Chapter 4: Memories and Melodies
Ash continues to look on to his large collection of Pokemon, but as he did so, his mind was deep within a well of thought, one that made him realize that his current training methods might not be enough to keep Koraidon safe.
Ever since his rematch with Lt. Surge, Ash has developed a battle style that revolves around fast and hard-hitting attacks while also being evasive and elusive, and a large majority of his Pokemon fulfilled that role greatly. However, there were quite a few outliers from that rule, most notably Torterra. As a Turtwig, he was able to utilize the fast and hard-hitting style well, but as he evolved, he became so large and sluggish, that any attempts to dodge or land a hit were met with an attack that would interrupt him. It didn't help that he had increasingly bulky, making him an easier target for his opponents, and Ash tried to fix that situation by teaching him Rock Climb, but it didn't work too well. It was why during the Wyndon Conference that when he brought back Torterra, he had him use a heavier more tank-like battle style, and it worked much better for him, allowing him to actually take down Marnie's Toxtricity.
However, Torterra wasn't the only one that suffered from this issue, as Torkoal, Boldore, and even Melmetal were all slow lumbering Pokémon that were often susceptible to attacks, which resulted in them being knocked out quite often. Ash realized that he was going to need to adapt to a Pokemon's intergenomic needs and change his battle style to best utilize their strengths.
The second flaw he found in his training methods were found in some of his Pokemon's movesets, as they usually lacked coverage, power, versatility, or practicality. Bulbasaur for example was an expert at the moves he had, but most of his moves were only grass type attacks, when he can clearly use poison type moves as well, Totodile had decent coverage thanks to knowing water, normal, and dark type moves, but not much of them had a lot of power behind them. Snivy's Attract move could be useful in the right circumstance but it proved to be much too situational as demonstrated many times before, especially considering how he didn't know much about identifying a Pokemon's gender outside of a few cases. Even Greninja, his strongest Kalos Pokemon, lacked power behind some of his moves, and Water Shuriken can only get to the impressive levels of power it can thanks to his Battle Bond ability.
As he checked each of his Pokémon for the possible moves they could learn, he was astonished by how much variety they could learn, such as his own Pikachu, which can learn moves like Brick Break, Mud Slap, Knock Off, and even some support moves like Reflect and Light Screen. He was also surprised to see that Pokémon don't really forget their moves upon learning new ones, but rather have four selected at a time, so a trainer can have their Pokémon adjust their move set to adapt to the situation at hand.
"Ok everyone, form up!" Ash called out as his Pokémon turned their attention to him and wondered what he had on his mind. "I'm going to have each of you learn new moves that will hopefully make you stronger, I'll have one Pokemon as a teacher, and you will try to learn a move from that Pokémon, Corviknight, come over here" The metallic raven flew over to his trainer "Can you teach some of the flying types how to use Steel Wing?" Ash asked him, and was met with an assuring caw from Corviknight, as he took Pidgeot, Swellow, Staraptor, Unfezant, Noctowl, and Rowlet off into the air to teach them Steel Wing.
Ash also realized that some Pokémon lacked variety in moves of their own type, while Charizard's Flamethrower was powerful, he couldn't solely rely on it, and he'll need to have Charizard use his other fire type moves in battle, like Fire Spin and Overheat, maybe Incineroar can teach him how to use Fire Blast.
As he thought to himself, Latias snuck behind him invisible, holding the mysterious flute in her claws as she observed what he was doing.
Glalie was gearing to help the water types learn Ice Beam so that they can all have something to deal with grass types. Oshawott was swinging madly at Buizel, who easily dodged his unrefined Razor Shell attack before retaliating with Ice Punch. Oshawott didn't like this and went at him again, still hacking and slashing away before Buizel used Water Gun to knock the scalchop out of his paw so that he couldn't rely on it anymore.
As Ash continued to observe the training in action, he saw a familiar face he didn't expect to see. A teenage girl with reddish hair, wearing a green polo shirt with a white collar, a white skirt, green trainers, and black knee-high socks.
"Bianca? What are you doing here!?" He shouted in confusion, as the girl from Alto Mare appeared before him. She smiled before transforming into her true form, revealing the red and white streamlined jet form of Latias.
"Wait…. Latias!? What's going on here?!" Ash was now having a head spin as he was unsure about how this was happening or what would happen soon, but his answer was quickly answered.
'Ash Ketchum, you are rewarded by the Legendaries for your efforts in saving the world time and time again' Latias telepathically spoke in a feminine tone. "Well… I'm…. flattered but I don't feel like I deserve to be rewarded" Ash humbly admitted 'You are far too humble sometimes, Arceus himself believes that you should be rewarded' Latias giggled while presenting him with the flute.
