Ash and Wes were walking through Viridian forest, making their way to the city of stone: Pewter City. Supplies were still abundant, so they had no need to stock up on food or potions before they left Viridian City.
The only noteworthy thing that had happened so far was Ash remembering to register for the Pokémon League. He didn't do it during those two weeks he was there because he thought he wouldn't be moving anywhere for a while.
They'd been traveling in relative silence, the only noise coming from the wild Pokémon, the Pikachu on Ash's shoulder and the Cleffa in his arms. He was letting the young Cleffa enjoy the world while he still can be safely outside of his Pokéball. After learning about the snag machines and potential snag balls, Ash had decided to not let Cleffa out in or near any major cities. That'd be like holding up a giant sign for Team Rocket and Team Cipher saying, "Rob us, Rob us."
Ash was the first to try breaking the tentative silence. "Sooooooo, where are the rest of your Pokémon?"
It seemed odd that a man who had single handedly, temporarily defeated a crime syndicate would walk around with only 2 of his Pokémon on his person.
Wes hesitated for a moment before he decided to answer. "I left the strongest Pokémon with Rui. Her safety is very important to me and my close friends. Krane has the rest of them, leaving him unprotected is never a good idea. He got kidnapped once and we don't want that to happen again."
Ash understood. The world was full of dangerous people and Pokémon. He was going to see about getting his mom a Pokémon for her own protection. After all, Professor Oak wasn't always in Pallet Town, so depending on him and his team to keep her safe wasn't a good or smart idea. It'd have to be a Pokémon with a lot of power and patience; his mom was a very active and spontaneous woman who liked to rearrange furniture when her nervousness has passed a certain point.
Ash heard a bush rustling and turned his head towards the noise. He did this just in time to notice a kid in an old, black samurai helmet with a yellow, plastic U-shaped decoration on it rushing at him. Did I forget to mention that he had a metal sword?
The kid unleashed a battle cry as he swung his sword towards Ash's stomach.
Ash stumbled back in shock. "Is he actually trying to kill me?"
The blade fell short by less than an inch, making Ash's Cleffa sigh in relief.
The kid grunted as he swung his sword again, this time in an upward slash.
Just as the metal blade was about to connect with Ash's body, Wes intercepted and caught the sword by its blade with only 2 fingers and a thumb. He quickly jerked his hand back, disarming the kid and making him stumble forward at the same time. This just so happened to put him in a perfect position for Wes to grab his face and slam him to the ground.
"Who sent you?" Wes growled as he forcefully held the kid's head against the dirt. "Was it Cipher?"
The kid whimpered as his helmet was ground into the earth and his head was smashed against the thin layer of cloth between his likely thick skull and the shiny plastic exterior.
"N-Nobody sent me! I just wanted to challenge the kid! I do this with all the Pallet Town Trainers! Please don't hurt me!" The little boy was quivering now, ready to burst into tears at any moment.
Ash chanced a glance at Wes' face and what he saw mildly disturbed him. Upon Wes' face sat a smirk. Not just a normal smirk, either. This was the type of smirk that would send old school movie villains running away.
"Oh really," Wes whispered before turning towards Ash, "If you fuck up his fodder without losing a single Pokémon, I'll get you a snag machine of your own. If you lose 1, but still win… you get a baby Skarmory later."
A smirk tugged at Ash's lip, and though it paled in comparison to the one Wes had and was lacking the same intimidation factor, it made up for it with something Wes just couldn't place.
"I have nothing to lose, so I might as well battle the kid," Ash thought aloud. He took off his hat and stared at it. "Mom didn't raise an idiot."
Delia had raised Ash and Gary to always take the offers that objectively benefited them more than the other party. She also told them to quit while they're ahead, but that gambling advice probably went over their heads.
Ash flipped his hat around so that the bill of it was facing the opposite direction. He slowly sat the hat on his head, remembering what his mom had said moments before she gave her white and red hat with a stylized green 'L' on the front to him on his 10th birthday.
"Whenever a battle gets serious, remember to turn your hat around. You don't need anything obscuring your view."
"Hey Pikachu, do you want to handle this?" Ash asked, getting his answer in the form of Pikachu pointing down to Cleffa.
"Ah, you want Cleffa to get used to battling other Pokémon."
Ash gently sat Cleffa down on the ground. "Alright, I know you can beat this guy. Just remember what Pikachu taught you about battling."
Cleffa nodded in understanding before turning around with a 'fierce' look of determination.
Meanwhile, Wes was pulling the Kid up to his feet. "Do you have a name or do I have to keep calling you 'Samurai wannabe' in my head?
