Gearan train station

Ray stands next to the train station as he addresses his Pokémon.

"Pip, fresh water! Woo, lemonade! Leo, lava cookies, and Bellsprout..."
Ray says to his Pokémon but notices one is sleeping.

Piplup, his water penguin starter, was holding two water bottles, while Woobat, the pig-nosed bat, was using its psychic abilities to hold two bottles of lemonade mid-air. Meanwhile, Litleo, the brave lion cub, held a bag of cookies in its mouth. Strangely enough, Bellsprout, the pitcher plant, was sleeping on the ground.

'Sighhhhhhhh,' Ray sighed as he collected the items and recalled his Pokémon, except Piplup, whom he held in his arms.

"Piiiipiip lupppp!" The penguin protested, but Ray didn't let go; instead, he held it like a teddy bear and entered the train station.

To his surprise, a familiar face was there—a woman with red hair wearing a red and white flame-patterned dress.

"Tesla!" Ray said in surprise.

Tesla noticed him and rushed towards him, inspecting his body for injuries.

"Ray, how's your health? You're not suffering any wounds from yesterday, right?" Tesla asked, worried.

"I'm fine, ma'am, as fine as I could be anyway," Ray said with mixed feelings.

"I can see that. I assure you I'm having my people look for the ship as we speak," Tesla assured Ray, and he smiled a bit.

"So, you're heading to Goldenwood Forest? With how you're packed, it looks like you're going on a date," Tesla teased.

"Da... date? It's not like that. I'm just meeting someone there for research, that's all!" Ray nervously tried to hide his reddened face.

"Haaaaaa, to be young again," Tesla smiled and remembered when she was a young girl going on a date with a guy who strangely reminded her of Ray.

"Anyway, I have an extra ticket for you to board the train. I also have something for this little guy," Tesla said as she pinched the cheeks of Piplup, making him angry (gave him a ticket and more cookies).

"Thank you a lot, Tesla. Honestly, you've done a lot for me. I'm grateful," Ray bowed his head as he left Tesla and went to meet a train conductor wearing a green uniform.

"We'll meet again for sure. Till then, stay safe," Tesla said as she left the train station to her own destination.

Ray boards a silver train cart, and within 5 minutes, he reaches his destination.

Goldenwood forest

Ray steps out of the cart and sees the forest, the grass, the leaves on the trees, and all the vegetation were colored gold. Ray inspects the grass to see if it was actually gold, but it was just grass. Even Piplup was surprised by the scenery.

"Aevium sure has some amazing places, alright," Ray said as he walked north deeper into the forest.

Ray then sees the exact person he wanted to: a blonde girl with a silver briefcase staring at the sky. Her white top complemented her black bike shorts.

"Oh, so you made it. I was beginning to think you wouldn't come," the girl said with a pouty face.

"Sorry, Melia. Ren held me up at the library," the dark-skinned boy explained.

"Ren at the library, huh? Seems like he considers you a great rival then," Melia says with a smile, making Ray also smile.

"Alright, let's get a move on!" Melia starts to move north again, and Ray walks beside her.

He imagines holding her hand but quickly removes the thought from his mind.

As they enter another section of the forest, Ray makes a remark. "This place is more like a park than a forest." There are numerous benches and swings around that make the place look more like a family park than a forest.

"Indeed, regardless, let's start researching. Now, which area first?" the blonde girl asks.

"Lead the way, captain!" Ray salutes strangely, making Melia giggle.

"Hehehe, alright, I'll lead the way," Melia says, and Ray follows.

(Montage)

Melia and Ray see two butterfly-like Pokémon, and Ray's Pokédex identifies them as Vivillon, the scale Pokémon. One with white wings faces Melia, while the one with blue wings is attracted to Ray. The butterflies dance around, then fly away, leaving the couple in awe. Melia then writes something down in her notebook.

Near a lake in the forest, Melia opens her briefcase and gives a fisherman wearing a red vest a special high-tech fishing rod to use. The man throws the line with bait into the water, and almost immediately the bait is taken. Ray and Melia watch in awe as the man battles with the fish and finally flings it into the air. A second later, a huge red fish (Magikarp) falls from the sky and hits the fisherman on his head. Melia and Ray both laugh hard at the situation in front of them.

Melia enters a field of flowers and starts to gently sniff them. Ray blushes at the sight of her smiling face, her innocence, and cuteness showing as well. She starts to hum a beautiful tune that seems to mesmerize Ray even more until an angry gardener drives them away.

