Chapter 108, everybody! This week, on VERSUS!
So y'all know how in the past you've asked for a Pokémon list for the group? This is the chapter where I had to actually sit down and properly list all the 'mons Ash has at this point. Also can we talk about Rhydon's move set? How does this thing know Surf?
In other news, prior to Generation VII Gengar's Ability was Levitate, which I do prefer over Cursed Body—yeah Levitate nixes Ground attacks against it but Gengar still has other weaknesses.
As for the shiny Maschiff in the and now for something completely different section...hi, that me, in an emulator, not knowing that Maschiff know Roar.
In other news: thanks to marcusns mills, 10speed12, LongNightDragon, Dragonkeeper10, griffin blackwood, thor94, Speed Reader, kazikamikaze24, Astroboi, Cyan Quartz, and SkeletonBisque for the reviews! Just imagine if he knew about Ash's canon exploits.
Pokémon © Game Freak; Nintendo
And now, for something completely different:
Once again, this is Mr. Dex Rotom, here on the friendly waves. Earlier this week we asked about your most frustrating near-captures and we've gotten some doozies in our letters. A special shoutout to the poor dear in Paldea who had a shiny Maschiff walk right up to them only to flee right before you got the Pokéball out. That sting's gonna be with you for a long time, friend. So to help cheer you up, how about a song? Up next, LaVern Baker's "Beedrill."
Hit him as fast as you can, as hard as you can, and you'll maybe last through one Pokémon.
When Ash had received that warning, he wasn't expecting the Pokémon in question to be so intimidating.
The Rhydon snorted at him, eyeing him evenly, posture relaxed but ready to swing into action. Huge, thick armor crisscrossed with old faded scars, horn kept wicked sharp, attitude telling him it didn't take him seriously as a threat.
But maybe if he hit it fast and hard enough, they'd be able to catch it off-guard long enough to beat it.
Ash crouched down, tugged Pikachu close, rubbing his back and feeling the tension quaking along the spine.
"Okay," Ash muttered, not taking his eyes off the Rhydon. "Get in there, fast and low, aim for the legs with Iron Tail—electric attacks won't do anything, so don't bother unless you can hit a weak spot with Volt Tackle. Agility and Double Team every chance you get—don't let it hit you."
"Ka chu," Pikachu noised, giving his hand a nuzzle before dashing out onto the field—
And then suddenly speeding up, flickering afterimages going every which way before he disappeared completely—
And then he was right next to the Rhydon, tail slamming into the back of its knee with a sickening crunch.
Nobody moved for several seconds.
And then the Rhydon looked at Pikachu, who keeled over, yelping in pain and pawing at his tail.
"Pikachu, look out!" Ash yelped, seeing the Rhydon move—
Pikachu jumped straight up, seeing the foot move first—
Ended up getting thrown across the way by an Iron Tail instead.
"Pikachu!" Ash yelled, watching in horror as the little yellow mouse bounced along the terrain behind him before finally rolling to a halt—he ran over when it became clear Pikachu wasn't getting up.
"Are you okay?" Ash asked him, gingerly picking him up.
"Kaaaa," Pikachu noised, unable to say more from being knocked for a loop. Ash turned, saw Brock running over—ran the rest of the way to hand him over to Brock—
"Be careful," Brock told him.
Ash nodded, dashed back to the field as Brock ran into the lab, already trying to think of who would be able to make a dent in that armor—attacking a weak point with a super-effective move hadn't even made it flinch!
"Rio!"
"Ah! Lewis! No!" Ash yelped, redoubling his speed when he spotted the little Riolu standing in front of the Rhydon, defiant.
"I tried to stop him!" Misty said—
"Rhysa," Giovanni noised, sounding bored.
The Rhydon tossed its head—
"No wait—I didn't send him out!" Ash protested, ready to jump forward to bodily stop Lewis—
Except Lewis was already leaping forward, shrieking a battle cry—
The Rhydon caught him by the head in one paw, holding him at arm's length and generally ignoring his attempts to beat at it with his paws. It lumbered over to Ash, holding out Lewis and looking at him with an expression that might have been exasperation.
