Chapter 25! I am so sorry for my erratic updates, but with school starting, and some stuff at home, it's pretty hard. I hope you enjoy the chapter!
Fuchsia City. Ash took far too much pride in reaching the city than he should have. The young trainer was thrilled with the Pokémon in the city. Ash had run around the city like a hyper toddler in a toy store, looking at the few attractions there. The only reason Ash was so excited was because Fuchsia city was the home to the Safari Zone. Every decent trainer dreamed of going to the famed Safari Zone, for good reason. It was essentially a zone filled with rare Pokémon, and trainers had to pay a fee to walk in and catch any amount of Pokémon they wanted with the given Safari balls, a bag of bait, and a bag of mud balls. The trainers didn't battle the wild Pokémon, though. In fact, your only options while in the Safari Zone would be to throw bait or mud at the wild Pokémon. If things went bad, you could use your Pokémon. But only if you had no other option.
Ash decided to ignore the dangers of the Safari Zone, as any young trainer would do. Rare Pokémon? Forget the risks, focus on the reward. But seriously, Ash couldn't stop moving, due to pure excitement. Whether it was a bouncing finger, or a shivering toe, he was undoubtedly moving. Pikachu had to jump off Ash's shoulder, and the yellow mouse was trailing Ash, who was bouncing on his heels, all the way to the Pokémon Center. Before going to the Safari Zone, Ash had to heal his Pokémon. There were quite a few trainers lining Ash's way to Fuchsia. At least he kept his priorities right.
Ash grinned to the corners of his mouth. The Safari Zone stood wide and tall; even better than Ash had expected. Hundreds of people brushed past him, eager to catch Pokémon. He could hear them whispering to some of their friends. "Did you hear that they just sent in Pokémon from Unova! No way!" Ash spent minutes just looking at the vastness of the Safari Zone. Ash slowly threw off his shock and followed the rest of the crowd into the gates of the Safari Zone.
Inside was a somewhat small room. Surprisingly, there was only one man working the register. Ash felt bad for the man. You could see his straining red face and the beads of sweat rolling down even as he worked at lightspeed to send people into the Safari Zone. Ash took his waiting time to look around the room. There were multiple posters, all about the different regions in the zone. There was one region that interested Ash. The Peak. Magnemite and Larvitar both lived there. Larvitar were notoriously rare Pokémon, and their evolution, Tyranitar, was often regarded as Johto's answer to Kanto's Dragonite. Tyranitar was one of the strongest rock-types in the world. Ash wasn't there for Larvitar, though. He wanted Magnemite.
Ash couldn't forget Charizard's battle against Magnezone on the St. Anne, for two reasons. One, obviously, was that he lost a final of a huge tournament. The other, though, was Magnezone's strength. Not many Pokémon could take a full-power Flamethrower from Charizard at all, and Magnezone met the attack head-on. Could you blame Ash for wanting one?
Doing a bit of background research, Ash had discovered Magnezone's evolutionary line was native to Kanto, much to his shock. In fact, Ash hadn't been aware that Magnemite could evolve twice. Apparently, Magneton evolved under special circumstances. Magneton could only evolve when it was in a special magnetic field. Magneton's electrical charges were affected by the power of the magnetic field, and the Pokémon then evolved into Magnezone.
Ash's only worry was that he already had an electric-type, Pikachu. Every time the thought came up, he would brush it off by saying that Magnemite and Pikachu were different types of Pokémon. Magnezone was slow. Its strategy was to take a hit and return a stronger one. Pikachu preferred to hit-and-run. Still, the thought gnawed at the back of Ash's mind, muddying his thoughts. None of Ash's Pokémon had developed anything worse than a friendly rivalry.
In fact, the only Pokémon with a friendly rivalry were Deino and Cranidos. Both Pokémon were confident that they were the better head butter. They would go at it, crashing into each other, until Ash or one of their older team members would stop them. Ash sometimes wondered how far they would go till one of them gave in. Deino probably would be the one to give in first, for obvious reasons. Cranidos was a Pokémon born to attack others with its head, even when it evolved. Deino only relied on its head till it evolved, when it then adapted to more long range and specially based attacks, not physical.
