Chapter 106, everybody! Been doing 100 words a day on my active fics, which also got this one to a patch that was done ahead, so we have updates until this time next month! My only regret was not getting it done on Ash Wednesday, which is technically this series' anniversary (this fic itself has its anniversary in October).
Moving on...after the experiences Ash and company have had, with some Pokémon species it's just you have chosen death. And with the Gary Oak battle, this required me looking at both the Bulbapedia page to see what Pokémon he's confirmed to have in canon and the previous battle he and Ash had on the S.S. Anne. Also yes, that's a reference to Up.
In other news...honestly Arcanine and Pikachu are the two's starters so of course that particular altercation would last longer, but also that was the part that was written way ahead. Gary's comment on Golem and Machamp is in reference to Blue's comment to Red in Pokémon Adventures, and canonically Ash favors speedy glass cannons over tanks—in both instances, the power level's enough that once they actually collide, it doesn't last very long.
Also worth mentioning that it's Scrappy that enables Normal and Fighting types to hit Ghost types—No Guard just allows all hits to land and specifically doesn't bypass type immunities, but the only Kanto Pokémon that does have Scrappy is Kangaskhan...which Gary does not have. Saying that, if a Pokémon has No Guard and knows a OHKO move, that move's guaranteed to hit—the Machop line can learn Fissure in Gen I...which did require some last-minute rewriting, as originally I had Patches winning that altercation. Can't complain, though, we got an extra two pages of battle, almost, and some Frenzy time. :D
In other news: thanks to Dragonkeeper10, BlastShooter87, LongNightDragon, Cyan Quartz, Lightgreygelding, griffin blackwood, thor94, Something dictionary related (yes, unfortunately XD), kazikamikaze24, rntobi, Luxo11, Guest, Guest 2 (oi Nintendo I get royalties for that X'D), and MetalBatt for the reviews! To the concern about Ash getting in the 'pity way,' I mentioned more than once in the fic how Giovanni and to a lesser extent Blaine being in the wind makes it so the League has to accept other means to even get enough people to participate; someone vouching for him is on the list alongside the League exam and the lesser badges insofar as alternate routes are concerned.
Pokémon © Game Freak; Nintendo
And now, for something completely different:
The Pokémon League would like to remind you to please check over your Halloween candy before consumption. While the needle scare a few years back was a result of Nidoran, the results were still dangerous. Please discard any candy that has damaged wrapping.
"So what do you think?" Misty asked as they filed outside.
"I think if Ash hadn't challenged him you'd have stabbed him with your fork," Brock told her.
"Maybe not—I might have used a spoon."
"Meh," Brock noised, joining her in a small stand that looked like it had seen a previous life at a little league field.
"This will be a six on six Pokémon battle," Professor Oak said. "First to knock out the full party wins, don't damage my lab while you're at it."
"Right. Go, Exeggutor!" Gary hollered, throwing his first Pokémon out.
"Go, Lenny!" Ash countered, throwing his Gyarados out. Lenny roared, thrashed—
Focused on the Exeggutor and snarled, a low rumble of a growl echoing across the field and making Misty's teeth rattle.
"Use Crunch, Lenny!" Ash ordered as Gary commanded his Exeggutor to start setting up shields—both of them blinked in surprise when Lenny surged across the field and slammed into the Exeggutor, pinning it down before striking multiple times, Crunching down on the flailing 'mon until a final bite instead had the icy KRASH of an Ice Fang.
"I think it's safe to say that Exeggutor is unable to battle," Professor Oak said. "Round one goes to Ash."
"Round two won't," Gary gritted. "Go, Kingler, dodge it!"
Kingler immediately hit the ground running—a good thing, because apparently it was on-sight for this Pokémon species as well.
"Lenny, use Splash to get close!" Ash ordered.
"Kingler, Rock Tomb!"
"Oh boy," Misty muttered—winced when Lenny ended up leaping right into the rocks being blasted at him, his Flying type making that damage worse. Kinger closed with a Crabhammer, swung its other claw around while it had Lenny pinned to hit him in the throat with a Guillotine. Lenny thrashed once—didn't move again.
"Gyarados is unable to battle, that's one for each of you," Professor Oak said, the Kingler pumping its claws as Ash returned Lenny.
"Told you I trained my Pokémon correctly!" Gary crowed.
"Yeah, well type advantage is still a thing," Ash said. "Pikachu, Thunder Shock!"
Pikachu was already sparking as he leaped off of Ash's shoulders, zapped the Kingler hard before he even touched the ground—finished it off with a Quick Attack while it was still quaking from the electrical hit.
"You were saying?" Ash jeered as Gary returned his Kingler.
"Go, Arcanine!" Gary ordered, flinging the Pokéball.
