Sorry... It's been several months since I've updated... The story will pick up pace after Lumiose City, so I've just haven't been interested in writing the chapters in between. :p

The next chapter will be in Lumiose City, then hopefully we'll be underway into the story. This chapter will be on Route 4, with a bit more world and character building. Sorry for the wait!

Day Four

"Ash!" Shauna cried as he approached, "You're here! That's everyone!" She beamed, looking around at at her friends. Serena was leaning against the outer wall of route four, rolling her eyes as Shauna grabbed Ash, dragging him over with the rest of the group. Trevor was shuffling through his Pokedex.

"I have my Flabebe... but I can catch other forms here as well. I am allowed to catch different forms, but Pokeballs are expensive..." Trevor muttered, "Perhaps I should just go after a Ralts for today, they're pretty rare here but it would look good in my Pokedex..."

Ash had his hand stuffed in his pockets, looking down at the ground. His fingers curled a bit as Trevor talked- even if he didn't battle he was still only trying to complete a collection, like the Pokemon were objects. Tierno slapped a hand across Ash's back, laughing, "So do you have your first badge under your belt, little dude?" Ash pushed his hand off.

"Yeah. I killed two Pokemon for a piece of metal," Ash muttered, shaking.

"Don't mind him," Serena said, "He's just being a hypocrite."

"Excuse me?!" Ash growled, whipping his head up. Serena shrugged, rolling her eyes again, "I'm not a hypocrite!"

"Oh really? You're the one that goes on and on about how horrible Pokemon battles are, which I disagree with, but then you go and participate in a gym battle! You are a hypocrite because you do the exact opposite of what you say you believe," Serena said.

"Look here!" Ash cried, taking a step forward, "I have no choice, alright! I have to do this stupid league challenge! I don't want to do it, I hate, and I would stop if I could, but I freaking can't! Just back off and mind your own business!"

Serena rolled her eyes once more, "Whatever."

"Stop fighting!" Shauna cried, stepping between them, "We all know that we all of have different opinions on things but that doesn't mean we should fight."

"He's the one blowing up on every little thing," Serena said, "I wouldn't care about his opinions if he wasn't complaining about the very thing he's doing of his own free will."

"Hey," Shauna said, looking around at everyone, "I agree that having official battles be to the death is hard. It's cruel to make a trainer lose so many Pokemon that quickly, but you don't see me and Serena fighting over that. Tierno would probably never participate in a deathmatch himself, yet he wants the opportunity to breed Pokemon for that purpose! Trevor's whole family are powerful trainers like Serena's family, but both of you are following a different and nearly opposite goal and but you two still get along! So why can't Serena and Ash have different views on battling, even if you're both participating in it?"

Serena sighed, "Like I said, he can think what he wants. But I don't like it how he goes prancing around about how 'horrible' and 'awful' battling is, but proceeds to do it because he has 'no choice'. I just think it's a stupid grab at attention."

Ash was shaking. Half of him wanted to scream, but he drowned that out. His hands clenched in his pockets, "I'm not in the mood for this," Ash growled, "So go ahead and think whatever you want. I honestly have bigger things things to worry about."

"Yeah, like how you still have that stupid amulet on. I thought you were going to get rid of it," Serena called after him as he started to walk away. He paused, looking down. The black gem was hanging in front of his jacket. Ash quickly tried to tuck it back under his shirt, but Shauna grabbed it.

"Wow!" She cried, holding the small black gem in her hands, and she slipped the cord off of Ash's neck.

"Wait-" He began, but she didn't seem to notice.

"It's so pretty Ash!" She cried, "Where did you get such a nice model? Most of the amulet replicas are just plastic," Shauna turned the gem over in her hand, "This looks like a real gem! Is it?"

"I- I don't know," Ash muttered, "Can I have it back?"

