Hi, FanFiction Members! I'm HollowKU posting the fourth chapter of Pokémon: The Parallel Challenger! Sorry for the delay, although. I've been busy with some stuff and also I had some issues to take care of with my parents. But now I'm ready to continue with the fic. Now, let's get to the fic! Hope you like this chapter!
Pokémon: The Parallel Challeger
Chapter 4: Ash VS. Red – A Fair Fight?
A powerful clash was about to happen. The garden of the famous researcher Prof. Oak would be where this event would take place. Ash's friends were seeing what was about to happen just from a few meters. As for the trainers, they were already in position.
In one side of the field, Ash was looking at Red with such a glare, that his friends believed that this was one of the few times they saw Ash pissed off. On the other side, Red just looked emotionless to Ash while grabbing his cap, as if he didn't care about of his counterpart's glare.
Ash's friends looked both trainers, waiting for one of them to unleash its first Pokémon. Although they all confident that Ash would win, they didn't know anything about Red's battle strategy, and if he was Ash's counterpart, that would mean that his strength was extremely powerful.
"Ok, I will be the referee in this battle!" Brock said as he located himself in the middle of both trainers.
"Alright! Let's do this!" Ash said very confident.
"..." Red remained in silence.
"This battle will be between Ash Ketchum and Red, both trainers from Pallet Town!" Brock said. "Each trainer will use six Pokémon. Both trainers are allowed substitutions. The battle will end when all Pokémon from one side cannot fight anymore." Brock said, while looking at both trainers. "Are you ready?"
"Wait." Red replied with an emotionless voice. Brock got scared just by looking at Red´s eyes. "Other me, I'll only say this once: I take my battles...seriously. I will not be responsible for the condition of your Pokémon once this battle begins. Do you understand?"
Red's words made everyone get nervous. Due to how it sounded, Red was serious about it. He really meant what he just said. Unfortunately, this didn't happen in Ash's case...
"Don't try to intimidate me, Red! I'll show you who's boss here!" Ash said a little arrogant.
"...Very well then." Red said as he grabbed his cap, making his eyes barely visible and raised a Pokéball.
(A/N: Just like his sprite in HGSS.)
A strong pressure could be felt on the air after Red finished talking and take his battle pose. A powerful aura was emanating from the trainer from the other dimension. Although it was not visible, the few trainers who had enough experience to feel the power of other challengers could feel that Red was not a regular trainer.
"Ok! Let's start this!" Ash said while grabbing a Pokéball. "Go, Leavanny!" As Ash threw the Pokéball, the mentioned Pokémon appeared on the field, ready for the battle.
"Leavanny!" The Pokémon said.
"..." Red just stayed silent and did nothing. Suddenly, his Pokéball suddenly opened, revealing the Pokémon he chose.
As the energy started from the Pokéball faded, it revealed a big Pokémon which height and weight were far higher than Ash's Pokémon. It was a Snorlax. However, this Snorlax was different from others that Ash and his friends had seen before. They could see actual muscles in the Pokémon's body, something really weird in Pokémon, especially in a "fat" Pokémon like Snorlax. Also, it could be noticed that Snorlax's teeth were bigger than normal, as well as his claws. However, the most notorious fact was that in Snorlax's belly was an X-shaped scar.
"That Snorlax..." Gary thought while analyzing the Pokémon. "It's nothing I've seen before. Be careful, Ash."
"Ok! Let's get this started!" Ash said as he pointed the Snorlax. "Leavanny, use Energy Ball!" The Pokémon obeyed and started charging the attack.
"Leava...NNY!"
"..." Red just remained silent, and watched as the Pokémon unleashed its attack.
"Wait, he's not going to do anything?!" Dawn asked shocked.
"BOOOOM!" The attack landed on Snorlax. There was smoke everywhere due to the explosion.
"Yes! Direct hit!" Ash yelled in victory.
"Good job, Ash!" Max yelled to his friend.