A handsome Arcanine appeared in a flash of light—it was immediately evident to Brock that it was the offspring of the Professor's Arcanine.
"Great," Misty said. "Lenny's already knocked out, and Ash doesn't have any Rock or Ground type Pokémon. How's he going to beat that?"
"Knowing Ash?" Brock responded. "Probably with some quickly-concocted plan that came out of the blue."
They watched as Ash consulted with Pikachu before sending him out and standing up.
"How much do you want to bet?" Brock asked.
"I've decided I don't like betting with you," Misty said. Then, after a few beats, "Thirty bucks."
"You're on."
Pikachu sure hoped this worked.
Arcanine dropped to an attack stance, ready to leap across the field (he had no doubt he could do that) and nail him—
Pikachu quickly grabbed the Electro Ball he had been preparing behind his back and held it up—desperately tricky, considering holding it involved focusing his electricity in his paws instead of his tail.
"Who wants the ball!?" he bellowed at the top of his lungs.
Arcanine's ears perked up, like it seriously couldn't believe Pikachu would even try that—
And then started bouncing back and forth happily.
"ME! ME! I do so ever want the ball!" it barked.
Pikachu flung the Electro Ball as far as he could, Arcanine bounded after it—
"Arcanine, no!" Gary yelled—
Too late—Arcanine caught it with its teeth, effectively electrifying it from the inside out. If it wasn't down for the count, it most certainly had a good chunk of health taken out.
Pikachu couldn't help but turn to the crowd to take a bow. When he did, he saw the Professor's Arcanine shaking her head and putting a paw to her face. Brock, meanwhile, was accepting something green from Misty.
Ash snickered before yelling "Pikachu! Look out!"
Pikachu leapt straight up, already prepping an Iron Tail to swing down and bash the charging Arcanine's head with—timed to perfection, hit it so hard that its eyes were rolling in its head as Pikachu ran down the length of its back and hopped over its fluffy tail.
"Focus, Arcanine! Don't just rush in!" Gary scolded.
"Yeah, Arcanine! Watch where you're going!" Pikachu crowed, flipping around to face it midair. He touched the ground in a four-point landing before zipping off, narrowly dodging the angry clash of teeth. Agility kept him ahead of the raging canine, while Double Team left it with Buneary-trails to follow—within moments, he literally had it chasing its own tail.
"Arcanine!" Gary roared. "Stop that! Burn the field! Now!"
Okay, that could be bad—distance, at least get distance—
"Thunder, Pikachu!" Ash called.
Aha.
Pikachu let lose a blistering Thunder, ostensibly aiming it at Arcanine but mostly using the force of the electricity to keep the flames off of him—the fire parted around him, flared around the lightning bolt that did miss the Arcanine—
But the Thunder Shock he loosed when the Arcanine lunged for him hit true—right in its wide-open mouth.
Pikachu dashed around as the Arcanine went down, sliding along the field in a crashing halt—mostly so he didn't get squished, but also to avoid those teeth if it wasn't quite fainted yet. He waited, poised….
Professor Oak leaned forward to examine Arcanine, leaned back after a moment. "Arcanine is unable to battle, Pikachu wins this round."
"All right, Pikachu!" Ash cheered.
Gary returned Arcanine without comment, pulled his next Pokémon out. "Go, Golem!"
Something big and round hit the ground, popped out arms and legs.
"Golem and Machamp evolved thanks to you, so I should be grateful," Gary said, smirking. "I think I'll show it by beating you into a pulp. Golem, Rollout!"
Arms and legs popped back in as the rocky ball sped towards Pikachu.
"Agility and Double Team!" Ash called, not too terribly concerned—Golem might be a juggernaut, but it couldn't make the sharp turns like Pikachu could; all they had to do was wait for it to slow up enough for Pikachu to hit it with Iron Tail.
"Ramp up and Earthquake!" Gary called.
Okay, that could be problematic.
"Not this close to my equipment," Professor Oak groaned—and then braced himself as Golem shot out a limb, launching itself into the air before coming down with earth-shaking force.
Pikachu had seen it coming though, had launched himself into the air—
"Rock Blast now!" Gary yelled.
Oh great—"Thunder Shock, Pikachu!" Ash yelled, frantic.
Pikachu obeyed, trying to blast away the rocks with Thunder Shock as he angled back to the ground—
But the force behind the boulders was too much—they blasted through, slammed smack into Pikachu and sent him flying.
He hoped the ground didn't hurt too much.
Ash grit his teeth, scrambling for a strategy, wincing as Pikachu hit the ground, bouncing a little before skidding to a halt on his stomach.
