Chapter Three [Ael]
Aido's surprise was equally a match for Mewtwo's. "Uhh..."
How did you ever get off the island? I was certain you were still there when I left... Mewtwo was still partly in shock.
Aido frowned fiercely. "Well, I rescued myself, thank you very much. Had to capture a Gyarados to do it, but it wasn't that hard, even without Pokémon."
Everyone shot him odd glances at that, but they didn't get to say anything because at that very moment, Delia and Sean came down the stairs. "What's going on down here?" Sean asked, and then he looked over at the group. The sight of a duplicate Ash was enough to cause him to lose his balance and fall the rest of the way down the stairs. Predictably, unconsciousness resulted.
Delia merely looked over at Ash and Aido without surprise. Then she walked the rest of the way down the stairs and slapped Sean on the face.
"Ouch!" he exclaimed as he woke up.
"You really need to break that habit, you know," she said.
"I know, I know..." He stood up. "So what's the big deal, anyway?"
Mewtwo had the good grace to look embarrassed. It's a long story.
~~~~~~~
After Mewtwo and Aido explained about the accident involving Aido's creation, with a few comments from Ash, the situation was mostly ignored. Delia, of course, acted as if she'd always had another son. Sean was a bit more uneasy about this duplicate, but after Aido began to show off Darkflame he became more comfortable around his "new" son.
Eventually, Ash got around to asking his twin to a Pokémon battle. Aido looked over at him, amused. "You sure that's what you want, Ash?"
"You bet it is!"
Aido stood up and shrugged. "If that's what you want, so be it. Meet you at our hidden battle field in five minutes, I've got to get my main battle team and I'm sure you do as well."
"Yeah!" Ash ran for the front door, missed it, smacked facefirst into the wall, then tried again, this time making it out the door itself. He left a rather impressive Ash-shaped mark in the wallpaper.
Five minutes later, Aido calmly stepped through the thornbushes without getting so much as a scratch. In a clearing on the other side, Ash and his friends were waiting. All of them were dirty, and Ash had small tears in his clothing. Sean and Delia had opted to stay home rather than go tramping through the bushes, but they made their son - both of him - promise to tell them every little detail about the battle.
Aido and Darkflame stood at the north end of the makeshift arena. "Ash, since this is our first battle, I think we should just battle as we would any other opponent. Be forewarned, I'm not going to go easy on you."
"I wouldn't expect you to," Ash retorted, pulling out a Pokéball. "I'm ready when you are!"
"Rules are as follows. Only one Pokémon against one Pokémon, no keeping a Pokémon out after its opponent faints. All attacks allowed. The trainer can choose to recall a Pokémon early, but in doing so they will forfeit that round. Got all that?"
"Yeah," Ash replied, still holding up his Pokéball. "I'm set!"
"Then let's begin." Aido smoothly reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an odd-looking Pokéball. It was blue with black stripes, and gold dust glittered on the top half. He threw the Pokéball down onto the field. "Heracross, go!"
Ash threw his Pokéball. "Butterfree, I choose you!"
The two bug-type Pokémon materialized simultaneously. Ash's Butterfree was the first Pokémon Ash had ever caught, and although he had released him into the wild, Butterfree had returned to him the year before. Aido's Heracross, on the other hand, was a tough-looking bug of a high level earned through constant training and discipline.
"Butterfree, Stun Spore!" Ash commanded.
"Heracross, Mega Breeze!" Aido countered.
Butterfree flapped his wings, and a yellow-orange dust began to settle over Heracross. But the horned insect Pokémon also began to move its wings, creating a gust of wind that carried the Sun Spore harmlessly away.
"Tackle!" Ash called out.
"Skull Bash!"
The two insects met head-on. Heracross' horn slammed into Butterfree's head, knocking it silly. Butterfree tried to recover, but Heracross pinned it down.
"Now a Delta Wave!" Aido ordered.
Heracross began to glow yellow, and Butterfree went limp. He twitched for a moment, then stopped moving. Heracross ceased the attack, and stepped off of the Pokémon's wings. "Hera!"
"Butterfree, return!" Butterfree vanished in a beam of red light. Ash was nervous. He'd never had his Pokémon shot down so quickly before. Pulling out another Pokéball, he sent out his shiny Noctowl.
"Heracross, return." Aido replaced the fighting bug's Pokéball with a similar one, except purple instead of blue. "Misdreavous, your turn!"
