Part CIX: Faces to Names

"May!" An excited voice yelled from behind them. "What are you doing here!"

Ash turned to the sound of the voice and an odd rolling sound that came with it but all he managed to see was a blur of white and red speeding towards them. A second later it collided with a surprised May and took both of them out with a painful crash as the figure tried to embrace May while rolling towards her on a pair of roller blades. It didn't work at all for obvious reasons.

"Korrina, what are you doing in the city proper." May groaned from the floor as Ash, Misty and Serena come over to help her out. "And that really hurt. Thank Arceus that the stitches were removed the other day, but I'm still tender in that area, well more tender than usual as you crashed into them."

"Stitches?" The person currently lying atop of May said with worry in her voice. "What happened to you that would require stitches?"

"I'll explain if you get off me." May grumbled. "Though I can't show you the scar until we're in private, it, er, runs along the side my left breast."

"Oh yeah your natural airbags." Korrina said with a laugh as she rolled off May and to her feet, rolling a little as she stood there but showing impressive skill to keep it to a minimum. "Those broke my fall by the way so there is some use to them after all."

"Glad to hear that one of us had a good fall." May said as Misty and Serena helped her to her feet. "Anyway, Ash, Misty, the speeding ball of fun that just slammed into me is Korrina, the Shalour Gym Leader. Korrina, these are my friends Ash and Misty. I told you about them last year. You already know Serena from last year."

"Hey Korrina." Serena said as Korrina turned to her and suddenly hugged her. "Good to see you again."

"Serena, sorry I missed you, I saw May's pink top and went for it." Korrina said before breaking away from Serena. "How have you been?"

"Good, I'm coordinating this year to improve as a performer." Serena said. "So, May and Misty have been helping while we all travel Kalos, and Ash faces the gym leaders to enter the Kalos League."

"Oh yeah the guy May has a crush on and his girlfriend." Korrina said helpfully turning to Ash and Misty and shaking hands with them, both noting that she had a Key Stone in her left glove, while May went bright red. "Pleasure to finally meet you two. May told me all about her adventures with you Ash when we met last year, and a fair bit about Misty as well, so I could tell how she felt seeing as she really hyped you up. Glad to final put some faces to names."

"She's told us a fair bit about your adventure as well." Misty said with a smile as she studied the young gym leader who seemed to have more energy than was normal. "Sounds like a wild one."

"Oh, it was." Korrina said with a nod. "It all started…"

Misty zoned out a little as she knew the story and took the moment to look over Korrina as she now had a face to one of May's new Kalos friends she'd heard about but hadn't yet seen. She had to admit, Korrina was not what Misty expected when she was told that Korrina was a fighting type specialist. Misty had faced Maylene in a gym battle, and she was a serious, no nonsense, fighter who had just lost her confidence, something Misty helped her rediscover in that battle. Korrina was almost the polar opposite.

The Shalour Gym Leader was bubbly and energetic bordering on hyper it seemed. She wore what looked like a cheerleader outfit that was mainly white with a red waistband and accents on the sleeves, center of the vest and cut into the skirt. She also had white gloves with red wrist bands, white boots that had roller blades on the bottom and red socks. Even her helmet was red and white.

The only things that weren't red and white were her black cycling shorts she wore under her skirt which likely a practical touch and the mane of blond hair that came out of her helmet in a long, rather massive, ponytail. Oddly, two large side strands came out of the front two vents on her helmet and framed her face while and third poked out from under it to fall between her light blue eyes.

It was a few days after they'd met Diantha at the Kalos Canyon, as well as Max, Bonnie, and their friend Owen, and they'd finally arrived in Shalour City in the late afternoon. It had taken them a few days to cross the canyon after Ash's battles with Max and Owen as well as Serena's one with Bonnie but surprisingly nothing had happened in that time.

The canyon had been cool and interesting to walk through but that was it. Because of the filming they couldn't try the gliding or air battles, but Ash did let out Fletchinder and Hawlucha to enjoy the currents and train as they were both going to be used against Korrina, so he used the canyon's natural formation to practice their flying. The third Pokémon would be decided during the battle, but Ash was already leaning towards one of them for it though they were all prepared just in case Korrina threw him a curveball that required a different Pokémon.