"I-I-It's Jack"
"Get your Pokémon out, you're wasting daylight." Wes stated as he let the kid go.
The kid stumbled for what seemed like a minute and a half before he could regain his balance. Once this occurred he reluctantly turned away from Wes to face Ash. As Wes looked on, he noticed a spider crack in the wannabe's helm.
Wes turned his head towards Ash. "You only get to use Metronome more than once. Pound and charm are only allowed to be used once in this battle."
"Alright, my luck is pretty good. And what is the probability of getting a move with Metronome that makes Cleffa faint?"
Wes snorted. "More than zero, so the probability is high enough to be worried."
Ash chose to ignore Wes as Jack tossed his Pokéball into the air. It split open and blasted the ground with a white energy beam. From this beam of energy, a bipedal Pokémon was formed. It had a wide, dull brown body and its body was divided into five segments by thin lines. On top of its head was a large pair of gray, spiky pincers. Those pincers were supposedly strong enough to shatter logs and lift at least twice a Pinsir's weight . In its mouth were many long, flat teeth arranged horizontally and it had triangular eyes. Its legs were short and thick, while its arms were long and thin. It had three claws on each hand and foot; two of its toes faced forward and one backward. This let it get to the treetops in order to rest while cold nights left it immobile.
"A Pinsir, that's interesting. Maybe this will be an entertaining battle after all."Wes thought as Pinsir tapped its Pincers together a couple times. The noise created by this actioniwas similar to the sound of teeth chattering, but 20 times louder.
Ash made the first move. "Get in close and pound that Pinsir in the eye!"
Cutting its field of vision in half would make the upcoming battle much easier for Cleffa to handle.
Cleffa leapt into the air, clearing the small distance between him and his foe in less than thirty seconds as his stubby right arm began to glow a blinding white.
"Snatch it out of the air with your pincers! It can't dodge you now that it's airborne!" Jack yelled to his Pinsir, making Ash's eyes widen.
If Cleffa had been a Clefairy already, he could have used his wings to float out of the way. But he wasn't a Clefairy yet, which meant he had to do this the old fashioned way. As Cleffa fell towards the massive spiked claws, now glowing with their own white light, he pulled his arm back.
"Let it almost catch you, then hit the base of the pincer on your left," Ash commanded. He was hoping to take it out of commission and stop it from using Vice Grip again.
Cleffa continued to fall towards impending pain, his short reach meaning that he had to almost crash into the Pinsir before he could hit it with his arm. But as soon as the blow actually connected, the Pinsir was knocked several feet to the side. Unfortunately for little Cleffa, the force of the blow spun Pinsir and it slammed into the other pincer, sending him tumbling along with it.
"Cleffa!" Ash yelled as the Pinsir forced its chela to wrap around the Cleffa.
He shrieked as Pinsir's grip tightened even more than before, preventing Cleffa from squeezing or wildly squirming his way out of it.
Ash thought fast. "Cleffa, calm down! Ignore the pain for a second and use Charm to weaken his grip."
Cleffa ceased his struggling and started glowing pink. With a heartfelt cry, Cleffa shot a small pink heart down at Pinsir. He did all of this with an innocent smile on his face.
The pain lessened enough for Cleffa to not scream anymore, causing both Ash and Pikachu to sigh in relief.
"Toss it at that tree!" Jackordersed while pointing at the tree on Pinsir's right.
"Use Metronome, quickly!" Ash yelled as Pinsir bent over, preparing to jerk his head towards the tree and release it's vice-like grip. Pinsir tossed Cleffa at the tree, tearing two of his thorns out of Cleffa's body in the splashed onto the ground as Cleffa rocketed towards the trees. Cleffa didn't make a sound during this, being too busy summoning up his power to react to the injuries.
Ash could feel the adrenaline racing through his body. It felt like electricity was striking every nerve in his body at the same time. The thrill of battle was making his heart roar and pound in his ears. It was exhilarating!
Cleffa waved his glowing arm stubs, and his eyes flashed white once before a transparent, violet sphere of energy with blue electricity arcing across it appeared in front of his mouth. This energy caused Wes's feather and Ash's feather to glow a darker shade of blue and create a burning sensation.
Ash silenced a scream as he clasped his left hand over the back of his right hand. The pain intensified every second, making Ash feel like he had dunked his hand in acid after less than a minute.
Meanwhile, Wes was grasping his chest like a man about to have a heart attack. He tried to pull the feather off his chest, but it didn't budge a single centimeter. "Damn it, stupid feather. You can't go crazy for no reason like this!"