"What's this?" Ash queried 'It's the Celestica Flute, play our tunes and we will come to your aid' Latias answered. Ash blew into it to test it out, and it had a sort of mythical sound to it. "And Ash…" Latias continued "I would like to be a part of your team" Ash was utterly floored, he pinched himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming, and he felt it. Ash was surrounded by a hurricane of thoughts right now, he had gotten all of his Pokemon together, and now Latias was telling him that he was being rewarded by veritable gods and that she wants to be on his team. "Are you sure about this? I don't want to attract any unwelcome attention" Ash worried, he knew that having a legendary Pokemon with you would make you a huge target, not that a certain Darkrai user would care.
"I am, I know that you will take down whoever tries to steal us" Latias assured, and Ash then pulled out an empty pokeball "If you insist" said Ash as he tapped the ball on Latias' head, which shook a couple of times until it dinged, indicating a successful capture. Pikachu was as shocked that yet another legendary has joined the team, but this means that Urshifu, Zacian, and maybe Koraidon will have a sparring partner on par with them, so he considers it a win.
Going back to how his Pokemon were doing, he saw that his birds were taking to using Steel Wing very nicely, as they got the fundamentals down, and they just needed to practice it further. Over with his younger Pokemon, Oshawott was swinging at Buizel with unrefined movements, with the weasel easily avoiding each and every swipe that came his way again, until Oshawott's scalchop glowed red, and it managed to hit Buizel multiple times, each successive hit seeming to get stronger. Snivy was nearby meditating with her tail wrapped around her body as she was starting to glow a purple hue before dissipating. Drednaw was slamming into a nearby rock until he stomped his front legs, and a massive geyser of water erupted from the ground and washed away the massive rock, while Torterra was bashing his head on a nearby tree, his head glowing silver for a moment before returning to normal.
With his newer Pokemon, Koraidon was watching Melmetal and Urshifu trade mighty blows, Double Iron Bash and Wicked Blow colliding constantly, with neither seeming to wane on their strength, this left Koraidon in wonder at how strong they were and hoped that he could become stronger like them. Turning his attention over to a nearby tree, he gathered up his energies before transforming into his Apex Build and reducing the tree to splinters with Dragon Claw before turning to the two brawling titans, both of whom had witnessed his display of strength. He then charged at Melmetal with Flare Blitz, but was stopped by Melmetal's Thunder Punch, which instantly took the energy out of him and caused him to transform again. Koraidon looked down in disappointment, but the two brawlers picked him back up and encouraged him to keep trying.
Lokix was trading blow for blow with Heracross, Throat Chop and Focus Punch colliding so quickly that they almost seemed like a blur. Lokix got up on his third pair of legs for Showdown Mode before landing a boosted Double Kick on the Single Horn Pokemon, but Heracross took the attack and grabbed Lokix before tossing him into the air. Lokix managed to regain his footing before using Bug Buzz to keep his foe at a distance, but Heracross slammed into him with Megahorn and sent him crashing into a tree, down and out. Heracross helped the new bug up and told him how he could master his Showdown Mode.
Charlos was dodging Flame Charge from Pignite while trying to hit the Fire Pig with Fire Spin, but the speed boosts from Flame Charge just made Pignite faster until he crashed into the Fire Child. However, this is what Charlos needed so he could catch Pignite in Clear Smog, eliminating the speed boosts before nailing him with a point-blank Night Shade, sending Pignite skidding across the ground. But Pignite stood strong and unleashed his powerful Fire Pledge attack that enveloped Charlos before exploding. Pignite assumed that was the end, until he saw blue flames appear from the smoke as a boosted Flamethrower smashed into him with great force, Charlos' fiery spirit allowing him to hold on, impressing the fire/fighting type.
"Hey Ash!" Nemona shouted from behind as she and her Pokémon ran up behind him, Ash quickly hid Latias' pokeball as he felt he didn't want to reveal her just yet, after all, the Explorers just attacked earlier today, so he didn't want to take any chances.
"What's going on here?" Nemona asked, looking at all of the Pokémon training "We're just doing some training, on a greater scale" Ash answered with a flat expression on his face "Nice, maybe I can battle them someday" Typical Nemona, always itching for a scrap.
Nemona soon joined in with her Dartrix and Lycanroc, which end up interrupting Steel Wing training, and Ash's flying types did not appreciate that. Nemona sheepishly rubbed the back of her head as Ash gave her a deadpan look.
End of Chapter
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UltimateCCC: This isn't in the official continuity, this is in Zactoshi's What If continuity