Nothing like the smell of JELLY DONUTS in the morning.
Ash was a little surprised to find Janine waiting for them the next morning.
Mostly because she was waiting outside the window of their room.
"How did you even get up here?" He asked, jumping into his illusion and opening it so she could get in.
"Trade secret." She claimed after she fell on her face. "Perhaps one day I shall teach you."
Pidgeotto flew over to the window sill and glanced down. "There's a set of suction cups stuck to the wall out here."
"That explains my dream last night." Eevee rubbed at her ear. "We were stuck in a swamp and every step made a gross popping noise. And then Team Rocket showed up and- you know what, it's not important."
"You could have just waited downstairs," Ash told the ninja. She crossed the room and opened the door and gestured for them to hurry up.
"My mission is to observe you, challenger." She claimed without hesitation. "At all times and without doubt. If I had let you out of my sight I would be failing my mission."
The Zorua quirked a brow. "When was the last time you slept?"
"Irrelevant."
They did not move quite as fast as Janine wanted them to but considering she bumped into several walls while trying to walk down a straight hallway she was in no place to complain. She did anyway though.
At breakfast, Ash tried pushing the issue of why she was sticking around and hanging with him. He wasn't complaining exactly, but there was something that didn't quite line up about her story.
"Your mission is to observe any gym challengers who come into town right?" He double-checked and pointed a spoon at her. "So why are you training with me?"
"What better way to learn your target's skills than to work with them directly?" She fired back.
"I mean, is this part of the gym challenge?" Ash guessed. "Are you going to tell the gym leader everything I can do so he can beat me? Am I supposed to be hiding what I'm doing from you or something?"
That may have been a bit overly suspicious but apparently, this gym's whole thing was about ninjas, stealth, and secrecy. On top of the poison-type stuff of course. Maybe he should be taking steps to keep Janine from learning about his team's capabilities.
Janine frowned. "I guess you could try and hide what you're doing from me. Not that you would be able to stop me from observing you. I am a master of espionage."
Ash shared a glance with his team. "Sure."
"But if you want the truth of it? You're the first challenger we've had in a couple of weeks. It's been eerie. We've only had two challengers since the Gym Inspector came through this area a month ago." Janine explained and now it was Ash's turn to frown.
That was odd, especially at this time of the season. Were people giving up? He knew there was a dropout rate amongst the gym challengers but only two challengers in a month seemed horribly sparse.
It wasn't too much of a stretch to assume that the region-wide gym inspection might have something to do with it.
Eevee and Storm came to similar conclusions.
"There's not been an official announcement about the gym inspection yet, has there?" Eevee recalled. "Or if there has it wasn't given as much attention as it should have been. Most of what we've heard has just been rumors, if Misty hadn't been directly involved I wonder if we would have heard of it at all."
"If there's been no announcement then some trainers might be caught completely off-guard." Storm mused. "Imagine getting to town only to find the gym shut down and no option to get the badge. Maybe more people are dropping out because they don't think they can get enough badges?"
Pikachu lashed his tail back and forth. "This gym is still up, right? As long as Cinnabar Island is good too then we don't have anything to worry about. I refuse to give up!"
"No one said anything about giving up." Storm sounded a tad harsh but her tone lightened. "We're just observing the effects on other trainers. We're going to finish the gym circuit one way or another."
Ash agreed, if for whatever reason they couldn't complete Cinnabar then they would find another gym, there had to be at least one more somewhere in Kanto.
Right?
Back to the topic at hand, he focused on Janine, "So, the reason you're focusing on me is because I'm here and that's interesting?"
The ninja gestured around the empty cafeteria. "Do you see anyone else I can focus my attention on around here?"
That was a fair point.
"Alright, so we'll do more training today." Ash accepted, even if she was learning his strategies from observing him, he and his family were gaining experience against a poison-type specialist.
She might not be the gym leader himself, (Koga if Ash remembered correctly) but she clearly knew what she was doing based on the training matches they'd had. And they would be doing more today.
"I'll meet you in the field soon," he told her as they finished breakfast. "I need to call home."
Narrowed eyes met his. "I have waited a considerable amount of time."
"Then you can wait a bit more!" Ash smiled brightly and wandered away without a second glance. He needed to check in on Selene, the plan was to swap her back onto the team after the gym, and they needed to figure a few things out.
Mostly with a certain Charmander.
Since it had been a nice night, Misty had elected not to use her tent and just enjoy sleeping under the stars.
The next morning, she discovered this had been a terrible mistake.
Over a mile away, Brock and Karen were awakened by the distant but still very loud shriek of a girl waking up with a Paras on her face.
Her shriek and follow-up screams and flailing had managed to disturb her team, who emerged from their Pokeballs expecting a fight or some other catastrophe. There was a mix of exasperation and acceptance when they discovered the true extent of the situation.
Starmie took the initiative of gently guiding Paras away (without battling of course) while Misty recovered from her fright, taking deep breaths and tearing up the grass with her clenched fists.
"On the one hand, this is hilarious," Squirtle claimed feeling amused by his trainer's suffering. "On the other, I think you need to figure this out."
"Shut up. I know." Misty growled once her heart stopped threatening to explode. "I can't help it okay? And how would you feel if you woke up with someone on your face?"
Squirtle thought about it. "I'd be more annoyed than terrified I think. But I guess it would depend on the situation."
On a logical level, Misty understood that bug-types were just like any other Pokemon and were perfectly capable of rational thought and communication. There was nothing wrong with them and they could make stalwart companions and beloved friends.
But also, eww gross bugs.
It was an understanding she wasn't exactly happy about.
Sure she knew that bug-types weren't out to get her but every time she saw one all she could think about was the ever-tightening silk of a cocoon while skittering legs crawled over her and dragged her up into the trees to hang, staring at her with horrible red eyes-
A full-body shudder helped bring her out of that line of thought.
With some translation help from the others, she learned that Paras had just been interested in the human lying on the ground, and wanted to make sure she was okay. He was a little hurt by the fact she screamed at him and yelled for him to get away.
That did not help her guilt at all.
"I don't suppose there's a chance we might run into a traveling therapist who will immediately solve my phobia?" Misty wondered as they started circling the Lake Region.
"Given the cascade of curious characters we have encountered thus far on our quest," Staryu started, "I believe there is a decent chance that we could encounter such an individual."
"Chance yes, but could they actually solve your problem?" Squirtle asked, "Eh, maybe. I say exposure therapy is the best way to go about it."
"Exposure therapy?" Misty didn't like where this was going.
"Yes!" Squirtle put his arms on his hips. "It's very simple! We look around for bug-types and gather some willing volunteers! Then we put you in a hole with them and don't let you leave until you're over your fear!"
Both Misty and Staryu stared at the Tiny Turtle Pokemon. "That sounds like a terrible idea." Staryu summed up their shared thought.
"I'm 99% sure that would just make me more afraid of bugs." Misty did her best not to try and picture the scenario.
The idea expert scowled and crossed his arms. "I bet it would have worked great."
His trainer rubbed her face. "Let's… let's just worry about my fear of bugs later, okay? I don't want to deal with it right now."
"If you refuse to deal with it you'll never be able to face your fears!" Squirtle was ignored from that point on.
"Any ideas for who we should look for?" Misty wondered out loud. "I mean, should we try and find a specific species or just ask around and see if anyone is interested?"
"A wider net might gather us more recruits." Staryu mused, "Do we know the specifics of the inhabitants of this land?"
"Not much," Misty flipped through her copy of the pamphlet. "There are some pictures of Pokemon you "might" encounter here. But there's also this little asterisk that says "actual results may vary." So I'm not sure how accurate this is."
