There is a lot of AshxSerena fiction in English, but not much in French.

Of course, we have our gems, including one that I invite you to read if you understand some French: Goldenheart's "N'abandonnez jamais". I think it was through this fic that I really realized how much potential there was to write about the anime, as well as to portray Ash and Serena's relationship beautifully.

But then I remember being quite frustrated at the time (late XY&Z period) not to see more of this couple. That's when I said to myself that I might as well write and publish my fic to try to widen the offer in France... A motivation like any other^^'.

Celebrate victory with a glass of absinthe

The wail of the alarm siren, the blood of the strobe lights, all that had ceased. All that remained was the darkness and silence that followed every battle.

Ash searched for his trainer, pushing back the darkness with his flame. He staggered, afraid that she was gone and that he would be alone again. But Serena was there, and as soon as he was close enough, she threw herself on top of him and hugged him, forgetting the pain she felt.

"Don't ever scare me like that again," she whispered.

You started it, he wanted to retort. But instead he took her between his paws as well, careful not to hurt her with his new sharp claws. Braixen watched them. Amused that, for once, the fake pokemon wasn't trying to get away from the young girl.

"Panch," the fighting pokemon complained, seeing that all the attention was back on the reptile.

But the vixen gestured for him not to interrupt the moment. The pokemon disagreed, and tried to get closer before Braixen got in front of him. Naturally, the discussion turned into an argument.

"You should get some rest," the trainer sighed, although she was reassured that they still had so much energy left.

As she said this, the young girl detached herself from her reptile and discreetly inspected the red body. The scales had miraculously grown back and the flame was regaining its strength, although it wasn't as good as a fully formed pokemon.

"Sylveon, how are you feeling?" the trainer asked, pulling a pokeball out of her pocket.

The capsule vibrated, a sign that the pokemon inside had regained consciousness.

"There you are!"

Wattson had just found them and was shining his torch in their direction.

"Stay here for now, I'll go to the others so we can get you the necessary treatment equipment," Wattson suggested.

"Alone?" panicked Serena.

"Unless you feel up to going to the rest room."

Serena sighed. She couldn't even stand up, so walking... But she still didn't want to stay here.

"Why do you look so worried?" asked Wattson with a mocking smile.

"Well... are you really sure he is deactivated?"

"Of course," the leader assured with a big laugh. "And anyway, you've got your knight in shining armour at your side to protect you."

She looked at the reptile with her big blue eyes, forcing him to look away. Ash didn't feel like a knight with his lizard face.

"You two make a good team," the leader added.

His comment was quickly followed by the agreement of the two small electric pokemons. Plusle approached and rubbed his cheek against the young girl's leg. She stroked his head and felt a slight tingling through her tights.

"Thanks for your help, you saved us."

Minun, who had remained in the background, crossed his arms and nodded as if it were a matter of course. His brother looked at him, somewhat embarrassed by the bravado of his negative namesake. Serena and Ash looked at each other and laughed at the same time.

"By the way, you have to show me the rest of your dance," the young girl reminded herself.

Ash smiled. His friend never quite forgot a performance. The two rabbits looked at each other and agreed to point their paws at the young girl.

"What's the matter?" asked Serena.

"I think they want to join you," Wattson understood.

"Are you sure?" asked Serena. "I mean, we're going to be travelling a lot and it won't be easy to come back and see your friends."

This didn't deter the two rabbits, who became increasingly insistent.

"I thought you were too weak," Ash laughed.

"Are you afraid to share your trainer? " Plusle taunted him.

Ash frowned. He had already told him that she wasn't 'his' trainer.

"Besides, you're so insufferable. Serena will need us to keep you out of trouble," Minun said, sticking out his tongue.

Serena closed her eyes and huffed. The two rabbits didn't budge from their idea.

"Alright, I'm counting on you now," she said and pressed the pokeballs against their heads.

The capsules moved for a few moments, then came to rest with a small noise and a shower of stars.

"Tadam! Plusle and Minun... Ouch!"

Ash sighed as he saw his friend grimace in pain. He was always the one who was criticised, but his trainer wasn't much better.

