Sorry to those who have been waiting for an update, I don't do great with deadlines I set for myself. Anyways here's chapter 2 of The Return of the Regi Master! (Thanks to everyone who Favourited, Followed, or wrote a Review, I really apreciate it!)
Ash couldn't believe it. It had been so long since he had seen the Frontier Brain that it felt pretty weird just to casually see him again here in Galar. He hadn't changed his appearance at all, with the same clothes and all, yet he somehow looked pretty grown since the last time he saw him. Brandon laughed at his reaction and extended out his hand.
"It's been a while hasn't it, Ketchum?" He simply said, this time with a less intimidating smile.
"No kidding! Why are you doing here in Galar?" Ash asked excitedly as he met his handshake.
"Well turns out I'm here for the same reason as you three, I'm going to the Crown Tundra to explore the ruins."
The trio looked at each other confused. "Wait, how did you know we were going to the Crown Tundra?" Asked again the Pallet Town trainer.
"Well the scene you made at the battle cafe earlier was pretty hard to miss, so I overheard that you guys were headed to the same place I was."
"Yeah I guess hehe..." Said Ash sheepishly, earning glares from his companions. "Oh yeah! I almost forgot, Brandon, this is my friend and research partner Goh, and that weird and awkward girl over there is Chloe."
"SHUT IT KETCHUP!" Screamed the purple haired girl, as a vein could be seen popping on her forehead.
Brandon chuckled at her reaction and then said: "Nice to meet you two."
"Brandon… Now where have I heard that name before…" Goh thought to himself out loud.
"I'm the final Frontier Brain of the Kanto Battle Frontier, so that's probably where you know me from."
Goh went wide eyed as the man explained who he was. "Woah! A Frontier Brain, and the strongest one at that!? No way! Wait, so how do you know Ash then?"
"Ketchum over here is one of the few people to have actually completed the Battle Frontier by earning all the symbols, and I ran into him in Sinnoh again as well when he was travelling there." Brandon explained.
"Ash beat the Kanto Battle Frontier? Supposedly only composed of trainers good enough to be in the Elite 4? Yeah, we're definitely not talking about the same Ash here…" Said Chloe, refusing to believe he of all people actually beat every Frontier Brain in Kanto.
Ash was about to retort angrily at her comment but Brandon beat him to the reply. "Believe it or not, he did. You can say anything you want about his childish attitude outside of battling..." Ash quickly glared at Brandon, who simply smiled and continued what he was saying. "But his skills in battles are remarkable to say the least."
"Yeah no I'm still not convinced…" The purple haired girl reaffirmed, not believing for even a second that Ash was that good of a trainer.
"Then let him prove it. Ash, you wanted a battle right?" The trainer in question grinned as the Frontier Brain finished his sentence.
"Of course! I never say no to a challenge! Pikachu, let's get going!" After Ash got no response whatsoever from his starter, he looked around and noticed that his partner was nowhere in sight. "Huh? Pikachu? Where'd you go buddy?"
Goh lightly tapped his shoulder and pointed towards a little bench next to a tree, where Pikachu could be seen dozing off, and showing no signs of waking up. Ash sweatdropped and said "Oh yeah, that… well, I should probably just use another Pokemon…"
The now group of four eventually found a battlefield in the park close to where they were, and after Goh had picked up the currently sleeping Pikachu, he and Chloe alongside their Pokemon sat down on a bench next to the field, where the two trainers were currently starring each other down.
"Do I have to watch this battle? I got tired enough from carrying all my bags..." Chloe said, clearly not wanting to sit through this.
"I mean, you don't have to, but give Ash a chance to show you what he can do in an actual battle, trust me, he's way better than you probably think, and it looks like Eevee is interested." Goh replied.
"Eevui! Eevui!" Exclaimed the normal type whilst jumping up and down waiting for the battle to start, which made Chloe sigh.
"Ugh fine… let see how badly Ketchup can lose…" She said, leaning forward and holding her hand on her cheek in a bored fashion.
Back on the field, Brandon and Ash were still staring at each other, until the Frontier Brain broke the silence. "Alright Ketchum, ready for a rematch?"
"You bet!" Ash then remembered they were missing something and asked his companion: "Hey Goh, do you mind if you referee?"
The research fellow hesitated, questioning if he was the most qualified person to referee a battle, but nevertheless agreed. He layed Pikachu who he had in arms on the bench and went to the center of the field. "Is a one on one fine with you guys?" They both nodded in response and Goh then said in some sort of weird, deep fake announcer voice: "Alright then, the Pokemon battle between Ash of Pallet Town and the Frontier Brain Brandon is about to commence. Trainers! You may bring out your pokemon!"