Back with Cleffa, the violet sphere reached its maximum size right before he fired it. Strangely, the ball turned into an energy beam as soon as it was released.
The violet beam narrowly missed Pinsir as Cleffa's back slammed into the tree. The crash knocked the beam further away from Cleffa's target and redirected the blast into the several trees behind it. The trees began to shrivel up or turn to stone. There didn't seem to be a distinct reason why one outcome happened instead of the other. What they all had in common was that they all collapsed under the force of gravity moments later. The withered trees bent forwards, looming over Jack's scared form, and the petrified leaves crashed to the ground with heavy thuds.
If Ash had been able to pay attention to the puncture wounds created by the thorns on Pinsir's horns and Cleffa slamming into the tree, he'd have seen the holes closing and bruises vanishing.
However, Ash wasn't focusing on any of the environmental damage. All he saw was that Cleffa was okay and that his feather was no longer actively making him wish for death or dismemberment.
As soon as Cleffa was back on his feet, Ash told him to use Metronome again. Once again, Cleffa waved his glowing arm stubs, and his eyes flashed white once before a ball of orange colored flames slowly formed in front of his mouth.
"S-S-Stop it before it has a chance to fire it!" Jack yelled. The Pinsir lumbered towards its foe, the tumble having done more damage to it than the previous Pound attack did.
It was a race against time. Either Cleffa would finish charging his attack, or Pinsir would grab him and toss him again. If Cleffa were to get tossed, he'd miss and probably start a forest fire that Espeon would have to snuff out with his psychic powers.
The feathers glowed with a blinding blue light again and both holders started scratching at the location of their feathers.
"Cleffa, you can't afford to miss this time! End this battle with a flaming blast of Sacred Fire!" Ash shouted before internally thinking, "That move is said to belong to Ho-oh and Entei. It's making the feather on my right hand react like it did when I first found Wes. Which probably means that the last move Cleffa summoned belonged to a legendary, but which one is known for violet energy beams?"
Wes started thinking to himself as well. "We need to hit up the game corner because he's either the luckiest person in the world or every place Ash goes to for a battle is the unluckiest. He not only got Oblivion Wing and Sacred Fire, but he also got them back-to-back. "
Jack changed his mind as soon as he felt the wave of heat being emitted from the small ball of flames that was 7 feet away from him. "Pinsir, Dig down and avoid it. The heat will hurt you even if you don't get hit by the flame itself!"
The Pinsir nodded once before digging his hands into the ground and heaving up a large chunk of stone.
"Fire it now!" Ash yelled to Cleffa as he scratched at his hand. If Pinsir got underground and managed to avoid the Fire type move, it'd be free to attack Cleffa from below. Then it could grab Cleffa with its Pincers and squeeze him until he passes out.
The fire unleashed one final burst of heat that only Jack and Pinsir felt before Cleffa hastily unleashed the ball of flames on Pinsir.
Pinsir's eyes widened tremendously and it began to hurriedly dig into the ground, tossing up as much dirt and stone as it could as if its life depended on it. Instinctually, it knew that those flames are too strong for it. Every fiber of his being was yelling for it to not get hit directly by the orb of flames, to not be within the blast radius of it at all.
The flames flew over the Pinsir's head, making it sigh and wipe the sweat off his face.
BOOSH!
Unfortunately for the Pinsir, it hadn't dug deep enough to avoid the flames entirely, just the direct hit.
It hadn't dug deep enough to avoid the orange pillar of roaring, swirling flames either, and the pillar quickly engulfed the hole that Pinsir had dug out.
Jack fled from the quickly expanding conflagration by running back into the forest and hiding behind a tree.
"It's a good thing that those trees were already dead," Wes thought as he used his arm to shield his eyes from the bright light. Strangely enough, the heat still didn't bother him.
"Hopefully this light doesn't summon up another Spearow flock," Ash thought as he pulled his hat over his eyes. Hedoidn't think another Pidgey flock would show up to save him this time, and there was no way Pikachu could take them all down. It'd have to be raining for him to have a chance and he'd probably need to absorb some lightning too.
For 15 minutes, the fire raged on. The only sound the battlers and Wes could hear was the deafening crackling of the flames.
After what felt like forever to Jack, the flames started to diminish. The once proud and blazing inferno sputtered until it was nothing but spread out clumps of smoldering orange embers. It finally died after slowly crawling across the blackened and scorched earth it had created. There was no more vegetation in this area anymore, and its return was very unlikely.
Ash slowly walked over to the charred five foot deep pit, peering over the edge to see a passed out Pinsir that was lightly burnt, smoking and partially covered in blackened dirt.
