World Class Skill - Preview (Patreon)

“Where has Ash gotten to?” Dawn wondered looking around the main square of Pastoria City, just below the massive Croagunk statue. Dozens upon dozens of people danced all around her, a soft orange glow cast over everyone there thanks to the large flaming torches situated all around the square.

It was odd not to see Ash in amongst the thick of things at a party. Especially at a party. Just from the few months she'd travelled with the trainer, Dawn had come to learn that Ash loved to party. In fact, he partied so hard that even when she and Brock had begged off to go to bed sometimes, by time they woke up Ash would still be living it up.

Regardless, she'd lost track of him earlier. He'd suddenly, out of the blue asked her to come and dance with him when a fast paced beat had came on, thanks to the efforts of Crasher Wake. And who would have figured that monstrously tall Gym Leader would be the DJ of the party. Certainly not her.

She wasn't prepared for the offer at all. So, she'd found herself stuttering a few excuses and nonplussed Ash had just jumped right in there anyway, even without a partner. Now a good half hour later, she'd finally worked up the courage to take Ash up on his offer, only..Dawn couldn't find hide nor hair of him.

She looked up at the little blue penguin pokemon perched on her head, “Can you see him anywhere Piplup?” she asked.

The water type shook his head, “Lup,” he replied in the negative.

“Maybe Brock'll know,” she mused.

Dawn glanced up at the dining area up atop the ledge the massive Croagunk statue was situated on and found the older boy camped at the table with his Croagunk sitting at his side and from the looks of it, failing miserably at attempting to chat up the Nurse Joy sitting beside him.

Every few moments his Croagunk would lift up a glowing purple set of fingers causing the breeder to panic and lose any progress he made in the first place. Dawn shook her head, breathing out a sigh of pity, “He's never gonna get anywhere at this rate.”

Well, atleast she found him. Hurrying her way over, the blue haired girl bounded up the steps and made her way over to him. She caught his eye as she made her way up and waved slightly to him.

Brock beckoned her over with a raised eyebrow, “What's up Dawn?” he asked, “Shouldn't you be trying and failing to work up the nerve to ask Ash to dance right about now?” he continued, turning his full attention to her with a slight smirk.

Her eye didn't twitch, no need to worry, no siree!

“For your information,” she napped, “He actually asked me to dance!” Dawn crossed her arms and turned her nose up at the older boy, how rude.

Propping his chin up on his palm, Brock's smirk grew just a bit, “And how did that turn out for you?” The silence she gave in reply was all the answer he needed, “So failed to work up the nerve regardless, huh?” he chuckled lightly.

It took an effort for Dawn not to grind her teeth in annoyance. So she had a crush on her best friend, so what?! It wasn't that big a deal and Brock was the last person she wanted commenting on her romantic endeavours. With the amount of woman that shot him down, one would think he'd be a bit more helpful instead of always teasing her about it.

“I was just about to go take him up on his offer,” Dawn settled on replying with, “But I can't seem to find him now, you got any idea where he went?”

“I was thinking of asking you, just how long it took you to work up the courage to accept his offer,” he started, “But I'll let it go for now and tell you that you're in luck, I saw Ash heading through the stalls a little bit earlier, towards the Great Marsh.”

“Thanks!” Dawn replied, turning on her heel and rushing down the stairs.

“Try and keep a hold of that nerve when you reach Ash, kay?” Brock shouted to her with a laugh. When all she did was give him the finger, he laughed harder, “Now that's not very nice at all!”

The blue haired coordinator put Brock out of her mind, instead focusing on finding Ash. She searched from stall to stall, mainly focusing on the ones that had games, focused on Pokemon or were serving some kind of tasty festival food. Those where usually the kind of places Ash loved to frequent. To no avail

She even checked out some of the bar stalls. Ash didn't drink that much alcohol, but he somtimes liked to have a few at parties, usually swept up on the rowdy fun of downing shots. Dawn shuddered at the memory of trying one at his suggestion back in Hearthome City. She'd almost been sick just from one of those Darkrai Bombs that he'd downed in the dozens.  

But, sadly no luck at the bar stalls either.

She searched high and though, eventually coming to the final empty stall that had already been closed up for the night, standing just at the entrance of to the Great Marsh.

“Where is he?” she sighed in annoyance. Great, of course the one time she managed to steel her nerves and Ash was nowhere to be found. Maybe she should just give it up for now and try again another time?

She felt sweat slid down her brow and grimaced slightly, “Why is it so warm?” she wondered. She hadn't even felt this warm up at the dancing area that had hundred of flaming torches being used as light source. This close to the Great Marsh, with it already being passed midnight, she should have been freezing cold. But instead, she was sweating from heat.

Where was it coming from?

“That's it!” she heard a familiar voice ring out, coming from her right. Behind the last stall and seemingly from what she could tell a bit into the Great Marsh.

What was Ash doing all the way out here?

