S.R: Well this will be different…

M.R: Yup. Don't tell them why though. Let's keep it a surprise for now.

S.R: Why?

M.R: Because it'll be more fun. At least for us.

S.R: I suppose that's true.

M.R: Well then what are we waiting for?

S.R: GET ON WITH THE STORY!

ASH'S POV

I had just finished my mourning routine when Brock woke up. I waited for him to get ready for the day and the we went and got breakfast at the cafeteria in the Pokemon Center. While we ate I decided to call the professor and have him send Beedrill and Gyarados over. Once that was done I welcomed them back to the team and explained the plan for the day.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help but overhear your plans. The ghost Pokemon there have been getting restless. You may want to head over to the Pokemon Daycare and speak with Mr. Fuji first. He tends to know what's going on in the tower." Nurse Joy said to me as I recalled my Pokemon. Nodding in thanks I pulled up the town map on my Pokedex. A few minutes later we were knocking on the door only for Brock and I to be greeted by Mr. Fuji's assistant.

"How may I help you?" - Assistant

"We were hoping to speak with Mr. Fuji." - Brock

"I was planning to catch a ghost type Pokemon but then we found out things have been weird and were told to talk to him first." - Ash

"Yeah. The ghost types have been getting restless wondering all over the place lately. Not to mention they guard the top 3 floors of the tower vigorously. It's gotten so bad Mr. Fuji went to the tower to talk to them and find out what's going on. That was two days ago now. I was about to go and report it to Officer Jenny." - Assistant

"If you'd like we can look for him. If the situations gotten that bad then something must have gone wrong." - Ash

"Would you? Thanks" - Assistant

With that the conversation ended. Brock and I looked at each other, nodded and made our way to the Pokemon Tower. Walking into the tower we instantly noticed a chill in the air, and a lacking of some sort. The best way to describe it is just that it felt like something was missing. The feeling was so intense that even Brock who was not an aura user noticed and commented on it.

"Pikachu you've got better senses than we do. Can you feel anyone else in the tower?" I asked turning my head towards my partner. In response Pikachu's ears twitched as he slowly turned his head scanning the area around us. Eventually he nodded weakly.

'Considering how weak that nod was you can barely feel whoever that presence is right?' I asked him through our aura bond.

Giving a small cheer with a nod of his head Pikachu responded that was correct. Tapping my chin in thought I decided it must be weak because their on one of the higher floors and the solemn feeling of the area dampens our awareness. Shrugging the thought off I slowly lead our group through the tower while casting out my aura as a beacon for whatever Pokemon were here.

Eventually we found a ghost Pokemon in the form of a playful Haunter, who messed with Pikachu for a minute. After that we asked Haunter if it knew what was going on in the tower. It told Pikachu who explained it to me through our aura bond that a group of people wearing a black uniform with a red capital R on the front had set up on the top floor and were searching for something. Haunter even told us about how they tied up Mr. Fuji when he came to investigate.

Once I explained what was going on to Brock we decided to make our way up to the top floor and rescue Mr. Fuji. We asked Haunter to lead us the rest of the way. After climbing up another floor we started running into patrol teams and had to battle our way up, finally clearing them out and saving Mr. Fuji after a couple hours.

We explained why we came to Mr. Fuji, but before he could say anything the Haunter that helped us pulled on my shirt, before pointing to the clip on my belt where I keep the Pokeballs for my team. "You wanna come with me Haunter?" I asked, getting a nod as a response. Digging out an empty Pokeball I explained how they work to Haunter who without hesitating taped his head on the button to activate the ball.

"It seems you've got a way with Pokemon young man. Before you leave town stop by my Daycare. I've got something I'd like to give you, but I'll need some time to find it in the clutter that is my office." Mr. Fuji told me with a smile.

I had decided to take the remainder of the day after rescuing Mr. Fuji to work on training my team. Knowing that Sabrina uses psychic types, it made sense that I'd work with Gyarados, so that her Bite attack would be extremely powerful and useful. Pikachu, Conan, and Beedrill were given speed exercises.

Before working with Haunter I had to scan him with the Pokedex, which told us "Haunter the Gas Pokemon. Because of its ability to slip through block walls, it is said to be from another dimension. This Haunter is female. It's ability is levitate. It knows the moves Shadow Punch, Lick, Curse, Spite, and Mean Look. This Haunter does not have an egg move."

After learning what I could about Haunter, she and I made an aura bond. 'Well girl, you're stronger than I thought you were but what do you say we make you even stronger?"' I asked through our bond. She nodded in response telling me she wanted to master everything she knew before learning new moves.

"If that's the case I'm going to work extra hard to make you the strongest you can be Haunter. So let's start with seeing how strong your moves are." I ordered before spending the rest of the day training my team.

The next day

I woke up before Brock this time, so I let him sleep while I went through my morning. He woke up and joined me at breakfast though. Eventually we were ready to go about our day, so we went over to the Pokemon Daycare and talked with Mr. Fuji for a bit.

"Oh before I forget, this is what I wanted to give you Ash!" Mr. Fuji said a few minutes after we entered. He had turned around to grab a box, before spinning to face us once more and handed it over. I took a look inside and saw that it was a Thunder Stone. My jaw dropped at the fact he just handed it over to me like that.

"Are you sure? I mean I don't know if I can take something like this." I asked, getting a chuckle from the old man. He nodded as he spoke saying he had no use for it and would rather it go to someone that could use it. With that said I looked at Pikachu, who spoke to me through our bond without taking his eyes off the stone.

