Working Sinnoh With Skill(Old) - Chapter 9 (Patreon)

“There ya go buddy.” Ash said with a smile as he handed an open bottle of Ketchup to Pikachu sitting on the table beside him as he made breakfast for Dawn. While Ketchup wasn’t exactly healthy, Ash had a terrible habit of giving into Pikachu’s pouts and every and now and then he let the small yellow mouse Pokemon gorge himself on a bottle. Although he tended to give Pikachu less and less each time because he was trying to wean the Electric type Pokemon off of the red substance. He was having little success, the minimum he could gave his best friend was a half full bottle before Pikachu just looked at him with that heartbroken betrayed look of his, prompting Ash to give him more to make him stop.

All the Pokemon were already out and enjoying their own meal off to the side, although there was a couple of new arrivals because Ash had made some changes to his team before he and Dawn left Oreburgh City after winning his first Sinnoh Region Gym badge.

He’d kept most of his Sinnoh Pokemon captures with him for now, those four being Riolu, Chimchar, Turtwig and Staravia. But in addition to those four he’d brought along another two Pokemon from the Oak Ranch, those two being Sceptile and his rather moody Fearow, the one he’d caught just before starting his Sinnoh Journey so that he could finally relieve his Pidgeot of the position protecting the many Pidgey and Pidgeotto back at the forest near Pallet Town.

He may have been able to carry 13 Pokemon now thanks to his experience as a Trainer, but that many Pokemon at a time could be rather rowdy and hard to control, not to mention expensive as all hell to feed so he preferred to stick with between 6 to 9, not as little as the 6 Pokemon restriction Trainers not as experienced as him got, but not to many that he’d have a hard time controlling them all unless he was planning for a mass training session.

His reasons for bringing Sceptile and Fearow were several fold, the most prominent being both of them helping Turtwig and Staravia. Turtwig knew quite a few powerful moves but the small Grass type needed to learn to utilize it’s moves more effectively, and that’s were Sceptile came in. Sceptile was one of his most powerful Pokemon and knew how to use his moves to the utmost efficiency, given that he won most of his battles using weak powered moves like Quick Attack and Bullet Seed to win extremely hard battles all through Ash’s Hoenn Journey. The young Trainer was sure that without Sceptile his win over Norman Maple, May’s father, would not have been possible. After all, the man was said to be a serious contender for joining the Hoenn Elite Four.

Fearow was here to help Staravia learn to fly better. Fearow had been battling an extremely fast foe in Pidgeot for years and had learned many ways to manoeuvre in flight to counter because it couldn’t keep up with Pidgeot in the speed department.

He absently stirred the Pancake mix in a bowl as he continued his thoughts. He’d sent Drapion, Armaldo and Aerodactyl back to the Oak ranch because they needed to get accustomed to life outside their previous environments. Armaldo and Aerodactyl were being studied by Professor Oak and being helped adjusting to living in this time period where everything had changed, Ash certainly could have done it himself, but it would have taken a lot more effort with the amount of travelling he and Dawn did.

Drapion was meeting the rest of his Pokemon and learning that life without Hunter J was definitely better. The large dual Poison/Dark Type had a rough time of it with the merciless silver haired woman, but despite it’s fearsome looks and battle prowess, Drapion was actually a very sweet and gentle Pokemon, and according to Professor Oak, he enjoyed helping out the other Pokemon back at the ranch. Drapion seemed to be over-protective of Ash’s Pokemon because of the Trainer telling Drapion all about he and his Pokemon all being a big family, and Drapion was now a part of that. Professor Oak had told him that Aerodactly got rowdy and ended up hitting his Torkoal with a powerful Hyper Beam and going loose on a wild bender again, and Drapion had responded in kind, protecting Ash’s Pokemon – even if they didn’t need protecting – and blasting Aerodactly in the face with it’s own Hyper Beam before knocking the prehistoric Pokemon out with a powerful Aqua Tail attack.

Ash was broken from his musings as he prepared breakfast when his beautiful blue haired girlfriend walked out of his large blue tent with a yawn, already dressed for the day. Dawn had forgone sleeping in her own tent as of late, preferring to bunk with him, which was a very enjoyable experience, Ash decided. He could see now why Brock was so over-the-top when they met a beautiful girl, especially after feeling Dawn’s soft curves molded against his body as they slept.

“Morning.” Ash greeted his girlfriend with a smile as he moved the frying pan onto their makeshift stove, courtesy of a stand for the pots/pans and a small but hot fire complimentary of Chimchar’s better control over it’s Flamethrower attack.

Dawn tiredly rubbed her eyes as she pulled out a chair and sat down at the table, awaiting breakfast. “Morning.” She replied with another sleepy yawn.

Looking off at the Pokemon, Dawn cocked her head at her own newest addition, “How’s he been this morning?” The bluenette inquired of her boyfriend.

Ash looked over to where she was pointing and his eyes zeroed on Kabutops. The Pokemon had been quite rowdy and disobedient when they let it out to feed it after they left Oreburgh City, but Ash had experience with Pokemon like Kabutops, it was scared and unfamiliar with where it was or who it was with.

