With another day of adventures and battling yesterday, Ash retired at Pallet Town again. While he did have a place to stay at Cerise's lab, he felt he should visit his mother and Pokémon at Oak's lab more.
Which was the reason he was once again at the corral, this time training his Pokémon.
Thanks to Oak, Ash had devised various sets of his own Pokémon, old and new, to train with one another in order to help with new moves, techniques, and other attributes. All around the corral, Ash's Pokémon were putting in work.
Bulbasaur was squaring off against Bayleef, the sauropod swinging her head-leaf and sending multicolored leaves that the plant-toad hybrid dispelled with Poison Powder. The Leaf Pokémon then leapt in the air to use Body Slam but the Seed Pokémon avoided it and fired spurts of explosive seeds.
Charizard and Incineroar faced off with each other, the dragon with extended scaly claws while the feline had darkness shrouding his paws. The Flame Pokémon lunged before with Dragon Claw, leaving the Heel Pokémon to deflect with Darkest Lariat. Through a fierce exchange, the dragon managed to win the outcome as the tiger skidded across the ground and let out a disgruntled roar.
Squirtle spun around using Rapid Spin and landed a blow at Oshawott. The Sea Otter Pokémon got up and fired a Hydro Pump to strike the Tiny Turtle Pokémon down but the mustelid missed his mark. The terrapin landed and began to lecture the otter on where he needed to improve, making the mammal huff as he claimed he didn't need help.
Pidgeot, having gotten to know the many birds of Ash's team now, decided to train with Talonflame. The Kanto regional bird turned her wings to steel, copying the Kalos raptor's Steel Wing. Then the Bird Pokémon flapped her wings, creating orange-red waves which the Scorching Pokémon mimicked and made little embers of Heat Wave.
Butterfree and his mate decided to spar against one another. There was nothing that the two butterflies didn't know from one another. Ash was impressed as the pink Butterfree held her own against his, and even though Butterfree was released quite early in his journey, the purple butterfly still impressed him. His own Butterfree fired a multicolored zig zag beam while the mate sent silvery powdered wind.
Kingler demonstrated a new move to Corphish as they got along great. The Pincer Pokémon fired a burst of salty water from his large claw while looking at the Ruffian Pokémon. The crayfish nodded before trying a new move himself, his pincer developed a watery energy blade. Kingler clicked at the progress of Corphish's Razor Shell.
Despite being a loving, hugging mass, Muk was training hard. And with Nagandel around, the Sludge Pokémon picked up several new moves. The sludge practiced generating a charge before unleashing it. The Ultra Beast buzzed with joy as she managed to teach the sentient puddle a new move. She herself had managed to aim better with Sludge Bomb.
Within the herd, the leader Tauros -who has come to be named as Stampede by Ash- clashed with another bull in the herd with Horn Attack. Various members of the herd all wanted the chance to battle eventually but even then, it would be a hard choice on who gets to be chosen.
Snorlax swung a Mega Punch into Heracross' Focus Punch. The beetle was sent into the air before flying down. The sleeping giant lumbered over before going on about how the beetle could put more power in his punch. The Single Horn Pokémon nodded and tried again, this time putting more of a swing into it.
Lapras just watched Totodile do his little dance in the lake. And while she found the crocodile's joyful attitude contagious, she wanted to do some training. Living in the wilderness, she learned new moves. The Transport Pokémon started by showing a Hydro Pump that made the Big Jaw Pokémon out his dancing. Amazed by the power, Totodile tried to copy which he did.
Quilava evaded Gible's Rock Smash before flaring up. The Volcano Pokémon fired a torrent of flames from his mouth that got the Land Shark Pokémon covered in soot. Shaking it off, the Sinnoh pseudo legendary charged again, but this time in a silver aura. The weasel ignited his flames again before rolling into a Flame Wheel, making him a match for the landshark's Iron Head. After clashing in a stalemate, both Pokémon were skidded back and shook off their headaches.
While one was at a type disadvantage, Buizel liked the challenge. The weasel came in with an Ice Punch, but Snivy dodged with grace. She came down with a Leaf Blade but it was disrupted by a Sonic Boom. The serpent landed and gave a challenging glare towards the weasel. The Sea Weasel Pokémon took a deep breath before exhaling boiling water that the Grass Snake Pokémon deflected with a scaly, teal tail.
