Separate roads

Chapter 1: the start of something new.

Age of the main characters:

Ash: 19

Serena: 18

Disclaimer: Pokemon doesn't belong to me, the characters also belong to Nintendo: thank you.

This story will start in Lumiose City, please enjoy, this one we will need to wait another month or so for the release of the games, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue. This chapter will be played in two parts one for Ash and the other for Serena.

Ash had entered the large city with hopes of winning the Kalos league, he walked off the plane seeing the massive skyscrapers and the large tower in the middle of the city, his wonderment at the wonderful city could barely be contained, on his left shoulder was his long-time partner pokemon Pikachu, he walked around the streets which seemed to have circled around the tower, seeing the many sites that the city had to offer, talking to strange people who seemed very friendly and the strange new pokemon that seemed to be everywhere he could view, "wow Pikachu, have a look at those strange pokemon," Ash pointed over to the goat like pokemon, he noticed a person riding on the back of the pokemon and stared in shock, "and they are being ridden," Ash stated in awe, he turned around to see a few more people riding on the back of the strange new pokemon, he pulled out his old pokedex and scanned the new pokemon, "oh forgot that this pokedex doesn't know anything about these new pokemon," Ash commented with a chuckle.

After visiting the tourist sites Ash tried to find his way around the mammoth city, trying to look for the Pokemon Center, he was getting lost, unable to find the place he was looking for, "how big is this city?" Ash complained with a frown while looking around his right shoulder only to see a coffee shop and a bar, he dropped slightly from exhaustion until another person riding on the back of the strange new pokemon arrived, "excuse me, do you know where the Pokemon Center is by any chance?" Ash asked the person with a tired smile.

The young male teen who was wearing a green shirt, blue shorts and black shoes stopped next to the trainer and smiled at him, "yeah of course I do, I am heading there now," the male trainer stated with a grin, he pulled out his pokeball and called out another of the strange pokemon, "Gogoat, let's go," the trainer said with a proud grin.

"Gogoat?" Ash wondered out loud while looking at the mostly brown pokemon, he placed his right hand on the new pokemon and started to climb on hesitantly.

"Oh come on surely you have seen a Gogoat before," the teen chided the older trainer, "these guys are really friendly, they are cheaper than any car you see around you," he stated with a proud grin.

Ash got onto the back of the riding pokemon and the two started to ride towards their respective destination, "I admit this is my first time here, so I have never seen these pokemon before," Ash professed with a nervous smile.

"So where are you from?" the teen asked the young man.

"I am from Kanto," Ash replied while holding onto the horns of the Gogoat, "my name is Ash Ketchum," Ash introduced himself while nervously riding the powerful pokemon.

"My name is Trent, I am from Vaniville Town, where I started my journey." The teen known as Trent introduced himself happily, "you know it is easy to get lost in this city, but luckily the people are friendly enough to point you in the right direction," Trent explained with great pride, as he looked around to see a large building with a red roof, "ah there it is," the teen pointed out with joy.

"So this city if is so large, how big is the region?" Ash asked with a nervous look.

"Well this region is so big it takes three maps to cover it," the younger trainer retorted with a smile, "this city branches out towards other towns and cities all over the region," the boy explained while getting ready to jump off his pokemon, "north of this city is Vaniville Town, and that is about two days walk from here," Trent told Ash with a smile.

"So the local professor would have a new pokedex for me there?" Ash asked with a knowing smile.

The younger trainer nodded in reply, Ash leapt off the riding pokemon with Pikachu on his left shoulder, "that's right, but I have to suggest that you get some rest, I will lead you to the exit of the city that leads to Vaniville Town," the young trainer suggested while showing the trainer around the large medical facility.

Ash looked around to see the many different pokemon he had never seen in his life, but some familiar ones within the arms of trainers, "amazing, there is a vast quantity of pokemon so far," Ash whispered to his pokemon while looking at his only pokemon. Ash turned to the younger trainer and smiled at him, "thanks for the help Trent," Ash thankfully told the trainer while walking up to the front counter.

