Chapter 17! Again, more battles in this chapter, but I'm going to try for a little more plot. Enjoy the chapter!
"Ready to spar?" Ash asked. Every one of his team members nodded confidently. "Okay, choose your training partner." Ash and his team had a few hours before their tag-team battle, and Ash wanted to get in some training. Not hard enough training that anyone would be tired by the time the real battle came, but enough so that real progress was made. Charmeleon was the first to pick a partner, almost sprinting towards Grov-no, Sceptile. Ash was still having trouble realizing that Grovyle evolved. It felt almost surreal to Ash. Gabite grunted, but went over to Exeggutor. The dragon wasn't a fan of the psychic's levitation or psychic powers, but it had to be done. Pikachu, having no other choice, went to Eevee. "Teams are chosen. Start the battle! No severe damage, OK?" Ash yelled.
Ash looked fondly at his team battling. The battle that caught his attention, though, was Charmeleon's battle against Sceptile. Ash's starter was fighting as hard as it could against Sceptile, but couldn't keep up with the newly-evolved Pokémon's superior speed and strength. What really caught Ash's attention, though, was the attack Sceptile was using. It was like Leaf Blade, but used purple energy. Ash wondered where he had seen that kind of energy before. In a few minutes, the answer came to him in the form of Gabite. Gabite had the exact same king of energy when it used Dragon Breath or Dual Chop. Ash walked over to Sceptile and Charmeleon.
"Stop the battle!" Ash commanded. Both Pokémon stopped battling immediately. "Sceptile, are you using a dragon-type move?" Sceptile took a second to understand what Ash meant, but nodded. "That's great!" Ash gushed. He stopped to look at Charmeleon, who had snorted. Charmeleon raised its head high and looked away from Ash. "Sceptile, can you go practice your new moves over there?" Ash pointed to an unused spot of the training field. Then, Ash turned to Charmeleon.
"What's wrong?" Ash asked the temperamental lizard. Charmeleon had been harsh and angry the whole day, not so subtly. In response, Charmeleon pointed at Sceptile.
"You're jealous that Sceptile evolved before you, aren't you?" Ash questioned the lizard. Charmeleon nodded and Ash sighed. "Charmeleon, you're so close to evolution. You'll probably evolve in the next battle you're in. "It was the truth. Ash's Charmeleon was huge for the average Charmeleon. Also, its skin had started to become more orange, like a Charizard's skin. "Ha! I got it! All that's missing is wings! Let me go buy you some plushie ones from the souvenir shop. They have to have a plushie Charizard. We can just cut off the wings!" Ash exclaimed. Charmeleon fell over in laughter, snorting hysterically.
"Good to see you're back to normal. How about I use you in this battle?" Charmeleon took a deep breath, trying to calm itself down to reply, but all Charmeleon could do was nod. "Good to know. Get back to training with Sceptile, hear?" Ash told the fiery lizard. Charmeleon calmed down, for real, and walked over to Sceptile. Ash knew that his starter would train just as hard, but not with the venomous feelings it had carried before.
Ash blinked. The field was glowing? His eyes slowly moved over to the source of the light, only to see Sceptile standing next to the glow. Wait, who was near Sceptile? Charmeleon had been training with Sceptile, and Charmeleon was close to evolution. No, it couldn't be, could it? Ash started to sprint at the source of the light, despite the burning white light. Charmeleon howled in pain as wings tore through its skin. Ash was blown black as the white light faded away. In front of Ash stood not a lizard, but what seemed to be a good-to-honest dragon. Instead of Charmeleon's old dark red skin color, the new Pokémon had orange skin, similar to the color it had been as a Charmander. The two wings that had sprouted out of Charmeleon's hide extended to an impressive wingspan of about four feet each wing. Charmeleon's new jaw was filled with sharp fangs.
"CHAR!" Charmel-no, Charizard roared. Ash's face seemed to split apart as it grinned widely. He was proud to see his starter reach its final form. A real landmark in his journey.
