A/N: Fun fact, Ash almost actually gets the accompaniment of Brock and and Cilan on the fifth episode of their respective series. Interesting that Ash almost gets a Brock replacement on the same episode count he was welcomed into the gang.
"Aha, I can see Striaton City!" Ash pointed out, seeing the city in viewpoint.
"PikaPika!"
"You mentioned there were three gym leaders, right Elaine?" Trace questioned his female friend whom was looking at her phone.
"Yep." She nodded. "Traditionally the respective gym leader is chosen based on the trainer's starter. That way the gym leader has a type advantage if it's applicable."
"Well ain't that great for us." Trace chuckled. "We don't have the usual starters. So how does that apply to us?"
"If the usual grass/fire/water triangle isn't able to be accomplished, then it's up to the challenger who to pick. Though given Ash has Pikachu he might face against Cilan the grass specialist.
"Hmm, good thing I have Starly with his Wing Attack then." Ash smiled. "Now I'm all stoked! Let's go!" Ash ran ahead, making his friends run after him.
"Hey, don't leave us in the dust!" Elaine complained. Once they made it, they were surprised to see that the gym looked... relatively normal on the outside.
"Huh, guess I was expecting it to be a triple type mash up." Trace commented. "What do you think Eevee?"
"Eevee." She agreed.
"Maybe it's on the inside." Elaine proposed. Let's head inside." Before they did though, Ash and Pikachu caught a whiff of something delicious and smiled savory.
"What is that wonderful smell?"
"Pikachu?" The electric mouse asked with him as they entered, and saw it was a restaurant inside.
"This is the Striation Gym? This doesn't match what the pictures showed." Elaine scratched her head.
"Ugh, talk about confusing." Trace complained while he put his hands behind his back.
"Hi, welcome!" A spiky red haired waiter greeted them.
"Welcome friends." A wavy blue haired waiter also greeted them.
"Please, make yourself at home." A waiter with short green hair gestured them to a table. "Comfy?"
"So, are you all ready to order?" The red waiter asked the trio. The blue waiter followed suite.
"May I perhaps offer you something to drink? Like a cup of fresh cool water?"
"Hey wait!" Ash interrupted them. "Aren't you guys gym leaders? We came to have a World Coronation battle!" Him saying that though made all the women in the restaurant all excited.
"A battle?!" The three waiters smiled.
"If that's what your appetite is..." The lights turned off, and the waiters got into place. "...then we'll grant your request!"
"So you're challengers? Then you'll receive a welcome as pleasant and hot as the noon day sun!"
"Unless you want it cool, like a refreshing glass of water filled with ice of course."
"Prepare yourself for the Striaton City gym leader triplets!" The back wall opened past the dining room where it had up to three rock filled battle fields at once beyond, much to their shock.
"Be bedazzled, for it is now showtime!" With running leaps, they front flipped through the air and landed on their respective fields.
"I'm Chili! I light things up with fire type Pokémon! Better have a glass of milk and a gallon of ice cream parfait, for my moves are more intense than the spiciest of curries!"
"And my name is Cilan! I use the tastefully natural power of grass types! If you want a battle that's as natural as nature, than I'm your guy!"
"I'm a water type specialist, and my name is Cress. I wash away all those that take a sip of my supreme and refreshing battle style." Together, they shouted, "Make your choices now!"
"Whoa." Ash was in amazement from what he just witnessed.
"Pika." Pikachu was in agreement.
"Well ain't that great! Now that means all of us can advance at the same time!" Trace told his friends as he got his phone out to select his choices. "I'm picking Cress!"
"Cilan for me!" Ash decided. Elaine shrugged with a grin.
"Aw well, it would've been in my best interest to pick Chili."
"Excellent choices!" Each of the brothers shouted. That made our group of best friends lightly laugh. Turns out their not the only ones with synchrony. Three Rotom Drones came down to start the match.
"Welcome, welcome, welcome! You have been approved for an official Pokemon World Coronation Series Normal Class battle! The challengers here are the Striaton Triplets from the Striaton City Gym vs Ash Ketchum, Trace Keen and Elaine Gladwin from Pallet Town! For today's battle, you can choose two Pokemon! When a Pokemon on either side are unable to battle, that side loses! Both challengers bring out your Pokemon!" All three siblings brought out a Lillipup, which prompted all three trainers to send out their special partners.
"Pikachu, use Double Kick!" Ash ordered.
"Same for you Eevee!" Trace copied.
"Clefairy, use Pound!" Unlike the others, Chili was able to have his Pokemon move fast enough.
