Chapter 8

"Again." A powerful bolt of electricity raced in front of Ash Ketchum as he instructed his pokemon in battle. Luxio was currently holding his shock wave onto Pidgeotto to help with the pokemon's endurance. Ash watched as his flying pokemon stood strong but was cringing at the same time.

Keep holding it." The flying type's eyes hardened with determination and continued holding until finally Ash called off the attack. Pidgeotto sagged in relief and was breathing heavily.

The pallet town trainer clicked his tongue before thinking a moment, "That was better. We will continue that tomorrow. Go take a break and then join the others for move training." His two pokemon nodded and moved away from their master.

Ash leaned against the tree he was by and let his mind float off as he let his team rest. For the past two weeks, he had spent an enormous amount of time training his team in an attempt to make them better than they already were. Misty had joined him at first but the redhead had later decided to go and work on her own.

This surprised Ash and when he questioned his girlfriend about it she had a very reasonable answer, "Truthfully I want to try and work with my team alone. I can't uphold the title of gym leader properly if I rely on my boyfriend to help in my training." Agreeing with this, the young couple decided to meet back in vermillion city after a certain amount of time to battle each other and determine if they were ready to move on.

Ash turned his head and cracked his neck before letting his mind continue to evaluate the progress he had made. His three starter pokemon were doing great as usual. They worked together all the time and were easily the leaders of the group. Each of them had different strengths and weaknesses that they worked through with Ash's help. Ivysaur, like all of his species, was built to take a massive amount of hits while being able to fire back with a decent amount of attack power. This left him more vulnerable to speed and longer charge times for attacks. So with the help of Charmeleon, who was easily the fastest member of the three, the grass kanto starter had taken to running every day and dodging attacked in order to work on his agility. As for the charge time of attacks, that was simple enough to overcome by constant practice. Charmeleon was the quickest of the three and had a greatest amount of power behind him but this left his defensive stats at the bottom. To fix this, Ash had Charmeleon take ice, water, and electric attacks to help build up a resistance. The water was self-explanatory but the ice and electric needed some details. Electric was so that upon his evolution into Charizard, he would be familiar with the effects the element had and he would be better resisted to its sometimes crippling power. Ice was the trickiest. As an element, ice was easy to overcome with fire, fighting, steel, or ground but the element itself was brutal. You take the strongest fire type and put it in a blizzard and it will suffer eventually. Even if against something with a resistance to it, a well-trained ice type pokemon could use its powers to cripple its opponent with a few well-placed hits.

At first, Charmeleon was rather grumpy to be taking fire from water constantly, a task that Wartortle found hilarious, but after realizing that he could one up his friendly rival he threw himself into the resistance training full heartedly….even to the point of trying to dive into a nearby lake. Wartortle's training was bases on getting his power up. The defense of the Squirtle family was well known, especially when they evolved into a Blastoise, but this came at the price of power and speed. Ash knew that he could increase his pokemon's speed but in truth it wouldn't do much in the long run. Blastoise was such a massive pokemon that even at his fastest he would just be able to dodge an attack. Instead, Ash channeled the energy of training into maximizing his already massive amount of defense and increasing his attack power. Luxio was next and overall he was a well balanced team member that had nothing major to improve on.

So, Ash simply worked on capitalizing on Luxio's already well rounded stats, as well as trying to learn the three elemental fang moves. Spearow, Pidgeotto, Butterfree, and Scyther were all in the same boat as for training. Scyther had the greatest level of attack power of the four but they all had a large amount of weaknesses due to typing and body build. So instead of simply having them take attack after attack, Ash utilized the vests he had gotten from A.J. and had his pokemon do physical exercises daily in order to build their muscle mass and natural body strength. This would help them be more resistant against powerful physically based pokemon and attacks. Once this was achieved, Ash would be able to then continue and grow on the momentum by helping them becoming stronger against their weaknesses.

Ash's Kadabra was still a work in progress. The psychic pokemon was still attacking the members of the team and trying to attack Ash. Not being one to release pokemon, Ash simply continued to try and work with the pokemon but at the moment it consisted of letting the psychic type simply be outside of his pokeball. Kadabra usually leaned against a tree and used his powers to bring berries to him without having to do much work. It was obvious to Ash that the pokemon was very arrogant and prideful of his typing…something would need to be done to take him down a notch.