It took him the better part of two hours to calm the riled Pokemon down, and while it was tense it had seemingly taken being captured by Dawn with a grain of salt, and during the training sessions they’d had in the past two days while on their way to Floaroma Town, Kabutops had listened to Dawn’s commands with precise timing. He had a lot of potential.

“Not bad, though he still seems a bit tense around the other Pokemon.” Ash replied, nodding to the way Kabutop’s spine was stiff and upright, keeping an eye on what he thought were the biggest threats, those being Sceptile and Ursaring because of their size compared to the other Pokemon giving them a more threatening appearance, especially Ursaring who tended to look surly and bored unless he was training or battling, the large Normal Type loved to battle just like many Pokemon Ash had of his own, the most prominent being Charizard and Sceptile.

Dawn sighed and laid her head on her arms on the table, “I hope Kabutops learns to relax and trust us soon, it would be so cool to use him in my next contest.” She said, her blue eyes alive with giddiness at the thought, “Everyone would be so surprised and impressed that I have a Pokemon as rare and powerful as him.” She finished and lifted her head, her deep blue eyes meeting Ash’s amused amber.

Smiling at her slightly raised spirits, Ash finally finished cooking the Pancakes walked over to Dawn at the table, frying pan in hand, and scooped the large pancake onto her plate. Setting the pan in the basin he had filled with water heated by Chimchar’s Flamethrower, he grabbed an Oran berry from one of the containers on the table and crushed it down into crumbs and sprinkling it over Dawn’s pancakes for extra flavour and to make the meal healthier, another trick he’d learned from Brock.

“Don’t worry about it.” Ash soothed his dejected girlfriend as he bent his neck down to peck her on the lips, “Pokemon are complex and can take a while to warm up to you.”

Dawn sighed but smiled at him as she began to eat another amazingly tasty breakfast cooked for her by her boyfriend.

“You know a while back, someone once told me that Gyarados are very hard to train, but when you raise them right and with affection they’re the most loyal and trustworthy Pokemon around.” Ash began as he started to clean up the items he used to prepare breakfast, they used paper plates – a biodegradable kind – because it saved time, so Dawn could just toss her plate away when she was done. “But that’s completely wrong.” He finished 100% in confidence.

Dawn blinked, it seemed like just a random tidbit, but before she could question Ash on it her boyfriend continued, his voice passionate enough to send pleasurable tingles down her spine. Ash had done it alot when he spoke about Pokemon, and what he had learned of them over his years of travelling and training.

“There can be no ‘most loyal or trustworthy’ kind of Pokemon.” Ash began, “Because if you raise and train a Pokemon with all your love and affection, that Pokemon will love you back in return and trust in you as it’s Trainer, no matter what they are.” He finally finished once again, looking at Pikachu who was still happily sucking away obliviously at the Ketchup container that was almost empty. Finishing off his passionate tirade, Ash placed a hand gently on Pikachu’s head and affectionately rubbed his partner Pokemon’s ears.

Pikachu finally stopped trying to get anything out of the near empty bottle and leaned back into Ash’s hand, giving off a soft and pleasurable cry of, “Chaaa.”

Dawn felt her face heat up as she looked at Pokemon and Trainer and the amazingly tight bond they shared. She couldn’t help but feel awed by her boyfriend at times, he was just so amazing with his Pokemon it was unreal. He connected with them all despite all of their many different personalities, from the calm and collected Sceptile, to the overly emotional Torkoal, even his Fearow that was extremely surly and standoff-ish with her and the other Pokemon always seemed to perk up and enjoy Ash’s presence whenever he was around, showing just how much he loved his Pokemon and they loved him in return.

Dawn had no doubt in her mind that even his most inexperienced Pokemon, like Turtig or Chimchar would willingly go up against the strongest of Legendaries if it meant pleasing Ash, that was just how much they cared.

Dawn was broken from her heated gaze when he finally finished packing their stuff away, tents and all. “Right,” Ash said as he stood up and patted his cargo pants of any dust and dirt that had gathered when he was kneeling down to take the tent down, “We’ll do some training for an hour or so with the Pokemon and then set off and we can probably be in Floaroma Town by dinner time.” He continued with a cheerful smile as he bounded off over to the Pokemon, Pikachu jumping onto his shoulder along the way with a happy cry of “Pika Pi!”.

Dawn blinked, “Wow I hadn’t realized I was staring for so long.” The bluenette commented to herself with a slight blush. Standing up she looking over at Ash and couldn’t help but giggle, as he’d ran over, Chimchar, Turtwig and Staravia had joined in with Pikachu and dogpiled Ash, forcing him to the ground as they played around, and it wasn’t to long before even her Buneary, Piplup and Ambipom joined in with happy cries.

Dawn shook her head, “Even my own Pokemon love Ash.” She said to herself, looking over the rest of the Pokemon from Kabutops who was looking at them as if they were insane because he still didn’t understand such interactions, to Ursaring and Sceptile, who ignored it for the most part preferring to lean back with their eyes closed, and act ‘cool’. Though Dawn had to admit that Sceptile pulled it off really well as the large bipedal Grass Type leaned against a tree, arms crossed, eyes closed and a twig hanging from his mouth like a toothpick.

