Chapter 27: Glitch in the machine
Now that Ash has settled the conflict with his students and their rivals, he could now get to work on training his new Pokemon further. His most recent catch, Klawf, has a bit of catching up to do in order for him to make proper use of his strength. Ash decided to have his Kingler and Crawdaunt help him with endurance training, seeing as they are both water types, which are what Klawf is weak to.
He also decided to have his Wattrel improve his speed by doing many laps around the arena with his fellow flying types in the form of a race. Wattrel obviously didn't win, that honor goes to Unfezant, but throught the course of many races, Wattrel's wing muscles allowed him to boost forward even further.
Next was Toedscool, whom hasn't gotten much training ever since he was caught. Ash decided to have Torterra train him, seeing as they both share types. Torterra decided to help the little fungus Pokemon learn Energy Ball, which will come in handy for the battles that await him. Toedscool was nowhere near as powerful when compared to the immense might that the continent tortoise wielded, but he did have the speed advantage thanks to those long legs of his. Because of this, Toedscool had absolutely no issue dodging attacks from the lumbering Torterra, that is until Torterra glowed white, and blurred out of sight.
Toedscool began to panic, as his opponent could be anywhere, only to find out too late that Torterra was right behind. Torterra had managed to learn Rock Polish before Ash arrived at Paldea, and it proved to be far more useful than Rock Climb. Before Toedscool could even react, Torterra swept him away with a powerful Leaf Storm, winning the battle.
Toedscool was downtrodden by this loss, but then Ash came over to his side. "Don't feel so down Toedscool, Torterra has more experience than you" Ash said in an effort to comfort him. "Toooooeed..." Ash decided to leave him alone for some time to himself.
Next was Finizen, who was eager to train with his fellow water types. His first sparring partner was Totodile, but Finizen wasn't happy, wanting to train with Crawdaunt. Ash had to explain to the dolphin that he needed to start off with someone within his weight class, to which he begrudgingly accepted.
The battle began, and Finizen started off strong with a Water Gun attack, only for Totdile to counter with his own Water Gun. Finizen then fired a Supersonic attack, but Totodile danced out of the way, and continued dodging the sound waves.
This eventually frustrated Finizen, and it fired forward with Aqua Jet. But this was a mistake, as Totodile clamped down on Finizen's nose with Bite and shook him about before throwing him away, knocking him out.
As the battle ended however, the lights began to flicker on and off, which got the attention of everyone in the gym. "That's weird, must be an electrical issue or something" Ash speculated before the lights went back on again.
In other parts of the school however, it was a lot more different.
There were computers constantly jumping from website to website on random, PCs spilling out Pokemon for random trainers without interface, and the lights were flickering on and off at random in various areas as well.
Outside, the sprinkler system was going haywire, spouting water at full force, the fire alarms were blaring for no reason, and orders were being placed for ridiculous requests.
"What's going on here!?" Clavell shouted as he pulled his hair. He couldn't figure out what was causing this network nonsense, and it was proving to be a real issue. "If we can't get rid of this glitch, then the academy will be facing a huge problem" Jacq said, with the rest of the teachers in a meeting.
"I can't receive schoolwork from my students" Tyme said with annoyance in her voice "And I sure don't accept late work at all." "Are you sure the network is completely protected by hackers and malware?" Railfort asked "Absolutely" Clavell answered. "I hate to say this, but we may be facing something beyond our expectations" Dendra said while rubbing her temples.
Ash then had an idea "Have any of you tried using a Rotom Phone to interact with the network?" "No we haven't" Miriam answered. "Well, it's worth a try" Ash said as he accessed the academy's network settings. Suddenly, a construct of sort was starting to push out of the Rotom Phone's screen until it came out.
"What is that?!" Salvatore shouted out in shock, with nobody able to give an answer until they got a good look at the entity before them.
It was a roughly polygonal being that was a mix of blue and pink.
"I can't believe it, it's a Porygon!" Ash said. He hasn't seen a Porygon in a long time back when he was starting out and he had encountered a scientist that had a Porygon.
The program was not so docile however, as it fired a Psybeam at the teachers, whom immediately took cover. "It seems this one doesn't like you kicking it out of the network!" Saguaro said while hiding behind the chair he was sitting in.
Porygon then entered Clavell's computer, intending to use it to travel around the academy and cause havoc.
"We gotta find that little glitch!" Dendra said as the teachers ran out of the director's office.
Porygon eventually found the Science Lab, where it found an odd disk like object. It took the disk and inserted into a disk drive before plugging itself into a USB port, as it had used its 'beak' as a plug.
Ash eventually tracked the direction of where Porygon went and found it downloading the contents of the disk onto itself. But as Ash entered the science lab, it was too late.
