Ash enjoyed their time at the resort resting, relaxing and rejuvenating. In return for staying for free Ash decided to perform for the customers at the resort at night. The performance ranged from the fairy lore act they performed at Shamoutii to coordination to dancing and singing. There were a few hiccups when some of the guests wanted to buy Ash's shiny Charizard but Ash put his foot down and firmly said no. However if Charizard ever decided to find a mate and settle down he would be willing to part with one of his poke eggs provided they prove themselves capable of handling them.
Charizard had snorted in amusement as what Ash said literally meant, that none of the strangers would get an egg ever. The first people who would actually get a poke egg from Ash would be his close circle of friends and family, after that was Rangers and then if they were interested Gym leaders. A rich spoilt brat would never get a poke egg not without proving these worthy or capable of caring about someone other then themselves. They had examples of Damien and that Anne girl as proof and unless they saw otherwise well, no one is getting any of their poke eggs.
Serena, :Guys! Gals! Guess what! My egg hatches into a Staryu. She's a real sweetheart.: *insert pic*
Misty, :Congratulations Serena, I'm happy it worked!:
Chloe, :You know you never explained how you managed to allow Serena to keep a poke egg.:
Lana, :So adorable and I'm wondering the same thing.:
Misty, :That's for me to know and you to find out.:
Silver, :I think I know what you did, also congratulations kiddo!:
Ash, :Congratulations Serena! I'm glad your mom agreed to let you keep her.:
Serena, :She was against it in the beginning but after I pointed out that it was already here and I promised Misty, she let me keep her.:
Lillie, :I'm really happy for you Serena. Having a Pokemon is such a wonderful feeling.:
Gou, :Yeah, guess what everyone, Misty, Ash and I took part in a water Pokemon challenge and half of our Water types have certificates to help during problematic situations.:
Kiawe, :Ash congratulations on getting your fourth badge.:
Ash, :Thank you, we are leaving for Pummelo island soon, currently we are at the resort still.:
Tracey, :We have to meet up with Lance and Drake later.:
Melody, :They called me there too, Ash congratulations on getting your fourth badge.:
Chloe, :It probably has to do with Shamoutii incident.:
Gou, :Well one way to figure out. We are going to the main League headquarters later on, right now just relaxing at the Pokemon center.:
Paul, :When will you be challenging Drake?:
Drew, :Will it be on TV?:
Ash, :A few days from now depends on how our talk goes I think.:
Brock, :When are you meeting them?:
Gou, :An hour from now.... We better get ready.:
Leaf, :Hoooo damn! We just got free time.:
Green, :It's fine! Go you guys.:
Ritchie, :We can chat more later.:
Ash hummed as he logged off, "Well we better go."
Lucario, -Pikachu's coming with us while Charizard, Blastoise and Venasaur agreed to keep an eye on the others.-
Ash, "That's fine, let's go."
Misty met him outside, "Ash, are you okay? You are lost in thought."
Ash blinked looking at her and Chloe, "Yes, I'm okay. Just wondering why we were called to meet Lance all of a sudden."
Chloe nodded, "Melody is meeting us here too, isn't she?"
Gou, "Yeah she is.... I wonder if something happened."
Silver, "Don't fret it, for all we know they could be working on PR for the entire fiasco and require your statements."
Ash walked thoughtfully, "But we already gave our statements. I think this is something else."
Melody called out to them, "Guys! Girls!"
Chloe, "Melody!"
Gou, "You made it."
Melody grinned, she was wearing a white T-shirt, short brown pants and a brown sleeveless jacket, "I'm glad I can see you all again."
Misty, "Melody you look great."
Melody, "Thank you, I plan to wear this for my journey. Now any idea why they called us here?"
Lucario, -One way to find out, we are here.-
Pikachu, "Pika pikapi!"
Ash rubbed behind Pikachu's ear, "It is quite an intimidating building, isn't it?"
Pikachu, "Chaaaa, pika pika!"
Tracey, "Yeah, most authority buildings and headquarters are. Let's go and get this over with."
They met the receptionist who pointed them towards a floor and office after getting their IDs and checking their information. They walked upstairs choosing to not use the elevators as they would not fit into one together. The building was pretty large and located at a considerable distance from the main battle arena and served as the main headquarters for the Elites and Leaders of the Orange Archipelago. They were met by Lorelei outside the meeting room.
Lorelei, "I'm glad you all made it, come in."
Misty was trying to keep calling as Ash and the others followed her inside. One of her idols was in front of her after all, Chloe gave her a smile as they went in. Inside the room they were greeted by Lance, Drake, Red, Gold and a sharply dressed woman. Red and Gold pointed at two chairs near them and motioned for Silver and Ash to sit there.
Lance smiled, "Hello everyone I'm happy you made it. You know almost everyone here almost that is. This fine young man here is Drake the Champion of Orange Archipelago and this lovely Lady here is Detective Nancy. They'll be helping us come up with a solution to a problem that suddenly cropped up."
Chloe looked up with sparkling eyes, "Detective Nancy!"
Nancy smirked, "That's me, the best female detective at your service."
Misty, "Holy Mew!"
Silver turned to Red, "A problem? What happened?"
Red, "Not exactly a problem per say, more like a lot of questions are being thrown towards our way about the three unknown trainers that were seen to help calm down Lugia."
Ash blinked before blanching, "They didn't realize, did they? That disguise is used for a reason you know?"
Gold, "No they legit think they were girls not two boys and one girl."
Gou, "That's a relief so what's the exact problem?"
Nancy, "Problem is people are asking about what happened to the girls, where are they and why is there no information about them?"
