Ultra Aether

Mantine Surfing

Over the next few weeks, Ash battled his way through the Alola League. Before he knew it, it was the week before the semifinals.

His friends had... noticed a few things as the semifinals approached. They'd noticed that Ash had started to spend a lot more time training. He smiled a little less. He was a bit more irritable than usual. When they had asked if he was okay, he would just brush them off and grin at them, and answer, yes, of course I'm okay. 

He didn't like lying to his friends, but truth be told, he was just waiting for everything to come crashing down.

But for today, Ash was pushing all those thoughts out of his head. There weren't any battles scheduled for that weekend, so the group had decided that they should take advantage of the lack of League activity and go do something fun. The group was to meet up in the Pokémon Center's lobby to discuss activities for the day.

Ash walked into the lobby after some early morning training and saw that Lana, Kiawe, Mallow, and Serena were already sitting on some benches in a corner.

Mallow was chatting animatedly with Kiawe, Lana was playing with Brionne, and Serena was talking with a girl with short brown hair, a Rockruff standing at the girl's feet.

As Ash approached them, he heard the girl saying, "Thanks for the advice, Serena! I promise I'll do my best in my performances!"

"You're welcome!" Serena said encouragingly. "You'll definitely become Alola Empress!"

"Ruff!" the Rockruff barked.

The girl smiled at Serena, then ran out the door, her Rockruff hot on her heels.

Once the girl left, Serena gave a good-natured sigh and pulled out her pink tablet, and began to scroll through it.

"Morning, guys," Ash said.

"Good morning!" Everyone greeted him.

Ash put his backpack on the floor and sat down next to Serena. Pikachu hopped off his shoulder and onto his lap, cooing happily as Ash began to rub its tail.

A few minutes later, after Lillie and Sophocles arrived, Lana asked, "What do you think we should do today?" 

Everyone shrugged.

"I found something we can do!" Serena squealed excitedly.

"What is it?" Mallow asked eagerly.

Serena flipped her tablet around. "Ta-Dah~!" Serena exclaimed. "Mantine Surfing!" The tablet screen showed a Mantine riding on a large wave with a boy standing on a sort of harness that was strapped onto the Mantine's back. A red and gray platform that had handlebars fixed onto both sides was built into the harness. The boy was wearing swimming trunks, a special kind of yellow life vest, and a green and black helmet with three small red fins protruding from it. Both the boy and the Mantine had huge smiles on their faces.

"Mantine Surfing?!" Lana shouted excitedly. "I've always wanted to do that!"

"There's a Mantine Surf Spot not too far from here," Serena said. "Do you want to try it out?"

"Yeah!" Ash exclaimed, leaping to his feet and forcing Pikachu to hop off his lap.

"Sounds fun!" Mallow laughed.

"I dunno, It looks kind of hard," Sophocles said uncertainly. "I think I'll give it a try."

"I'm not sure if I'll be able to touch the Mantine," Lillie murmured. "But I'll do my best!"

Everyone turned to look at Kiawe, expecting him to say something. He scowled at them. "You guys all know I'm not good with Water Types," he said grumpily.