Part CXXXIX: Becoming a Dragon

"Alright so what is it that you want to practice again, Ash?" Misty asked a bit confused.

"Type weaknesses." Ash said simply. "After the battle with Valerie I want all of my Pokémon to be able to hold their own against a type they are weak against. I've done work with Goodra against fairy types so now I want to move onto the others."

"It is a good idea." May said from the area they'd set up for their campsite where she and Serena were watching the upcoming battle. "Ash does do this a lot."

"True just wasn't expecting this right away." Misty said. "And not with me, I would have though Serena's Meowstic made the most sense what with Olympia being the next gym leader and we all know that she's a psychic type specialist."

"I already know who I'm going to use against her psychic types, and neither are weak to it." Ash said shaking his head. "So that is more preparing them for battle however it may be."

"Olympia uses Meowstics in battle, and unlike any other trainer I've met she uses two with on for each gender." May said. "She had them with her when we went to Anistar last year for a Showcase for Serena and while there saw the sundial that the city is famous for. It was at the sundial that we met Olympia and she had a premonition of a potential catastrophe, one that would require us to help prevent it."

"That's right, Sabrina said that her secondary power was foresight." Misty said recalling what the Saffron Gym Leader had said to her once the year prior.

"Do you know how she uses her Meowstics?" Ash asked.

"No but if I had to guess it will be a double battle." May said and Serena nodded at that. "They are always out together so it makes the most sense I think. Why else would she always have them? I think she uses them in tandem with each other and Meowstic is one of those species where the gender differences are more than just what is visible."

"Right, that is something to keep in mind for after Dendemille when the practice begins in earnest." Ash said. "But starting now I want to practice for when I won't know what is coming such as during the Lumiose Conference where most trainers aren't type specialists. That and isn't Snowbelle an ice type gym? Talonflame may be good against it thanks to his fire type, but his flying type negates that advantage."

"It is." Serena said as she looked it up in her device. "And the Wallace Cup is apparently factoring that in, but I don't know how."

"We won't know until we get there." Misty said shaking her head. "Wallace likes to keep small changes like that close to the vest until the time comes for his cup."

"Ok well on that note let's begin." Ash said tossing out his Poke Ball. "Talonflame, I choose you."

"Skrelp, showcase." Misty said throwing out her own Poke Ball.

It was a few days after their eventful time in Laverre City and they were well on their way to Dendemille Town. They should get there within a week if they kept up this pace which would put them in the town with a few days to spare before the Showcase there that Misty was going to enter so they had time for this break to do a little practice.

Usually, they would take the time for Misty to prepare but she'd already started that in Laverre, and her freestyle was pretty set at the moment thanks to Serena's help. As such, she was taking a break from that and helping Ash out with his latest plan, type weakness training for all of his Pokémon.

Between now and the Lumiose Conference, Ash was planning on training all of his Pokémon to handle facing a type that they were weak against. He'd already done a lot of that with Goodra and fairy types so now it was time to move onto the other Pokémon in his team.

This had begun almost as soon as they hit the road with Lucario going against Serena's Delphox as that was the worst matchup for him and showing that he could handle the fire type attacks that Delphox had, which he could thanks to his Bone Rush attack. After that Ash moved onto working with Frogadier against May's Phantump to deal with the grass type it had. Now it was Talonflame's turn to face a type he was weak against, in this case a water type and the best Pokémon for that from the girls' Pokémon was Misty's Skrelp.

The others would of course face their own challenges going forward. Already it was planned for Pikachu to train with Serena's Rhydon due to its ground type, Noibat would train with Sylveon, Hawlucha with Slurpuff to mix things up, Conkeldurr with Malamar, Sigilyph with Aegislash and Dunsparce with Pancham but all that was in due time. Right now, it was Talonflame's turn.

"Ok Talonflame, start this out with Razor Wind." Ash said as Talonflame took to the sky.

"Dodge and counter that with Water Pulse Skrelp." Misty said as the others watched the battle begin.

Talonflame flapped his wings together and created the blast of air with them that was a normal type attack despite the name. The blast flew at Skrelp, but he was already ready for it. At the last minute he leapt to the side, keeping Talonflame in his vison at all times, and blasted out the pulse of water from his mouth.

