Ash's Pokemon Journey
Summary: This story is about how I think that ash's journey should have gone through, Kanto, Orange Islands, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova. Smart, a psychic and an Aura user (He'll find out about being a psyphic and Aura user later). I do not own pokemon.
Note: I am not doing the Kalos Region. So fairy pokemon and Mega Evolutions don't exist.
Chapter 72
Lavaridge Gym,
The Phantom and
The Verdanturf Contest
Today the gang made it to Lavaridge Town where Ash could earn his fourth gym badge. "Ah finally we are at a town" smiled May. Brock pointed out from the guide that Lavaridge Town was famous for its hot springs. Of course May wanted to go to them right away, and everyone agreed to the idea. "We have been through a lot on our way here, so we do deserve a good rest for today" said Brock. "Yeah and I'll have my gym battle tomorrow" said Ash. So the gang spent the day with no training, having their pokemon checked at the pokemon center and relaxing at the hot springs. The gang had gone through a lot on their way to Lavaridge Town; they battled trainers, met new pokemon and went to different places. But they did run into trouble too; they met Team Aqua and Magma again. Team Aqua and Magma fought to steal a meteorite from a place called Mt Chimney because they believed that the meteorite would help them in finding Groudon or Kyogre. But they failed because the gang was able to protect it. Apart from all that, some of the gang's pokemon evolved; Ash's Seedot evolved into a Nuzleaf, Tomo's Nincada evolved into a Ninjask and he also got a Shedinja and May's Azuril evolved into a Marill. So some good things did happen on their travels.
Next day the gang headed for the Lavaridge Gym. The Lavaridge Gym looked like a hotel. Ash was just about to call out for a gym battle, but then a red haired girl came up to the gang. "Hi there are all you here to challenge the Lavaridge gym?" she said. Ash introduced himself and told the girl that he was the challenger. The girl became excited. "Finally someone for me to challenge, oh and my name is Flannery" she said. Flannery explained that her grandfather was the gym leader but she had now taken his place as the new gym leader. "Well Flannery, I am honored to be the first challenger of the Lavaridge Gym leader" said Ash.
Flannery led the gang to the gym's battlefield, which was a normal ground battlefield. Flannery's grandfather, Mr Moore, was in the gym too. "Found yourself a challenger Flannery?" he asked. "Yes grandfather I have" answered Flannery. She introduced the gang to Mr Moore. "Flannery told us that you were the previous gym leader of Lavaridge Gym" said Brock. "That's correct," said Mr Moore "ah those days being the gym leader were fun. I and my Typhlosion faced many challengers and I loved showing them the power of fire pokemon. But now I'm getting too old for this and I wish to now just sit back and relax. And that's why my granddaughter is now the gym leader". Ash and Flannery got ready for their match and Tomo, Brock, May and Max took their place on a bench. Pikachu sat with them too as he wasn't chosen to battle in this challenge. Mr Moore offered to be the referee, especially since this would be his granddaughter's first gym challenge. He also explained that the challenge was a three on three pokemon battle.
Flannery sent out her first pokemon, a Slugma who she called Meg. Ash smiled and sent out Corphish. As the Lavaridge Gym was a fire type gym, Ash had his Corphish, Milotic and Marshtomp on his team. "Don't think I will lose just because you have a water type Ash" said Flannery. "I like a good challenge Flannery" said Ash. Flannery ordered Meg to use flamethrower and Ash ordered Corphish to use bubble beam. The flamethrower and bubble beam attacks collided with each other. "Okay Meg use smog attack" said Flannery. Meg blew some very thick smoke from the mouth and made it-self unseen. "Oh-oh that smog attack will mean trouble" said Max. "There's nothing to worry about" smiled Brock. Brock was right; Ash ordered Corphish to blow away the smog attack with metal claw, and Corphish blew the smog away with his claws. May and Max were surprised by Ash's move. "Ash has dealt with handling attacks like that before" explained Tomo. Ash ordered Corphish to use bubble beam and this time Meg got hit by the bubbles. "Don't give in Meg, use yawn" said Flannery. Ash knew that the move yawn had the ability to put an opponent to sleep. He quickly told Corphish to use bubble beam again. Meg got hit by the bubble beam and fainted from that water type attack, but it succeeded of hitting Corphish with yawn attack and Corphish ended up asleep. So Ash got a first win, even if his Corphish had fallen asleep.
