Pokémon: Aiming for Kanto's Summit Chapter 4: Ash vs Koga (I), a pokémon fanfic

Pokémon: Aiming for Kanto's Summit

By Fox McCloude.

Battle 2: Ash vs Koga (I).

Kalos region, Lumiose City…

If it wasn't for his Gym Leader duties, Clemont would have gladly gone to Johto with Bonnie. Watching the matches on TV wasn't the same as seeing them live from the stadium, being there to root for her and all.

"Come on, Bonnie, you can do this!" the bespectacled blond shouted, pumping his fists and at the edge of the couch, unable to takes his eyes off the screen.

Bonnie's Dedenne was standing up to a much larger Blastoise who fired water streams all over the field. But the little electric mouse ran from one side to another without so much as a splash. Once he got a running start, he jumped rubbing his cheeks, and then rammed sideways on the turtle's face to unleash his electricity. A few seconds later, Blastoise gave off sparks and slumped backwards on the ground.

"Blastoise is unable to battle!" the referee announced. "Dedenne is the winner, and Bonnie moves on to the next round!"

"Yeah! That's my little sister!" The boy clapped, and adjusted his glasses to make a glowing effect. "I could not be more proud of you."

The camera zoomed on Bonnie, who jumped in joy as she hugged Dedenne for his victory, and as soon as she saw it, she extended her fingers in a V-sign at the screen.

"If you're watching this, big brother, this one was for you!" she announced.

"Dennenene!" the mouse added.

Clemont almost felt tears of joy forming. He was really proud of how far his little sister had gone, and he regretted not being able to be there in person. However, they had made a promise: she would do her best in other regions as a trainer, and he'd continue to improve himself as a Gym Leader, and as an inventor.

"Hey, what did I miss?" his father's voice called out. Clemont turned around and saw Meyer arriving along with Ampharos, before hanging his cap.

"Welcome home, dad," he said. "Bonnie made it to the next round of the Silver Conference. You should have seen it, Dedenne defeated a Blastoise!"

"Haha, I wouldn't expect any less from my little girl!" Meyer said with pride. "Alright, the workshop's clear, it's all yours for the rest of the afternoon."

"Thank you. It's time to get to work with those upgrades for Clembot." Clembot adjusted his glasses for effect again. "It's time for science to open the path to the future!"

Clemont went to get his tools from the drawer. During the weekends he left Clembot in charge of the Lumiose Gym, but due to some security breaches after an electric sabotage, he decided it was time to install a parallel security system, to make it more effective to defend the gym from unwanted visitors.

"Hey, Clemont, check this out," Meyer suddenly said.

"Hmm?" Clemont glanced at the TV. His father had stopped in a Kanto channel, about to transmit an important event. A brunette reporter was in front of a large stadium delivering the news.

"Welcome to Pokémon TV from the Kanto region. We are live here, ready for the second match of this year's Elite Four Challenge." After those words, a few quick slides of a Pokémon battle appeared on screen: a Pikachu versus a Cloyster, a Floatzel versus a Lapras, and a Mega Sceptile versus a Mega Slowbro. Then, it gave a close up to the faces of their trainers. "Challenger Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town achieved a spectacular victory against Lorelei two days ago, and now he's preparing for his next battle. We'll be broadcasting it live for you all to see shortly, so stay tuned!"

"Ash?" Clemont leaned against the couch, and then he held his forehead with both hands. "Ah, it's true, I can't believe I forgot! His Elite Four Challenge, and I missed his first match!"

"Well, I don't think you'll want to miss the second. Wanna see it together?" Meyer suggested.

Clemont left his tools, sitting back on the couch along with his father, who grabbed a popcorn bowl to get a fistful to his mouth. Clembot's security upgrades could wait one or two hours; he couldn't miss his friend's match.

"This'll be exciting. I want to see how much Ash has improved since the last time we met," the blond said, wishing to see what surprises Ash would give him. After all, the Pallet Town trainer had always been like that: unpredictable and full of surprises.

Kanto region, Indigo Stadium…

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Indigo Stadium! After his first victory against the Water and Ice Master, Ash Ketchum is ready to battle his second opponent for this challenge! Competitors, enter the stadium!"

That was Ash's cue, who rushed to his spot next to the battlefield, just in time after doing some last minute changes to his strategy. The trainer appeared through his side and stopped on his trainer box on the battlefield to catch his breath and greet the crowd, who cheered for him instantly.

"Oof, we almost didn't make it," the trainer commented.

"Pikapika," the mouse added. Despite not taking part in this battle, there was no way he'd separate from his trainer, and he could always cheer for his other teammates.

One of the advantages of not taking Pikachu in his Pokéball was that he didn't always have to carry it around, which allowed him to carry a six-Pokémon team without having to separate from his partner. He didn't do it often, sure, but now was one of those occasions.

"Alright, we're ready to…" Then Ash noticed how the other side of the arena was completely empty. "Wait a minute, where's Koga?"

As if answering his question, something big and round, half-white and half-red, came rolling from the other side of the battle arena. Ash barely got to see it was an Electrode, smirking widely.

"Electrode!" it announced before giving sparks and exploding, raising a large smokescreen much to everyone's surprise.

As the smoke cleared, a human silhouette became visible. Standing on the same place where the Electrode used to be was now Koga, dressed in his ninja attire and posing with the typical hand sign, his eyes closed.

