Episode 68! *Smiles* Still the Dark Apprentice Arc! Don’t worry, as it will be over soon. Glad that some of you stuck with me through all the confusion!

Disclaimer: Come on, look me in the eyes and tell me I own pokemon. Ignore the rabid pokemon that are clustering around me when you do this…

Notes: <> indicates telepathy, ** indicates thoughts, italics indicates translated pokemon speech.

Episode 70: Spirits of the air

Ash walked up to the doors of the Aquamarine Gym. One of the doors was dark blue, and the other was aqua.

“One’s for the Uranus badge and the other is for the Neptune badge.” Charlotte whispered.

“Oh.” Ash said, nodding. He turned the golden knob in the dark blue door and it swung inwards, throwing the whole group inside.

They landed on a strip of floating gray plastic. There was an arena of dusty earth, with several floating platforms in blue and white bobbing up and down above it.

One of the many platforms was marked with the word ‘Challenger’ in brightly lit yellow letters.

“Hello?” Ash asked.

There was no reply. The air seemed unnaturally silent.

“Darn. I guess we’ll just have to go back to the pokemon center then.” Teresa said in disappointment.

Charlotte looked puzzled. * Alex usually doesn’t leave the gym… what’s going on here? When I get my hands on him I’ll… just because he’s not the main gym leader doesn’t mean he can goof off like this! *

Just then, a sandy-haired boy on a pidgeot landed on the opposite platform. “Hi, and welcome to the Aquamarine gym. I’m Alex, one of the gym leaders.”
“I’m Ash Ketchum and I’d like to challenge you for the Uranus Badge.”
“Okay. Interesting get-up.” Alex commented as he dismounted and sprayed some Hyper Potion on his Pidgeot.

Ash blushed. He wore buff-colored pants, a white, long-sleeved shirt that clung to his body, gritty-looking gray gauntlets, short buff-colored boots, and a khaki belt system that crisscrossed across his chest and held his poke balls. His hair had been spiked and gelled to give it a ‘windswept’ look.

Teresa positively glowed with excitement. “Good luck Ash!” She yelled.

Ash sighed. “All right, let’s begin!”
Alex nodded and took out his first poke ball. “How about a two on two match, we’ll add another one if we need to break a tie?”

“Sounds good to me.” Ash said, saluting.

“Great! Pidgeot, I choose you!” Alex said. His massive flying-type flew off Alex’s platform and landed on one of the levitating blue blocks. It screeched a challenge at Ash.

“In that case, I’ll use Storm!” Ash said. * I wonder how Dragonami would stand up to a bird? *

In response, Storm materialized. < Aaahh, it feels so good to be out and battling again! I feel like a Dratini! >

Ash smiled and gave his pokemon a ‘V’ for victory.

“Pidgeot, let’s start off with a Quick Attack!” Alex said.

“Storm, how about calling up some weather?” Storm smirked as two different types of energy began to gather on her adornments. From one side came lightning, and from the other came water, drenching the Pidgeot as it came close.

Pidgeot quickly backed off as soon as it slapped Storm with a Quick Attack. The sparks of electricity made it very nervous.

Alex didn’t flinch. “Use Sand Attack to blind it, Pidgeot!” Pidgeot nodded and began kicking sand towards Storm, who merely lifted her eyebrows in slight confusion and closed her eyes.

“Rain Dance.” Ash said. Storm smiled and it began to drizzle softly, growing quickly into a downpour. Pidgeot landed on a platform and tried shaking the irritating droplets of water off its downy feathers.

“Mirror Wave!” Alex said generating a reflective defence against anything his challenger might throw at his Pidgeot in the next turn.

“How about… Thunderbolt?” Ash asked.

< No problem! > Storm said. Even if she was mature, she was still a very cheerful pokemon, so…

A huge blast of electricity slammed into Pidgeot, sending the poor bird into a collision with another drifting plastic piece. The mirror wave reflected some of it back, but Storm was pretty resistant to electric attacks.

Pidgeot decided that it was no longer going to continue battling, forcing Alex to withdraw his exhausted pokemon.

“In that case, I’ll use Dugtrio!” Alex said, sending out the pokemon. “Fissure!”

Ash tensed, but Dragonami laughed. < I’m a dragon/flying type, and Fissure won’t affect me! >

True to her word, the attack completely missed.

“Argh! Dugtrio, use Magnitude!” Rocks came out of nowhere and smashed into Storm, making her very pissed off.

“Dragon Rage!” Ash said, smiling.

Storm nodded and threw the funnel of energy at Dugtrio, sending it out of the match in anger.

“Oh no! Dugtrio, return!” Alex said. He looked depressed. “Oh well. Here’s the Uranus badge.” He tossed it over to Ash and left.

Ash shrugged, hurdled off the platform and onto Storm’s back. < You did great, girl! I’m so proud of you! >

Storm licked his face. < I’m glad. >

Pika-chan sighed.

Teresa went all starry-eyed as she captured the touching scene on film. She even started sniffling.

Charlotte clapped. “You did great, Ash. You’re legally allowed to compete in the Cosmos League, now.”
“Wonderful! But I think I want to get the Neptune badge too.” Ash said, a bit complacently.

“That’s good, but we might have to come back tomorrow.”

“Why?”

As if in response, Charlotte formed a ball of energy in her hands. It cleared and showed what was the Neptune gym.

Inside, a girl with aqua hair and her Azumarill were soundly whipping the tar out of a junior trainer’s Flaafy. Standing in line, were about fifteen people, all dressed in various swimsuits.

“You have to fight Michelle underwater.”

“Oh no…” Pika-chan said. * This is going to be very bad. Ash can’t hold his breath, and he can’t use his magic right now! *

Ash looked reluctant, but accepted her reasoning.

“I still think you should go for it.” Teresa said.

“I’ll wait until I’m a bit stronger.” Ash said, meditatively. * After all, I don’t want to lose just because I’m too tired… *

His vision wavered a bit and he nearly toppled off Storm’s back.

“Ah! You shouldn’t have come!” Pika-chan said. “You’re still energy drained! I can’t believe you faked that you were fine!” She then proceeded to go into lecture mode while sending considerable amounts of voltage into his system.

Ash groaned as Pika-chan shocked him, but he allowed Vulpix-chan and Pika-chan to carry him out of the gym and back to the center.

“Here, have some berries.” Charlotte said, stuffing another spoonful into his mouth. Ash protests but Pika-chan glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and made a throat slitting gesture with her finger.

Ash frowned, but had no choice.

“Don’t worry, these berries restore PP and HP as well as magic energy.” Charlotte tells him cheerfully.

Ash brightened up a little.

“So, what do we do now?” Teresa asked.

“Wait for Ash to get better.” Charlotte replied. “Then, after he defeats Michelle, we’re going to the Cosmos League. There’s one little problem…”
“What?”
“We haven’t factored Bob into the equation yet.” Pika-chan said grimly.

“But he’s out of our control!”
“Good point.”

“However, he’s still incapitated now.” Charlotte said. Another scrying spell formed in her hands. It showed Bob’s lair.

“Isn’t his lair magically protected?” Vulpix-chan asked.

“Of course, but during the last battle, Ash tagged him. So now we can just peek into his dimension and see what he’s planning.”
“Cool!” Teresa said. But inwardly, she was feeling nervous. * What will Scarlet say about this? *

He wasn’t pleased. But what could they do? All they could do was sit back and wait for something to happen…

End Episode 70! *Smiles* Drop a review, and you’ll make me very happy! Flames will be used to forge Through, who will go through Nelvana’s headquarters and run off with all of their expensive equipment and $$$!