So here we are guys. Another 'Skill' story...yay.

Even with my poll, I couldn't decide on what route to go. So I smacked my inner bitch, told him to man up a little and used a random number generator like any normal person would. Because, y'know that's a totally normal thing to do..possibly..hopefully...maybe? Anyway, I said so..so it is in my delusions at least. Remember that bout of awesome wisdom. Can't pick? Use a random number generator! There's probably an app for that on your phone, go download it. It'll make your life way easier.

It had been oddly bothering him for a little bit now, ever since they left Lumiose City actually. He'd only known Ash for a little over a day, but one thing he knew other than how utterly recklessly brave the boy was, was that his starter Pokemon Pikachu always seemed to be around him somewhere.

Clemont may have only known the boy for a day or so, but it seemed so utter alien that Pikachu was not within Ash's immediate vicinity.

The blonde gym leader cast his eyes over his little sister Bonnie and Ash's Froakie playing around a few metres up ahead of them before turning his gaze to the raven haired boy walking at his side.

Ash was currently browsing through his new pokedex intently, had been ever since they decided to travel together and head towards Santalune City for the Kanto-natives first gym battles in the Kalos Region.

"Hey Ash?" Clemont spoke up.

One amber iris peeked at him from the corner of his eyes before returning to the Pokedex screen, "Hm?" Ash hummed in question.

"I've been wondering for a little while now." The blonde said, "Where is Pikachu? Did you return him to his pokeball?" Clemont asked.

Finally, for the first time in nearly a half hour Ash lowered the pokedex and turned his attention to Clemont. "Ah, don't worry about it." Ash replied with a chuckle, "If Pikachu were here, no way would he be in his pokeball, he hates it. But to answer your question, I sent Pikachu back to Professor Oak's with the rest of my pokemon." He continued to explain.

"Aah." Clemont breathed out in understanding, although a frown had overcome his face at the answer, "Can I ask why? I've not known you for long but it seems odd for some reason that Pikachu isn't with you." The blonde gym leader continued to question.

Then it occurred to Clemont that he may be asking a potentially personal fact that Ash may want to keep to himself. "I-I man I-if it's okay with you, that is?" He hurried to add.

Ash just laughed again, "No, no it's fine Clemont." He replied.

But how to put explain it in a way that didn't involve Zekrom? For one, he didn't really like bringing up legendary pokemon he met, the less people who knew about the fact that they were real the better.

For another, he really didn't want to spend much time dwelling on Zekrom. Sure he was apparently the Hero of Ideals and Zekrom did help fight off Reshiram...but it was Zekrom's fault he and Pikachu were apart this very moment.

Three years of gruelling training had been stolen from Pikachu. Zekrom had stolen from Pikachu the result of what they'd done to make Pikachu so powerful. Pikachu had been his strongest pokemon bar Charizard when he arrived in Unova...now he'd be lucky to rank in the top fifteen.

Pikachu had been so frustrated through their entire journey through Unova. Everything they'd worked together for, stolen in a moment from yet another legendary pokemon disrupting their lives. Ash could relate...the way they lost to Trip the first time they met had been so utterly embarrassing, he'd never felt so pathetic in his entire life.

He loved Iris and Cilan, really he did. They were great friends, he couldn't imagine his journey through Unova without ever having met them. But they got into even more bizarre situations than him and that was saying something considering the amount of weird moments that occurred in his journey so far.

With his friends absorbing so much of his time and including the three 'problem' pokemon he had during Unova that weren't much of a help, it left little time to focus on his partner. Tepig had been so starved for affection Ash couldn't bare to not give the little guy all the attention it craved but never received from that asshole of a guy Shamus and then some. Oshawott...if there was ever a pokemon that was proof any pokemon could become strong, he was it. It was harsh to even think of that in regards to one of his pokemon, but Ash couldn't deny Oshawott required required a ton of work early on.

