Episode 71!

Disclaimer: Yes, Shadow owns pokemon! Mwahahahaha! *Men in white lab coats drag Shadow offstage, while she rants and raves incoherently. After a few seconds, one comes out with a cardboard sign that says ‘Ignore our patient, Nintendo owns Pokemon’. *

Notes: <> Indicates telepathy, ** indicates thoughts, italics indicates translated pokemon speech! Yatta!

Timeline: 3 days later

Episode 71: Surfing U.S.A! Battle for the Neptune badge!

“Michelle! I challenge you!” Ash said. He wore dark red swim trunks with a silver line down each side. His feet were in red buckled sandals, and around his neck was a red whistle on a silver chain. He also wore a loose red waterproof vest with lifeguard embroidered on it in silver over a blue patch.

Charlotte waved. “I’ll watch from outside!”

“Yeah, I know, you’re hydrophobic.” Ash reassured her.

“Good luck!” Charlotte said, giving him the ‘V’ for victory.

Ash nodded and smiled. Teresa took out her camera and started setting it up behind the waterproofing.

“Fine by me.” Michelle said. “Let’s have a three on three battle.”

Ash nodded and made sure that his bubble charm was ready to activate. “Ready whenever you are!” He said, jumping into the water.

Michelle dived in gracefully. She had been born with a natural ability to breathe underwater. Nobody knew why, but it was explained by the fact that both her parents had been water masters.

“Let’s begin.” Michelle said. “Cloyster, I choose you!”

The bivalve pokemon appeared protectively in front of his trainer. Bring it on! He growled in pokespeech.

Ash thought for a second, before grinning eagerly and throwing out a poke ball. “Okay then – Vaporeon, I choose you!”

Vaporeon emerged from her poke ball. She noticed that Ash was already encased in a protective bubble, so she nodded and began charging up her attack.

“Cloyster, use Spike Cannon!”

< Vaporeon, use hyper beam! > Vaporeon slyly snuck up behind the slow moving cloyster as its spike cannon temporarily blocked its viewpoint. Then, she let off Hyper Beam.

Even Cloyster’s shell wasn’t completely damage resistant, and the shock waves generated by the hyper beam hurt the creature inside, so it withdrew.

“Come back, Cloyster.” Michelle said. “I seem to have underestimated you… but no matter. Azumarill, I choose you!”

The water bunny hopped out.

Vaporeon shrugged. No problem at all.

Are you sure? Pika-chan called from outside the rink. < Ash, are you doing okay in there? >

< I can keep the bubble up for another fifteen minutes. >
< Just try to keep the battles short n’ sweet! >

< I know, Pika-chan. >
< Because if you black out, I won’t be able to rescue you immediately. >
< I know! >

< Just making sure, Ash. After all, you are my Chosen, and if anything bad happens to you, it’ll be my fault. >

Ash inclined his head to show that he understood.

Just then, he noticed that Vaporeon was straight in the path of Azumarill’s bubblebeam attack.

Ash quickly yanked Vaporeon out of the way. < Sorry about that. >

< No problem. Let’s see, I can’t use ice beam or anything else that might damage the arena… this is bad. >

< Try Acid Armor. >
< Right! > Vaporeon melted away into the water, leaving a very confused Azumarill behind.

“Rollout!” Michelle said.

Azumarill tried, but Vaporeon was already gone from where it had been. In liquid form, it could travel extremely fast.

A few seconds later, a bubblebeam crashed into Azumarill.

Azumarill went dizzy-eyed.

“No! Azumarill, don’t give up! Use Water gun to blast the Vaporeon out!” Michelle said, a bit angrily.

Vaporeon shrieked and left liquid form.

“Now use Take Down!”

Azumarill slammed into Vaporeon, but itself was hit by recoil. Both pokemon staggered back.

“Vaporeon, Bite!” Ash said. Vaporeon clamped down on an ear.