"Way to be overdramatic Goh…" Chloe simply commented, to which Goh scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
"Lucario! I choose you!"
"Regirock! I need your assistance!"
"Say what now?" Said Chloe, thinking she had surely misheard what the Pyramid King just said. It turns out she didn't, as after Ash's familiar Lucario came out of its Pokeball to Goh's right, on Goh's left, Brandon had actually sent out a Regirock. The field became awfully quiet for a while as the two Vermillion City trainers simply stared wide eyed at the Legendary Pokemon. Eventually, Goh regained his composure and then walked backwards away from the field, and, after a final deep breath, raised a hand in the air and exclaimed:
"B-Battle Begin!"
"No time to waste Lucario! Get in there with a Force Palm!" The steel-fighting type immediately rushed forwards towards the Regirock whilst building up energy in his paw.
"Set up an Iron Defense!" The Pyramid King ordered.
Right before Lucario reached its target, Regirock's body glowed a shiny white color and crossed it's arms. The Aura Pokemon's Force Palm then collided with the rock type, creating a deafening loud screech and making everybody nearby cover their ears as it sounded like Lucario's paw collided with straight metal. The protection the Brandon's Regirock had created was too strong and forced Lucario to back away growling.
"You're telling me that Ash is supposed to keep up with that legendary Pokemon? Pfft. There's no point in even trying…" Thought out loud Chloe as she pulled out her Rotom phone and started to scroll through it.
"Don't let up Lucario! Use Double Team and run around Regirock." Ash said with a grin, trying to confuse the rock type Pokemon
"Brrawr!" Exclaimed the Aura Pokemon as he did what he was told.
Brandon didn't seem phased at all by Ash's commands, and neither did his Pokemon. He simply commanded. "Lock on, then use Stone Edge!"
The Legendary Pokemon made some incomprehensible noises and then the braille pattern on its body glowed red and released a red ring at the multiple Lucarios, but focused its trajectory on only the real one. Once it had found it's target, Regirock sent multiple stone pillars towards the single Lucario, which sent him flying back upon impact.
"Lucario, you alright? " Ash asked as he saw he was pretty bruised, to which his Pokemon didn't say anything but nodded a yes in response. "This isn't working… keep your distance and use Aura Sphere!"
Lucario then ran around the field once again but this time keeping good distance between him and the opposing Pokemon and fired off multiple Aura Spheres from different angles, which did hit Brandon's Regirock multiple times with the super effective move.
"Iron Defense once again!" The Rock Peak Pokemon's body glowed white once again and created another shield of steel, which negated a good amount of the damage Lucario kept dealing. "Lock on again!"
"Don't let the Lock On hit you! And get in close again with Reversal!"
The Aura Pokemon, whilst being chased by the red ring of Lock On, went towards Brandon's Regirock and punched the Pokemon with his fist glowing orange, which made the Pokemon stagger back from the damage, but in the process made it easier for the Lock On to find Lucario.
Brandon frowned at this and said: "Rookie mistake Ash, You may have done damage, but you just made it easier for the Lock On to hit you, Stone Edge Regirock!"
Ash didn't seem phased by Brandon's comment at all, in fact, it only made him grin confidently, which greatly confused the Pyramid king. As the Stone Edge that appeared from behind Lucario approached, the Aura Pokemon simply kept staring at the pokemon in front of him. "Focus on your Aura Lucario! Evade it by jumping backwards!"
The said Pokemon closed its eyes, and when he sensed the Stone Edge right behind him, he jumped backwards, which made the Stone Edge pass underneath him and hit Regirock instead. Brandon looked in shock as Ash had successfully turned his Lock On against him. Goh and even Chloe, who had now diverted her attention back to the battle when she noticed Ash actually doing alright, seemed equally shocked at just how fast Ash came up with a solution.
"Alright! Nice job Lucario!"
"I should have known you had something up your sleeve… Always as quick on your feet as you used to be I see." Brandon smirked before revealing: "But I believe you forgot something Ash…" The comment from the Frontier Brain made Ash look at him questioningly. "Lock On makes the move continue until it hits it's original target, no matter if it hits something on it's way…"
Ash went wide eyed realizing he let his guard down too fast and then an explosion and a cry from Lucario was heard on the battlefield, as the fighting-steel type was sent flying once again. "Lucario!" Shouted it's trainer worriedly.
"No more time wasting Regirock! Finish this with Hyper Beam."
