Working Sinnoh With Skill(old) - Chapter 18 (Patreon)

The average Charizard stood at a fully grown height of five foot, seven inches. The older and more powerful the draconian Fire-type species became, the larger they grew.

The Charizard Ash released for his third Pokemon in the first round of the Meganite Tournament put the size of the average Charizard to same.

Appearing from the Pokeball, the Pokemon landed upon the rocky terrain of the battlefield with a powerful thud. Thick muscular legs indenting the ground beneath them as they stomped down into a standing position.

Ash's Charizard stood tall, fearsome and proud. Gleaming orange scales and a tail fire that could power a furnace with ease flickered powerfully in the night wind. The beast – for it surely was one – towered over the average fully grown height of its species, standing at a whopping height of ten feet.

All was silent for a moment, and then Charizard turned to the Dragonite facing him from an opposing side.

The Dragonite was well taken care of, not a blemish to be seen on its smooth yellow-orange scales. It's arms and legs were well proportioned with thick powerful muscles and despite their small size, it's wings stood high and proud on the upper half of the Dragon-type Pokemon's back.

Charizard looked the Dragonite over, appraising it for a few silent moments...and then, the draconian dual Fire and Flying-type Pokemon cocked its head back and released an ear splitting roar.

The sheer power behind the roar caused the winds to kick up and shockwaves of pure force to be generated and blasted over the entire stadium.

The Dragonite was forced to cover its eyes with one arm as the powerful shockwaves blew it backwards a few feet, only stopping in place when it dug its feet into the ground below so hard that it formed small craters beneath its feet.

Palmer himself was lucky, he stood directly behind his Dragonite a few feet and so the large frame of his fully evolved Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon managed to shield him from the worst of the shock waves, although even he was still forced to push back against the winds generated by Charizard's roar with all his strength, lest he be thrown straight off of his feet.

All around the stadium, fans up in the stands cried out loudly, screams of many different emotions straining from almost each and every individual up inside the stands.

Ash though, he stood behind Charizard proudly. A smirk proudly adorned his face, his strength enhanced many times by his aura - the only reason he was able to stand so close as the shockwaves blasted away at his exposed skin.

He honestly couldn't care, he only had eyes for Charizard at the moment. It felt so damn good. Finally, he'd released the strongest Pokemon within his entire collection. Pikachu was almost as strong, but not quite there. In fact, to match Charizard Pikachu would have to release his firm control over the red electricity he'd gained from his possession by Groudon.

Charizard had no extra power up, except maybe his Blaze ability. All this power he was releasing with one roar, a roar so powerful it generated shock waves that would make a lesser Pokemon faint in fear. It was all gained through intense, day in, day out training that had been going on for more than three entire years now.

Charizard was gifted already with a massive well of power when he fully evolved. But his time at the Charicific Valley had allowed him to cultivate him, fan the flames of his power even more to turn it from a bonfire into a raging inferno.

There was a damn good reason why a legendary Pokemon as powerful as Mewtwo had trouble combating against Charizard. Charizard was beyond the understanding of normal people, he was a Pokemon that had exceeded his limits so thoroughly, that he could actually be labelled as a Legendary Pokemon on pure power alone, and that wasn't even accounting for his skill. Charizard was far from lazy, he didn't use his power as a crutch. When he put pressure on something, it's was with a razor's edge with the force of a weapon from the mushroom wars.

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Up in the stands Dawn held onto her seat for dear life, even high up in the stands as she was the shockwaves reached she and her friends.

"Unreal!" Zoey shouted. Awe, disbelief and many more emotions flickered across the orange haired girl's face as she dug her nails into her seat and watched with rapt attention on the Charizard, holding with all her might again the powerful winds blasting against her.

Nando was actually blown right out of his seat. The long black haired poet rolled over and took cover from the shockwaves under the separation banister between this stand, and the stand below. Even then, it didn't protect him fully form the powerful blasts of wind, his poncho flapped widly over his face and he held onto his harp with all his power, lest it get jettisoned away from the force of Charizard's roar, "This..." The man whispered to himself, "This is just..." He couldn't even find the words within himself to describe such a powerful beast of a Pokemon.

Just how did his young friend Ash manage to raise such a Pokemon?

Dawn managed to force herself to look through the ripples of air and lock her sapphire blue eyes upon the two figures of her boyfriend and his Charizard.

She was in total, complete and utter shock. She'd known Charizard was his strongest Pokemon - besides Mewtwo that is, but the blue haired girl had no idea just the kind of power her boyfriend's most powerful Pokemon weilded.

