I'm alive.

Sorry it's taken so long to get this chapter out, I'm blaming work and a massive amount of writer's block.

I'm still struggling with writer's block but I'm making my way through.

Here's hoping it won't take as long to get the next chapter out.

Chapter 47

Terra Duellum

The battlefield of the Gym had changed from the last time Ash was here, it was no longer a normal looking field. Where it had once been a flat dust coloured area with white markings, it was now an field of sand with some rock or varying sizes scattered about. The lights above sent a harsh light glaring down at the ground and sending the temperature rising, there was also a low breeze coming from the sides of the Gym randomly picking up some sand and blowing around. It was as if the creator of this battlefield had taken a section of desert and built the Gym around it.

Ash turned his eyes to the far side of the battlefield, towards the voice that sounded familiar to him but he couldn't put a face to it. His eyes met with the Gym Leader's, in front of him with a playful smirk on her face was a tall woman who Ash guessed would be her mid-twenties, lightly tanned skin, long blonde hair falling down to the middle of her back and her eyes were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. She was wearing a light brown cap with the Viridian City Gym Badge emblazoned on the front, a fairly tight black vest top, light brown cargo shorts and hiking boots.

"Don't you know it's rude to keep a girl waiting? I've been looking forward to this battle for a while now." She said, pausing as she noticed the look of confusion on Ash's face. "You don't remember me? I'm hurt." She sighed. "I suppose it can't be helped, we did only meet the once and it wasn't for long." The woman removed her sunglasses to reveal a pair of blue eyes. "I guess it's time to reintroduce myself. My name is Olivia and I'm the Viridian City Gym Leader. Ready to make the earth move?" She smirked.

"You bet." Ash replied with a smile, stepping into the Trainer's box as May and Pikachu moved to the nearby shaded stands. Manaphy sighed happily as he got out of the heat of the harsh lights.

"Six on six work for you?" Olivia asked, pulling a Pokéball from behind her back.

"Sure, let's do this." Ash said, lifting a Pokéball from his belt.

"Go Nidoqueen/I choose you Meganium." They shouted at the same time with their Pokémon appearing in flashes of white light. Nidoqueen slammed her fists together and bellowed as she finished materialising while Meganium spun around and immediately tackled Ash to the ground, rubbing her head against him affectionately. Olivia looked on in stunned surprise for a couple of seconds before grabbing her stomach and laughing at the top of her lungs.

"I guess the ladies really do love you." She said, gasping for air.

"Meg Meg." Meganium hummed happily as Ash tried to get back to his feet.

"We're in a Gym battle Meganium, I'll spend time with you later okay? Can we battle now though please?" Ash asked as he gently pushed his Pokémon back, Meganium gave Ash one more affectionate nudge before turning and walking back onto the battlefield. Once she was ready she reared up and slammed her front legs on to the ground, sending out a small tremor as she hardened her gaze at Nidoqueen.

"Nidoqueen, Toxic!" Olivia shouted. Nidoqueen reared her head back before spitting out a large orb of dark purple ooze towards Meganium.

"Block it with Razor Leaf." Ash countered. A flurry of leaves flew out of the petals that grew around Meganium's neck impacting the incoming attack but not slowing it down much. "Increase the power." Meganium's muscles tensed as the flurry of leaves turned into a constant stream, no space being seen between each separate leaf, the orb of poison slowed to a stop and was blasted into a spray of muck. Meganium then turned her attack onto Nidoqueen, aiming to take the poison and ground type Pokémon out in one move.

"Dodge and counter with Earthquake." Nidoqueen ran to the side, causing Razor Leaf to miss as Olivia dove to the side to evade the edges of the attack. "That was a bit close." Olivia said as she brushed a couple of stray leaves from her shoulder. After gaining a bit of space ahead of Meganium's attack Nidoqueen bellowed and stamped on the ground, setting off a large tremor.

