Chapter 9: Ajay and the mighty Sandshrew (with a twist)

Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon, obviously, it would be very different otherwise.

A/N: I am so sorry for not updating for almost a month. A mixture of being too busy, writers block, and lacking motivation to type. I've also been having an idea for another story that I want to write. The details will be at the end of the chapter and I hope you can give me your opinion on the subject.

Back with a new chapter. Thank you all for busting my ass for the couple mistakes I made in the last chapter with sernea/sabrina, and viridian, Vermillion. I went back and fixed the issues. I will try to avoid making mistakes like that again. I am sorry. I finally managed to find time to write this chapter so I hope you like it with my decisions in the content of this chapter.

Thanks for sticking with this story and I'm glad you are enjoying it. I especially think you'll like what I've got coming in this chapter. You will definitely be able to see which is my favorite starter so I might be a little biased on abilities. I have already planned way ahead on some parts of the story and I have made many notes on the future of the story. I hope it turns out as badass as it is in my head.

Do you guys have any suggestions or anything you want to see in this story? I'd love to hear your ideas and what you might want him to catch or a certain event you want to happen or not.

As the title says, this chapter is about him traveling to Vermillion City and meeting all three starters that he caught in the anime. The events in this chapter will be similar to the anime but not identical (obviously). I hope you enjoy this chapter and the things I customized with it.


Route 5-The day after the gym battle

It was the day after Ash's successful gym battle and he was walking with elekid down Route 5 making their way to the infamous Vermillion City and its gym. The route used to go to Saffron City but a major earthquake destroyed the end of the route and made it unable to be traversed. Saffron managed to avoid major damage due to the psychic barriers surrounding the city but both the north and south entrance were destroyed beyond repair. To make up for the damaged entrances, the league built an underground tunnel that lead to the other end of Saffron City.

Ash battled quite a few trainers on his way to the underground tunnel and won them all easily. The normal trainer would be getting cocky with the large win streak that he was having but Ash knew that if he got too cocky, he would become overconfident and make large mistakes that would cost him in the future. Instead, he never underestimated his opponents and fought to the best of his abilities.

The trainer he was battling now was using a standard rattatta and he was battling with Grimlock getting the dinosaur some battle experience. The battle was very one sided with the Tyrunt's high defense and the rattatta's low attack power. The only reason it was lasting this long was because Ash was trying to get Grimlock to unlock and master some of the moves he3 was having trouble with. He was making excellent progress with dragon pulse. He was having a lot of difficulty with iron defense. It was hard for him to harden his scales with the steel energy. It took a lot of focus for the hyperactive pokemon and with his aggressive nature especially in battle. He was making some progress but not nearly enough to call it mastered.

The battle was finally ended when Grimlock formed a green ball of draconic energy in his large mouth and fired it at the charging rattatta before he could dodge. Instead of the ball flickering away before it could hit, or losing power so that it hardly did a thing the ball retained all of its power and exploded in a bright green flash of energy. When the dust clearned, it showed an unconscious rattatta which was quickly recalled by its trainer.

"Wow, you're really strong, you could probably beat Ajay." Said the trainer he just beat.

"Who's Ajay?" Ash asked confused.

"He's a powerful trainer who has a huge win streak. His sandshrew is his strongest pokemon and the cornerstone of this team. He is about half a mile that way." He said pointing south. "His large tent is right on the main path. You won't have any problem seeing it. Good luck."

Both trainers went their separate ways with the trainer heading north to a pokemon center while Ash went south to get to the underground tunnel and to hopefully see and battle this Ajay he had been told about.


Ash was walking down the road with Grimlock at his side looking for this tent the trainer told him about. While he was keeping an eye out for his goal, Grimlock was enjoying being outside of the ball and was getting some fresh air and watching the other pokemon that lived in the wilds. He was currently unaware that a couple small pidgey were perched on his orange sail napping. With how strong he was, he was unable to feel their light weight on his rocky sail.

