text:
I thought I responded to this before.
I thought I responded to this before.
Thanks to RK for helping with a few scenes!
"Safari Zoned Out"
The first thing they heard upon entering the building was the sound of a gun being cocked. They all recoiled at the sound, and Ash yelled, "Wait, Kaiser! It's us!" He then realized the mistake he made; the red vest-wearing elder had only seen him, Brock and Misty before. He knew he should have walked in first! Thankfully, Kaiser put the gun down, before then apologizing to them. He explained that some shady people had tried to infiltrate the Safari Zone earlier and exploit the Pokemon for their own gain, including his precious Dragonair. Thankfully, he was able to stop them, but he had been more than a little bit on edge since then.
The old man then went on to explain the rules of the Safari Zone: No Pokemon, $500 for entry, items are limited to bait and rocks, though bikes can be used (at the mention of "bikes", Misty narrowed her eyes at Ash, who shrunk under her gaze).
"Why can't we use Pokemon?" Yvonne wanted to know. Kaiser reached for his gun slowly, and she took back what she said. "N-Not that you have t-to or an...anything. Rare Pokemon are worth every bit of money! What a good deal!" She smiled nervously and dropped a sweat. Kaiser cocked his gun again, and she hid behind Misty, who immediately grabbed her and put her back in the front. "I-I mean, going into the Safari Zone is worth it!"
What a lunatic, she thought, as they all forked over their cash, Pokemon (some of whom were sad to be away from their trainers), Poke Balls, and other belongings. They were given thirty Safari Balls each, as well as bait and rocks. When then rushed into the actual Safari Zone to get away from Kaiser, Yvonne made a call to Professor Violet with her device as Brock and Dawn went in one direction. Ash and Misty waited for the blonde to be finished. Yvonne scooted away from them a little as the Kalos region professor appeared on the screen.
"Any updates?" the old lady wanted to know.
"I'm at the Safari Zone at Fuchsia City," Yvonne answered her, before lowering her voice. "Oh, and about the Butterfree, one of them belongs to Ash, and that pink one is its mate."
Professor Violet sighed. "Can't get what you want without minor setbacks, I suppose." Her Hypno nodded its head in agreement. "What Pokemon are you going to use?"
Yvonne explained to her the rules of the Safari Zone, turning the old lady pale. "That..." she seemed at a loss for words. "It's..."
Yvonne interrupted with, "You try explaining that to a guy with a gun at the ready."
The old lady forced a smile and continued the conversation. "Well, good luck anyway! Goodbye, dear!" Yvonne's device promptly turned blank. She put it back in her pocket and went towards a meadow.
"I bet you couldn't catch even one Pokemon here." Misty leaned towards him and smirked.
"Aren't you guys coming?" Yvonne turned to the two, who were much too close to each other. "Uh, okay, don't want to interrupt anything. I'll meet you there!"
Misty and Ash huffed and turned away from each other, before running after her.
Meanwhile, with Brock and Dawn, they had been looking for rare Pokemon for about ten minutes. All they really saw were Pokemon they already had, or most often, common Pokemon that could be found almost anywhere, such as Rattata and Pidgey.
"He said rare Pokemon migrated to the Safari Zone." Dawn folded her arms. "But I don't see anything!"
"Speak for yourself." Brock tossed one of his Safari Balls on the ground in front of a charging Rhyhorn. As he expected, it headbutted the ball and got sucked in. Brock turned to the ball, then at Dawn. "All right! I caught a Pokemon!"
"Good for you - " Dawn's tirade was interrupted by the Rhyhorn breaking out of its ball. It was charging straight towards them. Dawn began to run, and Brock yelled out, "Don't waste too many steps!"
Just as he said that, Kaiser shot a blank in the air to indicate that Dawn's time was up. She huffed as she went back to the entrance. Meanwhile, Brock dropped bait in front of Rhyhorn, who stopped to take a few bites. While it was distracted, Brock positioned itself to toss a Safari Ball at it, when -
Brock grumbled and followed Dawn. If only he had gotten just a couple more steps, he could have caught it, but what's done was done, he supposed.
Ash, Misty, and Yvonne ended up with each other in the meadow. For the first few minutes, all they saw were common early route Pokemon. Later on, they spotted a cream-colored cat Pokemon with a charm on its head poke its head out from behind a tree. It looked around for a few seconds, before slowly crawling towards them.
"Meowth!" Yvonne exclaimed.
"That's right!" Ash smiled widely, and Misty glared at him.
"Hey! No fair! I was gonna say that first!" she complained.
"Sorry, better luck next time." Ash watched as Meowth nipped its own paw.
"I gotta catch it! Guys, don't look," Yvonne told him.
"Why? It's not like you have to - " Ash began, but Misty got out a log and hit him on the head.
"She said don't look!"
Ash grumbled from the ground. "This is stupid..."
When Yvonne saw that they were both facing the opposite direction, she slowly approached the Meowth, cooed at it, and dropped bait between the two of them. She got out a Safari Ball and tossed it at the Pokemon, but it just narrowly missed. Meowth looked confused and crawled a few steps back as Yvonne missed with another Safari Ball. Misty peeked and held back laughter as the blonde got frustrated and chased after it, tripping over the bait she placed for the Scratch Cat Pokemon earlier.
Hearing the fall, Ash rushed toward her to try and help her up. "Are you okay, Yvonne?"
The angry girl rejected his offer, swatted him away, and got up on her own. "I would have called you if I needed your help, but as you can see, I'm doing just fine on my own."
"That's not what it looks like." Ash snickered a little, pointing to a curling Meowth, who was nipping on the bait (despite the fact that it was stepped on) and swinging its tail over the two balls.
The blonde's face heated up in embarrassment. "I told you not to look at me!" Ash and Misty laughed even harder. "I'm serious!" She got out two rocks and hurled it at them. Ash braced himself, but it turned out he didn't really need to, as the rocks just landed in the middle of him and Misty.
Ash still couldn't hold in his laughter. "Bulls-eye! It landed between us!"
"I'd like to see you do better then!" Yvonne shouted.
Ash stopped laughing after a while, and then got in front of Meowth. He then got out a rock, and tossed it on its head. Meowth yelped in pain as the round object landed on the ground, before staring at it. Yvonne giggled at his mistake.
"What's so funny?" Ash turned to her, who ignored his question. Meowth fanned itself while staring at it.
Yvonne gasped. "That's right! Meowth loves round items!" She donned her glasses as she wiped sweat off her forehead. The girl then shoved Ash aside, grabbed another Safari Ball, and tossed it...behind Meowth. It looked like it was deciding on whether to play with the rock, or the three Safari Balls.
"Ugh, this heat is ruining my concentration!" she complained, causing the other two to laugh at her expense again. "It's not funny!"
"Now that she mentions it, it is pretty hot," Misty remarked from the back, trying to shield herself from the sun.
Soon enough, Ash stopped laughing and went closer to her, leaning his head towards her and smirking. "I bet you'd like to see me do better, huuuuh?"
Yvonne refused to answer as Ash turned his hat backwards, ignoring the increasingly hot weather, and pulled out a ball. "Catching a Pokemon's pretty easy. All you do is raise your arm...and aim..." He demonstrated to Yvonne as Meowth caught the rock in its paws and started playing with it. Yvonne gave him a sharp look, and he looked away nervously. "Oops, wrong item."
He took out a Safari Ball this time, and then demonstrated the arm movements to her again. He then tossed it nowhere in particular, and yelled, "Go, Poke Ball!" It landed on a faraway Pokemon and sucked it in.
"That's a Safari Ball," Yvonne "corrected" him.
Ash ignored her comment and turned to her. "Now you try." She took a ball and winded up her arm, before throwing it at Meowth. The ball flew closer to it, but still barely grazed its charm.
"Eh, close enough." Ash took out another ball. He smiled inwardly as he tossed it in another direction. He kinda liked having someone to teach. It reminded him of his mentor days in Hoenn and Sinnoh, when he taught May and Dawn the basics. Like the first Safari Ball, this one sucked in another Pokemon.
"You might have to put it into practice a few times before you can really get the hang of it." Ash told Yvonne, as she misaimed at a mysterious Pokemon only known to her. Said Pokemon ran away from them when the ball went past it. Ash tossed a few more of the capsules given to him by Kaiser to give her a better idea of how to do it, and each of them captured a Pokemon. Yvonne practiced her aim by throwing rocks and balls at a nearby boulder. Ash showed her a couple more times how to aim. At one point, she managed to hit a Yanma on the head...with a rock (Ash giggled at that). Just a few minutes later, Ash reached for another ball...to find his pockets empty.
"Go...I wasted all thirty!?" he shouted, as Yvonne faced him.
"I guess you don't say 'gotta catch 'em all' for nothing, do you?" She nudged him and confidently took out another Safari Ball. "I've got it now!" she announced, as she hurled a Safari Ball at the Meowth. This time, it actually sucked it in. The ball landed on the ground and shook a couple of times before dinging to indicate that the capture was complete. The Poke Ball disappeared, which meant Yvonne already had a full party of six.
"All right, you finally did it!" Ash cheered, as a six-legged Pokemon with a white mane climbed up a nearby boulder. It had five fiery horns, blue eyes, and a brown lower body.
Ash's jaw dropped. "Wow, a Larvesta!" He now wished he didn't waste all thirty of his balls. He made a grab for the Safari Ball in her hand. After all, he had just as much right to get the Larvesta as she did, if not more. If she wasn't there, or at least didn't need help, he'd still have most, if not all, of the balls that Kaiser gave him. Yvonne ignored his attempts as she whirled her arm a couple of times.
"Go, go, Safari Ball!" she cried, as the ball hurled past him. Ash's eyes were glued to it. His mouth only got vertically wider as Yvonne successfully nabbed it with her Safari Ball. Ash felt his heart beat harder against his chest with each shake. He prayed that it would break out, but it never happened. In fact, the Poke Ball finally stopped moving, before it disappeared from sight.
"Yes! A Larvesta!" she bragged joyously, before putting a hand on Ash's slumped shoulder. "Thanks so much!"
Lucky shot... Ash thought, as he looked away when she got in front of him. "Don't look away, that was pretty nice of you."
"No problem..." Ash forced himself to face her smiling face. "Hey, where's Misty?" Indeed, Misty had disappeared sometime during Ash's mentorship.
"Beats - "
Yvonne recoiled in fear, having nearly forgotten about Kaiser. Meanwhile, Ash was secretly glad that Kaiser shot a blank, mentally thanking him the whole walk back. Words couldn't describe the embarrassment he felt.
Misty was the last to get back from the Safari Zone. On their walk to the Pokemon Center, they all shared their experiences at the Safari Zone. Just as Ash feared, Yvonne never stopped bragging about her capture. She was especially elated to find out that Brock and Dawn hadn't caught anything. Misty was quite happy herself (she caught at least one Pokemon she wasn't telling them about), but not as happy as Yvonne. When they had arrived to the Pokemon Center, Yvonne got in front of the videophone.
"Ladies first," she had reminded Ash, as she pressed a few buttons.
"That's a lady?" Ash muttered in earshot, as Professor Violet appeared on the screen.
"What did you catch?" she asked the younger girl. Yvonne told her the whole story of how Larvesta was caught, surprising the lady.
"Larvesta? That's a rare sight, even in Unova! I expected migrations of rare Pokemon, but never a Larvesta! And you managed to get it, too!" Professor Violet congratulated. "Which Pokemon would you like to transfer to me?"
"Well, Camerupt's training session is done, so I'll transfer her for Larvesta and make it as strong as I can," Yvonne answered, as her Camerupt was transferred to the professor in favor of her newly caught Bug/Fire type Pokemon.
"Good choice. With the recent delay of the PWT, this gives me more time to prepare and you more time to train that little Larvesta. Who knows, you might even get a - " Professor Violet began, before Ash cut in with, "The Pokemon World Tournament's postponed? Where'd you hear that?"
"Ash! She's talking!" Yvonne hissed at him, but the lady didn't seem to mind.
"Well..." Professor Violet looked at her clock, before immediately cutting off the videophone.
The blonde blinked at the screen, before Dawn went to check on her mom. It turned out that she had to go back to Twinleaf Town and stay with her for a while, at least until the PWT began. They all said their goodbyes to her, and vice-versa, as she flew her Togekiss to Vermilion City, hoping it would be much less hot in Sinnoh. Now it was just Ash, Misty, Brock and Yvonne outside, where the sun was blistering on them even harder. Even Ash and Yvonne's hats did little to shield them from the intense heat. They all groaned as the sun beat down on them more and more. Misty's Froakie expanded the cloud-like foam on its neck, jumped above them, before letting some of the white material fall over them like rain. Speaking of rain, the stuff eventually thinned and liquefied to rain, but it dissolved instantly. Froakie landed with a frown and recalled itself in its Poke Ball.