The water type attack flew true and hit Talonflame in the face before he could avoid it causing him to caw in pain and fall to the ground. However, despite its super effective nature, the attack wasn't enough to bring him down and it didn't cause confusion this time, so Ash was already ready to counter using Talonflame's speed and mobility to his advantage as they rolled with the hit.

"Steel Wing." Ash said as Talonflame fell to the ground. "It won't be that effective, but it will get a hit in."

Talonflame cawed in agreement and righted himself in the air, using the fall to build up speed before turning up at the ground and shooting towards Skrelp with his wings glowing with steel type power. The speed of the avian Pokémon was too fast for Misty or Skrelp to respond to and the attack slammed into Skrelp's face at full speed sending him flying back with a wail. It didn't hurt too much thanks to his resistance to the type, but it was still annoying, doubly so because his ability couldn't trigger and poison Talonflame when its wings were steel.

This was of course just what Ash wanted and he pressed his advantage. He was going to remember this as a good combo for the future as it was going to be a good one.

"Razor Wind again." Ash said. "Follow it up."

Using his momentum and advantage, Talonflame just flapped his wings to created the slash of air as he pulled up so that it was sent at Skrelp before it could right itself. Skrelp was still in the air when the blast hit him in the chest and drove him into the ground. Still, it wasn't enough to take out Skrelp and he got to his fins pissed.

He'd been building the energy he needed for a long time, long before Misty had fished him out of the water and caught him. Ever since then he'd been getting even stronger with his human and now he knew that it was time. He was ready and he wasn't going to lose to this pigeon, so the best way was to finally accept the change he'd been building to so with a wail he triggered the change deep in his cells and began to glow a bright white.

"What the hell?" Misty asked as they all stared in shock at the sudden change. "Skrelp is evolving?"

That was precisely what Skrelp was doing. His body grew more than twice over to almost 6 feet in height as it also narrowed and became more streamlined. The three fins on his tail came together to form a large, leaf-like fin that he could stand on as his body seemed to kink in the middle creating a backwards, upside down, 3 shape. His two small fins at his side shot out and became long, strong looking side fins with more definition to them. At the same time his head seemed to open to form a crest as the thing from the base of it grew longer and narrower and rest of it seemed to form a protective layer around his head as he finished evolving.

As soon as it was done the color faded and Dragalge stood there. He had a similar color scheme to Skrelp with a purple body, brown fins and edging to the body along with his neck and the facial protector though his cheeks were still purple and his eyes red. The big change was that the crest now atop his head was red with two off green strands in the center.

"Wow I was not expecting that." Misty said as she pulled out her Pokedex to scan her new Pokémon. "Lets see what you're all about."

"Dragalge, the Mock Kelp Pokémon and the evolved form of Skrelp." The Pokedex chimed helpfully. "Their poison is strong enough to eat through the hull of a tanker, and they spit it indiscriminately at anything that enters their territory."

"Cool." Misty said with a grin. "You are definitely stronger Dragalge."

"That's not the only thing." May said her eyes wide. "Dragalge is noted for one other change that is rare and given what it is I think one of only two Pokémon who makes that particular change."

"It is?" Misty asked as something began to nag at the back of her mind. "Somehow I feel like I've been told it before, but I can't remember it."

"Iris told us." Ash said as he recalled it. "Dragalge is one of the few Pokémon that changes a type on evolution, its water type goes, and it gains a dragon type which makes it and Altaria the only Pokémon that change a type to dragon on evolution as that goes normal to dragon with its primary type. Course there is that Mega Charizard variant that is a fire and dragon type, but I haven't seen it yet. As for Dragalge, it's now a poison and dragon type."

"Wait really?" Misty asked her eyes wide as she looked at Dragalge. "I finally have a dragon type?"

"Yup and it's possibly the best dragon type to have." May said as Dragalge just nodded in agreement at all of this. "Because it's also a poison type so it isn't weak against fairy type attacks and as a poison type it naturally has a strength against fairy types as well. It could very well be a unique typing as far as I know and up there with a steel and dragon type if those exist."

"I think Dialga is that, but it is a legendary Pokémon so hard to tell." Misty said helpfully. "But I don't care about that. Dragalge, you want to continue the training battle?"