Flannery returned Meg and sent out a Magcargo, who she called Mag. Ash recalled his sleeping Corphish and sent out Marshtomp. Ash ordered Marshtomp to use water gun attack but Flannery had Mag use double team, which of course made Marshtomp miss Mag. "Keep firing water gun until you hit the real Magcargo Marshtomp" said Ash. Marshtomp did as he was told and he did manage to hit the real Mag. "Okay Mag use reflect" said Flannery. Reflect was a move that could reduce damage from physical attacks by about half. Ash smiled calmly and ordered Marshtomp to use brick break. Marshtomp ran up to Mag, with his right arm glowing, and then went for a punch. In the process it broke the reflect shield and then hit Mag really hard. "Whoa what happened?" asked May. Brock explained that the fighting move brick break was able to remove the moves reflect and light screen. "It's obvious that Flannery still has a lot to learn about pokemon if you ask me" said Max. The others agreed. Ash ordered Marshtomp to use water gun again. This time Mag got a direct hit from the water gun attack and fainted. 'Of all the toughest trainers I've seen in my time, this Ash has got to be the toughest' thought Mr Moore. Flannery also understood that Ash was tough, but she wasn't going to give up yet.
Flannery returned Mag and sent out her final pokemon. This fire pokemon was an orange coloured tortoise pokemon, with a grey black shell on its back.
Ash looked at the pokemon on his pokedex: Torkoal, the coal pokemon. It burns coal inside its shell for energy. It blows out black soot if it is endangered.
Flannery ordered her Torkoal to use sludge bomb at Marshtomp. Marshtomp got hit by the big globs of sludge, and then he started to feel pain and his face went a bit purple. "Oh no Marshtomp is poisoned, sludge has the ability to poison an opponent sometimes" said Brock. Just then Flannery ordered Torkoal to use overheat. Overheat was a very powerful fire attack, just like fire blast. Ash ordered Marshtomp to counter with water gun, but Marshtomp was too hurt by the poison to do anything. Marshtomp got hit by the overheat attack and despite being a water type, he did get pretty hurt and then fainted. "Marshtomp got defeated by the mixture of the poison and the power of overheat" said Brock.
Ash returned Torkoal and sent out Corphish, who was still asleep. Ash hoped that Corphish will wake up soon. Flannery ordered her Torkoal to attack Corphish with flamethrower. "Okay Corphish use sleep talk" said Ash. While still asleep, Corphish fired a bubblebeam attack and it countered Torkoal's flamethrower attack. "How did Corphish do that since it was asleep?" asked May. Max explained that when a pokemon uses sleep talk, while it's asleep, it can attack the opponent with any of its moves. "That's a good move" said May. At that moment Corphish woke up and Ash ordered him to use crab hammer. Flannery ordered Torkoal to use iron defense, and Corphish got bounced off when he tried to do crab hammer. "Okay Torkoal use body slam" used Flannery. Torkoal body slammed Corphish good, and then Corphish fainted. "Wow Flannery's Torkoal certainly is strong" said May. "Yeah, and now Ash has only got one pokemon to use left" said Brock.
Ash returned Torkoal and sent out Milotic. Flannery thought Milotic looked really beautiful. She ordered Torkoal to use over heat on Milotic, but Ash ordered Milotic to use mirror coat. The fire attack got bounced off and it struck Torkoal. Flannery gasped at that; this was obviously something that she wouldn't have expected. "Okay Milotic let's use hydro pump" said Ash. Milotic fired a hydro pump at Torkoal and it was a direct hit. Torkoal fainted on the spot, and Ash was the winner of the gym challenge.
