Hey guys got busy sorry. Few quick things.

Updates may be irregular for a while I'm sorry but it's hand up time for the next week or so.

Review guys! I want to know what you're thinking.

I hate this chapter it's more of a time passing character development chapter for Ace and Leaf. However in the manga I disliked these chapters so that doesn't help.

Chapter 5

/A/

He watched in silence as Leaf trained. It was interesting.

The Charizard threw a boulder at his trainer and at first Ace thought they were having some kind of argument. Charizards could be temperamental and if their trainer lost their respect… generally said trainer was then dead.

However the whole thing was simply a training exercise in which the Scyther that Ace could barely see (Leaf obviously kept up with its speed and agility training) sliced through the boulder well before it hit its trainer.

"You just going to stand there?" the champion turned a smirk on his face, he knew what he was doing was impressive. It was a show of how powerful he was. Ace would let that slide with friends like Fire and Blue it was unsurprising the late bloomer would want to put on an impressive display.

"Just thinking I won't be sending Titan out against your Scyther when we fight for real" the champion turned to his Pokémon before looking back at Ace with a curious look.

"When?"

"You're champion and I'll be the one taking you down" Ace smirked.

"Obvious is it?" Leaf said noticing the expression on his face "you do realize people have been trying to dethrone me for two years now and look still champion" Ace simply shrugged at him as if that meant nothing.

"None of them were me. I am a one of a kind" Leaf smirked at the comment.

"Cocky bastard… Although I have to admit something, I have no idea how to train you in this kind of stuff" Ace looked up at the trainer "I mean I learned it by getting poisoned by a ninja and a few other events."

"So… Story time then?"

"You never heard about the whole Koga thing from Fire?" Ace shook his head.

"When it was just me and Fire… I did most of the talking" Ace grinned at the memory. "That or she was rushing off to her next big battle."

"Well… it wasn't one of my finer moments… two years ago back in Saffron Koga and I were fighting. Actually it wasn't really a fight. The room was dark so I couldn't see anything and stupidly I made light and talked, the whole time he knew exactly where I was. In the end he poisoned me because of my own stupidity" Leaf took a deep breath "I kept talking about an honourable fight but the thing is that's a choice you make. Do you fight honourably? Because your opponent may not, hell your friends may not. You have to be twice as good as everyone else to stand a chance. Koga didn't fight honourably and after that I lost consciousness."

"Then what?" Ace was interesting now, he knew that in the end Koga had been shot by Fire but what had happened to Leaf wasn't known by too many. Actually neither was the fact that Fire had shot Koga Ace knew that because Bill had told him. Most people just knew someone shot the Poison gym leader… and he lived.

"My Aunt got me to a lab in Saffron, healed me and I got right back to the fight… Then we took back Saffron. Other than that there aren't many stories really… A challenger pulled a gun on me once. Blue was with me and disarmed him by throwing a knife at his hand, lots of blood but he lived"

The Hunter's losing his touch or something? Ace thought curiously but he doubted Leaf even knew about his friend's little nickname. At least Fire just refuses her nature he hides it.

"You learn anything from that mess?" Leaf asked scratched his head obviously self conscious.

"When I was young I went to Viridian City to… sell some things that Chrome had made. They were all to happy to take them but when I explained how they were made I was run out of town" Ace remembered the memory vividly "Pokémon cells used to help humans, human cells to help Pokémon. They thought it was the most disgusting thing they had heard of… I told them that what they had done to the river was the most disgusting thing I had heard of. We are all disposed to be horrible to each other why would we need to be honourable?" Leaf scrunched up his face at the comment. "I guess who else other than us huh?" Ace finished with a sigh and leaning back.

"I always hated that river" Leaf said "everyone always told me not to go in it…"

"And it smells funky? Try swimming in to wounded… If it wasn't for my team and that Seadra…"

"What about the river here? It's much cleaner" Leaf stretched

"You really have no idea what to do do you?" the boy smirked at him.

"Ace shut up and come to the river with me"

Leaf was correct the water was much cleaner than the river in Viridian forest. Ace could see the Pokémon swimming about in the harsh current.

"So… the point?" He asked looking at Leaf.

"We aren't going to put you at gun point that would be stupid but 'story time' as you dubbed it gave me an idea. The water here is pretty clean but full of surprises"

"Yeah that current is nasty" Ace wasn't following at all.

"Exactly the thing that was the hardest for me to learn was how the world looked nice and all but really… It's metaphorical training try and swim up the current" Ace raised an eye brow at the brunet.

"Because that's not monumentally danger-yeah I see your point" he'd give Leaf this the guy had a brain and he used it. But he ran with the Hunter and Fire and wasn't dead so that wasn't too shocking. He also had an edge to him as the training proved, at least the water was clean though enough that he wouldn't get a suspicious rash from swimming in it.

Ace watched the water thinking about it for a long time, getting up steam would be easy if he had a water Pokémon with him however he hadn't added any team members since Magic because it hadn't really suited him.

And all that mess... He didn't include Strike in that because Strike wasn't his. He could just get Magic to use psychic it would be simple and make the whole task pointless but what better way to mess with the Pokémon Champion then mess up his lesson?