"Rollout again, before it recovers!" Gary ordered. Golem sped after Pikachu, throwing up chunks of sod as it spun around Gary and towards the little yellow mouse, struggling to get back up—
"Iron Tail, Pikachu!" Ash yelled, knowing it was too late to dodge. Pikachu spun, tail glowing—
A chip of rock flew one way, and Pikachu flew the other. Golem rolled to a stop, stood, trying to angle its head to see the damage—
Pikachu laid there and didn't get up.
"Pikachu is unable to battle," Professor Oak said, as Ash ran over to scoop the little electric mouse up. "Gary wins this round."
"You did good, Pikachu," Ash said, rubbing him on the head as he walked over to Professor Oak; an aide came over, took Pikachu, and hustled back into the lab. Okay, how to counter this...
Well Frenzy was the obvious answer, he reflected as he went back to his side of the field—Frenzy was also a quick way to end the whole battle period. Besides, he wanted to see how his whole team did.
"Go, Gengar!" Ash decided, throwing out the Ghost Pokémon. Grinned across at Gary. "Gengar evolved under your care, so I suppose I should be grateful—I'll show it by beating you. Gengar! Don't let it hit you!"
Gengar cackled as he floated away from Golem's Rollout, threw down a Toxic when it sped past again.
"Poison doesn't work on Rock," Gary said.
"At least not until he tries to hit the brakes," Ash pointed out.
Golem ended up having to aim for a hill to slow itself down, came back to the field and stomped, summoning rocks to blast at Gengar—
"Dodge it! Overhead and straight down!" Ash ordered.
Gengar saluted, did a Swanna dive into the ground behind Golem, vanishing with a poof—
"Get off the shadows!" Gary ordered, glancing at the windmill and the shadow it cast. "Gengar will travel through that!"
"Too late—Gengar, Ice Punch!"
Gengar launched out of the shadow much closer to Golem, managed to get a solid icy hit in before swinging around with a Power-Up Punch and a Mega Kick for good measure.
Golem didn't have much to offer after that.
"What ninny teaches a ghost how to punch and kick anyway?" Gary muttered as he returned Golem.
"He was really excited about having limbs," Ash offered.
"Whatever. Go, Machamp!"
Ash actually laughed at that. "Fighting can't hit Ghost, genius!"
"It can if it has No Guard. Bullet Punch followed by Dual Chop!"
Oh crud. "Dodge it! Use Poison Jab!"
He barely had time to get the first sentence out before Machamp connected with Bullet Punch, across the field in a blink, two more hands coming down for Dual Chop before pummeling Gengar into the ground—
Reeled back screeching, pawing at a nail stabbed into its shoulder, Gengar fainting from that last act of spite.
"Dangit, Gengar," Ash muttered, returning him. Well the good news was, Curse would eat away at Machamp's health pretty quickly. Vee wouldn't be a good idea against a Machamp, so that left..."Go, Patches!"
Patches landed, pawed at the ground and snorted as he registered his opponent.
"You haven't evolved that thing yet?" Gary asked.
"Patches, show him who's boss," Ash ordered.
Patches snorted, charged, the Machamp braced to catch him—
Leaped up and dove into the ground in a Dig, dodging the retaliatory attack.
"Fissure, Machamp!" Gary hollered.
"Dodge it!" Ash countered—had to hang on for dear life as the Machamp stomped on the ground and split it open.
"Not next to my lab!" Professor Oak hollered, teetering—
Patches tumbled out of the side of the Fissure, landing in the bottom as rocks fell—Ash returned him before the rocks connected, not needing his Pokédex to tell him that Patches had fainted. Professor Oak had no comment either, just released his Rhyhorn to patch the great crevasse in the field.
"All right then," Ash muttered once it was fixed, grabbing his next 'mon. "Go, Vee! Agility and then Sand Attack, Frenzy style!"
Vee cheered as he touched down, speeding in a circle and all but whipping up a dust tornado for the sand he sent everywhere.
"That's not going to help you!" Gary told him, shielding his eyes from the dust. "Use Low Sweep to blow that away!"
Machamp did so—blinked in surprise when the dust cleared to see that Vee was gone.
"Eevee can learn Dig," Gary told it. "Use Fissure again!"
"What part of 'don't use these moves next to my lab' aren't you getting!?" Professor Oak demanded.
"Not gonna get the chance—now, Vee!" Ash hollered.
The Machamp screeched in alarm as it fell up to its lower arms in a pit Vee had dug beneath it—Vee shot out of the ground in front of it, slammed it in the head with a Headbutt, pushed off and hit it with Swift while in midair to get himself out of hitting range.
"Good job, Vee!" Ash hollered—with it buried like that, it couldn't use Fissure, not without taking itself out as well. "Keep using Swift and stay out of range!"
"Machamp has ranged attacks too!" Gary hollered. "Vacuum Wave!"
"Dig, Vee!"
