Hello people, the beginning of the end of the story has begun at long last. Saying that though the story still has some chapters left in it. So let's get to it. Sorry about the delay. Been having stuff to deal with.
Chapter 53: Rematch
The Day Ash had arrived he was already given a big celebration for him within in the small town of Pallet where all the neighbours came to Professor Oak's lab to celebrate along with all of his Pokémon. Ash felt great having that celebration which reminded him of one thing that he was still aiming higher.
He then briefed, Oak, Tracey, Delia and all of his Pokémon on what was to come next which is to battle the Elite four and if successful will be able to Challenge the current Champion Lance for his position. Delia and Oak felt proud that the young Ash they know is set to go for the position and trainer respects and desires to be.
Already Professor Oak had been contacted by Lance and instructed Ash that Agatha the first one Ash would face has already agreed to battle and what's more she wished to battle Ash in the same place they first battle: The Pokémon gym in Viridian city. Ash spent the day after he returned to ready himself but he did remember that he was having a one on one so he only required one Pokémon but he already knew who to use. His trusted partner Pikachu.
He was instructed to meet Agatha at the Viridian city in the afternoon. He had arrived just outside the Viridian gym and was looking at it just off the steps with Pikachu on his shoulder as Ash said "It sure has been a while Pikachu. This gym sure has made an appearance to us a few times". Pikachu nodded to him "Yeah, first it was Team Rocket's hideout, then we faced Agatha here shortly after returning from Hoenn and here we are again to do the exact same thing. Face Agatha and defeat her".
Ash nodded and looked to the doors saying "Well let's not stand around. Let's get to it". Ash ran towards the door after climbing up the stairs and opened the door slowly to come to the newly added seating area just before the main gym stadium. Ash walked in to see no one was present in the building. He looked around but did not see anything. He spoke up saying "Hello, is anyone here".
He suddenly heard a voice behind the doors to the main battlefield "Be out in a second". Ash and Pikachu looked to each other and after a couple of moments a man came through the doors and walked up to them "Greetings young trainer, are you here to challenge the Viridian Gym leader".
Ash politely said to him "Oh no sir, I am here to battle Agatha". The man quickly replied in joy "Ah, you must be Ash, the winner of the Indigo league. Nice work there, I was rather admiring your handiwork there in the Semi's and Finals". Ash feeling a little flattered saying "Well thanks…." The man was now realising why Ash paused and said "Oh I do apologise, my names Rawk and I am the Viridian city Gym Leader".
Ash then happily replied to him "Nice to meet you Rawk, Last time I was here battling Agatha you hadn't arrived yet". Rawk nodded to him "Ah, am I to assume to already have claimed the gym badge here". Ash nodded to him and said "Yes I did, on my first year as a Pokémon trainer, this gym was under the control of an organisation known as Team Rocket". Rawk's smile faded from sight "I have heard of them, every gym leader is to be aware of them, their acts are unforgivable. For the Last year they have been quite silent in their activites and quite frankly it is enough to make me nervous".
Ash agreed with Rawk saying to him while looking down "Yeah, I have had a lot of run in's with them in the past but I haven't seen them lately, it is making me wonder, I wonder if Giovanni is planning something". Rawk was now confused by Ash "Who is Giovanni". Ash was quick to answer his question "Giovanni is the leader of Team Rocket, I have only seen him twice, once in Johto and the Unova region, but I only learnt his name from the last time I saw team rockets Operatives".
Before they could speak any further the main doors open and they saw an elderly women enter through saying "Sorry I am late Rawk". Ash smiled upon seeing who it was and said "Agatha good to see you". The woman was indeed Agatha and returned the gesture "Just from looking at you now, I can see how much stronger you have become Ash, It sure is a pleasure to see you once more".
Agatha stepped forward in front of the pair and said "First Ash, my congratulations on winning the Indigo league". Ash happily smiled before she continued "Second, from what Lance has told me, you're challenging the whole Elite four and then the champion if you succeed against all of us. I must say reaching that far is enough to tell me our rematch battle is sure going to be exciting".
Ash nodded to all of it saying "Yeah, and since we had a one on one before, I thought I would have you as my first opponent first". Rawk then interrupted the pair "Sorry to interrupt, but shall we get set up, I can see the excitement building up". The pair nodded and everyone made their way into the Main battlefield room.