"Well, Charizard, how are you feeling?" Ash asked. The first thing Ash wanted to know was if Charmeleon's evolution had gone smoothly. He didn't want to use Charizard in a battle, only to lose because it wasn't healthy. In response, Charizard flapped its massive wings and took to the skies. "So, you're good." Ash said. Charizard released a jet of flames from its maw to prove its point. And, prove its point, it had. The flames could be felt from where Ash was standing, multiple feet away from the midair Charizard.
"You know what? Training's over for today. Charizard, you can battle in the tag-team today." The dragon roared in approval.
"Yo, Ashy, ready for the big-boy battles? The semifinals should be where it starts getting rough. I'm not going to lose because of your incompetence." Gary informed Ash. The pair were walking to their semifinals tag-team battle. If they won this, Ash's next opponent would be Gary. The winner of that battle would go against the stronger member of the other finals team. Ash just rubbed his hands together like a mad scientist.
"Gary, you needn't worry about me pulling my weight. "Ash told Gary. Before Gary could respond, Ash walked into the arena.
Their opponents, Charles Prince and Ryan were already on the field. The latter had a smug smirk on his face, like he had already won the battle. Gary smirked as well. "I can't wait to wipe the grin off that kid's face."
Just then, the referee got their attention. "For this battle, each Pokémon trainer will only be allowed to use one Pokémon. Trainers, please send in your Pokémon!" In unison, all four trainers tossed out their Pokémon. On their opponent's side, a Nidoking stood in front of Charles, and an Electabuzz stood in front of Ryan. On Ash's and Gary's side of the field, Gary's Pinsir stood in front of Gary. Also, an intimidating, large, orange dragon roared from the skies. The audience covered their ears. They weren't the only ones to do so. The referee had dropped his flags and clasped his ears. Both of Ash's opponents winced, but didn't clasp their ears like the audience had. Gary looked at Charizard in amazement, and then at Ash.
"Damn." That was all Gary could muster to say. Ash smirked.
The referee bent down and picked up his flags. "Let the b-battle begin!" the referee stammered out. Ash started the battle immediately. "Charizard, Fire Fang on Nidoking." Ash knew Charizard would attack Nidoking no matter what he said due to Charizard's experience with a Nidoking back when it was a Charmeleon, at Cerulean. There were quite a few differences between this battle and the one at Cerulean. The most obvious was that Charizard was fully evolved. But, this Nidoking was clearly better trained and larger than the one back at Cerulean. It probably hadn't been evolved the moment it became a Nidorino. Ash believed this would be a hard battle.
Charizard had other ideas. The dragon flew towards Nidoking in the blink of an eye and sunk its fangs into Nidoking's leathery hide. The other Pokémon shrieked and flailed, much to Charles's dismay. "Poison Jab!" Charles ordered. Nidoking drew a purple hand back and stopped struggling, despite the severe pain.
"Charizard, break away and counter Poison Jab with Brick Break. Follow it with Air Slash! "Ash commanded. Air Slash was one of two moves Charizard had learned upon evolution. Charizard let go of its grip on Nidoking and flapped its wings back, preparing a Brick Break. The two fists collided with each other, sending a shock wave through the arena. Nidoking's arm recoiled back and the beast groaned in pain. Charizard flew a few feet in the air and cut its wing through the air, sending a wave of air at Nidoking.
"Stop it with Sludge Bomb!" Charles yelled, frantically. Venomous sludge hovered at the tip of Nidoking's horn, forming a thick ball. The sludge was thrown at Charizard's Air Slash. The blade of air cut through the thick, slimy, poisonous sludge, but fizzled out before it could reach Nidoking.
"Don't let up. Flamethrower!" Ash told Charizard. Flamethrower was the other move that Charizard learned when it evolved. Flamethrower was basically a really intense Ember. The raw flames scorched Nidoking's body, and the beast howled wildly.
