AN: Part of my wishes I had stalled until this chapter or the next chapter for the reveal on Sirius as seen in the chapter prior, but I will assure you right now that the payoff will be different than expected when the Chargestone Cave arc finally arrives. Considering I've just got to wrap up Nimbasa City and then get to work on the Driftveil City arc, I won't have much longer until then.
Truth and Ideals Chapter 36:
Ash was asleep in the hidden village alongside Misty and the newly born Altair, with Ash thinking about things in his sleep. Why exactly did Cobalion offer itself over to Ash to command? Why did Misty grow such an attachment towards Ash as quickly as Cobalion told him about? Did Ash himself feel the same towards Misty? All of those were questions that confused him, causing Ash to slowly stir from his slumber and notice Misty was wide awake, staring at him with an adorable expression.
"… Um… Don't text me just yet; Altair is still asleep." Ash said to Misty, knowing that her attempt to talk to him via texting him did have some problems. Misty, however, grabbed hold of Ash's wrist with his Xtransceiver on it and tried pressing different buttons on it. Confused, Misty didn't seem to find what she was looking for, but Ash seemed to understand.
"Ah, right, turn off the volume, is that right?" Ash asked, as Misty nodded. "… Why didn't I think of that sooner?" Ash asked himself, before proceeding to open a menu on the Xtransceiver's touch screen and turning the volume off through the interface.
"Alright, now you can text me what you were trying to say." Ash told Misty, looking at her face as Misty, quietly, punched in some letters onto her Xtransceiver-like device.
[I'm, uh… sorry about last night… I just wanted to get you to calm down so you didn't scare Altair…] Misty texted Ash, all the while Ash recalled how Misty had kissed him last night and looked at her carefully.
"It's alright… I, er, guess I just sort of have my dad's habit of quickly winding up caring a lot for people I barely know… but… at the same time… I feel like I know you enough to allow you that close to me." Ash told Misty, as he looked over at Misty's Xtransceiver-like device. "By the way, I never did learn what that was called…" Ash brought up, as Misty made a giggling motion.
[It's a Pokégear, silly~.] Misty told him, as Ash chuckled a little.
"Well, um… At least we've finally sorted out one of our problems with communication…" Ash said, as one of Ash's Poké Balls opened up suddenly while Altair was slowly beginning to wake up.
It was Cobalion.
'Ketchum. You have a challenge that is to be faced today, yes?' Cobalion asked, as Ash slowly moved to sit up to look at it and nodded.
'… Very well. Prepare for an early morning training, then; you will not wish to have breaks by the time you are expected to show up.' Cobalion stated, before moving out into the clearing in the village. Despite being in the early morning, and even with a good amount of snow on the ground, none of the Lucario and Riolu normally native to this village appeared to be present. Ash, getting up to look around, quickly realized something before he decided to follow Cobalion.
"Hey, Altair, this may end up hurting, but I need to bind you to one of my Poké Balls." Ash said, grabbing one of his Poké Balls from his bag to officially catch Altair with, but before the Poké Ball responded, it appeared to let out some kind of voice pop up on his Xtransceiver. Ash blinked when he looked upon a small, brunette girl with Fennel arranging things in a hurry right behind her.
"Oh? Is this Ash? I'm surprised we haven't met sooner. Did you only just now end up catching more than six Pokémon at once?" The girl asked, as Ash tried to recall off of the top of his head.
"Let's see… Dewott, Pikachu, Unfezant, Victini, Cobalion, and just now a Riolu. Why? That's a total of six."
"… Oh. What happened to the Lucario registered to you?" The girl asked, before quickly dropping the subject before Ash could answer. "Anyways, my name is Amanita! I'm Fennel's younger sister and the developer for the Pokémon Storage System in Unova."
"Oh, uh… good to meet you…?" Ash said, as he didn't immediately answer back with his own name. "Also, my name is-"
"Ash Ketchum? I've already been fully aware of your exploits by this point. To be fair, I actually wanted to call and checkup you for Professor Juniper, but once Elesa called some of her Gym Leader friends here in Striaton City, Chili wanted to talk to you about something." Amanita told Ash, as Ash raised an eye.
"Does he, now? Is this about the fact I'm going to train Dewott to use a defensive maneuver based off of what he did for his own Pidove?" Ash asked, as Chili soon was brought into the call, panting heavily as his breath appeared spicy hot in appearance.
"Well I don't know how you knew what I was going to bring up, but to be honest, I'm not even sure why Elesa asked me about this in the first place! She keeps thinking I'm the one who came up with it when in reality that was your father who came up with it, not me! I'm just tired of taking the credit for what other people do!" Chili talked with a fast pace, as Dewott emerged from his Poké Ball on Ash's end to look around.
