AN: Hey guys. Sorry I haven't updated in such a long time. I don't really have an excuse, other than I was busy. But here's the next chapter.
Chapter 3
An eventful series of three weeks later saw Ash in Vermillion City, waiting to face gym leader Lt. Surge. It was a hard and long journey to get to that point, for both Ash's Pokemon and Ash himself, but it was fun, and they were all better off.
After facing Brock, Ash decided that his best course of action would be to stay in Vermillion to train. Originally, Brock wanted to travel with him, as he wanted to explore the Pokemon world, and was looking for someone strong enough to travel with. However, when he found out how frequently Ash would be staying still, he was less enthusiastic. This only reaffirmed Ash's belief that only the best trainers made it through the Pokemon league, and Brock clearly wasn't them. Ash wondered how Brock even became a gym leader.
During the mornings, Ash would work with all three of his Pokemon on strengthening their techniques and making their moves more powerful. Torchic evolved on the third day, pleasing both himself and Ash. Ash knew that Combusken was a powerful Pokemon, and Ash decided to start working on the speed boost ability immediately. He wasn't sure exactly how to do it, but he knew that with enough in-battle experience, Combusken would be skilled enough to pick up the ability. Scyther and Zoura got stronger as well. Ash practiced the strategy he used with Gary again, and Scyther was able to perfect it, leading to a flawless use of rotating Scythes that could easily KO any opponent. Zoura did not learn any new moves, but generally grew stronger. Ash believed that both Scyther and Zoura were close to their evolution point. He needed to evolve Scyther with a metal coat though, as no matter how powerful Scyther was, without a metal coat, Ash wouldn't get a Scizor.
On the fifth day, Ash decided to release his Gyarados, as he felt his Pokemon were up to the challenge. Ash estimated that in terms of raw power, Gyarados was equivalent to Combusken, but all three of his Pokemon had more skill and finesse than his Gyarados. As a result, Zoura was easily able to beat the large monstrous Pokemon, and Gyarados quickly realized that his strength was meaningless compared to Zoura's and Scyther's technique. As a result, Gyarados decided to join Ash and the team willingly, in order to get stronger.
Ash had two fateful encounters during his stay at Pewter. The first was with Lance, arguably the most powerful trainer in the entire world. While there was Cynthia, who might be able to defeat Lance in a few years, and Steven Stone, who at the height of his power, was comparable to Lance, as of now, Lance was the most powerful Pokemon trainer. Ash first saw Lance while dealing with Team Rocket. Lance was on a reconnaissance mission to get information on the Team Rocket headquarters, and was there when Ash was training in the forest. Lance first mistook Ash for a Team Rocket member, and proceeded to thrash him in a Pokemon battle, defeating all four of his Pokemon with just one Dragonite. However, Ash quickly convinced Lance that he wasn't working for Team Rocket, and Lance told him that a Team Rocket base was hidden in the woods. Ash helped the powerful trainer locate the Rocket base, and in a diversionary tactic, battled two Team Rocket grunts in order to let Lance sneak through to the data center. Lance explained that he was on a mission for the G-men, a group of powerful individuals determined to stop organizations such as Team Rocket from stealing Pokemon or doing even worse. He elaborated, saying that he knew Team Rocket was up to something nefarious, worse than anything that anyone else had done before; he just did not know exactly what it was. Lance offered Ash a position on the G-men in the future, as he saw talent in the young trainer, then flew off on his Dragonite, leaving Ash to finish training.
After two weeks, Ash felt confident enough to go to Cerulean, and figured that it was time that he got the Cerulean gym badge. Before he could take his first step out of Pewter, however, he ran into one of the Cerulean gym leaders.
Misty was her name, and she was hot. She had long legs that seemed to be endless, perfect orange colored hair, and a chest - well Ash wouldn't venture there.
It was time to put his womanizing skills that he had acquired after years of watching Gary try and fail with the ladies to the test. While Ash wasn't a vain teenager to say the least, he did believe that he had the looks to land a hot girl like Misty.
"Are you staring at me?" Misty asked, after Ash had been "glancing" for far too long.
"Forgive me, madam," Ash said, taking her hand, lifting it up to his mouth and bestowing upon it a small kiss. "It has simply been far too long since I have seen a woman of your elegance and beauty."