Then there was Scraggy. He loved Scraggy and his attitude, that mentality to never cower before any opponent. But Arceus above, the amount of sleep he missed out on due to trying to keep Scraggy from picking fights with the grass, the trees, the buildings, the people, pokemon that could squash him in the blink of an eye…..and so much more.

The bottom line was….he and Pikachu had little time to work and regain what they lost. They'd recovered some of that lost power, but not much. In the end, before they left for Kalos he and his partner had come to an agreement.

When Ash caught his first pokemon in Kalos, Pikachu would return to Pallet Town. While Ash worked on gaining the badges for the Kalos League, Pikachu would spend all of his time training constantly to regain what they lost all the while making sure all his other pokemon followed their own training schedules left behind by him.

When they reunited, they'd take the Kalos league by storm and win. Simple, efficient, epic, yet entirely annoying all the same.

"Pikachu had a bit of an accident a little while back." Ash finally decided on replying to his new travelling buddy, "With Froakie here, Pikachu decided to head back to my home to recover from it."

"Ah, I see." Clemont nodded in return, "Yes that would make sense. With a strong pokemon like Froakie by your side, Pikachu would no doubt feel less need to worry about your safety and could focus on a speedy recovery….there's just one thing though."

Ash raised an eyebrow, "What's that?" The amber eyed trainer asked.

Clemont clenched his fists together, "Do you mean to tell me that Pikachu fought so well against my Bunnelby even with an injury so bad he has to take time out of your journey just to recover!?" The blonde exclaimed.

Ash merely chuckled again, "Something like that, yeah." He replied.

Clemont immediately deflated, "Bunnelby may actually be my strongest pokemon, even stronger than the ones I've left at the gym...to think your Pikachu was the one with the upper hand in our battle, even with such an injury…." The more the gym leader spoke, the more he seemed to slump lower and lower.

This time, Ash laughed outright and loudly. He patted Clemont on the shoulder, "Remind me to show you my battle against Tobias in the Lily of the Valley Conference sometime." He said, "Though either way. Don't let it bother you, that Bunnelby of yours was seriously impressive and you haven't even had it long either from what you were telling me."

Clemont perked right up at Ash's praise, a flush of red forming on his cheeks, "Yes, ah thank you! I try my best to train all my pokemon to be the best they can be." He quickly stammered, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

Ash suddenly grinned at the blonde boy, "Speaking of training, I think it's time I test out what Froakie can do." He said, "D'ya mind setting up here for lunch?" He asked.

Shaking off his embarrassment at the praise he received, Clemont nodded in reply. "Sure no problem." The blonde replied, "It'll take about a half hour to get everything set and ready to eat so feel free to train a little bit until then."

Ash's grin grew even larger, "Right, thanks bud." He said in return, "I can't wait to taste your cooking." He continued with a laugh,

"I'll try my best to not disappoint then." Clemont replied. As Ash walked ahead towards his sister and Froakie, the blonde called out, "Bonnie, come help me set up lunch will you?"

Bonnie turned towards him with a pout, "Oh but Clemont! I wanted to see Ash and Froakie train." The little blonde girl huffed as she made her way towards her older brother.

Clemont just ruffled her hair, to which she batted his hand off before he could mess up her hair, "Don't worry, there'll be plenty of time to watch them train later, but for now can you help me set up lunch?"

Bonnie sighed morosely, "Fine..."

Immediately after leaving Clemont's side, Ash walked off the dirt road they were travelling on and walked off into the forest, in search of a clearing to train in. Before he disappeared into the trees, He looked over his shoulder towards his new pokemon, "Froakie, let's go! We're gonna train a little bit and see what you can do!" The raven haired trainer called out.

Seconds later, when he walked past the tree line a small weight landed on his shoulder. With a grin on his face Ash turned towards his partner for the Kalos Region, his eyes grazing over Froakie's pale blue skin, a little bit lighter than the Froakie he saw in the pokedex, "So you've got a few good attacks already, but that's kind of expected since you're not an entirely new pokemon for trainers." He commented.

