^_^

Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This is non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfic written by me so it’s mine under international copyright laws.

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks

Chapter 5

Bulbasaur’s Razor Leaf cut the Geodude to pieces easily, and she stepped back proudly.

“Graveler, go!”

Another flurry of leaves…

“Nice, now try Golem…”

Ash remembered how Vine Whip was quite ineffective against that hard-shelled pokemon back when he fought the Bridge Bike Gang, and nodded. “Sweet Scent!”

Bulbasaur’s bulb opened, a perfume wafting around the rock, which teetered. Golem rolled forwards with Rollout, still…

And Bulbasaur jumped on top, almost like a barrel-walker, before she solarbeamed.

Golem was down as well.

“You’re being creative, that’s always important.” Lance said. “Do you want to stop?”

Ash turned to Bulbasaur, who stretched. I can take a few more.

“You said it. Let’s keep going.”

“Try Pikachu.” Lance said, another pokemon appearing. The pikachu ran towards Bulbasaur with Quick Attack. Bulbasaur quickly batted it away with a Vine, and then doused it with Poisonpowder.

It double-teamed; filling the area with copies.

Ash frowned. Where was the real one? They all looked alike…

Bulbasaur sniffed, before she smiled, and another Razor Leaf attack headed for one Pikachu in the ring.

Instantly, a burst of electricity hit the leaves, turning them to crisps, as the Pikachu revealed itself.

“When you can’t use your eyes, the nose is harder to fool at times.”

“I’ll remember that, Lance.” Ash said. “Okay, Bulbasaur, Sweet Scent!”

Again, a cloying smell fogged the room. Pikachu staggered, and in that instant, Bulbasaur used Leech Seed.

Leech seed saps enemy Pikachu!

Combined with the poison damage it was taking, Pikachu only managed a Thunder before fainting.

Bulbasaur still stood, slightly charred, but with the greater part of her HP intact. It was proof of how her defense had increased.

“Excellent.” Lance said. “One more?”
Ash nodded.

“Arcanine, go!”

Bulbasaur stared back at the fire-type, no fear. She had nothing to lose, these were all practice fights for real world experience.

A fire blast headed for her, and she jumped high into the air, using her vines for extra leverage. However, Arcanine took aim again and a second Fire Blast slammed her into a wall.

‘Bulbasaur!”

“Be careful of going out into the open even more, Ash.” Lance said, as Ash recalled his fainted pokemon.

“I see…”

“The best way to fight a fire-type would be to hit them first, so you’ll have to work on speed.”

Ash nodded, and healed his pokemon. “Like Poisonpowder?”

“See, that’s only good if you’re fast, or if, say, they are using a close range attack like Fire Punch. Then, you can hit them in the eyes or make them breathe it in, but generally just incinerating the spores will negate any attack.”

Ash recalled how he had used Charmander against Koga’s Venomoth and nodded.

“She knows Stun Spore and Poisonpowder as well?”

“Yep!”

“Good. Then I can teach her a new move.” Lance said, taking a TM from his region of subspace. “Here you go.”

“It’s not dangerous, is it?”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Would I give you something to harm your pokemon on purpose?”

“Point taken.”

Ash opened the technical machine, and blue light flowed over him and Bulbasaur. A minute later, the TM box was empty, so he pitched it into the trash.

“Okay, it’s called Ice Spore, it causes freeze status.”

“Cool!”
“Try.” Lance said, sending out a Growlithe this time. Ash nodded and concentrated, and a few seconds later, Growlithe was covered with pale blue specks and then turned into an ice block.

“See? Very handy, but it won’t last very long unless you put a lot of energy. Still, melting the ice into water, causes damage to the opponent and hopefully you’ll have a Solarbeam ready if you’re a grass-type, or another move, Stun Spore or Spore might be good…”

“So I learned it too?”

“Yes, you and Bulbasaur both. Its strange, you can learn attacks but it doesn’t actually do anything to the TM unless you use it on a pokemon.”

“Ah…”

“Saves money, certainly.” Lance said, eyes crimping up in a half-smile.

That made two attacks for Ash himself now, levitation and this new move. Interesting. His mom would be tickled pink if she found out…

But he couldn’t tell.

He was going back home for his birthday in a week though, he had promised her that.

“I wonder how Misty and Brock are doing?”

“Well, someone got the boulder badge yesterday, but so far no one has been able to gain Cascade.”

“She must be doing well then!”

“Actually…” Lance sweatdropped. “Everyone just bypasses the gym.”

“Why? It’s not that hard…”

“No, but they don’t want to make Misty angry. Apparently, someone wrote a commentary on the gym leaders and she chased the writer down with an army of mallets.”

Ash winced.

“Thus, its great negative publicity.”

Ash nodded, as he stretched, pouring himself a glass of apple cider and sipping it slowly. “Well, what’s next?”

“You’ve done pokemon training for three hours, and we went over algebra… I’ll do biology tonight, take a break.”

“Okay!”

Ash ran off to shower and spend some time playing tag with his pokemon. They had a good snack of peanut butter and apple slices together, read a book, and generally enjoyed themselves.

Even Charizard…

Apparently mollified by the snack and the fact that his trainer was training at last, he didn’t bother putting Ash on fire.

After all, if the boy had gotten the point that he needed to get better, well, then no more negative conditioning was needed at this time.

End Chapter

Complete 5/13/04