After the canyon it had been another two days before they finally got to Shalour City. They had checked into the Pokémon Center and all their Pokémon were currently being taken care of after the journey, so they had gone out to the terrace behind it that looked out over the city and enjoy the cool sea breeze out here. Apparently the gym was closed at the moment, so they were going to relax for the evening and decide what to do in the morning.

Misty wanted to check the city out as it looked cool. It was similar to Cyllage in a way as it hugged the coast and had a single main road but that was where the similarities between the two ended. Unlike Cyllage were the building were brown, the buildings in Shalour were more varied and built in a design that Misty had come to associate with classic Kalos styles.

Also, the main street didn't run along the water but cut through the center of the city with a large amount of trees making it look like none of the houses were next to each other as they extended from the beach and up the hill the city was built on. It was again different but that wasn't all. For some reason there was an island off the cost that had a full wall surrounding a large tower and more houses in an old design style that Misty had no idea what it was for or how one got to it.

"…and that was when I last saw May." Korrina finished bringing Misty's attention back to the conversation and realizing that it was almost over. "Until I saw her right after you lot checked into the Pokémon Center that is."

"Yeah about that." May said. "Why are you here Korrina? Shouldn't you be at the gym?"

"Ah, well, I er, lost track of time." Korrina said sheepishly. "I had come here to get my Pokémon healed after a good gym battle this afternoon that I unfortunately lost and rather than have Nurse Joy transfer them back to the gym I decided to stay and go blading in the city as the streets here are great for it. By the time I realized I should come get Lucario and the others it was too late to go home so I'm staying here for the night. Grandad is not going to be happy but oh well, we can go there tomorrow, and you lot had better stay with me after the battle."

"Wouldn't want to be anywhere else." May said with a smile knowing that Korrina wouldn't take no for an answer. "Though I don't think Gurkinn is very happy with Ash at the moment. That battle went a little overboard in the end."

"Nah he told me about that battle he officiated for you guys in Geosenge when he got back." Korrina said shaking her head. "Ash was merely defending his girl's honor from some asshole and did it rather spectacularly apparently, so he couldn't fault Ash. Also, he's a martial artist, he's had a lot worse than being blown into a wall. It sounded epic though, so I am even more eager to face you Ash."

"Yeah same, I can't wait to battle you." Ash said with a grin. "And get my 4th badge."

"I've heard a lot about your skills from May so I can't wait to test them myself in the gym tomorrow." Korrina said. "Plus, I have a personal reason to really go all out against you of all people."

"You do?" Ash asked confused. "But we've never met before, and I don't think you have a thing for Misty so quickly so why is it personal with me."

"True we haven't and don't worry I'm straight so I wouldn't take your woman, though objectively speaking Misty is very pretty." Korrina said with a laugh as Misty look stunned at both that and Ash's somehow insight into a potential personal reason but then again his recent battle with Kenny may have made him more observant, improbable as that was. "And don't worry Misty, I don't mess with another woman's man, so you have nothing to fear as well."

"Um that's good to know." Misty said a little taken aback by Korrina's bluntness. "Not that I was expecting it though I did recently have a rival who had developed a crush on Ash in what I think is record time and had the confidence to confront me right away. That was a new experience but somehow refreshing at the same time."

"You'll have to tell me all about it over dinner here, I want to hear all about your current adventures as May said you had a habit of having really exciting ones." Korrina said with a grin. "Though as for why I have a personal reason to want to beat Ash, well he is the one who revealed a new fighting type weakness to the world, one that turned many matchup advantages I had into disadvantages."

"Huh?" Ask asked confused, he was pretty sure that he hadn't done anything to change fighting types though with the stuff he ended up doing he wasn't sure. "How."

"Well, they were normal types before the change, a type weak to fighting type attacks." Korrina said and Ash started to understand what he'd done. "That said it did explain why I kept having problems against Slurpuffs, Sylveons, and one particularly annoying Aromatisse for about a year. Couldn't figure why they kept taking a pummeling beyond what they should have been able to endure until the reveal."

