Something woke her up, what it was she didn't know all she knew was that she was awake. Blinking her eyes a few times she managed to see her alarm clock through the darkness; the time read 2:20 AM. Figuring she might as well do something now that she was up Serena tried to rise only to feel a weight on her midsection just below her chest. Looking down she saw an arm draped across her ribs. Confused she carefully rolled over and saw the sleeping face of her crush a few inches from her own.

A bundle of emotions went through her and she shone a red so bright Rudolf would have a run for his money. Unable to contain all her emotions she let out a quick and panicked, "Eeep!", that caused Ash to stir in his sleep.

Covering her mouth Serena waited for Ash to wake up, but he just went back to his soft steady breathing. Serena breathed a sigh of relief and stared at Ash's sleeping face taking in every detail. She watched as his face relaxed into a slight frown, signifying the deep slumber he was in.

She listened to every breath he took, each one strong and comforting; soon enough they were lulling her back to sleep. As her eye lids grew heavy once more she moved in closer and rested her head against Ash's chest, where the slow and steady beating of his heart added to her comfort.

Still deep asleep, Ash smiled as his subconscious recognized Serena's familiar scent and pulled her in closer. In less than a minute they were both sound asleep; their breathing coalescing with each other to form a symphony of peace within the night.

They slept this way until Pikachu got up at 6:00. Recently he had gotten used to waking up this early to train with Ash. Walking over to his trainers bed and looking up Pikachu could barely see the silhouette of Ash's body. The electric mouse began to call for Ash to get up but to no avail. Resorting to the usual technique Pikachu fired off a small thunderbolt.

The electricity did the trick but due to the close proximity to Ash, Serena also got electrocuted. Both trainers fell on to the floor on opposite sides of the bed. Pikachu seeing that he also zapped Serena ran over to her to make sure she was alright.

"Gaah, good morning to you too Pikachu!" A sarcastic Ash said.

"Pika!" Pikachu said while shaking Serena who eventually groaned and got up off the floor.

"Heh? Oh Serena are you alright; did Pikachu electrocute you too?" Ash asked with concern and completely clueless as to what occurred just a few hours ago.

"Yeah he did, but I'm okay. I've just never been shocked by Pikachu before that's all." Serena said while petting Pikachu's head to let him know she forgave him.

"Well as long as you're alright... Cal and I were thinking about doing some of the stuff Nurse Joy recommended yesterday; while you and Dena get ready for your contest." Ash said while walking towards the open balcony doors.

Serena wasn't paying attention though because she was deep in thought. She was thinking about the events of this morning and deciding whether it actually happened or if it was just a pleasant dream. The sound of Ash closing the balcony doors snapped Serena out of her thoughts.

"Who left the balcony doors open?" Ash asked as he walked towards the exit. "Eh, at least it didn't wake anyone up last night."

Serena started at the balcony with disbelief realizing that what had happened wasn't just a dream and that Ash had actually held her like that. Giddy with joy Serena didn't notice that Ash was trying to get her attention until he called her name a second time.

"Serena!"

"Huh? Yes what is it Ash?"

"I was just wondering what you had planned for your contest performance today." Ash said inquisitively.

"Contest? The contest! I have to wake Dena!" Serena shouted as she dashed past Ash towards Dena and Cal's room.

Right before she entered she heard a low groggy moan come from the couch behind her. Spinning around she saw Dena, Treeko, and Torchic resting on the sofa. Dena raised her head to reveal a tangled mess of brunette hair and dark circles underneath her eyes.

"Serena its 6 in the morning what are you doing up!?" Dena groggily whined.

"What are you, Treeko, and Torchic sleeping on the couch?" Serena asked, temporarily forgetting her reason for seeking Dena out.

"Cal apparently rolls a lot in his sleep and managed to crushed these two before whacking me with his arm; so the three of us decided to sleep out here before he broke anything!" Dena gripped in an exhausted rage.

"Never mind that! We have to get ready for our contest!"

Dena's eyes open wide as she realizes what Serena's talking about. She rolls off the sofa and runs into her room to get dressed for the day. She shakes Cal awake and forces him out of their room so she can shower and change. Serena also shooed Ash out as she starts the preparations for her own shower..

