Ch 15: Showcase aboard the SS. Anne.
It was early in the morning down at the Vermillion beach and Serena had been training with Ash. She had stopped when they came across a trainer who saw Serena and instantly challenged her to a battle.
"Charla use flame claws." Serena said.
Charla opened her mouth and let of a stream of fire above her. She leapt up into the fire before coming down with flaming claws and twirled the fire around her in a very well rehearsed and choreographed manner.
"Raticate, use take down ." Her opponent said.
"Raaa." the Raticate said as he ran at Charla. Charla used her flaming claws and movements to easily knock the Raticate away before continuing at him.
"Yes." Serena said.
When she reached Raticate, Charla raised her arms up.
"Tackle!" her opponent shouted. Raticate smashed his head into Charla's chest, knocking her back.
"Tilted fire." Serena said. Charla brought her claws up in a tilted manner in front of her face before unleashing a flamethrower that was shaped in a specific pattern from her claws.
"Duck." the trainer said.
Raticate ducked just in time to avoid the fire.
"Low to high." Serena said. Charla came in with her flaming claws low to the ground. She smashed them against Raticate's chin before leaping up and spinning before slashing him across the face.
"Alright outstanding work Charla." Serena said.
Raticate slid across the sand before trying to get back up.
"Angled fire." Serena said. Charla opened her mouth and leapt up before doing a front flip and unleashing a spinning flamethrower. The fire came down from above Raticate and engulfed him.
"Raa!" The Raticate shouted before fainting.
"Raticate is unable to battle." Ash said.
"Aww, Raticate." Her opponent said as he returned his pokemon then sighed.
"Well I better head back to the pokemon center." He said before walking off.
Charla looked over and saw Ash's other pokemon also out, she also noticed Charizard out giving her a look of being impressed. Charla's face turned slightly red before she felt a strange sensation inside her.
Serena, Ash, and the others saw as Charla began to glow white and grow bigger.
"Charla, you're." Serena started.
"She's evolving." Ash said.
"Pika." Pikachu said with his eyes widening. When the glowing stopped Charla stood where she was now as a Charmeleon.
"Char." She said.
"Charla you evolved!" Serena shouted in excitement.
Charla walked over to the water and looked at the reflection of herself. To Serena's and the others' surprise Charla seemed a little frightened as she saw her entire physical appearance had changed. She stumbled backwards fell over as she crawled backwards away from the reflection.
"Char."She said sounding very scared.
"Charla are you ok?" Serena asked.
Charla stayed on the ground shaking, not entirely aware what was going on.
"Charla, you just evolved. It's nothing to be afraid of." Serena said as she tried to kneel down next to her. When Charla saw this she felt agitated and snapped her jaws at Serena before growling.
Serena lurched back. Both of them now felt very bad.
"Serena." Ash said as he and Pikachu came over to her.
"Charla's never tried to hurt me before." Serena said. Charla herself didn't know why she did that. She just suddenly felt more aggressive and acted on impulse. But why, she loved Serena, why would she try and bite her.
Charla felt even more afraid now, she had not just changed on the outside, but the inside as well. Charla got up and slowly moved away from Serena and the others with her head held down.
What had just happened caught the attention of Charizard who watched Charla closely. Later that day Ash and Serena met with Brock and Lucy at the pokemon center for breakfast.
"She tried to bite you." Brock said.
"All I tried to do was kneel down beside her to give her some comfort. Then she seemed really sad about it." Serena said.
"It happened just after she evolved?" Lucy asked.
"Yes." Serena said.
"Well sometimes that can happen when a pokemon evolves. Changing physically and mentally so fast through evolution can sometimes hit a pokemon hard. I remember when Feebas evolved into Milotic. She seemed very confused how she had gone from a small fish to a massive Sea serpent. She hit under water for 3 days before she game to terms with it." Lucy said.
"Let's not forget about the time Charizard evolved." Ash said sweat dropping.
Serena remembered all too well about the time Ash's Charizard evolved.
"What happened when your Charizard evolved?" Brock asked.