Ash tried to get a nervous laugh out, could only manage a wheeze as he pulled Lewis' ball out. "Sorry," he noised, returning Lewis. The Rhydon snorted, returned to its side of the field.
"Vwee vee," Vee noised, pawing at Ash's leg.
Ash glanced down at him, back up to the Rhydon that had made short work of Pikachu, back to Vee, shook his head minutely.
"Go get the others first, tell them to get over here," Ash said quietly. Vee barked his understanding and took off running; Ash watched him go, risked a glance at Giovanni, who didn't look impressed.
"Aha…one moment, please," Ash managed, before running over to where Brock was coming out with a tray of Pokéballs.
"Please tell me I have someone already available," he begged quietly.
"I don't know—I was just anticipating carnage," Brock said, putting the tray down on a nearby table. "Never seen him in battle before, but I heard the rumors—anyone who loses only to Red Satoshi is not someone to mess with."
"No kidding," Ash muttered, scanning the Pokéballs quickly—empty empty empty—there!
Ash snatched it up, ran back to the field, threw it out with the hope that it held someone who could do some damage—
It disgorged the Magnemite he had caught in Gringy City.
Ash would have done a faceplant right then and there if he didn't think that Giovanni wouldn't give him the reaction time—the most training he had done with Magnemite was on the trip back from Vermilion, and that wasn't nearly enough if the way Pikachu had gone down was any indication. Dug in his pockets for his Pokédex, flailing for ideas—wait!
"Use Sonic Boom!" Ash called. "Aim for the eyes!"
The Magnemite—which had steadily been panicking at the sight of the Rhydon before it—snapped to attention, shot off a nervous Sonic Boom—
The Rhydon ducked it easily enough.
Ugh—should have worked with accuracy more. "Try again!" Ash said. "Don't let it hit you!"
The Magnemite wobbled in acknowledgement, floated up and away, out of the Rhydon's reach, fired again—
The Sonic Boom glanced off of the Rhydon's armor as it watched Magnemite float around, snorted—
Shot a burst of flame at Magnemite, who was too startled to dodge—it dropped to the ground, burnt to a smeared crisp and not moving. Ash returned it without comment.
"So far, not impressed," Giovanni announced.
Ash grimaced—
"Vee vwee!"
Look down to see Vee dancing around his heels. "Did you get them?" he asked, hoping he didn't sound too desperate—Vee barked an affirmative. "All right—go soften it up—Sand Attack, Frenzy style!"
Vee barked, ran out to the field—shrieked a wild war cry before throwing sand everywhere, making a miniature dust storm on the field. Ash had high hopes for this plan—trying for speed and dodging wasn't quite working, but if they could combine it with lowered accuracy, they might have a chance.
The dust slowly cleared, revealing Vee panting, staring down the Rhydon—
Who was standing there, head lifted and eyes closed. As they watched, it shook its head and snorted, dislodging sand and dirt—looked down at them with narrowed eyes.
"Vee, Swift, now," Ash hissed.
Vee barked, shot a burst of stars at the Rhydon's face—
The Rhydon closed its eyes, took the hit—opened them again when the attack didn't even scratch it.
"Oh boy," Ash muttered. "Sand Attack again!"
The Rhydon lifted a foot—slammed it down before Vee could react, sending the whole field shaking. Vee rolled—was suddenly shot up into the air by a chunk of ground surging up—
The Rhydon used Iron Tail again, pulverizing the spires of earth—swung around again and caught Vee on his way down, sending him rocketing across the yard like it had Pikachu. Ash found himself playing fetch again and hoping his Pokémon were all right.
On the positive side, he had Vee's Pokéball and was able to return him as soon as he reached him—and by this time, the first of his other Pokémon had arrived.
"Think you can take it?" he asked Patches, indicating the Rhydon.
The Nidorino looked, snorted, lumbered for the field as Lenny showed up, followed by Venonat.
