Chapter Text
“Now, Luxray! Use Thunder Fang.” Clemont ordered.
“Greninja, Dodge Them with Double team!” As Ash reactively ordered his ace to make duplicates, narrowing avoiding the upcoming attack.
“Clear them up using Discharge!” Luxray took a stance and unleashed huge electricity surrounding the battlefield, hitting every duplicate seen on the field.
“Hang on, Luxray! This isn’t time to relax. Use your eyes to find him. If you find Greninja, wrap it up using wild charge.” Luxray nodded and scanned through the smoke.
“Now’s your chance, Greninja! Use water Shuriken.” Clemont didn’t have the time to react as His Luxray was struck by a huge shuriken from the sky and sent him flying.
Serena, acting as a judge, raised her right hand as she finished observing the downed pokemon. “Luxray is unable to battle. Greninja is the winner. This match goes to Ash!” As she proudly declared on the last line with a huge smile.
Clemont sighed and petted his Luxray. “You did great at Luxray. Take a good long rest.” As he returned him to his pokeball.
“You did great, Clemont. That was a great battle.” As the blonde teen saw his opponent lend out his hand.
“You too, Ash.” He accepted with a smile. “Looks like you are in a winning streak again ever since you won against Wulfric.”
“Yeah. Since the Lumiose Conference is a few months away, I have been trying to make up for the lost time I had with Greninja. I couldn’t get in sync with him before and I am doing my best for him now.” Ash rubbed his nape.
“Well. It looks like you are on top of your game, Ash.” Serena approached both of them, especially Ash.
“Yeah. I wish there was something that I could improve, you know? You saw My loss with Sawyer and Alain. Who knows how strong they will be in the conference when I face them there.”
“But Ash, You lost to Sawyer because you couldn’t get in sync with Greninja at that time.”
“Not my point, Clemont. My point is that It was still my loss, technicality or not. And I need to get stronger so I could at least beat Sawyer or Alain.” Ash frowned and crossed his arms.
“Well… I don’t know how we are going to do it but…. Rest Assured Ash, We will be there with you to help along the way. Right, Clemont?” Serena clenched her fists in front of him while turning her head towards the blonde inventor, who nodded in response.
“Thanks guys…… Wait. Where is Bonnie?” Ash looked around for the younger blonde sibling. “She is sleeping with Squishy. I guess that she is tired after playing with the other pokemon while you and Clemont are having a battle, Ash. Want me to wake her up so we could keep going? Next stop we would be heading to is Kiloude City.” The leader looked at the sleeping lemon blonde and smiled.
“You know what? It has been a while since we took a break and we never got the chance to relax because all of us are focusing on my gym battles, my Greninja’s transformation problems or knowing what kind of Pokemon is Squishy. The last thing I remembered about us having so relaxed was when the three of us were watching Serena’s Masterclass performance.” Ash placed his bag besides the tree.
“Why don’t we take a break for now?” He lay down on the grass with his pikachu and shut his eyes. Clemont followed suit after letting out all of his pokemons in their pokeballs while Serena was in awe at the leader of the group.
“Serena, you want to stay up a little longer?” Ash called out to Serena, in which she responded with a no and said, “I am coming with you. Just let me clean up.” As she was cleaning up, there was a huge explosion of green smoke that was coming from her group of friends.
“Ash! Clemont! Bonnie! You guys alright?” As she was heading to them as the smoke cleared out, she saw that they were fully and heavily asleep. “Guys! This is not the time to sleep. Wake up!” She kept shaking them but to no avail. As she was about to call one of her pokemons to assist her in waking them, A net suddenly grabbed ahold of all of the pokemon that was seen in the clearing, restraining them in the colorful and bright cubic cage.
“No! The pokemons. Who….” As she was interrupted by another launching hand that was heading to her, she braced for impact, only for realizing that it was intent to catch Pikachu.
“Wait…. Pikachu? Then that means….” She turned around and looked at the sky, seeing a grinning trio riding a giant Meowth hot air balloon, mocking the teens on the ground.
“Give them back, Team Rocket!” Serena clenched her fist and ran towards the fleeing trio.
“Not happening twerpette. Step on it, Meowth!” As Serena was starting to see their disheveled state.
Jessie’s hair had branches stuck in them. James had some small patches of soot in his cheeks, shirt and sleeves. And Meowth had his face full of scratch marks.
“That is not going to happen. Braixen! Use Scratch. Pancham! Use Arm Thrust. Sylveon, Use Fairy Wind. Everyone else, Please help out!” The imprisoned pokemon nodded and prepared for an attack. But James pressed a button on his remote, releasing a cloud of green powder and spreading inside of the cage.
“Ah. Ah. Ah. These Sleep powders would help you get comfortable inside of there.”