"Fro!" Froakie croaked with a proud nod.

"Bubbles good, not much power in it naturally but it's got a good range and is quite well spread. Water Pulse is great, quite powerful and has a ton of uses. Then there's Pound, I've had a few pokemon use that attack before and have a few good ideas on how you can use it with your build." Ash paused then to take a breath, "Cut is probably your best bet for a finisher at this point, not to mention it's the same kind of attack as Leaf Blade and Night Slash, I've got a ton of ideas we can try out with it."

Froakie was nodding along with everything he was saying, although turned a confused glance towards him when he mentioned Cut.

Ash chuckled again, "Don't worry, I'll show you what I mean." He said as he stepped into a small clearing. Not much room in it, but Froakie didn't have a lot of power at this point and was small himself anyway so it would do.

Plucking Froakie off of his shoulder, Ash set the little water-type down gently before taking a few steps back. "Okay, show me Cut please." The trainer said.

Froakie nodded, swiftly switching from cheerful to serious in the blink of an eye. Standing up straight, Froakie then crouched slightly, curling one arm before placing his other hand sheathed at his side.

Then, in the blink of an eye Froakie drew his arm back. White energy sparked and erupted outwards as Froakie brought his arm to bare, held tightly within his grip was a blade of blinding white energy. The pokemon stood at the ready, blade held steady as he met Ash's gaze.

Ash was all grins in that moment. "Iado, huh?" He mused thoughtfully. The art of drawing blades was something he didn't know much about, he'd only read over the technique briefly when his at the time Grovyle had learned Leaf Blade and he was reading up on blade techniques to find the best ways to use the attack.

He turned his full attention back to Froakie who was patiently awaiting his opinion. "That was great Froakie, really fast too." Ash said, then rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "When you're forming the attack and drawing it out, would you be able to like..shoot some of the energy still shaped like a blade at a target?" He questioned. The trainer had a cool idea, though he wasn't sure if it would work.

Froakie cocked his head slightly to the side, lips smacked together and a thoughtful look on his blue face, "Fro…." Then his yellow eyes lit up and he nodded excitedly as he seemed to realize what his new trainer meant, "Froakie fro, froakie!"

As Froakie took his sword drawing stance again, Ash watched over the pokemon with a keen eye. Noting how the small water-type closed his eyes in concentration for a moment, white light pooling in his palm before his eyes snapped open and he unleashed the attack.

"Froakie!" The small pokemon cried, drawing his energy blade as fast as possible. The Cut attack manifested with a loud vibrating hum, a lance of white lance exploding from the side of the attack. It flew all of three inches at most before fizzling out.

Sighing, Froakie dejectedly sat back down on his hind legs and stared at the ground in disappointment. Ash himself gave a hum of thought before taking a squat down in front of his pokemon. He placed his hand on Froakie's head and gave the pokemon a gentle rub, "Good job buddy!" He said.

When Froakie merely frowned and turned his head so he wasn't looking at Ash, the trainer only shook his head in amusement, "No really, I mean it!" Ash exclaimed, cheerful grin on his face, "That was just a crazy idea and on your first try you showed me it was possible, heck I already know why you couldn't do it and how to make this technique ours." He explained.

"Fro?" The little pokemon was quick to turn his attention back to Ash, a questioning look in his eyes.

"Mmhmm..." Ash nodded, "See the problem stems from three things. The strength of your draw, the speed of your draw and lastly the amount of power you compress into the attack." He further explained.

"For this attack we'll focus on training your speed and strength, once we have that down the more energy you learn to compress and unleash with the attack will probably decide just how large the projectile blade will be." Ash continued. He hummed in thought for a moment, before smacking his fist in his palm, "Once it's complete, we'll call it Wind Cutter since you'll be cutting the very wind itself."