Wattson had left, leaving the young girl alone with her pokemons. Or rather, alone with Charmeleon, since her other friends were taking a well-earned rest in their pokeballs. Serena lay down, her arms spread out on either side. Ash sat next to her, watching her, especially her neck, where the red marks traced the shape of claws. The trainer noticed her friend's persistent gaze. She stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before turning back to her pokemon.

"Charm!" Ash tried to keep her from moving.

"You shouldn't have followed us. You were badly hurt and you were lucky it didn't end worse."

She frowned, small wrinkles forming on her youthful face. The former human hadn't expected her to blame him, especially since she wasn't exactly a role model. And first of all, since when did she rush headlong into danger? He'd like to know who the idiot was who taught her that.

"Cha! Char!" he growled, pointing at his friend's burns.

"It's not the same for me!"

"No! It's not the same for me and..."

Ash stopped. He had just found the famous idiot who had been Serena's role model. He folded his arms and mumbled a few unintelligible words, making sure to hide his flame behind his back.

They waited for a while in the silence and darkness, neither of them daring to say anything more. Then they heard small clicks as the room lit up and went out intermittently. The light stabilised, dim but reassuring. The old man wasted no time in reactivating his control systems.

Wattson returned, accompanied by a dozen of his staff. With them, he would have no trouble returning the young girl to the New Mauville infirmary.

"Looks like we're out of the woods for good," the trainer sighed with relief.

"Char," the pokemon nodded sullenly.

"By the way..."

Ash expected another rebuke or something, but instead:

"Thanks for coming," she breathed so softly that the fake pokemon doubted he had heard correctly.

Ash blinked several times as he tried to meet the girl's gaze. But she had already turned her head away to prevent him from seeing her face. The shapeshifter mechanically placed his hand on the centre of his chest, he could feel his heart beating peacefully and most importantly...

Really hot.

Lying on the examination table, Serena had to undergo the ordeal of disinfecting her wounds.

"I'm not hurting you too much?" asked Adele.

"No," the young girl lied.

The mechanic tied a white bandage around the trainer's arm. She may not have had the training of a nurse, but the woman knew how to do it. And the girl would have to be content with that, as most of the nurses were busy with all the pokemons injured by Magnet.

Serena sneezed. She thought it was cold in here, and having to stay in her underwear didn't help.

"I was surprised Charmeleon didn't want to stay with you," Adele remarked, trying to pass the time.

The woman put some ointment on her fingers. She was looking for the scratches and burns that had escaped her inspection so far.

"So did I at first. But he refuses to stay in the same room with me when I'm changing and... Ouch!"

Serena buried her head in the pillow to stifle another groan.

"Maybe it scares him to see a human taking off her 'skin'."

The trainer found this explanation a little far-fetched. But it wouldn't be the first strange thing she'd noticed about her friend, so why not.

"I've been touched on the back too?" the young girl wondered as she felt the woman's fingers.

"You have a nice red mark, yes."

Serena remembered being pinned to the wall. It must have come from there.

"Do you think it'll stay?" the trainer asked, not hiding her concern.

"It's true that a scar isn't very pretty on a young girl. But you don't have any really deep wounds, so I don't think we'll see anything more in a week," Adele finished with a wink.

The trainer breathed a sigh of relief as the woman threw away a compress.

"I'm done on my side," the woman said, heading for the sink. "You'd better hurry up and join him."

Serena didn't need to be told twice to put her clothes back on and head for the break room. There weren't many people left, as most of the staff were busy restarting the power station or evacuating injured pokemon to the Pokemon Center.

Ash was sitting on a bed. As soon as he saw her, he ran over to her.

"Meleon?" he asked.

"I'm in great shape," she reassured him, hiding her bandaged arms behind her back.

Ash grimaced, not entirely convinced by his friend's words. Serena began to yawn, feeling the effects of her sleepless night. She needed to lie down for a few minutes before leaving the station. The young girl didn't even unfold the bed and lay down on the covers. After all, the mattress wasn't uncomfortable when you were in it.

