AN: I want to clear up a few things that, judging by reviews, weren't understood from last chapter.
First, no, there was no chapter skipped. I saw a couple reviews commenting that I 'skipped a chapter' or 'missed Cinnabar Gym'. No, I didn't. Ash and Jane went to Cinnabar, they met Blane in his disguise, and even pointed out why he failed in chapter 17, commenting that they just had to go see it in person. The reasons for the fail were already made clear, I didn't feel like repeating the same dialogue again inside the ACTIVE VOLCANO.
Second, Ash was affected by the Alakazam so badly because he already has psychic powers, making him more sensitive to psychic pressure. I thought that was clear from the implications, so I apologize if that wasn't the case.
Third, and this one was my bad, Ash's team aren't the 'baby team' that some reviewers commented. This story has been more focused on the inspections than battling so most battling and training has been done off screen as have certain evolutions. Added to that I was trying to imply that all of Ash's Pokémon have something unusual about them earlier in the story (such as Jane's comment that all of Ash's team were monsters when he just had the three).
AN2: And I hope this chapter satisfied all of you who keep asking for battles.
Spot Inspection
Chapter 19
-Giovanni-
Reclining in his plush office armchair, Giovanni looked through the camera feeds to the security he had near the city entrances. Just as he'd expected, he saw the two 'league Gym Inspectors' entering his city from the southern entrance. His information network had informed him of their inspection circuit shortly after it began and, as such, he'd been more than prepared for this occurrence.
"Come Persian." He smirked, rising from his seat and adjusting his tie, "We have a Gym Battle to perform." And with plenty of time to ensure everything was up to code, and a memo put out to inform his Rockets to NOT come anywhere near Viridian, nothing would give him away.
-Ash-
Feeling both excited and nervous, Ash gave Jane's hand a squeeze as they made their way closer and closer to the Viridian City Gym. It was supposed to be the most challenging Gym in Kanto and, while it was primarily a Ground type Gym, the Gym leader had gotten permission to use other types as well along with their permission to refuse any trainer who hadn't already acquired seven badges.
After seven gyms, and only one who managed to pass their damn inspection, he was too scared to really have any high hopes.
"There it is." Jane nodded to the large clean building, two guards standing outside the door dressed like Centurions for some reason. Maybe the Gym Leader used to be a theatre kid or something.
"Halt." The Guards outside the Gym crossed a pair of halberds, "Seven badges are required to battle at this Gym."
"And I have seven." Ash nodded, pulling out his badge case as the guards pulled out a little device to scan each one, confirming their authenticity and that they weren't coming back as stolen.
"Well done Trainer, you may enter." The guards nodded, handing back his badge case as they allowed him and Jane to enter the immaculate Gym.
"Welcome young man." A man he recognized as the Gym leader was waiting inside, wearing a smart suit with the Viridian City logo on the breast pocket, "I'm Giovanni Razzo, leader of the Viridian City Gym. I assume you're here for an earth badge?"
"That's right." Ash nodded, trying to decide if he's more surprised or more pleased that things hadn't already gone sideways.
"Then let's proceed." Giovanni gave a rich charismatic laugh, "Now, I like to give my opponents a bit of choice in their battles. You can choose two use two or more Pokémon and I'll use the same."
"I'd like a full six on six then." Ash nodded, hoping to give each member of his team a chance to battle.
"Eager, aren't we?" Giovanni gave him an amused smirk before nodding and heading to his spot, as a referee took their place.
"This shall be a full six on six battle!" the referee declared, "Only the challenger is permitted to use substitutions. Trainers, send out your Pokémon!"
"Come forth, Nidoking!" Giovanni wasted no time in sending out the large purple dual poison and ground type. The horned behemoth pounding its chest with a ferocious roar.
"Espeon!" Ash called out his psychic eeveelution, the graceful mon staring impassively at her larger opponent.
"Begin!" the referee called as Ash didn't hesitate.
"Air step!" he called out a split second before Giovanni could order his Nidoking to use earthquake. The ground began shaking but his Espeon was already standing on psychic platforms, mimicking the levitate ability thanks to the move he'd been preparing for battles like this.
"That's new." Giovanni kept calm, only a slight twitching of the man's eyebrow showed any displeasure at the move's failure.
"Power Swap." Ash didn't bother responding, focusing on the battle, "Then Esper Return!" Jane's Umbreon wasn't the only one with the new type Return attack after all.
"Protect!" Giovanni didn't let any surprise slow him down as the Nidoking threw up a barrier, the psychic blast hitting it and, while it pushed Nidoking back several feet, it didn't do any damage. "Now use Megahorn."
