When Vegeta of all people had requested a pokemon battle from Ash, it was needless to say that mostly everyone there was quite surprised.
Vegeta, who was prideful to a fault and extremely arrogant.
Vegeta, who was a Saiyan that found little to no joy in such leisurely activities.
Vegeta, the absolute last person that anyone would think would be interested in something like a pokemon battle…
Vegeta…who requested a pokemon battle.
This was like challenging Goku to a card game or putting any of Ash's pokemon in karaoke. It wasn't in terms of preference but assumed suitability. And everyone thought that something like a pokemon battle was well below Vegeta; a deep trench in the ocean while the prince sat somewhere up in the stratosphere.
To have Vegeta showing interest in something like this…it was rather interesting and unexpected to say the least.
Vegeta took a moment to look at the paper that Ash had given him. On it were written an assortment of "moves," as Ash called them, presumably for what resided in the pokeball within his hand.
Well…for things that saiyans excelled in: the ability to resist, endure and adapt to situations would massively come in handy here.
Across from him, stood his opponent.
Ash, the kid who fell from the sky. The kid who took this whole thing in stride…
The kid who was fixing him with a gaze that spoke leagues of his confidence. Ash may not be a warrior, in fact, it would be generous to say that he seemed like an above average human at best.
But here?
Here is where the boy truly shone. His amber eyes shone with determination. His stance calm and his muscles relaxed.
This was Ash's depths, and Vegeta suddenly felt like he was the amateur here…
The Saiyan Prince couldn't help but wonder…with his calm demeanor, almost like a billowing sheet of his aura, and his massive potential that even he didn't seem to realize that he possessed…what kind of warrior could he become if he shared the battlefield with them…?
Vegeta put the thoughts away for now. Ash was certainly very interesting, but he did have a more pressing matter right now…
He knew the rules. He knew the concept. Now it was time to put them to practice.
Ash was the first to move
"Alright, come on out!"
He tossed his prepared pokeball up in the air. The sphere burst open as a bright white light snaked out of it. The pokeball gently returned to Ash's hand as the light began to shape itself.
In truth, it was not unlike the capsules produced at Capsule Corp. The main difference was that the capsules were meant for transferring large objects or preserving otherwise perishable good for an indefinite period of time.
In the pokeballs case. It couldn't contain objects, but actual living beings, no matter the size. In some cases, the Pokeball was even more brilliant than the Capsules, as containing life into a small space was something that most would consider to be infinitely more complicated than sealing away simple non-sentient matter.
On Ash's side, the light faded away to reveal Ash's choice for the battle. In front of him stood a short pokemon of a light blue color. It had had stubby arms and legs, a set of sharp claws, a red underbelly, a row of sharp teeth and something resembling a fin on top of his head.
Realising that he should answer in kind, Vegeta threw his own pokeball up into the sky. In a similar sequence of light manifestation, Ash's choice for Vegeta materialized before him.
On Vegeta's side there stood a pokemon that was taller than Ash's, but not by much. Most of its fur was orange, but it had a cream-colored belly, muzzle, eyebrows and tips of his twin tails, which there were two of.
His hands were stubby and its arms barely reached below its waist. Two horizontal black lines adorned both of its cheeks, and a strange yellow ring was around its neck around his neck and a fin-like thing on its head sort of like Ash's pokemon.
"Bui Bui!" The pokemon cried, clearly confident in the battle that was about to unfold.
However, his confident expression was replaced by a confused one, as was everyone's when they say what Gible was up to.
Or rather…into…
"AHHHH! COME ON GIBLE, GET OFF!" Ash yelled as the pokemon sunk his teeth into Ash's head. The excitable little dragon type had always loved chomping into Ash's cranium, and said trainer was pretty sure that there wasn't a surefire way to get him to stop. His skull was going to have bite shaped indentations if this continued.
Eh. Couldn't take something as inherent as Gible's chomping habit away anyway.
The others didn't know what to do. They had assumed Ash was in control of all his pokemon, but this clearly showed that sometimes, this wasn't the case.
"Uh…you need a hand there, Ash?" Goku asked a question that really sounded dumb now that he thought about it.
"D-Don't worry, this is normal, Gible just likes to bite stuff. My head more than most." Ash said while pulling at the pokemon.
Eventually, Ash managed to pry the Land Shark pokemon off his head with a slight wince.
He held Gible in one arm while rubbing his head with the other.
"Gible, C'mon we about to have a battle." Ash chastised him.
Ash's words made Gible realise that they were about to battle and nodded in response. He then hopped onto the battlefield, his eyes sharing the same fire as Ash's did.