"… Wait, my father actually developed that technique?" Ash asked, as Chili nodded.
"Yeah, he tried to teach me and my siblings how to use it at one point many years ago, but neither of us were able to truly master it." Chili said, before Cilan and Cress soon appeared in the call as Amanita's face visibly drew an increasing shade of red.
"Yeah, I will admit; we'll all considering retiring as Gym Leaders at one point because… well… we believe we're simply not good enough as trainers." Cress added in.
"Yeah, there's really no point in us being Gym Leaders if we can't actually give our challengers a, well, challenge." Cilan added in, as Ash looked over at Cobalion's rather impatient glare from further away behind him, and then back at the call on his Xtransceiver. Misty, meanwhile, patiently looked over Altair while waiting on Ash.
"So, um… what do I need to know about this technique my father had tried to teach you three?"
Nimbasa City, slightly less than two hours from before…
Cheren and Bianca were in one of the dressing rooms in the stadium where their gym battle against Elesa would take place. Both of them were preparing for their upcoming match by making sure they were dressed formally for it, with Cheren calling somebody on his Xtransceiver.
"Hey, Delia, you already packed Ash's formal attire in his bag, right?" Cheren asked Delia, as Delia nodded.
"Yeah, is this because of the fact Elesa had to change the location of her gym battle with you guys to the stadium?" Delia asked, as Cheren nodded.
"Yeah, but… how did you know that already?" Cheren asked, as Delia didn't even answer; she simply moved her Xtransceiver to where Felix and Don were visible on-screen.
"Nimbasa Emboars!" Don yelled.
"Opelucid Samurotts!" Felix yelled.
"Nimbasa Emboars!"
"Opelucid Samurotts!"
Both of the two adults were arguing over which football teams would win for the past two hours by this point. After these two teams would finish their match against each other, then Cheren, Bianca, and Ash's gym battles with Elesa are scheduled to take place.
"So… Some things never change, don't they?" Cheren sighed, as Bianca walked out from a small room behind Cheren.
"Hey, Cheren? I look okay, right?" Bianca asked, as Cheren quickly looked over towards Bianca and nearly doubled over from how Bianca looked. She was wearing a rather cute looking dress, primarily in colored in red with a ribbon in her hair that was red. From the way the top of her dress was covering her, Cheren nearly panicked at the thought of something until he realized something else.
'Oh, right; she does have bras that don't involve straps over her shoulders… whoops…' Cheren thought, before beginning to say "Y-You look beautiful in that, Bianca…" Cheren complimented, as Bianca moved over towards Cheren. Cheren, in comparison, was wearing a dark green tuxedo with a red tie around his neck. Cheren had completely forgotten Delia was still on the line as he had moved to kiss Bianca as she drew into close proximity.
"TOUCHDOOOWN!" A man yelled from the arena just outside of where Cheren and Bianca were, interrupting their thoughts as Cheren looked back at his Xtransceiver and noticed Delia facepalming at Don's excited behavior and rant towards Felix in the background.
"Um… Uh… Don't mind them… But, uh, is Ash back yet?" Delia asked, as Cheren gulped a bit.
'I swear if Genesect or Mewtwo caught Ash and Misty off guard I will mur-'
"Oh hey Cheren, Bianca, did we interrupt with anything?" Ash asked, as he and Misty walked into the room, holding hands all the while Cheren looked over at the two and internally grinned.
"Gee, not willing to take things slow are you, huh?" Cheren and Bianca asked in sync, as Ash and Misty blushed a little.
"Um, it's, uh, not official… yet." Ash said, as Misty nodded her response to Cheren and Bianca.
"Not official? When are you going to decide on that?" Cheren snickered, as he looked over at Dewott standing next to Ash, looking like he was burning with energy. "By the way why do you have Aura surrounding Dewott now?" Cheren asked.
"Had to keep his power restrained; Cobalion told me to keep his power restrained until I found a "true opponent" in its own words." Ash told Cheren and Bianca.
"Well… Seems fair enough." Cheren said.
"Alright, ladies and gentlemen! It's time to witness Nimbasa's own Gym Leader, Elesa, live and challenging three new opponents seeking to enter the Pokémon League! First up, we have a fledgling woman with a happy outlook on life; Bianca of Nuvema Town!" The announcer brought up, as Cheren looked over at Bianca.
"That's my cue, wish me luck!" Bianca said, moving to peck Cheren on the cheek, as she walked out onto the stage, Cheren gulping a little from nervousness…
Then a thought suddenly donned upon Cheren as to what Ash had said a moment ago.
