"Hm, an explosive increase in your Charmeleon's firepower, you say?"
"That's right, Professor." Ash turned his gaze to the Flame Pokémon standing next to him. The pair, along with Gina standing behind them, were in front of a videophone back in the Pokémon Center. It was just after Ash had managed to defeat Erika, and he wanted to report his progress along with the fact that Charmeleon exhibited a large boost of power at the end of the fight.
"The Gym Leader said that she had seen it before when some pokémon get pretty beat-up," Gina chimed in from just over Ash's shoulder. "Do you know what it might be?"
"Well, you've surely heard how some pokémon of the same species can have different inherent capabilities, such as how some Electric-Type Pokémon can metabolize electricity at such a rate they can't reasonably be harmed by it while others don't have that same capability?"
The mention of electric pokémon immediately pushed Ash's mind back to the Vermillion City Gym. "Lt. Surge did mention that he normally had one of his Raichu drain the electricity of the one we fought before to keep it less aggressive."
"I've taken to calling these inherent attributes of pokémon 'Abilities' privately since I don't want to release a comprehensive list publicly until we have a solid enough foundation. That was part of the reason I have you and the others catch so many pokémon, to help build a baseline to compare them before releasing them back into the wild. To that end, I have a request for you, Ash."
"Sure, Professor. What's up?" he asked.
"I would like for you to leave your Charmeleon in my care for a time, so that I can compare it to the one that I issued on the day you and Gina set out. Since both have recently evolved, it's a rare opportunity that I don't normally get."
While Ash processed that, Gina leaned further over his shoulder to get closer to the screen. "What happened to the trainer? Did he abandon it?"
"No, he retired back in Pallet Town. He cited the reason being he failed to obtain his fourth badge, but also because it seems his Charmeleon has a unique Ability that was detrimental to it in combat."
Ash's brows furrowed at that. "Different than mine?"
He nodded. "It would increase its firepower while under the effects of strong sunlight by an even greater degree than normal but sapped its stamina to the point where it would collapse. Since he would rather not put such a burden onto his partner going forth, he chose to retire. So now it's simply down to the three of you."
"I've never heard of that kind of thing happening," Gina said. "Are there other cases of that happening among the Starters?"
"No similar cases have occurred with Squirtle or Bulbasaur, so it appears to be an extreme rarity among Charmander," he answered. Since the distribution of Starters was more tightly controlled and recorded, he would be able to check the records and confirm as much. "Needless to say, that's why the data I could obtain from Ash's Charmeleon would make me feel more confident in updating your Pokédexes to have a database of common Abilities I've discovered so far and possibly recognize newer ones."
Ash turned towards the Flame Pokémon. "What do you say? Are you willing to stay with Professor Oak for a little while? Finding out what's happening with you since you evolved could help not only us but other pokémon and trainers."
Charmeleon looked off to the side for a moment before slowly turning his head forward and nodding. "Meleon."
Sensing Charmeleon's buried fear over being abandoned, Ash brushed his head tenderly. "As soon as Professor Oak is done, I'll bring you right back. No matter what."
"It shouldn't be for long and Delia would love to spend time with one of your pokémon," Professor Oak added from beyond the screen. "Ah, and that also reminds me—Gina, Delia also prepared a birthday gift for you. It has been set aside in your room along with the others for when you return."
A smile crossed Gina's lips hearing that, even as Ash subsequently looked as though Pikachu had sent a shock through his body. "Please tell her I said thanks. I'll look forward to opening it when I get home."
"Will do." The call ended as the video connection cutoff and Professor Oak vanished from the screen.
Meanwhile, Ash's gaze darted over towards the date before he slapped his forehead with his hand. "I can't believe I forgot today was your birthday…"
The thought hadn't even come across his mind since he had been focused on so many things. Charmeleon's sudden evolution and spike in power. The aftermath of what happened with Sabrina and how he should approach Gina from now on. Then there was preparing for Gym Battle itself.
