Chapter 7 Crobat is back

Brock tossed the Poké ball between his hands. He'd caught his Crobat earlier that day, and found that he was more or less the same as memory stated, but with the addition of Cross Poison - apparently from training at the Pewter Gym.

"You going to keep doing that?"

Brock nodded, not taking his eyes off the small red and white sphere. "It's nice to know another friend's back with you, you know? Feeling exuberant is only natural."

"Yeah, whatever. Hey, Misty?"

"What is it, Ash? Planning for Cerulean gym already?"

"Pretty much, yeah. Want me to restore your Gyarados for you before the battle?"

"You would just love that, wouldn't you, Ash Ketchum? A water/flying type? Not a chance. I'll just use what I have and what the gym has." Misty began to grin evilly. "Actually, what about if we make it a 3 vs 3 match, three independent battles?"

"Sounds interesting. So you mean I can't just sweep you with Pikachu?"

Misty winked. "That's certainly the plan."

"Spoilsport."

"You already called the Vermillion team leader, you don't get to have them all."

"Not another word from you, Riolu!"

"Make me. Bleah!"

Ash sighed deeply as the two Pokémon riding on his shoulders had a shouting match that began to devolve somewhat into a cringe-inducing slap fight. "I might have preferred it when I didn't have the translation…"

"Oh, it's sometimes inconvenient, but the benefits more than make up for it, right? To say nothing of last night's display!"

Ash nodded, feeling self conscious. "Last night's display" had been a three way mock battle between him, Pikachu and Riolu. Aura flaring, Protect, Detect, enhanced close combat blows… and Ash had finally managed to recompose his Aura, paralyzing Riolu with an electrically imbued Force Palm that had unfortunately also locked up his own left hand, so hence the victory had gone to Pikachu seconds later.

The next step would hopefully be preventing that backlash.

But the fireworks involved had been quite impressive, actually lighting up the sky almost as much as the jury rigged moon rocket that had soared up early the next morning.

Damn Clefairy…

"How far is it to Cerulean from here?"

Misty glanced around at the terrain. "I'd say… about a day's walk, maybe a little less."

"Right, so a long way still to go. Good to know." Ash took a small notebook from Aaron's bag, labelled "medical use of Aura", and held it up to the Pokédex scanner, flipping through the book at speed so the entire thing could be recorded. "Got it?"

OCR complete. Audiobook version ready.

"Thanks." Ash then pulled a recessed headphone out of the side of the red device, slotting it into his ear. He had decided that listening to Aaron's notes while walking would save at least a little time.

The use of Aura to heal or treat wounds is one of the earliest uses of all, dating back at least a thousand years to when the use of internal Aura was called "Ki". The "Ki-dancers", as Aura adepts were known at the time, were capable of pushing their own Aura into that of an injured person to supercharge the body. While this was relatively ineffectual compared to the effect of healing magic or the Recover psychic power, it was nevertheless amazing to the peoples of the time, allowing healing rates in excess of three times natural. This, however, was only really possible with diseases, and gross physical trauma was extremely difficult to handle…

The audio file went on, Ash listening to the accumulated knowledge of generations of Aura manipulators. The bit about reinforcing the body to make broken bones less likely or even temporarily "splint" them with solidified Aura was… intriguing, especially as Ash had broken all the bones in his left arm at least once since Pewter city alone.

Hang on… was that how the Bone Rush technique worked?

That had interesting implications.

"Right, the first stage of building an Aura Sphere is to get used to releasing power constantly, and then being able to stop it when it starts to protest the amount being fed in. I mean, it's possible to overload them to slightly ridiculous levels, but the basic attack is pretty constant in size."

Pikachu frowned in concentration, blue Aura flickering more or less randomly. "So that's the first step for a usable attack?"

Ash waved his hand; maybe yes, maybe no. "Technically speaking, the first stage is an attack on its own, but it's not very often used because it's a constant release of several times the power of a Force Palm per second, for only a little absolute increase in damage capability. It's just inefficient, especially compared to other melee attacks." Ash stopped for a second and put a finger ponderingly on his chin. "You might have a point though, as perhaps it could be modified to act as some kind of booster on other attacks, having an Aura curtain around the body. But if you experiment in that I recommend using your own element first."

Pikachu nodded, still trying to even out the little surges and dips in his flow. "What are the other stages?"

"Second one's containing it, that's when it stops being nearly so wasteful. It sort of fills up a shell and then stops – the natural size it takes is the one with the least energy, smaller ones are more powerful and focused, while larger ones just sort of explode… violently… when they hit basically anything more solid than a good fog."