"Charm?"

"I'll just rest for a few minutes," the trainer promised.

Staying conscious for a few minutes would have been more accurate. Ash smiled slightly as he realised that his friend would not open her eyes for several hours. And it certainly wouldn't be him who woke her. She's cute when she sleeps, the former human thought as he approached. His tail twitched and his scales warmed. I mean... relaxed! That's what I mean. Serena is relaxed when she sleeps.

Ash hurried to lie down on the next bed so as not to sink any deeper into making excuses. He wasn't unhappy, for once he could sleep in a bed without having to lie next to the girl. It was much better that way and he had all the space he wanted.

Ash couldn't help glancing at his trainer. Her mouth was half open and her chest rose slightly. The former human grabbed the pillow and pressed it so tightly against his head that he could have suffocated. When he removed it, the shapeshifter let out a moan of surrender before jumping onto Serena's bed and lying down beside her.

"The bed's too big," he explained.

But she couldn't hear him.

Adele sat on the bed, watching intently as the young girl fell asleep in the company of her pokemon. Charmeleon stirred a little in his sleep until his paw touched his trainer's arm. The reptile took a deep breath and calmed down in a few seconds under the woman's astonished gaze. But she had no real interest in sticking around to watch them sleep. The mechanic took the stairs and went to the floor just above to find Wattson. The old man had retired to a room full of old modems struggling to do their job. But Wattson still refused to throw them out. 'Sentimental,' he said to justify himself.

"You should rest," Adele advised.

The leader drank a cup of coffee as he scrolled through lines of greenish code.

"I need to analyse all this if I'm going to get any sleep.

"I know we still haven't found Tabi, but..."

"There's no need to worry about him," the leader grinned.

The woman froze, finding it hard to believe the old man's lack of consideration for the factory worker.

"Do you know what you're saying?"

"Yes, I do. And I'm sure he's in great shape."

Strangely, the leader didn't seem happy when he said that.

"Have you found anything?" she asked.

"Magnet. It took me so long to programme him. And in one day the bastard copied all the data."

The employee had finally understood what Wattson was getting at. She had no doubt that the leader would find the cause of the malfunction, but she hadn't expected him to be so quick. Adele huffed and looked over her boss's shoulder at the large computers from prehistoric times. They must have been running Porygon 5 when the Porygon Z.10 update was released. Magnet probably didn't even want to stick his nose in. Wattson took another sip of coffee and Adele remarked innocently, crossing her arms behind her back:

"You're worried."

"Magnet was a real flagship in the field of artificial intelligence. With these programmes, our friend will have enough to do some bad things."

Wattson felt sick to his stomach. He wondered what Tabi had planned next. The old man gave an annoyed grunt before returning to his computer research. Adele sighed, suspecting that the leader did not want to be disturbed any longer. So she walked over to Watt, who was also at a computer, no doubt on Wattson's orders.

"He turned you down too," the assistant grinned.

Adele grabbed a chair and sat down next to the man with the round glasses. Wattson had said some harsh things to his friend and Watt would find it hard to forgive him.

"You know how he is. He thinks he can control everything, as if the world were a machine whose mechanics he knows. So when things get out of control, he starts to have doubts and make mistakes. And that's where you come in, to set him straight."

A slight smile formed on Watt's lips. Adele hadn't been at the plant very long, but she had quickly become an integral part of the team, whose value was recognised by everyone. In short, she was the complete opposite of Tabi, who was always looking for trouble, as if it amused him to pick fights. To think that Wattson hadn't fired him because he thought he was competent. In the end, he should have fired him for being too competent.

"Jolt?"

The computer scientist looked up at the pokemon who had just spoken. A yellow-haired flea sat comfortably on Adele's shoulder, staring at the inventor with two large blue eyes. The woman stroked her friend's head with the tip of her fingernail. She was careful not to exert too much pressure on it, which was no bigger than the palm of her hand.

"I didn't know you had a Joltik," Watt marvelled.

"A friend sent it to me the other day."

The assistant's eyes twinkled; he wasn't much different from Wattson on that score.

