The Stadium Of Disguises
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.
It was a bright, sunny day as Ash, Misty and Brock walked down a secluded path, looking for Mahogany Town. The path was rocky and narrow, and everything looked so bare that Ash almost missed a small brown door in one of the rocks.
"Hey, Misty, Brock, come and look at this."
"What is it Ash?" asked Misty, crouching down to see the door better.
"Hmm..." said Brock. "It says in the guidebook a few trainers have found a gym on this path. But all of them were beaten, and were too embarrassed to talk about it."
"A gym, yes? Well, even if other trainers have been beaten, we won't be, will we Pikachu?"
"Pika!"
And so saying, Ash opened the wooden door and crawled through.
"Hey, wait for us Ash!" cried Misty and Brock as they scrambled after him.
From behind a rock, Jessie, James and Meowth watched Brock close the door behind him.
"A Pokemon gym in the middle of nowhere? I shouldn't think you'd get many customers," said Jessie, puzzled.
James turned. "I know, but it's still a gym and still has Pokemon."
"Right," agreed Meowth."So aswe are Pokemon thieves, it's our duty to get in there and steal those Pokemon!"
So Meowth, James and Jessie silently crawled through the door as well.
The rocky tunnel was long and winding; indeed every time an end seemed to be in sight, there was just another corner and another backbreaking crawl ahead. Despite the apparent endlessness of this tunnel, Ash was determined to reach the gym (which is more then can be said of Misty, Brock and Team Rocket, who stopped for a rest every two minutes or so). Finally, though, Ash reached a huge rock in the middle of the path. He scampered around its left side. A few minutes later, Misty and Brock arrived, but they went right.
Ash stared. In front of him was a huge green door, made of wood. He gulped, and reached in front of him for the handle. He twistedit and opened the door. He gasped.
Misty and Brock gasped in awe. In front of them was a huge red door, almost as big as a Dragonite. Misty thought, and then grasped the handle. She opened the door, and gasped.
In front of her was a huge room filled with Pokemon. An Alakazam in one corner was psychically lifting a dumbbell, a Wobbuffet was bouncing a punch bag with Counter, and a Noctowl was practicing Hypnosis on a Drowzee. Misty and Brock stepped in, and Brock spotted a door in one alcove. They crept across the room, careful not to disturb anyone, and dashed through the door.
In front of Ash, there was a huge room, which had a large, flat table on the right side of the room. On top of the table were two desks, with three small holes in each. On the left of the room was a huge bench, covered in pink and blue cushions.
There were two doors on the opposite side of the room. There was a loud bang, and the one on the right wobbled twice.
"Pika!"
"Don't worry, Pikachu. But brace yourself in case it's Team Rocket."
The door quivered again, and suddenly some people burst through the door. They were Brock and Misty!
"Have you seen what's through here? It's a huge Pokemon filled room! There are all sorts of Pokemon training..."
"Wow," said Brock, interrupting Misty mid-sentence. "What is this place?"
"I dunno," said Ash.
The other door shook.
"Pika!"
It opened slowly, not creaking but looking as if it should have been. In through the door proceeded something small - it had feathery wings, much like a Dragonair's, and in fact it also had a long blue body like a Dragonair's. However, there was also something unmistakeably snakelike about this body.
It looked up. "What are you doing in the sacred Stadium of Disguises? You couldn't begin to imagine how many other idiots I get bothered by every month."
Ash growled. "I'm no ordinary idiot! I mean, I'm not an idiot at all!"
"Well, there's no need to shout about it. You're disturbing the Pokemon in the gym's nursery next door," the snake said, nodding towards the door that Misty and Brock had come through earlier.
"This is the Gym?" exclaimed Brock.
"Yup, you got that right. This is the Stadium of Disguises, Gym extraordinare on Route 34. Lucky for you to have found it."
"If it's a gym, then I can challenge you to a gym battle!" said Ash.
"That's fine by me.First, ofcourse,you must go through the preparation phase."
"Huh?" said Misty. "No official gym matches..."
"This is no official gym, lady."
The snake turned to Ash. "Get on the table," it said. Ash clambered onto the table. He felt rather a feeling of deja vu, and it was a moment beforehe realised why. This wasalmost exactlylike Brock's gym: there were some rocks strewn about, and a PokéBall in the middle. There were also some faint lines on the floor, but when Ash opened his mouth to ask about them, the snake indicated that he should stay quiet.
