A/N

I think the easiest way to show what happened is to write a small passage from Clefairy's point of view then go back to the main story. Don't worry this won't be a regular occurrence, it will only happen in special cases (I think).

Clefairy's point of view (Meaning that Pokémon speech is translated)

I watched as the starfish Pokémon charged at me rapidly but I wasn't scared. I knew that metronome would save me…right? Well actually I had no idea what it would do, that's how it works, but I was still pretty confident that something would happen.

I was so happy when the attack finally started, a feeling which continued when Starmie disappeared from my sight. However I soon realised that my attack hadn't gotten Starmie to go away like I thought. I could see Starmie and Starmie was exactly where it had been before.

It made Starmie giant.

I heard my master calling out to me, but couldn't respond. As I looked around I realised Starmie wasn't giant, no instead I was tiny. A splash of water hid me further and I lightly jumped into the water to hide behind the platform.

I could go for a sneak attack!

"Clefairy please come back" or not since apparently my trainer was too worried. It was actually sweet that he seemed so panicked by my disappearing, endearing that he cared. Finally I cracked and called back.

"Master I'm here" my being so small made it impossible to see me, since I was also hiding it was made even harder. If I just kept swimming silently I would be able to remain hidden.

"Clefairy's use sing" I didn't need to be told twice, I love to sing!

If only I knew any songs.

I tried to think of something but there was nothing so instead I decided to just say my name in a sweet voice hopping that would work. "Clefairy, Clefairy, and Clefairy" it seemed to as I noticed everyone falling over going to sleep.

Shortly after the blond girl-Daisy was it?-declared me the winner so I floated over to Ash knowing he would give me a hardy congratulations.

He did not.

The uncaring boy had fallen asleep, I couldn't believe it. I walked-bounced-right up to him and double slapped him but he slept through it. "Unbelievable and I sang so well for you!" this reminded me of the effect my singing always had on others.

"Heh, guess I forgot" I smiled sheepishly lying down on my masters face-it was surprisingly comfortable-and fell asleep as well, I didn't realise that I was steadily returning back to my original size.

Back to normal point of view

Ash was enjoying his nap, he was warm-especially his face for some strange reason-dry and unusually comfortable. But like everything else Ash enjoyed Misty had to ruin it. "Ash, Ash wake up" she spoke in a surprisingly gentle voice, but Ash was still sleepy.

Maybe if Ash ignored her she would go away. Misty knew what he was doing and was annoyed, but then she thought of a plan. An evil grin spread across her face. She lifted him up and rolled him on his side. Then she gently pushed his causing him to topple into the water.

Ash was instantly snapped out of his dreamy daze as soon as the water made contact with his face. It was like some amazing instinct took over, some amazing instinct to panic, made worse when he opened his eyes to see total darkness.

He tried to scream but something soft fell in his mouth stopping him. Thankfully he managed to recover quickly though turning splashing towards the platform he had been on minutes before. "Where, what who happened?"

"We were having a Pokémon battle" the red-head pointed out sounding downcast.

"Oh, I was having a Pokémon battle in my sleep. How'd I do?" This was strange, but Ash tried to push past it.

"You beat her" Lily cheered happily, apparently she was pleased that her sister had been defeated. Seemed a little odd but Ash was still barley awake so wasn't able to process it fully.

"I beat Misty in my sleep huh" Ash turned to grin at her, instantly regretting it when he got a glare that made him shiver in response.

"You didn't beat me in your sleep, you beat me then fell asleep" Misty huffed turning around "It wasn't even a fair win anyway, your Pokémon disappearing like that was pure luck, I bet you don't even know what happened to it"

"Taking advantage of good luck is a skill in itself" Daisy said surprising Ash with her wisdom, it wasn't that it was super wise or anything it was just that Daisy was…not super wise was the nicest way Ash could put it.

"Clefairy" his wet pink Pokémon sang as it jumped up into his lap.

"Hey buddy, your did great" Ash hugged his cute Pokémon making all except Misty go 'Awww' as she was too busy rolling her eyes at her sisters to find it cute. "So I guess this means I get the badge then"

"Yeah you can" Misty muttered lightly throwing the badge at the wet boy.