Next in Ash's line up came his two power pokemon in the forms of Nidoking and Gyarados. Both of them had insane attack strength that came with their species but this left their other stats to suffer. Nidoking lacked speed and defense against special based attacks, so Ash simply had the powerful poison type work on taking ice and water attacks. Gyarados worked on building a strong resistance against electric type moves.

The final three members, Eevee, Kabuto, and Cranidos, simply worked with their master to continue the very basics of battling. Ash hoped that with this continued training, that the three pokemon would be ready for constant conflict around the time he would be at the Safari Zone.

Finally breaking himself from his thoughts, Ash walked over to his camp and put some wood on the fire before turning back to his team. His next goal was to work on moves with his pokemon. While he had ordered several TMs he still wouldn't be able to access them until he was done training. He also didn't want to have the issue of being a trainer that didn't teach his pokemon a variety of moves. Many trainers simply stick with the basic move set and that means lots of one elemental moves, this can leave a trainer in a very dangerous situation during a battle.

This of course brought into consideration another item of consideration and that was which pokemon to capture. To become a Pokemon Master, a trainer had to capture every single species of at least one region, fully evolve them, and have them ready to participate in Champion level battles. Seeing that he started in the Kanto Region it would make sense to go with that but truthfully he wouldn't make that call until he was ready to take that step. The Pallet Town native looked at his pokemon as they stood ready to receive Ash's orders. He smiled and cracked his knuckles, "Let's get to work."

The doors to Lt. Surges' gym flew open, causing the gym leader and his trainers to look over in shock at the sight of Ash standing there with Misty. The young man had a cold expression on his face and his hands were formed into a fist. Surge chuckled, "Well look who it is. Come back for a second round of butt kicking baby?"

Ash simply walked over to the challenger's side of the field and pulled a pokeball from his belt. Surge shook his head, "Alright baby let's get this over with, Raichu let's get to work!" From Surge's pokeball came his electric mouse whom let a battle cry go along with several bolts of electricity.

Ash enlarged his pokeball and tossed it, "End this!" From the ball burst forth Nidoking in all his glory. The drill pokemon roared powerfully and shook the stadium with his display of strength. Raichu visibly gulped at seeing his next opponent…clearly not use to fighting fully evolved ones.

Surge kept his composure, "Well it seems that you upgraded kid. Good thing you did to." Ash spoke in a cold tone, "I didn't upgrade. Ivysaur is more than capable of defeating you now…this is simply payback, Nidoking earthquake!" The giant roared and slammed his feet and tail down upon the floor and seconds later, the gym floor erupted in cracks as the powerful move rushed at Raichu.

Surge gapped at the power and quickly called out to his pokemon, "Raichu get out of there quick!"

Ash's glare intensified, "Intercept him." The powerful poison type roared and swung his tail around just as Raichu tried to dodge and slammed him into the wall. "Hyper Beam!" A large orb of white energy formed in front of his fanged jaws before launching and exploding upon impact. Large chunks of rock and wall debris flew all around the gym as a massive hole appeared.

Surge was speechless as he finally saw pokemon on the ground clearly unconscious. "Raichu?" Nidoking roared out in victory before walking over to Ash. He patted the massive beast upon the shoulder, "Well done." Ash looked at Lt. Surge, "I don't take kindly to people disrespecting my pokemon or my abilities as a trainer."

The electric type gym leader returned his pokemon and ran his hand over his head as he seemed to process something. He walked over to Ash and Misty and handed a small badge to Ash. "Here you go Ash, this is the thunder badge and is proof of your victory here at the gym." He went silent for a moment before speaking up, "Ash I also want to thank you for that defeat. I have been a little cocky as of late." The teen nodded slightly and Surge felt that he was still a little hostile.

The man thought a moment before snapping his fingers, "Are you two going to be in the area for a while?"

Ash nodded, "I planned to stay at the center for the next day to let my team recover from our training."

The gym leader smiled brighter, "Great, I have something for you but I have to make sure everything is in order first. I will see you in a little while."