“Time to take a nap.” Meowth cackled loudly as he obliged his female teammate and gave their ride a rocket boost.
Serena couldn’t keep up with them as she was heading to the forest. She can barely see their hot air balloon and she was having problems catching up with them due to a lot of multiple huge trees blocking her way.
“Good thing, we captured those Grass types first and had them give us their sleep powder. And We finally have enough of those to put those twerps and their pokemon to sleep.” Meowth was steering the helm of the balloon, grinning.
“But sadly, only the twerpette is lucky enough to not be in the vicinity and she is heading towards us.” James was cleaning his disheveled uniform.
“Oh, Who cares? She isn’t going to stay with us forever. She is bound to get tired and we will finally have enough twerps’ pokemon to give to the Boss. And we will get promoted and get rich.” Jessie combed her hair as the trio celebrated their victory and Serena was getting tired running towards them.
I need to keep running. I need to catch them. I need to get our pokemons back.
But Clemont isn’t here to make a gadget for me nor Ash isn’t here for his ingenuity. I need to think of something to catch up with them.
I am getting tired and I need help. But who am I going to ask? There isn’t any Officer Jenny around. There is not even a Pokemon Center last I checked in my guide. All I see is trees. There isn’t even a pokemon for me to ask.
Serena’s frustration began to grow along with her anxiety. She shut her eyes and ran faster, hoping that she wouldn’t run into any obstructions.
“Oof!” She fell down on her as she bumped into something.
Wait. Scratch that.
Someone.
She looked at the dark red haired man who was wearing a short sleeved black trench coat with a hoodie. She also noticed that Gallade was with him and wearing a yellow red band on his right arm. His bored stare/scowl seems to put Serena in a paralyzed state.
“Can I help you, little girl?” He offered his hand to her which finally put Serena at ease.
“Sorry. You just looked scary. That’s all.” She stood up with his help.
“I get that a lot.” His Gallade poked his shoulder. “What’s up?” The blade pokemon was having a casual conversation with him and his trainer seems to understand perfectly which surprises Serena.
“Oh? Is that right?” He turned his head to the honey blonde. “Mind telling me why are you in a very distressed state? Gallade seems to pick up your frantic emotions and he said and I quote: ‘They are all over the place.’ I suggest you calm down first before you do or say anything hasty.” He opened up his bag and gave her a cookie box. “Help yourself. There is more where that came from.” Serena indulged herself and calmed down.
“Someone stole our pokemon and I am heading towards them now.” He raised his eyebrow at her while Serena returned the cookie box.
“Our pokemon?” Serena nodded. “Did someone leave you behind?”
“No. They used a green powder on my friends and they are now asleep. But I couldn’t let the people who stole our pokemon get away. That is why it is just me here.” He nodded.
“We could help but I need you to tell me what they look like or at least where they are headed. If you see them riding a car or something, that would be very much appreciated.” Serena nodded in excitement and relief.
“Thank you very much, Sir.” The young man chuckled. “Please stop with the Sir. I am just in my early 20s. Anyways, Let’s get to it.” Serena explained in full details.
“So they are heading towards the south with a giant Meowth hot air balloon? Huh, they must have made a temporary hideout there. No wonder they called me for help.” He scratched the back of his head and exhaled deeply. “All right, Gallade. Please be a dear and help the poor lady out.” Gallade nodded and asked something.
“Oh yeah, Sure, I can prepare a small picnic. It will be done in 30 minutes. 15 if there is a nearby clearing.” The young man shrugged.
“Lade.” Gallade said with a smirk, which gave the young man a reason to chuckle.
“All right then. Hop to it. I will ask a friend to teleport us to you when you are ready.” Gallade nodded and left with an absurd speed.
“Woah. That Gallade is fast. But aren’t we supposed to go along with him?” Serena asked in with worry.
“Going along with him means that he has to wait for us while we catch up with him. Gallade wanted me to train him and help him improve his speed so I gave it to him. And he knows how worried you are for your pokemon so it is best to let him get them alone.” Serena nodded with a frown. “Oh, don’t be a worry wart. I trust my pokemon with my life. Besides, it would give him a small sense of relief that I finally made him and the others a small picnic when he comes back. Say…… You happen to know a good spot for me to set up a picnic place, don’t you?” Serena nodded.
“Yeah but…..”
“It will be fine. Just humor the guy.” Serena sighed and led him back to the place where she originally came from, realizing that it was the same place where all of her friends had fallen asleep due to sleep powder.
“Wow. They really are knocked out.” The man kneeled in front of her friends. “Yeah. These really are the same sleep powder back in the village.” He dusted off the powder found in the grass.
“No matter how hard I tried, they couldn’t just wake up.” Serena turned to the young man and saw him setting up a picnic.