Finally her eyes landed on Fearow, “Pfft!” Dawn chuckled into her palm. Fearow was glaring angrily at all the Pokemon dogpiling and playing around with Ash, it’s eyes filled envy because it wanted all of Ash’s time to itself.

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Ash smiled as he read his Trainer balance on his Pokedex. When Trainers battled it registered on both of their Pokedex’s, and the winner gained credits from the other Trainer’s Pokedex when they won.

The Pokedex calculated the experience of a Trainer and the Pokemon they owned, and then, using them together, finally came up with a total balance of credits that the loser would forfeit, should they lose that is.

So if a ‘high level’ Trainer challenged a new Trainer and won, the new Trainer would probably only need to give up some pocket change, whereas if the high level Trainer lost for whatever reason, he would probably be handing over a small fortune. It was a system designed to prevent ‘farming’ the new and inexperienced for money; one that worked rather well.

Closing his Pokedex, Ash slipped his Pokedex into his backpocket and looked to his beautiful companion at his side.

Dawn had spent most of their walk towards Floaroma town with her hand intertwined with Ash’s own and enjoying the sights. That is, when he wasn’t battling passerby Trainers. He’d already battled and defeated 6 wandering trainers and felt like he had a good streak going.

He used Chimchar and Turtwig for most of the battles, but Dawn had to say when one of the Trainers challenged Ash to a 4 on 4 battle and Ash sent out Sceptile, She was in awe of the sheer speed the Pokemon possessed.

Sceptile had taken down all four of the trainers Pokemon with barely a scratch at all. The man’s first Pokemon, an Altaria, was taken down with just one Leaf Blade by Sceptile. The next, this time a Rapidash was driven dizzy as Sceptile blurred all around it, dodging the large stallion Pokemon’s every attempt to land an attack easily before coming down from above and felling the Fire type with a Dragon Claw attack.

Then Sceptile had made some odd cries and gestures about the Trainer to Ash and the honorary Pokemon Ranger seemed to understand exactly what Sceptile was implying, the Grass Pokemon wanted a challenge, and this trainer wasn’t supplying it.

So Ash had told the man he could use both of his final Pokemon in a 2 on 1 against Sceptile. The man’s Luxio and Floatzel actually managed to land a combined Discharge and Water Gun on Sceptile, but the bipedal Grass Pokemon blocked with both arms crossed over his chest and came out with nothing but a few scratches, impressive even if both attacks were not as effective on a grass type like itself. And then Sceptile had literally blown both Pokemon away with an amazingly powerful Leaf Storm attack, the tornado of leaves was truly massive to Dawn, she’d never seen a Pokemon’s attack be that big before.

It still surprised her just how incredibly powerful almost all of Ash’s Pokemon were, it really brought it into perspective for Dawn when Ash told her that Pikachu and Charizard easily outstripped the rest in terms of power, only Sceptile coming close to them, and then Mewtwo was even stronger still.

Which made another thought cross her mind. If Ash’s Pokemon were that powerful, yet he said that only Pikachu and Charizard may be ready to challenge some of someone like Cynthia’s Pokemon – and according to her boyfriend that was a big if – what kind of monsters were her Pokemon?

Which brought another question to the bluenette’s mind.

“Hey Ash,” Dawn said aloud to get her boyfriends attention. When he turned to look at her she continued, “You’ve told me all about most of your Pokemon and how strong you think, in theory, they are compared to a Champion like Cynthia’s Pokemon, but what about Mewtwo? Wouldn’t he be a great help against a Champion, seeing as he’s your strongest Pokemon.” She inquired.

Ash shook his head as he replied, “It just wouldn’t feel right to me, using a Legendary Pokemon against a normal Pokemon just doesn’t sit right because of how unfair it is to the other Trainer. They’ve worked hard with their Pokemon, shed sweat, tears and blood to get where they are, only for me to unfairly swipe victory from them because I use a Legendary Pokemon that is naturally obscenely powerful? It’s not right. Only someone who truly doesn’t believe in themselves would use a Legendary, or maybe even a team of Legendaries, like that.” Ash shook his head again at the thought, no self respecting Trainer would use a Legendary Pokemon like that, it completely went against the reason for being a Trainer.

Trainers were supposed to catch and raise their Pokemon, through the joys and hardships, and work until they reached their goal. Capturing a Legendary Pokemon and completely skipping what Trainers stood for just to be some kind of greedy, self centered glory hound was pathetic and shallow.

It was why he’d never used Mewtwo in an official battle and the Legendary Psychic type understood and respected his reasons.

Ash honestly couldn’t fathom why he would just disregard all of his Pokemon’s hard work and training to get strong enough to win battles on their own merit for him to use a Legendary Pokemon and unfairly swipe victories.

It was pathetic and only someone who couldn’t cut it as a trainer would do it because of their greed and pathetic skills at being a trainer and doing what all trainers were supposed to strive to be able to do; befriend any Pokemon they wanted and raise them to be strong.

Any Pokemon could be powerful with enough training, whether it was a Butterfree, a Tyranitar or even small and cute Pokemon who didn’t want to evolve like his beloved partner Pikachu. That was what a Trainers true worth was.

And he aimed to rise to the top and become the best, a Pokemon Master. And no Pokemon Master would ever sink so low as to taking a shortcut like capturing Legendary Pokemon to use in official tournaments.