"That's different to any other attack in the universe how? I seem to recall a Bite attack blew up once."

"Okay, good point. But at least this one detonates towards the target." Ash formed a standard Aura Sphere with an effort of will, and held up the gently glowing blue ball. "As this is, it's a good melee attack, but the third step is the most useful one. It gives it a gyroscopic spin," Ash demonstrated by setting it gently whirling for a second, "and it can hence be thrown properly. It also gives it the punch and penetration power that make it work so well against otherwise tough materials like steel and rock."

Ash formed another sphere in the other hand and spun it up, then threw them in succession at a convenient dead tree. The first wobbled unsteadily through the air and detonated when it hit a twig, producing a concussive wash of air that snapped a few small branches, but little else.

The second flew arrow-straight and blew a crater halfway into the trunk, sending splinters all over the clearing and producing an ominous creak.

"Wow." Pikachu commented absently, his Aura stream now a little more constant.

"There are other tricks to it – for example the fourth stage is to add a pattern to the central component that tracks an Aura signature and adjusts the path. That can't be evaded, but it can be dodged or decoyed into an obstacle, especially if it's already gone a long way and is slowing down. It's called terminal attack manoeuvres, I have no clue why, I just call it never-miss. I'm still working on that one."

Finally getting frustrated, Pikachu switched to electric Aura and produced a steady flow, before wrapping it in a globe and throwing it into the ground. "There. I did it, now can I get some sleep?"

"Wow, you managed to use Electro ball for three times the normal energy cost, go you." Riolu snarked from his perch on a tree branch.

"He's got a point, Pikachu, the reason you're practicing with blue Aura is to avoid getting into bad habits."

"I don't care, I managed a steady flow and I'm using that as a learner step."

"Unfortunately all our Pokémon are too tired, so why don't you accept this Cascade badge?"

Misty ground her teeth. They'd arrived several hours before last time, and yet still her sisters were giving up without a fight.

Well, screw that.

"I'll fight him!"

Daisy glanced round. "Oh, look, the runt. Why should we let you?"

"Because I'm as much a Gym Leader here as you three, I did the test too!"

Ash leant over to Brock. "Test?"

"You have to fight the Elite Four, your advantage is knowing their order of battle. I think I heard that Misty flattened Bruno and Lance, whereas I only managed to take Lorelei, and that was a close one."

"Wow…"

Brock grinned. "You should see the Elite Four entrance tests. They involve legendaries…"

Ash looked over at the massive argument that was developing in the centre of the room, now involving all four 'Sensational Sisters'.

"I'd certainly prefer to earn the badge if there's a choice…"

Misty nodded at the words, before walking offMisty nodded at the words, before walking off into the bowels of the gym, apparently deciding to simply ignore her sisters. She returned a minute or so later with two Poké balls, and added a third into her collection from her belt.

"The battle will be three matches, each one on one. Neither winner nor loser may join another match. Understood?"

Ash gave a wide smile. "Perfectly!"

"Right. Choose your first Pokémon, challenger!"

Hmmm… Pikachu, it's best to wait till the end before using him… Pidgeot's honestly a little too big for the gym… "Go for it, Riolu!"

The little Pokémon nodded to him, hopped onto one of the floating platforms and took a stance.

Misty nodded. "Starmie!"

Oh crap.

"Riolu! You haven't learned any Dark type moves, perchance?"

Riolu had Shadow Claw, which would do some damage at least, but the real danger was offensive Psychic attacks. A Dark type move would allow for countermeasures against it, were one available.

"Nope… damn it."

"Right, Misty is sneaky as all get out. Just… do your best."

"Planning on it." Riolu closed one eye, allowing him to mix Aura with regular sight.

Brock had moved to the side of the pool; the trio were essentially ignoring the Sensational Sisters by now. "Begin!"

Riolu immediately dove into the water as a thunderbolt sizzled past, before grabbing back onto the platform and detonating an incoming Water Pulse with his own Aura Sphere.

The plucky little Pokémon had a problem. He was a close range fighter, and his opponent was not only skilled at ranged combat, but was psychokinetic.

Well, where there's a will and all that…

Riolu was forced to try out something new. He'd discussed the possibility with Ash and Pikachu, but the three had never tested it. There was a first time for everything.