At the lake again, Melia befriends three black fish called Finneon. She opens her briefcase and pours some Pokémon food into the water, and they chow down. Ray wonders why Pokémon seem to flock around her.

The two then encounter a little girl with pink hair stuck in a tree. Ray climbs it and brings her down. Hand in hand, the three walk all the way out of the forest, and the little girl waves them farewell.

Suddenly, a whole flock of white and blue-winged Vivillon surrounds the two and dances around, creating a spectacular performance for Melia and Ray.

(End of montage)

Goldenwood cove

A large entrance into a small mountain in the forest, it's covered by shrubs and mushrooms which are also golden.

"Finally, Goldenwood Cove," Dad said. "I should investigate something in here. It's weird because I usually do more local research on Pokémon behavior. Oh well, see you inside," Melia says this and enters the cave.

Ray looks around before entering and sees a woman with a large dog sitting on the bench.

"Hello, ma'am, what a huge dog you've got there," Ray says as he approaches the fluffy white dog.

"I see you've got a keen eye, boy. This is a Furfrou. Both of us are from the Kalos region. We're here on vacation though," the old woman said with pride in her voice.

Ray continued to play with the white hound who also licked his face and barked "bork bork." Piplup also seemed to like the dog as it snuggled up to it.

"Hehehe, I want a dog Pokémon as well. My name's Ray, by the way," Ray introduced himself.

"Charmed to meet you, Ray. I'm Gloria. I've seen some Rockruff running around here; you should try and catch one," the old lady tells Ray with a smile.

"Thanks, bye Gloria, bye Furfrou," Ray runs off waving at the old lady and her dog.

Eastern part of the forest

After searching for three minutes, Ray and Piplup stumble upon a strange scene.

"Mimikyuuuuu!", "Drifffffffff," Ray sees two Pokémon divided by a stream on the forest floor. One is a big purple balloon-like creature with four arms, while the other resembles the electric rodent Pikachu, but its color is darker, and its skin looks like cloth.

"Drifffffffff," suddenly the balloon flies up and drifts towards the Pikachu lookalike, picking it up and bringing it to the right side of the forest.

"Mimikyuuuuu!" The creature looks happy that its friend helped it across. "Good for you," Ray says, also kind of interested in the scene. "Pipiplup," Piplup also gives a happy cry.

"There you two are? You had me worried sick," a woman wearing a dark gown, a black tiara, and dark purple hair walks towards the two Pokémon.

After scolding them, she turns to Ray. "I'm sorry if they gave you any trouble."

"Not at all!" Ray says as he waves his hands.

"Hmmmm, strange. You've got a lot of patience, don't you? We need more people like you in Goldenwood Town," the woman says as she puts a finger to her chin.

"Huh?" "Pip?" Both Ray and Piplup are confused by her words.

"Anyway, thanks for looking after them. Here. Come along, children," the woman hands Ray a small bottle of black liquid then leaves with the two Pokémon behind her.

"Weird... Huh, wait a second," Ray says as he hears some rustling in the grass.

"Ruff ruff ruff!" A brown puppy with rocks on its neck jumps from the tall golden grass, ready for battle.

Ray uses his Pokédex and analyzes it.

Rockruff,
the Puppy Pokémon.
a Rock-type.
It's very loyal to its trainer and can even save them in dire situations. The males have sharper rocks on their necks than females.

Ray notices that the one in front of him is a female. "Yosh! Let's do this."

"Piplupppp!" Piplup jumps from Ray's arms and readies for battle.

"Not you! You're too strong; you'd knock it out!" Ray scolds the penguin to its face, making it pissed.

"Leo, I choose you!" Ray brings out a Poké Ball and flings it into the air, unleashing a brown and red lion cub.

"Litlitleooooo!" Leo roars with excitement as it and Rockruff run in circles.

"Rufffff," Rockruff shoots out five rocks from her tail at Litleo.

"Dodge it! Then use Noble Roar!" Ray commands, and Leo manages to dodge all the rocks.

"Leoooooooooooooo!" Leo roars with pride in its tiny voice, lowering the attack and special attack power of Rockruff.

"Rufffff!" Once again, the puppy shoots out rocks, but to her surprise, Litleo isn't even fazed by this.

"Alright, headbutt now!" Ray orders the finishing blow.

"Littttt!" Leo uses its head to knock Rockruff to the ground. "Rocccc," the puppy cries out.

"Alright, Poké Ball, goooooooo!" Ray strikes a pose and throws another ball at the puppy.

'Awar,' 'awarr,' 'awarrr,' 'pufff' stars appear from the Poké Ball, symbolizing that the catch was a success.