Porygon began to glow blue, as it began to evolve. Its rough body began to smooth out, resembling more of a duck, becoming a new Pokemon.
"Who's that Pokemon?!" Ash said while looking up his Rotom Phone.
Porygon2: The virtual Pokemon, and the evolved form of Porygon. Porygon has been updated to a new version, this new form is capable of planetary travel.
"We gotta stop that thing before it develops even further, Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!" Ash shouted, and Pikachu fired a blast of lightning. "Piiikaaa-CHUUUUUUUUUU!" Porygon2 summoned three orbs that were red, white, and yellow in color, which then collided with the Thunderbolt, cancelling it out.
"Crud, it knows Tri Attack!" Ash cursed, and then ordered Pikachu to use Iron Tail and slammed the virtual duck with a mighty swing. However, Porygon2 began to glow, and the wound on its head began to disappear.
"Recover too!?" Ash shouted in frustration before Porygon2 used Lock-On on Ash before forming a giant ball of electricity and firing it. Pikachu however got in the way and took the hit. He was pushed back and caused Ash to fall over.
Porygon2 then entered the computer and then found itself in the robotics room, where it then spotted another disk, but this one was odd looking and had a futuristic look to it. It then used its newly learned Psychic to insert the disk into another computer before plugging itself in. Once again, it begins to evolve, where its head detached from his body, and its movements became more erratic.
Hassel opened the door to see the evolution, and paled at the finished result. When the light died down, the new Pokemon formed an orange orb, and Hassel knew what was coming.
Many students were talking to each other in the main hall when Hassel was sent flying through the wall unconscious. The students then saw the newly evolved Pokemon twitching and beeping at random.
The rest of the teachers saw the new form and they all collectively gained a feeling of dread as it began to charge up another Hyper Beam, only to be interrupted by Pikachu and his Electroweb. "It evolved again!?" Ash said in shock while pulling out his Rotom Phone again.
PorygonZ: The virtual Pokemon, a normal type. Additional software was installed to make it stronger, though this also appears to have caused an error in its behavioral code
PorygonZ began to fire Hyper Beams everywhere, causing massive amounts of destruction wherever the beam lands.
Ash had never encountered this type of foe, so he couldn't bring up any past experience, and Porygon were incredibly rare, being manmade Pokemon. That's when he got an idea, the dex entry said that PorygonZ is a normal type, so he decided to try something.
"Gengar, I choose you!"
He then sends out his ghost type to face the virtual Pokemon, whom caught notice of its new foe. It fired another Hyper Beam, only to then beep in shock as it saw that it didn't affect Gengar.
"Use Will-O-Wisp!"
Gengar then summons ghostly fireballs and sends them to PorygonZ, burning the virtual Pokemon. PorygonZ immediately retaliated with Psychic, grabbing Gengar in its telekinetic hold and slamming him across the hall. It was about to continue, but it was damaged by its burn, letting go of Gengar as a result.
Ash took this advantage to order Gengar to turn invisible so PorygonZ couldn't find him, not even Lock-On could help it find him. Too little too late, as Gengar appeared right behind it and slammed him with a Sludge Bomb attack, making it skid across the battlefield.
As a final last resort, PorygonZ fired a Zap Cannon, which Gengar easily avoided, and the shadow Pokemon emerged victorious with a final Ice Punch attack.
The students cheered for the latest teacher, having seen his impressive battle prowess and tactical thinking. The teachers all arrived to see the virtual duck knocked out.
"Thank you so much Mr. Ketchum, it would have gone horribly south had you not stepped in" Clavell said with gratitude. "Just doing what I have to do sir, so what are we going to do with PorygonZ?" Ash wondered. Clavell then pulled out a pokeball and caught the normal type "We are in need of a new mascot, so this interestin fellow might be a good candidate" Clavell finished before dismissing everyone back to their normal duties.
Ash returned to his office to continue his training, and he saw Finizen sparring with Totodile again. Finizen was starting to get up to par with the other water types. Finizen was using Aqua Jet to avoid Totodile's powerful jaws and landing glancing blows to tire the croc out. However, Totodile had a trump card, and he proceeded to dance with an indigo aura surrounding him, boosting his attack and speed.
Totodile had learned Dragon Dance from Dragonite, to great effect, as he was too fast for Finizen to keep up with, and was swiftly knocked out with a single Slash attack.
Finizen was downtrodden, he came so close, but he still couldn't beat Totodile. "You'll beat him Finizen, you just have to keep trying" Ash encouraged, after all, he got to where he is right now by constantly trying.
End of Chapter
Considering that Porygon's evolution never made an official appearance in the anime, I decided to rectify that.
Guest: No I am not giving Ash more shiny pokemon or starters, he already has a grass and water type, and if I just handed him shiny Pokemon left and right, they would lose their value