This story has reached 10k views on and I'm really proud about that. Thank you to all the readers and reviewers whose support enabled me to get here.

Also, to mark that happy occasion, I'm setting up a buy me a coffee account. If you want to donate you can do so at https: / buy me a coffee. com/ Shadowkalam

I want to clarify though that is not at all related to paying for the story. The donations or lack thereof will not affect the story in any way for my regular readers.

So, after the action filled last chapter, this one will be more of a relaxed chapter going back to the basics. Ash travels to Celadon to battle Erika for his 4th gym badge.

Now, there was one review who said that after surviving and overcoming challenges like Zapdos and Team Rocket, Ash shouldn't struggle against people like Gary. I don't agree with this thought and here's why.

Ash going through these struggles makes him a better person, but it doesn't necessarily make him a better trainer. Also, while I do constantly raise the stakes, battles against rivals and gym leaders are a way to bring them down. Otherwise, it leads to a situation like DBZ, where the threats are all more powerful than the last and the situation is always resolved in a predictable manner.

I also haven't decided on which pokémon of Ash's should get the mega stone to evolve. While Venusaur is the underrated choice, him being the most powerful is fitting since he is the starter and team leader, but Lucario mega evolving is more thematically fit with Ash becoming an aura guardian.

Finally, I'm not going to repeat all the events from the games unchanged and you will see one of the major changes in this very chapter. This is to stop the story from feeling like a complete rehash of the games.


Underground Path, 4 Days Later

Ash had taken the underground path from Route 8 to Route to speed up his journey. He wanted to skip Saffron for now, since he was going to challenge Sabrina after his 6th badge. Both Giovanni and Sabrina were the strongest gym leaders in Kanto, and he wanted to save them for the last, when they would give him the toughest challenge.

He also wanted to the time to train up Zorua and make her a true part of the team, since she would most likely be the linchpin in his fight against Sabrina.

Speaking of Zorua, she was really excited to be a part of the team. N wasn't kidding when he said that Zorua loved to battle, she would take any and all opportunity to battle another pokémon trainer. He had also checked her out using his pokédex and was surprised by the result.

Zorua – The Tricky Fox Pokémon

This pokémon has a cowardly disposition, so when it's not around friends, it basically always stays transformed as something else.

Gender – Female

Ability – Illusion

Known Moves – Scratch, Leer, Torment, Hone Claws, Fury Swipes, Scary Face, and Taunt.

Ash had never seen his pokédex be so wrong. Zorua certainly was an outlier, if the pokédex entry was to be believed. She was not all cowardly, instead she was the one leading Bugs and Rio in their prank war.

The three being rather close in experience, maturity and power had formed something of a trio. It was hard to find one without the other two behind him/her.

It had taken Ash quite a while to get through the Underground Path, since he couldn't use his Rotom Bike to get through it quickly. He was also unable to practice Aura, since he didn't want to be caught by the hordes of travelling trainers teeming within the tunnel.

There also hadn't been much opportunity to train his pokémon since he was focused on getting out of the Tunnel as soon as possible. He was also getting annoyed by the constant stream of trainers asking for his autograph or a pokémon battle.

While battling with other trainers was something that Ash loved, he was annoyed by the fact that most of them were just causal trainers, weaker than he had been when he had just one gym badge.

Combined with trainers trying to take pictures of him, due to his Aura Guardian outfit and Lucario walking behind him, Ash was getting really sick of being in this Tunnel and around people.


Celadon City, 5 days later

Ash had finally reached Celadon City, after his hellish experience inside the Underground Path. He made his way to the Pokémon Centre to deposit his pokémon. After giving them to Nurse Joy and booking a room, he decided to check out the Celadon Department Store.

The Department Store had undergone a big renovation a few years ago, since it became the most popular place in the city. Now, instead of looking like a regular mall, it looked a futuristic design, made of glass and steel.

Walking into the mall, Ash was a little surprised by how many trainers were present within. The place was swarming with people all over. He decided to check out a few vendors, to see if there was anything worth buying.

Most of them were selling some sort of jewelry, ornaments, and other miscellaneous items. He had brought a few items to mail to his mom, to show her that he remembered her. He had also brought a beret, to give to Prof Oak to wear during his poetry reading sessions.

There was also a vendor selling vitamins, and judging by the crowd outside her store, she was extremely popular among Trainers. Ash hated Trainers who used such items along with Rare Candy, to get stronger.