"Hey Jack, you should come recall this Pinsir!" Ash shouted as he jumped down into the hole. He quickly swiped the hot dirt off of Pinsir and wrapped his arms around it, idly noticing that he was hot enough for the heat to be felt through his gloves.
Ash started to lift the Pinsir, but didn't manage to lift it higher than his waist. Seeing that this would make climbing back up to the surface a troublesome task, he set Pinsir down by the wall of the pit. After leaping out, he grabbed onto Pinsir and started to lift him out of the hole.
Wes grabbed his ankles to stop Ash from slipping into the pit by mistake.
The dirt was hot against his skin, but the adrenaline was dulling his ability to feel it. All he was focused on was lifting Pinsir out of this hole before the superheated dirt damaged or stripped away more of his skin.
Once the Pokémon reached the halfway point, Ash was able to get on his knees instead of laying on his stomach. This is also the moment where Wes let go of his ankles, believing that Ash was competent and strong enough to not fall down from this position.
With one final, mighty heave, Ash pulled Pinsir out of hole and landed on his back while Pinsir came crashing down on his chest.
Jack ran over with Pinsir's Pokéball before whispering, "Return!" The ball shot out a red beam of energy, and recalled Pinsir. "You did a good job buddy, now take a long rest."
Ash stood back up and walked over to his Cleffa and Pikachu, the latter holding the former's arm stubs while the former jumped up and down.
He took a knee in front of Cleffa and turned to face him. "Great job dealing with that Pinsir. You have no idea how proud of you I am. Do you think you can take down his other Pokémon too?"
Cleffa yawned before attempting to flex his arm stubs like a human does when they try to show off their muscles.
Ash could feel his fatigue, but didn't have the heart to deny his Pokémon's desire to continue fighting.
"Very well, go ahead and wrap this up," Ash whispered to Cleffa.
Cleffa walked forward as Jack tossed his final Pokéball into the air. From this beam of white energy, a Metapod appeared.
Ash facepalmed. "Why didn't he send that out first. Now this is going to feel so anticlimactic."
"Alright, just use Metronome on it before it hardens." Ash said, not even trying to hide how irritated he was. Metapod couldn't even move! That's why their parents stuck them under a tree branch as soon as they evolved!
Even Cleffa looked annoyed as he waved his glowing arm stubs. His eyes flashed white once before a thick black haze rolled out of his mouth.
This haze hits Metapod, but nothing happened. As quickly as it came, the smoke cleared from the area and Jack gave his Metapod a command.
"Use Harden!"
Ash groaned as Metapod began to glow a greenish-Whitish color.
Cleffa waved his glowing arm stubs and his eyes flashed white once before a light blue flame appeared in front of his mouth.
The wave of heat smacked everyone in the clearing, immediately making all of them sweat buckets. Not even Wes and Ash were immune to the heat of this flame.
"You've got to be shitting me," Wes thought as his feather and Ash's feather once again took on a light blue glow and started to simulate a burning sensation.
For Ash, It instantaneously went from feeling like a lit match on his skin to feeling like he shoved his hand into a bonfire.
For Wes, it instantly went from feeling like the lit matchstick itself to feeling like somebody threw a flaming log on his chest.
Jack's eyes nearly popped out of his head before his expression switched to pure terror.
"I choose life!" Jack yelled as he returned his Metapod to its Pokéball and started sprinting away as fast as his feet could carry him. He was running away like a herd of Tauros was charging at him.
Cleffa slightly bent his body backwards. This action was completed just in time for the fire to be safely shot at the sky. The light blue flame became a light blue stream of flames, rocketing into the atmosphere and obliterating every cloud in the nearby sky.
"Blue Flare…" Wes muttered to himself.
Ash just stared at the sky. There were no words capable of adequately describing what had just happened. So, Ash wouldn't even try to do it. Instead, he turned to Wes and asked one question.
"When do I get that Snag Machine?"
"I-I have to make some calls once we get to Pewter," Wes responded as he dropped to his knees.
A sudden wave of exhaustion hit the two feather holders and they both found themselves laying down on the charred stone, attempting to fight off sleep.
Cleffa was right there with Ash, climbing onto his chest and quickly falling asleep, his snores vibrating Ash's chest in the process.
Ash yawned before grabbing Cleffa's Pokéball and returning him, "sleep well."
It was there in that blackened clearing where Ash and Wes pass out, leaving Pikachu to watch over them. Although, that was a pointless action when one really thought about it. There wasn't a Pokémon dumb enough to go to an area where the energies of three different Legendary Pokémon just made an appearance.