While the girls are busy with their preparations an envelope is slipped under the penthouses main doors. Curious Cal opens it up and begins to read.

"Dear Serena and Dena,
I forgot to mention that to participate in the contest you must have at least two eligible Pokémon. I hope this doesn't cause any problems and look forward to your performances in the contest."
                                               –Nurse Joy

As soon as Cal finished the letter Dena came rushing out of her room wearing nothing but a bath robe and a towel to hold up her wet hair. She was about to knock on Serena's door when Cal handed her the letter. Skimming it over her eyes widened and she frantically knocked on Serena's door until she let her in. Following the admittance of Dena into Serena's room, there came a series of incomprehensible flurried sentences.

Ash and Cal looked at each other with worried expressions and walked towards the door to ask if they needed any help. Upon knocking Serena opened the door partway and peaked her head out at the two trainers.

"Serena are you two okay?" Ash asked with concern.

"Oh yeah we're just peachy! It's not like we haven't prepared anything for the contest and now have to make a last minute routine as well as get Dena a second Pokémon by the end of the day!" Serena replied in a stress induced sarcastic tone.

"She can borrow one of mine if she wants." Cal chimes in from behind Ash's shoulder.

Serena ducked back behind the door and Dena's head popped out; her face beaming with gratitude as she gladly accepted Cal's offer. Cal quickly went and grabbed his partners Poké Balls and held them out for Dena to choose. After long consideration, along with some helpful suggestions from Serena, Dena decided to borrow Duskull to act as her second contest partner.

"Alright Duskull listen to everything Dena says and be good." Cal instructed his Pokémon.

"Skull!" Duskull cheerily said.

"Thanks Cal you're a life saver. Let's go Duskull we've got our work cut out for us." Dena said before ducking back into the room with Duskull at her heels.

"Alright if you're all good here we'll be heading over to the mining tour Nurse Joy was talking about."

"Yeah now that we don't have to worry about catching Dena a new Pokémon we should be good. You guys go enjoy the mines." Serena says with a halfhearted smile.

"We'll be back in time for your contest and we'll be cheering you two on all the way!" Ash said as he, Cal and their, Pokémon walked towards the exit.

They received a simple wave farewell from the girls and stared their voyage towards the mines.

It only took them twenty minutes, sixteen dead ends and one angry Arcanine before they decided to ask for directions. As luck would have it the first person they asked was a part time employee for the tour named Ferric who was actually on his way to work. They decided it would be easier for Ferric to lead them to the mines and within three minutes they had reached their destination.

"So are you two ready to go mining?" Ferric asked with a sly smile.

"Yeah we're ready to get down and dirty!" Cal responded with gusto.

"Well you're going to have to wait a while the rest of the group isn't here yet and you haven't filled out the necessary paperwork yet."

"Paperwork?" They asked cluelessly.

Ferric nodded and walked into a moderately sized building with twin pickaxes on the doors. A moment later he returned carrying two stacks of fifty pages worth of forms.

"Paperwork." Ferric cheerily replied.

The two boys groaned, sat down with their Pokémon and began filling out the all the forms. While they were hard at work signing and agreeing to many terms of agreement, the rest of the tour group started to file in. By the time they finished the last page all the other participants had arrived. Including themselves and their guide, the group numbered eleven people, and twenty three Pokémon.

"Alright looks like everyone's ready; so let's head on down into the mine!" Ferric shouted enthusiastically.

Everyone cheered with equal enthusiasm and followed Ferric into the mines. Everyone that is except Ash and Cal, who had been busy recovering from the monstrous amount of paperwork they had been given.

It was a good three minutes before they noticed that the group left without them. Frantically they sped into the mine in an attempt to catch up with the group.

A few feet into the mine Ash almost tripped over a rail; but was saved at the last second by Pikachu and Eevee, who jumped in front of him to keep him from running into the hard iron. Their method of blocking their trainers path worked but caused Ash to fall backwards as he skidded to a stop.

"Ash you alright!?" Cal asked as he and Treeko came up beside him.

"Yeah I'm fine. Thanks to these two I didn't get hurt." Ash said while affectionately petting his saviors.

"That's good, I'd hate to have to tell Serena you were done in by a piece of metal." Cal said jokingly.