Ash looked around to see three people walking into the pokemon Center wearing mostly red with red sunglasses, "oh no not Team Flare," Trent said with a frown while.

"Team Flare? Who are they?" Ash asked the younger trainer with great curiosity.

"They are a mystery, they only seek money, even the regions professor doesn't know much about them," Trent replied to Ash's curiosity, "from what I have heard, they capture rare pokemon and sell them on the black market for outrageous prices," Trent explained while watching the three members of Team Flare walking out of the medical facility with the people watching them leave silently.

"So these guys are trouble?" Ash questioned with uncertainty, Trent nodded cautiously and sat down to eat his meal. Ash walked to his room and thought about the three people he saw, they said hardly anything bust handed another mysterious person a pokeball, "maybe they were selling a rare pokemon," Ash thought out loud before laying down on his pillow, he moved his hands to the back of his head and stared at the ceiling, "it just seems like each region can't go through a moment of peace," Ash reminded himself while thinking about the troubles he had with Team Rocket, especially Jessie, James and Meowth, Team Aqua and Team Magma, then there was Team Galactic and finally his thoughts trailed off to Team Plasma, "they do make the journey interesting," Ash stated while closing his eyes while chuckling at the difficult times he had at the hands of the opposing teams he had faced.

Ash started to fall asleep while muttering to himself about his journey so far, "I….will become a pokemon…." He started as he fell asleep with his old pokedex in hand.

Meanwhile outside the Pokemon Center a man wearing a lab coat ran across town with his brief case in one hand and a panicked expression on his face, "oh this is just great, I am so disorganised, my old friend Professor Oak will be really upset if he finds out that I am late for giving out a pokemon to the new trainers," he reminded himself before being stopped by four men wearing mostly red, "Team Flare, what is you want?" the professor asked with a displeased expression on his face.

"You know better than anyone, we want the three starters in your briefcase," the man in the middle replied.

"No, these pokemon belong to a starting trainer," the black haired professor replied while the four men approached him, the professor pulled out one of his pokeballs ready to battle the flare grunts.

"Oh come on Professor Sycamore, you know pokemon is money, we will sell them to the new trainer, but for a black market price," the Flare grunt on the far right pointed out with a calm disposition.

The professor pulled the brief case behind him and tried to guard it while the Flare grunts started to surround him, "not good, they outnumber me," the professor reminded himself while trying to figure out what to do next, 'if they grab these pokeballs how will I tell Serena and her friends that Team Flare took their pokemon for profit?' the professor questioned himself while taking one of his pokeballs ready to face the Flare grunts in battle.

"Well, if she wants a pokemon so badly then she can buy it off of us," the Flare grunt stated with a smirk. The members of Team Flare approached the professor quietly before a powerful blast of electricity crashed down in front of the mysterious organisation, "who goes there? Who dares stop us from making a business proposition?" the Flare grunts asked with disdain.

"Business? What I saw was you lot trying to take this professor's pokemon for your own greed," Ash replied with anger while his pikechu glared at them with sparks of lightning flying from his cheeks.

The members of Team Flare turned their attention to one another while Ash walked up to the professor, "who are you young man?" the professor asked with a worried expression, "my name is Professor Sycamore," the professor introduced himself while looking over to the flare grunt.

"My name is Ash Ketchum from the Kanto Region, and this is my starter pokemon and best friend Pikachu," Ash introduced himself and the small yellow electric mouse.

"We retreat for now, but when the time comes our leader will make his intentions clear," the members of Team Flare stated before throwing a smoke bomb onto the ground

After the smoke cleared Ash stared at the area where his foes were standing, "just who were those guys?" Ash asked before looking over towards the professor as he stood up holding onto his brief case.

"Those guys are from Team Flare, not much is known about them, but I now know what their intentions are," Professor Sycamore explained while dusting off the briefcase, "thank you Ash, as a reward, I will let you have one of the three pokemon I have as thanks," the professor told Ash with a smile.

