Legal Disclaimer: Pokémon is copyright Nintendo. I do not own it, Nintendo and Game Freak do. It and all of its characters are the property of Nintendo, Game Freak, and Satoshi Tajiri.

Pokémon XY: Dream Death Destiny

Chapter 1:

On a road in the north section of Lumiose City in the Kalos Region of France, a beautiful girl with black hair, which fell past her shoulders, and blue eyes walked down the street. She wore a sky blue sleeveless shirt over a black sleeveless undershirt and a red miniskirt. She gazed around at the sights and sounds but not really taking them in. Instead she seemed to be looking for a particular building. She was not here as a tourist. She was the World Pokémon League Champion, codenamed Leaf. She rarely ever gave out her real name and only she, her Pokémon friends, and a few others knew her true name. And she was not alone.

Walking by her side were her Pokémon friends, her six best friends and some of the few friends she ever had. The girl's team consisted of Venusaur, Tyranitar, Garchomp, Jolteon, Starmie, and Chandelure. Her first Pokémon was Venusaur, a Grass/Poison-type Pokémon. He resembled a cross between a toad and a dinosaur. He had dark blue-green skin with toad-like warts on its legs, but his most prominent feature was the large flower that had bloomed on his back. It was a red flower with six large petals with white spots on it, supported by a brown trunk that looked somewhat like a fat palm tree trunk. In addition, as a Bulbasaur, Venusaur had been Leaf's starter and was her most versatile and useful, and one of her strongest Pokémon, maybe tying with Tyranitar. As for Tyranitar, he was a large, menacing bipedal dinosaur-like Rock/Dark-type Pokémon with dark green armor, fangs, with its fingers and toes culminating into claws. A bluish gray diamond-shaped piece of armor covered its belly and it had a large number of spikes on its head, neck, back, and tail. Garchomp was a dark blue Dragon/Ground-type Pokémon with a red underbelly that covered most of its abdomen. Its head was shaped like that of a Hammerhead shark, and it had fins protruding from its arms. It also had a dorsal fin and a tail that looked like a fish's tail. Jolteon was a dog-like Pokémon with yellow fur that formed yellow spikes on its rear, and a white, spiky collar. The yellow fur could also gain the sharpness of needles. Starmie was a purple starfish-like Water/Psychic-type Pokémon with a red jewel in its center as its core jumped into the air and spun around as it floated onto the battlefield. And finally, Chandelure was a Ghost/Fire-type Pokémon that resembled a chandelier that hovered in the air; ghostly purple flames flickering on the four lamp-like structures on the sides of its head, as well as a flame coming up from the center of its head.

As Leaf walked down the boulevard, more than a few young teenaged boys' heads turned as she walked by, each of them looking at her appraisingly and finding her much to their liking. The girl, however, either did not notice or simply ignored them. The boys were also quick to notice that her Pokémon were out of their Poké Balls, all six of them. As such, not a small amount of apprehension was mixed into their staring. She did not just draw the attention of teenaged boys, though. Others also kept an eye on her, finding it strange, as well as disconcerting, that a Trainer would keep all six of her Pokémon outside of their Poké Balls, especially since several of them were quite large and obviously powerful in the extreme.

She soon stopped next to the famous Galette Stand for a moment and took out a small metal pad and tapped a button on it. Immediately, a text message appeared on the screen, written in English, Italian, and Japanese, each word, appearing in a different language when appropriate. It was evident that whoever had sent the girl the message had wanted it to be difficult for anyone but her to read, for Leaf had American, Italian, and Japanese heritage and was fluent in English, Italian, and Japanese. Her Pokémon friends came and looked over her shoulder as she studied the map. Apparently, they were close.

She pushed another button and a three dimensional hologram of the map sprang up from the pad and arrows formed above the map to show her the way to her destination. Following the arrows, the girl and her Pokémon friends were led to what looked to be relatively small, plain building. The girl raised her eyebrows in curiosity as well as suspicion and she was immediately on guard, for that building looked to be a good place for an ambush. Leaf immediately turned to Starmie and Chandelure.

"You two use Psychic to scan the surrounding area," she told the two Pokémon. "I don't want us to blunder into any ambushes."

The two Pokémon gave cries of affirmation and the jewel at the center of Starmie began to glow, as did Chandelure's eyes as they scanned the building, as well as the entire area for any sign of life. While Psychic did not give them clairvoyance into the building, itself, it would allow them to sense the mind of anyone inside. Sure enough, the two Pokémon did, indeed, sense two minds inside, one male the other female. They sensed no hostility emanating from them. Instead, they appeared to be in the throes of passion with each other. They relayed the information to Leaf, who shrugged.

She took out the message and map once more and checked the address to make sure that they were in the right place. Sure enough, the message gave explicit instructions that the building where she was to meet the individual who had sent this invitation was a deserted building with no sign on North Boulevard. And the building she and her team were standing just outside of fit that description to a T. She checked the message once more to see if there was any indication of who may have sent the message. It merely stated that the person was a friend and that there would be others coming to the meeting. Stuffing the message and map back into her bag, she took out an unused Poké Ball, a good makeshift ranged weapon in a pinch, gripped the doorknob, and slowly pulled the door open without making a sound, allowing her and her Pokémon friends inside.

Leaf stepped inside the building and immediately looked around. Much as the message had described, the building appeared to be deserted. The building had a single wooden table a little off center lined by four chairs. There were other chairs situated throughout the room as well. There was also an HD TV mounted on the wall. It did not appear to be connected to any outlet, but she suspected that it was still operational. There were no decorations on the walls but there was a small hallway that looked to lead deeper into the building.

Pointing to Starmie and Jolteon, she used hand signals to call them to her while directing the others to take point at the door. She intended to make certain that this entire building was clear of any potential hostiles. She did not like the setting one bit. She hoped to rely on Starmie's Psychic to scan the area to help her find the two minds that were inside the building, the girl hoping that they were merely house mice or other rodents, rather than humans or Pokémon that may have wanted to start a fight. Jolteon was there to cover Starmie since he knew Signal Beam, a Bug-type move that was super effective against Dark-type Pokémon, Starmie's primary weakness.

