She saw Gary already there, however, there was one more person she definitely did not want to see.

"So, Gary, where are you from?" The brown-haired girl asked.

She was a green-eyed girl, with a lovely, beautiful face which radiated confidence. She wore a green sleeveless shirt, with a black border at the middle and the edges. She wore blue jeans, ripped at the knees, and gold heels. However, on close noticing, Lillie noticed that the face was not her natural texture,

It was layered with ATLEAST 5 layers of makeup.

The girl wore red ruby earrings, and a pink gold pendant, on which was engraved her family coat of arms.

She had broad hips, and she moved them occasionally, and eyed Gary with a seducing look. Lillie knew these types of girls well.

"Err...I am from Kanto." Gary was trying to get to his door, with his smart card in hand

"Oh, I see. Which room have you been given?" The girl chimed in.

"Err....room 310, why? If I may ask?" Lillie sweatdropped at Gary's awkward attempt to sound gentlemanly.

"Oh! Really! My room is just adjacent to yours. I am Layla, by the way."

"Yeah, nice to meet you." Gary smiled, as if he was happy to meet her.

But Lillie was not

"C'mon Gary, we have to go!" Lillie grabbed Gary's wrist and pulled him away. She wanted nothing more than to remove Gary from the clutches of that seductress.

"Hey! Can't you see I am talking to this hottie over here!" Layla exclaimed.

"Oh, I am sorry. However, you should try more not to expose yourself to cultured boys like this hottie over here. Oh! But I forgot, you don't have anything to hide there." Lillie was seething venom through her teeth.

And she was reveling in it

The girls face turned red with anger, and just when Lillie thought she would pounce on her, Layla huffed and stomped away.

Ha!

"HUH!!!!" Lillie turned around to see Ash standing in front of the lift door, Serena standing beside him, worried at his exclamation.

She stole a glance towards Gary, who was equally astonished, then a gleeful smile broke through his face.

Serena tapped Ash on the shoulder, which seemed to jerk him out of his reverie.

"OAK TREE!!!!"

"ASHY BOY!!!!"

Both the boys yelled at each other.

"What are you doing here!?" Ash asked

"Got a job for frying patties." Gary deadpanned with a Duh look.

Everyone sweatdropped at Gary's blunt sarcasm.

"Whatever, it is glad that I met you here Gary." Ash said at last.

"Yeah same here." Gary said.

However, he looked beside Ash to see the honey blonde girl he had met before.

"Err......Serena, have you been to Kanto before?" Gary enquired.

This girl looked vaguely familiar to him.

"Err....why do you ask?" Serena asked back

"Nothing, just that you look familiar. And you too Lillie. Both of you royalties look as if I have seen you somewhere else."

"Well, Princess Serena over here did go to Professor Oak's summer camp. However, she had to be rescued by some boy after she lost herself in the forest," Lillie said nonchalantly.

"Oh yeah! And madam Lillie over here also came with me, and threw herself down in a lake. It took her a boy to rescue her from the lake, isn't it, sweet sister?" Serena grinned innocently.

"THAT'S WHY YOU LOOK SO FAMILIAR!" Ash and Gary shouted together.

Man! They were loud

"But wait! Which summer camp are you talking about?" Ash asked.

Everyone fell down anime style.

"Ashy Boy, it seems that after coming here, instead of getting smarter, you have gone dumber." Gary shook his head.

"Shut it Oak Tree, at least I managed to pass the entrance the first time." Ash teased.

"Yeah, after fluking 20 questions, well done!" Gary mock-clapped.

"Fluking 20 questions?" The two royalties asked.

"And what about you huh, you fluked 50 questions remember?" Ash retorted.

"Anyway, don't want to know how I got here?" Gary smirked.

"STOP BOTH OF YOU!" Both the royal girls scared the living daylights out of the two boys.

"Now, we can not talk here. Come in our room. You need to answer some questions."

Ash and Gary had no other choice, but to enter the room of the girls, terrified to the spine.