"No thanks, those pokemon belong to the new trainers," Ash retorted with a grin while looking over to his partner pokemon, "plus I can catch my own pokemon," the raven haired trainer, he looked around to make sure none of the members of Team Flare were still around, "I have been thinking Professor Scyamore, what kind of gym leaders does this region have?" Ash asked the professor with a smirk.

"Really tough ones, plus I am certain you would need a new pokedex as well," the regional professor replied calmly.

Ash nodded and started to follow the professor to his lab, Ash looked around and began to think about the new challenges that the new region would present to him. Watching the cars go by and Gogoats moving across the major city with trainers on their back, "this region is really interesting," Ash whispered to his pokemon, following the professor wondering what the Gym Leaders had to offer in terms of a challenge.

"Yeah, that's right young man, this region has many different challenges, even pokemon that mega-evolve," the blue haired professor explained with a proud smile.

"Mega-evolve? What the heck is that?" Ash asked in a puzzled manner.

"You heard correctly pokemon that mega-evolve get stronger but only during battle," Professor Sycamore replied with a confident grin, "there is a girl who knows a lot about mega-evolution, why not go and meet with her? She resides in Shalour City," the professor enquired before walking into a large building, "well thanks for escorting me to my lab, maybe I will see you again, but now I have to give this young woman a pokemon," the professor decreed while the woman with long blonde hair wearing a red dress, black sleeveless blouse and knee length stockings turned around to show her confident gray eyes and smiled at the trainer, "oh so Ash her name is Serena, she is a trainer much like yourself, or to put it correctly, she is a beginning trainer," Professor Sycamore remarked as he corrected himself, but was ignored by the two trainers.

Serena stared for a moment, unable to say a word, she tilted her head and smiled again, "my name is Serena, who might you be?" she asked curiously.

"My name is Ash Ketchum," Ash replied, he extended his hand out to shake the young woman's, she extended her hand out to shake Ash's hand, "you have a strong handshake," Ash complimented quietly.

"Ash Ketchum? The same Ash from ten years ago? You might not remember too much, but I certainly remember you," Serena complied with a smile, she turned around with her hair whipping up in the wind.

After watching the young woman walking into the lab, "you know buddy, she is pretty cute and she knows who I am, must have forgotten some stuff from a while ago," Ash told his partner pokemon who hit the ground in shock. Ash turned around to walk to search for his new friend, "well we better find Trent, we need to start our journey," Ash said with a smile.

After walking back to the medical facility Ash looked around for the teen, "oh come on, he left before showing me to one of the exits of this city," Ash complained while walking over to the main desk, "excuse me Nurse Joy, do you by any chance have a map for this region and city?" Ash asked a pink haired nurse who was dressed mostly in white.

"Here is a spare map," the nurse replied with a warm smile.

"Thank you Nurse Joy," Ash thankfully replied to the nurse, he picked the map off the main counter and walked towards the exit of the Pokemon Center, Ash unfurled the map and started to scan it for a moment, "alright I guess, if we head south from here we will be heading towards a castle, but if we head to the west, we will be seeing a lot of roads and rural areas, but the icy area seems very interesting," Ash thought out loud, he tried to figure out the layout of the city, walking on his own before bumping into a person without watching where he was going, he folded the map and looked down to see Serena on the ground.

Serena cleaned up her dress, "you idiot watch where you're…" she started before looking up to see Ash standing in front of her, "oh Ash, sorry for running into you," Serena apologized.

"But you called me an idiot," Ash complained while Pikachu started laughing at him.

"Sorry about that, I wasn't watching where I was going," Serena professed with embarrassment.

Ash chuckled knowing the feeling, "well I was too busy looking at this map."

Ash showed the map to the young woman causing her to smile sweetly, "so you will be challenging the Kalos League, I guess that makes us rivals," the blonde said as she got to her feet and looked at the map with the trainer, "you know this city has so many different roads leading to different cities," she told Ash while pointing to each exit on the cities map, "I plan on taking the eastern roads," Serena stated with confidence.

"I was thinking of taking the western roads," Ash told the younger girl calmly.

"I have an idea, since we are now rivals, how about we come back to this point and compare our achievements," Serena suggested with a wink.

