Attention everyone. *ahem* Pokemon. That is all.
The mood inside the Pokemon Center was rather somber. Ash hadn't spoken much after the gym battle, too busy lost inside of his own thoughts.
Admittedly, after the initial realization of 'we actually lost' wore off, his first concern was getting his injured friends to the Pokemon Center as fast as possible. He'd rushed in to scoop up Pikachu, not even sparing Lt. Surge another glance, and bolted from the room.
Surge had probably taken it as embarrassment or shame, and true there was a bit of that now that he had time to process his emotions, but at the time? His only focus was getting to the Pokemon Center and making sure Sunny, Selene, and Pikachu were okay.
He hadn't had a chance to get a close look at Sunny and Selene after their defeats but seeing Pikachu was bad enough.
His partner was looking as bad as he'd been during the whole Spearow incident, if not a bit worse. The sooner he got them help, the better.
Nurse Joy didn't chew him out for his injured Pokemon, in fact, it seemed like she was used to this kind of thing. Considering she ran the center in the same city that Surge was gym leader, it made a certain type of morbid sense.
Now he was left sitting as three of his friends recovered from a battle that he had sent them into. A battle that they had lost.
Misty arrived several minutes after he did. He wondered if she had tried fighting Surge too like she had suggested doing right before the battle started.
He didn't ask when she sat down next to him though, and the fact she didn't head to the desk as well seemed to imply she hadn't. But right now his mind was focused on what to do next.
His first thought took him back to training, and getting the team trained up and prepared to deal with Surge's brutal battle tactics. Especially the Self Destruct.
At the moment it had shaken him, but he could acknowledge the idea of trying to take your opponent down with you. There were moves like Destiny Bond after all.
But even as he began filtering through new ideas to try to seek out a win he felt a bit of self-doubt take root. Could he have done something differently? Had there been a way to win that battle that he just hadn't been good enough to see?
That thought refused to leave even as he began thinking up new training ideas. It made him wonder if he had decided to take the time to do some more training before battling the gym if that would have been enough. Or maybe it was better that they lost?
The aftermath of his first battle with Brock back in Pewter City had felt a little bit like this. The self-doubt and the questioning of what could be done differently were the same at least. The difference was in this case there was no doubt about whether or not they had earned anything with their battle, aside from defeat that is.
When everyone recovered they would have a group talk, he also felt like he needed to make clear to them, especially Sunny, that they didn't have to try to prove themselves if they weren't up to it. That had been a pretty brutal battle for them after all, he wouldn't force them to go through it again if they didn't want to.
They should already know that but it was good to reinforce the message.
"Hey." The voice of Misty dragged him out of his mind and back to reality. She was looking at him with a bit of concern. "Are you okay? You looked about a thousand miles away."
He glanced at his uninjured teammates, who were looking at him with a similar concern. He straightened up and rubbed his face a bit. "I'm fine, just got a bit lost in thought, trying to figure out if we could have won if I did something else, and trying to think of what to train next so it doesn't happen again."
Misty nodded at his words. "Losing is a tough part of training, but that is the point of a gym challenge, it's a learning experience to help you and your team get stronger. Sometimes you can do everything right and still lose."
"I know that." Ash agreed. "It's just I don't like the idea that we had to lose. I feel like I should have seen something or done something that would have let us win."
The orange-haired girl slumped in her seat. "Ugh, I know that feeling. Honestly, you might end up kicking yourself later when you realize what you would have done differently in hindsight."
"You could have sent me out." Pidgeotto 'innocently' suggested to him. "That's always a winning strategy."
"I don't think it would have been actually," Eevee added on. The flying type slowly turned her head towards the newest member of the party with unblinking eyes. But the evolution Pokemon continued, ignorant of the unspoken threat. "Ash's reasoning for not sending you in to fight was pretty sound. You might have been able to get a couple more hits in on Raichu but if he had used a move like Discharge you would be out of the fight."
Pidgeotto took a deep breath. "I hear your opinion, you are entitled to it, but it is wrong and so are you."
Ash was unable to keep himself from snorting even as poor Eevee sputtered at the flying-type's unfounded rebuttal.
Misty crossed her arms and grumbled as she witnessed their conversation. "I'm going to figure it out eventually, you'll see. I feel like I'm close. Sometimes…" No doubt she was referring to the language barrier she had yet to cross.
"I bet you will." Ash nodded, "I mean other humans can, like Melanie, it's just a matter of time!"
"I hope you're right." his human friend admitted. "But it does make me wonder if there are other trainers who can understand their Pokemon, like…" she looked around the center for a moment before pointing at an older girl with blue hair and a yellow shirt. "Like her, she looks like she's been at it for a while."
"Maybe." The Zorua admitted and thought. "I know Mom couldn't understand me before I learned to talk, but she can't understand Shelldon, either, verbally at least. We could still get our points across to her though, she uses a mix of context, tone, and body language to figure it out. But it only seems to be with Pokemon she's familiar with." He conceded.
"I'd settle for that honestly." the gym leader thought out loud. "It would be nice to understand every Pokemon but I would be alright with being able to understand mine."
"We'll put some more time into it after we figure out how to beat Surge," Ash promised her. "I don't like leaving you out of conversations."