Ash nearly dropped the badge-he never could catch small things, or big things-but Clefairy caught it and gave it to him. "Ok, now go get changed" Daisy said pushing him towards the door ignoring his protests completely. He turned to try to say something only to find the door firmly closed.

He decided to just go get changed like they said, looking around until he found the bathroom and getting changed in there since he couldn't find anywhere better.

Ash didn't hear what was said since he was getting changed out of his wet cloths when they spoke, but what he did know was that when he came back Misty briefly hugged Daisy before leaving with him to go find Brock.

Pokémon-Pokémon-Pokémon

A few days later Ash and his friends were once again travelling along on his journey. They battle a few trainers and Ash actually got to a winning streak of twelve including his win against Misty. He had been the most surprised out of everyone that he was consistently not losing.

It was during one of these battles that Ash heard about a kid names A.J with 'savage Pokémon' who had built his own gym. It was on their way so they decided to visit it. When they arrived they saw a giant score board acting as its sign with the words 'A.J's gym undefeated' next to it.

The score board showed that this gym had one ninety-nine battles and lost zero, although it was not approved by the Pokémon league that was still impressive enough on its own to merit Ash's interest.

"Are you my next victim?" a strangely accented voice said as a boy with grass green hair walked up to them, a red bag was slung over his shoulder and he wore an orange and black shirt with shorts.

"You must be the gym leader, I'm Ash nice to meet you" Ash said walking forward and extending a hand.

"That's my job but beating chumps like you is my hobby" the boy explained ignoring the outstretched limb completely. He then moved slightly walking past Ash to further disrespect the boy as he made his way into the gym. An awkward moment later they started following the rude boy.

They entered through the gates to find a simple arena, the right shape and markings made on the elevated red dirt. Step led up to it allowing Ash and his opponent to go to their respective sides.

Ash noticed that as soon as he put his bag down a Butterfree appeared and carried it off. He didn't even acknowledge it though. "What's in the backpack?"

"The wild Pokémon I just caught, there a whole bunch more back in the tent. And then some" Ash nodded "So which Pokémon you goanna chose for my hundredth win?" he pulled a whip out cracking it in Ash's direction scaring him and making him 'dodge' out the way and in doing so he fell on his ass. "After this I'm goanna start going for badges"

"You've won a hundred battles and don't have a badge, I've only won like twelve and I've got two" Ash thought aloud subconsciously scratching the place where they lay on his chest.

"Did you win those badges or steal them? Either that or you competed in some loser gyms, where were they? Failure city or Wimpsvill" he questions still holding his whip in a threatening gesture.

Behind him a furious Misty and Brock began yelling "What do you mean loser gyms?" Misty was angry a lot so Ash didn't think much of it.

"Hey Ash, pulverise this guy" Brock was never angry; it was actually kind of scary.

"Let's get started then, Sandshrew go!" he threw the ball unnecessarily hard releasing the small mouse Pokémon.

"Now Ash remember, Sandshrew may be a ground type but that doesn't mean you should use Magikarp" Ash blushed looking down knowing exactly what Misty was talking about, it figures she would bring it up now to make him look like as big an idiot as possible.

"Paras I chose you" Ash called throwing out his grass type Pokémon.

"That's not a bad idea Ash, grass types should have the advantage" Ash smiled at Misty actually complimenting him, he wasn't sure but he thought it was the first time ever.

A.J cracked his whip "Sandshrew go" not much of a command but the small Pokémon began charging forward anyway.

"Paras stun spore" Ash commanded the small bug type, Paras was eager to please due to being trained a lot and having won most its battles already, this was another chance to prove itself! With that thought it shook its back unleashing a large amount of orange powder right at the small mouse.

"Dig" A.J. then cracked his whip making Sandshrew listen as he crawled underground.

"Paras stop using stun spore; instead try to figure out when Sandshrew's going to come up then use scratch" Paras did as it was commanded and waited patiently for the mouse Pokémon to come out the ground.

A rock shook beneath Paras indicating where the opponents Pokémon would come up, he tried to prepare to attack. Unfortunately when it came out it came out hard and fast, knocking Paras onto his back before he could use scratch. "Now finish it" there was no room for mercy in this trainers battling style.

"Paras return" Ash called not wanting it to get hurt further and knowing that it was already quiet severely injured. "Don't feel bad, you did great!" he consoled as he replaced the poke ball on his belt.