Gina's response to that was to just shrug her shoulders. "You had your match today and it's not like we made plans or anything. Besides, most traveling trainers either celebrate ahead of time or hold off until they return. And honestly, everyone else has something going on and I don't want to pull them away from that."
True enough, Brock was still training with Primeape for their upcoming tournament. He seemed to be working on getting the Pig Monkey Pokémon to behave, or at least not trying to punch them on sight. And Misty was still nursing Horsea and Tentacool, who were showing improvement with their health since she had been carefully tending to them.
Ash was lucky enough that Charmeleon was better behaved, but that only meant he couldn't claim to be as busy as them. More so considering they'd known each other for most of their lives. "At least tell me if there's something you want that I can give you as a gift."
"Just don't worry about it, Ash." Gina's insistence made it clear she wasn't interested in pursuing the matter further. "Anyway, I'm going to head out to get some training done while your match is still fresh in my mind. Catch you later."
As she walked out of the Pokémon Center, Ash leaned back in his seat while frowning as Charmeleon and Pikachu quirked their heads towards him. A heavy sigh followed as he used both his hands to pat them. "Even if she says that it feels wrong to not do something for her."
The question was... what he could do for her to celebrate on such short notice?
He couldn't really claim to know much about what women liked. But even he could tell Gina's tastes were clearly different in a lot of regards than Misty's, so he couldn't ask her. All he could do was spend time combing through his memories for any clues until one flashed in his mind.
"That's it!" Ash turned his attention back to the videophone and inputted his home number into the line. The ringing on the other end left him tapping his foot impatiently until there was finally a response.
His mother appeared on the screen. "Oh, Ash. How nice of you to call me. You haven't gotten yourself into any more trouble lately, have you?"
"Hi, Mom. I'm fine, but I need your advice…"
[-oOo-]
"Get ready, Rattata!" Gina called out, standing between the Mouse Pokémon and Evolution Pokémon. They were located out in the woodlands surrounding Celadon City, where they wouldn't be disturbed. The evening sky was painted with a golden hue as the sun began its descent beneath the horizon, marking the coming of the night soon enough. "Same goes with you, Eevee."
The small rodent's curled tail slammed into the ground as she buried her paws into the topsoil. For the Mouse Pokémon it was a training regimen meant to get ready for the upcoming Gym Match and was to be approached with the utmost seriousness. Opposite her, an energetic cry leapt from the maw of the playful Evolution Pokémon bouncing up and down in anticipation of what she considered to be playtime.
The strong contrast was par the normal for them, so Gina started the training. "Begin!"
Rattata's body was quickly wreathed in a shroud of pale light before she shot forward. It was a Quick Attack with little preamble or warning, using the absolute minimum amount of energy with the fastest possible accumulation and release for the initial assault. Cutting through the air like a white spear, the streak devoured the distance in the blink of an eye and plowed into her bushy-tailed teammate only for Eevee to unravel as the trail of ephemeral light left in her wake petered out.
The Mouse Pokémon caught herself with her paws, twisting them while the wisps of energy faded as she reoriented herself to face her opponent only to see a line of Eevee copies awaiting her. She might have been faster than Eevee, but the Evolution Pokémon knew her personality and her preference for striking first and fast. So, for Eevee, the first thing to do when playing tag was to make as many copies of yourself as possible so you don't get caught.
"Vee-vee!" cried the chorus of five as they called forth luminous stars and sent them streaking across the distance in a barrage. The stream of Swift cut through the air, the notion of illusionary and real meaningless they collectively began to curve themselves midflight to ensure they would hit their marks.
In a mirrored act, pale light wreathed Rattata as she split into a mischief of seven using Double Team as well. Her recent string of losses had left Rattata to push herself further in her training, and so she could call up twice the number as before and move them as she liked. However, the trade-off for Rattata splitting her attention in so many ways meant she couldn't use Quick Attack.
Even then, her normal speed was enough to outmaneuver the shooting stars. The copies intertwined and wove through one another as shooting stars chased them down, passing through the copies and shattering into shining motes of stardust as they slammed into either one another or the ground. In the end, there was only one Rattata left, but the stars that had been fired to chase her down were gone and so the Mouse Pokémon darted forward with her fangs aglow.
