Working Sinnoh With Skill(old) - Chapter 15 (Patreon)

It was a stalemate, or so it appeared.

The two seemingly titan-like Pokemon clashed once again, locking their clawed arms together and pushing against each other with all of their strength, intending to make the other buckle beneath their power and force them to submit.

But slowly, ever so slowly the smaller of the two Pokemon began to buckle underneath the sheer physical strength of the larger Pokemon. The Drapion, a behemoth even amongst it’s own large sized species was slowly forcing it’s opponent – a Drapion, a Pokemon of the same species except quite a bit smaller in stature – lower and lower towards the grassy flooring of the forest clearing they were battling in.

Ash grit his teeth. Both he and Drapion were losing ground here, and slowly the battle was shifting with it. The more ground he lost, the more his opponent Aaron and his behemoth of a Drapion gained.

But, even with his experience as a Trainer, and all of the tough situations he’d managed to squirm his way out of. There just wasn’t very much he could do that his opponent couldn’t counter in some way, shape or form.

With his arms indisposed at the moment, that left his Drapion without the ability to use the attacks Cross Poison, Pin Missile, Brick Break or Night Slash.

He could order Drapion to use his tail for an attack, possibly with Aqua Tail or Iron Tail, but then the other Drapion could counter with it’s own tail, and using Hyper Beam was a no go as well because the behemoth of a Drapion could charge up a Hyper Beam attack much faster than his own Drapion could.

Still, it was now or never. He had to act now, or he’d risk losing this battle altogether. So he acted on instinct, his mind hyper-focusing on the battle and adrenaline pumping through as veins as if he himself was in the battle along side his Drapion.

“Aqua Tail straight down onto the ground!” Ash barked out sharply.

His Drapion, hearing the order, put all its strength into pushing forward and jerking the opposing and much larger Drapion backwards just an inch, but it was enough to give the smaller of the two the time he needed to act upon his Trainer’s orders.

“Poison Sting! Don’t let up even for a moment Drapion!” Aaron commanded in return. He wasn’t about to let the kid gain back the advantage, when he’d just started to push him backwards. But he had to hand it to the kid, he was sure as hell making him work for this effort. Only other members of the Elite Four and those close to that level had offered him this kind of challenge in a long while.

It was as exciting to Aaron as it was annoying, that some kid he’d never even heard of was matching his most powerful Pokemon blow for blow with his own Drapion, which was significantly smaller than his own.

Just as Ash’s Drapion lifted it’s tail up and brought it down harshly upon the grassy forest floor, Aaron’s own Drapion opened it’s mouth and fired a continuous barrage of purple, sharp pointed needles of energy straight down upon the face of it’s opponent.

Ash winced as the needles exploded powerfully on impact – and Arceus, did every Pokemon attack explode? – and heard the roar of pain from his own Drapion. But it didn’t last long, because as soon as the needles exploded on contact with his face, the smaller Drapion of the two’s tail made contact with the ground and a massive wave of rushing water roared forth from the spot of impact.

The wave of water expanded in both size and width, easily towering over both Drapion and it impacted both dual Poison and Dark-type Pokemon, sweeping both of their feet and carrying them with it.

Or it appeared to, because a moment later the larger of the two Drapion roared and stood straight up, stretching its torso and head right up over the top of the wave of water.

Ash’s eyes widened. ‘Shit!’ He cursed inwardly, he hadn’t expected that behemoth of a Drapion to be that physically powerful, even with it’s immense size.

He had planned to use the wave as a kamikaze manoeuvre and use it to attack both his own Pokemon and Aaron’s, but the plan was two fold. He had planned for his Drapion to crash into the other and pin it when they came out of the rushing torrent of water with the leverage gained by the rushing waters, and then he could finish this battle up with a point black Hyper Beam straight to the behemoth’s face.

But it seemed he’d underestimated the strength of Aaron’s Drapion. And severely so. He winced as the raging waves of water calmed down and quickly trickled away to show his own Drapion locked between the arms of the larger Drapion.

His plan had worked against him in this instance, and he kicked himself mentally. And there was nothing he could do here to break the hold of the other Drapion until Aaron flowed into his next plan of action.

