Hi guys! I know it has been a while, but I got caught up with my Final exams, luckily I have a couple of weeks off and during the time I didn't get to write, I was able to think of a few ideas for the chapters to come :). And from my last chapter, since more people prefer the story to not have a lemon, then I won't write about it ;).

Btw, I would appreciate me if you guys would pray for me because I got a 91 for my grades right now and my goal is 96 or above. I was having extreme difficulties with my written reports too so if you guys have any criticisms about my writing style, please let me know so I could work on it. :)

Enjoy!

Chapter 21

Ash walked out of the wooden cabin he and May were just in, while his hand was intertwined with May's; however, as soon as he stepped out, he fell to his knees and clutched his head.

"Ash!" May bent down and tried to help the boy.

But Ash didn't hear her as his mind was currently occupied with something.

Inside Ash's head….

"Sabrina?" Ash said in confusion.

"Hello Ash. Glad to see some of my psychic energy still remains inside of you after all these years." Sabrina said with a smile.

"Huh?" Ash said even more confused.

"Let me explain Ash. Remember the day you found Gengar's Pokeball inside your hotel room?"

Ash said nothing but nodded his head.

"Well, the night before I placed it there, you had a little incident." Sabrina said emphasizing the word little, while wearing a smirk on her face.

"What happened?" He questioned.

Sabrina snapped her fingers and the concealed memory Sabrina temporarily erased from Ash's mind played like a movie screen behind her.

Ash watched in confusion until the memory ended.

"Now, I did this so you wouldn't rush into anything, and I also blocked your emotion of love until you actually got together with this May girl, I saw in your memory, so you wouldn't do anything with another girl while you were off training. Consider it a thank you for the help you gave me back then. But now, I unlocked the memory because you now understand who you're supposed to be with."

"How do you know it was suppose to be May and not Dawn?"

"Ash please….I'm a psychic. I can see into the future and probe your mind." Sabrina said with a hint of playfulness in her voice.

"Why am I not surprised you would do this sort of thing? Well, I'm not sure if I should be happy that I'm with May, or angry that you know all my secrets…" Ash wondered aloud.

"Don't worry, everything's safe with me." Sabrina said as the energy she placed in Ash's mind started to run out.

"I hope so, there are a lot of embarrassing things in my head." Ash said half embarrassed.

"I know, I've seen it all." Sabrina said with a wink and a light giggle before disappearing.

"Uh…don't worry May, it's just a little headache and fatigue from using too much aura." Ash lied, although it was partially true, he was a bit dizzy from the overuse of his aura, although it wasn't too severe.

"If you're sure…" May said cautiously, deciding to drop the subject.

"Pikachu! Come on! We're going leaving!" Ash called out to his Starter, who just jumped into May's arms.

"Pikachu! Pika pika!" The Mouse Pokemon squealed.

"Hi Pikachu! I missed you!" May said, hugging the Electic-Type.

"Come on, how bout we head over to my battle right now and afterwards, we can head over to a nice restaurant?" Ash suggested calling Garchomp out of his Pokeball.

"Since when did Ash Ketchum become less dense?" May teased as she hopped onto Garchomp's back, wrapping her arms around the Pallet native's stomach.

'Just now…' Ash thought as a response to May's joke.

"So I guess I have some explaining to do to the others?" Ash asked rhetorically.

"I don't know, what do you think?" May responded, rolling her eyes with a voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Garchomp, land there." Ash said, pointing to one of the battlefields they were flying over.

Garchomp acknowledged his Trainer's command by landing and allowing the two humans to get off his back.

"Thanks for the ride Garchomp." Ash said, returning the Mach Pokemon.

"Good luck!" A voice behind them called out.

"You too!" Ash responded without turning around.

Ash knew who the person was but just grabbed May's hand and walked over to the other side of the field.

"Ash…are you gonna be okay? This is gonna be a tough battle…" May whispered.