Ash didn't respond and simply walked out of the building and walked to the pokemon center. Upon arriving, Ash and Misty both handed their pokemon to Nurse Joy who smiled as she took them, "I'm glad you two are still in the area, Misty, your sisters called for you a little while ago."

The redhead groaned and nodded, "Thanks Nurse Joy."

Ash looked at Misty as they walked over to the video phone, "What do you think they want?"

Misty shrugged, "Probably forgot how to do something important…like breath." Misty punched in the number for the Cerulean Gym and waited a few seconds before her sister Lily appeared on the screen, "Like, how's it going little sister?"

Misty frowned, "Its going fine Lily."

Her sister lost her smile when she saw how Misty was acting, "Chill out sis, I was actually asking how your journey has been going."

Misty instantly felt bad and changed her attitude, "Sorry Lily. It's been going very well. I have learned a lot since Ash and I left and have added several pokemon to my team. I now have a Poliwhirl, Shellder, Magikarp, Squirtle, and a fully evolved Tentacruel."

Lily smiled widely, "That's awesome Misty. I can't believe you have a Tentacruel already. You have always wanted one." The redhead smiled softly at her sister. Lily was the one of the three that tried to take time and spend it with her.

"So what did you want me to call for?" Lily took a deep breath, "You remember how we entered that beauty competition a while back?" When her sister slowly nodded she continued, "Well we got a reply and we are to go and take part in the finals in the Orange Islands."

Misty froze up for a moment before sighing, "And you need me to come and watch the gym while you are gone."

Lily sadly nodded, "I know this journey means the world to you but this is a big deal for our family. Think of the money and publicity it will bring in." Misty had to agree with her sister. While she didn't like to admit it, times were tough and if her sisters won the competition they could finally start to do some repairs and build an additional pool for the water ballets they had wanted to do. "How long?"

Lily thought for a moment, "At least a month."

Ash took this moment to weigh in, "That isn't that bad Misty." His girlfriend looked to him, "Look at it this way, this is a great chance for you to prove to the league that you have what it takes. With your sisters on their trip they won't be around so everyone will know that it is just you doing it. Your team is more than capable of fending off some of the more powerful trainers out there and when they come back you can join me on the rest of the journey."

Misty processed the words Ash had just spoken for several moments before looking at her sister, "Alright Lily I will do it."

Lily smiled widely, "Thank you so much Misty. This means the world to us. We will see you in a couple days alright?" Misty nodded slowly before shutting off the phone."

The following morning, Ash and Misty stood at the edge of Vermillion City. The road towards Cerulean seemed to stretch on and on before them and caused a sense of foreboding. Ash sighed and ran his hand over his neck, "Well, I guess this is it Misty."

She turned to him and nodded. "I guess." Ash mentally groaned at the tension in the air before pulling her to him and hugging her tightly. "I'm going to miss you."

She smiled into his embrace and mumbled, "I'm going to miss you too." They pulled back and gave each other a very gentle kiss, "Don't harass any of the girls out there too much."

Ash chuckled and looked down to her belt, "Take care of her will you?"

Misty smiled again and gently tapped the pokeball, "Don't worry, Kabuto will be right at home with me…are you sure that this is alright?"

Ash nodded, "When I spoke to her about it last night she seemed ecstatic. She has a lot of potential but doesn't seem to be as adapt to my training style as the others. I figured she would be better suited for a future water master." Ash winked at the last part which caused Misty to blush. "I expect you to keep in contact Mr. Ketchum."

Ash smiled, "You can count on it Misty."

The redhead sighed and turned to the road, "Good luck with your battles." The two hugged once more before Misty started to walk away, turning back to wave at Ash before continuing down her path. Ash watched her go and thought about the previous night when they had talked about their young relationship. They liked each other well enough but hadn't really gotten a chance to develop their relationship with all the training they did. The two decided to simply remain friends for the time being and if after their travels were done and they wanted to continue then they would pick back up where they left off.

Ash smiled to himself as he walked back into the pokemon center and sat down to plan his next step. The closest gym from here was the Saffron City Gym, but truthfully, Ash wasn't about to go and take this one on. Sabrina was a very powerful gym leader and her mastery over psychic pokemon was world renown. The next option would be to go past Saffron and into Celadon City where Erika and her grass type pokemon resided. Regardless of where he went, he wanted to spend more time training. Spearow was close to evolving and he really wanted to try and get through to Kadabra. His thoughts were broken when the doors to the center opened and Lt. Surge walked in and looked around.