"… Wait. Cobalion?!"
Bianca's Challenge:
"Alright, everyone, welcome our new challenger with applause! She will be in for a treat! The rules as always are simple; three Pokémon for both Gym Leader and Challenger, and when all three on one side faint, the other is declared the winner!" Elesa called out to the many fans looking out towards the arena which began to rise up from the ground, walking out to stand on her end of the large sized arena as Bianca took her stance on her end.
Many fans of Elesa were sitting in the surrounding bleachers in numbers so large that all of the other crowds at previous gym battles looked tiny in comparison. Bianca gulped a little from nervousness from just how many people were surrounding her at the moment. However, she did not let that bug her just yet.
"Alright, first Pokémon for each battlers are…!" The announcer said, as Elesa sent out her first Pokémon, a small, flying squirrel-like Pokémon with large ears. "Emolga for Elesa, and for Bianca…" Bianca responded by sending out one of her Pokémon for the battle, which happened to be a familiar Bug Type Pokémon with a scarred eye from the previous gym battle. "Scolipede!"
"Pokémon, GO!" The announcer cheerfully called out, as Elesa's Emolga took into the air as Scolipede glanced upward towards Emolga, trying not to get blinded by the bright lights of the stadium.
… Which equally posed a problem for Bianca's eyesight as well.
"So, a difficult problem is before you; how do you handle it?" Elesa asked as Bianca gulped a bit.
"Alright, Scolipede! Don't get distracted by Emolga's antics!" Bianca ordered, as the massive Centipede-like Pokémon that is Scolipede immediately began to work on that by using a powerful move to cause the arena to crumple into pieces, but missing Emolga altogether…
… Until Scolipede proceeded to curl up into a ball and began to spin and then rush forward, jumping on the various cracks formed into the air to reach Emolga's altitude, before jumping just above the Sky Squirrel Pokémon and slamming it down into the ground below while utilizing the ruptured fragments of the arena into a large rocks to slam into Emolga on the ground.
As the both of them crashed onto the ground, Scolipede had knocked out Emolga in a single hit from differing types of attacks, as Emolga was knocked out and dazed from Scolipede's attack and was called back to its Poké Ball by Elesa.
"Alright, time for Elesa's Second Pokémon!" The announcer called, all the while Elesa soon opened up with her second Pokémon in the form of a somewhat larger, Spider-like Pokémon covered in fuzz.
"Galvantula!" The Pokémon was introduced as by the announcer, as Galvantula immediately getting crushed by rocks from Scolipede's hostile behavior, as Galvantula, unlike Emolga, actually attempted to put up a fight here by repeatedly firing blasts of electricity towards Scolipede from various directions, as Scolipede grunted in agitation from this.
"Hang in there, Scolipede!" Bianca called, before she could practically feel the sting from Galvantula's eyes were being struck by Galvantula's Electric Type moves, which caught Bianca's attention. "Hey!" Bianca shouted towards Galvantula, slamming her fists together as her hands ignite with a fiery, orange energy which soon began to appear around Scolipede as well.
Scolipede, finally being able to see things in a clear enough fashion to get a hit against Galvantula, finally managed to strike at Galvantula with its large, sturdy horns, sending Galvantula into the air only to soon be struck in the back by an electrical attack in response. Out of the blue, though, Galvantula called itself back to its Poké Ball on Elesa's side, as Elesa's third and final Pokémon was called out early.
"Oh? Did Galvantula's Volt Switch call upon Zebstrika early?" The announcer asked, as Zebstrika was met with a grand applause from the audience, as Scolipede didn't get a chance to even so much as look at Zebstrika before being rammed into by a fiery force of a charge from the Thunderbolt Pokémon. Falling to the ground in a single hit, Scolipede was called back by Bianca.
"So, what will Bianca's next Pokémon be?" The announcer asked, all the while Bianca shifted her gaze onto the field, her expression not a very please one since her eyes had begun to swell up from the bright, flashing lights of the stadium's interior. Bianca, calling out her next Pokémon, sent out Stoutland next.
"Alright, Stoutland! You're up!" Bianca called, as Stoutland appeared much smaller than Zebstrika in this showdown. When Zebstrika reared up and bucked before charging towards Stoutland, Stoutland quickly dug into the ground below to avoid Zebstrika's charge. Zebstrika, however, did not stop moving, knowing that Stoutland would've expected for it to stop moving…
… Unaware that Stoutland had no such plan of waiting for Zebstrika to halt.