Ash blinked as he stopped monologuing. That was for villains and angsty weirdo’s. Not to mention he’d just repeated himself about four times, so that was probably enough. He just felt very passionately about the issue.

“Plus.” Ash continued, “Why would I ever disregard all of my Pokemon’s hard work to become strong and win battles for me by using a shortcut like battling in League battles with a Legendary Pokemon?” He voiced a section of his monologue rhetorically with a toothy grin.

To throw one last comment in; it was also supremely foolish to announce that you had a Legendary Pokemon in your possession, as they would then need to constantly be on guard from people attempting to steal said Pokemon.

Dawn smiled back fondly in return to her boyfriends declaration, his words were so Ash-like that she wasn’t even surprised. He was an all around nice guy, loved Pokemon immensely and followed his own beliefs to a tee, never letting anybody sway him from them.

‘Although,’ Dawn thought, ‘It’s hard to believe he can resist the temptation to use Mewtwo and completely dominate all who stand in his way on his path to becoming a Pokemon Master.‘ She wasn’t sure she could resist the temptation herself, it had to have been a great deal harder for her boyfriend she mused, he’d actually seen Mewtwo and other Legendary Pokemon in action.

“How far off are we from Floaroma Town anyway?” Dawn asked. They’d been walking for hours now, only stopping for Ash’s battles along the way and a quick lunch break about two or three hours back.

Ash looked at the poketch on his wrist, having used the GPS application to tell where they were going.

“Not long now, the Poketch says at the speed we’re walking it should take just over another hour to get there.” Ash responded with a grin at his girlfriend, who huffed in mock irritation at him. He’d been travelling for years, walking from place to place for so long that he’d gotten used to walking great distances but his girlfriend on the other hand…

Dawn had rarely ever walked great distances on foot, and being the kinda girl that liked to laze around in hot afternoon days, well it didn’t quite agree with her quite as well as it did with him one could say.

“You know,” Ash began, “We don’t need to walk from place to place, I could always just get Pidgeot to fly us around, we’d make it to Gym Battles and Contests much quicker and it would give us a lot more time to train our Pokemon.” He told his girlfriend, soothingly rubbing her hand and wrist with his palm.

Dawn perked up at the mention of that, but after a moments thought shook her head, “While it would be a great relief for my feet,” She hinted, “I would feel like we’re abusing Pidgeot by using him as a pack mule to fly us all over the place. Not to mention when we travel on foot we see so many great sights, it would be a shame to miss them all because I was lazy.” Dawn smiled at him as she finished, coaxing his hand back into her own. Despite it being a pain in her feet she really enjoyed spending what she considered romantic walks through the country sides with her boyfriend.

Ash chuckled, “Well, alright.” He answered, “But that doesn’t mean we can’t do it sometimes, flying on Pidgeot is a real experience that you can never forget.” It was true, Pidgeot was such a smooth flyer, even when the large majestic bird was going at speeds close to mach 2 that Ash felt like he was gliding on the clouds when he rode the Bird Pokemon.

They were interrupted from further conversation by a rough, indignant male voice.

“Gahh!” The rough male voice cried, “It’s you! Ash Ketchum!”

“Hmm?” Both boyfriend and girlfriend looked up, and were met with the sight of a tall, tanned man wearing a red bandana, purple shorts and an open yellow vest that had three Pokeball strapped on each side of it, revealing a toned and tanned bare torso underneath.

He was staring at Ash crazily and had a finger pointed out, kind of reminding Ash of his Primeape when it was excited, rather monkeyish.

Ash studied the man’s appearance, he kinda looked like a Team Aqua wannabe with that whole pirate look he had going for him, but no, he was rather familiar looking. Where had he seen him before?

“Do you know him Ash?” Dawn asked curiously.

“Err… maybe?” Ash replied uncertainly, “He looks familiar, but I can’t for the life of me remember exactly who he is.”

“WHAAAAT!” The man shouted in outrage, his face red with anger, “How dare you forget me, the great and powerful Trainer Raymond, especially after you humiliated and defeated me so thoroughly!?” The now named Raymond continued, jumping up and down and pointing at Ash, now reminiscent of the way Monferno’s acted when excited, sorta like a baboon.

Mewtwo’s voice filtered into Ash’s mind, communicating straight from his Pokeball as he rested, ‘He’s the Trainer you were battling a few years ago when I was having my reconnaissance Fearow scout for talented Trainers. He was who you defeated, rather easily I might add, and how you caught my interest with how skilled you were for one so young.’

Ash snapped his fingers in realization, “Ah, now I remember you!” The Pokemon ranger grinned, ‘Thanks Mewtwo.’ He thought back to his Pokemon, receiving a warm pulse of affection in the back of his mind from Mewtwo before the Legendary clone of Mew receded from his mind and back to his rest, as a feline species related Pokemon Mewtwo enjoyed to sleep many hours a day despite his mental discipline.

“Aha! I knew you could never forget the mighty Raymond!” The bandana wearing man grinned in triumph.