After a few seconds, he opened them and stared at Ash. "Born in the shadows, live in the shadows. Such is the fate of the ninja. Greetings, young Ash. I've been waiting anxiously for the moment to face you again."

"Same here. If you're one of the Elite Four now, I figure you must be much stronger than before."

"You are correct," Koga said. "You could break through Lorelei's ice barriers. Now let's see how you deal with my sinister techniques and my ninja traps."

"The battle between Elite Four member Koga, and challenger Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town will begin now," the referee declared. "The standard rules from the previous match hold: it'll be a full six-on-six battle, and substitutions are only allowed when a Pokémon is defeated."

At those words, the stadium's arena opened to make way for their chosen battlefield, while the scoreboard above them turned on to show both their faces and the empty icons for both Pokémon. Completely different to the one where he battled against Lorelei, Koga chose a terrain for an evident advantage: a forest grove area with plenty of places to hide, no doubt the battlefield for quick and stealthy attacks before the opponent could see what struck them.

"I choose Ariados!" Koga declared as he threw his first Pokéball.

The spider materialized on the field, clasping his mandibles. Since Poison-types were Koga's specialty, Ash had chosen a very varied team basing on that, knowing the master ninja's strategies based on confusing, poisoning, and inflicting status ailments to weaken the opponent, and the deliver a decisive blow when they were the most vulnerable.

"Here we go! Donphan, I choose you!" Ash shouted.

"Donphan!" The little elephant raised his trunk and stomped on the ground, ready to fight.

"Start!" the referee declared, as the first icons on the scoreboard lit up, showing both Pokémon.

Koga gave his first command as soon as the flags were raised. "Shadow Sneak!"

Before Ash had a chance to reply, Ariados' shadow extended across the ground very fast, until it went below Donphan's feet. Then, a red-eyed silhouette of Ariados emerged from behind and struck, but Donphan instinctively rolled up in a Defense Curl, and the hit did nothing but shake him a little.

"Escape into the trees," Koga pointed.

The spider clasped his mandibles again and firing a sticky thread swung towards one of the trees, hiding between the foliage before vanishing from sight. Nice play, Ash thought; he surely knew how to use the battlefield as good as Lorelei.

However, Ash knew how to force him out of hiding, and it wasn't as hard as it seemed at first glance.

"Donphan, get in the center and use Earthquake!"

Donphan curled up once more and turned into a living steamroller, heading for the center of the battlefield at full speed. Once there, he jumped up and fell hard, causing the ground to rumble and shake powerfully. The trees soon followed suit, and after a minute or so he achieved his goal: the tremor caused Ariados to drop out of his hiding place, falling vulnerable on the ground.

"There it is, Rollout!"

Donphan rolled forward to squash Ariados, who had fallen upside down and was unable to right himself.

"Escape again and use Fell Stinger."

The spider shot the sticky thread once again and retracted it to swing around a tree, sparing himself from being squished by a hair. He spun around and charged again, his head stinger glowing with light purple energy.

"Jump off with Bounce!" Ash called.

As fast as he could, Donphan crouched over his feet, and jumped up to avoid the stringer, causing Ariados to miss and nail himself into another tree. With his stinger stuck in there, he tried to pull it off to break free.

Ash then punched forward. "Rollout!"

Donphan rolled forward again, and Ariados was unable to dodge this time. In fact, Donphan's Rollout was so strong it actually snapped the tree breaking through the trunk, passing over the spider along with it. Ash caught a small surprise gesture in Koga's face, probably impressing him.

"Ariados, Double Team."

With another mandible clasp, Ariados vanished in a blur and reappeared again split in two, then four, then eight, and so on until he multiplied all over the field. Ash and Donphan glanced all over the place, trying to determine where the attacks would come from, but the more they multiplied, the harder it was to keep up.

"Shadow Sneak."

Ash and Donphan stood on alert, and they immediately tried to glance everywhere trying to spot the attack. The most obvious choice seemed to come from behind, but Ariados' shadow actually came from the front. Thanks to being partially hidden by the tree shades surrounding them, they didn't see it until it was too late, and they couldn't defend themselves when the shadowy spider sunk his fangs on Donphan before dissipating, and then coming from the other side, once, twice, thrice more.

Ash then realized how much more of a field advantage Ariados had: not only could he hide between the trees, but he could also use them to conceal his Shadow Sneak attack. For a moment he considered using Earthquake again to get him out, but as he was in the move with Double Team and shooting threads, it wouldn't be as easy to shake him out of hiding.

"Let's see… if we can't get him out, let's take out his hiding places," Ash decided. "Donphan, use Gyro Ball and take down as many trees as you can!"

"Donphan!" Donphan jumped up again and curled up, but he started to float horizontally as he became engulfed in a silver energy.

Next, he turned into a spinning flying saucer and went to the nearest tree, breaking through the trunk and taking it down. He followed suit with the next one, and then another, until he brought down every single one he could reach within the center clearing area.

By a lucky chance, he brought down the tree Ariados was hiding in, forcing him to leap to safety and exposing himself in the process. Donphan immediately turned around and tackled him hard, before landing back on the ground and putting him in a vulnerable position.

"Let's finish him off, Hyper Beam!"

Their best bet was to launch a high-powered attack to win the first round and take an early advantage while they still could. Koga remained still all the way while Ariados seemingly struggled to right himself while still on the ground. Donphan quickly finished charging and fired the blast, causing a huge explosion in the impact point.

