The Ash Connection
Pikachu – I Choose You!
"The Pokemon World Championships has approved of this Great Class battle! The battle will be between Clayton from Cinnabar Island and Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town!" Drone Rotom announced as it hovered between the two challengers.
Ash stood relaxed on one side of the field, with his partner Pikachu gripping his shoulder tightly in preparation of pouncing forwards.
"This battle will be a two-vs-two match! When all of either trainers Pokemon are incapacitated, the remaining trainer wins! Now, both trainers must send out their Pokemon at the same time! Battle, begin!" Drone Rotom explained.
"Pikachu, I choose you!"
"Go, Spearow!"
Ash and Pikachu couldn't help but share an amused glance. To an outsider, it just looked like they were making light of their opponent but to each other, they were reliving a memory from what felt like decades ago now.
Ash paid no mind to Clayton's horrified reaction or Goh's smug smile on his behalf and instead focused on Pikachu. For a moment, they weren't fighting a battle as long-time best friends in the World Coronation Series but as complete strangers at their wits end with each other against a flock of Spearow during a lightning storm. They had come so far that now Ash barely needed to even look at Pikachu to know he was remembering their first day out too.
He could still remember the feeling of rubber gloves on his hands when Clayton's shout brought him back to the present.
"Fury Attack!" Clayton ordered.
Spearow dove towards the mouse with surprising speed for a young Pokemon, but to Pikachu it may as well have been slow motion. Needing no prompting from Ash, he leapt into the air and somersaulted over the angry bird. Spearow collided with the ground, beak first.
Ash and Pikachu both just smiled for now.
"Mud-Slap!" Stuck beak-first in the ground, Spearow turned around quickly and sprayed loose dirt into Pikachu's face, forcing him to shut his eyes to shield them. "Now's your chance, go in with Double Team and Peck!"
Multiple copies of Spearow appeared scattered around the field, all diving at the blinded electric-type. Pikachu though was eerily calm.
"Quick Attack! Right, left, left, up, right, down, left!" Ash's commands came out fluid and easy.
Both Clayton and Goh watched in amazement, Pikachu reacted swiftly to Ash's rapid commands and weaved through the clones without letting one strike him. Instead, the afterimages began colliding with themselves, cancelling each other out very quickly until one lone Spearow remained.
"Thunderbolt, eight o'clock!"
Pikachu, despite being mid-jump, cancelled Quick Attack in a somersault. While upside down and figuring his aim out, Spearow attempted to zag out of the way but Ash was quicker on the draw.
"Forget eight, go for six thirty, then seven!"
Despite everyone's confusion, Pikachu continued to follow Ash's commands down to the second with no hesitation. Upside down, in the air, curled in a ball and blind Pikachu shot a Thunderbolt straight back towards Ash that was so close it almost grazed him. He didn't flinch. Spearow, though, had its escape route cut off and quickly tried to flee the other direction, only to be struck by the next Thunderbolt.
"Spearow!" Clayton called out with worry.
"Spearow!"
The setting was different now. Ash and Pikachu weren't in Fuchsia City battling Clayton but making a stand for their lives on Route 1. Ash stood protectively over an exhausted Pikachu, glaring defiantly at an angry flock of Spearow.
"Do you know who I am? I'm Ash, from the town of Pallet! I'm destined to become the world's number one Pokemon Master! I can't be defeated by the likes of you! I'm gonna capture and defeat you all!" Ash shouted at them. The Spearow cawed angrily at the boy, but he didn't budge. He heard Pikachu squeak behind him. "Pikachu, go inside your Pokeball! It's the only way!"
Pikachu looked from the ball, to Ash, up at the Spearow and back to Ash. His mind made up, he pushed himself to his feet as Ash challenged the flock again.
"Come and get me!"
Pikachu raced as hard as his tired, injured legs would let him. He was so tired that he could barely jump properly, needing to use Ash as a launch pad. Even still, he barely got the height he wanted nor was he certain he had the energy to attack all the Spearow at once.
But he had to try, for Ash. Ash tried for him; it was the least he could do.
In the first of many instances, Ash and Pikachu were granted a stroke of luck. A lightning bolt from the heavens struck Pikachu just as the flock approached the scared, tired and injured duo. And then, everything went white.
This time after the flash Ash and Pikachu were still standing.
Clayton returned his Spearow, visibly disheartened at the outcome. Still, he quickly selected another Pokeball and lobbed it into the air, barely even giving the Rotom drone a chance to advance the match verbally.
Fine by them, Ash thought as his next opponent appeared in another flash of light and a loud roar. An Onix too, huh?
"PiPik?" Pikachu squeaked, ears twitching as he squeezed his eyes shut harder, still hindered by the sand.
"Yeah buddy, an Onix too." Ash replied casually. He ignored Clayton's confused expression yet again as he was briefly taken back to fighting in the Pewter gym.
"Onix, use Slam!" Clayton ordered.
