The next day all trainers have gathered once again in the large stadium of the Kalos League. A few rounds have already passed since they began the 3rd round. Tierno and Sawyer have also already battled and are moving onto the 4th round, but the two of them choose to stay to see the rest of the battles for the day.
Those two are sitting with the rest of their friends, Ash, Bonnie, Serena, Clemont, Trevor, and today, Hannah. The eight of them are watching the battles and having light conversations. They would be having banter as well, but since Hannah is sitting with them, the air around them is quite tense and awkward, and everyone can feel it.
But, no one says anything about it, and they continue watching the battles. Soon, its Alain's turn to battle. Everyone's now focused upon him, and he sends out his Charizard to quickly sweep the opposing trainer.
Then, Ash remembers something, 'didn't Hannah and Alain train together the night of the dinner?'
"Hey, Hannah," Ash begins, the said girl turns her head towards him and gives him her full attention, "do you know Alain?"
Everybody's interest piked up at the question, and now all eyes were on Hannah to answer the question, "Yeah, I do. He was an assistant to Professor Sycamore when I was staying there for a while." Hannah answers.
"You stayed at the professor's place?" Bonnie asks Hannah.
"Yeah, I did. When I was assisting the professor in his research, Alain was undertaking an internship with the professor."
"Well, why were you with professor Sycamore's place to begin with? Isn't there a professor in Sinnoh?" Serena interrogates Hannah, trying to make her snap, but once again, ultimately failing.
"As I said, I was helping his research, Professor Sycamore required me for his experiments, and Professor Rowan did not," Hannah exclaims as if it was obvious.
"What kind of experiments would they need you for?"
As much as Ash wanted to hear Hannah and Serena's debacle, he needed to go to his battle. Ash was next, a random trainer and then Hannah as the last battle of the day. He excuses himself and heads down for the trainer's entrance to the battlefield.
In the stands, nobody talks and converses until Ash moves onto the field. When he does, all of his friends cheer him on, yelling at the top of their lungs, including Hannah. Waving her arms around yelling, it confuses Bonnie. Like, really confuses her.
She finds it odd that the cold and anti-social brainiac Hannah would be so excited and happy to see Ash on the field. When Ash does look up at his friends, his smile and slight wave is directed at Hannah. No one could tell it was directed at Hannah, except the young observant girl.
When Ash goes to take out his Pokéball to face the random girl trainer, Bonnie uses this time to interrogate Hannah. Whispering to her, Bonnie gets the sly look on her face and asks Hannah, "So, Hannah. Care to explain your abnormal behaviour towards Ash?"
Hannah freezes in her spot. Hannah knew she was observant, but not that observant. "What are you talking about?" Hannah tries to play the oblivious card, but Bonnie knows better than that.
"Hannah, you know exactly what I'm talking about." The smirk on Bonnie's face is growing at an alarming rate. But, Hannah remains calm and looks down at the field to see Ash and his Hawlucha about to use their first move.
"Bonnie, concentrate on the battle," Hannah concludes, trying to concentrate. But, Bonnie decides to let Hannah in on a little secret, "Hey Hannah, just so you know, when Ash fidgets with his fingers that mean he's lying."
Hannah looks as though she didn't care about what Bonnie had to say, but in her head, she was really trying to remember any other times when Ash did fidget.
The said boy finishes up his battles and is advancing to the 4th round. His Hawlucha and Noivern suffered the cruel fate of fainting, but Pikachu pulled through and the three of them made the girl's Forretress, Magmar, and Crobat faint, eliminating her from the competition.
As soon as Ash finishes his battle, the next one begins. It between a boy and a girl. The girl releases her Pokémon first, and it is a Miltank. Then, the boy releases his Pokémon, and what appears on the field is a Toxicroak. As soon as Hannah sees that Pokémon, her eyes grow wide as well as Weavile's, and Hannah rushes to get that Pokémon out of her sight before she can begin to panic.
Hannah excuses herself from the group and walks towards the staircase to get her down to the battlefield. But before she fully exits, Hannah turns towards them and exclaims, "Hey, Serena. You know that research with the professor I was telling you about?"
Serena turns around at that, and stares at Hannah, awaiting her response.
"I'll show you a little something on the field," Hannah concludes before walking towards the staircase. The group was a little confused upon what Hannah was talking about, but there is always one who gets what she means.
Bonnie sits back in her chair, already aware of what power Hannah was speaking of, 'what's on her wrist says it all."
Just after finishing his battle, Ash walks with a tired Pikachu on this shoulder towards the make-do Pokémon centre located at the end of the hall to heal the Pokémon and let the trainers continue watching the battles in the stands. The hallway from the field to the Pokémon centre was long, no windows in the hallway, just pictures depicting the history of the Kalos Region and various others.
Ash ignores the pictures and continues along the hallway. Stopping when he sees Hannah admiring one of the pictures on the wall.
The picture shows a hoard of Bellossom and Vileplume living happily under a giant willow tree. The two co-operating well with a lot of Oddish and Gloom running around, content with their families.
Hannah looks down to the bottom right-hand corner to see the details of the piece. Written there, it says a few words describing the piece.
"Date: 19th of February, 201X
Photographer: Freya Bamford
Whereabouts: Route 44, Johto Region
Description: A few moments peace between the ongoing feud amongst two species of the same evolution line."
"You know, I've been there?" Ash comes up from behind Hannah and startles her slightly, not showing in her body, but in her mind, rather.
"Really?" Hannah asks, wanting him to continue on in his story.
"Yeah, I was going from my 7th gym battle and heading towards my 8th, when my travelling companions, Misty, Brock and I were heading towards Blackthorn City when we saw three Oddish that was quite sick. That was due to the battles of Bellossom and Vileplume towards a huge tree that provided shade for the Pokémon. Long story short, a war broke out but both species live in harmony once again."
"How long ago was that?"
"About 4 years ago."
"So, after that picture was taken." Hannah determines, looking at the description of the piece, and from what Ash just said, Hannah concludes in her mind a theory, and proceeds to tell Ash of it, "You're the reason that the picture's description of the 'ongoing feud' is redundant now, because you and your friends stopped the fighting?"
"That's right," Ash says proudly, Weavile on Hannah's shoulder and Pikachu on Ash's high five each other.
"I would love to travel around so many different regions, and meet so many different Pokémon," Hannah says to no one in particular, more just her dreaming out loud.
Ash was about to say something, but his voice rendered inaudible due to the very loud speaker announcement throughout the vacant hallway. A feminine voice sounds, alerting the only two people in the hall, "Hannah Abernathy, please report to the field, I repeat Hannah Abernathy, please report to the battlefield immediately. Thank you."
"Looks like you've gotta go," Ash says with disappointment threaded through his words.
"Don't worry, Ash. I'll finish my battle up real quick." Hannah exclaims and winks at Ash before walking towards the field. Ash stands there like a deer in headlights, not moving until he hears his name being called once again, "Hey Ash."
The said boy turns around and meets the eyes of the girl who speaks again, "Watch me, I'm using a Pokémon you don't even know I have." She then turns around and continues walking to the field.
They both walk away from each other, wondering what Hannah's battle lies in store.
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hello all, hope you're having a good day/night!
THANK YOU FOR 350 READS THIS IS AWESOME! i appreciate all of you for reading my book, commenting voting and adding it to your reading lists, i am very thankful for all of it ❤
bye bye! until next time! hope you enjoyed this chapter!
- hannah ✨