His own Drapion had both it’s arms and tail locked together with its body in a tight embrace against the larger Drapion’s body, and it’s mouth was smothered by the hard armor plated torso of the behemoth meaning that he couldn’t order Drapion to attack with Hyper Beam to break out of the hold.

At the very least though, he didn’t have to wait any longer for Aaron to plan out an attack, because he was already going through the motions for it already.

“Alright Drapion, Siesmic Toss!” Aaron ordered quickly. He was going to end this battle now, before this kid and his admittedly very powerful Drapion managed to turn the tables and defeat him. Now wouldn’t that be embarrassing?

The behemoth of a Drapion let loose a loud tree shaking roar, and then with a thrust it used it’s titanic level of physical strength and stretched it’s arms upwards rapidly as far as they could go, Ash’s Drapion still locked in a tight embrace between the powerful clawed arms as it stretched up slightly past twenty feet.

Ash had to fight back a whistle, even his Drapion with it’s sizeable and stretchable arms couldn’t reach much over ten feet in comparison to this behemoth that could reach easily over twenty. But now wasn’t the time to be impressed, this was his only chance to steal victory from the claws of defeat.

“Hyper Beam!” The amber eyed ranger shouted, his tone conveying the urgency that his Drapion needed to abide to.

Time was not their friend in this instance.

The smaller Drapion, despite being suspended high up in the air still followed his Trainer’s commands to a ‘T’. Cocking his mouth, the smaller Drapion charged the attack as quickly as it could. A compressed orb of ominous orange energy began to flicker and form between his gaping maw.

But it was all for naught, because no sooner did the orb manifest, did the behemoth of a Drapion tug downwards with all of it’s strength and smashed the smaller Drapion into the earth with all of it’s power.

The ground cratered beneath the smaller Drapion leaving a hole a few feet deep straight in the middle of the grassy floor of the forest clearing, but even then Aaron was still not finished.

“Finish this now!” He bellowed out towards his behemoth Drapion, “Hyper Beam!”

The massive Drapion roared and obeyed, opening it’s mouth it charged it’s attack for all of a second before firing it outwards in a massive encompassing beam of deadly orange energy.

Ash watched with a critical eye, he would not look away from such an epic show down. ‘And.’ He thought to himself, smirking slightly, ‘We’re not out just yet.’

The plume of smoke and debris that was kicked up by the impact when Drapion was smashed into the ground cleared to reveal the Pokemon standing. One of it’s purple armour plated legs was in shreds, blood flowing freely from the wound and one of the Pokemon’s blood shot eyes was swollen shut. But in it’s mouth, a large orb of compressed orange energy pulsed with incredible power.

Even when taking such a powerful blow, Drapion did not stop charging his attack. His Trainer commanded his use of Hyper Beam to defeat this monster of it’s own species, and he would follow the orders of his Trainer and fire a Hyper Beam if it killed him.

“Release the Hyper Beam now!” Ash commanded, his intense eyes glinting in anticipating.

As he’d commanded the release of the attack, the behemoth of a Drapion’s own Hyper Beam had already travelled halfway towards the smaller of the two Drapion and was enclosing rapidly.

With a guttural roar of defiance and pain, Ash’s Drapion released his own Hyper Beam towards the incoming one. The beam of power just as large, bright and intimidating as the opposing beam of energy.

The two extremely powerful beams of energy clashed and pushed against each other, each seeking to over power the other.

Both Drapion pumping more and more of their energy into the attacks along the way, causing the meeting of the two beams in the middle to form into a large volatile sphere of energy that continued to expand and look more volatile all the while.

Ash locked his amber eyes with Aaron’s own green eyes, and both stared hard. Like their Pokemon, they both were not willing to back down. Only one team here was going to walk away the winners!

Ash felt it a moment before it occurred. His aura enhanced senses blazing across the forefront of his mind, blaring for him to take cover, something big and powerful was about to occur. But he wouldn’t do it. He was going to stand here alongside his Drapion.

How could he not with all the hard work Drapion had put in thus far for him? They hadn’t even been together for all that long yet as Pokemon and trainer, as family. But even now, Drapion was loyal to a fault, and even went out of his way to help Ash out or go the extra mile during training.