Ash, "Ah! I suppose saying that it was a disguise to keep a person safe won't go over well?"
Gold, "We tried that.... People called it bullshit because which trainer doesn't want to have recognition?"
Misty gave a strained laughed, "Talk about taking the saying, 'the truth is always hardest to believe', to a whole new level."
Red sighed, "So we really are kind of in a bind. We could just ignore it but stalkers can be a little problematic."
Lance took out a few photos, "Someone managed to get photos of you and the Champions together and some believe you are the girls pretending to be a guy."
Ash sweat dropped, "OK! How many people actually believe that?"
Lorelei snorted, "Not much, just a few of your fans actually."
Misty, "Ah! That can be handled right?"
Nancy, "In a way, if we had not gotten reports of a few stalkers following you all around."
Chloe, "Stalkers? I didn't notice... Did you?"
Tracey gave her a smile, "Silver and I usually dealt with them, most of the time. Not to forget our Pokemon are exceptionally protective of us and aggressive against strangers."
Silver grumbled, "Mine weren't, not really they just picked up that habit from yours."
Chloe, "Oh!"
Ash, "I realized they did that I didn't realize you were doing it too. You should have told us, we would have travelled a little low tier rather than flying on a Pokemon."
Melody huffed, "That's why we have more people coming to our island. It's good for the tourism and income and all. But the some of the more intrusive questions are a bit disturbing. We have managed to avoid answering by pointing out we don't give away information about other guest and trying to forcefully get the answers will get them banned."
Gou frowned, "That bad?"
Melody, "Nothing we can't deal with but it does get inconvenient."
Nancy, "So we are here to figure out what to do about it. Do you have any preference? Or thoughts?"
Lance, "We were thinking about making fake profiles for your alternate egos in a different region but that could backfire easily."
Red, "We could say they are Rangers but I doubt that would go well with anyone. They would try to search for them in dangerous places endangering themselves."
Gold, "We could put it under League safety but that would just raise more questions."
Ash, "Or we tell them they are dead?"
Gou, "What do you mean?"
Misty gave a contemplative look at Ash, "Well, Legendary Pokemon are considered Legendary for a reason and handling them is not exactly easy. Not to forget their are dangerous organisations after them."
Ash nodded and Lucario tensed, "Exactly, we could say despite staying away from the main battlefield they were hit by stray bullets or something like that."
Gou, "Death due to blood loss? What a way to go!"
Melody, "Well it's not exactly what I would say farfetched, there are many stories about trainers loosing their lives because of criminals right?"
Lorelei spoke up, "This also means you cannot use your disguises anymore. Are you okay with that?"
Ash took his bag and took out the pack holding the disguise, "I'm going to miss dressing up in this no doubt. It was actually fun, but it's main purpose was to protect my identity after all so."
Gou took out his, "Yeah! Guess we are going to use a different look after this?"
Melody sighed, "I just got mine too. I suppose you want to make some sort of grand announcement about it?"
Lance, "We could use that idea as a cover story indeed. After all, desecrating a grave is a major crime and can land you in a thirty year imprisonment."
Ash looked at Lucario as the others talked and asked quietly, "Hey, you okay?"
Lucario nodded stiffly and whispered back, -Yes, I understand why you are doing this but I hate it.-
Ash, "What's wrong?"
Pikachu climbed up Ash's shoulder from where he was sitting near Lucario, "Pika pika pikapi."
Lucario, -Indeed.-
Ash, "Huh?"
Lucario, -The female personality is part of what makes you, who you are, Meema. It doesn't feel right to just bury it away all of a sudden.-
Ash pat Lucario's palm, "Ah! I guess so it is huh? It'll be okay, you'll see."
Red, "What names, age, region, nationality and status are we going to give them?"
Ash, "Namine for mine, 15 years old, orphan with no known family and a healer in training."
Gou, "Oh! Um right... Freya, a 15 year old, orphan, no known family, trainer."
Melody, "I think I'll use one of my ancestors name, Rupa, 14 years old orphan, as well."
Gold, "You thought of this before?"
Ash, "Jessilina and Jameson has done it before and I think they created a profile for us and I can ask them to create one for you, Melody."
Melody, "I would appreciate it actually, we should have asked them back on the island."
Gou, "I just texted them and they asked for two weeks to get everything done."
Nancy, "Who are these Jessilina and Jameson? Why am I hearing this now?"
Lance took out three files, "Jameson Lapis, the son of Jellal and Erza Lapis, his wife Jessilina Lapis formerly Jaegar and their son Tomo Lapis."
Nancy went through the files, "You kids have powerful friends."
Ash, "We trust them."
Misty nodded, "Yeah, they are awesome and have always kept us safe whenever they could when we travelled together."
Nancy, "Very well, we shall be in contact with them and work together on this. Now I do believe your match with Champion Drake is coming up, right?"
Ash, "Yes?"
Lance, "I'm sorry Ash, but in order to hide this secret of yours we are probably gonna have to hype up your battle."
Ash tilted his head in confusion, "But isn't it already aired on TV?"
Red, "Only in Kanto and Jhoto regions, not outside."
Gou, "Ash is gonna become famous huh?"
Ash sighed, "Is it too late to run for the hills?"
Gold, "Sorry Ash. I know you hate publicity but look on the bright side after this battle, the Indigo League will happen so most will probably get over it by then."
Ash, "I can only hope."
Drake got up followed by the others, "I look forward to our battle Ash, I have heard many impressive things about you."
Ash smiled, "Me too Drake and I hope, I can live up to your experience."
[A. N. : Pummelo Island next and then the Orange Island arc is over.
XDD
I can't wait to write about the League.]