"Quick block it with Aura Sphere!" Screamed Ash in a desperate attempt to avoid the damage from the Hyper Beam.
With a weak cry, the Aura Pokemon gathered all the remaining energy it had and made a ball of Aura energy and extended it in front of him right before the Hyper Beam hit. The Pokemon staggered back quite a bit as it desperately tried to block the attack.
Chloe watched on as Lucario kept getting pushed back by the sheer force of the Hyper Beam. At this point, she was pretty convinced that Ash had lost the battle, despite Lucario's best attempt to combat the normal type move. Not that she was surprised though, Ash was facing a well trained legendary Pokemon afterall, and since she wasn't necessarily convinced by his supposedly good battling skills, it was no shock to her to see him lose. Just as she was about to brag to Goh that she knew there was no point in even trying, she was interrupted by Ash.
"Lucario." The Aura Pokemon looked slightly behind him whilst still holding the Aura Sphere in front of him and noticed his trainer looking at him with a calm and determined smile on his face. "Just keep calm and listen to me, alright?" Lucario nodded slightly as it kept struggling to block the Hyper Beam. "Close your eyes and let the Hyper Beam push you back a bit…"
"What!? With all the damage Lucario's has taken lowering it's guard doesn't seem like the best ide-
"Wait…" Brandon cut off Goh as the Frontier Brain looked intrigued at the Hyper Class trainer. "Let's see what he does…"
Goh listened unconvincingly to the Pyramid King as Chloe was also questioning Ash's decision making. Lowering your only defense whilst you are getting hit by one of the most powerful moves a Pokemon can learn didn't seem like the smartest play ever. She turned her head towards the raven haired trainer and saw an expression on his face that she didn't recognize. He had this look in his eyes of pure determination, yet at the same time, looked calm and cool. She quickly glanced at Lucario to see him equally as determined as it's trainer, and slowly but surely lowered the force of his Aura's Sphere, making the sphere smaller and pushing him back even more, to the point where he was only a few feet away from Ash.
"Stay cool and let the Aura flow throughout your body…" Lucario did what he was told and thanks to putting less force into his attack, it allowed him to store more Aura and made his body glow of blue energy. "Keep storing more and more Aura..." Ash continued.
The rest of the park became dead quiet, and only the Hyper Beam that Regirock was firing and the slight breeze of the cold night of Hammerlocke could be heard as everyone kept their eyes on the Pallet Town trainer and his Pokemon. The way the young trainer commanded his Pokemon with his eyes closed and with such calmness was beyond impressive. "Lower your right arm but keep the Aura Sphere up..." The fighting type didn't reply but slowly did what his trainer instructed.
"Good... now wait for it…" Ash then closed his eyes as Lucario kept radiating more and more Aura, all whilst still holding a now miniscule Aura Sphere in front of him which somehow was still blocking the full powered Hyper Beam that Regirock was still firing. It was as if Ash was trying to sense alongside Lucario the perfect time to strike. Finally, after around 10 seconds of dead silence, Ash quickly reopened his eyes and exclaimed at the top of his lungs: "FORCE PALM NOW!"
In the blink of an eye, the Aura Pokemon immediately opened his eyes and let out a fierce cry as he let the Aura Sphere he was holding in his left arm disintegrate, and with all the Aura he had stored up, put his right paw in front of him which collided with the Hyper Beam and created a huge explosion that shook the leaves off of the nearby tree's from the force and left a huge black smoke on the field.
Goh and Chloe were mouth agape whilst Ash and Brandon simply waited nervously for the smoke to clear. After a few seconds, the smoke finally disappeared and the trainers saw Lucario just standing there. Orginally it seemed like Lucario was fine, but soon after the Aura Pokemon abruptly let out a weak cry and collapsed to the ground.
"Lucario!" Screamed it's trainer worriedly as he went to check his condition.
Nobody really knew what to do for a while until Grookey hopped on to Goh's head and smacked him with his stick which reminded him what he had to do.
"Oh yeah… Um... Lucario is unable to battle, so the winner is the Frontier Brain Brandon!" Goh exclaimed, back in his announcer voice.
Ash didn't even process what Goh had said, as he was too busy tending to his Pokemon. "You ok Lucario?" He asked with a worried voice kneeling beside him.
"Brawrrr…" The Pokemon cried out weakly in response with a reassuring smile on his face.
The Pallet Town trainer only looked up when he saw the shadows of the Pyramid King alongside his Pokemon approach him slowly with a smirk on his face. "Well I guess that's that…" He started off.
