Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
Pokémon: Sinnoh no Isekai
Chapter One-hundred and seventy-five: FAIRIES!
The heroes had finally made their way to Laverre City, where Ash, Dawn, Kenny, and Trip were all excited for their respective challenges to the local gym. While at the local Pokémon Center, when Ash was talking about how he was excited to take on the Laverre City gym, the local Nurse Joy overheard what Ash was saying. "Just so you know, the gym leader here in Laverre City specializes in fairy Pokémon," Nurse Joy said, "But you may not be able to battle her today."
Looking curious, Ash asked, "Why not?"
"The gym leader here in Laverre City, Valerie," Nurse Joy began to explain, "Is holding a special fashion event."
"Ooh, I heard of Valerie," Serena said, "She's a famous fashion designer!"
Gesturing to Nurse Joy, Dawn asked, "Well would it be okay for us to simply attend and watch the event?"
"Oh, that shouldn't be a problem at all," Nurse Joy replied. The heroes decided that they'd attend Valerie's fashion event, but not before the reborn trainers took time to rotate their parties to better prep them for facing off against a fairy Pokémon user.
...
Later, the heroes went to the Laverre City gym, where Valerie's fashion event was being held. There were a lot of girls running about, all of them wearing outfits made by Valerie. While the boys in the group went over to a counter because one boy was asking for a gym battle, Serena, Bonnie, and Dawn stuck around to look at all of the different outfits worn by all of the girls, with the three girls accompanied by Braixen, Dedenne, and Chi-Chi. "Wow, these outfits are so pretty!" Bonnie remarked, "And they all look like they're based off of different Pokémon!"
Serena nodded in the affirmative. "Yeah, I bet one of these outfits would help me stand out more at my next Pokémon Showcase."
"I typically don't dress up all nice unless I have to be formal for one reason or another," Dawn remarked, "But I do see the value in looking nice from time to ti-"
"Excuse me, girls," a female voice spoke up, cutting Dawn off and making her as well as Serena and Bonnie turn to see two ladies approach them. "But might we get you three to assist us with something?" the first lady asked, revealing herself to have been the one that spoke up just now.
Dawn arched a wry eyebrow. "...And that would be..."
As it turned out, the three girls were taken by the ladies straight to see Valerie herself. "I... I didn't actually expect you girls to bring in someone as prestigious as Dawn Berlitz," Valerie said to the two ladies, "Although getting her to agree would be very beneficial, yes."
"Serena, Bonnie, and I still haven't been told what our help is need for yet," Dawn pointed out, although since Valerie clearly recognized her, probably due to her reputation as the Champion of Sinnoh, that might make things go more smoothly when trying to arrange for her and the boys to get slots where they could challenge Valerie at her gym to try to earn her gym's badge.
Gesturing to the girls, Valerie said, "Two of my usual models couldn't make it, so I need someone to fill in for them. Although there's three of you, I still have plenty of dresses." Turning to focus on Dawn in particular, Valerie added, "Including one that I was inspired to make after seeing you on the news helping to resolve the crisis over in Lumiose city involving a rogue Garchomp."
"Ooh, we get to model dresses for you?" Serena said, "Count me in!"
Bonnie jumped up and down in excitement. "Me too! Me too!"
Dawn couldn't help but let out a chuckle. "Yeah, I'll take part as well, especially since I apparently helped to inspire one of the outfits you made apparently. Oh, before we get to the dresses, I need to ask a favor."
Looking at Dawn, Valerie asked, "What is it?" Dawn then explained to Valerie how Dawn herself, as well as her friends Ash, Trip (who is also her foster brother), and Kenny are traveling through Kalos to earn badges. Dawn asked to arrange for her and the boys to schedule some matches against Valerie who, chuckling calmly, said it wouldn't be a problem. With the arrangement made, Dawn, Serena, and Bonnie allowed Valerie's ladies to get ot work dolling them up.
...