Noctowl watched carefully as Swellow streaked across the sky. The Owl Pokémon carefully tracked the Swallow Pokémon before predicting his trajectory. The shiny bird flapped his wings, sending Air Slashes towards the swallow. Nimbly avoiding them, Swellow began to build up more energy and was overtaken by a blue aura, showing that he learned Brave Bird. The swallow charged directly towards his opponent but was trapped in the confines of Noctowl's Psychic.
During their time together again, both former baby Pokémon had rekindled their friendship and were great battling partners. Donphan glowed with a brown aura and ran into Tyranitar. The Johto pseudo-legendary grunted before shoving the pachyderm off and roared. The saurian sent several blue stone spires towards the elephant. The Ground-type Armor Pokémon grunted himself before weaving through each spire with Rollout.
Sceptile dashed all over the field, making Torterra growl in frustration. The Forest Pokémon drew a dark green Leaf Blade and slashed at the Continent Pokémon but the tree tortoise picked up a few tricks since his time at the lab. The Grass/Ground-type roared and unleashed a golden crack towards the lizard, who stumbled from the Earth Power. Then with another roar, Torterra generated two rings of rocks around himself and sent them towards Sceptile. The lizard felt something burn inside of him and unleashed a Dragon Pulse that collided with the Stone Edge. Both Grass starters shielded their eyes before bellowing at the strength of their moves.
Torkoal took a deep breath and exhaled orange-red waves towards Pignite. The Fire Pig Pokémon took his own deep breath and exhaled thick black, noxious smoke. The Coal Pokémon held his breath, preventing the Smog attack from poisoning him. The swine walked over to the tortoise and gave him some indication about using Poison-type moves. Torkoal nodded and tried himself, hurling out poison globs to demonstrate Sludge Bomb. While not the ideal move, Pignite still congratulated the reptile on learning the move.
Being the two most mischievous members, Glalie and Haunter instantly hit it off. Though each of them were still training themselves, the Face Pokémon wanted to have a battle for a long time now and the Gas Pokémon had seen many challengers against Sabrina. Right now, the floating head expelled a series of dark purple spirals that the ghost dodged. Glalie had a triumphant look as he mastered Dark Pulse.
Staraptor and Unfezant were great sparring partners. The Sinnoh bird of prey and the Unovan gamebird zoomed across the sky, each trying to take advantage of each other. The Predator Pokémon drew near and prepared a Close Combat on the Proud Pokémon. However, just before the contact, Unfezant's eyes flashed green and she avoided the attack completely. Having learned Detect, Unfezant cawed at her success.
Both Infernape and Gengar threw air punches, both concentrating on different elements. Eventually, the primate developed a shadowy claw, showing he learned Shadow Claw while the ghost conjured some purple flames. The Shadow Pokémon placed his hands together and Will-O-Wisp became fruitful for him. Both previously abandoned Pokémon gave a thumbs-up at each other's achievement.
Gliscor swooped down and prepared a Steel Wing on his training opponent. Krookodile braced himself and caught the move in his claws. With a devious glint in his sunglasses, the crocodile wrapped his tail around the bat-scorpion hybrid's and swung him to the ground, displaying Foul Play. The Fang Scorpion Pokémon bounced into the air, chattered about the cheap move before flying in with X-Scissor, this time striking the Intimidation Pokémon.
Scraggy just watched in awe as Primeape threw some air punches. The Shedding Pokémon had come to admire the Pig Monkey Pokémon from their short time, making the reptile want to be as strong as him. He tried to impress the simian with his Focus Blast but failed as it was sent sailing away. Primeape proceeded to give pointers about using the range move.
Leavanny sharpened his gaze before making an Energy Ball. The Nurturing Pokémon fired it and Rowlet observed carefully. The Grass Quill Pokémon nodded before centering himself. Soon, the mini owl was made a green sphere that he fired. The Energy Ball was a success. The green insectoid congratulated him and critiqued a snoozing Rowlet, much to the former's dismay.
Palpitoad worked up a Sludge Wave before dispersing it. Goodra gave a nod before concentrating himself. He eventually developed a puddle that evolved into a purple wave. The Vibration Pokémon croaked happily at his lesson being successfully. The Kalos Dragon Pokémon agreed with a roar before firing an Ice Beam that he wanted the amphibian to follow.