"Not even Rain Dance worked," muttered Misty. "Ash, we can't go to Cinnabar Island now!" Ash just smiled at the Poke Ball in his hand, ignoring her. "Ash Ketchum, are you listening!?" The male Poke Ball holder just tossed the capsule in the air and released the Pokemon inside. Before any of them could react, it swooped in from behind them, hoisted them on their backs, and immediately flew into the skies...
On top of a volcano, an old man with round sunglasses and a lab suit was beside a tuckered out Magmar, battling with two people in red suits. The first one was a woman with long orange hair, while the second one was a short-haired man. Both of them were commanding a Pokemon that looked like Charizard, a species Ash had experience training, but there were a few differences. Its wings had a more fiery design. It had a sharp horn between its ears, small draconic wings on top of its arms, and a few sharp points on its tail. As well as that, its tail flame looked a lot bigger than the average Charizard's too, and the heat only assisted it. Ash and Yvonne's faces narrowed when they saw the male member. He was the same person who used that different looking Blaziken against them, and escaped from the police, too.
"Robert, was it them you were talking about?" asked his companion. He nodded in response. The woman tossed a Poke Ball at him, ordering him to escape while she took care of them. Blaine turned around to see them. He normally would have been glad to see them after years, but this was an urgency.
Robert tossed the ball to the ground, and released the Pokemon inside. Whatever it was, it quickly heaved Robert on its back and ran off in a flash. Without a word, Yvonne and Brock (who recalled all of his Pokemon except Fennekin and Vulpix to protect them from the particularly hot sun) jumped off of Ash's Charizard and landed on the ground, leaving just Ash and Misty. Yvonne sent out her Kadabra and had it use Trick Room. Its eyes glowed as a blue cube formed around it, before spreading all the way beyond their eyesight. The light blue glow then disappeared as Yvonne recalled her Kadabra, before tossing another Poke Ball.
"Gogoat! Go after them!" she demanded, as she and Brock got on its back. Yvonne and Brock held on tight as the Grass type zoomed towards Robert. Before they could even see what Pokemon he was on, he recalled it. Gogoat's horns glowed threateningly as Brock and Yvonne cornered him. The Team Flare member responded by tossing a capsule on the ground. It contained a ghostly, yellow eyed chandelier-like creature with a blue fire on its head. Four arms tipped with flame extended from its body. Without warning, it waved its flames around itself and its owner in a protective stance. Yvonne immediately jumped back and recalled Gogoat, while Brock just stood there and watched as his Vulpix absorbed any fires that were headed towards the black man.
Yvonne fixed her glasses on her face as she mused over which Pokemon would be best against Chandelure. She then grabbed a Poke Ball and tossed it upward. "Go, go, Dugtrio!" she cried, as a mole with three heads emerged from it. Each of them had an oval pink nose, black eyes, and brown skin. Brock sent out his Marshtomp to assist.
"Dugtrio, Stone Edge!" Yvonne yelled, as light blue rings of aura formed around the Mole Pokemon in slow motion. Meanwhile, Brock's Marshtomp was engaged in battle with Chandelure. Both of them were faster than ever, but none could land either a physical or special hit on the other, until -
"Marshtomp, Yawn!" As Robert's Chandelure prepared to ram into it, Marshtomp yawned right in its face. Chandelure started to get drowsy and slowly drop to the ground. A few seconds later, it actually fell asleep. At the same time, the psychic barrier around them wore off.
Sharp stones were circling in all directions around Yvonne's Dugtrio for a brief moment, before they quickly launched towards the sleeping fire ghost, who could only sit there and get hit by each and every stone. It still wasn't enough to wake up the Chandelure, unfortunately for Robert. Brock had his Marshtomp use Water Pledge, which consisted of it slamming its fist on the ground, causing pillars of water to form in a straight line on the ground. They all rushed around Chandelure in a ring of aquatic pillars, ready to form into one move that would surely finish it off, when Robert suddenly rushed beside his Pokemon, taking the brunt of the attack. Chandelure still took some damage, but its trainer softened the blow.
"That works, too." Brock smiled.
"You doubted me, didn't you?" Yvonne smiled back at him.
"I doubted you could outdo me, which you didn't," teased the black man.
"You won't delay our - " Robert began, sputtering out water from its mouth. "Beautiful - " He coughed again. "World."
"I don't know what he's talking about, and I don't care," Yvonne commented, as she took out her device and got ready to call Officer Jenny on her device so she could tell her about the situation. The Team Flare member's Chandelure was still snoozing, and Brock's Marshtomp was covered in a white light...!
Its body expanded as it crouched on all fours while still glowing. When the glow faded, a new Pokemon emerged. Its large body was blue, and it had two gills protruding from its cheeks. Two black fins were on its head, and there was another one on its tail. Each of its three-fingered hands had orange oval-shaped portions. Brock smiled wider as his new Pokemon roared and opened its orange eyes, before attempting to stand on just its two hind legs. It toppled over, and its trainer went to go help it.
"Easy, you just evolved," he told the Hoenn starter, as it got back on all fours.
"I've never actually seen one of those before," Yvonne told herself, as she scanned it: "Swampert, the Mud Fish Pokémon. It is so strong it has enough strength to drag a boulder weighing more than a ton. It also has powerful vision that lets it see even in Murky Water. It predicts storms by sensing subtle differences in the sound of waves and tidal winds with it's fins."
When her Pokedex was finished giving out information, Robert had pulled himself together, recalled Chandelure, and tossed another Poke Ball high in the air. It opened up and released Charizard, a species they were familiar with. Yvonne smiled to herself; those training sessions with Ash's Charizard were going to pay off. Swampert was still getting used to its new body, so it wouldn't be of much help.
"Dugtrio, Stone Edge!" she instructed, as pointed rocks swirled around the Mole Pokemon, and then zoomed towards Charizard, who swerved around them and closer to the user. Brock tossed a ball capsule into the air and released a giant rock with eyes, a mouth, and skinny arms.
"Geodude, Rock Throw!" he commanded.
Brock's Rock/Ground type picked up a few rocks from the ground and hurled them at the opponent, who slashed them to pieces. The debris just harmlessly dropped to the ground as Yvonne's Dugtrio dug into the ground. Robert's Charizard opened its mouth and released a beam of solar energy. It grew larger as it headed towards Geodude. Oddly enough, Brock didn't look the least bit concerned or nervous.
"Geodude, Sandstorm!"
As soon as Brock said those two words, Geodude lifted its two arms up, spun around, and formed a tornado of sand around it that eventually became a sandstorm. The Solar Beam hit its mark, causing an explosion. When the smoke cleared, Geodude was nowhere to be seen.
As Charizard guarded itself against the fierce sandstorm, Geodude had taken advantage of its blind spot and rammed into the large winged creature from behind. Unwilling to back down, Charizard planted its feet hard into the field and stood its ground as its trainer ordered a Focus Blast. Charizard cupped its hands together as a light blue sphere materialized between them, slowly growing in size.
"Sucker Punch!" Yvonne ordered, as Dugtrio sped towards its opponent at incredible speed and rammed itself right into its torso. Despite Charizard being slightly groggy from the attack, it still managed to hold on to the destructive sphere. Robert quickly pointed to his right, which was where he saw the Mole Pokemon retreat. The Flame Pokemon, without hesitation, shot its powerful attack right at Yvonne's three headed Pokemon, with the force of the move causing another explosion, which picked up debris and stray rocks.
"Stone Edge!" Robert's two opponents shouted in union. Both Pokemon materialized a ring of rocks, which they both proceeded to shoot at the Fire/Flying Pokemon. With the involvement of the already stray rocks in the area, the powerful attacks were powered up, which resulted in Charizard being smashed into the ground.
"Sand Veil sure comes in handy, doesn't it?" Yvonne smiled to Brock, as the Team Flare guy inserted a stone into the ring around this wrist. Suddenly, his felled Pokemon was encased in a fiery protective orb of black and blue. All of the debris was sucked into it, effectively getting rid of the sandstorm altogether.
"Trio, Trio!" Dugtrio bellowed angrily.
"Don't attack," Yvonne warned her Pokemon, as the aura around Robert's Pokemon slowly turned to small embers.
Brock and Yvonne were speechless as the new Pokemon's body was completely uncovered. Its skin was now black with a blue underside. On its shoulders were two blue spikes. The tips of its horns matched the spikes. Two additional spikes grew on the back of its neck, and the edges of its wings got divided into large, rounded sections. Like its neck and shoulders, the tips of its wings had a curved spike on each one. To accompany its new appearance, the flame on its tail was a burning blue. It even had periwinkle-colored flames blowing out of the sides of its mouth, making it look that much more fearsome.
"Dugtrio, keep your distance and use Earthquake!" Yvonne shouted in urgency, as the cool Ground-type Pokemon burrowed on the ground backwardly to its trainer.
It then alternated between lowering and rising each of its heads in any order and created multiple small tremors that rumbled the earth, forming cracks in front of it. The blue winged Pokemon simply stepped on a seismic wave in order to stop the earthquake from taking effect. Brock's jaw dropped in shock as he recalled his Geodude. After pondering for a few moments, Yvonne put her Dugtrio back in its ball. The two of them then tossed a Poke Ball each into the air. One released a yellow and green Pokemon with brown zigzags on its body, a duck-like beak, and a lily pad growing from the top of the sombrero on its head. The second Poke Ball released...the same thing.
The two Ludicolo owners stared at each other wordlessly, before turning back to their opponent (which Robert called Mega Charizard X).
"Ludicolo, use Rain Dance!" Brock called out, as a transparent orb of liquid appeared on top of the plant on his Pokemon's head. It then shot up into the sky and split from the sphere into multiple raindrops that drizzled over everyone. The Mega Charizard casually shrugged off all of the rain that was pouring on its body as it flew towards the two Grass/Water types, with its claws sharpened. They took on a ghostly, dark purple aura as Charizard slashed down on the first Ludicolo's face, and then followed it up with another slash, this time swinging sideways. The Ludicolo lowered its head to brace itself from the second Shadow Claw attack, and as the Ghost-type move struck it, a seed launched out of the plant on its head and latched itself onto Charizard. Thorns sprouted from the seed and restrained its movements. It tried to burn the Leech Seed attack, but the rain rendered its Fire attacks useless.
Yvonne fingered her trusted device in her pocket and played a festive song on it. Brock sharply turned to her. "What are you doing?" he exclaimed, and that's when it hit him: Ludicolo got more powerful when exposed to festival music. In addition to that, the one that was hit by Shadow Claw earlier was taking in as much rain as it could, before it got absorbed by the plant, thus healing it.
"Before it can make a move, Hydro Pump!" Brock shouted, and his Ludicolo unleashed a pressurized stream of water from its mouth, being all the more powerful because of the rain. Yvonne's Ludicolo followed suit, the two blasts merging into one swirling geyser of liquid that hit Mega Charizard head on, sending it crashing on Robert. Robert got bumped into by one of his Pokemon yet again, this time, getting knocked unconscious.
The rain stopped right after that, so Yvonne called Officer Jenny, who instantly arrived to confiscate the Team Flare member's items and Pokemon, and take him into her police car, before driving off. Brock noticed a black ring in an imprint on the ground where Robert landed earlier. He slowly picked it up, before the two of them left to check on Misty and Ash.
The two Charizard were at a face-off against each other. Pikachu, Togetic, Blaine, Magmar, and Azurill were watching them go at it (Charizard wanted to take it down on its own). Both of them roared as they flew towards each other, readying a Flamethrower attack. They both unleashed their attacks, which collided with each other. The two Fire/Flying types fought for dominance as the power struggle was at a stalemate.
"Charizard, I know you can do it!" Ash encouraged his Charizard, whose body immediately got surrounded in a bright scarlet outline for a brief second, before the flames spewing from its mouth enlarged and overpowered its opponent's Flamethrower, engulfing both Heidi and her Charizard in the scorching fire. Heidi's suit must have been fire-proof, because she came out unscathed when her Pokemon flew her away from an incoming Slash attack from its opponent. Ash's Charizard grunted in pain, but suppressed it.