He skidded across the slick platform, dodging another Thunderbolt, an Ice Beam and slicing through a pulse of Psychic force with hastily formed Shadow Claws. Only his running Detect through the open eye let him dodge through the gap thus created, and he heard a gasp from the other three Gym Leaders.

Wait till they get a load of this!

Riolu sprinted forward, not stopping at the edge of the platform… and ran across the water on blue-glowing feet.

"What the hell?" That was Misty. Apparently she hadn't heard. What a pity.

Okay, got one shot at this, that Starmie's currently low down enough to reach.

"Starmie! Get up, away from him!"

"Too late! Eat Shadow Claw!"

The flickering phantom claws that extended from the little nubs on Riolu's wrists bit deep, one of them scoring a line across the core and a third of the way through it before another psychokinetic pulse threw him back into the water.

Okay, so much for plan… what is it by now, F? Riolu formed yet more plans in his trained mind, discarded two of them because he didn't know Starmie's entire moveset and another thanks to the absence of a convenient palm tree, then decided to just wing it.

Barely had Riolu broken the water's surface when another Thunderbolt sizzled in to attack from the hovering Starmie.

I thought this was the water gym!

Oh well, this can help. His eyes flashed. Copycat!

Eyes widened all over the gym as Misty's Starmie was blasted with a high power lightning bolt, it's core dimming from a steady glow to more of a flicker.

Riolu was hardly unscathed, of course – he had had to absorb the power of the bolt first – but felt triumphant as he began to charge another Aura Sphere.

And then the starfish glowed softly, and the core shone brightly once more.

Oh, damn and blast it, Recover!

His hastily thrown Aura Sphere blocked the Psychic, and his Aura Sight prevented any effect from the Confuse Ray, but a trio of Water Pulses in rapid succession slammed him into unconsciousness and deep into the water.

Brock dove into the pool from the referee spot, retrieving the little Aura user before he swallowed too much water, and had Lily carry him to the Gym infirmary.

"Not the best start, perhaps, Ash?"

"Shut up! I believe in my team, we'll make it yet!"

"So you say. Well, pick your next Pokémon."

"Butterfree!"

"Okay, Seel!"

Misty's two present sisters gasped in shock. "Misty! What are you doing with Seel, he's not a combat Pokémon!

"Butterfree… do as you see fit. You know your own style better than I do."

"With pleasure!"

"Seel! Double Team and Safeguard!"

Butterfree watched from above as the seal seemed to shatter into a half dozen copies, which began to glow softly. Well, a defensive strategy is it, then?

Butterfree began smoothly tracing a complex path in the rafters, dodging the occasional Aqua Jet or Water Pulse attacks being launched up there by the Cerulean Gym's Seel. Butterfly Dance again… It's a good start in long range battles, let's see how long before she notices.

"Seel, Natural Gift!"

What does that do ag-

Ocrap.

Butterfree broke the Dance and went into a falling-leaf manoeuvre as a blast of flame scarred the ceiling.

I now officially hate Occa berries.

Misty had pulled a huge basket of the things from somewhere, and was tossing them to Seel whenever he needed to reload.

The butterfly thought for a second, and called upon a tailwind to give him a speed boost.

This will be ironic.

"Okay, Seel, Natural Gift again!"

The Seel blinked as a pale blur snatched the berry out of midair, gulping it down before turning to face them as the spice flared off heat, his body temperature dropping with it's lack to the minimum safe for his species. Hah! So much for my Fire weakness! Bug Bite is such a handy move sometimes.

Misty shrugged before giving new orders to the Cerulean Gym Seel. "Aurora Beam."

Why, Arceus, why?

"Ice Shard as well."

Somehow Butterfree avoided being hit as the barrage of Ice attacks covered over the ceiling with a thick rime.

Okay, enough with the running and hiding, it's time to take the initiative. Sunny Day!

The translucent roof of the Gym began to glisten with the supernaturally intense sunlight that the move called down.

"Seel, use Rain Dance!"

I said Sunny Day.

The incipient rainclouds cleared away from the Gym.

"Hail!"

Once more, I said.

Sunny.

Day.

The weather roiled above the Gym for a few seconds, before expanding circles of clear sky pulsed outwards and banished all the clouds within about twenty miles.

"Fine, then. Ice Beam!"

Solarbeam!

The bolts of glowing light collided about halfway to the roof of the Gym and detonated, blasting shattered ice and snow outwards.

As the humans flinched away from the cloud of diamond dust that resulted, a sparkling wind blew lazily down towards Seel, who dodged the attack despite vision obscured by sparkling ice crystals.