Out in an audience in front of a stage, Ash, Clemont, Kenny, and Trip were sitting with Sawyer, the boy who they had seen earlier. "Hey, I wonder where the girls ran off to," Kenny remarked aloud.
Shrugging, Trip said, "Knowing them, Serena and Bonnie went ga-ga over all of the fashion on display, and Dawn went along with them to keep them from going to dress crazy or whatever."
Ash was about to say something, but he stopped short when the lights dimmed and the show began. Several models walked out on stage to show off the dresses they wore, modeled after various Pokémon such as female Meowstic, Azumarill, Gothorita, and Chimecho. The guys saw that the outfits all looked nice, and gave some gentle applause like the rest of the audience. However, Ash and the other boys in the group soon got their answers to where Dawn, Serena, and Bonnie had gone off to.
The girls were the next models to go as it turned out; Serena, with her Braixen walking next to her, wore a dress modeled after Florges, Bonnie with Dedenne sitting on her shoulder wore a Chingling themed dress, and Dawn who was followed by Chi-Chi wore a dress modeled, surprisingly enough, after Palkia. The audience went wild with excitement when one audience member had identified Dawn as the Champion of Sinnoh. When the girls saw Ash and the others in the audience, while walking in front of them, they explained what was going on, and that Valerie simply needed their help is all.
After the models were all done walking around while displaying their outfits, Valerie herself appeared. After explaining to the audience how she used Pokémon as the basis behind all of her designs, she made a rather surprising announcement. "To help with making this event a real attention grabber," Valerie said, :"I shall be having a battle against Dawn, with the usual gym challenge rules in place!"
"Wait what?" Dawn said, a bit surprised as the audience went wild with excitement.
Turning to face Dawn, Valerie said, "It really would help bring attention to the show today Dawn. Assuming of course you don't mind trying to earn the Fairy Badge right away."
"Do I have time to change back into my regu-"
"No you do not. Besides, you wearing an outfit that I designed will help things further."
Shrugging, Dawn said, "Fair enough."
Within short order, the battle between Dawn and Valerie commenced, with each trainer permitted one Pokémon each. "Go, Spritzee!" Valerie said, sending out her Spritzee.
Gesturing to Chi-Chi, Dawn said, "You're already out Chi-Chi, so let's make the most of it!" The named Infernape ran out to face off against Valerie's Spritzee. This was an unexpected twist, as Dawn was intending to use her Drapion Scorpion, her Venomoth Holger, and her Lucario Leni as possible choices. But this impromptu challenge from Valerie right here and now kind of threw Dawn for a loop. But Dawn was still confident, especially as she was using Chi-Chi, whose part fire typing should even out her part fighting typing's weakness to fairy.
Gesturing forward, Valerie called out, "Spritzee, use Moonblast!"
"Chi-Chi," Dawn said, "Use Fire Punch!"
As Valerie's Spritzee tried conjuring up its Moonblast attack to cast at Chi-Chi, the named Infernape rushed it, her right fist cloaked in flames pulled back, right before slugging Spritzee hard in the face, cutting it off and making its attack fizzle out. Spritzee was then thrown back until it fell to the stage floor and slid a bit, until it came to a stop and showed that it was clearly out of it. Valerie, seeing that she lost, smiled calmly and recalled her Spritzee, walking up to Dawn after doing so.
"You truly do live up to the reputation you have of being a top quality trainer," Valerie said, "The loss is mine." Valerie then awarded Dawn a Fairy Badge, putting her at six out of eight Kalos gym badges. The audience cheered loudly as Dawn was declared the winner of the battle between her and Valerie, with Chi-Chi giving a single cry of elation in the process. It was the quickest gym battle that Dawn had won to date, although it was a one on one affair.
After Valerie's show, she met with the rest of the heroes as Dawn, Serena, and Bonnie was more or less returned to the boys after they changed back into their regular outfits. "Who's this guy?" Bonnie asked while gesturing to Sawyer.
"His name's Sawyer, and I think he'll be chilling with us for a while," Kenny replied. Turning to look at Dawn, Kenny asked, "So you and Valerie arranged for the lads and I to have slots reserved where we can try for the badge given to winners at the Laverre City gym?"