"What's wrong?" Ash's eyes went over to his Pokemon, who growled and flew over a few blades of wind materialized from the wings of Heidi's Pokemon. The female Team Flare member had her Charizard fly towards Ash, its claws a few inches longer and glowing pitch black, ready to slice anything or anyone that stood (or flew) in its way.
"Ash, look out!" Misty cried, tightly holding on to the Charizard and ducking under a claw swipe.
"Dodge that, and use Dragon Tail!" cried Ash, as the Pokemon that was abandoned by Damien swerved through the shadowy claws with its tail glowing light blue. It smacked its tail on its enemy's head and sent it spiraling downward, but the more draconic looking Charizard quickly righted itself and quickly released a beam of solar energy from its mouth that struck Charizard's flank. Then, without giving it any time to rest, it tried once again to slash it with shadowy claws. Just like before, Ash's Charizard swerved around the repeated Ghost-type attack, but what they didn't see coming was the opposing Charizard's sharp tail swiping Misty off of Charizard, and scraping her a little, too.
"Ash!" cried the orange-haired girl, as she got knocked off of Charizard and was now falling into the volcano. She tried to reach for her Poke Balls, but she was falling too fast. Ash and Charizard's eyes both widened as the opposing Charizard launched towards them like a fiery bullet. Without thinking, Ash jumped off of his trusted Pokemon and free fell towards Misty, and also the bubbling lava underneath them. Misty glared at him while falling, but Ash ignored her, faced his back towards the lava, and recalled his Pokemon in the flash of red light. Then, he got closer to Misty and tossed it down below them.
"Charizard! I choose you again!" He sent out the fully evolved Kanto fire starter and flew them both on the surface, where a slightly different-looking Charizard wreathed in flames was launching towards them again, but this time, Charizard was ready. It glowed crimson red once again, before opening its maw.
"Ash, what's with that glow?" Misty questioned the fifteen year old boy, who shrugged.
This time, instead of the usual flames coming out from its mouth, a small swirling ball of red energy formed and got bigger and bigger, until it was around five times the size of the average Poke Ball. Ash took out his Pokedex to see what move it was using.
"Dragon Pulse. A draconic pulse of energy able to wipe out almost anything in sight."
Ash had actually seen Dragon Pulse before, but none like this one. Charizard then launched it at the flame-covered Pokemon and its trainer, who avoided it by going upward. The orb fizzled out before landing on anything.
"Charizard, after them!" Ash commanded. Said Pokemon panted a couple of times, before roaring and flying up after them. Ash would have to get his Charizard inspected by Professor Oak later. Not only did it look tired, but it actually looked damaged too, even though it didn't take that much damage from its opponent! A few seconds later, they rose above the volcano, but their opponents were nowhere to be found. Charizard readied another Dragon Pulse, while Misty grasped two Poke Balls of hers. A bright light formed above the two of them, blindsiding them, and the sun's glare didn't help matters, either. A beam of light shot towards them. Ash's Charizard flew around it, but the Solar Beam still managed to graze him. Heidi and her Charizard then swooped down towards them, while Ash's charged up Dragon Pulse again.
"Staryu! Starmie! Rapid Spin!" shouted Misty, as she tossed her two balls towards them. Charizard glared at her as the two ninja star-like Pokemon emerged from their capsules and spun towards Heidi. Her Charizard dodged both of their spinning attacks...before her Charizard was hit by a full power Dragon Pulse, which sent them crashing. Both Staryu and Starmie then combined their Water Gun attacks and merged it into a swirling geyser-like attack that hit them both head on, and sent them crashing harder on the ground. Heidi's Pokemon shook off the damage and flew her up, but they were suddenly hit by a large bolt of electricity from behind them, this time making them stay down for good.
Ash and Misty looked to see where the source of the attack came from. It turned out to be Gary and his Electivire. As Charizard landed Ash and Misty on solid ground, it growled at the two. A few seconds later, an Officer Jenny came to arrest Heidi. She then recalled her Charizard, who looked just like any old Charizard now. The Officer Jenny thanked Gary for taking down the Team Flare member, and he basked in the praise. Ash and Misty glared at him from a distance when Gary approached them.
"Heya, Ashy!" he called out to him, when Officer Jenny left. "When I saw how much you were struggling, I just had to come in and help ya out!" His cheerleaders swooned over him as they recited some stupid rhyme about how "great" he was. Ash groaned; he'd almost rather hear Team Rocket's lame rhymes. "What a riot!"
"Taking down a weakened Pokemon takes so much skill, doesn't it?" Ash countered.
Gary ignored his retort and continued on, "You're gonna be surprised at my latest discovery!"
"What is it?" Ash questioned, immediately wishing he hadn't said anything. Now Gary was probably going to respond with something like, "That you're a loser!"
But to his surprise, Gary didn't say anything insulting. Instead, he tossed two stones at his former rival, who caught them. Ash looked at the objects in his hand. One was blue and black, and the other was red mixed in with yellow and orange. "What are these?" he wanted to know.
"You may have heard of Mega Evolutions, which are temporary evolutions for a select couple of fully evolved Pokemon," Gary explained, and Ash's mind drifted back to the differently looking Blaziken he and Yvonne had fought a while ago, as well as the oddly-looking Charizard that Misty and Ash took on just now. "Ash! You listening or snoozing?"
Gary's sharp tone snapped him out of his thoughts. "Yeah, I'm listening," he replied.
"Okay, good. The way to activate Mega Evolutions is to have a really strong bond with the Pokemon," Gary continued, shocking Ash. He didn't expect any of Team Flare to have a bond with their Pokemon. "To be more precise, those stones in your hand are the Charizardnite X and the Charizardnite Y. Since you're so close to your Charizard, I figured you could use one of them to evolve it."
Ash's eyes lit up at the thought of his Charizard becoming even more powerful. Misty seemed pretty impressed herself, and Charizard showed no reaction.
"Gary, Gary, he's the best! If he doesn't know it, no one else does!" his cheerleaders gushed.
"Then again." Gary's smirk grew wider. "If your Charizard can't even use Blast Burn, I don't think it deserves to Mega Evolve either way. Just keep those stones as a reminder of the greatness I've surpassed, and you'll never achieve." The douchebag then turned his back to them and headed to his limousine, his cheerleaders following him.
Ash clenched the stones in his hand as he growled alongside his Charizard. By the time he had a comeback ready, Gary was already gone.
"Grr...Gary, Gary, what does he know! I'm the real star of this show!" Ash shouted. Charizard roared, this time in agreement.
Ash slowly turned to him. "So, what do you say, Charizard? Wanna Mega Evolve in the Pokemon World Tournament? We'll show Gary a thing or two!"
Charizard spit fire in his face, and Ash shook it off. "What was that for!" The Fire/Flying type turned his head away from the stones and exhaled smoke from his nostrils. "Ah, I get it! You want to prove your worth on your own merits, just like the other times!" Charizard nodded. Ash had guessed correctly.
"But, Ash, many others will probably be using Mega Stones for a boost," Misty warned him.
"Oh yeah? This is what I think of these stones!" Ash slammed the stones on the ground and stomped on them. He lifted his foot up, but they were still intact.
"Hey, if you don't want them, you can always give them to me," a voice called from behind him.
Ash quickly picked them from the ground and stuffed them in his backpack. "No way! They're mine!" he responded to Yvonne's voice.
"If they really mean that much to you, why are you getting so worked up?" the blonde stared at him bemusedly.
"Aw, don't worry about it. He's just acting like a big baby because Gary outdid him again!" teased Misty.
"No surprise there." Brock handed Ash a black ring with a circular slot in the middle. "You're going to need this if you ever change your mind. It's where you place the Mega Stone in order for any given Pokemon to evolve."
Ash frowned. "And he didn't give it to me with the stones, why?" Brock chuckled to himself.
"Brock? Brock!"
To shut him up, Charizard burned his face again.
"They haven't seen each other for a while, but their bond is still just as strong as ever, if not even more so." Brock laughed. Ash hasn't told him that he brought Charizard back towards the end of his Unova travels, when Team Plasma was at large.
"Those are truly fires of a red-hot reunion," Yvonne added, and the others just stared at her. "What?"
At the ranch, no less than a dozen and a half pink and black balls had been rolling all over the field, stampeding on everything they came in contact with...including the poor professor of the Kanto region, who was caught in the middle of it all.
"No, not again, Ash!" The professor cried, before he got flattened thirty times over. Yvonne, Brock, and Misty glanced at Ash, who laughed nervously. Professor Oak quickly got up and avoided the balls...before then getting stampeded on by all thirty of Ash's Tauros. The pink and black orbs then uncurled to reveal cow-like Pokemon, who all stared at a Tauros of their own. Each Miltank rushed to a Tauros and cuddled with them. Professor Oak forced a smile as Ash's Muk then smothered him affectionately.
They all stared as his Rotom gave him a jolt, not unlike Charizard's way of saying 'hello' to Ash.
"Professor Oak seems a little...busy," Yvonne remarked, as Rotom zapped him again. Ash sighed and turned off the videophone before he could see the Tauros trample him once more. They then headed out of the Pokemon Center of Cinnabar Island and flew over the seas on Charizard.
Yvonne pointed down. "Hey, guys, isn't that Paul?" They looked down to see the purple-haired boy nonchalantly surfing on a Gastrodon.
Ash wisely decided to ignore him and have his Charizard descend on a nearby route, not wanting to deal with his nonsense. He then recalled his Charizard and made a few rotations with his Pokedex.
"Don't think I didn't see you," Paul's voice cut in from behind. "Why don't we have another full battle to see who's really the stronger one, unless you're scared?"
Ash turned to him. "I'd face you, but I think I'd be wasting my time showing the obvious result."
Paul snickered. "Don't have time to waste on me, or don't have the courage to face me?"
"He said he didn't want to battle. Get lost!" Yvonne stood up for him.
"Oh, how sweet. You need someone to coddle and protect you," Paul criticized Ash, before turning to Yvonne. "Why don't you get lost, you're not even worth the half-second it'll take me to beat him."
Yvonne frowned at the douche as Ash stepped forward. "Aren't you raking up too many losses as is. Or maybe you'd like another?" he countered, as Pikachu's cheeks sparked.
"Sure. I'm ready. I'm gonna be Pokemon Master, and the way to do that is to beat challengers like you," Paul replied mockingly.
Ash and Brock remembered those words too well. It was the exact same thing the former had said to Paul before their first battle took place.
"Hey!" a voice called from behind a tree. They all looked around to see brown-haired lady with red fingernails, green eyes, and a camera come out of her hiding place and next to Misty.
Brock stared at her. "Who is that?"
"A journalist from another region. Alexa, to be exact," Yvonne explained, as the journalist approached Ash.
"You're Ash Ketchum, aren't you? You've been through five regional leagues so far, Sinnoh and Unova being the highest you ranked, correct?" Ash nodded, and Alexa continued. "As well as the Battle Frontier, and the Orange League, both of which you've won, yet oddly enough, you haven't won the five main leagues you've entered, right?" Ash glared daggers at her as she approached Paul.
"You're in a similar boat as Ash, only it took you four regions to finally beat Brandon in a close match, and never went through the Orange Island - "
"Are you done? We have a match, you know!" the purple-haired boy cut in.
"Perfect!" Alexa chirped. "I can be the referee! I need a decent match to report. Now then, this will be a full six-on-six battle. Both sides are allowed to make substitutions, and the battle ends when all six Pokemon on either side are unable to battle, or one person forfeits."
Paul held out a Poke Ball as he and Ash took their positions. "And when you see how much better I've become, you're going to wish you never even accepted.
She's really pretty, but also pretty harsh, Brock thought. "Ash, just take him down so we can move on!" he encouraged him.
Ash smiled at Brock, before turning back to the battlefield, also grasping a Poke Ball in his hand. After he turned his hat backwards, the two battlers tossed their Poke Balls to the battlefield.
"I choose you/Stand by for battle...!"
Additions to Credits:
Kaiser- Stuart Zagnit/Stan Hart (He has no dub voice sadly)
Robert: Bill Rogers
Heidi: Amy Birnbaum
Last edited by marioluigifan05; 24th October 2013 at 09:41 AM.
I am tired of the admin approval! When will this stop!
WARNING: If you are a fan of either Paul or (Anime) Serena, then stop reading this story now. There's also mild blood, but nothing that hasn't been seen in a select few Pokemon episodes before.
On top of that, Alexa's personality is rewritten to be more confrontational and cold, as I found her bland in the Da! episodes I've watched.