As the smoke cleared, Ash and Donphan saw the spider still laying, motionless in the same place, and the Pallet trainer allowed himself to smile… until 'Ariados' vanished in a puff of smoke and was replaced by a piece of tree trunk.

"What the?!/ Donphan!" trainer and Pokémon shouted in unison.

"Pikachu!" Pikachu yelled as he pointed to the battlefield.

Right when there was another smoke burst right behind Donphan, where Ariados reappeared with his eyes and fangs fixated on him. Then they understood what happened: Ariados used Substitute in the last second to save himself from the Hyper Beam, and was now set for a counterattack.

"Substitution technique completed. Use Giga Drain," Koga ordered.

Ariados' fangs glowed green before he sank them on Donphan's neck, and both Pokémon then glowed with an intense emerald light as Donphan's energy was siphoned and transferred to the spider. After using the Hyper Beam, he was unable to move to shake off his foe until Ariados had already sucked a fair amount of energy. Only then he could move and use his trunk to pull his adversary off of him, who was now stronger than ever after the energy he replenished with that attack. He also seemed to be craving for even more.

"Rollout!" Ash shouted desperately, and Donphan began rolling once more, picking up speed as he moved forward.

"Toxic Thread," Koga called.

Ariados fired another thread stream, but much wider and purple, which tangled around Donphan's rolling form, and in a matter of seconds it turned him into a purple sticky ball slowing down by the second, until he finally stopped right in front of Ariados.

"Donphan!" Ash shouted.

"Fell Stinger," Koga commanded.

The stinger on Ariados' head glowed again, and the spider dashed forward towards the sticky ball. He struck with lightning speed, cutting the threads and causing all the thread to fall in shreds around Donphan, who fell backwards. He tried to get back up, but his skin took a purple tint, evidencing poisoning from the last attack.

In such condition, Ash realized Donphan was no longer in condition to keep fighting, and his hand moved to the Pokéball to return him. Ariados was preparing another Fell Stinger, and Ash was unsure whether he should forfeit the first round, or try and take it to the very end so as to at least ensure Ariados wouldn't leave unscathed.

"Phan, donphan!" the elephant cried out when he noticed what he was trying.

"Donphan?" Ash asked. "You… you still want to go on?"

Donphan nodded, and faced Ariados once more. Seeing his determination, Ash lowered his hand and decided to stay with him in this last ditch effort. Before he succumbed to the poisoning, they had to at least give Ariados one last blow.

"Use Gyro Ball and fly in circles!" Ash shouted.

Donphan once more rolled up and flew around the field like a saucer as he spun out. Ariados dodged the first attack with a jump, but Donphan kept flying around, every time covering a wider or narrower area depending on where Ariados went. Donphan wasn't too fast on his feet, but rolling and flying across the air that way made up for it.

That said, with each passing second and using that attack made the poison act faster every time, and Donphan was now probably still going thanks to his adrenaline. For the briefest moment, Donphan managed to arc himself well and hit Ariados, but it turned out to be a fake: another decoy created with Substitute, and the spider reappeared above.

"Spread your Toxic Thread all over the field," Koga called.

Ariados raised his head and shot more purple string streams, creating a web-like curtain to fall over the battlefield. Donphan stopped flying around and landed on the sticky thread, while more of it got stuck on top of him. He tried to remove it, but the more he struggled, the more tangled he became, and the faster the poison acted.

"Fell Stinger."

At Koga's command, the spider powered-up his stinger and charged against Donphan headfirst. The elephant did nothing but glare defiantly, refusing to close his eyes as he waited for the inevitable. Ariados passed by him like a flash, and landed behind Donphan, who stood for a few seconds before slumping heavily on the ground.

"Donphan is unable to battle! Ariados is the winner!" the referee declared, and Donphan's icon on the board turned off.

"Return, Donphan!" Ash declared as he raised his Pokéball to recall his fallen Pokémon. "Well done, now take a rest."

The Pallet trainer looked ahead. Koga and Ariados had fought pretty well. Opening the battle with Donphan hadn't been a good call on his part, but at least he had been able to see what Ariados was capable of. He was very fast and had many tricks, not to mention he had left the battlefield full of poisonous threads that could make things difficult. At least for now, it didn't seem prudent to face him with a ground-bound Pokémon. He needed an aerial opponent, a speedy one.

"Swellow, I choose you!" Ash called as he threw his second ball.

"Swellow!" the swallow Pokémon cried out, spreading his wings and taking flight instantly.

Koga glanced at his opponent. He seemed to consider for a moment whether he should switch or not, but seeing Ariados, he decided he was still in condition to keep battling. Plus, he still had some aces up his sleeve to use against their foes. With a nod, he confirmed to the referee he'd continue.

"Let the battle continue!" he declared as he raised his flags.

"Ariados, use Double Team," Koga called, and the spider once more multiplied himself all over the field.

"Swellow, use Double Team too!"

"Swellow!"

The bird squawked, and many copies of himself appeared all over the field and in the air. Ash caught once more that Koga raised his eyebrows, since for every copy of Ariados there were at least two of Swellow. The ninja master was clearly impressed, as not everyone was capable of matching Ariados' Double Team, let alone surpassing it that way.

"String Shot, to all enemies."

Ariados clicked his mandible and fired more sticky thread out of his mouth. Unlike the traditional attack, he was firing it in small globs, fast as bullets towards the clones to dispel them fast. In a matter of seconds he had eliminated several of them, but still didn't manage to get the real Swellow, not realizing he had hidden amongst the rest and was readying an attack.