Ash blinked at that, “But didn’t I defeat you easily?” He deadpanned, “Bulbasaur and Squirtle won their battles against your Donphan and Machamp without taking much Damage at all, and then Pikachu took out your Golem, Pinsir and Venemoth with one Thunderbolt right after.” He continued, his voice flat, dry and slow, as if talking to an idiot.

“GRAAHH! How dare you!” Reymond roared angrily as he roughly grabbed one of the Pokeballs from his vest and pointed it at Ash, “That’s it, Pokemon battle, right now! I’ll teach your arrogant ass a lesson!” He shouted with a shit eating grin on his face, assured of his victory already.

Ash waved the man off, “Fine fine, we’ll have a 1 on 1 and no losing your temper and sending out the rest of your team when you lose this time.” Ash replied, causing Raymonds nostrils to flare, alot like that of a Tauros about to go on a rampage.

Dawn had been watching the interaction between Ash and this Raymond guy in amusement, she giggled as she caught the amused glint in Ash’s amber eyes, he really knew how to get under people’s skin, even Paul couldn’t stay cold, calm and uncaring when Ash decided to rile him up.

“Alright, but don’t take too long, I want to get to the Pokemon Center at Floaroma Town before nightfall.” The blue haired coordinator told her boyfriend.

Ash grinned at her and leaned over to peck her on the lips, placing his hands on her waist as he did so, “Right, I’ll check out his moves and then go in for the kill straight away.” Ash replied.

Dawn grinned as he leaned back from the short kiss, “Good boy.” She praised, “Do it fast enough and I might just give you a treat tonight when we book our room at the Pokemon Center.” Dawn whispered to him with a sultry smile as she reached up and began to gently rub his shoulders.

Ash growled huskily, allowing one of his hands to slide down and underneath her skirt to cup one of the luscious round globes of her derrière, “Oh, and what might that be?” He inquired.

Dawn grinned mischievously, placing both hands on his chest, leaning forward and whispering, “That…” She began softly, “Is a surprise.” She finished, using her hand’s position on his chest to push him away.

Ash chuckled in reply, “I’ll hold you to that you know.” He told his girlfriend with a grin of his own.

Dawn just grinned right back, “Oh I plan on it.”

Before their flirting could go any further Raymond butted in, “Oi oi! Move yer fuckin’ ass man! You can play kissy face with your girl after my Pokemon pounds yours into the ground.” The Team Aqua wannabe – as Ash had dubbed him in his mind – growled at them.

“Yeah yeah.” Ash waved him off again, not at all threatened by the older Trainer. Taking his place on the opposite side of the large path they were on from Raymond, Ash grasped one of the Pokeballs from his belt, “Guess I’ll go first then, let’s go Staravia!” He called out as he released the rather smallish Flying Pokemon from its Pokeball.

Staravia appeared with a harry cry of, “Star!” Flapping his wings to stay floating in the air, ready and willing to battle for Ash.

“Pfft!” Raymond snorted before bursting into a full bellied laughter, “Wow, your Pokemon must be weaker than I thought if you’re sending out something as pathetic as a Staravia to battle me!” He managed to gasp out between laughter.

Staravia ignored the insults easily, and Ash just smiled bemusedly, Pokemon didn’t need to evolve to become strong after all, it took a bit more time and effort, but un-evolved Pokemon could be just as strong if not stronger than their evolved forms if they trained enough. Raymond assumed because Staravia didn’t gain their more powerful trait until they were fully evolved and became a Starptor, that his Pokemon was weak. He was in for a shocking surprise.

After calming down – albeit giving off the odd snicker at Ash’s choice of Pokemon – Raymond finally released the Pokemon from within the Pokeball in his hand in a flash of white energy, “Crush that little weakling Granbull!” The bandanna wearing man shouted as he let loose his Pokemon.

Granbull appeared in front of Raymond growling and snarling menacingly, pawing back one foot through the path as if to charge like a Tauros or Nidoking. Granbull was a purple bulldog-like Pokémon that was capable of standing upright. It’s most notable feature was the Pokemon’s particularly pronounced lower jaws. If eclipsed by its more prominent lower jaws, Granbull also had two small fangs visible on its upper jaw. Granbull’s ears were flat and curved in surface, and it’s nose a pitch black. It had a black collar around its neck with two small white patterns on it, and two band-like black markings on it’s muscular arms.

Raymond, as Ash expected, fired straight into attacking without a moments pause, “Let’s go Granbull, Thunderbolt!” Raymond barked at his Pokemon – sounding surprisingly like the Bull-dog Pokemon – all the while pointing his index finger at Staravia dramatically.

Ganbull growled as it’s body lit up like a light, electricity arcing from all over it’s body before it fired off a concentrated yellow burst of it almost as thick as Granbull was wide soaring at Staravia.

“Evade.” Ash said simple. Staravia obeyed instantly and barrel rolled to the side, righting itself easily in the same mothing, easily dodging the arc of electricity, “And now, Aerial Ace.” Ash followed up, simply, once again. He wanted to test the waters, see what level this Granbull was at and how well it reacted to damage.

Staravia dived, descending upon Granbull at breakneck speeds as his body was covered in white streaks of energy. Before Granbull could react Staravia was upon it, colliding in a full bodied tackle that sent Granbull soaring back, bouncing on it’s back against the ground a few times before rolling to a stop, giving off a loud yip of pain as it did so.