The group of Eevee released another barrage of Swift before she could get within range. The celestial shots all converged upon the small rodent from every angle. Since there was no chance for her to muster enough energy to unleash a Quick Attack, nothing stopped them from hitting the mark and Gina watched as Rattata was seemingly consumed by the resulting explosion as stardust mingled with loose dirt spouted from the impact...
"Eeee!?" But no sooner than that she heard a surprised cry as all the copies of the vulpine Evolution Pokémon winked out as a white light tore through them. In the blink of an eye, Eevee had been thrown to the side as Rattata appeared on top of her. Pinning the Evolution Pokémon to the ground, Rattata's fangs shone with a furious light as the fading luminous tail left in the wake of her Quick Attack showed a three-fold curve that traced back from the impact zone…
Only for Eevee to playfully bring her paws around and embrace Rattata, nuzzling her warmly. Their game of Tag had come to an end the moment she had been caught. "Vee!"
"That's enough," Gina called out as the Mouse Pokémon awkwardly struggled to liberate herself. The sudden shift from battle to playing caught Rattata by surprise, while Eevee often saw them as the same. Once she was released, Rattata scrambled away a few steps and patted herself down. "That was a seventh copy, wasn't it?"
From what Gina could guess, Rattata hadn't created only six copies. She created another and had it overlaying her to mask the fact that she was steadily building up energy to use Quick Attack until that final pause when Eevee had unleashed her barrage of Swift. At that moment, she left the illusion behind to dart out as fast as she could at an angle and then rushed into the line of Eevee. That cleared out the clones and hit the original in a single motion.
Rattata nodded and demonstrated once more by wreathing herself in a pale shroud of light while sitting upright. That same Rattata remained in place as the original shot out of the clone in a streak of light and came to a stop next to Gina. "Ta."
"Clever girl." Gina crouched down and praised the Mouse Pokémon for coming up with that much on her own by gently brushing her head as the clone faded out. That was what she sought out in pokémon she captured to be a part of her team.
They needed to have a certain drive to them, pushing them into becoming greater. Rattata's losses spurred her into shoring up her deficiencies even without guidance. That was important because from now on they wouldn't be able to afford another loss. Not if they wanted to reach the Indigo League along with Ash.
Gina had been confident the day she set out that it would be no issue reaching the conference. So confident that she wanted to have Ash come along with her, so he could see how easy it was for her. Looking back now with her feelings exposed, Gina supposed she wanted him to see that she was a capable trainer. She wanted him to acknowledge and maybe even fall in love with her through their common connection point, even knowing that for one of them to succeed the other would need to fail.
Now she was two badges behind him. Being one badge behind was excusable because of the circumstances. But if she lost again then Ash would get further ahead of her, and it would get harder to keep up. How long until he got annoyed at her because she was the one dragging behind him? Or started pitying her because of it?
Her pride simply couldn't handle that happening, which was part of why she hadn't wanted Ash to give up his time slot. But the other reason was that Gina had been... afraid. Afraid that if she had gone first, they would have lost a second time.
It was an insidious fear that first crept up when Eevee had gotten hurt to secure her victory against Surge, due to her lacking when it came to planning. Then it surfaced again in the wake of what happened with Sabrina, where all her strategies still amounted to nothing in the wake of having her consciousness stolen from her and she had to be saved by Ash. Since then, a dark, writhing doubt had burrowed its way inside of her and hollowed out the unshakeable confidence she held before.
Observing the Gym Battle with Erika had only reinforced that feeling. She kept thinking about how things could have gone wrong for her team if they had gone first. Ash won because of Charmeleon's latent ability and how they excelled at improvisation, but that wasn't the case for her. She had to plan everything out to secure victory so that her pokémon didn't need to rely on chance or make up for her shortcomings by getting injured. But what if she wasn't a good enough trainer to do that?