Curious and a little annoyed with how long it took to find him, Dawn peeked around the stall to find out what he was doing. To her surprise, the raven haired boy was standing with three of his Pokemon. Pikachu, Chimchar and her old Buizel.

Not to mention, he was shirtless as well.

While that little add on would usually draw her attention quickly, the slight red glow surrounding Chimchar's body was slightly more interesting. Only slightly though, because she could feel the waves of heat coming from Chimchar's direction. The reason why she felt so warm.

Were they training?

“That's the way Chimchar!” Ash spoke confidently, “Unlike Flamethrower where you fire off a wave of flames from your mouth, keep the flames contained at the base of your throat, condense them into as small a sphere as you're able!” the trainer coached.

It seemed they were training. With a new move at that, Dawn wondered just what kind Ash was trying to teach Chimchar.

“Chaaaar!” Chimchar grunted and groaned, the red haze of energy surrounding his little boy shimmering slightly and becoming brighter.

“I know it hurts buddy, but bare with it for now,” Ash continued onwards, “Once you're used to it, you won't feel pain any more.”

He turned his attention to the water type of the trio. “We're almost ready, so you get ready as well.” he ordered.

Buizel clenched a fist and nodded his head,”Bui bui!” he cried eagerly. That said, tensing his legs, the sea otter launched himself up and backwards through the air, landing a good twenty feet away.

He took one last look at the glowing red fire chimp beside him before slashing his arm towards Buizel, “Now Chimchar!” he declared, “Use Overheat!”

Jumping into the air, Chimchar unleashed his power with a shout. From his mouth, the chimp unleashed a massive torrent of flames so yellow they bordered on white towards Buizel.

“Now you use Ice Beam!” Ash shouted at Buizel.

Jumping into the air himself, Buizel took a deep breath before unleashing a familiar trio of jagged icy blue lances of energy.

“Ash has been teaching Buizel ice Beam?” Dawn gasped, she had no idea. It must be so that Buizel could use Ice Aqua Jet himself without having to rely on outside help to get it done.

Then the attacks collided and Dawn was almost thrown of her feet from the force of their collision. It was only thanks to the stall she was leaning on she didn't end up ass over head. That would have been a big no no with the kind of skirt she was wearing.

A massive cloud of hot steam billowed across the Great Marsh, some of it even running across Dawn's bare skin and forcing her to wince slightly from the boiling hot droplets that stuck to her skin.

When the cloud of steam billowed away. She looked up just in time to see Ash collapse to a knee, grasping at his bandaged shoulder. The shoulder that had been burned red raw just yesterday when Chimchar went on that Blaze induced rampage while battling Paul.

“Ash!” she gasped, worry grasping her heart. He'd claimed that it was fine, that he'd be right as rain in a few days with some Burn Heal paste spread over it and a bandage on top. But she wasn't so sure. She'd never seen Pokemon induced injuries quite like that. Sure, she'd received a fair few bumps and cuts here and there so far on their journey, but nothing like the mess of raw blistered skin Ash had in place of a shoulder.

She was about to run over and help him when a firm hand on her shoulder stopped her in place. She was about to tell them to buzz off whoever it was, or even get Piplup to give them a dose of Bubblebeam, but her plans were cut short when she was it was Brock, holding a finger to his lips and shaking his head slightly in a denial of her actions.

He pointed towards Ash, just in time for her to hear his Pokmeon, Pikachu, Buizel and Chimchar cry out in alarm, “Don't get involved right now.” Brock told her lowly.

“But why?” she wondered. He was hurt, they should help him shouldn't they?

“Hey hey! I'm fine guys!” She heard Ash laugh. She turned around to find the pokemon fretting over him, Chimchar more so than the others for obvious reasons. Dawn watched Ash pluck the little fire type up and set him in his lap, gently rubbing him across the crest on his head, “It's just a little burn, no need to worry alright? Blaze or no Blaze little buddy, you've got a long ways to go before you can hope to compete with my old buddy Charizard when it comes to fire power and I get burned all the time when dealing with him.” he continued with that easy going laugh of his and Dawn could just see his pokemon relaxing as he near bragged about this Charizard of his' strength.

For that matter, Dawn had no idea Ash had a Charizard. Actually, now that she thought about it, she didn't know much about what other pokemon he had, besides that he once owned a Caterpie which was his first ever capture. He'd been through Kanto, Johto and Hoenn before arriving in Sinnoh if she remembered right, Charizard was probably caught sometime through his journey through Kanto.

When his laughter died down, Ash turned a bit serious, “You know why I'm teaching you Overheat right?” the raven haired teen questioned, cupping the fire pokemon's chin and making the pokemon meet eyes with him. “You're not ready to control the kind of fire power Blaze gives you, so we're taking baby steps for now. I'll teach you a variety powerful and hard to control attacks and we'll aim for you to evolve. The more used to handling huge amounts of power you get, the easier it'll be for you to remain in control when Blaze activates.” he explained.

