Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
Pokémon: Sinnoh no Isekai
Chapter twenty-one: Working out for multiple goals
Later that morning at the local park in Chocovine Town, the heroes had their Pokémon out for training in preparation for the challenge at the Snowpoint City gym. Dawn had swapped Cyrus and Coupins out so she could rotate Froppy and Jack in, Kenny had swapped out Kermit and Elay to swap in Goofy and Slick, and Ash swapped Grotle out so he could work on training his newly caught Phione. Aside from all of that, everyone's respective parties remained the same.
Dawn and Kenny were focusing more on their respective Pokémon they intended to use in their respective challenges to the Snowpoint City gym. "Okay, here's what I have planned," Dawn said as she addressed the four fighting Pokémon in front of her, "Chi-Chi, Ash asked me if I could have you spar with his Monferno to help get him ready for Ash's challenge to the Snowpoint City gym, and I agreed as it could help you get ready as well."
Chi-Chi nodded in agreement. "Brock's Croagunk wants to spar with you, Froppy," Dawn said to her Toxicroak, "Because Croagunk wants to settle a score with that Toxicroak in Team Galactic. You'll be working with Croagunk, but if he gets carried away like I'm a bit worried because he might end up projecting his grudge against the Team Galactic Toxicroak onto you, Brock and I will step in." The named Toxicroak nodded along.
"Leni, since you use special moves as opposed to physical moves, you'll be training differently and I will oversee it personally," Dawn said to her Lucario, who nodded in understanding. Turning to look at her Gallade, Dawn went on, "As for you Jack, Ash has asked that you help with the exercise regimen that he's putting a wild, overweight Kirlia on as the Kirlia has indicated she wants to lose the pudge she's got. You're in good shape yourself, but the additional exercise as you lead Kirlia through working out will help keep your fighting edge keen."
Jack looked a little confused about how his training would see him help with exercising a fat Kirlia. But he nodded in agreement, and with that done, Dawn's fighting Pokémon all went about their training for the Snowpoint City gym challenge. As all of the trainers got the Pokémon training and working out, Ash led Jack over to where the fat Kirlia was waiting. Kirlia, when she saw that her workout partner was a Gallade, went a bit wide eyed with surprise as she looked up at Jack, a clear hint of blushing on her plump cheeks.
"Kirlia, this is Dawn's Gallade," Ash said, "He'll be helping me with having you go through your exercise regimen as we work to get you back into shape. I hope you're okay with this."
"K-Kirlia," replied Kirlia, looking down a bit as she blushed out of bashful embarrassment. Thusly, Kirlia's exercising began, with Ash instructing Kirlia to start off doing some crunches as Jack held her feet down to keep her steady.
While the heroes were working with their Pokémon, Team Rocket spied on them from some bushes. "Wow, look at all of the Pokémon that the twerps have out," James said, "It's a treasure trove of goods that the boss will love!"
"And the twerp with Pikachu," Meowth went on, pointing at where Ash was cheering his Pokémon on while Jack worked with Kirlia, "He caught that Phione! We can try nabbing ourselves a good luck charm again!" Meowth and James both turned to look at Jessie. "What do you thi-" Meowth stopped short when he, as well as James, saw the look of mild confusion on Jessie's face. "What's wrong?" asked a mildly confused Meowth.
Pointing at where Jack was working with Kirlia, Jessie said, "How did that Kirlia there get so chubby? I mean, I remember when we had to slim down a bit after that summer camp event, so I can sympathize with Kirlia."
Turning his attention to focus on the fat Kirlia, James said, "Oh, I heard talk around Chocovine Town that there was a Kirlia who regularly wandered around the open air market area, and the nice old folks running stands in the market loved to dote on Kirlia and give her treats, resulting in the Kirlia getting rather plump."
Looking on as Kirlia was doing crunches with Jack's help, Jessie said, "Oh, I know her pain all too well. The struggles against an expanded waistline to get it back down to a good size. Kirlia and I are two of a kind. I was able to get back down, and now I feel I owe it to Kirlia to help her achieve that very same dream!" To the surprise of James and Meowth, Jessie got up and ran out to where the heroes and their Pokémon were working.