"Vine Whip!" Ash shouted over the rumbling of the ground. Cutting off the power of Razor Leaf Meganium lashed at the ground with all of the vines she could produce, lifting herself off the ground but not before taking some damage from the attack. "Body Slam." Using her vines to aim, Meganium dropped on top of Nidoqueen with a mighty crash.

"Strength!"A thin aura of dark red surrounded Nidoqueen as she braced herself against the ground and flexed all of her muscles, throwing Meganium off and into the air."Seismic Toss!"Nidoqueen launched herself into the air, grabbing Meganium and driving her back into the sandy ground."Fire Blast!"Flames flickered from the sides of Nidoqueen's mouth before she bellowed and released a red hot symbol of fire at the Herb Pokémon while she was still stunned from the impact.A cloud of dust blocked Meganium from sight as the super effective attack struck her head on.

"I was expecting more from you Ash."Olivia said, "I have to say I'm disappointed."Her confidence wavered slightly as she saw the smile on Ash's face.

"Rapid fire." From out of the cloud of dust a volley of short sun-coloured beams flew towards Nidoqueen, who was still in the air, impacting her hard and dropping her to the ground."Keep it up."

"Dig!Get out of there!"Olivia rolled onto her front and started burrowing into the ground.

"Oh no you don' , don't let her get away."Vines shot out from the petals around her neck and wrapped around Nidoqueen's was a brief struggle between the two Pokémon before Meganium reared up on her back legs and hurled Nidoqueen into the air once more.

"Rapid fire again."Without the dust blocking sight of Meganium, Olivia could see the Herb Pokémon's petals repeatedly flash white before a bolt of solar energy fired from Meganium's mouth.

"Protect!"Olivia shouted as Nidoqueen was being pummelled by the attack.A pale green sphere formed around Nidoqueen, deflecting the rest of the incoming Nidoqueen landed on the ground the protective sphere faded."End this with Giga Impact!"Nidoqueen roared as a purple aura enveloped her form, she charged towards Meganium with yellows and purple streaks spiralling around her.

"Not good."Ash said, "Meganium, Solar Storm!"Quickly charging another Solar Beam Meganium let it fly and following it up with a Petal shining pink petals spiralled around the beam of golden energy as they slammed into the approaching Nidoqueen, who was nearly on top of Meganium by the time the combination attack was launched.

The resulting explosion sent a blanket of smoke across the entire pulled a small remote from her pocket and clicked a button which activated a series of fans that quickly dispersed the smoke, revealing the knocked out forms of both Meganium and Nidoqueen.

"First match is a draw."Olivia said, switching the fans off as she recalled Nidoqueen."Ready for round two?"

"Let's do it."Ash grinned in reply, returning Meganium and pulling the next Pokéball from his belt.

"Go Excadrill/I choose you Greninja!"Ash and Olivia said in unison.

As their Pokémon materialised and locked eyes with each other, they settled into combat ready stances.

"Water Shuriken!"Ash reacted instantly, his hands touching the light blue crossed on his legs and creating the water Ninja Pokémon started to sprint around the Subterrene Pokémon launching his raised her steel claws up to defend against the attacks, slashing through some while others impacted her skin.

"Drill Run!"Olivia leapt into the air, turning into a drill and spun rapidly disappearing into the sand leaving no trace.

"Get out of there."Ash said, Greninja slapped his hands together and vanished in a puff of smoke a split second before Excadrill burst up from the ground.

Shifting out of drill form Excadrill looked around, searching for her opponent but not seeing any sign of him.

"Water Barrage!"A shower of small Water Pulses fell from the roof as Greninja leapt from one rafter to another.

"Dig!"Excadrill once move dove underground to avoid the was kicked into the air from each impact and when it cleared Greninja was standing in the centre of the field, eyes closed and arms folded."Drill Run!"

"Double Team."As Excadrill surfaced underneath Greninja he disappeared and a number of other Greninja appeared in a circle surrounding Excadrill."Cut."

"Drill Run on the spot, and have your arms out!"As instructed Excadrill started to spin in place with her claws out, tearing through the charging Greninja until there were none left.

