Ash is Finally having his rematch vs Viola and the events that take place afterwards
as always I hope you enjoy :)
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN POKEMON
Chapter 7: If at first you don't succeed.
"This will be an official Santalune City Gym Battle for a bug badge, the challenger, Ash from Pallet Town, may substitute pokemon, the gym leader will not, this will be a two-on-two match with no time limit. If the trainers are ready, then bring out your pokemon!" shouted the ref.
Ash looked down at the pokeball in his hand and took a deep breath before throwing it out. "Froakie, I choose you!"
Kenji gasped, he thought he was going to use both Fletchling and Pikachu, he wondered what he was up to, maybe he found a good strategy after watching his battle.
Viola sent out her Surskit. "I hope you know I don't plan on losing twice today," said Viola with a determined look on her face, "my gym leader pride is on the line now."
"There's a first time for everything!" shouted Ash.
"Are both trainers ready?" asked the ref.
Both Ash and Viola nodded their heads. I know Viola is tough, but I've come too far, and my pokemon have worked too hard not to earn a victory here, thought Ash, that bug badge is mine.
"Battle Begin!"
"Now Froakie, use double team!" Froakie ran forward making multiple copies of itself, running around in all directions. "Use water pulse!" shouted Ash. All the copies shot water pulse attacks at the little skater pokemon who was skating wildly around the arena dodging the attacks.
"Quick Surskit, spin and use sticky web!" Surskit spun around in the air and launched sticky web attacks in all directions, making the copies of Froakie disappear.
"Now Froakie, use cut!" Amongst the copies of Froakie, the real one charged forward and struck Surskit sending it back down to the ground. It was slow getting up from the hit, it didn't have the ice to spin into the attack to absorb the blow this time.
"Alright Surskit, time for an ice battlefield!"
"Quick Froakie, use your frubbles!"
The ice beam quickly froze the battlefield, but froakie had thrown clumps of its frubbles just before the ice took shape, making small mounds, like little boulders all over the ice field.
Kenji grinned at this, he had tried a similar strategy when he first challenged Viola, but they were in too small piles to do anything with.
"Now get in close using those mounds of frubbles with quick attack!" Ash shouted. Froakie began speeding towards Surskit bouncing off the frozen mounds of frubbles like a rubber ball and was soon right up next to Surskit.
"Now use your frubbles on Surskit's legs!" Froakie then threw some frubbles at Surskit's feet holding it in place.
"Oh no, Surskit, get out of there!" Shouted Viola, but it was no good, the little bug was good and stuck.
"Now use cut!" Froakie bounced off another mound of frozen frubbles and struck Surskit hard sending it flying into the wall behind Viola. The little Surskit was out cold.
"Surskit is unable to battle!"
The group cheered in the stands. "Wow I can't believe he did it!" said Serena who was busy high fiving Bonnie. Kenji and Clemont both shot their fists up in the air cheering. Alexa, after the shock of the moment was over, had a small grin on her face. She tried to warn her sister that Ash would come back differently.
"Way to go Froakie!" shouted Ash giving it a thumbs up.
"Not bad Ash, but don't lose sight of the big picture, you're not done yet!" Viola shouted, throwing out Vivillon's pokeball.
"You still good to go Froakie?" Ash asked it. Froakie turned and nodded in agreement.
"Battle Begin!"
"Now Froakie use double team!" Like before Froakie and its copies ran all over the field trying to confuse Vivillon. "Now, throw your fubbles on Vivillon's wings!"
"That strategy won't work a second time against me," shouted Viola. "Use psychic!"
Vivillon's eyes glowed and the frubbles were stopped midair and were sent flying back, along with Froakie.
"Alright Froakie, take a break for now," said Ash recalling it back into its pokeball.
"I wonder who he's going to use," Clemont said thinking out loud. "I thought for sure he was going to use Pikachu and Fletchling like before."
"That's what I was thinking," added Kenji, "he must have something up his sleeve. Dedenne and Bonnie began doing a cheer dance in support for Ash from the stands.
"Alright, go Fletchling!" It was hard for him to choose between his two pokemon. He liked to try and use all his pokemon equally and not show any favoritism, but he stuck by his choice.
"Battle resume!"
