Working Sinnoh With Skill(old) - Chapter 13 (Patreon)

Eterna Forest wasn’t a long distance from Floaroma Town. On average, the journey from the town to the forest took two to three days on foot.

Ash breathed in deeply, enjoying the scent the fresh air as it filled his lungs. He and Dawn were travelling at a moderate pace, cutting upstream on the banks of a river that according to their Pokétch was in fact a short cut on the way towards Eterna Forest.

Pikachu, as usual these days, was snoozing away comfortably inside the confines of Ash’s backpack. And surprisingly, Piplup had joined Pikachu inside to snuggle into the comfortable sleeping bag and follow Pikach’s lead.

Lately, Piplup had begun to look up to Pikachu in a sort of fusion between hero worship, learning of sorts from a role model and finally with an almost brotherly affection.

…Hopefully Piplup wouldn’t pick up any of Pikachu’s other bad habits, like the small Electric Type Pokemon’s tendency to act like some kind of ketchup junkie. He could only imagine the kind of scolding Dawn would give him if Piplup got turned into a Ketchup addict… Not to mention she may once again rescind his boyfriendly privileges for a set time as punishment – not a fun thought at all.

Turning his head, Ash switched his attention to his girlfriend. Dawn herself was currently lost in her own little word. The blue haired girl was peering intently around every area they passed through, hoping to spot any potential Pokemon to capture

According to the information that came from her own mouth. Dawn wanted to capture a few more Pokemon that were of the Grass, Electric, Flying, Bug and quite a few other Types so she could confidently state that she had a varied set of Pokemon that could, hopefully, in theory, respond to any type of situation and gain the advantage.

Ash sighed internally. He was pretty damn bored. And, with nothing keeping his attention occupied his mind drifted back to his recent problem.

Team Galactic.

Despite having found out the basics of their plans thanks to Mewtwo, Ash was still very worried. It was too risky for Mewtwo to go after the higher ranked personnel of the criminal syndicate, so he had very little to base his future plans on.

It was the same with every criminal syndicate he’d heard of so far. Any Team Rocket flunkie could tell you how they planned to capture or steal every rare, powerful or valuable and use said Pokemon to take over the entire world. But flunkies would never have known about Giovanni’s creating of Mewtwo, and other deadly classified operations such as the Dark Ball used by the Iron Masked Marauder to capture Celebi, change the small time pixie Pokemon into a cold emotional monster that was completely subservient to Team Rocket and if not for the aid of Suicine the Legendary North Wind Pokemon, then there was no way he could have saved Celebi from The Iron Masked Marauder’s grasp and from being used as a weapon of mass destruction that would have in the end needed to be killed. Possibly by another Legendary Pokemon, which may actually throw the world into disarray.

It was the exact same with Team Magma and Team Aqua. Sure the flunkies knew that they were out to capture Groudon and Kyogre. But they had no idea Maxie the leader of Team Magma planned to use Groudon’s powers to dry up the ocean, or that Archie of Team Aqua planned to sink everything into the depths of the ocean with the power of Kyogre.

They just weren’t high up enough on the food chain to have such information revealed to them.

So, he knew what Team Galactic wanted to achieve overall. But he had no idea how they were going to go about it and without that knowledge there was no way he could effectively plan a counter attack against them.

The only sure fire thing he could do now was keep the Ranger HQ updated on his findings on the situation.

…At least until he ran into one of the higher ranked members of Team Galactic himself. He wasn’t usually one to resort to violence, but if it kept his friends, his mother and Dawn safe he’d take down the high ranking member and beat them within an inch of their lives to get the information he needed.

That was a silent promise, that we was resolute to go through with if he had to resort to such actions.

Drastic times called for drastic measures after all. And a bunch of psychopaths hell bent on capturing two Pokemon of Legend that governed over both Time and Space was definitely a drastic situation.

Shaking his head, the Pokemon Ranger rid himself of such gloomy thoughts, ‘For now, I’ll deal with things as they come, and hopefully along the way I’ll think up a plan of action.’ Was his last thoughts on the matter, before he banished the topic to the back of his mind once again.

Looking up, a moment later Ash grinned when he saw what he recognized as a flock of Swablu and Altaria flying overhead. A Pokemon species that were generally quite powerful because of Altaria’s dual typing of both Flying and Dragon.

Should he tell her? Catering to more than six Pokemon was actually quite hard. The only reason he was good at it was because he learned from Brock, who basically took care of all of Ash’s Pokemon, his own Pokemon, Misty’s Pokemon and May’s Pokemon while they travelled together.

