Hey everyone it's The-Ell-Star and my god it has been a while. Sorry its taken two months for this, as I mentioned before exam season came up and all my attention was devoted to that. Hopefully updates will be more frequent...hopefully. I still have 3 more exams before I'm officially done with exams for one year. Still, I present you with Chapter 3 of "From High School to Badges". Heads up, theres a 'violent' scene in this chapter so you have been warned.
The term was almost over for both Ash and Dawn: this was lucky as Dawn wouldn't have to deal with Drew, Barry, May or Misty throughout the duration of the week and a bit holiday. And for Ash...it meant he could spend more time with his Pokemon. With the addition of this being the duo's last holiday before they left school, it also provided extra time to begin revising before the exams were thrown onto them. Before that, they had one last day in school before the break.
Ash's day began like any other, in a lesson with other kids complaining about why they had to do this whilst Ash thought about each one as either a snob, plonker, twit or attention hogger. "De Ja Vu huh" Ash thought to the teacher set the work, and when the kids began complaining more, Ash simply rolled his eyes and started the work that the teacher had set. It was Math, Trigonometry and 3D Pythagorus. Ash understood it well and was about to start bulldozing his way through the questions, but a soft voice, one Ash wasn't used to in lessons, stopped him.
"Ash...do you think you could help me? I'm not that good with Trigonometry."
Ash turned his head to see who had asked for his assistance, and was surprised to see it was Dawn. She was wearing a blue polo shirt, black jeans and purple converse. Moreover, she was sitting next to him. Ash was about question why Dawn was sitting next him, and not sitting where she sat last Math's lesson, but then he realised there was no seating plan for any lessons so anyone could sit anywhere. Plus...after yesterday's incident, it was understandable that Dawn wouldn't want to sit by herself, and instead took refuge near the one who offered support when she needed it the most. "How could I forget?" Ash thought to himself, before replying to Dawn's question. "Yeah, of course I'll help"
"A..are you sure?" Dawn asked again shyly. "I don't want to slow you down or anything..."
"Don't be daft" Ash spoke,
"Thank you" Dawn smiled as she spoke.
For the next hour and a half, Ash was going through all the questions slowly with Dawn, to make sure she understood them. And though she seemed a bit hopeless starting off, by the end of the questions, Dawn had mastered Trigonometry. Dawn thanked Ash for helping her, and straight after, the bell went, signalling the start of next lesson. Ironically, the next lesson was Pe, and Ash's mind began to wonder whether he'd be challenged again. "It wouldn't surprise me, I'm half expecting an attempt of revenge from Drew." Ash again thought to himself whilst making his way to Pe.
As with yesterday, after getting changed, Ash made his way to his secret spot leaving Dawn to wonder where he was. Not that she was too worried, unlike yesterday she was training with her Piplup on the target range. Dawn had heard a couple of people murmur about yesterday, but it was more gossip than accusation. Never the less, Dawn tried not to pay attention to it, and instead focus more on her Piplup's bubble beam accuracy. Ash was were he normally was, training his two Pokemon in peace outside in the courtyard. He had Pikachu and Mudkip with him, and was trying to think of new combos for those two Pokemon.
30 minuets of the lesson had gone by, and there wasn't much left as this was the last lesson of term. Dawn was still training her Piplup, and Ash his two Pokemon. But an announcement stopped both in their tracks.
"ASH KECTHUM AND DAWN BERLITZ MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE BATTLEFIELD!"
Dawn immediately began panicking. "Oh no...Oh no...I don't want to battle...I don't like battling in front of people..."
"Pip Piplup?" Dawn's small penguin Pokemon had stopped training after he realised that his mistress was panicking. He wanted to make sure she would be fine and so rushed up to comfort her.
"I..I'm o..ok Piplup...No need to worry..." Dawn tried to reassure her Pokemon, but no amount of reassuring could alter the fact that she had to battle.
"Pip Pip" Though Piplup wasn't entirely convinced, he accepted what Dawn had said. He tugged at her leg, indicating for her to go to the battlefield. Dawn sighed, and spoke with a shaky voice.
