The Trainer's Guide to the Pokémon World: Volume 1; Kalos

Interpol's Warning

We are here again with another chapter that actually moves the overarching plot forward. In case it wasn't clear by now, a lot of the chapters that drive the plot forth are going to be ones without Max and Bonnie in them. This is because I've always hated stories where the entire plot revolves around the actions of the main character. Don't get me wrong, the main character still needs to have effects on the plot, but it shouldn't revolve entirely around everything that they do, because that's boring. Anyway, on with the chapter.

Whenever Ash stays over at Serena's house, he always sleeps on an inflatable mattress on the floor of Serena's room. In turn, Serena always does the same whenever she can find time to stay over at his place in Galar or his mother's in Kanto. Normally, the two like to sleep in for ages in the mornings, particularly when Serena's mother isn't there, so they won't be woken up by her Fletchling. However, on this particular morning, the two are woken up by Ash's Rotom Phone going off. Serena groans when she hears it. "Why did you set an alarm?" she grumbles. "I didn't," Ash replies sleepily, rubbing the tiredness from his eyes. "That's the sound my phone makes when I've missed a call. But it's probably just some journalist demanding an interview." He turns over to go back to sleep, but Serena lightly hits him with her pillow. "Aren't you going to check that?" she asks. "It could be important." Ash chuckles. "Nothing any of those vultures could call me about will ever be important," he replies. "It'll most likely be a request for an interview or a question regarding my love life." He lets out an irritated sigh at this. "Clearly 'I'm in a committed relationship with the Kalos Queen' doesn't produce enough gossip."

Serena laughs at this comment, but decides to check what it says anyway. When she turns the phone on, her eyes widen. "It's not from a journalist," she tells him. "It's from someone named Looker." Ash shoots awake at this and grabs his phone. He unlocks it and listens to the voicemail. "Ash, we have something to talk about," Looker said. He sounded frantic, and as if he was in the air. "Meet me in Lumiose this afternoon, preferably alone. Something serious is about to go down!" Then, the voicemail ended. Ash put his phone down and immediately started grabbing his clothes. "What's wrong?" Serena asks. As he picks up his clothes from the floor, he quickly explains to her the events of the cave, and what Looker and the agents of Interpol have been doing in Johto for the past few weeks. Serena's expression darkens at this, and she gets out of bed too.

While Ash hastily gets dressed, Serena quickly whips up a breakfast for both of them. Ash comes down and eats it quickly. He kisses her goodbye and promises to tell her everything when he gets back. Then, he grabs his hat and sunglasses and puts his hood up to conceal his identity, and rushes out the door. He usually wore some form of disguise when going out, due to his severe dislike of being mobbed by journalists and nosy fans. He loves his fans dearly, but cannot stand being swarmed by them. Especially when these swarms can often bring vultures swooping down very quickly.

Not for the first time in his life does Ash curse his habit of oversleeping, one that definitely isn't helped by having a girlfriend who likes sleeping as much as he does. Still, despite this, he makes it to Lumiose in good time. When he arrives there, he spots Hilda and Hilbert standing at the end of the road between Vaniville and Lumiose. "You're late" Hilda comments. "Sorry," Ash replies, not bothering to ask how she knew who he is. "Slept through Looker's phone call. Hilbert can't help but chuckle a bit at this, but stop when Hilda glances at him from the top of her sunglasses. Hilbert apologises and the two agents lead Ash through the city to where Detective Looker is waiting.

The detective is sitting outside a café right next to the Lumiose Gym, looking slightly battered, as though he'd fallen down a hill. To Ash's surprise, Clemont is sitting there with him. When Looker spots them, he beckons them over. "Glad you could make it," he says. "I assume you know the Lumiose Gym Leader." Both of them nod and greet each other like the old friends they are. Then, the six of them sit down around the table and begin to discuss matters. Before Ash can ask what this meeting is about, Hilda and Hilbert launch into an explanation as to what happened on the Embedded Tower, and Team Terra's plot. Clemont seems very perturbed by the news that there's a Team Terra spy amongst his employees. "What exactly does this machine do?" he asks. Hilbert takes over from here. "From what I can guess from the blueprints we saw," he says, "it's designed to send powerful energy into something, no doubt the power of Rayquaza. Judging from the design, I'd say it's supposed to overload something with energy, maybe cause it to malfunction."