Chapter 3

Not long after Trip had left the laboratory, Dawn turned to Ash, concerned about what he was going to do.

"I honestly don't know Dawn. Pikachu might be too strong for Trip's Snivy to handle if we battle him. But if I don't battle him, it will just make Trip think he's right about people from Kanto. I can't let that happen." Ash explained.

"Okay! You go and meet Trip, I'll be right back!" she said as she disappeared into a room in the back of the lab.

Ash and Pikachu looked confused, but went ahead to meet Trip. "Come on Piplup, Dawn will meet us outside." He said to Piplup as he offered his other shoulder, to which he happily jumped onto Ash's shoulder as they made their way to the battle field.

Upon arriving, Ash saw Trip tapping his foot and looking at his watch, impatiently waiting for Ash. As Piplup and Pikachu left Ash's shoulder as Piplup ran to the side-lines.

"So where's your friend? Did she not want to see you lose?" Trip shouted from across the battle field.

"Man, what a mouth on that guy" Ash muttered under his breath. "Let's begin the battle, Trip!"

Trip agreed and threw the Poké Ball containing Snivy as Ash told Pikachu to go on the battle field. A second later, Dawn's voice was heard as she called out to them not to start the battle. As she emerged from the trees, Dawn was dressed in her pink cheerleader outfit and stood on the side-lines next to Piplup.

"Come on Ash, do it right, you can beat him, fight, fight, fight!" Dawn cheered to Ash.

This got a confused look from Trip, who wasn't sure what was going on, but Ash thanked Dawn for her support and got ready to begin the battle.

"Since this is your first battle, I'll let you make the first call, Trip!"

Trip took advantage of his words and ordered Snivy to run and use Tackle on Pikachu, secretly hoping that it would knock Pikachu in one move and embarrass Ash.

"Pikachu, charge in with Quick Attack!" Ash shouted, watching as Pikachu swiftly ran across the battle field.

As Pikachu got closer to Snivy, Ash made another command, "Jump and avoid it Pikachu!" and Pikachu jumped, supported by the speed of Quick Attack.

Before Trip could make another command, Ash ordered Pikachu to use the speed from the fall down by spinning forward and then go into Iron Tail. As he gained more speed by spinning, Pikachu's tail started to glow, and in one single hit, slammed Snivy hard into the ground, knocked it out.

Trip watched in horror as he witnessed Pikachu's impressive power first hand.

"Not bad for someone from a Kanto huh?" Dawn taunted Trip for his earlier comment.

"Your cheerleader distracted me" he said trying to make an excuse for his loss as he took a picture of Ash and Pikachu, "I want to remember the frustration I felt from this battle." He added as he recalled Snivy and stormed off to begin his journey.

Dawn and Piplup raced towards Ash as Dawn knelt down to Pikachu to pat him on the head, "forget about him Ash, you and Pikachu did an amazing job"

"Thanks Dawn, we couldn't have done it without you" he told her, "We should head back to the lab to get ready for our journey.

Back at the lab, Professor Juniper and her assistants were having a hard time with the Oshawott and Tepig that weren't chosen by Trip; neither would go back into their Poké Balls. Ash and Dawn arrived and asked the distressed professor what was wrong.

"You see, this is the fifth time we have had these Pokémon offered to new trainers, but each time, Snivy is always chosen and they seem a little down." Professor Juniper explained.

"Aw, how could anyone turn down this little cutie?" Dawn said as she knelt down to Tepig and picked it up, which made Tepig happy.

"Right? And this little guy looks super tough, not to mention cute" Ash said as he put his hand on Oshawott's head while Pikachu jumped down to say hello.

The mood of both Pokémon seemed to change almost immediately, they were no longer upset thanks to Ash and Dawn's compliments.

"Spectacular! Just a moment ago, they were both feeling so down, but you two raised their spirits in no time at all!" Professor Juniper commented, "How would you both feel if I asked you to take care of those Pokémon? They really seem to like you a lot"

"We'd love to!" Ash and Dawn said at the same time, laughing at the fact that they were doing that quite a lot.

As Professor Juniper handed them the Poké Balls for the Pokémon, she also handed them a Pokédex and five Poké Balls too, to which they both recalled their new Pokémon. Afterwards, Professor Juniper gave Ash a badge case for when he challenged the Unova gym leaders.

"Thank you for everything professor, we can't thank you enough." Ash said in appreciation, "We've got to get going now, ready Dawn…uh, Dawn?" Ash said as he looked around for Dawn, who had disappeared.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Dawn shouted as she emerged from around the corner, rushing to put her backpack on. "I needed to go and get changed out of my cheerleader outfit before we left"

"No need to worry, let's go" Ash said to Dawn as they both waved to Professor Juniper and left the lab.

As Ash and Dawn began their journey, they encountered many new Pokémon, they learned more about Patrat, Purloin and even Lillipup along the way by using their new Pokédexes. Eventually making it to a town called Accumula Town, they decided to stop by at the Pokémon Centre to have Pikachu checked out from his battle against Trip's Snivy. Once Pikachu had been checked out, they found out that there is a Pokémon Gym in Striaton City, which got Ash fired up for a chance to win his first Unova gym badge.