Misty's face grew redder with every word, as she took her hand back and slapped Ash across the face. "What, do you think I'm easy?" she yelled.
"No, no, of course not," Ash replied, trying his best to cover up. Clearly she was agitated for some reason, perhaps it was her time of month? Of course, Ash wasn't stupid enough to tell her that.
"Oh, I know your type. Wannabe master trainers looking for a cheap one-night-stand. You're pathetic," she spat.
"That's not my type at all. Really, if anything, I would be looking more for a relationship than a one night stand," Ash replied.
"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say," Misty sarcastically replied.
"What are you, a misandrist or something? Not all guys are the same." Ash said.
"Oh, trust me, I know that all guys are the same. I've been at this for just two weeks, and already a douchebag tried to lure me into his bed." Misty said.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Ash asked.
What started out as a relationship of mutual hatred ended up in mutual respect. Ash found out that Misty had been around water Pokemon her whole life, something he never would have guessed considering her fiery personality. And Misty found Ash to be more caring and compassionate than most trainers, reaffirming her faith in the male gender. It had turned out that Gary had been the one to hit on Misty back in Viridian, and after getting rejected, attempted to use his fame and power as Red Oak's son to convince her to sleep with him. This really bothered Ash, as Gary was practically raping girls by using his father to get them to sleep with him.
Ash found that Misty's goal was to become a world-class water Pokemon trainer and to make the Cerulean gym live up to its expectations. After finding out he was interested in the gym badges, Misty quickly convinced Ash not to stop at Cerulean, saying that the gym was a waste of time, and instead try battling her himself. Ash ended up winning easily with only his Gyarados against a Staryu and Starmie, giving Misty the impression that she had to work harder. Since Misty wanted to learn from a strong trainer, and she had a great impression of Ash, she suggested that the two travel together. Ash was all for it, he was no pervert but the chance to travel with a hot girl seemed like a great opportunity.
Since Cerulean was now out of the question, Ash decided that it would be best to take a small shortcut and head straight to Vermillion. This meant, of course, a travel through the Diglett Cave, a run down underground passage that lead straight from Pewter to Vermillion, wrapping around Kanto as it did so. Once Ash and Misty had gotten all of their gear together, it was a relatively uneventful passage through the cave straight to Vermillion. Of course, the two did see a lot of Diglett, which provided great training for Scyther, Zoura, and Gyarados. All three Pokemon were able to test out some of their newer moves and combos on the ample supply of willing Diglett.
After the day-long trip they took to Vermillion, Ash and Misty docked at the local Pokemon center to rest before Ash's upcoming battle against Surge. Misty had decided to tag along with Ash and face the gyms herself, thinking that if she wanted her water gym to be the best, she had to make sure that she was better than all of the other leaders.
The next day was Ash's battle with Lt. Surge, the electric gym leader of the city. Ash had been noticing injured Pokemon being brought into the Pokemon center by the dozen, Ratattas, Pidgeys, Spearrows, even Charmanders, and Ash assumed that this was the work of Lt. Surge. He vowed to make the old man pay for what he did, victory or not, this was plain Pokemon cruelty. There was a certain point after which a Pokemon battle became one-sided, and victory was ascertained. At that point, most trainers, including Ash, let up instead of continuing to beat down on the opponent. However, it seemed that Surge was not that forgiving a Pokemon trainer, and smacked his opponents hard after they had already lost. Ash was determined to make the man pay.
He had decided the Pokemon that he was going to use for the battle. Zoura, the perfect Pokemon to humiliate the man, for all he had to do was allow Zoura to take the form of a simple Ratatta or Pidgey.
"Well well well, if it isn't another rat here to give me a longer win-streak," Surge said right as Ash walked into the gym.
Ash decided that the most humiliating way to defeat Surge was to make it seem like he was a complete noob. "You don't stand a chance against my Ratatta," Ash replied, trying to put on an overconfident facade. Truthfully, he was fairly confident against Surge; the man seemed to be good at defeating lower-class trainers, but he was certain that if Gary could pull off a victory over him, Ash definitely could as well.
Surge let out a long guffaw and replied, "Well what do you know, the rat has a rat.
"My Ratatta's stronger than any Pokemon that you could have," Ash replied.
