"Back in other regions, we didn't get much of a choice for clothing." Serena shrugged. "Usually, you either had to travel to a city with a department store or pay for specially tailored clothes. And most of the time, everything would be picked over, so Mom had to order everything of the same color scheme and style. I didn't get much of a say in the matter." she paused thoughtfully. "Now I'm not one to get overly excited at the aspect of clothes, but if I have the chance to wear something other than a red and black dress, I'm gonna." she grinned, though it faltered as an older girl with purple hair walked up to them.
"You!" she said, pointing at the two of them. "Shauna, Trevor, Tierno, Calem, or Serena? Who's who?"
"Who wants to know?" Calem asked, almost defensively. The girl let out an impatient huff.
"Sina... That's no way to introduce yourself." a blond boy said, coming up behind her. He glanced at Calem and Serena with a sheepish smile. "Tell me, have you seen the pokémon Flabébé?" Calem shrugged. He already knew what a Flabébé was. Serena, on the other hand, pulled out her pokédex.
"I did! Came across a bunch while I was searching for Ralts!" Serena said, pulling up the holographic projection. The boy took the pokédex from her hand.
"Oh! I see. It's registered in your pokédex." the boy said, giving the device back. "That's what I would expect from one of the professors handpicked trainers!"
"Flabébé is, now brace yourself," Sina said, pausing for dramatic effect. "A fairy type pokémon!" Calem rolled his eyes. Again, he already knew this. Serena opened her mouth in shock, though.
"Fairy type...?" she wondered aloud.
"Yes. Initially, it was discovered about five years ago, but we didn't have the complete data to classify it." the guy said. "But recently, we had it classified and Prof. Sycamore had been having us battle with different types to determine type matchups."
"It turned the entire type matchup system on its head!" Sina exclaimed, waving her arms frantically. The male sweatdropped at this.
"Anyways," he said, turning back. "My name is Dexio. Two years ago, Prof. Sycamore entrusted me with a pokédex. You could say I'm a pokémon-voyage veteran."
"And I'm Sina. A beautiful name for a beautiful lady!" Sina said with a wink.
"I'm Serena."
"Calem." Calem said, taking Dexios handshake.
"If you like," Sina said, placing a hand on her hip. "We can show you to the Prof. lab. So come along now!" Neither trainer was given the choice of protest, for Sina grabbed both their wrists and dragged them through the gate, a frantic Dexio jogging behind her, trying to tell her that they could walk by themselves.
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"And this is the first floor!" Sina exclaimed with a grand flourish of her arm. "The professor is most likely on the third floor. You can meet him there!"
"You've traveled a long way from Vanville Town," Dexio said, crossing his arms. "But you're finally here! The professor can't wait to meet you."
Serena was steered towards an elevator, and with a glance over her shoulder at Calem, who shrugged, both stepped inside. As they stepped out upon reaching the third floor, they were greeted by a man in a lab coat and two other adults to whom he was talking too. Serena immediately recognized Dayna, and she assumed the man in the lab coat was Prof. Sycamore. The third male, however, was a mystery to her.
He was tall, practically the same height as the professor, and had an explosion dark brown hair in his head, a small ponytail at the nape of his neck. He was wearing a black T-shirt with a red vest, dark blue jeans, and sneakers. On his hands were dark green fingerless gloves, a black, one shoulder backpack over his shoulders. Serena could just make out fiery red eyes from her perspective.
"Ah! So we finally meet!" Prof. Sycamore exclaimed, turning to the sound of the elevator opening. "Come over here for a moment."
"See? I told you we'd cross paths again!" Dayna exclaimed with a chuckle. "Fire, this is Serena and Calem, two of the teenagers whom Prof. Sycamore chose for the pokédex. Serena, Calem, this is my boyfriend, Fire Red."
"Yo." Fire said simply, holding his hand up in a lazy half wave. He blinked. "Weren't there supposed to be five of you?"