"Go Fletchling use steel wing!" Fletchling charged forward on a mission to get some payback from yesterday's defeat and struck Vivillon multiple times. Fletchling seemed to be overwhelming Vivillon with its onslaught of hits seeming to get the upper edge.
"Vivillon, use psychic!" Fletchling was then flung away towards the wall covered in sticky web, but at the last moment, Fletchling was able to stop in time avoiding the sticky goo. It seems its training had really paid off.
"Now Vivillon use sleep powder!"
"Use razor wind Fletchling!" Ash shouted in an attempt to hit Vivillon before it was able to get off its attack. However, it did not work as Vivillon quickly scattered greenish colored spores into the air and was able to slow Fletchling down in time. The Fletchling fell asleep midair and fell to the ground.
"Fletchling, you gotta wake up," Ash called out in desperation.
"Oh no this isn't good," said Serena with a worried look on her face. She didn't want to think about the possibility of Ash losing. Was his training going to be enough?
"Now Vivillon, use solar beam!" It then launched the attack at the sleeping Fletchling scoring a direct hit, sending it back and landing unconscious.
"No Fletchling!" Ash closed his eyes looking down taking a deep breath trying to calm his thoughts. He then snapped out of it when he heard a voice call out to him.
"Don't give up until it's over Ash!"
It was Serena, she stood in the stands giving him a confident look.
Ash grinned, just how many times was he going to hear his own words used against him like this. He looked over at her giving her a big smile and a thumbs up. "You got it Serena!" Serena's face turned a bit pink after hearing this, Bonnie and Dedenne taking notice of this, they giggled to themselves.
"Now Froakie, let's finish this!" Froakie appeared ready to win.
"Battle begin!"
"Go Froakie, throw your frubbles at Vivillon!"
"Still not going to work on us, Vivillon, use psychic!" The frubbles were once again shot back in all directions as well as Froakie. They went back and forth for a little bit repeating the same attacks. Both pokemon seemed to be getting tired.
"Froakie, use double team, then cut!" Multiple copies charged in to attack Vivillon.
"Let's end this Vivillon, use sleep powder! Vivillon then shot spores at the attacking Froakie which in return all the copies started to disappear. The real Froakie then leapt up from below getting in close. "Oh no, use psychic!"
But the attack never came, Vivillon was too exhausted, that combined with not actually being a psychic type, it couldn't fire off that many psychic attacks in a row that quickly. It was now wide open. For a split second it seemed like Ash could see from Froakie's point of view, as if he could see through Froakie's eyes, it seemed he was staring right at Vivillon.
Froakie then charged up a water pulse attack with ash seeming to mirror Froakie's movements, unleashed the attack right in Vivillon's face. Sending it to the ground knocked out.
"Vivillon is unable to battle! Making the winner Ash from Pallet Town!" exclaimed the referee. The group jumped up and cheered, overjoyed at the outcome.
Both Ash and Froakie fell exhausted. Wow that was weird thought Ash as he and Froakie shared a look. It seemed Froakie felt something as well. In all his years as a trainer he had never felt something like this. But he quickly pushed those thoughts to the side when he heard the group running up to him.
"That was amazing Ash!" Serena said as she fought the urge to give him a big hug.
"That was incredible," yelled Kenji and Bonnie.
"Yeah, I can't believe you pulled it off," said Clemont. They all gave each other high fives.
"I have to agree as well," said Viola as she came up to the group. I didn't think you were going to pull it off." she said with a grin. "But nevertheless, I am proud to present to you with the bug badge as proof of your victory here at the Santalune City Gym," she said handing Ash a badge.
"Thank you so much, but it was really Froakie and Fletchling who worked so hard out there," he said smiling at Froakie. "I finally got my first gym badge," he said holding the badge up in the light eyeing it.
The group was standing in the lobby of the gym getting ready to leave. It had been a long day with two gym victories, a good night's sleep was definitely in order.
"So, I suppose you two will be heading off to your next gym battle?" asked Viola.
"Yeah, you bet," said Ash.
"Which one should we head to next?" asked Kenji. There were seven more gyms to conquer. It was a daunting task but after his victory today, it felt like it was more doable.
"I suggest the Cyllage City Gym to tackle next," said Alexa, it will be another hard wall for you to climb," she said grinning.