"Alright, it's been a while but let's see if we've still got it."Ash said, "Time to show Olivia out combined power."Ash's eyes flashed and a vortex of water formed in the rafters before slamming down onto the 's form could be seen shining within the vortex, changing in little ways and once the vortex burst the water collected into a giant Water Shuriken on his back."Battle Bond."

"Rock Slide!"

"Dark Waters."Ash-Greninja darted between the falling boulders with a Water Pulse and Dark Pulse combination in between his dark blue, almost black orb was a ball of spinning energy with a ring of water circling it.

"Dodge with Swords Dance."Excadrill sharpened her claw against each other as she twirled out of the way but not enough as Ash-Greninja's attack still managed to land a glancing blow."Metal Claw."

"Block with Cut." The two Pokémon had a rapid exchange of attacks before Ash-Greninja used Substitute and launched a Hydro Pump at Excadrill's back sending her into slamming into a boulder."Water Pulse!"Ash-Greninja formed a ball of surging water between his palms and launched it into Excadrill's body before the ground type Pokémon could extract herself from the attack exploded unleashing a wave of over the boulder and once the water cleared Excadrill slumped out of the boulder unable to continue the battle.

With a few words of thanks, Olivia returned Excadrill to her Pokéball and took hold of her next Poké the ball into the battlefield it burst open revealing a light greyish-blue Pokémon with pale yellowish-green eyes, inner ears, mid-section and additional sparkle of light surrounded the Pokémon after the initial flash of her release from the Pokéball."Go Gliscor, Aerial Ace!"

"Smokescreen."Ash-Greninja formed a hand sign and breathed out a cloud of smoke before backflipping into the cloud, taking the hit from Gliscor and flinched and muffled a low grunt feeling the hit as much as Greninja did.

"X-Scissor."Gliscor's claws turned bright blue as she dove into the was a sound of clashing attacks before Gliscor flew out of the cloud with a few scratches on her arms."Sandstorm into Sky Uppercut."A pale turquoise energy shone on Gliscor's wings as the air started to pick up and the battlefield was covered in a thick haze of sand within second, a pained grunt came from Ash-Greninja soon after as Gliscor's attack , when Ash-Greninja was hit Ash reacted to it, rubbing his jaw after the Sky Uppercut hit its mark.

"Disappear!"Ash shouted into the Sandstorm.

"Don't let up, X-Scissor and keep going."Gliscor swooped through the Sandstorm constantly but there wasn't any sound of impact from the attacks."Stop the Sandstorm!"Gliscor flapped her wings twice and the sand settled down to the ground revealing… battlefield was empty, Ash-Greninja was nowhere to be found.

"Underground."Olivia whispered to herself."Earthquake!"Gliscor flipped in the air and slammed her tail into the ground causing the entire battlefield to shake, less than a second after the shaking started Ash-Greninja burst out of the ground."Fury Cutter barrage."Gliscor closed the distance with her claws shining blood red, ready to strike at her opponent.

"Aqua Blade."As Gliscor's first hit landed, Ash-Greninja dispelled in a puff of smoke and the real Ash-Greninja fell from the rafters with a sword of swirling water in his -Greninja slashed Gliscor across the back causing the sword to burst into a surge of water.

Both Pokémon hit the ground and after a few seconds slowly rose to their feet, they turned to stare at each other, nodded once and charged at each 's claws shone with X-Scissor energy as another sword of water formed in Ash-Greninja's launched their attacks as soon as they were within range of each other, they continued past each other and -Greninja's sword lost it's form, changing back into simple water starting at the tip all the way down to the hilt, and Gliscor's claws returned to their usual light greyish-blue stood there for a couple of seconds before Gliscor jerked and fell forward, Olivia returned her Pokémon before she could hit the ground.

"Mamoswine, let's go!" Olivia shouted, throwing her Pokéball into the air and Mamoswine appeared on the battlefield stamping his feet, eager to start the battle.

