"Ash! Did you sleep last night?" Serena asked worriedly as she took a glance at the dark bags under Ash's eyes. "Aha...not really? I was pretty excited for today's battle.." Ash lied through his teeth.
To be fair, he was excited for the battle but that wasn't the reason why he couldn't sleep.
He had to make sure nothing happened during the night. He was on the edge the WHOLE night. The last thing he wanted was for his friends to get hurt by the weird...person.
"Oh yeah! It's your rematch against Wulfric today isn't it?" Clemont said after realizing what date it was with a large smile on his face.
"Mhm! Greninja and I have been working our best this week!" Ash said, with genuine excitement. However, something in the back of his brain continuously urged him to stay on guard at all times. A gut feeling perhaps? Ash never pushed that feeling aside.
"And I can tell Ash! But sleep is very important!" Serena exclaimed worriedly as she heaved an exasperated sigh, still smiling softly when she passed the plate of food to Ash. Ash thanked her softly before gobbling his food down.
Clemont and Serena were glad that Ash seemed to be back to his normal self. He seemed energetic again but they couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. They weren't oblivious, they saw the way his eyes seem to dart around in alert, though they didn't know why.
"So uh. We're heading out and uhm..." Serena said slowly, fumbling over her words. When Clemont caught onto what she was doing, he quickly continued. "I made a new invention! See, it's the Gigatron-3000!" Clemont exclaimed with pride, pulling out a robot from his gigantic bag.
This caught Ash's attention and Serena saw the way his body relaxed as his eyes sparkled with amazement. Clemont showed demonstrations of his invention and Serena could not help but be entranced by it as well.
The metal body was clearly made carefully, unlike Clemont's other inventions which seemed to be made in a haste. It was polished and assembled perfectly together, not to mention the fact that it had not exploded!
...Yet anyways. But still! The robot WAS quite large, its height being around 1.2m. This would have scared Serena, if not for the fact that Clemont had made way larger inventions before.
How does he even find the time to make all of these? She will never know and quite frankly, she never wants to find out. The rest of the time was spent peacefully, as Ash and Clemont had some sort of brotherly talk after everything. It seemed as if Ash was confiding in Clemont and that showed how much of a bond he had with him.
Serena, on the other hand, was playing with Bonnie and her Pokemon! "Hey, Serena! Why don't you practice your performance now?" Bonnie asked suddenly, making Serena freeze in spot. "H-Here? Seriously?" Serena said in shock, gesturing to the area around her.
It wasn't the best, it was rocky all around and quite dangerous. "I mean, what could go wrong, right?" Bonnie asked innocently, but Serena had a feeling it was more than that.
"I'm not sure about this Bonnie..." Serena said quietly to her, praying she'd change her mind. "Oh, for me Serena? Please?" And that was when she pulled out her trump card. "And I'm sure Ash would love to see it too!" She yelled loudly back to the boys who were chatting animatedly.
"Huh? See what?" Both of the boys asked in sync, their heads tilted slightly to the side. "Serena here was just about to practice her performing and I'm sure you'd love to see it!" Bonnie yelled in a sing-song manner, but the boys did not catch onto it.
"Oh yeah, we'd love to!" Clemont said as he stood up and walked towards the girls, Ash walking behind him with a small smile. "Uhm...O-Okay I guess." Serena gave in anyways. With an audience, she couldn't simply walk away. Taking in a deep breath, she willed herself to push through with a smile.
"Braixen, Sylveon come on out!" She exclaimed happily as she threw two Pokeballs. They opened with glistening lights, eventually forming into the two Pokemon she had called out. "Before you start..." Clemont said, calling his robot over. "You'll need some music!"
Just as he said that, the Gigatron-3000 started playing a catchy and upbeat tune. The moment Serena heard it, she tapped her feet according to the beat, a smile forming on her face.
(CREDIT GOES TO THE CREATOR OF THIS VIDEO)
Serena spinned around slowly, gracefully avoiding the rocks on the ground as her Pokemon did the same. "Alright Sylveon use Fairy Wind and Braixen use Flamethrower on it!" The wind then erupted into little beige sparks, glittering as the sun shone on it.