Froakie's eyes practically had stars in them. Ash himself smiled at his pokemon, something had been bugging him since ever meeting Froakie. But now he understood, they were just kindred spirits. Froakie seemed to love the thought of getting stronger just as much as he did. Despite all of his pokemon supporting his dream, not many of them actively and endlessly sought more power just like him.

"Okay, we'll put Wind Cutter on the back burner for now." Ash said, punching his palm. "Let's see what else you've got, can you make two Cut attacks in your hands? Or what about making one jutting out from each of your wrists to maximize the speed of your momen..."

"Here you go Bonnie." Clemont said with a smile handing his little sister a small plate filled with bread, "Set these on the table won't you please?"

"Right big brother!" Bonnie chriped with a smile, happily taking the bowl and skipping off towards the table stationed off to the side of the dirt road leading between Santalune and Lumiose. Setting the plate down while humming to herself, Bonnie turned her attention back to her brother and called out, "Anything else you need me to help wit-KYAAA!" What she was saying was cut off as a harsh wind buffeted her small body from behind and sent her sprawling.

Clemont whirled around in an instant, "Bonnie!?" He called out in worry as he caught sight of her. Quickly he ran over. He had just skidded to a stop in front of his downed sister to help her when he caught sight of something peculiar.

Above them, on a tree branch and eating happily from their plate of bread was a rather small pokemon. It's body was covered in grey feathers for the most part, although that tapered of at its head where the feathers turned a bright red. The small pokemon had incredibly thin little black legs to go alongside black tail feathers and a pair of black wings.

A Fletchling!

"You! Did you do this?" Clemont shouted up at the small flying-type pokemon, anger colouring his voice for his sisters plight. When the pokemon merely ignored him and continued to devour their bread a growl almost escaped the usually placid boys lips.

"Ah.." Bonnie winced, latching onto her brothers waist in order to stand up, her eyes glancing over the eating Fletchling and lighting up at the sight of the curiously cute pokemon despite her pain. Her knee stung, and she could feel some blood dripping through her leggings, but the little blonde ignored the pain. She tugged on her brothers arm lightly, "It's fine Clemont, no need to be angry it was probably just really hungry." She tried to beam happily at him but it came off more as a grimace.

That just made her older brother angrier. He was all for helping wild pokemon and being kind to them all, but not when his sister got hurt because of them! He quickly palmed the pokeball at his side and released the pokemon inside, "Bunnelby, take it down with Mud Shot!"

The bright light had barely left Bunnelby's grey furred form before orange light pooled between its long grey and brown ears and launched a barrage of rapid fire spheres of compressed earth.

With a chirping laugh, Fletchling finally finished eating and launched itself into the air. With casual ease, the small pokemon glided between the attack, chirping with mocking laughter all the while. "Keep firing, box it in!" Clemont shouted to his pokemon.

Bunnelby nodded, creating more and more spheres of earth between its ears and firing them all around the small flying-type. "Buun, bun, bun!"

Clemont clenched his fist as Fletchling spun out of the way of the barrage of Mud Shot attacks with ease, then charged through the opening Bunnelby left in the middle of his attacks, its small beak glowing a bright white. "Now, Wild Charge!" The blonde commanded sharply.

Fletchling had closed the distance between them rapidly, which is just what Bunnelby had been waiting for. With a bellow, Bunnelby's body erupted into an aura of crackling elecitricty that spiralled around its body and using its powerful little legs, Bunnelby launched itself into the air for a full body tackle against the Fletchling.

"Fletch!" The small food thief chirped with panic. Both wings erupting into silvery white light Fletchling beat on the charging Bunnelby with all its might and managed to propel itself backwards, escaping defeat by a mere inch.

It didn't get any time to sigh in relief though. Because the very second it escaped backwards a glowing blue sphere of hydro energy smashed into its form and erupted into a mid-air wave of water that crushed it against a nearby harshly, grinding its back into the bark of the tree so hard it could hear the very tree beginning to creak as it began to break from the sheer force behind the wave.

