"I'm really going to miss you, Ash," a small girl said. The world around me rippled slightly but slowly the scene began to take shape. I was outside Professor Oak's laboratory.

A large group of kids was all milling about in front of the large grey building as they waited for their parents to pick them up. I recognized this as the last day of the pokemon training camp that I went to as a kid but everything looked a little different from my memory. It kind of had a fuzziness to it that I couldn't explain.

"I'll miss you too," my high-pitched little kid voice said. I looked down and blinked in surprise when I realized that my body was transparent and I was floating a few inches off the ground.

"Cool!" I exclaimed in my adult voice which sounded weirdly echoey. With an experimental flip, I found myself floating effortlessly in the air, looking down at all of the kids. "This must be what being an Inkay feels like," I said to myself as I enjoyed my freedom of the laws of gravity. The young girl's voice pulled my attention away from my floating experiments and I floated closer to where mini-me and a girl with wavy, honey-blonde hair were talking a little ways away from the hustle and bustle of the other kids.

"I wish I lived in Pallet town too, then I could still be your friend," the girl said with a sad sigh. She tilted her head up and as I looked at the cerulean blue of her eyes I realized that this was Serena, the girl that I had rescued from Ursaring just a few days ago.

"Don't worry! I'll come to visit you all the time," mini-me promised with a large grin. Mini-Serena looked at me with surprise and then smiled sadly.

"Kalos is really far away, Ash. You would have to go on a plane to visit me," she explained in a mature tone. Mini-me frowned, looking like he was puzzling out a possible solution to the conundrum. Suddenly my grin returned and mini-me gave mini-Serena a peace sign.

"Then when I go on my pokemon journey I'll come visit you in Kalos!" I announced in my high-pitched voice that I did not miss even a little bit. Frowning slightly I turned to look at mini-Serena and I was surprised when her face split into a huge smile filled with excitement and delight.

"You'll really come?" she asked with a hope-filled smile.

"Sure! After I go around Kanto, Kalos will be my next stop to becoming a pokemon master!" Mini-me declared with as much bravado as an eight-year-old could muster.

"You promise?" Mini-Serena asked, holding out one of her hands clenched in a fist all except for her pinky finger.

"Promise!" Mini-me agreed, hooking his little finger around her paler one. We sang the pinky promise song together and mini-Serena laughed happily as we broke our pinkies apart. Suddenly a feminine voice called out for Serena and she turned to wave in the direction of a tall woman with light brown hair cut in a slick bob.

"I've got to go now, Ash," Mini- Serena explained. After a small pause, she reached out and gave mini-me a hug, which I returned.

"Don't forget your promise!" she called out as she walked backward in the direction of her mom.

"I won't!" I called out, waving to her as her mom took her hand and led her towards a shiny blue car.

My eyes opened to the dull view of the rock ceiling of my shared room. I knew instantly that I could no longer float and a weird sense of guilt clawed at me as I thought back to the weird dream/memory. Pikachu stretched beside me, yawning widely before blinking over at me and giving me a small smile.

"I really did forget about our promise," I whispered sadly as Pikachu looked at me. He cocked his head in obvious confusion and I sighed before giving him an appeasing smile.

"It's nothing, buddy. Let's get ready for the day."

"Pikachu!"

When I came back with the poison barbs Celeste had asked for she had barely glanced at them before telling me to hand them to another grunt with higher clearance to deliver to the laboratory. I knew I was at the bottom of the pool as far as grunts went, but I was getting a little frustrated with how little I actually knew about what we were doing. Pikachu had tried to sneak through the vents towards the large headquarters and laboratory where Neptune and her other captains spent most of their time, but he had come back with a frustrated look. After trying several other vent openings I could only assume that the vents had been blocked off as well somehow.

Today I had been assigned the incredibly exciting task of sweeping the dozens of halls that connected the honeycomb of rooms that Team Galactic grunts lived in. I was just starting to come up with an argument for Director Falon that this was not going to get us anywhere with me being a grunt when a strange ruckus sounded behind me. I left my broom and pan against the wall and walked towards the commotion curiously.