While both being the same type, Boldore and Lycanroc had differences in training with the tripedal rock sticking to defensive moves and the orange wolf was equipped with speed. That didn't stop them from training with each other since Lycanroc developed a crimson paw and swung it downward whereas Boldore's crystals shined and unleashed a silvery beam from his ear.
Concentrating, Greninja drew a dark-imbued kunai as Lucario manifested a blue aura bone himself. With Night Slash and Bone Club in hand, they sparred with each other and occasionally threw an Aura Sphere or Water Shuriken that was cleaved in half. They even developed a friendly rivalry between each other due to their connection with Ash: through Bond Phenomenon and aura respectively.
Out of his four-way training Farfetch'd did two days ago, he liked Hawlucha the most. Scraggy was still immature and Primeape specialized in hand-to-hand combat. So the Wrestling Pokémon was the only one the Wild Duck Pokémon thought met his caliber. The duck swung his leek which the masked avian dodged before going in with a High Jump Kick.
High in the air, Noivern and Dragonite were going over some basics of their Dragon-typing. The Dragon Pokémon spun around, purple energy surrounding her as the Soundwave Pokémon worked on that himself. The bat-wyvern managed to replicate the sequence and fly faster than before. The orange dragon gave the wyvern a hug for success.
Melmetal took his time before firing a beam of bright steel energy. Nebby the Solgaleo saw the Flash Cannon, pawed the ground and ran forward, covered in silver energy himself. Using Iron Head, the Sunne Pokémon managed to plow through the beam until meeting the biotic metal hex to face. The Hex Nut Pokémon practically 'gulped' at the closeness but Nebby began to explain through PokéSpeech how to concentrate better with its Steel-type moves.
Pikachu, oddly enough, was practicing with Mimey. While the Barrier Pokémon was mostly used for cleaning the Ketchum household, he agreed on training himself. Ash had worked on an agreement with his mom that the Psychic/Fairy-type could be used for the World Coronation Series. The mime created a Light Screen that the Mouse Pokémon tried to mirror himself. Eventually the mouse managed to create his own Light Screen, squeaking with pride at learning a defensive move.
Latios and Latias were new to the team and trained well together. Latios was the most battle-oriented as he was overprotective but was kind enough to show his sister a Dragon Pulse. The Red Eon Twin nodded before firing off a work-in-progress version of the move but she still continued. If both legendaries planned to battle, they wanted to give it their all.
Ash encouraged each of his Pokémon to their best but also not push themselves to the point of exhaustion. He was proud of them for training and made him more excited for the chance to use them in the World Coronation Series. After all, using his typical strategy of six Pokémon might become a disadvantage for him, even though he only used five so far for some of the big matches.
During the afternoon, Ash decided to give his Pokémon a well-deserved break. They were relaxing in the corral, at least most of them, while others decided to train still.
The boy was sitting down, exhausted himself Sure, he has trained before but he hasn't trained all his Pokémon like this since the Lily of the Valley Conference. By then, he didn't have his current roster, let alone three Legnedaries, but now he does. He began to wonder if Tobias was in the tournament, but then again he would have known about the mysterious trainer through some rumors.
Ash was broken from his musings when he saw a streak of yellow in the air. Shortly after, three other colored streaks are seen: a pink, green, and blue.
The streaks flew erratically before all spinning and descending towards Ash. The streaks were bright which made Ash cover his eyes before the lights revealed the deities of Alola.
"Alola, Chosen One!" Tapu Koko announced.
"Hello again," Tapu Lele greeted.
"Chosen One! Great to see you!" Tapu Bulu boomed.
"It truly is," Tapu Fini agreed in a sincere tone.
"Wait, you four can use telepathy?" Ash realized. The four guardians just chuckled to themselves.
"Yes, we tend not to talk with the Kahunas. Amongst legendaries and mythicals, on the otherhand…" Koko admitted.
"But that is besides the point," Fini said, "We are here to bestow gifts and thank you for dealing with the Ultra Beasts and Necromza incidents."
"Yes, thank you," Lele agreed, "We were hardly ever aware of such unique Pokémon beyond our reach. Thanks to Arceus, he was able to negotiate with the beasts and earn their spot among us."
