Sorry about the delay. I was sorting out which episodes would and would not be put into this story. Now that I've gotten that done, I hope to get chapters for this out on a regular basis.
-:-
Name: Translations:
Sato – Ash
Lila – Anabel
Takeshi – Brock
Kasumi – Misty
Kojiro – James
Musashi – Jessie
Akira – A.J.
-:-
Having just recently earned the Cascade Badge, Sato and the other were making their way to Vermillion City so Sato could earn his next badge.
"Man, I can't wait to get to Vermillion and have my battle!" declared Sato.
"Well you better prepare for it, Sato. It won't be easy," said Kasumi.
"I know it won't be easy, Kasumi. It's not going to be like the battle I had with you," said Sato, the words just coming out of his mouth.
"What was that?" growled Kasumi, glaring at the raven-haired boy.
"Ano, I'm sure Sato-kun didn't mean anything by that, Kasumi," said Lila, trying to defend Sato.
"Yeah right," muttered Kasumi.
"Come on, you guys. The more time you argue, the less time we have to get to Vermillion as soon as we can," said Takeshi.
"Right! Let's go then!" exclaimed Sato. He then grabbed hold of Lila's hand and ran off, the now blushing girl trying not to trip as she followed him. Pikachu ran after him.
"Sato no Baka," growled Kasumi. She soon followed.
Takeshi just gave a sigh and followed as well to make sure another argument didn't break out between Sato and Kasumi.
-:-
Sato, Lila, and Pikachu stood in front of a large building that was surrounded by a tall wooden fence. The sign above the entranceway read "The Undefeated Akira's Gym". Under the title, it showed that Akira had ninety-eight wins.
"A gym? Out here?" questioned Sato, looking confused.
"I don't think it is an official gym, Sato-kun. It could be a place for trainers to train their Pokémon in ways they couldn't anywhere else," said Lila.
"Not even close," said a voice.
The three turned to see a boy of about Takeshi's age walking towards them. He had black hair with green spikes in the front and wore a red and black collared shirt and blue shorts.
"Who are you?" questioned Sato.
"Heh, the name's Akira and this is my gym. You planning to become my ninety-ninth win?" questioned Akira with a smirk.
"No, I plan on becoming your first loss," said Sato smugly.
"We'll see about that. Follow me."
Akira entered his gym with Sato following. Right before Lila could follow, Kasumi and Takeshi caught up.
"Where's Sato at, Lila?" asked Takeshi.
"He's inside, about to battle against the owner."
The three entered just in time to see the battle start.
"You ready to lose, kid?" questioned Akira, a smirk still on his face. In his hands held a long whip.
"Like I'd lose to you. I already have two badges, so I'm pretty sure I can handle you," said Sato, getting a little overconfident.
"They must've been second-rate gyms if someone like you got a hold of those badges," remarked Akira.
Kasumi's eye twitched, while Takeshi clenched his fists at what Akira said.
"Oi! Show this guy his place, Sato!" yelled Kasumi, Takeshi agreeing with her.
"Right!"
"Not going to happen! Sandshrew, front and center!"
Akira threw the Poké Ball and out came a small yellow armadillo-like Pokémon whose body had a brick-like pattern to it.
"Be careful, Sato-kun! Sandshrew is a Ground-type, so Pikachu's Electric attacks won't be effective!" said Lila.
"Then I'll just have to go with an advantage! Pidgeotto! I choose you!"
"Pidgeotto!"
"Don't think you can win with a type advantage! Sandshrew, use Defense Curl and then Rollout!" ordered Akira with a crack of his whip.
"Shrew!"
The Ground-type did as he was told and curled into a ball. He then surprisingly shot himself into the air and collided with Pidgeotto. Sato was surprised to see Pidgeotto fall to the ground after the one hit.
"That all you got?" taunted Akira.
"Its not over yet!" yelled Sato as he returned Pidgeotto. "Butterfree, you're up! Use Stun Spore!"
"Sandshrew! Use Dig to dodge!"
Butterfree fluttered his wings, releasing the orange powder across the field, but the Ground-type burrowed itself underground, escaping the paralysis.
"Ree?"
"Sandshrew! Tackle!"
Sandshrew erupted from underground and slammed himself into Butterfree, knocking the Bug-type to the ground. Sato couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Just give up, kid. You can't beat me," said Akira as the number on the sign changed to show that he now had ninety-nine wins.
"Ah man," moped Sato, hanging his head in defeat.
Meanwhile in the nearby trees, the battlefield was being watched.
"Who would've guessed that little Sandshrew could be so strong," said Musashi.
"I'm surprised that it took down the kid's Pokémon with ease," said Kojiro. "Think we should try and steal it?"
