It's a long Way to the Top...

… if you wanna catch 'em all.

Disclaimer: Pokémon is a registered trademark of Nintendo and its joint businesses. The author does in no way, shape or form claim ownership of the franchise this story is based on. He does, however, see the (more or less creative) plot of this story as his intellectual property and disapproves of any exploitation and proliferation without his knowledge. The author also reminds that he does not take responsibility for any side-effects this story may cause during and/or after consumption (i.e. boredom, hollow feeling hence to unsatisfactory ending, diabetes, etc.). The contents of this disclaimer apply to all chapters this story may contain.

Enigm4 speaking, just in case you wondered how this story came to be: A few years ago, I swore to myself that I would never publish again. Then came the day I watched the XY-Series, thought Korrina and Ash would make an interesting couple and searched for matching stories on here. Since I was thoroughly disappointed with the results, I concluded that I would have to make my own story. So, one thing lead to the other, and... here we are. Since this piece of work consumed a considerable amount of time, I hope that at least some of you enjoy it. Feel free to express your thoughts on this story through all means this website provides. Now, without further ado…

— Chapter one —

Ash had learned to love the calming warmth that flooded him during meditation. How he was able to blend out anything but the low rumble of the waves washing over the sand in front of him. How even this sound seemed to grow fainter and fainter with time.

He loved the way the last sunrays of today's day slowly slid off his face - how he collected the warm, slightly salty air with deep breaths, in and out.

In meditation he had found a way to ease his once so very energetic mind. He didn't necessarily need it to uphold the image of the new, rational and responsible Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town anymore, but it sure still helped a lot.

Yes, he loved it – maybe even a little too much, he realized, as he suddenly had the infamous sensation of falling that often followed microsleep. Ash jumped in his seat, already losing his hard earned, focused state-of-mind.

"You know that meditation is only supposed to make you relax so far, Ash" a feminine voice murmured into his mind, while he slowly rubbed the back of his neck to calm the hairs that now stood there on end.

Ash knew without looking that the blue jackal-like being next to him was eyeing him with the hint of a smirk on her lips.

He sighed, untangling his crossed legs and leaning back into the sand around him. His two brown, half-lidded eyes now set on the small island in front of him.

"Sorry, girl" he finally answered with a chuckle "it's just… I haven't had a lot of sleep since we won the Conference and everything that happened afterwards. I guess I just got lost in temptation."

Ash felt slight movement to his left, no doubt his partner mimicking his position and following his view.

"It could have been easier, yeah…" the low pitch of his blue-furred companion's voice now making the young trainer look at her with worry "if a certain Lucario wouldn't have put unnecessary obstacles in the way, for example…"

"Oh, come on. You stop with the depressing talk right now - that's so not like you! You are awesome, never forget that. And we will handle this little knickknack in no time, okay?"

The female Lucario giggled slightly, as her trainer gently rubbed her between the ears, a thing he always did when the hearing appendages threatened to get droopy.

"You're right." Lucario took a deep breath "It's those blasted pretty sunsets - must be. Making me gloomy like that."

"They sure are something else…" Ash stretched his arms up before standing up. Of course not like any normal person would, but with a dramatic backwards roll. Old habits die hard, after all there still was a bit of his energetic old self left.

"All right, low tide's almost here. Time for our big entrance, girl!"

"I can go without a big entrance, especially if you embarrass us like that" the Lucario returned dryly, taking the extended hand her trainer offered to stand up.

She brushed off the sand that still clung to her fur before following Ash along the slim path that now connected the mainland and the island ahead.

You're probably still wondering if it's true what you read. Ash Ketchum winning a Pokémon League Conference? Why, yes – and it doesn't even stop there!

You see, after losing against Alain in the Lumiose Conference by a hair's breadth, Ash pondered for a while.

What was it that he still lacked after all this time of travelling, training, sweating and bleeding?

In the end, he decided to try a different approach.

He built up a synergetic all-star team, consisting of the six strongest Pokémon that had journeyed with him – Pikachu in the lead, of course. He revisited most of the regions, meeting up with old friends and this time actively training for a league-styled tournament without getting sidetracked (too much).

During an excessive training session in Mt. Silver, basically consisting of his Gible chewing trough tons and tons of stone to finally reach its final evolution state of Garchomp (it did, after a while), he dug up a mysterious stone.

From his experience in Kalos, Ash could tell that this had to be a Mega-Stone, though for which Pokémon it was, he did not know at the time.

