Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon at all.

Ash had paused for a moment while Gary had left the building in order to go get the battlefield ready for the battle; was he really getting into the swing of things so quickly? He didn't really want to start with Gary at all seeing as he hadn't done anything wrong, but maybe it would be a good bit of practice.
Shrugging his shoulders, he went outside where there was a slight breeze in the air, but it was nothing for Ash; he had dealt with much worse weather conditions than this before, so he could deal with this.
Gary was leaning on a metal gate as he waited for Red to make his way out of the Pokecenter, and as soon as he noticed him he waved his arm in the air to grab his attention before walking into the closed off area.

The actual area wasn't that impressive, with the floor being made off gravel, with the odd bump in the floor, presumably from all the battles that must have taken place here in the past. Being the challenger, Gary made his way over to the other side of the field before giving Red a good look over, in order to assess what he would be like in a battle.

Over the past couple of years since he had been appointed the gym leader, he had taken part in numerous of battles, all in which he had been able to see the multiple skills of different trainers. It had allowed him to get the just of the power of a trainer before they even sent out their first pokemon. But for some reason, he couldn't get anything out of Red at all; his posture and attitude were so relaxed it was as if he was frozen.

"God damn it, why has it always got to be the mysterious ones?" muttered Gary who reached down to his belt and picked out a battered pokeball. "Blastoise, time to battle!" Gary shouted as he threw the ball out to the field; in a flash of light, a large blue turtle stretched out its limbs before letting out a huge roar in the air. "Good ol' Blastoise here hasn't had a decent battle in a while, so a quick brief battle will get it ready for anything in the gym!" Gary said whilst placing his left hand in his pocket, waiting for Red to make his move.

"Interesting choice" Ash thought before giving a slight smile. Pikachu began to make his way to the field as he prepared to jump off Ash's shoulder, but he put a hand up to stop him. "Not now buddy; I want to make this interesting for the minute." Ash said before grabbing a ball. "Typhlosion battle stance Alpha." Ash said with a slight throw of his wrist. Out of the ball came the bearlike pokemon which its back was covered in fire. Gary spluttered a cough as to why Red was sending out a fire type against his Blastoise. Regardless though, he let out a small smirk at how easy this battle was, until the fire type went down onto all fours and let out an even mightier roar than the Blastoise had just moments ago.

Gary had to clamp his hands around his ears from the roar, and it was so loud that it had even caused Blastoise to flinch as well. However, what was really shocking was that Red was just smiling easily as he watched the duo in front of him. "Err… Right then." Gary said, trying not to let his voice betray him at all. "Blastoise, let's make this quick then. Water Pulse." Gary said, hoping that a straight out water attack would put the fire type in a troublesome position.

Blastoise gave a small grunt before it placed its hands in front of him and closed his eyes; suddenly a small ball of water appeared in-between its hands. With a fluid movement, the Blastoise opened its eyes and sent it flying at the Typhlosion. As the ball was sent flying in the air, it began to expand greatly due to the air pushing against it so quickly.

"Take it." Ash said without even flinching at all. Gary was surprised by what he heard and he expected the fire type to actually disregard what Red has said and just move out of the way before it would be hit. He was disproved wrong when it nodded and took it face on. Blastoise had been Gary's starter since he started his journey, so was constantly making sure that it was his most powerful pokemon, and he had trained it so that even super effective moves against it would not cause as much pain. But he was shocked when the Typhlosion just shrugged off the attack as if it was nothing at all.

"Well done Ty. Now let's make this interesting. Flame charge" Ash said whilst inspecting his hand, before giving a brief glance upwards to see what was going to happen. The Volcano pokemon just grinned, before it pumped out its arms and giving an almighty roar. As soon as this finished, his whole body was covered in fire and in no time at all, it had sprung on its legs and crashed into the Blastoise who was pushed backwards as it had managed to go onto all fours before it was hit.

Gary was shocked at the raw power this fire type possessed. Normally a fire type move would do nothing against a water type, but this was something new to Gary; how come that attack was able to do so much damage to Blastoise in one hit, as already its body was covered in scorch marks.

"Blastoise use….ugh….. I don't know." Gary said with his mouth wide open as he tried to grasp at some moves he could get Blastoise to use. He actually didn't know what to do at all; after just watching the fire type take that move head on, he had no clue as to what it could be capable of doing at all.

"A bit confused are we?" Ash said with a slight smile on his face. "Have no idea how a fire type move could do damage to a water type in just one go?" Ash said before looking at his hand again. "Here's a bit of knowledge for you. Blastoise have a massive shell surrounding their body which is why they have some extraordinary defences. However I discovered that in fact they have weak points surrounding their body. The main place is their abdomen, but that's quite obvious to any normal trainer. I however trained Ty here to aim for the less known spot on the body; the area between its arms and legs." Ash said, finally looking up from his hand.