"When Charizard evolved he stopped listening to me and violently attacking any pokemon he saw." Ash said.
"He evolved too fast and thought himself so strong that he didn't think he needed to listen to me." Ash said.
"By the next day he was listening to you again." Serena said.
"Alright well just do what Ash and Charizard did." Brock said.
"Well that's not really an option." Ash said as he told Brock and Lucy his and Charizard's whole ordeal.
Brock and Lucy both sweat dropped.
"Ok so that's not really an option." Brock said.
"Well she could still spend some alone time with her. It's not a bad idea, it's what I did to help Milotic come to terms with herself." Lucy said.
"Well I don't really have that option today. I have the showcase today and Charla can't perform in her current state." Serena said.
"Well you could always sub her out for Absol." Lucy said.
"The thing is Charla's been working so hard for this I'd hate to see her get left out." Serena said.
"Well it's still early in the day and the showcase isn't until later tonight. That's still plenty of time before the showcase." Ash said.
"But I still don't know where it is and I've been asking around." Serena said.
"Well maybe we can help you." Lucy said.
"Yeah, you and Ash work on helping Charla while Lucy and I try to find out more about where your showcase is going to be." Brock said.
"Really." Serena said.
"No problem, you just worry about helping Charla." Lucy said.
"Thanks guys." Serena said.
Later that day Serena and Ash were by the beach.
"Alright Charla." Serena said as she let out her new Charmeleon.
Charla came out of her pokeball and laid down in a curled up position and gave a depressed look.
"That's not a good start." Serena said sweat dropping.
Pikachu leapt down from Ash's shoulder and walked over to her.
"Pika, Pikachu." He said.
"Char." Charla said back.
"Chu.". Pikachu tried to explain how she's still the same pokemon inside even if she had evolved.
"Char!" Charla growled back at him showing her sharp jaws. She claimed that she had changed inside that she felt more aggression and rage.
"Pika." Pikachu said sweat dropping and shaking his head.
Serena came over to Charla who saw her and tried to move away.
"Charla, please don't be afraid" Serena said. She wasn't afraid of Serena, she was afraid she would hurt her like she had tried to earlier.
Serena sighed.
"Maybe I could try." Ash said. He came over and tried to calm her with his aura. As Ash felt Charla's aura he could feel that she wasn't afraid of Serena or any of them. She was a afraid of herself.
He could tell that she was having trouble adjusting to her new body and the tendencies that came with it. Ash knew all to well that Charmanders became more aggressive as Charmeleons, and even more aggressive as Charizards.
It wasn't their fault, it was just their biology. Ash remembered when his Charmander evolved into Charmeleon he still listened to Ash like when he was a Charmander, but he was also got more aggressive.
"You know maybe a good way of helping Charla is trying to show her who she is. Maybe have her practice her performances." Ash said.
"That's a good idea, she loves practicing." Serena said. She turned to Charla.
"Charla do you want to do some more practicing, don't forget we have a showcase today." Serena said.
Charla lifted her head up and thought more about what she said. She and Serena had put in a lot of work for this showcase and she had been excited about performing again. It had to be worth trying.
Charla got up and nodded.
"Well that's a start, alright let's try a tilted fire." Serena said. Charla held her claws in front of her face before unleashing Flamethrower.
At first Serena was happy until she noticed the technique go wrong. More fire came out than before and the patterns were sloppy and uneven.
"Oh no." Serena said.
"Char." Charla said as she moved her claws away. Now that she was a Charmeleon her flamethrower was now larger and more powerful than it had been before. Not only that , but her claws were now larger and mad different patters than they had before.
Charla lowered her head in sadness.
"Charla it's alright we have our other techniques. Try Flame claws." Serena said.
Charla opened her mouth and let of a stream of fire above her. She leapt up into the fire before coming down with flaming claws and twirled the fire around her. However, unlike in her battle against Raticate her claws on her hands and feet were larger and heavier.
Because she was not use to her new body, when she threw new claws around they drew more momentum than she was use to. Because of this she also tripped over her larger foot claws and fell onto her back.