"Why would they print such dishonest propaganda?" Staryu complained as they reached an area of the lakeside that was covered in sand, creating an approximation of a beach.
"Sensationalism." Squirtle shrugged. "At least we can have a bit of a beach day as we look around." He flopped onto his back and swung his arms.
"Sand angel!" The water-type cheered and jumped back up. But frowned when he realized his limbs had been too high to reach the sand and he'd only left the indent of a shell. "Hang on… let me try that again."
"You are mistaken, allow me to provide a demonstration." Staryu set to work on his own sand-angel but when he stood up there was only a full circle, caused by his limbs all being the same length and bending the same ways. "...that's not quite right."
"Are we missing some sort of trick?" Squirtle scratched his head and Misty chuckled at their antics before looking around.
"Now then, if I were a water-type, where would I be?"
"Sand." Misty blinked at the unexpected voice and looked down. "Sandy."
A lump with eyes and a shovel sticking out of it stared up at her. "Sandyghast."
"Uh… hi there." Misty greeted the unfamiliar Pokemon. "Do you live around here?"
"Ghast." The lump collapsed but she watched as the sand was disturbed and something traveled just below the surface down the beach. The lump reappeared, larger this time, possibly because the full Pokemon emerged. "Sandyghast!"
"Translation?" She glanced at her teammates, getting their attention. Squirtle had figured out the way to make a sand angel was to do it face first and was coughing up a mouthful of sand.
"What?" He shook some sand out of his ears. "Uh, I wasn't listening, let me ask."
The trio followed Sandyghast and Squirtle requested she repeat what she said. "Ah right, she says most of the water-types live out in the lake, and they're mostly fish. But she said there's a group of them that live in a cave in the cliffs over there." He pointed ahead to a craggy area on the far side of the beach.
"Sounds like a good place to start." Misty accepted. "Thanks for the help!" She said to Sandyghast who nodded her shovel.
"Sand." She dived back under the sand and traveled away.
"Would it have been considered rude to ask if her shovel was part of her?" Staryu asked after she was far from earshot.
"Yeah but if you refuse to ask questions because they're "rude" you'll never learn anything," Squirtle claimed.
"Sometimes you can be rude and not learn anything regardless." Misty shot him a lidded gaze and he made a squeak of rage.
"How dare you! You're the rudest of all of us! Even more than Karen! Or Pikachu!"
"Pikachu is a difficult foe to beat, regardless of the battlefield." Staryu pointed out as they made their way toward the crags and the supposed cave.
"I haven't understood a single thing he's said but almost everything I've heard secondhand paints a really interesting picture," Misty admitted.
Her teammates shared a look. "Trust us, you're not missing anything important. Most of the time. That rodent just has a heck of a mouth on him. And I don't mean swearing, he just constantly fires off insults and banter."
As Misty processed that, the conversation went to other places, training ideas, campaign ideas, what type of weapon Squirtle or Staryu would be best equipt to use, normal stuff like that. Before long they found themselves at their destination.
The good news was they found a bunch of water-types hanging around the rocks. Misty spotted a few familiar ones, Marill, Croconaw, Poliwag, and Wooper just to name a few.
The bad news was the Pokemon were out on the rocks because there was a very sick Pokemon in their cavern home.
"How sick?" Misty asked, a bit worried. She wasn't sure if there were any specialized medical facilities in or near the Safari Zone, but there had to be something. Someone who came by and treated the Pokemon if they were ill?
Then she recalled that there had been a little boy living with a Kangaskhan herd for over a year and apparently they were the first ones to notice.
Croconaw, who seemed to lead these Pokemon spoke up. "Croc! Naw!"
"He claims that the ill one is trapped in a deep slumber. But the illness is manifesting in her abilities." Staryu explained. "The only ones brave enough to get near her are her offspring."
"Manifesting-" Misty blinked, "What the heck does that mean?"
A horrible wretching cough sounded from the cave maw and then a burst of purple fire rushed out.
Misty and her Pokemon stared at the smoke and ash left in the wake of the attack. "That. Apparently."
She looked at Croconaw, a bit confused and suspicious. "That wasn't a water-type attack. If I had to guess that was Dragon Rage, exactly what Pokemon is sick?"
Croconaw shrugged and said something. Squirtle took the initiative on the translation.
"Dragonite."
She processed that.
"You said her offspring still get near her, Dratini right? Are they safe from her attacks or do they just refuse to leave?"
"They refuse to leave their mother when she's this ill," Staryu translated for her. "Dragonite told Croconaw to take them when she started getting worse but they refuse to leave her side and he has other Pokemon to worry about."
"Shoot." Misty started pacing, thinking. She could call Brock and Karen, they might have some ideas. And Ash was back at the Pokemon Center he might be able to bring some supplies or tell Nurse Joy and she might be able to come along.
"How long has this been going on?"
"Croconaw." He pinched his claws together.
"She's been steadily getting worse for days but it was only last night she collapsed and started lashing out in her sleep." Staryu quickly explained, leaving out more embellishments than usual given the severity of the situation.
Not good. She looked in her bag, she had a few medical supplies, potions, antidotes, a few specific status condition healing prescriptions…
"Dragonite needs help." Misty thought out loud, "But we need to get her children away from her before they get seriously hurt." Assuming they hadn't been already, she refused to voice out loud. "I'm going to call Brock and Karen and tell them to come over here or maybe contact the on-site doctor? I don't know what this place has."
"Let me guess." Squirtle held up an arm. "You're going in to get the Dratini by yourself."
"I was going to ask you two for help." She explained.
Staryu let out an amused laugh. "The illusionist is rubbing off on you."
That didn't seem like such a bad thing.
Brock, ever the source of information, had checked when they arrived and found that there was a specially trained Nurse Joy who would go into the field to handle serious injuries or ailments for the local Pokemon, or visitors to the Safari Zone. With that knowledge, he volunteered to go and get help for Dragonite with Karen.
Karen called her an idiot when she explained her plan to go in, check on Dragonite, and get the Dratini out. But also accepted it would be good to tell Nurse Joy what to expect when she arrived.
Her mind was already made up though, so regardless of what Karen had to say, Misty carefully entered the cave.
There were side passages almost immediately and Misty found herself wondering if this was more of a cave system than a simple cavern. Considering the dozen or so Pokemon outside that wasn't the most unlikely possibility.
Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) Dragonite was in a domed cavern maybe thirty feet from the entrance. The large orange Pokemon was lying on her side on the cave floor; spasming and groaning with pain.
Great scratches gouged the rock around her and there were soot-covered spots from where her attacks had lashed out.
It took about five seconds for Misty to realize just how out of her depth she was. A potion or antidote wasn't going to fix whatever was going on with Dragonite, and she had no frame of reference to diagnose what was wrong with the dragon-type.
That said, she still had a second mission.
The three of them looked around the cavern for Dratini, three of them according to Croconaw. Squirtle was the one to spot them, cowering behind a large rock from the sickness of their mother.
One was larger than the others and was trying to put up a brave face but even Misty could see the Pokemon shaking. She wasn't fully grown yet even if she was bigger than her siblings.
"We're here to help." Misty held up her hands in a placating gesture. "Your mom is sick, we're getting help."
"Drat!" She knew it was just part of "Dratini" but hearing the Pokemon squawk the word "drat" at her almost brought her out of the seriousness of their situation.