… Still, better for Dawn to learn early on the difficulty of paying all your Pokemon equal attention, as well as training them and taking care of them. He couldn’t hold her hand forever. He could be her pillar, he could hold her up, but in the end she would still have to take the lead herself if she ever wanted to become a great Pokemon Trainer as well as Coordinator.

“Dawn!” He spoke up, catching his girlfriend’s attention.

“Yeah, Ash?” His sapphire eyed girlfriend replied, turning to him quizzically.

Ash met Dawn’s gaze and gave her a grin, “Check it out,” He told her, pointing up into the air towards the flock of Pokemon flying overhead, “you were looking for a Flying Type Pokemon right?” He asked her, “Well there’s your chance, Altaria are pretty good Pokemon.” The raven haired teen pressed on further.

Dawn followed the direction his hand was pointing in and gasped as she saw the flock of Bird Pokemon.

There was quite a few of them. She couldn’t quite count the number of Swablu, but she’d estimate there was at least fifty of the small Flying Types.

And as for the Altaria, there were three on each side of the flock of Swablu, with one at the very front of the flock obviously leading it and one at the rear end of the flock, for purposes she wasn’t quite sure of.

She quickly retrieved her pink Pokedex from the side pocket in her yellow backpack and aimed it upwards, first scanning the Swablu, and then the Altaria.

“Swablu, the Cotton Bird Pokémon. Swablu loves cleanliness and is quick to wipe off any unclean surface with its cotton-like wings.” There was no specific gender or move pool listed because, despite being wild Dawn had scanned the entire flock of Swablu with her Pokedex, instead of one individual Swablu.

The Swablu species of Pokemon were primarily round, blue parrot-like creatures with two long, blue feathers on top of their heads, and fluffy white wings that resemble cotton, or clouds. The small species of Flying Type had short, rounded white beaks, white feet, and small blue tail feathers.

Dawn looked the entire flock over for a moment, before turning to her boyfriend with a puzzled look on her face, “Which one should I try to catch?” She asked him.

Ash contemplated that question for a moment before answering, “That one.” He told her, pointing towards the Altaria flying at the rear end of the flock.

“Why that one?” The bluenette Coordinator questioned, she was rather curious as to why he picked the one trailing at the back of the flock.

“If I remember right about the majority of Flying Type Pokemon flocks,” Ash began, his voice taking on a slight change of tone and becoming what Dawn liked to label as ‘Ash’s Pokemon Lecture Voice’, “if you attack the leader of the flock, or the younglings the fully evolved bird Pokemon are protecting, then the entire flock will react violently, but the one at the back is more often than not the most powerful Pokemon in the flock and so takes the back in order to fend off any attacks.” He continued to lecture, “And as the strongest battler of the flock, the rest of the flock will continue to fly away while that Pokemon will either buy time for them to escape, or defeat the opponent and catch up with them.” Ash finally concluded his – rather long winded – lecture.

Dawn took a few moments to process just what Ash had told her, before nodding her understanding. “Right!” She replied, swinging her Pokedex in the direction of the Altaria at the rear end of the flock and hitting the scan button.

“Altaria, the Humming Pokémon and the evolved form of Swablu. As Altaria flies across the sky, it resembles a soft cloud. It hums using its high Altaria is Male and has the ability Natural Cure. This Altaria has the ability to perform the attacks Dragonbreath, Sky Attack, Steel Wing, Dragon Rush, Mirror Move and Solarbeam.” The female voice of the Pokedex informed them in its usual monotone voice.

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

“Holy crap, really?!” Ash blurted out. He gave an impressed whistle not a moment later, “That must be one damn strong Altaria, and probably a pretty mature one at that if it knows all of those attacks.” He continued, adopting an amused grin, “Now I wish I decided to catch it instead.” The teen told his girlfriend with a mock pout.

Dawn turned from her previous position of gaping at the Altaria, and couldn’t help allowing a giggle of her own to break free at her boyfriend’s reaction.

Although, one thing about it puzzled her. “What’s Natural Cure?” She asked Ash.

Ash stopped his pouting and scratched his chin thoughtfully, “It’s a pretty rare ability, actually.” He answered honestly, “Basically, if your Pokemon has this ability and is effected by a status ailment such as a burn, paralysis or poisoning then if you take it out of the battle, generally by Pokeball, and give it a slight reprieve then its body will heal itself, and cure the ailment.”