"To be fair, you try to talk to her a lot or at least somewhat include her when we're discussing things." Pidgeotto pointed out to him. "Although I admit, it would be nice to not need to play 'telephone' as she put it in order to talk."
They discussed things for a little while longer, making conversation. It wasn't until his name was called by Nurse Joy that he realized how long they had been talking and that he had gotten out of the worst of his funk. He wondered if that had been part of Misty's plan. Regardless he happily retrieved his now recovered team from Nurse Joy.
He gathered everyone up and headed to his room, Misty followed along as well, once they were inside and the door closed he dropped his illusion.
Misty added her Pokemon to the group so that everybody could be on the same page as they planned.
"Alright first off, are you guys okay?" Ash checked with his friends who had faced Surge's team.
"My pride hurts more than anything else," Pikachu admitted somewhat sullenly.
Selene thought for a moment, "I'm a little bit more worried about the stories I've heard of Metronome turning into Self Destruct now that I've seen it but other than that I'm fine."
Sunny was quiet and Ash focused his attention on the fire-type. The Charmander realized that eyes were on him and shrunk back. "I'm sorry I failed."
That was exactly the mindset Ash had been worried about, time to nip that in the bud. "None of that! You were doing great, I should have come up with a better idea, it's not your fault we lost!"
"Leaf calling the grass green are we?" Pidgeotto asked him.
He frowned but carried on. "Sunny I don't care whether we win or lose a battle, you're part of the team and I care about you and how you feel. It's not your fault we lost that battle so don't blame yourself for it."
The fire-type seemed a little doubtful still but he accepted Ash's words for now at least.
With that first order of business out of the way, the topic was rather important, 'what do we do next?'
"We need more training if we want to fight Surge again." The Zorua started, "But after this morning and so long on the road I won't force anyone to immediately jump into it if they want to take a day to relax instead."
Pikachu flopped himself on the bed. "On the one hand, I want to feed Raichu his tail. On the other hand? I could use a vacation."
"I need more training," Eevee added her two cents. "We didn't do much on the road and I'm not much more than a spectator right now. So, the sooner I get started the better."
"I'll be happy to help with that." Pidgeotto agreed. "I didn't even get a chance to fight this morning."
"I want to train too," Sunny announced resolutely. "I know what you said Ash, but I still need to get stronger."
That left Selene who considered her options. "I'd like to see if I could learn some more moves, or maybe how to dodge better, but I also really want to explore the city a bit, this is only my second one after all!"
"So, Selene and Pikachu both want a bit of a break but everyone else wants to focus on training for the rest of the day." He summed up out loud, mostly for Misty's benefit, who he now turned to. "What about you guys? What's your plan for the day?" He asked her and her team.
Misty was sitting on the edge of the bed with Staryu in her lap, kind of, his legs were on either side of hers but she had him hugged to her torso. "Well, we don't need to train quite as hard as you, although getting some in is always good." She acknowledged, "But I think we'll take the day to wander the city a bit. I want to see if I can find some solutions to both our food problem and our sense of direction."
The dark-type nodded at her words; those were some good things to find solutions to of course. He glanced at Pikachu and Selene, "Do you two want to head out with Misty? Well, I bet you do Selene but what about you Pikachu? You mentioned you were on the fence a bit, so do you want to stick around in case you change your mind?"
"I'm alright to head with Misty!" Selene agreed immediately as the electric-type considered his options.
"If I stay here and not train I'll feel guilty, but if I go with Misty then I won't have the option." His face scrunched up in thought."
Eevee spoke up. "Think about it like this, if you aren't training, what would you like to do instead? Is it something that you could do here or would you need to go out and do it?"
Pikachu glanced at her and tossed her words around in his head. Then he frowned. "What do I want to do?"
Ash shared a look with Pidgeotto as they watched the electric mouse seem to have a miniature existential crisis. After a few moments of this, he looked up at Ash.
"Am I boring?" he asked with a look of despair on his face. "I just realized that when we're not bantering or training I just kind of lay around and do nothing."
"You're not boring." Ash tried to assuage his concerns even as Pidgeotto said, "Yes!"
This did not seem to help the poor electric type. Seeing this, the Zorua decided to try to give his best friend a push in a direction that would hopefully help him out. "Why don't you go with Misty? Maybe you'll see something interesting that catches your eye, you could pick a hobby if you're worried about it?"
These words seem to help Pikachu make his decision and he agreed. Ash was quite pleased that he didn't complain once about spending the rest of the day with a human. Either Pikachu had made great strides against his anti-human mindset or he didn't count Misty. Maybe a little bit of both.
There was, however, one more thing to discuss before everyone went their separate ways.
"When we met Surge, he kept bringing up evolution, and I'll be honest I haven't put a lot of thought into it before now." Ash began. "Pikachu I know you're against the idea, but what about the rest of you?" he looked to the rest of his team.
"I'm looking forward to it." Pidgeotto puffed out her chest. "I got much stronger when I evolved from a Pidgey and I've become so much stronger since then, I can't even imagine what I'll be able to do when I become a Pidgeot." She paused, "Whenever that happens, it's a bit of a mix of age and strength so even if I'm strong enough I might not be old enough."