“Oh, You don’t need to worry about that. I got something to do the trick.” He placed the tea leaves and started to boil the kettle. He also took out the same cookie box and took the lid off. “I want you to give these specific cookies to your friends and they will wake up in a given time.” He pointed to the round cookies placed in the center.
“These are Lumiose Galettes. Sure they look and taste great. But they are actually medicine that helps with certain non-volatile conditions. And that works with the sleeping condition as well.” Serena gasped in awe and quickly but gently gave her friends the medicinal treat for her friends. To Clemont, Bonnie and lastly Ash.
“Now, we have to wait for it and……”
“BOOM!” The young man smiled from the sound of distant explosions as Serena finally watched her friends stirring up from sleep after being startled.
“Guys! You are okay.” Serena smiled at her group of friends.
“Serena? What happened? And where are the pokemon?” Serena frowned. “Team Rocket used some sort of sleep powder on you and stole your Pikachu and the rest of the pokemon. I couldn’t catch up with them. I am sorry, Ash.” Serena clenched fist on her knees with guilt.
“Hey…. At least you are okay. Besides, Clemont might help us find them with his invention, right?” Ash turned his head towards his genius inventor.
“Yeah but give me time. Cause I am still feeling a little bit drowsy from that sleep powder…… Oh, Who is he, Serena?" Serena realized that she never got the chance to know his name.
“As much as I would love to introduce myself to you, I think that can wait. All right, Serena? Was it? Looks Like Gallade called. Your friends could help us but consider that was a heavy dose of sleep powder they used on you. I think it is for the best to leave the situation to us.” He tossed out a pokeball and released a white and green Pokemon similar to Gallade. The Embrace pokemon was wearing a pair of glasses on her head, much like how Serena’s pancham wore its sunglasses.
“All right, Gardevoir. Think you can teleport us to Gallade?” Gardevoir nodded. “All right, Serena. I might need you for this.” Serena nodded.
“All right, guys. I will be right back with our pokemon. You guys take a break.” Serena smiled at her friends as she disappeared with the man and his Gardevoir.
“Alright, You asked for it.” As the tired Meowth lunges at the Gallade, claws out. “Take a taste of my Fury Swipes.” Gallade kept his eyes closed and crossed his arms, dodging every swipe.
“Lade.” Gallade held the small scratch cat Pokemon and threw him back to the team.
It was seen that Team rocket and their pokemon were starting to get tired fighting while Gallade was very laid back and seemed like waiting for his trainer.
“Aww… You actually waited for me. Here I thought you could have finished the job without me.” The pokemon smiled
“Gallade. Gal-Lade.” The redhead laughed while Meowth was snarling. “Say what?”
“Uhh…. Meowth? Translation.”
“Gallade said ‘The shortie is only good at coughing furballs.” The trainer smiled as he mocked the cat on the field.
“Hey! Nobody messes with Meowth. All right Inkay! Use Foul Play.” “Now, Gourgeist, Use Dark Pulse.” Both pokemon that were lying down on the side floated up and attacked the Blade Pokemon on either side which gave the Trainer to sigh.
“Dodge them, Please. Gallade.” Both attacks were missed and the dark ring-like pulse hit James's Kalos Pokemon, sending him flying.
“Inkay Dear.” As the bluenette picked up and gave Inkay a croissant to its delight.
“Look, guys. I have a really good cup of tea waiting for us and I want this to get over with. So if I were you, please give the pokemon back or else Gallade will stop playing with you.”
“Get your nose out of our business. These pokemon are ours and there is no way we are going to give it back to you. We got them fair and square.”
“You mean you stole them after you knocked the kids out with Sleep Powder. The same Sleep Powder you got from the Oddishes that was from the Pokemon Village.” Serena could have sworn she felt a very wild animosity coming from Gallade, Gardevoir and especially from the trainer as he corrected the female Team Rocket in a deadpanned and bored manner.
“Well. Who cares? Those pokemon there are just begging to be caught if they are found in a very large hillside.” The redhead male trainer exhaled as Jessie didn’t bother to tone down her pettiness. Gallade removed his yellow arm band and threw it to his trainer as the female kept laughing on their ‘success’.
“All right. I tried. Gardevoir. Help us out, would you? Gallade got tired playing with these jokers.” Gardevoir nodded and twirled her hands, causing all caught pokemon glowed in blue color and flying in the sky. Even the wild ones that were caught by the Rocket Trio.
“Hey! As if I am going to Let you. Gourgeist……”
“Gallade.” Jessie never had the chance to order an attack as Gallade suddenly jabbed the ghost pokemon with its arm glowing purple at an absurd speed. This caused Gourgeist to fly towards the three and knock it out. As if Jessie wasn’t scared enough from the sudden power Gallade showed. It was also shown that Gourgeist was poisoned from the attack and groaning in pain. James followed suit, attacking with his Inkay’s Psybeam.” The trainer kept his eyes closed and crossed his arms as his pokemon moved out of sight and attacked it from behind using a whole blade arm glowing blackish purple.