Leaf followed the pathway back into another section of the building. As they walked down the short hallway, they could hear two voices speaking. "Come on, someone could see us," came an obviously female voice. She sounded young, no older than fifteen or sixteen at the oldest.

"Don't worry, baby," came the voice of a teenage boy of the same age. "We're in the back of an abandoned building. No one's gonna come in here."

Leaf then heard what could only be described as a loud kiss. The sounds of kissing and sighing then permeated the hallway and likely the back room.

Leaf stopped at the sounds of the voices could only give a shrug when hearing the audible kissing and sighing, echoed by Jolteon and Starmie. "Great," she muttered, something that was rare for her, "we've stumbled onto a salacious date." Jolteon and Starmie nodded and sighed as Leaf also sighed and then told them, "Well, we'd better make sure it's actually a date and not something more sinister."

Jolteon agreed, though Starmie scanned the two minds surreptitiously and quickly relayed the information back to Leaf, who almost recoiled as she received the information. She then glared at Starmie. "I don't need the scandalous details, thank you," she told the Pokémon sarcastically. She then wasted no more time and headed into the back room to break up the date so that she and her Pokémon would truly be alone when the meeting began.

The back room was in essence a utility room with a washing machine, dryer, and an electric heater. Leaning on the heater were two teenagers, a boy and a girl. They looked to be sixteen years old or so. The boy had brown hair, blue eyes, and was of medium height for a boy of his age. He wore a light blue short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans. The girl was someone that Leaf had seen on television in passing while watching a PokéVision promotional video in passing. Her name was Aria. She was the same height as the boy. She had red hair that fell past her shoulders with two curls at the ends that curled upwards. She also had what looked to be red eyes and was wearing a white sleeveless shirt with fluffy frills on the straps and black pants. Both teens were less than pleased to see the eleven year old Leaf, who would have been twelve tomorrow, staring at them with a mixture of shock and embarrassment.

"No one would find us, huh Hiro?" Aria blurted sarcastically, turning to her boyfriend and scowling.

"How was I supposed to know that this girl would play in an abandoned building?" Hiro retorted.

"Ugh," Aria groaned, throwing up her hands. She then grabbed him and pulled him by the hand, saying, "Come on, let's go." As she left, she looked back at Leaf and glared, warning, "You better not tell anyone about this." She then dragged Hiro out of the back room and out towards the exit. In the main room, the Pokémon standing guard over the room parted as Aria and Hiro rushed out of the building, each of them going in opposite directions as they departed.

Leaf simply shrugged as the girl departed the building with her boyfriend. She did not know why they ran in opposite directions but thought back on her trip to Kalos and her seeing Aria perform in a performance with her fox-like Fennekin. She had ignored the performance since she abhorred singing but she could not help but think that the Aria that had rushed out of the building was the same Aria she had seen on the TV. Considering the fact that Aria was an idol of some sort, she suspected that if it were discovered that she was involved with a boyfriend, it would be scandalous to say the least.

Turning back to Starmie, she directed, "Scan the area once more. I want to make sure that that girl and her boyfriend were the only ones here."

Starmie did as she directed and its core glowed as it scanned the entire building and the surrounding areas for anyone else. While there were people in the building across the street at the Sushi High Roller, no one seemed to be out of the ordinary. As for the vacant building they were currently in, Starmie sensed no one else inside, which it quickly relayed to Leaf. Since they were finally alone, Leaf finally relaxed a bit, going over to the table and taking off her bag and placing it on the table. She then sat in one of the chairs and took out a datapad that had the history of Kalos and the rest of the Pokémon World on it. She decided that now would be a good time to catch up on her studies since she had not gotten much opportunity to do so on the planes. Soon, though, a question appeared in her mind, almost certainly from either Starmie or Chandelure.

[What do you want us to do while we wait for whoever it is who gave us these instructions to meet us?]

Leaf looked over at Starmie and Chandelure and narrowed her gaze on them sternly. She then gave her answer. "Starmie and Chandelure, you two keep watch. The message indicated that there would be others coming to this meeting. I want to know when someone is approaching. As for everyone else, you should take the time to prepare for whatever may come. Discuss strategy amongst yourselves, train, spar; I don't really care. I'll be catching up on my studies and training for the time being. Just be careful. If this does turn out to be a Watchmen or Team Rocket trap, we don't want to be caught flatfooted."

The Pokémon nodded and they went about their assignments. Starmie and Chandelure went over to the door and kept their psychic senses open, Chandelure going up to the second floor so as to not be easily visible to anyone who may be looking for them. As for Venusaur and the others, they decided to break off into groups of two and do some light training while Leaf read up on her history as well as the map of Lumiose City. As she read, she decided that once the meeting, assuming there was one, was over, that she would have to visit some of the sights of the city, particularly this Stone Emporium that sold something called Mega Evolution stones.

For the next hour, Leaf caught up on her studies and Starmie and Chandelure kept watch while the rest of her Pokémon team trained with one another, Venusaur sparring with Garchomp while Jolteon sparred with Tyranitar. None of the Pokémon went anywhere close to all out against one another and all of the matches ended in draws, or went down to points. Venusaur was primarily training in his agility while Garchomp was eager to train not only in close combat, which was her strong point, but also in some ranged combat by using attacks like Stone Edge. She would not dare use a technique like Earthquake inside a building, even at low levels, a lesson that Tyranitar was ignoring as he could scarcely score a hit on the incredibly speedy and agile Jolteon. While Earthquake was, indeed, a powerful attack, even at low power, it could also be dangerous to use inside a building, especially a vacant one like this that may have had structural issues. Leaf was quick to point that out to Tyranitar.

"Tee-Tar, don't use Earthquake inside the building," she admonished, looking up from her datapad. "Even at low levels, Earthquake could damage the building and increase the risk of it collapsing."