"Oh, you're talking about fairy types." Ash said as he figure it out though he wasn't sure why Korrina was unhappy about them, as far as he recalled fighting types hadn't been affected by the unexpected and still unexplained emergence of a new type. "It seems I have a reputation here already because of that quarterfinal with Cameron. Every gym leader has known me already because of it."

"I mean, when something like that happens it does change everything, so we have to be informed and read up on it or else we'd be remise in our duties as gym leaders." Korrina said. "And I watched that match, it was impressive to say the least. We all learned of the new type and with so many reclassifications in Kalos it makes sense that the other leaders know you. That said, wait until you meet Valerie, she's going to have a very different reaction than me."

"Huh why?" Ash asked confused again. "On both fronts."

"Valarie is the Laverre Gym Leader and until the reveal she was a normal type specialist running a normal type gym." Korrina explained and Ash recalled hearing that one of the Kalos leaders had been one but wasn't anymore. "And it turned out that all her Pokémon were reclassified as pure fairy types or in one case it added the type. It made her instantly reclassified as a fairy specialist, the first in the world I believe, and the Laverre Gym is now a fairy type gym."

"That I do recall now that you reminded me." Ash said as it all clicked, he'd been told about the fairy type gym here a few times but as they hadn't reached it yet and wouldn't for a while it kept slipping his mind. "We are going to Laverre after Coumarine I believe so I will see her then. I still don't get why you're taking it personally though."

"Fairy types are resistant to fighting type moves in addition to their dark type resistance and dragon type immunity." Korrina said. "And fairy type moves are super effective against fighting types, so it has forced me to fully adapt to facing them, but as a gym leader that is expected of me. The worst thing though was the sudden change from having super effective moves against Pokémon like Sylveon to them not being effective at all. That was annoying."

"Oh, sorry I only own one fairy type, my Mr. Mime, and I don't use him except that one time." Ash said, in the back of his mind he recalled hearing somewhere that fighting types were affected as well but he'd completely forgotten about it until now. "I don't actually know the new type well. I didn't even remember that fighting types were weak to it until you just reminded me, that dragon type immunity kinda steals the spotlight."

"Don't you remember the Grand Festival quarterfinals?" Misty asked. "When Emily upset Nando? She won mainly because Nando's Lopunny's fighting type attack didn't take down Emily's Granbull as it should have when it landed. She was able to use that brief shock and closeness to land a move that Lopunny couldn't avoid and thus win in the end."

"Oh yeah that was odd." Ash said recalling the biggest upset of the Grand Festival. "Well, for what it's worth, I am sorry Korrina. I keep forgetting just how wide ranging the ramifications of the reveal was."

"Nah it's ok." Korrina said with a smile showing she wasn't mad at him. "I don't mind, it's just another reason to really look forward to facing you. Between that, May's stories, and gramps telling me of how you destroyed that excuse of a man, well I have been eager for this battle for a long time."

"Well, I won't disappoint you." Ash said grinning at the challenge. "I can't wait for it either."

"Speaking of that earlier battle against Kenny." May said. "That is actually where we got hurt. All of us were though Ash at least had a wall to stop him quickly, so he just got a few bruises, the rest of us weren't as lucky as we went through some broken windows and broken glass is pretty sharp."

"Oh, when Ash's Mega Charizard beat Kenny's Mega Alakazam at the end." Korrina said. "I remember gramps telling me about that, he'd never seen anything like before and he's been in countless battles in his life. That does explain it. It sounded painful."

"It was." Misty said pulling up a sleeve she now wore on her left forearm to reveal a long, straight, red, scar that ran diagonally across the back off her forearm right in the middle of it before pulling the sleeve down that she used to hide it in public and pointing to where her thigh was still bandaged to show where the other scar was. "I'll always remember it because of these. I got cut up pretty bad because of it but I'd go through it again to see Ash destroy Kenny all over again."