...
Dawn and Kenny were having Leni and Goofy both use Dark Pulse, the two attacks meeting and pushing back against one another in a beam struggle. "Alright Leni, that's good," Dawn said, "That's what I want to-"
"Attention, twerps!" Jessie called out, cutting Dawn off and making all of the heroes and their Pokémon stop what they were doing to turn their attention to Jessie. As James and Meowth caught up to her, Jessie declared while gesturing to where Jack and Kirlia were at, "You all are in luck, for today we of Team Rocket will not attempt to steal any of your Pokémon, but rather assist with the exercise regimen Kirlia here is on!"
"You... want to help Kirlia lose weight?" Ash asked, sounding skeptical since this was Team Rocket who was offering to help and with no strings attached.
Rolling his eyes dryly, James explained, "We pigged out a while ago, got a bit chubby, and worked out like crazy to slim back down. Jessie here in particular sympathizes with Kirlia and wants to help her get back into shape."
Giving Team Rocket a suspicious look, Kenny said, "I don't know. It seems pretty sus."
"...I say we give them the benefit of the doubt here," Dawn said, "But still show some caution."
"Considering our history, that's fair," James replied. Thusly, Team Rocket got in on helping the wild Kirlia slim back down.
Later when everyone was breaking for lunch, the trainers' Pokémon were all fed normally. As for Kirlia who sat with the humans at the table, however, she was given a dish of steamed green leafy veggies of some kind with tomato slices on top. Dawn, who sat the dish down in front of the pudgy Kirlia, explained, "This is heirloom tomatoes on a bed of steamed kale. This is a super health meal, so it'll help you slim down quick."
"Ooh, not bad," Jessie legitimately complimented, surprised by what Dawn had come up with.
Kirlia, with some reluctance, began eating the super health meal. As she ate, Meowth said, "Hey, James and I got it that the Kirlia had put on weight a while ago due to being spoiled by the local nice old folks, but her weight never bothered her then. The sudden change in attitude occured about a week ago, so I have to wonder." Turning to look at Kirlia, Meowth asked, "Kirlia, why are you trying so hard to lose weight now?"
With a bit of a troubled look on her face, Kirlia began explaining why she was trying to fight the fat so hard now. "Wow, that's a shocker," Meowth said dryly, clearly sarcastic.
"What is it, Meowth?" Ash asked.
Pointing to Kirlia, Meowth explained, "Apparently, Kirlia here is worried that-"
"AHHHHHHH!"
Everyone was cut off when two Ruin Maniacs ran through the park, with one holding and carrying a solid gold idol figure of some kind above his head. Everyone turned to look in the direction that the Ruin Maniacs came from, and as a result the heroes and Team Rocket saw a whole mass swarm of wild Graveler come stampeding in their direction. The wild Graveler all very clearly looked very upset with the two Ruin Maniacs that had just run past.
Springing into action, Ash said, "We can hear the explanation later! For now, we need to fight off the wild Graveler!" Even Team Rocket helped out with fighting off the wild Graveler by sending their Pokémon out to join the melee, although Jessie had to tell Seviper to ignore the twerps' Pokémon when it clearly turned to look at Ash's Pikachu.
Luckily for the heroes and Team Rocket, they had between them many Pokémon who had a type advantage against Graveler. Dawn especially, as she had four fighting types to face off against the many Graveler who are rock type. Chi-Chi and Froppy rushed in and took down many of the wild Graveler with Brick Break, while Leni hung back and casted Aura Spheres and Flash Cannons at a safe distance from all of the close quarters fighting.
As for Jack, he struck many of the wild Graveler down as he moved about as if he were dancing while fighting at the same time; one Psycho Cut took out a Graveler as Jack spun into another wild Graveler by slashing at it with Night Slash then, with momentum, spun gracefully around to chop a third Graveler on the head with Brick Break. The named Gallade fought and moved as if he were a master swordsman of consummate skill.
And seeing him fight and move like this was the fat Kirlia, who could only blush as she saw Jack help fight off the wild Graveler.
