Quinn strode boldly out into the Grass field area, and looked across the field.

She couldn't see anyone at the other end.

"Hey, where's my opponent?" she asked, raising a hand.

"Don't worry," the referee replied. "He put in an application for a flyover, so-"

A moving sliver of colour shot over the outer retaining wall of the arena, banked in a high speed circle over most of the crowd, and slowed into a stall over the side of the stadium opposite the female trainer.

As it did so, it became clear that the moving shape was a Pidgeot. Just at the apex when Pidgeot was no longer rising, a blue human shape dropped straight down twenty feet and landed in a crouch.

"Morning!" Ash said pleasantly, rising to his feet. "Ten AM, right?"

The hand which hadn't braked his fall held up a Pokéball, and returned Pidgeot.

"…yes," the referee said, shaking his head. "I've seen a lot of entrances in my time, so don't think that impressed me or anything, but how exactly did you survive that fall without breaking a leg?"

Ash shrugged, stepping back to the box he was meant to stand in as a trainer. "It's… kind of a long story."

"Fine, then." The referee turned and activated his microphone. "The rules are, three Pokémon each. We have Lines-Pokémon in place, but please be careful about attacks that would endanger the crowd."

Pikachu muttered something into Ash's ear, who relayed it. "How are weather effects?"

"They're fine, the stadium has a retractable roof. We cover everything but the central arena itself if one is let off. Now, trainers… begin!"

Both trainers threw their first Pokeballs at the same time. Quinn led off with a Flareon, whereas Ash sent out his Pidgeot again.

"Damn!" Quinn muttered. "Match can't use his best attack if she's up there. Oh, well. Flamethrower!"

Pidgeot danced to the side as a blast of flame shot skywards, before wheeling back in on the tail of the fire to use the thermal.

She could always give herself an updraft, but a free one was good too.

"Grass…" the trainer muttered. "Pity to do this, but it's my best chance. Match! Flare Blitz, inward spiral!"

Ash ducked as the Flame Eevee-lution dashed past his box. "That's impressive! I've never seen a Flareon use that move before, Virgil's one stuck to Fire Blast."

Apparently some of them can do it. It's a good thing Pidgeot can stay out of the way of that attack, though, it would be devastating.

He licked his finger and held it out, testing the air currents. "Yeah, that's pretty hot. And it looks like it's starting to rotate, too. Firestorm?"

Likely.

"Right." Ash gauged things for a moment, then held up a Pokéball in each hand. "Pidgeot, come back here! Squirtle!"

"This blazing spirit of mine will always overcome! If faced with evaporating heat, there'll just be more water to make up the difference! This is my Pledge!"

Ah, Water Pledge. Interesting move.

Ash looked down at his Pokédex. "That's like Fire Pledge, right? Pignite has that."

Yes, there's three Pledge moves. They get stronger in a chain, so if Fire Pledge came first it powers up Water Pledge-

A series of pulsing explosions sounded as a column of water hit the firestorm from above, throwing droplets of water all over the stadium.

-and I think he just managed to get it to trigger on the flaming tornado of doom.

"Yep, that's Squirtle," Ash agreed.

Match, Quinn's Flareon, broke off his Blitz and danced out of the way as the water finally broke through the core of the firestorm and slammed into the ground.

Braking to a halt, he let off a quick Inferno and drove away what water there was near him.

Squirtle and Match faced one another warily over a landscape of scorched ash and crumbling grass skeletons.

"And the battlers have completely destroyed the field, in under a minute! That's close to the league record!" the announcer said.

Ash poked his head over the armoured box. "What's the record?"

The referee was close enough to hear his question, and answered it. "Two seconds. Ice field, high powered Camerupt, first move Eruption."

Everyone winced. "Ouch…"

"Right!" Quinn said, pulling out a second Pokéball of her own. "If this is a chance, I'm using it! Blossom!"

Blossom turned out to be an Ivysaur, who slung some Razor Leaf attacks at Squirtle, and Squirtle dodged out of the way with his shell as a shield.

"Pidgeot, back out there!" Ash decided, waiting until it was obvious Blossom wasn't about to hit Squirtle so that Squirtle wouldn't be disqualified.

"Blossom, send up some Stun Spore cover!"

Pidgeot knifed in, launched a Defog, and was gone so fast that Blossom couldn't really keep track. Then a one-layer Razor Wind stirred up the ashes of the grass field, causing a few of them to flicker feebly, and spread them throughout the area as a Smokescreen.

