I Wanna Be The Very Best

Chapter 88: Bruno's Barrage!

After Ash defeated Lorelei in impressive fashion to say the least, him and the rest of the gang took a trip back to his and Serena's house for some quick celebrations.

Nothing too fancy of course given the next battle starts literally tomorrow, but a nice celebration nonetheless. Delia cooked Ash's favourite meal as they all sat around the kitchen table to chat for a few hours.

A good time was had by all, but not a longtime. An hour or so later the rest of the gang took their leave to give Ash and Serena some well deserved peace. Sure they could have helped Ash with preparing for tomorrow's battle, but right now the Alola champion needs some peace and quiet to make the most out of his free time.

Speaking of preparations, that's exactly what Ash is doing right now. He sits at the computer in the bedroom with Serena sat horizontally across his lap ,with her legs dangling off the side and her arms wrapped around his neck.

Pikachu is sat on the bed behind them getting a well deserved rest, with Sylveon and the baby sat next to him as they watch a film together as a family.

Ash continues to use the computer as he scratches his chin and whispers to no one in particular "Bruno has so many fighting type Pokémon that it's hard to narrow down what he's going to bring. He's even harder to prepare for than Lorelei."

Serena sees Ash's concentrated face and tries to cheer him up as she exclaims "Well, in theory the elite 4 challenge should get harder as things go on. That might explain why your finding it so much harder to prepare this time around. But I know we can still find a perfect team to take him on. It's just going to take longer than usual."

Ash nods in agreement with his girlfriend as he replies "I guess that does make sense, and I've got less time to prepare for this one too. It doesn't help of course that I met Bruno once already. This battle has more stakes on it because of that."

Serena raises an eyebrow in surprise as she questions "You've really met him? You didn't tell me that."

Ash chuckles nervously as he explains "Sorry babe, I just kind of forget about these things because we've been on so many adventures. Sometimes I can't keep track of all of them."

Serena shakes her head and smiles reassuringly towards her boyfriend as she exclaims "That's okay Ash, I understand that you might forget one or two things. Well actually you forgot one very important thing before about a certain summer camp, but I'll let you off on this occasion. So tell me, how did you meet Bruno?"

The Alola champion breathes a sigh of relief that Serena decided not to scold him about his selective memory on this occasion, before he exclaims "It was 8 years ago now and we were training for my first attempt at facing the pokemon league. While doing so, Brock heard that Bruno of the elite 4 was training just outside Pallet town. Naturally we went to see him and check out what his training was all about. But on the way, we managed to get involved in a small scrape with this massive Onix. Take Brock's Steelix as an example and triple his size. But Bruno managed to save us. Me and Brock thought he was some kind of superhuman so we wanted to become his students. Bruno accepted, but then proceeded to just use us for all his chores. Chopping wood, starting fires and all sorts of boring stuff."

Serena frowns at that last part as she replies while looking a little cross "Well that was a little mean of him to do. No offence but your were probably a naive and immature 10 year old. He just took advantage of that and made you his child labourer! There's no way I would have let him do that to you if I was there. I wouldn't have let you sign up in the first place. I can't wait to see him tomorrow so I can show him what happens when someone takes advantage of my boyfriend!"

Ash chuckles a little at Serena's protective nature as he exclaims "I wish you were there too princess, but in the end Misty sort of found out he was phoney. All in all he just wanted some company while he trained. But soon after that he showed us why he's an elite 4 member. We ran into that large Onix again and he basically saved my life. By this point we all kind of thought that Onix was a monster. But it turns out the only reason he was raging was because he had a Sandslash stuck between his shoulder. Bruno figured that out and managed to free Sandslash, stopping all of Onix's pain. Afterwards, that massive Onix decided to join Bruno's team. He then taught me a valuable lesson. You see I was just trying to find the best training method at that point to make my Pokémon stronger for the league. Well he gave it to me. The true secret behind Pokémon training is that trainer's and their Pokémon should care for each other. Since that day I've always tried to keep that same mentality."