Building a Team for the Ages!
Ash met up with his companions Ritchie and Paul the very next day at the Indigo Pokemon Reserve in the field that their Pokemon inhabited. While May was aware of Mewtwo's foresight of an oncoming danger, Ash figured that if there were two guys he'd want fighting by his side, it would be Paul and Ritchie. "How was your battle Paul?" Ash asked, opening up the chance for a conversation.
"Great. I finally got the chance to defeat Brandon. But I won by the skin of my teeth." Paul told the two other men. "It ended with my Torterra versus his Regice, so we had a serious type disadvantage. But I kept my head up and knew that if I trusted Torterra, it would pull through for me. A Stone Edge later and victory was ours."
"That's inspiring, man," Ritchie said. "If only 10 year old Paul could see you now!"
"How was your battle yesterday, Ritch?"
"It was nuts!" Ritchie exclaimed. "I lost, but it was a great battle. This masked guy is the real deal. He has some of the strongest Pokemon I've ever seen! Zippo and his Charizard really tore into each other, but it was all in the spirit of a great battle!"
"Yeah, I've heard about that Masked trainer!" Paul added. "I watched him battle against some waiter with green hair in the tournament, and his Lapras was built like a tank! He was able to take out all their Pokemon with his Lapras alone."
"Oh man! I should have been there!" Ash exclaimed, thinking that if there was any chance he'd face him, he ought to have some kind of knowledge of his battling style. "I can't believe I forgot about your match!"
"That's funny Ash," RItchie said. "Your mind is always on Pokemon. What made you forget?"
"(Erhem)-May," Paul said, pretending to cough to stifle her name.
"Oh that's riiiight," Ritchie said with a wide grin. "Your Mom had Manaphy, yesterday, didn't she?" Putting an arm around the Aura Guardian, whose face was bright red.
"Eheh- So anyways Ritchie, you lost your battle? That stinks," Ash said as a means to change the subject. "I was really looking forward to having a battle."
"Why are you so bummed," Ritchie asked. Ash then filled in Ritchie and Paul in on the details from his meditation dream.
"So let me ask you this," Paul said. "How many times do you Guardians get these insights into the future."
"It was actually Mewtwo who warned me about it. When we Guardians get sight of the future, it's often for things that are much darker. He said that I am to set out alone so I can seek the help of the legendary Pokemon! But I can't go! That's why I need you guys's help. I need people to help me fight in this battle, because I've now realized I can't do it alone. These aren't just some poachers in the Viridian City Forest. I was hoping that you would battle me to test your mettle. I figured that the tournament would be the perfect setting for it."
"Well, if it means preventing the end times and saving the Kanto Region I'll have a battle with you right now," Ritchie said. "As long as I'm teammate Number 1!"
"Great!" Ash said. "But May's actually teammate Number 1"
"Team mate Number 2!" Ritchie said, correcting himself.
"You don't want to be called Team mate Number 2," Paul said, smirking at the name. Ash outright laughed at the sound of it.
Ash and Ritchie met up in the clearing for a battle. On the sidelines Paul, Dawn, Delia, May, Manaphy, Alexa and the rest of Ash's Pokemon watching intently. However, above the battlefield there was a certain dragon type trainer looking on from one of his Dragonite's.
"I'm not holding back Ritchie. Let's have a 3 on 3 match! In order to save time, any substitution results in the Pokemon being eliminated from the match"
"Sounds good, Chief!" Ritchie exclaimed, enlarging his first Pokeball.
"Go Electivire!" Ash yelled, sending out the evolved form of an Electabuzz he had captured many years ago.
"Go Cruise!" Ritchie yelled, throwing out the Pseudo-Legendary of the Johto Region.
"Electivire, use Ice Combat!"
"Cruise, use Dark Pulse!" Cruise the Tyranitar fired off black rings straight at Electivire. Electivire jumped into the air dodging the attack. Electivire then came down and mixed a Close Combat with an Ice Punch. Cruise froze in a solid block of ice.
"I'll withdraw Cruise. He can't do much when he's frozen. I'm down to two now," Ritchie replied. "Go Zippo!"
"Why would Ritchie withdraw Cruise like that?" Alexa asked May.
"Tyranitar's are thought to be cold-blooded. This means that Cruise's body heat inside the ice will hardly do anything to melt it," May said. "At that time, Cruise would have been a sitting duck to Electivire. It just shows how much Ritchie cares about his Pokemon's well-being, not wanting them to get hurt when they really don't need to."
"Electivire, use Thunder Combat!"
"Zippo, dodge and use Blast Burn!"
Electivire tried to jump and hit Zippo out of the air with a large fist, but the Charizard was too high to connect with. Once Electivire was back on the ground, Zippo used its Blast Burn and hit Electivire with what resembled a more intense Flamethrower. Electivire keeled over, crossing its arms over its chest to cover the area it had been hit.