Tyranitar disagreed and was vocal in his disagreement, though Leaf and the others knew that it was because he was annoyed at being consistently outmaneuvered by Jolteon. His growls translated into, [I can control my attacks just fine. I just need to train and score a hit on Jolteon!]

Leaf could only laugh. "Well, hit Jolteon with another technique. Try something like Stone Edge, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, or Crunch."

Tyranitar merely grunted and growled, which caused Leaf to chuckle. Tyranitar's issue was the fact that Jolteon was too fast for him and could evade all of his other moves. Only Earthquake, which was an area effect move, could hit Jolteon since Jolteon still needed to run in order to evade Tyranitar's attacks. Leaf then turned to Tyranitar and told him, "Or maybe you could focus on improving your reaction time so that Jolteon and other Pokémon of that speed won't outmaneuver and embarrass you."

Tyranitar seethed at Leaf's appraisal of his lack of speed and roared in rage. He then turned to face Leaf, pointing at her and challenging her to a fight. Leaf, for her part, calmly looked over at him and smirked. "You don't want to do this," she warned. "Fighting me won't solve your issues. But if you need a demonstration, I'll be glad to show you what I mean."

Tyranitar roared and charged towards Leaf, rampaging towards the girl. Leaf stood up from her chair and assumed a fighter's stance. She waited for Tyranitar to come in a little closer before stepping out of the way and sticking her foot out. The massive Pokémon tripped over her foot and began to stumble forward, the Pokémon struggling to maintain his balance. Leaf then lowered her shoulder and rammed him, shoulder first. While she was far lighter than he was, her charge was still enough to knock him off balance and cause him to fall. He then fell to the floor face first, causing the entire building to shake as he fell. He slid across the floor a few feet before coming to a stop, the Pokémon seething with rage and embarrassment. Leaf went over to the Pokémon and stooped down so she could talk to him.

"Your real issue Tyranitar is that you let your emotions control you, rather than you controlling them." She let that statement sink in for a moment before continuing, "If you had not charged at me like that, you would not have given me the opportunity to trip you and knock you down. You must be in control of yourself when you fight, otherwise your enemy will defeat you again and again."

Tyranitar gave a growl but was beginning to calm down and he slowly stood up. He looked over at Leaf and then at Jolteon. "Control your emotions, and then focus on improving your reaction time," she counseled. "Then you'll be in a far better position to deal with opponents like Jolteon. Remember, official Pokémon battles only allow for four moves, so you may not always get the chance to use something like Earthquake."

Tyranitar nodded and then went back to work training with Jolteon, doing his best to take Leaf's advice. It was still difficult to hit Jolteon, but Jolteon was not making much headway against him, either. Leaf gazed approvingly at Tyranitar and Jolteon's sparring match. Her reverie was soon interrupted by Starmie and Chandelure sending her telepathic images. The images of a large brown ape wearing a single red necktie with the letters DK written on it and a monkey with a red tank top with yellow stars on it and a red cap appeared in her mind. Starmie and Chandelure indicated that neither of them had hostile intentions but that they were studying the building.

Leaf soon turned to the others and told them, "Guys, we may be having some company soon. Be ready for anything but don't engage anyone unless they initiate combat first."

The Pokémon nodded and took up defensive positions around the room so that if whoever was coming was hostile, they would be in for a fight that they would never forget. They soon heard the doorknob turn and the door was pulled open. Then, the duo entered the building, revealing themselves to be the ape and monkey that Starmie and Chandelure had alerted them to. Leaf took one look at the large ape and instantly recognized him as being Donkey Kong from Donkey Kong Isle. She likely figured that the monkey next to him was Diddy Kong. While she had not met Donkey Kong personally, she had learned of him from Mew since he was also an enemy of Elric, and later Cyrus and the Watchmen and had seen pictures of him since the death of Elric.

Once Donkey and Diddy Kong entered the building, they glanced around and quickly spotted Leaf and her Pokémon friends. "Looks like we're not the only ones invited," Diddy said, looking over at Donkey Kong.

Donkey Kong looked over at Leaf and asked, "So, were you told to come to a meeting here by some mysterious person?"

Leaf did not personally know Donkey Kong but had heard that he fought for the side of good. "Did you get an invitation on a metal datapad?" she asked, holding up her datapad, displaying the message.

Donkey Kong produced his own datapad that displayed the same message that had been delivered to Leaf, only it was written fully in English. The message read:

To Donkey Kong,

This message is directed to Donkey Kong and his friend Diddy Kong. There is a threat that is coming in the future and you will be some of the heroes needed in order to fight it. Come to the vacant building just south of North Boulevard in Lumiose City in the Kalos Region of France. We will meet there to discuss the situation. I cannot say more at this time for fear of the letter being intercepted. Just know that your presence at this meeting will be of great importance.

P.S. Come prepared to fight on the chance that a trap is set.

Just as with Leaf's letter, there was no signature or return address. After they had shown each other their letters, they put their letters away. "So, who are you?" Donkey Kong asked.

"My codename is Leaf," Leaf answered. "I don't know you well enough to give you my real name yet. May I ask your name?"

"I'm Donkey Kong," Donkey Kong answered. "My friends call me DK. My friend over there is Diddy Kong," the ape continued, pointing over to Diddy. "I hope that we can be close enough friends for you to feel safe in telling us your true name."

Leaf smiled. "Me too," she said. She then proceeded to introduce her Pokémon friends to the Kongs. Her Pokémon nodded and gave cries, introducing themselves as well. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong also introduced themselves to the Pokémon as well, giving friendly smiles as they introduced themselves. Once all of the introductions were made, Leaf and the others sat back and relaxed, waiting for any other attendees to come to the meeting place, or even for the person who called them together to finally make an appearance.

