Mega Love

Chapter Seventeen

    Serena, Shauna, and I make our way down Route 7: the Riviere Walk. To our left are elegant flower beds, and on our right is a stunning river view. We pass by many painters capturing the essence of their beauty.
    I admire the flowers as we go by, but notice a few offset colors in one of the patches. Out of this huge patch of yellow flowers, one red and one blue flower stand out. I walk up to them. They're roses! They're not even the same type of flower!
    "Calem? What are you doing?" asks Serena. "Did you find something?"
    "What are roses doing in this flower patch?" I ask as I kneel down to pick one. I'm sure Serena likes roses.
    "Oh wait! It might be a-" says Serena.
    Instead of a flower, I pull a Pokémon off the ground. In shock, I drop the Pokémon.
    "Roselia," finishes Serena. Serena and Shauna join me in the flowers.
    "I'm so sorry," I say to the Roselia as it gets up. The tiny little Pokémon is not very happy.
    "You've done it now C-Meister," says Shauna.
    The Roselia puts its roses together and starts to charge up an Energy Ball.
    "Run!" I yell, scrambling to my feet, but it was too late.
    The Energy Ball explodes in my face, knocking me back to the ground.
    "Calem!"
    "C-Meister!" The girls rush to my sides to help me up. I look at the Roselia. It's smiling and gesturing for a challenge.
    "Oh! IT. IS. ON!" I yell. I pull out Braixen's Pokéball and call her out. "Braixen! Fire Spin!"
Braixen lands gracefully, waves her wand, and creates a vortex of fire around Roselia. While the Roselia can't see or move, I have Braixen move behind it and use Psybeam. The attack connects, and Braixen releases the vortex. I walk up to the Roselia that clearly took a bite bigger than it could chew. It lays unconscious. I pull an empty Pokéball out from my bag and lightly tap it against Roselia. With no resistance, the Pokéball locks.
    "Now you're taking it with you! It just attacked you! I'm so confused ," says Shauna.
    "That was technically my fault though," I say, scratching the back of my head. Shauna facepalms.
    "I think you made the right choice," says Serena with a smile.
    From a distance we hear someone yell out, "Hey you guys!" Turning, we see Tierno and Trevor running to catch up to us.
    "We finally caught up," says Tierno.
    "Perfect timing," says Serena. "After seeing Calem battle, I feel the need to battle too! Why don't we all battle?"
    "But there are five of us," says Trevor.
    "That's true. How should we pair up? Hmm... " replies Serena.
    "I can sit out!" says Shauna. "I don't have a lot of experience with battling yet, and I can learn a lot by watching you guys!"
    Serena thinks for a minute. "Normally, I would tell you that it's better to learn through experience, but a battle with Tierno and Trevor against Calem and me sounds interesting!" says Serena.
    "Oh? And why did you automatically put yourself with Calem? Hm???" asks Shauna.
    "Since we're neighbors, we might as well battle together, right?" asks Serena, turning to me.
    "Sounds good to me! Let's do this neighbor!" I say.

    After Serena and I win the battle with our new starters, the group splits back up. Tierno and Trevor decide to stay on Route 7 for a while longer, and the rest of us proceed down Route 7. According to Serena, we'll need to go through Connecting Cave to reach Ambrette Town.
    "Are we going to get lost in this cave?" asks Shauna as we enter the cave. She seems a little shaky.
    "We should be fine. The cave is actually pretty short. Nothing to be afraid of," says Serena. Immediately, a few wild Zubat drop from the ceiling and fly past us. I panic, but the girls scream. They each cling on to one of my arms.
    I sigh and continue down the cave. Shauna is now too scared to let go, and Serena keeps looking at Shauna. The cave isn't long at all, and after a minute or two, we exit out onto the other side.
    "Sorry C-Meister," says Shauna as she lets go of me. Serena does the same.
    "It's fine," I reply. Down the mountain I see a town. "Is that Ambrette Town?"
Serena looks. "No. I think that's Cyllage City," she says.
    "But I thought we were supposed to end up in Ambrette Town?" I say.
    "We will. Route 8 leads down the opposite side of the mountain. We'll end up in Ambrette Town, and after that, we'll head to Cyllage City," says Serena.
    "Gotcha," I reply.
    We make our way down the mountain, encountering lots of trainers using this area as their training grounds. Shauna then finds these cool rocks perfect for skipping across, and we make a game out of it.
    The last one to fall off the rocks wins, but you always have to keep moving. It's a pretty simple game, until I get distracted by a Drifloon that wants to join in on the fun. It floats over to me and ties itself to my wrist. I laugh, but because I'm not looking, I bump into Serena.
    "I win!!!" shouts Shauna in excitement.
    "Awwe, Calem! I blame you!" says Serena.
    "Sorry," I reply. "We got a bit distracted." I smile and laugh with Drifloon.
    "Wow, C-Meister! You're like a Pokémon magnet today!" says Shauna.
    Drifloon floats over to Serena to introduce itself. Serena pets the top of its head, and it lets out a cry of joy. Serena laughs.
    We continue down the mountain, and Drifloon comes along with us.
    As we get close to the town, a Pokémon suddenly jumps onto the path. I've never seen this Pokémon before! It stands on all fours, has pure white fur, and a majestic black crescent moon horn. The Pokémon doesn't move. It just stands there, watching us.
    Serena pulls out her Pokédex and scans it.
"Absol. The Disaster Pokémon. It senses coming disasters and appears before people only to warn them of impending danger," says Serena.
    "So that means... " I say.
    "Something really bad is going to happen," says Serena.
    "I don't like this," says Shauna in a scared tone.
    Serena turns to me. "This isn't something that we can ignore. We need to do something."
    "You're right. Let's try and see if it will help show us what the disaster is," I say.
    Serena nods. She then cautiously takes a step towards the mysterious Pokémon. "Is something bad happening or going to happen?" she asks the Absol.
    The Absol lets out a cry.
    "I'll take that as a yes," says Serena. "Do you want us to follow you?"
    Absol nods and starts towards Ambrette Town. What is going on? Serena, Shauna, and I all exchange glances and decide to follow behind it.