“Really?!” She practically shouted. The ability sounded almost too good to be true, but when Ash gave her a nod in confirmation she gave slight squeal of excitement, “That’s so awesome! I definitely have to catch this Altaria now!” The short skirt wearing girl declared.

She quickly grabbed one of her Pokeballs and deftly released the Pokemon from within, “Let’s go Ambipom, spotlight!” Dawn called out, releasing the Normal Type Pokemon from her Pokeball in a bright flash of silvery white light.

“Ambi ambi-Ambipom!” The purple twin tailed monkey Pokemon chattered excitedly as she appeared in front of Dawn and Ash standing on the river bank.

Dawn didn’t bother wasting any more time. “Ambipom,” She started, pointing towards the Altaria trailing up above behind the large flock of Pokemon, “Hit that Altaria with your newest move, use Shadow Ball!” She told the twin tailed Pokemon, her tone commanding.

Ambipom bounced on the heels of her feet excitedly as she lifted both hand-tipped tails up and formed a sphere of blackish-purple maismic energy. Using both tails, she gripped the sphere of ghostly power and sent it soaring into the skies towards the unawares Altaria.

Despite the rather large distance, the Shadow Ball met Altaria after only a few short moments and crashed forcefully into the dual Flying and Dragon Type Pokemon’s flank, exploding powerfully on impact and sending the Altaria into a nose dive after a brief screech of pain.

The flock didn’t stop despite Altaria being attacked. In fact, to prove Ash’s theory correct, they picked up in speed and literally took off flying away as fast as they could. Leaving the Altaria to fend for himself.

Dawn visibly shook with excitement, readying an empty Pokeball in her hand and preparing to toss it at the Altaria.

Ash stopped her though, placing a hand on her shoulder and gaining her attention. “Don’t count that Altaria out quite yet, that species of Pokemon are rather well known for being able to take quite a beating.” He told his girlfriend.

And rightly so, because after nodding in reply to his statement she turned back towards where the Altaria was taking a nose dive, just in time to see the cloud-winged Pokemon right itself and steadily fly in place with a fierce glare directed towards Ambipom.

And just like Ash had not just a second ago gotten finished telling her. The Altaria looked completely fine and with ease took flight despite the flank of its body bleeding a vibrant red and staining the dual Flying and Dragon Type Pokemon’s feathers a dark purple colour.

“Alltaaariiiiaaaaa!” The Pokemon cried angrily, extending both cloud shaped wings out as far as they could go and shooting straight down through the air towards Ambipom like a rocket. Especially so when a shroud of searing hot flames burst into existence and cloaked the attacking Pokemon’s body.

Ash acted quickly and pulled her back with him a few feet, out of the immediate danger zone of where the battle was about to take place.

“That’s a Sky Attack!” Ash revealed, pointing in the attacking Altaria’s direction, “It’s the strongest Flying Type attack there is, do NOT let Ambipom be hit by it, or this fight will be more or less over!” He continued forcefully, trying to convey just how dangerous being hit by an attack like that was.

Dawn nodded and stepped a bit in front of him, intending to take charge of the battle. “Wait for it Ambipom, just listen and do what I say.” The bluenette told her Pokemon, receiving a thumbs up in reply by one of the hands on Ambipoms tails.

When Altaria was roughly ten metres from Ambipom and rapidly enclosing, Dawn acted. “Now, use Double Team!” She ordered her Pokemon sharply.

Ambipom flickered in place for moment before a multitude of clones of the Pokemon faded into view in long line to the sides of Ambipom.

Altaria reached and struck home, but it was not to be and the flame enshrouded Pokemon went straight through Ambipom and crashed into the stone river banks harshly.

“Alll!” Altaria cried out in pain. Pushing himself up with both cloud shaped wings shakily.

“Now Focus Punch!” Dawn followed up quickly.

Up above Altaria, Ambipom flickered into view both tail fists clenched and glowing a bright silvery white with powerful Fighting Type energy.

Off to the sides, Ambipom’s clones all faded from view.

Swinging down with both tails and fists, Ambipom crashed the double Focus Punch’s down harshly and without mercy on the Altaria.

Luckily for Altaria though, he managed to spin in place and launch two glowing silvery white wings up to meet Ambipom’s tail fists head on.

Due to the momentum though, Altaria’s defensive Steel Wing attack did little more than blunt the total impact of the attacks and was sent flying through the air, a few feet above the ground before falling a moment later a few feet away from its previous position with a pained cry, landing in a crumpled heap on the hard stone river bank.