The Ivysaur looked around through the smoke that made it so hard to see, then caught a disturbance in the swirling clouds and lashed out with his vines.

They caught, and he began to capitalize on this with a Power Whip – and then was pulled into the air with a sudden intense tug.

Pidgeot completed a backflip, hauling on Blossom's vines, and her relatively small-but-strong movements whipcracked the Ivysaur into the air, around in a great, nearly-circular arc, and sent him crashing back into the ground.

Sometimes it was very useful to know a little physics.

A red beam caught the groggy Blossom, returning him before he passed out completely, and Quinn took her third and last Pokémon for the fight out. "Polaris!"

"Polaris?" Ash repeated to himself. "Wonder what that might be…"

"Thunderbolt!"

Pidgeot danced aside from the quick bolt of lightning, a series of air layers attempting to buffer the voltage that did catch her wing, and upon seeing that the Pokémon was a Starmie replied with an Ominous Wind that blew the smoke away from the centre of the arena.

Pikachu shivered as the wide-area move touched him. "That's really creepy, you know. It feels like a breath of cold air in an empty room."

"I know what you mean." Ash shrugged. "But I've used Ghost moves myself, so it's something I'm more ready for now. Felt really strange when I was one, though. Sort of like everything real was the opposite, so it was all warm."

"Yeah, I remember that." Pikachu pointed into the arena, as a series of thunderbolts snapped skywards in an increasingly dense pattern. "You think maybe I should go in instead of Pidgeot?"

"Oh, yeah, sure. Pidgeot, return!"

Pikachu jumped over the retaining wall, cheeks snapping, and drank in the next volley of thunderbolts in his Lightningrod. "Thanks for the pick-me-up!"

The Starmie spun in place and fired out a shot of Brine at Pikachu, and instead of dodging Pikachu lit his cheeks up so they glowed an angry red and tried to blast a Thunderbolt back down the stream. The Starfish Pokémon had apparently thought of that, though, spacing out the stream in discrete blasts to break the circuit.

"Pikachu!" Ash shouted, as he realized what their plan was. "That salt water's going to stop your attacks from getting anywhere, they'll just conduct straight back into your own Lightningrod!"

"Now you tell me!" Pikachu yelped. "That's almost as cunning as that thing Pidgeot just did!"

Now safe from electric attack, Starmie hovered slowly upwards and began sending psychic blasts at Pikachu, who ran in a random evasion pattern to dodge.

"Any ideas?"

Ash thought for a moment. "That smokescreen's still there… run through it! The water will settle the smoke and hopefully get used up!"

"If you say so!" Pikachu dashed off to the edge of the arena, and began to do as Ash had specified. It wasn't long, though, before a Psybeam caught him and sent him flying into the air.

"Pikachu!"

Or at least that's what all the humans watching heard Ash shout. Pikachu, however, along with every other Pokémon, heard something rather different.

"Natural Gift!"

The Rawst berry that Ash had passed him earlier at the sight of Match was consumed, and a blast of condensed sunlight hit Polaris from a completely improbable source.

Thus stunned and driven back towards the ground, the Starmie's first notice that Pikachu was on the way was when the Volt Tackle arrived from above.

"Well, I didn't think it would be useful, but I was wrong," Pikachu commented, before running back over to Ash's side of the arena to take his beloved Light Ball back.

"The move or the berry?"

"Both."

"It is a good way to learn different Aura types, though," Ash muttered, and threw Squirtle's Pokéball back into the arena to face off against Match.

Squirtle shot a blast of water at Match, who evaporated it with a Flamethrower.

"Hmmm… interesting. Aha!" Diving out of the way of a Flare Blitz, he retracted his limbs and shot into the air with a Hydro Pump.

After a moment, much of the released water began to form a sort of cocoon around him, rotating rapidly as he spun. "There's a big difference between the temperature of the air and the temperature that water boils at. All it takes is a moment out of the line of fire and it cools down. So take this!"

The flying turtle began to shoot downwards towards Match, the water in his outer layer never exposed to the Flareon's fire for more than a second or so. "Water Impact!"

Ash frowned. "Does that move exist?"

I think it's Waterfall with a fancy name.

Mud and water fountained into the air, along with an unconscious Flareon. Quinn returned him, then threw up her hands. "I forfeit. Blossom is too beaten up and your team is still pretty much intact."