"That's the downside to natural evolution." Ash acknowledged. "There are different factors involved, actually that goes for you too Sunny, have you put any thought into it?"
The fire-type tilted his head. "A little, I remember when Pidgeotto was flying me around I thought 'I can't wait to get my own wings' so that's something I'm looking forward to. I'm not against the idea, but I don't know how or when it might happen."
Selene spoke up next, "I'm not evolving anytime soon. I know any Moonstone would do the trick, but back home there's a whole ceremony when it's time for a group of Clefairy to evolve. I wouldn't feel right doing it any other way."
"I plan to evolve," Eevee announced. "But it's a big decision and well, I have options, I don't want to end up regretting my choice because I made a rash decision. Put me on the back burner for now."
"Alright, I kind of expected this but I didn't want to make anyone's decision for them." Ash accepted everyone's choices.
"What about your decision?" Misty asked him, she had heard his opening question and everyone speak up, and now chose to address him directly. "Have you ever thought about evolving?"
He stared at her and thought about it. The idea had crossed his mind a few times, so he gave the same answer he'd come up with in the past.
"Maybe someday but I'm fine for now." And that was that.
As Ash went with Eevee, Sunny, and Pidgeotto to train, Misty left the center to wander around Vermillion a bit.
The city was a seaport through and through, lots of the structures mirrored this, especially the closer you got to the water. Nets, life preservers, and bits of boats decorated many of the buildings. Beyond this though, it was interesting to see how other cultures had taken root here thanks to the seaside status.
She saw some buildings that seemed to have Alolan stylings on them and even a few signs that looked Galarian. Alongside them were a few Pokemon she didn't recognize. It was neat to see how different parts of the world find their way here.
Misty had let most of the team out of their balls as they explored the city, it didn't seem fair to keep them cooped on inside as they explored. Unfortunately, poor Goldeen was excluded since she needed bodies of water to stay in. She gave the goldfish Pokemon the option of staying at a tank in the Pokemon center but she'd wanted to come along even if she was in her ball.
There were a few locations she wanted to visit, she'd spent a bit of time in the Pokemon center before they left, looking at flyers for various happenings, events, and locations around the city. A few had stood out to her, notably a place called the Pokemon Fan Club, but there had also been a local bakery that offered basic cooking classes.
She'd read a bit more into that and was delighted to learn one of the classes was aimed towards trainers on the road, there was a small fee for each class attended but at this point, she'd willingly fork over enough money to buy a new bike for knowledge on how to cook a decent meal.
As they traveled the city, with Misty setting her sights on a few locations she had checked up on at the center, she took some time to better take in the general atmosphere. They had rushed into town the previous night and this morning they had been on a straight route to the gym.
Thoughts of the gym made her frown. Ash was taking his loss pretty well she thought, especially considering as far as she knew it seemed to be his first.
Most new trainers tended to throw a bit of a fit after their first defeat, heck she had when she was younger.
If she thought about it, it did make a certain kind of sense.
Zorua probably had a different maturing rate than humans. While he might be ten human years old, mentally he was probably more of a teenager, even if he still had a more childish outlook than a human teenager would.
Pokemon were complicated like that apparently.
Still though, apart from the typical, 'what could I have done differently?' and being worried about his hurt friends, Ash had taken the loss way better than she had expected, heck it had been enough to impress the Lieutenant.
Hadn't that been an interesting conversation? Ash had grabbed Pikachu and left, without a word at that, and she had been left there with Surge.
"Huh, no crying, and that look in his eye! He's going to smash this place next time for sure." Surge's tone had dropped the hard edge as soon as the door had closed behind Ash. It was almost enough to make Misty stumble.
"Hold up, what are you talking about?" She'd demanded of him. "What about that whole thing about crushing the little baby or whatever you were blathering about."
The man looked at her and shrugged with a slight grin. "Not too shabby, huh? I think I'm getting really good at playing the bad guy."
"The bad guy?"
"Vermillion's not exactly a popular starting point for journeys. I know that Cerise guy is trying to set up a lab here but for now? A lot of prospecting trainers head for one of the other cities to get started, going for a gym leader or a professor. Most are scared away by my reputation and I like to keep it that way." The man explained and gave Raichu a surprisingly affectionate rub on the head.
"I'm the wall trainers hurl themselves against. I'm the enemy, the threat who will tear them down and break them. And then they get back up and they do it again, and again if they have to. Nothing drives someone to get better and stronger like an opponent they want to see lose."
Misty found herself frowning at his words, it made a certain kind of sense, in a bit of a twisted way, but it still seemed off. "That's your whole deal then? Be the first real threat to new trainers and make them feel so helpless they cry?"
"Crying is a side effect, your friend there didn't." Surge shrugged nonplussed. "I don't mind if the kids hate me, better me than someone who actually wants to see them suffer. It's the job of us gym leaders to teach the new trainers, don't tell me you forgot?" He questioned with a bit of a knowing tone.
"You recognize me?" Misty asked surprised, he hadn't hinted at that before.
"Wouldn't be explaining all this if I didn't. I might still not have, considering you're from Cerulean, if it weren't for a very amusing story I heard recently of the youngest sister playing drill sergeant to the older and supposedly more experienced ones to get them into shape." He laughed freely.