"Char." She said sounding sad.
"It's ok Charla, we're still ok." Serena said sweat dropping.
"Let's try angled fire." Serena said. Charla took a deep breath before opening her mouth and leaping up before doing a front flip and unleashing a spinning flamethrower. Because of her now larger body, Charla didn't have the agility she had before. She came down faster and face planted into the sand.
"Aww." Serena said as her face became crestfallen. Charla saw how disappointed Serena looked and buried her face in the sand. Not only had she become more aggressive, now she couldn't perform either. Aside from loosing her parents , this was one of the worst things to ever happen to Charla. She desperately wished she could just become a Charmander again.
"Serena." Ash said pointing to Charla. Serena then realized that she had made Charla feel terrible about how she messed up.
"Oh no." Serena said as she walked over to her.
"It's alright Charla, it wasn't that bad. You just need to get use to your new body. Then your techniques will be better than ever." Serena said as she tried to lift Charla onto her feet.
Charla sighed before curling herself back up and burying her face in the sand.
Serena now had a very sad expression on her face as well.
"Poor Charla." Ash said.
"Pika." Pikachu said nodding. Absol and Nidoran came over try try and comfort their trainer and friend but neither could do much.
Charizard stared at Charla as she stayed curled up in the sand. He closed his eyes and lowered his head.
Meanwhile elsewhere in the city Brock and Lucy were down by the docks asking around for the Showcase.
"I'm sorry but I have no idea." An older man said to Lucy.
"Thanks anyway." Lucy said.
Brock continued walking when he saw pair ganguro of girls handing out tickets.
"Wow." He said as his face turned red. He turned to make sure Lucy wasn't behind him to pull him away then rushed over to the girls.
"Hey!" He said as his face turned red.
"Hello, are you interested in buying tickets to the pokemon showcase." One of the girls asked.
Brock quickly snapped out of his infatuation.
"Wait showcase, you know where it is." Brock said.
"Yes it's aboard the SS." The other girl said as she pointed to the left. Brock looked over and saw a massive cruise ship docked.
"The showcase is happening onboard a cruise ship!" Brock said.
"That's right." The other girl said.
"Alright Lucy's will" Brock started before he felt someone grab his ear and pull him away.
"Sorry if he was bothering you." Lucy said.
"Lucy wait I wasn't" Brock said.
"Right." Lucy said as she dragged him away. Forty minutes later the group stood before the group stood before the gangplank of the massive ship.
"Wow look at the size of this ship." Ash said.
"I can't believe I get to perform onboard." Serena said.
"The ship is going to set sail soon, we should get aboard." Lucy said. As the group walked aboard another 4 people wearing black trench coats, shades, and hats walked up. One had a suitcase in his hand.
"Let's move." One of them said.
"Hurry it up, it's hot in here." Another voice said.
"Quite." One of the women said as she turned to the back of her coat before walking aboard the ship.
The interior of the ship was just an luxurious as the outside of the ship. Inside the main area of the ship was a large ball like room with several white clothed tables with food, potted tweets and bushes, chandeliers on the ceiling and an upstairs section.
They also noticed a number of small shop stands had been set up around the room in the upstairs and downstairs section.
"This place is huge, it reminds me of battle chateaus." Serena said.
"There are so many beautiful woman." Brock said before Lucy grabbed his ear.
"I'll be keeping you on a short leash." She said.
Elsewhere the 4 people in trench coats stood in a corner.
"Alright our informant should be onboard the ship by now." One of them said.
"We'll go find her and make sure she has the information we want. Biff you hold the money. We'll be back" The man said as he handed his briefcase to the other man.
"It's Butch!" He shouted. One of the woman smacked him across the face.
"Quite fool!" She said before she walked off with the taller man.
"Great now what?" He said.
"Now we wait, I'm going to do some shopping." The other woman said before walking off.
"Psst, over here." The man with the suitcase turned to see a small stand with a short man wearing a white t short, a white band tied over his head and a thin mustache.
"You look like a man who knows how to make a lot of money." The short man said.
"Well I." Butch started.
