Ash's Story (Part 5: Modern Sinnoh)

Chapter 21

"I refuse. Pikachu is mine and I am not going to give it away as well." I say.

Right before the battle starts, Pikachu taunts the trainer named Sho and his Raichu, ordering them to go first. Angrily, Sho calls for Raichu to use Iron Tail. Pikachu puts his training into practice and spins to dodge it. Again, Raichu uses Iron Tail. However, Pikachu spins around on the ground, dodging several blows. Finally, one of Raichu's Iron Tails hits Pikachu before tossing him into the air.

With Pikachu freefalling, Raichu charges forward with a Volt Tackle. Pikachu counters with an Iron Tail, landing safely on the ground. Raichu comes at Pikachu with another Volt Tackle, though Pikachu uses his spinning technique to evade it and the follow-up Iron Tail onslaught. With Raichu now tired, Pikachu retaliates with a Quick Attack which pushes Raichu back. Raichu comes back with an Iron Tail, though Pikachu leaps overhead and lands a blow with his own Iron Tail. Raichu unleashes a Thunder attack, but Pikachu speeds by and uses Volt Tackle. Raichu takes the hit and quickly stands to its feet.

Sho then orders a Hyper Beam, and Raichu again pins Pikachu to a tree with its tail. Pikachu counters with a Thunderbolt, cutting the damage sustained in half. With Raichu needing time to recover, Pikachu slams it with a Volt Tackle and Iron Tail combo. Raichu sustains the blow and rushes in for another Volt Tackle.

Raichu is still able to get to its feet, and counters with Volt Tackle. Pikachu also uses Volt Tackle, resulting in an explosive clash. With both sides proving evenly matched, Sho calls for an Iron Tail. Pikachu returns the favor, adding a spin to his attack to toss Raichu into a tree. Raichu recovers and then replies with a Hyper Beam again, but its tail misses Pikachu.

My Pikachu then uses the energy from the Hyper Beam to jump into the air and begins to spin while readying an Iron Tail attack. Pikachu slams directly into Raichu to win the match.

"Wow...that seems to be my spinning technique...it is quite useful." Dawn says.

"Yeah, told you that it is going to work." Daniel says.

Afterward, Sho finally recognizes my strength and promises to give me a great battle the next time we meet.

And when we finally continue moving, we find Grotle and Piplup missing and we search the trail to find a Hippopotas trapped. We try to save him and climb down the cliff, with the help of a rope onto the ledge where Hippopotas is. We try to reassure Hippopotas, but he is too frightened and bites my hand. I call Togetic and ask him to comfort Hippopotas, and it is successful.

We try to offer him some food, and then we also learn hat he's lost, we decide to help him find his family, but we are trapped by Team Rocket as they try to capture our Pokemon once more. But thanks to the Yawn attack from the Hippopotas, we manage to escape them and even blast them away. But Dawn is also hit by the attack as she falls asleep.

"What are we going to do now?" I ask.

Tox says, "She has Ponyta, no problem." Then she is being carried by her Pokemon as we continue forward. But as we are crossing the bridge, Team Rocket shows themselves again and they fall into the water because of their stupidity. Tox also blasts them off with Croagunk's Poison Sting.

As we dry out the Hippopotas, we quickly heal him as it is weak to water due to the fact it is a Ground Type. We finally reach the large desert, where we spot recent Hippopotas footprints. Aside from the sand dunes, nothing is in sight. Hippopotas then call out to its friends, resulting in plenty of Hippopotas popping out of the sand.

"That is great, Hippopotas, you are finally back home." I say, but the Hippopotas want to go with us. So Lillie decides to capture him.

Hippopotas: The Hippo Pokemon: Ground Type: It enshrouds itself with sand to protect itself from germs. It does not enjoy getting wet.