“Now,” Dawn followed up once again, “Ambipom, finish it off with Swift!” The sapphire eyed girl commanded.

Ambipom obeyed and and her tails began to glow a bright yellow. Swinging her tail, she sent a barrage of hundreds of golden condensed energy in the shape of stars hurtling towards the downed Altaria.

Altaria wasn’t quite down yet though, and with a squawk of extreme pain the blue coloured Flying Pokemon launched himself into the air and allowed the many energy stars to miss completely and decimate a tree behind Altaria’s previous position.

Pulling up into the air with his wings, Altaria used them to spring forward faster than the Pokemon had previously shown and jetted towards Ambipom once again.

Halfway towards Ambipom, Altaria’s body exploded into an ominous blue energy that cloaked the Pokemon’s body and took the form of an eerie roaring dragon.

“Dodge it!” Dawn shouted desperately after seeing the attack literally explode into existence.

But it was not to be. Ambipom froze up in fear at the sight of the ferocious image of a dragon and could not dodge and so took the full brunt of the powerful Dragon Rush attack.

The attack exploded into a massive pillar of smoke, the black cloud tickling at Ash and Dawn’s noses with the scent of sulphur.

A moment later, two things happened. Altaria burst from atop the cloud of smoke and flew gently in spot. The Pokemon’s body was literally covered from head to toe in bruises and large gashes, staining almost its entirety of once blue feathers a deep and painful looking purple, the feathers matting against each other and the skin below because of the wet and sticky blood that soaked them. Despite the image though, Altaria was clearly ready for more.

And finally the instance to occur was Ambipom shooting from the cloud and rolling across the river bank, landing in an unconscious bruised heap at Dawn’s feet.

“Ambipom!” She cried out worriedly, dropping to her knee’s to check the Pokemon over.

Ash stopped her from doing anything further though by pulling her back to her feet and pointing in the injured Altaria’s direction, “You beat that Altaria and capture it.” He told her, before continuing. “I’ll take care of Ambipom.” He continued resolutely.

Dawn nodded tearfully, pulling herself together, “Right…” She whispered, before turning to face Altaria once again, grasping another Pokeball as Ash lifted Ambipom up in a bridal carry and took it a few feet away to begin treating its injuries.

“Ponyta, I choose you!” Dawn shouted as she released her newest Pokemon in a burst of silvery light.

“Nyaaah!” Ponyta cried, her blue flamed mane sparkling brightly for a moment as she was released from the Pokeball.

Dawn immediately leaped into action. “Use Flamethrower!” The bluenette ordered. Ponyta obeyed and opened her mouth, firing a searing hot wave of red-orange flames towards the Altaria.

Dawn had a plan. She didn’t want to injure the Altaria any further seeing as it was already hurt so badly.

‘But…’ She thought worriedly, ‘For my plan to work, I need to get Altaria to come in close to Ponyta.‘ She finished silently.

She was in luck, thankfully. Altaria opened his mouth and fired a searing wave of flames of his own to counter-act Ponyta’s Flamethrower, although Altaria’s flames were a greenish-yellow in colour.

Both Flamethrower and Dragonbreath collided mid way between both Pokemon and created yet another explosion.

Altaria followed up quickly though and flew straight through the clouds, bursting through them just a few feet from Ponyta, both cloud shaped wings glowing a silver white with the power of a Steel Wing attack.

‘This is it!‘ Dawn’s thoughts blared, “Hypnosis, now!” She practically screamed the order to Ponyta.

The Ponyta of blue flames obeyed without a moments hesitation and rasied her snout. Meeting Altaria’s eyes with her own as they began to glow a bright crimson red.

And just like that it was over.

Altaria’s eyes glazed over before falling shut, and the dual Flying and Dragon Type Pokemon swiftly followed suit. The Steel Wing attack fading, and then Altaria dropped to the ground rather hard, but did not even wince from the impact into the cold stone river bank and continued to sleep peacefully.

Dawn took her chance, “Pokeball, let’s go!” She called out as she tossed an empty Pokeball towards Altaria.

The Pokeball struck home, opened up and sucked Altaria inside with a beam of red energy. The ball rolled once, then twice, then finally a third time before coming to a stop and giving a soft ‘ping’ noise signifying Altaria’s capture.

Dawn’s serious expression slowly melted into a joyous grin, “Woo, I caught it!” She shouted happily.