At one point during the fighting, Jack was back to back with Ash's Phione, the two of them both surrounded by some of the wild Graveler. As the wild Graveler began closing in on Jack and Phione, one of the wild Graveler was blasted away by a Shadow Ball. Jack and Phione looked over and saw Kirlia, an unhappy pouting look on her plump face, as she glared at the wild Graveler who had Jack and Phione surrounded.
"Woah! Kirlia's helping out against the wild Graveler!" Brock exclaimed.
Kirlia then used Psychic, her eyes glowing with psychic power, as she lifted one of the wild Graveler away with a telekinetic blast that sent it into more of the wild Graveler, giving Jack and Phione an opening to regroup with some of the Pokémon that the heroes and Team Rocket had out. As the two Pokémon got back with the group, a random wild Graveler tried taking aim at Jack, who saw that coming and pulled his right arm back to use Psycho Cut.
But that wild Graveler trying to attack Jack was blasted away by another Shadow Ball from Kirlia, who cried out in outrage over any wild Pokémon trying to harm Jack. Then, to everyone's surprise, Kirlia suddenly began glowing white brightly. Kirlia's form shifted and grew taller as she glowed, prompting James to exclaim, "Oh my! Kirlia is evolving!"
When the shifting of form finished, the glowing faded to reveal that Kirlia had evolved into Gardevior. However, Gardevoir still had all the signs of being obese for her species; round plump face, big plush belly, thick and soft arms and legs, everything. "I guess that evolution doesn't remove weight issues," Jessie surmised.
"What, you think a Pokémon evolving will automatically fix everything wrong with the Pokémon?" Dawn replied, "Part of why we came to Chocovine Town was to check out the festival so that our Pokémon could unwind after the events on Iron Island. Germany especially needed some down time despite evolving from Gabite to Garchomp because of how exhausted he was after all of the fighting that he had done on Iron Island."
Seeing that there was still some wild Graveler, the fat Gardevoir raised her hands up as a sphere of light appeared over her upheld hands, the light sphere being about the size of a large beach ball. She then threw the light sphere at the wild Gravelers, blasting a lot of them away. "Gardevoir had just used Moonblast!" Brock exclaimed, "That'll come in handy to help deal with the remaining wild Graveler here!"
With the fat Gardevoir helping out, the heroes and Team Rocket soon began dwindling down the numbers of the wild Graveler. When about half of the numbers were taken down, more trainers from Chocovine Town came in to help finish the horde off. Soon enough, all of the wild Graveler were sent packing right back out of Chocovine Town.
...
As it turned out, the golden idol figure that the two Ruin Maniacs ran off with earlier was an icon left in a cave outside of Chocovine Town some time ago, so they went in and took it like they were treasure hunters. Taking the icon enraged the wild Gravelers that lived in the cave, who apparently revered the icon, so they all ran after the two Ruin Maniacs to get the icon back.
The pair of Ruin Maniacs were found, forced to help with clean up, and the icon was taken from them by Dawn who went to go return it to the wild Gravelers living in that cave, as everyone else had agreed that the icon ought to be returned to the cave. When Dawn, accompanied by Chi-Chi, walked back into Chocovine Town, she noticed that the fat Gardevoir was inching closer to Jack, calling out to him in a manner similar to how Ash's Lopunny still acts towards Ash's Pikachu. For his part, Jack looked mildly embarrassed that a female Pokémon was clearly flirting with him.
Dawn, seeing this, couldn't help but smirk. "It would seem that Gardevoir wants you to be her go-to workout buddy, Jack."
"It's like Lopunny and Pikachu," Ash agreed with a gentle shake of his head, as if to say 'what can you do'. Turning to look at Dawn, Ash asked, "So what now?"
Kenny stretched his arms into the air as he said, "I think me and Dawn are soon due to break away from you guys again to do our own solo training. We'll be making a straight line for Snowpoint City, so we'll see you again."
Dawn and Kenny recalled all of their Pokémon, to Gardevoir's annoyance as that included Dawn recalling Jack. "I'm sure you'll see Dawn's Gallade again soon, Gardevoir," Ash said, "And you've still got your own workout to focus on."