Just as I rounded a corner a small, furry body leaped out of nowhere and landed directly on my face. I stumbled back in shock but before I could even think of how to react the little creature dug its blunt claws into my cheeks and scalp and launched itself off of me, speeding down the hallway I had just barely swept.

"Catch it, you fools! What are you doing?!" Neptune's clear voice pierced through the ruckus of scrambling grunts and I immediately perked up. 

This is my chance to get noticed by the boss! I thought excitedly.

"Let's go, Pikachu!" I said with a huge grin. Pikachu immediately understood my intention and we both dashed down the hallway towards the strange pokemon. 

As I chased after it, it looked like a small streak of white fur practically flying across the dark floor. Pikachu used Quick Attack to catch up to the small creature and whipped around to stand in front of it. The pokemon wasted no time dodging to the left and I put on a burst of speed to follow it.

"Use Electro Web, Pikachu!" I called out. We had practiced this move precisely for a situation like this and I could feel a thrill rushing through me as I remembered how much fun it was to catch a new pokemon.

Several grunts yelped in confusion as the white pokemon ran under their feet and they leaped out of my way as I barrelled haphazardly after the little thing. Once Pikachu had caught up to me his tail began to glow a bright yellow and he let out a "Pi pikach!" just before a crackling web of electricity shot out of his tail.

The web sailed up and over two grunts who were diving out of our way and wrapped perfectly around the small runaway. The pokemon twitched and scratched at the mildly electrified, but very sticky web that Pikachu had shot at it and I pounced, gathering the small thing into my arms and taking a good look at it.

I had never seen pokemon like it before. It was a little more than half the size of Pikachu and its body type reminded me a little bit of a Furret but its fur was silky soft and white as snow along the majority of its body. There was a brown patch of fur on the tips of its rounded ears and its tail and as I turned it around I saw that its front paws had boot-like patches of brown fur with a purple gem on top of each front paw. There was a strange metallic growth on its neck as well that housed several blue gems and its eyes were large and as purple as a violet.

"Get out of my way, you useless lowlifes!" Neptune's angry voice snapped as more scuttling and cries of shock sounded farther down the hall.

I turned around just as Neptune looked up at me. Her purple eyes traveled from me to Pikachu, to the small pokemon that was squirming in my hands. One of her thin eyebrows arched up in a look of mild surprise and she confidently walked over to me. Even though she was only 5'5", I couldn't help but shrink back at the enormous amount of confidence that caused her to seem 7'0" tall.

"Well, I see that at least ONE of our new recruits isn't completely incompetent," she remarked, raking her eyes over the small crowd of grunts that had gathered to see what the commotion was about. "What did you say your name was?" she asked as her eyes settled back onto me. I quickly bowed, holding the struggling pokemon gently in my hands before straightening and meeting Neptune's eyes.

"Satoshi, ma'am," I answered formally. Neptune looked me up and down for a second before nodding and glaring down at the pokemon.

"Well done in catching the failed experiment," she said in a clear, strong voice. "Please dispose of it at once." I blinked in shock and looked down at Pikachu, who also looked taken aback by the strange command.

"Dispose of?" I repeated uncertainly. Neptune sneered at the struggling pokemon in my hands and then looked up at me.

"Team Galactic has no need for failures. Take it to the forest and end its life, make sure you bury it so no one discovers the evidence," Neptune said, folding her arms and quirking an eyebrow up at me. "That won't be a problem will it, Satoshi?" she asked, her eyes narrowing dangerously like a wild Beedrill who was about to attack someone in their territory.

My blood ran cold as I realized that this woman legitimately wanted me to kill this innocent pokemon. If I hadn't been undercover I would have challenged her to a battle to teach this cruel monster a lesson. But I WAS undercover and I knew that right now the most important thing was to gain Neptune's trust so I could learn what Team Galactic's goal was.

"Not at all, ma'am," I forced myself to say, bowing again so I could take a second to get the revulsion out of my expression.

"Good. Grunts who know how to obey will find their lives much better, Satoshi," Neptune said with one more narrowed-eyed glare before she turned and walked through the crowd of grunts.

