Journey Ruby Chapter 2 (Patreon)

Pocket Monster parody: Bad Day/Tier 1

Chapter 1 

Chapter 2 Surprise Surprise

Ash was about to rush out of the lab, excited to face his first gym of the Hoenn region. Thankfully Birch stopped him. “How about we have a talk?” He made some tea and they sat down to talk.

“Oh sure professor.”

Birch was impressed with Ash, the young man had such a passion and love for Pokemon. “Oak spoke very highly of you Ash.”

The young man blushed. “Oh...what did he say?”

“Enough, but I’d like to hear more about your journey. You’ve must have gained a lot of different experiences.”

“Hmm,” Ash thought about his adventures and travels. He knew about Berries, Apricorns, and he had gotten to meet all kinds of Pokemon and Trainers. “I’ve learned about Massage Therapy.” It was a special treatment he learned from a talented breeder.

Birch was impressed, there was a few clinics in Hoenn that practiced. Not many trainers recognized how much a good massage could help their pokemon and strengthen their bond. Coordinators on the other hand. Birch had a feeling that if Ash could balance being a trainer and coordinator he’d take bigger steps to being a Pokemon Master.

“I was traveling with an aspiring breeder named Brock. He was great, he knew a lot about Pokemon and cooking.” He learned how to cook a bit. “Brock used to tell me I had a talent for it, stuff I picked up from my Mom I think, but my skills don’t compete with them.”

“I see.” He took a sip of his tea. “Cooking can be tricky, rush it and you’ll have it under cooked, but take too long you can burn it. One can find parallels from cooking to training.” Birch explained. Ash looked to Pikachu in surprise, he hadn’t thought about that.

He’s often rushed his gym run, and not properly preparing between them. He was ready to rush to the next gym, even though he had two new Pokemon to train. If he pushed them too hard, they could end up in serious trouble.

“You know I think my mom tried to teach me that. A lot of things she’s taught me...how she’s raised me I didn’t realize has helped me a lot.” Ash knew how to stretch a budget. The chores Delia often had him do toughened his body and built up his stamina. Looking back on Kanto he admits he made a lot of mistakes, but he was older and wiser now.

“I’ve had all kinds of battles and I want to really focus on training and improving my Pokemon’s moves. I want to catch all kinds of Hoenn Pokemon too.” He’s rushed into battles without thinking before in the past, and while he’s excited, with all the cool stuff in the Hoenn region he’s decided to pace himself. “In Johto my Pokemon worked really hard, and while I tried not to make the same mistakes I did end up making new ones.”

“Mistakes and failure are nothing to fear, so long as you learn from it.” Ash nodded.

“Thank you Professor. I guess I was letting my excitement get the best of me!” He chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. “I appreciate the advice, and I will take it to heart!”

Birch laughed. “No trouble at all Ash, you remind me of a lot of myself when I was young. This world is full of wonders, with many opportunities to gain new experiences, to grow, to train, and to make new friends. It’s why I became a Professor, so I can keep exploring the wonders of the world.”

Ash smiled. He wanted to come to the Hoenn Region to enter the League, but there was so much more for him here. Ash asked to use his kitchen, and he was able to whip up some Pokemon food. Pikachu and Phanpy dug right in. He followed a fire type recipe Brock gave him and a dark type recipe.

Torchic and Poochyena ate it and grew more affectionate towards Ash. “We are gonna get a lot stronger together.” His Pokemon were excited. He already had his first rival in Hoenn.

Poochyena liked to hang outside his ball, but like Phanpy Torchic liked to rest in his ball. Ash returned the ground and fire type. Hoenn was a big place, full of a lot to explore, he’d miss out if he just charged from gym to gym. Taking a deep breath he set off towards Oldale Town. Ash was pumped and ready to go.

Pikachu was chilling on Ash’s shoulder as Poochyena raced around. He saw Ash and the other Pokemon as part of his pack. “Don’t stray too far okay Poochyena.” He yipped in response.

The Dark type was a lot like Ash, full of energy and had a temper. So when a Zigzagoon attacked him it started a battle. “Who’s that Pokemon?” Ash scanned him with his Pokedex.

Dexter: Zigzagoon, the TinyRaccoon Pokemon. They are extremely curious and so end up walking in zigzag paths between things that interest it. The hair on their backs is bristly, they’ll rub their back hair against trees to leave territorial markings. They are Normal types.

The two clashed back and forth, with back to back Tackles. It looked like Poochyena won, Zigzagoon laying on the ground seemingly fainted. The dark type hopped about happily, feeling victorious. In a surprise attack the Zigzagoon hit him with a Tackle. “What was that?”

Dexter: This pokemon may play dead to fool foes in battle.