"Yeah…"
"It might have been a while since I saw you in battle, but I'm glad to see you've improved quite a bit Ketchum."
"Really?" Ash responded surprised by the praise.
"Yeah really. No way the Ash I faced back in the Kanto Battle Frontier would have ever kept that calm under so much pressure from the Hyper Beam, and the way you instructed Lucario to lower it's guard, only a Pokemon who had full faith in it's trainer would ever do that, and if you hadn't taken so much damage at the beginning, the battle could have ended very differently."
Ash stayed silent for a bit as he averted his attention back to his weak Lucario. "'Maybe but… Regirock still barely looks injured… I guess we still have a long way to go Lucario…" The Pokemon in question kept staring at the Regirock now towering over him and let out another exasperated cry.
"With a Lucario able to control it's Aura as perfectly as yours can, I have no doubt you two will be able to reach greater heights together and become one really strong team." Added on finally the older man.
"Thanks Brandon… Now you take a nice rest Lucario..." He said after returning his Pokemon to his Pokeball.
"Well well well…" Started off Goh whilst approaching the two trainers. "Seems like your battles just keep getting crazier and crazier huh Ash?"
The Hyper Class trainer chuckled a laugh before saying: "I guess you could say that…"
Brandon then turned his attention to behind Goh where Chloe was just standing there idly. "Well? Are you convinced by his battle skills now?" He asked whilst addressing the purple haired girl.
Truth be told, Chloe's view on Ash's batling had changed a bit, as she clearly saw that he wasn't your normal trainer you find everywhere, and that he was something different. He didn't back down no matter how strong his opponent, and it showed just how experienced he actually was by commanding Lucario like he did. But of course, she wasn't going to say out loud to boost his ego, so she responded instead with a pout on her face: "Of course I'm not! If Ketchup over here would have just known how Lock On actually worked, he wouldn't have let his guard down like a dummy and led to him being under pressure from the Hyper Beam in the first place. Even I know what Lock On does… and mister "I beat the Kanto Battle Frontier" doesn't?"
"Of course I know what Lock On does!" Quickly defended Ash, standing back up to face her. "I just… ugh…. forgot…"
"Sure you did…"
"Well if you know soo much more about battling than I do, then why don't you just don't battle me and prove it?!" He said provokingly whilst readying Sirfetch'd's Pokeball.
"Alright you two calm down…" Goh interrupted whilst separating the two trainers from each other.
Brandon chuckled before suggesting: "Let's all go to the Pokemon Center and get our Pokemon healed up, it's getting pretty late."
Ash sighed. "You're right… Alright Pikachu, let's get going- and you're still asleep… Great…"
"Pikaa~" The Pokemon coed quietly, as if it was having a very enjoyable dream.
"Well, desperate times call for desperate measures…" Ash then pulled out Pikachu's Pokeball from his bag but right as he was about to aim it at the Electric type, he woke up instantly, and without any hesitation, shot a powerful Thunderbolt at Ash, and then proceeded to slowly walk towards the Pokemon Center ahead of everyone else.
"Guess he still hates being in his Pokeball huh?" Commented the Pyramid King.
"You can say that again…" Replied the raven haired trainer, who laid on the ground electrocuted.
"I didn't even know you had Pikachu's Pokeball with you. If I'm being honest, I thought you'd leave it at Professor's oak lab or something because he always wants to be by your side." Added on Goh.
"Oh please… anyone who'd be willing to stay by Ketchup's side 24/7 would have to be a new level of insane..." Chloe chimed in.
"Really Chloe!?" Screamed in reply Ash, fed up with her putting him down. Goh and Brandon just laughed awkwardly as they made their way to the Pokemon Center.
"Your Pokemon are all healed up and feeling as refreshed as ever!" A familiar Nurse said with a smile.
"Thanks Nurse Joy!" Thanked a certain raven haired trainer.
"No problem! We hope to see you again!"
Ash attached Lucario's Pokeball to his belt and sat down at the table where Goh, Chloe and Brandon, who had his Pokemon healed a few minutes ago, were making small talk.
"Well, we should probably get to bed soon, it's getting pretty late and we should probably get some sleep for tomorrow's trip to the Crown Tundra." Said Goh seeing his friend approaching them.
Ash then had a sudden idea. "Hey Brandon, since we're going to the same place anyways, why don't you just tag along with us? We're both going to research the ruins afterall."
"I don't see why not." Simply replied the frontier brain. "Then I'll meet up with you at 11am tomorrow in front of the Pokemon Center."
"Aren't you staying here at the Pokemon Center?" Asked Chloe.