It was one thing to hear about Charizard's strength, but another matter entirely to see it this close. She lifted a hand up to shield her eyes from the wind, the roars finally beginning to die down.

Just how the hell had he managed to train that Charizard? How could one Pokemon, pseudo-Legendary or not, be so powerful? That roar alone would have probably been enough to terrorize lesser Pokemon so thoroughly that they would flee in complete fear, or quite possibly seize up and die on the spot due to a heart attack made up of complete and utter terror.

Finally though, the awe-inspiring Charizard let its roar die down to nothing and shut its moth completely once again. All around her, Dawn could hear the panicked cries of the stands die down until nothing was left but complete and utter silence.

The blue haired girl couldn't blame them. Even she couldn't think of anything to say. To think, that her boyfriend had a Pokemon like this and he still said he was't ready to take on the Elite Four and Champion Master of a Region...

Dawn couldn't help it, she shuddered slightly. Just what kind of monsters of Pokemon did Cynthia have, if this towering draconian Pokemon, like a living deity of fire given form. Wasn't enough?

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"Well...That was impressive?" The commentator ventured hesitantly. His voice, even over the speakers around the stadium seemed shaken at what had just occurred.

Him and everybody else in the stadium.

Palmer swallowed heavily, "...That was impressive." The blonde haired man stated, "But it won't be enough to scare us off, let's go Dragonite! Flamethrower!"

His Dragonite didn't hesitate for a single moment. A testament to the Pokemon's courage at the very least. It opened its mouth and shot forth a roaring torrent of flames so hot that the very air itself rippled from the heat.

Ash smirked. Challenging a Fire-type Pokemon with a Fire-type attack was fine, if your Pokemon already far outstripped that Pokemon in power.

Dragonite did not.

"Show him a real Flamethrower!" Ash barked in reply.

The torrent of flames was halfway towards Charizard when the draconian Fire-type Pokemon unleashed its very own Flamethrower attack.

The plume of fire was so big that it actually dwarfed Dragonite's own Flamethrower attack by a magnitude of at least three, and as it short forth to meet the smaller Flamethrower attack head on, the very slag of the rocky terrain of the battlefield began to sizzle and melt underneath the sheer heat presence of the flames.

The two torrents of flames met out, clashed, and a second later the smaller of the two was absorbed into the sheer power of the larger one and sent roaring backwards towards Dragonite.

"Get out of there! Into the air!" Palmer cried out desperately. Dragon-type Pokemon had an innate resistance to Fire-type attacks, but that resistance wasn't going to do much against such a powerful attack.

Dragonite by mere inches managed to lunge up into the air, avoiding the flames entirely. And Palmer cried out in fright, leaping to the side to avoid the flames that still roared forth past his previous position.

He landed harshly on the ground, but he didn't stay there long. It was a testament to the man's sheer strength of will and experience as a Trainer that allowed him to roll up into a standing position again his eyes locked on Charizard.

The flames didn't stop there though, they continued onwards to the stands and would have quite possibly killed a number of fans watching from the stands if the psychic barriers held up by multiple Psychic-Pokemon did not flare into life in the form of a massive purple energy wall that shielded them from the powerful Fire-type attack.

Even still, the flames exploded outwards forming out into a massive wall of flames that covered almost the entire barrier for dozens of metres across. And even then, the barriers rattled ominously as if just about to give out, only looking to luckily hold on as the flames burned out their power source quickly and rapidly withered away into small embers.

Ash winced seeing that. Damn, he'd have to withhold on the ranged attacks for now. They were to powerful and volatile to be used in a stadium like this with such weak barriers.

Next time he planned to battle with Charizard in this tournament, he'd have to let Mewtwo out to form his own barriers. Or else there was just no way that he could allow Charizard to go all out like that again in this tournament, and he couldn't afford that.

Not with the likes of Cynthia Shirona in this tournament.

Still though, he had a battle to win. Ash smirked over at Palmer, "Distance won't save you." He told the older Elite Level Trainer, "Charizard, into the air after it!" The raven haired teen commanded.

Charizard jumped from the ground, leaping a good few feet off the ground and with a mighty flap of his massive wingspan, he soared straight up into the sky.

Palmer seemed to be waiting for this though. "Dragonite, Dragon Rush!" The blonde haired man shouted up to his Pokemon high up in the air.

