A/N: Another chapter! Not sure where this one will lead, honestly. It will have a Jessie, James and Meowth update however, well it'll mostly be a James update but you get the picture. The gang's next stop will definitely be to Slateport City, however, I feel like I've neglected May a little bit recently.
Disclaimer: I manana na inona na inona (Malagasy)
An Alternate Universe
Last time on our adventure, Ash won his third gym badge against Dewford Town's Brawley, with his Pidgeot having an epic battle against Brawley's Hariyama. They then met up with Misty's older sisters on tour, Lily and Violet, who told them that the eldest sister, Daisy, was engaged to be married to former travelling companion Tracey Sketchit! What will happen this time? Tune in and find out!
I wanna be the very best,
Like no-one ever was,
To catch them is my real test,
To train them is my cause,
I will travel across the land,
Searching far and wide,
Each Pokemon to understand,
The power that's inside,
Pokemon! It's you and me,
I know it's my destiny,
Pokemon! Oh, you're my best friend,
In a world we must defend,
Pokemon! Our heart's so true,
Our courage will pull us through,
You teach me and I'll teach you,
Po-ke-mo-on,
Gotta catch 'em all,
POKEMON!
James stared down his opponent at the Rustboro gym, this was his best chance to earn his second badge. It was a three-on-three, just like last time and his best chance was saving his fighting type, Machop, until last just in case he needed him to take on two, or three other Pokemon.
"I choose you, Weezing!" the blue-haired man shouted, releasing his trusty companion, hoping that it would be able to take down at least one pokemon.
"Weezing Wheeze!" the poison gas Pokemon wheezed (A/N: Pun definitely not intended, can't think of any way else to describe it) out, looking ready for battle.
Roxanne raised a brow, not many people came in with a poison Pokemon as part of their strategy at a rock gym, but released her trusty Geodude to combat it.
"Weezing, let's start off with Poison Gas!" James ordered, who instantly complied with the order, releasing the venomous fumes that engulfed the boulder with two arms, concerning the gym leader.
"Geodude, counter with rock throw!" she shouted at her weakened Pokemon.
"Dodge Weezing, then use smog!"
Weezing dodged four of the five rocks Geodude threw at him, taking a little bit of damage from the last but released some poisonous smog that made the opposing Pokemon faint after the poison took more effect.
Weezing's new opponent was a big Rhyhorn who started by using smack down which Weezing countered with Poison Gas, but was out for the count when Rhyhorn used Earthquake, which was made possible by the smack down which eliminates the levitate ability Weezing has.
However the poison was taking effect on Rhyhorn, and when James released Chimecho the battle was very evenly poised, despite the psychic type's inexperience. The pair exchanged attacks and ultimately both fainted, Chimecho too weak to have won without the poisoning.
It finally came down to Roxanne's Nosepass and James' Machop.
"Machop, use Karate Chop!" He shouted, his Pokemon complying and chopping the rock Pokemon with force, the super effective attack knocking the Nosepass back. The attacks were fierce and the battle seemed like it was going for an age, when in reality it was only going for 5 minutes when a glow surrounded Machop and he started to expand into a bigger and more defined form, evolving into Machoke.
After the evolution, Machoke won the battle comfortably, although the damage when he was a Machop remained. Roxanne walked over and shook James' hand with a smile.
"Here's the Stone Badge James, I see you have Brawley's badge already so I recommend going back to Petalburg and then east to Mauville to get your next badge, from Wattson. Although your Pokemon may struggle there, you have no super effective types against Electric or Fire, which is the gym after that."
James nodded and looked up at his girlfriend, before heading to the Pokemon Centre to take care of his injured Pokemon.
Meanwhile, our other heroes were training in Granite Cave again, with May desperate to evolve her Silcoon into a Beautifly. She was currently in a battle with a Sableye, having defeated a few Abra and Makuhita beforehand.
