I, after collecting my Pokémon and packing my bags, decided to leave Pallet Town with Sabrina and Alain after Paul, Gary and Trip decided to continue with their journey. I wished them luck on their travels and before I left, Paul told me to "kick their asses." I laughed and told him that he would hear it all the way in Sinnoh. I walked hand in hand with Sabrina to the Cerulean City docks to catch a ferry to Sinnoh. When we got there, I learnt that the ferry would arrive in 2 hours so we went to the Pokémon center in the city. At the diner, we ordered our food ate in silence, reflecting on the events that had happened not 20 minutes ago.
"I can't take this anymore! How the hell did you pull off that stunt?!" Sabrina shouted.
"I second that," the surprisingly quiet Alain said. His Charizard nodded.
"What stunt?" I asked dejectedly, I was still depressed that my friends would give up on me like that.
"Ash, babe, you know that people don't normally spontaneously turn blonde, right?" Sabrina asked slowly.
"Or spontaneously manifest the power necessary to form energy spheres that reduce boulders to rubble?" Alain chimed in.
"Come on, you two! It is nothing special. So, what? I turned blonde?"
"I beg to differ," said a familiar voice.
I turned and, lo and behold, Cynthia was standing there.
Sabrina growled deep in her throat like a cornered lion. The rage in her gaze made even Alain's Charizard back up.
"Ash, don't trust her at all." Sabrina's voice called out to me telepathically.
"Got it." I returned.
"Oh hey," I said casually, as if the Sinnoh champion regularly showed up to talk to me.
"Ash, what's wrong? You don't seem yourself."
"I'm fine."
"No, you aren't. something clearly happened."
"I'm fine."
"Ash, are you going to tell me what's wrong or am I going to have to use my Garchomp?"
Without looking at her, I took a Pokéball and casually tossing it up into the air and catching it. "Go ahead. Dig that hole."
She growled slightly and hesitated before accepting.
I walk out of the door and onto the battlefield behind the center.
Sabrina refereed. "The battle between champion Cynthia and challenger Ash will begin! This will a 3 on 3 single battle and both trainers can substitute. Ready? Begin!"
"Garchomp, battle dance!" Garchomp appeared on the field and let loose a tremendous roar that shook the ground.
"Terrifying," I remarked dryly. "Charizard, light 'em up." I released the large orange dragon who roared and fired a flamethrower so powerfully that it burned the sky. Alain's Charizard roared with delight at seeing her fellow Fire/Flying Lizard take on Garchomp. Alain took a step back. This Charizard… he could feel the pure power radiating from it.
"Whoa," Cynthia breathed. "Talk about an awesome force! No matter, Garchomp fire blast!"
I smirked. "Take it."
Charizard stood his ground and even managed a bored expression, well as bored as a Charizard can look, anyway.
The stream of fire connected with Charizard and the intense heat singed the edges of my clothes and hair. When the attack dissipated, Charizard looked no worse for wear.
"Adorable. Anything else you wanna try?"
"That's it! Wrecking your team now! Garchomp, dragon rush!"
"Charizard, Scorched Earth."
Charizard grinned and flew to dodge the draconic energy hurtling toward him. He grabbed a stunned garchomp and flew to a good height. After throwing Garchomp towards the ground He then hurtled toward the ground firing Blast Burn as he did. He slammed feet-first onto the ground creating an earthquake and burning the navy dragon at the same time. Charizard then flew, unscathed, from the fiery fray.
The dust cloud parted, revealing a badly burnt and unconscious Garchomp, to the general shock of everyone except me, Sabrina, and Charizard.
"Grr…go Roserade!"
"I'm going to make this easy for you. Greninja! Your victory is assured!"
"It's your funeral," she replied flippantly. "Sunny day straight into solar beam!"
"Greninja, Water Shuriken!"
Greninja pulled two water stars from the markings on his thighs, smashed them together, and threw them at Roserade just as she fired Solar Beam. The shuriken cut through the beam and hit Roserade square in the stomach. She keeled over, gasping in pain before she eventually collapsed.
"DAMN IT!" Cynthia swore as her powerful grass type was deal with in one hit. Go Lucario!"