When Charizard reached a good forty feet up, Dragonite dive bombed from at least double the altitude of Charizard, his yellow-orange body erupting into a massive blue aura that flared out even larger and formed into the shape of a massive blue serpentine dragon that looked to be roaring in vengeance.

The attack was massive, way bigger than any Dawn's Altaria could have hoped to pulled off. But even so, Ash continued to smirk, "Charizard!" He shouted, gaining his Pokemon's attention, "Stop it in its tracks!" The amber eyed teen ordered.

His Pokemon nodded downwards to him and held his wings out, stopping himself mid-air and waited for the massive roaring blue dragon of energy.

Palmer looked at Ash as if he was insane, "Are you serious?" He asked in disbelief.

Ash folded his arms across his chest, turning his smirk towards Palmer, "Entirely." He replied.

There was no more time for discussion though, because Dragonite bathed in the massive blue aura of its Dragon Rush attack finally met Charizard head on and the force of the impact resulted in a huge explosion, a cataclysmic booming sound echoing out over the entire city and sending another extremely powerful shockwave blasting upwards through the sky, piercing the clouds and forcing many of them to part to reveal the dark starry night and moon hanging above.

There was silence for a moment, and then the smoke kicked up by the explosion of the Dragon Rush attack began to dwindle down into nothing...

"Impossible..." Palmer managed to breath out in sheer disbelief, his blue eyes locked solely on the figures above.

Charizard, arms thrust out had Dragonite by the shoulders tightly. The force of the attack only being enough to have pushed Charizard backwards a few feet at the very most. The aura produced by the Dragon Rush attack was dying down quickly, and everyone present could clearly see that Charizard had managed to overcome the attack, and force Dragonite's flight to come to an impromptu stop with just his clawed hands alone.

Dragonite struggled and writhed wildly in the dual Fire and Flying-type Pokemon's grip, but to no avail. Charizard's grip was just too tight and strong for it to muscle out of.

"Now Siesmic Toss!" Ash commanded next.

Charizard obeyed and carried out the order. Using his grip on Dragonite's shoulders, Charizard locked his arms under the Pokemon's armpits and hugged the Flying and Dragon-type Pokemon tightly to his chest.

And then, Charizard used his wings to vault backwards into a backwards, spiralling nosedive. Speeding up with liberal use of his wings as they spun, and within mere seconds they were a few feet from the ground.

Charizard used this opportunity to let Dragonite go and allow the Pokemon to crash head first into the ground, cratering the ground deeply beneath it from the speed and force of the drop.

Charizard safely using his flings to fly out of harms way, flew over and landed powerfully in front of Ash. Flashing him a thumbs up and a smirk as it did so.

Ash smirked right back at him, "Well done, as expected you're even stronger than before." The amber eyed teen commented.

Charizard snorted a smaller jet of flames from his noise, voicing his only annoyance with that action. As if he wouldn't get any stronger? Just who did his Trainer think he was dealing with? He wasn't like the majority of the other Charizard who rested on their laurels back at the Charicific Valley, satisfied already with the amount of power that came with just being a Charizard.

No, he was not content to stew amongst the common rabble. He would continue, day in and day out. Until one day when he ascended, becoming a Charizard of legend. A god amongst Charizards. And then, he would train more and continue to grow stronger still.

Just as his Trainer Ash would one day become the greatest Trainer in all of history – this he believed full heartedly – he too would become the strongest Pokemon in all of history right alongside his Pokemon. They went hand in hand after all, the greatest Trainer in history as well as the strongest Pokemon in history.

And someday soon, even his rival Pikachu wouldn't be able to compete with him in a battle.

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Cynthia Shirona had to admit, she was definitely impressed. She'd heard of young Ash Ketchum of course, even before he started making waves when he won the Battle Frontier and became a Pokemon Ranger, the youngest one in history at that.

The Champion Masters' of each Region met up a couple of times a year. Imagine her surprise when Lance Wataru, the man heralded as the strongest Trainer in the world started singing the praises of a young newby Trainer.

One did not simply gain the approval of the strongest Pokemon Trainer in the world. The story he told her of the boy back then was hard to believe, how could she fathom it? Stories about a boy who was the main reason Lance was able to capture and tame his spectacular rare colored Gyarados, a Gyarados of such power that it put the average extremely powerful behemoths' of its species to shame. Then he continued on to explain how the young man went on to rescue a Lugia as well as it's baby of all Pokemon from Team Rocket. And then just recently – at the time – had, along with his Pikachu done even more than Lance himself to quell the cataclysmic battle between Groudon and Kyogre, a battle of such sheer magnitude it could have ended with the entire human world, entirely sinking it into the depths of the ocean, or the very oceans themselves dried up.

