Twenty minutes later Ash reached the Battle Pike. He raised his fist to knock on the door, but before he could the door opened to reveal Barbara, who said, "Ash! You got here quick."

"Yeah well I guess all I can say is that I got lucky."

"Yeah, well Lucy ducked out to get some lunch about twenty minutes ago, so she should be back soon. We had a challenger before so she missed having it with the rest of us. But you can wait inside anyway," Barbara said as she moved out of the doorway, allowing Ash to enter.

Ash said, "Alright then," letting Barbara lead him through the Battle Pike's hallways.

When they were passing the door to the battlefield Barbara asked, "Hey Ash, do you want to have a Pokémon battle while we're waiting?"

"A battle? Yeah sure, how's three-on-three with no substitutions?"

"Yeah sure, sounds good," Barbara said, leading them through a door that led to a standard battlefield. Barbara went to the trainer box on the left while Ash headed to the one on the right. "So, do you want to send out your Pokémon first, or me, mine?"

"How about the same time?"

"Okay sure, that sounds good."

The two trainers each retrieved a Pokéball at the same time, before simultaneously saying, "I choose you Seviper/Gabite!"

"Ohh, so that Gible that I saw you using in the Sinnoh league evolved did it?" Barbara asked.

"Yeah, and you seem to have started copying Lucy, at least in the Pokémon you catch."

"What was that! How dare you speak like that about Queen Lucy."

"Geez, still got that perfect sister fetish of yours huh?"

"sis...ter...fet...ish..." Barbara growled in anger before angrily saying, "I was thinking of letting you go first, but no longer, Seviper, use Night Slash."

Seviper slithered its way rapidly towards Gabite with a glowing purple tail, but, when it was about halfway to Gabite Ash said, "Gabite, use Dual Chop." Gabite waited until Seviper had actually started to attack, before hitting Seviper's glowing tail with one of the glowing fins on his arms and brought the other one down on Seviper's head, knocking it into the ground, whereupon Ash said, "Alright Gabite, now use Flamethrower." Gabite launched a powerful stream of flames at Seviper from close range. When Gabite stopped its attack Seviper was unconscious. Ash called, "Seviper is no longer able to battle."

Barbara growled at what had happened and returned her Seviper to its Pokéball. When her Fang Snake Pokémon was back in its Pokéball she held it to her face and, sorrowfully, said, "I'm sorry Seviper, I lost it and caused you pain. But I won't let it go to waste." Barbara called out, "Come on out, Arbok," as she threw a Pokéball towards Ash, who had by now recalled his Gabite after congratulating it on a great battle. Ash looked at the Mouse Pokémon on his shoulder and said, "Well buddy, looks like you're up next." Pikachu jumped down onto the battlefield, but when Barbara told her Arbok to use earthquake, Pikachu fell to the ground unconscious.

Ash commented, "Well, that sucked," as he left his trainers box to retrieve Pikachu from the field. When he had done so he laid Pikachu out on the ground behind him; Ash said, "Alright, since you beat Pikachu I'm going first this time."

"Sure thing," Barbara called as she returned her Arbok to its Pokéball.

Ash thought, 'Alright, so far she's sent two poison type Pokémon against me, so that means that she's probably going to send another one out...wait...this is the Battle Pike, it isn't a poison type facility, merely one that tends to use Pokémon with a serpentine body rather than other, more traditional body types. But that might just be Pike Queen Lucy. But strictly speaking there're only two poison Pokémon that have a chance of belonging in this facility, which means that the next one won't be a poison type. Any other likely candidates are water types, which means...' Ash then drew a Pokéball from his belt and announced, "I choose you, Leavanny!"

Barbara shrieked "Leavanny!" before hurriedly thinking, 'Oh God oh God...what am I gonna do? All of my remaining Pokémon are grass and electric types! Oh no, I've got no chance no, no, none at all! Wait! What is it that Lucy always telling me...? Oh right,...' Barbara saw a translucent image of Pike Queen Lucy appear before her mouthing words at her. '...Whenever you come across a situation that originally seems hopeless you need to calm down and think things through...' she took a deep breath, '...Okay, now, what do I know about Leavanny?...It's a Pokémon that relies mainly on its speed and physical attacks to battle, which, if I remember correctly, perfectly suits Ash's battle style. But by the same token it is really weak against special type attacks...which doesn't really do me much good in this situation. I could try battling with Whiscash...it has some ice type attacks and has a great special attack, but it's too slow, and with Leavanny's speed it'd be unable to keep up. Add that to it's double type bonus, Whiscash would be out for the count before I could even tell it to use an attack. Gorebyss is completely out of the question, as is Ampharos. That leaves only one option...' Barbara picked a Pokéball from her belt and threw it towards Ash, saying, "Electrode, I choose you!"

Ash thought, 'So, Electrode is it? Good choice.' Ash then said, "Since you just defeated my Pokémon I'll go first as well."

Barbara called, "Fine by me Ash."

"Alright then, Leavanny, use Energy Ball."

Leavanny opened its mouth and its antennae started to glow light green. They then were surrounded by light green sparkles. A light green orb of energy then formed in front of its mouth and then flew at Barbara's Electrode.

Barbara said, "Alright electrode, dodge it." Electrode rolled to its right, dodging the ball of energy. "Now get close to it and use Explosion!"

Ash yelled, "Leavanny, move about and don't stop." Unfortunately Barbara's Electrode was faster than Ash had been counting on and easily kept up with Leavanny. Soon enough it exploded right next to Leavanny, knocking them both out. Ash sighed as he returned Leavanny to its Pokéball. Looking at the Pokéball he whispered, "That was great Leavanny, Electrode was just a bit faster than you, that's all." Then, louder, he said, "That was a good battle Barbara...and sorry about saying that you have a perfect sister complex before."

Just then, from the side, a voice saying, "There's no need for you to apologise for saying something like that...it is true after all."

Ash and Barbara looked to see who it was and simultaneously said, "Lucy!"

Lucy smiled and said, "Scott told me that you'd be coming by, but I must admit that I didn't expect to see you here quite so soon."

"Yeah well, on my way to Pallet Town Train Station I ran into an old friend of mine, a Pidgeot from my first journey around the Kanto Region, and he told me that his daughter was interested in coming with me. So I flew over on her."

"I see...hmm...you just had a three on three Pokémon battle did you not?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, you see, Scott has instructed me to increase your versatility in battle."

"My versatility? I thought that I was pretty versatile as it is."

"Yes, but when Scott was deciding who you were to be apprenticed to he watched your battles against us and found that you could be considered a counter-strategist."

Ash asked, "A counter-strategist?"

"Yes. You tend to let your opponents reveal their strategies and then defeat those strategies." Ash thought over all his battles against Gym Leaders and in Pokémon League Competitions and discovered that there was an element of truth in what Lucy was saying. "The thing about counter-strategists is that they tend to have a more defensive battle style, which allows their opponents to gain the upper hand rather easily, making it harder on them to gain the advantage and turn the flow of the battle towards them, especially if their opponent can get a read on them early on in the battle."

Ash thought over all his battles against Paul and Gary and found that everything Lucy was saying was right on the mark. He then said, "Yeah, I can see what you're saying."

"Alright then. Now since counter strategists fight defensively they can't really push their opponent to their limit, until the opponent has already shown everything he has. That defeats the purpose of a trainer's competing in the Battle Frontier. If you can remember our battle I utilise a strictly offensive battle style. That is why Scott sent you to me."