Dragalge nodded and began to form one of his two new attacks to show it off to his human by causing his tail to glow with power. Misty knew at once what the attack was, she'd seen it plenty of times the year before with Ash's Dragonair as it was the main attack they used together due to Dragonair's body type though now that it was a Dragonite it might be harder to use. That wouldn't be a problem for Dragalge though.

"Dragon Tail." Misty said pointing at Talonflame. "You may no longer be a water type, but we are finishing this battle."

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Ash said with a grin. "Talonflame…"


"My, my, my, that is something unexpected but perfect for us and da boss." Meowth said from the hide he was in with Jessie and James. "Possibly the best evolution we could have asked for from the twerps and it wasn't against us which is a bonus."

The Team Rocket Trio hadn't planned on this snatch operation but they'd stumbled across the twerps on their way to their next location so they couldn't pass up the opportunity to go for it. After all, they didn't want their skills at snatching Pokémon, as bad as they were, to get rusty and sometimes an impromptu plan was the best one.

Like the twerps, Team Rocket were on their way to Dendemille Town so that Jessie, as Jessilee, could participate in the Showcase there and get her 3rd and final Princess Key without a loss and qualify for the Master Class nice and early. That would really cement herself as a favorite to win the Master Class and challenge Aria for the title of Kalos Queen.

Plus, with Jessilina already on 4 ribbons and on a break from Contests until the Wallace Cup where she was already declaring she'd win her fifth and final ribbon it made more sense to focus on Jessilee for a bit. Not that Jessilina was idle as they were milking both of Jessie's personas for all they were worth and then some whenever possible.

They had been making their way to Dendemille ever since Jessie's last Contest win with a few distractions along the way to bolster the personas, make more money, and fund some standard weapons for such an opportunity. Well said opportunity had just presented itself to them on a silver platter.

"What do you mean?" James asked Meowth.

"Well, a Dragalge is going to be worth a lot of dough." Meowth said with a grin. "It already was as it is a rare Pokémon that becomes a dragon type upon evolution, and you know how desirable those types are."

"Sure, they are worth a lot." Jessie said idly. "But with the emergence of that new fairy type they have lost a bit of their luster as it can neutralize them quite a bit."

"True but Dragalge is different and potentially unique which is what actually increases its value from before the emergence of fairy types." Meowth said raising his paw to make his point. "It loses its water type, not its poison type. Therefore, it is the perfect counter to fairy types making it really valuable to those who love dragon types and now can have the perfect one to deal with the pesky new fairy types. Sure, there are other weaknesses now, but the fairy stuff is negated which is big."

"Huh, I can see that." James said with a nod. "And the only other type combo that can do that is what, steel and dragon."

"Technically fire and dragon would work as well but that is only defensively as fire is not offensively strong against fairy types." Meowth said. "Offensively steel is the only other good pairing, and it does have the bonus of negating a dragon type attack's one super effective advantage as steel resists dragon and there are no dragon and fairy types that I am aware of. As for steel and dragon, there is one I've heard of out in Galar, but it's only found out there and I don't know of another poison and dragon type. Course there could always be a legendary or mythical Pokémon with it, or a Mega Evolution, but those are harder to determine."

"Well then let's go for it." Jessie said with a smile. "It's truly worthy of us I say."

"Exactly." Meowth said as the battle raged. "Prep the latest version of the net guns we have and on my mark we attack. Mark."

With that, Team Rocket burst from their hide near the twerps and started firing at them as fast as possible. Before they could react, they were taken down by the nets with one for the girls on the blanket who had no Pokémon out, one for Talonflame, one for Pikachu and Piplup who were watching the match together, one for Ash, one for the Sinnoh twerpette and the final one for their real prize in Dragalge.

"Team Rocket!" Ash exclaimed as he tried and failed to break out of the net.

"You won't break that net." Jessie said cackling at them. "We've improved them so that nothing can break them."

"Yeah we've learned our lessons with fire and lighting." James said grinning. "Now it is all in the hem."

"Prepare for trouble!" Jessie said as she struck her pose.

"And make it double!" James added taking his one next to her.

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth that's right!" Meowth as he took his position in front of his teammates.

"Wobbuffet!" Wobbuffet added bursting out of his ball.

"Mime, mime." Mime Jr. said doing the same thing.