"Next!" the man at the register called. Ash came up to the front of the line, letting his thoughts leave. Ash handed the man two thousand poke dollars, and the man flawlessly placed the money in the register. Ash couldn't help but wonder how long the same man had been working the same register. "Go on." the man said. In a louder voice, he called, "Next!" Ash walked pass the low door next to the register, and stood in front of the door to the Safari Zone.
A tall, muscular man wearing Safari Zone gear came up to him. "Rules. You can keep one Pokémon outside. You cannot use your Pokémon for battling other trainers in the Safari Zone or battling the Pokémon in the Safari Zone. Understand?" the man said. Ash's first thought was to have Charizard outside, but quickly dismissed the idea. He wasn't likely to see many Pokémon with what was basically a dragon lumbering behind him. Ash nodded to the man, letting him know Ash understood.
The man then tossed a pair of trousers into Ash. "Wear those. They will protect you against the mud and other natural items in the Zone. Got it?" Ash shook his head as he slipped into the trousers. They were a bit loose, but Ash didn't dare say that to the grumpy man.
Next the man rudely shoved a bag of Safari Balls into Ash's hands. "Safari Balls. You are only allowed to use Safari Balls to catch Pokémon in the Safari Zone. If you catch a Pokémon using other types of poke balls, that Pokémon will be returned to the Safari Zone at the end of your trip and you will be fined. Understand?" The man gave Ash two smaller bags of bait and mud.
"You are permitted to use bait and mud to assist you in catching Pokémon." Ash nodded quickly, getting bored of the conversation. The Safari Zone was right there!
"You may go in." Ash sprinted through the door out into the Safari Zone, his bags of bait, mud, and Safari balls swinging wildly on his belt.
Ash trudged through the mud, Deino following. The pair were currently in the swamp biome, much to their dismay. Ash was knee-deep in mud, and was fairly sure that Wooper were bouncing against his calves. Deino was faring no better. The dragon's belly fur brushed against the mud, slowly turning into a brown coat instead of black. "Gah!" Ash stumbled back as a Sentret ran straight over the mud in front of Ash. The young trainer fell onto Deino, who stumbled, but didn't give in and fall into the mud. "Thanks Deino. I would have been toast without you." The dragon grunted affectionately and helped Ash get back up.
Ash had chosen Deino to follow him because the dragon was much smaller than most of his Pokémon, but would be enough to intimidate the Pokémon Ash wasn't interested in, like Caterpie. At least, Ash told Deino that was the reason. The real reason was that Ash wanted Deino to warm up to him. He had a feeling that Deino didn't trust its trainer as much as the other Pokémon did, even Honedge, who had only joined about a week or two ago. Ash didn't think he had done anything wrong, but had consulted Professor Oak on the matter. The professor had suggested that since Deino was a Dark-type, it was natural that Deino wasn't as quick to warm up to Ash as the rest of his Pokémon. Dark-types tended to be sheltered and closed off. Professor Oak had suggested spending more time with Deino. It had to be hard spending time with one Pokémon when he had so many to keep up with.
Deino grunted happily as they reached the edge of the swamp. Ash trudged out of the mud, dark brown mud dripping down his trousers. He didn't want to think of where he'd be without the trousers. The bags of safari balls and bait hadn't been touched, but Ash let the bag of mud slink through the swamp with him. It was already mud, anyway. Ash straggled out of the swamp, into the biome he had wanted to get into. The peak biome. Just a little of an upward hike and he would be there.
A little hike. That's all it was supposed to be. It wasn't supposed to be a rough, muddy, stone-filled path that extended to the end of the world. At least, that's what Ash felt like it was. The only reason he kept going was the promise of Pokémon on the top of the Peak. Deino was on the absolute other side of the spectrum. The dragon was relentlessly marching away. If Ash didn't know better, he would have thought the Pokémon was a steel-type machine. Ash still couldn't bring himself to be sure about the suddenly machine-like Pokémon until Deino cried out in pain and fell onto its side. Ash whipped around and looked at the dragon, concerned. "What happened?" Ash asked, approaching Deino.
Deino only cried out and waved one leg in the air wildly. "Woah, calm down!" Ash said, trying to approach the frantic dragon. Deino relaxed slightly, and Ash grabbed the dragon's leg to examine it. It was easy to notice the sharp piece of wood that had dug into Deino's heel.