Dawn nodded in the affirmative. "I was also asking for a slot for myself, but then Valerie gave me that challenge on stage during her event."
Clapping his hands together, Trip said, "Well that being said, Ash, Kenny, and I need to get ready. It would also be good of us to work with Sawyer to help train him up so that he'll also be ready for facing Valerie."
"He's aiming to challenge gyms here in Kalos too?" Bonnie asked, sounding surprised.
Nodding in the affirmative, Sawyer said, "Yeah, and I need to catch up to the others here who are also collecting badges. I'm a few badges shy of being equal to any of the boys, and Dawn pulled ahead of the rest of the pack."
"Not intentionally, of course," Dawn added.
...
The next few days were spent in Laverre City seeing Ash, Kenny, Trip, and Sawyer train in preparation for taking on Valerie at the Laverre City gym. It was agreed that Sawyer, who had the fewest number of badges, would go last so that he had the most time to train. In that time, Ash, then Kenny after Ash, then Trip after Kenny, won Fairy Badges on their respective first tries. Dawn noted from watching Ash's go that he had a significantly easier time against Valerie than he did in the anime back in her previous life; having a Steelix (especially as it knows Iron Head) really paid off for Ash.
As for Kenny, he won using Cell and Spider-Frog, respectively Kenny's shiny Scizor and shiny Ariados. Although fairy Pokémon resisted bug attacks, it was the secondary typings of Cell and Spider-Frog that Kenny was relying on, steel and poison; both of those are super effective against the pure fairy types Spritzee and Sylveon that were used by Valerie in all of her battles against the boys. As for Trip, his natural favoring of steel type Pokémon helped him out immensely against Valerie, as he had quite the selection of Pokémon to use; he ended up using his Magnezone HedonismBot and his Emploeon Myde to defeat Valerie.
After the guys in the group had all won, Sawyer was the next to go. Using a combination of Grovyle and Doublade, Sawyer pulled off a tight win, although Grovyle went down in the process; Doublade more or less had to pull double duty in order for Sawyer to net his win. With that, all of the heroes aiming to earn badges, plus their new friend, had earned Fairy Badges, allowing them to put the Laverre City gym behind them.
...
While the heroes were resting their Pokémon at the Laverre City Pokémon Center, Ash was talking to Sawyer about how he can improve his battling skill when the heroes and Sawyer were surprised by Valerie coming into the Pokémon Center. "Oh good, you guys are still here!" Valerie said, "I wanted to give you guys some heads up on a few things to look out for."
'Like what?" Kenny asked.
"Well first off," Valerie said, "The next gym you guys ought to keep an eye out for is located in Anistar City. Also, be warned that the gym leader of the Anistar City gym uses psychic type Pokémon."
Folding his arms over his chest, Kenny said, "And let me guess. The psychic type gym leader has crazy psychic powers that normal people have no way of countering or defending against."
Shrugging, Valerie replied, "I don't know, maybe." Clapping her hands together, Valerie went on, "Second, there's going to be a Pokémon Showcase hosted over in Dendemille Town."
"A Pokémon Showcase?" Serena said, "Count me in!"
After Valerie had updated the heroes, she bowed her head and took her leave. After Valerie was gone, Sawyer turned to face the heroes. "I kind of need to get going as well," Sawyer said, "I still need to catch up to you guys. Maybe I can try for the gym located in Coumarine City." Understanding, the heroes wished Sawyer luck after he collected his Pokémon from Nurse Joy and took off. With nothing left keeping them, the heroes took off for their next destinations, Dendemille Town and Anistar City.
Sometime later while the heroes were traveling, they had to take a break for lunch. While the heroes relaxed, Ash's Hawlucha and Dawn's named Infernape Chi-Chi were training in some nearby woods, practicing their moves on trees. Hawlucha took an interest when it saw Chi-Chi use Thunder Punch on a tree, but figured now wouldn't be the time to ask the named Infernape for some pointers. While the two fighting Pokémon were hitting trees to strengthen their moves, they each knocked down some rotted branches from the trees they were hitting.
