Again, bear in mind that my inspiration for this story has come to a all-time low, so I may just end it abruptly one day.
Ash and Lily walked to opposite sides of the battlefield.
"So," asked Ash. "How will this work?"
"Okay, so, like, our battles initially work by you having to beat all of us in 1v1s, unless we've had, like, too many battles at a time, in which we'd just, like, give out badges, but our challenge? You'll have to, like, go in a 2v2 against me."
Ash nodded. It seemed that out of all the sisters, Lily was the one with the most experience.
"I'll start. Staryu, take the field!"
"Let's go, Anima!"
The Staryu and the Pidgeotto took to opposite sides of the field, assessing each other's strengths.
"Alright, Staryu, into the water!"
"Start things off with Agility!"
Staryu prepared to hide underwater whereas Anima increased her speed. Afterwards, Anima lowered herself carefully near the water's surface in order to keep an eye on Staryu.
"Now, Staryu, use Brine!"
Out of nowhere, Staryu popped up in front of Anima and released the salty attack on Anima, surprising her.
"Follow up with Thunderbolt!"
Before Anima could recover, she squawked in pain as currents of electricity began coursing through her. It was heightened as she was still soaked with the Brine, which ensured that more of the charge remained on her.
"Anima! Fight through it and use Gust!"
"Counter with Rapid Spin."
Anima began creating large gusts of wind, but Staryu was blowing fast enough to counteract this attack. The two were at a stalemate before Ash ordered his next move.
"Now, Twister!"
Anima's wings suddenly became a blur and a tornado launched itself at Staryu, who was stunned by the attacked and unable to react.
"Now send it flying with Whirlwind!"
Anima increased the speed at which her wings were moving at and the sheer force of the winds blew Staryu back into its pokeball.
However, Ash was unprepared when he saw the pokemon that came out. It was not any pokemon from Kanto, or even Johto, but Alola of all places.
Lily gave an apologetic smile. "I see you've lucked out. I got her, like, a few weeks ago while visiting Alola, but I don't think that a challenger like you can take on her and my Staryu. Tell you what, if you can, like, beat her, I'll grant you the badge regardless, since, like, she might overwhelm you."
Ash nodded mutely as he stared in awe of the Toxapex before him.
"Now, Toxapex, use Stockpile!"
"Sand Attack!"
As Toxapex gulped down some air, making her body bigger, Anima attempted to blind it with sand, but Toxapex quickly closed herself off before it could reach her.
"Use Wing Attack!"
Anima screeched before diving down to inflict some damage, while Lily smirked. Just before Anima reached Toxapex, Lily bared out an order.
"Baneful Bunker!"
Toxapex shut herself off and glowed purple, while Anima cried out in pain as she felt herself being poisoned after being struck by Toxapex's spikes.
Ash stared in horror as he saw Anima try to fly out, but then Toxapex lashed out with Poison Jab, causing her to screech in agony.
"Baneful Bunker protects the Toxapex while poisoning the opponent," explained Lily. "My Toxapex also has the Merciless ability, which makes all of her attacks become critical hits if the opponent is poisoned.
"Now, Scald."
Toxapex let loose a burning torrent of water that made Anima cry out once more. By now, Anima was weary and on her last legs.
"Use Roost!" cried Ash desperately.
Anima perched herself and healed up her damage, refreshing herself in the process, but leaving her unable to fly for a while.
"Don't, like, let her recover! Use Surf!"
"Dodge with Aerial Ace!"
Toxapex prepared to unleash a wave of water, but just as it was about to reach Anima, she disappeared and reappeared behind her, before unleashing a Twister that sent Toxapex flying.
"Keep it up! Use Twister again!"
"Don't let it! Use Stockpile again, and, like, send it flying with Spit Up!"
Toxapex stored energy once more and just as the Twister was about to reach it, it released a massive beam of energy that cleaved through the Twister and put Anima out of commission.
"Sorry, Ash," said Lily. "But you'll need to do better than that if you want to, like, get that badge."
Ash nodded, before gesturing towards Kirlia. She teleported onto the battlefield and the battle resumed.
"Toxapex, use Stockpile!"
"Kirlia, Psychic!"
Toxapex began to store energy once more, but Kirlia raised her up before pummeling her onto the platform. Due to the Stockpile, Toxapex took slightly less damage, though she was now much more wary of Kirlia.
"Kirlia, use Confusion!"
"Toxapex, use Stockpile, like, once more!"
Kirlia sent a psychic blast at Toxapex, who again stored energy. Thus, she took less damage once again.
"Now, Toxapex, Spit Up!"
Toxapex unleashed a beam of energy as large as the one before and scored a hit on Kirlia, who had attempted to Teleport out of the way but did not move fast enough.
"Kirlia! Use Misty Terrain!"
Kirlia rose shakily once more, before using Misty Terrain, thereby preventing her from getting poisoned.
"Smart move, Ash. Now, Toxapex, use, like, Scald!"
"Double Team!"
Kirlia created several images of herself, and the Scald ended up hitting one of the copies.
"Psychic once more! This time, do it like we did with the Rhyhorn!"
"One more Stockpile, then, like, use Spit Up!"