Before she could hear the translation, Dragonite coughed loudly again and another burst of Dragon Rage lashed out. Fortunately, she was facing away from them and it just covered the opposite side of the cavern. Come to think of it, that was probably why the Dratini were hiding on this side, away from the business end of their sick mother.
The younger two Dratini cried out in fear and she saw the largest flinch violently but they held their ground.
Misty needed to get through to them. Sure she could try battling them and forcing them out, but that seemed like the worst way to go about this, and while she could probably argue she had no choice it was still against Safari Zone rules. She didn't want to find out where the judgment would fall in that case.
So she had to reason with three scared kids while their seriously sick mother occasionally coughed out dangerous attacks.
Super fun.
"Look, you're worried about your mom." Misty guessed drawing on her own experience when her father had passed away years earlier. "You're worried if you leave her side you won't be able to come back. But I promise you she's more worried about you."
"Ti?" The smallest of the three tilted his head at her and she pushed on.
"She knows she's sick right now and we talked to Croconaw, she wanted you three to go. She didn't want you to get sick and she definitely doesn't want to accidentally hurt you." Misty continued. "I promise that help is on the way right now, but it will be a lot harder to care for your mom if they're also trying to take care of you, we can wait right outside until she's taken care of."
Misty saw the conflicting thoughts in their eyes at her words. She silently pleaded for them to understand.
Unfortunately, the Dragonite in the room was still lashing out in her fevered sleep.
Her arm rose and slammed the floor of the cave with tremendous force, rending another gash with her claws and making the entire space shake violently. Misty lost her footing and stumbled back landing on her back. "Ow." She grunted and pushed herself back up.
Just in time for rocks to start raining down on their heads.
"We need to go!" Squirtle shouted and Staryu used Protect to put up a defensive barrier over their heads.
"Come on!" Misty urged the Dratini. "We can wait right outside for help to get to your mom!"
Maybe they would have fought to stay longer but a stone fell and struck the middle child and with a yelp they started bolting, their youngest sibling right behind them.
Misty and her Pokemon started following but she realized the oldest sibling wasn't with them. She turned around and realized that it wasn't just stubbornness that had been keeping them there.
Dratini had her tail stuck underneath the rock they'd been cowering behind.
She darted back and got on her back again, using the ground to help give her leverage as she pushed against the rock with her legs, trying to get Dratini free.
The dragon-type looked at her, apparently surprised she'd come back for her. "Misty!" She heard her starter call.
"Get the others out I'm right behind you!" The rumbling was calming a bit but something had been disrupted in the structural integrity of the cave. The rocks kept falling and with alarm, she realized they were piling up near the entrance, and would block their way out.
The boulder wasn't budging, if three dragon-types (young as they were) hadn't been able to move it, then she probably wouldn't be able to.
That left her with two choices.
Leave Dratini here and hope she will be okay.
Or…
She pulled back and sat up, digging through her bag, and pulled out one of her Safari Balls. She held it up for Dratini to look at. "This is a Safari Ball. It will suck you inside, and you'll be free of the boulder."
Dratini seemed to follow her so far and she continued. "I understand if you don't want to stay inside but just wait for like, a minute for me to get us both out of here before coming out. Then you can get back to your siblings and we can wait for Nurse Joy to get here and take care of your Mom. Okay?"
There was hesitation, Misty could understand that, but they really didn't have the time.
"Are you ready?" She pressed and Dratini paused a moment longer, lowered her head, and tapped the ball herself.
The dragon glowed and was sucked into the device. Misty didn't even bother waiting for the ball to finish shaking before sprinting for the exit to the cave, the groans of a sick dragon echoing behind her.
Ash had enjoyed speaking with Selene, even if she had some choice complaints about a certain ground-type she had been "bunking" with.
It wasn't like she was forced to spend time with Diglett but she couldn't help but get dragged into theological debates with him.
Despite this, she had mostly enjoyed her time in Pallet Town but was eager to rejoin the team again.
Sunny was next in line to transfer back to Pallet Town, but it didn't take a genius to see the fire-type wasn't looking forward to that. Ash was willing to work things out so he could stick around a bit longer and maybe Eevee could transfer instead, but he asked if he could just have a day to think about it.
"I… I need to think about things. Can we talk about it tomorrow? Please?" He looked up at Ash, eyes wide with emotions and the Zorua accepted his request. Selene would be coming after the gym, one way or another, but they could hold off on the details for a bit longer.
With the goodbyes said Selene they'd gone to the training yard, where Janine had been taking a tactical ninja nap in the bushes with her Golbat keeping guard.
At least that was what Golbat said was happening so they just went about their usual training until Janine woke up in the afternoon.
"You thought you could outmaneuver me by taking advantage of my mortal weaknesses." She realized when she caught Ash in the middle of helping Art use Psychic.
"We were just training." He shrugged.
"Aha! But you forget! I am a master of observation. While you thought you remained unseen, Golbat was secretly reporting all your movements to me through a complicated series of gestures." Janine crossed her arms and held her head high.
The two Pokemon looked at Golbat.
"I swear I just flap my wings. There are no gestures involved."
"You suck at being a ninja." Art complained to the flying-type without skipping a beat.
A vein protruded on the other Pokemon's forehead. "Yeah, well you suck at being a knight!"
"I'm not a knight!" Art waved his arms. "I'm a hero! Right Dash?"
Ash coughed and rubbed his ears, wondering if he misheard. "What did you just call me?"
"Dash." Art repeated. "See, Sunny started calling you Dad, but he feels guilty about it so I figured I shouldn't call you Dad but I kind of like it, so I decided, what if I called you Dash instead? It's like Dad and Ash combined!"
His trainer nodded, following the logic, but something stuck out to him like a sore paw. "Sunny feels guilty about calling me Dad?" He asked.
Art froze and then covered his mouth. "Nuffin' Ay sed nuffin'."
"Who's calling you Dad?" Janine looked baffled.
"...it's complicated." Ash thought they had uncomplicated it but apparently he wasn't the only one having thoughts about it. It probably had to do with what Sunny wanted to talk about tomorrow. Or at least he hoped it did. "Let's get back to training! You owe me some actual ninja moves now!"
"...I supposed I do," Janine admitted. "We pair off our teams and then I teach you a few ninjutsu tricks?"
"Let me give some directions first." Ash decided.
"Good, gives me a chance to figure out how you'd do it on four legs." He heard her mutter as he began explaining to his teammates what exactly he wanted them to practice while battling the other trainer's poison-types.
For Storm he wanted her to try blocking poison, with Protect or other barrier moves. For Pikachu and Pidgeotto he wanted them to focus on dodging. Eevee was told to try avoiding in trickier ways, either using Dig or the terrain to absorb the attacks. Sunny he asked to try using moves to destroy the poison before it would affect him, (he seemed quite eager to try that) and Art would try using the Psychic they had been practicing to catch the poison before it hit him.
With his team squaring up to their opponents he and Janine stepped to the side.
"Now to begin, what do you know about ninjas?"
Ash opened his mouth and Janine immediately shot forward and jabbed him, bursting his illusion.
"Wrong!" She leaned down on him as he picked himself up. "You know nothing! It is time to learn!"
"This is going to be Shelldon all over again isn't it?" Ash realized.
Janine blinked at him. "That's a stupid name."
"You want to tell him that, be my guest."
Thus began Ash's intense ninja training. Over the course of the afternoon, he discovered that just about everything he thought he knew about ninjas was wrong.
Oh sure sometimes they would fight, but overall they were focused on observation, subtlety, and trickery.
He was already good at most of those things! Sort of. Look, he knew how to disguise himself and sometimes perfectly blend in with the thing he was disguised as, that counted as being subtle no matter what anyone else said!
