A/N Hey guys. I got a few comments saying that the battle last chapter was great. It really means a lot as I have never been great at action scenes.

Chapter 9

Ash sat in the waiting room. The final match had just happened and Cynthia had defeated Lance without too much trouble to get another Mega stone. The four of the last trainers in the tournament were invited an award ceremony for the tournament. Fortunately for Ash as all of the trainers waited in the same place and he was the least high profile of them by far he managed to sneak past the mob of reporters unopposed.

He had taken the time after his battle the day before to switch out his old Pokémon so his current team was all fresh in case of a battle. There was a thump followed by the door to the room opening. In came the three champions followed by a line of Officer Jenny's. Each champion gave him a smile when they saw him, which he returned. Pikachu who was curled up in Ash's lap raised his head.

A second later another door opened to show Mr Goodshow, "Could you four follow me please?" He asked.

He led the four of them into the stadium, which had been hastily made to look presentable after the battles that had taken place on it.

There was a podium in the centre of it and it was surrounded by reporter, other competitors and some supporters.

The announcer started to speak and everyone quietened down. "I'd like to present the four finalists, Steven Stone, Ash Ketchum, Lance Wataru and Cynthia Shirona."

There was a round of applause as the four of them arranged themselves on the respective places on the podium.

Line Break

After the ceremony had finished Ash returned to the hotel they were staying at. About a mile from the hotel Ash saw an explosion. He ran over towards it to take a look.

Serena, Tierno, Trevor and Shauna were facing down two trainers in black team rocket uniform.

The two rockets had six Pokémon each in front of them. As Ash watched the twelve rocket Pokémon looked to be beating back the Pokémon of Ash's companions. Ash broke into a run and quickly released his Gengar, Swellow and Muk to attack Cassidy's Pokémon.

Ash then brought out his Unfezant, Fletchinder, Froakie and Ralts, and made a beeline towards Butch, with Pikachu leading.

When Serena saw Ash her grim expression turned into a grin. His Primape turned just in time to see Pikachu barrelling into him. He was sent flying back and as the rest of Ash's Pokémon reached them Butch and Cassidy started to look worried.

After less than a minute they were left with just their Charizard and Aggron.

"Cassidy lets go, he's too strong." Butch said.

She nodded her head giving Ash a scared look. "Lets go Biff"

With that smoke billowed out from nowhere making them impossible to see.

Just as Ash was about to get Unfezant and Fletchinder to blow the smoke away he heard another voice say, "Weezing suck it up."

Ash whipped around to see a familiar man with a Weezing in front of him, and several other Pokémon around him. The poison gas Pokémon quickly floated over to where the smoke was. He took a deep breath and the smoke was quickly taken in by the Pokémon.

While Weezing did this James said, Carnivine, Victreebel use vine whip.

The Vines shot into the smoke and Butch and Cassidy were hauled out of the smoke. "Cacturne use drain punch, Growlie use crunch."

When the smoke was finally cleared, both Aggron and Charizard were smashed by the two attacks, and they collapsed.

"James why are you here?" Ash asked, an edge to his voice.

James' Amoonguss made a threatening move towards Ash but James held him back.

"I'm not in Team rocket." He said.

There was a silent pause from Ash, "Why not?"

James gestured to his old colleges who were tied up by his Pokémon. "Team Rocket broke up." He said. "After Giovanni's failed attempt to take over the Unova region the Admins all rebelled against him. Giovanni has gone into hiding and most of Team Rocket has joined the newly formed Team Flare in the Kalos region. It's headed by this visionary who the admins use as a figure head. Jessie Meowth and I wanted nothing to do with that so we left as soon as possible." He gave a grimace. "In the escape Jessie was injured she's in the Pokémon centre now."

Ash nodded taking the information. Of the trio that followed him for so many years James always seemed the most trustworthy. "So why were you here?"

James shrugged, "We want to do as much damage to Team Flare as possible, and I went round the regions collecting Jessie's and my Pokémon. I heard that you were at this tournament and you seem to attract trouble so I thought that here might be a good place to start looking for them."