"Hang on for a second. You got a wood splinter. I'm going to take it out, okay?" Ash idly wondered how Deino could stand up to Charizard's flames and Cranidos's headbutts, but hurt so badly with a simple splinter. Ash pinched the splinter with his nails, and yanked it out. Deino squealed and wriggled, whacking Ash with its foot in the process.
"Ow!" Ash cried out as he recoiled, his right cheek flaming after it had gotten kicked. Deino immediately stood up and nuzzled its apologies into Ash, pressing its fur into its trainer.
"It's fine, Deino. I wasn't badly hurt." Ash nudged the young dragon to keep moving on. Deino did so, however grudgingly and with a slight limp. Ash followed behind the dragon, rubbing his cheek bashfully.
"Finally!" Ash and Deino had finally reached the top of the Peak, much to the former's delight. Ash took a quick note of his surroundings, looking for any stray Pokémon. There didn't seem to be anything in sight, except for a few Fearow screeching in the air.
"Shut up, will you!" Ash yelled at the Fearow. In hindsight, that hadn't been the smartest idea. The Fearow all turned their beady little eyes down on Ash and Deino. Ash tried to repent and gave a winning smile.
"Sorry?" The Fearow weren't amused and dived down at Ash.
"Run!" Ash yelled to Deino as the duo ran across the flat land on the top of the mountain. Deino, it turned out, was more tired than Ash had thought. Without the rush of adrenaline from seeing the Fearow due to its blindness, the dragon wasn't going to be able to outrun the birds of prey. Ash dropped back to Deino, fingering one of the poke balls on his belt.
If the Fearow started attacking, Ash would send Cranidos and Pikachu out to attack. Both of them had advantages against flying types, and the latter would probably electrocute Ash if it stayed in its poke ball for too long. Any of Ash's larger Pokémon would probably attract a crowd, too. Even if the man said Ash could use his Pokémon to defend himself, Ash would prefer it if he were able to keep it on the down-low. Deino, however, seemed to realize just how near the Fearow were and wheeled around, firing a Dragon Breath in their general direction. The leading Fearow screeched as it was engulfed in the purple breath that lashed across it, and flapped its wings wildly to dispel the attack. The other Fearow stopped moving, now unsure what to do now that their leader wasn't chasing Ash.
Ash whispered to Deino, "Good job! Let's go while they're occupied." The pair scuttled away, with not a second to lose. The Fearow looked around, searching for their prey, but alas, Ash and Deino were out of sight.
Ash walked around the Peak for about thirty minutes seeing nothing other than the occasional Spearow. But , in the end, it was Deino that picked up a noise. Ash saw the dragon's head perk up and asked," What happened?".
Deino ignored its trainer and nearly U-turned. This time, Deino was walking with purpose. Ash knew because he had to jog to keep up. They walked for just about a minute till Deino came to a screeching halt. Ash looked up, and couldn't see anything until, "Oh." He was too dumbfounded to say anything else. Deino had come to a halt directly in front of a group of Magnemite and Magneton.
"You heard them from that far away?" Ash whispered in amazement. If Ash could see Deino's eyes, he would confidently bet that the dragon was rolling them. Deino didn't bother to grace Ash with an answer, and instead butted its head against the Safari balls.
"I'm not going to catch one yet. The rest of the group might get angry." Ash had been humbled by the event from the Fearow. He didn't want to get into the same predicament with Magneton and Magnemite. Ash sat down, and the wild Pokémon ignored him. While he sat there, Ash wondered if the Pokémon would ever move, or if he would be sitting till he grew white hair. Just at that moment, as if the Magneton had heard his pleas, they started to move. The Magnemite followed, but they lagged behind. One Magnemite, though, was completely oblivious to the world around it.
Ash grinned at his luck. Grabbing a Safari Ball, he chucked the green and brown stained ball at Magnemite, but the ball bounced off harmlessly. Worse, Magnemite snapped out of its stupor. The steel-type looked around, probably for others of its kind, but didn't seem particularly bothered when it couldn't find any. Then, it looked down at the Safari ball. Ash watched with bated breath as Magnemite drifted down to the ball, and poked the button with its left magnet. Ash didn't even twitch a muscle as he watched the ball. For the longest time, the ball didn't even roll once, and Ash idly wondered if Magnemite had escaped. It was an eternity till the ball clicked once, signifying the capture.