“Rollout, now!” Azumarill slammed into Vaporeon. But Vaporeon didn’t let go when Azumarill butted into it.

“Shoot! Just use Bubblebeam to blast it off!” Michelle said in anger.

Azumarill nodded and hit Vaporeon with another bubblebeam.

“Great!” Michelle said. * He’s tying with me! The best I can hope for is a double K.O. *

“Azumarill, SURF!” Azumarill let loose the huge wave of water, sending Vaporeon flying. From such a close distance, Surf couldn’t miss.

“Vaporeon, quick! Use Quick Attack!” Ash commanded.

Vaporeon swam through the Surf and nailed Azumarill with quick attack.

Azumarill’s eyes rolled up in its little head and it fainted. It’s bunny ears drooped down in discouragement.

“Fine then! Mantine, I choose you!” Michelle said, throwing out the ray pokemon that could fly and swim.

“Supersonic!”

Vaporeon staggered as the confusion beams crashed into it.

Ash winced. * Guess I have no choice. Fighting without confusion is hard enough! I’ll have to use a pokemon card *

“Vaporeon, Return!” Ash said.

From subspace, he summoned a card and held it between two fingers. “Starmie, I choose you!” The card turned white and the pokemon appeared.

Pika-chan looked nervous. * Ash! You’re down to three minutes! Make it fast! *

“Starmie, use Thunderbolt!” Ash said. The electricity fizzled through the water easily, shocking Mantine (double weakness to electricity) into oblivion. Starmie itself barely managed to hold on to consciousness.

“Wow.” Michelle said. “You’re not bad after all. Mantine, Return! Here, you can have the Neptune badge!”

Ash recalled Starmie to card form and beamed. He posed for Teresa, who blushed and finished taping.

“Here you go!” Michelle said, handing Ash the badge.

Ash smiled. “I owe it all to Vaporeon and Starmie!” The two pokemon posed nicely. Vaporeon even sprayed a thin layer of mist over the area for special effect.

Teresa snapped a pic. “Okay, all done!” There was a brief flash of red in her dark eyes, but nobody noticed.

“Cool! In that case, I’ll be competing in the Cosmos league soon!” Ash said vibrantly.

They collected Charlotte, who was at a bookstore two doors down, a few minutes later. Ash changed out of his costume and into a white hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.

“Let’s go.” Ash said, yawning.

“Tired?” Charlotte asked, handing him a Full Restore.

Ash gulped it down and nodded. “Just a bit, from changing Starmie. Having to hide the magic takes energy too.”

“I know. Just be careful, Ash. Some of the trainers may be magic-sensitive.”

“All right!” Ash said cheerfully.

Teresa picked up Scarlet. “I’m going to the park!” She said.

“Fine by me.” Ash said. “I’m going back to the center to take a nap.”

“Come to me, my servants of darkness! I, the mistress of the dark forest, summon you to my aid! Revelation!” Teresa chanted. A black magic circle surrounded her. From it, lines of fire spread in a star formation. Out of the center rose hooded black shadows, leering evilly.

“You did well.” Scarlet said in satisfaction. The red light died out of Teresa’s eyes slowly.

“I did?”

“Yes. The master will be well pleased.”

“Soon, I’ll be as powerful as Ash is.” Teresa said.

“Or even more powerful.”

“And then I can make him love me.” Teresa’s lips curled up in an evil scowl as she laughed chillingly.

Ash sneezed.

Pika-chan handed him a box of Kleenex.

“Thanks, Pika-chan.” Ash said. “I wonder if someone was talking about me?”

“Maybe!”

End Episode 71!

C&CC make me very happy! Flames will be used to forge Nightmare (my creation), and I’ll set the card loose in Nelvana forever after I combine it with Sleep!

Yep, I put up 3 chapters, sorry I didn’t update earlier but my network was out due to heat. Yes, the weather in California can knock out the internet, plus ff.net was down a couple of times too.