"What if I told you that I could make you rich."
"Rich really!" Butch said.
"Yes you see I have in this pokeball one of the rarest pokemon in the world, a golden Magikarp. You see this rare pokemon itself is worth 5000 dollars, however, what few know is that magikarp lay 1000 eggs at a time." The man said.
"1000 eggs!" Butch almost shouted.
"Yes and since this is a golden Magikarp each of it's babies will also be worth 5000 dollars. That's five million dollars worth of Magikarp. And that's just the begging , you could become a multi billionaire " The man said.
"I could have everything I've ever wanted." Butch said. That was when he realized he only had 30 dollars on him, except the money their boss had given them for bribing their informant.
Then again with that Magikarp he could make them more money than ever before. He opened the briefcase and saw 50,000 dollars in cash inside.
This caught the attention of the man, who gave a large grin.
"So if you buy this golden Magikarp I'll throw in 3 months worth of special food that makes the eggs hatch faster, all for 50,000 dollars."
"50,000 dollars!" Butch shouted.
"I'm giving you a fortune."
"True, alright." Butch said as he gave the man the money.
Butch walked away with a gold colored pokeball in his hand.
"Oh boy, just wait until I tell the others." Butch said.
Elsewhere Jessie and James were speaking with a young woman.
"Do you have the information we want?" James asked.
"It's on the flash drive." The young woman said as she handed it to Jessie. Jessie took the flash drive and dropped it into the back of her tech coat. Hiding inside the coat was none other than Meowth with a laptop. He caught the flash drive before plugging it into the computer.
He opened up the data on the drive and saw technical readouts of the Celeadon city gym. He saw the security and alarm systems , and other important areas.
"Perfect." Meowth said.
"It's got the data we need." Meowth said as he passed it back up.
"Alright now where's my money." The young woman said.
"We'll go get it." James said.
Elsewhere in the hall the group had let out each of their pokemon. A few feet away Serena noticed a pair of performers each with a Charmander in their arms.
"My Charmander is healthier, just look at how smooth her skin is." One trainer said.
"Well look at my Charmander's tail flame if much better than yours, he's clearly more healthy." The other trainer said. This caught the attention of Charla who saw the two Charmanders and sighed.
"Char." She said.
Serena noticed this and had another idea.
"Hey Charla, are you hungry. I have your favorite." Serena said as she knelt down in front of her and took out some of her special food.
"Char." Charla said as she lifted her head as Serena poured a few pieces into her mouth. Charla began eating it when she realized something was wrong. The food tasted exactly as it had before, but now the food no longer tasted good to her. It tasted bitter and nasty.
She spit it out and growled before setting the remains on fire.
"Charla stop!" Serena said as she tried to grab her. Charla turned and snapper her jaws at Serena again, making her lurch back as Charla growled at her.
Moments later Charla realized that she had done it again. She curled herself up and put her face in the ground.
Serena sighed.
"She's only getting worse." She said before Ash put his hand on her shoulder.
"Serena." A familiar voice said. Serena and the others turned to see none other than Thomas with his Squirtle, Spearow, and a Shellder standing beside him.
"Thomas." Serena said.
"It's good to see you again, I was wondering if you'd be at this showcase." Thomas said as he and his pokemon walked over.
"So Thomas you have a new pokemon." Ash said as he saw Shellder.
"Yeah I caught him a few days ago here in Vermillion city. We've been working very hard to do well in this showcase." Thomas said.
"Who is this kid?" Lucy asked.
"Oh right, Lucy this is Thomas, a young trainer who we met back in Cerulean city. Like Serena he's a performer. Thomas this is Lucy, the battle pike Frontier Brain." Brock said.
"Oh well pleasure to meet you Lucy. So Serena I hope you're ready for this showcase. My pokemon and I have been working very hard for this and we're more than ready." Thomas said.
That was when he noticed Charla laying on the ground.
"Hey Charla evolved." Thomas said before noticing how sad she looked.
"Is she ok?" He asked.
"Not really, she evolved earlier today and she hasn't been handling the changes very well." Serena said.