He would not be a coward and abandon such a great and loyal Pokemon, especially not when it was putting all this effort in just for him.

So he stood strong as the massive orb of orange energy flashed once more, and he stood strong as it exploded so powerfully that the entire clearing was bathed in an orange light, and the leaves off of every tree were blown off and sent flying away as if dragged in by a powerful hurricane.

When the orb detonated in on itself, both Drapion received the brunt of the impact. And shielding his eyes, Ash stayed strong determined to wait out the end.

Whether they won or lost though, he was mightily impressed with his Drapion. He had not expected him to be able to battle at this level, not for quite the while yet. But his Drapion had matched the strongest Pokemon of an Elite Four members team and matched it blow for blow, never backing down even when it was clear that the other Drapion severely outclassed it in both power and experience. He went the distance on raw guts and loyalty to Ash alone.

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“Aah!” Dawn screamed, shielding her eyes. This battle had just been one giant surprise after another. She’d never seen a battle fought like this before. Even one blow from that behemoth of a Drapion would have left her strongest Pokemon unconscious and quite possibly seriously injured.

The sheer level that these Pokemon fought at was inconceivable to her. And she’d seen it with her very own eyes!

But the question was, who had won. Her boyfriend and his Drapion? Or the Elite Four member and his own Drapion?

She awaited with baited breath for the smoke and dust to clear. And when it did, she let loose a sigh of disappointment.

Both Drapion appeared on opposite sides of the clearing. Aaron’s behemoth of a Drapion was standing, although it looked ready to keel over at any given moment. It’s face, once purpled and armoured, was swollen into a deep dark blue and a large gash of blood ran freely from the tip of it’s chest, bashing most of it’s torso in it’s blood and finally one of it’s front legs was mangled at the knee, forming a cluster of criss-crossing burns seeping with blood.

On the other hand, Ash’s own Drapion looked like one big bruise, the majority of his body was burnt and bruised, his entire torso dyed a deep dark blue just like the other Drapion’s face. But Dawn couldn’t see the face of Ash’s Drapion, because he was laying face down and un-moving on the ground.

“…So close…” She muttered in disappointment.

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He sighed, closing his eyes he allowed himself to take a deep breath. And then, he opened his amber colored eyes once again, his orbs glowing with warmth and a small prideful smile came to his face.

He walked over to Drapion and knelt by his Pokemon’s side. He looked down and met Drapion’s eyes from where the Pokemon was looking up at him in what he could make out for either shame or depression on his Pokemon’s part, the way Drapion’s eyes were drawn together and downcast said it all, and it seemed that this loss stung at him more than his injuries despite being unable to move at the moment.

He flashed his proud smile in his direction and reached over, softly rubbing the back of Drapion’s head, “Good job buddy, you battled harder than I could have expected you to and you deserve a nice long rest.” He said soothingly.

His aura had it’s uses, even in a moment like this. Pokemon he was close to, he could almost understand them perfectly, but it wasn’t them communicating through a mutual language that allowed it. His aura, with it he could touch the minds of his Pokemon and their thoughts and feelings could become his own if they allowed it.

But the reverse was also possible. Unseen by anyone else in the clearing, his hand began to glow with a light blue energy, and with each gentle stroke of his hand across the back of his Pokemon’s head it became stronger, and a link was forged.

It was complicated, and had a bunch of inner workings that he couldn’t understand at all. But, he was good at it nonetheless. Like using a computer without knowing the inner functions of the device.

They rushed forth like a steady stream of water, his feelings poured into Drapion. A little bit of disappointment from losing the battle, but it was entirely over shadowed by the massive well of pride and affection that he held for the Pokemon.

Finally, after a few moments Ash allowed the link to fade and he smiled down at Drapion. Drapion returning the look, one eye swollen shut, and the other bloodshot but spilling with tears of happiness nonetheless.

Ash lifted the Pokeball of his Pokemon up, “There there buddy, take a nice long rest and later on tonight I’ll get you all fixed up.” He told the beaten and bruised Pokemon reassuringly. And with that, he returned the Pokemon to his Pokeball in a beam of red energy for a much needed rest.

