Well, we still have a ways to go before Ash and Giselle face off during the judgment for these cards. But… ^_^

Disclaimer: See last part. too tired. Same for notes.

Xaero – hehehe. *Laughs*

Digifan1 – ok

Pokemon Reader – I’m updating, happy now?

Tmp – you’ve got the right idea. I don’t even like Giselle, but… it would be too boring if Ash just got the Johto set as a book!

Ranma – hai! *bows*

Episode 121: Fighting the whirling tides

“Maybe we should head to the next island, so we can be away from Giselle.” Pika-chan suggested. “You can get a gym badge at the same time.”

“Cool!” Ash said, cheering.

“Now we just have to Surf there.”

“Oh, that’s no problem.” Lance said, releasing one of her two Dragonair. She and Ash both climbed on, as well as the two guardians. “Okay, Tempest, let’s Surf!”

The dragonair nodded and they cut through the water like a silver arrow.

“This stupid board isn’t working!” Giselle complained.

Geodude sighed. “You must be patient.” He told his audacious, cheeky Chosen.

“I don’t want to be patient!”

Geodude sweatdropped. “It is not a choice.”

Giselle slammed the board into the ground in frustration.

Geodude gasped as a fault line appeared. “Oh no! you’ve broken it!” He immediately began panicking.

Giselle didn’t seem to care.

Of course, then the board began to glow and a yellow beam shot out, but it was very shaky.

Geodude sighed. * Guess it still works… *

“Let’s go!”

“Skarmory, Release and Dispel!”

Giselle released Skarmory, so wings sprouted out of her wand. She climbed on it and they flew off.

Meanwhile…

“So this is the gym?” Ash asked, looking around. * It’s not that impressive… *

Cissy appeared. “Hi! Are you a challenger?”

Ash nodded.

“Okay, at this gym, we have a series of water tests to determine how good you are.” Her annoying little bother said.

He set up a row of tin cans.

“You use a water attack to know them down.” Cissy explained. “Seadra, go!” Seadra knocked several off with its water gun attack.

“Oh, that’s it?” Ash asked. “Okay, Vaporeon, you’re up!” Vaporeon smirked and began using water gun to do the same thing. Soon, either Vaporeon or Seadra’s attacks had knocked down all the cans.

“Not bad!” Cissy said. “Not bad at all!”

Her brother looked annoyed. (Okay, so I don’t like the lil’ brat.) “It’s a tie. Now try to hit a moving target.”

He sent out an orange clay disk, which started spinning in the air. Seadra fired off a water gun, shattering the disk into little fragments.

Ash narrowed his eyes. < Vaporeon, can you do this? >

< No problem. > Vaporeon said smugly. < I helped you win the Indigo Championships, didn’t I? >

< Yes. >

Vaporeon focused on the next orange disk, before she let loose not water gun, but a bubblebeam attack. The bubbles turned the disk into dust.

More disks came flying, and Ash and Cissy started breaking them up.

Cissy’s brother tried to cheat for her, but it wasn’t doing any good. So after a while, there is only one disk left.

“Whoever hits it first wins.”

Ash shrugged. “Okay.”

Cissy and Seadra tensed. Ash just winked at Vaporeon. She nodded and began to glow light blue.

Pika-chan sighed. * He’s using magic again… *

As soon as the disk appeared, Vaporeon threw out an ice beam attack, which froze the disk solid, before it broke into tiny bits.

“I meant a water attack.” Cissy said.

“Oh. But you just said we had to use water pokemon.” Ash reminded her.

Cissy sweatdropped. “Never mind.”

Cissy’s brother cleared his throat. “He broke a rule!”

Ash narrowed his eyes. * I’m going to wring that little brat’s neck. *

Lance sent him a mental hug. < Don’t do anything you might regret, Ash. >

< I don’t regret anything! >

< Yes, yes… >

Cissy sighed. * He’s embarrassing me… *

Her brother looked up. “Challenge him to the Wave Rider Race!”

“Well, fine then.” Cissy said. “Let’s have a race. We will each use one water pokemon. The first to get to the other side will be the winner. If you win, you get the Coral Eye badge.”

