S.R: I apologize for not getting this out sooner but I was kinda laser focused on my Problem Children story.
M.R: And I wasn't really in the mood to work on it either. But this isn't what you came here for, so let's get on to the story.
PhoenixWyvern: What about me? Am I chopped liver?
S.R: Yes. Now hush and listen to the story.
ASH'S POV
Mr. Double, the owner of the Ditto Mansion had made our saddles free of charge just like he promised. It didn't take long for either saddle, since Phoenix and I both denied his offers to make them extravagant. But that didn't mean they weren't very good quality. Even after nine days of near constant ridding on Gyarados and Dragonite, neither saddle had so much as a crease in them. The Taros hide he used to make them was also very comfortable and soft, to help lessen the soreness from long periods of riding.
Since I wasn't sure I wanted to learn to fight with aura, after taking Phoenix and Raven's offer of teaching me more techniques I could use, the majority of our training was with some of the more basic abilities aura users could harness. Phoenix had been teaching me how to use aura to focus my senses, so I could see farther and hear better, which I had picked up on relatively quick. The third trick he was teaching me that could be considered a sensory improvement, was how to detect and recognize a Pokemon's typing by the feel of it's aura.
While every being has it's own unique aura, there are enough similarities between Pokemon that someone that has trained to notice, could use to partially identify Pokemon. But this training was not as easy or as steady going as the other lessons, and after thinking about it from a different perspective I realized it never would be an easy lesson. Because it's one that requires traveling to all different types of terrain and climate. You need to find locations where 95% or more of the wild Pokemon share a typing, in order to get a feel for the particular nuisances each type has that let you tell them apart by aura only. After that you just have to practice identifying those key differences.
Which was hard to do while also getting lessons from Raven. However her lessons were completely different. Phoenix had taught me ways to use my aura to improve things about myself, while her lessons were all about ways I could use it on other people. Since you can never be over prepared, she had started to teach me how to use my aura for basic first aid. Yes you should always have a first aid kit while traveling, but these abilities can be used in extreme situations, where a first aid kit doesn't have what you need, with an example being how to use your aura to make a brace or a splint when there isn't anything nearby that could be used with the bandages in a first aid kit to do so.
"You know, I just realized I never asked why you're traveling together? I mean I can understand traveling and experiencing the world to learn all you can about being a breeder Brock, but why travel with Ash?"
Phoenix asked as we drifted through the ocean towards the chain of islands that had come into view, our morning training session having ended a short while ago after we had to stop and deal with a large group of Tentacruel.
"Well… My mom and dad began traveling the world a few years ago, which left me in charge of dad's gym in Pewter city. Apparently my dad came back to town in time to watch my battle with Ash for his first badge. On the way over to the Pokemon Center, Ash and I chatted about our dreams. While I waited for my Geodude and Onix to be healed, dad approached us. He told me he'd seen the battle and heard me saying my dream was to be a breeder. He gave me his permission to leave and travel the world to learn all I could about Pokemon and how to be a top class breeder. Since traveling can be lonely, Ash asked me to travel with him."
Brock explained, summing up the story very easily.
"I stand by what I said. It is more fun to travel with friends."
I commented with a smile on my face. Phoenix, mirrored it as he gave his opinion on my statement.
"That's true. Traveling with others and sharing all of the brand new and exciting experiences is a blast."
Eventually we had gotten close enough to the islands to be able to see the network of caves that dotted them. But we were also able to see a shock of red hair, as someone else was already at the Sea Foam Islands. Despite only being able to seem them from a distance I had a gut feeling that it was Lorelei, the Ice type master of the Elite Four here in Kanto.
My gut feeling was proven true as when we got close enough, we saw she was sitting on the back of a Lapras, looking directly at us. After a moment she ordered us to leave the islands as they were very dangerous.
"Sorry miss, my girlfriend and I were tasked with investigating what's going on here, but we had to stop by the Ditto mansion and get a saddle for Drago, here."
Phoenix told her as he patted his Dragonite's side.
"You are ace trainers Phoenix and Raven then? Well the situation is quite serious and I will probably require help so you two may stay. But the two of you on that Gyarados should probably leave."
"Well I was hoping to get some training in here before heading to Cinnabar to challenge Blaine. But if you say it's too dangerous I guess that plans shot."
I spoke in response.
"Challenge Blaine? He and Giovanni are the only two gym leaders here in Kanto that can give myself and the other members of the Elite Four a run for our money. Are you sure you can handle it?"
"Since I've always wanted to be a Pokemon Master like my father, my goal is to beat the original gyms in every region I travel too. Blaine and Giovanni are the last two I need to defeat here in Kanto before I can qualify for the Indigo League."