My eyes followed her but were diverted as a new face caught my attention. A tall man with dark green hair, who looked to be a year or two older than me, was looking at me with a suspicious expression. His suit was grey like all of us grunts, but the G stitched onto the shirt was black just like Celeste's which meant that this was one of Neptune's other captains. I bowed slightly and tried to smile disarmingly at the captain. He frowned at me, but when Neptune walked past him he turned and followed after her, shadowing her every move like a silent bodyguard.

As the two leaders whisked away towards the direction of the laboratory, the other grunts around me began to go back to whatever they had been doing before. I found myself alone in the hall looking at the small pokemon in my hands. It was still struggling desperately, even trying to gnaw at the sticky web with its teeth, but whenever it bit down a small electric spark crackled across its mouth and it jerked back with a small whimper.

"Let's go, Pikachu," I said, trying to sound uncaring as I began walking towards the exit.

As we walked swiftly towards the nearest exit from the depths of Mt. Coronet my mind raced a million miles a minute. There was no way I could kill a pokemon. Oftentimes I liked pokemon more than humans and the thought of killing this defenseless creature in my hands made me physically sick. But if I just let it go and Neptune somehow found out that it was still alive she would never trust me again and all my work at coming here undercover would be ruined.

My mind was too preoccupied to greet the grunt in charge of guarding the exit, and I left the mountain behind me without any idea of what to do. My mind was so focused on trying to come up with a solution to this terrible situation that I hardly even noticed when I entered Eterna forest and began swiftly walking through it with no direction in mind. Pikachu jumped onto my shoulder and looked at the small creature that seemed to have exhausted its strength from its struggles. Its little chest was hammering like crazy against my fingers and I slowly brought it up so I could look into its purple eyes.

Fear and anxiety were reflected in the small creature's eyes and I groaned as I once again battled with what I was supposed to do with it. Pikachu leaned forward and quietly spoke in a calming tone to the little thing. Its nose lifted in the air as if it were trying to tell whether it could trust Pikachu or not by his smell.

"Roisiiii," it said in a warbling voice. I glanced at Pikachu and he gave me a sad look as if to say that I most definitely could not hurt this pokemon.

"I know, but what are we supposed to do? It needs to disappear, but I can't kill it and I can't let it go!" I said frustratedly. The small pokemon in my hands shrunk away from my loud voice and covered its eyes with its front paws, shivering in fright.

"Pikapi," Pikachu tsked with a scolding tone at me, giving me a frown. I sighed guiltily and was about to apologize when a sound on the wind caught my attention. Turning around slightly I tried to pinpoint where the sound had come from.

"...shi!"

I pushed through the dense forest towards the musical voice. Disbelief bubbled through my mind but my body wasn't at all deterred by my mind's confusion. I pushed through the trees towards the voice and as I got closer my footsteps got quicker.

"Satoshi?" The gentle voice sounded hesitant and unsure as she called out my alias, but I could have cried from relief. After correcting my angle slightly, I pushed past a bush and saw her standing in the middle of a clearing looking thoroughly embarrassed.

For some reason I stopped, hiding behind a tree trunk as I watched her glance around her, waiting for me to appear. I wasn't sure what I was waiting for, but as I hid partially behind the tree trunk I looked at Serena, trying to recognize the miniature version of her from my dream last night. She had let her hair down today so that it flowed in wavy tresses of honey gold down her back and I imagined that if she wore a sun hat like she had at the pokemon camp I could start to see the similarities between my old friend and this willowy young woman.

"This is silly, Serena. Just one more time and then you are leaving," I heard Serena say to herself as she turned another circle in the small clearing she was in.

My heart skipped a beat as she brought her hands up to cup around her mouth. She was wearing a mini dress with a cream-colored, short-sleeved top and a ruffled skirt that was dark brown. Her feet were encased in knee-length boots that actually looked like they had support to them. It often amazed me the ridiculous shoes that I saw women wearing on my away missions and I was glad to see that Serena, although dressed what I assumed was fashionably, still had some practicality.