The group waited for a while longer to see if anyone else would show up, or if the person that had summoned them would appear. As they waited, they each passed the time doing their own thing. The Pokémon began sparring once more, trying to keep themselves sharp for the Battle Maison competition that Leaf was going to participate in after the meeting. Leaf read up on the history of Pokémon, particularly the first confirmed sightings of Pokémon and where they were sighted. While she had heard of legends and myths of Pokémon appearing in ancient times, but they were few and far between. She had noted that there had been no listings of Pokémon in biological taxonomies until the mid twenty-first century.

As for the others, Donkey Kong was taking the time to play a Nintendo 3DS system while Diddy Kong was listening to music on a boom box. Rock music and heavy metal was blaring from the player, making it difficult for Leaf to concentrate. Even Donkey Kong seemed to be getting a little distracted, though he did not show it. Leaf, however, had no such reservations.

"Could you please turn that down a bit?" Leaf asked Diddy. "I'm finding it difficult to concentrate."

"Oh, sorry," Diddy answered, not realizing that the music was distracting her. He then lowered the volume so that while it was still audible, it was not distracting her or Donkey Kong. The group then went back to doing what they had previously been up to.

During the next hour, they continued to read, play a game, or listen to music. Periodically, Diddy would look over at Leaf, his gaze not leaving her for several moments until she raised her eyes and glanced about the room, her eyes eventually coming over to meet his. Whenever she would get back to reading, Diddy would continue to stare at the girl until she would look over at him, as if feeling his eyes on her.

Diddy continued to do this for most of the hour until Leaf sat up and closed her eyes for a bit as if meditating, but in reality, was trying to strongly think so that Starmie and Chandelure would pick up on her thoughts. She wondered if they sensed anyone else coming to this meeting or if this was nothing more than a gigantic waste of time. Their replies indicated that they did not sense anyone else coming at the moment but that there was some energy emanating from an area not too far away. Leaf decided to tell Starmie to keep watch on it while Chandelure continued to scan for anyone else that may be coming. Once that was finished, she sat back down and continued reading her pad.

Diddy once more gazed at her, this time his gaze seemed almost longing, as if he had a crush on her. Leaf must have felt his gaze, for her head practically snapped over in his direction as she looked back at him.

"Is something wrong? Is there something growing on me or something?" she asked.

"Oh, no, nothing," the monkey answered sheepishly as he went back to listening to his music.

"Just so you know, I'm eleven," Leaf informed him, causing his eyes to go wide and face to go red with embarrassment.

"And he already has a girlfriend," Donkey Kong added, looking up from his game. "Dixie'll kill you if you actually have a thing for Leaf," the ape added, only partially joking.

After a while, Diddy got up and headed on over to Leaf. He jumped up onto the table and looked over at one of the datapads that Leaf had been reading. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm catching up on schoolwork," Leaf answered. "Despite being a Pokémon Trainer, I still have responsibilities for keeping up with my education. A Pokémon journey is no substitute for an education."

"Huh, I thought Pokémon Trainers got a leave of absence from school," Donkey Kong chimed in.

"Technically, they do," Leaf acknowledged. "But that doesn't mean that you aren't responsible for learning essential reading, writing, history, math, and science. You have to show that you have the skills necessary for getting the job you want. Not everyone becomes a League Champion. If you don't have the proper education, good luck getting a job, especially in United Earth."

"And what subject are you studying now?" Diddy asked.

"The history of Pokémon," the girl answered. "I have to say, though, this is part of a personal project for me as well."

"What's your project?" the Kongs asked.

"To find out the true history of Pokémon," came the girl's answer. "While there are myths and legends involving Pokémon dating back thousands of years, the first certifiable recordings of Pokémon actually appeared in the mid twenty-first century shortly before the end of World War Three and the beginning of the War Against the PSI Aliens. I want to know why, if Pokémon existed for thousands if not millions of years, there are no historical records of them before that point in time."

"And what do you think?" Donkey Kong asked.

Leaf gave a knowing smile. "My theory is that Pokémon did not come into existence as a species until the mid twenty-first century and were engineered in labs in Japan. It makes sense. They originally appeared in Japan and gave Japan a fighting chance against China and Russia during World War Three. In addition, that is when Pokémon began to come into prominence. As for why there are legends of Pokémon from thousands of years ago, during the War Against the PSI Aliens, not everyone stayed and fought. After a few initial costly victories, when the PSI Aliens started taking the militaries of Earth marginally seriously, things got bad. It was looking terrible and a lot of people believed that humanity would not survive on Earth and that its only chance was to evacuate. Some are said to have left for other worlds and/or dimensions. Others are said to have gone to the past. I think that may have happened with some people and Pokémon.

"To escape extinction, they went to the past, but were so few in number it took a long time for them to be found. It also explains the legends of a great weapon being built in Kalos three thousand years ago, a weapon that destroyed the entire region. As you know, people were using bronze swords back then. They didn't have the knowledge on how to build, from what I could tell, is a modified planetary defense plasma cannon. Even more, I found references to such a weapon being used against Giygas in the War Against the PSI Aliens, to no effect. Giygas then disabled the weapon but did not destroy it, apparently intending to study it. That was shortly before the miracle occurred and three powerful psychics appeared from nowhere, freed Jeff Andonuts, and fought Giygas, defeating him and then destroying the alien fleet, saving Earth."

"Interesting," both Kongs said as they looked over Leaf's shoulder to catch a glimpse of what she was reading. Leaf continued to read and Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong went back to their own activities.

An hour went by before they heard the signs of anyone else coming to the building. When that hour was up, they heard the whine of engines coming down the street, the sound coming to a stop shortly after it had begun. It was not the sound of any ground car, though. It was the sound of a hovercar of some sort, meaning that whoever was driving it was likely from United Earth, since the Pokémon World hardly ever used hovercars. Besides, Leaf immediately recognized the sound as belonging to an F-Zero machine.

She shot up at the sound of the machine's arrival. She was an avid fan of F-Zero racing, loving the excitement and the breathtaking speed of the machines as they rocketed through the tracks. She watched the Grand Prix races on television whenever she got the opportunity to do so. Her favorite racer was Captain Falcon, the current Grand Prix Champion and also a famous bounty hunter. Like Samus Aran, he only took on just causes.

