Looking up at the Saffron City Gym, Ash took a deep breath - he knew that Sabrina was one of the toughest gym leaders in Kanto back when he first battled her, but had been over 5 years since he had stepped in the gym: Ash could only imagine how strong she was now! Looking at his traveling companions Jason - who gave Ash a big grin. a nod and a thumbs up - and Natalie - who squeezed his hand gently, pressing a good luck kiss to his temple, "You got this, you always got this" She whispered to him, making him blush, but smile confidently as he nodded at the two in thanks, stepping forwards and entering the gym.
"Welcome back Ash" the three heard a voice speak to them, making them look around in confusion until they sore none other than Sabrina walking towards them, a smile on her face, "I have been awaiting your arrival" She spoke telepathically to the group, making Jason and Natalie begin to freak out slightly: Ash chuckled and turned to apt both their shoulders, "Sabrina is psychic, just like her pokemon - she's using telepathy to talk to use" Ash calmly explained, making the two nod with unease as they looked at Sabrina.
Turning back to face Sabrina, Ash smiled and nodded to her, "How did you know i was coming?" "I sensed your aura" Ash blinked at her reply, raising a brow towards her questionably, to which she shrugged, "Because i'm psychic, i can sense other psychic abilities such as aura, and yours is a very distinctive aura that i recognized from our last encounter" Ash nodded at her words, "I guess it makes sense for someone with powers like Sabrina to be able to sense Aura to some degree" He thought to himself as he loked at Sabrina, "Since you knew i was coming, you must know why i'm here right?" Ashsmirked as he pulled out a poke'ball - Sabrina smirked back, before turning and walking to her side of the field.
Turning back to face Ash and his friends, Sabrina's eyes glowed light blue as a poke'ball levitated from her waist, opening to reveal her first pokemon, "Alakazam!" The intelligent pokemon spoke calmly as he appeared, a spoon gripped in each hand as he raised them into a battle stance. Ash nodded at the powerful looking psychic type, "I see Kadabra evolved, congrades, lets go Azelf!" Ash spoke up, throwing his own poke'ball into the air, a small amount of blue light surrounding it as it popped open to reveal Azelf, "Ta-da!" He announced, as he appeared, floating near Ash with a smile as Sabrina looked at the legendary psychic type with a raise brow.
"One of the three psychic lake guardians? interesting, Alakazam - Shadow Ball" Sabrina called out, her voice monotone, watching as Alakazam charged up the attack and shot it towards Azelf, "Meet it with your Shadow Ball Barrage!" Azelf quickly conjured up an shadowy blob in his hands, thrusting his hand forwards: the shadowy ball stuck t his hands as smaller Shadow Balls shot out from the large, several colliding with the incoming large one, exploding upon contact whilst the rest of the smaller Shadow Balls flew through the smoke, colliding with Alakazam.
"Ala-kazam!" The psychic type grunted as the shadowy balls barrage hit him, crossing his arms as he stood his ground and took the attack,"Psychic, send them back" Sabrina commanded as the spoons in Alakazam's hands began to glow blue - the incoming miniature Shadow balls started to slow down until the blue psychic energy made them stop all together before they began rocketing back towards Azelf.
"Light Screen! Then follow up with Calm Mind and Thunderbolt!" Azelf quickly threw up a bright pink barrier in front of himself before closing his eyes and calming his mind as the Shadow Balls smashed into Azelf's barrier causing small explosions,: opening his eyes as the barrier fell apart and the remaining Shadow balls barrelled towards him, Azelf released his Thunderbolt, easily destroying the small balls of shadow energy before striking a surprised looking Alakazam.
"Kazam!" He cried out as the electricity travelled through his body, falling to one knee and panting as the attack ended, ne eyes shoot as he panted, "Can you keep going?" Alakazam slowly pushed himself to his feet, gripping his spoons harder as he nodded back at Sabrina before looking back at an unscratched Azelf, "Teleport and Double Team" Alakazam quickly disappeared, reappearing behind Azelf. Azelf looked behind him in confusion before twisting around: multiple Alakazam had reappeared around him, trapping him as they all shot Shadow Balls, striking the floating psychic type on all sides.
"AZELF!" He cried out as the Shadow Balls struck his body, exploding upon contact: Alakazam quickly disappeared before reappearing in front of Sabrina, a satisfied look on his face as the explosions began to clear, revealing a panting Azelf with small marks on his body, "Azelf, are you oaky?" Ash called out in worry, watching as Azelf nodded his head before looking at Alakazam, "Use Energy Ball!" Azelf quickly fired the attack at Alakazam whilst still panting, "Teleport" Alakazam quickly disappeared as the Energy Ball barrelled towards him, hitting the ground where he stood, Making Azelf grunt in annoyance as Sabrina's psychic type reappeared a few feet from where he stood, "Keep it up Azelf, follow him!" Ash called out: Azelf nodded and quickly flew after a teleporting Alakazam, shooting Energy Ball after Energy ball at him, "Stop Azelf! Close your eyes and focus on his movements,"
Azelf stopped, closing his eyes as he focused his psychic powers on the still teleporting Alakazam: Suddenly her opened his eyes and face to his left as Ash called out, "Fire!" Azelf quickly charged up his final Energy Ball and shot it forwards, the attack colliding with a surprised Alakazam as he appeared where Azelf had predicted, flying backwards and falling to the ground with a grunt: Alakazam went to push himself up, only to fall backwards, swirls in his eyes.
"Alright!" Ash cheered, running onto the field and hugging his panting Azelf, who smiled and hugged his trainer back, continuing to pant as he did so. Sabrina nodded as she psychically raised a poke'ball and returned he fainted pokemon before raising her second one, "Very good Ash - go Espeon" She stated, releasing her second pokemon to the field.