"Alright, that sounds like a plan to me," said Ash with Clemont and Bonnie nodding in agreement.
The group then began to say their goodbyes, Helioptile even let Kenji give it a small pat on the head. With that the group left and started to head on their way back to the pokemon center to get a good night's rest.
Viola let out a loud sigh. "I can't believe I lost twice in one day," she said hanging her head a bit in defeat.
"I tried to warn you about them," Alexa said grinning. Giving her sister a playful nudge.
The group was back at the pokemon center, Kenji went over to the video phones and made a call to his parents, he could hardly contain himself, he had to let them know the great news.
Kenji's dad answered the phone. "Hey son, how's it going," he said smiling.
"Hey dad, I'm doing great!" Kenji said. He was sure his parents were worried about him heading back out into the world again.
"So, are you getting ready for your gym battle?" his dad started.
"Nope, no need," Kenji smirked feeling a little mischievous.
His dad had a concerned look on his face. "Uh, well, son, he started, trying to choose his words carefully.
"Cause I already got my gym badge," Kenji said giving a big toothy grin holding up his badge.
Norman was stunned for a second then started to laugh at his son's prank. "That was a good one Kenji," he said chuckling to himself, "congratulations son, your mother and I are so very proud of you," he said giving a sincere smile.
"Thanks dad, hey we'll be coming through Lumiose City in a few days, so I'll stop by and visit soon."
"Oh well, I'm heading off on a business trip to the Hoenn region, and your mother and I are taking the opportunity to take a vacation as well," he said sort of bummed, he couldn't wait to congratulate Kenji in person.
"Oh, okay then, have fun." Kenji said smiling. He figured they really deserved a vacation at this point after all the months worrying about him. "Well, I'm going to go and get some dinner with the others, bye dad and have fun on your trip, tell mom I said hi."
"Bye Kenji, I will, thanks for the call, "he said as they both hung up the phone.
Ash was making a similar call of his own.
"Wow that's great news sweetie,"
"Yeah, just seven more to go," Ash said grinning, "I don't suppose you've seen dad lately," he asked hopefully.
Sorry no, but I'll tell him the good news," Delia Ketchum said hoping that would cheer him up a little bit.
"Oh okay, Ash said a little disappointed. "He understood that his dad was busy, being one of the top pokemon G-Men and going on all kinds of secret missions certainly came with its fair share of issues. "It used to bother him when he was younger, but the two had grown to have an understanding and he tried to call whenever he could.
"We are both very proud of you hun," his mom chimed in, "We love you so much."
"Thanks mom, love you too, I'm going to get going, I'll call you soon,"
They said their final goodbyes and hung up the phone.
The group made their way to the cafeteria to eat some dinner. Nothing like a big victory meal to end the day with. Kenji and Ash were both devouring their food. Although if it were a contest Ash would have been the messier eater.
Pikachu had a big pile of pokemon food topped with some ketchup, it's a good thing this stuff is safe for pokemon to eat, it couldn't even think about having to give up the tasty red goo.
"So, Serena, piped up Bonnie, what are your plans now," she said giving an innocent smile towards the honey blonde girl, who seemed to not have an answer to the question.
"Why don't you just come along with us," said Ash as he finished what was in his mouth.
"Really?" said Serena, in shock. She never thought that he would ask her to travel with him, she had been bracing herself for a tearful goodbye, only in her dreams did she think that he would offer her to join him on his journey.
Sounds like a good idea to me," Clemont said approving of the idea. It was probably good to have another girl in the group so Bonnie wouldn't have to be the only one. They already got along great, so he had no objections.
"Yeah, come with us," cheered Bonnie, "we'll have lots of fun," she said grinning from ear to ear. She also could put her plan into motion, operation Ash and Serena would officially be a go.
"I'm okay with it" said Kenji giving her a smile.
Serena paused for a second, looking at the group's smiles. She didn't know where her journey was going to take her, but it seemed that this was the first step towards it. "Well how could I say no to that?" she said smiling.
The group had stayed in the cafeteria for a few hours talking and sharing stories with each other. Clemont had gone to bed with Bonnie, it had been a long day and she was done for. It was just Ash, Kenji and Serena left, they continued talking, but after a while, the call of a nice soft bed was too much for Kenji to resist.