"I can..." Watt began, holding out his hand.

"Please," the woman smiled.

Joltik jumped up and landed on the computer scientist's hand. He planted the hooks in the man's skin, but he barely felt the tingling. It reminded him of an article he'd read about this species, a story about 'gate control' and 'the inhibition of pain by tact', if he remembered correctly.

"Fascinating," Watt laughed, scratching the monster's back.

"Yes, my grandmother will be pleased."

"Your grandmother?" the man wondered.

"Her legs hurt. I told her to be more careful with her diabetes, but... She's stubborn. " Adele explained.

Watt understood better. In Unova, joltik was becoming popular in the medical field because of its ability to affect the nervous system. Lost in his thoughts, the computer scientist forgot about the monster on his hand. In fact, he could no longer feel the monster on his hand, although the small yellow ball was still very much there. Even the drops of blood that oozed from the tiny wounds and trickled down his skin were imperceptible.

"I was fooled," Watt smiled.

"They inhibit pain first, and if they stay long enough, the tactile receptors are short-circuited as well," Adele confirmed, shaking her head.

"A useful trait for a pokemon that clings to other species to steal their electricity. But you know your stuff, I see."

"Did you think I was just a poor girl who liked to follow fashion?" said Adele in a falsely indignant tone.

Joltik returned to his trainer's shoulder, while Watt awkwardly tried to apologise for his lack of tact. But in the face of the woman's new taunts, he preferred to return to the work Wattson had entrusted to him. Adele noticed, however, that the man had assumed his usual pensive air.

"Something on your mind?

"I was thinking about Charmander."

"He were lucky to get away with it," Adele said, crossing her legs.

"I was ready to give up on him," the man admitted. "I tried to tell myself that everything would be all right, but... part of me knew he'd never make it if we waited."

"You panicked."

"Is that what I would have explained to his trainer? Sorry, kid, I panicked. No hard feelings."

"Maybe he wouldn't..."

"Yes, he would. And you know it as well as I do."

Adele crossed her hands over her stomach and twiddled her thumbs as if thinking.

"Then he can be happy that Serena is crazy enough about him to risk her own life."

"Crazy about him? You mean... Oh! Stop with the jokes! Especially when I'm trying to confide in you..."

The woman put her hands in front of her mouth to stifle a laugh at her colleague's reaction. Suddenly she stopped, her gaze more serious.

"Did Wattson tell you what region this girl is from?"

Watt had the impression that the woman's tone had changed. It was much more... distant. But from working with her, he was getting used to these strange mood swings, if you could call them that.

"No, and I don't think this is the time to ask him. And what do you care?"

Adele's lips formed an odd rictus.

"Maybe I don't need to worry," she sighs, straightening her shoulders. "It's just... confusion, I suppose," she finished, cracking her vertebrae.

"If you say so."

Adele suddenly left her chair to disturb the leader.

"Would you like me to take Serena back to Mauville?" she offered.

Much to the surprise of Watt, who was watching discreetly, Wattson dropped his computer to set his small eyes on the woman.

"Don't bother, I'll take care of it."

He had replied! Watt hastily put his nose back in front of the screen to avoid anyone seeing his surprised face. Could it be that the young trainer had earned the old man's respect enough for him to abandon his task just by hearing the first name 'Serena'?

"It's a pity, I would have liked to chat with her for a while."

Adele closed her eyes, only to open them again in a flash. She seemed to be thinking for a moment, as if searching for the right words.

"If you want to bring her back, you must have something in mind," the woman analysed.

"I thought I'd thank her by allowing her to challenge me in the gym without having to go through the traps. And I think she can't wait to take me on," the old man chuckled.

"Are you sure that she's going to take part in the league?"

"Wahaha! What else would she be taking part in?"

Adele stared at the leader, blaming her boss's idiocy on fatigue.

"All your pokemons are in great shape," the nurse smiled. "As for Charmeleon's pokeball, I couldn't find any problems."

Serena thanked her in a hoarse voice, still groggy from the difficult awakening. Still, she looked at the capsule for a few seconds, hesitant to ask for another expert opinion.