"Don't worry, why did you think I trained with my dad for three years. Please watch Pikachu." Ash responded, feeling fired up.

"Sure." May said with a sweet smile as she clutched Pikachu in her arms.

"Hey ref! Let me send out my Pokemon first!" Ash's opponent called out.

"Very well, this will be a 3-on-3 match between 'Satoshi' from Mount Silver and Ritchie from Frodomar City!" The referee announced and brought his arms down.

"Rose, let's go!" Ritchie said, tossing a Pokeball that revealed a large blue bird Pokemon.

"Muk, I choose you!" Ash threw a Pokeball onto the field which released a large purple pile of sludge.

"Begin!"

"Rose, use Swift!"

The large Swellow opened its beak and fired a barrage of golden stars at the Poison-Type.

"Muk, use Sludge Bomb to send them back!"

Muk opened his mouth really wide and stated spitting balls of sludge and dirt. The power of the attack was so strong it forced the stars to head back to the direction where it came from, not only that but the once shining golden stars not turned into a glossy purple.

'Wow, first the contest combinations during his match with Drew, now this! Looks like there's still a lot more I could learn from Ash…' May thought, awestruck at what Ash was doing.

"Rose, dodge it!" Ritchie cried out after staring at Swift attack's transformation, albeit a bit too long.

The Swellow was struck on the chest by the toxic stars and started to flinch at its body started glowing purple.

'Rose is poisoned…' Ritchie thought for a moment before trying to come up with a plan.

"Rose, we have to damage Muk as much as we can before the poison completely knocks you out. Agility, then Steel Wing!" Ritchie commanded seeing no other option to deal with the poison.

Rose nodded before it disappeared from sight and reappearing at various different spots on the field. The speed of the bird was just tremendous.

"Muk, keep your guard up." Ash commanded, genuinely surprised by the speed of Ritchie's Pokemon.

Muk looked around, trying to find a sign of his opponent, but didn't get a chance to when Rose appeared behind him and struck him with Steel Wing.

"Muk, hurry and use Gunk Shot!" Ash ordered.

Muk recovered from the shock and pain of the Steel Wing and fired a sphere of sludge and garbage towards the Flying-Type's back, who in response wasn't able to counter or dodge the powerful Poison-Type attack.

"Rose! Let's end this fast, Giga Impact!" Ritchie shouted, wanting to end the battle before Muk could hurt his Swellow even more.

The Hoenn native Pokemon rose up high into the air shrouding itself with a purple coat of energy with golden streaks. The bird took one last look at its Trainer before diving towards Muk at incredible speed, but as it was going to make contact, Ash said a few words.

"Acid Armor."

Muk did as he was instructed and dissolved into a puddle on the ground, making the Swellow miss its mark, and eventually crash into the wall behind Ash.

"Muk, wrap this up! Use Body Slam and suffocate Swellow!"

Muk jumped into the air, although it wasn't very high, Muk's weight was enough to deal a powerful Body Slam. After landing on the Swellow, Muk completely enveloped the Flying-Type and didn't get off until he couldn't feel and more resistance.

"Swellow is unable to battle, Muk wins!"

"Rose return, you did great. Well, I have to admit, those Poison-Type moves forced us into a corner but you won't be so lucky with this next guy. Go, Sparky!" Ritchie said, recalling Rose and throwing a Pokeball that released a Pikachu with a tuft of fur in the top of its head.

"We'll see about that. Muk return, take a good rest. Floatzel, I choose you!" Ash copied his opponent's actions but sent out the Sea Weasel Pokemon instead.

"Not a very smart move using a Water-Type against an Electic-Type." Ritchie stated the obvious, trying to find out his opponent's intention for the Water-Type's appearance.

"Let's see about that. Floatzel, use our Aqua Jet fake out." Ash said.

Floatzel nodded and covered himself with water and propelled himself towards Sparky at unbelievable speed.