Running over to Ponyta, she grasped the female Fire horse in a tight hug, “Well done girl, well done!” She praised, getting a ‘Nyaaah’ of happy satisfaction from her Pokemon.

Stepping back, Dawn lifted Ponyta’s Pokeball and returned her to the inside of it and stashed it away.

Turning, she was about to run over and pick up Altaria’s new Pokeball when it glowed a bright silvery white and literally disappeared!

“Aaaah!” She screamed in fright. Turning she met Ash who had finished treating Ambipom and had returned her to her Pokeball, while holding said Pokeball out to her, “Altaria’s Pokeball just disappeared!” The wild eyed girl blurted out rapidly.

Ash chuckled amusedly as his girlfriend accepted Ambipom’s Pokeball, “Don’t worry, that was just it getting sent to Professor Oak back in Pallet Town to be looked after because you already have six Pokemon and are only still a beginner trainer.” He relayed in reply to her panicking, laughter tickling at his voice.

Dawn breathed a sigh of relief, “Thank Arceus, I thought somebody just stole Altaria after all the trouble I went through to catch him.” She confided in return, visibly relaxing.

She sobered up a moment later though after casting a look towards Ambipom’s Pokeball, “How is she…?” She questioned worriedly.

Ash gave her a grin, “‘No need to worry.” He quoted her most used phrase. A little bit of humour could go a long way to soothing a tense situation. “She only had a mild bruising and a bit of a concussion, so I gave her some Sitrus Berry and sprayed her with a bit Super Potion,” The amber eyed teen pressed further, pausing for a moment to catch his breath after the long reply and then continuing, “She’ll be right as rain after a little bit of rest.” He finished up, his easy going grin doing wonders to soothe his girlfriends concerns.

A bright cheery smile overtook Dawn’s features at the news. Excitedly, she quickly grabbed Ash by the shoulder with one hand and the back of his shaggy raven hair with the other and pulled him into a deep and passionate, tongue wrestling kiss.

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The kiss would have lasted a lot longer than the two minutes it did, if a large and loud explosion didn’t go off in the forest close by.

The earth shook under their feet from the force of the explosion, and both Ash and Dawn were abruptly broken apart.

“What the heck was that!?” Dawn hissed agitatedly as she regained her balance. She smoothed down her pink skirt and looked around angrily.

Ash was about to answer her when he caught sight of a large pillar of black smoke towering over the forest tree’s a ways off to their right.

“It came from over there!” He said, pointing at the smoke.

Dawn turned to get an eyeful of it, as Ash grasped her hand and started pulling her along. “C’mon, somebody might have gotten hurt.”

“Right.” His girlfriend answered in reply, allowing him to drag her in the direction of the explosion.

Together, they took off into the forest rushing towards the epicentre of the blast radius.

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When both boyfriend and girlfriend burst from the forest foliage into the area of the blast, they were not expecting to see two twin boys around their age, cheering excitedly into the camera of a female news reporter and her crew.

They were also not expecting to see two dejected boys trudge out of the clearing dejectedly.

“The hell?” Ash managed to utter, completely stupefied. Dawn not to far behind him.

Ash tried to rid himself of his dumbfound state of mind by shaking his head, but he was having no such luck. What the hell was up with people these days? Why the hell were two teen boys getting video’d by what looked to be a TV reporter and her camera crew in the middle of nowhere?

Both he and Dawn didn’t go unnoticed for long. The female reporter spotted them and started chattering excitedly to the two twins, who in turn, turned to face them wide grins sporting on their faces.

Ash blinked owlishly at them as they walked towards him and Dawn. “Hey, you must be our next challengers!” The one on the right stated. The only difference between this boy and his twin was that his spiky green hair was a lot shaggier than his twins, and his red shirt had an orange bar running horizontally across the mid-section, where as his twins hair jutted up in perfect spikes and he had an orange bar running vertically down the length of his shirt.

“Hey, I’m Ryan!” The other twin introduced himself with a grin, pointing his thumb at his chest.

“And, I’m Bryan!” The first twin continued on after his twin.

“Aaaannnd…” They both began in sync, “We’re the Champ Twinz!” They declared loudly, striking rather flamboyant poses beside one another.

“With a ‘Z’.” The right twin said with a wink.

‘Are these guys serious?’ Ash thought to himself incredulously.

“No really we’re no-” Dawn tried to dissuade them, waving them off but Bryan cut her off. Holding an enlarged Pokeball aloft in his hand and pointed towards both Ash and Dawn.

