A Journey's Link

Chapter 10 - Preparations

"Fletch-fletch! Fletch-fletch!"

Serena groggily opened her eyes as the alarm that sat on the desk beside her began frantically blaring its signature Fletchling noise. Half-awake, she turned it off and stared at the ceiling, dreading having to leave the comfort of the clean hotel bed.

"Come on, Serena!" May exclaimed, already awake and packing up her stuff. "There's no time to mess around. The contest starts in two hours!" She puffed her face and waved her hands in the air, desperate to wake up her fellow coordinator.

Serena mumbled something; May assumed it was a protesting statement, so she repeated her exclamations in annoyance. Serena reluctantly got up from the bed, unable to deal with her reprimands any longer. She and May put on their clothes and grabbed their belongings for the big contest.

In a few rooms over, Ash and Goh had just woken up and began preparing for their visit to the Devon Corporation to visit Mr. Stone for a package for Cerise Laboratories. "All set," Goh said, zipping up his backpack and settling into his soft hoodie. "Let's get going!"

Ash nodded, putting his bag on and stretching his arm out for Pikachu to run onto his shoulder. They made their way to the lobby and approached Nurse Joy. "How was your stay?" Nurse Joy asked. "It was great, thank you very much!" Goh responded. Ash also chimed in. "The beds were super soft, like a Mareep!" he exclaimed childishly.

Nurse Joy giggled and said, "I'm glad your stay was well and we hope to see you again soon!" Ash and Goh thanked her once again and gave her the room key, waving goodbye as they exited through the sliding doors. As they departed, Serena and May entered the lobby. They both approached Nurse Joy with their room key and thanked her for the night as well.

After a polite exchange, the two coordinators left the Pokemon Centers with their eyes on one location: The Rustboro Contest Hall. They walked past the stone buildings, uninterested by their adobe outside, and saw the building they needed to go to; it was completely contradictory to the rest of the city, as it used marble and beautiful gilded plates all over.

Serena and May's eyes widened upon seeing the hall; their expectations were raised even higher as they entered and were met with a grandiose and luxurious lobby. "Wow," Serena whispered. "Now I see why so many people are signed up here!" "Yeah," May agreed. "Everything is so beautiful and shiny!" Neither of them could believe that this hall was even real, let alone real in the drab city that was Rustboro City.

Serena and May heard a smug voice behind them. "Of course it's beautiful. Only an idiot would be too stupid to see that." Serena and May both turned and looked at the source of the voice, seeing a green-haired boy around their age keenly staring at them.

"Drew?" May said, shocked and appalled. "What are you doing here?" She walked towards the stylish coordinator who put his hand in his pocket. "The same could be asked about you May. I thought you went to Johto like me," he jested with a smirk on his face. "It's obvious you saw how great my idea was and decided to steal it."

May frowned in frustration, surprised that after all this time, Drew still acted the same as when they were rivals in Hoenn. She noticed something that had changed; his outfit. His purple coat that usually sat over his black undershirt had changed into a blue and white jacket. His teal pants had been replaced with black sweatpants, and his dark blue shoes were now fully white.

He flipped his medium-length green hair and smirked again. "Did you finally decide that Johto was too hard for you, May?" May was taken aback and felt offended by this question, but she regained her composure and stared back at Drew, contesting his smugness.

"Nope, I won a ribbon at every contest hall, which is probably something you couldn't do," May responded. Drew's smirk broke as she said this, momentarily showing a hint of surprise. He shook his head and chuckled, knowing that pointless bickering would get them nowhere. Smiling genuinely, he ran his hand through his hair.