"Aerial Ace!" Ash shouted.

Squawking from behind, Swellow flapped his wings and shot himself forward leaving a white streak trail behind, vanishing right before crashing against Ariados and reappearing on the side to hit him. The spider once again ended up tipping over his back and Swellow performed a loop to continue with another blow from above. He was ready to go for a second Aerial Ace blow.

"Electroweb," Koga called.

Even still belly up and struggling to get back up, Ariados was far from helpless: he formed an electric sphere in his mouth to fire, and when it hit the bird it spread into a giant net to literally bag him. The attack caught him off-guard, but in the struggle, he opened his wings violently and broke free of it, even still giving off some sparks.

"An Electric-type attack," Ash said. "I see, so you were keeping that one up your sleeve."

Indeed, Koga was a Poison-type specialist, but he also had many Bug-types to his disposal, and since Flying-types were one of their natural weaknesses, it made sense he'd have a countermeasure against them. But in that case, electric attacks was something Swellow could use on his favor, and they'd be in for a big surprise.

"Fell Stinger."

"Defend with Steel Wing!"

Ariados' head stinger glowed once more before he shot forward at Swellow, whose wings took on the metallic layer. As he delivered a wing slap to deflect Ariados' charge, the stinger was unable to pierce through the steel, and Ariados was sent plummeting to the ground, stunned and ready for another attack.

"Quick Attack, go!" shouted Ash.

Swellow charged again at breakneck speed, leaving a uniform white streak behind him, while Ariados was unable to react in time with Substitute to dodge the impact. Swellow's attack speed was clearly superior to Donphan's, and while his attacks were nowhere nearly as powerful, they were accurate and difficult to dodge. After flailing Ariados on the ground, the bird once more took flight up and glared defiantly at his arachnid foe.

"Electroweb, full area," Koga called. Ariados formed another electric sphere in his mouth, a tad bigger than before, then fired it at Swellow.

"Charge with Quick Attack!" the black-haired trainer yelled as he punched forward.

"Swellow!"

Much to Koga's surprise, Ash didn't call for Swellow to dodge the attack. The bird closed his wings and dove down directly towards the electric sphere, piercing through it with his beak right before it spread into a web. Sparks flew all over the field as Swellow crashed against Ariados hard, taking to the sky once more and turning around to come back for another round.

"Impressive… I had never seen a Flying-type taking electric attacks that way," the ninja muttered. "But he must have some limit. Ariados, Toxic Thread."

"Double Team!"

Before Ariados could throw his venomous strings, Swellow had gone ahead and multiplied over the field once more. Like before, despite being able to eliminate a fair number of clones, the spider couldn't get the real one, who kept hiding among his copies as he searched for a blind angle to charge, finding it behind.

However, this time Koga anticipated to it and gave a preemptive command with a hand seal for Ariados to see. "Substitute, now."

Ariados immediately was covered in a white layer just before Swellow hit him. With another puff of smoke, Swellow hit another log, but he kept flying forward and made a U-turn to get a panoramic view of the field, where he saw Ariados reappearing on one of the treetops.

"Toxic Thread, rapid-fire," Koga called.

Instantly, Ariados fired purple thread globs at Swellow, the same way as he previously did with String Shot, or even faster. Even with his speed, the bird had troubles to dodge them.

"Tailwind!" Ash shouted.

Or that was what Koga believed: Swellow flapped his wings to create an ascending wind current to boost his already impressive speed, as well as his dodging actions. Koga's demeanor, until then impassible, quickly turned into a slight frown as he saw how formidable his foe was. The bird maneuvered nimbly between the Toxic Thread shots, not even letting them graze a feather, and seeing no other choice, Koga chose to use his other card.

"Electroweb."

As Ariados charged the electric sphere again, Ash and Swellow exchanged a brief glance. The trainer only gave a nod, letting the bird know what he had to do. Seconds after, Ariados fired electric spheres one after another, each one bigger than the previous one to cover a wider area. But like before, Swellow didn't dodge: he charged ahead against them, making contact with every electric net, and piercing through them with sheer power.

And then the unthinkable happened: as he broke through the third electric net, all its power merged into Swellow's body, covering the bird into a golden layer with lightning sparks around. The crowd let out a cry in awe, and even Koga himself was surprised, more notoriously.

"How…? What's going on?"

"That's it, Swellow!" Ash yelled, pumping his fists in excitement. "Now go, Quick Attack!"

"Swellow!"

When Koga realized what was going on, his first thought was that 'Quick Attack' should instead be renamed 'Lightning Attack', as Swellow flew so fast they didn't even see him coming; literal lightning speed. Sparks appearing on Ariados evidenced the attack had done electric damage.

"Aerial Ace assault, full speed!" Ash yelled.

"Ariados, Toxic Thread!" Koga countered, raising his voice for the first time in the match.

Ariados fired the poisonous string once more, but as soon as it made contact, it dissolved against the sparks. Swellow continued unstoppable and hit Ariados repeatedly. Whatever that strange electric armor was, it didn't only powered-up his attacks, but also gave him a speed boost to the point the naked eye could barely keep up.

"Long-ranged Giga Drain," Koga called once he calmed down.

