Chapter 8: Old Friends, New Badges
We were currently inside a forest about half a day away from Saffron city when we came across another trainer. This of course lead to a battle where the trainer sent out a Raticate, Ash decided to use Sandshrew.
I'm not sure if Ash is just really lucky or he somehow realized Sandshrew is close to evolving. We caught the Sandshrew way back in Mt. Moon and besides a few trainer battles here and there, he hasn't really used Sandshrew. Little does he know that Sandshrew has been training more than he thinks, and from what I can tell severely out classes this Raticate.
The opposing trainer starts things off with a hyper fang, but Ash immediately counters with dig. With Sandshrews speedy get away the Raticate was left looking around and try to hear the Sandshrew. Before it could react however, Sandshrew popped out of the ground directly behind it and hit the Raticate with a brutal slash that sent Raticate reeling.
Sandshrew didn't let up however and went for a metal claw, but it was slow enough that Raticate was able to quickly counter with another hyper fang. The 2 moves collided and sent both Pokémon sliding back a little. Raticate responded first with a quick attack that sent Sandshrew rolling, to mitigate damage I had taught Sandshrew to roll into a ball when sent rolling.
Raticate charges with another hyper fang and Sandshrew is still rolling in his ball form. Right as Raticate was about to land the hit, Sandshrew popped out of the ball and abruptly jumped over Raticate. Since Raticate was diving with the hyper fang, it couldn't stop itself from hitting the ground where Sandshrew just was.
Sandshrew released a critical hit slash attack straight to Raticate's back making it shriek in pain. It still managed to stand back up, not wanting to let down its trainer. Though it was obvious that it was really weak, both trainer and rat seemed to determined to continue. It was over on the next blow though.
Ash called for Sandshrew to use one last Slash attack and the unknown trainer used hyper fang to counter. The Pokémon met halfway, but Raticate couldn't keep the move going and suffered a devastating slash to the head. Knocking it out and to further cap off the battle, Sandshrew began to glow.
A few seconds later we were met with a Sandslash who immediately slammed its right foot on the ground, causing the ground to shake lightly. Seems it's already learned earthquake, now we just need to teach it a ranged move or 2 and it'll be good to go.
I walk up to Sandslash, first to congratulate it on evolving and then to give it its new list of moves to learn. As a Sandslash it has a lot of moves that will prove very useful later down the line.
"Rai Raichu." (Congratulations on evolving Sandslash. Are you ready to learn your next list of moves? This one will be quite a bit longer because I imagine Ash will swap you out for Butterfree in the next town. You'll have to spend your time at Oak's lab perfecting these moves.)
"San san." (Thank you, and yes I'm ready.)
"Raichu Rai Rai" (Good. These are the moves you need to work on while you're away. Stone edge, poison jab, X Scissor, Brick break, sandstorm, and if you can, Hyper Beam. You got all that, and don't worry there is still plenty of time before the League to learn it all.)
"Sandslash" (Understood I will train even harder than I do here, to become the strongest on the team.)
"Rai rai!" (Haha, I'd love to see you try!)
With the congratulations over for Sandslash we finally made it into Saffron City just as it was getting night time. We found the Pokémon Center and went to sleep. I must say we're really counting on Butterfree here to be able to take out Sabrina's abra, though it may still evolve like the show.
I'm the morning Ash made his way to the video phone and called Professor Oak.
"Oh hey Ash. What's your reason for calling?" Oak
"I wanted to let you know that I made it to Saffron and I'm going to challenged the gym in a little bit, but I wanted to get my Butterfree out for the battle." Ash
"Hmm yes, not a bad choice especially if your Butterfree knows bug type moves." Oak
"Butterfree is really strong and knows a few good bug moves, I'm really confident it can beat whatever Sabrina throws out." Ash
"Yes yes, but don't become too overconfident. Well place the Pokémon your transferring into the machine and I'll send Butterfree over." Oak
"Thanks Professor! Goodbye." Ash
"Bye now." Oak
A few seconds later the Pokéball with Sandslash disappeared and a new Pokéball took its place. Ash immediately released the Pokémon inside to reveal a beautiful Butterfree.