"Are you ready for our fight?" the leader asked.

"Fight?" Serena repeated, rubbing her eyes.

"Yes, the gym fight."

"I'm a coordinator."

Wattson stammered out a feeble "I was only joking" to save his honour, and finally asked Serena to come over for dinner to thank her. Ash squealed with delight at the idea. He was already dragging his trainer out of the house, not even knowing where he was going. Wattson took the lead and led them through the busy streets. Serena didn't know how her pokemon managed to stay so fit when she herself felt sluggish and strangely more tired than when she'd gone to bed. And the people around her were rushing to the restaurants for their midday snack, while she hadn't even had breakfast.

"Charmeleon?" the trainer worried, no longer seeing her pokemon near her.

She spun around, searching the crowd for her friend before realising she had lost Wattson as well.

"Where are you?" she panicked.

"Char!" she heard him shout.

The fiery reptile struggled to free himself from the legs of the onlookers blocking his path. Serena watched as he came back towards her.

"Do you know where Wattson is?" she asked.

"Meleon!" the monster nodded, pointing to the leader who had also returned.

The trainer smiled slightly before saying in a falsely disappointed voice:

"Looks like I'm the one who got lost this time."

Ash couldn't help but chuckle at the remark. He held out his hand to invite the young girl to follow him, and Serena took it with a gentle smile.

Tell me, do you still want to go or...?

She watched the back of her pokemon as he ran ahead of her, never letting go of her hand.

From now on, will you always be there to find me?

The trainer thought that the leader lived in a beautiful house because of his status. It was nothing of the sort. Wattson lived in an apartment like the rest of the population of Mauville. What's more, the accommodation was not very well soundproofed. You could regularly hear the lift going up and down without ever stopping, or simply the sound of people walking to their homes.

Wattson had settled down to cook while his guests waited in the lounge. Plusle and Minun were making poor Pancham's head spin in a game of hide and seek. It almost cost Wattson a decorative vase, but luckily Sylveon had good reflexes.

Serena managed to calm the whole gang down while Wattson brought them something to eat. Here we go again with the croquettes... Ash sighed.

Serena soon replaced the reptile's plate, explaining her complicated taste in food to the leader. The false pokemon couldn't help but stare at his friend's plate. With his new size, it was easier to snatch a few items from the table. Serena quickly scolded him, but Ash had already stopped listening and was helping himself again. The young girl stood up, her eyes fixed on him, took a deep breath and... sighed?

"You better not get sick," she finally said.

Ash laughed victoriously. Finally, she resigned herself to letting him eat like a human. Wattson served the remainder of what he had prepared to the shapeshifter, who wasted no time in giving them an honourable send-off. Satisfied, the pokemon rubbed his belly.

"It seems to tolerate human food well," Wattson remarked.

"Maybe," Serena replied.

Even though she'd said it was his problem if he got sick, it was obvious that she didn't mean it, and she was already angry at herself for letting him do it. Ash, on the other hand, was unconcerned, convinced that his nausea the last time was only due to the ship rolling.

Wattson stretched his arms and made a few head movements to crack his vertebrae. After such a hearty meal, he would have trouble finishing his analyses. Nevertheless, he motivated himself to go to his room and load the data he'd retrieved from New Mauville onto his computer, leaving the trainer and her pokemon alone. Ash yawned, sleepy from the digestion that took all his energy. Then he noticed the green sofa that had been in front of the TV for at least a decade. It would do.

Serena was watching her pokemon, who had already returned to the Land of Dreams. The young girl wanted to join him, but found the air a little too heavy. The old man wouldn't mind if she let the air out. She opened the window and immediately felt her dizziness remind her that the apartment was on the fourth floor. She took a deep breath to calm herself and looked down at the people buzzing about in the middle of the afternoon.

Serena leaned against the windowsill; the neighbourhood wasn't too noisy, so she could probably sleep with the windows open. But first she wanted to fulfil the dream that had haunted her thoughts since yesterday: to take a shower.

