Gotta Catch That One

Chapter 60: Round One Begins

Waking up to the sight of a Pokemon staring at you was normal for a Pokemon trainer. In fact, it was something that should be expected. However, Serena was really only used to waking up to the sight of Delphox, Pancham, Sylveon and maybe Dedenne, Squishy or even Pikachu. The sight that greeted her this morning, was a winking vampire bat Pokemon with creepy yellow eyes. Well, only one eye was open, but Serena assumed the other was yellow.

"Gliscor, you're gonna freak Serena out if she wakes up and sees you doing that," Ash's voice said, coming from where the computer in the room was.

Serena had, indeed, been a little freaked out. Although, Gliscor's wink, and his tongue sticking out while doing so, was actually kind of cute in her opinion. She only had a brief memory of seeing him in Lumiose City, so this was their first real meeting. She sat up in her bed and smiled. "Hi Gliscor," she greeted.

"Gliscor!" The bat Pokemon happily exclaimed, opening his closed eye.

Ash turned around from his seat at the computer. Serena noticed him scooping up some pokeballs. She hadn't even noticed before that there was a transfer machine there. Clearly Ash had just collected his team from Professor Oak. He smiled at Serena. "Didn't know you were up. Uh...Gliscor was kind of excited I think, so I let him out as soon as he got transferred over. Last time he battled in a league was against Paul, so he's pretty psyched."

"He's cute," Serena said, kind of surprising herself with the Bonnie-like explanation for what many would actually see as a very intimidating Pokemon.

"Scor?" Gliscor asked, turning around to Ash.

Ash laughed, but gave a confident fist pump for his Pokemon. "Remo won't think you're cute, that's for sure!"

Serena yawned and looked around the room. "Where are Bonnie and Clemont?"

"They went to eat," Ash explained, standing up and clipping the pokeballs to his belt. "Pikachu and Butterfree went with them. I wanted to wait for you, though."

Serena blushed at those words. She had actually topped eating on Ash's list of priorities. If that didn't prove how he felt, nothing could. "I'll get ready and we can go right away," she announced, jumping out of bed and heading to the bathroom.

In a few minutes Serena was ready, and she and Ash set off, Ash recalling Gliscor before doing so. It was somewhat like their date the night before as they walked. Serena was feeling much more comfortable about actually appearing like a couple, so she held on tight to Ash, who may or may not have understood why.

When they reached the Pokemon centre, Pikachu was up on Ash's shoulder in an instant and Bonnie and Clemont were waving from a table. It was only the two Lumiose siblings and surprisingly they were with the blonde girl that had argued in Ash's favour at the opening ceremonies the night before. Serena remembered Ash had said her name was Astrid.

"Hey guys," Ash said, as he and Serena walked over. He looked at Astrid, a puzzled expression on his face. "Um...hi Astrid."

"Hi," Astrid greeted. "Clemont and Bonnie recognized me, so they invited me to sit with them," she explained. She then looked at Serena. "We didn't really get a chance to meet. Serena, right?"

"Yeah," Serena said, nodding. "Nice to meet you. And thanks for helping Ash out yesterday."

Astrid dismissed that with a wave of her hand as Serena and Ash sat down. "I didn't want him getting disqualified. As soon as I heard about the Team Flare attack and saw what Ash had done, I knew I had to battle him again."

"It'll be different from the last time," Ash assured her, as he dug into his food that Bonnie and Clemont had already got for him. "Hawlucha and Greninja, or Froakie back then, weren't very happy with how that battle worked out."