Gardevoir, although looking disappointed that Jack was gone now, relented and nodded in agreement with Ash. Then, Gardevoir gestured to Ash while crying out a bit. Ash was confused, up until Gardevoir used Psychic to take a pokéball from him and place it in his hand, then gestured between her and the pokéball Ash held. "Wait, you want to come with me?!" Ash exclaimed, clearly surprised that a Pokémon like Gardevoir wanted to go with him.
"Well you are Gardevoir's primary weight loss coach," Brock pointed out, some amusement in the air he was giving off, "It makes sense she'd want to go along with you."
Nodding in understanding, Ash said to Gardevoir as he took out another pokéball, "The one you took and handed to me contains my Lopunny. This one I'm taking out is empty." Expanding the empty pokéball, Ash used it on the fat Gardevoir, who went into the pokéball before it fell to the ground while he put away Lopunny's pokéball. The pokéball that was trying to catch Gardevoir shook for a bit before making a ping sound, indicating capture.
Picking up the pokéball and holding it up, Ash said, "Alright! I caught a Gardevoir!"
"As much as I'd love to try and take your Pokémon now, twerp," Jessie began, "It would ruin the mood. And regardless of the sides we're on, I'm still wishing your Gardevoir luck in slimming down." Team Rocket took off, leaving the heroes peacefully, although Jessie called back, "The next time we meet, it's back to business as usual!"
After Team Rocket was gone, Ash turned to look at the others. "...They're never going to stop trying to steal our Pokémon, huh?"
"Well at least they aren't all bad," Brock pointed out, drawing a tentatively agreeing nod out of Ash. The heroes spent the rest of the evening and night resting up to head on out for adventure the following morning, which would see Dawn and Kenny make their way straight to Snowpoint City while Ash and Brock detoured a bit before getting there.
A few days later, Dawn and Kenny were making their way through Routes 216 and 217 as they forged on ahead towards Snowpoint City. Due to the cold climate, Dawn and Kenny had changed into warmer outfits; Kenny's outfit was identical to the male Winter style outfit from the Diamond and Pearl remakes, while Dawn wore the female Winter style outfit from those games. "Wow, dude," Kenny said to Dawn, "It was pretty dank of your mom to send these outfits to us."
Dawn nodded in agreement. "Yes, quite." Looking around, Dawn said, "As we're going to be facing ice Pokémon in the Snowpoint City gym, we ought to prep our Pokémon for fighting against colder temperatures. This area seems good enough."
"Yeah, a brisk workout in the cold," Kenny said, "We ought to set up camp and get a fire going first, though." Dawn agreed and helped by setting up the folding table as well as get out ingredients for making curry. Once all the preparations were complete, Kenny got started on making lunch, saying that they ought to wait until they were warm and full before getting to work on training for the gym challenge at Snowpoint City.
Dawn nodded in agreement, and went off to fight some wild Pokémon as a warm-up. About half an hour later, Kenny had gotten lunch set up when Dawn came walking back over to camp. "And how was your pre-lunch exercising, my main man?" Kenny asked.
"There's actually a few Pokémon found wild on Route 217 that I was interested in," Dawn said, "So I went out to look for them. I was able to find one of each."
Kenny smirked at that. "Like a true player. So what did you snag?" At that prompting, Dawn called out a Snorunt, a Swinub, and a Sneasel. "Ice types?" Kenny said questioningly, "I mean, sure they're common here given the climate, but how will they help against the Snowpoint City gym?"
"My Pokémon can spar with Bean, Inosuke, and Luan here to get used to fighting ice Pokémon," Dawn pointed out as she gestured to Snorunt, Swinub, and Sneasel in that order, "Which will help when I challenge the Snowpoint City gym. Also." Dawn took out some items from her bag, revealing them to be a Razor Fang and a Razor Claw. "I can give Luan the Razor Claw here so she can evolve into Weavile," Dawn said, "I plan to rotate Albedo into my party and give her the Razor Fang so she can evolve into Gliscor. My plan is to evolve Luan and Albedo alongside one another tonight."