Unfortunately for Misty, that wasn't the point of the attack at all – or at least not the only one.

Butterfree glowed, the secondary effect of Silver Wind infusing him with natural Aura.

Time for an end to it. Aerial Ace!

Seel was hit a glancing blow on the flank by the speeding butterfly – going fast enough that the wind shock produced managed to clear away most of the dust in the air along his path.

Barely had he noticed when Butterfree bore in again from a different angle, this time releasing an Energy Ball on the way past that blew Seel into the air.

Now Seel was out of his element, Butterfree wasn't about to let him back in, and peppered him with Energy Balls from enough angles at high enough speed that the little water Pokémon was effectively juggled.

"No! Seel, Aqua Ring and then Disable!"

Butterfree wasn't going to let that happen, and used the sunlight still pouring into the room to launch a massive Solarbeam, one that shot Seel into the pool and hence drenched everyone in the room.

Brock lowered his hands from protecting his face, and stared at the devastated room. "Er… Butterfree wins the battle for Ash's team, the score is tied…"

Ash jumped in the air. "Yeah, nice work Butterfree!"

Misty and her sisters were staring at the ice sculptures all over the ceiling, the water dripping down the walls and the occasional crack in the tiling.

Ash startled them out of it. "Well, Misty? Third match?

"Er, yeah. Send out your choice!"

Ash nodded. "Pikachu! Go for it!"

"Chinchou!"

The little angler Pokémon materialized on one of the platforms, with Pikachu on the other.

"Chinchou, eh? Not one I remember seeing before, is it one of the Gym Pokémon?"

"Yes it is, Ash, and I chose her especially to beat Pikachu!"

"Pikachu can't lose against a water type! Thunderbolt!"

Pikachu nodded, and sent a Thunderbolt snapping downrange.

It did absolutely jack.

"What the hell!" Ash shouted indignantly.

"I second that!"

Chinchou has the ability Volt Absorb, meaning it's not harmed by electric attacks but is in fact healed by them, Dexter chimed in.

"Damnit! So what does work on them?"

Not much. Grass attacks, ground attacks, everything else is not much use. And what's more, some of them can absorb water to heal.

"Surprised, Ash?" Misty called over at him. "I knew you'd use Pikachu, so I got Chinchou out from the tanks. Of course I prepared to deal with any of the Pokémon you have, I know what they are!"

Ash groaned. How had he not remembered? Misty was hardly going to just let him take the badge. This was even worse than if she'd found a Wooper in there, though the lack of ground attacks was at least something.

"Need a little help here!"

Ash looked back up, and saw Pikachu scampering around on his platform dodging salvos of light that looked like Ice and Signal beams. "Okay, I have an idea. First, see if you can get onto the roof!"

Pikachu complied, making for one of the still dripping walls. Chinchou got there first, however, freezing the walls and making them too slick to get up. Pikachu replied by firing another sizzling Thunderbolt at his foe.

It didn't do anything, but it made him feel better.

Ten minutes had elapsed.

Pikachu was starting to get really annoyed by now. The constant dodging was getting on his nerves, though he had managed to catch the Thunder Wave sent at him by Chinchou in his Lightningrod ability and avoid getting paralyzed.

Ash had explained his plan over the few brief snatches they could seize while Misty couldn't hear, and the first part was still getting to the ceiling for cover.

Up to now, though, there'd been essentially nothing he could do to get up there – the wall was slick, his legs weren't developed enough for Bounce and he had no wings.

"Pikachu, I have an idea!"

"About time."

"Hit the wall as hard as you can! Try to shatter enough of the ice!"

Pikachu simply nodded. He had just the new move, too.

Volt Tackle was a simple concept – slam yourself into the opponent while covered in lightning – but actual execution was somewhat more complex. The electricity had to be used to propel the movement of the user, and be released properly on impact. There was a reason that it was normally only Pichu and their evolutions who learned the attack, as it was hard to do properly without their internal voltage stores they could use as the leading edge of the electron envelope.

Pikachu was currently performing it with the lightning replaced by his newly mastered steady flow of electric Aura, making it a much more powerful version of his Double-Edge. It had some minor difficulties.

Oh holy Arceus, my face feels like it's on fire!

The entire gym shook as Pikachu hit the wall like a freight train, the ice on that wall shattering and the sculptures on the ceiling, already dripping with melt, shook dangerously.

Fortunately nothing actually fell.

Pikachu shook himself back to muzzy awareness after the impact, reflexively (training had some benefits, after all) forming an Iron Tail to bounce away the Signal Beam that Chinchou fired his way.