There were, unfortunately, no secret ninja superpowers involved with any of this, but he was all right with that, he already had his superpowers, well, as much as any Pokemon did at least.
That being said, there were plenty of tricks he had never thought of before, and one tactic that he had never actually found himself considering before, at least not in the way Janine described it.
Misdirection.
"It is easy to strike unseen from the shadows." She explained, stepping back into the literal shadows of the wall to help visualize her point. "But striking unseen while being observed? That is the true mark of a ninja."
Ash frowned as he tried to make sense of that. "Wait, you mean hitting someone while they're looking at you? Isn't that just a normal attack?"
"I said "unseen,"" She repeated herself. "Imagine your opponent is watching you, waiting for you to make a move, and then you still manage to hit them and catch them unawares."
"Like using Dig?" Ash suggested. That was a move that let you strike from anywhere underground, even if your opponent was watching for you. "Cause, I've tricked people into thinking one attack is going to happen and then doing something else. Selene is good at that with Sing and Metronome." It was a trick they used often due to the unpredictability of Metronome but it was still a useful surprise when they could pull it off.
"That's one form of misdirection." Janine nodded. "But…" She looked thoughtful and tapped her chin. "As much as I hate to use this example, you know magicians? Buneary out of hat tricks and that stuff?"
"I've never seen one in person but I've heard of them." Gary had complained about one who visited his school. He had been incredibly frustrated because he couldn't figure out how the performer had managed to guess the card he was holding.
"It's like that." She started walking towards him waving her hands in a gesture. "The magician gets you to focus on one thing and while you're paying attention to that-" She suddenly cut off and kicked Ash.
He had been so focused on her waving hands and explanation he had not been paying attention to her rearing back a kick. It caught him completely by surprise.
"-that you don't realize what they're actually doing." She finished with a pleased smirk on her face.
Ash dusted himself off, she hadn't kicked him too hard. "I think I get it now."
"We'll see, don't get mad when I keep catching you by surprise. I'm going to be using misdirection until you understand how powerful it is." Janine promised him.
A part of the Zorua flinched at the thought, the other part of him, the more devious part, reveled in the possible strategies or attacks he could invent.
But he was not the only one getting something out of their mutual training session. As promised, he gave her some tips and ideas for perfecting disguises and being stealthy. He had more experience with one of those than the other of course.
"The hard part with a disguise is making it look natural." He told her, and to help make his point, used his illusion to duplicate her appearance. "Sure I can look like you pretty easily." He gestured at himself. "The hard part is acting like you, I can't walk around acting like myself."
"I need to talk the talk." He pushed his vocal cords and put a bit more weight into his words, so that he literally sounded just like Janine, it might not be as perfect as he could do his friends' voices but it was close enough. "And walk the walk." He continued and adjusted his stance, tensing his shoulders, and holding his head a bit higher. His knees slightly bent as he entered into an always-ready crouch Janine seemed to default to.
She stared at him, eyes wide, and then started to circle him, inspecting his illusion. "That's uncanny. In case you forgot though, I can't use Pokemon magic to make myself look like anything."
"It's not magic," Ash claimed without a second thought.
"What is it then? Are you telling me science can explain how you can make yourself look like me, any more than it can explain why the sky is blue or the grass is green?" She gestured around at the sky and grass at the edges of the training field.
Then she kicked him again bursting the illusion.
"I'm pretty sure science can explain those things." Ash stumbled and shook his head. Darn, he thought he would have been better prepared the next time she tried that.
This was going to become a trend, wasn't it?
"I don't believe you, explain how," Janine demanded without skipping a beat.
"Well, I don't know." Ash admitted, "But I bet Eevee does!"
"So you admit it could be magic." Janine nodded her head as though she had won the argument.
"I did no such thing!"
"Whatever you say magic fox Pokemon." She waved his denial away. "Now, back to the disguise lessons."
The sunset had lit the horizon on fire when they wrapped up their training for the night. Ash was wondering whether he should call Misty and the others before or after dinner but first, he had to say his goodbyes to the mysterious ninja who had stalked him for two days.
"My mission is complete." She claimed, dramatically looking into the wind so her cape flared behind her. "I must go."
"Are you sure?" Ash checked, "I mean, how long were you supposed to observe me for?"
"Until I knew whether or not you were a worthy challenger for the gym." She revealed and Ash blinked. "I did not lie to you, but the gym inspection revealed our weaknesses to us. We survived but we have not thrived as we should. My father has set me to learn about our challengers, the good and the bad before they arrive at our gym."
"Why not just accept all challengers?" Ash wondered.
"There used to be a test involved. A series of trials to prove your worthiness to challenge the gym." Janine claimed. "But Joy said we weren't allowed to do that anymore."
"So what?" Pikachu snickered. "Do you just lock the doors if you don't find someone worthy?"
"Or tell them to go to the wrong place…" Eevee offhandedly mentioned and Ash blinked.
"Where is the gym?" He asked Janine and she smirked at him.
"Like I taught you, misdirection is a ninja's greatest strength. Tell Nurse Joy the silent Lycanroc stalks at noon and she will give you the true directions to the gym. Not the faux ones normally listed."
"I feel like this is the opposite of what Joy wanted you guys to do." Ash pointed out and she shrugged.
"Dad beat her dragon, his gym his rules. Besides, those two challengers I mentioned were the only ones who came to Fuchsia. There were a few others but when they didn't find the gym where they thought it was they just gave up."
That surprised Ash a bit. "Just like that?"
"If they weren't even willing to go to town to ask around then they were not worthy opponents, but you have more than proved yourself. Farewell tricky fox." She threw down a smoke bomb and Ash barely managed to dodge a final strike from the smoke.
"You've learned well." She smirked once more, through another pellet and this time truly departed.
"I think if I've learned anything over the past two days, it's that ninjas are freaking weird." Storm decided.
"You mean freaking awesome!" Art practically had stars in his shaded eyes. "Dash did you learn all sorts of cool ninja stuff!"
"I think he mostly just got his butt kicked by a girl younger than Misty." Pikachu pointed out.
"I did not get my butt kicked." Ash defended as they went back inside.
"She didn't even have attacks!"
"Misdirection is tricky!" Ash crossed his arms. "Just wait until I figure out how to use it on you in training!"
As they passed the lobby, they had a welcome surprise stumble in the doors. A slightly disheveled and exhausted-looking trio of traveling companions!
"Hey guys!" Ash grinned at them, "Good timing!"
"Hi, Ash." Misty tried to wave and only got her arm about halfway. "Have you ever had to hold down a Dragonite so she could get her shot? Because I learned that you can't."
"That sounds interesting." Sunny summarized and Ash found himself agreeing.
"Want to explain over dinner?"
"Good idea," Brock mumbled, looking fairly tired himself. "Let's just drop our Pokemon off and then we'll meet you in the cafeteria."
"Then sleep." Karen's voice was dead.
"Cool! I can tell you about my ninja stalker! See you in a few minutes!"
Everyone was ravenous and immediately dug into their meals, both his human friends and his Pokemon ones. Ash himself was no slouch and managed to down an entire plate before the others had even sat down.
"Right, so you had a ninja stalker." Karen summarized. "And we had a boy who thought he was Kangaskhan and a sick Dragonite."
"Misty told me about the Kangaskhan Kid already." Ash shrugged, "and I mentioned Janine to her already."
"Why didn't either of you tell us?" Karen looked between them and both younger trainers shrugged.
"It was late last night and I've been training all day." Ash gave his excuse.
"Sick Dragonite." Misty used hers.