After those branches fell down, Hawlucha and Chi-Chi both discovered something glowing at the bases of their respective trees. They collected their respective glowing finds before heading back to where the humans and other Pokémon were relaxing.
...
The heroes had packed up and were about to get going, when they stopped short upon noticing the absence of Hawlucha and Chi-Chi. As Ash and Dawn looked around for their respective missing Pokémon, said Pokémon came back into view, carrying their respective finds. When Hawlucha and Chi-Chi presented their finds to the heroes to show them what they were, the heroes were surprised to see that they were carrying Pokémon eggs. "Where did you guys find these?" Kenny asked the two Pokémon who brought in the Pokémon eggs. That prompted Hawlucha and Chi-Chi to lead the heroes to where the eggs were discovered.
The heroes soon got to the wooded area Hawlucha and Chi-Chi were in earlier, with Ash carrying the egg Hawlucha found and Dawn carrying the egg that Chi-Chi found. As the heroes were searching around that area, the eggs being carried by Ash and Dawn began glowing, signaling that they would be hatching soon. "We can speed up the process by keeping the eggs warm," Serena said, "Try wrapping your bodies around it."
Ash did so with his egg, as did Dawn; Ash even sped up the process for his egg by having Feltchinder make use of its flame Body ability. Within short order, the egg Ash had ended up hatching, revealing a Noibat. Similarly, Dawn's egg also hatched into a Noibat. The Noibat with Dawn looked up at her, stared for a couple of seconds, then immediately snuggled against her. "Heh," Dawn chuckled, "I'm glad to see that you-"
"NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOIIIIIIIIII!"
Dawn was cut off when the Noibat Ash had suddenly screamed with the use of Supersonic, making everyone have to cover their ears. The Noibat with Ash ended up being comforted into calming down by Ash himself, after a failed attempt by Bonnie. After the Noibats were both calm, Clemont said that Noibats like eating fruit, so the heroes went about trying to find fruit for the Noibats.
Dedenne found a fruit and tried presenting it to the Noibat Ash had, but after placing its ears against the fruit, the Noibat with Ash turned its head away, showing it didn't trust the fruit. "Come on now, Noibat," Bonnie said as she took the fruit from Dedenne, "I'm sure it-" Bonnie stopped short when, after taking a bite from the fruit that Dedenne found, discovered that it tasted terrible. "...That's a point for your hearing which can apparently detect if something tastes good," Bonnie said, conceding the point to the Noibat with Ash.
"Hey, where's the Noibat that hatched from the egg Dawn got?" Kenny asked. Looking around, it was Dawn who first spotted the Noibat she got sniffing at her bag before trying to paw at it while grumbling. Dawn went over and opened her bag, figuring the Noibat with her must have detected something in her bag it deemed to be good enough to eat. After Dawn opened her bag and had to pull the Noibat with her back when it tried diving into the bag, Dawn pulled a few snack items out until she pulled out a pack of fig bars, which the Noibat with her immediately tried lunging for.
Chuckling in amusement, Dawn opened the pack of fig bars and offered one to the Noibat with her. The Noibat sniffed at the fig bar, took a bite out of it, and tasted it for a second before immediately giving a happy cry and tried lunging for the rest of the fig bar. "...Apparently this Noibat likes fig bars," Dawn said, "It would make for a decent snack to keep Noibat held over until we can get it some actual fruit." Deciding to experiment around, Dawn gave another fig bar to Ash and told him to try giving it to the Noibat he got. That Noibat ended up liking fig bars as well, but not as much as the Noibat Dawn got.
Still, it was enough to keep the Noibats held over until quality fruit was obtained. After proper fruit was given to the Noibats, the two Noibats tried flying. The one with Dawn was somewhat more successful than the one with Ash, but both still ended up falling to the ground. After a second ultimately failed attempt, Clemont said, "Why not get them to glide first before teaching them to fly?"