"Silcoon, use poison sting! Finish this!" the brunette exclaimed, which Silcoon complied with, fainting the Pokemon without evolving again. May sighed and dropped her head.
Ash then smiled, poked May's shoulder and ignored the glare from her, instead pointing at her Silcoon with a smile, as it started glowing and changing form into a Beautifly.
May squealed and hugged her beautiful new butterfly, Misty joining her as she stroked the vertebrae on it's back.
The group headed back to the Pokemon centre and dropped off their Pokemon, before heading to the hotel where they joined Misty's sisters for one more night in Dewford.
The next morning the group found Mr. Briney and decided on going to Slateport, their hearts set on reaching there before the next contest was due in about one week, which gave Ash and May plenty of time to strategize about their next gym or contest respectively.
The next Gym was Electric type and Ash knew that it would be important for him to get Aron back and try to teach it some ground moves. Ash reasoned it would be better to send Taillow back to the Professor due to it's type disadvantage.
They arrived at Slateport in two days, the small boat not exactly conducive to training unfortunately.
Ash called Professor Oak the next day, "Ash my boy, how are you? You've called at an excellent time, I've been meaning to speak with you," the old man greeted.
"Of course Professor, but first can I swap Taillow for Aron? My next Gym is electric type and I think the swap will be necessary," Ash replied.
"That's no trouble at all, I've been wanting to get a look at your Taillow for a while now anyway," Oak said, "and I have a request for you. I've found a Tyrogue that's mistrustful of human contact and I want it to come out of it's shell. I thought you were definitely the man for the job, so I was wondering if I could transfer it to you for another Pokemon and you could help it, if possible?"
Ash was shocked but smiled, knowing that a Tyrogue would definitely help his team. "I'm honoured that you thought I would be fit to do this Professor, of course. I'll send over Pidgeot as well, maybe you could get them to train with each other while they're there?"
"Of course I can do that. Now can you transfer over your two Pokemon first?"
Ash did so, transferring his Pidgeot and Taillow, before receiving the Tyrogue and Aron in return.
The new member of Ash's team was released and looked at him cautiously, when Pikachu hopped down off Ash's shoulder and gave it a friendly greeting, telling it about Ash and how welcome he was to the party. Tyrogue still looked a little cautious but nodded.
Ash knew that it would take a little bit of work but the signs were promising to say the least.
A/N2: A lot happened in that chapter. Yay for James! He'll skip Mauville and go there with Ash later on because I don't care about logic. Also yay for May and Beautifly! But anyway, the group left on Friday morning and arrived Saturday night, and in my head canon, contests are saved for Saturdays to maximise the crowd, so as of Monday (day after Ash gets Tyrogue), May will have the next 5 days to train to get ready for the contest.
A few of you may be wondering about Tyrogue and which of the three evolutions it will be evolving into. Because I'm unpredictable I'll actually tell you; it'll be Hitmonlee. I'm a 4th Dan Black Belt in Taekwondo, which is the martial art Hitmonlee is based on. So yes, I'm biased but of course I'd choose that one!
Next Chapter will feature the contest (duh), contestshipping (double duh), and they may run into a couple of old favourites that just happen to be in Slateport at the same time. I'll let you guess who. This may be the longest Authors Note I've written. Please review!
Ash: Pikachu, Totodile, Tyrogue, Charizard, Treecko, Aron; with Oak: Taillow, Pidgeot; 3 badges
Misty: Golduck, Gyarados, Politoed, Togepi, Mudkip, Carvanha
Brock: Steelix, Forretress, Lotad
Sabrina: Kadabra, Mr. Mime, Haunter, Ralts, Meditite
May: Torchic, Silcoon; 0 ribbons
Drew: Roselia, Vibrava, Masquerain; 5 ribbons
Jessie: Arbok, Shellder, Swinub, Wurmple; 1 ribbon
James: Weezing, Chimecho, Machop, Sableye; 2 badges
Leaf: Serperior, Gloom, Seedot, Abomasnow; 0 badges