A pretty even match. Normal/Flying versus Ghost. Still, Ash was a bit worried. Mewtwo had set his machine to enhance all his clones. Who knows what it might have done to Aido?
"Noctowl, Hypnosis!"
"Misdreavous, Dark Mirror!"
Noctowl's Hypnosis waves bounced off the dark shield Misdreavous put up around itself. The waves shone into Noctowl's eyes, causing it to fly erratically as if drunk.
"Noctowl, try to shake the effects and use Foresight!"
"Misdreavous, Nightmare Chomp!"
Noctowl made an effort to shake the Hypnosis. It really did. But before it could finish, Misdreavous darted in and phased through its head. Noctowl screamed and fell to the ground, with Misdreavous reforming in front of Aido.
"Noctowl, return! Go, Meganium!"
Aido recalled Misdreavous and took out a green Pokéball of the same kind as the first two. "Go, Bladeon!"
The Pokémon that appeared was a Grass type. Green in color, with leafy wings on its back, it looked mostly like an Eevee. Its short tail looked like a tree branch with leaf buds sprouting off of it. Its disproportionately huge ears looked like ferns, a ragged leaf-mane ringed its neck. "Bladeon!" it said in a very Eevee-like voice.
"You like it, eh?" Aido said, obviously a bit proud of himself. "I found this little guy as an Eevee, hiding in an old shack in Lavender Town. He got too close to a Sun Stone, and...well, he evolved into what you see here. We've been together for years."
"Neato!" Ash said.
Aido grinned. "Yeah, isn't it? Bladeon, Vine Lash!"
Ash was so surprised by the sudden twist that he was unable to counter fast enough. Bladeon extended a vine from its tail buds and slapped Meganium across the back, leaving deep welts. Meganium cried out and tried to move away, but Bladeon smacked her across the neck.
"Ash is really getting trounced," Misty commented to Brock.
"Aido's trained his Pokémon well," Brock agreed. "But Ash has had more experience as a trainer. I'd say they're fairly matched."
"Yes, but don't forget," Erin cut in, "Mewtwo ENHANCED his clones. Whatever Ash's 'special ability' is, Aido's got that times ten."
As one, they turned to look at Mewtwo, who was observing the battle with mild detachment. He barely spared them a glance. What?
"Nothing," Misty and Brock chorused.
By this point, Ash had switched Pokémon to Typhlosion and was trying to fend off the attacks of Aido's Dragonite. Typhlosion scored a hit with a Flame Wheel on Dragonite's chest, but the dragon type didn't seem to notice it. Dragonite rammed its small horn into Typhlosion's back and delivered an electric jolt through its antennae at the same time. Typhlosion, in return, bit Dragonite on the wing.
Dragonite glanced down at the fire type, as if annoyed by a fly, and swatted Typhlosion fiercely across the head. The fire type went flying, slammed into a tree, and didn't get up.
Ash was getting desperate. Four out of six matches belonged to Aido, now. His only hope was in Feraligatr and Pikachu. Keeping Pikachu as a last resort, he sent out the Johto water type to face whatever Aido's next Pokémon was.
Aido almost lazily recalled Dragonite, and picked out a new Pokéball. This one was blue on the bottom, white on the top, and it had a black stripe through the center. Two purple-red circles that looked almost like eyes shone brightly from the top half of the ball, right over the activation button. "Crescent, go get 'em!"
A youthful Lugia appeared on the battlefield. It was about ten feet long, making it a lot smaller than the one Ash had encountered at Shamouti. He looked around at the humans, then focused on the Feraligatr in front of him. I'm ready to groove, dude! the Lugia shouted, and laughed.
"Crescent, knock off the jam," Aido said, amused. "You gotta get down with it. Shake off the funk."
I hear ya, maaaaan, Crescent, the Lugia, agreed. Let's kick some butt. It's showtime!
"Never thought I'd see the day where there'd be a punk Lugia," Brock whispered to Misty, and she hid a giggle.
"Feraligatr, Hydro Slash!"
Ash's Feraligatr, long since evolved from the fun-loving Totodile, lunged forward and swiped at the young Lugia while spraying water from its paws. Crescent almost lazily dodged, taking to the air above the other Pokémon's head.
"Crescent, Elemental Blast!" Aido commanded.