'I know that I need this to evolve. I want to evolve but… I don't know if I'm ready to Ash' Pikachu told me. Accepting Pikachu's words and reasoning I sat silently for a moment longer before thanking Mr. Fuji for his gift. I promised him that when Pikachu and I both felt he was ready we would use it. He smiled at that, telling me he was looking forward to seeing just how far we'll go. We chatted for a little while longer before leaving, and making our way over to route 7.

5 days later

We had reached Saffron city. It should have at most taken 2 and a half days, but because I wanted Haunter to be ready I convinced Brock to slow down and we ended up taking a few more days on the road thanks to the extreme training we had been doing. Well that and battling everyone we came across, earning quite a bit of money and shockingly enough a few TMs that people gave us as well

As it stood my team didn't really have too much of an advantage over Sabrina, so I wanted to make what strengths we had even stronger. Pikachu became so fast, that telling he combined Double Team and Agility when he moves at top speed. Beedrill also got faster, but after a while I had him start working on strength training. Conan learned Feint, Force Palm, Brick Break, and Shadow Claw. He worked really hard trying to prove himself, and because of that I felt I'd give him the chance to show off in a gym battle. Gyarados didn't work as hard as the others in terms of getting stronger, but instead decided she wanted to try and increase her defensive capabilities, slowly getting better and better until she could still fight even after taking 10 Thunderbolts from Pikachu. Haunter like Conan learned Shadow Claw, but that was it for what she learned.

I was wanting to head over to the Pokemon Center and rest a bit before challenging Sabrina but with the good mood everyone was in, we decided to head over to the gym and battle. When we got there however the door opened on its own. Every door we found opened on its own and lead us to the battlefield in the gym.

I made my way to where I was supposed to stand and faced Sabrina who was already in place. "I guess your psychic powers are far better than I was lead to believe having everything already set up. I suppose I should thank you for accepting my challenge without me even asking for a battle." I spoke. She just nodded in response.

"This will be a one on one battle. The gym leader Sabrina will unleash her Pokemon first. Since this is only a one on one battle there will be no substitutions from either side. The challenger Ash Ketchum of Pallet town will be allowed to have the first move." The referee announced before Sabrina sent out her Kadabra.

Thinking this battle just got easier, I let Haunter out.

"Let's start things off with a Shadow Claw" I commented watching Haunter lunge forward.

Haunter got in close before generating the energy needed for her attack and slashed her hand diagonally across Kadabra's chest, but it just shrugged the attack off. Kadabra just stepped forward raising a hand and the spoon held inside. As it did the spoon started glowing blue, and a second later a blue glow outlined Haunter before she was thrown sideways into the wall.

"Alright girl, shrug it off and let's try, Shadow Punch!"

Haunter jumped out from the wall with a fist cocked back before attempting to slam it into Kadabra. Instead Kadabra side stepped the attack, before swiping the hand that wasn't holding the spoon at Haunter. Said hand was coated in energy, leading me to believe that was Psycho Cut. It hit Haunter pretty hard, but after the training she'd been doing it wasn't enough to finish her just yet.

"Haunter, move back and use Spite!" I cried, thinking we might have to whittle it down a bit. But before Haunter moved Kadabra disappeared before reappearing right behind her, placing a hand on her, before teleporting again.

"I can't use Spite! it's not working for some reason." Haunter told me through our bond.

'Damn! I can't use spite, and Kadabra's just shrugging off our attacks… maybe speaking out loud is giving her more than enough time to have Kadabra counter.

'Let's see what happens if we use our bond to battle. See if hearing our plans is giving her a better chance at countering. Get in close and use Lick!' I sent through our aura bond.

Haunter did as I asked but right before she could lick Kadabra, it teleported to the side and hit her with a Psybeam. The attack pushed Haunter into the wall again and this time there was a huge cloud of dust preventing us from seeing what happened.

When the dust finally cleared we could see Haunter laying on the floor with swirls in her eye, unconscious.

"Haunter is unable to battle. Sabrina wins!" the referee called as I pulled Haunter's Pokeball off the clip on my side. I recalled her, telling her she did great as I did. When I looked up from the Pokeball Sabrina was walking towards me.

"You handled yourself well under pressure. You didn't panic and tried to adapt using your aura bond, unknowing that I as an extremely powerful psychic I can even listen in on those bonds. Your Haunter did well despite not being strong enough to negate it's weakness. I look forward to our battle when you challenge me again." Sabrina spoke.

"It was a great battle. But what do you mean Haunter was weak against Kadabra, she's a ghost type?" I questioned.

"Gastly, and it's evolutions are all ghost types yes. But they have a secondary type, which is poison. Therefore making them weak to psychic types as well." She responded

"I didn't know that. My Pokedex hasn't mentioned the typing of any of my Pokemon. Then again I haven't looked at it beyond using it to scan them to find out their gender, and move set. Anyway I'll probably stick around town while training to prepare for our rematch, so I might see you around before then." I told her sticking my hand out for a handshake.

S.R: Yes we've gotten pretty far pretty quickly. And by that I mean it's been roughly 30 days between Ash starting his Journey and the day of his battle with Sabrina. Things will slow down, mainly because we're taking some of the filler from the anime (mostly the events between Celadon and Fuchsia). Plus we're making the events of the first movie take a bit more time, so the break between getting the earth badge and the Indigo conference will be a little longer.

ON HAND:

1. Pikachu (m) 2. Riolu (m) 3. Gyarados (f) 4. Beedrill (m) 5. Haunter (f)

AT THE RANCH:

1. Nidorino (m) 2. Zubat (m) 3. Bulbasaur (f) 4. Squirtle (f) 5. Charmander (m) 6. Pidgeot (f)