Immediately bursting a hole in the ground in front of Zebstrika, Zebstrika bucked and began to retreat in a different direction, before suddenly numerous other holes began to burst open in the ground around it before the entire floor surrounding Zebstrika collapsed as Stoutland proceeded to finish the Thunderbolt Pokémon off from within the larger hole.
Tossing Zebstrika out with a tremendous strength, Stoutland emerged victorious…
… But Galvantula still remained. Elesa, calling back Zebstrika, immediately called out Galvantula again as Galvantula's many eyes focused in on Stoutland, before almost immediately opening up with a powerful bolt of electricity crashing down into Stoutland, and bringing Stoutland down from the fight.
"Wow! It looks like only one Pokémon remains on each side! How will this go?" The announcer asked, as Bianca drew out her third and last intended Pokémon for this match.
"Alright, Emboar! Make this count!" Bianca said, tossing Emboar's Poké Ball out towards the arena as Emboar hadn't even fully emerged yet and was already in the air ready to punch Galvantula's lights out. Galvantula, startled by how quick Emboar was ready to fight, couldn't get out of the way enough for Emboar's fist to make contact and send Galvantula out of the arena.
"RING OUT! It looks like Bianca wins the first challenge for today!" The announcer, and the crowd along with her, cheered in response to Bianca's victory, as Elesa chuckled a bit to herself.
"Well, I guess we can say that Emboar –Sawk–ed Galvantula out of the arena!" Elesa joking stated, as Elesa called back Galvantula from out of the field. Walking out towards Bianca as Bianca did the same towards Elesa, Elesa handed Bianca her 4th Badge for winning the challenge.
"Alright, then, let's see if your boyfriend can fare any better against me, shall we?" Elesa spoke, as Bianca blushed.
"What? You mean you didn't expect me to not notice how obvious it was?"
"Alright, our next challenger is about to be up next! How will he fare compared to Bianca?"
Cheren's Challenge:
"Try and be careful, alright? These stadium floors may be able to repair themselves due to how they're designed, but try not to be too rough like how Bianca was, alright?" Elesa asked of Cheren.
"I make no promises." Cheren said.
"So our second challenger for the day is a young man from Nuvema Town, a man who is uncertain in his goals but knows who to look forward to in his life. Give it up for Cheren!" The announcer spoke, as the audience applauded for Cheren. Like before, Elesa's first Pokémon turned out to be Emolga, whereas Cheren's first Pokémon turned out to be a different one from his usually expected type of Pokémon.
"Alright! Emolga VS Watchog! This'll be exciting to see play out!" The announcer called, as Emolga made the first move by trying to use the same Electric Type move that Galvantula had used to force a switch, but Watchog seemingly vanished from view upon impact. When Emolga was forcefully switched out, Galvantula took the stage…
… Only to see a small, green plush in the shape of a Dinosaur-like Pokémon.
Confused as to why Watchog vanished, Galvantula walked up to the plush to investigate it…
… And much like with Emboar, Watchog appeared too late for Galvantula to see, and got punched out of the arena with a fiery force from Watchog's fist as Galvantula was taken out almost immediately as a direct result of this.
"… Boy… that escalated quickly…" The announcer spoke up, as Elesa sent out Emolga again, but Emolga didn't fall for the plush trick like Galvantula did and proceeded to immediately strike the plush with a high speed, aerial set of attacks. However, Emolga was too busy attacking the plush until it vanished to notice Watchog standing right behind it. When Emolga slowly panted and looked behind itself to see Watchog's wide, intense eyes looking at it…
… Watchog wasted no time in simply blasting Emolga out of the arena with a powerful beam attack from his eyes.
"Hyper Beam from the eyes… huh… kind of reminds me of someone's Pokémon from Johto." The announcer spoke, as Elesa looked at Cheren with narrow eyes.
"… Is this because of yesterday?" Elesa asked.
"What do you mean? The fact you were changing in the men's room and I just so happened to walk in by chance?" Cheren answered, as Elesa groaned.
"… Just… Just send out Serperior next, I want this to be fair, alright?" Elesa spoke, sending out Zebstrika next, as Cheren snickered a little.
"Alright, alright. I was just wondering how long it would take for you to realize who I am." Cheren spoke up, as he called back Watchog and immediately sent out Serperior, as Elesa moved to send out Zebstrika as one would expect...
"Alright, folks! It looks like the final round for the current challenge! Let's wrap the second challenge up with a fight between Serperior and Zeb-" The announcer called, before noticing Elesa send out a different, Lamprey-like Pokémon instead. "… E-Eelektross…?" The announcer said in confusion, as she was taken about by how Elesa changed which Pokémon would be her last one for the challenge.