"Can we hear about the Dragonite first?" Sunny requested and Ash passed it along. He was pretty curious himself.
Misty started explaining the day's events, she and her team going to the Lake Region and finding the sick Dragonite in a cave, calling for help, and rescuing her kids from her sickness-induced destruction.
"I let Dratini out as soon as we were outside of course." Misty continued. "And then I see these nuts racing down the beach on the back of a Rhyhorn with a Nurse Joy!"
"The Rhyhorn is mine." Brock volunteered. "He was the Pokemon I found and managed to convince to come along with me."
"And nothing for Karen." The teenager tapped the table with a scowl. "You'd think there were more dark-types in the Safari Zone."
"They all collapse in a pile after Rhyhorn stops and then he starts nuzzling into Brock." Misty chuckled, revealing the source of the new bruises Brock was sporting.
"I should take lessons on Rhyhorn Racing." He mused and rubbed at some of the sore spots.
"Nurse Joy asks about the situation, gives a quick checkup to the Dratini, and then goes to check on their Mom. I warned her that it was dangerous and then she started putting on this body armor and a helmet." Misty brought them back on topic. "Like the stuff SWAT teams wear."
"Don't forget what she said." Karen added, "Don't worry kids! I am a trained professional!"
"Right?" Misty shook her head. "Nerves of steel, she goes in for about five minutes and the Dratini are still worried about their mom and we start getting worried about Nurse Joy and then she comes back out and asks for help."
"Did she bring enough armor for the rest of you?" Ash wondered.
"Nope, but she explained she gave Dragonite some weak paralytic agent that would help keep her mostly still. As long as she wasn't given any additional outside stimuli." Misty took a deep breath. "Guess what we had to do?"
"Provide outside stimulus?" Eevee guessed correctly.
"Nurse Joy vaccinated the Dratini first, now that she knew what their Mom was sick with, and then dragged us and all the Pokemon in to help hold Dragonite down while she gave her this giant shot."
"I have no idea where she was keeping that thing," Karen muttered. "Seriously, the field bag was only a bit bigger than your backpack." She gestured at Ash. "That syringe was the size of one of the Dratini."
"Dragonite had all of us holding her down and she still bucked and squirmed as soon as Nurse Joy inserted the needle. I got thrown into the ceiling, Karen nearly got impaled on a stalagmite…"
"This was with the Pokemon helping by the way." The teenage girl shuddered.
"But the medicine worked and Dragonite started feeling better. Her kids were relieved and we were all set to move on and I was about to start asking the water-types about joining me when…" Misty sighed. "I got a surprise volunteer."
"Who you already caught!" Brock helpfully added.
"Dratini offered to go with you?" Ash blinked his surprise away. "Why?"
"Good question." Misty nodded. "I don't know. At least, she gave an answer about me being a good one and then returned herself to nap."
"She was most confusing about it," Staryu added. "She said goodbye to her family before telling Misty, "Good news! You are worthy of my presence fair maiden.""
"That's not quite what she said," Squirtle whispered to the other Pokemon. "But that was the general gist of it."
"Huh, I guess you finally branched out from the water-type then?" Ash recalled a conversation they'd had some time ago.
"Didn't think of it that way but you're right." Misty realized. "Although Dratini does have some similarities to water-types."
"That was our day." Karen closed up the discussion. "Now tell us about yours, who is this ninja stalker named Janine?"
"Want to compare notes on stalking Ash?" Misty waggled an eyebrow. "You, her, Team Rocket, and Art can figure out the best ways to do it."
Ash explained his own day, the training, the ninjas, the misdirection, and the wrong location for the gym. Which led to the two former gym leaders developing a bit of a stink eye.
"Oh sure, let's hide where our gym really is, that's okay because we're just that good." Misty clenched her fist.
"It's definitely a good idea to reduce the number of challengers we get after we manage to pass our gym inspection." Brock mocked.
Karen and Ash shared a look and decided it was time to go to bed.
The next day, Ash decided not to waste any time. He and his team had breakfast with their friends and then went to Nurse Joy for directions.
Ash gave her the passphrase and she handed him a map. The Zorua couldn't make heads or tails of it so Brock took the paper from him, flipped it over, and then turned it the right side up.
"Follow me." He announced. "It's not too far, just a bit out of town. Past the old train station."
The gym was a monument to Wayo Architecture, classical medieval style structures in a much different vein than that of Rota, while that had been a Galar stronghold at some point in the distant past this building was purely designed by the native inhabitants of Kanto.
Ash thought it was pretty cool.
"We're not going to be attacked from either side as soon as we walk through the front door right?" Karen checked, looking a little cautious. "I mean, apparently they decided to make this gym difficult to challenge."
"And yet that has not stopped you from accompanying the challenger." A voice came from above them and a figure leaped from the rooftops of the main building. "Who are you who comes to the Gym Hidden in the Forest?" A tall woman wearing garb not dissimilar to Janine demanded.
"I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town." Ash introduced himself. "And this is Pikachu, Pidgeotto, Sunny, Eevee, Storm, and Art." He included his family in his introduction. "Uh, some of them are from Pallet Town too but others are from other places."
"I am aware." She waved away his answer. "You are expected, the others are not."
"Then maybe you should be a bit more welcoming," Misty complained. "You're clearly terrible hosts. You haven't even introduced yourself or offered to take our coats. What kind of ninja are you?"
"One without manners." Karen nodded in agreement.
Ash wasn't sure it was wise to offend the local ninjas, but apparently, the girls had struck a nerve. The next thing they knew they were bundled inside, welcomed warmly, asked to remove their shoes and wash their faces, and given seats at a table in the great hall.
All in about thirty seconds.
"Now then," The woman (who still hadn't introduced herself) "you have been graced by the manners of shinobi. Who are you?"
"My friends." Ash volunteered. "They came to watch the battle! Are you the gym leader? Because I think Janine said it was her father, which I think means Koga and you don't look like Koga unless you're disguising yourself."
"Are you Koga?" Brock asked, sounding somewhat reluctant to voice his thoughts.
"I am Aya." She sipped her tea. "Koga is my brother."
"...alright thanks for showing how polite you are." Ash tried. "Can I fight Koga now? I've been training for this."
"In the old days we'd make you face the trials to prove you are-"
"Worthy, Janine told me about this."
"Now who's being rude?" Aya narrowed her eyes.
"I just want to battle." Ash pleaded, he could practically feel the eagerness boiling off the rest of his team.
"Very well, I will lead you to the battlefield." Aya sipped her tea twice more in rapid succession before standing in one fluid motion and gesturing for them to follow.
"You're not going to lead us into a trap or something right?" Misty checked as they followed along and Aya frowned at her.
"Why are you so suspicious?"
"Ninjas." She deadpanned.
"Good answer."
Koga was waiting for them in a courtyard that clearly served double duty as a battlefield. At the edge of the battleground, around the halfway point, stood what seemed to be a sign covered by a sheet.
Like his family, the gym leader too wore a ninja get-up and had intense and harsh facial features, like they had been chiseled from particularly stern stone. A familiar face stood at his side.
"Hi, Janine!" Ash waved.
"Hello Ash, was my Aunt polite?" She did a quick bow in greeting.
"Mostly." He shrugged.
"If the pleasantries are out of the way." Koga waved his hand to Aya and she stepped aside, leading Ash's humans friends with her. "Greeting challenger, you have come here for your seventh gym badge."
It wasn't a question so Ash wasn't sure if he was supposed to answer.
