Are you ready for my favourite one-time character? No? Well, that's not my problem. Also, the first part of the chapter is not the greatest, I know, but I needed it.

by lord Martiya

TALE 13: VS CUBONE

Later that day we were on the road for the Pokemon Tech when we saw a huge shadowed object in the middle of the road.

"Wh-what's that?" Ash asked, worried.

"It's a Fire Pokemon with a very HUGE potential." I replied.

Andreas and Ash proceeded to near him, ready to fight or run. Then they saw what exactly was.

"HE'S A CHARMANDER ON A ROCK(1)!" shouted Ash.

"I said that he had potential, not that he was powerful yet." I replied. "Not for my standard. Andreas, why are you staring at me?"

"You joked..." he replied, still shocked.

"You're right. It's the first time that I joked without my sister..."

"I claim!" Ash declared preparing a Pokeball.

Then he throwed the Pokeball. And nothing happened.

"Trained Pokemon." I declared. "A bit strange... Why are you here?"

The Charmander explained that his trainer told him to wait for him there. Looking Charmander's tail flame I was worried for him(2), but in the end we decided to go at a Pokemon Centre nearby and entered just before a storm.

"I hope that Charmander's trainer returned." Ash said.

My attention was caught by a boy with an horrible Aura who was boasting his huge collection of Pokemon with his clique.

"Do you know Damian?" Ash asked me.

"No. Do you?" I replied.

"He began with me(3), but he's a jerk, even more than Gary."

I was about to reply when I heard a disgusting thing: asked by a jerk of his clique, Damian admitted that he abandoned his Charmander, his FIRST POKEMON, on a rock ordering him to wait for him, and laughed that probably he was still there. At that point I released Snyer and sent him to recover Damian's and his clique ID numbers, while Brock ordered him to recover his Pokemon. After Snyer recovered the ID numbers, I intervened.

"Damian Arber, you shall rescue your Pokemon or you shall face consequences. There will be no other call." I ordered.

"You wanna fight?! Accepted!" Damian replied grabbing one of his Pokeballs.

All of his clique grabbed their Pokeballs, and were prepared to start a fight when the local Nurse Joy stepped in to pacify and lecture us about correct Pokemon use. Then I flashed her my G-Man badge.

"They will be punished, all of them." I said. "L- Hey, wait for us!"

I was ordering to go and rescue the Charmander, but Ash departed before I managed to end, followed by Misty before I finished to telling him to wait. And she believed that nobody noticed that she had a crush on Ash... How dense can people be?

However, we managed to take the Charmander to the Pokemon Centre, and he took a liking for Ash. Then, after being saved and cured (he was suffering from malnutrition and severe dehidratation. Yes, even Fire Pokemon need water to live), he went back to the rock, even if he needed to rest for a while.

"You four, continue the journey, I'll have a talk with the Charmander and return." I said.

"But..." Ash began.

"No but."

"Can you really talk to Pokemon?!"

"They can understand me and I can understand them."

With my motorbike I reached the Charmander.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!" I shouted. Sometimes we need to do it.

He replied that he had to return to the rock and wait for his master.

"Listen... Do you know that we humans can register voices and messages?" I asked. When he nodded, I played Damian's voice when he declared what he had in mind for his Charmander. "Look, you don't need to remain faithful to him. He betraied you. What do you want to do?"

After recovering from the shock, he told me that he wanted to join Ash. So I took him on my sidecar and reached Ash. Who was in a hole with Andreas, Misty and Brock, while TR was about to left with Pikachu in a gumball. One Charmander's Flamethrower later, they were running away. And just after Andreas and the others resurfaced thanks to Gaara, Damian appeared, telling that he came back to recover his Charmander.

"You were casually here and saw that Charmander is powerful, that's why you want him back!" Ash accused.

"It was kinda obvious, but you're still right." Antonio added.

"He's my Pokemon, he must obey me!" Damian declared. Then his Pokedex bipped. He controlled, and swore a lot.

"I'm a Pokemon G-Man, and I suspended your licence and legally freed your Charmander." I explained. "Also, your other Pokemon will be cared by the governement until you'll be tried. If you're cleared, you'll have them back. If you're condemned, they'll be freed in a preserve. Now, please resist to the arrest, I'd like to hurt you..."