"Wait!" Gary said while standing up, making everyone gasp. "Ash! Don't let your guard down! This is far from over!"
"What?" Ash said while seeing the fog dissipating, revealing a perfectly healthy Snorlax. "No way! Not even a little scratch?"
"...Blizzard." Red finally took action, ordering his Pokémon to use the powerful ice move.
"Snorlax!" The powerful blizzard was unleashed from the Pokémon's mouth, leading directly to the enemy Pokémon.
"Oh no! Leavanny, dodge!"
It was too late. The attack had already hit the grass Pokémon, slowly freezing and damaging the Pokémon from its large legs to end of its head, completely frozen.
"Oh no, Leavanny!" Ash yelled, worried about his Pokémon. "Come on, try to release yourself!"
"..." It was futile. The grass Pokémon was not responding to the trainer's orders.
"...Jump." As Ash tried to "revive" his Pokémon, Red continued his counterattack, giving orders to his Pokémon, although a little "difficult" to accomplish...
"He's ordering a Snorlax to jump?!" May asked. "That's insane! There's no way a Snorlax can do-"
"Lax!" The Pokémon obeyed and raised himself from the ground, and jumped.
Everyone was astonished as they saw how the Pokémon actually jumped, and really high!
"No...way..." Misty said in shock.
"Red's Snorlax DID jump!" May also said, while remembering something. "He's going really high! He's jumped almost 3 floors from the ground!"
"But why did Red ordered him to do that?" Gary said, as he noticed that Snorlax reached its limit, and started falling down to the ground, heading to a certain point: Leavanny. "That's it! Oh no, this is bad!"
"...Giga Impact." Red ordered his Pokémon.
"LAX!" Snorlax started to be engulfed by an enormous purple energy.
"Oh no! Leavanny, come on! Get out from the ice!" Ash yelled to his Pokémon.
"..." Still no response from the Pokémon, as Snorlax got closer to its target.
"Leavanny!"
"BOOOM!" Snorlax landed directly into the frozen body of Leavanny, destroying the ground where the Pokémon was located, and its surroundings.
"LEAVANNY!" Ash yelled as he approached to where his Pokémon was, only to find the big Snorlax in the way.
"..." Red just looked emotionless as he raised his Pokéball. "Return..."
The big Snorlax returned to the Pokéball, only to reveal that beneath him, was the damaged body of Leavanny.
"Leavanny! Are you alright?" Ash asked to his Pokémon, but he got no response. "Come on! Answer me!"
"Leavanny cannot continue fighting, the victory is for Snorlax!" Brock announced. Then Ash returned Leavanny to its Pokéball and handed it to Brock to help it recover, as he glared at Red.
"YOU! How could you do that to Leavanny?!" Ash asked really pissed off.
"I told you from the beginning that this was going serious." Red replied, while grabbing another Pokéball. "So, shall we continue?"
"You little..." Ash said while making a fist and grabbing his next Pokéball.
"Red is a really powerful trainer. Not only had he managed to make his Snorlax jump to such height, but also used Giga Impact and gravity itself to make such damage to Ash's Leavanny after he froze it with a powerful Blizzard. Ash must be really careful when dealing with him." Gary thought.
"Ok, let's get serious! Go, Krookodile!" Ash yelled as he threw the Pokéball, revealing the ground/dark-type Pokémon.
"Krooko!" The Pokémon yelled as he grabbed his red sunglasses.
"..." The ball from Red's hand suddenly opened like the last one and revealed his second Pokémon.
It was a giant dragon-like Pokémon with a flame at the end of its tail: a Charizard. But just like Snorlax, this Charizard was different from the others: it was bigger than other Charizard. Its eyes were crimson red and just staring at its eyes you could feel real fear. Its most prominent feature was the flame from its tail, which was bigger and the energy flowing from the flame showed how well trained the Pokémon was.
"Ok! Krookodile, use Dig!" Ash ordered his Pokémon.
"Krooko!" The Pokémon opened started digging, making himself beneath the floor and disappeared.