Let's play a game: Catch That Episode Title! I forgot to mention this in the last chapter, so the first person to correctly guess the episode titles of both the previous chapter and this one (there are two in the previous chapter, and one in this chapter) will get a shoutout! The first one will be pretty easy, but this one will be a little harder. Note that they don't have to be the exact words, just similar (for example, if I type "Saving the Braviary" and you guess "Saving Braviary", then it's still a right answer.
"The Start of the Whole Wide World Tournament"
A huge brown grizzly bear-like Pokemon with a yellow ring on its torso, vacant eyes, and sharp claws was facing a small, blue bipedal crocodile with a yellow V shaped pattern on its chest and red spikes on its back. The latter danced in place as Alexa announced the start of the match and started her research.
"Ursaring, Slash!" Paul made the first command of the match as his Pokemon ran towards its smaller opponent. Its claws grew longer as a white aura encased it.
"Quick, Totodile, dodge it!" cried Ash, as his Totodile weaved around the bigger Pokemon's claws by dancing. "Now, use Water Gun!"
Totodile's maw unleashed a stream of water, and it was at that exact moment that Ursaring became a red flash of light and got sucked into its ball, so instead of hitting its intended target, the Johto starter ended up spraying Paul's face. Everyone (except Ash and Totodile) held back laughter at Paul's droopy hair and drenched face.
"Ash, that's Paul, not Ursaring!" Yvonne whispered in hearing range, pointing at Paul, who was even less amused than ever before, if that was even possible.
Not even bothering to say anything or shake off the liquid from his face, he sent out his burly electric type Pokemon to replace Ursaring.
Electivire, huh? Ash thought, holding out Totodile's Poke Ball and recalling it. "Totodile, return, now!"
"Congratulations. You just learned how to switch out at a type disadvantage," Paul mocked, as Ash tossed his next Poke Ball. It revealed Swellow, his flying type of Hoenn. Paul's smirk grew wider; an easy victory for him. He knew Ash could sometimes win with type disadvantages, but this was a random choice, and a stupid one, too. "Thunder."
Electivire cloaked itself in electricity, before arcing it towards the flier, who flew to the left to avoid it.
"Swellow, double Quick Attack!" Ash commanded, as his Pokemon rushed towards Electivire in a blur.
"Guard!" Paul retaliated, but the first Quick Attack already hit his Pokemon. Electivire immediately turned around and thrust its arms out in a blocking stance, stopping Swellow, who disappeared. Paul frowned in confusion as another Swellow instantly came from behind Electivire and rammed into it, sending it staggering a few feet forward.
Paul growled. He didn't just use two Quick Attacks...he combined that with Double Team... "Wild Charge!"
Electivire covered itself in lightning again, but this time, instead of directing it at Swellow, it ran towards Ash's Pokemon, intending to ram into it.
"Dodge that!" Ash called out, as Swellow quickly flew around Electivire, who instantly jumped to it at a higher speed than before and crashed into it. Swellow crash landed on the ground, not seeming to have taken that much damage, despite having taken a Wild Charge head on.
"Why's Electivire so fast all of a sudden?" Ash whispered to himself. "I didn't even use - "
"Wild Charge again!" Paul's voice cut into Ash's thoughts as his Pokemon jumped above Swellow in less than a second, ready to ram into it.
"Ash! Do something!" his friends all cried.
"Agility!" he commanded, just before Electivire crashed into the ground, creating a huge crater where Swellow used to be. With the speed boost from Agility, he was now just as fast as Electivire. Swellow swooped into the air above its opponent, who got back up, formed a sphere of electricity around itself, and aimed it at the bird.
"Swellow, use Aerial Ace to dodge!" Ash instructed, as his Pokemon disappeared right before the lightning could strike its intended target. It reappeared behind the Electric-type and dived towards it.
Paul smirked. "Don't you know Shock Wave never misses?" As he finished the sentence, Electivire's attack immediately went the opposite direction, redirecting itself towards the Flying/Normal type.
Ash seemed shocked at first, having forgotten about Shock Wave's effect, but quickly regained his composure. "Swellow, just get through it!"
What? Paul was confused as to why he thought a Flying type could overpower an electric attack, especially one from his Electivire. Maybe he had forgotten just how strong his Electivire could be? Or maybe he just believed in his Pokemon that much to the point of pure idiocy...well, it wouldn't be the first time. "Make him regret that. More power!"
Electivire shot another jolt of electricity at his first attack, which caused them to be merged together into one huge bolt. Brock, Misty and Yvonne smiled as Ash trusted his Swellow to go through with his attack. Yvonne had trained with his Swellow a few times, and even the strongest electric attacks from her Manectric couldn't take it down. As expected, the combined attack drenched Swellow in potent static, but with a little encouragement from Ash, it shrugged it off and went through the electricity, much to Paul's shock. Not only did it go through the attack that was supposed to do massive damage to it, but it executed Aerial Ace without a sweat and struck Electivire in the torso, sending it back. Electivire must have been shocked, too, because it didn't even try to stand its ground as it was knocked over.
"See, Paul? That's what believing in the strength of your friends does!" Ash declared, and Swellow crowed in agreement as it perched itself on a nearby rock. "Quick Attack, now!"
Swellow took off from the ground and instantly launched itself towards Electivire, grazing its head before it could even make a move.
"Electivire, Thunder, let's go!" Paul roared, and Electivire bellowed a battle cry as dark, grey clouds formed in the blue sky, covering up the sun and white clouds. Ash focused on his speedy Pokemon, who was looking out for any lightning that would come its way while flying around the air. A huge lightning strike shot down from a thundercloud towards Swellow, who just barely managed to swerve through it.
"Swellow, be careful!" Ash called, as another bolt of lightning came close to hitting the Hoenn Pokemon. This went on for at least a minute or two, with one of the bolts hitting Electivire every once in a while, but never actually damaging it. Ash took a few steps forward to encourage his Flying-type, and the sound of thunder rumbled in everyone's ears.
Without warning, Pikachu rushed towards his trainer and pushed him away from his position, before quickly getting under a particularly large lightning bolt and taking the attack head-on, shocking (no pun intended) every one of the spectators.
"Pikachu, no!" Ash could only watch as his buddy was engulfed in the brilliant yellow light. Oddly enough, Pikachu wasn't taking any damage, the most it felt from that lightning attack was a slight strain. When the attack wore off, Pikachu glowed with a slight yellow aura that wore off after a moment. It looked like it had just been healed at the Pokemon Center.
Paul's eyes widened. "What the - !"
"Whoa! It just took the attack like a lightning rod, and didn't even get hurt!" Misty observed in awe.
"That's most interesting," Alexa admitted.
"Unbelievable! All of that training must have really paid off! Or ..." Brock began.
"Or what?" Yvonne turned to him, who was deep in thought.
Misty turned to Paul. "You two could have killed him!"
"How is it my fault, he stepped too close," he retorted calmly.
As the atmosphere around them returned back to its fair weather condition, Pikachu glared at Paul, its electric sacs sparking.
"Pikachu, you wanna battle?" Ash inquired.
"Pika!" it responded in kind.
"Alright." Ash held out Swellow's Poke Ball, pointed it at the flier, and sucked it into a beam of light. "Swellow, return, now! Pikachu, get out there!"
Pikachu scrambled in front of Electivire and planted its paws and feet on the ground, anticipating Ash's first command to him.
Make them pay, Ash thought. "Pikachu, use Quick Attack to get up close, and then use Iron Tail!"
The Electric Mouse Pokemon ran quickly on all fours and zipped towards the larger Electric type, who lit up its right fist and swung it down at Paul's demand. Pikachu's tail glowed as it jumped and curled itself into a ball, leaving its metallic tail as the only exposed limb, and collided the appendage with its enemy's glowing hand.
"Iron Tail again!"
Pikachu used its tail to bounce off the Thunderbolt Pokemon's fist and used the momentum to leap higher into the air. At the apex of its ascent, it faced its body down and began to free fall towards the black and yellow colored creature.
"Ice Punch, now!" Paul ordered, as his Pokemon's fist became encased in ice. It started to speed towards the falling Pikachu, but Ash had other plans.
"Agility!" he countered, as Pikachu fell faster than Electivire could run, and landed nimbly on the ground. Its opponent was right there, ready to freeze it, but Pikachu swerved to the side, just barely avoiding it. The big Pokemon chased after it, making it like a game of cat-and-mouse.
"Don't let him close the gap! Agility again, and whatever you can't dodge, block it with Iron Tail!" Ash pointed forward as his starter Pokemon increased his speed and zoomed around Paul's Electric type, confusing it. Anyone could see that Pikachu was now faster than Electivire. "Quick Attack, go!"
Behind Electivire, Pikachu slid under its legs, before jumping up to uppercut its face with the move that Ash requested. Before it could land, Electivire's two tails grabbed it unexpectedly and squeezed its little body.
"Pikachu, no!" cried Ash in worry, and his mind flashed briefly to his battle with Sho and his Raichu. "Free yourself with Iron Tail!"
With its tail being unrestricted, Pikachu wrapped it around both of Electivire's tails and spun around a bit, swinging it off balance and freeing itself. Ash then commanded it to use Slam, and like before, it jumped and curled, before slamming its tail onto Electivire's head. When Pikachu went for another physical attack, Electivire used Shock Wave to try and keep it away, but Ash put a stop to that by having Pikachu use Thunderbolt. The electricity surrounding Pikachu was almost double the size of the usual Thunderbolt attack, so the two attacks were about equal in power, despite the fact that Electivire's attack should have been stronger. The collision of the two attacks created an explosion so powerful that chunks of rock erupted from the battlefield, which was now covered in smoke.
Pikachu transferred some of the electricity into its tail to make it light up, something that didn't go unnoticed by Ash. He could see the battlefield a little better now. Not enough to get a clear view, but just enough to see the effects of the explosion.
"Pikachu, hop on those rocks and use Slam, and if you can, send some back towards Electivire," Ash told his partner, who did what he was told. He hopped from rock to rock while sending some rising stones towards Electivire with its tail.
"Electivire, Protect." Paul crossed his arms as a green orb of light appeared amidst the yellow light and protected the user against the rocks that were launched towards it. They landed harmlessly on the shield and shattered as Pikachu let out a loud cry. The yellow light disappeared immediately after that. Soon enough, the smoke started to clear, and the protective shield around Electivire faded, but Pikachu was nowhere to be found. Electivire scanned the field for any sign of Pikachu, but only found a hole in the ground in place of where it was earlier.
"Reflect!" Paul shouted as soon as he heard the ground crumble just in front of his Pokemon. Pikachu popped up from under the ground and again rammed into Electivire, whose body was encased in a bright orange light. It barely felt Pikachu's attack, if at all. Paul then had it use Light Screen to surround its body in a clear blue light as well, before then recalling it. Electivire wasn't doing as well as he expected against Pikachu; in fact, it was doing worse!
"Ash is doing a lot better than I thought he would," Yvonne commented.
Pikachu growled angrily as soon as Paul took it out of play. Paul ignored Ash's grin and Pikachu's cries of anger and threw another Poke Ball.
"Magmortar, stand by for battle!"
The fat red and yellow Pokemon emerged from the capsule, readying its two arm cannons. Powerful flame blasts came out of both cannons and merged into one huge fiery star attack, heading towards Pikachu.
Ash's Pikachu flattened its body on the ground, letting the Fire Blast pass over him, before immediately getting up in time to flip over a seismic wave that Magmortar created.
Ash clenched his fist, before pointing at the Fire type. "Pikachu, you know what to do!" Pikachu did indeed know. Electricity formed all around its body, before leaving it and heading towards Magmortar. The attack engulfed the Blast Pokemon's body, but was pretty much nullified by the orange-yellow coat of protection around it. Ugh, how could I forget about Light Screen? "Pikachu, come back!"
"Magmortar, Rock Tomb! Don't let it escape!" Paul watched as Magmortar launched multiple purple circles from its arm cannon on the ground between Ash and his Pikachu. For each one that landed, a giant rock would protrude from the battlefield and slow Pikachu down. Ash growled; that put a damper in his initial strategy. Regardless, he guided Pikachu through the now rocky and maze-like battlefield, though without success.
His friends' comments ranged from "He can't do that!" to "That's not fair!".
He then had Pikachu dig, which proved to be a mistake when Paul ordered his Magmortar to use Earthquake. Ash immediately told Pikachu to surface back on solid ground, which it did, but it didn't come out completely unscathed. The rocks penetrating form the ground broke apart and scattered everywhere, some of them even landing on Pikachu and damaging it.