Their room was same as Ash's room, but instead of one bed, there were two.

Obviously, there were two study desks, away from each other, along with two wardrobes.

Seriously, the room was like Ash's room symmetrically multiplied into two.

The girls sat on their respective beds, while the boys remained standing.

"So, what is the deal with the 'fluke' questions?" Lillie asked

"Err...you see..." Ash was cut off

"Speak clearly!" Lillie and Serena commanded.

"YOU SEE! I and Gary had placed a bet on the entrance exam. We betted 100 pokes, which the one scoring highest in the exam would get from the loser. We never expected to clear the exam." Ash had his eyes on the ground.

"However, Ashy Boy here got an 85, which enabled him to come here. Also, there was this case about a man using forged documents. So, one seat was vacated. By sheer coincidence, mine was the highest any person, who was denied admission into the K.R.A, had scored this year. Even I was shocked when I got the letter. We had thought that we could keep this thing a secret, and try to catch up with upper class people like you. However..."

Gary bitterly laughed, ".....looks like we failed, isn't it?"

Both the girls were silent, and then suddenly, burst out laughing.

"Well, what a funny story! I cannot stop laughing!" Ash exclaimed drily.

"Well....Y-your s-story i-is l-lit!" Lillie wheezed out as Serena rolled over her bed laughing.

"Whatever, Gary, you can go and keep your bags in your room now. I am sure they are heavy." Lillie said after recomposing herself.

"yeah, but don't worry, I am strong enough for that." Gary grinned as he exited the room.

Lillie got a thought,

He sure has a lot of stamina

Lillie blushed a deep red again. Again she started feeling weird things, tingling in her gut, burning of her cheeks, her chest going up and down at double the pace.

Dang! Gary is not even here, and he is having this effect on me.

Stupid girl! Get in control!

By the time she snapped back into her surroundings, she could hear Ash's and Serena's conversation ending.

",........You don't need to worry. Neither me nor Lillie will say anything to anyone."

"Thanks!" Ash said as he left the room

"PIKAAA!" Pikachu greeted as they left.

"Bye Ash, Bye Pikachu." Serena waved as the door closed behind the outgoers

"Nooooooooow, we need to have some serious chat sister!" Serena exclaimed as she turned to face her cousin.

"W-What do y-you m-mean?" Lillie was seriously scared by the devious grin on Serena's face.

"Oh, just a something, or someone." Serena grinned, feeling the unholy pleasure of revenge flowing in her blood.

FIVE HOURS LATER

The sun was setting down on the skies of Kalos, embracing the world in its fiery mix of golden, orage and white light. The same light shone on Ash and Gary's face as they trekked on the eaten track, which led them up the slope of a small hill on the campus.

"So, Gary, how are things back home?" Ash asked. They were alone, Pikachu and Blastoise in the dorms resting or sleeping. The tranquil silence, disturbed occasionally by the cold winds which whipped the boys' hair back or the crunching of the dry leaves below their feet, was necessary for Ash to recollect his thoughts.

"On my side, nothing new has happened. Professor Oak has been as healthy as ever, only a little tired dur to fatigue nowadays." Gary sighed.

"And one more thing I want to tell you in private, Mrs Ketchum is moving to Kalos." Gary said point blank.

"WHAT!" Ash yelled.

"Ahh! Don't shout in my ears. But yeah, she is moving to Kalos." Gary reiterated.

Ash felt as if a bucket of ice water had been thrown on him.

"W-Why?" Ash enquired.

"She said that before you returned home, she had shut down her restaurant in Pallet town because of loss. She had already applied to various places before you had arrived." Gary took a pause.

"However, she told us that when she returned home after sending you off at the airport, she saw three offer letters in her mailbox. One was from the famous brand 'Pokedine', another one was from 'Sinnohian Delight', and the last one was from 'Truly Kalos'. She showed us the offer letters."

By this time, they had reached the summit of the hill.

"We saw that truly Kalos was offering around 50,000 pokes a month as salary to Mrs Ketchum. They wanted to employ her as the Managing Director in their head office at Lumiose City. They are offering her official car, residence and an allowance if she wants to buy her own things."