"Great, great!" Ash smiled, crouching down in front of Froakie. The smaller water-type was currently standing in front of him, both of his hands and feet glowing with bright white light. Lifting his hand, Ash pointed towards one of Froakie's knees and elbows. "Can you bring it up to these parts here? You won't always be able to hit your opponent head on with punches or kicks so working in your joints is a good option to extend your reach and options." He pointed out.

"Fro.." Froakie mused thoughtfully, nodding his small head in reply to Ash's pointers. Closing his eyes, Froakie concentrated for a moment and before Ash's very eyes, the white light spread from Froakie's feet and hands right up to his knees and elbows, covering them in the empowering light as well.

Upon opening his eyes, Froakie let out a yelp of surprise when all he caught sight of was Ash's face right next his before he was hoisted into the air excitedly, "Wooh! Well done Froakie!" Ash cheered happily, "There's no doubt you've trained really hard up to now to be able to easily reform the way you use these attacks." The raven haired trainer beamed.

A light dust of red blossomed on the small pokemon's face, looking away to hide its reaction slightly, "Froakie, fro." He mumbled with a small smile.

"Your current attacks are looking great." Ash continued to beam, "And while we where travelling I was checking up on what your species is capable of on the pokedex and got a ton of ideas on other attacks we can work on. Like I have this cool idea of fusing Toxic Spikes with Wat-"

Ash was never able to finish, he was cut off by a large, feminine and entirely all too familiar voice screaming. "That's Bonnie!" He shouted, worry shooting through his body.

He didn't even pause to think as he shot off, Froakie still in his grip. He raced through the trees like a Sceptile using Quick Attack. When he neared the area where he entered the forest, Ash caught sight of a small avian pokemon dodging backwards and avoiding an attacking Bunnelby coated in an electrical aura similar to Volt Tackle, Wild Charge he assumed it was.

Usually, Ash wouldn't but in another's battle. He utterly hated it when it happened to, but the way Bonnie screamed just a few moments ago led him to believe this wasn't just some casual battle. Thinking quickly, Ash tossed Froakie into the air his hand curling into a claw-like shape and thrust towards the flying pokemon, "Water Pulse, let's go!" He commanded swiftly.

He and Froakie seemed to be on the same wavelength, because before he'd even thrown him the little water-type had already formed a glowing blue orb of hydro energy between his cupped palms and launched it rapidly through the air towards the pokemon.

The attack made contact and with explosive force erupted into a large and powerful wave of water that smashed the small avian pokemon against a tree with bone crushing force.

Ash didn't think for a moment that it was over.

He was proven true not a moment later when a screech of fury erupted from behind the wave. Wind exploded outwards and the wave was rent asunder as dozens of sharp sickles of wind raged through the air towards the air bound Froakie at breakneck speeds.

"Bubble!" Ash shouted.

Froakie's throat swelled and when he opened his mouth he shot out dozens upon dozens of light shiny blue bubbles that converged upon the Razor Wind attack and stalemated them in an eruption of howling wind and raining water.

With their attention taken from their opponent, Ash was almost caught off guard as the tiny little avian shot through the air like a bullet both wings glowing with power and heading straight for Froakie who had been shot even further into the air from the force of the many bubbles he released.

Steel Wing, Ash recognized the attack was. "Pound! Block it!" He urgently commanded.

Thrusting both palms forward, glowing hands met glowing wings and a small shock wave of force was released form their clash of physical attacks. Ash was quick to capitalize on the stalemate that had them pushing against each other mid-air. "Back off! Spin above it and knee!" He shouted to his pokemon as a plan came to mind. Although, whether Froakie understood what he meant was up for debate.

Thankfully, Froakie once again seemed to be thinking on the same wave length as him. Releasing the power from his hands, Froakie allowed the winged pokemon to overpower him, bleeding off the momentum of his double palm thrust and the strength behind his opponents attack, Froakie used it to spin up and slightly over his opponent, his entire leg up to the knee coated in white energy.