Staravia right after landing the textbook perfect Aerial Ace attack, climbed back up with a sharp and powerful flap of his smallish sized wings.

Ash looked Granbull over with a critical eye as the Normal Type Pokemon pulled itself to it’s feet with a growl. It had a few scuff marks and a small bruise forming on it’s chest where Staravia landed his attack, but other than that it looked fine and ready for more.

Still, Ash could tell just from the power of that Thunderbolt, and how despite its immense size Granbull was taken right off it’s feet that, Granbull while fully evolved and having more physical prowess than Staravia was just barely above the smallish bird Pokemon’s level, if even that, and from it’s reaction to Staravia speed, that Granbull was not a fast Pokemon and was more used to dealing and battling with less mobile opponents that couldn’t dodge it’s attacks as easily as Staravia did.

Raymond growled, “Lucky shot kid, but this time I’m taking you down!” He ground out with gritted teeth, “Granbull, Hyper Beam!” Raymond ordered with a dramatic shout. From his facial expression, Ash deduced that he honestly thought this attack would end the entire battle.

Ash snorted, maybe a rookie would be overwhelmed by a Hyper Beam, as it was a fairly intimidating move, but having multiple Pokemon that knew the attack and variations of it gave Ash insight on how the attack worked, and a Granbull at this level had no chance in hell of out-manoeuvring the counter strategies he’d come up with over his years as a Trainer for this type of moment.

Granbull opened it’s mouth, allowing those present to see as a small orange orb of power beginning to form and condense inside it’s mouth, a moment later with a huff Granbull jutted it’s head forward and fired a large orange beam of deadly power raging towards Staravia.

Not even a second later, Ash snapped into action, ready to finish this now with the most powerful move he’d spent over two weeks teaching to Staravia and helping perfect, it would have taken longer but thankfully Pidgeot was a great help. He’d only used it once in battle on a Crobat so far, that battle having given the dual Flying/Normal type the motivation to evolve from Starly to Staravia.

“Fly right beneath the attack and use the powerful winds it’s causing to gain speed and momentum, and then take it down with Brave Bird.” Ash commanded instantly.

Staravia pulled his wings taut against his body, diving underneath the large orange beam of power and was pushed forward, flying far faster than he could have done naturally on his own as he dived towards Granbull like a missile. A second later flames burst out around Staravias body before fading, becoming a bright blue glowing aura that covered the entirety of Staravias body. By the time the Aura had flared up over Staravia, the small Pokemon was roughly 10 metres and closing in from Granbull and the Hyper beam dwindled into nothing but smalls wisps of orange energy that began to dissipate into nothing.

Granbull could do nothing to dodge or defend thanks to the recharge period that came with using Hyper Beam or its variations when it wasn’t mastered to the highest extent.

And thus, Staravia collided with Granbull without pause, an explosion firing up from the point of impact and creating a large black cloud of smoke.

A second later, Staravia burst from the top, wincing with a squawk of pain as light blue sparks ran up Staravias wings and causing the recoil damage that came with those who used Brave Bird but had not used it for long periods of time for their body to become adjusted to the use of it and receive no further damage.

That was the main reason Ash wanted Staravia to work on the attack, so he could use the incredibly powerful move without the drawback. Not to mention it was just plain good training for overcoming pain and putting it out of your mind.

When the smoke cleared, Granbull was revealed laying in a small crater shaped around it’s body, the Normal type Pokemon’s eyes were in swirls indicating that it was unconscious and no longer able to continue battling.

“Nooo!” Raymond screamed in despair, falling to his knees, dramatically, once again.

“Starrraaaaavia!?” Staravia squawked once again, his voice layered with surprise and curiousness. The squawk alerted Ash and Dawn to Staravia and they looked up just in time to watch Staravia grow a bright white, but just as the glow started, it faded away again and Ash could almost feel himself gaping. It was way too soon for Staravia to already be strong enough to evolve into Staraptor, but the bird Pokemon almost evolved again! He had no idea Staravia was already that strong.

“Staravia!” The bird Pokemon crowed in victory, ignoring that strange happening as nothing important.

“Way to go buddy!” Ash cheered to his Pokemon as Dawn whooped in delight with a great big smile on her face. Ash held his arm up and Staravia landed upon it gleefully puffing his chest up in pride. The teen guessed he just must have been training Staravia harder than he thought, but then again Staravia was probably feeling overshadowed by how much more powerful Pidgeot, Fearow, Swellow and Noctowl were than he was and was giving it his all to evolve quicker so as to not disappoint Ash, somehow thinking that he would be disappointed that his Pokemon was weaker than his other ones. He made a mental note to talk to Staravia about it, make sure there weren’t any misconceptions. For all he knew the bird Pokemon might have simply wanted to reach his next evolution as a personal goal.

Ash chuckled in amusement and tickled his Pokemon’s chest feathers, receiving a noise of pleasure before he lifted up Staravia’s Pokeball and returned him in a beam of red energy, “Way to go buddy, take a nice long rest.” Ash told his Pokemon with a proud smile.