That done, Ash stood up and turned to see Aaron making his way over to him, his own Drapion already returned to it’s Pokeball as well. No doubt after the damage his Drapion had done to it, that it would need some medical attention later and a really long rest like his own Drapion would.

Walking towards the approaching Aaron, he met him half way. He threw a grin the older males way, “Well, that was a hell of a battle.” He stated with a chuckle.

Aaron apparently agreed, as he broke out into a few chuckles himself, “That it was.” He replied, “Maaaan…” He sighed deeply, “I was so not expecting some random person I met out in a stroll though Eterna Forest to put up a battle like that, I’ve gotta hand it to you that Drapion of yours is really powerful, in fact with some more training and a little more experience under it’s belt I’d say it would as strong as my own Drapion!” The green haired elite concluded.

Ash grinned at the praise of his Pokemon, his pride for him growing all the more. “Heh, thanks.” He replied.

He was about to open his mouth to comment further, when his blue haired girlfriend popped up at his side.

“Hey Ash, how’s Drapion?” The pink skirt wearing girl asked softly, concern evident in her voice.

Ash almost jumped, but thankfully managed to restrain himself from making himself look like a complete and utter fool. He was so used to his developing Aura senses that Dawn being able to slip past his radar from being so familiar to him really freaked him out at times.

Ash gave her a small smirk in reply, “No need to worry Dawn.” He replied, once gain with her ever so famous phrase. She pouted in annoyance in return to his comment and he laughed, “Drapion will be fine I just need to let him rest for a bit and then give him a few medicinal items later on and he’ll be right as rain.”

When Dawn sighed in relief and nodded, Ash turned his attention back towards Aaron. “So…” He trailed off slightly, thinking of the words he wanted to say, “What were you doing all the way out here Aaron?” He questioned.

Worry began to cloud his mind, Elite Four members were usually only sighted frequently when something big was going down. Had Team Galactic made their bid for power already? Had something else devastating occurred?

Thankfully, Aaron was quick, unwittingly defusing that notion, “Oh nothing all that interesting really.” He replied, “I travelled down this way from Eterna City after I arrived with Cynthia, this is the place where I caught the majority of my Pokemon and started off my journey way back when with my Skorupi, so I like to come here every now and then and relive those fond memories.” As he continued, he didn’t notice his casual reference to a certain blonde haired Regional Champion.

Dawn gasped from behind him, and Ash himself wasn’t too far away from gaping he was sure, “Cynthia, as in Cynthia Shirona the Champion Master of Sinnoh!?” Ash blurted out. Excitement once again filled his veins! The possibilities if it was true could be incredibly awesome!

“Mmmhmm.” Aaron replied matter of factly.

“Awesome…” Ash breathed out, unable to contain his excitement. “So what’s she doing in Eterna City?” The teenage Pokemon Ranger questioned next.

“She’s actually there for two reasons.” The green haired elite responded, “She’s there to research the ancient statues of Dialga and Palkia, and to watch over the battle event being held there in a few days.”

“Battle event?” Both Ash and Dawn questioned at the same time.

Aaron noting the interest in their voices smirked, “Oh yeah, it’s a big tournament that some bigwigs in the League association are holding for their usual public affairs campaign.” He replied to their question.

“But that’s not all!” He started quickly again, cutting off any impending questions from the two younger teenagers, “The winner of the tournament receives a special prize… a collection of three Meganite stones.”

It took a second for that name to ring a bell for Ash, and when it did his eyes widened drastically, “You’re shitting me!?” He blurted out loudly in disbelief.

Aaron shook his head in amusement, “I shit you not, dude.”

“Wow…” Ash breathed, “Three Meganite stones… holy shit!”

Dawn, who had been quiet up to this point couldn’t stand being in the unknown any longer, “Ash!” She shouted, drawing her boyfriends attention towards her once again, “What the hell is a Meganite stone?” She questioned in annoyance.

Ash looked at her like she’d grown a second head for a moment, but then he reminded himself that she hadn’t been a Trainer for very long and it should have been very likely that she wouldn’t have even heard about the stones yet.

“They’re evolution stones Dawn.” He told her, “But not just any Evolution stones, they’re Evolution stones that grant some Pokemon with the needed power and ability to evolve even further than their final forms, It’s been called Mega Evolution and the Mega Forms of all Pokemon are said to increase their power drastically.” Ash further explained to his blue haired girlfriend.