Koga continued before he could decide one way or the other. "This means you shall be facing me in a five versus five battle. There will be no substitutions so if you return a Pokemon they are considered disqualified. This may sound simple but there is a notable exception to the usual formula."
Off to the side, Aya swept the sheet away and revealed the board it was covering. It was divided into two sides each with a name at the top and a list of Pokemon beneath it. One side said Ash, and the other said Koga.
"When did they set that up?" Pikachu asked.
"I shall choose which of your team I shall challenge and you shall do the same to me. Do you agree to this rule?" Koga rose a brow and awaited Ash's answer.
Several of Ash's strategies went up in smoke and he had to fight down a brief spike of panic. On the bright side, he got to choose which of Koga's team he would battle, on the downside he lost all freedom in choosing his own battler.
There were six Pokemon listed under Koga's name just as there were six listed under Ash. Only five would be used by each side though…
Seeing that he didn't have any other choice Ash accepted the rule.
"As a courtesy, I shall allow you to choose first. It's only polite after all." Ash could hear the man smirk even if the expression wasn't on his face. He wondered how he knew about the comments Misty and Karen had made to Aya and then decided it didn't matter he needed to focus on the battle.
The list of Pokemon Koga had available included some native Kanto Pokemon such as Venomoth, Muk, and Wheezing, but also included others such as Crobat, Skuntank, and Toxicroak.
The Zorua weighed his options and decided to pick the heaviest hitter he was willing to face right now. "Skuntank." He chose. Venomoth had weaknesses to Sunny and Pidgeotto, so he would save that choice for later, Crobat was in the same boat but with Pikachu…
But he was given a cruel reminder he could not choose his own teammates here. Koga did not give his choice verbally, instead, he took a throwing knife, (a kunai specifically), and chucked it at the board, it stuck three inches in on the name 'Ralts.'
Ash did a sharp intake of breath. Poison-type and dark-type. Art was at a complete disadvantage. Typing wasn't everything, they'd learned that time and again, but it certainly helped build the odds in one direction or the other.
"At last! To battle!" Art had no such hesitation himself and immediately stormed onto the field. "Let me at 'em!"
"Good luck Art!" Sunny called and the rest of the team wished the young Pokemon luck on his first gym battle.
Skuntank emerged from the field on Koga's side and the two Pokemon stared each other down.
"Begin!" Aya declared from the sidelines and Skuntank immediately fired off a Toxic without even a word from Koga.
"Catch it!" Ash immediately shouted as the glob of poison soared across the battlefield.
Art pointed his stick at the goop and a glow surrounded it as Psychic caught the disgusting substance.
"Night Slash!" Koga ordered and his Pokemon raced across the toward Art to follow up his initial attack.
The Ralts wasn't waiting around however and holding his stick in both arms spun around in a circle and telekinetically threw the globe of purple poison at Skuntank, hitting him in the eyes and making him stumble as he lost his vision.
"Hah!" Art cackled. "Now who's poisoned?"
"Poison-types can't be poisoned!" Eevee called from Ash's side of the field.
"What?" Art looked back even as Skuntank began to recover and wipe the poison from his eyes. "That's not fair!"
"Mystical Fire!" Ash called and got his attention back on the fight. Art took aim at the furious Skuntank and fired the powerful attack directly at him.
"Dig," Koga said simply and Skuntank burrowed under the ground, avoiding the fire.
Now Art was a very creative Pokemon, and Ash had encouraged that creativity while training. Unfortunately, most of it had gone into developing his psychic-moves. After all, those would be most effective against a poison-type.
Not so much a dark-type.
"Uh." Art scratched his head. "What to do… I know!" He was struck by an idea. He pointed his stick at the ground. "UP!" He shouted.
Ash had been working out what to do himself and was just on the verge of a strategy when the battlefield started floating. Or rather chunks of it did, Art himself was standing on a chunk of earth held together purely by his own Psychic.
"Haha!" He cackled and pointed his stick at the now exposed (and very confused) Skuntank. "Found you!"
Without prompting from Ash he used Mystical Fire once more and this time Skuntank (and Koga himself) were a bit too surprised to dodge. The fact he managed to confuse a ninja without even trying to confuse a ninja would be a source of pride for Art in days to come.
The fire-attack hit home and Skuntank cried out in pain as the beam of fire burned him.
"Good work Art!" Ash called to the Ralts who held his stick high-
-and then collapsed face first and the battlefield fell out of the air, landing back where it should be, and on top of Skuntank.
"..." Koga looked at the unconscious Art, then at Aya, then Ash, and turned to stare at Janine.
She gestured at the challengers. "I didn't know he could do that!"
"Uh, I think Art overexerted himself with that." Ash guessed what had caused his Pokemon to collapse. "I'm not sure about Skuntank…"
"Double knock out," Aya announced and crossed both Skuntank and Ralts off the board. "I call for a brief time out so Skuntank can be excavated and the battlefield repaired."
Art had proven himself to be an unexpected MVP with that fight and Ash swore to congratulate the little Pokemon as soon as he woke up. He took a fight he shouldn't have any chance of winning and turned it into a draw. That was impressive!
And helped Ash get over the last vestige of his initial panic when he learned of Koga's special rule.
A few minutes later the match was back on. "Muk!" Ash decided.
Koga once again gave his answer with the kunai and this time chose Eevee.
"Really wish there was an evolution stone for Espeon right about now." She muttered as she took to the field. "I don't want to touch him."
"Just make friends with him!" Pikachu heckled her.
"That is not how it works!" She glared back as the battle began.
Eevee was on more even ground with Muk, at least typing-wise, she even had a few advantages. Sadly for her Muk was a dribbling mess of toxicity and gross that she didn't have enough ranged moves to avoid entirely.
Still, neither she nor Ash were willing to give up from the get-go.
They opened up with Sand Attack even as Muk oozed across the battlefield and tried enveloping her. She unleashed Baby-Doll Eyes and darted in for a Quick Attack that left her wretching.
But Muk was barely even attacking, at least not traditionally, all he seemed to do was wade around the field and leave a trail of poison wherever he went. It left them in a tricky situation, and both them of them realized what needed to be done.
Like they had talked about when first beginning training for this gym, Koga thrived on drawing out his battles and whittling down his opponents bit by bit until he was left victorious.
The key was not to let him take his time and just go for the throat.
"Bite!" Ash called to Eevee and she leapt in chomping down on Muk and then darting away with Quick Attack as he tried to envelop her just to come back and do it again. And again. And again.
By the fifth Bite Muk was immobile and Eevee was breathing hard, but victorious. But Ash only needed to glance at her to know she was poisoned, whether it was "badly" poisoned or just the regular variant was hard to say, but both kind of sucked.
"Are you good to keep going?" Ash asked her and she tested her foreleg, wincing a bit.
"I think I got a few hits let in me. I could probably manage a Dig, pick something I can use Dig on."
"Toxicroak." All the other options could either fly or levitate.
"Interesting choice," Koga noted and the poison and fighting-type took to the field, venom sack enlarging as he breathed in anticipation.
"Come and get me." Eevee taunted the poison-type and he lunged across the field and got a face full of Sand Attack. He swung his arm through the stuff, clearing it away and revealing the hole Eevee had dug using the stuff as a cover.
She burst from the ground and crashed into his back. Then followed up with a Quick Attack but met her defeat under a direct Bullet Punch from the larger Pokemon.
Ash returned Eevee, telling her she did a great job as he did so. He almost started choosing his next Pokemon before another kunai reminded him he wasn't allowed to in this fight.
It was Storm's turn.
He would have sent Pidgeotto in if he had the choice, but the Squirtle was a pretty good option too.