Kenny nodded in understanding. "Sounds legit." Soon after everyone had eaten, as well as Dawn treating her Pokémon a bit, they all got to work on training. Dawn oversaw the sparring of her three ice Pokémon against Chi-Chi, Leni, and Jack (Froppy had to be sent to Rowan's lab to make room), not only getting her fighting Pokémon ready for the Snowpoint City gym challenge, but also seeing progress made in getting Bean, Inosuke, and Luan caught up to the rest of Dawn's rotation.
After a while, the two reborn trainers had their Pokémon break for a late lunch slash early dinner. As the Pokémon ate, Kenny said to Dawn, "Yo, the girl you reborned as had a Mamoswine in the anime, and he had obedience problems for a bit." Kenny gave Dawn a mildly worried look. "You aren't going to have issues like that with yours here, will you?"
"I caught a completely different Swinub," Dawn said, "And I'm a lot firmer in training my Pokémon than anime!Dawn was. I'm confident that I'll be fine." As she and Kenny ate, Dawn reached into her bag and pulled out a Dawn Stone. "I'm going to be using this soon to evolve Bean into a Froslass," Dawn explained, "Because Froslass is a solid Sinnoh Pokémon. I even gave Bean an Everstone to hold while training to ensure she didn't accidentally evolve into Glalie while training. I'll remove the Everstone before using the Dawn Stone."
Kenny smirked a bit. "You really like Sinnoh, huh my main man?" Dawn nodded in the affirmative before setting the Dawn Stone down so she and Kenny could finish eating lunch. After that, it was straight back to training. While Kenny was working with his Pokémon, focusing mainly on the ones he planned to use in his challenge to the Snowpoint City gym, Dawn was focusing on her Pokémon, making sure her fighting types on hand got ready while also furthering the development of her new ice Pokémon as well.
During her training of her Pokémon, Dawn saw Inosuke evolve into Piloswine, who soon after evolving demonstrated that he had learned Ancient Power. Also, Dawn was seeing no manner of disobedience issues out of Inosuke, which relieved Dawn; she was if anything attributing Inosuke remaining obedient to the fact that she (Dawn) had six gym badges to her name at the moment. Additionally, Dawn took the Everstone she had Bean hold before using the Dawn Stone she took out earlier, evolving Bean into a Froslass in the process.
...
That evening, after wrapping up their training and packing everything up, Dawn and Kenny made their way into Snowpoint City. As the reborn trainers rested their Pokémon, Dawn kept an eye on the time. "I have to wait until at least eight PM before evolving Luan and Albedo," Dawn said, "Then sometime tomorrow morning, I ought to be able to get Inosuke fully evolved."
"And having top name ice Pokémon ought to help get your Pokémon ready to crush the challenge at the Snowpoint City gym," Kenny remarked, drawing a nod in the affirmative out of Dawn.
As the two reborn trainers warmed up their cold bodies in the warmth of the Pokémon Center, their attention was drawn to a wall mounted TV. "This just in from Squallville," the news anchor said, "This year's annual Pokéringer competition ended seeing a Kanto region native, Ash Ketchum, as the winner, with the Staravia he entered evolving into Staraptor in the process."
Dawn and Kenny both nodded to that, remembering the episode of the anime from their previous life where Ash's Staravia evolved into Staraptor and helped to give Paul a good L for once. "Cheers to that, I say," Kenny said as he and Dawn watched the news, "Good on Ash for winning and evolving his Staravia."
"It will be a boon to him when he challenges the Snowpoint City gym," Dawn remarked as she gave a nod of agreement, "Although he ought to exercise caution." Remembering Ash's battle against Candice from the anime, Ash's Staraptor can easily hit all of Candice's Pokémon for super effective damage, as by now Ash's Staraptor ought to know Close Combat which can put Candice's Sneasel on some seriously thin ice. The bird Pokémon's flying attacks will also be a threat to Candice's Medicham, Snover, and Abomosnow, but again Ash had to exercise caution, because he would be using a flying Pokémon in an ice Pokémon gym.
