Alolan Journeys!

The Alkaline to his Acid

Ash's POV

As usual, I woke up early again. My excitement for challenging a gym has filled my veins.
Excitement? I've never felt this excited for something since... Well since before my battle against the Masked Royal. Walking out of my room in the hotel, I noticed Lillie was up early as well.
"Lillie!" I shouted, as I ran to catch the blonde girl.

"Oh, morning Ash." Lillie smiled at me. "Serena is already awake too, she is waiting for us."

As we got downstairs, Serena was already cooking breakfast for us. I always love when Serena cooks, her cooking is almost as good as Brock's was.
"Morning Ashy boy!" She cheered. I frowned slightly at her use of Gary's nickname for me, but I ignored it, I couldn't be mad at her. "I made pancakes!" Especially when she makes pancakes.

Pancakes were set across the table for the three of us and Pikachu, Nebby, Rowlet, Vulpix, who Serena and Lillie decided to call Snowy.

Shoving my pancakes down my throat, I jumped up and ran outside to train. I decided who I was going to use for the gym, it was two on two.

Serena and Lillie soon followed outside to watch, as my team were getting ready to challenge the gym.

Serena's POV

Ash spent hours training, to the point where it was now afternoon. I needed to remind him he actually had a gym battle today. He ran off ahead as we were walking through Konikoni City, towards a large purple dome which I assumed was the gym. The door was bright green, contrasting against the purple. Ash pushed through the door, into a battlefield.  As we walked through, I noticed that nobody was actually here and we were alone in the room. The pitch looked dirty, like a training pitch or something, and the walls were like steel. Probably as that got the best usage out of Poison types.

"I think he's late again." Ash sighed, scratching the back of his head. Lillie nodded, agreeing.

Suddenly, Castor, the guy who saved Snowy's egg, stumbled through the door, almost falling over.
"Hey Ash! Rematch time?" He smiled as he straightened up. Ash nodded, quite determined. I don't want to think about how demotivated he would have been when I wasn't there...
"Good, because I'm not holding back!" He shouted.

They both took positions as me and Lillie stood in the stands to watch.
"This is a battle between challnger Ash, from Pallet Town, versus Gym Leader Castor from Konikoni City. Each trainer can only use two Pokemon and only the challenger can change. May the battle, begin!"

Castor was the first to send out his Pokemon, which was a Mareanie, as Rotom told me. Ash turned to his shoulder, as Pikachu jumped onto the battlefield.
"Pika!"

"Alright Pikachu, we know what happened last time when you got close, so let's stick to our new strategy. Quick Attack up the wall!"  I've not actually seen this strategy, so this will be interesting. Pikachu ran up the wall, cloaked in light and started to dash across it, closer to the Mareanie.

"Mareanie, keep shooting Toxic across the wall!" The purple acid was sprayed across the walls, always behind Pikachu though.

"Now!" Ash shouted. As soon as Pikachu ran to the wall behind Mareanie, he jumped off and a Thunderbolt struck the Mareanie. This dazed it, and Ash took advantage where Pikachu hit it with a quick attack, sending the Mareanie flying to the opposite wall.

"No! Get up please?" Castor shouted. His Mareanie made a screech as it jumped up. "Good, now Spike Cannon."

The spikes on Mareanie's tentacles lit up, as 5 of them at once fired at Pikachu, knocking him back.
"Thunderbolt, quick!" Ash shouted, but it wasn't quick enough as purple acid was sprayed on Pikachu, poisoning him. "No... the plan."

Ash froze, he needed some encouragement so I nodded to Lillie.
"Let's go Ash! Come on Ash!" We both shouted in unison. It caught his attention and he had stars in his eyes as he stared at me, that was so cute.

Ash's POV

The cheering from Serena and Lillie made me smile, but especially Serena as we locked eyes. I felt a weird warm feeling inside, I've been with Serena for 6 weeks now, travelling through Alola and I've not had this feeling before. There was a battle to be won though so weird emotions can be shoved aside now.
"OK Pikachu, the plan has gone. Let's go how we usually know, attack. Electro Ball, go!" Pikachu nodded and the ball of electricity flew towards Mareanie.

"Dodge and use Venoshock!" Castor shouted, sounding worried. This is what I have to avoid, his killer Venoshock. Mareanie was hit by the Electro Ball though, but survived being very weak. Not weak enough to stop it using moves. Toxic poison kicked in, not letting Pikachu move in time. Suddenly, an idea clicked in my head.

"Pikachu, Quick Attack through the Venoshock." I suggested. He turned to me, questioning my idea. "Trust me buddy." I smiled at him. The white cloak encased him again, as he dashed through the poison move, too quick to be affected, and hit the weak Mareanie. As the dust cleared, Mareanie was unconscious. Purple bubbles arose from Pikachu's mouth, as he keeled backwards, knocking him out too. A double elimination.

"Both the challenger and the gym leader have had their Pokemon faint. Will you both send out your next and final Pokemon?"

I collected Pikachu as Castor returned Mareanie to it's Pokeball too. He pulled out his next ball, revealing his Muk that saved Snowy's egg.
I had no strategy to beat this Pokemon. None of my Pokemon resisted any of its types. So I just brought out Torracat.

"Lets go, show him what we're made of! Fling!" Castor shouted. Not a move I expected, but he launched some of his sludge at Torracat, who didn't have a chance to avoid it. This sludge stuck to Torracat, and started to hurt her. "Do you like that? That's actually Black Sludge and not a part of Muk.

"Ignore it, it won't hurt you too much, trust me." I crouched down to Torracat's level. "Now he's done that, let's show him what we've got. Fire Fang!" Torracat ran towards Muk and bit straight into the gunk. This burnt Muk, as it tried to slither away.

"Acid Spray!"

"Double Kick!" Torracat ran towards the Muk, as the Acid Spray was shot. Torracat took the worst of the move, but still landed the Double Kick, landing the two foot move. This move dealt a lot of damage to the Muk, but Torracat flinched from the Black Sludge, leaving her vulnerable.

"Now, lets show him our special move. Acid Downpour as its close!" Castor shouted. He was desperate now, using his Z-Move. The battlefield suddenly turned into a pool of Acid as Torracat was sunk into the middle. As the battlefield cleared up, Torracat was on the floor, but she forced herself back up.

"Breakneck Blitz!" I did the special Z dance, pressing down on the grey crystal on my wrist. I couldn't see what happened except for a white glow within the dust. When the dust settled, the Muk had crosses in its eyes, with Torracat landing in front.

"The Gym Leader's Muk is unable to battle, which means that this match has been won by the challenger, Ash!"

I ran over to Torracat as she ran towards me and jumped into my arms. "I knew I could count on you!" I reassured her, stroking her fur.

"Well played, using the walls to avoid my moves. Here is my badge, and the Poison Z-Crystal." I smiled as he passed them both to me, holding my hand in the air to celebrate. Suddenly I was attacked from behind as Serena jumped on my back. My inspiration to carry on the match.

My 4th gym badge added to my collection, so the next step in our journey now is Serena's Grand Trial against Olivia.