She went over to the door only to see it pulled open. Standing in the door was a tall man wearing a purplish-blue formfitting racing suit with a single pauldron with an opaque visor and a red helmet that had a golden bird, likely representing a falcon in the middle. Leaf's eyes practically lit up and sparkled at the sight of the F-Zero racer, who was none other than Captain Douglas Jay Falcon, current F-Zero Grand Prix Champion and famed bounty hunter. Captain Falcon took one step inside and looked around, seeing on the star-struck and possibly infatuated girl, as well as an ape and a monkey. He instantly recognized Donkey Kong, though, and the Kong immediately recognized him as well.

"Hey, Captain Falcon, I didn't expect to see you come to this meeting," Donkey Kong greeted.

"And I didn't expect to see you here, either," he answered, holding up his datapad, showing Donkey Kong and the others that he had received the same message. "I take it this is why we are here."

Donkey Kong and the others nodded. They then proceeded to introduce themselves. "I'm Diddy Kong, DK's best friend," Diddy stated, coming over to meet him.

"Nice to meet you," Captain Falcon said, shaking the monkey's hand. "I've heard great things about you from Donkey Kong." Diddy immediately suppressed a blush. The F-Zero racer then looked over at Leaf and asked, "And who might you be?"

As for Leaf, she could scarcely manage to stammer a response; she was so surprised and star-struck at the sight of her favorite F-Zero racer. "My code-n-n-name is Leaf," she barely managed to eek out, still managing to keep her real name a secret. Then, she burst forth. "You are my favorite F-Zero racer! I've seen all of your Grand Prix races!" She continued to lavish praise on him for the next few of minutes, leaving the captain a little bewildered.

"Uh, thank you, Leaf was it?" he eventually said after she had stopped to catch her breath.

"Mm-hmm," Leaf nodded exuberantly, her smile not disappearing at all.

"It's her codename," Diddy Kong added, prompting Leaf to turn to him and scowl, causing the smaller Kong to recoil and to shrink back into his chair.

Captain Falcon then made his way over to the table where Leaf had been sitting, prompting the girl to rush over to her own chair. As he went over, Venusaur and Tyranitar came over to Leaf and poked her in the ribs, saying something in their own language, chuckling all the time, that was easy enough for her to translate. They were making fun of her reaction to Captain Falcon's appearance, as if she had a schoolgirl crush on him. She turned and scowled, though a blush got through, prompting the two Pokémon to laugh and rib her further.

When Captain Falcon went over to his chair, he did not immediately sit down. He looked around the room and then asked, "So, does anyone know who summoned us here?"

Everyone shook their heads. "No," Donkey Kong answered. "My message simply told me to come here since there was a threat coming and that we would be some of the heroes needed in order to fight it."

"Mine said the same thing," Leaf added, managing to speak and act normally around the F-Zero racer.

"So do you think anyone else is coming?" the F-Zero racer eventually asked.

The others merely shrugged. "Don't know," Donkey Kong answered. "But I can tell you one thing; if someone doesn't tell us why we're here soon I'll be headin' back to DK Isle. I'm missing game night with Cranky, Candy, Dixie, and Funky."

"Yeah, and I'm also planning to head over to the Battle Maison when this is over," Leaf added. She then glanced over to Venusaur and Tyranitar and added, "I might be taking my full team," leaving open the possibility that she would challenge it with two empty spots, almost certainly previously held by Venusaur and Tyranitar. The Pokémon got the joke, though. Both she and they knew that they were her two strongest team members so there was no way she would keep them away from a tournament at the famed Battle Maison, would she? Either way, the Pokémon stopped chuckling and teasing Leaf and instead waited to see if anyone else was going to show up. Still, Leaf had a suspicion that the quartet that was assembled here might be the entirety of the group.

As if on cue, the datapads that had their messages on them lit up. They each took out their datapad and looked at it. The message read, Place the datapads on the table in a triangle formation.

Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Captain Falcon, and Leaf looked at each other apprehensively, wondering if this was some sort of trap. Remembering the exploits of Captain Falcon, she suspected that the F-Zero racer probably had a bounty on his head from the criminal underworld, and Leaf knew for a fact that Team Rocket had placed a substantial bounty on her head. Still, something told her that it was safe for her to do as the instructions told her to. As such, she placed her datapad down on the table in front of her. The others then did likewise, Donkey Kong being the last. Once the datapads were placed in a triangle pattern, there was a brilliant flash of light and, as one, each of the occupants inside the entire building, human, simian, and Pokémon alike fell asleep as if they had been hit with a Spore attack. As they were rendered unconscious, three beams of light were being emitted by the datapads.

After a few minutes, the group awakened, disoriented and looking around. Before doing anything else, they made certain that they were inside the same building. Their location was confirmed when Starmie and Chandelure came down from the upstairs of the building and confirmed that only a few minutes had passed and that there was no residual issues, the images and feeling being communicated to everyone present via telepathy. Still, that gave them little comfort.

"Okay, so what happened just now?" Diddy Kong asked, still feeling disoriented at having been put to sleep by the datapads.

"Stun grenades can put people to sleep but they're orbs and the stun field generator can't be made as thin as a datapad," Captain Falcon answered.

"We were asleep for only a few minutes," Leaf added. "According to Starmie and Chandelure, nothing happened while we were out since we're still in the building and they can't sense anything strange outside."

"Still, I don't like this," Donkey Kong said ominously.

As soon as he had said that, the three datapads each shot up beams of light into the air, the beams converging on each other and forming a hologram in the center of the table. The hologram showed a man dressed in a black bodysuit with a black helmet with an orange visor covering his face. The man looked almost identical to a United Earth Stealth Marine.