"Comparing achievements? Never really done that before," Ash replied as he looked at the map again, he started to think about the prospect of competing with the young woman, "alright you're on," Ash replied while extending his hand out to the starting trainer.

"Sweet, so not only are we rivals we're also friends, may the best trainer win," Serena decreed while meeting the experienced trainer's hand, they shook hands while Ash's Pikachu watched them becoming friends, "come on out Fennekin," Serena called for a small yellow and orange fox like pokemon.

"Wow, so this is one of the starters of this region," Ash commented while looking at the small pokemon.

"Also Professor Sycamore wanted me to give you this, he forgot to give you this pokedex," Serena stated while handing over the item and five pokeballs to Ash.

Ash looked at the item for a moment and pressed a button, the top part of the device lifted up revealing a screen, "wow, so this is the new pokedex," Ash questioned with awe, he pressed the button again to retract the device, he turned to the western side of the city and started to walk towards one of the exits, "well Serena, I will see what you achieved later on," Ash said while waving at the girl, his Pikachu following him, he looked back to see Serena taking the opposite road towards her goals, 'this will be an interesting adventure,' Ash stated with a smile. He recommenced his walk to one of the exits of the city.

(Flashback)

"My name is Serena, I am starting my adventures in the Kalos region, I plan to start with Fennekin and to compete in the Kalos League," Serena started writing in a book, she looked up to the forest canopy and placed the pen towards her lips, thinking about what to write next, "I think I will save the next part after I get my pokemon," Serena told herself with a confident smile, she continued to walk through the forest on her own, placing the book into her backpack.

Serena quickly passed through the forest to see a major city on the horizon, she gasped at the sight of the largest city in the region, "it has been years since I have seen Lumiose City, it has gotten much bigger," Serena claimed with great surprise.

A few hours later, after walking around the city to get a cup of coffee, she walked towards the lab waiting for the Professor to arrive to allow her to select the pokemon she wanted, after meeting with Ash she looked back to see him walking off, 'wow, I think I have found an interesting person,' she thought to herself while smiling at him, she noticed that his Pikachu fell off his shoulder after a comment he had made.

"Well Serena, time to choose your first pokemon, we have Chespin, Froakie and Fennekin," the professor showed off the three pokemon to the teenager, the brown pokemon with a green hood looked at the girl trying to look really cute while a blue frog like pokemon with bubble formation around his neck just stood on the spot not caring, but the small fox like pokemon looked around naturally cute.

Serena walked pass the three pokemon at least four times before stopping in front of the small fire fox pokemon, "I will choose Fennekin," Serena declared the pokemon she wanted to start off with, she was given a pokeball and a pokedex to start her journey, she recalled the small yellow and orange pokemon and started to walk towards the exit.

"Oh Serena before you go here take these ten pokeballs and this spare pokedex, can you deliver five of those pokeballs and that pokedex to Ash Ketchum please?" Sycamore requested with a confident smile.

"Okay Professor, I will go to the Pokemon Center, I need to register for the Kalos League," Serena retorted with a bright smile.

(Return from flashback)

"So this is day one of my journey and I have already met a really cool trainer, his name is Ash Ketchum a trainer I knew him from the Kanto region, in fact I know him from many years ago, he has really grown up since our childhood, but until then I will compete against him and maybe one day, nah never mind," Serena wrote down her thoughts in the book while sitting on the bench nearest to the exit of the city, she looked up to see the exit and gulped for a moment, "I am so nervous the I cannot write neatly," she told herself before placing the pen and book in the backpack, she walked towards the exit of the city nervously, "time to make my family proud," she confidently remarked as she walked slowly towards the city exit.

Serena looked back to the distance wondering how Ash was going to begin his travels, she walked out of the city and into a green pasture, she looked around to see pokemon walking through the grass and over the road, she looked over to see a small brown pokemon with green shrubbery, "oh wow a Skiddo," Serena said with a smile a she pulled out her pokeball to call out her pokemon for battle, 'now if I remember correctly my dad always told me to weaken a wild pokemon before capturing it, so that means,' Serena thought about her father's advice before she started to journey, "Fennekin, let's get the battle started," Serena called out her starter fire type pokemon.