Vee shot down as the pressurized air blistered through where he had been—Machamp tried to look everywhere as it used its lower arms to try to lever itself out, upper arms ready to defend itself—
"Mud-Slap, Vee!" Ash ordered.
"Block it!" Gary ordered. "Use Rock Smash on the ground around you to loosen the dirt!"
"Swift and use Agility to stay ahead of any counters!" Ash called. "Use Quick Attack once you're fast enough!"
Which led to a war of attrition as Vee darted in and out of Machamp's thrashing, barely dodging the majority of the hits and only earning glancing blows on the other—shot forward, glowing, connected with the Machamp's skull again with a Headbutt—
The Machamp finally went down.
"Good job, Vee!" Ash called as Gary returned it and threw out his final Pokémon—a Nidoking. "Ah. Swift!"
"Earth Power!" Gary ordered.
"Dodge it!"
"Stop blowing holes in my field!" Professor Oak hollered, having to dive behind his Rhyhorn as the Nidoking fired off Earth Power after Earth Power, keeping a sharp eye on Vee as he dodged—
Suddenly swung around with Iron Tail, catching Vee enough to send him rolling—
Charged after him with a Megahorn glowing, Ash barely returning Vee in time.
"That's it, Ashy-boy!" Gary called. "We're both down to our final Pokémon!"
Ash maintained eye contact with Gary as he pulled out his final Pokéball, expanded it, and threw it out. "Frenzy, knock out that Nidoking."
"Don't flinch!" Gary ordered, even as Nidoking balked at Frenzy ramping up and screeching. "It'll run right for you! Hit it!"
Apparently Frenzy understood other trainers too, because he immediately dodged to the side, leaped straight up to avoid the Iron Tail whipping for him—
Landed on the tail, clamped down—showed glistening fangs before biting down on the Nidoking's tail hard enough that Ash heard it.
The Nidoking screeched, kept spinning in a circle trying to reach Frenzy and rip him off, even as Frenzy freed up his pincers and started stabbing, releasing a cloud of spores as he hung on—
"Forget trying to rip it off!" Gary hollered. "Slam it against the ground!"
The Nidoking stopped, raising its tail high to slam it down—
Frenzy leaped for its head at the apex of that swing, leaving the Nidoking screaming at having a frenetic Parasect clinging to its face—swung wildly for Frenzy—
Frenzy dodged to behind its head, leaving it to punch itself in the face, teetering a moment before collapsing, having knocked itself clean out.
"And that's the last of Gary's Pokémon," Professor Oak said. "Ash is the winner, and I have questions about that bug."
"All right, Frenzy!" Ash cheered, the Parasect scuttling over to him—focused on Gary as he returned his Nidoking. "HA! Tell me about my sucky training techniques now, Gary!"
"It doesn't matter," Gary said, tossing his head. "You're still a loser—right now you're just a loser that got lucky."
"Will you two please get along," Professor Oak groaned, rubbing his face—looked when Gary stalked off. "Where are you going?"
"To the Mt. Silver foothills to train—I'll see you at the League, gramps."
"You'll see me too, Gary," Ash teased.
"Yeah right," Gary huffed. "If you can even get past Victory Road, which I doubt."
"Sore loser," Misty muttered as he left.
"It doesn't matter," Ash said, pumping his fist. "That's twice I've won against him, and I'll wipe the floor with him at the League too!"
Boy he hoped Darkrai saw that.
He waited outside the dome set up by the various Psychic Pokémon they had acquired, eyeing the grunts as they communicated to base via walkie-talkie, stepped through when they nodded and the present Kadabra weakened the wall enough for him and Persian to step through.
"Well?" he demanded.
"It's still circling, sir," one grunt said. "We saw it not too long ago—gave me the creeps."
"Base says everything's just about ready, sir," the grunt with the walkie-talkie said. "We're just awaiting your orders."
"Good," he said, checking the moon before heading down the path—almost full, when it would be at its weakest. Followed Persian, who took the lead in the darker setting, stopped when he sat down in a clearing and waited.
He didn't have to wait for long.
"I have sensed my counterpart here," the glowing Legendary before him said as it faded into existence. "Your intel is sound." Tipped its head. "But I wonder why one such as you is being so helpful in this regard."
"I have a vested interest in the state of my region," he said. Matched the head tip. "Once you defeat it, what then?"
"I will take him back to Sinnoh; he must answer for his crimes."
"I see." Waited until it vanished, looked at Persian, smiled when the large cat confirmed it was gone. "Well, in this matter we disagree." Tightened his hand slightly around the item in his pocket. "The one that fails to be useful after tomorrow night is the one you get."
"MrrOW," Persian purred, showing his teeth as he licked his jowls. Leaned in when he rubbed his head.
"Before that, however...well, I have a few other things to square away first."