The giant man smiled upon finding Ash and walked over. "Glad I found you Ash. Here, I wanted to give you this as a thank you."

He handed Ash a pass that caused the teen's eyes to widen, "This is a pass for the battle cruise that is going to be taking place on the S.S. Anne. You know how much these tickets are worth?" Surge nodded, "I'm well aware of that Ash. Here is the thing, I don't like being away from Vermillion City let alone being on the ocean. I'm a man of the land and really don't find being around a bunch of high class people. I figured that you would get more out of this than I would. I can't tell you much, but just know that the winner of the competition gets quite the prize."

Ash thought for a moment before smiling, "Thanks Surge. I'll make sure to make you proud." The man nodded his approval and turned to leave.

Ash thought about his team and what could accomplish in the competition. This would be the first major test that he and his team would have outside of gyms and random trainers. He also seemed to recall that there was a swap meet that went on during the cruise that could potentially lead to new team members. The downside was that it would cause one of his current ones to leave. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Ash got up and walked over to the pokemart to buy some supplies before going to the ship. He also needed to check up on the status of his TM's that he had ordered. Ash quickly picked up the necessary potions, food, and vitamins for his friends before walking to the counter, "Is there a package for Ash Ketchum?"

The man at the counter looked at him for a moment before nodding, "Yes there is, it just arrived this morning."

Ash smiled and quickly paid for his items before walking out of the mart. A fifteen minute walk found him at the docks of the S.S. Anne and handing the pass to a dock assistant, "Your room is 104 and the events will be listed on a chart in your room."

Ash nodded and walked out up the ramp and slowly found his way to his room. It took longer than he would have liked since the ship was filling with its passengers but he would deal with it. Many people had pokemon out that could be carried such as Pikachu, Eevee, Nidoran and even a Magby. Ash thought about having Eevee out but since she was still so shy around people he wasn't sure that was wise. This only left Spearow and considering his love of battle, he would most likely attack anything he saw as a threat.

Finally arriving at his room, Ash opened the door had to stop himself from making a scene at the size of the room. He simply shook his head in amusement and put it in the back of his mind to thank Surge. The room was the size of a small apartment and had everything from a living room, bedroom, master bathroom, and even a kitchen with a bar. Ash quickly looked at the schedule of events and saw that the competition was going to be later that evening, which gave him a chance to get his things in order. Ash pulled three pokeballs from his belt and released his three starters. Ivysaur, Charmeleon, and Wartortle all stretched out before tackling their trainer in a group hug.

Ash laughed and hugged them back before pushing them off, "Alright guys, we are going to enter a competition and we are going to win it." His friends grunted in response. "First though I want to make sure you guys have a move set that can counter just about anything. So, Charmeleon, you have the widest range of the three of you so far."

The fire type puffed his chest out at this, "But that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement." Charmeleon fell to the ground anime style which caused Wartortle and Ivysaur to laugh. "I have several TM's that I bought to use on you guys. Ivysaur I'm going to have you learn Protect and Sludge Bomb. This will give you a better chance defensively as well as a different elemental move in your pool." The grass pokemon nodded in agreement, "Charmeleon, you will be getting shadow claw and brick break. Finally Wartortle will be getting brick break and ice beam." The three starters smiled at this before they were quickly returned to their pokeballs.

Ash took the next five minutes to place his friends in the center of the TM disc and activate it. The pokeball would glow the color of the move typing as the information was implanted into their minds. When he was finally done he chose his friends and brought them out to the balcony that his room had. "Ok, I want each of you to show me your moves."

Ivysaur went first as he gathered energy in his flower before firing off a moderate sized orb of toxic sludge. It flew off the ship and into the ocean below. Next, he called out his name as a green shield snapped into place and held for a few seconds before slowly disappearing. Ash nodded his approval and looked to Charmeleon. The fire type roared and slashed his clawed hands several times before they took on a purple energy that left a trail behind it. Next, he raised his arm and brought it down hard on the railing of the balcony…which quickly dented from the force of the attack. Ash groaned at this before Wartortle strutted up and took a deep breath. He breathed out and fired a stream of frozen energy that arched into three different bolts of lights leaving vapor behind in the warm weather. He smiled before copying Charmeleon and brought his fist down on the railing.