She blushed a little at hearing that and crossed her arms. "Someone had to shove it into their heads that they're gym leaders first and performers second."
His laughter grew at her words. "I can respect that, but you're still young, your gym needs to pose a challenge to trainers beyond just battling, they need to learn something. That's what I'm doing here, they can't win every battle, and the sooner they learn that the better trainers they can become. I don't care if you agree with my methods or not, but keep the idea behind it in mind."
It had been a shockingly enlightening conversation.
She'd almost considered telling Ash about it but she realized it probably wouldn't change how he went about continuing. He'd train up his team some more, and go back and win, regardless of whether or not Surge was the jerk he'd made himself out to be.
"Star." She heard her starter and glanced down at his big gem. Staryu was spinning on his side next to her, and Starmie was doing the same behind her, it was a strange way of travel, but effective.
"Just lost in thought." The girl told him.
"Staryu." He pointed out.
"No, I am not picking up bad habits from Ash." She disputed immediately.
"Star star?" The water-type then suggested.
"I am not planning to rearrange Surge's facial features either, where did yo-" This time she stumbled as she realized what had been happening.
Squirtle, who had been leading the pack, looked back as she righted herself and Starmie came up on her side, pulling ahead of Pikachu and Selene who had been lagging behind.
Misty was grateful for their concern but she was much more caught up with what had just happened. "Did I- and you?" She pointed at herself and Staryu in turn.
Staryu's gem flashed once and made a slight jump. "Staryu!"
It wasn't quite words, that wasn't right. It was more a feeling, an understanding of what the starfish Pokemon had been trying to say to her as they walked. She'd been doing better with understanding her Pokemon for weeks now, but this was the first time she'd gotten some specifics out of the exchange. Which was how despite knowing that he'd just said 'Staryu!' Misty also knew that he'd said 'I knew you could do it!'
She knew that she had been getting close! She wasn't sure what had changed between last night and now but she didn't care! She could understand Staryu now at the very least!
The girl didn't even bother trying to smother the smile that worked its way across her face, instead, she just laughed with sheer joy and scooped her starter Pokemon up in a hug. Staryu might not be the most traditionally cute or popular Pokemon, but she'd rather have him by her side than any other one in the world with her right now.
Ash knew it would take a few days before he'd want to risk trying to fight Surge again.
Maybe they could do it on the second try with a single day of extra training and new tactics, but that was a risky venture. He'd hate to have to bring his brutalized Pokemon to the center to recover once again.
In the training field the center had, he sat down and worked with his on-hand Pokemon. It was a bit tricky since there were three of them and he couldn't drop his illusion to help them out here in public.
Although there weren't too many people in the space, the boy he'd seen running out of the Vermillion Gym earlier was there with a Machop, they were punching the air together in sync, probably working on form or speed or something.
The only other occupant was the blue-haired trainer Misty had pointed at earlier, she seemed to be explaining something to an Umbreon.
While it was only two humans and their Pokemon it was two humans more than he was willing to risk exposing his illusion to. So instead he talked to his team about his ideas and got their opinions on what they wanted to improve on.
"Eevee you need to improve your aim, and Pidgeotto, while I know you don't need to improve your speed anymore, I also know…"
"That I want to anyway?" Pidgeotto finished for him. "This is true, but I was also wondering if we could start trying to learn some new moves. Also working on my endurance, I know that certain parties were quick to point that out as the reason I couldn't join the battle." She concluded with only a little sourness.
"Sorry." Ash apologized even if he didn't completely mean it. It was true after all but he valued her feelings more in this case. "I was thinking that you could work on using that speed to maneuver while Eevee tried to use attacks on you. You might need to start slower and build up to max speed but it could help you build endurance and help Eevee with her aim."
"She will need to stay low to the ground though." The normal type pointed out. "I don't exactly have much for ranged attacks yet."
"That's another reason actually, a lot of Pidgeotto's moves are close range too, and she won't always have a lot of airspace to work with, so practicing flying and dodging close to the ground is a good place to start." The trainer elaborated on his plans.
As those two got started on their training, Ash turned his attention to Sunny. "Feeling any better?" He asked.
The Charmander kicked at the ground a bit. "I'm fine really. Don't treat me like I'm delicate."
Ash snorted and Sunny gave him a funny look. "I don't think you're delicate at all! I just think you're way too hard on yourself. You can take attacks better than I can definitely, I just don't want you putting yourself down when you think you're not good enough."
"Oh." the fire type's eyes widened at his explanation. "Alright then, yeah I still feel like I messed up, but I won't let it get to my head!" He admitted with a bit of fire in his voice. "I'm gonna put it all into training until I don't feel that way anymore!"
The dark type wasn't sure that was the healthiest mindset to have, but he was no expert so he decided to just move forwards. "For your training, I've been thinking, you have a bunch of moves already, but none of them are really heavy hitters yet. I'm gonna get some targets set up and we're gonna work on hitting them harder and harder. We're gonna work on your damage. Anything else you want to work on?"
"Dodging," Sunny said without hesitation and Ash nodded.
"I was going to bring that up tomorrow. I want to put you through some evasion training like Pikachu, Pidgeotto, and I have gone through. It'll build up your speed, your stamina and help you learn how to react to attacks in the heat of the moment. But we need another Pokemon since I can't drop my illusion here right now." The disguised Zorua agreed.