“Get ready, to become the 18th win of our winning streak for the day!” Bryan declared, tossing his Pokeball into the air. His twin brother following straight after tossing his own Pokeball into the air.

“Croconaw, let’s drown these guys!”

“Quilava, let’s heat things up!

In two burst of bright silvery white energy, two Pokemon appeared directly in front of Ryan and Bryan.

The large blue bipedal crocodile like Pokemon, Dawn recognized. It was a Croconaw, she’d seen her boyfriend’s quite a few times after all. Although, this one looked a little smaller than his rather excitable Crocodile.

The other one, she did not recognize. Quilava, Ryan had called it, didn’t he? The blue haired Coordinator examined it closely, and she could see quite a resemblance between it and her boyfriends Cyndaquil. An Evolved form, perhaps?

Taking out her pink Pokedex, Dawn initiated the scan feature by pressing down on the ‘scan’ button. “Quilava, the Volcano Pokémon, and the evolved form of Cyndaquil. Its body is covered with fire-proof fur and can withstand any Fire-type attack.” Her Pokedex lectured, its tone of voice monotone as per usual.

Dawn grinned to herself, mentally patting herself on the back, ‘So I was right, it was the evolved form of a Cyndaquil.‘ She thought privately to herself, ‘All that studying I’ve done under Ash is really starting to pay off and bare fruit, I’m even now starting to see patterns between certain Pokemon. Score one for me!’

Like its pre-evolution, Cyndaquil, the top half of Quilava’s body was a darkish blue and the lower half a creamy-yellow colour. However, Quilava’s entire body was slimmer in proportion and it was now a quadruped, instead of being a primarily bipedal Pokemon. Quilava had triangular ears with red-colored insides and possessed a much smaller, more rounded nose than the one it had as a Cyndaquil, and its eyes were actually wide open, revealing its red irises. Quilava had five red-colored spots on its body in which it projected flames from, two in a somewhat exclamation-mark shape on its forehead and three lined up horizontally on its rear.

‘Arceus I hope I was never this bullheaded and over-eager.’ Ash thought to himself with a grimace as he removed a Pokeball from his belt, and enlarged it with a quick tap to the button on it’s centre.

He looked to his side, towards his girlfriend and rolled his amber eyes when he met her own sapphire blue ones. “Best just humour them, neh?” He stated, grinning at her boyishly, “Besides, it seems they want a Tag-battle with us, so we can see with it just how compatible we really are.”

Tag-battles were originally created for couples. It put their bond to the test, in that they had to both be in complete sync with their partner and trust them completely and utterly to be the perfect tag-team battlers.

Ash was confident, that both he and Dawn would ace this little self-test of his with ease.

Dawn, meeting his eyes nodded in agreement. Trusting his judgement. So, that done she walked over to her boyfriend who quirked an eyebrow at her.

She merely smiled demurely at him though and swiftly reached into his backpack, deftly extracted her lazy starter Pokemon and tossed Piplup out in front of her, “I choose, Piplup.” She stated with a giggle.

Ash couldn’t help a chuckle of his own, as Piplup stood up with an angry chirp and gave Dawn a barely recognizable ‘two-fingered salute’ with his small wing.

Looking up, Ash grinned as he met his opponents eyes. “Guess, I’m up next then.” He stated, tossing his Pokeball into the air which burst open and released his own Pokemon from within, “Riolu, show them our power!”

With the grace and skill of a born warrior. Riolu exploded from the silvery white energy and landed in front of Ash in a crouch, prepared for battle. “I await your command, Master.” Riolu communicated to him through the use of Aura.

“Croconaw, let’s start this off with Hydro Pump!” Bryan commanded quickly.

Ryan wasted no time and quickly followed up on his brothers attack plan, “Quilava, you come in behind that Hydro Pump with Flame Wheel!”

Both Pokemon obeyed.

Propping it’s jaw, Croconaw fired a large pressurized cannon of spiralling water that roared through the air towards Riolu. Quilava behind it by a hair at most, sprinted into a jump and landed as a large spinning wheel of searing hot flames.

Ash reacted instantly, “Riolu, use Copycat on Croconaw!” He ordered swiftly. He left the countering of Quilava to Dawn, he knew he could trust her.

Riolu jumped up from his crouch, a dazzling deep blue aura erupting around his small lithe form before he opened his mouth and cocked his neck and head backwards.