"You two -" the snake gestured towards Brock and Misty "- can sit over there," and now it pointed to the bench. It thenflew up to the other table.
"Alright then. Stadium of Disguises, I'm Ad, simple one on one combat all the way through, three Pokémon, however," and here he grinned, insofar as a snake can grin, "due to the inherent disadvantages you face, only one victory for you is necessary togain you the Badge."
Ash thought about disagreeing on this point, but the way he saw it, trashing this guy would lead to gloating rights afterwards no matter whether he gloated before, and gloating before - as he had seen countless times in Team Rocket - generally led to disaster.
"So, Ash, put yourthree PokéBalls in the holes in your table." Ad and Ash did it together, except Ad put down a deck of cards as well.
"Go!" roared Ad, and he picked out one of the Balls and threw it. Ash followed his lead. Out came Ad's Pokémon, the Wobbuffet that Misty and Brock had seen next door, and Ash's Squirtle. Wobbuffet ran to a rock, which Squirtle cut through easily, before destroying all the others. Wobbuffet used Mirror Coat.
"Mirror Coat will be useless against Headbutt -go, Squirtle!"
Before Squirtle could launch itself into the air, however, Adturned over one of the cards.
"Celadon", he said, and the stage glowed brightly. Ash sheilded has eyes from the light with his arm, and when he next looked, there was grass everywhere. Around Wobbuffet, however, there was a barren patch.
"Of course!" said Brock. "The Mirror Coat must have blocked the power of the card."
Squirtle looked about him. The grass was too high forit to see. Ittried using Hydro Pump to clear the way, but Wobbuffet was in front of it. It used Mirror Coat, and the Hydro Pump flew back into Squirtle. The impact threw Squirtle out of the arena.
"Squirtle, return!"calledAsh. Ad smiled. "First round to me. I'm so brilliant sometimes."
Ash decided to act quickly and shut him up. "If it's grass you're using, I'll just send out Charmander!"
"Then," said Ad, "I will use Seaking!"
The fish landed on the barren patch, and flapped about.
"Ha! It's like a fish out of water!" cried Ash.
"It is a fish out of water," said Misty.
Ad turned over another card. "Cerulean!"
Charmander felt the ground shake beneathits feet. Suddenly, a huge crack opened in the ground, and thearea split apart, revealing a huge pool of water. Charmandersprinted over the fast disappearing land, finally leaping onto Ash's platform.There itpanted, but Seakingswam after it, and used Water Gun. Charmander fainted.
"Charmander, return!" shouted Ash. "Alright, now I'm going to have to use my best Pokémon. Pikachu, go!"
"I'll change too," said Ad. "If this is your best pokemon, I had better use mine. Misdreavus, go!" The blue ghost burst out of its ball.
"What is that?"asked Misty. Ash switched on his Pokédex.
"Misdreavus is a ghost-type Pokemon. This Pokemon likes to startle people by going to them and pulling their hair," whirred Dexter.
"That's horrible!" cried Misty.
"Yeah: just like us!"
"Oh no." groaned Ash.
"To protect the world from devastation!"
"To unite all peoples within our nation..."
"Do you know who these two are?" asked Ad.
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reach to the stars above..."
"Unfortunately yes," replied Ash with a sigh.
"Jessie!"
"James!"
"Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"
"Meowth that's...hey! Are you even listening to us?"
"What are you two goons doing here?"asked Ash.
"We're going to capture your Pokemon. And that includes Pikachu!" said James.
"And we've got a super machine to help us," said Meowth. He threw a spontaneous raft into the water, andJessie and Jamesleapt onto it, carrying wires with them. These they began to snake around the Gym.
"Hey!" shouted Ad to Ash. "Drive them to the edge of the table!"
"Okay," Ash said. "Pikachu, electrify the water!"
"Pika!" The thunderbolt zapped through the water, jolting theraft to the edge of the pool. Team Rocket jumped onto the edge of the table, and took up two long cables. James began to splice them together.
"You can'tget rid ofus that easily!" shouted Jessie. "Arbok, go! Poison Sting."
Meanwhile, Meowth was under the table, also splicing cables together, but more successfully. He quickly plugged a cable into a small grey box, and then sighed in relief. On hearing a muffled shout of "Viridian!" from above, he smirked, pressed the button, and darted away.
"How dare you use the name of Giovanni's fair city in vain?" shouted Jessie. Then she snorted. "Look, James, at how they shrink away in fear."