"Alright Zippo, hit him with a Dragon Fang!" Ritchie exclaimed. His Charizard's maw was enveloped in a multi-colored glow, as it spun through the air, before soaring down at Ash's Electivire.
"Thunder Combat!" Ash shouted, which prompted his Electivire to look straight on at the oncoming Charizard. Having enough time to draw its fist backwards and charge a Thunder Punch, Electivire's fist rocketed forwards, performing a well-timed uppercut to Zippo's jaw. Unable to bite anything, Zippo's head was whipped backwards as Ash's Electivire met it with a barrage of punches to its exposed torso. Zippo fell to the ground, with its body surging with electricity.
"Zippo return!" Ritchie called, returning his starter Pokemon to its ball. "You did great. Now let's give it all we got, Sparky!"
Ritchie sent out his Raichu, who stood tall, unintimidated by its much larger opponent. "You know what to do." Ritchie's Raichu nodded, as its cheeks surged with electricity. Standing on all fours, Sparky dashed across the field using Double Team as it ran. Breaking apart from one another, the Raichu clones ran circles around Ash's Electivire. Throwing Thunder Punches at random clones, Electivire was unable to determine where the real Raichu was.
"Now, use Focus Blast!" Ritchie called out. One by one the Raichu clones froze, circling Electivire. Each clone formed a large orange sphere of energy in their hands, which they drew back before all firing at once. The true Focus Blast hit Electivire in the back of the head, causing it to hit the ground face first. Raichu approached the downed Pokemon, grabbing the top of its head, raising it to observe its unconscious face, before dropping it on the ground once more. Patting the dust off its paws, Sparky the Raichu trudged back over to Ritchie's side of the field, high fiving its trainer.
"Um, Electivire is unable to battle," Paul announced after watching that exchange.
"Electivire, return. Go Gliscor! Use a Double Team and Stone Edge!" Multiple copies of Gliscor surrounded Sparky, each shooting shards of hard rock at the pokemon.
"Sparky, use Volt Tackle to dodge."
Sparky ran in a circle, dodging stones, and knocking out Gliscor clones until it came across the correct Gliscor. While the Volt Tackle itself didn't do any damage to Gliscor (since it was an electric type move on a ground type Pokemon, the force of the Raichu hitting it was enough to send it out of the air, balancing on its tail.
"Gliscor," Ash yelled. "Use U-Turn!" Gliscor bounced off of its tail and collided with Sparky, but then returned to its pokeball. "Go Lucario!" Ash said, catching his sister's attention from the side lines.
"Finish this with a Bone Rush!" Lucario's signature bone created from aura slammed into Sparky, sending it flying towards a tree. Sparky countered, however, rotating its body to be feet first on the base of the tree Sparky then pushed off with a Volt Tackle. Lucario, however, adapted to the situation. Dropping its bone staff to the ground, it formed an Aura sphere in between its two palms. Pushing its hands forwards, the aura sphere rocketed into the oncoming Raichu, creating an explosion once it collided with the Volt Tackle. When the smoke cleared, Sparky was unable to battle.
"And Ash takes the win!" Paul announced, declaring the winner of the battle.
"Ah nuts," Ritchie said. "Sparky, you did awesome. You deserve a nice rest." He stated, returning his Pokemon to its ball. "I'm sorry I couldn't defeat you Ash. You probably don't want me on your team," hanging his head low.
"Are you kidding," Ash replied. "You may have lost, but you always have this awesome level of intensity to your battles. I could really use your help when the time comes."
"Oh you know I'm down with that!" Ritchie said, clasping hands with Ash. "Number 2 bay-beee!"
"That was an impressive battle," a voice from the sky shouted down. "How about I have a shot at you."
"Lance!" Ash called upwards.. "You want to battle me?"
"Of course!" Lance yelled from his Dragonite. "On one condition. You and I have a dragon type battle! And we only use 3 dragon Pokemon that we own."
"Sounds great!" Ash said. "I'll see you there."
"Excellent," Lance called back. "Let's have it a week from today. I shall reserve one of the tournament stadiums for it."
"Deal," Ash said. "My next battle in the tournament is two weeks from now, so some training would do me some good."
"If you beat me, maybe I will have to join this little club you are putting together," Lance said.
"Oh man," Ash said, realizing that Lance was probably misreading the situation. "You may wanna get down here! I got some important stuff to tell you!" He then caught the Champion up on why he was forming a team in the first place.
"That does sound quite dire," Lance said. "Regardless of the outcome, I will do my best to aid you in this cause. As Champion of the Kanto Region it is my duty to step up and protect the region when dangers like this are on the rise."
"Thanks Lance," Ash said. "Until then I'll be looking forward to our battle!"
"See you then!" Lance called as he and his Dragonite flew off towards the Indigo Plateau.
"Don't forget," Paul said coming forwards. "I still want a piece of the action!"
"Me too!" Added Dawn.
"Me too," said Alexa.
"Over my dead body," Delia said to Alexa. This caused the group, excluding Alexa, to laugh.