"Let's do this then." Storm entered the battlefield and immediately found herself on the receiving end of a Close Combat.
That Close Combat, found itself blocked and no longer allowed to contact Storm's number thanks to a hasty Protect.
He jumped back to gain some distance and Koga's shout of "Toxic!" Echoed across the field.
"Spinning Barrier!" Ash called with a grin.
Storm retreated inside her natural fortress using Withdraw and used Rapid Spin, immediately following up with a Protect. The combination of the three led to an interesting effect that threw the poison away and helped clear up the battlefield from Muk's poison trails.
"Launch!" Ash called and Koga found himself facing the unexpected once again.
A blast of water fired from Storm's shell and she rocketed across the field, striking Toxicroak in the skull and toppling him. She popped out and followed up with as many Bubbles as she could cough up on short notice.
But that wasn't quite enough for Toxicroak. He kicked himself back up and slugged Storm, possibly with an attack, or maybe just with raw physical strength and she tumbled across the field, tearing a ditch in it as she caught herself.
"Not giving up huh?" She clapped her arms together and took a few deep breaths to Work Up before going on the attack.
"Use Water Pulse!" Ash called to her. "Bring him into your element!"
"Speaking my language!" She agreed and the attack exploded out, covering the battlefield with water and turning the dirt into mud. "Let's try this again!"
Toxicroak charged once more, slower now with the difficult terrain weighing down his steps and Storm rocketed through the water with another "Launch."
Once again she crashed into Toxicroak, going for the legs this time and he splashed down facefirst in the water.
She caught herself at the other end of the field and fire Ice Beam at the down poison-type, freezing him over in the water, and securing her victory.
The Squirtle skidded across the frozen surface of the battlefield and took a bow toward Koga and his daughter. "Your defeat was brought to you by Storm, formerly of the Squirtle Squad."
A cheer went up on Ash's side, it quickly stopped when Storm started to glow.
"Aw come on?" She complained as the light enveloped her. She didn't grow much, but enough to be noticeable, and wings protruded from her head. "Couldn't have done this in a do-or-die moment could I?"
"Wowza." Sunny breathed and covered his mouth. "Storm you evolved!"
Storm the Wartortle inspected herself. "Not bad. Like I said, would have liked a bit more spectacle but I'll take it." She grinned and flashed a peace sign. "I put the war in turtle!"
Some Pokemon snickered and others groaned. Ash was just happy for her.
"Congratulations are in order it seems," Koga called. "But this battle is not over yet."
"Pick one of the flying types please." Storm requested and pounded her arms together. "I want to take my new tank out for a spin."
"Is she the tank in this situation?" Sunny asked and Pikachu could only shrug in answer.
"I'm not even going to get a chance to fight am I?" Pidgeotto complained.
"Crobat." Perhaps it was folly to save Venomoth for last, stereotypes about bug-types being weak seemed like exactly the kind of thing Koga would exploit, but he had good options to deal with Venomoth when and if they came out. Maybe something would happen and he'd choose Wheezing.
That was unlikely though, Surge had put the fear of Self Destruct into him.
Storm and Crobat clashed in spectacular fashion. Koga evidently had experience dealing with ice-types before and the flying-type seemed to shrug off Storm's Ice Beam somehow. Ash was caught between trying to figure out the technique behind it and making sure Storm had proper warning as the flying-type made use of her aerial advantage over the battlefield.
Cross Poison met Bubblebeam and while Storm relished in her newfound strength, unleashing a barrage of powerful attacks Crobat seemed able to weather her way through all of them.
It was inevitable that she found herself poisoned, even with their practice in blocking those attacks the day before, eventually a lucky shot managed to surprise her and smear her with the horrifying substance.
But they had prepared for that.
Storm fought on and Crobat soon found herself on the backfoot as they clashed once more. Storm launched herself into the air and used Water Pulse to rain down a cascade of water that completely drenched Crobat, and left whatever technique she was using to protect her wings from the ice moot.
Crobat was bathed in icy energy creating a lovely central pillar for the battlefield and taking her out of the fight. But Storm wasn't far behind, between the poison and the damage she had taken she was on her last legs and finally collapsed.
Both sides returned their Pokemon, congratulating them for a job well done and Ash felt himself smile. He was in a pretty good spot here, he had two Pokemon left while Koga only had one and all three of the remaining options were some of his heaviest hitters.
Victory seemed all but assured.
"I pick Venomoth." Ash declared, whatever that poison-type was capable of they'd have to face the power and speed his family brought to bear on them.
Koga got a strange expression on his face, and Ash worried that Venomoth really might be Koga's ace and he had fallen into the trap. He lobbed his throwing weapon at the board and Ash did a double-take.
"Is… is that allowed?" Sunny asked staring.
"Is something wrong challenger?" Koga asked, his expression turning blank. "Send out your Zorua."
The weapon had struck the name right at the top of the board: 'Ash Ketchum.'
Ash looked at the board, he looked at his teammates, he looked at his human friends, and then he looked at Janine, who with an expression just as blank as her father's gave him a thumbs up held close against her torso.
"Hang on, Ash isn't registered as a Pokemon." Brock tried using rules and logic to outmaneuver the local ninja clan.
"If you recall the ruling at the beginning of the battle," Aya called for their attention. "He never specified Pokemon had to be chosen, just that someone on the team had to be chosen. It would have been well within the challenger's own right to choose my brother."
Ash swore he saw Janine mouth the word "misdirection" at him.
He really wanted to misdirect a Dark Pulse at her face.
"One moment please." He requested making a T with his hands and immediately getting in a huddle with his remaining teammates.
"Pikachu we haven't practiced nearly as much as I wanted to but I need you to command me." He told his best friend immediately.
"Are you sure?" Pikachu looked uncharacteristically concerned. "Couldn't you just battle without direction?"
"I could but I would really appreciate the help and you've seen me do it and helped me practice it more than anyone else." He told him.
"Couldn't we help out?" Pidgeotto suggested but Ash shook his head.
"I appreciate the offer but that wouldn't work, what if you guys accidentally contradict each other? Yes or no Pikachu?" Ash looked back to the electric-type.
Pikachu took a deep breath and nodded. He looked at Ash, a fire behind his eyes. "Alright, let's do this. To the top."
"To the top." Ash agreed with a determined look.
"You got this!" Pidgeotto told him and Sunny patted his leg.
"Good luck Dad, you can do this!" He encouraged him and Ash took a deep breath, took his hat off so it wouldn't get wrecked, stepped onto the battlefield, and allowed his illusion to disperse.
Venomoth buzzed in the air. "Interesting situation you got yourself into."
"Thanks I noticed." Ash agreed and the battle resumed.
"Hone Claws!" Pikachu called to him.
As he sharpened his claws as best he could Venomoth began raining down a series of powders on him, much like he had seen Gloom practicing and like Mina's Bellsprout had done during the tournament.
Ash stayed on the move, refusing to let any of the conditions affect him. He turned and jumped into an illusion, Ursaring, and then jumped higher still before letting the illusion burst. By that point, he was high enough to come down on top of Venomoth.
He landed on the poison-types back and immediately used Night Daze at full strength, crippling the other Pokemon.
Koga said something and Venomoth spun knocking Ash off and into a cloud of powder. He did his best not to breathe but the painful feeling of a billion needles let him know the poison had still done its work.
On the bright side, it probably couldn't get any worse than this, but it still hurt like heck.
As he tried to recover his senses, Pikachu's voice cut through the haze. "Dark Pulse, straight up!" Not even pausing to question his friend's direction he blasted the attack and Venomoth cried out with pain and knocked him back with Gust.