"And that makes victory number one-hundred" he cheered throwing his arm up in the air.

Ash had to admit, A.J was impressive, and his Sandshrew was really strong. As he watched the duo walk into the tent he could practically feel the pride radiating off of them. Clearly this was a big moment, winning a hundred battles in a row was certainly impressive he could tell that A.J would be extremely proud of his ground type.

"YOU CALL THAT LAST MATCH A FIGHT" an angry voice screamed from inside the tent shocking Ash. "It's time for some serious training" the word serious was emphasised by the crack of a whip.

The trio outside exchanged glances before following the boy into the tent to see what his training was like.

Ash watched the training for mere minutes before he got the idea behind it. It was brutal, and focused almost entirely on pushing Sandshrew. "Guys, don't your think we should do something?" Ash asked looking to Misty and Brock for advice.

Brock nodded looking at the Pokémon with serious eyes "Yeah, I'm going to find out what type of food he uses, these Pokémon are all really healthy" Brock said before walking off to go talk to the trainer.

Ash just stood with his mouth agape, it was shocking that Brock could be so indifferent when Pokémon were being treated like this. Then Misty spoke up "Really Ash this isn't so bad, he's tough but it's not like he's abusing them or anything"

Ash frowned, if this wasn't abuse then what was! He had to talk to A.J about this.

He approached the boy, noticing that he was once again yelling at his Pokémon "So A.J… maybe you're a little too…aggressive in your treatment of your Pokémon" Ash used the word 'aggressive' since saying 'evil' would have made it less likely that the 'aggressive' boy would listen.

"Listen here you" the boy stepped towards Ash poking him in the chest "How I raise my Pokémon is none of your business, I've won one-hundred times proving that my methods work, and we're about to go on our journey so we need to train hard if we're going to make it"

A bell rang and instantly he turned "Alright breaks for five minutes " they all collapsed in agony, barley able to keep moving, and then he would make them start training as soon as they had barley recovering. "Hey…Sandshrew where are you?" the boy questioned looking around angrily.

They all looked, although Ash wasn't trying very hard thinking that Sandshrew simply left because of its harsh treatment, but they found nothing. It was like he just disappeared. Kind of like what Clefairy had done at Cerulean gym, Ash still couldn't understand how that happened! Clefairy would try to explain by scrunching up into a ball, what did that mean?

"Now that we have one-hundred victories' we were going to start getting gym badges, we need to find him so we can begin" then as if summoned by A.J's request, Sandshrew appeared out of the ground landing in the arms of its trainer.

But what was weirder was the Meowth that was attached to it. Which hit Ash in the face; Ash was beginning to understand what people meant when they said being away from home could be painful. It was really painful!

"A.J and all his Pokémon sure are happy that Sandshrew is back" Misty observed smiling softly watching as they all huddled together around the returned friend. Ash was slightly surprised by how happy they seemed, even A.J who had been so indifferent up till now was fawning over the returned Pokémon as it nuzzled lovingly into his chest.

"I think I understand now…" Ash drifted off for a second thinking of how to phrase it "Even though he's tough A.J cares deeply for his Pokémon, because of this even though he's so excessively evil they still care for him back"

Brock sighed gently thinking about what Ash had just said and more importantly how Ash had said it "Close enough" Brock said knowing that Ash having understood the general lesson was amazing in itself. Expecting him to be able to talk about it rationally was ridiculous!

"Meowth" a strange voice screamed Ash instinctively turned to it only to have his face clawed at. "Ha-ha first blood, you might as well surrender n-" he stopped when he saw a very angry Sandshrew as well as several other Pokémon with their trainer glaring at him. "How am I goanna get out of this mess?" he thought aloud a contemplative look on his features.

"Prepare for trouble" Ash groaned in general annoyance.

"And make that double" Ash reached down looking for the right poke ball; he really didn't want to go through all of this again.

"Use the old motto" this surprised the group, they hadn't been aware there was a new one.

The rest of the motto was the same as usual, unfortunately. After this they cried since it 'felt great', Ash really hated that they followed him around. Misty following him around wasn't so bad since she was useful but all these idiots did was attack him every now and again. "So these are the creeps who stole my Sandshrew"

"That was an unfortunate mistake; we couldn't want such a second rate Pokémon" Jessie explained dismissively making the trainers face contort in anger.