"Dodge!" Ash called out as his Espeon started running on air, slipping around the Nidoking's attack like flowing water as it got on the purple mon's back, "And use psychic fangs!" Espeon had an eager gleam in her eyes as she attacked, the psychic energy surrounding her teeth digging into Nidoking as the creature roared and thrashed but couldn't get Espeon off. The smaller psychic mon had an unparalleled control over their psychic powers and was easily using them to cling to Nidoking's back where she couldn't be reached while still attacking. Any attempt at an area style energy attack was easily avoided by the speed at which Espeon could move.
"Enough!" Giovanni pulled out a pokeball, "Nidoking, return." The large purple mon, barely conscious, returned to their ball "I must say young man, I'm impressed. I'll have to prepare in case anyone uses a strategy like that against me in the future. There was no real way for Nidoking to win once your Espeon got back there."
"The Gym leader has withdrawn their Pokémon, the round goes to the challenger!" the referee declared as Ash nodded and let Espeon run back over, staying out of her ball to watch the upcoming matches "Trainers, send out your second Pokémon!"
"Rhyperior!" Giovanni sent out yet another massive ground type while Ash smirked, ready to change up his strategy.
"Pikachu, you're up buddy." Ash smirked as both Giovanni and the Referee confused.
"Um…begin?" the baffled ref called as Giovanni was still processing.
"Thunder, full power!" Ash ordered, battle junky grin wide as Pikachu let loose with his tremendous power levels. He wasn't sure how the hell Pikachu could do it but, as he'd seen in more than one battle by this point, the little electric mouse was strong enough to even overcome ground type electric immunity.
"Rhyperior, Drill Run!" Giovanni snapped out of his shock and worked to regain the upper hand.
"Quick attack to stay out of range, keep blasting away!" Ash countered.
"Pika!" Pikachu gave an eager grin, blitzing around the arena while blasting the slower Rhyperior with lighting, the drill pokemon's weak special defense soon having it crash to the ground unconscious.
"Rhyperior is unable to battle, Pikachu is the winner!" a shell-shocked referee declared as Pikachu cheered and ran back over to sit beside Espeon.
"Garchomp!" Giovanni had his eyes narrowed as Ash smirked back and sent out Kingdra.
"Glacial torrent!" Ash ordered out yet another original move. He was starting to notice that Giovanni seemed to not take surprises well so his strategy was to keep going had and fast as he could. The attack he'd ordered was another new one, combining hydro pump with icy wind. The rapidly freezing water hit the four times weak dragon like a freight train as the Garchomp powered through the attack, showing its status as a pseudo legendary and the extent of its training.
"Draco Meteor!" Giovanni roared out, swiping a hand through the air as the pseudo legendary gave out a mighty cry, releasing the massive draconic attack.
"Frustrate." Ash called out the combo name he'd come up with, Kingdra using endure followed by rest. The berry he'd given the mon beforehand waking them right back up at full health thanks to the psychic move. And now Garchomp's power was dropped significantly.
"Glacial barrage again!" Ash ordered, this time the move knocking the ground dragon out of the ring and out of consciousness.
"Persian!" Giovanni sent out a shiny feline, the cat looking sleek and powerful.
"Scyther." Ash brought out his fastest teammate, the bug type having chosen to not evolve to keep from losing that speed. The second the signal to begin was given, he had Scyther begin using swords dance, agility, and tailwind.
"Power gem!" Giovanni ordered, trying to use a move that would at least be four times effective.
"Parry!" Ash grinned, his secondary starter showing the training he'd been putting into his base training, using the sword arms Scyther's species were known for as proper swords, deflecting away the strikes like a master samurai. Claw met blade again and again as the Persian put up more of a fight than the Garchomp.
Scyther parried away a slash.
Persian leapt aside to dodge an X-Scissor.
Scyther avoided a Body Slam using Substitute.
But in the end, Persian failed to dodge a close combat that sent it slamming hard into the ground, Scyther's continual stat boosting moves ensuring the one attack that landed was the only one that needed to land.
"I have to say, you pushed me further than anyone has in years." Giovanni frowned as he returned his Persian, "But this is far from over. Let's see how you face against my original Pokémon. Charizard!"
"What a coincidence." Ash grinned as he tossed out his fifth Pokémon "I have one too." Ash's own Charizard let out a prideful roar, determined to show the power it held.
"Flamethrower!" the two yelled in tandem as the Charizard's let loose the fiery torrents, one from a maw old and scarred, another from one young and eager. The flames pushed back and forth, neither having clear advantage until Ash smirked, an expression he had a feeling Giovanni was starting to hate.
"Now, keep up the flamethrower and add dragon breath!" Ash called out, the volatile gas of dragon breath erupting from the existing flamethrower into a torrent of purple and yellow fire that overpowered Giovanni's Charizard's flame.