"That's a good idea, professor," Kenny said, "Let's find a place with a good breeze that'll help with letting flying Pokémon glide."
...
And so, the heroes found a hill with a strong breese at the top, figuring that it'd be a good place for the Noibats to get in some practice in trying to fly. Hawlucha and Feltchinder flew out to show the Noibats that the breeze will help them fly, and so they tried taking off after them. As the heroes looked on, they heard a male voice call out to them, "Are you guys working with those Noibats?"
The heroes all turned to see a male trainer come walking up to them, a Starly perched on his shoulders. "And who are you?" Kenny asked.
"I'm Orson," the now identified Orson replied as he gave his name, "And seeing that you guys are clearly trying to help those Noibats fly, maybe I can be of some help. I need something to do with my time anyway, given that the yearly Pokémon Sky Relay event has been canceled this year."
"Pokémon Sky Relay event?" Ash repeated in a curious tone.
Orson nodded in the affirmative. "It's a relay race kind of event where each competing trainer uses three Pokémon that can fly or at least float. But the event this year had been canceled due to Team Scorn phoning in a threat."
Bonnie had an immediate unamused looking scowl on her face. "Those jerks."
Nodding in agreement with Bonnie, Orson then turned to look at the rest of the heroes. "If you guys would like, I can help with having the Noibats there learn how to fly properly. I am quite skilled in working with flying Pokémon, if I do say so myself."
Turning to look at the others in the group, Ash shrugged and said, "I don't know about you guys, but I say that we go for it."
After getting the rest of the group in on it, Ash and by extension Dawn let Orson help with getting the Noibats to learn how to fly. Orson, in addition to having a Starly, also had a Staravia and a Staraptor. Seeing the Staraptor made Kenny comment on how both Ash and Dawn owned a Staraptor each, with Dawn's being part of the team she had used to become the Champion of Sinnoh. While the heroes and Orson were taking a break, they proceeded to talk to Orson, ask him more about the Pokémon Sky Relay even that had been canceled.
Orson nodded once grimly in agreement. "Yeah. They apparently phoned in a threat to the people who would normally host it, saying to cancel it or else. I think that I heard someone say something about how Team Scorn was worried one of the competing Pokémon may find their activity by mistake if the Sky Relay event was allowed to occur as normal."
"So Team Scorn threatened the people who'd normally run the Sky Relay event into canceling this year so as to better cover their tracks," Dawn surmised, talking to Orson while the Noibat that hatched for her sat on her lap, "That tells me that Team Scorn is planning to carry out some kind of scheme near where the Sky Relay event would be held normally."
Kenny held a hand to his chin, wore a contemplative look on his face. "...We ought to have the area surrounding where the Sky Relay event would have been held searched thoroughly. We may be able to catch Team Scorn in the act of their discount dastardly deeds."
Orson nodded in understanding, then turned to look at Dawn. "If I could change the subject, I'd like to ask you for some pointers, Dawn."
Dawn arched a wry eyebrow. "You wanna ask me for pointers?"
"What for?" Bonnie interjected, "I mean, you're the one helping with getting the Noibats to learn to fly, also you're the Sky Relay event expert here."
"Actually, I wanted to know what she did to make her Staraptor as strong as it is," Orson clarified, "I mean, Dawn DID use her Staraptor as part of the team she used to defeat former Sinnoh Champion Cynthia and become the new Sinnoh Champion. I figured that if I could get my Staraptor onto a similar plan, then it'd help me for when the Sky Relay events here in Kalos aren't being threatened."
The heroes all relaxed, now seeing why Orson was so keen on getting info from Dawn. Dawn wasn't so sure how much of what she did with Cyrus (her Staraptor) would translate to the Sky Relay events Orson takes part in, but she figured she'd humor Orson, especially as he is helping with getting the Noibats to learn to fly. The one bit that Dawn figured WOULD translate well from battling to Sky Relays was how natures worked, thinking that a plus speed nature like the jolly nature Cyrus had would let flying Pokémon go faster.
