World Class Skill - Chapter 2 Preview (Patreon)

Been a bit of a hassle to type when my left index finger is so swollen.

 

'A water gym, huh?' Ash mused to himself as he and his companions made their way inside the Pastoria City gym for his battle with Crasher Wake.

Water gyms, for him at least were a bit touch and go. His battle with Juan at the Sootopolis Gym was amazing. A riveting battle that had him constantly on his toes fighting an uphill battle even when he had two Pokemon with the type advantage. It was a battle worthy of a water-type master and teacher of Wallace.

His other battle with a water type gym leader on the other hand, not so much. Plain and simple, no beating around the bush...Misty was a terrible trainer. She was the weakest gym leader he'd ever battled, bar none. And from what he knew, not much had changed since then either.

Don't get him wrong. Misty was still a very close friend of his. And sometimes, she was even an amazing companion to have beside him on his travels. But Misty's biggest problem was always and probably would always be her pride. She was entirely too full of herself, water pokemon and any she always had to go far out of the way to give excuses and cover up her failures.

Because of her many failures as both a person and a trainer though, Misty was always a hair trigger away from exploding and taking her frustration out on the nearest easy target, the outlet for her volatile personality more often than not ended up being Ash himself and she always made sure to prod and goad at his insecurities to make herself feel better.

It wasn't until he started his journey in Hoenn that Ash realized just how miserable she could make a journey, not until he started travelling with a much easier girl in May and then Dawn that he truly began to fully realize Misty's lacking character.

It still annoyed him how she was always talking shit and claiming that she gave him the Cascade Badge out of pity. Last he checked, Pikachu didn't want to battle and own her like he would have because they were sort of friends, and as far as their battle went, Butterfree had inflicted a ton of damage on her Staryu and Pidgeotto absolutely destroyed her strongest pokemon at that time in her Starmie.

Even if Team Rocket hadn't gotten in the way, he would have stomped her just like every other battle they'd had. Pidgeotto had already proven to be superior to her strongest pokemon at that time and he still had Butterfree left over, having only taken a bit of damage against Staryu previously.

Considering she'd been a trainer for at least two years by then and he'd only had his pokemon for around ten days give or take, it said a lot. And by a lot, Ash meant that he was far superior to Misty as a trainer and always would be.

The only reason Misty had any real wins under her belt was because of her Gyarados. A Gyarados she never trained herself, that was trained by her older sisters that Misty liked to pretend she was better than, but really wasn't.

Such a hypocrite she was, with all the shit she gave him over Charizard. At least Charizard's strength was due to his own actions as a trainer when raising the fire dragon.  

When it came to battling, she only ever focused on Gyarados. To his knowledge, she still hadn't took advantage of Starmie's psychic typing and Psyduck still hadn't evolved despite how much she claimed to want a Golduck.

Actually, counting all of Misty's pokemon off of the top of his head; Gyarados, Starmie, Staryu, Goldeen, Horsea, Politoed, Corsola, Luvdisc and Azurill, not one thing had changed in her team since he left for Hoenn, well except Luvdisc and Azurill that she got early on in his Hoenn journey.

Her goal was a pipe dream as far as Ash was concerned. Being a master of the water type wasn't even close to the level of a champion never mind Pokemon Master, but Ash doubted Misty could ever even reach half the level Juan was at, never mind Wallace.

He hoped Crasher Wake, unlike Misty was strong.