"Magmortar, Lava Plume!"
"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!"
Magmortar adjusted its two cannons, before releasing smog from one and flames from the other. They merged together and caused a huge explosion around the Pokemon.
Pikachu, again, surrounded itself with electricity and let it collide with the Lava Plume attack.
The two attacks were now locked in a power struggle. Once in a while, one attack would win out over the other, before they were then tied again. Eventually, Magmortar just aborted its attack and let the Thunderbolt hit its Light Screen protected body. Now that the rocks were out of the way, Pikachu ran back to Ash so it could rest up for later. Ash tossed another Poke Ball into the air. "I choose you, Ambipom!"
The two-tailed purple monkey emerged from its ball. It ran towards its trainer, hugging and tickling him with one tail, and grabbing its hat with the other. Ash laughed for a few seconds before Ambipom jumped to the field, Ash's hat latched on its right hand-tail. It then put the hat on its head. The rest of them just stared at Ambipom, who now looked embarrassed. It then slightly looked up and turned the hat around, before glaring at Magmortar, ready for battle.
"Isn't that your old Aipom from our first ever battle?" Paul questioned.
Ash ignored him and yelled, "Double Slap!"
Ambipom ran up to Magmortar, jumped to its face, and slapped its hand-tails to its opponent's face multiple times. Each time Magmortar was slapped, a thin clear blue aura appeared around it. The Blast Pokemon aimed one of its cannons at Ambipom, but Ambipom slapped it away with one tail and used the other to slap its face again, before jumping back. Magmortar aimed both cannons at Ambipom and unleashed powerful flames from it, but Ambipom stood on one tail so that the attack could harmlessly pass over it. Before Magmortar could readjust its aim, Ambipom cloaked the tip of its ungrounded tail red and smacked Magmortar in the torso with it, shattering both of the annoying barriers that had been protecting it from so much damage.
"Great job!" Ash congratulated. "Now use - " His command was cut off when Ambipom's body started to flare up all of a sudden.
"So Magmortar's ability is Flame Body," Yvonne remarked.
"Which Ash forgot all about," Brock added in grimly. "With so much close contact with Magmortar, it was bound to activate sometime."
Ambipom passed Ash's hat back as he caught it on his head and flipped it again. "Ambipom, use Swift!" the hat wearer ordered.
The Long Tail Pokemon swished its two tails in front of itself multiple times, and pretty projectile stars shot out of it in all directions, all heading towards Magmortar. Paul made his Pokemon use Protect to shield itself from the Swift attack.
"Double Slap again!"
Ash's Ambipom slapped a couple of stars upward. They rammed into other stars and pushed them away from the safe Magmortar. This process repeated itself until Protect wore off. Because of the nature of the attack, they all ended up redirecting towards the now vulnerable Fire-type, damaging it in every part of the body it could. Whenever Magmortar tried to find an opening, Ambipom would either send more speed stars its way, or close it off in some other way.
Mercifully for Paul and his Pokemon, the barrage finally stopped. Ambipom's body started burning once again, but it suppressed the pain.
"Focus Blast!" Paul yelled in desperation. This attack was sure to finish off Ambipom, and -
"Fake Out!"
Before Magmortar could even make a move, Ambipom rushed towards Magmortar and clapped its tails together, sending a small shock wave at it that sent it crashing on the ground.
"Now, use - "
It turned out that Ash didn't need to give anymore orders against Magmortar, as Alexa announced it down for the count.
"You did it, Ambipom!" Ash cried, as they rushed towards each other and jumped. Ash's hand slapped the hand of Ambipom's left tail to form a high-five. Ambipom's other tail snatched Ash's hat from his head, and it was only after they landed that he found out. Ambipom's body lit up on fire again. Ash winced as he recalled it. "Take a nice rest, you deserve it."
On the opposite side, Paul was scolding the Magmortar he had recalled. "Do that again, and you're out!" he complained to its Poke Ball, before bringing back Ursaring. It growled at Ash and Pikachu.
Paul stared down at Ash coldly. "I'm waiting."
"Hey, I didn't realize you were that eager to lose!" Ash held back a laugh as he tossed another Poke Ball. "I choose you, Gible!" Out came the tiny, dark blue land shark Pokemon with a red underbelly.
Without even waiting for Alexa to announce the match, Paul made Ursaring use Focus Blast. It clasped its hands together, and a light blue orb formed between them, growing larger in size until it was the size of its head. Then, it hurled it at Gible, who dug a hole to duck under it. Only the top of its head could be seen above the hole.
"Gible, use Dragon Pulse!" Gible formed a draconic orb of energy in its open mouth, before it was launched towards Ursaring, who merely blocked it.
"Pathetic. Hammer Arm, let's go!" Ursaring's arm glowed as it ran towards Gible. Ash just stood there as Ursaring swung its fist down. Gible didn't need a verbal command from Ash to know what he was planning. It opened its big mouth and bit down on Ursaring's hand. Ursaring winced in pain as the glow around its hand wore off, but it lifted the Dragon-type up.
"I knew you'd try something like that. Hammer Arm!"
Ursaring raised its free hand and pounded it down on Gible's head, but it was persistent. Ursaring winced in pain when its arm came in contact with Gible's rough skin.
"Don't let go! Draco Meteor!" Ash shouted, and Gible concentrated its Dragon type energy on the center of its body, a bright orange orb forming around Ursaring's arm, before eventually expanding around its entire being. Then, Gible launched the orb containing Ursaring into the air.
"Ursaring, get out of there!" Paul cried, but it was no use. The orb split into several meteors that harshly rained down on the ground. The sphere surrounding Ursaring exploded once the last of the meteors had stopped. Ursaring landed hard on the ground, down, but not out.
Paul shocked everyone with his next command. "Rest." His Pokemon laid on the ground and closed its eyes, before entering a deep slumber. It was then recalled, and replaced with Electivire again.
Ash already knew why Electivire was out, so he quickly ordered his Gible to use Earthquake. The Dragon/Ground type leaped in the air and slammed into the ground, causing a surprisingly huge seismic wave for a Pokemon its size. As expected, Electivire put a shield around itself to minimize the damage of the otherwise super-effective move. Then, it used Light Screen to accompany Reflect, which would make any of Paul's Pokemon hard to take down.
Pikachu's cheeks sparked in anger again as Gible's Dragon Pulse missed an Electivire coated with a light purple aura with bright orange streaks surrounding it. Electivire headed towards Gible at an alarmingly fast rate. Ash shuddered inwardly. There was no way Gible could dodge that, even with Dig, but he could soften the blow a bit.
A red outline appeared around Gible as it ran towards Electivire and bumped into its fist. It then clawed, kicked, bit, and headbutted its opponent multiple times, but still never quite overpowered it. The force of both attacks sent both of them back far away. Electivire had a few scratches and bruises on its body, and was panting heavily, but Gible was in far worse condition. As well as that, its eyes were still glowing red to indicate confusion.
"Gible, return!" Ash recalled it, before hastily calling forth his agitated Pikachu. "Slam!"
Pikachu rushed to what could have been considered its rival Electric-type Pokemon while focusing all of its energy into its tail. When it got close enough, it pivoted and slammed its tail hard into it, sending it back. The pesky Reflect reared its ugly head around Electivire again, but Pikachu and Ash persisted with another Slam.
Electivire started to move its limbs around, and Paul smirked for probably the umpteenth time. "Ice Punch."
It froze its own fist and swung it towards the smaller Pokemon, who easily weaved around it with Quick Attack. When Pikachu got close enough to it, Paul switched to Flamethrower, but Ash stopped the attack from harming Pikachu, "Flash!"
Pikachu's tail glowed a bright yellow once again as it swung it close to Electivire's face, a blinding light emerging from it. Electivire had to shield its eyes, leaving it vulnerable to another Quick Attack in the torso. By now, Reflect had already worn off, so the move did regular damage again.
"Electivire, you will not lose! Reflect and Light Screen, then Iron Tail, now!"
Without moving from its position, Electivire formed the protective shields around itself, before it then lashed out its two tails like whips. Pikachu maneuvered around like crazy just to avoid getting hit.
Pikachu increased its speed and got away from its tails altogether, before leaping back towards Electivire and latching on to its head. Electivire tried desperately to get it off, but Pikachu grabbed its fur tightly. The memories of its battles with this particular Pokemon in Sinnoh came flowing back to his mind, first its battle with it while it was an Elekid, which he lost (although it was called as a tie), then his battle with it in the Sinnoh League. He refused to lose again! It tugged on the larger Pokemon's fur and bit down hard.
In desperation, Electivire let loose a couple of electric attacks in order to get it off, which proved to be a grave mistake as Pikachu merely absorbed the lightning.
Paul hissed. "Electivire, get that rat off, or else!"
Pikachu's tail glowed with a metallic sheen as it was slammed into Electivire's back a couple of times. Of course, the light blue aura showed up, but that wasn't their concern right now. Electivire ran around and prepared to punch it away, when it suddenly felt its right foot stop moving. It immediately tripped on the ground, groaning in pain. It tried to get up, but found it hard to, and the knot of grass around its leg didn't help matters, either.
Electivire was announced unable to battle, which meant Pikachu was the winner!
"All right, Pikachu!" Misty cheered for her friend.
Ash and Pikachu celebrated as Pikachu cheered on the felled Electivire. When Paul recalled it, Pikachu fell back to earth, but then righted itself.
"Pikachu, that was Grass Knot, wasn't it?" Ash queried. Pikachu nodded in confirmation. "All right!"
Paul cut the celebration short with, "Weavile, stand by for battle!"
Paul sent out a bipedal black Pokemon with a yellow gem on his forehead, two red tail feathers, a crown and collar matching its tails, as well as two feathers on each ear.
"Up for more, Pikachu?"
"Pika Pika!"
"Great! Use Thunderbolt!" Ash took the initiative, and Pikachu's body was covered in electricity almost five times its size. It launched it towards Weavile, who avoided most of the attack, but still got caught in part of it, anyway.
"Weavile, Ice Shard!" As soon as those words came out of Paul's mouth, Weavile appeared behind Pikachu in an instant, a block of ice formed in its hands, and hurled said block at its opponent.
"Pikachu, behind you! Iron Tail!" Ash warned. Pikachu heeded his warning. His tail took on the properties of steel as it flicked it up to the block of ice, shattering it to pieces.
"Now use Quick Attack!"
The mouse Pokemon zigzagged from left to right in an attempt to confuse Weavile before the actual attack, but it released a cold blizzard from its mouth to telegraph the yellow Pokemon's movements a little more. With Blizzard having so much range, Pikachu had no choice but to go back.
"Swords Dance!" Paul watched intently as his Ice/Dark type jumped back and rapidly swung its claws around, lengthening them a bit. "Now, Night Slash!"
Weavile appeared behind Pikachu, its claws now black with a red coating, and actually managed to slash Pikachu on the side. It rolled over in pain, but Weavile chased after it and struck it once more, this time with a fist of ice. Ice patches formed below Pikachu as it started to freeze up. Pikachu wagged its tail so that it wouldn't be completely frozen with its lower body. Bits of ice still formed on it, but the appendage could be of at least some use.
"Weavile, finish it with Night Slash!"
"Iron Tail!"
As Weavile got ready to finish it off, Pikachu stored steel-like energy into its tail and broke off the icy prison, and then collided the Steel type attack with Night Slash.
"Weavile, Blizzard!"
Ash made a sweeping motion with his arm, which Pikachu saw from the corner of his eye. Right when Weavile opened its mouth, Pikachu slid its tail under the black creature's legs, tripping it up. It went through with Blizzard, but it only affected the area around it.
"All right! Weavile's speed won't be a problem anymore!" cheered Brock, as Pikachu finished off the sneaky Pokemon with a Thunderbolt. Having been caught off guard, there was no way for it to avoid the full brunt of the attack That combined with the fact that Electivire had supercharged it in the previous battle left Weavile as little more than a charred mess on the ground.
Alexa announced Weavile unable to battle, trying not to laugh. Paul had been boasting before the match started, and now he had lost half of his team, while Ash hadn't lost a single Pokemon. Ash called Pikachu back and thought of which Pokemon to choose next. If he was right and Paul was using the same team he used during their Lake Acuity battle, that left Ursaring, Honchkrow, and Torterra.
"Hey! Didn't you say you'd beat him in a half second?" Yvonne taunted from the crowd.