"Okay," Ash muttered, seeing a few more coming—here was hoping. He ran for the field, skidded into the challenger box as Patches reached it, assuming a battle-ready stance and eyeing the Rhydon carefully.
"Okay, soft underbelly!" Ash told him, figuring that had to be true. "Dig, and then all your horn attacks—no poison, it's immune to Poison."
Patches nodded, dove into the ground—the Rhydon lifted a leg—
Slammed it down, starting another Earthquake.
By the time Ash had picked himself up, the Rhydon had dug up Patches' unconscious self and had rolled him to the edge of the field.
"Ulk," Ash noised, horrified—Patches hadn't even managed to get a hit in!
"Earthquake is twice as effective if the opponent is underground," Brock told him, catching his attention in time to toss him Patches' Pokéball. Misty was sitting on the ground, apparently having had enough of being tossed off the bleachers, was busy chewing on the nails of her free hand and hugging Togepi with her other.
"Right," Ash muttered, turning to his next Pokémon. "Go on, Lenny! Water and Ice attacks—Earthquake shouldn't affect you, right?"
Lenny roared, surged forward, blasting the Rhydon with Hydro Pump before closing in with Ice Fang—
The Rhydon had not been perturbed by the water, caught Lenny by his largest fangs—smirked at him as electricity danced up and down its horn.
And then Lenny was zapped by a blistering Thunder and down for the count.
Ash returned him without comment, looked at Venonat—Poison/Bug wouldn't offer a challenge to the Rhydon at all. He shook his head minutely, causing Venonat to faint with relief; he had to return it too.
And then the Tauros came—
Ash didn't even have a chance to try and pick one—the Rhydon slammed down an Earthquake and knocked them all out.
"Could you have at least waited until I got one on the field?" Ash asked, starting the arduous task of returning thirty unconscious Tauros.
"You wouldn't have been the first one to try for a group rush," Giovanni said, scratching the side of his face, leaning against the fence behind him and still looking rather bored with it all.
Ash scowled, ran the last of the balls over to the tray, sorting through them and trying to figure out who he hadn't used yet—
"Gengar!"
"Gengar!" Ash exclaimed, thrilled to see him. "Your special ability is Levitate, right?" When Gengar nodded: "I need you to do as much damage as you can to that Rhydon—can you do it for me?"
Gengar nodded, grinning wickedly—loped onto the field and spat Toxic at it.
The purple slime hit the armor, slid off uselessly.
"No—Poison doesn't affect Ground or Rock," Ash told him. "Any other attack—not that one!"
Because Gengar was readying Curse—
The Rhydon blasted him with a Flame Burst, knocking him out before he could finish the attack.
Ash was sweating as he returned Gengar, mentally tallying his Pokémon—he didn't have very many left, the Tauros had made the bulk of his captures—might as well dismiss Charmeleon, even if he did show up Rhydon was Rock/Ground and therefore super-effective against him.
That only left Frenzy and—
"AERO!"
"Amber!" Ash hollered as the Aerodactyl circled. "Supersonic and then Agility and Double Team! Don't let that Rhydon hit you!"
Amber screeched, the Supersonic manifesting in energy rings shooting from her mouth at the Rhydon—Ash grimaced when he saw it with its claws stuffed in its ears. Oh boy—glance to see that Amber was starting to flicker and dart—okay there was some hope—
The Rhydon looked around, picked up a rock from when it tore up the field earlier, hefted it a bit before chucking it at Amber—
Ash flinched when it scored a hit, again when Amber hit the ground. Returned her, shaking—
"Okay," he breathed, taking out his last ball. "Last shot. Go, Frenzy!"
"Huh," Giovanni noised when the Parasect appeared. "I'm guessing we're getting to the bottom of the barrel."
Ash knew his grin was savage and didn't rightly care at this point. "Guess again. Frenzy! Take that Rhydon OUT!"
Frenzy ramped up for his war cry, making both Giovanni and the Rhydon blink in surprise—charged—
The Rhydon spun, smacking Frenzy away with its tail like it had with Pikachu and Vee.
"Frenzy!" Ash hollered.