"No, we should stay focused on taking that Pikachu, nya," stated Meowth.
Back with Sato…
"Come on! Let me have a rematch! Please!" begged Sato.
"Quit your whining! I don't give out rematches! Besides, you're embarrassing yourself," said Akira as he and Sandshrew went inside the large tent.
"Poor Sato-kun," said Lila. She then went over to try and comfort the boy.
"That Sandshrew of Akira's was impressive though. Did you see how he commanded it with his whip?" said Kasumi.
"Hmm, Akira must have some sort of secret to training his Pokémon if he was able to get that much potential out of Sandshrew," said Takeshi. He then saw Sato marching towards the tent entrance. "Sato, what are you doing?"
"I'm going to convince him to give me a rematch!"
The others could only sweatdrop at Sato's actions. They followed after him as to make sure he didn't do something to further embarrass himself.
-:-
Entering the tent, the Sato-tachi was surprised by what they saw. First, they saw a Beedrill and a Butterfree "fighting" each other. The Beedrill was using its Twineedle attack while Butterfree dodged. Next they saw Sandshrew diving off a high dive into a pool of water. As soon as the Mouse Pokémon hit the water, he quickly jumped out and spun himself dry.
"Again!" barked Akira, cracking his whip.
"Oi! Leave him alone!"
Akira turned to see who was shouting, but the next thing he knew was that he was pushed into the pool. Coming to surface, Akira saw that it was Sato who pushed him in as Sato was also in the pool.
"What the hell are you doing?" demanded Akira, glaring at Sato.
"Stopping you from abusing Sandshrew!" yelled Sato, glaring back.
"I'm not abusing him!"
"Then why are you making him jump into the water, knowing that he's weak to water?"
"I'm trying to up Sandshrew's resistance to water. This is the only way to do that," explained Akira as he got out of the pool.
"I've never heard of that type of training before. Can it be used with other types?" asked Kasumi, thinking she could help her Water-types.
"Not sure. When I started, t was an experimental idea. If it didn't work, I wouldn't be using the training method," said Akira.
"What's this thing on Sandshrew?" asked Lila, her and Pikachu looking at the device on the Ground-type.
"Pika?"
"Shrew."
"That's a Macho Brace. It helps boosts a Pokémon's stats as it trains, but halves their speed," explained Akira. He then turned to Sandshrew. "Sandshrew, go help the Rattata train."
"Shrew!"
Sandshrew curled up into a ball and as ordered, rolled over to three Rattata, who started passing Sandshrew around like a soccer ball.
"Grr, that still doesn't mean you should being treating Sandshrew like a sandbag," growled Sato.
"Too bad. It's my training method and I'm sticking with it," said Akira.
"Grr. Takeshi, you agree with me that this seems wrong, right?" asked Sato, looking over at the older boy.
"Hmm, your Pokémon look like they've been well taken care of. What exactly do you feed them?" asked Takeshi, ignoring Sato. The younger boy hung his head in disappointment.
"I feed them my own recipe! Nothing but the finest ingredients for my Pokémon!" exclaimed Akira, pretty proud of himself.
Takeshi and Akira talked about the different types of ingredients they use in their recipes with Kasumi asking questions at different times. Sato could only sulk in annoyance, not noticing the look of sympathy he received from Lila.
While this was happening with the humans, Pikachu was watching Sandshrew train by lifting weights. Thinking he could try it, Pikachu tried to lift a small barbell, but unfortunately, that didn't go well.
"Cha!" yelped Pikachu as he fell back, the barbell on top of him.
"Sandshrew," sighed the Ground-type with a sweatdrop.
-:-
Outside of the tent, Team Rocket was discussing their plan on stealing Pikachu.
"Do you have the gloves, Kojiro?"
"Right here," said Kojiro, holding up the rubber gloves.
"And I got the ball we'll use to sneak in, nya!" said Meowth, rolling a large red rubber ball.
"I do have to wonder if this will actually work," said Kojiro. "I know that simple plans sometimes work, but this seems too simple."
"Stop being such a worrywart, Kojiro," said Musashi.
-:-
DING!
"Alright! Five minute break!" called Akira.
At that, all of Akira's Pokémon collapsed to the floor, panting in exhaustion.
"Do you see what your "training" is doing? Your Pokémon don't even have any energy left!" exclaimed Sato.
"Just mind your own business, kid!"
"Not until you start treating your Pokémon better!" yelled Sato as he threw a punch.
Akira blocked the punch, but both he and Sato once again fell into the pool where they were still fighting each other.
"Sato-kun!" called a worried Lila as she, Takeshi, and Kasumi ran to the edge of the pool to make sure Sato and Akira didn't hurt themselves too badly.