Whoa, awesome, a totally trippy attack! Crescent said before he closed his eyes. A rainbow-colored corona flared into being around him. It swarmed over his silvery feathers, migrating and concentrating near his beak. Then the Lugia opened his eyes, opened his mouth, and screamed, Here's lookin' at you, kids! and let loose a mighty iridescent beam of light.
Feraligatr was nearly blown over by the attack, and doubled over in pain. Growling, it blinked red eyes at the young legendary bird and snarled.
"Feraligatr, use Ice Lance!"
The Feraligatr opened its claws as if grasping something, and a spear made entirely out of ice materialized. Hefting the heavy weapon, it hurled it at Crescent.
"Crescent, dodge!"
Crescent ducked, pirouetting and doing a barrel roll in midair to avoid the icy lance. Dude, bad vibes! he quipped. I'm sensin' hostilities, Cap'n!
"All right, Crescent. Combination Hawk Dive and Twisted Psybeam!"
Comin' up, mastah! Crescent gained altitude, shimmering as he did so with purple-blue energy. Then he dove down toward Feraligatr, spinning like a drill bit, and blasted the crocodile-like Pokémon with the Psybeam. Feraligatr went soaring through the air and slammed into the ground twenty feet away, out cold.
Ash knew the battle was already lost, but he wanted to see if Aido could beat all of his Pokémon. He looked down at the yellow mouse, who was patiently sitting near his foot. "Pikachu, do you think you can handle it?" he asked.
"Pika!" Pikachu answered confidently.
"Okay then. Pikachu, I choose you!"
Aido smiled, and held up the strange Pokéball. "Crescent, I know you can probably take him, but you're done for now. Return."
See you cool cats later. Crescent saluted and disappeared in a flash of red light.
Aido didn't even give one look to the Houndoom calmly standing next to him. "Darkflame, you're up." She leapt forward without hesitation, facing Pikachu.
[You are good, small one, but you are no match for me,] Darkflame growled.
[Think what you like,] Pikachu shot back. [And when we're done, you can kiss my tail.]
"Cut the chatter, Darkflame. Midnight Fireball!"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Author's Note: This was as far as we got, but if anyone would like to continue, please do so. I kind of got stuck and then lost interest in Pokemon altogether.
Aido's surprise was equally a match for Mewtwo's. "Uhh..."
How did you ever get off the island? I was certain you were still there when I left... Mewtwo was still partly in shock.
Aido frowned fiercely. "Well, I rescued myself, thank you very much. Had to capture a Gyarados to do it, but it wasn't that hard, even without Pokémon."
Everyone shot him odd glances at that, but they didn't get to say anything because at that very moment, Delia and Sean came down the stairs. "What's going on down here?" Sean asked, and then he looked over at the group. The sight of a duplicate Ash was enough to cause him to lose his balance and fall the rest of the way down the stairs. Predictably, unconsciousness resulted.
Delia merely looked over at Ash and Aido without surprise. Then she walked the rest of the way down the stairs and slapped Sean on the face.
"Ouch!" he exclaimed as he woke up.
"You really need to break that habit, you know," she said.
"I know, I know..." He stood up. "So what's the big deal, anyway?"
Mewtwo had the good grace to look embarrassed. It's a long story.
~~~~~~~
After Mewtwo and Aido explained about the accident involving Aido's creation, with a few comments from Ash, the situation was mostly ignored. Delia, of course, acted as if she'd always had another son. Sean was a bit more uneasy about this duplicate, but after Aido began to show off Darkflame he became more comfortable around his "new" son.
Eventually, Ash got around to asking his twin to a Pokémon battle. Aido looked over at him, amused. "You sure that's what you want, Ash?"
"You bet it is!"
Aido stood up and shrugged. "If that's what you want, so be it. Meet you at our hidden battle field in five minutes, I've got to get my main battle team and I'm sure you do as well."
"Yeah!" Ash ran for the front door, missed it, smacked facefirst into the wall, then tried again, this time making it out the door itself. He left a rather impressive Ash-shaped mark in the wallpaper.
Five minutes later, Aido calmly stepped through the thornbushes without getting so much as a scratch. In a clearing on the other side, Ash and his friends were waiting. All of them were dirty, and Ash had small tears in his clothing. Sean and Delia had opted to stay home rather than go tramping through the bushes, but they made their son - both of him - promise to tell them every little detail about the battle.