"One minute," Shauna said, holding the garnet pendant up to the sunlight, "I won't hurt it," Despite being cut, smooth, and shiny, the gem didn't seem to reflect any light no matter which way Shauna held it up. But it was still pretty enough for Shauna to fall in love with it, "Where did you get it? I want one!"

Ash made another grab for it, "I don't know, I just found it, okay? Can you give it back now?"

Shauna pouted, but held it out, "Spoilsport," She muttered, but before Ash could take it back Serena snapped it up. Ash glared at her.

"Give it back," Ash demanded.

"A few days ago you didn't even seem to care about it. Why the change of heart now?" Serena asked, dangling the cord between her fingers.

"I wouldn't take it off if I were you. It doesn't only go back on itself, but the shock gets worse every time you take it off. May not feel like much right now, but just wait til your fifth or sixth time," Yveltal had told Ash. This was what, his third time having it off? He didn't want to know what this 'shock' felt like.

"I need it, okay? Just give it back," Ash said. Tierno and Trevor were standing off to the side, looking awkward at the whole exchange.

"You said you found it, so technically it isn't yours, is it?" Serena asked with a smile, swinging the pendant about.

"Come on Serena!" Shauna said, "No need to start another argument."

"It was a gift, alright!" Ash cried, "From someone I don't particularly like! It is mine, I'm just not exactly fond of it," Ash didn't know why it hadn't reappeared on his neck yet. Perhaps it only did that when no one was looking?

"Then you should have no problem with it if I hold onto it then," Serena said with a small smile. She was taunting him. Ash grabbed one of his Pokeballs, releasing Aura. Serena flinched at the Pidgey dove at her, grabbing the cord from her hands. Aura wheeled around, landing on Ash's head, cooing. Aura placed the amulet in Ash's hands, which he slipped back around his neck.

No shock.

He sighed, bringing Aura down off his head and into his hands. She hopped up his arm, settling on his shoulder, making clicking noises in his ear.

"Whatever, you look hideous with it on anyway," Serena said as Ash tucked the cord under his shirt and jacket. The black gem rested right over his heart, it's cold surface feeling just like Yveltal's fingers against his skin. Ash shuttered a bit, then began to walk away, hands in his pockets. He fumed in embarrassment, half wishing he had allowed Serena to hold onto the amulet. Aura hopped off his shoulder, quickly reclaiming his head. She settled onto his hat, feathers puffed up contently.

His emotions were a mess. He was angry, sad, and flustered all at the same time. His 'friends' were no help, Ash was sure that Yveltal had stuck them there just to mock him about the real friends that he had left behind when he was sent here. It was hard to see familiar friendly faces working against him.

Ash kicked a rock, which hit a Flabebe in the head. She turned, glaring at Ash angrily. He gulped, dodging a Fairy Wind that was sent his way. Aura took to the air, sending a Gust at the Flabebe, knocking the fairy type down. Ash stared at it for a moment, then returned Aura to her Pokeball. The Flabebe rubbed her head, glaring at Ash. After a moment she turned away, gliding off into the bushes.

"Hey! Ash!" A voice cried behind him. He paused, turning in time to see Shauna running up to him. She was panting as she caught up with him, "Hi!" She said after she caught her breath with a big smile planted on her face.

"... Hi," Ash replied, and he kept walking.

"Hey! Wait up!" Shauna cried, scrambling to keep up with him, "I don't want to walk to Lumiose all alone!"

Ash stopped, "Look... I don't want to be rude, but I'm just not in the mood to be around other people. I'm really stressed out right now."

"Okay!" She chirped, "I'll help you get unstressed! We can play a game, first one to see a Pokemon get's to catch it!"

"... Okay," Ash said after a moment, at least she wasn't Serena, and he felt himself relax a bit, "How big is your team?"

"Hmm," She thought for a moment, "Well, I have caught about eight Pokemon so far... But I've really only been training up Chesa and Ziggy. Even if I'm not doing the league it is still important to have a team of battling Pokemon, either do deal with wild Pokemon or other trainers," She frowned a bit, "But Zigzagoons aren't that strong..."