"Wow, Mom is a MD now!?" Ash was absolutely thrilled.

"Yeah, and the job is stress free. She doesn't have to scurry around anymore, and she also has a lot of holidays in a year."

"Wow, mom has got a great achievement." Ash said as he sat down on one of the two rocks at the cliff, while Gary followed suite with the other rock.

From the hill they got an endless view from all directions. He saw the collection of buildings, all cream colored, and with pillars of sandstone.

Dorms Ash thought.

He saw a medieval castle a little distance away from the dorms. The castle was bordered with white marble walls, complete with trenches and bell towers. The castle itself was made of grey brick-shaped stones. The thick, hard walls rose above to give the castle sort of fairy-tale design. The castle rose up high, and had five strong, proud towers soaring above into the clouds. The tip of the castle was shaped triangle, on top of which a white pole was stationed. The flag of Kalos fluttered in the evening wind. Over and all, the castle was a pretty intimidating structure.

School Ash smiled.

Ash's eyes wandered away across the oval fields, lush, luxurious gardens, the dense forests teeming with Pokemon Ash knew all about, and above and out of the campus Ash's gaze went, to the glorious city of Lumiose just starting to shine, as if a second Sun was about to glow when the real one fades into the horizon.

Ash smiled

No wonder this city is called the pride of Kalos

Suddenly, Ash had a thought which made his blood run cold.

"Hey Gary?" Ash called out.

"Yes?" Gary could sense Ash's discomfort spreading out in this peaceful scene.

"Back In Pallet town, when I was claimed by Riolu, you t-told me that whenever this 'claiming' happens, disaster strikes, right?"

"Well, yes." Gary knew where this was going.

"So if the disaster is h-here, then....." Ash treiled away.

Gary's face turned serious, "Listen Ash, whatever disaster, if it comes, will not come to you alone. It will come to everyone. So, you do not need to fear facing it alone."

"That is what I fear Gary. If it comes to everyone, there may be some who c-could not be saved. There may be people who p-p-perish. There may be utter detruction. Even we have loved ones Gary. Even my mom is coming here. What if s-something h-happens to h-her..." Ash was freaking out now.

"Listen Ash, whatever you think, the disaster is not now. When it will come, we don't know. So, why are you freaking out? Chill bro, and listen, we will follow our old rule okay?" Gary calmed him down.

"Yeah. Thanks Gary." Ash smiled and got up.

"No problem." Gary grinned as he got up too.

Ash remembered their old motto, the one promise they used to make before every mission,

Either we die together, or else no one dies.

Ash and Gary walked down the slope into the lit streets, the stars sprinkling over the night sky like spots of hope the Kantonians had about the fate of the world, the hope like millions of tiny bubbles over the vast sky of doubt and darkness in which their thoughts were enveloped.

Unknown to them, a cloaked figure was watching them the entire time.

 7 DAYS LATER, SOOTOPOLIS CITY, HOENN

A cloaked figure entered one of the caves of the rock formation, which acted as a barrier between the city and the rest of the places.

"Sir, we have captured Groudon and Kyogre just after they woke up. There was no fight sir, they were too confused to react." The cloak fell, revealing a young man, about 20 years of age, with spiky green hair and obsidian eyes. The man was wearing a blue uniform with the ancient symbol σ (sigma) on his uniform.

"Very good Boston." A dark-haired man wearing spectacles, about fifty years in age, spoke from behind his wooden desk.

After Boston exited, the man took out a list of Pokemon

"Darkrai, Zygarde, Yvetal, Rayquaza, Lugia, Hoopa, The legendary birds, Palkia, Dialga, ll safely captured and undergoing brainwashing."

"How only one left, then we shall be the masters of this world, and the universe beyond." The man laughed, more like a sneer.

"Very soon, and whoever comes in our way, will be utterly, completely destroyed."

WHO DO YOU THINK WAS THE CLOAKED ONE?