Alola, amour!

Chapter 29 ~ Z as Z-move

"Okay, Sylveon, let's just put a little power into this match!" exclaimed Serena and showed the pink Z-crystal on the Z-ring on her wrist.

A few days after Ash and Serena had returned from their adventure at sea, Pokemon School had another day when Z-moves were in practice.

They had booked the whole day for the battling and the students, especially Ash, had been particularly excited about it. Now it was Ash's turn against Serena and Serena had just decided to use her Z-crystal.

"Greninja, you heard what she said!" exclaimed Ash, and they both took the X position. "So it's time for us to put some power into this battle too!"

Greninja was then covered in a water veil that formed a large Water Shuriken on its back and on the other side of the field Serena grinned.

"Oh, so this is what you planned, Ash," she said and Ash grinned. "Well, it's not going to work. Sylveon, show him what we can do!"

She touched the Fairium Z and the golden symbol flashed above Sylveon. Then Serena made the necessary movements to activate the move and exclaimed, "Sylveon, Twinkle Tackle!"

Upon hearing it, Ash exclaimed to Greninja, "Greninja, get ready!" "Ninja!" Greninja nodded and stood firmly in the X position.

Sylveon made her Z move and as it subsided, Greninja bent on his knees and eventually fell to the ground, returning to his normal shape. On the other side of the field, Ash also bowed to his knees.

"Greninja is unable to battle, so the winner is Serena and her Sylveon!" announced referee, Professor Kukui, and Serena jumped into the air and hit a high five with one of Sylveon's feelers.

"Yeah, good we!" she rejoiced, but her joy soon turned to concern when she saw Ash's condition. "Ash, are you okay?" she asked anxiously when she saw her boyfriend breathing heavily on his knees. She walked over to this and on the edge of the field others looked at him worried as well.

"I'm fine," he said, taking up with support Serena's extended hand. "You know the bond between me and Greninja; the attacks on Greninja are felt in me too"

"I know, but somehow you looked a lot more vulnerable than usual," Serena said as Ash went to fallen Greninja and returned this to his Pokeball. "Thank you, you were awesome," he said to this and then turned back to Serena.

"Well, your Z-move was pretty strong. So a stronger impact," he said and Serena sighed. "I guess then," she said and they walked over to the others.

As they got to the others, Mallow rushed to Serena and exclaimed, "Wow, Serena! Your Z-moves are only getting stronger every time!"

"Well, it was really pretty impressive," Kiawe said with his hands in a gust and Lillie nodded to him.

"It was, I wish that I had a Z-ring too," she said, and Snowy in her lap whimpered happily.

Serena chuckled at their words and said, "Well, it was better than the first time I tried the Z-move."

"I have to say you're right," Ash said and grinned as he remembered Serena's first Z-move attempt.

"What happened?" asked Lana and Ash and Serena looked at each other.

"Well, everything didn't go exactly as planned," Serena said, and began to explain how her first Z-move attempt had gone.

A flashback:

It was on the evening of their return day. They were on the beach and Ash watched as Serena did her daily performance rehearsals.