Trainer

by WarsOfShadows

Ash Ketchum is on a journey to become a Pokémon Master. With a spirited Bulbasaur by his side, he might be able to do it. But with tall hurdles in his path, and stumbling blocks, will Ash become a legend, or will he become like any other ordinary trainer in the world?

10. The Grass is Always Meaner

Hey guys! It's great to finally see all of you at Trainer: Kanto Arc. I know it's been a long – a very long time, but I am happy and confident to say that, from hereon, I will be having a steady update schedule for the next five months. I will be able to pump of bi-monthly updates, unless something comes up, which will be very unlikely. I will also be having a steady update schedule for the rest of my fanfictions – The Jump, HPJoL, PMD: RoD, and Conqueror, and a new HP story that I am working on, so if anyone that reads the rest of my works is over here, it's safe to say that my other projects will be alive as well.

I am also going to say that, by the next update, this fiction is going to be retitled as only Trainer. Simply because I've decided against separating each of Ash's journeys, and that it'll be easier for readers to read this instead of jumping go the sequels. I'll also be splitting up the story in different seasons/arcs, so by now the first chapter should be renamed as 'Season I: The New Friend'. I know it doesn't matter much, but I figured I had a responsibility to ensure that you guys weren't confused by the minor changes.

Also, I made a couple of changes in chapter eight – nothing that greatly affects the plot, so readers, you can rest easy ;) Oh, except that Chimchar's nickname had been revoked. I dunno, but it just wasn't working. (Sorry, Chimchar. If it helps, remember that Ash hasn't nicknamed Snorlax either.)

I'm sure that you guys probably are tired of my blabbering and just want to skip straight to the chapter, and so you shall. Enjoy!

XxXxX

Chapter Ten: The Grass is Always Meaner

Ash was in shock.

Had Delphi just Spoken to him?

His mouth was hanging so low that it almost touched the ground, and he was as still as a statue.

Neither of them moved.

Delphi eyes narrowed for the first time in ages. She seemed…confused. Not awed in the slightest. As if she was surprised at the fact that he just realized that he heard her speak.

He closed his mouth and gulped. "Delphi…Did you just talk to me in my head?" he asked. He had to confirm whether she'd really conversed with him telepathically or that he was going crazy.

Slowly, she nodded.

Ash drew in a sharp breath. "Holy shit," he said reverently. "This beats everything!"

Delphi frowned. Wh-Wha— wrong? she asked, in the same, fuzzy voice, as if speaking into a walkie-talkie with bad reception.

Ash flinched as he heard her voice in his head. "S-Stop it, please!" he stammered, and the crease on the Xatu's forehead deepened. He was wrestling was words, flabbergasted. It sounded like an echo in his mind, and felt weird the way Delphi's 'voice' mixed with the background sounds. Still, nothing was weirder than the fact that she could talk to him at this stage.

And her voice – it sounded like a young woman's drawl, and had a snide and snarky edge to it, crisp and sharp. Ash shook his head. He still hadn't gotten over the fact that she'd finally spoken.

"How..."

Delphi resisted the urge to roll her eyes. I have always b-been s-s-speakin—, you have j-just been t-too d-d-dumb to h-hear m-me, she said.

Ash barked a laugh despite himself. "Sh-Shut up!" he said, but not angrily.

For the first time in a long time, her eyes smiled at him.

XxXxX

Ash barely slept that night, and spent most of his time in wonderment and awe at the fact that his friend had managed to speak to him telepathically. While he'd been initially shocked, it was amazing that he could now understand what she wanted to say...and possibly help her with what the Xatu had been going through ever since she'd evolved.

But he still couldn't wrap his head around the idea of her telepathy. Only strong psychics, those who could have perfect control over their psionic energy, could talk to trainers in perfect telepathy. While Delphi was undoubtedly strong right now, she just wasn't at the level of the psychic-types he was thinking about. Perhaps he needed a word with Professor Oak about this; the aged scientist excelled at human-pokémon relations, and would be the perfect person to consult.

He woke up pretty late the next morning, and stretched his limbs before rousing his pokémon and then packing up camp. He took a long glance at Delphi, who was watching him eerily, before the boy swung his backpack over his shoulders and motioned for his friends to follow him.

There were far more trainers traveling from Saffron City to Lavender Town and vice versa, so Ash's pokémon received a lot more experience in battling and grew a fair bit stronger than yesterday. He was particularly happy with Luna, who'd been able to use Psychic as both telekinetically and in a wave of energy with fair ease, and also with Screecher, who was an able battler despite her coy appearance.

In fact, the Misdreavus was particularly terrifying. She liked to make her opponents suffer mentally, and sometimes physically – she toyed with them. When Screecher had played enough, she would purposefully take a hit and then retaliate with a Payback that usually finished her opponent.

Ash found a spike of perverse glee when his challengers blanched at Screecher's brutal tactics and then scurry off when the battle was over.

When they'd settled for lunch, Ash had tried to contact his sponsor, but to no avail. It seemed that Oak had something to attend to, so Ash decided to try to ring him up once again later in the evening.

That day's training session was harsher than the previous days, mainly to make up for lost time since Ash had called it quits after Delphi had spoken to him. After healing him pokémon, having some refreshments and setting camp for the night, Ash called his team together and told them their training regimes for the night.

Currently he was overseeing a three-way practice battle between Zeus, Hydrus and Luna. The main point was to help Zeus slip into Agility as easily and quickly as possible, but it wouldn't hurt for Luna and Hydrus to get some extra training.

"That's it, Zeus, keep trying to access Agility to dodge those Water Guns!" Ash hollered supportively at the Flaaffy, who grunted and began to blur faster across the given area. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Delphi trying to lift a boulder in the air. "Luna, Hydrus, keep firing! Don't let him get away!"

He winced as Zeus purposefully took a Scald to the chest, only so that the Flaaffy could shock Hydrus with a Thunderbolt via the stream of boiling water. Hydrus quacked indignantly and snapped his beak shut, Zeus grinning triumphantly, but a surprise Wake-Up Slap from Luna sent him flying.

Ash was so into the battle that he almost missed the vibrating pokégear on him. With a sigh, he turned to see who was calling him, only to smile when he saw the name that popped up on the screen. It read: Samuel Oak.

He pressed the answer button and saw the screen lit up with Professor Oak's image. The old man blinked before his face broke into a true smile.

"Ash, m'boy!" greeted Oak. "How are you?"

Ash grinned. "I'm fine, Professor."

"So, what exciting adventures have you been up to lately?"

More than I can tell you, he thought dryly. "Actually, Professor, it's kind of important..."

Oak sobered up. "What happened, Ash?"

"Professor...You remember Delphi – my Xatu – right?" He heard a hum of assent, so he continued. "Well...she spoke to me yesterday."

There was silence, and Oak looked shocked. "Pardon?"

"Well, we were training yesterday, and all of a sudden I heard her voice in my head," Ash elaborated. "I thought I was going crazy, but she actually confirmed that she spoke to me."

"Was this Xatu traded to you?" Oak asked.

Ash shook his head. "No. I caught her on route one, and she evolved somewhere between Saffron and Vermillion," he said. "But she's as strong as Saur – my Ivysaur, I mean. Is that normal, that she spoke?"

Oak scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Not as far as I am aware. It actually takes a far longer time for psychic-types such as Xatu, Claydol, Exeggutor, etcetera to converse telepathically as they aren't pure psychics. You'll find pokémon such as Alakazam being able to talk at an earlier stage – it isn't that rare for even an Abra to do that."

Ash shifted nervously. "Well...I was also wondering whether I was a psychic," he mumbled, bracing himself for when Oak would laugh.

Surprisingly, he didn't. "It is...a possibility," Oak conceded. "But I won't be able to tell for sure unless you come back to Pallet and let me run some tests on you." He chuckled. There was a long silence before Oak spoke up once again.

"Ash, you do know who Sabrina is, right?"

Ash snorted. "Of course I do, Professor. But what does that have to do with this situation?"

Oak shrugged. "I was thinking of setting up an appointment for you with her so that she could investigate this phenomenon. As a powerful psychic, she and her pokémon will be in a much better position to explain everything to you, and perhaps help you strengthen the connection. Would that be okay?"

Ash grinned. "That would help a lot, Professor! Thanks for everything!" he exclaimed.

Oak smiled. "Think nothing of it. I'm just doing a favour for you. Imagine – Ash Ketchum, Pallet Town Psychic!"

The two of them burst into laughter, although Ash couldn't help but smirk a little at that title. He'd love to be a psychic like Sabrina and leave Gary slack-jawed when the time came. "How is everything else going on?" Oak said, changing the subject.

Ash and Oak talked for a long time, during which Luna had finally managed to knock Zeus out with a Pound attack (Hydrus had already been knocked out by three consecutive Thunderbolts).

"I'll send you a message of your appointment, Ash," Oak said once they'd finished their conversation. "From your current location, I suppose a few more days will be all that it would take for you to reach Saffron."

Ash nodded. "Thanks, Professor."

"Don't mention it. Stay safe, m'boy."

Ash bid him goodbye and then Oak ended the call with a click. Sighing, he put his pokégear away. At least he could tick one thing off of his list.

"Okay Luna, that's it!" Ash yelled as he walked up to the practice battle, the Clefairy continuing to pummel an unconscious Zeus after the Flaaffy had pretended to be knocked out the first time and fired a quick Thunderbolt. "We don't want him dead."

The rest of his pokémon converged on him as Ash popped open a revive capsule and poured it down his Flaaffy's throat. It took around fifteen seconds before Zeus was brought back to consciousness, and then Ash applied a few potions on bruises and a Burn Heal over a burnt area that had been caused by Hydrus' Scald. Once Zeus was alright, the boy moved onto Hydrus and performed similar actions.

"You three can take a break. You've done enough, and you earn a good rest," Ash said, smiling at Zeus, Luna and Hydrus. They nodded and walked off to the campsite while Ash looked at the rest of his team. Delphi could use Psychic with ease, and he smiled at the way she flew into the air and then released a burst of psychic energy that made a boulder crumble. Saur was performing continuous Take Downs on a tree, and his resistance to recoil damage was improving from the way he was shrugging off the collisions. Also, it made nicely for him to master Double Edge faster.

Ash was making Chimchar practice Flamethrower so that he could perfect the attack quickly. He did this by ordering the Chimchar to breathe fire on a stone and hold a steady stream for as long as he could. In the beginning, Chimchar's attempts at Flamethrower were pathetic – they were little more that fireballs spat consecutively and quickly, like a machine gun, so that it would look like it was a steady stream. Now, Flamethrower looked half-mastered, and Chimchar could hold the unsteady stream of fire for a little over five seconds.

Screecher was doing extremely well, and was probably one of the most powerful member on the team. She rivalled Saur in terms of brute strength, Delphi in terms of speed and her special techniques were a fair bit more powerful than Zeus' or Hydrus'. The Misdreavus didn't rely on brute strength a lot, and her only means to attack in that manner were via Payback, which was probably her most powerful attack when she took a hit.

Ash was having her practice Icy Wind at the moment, since that particular attack wasn't strong enough. He was thinking of having Hydrus help her learn the ice technique after he would teach the Golduck Ice Beam.

He sat down under the tree near which they'd set camp and pulled out his pokédex. Hydrus, Luna and Zeus had formed a circle and were tearing into the food eagerly. He knew that his pokémon were especially hungry after a good spar/workout and barely bothered at the somewhat bland taste of pokémon food. Still, for good measure, Ash had added in a good amount of berries so that they wouldn't get irritated with him.

Switching his pokédex on, he accessed the trainer database. He wanted a good idea of the pokémon he and his team would face at the Celadon City gym. He was mostly excited at meeting Erika Verdant, the gym leader of Celadon.

He cracked a grin as he thought about the grass-type trainer. Personally, he knew her quite well – she'd been one of the trainers who'd received a starter pokémon from Professor Oak a few years ago. He – and Gary, who had been in the lab at that time helping the aides with the work – had seen her practically fly into her lab an hour earlier than the given time just so that she could have a Bulbasaur as her starter. She wouldn't have needed to do that, because her father, the previous gym leader, had already reserved the grass-type starter pokémon for her, but Erika had been paranoid that someone had beat her to it. Anyway, she'd grown fond of Gary and him whenever she'd visited Professor Oak for tips or whatnot. He knew her as well as Daisy Oak, Ash thought to himself.

The last time he'd seen her was a two years ago, when she came to announce that she'd taken over the Celadon City gym from her grandmother. It was a happy time, mostly because Erika had forced Gary and Ash with sweets until they looked fit to burst. He wondered if she still remembered him, now that he thought about it.

Which was why he was so confident for his upcoming gym battle with Erika – he knew her battle style fairly well and he could rattle off her League registered team of six with his eyes closed: Venusaur, Exeggutor, Vileplume, Meganium, Tangrowth and Victreebel. Those six were the strongest on her team, and he'd been in awe when he'd seen her battle Lt Surge in an exhibition match. Even though she had lost in the end, Erika had fought like a warrior.

He found the gym leader's profile in a matter of seconds, and clicked on the tab that would show her pokémon that she used for trainers with three badges. Bayleef, Gloom, Weepinbell and its line's tertiary stage, Tangela, Parasect, Jumpluff, Sunflora, Lombre, Nuzleaf, and a few he did not recognize, like Pansage and Gogoat. The last two were said to be from Unova and Kalos respectively, but he was sure he could handle the others with ease – it was a three-on-three battle anyway. He was sure of his team and himself.

He looked up to see his Misdreavus hold the Icy Wind for twenty whole seconds, now. Turning his pokédex off, he went to give Screecher some pointers that would help the ghost in the long run.

XxXxX

It took two more days for him to reach the outskirts of Saffron City. He knew this by his surroundings – there was far less foliage, a small amount of trees, all of this due to the industrial smoke and pollution that seemed to come mostly from Saffron. Ash didn't see any grass-type pokémon as he walked through the barren area. It was to be expected, what with the urbanisation and industrialisation.

After a couple more minutes, ash noticed the gates to the massive form of Saffron City. He could get there quickly and have a nice, long stay in the Poké—

"Hey!" a voice said. "I challenge you to a battle!"

Ash blinked. Looking ahead, he saw a kid a year or two younger to him not far away, wearing blue shorts and a yellow t-shirt. The kid's blue hat was turned backwards, and auburn hair flowed out from under the cap.

"Huh?" Ash mumbled, even though he'd heard what the kid had said.

He rolled his eyes. "Are ya deaf? I challenge you, to a pokémon battle!"

"Okay, okay, fine." Ash sighed and the boy grinned wider as he walked towards Ash. A battle wouldn't hurt when he was right at the edge of Saffron City. Judging from this kid's age, he could beat him pretty quickly. "How many pokémon?"

"Two," he replied. Ash noticed him having five pokéballs on his belt.

"Whatever, let's get this over with." Ash enlarged his first pokéball and tapped the release button, sending Screecher forward. The Misdreavus cried out melodiously and smirked when she realised that she was in battle.

His opponent quirked an eyebrow and grinned. "A ghost, huh? That's pretty impressive!" The boy enlarged his own pokéball and wound his arm back. "But it's no match for me! Wingsley, I choose you!"

The sphere burst open and out came a Xatu. Ash's eyes widened at that, but didn't find it particularly surprising. There were loads of the same species of pokémon in the world, waiting to be caught. He also noticed that the Xatu his challenger had wasn't as big as Delphi.

"Let's begin," the kid said. "Wingsley, use Night Shade!"

Twin black beams of energy pulsed out of Wingsley's eyes, shooting straight for Screecher. "Intercept with Shadow Ball," Ash ordered. "Then use Icy Wind."

The beams struck the shadowy orb and an explosion was triggered, restricting both pokémon's vision. Then a gale of cold rushed forth from Screecher's mouth, the Misdreavus' eyes narrowed in concentration as the Ice-laced wind blue the dust and smoke away in the Xatu's direction.

Wingsley shrieked as it was struck by the Icy Wind, frost forming on its feathers. Its trainer bit his lower lip, then called forth another order. "Steel Wing!"

"Confuse Ray!"

"Don't look!"

A flash of red light shot forth once Wingsley launched itself into the air, and the Xatu closed its eyes in a way to reduce the confusion inflicted. The alien energy distorted its mind, making Wingsley veer off course and miss Screecher by a mile, crashing into a ground with a thud.

"Curse," Ash said, and the Misdreavus smirked. An aura of pale red energy engulfed her, and Screecher writhed in agony for a second or two. Ash hated seeing his pokémon get hurt, and held back a smile as the aura blitzed towards Wingsley and engulfed the rising Xatu like Jack eating a Twinkie.

Curse would now work like a slow-acting poison, sapping its energy and bringing it closer and closer to defeat every few seconds. Curse was Screecher's favourite move, after Confuse Ray, because it allowed her to perform her horrific acts by lengthening the slow, exquisite torture Curse would cause.

Wingsley was now confused and Cursed, and its trainer looked close to pissing himself. Ash wanted to end this quickly, but Screecher increased the time by launching weak Shadow Balls, half of which she would miss purposely.

"You sadist!" Ash heard the kid say. "Wingsley, please! Use Aerial Ace!"

"Let it hit you," Ash told Screecher softly. "Then use Payback."

Arcs of energy trailed out from Wingsley's beak, making it look like as if the Xatu had been caged in streams of white light. Screecher braced herself from the Aerial Ace and grunted as Wingsley slammed into her, but before the Xatu could get away the Misdreavus executed Payback. She was enveloped in a purplish-black aura, and a second later Screecher barrelled into Wingsley with brute force that was unnatural for such a creature. An unconscious Xatu was sent hurtling back to its trainer, who recalled Wingsley in a beam of red energy before replacing the pokéball.

"That was a cheap shot," the boy mumbled.

Ash shrugged. "That's what you get for battling me," he said.

"You'll pay for hurting Wingsley!" he yelled indignantly. "Dante, kick ass!"

A fairly big Eevee sprouted out of the greatball its trainer had been holding. Ash almost aww'd as the brown canine circled a small area and nuzzled its trainers leg. Then the boy told the Eevee that it was in battle, and the fox stretched and widened its mouth into a snarl.

"Dante, use—"

"Wait." Ash held up his hand, and his opponent stopped abruptly, frowning. "You did well, Screecher. Take a rest for the time being," he said, recalling the proud ghost. The kid with the Eevee looked confused as Ash switched Screecher's pokéball with the one he'd first received when he'd started his journey a little over three months ago. "Saur, you're up!"

The Ivysaur materialized on the ground and grunted, smirking as he took in the sight of his smaller opponent. Ash did likewise. While he would have no problem using Screecher to win the battle, he wanted to try out a brainwave he'd suddenly been struck by last night.

The kid shrugged. "Whatever. I'll beat you regardless. Swift, Dante!"

"Destroy them with Power Whip!" said Ash.

Dante twisted, star-shaped rays of energy shooting from her body and racing towards Saur. The grass-type unleashed two, thick glowing vines, pulverizing most of the rays of energy into oblivion – but one smashed into his face, catching him off-guard. As the Ivysaur flinched, his opponent's Eevee lunged forth with fangs that glowed black before sinking the dark-type energy tainted teeth into Saur's flesh. There was a small trickle of blood, but Saur choked Dante with his vines, forcing the Eevee to let go in order to catch its breath. "Toss it into the air!"

Dante went flying, reaching its peak in a matter of seconds before it began to plummet downwards. "Charge it and use Take Down!" said Ash.

The kid started screaming frantically, but his attempts were in vain. Saur tracked his falling target perfectly. When it was just a few seconds from hitting the ground, Saur rushed forward, body gleaming white with energy before he slammed into Dante the second before the Eevee was about to hit the ground. The canine whimpered as it was knocked away by the hit, speeding in its trainer's direction before hitting the barren ground and skidding to a halt. Ash's challenger hollered for it to get up, and a few seconds later it did so, but weakly.