"Winner, Ash Ketchum!"

Ash felt his cheeks heat as the crowd applauded.

Sure, it was only the first step, but… it was good to be back in the Pokémon League.

Three days later, Ash's second battle came around. This time, on the Rock field.

"And facing him, Jaxon!"

Jaxon was a big guy, who looked like he was on the other end of his teens from Ash. He lost no time, starting with a Muk.

Ash promptly replied by sending out Ivysaur. "Make sure to keep your distance!"

"I don't exactly intend to charge, if that's what you mean," Ivysaur replied, launching a Mud-Slap at Muk.

"Muk, Flamethrower!"

Ivysaur vanished underground with Dig as the fire approached, popping back out a couple of dozen feet away. "This is going brilliantly."

"Hey, it's not like I know what moves other Pokémon have! I don't know which poison types can arbitrarily use fire techniques!"

Ivysaur ducked down again as another blast of fire went over, and didn't return to the surface. Muk looked around, confused.

"Ash Ketchum's Pokémon has Dug underground!" the announcer said. "There's a limit to how long they can stay down there, though."

Ash closed his eyes, did a double take, and ducked down into his box.

A rumble heralded Ivysaur returning to the surface, some distance from Muk.

"Well?" the Grass-type asked, already absorbing sunlight, then fired it in an intense Solarbeam. The light jet hit Muk in the side, not injuring him as much as it could have, but it was still a powerful attack.

"Fire Blast this time!"

Muk inhaled, and then exploded violently.

A Light Screen, courtesy of Dexter, blocked some wayward sludge from entering Ash's box.

"Wh-what was that?" the commentator shouted, sounding almost panicked.

"Poisonpowder released from underground, I think?" Ash said, glancing down at Dexter. "Then it all exploded at once."

Correct.

A few seconds later, the commentator came over the speakers again. "Okay, ladies and gentlemen, after a talk with our local Joy, I can tell you that Jaxon's Muk is not permanently harmed. If you have a piece of sludge near you, those in the front rows, please signal and a bag will be provided. Muk is going to be reincorporated later, and will be fine so long as not too much mass is missing."

"Your Pokémon's got style, kid. I like that." Jaxon then took a second Pokéball. "Kadabra! Take this 'saur down!"

Ivysaur disappeared underground again, but a few seconds later that area of the field creaked, cracked, and gave way – and Ivysaur came bursting back out again, entirely involuntarily and enveloped in the glow of Psychic.

"Oh, this is going to-"

Kadabra sent him soaring into the air, and began sending up powerful psychokinetic blasts to injure Ivysaur, and keep the Grass-type (but more importantly, Poison-type) juggled. Without being close to the ground, he was unable to escape or anchor himself, and after a few seconds Ash raised his voice. "Vine Whip the ground – and Seed Bomb yourself!"

Both vines lashed out, and Ivysaur detonated a Seed Bomb just over his head. The blast knocked him backwards, towards the ground, and Ivysaur managed to throw out some Magical Leaf attacks which distracted Kadabra for just long enough to get Ivysaur back on the ground.

Now Ash could recall the Grass-type without the Pokémon being disqualified, and he did so. Then he thought for a moment, and sent out Kingler.

"Kadabra, keep it up! Charge Beam!"

As the bolt of electricity formed, Kingler dodged sideways behind a boulder. Since it was neither a homing attack nor being fired by an Electric type, it hit the boulder and did very little apart from blowing a few chips out of it.

Kingler clicked his pincers, and lifted the boulder a few inches in his claws.

Kingler used Strength. Kingler can move boulders.

Ash frowned. "Pardon?"

Sorry, I thought I should point it out.

One of Kingler's claws began to glow, and he advanced slowly, looking around him and keeping up his impromptu shield.

"Behind!" Ash suddenly yelled.

Kingler threw the rock unceremoniously into the air and released his charged Hyper Beam, catching Kadabra as he materialized with a glancing blow. The impact sent the Psychic type skidding backwards, but only seemed to have done a little damage.

"Oh, no!" the commentator shouted. "This is going to be a blow for Kingler, as after an attack of that magnitude it could take quite some time to recharge!"

"Yeah, we know!" Jaxon called back. "We're not stupid."

"This commentary is for the benefit of the viewers at home!" the commentator said, quite offended.