"Freee" (I have returned)
While Butterfree was having its moment with Ash I was currently trying to hold in laughter at the fact it yelled "freee" when it came out of the ball. What can I say I have pretty boring humor, and you would too with nothing but Pokemon battles and training to keep you occupied. Being a Pokémon is not all its cracked up to be.
Now it was time for the gym. We entered the battle arena, with Sabrina sitting on a chair holding what looks like a doll just like the show. After Ash naively agrees to play with her if he loses, she sends out an Abra and Ash sends out his Butterfree.
As if guided by fate itself the Abra instantly evolved into Kadabra before the first move could even be called. This will be a little tricky, but as long as Butterfree has kept up its speed practice as well as keeping up with its psychic training it should be fine.
It should be fast enough to negate Kadabra's teleport to an extent, and it should be able to counter Kadabra's psychic attack if just a little.
Butterfree starts with a poison powder followed by gust. Smart Ash spreading the poison particles around the field while Butterfree remains above the cloud. Kadabra responds with teleport, but there's nowhere for it to go without getting hit by the Poison powder.
While Psychic is strong against poison it will still cause damage over time, and also slightly distract it with the pain, so that it's psychic moves are not as effective. Butterfree followed this up with a Signal Beam that would have hit, but Kadabra teleported at the last second right behind Butterfree. It began to use Psychic on Butterfree who resisted enough to not be tossed around before Kadabra lost its concentration due to poison.
While it was wincing Butterfree quickly turned and fired another Signal Beam this time impacting the Kadabra in its chest. Kadabra teleported again out of the continuous beam, and started to use recover. Butterfree used to Bug Buzz to stop the recover, but Kadabra had still been able to get rid of the Poison. With another teleport it fired a beam move of its own in the form of Psybeam, and Butterfree counters with Signal Beam once again.
Butterfree finally puts its speed to use by quickly flying out from behind its beam and charging at the Kadabra. Kadabra stopped its beam but it couldn't dodge the toxic that Butterfree spewed at it, poisoning it badly once again. Kadabra teleported and went to use another recover, but truly showcasing its speed Butterfree zipped over and it with Venoshock this time.
Even being resistant to poison, combination of of toxic and Venoshock proves to be enough to stagger Kadabra and stop its recover. Butterfree wouldn't let such a moment go to waste and used Bug Buzz only 4 feet away from the staggering Kadabra. The sound base move brought the Kadabra to its knees as it held its head, eventually fainting from the combination of poison and a powerful bug move.
"It seems I will have to wait for the next trainer to have someone to play with. Here is your badge challenger." Sabrina then used her psychic powers to float a badge across the field to us, and we left the gym with a new badge weighing Ash's jacket.
"So what's next Ash?" Misty asked
"On to the next gym of course. Though I don't know where the next closest one is." Ash said while scratching his head.
"Oh I know! Celadon city. It's just to East of us now and would be a straight shot. It's home to the grass type gym leader Erika." Brock
"Oh yes! I've always wanted to go to Celadon City. They have so many shops, and the best perfume." Misty
"Ugh perfume, how can you stand that stuff." Ash
"Rai rai." (I agree.)
I don't know how Pikachu dealt with it, but this nose is too sensitive and even just little bit of perfume we've come across has been strong.
"You better be careful Ash, apparently the secret ingredient for the perfumes is made at the gym. Wouldn't want to insult the one you plan to battle." Brock warned seriously.
"Alright alright, I won't say anything about their stinky perfume. Lets just get going. Do you know how far away it is Brock?" Ash
"Sigh. Yes it's about a week from here by the route." Brock
"Alright! Lets go!" Ash
Later that night we would coincidentally see another one of Ash's Pokémon evolve. His second Pokémon that I helped him capture, Pidgeotto. It had been a while coming and I honestly thought it would have evolved sooner, seeing as how it was already such a strong Pidgeotto when we caught it.