Toxapex took another big gulp before unleashing the attack on Kirlia and the copies, who were closing the distance between them. The attack destroyed the copies, but only grazed Kirlia as she Teleported away before any serious injury occurred. She reappeared in front of Toxapex, who attempted to close off access to its head with its tentacles. However, Toxapex was unable to do so quickly enough, which resulted in Kirlia touching her main body and then using Psychic. The result was that Toxapex was trapped in a near impenetrable psychic prison.
"Alright, that's, like, enough," said Lily, returning Toxapex. "I've been in enough battles to know how that works. Toxapex doesn't have, like, enough training to overcome that. This is your victory."
Ash gave out a sigh of relief and caught Kirlia in a hug as she came back to him. Once again, she had helped him win a battle.
"However," continued Lily. "Before I give you your badge, is it okay if I, like, gave you an analysis of the battle?" She received a nod from Ash in response.
"In all honesty, that was a terrible match," she began bluntly, surprising Ash. "Most of what you did was a gamble. Even after you learned, like, my set strategy, you were unable to, like, counter that. In fact, had you not taken the gamble and used Whirlwind, you might have, like, beaten me with only your Kirlia. My second choice would have been Starmie, or, like, even Goldeen. Even when your Kirlia was on the battlefield, she might have, like, soloed the battle. Why didn't you tell her to use the Psychic touch, like, as soon as the battle began? I even gave you a head start, when I didn't start off offensively.
"Not to say that your techniques are, like, trash or something. Your Pidgeotto still put up a pretty good fight, although I recommend teaching her Steel Wing. Don't rely on Whirlwind too much. I've seen, like, dozens of challengers who could have won a battle easily but screwed up as soon as they, like, used the move. Your Kirlia, though, you did much better with her. She's your starter? Either way, she does have a lot of, like potential. I've rarely seen a pokemon recover that quickly at such an early start.
"Now, for what you could have, like, done. Toxapex has mobile tentacles, but the downside is that they have limited mobility. They can, like, move, but they don't have a lot of strength. If you knocked it over onto her back, she would have been, like, defenseless. Your Pidgeotto could have accomplished this. If she had gained enough momentum, she could have, like, swept up from underneath and knocked Toxapex over. Even your Kirlia, without, like, risking getting close, could have used Psychic and left Toxapex on her back."
Ash nodded mutely. Although Lily's words stung, he had to admit that they were true.
"I'm not, like, saying that you did bad," Lily explained. "I'm just saying, it could have gone better. But hey, here's your badge."
"Thanks," said Ash, taking the badge in his hand. Like in first gym, it had the gem in the center.
With Kirlia by his side, he made his way to the front of the gym, where Brock was waiting.
"Come on," said Brock. "Let's get your pokemon healed up.
"What do you think your greatest mistake was?" Brock asked.
Ash shrugged his shoulder. Honestly, he felt as though he had done everything properly.
Brock sighed. "You don't train your pokemon enough." At this, As looked at him in surprise.
"Look at the difference between Lily's pokemon and yours. Sure, she had hers much longer than yours, but that's not the point. Have you noticed how the strength of your Kirlia exceeds some of your other pokemon dramatically? Have you ever wondered why?"
Ash glanced at Kirlia, who had an innocent expression on her face.
'Ash? Am I in trouble?'
Ash shook his head and thought for a bit.
He had only attempted to train Vulcan and Feedback, and even then it was because they were still children. Zoroark and Dagda had a former trainer, as did Kirlia. Sorann was trained to hunt, and who knew how much years of experience did Rayquaza have. He couldn't even tell if Shift had ever trained at all.
He thought back to how Buzzkill had forced himself to train so that it would prove the opinions of others wrong, and then he thought of his own aspirations.
Ash had wanted to be a Pokemon Master ever since a little kid, but it wasn't until now that he questioned what it truly meant. Did it mean catching all the pokemon there were to be found? Did it mean becoming Champion of all the regions? What about how those pokemon viewed him?
Was becoming a Pokemon Master simply a placebo for his life goals?
Kirlia, sensing Ash's emotions, sent a small flow of warm feelings to him, causing him to smile.
"Thanks, Kirlia."
He looked at Brock, who had been holding an impassive face the whole time.
"I guess you're right ... which means that I'll just have to step up my game!"
Even though he may not have an answer right now, he had a feeling that he would find out later in his journey.
Ah, yes. The pain of a completely overdue chapter. Especially one that's a little bit shorter than usual.
Work is piling up. I can only type about a hundred words every other day.
I actually almost quit this story, mainly because of how I wrote it.
When I first started the original iteration of ADJOAK, I didn't know how to write, so I mainly appealed to whatever could have garnered views, which would have (hopefully) led to constructive criticism. Unfortunately, this led to several overly patriarchal views that conflict with my personal standing.
I hate to bring reality to a story where we're trying to escape it, but I really hate myself over the sexist origins of this story. As you can see, I've tried toning it down and hopefully giving females a more meaningful standing, but the guilt is still there.
Maybe I'll update this story again. Maybe not. Hell, maybe I won't even touch this site again, except maybe talk to some friends. I dunno.
If I ever do update this story again, prepare for a more unisex story, where females actually have a realistic role instead of a damsel-in-distress of a romantic option. Ugh, just mentioning this makes me want to punch myself.
Cheers.