Riolu snapped both forward lightning fast a moment later, opening his mouth and fired a large pressurized cannon of spiralling water just as large as Croconaw’s, maybe even a bit bigger straight towards the approaching Hydro Pump.

Both Hydro Pump attacks met head on, impacted harshly against each other and for the lack of a better term cancelled each other out and causing a small rain-storm of energy infused water to spray down upon their battlefield.

Quilava continued to blitz forward as raging inferno like wheel of flames, straight towards the descending Riolu.

But, it was not to be for Quilava and Ryan sadly.

“Piplup, Bubblebeam!” Dawn called out as the Quilava rapidly approached Riolu.

Piplup, dismissing their earlier bickering obeyed and opened his beak wide. Firing a multitude of large turquoise blue bubbles of water based energy straight towards the flaming wheel that was Quilava.

Ryan cursed, “Quilava, disengage and use Quick Attack to escape!”

Quilava obeyed once more, and skidded to a halt the flames of it’s previous attack flickering and dying down before dissipating. Skidding on it’s two hind feet, Quilava sprung backwards into a sprint to the side with blurring speeds, so fast that a bright white energy trail was left behind it.

Successfully escaping the Bubblebeam that pulverized it’s previous position. Quilava looked to it’s side only, to yip in fright when it saw Riolu running right along side it as blurring speeds also.

Because, the moment Quilava evoked the power of the Quick Attack, Ash had communicated through the aura and ordered Riolu’s next attack with his mind, ‘Copycat, again.’

“Now, Force Palm!” Ash followed up.

Riolu thrust one paw straight into the side of Quilava’s face as they ran side by side, and from his power an energy blast fired off like a cannon and sent Quilava bouncing across the forest floor with a pained howl. Landing a few bounces later, in a pained heap under a tree.

“Grr!” Bryan growled at the sight of his twin brother’s Pokemon being beaten around so thoroughly, “Croconaw, teach that little runt of a Riolu a lesson! Smash it with Headbutt!”

Croconaw obeyed and sprinted rapidly towards Riolu who had his back towards the charging Water-type.

Ash smirked, quickly taking a look at his girlfriend to confirm his beliefs. Seeing what he wanted, Ash gave a one single worded command, “Reversal.”

On instincts enhanced by Aura, Riolu swiftly turned around and ducked under Croconaw’s head by less than half a inch. Thrusting his small blue paws forward, Riolu grasped Croconaw under one arm and used the momentum and power behind the Headbutt attack, to cock Croconaw over his shoulder and toss him straight into Quilava who had just struggled back up to its feet, shakily.

Croconaw impacted with Quilava harshly, sending them both tumbling back to the ground. Croconaw with a grunt and nothing more, and Quilava with a loud yelp.

“Alright Dawn, let it rip!” Ash called out.

“Gotcha!” She replied to her amber eyed boyfriend’s call. “Piplup, let’s finish this with your newest move use Whirlpool!” The blue haired Coordinator commanded.

That caught the attention of both Ryan and Bryan who looked sharply, towards the mostly forgotten pair of Dawn and Piplup. Ash and Riolu had been so active and fast paced that all their attention had been situated upon those two alone.

And that’s exactly what Dawn had been hoping for.

Piplup, who had already been charging his new attack up while Riolu got both target Pokemon into position. Cocked both small wings that were extended upwards into the air backwards, and then tossed them forward, hard.

And with those few gestures, the massive easily thirty foot towering glowing turquoise whirlpool of water aligned energy was sent flying through the air towards the downed forms of both Quilava and Croconaw.

“No!” Ryan called out, while Bryan hung his head in dismay.

By the time Croconaw and Quilava untangled from each other and shakily rose to their feet, it was already too late to do anything.

The massive whirlpool washed over them, sucking them up into the whirlpool and pressing down on them from all sides with a powerful crushing force that was known well to the inhabitants of the ocean depths.

That, plus the energy making up the attack repeatedly burning into both Pokemon was just too much for them. When the Whirlpool dissipated roughly a minute later, both Fire-Type and Water-Type Pokemon dropped to the forest floor completely out cold, covered from head to toe in deep bruising and in no shape to continue battling. And probably wouldn’t be for some time.

Ash grinned as both twin boys dejectedly returned their Pokemon to their Pokeballs in twin beams of red energy. “Well that’s our win then, neh?” Ash prodded his girlfriend.

Dawn smiled in amusement, “I guess it is,” She answered, “And I guess we’re quite compatible as a couple if this battle is anything to go by.” She continued, winking suggestively at her boyfriend and giving him a demure pout.

