Zack sat staring at the picture phone completely stumped, "why do they all feel the same kind of hatred...?" He whispered as he slowly hung up the phone and stood up - after talking to Brock, he had called almost everyone one of Ash's previous travelling companions, each of them reacting almost identically to how Brock had - the only person he couldn't get a hold of was Max Maple.
"What happened? I need to find Max Maple and ask..." Zack thought with a determined look on his face - he had managed to get hold of his older sister, but she wouldn't give hima specific location of her younger brother. In fact she seemed to feel the same kind of hatred when he had mentioned Ash when he mention the younger boy.
Going back to the computers, Zack typed in Max's name, watching as a screen much smaller than Ash's appeared on the screen, which he began to read, his eye lighting up when he realised the boy was last seen on his way to Alola, "I might just be able to track him down..." Zack whispered as he logged of the computer and stood up, looking around at the many trainers that filled the pokemon center, "Maybe one of these guys or girls knows anything about Mr. Max Maple..." He whispered to himself as he began asking the trainers and staff around him about the young trainer.
"Hm, a Steelix..." Ash mumbled to himself as he reached to his belt, selecting a poke'ball and throwing it the field as silently as he did with the others, "Float!" Floatzel yawned, stretching his long orange furred arms as he appeared to the field, "Get ready Floatzel. We have a challenger" Floatzel blinked, turning away form Ash and towards Morrison and Steelix, an excited glint appearing in his eyes as he laid them upon the two challengers, "Floatzel!" He cried loudly, flexing his arms as he prepared for battle, crouching slightly as he waited for his first instruction.
"Don't think your gunna win just 'cuz you have the type advantage!" Morrison hollored, making Ash roll his eyes - he knew after a lot of training and experience that type matchup was only one part of a battle, it required strategy to win. And communication between pokemon and trainer of course.
"Let's do this buddy! Start things of with Dragon Breath!" Morison commanded, watching as the giant steel snake pokemon took a deep breath before shooting its attack towards Floatzel, "Aqua Jet Spin" Floatzel smirked as he surrounded himself with water and jetted towards the incoming attack. At the last second he spun, dodging the attack before heading straight towards Steelix.
"Use Iron Defence!" Steelix reacted quickly, its body shinning a bright silver as it glistened in the sunlight that bore down on the field. Floatzel grunted in pain as he struck the iron clad pokemon, bangign his head straight againest the hardened steel, making him fall back, grabbing his head in pain, "Are you okay Floatzel?" Ash asked calmly, watching as Floatzel, still holding his head, turned back and nodded, shooting ash a thumbs up with the hand that wasn't holding his head.
"Hm..." Ash pondered, raising Floatzels poke'ball and returning him silently, leaving the other's in confusion, "Thats enough of that, ill let you have the win for that one." Ash stated calmly, "Why? I thought Floatzel was okay?" Ash rolled his eyes once more as he sighed and coldly explained the situation to the others, "Floatzel is a pokemon of pride - or at least mine is, the damage done by headbutting an defenced buffed Steelix would have done more damage than he was letting on. I do not want to see my pokemon in any more pain than necessary" Morrison looked at Ash with a new found respect - despite the cold and ruthless approach he had to people, he obviously knew his pokemon well, and he cared about them immensely: which was something the ginger haired boy could understand to some degree.
"Well then...good job Steelix!" Morrison quickly recovered from his surprise, smiling towards the large iron snake pokemon, who let out a roar of victory, "Don't let it get to your head - i only withdrew from the fight because the damage would have been more than Floatzel was letting on, not because you actually defeated him" Ash quickly shot the boy down coldly as he reached for his next poke'ball, throwing it into the air and watching as Talonflame appeared in a bright light, "Let us continue" Ash stated, not caring for the upset look Morrison was sporting.
Shaking his sadness at his victory being made null and void, Morrison looked at Talonflame with a smirk, "A flying type? Bad choice againest a steel! Let's show 'em some guts! Use Thunder Fang!" Steelix let out another booming roar as it began slithering towards Talonflame at impressive speed, its mouth wide open and its square teeth crackling with electricity.
"Up in the air." Ash instructed, hiding the fact that he was impressed at the sped of the steel type as he watched his flying/fire type easily dodge the incoming electric attack by flying high up into the air, "Double Agility" Morrison, Nicole and Darwin blinked in confusion at the command. Nicole and Darwin watched the Kalos native pokemon closely, intrigued by the command from Ash.