"You can keep your wimps, we only want the strongest Pokémon" James explained pointing his rose at the boy with a smug grin.

"I was planning on leaving after one-hundred wins, but for you clowns I'll make an exception follow me to the battlefield and we'll begin. I'll show you the true power of 'savage Pokémon'" he cheered turning and walking to the battlefield everyone following him.

Ash decided to stay and watch the battle to see what it was like and to ensure that he didn't end up losing somehow. It was incredibly unlikely but if he didn't lose he would have his Pokémon taken away anything –even A.J- would be better than being a Team Rocket Pokémon.

As he watched Ash noticed something.

To stop Ekans's bind Sandshrew went into a ball, making it slip and get tied into a knot. To stop Koffing's sludge attack it went into a ball and spun making it bounce off. To stop Meowth in went into a ball causing its teeth to break when it tried to take a bite.

The only time it wasn't in a ball was when it used fissure strike, and even then it spun.

So as soon as Team Rocket had run away. "A.J I would like another battle"

"I already beat you, no need to do it again" he waved dismissively still feeling smug after his most recent easy victory.

"Trust me, this time will be different" A.J looked like he was going to dismiss Ash, but then he saw the determination burning in the young trainers eyes changing his mind. "Ok, one more battle"

They had this battle in a field-A.J had demolished his arena fighting Team Rocket-but Ash didn't mind. "Sandshrew lets make this quick I want to get going soon"

"Sorry but this will be anything but quick" Ash said reaching down and taking his desired poke ball of his belt. "Kakuna I choose you" the small Pokémon appeared, Ash's opponent quirked a brow but decided not to comment, not yet anyway.

"What's Ash doing? Fighting with Kakuna is insane!" Misty said actually feeling sorry for the Pokémon even though it was a bug.

"I don't know, but I do know that Ash wouldn't try to use it unless he had reason to believe it could win" Brock said although he too couldn't figure out the plan here.

"Alright battle begin" A.J yelled Sandshrew standing ready for battle as expected when A.J cracked his whip Sandshrew leaped into the air spinning in a ball. "Perfect, Kakuna use string shot quick" Ash commanded his cocoon Pokémon.

It complied shooting a thick white line at Sandshrew that soon surrounded it. "Break free Sandshrew" the Pokémon fought against it but before it could fell to the ground awkwardly having been unable to get free of its ball.

"More string shot" Ash now saw a flaw in his plan; he had trapped Sandshrew, which was great, but now what? He was beginning to realise that he needs to think things the whole way though, this way just like back at Cerulean, and Pewter gyms.

As the string shot continued to be fired relentlessly it soon had Sandshrew completely trapped so it was unable to do anything but struggle in the ball. Ash heard A.J shout more abuse-although he was sure A.J saw it as support-at his Sandshrew but it didn't help.

The string shot was thick and hard to break, and it was only made harder by the balled up position. "Sandshrew you better break free right now!" A.J screamed loudly and to Ash's absolute chagrin the ball started glowing.

"Sandshrew is evolving" Brock called from the side-lines. Ash watched as the ball broke due to sharp spikes breaking though it all over the place. The growing body of Sandshrew soon having destroyed all but a few stray wisps, then in a burst of power it dispelled all that was left and jumped backwards towards its trainer.

"Sandshrew, you did it. You really evolved" A.J cried hugging his spiky friend-Ash could see he was carful when doing so-and smiling brightly. "Now let's finish this"

"No that's all right" Ash's attempt to stop him was futile as the large Pokémon charged forward stabbing Kakuna dead-centre.

"Kakuna no" Ash couldn't believe this, to do so much damage in a Pokémon battle. The cocoon fell backwards uselessly and for a second Ash thought that it might be severely injured. That is until.

"Beedrill "

The call wasn't strong. Ash would have thought he was hearing things if it wasn't for the large bee Pokémon then crawling out his former shell. "Kakuna evolved into Beedrill" Broke said watching as the large Pokémon crawled out its formed body that fell back empty.