"Sparky, use Thunder when he gets in range." Ritchie said, unsure due to being unfamiliar with the command Ash gave.

However, Floatzel kept approaching the Pikachu until he was a mere seven feet away, and right when Sparky was about to unleash a powerful and deadly amount of electricity, Floatzel abruptly stopped his attack in midair and waved a paw, that was glowing brown, which released a small amount of mud that splattered on Sparky's eyes.

"Mud-Slap, can't believe I didn't see that coming! Sparky, listen to me, use your hearing and sense of smell to try and lock onto Floatzel, then use Thunderbolt." Ritchie instructed.

Sparky's ears twitched for a moment before the small rodent unleashed a powerful bolt of yellow electricity towards Floatzel's location.

"Floatzel, cut through it with Razor Wind!"

Floatzel's blue fins glowed white, while the Water-Type swung his arms to generate multiple powerful crescent-shaped blades of wind that went straight through the oncoming Thunderbolt and continued to approach the Pikachu.

"Sparky, stop the Thunderbolt and block Razor Wind with Iron Tail! It's on your left!"

Sparky stopped his assault and jumped into the air, spinning a couple of times before turning his tail into steel and slamming it against the Razor Wind.

"Floatzel, use our upgraded Ice Aqua Jet!"

Floatzel formed a Whirlpool and tossed it upwards. It then proceeded to use Aqua Jet and rammed straight into the inner center of the Whirlpool, making him look like a drill, but he wasn't finished yet. Floatzel's paws then started to sparkle with the same strong cold energy used for Ice Punch but instead used that same energy to freeze the Whirlpool and Aqua Jet.

"Sparky, counter with Volt Tackle!" Ritchie ordered.

Sparky started to run at an incredible pace, as a bright yellow aura surrounded it, while it was chanting its name.

The two Pokemon collided; causing various debris to fly all around the field. And while the two Pokemon tried to break the stalemate, the overwhelming power they were releasing cause an explosion the pushed them both back.

"Sparky, use Swift and then use Thunderbolt on the Swift!" Ritchie called out.

"Floatzel, Hyper Beam!" Ash commanded, seeing an opening.

Floatzel nodded and formed an orange ball of energy in front of his mouth and fired it at the Pikachu.

Sparky on the other hand fired dozens of golden stars at Floatzel and shot his most powerful Thunderbolt at them.

'I'll use his own strategy against him.' Ritchie thought.

The two powerful attacks bypassed each other and struck their target dead on, causing dust to rise from both sides.

As the dust settled, only one Pokemon was standing, and that was Floatzel, which was understandable since he was only struck with one attack.

"I forfeit!" Ritchie announced, running up to Sparky and picking him up.

"Ritchie forfeits, which means the winner of the match is 'Satoshi' from Mount Silver!" The referee announced.

"Well, that was a great battle 'Satoshi'." Ritchie said, walking up to Ash, cradling Sparky in his arms.

"But why did you forfeit?" Ash said in response.

"Because even if I sent out my last Pokemon, you would have an unbelievable advantage. Your Pokemon are so powerful and I barely managed to land any clean hits on Muk and Floatzel. So I would rather not have my Pokemon get hurt fighting losing battles."

"Well I'm glad you Pokemon's well-being is more important to you than winning the tournament." Ash said while he nodded with a knowing smile.

Ritchie nodded and walked off into the direction of the Pokemon Center, but he called out, without turning around.

"You know you're gonna have to show everyone who you are soon."

'Well, I have to admit, Ritchie wasn't much of an aggressive battler; he always plays it safe or smart, explains why he forfeited. Also explains why he had those stickers on his Pokeballs back then and how he found out who I am.' Ash thought as he remembered his first encounter with the boy.

Ash's thoughts were broken when he felt something on his arm. That something was May's body.

"Congrats Ash! Now c'mon, I wanna go on that lunch date with you!" She squealed.

To Be Continued…..

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I finally get a break from school! Will be posting real soon.