Further along his journey, in Hoenn, he met up with Steven Stone, who coincidentally learnt of Ash's possession (Ash might have dropped his overloaded backpack on the Champion's foot, but that really isn't the point now).

The stone collector could doubtlessly identify it as a Charizardite Y.

Steven must have seen the spark in Ash back then. He must have known that the young trainer had finally grown enough to make it in the fierce environment of League-competitions.

Why, you ask? Because he made Ash the life-changing offer to battle him for the Charizardite, in return staking a precious Key-Stone for Ash to win.

Steven didn't stand a chance. Ash still wasn't sure if he had even tried to win.

The next half year consisted of more rigorous training, where the young man from Pallet Town probably suffered more than all his loyal partners combined - a person could only take so many Flare Blasts and Flamethrowers when training his Mega-Pokémon, after all.

Then, only a few months before the tournament, fate thought it funny to make things interesting once more.

Keaton, the caretaker of the forest in Kalos where Ash once caught his Hawlucha, contacted the man in a desperate state of mind.

He explained that a young brat with an overpowered Blastoise, sponsored by daddy (his choice of words), had captured the Machamp that was supposed to keep the peace between the strong and the weaker Pokémon in the forest.

Apparently, it hadn't taken long for all hell to break lose in the small ecosystem.

Hawlucha, of course, wanted to return and make things right again.

So, Ash let him go. He was never one to deny his friends requests of that magnitude.

Yet, that left him short of his only fighting-type Pokémon.

He now had two choices. He could call upon his Infernape to fill the gap and have a second fire-type beside Charizard in his team. A problem, should he face an opponent with a strong water-type. An even bigger problem, if the opponent was smart enough to avoid Ash's Sceptile and Pikachu with it.

His second option was to play a game of risk-everything-and-hopefully-come-out-on-top.

Since Ash was still Ash, he chose the latter.

At this time, the trainer happened to be in Sinnoh, where he remembered an encounter with a certain Aura Sphere wielding Riolu a few years ago. He made his way to the Lucario-Kingdom, hoping he could inspire his old friend to join him, if only for a little while.

It turned out that the gifted Pokémon, now evolved into a Lucario, could not leave his people even if he wanted to. Besides regular attacks of a rowdy pack of Manectric, the guardian and his mate had to hatch their third egg – both things Lucario couldn't and wouldn't hand over to someone else.

Lucario's second born daughter, however, had instantly clung to Ash's pant leg as she heard of his intention to recruit a powerful partner.

Against all better judgment and with her father's consent, Ash caught the female Riolu.

Why, you ask again? Have you ever had a little voice in your head? No? Let's just say it's too hard to say no to someone who's Aura synced so hard with yours that she's able to beg you in the human tongue to take her with you.

Training before seemed like a piece of cake compared to what Ash had to endure now, in the last phase before the Lumiose Conference began.

He had to fine tune his team (the hardest part of the whole process), all while training a new Pokémon up to League-final-standards that loved to shoot Aura Spheres left and right, but was a complete stranger when it came to actual Pokémon battles.

In the end, it still paid off.

The (unthankful) second place in the previous year's Lumiose Conference qualified Ash for the tournament in the year that followed without having to earn all eight badges once more.

Ash finished his preparations just in time to sign up, too.

He literally was the last person to enter, since he had miscalculated his training schedule, resulting in him missing his flight from Sinnoh to Kalos and forcing him to ride his Mega-evolved Charizard for hours on end instead.

Due to the frostbite on his fingers, his signature on the application form had looked like a five year old wrote it.

After sleeping through the whole first day of battles, Ash took the Conference by storm.

Even his opponent in the final, a unknown kid that loved to act mysteriously with his all-legendary team just got lucky when he managed to best Pikachu with a sloppy Struggle Attack by his Regirock, leading to an one-on-one finish between Regirock and (the up to then only in the preliminary rounds used) Riolu as Ash's joker.

Despite just having lost two legendary Pokémon to a small Pikachu, the generic trainer dared to laugh at the small Aura wielder, spiking her determination in ways that made her evolve into Lucario then and there – not a single move required.

Ash could have dropped out of the Conference right then for all he cared – the look on his opponent's face was worth more than any title, ever.

Needless to say that Regirock was (metaphorically) blasted to pieces by the well rested and battle hungry Lucario, marking her proud trainer as winner of the Lumiose Conference.