"Keep pressing onward!" Ash ordered as his Charizard kept up the seemingly endless stream of dragon's fire that they'd trained hard to be able to use safely.
"Copy that combination!" Giovanni ordered as his own Charizard did its best but was clearly unused to using two moves at once, especially such volatile ones as that, damaging itself with recoil as the move quickly sputtered out.
"Use that opening for a rockslide!" Ash ordered, noting Giovanni's Charizard struggling to recover from the daze of the recoil.
"The Gym Leader's Charizard is unable to battle! The challenger is the winner!" the referee was stunned at his own words as Giovanni recalled the defeated fire starter.
"Well, I must admit I hadn't expected you to do this well." Giovanni admitted before his gaze hardened, "That said, I do have one last Pokémon. A powerful one that I recently discovered. Sadly, with no regional professor available at the moment it's been kept mostly under wraps." With a snap of the man's fingers, a metal door raised up revealing a tall humanoid Pokémon which floated over. The clearly psychic Pokémon was covered in armor and that, plus the dramatic entrance, only further reinforced Ash's earlier thoughts of Giovanni being a grown up theatre kid.
The instant the referee gave the signal to begin, the opposing psychic type held up a hand, a purple glow appearing around slaking.
"Use Thief and hold it." Ash ordered, having trained all his Pokémon to do be able to hold a dark type move like thief so they could escape psychic holds, a trick he and Jane had made sure the various Jennies had learned.
"Impossible." Giovanni gaped as Slaking shattered the psychic hold, the armored Pokémon clearly thinking the same as it staggered back.
"Return!" Ash roared, his slaking channeling the friendship fueled attack into a devastating punch that the unnamed psychic type dodged, a crater appearing where it was.
"Wait…truant should have…" Giovanni trailed off, starting to realize that Ash's Pokémon weren't exactly 'normal'.
"Oh, he doesn't have truant." Ash grinned, "He has huge power!" the psychic type they were fighting didn't enjoy the commentary, forming a black sphere of crackling energy, "Sucker Punch!" Ash had no qualms at taking full advantage of the forming attack to land an unavoidable blow, the punch cracking apart the strange helmet on the psychic Pokémon and rendering it unconscious.
"The Gym Leader's last Pokémon is unable to battle, the challenger is the winner!"
-Giovanni-
Resisting the urge to shake his head, Giovanni continued to show the two inspectors around his gym. After the boy's Slaking had defeated Mewtwo of all Pokémon, they'd revealed their identity as inspectors and begun looking about his Gym Facility. Given his preparations, everything was in perfect condition.
"I have to say, I'm impressed." The girl was smiling at him in utter relief, "After all the…horrible inspections we had before this I'm so glad to finally have another Gym prove they're worthy of the position." The thousand yard stare on the two's face brokered several questions.
Before he could ask, or even begin trying to figure out how to recruit them for his Team given their power, the front door to his Gym burst open.
"Boss!" the three most useless members of his organization apparently didn't notice the League Inspectors standing right there, nor did they register to not call him boss in public, or that they shouldn't be anywhere near Viridian "Those twerps with da strong Pokémon are in town! We need resources…to…get…uh oh." The three finally spotted the inspectors who had their teams out in an instant.
All his effort to get the Gym ready, his foresight to ensure that the Rockets were supposed to not be anywhere near his Gym, even the training to block his mind from psychic reading. All of it wasted.
"Is there any chance you can ensure that I share their cell?" He grit out as the girl slapped cuffs on his wrists, a horde of Jennies already surrounding his Gym.
AN: Yeah, Giovanni is a friggin Mafia Don posing as a Gym leader, that's not 'acceptable' and would result in a failure. If the Canon situation had occurred Ash would have figured it out thanks to Jessie and James being left in charge but here, I changed things up a bit. There's no way Giovanni wouldn't have found out about the inspections and he'd be prepared, thus not leaving Jessie and James in charge. That said, it's also Canon that those three idiots don't read Team Rocket Memos. I can think of a few instances where they interfered with other Team Rocket jobs just because they didn't bother reading the Memos to find out what they should avoid. A good example being Butch and Cassidy's fake breeding center.
Thus, we get this. A much more fun way to have him fail while still letting you lot get a Gym battle.
AN2: For those wondering about Slaking beating Mewtwo my thoughts were that this Slaking has huge power so his base attack stat is 320 and he lacks truant. On top of that I already established while battling Sabrina that using a dark move like thief can break a psychic hold and we saw that early on, that's all Mewtwo really knew how to do. Mewtwo was powerful but knew next to no attacks given how young he was.