“You bastard cheat!” Raymond brought their attention back to him with a rage filled scream, grasping his five other Pokeballs between his hands, a crazed look in his eye, “There’s no way a shitty little Staravia could have beaten my awesome Granbull, go everyone!” He continued to scream, as he tossed the Pokeballs into the air and released all of his other Pokemon in multiples flashes of bright light.

Ash raised an eyebrow, it seemed Raymond had gotten a whole new team since he last battled him. Standing in front of him and Dawn and advancing on them menacingly was a Crawdaunt, which was rather typical of a Team Aqua wannabe like him. Crawdaunt was a large, mostly red crustacean Pokémon. It have three pairs of limbs in total: two pincers with spikes protruding from the edges and tan-colored lower sides of the claws, one pair of legs that resembled Ash’s Corpishs own with small spikes, and a two-clawed back pair that looked almost elephantine. It possessed two blue stripes on its chin that were could be mistaken for a pair of lips. Lower on it’s tan-colored underside was a pattern of angular red shapes, separating the upper portion of Crawdaunts underside from the lower portion. On the top of its head was a yellow star-shaped object, Crawdaunt had circular eyes with small pupils in dark sockets, and a pocketing in its shell below its eye resembling ‘bags’. On the lower part of its lobster-like tail was a triangular patch of yellow.

An altaria. Altaria resembled a large blue phoenix-like Pokémon with a long neck and white cheeks. The feathers of its body made it resemble a cumulus cloud and two long blue feathers extended from the back of its head. Altaria’s blue feet had four toes, three forward and one backward, and it had five tail feathers, the ones to the sides being longer than the inner ones.

Beside the Altaria was a Mightyena. Mightyena was a large Hyena like Pokemon. Its body was a mixture of black and gray coloured fur, with black coloration on its lower legs, clawed feet, and tail. Mightyena had dark, triangular streak patterns below its eyes, which had yellow sclera and red irises. Mightyena had rhombus-shaped ears with dark insides, gray paw pads, and noses that were red in coloration. It had eyebrow-like extensions on its head from the black, shaggy ‘mantle’ of fur on its back.

Up next was a Gallade. It had a white lower body that consisted of bold rounded hips with strong legs. its torso was thin and coloured in a balance between the green of his upper body, and the white of his lower body. Sharp red hornlike protrusions stuck out of the chest and back. Gallade’s arms were shaped like tonfas, with extendible blades in the elbows. Its head resembled a gladiator’s helmet, with a white face and a light-teal coloured head crest and had spikes on the side of its face.

And the 5th and final Pokemon attempting to advance upon Ash and Dawn menacingly was a Hitmonlee. Hitmonlee was a Pokémon shaped similar to both a human and an egg. Primarily brown, Hitmonlee had cream-colored, segmented arms and legs, with three fingers and three claw-like toes respectively. The muscles on it’s legs were akin to a coiled spring, being able to freely expand and contract. These muscles were more accurate than it’s arms, allowing it – Ash knew – to perform powerful knee and kick attacks. Hitmonlee had almond-shaped eyes with black rings around them, and it’s feet had yellow coloration on it’s ankles and soles, the Pokemon appeared to lack ears or a nose.

Dawn reached for her Pokeballs, ready to battle the Pokemon and defeat the, but Ash held up a hand and halted Dawn in her place as he let out an amused chuckle, “Well well, this is almost identical to what you did when I beat you last time.” The teen stated his voice filled with amusement, his eyes possessing a hard glint in them.

“What?” Raymond blurted out stupidly, but Ash shook his head and didn’t deign him with an answer as he looked to his partner, who tiredly climbed up onto his shoulder from his sleeping place in Ash’s backpack.

“Pikachu,” Ash said simply getting his partner Pokemon to look at him questioningly, “Thunderbolt.”

Pikachu nodded and launched himself up into the air from Ash’s shoulder, his body covering in a bright yellow aura of power before he – with absolutely no charge time – unleashed a massive tower of electricity that split into five smaller but still giant arcs of lightning, that in the blink of an eye roared down upon the five Pokemon, causing each and every one of them to squeal out in pain before collapsing under the power of Pikachu’s outrageously powerful attack and falling unconscious thanks to the multitude of burns that their bodies were scalded with.

“NOOO! He did it to me again!” Raymond cried out, crying rivers of tears from his eyes as he pounded the ground with a fist, “It’s not fair! Not fair! Not fair!” He whined over and over like a petulant child having a temper tantrum.

“Winner of the 6 on 6 battle between Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town Age: 14 and Raymond Lavinski of Cherrygrove City Age: 22, is Ash Ketchum… Calculating winnings… Calculating… done… Ash Ketchum receives 8903 PokeDollars in total.” His Pokedex chimed in from his back pocket before beeping as the winnings were received and added to his balance on his Pokedex.

Ash snickered; that was rather stupid of Raymond. The higher level of the battle the higher the pay-out for the loser, and Raymond, like an idiot, went and made it into a full 6 on 6 battle on accident because he – a grown man – was having a petty little temper tantrum.

Ash turned to his girlfriend, pleased with the outcome of the battle and completely ignoring the man bawling like a child, “Ready to go?” He asked as Pikachu climbed up and over his shoulder to return to his resting place inside Ash’s backpack and have a nice nap, hopefully one that wouldn’t be disturbed again until dinner.