"Greetings, everyone," the man began, bowing before them. "Now that we are all together, let us come to the point of our meeting. Captain Douglas Jay Falcon, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Leaf. Chosen Heroes," the figure proclaimed. "You have been summoned here because there is a threat to this world that must be dealt with. I had hoped to bring in a few more heroes, but they are indisposed at the moment and time is likely of the essence so we'll have to make do with what we have." Captain Falcon and Donkey Kong figured that the person in the hologram was referring to Samus Aran and Mewtwo, the former of which was off fighting in the Galactic Federation Civil War off world, likely on Aether at the moment since the Galactic Federation was trying to bring the Luminoth to heel since they were working with the Federation in Exile.

The figure then continued, "As stated before, you have been summoned because there is a threat to this world. Dark forces are gathering on world. With the Federation in Exile, United Earth, and even the Pokémon World focusing on dealing with Cyrus and the Galactic Federation, many people are not focusing on problems that may be happening on world. And that is part of the problem right now. Neither I, nor my benefactors, know what is coming or even when it is coming. The threat could already be on Earth. It could even originate on Earth. All we know is that there is something that is either there or is coming and that whatever is coming threatens the entire world."

Images then began to appear on the datapads. The faces of numerous individuals appeared on each of the datapads. Each of the heroes present recognized their own faces, as well as that of close friends. Captain Falcon recognized the face of Samus Aran, Fox McCloud, and Falco Lombardi. Donkey Kong recognized the faces of Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi, but were surprised that they were mentioned here. Leaf also recognized not only her own face, but that of a boy named Ash Ketchum, the girl almost being taken aback by his appearance on the list. She also recognized the face of other humans such as Ethan, Lyra, May, Dawn, Hilbert, and Hilda in passing, having heard of them and their feats, but they were of little concern to her. She also saw a few other faces on the list that she did not recognize. They were each labeled, though. One of them was a brown-haired boy name Nate, another was a girl with brown pigtails named Rosa. There was also a boy with short black hair and gray eyes named Calem, along with a girl with honey blond hair that fell below her shoulders and blue eyes named Serena.

"These are also potential Chosen Heroes," the figure informed them. "They have not yet faced their trials, but they may be called upon to do so in the future. They may be targets of enemy forces. Keep your eyes and ears open. I know that this is annoying, not being able to identify the threat that we all will face, but you must bear with me. The threat is real and you are the only ones in a position to stop it when it comes." With that, the hologram vanished and the room was quiet.

It took a few moments for the group to react to the message. Eventually, after taking everything in, Donkey Kong started the conversation. "So, what does everyone think?" He could think of nothing else to say, his mind was still trying to take it all in and decide what should be done.

"It's pretty tough to fight an enemy that you can't even identify," Captain Falcon said. "Still, I don't think we can simply ignore this."

"Yeah, but why us?" Leaf asked. "We're a Kanto Pokémon League Champion, an F-Zero Grand Prix Champion, slash, bounty hunter, albeit without a powerful armored suit, and an ape and monkey, albeit a strong ape and monkey. Why not go to United Earth or even the Federation in Exile? The Federation in Exile has some pretty powerful allies. They could help with this."

"I'm with you," Diddy Kong added, nodding towards Leaf. "This seems a little farfetched."

"The hologram did indicate that he, and whoever he was working with, had hoped for some other heroes to show up, likely Mewtwo and/or Samus Aran," Captain Falcon stated. "Since they're not here, we may be the only line of defense against whatever is coming."

"What about those other Chosen Heroes?" Diddy Kong asked.

"What about them?" Captain Falcon replied. "All we got were first names and some faces. There are plenty of Nates, Rosas, Calems, and Serenas all throughout the world."

"Yeah, but we were called to Kalos for this meeting," Leaf interjected. "Why is that?"

"I don't know," Captain Falcon answered. "On the United Earth map, Kalos is the northern half of France."

"Then maybe we should remain here for a time," Leaf suggested. "Our allies should be able to handle any of our rogues galleries while we're gone."

"Those that are still left," Diddy Kong muttered. K. Rool had not been heard from for a long time, the Tikis were either destroyed or in full retreat, as were the Snowmads."

"And Black Shadow is currently in jail," Captain Falcon added.

"Team Rocket is also in shambles, though the authorities aren't doing enough to take them in and rumors do indicate that Giovanni has returned to leading them," Leaf stated.

"You think this could be a ruse by Giovanni?" Captain Falcon asked.

Leaf shook her head. "Team Rocket may say they want to take over the world but they're an organized criminal organization. Their first motive right now is profit. Anyway, I do think we should take a look around Kalos and learn more about the customs and lifestyle around here. It is a Pokémon region so it should have a Gym Battle Challenge and a Pokémon League at the very least. Besides, since we were called to Kalos, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the names we saw on that list turned out to be from Kalos."

"That would make sense," Captain Falcon said, standing up.

Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong agreed. "So I guess we should stay here for a while," Donkey Kong said. He then looked over at Leaf. "So, do you know any good fruit stands or ice cream places here? I could really go for a massive banana split and a banana shake."

"Make that two," Diddy called.

Leaf immediately got out her map of Kalos and activated it. "It looks like there's a café just east of Hibernal Avenue. Come, follow me."

Leaf then took her message datapad and put it in her bag. She then walked out of the vacant building, followed by her Pokémon. As always, Starmie and Chandelure kept their senses open in order to alert her and the others to any potential ambushes. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong then looked at one another, smiling, before following the girl out of the building. Captain Falcon was last to depart the building, closely following the others.

Meanwhile, standing inside a hotel room, a man dressed in a black bodysuit with a fully enclosed black helmet with an orange visor stood up and removed his helmet, revealing himself to be a man that looked to be in his early thirties with short black hair and blue eyes. He went out onto the balcony and placed an orb on a white plastic table. He looked down to see the Chosen Heroes that had attended the meeting in the vacant building walking towards Café Ultimo. He then opened he orb, revealing a small square-shaped drone. A simple rotor rose from the drone and soon began to spin, allowing the drone to take off. The man then proceeded to take out a small tablet that looked to be a holographic emitter, for the images of the surrounding area of Northern Boulevard came into being.