"And if they can't tell what a Hyper Beam does, what are they teachin' at school?"

The commentator's reply went unheard, as the rock finally came screaming back down on Kingler.

He swung a claw upwards as it approached, and the Crab Hammer blew it into dozens of smaller rocks that went all over the place.

Kadabra had instinctively teleported as a reaction to the explosion, but – since the shrapnel went everywhere – he materialized somewhere else about to be hit by a rock, took one on the forehead, and collapsed.

Kingler too staggered, the effects of the blasted rock having pummelled him with a number of small, high speed stones.

"Dang, kid, what is it with you and explosions? Tangela!"

Ash returned Kingler, sending Ivysaur back out.

The two Grass-types stared at one another for a second, then both whipped out their vines and began a complex vine war in the space between them. Ash could see that Ivysaur was at a disadvantage – he couldn't get close enough to use a Poison attack, his Razor Leaves couldn't cut away Tangela's vines, and the pure Grass-type simply had more vines. Including one…

"Ivysaur! Below you!"

Ivysaur jumped straight away, but Tangela caught one of his vines. The Vine Pokémon pulled hard, making the second time in Ash's League challenge so far that an Ivysaur had been whipcracked into the ground, before the vine Tangela had sent underground ensnared Ivysaur's body.

"Good, Tangela!" Jaxon said. "Constrict!"

Ivysaur thrashed, trying to use Poisonpowder on Tangela, but the vines were too far from the main body mass and there were too many of them. After a minute or so he went abruptly limp, and Ash retrieved him.

"Ash's Ivysaur has surrendered after being captured in an unbreakable Bind!" the announcer explained to the audience. "While Ivysaur got out the first time he was trapped, and so could be used again, this time was different. This means he has not passed out, but will no longer be able to compete in this battle!"

"Yeah, thanks, we get it," Jaxon shouted at the booth.

"Not everyone watching this is a Pokémon League fan!" the announcer retorted.

"Why not, then? It's not like we have any other competitive sports in Kanto."

"Not true! We have, er… um…"

Ash sent Kingler back out again. "Ice Beam!"

Tangela dodged, mostly, but one of their vines was caught by the ice and frozen, rendering it a stiff and useless weight.

Undaunted, the Grass type launched up a Sunny Day and began to quickly melt the affected vine, staying away from Kingler to gain more breathing room. They used Solarbeam, as well, and Kingler scuttled behind a rock to get away from the beam of light.

Ash and Pikachu shared a look.

"Should I?"

"Be almost rude not to."

Ash pulled out another Pokéball. "Charizard!"

Jaxon's eyes widened. "Wait, what!"

"Ember!"

Charizard rolled his eyes, and blew a tiny flicker of blue flame. This promptly set Tangela on fire.

"And I think we can call that a victory for Ash Ketchum!"

"What's next, Ash?" Brock asked him that night.

"Water field. It's really strange, doing them in a different order…" Ash replied. "In fact, last time this was where Kingler evolved, and he swept the field. I can't count on him to do that again, though."

"No, it must have been at least partly luck," Brock agreed. "Especially since you're now at the point where everyone has won two matches. Given the field I expect your opponent will send out at least one water type, so Pikachu is indicated right from the start. Which reminds me – can he manage that water walk trick?"

Ash nodded. "Yeah, and so can I, though you likely saw that in Pallet."

"I'm right here, you know," Pikachu grumbled.

"Sorry," Brock said, and Ash chuckled nervously.

"I guess it's just hard to remember we can understand you, sometimes?" he tried, earning a sniff from Pikachu.

"Right," Brock resumed. "Him, Ivysaur – makes sense – and decide the third at the time. But you do need to lock in your other four options."

"I agree." Ash thought for a moment. "I'd better start with Ivysaur, as well. See if I can draw out any non-Water types."

"Okay, Ash. This is a lot more thought than you put in last time, you know – I'm proud of you." Brock flashed a quick grin. "Apart from revealing Charizard so early. That was a mistake, though I can see why you did it."

"He can't. Says it was 'beneath him'."

"He's a grouch sometimes. At least he doesn't set you on fire. As much."

AN:

Almost everyone Ash fights in the League is going to be from either the games or the anime. In the former case, I've taken a trainer and added a more rounded set of Pokemon to make up their team - Quinn, for example, is on Route 1 in the G/S/C/HG/SS games.

In case people aren't aware of it, this fic has a Trope page.