"Oh that's too bad? Is she going to be ok to perform?" Thomas asked.
"I don't know." Serena said.
Elsewhere Cassidy met up with Butch.
"Hey there you are." Cassidy said before she noticed the briefcase was gone.
"Hey where's the briefcase!" Cassidy shouted.
"I spent the money, but don't worry I've mad us a fortune." Butch said as he explained it to her.
"Really!" Cassidy said sounding excited.
"There you are." Jessie said as she and James walked over to them.
"She has the information we want, now where's the money?" James asked.
"I spent it." Butch said.
"You what!?" Jessie and James yelled.
"Did I hear him right!?" Meowth asked.
"Just hear me out, I've made us a fortune." Butch said as he explained the golden magikarp.
"So I've just made us billionaires." Butch said. Jessie and James faces turned redder than a magmortar. Jessie grabbed Cassidy by the throat and James grabbed Butch by the throat before they dragged them to a secluded area and held them against the wall.
"You imbeciles! You were conned!" Jessie shouted.
"But." Butch started.
"There's no such thing as a golden Magikarp!" James shouted.
"Is so." Butch said as he let out the Magikarp. Jessie and James saw the Magikarp flopping on the ground with gold on it.
"See." Butch said. Meowth came out of Jessie's coat and rubbed his paw across the Magikarp. His paw was then covered in gold paint and that section of the Magikarp was red again.
"Oh no." Cassidy said. Meowth leapt up to the junior officers and began using furry swipe across their faces.
"You idiotic nincompoops, you lost all the money that the boss gave us to pay the informant!" Mouth shouted.
"Wait! The ship set sail , we must be miles form shore. The man is bound to still be onboard. We can find him and get the money back." Butch pleaded.
"For your sake you better hope we do." Jessie said.
Twenty minutes later Serena was in a locker room with the other performers. She had changed into a new performance dress she had bought the day before. It was similar to her old one, except this new one was white and blue rather than salmon and black. It was also slightly smaller in the bottom, more like a skirt.
Serena had also done her hair differently. Her long poneytail was done up with two blue bows and held up in a larger mass.
She was quite nervous, not about the showcase itself, but about Charla. Thomas stood in front of the doors to the stage.
"Alright this is it, my first performance." he said to himself.
"Now presenting our next performer Thomas Moore!" The master of ceremonies said as the spotlight shifted from walked out onto the stage and saw over 400 people siting in the crowd watching him.
He took another deep breath before letting out his Spearow out.
"Now let's see how well he can set up a scene." The master of ceremonies said as a small chamber was revealed. Thomas and Spearow went inside the chamber. Inside he saw a folder with several different sceneries depicted in the pages.
"H'mm this one will do." Thomas said. A minute later the curtain on the stage lifted up as a large background of a mountainous ridge appeared.
"Alright Spearow just like we practiced, use agility." His Spearow quickly made agile movements around the air. He made quick movements around the stage mountains and managed to use the scenery to enticing his movements.
"Alright now use furry attack." Spearow landed on a ledge and then propelled himself off it and onto another. He did the same with the other ledges, each time making smaller rocks fall into larger ones and creating an avalanche.
"Arial ace!" Thomas shouted.
Spearow came in at a large falling rock and sliced it in half with Arial ace before landing in between he two half.
"Sprea!" Spearow shouted.
"Well done." The master of ceremonies said as the crowd let out a load applause.
"This is interesting, and different than the last showcase." Brock said.
"Serena is up next." Ash said.
"Pika."
Back in the locker room Serena saw Thomas walk back in.
" You did well out there." Serena said.
"Thanks Serena, good luck out there." Thomas said.
Serena took a deep breath before getting up and walking out onto the stage. Ash and the others applauded as the master of ceremonies announced her.
She came out with Nidoran beside her.
"Madame Serena and her Nidoran will now choose the proper scenery." The master of ceremonies said.
Serena and Nidoran walked inside the booth and flipped through the selection of sceneries.
"How about this one?" Serena asked.
"Ni." Nidoran said nodding. When the two came out the curtain lifted behind them revealing a meadow of flowers and tall grass.