"Wait, you wouldn't happen to be Ash Ketchum, or Gary Oak would you?"
"Yes ma'am. I'm Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town."
"Well then. Lance spoke highly of you when I last spoke to him… I'll tell you what. With the situation we have here I can't let you wander through the caverns on your own. I'll lead you through to the other side, but I will let you handle any encounters we face. It might not be as much training as you want to get before battling Blaine, but if you can show me the potential Lance saw in you I may have a gift for you."
"Really?"
My eyes went wide as I tried to confirm her words. She smiled at my excitement, before a calm and schooled expression took over her face. She said one word to me in reply before turning to Phoenix and Raven.
"Yes. Anyway, our situation here is that an Articuno resides here. Someone foolishly wondered into it's territory and sent it into a terrible rampage. Which drew the attention of another Articuno and they are now battling to claim these caverns as their territory."
"Wait what?! A second Articuno? As far as I know there's only a handful left even if you count the ones that have been caught by trainers. Their territories are well known too so how the hell is there another one here?"
Phoenix answered shock and confusion evident in his voice.
"I'm not sure, but my guess is that a trainer from another region caught it at one point and has released it here."
"Why?"
"Well, my guess is something happened and the trainer released all their Pokemon. While I was investigating I found several unique Pokemon that shouldn't have been here. A pair of Alolan Ninetails, a Beartic, at one point I think I even saw a Sharpedo swimming around."
Lorelei explained, offering a possible reason for the out of place Pokemon. After a moment, she continued explaining what they were going to do to resolve the issue.
"As it is I would like for us to intervene in the squabble between the two Articuno. You two will battle one while I battle the other. Preferably to calm them down. If it comes down to it we will capture one of them. As it is the protector of these Islands at least one of them must be left free to help maintain the ecosystem. Lance and the Pokemon League officials have already determined that the Pokemon that don't belong here are to be caught so that they League representatives may find new trainers for them or release them in their natural habitats in other regions. I have a map here that is marked with their last known location. If you want to take it and get in position while I escort these two, we can have the situation resolved in a few days."
"I'm fairly confident Raven and I could handle both Articuno, but since you are an Elite Four member you out rank us, so we'll just wait for you."
Phoenix said as he and Raven hopped of of Drago. Recalling the Dragonite, he accepted the map from Lorelei, looking it over as he called out he Electabuzz. Raven also let out a Pokemon but I didn't recognize it so I used my Pokedex on it.
"Cacturne, the scarecrow Pokemon.It lives in deserts. It becomes active at night when it hunts for prey exhausted from the desert's heat."
It explained which confused me. Since it's a desert Pokemon I was guessing it's typing was Ground, which would be weak to everything here in the islands.
"Why use Cacturne? According to my Pokedex it lives in the desert, so it's Ground type isn't it?"
I questioned, curious about the Pokemon.
"While it's a good guess about it's type given it's habitat, that is not right. Cacturne is a Dark type. Well that's its secondary typing, it's first is actually Grass type."
She explained, getting a curious look from Lorelei, since while it would be good against the Water type Pokemon here, it would be weak to the Ice types that call the Sea Foam Islands home. Not to mention the Articuno. But she waved the concern of mentioning it could more than hold it's own against Ice types.
Due to their experience traveling the regions and their talent as trainers since the are regarded as Ace trainers, Lorelei acknowledged the fact that Cacturne would be strong enough after hearing it had some moves to counter Ice types.
"Well, this situation needs resolved quickly so we'd best get moving."
Lorelei mentioned as she gestured for Brock and I to follow her, before directing her Lapras towards a cave that's entrance was partially hidden in a little cove we could just barely see from our current spot at the edge of the beach.
We had only gotten to the massive opening into the underground caverns when a wily Staryu attacked us. True to her word Lorelei did nothing, and let me handle the situation. Rather than let Pikachu show off I decided to let Ivysaur out. After all, she'd only been in my battle party since I called the professor to get Gyarados back so Brock and I could ride her to the islands. This would be her first battle with me actually commanding her since before her evolution. Every battle she's done since then has been in the free for all fights I had my team do every so often while I meditated in our morning training sessions. As a matter of fact, even that hasn't happened since before we visited the Ditto Mansion, since we've been traveling by ocean for over a week. Gyarados and Pikachu are the only two that really got to do anything close to training and that's only because they were out of their Pokeballs, though in Pikachu's case he's always out of his Pokeball.
"Ivysaur let's use Bullet Seed and drive that Staryu off!"
I commanded, letting her surprise everyone as she shot out just six seeds. While the number wasn't surprising since Bullet Seed is an attack that hits anywhere from two to five times and each time it's a group of three seeds. The true surprise was that the seeds hit with enough force to throw the Staryu into a wall, and knock it out.