"Well, I'm off to bed," he said with a yawn, "great job today, Ash," he said giving him a fist bump.
"Yeah, you too," he said, I'll be up in a few." Kenji then headed up the stairs of the pokemon center to his room
There was a bit of an awkward silence at the table for a moment, but it was Ash who broke it.
"You know Serena, You're the reason I think I won today," he started to say getting that same knotted up feeling in his chest.
"Really, why's that?"
"Well, after Fletchling went down, I almost lost it, it was starting to become too much, Viola is such a strong trainer. But what you said got through to me and I was able to get my win." He stared into her big blue eyes feeling the sensation in his chest increasing.
"Well, I'm glad I could help, it's just how you helped me at summer camp," she said smiling back.
"Well, I'm glad you're coming along with us," he said standing up. "
"Yeah, I am too," she said standing up as well.
The two walked up the stairs and off to their rooms together and went to their separate rooms. All the boys were in one room while Bonnie and Serena shared another.
"Goodnight Ash," Serena said before entering her room.
"Night," Ash said smiling, the two seemed to stare into each other's eyes for a moment then entered their rooms.
Serena leaned up against her door as she closed it beaming with a dreamy smile. It was cut short, however, when she saw Bonnie had stayed up waiting for her, giving her an innocent smile. Causing Serena to turn beet red. Was she always going to be like this? Serena thought.
Ash stood on the other side of his door for a second and rubbed his chest. There was that feeling again and wiped off his hands that somehow seemed to get a little sweaty.
"Hey, you okay?" asked Kenji noticing Ash spacing out. It wasn't often he would see him do this, he knew something was up.
"Oh, it's probably nothing Ash said smiling as he got ready for bed. Pikachu proceeded to roll its eyes, just how clueless could someone be it thought.
The group set off the next morning from the pokemon center. Serena and Bonnie were eager to get back to Lumiose City and check out all the shops, while Ash and Kenji seemed to be focused on their next gym battle. Clemont seemed to get nervous and tried to change the subject whenever the topic of Lumiose City came up like he was avoiding something.
Serena fit right in with the group as they traveled, and the group quickly fell into a daily routine of setting up camp and tearing it down. Kenji along with Charmander and Scyther were in charge of gathering up firewood, chopping the wood, and starting a fire, as well as help Clemont with any of the cooking, Kenji actually enjoyed cooking, while he kept himself cooped up in his house, he grew quite talented at it.
Clemont got the pots pans and food stations set up, with help from Azumarill with washing or rinsing of any food or cutlery items, while Bonnie and Serena got the tents and other things ready. If it was nice enough, they would even sleep out under the stars and try and guess all the pokemon constellations in the sky or play pokemon charades.
They were sure to take plenty of breaks while traveling. The group took turns in training matches against each other, mainly Ash and Kenji, but Clemont and Serena still partook once in a while. Fenniken had a particularly unique fire that it could use. Rather than a normal hot stream of fire like Charmander, Fenniken's fire seemed to sparkle a bit and with a bit of training it could probably get it to do even more.
Scyther seemed to be having some difficulty with training, not really taking it seriously, only really interested in fighting types it was weak to and even then, it sometimes just did whatever moves it wanted. It was going to be a long journey for Kenji and Scyther to see eye to eye.
One night the group found themselves sleeping outside their tents looking up at the stars. "So are you two going to challenge the Lumiose Gym," Serena asked. Clemont seemed to cringe at the subject.
"Well, we'd like to, Kenji started, "but apparently you need four gym badges to challenge the gym leader there."
"Oh, I didn't know there were rules like that" she responded. It was really unheard of, at least in the Kalos region to need a certain number of gym badges to challenge a certain gym.
"Maybe he just wants to make sure whoever challenges him is just super strong," Bonnie said in a sort of defensive tone.
"I don't know, it seems like a strange rule, but I suppose there's probably a reason behind it." Kenji said, throwing in his two cents. It didn't really matter to him, he figured he'd face the gym eventually either way.
"What do you think Clemont?" asked Ash. He figured he would have a theory on why this was. Clemont was the thinker of the group and usually tried to stay a few steps ahead trying to think through problems logically. But the subject of Lumiose City always seemed to tun his mood sour.