Ash decided to execute the crazy idea that had been in his mind since last night. "Saur, form an Energy Ball, then eat it!"

He knew it was a risk, because he and his starter hadn't even practiced it in the first place. But he had to try.

"Rawr?" Saur questioned, looking back at his trainer like he was crazy. Ash looked at him, like, just do it, and Saur shrugged, giving into his trainer's craziness before forming the green sphere of energy in his open maw. With a frown of concentration, he forced his jaws shut on the stationary sphere, swallowing it whole.

There was a sickening silence that lasted a second before a rush of energy swarmed Saur. A bright green aura invigorated the Ivysaur, strength and newfound power coursing through his veins. Huh. Maybe his trainer wasn't so stupid, after all.

"Wh-What're you playing at?!" the kid yelled, obviously stunned and taken aback.

"End this," Ash said. "Power Whip!"

There was a desperate need to release this sudden energy. Saur grimaced, before a thick vine, that looked like it was made of green energy, rushed forth and scored a clean hit on Dante's flank. The Eevee howled in pain, falling onto its left side while Saur prepared for another attack.

The rest of the match got over pretty easily – Saur hammered Eevee with a few more vines before the kit's feet gave way and it fell to the ground. Its trainer glared at Ash as he returned his thoroughly injured pokémon, walking over to give Ash the winning money before he raced away.

Ash smirked, bent low and petted his monster. "Good job, Saur. Now let's get you healed up."

XxXxX

It only took a few minutes to pass the gates of Saffron City, and then all he needed to do was take a cab to the Pokécenter, which was in the middle of the city, a few blocks away from the Silph Company building. Once Ash got his team to Nurse Joy, he was torn between what he wanted to do next. Professor Oak had messaged him the timing of his meeting with Sabrina on his pokégear, and it was much later in the day. He also didn't want to go without his pokémon, because he needed Delphi with him.

In the end he decided to relax for some time and explore the city. He also kept his Snorlax in the PC's storage system, because he didn't want an extra pokéball with him and he wasn't going to release the brute until his pokémon were strong enough to match it, anyway. He was pretty sure his friends were close to its strength, and that they would be able to be more than a match for the gluttonous beast once they'd reach Celadon City.

A nice, warm shower and a hot meal later, Ash decided to explore the city, telling Nurse Joy to keep a hold on his team until he would come back. He just took Chimchar with him for protection – while the Chimchar was probably the weakest on his team, he didn't want to get mugged while roaming a huge place such as Saffron.

Saffron is big, Ash thought to himself as he raised his head, watching the skyscrapers touch the skies. He'd passed by the Silph Co building, which had tours on a weekly basis, but unfortunately today wasn't one of those days. Still, it was fascinating to see people bustle in and out of the magnificent glass doors, which gave him a veritable view of the lobby whenever they slid open to admit someone or let someone leave.

He then decided to waste some time by watching a movie at one of the cinemas. The film was titled Confessions of a Pokéholic, which was about a pokémon collector struggle to give up his habit of catching every pokémon he saw while he searched for his true love. It was boringly stupid, and Ash was questioning his sanity within fifteen minutes of the movie beginning. But he'd paid for the ticket, and he didn't know what else to do in the city, so he ended up which of the actors were the worst and if he would be able to defeat 'Mr Kimaszewski' in a pokémon battle.

Once the movie was done, Ash decided to have a snack of sorts, which was the best decision he'd made in ages. The pizza that Juno's served was absolutely brilliant and he found himself having thirds. By the time Ash was done, the owner was basically in love with him for bringing so much business and he wouldn't be surprised if she'd popped the question.

He wanted to explore some more, but found the time drawing nearer and nearer to his appointment, so he took the nearest cab to the Pokécenter, grabbed his pokémon and took the same cab to the Saffron gym. The driver must've thought that he was a challenger, because he wished Ash good luck with a pitiful expression before driving off to pick up other clients.

Whatever. He tugged the hem of his jacket. We'll see who wins when I challenge Sabrina. With a sigh, he walked into the large structure that was the Saffron City gym.

XxXxX

The interior of the gym was sleek and futuristic, yet mystical and cold. If anything, Ash felt like an alien here. The furniture was designed amazingly. There were benches attached to the wall with no legs, and had, smooth, flat leather cushions. The walls were devoid of any decorations, and were painted a pale lavender shade.

There was a receptionist at the front desk, wearing a form-fitting purple-and-white jumpsuit. Her face was beautiful, but robotic and cold. There was no smile, no expression on that heart-shaped face...heck, there weren't even any crinkles that indicated that she'd ever smiled in her life. Feeling unnerved, Ash walked forward.

"Hello," Ash said. The receptionist's head tilted upwards, and he continued. "My name's Ash Ketchum. I have an appointment with Leader Sabrina at seven thirty..."

Her eyes – only her eyes – moved downwards to glance at the pad in the desk. Ash found his name faster than she did, and he bit back a sigh when she finally spoke up. "Yes. Ms Sabrina will see you now. Please head towards room B36," she said in a monotone.

"Um...Okay." Truth be told, Ash wouldn't want to be here in the slightest if it wasn't for his little problem. He knew that psychics were mostly introverts and didn't like human contact, but he didn't think it would be that bad. He figured that he'd be the only exception if he turned out to be a psychic.

Next to the receptionist's desk was a long corridor, through which Ash began to walk. On either side of him, numerous wooden doors to small rooms lined the walls, each with a label on top that stated the room number. On his left were all the A rooms, while on his right were all the Bs.

Some of the inhabitants had kept their doors open, allowing Ash brief glances as he continued to walk along. One psychic was staring deeply in the eyes of his Kadabra, while another was levitating – levitating, for God's sake – cross-legged with a Meditite and a weird psychic-type on either side. While he recognized the Meditite, he didn't recognize the other. It was small, foetus-like creature with a triangular, pink orifice. Its stubby arms were connected to elliptical spheres that elongated to form a segmented arm, and its entire body was covered in an extremely thick and tough layer of pale-green plasma.

The foetus-baby looked at him with black, beady eyes, and its mouth stretched slightly into a smile. Then the levitating psychic opened her eyes and looked at him with emotionless eyes, and that was enough to creep him out and make him walk a bit faster.

He was walking for a long time before he reached his desired destination. The figures B36 were carved into a plate of gold. Ash cleared his throat and braced himself for the upcoming conversation, before knocking on the door.

When he received no response, he twisted the cold, metal doorknob, and he was surprised to find it unlocked. Without a second thought, he swung the door open, only to find it empty save for a lone Alakazam in the middle of the room.

The Alakazam stared at him with brown eyes for a moment before they flashed blue. A split-second later, he heard a soft, almost silent, pop behind him, and when he turned around Ash nearly had a heart attack.

Standing – or rather, floating – there was a woman directly in front of him. She peered at Ash with glowing, grey eyes and her black hair, which reached just above her waist, flowed due to non-existent wind. She was wearing clothes that differed from the rest of the psychics in the room.

"Ash Ketchum," she said warmly, making him flinch in surprise. "It is nice to see you, especially after a tiresome amount of days spent traversing from Lavender to here. It has been exactly three months, six days as of today, no?"

Ash gaped at her, but she wasn't finished. The renowned psychic smiled. "My, my...An Ivysaur with Chlorophyll, that is very rare...Erika would gladly kill for that...And it seems that your adventures on the St Anne were particularly terrifying, what with the brutes Proton and Archer coming after you, Gary Oak and the Lieutenant for simply the pokémon energy amplifier. But there has been a silver lining, due to your Psyduck evolving to save you from the dangerous waters."

Ash was stunned. "How..."

"My psychic powers help me skim through the past, present and future...and my Bond with my Gardevoir only strengthens this ability. But..." She frowned. "I cannot See you very well now, ever since you reached Lavender Town. You have been stained. I can see the dark residue around you, and it is particularly disturbing that you have seen Distortion itself in your vision."

Ash furrowed his brow. "Distortion?" he asked.

She nodded. "Giratina, one of the gods of dimensions. It has completely control over the Reverse World, or the Distortion World, as it is now known. It is...terrifying." She shuddered. "Your Misdreavus, however unintentionally, has caused this."

There was another pop, and Sabrina imploded. Ash backed away in fear, only to bump into the psychic standing behind him. "Do not be afraid. I can only teleport short distances without the help of my friends."

She murmured for him to enter her cabin, and watched numbly as she floated over to her Alakazam's side and waved a hand. Two chairs were dragged psychically from the desk, and settled directly opposite each other. Sabrina sat on the one next to her Alakazam, and Ash took the only remaining seat.

"What is it that you wanted to talk about, Ash?"

Ash gulped. Sabrina was nice and all, but she weirded him out in a different way. They way she moved, talked, and especially those stormy grey eyes that ruined her beautiful, chiselled face. She must've been reading his thoughts, because she smiled and laughed.

"Do not focus on my physical appearance, Ash," she said, making him blush in embarrassment. "It is what is within us that matters more."

"I'd like it if you didn't read my mind, please," he mumbled into his shirt, feeling violated.

Sabrina nodded. "Very well, Ash Ketchum. I will respect your privacy like many others, but I will not be able to prevent myself from doing so if you are feeling a particularly strong emotion. Understand?"

He nodded.

"I ask again: what is so important that Samuel Oak had to personally make an appointment for a boy such as yourself?"

Ash sighed. "It goes like this..."

It took several minutes for him to explain everything, right from when he'd been attacked by Screecher up to the point where he finally heard Delphi speak to him and Sabrina listened to him without a twitch. When he was done, she exchanged a glance with her Alakazam, who hummed.

"Would you mind sending your Misdreavus out, please?" she asked. Ash nodded, and complied. Screecher appeared with a bright smile, but grew serious when she saw the Alakazam. Ash understood that she thought she was in battle as she rushed at Alakazam with a Shadow Ball, but the psychic fox seemed more amused than anything. It simply conjured a barrier of emerald energy and watched with twinkling eyes as Screecher struggled to break through the Protect.

"Stop, Screecher! It's not a battle!" he told her, and the Misdreavus immediately stopped, rounding on him in confusion. "Sabrina just needs you to be out for some time, okay?"

"I will need to perform a few quick tests. Will that be alright?" asked Sabrina. Ash shrugged.

Sabrina closed her eyes, then they fluttered open, her eyes looking like as if they were made by blue electricity. Ash felt some mental prodding and poking, and although they were just a bit uncomfortable, a few of them made him recount his vision back in the Pokémon Tower.

Finally they stopped, and Sabrina told him that he could put Screecher back in her pokéball. He did so and awaited her response. "So, what's wrong?"

Sabrina looked at Alakazam for a few seconds before turning back to Ash. "Alakazam agrees with me. The fragments of dark residue surrounding you have the same signature as your Misdreavus'," said the psychic. "It seems that she has...triggered something within you.

"It was your Xatu you could speak with, yes?" she asked. Ash nodded, then let Delphi out without a word. The Xatu cawed softly, before staring at Ash in slight befuddlement.

What's going on? she asked. Her voice sounded much clearer now, and the fading echoes had vanished. Ash gasped and pointed a shaking finger at her.

"Did you hear it?!" he exclaimed. "She did it again! I'm not bluffing!"

Sabrina smiled in amusement. "I can tell. The Bond between the two of you has been strengthened in the presence of psychic energy being concentrated in this area. Previously her voice must've sounded broken, yes?"

"Uh-huh."

"Your Xatu is feeding off the residual psychic energy in the air. Once you leave this place, however, you will not be able to communicate properly with her. Attempts to do so will drain...Delphi, as you call her."

Ash nodded slowly. He looked at Delphi and smiled slightly. "You're weird, you know?"

Yes, thank you, Delphi murmured in a clipped voice, sounding annoyed. Ash laughed.

"I just...didn't expect you to speak so early."

Yes, well, I'm not like a human.

Ash looked at Sabrina. "Well? Am I a psychic, or what?"

Sabrina shook her head gravely. "I'm sorry, Ash Ketchum. But you do not appear to have the Gift."

He'd been prepared for this really, so the fact that he wasn't a psychic shouldn't have come as a blow to him. Still, it hurt a bit, but he managed to rein in his disappointment. He nodded, but he still had something else lingering in his mind. "But if I'm not a psychic, how is Delphi able to speak to me?"

"Like I said before, you had been exposed to ghost-type energy," she began to explain. "Each individual – let it be either human or pokémon – has a certain amount of inner psychic potential within themselves, which is why you can sometimes find non-psychic-types able to use psychic-type moves, like your Golduck. People with inverse psionic potential are known as darks – but we're getting off topic. Your exposure to said ghost-type energy must've made your dormant potential to surface...which is why your Xatu was able to connect with you via this at such an early stage."

"So that's it?" Ash said. "I'm not a psychic? And I'll be able to hear Delphi in my head from now on?"

"Not as clearly as this moment," Sabrina assured. "You will be able to hear her fragmented voice, but as her strength increases on she will be able speak to you perfectly."

Ash nodded slowly. If what Sabrina was saying was true, then he needed Delphi to get as strong as she could as quickly as possible, so that he could communicate with her with ease. While he certainly wouldn't train her like people like Damien, he decided to put up a harsher training regime for her.

"I have also learned through your memories and hers that you have been having a few...problems with your Xatu," said Sabrina, and Ash nodded, gulping. He'd completely forgotten about that, and it was a good thing that Sabrina had brought it up. "It is natural for newly-evolved Xatu to behave this way, as they receive...premonitions and glimpses of the future, something that they do not have control of. The reason why Delphi has begun acting so odd is because she has seen terrible visions of the future – particularly yours."

Ash gulped. His curiosity was spiked. "Can...can you tell me what they're about?"

"I'm sorry." And she looked genuine, too. "But this is for your own good. Some of those things are horrible." Sabrina shuddered. "It is best that you do not know of your future, Ash Ketchum. Dark times are ahead of us – and you will play a central role in most of those events. This cannot be avoided."

What? "So what, I'm some prophesised hero or something?" he said angrily. "I mean, it's about me! I'm just a kid, and I want to know. What if I die, or something—"

At that, Delphi flinched. If he'd been only a little more engrossed in his emotions, he would've completely missed it.

He looked at his Xatu, who shifted nervously, a lump forming in his throat. "I'm going to die, aren't I?" Panic filled his body. "That's what you saw! Holy shit!"

"The future can change, Ash Ketchum," Sabrina said sternly. "What we psychics See are just a few possibilities from an infinite number. Our actions determine our destiny. Our path is never truly set."

Ash clenched his fists. Now he knew why Delphi had been acting so oddly. "I don't even wanna know how I die," he muttered through gritted teeth, high on his emotions. He looked at Delphi again. "You knew the St Anne was going to blow up, right? That's why you didn't like it there. And the thing with the Snorlax – you knew it was going to attack us, which was why you grumbled about where we set camp! Those were the times you knew I was going to— die." Death wasn't something he wanted to talk about, especially as of late. Not after the horrors he'd encountered on the St Anne. "You knew!" he yelled accusingly.

Ash stood up and fisted his hair. "This beats everything! I can't believe it – I'm going to die!" he bawled, tears burning his eyes. Adrenaline rushed through his body. He felt like he was made of panic, and fear, and anger, and sorrow. I'm a ten year old kid, for God's sake! I—

"Stop." And Ash did. He didn't know how, but suddenly he was locked in place, and Sabrina stood, her body brimming with power. "You must not let this get to you, Ash Ketchum. This knowledge can either make or break you. And I cannot take the possibility of you crumbling under the strain. I'm sorry for this."

His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he slipped into a blanket of white.

XxXxX

Ash's eyelids fluttered open and he bolted up groggily. What the heck had just happened...?

"Ah, you're awake." He turned his head to see Sabrina smiling warmly at him. Behind her, Delphi was watching him warily.

Ash frowned. What was he doing with—? Oh, right. He'd come here as Professor Oak had told him to. The last thing he remembered was Sabrina telling him about Delphi's telepathy, but that felt like ages ago...

"What happened?" he asked. He felt like his brain had shut down for five seconds, before coming back up online.

"Alakazam and I just needed to perform a few more tests to see if your Gift was dormant, but it seems that we were wrong."

He frowned. "So, I'm really not a psychic?"

Sabrina shook her head.

Ash's shoulders sagged. "Oh. Well, that's too bad."

"If that's all, you're free to leave," she told him.

Ash nodded. He stood up from the chair and smiled at Delphi, who grimaced, before recalling her. Hmm. He felt like he had one more thing to ask, but he'd forgotten about it, although it might've just been his imagination.

As he reached for the door, he looked back and cast one more smile at Sabrina. "Thanks a lot, Leader Sabrina." Then he walked out of the door.

Once the door slammed shut, Sabrina breathed a sigh of relief. But she couldn't purge the knot of guilt in her stomach for erasing Ash's recent memories. "I feel bad for doing that," she mumbled, looking sadly at her Alakazam.

So do I, Sabrina, Alakazam replied gravely.

XxXxX

Ash left Saffron City the next morning, wanting to reach his next destination as quickly as possible. Saffron was much closer to Celadon than it was to Lavender, so it would only take around three days for him to reach said city.

He decided to prep his team up – especially Delphi, Chimchar and Hydrus – for the upcoming gym battle. Ash made Chimchar keep learning Flamethrower, while making Hydrus learn Psychic from Luna, which would be an invaluable move against Erika's grass-types, most of which had a secondary poison type.

He now knew what to do to with Delphi's ability to speak. Sabrina had told him to make her practice psychic-type moves, and Ash was going to do just that. So he made her participate in a fairly tough training battle for the next three days.

Speaking of Delphi, he was surprised to see the Xatu begin to spend more and more time with Luna, who seemed equally surprised by this move. It wasn't like they hadn't been close, but this degree of closeness was odd even for her. If Delphi wasn't spending time with Luna, she would either stare for long times at the Clefairy until Ash would pull her out of her thoughts.

Ash didn't know what to do with this new development, but decided to let it go on. As long as his team grew into a family, he minded nothing.

Today's training battle would be Delphi versus Screecher, Saur and Zeus. To make it a bit easier, Zeus was prohibited from using Thunderbolt, which was the Flaaffy's favourite move. When Ash had told him that, Zeus actually looked scandalised. His favourite method of battling was to fry his pokémon to death with his electric moves.

The point of this battle was to make Delphi have a greater control over her psychic prowess, and so she could only use psychic-type moves offensively. To top it up, Ash held a ballpoint pen with him, and the Xatu was required to teleport only when he would click the end of the ballpoint.

When he'd explained it to his four pokémon, Delphi looked disgruntled and slightly annoyed. Ash heard muffled murmurs in his head that went along the lines of 'insolent' and 'crazy', but he didn't care. This was all for making Delphi stronger.

It would so help Saur hit airborne targets, because the Ivysaur had a weakness to flying-types. It would also help him and the others work with each other in tandem if they were caught in double/triple battle at any point in time.

Ash backed a safe distance away, then clapped his hand twice. "Okay, have at it!"

The three of them let out eager cries and began their assault in the flying Xatu. Ash watched as Screecher fired an Icy Wind, Saur an Energy Ball, and Zeus generated a quick Electro Ball between his palms before launching it at Delphi. Sadly, Delphi managed to evade all of them with contemptuous ease. The worst part was that Zeus' aim wasn't even correct and he managed to blast an annoyed Hydrus in the back, who resurfaced angrily before Ash calmed him down and gave him a super potion.

Delphi began to generate a Shadow Ball, but Ash shook his head, and the Xatu ended her attempts before conjuring a dozen clones in mid-air. Saur and Screecher lost the real Delphi within seconds and Zeus took a little longer, but the Flaaffy retaliated by using his own Double Team.