"We're hereeeee~!" came the singsong voice of Shauna, who jogged into the room, though carefully cradling the egg case in her arms. Trevor and Tierno followed behind her, though Trevor kept glancing at the egg in Shauna's arms. Calem snickered when he saw this.
"You know, Trevor, if you're so, so worried about the egg, maybe you should become the daddy!" he said teasingly to the shorter boy. Trevor looked over, his glare just barely concealing the faint red on his cheeks.
"Shut up, Calem." Trevor said.
"Ah, fantastic, all of you are here! I see you already know Ms. Dayna, and for those who don't, this is Johto's Tower Tycoon, Fire Red!" Prof. Sycamore said with a somewhat flamboyant arm gesture. Again, Fire raised his hand in a half wave.
"Nice to meet you." Fire said. "So these are the dexholders of Kalos?" he smiled fondly. "Remember when we first got our pokédexs?" Dayna nodded.
"How's the egg doing, Shauna?" Dayna asked. Shauna beamed.
"Great! Though Lil' T keeps fussing. It's not like I'm gonna drop it or anything! That would be as bad as dropping my brother when he was a baby!" Shauna exclaimed in her defense, remembering the small boy at home.
"But you didn't though, right? Drop him?" Serena asked. Shauna snapped her gaze to her.
"Of course not! Don't be silly, Seré!" Shauna laughed, not at all offended.
"Many thanks for coming all the way from Vaniville Town!" the professor said. "I'm Professor Sycamore! It's a pleasure to finally meet with you, and for the first time, meet you Serena!"
"Ah, it's nothing." Serena said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"How is your Pokémon journey going so far?" he asked excitedly. "Have you met many different Pokémon?" Serena glanced between her friends, and saw a confident smirk on Trevor's face.
"I believe so, professor." Trevor said. Prof. Sycamore beamed.
"Fantastic! Let me have a quick look at your Pokédex and see!" he took the five pokédex's from the trainers, sliding them into thin little slots on a panel. Almost instantly, a holographic projection of their trainer info on the dex popped up while a loading bar underneath it began loading. In a few quick minutes, the information has loaded, and the professor was quickly scanning over all the pokémon that each trainer had seen. "Impressive, all of you!" he exclaimed, retrieving the pokédex's. Again, he turned towards his desk, retrieving something that they could not see. "You!" he turned towards Serena, pointing at her while sending out a Charmander. Serena blinked, pointing at herself.
"Me?"
"Yes, you! We shall battle!" Again, Serena blinked.
"Why do you get to battle the professor...?" Calem asked thoughtfully. Trevor stared at Charmander in awe.
"This will be great for completing the dex!" he exclaimed, immediately scanning the fire type.
"You better look out, Professor, she's tough!" Shauna exclaimed.
"H-Hold up!" Serena exclaimed. "Is it really safe to have a battle in, you know, your office, Prof. Sycamore?" Said professor simply waved his hand in a dismissive manner.
"No time like the present! Now come! Battle!" his Charmander growled in agreement, growing impatient. Serena shot a glance at Dayna and Fire, as begging for the more experienced dexholders to help her out. Both simply shrugged, responding with a 'Sorry, but it's in his craw' look. Serena let out a frustrated sigh.
"Fine. But if anything get's damaged, I'm not paying for it." Serena backed up a bit, contemplating her choices against the fire type. "Ralts, time to shine!" she said, bringing out the newest edition to her team.
"Ah, a psychic-fairy type. Merveilleux! Charmander, Ember s'il vous plaît."
"Ralts, Calm Mind!" Serena ordered, though wincing herself as the ember slammed into the pokémon. "Again, then Double Team!" Ralts obliged, forming multiple copies of itself, surrounding Carmander.
"Char... Char?" Charmander asked, looking at the multiple copies.
"Use Calm Mind, once more!" Serena said. Again, Ralts obeyed, bringing her stuppy arms to her head and allowing calmness to ripple through her and her clones.
"Ra-Ralts!" they all cried out determinedly.