Ash stood on one side with Pikachu still sat on his shoulder waiting as Agatha was stood on the other waiting. Rawk stood on the referee stand and spoke "I will referee this match if that is okay with you both" They both nodded to Rawk and Agatha said "Very good, now Ash I am very excited to find out what kind of battle we will have this time". Rawk then held up his hands "Alright, choose your Pokémon".
Ash went first "Alright Pikachu, let's go". Pikachu acknowledged him and jumped off his shoulder and took position on the battlefield and took to a combat stance. Agatha made a smile and said "Ah, Pikachu, I had a feeling you would bring him out again". Agatha took a poke ball and readied it "In that case I will go with Gengar. It is battle time". Agatha threw the poke ball and it opened to spawn Agatha's main Pokémon: Gengar onto the battlefield. It smiled towards Pikachu who was sparking electricity off of his cheeks.
Ash knew the trick that Agatha might try to use the hypnosis and dream eater combo once again but he smiled "We will see what she plans to do this time". Rawk then threw up his arms and shouted "Battle commence now". Agatha then quickly said "Now Gengar shadow ball". Gengar threw his hands together and begun building the attack.
"Pikachu use Thunderbolt on that Shadow ball". Pikachu built up the electric energy quickly and fired it impacting the shadow energy forming and made it explode. Gengar was thrown off a little and this surprised Agatha "Now a Quick Iron tail". Pikachu became enveloped in white energy and charged towards Gengar at lightning speed with Iron tail and took advantage and smashed his tail into Gengar throwing him back a little. Gengar went up but landed back down on his feet in front of Agatha and she smiled "Wow Ash, Pikachu sure has become a lot stronger…and Faster, I can see I am not dealing with the same Ash as last time. Alright Shadow punch".
Due to Pikachu being so close and with the attacks high accuracy Gengar fired the shadow punch smashing into Pikachu and throwing him back. Pikachu managed to flip back and land down on his feet to face Gengar. Agatha made a smile "Now Nightshade". Gengar's eyes lit up in black energy and it fired off beams of black energy towards Ash. "Now dodge it and use thunder". Pikachu charged forward at the night shade and quickly jumped up somersaulting over the beam and landed to the right of it and begun building up another thunder attack to hit Gengar.
"Quick dodge it". Pikachu fired the attack and just before it hit Gengar he disappeared from view. Pikachu who was still charging the thunderbolt waited as Gengar reappeared to his side "Now Pikachu". He fired another attack which shocked into Gengar doing some more damage. This impressed Agatha more and said "You really have adapted Pikachu to new situations. Let's try this, Hypnosis Gengar". Gengar started sending physic waves of energy heading for Pikachu.
"Quick Pikachu use Thunder shield". Pikachu powered up in energy again and launched the Electricity in front of him and it hit the ground and a wall of electricity built up and surrounded the front of Pikachu. The hypnosis waves hit into the wall of Electricity but did not pierce through as the waves went through. "Most impressive, Shadow ball". Gengar fired a sphere of ghost energy which went for Pikachu "Now get in close".
As the Shadow ball approached Pikachu who was powering down the Thunder shield. Gengar disappeared from sight. Pikachu brought down the shield just in time for the Shadow ball to smash him into the air. Ash was shocked and couldn't see Gengar anywhere "Where did he go". Agatha made a smile "Now Shadow Punch". As Pikachu was in the air, Gengar reappeared right above him and fired the shadow Punch sending Pikachu into the ground.
Pikachu skidded on his feet and managed to stand back up to face Gengar. "Pikachu, you still good to go". Pikachu made a nod "Yeah I am still good". Ash nodded to him "Alright use quick attack". Pikachu was enveloped in white energy and went charging forward towards Gengar. Agatha made a smile and waited as she knew it wouldn't work. As Pikachu was only seconds away from impact and Gengar not moving Ash smiled "Now Iron tail". Pikachu's tail lit up and he quickly flipped for it to smash into Gengar throwing him back further.
Agatha was surprised by this move and shocked that she didn't expect it "Good trick, Now Gengar use Shadow punch". Gengar recovered in time and held his hand into a fist and fired another Shadow punch and smashed once more into Pikachu hitting him down the ground once more doing a good amount of damage to Pikachu. He begun to stand up but was now feeling hurt from the continued attacks.