Everyone present decided not to question what just happened and instead watch the soon to unfold battle.
"So, what's the name of this pokemon?" Asked Vegeta, pointing at the pokemon that stood in front of him. It'd be a little bit awkward if he wasn't able to even command the water weasel.
"His name is Buizel, I chose him for you because he likes battling just like you. I think that you two will work great together." Ash answered with a smile.
"So, you know the rules?"
"Yes."
"And you're prepared to use strategy?"
"Yes."
"And you're sure you—"
"Can we just begin? I don't like to waste time."
Ash turned away from Vegeta with a slightly defeated look.
"Sheesh…I'm just trying to be nice…" Ash muttered to himself before facing back.
Taking a breath, both of them went silent. A single stray breeze drifted across the makeshift battlefield as darkened clouds slowly swirled around in the sky above them.
They were ready.
This was Vegeta's first ever pokemon battle, and the first actual one that Ash had participated in for months, so it only felt right to make it official. He raised his hand skyward and proceeded to signal the start of the match
"This will be a one-on-one pokemon battle between Vegeta and I. There are no time limits and the victor will be decided when one of the two pokemon are unable to battle. Vegeta has the first move…"
Ash dropped his hand down.
"Begin!" He called out.
Vegeta glanced over the list of attacks that he had been given to find a move that he that he wanted to start off with. This setting was definitely unfamiliar to him. He was normally used to being on the battlefield, not the one watching and commanding the battlers.
And these attacks too. They might sound cool, but he was pretty sure that the destructive potential of this current moveset paled in comparison to what he himself could do.
Well, yeah, Vegeta was from a world of battle hardened warriors and Ash was from a world with almost sickeningly cute critters that probably couldn't even withstand double of their own gravity, what did he expect?
However, he just needed to accept it if he wanted to understand this type of battle, he'd need to be a bit suppressive with his tastes.
He looked down the list and eventually found an attack.
"Buizel, use Sonicboom!" He called out.
Buizel was quick to react, quickly jumping up in the air and proceeded to shoot out multiple shockwaves from his tail.
"Gible, quick, use Rock Smash to deflect them!" Ash commanded.
Gible's claws glowed a bright white, and in time to the Sonicboom, bashed them away.
Vegeta gritted his teeth in frustration as he thought that the attack would hit. With a name like Sonicboom, he thought it'd be some kind of faster than sound explosion attack. Yeah right, that piddly little shockwave wouldn't know the meaning of such a word…
Why was he thinking about a wave of pressurized air like it was sentient…?
"Never matter, Buizel, Aqua Jet!" Vegeta commanded.
Buizel nodded, a veil of water quickly enshrouding his form. With a loud splash, Buizel jumped towards Gible, leaving an almost laminar trail of water behind him as he went.
Ash was quick to counter.
"Gible, use Dig!" He commanded.
Without a shred of hesitation, the pokemon hurriedly clawed at the ground, burrowing into it at a tremendous speed. Before long, a hole deep enough to hide Gible underground was formed and Buizel harmlessly passed over as a result.
Shortly losing their composure before quickly regaining it, Vegeta tried his hand at turning the tables.
"Fire a…let's see here…Water Gun? Yeah a Water Gun…Fire a Water Gun in that hole!" Vegeta commanded.
Responding quickly, Buizel ended his Aqua Jet and ran over to the hole to fire a Water Gun down into it. Before he could unleash the attack, however...
"Gible, Now!" Ash yelled.
The ground beneath Buizel began to shake slightly, but neither Vegeta or Buizel noticed it until it was too late.
"Giiiiible!
"Bui!"
The ground beneath Buizel broke open sending torn earth and shattered rocks everywhere. Gible burst out from the rubble and landed a big uppercut to the Sea Weasel pokemon's jaw sending him flying back.
Vegeta snarled at the sudden reentry of Gible that had proceeded to deal what looked to be a great deal of damage to the water type. Of course, without an understanding of type advantages, Vegeta would assume that Gible's blow was a little more than a simple punch.
This thing was supposed to be easy! Vegeta had initially assumed so because…well it was a kid, and creatures with slightly abnormal powers. He thought Ash had been kidding when he said that strategy was a virtue here. Yet, here he was, leading him, the Saiyan Prince into trap after trap.
It was one thing to have Goku ahead of him as the strongest warrior, but for something as simple as this…it was infuriating to be on the losing side…
Vegeta hated to lose…
(This is as far as I got with the rewrite of this chapter. I'm too embarrassed to put up the rest, so, Tdlr version. Vegeta and Buizel manage to work together, utilize Swift Swim to gain an advantage, Gible evolves into Gabite and the match ends in a draw.)