While their pokémon did definitely get stronger, all that power and strength was meaningless inside a pokémon that didn't know how to control it and a trainer who didn't have a clue what they were doing. But still, there were thousands of trainers who wasted their money on such items, hoping for a shortcut to strength and quality.

Skipping that Vendor, he started walking past the others. There were even people lined up in front of the self-titled "EV Master" and "Level Master".

These were the new age hacks, who promised a chemical free, get strong quick method. They were even worse and scammy as compared to Vitamins sellers, because while the Vitamins did actually work, their methods were just completely useless.

The way they worked was this: The "Level master" promised to increase the strength of pokémon by increasing their level, a debunked concept, by constantly fight the trainer's pokémon against a team of Blissey, Audino and such.

Of course, the whole thing was just a massive scam. There was no logical reason, why constantly defeating the same pokémon over and over again would lead to either an increase in strength or power.

Walking to the TM Store, he was surprised by the size of the entire store. There were just rows and rows of TMs stacked against each other. It seemed like they carried the entire catalogue of moves that Silph made.

Ash was thankful for his winnings from the SS Anne and the trainers in the Underground Path. He was looking forward to getting a lot of new TMs to teach his pokémon. He check his TM case once to find what TMs he had and was surprised.

He had the TMs for Scald and Thunderbolt that he had received from Misty and Surge respectively and had forgotten about subsequently. He guessed that it had slipped through his mind, after all the craziness on the SS Anne.

Mentally facepalming at his stupidity, he crossed those two TMs of his list and started collecting the rest of them. He had actually made this list walking through the Underground path when he was too bored.

He got the TMs for Sunny Day, Brick Break, Shadow Ball, Will O Wisp, Dazzling Gleam, Teleport, Sludge Bomb and Earthquake. He could only afford a few TMs for now and he had prioritized the ones that he needed the most.

After buying them, he took a look at his bank account and nearly shed a tear on seeing how much money he had spent. He had also gotten a few battle items such as Life Orbs, Flame Orbs and Eviolites from another shop to equip his pokémon.

After going through the mall, he was disappointed to see that there was no shop that offered a service or a way to embed his keystone in his glove or his staff. He supposed that he would have to search for a specialist to do that.

After finishing with the mall, he decided to check out the new Celadon Game Corner. It had originally been run by an undercover Team Rocket, but his "Father" had uncovered their base under the building and destroyed it.

Then, the Celadon City government had taken over the Game Corner after Team Rocket's involvement had been discovered. The city had then taking over the day to day running of the Casino, instead of shutting it down as some anti-gambling protestors had wanted.

A few years ago, an anti-gambling mayor had won the election and decided to shut the gambling aspect down. Since then, the Casino had replaced luck based Slot machines with skill based Games like Voltorb Flip and Card Flip.

He decided to check out the Game Corner to try out his luck at few of the games. He walked into the Casino, not at all surprised that the place was bustling with people.

He walked to the counter and asked the receptionist politely "Hello, I would like to play a few games. How does it work here?"

The receptionist then explained the workings of the casino. She handed him a complimentary coin case and a hundred coins on the casino. He took them cautiously, knowing that he had to practice restraint, lest he lose all his savings here.

He played for nearly two hours, managing to convert his hundred coins into nearly two thousand coins. As it turns out, while he wasn't very good at Card Flip or the other games, he was something of a savant at Voltorb Flip.

One of his streaks had gone on so long that the Casino actually had one of the guards use his psychic pokémon to check over Ash, to make sure that he wasn't cheating.

He had a big disappointment at the Prize Corner though. Even with his rather substantial winnings, the prizes that he could redeem were rather lacking compared to the higher end prizes.

His eyes widened his surprised when he say that they had a Dratini available to redeem at 10k coins and a Porygon at 8k coins. Both of those pokémon were stupidly rare due to the Kanto government regulating their breeding, and creation in the case of Porygon, rather carefully.

The only pokémon that he could redeem with his coins were Abra and Clefairy, both of which he already had. He then looked at the TM selection and passed, since the TMs offered were rather useless, like a Dragon Rage one.

He finally selected the item he was going to redeem and converted the rest of the coins into cash after redeeming it. He looked at the item that he had chosen, a Pokéflute.

They were decently rare items, due to them being artifacts from the Orange Island. The secret to their making had been lost, a couple hundred years ago and only a few hundred remained functional.