"I think every Pokemon can be strong, if you train it right," Ash replied.

"Well, have you been training?" Shauna asked, "I mean your Lumiose gym battle is coming up, right?"

Ash chewed on his lip nervously, "N-no," He said, "I'm not battling there yet..."

"Really?" Shauna asked, surprised, "Why not?"

"Two of my Pokemon are weak to electric..." Ash muttered, "I'll go to Cyllage City for now..." He didn't mention the fact that three of his Pokemon were weak to rock types, but he wasn't ready for another gym battle so quickly, neither his team nor his emotions.

Squish.

Ash cringed as he stepped in something soft under his shoe. He glanced down, instantly wishing he hadn't.

The Skitty had probably been dead for a while, her body just laying there in the path. Ash stumbled away, wanting to throw up at the sight of the rotting Pokemon. Shauna looked ill as well, kneeling down to look at it.

After a moment she said, "It was attacked by another Pokemon, but definitely not a wild one. Skitty is the most predatory Pokemon on this route, but it wasn't attacked by another one. Nothing has eaten it either, so it wasn't hunted as prey. It was either killed in self defense, or grinding."

"G-grinding?" Ash asked queasily, not sure if he wanted to know what that was.

"Many trainers don't do death matches against other trainers, not wanting to lose their Pokemon without a gym badge on the line," Shauna muttered, looking away from the Skitty corpse, "And they don't want to charge into gym battles unprepared, so they have their Pokemon fight wild ones to the death so their Pokemon gets experience with death matches. Trained Pokemon are much stronger of course, but sometimes it is the only way to train for a battle. People like Tierno breed wild Pokemon to keep up the populations because of trainers like that."

"T-that's horrible..." Ash muttered, "That's- That's s-so-"

"Sad," Shauna said simply, looking down, "That's why I didn't chose to do the gym challenge."

"Sad? That's all you think of it!" Ash cried, "It's horrible, cruel-"

"Shh," Shauna said, looking around.

"No! I want you to explain how you can describe hundreds of living creatures dying under our command is just 'sad', how you can just walk away from it and not try to do anything about it-" Ash shouted, but Shauna interrupted him again.

"No, shh, do you hear that?" She asked quietly.

Ash paused, still wanting to shout, but listened. He heard small mewing sounds and whimpering. Shauna glanced at the Skitty corpse, then off the path. She headed into the direction of the mewing, and Ash followed her. Like route twenty-two, this route was very well kept, with nearly no tall grass off the main path. Gardens surrounded the paths with flowers and hedges, and Shauna pressed through that. She finally paused at the fallen log, looking at it.

The mewing had stopped suddenly, like whatever had made them knew that they were around. She knelt down, peering into the log, and she let out a squeal, "Ash, you gotta see this!" She pulled back, allowing Ash to look in.

The inside of the log was a tiny den, with a nest of leaves and grass in the center, peices of egg shells littered the inside of the log. And curled up in the nest was two small Skitty kits. The siblings huddled closer together, whimpering. It was a cute sight, but Ash couldn't help but notice the small kits looked a bit skinny. He pulled his head back, looking around the log, but saw no recent signs of a parent coming near here.

"That Skitty we saw..." Ash muttered, "That must have been the mother, and since she's dead, no one has been caring for them."

Shauna reached into the log before Ash could react, pulling out the two small kits but their scruff. They began crying out in fear, lashing against Shauna, "Then we'll just have to, won't we?" She said with a grin.

"W-what?" Ash cried, "No Shauna, they are just babies! We cannot take one of a journey, they could die!"

"Could," She said, "But they will if we don't take them. You haven't caught anything on this route yet, right? Because I can only catch one Skitty!"

Ash looked at the small kits, "No, I haven't," But if he caught it that would be the third Pokemon on his team that couldn't battle, and his fourth normal type. He paused, What am I thinking?! So what if it can't battle, I can't let it die! "I'll take one," Ash said, "But I am going to be raising it for battle though," He added slowly, "Is that fine with you?"