"Awesome! I just caught a Rockruff!" "Leooo!" "Piplupppp!" Ray celebrates, and so do Litleo and Piplup.

Goldenwood cove

Ray decided to name the puppy Rocky, and she joined his current team. He then returned to the cave to meet a very pouty Melia, to whom he apologized again.

The two then teamed up against the double battle trainers in the cove, with Melia revealing her main Pokémon, Togepi (a spiked ball-like creature emerging from an egg), nicknamed Hapi.

As they reached the edge of the cove, Ray was challenged by Mars of the Culvier Clan, a woman with white hair wearing red and black traditional clothing. She sent out a Leavanny, a Grass and Bug type praying mantis, while Ray sent out his resentful Pig Bat, Woo.

Woo ended the battle with a single Gust attack, once again surprising Ray with its strength. After Mars gave him a Star Shard for his victory, something strange happened.

"Wooooooo!" Woobat started to glow blue and white.

"What's this?!" Ray said, surprised.

"It's evolving!" Melia shouted excitedly and started jotting down the details.

Woobat's wings grew bigger, its head emerged from the green fluff, revealing its big eyes and fused ears. It also gained small black feet and a tail that looked like two tentacles wrapped together.

"Swoobattttooo!" The creature smiled and flew around.

"That's Swoobat, the Courting Pokémon. It normally evolves from high friendship, but this is kind of fast," Melia said, confused.

Swoobat clung to Ray's arm with its tail and rubbed its cold, wet pink nose against Ray's face.

"Eww, don't touch me with that thing!!!" Ray struggled to get the bat off him, but it clung tighter.

Melia witnessed a very strange look of ecstasy on Swoobat's face. "So Pokémon also display masochistic behavior... Fascinating," Melia thought to herself as Ray continued to suffer from the bat's affection.

Melia and Ray saw a wall with ancient writing on it. The blonde girl took out her camera and snapped some photos of it. "Say cheese!" Melia faced Ray and took an awkward picture of him blinking.

"Still, I wonder why Dad wanted me here..." Melia said as she touched the wall. But then...

'*Crumbleeeeeeeee!*' The wall fell down, leading into a secret tunnel.

"You know what, never mind!" Melia did a little dance and dragged Ray into the tunnel.

Secret forest garden

The tunnel led to a secret garden; the scenery was gorgeous, and the environment seemed even more sparkly than the other areas. Vivillon surrounded the area as well.

"This place is amazing..." Ray said in awe.

"It looks like a perfect place for a date," Melia said, smiling.

"Yeah... A date?!" Ray's face turned red as he realized what Melia was saying.

Melia smiled and set up a picnic blanket near an old statue. She opened her briefcase and set plates for her and Ray and all their Pokémon. Ray also brought out the drinks and cookies he bought, saying it was a coincidence.

An hour later

The day had already reached its halfway point, and Ray was enjoying Melia's company.

"Today was 100% awesome," Melia remarks with a smile.

Ray observes the old statue and says, "Hey, isn't that Arceus?"

"Yep, the creator of all Pokémon. Maybe that's why all the Vivillon are here; they are the butterflies of fate, after all," Melia answers.

"But still, a day like this only comes once a year, a day where you meet a lifelong friend," Melia says again with a smile.

"Who's that?" Ray asks, confused.

"You silly!" Melia laughs and punches him in the arm. Ray's face turns an even deeper shade of red as he looks away from her.

Melia stops laughing and then looks at Ray seriously.

"Ray, this is my last day on Floria Island (where Gearan City is located). Tomorrow, I'll be heading to Grand Dream City to become the new gym leader," Melia says with a sad tone.

"Eh... I..." Ray is speechless. After this entire day, for her to drop a bombshell like this was unexpected.

"I'm sorry for not telling you sooner. It's just that Ren is staying here to work with my dad, and Venam's got her own gym to take care of..." Melia struggles to say.

"It's really scary to live in an unknown city, so I was wondering... since you don't have a place to stay... Would you come with me?" Melia asks, red-faced.

Ray EXE has stopped working

Ray's fantasy

*10 years later*

Ray and Melia are living in a huge apartment together
In Grand Dream City

"Welcome back Melia, how's the gym?" Ray greets an exhausted Melia as she enters the apartment door.

"It's hard, the trainers keep coming one after the other, the best thing about my day is coming back to you" Melia says as she hugs Ray's back.

Ray turns around and embraces her back, "Melia you always say the best things" he starts to nuzzle on her neck and she let's out a little moan.