The group of four continued the short practice in making sure that the moves were perfected before Ash decided to take a couple of hours to rest. His three starters curled up next to him on the bed and quickly fell asleep. Ash smiled at them and chuckled as he moved Charmeleon's tail and let it hang over the side of the bed before letting himself fall into a deep sleep.

Several hours later found Ash standing with a group of thirty two people in the makeshift battle arena. The competition was first come first serve and Ash had made sure he was by the sign up an hour early. Thankfully he had been one of the first ten to sign up and was now waiting for his opponent's number. Looking at the screen he found himself against a young brunette that he instantly recognized…Giselle from the pokemon academy. Ash groaned at their previous encounter but shook his head and went to the sidelines and waited for his turn.

When it finally came he stood at the field and adapted his stern battle face before waiting for Giselle to make her move. The girl saw him and glared, "Well I see you managed to get on the cruise. Where is that little girlfriend of yours?"

Ash casually shrugged, "Misty is running her gym right now and for the record I got on here by personal invite of Lt. Surge."

Giselle growled and pulled a pokeball, "This is for the last time we fought, Gloom I choose you!" From her ball appeared a medium sized red plant like pokemon with a lazy expression and a small amount of drool by its mouth.

Ash smirked and selected his pokemon, "Charmeleon I need your assistance!" The fire type appeared and launched a flamethrower into the air before grinning at his opponent. Giselle gulped at the display of power before making her move, "Gloom hit him with a petal dance!"

Ash rolled his eyes at the mistake. True petal dance was a powerful move but after two or three rounds of attacking it left the user confused and a danger to itself. "Burn them down with flamethrower and then channel it into a dragon rage!" A powerful stream of flames rushed from the fire type's maw and incinerated the pink flower petals before flying over Gloom. Seconds later the stream turned blue and formed into an orb before detonating with a massive explosion that sent smoke all over the field. The smoke cleared quickly thanks to the ocean winds to reveal Gloom on her back with swirls in her eyes.

"Gloom is unable to battle, this round goes to Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town!" Ash nodded his approval and returned Charmeleon before walking to the sidelines to wait for the next match.

And here it is everyone, the next chapter of Starting off Right.

For the record I will be using Generation Six so you can suggest pokemon from that region. So keep sending in ideas about pokemon you think Ash should get and a reason behind it. Also, if you'd like to have an OC for the Pokemon League send it to me.

As Always, send in ideas and reviews.

KingFatMan25

Ash's Team

Ivysaur: Tackle, Protect, Leech Seed, Sludge Bomb, Magical Leaf, Razor Leaf, Energy Ball

Charmeleon: Scratch, Shadow Claw, Flamethrower, Brick Break, Dragon Rage, Metal Claw, Protect, Flare Blitz

Wartortle: Tackle, Brick Break, Ice Beam, Water Gun, Aqua Jet, Protect, Water Pulse, Surf

Luxio: Tackle, Growl, Charge, Spark, Night Slash, Shock Wave, Protect, Iron Tail

Spearow: Peck, Leer, Aerial Ace, Agility, Fury Attack, Protect, Mirror Move

Gyarados: Dragon Rage, Tackle, Hyper Beam, Water Pulse, Bite, Flamethrower

Butterfree: Confusion, String Shot, Sleep Powder, Gust, Poison Powder, Psybeam, Silver Wind

Pidgeotto: Quick Attack, Twister, Gust, Tackle, Sand Attack, Steel Wing

Scyther: Quick Attack, Pursuit, Wing Attack, Bug Buzz, Slash

Kadabra: Psycho Cut, Confusion, Psybeam, Teleport, Disable

Nidoking: Horn Attack, Hyper Beam, Take Down, Earthquake, Mega Punch, Mega Kick

Eevee: Tackle, growl, tail whip, quick attack, shadow ball, dig

Cranidos: Headbutt, Leer, Focus Energy, Pursuit, Take Down