"Now Sylveon, lift Braixen up and Braixen do Fire Blast!" Serena twirled with a smile, her soft curls bouncing lightly with every step. Sylveon used her feelers and lifted Braixen up with ease, twirling around slowly.
Braixen threw her stick into the air and used her Fire Blast, quickly catching her stick afterwards. 'Now for the move I haven't tried before...' Serena thought to herself.
"Sylveon put Braixen down and use Swift! Braixen, use Fire Spin!" The two Pokemon quickly executed their moves, resulting in a bunch of stars falling slowly into the fire. Once the two met, it exploded in huge sparkles in different hues and the flame slowly died down.
Serena hummed with a smile and everyone wondered why exactly she did that. And then they saw it. Her Pokemon had been doing actions without her command!
Sylveon conjured up her Fairy Wind again, lifting everyone into the sky. Amidst the wind, Braixen took out her stick and set fire to it, making a bright spark but also making it impossible to see through it.
Suddenly stars cut through the fiery wind, lighting up the area with all sorts of hues. A final Fire Blast was casted together with Sylveon's Swift, making a large, fiery star in the middle.
"Finished!" Serena yelled with a smile, her Pokemon crying happily as if imitating her. "That was amazing!" Bonnie cried out, eyes twinkling with little stars.
"How long have you been practicing that?" Clemont asked curiously. "Truth is...I just made that up on the spot!" Serena said with a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. Everyone's face turned blank as they tried to process what Serena had just said.
"Aw really? That's amazing, I couldn't tell at all!" Ash exclaimed with a smile. Upon hearing that, Serena's cheeks flushed quickly, but she willed it to go away. "But then how did your Pokemon know what to do when you didn't give them a command?" Bonnie pointed out quickly, catching everyone's attention.
"Aha...that? It was just a coincidence really. I was just using the time to think up some more moves for the performance and then they jumped in!" Serena said with a big smile, patting both Braixen and Sylveon on their heads.
"Braix, Braixen!" "Sylveon!" They cried proudly, beaming at the others. "Wow, that kind of teamwork is pretty cool!" Clemont exclaimed in surprise, looking back and forth between Braixen, Sylveon and Serena.
"Hey Serena, why don't you do a twirl?" Bonnie asked out of the blue, innocently tilting her head when she saw Serena look at her with bewilderment. "W-What? Uhm, okay." Serena said quickly as she twirled on the steep rocks.
Suddenzly, her feet slipped and she let out a shriek of fear, expecting herself to fall against the rocks and hit her head, which would mean that she wouldn't be able to perform and she would have ruined her whole journey to the top, her Pokemon were going to be so upset and she-
Instead of feeling the hard and jagged ground, she felt herself fall against something...or someone?! "You okay?" At first she couldn't make out who it was but when her head cleared and she looked up, her face flushed profusely.
Ash was looking down at her worriedly, checking if there was any injuries on her. All the while, Serena was stuck in a position where her back was against Ash's torso and her hands were being held by him as well.
"I-I'm, uh, fine!!" Serena squealed as she quickly got up, making Ash confused. Clemont and Bonnie exchanged glances at each other and could only laugh at Serena's demise.
"You two!" Serena cried as she chased them around the grass, for she had learnt her lesson from the...experience. "COME BACK HERE!"
~~BONUS~~
"You sure you're okay?"
"Yes, Ash I'm fine I swear!"
"Okay, because your face was really read just now."
"EEK!"
Yo everyone! I'm back with a slightly longer than usual chapter since I got quite a bit of inspiration for this. It's a filler chapter and also a chapter to lighten the mood so I hope it did just that!
Before you ask, from here on, nothing will follow the canon storyline so there may be some inconsistencies within the story. I'll try to make sure such a thing doesn't happen! For now, I'll work on the next chapter immediately but no gurantees as to when it will be released!
Peace out!