As Serena drew a deep breath to call out my name once more an idea popped into my head. I slipped the now still pokemon into my shirt's chest pocket and swiftly climbed up the tree I was under. Just as Serena called out the name "Satoshi!" I dropped down from a branch almost directly over her. She jumped back with a loud squeal, slapping her hands over her mouth as she looked at me with huge eyes filled with surprise. I couldn't help but laugh at her shock and Pikachu joined me in my laughter.

"Satoshi..." Serena breathed out with obvious disbelief as she slowly lowered her hands from her mouth. I grinned widely at her and brought two fingers up to my temple, giving her a casual salute.

"Yo," I responded with a chuckle. It had been so long since I could just play around with a friend that I almost found myself challenging her to a pokemon battle. But then I remembered that not only was Serena not a pokemon trainer yet, but I had also come up with an awesome idea when I heard her calling out my alias's name.

"I heard you calling me," I said casually and cocked my head in amusement as Serena's cheeks turned a rosy pink color. It didn't seem like such an embarrassing thing to call out to a friend, but it was kind of cute that she thought it was.

"Umm, honestly I didn't think you would hear me," Serena admitted with an awkward chuckle. I grinned widely and place my fists on my hips.

"You got lucky, I'm not always wandering through Eterna Forest," I said honestly and Serena again blushed lightly.

"I figured you didn't," she responded quietly with obvious embarrassment. "But I didn't know how else to find you." 

I watched her as she looked away from me for a moment and then I took a step closer to her. "Actually it's really me that is lucky. I was hoping that you could help me with something," I said excitedly. 

Serena blinked up at me, looking shocked by my request and she tilted her head slightly as she looked up at me. "Me?" she asked in obvious disbelief.

"Yes!" I agreed quickly, reaching into my pocket and pulling out the still tied up pokemon. Serena gasped and rushed over, looking at the small pokemon wrapped up like a parcel.

"Oh my goodness, what happened?" Her reaction was exactly what I had hoped for, but admittedly it made me feel guilty that I hadn't taken the Electro Web off of the little thing yet.

"Uh... where I work there was someone who found this little pokemon in our facility," I started, thinking on the fly of how to explain what happened using as much truth as I could without actually telling her anything about what I was doing. "The little guy scared our boss pretty bad and told me to take it somewhere she would never have to see it again. I don't suppose you've decided to become a pokemon trainer yet, have you?" I asked, holding up the small pokemon towards Serena.

She looked between the small pokemon in my hands and up into my face. Slowly her gaze went back to the little white pokemon and she reached out a tentative finger. The little thing's nose jittered like crazy but slowly its head moved forward and took a tentative sniff of Serena's finger. After a second, its small pink tongue slipped between its lips and licked the very tip of her finger. I could see her features melting and I could just imagine her saying "Kawaii!" in her head, something one of my fellow trainees had a habit of saying whenever she saw something cute.

"What kind of pokemon is it?" Serena asked, tentatively holding out her hands towards the small thing.

I passed it over to Serena and watched as she sat down and pulled her backpack in front of her. With one finger she stroked the little pokemon's head soothingly as she rummaged in her bag and pulled out a small pink box. Opening it revealed several spools of thread, needles, and a small pair of scissors. Serena winced as the Electroweb sent a small shock into her every time she snipped one of the threads, but soon she had released the little pokemon. She picked it up, holding it in the palms of her hands as it cocked its head and sniffed curiously at her.

"Honestly, I don't know," I admitted, although if what Neptune had said about it being a failed experiment was true then I doubted that it would show up in a Pokedex even if I had one on me.

Serena looked at the small pokemon in her hands and it was almost like the two were doing a strange staring contest. After a moment a gentle smile spread across Serena's lips and she bent her head forward, tapping her nose against the little pokemon's nose and causing it to sneeze. Serena chuckled and the pokemon placed its small claws on her cheeks.

"Awww!" Serena gushed as the pokemon licked her forehead. She pulled her face back from its claws and pet its head happily. "What's your name little one?" she asked in a slightly higher than normal voice.

"Roisiii!" the little pokemon said in a strange mix between a chirp and a whistle.