Dawn smiled bemusedly at her boyfriend offering her his arm. “Yup, let’s go.” She chirped in reply as she slid her arms around his, smirking as she saw him jolt when her breasts were pressed against his bicep, before she dragged him off.

She supposed he finished that battle up very quickly and thus he very much deserved the surprise she had in store for him.

They left, completely ignoring the figure of Raymond crying and bashing the ground, shouting all kinds of obscenities about way Ash beating him was ‘so unfair’ and how much he was cheating.

                                                                              _____________

“And here is your room key.” Nurse Joy said with a pleasant smile as she handed the room key over to Dawn, who was up at the front desk booking her and her boyfriends room for the night.

“Thanks Nurse Joy.” Dawn chirped gratefully as she accepted card that unlocked their room’s door lock mechanism.

Ash told Dawn to go on ahead, grabbing a quick bathroom break before he slowly made his way to their room, his mind whirling as to what his ‘surprise’ would be.

Just as he reached the hallway containing his room he heard his girlfriend’s sexy growl. Well, it was sexy to him at least, her using it when he wasn’t around meant she was being bothered by someone, so he hurried on ahead, only to see a brown haired boy talking to Dawn. The boy had the body type he’d seen often, a sort of half pudgy, half in shape body that the lazier Trainers developed. Considering the boy had a Prinplup and an Alakazam by his side he probably used the Psychic Pokemon teleport everywhere.

Prinplup was the evolved form of Piplup, and Ash assumed it was this guys starter Pokemon. Prinplup resembled a blue penguin. It had yellow three-toed feet, its body was mostly a light-blue, with a dark-blue ‘mantle’ and tail. There were four button-like white spots on its stomach, its wings were dark-blue with light-blue tips. It had an owl-like face with blue irises and two yellow crests running across the top of its head.

Alakazam on the other hand was a Kanto native Pokemon that was said to have a brain that could process faster than a super computer. Alakazam was easily identified by its human like structure and its large moustache. Alakazam had what appeared to be brown braces over its forearms and knees. Its head was large – mostly for containing a large brain – which was what gave it the extremely powerful mental powers. It was bipedal with three toes on each foot, each of which had a white claw. It wielded a silver spoon in each hand, each of which seemed to act as an amplifier for its special abilities.

Ash made his way over as he saw the highly annoyed expression on Dawn’s face, as well as her clenched teeth and angry glare.

Dawn huffed as the reddish haired boy wearing tan slacks and a long sleeve green shirt walked off hurriedly. Ash got a sinking feeling, which only grew as the blue haired girl turned to him, looking apologetic. “I’m really sorry Ash, but do you think we could postpone that surprise until tomorrow? That… that prick Kenny just ruined my mood.” She briefly snarled, glaring in the direction the now named Kenny had left.

Ash, likening this encounter to one of his own with Gary back in the day – because it certainly seemed his girlfriend knew the boy – could fully understand her mood, so was very accepting about the whole thing. He took her hand, giving it a firm squeeze to assure her he was there if she needed to vent, and said, “That’s alright, I know how dealing with childhood rivals can be. Do you think I could at least know what the surprise was though?”

Dawn thought about his request. Ash hadn’t nagged or pressed for information, aside from just a second ago, but he could have spent the entire time since she offered asking. She should reward that sort of trust, she decided. A blush forming on her cheeks, she looked around to make sure no one was nearby and leaned in closer to her boyfriend. “Well…” She whispered in her best sultry tone, “Since you like my butt so much I was thinking I might give you a lapdance.”

She immediately pulled back with a giddy giggle at how naughty it was, and Ash’s thunderstruck expression, and slipped into their room as quick as she could, her face still burning.

Ash spent several moments staring at the door to their room, slack jawed.

Lapdance. He was going to get a lap dance. A dance in which his curvy girlfriend would grind her large round ass against his crotch. The only thing separating their sexes being her own thin panties and his boxers, or boxers and pants, depending on how she wanted to do things. And, Arceus be willing, she might even do it topless.

His increasingly happy thoughts swerved off of Horny Highway with a screech of tires and slammed into a wall with a giant COCKBLOCKED carved into it in massive letters though as it really set in that he wasn’t getting that lapdance because some jackass pissed off his beautiful girlfriend.

And suddenly Brock’s speech from years before made sense…

-Flashback-

“Ash my good buddy, now that you’ve entered your teens – and I tell you this because I care – Team Rocket may be filled with bad people, but there’s a whole race of evil people dating back to the ancient times much worse than the likes of Team Rocket…be prepared to fight them Ash…” Brock whispered to him as he looked around the Pokemon Center they were in shiftily at anyone who could be paying attention to their conversation, “Be prepared to battle the Ultimate Evil, Cockblockers!”

-Flashback End-

Ash shook his head, pulling himself from his memory. He’d never been so calm and angry at the same time before. He was enraged, but calm enough to direct that rage perfectly. It was a strange feeling, one he wasn’t going to dwell on because he had a tubby little shit to absolutely destroy.

Oh tomorrow that guy would rue the day he cockblocked Ash Ketchum!

For now he had a decision to make, should he use Pikachu, have Charizard sent over, or crush him with Mewtwo? So many ways to get revenge, so little time…