"Yeah I now have one here." May said indicating where the red line that went from the middle of her breast to the end of side. "That was the only cut deep enough to leave a mark. Serena's got a lot on her back though they are all small. She has the most because she slid so far on her back, but none are too big on their own."

"Oh wait, were is Serena?" Korrina said looking around as they all suddenly noticed that Serena was gone. "I greeted her, but I guess she's not here anymore."

"She likely slipped out while you were recounting our adventure last year." May said. "She still has bandages on her back and likely went to see if Nurse Joy was free to check up and change them in private if need be."

"Ah that makes sense." Korrina said with a nod of understanding. "We can see her at dinner then, I want to hear how everyone is doing this year over it."

"Well, you have dinner and a few days at the gym because we will likely have to spend them there before moving on." May said. "We have about a month or so before we need to be in Coumarine and I know you Korrina, you're going to want to keep us around for a bit."

"Of course, we haven't caught up in ages." Korrina said. "And I doubt your adventures could fit into an evening."

"It will take all evening to tell you of this year alone and even then we may not finish in time." May said. "It's been pretty wild though tame by our standards or those at the end of last year."

"Yeah it would take about a week or two just to go through all my adventures." Ash said. "I've had many in my life and I need time just to remember them all as they kinda blur into one another as time goes on."

"May listed all the places you'd been, it is impressive." Korrina said. "I look forward to hearing as much as possible."

"Wait." Misty said as something from earlier that had confused her came back with the mention of the gym again. "Korrina, why can't you go back to the gym tonight?"

"Oh, that's because it's high tide now." Korrina said as if it was obvious. "So, the path is submerged and it's the only way to the gym short of using a flying type that can carry a human, or a water type with the same ability and I have neither."

"I'm confused." Ash said. "What do you mean? Surely the gym is somewhere near here. It is odd that you're staying here tonight."

"Didn't May tell you?" Korrina asked and Ash and Misty shook their heads. "Oh, probably saving it as a surprise then."

"I figured they'd find it amusing." May said with a smile. "It's why I haven't told them about the Coumarine Gym either, that is one you have to see to believe."

"Makes sense, that is a cool one that Ramos has out there, but you can't describe." Korrina said peaking Ash's interest in the next gym as well as the Shalour one. "My gym is in the Tower of Mystery."

"The Tower of Mystery?" Ash asked. "That sounds really cool but where is it?"

"Over there of course." Korrina said with a laugh as she pointed out to the island that clearly had the only thing that could be called tower in the city. "It's the large tower on the island. Well, it is only an island during high tide. When it is low tide there is a path that connects it to the mainland. We can take it in the morning when the tide goes out and have our battle then."

"Oh, that makes a lot of sense now." Misty said understanding how it worked and finally understanding the purpose of the island. "That's pretty clever."

"Yeah we don't really know why it is like that but with the walls and rocks you can't dock a boat there so the path is the only way short of using Pokémon." Korrina said. "Likely it is done like that so that it was hard to capture back in the medieval days but I'm no historian, so I don't really know for sure. I do know that it is said that that is where the first Mega Evolution happened."

"Wait really?" Ash asked amazed. "We only just learned about it last year when we met up with May in Hoenn and she explained it to us. How long ago was it? It's strange that it's only in recent years that Mega Evolution has become more widespread."

"Gramps said that it was years ago, before his time and it was a Lucario but I'm not sure when." Korrina said. "It's been around in Kalos for a while, I do know that, but with the Mega Stones and Key Stones being so rare until recently when there has been a bit of a boon in them for some reason, knowledge of the phenomenon has been limited to Kalos as this was the only region with the materials for it. It began to get out a few years back, but it had never been allowed at Conferences or Grand Festivals until last year's Lumiose Conference, so few trainers used it."

"Ah that makes some sense." Ash said understanding more now, the only people outside of Kalos he'd seen with a Key Stone had been May and Brendan, both of whom had gotten them in Kalos. "I'd never come across it before but if it were banned at events I wouldn't have heard of it as trainers would train with it. I didn't even know about Kalos until my party before Misty challenged the Kanto Contest Circuit and I reentered the Indigo Conference. Before I lost in the finals we'd decided that Kalos would be the next region we went to if I lost."