Flannery returned Torkoal and spoke to Ash. "Ash of all the trainers I've seen in the past, you are the most incredible trainer I've ever seen" she said. "Thanks' Flannery and I must say you're fire pokemon were incredible too" said Ash. Mr Moore thought this was a great gm battle too. "You still have a lot to learn about gym battling Flannery," he said "especially a lot more to learn about fire pokemon. But I must say this; I couldn't leave this gym in better hands than yours". So it was clear that Flannery had definitely taken her grandfather's place as the new gym leader. Flannery then handed Ash the gym badge called the Heat Badge. The Heat Badge was red-orange colored with a yellow dot and it was the shape of a wisp of fire.
After the gym challenge was over, the gang said goodbye to Flannery and Mr Moore and left Lavaridge Town.
After Ash challenged the Lavaridge Gym, he had his heart on capturing a Torkoal for himself because he thought Flannery's Torkoal was a cool pokemon. He got his chance when the gang arrived at the place called the valley of steel. It was a valley where many steel type pokemon lived and a lost wild Torkoal was roaming about. Ash saved the Torkoal from some Magneton and then captured it for himself. Sometime after that the gang came across a swarm of Spinda. Spinda were normal type pokemon and their eyed were spiral shaped. Tomo and, especially, Max liked the Spinda and caught one each. Then Ash and the gang met up with Wattson again when they went through Mauville City again. Wattson was having trouble because two wild Manectrics and two wild Electrikes were causing trouble at his gym. The gang offered to help and Ash and Tomo battled one Manectric and one Electrike and Wattson battled the other Manectric and Electrike. In the process Wattson captured the Manectric and Electrike while Ash caught the other Manectric and Tomo caught the other Electrike. So it had been quite a trip for the gang.
Since Ash had four gym badges now, it was now time for Ash to challenge Norman at the Petalburg Gym. But first the gang had come to Verdanturf Town, where the next pokemon contest was to be held. Both Ash and May were entering this contest and they were thinking of what pokemon to use. "I'm going to use Skitty," May suggested "Skitty and I had been practicing her juggling with some juggling balls". "And I'll enter with Kirlia, we came up with a clever combo" said Ash. The others were interested in seeing their tactics, but Brock told them that they needed to head for the pokemon center to give their pokemon a checkup.
When the gang got to the pokemon center, they got a surprise of their life. Drew was there with his Roselia, but his Roselia was really hurt and Nurse Joy was taking care of it. May asked Drew what had happened, and Drew explained that he had battled a masked coordinator who called himself Phantom and Roselia got hurt badly by the Phantom's pokemon. "So take my advice; stay away from this Phantom". As Roselia was badly hurt, Drew couldn't enter the Verdanturf Contest. May was surprised about this Phantom and that he was stronger than Drew was. Ash wasn't scared; he liked battling other trainers no matter how strong they were.
Ash and May decided to start practicing with their pokemon for the contest in a nearby park. May went over Skitty's moves. Skitty knew tackle, attract, sing, double slap, copycat, assist, headbutt, blizzard and the egg move tickle. Thanks to Pikachu, Skitty also knew thunderbolt and iron tail. "Okay Skitty I am going to enter the contest with you this time," said May "so we are going to practice". May's Skitty was a playful type but she did want to be in the pokemon contest. Ash was checking Kirlia's attacks too. "Okay Kirlia, let's give it our all to win the pokemon contest tomorrow" he said.
Suddenly a gale of wind stopped the gang in their tracks. Then somebody, wearing a suit, top hat, cape and grey mask appeared. "You must be the Phantom" said Ash. "That's right," said the Phantom "and my purpose is pokemon battling". "If you want a battle, I will give you a battle" volunteered Ash. The Phantom liked Ash's confidence and agreed to battle him. The Phantom sent out a Dusclops and Ash chose Pikachu. Ash knew that Dusclops was a ghost type and he ordered Pikachu to attack it with thunderbolt. The Phantom had his Dusclops to counter the attack with shadow ball, and the shadow ball and thunderbolt attacks collided with each other. Phantom ordered Dusclops to attack with shadow punch. Shadow punch was a tricky ghost type move. Two black shadowy fists came out of Dusclops' hands and Pikachu kept on getting non-stop by the punches. Ash had to think of something quick.