But he was still standing!
"Leer!" Pikachu cried, "Oh, and then Taunt! Quick!"
There was a bit of inexperience but his friend was doing pretty well so far.
The Zorua gave his most malicious look to Venomoth and then shouted, "Call yourself a ninja? More like a nonja!"
"That's not even a word!" Venomoth growled at him and lunged forward with Bug Bite.
Ash had to take the attack but it left him in the perfect position to use Night Daze.
It hit dead on but then Ash staggered as a particularly bad poison-induced coughing fit caused him to collapse leaving him open for another attack to hit him. A null that left him a bit confused, and with startling alarm he realized he'd forgotten how to use Night Daze.
Well, he knew how to use it, he remembered using it, but he couldn't remember how to use it.
At least now he knew what Disable felt like.
"Look out!" Pikachu called and Ash used Quick Attack to dart to the left and narrowly avoided another attack from Venomoth, this time with glowing teeth that seemed to drip poison.
Probably Poison Fang.
In response, he used Dark Pulse and Venomoth lost altitude and crashed into the slushy ground. The other Pokemon tried to pull themself up but Ash was ready to finish this.
He lunged forward and like Sabrina before called up all the worst memories he could think of and unleashed a furious barrage of Bites until Venmoth stopped struggling.
It took a moment to pull himself back and off the other Pokemon, this was just a regular battle not a fight for his life. His survival instincts had kicked in a bit there at the end. In a haze he watched Venomoth get recalled and then was nearly tackled by Pikachu, Sunny and Pidgeotto glomping him with cheers and congratulations.
"That was amazing!" Sunny crowed and hugged him, squeezing the air out of him.
"I can't believe we did that!" Pikachu was ecstatic, "I mean, I can believe we did that but- yeah!"
"Nice work! Glad to see you pulling your weight mister trainer." Pidgeotto smirked and knocked him a bit with her wing.
Ash just grinned, although it felt a bit lopsided. "We did it." He confirmed and looked to Koga.
"Congratulations challenger, you have earned the Soul Badge." The gym leader held the badge itself aloft.
"Thank you." Ash nodded. "But I'd rather have a Pecha Berry right now."
"Oh right, uh…" Pikachu started patting his fur as though he would find his in a pocket. "I think it's in your bag, hold on."
The berry tasted good, and eased the pain that was tearing apart his insides, but it tasted all the better as he added his seventh gym badge to his collection.
Just one more to go. Cinnabar Island, here they come!
You know I wanted to get this chapter out yesterday and technically I did finish it yesterday but it still needed editing and I figured I would do a better job if I looked at it with a fresh pair of eyes.
So posting it now! Yay!
Quite a bit happened this chapter! Some things got set up for next chapter but running down the list of major events and/or achievements this chapter:
We have Brock catching Rhyhorn, Misty catching Dratini, Ash learning how to ninja, Storm evolving into Wartortle, Ash getting to participate in a gym battle for the second time (this time with more legitimacy, and Ash claims his 7th gym badge!
The end of Kanto is in sight! Sort of! Let's see if I get to the league by chapter 50. I'm hoping.
A part of me wonders if I should have held off longer on Storm evolving since Ash getting to participate might have overshadowed her evolution but I've been building it up enough that it made sense to happen here.
Hm, what else to say? Oh right let's talk about Dratini. Some of you were hoping Ash would be catching a Dratini and I admit, a very long time ago I did plan for him to catch one here. But plans change and Ash has plenty of other teammates right now, I'm not ready to throw another member into the mix. I do still have one more teammate planned for Kanto but they're still several chapters out.
I'm not saying Ash catching a Dratini is never going to happen, but it would be much later in the story. Maybe I could include his canon Dragonite instead, surprise trip to Dragonite Island or something…
Ah, I'm rambling now, let's wrap this up.
Reviews!
Vulpixtales: You're not entirely wrong about that. I'm glad you think it's a cute chapter!
LEGOBRICK13: Yeah, Janine fits better as a character popping in for a few chapters as opposed to a consistent member of the traveling group. Karen has done a lot of legwork with training Ash and providing a bit of an ace in the hole when things go wrong sometimes. I have no idea where to even begin with Tommy's birth parents. I originally thought of having them show up and getting completely chewed out but I didn't want to deal with them. Let's assume they just never bother coming back. And look! Koga saw threw Ash's disguise (mostly because Janine told him) and he got to battle! Been planning this for a hot minute!
Tamaraniantuesday: I hope you can put it back on!
Pecan Crisp: Ah yes the dangers of "replace all" I was spelling it Khangaskhan.
Shaonics6: Tommy's parents, like I said, are bad and I don't want to deal with them. I'm just letting Tommy keep his happy Kangaskhan family and he can grow up to be the hero of Safari Zone or something. Ash has developed a tendency to overthink things, it's honestly not something I did intentionally but I realized that he had developed that trait over the course of the story, seemingly dating back to about the time AJ showed up. And gratz on guessing right with Misty!
Dustellion: Thank you! I like to think I'm a good writer but hearing it still makes me smile. Don't eat something too bitter!
The one who reads and writes: Yep, like I said in response to Shaonics Ash has developed a tendency to overthink things. That said there is a bit more to the dad conversation left for next chapter, on Sunny's side rather than Ash's. I have plans for Diglett to be sorted out at a later date, don't worry. And yes the "wings" of Dragonair do sort of exist, but not in the manner I meant. I meant like full on dragon wings on their back, not the weird head things. The Pokemon catching debate continues to rear its head throughout the story because it's not something I can just one and done. It's complicated to say the least. I could have done that with Jenny but I didn't want to turn this into a big conflict that would get them in serious trouble with the police. At least not in this situation. Yeah, I made the right choice going with Karen instead of Janine, but it's interesting to think of what could have been.
Lupercus1944: Excitement abounds! Welcome back! I'm glad you're enjoying the depth given to the human characters here. Misty is probably the one I'm most proud of, I've rounder her character so much she's become a sphere. Metaphorically. But Brock and Karen have seen their own developments! One of the big reasons I didn't include Brock in the first place was his whole love sick thing and not wanting to write that, but Karen provides the perfect sponge for it, not to mention she would definitely be the type to enjoy having a boy her age fawn over her. It all works out! Yeah pranks are a bit tricky because by their very nature they're big loud and disruptive. But the whole point of the Bamboozle is they come through a city like a storm, cause mass chaos and then move on. I had fun with Pokemon Center brawl, honestly that whole chapter came together a lot better than I thought. I appreciate your thoughts on the Sunny calling Ash Dad situation, and you provide a good point! And yep, it's hard to balance the training so it doesn't get boring but it also doesn't feel like Ash and his team pull victory out of nowhere just like that.
Battlesny: Wat. Oh Mew? Uh. Maybe?
Phaleon: Thank you!
That's just about everything but there is one last thing to cover.
I am about to start a new job tomorrow, this is a good job that I am very excited for. But it will be intensive and keep me significantly busier, which means my writing is most likely going to be affected. I cannot say how much just yet but I'll be working more than I did at my old job, even if it's doing something I enjoy more. I already made this announcement in discord but I know not everyone who reads this is in there.
That said, I'm hardly going to stop writing. I enjoy it and I like telling stories. I will probably be forced to slow down though. We'll see.
Until next time! Have a good one!
Discord: discord . gg / kESdTfhAwG
TVTropes: tvtropes pmwiki / pmwiki . php / Fanfic / ZoruaTrainer
~FriTik
R&R