"Nidoking, try to shield yourself from the flames with Ice Beam!" Charles commanded. Nidoking was on its last legs now. The beast tried to form a core of ice to shield itself from the flames, but the intensity of the fire melted the ice before any real progress was made. Charizard's flames battered Nidoking for multiple minutes, but Charizard couldn't breathe fire forever. The dragon's maw snapped shut. A few flames escaped in between Charizard's long fangs.
Ash noticed the mad glint in Charizard's eye and knew exactly what the dragon wanted to do. "Charizard, get in close and knock Nidoking out." When Charizard was a Charmeleon, the lizard had always preferred to fight brutally, with punches and kicks thrown. The lizard never had a problem with long-range attacks like Ember or Dragon Breath, but preferred to beat up his opponents with moves like Metal Claw, Slash, or Fire Fang.
Charizard roared as it soared at Nidoking, slamming a fist into Nidoking's face. From then, it was purely a brutal mashing of claws, fists, teeth, and legs. The two beasts prowled and rolled across the field. Charizard had tucked in its delicate wings so they wouldn't get damaged in the brutal clash. Pinsir's duel with the opponent's Electabuzz was completely forgotten as the crowd cheered on the clash of behemoths. First, the crowd cheered on Charizard as it landed an uppercut to Nidoking. The other beast's neck snapped back and Nidoking stumbled. Then, the crowd roared in Nidoking's favor as its muscled tail sent Charizard reeling. It was several bloody minutes before Nidoking was brutally thrashed into the ground by Charizard. The orange dragon stepped on top of its victim and roared to the skies.
At that minute, Pinsir tossed Electabuzz across the field and hit it with a powerful Mega Punch to end the battle. It had only just come to Ash that Gary was also battling. "And, the winners of the match are Ash Ketchum and Gary Oak!" the referee announced. The crowd burst into cheers and clapped in applause. "These trainers will be battling each other next time you see them, folks!" Ash was barely listening to the referee. Instead, he had walked over to Charizard.
"Charizard, you're so strong!" Ash exclaimed joyfully. Charizard snorted. What did Ash think? Of course he was strong!
"Yo Ashy, let's get off the field!" Gary yelled, snapping Ash out of his stupor.
"Yeah, coming." Ash replied. He returned Charizard to its poke ball, and walked off the field behind Gary.
Ash sat down at the dining table in between Leaf and Gary. "Leaf, how did your match go?" Ash asked.
Leaf groaned and shook her head. "Not well. We lost to the other team. There was one guy who pretty much did all the work. Even Ivysaur couldn't stand up to his Magnezone." That caught Ash's attention. Magnezone were notoriously powerful electric types. They weren't very agile, but hit like a truck. As the three young trainers dug into their food, the announcer demanded for everyone's attention.
"Can everyone please listen up?" the announcer asked. No one listened. "It's about the tournament." That statement caught almost everyone, and cutlery clattered onto the table. "Thanks to a generous benefactor, we have more prizes! Everyone from the top four will now be receiving a rare and powerful Pokémon. This is what will happen. The winner of the competition will get the first pick out of the Pokémon available. The runner-up will get to choose next, and so on until the fourth place. The fourth place will take the Pokémon left by the other trainers. For the non-Pokémon awards like Ultra balls, the prizes will be staying the same. "Ash and Gary looked at each other. Both trainers were now guaranteed to get a rare Pokémon!
"Now, let's see those Pokémon's names, shall we?" the announcer asked. Everyone at the dining table roared their approval. "The first Pokémon is a Pokémon from Hoenn, Bagon!" Ash's eyes widened. Clearly, the announcer wasn't kidding about rare Pokémon. "The second Pokémon is also from Hoenn, Beldum!" Again, the crowed cheered. "The third Pokémon is from Unova, Deino! And, last but not least, a Pokémon all the way from Alola, Jangmo-o! "
So, Chapter 17 is done! Now, there are four Pokémon Ash can pick, if he wins. Which one should he pick? Leave a suggestion in the comments. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!