Dawn’s eyes widened as she slowly processed the information given to her by her boyfriend, “Wow…” She breathed out, reminiscent of her boyfriend just a few moments prior, “But why haven’t more people and their Pokemon done this then?” She sobered up from her awe to question.

Ash smirked at her, “Not just any Pokemon can undergo a Mega Evolution, they need to be extremely powerful already or the Meganite just won’t react to the Pokemon, and even then once the Meganite reacts the Pokemon still has to have the ability and will to evolve further than their full form, not to mention a great need for the evolution to even take place in the first place.” He replied.

“Indeed.” Aaron picked up where he left of, “Without those key requirements, a Mega Evolution cannot be obtained. Which is a good thing, because the amount of power that comes with those evolutions should never be allowed to be misused, it could lead to disaster.” The green haired elite stated.

“So then…” Dawn began, “If there’s so little Pokemon that have achieved it, how do you know all about the power that comes after the Mega Evolution.” She questioned, peering intently at both her boyfriend and the Elite Four member with her piercing sapphire blue eyes.

“Cynthia.” Ash stated in return.

“Cynthia?” Dawn questioned in confusion at the abrupt statement.

“Yes Cynthia.” Aaron affirmed, “And I know just how much the power increase is, because I’ve seen her new mega Pokemon battle. A year ago, we of the Elite Four could still give her challenges in battle, but ever since her Garchomp and Lucario gained the ability to Mega Evolve, she has been able to destroy our entire team’s of Pokemon with only one of her own.”

Dawn gasped, but Ash he had a different reaction. He almost choked on his own spit. Taking out the entire team of an Elite Four member with just one Pokemon?! That was insane! One member of an Elite Four’s team could take on an army of lower levelled Pokemon, and both Cynthia’s Garchomp and Lucario could defeat entire teams of them alone?

Arceus above, he wanted to battle her so badly right now. What a challenge it would be! What an epic clash it would result in! Adrenaline pumped in his veigns, and his aura sang with excitement.

…But he reined it in for now, best not burn out from excitement before the chance even presented itself. And even then, he only had Pikachu for now ready and able to battle at such a level. And then the only other Pokemon that could go at that level was Charizard.

Not counting Mewtwo that is.

But, if he got his hands on those Meganite stones would Charizard be able to evolve further? Would he able to attain the highly sought out ability of Mega Evolution? What about any of his other Pokemon, could Sceptile do it? Could Snorlax and any of his other fully evolved Pokemon?

Time would tell.

But that could wait a little while yet, for now he needed to get them moving. Now that he’d heard about this tournament, he wanted in.

He came out of his thoughts and looked up at Aaron with a smirk, “Sorry Aaron, but it seems we’re gonna have to cut our little meeting here off early, I want to see off and get to Eterna City by tomorrow.” The amber eyed teen stated.

Aaron merely chuckled in reply, “I thought as much, you strike me as the guy that just loves a great battle.” He replied, “So don’t let me hold you back, I was about to head on my way anyway there’s a rumour of a really powerful Vespiqueen lurking deeper in the forest and I’d like to capture it.” With that said, he began walking on his way towards the end of the clearing, tossing a wave and a, “Later.” Over his shoulder as he went.

“Bye!” Dawn chirped, waving towards his retreating figure. Finally, when he disappeared through the trees she turned to Ash, a question burning in her piercing sapphire blue eyes once again, “So what’s the big rush?” She inquired of her boyfriend. She planted her hands on her hips and sauntered over towards him, making sure to swing her hips as she done so.

When she reached him, she touched a small smooth skinned palm atop his muscled chest and gave him a smirk of her own, “Huh?” She questioned.

Ash turned his head downwards and caught her blue eyes with his own amber colored ones. “This tournament.” He answered promptly, “Winning that tournament might just be the big break I’ve been looking for lately, if I can get Charizard to mega-evolve I’m sure I’ll have enough fire power – joke intended – to win the Sinnoh Regional Cup and then take on the Elite Four.” Ash continued.