"You might want to start considering setups, given your glass cannons," Giovanni said, looking bored. "Is that it?"
Ash started to answer—
Started along with everyone else when Frenzy burst up out of the ground and latched onto the Rhydon's stomach, screeching and scratching and scattering spores—kept hitting it with Absorb, eventually boosting it to Giga Drain—
The Rhydon grabbed his mushroom, yanked him off—he swung his attention to slicing at its arm, legs flailing as he spat effect spores at its face—
The Rhydon slammed Frenzy into the ground, and this time, he didn't get up.
"Frenzy?" Ash asked, not processing this—he couldn't for the life of him remember Frenzy ever losing…finally returned him, staring at the Parasect through the translucent top and hoping he was okay.
Giovanni twitched, seemed to finally recover from the shock that Frenzy usually induced. "Was that all of them?"
Ash nodded, not looking up—there was no point mentioning Charmeleon, if Frenzy couldn't do any damage—
The Rhydon looked at Giovanni, indicated its arm—Giovanni examined the scratches Frenzy had managed to leave. Ash squinted across the field, felt that if the scratches on its front were any indication, that 'damage' would be buffed out the next time it took a dust bath.
A seven-badge team, and Giovanni had ripped through them like they were nothing. No—his Rhydon had, Giovanni hadn't uttered a single order, hadn't needed to, it was that well-trained.
"Does the army know about that 'mon?" Misty snapped when Giovanni returned the Rhydon.
"They do," Giovanni said. Looked over at Ash. "I have questions about that bug."
"He's going to be okay, right?" Ash asked Brock as the latter took Frenzy's ball.
"He's going right into the recovery machine along with the rest of your Pokémon, so yes," Brock told him.
Ash nodded, swallowed as he watched Brock run into the lab…finally turned to face Giovanni, holding himself carefully. "So…."
"So…what," Giovanni said. "Was I your first loss?"
Ash mentally reviewed his previous battles, ended up nodding; he was reasonably certain the last time he had properly lost had been well into the early part of his journey. "I'm sorry I couldn't offer a better challenge."
Giovanni barked out a laugh, startling him. "You're sorry?" he asked, amused. "You managed to do something that ninety-nine percent of Kantoan trainers can't and you're sorry?"
Ash stared at him, confused. "I lost."
"So you did," Giovanni observed, pulling out his badge case and turning it over, considering it before handing it back to Ash. "Better luck next time."
Ash blinked, looked when Giovanni started for the road—"Wait—next time? How will I find you?"
"You won't," Giovanni said. "But we'll cross paths again, Ash Ketchum."
"Well that wasn't totally ominous," Misty muttered, walking over to stand beside Ash as they watched Giovanni leave. "Are you okay?"
"No," Ash muttered, rubbing his face.
"Ash, that Rhydon was a Level 100," Brock said as he came back over. "There was no way you were going to beat it even with a seven-badge team."
"Yeah," Ash muttered, flipping the case open. "But how am I supposed to…."
"Supposed to what?" Misty asked, looking at him, then down at his case when she noticed where his attention was—froze as well, prompting Brock to lean over and look.
Ash stared at the Earth Badge, long enough for Giovanni to have disappeared down the street, before looking up at Misty and Brock.
"I can't tell," Ash said finally. "Did I actually earn this, or is this a pity badge?"
"You did hold up pretty well against a Level 100 Rhydon," Brock pointed out.
"It's a pity badge," Misty said flatly.
Giovanni walked down the path from Oak's ranch, maintaining a pace just below a brisk trot until he was certain he was away from prying eyes. Once that was done, he slowed down, eyeing the nearby brush and waiting.
He didn't have to wait long.
Persian slinked luxuriously out of the scrub, sitting down and licking a paw as he waited for Giovanni to reach him.
"Well?" Giovanni asked.
Persian flicked an ear, finished grooming his paw, and nodded once.
"Very interesting," Giovanni said. "And very telling. I think it's time we pay Ms. Ketchum a visit, don't you?"
Persian mrowed in response.