Evidently, seeing the effect it had on the Toxic Thread, Koga decided not to take his chances in doing that attack at point-blank range, instead keeping his distance. Ariados' mandibles glowed green and unleashed energy tendrils towards Swellow, hopefully to recover at least part of the lost energy during the last assault. Ash however foresaw his intention, and called for a Steel Wing so the bird could protect himself. The tendrils hit the metallic wing and faded into nothingness before being able to suck any energy out of Swellow, who was left free to continue his attack.

"Brave Bird, finish it!"

"Ariados, Fell Stinger!"

The bird flew as high as he could, and then took a dive at the spider at full speed. In a last burst of desperation, Ariados charged head on with the stinger to hit Swellow and inflict at least some damage before going down, but the attack was mostly harmless against the electric armor, and Swellow won out in the clash without issues. The spider skidded on the ground as Swellow flew past him, giving off some red sparks due to the recoil damage, but otherwise suffering no consequences.

"Ariados is unable to battle, Swellow is the winner!" the referee declared.

Ariados' icon turned off instantly, and Ash felt like celebrating. The tables were now even and the initial disadvantage was gone. Koga for his part, meditated deep in thought before deciding who'd be the best opponent to face Swellow.

After a while, the ninja grabbed his next ball and threw it. "I choose Crobat!"

"Crobat!" The four-winged bat appeared in the air, flying up until he was on the same altitude as Swellow, as his icon on the scoreboard turned on. The referee instantly raised his flags for the battle to continue.

"Swellow, use Quick Attack!" Ash called.

Swellow charged at Golbat at full speed. The bat remained in place, as if he didn't care about dodging. Koga however, was waiting for the right moment to counterattack, risking to see if it worked as he expected.

"Mimic."

With a brief cry, Crobat's eyes glowed, and much to the surprise of everyone, especially Ash and Swellow, Crobat charged in the same way as the bird, but not only mimicking the Quick Attack, but also the armor's electric effect. They both clashed against each other head on, creating a large lightning bolt sphere that exploded, sending them knocked backwards and giving off sparks.

"Just as I thought," Koga declared. "We can use that same attack for ourselves. Air Cutter."

"Air Slash!" Ash countered.

Crobat flapped his wings fast as he fired small, shuriken-shaped projectiles against Swellow, who replied with one single hard flap to send a lone, bigger wind blade. Crobat dodged the attack without much issue, but unlike Swellow he could keep pressing on, and while the bird dodged a few shurikens, others managed to graze him, even if the electric armor reduced the damage.

A few seconds later, the Tailwind's speed petered out, and both of them ended up more or less on even grounds in speed. Swellow was still the faster of the two, but Crobat managed to anticipate where he was going to attack and reacted preemptively to avoid getting hit, or in case he couldn't dodge, he replied using the Mimic-copied attack to at least ensure his foe didn't go unscathed.

"Quick Attack!" Ash called.

"Quick Guard and counterattack," Koga replied.

Swellow shot forward, leaving an electric trail in his wake. However, Crobat emitted a red aura, expanding it in front of him to form a barrier. For a brief instant he saw the surprise in Swellow's eyes before he crashed against the wall and ended up repelled backwards. As soon as he did, the barrier vanished and Crobat performed an aerial loop before going for an electrified Quick Attack, inflicting more damage on his foe. Swellow began to fall, but before he crashed against the ground he spread his wings and rose back up, until he put himself at Crobat's level.

"Air Cutter," Koga called.

"Bat, bat, bat!"

"Steel Wing and spin out!" Ash countered.

"Swellow!"

Crobat flapped furiously, throwing a barrage of wind shurikens at Swellow. The bird in turn coated his wings in metallic energy as he flew at his adversary. Once he picked up enough momentum he began spinning, but with the wings spread to repel his foe's projectiles.

"Cross Poison defense."

In an impressive display of strength, and using his secondary wings to stay in midair, Crobat used the primary ones to coat them in purple toxic energy, creating an X-shaped energy to intercept Swellow's drill-like assault. While it cushioned the impact, he was still pushed back, and Ash decided to press on the assault as best as he could.

"Go on, Swellow, use Aerial Ace!"

Swellow squawked and charged to tackle Crobat once more, but he kept his Cross Poison defense to intercept his adversary's tackle. While he didn't avoid damage, he at least reduced it and each passing second Swellow seemed to be losing strength and speed in his attacks.

Koga had already noticed that, and he was deliberately trying to wear Swellow out. He had the suspicion that his electric armor had a limit, and he was trying to force him into it. Plus, despite not looking like it, Crobat was made to take damage and stamina, so even though Swellow managed to get a few hits in, he could pay them back and even with interest.

Meanwhile, on his side of the battlefield, Ash kept his fists clenched. Swellow's Thunder Armor, as he called it, was an excellent card to face opponents who used electric attacks, making him one of his go-to choices against them. But the power boost came at a price: total draining after using them, and Swellow's physical strain became more and more evident.

"Switch to attack," Koga called. Crobat kept his wings coated in toxic energy, and rather than waiting for his foe, he charged to use them against Swellow.

"Steel Wing, Swellow!" Ash yelled in turn.

The bat's poisoned wings clashed against the bird's metal wings. While in theory Swellow's attack had the advantage over Crobat's, the latter's strikes were so fast and accurate they forced Swellow into the defensive almost all the time.

Eventually, Crobat managed to strike Swellow hard enough to push him back, and with a hand sign from Koga, he rushed with the electrified Quick Attack for good measure. Afterwards, the sparks in Swellow's Thunder Armor became intermittent.

"We have to finish this now. Crobat, fly up for a Sky Attack," Koga declared.