The real Delphi then spread out her wings in the air, releasing a wave of psionic energy that obliterated most of Zeus' clones and slammed into Saur, who was knocked away and onto his back. But the Ivysaur quickly rolled onto his feet and unleashed a barrage of vines.

Delphi swerved and arced gracefully to avoid the appendages, slashing them with her wings and severing the ends. A few, however, wrapped around her talons and jerked her downwards, the Xatu emitting a shriek of surprise.

Saur held her in perfect place, allowing Zeus to clip her on the wings with an Electro Ball. Delphi dropped down, but teleported back into the sky before stretching her cramped muscles and soaring one again.

Ash clicked the ballpoint pen. He didn't know if she could hear it, but she must've before she suddenly teleported behind Saur and took hold of him with Psychic. A blue glow surrounded the saurian, who grimaced in pain by the psychic hold, before he was psychically thrown right into a rushing Zeus.

The two of them tumbled across the ground and Delphi looked triumphant, but she shrieked as a Shadow Ball impacted her back. Screecher grinned, then the Misdreavus fired an Icy Wind that sent freezing shocks of pain through the Xatu's body. Ash clicked the ballpoint pen again, then again, and again, making her caw angrily as he kept clicking it.

Ash watched as Saur tossed Zeus into the air, the Flaaffy glowing golden with electricity as he used Wild Charge. Delphi had been busy avoiding Screecher, and she didn't see Zeus shooting straight for her until he slammed into her torso, shocking her with the Wild Charge attack. Ash winced. That had got to hurt.

XxXxX

By the time Ash reached Celadon, he and his team were well and truly prepared for Erika. Delphi was able to teleport a number of times fluidly, Hydrus had finally mastered Psychic, and Chimchar's core of fire was burning an intense white. He knew that Chimchar was close to evolution. Chimchar was also growing taller, and the swirling tuft of fur on his head was growing straighter.

Ash deposited his pokémon at the Pokécenter before booking a room for few days. Ash had to pay a certain amount because he'd booked a suite, and he wanted to splurge a little. After all, what else was the money he'd won on the St Anne for?

He spent some time in the lobby chatting with some far more experienced trainers. Ash had told them that he'd just started three months ago, so they had some fun talking about their teams. Ash's eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw one of the female trainers release a Pupitar from its greatball.

Ash decided to go to Celadon gym and put his name down as a challenger at the earliest. He wanted to defeat Erika and get the Rainbow Badge and then make his way to Fuchsia as quickly as possible.

XxXxX

An hour later, Ash arrived at the Celadon Gym, which was probably the most beautiful structure he'd ever seen. It was a shining building made of jade light, the entire outside made of panels of green tinted glass that shone like emeralds. It was held together by two massive chunks of wood that had been thoroughly polished to shine. Vines were draped across them like lush, leafy green scarves.

He walked inside and immediately recoiled. An overwhelming, diabetes-inducing scent pervaded his senses, and he grimaced. He'd never smelt anything so potent in his entire life. It was as if he'd launched himself headfirst into Saur's heavy, pink bud.

It got better with time as he walked to the front desk, but he still couldn't help himself from grimacing in disgust. The receptionist smiled lazily at him. "Great aroma, isn't it?" she said.

Ash didn't know if she was joking or not. "Um, yeah," he said, not wanting to offend her. "But that's besides the point. My name's Ash Ketchum. I'm here for a gym battle."

The girl pursed her lips. "I'm sorry, but Leader Erika is taking her last gym challenge for the day," she said apologetically. "Would you like for me to put your name down for tomorrow?"

Ash blinked. "Well, I wanted a challenge for tomorrow itself, so, yeah, I don't mind," he said, chuckling. The receptionist nodded and typed in his name in the computer next to her.

"Would five thirty be fine?" she asked. Ash nodded. The computer was turned enough for him to read the names of the challengers properly if he leaned a bit forward. He murmured a thanks and was just about to walk away before something on the screen caught his attention.

He squinted to make sure he wasn't dreaming, but the name Misty Waterflower in the challengers section was pretty clear.

"Is that the Cerulean City Misty?" he asked, incredulous. The match timing showed that it would begin in about seventeen minutes.

The receptionist nodded, smiling. "The same one. The match will commence in some time and will be open to the public. Seats are available as of now, and the fee is three hundred pokédollars. Would you like to view the match?"

Ash nodded numbly. He knew that all gyms had seats for a viewing audience whenever a match would begin. This was just another way for the league to earn money; the only one who didn't have this feature were Blaine, Giovanni and Surge, reasons unknown. The only reason Ash had never had a paying audience to view his gym battles was because everyone viewed Brock's gym as cannon fodder and everybody knew that no one lost against the Sensational Sisters.

"Um, that would be three hundred pokédollars," the receptionist repeated. Ash blinked, then removed the required amount before exchanging the bills for a paper ticket from the receptionist. It took no cajoling for him to pay three hundred bucks for a battle between gym leaders; he wouldn't be surprised if the whole city had come to watch the fight.

"Enjoy your battle," the receptionist said, stretching the bills in her hand. Ash simply began to run towards the stadium, eager to watch a battle of this scale.

XxXxX

Ash walked into the bleachers, only to find it packed as densely as possible. A gaggle of Alakazam and Kadabra protected the bleachers with barriers between them and the field. So many people wanted to see a battle of this scale, and it reminded Ash a bit of the St Anne tournament. The whole crowd was roaring, waiting for the two gym leaders to come out and face each other.

The crowd grew louder as Erika Verdant and Misty Waterflower entered the field from the far ends, the former wearing an elegant kimono and the latter wearing her traditional yellow tank top with suspenders and blue denim shorts. Erika waved at the crowd with a smile on her face, but Misty looked like she didn't give a damn. Her jaw was set firmly and her face looked like it was carved from metal. Ash shuddered. He didn't want to imagine facing the alleged water-type master like this.

"Trainer Waterflower has challenged Leader Verdant for Mastery!" a voice boomed through the speakers. Ash noticed a commentator sitting in a booth above them. "This battle between the Celadon Gym and Trainer Waterflower will take place with three pokémon on each side. If the challenger manages to defeat all three of Celadon Gym's pokémon, they win the Rainbow Badge! There will be no time limit, no substitution and no usage of healing or stat-enhancing items. If those conditions are acceptable, the battle may begin."

The two gym leaders acknowledged each other with a nod and then Erika released her pokémon with a flourish and a tap of a button. Out came a strange, totem-like pokémon with a mane of white 'hair' and three sharp, green leaves at the end of each arm. Ash recognized the pokémon as a Shiftry, the evolved form of Nuzleaf. Erika's pokémon let out a deep rumble, bending low as it crossed its arms to take a battle stance.

Misty contemplated for a moment before releasing a large, red mollusc – an Octillery. The octopus snorted through its snout like mouth, spraying a weak fountain into the air. Misty muttered something, and it focused the mouth at Shiftry.

The referee slashed his hand down, and the battle began.

Shiftry lunged forward, holding a leafy hand at the side as it charged its target. The sharp leaves on its right hand elongated and turned blade-like as they glowed a bright green, as Misty's Octillery closed its eyes in concentration, focusing its energy at its mouth. The Shiftry handled the Leaf Blade like a sword and slashed the Octillery at its flank, making the mollusc grimace and groan in pain as it was knocked away. Erika snapped her fingers and Shiftry sprang back with its powerful feet, but not before receiving an Aurora Beam to the face by an enraged Octillery.

The wicked pokémon roared as the colourful beam of cold sent freezing shocks of pain and froze part of its face, the force behind the beam making it hit the ground on its back rather than its feet. Octillery slithered its way closer, firing a sickly-green beam from its mouth at Shiftry, the Signal Beam striking it in the torso and knocking it a few feet away.

But Shiftry wasn't done yet; no, it jumped back up and shook its strong, wooden arms in anger as Erika called an order at the same time Octillery launched a gunk of poisonous goo aimed straight for it, at such speed that it was only a purple blur. Shiftry flapped its fan-like arms, creating a gale of wind that slowed down the poisonous projectile enough for it to leap into the air to avoid the Gunk Shot, allowing the sludge to splatter on the psychic barriers before slowly sliding to the ground.

The crowds cheers overpowered the sizzling hiss caused by the Gunk Shot as Octillery took precise aim and fired yet another Signal Beam at an airborne Shiftry, an attack that the grass-type blocked by using Protect. Shiftry concentrated power into its leafy hands, then slashed them at Octillery, releasing twin blades wind of at Misty's pokémon.

Octillery obliterated one of the with a precise Water Pulse. The second one, however, curved the sphere of water from below with a gentle flap from Shiftry, making its opponent shriek in pain as the Razor Wind struck its slippery skin.

Misty clenched her fists and yelled at the top of her voice. Octillery nodded, before firing a Signal beam and an Aurora Beam consecutively, the first one missing by mere inches while the latter managed to clip Shiftry's foot as it touched the ground. Hard ice keeping it chained to the grassy terrain like a shackle, Shiftry snarled as Octillery launched an Ice Beam upon being ordered by a smirking Misty, until a line of Shiftry shimmered to existence in front of it, preventing the real Shiftry from being seen.

The powerful Ice Beam dispelled the illusions as it tore through the line of clones, vanishing in puffs of smoke in order to nail the real target. However, as soon as all the copies were destroyed, the Ice Beam simply struck the barrier, leaving a confused Octillery and Misty in its wake.

That was until something blurred from the leaves of one of the trees on the field and struck Octillery with a Leaf Blade. Shiftry, its speed heightened by Quick Attack, slashed Octillery across its right flank with the powerful grass-type move. Shiftry jumped back to Erika's side of the field with a push of its powerful legs, but Octillery managed to wrap a tentacle around Shiftry's wrist, the wooden creature taking the water-type with it.

Misty grinned. "CONSTRICT!" she yelled, loud enough for the audience to hear. The rest of its tentacles wrapped around Shiftry's airborne body and began to squeeze the life out of it. Shiftry roared, trying to break its limbs free, but Octillery's grip was too strong.

The two of them landed in a heap, with Octillery still wrapped around a struggling Shiftry, firing point-blank Signal and Ice Beams as it did so. Erika seemed to be weighing options, and a few seconds later she made her decision. "EXPLOSION!" she roared.

Misty yelled for Octillery to let go and get away, but it was too late. Shiftry was practically glowing with power and steam hissed around it as it began to glow an angry red. Octillery loosened its grip and pushed itself off of Shiftry, but then the wicked pokémon exploded, and it was all over.

Ash shielded his eyes as the bright light of a mighty detonation filled his vision. His eardrums rattled at the sound and the entire audience went quiet. When they opened their eyes, both Shiftry and Octillery were knocked out, their bodies limp and smoking.

Erika recalled her spread-eagled Shiftry with a sigh and a smile while Misty did the same. Misty acknowledged her opponent with grudging respect before switching her unconscious Octillery's ball with another. Erika did the same, and the two of them released their pokémon simultaneously.

Misty went for a Politoed while Erika chose a Vileplume. Misty smirked lazily, making Erika frown.

Erika ordered Vileplume to use a Sunny Day, and the grass-type complied, shooting a glowing sphere from the hole in its flower, which lined up with the sun and spread harsh sunlight over the field. Ash felt a little heat through the barriers, which was a testament of Vileplume's strength.

Finally Misty gave her order. "Perish Song!"

The crowd went silent as Politoed croaked melodiously in what seemed like a hundred voices mixing together, crimson sound waves erupting from its mouth, and Erika looked furious and was shouting. Vileplume, on the other hand, shuddered as the alien song pervaded its ears.

It was a cheap, underhand tactic, but an effective one. Perish Song was one of the strangest moves in the world. The song the user sang affected both the user and their opponent – in which both pokémon were allowed to use only three moves each before they were forced out cold by whatever mysterious powers constituted the Song.

Ash watched in anticipation as Politoed used its powerful, springy legs to jump around the field, from tree to the ground and vice versa. Erika was waiting, and so was Vileplume, the flowered pokémon's beady eyes tracking its speedy opponent. But the Sunny Day hadn't been used for nothing.

Erika muttered something, and then Vileplume suddenly blurred towards Politoed just as it launched itself into the air. Misty and her pokémon were shocked by its sudden speed, but Ash and some of the crowd weren't. Vileplume, like Saur, obviously had the Chlorophyll ability, which it was rightfully exploiting to beat its opponent in terms of speed.

Vileplume came to a halt exactly below where Politoed would be in a matter of seconds. The short yet powerful grass-type charged up a Solarbeam within two seconds, and let it rip a second before Politoed reached its peak. The ever-elongating beam of solar energy raced directly upwards and slammed into Politoed from below, exploding on its underside and sending the amphibian even higher into the air before it began to fall to the ground.

Politoed hit the ground with a thud and Vileplume took advantage of the jolt of surprise by jabbing it with a Drain Punch. The energy-draining attack knocked it away and sent it flying, but Politoed did a flip and its balance pretty easily.

Two hits were done. Vileplume had just one more shot to hurt Politoed or knock it out before Erika's pokémon would go out cold. Erika chewed her lip nervously, trying to figure out the best way for Vileplume to go out in style. "Get in close," she commanded, "then use Solarbeam."

"Jump!" Misty ordered. Her pokémon hadn't used a single move since Perish Song had been in effect, so Politoed was safe. The green frog leapt into the air, avoiding Vileplume's charge, but the blue-skinned pokémon released a Solarbeam in a sweeping motion. Vileplume's aim was good, but not perfect; the beam of solar energy clipped Politoed on the legs, tripping it in mid-air so that it landed harshly on its feet.

Vileplume's face strained in brutal concentration, then lost the strength in its legs as it began to fall down. Erika recalled it just in time before it began to inhale soil.

Most of the crowd cheered for Misty, but some of them jeered and booed the aspiring water-type trainer, but she didn't care. In fact, her eyes hardened even further, showing her determination for winning.

A ghost of a smile flickered over Erika's face before she released her third pokémon.

A massive Meganium burst onto the field roaring in a high-pitched voice as its powerful legs thudded on the ground. Ash knew this Meganium – Magnus, Erika's fourth-strongest league pokémon. The sauropod had an infamous winning streak, one larger than Erika's Venusaur or Tangrowth or Victreebel, who were her strongest, second- and third-strongest pokémon respectively.

Misty blanched at the sight of the green sauropod, but a few seconds later the blood returned to her face. With a grim look, she dramatically pointed at the large Meganium and called out an order to begin her attempt to defeat Erika's third and final pokémon.

Ash noticed that Politoed's legs had been hurt by the two Solarbeams and the harsh landing, so it couldn't jump as efficiently as before. It was also a bit slower, but much faster than Magnus, whose amber eyes tracked its opponent coldly and calculatingly.

Erika yelled an order, and then an exact replica of her Meganium formed next to the original one. The only difference was that it was paler, and that green energy flickered around its body from time to time.

The Substitute roared softly before charging alongside its creature. Magnus bared his teeth, before obliterating a tree Politoed had lunged towards with a Solarbeam. There was an explosion as the beam struck the tree at the exact same moment Politoed landed on it, and the frog flew out of the smoke before skidding on the grass.

Magnus closed his mouth like he was chewing on something, then the Meganium spat a hard, brown seed with great accuracy at a rising Politoed. The Leech Seed struck the amphibian on the shoulder, immediately sprouting thin vines that dug into its skin to attach itself and began to sap energy. A few, thin and short tendrils were seen spreading slowly from where the seed was attached.

Misty and Politoed both knew that they were on a time limit. It was time to go on the offensive.

An Ice Beam raced at Magnus, but the substitute suddenly appeared in front of the intended target and absorbed the hit head on, dissolving after the Ice Beam in a matter of seconds. Politoed added another Ice Beam, which Magnus countered with a Solarbeam, the two attacks meeting midway and kicking up a cloud of dust and smoke after the explosion was triggered.

Politoed sprang into the air, then fell down and landed on Magnus' back and crushed the beast under its weight. Falling to its knees by the Bounce attack, Magnus roared before a cloud of purple spores burst from underneath the ring of thick, sharp petals around its neck – Poison Powder. Unfortunately for Politoed, it breathed in right at that moment, unwillingly allowing the to in-inducing spores into its bloodstream.

Magnus bucked and threw Politoed off his back, but not before the poisoned water-type managed to hurt it with a particularly strong Ice Beam to the neck. And then the Meganium finally trounced his opponent, battering it with a Body Slam, followed with a flurry of curved, blade-like leaves that slashed Politoed and left it writhing. The sadistic, large grass-type then delivered the finishing blow with a ridiculously strong Solarbeam – it was literally overkill, because the Meganium collected solar energy for ten whole seconds before letting it loose point-blank at Politoed's face.

The cloud of dust didn't even need to be cleared up for people to know if Politoed was unconscious. Misty recalled her fallen fighter with a scowl before tossing a thoroughly scratched pokéball on the field, releasing the Starmie he'd seen back in Mt Moon.

Starmie was her ace. It was her strongest pokémon, as far as Ash knew. The one she'd used during Ash's gym battle was another, newly-evolved Starmie that had belonged to her sisters. Right now, he wasn't even sure if his team would be enough to handle the mysterious pokémon.

Ash didn't know who was going to win, but he was as eager as everyone else to watch the outcome.

Starmie started off by firing a bolt of lightning from its gem, and Magnus simply took it head on, then shrugging it off. The Meganium retaliated with an immediate Solarbeam, which Starmie dodged, followed by a Razor Leaf and then half a dozen Energy Balls simultaneously.

Starmie avoided the Razor Leaf, but got in the way of the first Energy Ball, which impacted its jewel and burst explosively. As soon as the dust cleared, Starmie set up a Light Screen, and then a Reflect at the same time, before fusing the two walls of light as it could not dodge the remaining Energy Balls. The rest of them were slowed down by the thick, protective barriers, but nevertheless hurt the many-legged water-type type.

A horizons spin later from Starmie, Magnus was still recovering from a Swift attack. Taking advantage of this momentary weakness, Misty's pokémon grabbed hold of its opponent before psychically lifting him in the air and then hurtling Magnus down backwards. The sadistic water/psychic-type wordlessly and emotionlessly slammed the sauropod into the ground several more times, until the captive suddenly let loose a Solarbeam that struck Starmie's jewel and made it lose its focus, letting him out of the psychic hold.

The Meganium rushed forward with the intent to Body Slam Starmie into the ground, but the starfish used Camouflage and turned near-invisible – near because light still refracted light, making the Starmie look like it was made of pure glass. Still, Magnus missed it, and ended up hurting himself as he hit the ground.

Ash groaned along with half the spectators as Starmie fired a true Confuse Ray, scrambling Magnus' mind and turning him momentarily insane. The brain-twisting attack made Misty look sure of herself, but Erika was still smiling.

A Solarbeam ripped the air, missing Starmie by mere inches. Magnus was still definitely confused, but he was now more dangerous as he was attacking mindlessly. If Starmie got hit by a few more of them, the fight would definitely end.

Magnus rushed around and began generating more Solarbeams, struggling to hit some invisible enemy while Misty exploited his confused state, although Starmie stayed far away to have enough time to dodge from random Solarbeams. Icy rays arced from Starmie's gem, slamming into Magnus' flank and making him roar in outrage. Starmie kept floating away, firing Ice Beams, Flash Cannons and Thunderbolts alike. Magnus kept running aimlessly and letting random Solarbeams rip, until a stray blast of solar energy smashed into Starmie's side and sent it spinning to the ground.

Magnus' hearing must've been intact, because the Meganium released a powerful Energy Ball twice the size of his head at a rising Starmie. The mysterious pokémon was knocked on its front, the large red jewel in the centre blinking to signify its low health.

Misty gritted her teeth. "Gravity!"