Ash didn't mention it and he was waiting for the dinosaur to figure it out on its own. He was looking forward to the moment of realization. Likely, he would freak out and make a spectacle that would make Ash's day.

Sure enough, one of the pidgey suddenly sneezed right behind his head and make Grimlock give an undignified, terrified screech from the sudden noise so close to him. He turned himself around and saw the two pidgey and tried to buck them off.

Ash was currently laughing his head off at startled cry his otherwise intimidating pokemon gave off along with the sight of the dinosaur bucking like an angry Tauros trying to get the stubborn pidgeys off of his back. This was going off for a couple minutes before the pidgeys flew away dizzily. After they birds were gone, Grimlock stopped bucking and heard Ash laughing his head off and kept his head down in embarrassment and looked away from his laughing trainer.

After Ash stopped laughing, the two continued their journey down the main route. Grimlock checked his spine every couple minutes to make sure no other birds had decided to rest on him. After a while of walking, Ash spotted a large, colorful tent with what looked like a scoreboard in front of it. The scoreboard displayed a 99 and a 0 which likely was the records or wins and losses which was impressive.

"Wow, that's an impressive streak, this guy must be pretty powerful." Ash said impressed.

"And You Better Believe it! Are You My Next Victim?!" Asked a loud voice that dripped with overconfidence.

Ash turned to the source of the voice and saw a teenager with spiky green hair, wearing what appeared to be a black and orange sportscoat. The teenager had a cocky smirk on his face and was tossing a plain pokeball up and down and was staring at Ash

"Victim? I just want to have a battle." Ash answered.

"Whatever, follow me to my battling field. Let's get this over with and get my 100th win in a row." Ajay said.

Ash just shook his head in disbelief and decided to humor the cocky teen and followed him through his tent to a small field in the back. It looked slightly worn down from the constant battling that occurred there. Ash went to one side of the field while Ajay went to the other side.

"I'll send my pokemon out first. Come on Sandshrew, let's destroy this loser!" Ajay said throwing the pokeball onto the field releasing the Sandshrew onto the field. When Ash saw it, he was immediately on guard because the pokemon had small cuts and bruises on it that were hard to see if you were not observant like Ash but he noticed. It also looked tired and looked high strung and watched its trainer worriedly.

Ash immediately knew what was happening and pulled out his pokedex and sent a message to both professor Oak and the nearest police station (He would have used the other device he had but it broke in the mount moon incident And I forgot what the device was. I will leave a note for myself when he buys a new one.). Until the police gets here, he will stall him and keep him distracted so there is no chance of him running away and continuing to abuse his pokemon.

In response to the Sandshrew, Ash sent out Grimlock who seemed ready to battle but he paused when he saw the condition the Sandshrew was in but Ash sent a telepathic message saying to be careful and pull punches to make the battle last longer. The Tyrunt gave a slight jump at the voice in his head but he has been getting used to it with both Ash and Abra being able to speak directly into their minds. Grimlock gave a quick nod at the order and said something to Sandshrew that Ajay took as a challenge but it was in fact the exact opposite. Grimlock told Sandshrew to wait a little longer and that he would be free of his abusive trainer.

Sandshrew perked up after hearing this and looked excited. It then shouted to Grimlock that it would not pull punches because it knew Grimlock could take a hit. Grimlock just smirked and roared to give Ajay the show he was expecting to which Sandshrew squeaked back in challenge.

"Let's destroy his pathetic pokemon, Sandshrew, use Magnitude!" Ajay yelled arrogantly.

Sandshrew jumped up and landed on the ground and the ground shook and erupted around the field and did quite a lot to the grounded Tyrunt. Tyrunt dug his feet into the ground and lowered his body and successfully lessened the damage from the super-effective move. Tyrunt just growled and launched a half-power dragon pulse at Sandshrew to which he dug underground to dodge which confused Grimlock and made him look around worriedly.

"Stay calm, focus and feel the ground for him. When he comes up, use Iron head to block." Ash said.