The celebrations only lasted shortly, though. Ash had already refocused his mind on the Champion League – HIS Champion League, where he could earn the Title of Kalos' Champion, should he be able to defeat the Elite-Four and the current Champion alike.

Due to their unbalanced teams, the Elite-Four members only presented a surprisingly minor challenge for the young adult.

"Minor challenge" meaning, that his last Pokémon always faced an already exhausted last Pokémon of his opponent when switched in, nothing more.

Diantha, however, was a different story.

Ash barely held on to his League-issue base cap, as his Mega-Charizard Flare Blasted the last obstacle out of his way in a final effort.

The actress' Mega-Gardevoir hit the ground only moments before Charizard (have you ever heard of a photo-finish in a Pokémon battle? Me neither), but that was good enough.

On his knees and maybe just as beaten up as his Pokémon (thanks to the pain inflicted on him by his special bond with Greninja), Ash decided in the rubble of what used to be a battlefield once that this was good enough.

What else was there to prove? "Pokémon Master" was no title he could legally earn. It was okay, though.

With only twenty years of age, he had managed to become Kalos' third ever Champion. Good enough, indeed.

But the journey was far from over. It turned out that there was more to being a Champion than just be the best at battling. The Pokémon League sent him to an undisclosed facility, where he learned the ways of human diplomacy and Pokémon anatomy. They taught him unbelievable training methods to secure his position (apparently, the League didn't want to train a new Champion every year), and so much more in just a year.

Then came the day where he was publically announced as new Champion of the Kalos League. His mother was there, professor Oak, most of his old friends… all had been proud. He had been proud, too. Prouder than ever.

Diantha had handed him her title, along with a present (a custom among Champions) and a genuine smile.

It had been another Mega-Stone. Lucarionite.

She said that Ash's final in the Lumiose Conference had inspired her. That it had shown just how much he loved his Pokémon, no matter how inexperienced or not, and the lengths he was willing to go alongside them.

Ash had picked up the ways of meditation by then and was able to control his emotions fairly well.

He still cried harder than the Mirror-Ash he met in Reflection Cave ever had, and that was okay, too.

After things had settled a bit, Ash was instructed by the League to introduce what should be his trademark "Champion's golden six" to the public, which basically were the Pokémon he won the Champion League with.

He encountered one problem, however: No matter under what circumstances Lucario evolved into her newly gained Mega form, she immediately collapsed into a whimpering heap, overburdened by the environmental influences.

Ash's team may have been more than worthy of a Champion without a second Mega-evolving Pokémon, yet both trainer and Lucario felt their deep bond of friendship to be jeopardized by the inability to control this cruel whim of nature.

Which leads us to this quiet evening.

Shalour City, Kalos. City of awakening, harboring the Tower of Mastery and maybe a solution for our heroes' problem.

"You said the gym-leader we're going to meet is a female, right? You think you can court her with dopey moves like that?" Lucario teased her trainer.

Ash tried to keep a straight face so hard that he nearly stumbled as he tugged anxiously at the black scarf that he now donned in addition to his new attire, consisting of black, fingerless gloves, dark cargo pants and a black-and-blue unzipped light jacket that revealed the equally black t-shirt underneath.

He tried to avoid unwanted attention ever since the first time he landed on Lumiose International Airport as Champion, not covering his identity in innocent ignorance. Thinking about that day still gave him the shivers. That was the day when he had ditched his conspicuous base cap, too.

"We're not here to 'court' anybody, girl!"

"Right. One-hundred percent serious business. No distractions." Lucario kept quiet for a few steps, but Ash felt it in her Aura that this wasn't everything she wanted to say, by far. He was proven right.

"You know, I really tried, but you're right. I simply can't think of anything but visiting a secluded, romantic island in the middle of nowhere to cure my condition."

"It's OUR condition" Ash corrected, exasperated "and there may have been other ways, but I think we deserve a little vacation once in a while, too, don't we?"

"I think, strictly based on my experience and observations... that you have ulterior motiiiiives." Lucario chanted, not losing her teasing tone.

"Har-har. You know, it's funny 'cause I wasn't the one wagging my tail like a Growlithe when I heard that Korrina had a Lucario, too. No doubt you'll make a lasting impression on him like that."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Lucarios fur bristled in indignation "Like what?! What am I like?!"

Ash tried his best to stifle his laughter, but failed miserably.

"Oh, you know… just straightforward, hot-tempered… everything a Lucario normally isn't."