"Can you keep going?" Ash asked Ash-Greninja, the water type's shoulders were rising and falling in visible exhaustion but he gave a nod. "Okay then…"

"Earthquake!" Olivia called out before Ash could give any instruction to Ash-Greninja, Mamoswine bellowed as he reared back onto his back legs before slamming his front legs to the ground causing the entire arena to start shaking. Ash-Greninja started to jump and flip over cracks in the ground but in the process was being pelted by broken shards of rock as Mamoswine's attack destroyed some of the boulders on the field. "Take Down!" Mamoswine bellowed once more and thundered across the field towards Ash-Greninja.

"Substitute!" Ash countered, Ash-Greninja made a handsign and swapped places with a chunk of rock which Mamoswine charged through as though it wasn't even there.

"Ancient Power!" A silvery rock of energy formed between Mamoswine's tusks.

"Water Blade." Ash-Greninja dashed around Mamoswine, too quickly for the large Pokémon to follow while reforming his watery sword and charged in to deliver his strike. Ash noticed Olivia's smirk too late to tell Ash-Greninja to abort his attack.

"Swallow it." Ash watch in mild horror as his own technique was used against him. Mamoswine ate the Ancient Power and was briefly surrounded with the same silvery energy of the attack, when the light disappeared the Twin Tusk Pokémon's tusks were now shining with the energy of Ancient Power and the thick fur that covered his body had hardened with a rocky appearance and stuck out like quills. Ash-Greninja struck with his Water Blade but in the process was hit with shards of the rocky fur. "Mud Slap." Kicking backwards Mamoswine launched Ash-Greninja across the battlefield while covering him in mud. "Finish it with Giga Impact." Mamoswine turned and charged while Ash-Greninja was still in mid-air, an aura of purple and orange energy started to surround the ice/ground type as it bore down on Ash-Greninja as the battle bond started to fade.

A beam of red energy shot past Mamoswine and recalled Greninja to his Pokéball, Mamoswine slowed his charge and cancelled the build-up of his attack. Ash was bent over with one arm out holding Greninja's Pokéball while the other was on his knee, feeling short of breath and aching all over he made a mental note to get some more practice in with the battle bond.

"Greninja's exhausted, he's out for the rest of the battle."

"Are you still ok to battle?"

"I'll be ok, just need a second." Ash took a few slow breaths and stood straight again. "I'm ready." He said pulling another Pokéball from his belt. "I choose you, Blastoise."

As Blastoise appeared on the battlefield two portions of his shell snapped open and his cannons shunted out, locking onto Mamoswine immediately.

"Blas?"The Shellfish Pokémon asked, glancing over his shoulder at Ash.

"Sure, why not."Ash replied with a small smile, Blastoise shifted one of his cannons to point straight up and water came out but something was launched into the air, light flashed off whatever had been shot into the object reached its peak and started to fall back towards Blastoise, as the object grew nearer the water type Olivia could see that it was a pair of sunglasses which landed perfectly on Blastoise's face."Show off."

"Are we doing this or is your guy going to keep trying to be cool?"Olivia locked onto the Gym Leader with a cold glare.

"Oh, now you've done it."Ash sighed, "You had to call him the battle quick."

" Take Down!"A golden shimmer covered the ice and ground type as he charged towards prompting Blastoise retracted into his shell and dodged out of the way with Rapid Spin before closing back in and at the right moment shot his fist out with a Mega Punch into Mamoswine's flank. Due to the combination of the powerful punch and the momentum of Rapid Spin the Twin Tusk Pokémon was thrown off his feet and sent skidding across the field.

After the hit Blastoise had to emerge from his shell to stop himself from being thrown across the Shellfish Pokémon grunted as he shook the hand he'd punched with, the rocky fur of Mamoswine's power-up having dealt some damage back to Blastoise.

"Follow it up with Skull Bash."Blastoise lowered his head and ran at the exposed underside of Mamoswine, ramming into it and causing Mamoswine to skid further across the Twin Tusk Pokémon dug one of his tusks into the ground making him roll back onto his feet and managed to hook one of Blastoise's cannons with a tusk and throw the water type away.