Ash just rolled his eyes and smiled at Cal. He then stood up and looked at the rail he had almost fallen over. There was a series of similar beams laying parallel to one another that led further into the mine shaft.

"Looks like they took a mine cart to go deeper." Ash noted.

"Then all we have to do to catch up is follow the tracks!" Cal shouted as he ran past Ash.

"Hey wait up!" Ash yelled as he ran to catch up with him.

The two ran for awhile, each trying to out run the other. They were so preoccupied with trying to get ahead of each other that they didn't notice when a sign appeared in their path. They ran full force into it and were knocked flat on their backs.

"Awe my head; what did we run into!" Cal asked as he rubbed a sizable lump that was forming on his forehead.

"I think it was that sign." Ash responded as he rubbed his own head growth.

"Well what's a sign doing in the middle of the road!"

"Probably to direct the mine cart on which path they should take." Ash said while pointing out the fork in the road they'd come across.

"Oh... then which way do we go?"

"I think the sign says tour left and quarry right."Ash said as he attempted to read the faded writing.

"Then left it is!" Cal proclaimed and restarted their earlier race by running down the left tunnel.

After an hour and a half of running the began to have doubts about the accuracy of Ash's sign reading capabilities. They walked another half an hour before stopping to rest.

"Alright so maybe this wasn't the way to the tour." Ash said through ragged breaths.

"Really and what makes you think that!" Cal sarcastically responded with heavy breaths of his own.

Ash was about to come back with a retort of his own when he heard a voices.

"Cal you hear that?"

"Yeah. Looks like you sent us on the right path after all."

They walked forward until the voices could be heard clearly.

"Alright old man where's the next one." A harsh voice said.

"No I won't help you anymore!" An elderly voice shouted.

"We've been over this," a third voice said, "either give us what we want or your precious little granddaughter will kick the bucket."

Ash and Cal rounded a corner and stopped in their tracks. In front of them were five people, three of them were wearing black cloaks with a large ash colored S on their backs. One of the cloaked people was holding an old man up by his multicolored shirt. The other two people were standing next to a furious looking girl who had a gag in her mouth and ropes around her wrists.

"Woah what are they doing?" Cal whispered to the air beside him; for Ash had already charged towards the small group.

"HEY LEAVE THEM ALONE!" Ash shouted at the cloaked people.

"What the! When did these kids get here!?" The person holding the old man said.

"Never mind, the old mans already given us plenty of what the boss wanted. We should go before these kids complicate the mission." One of the cloaked figures said in feminine voice.

The cloaked females accomplices nodded and threw down two smoke bombs before disappearing into thin air.

"Well that was rather anticlimactic." Cal said as he walked over to untie the girl.

"Sir are you alright?" Ash asked as he helped the old man to his feet.

"Yes thanks to you two we're both okay." The old man said with gratitude.

"Do you know what those guys wanted from you?" Cal asked as he undid the last of the girls ropes.

"They wanted my grandfather to bring them some of the rare crystals that grow in the cave." The girl responded after removing her gag.

"Why your grandfather who is he anyways?"

"Ah how terribly rude of us we haven't properly introduced ourselves! My name is Aurous Danpen but most people call me Aura." Aura said.

"Hiya Aura I'm Cal and this is my partner Treeko." Cal said pointing to the green gecko at his side.

"My names Ash and these are my partners Pikachu and Eevee " Ash said indicating the two Pokémon at his feet.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all." Aura said, "This is my grandfather, his name is Rhyolis Danpen, and the reason they needed him is because he's the Crystal guru."

Ash and Cal have had a run in with a shady new group and in the process rescued the crystal guru and his granddaughter while Serena and Dena are hard at work putting together a last minute routine for their contest. Will the girls finish coming up with their acts in time and who are these shady cloaked figures? You'll have to stay tuned to find out, as the journey continues!

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Sorry this chapter took so long, I've been busy with school work and haven't been able to write as much as I'd like.
Anyways I can't believe this story is already past 1000 views, ( I'm seriously astounded by this 😃) I can't thank you guys enough. Also I try to write these chapters within two weeks of each other, so you all can expect some more between now and Christmas. I hope you all enjoyed and thanks for reading. Until next time bye 👋 😁.