The Tyrunt stopped moving around and closed his eyes to focus on the ground. When the shaking got more intense, Grimlock's head began to glow brightly with steel energy but then, the steel energy spread and covered Grimlock's entire body with steel energy with his head glowing even brighter than normal.

"Congrats bud, you learned Iron Defense."

Sandshrew came up next to Grimlock and slammed into his side and bounced off of the metal like body with a squeak of pain. Grimlock turned to Sandshrew and slammed his head into its chest making it fly a few feet. If Grimlock had been fighting 100%, Sandshrew would be unable to battle but since he was holding back, Sandshrew managed to get back up.

"Come on you stupid pokemon! Stop playing around! Or you're going to regret it later." Ajay said with the last part being said under his breath but Ash heard him anyways. "Use rollout repeatedly until it's down!"

Sandshrew just rolled up into a ball and shot at Grimlock at a much faster speed than expected. Grimlock tried to stop him but the balled up pokemon slammed into his face. It began to roll around him quickly and hit him as fast as he could to not let Grimlock have time to adjust. Thanks to the power increase qualities of rollout, the damage began to show on Grimlock and was hurting him a lot more than a rock type move would regularly. After about 7 hits, Sandshrew rolled to the front of Grimlock and began to charge at it with intent to knock him out. Grimlock was barely hanging on after the barrage of attacks but looked to the charging ball and opened his mouth which erupted with a large dark aura.

"That's crunch. Two moves in one day." Ash said excitedly.

Sandshrew jumped up to hit Grimlock's head and Grimlock snapped at Sandshrew with his jaws. Grimlock caught the spinning Sandshrew and increased the pressure of the bite and shook his head around and threw him directly into the ground. When the dust settled, it showed an unconscious Sandshrew in the small crater.

Ash just smiled and congratulated Grimlock before looking over at the waking Sandshrew in worry. He looked over at Ajay who seemed to be shaking in rage and looked to be barely keeping his composure.

Then Ajay seemed to snap, "YOU WORTHLESS, WASTE OF SPACE, PATHETIC POKEMON! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD LOSE TO THIS WEAKLING! YOU'RE GONNA REGRET THIS." After his rant, he ran over to Sandshrew and began to kick and hit him.

Ash and Grimlock looked on in shock and horror before coming to their senses and Grimlock tackled the crazy teen off of the sand mouse. The tackle didn't do any damage but Grimlock is now pinning the abusive trainer underneath his weight. Ajay was so lost in his anger and violence, he was punching Grimlock's leg and chest trying to hurt the pokemon and get free from beneath him. Grimlock wasn't fazed in the slightest with his rock-hard scales and was just glaring at the trainer for attacking his already injured pokemon. Without warning, Ajay threw a punch up and hit Grimlock in the side of the head where a rollout had hit earlier. Grimlock recoiled in pain from being punched on his bruise. He snarled at Ajay and opened his mouth forming a dragon pulse.

"No, don't hurt him, he'll get what he deserves when the police arrive." Ash said before Grimlock could launch the attack. Grimlock slowly nodded and the dragon pulse diminished but he did lightly headbutt Ajay enough to knock him out but not hurt him.

Ash walked over to Sandshrew to make sure he is alright. He was slightly battered from the battle along with the beating Ash just stopped. "Are you alright?". Sandshrew looked up at him, smiled, and jumped to hug him. After Ash put Sandshrew down, they heard the telltale sound of a police siren signaling the arrival of the police.

Ash walked to the front of the tent to reveal 3 police cars with an officer jenny and her growlithe standing next to the car.

"Are you the one who reported the abuse?"

"I am. He's in the back under one of my pokemon."

The officer gave a small look of confusion before shrugging and walking to the field with her laughing pokemon. When she got to the back, she saw a large pokemon sitting on a nonmoving mass that she assumed to be Ajay.

She went over and Ash signaled for Grimlock to get off of the trainers back. Grimlock got off and was recalled while Jenny arrested the unconscious trainer putting him in the back of the police car while she and the rest of the cops searched the area for any evidence or the rest of his pokemon. Twenty minutes later, the police leave the tent with about 15 pokeballs and the lead Jenny has a very sad face.

