Gotta Catch That One

Chapter 27: Giving Up?

Ash was busy training in the Rhyhorn field by Serena's house. The group had been staying there for a couple of days after the battle with Sawyer. Pancham had needed to stay at the Pokemon centre for a couple of days, but was expected to recover completely and none of the other Pokemon seemed to be hurt. Sawyer had left the next day, saying that he planned to visit Pomace Mountain and see Mable. He wanted to make sure that he and Sceptile could learn what Korrina had learned with her Lucario.

It had been a pretty good couple of days of training. Despite Greninja's moodiness, he was still working hard and Ash still planned to use him at the Snowbelle Gym, along with Talonflame and Noivern. Ash had even called Professor Oak one day and had him send Talonflame and his Glalie back for a day. His friends had been extremely excited meeting the new Pokemon and Glalie definitely enjoyed doing a bit of extra training with Ash. They had spent that whole day training by having Glalie create an ice field and shoot ice beam attacks at his Pokemon. Talonflame had been extremely effective at barrelling through them with flame charge. Noivern had struggled a bit due to his weakness to ice attacks, but he was working hard at focusing on his flying, so he could avoid them. Finally, Greninja had been the best of those training. When Ash had sent back Talonflame and had decided to use Houndoom a bit in the training sessions, Greninja had showed his frustration by using his new night slash to smash the ice field into pieces and then he'd used aerial ace to make quick work of Glalie.

Today, things had been a bit more relaxed and Ash had the group doing more conventional training. He had his Pokemon divided in pairs to spar with each other. Pikachu was with Hawlucha and the two were exchanging iron tail and karate chop attacks, Noivern and Pidgeot were having a fairly relaxed sky battle and Greninja and Houndoom were head to head in what was turning out to be a fierce battle.

Houndoom had just fired off a flamethrower and Greninja was trying to fight through it by using his sword from night slash. Greninja was holding up his sword of purple energy and the flames from Houndoom's attack were blasting against it and deflecting to the sides. Finally, Greninja was able to get through, but then Houndoom leaped forward and used crunch on the sword and shattered it. The horned dog then leaped into the air above Greninja and fired off a quick dark pulse. He had anticipated Greninja's movement and hit the frog-ninja Pokemon perfectly as he leaped up to dodge. Greninja was struck and slammed into the ground.

"Greninja, you ok?" Ash called out, running up to his Pokemon. Greninja struggled to his feet and then shoved Ash away when his trainer ran up to him, trying to help him up. "Hey, calm down." Ash said, a little angrily. "I'm just making sure you're alright."

"Greninja." Greninja spat, glaring at Ash. He then turned and charged at Houndoom. However, Greninja's latest rival was ready. He opened his jaws, jumped and then clamped down on Greninja's shoulder. He shook his head, shaking Greninja and then tossed him aside.

Ash ran up to Greninja again. "Come on Greninja, I think you're done for the day." He started to pull out Greninja's pokeball, but then Greninja suddenly swatted it away and stood up, glaring at Houndoom again. "Greninja, you're done!" Ash said firmly. He stood between Greninja and Houndoom. "No more." Greninja glared at Ash and then suddenly rushed forward and leaped over him and pulled out his blade of purple energy. He swung it down and slammed it down on Houndoom's horns. Houndoom hadn't expected the attack as he'd heard Ash call for the fighting to stop and had been watching the other pairs sparring. Ash turned and ran towards Greninja before he could strike again while Houndoom was down. "Stop!" Ash yelled, and he could hear the anger in his voice. Greninja was ignoring him though and prepared another strike. Ash leaped and slid in front of Houndoom and was struck hard by Greninja's upwards night slash. He felt searing pain along his stomach from where he'd been hit and he felt himself soaring through the air.