Chapter 11: Starter squabble, get along!

Ash was seen admiring his newly gained colony badge from his victory against Katy, and now they were celebrating his victory by having a picnic just outside of Cortondo, with Arven making his high quality sandwiches.

However, they weren't the only ones joining the celebration, as all of their Pokemon were let out to enjoy the day, all eating some gourmet Pokemon food that Arven had also made.

"So Ash" Nemona said "How does it feel to win a gym badge?" "Well, no matter how many times I win one, it just never gets old, oddly, I haven't won a gym badge since my journey over at Kalos" Ash stated as he slurped up some spaghetti. "If that feeling really is a good one, then I might try the gym challenge myself someday" Felia stated as she, Rellor, and Vivillon all munched on some of the taco that Felia had brought from home.

"I didn't really mave the opportunity to say this, but what are your goals anyway" Nemona asked to the students. "Well my goal is to become a water type master" Carla proclaimed, Ash immediately though to Misty when she said that. "Well I plan on being the strongest trainer of Paldea period" Vanny said with an air of arrogance in her voice "I plan on assembling a team of stone evolutions" Gus proclaimed. "Well, um... I plan on being a poison type expert" Thomas said with a bit of shakiness in his voice "I want to be a computer expert, though I do like battling myself" Penny said flatly "I want to be a fairy type expert" Zeke said "And I want to be a bug type expert like Katy" Felia said.

"Wow, you all sound like me when I was starting out, very enthusiastic about my dreams" Ash said "And I guess you already fulfilled that dream" Arven stated "Defeating Leon really put you on top of the world." "True, but there are still regions for me to explore, Pokemon to discover and catch, and more friends to make" Ash said rather plainly.

Things soon got dicey, as Fuecoco ended up having to sneeze, which caused an Ember to burn up Quaxly's food to get burnt. Naturally, Quaxly got angry, with Fuecoco trying to apologize to him, but he wasn't going to fly with the duck, and he blasted him with Water Gun, making Fuecoco run around, trying to avoid the blast.

"Quaxly, stop!" Arven then grabbed his duck Pokemon, trying to ease the situation "He didn't mean to burn your food, it was an accident." Quaxly wouldn't listen as he continued to fire Water Gun, only one of them ended up hitting Sprigatito, whom went ballistic at how we her fur got.

Angered, she then launched a Magical Leaf attack that slammed Quaxly and Arven against a wall "Sprigatito no!" Nemona cried out, trying to stop the escalating situation, but she was then Scratched by her little cat Pokemon, shocking her. Sprigatito then hissed at her before her tail was then set ablaze by Fuecoco, whom stood in to defend Nemona.

Soon enough, all three starters were all in a big dust cloud, and it was starting to get really ugly, until Pikachu launched a powerful Thunderbolt attack at them to get them to stop fighting. They were laying on the ground charred and paralyzed.

"It seems the starters have some issues with each other" Ash stated "You seem awfully calm about this!" Zeke shouted after seeing the brawl "I say we better teach these three some manners" Vanny growled, as the fight had ruined the sandwich she was having.

"We are not going to teach them manners" Ash said firmly "We need to help them get along." While the students really didn't see eye to eye with what Ash had in mind, they had no choice but to go along with it.

After Nemona bandaged her scratch mark, she then walked over to her Sprigatito, and proceeded to chastise her for her attack, which made her feel sorry. Arven made a new batch of Pokemon food for Quaxly, while also scolding him for his unneeded force, and Ash reminded Fuecoco not to escalate a situation.

After that was done, they had the three sit down with each other, and they were shooting glares at each other before looking away quickly. "Ok, seeing as you all are still mad at each other, we are going to try and fix these bridges between you" Ash declared "And hopefully we won't have to resort to violence" Nemona added.

"Now, we'll turn around for a moment and hopefully you won't be ripping each other's hair out" Arven stated. They then turned around for a moment, but when they turned back around, they saw the starters biting and punching each other, which they immediately stopped when they noticed that they were being watched.

They immediately got back into position and grinned ear to ear "This is going to be trickier than I though" Ash muttered.

Their further attempts to try and get the starters to get along didn't really bear any fruit as they got further down the line. They tried to have them share a sandwich, have them talk nicely, and even try to think of at least one nice thing about each other. All of those ideas didn't work, and they only seam to resent each other even more.

"Hopefully we'll make a breakthrough sooner rather than later" Nemona lamented as she had her hand on her cheek. "Remember what I used to say 'Don't give up till it's over'" Ash commented, only for Arven to reply with "Sounding a bit too optimistic there aren't you?" Ash could only lament that hiks friends don't have as much enthusiasm as he did.

Meanwhile with the other Pokemon, Gus' Capsakid was throwing a ball over at Vanny's Nacli, whom then headbutted it straight to Felia's Rellor, whom kicked it to Zeke's Fidough. However, Fidough ended up over shooting his kick and it was sent towards the nearby cliff, to which he went over to grab the ball. But as he did so, he was intruding into an area where Donphan like roll, and soon enough, he was hanging on for dear life on one of the elephant's, trying desperately to hold on for dear life.

"Fidough!" Zeke ran towards the herd to save his friend, but he was flattened in a comical fashion with swirls in his eyes. "Dodonzo, stop that herd with Water Pulse" "Scovillian, use Razor Leaf" The Pokemon attacks managed to stop the herd long enough for Fidough to get off and run away, but this only angered the herd and they were soon charging at them.

"Oh no" Whimpered Carla, as the Donphan charged at them with Take Down, ready to stomp them into the ground for interrupting their charging. Orthworm was doing his best to hold them back with his metallic body, but it was only a matter of time before he would go down as well, and none of the other Pokemon were able to get behind them to scare them away.

"What do we do!?" Shouted Nemona as she was soon getting her daily run from a Donphan. That was when the starters saw the commotion and looked at each other. Knowing what they'd have to do, they nodded to each other and charged in.

Quaxly fired a Water Gun attack to get their attention, which got them riled up and focused on them. They began to charge towards the starters, but Fuecoco stopped them in place with Disarming Voice, allowing for Sprigatito to pelt them with Magical Leaf. If that wasn't bad enough, Quaxly then smacked them with Wing Attack while Sprigatito bit down on their trunks, making them roar in pain.

Fuecoco then weakened them even further with a Snarl attack, which reduced their morale. Knowing they won't be able to win, they then retreated back to the cliff where they came from. "Whew, that was close" Gus said while wiping the sweat from his brow "And it seams that we finally made some progres with the starters" Ash stated as he saw them high-fiving and congratulating each other.

It eventually came down to sunset, where Ash had laid down the next steps in his route. They will explore the cliffside that serves as the entrance to the West Province, before going back to Mesagoza and heading east, there, they will then make their way to Artazon where the next gym leader is located.

Nodding to himself, Ash then kicked back and went to sleep.

End of Chapter