Fini nodded, "Now we shall give our gifts. They aren't much but we figured you could use some of Alola's powers."
"Me first!" Bulu interrupted the female guardians, much to their annoyance.
The Ula'ula guardian retracted to his shell before concentrating and revealed to have four Z-Crystals. "I present to you the Z-Crystals of Dark, Ghost, Bug, and Psychic!"
Ash was surprised to see Bulu gifting him with Z-Crystals. "Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I can use Z-Moves for my World Coronation matches," he mused aloud.
"Of course, you can!" The Ula'ula guardian proclaimed. "I've seen a few matches of this game you and the other humans are partaking in. And I have seen Z-Moves being used."
Surprised again, Ash never considered that a Legendary Pokémon would be interested in the World Coronation Series. But he still took the crystals.
"Moving along," Lele chimed in, "I am next." She repeated the same process and had three Z-Crystals. "These are for Water, Incineroar, and Decidueye. If Rowlet ever decides to evolve."
Ash took them, now he was interested in how he would try to use them for battle.
"Now it is my turn," Fini announced and did the same before revealing her set of Z-Crystals. "These are the Dragon, Fairy, Ground, Poison, and Ice Z-Crystals." Ash began to have his hands full with the amount of Z-Crystals.
"And now, it is my turn," Koko said, going last and revealed to have Fighting, Flying, and the most surprising of all, Solganium-Z.
"Wait, Solganium-Z?!" Ash exclaimed before asking, "Are you sure, Tapu Koko?"
"Why not? You have used it before." The Melemele guardian remembered.
"But I-"
"Oh, you are thinking about your matches, correct?" Koko inferred to which the Alola Champion nodded. "Yes, sorry. I should have clarified. Use Searing Sunraze Smash more as… world-ending scenarios in case you come across them."
That made Ash relieved. He couldn't think about using such a powerful move against a common trainer.
"Hmmm, come to think of it," Koko mused, "You are perhaps one of the few trainers to have so many Z-Crystals."
"I am?" Ash questioned.
"Not many trainers search for all Z-Crystals. I heard that even Mew has one but she tends to cherish it." Bulu said nonchalantly. Dumbfounded by this information, Ash began internally deciding to tell Goh this information.
"But now we have given our gifts," Tapu Lele said before she and the three others glowed their respective colors. "Thank you for your help in Alola."
"Good luck in your future battles," Tapu Fini wished.
"You'll do great!" Tapu Bulu encouraged.
And finally Tapu Koko finished, "We Tapus wish you luck in your future battles."
With that said, the four Tapus retreated back to Alola, back to their duties. Leaving in awestruck Ash before the boy grinned. Now that he knew he could use Z-Moves in his matches, he was all for it. Though he made a mental note to use it for rank-boosting matches like against Elite 4 or Gym Leaders.
Ash asked Bulbasaur to gather his Pokémon which the Seed Pokémon did and Ketchum's Pokémon came running as usual. The trainer explained his latest gifts and all, except his Alolan and Legendaries, were perplexed at the mention of Z-Crystals. After explaining, his Pokémon understood.
"So now that we have all these Z-Crystals, I'll try to incorporate them into some of my matches. But given my stash, I think that I will have to limit each Z-Crystal to one of you. I can't decide so I figured I would let you guys decide," Ash said before adding, "Though, Pikachu, Lycanroc, Nebby, and Incineroar you have your own so I'll single you out. You too Rowlet, if you decide to evolve."
The selected Pokémon nodded, Rowlet now somewhat thinking about evolving. He had nearly been on the receiving end of Sinister Arrow Raid and had wanted to try it out himself. The small owl would have to think about it.
"Now then," Ash began, "Who wants to use Normalium-Z?" The rest of the afternoon was basically deciding which Pokémon got to utilize a Z-Move. Some were excited at the potential of using such a strong move while others dismissed it, wanting to be stronger on their own terms. After that was squared away, Ash headed home for dinner.
Before going to bed, Ash decided to place his Z Power Ring in his backpack for future battles and got a call from Goh who depicted his and Chloe's adventure today with an Eevee. The girl had decided to catch Eevee as her partner which made Ash happy. You never forget your first capture.
With plans for a dig tomorrow, Ash went to bed for the night.