The fire type pokemon appeared from the pokeball ready to face the wild pokemon, 'let's see, so Fennekin is a fire type, so that could mean moves like Ember might be a good choice,' Serena thought while the grass type walked across the road, "Fennekin, attack with Ember," Serena explained her attack to her starter pokemon.

The small fire type sent a weak burst of flames towards the grass type pokemon, the attack hit the Skiddo dealing significant damage to the pokemon, Serena grew excited until a herd of Gogoats appeared angered by the attack on the baby of the litter, "I think I made them mad," She told herself she quickly recalled her starter pokemon, "help!" Serena cried out while being chased by the herd of Gogoat, she ran as fast as she could possibly muster, she ran to the entrance of the city hoping that the herd of Gogoat wouldn't harm her, "all I wanted to do was capture a Skiddo," Serena complained while looking up through the glass waiting for the Gogoat and Skiddo to leave the area.

Serena waited wondering what to do next, she grabbed her pen and book to write her thoughts down, "okay my journey didn't start as well as I would have hoped, I hope Ash is doing better than me," Serena said to herself while writing down her thoughts.

Meanwhile at the other side of the City Ash was battling against a black and white bear like pokemon with a leaf sticking out of its mouth, "alright Pikachu attack with Thunderbolt," Ash instructed his partner pokemon.

The fighting pokemon was slammed with a mighty blast of electricity knocking it out with one hit, Ash threw his pokeball at the wild pokemon, the ball hit the bear like pokemon trapping it inside the pokeball, the ball wobbled from side to side, Ash waited for the pokeball to confirm the capture, "come on, stay inside," Ash requested with a smile, he waited for what seemed like forever until the ball signified the capture of the new pokemon, Ash ran up to the pokeball and picked it up, Ash celebrated the first capture of the new region by jumping up and down, "yes I captured Pancham!" Ash celebrated while his partner pokemon followed in the celebration.

After celebrating Ash looked towards the distance to find the city which seems to have gotten smaller, "I hope Serena is doing alright," Ash thought out loud while thinking about the fact that she was a new trainer, 'maybe I should have helped her a little bit,' Ash thought while feeling guilty about not traveling with Serena for just a little while.

Meanwhile Serena started to celebrate after the capture of a Skiddo, "yes I did," Serena celebrated, she jumped around for joy while her fire type pokemon started to celebrate after finally capturing the grass type pokemon, "we did it Fennekin," Serena happily picked up her pokemon and danced around happily while her fire type pokemon happily celebrated by blowing out a burst of flames. "Come on Fennekin, there are more pokemon to capture and we need to beat Ash," Serena stated with grown confidence.

The young woman started running towards the next challenge after the situation with the Gogoat, but now she knew that pokemon don't appreciate being attacked, one lesson learned for her, but she was happy to have met Ash who she knew was going to be just fine, 'he will be fine, I can tell he is an experienced trainer,' she thought not realising the trouble Ash had gotten himself into.

"Quick Pikachu run, those pokemon are really angry!" Ash yelled out while running away from much larger black and white pokemon who were chasing him, "they must be angry because I caught one of their cubs," Ash complained while running with his partner pokemon on his shoulder. Ash looked back to see the angry pokemon continuing to chase after him after capturing one of their pokemon, "so this journey is going to be an interesting one," Ash reminded himself, running away not wanting to find out what would happen if he was caught but the powerful bear like pokemon, who were roaring at him.

The start of a new paring, this chapter was written at the end of August but held off because I didn't know enough of the new games (much like everyone else) but still I hope you enjoyed the start of this story.

As you can all tell, this is a romance story but Ash and Serena will be taking different paths, they will meet in Lumiose City and maybe test one another as well.

Next time chapter 2: respective gym leaders.

With less than a week until the games I will do what I can for the sake of this story, since almost Easy is around 10 chapters from completion I think I can start this story and focus on Falling Leaf in the Wind, as well as Trainer and the Princess.