"Ok...let's go.."
And with that, Dawn returned Piplup to his Poke-ball, and made her way to the battlefield.
(With Ash)
"OH COME ON!" Annoyance and anger crept their way into Ash's voice. Yet another person was challenging him. "Did they not see what happened yesterday? Do they expect it will be different? This time I'm not going."
But once again, Mudkip and Pikachu chose otherwise. They both cried, gaining Ash's attention, and showed him the fighting spirt from yesterday. They wanted a battle.
Ash pinched his nose, between his two eyes, and sighed in defeat. He let out a small grumble. "...Fine..." He already knew what was coming, he didn't bother arguing with his Pokemon, not that he liked arguing with them. "Ok you two...let's go..." Ash said whilst returning Mudkip and Pikachu to respect Poke-ball, and reluctantly made his way to the battle field.
Ash arrived at the battlefield first, and as soon as he began walking to the edge of the marked out battlefield, everyone in the bleachers quieten down. "Odd...they normally continue talking until the battle starts...I wonder wh.." Ash began thinking, until he saw who his opponent...well opponents were. "Oh it's Drew and May...Why am I not surprised?...Wait is this a handicap match?" Ash then looked over to the score board and read what it said.
TWO ON TWO DOUBLE BATTLE
"Oh great, I get to have an incompetent partner in a battle against two incompetent idiots...why not go for the full monty and have an incompetent ref as well."
Ash's train of thought was cut short by the sound of footsteps echoing behind him, everyone in the bleachers had now gone completely silent. "Oookkk this is a bit creepy." Ash thought to himself whilst turning his head round to see his battle partner, which was Dawn. "Ok...dunno whether I should've seen that coming or not." Ash began regretting what he just thought of his 'incompetent' battle partner, mainly because he had never seen her battle before, and in a way he was kinda looking forward to see and battle with her, though he wouldn't admit that. Though from Dawn's body language, Ash could tell something was up. She was standing next to Ash, with one hand holding the other, and was looking at the floor.
"Hey..you ok?" Ash whispered quietly to Dawn. Her head turned quickly, as if she had been spooked, and her eyes were full of worry.
"N...no I..I d..do..don't l...lik..like battling in..in front of p..pe..eople" Dawn mumbled weakly. She considered lying, but Ash could read her well so it would be worthless.
"Don't worry about it, just go out and go for it, even if you end up looking like an idiot"
Neither got a chance to say anything else as the ref was under the score board and shouted out: "THIS IS A TWO ON TWO DOUBLE BATTLE BETWEEN THE TEAM OF DREW LA ROSE AND MAY MAPPLE, AND THE TEAM OF ASH KETCHUM AND DAWN BERLITZ. DREW AND MAY SEND OUT YOUR POKEMON!"
drew arrogantly grabbed a Poke-ball, enlarged it, and threw it into the air. May had followed suit with her release. "SNIVY!" "TORCHIC!" drew and May had released the respective pokemon, the green snake and the small oragne chick.
Ash immediately grabbed Mudkip's Great-ball. Dawn had Piplup's ball in hand, but saw that her partner had gone with his water type. She quickly clipped back on her water types' ball, and was about to grab Buneary's ball, but a voice stopped her. "If you want to use Piplup that is fine. Go after the Torchic. I will deal with the Snivy" Whilst anyone else would've doubted Ash's logic, Dawn had seen him battle and knew he knew what he was doing.
With Piplups ball in hand once more, the team of Ash and Dawn sent out their Pokemon. "MUDKIP I CHOOSE YOU!" "PIPLUP TAKE THE STAGE!" The small mudfish and equally small blue penguin were released and stared down their opponents. She didn't know why, but Dawn's nervousness and sacredness had been replaced with adrenaline.
The match was about to begin, the two teams were staring each other down, waiting for the other to make the first move. The tension was high. But the ref had one more thing to say. "As this is the last battle of term, it has been decided that this battle will have NO MOVE POWER RESTRICTIONS!"
