Bonds of Eternity: Return to Kalos

Retreating to the Homeland

The next day had started, as sunlight shone through the leaves and branches of the forest. They were woken up by the chirps of birds above and the tranquil flow of the stream. 

"Good morning..." Ash said while yawning. 

As usual, he stretched to start the day. Meanwhile, Clemont was cooking breakfast while Serena and Vasyl set the table. After some time, the food was ready and they all ate together. Ash, being just as gluttonous as ever, ate three plates of fried rice made by Clemont. He was bloated after eating all of it.

"Thanks for the food..." he said immediately after burping.

"Ugh..." Vasyl reacted.

After eating, they scouted the area around them to make sure that no grunts have followed them this deep into the forest. They also foraged to ensure their food supply in the coming days. After they had gathered enough and everyone came back to the camp, they let all their Pokemon out into the woods to cure them of ailments they got when battling Team Rocket.

There, they saw Sceptile being scarred, and Serena quickly moved to take water from the pristine stream to clean his wounds. 

"Scep..." he cried as the water touched his broken leaves and wounded flesh. 

"Don't worry, Sceptile! It's gonna be alright," Serena reassured him.

Then, she proceeded to cut a part of her skirt to act as a cloth covering his wounds. It wasn't a full recovery, but it was better than nothing. Vasyl then fed him berries, so that he could recover. He ate them slowly at first, but after partly recovering, his eating pace accelerated.

They did it to every Pokemon, finishing at dusk. The white lights illuminating the forest floor through the gaps of leaves and branches turned orange, and everyone started to collect fallen branches to make a campfire. They started to sit on logs surrounding the fire, and their distance to the fire was roughly six meters.

"Isn't this great?" Bonnie rejoiced while moving her legs back and forth. "It's like the days back then, when we used to travel together!"

"It surely is!" Serena replied with twinkling eyes.

"But... we're here because we're trying to hide from Team Rocket, not for nostalgia," Clemont reminded. "What will we do after this?" he asked.

"We're going back to Lumiose to attack, isn't that obvious?!" Ash stood up and exclaimed.

"Wait, don't be so reckless, Ash!" Vasyl replied. "Are you serious? There's only eight of us here! God knows how much grunts there are in Lumiose, maybe even sixty of them!"

"Oh yeah..." Ash realized.

"Then, what should we do?" Misty asked them.

"I'm thinking we could get more people..." Cosette stated. But, her face showed that she doubted her own thinking.

"But how?" Sophie asked her. She went blank, as she had no idea.

"I guess we're gonna contact them using this phone..." Ash said as he pulled the phone out. When he tried to call Sawyer, there was no signal.

"What are you even doing? This is in the middle of the forest!" Vasyl shouted at him.

"I think I just got the perfect solution!" Serena exclaimed. All eyes turned to her, since they felt she came up with a good idea. "We should go down to Santalune and recruit trainers to our rank. Viola, for example."

"Not bad, Serena!" Clemont complimented. "But that's only one more, right? That isn't going to change much."

Ash pulled his phone out from his pocket again. "I have this phone with me, and the signal is definitely good in the city. I can call others to join!" he replied.