"I'm not going to let this drag on any more now; let's just get this done with then shall we? Flame charge again" Ash said. The fire type gave a small nod as the command, but instead on staying on all fours, he stood up on his hind legs as he glared at the water type. Taking in a deep breath, he gave another roar, which wasn't as loud as earlier on, in the direction at the water type before its body was set alight in a deep orange fire, and quicker than moments before it sprung towards the Blastoise.

However, Gary was half expecting this Red to command the Typhlosion to go in for the direct attack once again after he had told him about the weak point, so he called out the only move which he could think off which would help.

"Blastoise, rapid spin now!" he shouted, and Blastoise gave a small grunt before it disappeared into its shell and begun spinning at an unlikely speed for its size. Just before it was hit, Blastoise suddenly disappeared in mid-air, to the confusion of Typhlosion, and just as it began to turn around to see where the Turtle had disappeared to it was slammed in its side, before it crumpled on the ground.

"Hmm, well that was a bit too easy, but anyways. Nicely done mate. Now use hydro pump to finish it off." Gary pointed at the fire type that was slowly getting back onto its feet from the surprise attack. He felt that if this attack landed, he would surely have the battle in the bag. However, he was curious about why Red hadn't made a single command towards his fire type to get up quicker and to retaliate with its own move; shaking his head at the strangeness, he turned his head back to the battle so he could see his starter give the finishing move.

Blastoise was also now very confident as it felt the pressure beginning to build up in its cannons on its back. Giving a massive grunt, he fired the massive pressure bursts at the crouched fire type; it was sure that the Typhlosion wouldn't be getting up again, and it began heading back towards his trainer with a grin on his face. However, he was puzzled by the look Gary had on his face; turning around slowly the Blastoise adopted the same expression when he saw the unthinkable in front of him. The Typhlosion had actually managed to stand back up on its feet once again, even though it was drenched in what either looked like water or sweat.

"I must say, a strong Blastoise you have with you Gary. But its time to finish this battle of now anyway. Typhlosion, adopt battle move Alpha Blaze." Ash said, with a slight grin on his face.

Giving a weak grin, Typhlosion closed its eyes and focused all of its power into his hands, where slowly a small ball of fire was forming in-between them. With a sudden fluid movement for the state he was in, the Typhlosion flung the ball into the sky as if it was a baseball. Instantly, the surrounding the battle field had increased drastically, and Gary could feel the specks of perspiration forming on the back of his neck.

"That's going to do nothing at all; if you're planning to stop my water moves power, I have a whole lot of moves up my sleeve." Gary snorted as the Typhlosion began charging towards Blastoise once again. "Rapid spin again" he said with a smug grin on his face. Giving a wide smile, Blastoise shrunk back into its shell and began spinning, and once it felt that Typhlosion was close it spun upwards and did a U-turn as he began his descent to crash into it again.

However, all he felt in the next 10 seconds was intense pain. Even though it didn't know what had happened, Gary saw everything that was happening in front of him. Just as Blastoise began to ascend, the Typhlosion had managed to lie flat on the ground as the water type had spun above it. Then with some incredible flexibility it performed a simple backflip as its right fist began glowing a dull yellow colour; as soon as it managed to land on its feet it jumped at the still spinning turtle and landed an uppercut punch to its stomach.

"But….how the….. How the hell did your pokemon manage to do that? And what move did he just use?" Gary spluttered. At the same time, Blastoise managed to get back up on its feet, but when it tried to get to Gary, it staggered slightly before falling onto one knee.

"It was easy to be honest" Ash began, waving a hand at Typhlosion to take a rest. "I knew you were going to use rapid spin to stop the attack. That's why I said to Ty to use sunny day, as it was never a reason to boost my attacks not in order to stop you from using you're water moves. It's actually a code name for another move." Ash said, whilst walking over to Typhlosion as he gave it a pat on the back.

"Thunder punch can be quite a useful move to know sometimes; especially when you don't have the type advantage. That's why I never call it out loud as it gives away the surprise, and who would want to ruin a surprise in the first place at all." Ash said, before giving a slight chuckle.

"OK, that's fair enough. But how did Typhlosion become so fast? You never used a stat move, like agility at all. I was watching every single move you made as well." Gary said, completely bewildered at what he had just witnessed happened in the past seconds.

"Well, the thing is I did in a rather ninja way. Flame Charge is a quite useful move if you happen to know about it. As well as it having the nice idea of giving Typhlosion of STAB, it allows the user to have its speed to be raised as well." Ash said, before returning Typhlosion back into his ball. "Maybe next time you should do some research into pokemon moves more instead of focusing on whatever research you're doing at the minute Gary." Ash said, and with a flick of his hand to wave goodbye, he turned around and headed back towards the pokemon centre.

Gary just stood there, watching him go off into the distance before returning Blastoise back to his ball with a small sympathetic smile on his face. Clenching his hand, Gary was determined to get revenge. No one told him what he should have to do in his life at all. No one.

Author Note: So here's the update. Been busy with an AS Photography Exam recently with having to get everything ready for it. No exams this week at all for the minute, I have my first proper AS exam on the 14th May, so I'll post the next chapter on the Sunday that week.
As always, enjoy the chapter, and review with any suggestions you have!