Continuing on their journey, Ash and Dawn encountered a large flock of pigeons-looking Pokémon. Ash decided to scan one using his Pokédex and learning it was called Pidove, he decided he wanted to capture one. He thought Pikachu might be a bit too tough for a wild Pokemon, so he decided to give Oshawott a go.

"Oshawott, let's go!" Ash shouted as he threw the Poké Ball and Oshawott appeared from it.

"Osha, wotta!" the Sea Otter Pokémon said as it stood before Ash.

"Oshawott, I really want to catch one of those Pidove over there, you want to help me out?" he asked the Pokemon.

Proudly placing one of its hands on the scalchop on its stomach as a sign it was going to help, Ash called out his first attack.

"Oshawott, use Water Gun on the Pidove on the right!"

As Oshawott hit the Pidove with Water Gun, Ash thought it would be weak enough to catch, but soon realised how wrong he was when the wild Pidove returned an equally powerful Air Cutter, followed by a speedy Quick Attack. Oshawott took a lot of damage from two attacks in a row and Ash knew he needed to wrap the battle up and capture Pidove before Oshawott got knocked out.

"Oshawott, Water Gun again!" Ash shouted.

"Osha!" the Pokémon shouted as it fired another Water Gun.

"That's it! Now Tackle!" Ash commanded as Oshawott charged towards Pidove, knocking hard into the Tiny Pigeon Pokémon.

"Okay, now's the time! Go Poké Ball!" Ash shouted as he threw the Poké Ball and Pidove went inside.

After four shakes, the Poké Ball stopped and Pidove was caught, to which Oshawott ran over and picked up the Poké Ball to bring back to Ash, who held the Poké Ball as Pikachu and Oshawott ran over and jumped to hug him, congratulating him on the capture.

"Thanks a lot you guys, but hey, where's Dawn gone?" Ash said, looking around for Dawn.

"Hey Ash, you wouldn't believe it! You know that deer Pokémon we saw yesterday? I just found one!" Dawn shouted, "Come quick before it gets away!"

Ash, Pikachu and Oshawott ran over to the sound of Dawn's voice as they saw her waving before running behind a bush, pointing in the direction of the deer Pokémon, who was drinking from a small pond. Dawn decided to scan it with her Pokédex so she knew more about it as Ash, Pikachu and Oshawott joined her to watch.

"Deerling, the Season Pokémon. With the change of each season, Deerling's appearance changes as well."

"So Deerling has four different forms, and this one must be a Spring Form. I just love its pink colouring!" explained Dawn, "I think I'm going to catch it! Tepig! Let's go!" Dawn whispered as she released Tepig from its Poké Ball.

"Tepig!" the Fire Pig Pokémon said as it blew embers from its snout.

"Tepig, I want to catch that Deerling, so please help me out and use Ember!" Dawn commanded as Tepig jumped over the bush and sent an Ember attack at Deerling, shocking it as the super-effective move collided.

"Deer!" the Season Pokémon shouted as it ran to Tepig, hitting it hard with a Double Kick attack.

"Tepig!" gasped Dawn, "Are you okay?" she called out in concern.

"Pig! Tepig!" it shouted as it blew more embers from its snout, not wanting to give up that easily.

"Awesome! Use Ember again!"

As Tepig used Ember again, Deerling was hit with much more damage than before, which seemed like it did the trick.

"That should be enough! Let's go, Poké Ball!" Dawn shouted as she threw an empty Poké Ball at Deerling, and after the Poké Ball shook four times, Deerling was caught. Dawn ran over to the Poké Ball on the ground and picked it up as well as Tepig as she held the Pokémon up in the air as she thanked it, to which Tepig said parts of its own name as it smiled, feeling proud of itself.

"Congratulations Dawn! I'm sure you and Deerling will make an awesome team!" Ash commented.

"Thanks Ash, so when are you going to catch a Unova Pokémon?" Dawn asked.

"Already did. I guess you went after Deerling before I caught Pidove" he explained as he released Pidove from its Poké Ball. The Tiny Pigeon Pokémon flapped around in mid-air as Dawn looked at how cute Ash's new Pokémon was.

With Ash and Dawn each obtaining a new Unova Pokémon, the two decided to make their way to Striaton City and Ash's first Unova gym battle.

I realise that I went a bit overboard making this a bit of a longer chapter than the previous two, but I wanted Ash and Dawn to arrive in Striaton City in the next chapter. Ash beat Trip a lot easier than in the episode, though, and he didn't even need to use any Electric-type moves. Also, please let me know, since I have a tendency to make what I write...well, rather long, would you prefer it if I skipped certain captures/gym leaders/cities/towns, while still referencing them so that the story is still progressing, but doesn't take the story's length to around 100 chapters, since I know it would be painful to read, as well as painful to write.

True Master - I do want to give Ash a fairly different team than he had in Unova, so one of those Pokémon could very well be captured by him.

Martyn - The Sunglasses Sandile/Krokorok (and then Krookodile) was a very strong Pokémon, and he does now have two members of his team that are weak to Electric, so Sandile/Krokorok (I haven't decided if I want him to catch it as Sandile or Krokorok yet) would be very useful for Ash, especially in his battle against Elesa. However, despite this, I haven't made a final decision about whether or not it will become an actual part of Ash's team.