Ash shrugged and nodded. “Vaporeon, return. Storm -.”

Lance flattened him with an invisible mallet. < Ash! Storm technically doesn’t exist here, remember?! >

< Oops. >

< Here, you can borrow one of my dragonair. >

< Okay. I’m sorry I forgot. >

Lance’s dragonair #2, Darkstar, appeared. Ash climbed on and smiled.

“Okay, let’s begin!”

Cissy’s little brother (I’ll call him Curly from Of Mice and Men) blinked.

“Interesting.” Cissy said. “Let’s begin.”

They climbed on and began surfing. Darkstar was very fast, and beat Cissy easily. Cissy had to give Ash the Coral Eye badge.

“You’re a good trainer.” She said. “I’ll be cheering for you at the Orange League.”

“Thank you!” Ash said.

Cissy’s brother was pissed off, so he shot his mouth off. Cissy tried to reprimand him, but it was no good.

“You think you’re such a hotshot trainer, don’t you! You stupid b****!”

Lance grabbed Ash’s arm. He would have transformed right then and there, if he hadn’t been interrupted.

Ash spun around, eyes blazing into a gold color. < Lance! Let go of me! >

< No. > Lance said. < Deal with him later. >

< I hate him! What did I do? >

Lance’s eyes narrowed. <Nothing. He’s just a stupid kid. >

< Lance, let go of me. >
< Not until you promise not to kill him. >

< I won’t. > Ash promised. < I swear on my amulet. >

Satisfied, Lance let go.

“So, you think you’re good?” Ash asked. “Why don’t we prove it with a pokemon battle?”

“You’re on! Horsea, go!”

Ash smiled to himself. “Okay, Jolteon, you’re up!” Jolteon fried Horsea in 0.54 seconds, leaving a sizzling pokemon.

“Horsea, return! Krabby, use Guillotine!”

“Protect.” Ash said simply, smiling. The gold stars surrounded Jolteon, protecting it from Krabby’s attack. “Now use Zap Cannon!”

Krabby twitched and fainted.

Curly frowned. “Darn it! You useless pokemon! Come back! Go, Sandshrew! Earthquake!”

“Jolteon, use Baton Pass!” Jolteon nodded and disappeared, with Oddish taking his place.

Oddish smirked and a hail of Razor leaves easily took out the Sandshrew.

“Still think I’m a bad trainer?” Ash asked as he recalled his pokemon. Curly scowled, but having no grounds, kept silent.

Ash nodded, satisfied. “Let’s go, Crystal.”

Lance nodded. < Ash… do you feel that? >

< Oh! Yes. It must be pretty close. >

< Let’s go see. >

Soon, they saw a little fish.

“Is that it?” Ash asked.

“I think so.” Pika-chan said. “It smells like a Johto pokemon.”

“Okay then!” Ash said. He summoned his wand. “Release! Gastly, I choose you! Use Mean Look!”

Gastly nodded and stared at the fish, so it could not escape.

“Now use Lick.”

Gastly floated over and induced a power-sapping lick to the fish pokemon, which shuddered, it’s HP going down.

“And finally, I want you to use Night Shade.”

The attack hurled the fish out of the water, and as it began falling back into the ocean, Ash pointed his wand at it.

“Under a new seal of contract, your master commands you, return to your true form, pokemon card!”

Chonchii was captured!
Ash looked at the pokemon card and smiled. “Chonchii? Dual water/electric type? That’s useful.”

Giselle…

“Skarmory, use Peck!”

“You did it!” Geodude cheered as Giselle captured the helpless Hoppip.

Giselle cheered. “Oh yeah, I rule!”

End Episode 121! That’s it! Drop a review!

Don’t mind telling me that it’s Chinchou, not Chonchii. I still tend to use Japanese names for some of the Johto pokemon. Just a habit since I learned those first.

Sorry I didn’t update earlier, as I was in a bad mood since I was checking out one of my reviewer’s fanfic and it eerily looked like direct plagiarism of ‘Destiny’s Early Life’…