So that was what he was doing! But it was just yesterday they found out about Chimchar's situation with Blaze. How could Ash have already figured out a plan and began teaching Chimchar how to use Overheat already? Overheat from what she knew, was one of the most powerful fire type attacks after all.

Brock apparently read her mind though, “Energy Ball was an attack Ash had no experience with, so it took him a little while to get the hang of it,” the older teen whispered to her, “In contrast both his Torkoal and Charizard know how to use Overheat and Ash used Torkoal a lot throughout Hoenn and his second journey through Kanto, so he has a lot of experience with the attack.”

“Ah, that makes sense.” Dawn whispered back. She'd honestly been a bit weirded out to see Kenny coaching Ash on the specifics of an attack when it came to Energy Ball. But she supposed she couldn't expect Ash to know everything after all. Even then he'd gotten the hang of the attack in a few days where it had taken Kenny about a month with his Breloom from what she remembered of him talking about it.

“Now, the reason Buizel is out helping you is pretty simple,” Ash suddenly continued drawing their attention, both the teen girl and boy watching and the three pokemon, “Besides Pikachu, Buizel is without a doubt the strongest pokemon on the team right now.”

Dawn could just see her old pokemon crossing his arms and puffing his chest out in pride even from where she was peeking around a stall.

“Buizel is training to perfect Ice Beam,” Ash followed up with, “He's almost there, but regardless once you can fire an Overheat that completely overpowers his Ice Beam, you'll have mastered the attack.”

The raven haired trainer set Chimchar back on the ground before bouncing up onto his feet and cracking his knuckles, “You ready to give it another go?” he shouted.

The responding cheers of his pokmeon being all the answer needed.

Dawn felt Brock pulling on her shoulder and followed his lead, heading back into the festival grounds. She finally had the chance to ask what had been bothering her the most, “Why didn't you let me go help him when he was clearly in pain?” the blue haired girl demanded with a growl.

“You already heard him,” Brock replied simply, “Ash has dealt with way worse things than a minor burn.”

“But that wasn't minor!” Dawn protested.

“To anybody else, no,” Brock nodded in agreement, “But Ash is the type of headstrong guy that won't let anything keep him down, third degree burns or not. Worrying over him like that will just hurt his pride and make him go more out of his way and hurt all the more to try and prove that he's fine.”

“But...but,” Dawn spluttered at the response, “That's dumb!” What kind of idiot would suffer like that just because of their pride?

“It's a guy thing,” Brock replied with a shrug before pausing slightly, “Although, Ash takes it to a whole knew level. Don't let him fool you Dawn, when it comes to pride, Paul has nothing on Ash. The things Ash gets up to sometimes when his pride has been stomped on are actually kinda ludicrous sometimes.”

“Like what?” she asked, eager to hear more about Ash. The two boys she travelled with rarely ever talked about their previous travels, the most she'd learned had actually been from gossiping with May at the Wallace Cup.

She could have really gone without hearing the sappy and forlorn way May went on about, how she and Ash had swam with Luvdisc during their journey through Kanto when Ash was taking on the Battle Frontier.

Dawn loved May, really she did. But she knew a girl trying to mark her territory when she saw one. Too bad for her though, being in a totally different Region, having made no progress on claiming the territory she was marking and apparently travelling with a flirt whom a crush on her kind of invalidated her claims.

“Nice try,” Brock chuckled, waving a finger at her as if admonishing her, “But if you wanna learn more about Ash, work up the nerve and ask him yourself,”

That was the problem. She didn't want to come across too strongly before she was ready to make her move

“I will tell you this though,” Brock started up again, forcing the bluenette to perk up, “Gligar is going to be one of the tougher Pokemon for Ash to train until it gains some courage. That's one thing Ash can't relate to. Being brave, reckless, headstrong and working through the pain are things that have come to Ash naturally, he's never cowered from anything in his life and he probably never will.”

Brock then made his leave a minute or so later, making his way back to Nurse Joy for another attempt to work his charm on her. Seeing Croagunk appear out of nowhere before he even reached her and Poison Jab him into a crumpled heap was rather telling of how well his efforts went though and left Dawn shaking her head.

“That guy...” Shaking her head, Dawn turned back and peered around the stall. Watching as Ash began to coach Chimchar once more through the motions of building up the fire within his little body in preparation for unleashing the Overheat attack.

“Maybe I should look into teaching some of my Pokemon new moves?” she wondered idly as she watched the boy and his pokemon train.

Ambipom was by far her strongest Pokemon, she was trained by Ash for a few months before Dawn got her after all. But her move pool lacked variety. Maybe Solarbeam? She remembered how powerful and beautiful the attack was when Nando used it against her and Ash had mentioned he was thinking on teaching it to Aipom back before he traded her for Buizel.

...She'd need to ask Ash how to go about teaching such an attack to Ambipom though. Since she had almost zero experience when it came to teaching her pokemon new attacks.