It was amazing, to hear of a boy who was no more than twelve years of age perform such awe-inspiring feats. Imagine her rising awe once again when Lance continued onwards to tell her that even before he had met young Ash that the young teenager had saved the world by fighting alongside another Lugia to put a stop a three way battle between the Legendary Bird Trio of Kanto, Moltres, Articuno and Zapdos.

Every meeting she went to after that would include Lance in some form or another, bragging about any achievements that young Ash had managed to accomplish. In fact, Lance had taken to calling the boy his protege.

How the hell would that work out? He hadn't even taught the boy anything!

But even still, it was refreshing to see the boy in action. After all the hype getting built up around the boy, she'd expected it to be mostly false. If anything, the rumours actually underestimated Ash's skill in battling, and the power of his Pokemon.

His Sceptile was extremely powerful, and with its incredible speed, in her eyes she classified it easily as a Pokemon on the level of the Elite Four's, or even her own Pokemon. But the other two were something else altogether.

There were some Pokemon that could naturally release blue electricity, like those Pokemon of the Mareep and Pachirisu family for the most part. But, the Mareep family obtained their electricity from outwards sources, the same with the Pachirisu family in that they absorbed ambient static electricity.

But that Pikachu. Its electricity was so powerful, and had such a high level of voltage that the electricity had actually changed from yellow to blue. And that wasn't even the end of it. Even she, a Champion Master had never seen a Pokemon as fast as that Pikachu. And then once again, she'd never seen a Pokemon that was so small and weighed so little hold such amazing physical prowess.

And finally the Charizard. The fact that it could release such powerful shockwaves with just one roar alone was astounding. And then to go on and stop a full powered Dragon Rush attack by a powerful Dragonite with its bare hands alone.

Cynthia felt herself smiling. She couldn't help the excitement flowing through her veins. She was passionate about a great many things. Ancient History of Pokemon, Ice Cream and taking care of her Pokemon. But battling was above even them, it was always so exciting. With so many different Pokemon and Trainers around to battle, and all the different strategies they came up with together during battle, it made for a great time for a passionist of Pokemon battles like herself.

Just maybe Ash would meet her in the finals. It was sure to be fun, and challenging if anything else.

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When the dust settled, to the surprise and delight of many in the stands. Dragonite managed to stand back up, but the Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon was not without injury. The yellow-orange scaled Dragon-type Pokemon held one arm with the other. The arm being held actually hanging limply from its shoulder, a deep purple bruise forming so dark that it could be seen clearly through the Pokemon's scales.

"Wooh! this is an epic battle for the ages folks! Even after taking such an intense Seismic Toss attack from Charizard, Dragonite has managed to get back up to its feet! Just what will these two titans of battle unleash next?" The commentator once again chimed up. And surprise surprise, the crowd began to roar and cheer once again.

Palmer thrust his arm up, "Yeah, way to go Dragonite! Let's kick this up a notch!" The blonde haired man declared, "Thunderbolt, lets go!" He ordered next.

Dragonite shook itself, letting go of its injured shoulder and released a loud cry from its maw. From the antenna on its head, a large arc of yellow electricity was launched through the air towards Charizard.

Ash didn't even have to verbalize an order. Charizard was already moving on his own, taking off into the air with a mighty flap of his wings and dodging the yellow arc of electricity with a lazy looking ease.

"After it Dragonite, use Outrage!" Palmer continued onwards, relentlessly.

Dragonite blasted off into the air after Charizard, catching up with Charizard high in the air within moments. A crimson red aura bleeding off the dual Flying and Dragon-type Pokemon's body, its eyes taking on a similar red hue.

Ash himself was looking up intently, staring at both forms of Charizard and Dragonite ascending higher and higher into the sky, the latter of the duo gaining on Charizard quickly with each passing moment.

Dragonite the dragon Pokemon. The species as a whole had a lot of rumours floating around about them. They were usually kindhearted, on average as intelligent as any human and were said to watch over those who travelled the ocean and save them if they were shipwrecked or lost at sea.

But not only that, along with being the Psuedo-Legendary Pokemon species of the Kanto Region, Dragonite were said to be able to circle the entire globe in just sixteen hours. And then it was also said, that if they continued on such a trip, with nothing to impede their way at all they could and would be able to reach a speed that was faster than the speed of sound.