"Um, Jessie," said James, "I don't think it's fearthey're shrinking from." Jessie looked down to see herself being carried along by a conveyor belt.
"Huh!" she snorted, jumping off. "That was a dirty trick!"
"Oh yeah?" said Ash stepping forward. "Bet you wish you'd thought of."
Jessie and James waited for the end of this sentence, but it never came, for Ash had inadvertently stepped onto a conveyor belt. Meowth popped out from under the table, and giggled.
The box below the table whirred and beeped, and Ash screamedas the conveyor belt sped up.
"Well done, Meowth," said Jessie.
"Shouldn't we see what's wrong?" suggested Brock to Misty.
"Yeah. But in a minute." she said, fluffing up the cushion behind her.
It wasn't long beforeAsh had got up, leading to a slight sighing from everyone else in the building, whohad been watching Ash's struggles with vague amusement.
"Now," he said wearily, "we can finish this!"
Not wanting any more trouble, Ad quietly lay down a card and whispered "Fuchsia Gym."
Team Rocket noticed Pikachu sitting, unguarded, in the middle of the area (indeed, it had fainted earlier due to being stuck on the speeding conveyor belt with Ash. They dashed towards it, but they hit something, and collapsed.
"It's an invisible wall!" said Brock in amazement.
Team Rocket shook themselves, and, faced with a now awake and also not inconsiderably angry Pikachu, decided to go back to the balloon. James ran towards it, but again hit something.
"We're trapped in a barrier of walls!" he said, before collapsing.
"But the machine - shouldn't it be doing something now?" snapped Jessie.
"Well," said Meowth. "I only brought the settings for sabotaging Viridian Gym because that's the one that works best."
"That's enough!" shouted Ad. He picked up one of the previously used cards. "Cerulean!"
The table opened up, and with a hugesplash Team Rocket fell into the water. Ash smiled at Pikachu.
"You know what to do, buddy."
Pikachu smiled back. "Pika!"
It fired a huge Thunder attack at the water, whichelectrified it, and sent Team Rocket flying.
"Look's like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" shouted James. Ad looked at Ash and smiled.
"You did well. If I weren't a member of the Alternative League I'd give you the badge now. But I still haven't finished. Misdreavus, go!" The blue ghost hovered over the water.
"Go, Pikachu!" shouted Ash.
Ad lay down another card and shouted "Cinnabar!"
An expanse of lava flowedfrom beneaththe table, causing it to float upwards. Misty and Brock ran away as the benches were engulfed. They joined Ash.
"That's not very safe, is it?" cried Misty.
Pikachu and Misdreavus fought, neither gaining the upper hand.
"Body Slam it, Pikachu!"
Misdreavus dodged, and Pikachu nearly flew over the edge of the table into the lava.
Ash gasped, and thought quickly - he had to end this soon.
"Knock away the cards!"
Pikachu leapt onto Misdreavus and over onto Ad's area. With a kick of his back foot, he sent all the cards butone into the lava. This card Pikachu held up, and Ash saw that he was Ecruteak. Ad, however, was scrabbling for the other cards, and did not notice.
"What happened?" cried Ad. "My cards!"
"Pikachu, kick Misdreavus into the lava!"
"No!" yelped Ad, pushing the last card forward. "Ecruteak!"
The stage and the lava disappeared. Pikachu, however, remembered well his batlle with Morty, and jumped from invisible floor to floor with ease. Misdreavus floated high above him.
"Attack, Misdreavus!"
Misdreavus swooped down to slam into Pikachu, but Pikachu leapt onto its back, and pulled it down. At the last moment, it let go. Pikachu just landed on the edge of a section of invisible path, but Misdreavus plummeted into the depths below.
Ad stared blankly.
"I guess this means you win. Drat."
Ash approached him. "Where's my badge?"
"Here." Ad pressed a small glowing object into Ash's hand.
"The Change badge. Take it." Ash looked at it. It was pulsating with different colours, which changed every second.
"Made with the centre of a Starmie. Well I never." said Ad, still blankly staring into the distance. Ash turned to leave.
"Wait." called Ad. "I have something to ask." He looked down. "Can I please come with you?"
Ash thought for a moment.
"I can guide me to where the other gyms are."
"Certainly," said Ash.
And so, with the first Alternative League badge attached to his jacket, Ash sets offon another great adventure.
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GOODNIGHT!