Knee struck head and Froakie powered his opponent down with authority. Once again the little bird pokemon shot off like a rocket, only this time towards a collision course with the ground. A collision that left it lying in a heap and unconscious when it crashed down below hard enough to leave a small crater beneath it.

Froakie landed nimbly, panting slightly from exerting himself so much. Ash himself had pulled a pokeball from his pocket the moment Froakie had gotten above his opponent. Enlarging the ball, Ash tossed it at the downed pokemon.

There was silence for a moment. Broken moments later by a soft 'ping' as the little avian pokemon was captured.

Clemont, off to the side stood there gaping. Bunnelby stood in front of him, a kind of perplexed look on its face as if wondering just why it had been totally forgotten when it was the one fighting in the first place.

Bonnie? "That was so cool!" Bonnie gushed, running up to Froakie and excitedly patting the small water type on the head, knee injury entirely forgotten, "You were all like hah! Hoh! Kapow! And it was all over so fast and then Ash caught Fletchling before I even had the time to blink!"

Ash grinned, having walked over the pick up his new pokemon's pokeball, "So this little guys a Fletchling then?" He mused, amber eyes alight with a delighted expression. He was seriously impressed with this little guy, any average pokemon in early routes like this would have went down with ease to that first Water Pulse but this little Fletchling powered through it and even fought back well, not to mention it knew both Steel Wing and Razor Wind already, that was freaking awesome!

"...What!?" Clemont shouted. "Just….what!?"

So, yeah...Not much to go on here.

Nothing really special going on here. Just a little look into what changes have occurred that differ from canon at this point. That's all this really is meant to be. Though, it could have done with a bit more meat on it, make it more juicy. I'm not used to writing Ash with travelling companions either I'm used to having him be solo and mostly read stories with him travelling solo. The dialogue is cringe as hell I know, I'll try to work on that. Not that it's improved much in the entire time I've been writing here anyway. Maybe make it a life goal? With the snail pace I make in progress it's about the only plausible option, heh.

Anyway I actually quite enjoy Kalos in the anime. Ash is so chill about everything, rarely does anything other than Team Rocket rile him up. Sometimes him getting riled up even seems out of character now, how weird is that? It just goes to show you guys how much growing up you can do when you age from 10...to 10. A lot of maturation occurs in that time period I hear.

I'll tell you guys this now though. If you're fans of Sawyer and Trevor, don't be disappointed when they won't even come close to their canon bullshit, Sawyer more so than Trevor. Sawyer's progress is entirely unbelievable. In the time it took Ash to get two badges, he had caught a team of incredibly rare pokemon by game standards, bullshit ones at that Hax!Slaking anyone? He'd gotten freaking seven badges without a pokemon that could fly him anywhere and he'd gotten a freaking Sceptilite. No, just no man.

Then there's Trevor. What a steaming pile of ineptitude he turned out to be. I've never seen a Charizard look so lame and that includes when Ash's got his head stuck in a pipe and started crying. Not only that, it was Mega Evolved. Then there's his Aerodactyl. Do you remember when Ash ran into one? And when Gary was studying one? How temperamental they were...how the? Again, I say no. Just no.

The fact of the matter is...I can't accept these guys like Trevor, Tierno and Sawyer as rivals to Ash. They just don;t have the appearance that suits a rival for Ash. Seriously, compare these three with Gary and Paul and they come up entirely lacking from looks to personality, they're just white washes of characters we've already had appear in earlier anime seasons. Skip - Trevor for instance.

At least Alain is still a badass. Him and Ash duking it out will be great, especially since there's a good chance Ash will be bringing in his 'ultimate team' and winning the league if the scans are anything to go by.

Anyway, I'll end this here before Trevor's stupid hair style bugs me or something. I'll just go smite some gyms outside with my OP Pidgeot.