Aido and Darkflame stood at the north end of the makeshift arena. "Ash, since this is our first battle, I think we should just battle as we would any other opponent. Be forewarned, I'm not going to go easy on you."
"I wouldn't expect you to," Ash retorted, pulling out a Pokéball. "I'm ready when you are!"
"Rules are as follows. Only one Pokémon against one Pokémon, no keeping a Pokémon out after its opponent faints. All attacks allowed. The trainer can choose to recall a Pokémon early, but in doing so they will forfeit that round. Got all that?"
"Yeah," Ash replied, still holding up his Pokéball. "I'm set!"
"Then let's begin." Aido smoothly reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an odd-looking Pokéball. It was blue with black stripes, and gold dust glittered on the top half. He threw the Pokéball down onto the field. "Heracross, go!"
Ash threw his Pokéball. "Butterfree, I choose you!"
The two bug-type Pokémon materialized simultaneously. Ash's Butterfree was the first Pokémon Ash had ever caught, and although he had released him into the wild, Butterfree had returned to him the year before. Aido's Heracross, on the other hand, was a tough-looking bug of a high level earned through constant training and discipline.
"Butterfree, Stun Spore!" Ash commanded.
"Heracross, Mega Breeze!" Aido countered.
Butterfree flapped his wings, and a yellow-orange dust began to settle over Heracross. But the horned insect Pokémon also began to move its wings, creating a gust of wind that carried the Sun Spore harmlessly away.
"Tackle!" Ash called out.
"Skull Bash!"
The two insects met head-on. Heracross' horn slammed into Butterfree's head, knocking it silly. Butterfree tried to recover, but Heracross pinned it down.
"Now a Delta Wave!" Aido ordered.
Heracross began to glow yellow, and Butterfree went limp. He twitched for a moment, then stopped moving. Heracross ceased the attack, and stepped off of the Pokémon's wings. "Hera!"
"Butterfree, return!" Butterfree vanished in a beam of red light. Ash was nervous. He'd never had his Pokémon shot down so quickly before. Pulling out another Pokéball, he sent out his shiny Noctowl.
"Heracross, return." Aido replaced the fighting bug's Pokéball with a similar one, except purple instead of blue. "Misdreavous, your turn!"
A pretty even match. Normal/Flying versus Ghost. Still, Ash was a bit worried. Mewtwo had set his machine to enhance all his clones. Who knows what it might have done to Aido?
"Noctowl, Hypnosis!"
"Misdreavous, Dark Mirror!"
Noctowl's Hypnosis waves bounced off the dark shield Misdreavous put up around itself. The waves shone into Noctowl's eyes, causing it to fly erratically as if drunk.
"Noctowl, try to shake the effects and use Foresight!"
"Misdreavous, Nightmare Chomp!"
Noctowl made an effort to shake the Hypnosis. It really did. But before it could finish, Misdreavous darted in and phased through its head. Noctowl screamed and fell to the ground, with Misdreavous reforming in front of Aido.
"Noctowl, return! Go, Meganium!"
Aido recalled Misdreavous and took out a green Pokéball of the same kind as the first two. "Go, Bladeon!"
The Pokémon that appeared was a Grass type. Green in color, with leafy wings on its back, it looked mostly like an Eevee. Its short tail looked like a tree branch with leaf buds sprouting off of it. Its disproportionately huge ears looked like ferns, a ragged leaf-mane ringed its neck. "Bladeon!" it said in a very Eevee-like voice.
"You like it, eh?" Aido said, obviously a bit proud of himself. "I found this little guy as an Eevee, hiding in an old shack in Lavender Town. He got too close to a Sun Stone, and...well, he evolved into what you see here. We've been together for years."
"Neato!" Ash said.
Aido grinned. "Yeah, isn't it? Bladeon, Vine Lash!"
Ash was so surprised by the sudden twist that he was unable to counter fast enough. Bladeon extended a vine from its tail buds and slapped Meganium across the back, leaving deep welts. Meganium cried out and tried to move away, but Bladeon smacked her across the neck.
"Ash is really getting trounced," Misty commented to Brock.
"Aido's trained his Pokémon well," Brock agreed. "But Ash has had more experience as a trainer. I'd say they're fairly matched."
"Yes, but don't forget," Erin cut in, "Mewtwo ENHANCED his clones. Whatever Ash's 'special ability' is, Aido's got that times ten."