"Beedrill"

The Pokémon continued to cry its own name as it hovered. "Beedrill use Focus energy" Ash said having checked his Pokédex to learn what moves Beedrill could use after getting Kakuna. A light blue glow surrounded the Pokémon as it tensed before fading. "Now use fury attack"

Beedrill launched itself forward lashing out with its large stingers to attack Sandslash but all its attacks were effortlessly dodged. "Sandslash dig" the Pokémon complied disappearing underground in an instant.

"Beedrill fly high" Ash knew he didn't have much time but when Beedrill got so high in the air things look promising. Sandslash shot from the ground like a bullet, a bullet aimed at Ash's Beedrill. "Twin Needle" Beedrill thrust its hand-stingers forwards.

"Sandslash dodge it now" Sandslash tried but it didn't have as good control in mid-air. It dodged the first strike but the second hit, smashing into its chest hard and throwing it to the ground. Its crash kicked up dirt and dust blocking the result from view completely.

"Do you think he won?" Misty asked looking to the senior gym leader for guidance.

"That was good hit, and the fall would have done some damage" Misty seemed disheartened by his lack of enthusiasm "But that Sandslash is well trained, even before it was evolved it would still be a threat. I don't think Ash will be getting off so easily"

When the dust began to clear Brock's prediction was shown to be correct, as a silhouette of Sandslash was clearly visible. "Now Sandslash, finish it off with a slash attack" the Pokémon complied jumping once again so as to reach Beedrill's level ready with strike.

"Dodge it Beedrill" but he didn't have to as just before the attack was supposed to connect Sandslash let out a pained cry falling once again. "…Huh"

"Sandslash was poisoned by twin needle" Brock cheered throwing his arm up into the air.

"Sandslash you get up right now and finish the battle!" A.J yelled spit forming around his mouth as he lost control of his temper due to the possibility of losing a battle.

"Does this mean Ash could win?" Ash had actually been wondering the same thing.

"…Maybe" Sandslash forced itself to stand although clearly in worse condition that Ash's Beedrill.

"Sandslash finish this now!" the poor Pokémon tried to jump only to once again feel the effects of its poisoning. It fell to one knee panting.

"This match is over" Ash's voice was strong and surprising authorities, even he didn't know he could sound like this! "Your Sandslash is too weak to continue, you've lost"

"No way, we've never lost before and we're not going to start by losing to a weakling like you. We made a vow" Ash ignored him returning his own tired but still able to fight Pokémon.

"I don't know a lot about Pokémon"

"We've noticed" Misty shouted from the side-lines.

"BUT" he turned to glare at the girl "I do know when I've been beat. You never losing may have prepared you to win, but it means you've never had to face the fact that sometimes you lose"

The slightly older boy stared at Ash in shock. "Your…" he paused like the words leaving his mouth were poison "Right"

"If you'd like I could give you something to treat Sandslash's poison" A.J raised a hand shaking his head sadly.

"No, I've got the stuff I need back in the tent. Goodbye" and with that he returned the Pokémon running into his tent once again ignoring the trio.

"You know Ash what you did back there was pretty impressive" Misty commented offering a small smile.

Ash turned and smiled at Misty who wasn't looking at him "Thanks, that's really nice of you to say Misty"

"Don't get used to it" she said giving him a mock glare. Ash just chuckled as they began to leave; Misty was still Misty after all.

A/N

Blue Ferret was the one to guess correctly, Clefairy used minimise. His reward is I posted this today by working hard-I know it's not a very good reward but I can't do very much.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all my favourites and reviewer's and followers, I have been responding to most using PM's but I also wanted to give a group thank you for your support as well.

Also a lot of people have A.J be easily defeated to show the power of the trainer or viewed as pure evil, I decided to instead have him be a alright trainer with Ash disagreeing with the methods but still respecting him and with Ash winning only after losing due to his slightly repetitive battling style letting Ash win to show Ash is getting smarter.

Ash will get smarter; I want to build up to it though. In lots of stories he starts off as a genius and that bothers me. In others he improves too fast-seriously in one he went from a scrawny idiot to being described as a muscular genius in one chapter/the time taken to get though Viridian forest-so he will be developing at a slow but generally steady pace. It always bothered me that in canon Gary Oak got the most character development by far going from a know it all brat to an awesome genius when Ash went from a dumbass to a dumbass who ages backwards.

Please review favourite and follow, especially review!