"Fly..." Red said to his Pokémon. Charizard took flight very quickly, leaving a path of dust in his way.
"Ash, you fool! Charizard is immune to ground-type attacks!" Gary yelled.
"I know! But this way I prevented him to do the first move." Ash said while grinning. "Krookodile! Use Rock Slide!"
The Pokémon appeared from underground and unleashed the move. Rocks started appearing in the sky, falling down and heading to Charizard.
"Dodge..." Red ordered. The great skilled Pokémon started dodging the attack, while slowly heading to Krookodile. "Flare Blitz..." Charizard was engulfed by a powerful fire aura heading faster and faster to Ash's Pokémon.
"Krookodile hasn't got this attack perfectly dominated, but I have no choice...this is for Leavanny..." Ash thought, and then pointed at his Pokémon. "Krookodile use Giga Impact!"
Ash's Pokémon was surrounded by a purple aura as it headed to clash with Charizard's move.
"GO FOR IT!" Ash yelled as his Pokémon clashed with Charizard, creating a big explosion in mid-air.
"..." Red just looked at the explosion, waiting for the result of the powerful clash.
"Krookodile!" Ash yelled, waiting for his Pokémon to appear.
Suddenly, a roar was heard and after that, a figure appeared from the smoke, and headed to where Ash was, with scratched all over its body. It was Krookodile.
"Krooko!" The Pokémon said with pride, significantly weak after his encounter with the final form of Charmander.
"Yes!" Ash said while looking at his Pokémon, really proud that it managed to survive the clash and came back still standing.
"Good move..." Red said while looking at Ash's side of the field. However, he grinned after this. "But not enough."
A powerful roar emerged from the middle of the air. Ash and his friends, shocked, looked at the center of the smoke, which dissipated to reveal a perfectly healthy Charizard, who was only a little tired. The Pokémon glared at Krookodile, which was scared to still seeing the Pokémon in perfect conditions.
"I admit that Charizard received more damage than expected from your Giga Impact." Red said, as he pointed at Krookodile. "However, your Pokémon is tired and damaged after such powerful attack."
"Damn it..."
"Charizard..." Red pointed at Krookodile, while looking directly at Ash emotionless. "Blast Burn..."
"Blast Burn?! The ultimate fire type move?!" Max asked, making everyone look at him shocked, except Gary. "I read about it in a book that contained the most powerful attacks from Pokémon. If that attack it's powerful as I read, Krookodile will be pretty damaged!"
"Ash, tell Krookodile to dodge the attack!" May yelled, but was stopped by Gary.
"He perfectly knows that he cannot do that." Gary said while pointing at Krookodile. "He risked everything by ordering Krookodile to do that Giga Impact. Now his Pokémon cannot move since it needs to recharge its energy."
"RAAARW!" Charizard unleashed the powerful fire-type move, burning and destroying everything in its path. It was about time before it hit the ground type Pokémon.
"Krookodile! Use Dig!" Ash yelled to his Pokémon.
"Krooko..." The Pokémon, which was kneeling on the floor, replied, trying to gain enough energy to move.
"It's over..." Red said, while closing his eyes and grabbing his cap.
"Come on, Krookodile!" Ash yelled really sad, knowing he could do nothing but hope that his Pokémon regain energy enough to dodge the attack.
"Krooko!"
"BOOOOOOM!" The attack landed and created a big explosion, making it imposible to see the result of the brutal fire type attack.
"Ugh! Such an incredible force!" Dawn said while covering her eyes with her arm.
"It was a direct hit! Was Krookodile defeated?" May asked.
"I don't know..." Misty replied. "But if not, it must have received a considerable damage...enough to make it return to its Pokéball."
As the smoke dissipated from the battle field, Ash's friends could see a little tired Charizard from Red's side, and a completely destroyed arena in Ash's side. However, there were no signs of Ash's Pokémon.
"KROOKODILE!" Ash yelled while seeing his deserted side of the field.