Everyone on the bleachers went wide eyed. Dawn's adrenaline dropped and was replaced with nervousness. May's reaction was similar to Dawn's, although she tried to hide and did so badly. Drew just had a cocky smirk on his face. And Ash had his ever still face, but with one thought in his mind. "Well this just got interesting".
"MATCH BEGIN!"
"SNIVY LEAF TORNADO!" Drew ordered quickly, hoping to take advantage of the situation. Snivy began gathering floating leaves and spinning them around him, before sending them straight towards Mudkip.
"MUDKIP ICY WIND!" Unfortunately for Drew, Ash wasn't that fazed by the move power limit removal announcement. As shown by Mudkip's orange gills twitching, before opening his mouth and emitting an barley visible icy breath. The icy breath came into contact with the leave tornado, freezing them and forcing them to the ground with a loud thud, useless.
May followed up that attack. "TORCHIC SCRATCH " The small chick began a dash towards, surprisingly, Piplup.
Despite her nervousness, which was slowly dying down, Dawn got a command out. "P..PIPLUP USE BU...BUBBLE BEAM. HOW WE PRA...PRACTICED!" Piplup took the command, and began charging up bubbles in his mouth. The move went unnoticed to May, but Drew saw the danger.
"Time to silence another penguin." "SNIVY AERIAL ACE!" Snivy began a fast dashing toward Piplup, with what looked like air flow passing around its nose. Piplup saw Snivy coming out of the corner of his eye, and knew he'd had no chance if both got close enough. Luckily, his concerns was put to rest.
"MUDKIP AQUA JET!" Snivy's Aerial ace may of been fast, but Mudkip's Aqua jet was faster. It took barely a second for Mudkip to be a Snivy's side, before slamming into Snivy with his entire body and surrounding water. The force flung Snivy into the air doing a flip, before hitting the ground with a very loud "THUD"
With Snivy out of the picture for now, Piplup finally released the Bubble beam onto Torchic. The practice on the target range paid off, as Piplup landed the attack squarely on Torchic, with only a few bubbles missing. Though not in the spectacular fashion that was Snivy, Torchic taking the brunt of the attack was forced back. And ended up in roughly the same place as Snivy. Both Torchic and Snivy were looking pretty worse for wear. Despite that, they both managed to get up, slowly, and stared down their opponents once more.
"We need to keep Mudkip busy...so that we can focus on Piplup" Drew looked across to May and shot her a look, then indicated his head to Dawn. May wasn't telepathic, but she understood what Drew meant...at least she hoped she understood. Drew made his command, "SNIVY LEAF TORNADO MUDKIP"
Snivy nodded, before once again gathering floating leaves around his body, spinning them and firing them at Mudkip. Ash wasn't impressed.
"MUDKIP COUNTER WITH ICY BREATH THEN FOLLOW UP WITH AQUA JET" Mudkip's gills began twitching again, and let out the icy breath. The storm and breath came into contact with each other again, cancelling both moves. Mudkip then enveloped his body with water and began charging/flying (I dunno what the verb is for a Pokemon doing aqua jet is) at Snivy.
"WAIT TIL IT GETS CLOSE THEN DODGE WITH TACKLE" Snivy literally stood still, waiting for Mudkip to get closer to him. When Mudkip was about to connect, Snivy activated tackle whilst dodging to the left. The tackle gave Snivy the extra acceleration to dodge the high speed aqua jet.
"MUDKIP FOLLOW IT UP AGAIN" Mudkip did a half loop spiral, before charging/flying at Snivy again.
"SAME AS BEFORE SNIVY" Snivy waited till the last second, then dodge tackled out of the way.
"So the one combo Drew has actually thought up involves his Pokemon running away...can't say I'm surprised"
Whilst Drew preoccupied Mudkip, May set her sights on Piplup. "TORCHIC GET IN CLOSE WITH QUICK ATTACK" Torchic nodded before begining yet another dash towards Piplup. Dawn realised she was in a similar situation a few minuets ago, so her nervousness had died down.
"PIPLUP P..POUND" The penguin Pokemon's right fin glowed white, before he charged forward at Torchic. Both Pokemon were closing in closer and closer, until Piplup jumped high and swung his fin down at Torchic. However, thanks to quick attack, Torchich managed to get behind Piplup without him even realising.