Where am I, and what kind of building hit me?

"Pikachu! Get up the wall!"

Oh, now I remember. I hit it. Pikachu shook his head to clear it. Thank goodness I'm good at climbing.

The electric mouse dug his claws into the spiderwebbing fractures along the wall of the gym battle chamber and hopped up to the roof, hiding away from attack in the ice sculptures.

I have a couple of minutes before she can beat her way in… more than enough time.

Misty stared up at the roof as yellow lightning began to crackle around the cloudy image of the mouse, forming into an indistinct circle as she watched.

"Ash? What's going on?"

"Oh, I think Pikachu's just using Charge at the moment… nope, that's the other move now."

"What other move? No electric type attack can hurt Chinchou!"

"Well, see, I was thinking that there's no way he can win so long as there's water for Chinchou to heal with."

Ash broke off for a second as Pikachu leapt out into clear air, three circles of lightning independently rotating around him.

"So we decided to get rid of it. Pikachu, Volt Crash!"

The three circles locked together into one at a horizontal angle, and a bolt of electricity at least a foot thick blasted down into the Cerulean Gym pool, evaporating the lot in a massive steam explosion.

Volt Crash had a major drawback – that as Pikachu wasn't fully evolved, one use completely discharged his voltage sacs for almost a minute. But that wasn't a problem in this fight.

Misty doubled over, hacking and coughing from the dust in the air.*cough*"That Hyper beam-"*cough*"variant, you actually"*cough*"finished it?"

"This morning, Pikachu told me he had it done. We wanted to save it for a special occasion. Now, Earthquake!"

"My pleasure!" Pikachu clapped his paws together in mid air and then drew his right back, burning with a blue flame.

Misty's hair toinged out. "Can he even learn that?"

"It's just the ground shaking, not terribly hard to fake."

Pikachu slammed into the ground, balled fist first. The building shook, ice rained down, the grounded Chinchou flinched – and the cracks in the walls grew wider.

Ash noticed it first. "Crap, everyone out! The roof's about to cave in!"

The four Sisters, Ash, Brock and the Pokémon not involved in the battle fled through the emergency exits as the roof fell in pieces on the combatants.

Pikachu was able to dodge all the bits and, being a chivalrous Pokémon, even broke the one headed for Chinchou in half with a quick Force Palm.

Being a pragmatic Pokémon, he pinned her to the ground with his Iron tail and slapped her in the temples, finally knocking her unconscious.

Holy… that was more effort than I would have liked. I am so glad we won't be facing any more gymleaders with future knowledge.

"Yes! I got the Cascade badge!"

Misty ran after the laughing Ash, reaching for him with the clear intent to try and strangle him. "It wasn't enough to destroy my bike, you had to break the Gym as well?"

"Come on, Misty, what else could I have done?"

"That was supposed to be an impossible fight to teach humility, you jerk! The Gyms aren't just about battles, they're supposed to be character tests as well!"

Pikachu looked up at Brock. "Really?"

"Yeah, each Gym follows some philosophy usually related to their element. So some of them – like my Rock type – are about endurance and the inability to give up, whereas others are about handling their element, case in point being Cinnabar and their stewardship of the volcano. If someone can beat the Gym anyway, they do get the badge… but that's not their only purpose. Ash won most of his for his strength of character, not the power of his Pokémon."

"Ah, okay, gotcha. What are Misty's sisters doing, then?"

Brock looked across. "Huh. Never seen the Water version of rapid construction before. Looks to me like…" Brock squinted. "Yeah, they're getting a Vaporeon to manipulate the groundwater in the area and bring up silica, then crystallizing it into opal. It's only a stopgap, but not bad at all. 'course, Rock types are better at rapid repair, they have to be as most attacks that work well against Rock also work well against the entire building… I'd guess that Vaporeon is specially trained for construction rather than combat."

In the trees near Cerulean city, a sinister presence was watching the actions of Ash and his friends…

"Ah, shaddup! I'm only using da binoculars!"

Yes, it was Meowth, who admittedly couldn't be sinister if his life depended on it. But the binoculars were large and black, so that counts. Right?

Anyway, he was keeping an eye on them because James and Jessie couldn't.

No, they were far away, leaving Meowth here with only Growlie to keep him company.

"Stupid humans… heading off all the way to Lavender Town, it's not right… left me with the mutt-"

GRRRR

"Yipe! Sorry, big guy…"