Pikachu faced his opponent who was also beginning to feel some strain from the fight having a good amount of damage. Ash saw this as well and said "Alright Pikachu now use Electro ball". Pikachu jumped up and powered up the sphere of electric energy. "I see, Gengar you use Shadow ball". Gengar also powered up a sphere and they both fired at each other.
They collided and went to hold against each other. Ash now saw his chance "Now use Thunderbolt". Pikachu then became covered in Electricity and launched it into the Electro ball. It begun powering up and brightened. It the pierced through the Shadow ball shattering it to pieces. Gengar panicked as the Electro ball exploded into him. Agatha saw the smoke clear in a few seconds to see Gengar was injured and now was faltering in the battle.
Pikachu landed back down and Agatha said in awe "You really have grown, become more experienced, maybe you could make it to become the Champion." Ash smiled but Agatha continued "But this battle is not over yet. Gengar use Shadow Punch".
Gengar begun building the first of shadow energy "Pikachu use Volt tackle and use Iron tail to protect yourself". Pikachu once more became enveloped in Electric energy and charged forward in a charge of thunder energy towards his opponent. Gengar fired the shadow Punch and it went straight for Pikachu. Agatha smiled as she assumed Pikachu would get hit.
Pikachu powered up his tail and jumped up and slashed his tail into the Shadow punch. Instead of hitting Pikachu it got shredded in half and exploded away which Shocked Agatha. Pikachu then landed back down and quickly charged forward and slammed his iron tail with his Volt tackle next into Gengar exploding.
Agatha saw the smoke cover but could see Pikachu jump out of it and went back in front of Ash. She saw Pikachu take some damage from Recoil as red energy sparked over him briefly. Agatha and Ash watched for the smoke to clear and could see Gengar standing with a smile looking straight at his opponent.
They both waited for a reaction from Gengar. Added to the fact he was just smiling at Pikachu did make it look a little awkward. Finally Gengar tensed up in pain and fell down on his side. Agatha was shocked by this as Gengar was down and out. Rawk raised his hand "Gengar is unable to battle. Pikachu wins, the victory goes to Ash".
Ash smiled happily and shouted "Oh right, you did it Pikachu". Pikachu smiled and ran up to Ash and jumped into his arms "You are the best buddy". Pikachu held two fingers up in the friendship symbol saying "Yeah, now it is our turn to take it to the rest of the Elite four". As Pikachu and Ash celebrated Agatha was surprised but gave a big smile and returned Gengar to his poke ball "Well done Gengar, take a long rest". Rawk was impressed as well and stepped to meet Agatha in the middle and said "So Agatha what do you think".
Agatha was quick to reply "Well he has just defeated me and his strategy and technique was very impressive. I am very impressed with him". They both walked up towards Ash who was finished celebrating with Pikachu. Ash and Pikachu looked to the pair and Agatha spoke "Well youngster, Congratulations on your victory today. I am really surprised but impressed by how far you have come".
Ash bowed to her "Thank you Agatha". Rawk agreed with her "Yeah Ash, your victory at the Indigo league was not a fluke, Pikachu is well trained I must say". Agatha made a nod before closing her eyes "Ash, You have now won your first battle against the Elite four. I will notify Lance of your victory and he will contact you for your next battle against the next member".
Ash nodded to her and happily said "I enjoyed our battle and I am sure going to take the fight to all of them and give it our all. Right Pikachu". Pikachu nodded in agreement with him. They stepped outside the front door of the Gym with Agatha speaking "Ash let me be honest".
Ash curiously looked to her as she spoke "From what I have seen today, I do believe you actually can pose a challenge to Lance. I believe you could actually win this. But of course if you do fail to win you do have the privilege to become an Elite four member and one of us step down in the event you defeat all four of us". Ash bowed once more and Rawk said "Ash, Make sure you reach Lance, I will be routing for you the entire way after witnessing such an amazing battle. Count on it". Ash now replied to them "It was good to meet you Rawk, I hope you do well in the gym".
Agatha said one more thing to Ash "Good to see you again Ash, do give the other members my regards. With all your Pokémon, I believe you can win. Good luck to you Ash". Ash took the kind words and returned them "You as well Agatha, I will look forward to when we next meet". Ash then turned away and saw the pair waving and he and Pikachu returned it as they left the gym. Ash looked to Pikachu and said "One down, three to go Pikachu". Pikachu excitedly said to him "Yep and then we will face Lance".
Alright I am going to end it there. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and the battle. Story is ebbing further to the end. Not far now. See you next chapter.