It was rumored that they had the power to calm down rampaging pokémon by reaching to their hearts with its melody. These days, they were just used as a peaceful way to wake up sleeping pokémon. Ash had learnt the flute, because one had his childhood friends loved listening to it and he wanted to impress her.


Celadon Gym, Next Day

"What do you mean, you won't battle me?" asked an agitated Ash.

"Yes challenger. I'm feeling rather sleepy today and I won't have any energy left to waste on any challenger after I give my lecture on the benefits of my perfume at the shop today," said a yawning Erika.

"You can't do that. The League rules state that you have to give me a chance to battle you," said a calmer Ash. While he wasn't normally a stickler for rules, it seemed like the only way to force Erika to battle him.

"Ahh, if really want a battle that bad, then you have to defeat all of my gym apprentices first. If you somehow manage to defeat them, then I'll spare some energy to waste on you" said Erika in a frustrated tone and motioned him away.

He was annoyed at having to defeat her gym trainers, but he had no choice in the matter. The League allowed Gym Leaders to set conditions for challengers if they so desired.

Blaine had a really idiotic one, in that he forced challengers to successfully answer his riddles before they could battle him. Giovanni on other hand, forced challengers to have at least 7 badges before they were allowed to challenge him.

Walking to the gym arena behind Erika, he saw that there were roughly seven gym trainers present. He started challenging them one by one.

The first two matches were short one v one battles that he won without breaking a sweat using Bugs and Rio. The situation went downhill when Ash ran his mouth without thinking.

"What's great about Perfume anyway? I don't get the point of it. Just seems like a waste of money to me" said Ash, when one of the girls asked if he wanted to buy the perfume from the shop that Erika ran.

Ash realized his mistake when he saw Lucario facepalm and the girls literally turned red with anger when he said that. The next 5 matches had been a chore, where Ash had to try and focus on the battle when there were 7 mad girls that were staring angrily at him.

By the time, he had finally finished defeating all the gym trainers, the sun was close to setting. He set up his match for tomorrow against Erika.


Celadon Gym, Next Day Morning

Ash had arrived at the gym early, excited for his first gym battle in what seemed like forever. He had missed the anticipation and tension that came before a gym battle.

Walking into the gym, he asked the glaring receptionist about his appointment. She told him to go to the arena where Erika was waiting for him in an ice cold voice. He guessed that she had heard about his distaste for perfume.

Walking towards his spot in the arena, he was surprised to that Erika was looking just as tired as yesterday, even though it was morning. She looked a surprised upon seeing him though, probably because he had worn his Aura guardian outfit.

"This will b match between Ash of Pallet Town and Erika for the Rainbow Badge. The challenger is allowed substitutions, but the Gym Leader is not" explained the referee, when Ash had taken his spot on the challenger's spot.

Erika sent out a harmless looking Tangela, though he knew that it was anything but. He sent out Bugs who had been excitedly preparing for this battle specifically for the last week.

Ash didn't expect him to knock out Tangela because of his inexperience but his ability would let him make a serious dent in the pokémon.

"Bugs warm up Tangela with a Flame Charge" said Ash in a confident tone. Raboot started warming up around the field, gaining enough to cover himself with flames and moved towards Tangela to hit it with the attack.

"Tang, stop the pokémon in its track with Bind and then paralyze him with Thunder Wave" said a smiling Erika. Just as Raboot was about hit Tangela, she stopped him in his path by constricting him with vines.

"Raboot, constantly pelt it with Ember" said Ash in a desperate tone. Ash was in a bind about how to procced here, he was unable to recall Raboot because of the bind and Raboot didn't know a powerful special attack.

Raboot was able to constant hit Tangela with the attack but it didn't seem to do a significant amount of damage. While Raboot was using Ember, Tangle had managed to successfully land a Stun Spore.

"Tangela, now pelt him using your favourite move" said a triumphant Erika. Ash didn't have to wait too long to find out that the move in question was Ancient Power.

"Bugs, use Double Kick on the vines" said Ash. Raboot managed to land the Double Kick on Tangela's vines but was unable to free himself. Thankfully, that wasn't Ash's goal, as became evident when the Ancient Power only manged to Bugs somewhat.

His ability, Libero, changed his typing depending on the move used, the Double Kick had changed his type to Fighting, making the attack not very effective.

Suddenly Ash was struck by a stroke of inspiration when he remembered Bugs how had learnt his latest move. "Bugs, constantly start running in the same place" said a smiling Ash.