Starmie rose slowly, then slammed its lower appendages down, releasing a ripple of energy throughout the ground, like waves on a beach. Magnus yelped helplessly as it was crushed to the ground by an unseen force, his otherwise strong muscles weak against the psychic-induced gravity.

Then it was all over. A powerful, highly condensed Hyper Beam later, Erika's Meganium lay unconscious on the ground. Starmie spun over and gently prodded it with an appendage just before it was recalled into its pokéball.

Misty breathed a sigh and recalled her Starmie. The water-type was almost as battered as Magnus, and another attack would've turned the tables in Erika's favour. Still, Misty and her team triumphed, but it wasn't to say that Erika had done a shoddy job, either.

If it wasn't for that sneaky Perish Song, Erika's pokémon would've trounced Misty's. While Politoed was fast, Erika's Vileplume was faster with the added boost due to Chlorophyll and would've made mincemeat of the frog in minutes. Then all that they'd have to face would be Starmie, and while it was superfluously strong, there was no way it could take down two grass-type without being knocked out.

The roar of the crowd was deafening, and while Ash liked Erika he made sure to cheer on Misty's victory. For the first time in the match, Misty's face broke into a true smile and she blushed. The two Gym Leaders walked towards each other and met in the centre of the field, where they shook hands before Erika took out a Rainbow Badge from her kimono and held the multi-coloured trinket high for everyone to see.

The spectators cheered even louder as Erika pinned the badge on Misty's suspenders. Misty smiled wider, then bowed as a sign of respect before one again shaking hands. The emcee rambled off a few more words, and then people began to stream out of the bleachers.

Ash quickly walked out, his heart still racing from the battle he'd seen. While they were certainly not the strongest set of battles Ash had even seen – Giovanni, Lance and Alder refuted that – their pokémon were still immensely strong. Ash knew that his friends had only a fraction of the power Erika's and Misty's pokémon had, but he was waiting for the day he would triumph over them.

Ash waited outside the doors of the battlefield, waiting for the two gym leaders to come out with a few other spectators. While these fanatics wanted autographs and whatnot, Ash simply wanted to meet Erika and Misty and congratulate them on a battle well done.

The doors to the battlefield opened and out came Misty and Erika, both of them with resigned expressions, as if they expected this. He saw Misty slipping Erika a ten pokédollar bill as discreetly as possible as they signed notepads and took pictures or whatnot.

Ash remained behind and waited for everyone to clear out. Once the fanatical spectators had left, Ash cleared his throat and spoke up. "Erika?" he said.

Erika turned her head in Ash's direction with squint-eyes. Then her eyes lit up in recognition. "Ash?! Ash Ketchum?!" she exclaimed, grinning. "Mother of Mew, I can't believe it!" She rushed him and pulled him into a hug not unlike the ones his mother gave him, then pulled away and pinched his cheeks a little too hard for his liking. "Wow, you look like a real trainer now! How long has it been?"

Ash shrugged, still wincing from the pain in his cheeks. "Two years, I guess."

She huffed. Then she smiled once again. "Did you come to see my gym battle?"

Ash nodded. "I actually just came to challenge you, but when I saw who you were up against right now I just had to take a look." He waved at Misty, who grinned back.

"Hiya back. I'm a bit surprised to see you here, though," said Misty. "I figured you would've directly travelled to Celadon after Vermillion, you know."

Ash shuddered, thinking about the St Anne. "I, uh, got caught up in a few things in Vermillion."

Misty must've figured out what he meant, because she lowered her eyes. "I see."

"How's everyone else?" Erika asked. "Delia, Daisy, and Gary?"

"They're fine." Ash shrugged. "Gary's as cocky as ever, though."

"Some things never change." Erika laughed daintily. After a moment, she looked at him suspiciously. "You didn't choose a Charmander as your starter, did you?"

Ash's eyes widened. He remembered Erika's noogies all too well. "No way!" he exclaimed. "I chose Bulbasaur, fair and square! Saur's one of my strongest pokémon now. I bet in a year or two he'll be able to take on your Venusaur."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Erika said in a singsong voice. "Anyway...What are you going to do now, Ash? Celadon is amazing. There are a lot of place you can explore over here, like the Celadon Departmental Store, the Game Corner, the Contest Hall, and the Freak's Game headquarters—"

"The ones who made the pokémon simulator games?" Ash said, incredulous.

"Yep," Misty said. "I went there, but it's boring. Just a bunch of geeks talking about coding and whatnot. But you should definitely check out the Game Corner and departmental store. They've got the best stuff there, as far as I know."

Ash nodded. He was anyways going to pay a visit to the famous departmental store to purchase a few TMs for his pokémon, but from what he gathered by Misty's and Erika's suggestions, he wouldn't mind visiting the Game Corner either. If he was lucky enough, he could win back the money he would spend on those TMs the Celadon Store had to provide. He didn't care much for the Contest Hall, though, as those were primarily for pokémon coordinators who collected ribbons instead of badges to participate in the regional Grand Festival. It was also for trainers who wanted to have some fun, but Ash hadn't a clue in the world as to what to do if he would participate.

"When's your battle, Ash?" Erika asked.

"Um...I guess around five thirty," Ash answered. Then he grinned. "Don't expect me to hold back!"

"I could say the same to you," Erika shot back. "Now get out of here!" she said, smiling. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Ash gave her a thumbs-up, and followed Misty, who had decided to give him a tour of the mall in after she would give her pokémon for a check-up. His pokémon were still being treated, so he would have quite some time to go and purchase the TMs he needed.

XxXxX

Ash quickly found himself staring at the massive array of TMs displayed in the Trainer Necessities section of the store. His eyes roved through numerous, coloured disks – their prices ranged from two thousand pokédollars for common ones to 50,000 for the rarer and more powerful TMs like Hyper Beam, Giga Impact, Blizzard, Overheat, etcetera. While Ash certainly wanted those expensive TMs, he didn't want to go bankrupt – they were too expensive for the time being – but that didn't matter, as only those with seven or more badges, or those licensed by the League could purchase the latter set of TMs

Ash purchased the Ice Beam TM for Hydrus. It was a one-time only TM, since he didn't have any other pokémon to teach it to. It would certainly give him an edge when the Golduck competed against grass-types and he really wanted to win the Rainbow Badge.

He bought the TM Brick Break for Chimchar, which would allow the pokémon to pulverize Light Screens, Reflects, and Barriers if his opponent would ever put them up. Brick Break would also help Chimchar learn how to access fighting-type energy faster, since his secondary and tertiary stages were dual fire- and fighting-type pokémon.

Saur would be getting Venoshock. Venoshock allowed pokémon to fire poisonous, acidic liquid over an opponent in a stream – it was very much like Sludge and Sludge Bomb, except for one tiny difference. Venoshock would react to any existing poison in the targets bloodstream to magnify the effect, therefore powering up Venoshock's strength if the opponent was already poisoned.

Ash had purchased this particular TM with a combination move in his mind – he would also teach Saur Toxic, which he already had with him. Toxic would be a major component for what Ash had in mind. He'd teach Saur to mix Toxic with Venoshock to increase the chance of hitting the enemy, as well as double the power when Venoshock would hit after the target would be poisoned. Ash decided to call this particular vexing combination Toxic Shock. Granted, it wasn't the most creative name, but Ash was trying to win faster, not show off his creativity for specialised techniques.

Ash sorely wanted to buy the Solarbeam TM, but he didn't need to as the Celadon Gym handed out Solarbeam TMs to winning trainers. It was a further incentive for trainers to train their pokémon as hard as possible to win the battles.

For his last two TMs, he purchased Aerial Ace for Delphi and Dark Pulse for Screecher. Aerial Ace would be invaluable for Delphi to increase her already great speed, and Dark Pulse would give Screecher another dark-type move so that she could hit normal-type pokémon without the use of Payback.

"So, all done, Ash?" Misty asked as she caught up to him at the counter. She too had a few TMs in her cart, but far fewer than Ash.

Ash nodded. "Yep. What TMs did you buy?"

Misty hummed. "Hyper Beam, Blizzard and Flamethrower."

Ash's eyes bugged out at the mention of the first two. "Hyper Beam and Blizzard?" he said, incredulous.

She nodded. "I don't spend much money on supplies and medicines, because I rely on my Slowbro's ability to heal the rest of my pokémon with Heal Pulse, so I end up saving a lot. Still, there are a few injuries even Slowbro can't heal, so I do buy potions and other stuff from time to time.

"Plus," and now she was smirking, "I'm also a gym leader, so I do get a monthly salary, you know."

Oddly enough, that did make sense. "What's Flamethrower for, then? I don't see you having any fire-type pokémon."

She giggled. "That's for my Slowbro. Yes," she said, smiling at the way Ash's eyes widened, "Slowbro can learn Flamethrower via TMs. I need a counter to grass-types if Ice Beam doesn't work, or if I just want to see them go slack-jawed."

"Yeah, I can imagine that," Ash said dryly. Even he would be surprised if someone would pull it on him during a battle. He'd be incapacitated for a few seconds, at least.

They reached the counter a few moments later and the cashier started totalling up their purchased items quickly. Ash's selected TMs drained most of Ash's money, but he still had a few funds to prevent himself from going broke. Plus, the lightness of his wallet only furthered his determination to defeat as many trainers as he could.

Misty was likewise, but she told him that she had some money in the Kanto Federal Bank, so she still had a few funds if the money she carried was spent. Ash, however, had no such luxury. He relied only on his wallet, a wallet that had become as light as a balloon after buying such expensive items.

Once they were done, Ash and Misty headed to the Pokécenter and collect their pokémon. He was eager to apply the newly purchased TMs to his team and test their capabilities.

XxXxX

Ash and Misty quickly took their pokémon back from Nurse Joy before escaping to one of the training fields of the Centre. Their pokémon were in tip-top shape, and the trainers were eager to give their pokémon weapons they could hone.

Ash first applied the Venoshock TM to Saur, and watched with barely concealed impatience as the pokéball in the TM case glowed purple. Then he put Chimchar's pokéball in the slot along with the Brick Break. Screecher got Dark Pulse, Delphi Aerial Ace and Ice Beam went to Hydrus.

After that, Ash released his pokémon and gave them a rundown, Misty watching his pokémon in curiosity. She had given Hyper Beam to her Seadra, Blizzard to her Octillery and Slowbro received the Flamethrower TM. She had yet to test the new moves, but decided to watch Ash's team and gauge their skill level.

"Hydrus, you're up first." The Golduck stepped forward and Ash pointed at a dead tree. "Ice Beam."

Hydrus cracked open his beak, a ball of icy energy forming in his open mouth. A few seconds after charging, the a beam of bright blue energy burst from the orb, tendrils of cold breaking through as it raced towards its intended target. The beam hit the thick bark, encasing the area in a thick, craggy shell of ice. Ash beamed at his friend.

"That was great!" While Ash had to work on Hydrus' aim, the attack was still obviously powerful. "Chimchar, you're next – Brick Break."

Chimchar screamed a battle cry before rushing forth, his right hand engulfed in orange energy. He swung his opened palm in a sideways chop, smashing into the ice and spreading cracks through the icy shell. A few, small chunks of frost broke apart and fell down, and Chimchar huffed before running up to his trainer.

Ash smiled as Chimchar climbed up his arm and onto his back, weighing him down a bit. "Good job, buddy." He scratched the chimp under the chin, Chimchar basking under the praise.

Saur walked in front, leering at the battered tree. "Okay, Saur, use Venoshock!"

Saur opened his fanged mouth before spitting an unsteady stream of green, poisonous liquid. The viscous poison splattered against the frozen part of the tree, then slowly sizzled through the shell of ice and melted through the bark. A few chunks had hit the ground, making the grass hiss as the droplets of Venoshock burned through it.

Ash grinned and carefully petted his Ivysaur, whose mouth dribbled with green poison like drool. Saur slurped it up, not even wincing as he absorbed the remaining poison.

Unlike the other, Screecher simply floated in front, then concentrated a sphere of pitch-black energy in front of her body. With a burst, the Misdreavus launched it, the Dark Pulse speeding go the tree and exploding on contact. When the dust cleared, the trunk had finally broken and the top half was lying diagonally on the ground, connected only by a few layers of wood and lignin.

"Delphi, Aerial Ace!" Ash ordered, after several minutes of praising Screecher. He watched as the Xatu took to the air, performed a loop, then made a powerful dive.

All he could see was her form blurring towards the destroyed tree, covered in streaks of white light. After picking up speed, she suddenly disappeared – not quite like teleportation, but similar – and reappeared in front of the fallen part of the tree, smashing into it hard.

The trunk snapped in half as splinters flew into the air. Ash grinned. Aerial Ace was on par with her Shadow Ball and Psychic. She was going to grow into a powerhouse that would give elite trainers a run for their money – in due time, of course.

She landed next to him, and he stroked her feathers. "Good girl."

She nodded curtly. Tha— you, she said erratically in his mind. Ash frowned. Delphi's telepathy was growing better, but it still wasn't perfect.

Ash looked at Luna and Zeus. "Sorry, you two, but I couldn't find any TMs suitable for you. I'm sure once you grow stronger I'll get you some. Alright?" he told the Clefairy.

Luna shrugged, the caught hold of his pants and smiled. Ash returned the gesture, while Zeus curled up by his feet.

"Is that it?" said Misty, after returning with her Starmie, Slowbro and Seadra. She and her pokémon had walked off to a different area so to not disturb Ash and his companions. When Ash nodded, she smiled and stifled a yawn. "Alright. I'm calling it a day, are you still going to be out here?"

"Yep," Ash replied. "I need to get in some training before I challenge Erika tomorrow. I can't just go in there without refining their skills now, can I?"

She smirked. "I suppose not." With a flourish, Misty recalled her pokémon and began to walk away. "See ya, Ketchum. I might be interested enough to watch your gym challenge tomorrow."

With that, the redheaded girl walked away. Ash just shrugged. It was pretty early in the evening, so he could put in a few hours of training for his pokémon before hitting the sack.

Ash put Hydrus, Chimchar, Luna and Saur in training together. Saur and Luna would launch large rocks with their vines and Psychic respectively at Hydrus and Chimchar, who would attempt to destroy them. Hydrus could only use Ice Beams while Chimchar could use Brick Break and Flamethrowers. The purpose of this exercise was to help Hydrus and Chimchar refine their newly-learnt moves while Saur and Luna would increase their strength in their vines and Psychic attacks.

Zeus and Screecher would be using Delphi for target practice. Delphi would be using Aerial Ace and nothing else to evade the attacks, while Screecher would be allowed to use just Dark Pulses. This was to make it easier for the Xatu to slip into Aerial Ace and to improve Zeus' and Screecher's aim for moving and airborne targets.

It was four hours later when he halted their training session. Chimchar's Brick Break was getting better, and so was Hydrus' Ice Beam, Screecher's Dark Pulse and Delphi's Aerial Ace. Luna could now lift and hurl heavy objects with ease, and so could Saur, lifting the boulders with his vines as if they were paper. All in all, Ash knew his pokémon were ready to take on Erika.

XxXxX

The next morning, Ash found himself standing in front of Misty, who had taken a seat in the Centre's lobby and was currently reading a recent issue of Trainer's Weekly. The redhead glanced up from an article about Surge (whose name she reminisced with a scowl) and looked up once Ash cleared his throat to grab her attention.

"Uh...Hey, Misty," Ash muttered hesitantly. "I was, uh, wondering if you could maybe..."

Misty sighed. Being the fourth Sensational Sister had prepared her for a lot of advances, and boy was she not in a mood. "Look, Ash, you're nice and all, but I don't think you should ask me out. You're only ten, for God's sake." There. That ought to put him off track.

Ash shrugged. "Okay, fair enough— wait, what?!" he exclaimed abruptly, his face turning red in embarrassment. "That's not why I came here for, Misty!"

Misty blinked, mildly surprised. "You didn't?" She chucked.

"No!" he refuted furiously. Ash's cheeks burnt in embarrassment, but a few moments later he composed himself. "I, uh... wanted to ask you if you could help me train my pokémon – Hydrus, in particular."

"What gives?"

"Well, I promised to teach him Hydro Pump once he'd master Psychic, but I don't know where to start," he elaborated, chuckling. "I just wanted him to get a head start, and, well, since you're aspiring to be a water-type master and all, I thought maybe you could help me..."

"Of course!" Misty agreed, her eyes gleaming. The prospect of training a water-type pokémon, no matter who it belonged too, always appealed to her, not to mention that she was going to have the opportunity to teach one of the strongest water moves. "That seems like a good idea. I have a few pokémon in preparation for my real team, so I'll teach your...Hydro, was it?"

"Hydrus. He's my Golduck," Ash corrected.

"Yeah, I'll teach him the basics alongside my own pokémon. Sounds cool?"

Ash's face broke into a grin. "Yeah! Thanks a lot, Misty," he said. "It's going to really help me and my team get stronger."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Misty asked rhetorically, sharing his grin. "Let's get started!"

XxXxX

It took a few minutes for Ash and Misty to gather their teams, and when they did they went out to the training field at the back of the Pokécenter. It was a surprisingly unsurprising fact that part of the field was occupied by a two other trainers, both girls about his age – one with neck-length blue hair with a white skull-cap on top, while the other had short, auburn hair, styled like a boys. Ash felt his eyes lingering on the girl with blue hair, much to his chagrin and embarrassment, when the girl noticed him staring and waved back.

Misty caught that action and leered playfully at him, tugging him by the collars of his jacket and practically dragging him to the other side of the field. "C'mon, lover-boy, you can stare later," she teased.

Ash blushed. "Sh-Shut up," he growled in a stammer. Misty simply snorted.

"Okay, release your pokémon," Misty said, and Ash did so. Luna, Saur, Delphi, Hydrus, Screecher, Zeus and Chimchar materialized consecutively after each other, disemboguing a cacophony of sounds at their release. Misty release a few of her pokémon and let Ash admire her team.

They were all water-type pokémon, which was pretty obvious. He already expected Starmie, Politoed, Octillery and Slowbro, but his eyes remained on the rest of her pokémon for a few seconds longer. Aside from her known pokémon, there was a Seadra, Poliwhirl, Wartortle, Kingler, and a rotund, blue rodent – a Marill.

"These are my pokémon," Misty proclaimed with a flourish of her hands. "I also have a Magikarp, but I don't want to release her outside water."

Ash stifled a chortle. "A-A Magikarp?!"

Misty turned red, partly in anger and partly in embarrassment. "I'll have you know that I'll have a Gyarados on my arsenal in absolutely no time!" she practically yelled.

"Okay!" Ash held up his hands defensively. "But why couldn't you just capture a Gyarados instead of that pitiful creature? I mean, with your skill level, your Starmie could easily take a young one out in a couple of Thunderbolts."

Misty looked away in slight shame. "Umfraidofgyarados," she mumbled a bit too fast and soft for Ash to hear.

"What?"

Misty groaned in irritation. "I said, I'M AFRAID OF GYARADOS!" she screamed.

The female trainers glanced at them nervously, but Misty didn't care. "Alright, fine, but you didn't need to yell it out so loudly," Ash groused. Then he perked up. "Where'd you get the Wartortle, by the way?" he asked, making the boy remember Gary and his cocky turtle. "They are pretty rare."

Misty smiled mysteriously. "I found a group of them near Vermillion City," she said haughtily. "They keep wrecking havoc, and the Ranger Corps never manage to find them. So I took it upon myself to hand them over to the rangers."

She bent down and petted the Wartortle, who cooed in delight. "Apparently they were all released by abusive trainers, and grew distrustful of humans altogether," she continued. "Long story short, I won the leader's trust and he decided to join my team; the rest of them are now part of the Vermillion Fire and Rescue department."