"Dodge then use Bite!" Side stepping the Fairy Pokemon, the Puppy Pokemon bit down in the Fairy Pokemon, but it seemed but do little more than make her wince.
"Trap it than use Double Slap!" Pushing the normal type until it fell over and got caught underneath Clefairy's body, she repeatedly slapped the canine Pokemon.
"Lillipup, try to get free!" Chili pleaded, but with all the slapping it was getting it was hard to muster enough strength to get Clefairy off. Especially when all the pain made it faint.
"Alright! Our first major victory!" Elaine pumped her fist.
"Clefairy!" Her partner rejoiced.
"Lillipup, return. You did excellent." Chili complimented his Pokemon. "You did your best. Good job. Now that was a hot display of skill, but let me show you something that will really ignite the flavor of this battle! Pansear, light it up!" Sending out his signature fire type monkey, he ordered, "Use Work Up!" The fire monkey started beating against his chest, howling as red energy surrounded his body.
"Clefairy, use Pound!" Clefairy went on the attack, but to Pansear it was too slow.
"Dodge then use Incinerate!" Jumping over the fairy type, Pansear breathed out a ball of fire which exploded against her back, Elaine's partner crying out in agony.
"No!"
"Oh yeah! Pansear, use Fury Swipes!" Jumping onto Clefairy's back, it started dealing out swipes which were stronger thanks to Work Up, and now Clefairy was suffering the same way she inflicted the pain on Lillipup. Once Pansear won that scrap when it saw the Fairy Pokemon go out cold, Elaine returned her starter.
"Clefairy, return!" Once her Pokemon was safe, she held the Pokeball close to her heart, conveying her apology silently before switching Pokemon.
"Marill, it's up to you now!" Sending out her Aqua Rabbit Pokemon, Chili pressed forward.
"Fury Swipes, let's go!"
"Brace for it!" Elaine told her Pokemon. Marill put up a defense before being assaulted by various scratches, grunting from the effort to not be overwhelmed. "Now use Bubblebeam!" Chili gasped from not anticipating this mistake as his elemental monkey was pushed back by a barrage of bubbles of close.
"I guess I was too caught up in the heat of the moment, but your Marill took quite a bit of damage. Time to crank up the heat! Incinerate!"
"Bubblebeam!" Elaine repeated her request. Shooting off another barrage of bubbles, they negated the incoming fire ball as it fizzled out and dealt more super effective damage against Pansear, the monkey crying out in agony from the attack until it fell onto its back, defeated.
"As a result of today's battle, there has been a change in the WCS rankings effective immediately!" The Rotom Drone announced.
"Marill, that was so great!" Elaine complimented her Pokemon. "You took it and dealt it back twice as hard!"
"Marill!" She cheered with joy.
"Excellent, take a nice rest." Chili told his elemental monkey as he returned it. "Your battle sense is quite well seasoned! That was a hot match!"
"Aww, thank you very much." Elaine blushed, though something happened that made everyone take notice. Ash's Starly whom defeated Cilan's Pansage started to glow, and grew bigger. It finished transforming with a spread of his bigger wings and a new cry.
"Staravia!"
"Awesome, you evolved! We're certainly making good progress!" Elaine smiled. Checking her phone, her smile grew even more. While small battles on the side prevented her from falling further and further down the ranks, she wasn't making as big of strides compared to the boys. But having defeated Chili meant she now stood relatively well with her friends at around the 9,000 rankings. She skipped more than a thousand points with this one victory.
"Awesome." As they were leaving Striaton City to try and catch more Pokemon, Ash asked Elaine,
"So, where are we heading next for our next Coronation battle?"
"Well... from the looks of it, our next stop is Turffield Town in the Galar region where the gym leader is Milo Floros."
"Oh yeah." Trace remembered. "That's where they have their signature thing of dynamaxing and gigantimaxing." Looking down at his Eevee, he asked his partner, "Wouldn't it be awesome if you were able to gigantimax?"
"Eevee!" The Evolution Pokemon agreed.
"How about you Pikachu?" Ash asked his electric type starter.
"Pikachu!" She agreed as well with great vigor. Ash raised his fist up into the air.
"Alright! Galar region, you're next!"
A/N: I decided to skip the Team Rocket plot in this part because their part in it seemed... really minor. There wouldn't have been anything interesting to change, and there's no Pokemon around the area to be recruited for the final six of any of our protagonists, so lingering in Striaton City would just be padded filler, and the boring kind at that. Still, at least Galar is getting its first shot. And it'll be the first case of me taking direct inspiration from the Shield game instead of anime. So that's pretty neat. How was this chapter? Review down below about it and how the story is.