There was a siren and a group of Officer Jenny's came round a bend and into sight on their motorbikes. James called back his all his Pokémon apart from Growlie, who he jumped on the back of and they disappeared in a flash of light.

"Excuse me sir, who was that?" one of them asked Ash.

"He was a friend, he helped me in apprehending these- this criminal," Ash corrected when he notice Butch was gone.

Fortunately the Officer's didn't either didn't notice the slip up, or thought nothing of it.

"What is your name?"

"Ash Ketchum."

Jenny brought up a x-transceiver and looked him up on the police database. She raised an eyebrow at what she found, "You seem to have been involved in helping many of my family in different events, if we can take you for your statement about what happened here, your friends over there," the Jenny speaking gestured to Ash's friends, "Can go back to wherever they are staying now."

Ash nodded asked, "Can I just speak to them quickly?" Jenny nodded affirmative.

He walked over to his friends and asked, "Are you guys okay?"

He received a few nods, and then Trevor asked, "Who was that?"

"Who, James?" Ash scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously thinking how best to answer. "He's an old friend."

He looked over his shoulder and said, "Officer Jenny wants me to go with her to help her with what happened, she says that you four are free to go."

"Thanks Ash, who knows what, would have happened if you and your friend hadn't turned up." Serena said.

"Yeah, I think we'll head back to the hotel, see you later." Shauna added.

Line Break

Ash was let out late the night before that Ash had got back to the hotel. The next morning the five of them were sat eating breakfast in the cafeteria.

"So what are you three planning on doing?" Ash asked.

"Well after having seen you battle in real life I think I want to do gym battles like you." Tierno said.

"I think that I am going to travel with Tierno, I don't want to battle so much but I do want to meet new Pokémon." Trevor said.

"I'm going to stay with them, I want to travel and doing it with friends is more fun."

Ash nodded, "It is," he looked at Serena, "Are you still okay travelling with me?" he asked.

"Yeah Ash, I'm looking forward to it."

"Good, I think that we'll head back to Lumiose city, I've heard that there is a gym there."

"I think that we'll head back to Santalune city, I think I need to train a bit more before I challenge the gym." Tierno said.

"That's a good idea; gym battles are always that much harder, Viola will not be a pushover. I think that we're going to leave right after breakfast I want to get to Lumiose city before it gets dark tonight.

Line Break

The two of them had been walking since about 9AM that morning. As they walked Ash had been training his Pokémon on the go. Serena had watched as he greeted and talked to each of his Pokémon on an individual level. As well as his Fletchinder, Froakie, Ralts and Pikachu, Ash had his Unfezant, Muk, Tauros, Kingler, Totodile, and Gliscor.

As they had walked Totodile had been helping Froakie, Unfezant had been helping Fletchinder and Ralts had been learning how to endure hits from Kingler. Ash's other older Pokémon had been sparing on and off throughout the journey. About a mile from the city entrance Ash called in his Pokémon and returned them. He looked around to find Kingler as he hadn't been with Ralts.

There was a 'cookie' from besides him and he turned to see Kingler walking along with Serena riding on him.

She gave Ash an innocent look, "I was really tired nobody should walk this much, I can't believe that you normally do this."

Ash shrugged, "I guess I'm used to it now. I've got to return Kingler, so you will have to get off."

She sighed and slowly got off the giant crab. Ash reached out with Kingler's Pokéball and returned him.

He started walking once again towards the city at a brisk pace. Serena gave a huff of annoyance and then followed after him muttering to herself.

A/N there we go. I'm not particularly proud of this chapter, I don't think it was great, not much happened. But I do think that it was necessary for the plot. Next chapter will be the gym battle. I wanted to put Team rocket in this but I don't want to have them as they are portrayed in the Animé. I think that it makes sense that if Ash gets better they will as well. As for the Team Flare if what I said is not clear, you'll have to see what I do with them.

I will have some more returning characters and I am no longer sure if I am going to do an Amour shipping pairing. I'll put up a poll to see if everyone wants that. Put forward any pairings that you want me to add.

Thanks for reading and this is HCS signing off.