"Ash's win was given to him by default as his opponent he would have faced in the final round, a boy named Paul, was disqualified by judges before the final round actually took place," the news anchor went on, surprising Dawn and Kenny as they continued to watch the news, "The judges disqualified Paul on poor sportsmanship charges, as well as suspicion of Paul mistreating the Honchkrow that he had entered with."
As the news changed to cover a different story, Dawn and Kenny looked back to one another. "Well that ought to put a Beedrill in that emo bully Paul's bonnet," Kenny remarked, amusement clear in the air that Kenny was giving off, "Being disqualified like that. And good show for Ash netting the win and evolving Staravia into Staraptor."
Dawn nodded in agreement, and wondered how Paul was disqualified here whereas in the anime in her and Kenny's previous life, Paul was never disqualified or suspected of anything foul by anyone in the Pokéringer competition episode where Ash's Staravia evolved into Staraptor. Was Paul here slipping somehow? And if so, what could be causing it? It was a worrisome development that Dawn wanted to keep an eye out for.
However, Paul's disqualification from the Pokéringer competition here, coupled with why he had been disqualified, would go a long way as another piece of evidence to use in the case being made against Paul to help bring him to answer for all of his cruelty. Dawn made a note of it to get a hold of contact info for Squallville and the Pokéringer competition judges, so that testimony could be gathered from them if and when the time came.
A short while later when it was a little past eight, Dawn rotated Albedo into her party then went outside of the Pokémon Center in Snowpoint City. Dawn called Albedo and Luan out, gave them the Razor Fang and Razor Claw respectively, and watched as they evolved into Gliscor and Weavile. After that, Dawn recalled her Pokémon before heading back inside into the Pokémon Center so she could crash for the night.
The following morning, after she and Kenny had woken up and she rotated her party a bit, Dawn got to training her Pokémon, having Chi-Chi, Leni, and Froppy (this time) spar with Bean, Luan, and Inosuke respectively. During this training, Dawn saw Inosuke evolve into Mamoswine. "Won't he be useful against the Sunyshore gym?" Kenny asked while gesturing to Dawn's named Mamoswine as the two reborn trainers took a break while their Pokémon relaxed.
"Yes, and I can easily work out how to use Inosuke there," Dawn said. Giving the matter some thought, Dawn went on, "I'm also totally going to want to use Germany, and I think both Albedo and Shadow will be good choices as well. Counter electric Pokémon with ground Pokémon."
"Oh!" Kenny exclaimed, "I'm totally going to use Elay in the Sunyshore gym. Roshi will also get to shine since he and Elay are going to have to sit out the Snowpoint gym challenge." The two reborn trainers then talked of plans for the future, concerning challenges that were both far away and occurring really soon.
END, CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Author's notes;
This chapter sees the fat Kirlia from the previous chapter evolve into Gardevoir, before Ash ultimately catches her. Ash getting Gardevoir, aside from giving him a leg up and helping to show him as the caring trainer he is towards his Pokémon, was something suggested by someone who I talked to in the PMs.
I used the suggestion, but gave it my own twist so I can have Ash show care and support for his Pokémon by working with an overweight Pokémon he catches to get said Pokémon back into shape. Dieting an overweight Pokémon is a concept that has appeared in the anime before but I feel ought to be explored more, so Ash's Gardevoir will remain overweight for the time being as he works with her to get her back into shape.
Additionally, this chapter saw Dawn obtain some new Sinnoh Pokémon and do a lot of evolving; considering what I plan to do for the next few chapters, it will be a very long time before Dawn will see a new capture, even with the fact I'm going to skip some filler episodes.
Dawn's Pokémon: (on hand) Chi-Chi (female Infernape), Leni (female Lucario), Luan (female Weavile), Albedo (female Gliscor), Bean (female Froslass), Inosuke (male Mamoswine)
Kenny's Pokémon: (on hand) Roshi (male Torterra), Zarbon (male Machamp), Cell (male Scizor; shiny), Goofy (male Houndoom), Juan (male Pikachu), Slick (male Snorlax)
Ash's Pokémon: Pikachu (male), Phione (gender unknown), Monferno (male), Staraptor (male), Swampert (female), Gardevoir (female; obese)