That sounded so clichéd that Ash wondered whether it belonged to a TV series where a kid got all the Kanto starters by winning their trust, but he shook his head. "Fine, whatever. Can we get started now, please?"

And with that, they began their training. Ash told Hydrus that Misty would help him learn the basics of Hydro Pump – that made the Golduck's eyes gleam eagerly with the prospect, and he almost tripped over himself trying to get over to the young Gym Leader. Misty walked not far away, with Hydrus, her Wartortle, and Poliwhirl, while she told Seadra and Marill to get into a mock battle and allowed her most experienced pokémon a period of relaxation.

Ash led the rest of his team away and began training them not too far away from the duo of female pokémon trainers. They must be coordinators, Ash thought, because he could see and hear the two of them ordering to execute a combination of moves that looked more beautiful than anything. Ash shook his head and focused on his pokémon.

He made them run through the same drills as last night, but as Hydrus was with Misty it was only Chimchar against Saur and Luna throwing the rocks, which were helpfully provided by a lazy Kingler's Rock Slide.

Ash was working with Screecher, while Zeus continued target practice with Delphi. He had come up with a technique that would be invaluable in battle. He wasn't expecting her to master the variant immediately, but he still wanted to try it out with the ghost floating in front of him.

"Alright, Screecher," he told the Misdreavus. "I want you to use Dark Pulse, and aim it at the ground. However," he added suddenly, much to Screecher's curiosity, "instead of making it explode, I want you to spread out the dark energy. Imbue the field with the Dark Pulse."

Screecher looked confused for a second, but then she nodded and prepared a pulsating orb of dark energy in front of her slightly opened mouth. She held the sphere for a few seconds, then hurled it to the ground.

He obviously didn't expect her to master it on the first try, so, really, he shouldn't have been disappointed at all. Still, he couldn't help but sigh in disgruntlement, but formed a smile not a moment later. "Keep trying, Screecher. Remember – don't make it explode."

She tried the move a few more times, but failed in all attempts. The fourth time however, had Ash looking closer and he felt a spike of pride within as he saw the Pulse touch the ground and let a little dark energy ooze out on the ground, before the pulsing energy took over and it detonated.

Ash decided to leave Screecher to herself and moved onto the trio of pokémon – Chimchar, Saur and Luna. After watching his Chimchar cleave a small boulder in two with Brick Break, he told Saur to take a rest and practice Venoshock separately while deciding to hold a mock battle between Chimchar and Luna.

"Okay, are the two of you ready?" he said, and he received nods from both pokémon, although Luna reacted only after Ash repeated his question. She seemed distracted, and kept glancing over Chimchar's shoulder, but Ash just shrugged it off.

"Begin!"

Chimchar instantly spat a blanket of scorching embers, which Luna weathered with a Cosmic Power. The Clefairy darted around the next attack – a well-produced Flamethrower – and fired a concentrated beam of blue energy from her outstretched palms, courtesy of a Stored Power, but Chimchar quickly intercepted the racing beam of psychic energy with another stream of flames. The two attacks collided in mid-air and cancelled each other out in a burst of black smoke, which obscured the training field for a few minutes.

Luna seemed intent on finishing the battle quickly, because she tapped into the stored lunar essence of her body and drifted quickly through the smoke, but into the waiting arms of Chimchar, who immediately swiped at the Clefairy with sharp claws, ripping into the underside of her body and making her grimace in pain. The floating Clefairy tumbled to the ground in a heap, but quickly pushed herself up and immediately began to use Metronome, wagging her fingers, which began to glow an incandescent white light.

Suddenly, Luna smashed a fist into the ground, Chimchar looking around confusedly. The next second a spire of rock punched out of the ground and slammed directly into Chimchar's chest, the fire-type soaring into the air by the brute force of the Stone Edge. Ash winced as Chimchar landed harshly on the ground, then rose up, his breathing ragged.

"Good job, Luna," Ash praised, feeling a little bad at the sudden beating Chimchar had received. "Chimchar, try to keep up!"

Chimchar nodded, then screamed before rushing forth and jumping as nimbly as possible. Luna lashed out with a Wake-Up Slap, but Chimchar twisted and avoided the attack before wreathing himself in flames. With the additional boost of speed due to Flame Charge, Luna was knocked back and rolled until she came to a halt.

"Chimchar, try a Brick Break!" Ash suggested. "Luna, I want you to block them all!"

They barely acknowledged him with a nod before the two lunged into action. Chimchar lashed out with several, swift chops, most of them blocked by Luna. A few struck the Clefairy here and there, but with her fairy-typing it didn't hurt as much as it would normally. After ducking under another Brick Break, Luna grabbed hold of Chimchar with Psychic, lifting him into the air before smashing him into the ground with a thud.

The Chimchar hissed before running back at his opponent. Luna, unfortunately, had been staring somewhere to her left, and was blasted back by a quick Flamethrower from Chimchar.

Ash frowned. Chimchar continued to attack the fallen Clefairy, not giving her a moment to recover as he caught her under the chin with another swift chop. Luna was still blocking the continuous barrage of attacks with Defence Curl, but it was a half hearted attempt as the boy noticed her eyes glued to the pair of female trainers at his left.

Finally Luna let her guard down enough for Chimchar to smack her with a Brick Break. The Clefairy fell down with a thud, allowing Chimchar to pounce on her and attack her with Fury Swipes. Ash decided to end the mock battle then and there.

"Enough!"

The Chimchar immediately let go and jumped off Luna, landing besides her before helping his teammate up. Luna scowled at herself in anger briefly for losing to the newest teammate, before Ash sprayed a few potions on her and healed her up.

"Good job, the two of you." Chimchar puffed out his chest, but Luna looked down in embarrassment. Ash looked at her with a dissatisfied and confused frown. "Luna, what went wrong?"

The Clefairy looked up at him nervously, and Ash didn't miss the sideways glance at the coordinators. The two of them were battling it out – beautifully, mind you – with a Scyther that belonged to the blue-haired girl and a well-groomed, grey-furred cat with a spiralled tail that was trained by the other. Ash stared in brief awe at the powerful-looking and speedy bug-type, but its trainer seemed disappointed and annoyed at it.

"Scyther, I said elegant, not brutish!" the blue-haired girl said, exasperated, once Scyther had sliced into the Glameow's left flank, making the feline hiss and jump back in pain. The mantis pokémon rolled his eyes, and when its trainer called for it to dissipate her opponent's Glameow's Water Pulse into a fine mist, the Scyther cleaved the attack into two (ignoring the resulting pulsing waves of water and energy) before blurring forward and attacking with a Vacuum Wave.

Ash then heard her say, "If you keep this up I'm going to be desperate enough to release you," to which the Scyther actually looked relieved. Then it looked at Ash with interest for a long moment, as if expecting him to do something, before its trainer got its attention back.

Ash turned to look at Luna. "Uh, you want to battle that Scyther, then? Is that what you're saying?" he said, taking a wild guess.

Luna let go of her nervousness for a moment and rolled her eyes. Then, with hesitation, she pointed at the coordinator's Glameow, who used a Swift attack and jumped onto the rays, using them as platforms to create an 'appeal', or whatever the hell it was.

Ash's frown deepened. "You mean to say that we should take a shot at contests? I don't know, Luna, maybe we should just stick to gym battles," he said, chuckling to ease the tension.

Luna just sighed and walked away, dragging her feet as if she had weights tied to them. Ash frowned after her, and then shook his head before resuming their training.

The who experience weirded Ash out, and made him feel a bit queasy. He'd expected to have a full team of only battlers, but here was Luna insinuating that she wanted to pursue Coordinating. Well, that wasn't going to happen soon. Ash had a one-track mind only for training and battling – he would think about pokémon coordinating in the foreseeable future.

He was snapped out of his reverie as he saw Luna suddenly spin around to unleash a Magical Leaf attack, grabbing hold of them in mid-air with Psychic before she tapped into her lunar essence and floated through the immobilised, colourful leaves, touching each of them with her foot so that it seemed as if she was using them as stepping stones. It looking incredibly amazing and Ash felt a sudden, strange swell of pride as she performed a flip and landed on the ground.

Saur, Chimchar, Zeus and Delphi looked puzzled, while Screecher was giggling in amusement. Luna blushed at their reactions, and the blush deepened when she noticed Ash staring at her mouth agape. The Clefairy seemed proud when she noticed the two coordinators not too far away staring at her in bewilderment and amazement. Luna shook herself and then continued to lift rocks and hurl it at Chimchar, but the Chimchar was gawking at her so intently that the boulder struck him and sent him tumbling away.

"That was great!" one of the coordinators said. Ash learnt that it was the one with short hair, and looked fired-up with delight. The one with the skull cap looked equally impressed, and they began to walk towards him, making Ash grow nervous and Luna excited.

"What was that, Ketchum?" Ash turned to see Misty also approaching him, a slight smirk on her face. Ash was blushing nervously and he looked at Luna in befuddlement. What was she playing at?

"Wow!" The coordinators finally reached him and looked at him with big smiles. "Your Clefairy is great! Are you a coordinator, too?"

Ash shook his head. "N-No," he stuttered. "I'm just a trainer. I'm an aspiring pokémon master, actually."

The short-haired one shook her head with a wry smiled. "Aren't they all," she said dryly. "Anyway, your Clefairy's moves were great either way. I'm Zoey, by the way," she said, holding her hand out in a way of greeting.

"And I'm Dawn," the other one said cheerfully, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Ash shook their hands. "I'm Ash," he returned, smiling. "So, the two of you are coordinators, right?"

"Yes, Captain Obvious," snapped Misty. Ash scowled at her.

"Well, Clefairy is really well trained, I'll have to give you that," Dawn praised, making Ash grin and sweat a bit as he thought of a good enough reply.

"Uh, thanks. So is your Scyther," he responded, even though he'd seen her pokémon's crappy performance.

Dawn rolled her eyes while Zoey chuckled. "Liar," she said cheerfully. "We all know that Scyther's absolutely abysmal at contests. I saw you watching a bit. He'd rather battle like a brute than perform coordinating techniques – uh, no offence."

"None taken," Misty said before Ash could.

Ash smiled. "Well, I really didn't know before now that Luna was interested in contests," he admitted. "She seemed really captivated by your training."

"Likewise with Scyther," Dawn said, looking at her pokémon with a dry smile, the powerful bug-type huffing in annoyance. "I actually had to yell at him so that he'd pay attention to me. It looked as if he was almost going to join your training regime."

"Then why don't you trade them?" Zoey suggested boldly.

If anything took Ash by surprise, it was that.

"Wh-What?!" Ash exclaimed, Dawn looking equally startled.

Misty tapped her chin in thought. "Hmm, that is a good idea," she murmured aloud. "I mean, look at it: Luna obviously prefers contests over battles as of recent events, and Dawn's Scyther hates coordinating as much as your Clefairy loves them..." She suddenly grabbed Ash by the sides of his head and shook him. "The facts are staggering, Ash!" she screamed in his face, spit flying. Saur growled a little at the behaviour of his trainer, but didn't do anything except give Misty a warning by tapping her on the shoulder with his vines.

Ash felt like his brain had been rattled in his skull, and it took a moment for his eyesight to recover. He glared at Misty, before looking at Luna's pokéball with a deep frown of concentration.

"That seems a little out of place...I mean, Luna chose to come with me way back in Mt Moon," he muttered, but was shocked to see Luna looking at Dawn with excitement in her eyes. Ash felt emotions such as anger, sadness, bewilderment and shame bubble inside him – anger at the fact that Luna looked at other trainers with the same expression as she beheld him; sadness at the fact that she did so; bewilderment as to why she looked at Dawn in that manner; and shame for feeling angry at his friend.

Dawn seemed to think on the same grounds at Ash. "B-But that's so weird!" she sputtered. "Even though Scyther doesn't like coordinating, it doesn't mean that I'll trade him for a pokémon that does. And what if it doesn't like me? I can't see Ash's Clefairy separating so easily from him."

Luna was torn. She took an immediate liking to Dawn, just as how she'd taken an immediate liking to Ash way back when. There was just something about the girl that made her feel happy, and bubbly, the same feelings that Ash invigorated within the Clefairy. But, as much as she loved the idea of performing and wanted to join Dawn on her quest to become a top coordinator, she couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt when she looked at the absolutely hurt expression on her trainer's face.

"Yeah." Ash nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat as the image of Luna standing next to Dawn appeared in his mind once again. "What if Scyther doesn't like me, either? And what if Dawn doesn't take care of Luna—?"

"Hey!" Dawn yelled in anger. "I'm not one of those junkies that view pokémon as tools to achieve success and fame, mister! I look at them as equals, as friends. So don't you dare compare me to those kind of trainers, alright?!"

Zoey placed a placating hand on Dawn's shoulder to calm her down, Ash taking a step back in mild fear and surprise. "Sorry," he apologised in a sincere tone, but his next words were true and harsh. "But, hey, as Luna's trainer, I have to consider every possibility for her safety. I can't just blindly give her away to some random trainer I met not five minutes ago. Would you do that to your own pokémon – just give it away to the first trainer you saw?"

Dawn stood there with her mouth open, her face reddening in embarrassment. She hung her head. "I-I didn't mean to sound rude," she uttered. "I apologise."

"It's fine," Ash said dismissively. "I would've acted the same way if I was accused that way."

There was an awkward silence, but Zoey spoke up within seconds. "So, are y'all still going to carry out that trade or what?" she asked. Ash and Dawn glared at her, annoyed, and Misty let out a snort.

Ash sighed. "Luna," he muttered reluctantly, "do you wanna travel with Dawn or with me?" He silently prayed for her to choose him, but felt as if he'd been hit in the gut with a sledgehammer when the Clefairy shrugged after a moment of hesitation. The only thing that brought happiness to him was the fact that she seemed nervous when she did so.

"Great!" Zoey said, clapping her hands after Scyther did the same, although with a hint of sadistic glee flashing in the mantis' eyes. "Let's get to the Centre and get this trade done then, eh?"

XxXxX

They went back in the Centre within the minute, and with all their pokémon with them – except for Misty, who decided to keep hers out to continue trying to master Hydro Pump. Seeing that it was a good decision, Ash let Hydrus back at the training ground, too, but kept the others with him.

Ash kept Luna outside her pokéball, the Clefairy holding into the hem of his pants as they walked briskly. Ash resisted the urge to look at her with grandfatherly disapproval, because he didn't want to seem annoying by doing so. Still, it was hard for him to see Luna so easily ready to go to another trainer, one that she'd just seen an hour ago. A single, prominent thought kept running through Ash's mind: had he even known her these past few months?

He very much wanted a Scyther, there was no doubt about that – Scyther were on a completely different level compared to other bug-types – but not at the cost of one of his friends. Scyther were one of the rarer pokémon of Kanto, and had a league of their own. Even though they were bug-type pokémon they could take hits thanks to their hard carapace and give them back with the help of their metal scythe-for-arms; and were amongst the fastest pokémon Kanto had to offer, second only to the likes of Jolteon and Electrode. Their evolved form, Scizor, grew only stronger.

But as Ash stepped off the escalator with Misty, Luna, Zoey, Dawn, and her Scyther, Ash couldn't help but think about the time he'd spent with Luna – how she'd trusted him enough to leave her colony and join him on his journey, how she had won him the Thunder Badge by finally bringing Surge's formidable Raichu down, and how the Clefairy had fought with him and the rest of the team aboard the St Anne, amongst many other memories. He felt like his legs were moving on their own as he walked towards the giant trading machine, where a Nurse Joy was waiting.

"Hello!" she said cheerily. "Are you here to conduct a trade?"

"I think so," Dawn said, frowning slightly.

Ash sighed. "I mean, we've spent so much time with our pokémon...I don't know if it's the right thing I'm doing, even if Luna does want to go with Dawn." He looked at Luna, who was staring at both Ash and Dawn in adoration.

Nurse Joy shook her head. "Trainers need to adapt to new pokémon in the same way pokémon do to new trainers," she mentioned. "What's important is the welfare of your pokémon. If your pokémon wants to go with another pokémon, you can't exactly for it to want to go with you, right?"

"Why don't the two of you see the other in action then?" Zoey suggested. "I mean, we have our battle round at the Contest Hall in some time – you and Clefairy can come watch Dawn and I perform – and then Dawn can watch you battle another trainer, or something. If you're still unsure, well, then...we'll go our separate ways. Is that okay for you guys?"

Ash shrugged. "That's fine," Dawn said. "Shall we go?" They all nodded. As he followed Dawn and Zoey to the Celadon Contest Hall, Ash couldn't help but feel that nothing much would go right today.

XxXxX

"Hello, and welcome to the Celadon Contest's Battle Stage!" declared the master of ceremonies from her booth, much to the crowds happiness. "I'm Lillian Meridian, your host for the evening, as always! Now, without further ado, let us begin the next stage of this Contest: The Battle Stage!"

The crowd roared, and Ash clapped his hands, albeit half-heartedly. On either side of him sat Misty and Luna, both looking eager at the proceedings. Ash wished he'd never asked Misty for help, otherwise he'd never have even met Dawn. Strangling her friend Zoey didn't seem like such a bad idea now, either.

"Our eight coordinators that have managed to advance to the second stage are: Joe Quinn, Brian Murray, Kenny Sampson, Dawn Berlitz, Armistead Whitson, Zoey Hope, Sarah Pretchamphone and Aldrich Killeen!"

Eight coordinators poured out of the tunnel that lead to the stadium, all of them wearing elaborate and designer costumes along with wide smiles. Several of them – including Dawn – looked exceptionally cheery and waved at the crowd in exhilaration, but the rest had stiff backs and stony expressions.

Luna squealed along with the roaring crowd, and Ash couldn't help but smile at her happiness, despite the probability of her going with Dawn for the rest of her life. "Our first battle performance of the day will be: Aldrich Killeen versus Brian Murray!"

It was exhilarating. Beautiful. Angelic. The first thing Ash learnt was that coordinators were deviously smart – they thought on completely different levels to trainers. While most trainers got their pokémon to straight up fight, sometimes even implementing a few strategies, coordinators thought of things most people didn't. Ash watched in rapt attention as Aldrich Killeen's Houndoom used its flames as a makeshift shield, only for it to falter when a raging Sandstorm was whipped up, courtesy of Brian Murray's Sudowoodo, with his Flareon using Scary Face in the eye of the cyclone to project a frighteningly enlarged image in the sand, scaring Aldrich's two pokémon witless. The battle ended with Brian having exactly half of his points left, and Aldrich with only a little over quarter of his original amount, making Brian Murray the winner of the battle.

Ash could finally see why Luna wanted to pursue coordinating, and, honestly, he couldn't blame her.

Ash watched the next two five-minute battles proceed, with Zoey winning hers by destroying Sarah Pretchamphone in an embarrassing fashion, and a guy named Kenny Sampson triumph over his opponent by barely a few points. The final match of the first round of the second stage was between Dawn and Joe Quinn.

"And our final match of the first round is between Dawn Berlitz and Joe Quinn! Give it up for our two aspiring top coordinators, everyone!" yelled Lillian Meridian. The crowd screamed, a few of them waving signs in the air. Ash and Misty clapped and cheered equally hard for Dawn, but not as much as Luna did.

"Coordinators, please send out your pokémon!" said Lillian Meridian.

Four bursts of red light followed that order. Joe Quinn had released an Arbok and a green-and-red bug that resembled a dragonfly – a Yanma. The snake gave Ash bad memories about the Pokémon Tower, but he forced himself to realise that the one in front of him wasn't the same. The Yanma's flight was perfect – it didn't so much move as it hovered in the air with its barely visible wings.

Dawn, on the other hand, had chosen a brown rabbit and a white-and-blue furred critter. His pokédex identified them as a Buneary and a Pachirisu, respectively. Ash eyed the two of them speculatively – they didn't look strong, but looks can be deceiving – while the host commented on the respective choices.