The Phantom was about to call out another attack, but then the sound of a car was heading their way. The Phantom returned Dusclops and started to run away. "Hey what was that about?" said Ash, a bit cross. A car pulled up near where the gang was standing and a lady came out of the car. She seemed to be a very rich lady because she wore expensive rings on her fingers. "Where did the Phantom go?!" demanded the lady. "Uh he just left in a great hurry" answered Ash. The lady stared at the gang. "I need you to do something for me" she said. She introduced herself as Mrs Grimm and explained that she felt that her son, Timmy Grimm, had a connection with the Phantom and she wanted to know who the Phantom is.
She brought the gang to her home, which was an enormous mansion. Mrs Grimm called out for her son Timmy. Timmy Grimm was about a year older than May and he seemed to be a shy type. "I hope you have been studying Timmy" said Mrs Grimm. "Yes mum of course I have" said Timmy. Then he went back to his room. "Is Timmy a pokemon trainer?" asked Ash. "Absolutely not!" shouted Mrs Grimm "I will never let Timmy play around with pokemon. He is going to take over my company so he has no time for that nonsense. Now I have to get back to work, so let me know what you know about the Phantom when I get back". Then Mrs Grimm left.
"God I'm glad she's not my mum" said Max. "I can't believe that she doesn't want Timmy to be around pokemon," said Tomo "that is a really unfair thing to do". "Yeah and Timmy didn't look happy being with her" said May. "It is true," said a voice "Timmy isn't a happy boy". The voice belonged to a man. "Please excuse me I'm Mr Grimm," said the man "and I'm Timmy's dad. And I know all about the Phantom". Mr Grimm explained that he used to be a pokemon coordinator in the past, but he had to stop doing that when he got married to Mrs Grimm because of her hate for pokemon. "But I still loved pokemon so I disguised myself as a masked coordinator as the Phantom". He showed them the costume that he wore when he was younger. "This is the same thing that the Phantom I battled wore, but this outfit is older" said Ash. "That's right," said Mr Grimm "I used this to continue being a coordinator, as a secret from my wife. But it started to get difficult so I hid my costume away and quit being a coordinator. But when Timmy was born, he took after me and loved pokemon too. He has always wanted to have pokemon for his own, but his mother had forbidden from ever having a pokemon as well as forbidden him from going on a pokemon journey. One day Timmy found a lost wild Duskull and wanted to keep it for his own, but of course my wife forbidden it. Timmy became really upset by that, but I decided to help. I gave a new design of my regular Phantom costume to him". "Wait you mean that Timmy is the Phantom?" asked May. "Yes and when he becomes the Phantom he becomes very confident with his life," said Mr Grimm "and he has become a very good coordinator". "I agree with that one," said Max "his Dusclops was indeed very strong". "Please excuse me sir," said Ash "but why does Mrs Grimm hate pokemon so much? What had they done that made her hated them?" "There is a reason behind that," said Mr Grimm "but right now I need your help of helping Timmy. I know that he really wants to enter the pokemon contest tomorrow, especially since this is an only chance for him". The gang agreed to help and Mr Grimm offered to help too.
Meanwhile Timmy was staring at his Phantom costume. "What should I do?" he said to him-self "I fear mum will find out what I'm doing". Just then his dad came into his room and so did the gang. Timmy tried to hide his costume, but Mr Grimm assured him that it was okay. "Timmy we are going to help you enter that Verdanturf Town pokemon contest" said Ash. "Really?" said Timmy, in surprise, "what are we going to do?" "We've made a plan" said Brock.
That afternoon, Mrs Grimm came home from work. May, Max and Tomo were outside in the garden and May was practicing with Skitty. As soon as Mrs Grimm came out of her limousine, a gust of wind blew. "Hey it's the Phantom!" shouted Max. The Phantom was standing on a balcony of the mansion. "The Phantom is here?" said Mr Grimm. He and Timmy came to see what the matter was. Mrs Grimm was surprised to see Timmy because she thought that he had something to do with the Phantom. This was Brock's plan; the plan was for Brock to disguise himself as the Phantom and Mr Grimm and Tommy could appear in front of Mrs Grimm to make her believe that the Phantom wasn't Timmy. Brock left in a hurry to escape and Mrs Grimm just smiled. "I thought it couldn't really be Timmy" she said, and she walked into the mansion.