Onix roared again and swung its tail around, aiming to hit Pikachu from the side.
"Jump left and spin over it!"
Pikachu jumped just in time, putting a twist on his jump to twirl just over the rocky tail that swiped the air where he just was. Landing just on the other side, Pikachu was already powering up the Iron Tail Ash hadn't ordered yet.
"Go ahead, let 'er rip!" Ash cried again and Pikachu slammed its own tail into Onix's, causing the beast to wail in pain.
"Use Dragon Breath!"
Onix, from several yards above the field, shot out a light blue beam of energy out at Pikachu.
"Go ahead and use Thunderbolt!" Ash cried out, almost joyfully. Pikachu seemed to mirror his expression, smiling as he unleashed a powerful Thunderbolt straight at where he could hear Onix's voice coming from.
The attacks collided but didn't struggle for long with Pikachu's Thunderbolt proving to be too strong, smashing through the dragon-type attack to collide with Onix. Even immune to the electricity, the pure force behind the attack made Onix duck its head a bit to Clayton and Goh's utter amazement yet again.
"Finish this now, Onix go for Rock Tomb!" Clayton screeched out.
"Couldn't agree more. Pikachu, Quick Attack straight forward and wait!"
It seemed like the rest of the battle happened in less than a second. Clayton was counting how many ranks he'd advance, Goh was on the verge of jumping out of his bench and Onix was summoning a ring of large grey rocks above its head, ready to slam down at once on the mouses form.
Ash and Pikachu, though, were wearing matching grins. They both heard Onix's roar, announcing he was finished forming the rocks, and leapt into action. Pikachu was already directly in position under Onix's chin and Ash already had a plan.
"Electroweb straight up!"
Pikachu quickly spawned an orange-yellow orb at the end of his tail and flung it up with all his might where it expanded into a yellow electrical net. The net collided with the barrage of rocks and to almost everyone's surprise, the net encircled the rocks completely. Clayton let out a mix of a gasp and a grunt, but Ash just smiled brighter.
"We're not done just yet! Pikachu, go!" He encouraged.
Pikachu bounced upwards like a spring, propelled by another Iron Tail that it swung up into the electrified bag of rocks. Being an electric type, the net didn't affect him much just as it wouldn't Onix. But the rocks would hurt it. And hurt it they did, slamming into the rock snake's chin. The icing on the cake came just after, when Pikachu blitzed forward on his own accord and struck again with his steel tail.
Onix collapsed to the ground in a heap and Pikachu landed elegantly into Ash's awaiting arms, his trainer having rushed forward to catch him out of his fall.
"Pikachu, you were amazing as always buddy!" Ash cooed, already beginning to wipe off the dirt from Pikachu's eyes with his vest.
"Pi Pika Pikapi!" Pikachu cooed back, seeming to giggle under his trainer's touch.
The Rotom drone announced Ash's victory and his ascension to rank 919, while Clayton was removed from Great Class altogether. Ash turned to Clayton to commend him, to find him already waving goodbye and stalking off. Ash just shrugged in the same motion as Pikachu scurried up his arm onto his right shoulder, somehow neither action disturbing the other.
"Ash, Pikachu! That was incredible! The Spearow was one thing, but against that Onix? How you manage that without getting hit once, AND while Pikachu was blinded?" Goh seemed beyond words, but the duo could only shrug- in unison, of course.
"Just lots of experience. We've had a lot of that, especially with those Pokemon, right buddy?" Ash joked. Pikachu sweat dropped, remembering those memories less fondly while Goh could only stand there, feeling like he was missing something as the two seemed to be having an entire conversation with their faces.
Until both their stomachs growled in unison, causing them to laugh.
"Race you the Torkoal Pit!" Ash challenged, breaking out into a sprint. Pikachu squeaked in surprise and took the challenge himself, as if Ash hadn't been talking to Goh or Rabifoot at all, and leapt to the ground, using Quick Attack no less, to speed off.
Goh only watched as Ash chastised his starter and best friend about cheating.
Yeah, those two were two peas in a pod. A hyper-active, friendly, mysterious pod.
Welcome to what will hopefully be a fun new series! As a way to prove I'm alive without updating an author's notice or a new chapter, I figured it was about time to introduce a series of one-shots to my profile. This series will be focused Ash and his individual connection with one of his Pokemon. I'm not married to going in order, but the beginning felt like the safest place to start.
They will be one-shots, as in, unconnected. Some will slot nicely into canon, like this one, others will take more... stretching, but I don't want to do anything too AU with these, as it's based on specifically Ash's relationship with each of his Pokemon and how I see it. Hopefully as I upload more it's easier to see what I'm going for.
All that said, thanks for your support! I hope you enjoy the update, let me know what you think and what your expectations of this one will be! And don't forget to check out my re-telling of Ash's journey, as that's the story that won on my poll, it's been a blast to work on so far!