“Damn straight!” Ash boasted, earning a delighted giggle from the blue haired girl.

As Dawn picked up Piplup and spun him around in joy of their win, Ash crouched down beside Riolu, Pokeball in hand. “Very well done, you’re growing very quickly in strength little buddy.”

Riolu bowed humbly to Ash, “It is thanks to you and your expertise that I have been able to Master.“

Ash smiled lightly at the reply, “I suppose, but then it wouldn’t be possible if the student didn’t want nor have the potential to learn now would it?” He countered amusedly.

That gave Riolu pause, “I…did not think of it that way Master, but once again thank you for your teachings and praise alike, they please me in anyway, shape or form.” The small pre-evolved form of Lucario replied, somewhat hesitantly.

Ash chuckled, “And thank you for being such a great Pokemon,” He replied in kind, “Now, take a nice long rest.” The amber eyed teen continued, returning Riolu into the confines of his Pokeball in a beam of red energy.

As he stood back up, Ash stumbled slightly as Dawn plopped Piplup back down into his backpack beside Pikachu again without warning.

“A little warning next time?” He requested dryly, eyebrow twitching slightly.

Dawn gave a mock gasp of shock in reply, “Are you telling me, that the mighty Pokemon Ranger and Aura Guardian in training, Ash Ketchum couldn’t even sense little ol’ me?” She jokingly mocked him.

Ash did what any mature person would have done. Yes, he blushed slightly from embarrassment at the fact that because he was so used to Dawn, she could evade his senses when in his presence because of his familiarity with his girlfriend.

And so, his actions were as followed;

“Hmph!” Ash turned his nose up at her and briskly walked out of the forest clearing. Dawn following behind him, giggling all the way.

They didn’t even bother to say goodbye to the so called ‘Champ Twinz’. Why should they anyway? They rushed there because they thought someone was in trouble, only to practically forced into a tag-battle.

                                                                       _____________

The very next morning, both Ash and Dawn finally arrived at Eterna Forest. They passed through small grass field before it and pushed though the foliage, entering straight into the forest.

Dawn wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but she surely was not expecting the sight before her now.

The forest was filled with bright streaming sunlight than shone down upon the grass, flowers and tree’s giving them a bright silvery mystical glow.

And even after just entering a small clearing in the Eterna Forest she could see crap loads of Bug Pokemon. A Burmy hanging from a tree. A Wurmple sleeping on a branch. A flock of Butterfree flying up above and even a pair of Scyther clashing bladed arm against bladed arm off to the side. And even quite a few she could not even recognize from memory.

It was like a Bug-type Pokemon paradise.

Dawn had to shield her eyes as the mystical glow of the forest seemed to brighten a moment later, “Why is it so bright, I can hardly see!” The blue haired Coordinator moaned disappointedly. She was missing out on the wondrous sights of the many Bug-type Pokemon.

She could be picking out one to catch right now!

Ash chuckled, “That would be all of the Bright Powder all over the forest.” The amber eyed Ranger answered his girlfriends moaning, “It’s an item that can be used to trick opponents into shutting their eyes because of how reminiscent it is of the sun.” He continued, “It’s an item that’s produced by only select Bug-type Pokemon like, Butterfree, Beautifly, Mothim and Parasect, so in a forest like this that is basically filled with ninety percent Bug-tye Pokemon, it will be all over the place.”

Finishing up his small lecture, Ash bent down and took a small jar from one of the side-pockets of his backpack and began scraping Bright Powder from the the many flowers around his feet.

Dawn sheltering her eyes under her hand looked down at him curiously, “What are you doing?” She inquired of her boyfriend.

Ash gave her a quick flash of a smile before getting back to scraping more Bright Powder into the jar as he answered, “Bright Power can be mixed in with some Pecha Berry, some Sitrus Berry and a few herbs and spices to create a drink for Pokemon that can improve eyesight and thanks to it”s brightness reduce the sensitivity of a Pokemon’s eyes to bright flashes, which would help against the attack ‘Flash’ if it is ever used on your Pokemon.” He answered.

“Wow! That’s awesome!” Dawn chirped excitedly in reply.

Looking down on Ash as he concentrated, Dawn couldn’t help but shake her head in bemusement. Even at a time like this, her boyfriend was putting his enjoyment on the back burner for a possible benefit for his Pokemon.

He was truly one of a kind.

And he was hers, all hers and there wasn’t any way in hell she would ever let him go or let some other hussy sink her claws into him.