Another Pidgeotto had swooped in while we were eating dinner and about to get ready for bed. It started diving down trying to steal our food, when Ash's Pidgeotto met it in the air. Apparently we were trespassing in its territory and if we didn't give it our food as payment it would have to hurt us.
Well Ash's Pidgeotto didn't seem to care too much for that and in the blink of an eye hit the opposing Pidgeotto with a vicious air slash. It rocked the other Pokémon but not enough to take it out of the air, it responded with a powerful wing attack and followed the wing attack with a tackle.
[Just gonna say "Ash" for Ash's Pidgeotto, it started to get confusing for me lol.]
The wing attack hit, but Ash was ready to meet it with a steel wing, the 2 birds clashed but it was obvious to all that Ash was stronger. This time the wild Pokémon swooped in with a peck, but Ash abruptly changed direction and activated Brave Bird. This allowed Ash to blind side the wild Pidgeotto as it wasn't fast enough to readjust before it was hit in the back.
This crushing Brave bird sent it flying into a tree, before dropping down to the ground. It limply got up and in pitiful fashion began to fly away, though I guess it's more appropriate to say it hopped away.
Ash's Pidgeotto cawed loudly into the air after defeating its own kind and triggered its evolution into a Pidgeot. It's head feathers grew longer down its back, and its claws and beak truly looked wicked. It also grew another foot in height, with its wingspan almost doubling. I must say it looked deadly and beautiful at the same time.
Pidgeot was always one of my favorites in the games and the show the brief time we see it. A lot of the newer Pokémon have too much going on most of the time, and feel they nailed the simplistic but still cool look of the Pidgeot. Even more so now that I'm seeing it in person, well in Pokémon, but you get the point.
In celebration of another evolution in 2 days, Brock decided to whip up a quick dessert for Pokémon and human alike. I do love traveling with Brock I must say. If we had to travel with out I don't know if I would survive, I might would learn how to cook, myself. Thankfully that's not the case and we were able to go to sleep with both stomachs full. Our dinner filled one, and the dessert filled the other one that magically appears whenever the normal one gets too full, because you always have room for dessert.
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Chapter end
Ash's current Pokémon
Raichu
Butterfree
Pidgeot
Sandslash-Oak
Bulbasaur
Charmander
Squirtle
Krabby-Oak
Alright, I must say I personally feel self conscious when it comes time to evolving Pokémon. Because I'm not doing a chapter per day they traveled, so sometimes a week or so will pass and in my head I'm like "okay I know that Pidgeotto and Sandshrew are ready to evolve, but the readers may necessarily not" so I try to find ways to hint or make it obvious.
Also we got them both pretty close together, if anything Pidgeotto should have evolved before Sandshrew, but while Pidgeotto does want to get stronger, Sandslash is almost equal to Raichu in wanting to be the strongest of their typing. So don't be surprised when it comes back from Oak as an absolute tank.
Anyway enough about insecurities about fictional transformations. I hope you enjoyed the Sabrina fight scene. I honestly feel I have Kadabra more moves than it should have had, but I wanted it to not just be spam psychic(Since I'm pretty sure besides teleport that's all it uses against Ash).
I just couldn't find a way it would have been able
to counter Butterfree, and honestly I remembered Butterfree had toxic/venoshock halfway through the fight. Maybe I'm more like Ash than I thought lol. Going for a poison powder infused gust instead of Toxic, oh well. But I have Kadabra recover, Psybeam and I had planned on it using protect but it felt like I was just delaying the end of the fight.
Also I'm not sure if it made sense but in my head psychic is all about concentration so if it lost concentration it couldn't keep up its move. Also because Butterfree can use a couple psychic moves I figured it was fair to think it could fight against being controlled by Psychic. Not sure if that checks out though.
Hope you enjoyed.-SS
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