Dawn allowed her smirk to fade into a warm smile, and she removed her hand from his chest. Instead she swung her two arms around his neck and interlocked her fingers to keep him locked in her lovers embrace, “I can tell just how excited it has you, I could feel your heart beating really hard in your chest, it was like you were running a marathon.” The blue haired female teen replied.

This time it was Ash that smirked. He places his hands gently, but firmly on her slender hips, “So no different from when you tend to act a little naughty with me then, eh?” He questioned in return, his voice husky.

Bending his neck, he ever so slowly, and gently trailed his nose up from the bottom to the top of her neck, placing a small kiss on the side of her jaw when he reached her face.

Dawn’s breathing became laboured, and her beautiful face began to take on a red flush. “I’d like to think I can get you more excited than just a regular old Pokemon battle.” She whispered back at him. Nudging her nose against his, as if asking for entry.

Ash smiled, and he indulged her. Tilted his head to the side lightly, he allowed his mouth to part open slightly and Dawn was all too keen to take the invitation.

Placing her lips upon his own, she slipped her tongue inside his mouth. She moaned slightly into his mouth when his tongue met hers halfway and began to circle around it, pulling it lightly at some points and oh so much more.

She felt arousal deep within her core, her legs becoming shaky beneath her. She gripped the back of his neck hard, her fingers sinking into the part of his hair that fell to the nape of his neck.

She couldn’t believe just how amazing it was to kiss him. He knew all the right buttons to push, but then it was over and her eyelids – when did she even close them? – opened up to reveal her blue eyes to the world again as she mewled in disappointment at the ending of the passionate kissing.

Ash pulled away from her, slipping from her embrace with ease due to how gelatinous her limbs felt to her at the moment. The pleasure of the kiss had shocked her senseless it seemed.

She never thought when people stated they were ‘kissed senseless’ or were ‘going to kiss someone senseless’ that they were actually being completely serious.

Ash gave her a smirk over his shoulder, “Excite me more than Pokemon battling?” He questioned with a chuckle, “Nah, I’d say roughly about the same to be honest.” And with that he headed over towards his backpack to begin their trek through the Eterna Forest towards Eterna City once again.

Thankfully for him, with his back turned towards Dawn as he was walking away from her. She couldn’t see as he adjusted his uncomfortably tight pants around the crotch area.

Dawn stood there gaping at him for quite a few moments. She couldn’t believe he’d leave her hanging when she was so into it!

‘What a tease!’ She realized in her head. Was that because she had rescinded his lap dace for picking a fight and getting beat up by those Zangoose?

If she knew that this would have happened when she done so, she wouldn’t have bothered rescinding it. It wasn’t like she was opposed to it in the least. She would just love to cross that last line with him. It wasn’t like they were too young. Pokemon Trainers were adults the moment they received their Pokemon Trainer License.

She knew for a fact that Lucas the junior assistant of Professor Rowan was engaged and he was the same age as her. He’d lived just down the road from her growing up, and they’d been decent friends so she’d been invited to the engagement party. In fact their wedding would fall in just under a year when Lucas turned fifteen years old. And that was an average everyday occurrence. She’d heard of a couple of ten year old Trainers a few years back got married right after starting their journey. That was admittedly a tad young, but there was no law against it and they were a famous duo of Trainer and Coordinator nowadays. Jimmy and Marina Gold were there names if she recalled.

But she digressed! That so was not called for! Growling angrily, she began stomping towards the trees her boyfriend had just disappeared through, “You are so not getting any tonight Ash Ketchum!” She shouted towards his retreating figure.

Just because she wanted to didn’t mean she would! For that act of teasing, he’d have to wait for that event patiently!

‘Stupid teasing idiot!’ She growled once again internally.

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The sun had set, and night had washed over the Eterna Forest, basking the entire canopy in serene darkness. The only sounds, that of the wild Pokemon amongst the forest foliage.

Ash though, was not bathed in the eternal darkness of night. But instead, the area they had camped in was illuminated by a large brilliant flame compliments of Monferno’s Flamethrower attack.

Dawn, along with all of the Pokemon had retired for the night and she was already fast sleep in their tent. Had been for a good hour now. Although, she had been rather annoyed with him for breaking off that heavy make out session with her.

But he digressed, resting wasn’t on the agenda for a few hours yet for Ash himself.