Ash's strategy became clear after a few seconds when suddenly Raboot become covered in flames, which damaged Tangela enough to release him from the vines. Raboot started running around the field, gaining speed and then crashing into Tangela with a powerful crash.

"Tang, use Ancient Power on him while he's close and he's Fire type" said an more noticeably energised Erika. Bugs tried to dodge, when his paralysis flared up and Tangela was able to hit him hard with the move.

Bugs was knocked back by the force of the move, landing with a thud on the ground. He managed to get back up, though he was looking noticeably worse for wear. Thankfully for Ash, Tangela hadn't managed to raise her stats using the move.

"Bugs use Quick Attack to get away from Tangela quickly and then finish it off with a strong Flame Charge" said a confident Ash. Bugs managed to get away from her using his quick attack, while Erika ordered Tangela to use a final Ancient Power.

"Bugs, jump on the rocks using your quick attack and then free fall on Tangela using Flame Charge" yelled Ash. Bugs managed to do as ordered, dodging the rocks coming at him by jumping on them and then falling towards Tangela with a powerful Flame Charge.

Bugs managed to hit Tangela right in her centre, dealing a great amount of damage and knocking her out. "That was great Bugs" he said "now come back and rest."

Erika recalled her Tangela and sent out her next pokémon, Victreebel. Ash sent out Kadabra to handle the part poison pokémon.

"Kadabra, stay away from using Teleport and then use Psyshock" said Ash in a calm tone. Kadabra started teleporting around the field, trying to find an opening nail Victreebel.

"Bell, use Vine Whip to hold him to place and then use Giga Drain" ordered an unperturbed Erika. Ash was silent, waiting for the right opportunity to strike when Victreebel managed to captured Kadabra with his vines.

Seeing his opportunity, Ash struck. "Now use Disable and then pelt her with a Psyshock" said a smiling Ash. Kadabra managed to disable Victreebel's vines, rendering them useless. He then hit her point blank with a powerful Psyshock.

The attack did massive damage to Victreebel, especially since it was super effective, had STAB and Kadabra had massive amounts of psychic power at his disposal.

"Bell, c'mon you can get up" encouraged Erika. Victreebel did manage to get up after hearing Erika's encouragement. "I knew you could do it, now cover the field with Poison Powder" she said.

Ash didn't have to order Kadabra to dodge, who teleported away from Victreebel. However, he couldn't leave the arena and Victreebel launched the Poison Powder high in the air, over the whole arena, managing to poison Kadabra easily.

Thankfully, there were psychic barriers erected around the arena, otherwise the poison powder would have affected both Ash and Erika.

Although Kadabra was poisoned by the attack, he wasn't suffering any damage from the poison because of his ability Magic Guard. Magic Guard protected him non attacking damage, such as burn, poison and weather damage.

"Bell, now use our special move on Kadabra" said a cheerful Erika. Ash didn't have to wait long to find out the special move, which turned to be Venoshock.

He yelled for Kadabra to dodge, but Victreebel again just spread it over all the field, making it impossible for him to dodge. The move did a lot of damage to Kadabra, because he was poisoned.

"Now finish him off with a Razor Leaf" said Erika. Ash pleaded for Kadabra to dodge but he was still recovering from the Venoshock and was unable to react in time. The Razor Leaf hit Kadabra in critically dangerous areas and managed to knock him out.

Ash recalled Kadabra, angry at himself for thinking about Venoshock. He sent Bugs back out on the field and ordered him to use Flame Charge without delay.

The move hit Victreebel before Erika could react, knocking it out. Erika recalled Victreebel and sent out her final pokémon, her signature Vileplume.

Ash recalled Bugs, knowing that he wouldn't be able to do much against Vileplume and keeping him as a final resort. He deliberated for a few seconds about who to send out, he finally decided to go with Luxray.

"Luxray, paralyse her using Thunder Wave" said Ash. Luxray sprinted towards Vileplume to paralyse her, when Erika ordered Vileplume to use Poison Powder.

"Don't dodge it, Luxray and then use Bite" said Ash. Luxray managed to get the Thunder Wave off on Vileplume, when she was hit by the poison powder. Ash grinned on seeing on that the poison had managed to activate her ability, Guts.

Luxray managed to bite down on Vileplume with her fangs hard, getting to her to flinch and Ash ordered her to repeat it till Vileplume fainted.