"And Berlitz has chosen a Pachirisu and Buneary as her pokémon!" said Lillian Meridian. "Dawn Berlitz has already managed to acquire two ribbons primarily because of her Buneary and Pachirisu, along with her Piplup and Noctowl, which we had seen back in the appeals round. Will she be able to live up to her mother's name? Let's find out!"

The large scoreboard overhead blinked to life, showing Dawn and Joe with their entire circle of points. A digital timer was between Dawn's and Joe's photos, and there were only ten seconds until the battle began.

Three...Two...One...Blink!

Joe began the battle by ordering his Arbok to use Haze, covering half the field with pale, opaque smoke and making Joe's pokémon disappear from sight. The entire crowd watched as a couple of Sonicbooms burst from the smoke, spinning towards Dawn's pokémon like translucent-blue scimitars – but the only major difference was that the two attacks had fused together, allowing the Sonicbooms to gain streaks of the Haze streaming from them. Ash couldn't help but be impressed by the technique – if the Sonicboom-Haze hit their intended targets, not only would they get hurt, but Buneary and Pachirisu would also be momentarily blinded by the smoke.

Dawn seemed unfazed, however.

"Ice Beam!" she said. Buneary nodded, then twin beams of blue energy streaked out of its mouth, crystallising the Sonicboom. Joe frowned at the failure of his technique as a few points were cut from his total, but the frozen Sonicbooms were still shooting towards Dawn's pokémon. "Pachirisu, destroy them with Thunderbolt!" The white-furred squirrel nodded as its cheek-pouches sparked before unleashing dual bolts of yellow electricity from them, striking the frozen Sonicboom head-on and making them explode in a shower of mini-crystals, the streaks of Haze rippling outwards. The minimized crystals rained down on the field, causing Joe to lose several more points and have only a little over three-fourths of his original amount remaining.

"And an amazing way to counter Quinn's contest combination!" Lillian Meridian said. "Berlitz has got the upper hand for now, but will Quinn be able to turn the tables?"

Joe scowled. "Poison Tail-Silver Wind!"

Arbok coiled on the ground, then sprang into the air, tail glowing a sickly-purple as it did so. Yanma flew – or rather hovered – into the air at the same time, flapping its wings to kick up a silvery, glittery gust straight at the Poison Tail. The end result was bizarre. As soon as the streams of Silver Wind struck the tail, they changed into what looked purple missiles, shooting straight for Dawn's pokémon duo and making her lose a few points in the process. Dawn ordered for Buneary and Pachirisu to destroy them with the same combination, but the combination move was too fast, and the icy coat the bullets of purple gained only served to strengthen the attack, causing Dawn to lose a few more points, and be on equal footing with Joe Quinn.

Dawn grit her teeth and then ordered a Thunderbolt and Ice Beam at Yanma and Arbok respectively, which Buneary and Pachirisu did. Ash thought that it was a rather good move. Electric-type attacks dealt quite a lot of damage to part flying-types like Yanma, and while Ice Beam wasn't super-effective against Arbok, it would certainly make the serpentine poison-type pokémon's movements sluggish due to its cold-bloodedness. Most poikilothermic creatures weren't weak to ice-type attacks (pokémon like the Snivy line and Treecko line were weak to them, to name a few) but the absence of heat would definitely make the pokémon reduce its movements to conserve heat and energy.

But Joe had a counterattack. The wiry boy yelled something like, "Sludge Shield!" causing Arbok to spit a stream of poisonous goo as it spun, creating what seemed like a wall of viscous poison. Ash didn't see any purpose for it when Arbok stopped emitting the sludge – the attack would simply fall to the ground – but the Sludge Bomb suddenly froze in mid-air. The source of this action was Yanma, whose eyes were lit with blue aura as it used Psychic and slowly reconstructed the sludge to form a wall of deep purple that circled Joe's pokémon. Dawn scowled at the Thunderbolt was absorbed by the sludge while the Ice Beam simply froze part of it before ceasing, a few points being cut off from Dawn's remaining total.

Ash couldn't believe how long that frail looking was holding up so much of poison, but a second after he thought this the Sludge Shield was flung outwards, splattering on the ground and making it a poisonous field, while also making it hard for Buneary and Pachirisu to manoeuvre it. So of course a few more points went away for that.

At this point Dawn looked desperate, because there was only a minute and a half left, with Joe Quinn leading by several points. "Ice Chandelier, dome formation," she said desperately, her two pokémon nodding.

Ignoring the toxic poisons on the field her two pokémon rushed forward, with Pachirisu in the centre of the and Buneary a good distance away. Arbok, who had no problem manoeuvring around the field, slithered towards its prey like a Sharpedo in bloody waters, fangs exposed. Yanma hovered high in the air like a watchful guard, but it was definitely tired from the usage of so much psychic energy.

Suddenly Dawn yelled something and Pachirisu exploded with light, blinding Yanma and Arbok with a Flash attack. Buneary had shut its eyes but still had spots in front of them. With their opponents momentarily stunned, the two of them set off to work.

Pachirisu fired a bolt of lightning straight into the air, striking Yanma dead on, making the dragonfly crash into the ground like a helicopter with clipped blades. But Ash's attention wasn't there. No, his eyes were wide in awe and surprise as Buneary trapped Arbok and Pachirisu in a dome of ice with an incredibly powerful Ice Beam. Buneary kept constructing the icy dome, its face locked in a rictus of fury and concentration as it did so until the dome was done, wherein it stumbled away and began panting heavily.

Ash could see the foundations of the dome weren't strong, but the end result was fantastic.

A bolt of lightning grabbed Ash's attention once again. Pachirisu, still inside the frozen structure, had fired a Thunderbolt inside, causing the electricity to ricochet and reflect from the translucent light, making it sparkle like a thousand diamonds. The contest combination was both incredibly appealing and destructive, as the electricity made the dome glitter and caused Joe to lose points, while they also kept shocking a trapped Arbok into oblivion. Pachirisu had no problem being hit by its own discharge; its Volt Absorb ability instead strengthened it, negating any attacks that Arbok managed to hit it with.

Lightning ricocheted off the inner walls of the dome, striking a writhing Arbok and rendering it helpless. Joe watched in shock and horror as his points kept depleting due to the magnificent blue hue the Ice Chandelier gained from the electric-type, his serpentine pokémon hissing and spitting poison half-heartedly as it was getting the shock of its life. Finally Joe had enough, because he recalled his Arbok back into its pokéball the same time as his points hit zero. Dawn had won the battle.

"And there we have it!" Lillian Meridian cheered along with the crowd as Pachirisu dug into the ground and disappeared, reappearing a moment later outside the dome of ice. It was a good thing Pachirisu used Dig to escape, because a second later the dome started to cave in, chunks of ice falling to the ground with thuds and cracks. "Dawn Berlitz is the winner of this match, and she proceeds to the semifinals!"

Misty sidled up next to Ash. "That was great, wasn't it?"

Ash nodded as he clapped. "Uh-huh."

She smirked. "You better get ready for that trade, then," she said. "Looks like your Clefairy was thoroughly impressed."

And that promptly put Ash into a bad mood again.

XxXxX

Ash didn't pay much attention to the rest of the contest, because he was too busy observing Luna. The Clefairy was even fonder of Dawn after watching the coordinator perform for real, and Ash couldn't help but feel disgruntled despite her obvious happiness at the prospect of joining Dawn on the journey when Ash had asked her again. He could also sense an air of melancholy and sadness around her as she did so, and he was really happy for that.

Dawn managed to defeat Kenny Sampson in the semifinals, allowing her to proceed to the finals, where she faced off against her friend Zoey Hope. It was a gruelling five minutes, but after the dust cleared and the timer reached zero, Zoey had managed to win by three points. Dawn looked disappointed more than upset – and was that a hint of anger and resentment in her eyes? – but she smiled and clapped like everyone else when Zoey was handed over the Celadon ribbon. Ash felt bad for her and sympathised, but he'd come here only to find out if Dawn was a competent enough trainer to meet Luna's standards.

Ash recalled Luna before making his way out of the Contest Hall with Misty right behind him. They waited at the entrance along with a few other spectators that just stood around in small clusters, jabbering about their personal lives or how the contest was or whatnot. Ash made small talk with Misty, which was majorly just laughing at her fear of bugs and crying at how she pounded his back like a Machoke in retaliation, until Dawn and Zoey exited the Hall.

"That was great, you two!" Misty said as Dawn, Zoey and a male coordinator that Ash recognized as Kenny Sampson walked over to them. Misty, Dawn and Zoey hugged. Girls tended to do that a lot.

"Yeah, but in the end I managed to win!" Zoey said a bit cockily, but Ash figured that she'd earned it. Dawn simply pouted.

"Yeah, you're just one ribbon ahead of me," retorted Dawn. "I'll catch up to you sooner than you think!"

Zoey smirked. "We'll see about that!"

"Don't forget about me, Dee-Dee!" Kenny Sampson said suddenly, sidling in between the two arguing coordinators and throwing an arm each over them, pulling them closer.

Dawn elbowed him in the ribs, making him gasp in pain and let go. "Stop calling me Dee-Dee!" she said angrily.

Kenny giggled. To Ash, he seemed...feminine, to put in kindly. "Okay, Dee-Dee!" Dawn simply groaned.

Then he noticed Ash. "Who're you?" he asked curtly.

"He's Ash Ketchum, remember, I told you about him when you 'accidentally' entered our locker room?" Dawn said, with a roll of her eyes.

Kenny gave Ash an unnerving grin. "So you're the one with the Clefairy, huh?" he said. "Well, I can make you a much better offer for that beauty. A Scyther, really? I have rare pokémon from Sinnoh if you want 'em, like a Luxio, Staravia, or a Gloom—"

"I don't know you," Ash said coldly. For some unknown reason, Kenny just ticked him off. "And, last I checked, a Gloom isn't native to Sinnoh."

Kenny chuckled and missed the frostiness in Ash's voice. He attempted to speak again, but Dawn cut him off. "Kenny," she said in exasperation, "just shut up."

Kenny shrugged. "Alrighty. But my offer's still open, Kay-Kay."

Ash frowned in confusion. "Kay-Kay?" he reiterated, absolutely flummoxed.

Zoey rolled her eyes. "Kenny keeps giving people nicknames for some unknown reason. For example, he calls Dawn 'Dee-Dee', I'm 'Zo-Zo', and it looks like you're 'Kay-Kay'. It's really annoying, actually, and Kenny doesn't know when to stop."

"So you're Misty, huh?" Kenny said more to himself as he shook the gym leader's hand, unbeknownst to their conversation. "I'm gonna call you—"

"If you call me Mee-Mee or something, I swear to the Legendaries that I will chop your willy off and ship it to your mother via FedEx—"

"O-kay!" Dawn exclaimed hastily, cutting Misty's tirade short, while Kenny looked perplexed.

"...But I was gonna call you Stee-Stee," Kenny mumbled.

Misty was visibly shaking with rage.

Zoey sighed. "You're so dumb, Kenny." She looked at Ash, ignoring her male companion's squawks of protest at the earlier statement. "When's your gym battle, Ash?"

Ash shrugged. "Around five, five thirty. We still have"—he checked his watch—"an hour or two to kill. Plus," he added with a smirk as Misty's stomach grumbled, her cheeks glowing red, "I think someone's hungry."

"Sh-Shut up, Ketchum!" Misty groused.

They all took a bus that led to a bistro downtown, and five minutes into eating Ash cursed himself for not taking the driver's advice to not go there. There weren't many people in there at that time of the day, the service was pretty slow, and the food wasn't that great either. The owners were pretty rude, but it was amusing and frightening to see an altercation between a customer who had been waiting over an hour for a pizza and the owners, until they were pretty much thrown out.

"Man, I'm never going back to that place again," Ash murmured as they walked away from the ABC Bistro.

"I have to agree with you, Kay-Kay," Kenny said. Ash ignored him.

"That Sammy guy was a nasty piece of work," Dawn commented. Zoey bobbed her head in agreement, before snickering as she remember the scuffle between the owner and customer. "I hope that place goes under."

Zoey looked at Ash. "So, where to, Ash?"

"Well, my gym battle is about to start in half an hour," he informed. "Should we head there now?"

Misty smacked him across the back of his head. "Yeah, Kay-Kay," she said mockingly. Ash scowled. "Do you want the Rainbow Badge or not?"

"Of course I do!"

"Then let's get going!" she yelled. Dawn and Zoey giggled behind the arguing pair. "I didn't train your Golduck for nothing, you know."

XxXxX

The group took two cabs to get to the Celadon Gym, Ash riding with Misty (much to his happiness for not travelling with Kenny) and the three coordinators taking the next taxi. Fortunately for Ash, Kenny decided to head to the Pokécenter, and, with a yawn, the auburn-haired boy bid goodbye to the quartet and walked back to the Centre.

He had gotten used to the cloyingly sweet smell of the gym, and Misty seemed to be immune to it, but Dawn and Zoey looked like as if they'd tried kissing the express train. Ash couldn't hold back the smirk from surfacing, and that just seemed to annoy the pair of coordinators even further, to Misty's amusement.

The receptionist looked up from her sappy romance novel and smiled after a moment of hesitation. "Ash Ketchum, right?" she asked. Ash nodded. "Alright. Just go right through there. Spectators will need to pay three hundred pokédollars for viewing the match."

Misty smirked. "Gym Leaders get a discount, right?"

The receptionist finally recognized her and began to apologise profusely, and then said that she would only have to pay half the price. Dawn and Zoey were simply gaping.

"Well, what about coordinators then?" Zoey asked.

The receptionist simply smiled sickeningly. "I'm sorry," she said, as if it was second nature for her to do so.

Dawn and Zoey paid their money grumblingly, then followed Misty to the bleachers while Ash made his way to the field. He smiled as he saw Erika already taking her place at her trainer box, the kimono-clad gym leader waving her hand, a gesture that he returned.

Once Ash took his place in the challenger's trainer box, Erika spoke up. "Are you ready, Ash?!" she yelled. "This is your last chance to back out. No one'll make fun of you, I promise!"

Ash snorted. "I was going to tell you the exact same thing," he snapped back.

Erika giggled, breaking her character. "Let's see how long your cheekiness holds out, Ketchum. I just want to make one thing clear: I'm not going to hold back one bit!"

"I like a challenge," he said, twisting a pokéball in his hand.

His eyes flitted to the side, where he saw Misty, Zoey and Dawn taking their seats. He was happy that they were cheering him on, but he couldn't help but feel nervous. He just didn't want to make a fool out of himself, and the fact that there were several other random people in the audience, waiting to view the battle, didn't calm his nerves.

He also wanted to show his skills because Dawn had let her Scyther out. The mantis was eyeing him with interest and speculation, while his bladed arms made a few people in the bleachers nervous. He was going to make sure that the trio of girls would see his friends in their full strength.

Erika took out something from the sleeves of her kimono – a remote – and pressed the small, red button on it. Instantly, protrusions that resembled sprinklers jutted out of the four corners of the battlefield, before blinking red and erecting four protective barriers that reached all the way to the top. It was similar to the psychic barriers psychic-type pokémon implemented, but just a tad bit weaker and thinner.

A referee walked to the midway point of the side of the field and raised a flag. "This battle between Challenger Ketchum and the Celadon Gym is about to begin. Each trainer will be allowed to use only three pokémon, and the challenger wins if all of the Celadon Gym's pokémon are incapacitated or forced to be recalled. Fail to do so and miss your chance to acquire the Rainbow Badge. Release your pokémon!"

"I hope you can manage this one," Erika said, tapping the release on her pokéball to send out a Gloom. Thankfully, the presence of it made the sweet smell dampen due to the stench wafting from the drugged-looking grass-type. Ash eyed the Gloom with some interest, but he already knew who he was going to send out.

Ash released Hydrus outside of his confines. The aquatic creature glared at Gloom with scarlet eyes, flexing his sharp claws as the gem on his forehead glowed red. "Get ready, Hydrus," Ash told him. "The gym battle starts now."

"A water-type?" Erika said, incredulous. "Have you gone mad, Ash? I'm a grass-type gym leader, not Blaine." She snorted. Ash ignored her.

"Begin!" declared the referee, slashing her hand down.

"Sunny Day!" Erika ordered.

"Ice Beam, stop it!" Ash said. Gloom's ability was obviously Chlorophyll, and Sunny Day would make it much faster. Plus, it would also allow Gloom to fire a never-ending barrage of Solarbeams, and Ash certainly didn't want that.

Unfortunately, Hydrus was a bit slow. A ball of light, soared into the air until it lined up perfectly with the sun, spreading harsh sunlight over the battlefield. The only good thing that came out of it was that Gloom was struck in the side, the force behind the icy rays sending it sprawling to the ground.

"Ice Beam, again!" Ash shouted, Hydrus opening his bill to gather cold and frost at a focal point in his mouth. With a rear of his head, triplets of blue energy blitzed out of the energy orb, but Gloom had already gotten back up, shaking off the gather frost on its flank and arms before blurring away. The Ice Beam struck the rich soil and froze the earth in a foot long circle just as Gloom appeared at Hydrus' right, ready to carry out an order.

"Overdose!" shouted Erika.

Lowering its head, Gloom released a harsh spray of poisonous goo so dark and thick that Ash wondered whether it was tar. Due to its viscosity, it shot slower than normal at Hydrus, allowing him to escape, although a few chunks of the splattered on his tail and back as he leapt away.

Ash grimaced at the way Hydrus screamed in anger and agony, the liquid toxins hissing and steaming on the Golduck's skin. Ash hoped that his pokémon would shrug it off, and he did – Hydrus stood back up, glaring hard at Gloom – but only for the amphibian to convulse as a pulse of purple glow shuddered through his body.

Hydrus was poisoned. Ash cursed his luck; Overdose was probably a mix of Sludge, Toxic, and Acid, the latter which had given the combination move the viscosity and trashy colour. To conjure so many different types of toxins and release them simultaneously in such little time meant that Erika had trained this particular Gloom very well.

But it didn't mean that Ash was going to concede defeat so easily. "Hydrus, stay strong!" he hollered, although he wondered whether those words would actually help him much. "Psybeam!"

Erika frowned. "Double Team."

Illusory copies split from Gloom's body, the whole bunch of them scurrying around to hide the real Gloom, which they did successfully. Ash gritted his teeth. "Keep it going, destroy them all!"

With a sweeping motion, Hydrus moved his head in a sweeping motion, razing the clones into puffs of nothingness with a brilliant beam of pinkish red energy from his eyes. Gloom scurried around, releasing more and more clones to distract Hydrus, but the Golduck kept it going, finally getting lucky and nailing his real target on the back. With a grunt, the plant was knocked to the ground, but got back up and blurred away from an Ice Beam that froze the part of soil it had fallen upon.

"Get in close," Erika muttered. "Drain Punch."

"Confusion!" said Ash.

With barely a grunt, Gloom raced towards Hydrus. Raising its hands, which were engulfed in glowing orange energy, Gloom lashed out at Hydrus, the Golduck ducking under the first swing just as the second fist connected to his chin. The fist stayed stuck to Hydrus for a few seconds, health being absorbed from Hydrus in the form of glowing pustules that sank into Gloom's body.

The Drain Punch sent Hydrus back, but the Golduck managed to land on his feet, the impact sending shudders of pain through his strong legs. A split-second later, he raised his webbed claws, engulfing Gloom in a shock of psionic energy. It was yanked into the air, where it grimaced as the Confusion battered its mental defences and weakened it, before it plummeted to the ground, where it impacted with a thud.

He'd thought that Gloom would be easily knocked out with the psychic-type move, but frowned when it got back up, albeit tiredly. It still looked as if it was ready to go a few more rounds.