"Charmander, use Scratch to find the real one!" Prof. Sycamore exclaimed. Carmander, claws extending and glowing, slashed through the nearest Ralts clone, doing the same with many others.
"Ralts, quick, Confusion!" the real Ralts, and it's remaining clones, let out small bursts of psychic a rather large one coming form the real one. Charmander let out a screech of pain, getting slammed back as the attacks wracked his body, eventually fainting him.
"Excellent travail, but we're not down and out yet! Squirtle!"
"Good girl Ralts, return." replacing that pokéball with another, Serena smirked. "Budew, time to shine!" almost immediately upon coming out, Budew began glowing brilliantly, the white light engulfing the room. "Wha-What the-?!" exclaimed Serena as the light grew even stronger.
"Rosilia...?" Serena opened her eyes to see the new pokémon staring at her flowered hands. Slowly, the trainer grinned determinedly.
"Alright, let's go!" Serena exclaimed, checking the dex for any new moves. "Toxic Spikes!" Purple spikes fell around Squirtle, though not initially effecting him. "Magical Leaf!"
"Withdraw!" Prof. Sycamore ordered. Intelligently, Squirtle curled into his shell, the brightly colored leaves slamming somewhat uselessly against the hard, solid shell.
"Mega Drain!" Serena ordered, watching as the attack drained away from Squirtle, even though he was still on the inside of his shell. From the shock of the sudden super effective attack, Squirtle popped out of his protective shell. "Now, Grass Whistle!" A slow, melodic melody echoed throughout the office, emitted from the gentle rose petals on Roselias hands. For one quick moment, even Serena herself was almost lulled asleep, but quickly remembered she was in the middle of a battle. No time for napping!
"Oh non, Squirtle!" Prof. Sycamore exclaimed. "Réveillez-vous, réveillez-vous!"
"Now, Magical Leaf!" Serena ordered, effectively knocking out Squirtle.
"Semble que nous sommes en difficulté..." Prof. Sycamore muttered. "Bulbasuar!"
"Roselia, return! Fennekin!" Serena exclaimed, again switching out and going withhe trusty starter. Bulbasaur winced under the Toxic Spikes attack, but stood strong. Serena already knew she had this battle in the bag, her Fennekin thinking along the same lines as she was. Flames licking up her body, eyes glowing red, Fennekin charged forward, the powerful attack knocking out the grass type with a one-hit KO.
"Aw bien!" Prof. Sycamore exclaimed, though not seeming entirely disappointed with the loss. "Une perte est une perte, non?"
"Uh..." Serena glanced up from congratulating her Fennekin. "I can't speak French."
"You'll pick it up soon." Fire said with a laugh.
"Prof. Sycamore tends to spout random phrases in French." Trevor informed her. "You get used to it, really."
"Well now, you do have a certain je ne sais quoi!" exclaimed Prof. Sycamore. "At first," he continued, placing his three pokémon onto a healing machine. "I was thinking of choosing only one child from a town when I was deciding who to give a Pokémon to. In Vaniville Town, it was going to be the child of a Veteran Trainer I know."
Serena glanced at Calem, knowing his parents were pretty decent trainers. He caught her glance, and shrugged.
"Shauna soon got word and instantly began begging Trevor for a pokémon. She was so enthusiastic, I had to oblige! About then, I learned that the Rhyhorn racer Grace and her daughter were moving here. Here in the Kalos region, you're far away from everything you used to know... That really hit me right here... Then it hit me-I should give you a Pokémon and have you travel around Kalos!" he whipped around with a grin on his face. "And look at you, you have such great potential! I am not at all disappointed that I lost, in fact, I'm not very strong to begin with!" he let out another chuckle. Everything was interrupted as Fire's pokégear rang out. He blinked, pulling out the phone with an awkward chuckle.