As one, they turned to look at Mewtwo, who was observing the battle with mild detachment. He barely spared them a glance. What?
"Nothing," Misty and Brock chorused.
By this point, Ash had switched Pokémon to Typhlosion and was trying to fend off the attacks of Aido's Dragonite. Typhlosion scored a hit with a Flame Wheel on Dragonite's chest, but the dragon type didn't seem to notice it. Dragonite rammed its small horn into Typhlosion's back and delivered an electric jolt through its antennae at the same time. Typhlosion, in return, bit Dragonite on the wing.
Dragonite glanced down at the fire type, as if annoyed by a fly, and swatted Typhlosion fiercely across the head. The fire type went flying, slammed into a tree, and didn't get up.
Ash was getting desperate. Four out of six matches belonged to Aido, now. His only hope was in Feraligatr and Pikachu. Keeping Pikachu as a last resort, he sent out the Johto water type to face whatever Aido's next Pokémon was.
Aido almost lazily recalled Dragonite, and picked out a new Pokéball. This one was blue on the bottom, white on the top, and it had a black stripe through the center. Two purple-red circles that looked almost like eyes shone brightly from the top half of the ball, right over the activation button. "Crescent, go get 'em!"
A youthful Lugia appeared on the battlefield. It was about ten feet long, making it a lot smaller than the one Ash had encountered at Shamouti. He looked around at the humans, then focused on the Feraligatr in front of him. I'm ready to groove, dude! the Lugia shouted, and laughed.
"Crescent, knock off the jam," Aido said, amused. "You gotta get down with it. Shake off the funk."
I hear ya, maaaaan, Crescent, the Lugia, agreed. Let's kick some butt. It's showtime!
"Never thought I'd see the day where there'd be a punk Lugia," Brock whispered to Misty, and she hid a giggle.
"Feraligatr, Hydro Slash!"
Ash's Feraligatr, long since evolved from the fun-loving Totodile, lunged forward and swiped at the young Lugia while spraying water from its paws. Crescent almost lazily dodged, taking to the air above the other Pokémon's head.
"Crescent, Elemental Blast!" Aido commanded.
Whoa, awesome, a totally trippy attack! Crescent said before he closed his eyes. A rainbow-colored corona flared into being around him. It swarmed over his silvery feathers, migrating and concentrating near his beak. Then the Lugia opened his eyes, opened his mouth, and screamed, Here's lookin' at you, kids! and let loose a mighty iridescent beam of light.
Feraligatr was nearly blown over by the attack, and doubled over in pain. Growling, it blinked red eyes at the young legendary bird and snarled.
"Feraligatr, use Ice Lance!"
The Feraligatr opened its claws as if grasping something, and a spear made entirely out of ice materialized. Hefting the heavy weapon, it hurled it at Crescent.
"Crescent, dodge!"
Crescent ducked, pirouetting and doing a barrel roll in midair to avoid the icy lance. Dude, bad vibes! he quipped. I'm sensin' hostilities, Cap'n!
"All right, Crescent. Combination Hawk Dive and Twisted Psybeam!"
Comin' up, mastah! Crescent gained altitude, shimmering as he did so with purple-blue energy. Then he dove down toward Feraligatr, spinning like a drill bit, and blasted the crocodile-like Pokémon with the Psybeam. Feraligatr went soaring through the air and slammed into the ground twenty feet away, out cold.
Ash knew the battle was already lost, but he wanted to see if Aido could beat all of his Pokémon. He looked down at the yellow mouse, who was patiently sitting near his foot. "Pikachu, do you think you can handle it?" he asked.
"Pika!" Pikachu answered confidently.
"Okay then. Pikachu, I choose you!"
Aido smiled, and held up the strange Pokéball. "Crescent, I know you can probably take him, but you're done for now. Return."
See you cool cats later. Crescent saluted and disappeared in a flash of red light.
Aido didn't even give one look to the Houndoom calmly standing next to him. "Darkflame, you're up." She leapt forward without hesitation, facing Pikachu.
[You are good, small one, but you are no match for me,] Darkflame growled.
[Think what you like,] Pikachu shot back. [And when we're done, you can kiss my tail.]
"Cut the chatter, Darkflame. Midnight Fireball!"
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Author's Note: This was as far as we got, but if anyone would like to continue, please do so. I kind of got stuck and then lost interest in Pokemon altogether.