"Petal Dance!"

Ash clenched his fists as Gloom began to rapidly spin, letting loose a dozen thick, sharp petals at Hydrus. Ash didn't have to tell his pokémon to dodge – Hydrus began weaving his way around the swirling petals, ducking and twisting out of their path. "Scald!" Ash yelled. A burst of boiling water streamed out of the Golduck's beak, hitting Gloom in the face and knocking it away. "Psychic!" the trainer continued in excitement. With a wave of Hydrus' claw, Gloom was enveloped in blue energy, was heaved upwards, where it convulsed in pain before it was slammed back down.

But Gloom sprang back up, shaking its arms, albeit tiredly. Amber eyes glared hard at Hydrus, who sneered back, the ends of his mouth curled upwards. "Gloom, get going. Solarbeam!" Erika said.

A brilliant, white and yellow beam of solar energy burst out of a gigantic sphere of a similar colour in Gloom's mouth, overcharged by the harsh sunlight pouring out of the miniature sun in the sky. Hydrus leapt into the air avoiding most of the Solarbeam, but grimaced when another shock of poison coursed through his bloodstream, and he landed on the ground, doubling over. Gloom, taking advantage of this, blitzed forward, landing a Drain Punch that knocked Hydrus into the air.

Hydrus reached his peak in the air, and suddenly flipped so that he was soaring backwards with his body upright. Ash grinned. "Ice Beam!"

The Golduck screeched before releasing twin arcs of freezing energy, the recoil of which knocked him backwards even further, although he landed perfectly on his webbed feet. Ash was pleased to see the Ice Beam attack hit a startled Gloom, but his triumph was short-lived when the creature kept standing, shrugging off the intense cold coursing in its system.

"Razor Leaf!" Erika ordered.

Hydrus screamed as bladed leaves shredded him seconds after they were released from Gloom. Taking advantage of its pained opponent, Gloom raced forward, releasing an Energy Ball point-blank in Hydrus' face. Ash watched in horror as his Golduck was knocked back several feel, tumbling and rolling before he came to a halt a few metres in front of Ash, struggling to get up.

Erika smirked. "Finish it off, Gloom."

"Hydrus, Ice Beam, quickly!" Ash yelled hastily as he saw Gloom rush forward.

A ball of energy began forming in Hydrus' open mouth, but flickered when Gloom landed a powerful Power-Up Punch that sent his head snapping skywards. The only good outcome was that the half-form Ice Beam exploded right in front on Gloom, knocking Erika's pokémon away as snowflakes and frost formed slowly on its face. Hydrus, on the other hand, was unconscious.

Ash returned Hydrus with a sigh, murmuring words of praise as the Golduck was retracted into his pokéball before clipping it to his belt. Then he looked up, staring straight into the eyes of a smug Erika. "I told you, Ash," she said arrogantly, "I'm not some Sensational Sister over here." She ignored Misty's muted screech of, "Hey!" at the belittlement of her sisters. "I can back up my words, you know, so don't think that you can—"

Erika was cut off suddenly as a strangled gurgle bubbled up Gloom's throat. The grass-type pokémon's squint-eyes were now closed completely, arms hanging loosely at the side as future took over. Right before Gloom fell to the ground, however, Erika recalled it, and Ash was pleased to see the triumphant expression wiped off her face.

Ash couldn't help but snort, making Erika turn red in anger and embarrassment as her previous words were proven wrong. "Sh-Shut up!" she roared. Then she was mollified by a nervous stare from her referee. "R-right," said Erika, taking out another pokéball. "Ketchum, send out your pokémon at the count of three! Three!"

She said it so quickly that Ash barely had time to register the capsule flying from Erika's end of the field. Ash tossed his own pokéball and saw Erika release a Parasect. The pokémon's eyes were white and emotionless, courtesy of the humongous mushroom on its back. Parasect, while frail, were very strong pokémon due to the intensity of their spores, which could paralyze, poison or put an opponent to sleep before they could even think.

The thing about Parasect was that they were one of the few pokémon – like Porygon, Bisharp, etc. – that were not commonly used in the battle trade – not because they were weak, but because they were useful for so many other things. They were primarily used for food production, stuff like that, and only the cream of the crop were used in battle due to their abysmal defences. Not to mention they were dangerous to handle and unappealing, so, for Erika to use one meant that it had to be powerful in its own right.

Ash's response was Delphi. Spreading her colourful wings, the Xatu shrieked her presence and leered directly at Parasect. Her head turned around and she looked at Ash through the corner of her eyes, making Ash hear tones in his mind. It shut off a moment later, but Ash knew that she was trying to access her telepathy.

Ash glanced to the side, curious to see whether his…friends…were enjoying the battle – particularly Scyther. Ash couldn't exactly make out the bug-type's expression, but from what he could garner, Scyther definitely looked interested.

"Begin!" the referee declared suddenly, making Ash focus back at the gym battle.

"Parasect might look weak, but he's a tough bastard!" Erika said with a hint of pride in her voice. "Show them what you've got, Parasect!"

Obeying its trainer's command, Parasect disembogued a mechanical screech before spitting a battery of thick, brown seeds reminiscent to minimized kiwis toward Delphi. The Xatu didn't need her trainers orders to be told to dodge – with flap of her wings, she exploded into the air, easily avoiding the first round of Leech Seeds directed at her.

"Air Slash!" Ash ordered, wanting to get a quick and powerful hit – due to their typing, Parasect were considered one of the frailest pokémon and faced a quadruple weakness to fire- and flying-type moves, and so Ash had no doubt that Erika's pokémon would be felled with a few hits. Delphi weaved through the air at a decently fast speed before soaring high out of Parasect's aiming capacity and slashing her two wings, creating translucent slices of wind energy that curved and raced towards a still Parasect.

Parasect, however, quickly dodged the attacks, scuttling away on its thin legs and out of the way. One of the blades passed through a seed, cutting cleanly through it and splitting it, showcasing its squirming and green innards to the world.

"Aerial Ace!"

Erika frowned. "Attack with Seed Bomb!"

Delphi twirled in the air before slipping into near-teleportation, blitzing towards Parasect with immense speed and force backing her up. Unfortunately, Parasect was one step ahead of her – just before she had cocooned herself in energy, Erika's pokémon had ejected a large, explosive seed straight at Delphi. The seed burst explosively right in the Xatu's face, the force strong enough to knock her out of the sky mid-flight, making her tumble to the ground.

Ash cursed as a stunned Delphi careened to the field, where she landed harshly. "Cross Poison!" said Erika, taking advantage of the break. "Agility and Slash if it's still down. If it attacks, use your spores."

Parasect clicked its claws and crossed them in an x formation before slashing them forward, releasing a sharp projectile of poison that slammed into a slowly rising Delphi and sent her back to the ground once again. The grass-type twitched before scurrying forward with immense speed reminiscent to Delphi's Aerial Ace and raked its claws across Delphi several times, making her grimace in pain.

"Psychic, then into the air!" Ash yelled quickly. There was a burst of psychic energy and Parasect was lifted off its feet before being slammed into the ground. Before Delphi soared into the air, however, there was a burst of spores from Parasect's body that quickly engulfed the two, but a millisecond later the Xatu launched herself into the air, streams of spores being left in her wake.

Ash gritted his teeth. He knew that the spores had entered Delphi's system; her sluggish movements were proof of that. He just hoped that she wasn't hit by sleep-inducing spores, or else she would simply be a sitting duck for Parasect's relentless attacks.

He saw her right wing cramp mid-flight, and was slightly grateful that she at least wasn't poisoned. Still, paralysis would hinder her during her battle and would also hamper her teleportation, and so he had to play his cards right.

"Circle it," Ash called from down below.

"Parasect, use Energy Ball when you can take the shot," ordered Erika calmly, keeping a gimlet eye on Delphi. Parasect tittered, pressing the tip of its claws close together to prepare solar balls at a moment's notice.

When Parasect finally began charging an Energy Ball, Ash tensed like suspension cables. "Aerial Ace, now!"

Delphi immediately banked to the right before disappearing in a jiffy, her presence only highlighted by streaks of pure, white energy coning out from the tip of her beak. With a shrill cry, she swirled around the Energy Ball, slamming hard into the side of Parasect's enormous tochukasō. There was a pained scream from the grass-type, who immediately shook its body and began expelling a cloyingly sweet smell that quickly diffused into the air.

Delphi hawked in irritation as the Sweet Scent quickly attacked her system and senses, making her movements slow and sluggish. Ash stomped in frustration. "Delphi, away!"

"X Scissor!" Erika said quickly.

The pincers-for-arms glowed a sickly shade of green before Parasect crossed them and slashed into Delphi's back with the bug-type move. The Xatu shrieked, then batted Parasect away with her wings before flying into the air. Ash's heart leaped in his throat when he saw Delphi spasm as her muscles cramped, but breathed in relief when she overpowered the pain from the paralysis and flew higher.

Ash watched Erika and Parasect carefully. The creature was tired and badly hurt, and Erika knew it too – there was no denying it. No matter how powerful Parasect was, it was undoubtedly fragile, and the orange exoskeleton was just a flimsy excuse for armour. It may hit hard, but the sad truth was that it could not take hits. The only problem was that Delphi was equally tired, if not less, due to the paralysis, Sweet Scent, and hits from Parasect's pincers. And so Ash had to make the most out of everything.

Ash bit his lip. Erika made the next move. "Parasect, dear, prepare yourself – Swords Dance," she said, and Ash's heart dropped.

"Drill Peck, end this!" he retaliated. He knew that getting close to Parasect was dangerous, but it was a calculated risk that he had to take.

Delphi shrieked arrogantly before shooting skywards, then twisting and plummeting to the ground as she corkscrewed towards Parasect, whose body was tensed as sword like projections began to swirl and spin around it. As he saw Delphi's pointed beak spin on its own, Ash knew that he won this round, but paused when he saw Erika murmur softly.

Parasect abruptly halted the Swords Dance and instead raised its claws, emitting a pulse of shimmering, blue light from the tip of its weapons.

The light quickly formed into a circular shield bigger than Parasect and enough to shield it. Ash further squinted when Delphi's Drill Peck merely pushed Parasect back, delivering only a fraction of the damage Drill Peck actually dished out.

Erika was grinning. "Now, Fury Cutter!"

Ash looked in horror as Parasect began to rip into a startled Delphi. The orange pincers were flying as they stabbed, gouged and pecked the Xatu's flesh. It was when Ash, a few seconds later, saw the claws tipped with drops of blood, that Ash cracked.

"Delphi, flip it over!"

Ash didn't know how she managed it, but he was ecstatic when Delphi fended Parasect off with her wings before grabbing hold of its claws and heave her opponent on the side and unbalance it. Erika gasped at the sudden turn of events, Parasect squirming to right itself. Ash quickly got a brainwave to complete the job and finish off the insect.

"Take it into the air, then hurl it to the field!" he ordered as he remembered a similar tactic he'd used aboard the St Anne.

Delphi chirped in understanding, wincing before initiating the task. Her sharp talons grabbed hold of Parasect's back legs, taking advantage of its frail appendages before soaring into the sky of the gym. Parasect was wriggling and struggling in her grasp, but Delphi was not going to let go.

"Aerial Ace!" Ash finished, ignoring Erika's screams to use Sweet Scent.

With a scream of righteous fury, Delphi spun airborne before letting go of Parasect, the force of which sent the insect swirling as it stormed downward. Delphi jerked as her wings contracted but, determined to land the finishing blow, pushed through the uncomfortableness and sped at her opponent. The Xatu tucked in her wings and slipped into Aerial Ace before landing the attack.

The result was devastating. Delphi absolutely destroyed Parasect with her combination attack. Her beak drove into the underside of the insect, making it shriek in pain as a plate of armour was cracked and torn apart. What was even worse was that Delphi had also hit the tochukasō – her sharp talons tore into the soft, fleshy parasitic mushroom on its back, ripping out a few small chunks and revealing the innards for the world to see. A shaken Erika recalled her Parasect before it hit the ground, which would only have furthered the damage.

Ash was white-faced. He'd never expected such a combination to be so powerful. He knew what Delphi had just done was a cheap rip-off of Sky Drop, which was a powerful move in its own right. "W-Will Parasect be alright?" he asked timidly. He never wanted a pokémon killed during battle – such things, while extremely rare, did happen, and Ash did not want to be part of it.

Erika faked a smile, but nodded. "Yes he will," she answered once a seated attendant of her relieved her off Parasect's pokéball and scurried off, probably to get the pokémon healed. "Having the tochukasō ripped off is not a huge problem – it'll grow back in a week or so, but Parasect will definitely be out of commission for a few weeks longer. You don't need to be worried, Ash."

Ash smiled back, happy at the reassurance. Then he looked at Delphi, who had flown back to his side, fatigued. "Hey, girl," he said. "You were great. Are you still able to go on, or do you need to take a break?"

Yes was her abrupt response. She looked even tired after that small bit of communication, and he frowned, reprimanding her for wasting energy like that, but recalled her nevertheless.

"So," Erika began. "So you might have defeated two of my pokémon, but your lucks about the run out, Ketchum. Cacturne, let's roll!"

A large, spiked living cactus burst out of the pokéball. It looked like something out of a Western – dark colours, a large, pyramid-shaped 'hat', vivid yellow eyes, and a mouth made of black circles. Its arms and legs, though long, were stubby, although spikes lined the length of them, while also lining the front, like buttons of a shirt. It looked scary, weird, dangerous.

"Chimchar, you're up!"

Chimchar appeared in a scream of bloodlust, pounding his chest with his fists as the flame on his rear burned bright and fierce. The Chimchar grinned at the sight of his opponent and chirped before taking a battle stance, eyeing the Cacturne warily.

The referee slashed her hand down, signalling the continuation of the battle. "Begin!"

"Poison Sting!" said Erika. Cacturne grunted, slashing its arms and making several of the spines jump off its fleshy, waxy arms, leaking potent poison from the tip of the spikes.

Ash clenched his fist, eying the speeding poison barbs with concern. "Burn them with Flamethrower!"

A fireball formed in the base of Chimchar's open mouth before elongating into a jet of flames, burning straight through the toxic barbs and reducing them to cinders, leaving Chimchar unharmed.

Ash smiled. The first exchange between the two fighters has was free of damage, but he didn't know if it would still continue.

"Spikes," the gym leader muttered with a flourish of her kimono.

Ash watched as Cacturne tucked in its arms, then extending them outwards and spinning on its feet, and an immense number of sharp, hard barbs began to spurt out from the slots in its body, landing on the ground and sinking halfway until only the pointed bits were protruding. It was very similar to Toxic Spikes, the only difference was that these weren't toxic. However, it was still going to make it hard for Chimchar to manoeuvre the field and make him feel discomfort and pain whenever he would step on one.

"Take care of the spikes," Ash warned his pokémon slowly. "Get close, then use Brick Break."

Chimchar yipped, crossing over to the other end of the field in a mere five lunges with his powerful, albeit small, legs, making Ash smile. If Chimchar had that much strength right now, he would be a weapon when experienced.

Arms swinging, Chimchar lunged into the air after a feint to the left, leaving Cacturne's right flank open for an attack. The scarecrow pokémon's eyes narrowed by the trickery, but its trainer was prepared. "Spiky Shield!" Erika said tersely.

Ash's eyes widened as Cacturne swiftly raised its right arm, but instead of batting Chimchar away, simply held it there was the shortest of milliseconds. The spikes on its arm began to grow and sprout exponentially, until forming a thick, netted shield of green spines, blunt and short ridges jutting outward. The shield absorbed the staggering force behind the Brick Break like it was nothing.

The next second the ridges on the outside of the barrier extended out and slammed collectively into Chimchar, knocking the wind out of the simian and sending him airborne. But the chimp spun with the momentum of his flight and quickly breathing a cone of fire, making Cacturne grimace as its Spiky Shield was scorched off. Chimchar, growling, landed perfectly on his feet before lunging at Cacturne once again.

"Brick Break, again!" Ash called out. "Flamethrower if it uses Spiky Shield."

Chimchar didn't bother acknowledging the order, so focused was he on his opponent, who had extended its prickly arms in wait. Chimchar began darting around Cacturne, knowing that his speed would play an important role in the defeat of his slower opponent. Then, when Chimchar's clever eyes finally saw an opening, he thrust his hand out in a swinging motion as orange energy engulfed it. Cacturne, however, was equally ready for the attack and intercepted the attack with a shield created by a nexus of hard spines.

"Now, Cacturne!" Erika exclaimed triumphantly the moment Chimchar's chop impacted the shield.

The spikes on the shield erupted outwards, growing to sizes and sharpness enough to skewer a human being, but Chimchar evaded it by performing a manoeuvre that surprised Ash, Erika and Cacturne. The little monkey leapt into the air until the large spike shot just below his legs, giving him the perfect platform to land on. With a push of his legs, Chimchar jumped straight at Cacturne's head, making it gasp as he landed on its head. Quick as a viper Chimchar delivered a backhanded Brick Break to Cacturne's neck, making the grass-type groan in pain as the super-effective attack hit it. Then Chimchar jumped away by pushing against Cacturne, but not before breathing a stream of flames that burnt his opponent's back.

"That was great, Chimchar!" Ash praised, pumping his fist. Chimchar chirped back, cracking his neck before focusing on Cacturne once again.

Erika glared. "Fine!" she snapped. "Frenzy Spikes!"

Ash frowned. What was she trying to do—

His answer came in the form of a low rumbling as Cacturne smashed its arms into the ground. Everyone except for Erika was puzzled as there was nothing but silence for several seconds. Was—

All of a sudden, the half-submerged spikes in the ground erupted into the air like thin, sharp vines, wriggling and writhing as Cacturne slowly stood. Ash was horrified by the technique she was using – Erika had somehow trained her Cacturne into manipulating its Spikes attack in a manner similar to Spiky Shield. "Chimchar, burn them!"

Cacturne slashed its hands down, making the spikes do the sake. Chimchar eagerly began to release hot streams of fire, razing the first wave of sharp root like projectiles that headed towards him with the intent to hurt. He managed to burn them to a crisp, leaving them roasted and lifeless, but the numbers proved too much, and Ash could only watch in horror as they began to slam piercingly into his pokémon.

There were shrill screams from Chimchar as the vines repeatedly jabbed him, imitating the way Cacturne ruthlessly punched in Chimchar's direction. It was only when several seconds passed that Cacturne's arms went limp with exhaustion and so did the vines, falling to the ground in a messy heap.

Ash looked at his pokémon, who was utterly exhausted. Chimchar was struggling to push himself up. "Don't push yourself!" he yelled. He knew that he was close to throwing in the towel, but it was clear that Chimchar was close to defeat. Why let his friend hurt even more when he couldn't fight fate?

But Chimchar didn't. Instead, the little monkey pushed himself up with sudden effortlessness, glaring defiantly at Erika and Cacturne. He was bruised and hurt all over, but he was stubborn in the face of his opponents. Cuts marred his body, but his eyes were fiery with the burning determination to fight.

Ash blinked. "Chimchar, are you sure?" he asked slowly.

Chimchar simply nodded, clenching his jaw.

"Very well," Erika said, sighing. "Cacturne, Magical Leaf."

"Raze them!"

A volley of glowing leaves flew in Chimchar's direction from somewhere on Cacturne's back, the traces of energy in the leaves honing in on the fire-type. With practiced ease, Chimchar reduced the leaves to fine ashes with a somewhat weaker Flamethrower, but it had the same effect. With a battle cry, Chimchar twisted forward and wreathed himself in flames, slipping into a Flame Wheel the second the last of the leaves were obliterated.