"I had just won that Grand Festival." Misty said helpfully. "So, I had been offered a job helping in one of the expansion regions during their first year of Contests. Kalos and Galar made the most sense and with May already helping the Contest Committee here this year and Ash needing new gyms there really was no other choice but Kalos."

"I figured you'd won it." Korrina said. "May did say you were the best on any circuit last year and would win the Kanto one."

"Thanks." Misty said blushing a little at the praise. "I never really thought about it like that, I was just chasing my dream."

"I was just telling Korrina the truth." May said simply. "You should have won in Sinnoh and Johto, but you had some bad luck in those finals."

"Well, I won it all in the end and I wouldn't trade the loss in Johto for anything." Misty said her eyes far off and sparkling at the memory. "Not after what happened there."

"True." May said trying and failing to hide the pain in her voice and quickly changing the subject to something Korrina had mentioned earlier as she had an answer to it. "And Korrina, the boon in stones was caused by the incident we resolved."

"Wait that was what caused it?" Korrina asked surprised. "I didn't know."

"Professor Sycamore told me right afterwards." May said. "Something about a mass amount of Mega Energy being released by it revealed a bunch of Key and Mega Stone locations all over Kalos while also sending the energy all over the world so he expects more to appear in other regions in time. Alain and Mairin are tracking the ones in Kalos down this year and working as field assistants to Sycamore in his research."

"Oh, that explains why he called me about a nearby Mega Stone." Korrina said instantly getting their attention. "Or at least he thinks there is one near here."

"Um what?" Ash asked. "There's a Mega Stone near here?"

"Possibly." Korrina said. "Apparently he detected a surge of Mega Energy in a cliffside cave a day to the north of Shalour City that usually denotes a Mega Stone according to him. However, he said that his assistants were checking something out near Anistar which is on the other side of Kalos so they can't retrieve it. Sycamore himself is on his way but he won't be here for about a week because he needs to get all the equipment to study it in the field, so he asked me to get it for him, but I am a little busy as challengers are going to start increasing."

"Well then why don't we go after the gym battle." Ash suggested. "We can go in a few days, retrieve it and then bring it back to the gym and wait for Professor Sycamore here. That way we can check it out and see if any of us have a Pokémon that it is for."

"That's a good idea." Korrina said with a grin. "And it means you'd have to stay. I know that the professor is bringing a portable version of the machine he has that can determine what kind of Mega Stone it is. If you get it we can use the gym to check it out and there's a transport machine in the gym so you can call in a Pokémon if it turns out you have the right one, but it isn't on you. No clue what it could be though."

"Sounds like a normal adventure for us." Misty said with a chuckle. "Of course, we'd end up having one."

Ash was about to say something when his stomach gave a roar, followed by a slightly quieter one from May. Instantly Korrina laughed at the sounds, she knew of May's appetite and love of finding good local places, Korrina had taken her, Serena, Clemont and Bonnie to her favorite sea food one when they were here, and she'd heard that Ash's put May's to shame. Apparently it was true though the meal would really prove it.

"I think we should have dinner first." Misty said. "Ash's stomach always knows when it's dinner time, or at least when it's time to feed it as sometimes it isn't mealtime."

"I am pretty hungry." Ash admitted.

"Then let's go and find Serena, make sure that she is ok and go get some food." Korrina said. "And then you can tell me all about the adventures that you've had this year."

"Sounds good." May said as she began to head into the Pokémon Center. "Come on, let's eat."

Ash, Korrina, and Misty just followed May and entered the Pokémon Center to find that Serena had just finished up and was waiting for them. The timing was perfect, and they all went to the dining room to get some food. Once they had it, they sat down and began telling Korrina everything that had happened since arriving in Kalos and all the adventures, good and bad, that they'd had so far.

It was a nice, relaxing dinner with Korrina who was quickly becoming a friend to Ash and Misty thanks to her cheery and fun attitude. Still, Ash's focus was on his upcoming battle with her. He couldn't wait for it. Tomorrow he tried for his 4th Kalos Gym Badge and as always he intended to win it.