"I thought he said he'd lose within that time frame!" Misty added, and the girls smiled at each other. Paul bitterly looked at them as they laughed at his expense, but was too busy ranting to his defeated Weavile to particularly care. When he was done, he sent out his sleeping Ursaring to oppose Ash's Bulbasaur.
"Hmph. You just exposed yourself," scoffed Paul.
"What do you mean?" Ash was confused.
"I mean that you exposed your full team. And now I know just how to counter you. Honestly, you may have gotten stronger, but you're still the same lame trainer I've known since we first met in Sinnoh," Paul explained to him. "Get ready for - "
"Ash, make a move! He's buying time so his Ursaring can be awake when he's done!" Misty cut in.
Paul smile cruelly. "Too late for that." His Ursaring growled loudly, but Bulbasaur wasn't fazed in the slightest. "Ursaring, Bulk Up!"
A red outline appeared around the grizzly bear-like Pokemon, who was flexing its arms.
"Bulbasaur, Razor Leaf!" Ash countered.
Bulbasaur sent a swirl of leaves at Ursaring, but it barely seemed affected by the leaf barrage.
"Ursaring, Stone Edge to counter!"
Multiple rings of white orbs of energy appeared around Ursaring, before then becoming sharp stones. They were shot through the leaves, and at Bulbasaur, who looked at the ground and blew a gust of wind from its mouth to lift itself through the stones.
"Great job! Tackle it!"
Bulbasaur rammed into Ursaring's face, and though it didn't do much, Ursaring still felt a little damage. As Bulbasaur landed, the stones were redirected in his direction. Bulbasaur didn't need to be told twice to dodge it; it slid under Ursaring's legs, causing the stones to strike within the ring on Ursaring's torso. It didn't even so much as flinch as each stone pelted its body.
Without a moment's reprieve, Bulbasaur followed Ash's next command, which was to form a glob of poison inside of its mouth and spit it at Ursaring's face.
"Ash, no!" Brock cried, but it was too late as the toxic fumes slowly struck it. For some reason, Paul didn't even tell it to dodge, but when he smirked, Ash's face turned to one of horror as he understood why, and that was when he remembered its ability: Guts. Being struck by poison meant Ursaring would be at least two times as powerful.
But to everyone's surprise, Paul recalled the Pokemon and pointed out that he'd save it for later. He then threw another Poke Ball. "Honchkrow, stand by for battle!"
The capsule snapped open to reveal a large dark crow-like Pokemon with a yellow beak, black talons, a huge white tuft of fur on its chest area, and what looked like a fedora hat on its head. Ash recalled Bulbasaur, and replaced it with Ambipom. Before it could do anything to him, he quickly commanded it to use Swift.
Ambipom shot multiple stars at the airborne Honchkrow, who opened its mouth and spat out a chain of dark energy to collide with all of the stars, effectively nullifying them.
"Ambipom, bounce up!" Ash yelled, and the Pokemon's body flared up for a moment, but it bared the pain, crouched its legs, and leaped towards Honchkrow. Ash formulated a contest move in his head; after all, Ambipom was made for contests.
"Honchkrow, Whirlwind!"
Paul's Pokemon beat its wings violently, blowing Ambipom back to solid ground. Just before it landed, it grabbed a rock with one of its tails and flung it at Honchkrow, who just barely avoided it by flying to the side.
"Ash's Pokemon are learning a lot of new moves mid-battle. Pikachu's Grass Knot, and now Ambipom's Fling," Brock noticed, as Ambipom flung multiple rocks left on the ground from Stone Edge above at its opponent.
Honchkrow easily weaved through all of them as the rocks started to fall to the ground, but Ash and Ambipom weren't done yet. Ambipom used both of its tails to smack every single rock that was about to land towards Honchkrow, who shielded itself with its wings, which were now coated in steel, to protect itself from the rocks. Each rock that harmlessly nailed it created more smoke to obscure part of the battlefield.
"Sky Attack!" Paul ordered as Ash shouted, "Last Resort!"
Both of them were surrounded in white auras as Ambipom ran towards the descending Honchkrow. They both bumped into each other and attempted to win the other over in the power struggle.
"You know what's gonna happen if you don't win, right?" Paul scolded, and Honchkrow pushed harder.
"Ambipom, I know you can do it!" Ash shouted, and Ambipom pushed the flier back a bit.
"Don't let this jerk beat you!" Misty cried.
"You've been through tougher than this!" Brock chimed in.
"Ambipom, take him out!" Yvonne rallied.
"You don't want that to happen again, do you? Push harder!" Paul questioned his Pokemon. "You'd better win if you know what's good for you!" Painful memories came flowing back to Honchkrow as it growled and pushed Ambipom back further and further.
"Don't give up! Give it all you've got!" Ash uplifted Ambipom's spirits as it planted its tails on the ground to avoid being pushed back too far while still struggling to beat out Sky Attack. Then, slowly, but surely, its Last Resort began to overpower Honchkrow's attack, until it dominated Honchkrow altogether. Honchkrow was struck by the Last Resort completely as Honchkrow cried out in pain, before crashing to a tree. A couple of leaves, berries, and twigs fell on its head.
Ambipom was celebrating its victory as Paul's Honchkrow just laid there. As Ambipom took a bow, the burn spread throughout its body once again, and to make things worse, Honchkrow unexpectedly flew towards it and slashed it with a glowing purple wing, scratching it deeply, and also taking it out once and for all. Even if they had seen this coming, Ambipom's burn hindered them from doing anything about it.
"See? You got cocky, and your Pokemon suffered because of it," lectured Paul, as Ash hesitantly recalled Ambipom, apologizing to it. He knew he shouldn't have let his guard down! He took out Totodile's Poke Ball and looked at it for a while.
"Okay, Totodile, you're back in. I know you can do it, so I choose...you!" he snapped it open and took out the Johto starter Pokemon.
Paul's Honchkrow opened its mouth, but this time, instead of the dark chain of energy coming out, it was a thick haze that covered the entire area.
"Totodile, get rid of that!"
The Water-type jumped on its tail, spun on it, and spat water from its mouth, creating a counter shield that spread throughout a wide area and got rid of most of the smog. However, Honchkrow was nowhere to be found. Ash and Totodile looked around, when they heard a tree rustling. Totodile turned to the source of the sound to see the Big Boss Pokemon emerge from it with glowing wings. It smacked Totodile to the ground, and then flew upward. It then descended down, this time with its mouth open. It released a dark chain of energy from it, but Totodile used its tail to bounce above it, before falling over Honchkrow, its teeth coated in ice. It bit down on the bigger Pokemon, freezing it up.
Before it could unfreeze itself in any way, water materialized around Totodile's tail. It then turned around and smacked the frozen Honchkrow with its aqua tail, taking it down for good. Totodile danced when Alexa announced the winner.
Paul quietly recalled his Honchkrow, and replaced it with its poisoned Ursaring. Totodile backed down a bit, but Ash's encouragement put it back on the right track.
"Ursaring, Hammer Arm!"
Its arm glowed white as it ran towards Totodile and tried to swing its arm down on its head, but it dodged it. It then started dancing again, but this was not its usual dance. It sidestepped for a bit and tapped its feet randomly.
Paul fumed. "Ursaring, unleash that Hyper Beam!"
Ash's jaw dropped as Ursaring aimed the beam inside of the mouth at Totodile. It was so large in diameter that there was no way Totodile could have moved fast enough to dodged it. But to Ash's surprise, Totodile jumped into the air faster than ever, soaring over the attack near effortlessly, much to the shock of everyone.
"Totodile..." Ash still couldn't get over how much faster it was than before. He then focused back on the immobile Ursaring. "Aqua Tail again!"
Totodile once again cloaked its tail in water as it descended to the ground, before doing a midair backflip and uppercutting the larger Pokemon with its appendage. It repeated its attack multiple times until Ursaring's body slowly moved. Ash didn't notice the slight movement and had Totodile try and finish it off with Ice Fang. Right when it coated its teeth in ice, Paul made it cloak its hand in a white aura, before punching it hard onto a tree.
"Totodile, are you okay? Try to get up!" Ash yelled in worry. Totodile, hearing its trainer's plea, slowly came to its feet and looked up to see Ursaring rushing towards it, covered with a red aura.
As long as Guts is activated, even a weak attack could take it down, Ash thought, as he noticed Totodile's paw resting on a Pecha Berry. That's it! "Totodile, toss it!"
The Water-type that Ash and Misty fought over back in Johto immediately understood what Ash wanted, and tossed the poison-curing berry into Ursaring's mouth. It chewed it for a few seconds while still waving a clawed hand towards Totodile, before the red aura around it disappeared. The Pecha Berry had cured it of its poison, which meant that Ursaring couldn't rely on its Guts ability anymore!
"Keep throwing!" Totodile was more than happy to indulge in Ash's order as it swiped more berries that were scattered around it at Ursaring. The fruits smashed into its face, blinding it, allowing Totodile to finish it off with another Aqua Tail attack, which took it down.
Ash's friends all cheered as Alexa announced Totodile the winner.
"Only one more to go! You can do it, Ash!" Misty cheered from the sidelines.
Paul's smirk grew wider as he tossed his last capsule. It snapped open to reveal a large, bulky quadrupedal tortoise-like Pokemon with spikes and a tree on the shell on its back. Each side of its face had a spike as large as the ones on its shell. Its lower body was brown, while the upper section was green with patches of white. It roared loudly at Totodile, who growled back at it.
Paul didn't give them the time and shouted, "Razor Leaf, let's go, now!"
The tree on its back shook as sharp leaves shot out of its crown and towards Totodile, who, again, spun on his tail and spat water to form a shield around it so it could keep the attack at bay. It went on like this for a few more seconds before Totodile hopped above the attack using its tail.
"Great! Now use Water Gun!" Ash commanded, as Totodile spit a geyser of water from its mouth at Torterra, who opened its mouth to counter it with a solar beam of energy. It easily overpowered the Water Gun and engulfed Totodile in a bright light, causing it to shriek in pain and land on the ground with bruises.
"Totodile, don't let Torterra push you around!" Ash cried, and Totodile struggled to get on his feet.
"How pathetic. Torterra, Rock Climb!" Paul ordered, as his starter Pokemon raised its hind legs. Totodile, on Ash's command, used another Water Gun on Torterra's underbelly to try and flip it over, but its weight just enabled it to ignore the basic Water-type attack and slam its paws to the ground, causing a mountain to form below Totodile, \whose attack scattered everywhere on Torterra. The Water Gun still didn't do much to it, if anything at all. Totodile was trapped face-down above the mountain, which Torterra was climbing up.
"Totodile, get out of there!" Ash yelled, but it could barely move enough to get out of range of Torterra's glowing claws. Just before Torterra rammed into it, he barked, "Ice Fang!"
Totodile's frosty teeth collided with Torterra's white claws as both attacks were executed. Torterra easily won the power struggle, of course, but it didn't get off without a scratch; patches of its body, especially the parts that were splashed by the smaller Pokemon, were frozen over. Totodile was sprawled on the ground, while Torterra stood on the mountain triumphantly.
"Totodile, return. You were great," Ash complimented, as he recalled the defeated Pokemon. He then tossed Bulbasaur's ball. "Bulbasaur, I choose you!" Bulbasaur appeared to the field once again. It looked confused at the large mountain in front of it, before a low growl from above it got its attention. It looked up and saw Torterra, who seemed to be daring it to come.
Paul made Torterra use Earthquake, even though it was partially frozen over. It shivered a bit, but pressed on the attack, albeit barely. This resulted in the mountain above it shattering into multiple sharp rocks that rained down upon Bulbasaur. It didn't have a variation of Counter Shield, so Ash opted to keep the sharp stones at bay with Hidden Power. Just when it looked like the glowing orbs from Bulbasaur would collide with the rocks, they redirected through them and struck Torterra. Worse than that, Torterra managed to position itself so that the orbs only struck the parts of its body that were immobilized by the ice, thus melting the chunks of ice. Bulbasaur was much too stubborn to go down that easily, much like Ash's unwillingness to give up.
Ash ordered a Vine Whip attack, and Bulbasaur whipped out its vines and struck Torterra's face a few times, careful not to let the spikes on the side poke them. At first, Paul's Torterra just withstood the attacks as Paul kept saying the word "Curse" over and over, but then Bulbasaur grabbed the tree on its shell. Unfortunately, it was wet, so the appendages slipped through the tree, and Torterra's hind paw finished the job as it slammed down on Bulbasaur, rendering it unable to battle.