"Energy Ball!" Erika said. Cacturne quickly formed a green orb and blasted Chimchar with it, knocking the pokémon off track, but Chimchar quickly got back up with the same determination and charged his opponent in the same manner. Cacturne attempted to smack Chimchar away with a Needle Arm, but Ash's pokémon quickly pushed himself up with his limbs at the last second, causing him to soar at a forty-five degree angle and slam straight into Cacturne's face.

"Yeah!" Ash yelled. "Brick Break!" A quick karate chop crashed into Cacturne's jaw, making it stumble to the side. "Flame Wheel, then Flamethrower!" Spinning flames rolled into Cacturne's spiky midsection, scorching off the fleshy epidermis and ripping off a bit of its skin. A frustrated Cacturne clawed at Chimchar, but Chimchar simply burnt that hand too with a Flamethrower.

"Pin Missile!" Erika snapped in annoyance. Deeming it merely an irritant, Chimchar didn't bother to dodge them and waste further energy, energy that would need to be conserved for him to win the match. The small, thin needles plugged into Chimchar's side, but the chimp clawed them out once he landed on the grass.

Then suddenly, Chimchar convulsed in pain as he felt a jolt of toxicity pass through his body, which flickered a violent purple for a moment. Ash cursed himself as he realised that Chimchar was poisoned. But how…?

He almost slapped himself for not getting her tactic sooner. Of course. Erika had done something similar to Ash's Cotton Stun – but instead of discharging electricity into cotton balls, Erika had secretly tasked her Cacturne with embedding the Pin Missiles with poison. Ash felt stupid for not figuring it out the moment she used such an unnoticeable attack, since he used a very similar tactic.

"Chimchar, we've got to finish this fast," he warned. The simian nodded, shaking his head to focus on his opponent and clear his gradually blurring vision. "Flame Wheel!"

"Poison Sting," Erika said, wanting to poison Chimchar even further. Poisonous barbs exploded from Cacturne's body, spinning towards Chimchar, who simply wheeled out of the way of the toxic pricks, and continued making his way towards the grass-type. "Try Needle Arm."

The thorns on Cacturne's arms enlarged like a barbed mace, before the scarecrow pokémon swung its arms and struck an impeding Chimchar, the knockback blowing both pokémon back. Cacturne, however, simply jumped back to its feet, whereas Chimchar hit the ground, bounced into the air, then hit the ground spread-eagled. His limbs were trembling for the effort once again, until another bout of poison washed over him and he fell to the ground.

"I believe that's it, Ash," Erika said. Her Cacturne's pokéball was already in her arm, and she was watching Ash, who was in turn looking at his pokémon trembling to stand back up.

Ash's teeth were grinding against each other. He'd lost…it was all over. He was disbelieving, furious even, and there was a touch of sadness in his expression. He'd expected to win, but the realisation that his pokémon hadn't been strong enough really angered him.

He sighed reluctantly and began to detach Chimchar's pokéball from his belt. "It's alright, buddy," he said, trying to calm his pokémon into defeat. "You don't need to keep fighting."

But Chimchar was unrelenting. He was furious at Cacturne, furious at himself for getting beat so easily, while his opponent looked much better off. With a yowl of rage, the little fire-type let go of his anger, his determination, and the knot of tension in his stomach that had been there was the past few days loosened, and he was suddenly flooded with power.

Ash gasped in disbelief as Chimchar was suddenly bathed in light. Energy coalesced around him, and he shifted. Chimchar's body doubled in height, replacing his previously diminutive frame with a comparatively taller figure. His arms grew longer and thicker, gaining a ton of muscle, and so did his legs. His hands no longer looked like a child's; instead, they were made for hurting and delivering powerful blows. The orange fur turned a shade darker, a mask of blue fur appeared around his face, and there was a small patch of crimson hair right above his simian nose. Yellow bands appeared around the elbow joints of the evolving pokémon, and a long tail suddenly grew out of his rear, replacing the short stub he had before.

There was an explosion of light, revealing Monferno instead of Chimchar. At first, Ash was elated. Happy. Giddy with his pokémon's evolution. But a second glance made him frown in slight worry. The pokémon did not look happy on evolving. While he had expected a hint of ferocity, this was ridiculous. Monferno was practically made of rage. The tail flame, which he'd expected to be burning normally like a Charmeleon's, had grown to explosive heights, like a pillar of fire. Instead or red flames, it was white hot and blue, and Ash could feel the heat from more than ten feet away. And his face…Monferno's eyes were bulging with anger, and maroon with ferocity. A pale crimson aura had surrounded the pokémon, and the very area around Monferno made the air shimmer with heat.

Ash was trembling. His first instinct told him that it was Blaze, Chimchar's natural ability, but this was worse. It was a bastardized version of it, ten times more raw and unrefined. Monferno was shaking, his breathing heavy and laboured.

He gulped. "Monferno—"

He flinched away when Monferno screamed at infernal pitches, making Ash and everyone else clamp their hands over their ears. Then, without warning, Monferno exploded forwards with surprising speed, slamming into a shocked Cacturne with a powerful Brick Break to the gut. Without even waiting for the grass-type to double over, Monferno jumped high, smacking his opponent in the face with his tail flame before beginning to slash and scratch furiously at Cacturne, who was swiping his arms back in an effort to throw the pokémon off. Monferno was no longer little more that an irritation; he had evolved into an absolute beast.

Ash was absolutely shocked. None of his pokémon had ever been sorted aggressive like that, and certainly not Monferno. In his previous stage, the little pokémon had been a cheerful, lively creature, certainly aggressive in battle, but which pokémon wasn't? This was the absolute last thing he'd expected from any of his pokémon. Right now, Monferno seemed almost…uncontrollable.

"Cacturne, Spiky Shield!" Erika said when a particularly large Flame Wheel steamrolled into her pokémon. Cacturne grunted and formed one right away, and slammed the bursting spikes into Monferno so hard that they drew blood. That only seemed to infuriate the monkey further as he rolled back onto his feet.

Cacturne drove his spiky fist straight down at Monferno's midsection, but the fire-type rolled out of the way, not even registering a random thorn that scratched his flank. With a fierce yowl, Monferno moved his fist in an upward swing, smashing the side of his rigid palm into the arm of Cacturne, who groaned in pain and staggered back. Monferno, as ruthlessly as he could, jumped straight into Cacturne's line of vision and opened his maw.

An enormous cone of fire exploded point-blank in Cacturne's face, making the pokémon give the equivalent of a scream as the flames engulfed its flammable body. Monferno continued to savagely bathe Cacturne in flames for one, two, five, then ten seconds, until the roars from Cacturne shut off and it was clear that it could no longer go on.

But Monferno still didn't stop, for some unknown reason. "Call off your pokémon, Ash!" Erika screamed angrily, fumbling for the button on her pokéball.

Ash himself was getting scared at the raw, unbridled anger pouring out of his friend. "Monferno, stop!" he ordered.

The flames trickled to a stop, but then Monferno's head snapped up. He screamed as he trashed his tail on the ground, glaring at Ash with surprising anger before rushing at his trainer, not even caring as he trampled over a badly burnt Cacturne in the process.

Scared at his advancing pokémon, Ash recoiled before quickly aiming his pokéball in Monferno's direction. There was a scream of defiance as the beam triggered its transformation into energy before being sucked back into the pokéball.

The referee looked a bit shaken, but she nevertheless raised the hand in Ash's direction. "Cacturne is unable the battle," she announced. "As all of Leader Erika's pokémon are incapacitated, the challenger wins!"

Ash's sudden victory was muted by the recent events that had just occurred. He felt a surge of triumph when he heard the referee, but it had been replaced by a stab of worry and fear. During those final moments, Ash had barely recognized his pokémon. Monferno had become a shell of itself during its Blaze-induced rage, and had attacked Cacturne not with the intent to knock out, but to kill. The fact that he had turned on Ash made the boy anxious even more.

He shook himself out of his reverie when he heard footsteps getting louder, and looked up to see Erika closing in on him. She wasn't smiling, but neither did she seem angry. She was barely frowning, a little curious, a little worry thrown in there. Still, she sounded a bit happy as she handed him over a flower-shaped badge with multi-coloured petals. "Congratulations, Ash," she said. "As a sign of your victory against the Celadon Gym, here is the Rainbow Badge."

"Thank you." He accepted did calmly and pocketed it as if it was just another trinket.

"Is your Ch— sorry, your Monferno always like that under the effects of Blaze?" she asked anxiously.

Ash shook his head. "This is the first time this has happened," he confided. It was true. But now that he thought about it… "Actually," he added, "this is the first time Monferno has actually slipped into Blaze. I've never actually seen it happen before. He's always won prior, or lost."

Erika's frown deepened. "That might be a problem…" She looked at him pointedly. "What if he turns on you if he does get into Blaze?"

Ash stepped back on reflex and his hand immediately went to his pokéball. "He's not a threat," he protested, not wanting to hand Monferno over to the officials. "I'll be very careful. You won't—"

"Woah, relax," she said, holding her hands up. "I wasn't planning on taking him from you. I was just wondering if your Monferno has some complexities, or needs psychological evaluation. Now that I think of it, that would be for the best."

"What?"

"You could have your pokémon evaluated at the Pokécenter, you know," she informed. "You have to pay, however – just a fee of five hundred and fifty pokédollars. It's not an order, but I strongly suggest you do it. You might be able to prevent such things from happening in the future."

Ash looked down. It sounded like a great idea, according to him. "I'll give it a shot," he told her. Then he smiled. "That was one heck of a battle, anyway."

She grinned back. "It was, wasn't it?" she said smugly. "Mind you, if I was actually not holding back, your team would've been decimated. I just decided to go easy because I knew you," she teased.

Ash smirked. "Yeah, right. We all know that anyone can win in the Celadon Gym," he jeered.

Erika glowered. "Jerk," she groused. "Tell you what, come back here after you've collected all eight badges. Six-on-six, no holding back. I'll even help you out by using on three pokémon out of my standard team. Then we'll see how strong you really are."

"It's a date," he told her.

"Don't forget you're going to battle me too, Ash," Misty said as she and the rest – Dawn, Zoey and Scyther, who buzzed behind them – walked over to him and Erika. "But that was great, Ash. Did she pose a bigger challenge than I did?"

"There's no right answer to that," he protested, and Dawn and Zoey laughed. Misty punched him in the arm, albeit playfully.

"So," Zoey began, "are we carrying that trade or what?"

Ash groaned. Dawn looked put out, too, everyone looked at them.

"So you two are planning to trade pokémon, huh?" Erika asked. "Which ones?"

"A Clefairy and a Scyther," Zoey piped up. Erika whistled appreciatively.

"Both of them are rare," she commented. "So? Are you going to trade your pokémon?"

"…I don't know," Ash mumbled. He felt annoyed at Zoey for bringing it up, sure that if they had just waited for a few more moments it would have been forgotten. They would've gone their separate ways, but no. "I'm really sceptical, though. Plus, I still don't know if Luna is absolutely sure about going to Dawn…"

"It's the same with me," Dawn chimed in. "I'd love to have Cle— sorry, Luna on my team, but I don't know how much of an interest she has in me. I would say the same about Scyther, but he does seem to want to go with you, from what I saw during your match…"

Ash looked at the large mantis by Dawn's side. It was looking at him intently – smirking, even – and its eyes held a glint of determination, of defiance, as if challenging him to take it under his wing. It was amusing to see the pokémon staring at him so much, unable to peel its eyes off the boy.

Ash himself felt an odd connection with the pokémon. It was just something about Scyther that made it click, and there was a tingle in the pit of his stomach, a thrum within his bones. It was as if he instantly knew that the pokémon had meant to be with him. It was this inexplicable feeling that made part of Ash want to accept Scyther in his team.

"Scyther?" Dawn asked, looking nervously at her pokémon. "Do you think you want to go on a journey with Ash?"

The Scyther looked him up and down for a moment, arms crossed and eyes narrowed as he examined Ash like he was a particularly juicy piece of meat. He almost missed the response – a short, jerky, curt nod, followed with a grunt of confirmation when Dawn posed her question again.

Dawn shrugged. "Well, Scyther seems ready to go with you," she told him. "I mean, he did pretty much watch you the whole time during the match. What about Luna?"

"Why don't you send her out, Ash?" Misty suggested. Ash scowled at being pressured, ignoring Misty's shit-eating grin when he glared at her, but nevertheless sent out his beloved pokémon out of her pokéball.

As soon as the Clefairy popped out, Erika squealed and bent low until she was eye-level with the pokémon, reduced from a gym leader to a cooing mess. "Aww! She's so cute!" she gushed, shaking her hands. Luna, already being used to such reactions, just looked at the gym leader in puzzlement.

Ash immediately felt a pang of hurt when the first person Luna looked at was not him, but Dawn. "Hey, Luna," Ash said in false cheery. "We were just talking about something…Uh…"

"Spit it out," Misty muttered.

"Shut up, Waterflower," Ash snapped. "Uh, anyway…We were just talking about you…Do you think you want to be with Dawn?"

Luna looked at him in astonishment. He was confused to see her hesitating, worried, and…scared? Where had that come from?

Ash sighed. "Be honest, Luna. I promise I won't get mad."

The Clefairy still looked uncertain. She glanced from Ash to Dawn, with everyone else watching eagerly.

Then, as slowly as possible, she nodded.

Ash's temper flared for a split-second before he managed to suppress his impeding outburst. He'd promised Luna that he wouldn't get mad, and he didn't need to prove himself wrong. Dawn was looking at him in nervousness, but Ash's face betrayed no emotions except for resignation. Inside, however, he felt like someone had punched him in the gut, and felt a knot of pain and hurt begin to form in his chest.

"Are you sure, Luna? I w-won't hold it against you," he reassured when she looked disbelievingly. The Clefairy looked at Ash with a hopeful expression, and that was all that he needed for confirmation.

"Okay!" Zoey squealed, the only one not picking up on Ash's and Dawn's uneasiness. "Are we doing this right now?"

XxXxX

"Okay Luna, I'm returning you," he told the Clefairy, who nodded as he tapped the button on his pokéball.

They were back at the Pokécenter where, upon asking for directions, a nurse had pointed them towards the escalator that lead to the second floor, which contained multiple trading machines. They were sleek, orange and grey devices as tall as Ash and as wide as his Snorlax. A large screen was above the main part of the machine, which consisted of two pokéball holders on either side and a button next to them.

Ash vaguely noticed a couple of other trade machines being occupied, but he was too busy with his own.

Ash was feeling highly anxious as he and Dawn walked to either side of the trading machine. Zoey, Misty and Erika were watching silently, and Ash wished that they weren't there right now. Heck, he wished he hadn't met the coordinators in the first place. It was as if fate loved to mess with his life and it annoyed him to no end.

Ash gulped. He had asked Luna if she wanted to reconsider her decision – almost pleaded – but she seemed to want to go with Dawn no matter what. Dawn had tried to do the same with Scyther, but it didn't sound like she meant it, probably because Scyther hadn't liked her very much to begin with.

Dawn and Ash placed the pokéballs in their required slots. They looked in each others eyes, as if challenging each other to back down, but when neither of them did they looked away. Dawn pressed the button next to her pokéball holder, locking hers into place. Now all that they had to do was press the one on Ash's side, and the trade would begin.

Ash looked at the small, red protrusion, almost trembling. He knew he could walk away now. Part of him told him that he didn't care about this, but the other part knew better. He remembered once, aboard the St Anne, declaring that be would never trade his pokémon for anything, but here he was. How cruelly amusing.

He almost took back the pokéball then and there, but decided against it. Luna had made her decision. He couldn't force her into staying with him. That would be just as barbaric as that Damien guy he'd met before.

The second he pressed the button, he almost felt instant regret.

Ash could only wait as the machine whirred and made a dozen other noises that machines normally did. The screen lit up with the silhouettes of a Scyther and a Clefairy and the two pokéballs glowed. On the screen, the pixilated images began moving in opposite directions, signifying the energy transfers, until the Scyther was on Ash's side and the Clefairy on Dawn's.

Zoey clapped. Misty said, "Well, that was anticlimactic."

Dawn grabbed her pokéball with a shaking hand and tapped the release. Soon enough, Ash's previously owned Clefairy shot out, blinking her eyes as she registered to her surroundings. She looked up, expecting to see Ash, and instead saw Dawn, looking down hesitantly.

"H-Hi, Luna," she said meekly. Luna smiled back, humming pleasantly, before turning to Ash.

Ash tried for a smile. "So," he said. "This is it, Luna."

She looked sad, despite her wishes coming true.

"Hey!" Ash's grin wavered. "Don't worry. You'll be happy with Dawn, she's a great person."

Luna hummed dejectedly. When she waddled up to Ash and hugged his leg, he couldn't help but tear up.

"I'll miss you too, Luna," he said softly. She looked and murmured something similar in her tongue. Ash petted her, then looked at Dawn, nodding curtly. "Take care of her."

"I will," Dawn replied, smiling. "I'll keep in touch and update you once in a while."

"Same here," he replied. They'd exchanged pokégear numbers earlier, promising to keep in touch even if they would've backed out of the trade.

On instinct, Ash released his own pokémon and, trying not to choke up briefed them about the situation. Needless to say, they were shocked, especially Screecher, who knew her so little. Monferno was currently with Nurse Joy undergoing treatment due to his sudden evolution and his general health, along with Delphi and Hydrus. The only ones who were really there were Screecher, Saur and Zeus.

It was a tearful goodbye. Screecher had gone quiet, floating up to Luna and mumbling something while Zeus walked up with Saur, their heads held high. Saur grunted and butted his head into Luna's side affectionately, while Zeus pompously held out his hand, imitating a handshake. Luna had tentatively accepted it, and was mildly surprised when the Flaaffy didn't shock her.

As happy he was for Luna, Ash couldn't help but feel that the empty part in him wouldn't be replaced for a long time.

XxXxX

Trainer: Ash Ketchum

Pokémon in Possession:

Saur – Ivysaur

Delphi – Xatu

Zeus – Flaaffy

Hydrus – Golduck

Monferno

Snorlax

Screecher – Misdreavus

Scyther

Previously Owned: Luna – Clefairy; Status: w/ Dawn Berlitz

XxXxX

Before people start jumping at my throat, I'll have you know that this was planned from the beginning of the rewrite. While it is a bit sad, I have to say that Luna will be much better off under Dawn's care.

R.I.P. Luna: 2017 – 2018

For those of you who are curious, yes, Monferno is the same Chimchar from the anime. Blaze will be a problem until there will be a badass scene of bonding and ass-kicking where our little monkey will control hone Blaze and turn it into a weapon.

Enter Scyther! Also, enter Dawn and Zoey and Kenny! For those who might see some parts as me bashing Kenny, know that this is 100% true. I hate the little bastard for some unknown reason, pardon my French. The good news is that he will never make another cameo ever again…well, maybe one.

Yes, Luna and Dawn will make another appearance in this series. I guess you'll have to keep reading to find out when!

(I am literally begging for views.)

For those of you who were paying extra attention, I'll have you know that there is an Easter egg pertaining to Luna's trade, in there, hidden in the first half of the chapter. If you found it, let me know! It's always fun to leave little clues in the and let readers find them for themselves.

I was actually going to make Ash lose the battle even after Chimchar evolved, but I finally decided not to include that part in the story. Writing another gym battle would be a huge pain, and it doesn't really affect the plot that much. Monferno evolving and absolutely thrashing Cacturne was enough as it is.

Chapter eleven, or rather, chapter ten part two, will come out later during this month. Thank you, everyone who followed, favourite'd or reviewed since I last updated. It's really fun to write this series and know your thoughts on my writing style. I hope I improve, so that a publishing company may actually take me seriously when I write a book.

Thanks for reading. Don't forget to tell me your thoughts on this chapter, and I'll see you guys next time. Goodbye!