"Vee!" The playful bark of Evolution Pokémon pulled her from the dark mire her mind had been sinking in as Eevee came over and pressed her head against Gina. It was clear she wanted to be showered with the same affection that Rattata was being given. "Eevee!"
She obliged the gentle prodding while shelving her on fears for the moment. Her doubts couldn't reach her pokémon. Not when they were placing their trust and faith in her as their trainer.
Eventually, Gina returned the two of them into their balls and made her way back for the Pokémon Center. Though not as large as the one in Saffron City, being as well-populated and traveled as the city was meant that it was a larger facility compared to most of the other ones. Even so, the rooms were still shared between two people at a minimum.
Gina was barely in the room she was sharing with Misty, who was absent it seemed, when there was light scratching on the door. It was followed by an inquiring pokémon's cry. She opened it only for the Electric Mouse Pokémon to slip in through the door and circle her legs before coming to a stop. "Pi-ka!"
"Aren't you normally with Ash?" Gina asked as she crouched down and looked him over from up close. Normally, Pikachu stuck around with his trainer rather than seek her out. But he didn't look particularly distressed or hungry, so she didn't imagine he came to her for food or anything. "Did something happen to him while I was out?"
"Pikapi, pikachu!" His long ears twitched playfully as he bounced up and down before gesturing down the corridor and then falling on all fours and taking a few strides out the door in that direction. "Pi-ka!"
Her black eyes folded inward as she realized he was trying to get her to follow him. She didn't think anything happened to Ash given he didn't seem distressed, but her legs felt restless as she followed after the Electric Mouse Pokémon until she reached the room he shared with Brock. Pikachu then gestured for her to twist the knob and open the door. Gina did so—
"Happy Birthday!"
—only for a loud voice to echo out as streamers and confetti filled her vision. It startled her enough that she nearly lunged backward until she saw that Ash was holding a party popper. Then, before she could fully compose herself, he grabbed her hand and pulled her to the desk the room came furnished with.
There was a silver dome tray on it, rimmed by candles that had been arranged around it. The number matched her age. It was then she finally managed to get over her surprise to speak. "Ash, I thought I said you didn't need to worry about it."
"Yeah, but we're friends," he said in turn. "And a birthday only comes one time of the year. Even if you don't want to make a big deal about it, I still wanted to do something to at least say thanks for all the help you've given us so far. So I called Mom and asked what I could make for your birthday, and she said this was something you liked and probably haven't had in a long time."
The moment he lifted the dome, a vibrant fragrance overtook her sense of smell. It came from a stew that was nestled within a bowl in front of her, the richness of the aroma wresting from the recesses of her mind memories that had been buried by all the events that had transpired.
It was a stew that she first ate when her granduncle visited a long time ago. He lived further south of the Orange Islands in a region called Alola and prepared it for her family, back when her parents were still alive. She had lost them when she had been younger, leaving her grandfather as her closest surviving relative.
"I know that the normal ingredients aren't common here, but Mom said that she experimented with different local fruits and herbs to replicate it the taste since she wanted to add it to the menu at some point," Ash explained. "Try it."
She took a spoonful and brought it to her lips. The moment it touched her tongue, the variety of flavors danced across her taste buds. They were a contrasting yet complementary blend that mixed the sweetness of berries and the bitterness of herbs. Moreover, the familiarity of it brought back happy memories from when her parents were still alive.
"Gina…" Her gaze snapped up to Ash as he wore a concerned gaze, his Pikachu almost a mirror with his dark eyes. "You're crying?"
The mention caused her to reach up to the corner of her eyes. She felt the cool touch of where tears had trailed down her eyes. More began to fall as she slowly started wiping them away. "Sorry, I just… it brought up some memories from home. I guess I had been pushing them down with everything that's happened before."
"It hasn't even been that long since when we set out from Pallet Town, has it?" Ash mused while taking a seat on the bed across from the desk. Pikachu sat next to him. "But it feels a lot longer between the Gym Battles, the thing with the ship, and the giant Tentacruel."