“All right. Wobbuffet. You two meowth!” Both blue psychic and cat pokemon stood in front of Jessie and ready to take the hit and hopefully bounce it back with double the damage while the other scratched when his guard hit him.
“Not even going to humor these two. Gallade. Please wrap this up using poison jab on both of them.” Gallade waited for his trainer as he knew there were more instructions to be heard as the redhead walked towards His Gardevoir, helping her load all of the heavy haul that the trio caught. “Oh yeah. Finish the pipsqueak first and then send the blue one flying.”
“Quick Wobbuffet, Use……” Jessie was too late to finish her command as both remaining pokemon were shown to be poisoned badly after being sent off flying.
“That was Gallade, trying to be nice to you guys. Cause I kinda doubt he would have left you guys off so easily from what you did.”
“Let’s beat it before….” The Female of the trio was interrupted as they were all lifted from the sky and realizing that they were being used by Psychic Move as well after they returned their pokemon to their pokeballs.
“Now…….. If I ever see you catching pokemon again, I assure you that I won’t stop them.” As they began to feel the effects of their restraints getting tighter. “ Now Gardevoir, Be a dear and send them flying using Shadow Ball please?” Gardevoir obliged and unleashed the most powerful shadow ball Serena has ever seen. She didn’t even realize that the trio was blasted off but it did give her a small sense of relief that every pokemon was accounted for.
Asleep but all accounted for.
“It might take a while to wake them up though.” As the duo was ready to teleport back to the clearing.
“Oh Don’t worry about that. I still have some galettes left in my backpack. And some few medicinal treats. I also have some that are also suited for sleeping pokemon as well. Let’s go back and I will treat these pokemon back to their normal awake self.”
“Thank you very much, Mister,” Ash, Serena, Clemont and Bonnie were grateful to the young man who helped retrieving their pokemon and releasing some of their wild pokemon as well. But the sense of serenity was interrupted by their stomach growling which caused them to be embarrassed. The dark redhead chuckled.
“Call me Axl. And Please, help yourselves. There is more where that came from.” Axl served the gang some tea and cookies. The sight of the picnic made me realize that Serena still had a few macarons left in her bag and distributed each treat to each of the pokemon. Ash also helped himself with a few.
“So, what are you guys doing here?” Axl took a macaroon and agreed to Ash’s delight.
“We were heading to Kiloude City but decided to stop here to take a break.” The oldest nodded.
“Axl, Is there a village nearby? I heard you said something about that earlier. But I didn’t see any villages on my tablet.”
“Yeah. It is a pokemon village heading towards Kiloude City.”
“What is the village like?” Clemont adjusted his glasses.
“The name perfectly describes the village. The place is filled with pokemon that you don’t normally see in Kalos Region.” Ash stood up and raised his fist upwards.
“Great, Maybe After Lunch, Let’s head there. What do you say guys?” Before they got a chance to reply to the leader of the teen group, Axl pulled him down to his seat gently.
“That wouldn’t be a good idea for you guys to go in there. The pokemon there are very hostile towards humans due to many of them having been either abandoned or a wild pokemon. Most of them were also caught by poachers. I am just lucky enough that they trust me to be included and ask me whenever they have some needed help. And considering what just team Rocket did? I wouldn’t exactly blame them because they are very alert towards you right now to the point where they are not hesitant to attack you on the spot.”
“Awww……. Can’t we just take a peek? I want to see some new cute pokemons.” Bonnie pouted and the Dedenee on top of her head mimicked her expression. Axl shook his head.
“If you want to see new pokemon, I won’t mind helping you get to Kiloude City myself and show you the friend safari. The pokemon there are docile and tamed.”
“Brother? What is a friend safari?” The youngest blonde asked her older brother.
“Friend safari is very much like a safari park in other regions where trainers get to see or catch some pokemon that isn’t normally found in Kalos region. You guys never went to a safari park before?” Axl collected all of the empty bowls on the table and started cleaning them.
“That is awesome. We wouldn’t mind if you showed us the way to Kiloude City just for the friend safari.” They all nodded to the eldest.
“Good. Right After this, I will help you get to Kiloude. Just promise me not to go to the pokemon village. The tension is very high right now, and a trainer randomly popping there is just making it worse.”
“We promise.”
“Good. Now, Who wants seconds?” As Axl took out another treat box but Serena still has her question regarding what happened to his battle earlier with Team Rocket.
“Axl? Can I ask what happened back there? When you were battling Team Rocket with your Gallade?”