Chapter 14: A raid battle, let's work together!
It has been two days since Ash has implemented the new intense training regimen, and so far it was beginning to show results. At first, his students weren't all that much for the change considering how much it takes out of them, but they soon began adjusting to the regimen and were soon taking it on with more enthusiasm.
Ash feels that they were reluctant at first considering that they didn't have to face such tasks before, although that sort of thing is normal for those who believe that something is not worth the change.
He began to look over the students, whom were now sparring with each other to see who can outmatch each other. Gus was currently using his Tadbulb to face Penny's Vaporeon, confident that his electric type could take down Penny's water type.
However, he would soon be proven wrong as he was soon astonished by how much Vaporeon was able to take Tadbulb's Thundershocks before retaliating with Water Gun, soaking the poor tadpole.
"Well, looks like it's time to kick it up a notch" Gus shouted before he then used his Tera Orb to terastallize his Tadbulb into a water type. "Now Tadbulb can resist those water attacks" Gus said to himself as he got ready to re-engage in the battle.
Penny was expecting this sudden change to the battle, so she adapted "Use Acid Armor" she said, and Vaporeon began to liquify her body until it was practically invisible. Tadbulb. began to look around wondering where his foe was, until Vaporeon jumped from behind him and chomped down on him with a powerful Bite attack.
"Oh crud!" Gus shouted out as Penny smiled smugly, thinking she had won, but Gus had one more trick up his sleeve. "Use Spark!" Gus shouted, and Tadbulb began to surround himself with electricity, sending the volts through Vaporeon's body, and making her let go.
As the battle continued, Koraidon and Miraidon let themselves out of their pokeballs to see what was going on, and they saw the various sparring matches that were going on. Ash noticed them and walked up to them.
"I always wonder, where did you guys come from?" Ash asked them, to which they merely looked at each other, as if they were confused themselves. "I think I can give you an answer" That was when Arven walked up to Ash, hearing in on their conversation "You can?" Ash asked with curiosity in his voice. "I may not be so certain, but there are some factors that all point to something so well that you can't just ignore them" Arven stated before pulling out a red and purple book. "What are these?" Ash asked, referring to the books, "These are the Scarlet and Violet Books."
"Scarlet and Violet Books huh?" Ash said as he took the scarlet book and began reading through the pages, which contained many unusual kinds of Pokemon, they looked like they came from the past with some rather bestial features to them. Arven meanwhile was looking through the Violet Book, which showed more futuristic looking creatures, one looked a lot like Donphan, only it was completely coated in an iron shell.
"Professor's Sado and Turo were looking into these odd creatures that are located in Area Zero" Arven commented as he skimmed through the pages, almost as if he had seen the pages contents around a hundred times over.
"Area Zero?" Ash asked while cocking his head, which Pikachu mimed. "Yes, did you ever see the crater in the center of the region?" Arven asked back, to which Ash replied with "Yeah, I saw it when the plane arrived." "Well, that's Area Zero, not many people know what it actually looks like, I've only been down there for only a few minutes now that I think about it" "Hold on, you've been there!?" Ash exclaimed with alarm in his voice.
"Yeah, now that I think back to it, it was easily the stupidest decision I ever made" Arven stated, almost sounding guilty for something, but Ash couldn't guess as to why. Not wanting to press further, Ash decided to leave it there and continue on with his training.
He then saw his Nymble practicing a new move called Pounce, it was basically a weaker version of Lunge, only it slowed down the enemy. While he was able to learn the move, he needed to get the hang of it before he could properly use it. Nymble had one of those don't give up attitudes, that Ash liked to see in someone.
Luckily, he had his Pikachu help him master the new move, which he did by telling him to copy the movements he made when using Quick Attack, but instead, putting bug type energy into the move rather than normal type energy. He then went over to see Wattrel flying with his other flying types, clearly trying to improve his speed and agility.
He was using his Gust attack and Wind Power ability to give himself a boost so that he could keep up, but the other avians were so swift and agile that he quickly lost them and soon landed into the knothole of a nearby tree, which got quite a laugh out of the other birds.
Eventually, it was time for them to pack up and move on back easy so they can get to the next leg of their journey. However, as they were marching onwards, they then saw a large brown crystal mound that they couldn't just ignore.
"Woah, it's one of those dens that me and Nemona found!" Gus said in awe, knowing that he had found another one. "Tera den?" Ash questioned, to which Thomas replied with "You can find them all over Paldea, and judging from the color of this one, there appears to be a Pokemon with ground for its tera type." "Well, what are we waiting for?" Carla said while pulling out a Pokeball "Let's go in!" She then ran into the den, with Ash, Zeke, and Vanny following close behind her.