"So, how does it feel not having beginner's luck anymore?" Paul sneered, as Ash's Bulbasaur was replaced with Pikachu. "Get rid of it with Frenzy Plant!"
Thick, spiny thorns emerged from the ground as Pikachu weaved around them with ease. Curse increased Torterra's defense, as well as its attack power, but it also reduced its speed. Unfortunately for it, Pikachu was well known for its speed, so it ended up having to recharge for nothing.
"Pikachu, hop on the crown of that tree and use Slam!" Ash shouted, as Pikachu jumped on the plant, focused all of its energy on its tail, and slammed it onto the tree multiple times, causing the Grass/Ground type to bellow in pain. Torterra began to move its limbs again as Pikachu gave the tree one last whack of the tail.
"Now, finish it with - "
"Giga Drain!" Paul interrupted, shaking Ash a bit. Instead of the spikes on its back glowing green, the crown of the tree on its shell turned brighter, essentially engulfing Pikachu by the energy-draining attack by default. It was only after Pikachu got trapped that the spikes began to turn a bright lime green, expanding to wrap around the helpless Pikachu.
"Pikachu! Get out of there!" Ash shouted, but there was no response. "Pikachu!"
"Torterra, don't stop!" Paul barked, and it just kept draining Pikachu's energy.
"You can't do this!" Ash retorted, his friends looking on in horror. All of them grew sick to the stomach just watching this display of torture.
"You say I can't do this, but look." Paul frowned at him.
Without warning (not that Paul deserved one), Brock rushed up to the purple-haired douchebag, grabbed him, and slammed him to a tree. "Stop it. Now."
Paul opened his mouth to say that this was a battle, but Brock's fist through his nose shut him up. Even Alexa was beginning to see this was going too far, because she announced Paul's disqualification, but Torterra was still going at it. Another beam of energy zoomed towards Brock, but Yvonne stopped it from harming it with a Pokemon too fast to see. It immediately cut the beam, and also slashed down all of the other ones surrounding Pikachu. Ash ran up to it and caught it before it fell to the ground.
"Pikachu!" Ash cried, as it slowly turned to him, beaten and tired.
"Pikachu." Pikachu responded, as Ash got up and clenched his fists at the douchebag, who got ready to say something, but Alexa stepped between Ash and Paul.
"You realize I can have you reported to Mr. Goodshow, which would result in your suspension in the PWT, right?" she warned him.
Paul grumbled inaudibly and recalled his starter Pokemon, before walking off.
"Thanks, Alexa!" Ash was genuinely grateful for her intervention. Who knew what would happen had Paul been allowed to continue his assault?
"It's nothing. You'd better head to the Lavender Town Pokemon Center this way, and make it snappy, or you won't live to see another day." They flinched a little as she pointed to the left, before heading to the opposite direction. Ash was carrying his Pikachu as they were walking the path that Alexa told them to go.
Brock told Ash to hand over Pikachu, which he did. He would have just healed all of Ash's Pokemon right then and there, but there were too many wild Pokemon around this area. As Misty was watching Brock tend to Pikachu, Yvonne and Ash went ahead of them.
The blonde thought for almost half a minute, before finally coming up with a subject. "I hope we never see that Paul guy again."
Ash turned to her and replied with, "Unfortunately, that's not likely. At least you can hope that he gets kicked out of the first round of the PWT so that we see less of him."
Yvonne grinned evilly at him. "And I want that someone to be me." Right at that moment, they saw a white bipedal Pokemon with red claws and blue markings on its chest, fore paws, and its eye area. The marking around its eye, which appeared to be a scar, extended to its ear. There were a couple of bruises around its chest area.
Grins split both Ash and Yvonne's faces at the same time. Ash was a little concerned, and also curious about the bruises, but he figured it just escaped capture from a trainer. Well, not this one. "I'm gonna catch it!" he declared, at the same time as Yvonne.
"You already have a Pokemon of a different color!" Yvonne argued.
"I saw it first!" complained Ash, taking out a Poke Ball.
"You did not!" Yvonne cried, doing the same thing. They both threw their balls towards the oddly-colored Zangoose and heard rustling from the bushes around them. Two black snake-like Pokemon with yellow hexagon patterns and purple markings on its body slithered in front of the balls and let themselves get sucked in.
"This is bad," Ash muttered to himself. "I have to get this Zangoose somewhere safe."
"I don't care how much you love Pokemon, I'm still getting it!" retorted Yvonne, as the two Seviper broke out of the capsules and turned to the mammal Pokemon, who growled lowly at them. One of the legless Pokemon tried to wrap itself around them, while the other one shot bullets of poison from its mouth at it. It sidestepped the Seviper that tried to constrict it while blocking the Poison Sting attack with its claws.
More rustling sounded in the bushes, and this time, it was much louder than ever before. What looked like a hundred Seviper emerged from them, all glaring at Zangoose. Ash glared right back at them as he stepped forward. "Zangoose, run!" Yvonne's mouth dropped open in shock.
Zangoose and Seviper were known for their fierce rivalries, but this one was no fool. It got on all fours and tried to run away, but its way was blocked by more of the venomous creatures. Yvonne attempted to toss a Poke Ball at Seviper, but just ended up slipping on one of the many snakes. The ball ended up rolling on the ground and tapping a Seviper on the tail.
Ash quickly snapped Gible's Poke Ball open. "Draco Meteor on all of those Seviper, let's go!"
As Gible was charging Draco Meteor, Yvonne sent out her Eevee to back the Dragon/Ground type up. Meanwhile, Ash ran to a Seviper who was ready to bite the helpless Zangoose with poison-filled fangs and kicked it away. "Leave it alone!" he shouted, before rushing in front of the Cat Ferret Pokemon's backside to shield it from a Seviper's tail. It didn't hurt much, but it did cause a rip in Ash's dark green shirt.
Just as Gible finished charging up Draco Meteor, the ground beneath it crumbled, and a Seviper lashed out at it from below, causing the attack to flub up. Meanwhile, Eevee was constricted by Seviper. It managed to bite its way out, but not before another one covered them in sticky, poisonous goo. The Fang Snake Pokemon was unaffected, being a Poison-type itself, but Eevee wasn't. They all turned their attention to Ash and Zangoose.
"Gible, use Dragon Pulse now!" Ash commanded, before a Seviper's sharp tail cut his lower leg area, drawing a little blood. He suppressed the pain as his Gible tried to create breathing room for itself, as well as its trainer and the Zangoose. He took out a Poke Ball and tried to call forth Swellow, but he was tackled to the ground. He lost his grip on the capsule, which rolled on the ground and into Gible's mouth. It snapped open as Swellow was successfully released. Gible wore a look of confusion for only a moment before articulating to Swellow what had to be done. Swellow picked up Yvonne's Eevee and made four of the wild Pokemon bump their heads into each other's, before carrying it over to Ash, who had grabbed a Seviper by the tail, and was desperately trying to whip the others with it. Unfortunately, it was a few pounds heavier than him, so he settled for stomping on it violently.
"Get. Away!" he declared. "I. Won't. Let - "
A Seviper attempted to poison him, but the Cat Ferret Pokemon protected him with its claws. It slashed through Seviper's reptile skin multiple times, before having to protect itself from others of its species. It put up a green orb around itself to stop any attacks that could have harmed it. Yvonne was having worse luck than Ash; the Seviper wouldn't allow her to do anything, but she didn't give up.
Just our luck, we encounter a shiny Zangoose, and of course it comes with a Seviper swarm, she thought bitterly. "Eevee, Quick Attack towards me!" she shouted, as Eevee hopped off Swellow, who had taken down five Seviper with well placed Aerial Ace attacks. On Eevee's way to the blonde, it knocked a few Seviper away, finally giving her some room to send out the rest of her party. She tossed all five of her Poke Balls and opened them. "Go, go, all of you!"
Five other Pokemon appeared in a bright light. They were: Dugtrio, Camerupt, Whimsicott, and a mysterious dark blue frog with white markings on its body and a long tongue wrapped around its neck like a scarf. The frog-like Pokemon immediately wrapped its tongue around her face in affection and started licking it. She jerked her head away from it. "Greninja, STOP! Take on the Seviper!" It looked a little disappointed that she didn't want his affections, but focused on the Seviper.
Dugtrio zoomed towards the Seviper while burrowing on the ground and took down all of the ones surrounding Ash. Zangoose was engaged in a struggle with Seviper. Lava and molten rocks erupted from the holes on Camerupt's back and washed over all of the enemy Pokemon surrounding it, burning them as well. When they refused to stand down, Camerupt finished them off with an Earthquake attack. A crack formed in front of it as more unsuspecting Seviper were caught in the fissure. Whimsicott hovered over every opponent below her and sent spores at them to stun them, and Greninja finished them off with its tongue. Yvonne hopped on Greninja, who bounced over to Ash and Zangoose, grabbed them with its tongue, before then hopping away from all of the Seviper. Ash and Yvonne recalled the rest of the Pokemon as Greninja hopped on the tree branches, far above the Seviper. Zangoose now had even more bruises than ever, with a little blood smeared on its fur.
"Don't worry, Zangoose, we're almost there," Ash assured it, too focused on it to wonder about Yvonne's Pokemon. Zangoose growled as the Seviper became more distant from them, but after they reached Lavender Town, it relaxed a bit.
"Thanks, Greninja," Yvonne told it, patting its head. It lowered it a bit, but was immediately recalled. Ash lifted up the bloodied Zangoose and barged through the doors of the Pokemon Center, shoving a few people out of the way and showing Nurse Joy the Pokemon he was lifting up.
"Nurse Joy, could you please - " he began, before getting cut off by the nurse, "How could you leave it in this condition!"
Yvonne immediately came to his side. "It's not his fault he couldn't take on hundreds of Seviper at once while also protecting a Pokemon!"
The pink-haired lady looked touched by this statement as she took a closer look at the Zangoose, who was panting and wheezing.
As you two might already know, Zangoose and Seviper have had fierce rivalries against each other for as long as Pokemon have existed, and this one is no exception," Nurse Joy began. "But this one in particular was disliked by Seviper more than any others of its species, because of its odd - "
"Are you going to heal it?" Ash interrupted, before yawning loudly. What time was it, exactly?
"Oh, sorry," the nurse apologized. "Oh, Misty and Brock told me to tell you two that they're staying here for the night." Ash and Yvonne perked up a little, now knowing where they were, and that they were safe. Nurse Joy then took it to a room to heal.
"Well, Ash, I'm heading to bed. Goodnight!" Yvonne forced a smile at him, but he just stared. "Everything will go fine, you should get some rest, too." She headed to a room in the Pokemon Center. When she was gone, Ash sat on a bench, waiting. He tried not to fall asleep, but eventually, he found himself counting Ampharos.
He woke up in a forest, similar to the one where he and Yvonne fought all of the Seviper. Speaking of Yvonne, she was next to him, wearing a headless Zangoose outfit. The markings were blue instead of red, just like that shiny Zangoose they saved last night. There was even fake blood on it, smeared in the same places that fake Zangoose was bleeding last night. Yvonne herself seemed to be just fine in spite of her messed up costume. He asked himself how he ended up here, when Yvonne came to him.
"How's your outfit get so messed up?" Yvonne questioned.
Ash remembered getting scratched by the Seviper a few times, resulting in rips in his clothes. He looked down and saw he was wearing the same outfit as Yvonne. I don't remember putting this on...
"Ash, run!" she cried, as multiple fifty-foot Seviper rushed towards them, baring their razor-sharp teeth. They both tried to get away from the Seviper, but they all caught up to them. One of them opened its large maw and tried to eat Yvonne, who was trying and failing to get her Zangoose costume off. Ash tackled her out of the way, saving her from harm, but he felt multiple needles stab through him everywhere from his chest to feet. He immediately cried out in pain, before waking up in a cold sweat.
He looked outside to distract himself, noticing that it was still dark out, which meant he had only been asleep for a few hours at most. Of more importance was Nurse Joy, who was walking to the Pokemon Tower. She was carrying a heavy sack of some sort in her arms. Why was she going there? Ash decided to leave the Pokemon Center and follow her without her noticing. An old man greeted her at the door. Without a word, he led the nurse to a graveyard, pointnig at a spot on the ground, where Nurse Joy carefully placed the sack.
Ash's stomach lurched as the two of them dug it up, and the next words to come out of the man's mouth would only confirm his fears: "What a shame that it had to die so young because of an old rivalry."