Truly they were an amazing species of Pokemon. Ash smirked to himself, later on he supposed he would have to go about catching a Dratini of his own, but for now. He had a battle to win.

The Dragonite gave a loud roar as it reached equal with Charizard, and then heaved backwards and practically bum rushed Charizard from the side, intending to barrel straight into the dual Flying and Fire-type Pokemon with its Outrage enhanced body and anger.

At the last moment though, Charizard used an old strategy coined by Ash way back in his days through the Orange Islands. With a quick flick of his tail, Charizard brought himself into a sideways spin and narrowly dodged the makeshift body slam attack.

Ash's smirk stretched as the Dragonite sailed right over Charizard, and his Pokemon got into the air behind the larger orange dragon.

"Steel Wing!" The amber eyed teen ordered swiftly. His shouted command echoing into the air above, over the roaring crowds.

Charizard spun once again, but this time forwards and upwards, ascending over Dragonite, both of his wings exploding into powerful silvery white energy.

Palmer wasn't about to take that sitting down though, "Hit back with Thunderpunch!" The blonde haired elite shouted straight after Ash.

Charizard swung downwards with a wing strike straight after, just as Dragonite snapped itself from its Outrage induced stupor and turned sideways in the air to strike out with a fist crackling with the power of electricity.

Both strikes met, Thunderpunch against Steel Wing and they clashed. Wind exploded around both Pokemon, blowing away any clouds near them and they stayed deadlocked for a few moments.

Finally, another moment later Charizard pushed through – being the physically stronger of the duo – and ended up sending Dragonite flying back a good twenty feet. Although, unluckily for Ash and Charizard taking no damage from the exchange.

Ash cursed, 'Smart.' The amber eyed Pokemon Ranger thought to himself. He wasn't quite sure himself how it all played out scientifically. But, Steel-type Pokemon and attacks were a natural conductor for Electric-type attacks. It was weird, but they kind of cancelled each other out for the most part.

When Dragonite's Thunderpunch met Charizard's Steel Wing, they mostly negated each other. The typing attributes of Charizard's Steel Wing naturally, instead of allowing Charizard to hurt Dragonite, began to counteract the electricity of the Thunderpunch attack.

Ash scowled and shook his head. He wasn't freaking Gary! He didn't spend all of his time reading up on this crap, he preferred to battle with his gut.

"Hyper Beam!" Palmer shouted, breaking Ash from his musings.

Dragonite recovered mid-air and opened its gaping maw once again, an orange sphere of energy cackling into life infront of its open mouth before the dragon Pokemon thrust its head forward and the orb along with it, the orb exploding into a widespread ominous orange beam of destruction.

"Flamethrower!" Ash countered. Thankfully, both Pokemon were so far above the stadium that there would be nobody to get caught in the crossfire of their attacks this time.

Charizard was ready, willing and able to follow the command. The power took less than a moment to build up, and then Charizard was unleashing it into a fiery inferno that met the widespread Hyper Beam head on.

The two attacks pushed against each other for a moment, but the Hyper Beam was quickly beginning to lose ground to Charizard's Flamethrower, before it literally exploded powerfully and scattered the flames of the attack to the four winds.

Charizard was already rushing through the smoke though. With a few flap of his wings, Charizard cleared the distance between himself and the smoke and was flying straight through towards Dragonite's previous position.

Ash down below cursed though. The power of the Hyper Beam attack had actually forced Dragonite back another good few dozen metres, giving it more space to work with.

The Pokemon hadn't even awaited for an order from Palmer this time. Instead, it took this opportunity into its own hands. With Charizard blocked out within the smoke, the Dragonite roared forward its body once again covered in the massive blue roaring draconic visage-like aura that was a Dragon Rush attack.

Charizard came flying out of the smoke, just in time to take the attack head on. The blue draconic visage erupted into a large blinding pillar of blue energy that reached all the way down to the floor of the battlefield.

Ash though didn't even bat an eye when he heard and felt a mighty crash in the battlefield, along with seeing a massive plume of smoke being kicked up as the pillar of blue energy died down.

Dragonite jumped from the smoke, bent over and panting heavily in front of its trainer. The Pokemon's left arm was a mess, caked with dried blood and the top half of the arm turned a deep blue from the bruising it had sustained. It was easily seen, even through the Pokemon;s scales.

Palmer thumbed his nose, "Heh heh, that's all she wrote Ash." The blonde man said.

Ash smirked, "As if." He replied with a snort, "You'd be lucky if an attack of that level even fazed Charizard." The raven haired teen stated.