He was about to try to run, when a Jenny appeared and arrested him. Brock didn't courted him, but there was a reason: he knew that Jenny, she was a bit dangerous and, according to Brock, was willing to do him something that I don't want to repeat if he courted him again while she was busy.

We resumed our journey, and Ash got a Charmander.

The day after, and after walking for a while, we stopped in the fog somewhere near the Pokemon Tech. And Ash and Misty were arguing AGAIN on Misty's bike destruction at the hands of Ash Ketchum's Pikachu. Then, thanks both them, the stress of the Damian encounter and the stress bringed me by the girl we were going to meet, I was pissed off.

"SHUT UP NOW, OR I'LL BORROW MY SISTER'S SWORD COLLECTION AND I'LL USE ON YOU WHERE THE SUN CANNOT STRIKE YOU." I menaced, forcing them to shut up. Then I called for a little order: "Brock, you'll cook us a dish, immediatly. Be free to use those two arguing idiots as you wish."

We remained speechless while Brock produced a table, chairs, flowers, a lot of food, his Official Pokemon Tea Set (the hell?!?!?!), a bottle of Mt. Moon Springwater and various other things from his hammerspace backpack(4), ready to cook crepes and prepare some tea. The only thing he didn't manage to produce from his hammerspace bag was a gas-ring or something like that, so Ash had to search for firewoods.

While Ash was searching and we were recovering from Brock's backpack, I know that a lot of people had things like that, at the time I was keeping my motorbike in MY backpack, but I was shocked for the presence of the table and the absence of the gas-ring, Andreas asked me on how I knew that girl.

"You'll know soon." I replied. "It's so painfMAPPORCA..."

While talking with Andreas I was walking in Ash's direction, and I found myself in Aura-sensing range of the Pokemon Tech walls. Then I heard Ash's shout.

"All of you, come with me before Ash manage to be beated by the Pokemon Tech students." I ordered.

Misty was the faster, but Ash rejected her help before realizing that he was provoking five students.

"Fighting is for cavemen." they declared, luckily for Ash.

"The time changes, but the Tech students are always the same." I commented, looking at them.

They looked at Andreas and me, then they went away.

"Hey! Where are you going, you cowards!" Ash shouted.

"Shut up and thanks that they saw Andreas and me. They're going to call for the Siora." I told him. Then I looked at the only Tech student who remained and I asked: "Do you have problems with the theory part?"

"Yes... How do you know?" he replied.

"We use the treadmill even at Viridian's gym. I'm Enrico Paolucci."

"Joe Roberts... Wait, Paolucci?! Are..."

"Yes, we are."

"What's the treadmill?" Brock asked.

"In Viridian's Gym we uses to make students run on treadmills while quizzing them to 'convince' them to study better. If Siora Giselle(5) decided to use this method on Joe, it's a sign that she cares of you in her sick manner."

"If she cares of him, how she would treat someone she hates?"

"She would search for a manner to have him killed without being blamed. If she could be honored for that, she'll kill the hated in public. And that method really helped you, Joe, didn't it?"

"Well, yes." he confirmed. "I have to thank them..."

"WHAT?!" Andreas, Misty, Ash and Brock shouted.

"Aureliano, Defog." I ordered to my Pokemon, unveiling that we were in the park of the Pokemon Tech. Then I pointed a twenty-years old student and asked: "Joe, in what class is him?"

"Beginner's class, like me." Joe answered, shocking the guys.

"Pokemon Tech is an exclusive school. It has outrageous fees, but to advance you need to be very good. That's why graduates are admitted in every regional Conference without need for badges. And why Giselle has to care of him for using the treadmill."

"But that's an abuse of fellow students! Why professors don't do anything?!" Misty asked.
"They don't even know about, and if they do they pretend not to not have to face her." Joe explained.

"I understand." I replied.

"Well, I don't!" Ash declared. "That's a violation of students' rights, and has to be stopped immediatly if not sooner! I must find her!"

"Here's a picture." Joe said producing a picture of Giselle.