Clemont closed his eyes and pretended he was asleep. Bonnie proceeded to get a worried expression on her face. She knew what her brother was going through, even though she promised her brother she'd keep his secret, it seemed like the rest of the group was going to find out eventually.
The group was set to arrive in Lumiose City the next morning, so the group got an early start and set off after breakfast and tearing down camp. Serena and Bonnie ran excitedly through the archways as they entered the city, they couldn't wait to start exploring. Serena didn't exactly stick around last time she was here after learning that Ash had already left.
Soon a sweet aroma filled the air from a local sweet shop, and it was too good to ignore. The group decided to take a break here. Bonnie and Dedenne began enjoying some ice cream while the others enjoyed their dishes. Clemont seemed to be on edge looking around for something or someone. He had to be sure that he didn't show up, after all the person he was on the lookout for frequented the shop they were at quite often.
"Clemont, Bonnie, is that you?!" a big booming voice cried out. The group turned to see a tall man who seemed pretty well built for his age on a moped with an Ampharos on the back seat. He sported a black shirt and blue overalls and a trimmed beard, appearing to be in his early forties.
Ampharos was a yellow, bipedal ovine pokemon with a white belly. It had cone-like ears with black stripes and a red orb on its forehead, flipper-like arms and a long black striped tail with a red orb at the tip of it. He and the Ampharos hopped off of the mo ped and started to make their way over to the group.
"Hey, do you know that guy Clemont?" Kenji asked looking over at the blonde boy, who seemed to have a panicked look.
"Oh, hey dad..." Clemont said sheepishly forcing a smile.
"That's your dad?" asked Ash taking a second looking over the man. He did seem to resemble Clemont and Bonnie a bit. It was confirmed when Bonnie leaped out of her seat and gave the man a big hug yelling "DADDY!".
"It's been a while since I've seen you two said the man giving Bonnie a big hug, "you don't come by the house much anymore, gotta keep those challengers on their toes am I right!" he said playfully nudging Clemont on the shoulder.
"Challengers, what did he mean by that?" Kenji wondered to himself.
"I see you two made some new friends," he said turning to the rest of the group. "My name is Meyer, and this is my partner Ampharos, we run an electronic shop just down the road." Ampharos gave a happy cry greeting the group.
"My name is Ash, I'm Kenji, and my name is Serena," the group sounded off introducing themselves. "Why don't you join us," said Serena politely.
"Sure that sounds good, this place is one of my favorites," Meyer said sitting down. He took notice of Pikachu. "Hey that's a nice-looking Pikachu I can tell you've raised it well, I love electric types!" he said to Ash giving a big grin.
"Oh really, are you a trainer?" asked Ash. He always loved talking to new people about pokemon.
"Well, me and Ampharos here really used to tear it up in the gym," he said with a big grin, "there weren't many challengers who could beat us." Ampharos made a fist and gave a cry of determination.
"Challengers?" So do you mean you're the Lumiose City Gym Leader?" asked Kenji. Was this the guy who was responsible for that strange four badge rule and for getting Ash kicked out.
"Oh no, I'm not the gym leader anymore, he said smiling. That position belongs to my son Clemont!" he said, giving Clemont a pat on the shoulder who was looking down at the table unable to speak.
"Now Clemont, what's this I've been hearing about loads of people unable to challenge the gym, also the complaints are starting to pile up." Clemont was pink in the face still looking down at the table.
"I know I said I'd let you be your own gym leader and not interfere, but you need to do your best and strive to be the kind of gym leader that Lumiose City can be proud of. Oh, look at the time he said looking at his watch, sorry kids I've got to go, lunch break is over, thanks for hanging out with my kids you three, hey, why don't you stop by my shop sometime, I got all kinds of gadgets from mp3 players to 3D printers we got it all," he said as he and Ampharos got on the moped and took off. Eventually Clemont looked up and saw that Ash and Kenji were staring intensely at him.
"So, you're the Lumiose City gym leader!?" Kenji and Ash shouted at him.
So Ash finally got his first badge and Clemonts secret is finally out in the open.
a little bit of a shorter chapter compared to all of the other ones
The next chapter is the events with Clembot. I rewrote the entire encounter. I wanted to add a bit more danger in this situation so I hope you enjoy it
thanks for the read!