That was how training went for the rest of the day, Eevee's aim had improved more than she probably realized, it was more a testament to how fast Pidgeotto was than any failing on Eevee's part.
Sunny's Ember had begun to kick up more heat, and Rage had helped him pulverize a few rocks in the training field. Ash felt everyone had improved at least a little bit by the end of the day.
When they returned inside at the end of the day to eat, Misty returned with the rest of the Pokemon.
She had excitedly explained her experience with Staryu to Ash and he expressed his congratulations. It might not have been a word-for-word exchange but it was still pretty impressive.
Misty said she had done some testing beyond that and while she could understand Staryu reasonably, she had less success with her other Pokemon.
"It might be because you've known Staryu the longest? He is your starter after all." Ash suggested.
His friend nodded. "I've known him longer than that, he's been with the gym as long as I can remember."
Ash nodded in understanding and Misty sighed, "I hope I can start figuring out others now but well I guess I should focus on making sure I understand Staryu 100% first."
She also told him that they had gone to a cooking class made for trainers who were traveling, it was a rundown of what supplies they should have on hand as well as some examples of simple but efficient recipes. The ginger girl also suggested that he should come along at some point while they were in the city, just in case.
As they ate, Pikachu had been talking to Sunny about something but Ash didn't quite catch it. But as the meal wrapped up he got his team's attention and explained his plans for training the next day.
The next day was going to be a sort of team-wide evasion training.
Pikachu and Pidgeotto would be using attacks and helping the other three Pokemon work on their dodging. But they would be switching off throughout the day as Ash worked with everyone one-on-one to help improve a specific skill or work on a new move.
With the plan set, the group split and headed for their rooms.
Those who had remained at the Pokemon Center quizzed Pikachu and Selene about their adventures in the city.
Selene talked about the variety of things that had caught her interest, from landmarks to humans and Pokemon, but Pikachu was oddly cagey about it. He said he might have found a fun hobby though, so that was nice.
Everyone went to bed to rest up for the next day of training. But they were awakened not by the sun or an alarm, but instead by something burning.
Ash was the one who caught the scent of smoke first, familiar with it from Delia's Diner, and scrambled to his feet and looked around for the source.
The rest of his team was roused from their slumber by his panicked movements, or at least the ones who had still been asleep were.
Because the source of the smoke was two members of the team on the floor of the room. Pikachu was holding a stick of some sort, with something unrecognizable and charred at the end of it, and was holding it over the end of Sunny's tail.
"What are you two doing?" Pidgeotto squawked and used her wings to buffet away the smoke from those on the bed.
"I am practicing my new hobby!" Pikachu announced cheerfully. "Cooking!" He moved the stick away from the burning tail and pointed the burnt end at the group. "Who wants to try a bite?"
"I'm helping!" Sunny announced with no guilt or shame.
No one was willing to try Pikachu's burnt… something, so the electric-type just shrugged and announced. "More for me!" Before chowing down.
The situation left Ash to debate whether sending Pikachu with Misty to go to more cooking classes would improve his skills, or just make the problem worse. He seemed happy at least so they could probably leave it be for a few days.
Speaking of the next few days, training was the name of the game and they all came to play. Ash's initial plan became the pattern moving forwards, although they did break up the monotony of evasion training with a few other exercises. These tended to be a bit more fun, like a race or a couple of mock battles.
Everyone had improved by the fourth day of training. Pikachu had finally managed to work out Discharge and had possibly increased his electrical output, but it could be a bit hard to tell considering how strong he was already.
Pidgeotto was now not only wicked fast but could take a hit as well. It had taken three direct Thunder Bolts from Pikachu to take her out of the sky, and even then she was down but not out.
They'd also put some time into a new move, Twister. Unfortunately, they didn't have it down quite yet and were a bit stuck on how to further work on it, but it was still progress!
Selene had turned Defense Curl into something terrifying. It was almost like Rollout, just without any rock typing involved. She would use Defense Curl and then use her still-improving speed to crash into her opponent with her reinforced body. It was quite effective actually.
Near the end of their training, Sunny's Ember had graduated into Flamethrower, and the powerful fire attack made him a real threat in battle.
Pikachu was now the only one on the team who could match the little fire-type for raw power now that he had that move under the hood. He was also a bit faster now which was always helpful.
Not only had Eevee's aim improved, but her speed as well. She was still technically the weakest team member, but she more than made up for that with her shocking ability to analyze and replicate new moves.
She'd already managed to figure out Iron Tail just by watching Pikachu do it enough, and had come to Ash asking for advice on learning Dig. She hadn't quite gotten that down yet, she'd hit a roadblock on how to move quickly underground, but it was still impressive.
Misty had stopped by to do some training herself, and her team had worked with Ash's for some of the mock battles. She also told him what she'd seen and learned from wandering the city, and encouraged him to take some time to smell the roses before they moved on.
"It would be nice to explore a bit, especially since I've spent most of my time here training. But I feel a bit worried I'm falling behind. Everyone else from Pallet Town probably didn't take the detour accidentally." He admitted a thought that had been prickling him since it occurred.