"How about Roisel?" Serena asked the little pokemon. It spun in a tight circle around her open palms and then sat up, wagging its long tail happily.

"Siiii," it whistled happily.

"Thank you so much, Satoshi!" Serena gushed, looking up at me with a broad smile. "I was actually trying to find you because I did decide to become a pokemon trainer and I wanted to thank you for your help with that decision. Now I need to thank you for my first pokemon!" she said with a happy laugh. I breathed out a sigh of relief as I watched Rosiel copy Pikachu by running up Serena's arm and perching on her shoulder where it nuzzled her cheek happily.

This should work. If Serena is going on a pokemon journey then she should be leaving Eterna City soon and she can take Roisel with her. Neptune will never know I didn't kill it, I thought. There was still a small doubt in my mind about this plan, but it was the best option I could see so no matter the consequences I decided to stick with my decision and let Serena take Rosiel for me.

"Do you have a Pokeball to make it official?" I asked with a smile. Serena blinked rapidly over at me and then reached up and rubbed Roisel's ear gently.

"I don't actually. I was thinking of heading to Sandgem Town to ask Professor Rowan if I could have a starter pokemon after I tried to find you. But I will go buy some at a Pokemart right away!" Serena announced with a bright smile.

"That's a great idea. Are you going to be giving contests a try then?" I asked, taking a step back and leaning my back against a tree trunk. Serena smiled shyly and nodded.

"It sounds like something that I would enjoy," she admitted quietly and then looked up at me. Her gentle smile slowly turned down into a frown as she looked at me and Pikachu.

"What's wrong?" I asked, feeling oddly sad that her mood had taken a turn for the worse. She shrugged and chuckled lightly.

"I just... wish I could have gotten to know you better. You've helped me so much and I don't even know how to find you to repay you someday," she said with a sad sigh. 

I blinked in surprise and felt guilt and a little bit of sadness bubble through me. Honestly, I wished I could stay with Serena for a while longer too. It would be so cool to go with her on her first pokemon journey and help teach her about raising pokemon. But I had a job to do, and that job meant that I couldn't let her contact me until I was finished with my undercover assignment.

"Oh," I said awkwardly, trying to think of what to say. After a pause I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck, looking over to see that Pikachu seemed to be mirroring my sadness at the thought of leaving Serena on her own like this.

"I can't really tell you how to find me because I travel a lot for my work," I lied awkwardly and Serena's face dropped into a look of disappointment. "But if I'm ever near a contest hall then I'll pop in and see if you're performing!" I said, trying to sound upbeat. Serena looked at me with a confused expression but slowly she smiled and nodded.

"Sure, I'll look for you in the audience," she said. 

When neither of us said anything else Serena stood back up, looping her backpack over her shoulders once more and giving me a small smile. After a second she reached her hand out, offering it to me. I quickly took it in my own, shaking her hand.

"I really can't thank you enough, Satoshi," she said, looking over at Rosiel on its perch on her shoulder.

"Thank you for taking it for me. I would have felt sad leaving it on its own," I said, giving the little thing a smile, which to my surprise it returned.

"I... guess I should go get a Pokeball," Serena commented awkwardly, glancing to her left where I assumed the forest path was located.

"Yah, I should... head back to work," I said after a small pause. 

Her eyes met mine and for a moment I thought she would ask me to come with her. And crazily enough I actually considered it for a few seconds. But then she just smiled and waved at me and Pikachu before turning and leaving the small clearing. I watched her walk away and once I was sure she was really gone I let out a long sigh.

"Pikapi?" Pikachu asked, patting my cheek gently.

"Do you ever miss the normal life?" I asked him with a small frown. Pikachu looked in the direction Serena and Roisel had left and slowly nodded without saying a word. I reached up and rubbed his head consolingly before turning around and heading back to Mt Coronet.

A/N So the pokemon that Serena was given was drawn by a SUPER talented artist who I couldn't find the name. But this is the link to find a bunch of other fakemon that they created: https://www.playbuzz.com/jbibue10/take-a-look-at-these-stunning-fakemon