She walked over to Ash shaking her head. "It's a good thing you called when you did. We have fifteen abused, and starving pokemon that were in his possession. We believe that he did not feed any of them if they did not meet his ridiculous expectations." Her face then darkened a lot, "We also have evidence on one pokemon dying from his abuse. It was a spearow and it did not receive any food or water while in his "care". I will personally make sure he never gets out for the atrocities he has committed." She saw the Sandshrew standing by Ash and held its pokeball in her palm with a small smile on her face, "The only pokemon of his we don't have with us is that Sandshrew but he doesn't look like he wants to leave you any time soon. Here is his pokeball. He can decide what he wants to do."

Ash looked at Sandshrew, "Is it true, do you want to come with me?" Sandshrew jumped up happily and then surprised both people by using metal claw on his pokeball. "What's wrong, do you want one of my pokeballs instead of the one he caught you in?" Sandshrew nodded happily and tapped a pokeball after Ash brought it out. Ash let out Sandshrew and from one of the cars, they heard Ajay screaming at him and Sandshrew just charged and threw a handful of sand and stones at him to get him to shut up.

Sandshrew just smiled and walked away back over to his new trainer. Ash and Jenny laughed and Jenny left to take Ajay to the nearest police station. Ash looked over at Sandshrew, "I should probably scan you with the pokedex."

Ash pulled out his pokedex and scanned the desert mouse.

Sandshrew- The Mouse Pokemon

Sandshrew has a very dry hide that is extremely tough. The pokemon can roll into a ball that repels any attack. At night, it burrows into the desert sand to sleep.

Sex: Male

Type: Ground

Known Moves: Scratch, Defense Curl, Sand Attack, Poison Sting, Rollout, Rapid Spin, Swift, Fury Cutter, Magnitude, Fury Swipes, Counter, Crush Claw, Endure, Flail, Metal Claw, Night Slash

Note: This Sandshrew has thicker armor and longer claws than the average of this species. It also appears to have small poison glands under its skin that will likely be useable when it evolves. The general size and minor quills of this pokemon suggests that it will evolve soon.

Ash smiled at this and saw Sandshrew look excited at the prospect of evolving soon and looked slightly curious at the mention of poison glands.

"You want to evolve, don't you?" To this, Sandshrew nodded happily and gave a small flex to show he wanted to be stronger. The two began to laugh and began traveling down the route awaiting the adventures that the journey will give them.


I am so sorry for not updating for nearly a month. I have been so busy working late, getting ready for college and just having writers block. I only work nights and am too tired to write during the day but these past few days, I have gotten motivation again and have written this story as fast as I can. So sorry for the delay on the chapter and please read the paragraph below for story info.

Like I mentioned earlier (probably) I've been having an idea for another fiction in my head for about a week now. It is a crossover between Mass Effect and Ben Ten. The basics of my idea is that instead of him being transported to the separate universe, the universes are the same universe. It starts with A major disease designed by the crazy crab (from Omniverse) sweeping through their star cluster and would kill off most of the species alive except for about twenty or so species. Some of the less realistic species like alien X would be cut out completely not even getting mentioned. The first chapter would be one where it goes through the years from ben ten to mass effect one in the "by the year format" (Hard for me to describe but many stories use them in the first chapter to cover many years. You'll know if you see it.). The main character would be Shepard but I want him to be a direct descendant of Ben Tennyson. My main conflict is that I can't decide if I want him to keep the name Shepard or still have the Tennyson name. He will have two watches like the Biomnitrix like ben 10K but each will be a gauntlet and one is an Omnitrix, and the other is a modified Nemetrix that will not affect the mind thanks to the Omnitrix being on the other arm. He also has a pet that is a cloned sabretooth cat modified with Pyronite (Heatblast) DNA to make it like the fire bat from the show but able to not always be covered in fire and magma like the kid from the show.

So there's my idea. Please read it, tell me what you think, and tell me any ideas that you have for me concerning this idea and this pokemon story. Thanks for reading.