"Don't worry too much about falling behind." Misty comforted him. "They might have their own trouble with different gyms, maybe more than you've had with Surge. Not to mention they might have trouble with him themselves. Besides, it's not like it's a race, you just need to have enough badges before league registration closes and that's the better part of a year from now."
Ash was grateful for the encouragement, he decided that once they beat the gym they'd spend a few more days in Vermillion just exploring, and trying to improve Pikachu's cooking before he developed too many bad habits.
Not much else happened during the training, a few new trainers came down to practice, the boy with the Machop had been training every day alongside Ash and they'd spoken and shared a few tips and tricks.
The boy's name was Mac, Machop was his only Pokemon and they spent a lot more time on technique than Ash thought was normal. But it was interesting, sometimes it was less about the move and more about how it was used.
Having seen what his Clefairy had done with Defense Curl he couldn't help but agree.
Other than him were some other trainers Ash didn't recognize, the blue-haired trainer was still around too though.
A few times he thought he caught her staring at him but wasn't sure. He didn't want to accuse her and start a confrontation if it was just a coincidence. Still, it was a bit weird.
There was however one rumor that was circling around the Pokemon Center that Ash freely complained about in their room at night. Not that his 'friends' were any comfort.
"Stop it!" He whined as Pikachu did his best to mimic a ghostly face. He tried to bury himself under the bed covers to block out the sound.
"I am the ghost of Pokemon past! Here to punish you for being bad to your Pokemon! I'll explode in the middle of the room and you'll never be seen again! Wooooooooo!" The electric type waved his arms strangely to add to the effect.
Pidgeotto and Eevee didn't bother trying to hide their laughter. Eevee had gotten the story of the Damian situation but found the retelling much more entertaining.
Sunny had stood up and said Ash was the best vengeful and protective ghost he knew and the poor Zorua still had no idea if he was messing with him.
Selene had taken it as an invitation to try to come up with a name for this 'vengeful spirit.'
"The Ghost Trainer! No, maybe the Ghost of Past Mistakes! The Ghost-Type from the Closet? I'll think of something eventually…"
Somehow, Ash's disappearing act at the rest center had run the rounds through the trainer rumor mill and the story now went that a ghost had confronted Damian about his poor treatment of his Pokemon to see if he was regretful.
Damian (being Damian) was not, so the ghost had vanished in an explosion of shadows and a threat of vengeance. The next day Damian had left on the road alone, and had never been seen again, even his trainer record had been deleted.
This was of course a side effect of the rangers taking him into custody and his license being revoked, but it added to the legend.
Ash was mortified but he was able to take some solace in the fact that the threat of a ghost taking revenge on bad trainers would hopefully make some people take better care of their Pokemon. He'd prefer it if they would do it out of the kindness of their hearts but it was the result that counted.
When the dawn of this fifth full day in Vermillion City dawned, Ash decided it was time to try taking on Lt. Surge again. He checked with his team to see if they felt ready, and they sat down to go over the game plan ahead of time.
They had no real guarantee that Surge was going to use the same Pokemon as last time, but it was a good starting point, and based on his behavior they were almost certainly going to have Raichu go up against Pikachu again, who was completely down for a rematch.
This was disputed by other members of the team.
"I understand why you want to fight Raichu again, but think about it. If that's what they expect they'll be ready for you, and while you've gotten better over the past few days that might not be enough." Eevee, the voice of logic and reason pointed out.
"But I really want to fight him again!" Pikachu complained.
"At least you get to fight, even with my improvements I'm guessing I'm going to get sidelined again?" Pidgeotto checked.
"I'm sorry," Ash was honest this time. "If we hadn't hit a roadblock with Twister I'd give us one more day to figure it out and battle but I don't know what to try next. The same goes for you Eevee, we just need a breakthrough for Dig, maybe we can ask for advice but I can't think of anything else to try."
"It makes sense." Eevee accepted. "But I do want to get involved in an actual battle as soon as possible."
"I'll try to find something, for both of you, you deserve your chances to shine." He told them.
With the basics of a plan down, they headed back to the gym to face Surge once more. Misty came along again, offering some words of encouragement and moral support.
As they approached the gym, Ash had a question for her. "Is it possible for Gym Leaders to take the gym challenge?"
The girl blinked and gave him a look, opened her mouth, then closed it before frowning. "I don't know. Huh. I'll look into that later I guess, never really thought about it before though."
"Maybe you can't do it in the region you're a gym leader in?" He suggested.
Misty hummed. "That might be it, thanks for the idea at least, could be something to try in the future."
No one came rushing out of the gym in tears, which Ash took as a good sign. Surge was actually in the battle arena as well when they approached, apparently drilling some of his gym trainers.
"Now remember, when you're loud, that means people are more likely to listen to you!" He paused his march in front of the lined-up trainers and turned towards the approaching challenger. "Allow me to demonstrate. CHALLENGER WITH BABY POKEMON! TAKE YOUR PLACE AT THE OPPOSITE END OF THE FIELD AND WAIT FOR THE GYM TO CLEAR! WE WILL BEGIN MOMENTARILY."
Ash scowled at the 'order' but followed it anyway. "You guys ready?" He asked under his breath.
"Born ready!" Pikachu agreed with sparking cheeks.