Ash froze up, not knowing what to think. He was too shocked to even move away from their line of sight as both Nurse Joy and Mr. Fuji walked past him. Nurse Joy turned on a dime and faced Ash. "Oh, I didn't expect to see you here. I wanted to tell you that it didn't make it through, but you were already asleep. Why don't you visit its grave before you leave?"
Ash slowly walked towards Zangoose's gravestone, at a loss for words. He wished he had been able to save it from death on time...he wished he hadn't fought with Yvonne over who got to catch it, and just let her get it...he wished he had been quicker...he wished he'd just kept Charizard so it could roast Paul's Torterra quickly...he wished he'd never battled Paul...
If he hadn't let Paul get to him, this Pokemon would still be alive. If he had taken another path on the way to Lavender Town, before then this probably wouldn't have been a problem. Now that he thought about it, why didn't he just use his Pokedex to switch to some of his stronger Pokemon? Why didn't he ask Brock for any status-curing items to use for himself, just in case of situations like these?
He stared at its gravestone for a while, before tightening his fist and whispering, "Rest in peace. I won't let them get away with this. They will all pay."
The next thing he knew, he was sprawled next to it, having fallen asleep again.
It was finally here.
The day that everybody was anticipating had come at last. It was time for the Pokemon World Tournament! However, one person in particular could not bring himself to be excited over it any longer: Ash Ketchum.
He trudged out of bed - had Nurse Joy and Mr. Fuji carried him there, or did he sleepwalk? - and put on his original outfit. Oddly enough, it was unripped - had they changed him, too?
"Ash, you're gonna be late!" Misty called from beside him. She was wearing just a light blue bikini. Ash gawked at her for a bit, before she ran off. Ash chased after her.
"Wait for us!" Brock called. Ash looked to see Brock wearing just black swimming trunks. Next to him was Wilhelmina, who was wrapped in a light green towel. Wilhelmina's eyes were glued to Brock as she ran alongside him. "Yvonne's gonna kill us if we're late to her match! Pikachu's waiting, too!"
A look of realization struck Ash's face as he remembered that Pikachu hadn't actually been with him for almost half a day. Brock must have handed him to Yvonne after having finished healing him. Ash forced himself to run alongside the three of them, trying to keep his mind away from the events of yesterday. After thirty minutes of endless running, they made it to the location.
"The Pokemon World Tournament is at...a beach!?" Ash exclaimed, as Yvonne and her Grinja - was that the name of the mysterious Pokemon? - were battling Paul and his Torterra. Yvonne was wearing a red and black one piece bathing suit, while Paul was wearing his usual outfit.
"Finish it with Ice Beam!" Yvonne commanded, as a beam of ice formed inside of her Pokemon's mouth, before being aimed at Torterra, freezing it over. Ash smiled a bit, at least glad she made her promise to beat Paul.
Everyone cheered as Alexa took a picture of her and her Water-type Pokemon. Greninja's face slowly tilted towards her, and -
Ash rose from the cold, hard ground again. He looked down to see that his outfit was still ripped. All just a dream...
He looked out of the window to see everyone rushing out of buildings, and going in one direction. He was actually surprised to see that so many people were heading to the Pokemon World Tournament so early, but then again, he supposed most of them were trying to get good seats! It was still early, so he pushed through the crowds and went to the Pokemon Center to get a little more rest. He had a dream that Pikachu shocked him awake so they could make it on time to the tournament, but other than that, nothing else unusual happened.
A few hours later, he woke up for real. Before he headed to the Indigo Plateau, he called his mom, both because he missed her, and to get his mind off of last night.
"Hello there, Ash!" Delia chirped, when her face was shown onscreen.
"Hey, mom!" Ash greeted back, as his mom eyed him from head to toe.
"Is something wrong, dear?" she asked, making him step back in shock. How was he supposed to tell her that he was partially the cause of a Pokemon's death? Luckily, she got his mind off of the subject. "Your clothes are ripped! But that's okay, I made you a new outfit!" She showed him a new outfit, probably one that she made herself. He didn't want all of her hard work to go to waste, but he also didn't want to wear that.
"Mom, do I really have to wear that?" he pleaded.
"I think someone needs a spanking," called a teasing voice from behind. Even without turning around, he could recognize Yvonne's voice.
"That someone being you," Ash shot back at her, as Pikachu ran close behind him and jumped on his shoulder.
Delia cut their banter short and announced that she'd send it to him when he got to the Indigo Plateau. Ash and his mother said goodbye to each other, before Delia suddenly disconnected.
"Let's hurry! Misty and Brock are already there!" Yvonne demanded.
Besides going through huge crowds, most of the path to the PWT was uneventful. Ash heard rustling in the bushes and growled. Better not be another Seviper, he thought, before taking a closer look. What he saw from inside of the bush was a smaller, darker bush of purple within. Ash smirked, one more mysterious Pokemon for his collection. He didn't even bother scanning it this time, because he knew it wouldn't work.
He pointed to the bush and cried, "Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!" Pikachu shook his head no.
"Pikachu, we have to weaken it," Ash whispered to him. Pikachu's mouth slowly formed into a crooked smile as it let loose a jolt of electricity towards the target. It yelped and fell down.
"All right!" Ash took out a Poke Ball. "Poke Ball, go!" He threw it at the charred mess, but it simply bounced off. Just then, "it" giggled and got up. The purple "bush" turned out to be the hair of a black girl. It looked longer (and weirder) than he remembered. She was wearing a pink and white dress, with no yellow present in this outfit, as was the case with her original one. On her head was a yellow tiara with green gems on it. She wore slippers that were also adorned with gems.
"Only a little kid would mistake a friend of theirs for a Pokemon...again," she stated, slowly getting up.
"Hey, at least he remembered to weaken you," Yvonne teased, before the two of them giggled at his expense.
Iris then inched closer to the boy. "Ash, why didn't you tell me you had a girlfriend back home?"
"Yvonne is not my girlfriend! Only a child like you would think that, Iris!" Ash retorted.
"Aw, he introduced us to each other!" she gushed. "Such a gentleman...it almost makes me think he's growing up."
Ash fell over.
"...Almost." Yvonne finished for her, before continuing with, "So you're Iris. Don't think Ash told me about you."
"Well, he doesn't talk much about his past in general," Iris told her.
"Really?" Yvonne gasped, seeming genuinely surprised.
"Why the shock? Little kids typically don't have much of a childhood to recall in the first place," Iris snarked.
Ash glared at her. "Is that why you kept your background a secret?"
She glared back at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Only kids keep secrets from friends," Ash countered, trying not to laugh. "What are you doing in Kanto, anyway?"
"Don't you know? The Pokemon World Tournament is coming up, and now that I've been declared a real Dragon Master, I thought I'd enter it. Georgia will be there too!" Iris answered him. "Oh, and to catch any dragon types that I encounter."
Ash was glad that she, like most of his friends, achieved their dream, but also sad, because it was just another fleeting reminder that he had yet to be a Pokemon Master, or even win a regional Pokemon League. To take his mind off of that, he came up with, "You do realize the only dragon types in Kanto are the Dratini line, right?"
The purple-haired girl sighed. "Haven't you heard of migration?"
Ash wasn't sure how that had slipped his mind, but Iris didn't say much more about it as a Gible surfaced under Ash, tripping him up. Iris and Yvonne shared a laugh at his expense as Gible looked up at him. He slowly got up as Iris picked up the Dragon/Ground type.
"Wow, you have a Gible, too!" Ash exclaimed, sending out his own. His Gible was a little bit bigger than Iris's. Iris's Gible stood on its tiptoes in an attempt to tower over Ash's only Dragon type. "You still have Axew, right? I think Scraggy would like to see him again."
"Well...not exactly..." Iris answered slowly, before tossing a Poke Ball. Out came a grey dragon with green upper body armor, white and red tusks in its mouth, a red tail tip, claws, eyes, and a few markings on its body. It was Iris's Axew, which had evolved into Fraxure just before she departed from them.
Ash was actually surprised that it had evolved into Fraxure so soon after Iris and Cilan left him. Yvonne scanned it with her Pokedex. "Fraxure, the Axe Jaw Pokemon, and the evolved form of Axew. A broken tusk will not grow back, so it diligently sharpens its tusks on river rocks after the end of a battle."
"Did it just battle?" the blonde theorized, and Fraxure roared in confirmation.
Ash pressed a button on his Pokedex, before sending his Scraggy out. He and Fraxure bumped fists, seeming glad to see each other.
"So, Iris, wanna meet a new friend? I think you'll really like him." Ash smiled, holding a Poke Ball.
"Sure!" Iris smiled back at him.
"Glalie, I choose you!" He sent out the Face Pokemon in arm's length of a shivering Iris. Ash couldn't help but snicker. While she wasn't as afraid of ice types as when they first met, her reaction was still amusing to him. Yvonne looked confused as Glalie inched closer to Iris, who was scooting away from it. After a bit, Ash recalled his Glalie, and Iris went back to normal after that.
Afterwards, they headed towards the Indigo Plateau, where the tournament was actually taking place. They had to use Ash's Pidgeot and Iris's Dragonite to get there just to bypass the crowds. It seemed like many other people had the same idea, including Camoron and Hydreigon. They even had to swerve through other fliers to reach the Indigo Plateau, which was possibly even more crowded than the rest of Kanto. Ash couldn't see either Misty or Brock through all of the crowds. Everytime he would try and get a better view from a certain position, some moron would always bump into him, saying he was in the way.
"All Pokemon World Tournament participants, please gather around and settle down!" a voice boomed over the loud audience. Somehow, they all settled down, though they weren't any less excited, and calmed down. "You're just in time for the opening ceremony!"
Some people that Ash didn't know took turns running with the torch, which was said to light with the flames of a Moltres. This time, all went smoothly without Team Rocket to ruin things.
The final Torch Bearer finished up the ritual, and the tournament officially began!
Because there were so many competitors, everyone was given a few hours to prepare, train, relax, and whatever else they decided to do. The rules had been updated, too. Ash's group was already prepared for any opponent they would face, so they didn't dwell on that too much. He, Yvonne, and Iris relished the last few hours before matchups in the movies and snack bars.
With only twenty minutes left, the girls went back to the Indigo Plateau, while Ash decided to head to the Pokemon Center to heal his Pokemon to make sure they were prepared. Oddly enough, the Pokemon Center wasn't nearly as crowded as anywhere else. As she was healing his Pokemon, Ash got in contact with his mom again, who sent him the box with the new outfit she wanted him to wear, and also wished him luck in the tournament.
"You're going to look so handsome in that outfit! It's very befitting for a champion!" his mother cried, as Ash changed into it. He was now wearing an indigo blue jacket with white stripes,red and black fingerless gloves, dark blue pants, and red and black shoes. He still kept his old league hat, however, and ended up keeping the new one in his backpack. He would later give it to Pikachu. The hat in question was red, except for its brim and the symbol of half of a circle outline in the center of it, which were white.
"Now get out there and win!" Delia cheered. "I'll get to work on sewing your old clothes...your Orange League trophy is getting worn out, and without another one to balance it out, I can't exercise properly! Love you!"
As the videophone disconnected, Ash winced as she reminded him yet again that he hadn't won any main league trophies.
I wonder who my first opponent is, Ash thought to himself, as he headed back to where battles would take place. The bleachers were already almost filled.
"Here are the matchups as follows!" Mr. Goodshow announced, as the large screen revealed who would fight who. Ash looked aup at the matchup screen. He was elated to see so many familiar faces, both old and new, on the screen. All of the people he knew so far were up against random nobodies, except for one. It would be one of the first matches in the PWT, too (multiple matches took place on different battlefields, and began at the same time).
Eventually, he saw his picture and name next to a headshot of a clown in all black, the words "Dave the Clown" under it.
Dave the Clown, huh? Get ready to be knocked out in your first round, Ash thought.
A brand new journey's round the door
And this'll be nothing like before
This time I'll give it all
I have trained to become the very best
just watch as I'm beating all the rest
I will never fall
Soon the entire world will see
I know I'll fulfill my destinty
We will save the world
and our journey never ends
cause I gotta catch'em all
Pokémon X and Y
I will never stop
until' I'm number one
cause we will save the world
Pokémon X and Y
Lyrics above by SaftOchBulle.
Mr. Fuji: Jim Cummings
Nurse Joy (all): Megan Hollingshead
Alexa: Jessica Paquet
Last edited by marioluigifan05; 7th December 2013 at 08:07 PM.