With Pikachu and Sandshrew, Sandshrew had taken off his Macho Brace and Pikachu was now inspecting it. As soon as Pikachu touched it though, it snapped on him.
"Cha!" yelped the Electric-type in surprise.
Not used to the force behind the device, Pikachu was curled into a small ball, his tail sticking into the air. Sandshrew laughed at Pikachu's misfortune and curled up into a ball as well.
With the humans occupied and Pikachu and Sandshrew not watching their surroundings, no one noticed the large red ball rolling through the gym.
"Look! There's Pikachu, nya!"
"Then let's grab it and escape!"
Unfortunately, due to the lack of vision Team Rocket had inside the ball, they accidentally grabbed Sandshrew instead of Pikachu. With their unknown prisoner, Team Rocket quickly left the gym before they were caught.
Back with the trainers…
"You're really annoying, you know that?" said Akira as he got out of the pool.
"You're one to talk," growled Sato, getting out of the pool as well.
DING!
"Alright! Back to training!" ordered Akira. He watched as his Pokémon went back to their routine, but noticed that someone was missing. "Where's Sandshrew?"
The trainers looked around, but didn't see where Sandshrew was. Sato though did find Pikachu trapped by the Macho Brace.
"Pikachu!"
Sato ran over to his little friend and tried to get the Macho Brace off of him, but couldn't get it off.
"Move aside," said Akira.
Sato reluctantly did move aside and Akira went in and easily took the Macho Brace off of Pikachu.
"Pika!"
"Pikachu! Are you okay?" asked Sato, making sure his friend wasn't hurt.
"Pikachu, do you know where Sandshrew is?" asked Akira.
"Chu," said Pikachu, shaking his head in a negative.
"You don't?" questioned Akira, starting to get worried. "Sandshrew! Where are you?"
"Maybe Sandshrew was smart and ran away so he wouldn't have to put up with your "training" methods," said Sato.
"Sato-kun! That was mean!" scolded Lila, giving the boy a stern look. Sato wasn't sure why, but her look made him feel guilty about what he said, even though in his mind, Akira deserved it.
"…Gomen. If Sandshrew is the way you say he is, maybe he really didn't run away," said Sato, avoiding eye contact. Kasumi and Takeshi were surprised by how easily Lila seemed to get through Sato.
"…Apology accepted," muttered Akira. He then turned to his other Pokémon. "Alright! I want you all to go look for Sandshrew! Check around the gym first and then spread out further if you have to!"
-:-
With Team Rocket…
"I think we're far enough," said Musashi.
"Good because this bag is getting heavy. Why couldn't you carry it some of the way?" complained Kojiro.
"You'd really make a lady carried such a heavy load?" questioned Musashi, trying to get out of work.
'Since when have you been a lady?' thought Kojiro, his eye twitching a little. He then pushed the bag towards Musashi. "Just take it!"
"Would you two shut up, nya. You're getting on my nerves, nya," said Meowth.
Kojiro and Musashi were about to yell at the Scratch Cat Pokémon, but the bag that they were holding started to rustle. Next thing they know, their captive burst free. Still thinking it was Pikachu; Meowth bit onto Sandshrew's tail to prevent further escape, but didn't count on being dragged underground.
"…What just happened?" questioned Kojiro, looking confused.
-:-
"We looked everywhere. There's no sign of Sandshrew," said Sato.
"Gomen, Akira-san," said Lila.
"Sandshrew…" muttered Akira, feeling his eyes start to sting.
Sato was about to apologize again to Akira, but before he could something erupted from the ground between him and Akira. Sato was knocked down when something furry collided with him and Akira quickly caught what had erupted from the ground.
"Sandshrew!" exclaimed Akira once he noticed whom it was. He gave his friend a hug, happy to have him back.
"Shrew!"
"Such a happy reunion," said Kasumi.
"Hai. Its obvious that those two have a strong bond that can't be broken easily, if not at all," said Takeshi.
"I wonder where Sandshrew was though," said Lila.
"Pikapi!"
"Huh?" questioned Sato. He looked to see what Pikachu was pointing at. He was surprised by who it was. "Meowth?"
Sato picked up the fainted cat by the tail and held him upside down. This was a bad idea, as it seemed to bring Meowth back into consciousness and without warning, Meowth swiped his claws against Sato's face.
"Gah!" cried Sato, letting go of Meowth.
"Sato!" cried out his friends.
"Eh? Where am I, nya?" questioned Meowth, looking around. He then noticed the Sato-tachi, Akira, and Akira's Pokémon glaring down at him, Sato's glare being the fiercest.