And as if to prove his point, the column of smoke and dust withered away to reveal Charizard standing proud and tall, head held high and naught a mark upon his body, not even a slight bruising.

Charizard, as if mocking his opponent snorted two small plumes of fire from his nostrils. The message was not lost on Dragonite, who actually to the surprise of many took a step backwards away from Charizard.

"N-no way..." Palmer uttered in disbelief, his blue eyes wide and flickering with self doubt, "It took no damage at all from Dragonite's Dragon Rush attack?" The blonde haired man questioned dubiously.

Ash smirked, but made no move to retort. Oh it had done damage alright, but not nearly enough to damage Charizard through his extremely tough skin. The Dragonite was strong, no doubt about that. In fact, Ash could say that it was very nearly as strong as Drake the leader of the Orange Crew's Dragonite.

But Charizard was dead-even with that Pokemon three years ago. And since then, Charizard had only grown in leaps and bounds. The Charizard of back then was extremely powerful, but right now he wouldn't even consider that level of Pokemon as a threat at all.

So while the Dragon Rush probably smarted a bit, and left quite the stinging sensation. It was nothing to Charizard.

This level of Pokemon just wasn't in Charizard's league. The Pokemon was so far outclassed that to be perfectly honest with himself, Ash had been taking this battle at a leisurely pace. Getting back in tune with Charizard as it were, it had been a little while since they battled together after all. A good few months at the very least.

Palmer gulped audibly. The blonde man could feel the sweat from his palms soaking through his black gloves. He was honestly at a complete and total loss as to what he should do in this situation.

Dragon Rush was Dragonite's most powerful attack, except for Outrage. And for that Charizard to take it point blank and receive no damage whatsoever brought him to a stupefied disbelief.

His only chance was to batter at the Charizard with attacks that it was weak against. Sadly, Dragonite had no Water-type attacks, nor did it have any Rock-type attacks. So that left him with Thunderbolt and Thunderpunch.

First things first though. He had to get distance between Dragonite and that beast of a Charizard. The dual Fire and Flying-type's long ranged attacks were extremely powerful, but it was the Pokemon's unreal physical strength that Dragonite could not hope to match even at his strongest. It did catch his Dragonite's Dragon Rush and stop it with its bare hands after all.

"Dragonite!" The blonde haired Elite shouted, drawing his Pokemon's attention from the menacing Charizard opposing it, "Get into the air as fast as you can!" He ordered.

Dragonite was only to happy to obey the order. Ignoring its useless left arm, Dragonite shot up into the air as fast as possible and continued onwards and upwards hoping to put as much distance between itself and Charizard as completely possibly.

That Charizard scared Dragonite. Psuedo-legendary Pokemon were not supposed to be toyed with so easily! They weren't supposed to be toyed with at all!

Ash watched the Dragonite fly as fast as it could into the sky with some amusement. It was honestly the first time he'd ever seen a Pokemon so powerful cower and flee.

His amber colored eyes flickered over to his Charizard. Charizard had his head cocked and was looking at Ash expectantly.

He sighed. Guess they should stop playing around now, it was time to end this battle once and for all. There really wasn't much else he and Charizard could get out of this battle.

Palmer was good, but he had no strategies that Ash wanted. He was a typical power type Trainer that relied on the power of his Pokemon in most battles. Despite all the hype about this so called Tower Tycoon, he really wasn't all that good. Anyone of the Frontier Brain's in Kanto would have soundly beaten this guy as well.

Still, he was good nonetheless. He was what Ash expected all the average level Elite Trainer's to be at. Sadly, he wasn't within the ranks of the Elite of the Elite.

And without being at that level, he just couldn't hang up close and personal with Ash and his older Pokemon.

He met Charizard's eyes with his own and nodded his head upwards towards the Dragonite in the sky, "After it, full speed." The raven haired teen commanded simply.

Charizard nodded. Using his tail, Charizard spun around once in place, and then using his powerful leg muscles, blasted off the battlefield – the ground cratering slightly beneath this feet – and shot into the air like a bullet.

So fast in fact that the sound barrier broke and rumbled loudly throughout the skies.

Charizard was upon Dragonite in moments, ascending the depths of the skies and catching up easily. The Dragonite looked back over its shoulder, saw Charizard and panicked. Attempting to fly faster than ever before.

But it was for naught. Before the Dragonite could reach the speed its species was renowned for in the air, Charizard spun overhead and got right above the yellow-orange colored Dragon-type Pokemon just in time for Ash's next order.