"Magic" the Pokémon exited it's pokeball and looked at him expectantly "I need you to help me swim upstream" the Pokémon blinked once but obeyed using psychic to slowly lift Ace into the water. The water never even touched him as he moved up stream. He turned to look at Leaf who had now sat himself on a rock to watch. "Wow that was so hard" Ace smirked that was until he noticed the look on the Pokémon Champion's face.

Leaf was just watching passively. He gave the slightest of smiles when Ace called out but that was it. Ace looked around him trying to find what was going to jump out at him or the rock he was about to trip over. Leaf could only know something was going to happen. The task was meant to be hard to teach him a lesson and he had completely undemanded it, Leaf should be furious but he was just sitting there watching.

Ace was about to say something, try and get a rise out of him. He was missing something and he might be able to get what that was out of Leaf if he could get him angry enough.

That was when it happened. Magic may have been powerful but it couldn't hold an attack forever especially with such a strong current as an opponent. The psychic shielding around Ace's feet was removed and his legs buckled with the sudden force on his lower leg. Magic trying to help his trainer stopped the shielding to pull Ace up but this only led to him falling under the current completely. Submerged Ace could see all the dirt the current had kicked up but he also quickly lost track of which way the surface was.

Ace started planning his next move, calculating how much air he had in his lungs when something grabbed hold of him and carried him to the surface. It then unceremoniously threw him onto the shore where he coughed up dirty river water.

"Ace?" He heard Leaf say as the boy looked over him checking how he was. Ace pulled away and looking at his saviour who looked back at him, it seemed rather proud.

"You want more food?" He said with a sigh as the Seadra fluttered it's fins in a yes. "I don't have any on me right now" he told it but that didn't deter the creature. He had seen this several times before, the Seadra was smart it knew it could get food from him so it saw no point in looking for another source.

Ace threw a pokeball and it was caught almost instantly.

/

It had been about two months since Ace had almost drowned (though according to Leaf he was going to have his Golduck save him if necessary) the time had been filled with various training exercises and battles. None had been as… well none had been as interesting as that first day. Leaf was right he couldn't predict what would happen but that was what made the game so much fun.

What's better than building something then taking it apart before building it again? Having a spanner thrown in the works by someone unpredictable and seeing where that will lead… He threw some meat to the Seadra he had named Mercury apparently most water Pokémon had high levels of it.

Now they were just sitting in the morning sun by the water. Above them Leaf's Pidgeot flew keeping watch. They sat in silence which was why it was so noticeable when the Pidgeot let out a warning cry and Mercury's fins stopped before twitching slightly.

"Something's coming" Leaf stood up looking about them he released his Pokémon. Ace followed his lead knowing that the Seadra would only be of use in water.

Circling around the short hills and trees around them came a pack of wild Mankey. Ace looked them over half starved and had probably come to the area looking for a food source. The group was large which was probably why they were so hungry. Smaller family groups of the Pokémon survived with relative ease while larger ones solved their hunger problems in various ways including leaving those that couldn't survive behind or just eating them. There wasn't a lot of time to plan as the primate Pokémon jumped them as soon as they were in sight.

Leaf and Ace stood, their Pokémon surrounding them protecting them but only a few minutes into the fight it was obvious what would happen.

"Too many to just keep fighting them!" Leaf called out.

"They're a pack! Take out the leader and the rest will follow" Ace explained searching for the leader.

"Over there!" Ace glanced at Leaf who was pointing to his right were a Primeape sat on a dead tree log watching them. "Ace we need to clear a path to him" he was right and Ace knew just how to do it.

"I've got it covered Leaf!" he said with a smirk "Pi!" the Paras he had gotten from Erik two months earlier was perfect for the job. Ace pointed "sleep powder that way!" the Pokémon obeyed sending out the powder clearing a path.

"Go!" Leaf called out as his Golduck and Charizard moved to keep the path clear as long as possible. Ace nodded.

"Zuzu, Strike with me!" Strike landed on his shoulder as the Zubat flew above them. "Strike paralyse anyone who comes at us!" from the Pikachu's vantage point on his shoulder it was able to hit anyone in the vicinity with ease.

They sprinted right up to the leader who stood ready to fight.

"Zuzu wing attack!" the attack hit the Primeape square in the face knocking him back but not down. The creature let out a loud growl as it leaped towards Ace. Ace jumped out of the way as Zuzu flew in and hit with another wing attack unfortunately the Primeape also landed a Karate chop.

The Zubat spiralled backwards into the dirt. It rolled about creating a cloud of dust as it screeched repeatedly, it was trying to understand where it was.

"Zuzu!" Ace yelled seeing the Pokémon in the dirt. The Primeape threw another Karate chop but this time at Ace, the boy dodged quickly and Strike let out a discharge attempting to ward the Pokémon off.

Ace moved towards Zuzu before noticing something the Pokémon had stopped panicking and was instead glowing. Quickly the Zubat became a Golbat and able to see it leaped up into the air ready to fight again. It flew right into the Primeape's face the enemy stood still for a moment shocked at the Golbat's stunt, Ace took his chance.

"Wing attack!" the attack criticised knocking the Primeape back. The others seeing this stood for a moment before grabbing their wounded and running. Ace panted and looked over at Leaf who was too.

"Well… that went well"

And remember folks don't flame unless you have an extinguisher!