A Journey
Summary: Ash's daughter has NO interest in Pokemon training. So, Ash, being the enterprising young Master that he is, puts her into the middle of the woods in the night while she's asleep with a pack, no map, a Pokedex, and a VERY angry Pichu.
A/N: Another short chapter this time. So no battle yet, but the immunization is just my attempt to explain canon, such as the fact that Ash can be shocked and set on fire and James can be bitten by a poisonous Victreebell and become immune to it. It's just an extension of the human abilities for becoming less sensitive to the elements, just as Pokemon attacks are extensions of the natural abilities animals possess that help them survive.
…
Peter sized up his opponent, although probably not in the way she wanted him to. It was the hot girl, I remembered from seeing her at the Pokemon raffle. She wore, again, a simple cami, black this time, which her round, firm breasts were bulging against. She obviously expected most of her battlers to be male, and teenaged. Peter didn't even look down her cleavage, which would have been extremely easy. No, he just stared at her, eyes set determinedly, a look I hadn't seen since I saw old pictures of my dad when he was about to battle. He smiled, and gallantly called out his Pokemon first, giving her the advantage. Obviously, he sent out Infernape. Is anybody really surprised? She, on the other hand, sent out instead a strange Pokemon vaguely resembling an Aipom, only it was bigger, and had two prehensile tails instead of one.
"An Ambipom!" Lavender squealed, clutching her hands together in excitement. Pichu, with an uncharacteristic nonchalance, hopped up onto my shoulder to get a better view. Maestro, who was already on my shoulder, squeaked ambiguously. I couldn't tell if he minded or not. Chopin stood up on the bench intended for viewers, his three feet of height still not affording him the best vantage point.
Peter scoffed slightly, assuming that this would be easy, but he wasn't positive. He stared at Infernape, and nodded.
"Bulk Up!" Infernape let out a battle cry, which had no effect on the Ambipom whatsoever, and began flexing his enormous, rippling muscles.
"Infernape is using Bulk Up, an attack which increases his physical attack power and his defense against physical attacks at the same time," offered a boy who looked to be ten, holding an enormous Pokedex which was around the size of a computer, and a blocky gray. Pichu took a look at the electronic, and sniffed it in a way I would have found cute, had the Pokemon in question not been a sadistic maniac.
Sure to its personality, it grinned, and Thundershocked the huge Pokedex, and therefore the small boy. The boy didn't seem to have my size advantage, so he fell on the ground, screaming and writhing. The referee leapt from the battle, hastily signaling a time out.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" The referee shouted at the Pichu. Pichu squeaked angrily, and the boy twitched an arm. Maestro, ears swiveled towards the referee, offered a helpful squeak. Chopin, meanwhile, had run fearfully to the top of the bleachers, and was staring down.
However, thankfully, the boy got up, and dusted himself off, and laughed.
"I was immunized to electricity when I was a baby. Sorry to fool you!"
Immunization to Pokemon attacks as a baby, when it didn't kill the child, was extremely effective. In just a couple of shocks every day for a few weeks, you could be immune to electric attacks, completely immune, for the rest of your life. However, since when it didn't make the child stronger, it killed the child, few people would risk that to their child. It was popular to do Immunization some time ago, starting twenty years before I was born, ending 10 years before I was born, starting when Ash was around 10, but now it was almost unheard of due to the fatality rate.
"You survived Electric immunization?" the Referee asked, also surprised that the boy must have been Immunized only 10 years ago, when it was frowned upon.
"Yes. And Fire immunization for up to about 15 minutes, and all Dragon attacks, all Water attacks, as long as I can still breathe, almost all Grass Attacks, all Psychic, Dark, and Ghost attacks, some Ice, a bit of ground, and most long-range attacks, as well as almost all special attacks. The only kinds I'm NOT immune to are Flying, Fighting, Normal, Rock, and Steel!"
He said this all with the happy aplomb of a small child, not so much bragging as just telling his life story, which he had clearly repeated many times before, to a proverbial wall. Really, for his age, he did have a certain immaturity about him. He had a brilliant white blond hair, which would probably darken with age, and sandy brown eyebrows, comically mismatching to his hair, and one brown eye and one blue. So he generally mismatched. He clutched his enormous, bulky machine to his chest.
The referee stared at him, clearly surprised. I mean, I was shocked too, because that immunizing a kid to one element was dangerous enough, but immunization to almost all of them was downright foolhardy. And somehow, he still seemed reasonably normal, and reasonably alive.
The referee, remembering his duty in the battle, shook his head, and leaped back into the ring.
"Sorry about my Pichu," I offered the kid, who was furiously punching things into his Pokedex.
"No problem," he said, "but your Pichu's Thundershock was about twice as powerful than it should have at its evolution. Now if you don't mind, I have some calculating to do. I need to figure out if I should make this Bet."
"What?" I asked, wondering exactly why a ten year old geek would need a Pokedex machine to decide whether or not to gamble.
"It's how gyms and stuff make money. People gamble on who they believe will win. I get to call my bet first. And if I lose, I have to pay up half my money. If I win, I get the amount I would have to pay up. That way, people won't go saying that they have less money to pay up with, because then they'd get less as well. I'm a Pokemon Better. Now I NEED to decide who to bet on."
The referee grunted to himself, making sure that the Pokemon were still in preliminary fighting condition. Lavender asked the boy, "How do you know which one to bet on?"
Even I could have guessed the answer, and I rolled my eyes.
"Type, level, and general Pokemon stats. I use my Calcudex to help me with that, but I'm starting to memorize it. Now let me work." He snapped, plugging numbers in furiously.
Lavender's brow furrowed in what appeared to be a brain overload.
"Like what stats?" She asked quietly, almost as if she knew this would bother him (Way to go, Lavender!)
He snarled at her forcefully, "Shut. Up!" Showing that he did have the maturity of a small child as well. Finally, he stopped calculating. After a moment of deliberation, he pressed one final button, then sighed.
"You could have waited. I mean stats like how strong their physical and special attacks and defense are, their endurance, and their speed. This one's a pretty even match. Ambipom is 20 levels higher, but Infernape still has the same amount of attack strength. Ambipom has a teeny bit less defense, but is a LOT faster. However, Infernape's fighting attacks have a type advantage. It's a pretty even match. If Infernape's attacks can hit the Ambipom, then it'll be a clear-cut victory. I bet on the Infernape, so I hope it wins."
The hot girl bent over a little bit to shake his hand, showing off her cleavage, which was completely unnecessary and slutty. I frowned in jealousy and annoyance. I hated it more when that whore hit on Peter than when Lavender did. I turned and looked at her, her mouth in an 'o' of wonder and awe at the Pokemon battle between two such powerful Pokemon.
The boy sat, tense, hands gripping the edge of the bleacher like he was holding on for dear life. Pichu humphed, crossed its tiny arms, and turned away. However, I could see its eyes still focused on the battle field out of the corner of its eyes. Even it, in all of its electric savagery was riveted by the battle. Why? This battle game was stupid, violent, coercion, forcing Pokemon to fight… right?
On the other hand, that Infernape, as he glared at the Ambipom, looked like he wanted nothing more than to rip the monkey to shreds. Why was he so aggressive? I mean, was there a reason he hated the monkey? Did he just really WANT to battle?
Either way, the battle was starting, and I couldn't look away, no matter how much I hated it.