"Alright, here we go. Nidoran use poison sting into the air." Nidoran opened her mouth and unleashed a barrage go poison stingers into the air. She then leapt up and used double kick to smash the stings into smaller pieces. The pieces fell down and coated onto her body and formed the shape of a horn on her head.
She then began prancing through the flowers with the lights making the spikes glisten. When Nidoran leapt through the flowers. When she came through another patch a group of petals fell around her in a beautiful manner.
"Outstanding." The master of ceremonies said as the crowd let out a loud applause.
"Yeah Serena!" Ash shouted.
As this was going on Jessie, James, Mewoth, stood with their junior officers in front of a railing at the back of the ship.
Sitting on the railing in front of them was none other than the man who had swindled Butch. Jessie, James, and Meowth had found him, broke his arms and legs, tied his hands and feet together, and gagged his mouth.
"H'mmp I hope you learned your lesson of what happens when you try and swindle from team rocket." James said as he held the briefcase with the 50,000 dollars in it.
"We'd also like to thank you for all your little Magikarp." Meowth said as he held 8 pokeballs in front of him.
"We hear they can each lay 1000 eggs at a time." Jessie said in a mocking tone.
"Mmghtt!" The man shouted as he was gagged gagged.
"I'm sorry I couldn't quite hear that." James said.
"I think he wants to go for a swim." Jessie said before she delivered a powerful kick to the man's chest, knocking him off the edge of the rail and down towards the water. Attached to the man's broken legs was a chain and weight which was dragged off the side of the ship with him.
Cassidy and Butch watched in horror as the man hit the water and was then dragged underwater by the weight attached to his legs.
"That was brutal." Cassidy said.
"You're lucky we didn't do the same to you!" James shouted as Butch backed up a little.
"Now to pay the informant." Jessie said.
Elsewhere in the ship the master of ceremonies stood in the center of the stage with the spotlight on him.
"We've had many good performers today. Unfortunately we can only allow 3 to move on to the final round. Our judges have made their decisions and the following trainers will be moving on to the victory round. The first trainer is Serena Achille." The master of ceremonies said as a spotlight shined on her.
"Alright Serena!" Ash shouted.
"Pika!".
"So Serena's moving on. I wonder if Thomas will." Brock said.
"The next trainer is Sandra Thain." The master of ceremonies said as a spotlight revealed an 18 year old young woman with short black hair and blue eyes, wearing a black and white dress.
"Now for our final trainer, Thomas Moore." The master of ceremonies said as another spotlight revealed Thomas.
"Looks like he made it." Ash said.
Serena looked over at Thomas who smiled and gave her a thumbs up, looking very excited that they had both made it to the final round.
Serena was glad she made it to the final round, but now she had to face her biggest problem. Use Charla , or Absol. She had already talked about it with Absol, while he was willing to perform in Charla's place, he believed that she had worked to hard to not perform and that Serena still try to lift her spirits.
During the intermission she was alone with Ash , Pikachu, and his Charizard. Serena took a deep breath before she let out Charla. Charla backed away from Serena before curling up into onto he ground.
"Charla please just listen to me, I know you've been having trouble dealign with evolving. But we've made it to the final round. I know how hard you've been training for this and I don't want that to all go for nothing. Please just go out there and try your best." Serena said.
Charla's eyes teared up before she ran off out of sight.
"Charla!" Serena shouted. She was about to run after her when Charizard placed his arm in front of her. She looked up at him as he shook his head and went after Charla himself.
"Charizard told me he should talk to Charla." Ash said.
"Hopefully he can get through to her." Serena said.
Charla was at the edge of the ship leaning against the railing with a depressed look on her face.
"Char." She said as another tear came across her face.
"Grauuu." She heard behind her.
Charla turned to see Charizard standing behind her.
"Char." She said.
Charizard walked over and knelt down in front of her.
"Grauuu." He said telling her that he saw she was having a hard time with her new self.
"Char." She said with her head held down.
"Grraau!" Charizard growled as he took his left claws and lifted her head up to his as he brought his face in close to hers.