After the image seemed to scroll, indicating that the camera was moving, it soon stopped and focused in on Leaf, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and Captain Falcon entering the café. Just before they had entered, Donkey Kong had asked, "I hope they accept Banana Coins."

"Don't worry about it DK," Leaf answered, using Donkey Kong's nickname. "This is my treat."

The man smiled at Leaf's generosity. It appeared as if she were making friends with the others quite rapidly. He was pleased to see her finally have some more human friends. During his study of the girl, the only humans that were actually close enough to her to be her friends were the Kanto Elite Four member and Johto Champion Lance, and the Sinnoh League Champion Cynthia. He proceeded to continue watching them, ensuring that the connection between his Holo Caster and the camera was secure and that no one could eavesdrop on him. He had expected another person of interest to him to show up not too long from now and, as such, he simply sat back and waited, hoping that Leaf and the others would find whatever trouble was coming and stop it, assuming that he was unable to do so, himself.

Back down on the street, the group made their way towards Café Ultimo. As they were walking, the group made their way past an airfield to the north. As they were walking, Leaf stopped for a second almost as if sensing something.

"My gosh," she muttered. "It can't be…" She then let it go at that, leaving the others to go ahead of her. Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and Captain Falcon made their way towards the café. From the outside, the café had a maroon roof and its doors were wide open to visitors.

While the others entered the café, Leaf's Pokémon friends remained outside with her, following her gaze towards an airliner that had just landed. The boarding hatch was open and a set of stairs had already been set up next to the hatch. Standing at the top of the stairs was a boy the same age as Leaf. He had spiky black hair, hazel eyes, and wore a blue short-sleeved collared shirt with white stripes down the front and side. Part of his black undershirt could be seen in the opening at the neck. He also wore darker blue jeans and red high top sneakers. He also wore a red hat with a white Poké Ball design on it. He also had a green backpack with a white, slanted Poké Ball design on it. Standing next to him was Pikachu, a small yellow rodent-like Pokémon with brown stripes on his back, round red cheeks that could store electricity, long pointed ears with black tips, and a lightning bolt shaped tail.

The moment the boy stepped out, he stood tall and proclaimed in as loud a voice as he could muster, "Heeey Kalos Region! Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town is finally here!"

"Pika pika," Pikachu echoed.

"Oh please no," Leaf stammered distantly with dread.

She soon noticed that Donkey Kong had stepped back outside to see why she had not come into the café. "Everything okay?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Leaf answered sheepishly, directing Donkey Kong to the café's entrance, "everything's fine DK. Nothing to see here," she tried to assure him. "Nothing at all."

However, the ape was skeptical, with his skepticism being confirmed when he they heard a short cry just before Ash fell from down the stairs and to the ground with a thud. Leaf cringed at the scene and she quickly tried to direct Donkey Kong and her Pokémon friends into the café. As she was doing so, Tyranitar came up to her with a mischievous grin and made kissing motions as he glanced over at Ash.

"That's disgusting, Tee-Tar," Leaf grunted as she turned to see the Pokémon making pseudo goo goo eyes at her. He then made more kissing motions towards Leaf as he looked back at Ash, who was now joined by a woman with brown hair as well as the Pikachu that had been at his side. He then gave a series of roars that indicated that Leaf had a significant crush on Ash. Tyranitar's mischief earned him a swift kick to the groin, which caused his eyes to bug out with pain as he fell to his knees, clutching his groin, groaning in pain.

"I guess that area isn't so heavily armored," Leaf commented casually as she made her way into the café, followed closely by her Pokémon friends with Tyranitar bringing up the rear, walking unevenly, still clutching his groin.

Inside the café, there were not a lot of patrons inside the café at this time. That did not surprise the group since it was not prime business hours for an eating establishment. However, there were a few patrons inside, each of who had their Pokémon out while they either ate or waited for their orders to be filled.

Captain Falcon and Diddy Kong looked over at Tyranitar and then at Leaf, who still had a scowl on her face.

"What happened out there?" Captain Falcon asked.

"Leaf and Tyranitar had a disagreement regarding her crush on a boy," Donkey Kong answered.

"So, Leaf's got a boyfriend," Diddy exclaimed mischievously.

"No I don't," the girl answered. Surprisingly for the others, there was no blush of embarrassment indicating a lie.

"So, who is he, then?" Donkey Kong asked.

That was when Leaf blushed and looked down at the ground. "His name is Ash Ketchum," she eventually answered. "He's an acquaintance from my past."

"Like I said, boyfriend," Diddy answered mischievously. The others were not so sure, though. To them, the way she spoke indicated that her feelings for him were far from romantic, as was her embarrassment when he had yelled from the top of those steps and later fallen from them in embarrassing fashion.

With the conversation over, the group proceeded to search for an unoccupied table, quickly finding one in the back of the café. They made their way over to the table and sat down. As they did so, Leaf noticed that most of the Pokémon that were out were cute Pokémon, rather than the massive monsters that half of her team consisted of. Once they had found a table, they got a set of menus and took a look at what they should order for their meals. After deciding, Leaf then went back to order their meals. Leaf ordered a tuna salad sandwich with tomato juice, while both Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong ordered fruit sandwiches with extra bananas and banana juices, while Captain Falcon had ordered a simple bowl of chicken soup. Once the orders were made, Leaf was told that they would be brought to her table. She then returned to the others.

While they were waiting for their orders to be delivered, Leaf looked around and leaned forward a bit. "If it's okay with you, I would like to talk about what the figure in that hologram said," she said quietly, not wanting her voice to carry.

"What more can we talk about?" Captain Falcon asked in the same tone. "He didn't give us a lot to go on."

"So why have us come to Kalos?" was Leaf's next question.

"Maybe the guy knows a bit more than he told us," Diddy volunteered.

"But then why not tell us if he was warning us as to what was coming?" Donkey Kong asked. "If he was actually an enemy, he could have taken us out while we were asleep."

"I agree," Leaf said.

"Do we know that he didn't do something?" Captain Falcon asked.