"Crobat!" Instantly, Crobat flew up into the sky as fast as he could, lining up with the sun, perhaps intentionally as Ash and Swellow found themselves unable to look at him directly.

Ash gazed at his bird: the Thunder Armor's reserved were almost depleted, and once they ran out Swellow wouldn't be in fighting condition anymore. All they had left was to gamble one last attack and hope for the best.

"Swellow, use Brave Bird with everything you've got!"

"SWELLOW!" the bird shouted as he spread his wings one last time, as he became engulfed in blue flames mixing with the lightning, right when Crobat began descending towards them.

At the same time, Swellow propelled like a living rocket, creating a small burst of air with the start. Bird and bat flew at each other, their eyes fixated on their foe's, getting closer and closer to the convergence point. It'd be a battle of wills, where only the strongest would prevail…

There was an electric flash when both Pokémon collided with one another, and a huge explosion raised a lot of smoke, forcing Ash to take cover. Once he could see again, a silhouette slumped on the ground falling off the smoke cloud. It was Swellow, much to his dismay. But a couple seconds later, another also fell in similar conditions just a few feet from him, his four wings spread on the ground forming an X. The clash had left both Pokémon out of commission.

"Double KO, neither Swellow nor Crobat are able to keep battling!" the referee declared as he raised both flags, and both Pokémon's icons turned off at the same time.

"Return, Swellow!" Ash said as he recalled the bird. "Well done, now you've earned a long rest."

Ash looked ahead as Koga returned his own Crobat without sparing a word, though his affirmative gesture made it clear he was proud of him. Alright, Swellow at least had managed to even the scales. He hadn't gone ahead, but at least he wasn't behind either. He had to choose the next one carefully if he wanted to end the first half being ahead.

"I choose Venomoth!" the ninja shouted, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Venomoth, venomoth!"

The poisonous moth appeared flapping its wings, spreading some spores over the field. Ash squinted his eyes as he saw it: it looked like it was the same from back when he was a Gym Leader, but it looked a lot bigger and stronger.

"Let's see how you like this," Ash said as he grabbed his third Pokéball. "Incineroar, I choose you!"

"ROAR!" As he appeared on the field, the bipedal tiger roared to the sky, and took a wrestler stance ready to jump into the ring. Koga raised an eyebrow after seeing him, apparently a little surprised.

"Psychic," Koga called, much to everybody's surprise, especially Ash's.

For a normal trainer, starting with a Psychic-type attack against a Dark-type Pokémon seemed insane. However, Venomoth wasn't focusing the attack on Incineroar, but instead in several of the fallen tree trunks. He started spinning them around to gain momentum before throwing them at Incineroar, who simply stood firm and waited for them.

"Fire Fang!" Ash shouted.

"ROAARR!" The tiger opened wide his mouth and summoned a fiery aura, taking the form of a pair of jaws with sharp teeth. They shut violently when the trees reached him, turning them into harmless chunks of charcoal. Ash got to see Koga arched his eyebrows even more and decided to take the chance to begin with a good attack.

"Flame Charge!" he shouted as he pointed forward.

The feline roared again and became engulfed in flames, before he ran off towards the moth. For a Pokémon his size, he was able to run pretty fast, but as usual, Koga stood imperturbable as he performed a ninja hand seal once more.

"Disable and Signal Beam."

Venomoth's eyes glowed light blue as he stared intently into Incineroar's, which quickly shared the same glow for a split second. He stopped his attack dead on his tracks and his flames died out, and in the middle of the shock he was unable to do anything when the insect fired a multicolored energy beam, blasting him through the air, though he managed to right himself to land in a crouching position. As he heard the groan, the Pallet Town trainer knew exactly what Incineroar wanted to do.

"Alright, Incineroar, use Revenge!" Ash called.

Incineroar flared up with darker flames, and focused them in his claws. The feline charged at his foe to slash him mercilessly, though Venomoth simply dodged the blows flying up, down and spinning in all directions. However, Incineroar picked up the pace of his slashes until he managed to land one, which Ash capitalized with a Fire Fang to literally swallow the moth into the fiery jaws.

"Morning Sun," Koga declared, his fingers pointing upwards.

"Moth." Out of the inferno, Venomoth flew towards the son and took in the solar power to heal himself. The burn marks left by the last attack faded in matter of seconds, while Ash clenched his teeth.

"Poison Powder cyclone," Koga said, pointing his fingers ahead.

"Venomoth!"

Taking his distance, Venomoth flapped his wings hard to spread a purple spore cloud. But instead of just letting them go, he also fired some wing blasts to direct it much faster and focused on Incineroar, reducing the chances of failure. Ash for his part didn't think: he just reacted in the heat of the moment.

"Darkest Lariat, hurry!" he shouted.

Incineroar's claws once more flared up in dark flames, and right before the poison spore blast hit him, he spun out like a tornado to repel them, until the blast finally stopped. Incineroar stopped spinning and glared at his foe, while Ash exhaled in relief. Truly, the Darkest Lariat served as an improvised Counter-Shield, and without combining it with other attacks.

The tiger resumed his spinning and headed for the bug, dispersing the toxic cloud and hitting hard. Both Koga and Venomoth were caught off-guard by how fast Incineroar could move that way.

"Venomoth, ascend and use Signal Beam."

Venomoth flapped his wings and flew over Incineroar to start an aerial raid of beams. Right then, a flash signaled the Disable effect had vanished, and thus Incineroar could use his move once more.