"Graau." He growled claiming that she should be proud of herself, that evolving was natural and part of reaching her true potential.
"Char." Charla said claiming that she didn't like how she had changed. Her body was too big to do movements like she had before. The food she liked didn't taste good any more. Worst of all, she had become so aggressive, she had even tried to hurt Serena twice.
"Grrau." Charizard growled as he looked deep into her eyes. He went over exactly what happened when he first evolved into Charizard. He told her about how he wouldn't listen to Ash, attacked random pokemon, and almost got them both killed.
"Char." She said.
"Grauuuu." Charizard growled saying all that time Ash never lost faith in him and took a dragon claw for him. He made the point that no matter how much she changes physically or with her aggressiveness, that Serena would still love her , just like Ash did even after all he did to him.
"Char." Charla said as her spirits lifted a bit.
"Grauuu." Charizard growled claiming that she would go through changes in life on the inside and outside. But that it was part of growing as a pokemon, and that growing was important. It may not seem great at first for some, but when she learned be who she was that she could be even greater than she was before. He also told her someday she would would be a great and beautiful Charizard.
Hearing the last bit made her blush before she came forward and hugged him.
"Char." She said thanking him.
Charizard gave a slight smiled before patting her on the back.
A few minutes later Serena was with Ash, Pikachu and the others.
"And she just ran off?" Lucy asked.
"Charizard went to talk with her. " Serena said.
"Well maybe he can help her feel better." Brock said.
Moments later Pikachu noticed Charla and Charizard walking towards them.
"Pika." Pikachu said as he pointed to them. Serena and the others turned to see the two walking towards them. Charla nervously walked up to Serena who knelt down in front of her.
"Charla, I just want you to know that no matter how you change, I'm always going to love you." Serena said.
"Char." Charla said before coming forward and hugging Serena who hugged her back.
"Nice work Charizard." Ash said as Pikachu nodded.
"Grauu." Charizard growled.
"Alright we haven't missed our performance yet. What say we give this audience something they're never forget." Serena said.
"Char!" Charla shouted sounding confident.
Elsewhere on the ship the rocket officers met up with their informant.
"Geez what took you so long?" She asked.
"Never mind that. We have your money." James said as he handed the suitcase to the young woman.
She opened it and checked to make sure all 50,000 dollars was there.
"Excellent, here's the rest of the data." She said as she handed them another flash drive.
"Pleasure doing business with you." Jessie said before they parted ways. As the young woman walked off with the briefcase of money in hand , she smiled.
"That will teach Erika for kicking me out of her gym just because I said I didn't like perfume. That bitch won't know what hit her." She said.
"Now that we have the necessary information we should move out to Celadon city." James said.
"Yeah, we've got plenty of work to do there." Meowth said.
Back in the theater Thomas was finishing up his performance.
"Now out!" He shouted as his Squirtle burst out of a wall of water he had made and did a front flip before sticking the landing as water sprayed around him, making a rainbow.
The crowd let out a loud applause as Thomas and his Squirtle bowed.
"Let's hear it for Thomas and his Squirtle. Now for our final performance, Serena Achille and her Charmeleon." The master of ceremonies said.
Serena and Charla stepped out into he center of the stage.
Charla took a deep breath before looking up at the crowd.
"We can do this Charla, just believe in yourself." Serena said to her.
Charla stood up tall and proudly. Sitting behind Ash and the others was none other than Charizard. He wanted to see Charla succeed in her performance.
"Alright Charla use flame claws." Serena said.
Charla opened her mouth and let of a stream of fire above her. She leapt up into the fire before coming down with flaming claws Serena remembered how that had gone wrong earlier. That was when she had a better idea.
"Charla lift toe claws up and try to keep your feet moments more controlled. Also keep your claws closer to your body." Serena said. Charla did as Serena said and found her movements smoother than earlier that day.
She danced around bringing fire around her in a well choreographed manner.
"Yes." Serena said. That was when Serena noticed something else. Because of her new claws, Charla was able to bring more fire, and moving with this new way her movements were smoother than even when she was a Charmander.