"Espeon!" The purple fox pokemon cried out as she appeared to he field, sitting down on the field and licking her paw before standing and getting in a battle stance when she sore Ash. Ash smiled and walked of the field with Azelf in his arms: turning to face Espeon and Sabrina, Ash smiled once more before raising Azelf's poke'ball, "You were fantastic out their Azelf, you take a well deserved rest" "Yes sir" Azelf replied, a smile on his own face as he returned to his poke'ball.
Placing his poke'ball on his belt, Ash thought for a second before grabbing his second poke'ball and throwing it forward, "Time to fight, go Mewtwo!" Ash called out as he threw the poke'ball, watching as his third strongest pokemon appeared to the filed, "Hmmm..." Mewtwo spoke as he appeared, his eyes opening suddenly as he sensed Sabrina and Espeon, "These two are powerful - finally a challenge" Mewtwo spoke up as he uncrossed his arms, smirking a little at Sabrina's surprise.
"I know of every psychic type known, but I have never seen this one - this should be interesting - Espeon, use Psychic" Sabrina spoke up, watching as her eveelution's eyes glowed slightly, a thick line of psychic energy surrounding an impressed looking Mewtwo, "Break it and use Shadow Ball!" Ash countered as Mewtwo easily broke out the Psychic before firing his charged up Shadow Ball.
A small explosion happened as the Shadow Ball made contact with Espeon, "Peon!" She cried out, flying backwards and landing on her back, knocked out. Sabrina raised a brow in surprise, returning her fallen pokemon as Mewtwo nodded his head, "Not bad - very strong psychic abilities, but her endurance is to low" Sabrina nodded in understanding, hiding her shock at Mewtwo's evaluation as she reached into her pocket.
"You've earned this" She spoke as she held her gym badge in her hand, closing her eyes and floating the badge over to Ash who reached for it with a smile, "I request you return before you challenge the league so we may have a rematch" Ash blinked but nodded whilst holding his new badge in his hand as he reached for his case and placed it inside, "No problem - ill be sure to come back"
Ash, Natalie and Jason walked out of the gym with smiles, heading towards he pokemon center once they sore the orange and purple colours of the sky - the sun was setting and it was too late for them to set off walking. After booking a room and each getting into their Pyjama's, Natalie and Jason sat on their beds looking at Ash with excited looks: "Which pokemon will you tell us about tonight?" Nataile asked Ash, who was dressed ina loose pair of tracksuit btotoms and a baggy grey shit.
Ash smiled whilst looking at the lisit, placing two more ticks on it as he looked at the two, "Blissey and Croconaw" He stated, placing the paper down as he crossed his legs, stoking a relaxing Pikachu's head - he had taken his usual spot in Ash's lap, but was awake to listen this time.
"As you know, Blissey wasn't mine to start with - She was hatched from an egg and belonged to Brock" Ash started, a half smile on his face as he remembered Blissey as a Happini, "When she was a Happini, she was extreamly strong - she could easily carry over 10 times her own weight, and she wasn't what you would call the baby of the group - even if she was the youngest she was one of the strongest, as well as being the most happy and caring of the group"
"She evolved in Chansey when she was helping Brock and Nurse Joy in the Pokemon Center - then at some point she must have evolved again into Blissey. I sore her again when I went to challenge Brock - she took his injured pokemon to the side to heal them, so it was clear that hse hadn't lost her caring side, even if her trainer had - anyway, when I mentioned things form the past, she was one of the two pokemon that looked genuinely confused about what I was talking about, so it dawned on me that her and other's belonging t the traitors may not know about what they did to me" Ash continued, moving his other arm so Riolu could cuddle into his side as the jackal pokemon yawned, "She told me that when she found out she lost her respect for Brock, and that she wanted to join me because she still respected me - she said she knew how hurt I must have been, and she also knew how much I loved and cared for my pokemon, and she wanted to be apart of that"
Ash smiled as he nodded before moving onto his next story, "Croconaw was a Totodile when I caught him - me and Misty both wanted to catch him, and when had a battle to determine who would get to keep him - evidentially I won" Ash smiled at the memory before looking at the two intensely listening trainers in front of him, "As a Totodile, he was always dancing and jumping around - he was ALWAYS full of energy - but he was a heck of a battler, and he didn't scare easily, going against a Charizard in a stare off with backing down"
Ash's smile started to fade as he continued, "He was forced to betray me, alongside a few others - he tried to fight back but, like many other's, he was beaten near death till he caved in and agreed to leave me and battle for Misty - I guess she thought she had finally got the Totodile she wanted all that time again" Ash chuckled out the last bit, shaking his head as Natalie moved ot his side and hugged his other arm, making Ash turn his head and press a kiss to her head before he continued, "I went to battle Misty for revenge, and she had Croconaw battle Pidgeot - she almost killed her when she let her nearly drown and tried ot have Croconaw keep attacking - but Croconaw refused, having finally had enough - he swiped his and another one of pokemon's poke'balls and came back to me"
Ash smiled as he finished, leaning down to press a quick kiss to Natalie's lips before pulling back and yawning, "Ill answer any questions in the morning, i'm exhausted after todays battle, so, goodnight" Natalie and Jason nodded - Jason laid down on his bed and rolled to his stomach, closing his eyes as Natalie climbed of Ash's bed and slipped into her own, closing her own eyes as well.
Ash laid down in his own bed, turning his head to look out at the stars like he did every night before closing his eyes, smiling when he felt Piakchu climb onto his chest and Riolu cuddle under his arm as he, and the others began to slip into the land of sleep