"Use Flame Charge and jump into the air!" Ash shouted.

Incineroar set himself ablaze and ran forward. Koga seemed quite confident, as there was no way Incineroar could get to Venomoth… until he leapt up and managed to get above him, and spinning in the air he opened his arms wide to fall with a devastating press. The tiger dragged the moth along and crushed him against the ground, with a huge blast that shook the trees all over the battlefield.

"We might not be able to fly, but we can jump very high!" the Pallet trainer shouted. After all, Incineroar sparred on a regular basis with Charizard. "Fire Fang!"

With another growl, Incineroar opened his jaws to sink his flaming teeth on Venomoth with no mercy, and for good measure, he shook him wildly before letting him go and throw him against a tree. Right then, a flame burst surrounded the moth, signaling a burn had been inflicted. Even though Koga said nothing, Ash caught on that his face tensed slightly and he didn't like what just happened, at all.

"Fly up again and use Morning Sun," the ninja called.

Venomoth ascended once more to absorb sunlight, trying to heal his damage, but the burns were still active and would keep afflicting him for the rest of the fight.

"Psychic, all around the field."

Venomoth's blue aura flared up again, this time at maximum power as the moth lifted everything in his reach: fallen trees, rocks, and even chunks of soil, showing off his great psychic powers. The debris orbited around Incineroar, going faster every time until they bombarded him one after another. While he managed to dodge the first, the slowly came closer to hit him faster and closer through his blind spots.

However, the inflicted burn flared up right then, interrupting Venomoth's focus and giving Incineroar a moment's rest to slip away. Ash immediately called him to attack with another Flame Charge, increasing his speed mid-run. Venomoth dodged the initial charge, but Incineroar insisted and charged with his claws to try and catch him. The moth continued to dodge with great agility, and after taking his distance, Koga did a hand sign to call for the next counterattack.

"Poison Powder."

Venomoth spread the purple spores all around himself, although he didn't launch them in a focused blast. Instead, he concentrated them in a large cloud all over Incineroar's side of the field, as if to ensure he wouldn't have any escape route, to irremediably inhale it.

"Get ready for a Darkest Lariat!" Ash shouted.

However, before that, Koga shut his eyes and gave Venomoth a silent signal, right when Incineroar engulfed his claws in dark flames. The moth's eyes glowed blue and became fixated on the tiger's. Just for a second, but that was enough, and the flames in Incineroar's hands instantly petered out.

"What the…!"

"You can't use that spinning move to disperse it now," Koga declared.

As the Poison Powder cloud descended on the fire tiger, Ash looked around all over trying to find an escape or something he could use to counter it. Could Incineroar hold his breath until it was over? It was coming down and there was no way he could slip away.

"Use Flame Charge and spin out!" the trainer called.

"ROAR!"

Trying to repel the toxic spores somehow, Incineroar flamed on and began spinning his entire body. The result was that he created a flaming tornado, and as soon as it made contact with the toxic cloud, it started a chain reaction and detonated all of them, and the purple smoke quickly was replaced by black one, due to the amount of small yet fast explosions spreading all over the place. In fact, Venomoth was forced to pull back to avoid getting caught in the radius, but it moved way too fast and he didn't escape before some of them caught up to him. In the middle of the smoke, Incineroar appeared still engulfed in the Flame Charge, leaping to him for a shoulder tackle. In doing so he started pushing him against the ropes and had to move fast.

"Signal Beam, use all the power you've got," the ninja master called.

Gathering up his strength, Venomoth fired the Signal Beam with as much power as possible. Incineroar covered himself with his arms to try and endure it, but it was too strong and it pushed him back, slowly but surely, dragging some trenches with his feet claws. The tiger fought and struggled, but he was clearly losing…

Until Venomoth's burn flared up interrupting the attack, and then Incineroar had a breather to run and give his foe due payback.

"Revenge, now!"

"Morning Sun!" Koga tried to call out, raising his voice.

Venomoth tried to heal the damage preemptively, but Incineroar was faster, both in running the distance from one side to the other and in flaming on both his claws. Next, he leapt towards his opponent and spun out in the same way as with the Darkest Lariat and Flame Charge as before, turning into a drill-like fireball. The impact on Venomoth was devastating, and the moth was sent flying towards the opposite wall, crashing against the battlefield and slumping on the ground.

For a moment, he struggled to get back up, but the result was evident. The spinning impact speed, adding up the effect of using Revenge after taking damage from an enemy attack pretty much guaranteed he wouldn't get back up after that, although Incineroar had ended up rather tired after that harsh assault. The referee ran to check it out and immediately raised his flag.

"Venomoth is unable to battle, Incineroar is the winner! As the Elite Four member Koga has lost three Pokémon, we're entering the mid-battle break now!"

"Amazing, fans! This battle is really close! After a somewhat hard start, the challenger manages to overtake and get in the lead! What's gonna happen after the break? Stay on your seats, for we're going to find out soon enough!"

"Well done, Incineroar. Return now and take a rest," Ash declared, glancing at the scoreboard to check the situation.

The match was 3-2 on his favor, and he ended the first half ahead. Looking at Incineroar's Pokéball, he decided to leave him on standby for now. Maybe with a good breather he'd be ready to come back later, but for now, he'd try to stick to the plan and fight one-on-one. Both he and Koga still had three unrevealed Pokémon in wait, and unlike Lorelei, the videos had shown him more varied and unpredictable teams, so he couldn't form one with a fully clear advantage.