"'Scuse me for a moment." he said, answering the phone. Listening for a moment, he let out a low whistle. "She's already in Cyllage City? Damn. Us? We're in Lumiose, though there's a huge power outage. We can't get through the main streets." he let out an exasperated sigh. "Listen, if you can get in contact with her, tell her to stay where she is till we get there." another pause. "Yeah, we got them. The professor was real easy-going about it, you know?" he paused again. "Yeah, see you soon." he hung up, Dayna glancing at him with an amused look on her face.
"Gary?" she asked, looking as if she already knew the answer.
"Yup. He's pissed we're so far behind, even though he was the one that split us up. Now he wants us together again to meet up and, as you and I both know..."
"She's waaaaay far ahead again." Dayna said with an eye roll. She turned back to Prof. Sycamore. "Thanks for the info and items for Mega Evolution, I'm sure it will be helpful with our goal."
"Ah, anything for my niece!" Prof. Sycamore said with a wave of his hand. The five younger dexholder blanched.
"Y-You're his niece?!" exclaimed Serena, pointing at Dayna. Dayna looked over, slightly surprised, before laughing behind her hand.
"Me? Oh, no, we're talking about Leaf Green."
"YOU'RE LEAF GREEN'S UNCLE?!" Shauna exclaimed loudly, pointing to Prof. Sycamore. Said professor let out a hearty laugh.
"Yes, I am, and I'm very proud of my little niece. It's such a tragedy, though, that she and my dear sister Flora can never visit their family member." he let out a long sigh. "But with Obsidian passing, and dear little..." he paused. "So, so much tragedy in the Green family..."
"S-So you're related to Leaf Greens mother, correct?" Calem confirmed. Prof. Sycamore immediately perked up.
"Ah, yes, Flora is such a wonderful person, despite tragedy. Perhaps," he turned back towards Fire and Daya. "You could convince Leaf to bring her dear mother up here for a visit?"
"We'll see what we can do." Fire laughed. "You know how much the pokémon association hates it when we leave more than six months a year." he paused. "Seriously, I we need to get going and meet up with Gary. It was nice meeting all you guys, and good luck!"
"Maybe we'll run into each other on another occasion?" Dayna said thoughtfully. "It was nice seeing you again!" she waved over her shoulder as she followed Fire into the elevator.
"Hm... I have a good feeling about you!" Prof. Sycamore exclaimed, going behind his desk and holding out three more pokéballs. "Here, choose one!" he tossed the three pokéballs into the air. Out popped a Charmander, a Bulbasaur, and a Squirtle. "These are the Kanto starters." Serena glanced between her friends, and decided that there would be a repeat of her choosing first. She looked between the three, her gaze settling on the Squirtle in the middle.
"I'm going to take Squirtle." she decided, picking up the pokémon. He let out a happy cry as Serena rubbed the top of his head.
"I'm taking Charmander! He's so cute!" Shauna exclaimed.
"Then I'll take Bulbasaur." Calem said, reaching out to scratch the grass type on the head.
"Since you all chose one of these starters, I will give you this." he held out three different colored stone, passing one that went with the respective starter.
"Now that all this is done, I'd like to say a few words." he closed his eyes, ready to say his words of inspiration. "Be the best Trainer you can be! At the same time, remember to have fun traveling with your Pokémon! Also, I want to ask for your help in solving the Kalos region's biggest Pokémon mystery: the secret and potential of Mega Evolution, a new kind of Evolution that occurs in battle! That's why I gave you that Mega Stone just now. It's an important clue!"
"I'm guessing that you also asked the Kanto dexholders to help out with this, huh?" Calem asked, inspecting the green stone. Prof. Sycamore nodded enthusiastically.
"Now, if you're investigating Mega Evolution, why don't you check out Camphrier Town? That town has a lot of history-you might find a hint there!" Prof. Sycamore smiled. "Now listen. If you visit many different places to complete the Pokédex, you will probably see Pokémon with many ways of living and meet people with many ways of thinking. First, accept the ways of living and thinking that sometimes conflict with your own. And think about what's really important-this will truly broaden your horizons."