“Quite the tricky one, but we won’t fall for that again.” Poochyena wasn’t pleased by the trick and harnessed his power for a Bite. It lands and Zigzagoon was knocked back.

“Zagoon!” It called out, and a bunch of familiar normal types joined the fray, coming in at weird angles from all over. They even brought their friend a berry to freshen him up.

Ash called out Torchic and Phanpy, with Pikachu joining the fray.  They were still outnumbered but not out strengthed. Thanks to training with the Houndour pack Ash knew how to handle swarm battles.

Pikachu faced two of the Zigzagoons, with his speed and battle experience it was no contest. Phanpy held off one with a Defense Curl followed up by a Rollout. Torchic and Poochyena had the most trouble. “It’s okay, I believe in both of you, and we’ll keep getting stronger.”

Using Ember and Bite, the two won their matches, but it wasn’t a graceful win. Torchic was lacking speed, his opponent was able to dodge with zigzag movements. He could only dodge so much and was pelted by embers. Poochyena was lacking defense, taking hits left Poochyena in more peril, but given his attitude he didn’t really try to dodge, but charge in recklessly.

With the battle over, Ash gave the Zigzagoon some berries, and they scampered off. It was good experience as Ketchum knew where to start their training now. For Torchic it was two fold, he looked in his Pokedex moves Torchic could learn, so first they’d learn Quick Attack, then they would work on learning Flame Charge, a fire type move that increased the user’s speed.

As for Poochyena they needed to work on dodging and a good way to help that was weaken an opponent’s accuracy. Mud Slap was a ground type move that did just that. There was a river nearby so Ash brought his team down to play, Poochyena got to play around in the mud a bit and got to work learning Mud Slap. Phanpy helped and the two learned the move together, it was a bit different.

Poochyena gathered the earth energy in his paws, while Phanpy channeled the energy in his trunk.

Torchic got to train with Pikachu, who already knew Quick Attack, so teaching him was a bit easier. So learning the move didn’t take long, so they could work on Flame Charge which was a bit trickier.

“Prepare for Trouble…”

“Make it Double…” Ash and Pikachu grimace.

“Oh no, not them!” Jessie, James, and Meowth arrive, finishing their motto, with Wobbuffet popping out of his ball to add to it. “Why are you here?”

“Isn’t it obvious, we are here for Pikachu, and any other Pokemon you have!” Jessie said.

“Why am I not surprised? You can keep trying to take my Pikachu, but I’m not gonna let that happen!” Poochyena growls at them.

“He’s got one of those things too…” Meowth quaked in fear.

“We got some new mons of our own!” James said. “Go Moxie!”

“Go Millie!” Jessie called out her own Poochyena.

Ash’s dark type recognized his old pack, but things were different now. Just as he saw Ash and his fellow mons as his new pack, so did Moxie and Millie see Jessie and James as pack.

The fight was on with Poochyena and Torchic battling Team Rocket. Poochyena got Moxie with a Mud Slap, his paw surged with ground energy before unleashing the mud. Not only did it do damage, but it also lowered Moxie’s accuracy.

Torchic tried to land a Flame Charge, but the flames fizzled out. Jessie laughed at the failed move. “It’s okay go for Quick Attack!” The laughing stopped at Torchic hit Millie hard and sending her flying back at Jessie.

“Oh my darling Millie, this stinky battle is too good for you!” She recalled the dark type and sent out Arbok. The snake scared the tiny bird pokemon.

“Torchic return!” Ash managed the save recalling the fire type. “Phanpy you are up!”

The fight turned into a mud slinger, as Phanpy and Poochyena  barrage the rockets with mud. Moxie lasted longer than Jessie’s Poochyena but couldn’t land a hit. Jessie’s Arbok was soon suffering accuracy problems of their own.

Phanpy was a great training companion for Poochyena, sharing his battle experience with the pup. He was able to beat his former pack mate. “Oh Moxie, you did great, return.” James seemed like a good trainer at least.

The ground type finished off the poison type with a Rollout. “Let’s get that Pikachu!” Meowth declared. Poochyena barked at him making him flinch in fear.

Pikachu sent them blasting off with a Thunderbolt. “Well hopefully we won’t see those three for awhile.” They carried on to Oldale Town where Ash registered for the Hoenn League. Nurse Joy gave his Pokemon a check up and helped them get treated.

Even still, since they worked so hard both in training and battle Ash gave them each a massage. It helped them bond and relax.

A trainer wearing a strange cap on his head. He observed Ash bonding with his Pokemon. “You must be a new around here.”

“Oh hi, my name’s Ash Ketchum, I’m from Pallet Town in the Kanto Region.” Ash introduced and offered his hand.

“The name’s Brendan Ruby. I’m from Petalburg City!” He struck a pose. “You better remember my name because some day soon I’m gonna be a star coordinator.”