Selene giggled and pounded her tiny fist. "We're going to crush them."
Sunny didn't say anything but Ash felt the back of his head get noticeably warmer. Hopefully, nothing was on fire.
The gym trainers soon left and Surge took his place opposite Ash. "Same rules as last time, first Pokemon out at the count of three. Ready?"
Ash set Selene down, and let Eevee and Charmander off his head and back respectively. Pidgeotto and Pikachu got to keep their shoulder seats for now. "Ready," Ash confirmed.
"One, two…" The Zorua glanced at Sunny and gave him a nod, signaling that he was up first again.
"Three!" Surge threw his Pokeball a familiar round shape took form. Electrode again huh? The same team, different order it seemed, but they'd have to wait and see if it stuck.
As Electrode was sent out, Sunny charged onto the battlefield and now swung his arms in a bit of a flex, ready to fight.
"No evolutions? Disappointing." Surge complained as he took the time to take stock of Ash's choice and the rest of his team. "Let's get this done then, Electrode, Rollout, and then Discharge."
"Sunny, use Smokescreen!" Ash rebuttal as Electrode began spinning. The fire type coughed up a plume of smoke that soon covered the field. The electric type rushed ahead full charge but it was nearly impossible to tell if he'd hit anything. The golden pattern of a discharge briefly illuminated part of the darkness but it was hard to tell if Sunny had taken a hit or not.
"Fire indiscriminately!" Ash followed up.
"Ember won't cut it." Surge mocked but was forced to eat his words as Flamethrower began to tear through the cloud of smoke at various intervals, in no time at all, a smoking Electrode rolled out of the slowly dissipating cloud.
"Skull Bash, use the cloud as cover!"
"Thundershock on anything that moves! Put him in paralysis again!" Electrode began firing at the cloud, trying to figure out which was rolling smoke and which was the target.
Soon though, Sunny burst from the cloud, charging full speed at the electric ball with his head down. He was faster than he was a few days ago but that didn't stop a Thundershock from hitting him.
He didn't let it slow him down though and kept charging, crashing into Electrode with a crack! The electric-type was definitely on the back foot in this fight. It seemed the end was inevitable…
But Ash knew what was coming and the words began to leave his lips even as Surge started to give his command.
"Electrode, clear this up!"
"Flamethrower full power! Blast him away!"
Electrode sped forwards, beginning to glow dangerously as it moved, but it was met by the force of Flamethrower that began pushing it back in the other direction. There was a brief standstill but the Self Destruct had already started and a standstill was a win for Sunny in this case, as the explosive attack erupted a respectable distance from him. He was still blown back a bit but it was not the full force Selene had been hit with during the last battle.
That battle… had been fast, and Sunny had taken care of it while only taking a few hits! That was amazing! He said as much too.
"That was awesome Sunny! You're amazing!" He called words of congratulations to the Charmander who had recovered and now stood tall. The attack had blown away the last of the Smokescreen, but the fire-type was still on his feet.
Surge clearly was not pleased with this turn of events. He returned Electrode and sent out his next Pokemon. "Don't get too cocky, Electabuzz, you need to smash a bug again!"
As Electabuzz took the field he looked at Sunny and then hunched in disappointment a bit. "You're not a bug-type."
"Thunderpunch Electabuzz! Smash him!"
"Brace yourself and use Rage!" Ash called.
Sunny took the punch as best he could and glowed red, he then used his whole body as a battering ram and hit back against Electabuzz, sending him to the ground.
"Bah! Thunder Wave!"
The wave washed over Sunny even as he moved to attack Electabuzz again. He shuddered at the feeling of the electric status effect and was unable to follow through on his attack as he froze up with electricity coursing through his body.
The electric type took advantage of the effect to get back to his feet. He immediately followed up with another Thunder Punch that sent Sunny to the ground this time.
The fire type still wasn't quite out of steam yet and forced himself to his feet.
"Flamethrower Sunny!" Ash called to him. He honestly would rather recall him but Surge's rulings kept that from happening.
He managed the powerful fire attack despite the paralysis and Electabuzz was bathed in flames. His opponent roared in pain but powered through it.
"Finish him off Electabuzz! Shockwave!"
The electric attack crashed into Sunny and sent him to the ground again. He didn't get up this time though and it was clear he was knocked out.
Ash returned Sunny and glanced at his ball. "You did a great job, no one could have done better." He said hoping the words would reach the fire type. He glanced to his side. "Selene you're up are you ready!"
"Yep!" She marched onto the field, ready for action.
"Open with a metronome!" Ash risked, maybe not the best strategy but he had a good feeling.
"Again with this randomness!" Surge complained but gave his order anyway. "Quick Attack, get in there and start bludgeoning that pink menace!"
Electabuzz was almost on top of her when Metronome finished and Selene unleashed an Ice Beam straight into the charging electric type.
It had a somewhat surprising effect as Electabuzz collapsed mid-charge and groaned. "Oh, that does not feel right!" He complained.
"Oh! It must be the temperature shock!" Eevee provided some context for the peanut gallery. "He just got hit with Flamethrower and suddenly got blasted with an Ice Beam? That can't feel good at all, not even counting the damage!"