"EMBER NOW" Torchic released dozens of small fiery embers at Piplups back, which dealt some damage. The force of the ember forced Piplup forward and his face face-palmed into the ground. "FOLLOW UP WITH INCINERATE" Torchich then released a quite powerful fire shot at Piplup, who had no chance of dodging the attack. Despite Piplup resisting fire type attacks, the Incinerate caused major damage to the Penguin, leaving him with serval burns in the process.
"FINISH IT WITH METAL CLAW" Dawn knew that if this move connected, Piplup would pretty much be down and out. "PIPLUP PLEASE DODGE" As much as Piplup wanted to, the incinerate previously used had caused injuries to Piplup, pretty much negating any chance of Piplup's body be able to move, let alone dodging. Torchic's talon claws glowed grey, almost like they were metallic, and walked up to the downed penguin. Piplup had managed to turn himself around, so that his face was no longer in the ground, but this of course left a 'weak spot' for Torchic to exploit.
Torchic had strutted her way up to Piplup, who didn't realise how close Torchic was until a talon came slamming down onto his body. Piplup flinched violently and his entire body seemed to buckle under Torchic. He looked up, only to see Torchic staring him, eye to eye, with a demonic look, before raising her left talon and swiping it across his face. Piplup cried out in pain, but somehow manage to survive that hit. Dawn's mind went blank, but she was on the verge of collapsing to the floor and crying at the sight of seeing her starter Pokemon getting brutally attacked whilst knowing she could not do anything to stop it. (mind blank + nervousness = forgotten move set)
May on the other hand was lapping it up and was laughing manically at the sight of this. Even Drew casted a look over and laughed, but this costed him as Snivy was finally hit by Mudkip's aqua jet and sent sprawling on the floor. Piplup again looked up, only now he looked very weak, and was once again met with the demonic eyes of Torchic, waiting for her master to give the final move.
"TORCHIC FINI-" The command never came.
"MUDKIP WATER PULSE" Torchic turned her head, to where she hoped Mudkip would be, but was instead greeted with serval circular water pulses that sent her flying into the air and crashing down to the ground. "AQUA TACKLE!" Mudkip combined the power of aqua jet and tackle and propelled himself straight at Torchic, who had barely enough time to get up before being smashed back into air, and crashing into the ground.
She was out.
This left Snivy, who was still recovering after being hit from Mudkip's attack. "ICE SHARD" Mudkip released dozens of small, fast moving ice pieces at Snivy, who much like Torchic, barley had time to register the attack before receiving the brunt. Even Drew couldn't do anything at this point. "NOW BITE" Mudkip lunged himself at Snivy and latched his mouth onto the green snake's body, who cried out in pain much like how Piplup did.
"FINISH IT!" Mudkip released his grasp before springing back and firing another ice shard. Snivy stood no chance and fainted as soon as the attacked connected.
"TORCHIC AND SNIVY HAVE FAINTED AND ARE UNABLE TO BATTLE. THE WINNERS ARE MUDKIP AND PIPLUP."
The crowd once again were rendered speechless. Most were sure Drew and May would surely win, despite witnessing Drew's uter defeat yesterday. Ash, Drew and May recalled their Pokemon, with Ash thanking his. Dawn however, rushed onto the battlefield and grabbed the battle weaken Piplup in both arms, cradling him. " you ok ?"Piplup looked over to see Dawn, with a very concerned look on her face and serval tears falling down her face. He was able to nod his head and let out a weak cry "Pi..Piplup" Dawn brought the penguin closer to her and tightly hugged him, more tears escaping her face.
Dawn felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see Ash's face, who silently gestured for them to leave and get changed. Dawn got up, whilst still cradling Piplup, and left with Ash following closely behind her.
Well that was chapter 3. As I mentioned with Chapter 2, I'm still accepting ideas for Pokemon for each trainers team. Plus, you might be seeing another Pokemon story based off my experience off a Platinum Wedlock (shudders) Anyway thats it for now;
See you next time.