"Back in Pallet things were a lot slower," Gina agreed. "So much so that finding an old ball in the river was the most exciting thing to happen. Looking back, it seems almost silly we got into a fight over that, huh?"
"About that…" Ash trailed off as he reached over to his backpack that was nearby. From it, he pulled out something she hadn't expected. It was the half of the pokéball from that day that they had snagged. "You know, I kept this with me as a good luck charm."
"A good luck charm?" Gina muttered softly. It was hypocritical considering she had the other half of the ball in her own bag. Not as a charm for luck, but a reminder to herself of what had caused them to split apart. Even then she struggled to fully acknowledge it.
"Yeah," he continued. "Since we had both gotten our licenses approved and were going to set out, I figured it might be worth taking along since it was the first time we really tied in any kind of competition. We were friends, but also rivals. And you always seemed to be a step ahead, so I wanted to at least be on the same level as you in some way."
"Oh, Ash…" There was a lump in her throat as she tried to force herself to get the words out. It was her pride made manifest, desperate not to let the vulnerable words she held within her escape outside of the confines of her mind.
Ignorant of that, Ash merely looked over to Pikachu and gently settled his hand on the Electric Mouse Pokémon's head. "It took a lot for me to ask for your help with Pikachu because I was too prideful. But it's thanks to you and Rattata he was able to beat Raichu. So I'm grateful you came with us."
His words… they chipped away at her pride until there was enough of a gap for words to come out. "I'm so sorry about that… I really am…"
Ash tilted his head. "What do you mean?"
"I… knew we were leaving soon, and I wanted you to come with me," she confessed while she could. "But I couldn't bring myself to say it, so I felt the need to prove that I was better than you, so you would need me and wouldn't leave me behind. That's why, when we both pulled it up, I couldn't accept a draw…"
There was a moment of silence that lingered in the air like a heavy weight amidst the flickering of the candles at the unveiled truth. But then the unexpected happened. Ash reached over to her and, after a moment of hesitancy, embraced her in a hug.
Overtaken by the sudden skin-to-skin contact, Gina was left feeling red-faced and flustered. Her pulse began to quicken, and her throat tightened as she struggled to form words. "Wh-What are you doing…?"
"We're both stubborn in our own way, I think," Ash said softly. "I still don't have an answer to your question, but what I do know is that you're important to me. Whatever happened in the past or will happen in the future, won't change that."
Her mind that had been frantic at the sudden touch just as quickly quelled as his words sank in. The fears that had been building up, the uncertainties, all of them that had been gradually expanding and becoming an oppressive weight began to erode. And freed from those burdens for at least this moment, she felt that she could for once… let it all out.
So, with a shuddering breath as her fears melted away in the form of tears trailing down her eyes, Gina brought her arms around his back and returned his embrace as her voice came out softer and vulnerable. "Thank you."
[-oOo-]
On the balcony of the luxurious hotel nestled on the southeastern part of the city, a man stood there with a cigar in his mouth. The orange tip glowed luminously as he took a deep breath and then exhaled a thick plume of smoke while looking out towards the arena in the distance. Then his phone began to ring.
He pulled the cigar from his mouth before answering. "Grand here."
"The arrangements have been made," came from the other end of the line. "Our agents will lend you a helping hand, as agreed. If your pokémon is as talented as you claim, the winnings will serve as payment. However, if you don't win then we'll claim the collateral you put up."
And with that said the line went dead, leaving him to stare at the cellphone for a moment before shoving it back into his pocket. He then turned around where there sat a humanoid pokémon with a body that seemed to lack a head but had segmented arms and legs that could seemingly extend. It was staring at him with a gaze that had long since been lost the same respect they once had.
He tapped his cigar and let loose embers float down before placing it back in his mouth as he lowered his hat over his eyes. "Deal's done. Getting second place because you got a few scrapes from Anthony's slugger won't cut it. This year, it's all or nothing."
He only received a terse, slow nod in return.
The man's name was Grand. The pokémon was Hitmonlee. And they were going to win the P1 Grand Prix.
No matter what it took.