"Get back up Electabuzz, you're not out of this yet!" Surge demanded and his Pokemon managed to follow through, but he looked like he was on his last legs.
Ash decided to end it. "Selene! Use Defense Curl full speed!"
That direction seemed to throw Surge for a loop. "I'm sorry full what-"
Selene, just as they had trained, curled up in the defensive attack and then launched herself forwards as fast as she could. Considering she had been pressured into keeping up with teammates like Pikachu and Pidgeotto, that was pretty freaking fast.
She slammed into Electabuzz at this speed, with the reinforcement of Defense Curl protecting her and making her more solid, the electric type was propelled out of the battlefield and into the wall behind Surge.
"What are you feeding that Clefairy?!" The man sounded incredulous but shook himself. "Nevermind, this isn't over yet." He returned Electabuzz and sent out his final Pokemon, Raichu.
"Not the runty mouse this time?" Raichu questioned as he took stock of Selene. "Instead I get the pink puffball?"
"Yep!" Selene smiled at him pleasantly.
"Iron Tail." Surge said without fanfare.
"Defense Curl again!" Ash announced. "Then use Pound!"
Once again Selene crashed into her opponent but unlike Electabuzz, Raichu was able to hold his ground.
The large electric mouse crashed his Iron Tail into the fairy-type, but the Defense Curl helped negate some of the damage, and the Pound to the face Selene smashed him with after sure hurt.
"That's for being such a massive jerk to everyone!" Selene declared.
"Freaking ow." Raichu rubbed his nose.
"Thunder Bolt Raichu. Get some range." Surge ordered,
"Sing!" Ash called and Selene started to sing a song.
"~Exit light, enter night!~" She started singing.
Unfortunately, it's a little hard to keep up a song when being electrocuted by a powerful Thunder Bolt so she wasn't able to put Raichu to sleep with her song.
She wasn't knocked out yet though, and Ash had an idea.
"Use Disarming Voice repeatedly!" he told her and she let out a cry that made Raichu wince in pain.
Raichu righted himself and Surge started to call out an order. But another Disarming Voice hit the electric type as the words were spoken. Whatever the command had been Raichu had missed it!
"I am not going to lose to a little pink ball of fluff!" Raichu's fury almost tinged the air red.
"Actually yes, yes you are." Selene told him and fired off one last Disarming Voice.
The attack's sound waves surrounded Raichu and the electric type collapsed to the ground, unmoving.
Surge said nothing and returned his Pokemon. As he did so, a cheer went up on Ash's side of the field, celebrating their victory.
Pikachu's cheer however cut out as he came to a sudden realization. "Wait just a- I didn't even get to fight!"
I liked this chapter. A lot more than I liked the last one at least.
The last chapter is probably one of my least favorite chapters in the story, I mean, it's not poorly written or anything, I just struggled with it and I can't say I'm 100% happy with the result.
It needed to happen though, I needed to push myself over that hill into Vermillion and the Surge fight. I knew Ash had to lose the first battle but I wasn't sure how to do it or how to write Surge. I think it turned out okay. Surge isn't quite the bad guy, he just plays one on TV.
I mean he still makes kids cry, but he's not doing it for fun.
Anywho, review time!
Amitm: I'm happy to tell you this story hasn't been abandoned, I just have an unfortunate habit of consistent updates followed by disappearing for several months.
Phaleon: I'm glad you liked the chapter!
B0bbles: Motives explored! I was actually planning on doing this anyway, a part of me wishes I had thought of a more show don't tell way, but this is a written work and it serves as food for thought to Misty for the future.
ThePilotArchangel: The funny thing is, I didn't really plan to start writing 10k chapters, I would basically pick an endpoint for a chapter and write until I got there, unfortunately as I soon found out I have a habit of letting the story take a life of its own, so by the time I get to that endpoint, I've written several thousand more words than I planned to.
PokeDan: You aren't solely at fault for Eevee on Ash's head, the Let's Go games helped inspire that too. I hope you enjoyed Pikachu vs Raichu, because he sure is miffed he didn't get a round two.
PhoenixWarrior88: I wasn't sure how to do Eevee at first, but I'm happy with the way she's ended up. As for Ash's sixth Pokemon I have ideas but it'll be awhile. I want to explore the current lineup as characters before I complete the set.
Mike020389: What is real life anywho? Why can't Pokemon be real? Sure the world has a world ending apocalypse every now and then, but there's an immortal 10 year old to save the day and also there's free healthcare!
Lupercus1944: Cutting pretty close to the wire this time, I honestly thought you might not review this time. I'm glad you liked Eevee's response to reveal and you are 100% right about Misty last chapter. It's one of the reasons I don't like it. She was just kind of there, existing but not participating. I actually had the same problem with Pidgeotto but I ended up going back and adding a few more lines and interactions to her. Hopefully I more than made up for Misty's lack of character in the last chapter with this one. I did try to flush Surge out a bit more, Ash needed to lose a battle in order to grow, he was able to take it pretty well though and got the right messages from it. Although his solution was to add a bit more fire power to the mix. Literally.
All for now folks! Please review, I can never stop expressing how much reviews mean. They are the evidence that actual people read my story and it makes them think and engage. I love them.
Discord link again!
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See you around!
R&R
~FriTik