“A coordinator? That means you do Pokemon Contests.” He heard about the specific type of trainer from Birch.

“Are you interested in contests too Ash?” Ketchum chuckled.

“Well I just heard about them after coming to Hoenn, but since I want to be a pokemon master I’m gonna give it a try.” Hearing Ash’s bold dream Ruby couldn’t help but chuckle.

There wasn’t a contest hall in this town but there was a battle club. “How about a battle Ruby?” This got another laugh.

“Oh please, I don’t do such violent things like Pokemon Battles!” He crossed his arms.

“But aren’t there battle rounds in contests?” Ruby chuckled again.

“Silly Ash, Contest Battles are about Elegance!” He claimed they were different than the barbaric battles like in Gyms. “Don’t tell me you are gonna enter the gym circuit?”

“Sure am!” Ruby sighed, and struck a pose as if he’d lost interest in Ash.

“Here I thought we were kindred spirits. Seeing how you cared for your Pokemon I didn’t think you’d put them through such horrible things.” He also didn’t care for the Battle Clubs, finding them in just as much bad taste as gyms. Ash was very confused. “You should forget about gym battles and embrace the stage of contests!”

“Well I’ll probably do both thanks.” He sweatdropped. “To become a pokemon master I gotta experience all the world of Pokemon has to offer, taking it in and applying it to make myself and my team stronger!”

Ruby shrugged. “You don’t make a lot of sense. Oh well, perhaps we’ll meet on the contest stage!” He walked off, leaving Ash very confused.

“I hope not all coordinators are like that.” His mons agreed.

It had been a long day and Ash decided to go to the Battle Club tomorrow. The monsters slept outside of their balls around Ketchum in an adorable pile. Sadly the peace and quiet was undone as Team Magma attacked the Center.

They were after a professor who was staying there. Ash thought it was Team Rocket, but was surprised by a different team. “What’s going on?” Ruby came out to check what the problem was.

Houndoom and Mightyena growled at him. “Ruby call out your pokemon we have to fight or they’ll take the professor!”

“Fight...I...I can’t…” He was shaking.

“You are still a trainer, we can’t just stand by and let them do as they please!” Ash declared.

“Enough of this!” The lead magma agent snapped his fingers and the Mightyena lunged at Ruby.

“Torchic Quick Attack, Poochyena Tackle!” The two attacked  and saved Ruby.

“You little pest!” The agent looked pissed. “Houndoom use Flamethrower.”

“Pikachu counter it with Thunderbolt!” That attacks clashed with equal might. He called for the other grunts, who called out Zubats, Koffing, and Poochyena. “Ruby please, I can’t fight them all on my own!”

“Okay!” He grabbed his monster balls. “Nana, Ziggy, I need you!” He called out a Treecko called Nana and a Zigzagoon called Ziggy.

Everyone put up a brave fight, battling against Team Magma’s numbers. For not being a big battler Ruby was able to hold his own, showing off his Elegance with contest moves. With Nana he had the Treecko do a spin before attacking, increasing the power of his Pound. As for Ziggy, he used a spin to dodge attacks, before zipping around and landing a tackle. Ash was impressed.

The problem came from their strongest members for this mission who had the Houndoom and Mightyena. Using Roar, the mons were scared back to their balls, all of them except Pikachu.

The electric mouse stood defiant against them, but the odds were now in Team Magma’s favor. The lead grunt was able to force the professor to go with them to the nearby ruins. They got help from a surprising source Don George. He helped not only get power back to the center, freed Ash and Ruby so they could go rescue the Professor.

George proved to be a terrifying threat, rocking a Hariyama, a fighting type who was super effective against their dark types.

Team Magma were forced to flee after collecting some data from a hidden chamber of the ruins. This wasn’t what they were looking for anyway, and a prolonged battle was a waste of time. “If you get in our way again, you’ll face our wrath!” Ash had a bad feeling he’d see them again, Ruby hoped he’d never see those creeps ever again.

They left behind some jewels that helped the Professor unlock the secrets of these ruins. The professor was able to make a shocking discovery finding some thought to be extinct water pokemon.

As a thank you to Ash and Ruby for fighting for him, he gave them both a Pokemon Fossil. “I discovered these early on, I planned to revive them, but now I have more to study here. You can have these fossils revived and care for ancient pokemon.” Ash got excited.

“Where can we get them revived?!” Ketchum got the Root Fossil.

“At the Devon Corp in Rustboro City. I know you two will care for these pokemon well.”

“An ancient Pokemon, that’ll have some appeal!” Ruby said with flare. He got the Claw Fossil.

The next day Ruby was off to Route 103 to try and fish up a water type. Ketchum planned his day going to the Battle Club.

To be continued...