"Yes!" Ash cried, thrilled with his capture. Sure, Magnemite itself had done most of the work, but it was now Ash's Pokémon, Ash's teammate in battle. Ash nearly skipped giddily as he picked up the Safari ball, latching it onto his belt. Deino was oblivious to what had happened, being unable to see, and flinched as Ash yelled.
"Sorry." Ash apologized to the little dragon, who just huffed in return.
"Gary?" Ash called out. On his way out of the Safari Zone, Ash was sure that he caught a glimpse of Gary's spiky brown hair. He turned out to be right, as Ash's fellow trainer backtracked out of the forest trees and into Ash's view.
"Ashy boy? What are you doing here?"
"Catching Pokémon, what do you think?" Ash replied.
"Well, I have been looking forward to a battle. Haven't beaten you in a while." Gary commented.
"You've never beaten me." Ash said, amused.
A glint caught in Gary's eyes. "Well, I need to change that."
"Let me see your Pokémon! What did you catch in the Safari Zone?" Ash asked, now on one of the Fuschia training fields. Pikachu was perched on its trainer's shoulder once again, satisfied to be out of the cage that was a poke ball.
"We'll both show our Pokémon at the same time. Ready, set, go!" Gary said. Both trainers tossed out all their new captures since the St. Anne. Ash released Deino, Cranidos, Honedge, Hitmonlee, and Magnemite. The former three looked around, confused on why they were outside their poke balls. Magnemite didn't even blink.
Looking over to Gary's side of the field, he saw Jangmo-o and an Electabuzz.
Gary whistled appreciatively. "You've been busy. How are you even carrying all those Pokémon with you?"
Ash smiled. "I know people." It was a stereotypical movie line, but he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to use it.
"More importantly, what's up with your Magnemite? Magneton's usually a little out of it, but that thing looks like it's hypnotized!" Gary commented. Ash looked over at Magnemite, and saw just how accurate Gary's words were. The steel-type's single eye was transfixed into a random direction. Ash examined the Pokémon, looking all around it. He had gotten all his Pokémon healed when he went to the Pokémon center, so it couldn't be that Magnemite was tired.
For good measure, Ash poked the Pokémon, and instantly regretted it. His hair stuck up in rather tall spikes after his electrocution. Ash's Pokémon, Gary, and Gary's Pokémon all broke into laughter. Ash, for obvious reasons, was not amused. "Hey!"
Finally, he got a reaction from Magnemite. The steel-type turned to Ash and blinked its one eye ridiculously slowly, like it was a Hypno or Drowzee instead of Magnemite. Ash sighed. "Whatever. I'll ask Professor Oak about Magnemite later. Let's battle!"
Gary grinned and wordlessly walked down to the other side of the field. Ash wondered where Gary's trash talking had gone as he patted down his hair. "Let's get this going, Ashy. I don't have all day to beat you." There was the trademark trash-talking of Gary Oak.
Ash grinned. "We'll see what the result is when the battle's over." Ash looked at Honedge.
"Honedge, let's see how you do in battle." The ghost-and-steel type happily floated onto the field, waiting impatiently for an opponent.
"Electabuzz, crush it." Gary commanded, his voice devoid of emotion and completely focused on the battle.
Both Pokémon glared at each other. Ash hadn't realized Honedge was capable of looking mad. The Pokémon had always been happy, since the two weeks Ash had known it.
Before either Pokémon attacked, though, a third Pokémon entered the battle. "Go, Arbok!"
Ash looked at the monster of an Arbok on the field. The average height for Arbok was eleven and a half feet. This one was nearly thirteen feet. He looked at Gary, and their thoughts were in sync. "We're screwed."
Chapter 25 is done! I hope you guys enjoy it. Next chapter Ash will challenge the Fuschia Gym, but that's not all. Also, I would appreciate it if you guys wrote a small review because someone decided to ruin the review page with over twenty comments with sexual and other references, and it gives new readers a bad impression. This chapter was also a bit more relaxed than the others, since there were no big battles or Team Rocket stuff. I hope that's okay. Before chapter 26, though, I am going to update Chapter one, because a lot of people said I should. Thanks for reading!