"While we were walking, Starmie and Chandelure scanned us," Leaf answered. "They detected nothing wrong."

"So what should we do?" Diddy Kong asked. "How can we find out what the threat is if the guy who called us here doesn't know?"

Leaf and the others considered what to do. "Then we'll just have to keep our eyes and ears open," she eventually answered.

"We should also split up," Captain Falcon suggested. "That way we can cover more ground and if we find the threat, whoever finds it can contact the others."

"Good idea," the others agreed. They then exchanged phone numbers with one another.

After a couple more minutes, the waitress came to their table with a tray containing their meals. She even had some plates of Pokémon food specially crafted for Leaf's Pokémon friends. She placed each meal before the recipient and once she was finished, asked, "Is there anything else I can get for you?"

Looking around at the others and seeing that they were fine, Leaf answered for the group, "I think we're fine for now, thanks."

"Call me if you need anything," the waitress answered. She then went to check on her other tables. With that, Leaf and the others sat back and began eating their meal.

Meanwhile, in another part of Lumiose City, a secret exchange was taking place. A man and a teenaged girl were making their way over to a café with an orange roof. This café was known as Lysandre Café and was also known to house the secret entrance to Lysandre Labs, a research center where Lysandre was researching various topics, but mostly how to use the energy generated from a process called Mega Evolution where certain Pokémon, when a stone they are holding resonates with a Key Stone held by their Trainer, along with the Trainer's heart, allows the Pokémon to temporarily evolve further than it normally would be allowed to do so, significantly boosting its power in the process. The man, a muscular man with short dark blonde hair wearing a brown hoodie with its sleeves cut off, dark great shorts, and blue knee and elbow wraps, did not care what Lysandre Labs did, though. And neither did his teenaged daughter, a girl of about eighteen years of age or so with short black hair, blue eyes, and wearing a black what appeared to be tank top that did not quite reach down to her blue jeans. Over the black tank top, she wore a green short sleeved cloak. Like the man, she cared nothing for the lab's research, only the fact that the lab's founder, Lysandre, was paying them one billion Poké Dollars (they had almost fainted when they had received the offer) for the ball, enough for them to retire should they choose to.

The man was a famed thief named Argus Steel that almost everyone in the criminal underworld knew about. The girl was none other than his daughter, Millis, who had worked with him on various heists and quests for a while now. The duo entered the Lysandre Café, the door closing behind them with an attendant proceeding to turn the 'open' sign to its 'closed' side and lock the door. Aside from the attendant and the thieves, it appeared as if the café was deserted save for a couple people working the counter. Looking across the room, they were promptly met by Lysandre, himself. Lysandre was a very tall man with thick pointy red hair, a long red beard, and blue eyes. He wore a black suit lined in red, black dress shoes, and black gloves. He was holding a briefcase in his hand. When he saw the two thieves, he glowered at them.

"So, do you have it?" he asked succinctly.

"You have the money?" Argus retorted.

Lysandre went over to a table, placed the briefcase on it, and opened it. "One billion Poké Dollars, as promised."

Argus and Millis went over to the briefcase and when they saw the money, Poké Dollar sighs practically lit up in their eyes. "My gosh! We could by a small moon with this," Millis exclaimed, looking up at her father.

"Only if it was claimed by the Pokémon World," Argus retorted.

Lysandre then shut the briefcase hard, almost closing it on the teenaged girl's fingers, who had almost miraculously withdrawn them from the money in time. "Hey, what was that for?" the girl blurted.

"Do you have what you promised?" Lysandre asked in an even tone, though his expression left no doubt as to what would happen to the Steels if they tried to take the money and run without giving him what he asked for, or if they tried to cheat him.

"Right here," Argus answered, reaching into his pocket, prompting one of the workers at the bar to reach underneath it and grip a hidden pistol. Lysandre's expression did not change as the thief reached into his pocket. He knew that he could stop the two of them if they tried to either cheat him or worse. The thief then took his hand out, producing a single Poké Ball with a gold top half and a white bottom half with the letters G and S inscribed on the top half. "The GS Ball, just as we promised."

"Open it," Lysandre ordered.

Argus put his finger on the ball's button in its center and tried to open it, likely to release whatever was inside the ball. Much to his surprise, he could not open it. He looked at Lysandre worriedly.

"I can't," he told the tall founder of Lysandre Labs and the leader of the burgeoning Team Flare.

"What?" Millis blurted, grabbing the GS Ball. She pushed the button as well, but it would not open. She then tried to pry it loose in order to open it, hoping to be able to prove that she and her father had, indeed, retrieved the GS Ball as required for their billion Poké Dollar payday. Try as she might, though, she was unable to do so. "Dad, get Honedge out here to open it," she suggested.

"That won't be necessary," Lysandre interjected. The two thieves looked over at him. "Give me the ball."

Millis then tossed the ball over to Lysandre, who caught it with the ease of a professional baseball player. He then took a tablet-like device out of his pocket and activated it. Several beams of light were emitted from the device and poured over the GS Ball. Lysandre then smiled. "It's genuine. Take your money and go. The combination to the briefcase is one zero one seven."

Argus input the code and the briefcase opened just as it should have. The Steels grinned. "Money money money money muh-nee. Money! Oh yeah!" Millis sang. With this haul, they were rich beyond their wildest dreams, and all they had had to do was go to the Johto Region and take the GS Ball from a Poké Ball maker named Kurt, who did not even care when they took it. They did not ask any questions when Lysandre took the ball, though. They just took the money and left the café, one billion Poké Dollars richer.

Meanwhile, Lysandre looked over at the two workers at the bar and told them, "Open the café back up and keep watch. I'll be downstairs opening the GS Ball."

"Can it be opened sir?" the woman behind the counter asked.

"Yes," Lysandre answered, nodding. "All that is needed are the right tools." He then retreated to the labs behind the china cabinet. As he went down to the lab, he grinned. He would open the GS Ball and reveal its secret. And then, he would have the keys to ensuring that his dreams would be fulfilled, no matter who tried to stop him.