Brock and Ash immediatly started to drool at the picture, for Misty's dismay, while Andreas looked away to not do that.

"Hey! If she's making your life so miserable, why are you carrying her picture around?!" Misty asked to Joe.

"Well, I hate how she treats me, but I like how she looks." Joe admitted.

"Yeah... Not like some other girl who treats you bad and looks even worse..." Ash said while still drooling.

At that point Misty decided to teach Giselle a lesson, and proceeded to the fighting building.

"Oh, damn... We must stop her before Giselle destroy her AND the school!" Joe said.

"Naaa... Giselle won't go SO serious unless really needed." I replied.

Joe proceeded to stop her, and said what he had to not say: that he could defeat Water Pokemons without problem. They challenged, and Misty's Starmie defeated Joe's Weepinbell with a single Water Gun.

"But... Weepinbell is strong against Water Pokemons..." Joe blabbered, stunned by the defeat. Then Giselle decided to appear.

"True, but there's one thing you didn't know: your opponent's from the Cerulean City GYM." she said after appearing with her clique and her servants-bodyguards. "Her Pokemons are much more experienced at battling. You should know that. You're an embarassment to the all school. Even if not as those two guys would be if they were students..."

We all saw Ash and Brock drooling at Giselle. Brock was even producing a camera, but I crushed the camera.

"Aww... Why did you did that?" she asked me.

"I don't like that people like him have pictures of you, and I like even less that you force your photographer to pay you for the pictures." I replied.

"But I'm more beautiful than glamour supermodels, you know. I'm thinking that you're gelous, little brother. You know, I'm the top student of the beginning class of the most exclusive prep-school in the world, Pokemon Tech. It's sad that others aren't blessed with my beauty, my talent, my humble attitude. People call me a star, but... I'm just Giselle(6)."

While the people was staring at me, shocked by the fact that Giselle was my big sister (you know, we have totally different looks and mannerisms), and Antonio was laughing at me while I was deciding if broking the wall with headbutts or not 'cause my sister's performance and the fact that, for a girl intelligent, beautiful and rich like her she WAS and IS humble, she went to Joe and continued to lecture him, finishing with a menace of turning her back on him for good.

"Not so fast!" Misty called. "A true friend won't abandone a friend in need! You could look beautiful, but your beauty is only skin deep!"

Giselle then replied in Candracan, and her main bodyguard, Muley-El-Kadel(7), said: "Siora Giselle is asking if you are gelous of her talents and beauty."

"I'm not gelous! AND WHY SHE'S NOT TALKING DIRECTLY TO ME?!?!?!" Misty replied.

"Siora Giselle doesn't like talking in languages different from Candracan, so she bothers only if the other people is worthy. I only translate."
"WHAT?!?!?! GISELLE!!! I CHALLENGE YOU TO A POKEMON MATCH!!! NOW AND HERE!!!"

"Siora Giselle said that's your funeral."

Giselle called out her Graveler, Flamberga(8), against Misty's Starmie.

"What are you doing?! Rock-Ground Pokemons are weak against Water Pokemons!" Misty exclaimed.

"Siora Giselle said that Type weakness doesn't matter, because her Graveler is too strong." Muley replied for Giselle.

"STARMIE! BUBBLEBEAM!"

Giselle snapped her fingers, and Flamberga moved too fast for Starmie to intercept and Rollouted it out of the window, even shattering its crystal. Then we heard a splash, and Muley said for Giselle: "Directly in the pool, as Siora Giselle wanted. If you want to follow her..."

Giselle guided us to the pool, where she invited Misty to challenge her with every Pokemon she wanted.

"So you could use another Pokemon weak against Water-types?!" Misty replied.

"My sister is an Earth-Type specialist: all of her Pokemon are weak against Water-Types." I informed her. Giselle then decided to lecture Joe again.

"Pokemons are only as strong as the trainers who raises them." she said. "A Pokemon who is weak but has a better trainer can still win, it depends on the trainer. I hope you learned something from it, Joe. A Pokemon's level of training is just an important factor as the type in deciding a match. A first-class Pokemon trainer would calculate that."

"Wait a minute! Pokemon training is not limited to that!" Ash intervened, stopping drooling.