The toilets, the kitchen, the leader's bedroom... Maybe she shouldn't have entered that last room, considering the way Wattson had been staring at her. Even finding a simple bathroom was a quest full of pitfalls. Finally she reached her destination. The room was barely bigger than a broom cupboard, so she'd have to make do. Serena took off her clothes and winced as she felt some of her bandages come off. She looked at herself in the mirror, hoping that Adele hadn't made a mistake.

"What..." she suddenly realised.

She craned her neck to get a better look at her back. On the areas of skin where the bandages had come off, she could make out several red dots. She turned to touch them and discovered that they were tiny wounds that had barely bled. It was as if someone had stuck needles into her back. But how could she have done this to herself? Magnet clearly couldn't have caused them.

Serena's first thought was to warn the leader, but remembering how he had barred her from his room, it was better not to disturb him. Then again, maybe she wasn't worried about anything and it was just a strange injury she'd sustained when she'd bumped into something. The trainer ran the hot water to calm her mind and convince her that there was nothing to worry about. She preferred not to worry.

Wattson could hear the sound of the pipes carrying the water. The girl was probably enjoying the bath and he felt he could use a shower to ease his anxiety. The old man still had the bitter taste in his mouth from not being there to stop Tabi from hacking into the A.I. Once the employees were trapped in the break room, it must have been a walk in the park to copy all the data.

The coffee machine in his room had just finished its work with a hum. Wattson sighed contentedly as he sipped the woody drink. It was the only good thing that had happened to him in the last two days. Damned Tabi, he'd been lucky. Usually, the old man was checking several systems to make sure everything was running smoothly at the power station. Only yesterday he'd had to deal with that damned cycle path.

Wattson noticed the little pills lying next to the dirty cups he had forgotten to clean. The man picked up the box and winced as he read the word 'Ramipril'. It reminded him of his doctor and his tense smile when Wattson confessed that he sometimes "forgot" to take his medication. The doctor remained polite and tried not to get angry, but his eyes gave him away.

After all, it wasn't as if Wattson didn't know what the man in the white coat was afraid of. His friend, a cardiologist with whom he often chatted in the bar, never failed to joke about the subject with his famous retort: "So, Wattson, shall I get you a bed in the USCI tonight?". The inventor laughed heartily the first time, even though he didn't understand the meaning, and when he finally discovered that USCI was the acronym for Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, it didn't stop him from laughing twice as hard.

"I'm really sick of taking this stuff all the time."

Then Wattson noticed another box on the table with 'Tahor®' written on it.

"I forgot about the cholesterol," the old man grumbled.

The old man could sense that his next visit to the doctor was not going to be pleasant. At the same time, he should have known better. Problems never came alone, and neither did medicine.

"Never alone..." the leader murmured.

Wattson rolled his chair over to the videophone. The image of Benjamin in the middle of a tonne of paperwork soon appeared.

"Are you sure it was a breakdown?" asked Wattson immediately.

Benjamin dropped one of his piles of documents and let out an expletive before answering:

"What else could it be?"

"Hacking..." Wattson tensed.

"But that would require access to the control room, and I can assure you that no one gets in without my permission and a good reason."

"What about an external attack?"

"Deactivating the jammers isn't that easy."

"Jammers? What jammers?"

"You know me. I'm cautious," the Cycling Road manager smiled.

Wattson clutched his yellow suit in his hands to keep from smashing the videophone.

"Why didn't you tell me there were jammers?"

"I was busy," he huffed. "And they were the only things that were still working, so I didn't want to bother you with them."

"Benjamin! Don't you get it? Scramblers... that's why my Xtransceiver didn't work."

The gym leader found it hard to admit that he owed his assistant an apology. But he wasn't going to pay for the restaurant, it was up to Benjamin to put his hand in his pocket!

"I'll leave you to it," the fifty-year-old warned.

"Wait a minute! Are you sure the jammers have been working all night?"

Benjamin rolled his eyes. He'd slept less than an hour last night and it was making him irritable.

"They worked fine this morning."

"Are you really, really sure they weren't deactivated at some point?"