So the plan had worked. "You better prepare yourself for the contest tomorrow Timmy," said Ash "because I will be in that contest". "And so will I" said May. "Well Ash and May, you better prepare yourselves too because I plan to win that contest" said Timmy. Timmy couldn't wait to finally participate in a pokemon contest for once.
Next day Ash and May were at the contest hall and they were waiting for Timmy, who hadn't turned up yet. "If Timmy doesn't hurry, he might miss the chance to sign up" said Max, worriedly. "Do you think something is wrong?" asked Tomo. Just then Timmy did turn up and he quickly registered himself in the contest. "What happened Timmy?" asked Ash "we thought that you would be here before us". Timmy explained that his mum was making him do a lot of homework, but his dad helped him get out of the mansion without her noticing. "I hope I can make it up to him somehow". "Well the way to do that is doing your best in the contest" said Ash. Timmy agreed and put on his Phantom mask. "Let's do this Ash, May" he said.
Soon, it was finally time for the pokemon contest. Brock, Tomo and Max took their seats and so did Drew. As Drew wasn't going to participate because of his injured Roselia he was going to watch the contest instead. Vivian did the usual introductions and showed off the Verdanturf Ribbon, which was orange and light orange colored.
Ash went first in the preliminary rounds this time and he called out Kirlia. "Okay Kirlia use magical leaf" he said. Kirlia flung out magical leaf from her body. "Now use confusion". Kirlia used confusion to move the leaves just in front of her. "Now use flash" said Ash. When Kirlia used flash, the light from her body shone through the leaves making a green-yellow light shine on the audience. The audience and judges liked it and Ash got a score of 27.8.
A few more contestants after Ash was then May's turn. She sent out Skitty and told her to use blizzard. Skitty sprayed a shower of blizzard from her mouth, and it looked like it was snowing inside. Then May and Skitty did their juggling act. It gave them a 25.9. Then it was Timmy's turn, but he was registered as Phantom and he was in his Phantom costume. He ordered Dusclops to use will-o-wisp and then use psychic. The will-o-wisp, being controlled by the psychic attack, made a sort of picture of flames and Timmy got a score of 27.8.
Meanwhile Mrs Grimm had found out about Timmy participating in the pokemon contest and she and Mr Grimm were on the way to the contest hall. "How could you allow Timmy to enter that pokemon contest?" she said crossly. "Timmy loves pokemon more than anything" replied Mr Grimm. "That is too bad," said Mrs Grimm "when I was Timmy's age I spent all my time studying, not wasting time with pokemon". "That's not exactly true," said Mr Grimm "I haven't forgotten about that time". Mrs Grimm became silent; she in fact held a secret of her past.
Back at the contest hall, the results were in and Ash, May and Timmy had made it to the battle rounds. "Ash, May no matter who wins, no hard feelings right?" said Timmy. "Of course," said Ash "I want you to give me all you got just like I will give you all I've got". "Same for me" said May. May was first in the battle rounds against a trainer named Stefano and his Wartortle. Skitty easily defeated Wartortle with her thunderbolt attack. Next up was Ash vs Timmy. "I can't wait to see how Ash and Max will battle each other" said Max. "Timmy better watch out because Ash knows how to fight ghost type pokemon" said Tomo. Just then Mr and Mrs Grimm entered the arena. The three boys were worried about Mrs Grimm, but Mr Grimm smiled at them to assure them that it was all right.