All he could do was hope the team he chose would be enough to face them, regardless of who Koga would use. And just in case, Incineroar still had one last card to play, in case he needed to get back on the ring again.

Hoenn region, Petalburg City…

Not only in Kalos there was people rooting for Ash. That day, the Maple marriage was watching attentively the Kanto grand event. When they weren't following their children's adventures, they'd occasionally take a peek to those of the young man who taught them so much, and inspired them to become the trainers they were today.

"We'll be right back with the grand conclusion of this exciting match. Don't leave your seats, we'll be doing the minute by minute analysis of this grand battle shortly!"

"It's amazing, just look how much Ash has improved," Caroline said, hugging her husband.

"I almost didn't recognize him. It seems like it was yesterday when he first came to this gym," Norman admitted. "At this rate he could soon be the new champion."

"Hey, I'm back!" The couple immediately turned as they heard the door open. That voice was unmistakable, and in any case, the past night he had called to let them know he'd stop by.

"Welcome home, Max!" Caroline stood up to greet him with a big hug.

Puberty had done wonders with the younger Maple child, who was now almost as tall as his mother. He still had his dark blue hair slicked back like years ago, but he had replaced his old nerd glasses by a pair of transparent blue goggles, giving him a more adventurous look, plus they were perfect for bad weather, though at the time he was wearing them over his head. His outfit consisted of a dark green jacket with matching shoes, gray pants and a yellow backpack.

"Hey, mom," he greeted her too. "What's up around here? Any news of May?"

"Called this morning, said she's going to meet one of her friends and we won't see her for a while," Norman said. "Well, though I'm glad to see you, we both know you're not here for leisure, are you?"

"Of course not, dad," the boy said as he adjusted his goggles. "I'm ready to earn my fifth Hoenn League badge."

"Is that so? Don't expect me to go easy on you just because we're family, you know that," the father replied in a challenging tone.

"Yeah, yeah, it's exciting and all," Caroline said before sparks could fly between them. "But that can wait. Max, get comfortable on the couch, I'll bring some snacks. You must be hungry after such a long trip."

As Caroline walked to the kitchen to get the snacks, Max sat on the couch along with his father, checking the TV with interest.

"Is that an Elite Four Challenge?"

"Yeah, and guess who's the challenger?" Norman added.

The slides showed some of the highlights of each battle. Although the Donphan he saw fighting against the Ariados at first didn't clue him in, as soon as he saw the electric-charged Swellow clashing against the Crobat in the air, he knew exactly who it was. After all, how many trainers did he know with a Pokémon capable of that?

"Is that Ash? I knew he'd won this year's Indigo League, so he really entered the challenge?"

"Yeah, and this is his second battle," Norman said. "We're in the mid-battle break, so you're in time to see the conclusion."

"Wow, I can't miss this." Max leaned forward to get a better view.

As the descriptive analysis of each round kept going, Max was amazed to see how much his old friend's battling style had evolved. He still recalled when he saw the Silver Conference on TV and how his Charizard lost to that Blaziken. And now, he seemingly took a page from that match, seeing the way he used his Incineroar to defeat the Venomoth when he tried to slip away through the air. Ash using his head, it almost seemed impossible, though he could see he still kept adapting and improvising quite well when he was in a pinch.

"Here you are, dig in!" Caroline said, bringing a tray full of sandwiches.

"Thanks, mom." Max grabbed one and chewed almost half of it in a single bite. "Wow, this is going to be good. Let's see how strong you've become since the last time we met, Ash."

While the Maples kept watching the analysis and waited for the battle to resume, the younger son felt himself overwhelmed by excitement. During his journey he learned a lot of his experiences with Ash, and also with his sister, and was looking forward to have a battle with him. Even more now he was seeing him battle against elite trainers of his region.

Something that always became contagious was that competitive spirit. It was always present no matter how far apart they were.

To be continued…

Author's notes:

Okay, so here we have the start of the second Elite Four battle. This one was much harder to do since I had to make it from scratch, as it didn't exist in the original version and I had nothing to use as base or to keep, but well, at least I feel it's been worth it. The other half has yet to start, so let's see how Ash fares against the ninja master.

About the scenes at the start and at the end, I added them in case the battle came out too short (and it did, comparatively speaking), and for the opening scene, I made it because I couldn't think of anything else to do with Ash but training and getting him to prepare. Since in the past chapters I gave Misty her scene and connected her to Lorelei, I thought it would be a nice way to show the rest of Ash's friends as they watch him wherever they are. I've decided I'll give each of them their moment, though I have yet to decide whether I'll do the Alola gang as a while, or split up. Oh well, I can think about it later.

In case somebody has something to say with the last scene, keep in mind that in the anime not all trainers begin in their home region: if you recall, Paul competed in the Kanto, Johto and Hoenn leagues before going back to his native Sinnoh, so we can assume Max did a similar thing. Also, in the games Norman's badge is the fifth you earn even though it's the first gym you can reach. For all we know, Max could have arrived to Hoenn and before stopping by his home he journeyed and earned the badges, don't you think so?

Thanks a lot to AzureTemplar3535, highlander348, Mercenary Flyer, MajorBrony95 and annoyingintrovert for the reviews. I'm skipping Axel Davis since all he did was complain about me not following the move limit, and I don't get what's the big deal (plus he was very rude about it). Until next time!