"She's doing better than before." Serena said.
"Now tilted fire , but use your claws as a funnel." Serena said. Charla did as Serena said and used her claws somewhat like a funnel as she let out a jet of fire through them. The fire moved out before splitting into 2 columns.
"Low to high!" Serena shouted before Charla brought her claws in low, then slashed up, making the fire move up more than it had the last time she tried. She then came down carrying more fire and slashed down making a better pattern.
"Yes it worked. Alright angled fire! " Serena shouted. Charla took a deep breath, knowing this was the hardest one to do and the easiest to mess up with her new body.
She unleashed a jet of fire into the air before leaping up into it and trying to do a front flip as fire spun around her body.
"Bring your claws down now!" Serena shouted. Before Charla could loose balance, she swung her claws down. This allowed her to move into a more stable position and she landed perfectly on her feet as fire moved around her from the momentum of her strikes. It was then Serena realized that Charla's claws had stayed on fire even after they hit the ground.
"Wait a minute, could she have learned fire punch." Serena asked.
Charla raised her claws up with fire still around them.
"She did!" Serena said.
The crowd let out an uproar of applause at the magnificence of Charla's performance.
"We did it Charla!" Serena shouted. Charla looked up and saw he crow applaud her.
"Char." She said. She couldn't believe that her performance had gone even better than when she practiced. Her new body had been the reason why too.
"Alright Charla!" Ash Shouted.
"Pikachu!".
"Grauu." Charizard said also impressed with her.
A few minutes later Serena stood in the center of the stage with Nidoran and Charla beside her.
Thomas and his pokemon were to her left.
"Now our judges have worked hard to determine which of these excellent performers. Our first place winner is none other than the magnificent Serena Achille!" The master of ceremonies shouted as the spotlights shined on her and her pokemon.
"We won, we won!" Serena shouted.
"Ni?" Nidoran said not believing it.
"Char!" Charla shouted.
"Yes! Serena did it!" Ash shouted.
"Now for our second place winner, Sandra Thain.'" The master of ceremonies said.
"We did it." Sandra said to her Pidgeotto and Eevee.
"Our third place winner is none other than Thomas Moore.".
"Well we made it to the final round. Third place four our first time." Thomas said.
The master of ceremonies came up to Serena as she took out her ribbon. The master of ceremonies placed a gold metal ribbon and put it on her ribbon.
"Our first gold ribbon guys." Serena said showing it to her.
Later that night she met up with Ash and the others.
"Congratulations Serena." Ash said.
"Yeah you and your pokemon were awesome out there." Brock said.
"Thanks guys, I'm just glad that Charla is feeling better about evolving." Serena said.
"I guess Charizard said the right thing to her." Lucy said.
"Char." Charla said to Charizard thanking him for helping her.
"Grrau." Charizard said saying she performed well and should be proud of herself.
"Char." She said blushing.
"Congratulations Serena, Charla was unbelievable out there." Thomas said.
"Thanks Tom, you should be proud of yourself too. Making it to third place isn't easy on your first performance." Serena said.
"I guess so. But it still shows that we need improvement." Thomas said.
"So where are you going now?" Ash asked.
"Well my brother is going to be in Fuchsia city soon so I thought I'd meet him there."
"Well good luck out there." Brock said.
"Thanks. I hope to see you at the next showcase." Thomas said before he walked off.
"So where are we going next?" Serena asked.
"Well the ship is suppose to stop at port a vista which can take us to root 7 which can take us to Celadon city. That's where my next gym battle will be." Ash said.
"I guess we just spend the night on the ship then." Brock said as he and the others stared out at the open night sea.
Author's note: Yup Jessie and James killed the magikarp salesmen, they aren't the same idiots from the show.
Charla has evolved and won't be moping about it anymore, so don't worry about that.
Also expect Serena to catch a new pokemon soon.
Lastly, the Tauros poll is tied. If you haven't voted yet, please do so to break the tie.
So until next time, please review, comment, suggest, ask (via PM) and vote.