No, instead he was hard at work massaging medicine into the armoured plates of Drapion’s body. Drapion was fast asleep beneath him as he worked diligently. It was a taxing job.

He winced once again, for easily the dozenth time that night as the skin along his palms and fingers was again chafed harshly by the armoured plating of his Pokemon.

But still, he refused to stop until his job was complete. He had to dig his fingers in hard and deep to even come remotely close reaching the knotted muscles of his Pokemon through it’s extremely durable exoskeleton.

If he was a normal person, he would never have the strength required to do this sort of thing. But thankfully, with his aura training came an augmented strength that allowed him the physical power needed for him to press hard enough into the armoured plates upon Drapion’s body to reach the muscles.

It was painful work though. The more he massaged, the more he chafed and then the more sensitive the skin of his hands became.

Still though, it wasn’t like he hadn’t done this type of thing before. And so, he knew he could work through the pain. Throughout his journey as a Pokemon Trainer he’d had quite a few Pokemon that had rough skin or something like that. The first time he’d ever done something like this had been when Charizard was handed his first major loss. And through that and his diligence in getting Charizard back to full health. He had finally regained Charizard’s respect and become a Trainer Charizard was proud to fight for.

The other’s weren’t as memorable as the one with Charizard, but he remembered them nonetheless. Larvitar, Donphan, Sceptile, Glalie and Torkoal had all been Pokemon with some form of rough skin that he’d had to massage like this at one point.

At least nobody could accuse him of having girly hands though when all was said and done. His hands had quite a few calluses that were mostly gained from this exact method of massaging the knots out of their muscles from under their rough body protection.

It was the hardest attempt at it yet though, and the most painful. Because Drapion didn’t just have rough skin, he had an armour plated exoskeleton over said rough skin as well.

To distract himself from the stinging pain in his hands, Ash allowed his mind to drift onto the information he’d obtained from Aaron earlier that day.

A Tournament where the winner received three Meganite Evolution stones as a prize, and Cynthia the Champion Master of the Sinnoh Region would be there.

As much as he didn’t want to admit it, even to himself. The fact was that despite all the excitement he felt at the prospect of it, he knew he could not hope to win a full out battle against Cynthia. Especially now that Aaron had revealed just how much more powerful her Garchomp and Lucario had become from attaining their Mega Evolution forms.

Both Pikachu and Charizard could possibly take those Pokemon on and defeat them as things were, but they’d be out of the battle after that. And that was assuming they could even pull through with a draw at the very least.

After them in terms of battle ability and power was Sceptile. But Sceptile wasn’t strong enough yet to take part in a battle with Cynthia. Not anymore at least.

It was common knowledge to all Trainer’s that the stronger a Trainer’s most powerful Pokemon, the stronger their other Pokemon would become from training day in, day out with that Pokemon. Ash had no doubt that thanks to training with both Mega Lucario and Mega Garchomp, all of Cynthia’s other pokemon had grown by leaps and bounds in strength since then as well.

Pokemon had no limits to how powerful they could become after all.

And then further down the totem pole of his entire family of Pokemon, a step below Sceptile was Snorlax, Heracross, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Pidgeot, Primeape and from what he saw earlier today, Drapion had been added to the ranks of those Pokemon of his.

None of the rest even had a chance of taking on Pokemon like Cynthia’s, and even less against her Mega Evolution forms of Lucario and Garchomp.

He sighed, idly looking up towards the calm night sky above. ‘What should I do?’ The young Pokemon ranger questioned himself internally, ‘What can I do to bridge the gap between me and someone on Cynthia’s level?’

There was a simple solution, one he’d already thought of but cast it aside. He could pick his six strongest Pokemon of all and train them privately and intensely for the upcoming Lily Of The Valley Conference.

But that would mean he would have to stop rotating all of his Pokemon around again. And he knew how disappointed that would leave the Pokemon he did not pick. It would be as if he were picking favorites.

And he just honestly couldn’t do that his Pokemon. He wasn’t lying when he said to Drapion that he viewed his Pokemon as family. He and Pikachu had become so close after that incident with the flock of Spearow, that they shot straight through the awkward beginning phase and went straight into affectionate best friends, that then evolved further into a familial love that reminded him of siblings.