Ash sent out Kirlia and Timmy sent out Dusclops. "Prepare your-self Ash" said Timmy. He ordered Dusclops to use focus punch but Ash had Kirlia to use double team. Dusclops missed hitting Kirlia. "Sorry Phantom, but I've battled ghost type pokemon lots of times as my time as a trainer" said Ash. "Very clever Ash," smiled Timmy "but watch this". He ordered Dusclops to use a combo of will-o-wisp and psychic. The flames struck all the copies of Kirlia and the real Kirlia, who got a burn as well. Mr and Mrs Grimm were watching the battle. "Do you see now dear?" asked Mr Grimm "our son has never been focused or determined on anything in his life. But now he is in this contest". Ash ordered Kirlia to use shadow ball and Timmy ordered Dusclops to use psychic. The shadow ball and psychic attack collided with each other. "Don't give up Kirlia" said Ash. "You too Dusclops" said Timmy. May who was in the waiting room with Pikachu felt nervous about who would win and about whom she would have to face next. Ash ordered Kirlia to use magical leaf and Timmy ordered Dusclops to use shadow punch. Kirlia got punched by the shadow punch and Dusclops got hit by the magical leaf. The time was soon up and the battling stopped. The results were Timmy had just a few more points than Ash, so Timmy was the winner of the first battle round. "That was a great battle Phantom" smiled Ash. "Same here Ash, best battle that I've ever battled in" said Timmy. He and Ash shook hands with each other.
Just then Ash noticed Mr and Mrs Grimm were in the contest hall. Timmy noticed too. Mrs Grimm left the hall in a bit of a huff. Ash and Timmy went back into the waiting room where May was waiting for them and then Mr Grimm with the others turned up. "It's time that I told you the reason why my wife hates Timmy interacting with pokemon" said Mr Grimm. He explained that Mrs Grimm also loved pokemon when she was a child, but she was the only child to wealthy parents and she was destined to take over the family business when she grew up. She was forced to grow up fast and her parents took away everything that they thought was childish away from her including her pokemon Poochyena and she was forbidden to interact with pokemon again. Timmy and the gang felt sorry for Mrs Grimm, after hearing the real truth. "The truth is Timmy, she doesn't really hate pokemon, she just feared that if you ever fell in love with pokemon you would end up heartbroken like she did. But she's still not happy seeing you with a pokemon, so this might be your last time of competing in this contest". "Timmy, let's make our battle a battle that you and I will never forget" said May. "Let's" said Timmy.
Now it was time for May and Timmy to battle. Timmy had his mask off this time because he decided to prove that he could battle without the mask on. May sent out Skitty and Timmy sent out Dusclops. May was told by Ash that normal attacks were useless against ghost pokemon, so her best bet was to use blizzard, thunderbolt, and iron tail and if necessary assist. Timmy ordered Dusclops to use focus punch and Skitty got hit by it. "Okay Skitty use your thunderbolt" said May. Dusclops got shocked by the thunderbolt attack. 'I'm surprised that Skitty knows thunderbolt' thought Timmy 'but it won't get me down'. He ordered Dusclops to use the combo of will-o-wisp and psychic. "Oh no, Skitty use assist" said May. Assist was a normal type move that gave the user an ability to use a move among those known by other pokemon in the party. The assist made Skitty use ember, from Torchic, and the ember struck the will-o-wisp away. "May's doing well against a ghost type pokemon for the first time" said Brock. Timmy ordered Dusclops to use hyper beam and May ordered Skitty to use blizzard to counter it. The blizzard broke the hyper beam apart and then it struck Dusclops. Suddenly it was time's up and the winner was May with having a few more points than Timmy. "Wow May did it" said Max. "Timmy was great out there too" said Tomo. Even Drew was impresses that May defeated Phantom, but he of course just called it luck.
Timmy congratulated May and thanked her for a fantastic battle. Just then Mrs Grimm came up on stage. Timmy was about to apologize to his mum, but she stopped him. "After seeing that I have decided that you may continue of entering the pokemon contests and you may keep your pokemon and of course catch more," she said "but no falling behind on your school work". Timmy was delighted that his mum accepted him of becoming a pokemon coordinator.
So everyone was happy in the end. May got her second ribbon and Timmy was finally allowed to intercept with pokemon.
Sorry for the wait. If you ask me, the characters in the anime never teach their pokemon enough attacks. I decided to Ash just catch Manectric rather than having to catch it as an Electrike. I keep on getting requests about Ash catching Elekid, Magby, Ninjask, Ursaring and Weavile, so let me be clear right now. Those five pokemon do not suit Ash in my opinion, so I am sorry readers but Ash won't get those pokemon. As for Ash's shipping; I choose MorpheusShipping which is the relationship between Ash and Angie.