Orson, when asked what nature his Staraptor had, confirmed that his Staraptor had a sassy nature; likewise, Orson's Starly had a quiet nature, and Orson's Staravia had a relaxed nature. That came as a surprise to Dawn, as well as Trip and Kenny who also knew how natures worked, as all three of the natures that Orson said that his Pokémon had were minus speed natures; that meant that Orson effectively won the last Sky Relay event while he had a rather notable handicap applied to his team. The reborn trainers were able to confirm that Orson didn't even know that the natures of his Pokémon were curbing their speed.
Ash, a mildly amused look on his face, could only smirk. "Yeah, them knowing about and working with that stuff is part of why they're as strong as they are."
At the end of the day, the heroes, with Orson's help, were able to get both Noibats to learn to fly effectively. And Orson, as he waved the heroes good-bye, also left with knowledge that would help him, along with a set of three Jolly Mints. After Orson was gone, the heroes turned to look at the Noibats. "Say Noibat," Ash said to the Noibat that hatched for him, "Would you like to come along with me?"
Holding up a fig bar, Dawn said, "If it helps, there's more fig bars in it for both of you Noi-" Dawn was cut off when the Noibat who hatched for her flew up at her, flew into her chest where Dawn caught it, and tried reaching for the fig bar. Dawn chuckled in mild amusement as she gave the fig bar to the Noibat who hatched for her. Ash and Dawn then proceeded to catch the Noibats who respectively hatched for them (both agreed to go with them). Dawn, who used one of the Apricorn pokéballs she got back in Johto to catch her Noibat, scanned the ball that held her new Noibat; it was a male, had a modest nature, and the Infiltrator ability.
Looking at the ball that held her new Noibat, Dawn said, "I'll name him Freed."
"Now that we got the Noibats taken care of," Kenny said as he clapped his hands together, "I say we continue onward. Further adventure awaits us!"
Ash couldn't help but let out a chuckle. "Yeah, I'm eager to get to Anistar City so we can take on the next gym." The heroes, now with a few new additions, pressed onward to where their journey in the Kalos region would take them next.
END, CHAPTER ONE-HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE
Author's notes;
This chapter covers the events where the heroes meet Sawyer, working with him a bit to help hm with actually getting the Fairy Badge on his first go. Also, Dawn, Ash, Kenny, and Trip also get their Fairy Badges on their first tries each, with Dawn getting hers in the middle of Valerie's fashion event because Valerie sprung a challenge on her in a bid to draw more attention to her fashion event. After all of that business, the heroes come across two eggs that each hatch into a Noibat, one for Ash and one for Dawn. With help from Orson the Sky Relay trainer, the Noibats learn to fly and are caught by Ash and Dawn.
Anyway, the next chapter will see a movie starring the cosplay Pikachus made (Kenny and Juan will get in on the action), as well as some shenanigans at the pokéball factory; given that the Kalos pokéball factory had come up before in the story, before things actually got to Kalos, it's kind of important. Dawn, Kenny, and Trip will also be needing to visit the factory for a very important reason.
Dawn's Pokémon: (on hand) Chi-Chi (female Infernape), Germany (male Garchomp), Scorpion (male Drapion), Freed (male Noibat), Leni (female Lucario), Tsukune (Palkia)
Kenny's Pokémon: (on hand) Roshi (male Torterra), Cell (male Scizor; shiny), Spider-Frog (male Ariados; shiny), Goofy (male Houndoom), Godzilla (male Tyranitar), Black (Giratina; Origin Form)
Trip's Pokémon: (on hand) Fourze (male Electivire), HedonismBot (Magnezone), Myde (male Empoleon), Tsunade (female Gastrodon; east sea), Deelia (Dialga), Todoroki (male Goodra; alpha; Hisuian)
Ash's Pokémon: (on hand) Pikachu (male), Charizard (male), Goodra (male), Frogadier (male), Steelix (male; shiny), Noibat (male)