"Dragon Tail!" Ash shouted up to Charizard.

Flipping overhead, Charizard swung downwards with his tail. Mid-spin, Charizard's tail exploded with a bright cyan colored energy that encased the entirety of his tail, flame and all. Following through on his spin, Charizard smashed the Dragon Tail attack straight down atop Dragonite's cranium.

For the second time that night, the sound barrier was broken. But this time from the force generated into the Dragon Tail that hit Dragonite.

The force of the attack sent Dragonite plummeting so fast there was a visible conic ripple of air at it shot straight down, and within less than a second the large dual Dragon and Flying-type Pokemon crashed powerful into the ground of the battlefield, shaking the entire arena from the force of the landing and kicking up a massive tower of smoke and debris.

"Dragonite!" Plamer cried out in worry, his fists clenched tightly at his sides. Damnit! Damnit, there just wasn't anything he could have done here!

His self berating was cut off though a moment later.

"Giga Impact." Ash continued. Amber eyes little more than cold steel orbs. Like he had told Dawn earlier, he was taking no chances in this tournament. He wasn't going to give Dragonite any time to recover at all.

Charizard shot downwards from the sky, body in cased in a massive purple aura of power, and it itself encased by a layering of spiralling orange energy.

Once more Charizard could be likened to a weapon of war as another roar vibrated the very air around him. Like a artillery shell screaming for the ground, so too did the glowing beast, a shout of power and victory issuing forth.

The glow was briefly hidden by the tower of smoke and debris, but it wasn't for long as moments later, another rumble settled over the arena, coupled with a flash of light, and the entire battlefield shook from the force of Charizard's attack hitting home.

There was utter silence. Not even the crowd made a noise as they all waited in baited breath.

Ash folded his arm cross his chest and without a single facial expression, watched the cloud of smoke and debris as it began to wither away into nothingness.

Finally, after nearly a good minute the cloud disappeared entirely and revealed the contents within.

The first to come into view was Charizard. The dual Fire and Flying-type stood tall and proud, arms just like his Trainer Ash, folded across his chest. And then finally, Dragonite was revealed as well. The Pokemon lay face down within a deep crater, only the back of the Pokemon being shown and even then, nearly half the entire Pokemon's body had tuned a deep purple from bruising. Even if it was awake and wanted to move, it couldn't.

Charizard had one of his clawed feet pushing down harshly upon the Pokemon's back, keeping it form making any sudden movements, in case it was awake that was.

The silence stretched on. Palmer himself couldn't even bring himself to say anything, just staring at the prone and defeated form of his strongest Pokemon and lamenting on that fact that they never stood a chance against Ash in the first place.

The silence was eventually broken by the commentator, "Wow...Just wow folks! In a stunning display of strength and power, Charizard has taken down Palmer's Dragonite! And that's all she wrote folks! The winner of this match and going on to the second round of the Meganite Tournament is Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town!"

The crowd was quiet for a moment. And then, the moment ended and they exploded into a massive ear splitting roar. The screams and applause of the crowd rose so high that most could barely hear themselves think. And then they began to chant 'Ash' and 'Charizard' in tandem, over and over again.

Ash shook his head in amusement. Crowd were so easy to please these days. Just watching a couple of Pokemon beat each other down was all it took to get these people going. It was really quite sad actually. Did they have no other things to amuse themselves with other than watching extremely powerful creatures beat each other half to death?

Ash shook his head. He had to stop thinking like that nowadays. The majority of Pokemon battled because they wanted to do it for themselves or their Trainers. No need to go labelling all of his own kind as barbaric morons. He would kinda by proxy be calling himself one as well if he did anyway.

He looked up just in time to see Palmer return his Dragonite into its Pokeball. The blonde haired man rubbed at the back of his head slightly and then began making his way over towards Ash.

Ash decided to meet him halfway and walked forwards until he stood beside the crater Charizard was currently situated in. "Well that was a good battle Ash." Palmer told him with a shaky smile as he reached the raven haired teen, "I can honestly say me and my Pokemon have never had our asses handed to us quite like that." He continued, forcing out a laugh and holding his hand out towards Ash.

Ash met the hand with his own and gripped tightly, just as Palmer done with him. "It was fun, and your Pokemon were really strong, it's not often that my three strongest Pokemon get to cut loose like that." The amber eyed Pokemon Ranger replied as they shook hands.

Palmer had to hold back a laugh of disbelief. His Pokemon were really strong? Then what the hell did that make Ash's? Legendary?