"Are you a Bug-Catcher or something like that from the Forest?"

"I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, and I already collected two badges!"

"Oh, really? Tell me, when you begin your journey?"

"She's gonna do it..." I and Giselle bodyguards declared.

She did it: after discovering that Ash was a trainer for two months and began with Pikachu, she used her encyclopedic knowledge to lecture him about Pikachu's characteristics and making fun of Ash because he didn't know but he still got two badges.

"Stop it! Let's battle!" Ash shouted after a while.

"Siora Giselle said that for your Pikachu this is more than a match." Muley said for Giselle while she summoned a Cubone.

"This is a new Pokemon." I stated.

"Yes, I caught him just a month ago and completed my main team." Giselle admitted. "I called him Gladio(8)."

"Thanks. Andreas, five hundreds that Giselle wins in less than two minutes."
"Ash's strong, she'll need more time." Andreas replied.

"It's a deal."

"Thundershock!" Ash ordered to his Pikachu, both of them pissed of by our bet.

Obviously, when the attack connected it made no damage against the bone and the skin of an Earth-type. Giselle made Gladio reply with Leer, and Pikachu replied starting a staring contest. Pikachu won the contest when Giselle got pissed off and made Gladio Bone Club him in the head, following the attack with a Bonemeraang.

"49 seconds, I won the bet." I stated.

"Trowing that bone is a cheap way to win!" Ash declared while Pikachu was recovering from the attack.

"It's authorized from the Pokemon League." I declared.

Another Bonemeraang stroke Pikachu, to prevent him from returning on his feets.

"Calling it a cheap trick won't help you to win." Giselle said.

"Hold it on, Pikachu! If your opponent's attack is authorized, then it's fighting him back! Give your best shot!" Ash ordered to his Pokemon.

Pikachu ran at Gladio and dodged a Bonemeraang, then turned the skull-helmet of Gladio to block his sight. Then he scrathed, bited and kicked Gladio, who returned his skull at his place just in time to be stroke by his own Boonemerang. Everybody stared, unable to process.

"Ash won..." Andreas declared. He was the first to recover.

"In 1 minute and 48 seconds..." I said. "Draw?"

"Draw."

After recovering from the shock and recalling Gladio, Giselle proceeded to admit that Ash had a point because without all that improvisation she would have won BEFORE the two minutes. Then Jesse & James & Meowth appeared telling their motto. And interrupting when they noticed the only one of Giselle's bodyguards that was NOT aiming at them with military assault rifle F2000 with grenade launcher or shotgun modules mounted was Mana(9), who was aiming at them with a FIM-92 Stinger(10) missile.

"Not shoot them." Giselle ordered. "I will teach them the true terror of Giselle Paolucci. SCHIAVONA(8), FISSURE! But ligth."

Giselle unleashed her mighty Rhydon, who, with a 'light' stomp, opened an enormous fissure in the terrain. TR ran away screaming, while Misty, Ash and Brock understood why she was so scary (wouldn't you be scared by a crazy girl who has a Pokemon able to rearrange the local geography?).

Andreas challenged again Schiavona, but was humiliated again. Then Ash's group and Andreas departed for their respective journeys and Joe decided to imitate them, impressed by Ash's battle against Giselle. While he was packing and I was preparing my motorbike, Giselle went to me.
"Tell me, foolish little brother, is it true that you quitted Team Rocket and you're now fighting daddy?" she asked.

"Yes, and I have a master plan." I replied, and proceeded to explain my plan.

"Oh, my... I must call you mad genious little brother, now." she commented, impressed. "By the way, did you know that I managed to make all my bodyguards faithful only to me?"

"I supposed so." I replied. "You are THE mad genious of our family and the sworn enemy of Giovanni."

"And, tell me, is that Ash Ketchum booked or engaged?"

"No, why? Oh, no, don't tell me..."

"He's cute and in some year he will be beautiful enough to not cut a poor figure near me. He's strong for a beginner and will be even stronger as the time passes. And his ingenuity make up for his ignorance. He's PERFECT for me."

"Beware of Misty, she has a crush on him, even if she won't say it."