"Any last words before I strangle you?" growled Sato.
"Can't we just talk this out, nya?" pleaded Meowth.
"You'd be an expert on that," said a woman's voice.
"Musashi, nya! Koji, nya!" exclaimed Meowth, running over to join his friends.
"Team Rocket! I should've known you'd be the ones to take Sandshrew!" yelled Sato. He was about to battle against them, but was held back by Akira.
"If they're the ones who took Sandshrew, then I'll handle them," said the older boy.
"In all honesty, we didn't even want you Sandshrew," said Musashi. "Why would we want such a second-rate Pokémon?"
"Second-rate?" questioned Akira with a growl. "I'll show you who's second-rate!"
-:-
Outside, Akira and Sandshrew stood at one end of the battlefield, while Team Rocket stood at the other end.
"You sure you can handle this, Akira? Team Rocket don't really fight fair," said Sato.
"Trust me, kid. This won't take long."
"Ekans! Show this fool what we're made of!" exclaimed Musashi.
"Come out, Koffing!" exclaimed Kojiro.
"Go Sandshrew!" yelled Akira, cracking his whip.
As soon as the two Poison-types appeared, Sandshrew charged forward, dodging the incoming attacks.
"Ekans! Use Wrap!"
"Sandshrew, Defense Curl!"
"Ekans!"
"Shrew Sandshrew!"
Sandshrew quickly curled into a ball just in time. Ekans had wrapped himself around the Mouse Pokémon, but because Sandshrew was in a ball, he easily slipped from Ekans grasp, making the Snake Pokémon tie himself into a knot.
"Ekans?" exclaimed the Poison-type, before he has tackled to the ground by Sandshrew.
"Koffing, use Sludge!" ordered Kojiro.
"Sandshrew, use Rapid Spin to deflect it!"
"Koff Koffing!"
The Ground-type spun its round body rapidly as Koffing spat the sludge. The poisonous substance didn't even hurt Sandshrew.
"This is starting to get annoying!" growled Musashi. She got even more annoyed when she saw Meowth chasing after Sandshrew. "What do you think you're doing, Meowth?"
"What do you expect, Musashi? He's a cat and Sandshrew is rolling around like a ball of yarn," pointed out Kojiro.
"Just attack the thing!" she continued to screech.
"Fine, nya!" shouted the Normal-type. He bit down on Sandshrew, but the Ground-type's body was too hard as shown by Meowth's now cracked teeth. "Nya! My teeth, nya! He broke my teeth, nya!"
"Sandshrew! Knock that Koffing to the ground with Rollout and then use Fissure!" ordered Akira, wanting to end this.
"Sandshrew!"
The Mouse Pokémon used the Rock-type attack and collided with Koffing, knocking the Poison-type into Ekans and Meowth. With the three Rocket Pokémon tangled with each other, Sandshrew used this moment to perform his strongest attack. Jumping in the air, only to dive bomb back down, Sandshrew started to spin like a drill until he struck the earth beneath him. At the moment of impact, the earth split, creating a wide deep canyon that Meowth, Ekans, and the grounded Koffing fell into, losing the battle and giving Akira his one hundredth victory!
"Let's get out of here, nya!" cried Meowth after he and the two Poison-types got out of the trench, scared to fight against the strong Sandshrew. Musashi and Kojiro weren't far behind.
"We did it, Sandshrew! We finally reached victory number one hundred!" exclaimed Akira, happy tears leaking from his eyes.
"Sandshrew Sand!" exclaimed the Ground-type, also with happy tears.
-:-
Standing outside of Akira's gym, the Sato-tachi and Akira and Sandshrew were saying their goodbyes.
"So you're leaving?" asked Kasumi.
"Hai. I promised myself that when my Pokémon and I won one hundred battles, we'd go off on our own journey," said Akira.
"Why don't you come with us? The more the merrier as they say!" grinned Sato.
"Heh, as enticing as that sounds, I have to pass. I hope we do meet again one day though," grinned Akira.
"You bet! I want to see if I could beat you and that amazing move of Sandshrew's!"
"Like that would happen," taunted Akira.
The two trainers shook each other's hand, promising to meet up again one day and having a battle to see how strong they have gotten. After the goodbyes, the two parties turned and went they're separate ways. With a new rival acquired, what else lies in store for Sato in the near future?"
TO BE CONTINUED…
-:-
There you have it folks. The newest chapter. I'm sure most of you remember the Akira and Sandshrew episode. Had to tweak some things to make it plausible, mainly on how Sandshrew's Ground-type attacks would hit Pidgeotto, Butterfree, and Koffing since they're immune to the type.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and will enjoy the next chapter that comes out soon.