He didn't get anything but a scornful grunt for an answer – that didn't keep him from laughing heartily about his pouting blue-furred companion, though.

After a while Lucario couldn't help but smile at her trainer's antics. It was nice to see him unwind a little, she confessed to herself, while playing with the charm around her neck that contained the Lucarionite. It imitated a small Aura Sphere in style.

His laughter finally died down and Lucario decided to address another thing on her mind, welcoming the change of topic.

"You think Pikachu's peeved that we didn't take him with us?" she asked.

"Naah. I don't think so." Ash answered, the glee in his tone still present "He's probably lying on the sofa right about now, content and filled to the brim with ketchup, thanks to my mum. He did get a little lazy after the Champion League. Guess motivation dwindles when you have proven that you're the strongest of your kind – multiple times."

Lucario made no move to hide the chuckle that escaped her after seeing the mental image of the electric mouse her trainer sent through their link.

"Well, this is it" Ash noted, now talking through Aura, too, as the path came to an end in front of a staircase made of stone that lead to a giant double door.

Determined, he climbed the stairs and placed his hands on the iron handles embedded into the wood.

With a mental "open sesame!" he pushed.

It didn't open.

The only pertinent comment Lucario had to offer, was "Maybe you have to pull?" answered by her trainer with an irritated 'are-you-serious glance'.

He pulled nonetheless, but the door still didn't budge.

Ash stepped back and hesitated a little. His view then fell upon the stone walls next to the gate.

"Mind to give me a boost up?" he asked nonchalantly.

"You want to… break in?!" the Aura-Pokémon was astonished, to say the least.

"That's kind of a harsh formulation. Anyways, turning back is no option, since the water is already back on the rise. The way I see it, the only other options are to ask Charizard to fly us in, causing a huge ruckus, no doubt…" Ash stopped in thought.

"Or?"

"OR… well, I really don't have a problem with shouting: 'I, Champion Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town demand entrance on behalf of the glorious Pokémon League at once!', but that would probably be embarrassing, AND cause a huge ruckus, no less."

Lucario rolled her eyes and snorted in defeat. She walked over to the wall and knelt down into a boosting position.

"Ready when you are, wise guy."

"Thanks, girl!"

With a bit of teamwork, climbing the wall wasn't even challenging for the duo and they were wandering the cobblestone streets towards the Tower of Mastery in no time.

"They really take Gurkinn's guidelines seriously around here…" Ash mumbled aloud to no one in particular as they passed yet another closed souvenir shop.

"Huh?"

"'Go to bed early, be early to rise' – one of the rules Korrina's grandfather set in his guidelines to become a good gym-leader. He used to be kind of secretive about those, but everybody here seems to take after them" Ash explained.

"You would make a horrible gym-leader then" Lucario remarked matter-of-factly, making her trainer rub his the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Hehe, probably true. Thank Arceus that I'm just a lowly Champion, huh?"

With a friendly elbow to his ribs Lucario retorted: "You better still keep some discipline, or I might just see a better future for me alongside a chunky, rule-abiding gym-leader."

"Nah, I think Korrina's Lucario is more your type."

"ASH!"

As the two finally stood in front of the Tower of Mastery, Ash this time denied himself the catchphrase as he tried to pry open the door that blocked them access. It looked a lot like its big bother at the island gate…

… and was locked just as well.

"No shouting?" Ash sighed.

"No shouting." Lucario confirmed.

"Well then, since this island lacks a Pokémon Centre and the inns seem to board up their doors at nine PM, there's really only one thing we can do…"

The blue furred jackal already knew where this was going. She asked, regardless.

"And what would that be?"

Ash grinned one of his rare old grins, as he rummaged through his backpack, finally reaching his Pokémon a black, rolled up sweatshirt.

"Are you ready to spend a night under the stars with your humble trainer like in the old days, girl?"

She smiled at him and took the makeshift pillow with a quiet "thanks" before settling down on the stone slabs next to her trainer, who had already shoved his backpack under his head.

"Sooo… romantic sunset… long walks on the beach… stargazing… I had no idea you planned this whole trip to court ME, Ash." Lucario purred in a pretend flirtatious voice.

"I'm not 'courting' you. I'm not courting anybody. Will you finally stop with that?" Ash murmured with a weak chuckle.

"Right. Saving it all up for Korrina, no doubt. Good thinking. No need to pretend, though. I see right through you."

"Goodnight, girl."

"Knew it aaall along."

"GOODNIGHT!"