"We should have known that you would show up." Misty said as she glared up at them from her net. "You always show up when we least expect or want you."

"This was purely coincidental, but we couldn't say no to that fine Dragalge of yours." Meowth said. "It will make a great gift for da boss."

"Yeah well first you will have to defeat him, and you can't." Misty said rolling over to give Dragalge an order remembering the recently read Pokedex entry and deciding to test it. "Dragalge, Acid. Use it to free yourself."

"Like that will…" Jessie began with a laugh as Dragalge unleashed his acid that began to eat away at the net at once with a hiss and a stream of smoke from the potent purple liquid. "Wait, what? How the hell are you doing that."

"Dragalge's poison is really strong." Misty said with a grin as Dragalge finished disintegrating the net and got up to his fin to glare at the pathetic humans who'd dared to try and capture him in a net. "And we don't usually have a primary poison type on us, so you aren't prepared for one like mine."

"Damn well that won't be the end of this." James said as he tossed out his Poke Ball. "Inkay, you're perfect for this. Psybeam."

"You too Woobat." Jessie said throwing her own Poke Ball out and revealing a Pokémon Misty hadn't known she had though Ash did as he recalled it from his dealings with these fools in Unova. "Heart Stamp."

"I am presuming that the latter is a psychic type move as well so dodge them and counter with Acid." Misty said before she saw that Woobat was swooping at Dragalge and changing up her orders to properly counter it. "Wait that Woobat is going for a physical attack, hit it with Dragon Tail."

Dragalge didn't need to be told twice what to do. These two Pokémon were weak compared to him even with a type advantage that they had as their trainers had bad hearts and only a trainer with a good heart like his own one could raise a strong Pokémon like him. He was going to show that now for all to see and after that they'd see that he was up there with Misty's other top tier Pokémon. This was but the start for his climb to the top even if it would take time to unseat that really annoying ghost that held Misty's top spot in his mind.

With a graceful leap that he could only make thanks to Misty's Contest training of her Pokémon, Dragalge leapt to the side to avoid the Psybeam before he infused his tail with dragon type power. Then he flipped forward just as the Woobat reached him and smacked it clean in the center of its body with his tail. There was no way it could get its own attack off.

All Woobat could do was wail in pain as he was blasted back and into Wobbuffet which also took out Jessie. This was enough to get Meowth involved as he activated his only move, Fury Swipes, and leapt after Inkay to back him up. Alas for them, Dragalge had his orders, and he wasn't done with these pathetic excuses for Pokémon anytime soon.

Misty had told him to use Acid as well and he did, blasting the purple poison type attack out of his mouth and into both Inkay and Meowth as the latter reached the former. Both wailed from the pain of the attack, though Inkay was resistant, as they were blasted back and into James and Mime Jr. causing them to fall into the pile with the other 3. They were all now in a convenient place for Dragalge and he was going to show off a second new move he'd picked up on evolution.

Before anyone could act, Dragalge formed the dragon type power in his mouth and blasted it out right at the downed villains. The attack was his Dragon Pulse, and the ranged attack flew true to hit the squirming mass of evil humans and Pokémon dead in the center causing a massive explosion on impact. Out of the explosion, a ball of burned and singed villains flew high into the sky.

"Team Rocket is blasting off again." They wailed as they disappeared in a twinkle on the horizon with one more word carrying back to them.

"Wobbuffet."

"You did it Dragalge, you were amazing." Misty said with a smile up at her Pokémon who'd turned back to help out. "Um, can you get me out of this please but be careful as I'm not immune to poison."

Dragalge just nodded as he went over to help his human out of her predicament. It took a moment and some careful Acid to do so but soon Misty was free with only a little stinging that could be addressed with their first aid kit once everyone was free. With Misty free, she was able to let out Machamp and Malamar as well and between the four of them they were able to work together to get the others free as well.

"Well, that was something." May said. "And I don't know about you but just watching that has worked up an appetite. Shall we break for lunch?"

The others just nodded, and Ash and Serena began preparing the food while May and Misty set out to care for the Pokémon as they would all be released for lunch. After that there was going to be more training and other activities as they enjoyed the day before they continued to make their way to Dendemille Town. It was never a dull day when one traveled with Ash Ketchum after all.