Before he can get to the good stuff a bright light wakes him up

End of fantasy

"Ray! Earth to Ray!" Melia looks at a red-faced Ray with steam coming out of his head.

"Huh?" Ray recollects his senses.

"Do you want to come with me?" Melia asks again.

Ray, resisting the urge to shout yes, says, "Well, I would love to, but isn't this a big question for someone you just met? Can you really trust me this much?"

"Well, the best way to answer that is with a battle," Melia gets up and recalls all her Pokémon into their balls.

"Alright then, let's do this," he says, doing the same but leaves Swoobat to continue eating its Pokémon food.

"Just because I'm nerdy doesn't mean I can't battle. Buneary, hop to it," Melia says as she sends out a fluffy rabbit with a strange color pattern (shiny).

"Rocky, time for your debut!" Ray sends out his newest Pokémon, Rockruff.

"Buneary, double hit!" Melia screams, "bunnnnnnn!" Buneary lands 2 solid hits on Rockruff with its speed.

"Rocky, retaliate with rock throw!" Ray orders, and his dog delivers 5 sharp rocks, hitting the bunny and doing a lot of damage.

"Finish it with take down!" Melia shouts.

"Bunearyyy!" "Rocccccc!" Buneary charges at Rockruff and lands a devastating headbutt that knocks both Pokémon out.

"Seriously! No prob, Leo, you're up next," Ray recalls Rocky and sends out Litleo.

"I won't lose again, Eevee, go!" Melia recalls the rabbit and sends out a dog-like creature with strange color schemes (shiny).

(Are all her Pokémon shiny?) "Leo, headbutt!" Ray orders.

"Not a chance, Eevee, double edge!" Melia orders.

"Litt!" "Eevee!" The Pokémon collide head to head, the immense shock knocking both out again.

"Seriously, is that your strategy?!" Ray shouts, confused, and returns Leo to his ball.

"Tee hee," Melia plays dumb as she recalls her Pokémon.

"Try that again with this guy, Bellsprout!" Ray sends out his laziest Pokémon, the walking pitcher plant.

"Bell!" The plant stops its cry midway and dozes off, much to Ray's annoyance.

"Stufful, go!" "Stuuuf!" Melia sends out another strangely colored (shiny) teddy bear-like Pokémon.

"Vine whip!!!" Ray legit has to shout to wake up his Pokémon.

"Bell!" Bellsprout, looking pissed, whips the teddy bear with its elongated leaf hands, powered up by the forest terrain, dealing major damage.

"Oh no you don't, take down now!" Melia orders the teddy bear.

Effortlessly, Bellsprout dodges all the bear's attacks by swaying back and forth.

"End it with infestation!" Ray orders, and Bellsprout unleashes a tornado of tiny green bugs that knocks Stufful out.

"No, Stufful!" Melia cries.

"You sure are strong for a lazy flower," Ray says to his plant, which has once again taken a nap on the floor.

"Hapi, you can do this!" Melia sends out her ace, the Togepi (also shiny).

"Togepiiiiii!" The spiky egg cries fiercely.

"Alright, Pip, you're up," Ray recalls Bellsprout and goes with his strongest Pokémon.

"Pip!" Piplup has a smug expression as it looks at Togepi.

"Hapi, metronome!" Melia orders.

"Togepiiiiii!" The spiky egg twirls its finger in the air and shoots out a high-powered thunderbolt at Piplup.

"Piiiiii!" Piplup endures the pain and stands like a boss.

"Huh?!" Melia is surprised by the penguin.

"Alright, do your thing, Pip peck!" Ray commands.

"Pip! Lup!" Pip elongates its beak and lands a critical hit on Togepi, breaking part of its shell and knocking it out.

"Thanks for trying, Hapi. Well, I can't expect to win every battle; this is the start of my gym leader career," Melia says as she admits defeat.

"We can have more battles like that in Grand Dream City; let's pack up for today," Melia says as she starts to pack the plates.

"Let me help you with the blanket," Ray offers, and as soon as he does, everywhere turns blue.

(What) both Melia and Ray think to themselves as a huge explosion is heard and the blue tint disappears.

"What was that?!" Melia says as she runs back to the forest through the cave.

"Melia, wait..." Ray runs after her but is stopped by the appearance of a white beast.

It has white fur, its dark blue claws, face, and horn make it look dangerous, but its red eyes give a calmer feeling.

Ray quickly recognizes it from the stories Nancy used to tell him; the beast was an Absol, the disaster Pokémon. Whenever this Pokémon is seen, disaster is quick to follow.

To be continued