"Blizzard!"Mamoswine took a deep breath but as he was about to unleash his attack the rocky fur softened and the glowing tusks dulled."Oh no, not now."

"Yeah, it's a pain when the power-up ends."Ash said."Can't stop the battle Pump!"Blastoise's cannons snapped to point at Mamoswine as two powerful streams of water surged out, impacting Mamoswine's face causing the dual type Pokémon to groan in pain.

"Protect."Olivia called out and a couple of seconds a turquoise dome expanded out from the Twin Tusk Pokémon forcing the Hydro Pump back.

"Rain Dance!"Blastoise's cannons shifted to point at the ceiling as a ball of watery energy formed between them and shot upwards.

"Block it with Sandstorm."The turquoise dome fades as Mamoswine bellowed and the sandy ground started to swirl around him, quickly expanding outwards to absorb Rain Dance.

"Again."Ash said, Olivia caught a slight change in his tone which made her once more formed the ball of watery energy and at the last second fired it towards was too close for Sandstorm to block effectively.

"Ice Beam."Mamoswine fired out a beam of chilling energy, freezing the incoming ball of water.

"Hydro Pump!"Blastoise launched two streams of water at the ball of frozen energy forcing it at high speed into Mamoswine's ball of ice shattered releasing a delude of water onto Mamoswine along with the pummelling flow of Hydro Pump."Hydro Cannon!"The flow of Hydro Pump swelled as the output dramatically increased and sent Mamoswine onto his back legs and tumbling backwards, when Blastoise cut off the stream Mamoswine was knocked out.

"You did great, take a rest."Olivia said as she returned Mamoswine to his Pokéball."It's not often I'm forced down to two Pokémon."A wide grin spread across her face."Been a while since I've had this much fun, how about we turn this up a notch?"She yanked a Pokéball of her belt and threw it onto the battlefield.

In a flash of light and a spray of sparkles a mostly purple Pokémon appeared.

"Swaamp."

"A Shiny Swampert?"Ash said, "Haven't seen one of those in years."

"Oh, I haven't finished yet."Olivia smirked as she tapped the side of her tendrils of energy started to grow from where she has tapped and then another four tendrils started to grow from around Swampert's tendrils started to grow quicker and quicker as they got closer to each other, as soon as the tendrils connected Swampert started to shine with multi-coloured light.

The Mud Fish Pokémon began to swell in size, growing taller, wider and the light faded Mega-Swampert stood looking down at Blastoise, gave him a challenging smile and slammed her fists together.

"Flash Cannon!"Ash 's cannons locked onto Mega Swampert and fired a blast of silvery energy.

"Hammer Arm."Both of Swampert's arms started to glow white as she charged towards Blastoise, swinging one arm forward and batting the incoming Flash Cannon out of the swirling sands that covered the battlefield did nothing to slow or hurt Mega Swampert as she bore down on the Shellfish Pokémon, raising both arms above her head and slamming them down on to Blastoise.

The ground underneath Blastoise cracked with the force of the attack and Mega Swampert raised her arms again for a second attack.

"Flash Cannon again!"Once more a blast of silvery energy came out of Blastoise's cannons, hitting Mega Swampert point-blank in the stomach sending her skidding back."Don't let up, Dragon Pulse!"The silvery energy stopped and then a draconic form made of purple energy burst out of Blastoise's cannons flying towards Mega Swampert.

"Mirror Coat." Olivia said with a smirk. A shimmer rippled over Mega Swampert's form just before the attack hit, the Mud Fish Pokémon grunted as the attack hit shifting her weight to not be pushed Dragon Pulse bounced off of Mega Swampert and swelled in size as it flew back to Blastoise.

"Dodge it!"Ash shouted but the attack was too quick and Blastoise was enveloped in an explosion of purple energy which also cleared the the purple energy dissipated Blastoise was knocked out with small scorch marks all across his returned Blastoise to his Pokéball with a few words of thanks and took the next Pokéball off his belt. "Dedicueye, I choose you!"

Hope this was worth the wait.

Until Next Time

Basic Trainer