"An old friend of mine offered me to crash at his place close to here, so I'll be staying the night there."
"Ah okay I see, we'll see you tomorrow then." Chloe said
"See ya tomorrow Brandon!" Added Goh and Ash simultaneously as Brandon made his way out of the Pokemon Center with a wave.
"Welp guys I think it's time for us to hit the hay as well..." The Vermillion City researcher said with a yawn.
"I second that… See ya tomorrow Goh!... Oh and I guess you too Ketchup." Chloe said as she went up to her room in the Pokemon Center.
"Do you know what I did to annoy her so much?" Ash asked desperately to Goh.
"Well technically, you did embarrass us in front of a whole cafe, said you didn't need her help when you battled Team Rocket, insulted her, tried to provoke her into a battle…"
"Yeah well she started it!"
"Whatever, let's just forget about it and go to bed."
"Fine…"
Whilst the moon beautifully illuminated the room where the two researchers were staying, Ash stared at the ceiling for what felt like ages. Goh had fallen asleep a while ago and Pikachu soon followed suit, yet he himself couldn't. He was thinking about his battle with Brandon from earlier, and whilst he knew he was up against a Legendary Pokemon and a very talented Frontier Brain, he still couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. He bested him before, so why couldn't he do it now? Was his strategy all wrong? Was he overcomplicating things? Did he not trust Lucario's power enough?
He shook his head after that last thought. That couldn't be it, he always had and always will have full faith in his Pokemon's abilities. But maybe there was something missing about that thought. When he thought about it, he really hadn't been using Lucario much at all since he evolved, and maybe because of that, they weren't as prepared to face such a powerful opponent together. Right when he was about to forget about it for now and fall asleep, he felt a sudden burst of Aura coming from his bag and was soon followed by the quiet sound of a Pokeball opening, as Lucario suddenly appeared in front of Ash. The trainer stared at his fighting-steel type for a little bit, noticing the concerned gaze in his eyes, and Ash soon pointed to the balcony where they could talk without fear of waking up Goh or Pikachu.
Ash quietly got up and with his Pokemon alongside him, made their way to the small balcony. Once they were outside, Ash closed the sliding doors behind him carefully, then leaned onto the railing and stared at the night sky with his Pokemon next to him.
"Galar's night sky sure is pretty don't you think? Reminds me of when you evolved here…" Lucario responded silently and simply kept looking at the stars. After a while of silence, Ash asked:
"You're disappointed about today's battle against Brandon too, right?" Lucario once again didn't say anything but this time looked at the ground, frowning slightly.
"They sure were strong, we barely even got some real damage in." He chuckled the final part. "You know Lucario, I've been wanting to apologize for not using you a lot in battles lately..."
Lucario immediately put his paw on his trainer's shoulder and looked at him as if to say that he didn't need to apologize for that.
"It's true, I've been too focused on training my other Pokemon that I forgot that I had you ever since you hatched you from that egg and you recognized my Aura. Truth is, I kinda felt like ever since you evolved, you were already super strong, so there was no point in battling with you as much. But that battle against Brandon proved to me that we still have a long journey ahead of us, both you and me." Lucario let out a quiet cry but let Ash continue.
"It finally hit me whilst we were battling that you have this amazing potential with the Aura you have, yet I brushed it off in favor of other things… But I'm not going to make that mistake anymore…" Ash averted his gaze back to Lucario. "You chose me as your trainer because you knew I could help you with your Aura, so I think it's time that we use that Aura to make you even stronger! So starting tomorrow, we'll train even harder, so next time we battle Brandon, we'll give him a battle like he's never seen before! You with me Lucario?"
"Brawrr!" Exclaimed the Aura Pokemon.
"That's the spirit!" Ash ended as he fist bumped his partner.
Unbeknowst to the pair, a certain purple haired girl was also having trouble sleeping, and subsequently led to her listening in to Ash's conversation on the balcony next to her's. Chloe had been quietly watching from the glass door of her room as she observed curiously with her Eevee the exchange between the pair. When she saw the Pallet Town trainer finally return his Lucario to his Pokeball and make his way back inside, she sighed.
"I'll never understand that guy..." Chloe then picked up her Eever in arms and said: "Well Eevee, we should get some sleep too, don't wanna be too tired for tomorrow's adventure now do we?"
"Evui!" Agreed her Pokemon.
Chloe layed down on her bed and pulled up the bedsheet covers, with her starter Pokemon quickly cuddling next her. She closed her eyes and muttered the words: "Stupid Ketchup…" Before proceeding to fall into a deep slumber.