The Cycling Road manager rolled his eyes again, this game was likely to go on for a long time.

"Who would bother to reactivate the jammers?" the fifty year old sighed.

Wattson's entire body tensed at the comment.

"Benjamin, I've come to repair your security system. I spent a day there, cut off from the outside world by the jammers. A perfect cage... I need you to check it."

Benjamin shuddered at the desperate tone of his old friend. The manager twirled his pen between his fingers before finally answering:

"Give me an hour."

As promised, Benjamin called back. His face was now as pale as the leader's.

"It wasn't a breakdown. We analysed everything in detail and found traces of hacking. Just as you thought, they disabled the jammers long enough to do their evil deeds."

Wattson scratched his beard. Not all of New Mauville's communication systems had been shut down immediately. If Wattson hadn't been called to work on the Cycling Road, if he hadn't found himself in this jamming zone, isolated from the rest of the world, he could have stopped the pirate before he had completely copied Magnet's programmes.

At the same time, the inventor should have been more careful with this coincidence. Being in the right place at the right time on the day Tabi decided to steal the data was just too perfect. Wattson shuddered as his reasoning reached its conclusion. Tabi wasn't alone. He had allies capable of creating a diversion, allies who were very well organised.

"You've got an idea who's been after my poor trail," Benjamin realised.

"I'm still torn between Team Aqua and Team Magma," Wattson said with a wry smile. "But I'd lean more towards our dear bandits in red."

"Haven't those organisations disbanded?"

"I recently had a meeting with the other leaders to discuss their case. We've noticed some suspicious movements, but in light of recent events, I think they're back in action."

"And do you know what they want this time?"

"Right now, we think they're trying to awaken Groudon. I guess the first time wasn't enough for them."

"You know, idiots like to repeat the same mistakes," Benjamin replied smugly.

"I'll have to make a report to the trainers' association anyway, just to see if they don't have something else in mind."

"I hope you'll be more efficient than last time."

Wattson couldn't argue with his old friend. But he didn't like Benjamin's tone. The leader cleared his throat and explained in his own defence:

"They know how to hide, so it's not so easy to..."

"Please! You're not going to tell me that you still need the boy who beat you in a gym fight to bring order to Hoenn?"

"Ash didn't really beat me," Wattson frowned, trying to deny the truth. "Wait a minute! How can you know that?"

"You talk about it every time you've had too much to drink. I know the song: 'I'm rubbish, I don't deserve to be leader,' then you start ranting that he cheated, and finally you get up on the table, glass in hand, and shout that he didn't last five seconds in your return match."

Wattson couldn't remember behaving like that. He would have to be more careful on his next outings not to say too many compromising things.

"In any case, when you catch those thugs, I hope you'll send them to me," Benjamin thundered with a devilish grin.

"I don't want you to go to prison for torture," Wattson joked.

"I'm not going to torture them, I'm just going to make them do some community service. You know, like finding all the pieces of concrete and glass and gluing them back together by hand until the runway is as good as new."

Wattson was about to reply, but the strange sensation of a presence behind his back prevented him from speaking. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead as the air grew heavier, almost overwhelming.

"Wattson?" the fifty year old called into the videophone.

The inventor turned his head sharply to one side, then to the other, making Benjamin wonder if his friend was becoming paranoid.

"Wattson? Are you listening to me?"

The gym leader finally lowered his head and immediately calmed himself.

"What are you doing in here? This is my room and I don't like people coming in without permission."

The fire reptile put his paws over his mouth to stifle a childish laugh. Wattson arched an eyebrow, Charmeleon was strange. The leader pushed the pokemon out of his room and closed his door to make sure he didn't come back.

Charmeleon returned to the living room. The young trainer was sleeping peacefully on the sofa. The pokemon crossed the room and climbed onto the windowsill, which had been left open. He stayed there for a while, looking up at the grey ceiling dotted with light fixtures and feeling the breeze coming through the artificial ventilation system. The pokemon laughed again, easily, childishly. A city where you couldn't see the sky was a very strange idea. The fake Charmeleon didn't look back. He threw himself into the void.