Ash started digging the zone while searching for his Pokémon with such desperation, that he totally forgot about the battle and his only concern was finding his Pokémon. Red returned his Charizard to his Pokéball and remained emotionless and in silence while he looked how the worried Ash searched for his Pokémon.
After digging for a minute, Ash managed to find a pretty damaged Krookodile (not as damaged as Leavanny), with numerous burn marks across its red body. Krookodile's red glasses had completely burned after the attack, leaving only ashes of what it used to be. Ash was crying seeing his Pokémon in such condition.
"Krookodile cannot continue fighting, the victory is for Charizard..." Brock announced and then rushed to help Ash's Krookodile.
"Krookodile, I'm so sorry..." Ash said with sadness in his eyes.
"Kroo..." Krookodile said while smiling at its trainer, in order to cheer him up.
"Come, Krookodile. Take a rest..." Ash said while grabbing a Pokéball and returned his Pokémon to it. He then gave his Pokéball to Brock.
"It's enough..." Red said while trying to walk away.
"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Ash asked with an angry face.
"Battling you right now it's useless." Red said as he looked directly at Ash with a penetrating look. "I'm obviously not fighting Ash Ketchum right now, but an arrogant fool."
"What?!"
"You heard me. After seeing you for the first time and what I heard from your friends, I thought were a kind person that always helped others and treated his Pokémon with respect."
"..." Ash just stayed quiet listening to what his counterpart had to say.
"I wanted to see that through your battling, but instead I found an immature and cocky trainer, who was blinded by victory and thought that he could beat any trainer easily, without analyzing his opponent first. You are disappointing, other me." Red's face was showing somewhat angry.
"What would you know? I finally managed to beat a Pokémon League after participating in five leagues! I tried hard and finally achieved what I yearned for so long!"
"And that gives you the right to behave like an idiot?" Red asked.
"...!"
"That attitude of yours only leads you to no good. Your Pokémon were defeated that easily not because they weren't bad trained, but due to your cockiness and foolishness. No wonder why you haven't managed to become Champion, after travelling for so long."
"You have no right of telling me this! You just travelled through Kanto and stayed there, training, without exploring, meeting new challenges and meeting new people and Pokémon!"
"That's because my journey ended after travelling through the Kanto region."
"Why would that be possible? WE'RE THE SAME PERSON! If that's true, then the only reason I would stop travelling would be..."
Then something hit in Ash's mind. He started to understand the situation:
Red started his journey with his rival at the same time.
His rival became Champion but was defeated minutes later after obtaining the title.
Red was capable of defeating two of the Pokémon he used to win the Unova League, without any trouble.
He only travelled through the Kanto region.
This four thoughts were hitting Ash's mind constantly...
"I would only stop travelling..." Ash face started to change from angry to a shocked expression. "...After achieving my dream..."
"I think you have realized by now why I have the right of telling you what you're doing wrong..."
"The one who defeated your rival after becoming Champion...it was you!"
Ash's friends, who were looking at the scene right from the beginning, were shocked after hearing this. Although they didn't asked, they didn't know that it was Red himself who defeated his rival, who had the power enough to take down the whole Elite Four.
"He defeated the Champion in his world?" Misty asked shocked.
"It all makes sense!" Gary said while seeing directly at Red. "His way of battle, the strength of his Pokémon: he's the one who took the title from my counterpart in his world!"
"But...if that's true..." May said.
"...That would mean that..." Max said.
"...Red is..." Dawn said while covering her mouth.
"Although I gave it to Lance to continue training by my own, I'm the one who officially holds the title..."
"No way..." Ash's shocked expression could also reflect great sadness, as tears formed in his eyes. "You're...!"
"Yes. I'm the one who holds the title of Champion in the Kanto region in my world. My full title is Kanto Champion Red."
Ash started crying.
So that was it. Hope you liked it! Remember to read and review! If you like to know what's going to happen next, stay tuned! See you in the next chapter!