Morrison's eyes widened in shock as not dozens, but hundreds of copies of Talonflame appeared in the sky. Before he could blink again, the hundreds of copies (and the real one) all began zooming around the sky at a speed so fast it was like a blur of red and black feathers.
"Shit..." Morrison cursed under his breath as he strained his eyes to try and keep track on the speeding copies, but to no avail - the clones were simply moving to fast to be picked up by the human eye.
Steelix on the other hand was faring far worse. The iron snake pokemon was staring at the sky, its eyes darting backwards and forwards rapidly as it tried to keep up with the blur of a pokemon, "Keep calm buddy!" Morrison shouted to his pokemon, clenching his fists as he thought of how to counter, "Spin and use Dragon Breath!" Steelix nodded as it began to spin the top half of its body, shooting the blazing attack towards the clones.
"Divert." Ash called out, watching as the clones each maneuvered away from the incoming attack - out of the hundreds of clones, only a couple dozen ended up being wiped away from the attack, much to Morrison's dismay.
Ash let a small smirk cross his face - a smirk so small it was almost unseeable, but Nicole managed to notice it, "Is he...smirking?" She thought to herself as she looked at the raven haired boy, "H-he's...he's enjoying himself..." She thought once more, her eyes widening in shock at the fact that Ash was actually having fun for the first time since they had met.
Shivering, Ash glanced towards Nicole upon getting the shiver, his smirk dropping when he saw her shocked look, "Let's finish this quick. Flame Charge. Aim for It's tail" The hundreds of Talonflame clones all became surrounded in flames before they began charging towards Steelix, who was panicking at the sight of so many fire birds heading towards it.
"Use Dig to get away!" Morrison called out desperately, but Steelix was panicking to much to obey the command. Instead the iron snake pokemon let out a loud cry of pain and shock as the clones disappeared and the real Talonflame struck the end of its tail at full speed, "Steel!" It cried in shock and pain, but grunted and lifted its tail up, swiping it againest Talonflame and sending it flying back into the air.
"Hn. Quick reflexes. Not bad" Ash thought to himself as he watched Talonflame regain his position in the air, flapping his wings slowly as he stared Steelix down, "Flamethrower" "Meet it with your Dragon Breath!" Morrison called out after Ash's command, watching as the two pokemon took deep breaths before shooting their attacks out.
The two attacks collided, the stream of dragon power and the stream of red flames pushing againest each other until a loud explosion happened, sending dust and debri flying up, "Quick, use Dig!" Steelix quickly reacted, beginning to burry down under the ground, "Wait till its under ground." Morrison and the others blinked in confusion for the millionth time at Ash's command, "Heat Wave across the ground" Morrison's eye brows shot up in confusion and surprise at the command, watching as Talonflame shot out the slightly weaker version of Flamethrower across the ground after landing in front of Ash.
It soon hit Morrison what Ash's plan was, "Get out the ground Steelix!" But it was too late. Thanks to the heated flames skimming across it, the gorund had turned red, the tufts of grass that had been spread out now on fire.
"Side ways Steel Wing" Ash continued, watching as Talonflame flew up before his wings turned bright silver and he flew at the gorund, turnign sideways, his wings easily breaking through the weakened ground.
"Rarg!" Everyone heard Steelix cry in shock as the ground above it gave way, "Stop." Ash stated, watching as Talonflame stopped his attack and flew back to Ash. Ash watched as the ground crumbled and gave way on top of Steelix, who was busy trying to emerge from the fallen rocks.
"That was incredible!" Nicole and Darwin gasped in shock as Morrison ran to the crumbled ground, which had already started to cool down thanks to the exposed air, "Steelix! Steelix, are you okay?!" Morrison cried out desperately as he dug through the rubble, finally coming across his steel pokemon, who was lying with swirls in its eyes, "Return Steelix..." Morrison said somberly as he climbed out of the small crater.
"Thats enough." Ash stated, making everyone look at him confused once more, "I don't want pokemon to get hurt more than possibly need to - and the past three battles have shown me your strength." Morrison frowned but nodded in agreement as he walked round the crater and towards Ash, "Your right...i don't want my pokemon to get hurt, so let's call it a match" Morrison sowerly admitted, a defeated look on his face.