Along the way similar bonds had formed between he and his other Pokemon. To Donphan and Pupitar, he was their father figure. He had hatched and raised them from egg’s, protected them when they were weak and vulnerable. Bayleef saw him in a different light, ever since he first rescued her from that snow storm back at the beginning of his Johto journey. She looked up to him with a hero worship among hero worship, to her he was the older big brother figure that would protect her from all that wished her harm, and would her unconditionally until the day he died.

Even Mewtwo still regarded him with a certain type of awe. Despite being infinitely more intelligent and powerful than him, Mewtwo looked up to him almost like a little brother did their cool older brother that served as their role model. Mewtwo admired his character, and wished to be like him. In Mewtwo’s on wistful words, he was passionate, courageous, selfless and a whole other slew of character defining traits that all, human, Pokemon or otherwise, should try to emulate and strive to be like.

It seemed like Mewtwo was completely unaware of his flaws as a person, but as long as he – Mewtwo – was happy, he would not bring it up and shatter his personal views and opinions of him.

Charizard, it was hard to describe his relationship with Charizard. There was an immense level of fondness between them both. But it felt as though Charizard was always working at 150% to make up for a past wrong he had committed against Ash.

It was easy to deduce that Charizard was trying to make up for the Indigo League all those years back. But no matter how many times he told Charizard that he didn’t need to make up for it, he never had to in the first place. Charizard still strived to pull any and all victory in battles for him, winning him countless memorable battles in the process. His defeating of his childhood rival Gary, as well as Noland and his Articuno only being a small few of the big ones.

With those kind of relationships. Relationships he had forged with his Pokemon through the good times, bad times, the blood and the tears. He had no right to trample on those relationships, and he would die before he allowed them to be shallowed.

Because, like he said. They were family, him, his mother, his Pokemon and hopefully one day Dawn and her Pokemon too. Family, always and forever.

So no, he would not stop rotating his Pokemon and train his six strongest exclusively and extensively.

‘No.’ He thought with a smirk. Standing up, he looked Drapion over for a few moments before nodding to himself in a pleased fashion. His work for the night was done, he unclipped Drapion’s Pokeball from his belt and returned him to the confines within and then swiftly shrunk the Pokeball and clipped it back on to his belt.

The answer to his problem was simple.

No, instead he’d just have to increase the intensity of the training all of his Pokemon went through. Every single one of them, from the strongest to the very weakest.

The Training would have to wait until he and Dawn reached Eterna City though. He would need a few much needed supplies if he was going to go through with his intensive training program idea.

And that would mean he’d need to stock up on a plentiful amount of healing medicinal supplies before he started. Because the training would be so intense, injury would be expected to happen.

He’d hold back of course, on the Pokemon who didn’t want to go through such a training routine. And the impending happen stances of injury that were bound to occur had been what had stayed his hand back when he thought of the training program in the Hoenn Region.

But he very well knew that a good few of his Pokemon would be raring to take part in such strenuous and rewarding schedule. Off the top of his head, Charizard, Sceptile, Riolu and Primeape were prime subjects.

With that, he finally relented to his exhaustion the day had piled upon him and he began making his way towards both he and Dawn’s shared tent. Not even bothering to put out the fire, he’d had Monferno use his Dig technique to burrow down and dig a deep trench around the flames to keep them from spreading.

He was halfway towards his tent when another thought occurred to him. He stopped in his tracks and paused for a moment, sliding his right hand into his black cargo jeans pocket and pulling out his Xtranceiver.

Switching the new-tyle cellphone on, he opened up his saved contacts list and scrolled down to the section under ‘C’. He continued scrolling until he finally came upon one of the lower contacts on the list under ‘C’.

Charicific Valley

The beckoning realm of morpheus could wait a few minutes longer, Ash mused to himself. Selecting the contact now, he hit the call button and held the Xtranceiver up to his ear.

He had an old buddy to call in to action. That big lizard would be seriously pissed off if he went and left him out of an event as big as this, especially when his future plans for the winnings involved him mostly.

The Xtranceiver rang three times, before finally someone picked up, “Eliza, hey, it’s Ash. I was wondering if you could do me a big favour…”