"Heh, I guess me and my Pokemon need to get back into training harder." Palmer said instead of what he was thinking, "You've really driven home for me just how far I still need to go to be considered one of the best Pokemon Trainer's around. So thank you." The blonde man finished. With that, he broke the handshake between himself and Ash and turned on his heel to make his way out of the battlefield, tossing a wave over his shoulder as he done so.

Ash watched him go for a moment before turning towards Charizard and smirking, "Good to see you haven't lost your edge in the last few months." The amber eyed teen stated, "In fact, I think you might actually be quite a bit stronger than you were when we fought Brandon."

Charizard, at the mention of the Pyramid Brain, snorted a plume of fire in annoyance; and Ash knew why. When they battled against Brandon, Charizard had dominated the fight against his Dusclops. But fell prey to under-handed stat effecting attacks. But even then, pulled through and went for the finish only for the Dusclops to hit Charizard with a Destiny Bond technique right at the very end and taking Charizard down with it.

Charizard wasn't a fan of Pokemon battling like that. He loved to battle straight out against his opponent, clashing against them at full power and fighting until they could fight no longer. A Pokemon like the Dusclops managing to tie in a battle with Charizard stung his pride. Especially because Charizard was so much more powerful than Dusclops was.

Ash laughed, "Don't worry buddy, I've worked on a few fail safes in case we ever get into a battle like that again, next time I won't allow for you to be cheated out of your victory." The raven haired teen reassured his Pokemon.

Charizard snorted another plume of flames from his nostrils and flashed away a clawed thumbs-up. He knew he could always count on Ash to come up with a plan for these type of things. He wasn't all that smart, Charizard knew he wasn't. He was the muscle, Ash was the brains so he would leave the strategising up to his Trainer. He trusted him with his life, and knew Ash would not let him down.

That said, Ash lifted Charizard's Pokeball and returned the dual Fire and Flying-type Pokemon back within it in a beam of red energy and began making his way out of the arena, idly clipping Charizard's Pokeball back onto his silver belt.

Damn he was hungry. Hopefully there was some good take-away joint near or on the way towards the Pokemon Center he and Dawn were staying it.

"Let's hear it one more time for Ash Ketchum folks!"

Ash merely continued onwards as the crowd roared his name to the heavens above. He idly mused that he could quite probably expect a fanclub in the Sinnoh Region now. It was to be expected of course, every well known Trainer had one. And he was becoming pretty well known these days.

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"Wow, that was just amazing!" Zoey gushed, clapping heartily along with the roaring crowd, "That Charizard was unreal! And did you see how brutal that last combo was?" The orange haired girl continued, "I think that Dragon Tail was enough to put Dragonite out of commission but I guess Ash wasn't willing to take any chances if he followed that up with a Giga Impact of all things."

Nando beside her let loose a smooth chuckle, "Indeed, young Ash has surely trained his Charizard well, in fact I do believe I have never seen a single Pokemon quite as powerful as that Pokemon in my life." The handsome harp player agreed. It was oh so interesting for him to see just how a Trainer as accomplished as Ash battled. Even now after seeing him battle, he couldn't quite determine just how Ash liked to battle. One thing was for sure though about his young friend, he liked his Pokemon fast and with a lot of fire power behind him.

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Dawn made her way quickly through the crowd, Piplup held tightly in her arms and Mewtwo's Pokeball hanging securely around her neck. As she walked, her mind was racing a mile a minute.

So that was Ash's strongest Pokemon? Dawn had to admit, he didn't disappoint. Palmer was quite well known in the Sinnoh Region for having many extremely powerful Pokemon, his strongest being the Dragonite. He had become the Tower Tycoon just as year previous after all, and that was no small feat.

To see his most powerful Pokemon being manhandled by her boyfriend's Charizard really put it into perspective for her just how much Ash held back on her in their training sessions.

His Pokemon never attacked at full power, or speed. And even then, when they did hit, there was no follow up. Nothing like that Dragon Tail followed by Giga Impact combo by Charizard.

And she thought her Ursaring could be intimidating? Her poor poor Ursaring would probably piss itself in fear if it ever came up against Charizard and seen what her boyfriend's most powerful Pokemon could do.

The blue haired girl shook her head, best not think on it at the moment. Her mind couldn't fully comprehend just how powerful that Charizard was at the moment anyway. Best to leave it until she got a look at the Pokemon up close and personal.

So she continued onwards, walking quickly to the Pokemon Center. She wanted to be the first to congratulate her boyfriend on such a swift victory.