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"I can't believe you still have this old thing, Prof. Sycamore." Trevor said, staring at the old piano that sat on one of the separate floors of the lab. Prof. Sycamore rolled his eyes.
"Ah, leave me alone. I could never bare to give it away. It's in perfect condition and plays perfectly!" Prof. Sycamore said. Serena blinked, running her hand across the top.
"It's beautiful instrument." Serena agreed.
"Oooh! Seré, you can play! Play something for the professor!" Shauna exclaimed, pushing Serena into the seat.
"Wha-What?! N-No!"
"You know, Seré," Calem said, taking his chin in his hand. "Prof. Sycamore gave you a pokédex, and not just one pokémon but two. Don't you think it would be rather rude not to play at least one song on this piano that he probably hasn't had anyone place in who knows how long?"
"If you want to repay him, how about you play him a little song?" Serena shot back. Calem shrugged, and sat next to Serena.
"Gah, no Cal-" Shauna began, but got cut off as Calem slammed his hands onto the keys, making an almost unbearable noise. He continued slamming down on random keys, the noise almost painful to listen to.
"Oh, my Arcreus!" Serena exclaimed, shoving him off the bench. Calem looked up, smirking, from the floor. "If you were trying to punish me, then I get it! Just don't ever, ever touch a piano ever again! I don't even think a professional teacher could fix that." she scowled, flexing her fingers and studying the keys for a moment. Letting out a breath, her fingers came down and began flying across the keys, making a much more beautiful sound than what Calem produced.
"Making my way downtown
Walking fast
Faces pass
And I'm homebound."
A break between the lyrics as her fingers flew across the keys again, then slowing down.
"Staring blankly ahead
Just making my way
Making a way
Through the crowd
And I need you
And I miss you
And now I wonder..."
"If I could fall
Into the sky
Do you think time
Would pass me by?
'Cause you know I'd walk
A thousand miles
If I could just see you
Tonight."
Again, she paused singing, speeding up the playing again.
"It's always times like these
When I think of you
And I wonder if you ever
Think of me."
"Cause everything's so wrong
I don't belong
Living in your
Precious memory
'"Cause I need you
And I miss you
And now I wonder...
"If I could fall
Into the sky
Do you think time
Would pass me by?
"'Cause you know I'd walk
A thousand miles
If I could just see you
Tonight."
Her playing sped up, holding a steady speed and melody for a few moments before slowing down for the bridge.
"And I, I
Don't want to let you know
I, I
Drown in your memory
I, I
Don't want to let this go
I, I
Don't..."
"Making my way downtown
Walking fast
Faces pass
And I'm homebound
Staring blankly ahead
Just making my way
Making a way
Through the crowd.
"And I still need you
And I still miss you
And now I wonder..."
The playing slowed to the slowest point of the whole song, making her singing really evident.
"If I could fall
Into the sky
Do you think time
Would pass us by
'Cause you know I'd walk
A thousand miles
If I could just see you...
"Oh, oh."
The music sped up once again, Serena's fingers flying across the keys, her eyes practically closed.
"If I could fall
Into the sky
Do you think time
Would pass me by?
"'Cause you know I'd walk
A thousand miles
If I could just see you...
If I could just hold you...
Tonight."
Serena ran her fingers across the keys a little more, finishing out the song. She came to a stop, and looked over at Calem.
"And that is how," she stood up, crossing her arms. "You play the piano."
"Marvelous! Absolument magnifique! Il a été si longtemps depuis que j'ai entendu comme jeu! Parfait!" Prof. Sycamore exclaimed. Serena raised an eyebrow. "Ah... you are not fluent in French. I forgot." he chuckled, then continued. "Like I said, perfect! Who taught you?"
"Dad." she answered simply, but in a tone that said, 'don't go into the subject'.
"Ah... alright..." Prof. Sycamore mumbled, catching her drift.
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Alright, I think that's long enough...
Amy47101 signing off! ^.^