When they got inside, they found a terastallized Dunsparse with a crown that resembled layers of earth on top of each other. "Cool, a Dunsparse!" Ash shouted, knowing that he now had another chance to catch the odd Pokemon. He then sent out his Nymble while Zeke sent out his Azurill, Vanny sent out her Nacli, and Carla sent out her Veluza.
The battle then began, with Dunsparse sending a Glare straight towards Nymble, immediately paralyzing him and limiting Ash's options for striking back. "Don't worry teach, I got you, use Aqua Cutter Veluza!" Carla shouted, and Veluza's fins glowed blue and he rushed towards Dunsparse and slashed the land snake with his fins.
"Now is my turn, Azurill, Bubblebeam" Zeke shouted, to which Azurill began to shoot out a stream of bubbles at the land snake, causing massive damage. But Dunsparse wasn't going to take that all lying down, it began to summon rocks from the den and then chucked them towards its attackers.
"Watch out! That's Ancient Power!" Ash shouted as he and his friends began ducking from any of the rocks that could hit them, while Nacli could withstand the attacks, and Veluza and Azurill could dodge the attacks, Nymble was unable to to either because of his paralysis.
Nymble was soon out like a light, forcing Ash to return the grasshopper until he was back up and ready to fight again, in the meantime, Dunsparse settled his sights on Nacli. He quickly burrowed his way underground with Dig, making Nacli worry as to where the land snake will pop up next.
Ash then told Vanny that one can track the movements of a Pokemon underground through vibrations, so Vanny instructed Nacli to feel for vibrations, and when they got close, jump out of the way.
Dunsparse eventually re-emerged, but Nacli jumped out of the way, and landed a good Headbutt attack, which caused Dunsparse to fall on his back and forced him to struggle back up. "Good job Nacli, now use Harden" Doing as it was told, it then glowed white as its defenses were raised, allowing it to take the Rollout attack that it was hit with with ease.
Eventually, Nymble came back into the fight, and it was really steamed this time, slamming Dunsparse with a powerful Double Kick. But all of the hits it took gave it power towards its Flail attack, which it was directing towards Veluza, but Azurill got in the way and ended up being sent flying.
"Azurill" Zeke cried out for his Pokemon, hoping that it wasn't too hurt. Suddenly, Azurill then began to glow blue, and its shape began to change. "Wow, Azurill's evolving!" Ash cried out.
And when the light died down, Azurill was now a Marill.
"Marill!"
"Alright Marill" Zeke cheered, now more ready to take on Dunsparse.
Vanny took out her Rotom Phone to scan the now water type.
Marill, the Aqua Mouse Pokemon, and the evolved form of Azurill
Their ears act like radar dishes, allowing them to pick up the faintest noises.
"Use Aqua Tail" With his glowing blue tail, Marill swung it towards Dunsparse with great might, knocking him into the celing and landing with a deafening crash.
It looks like the battle was won, but that was when feathers surrounded the land snake and it got back up. "You gotta be kidding me!" Vanny shouted in annoyance, "It knows Roost!?" "We gotta do something fast" Carla added. That was when Ash returned Nymble before imbuing the pokeball with tera energy.
"Time to see what Nymble's tera type is!" Ash shouted when he sent out Nymble, now with a crown that takes the shape of a giant fist. "Wow, your tera type is fighting, that will come in handy, use Tackle!" Ash shouted as Nymble hopped towards Dunsparse, slamming his body into his opponents before being pushed back by Headbutt.
"Quick, use Double Kick" Thanks to his tera type, Nymble slammed his hind legs into the land snake, knocking it out. Seizing the chance, Ash took out a pokeball and threw it towards Dunsparse, and it was then swallowed into the device.
After many shakes that could send any paranoid person into a panic attack, the ball blinked, signifying capture, and the crystal wall turned a clear white. Ash couldn't help but smile at now having caught the Pokemon he failed to catch twice.
"You did it Ash!" Carla shouted, proud of her teacher with the success of the raid, only for him to reply with "You mean WE, it was our joined effort that allowed for us to win the day." "He's right" Zeke said, tending to his newly evolved Marill and eventually made their way back outside where they then rested for the day as they saw the sunset beyond them.
End of Chapter
Zeke's Azurill evolved into Marill, Ash catches Dunsparse