Shauna nodded, looking at the two Pokemon, and she handed one out to him, "Here, you can have Midnight! I'll take Luna here!"

*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

Introducing: Midnight

Skitty: female

Level 8

Caught at: Route 4

Nature: Serious

*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

Ash let her plop the small kit into his hands. The Skittys had seemed to figure out that they weren't going to hurt them. Midnight began sniffing around Ash's hand, as if looking for food. Ash pulled out his Pokeball, pressing it against the pink cat's head. The Skitty yelped as she was sucked it. Ash closed his eyes as the ball twitched several times in his hands, and dinged as Midnight was caught.

"They'll probably need something to eat," Shauna said, "We can eat lunch up ahead, like a picnic! Let's just move away from the corpse, shall we?"

Ash silently agreed as they went back onto the path, careful to avoid the body of the mother Skitty.

"Lookie!" Shauna cried, "We can see Lumiose just uphead!"

Ash glanced up, and sure enough they could see the towering city not far a head. The sound of cars and other city noises reached their ears as they began to near the end of the route.

They had eaten a quick lunch not long before, and Ash had found Shauna to be the most enjoyable human to be around in this world so far. Sure, she was a bit kiddish, but he had been like that too on his first journey. She had captured a Ledyba along with Combee during their trip, but had failed to capture a Ralts, who had teleported away. She didn't seem like Trevor, who was trying to get every Pokemon he could, nor Serena, who only wanted the strongest. She was just enjoying her journey.

And Ash found that very refreshing.

"Hey! Looks like the first two finally arrived!" Somebody said, and Ash and Shauna looked up in time to see a dark skinned girl looking down at them with a smile. She seemed to be a few years older than Ash, perhaps eighteen or nineteen, "I'm Sina, and the goof over there is- Dexio! What are you doing!?"

Not far off was a blond haired boy who looked to be Sina's age. He was staring at something in amazement, "Oh my Arceus... the chances... Ra, use Thunder Wave!" The boy released a bright red Heliolisk, which gleamed as it came out of a Pokeball. The shiny electric type opened its frilled collar, sending out an electric pulse.

The Thunder Wave attack hit a rust-red Combee, paralyzing it. It took Ash a moment to realize that the Combee was shiny like the Heliolisk, but Dexio had already threw an ultra ball at it. He let out a small giggle, like a child, and ran and scooped up a the Pokeball as it dinged.

"A shiny female Combee..." Dexio muttered, he turned towards Sina, "Shinies are rare... Female Combee are rare... Do you know the chances of finding one is?!"

She rolled her eyes, "You just want it because it's red."

He grinned, "And that," Then he noticed Shauna and Ash, "Oh! Hello, I'm Dexio," He gave a small bow, "Two years ago the Professor gave me a Pokemon and a Pokedex to go on a journey, now I'm his assistant."

"And I'm Sina," Sina said again, rolling her at Dexio, "An intern from Lysandre's labs working with the Professor. We're suppose to take you to him, but it seems we're missing a few people."

"I'm Shauna, and this is Ash!" Shauna said, "Trevor, Tierno, and Serena shouldn't be too far behind us!"

Sina nodded, "In that case I'll wait here for them, and Dexio will take you two a head to the Professor's lab."

Dexio smiled, "Keep up and I'll tell you about my shiny collection," He winked at Shauna and Ash.

"Nobody wants to hear about your Pokemon, just take them to the Professor you idiot," Sina muttered as Dexio lead them into Lumiose City.

"Well..." Dexio began as they walked away from Sina, "Shiny Pokemon just seem to show randomly, we don't quite understand the genetics behind it. So when one hatches out of a starter egg it's quite surprising, but the offspring is meant to be a starter. So that's how I got my first shiny, when I began my journey, a Chespin named Pete..."

Ash sighed, this was going to be a long walk.