Ash's Last Dance

The Introductions

Serena's POV

I widened my eyes in surprise as I came face to face with one of my best friends from when I was younger. Clemont looked much different now, especially with his longer hair and glasses. However, it was unmistakable—this was the same Clemont I had known almost six years ago.

"Wow, it's actually you," he said with a chuckle. "How've you been?"

"I've been alright, I guess," I responded. "I just got my starter Pokémon a few days ago. Thought I'd do a Rhyhorn race before setting off again."

"Wait, really? You've gotta meet some of my friends. They'd be down to give you some tips if you want. They've been to a bunch of different regions already."

Since I had nothing to do today and also because I did want to get some advice from his friends, I agreed.

We made our way off the back of the stage down to where several of the competitors were watching the awards presentation. He led me down to a group near a fence with a few kids my age and a couple of kids who looked a bit younger.

Once we got closer, my breath hitched.

It was him.

I cursed and then thanked my lucky stars over and over again. Somehow, I just couldn't stop running into him, and I couldn't decide whether it was a bad thing or a gift.

However, we had now made it to them and all eyes were on me.

"Hey guys, this is Serena. She was one of my best friends before I moved to Lumiose and the reason why I hate Rhyhorn."

They all introduced themselves to me, and so far, Ash hadn't given any signs that he recognized me yet.

"How'd you get so good at Rhyhorn racing? Are you a professional racer?" the kid with black hair and glasses asked, pointing to my first place trophy.

"Oh, no, actually my mom was a professional racer and she kinda forced me into it. I don't really like Rhyhorn racing, but I thought it would be fun to join a race while I was here."

"Wait a second," Ash said, looking at me for a moment. "Aren't you the girl I battled at the park a couple days ago?"

I pretended to think for a moment, then widened my eyes in realization. "So that's why you seemed so familiar," I said with a smile. "I didn't stand a chance against your Pikachu, did I?"

"Don't worry about it," he said, waving his hand. "You'll get better the more you battle."

"Pika Pika!" his Pikachu said with a thumbs up, making me chuckle.

"Oh yeah, Serena just got her starter Pokémon a few days ago, so I thought you guys might wanna give her some tips before she sets off," Clemont said, looking at Ash, Dawn, and May.

"Of course," Dawn said with a smile. "Though I think we could talk about this when we're back at the Pokémon Center."

I nodded with a smile, glad they were nice enough to help me out. Because I knew that if I had to last one more night in the forest with all those bugs everywhere without any idea how to stop them, I might actually lose my mind.

Once we had made it back to the Pokémon Center and gotten refreshed after an exhausting start to the day, we were all in the park, feeling the cool breeze while Ash and Dawn had some double battles with trainers.

"So what starter did you pick?" May asked me as we sat on a bench, watching Ash and Dawn battle.

"I picked Fennekin," I replied, pulling out Fennekin's Pokéball and letting her out.

"Aww, she's so cute," May said, scratching Fennekin's ear. "You know, I picked a Fire type too for my starter."

"Really, what Pokémon?" I asked.

"Torchic," she replied. "I did it based on which Pokémon looked the cutest, which in hindsight may not have been the right method, but it ended up going pretty well anyway."

She took out a Pokéball before tossing it on the ground. Out came a red, eight-foot figure in a fighting stance.

"Blaziken!" the Pokémon yelled, looking at us.

"Wow, you fully evolved it all the way to a Blaziken?" I asked, surprised. While evolving your Pokémon to their highest evolution was something simple to understand, actually getting the task done was much harder. The only people who had fully evolved Pokémon were the ones who battled and trained the most, and they tended to be the cream of the crop in trainers.

"Yep, Blaziken's one of my main Pokémon in Contests. He was the reason why I won a couple of the ribbons back in Johto," she explained.

"How'd you manage to fully evolve it?" I asked, now curious.

"You just need to train your Pokémon for whatever you're competing in or trying to accomplish," she explained. "You don't need to battle every day to evolve Pokémon. Just make sure that you have a training plan set that you do regularly with them that helps them master their capabilities. Once they're at the stage when they're good enough to evolve, they will. It's not a hard concept once you've gotten a grasp of it. Luckily I had people like Ash and our other friend Brock to help me learn these things during my first journey."

"Seems like Ash is pretty good at this," I said, watching as Ash and Dawn gave each other a high five after winning their battle.

"Yeah, he is. He's helped me, Dawn, and Max a lot when we were just starting out. We also had other people like Brock as well. I don't think I'd be here as successful as I am as a coordinator without them."

I nodded, understanding what she meant. Hopefully, I'd have a good idea of what it meant to be a trainer once I began my journey again.

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A/N: Mb for the kinda filler chapter, I promise the next one's going to be good. Also yes I know it's been forever since I last updated, I got it. I'll try to update again soon. 1000 words.