"Lucario! Nam Gloria! (For glory!)
"Alright, let's crush this weakling boy! Use Stone Edge!"
"Lucario, counter with Earthquake!"
As sharp stones erupted from the ground, a massive magnitude 10 earthquake struck the area. The stone edge shattered raining rock shards on the field. "Lucario! Iron Defense!" I shouted. Lucario's body glowed silver as he raised his defense making the stones bounce harmlessly off of him. Cynthia growled again.
"Use Flash Cannon!" she shouted.
"Lucario! Final Flash!"
"What?" Cynthia shrieked.
Lucario grinned and used psychic to lift himself into the air and then spread his arms out wide. (it's basically performed the same way Vegeta does it.) He stuck his arms out in front of him like a sideways Kamehameha and fired a silver beam with blue fire-like energy surrounding it. Cynthia's Lucario was well below ten feet underground once the attack stopped.
"Lucario is unable to battle so, that means the match goes to Ash! Good job, babe," Sabrina announced to the shocked crowd, confirming that the battle they just witnessed was not a dream.
Cynthia blanched. "What—what just happened?!"
"Lucario's true power is what happened."
"Grr… you little…!"
My eyes flashed dangerously. "Finish that sentence. I dare you."
Cynthia set her jaw and opened her mouth to speak when Nurse Joy said "The Sinnoh ferry is set to depart in ten minutes, please have your ticket ready to be scanned if you are planning to board."
"And...that's my cue. So, as much fun as humiliating you in front of the entirety of Cerulean City has been—and trust me when I say, it has been a pleasure, we have a ferry to catch," I said smoothly.
Without another word, I turned on my heel and walked off, leaving a stunned Alain and a hysterically laughing Sabrina in my wake.
We just managed to catch the St. Anne on its way out of the Kanto dock. As we settled into our room, we sat down to go over the game plan for Sinnoh.
"So, babe. Why are we going to Sinnoh, anyway?"
"Alain has some family in Sinnoh that he wants to check on and I have some Pokémon that I want to add to my team."
"Good idea. i need to revamp my team. While it may work in Kanto, I get the funniest feeling that it won't work here."
"Once a gym leader…" I started
"…always a gym leader," Alain finished.
"Very funny, boys!"
"Babe, it's pretty damn funny!"
"Come on, lay off her a little. She does have the reputation as Kanto's edgiest Gym leader to uphold."
"I swear to Arceus, Alain…" she started threateningly, her cold visage not concealing a miniscule grin.
"You know you can't hate me."
"But I can still hurt you," she smiled darkly
"Eh, I've had worse. I made the mistake of hugging my Bisharp. It sucked," he said dryly. "but anyway, what Pokémon are you hoping to add to your team, Ash?"
"Lucario, Rhyperior, Gardevoir, Bisharp, Zoroark, Blaziken, Umbreon, Milotic, Magnezone, and Luxray.
"Sweet! I'm hoping to add Garchomp, Kangaskhan, Lucario, Gallade, and…"
Suddenly, a massive explosion sounded off somewhere to my left. Along with a chilling voice:
"I know you have the Saiyan child. Turn him over and you will be unharmed. Refuse and you will be destroyed."
'So, is that what I was? A Saiyan?'
"Someone call for a Saiyan?" said a new voice, a deeper voice.
I ran up to the deck and met the strangest sight. Ever. A tall man with a shock of spiky blue hair and an orange gi was facing off against what looked, for all the world, like a white and red…man-lizard-woman…thing.
"Impudent worm! Who do you think you are? How dare you not tremble before the awesome might of Lord Frysta!"
"HEY! DID SOMEONE ORDER A SAIYAN CHILD!"
"What?!" the man and Frysta turned to me. I lifted my chin defiantly.
"Ash, what are you doing?!" Sabrina and Alain shouted.
"Insipid brat! How dare you mock me! I am—
"Lord Centigrade, blah blah blah blah, I get it! Then you went on to slay the Jabberwocky and save Narnia," I said dryly.
"Wait, time out. Ash!? Your name is Ash?"
"Yeah. What of it?"
"I finally found you…son."