"She's not a factor. But... Can I give you a little advice?"

"What advice?"

"Challenge gym leaders. The Cerulean ones are weaklings, but normally leaders are very strong and experienced, you'll become a stronger trainer. When I'll finish here, and I'm planning to pass the exams in two months, I'll do the same, STARTING WITH DADDY! And you?"

"I'll accept your advice."

footnotes

(1)I now that this is a scene from Charmander the Stray Pokemon and that that episode was after The School of Hard Knocks, but I needed this slight alteration.

(2)In anime continuity, a Charmander will die if the flame on his tail stops to burn. The same's for Charizards (in Charizard's Chills Ash's Charizard's tail flame was hit by a watergun and Charizard was immediatly weakened), but it's not confirmed for Charmelions.

(3)Damian is a one-time character, but in the anime he's NOT one of the two unknown trainer who started with Ash and Gary. He can be described with one word: jerk.

(4)Exactly, in The School of Hard Knocks Brock produced from his backpack the following things: a table; three chairs; a table-cloth; napkins; paper napkins; a dish with bread; three plates; a milk-cup; a sugar bowl; flowers in a jar; a clock; a portable coffee-machine; prune juice; the Official Pokemon Tea Set; a bottle of Mt. Moon Springwater (judging from the difficulties in producing that, he had in the bag a lot of those bottles); a whisk; a bowl. Now I'm wondering on why he didn't carried something to produce fire without firewoods...

(5)Giselle, like Joe, is a character of the day in The School of Hard Knocks. She's a bit rude and really prideful, but she's also a very good trainer (top student in the beginner's class) and so beautiful to make Ash literally DROOL at her. In the anime she possesses a Graveler, who humiliated Misty's Starmie, and a Cubone, who was defeated by Ash's Pikachu after a difficult battle. Because I LOVE the character, I'll use some of the phrases she used in the episode.

(6)Believe it or not, Giselle REALLY said this exact phrase from "I'm the top student" to "I'm just Giselle" in her episode.

(7)With only one exception, Giselle's bodyguards and servants (my invention: in the anime she don't have servants other than those five students. At least she don't show them) are named after Emilio Salgari's novels. Muley-El-Kadel, nicknamed Lion of Damascus, is a character from the novels Capitan Tempesta and Il Leone di Damasco.

(8)Giselle's team nicknames are themed after swords used in Italy. Flamberga is Italian for the flammenshwert, an enormous two-handed flame-bladed sword used by the Landaknechts (who fought in Italy) elite troopers to cut enemy pikes and broke the enemy lines. Gladio is Italian for gladius, the collective names of various types of shortswords used by Roman troopers for stabbing, killing every enemy near-istantly, or cutting, literally dismembering the enemies (this in Macedonian Wars gave a psychological edge to the Romans because Macedons were terrified by the dismembered bodies of their falled comrades). The schiavona was a Venetian sword, originally used by the cavalry units of the Schiavoni (Croats and Dalmatians) and then, after proving one of the better cavalry and infantry swords ever produced (and copied), by the entire Venetian armed forces and various foreigners.

(9)She's the bodyguard who's not named after Salgari's characters. She's named and modeled after the beautiful and gun-crazy mercenary woman Mana Tatsumiya, from Negima! Magister Negi Magi, who was seen using an M40A1 semi-automatic carbine (airsoft replica), two 6mm chambered Desert Eagle pistols (airsoft replicas), an Hecate II heavy sniper rifle (this is the explitely stated as NOT an airsoft replica. Yes, she possesses and uses an actual .50 BMG chambered rifle), a PSG1 sniper rifle (it's not stated if it's real or an airsoft replica, but with that Mana can strike a victim with ricocheting rounds), a P90 submachine gun (it's not stated if it's real or an airsoft replica), an original MG42 machine gun (a World War II German light machine gun able to shoot between 900 and 1500 rounds/min. The modern M240, used in present in the same role by US Army, can shoot between 650 and 950 rounds/min) and two P228 pistols (real). She problably possess other and more letal guns for anti-tank and anti-aircraft use, but to this date she was only seen shooting at people.

(10)A personal portable suface-to-air missile, light and relatively easy to operate.