"It's only to make things fair; I knew immediately what you'd try and do if I didn't send out Eelektross. Your father has told me a lot about how you won your battle against him, to say the least…" Elesa spoke to Cheren, as Cheren grumbled a bit.
"Well, even so, I'll just hit you with everything I can!" Cheren called out, as his hands began to glow with an orange energy just as Serperior began to prepare herself for battle. Serperior, noticing how large the arena is compared to her previous fights, was too distracted by the open space to notice Eelektross taking the first move.
Exhaling a powerful stream of flames towards Serperior, Serperior quickly moved out of the way in a slithering motion, before the EleFish Pokémon continued to blast flames towards Serperior, before Serperior suddenly made her move by her tail becoming covered in a veil of water and splashing against the flames being thrown her way to block them entirely.
As Eelektross moved in to try and hit her again, but this time with the same attack that Emolga used. Quickly managing to scratch and tear at Serperior's hide, Cheren seemed to react differently from how one would've expected.
"Serperior! Hang in there! Use Leaf Storm, now!" Cheren called, giving out a pained cough as Serperior summoned up a hurricane of leaves to strike at Eelektross, causing the EleFish Pokémon to recoil several times from the impact of the attack, before Serperior once again used Leaf Storm a second time, sending Eelektross closer to the edge of the arena. Eelektross, in one last move, used Flamethrower to strike at Serperior again, but while it managed to strike Serperior, a third and last Leaf Storm from Serperior knocked Eelektross far out of the arena.
"Wow! This looked like a pretty close match! But, ultimately, it looks like Cheren is the winner here!" The announcer spoke, as Cheren walked up to Elesa as Elesa handed him his 4th badge, the audience applauding just like how when Bianca won the battle.
"Next time, actually listen to your father's warnings about Heartsoul amplification, alright?" Elesa told Cheren, as Cheren nodded.
A minute before Ash's Challenge…
Cheren, heading back to the dressing room, noticed Ash was dressed in a rather silly looking attire compared to what he and Bianca were dressed in.
"Um… Ash?" Cheren asked, as he looked over Ash's clothing. His hat was more like a fedora which maintained the symbol from his normal hat, and his shirt was more akin to a stitched up vest. His shoes and gloves seemed to be very old fashioned, with two spherical crystals embedded on the gloves of Ash's outfit. To top it all off, Ash was wearing a, newly repaired, black cloak alongside the darker shades of blue his other clothing had.
"Yeah, I'm fine. You both need to be careful, though." Ash said, his smile a little too cocky for Ash's usual personality, which Cheren quickly noticed once he saw Misty with the same type of grin.
"… You two are planning something, aren't you?" Cheren asked, as Bianca snickered a bit.
"Weeell… I did say me and Misty are not official…"
"… Yet…" Ash said, as he got a confused look from Cheren.
"By the way, how do you think a fully crowded audience from people from all over Unova are going to handle you? I mean, both me and Bianca used Heartsoul amplification in our battles, but nobody in the audience nor the announcer noticed us." Cheren spoke, as Bianca nodded.
"Yeah, so if anything, they'll more obviously notice you using Aura in your battle if anything else." Bianca said.
"Especially since your wardrobe at the moment looks like an Heirloom from your father based off of what I was told about him by my dad." Cheren said, as Ash shrugged.
"Well, let's just say I wanted to make my presence known, and if anybody thinks that a bad idea, so be it…" Ash began to say.
"… But I believe making my presence known will have at least some form of advantage in the long run…" Ash said, as Cheren and Bianca looked at each other nervously, but reassured each other that Ash had a least some kind of plan in mind.
"But, er, if you two can do me a favor while I'm out, can you try not and spook Altair for when we're out there?" Ash asked, calling Altair out from his Poké Ball as Altair sheepishly hid behind Ash's leg, hiding from Cheren and Bianca rather quickly.
"Hey, Elesa, is our other challenger not ready yet? Everyone is waiting on him!" The announce asked, as Ash looked at Cheren and Bianca with a smile, both of them giving him a nod of approval.
"That's my cue!" Ash said, turning to leave for the arena outside with Altair quickly following him.
"Good luck… you're going to need it." Cheren spoke, as he looked over towards Misty.
"He's using Dewott, isn't he?" Cheren asked, as Misty took a while to try and think, but nodded.
"… Where did you two go last night, anyways?"
To Be Continued…
AN: This chapter took all day for me to finish, but I'm glad I had gotten it done when I did and how I had wanted it done to begin with. Either way, let's get to hoping that Chapter 37 will turn out just fine for tomorrow as well. See you then!