"That's a very powerful Bullet Seed your Ivysaur's got."
Lorelei commented, a polite tone to her words telling me that it was more than she expected, but still not enough to completely shock her. It was just enough to get a very small amount of respect.
"Yeah. I haven't really gotten the chance to let anyone but Gyarados and Pikachu train for the last few days, but that was far stronger than the last time I remember seeing her use Bullet Seed."
"I understand the desire to let everyone train and grow, but there are times when traveling that it's disadvantageous to work with your entire team. Traveling through the Sea Foam Islands I would say to focus on Water, Electric, and Fighting types. Water for traveling, Electric for all the Water types, and Fighting for all the Ice types. And this is coming from someone who specializes in Ice type Pokemon."
With a nod I acknowledged her advice, but I mentioned that I was still going to let my team particpate in as many battles as they could. After a mock battle Phoenix and I had, his advice was to let my team get as much experience as they could. From his point of view my team was close to their current peak, they wouldn't be able to get too much stronger until either evolving or diversifying their move sets a bit more. As I had heard several stories from him and Raven about their travels I trusted his words, believing his wisdom came from experience.
Mentioning my thoughts on that matter to Lorelei, I continued to follow hear lead through the cavern as she had gone silent. It wasn't until everyone on my team had gotten a chance to stretch and flex their power in front of her that I got a response about choosing to follow Phoenix's words.
"After seeing every member of your team in action I find myself correcting my advice to match that young man's. Right now I'd say your Riolu, Gyarados, and Wartortle just need to learn more moves to take advantage of their strengths. Ivysaur and Charmeleon are close to evolving from what I can tell. It's your Pikachu that confuses me. He could certainly evolve right now, but… Something just feels off. Like he's not entirely ready just yet."
At that point she mentioned we still had a ways to go but that we had enough time to stop for a meal. Brock immediately started unpacking his cooking gear so he could get a quick lunch ready for us.
"We'll go a bit farther before calling it a day. Around the time the sun starts going down it gets really cold and the Ice types become far more active. Enough so that I'd rather not risk being caught off guard by them while moving. But we've made enough progress that I feel we will reach the exit either tomorrow night or the morning after."
She told us, a smile on her face before she started to give me a few minor critiques for Wartortle and Gyarados. Showing her knowledge of Water types was almost as extensive as her knowledge on Ice types. Not long after that we passed out some Pokemon food to all of the Pokemon we had with us, which lead to me having to explain that I am also a Trainee Field Researcher for Professor Oak.
"But I won't use them in a battle even in the wild. I was given these extra slots so that I could work with more of my Pokemon at once. I mean I have eight with me right now, and there's another 8 at the Professor's ranch right now. I don't want to let anyone fall behind, because it's hard keeping them around the same level which is partially why the Professor gave me the extra slots."
"That makes sense. Anyway let's finish up getting everyone fed."
She responded, moving a couple steps away from me to place a bowl of food down for her Dewgong that was with her. Following her lead, I finished passing food out to my Pokemon just in time for Brock to hand me a bowl of soup for lunch. He handed one to Lorelei as well before we sat down and enjoyed a good meal.
About half an hour later we were packing things up and getting ready to move on. But we weren't able to go very far before I was having another battle. After eating lunch we had more and more encounters, which was slightly worrying since according to Lorelei the majority of Pokemon in the Sea Foam Islands rarely left their territory.
By the time we were ready to settle down for the night things had gotten to the point I had to use multiple Pokemon to battle of the wild Pokemon in every encounter. All of my Pokemon had gotten more than their fair share of battle at this point. Each of them having at least 15 encounters under their belt before we had even gotten to the point that I had to start doing double and even triple battles.
"You see why I want to resolve the problem with the two Articuno's as quickly as possible? Their territory battle is driving all of the Pokemon here at the islands into a frenzy. I wouldn't be surprised if you've already defeated more Pokemon today than you would have in a week before this incident."
Lorelei commented to me, a bright tone to her voice conveying that I had more than impressed her with my Pokemon and our drive to be the best we could be.
"I know I said if you impressed me enough I'd have a gift for you when we got to the exit, but you've more than earned it already," she started to say, but cut herself off as she dug through her bag that she'd brought with her. After a moment she found what she was looking for and pulled out as she spoke again.
"After handling things here I was planning to head over to Cinnabar myself. Their research labs are very high tech, and are capable of a lot of things even reviving fossil Pokemon. I was recently gifted a few fossils, that I was planning to take to them."
"Are you sure you want me to have one?"