"Really. Let's see then. One on one, my Raichu vs your Ratatta." Surge said.
"Bring it," Ash replied, drawing Zoura's Poke-ball. They had gone over the plan before, and Zoura knew to take the form of a Ratatta before the battle.
It was rather interesting that Zoura could communicate with him in a way that the other Pokemon could not. Zoura could take the form of a human and was able to talk in the same way that humans could thus the two were able to communicate. This was very useful, as Zoura could translate what his other Pokemon were trying to say. Through Zoura, he was able to get a sense of how his other Pokemon felt about him. Combusken, while fiercely independent, was equally loyal to him, and would have his back regardless of power. Gyarados still did not trust him yet, but respected his training and the power of his Pokemon. Scyther respected him as a trainer and trusted him with all his heart. And Zoura had an equally close bond.
"Thunderbolt," Surge shouted, bringing Ash out of his reverie.
"Quick attack into sucker punch," Ash countered, knowing that Zoura was just faster than Raichu, so even a sucker punch ordered that much later would still land first and deal serious damage. While Zoura was usually not a Pokemon that knew Quick Attack, any reasonably fast Pokemon could learn the move with a lot of practice, and Scyther had endless patience to teach Zoura.
Zoura drew in close in order to launch a powerful sucker punch that hit Raichu hard. However, Raichu was cohesive enough to shoot out a weaker electric move, Thunder Wave. While it didn't do much damage, it temporarily paralyzed Zoura, forcing it to slow down.
"What steroids have you been feeding this Ratatta?" Surge asked.
Ash growled. It was time to bring in the big guns. Though Zoura's movement speed was reduced through the paralysis, she could still move quicker than the bulky Raichu if she used her Quick Attack. Since Zoura was now paralyzed, this was going to have to be a battle of small skirmishes, with her darting in and out to damage the opposing Pokemon, rather than one short fight, like Ash was hoping.
"Nasty Plot, then Sucker Punch in, Dark Pulse, and Quick Attack out."
While Raichu was recovering, Zoura channeled her energy, greatly boosting her inner powers, and thus her special attack. Ash had worked with Zoura into using special attack to power her normal attacks as well, thus the stat boost translated over to her Sucker Punch.
As soon as Raichu prepped his next attack, Zoura had flashed right behind him, prepared with a Sucker Punch. The immediate combo with the eventual Quick Attack out wore Raichu down again, and as such, Raichu was unable to prepare a future attack.
"Raichu, Double Team," Surge yelled. Immediately the Raichu split into multiple identical copies, and Ash had no idea which was which. That was okay though, as the moment the real Raichu moved, he would be able to tell. Creating the clones was easy, but it took insane amounts of energy to make them move with you, energy that only the strongest Pokemon had.
"Zoura, Nasty Plot again,"
Zoura channeled again, creating an incredible power source within her, while Raichu seemed content to do nothing and wait; at least, that was what Ash saw. Right when Zoura had just finished channeling, Surge called out "Quick Attack," and Raichu slammed into his Pokemon.
But by now, the paralysis was starting to lose effect, and Zoura was getting faster again. This coupled with her incredibly powerful special attack allowed a quick retaliation Quick Attack, which got her in range for a Dark Pulse. And with that Dark Pulse, Raichu was having a hard time standing, and eventually toppled over. Ash had won his closest battle yet against Surge.
"But, but," Surge repeated, clearly stricken that a Ratatta had beaten his prized Raichu. After the battle, Surge was obligated to battle Misty right after, and while Misty would definitely have an extremely hard time defeating his powerful Raichu, his less powerful Magnetron provided a decent match, and Misty's Starmie eventually overpowered the foe, leading to both taking a gym badge from the war veteran.
Ash decided not to taunt the man who was clearly shocked and disappointed that he had lost two gym battles in a row, and instead just walked out of the gym, content with his third badge. He was well on the way to becoming a master trainer.
AN: So the entire Pewter-Cerulean and Cerulean-Vermillion arcs have been skipped. Does that mean that everything that happens will be skipped as well?
Yes and no. Most of the events from Cerulean-Vermillion will be skipped, including the majority of the team rocket encounters, charmander bulbasaur and squirtle, and a bunch of other stuff. However, I have special plans for AJ, and I will be putting Poketech into the story where I can fit it.