"Use Venoshock Plume" said a sad Erika, who disliked seeing her favourite pokémon get hurt.

"Use Protect, Luxray" said a frantic Ash, as soon as he heard the word Venoshock. Luxray managed to get up the protect a second late and was hit by some of the venom from Vileplume.

The venom harmed Luxray a significant amount but she managed to recover easily. Seeing that she was alright, Ash ordered to her to go in for another Bite.

"Plume, use Giga drain and then use Bullet Seed" said Erika. Vileplume managed to grab Luxray with her hands and started draining her with her flower, when Ash yelled for Luxray to use Thunder Shock.

The Thunder Shock managed to hit the sensitive part of Vileplume's open flower, dealing a critical hit to her. The hit made Vileplume cry out in pain and drop Luxray.

"Luxray, now finish this with a final bite" said Ash with a triumphant smile. Luxray moved in for the kill, when Erika ordered her to use another Venoshock.

The venom collided with Luxray, who managed to bite Vileplume and hang on despite the high amount of pain that she was suffering. Ash looked with anticipation to see who would survive and was elated to see Vileplume.

Luxray managed to stand proudly, with some significant effort, after knocking out Vileplume when the poison activated and she fainted from the pain. Ash recalled her, proud of the strength that she had shown.

"The challenger has one pokémon remaining, so the winner of this match is Ash from Pallet Town" announced the referee.

Ash walked towards Erika to collect his badge. She handed him his badge, a rainbow coloured badge in the form of a multi-petal flower. She also gave him his TM from her assistant and his pokédex pinged to show that he had received his winnings.

The TM he received was the grass type move Giga Drain. It was a pretty powerful move and Ash planned to teach it Saur as soon as possible.

"That was a great match, Ash. You made excellent use of your pokémon and showed the ability to think on your feet. Keep it up and I look forward to watching you at the Indigo League" complimented Erika.


Ok that concludes this chapter. In this we get to see pull some quick thinking akin to his canon counterpart. The improvement in his skills show the growth that he is experiencing as a trainer.

Also, exam season is starting up from this month and will last till mid-June. Thus, the pace of updates will slow down considerably, and I apologise for that. I will still try my best to release at least one chapter every week though.

Also, the pokémon list at the end of every chapter will also start including their abilities and gender too. Otherwise, with the amount of Pokémon that Ash has, it will get very confusing to follow them all.

And, due to purpose of keeping this chapter short, I haven't included much training in this chapter and the TM teaching part will be a part of the next chapter. And I actually forgot about Thunderbolt and Scald TMs from the gyms so that's why Ash hasn't used them yet.

Ash's pokémon list:

Ivysaur (Saur) – Overgrow - Male – Lv 32 - Tackle, Growl, Vine Whip, Growth, Leech Seed, Razor Leaf, Sleep Powder, Poison Powder, Protect, Magical Leaf, Seed Bomb, Take Down and Sweet Scent.

Luxray – Guts – Female - Lv 32 - Tackle, Leer, Charge, Thunder Shock, Thunder Wave, Charge, Bite, Protect, Fake Tears, Roar and Volt Switch.

Trapinch – Sheer Force - Male – Lv 30 - Bite, Sand Attack, Bide, Mud Slap, Bulldoze, Protect, Feint Attack, Laser Focus, Dig and Crunch.

Clefairy (Faye) – Magic Guard - Female – Lv 30 - Sing, Sweet Kiss, Disarming Voice, Encore, Charm, Pound, Copycat, Growl, Defence Curl, Stored power, Minimize, After You, Life Dew Metronome, Thunder Wave, Protect, Moonlight and Gravity.

Kadabra – Magic Guard – Male - Lv 32 – Teleport, Confusion, Disable, Psybeam, Recover and Psyshock.

Raboot (Bugs)– Libero – Male - Lv 22 – Tackle, Growl, Ember, High Jump Kick, Sand Attack, Sucker Punch, Super Fang, Quick Attack, Double Kick and Flame Charge.

Riolu (Rio) – Prankster – Male - Lv 21 – Quick Attack, Endure, Feint, Bullet Punch, Vacuum Wave, Detect, Circle Throw, Metal Claw, Counter, Work Up, and Rock Smash.

Zorua – Illusion – Female – Lv 23 - Scratch, Leer, Torment, Hone Claws, Fury Swipes, Scary Face, and Taunt.