I asked shocked she'd give me something that had been gifted to her.
"As I said, I was gifted a few of them. I've already done my research on them, all four of the fossils I was given are for the Pokemon Amaura, which is both Rock and Ice type. While I do love Ice types, I don't plan to breed them or anything like that so I wasn't going to have them revive all four of my fossils anyway. I was just going to have them revive two. One because I'd heard they're really cute, and another that I can train and possibly incorporate into my team."
Brock nodded his head at her words, as a Rock type specialist he had also done some research on the Pokemon, but that's more due to the fact that all fossil Pokemon discovered so far at least are Rock type. Gently taking the fossil from Lorelei I smiled and thanked her for the fossil. While I knew it was possible to revive a fossil I didn't know the exact process nor how much it would cost, so I amended my plans for Cinnabar to include a visit to the lab.
"You know Ash? Once the egg you are carrying hatches and you get this fossil revived you'll have two fossil Pokemon."
Brock commented a jealous note in his voice. I just chuckled at him, knowing he was just trying to keep a conversation going. I even thought about replying, because without the talking it was too quiet. Especially since we were settling down for the night but still on guard for Wild Pokemon which we hadn't seen or heard for a while now.
Even Lorelei was confused about that, since several colonies of Zubat and Golbat live in these caves. Since it was a dangerous situation, Lorelei offered Brock a few of her Pokemon to command during the night just in case.
"Normally so long as you spray a repel in the area around your camp at night you'll be fine, but I don't want to take that risk right now. I'll watch over things first. Since Ash and his Pokemon did all of the battling, I want to let them rest, so you and I can split the watch duty Brock. But because I don't know how strong your Pokemon are I want you to have a couple of mine on standby just in case."
She spoke as Pikachu and I started to curl up in my sleeping bag. Nodding, he agreed with her, especially since he didn't really have anything to counter any Water types that may come close in the night. I would have protested that Pikachu and I could still take a turn keeping an eye out, but I was so tired that I fell asleep before saying anything.
S.R: I know, I know this chapter isn't the greatest.
M.R: But that's because we want the finale to the Sea Foam Islands to be special.
PhoenixWyvern & Cazzidy: WHAT ABOUT US?! ARE WE CHOPPED LIVER?
M.R: Didn't we answer that already?
Cazzidy: But why? Why cut our time short? What did we ever do to you?
S.R: Besides sneak in here and annoy us? Your OCs are going to be in and out of the story even more frequently than Cynthia (for now) and she's Ash's love interest dammit! Now shut up and let us work before I get the box again. Now for anyone that may complain and say there are a lot of encounters in the Sea Foam Islands anyway so it would be hard to defeat more in one day than would normally be seen in a week like Lorelei suggested we have a few comments.
M.R: Number one is this is in a more realistic setting than the games, there are no random encounters because they can pay attention to their surroundings and avoid things as much as possible, only fighting when they absolutely have to.
S.R: the second is some quick math. Each of the six battle ready Pokemon Ash has with him got to fight in at least 15 one on one encounters. 15 x 6 is 90. That's almost 100 battles right there. But he also had to do double battles and even triple battles several times as well. While we didn't really give an exact number let's just say it's around 130 wild Pokemon he's battled in one day. For simplicity's sake let's just say the average trainer will have about 16 encounters a day while traveling through the Sea Foam Islands. That would mean in one week they'd have 112 battles (16 x 7), which is less than the estimate of 130 that Ash has encountered.
M.R: Now another thing to remember is that everything is out of wack, because of the fight between the two Articuno and all the other Pokemon that shouldn't be there. All the wild Pokemon are panicking because something is wrong, even going so far as to lash out at things that are out of place (I.E. Ash and crew), which means there would be more battles for anyone that travels through the islands right now.
S.R: Now, part of the reason Ash has had this many encounters in the first place will be dealt with in the next chapter anyway, which will confirm Lorelei's theory about someone releasing Pokemon into the wild while in the Sea Foam Islands. Long story short, an accident happened and the trainer was dying so they released their Pokemon to avoid them being trapped in Pokeballs permanently.
ON HAND:
1. Pikachu (m) 2. Conan: Riolu (m) 3. Charmeleon (m) 4. Gyarados (f) 5. Ivysaur (f) 6. Wartortle (f)
TRAINEE FIELD RESEARCHER SLOT ADDITIONS:
7. Scyther (m) 8. Gengar (f)
AT THE RANCH:
1. Pidgeot (f) 2. Beedrill (m) 3. Nidorino (m) 4. Muk (m) 5. Growlithe (f) 6. Golbat (m) 7. Apollo: Espeon (m) 8. Artemis: Umbreon (f)