Chapter 26: Preliminaries (2)
"Pikachu! I choose you!"
"Let's do this, Beedrill!"
The electric mouse let out a determined 'Pika!' and faced his first opponent.
A yellow bee with metallic lances for arms.
{ BATTLE START }
"We're going first! [Thunderbolt]!" Ash called out first.
"As if we're gonna let you! [Pin Missile]!"
The bolt of lightning travelled towards the bee, only to home into the needles.
Thus, negating the electrifying attack aimed towards at Beedrill.
And a blinding light blasted from the impact.
Shielding his eyes, Ash theorized in his head.
'Damn! [Pin Missiles] acted as a lightning rod against [Thunderbolt]?!'
When the light vanished, Ash looked at the battlefield.
Only to find Beedrill had multiplied into 12 copies.
"What the... [Double Team]?! There's so many!" the boy cried out in astonishment.
"Pika!" Pikachu agreed with his Trainer.
Akira was now using his whip, cracking the whip at his ground.
Crack!
"Charge, Beedrill!" the blonde teen commanded.
The whip acted not as a weapon towards his Pokémon but as a source of motivation for the yellow bee.
And the copies charged towards the electric mouse.
"Woah! That's one strong [Thunderbolt]," Sycamore commented, surprised at Pikachu's power.
"You can use [Pin Missiles] like that?!" Calem shouted, flabbergasted at Akira's use of [Pin Missile].
Calem had never seen such flawless counters even though he was a battle nerd.
It was then he realized that battles in the Grand League were on a whole different level than what he was used to.
"There's so many…" Shauna said with worry, her eyes glued to the screen.
But everyone stared at Serena. With her hands clasped together and watching Ash's battle fervently.
But her face was not one of worry. But one of support.
"You can do this," she muttered to herself, still incredibly happy at Ash's appearance.
She did not care about whether if he would win.
Because she already knew he will win.
"It's coming, Pikachu!"
"Pika!"
"[Thunderbolt]!"
And a surge of lightning blasted from the electric mouse.
But unfortunately, the real Beedrill sneaked behind the mouse and slashed him from the back.
"[X-Scissor]!"
The bee made an X shape with its lances and swung at the little Pokémon.
Pikachu stumbled backwards with an injured ear. He had barely dodged it with only a minor wound on its ear.
"You alright, buddy?!"
"Pika!"
Crack!
Another crack from Akira's whip.
"Don't let up, shower it with [Pin Missile]!"
"Pi?!"
The copies of the yellow primed their stingers onto Pikachu and shot out a bombardment of needles. Like the firing of automatic rifles.
The bullets reached Pikachu, but not before the electric mouse swatted them away with his tail.
"Pikachu! Concentrate [Quick Attack] on [Iron Tail] to deflect them!"
"Pika Pika!"
An [Iron Tail] parried off the bullets with graceful speed, but there were too many to deflect even with [Quick Attack]. Some stray needles grazed the mouse, damaging the poor Pokémon.
'Think!' Ash thought to himself.
And Ash noticed his way out.
'Wait… Shadows!'
[Double Team] worked as a cloning technique, being able to force the battle into a battle of numbers. This was a move suitable to overwhelm its opponents.
However, its fatal flaw was its lack of shadow. Only the main body has a shadow.
Therefore, once one knew the trick, it becomes incredibly easy to counter for anyone with a clear head. A move that is overwhelmingly advantageous ONLY the first time it is used.
And Ash caught on.
"Pikachu! Third one on the top right!"
Ash had given Pikachu the command, but his mind raced through which move to use.
Time seemed to stop.
'[Thunderbolt] is useless since Beedrill's still firing [Pin Missiles], so that's out,' he reasoned, recalling how the needles acted as lightning rods.
'I've got one last move. Pikachu's already used [Thunderbolt], [Quick Attack], and [Iron Tail].'
The Preliminaries had the same rules as Gym Battles. 4 moves only.
However, if you used a fifth one, it is grounds for immediate disqualification unlike Gym Battles where the challenger would get 3 strikes instead.
That was the difference between Gym Battles and the Preliminaries.
This would become a battle of wits with each opponent forcing the other to show their cards.
If one was against the wrong opponent and had shown all their moves, a defeat was nearly guaranteed.
That was the situation Ash was in. He had been forced to reveal all of Pikachu's moveset to Akira, who had only revealed [Double Team], [Pin Missiles], and [X-Scissors].
With that, Ash began his process.
'Ranged, not Electric, useful for the entire match.'
Those were the criteria he had set.
'Find it,' he thought as he recalled every move Pikachu had learned.
'[Thunder]? Out.'
'[Shock Wave]? Definitely not.'
'[Discharge]? Stop thinking of Electric, idiot.'
'[Surf]? He needs a board to use that.'
'…I got it!'
All of that happened within a fraction of a second. And Ash called out Pikachu's fourth move.
"[Swift]!" he ordered, pointing at the real Beedrill.
Pikachu barely dodged X-Scissor.
"That was so close!" Shauna exclaimed in worry at the little mouse.
The hall was now filled with excited murmurs and cheers for the electric mouse's debut. Then gasps of shock echoed when a rain of needles fell onto Pikachu.
But Pikachu parried most of them.
"Can a Pikachu even move that fast?!" Trevor exclaimed in awe of the little mouse's performance.
"Storing [Quick Attack] into [Iron Tail]?! Is that even possible?!" Calem cried out in confusion.
"Wait, forget that! You can use two moves at the same time?! We've never learned that!"
Trainer Schools and Pokémon Academies only taught its students the basics of Pokémon battling. One on one, mano a mano, and one move at a time.
That was one of the reason Sycamore hosted the watch event. For his students to witness first hand what true battling was, with veteran Trainers at their peak.
But even this was something beyond he could imagine and the man was impressed at Ash's performance.
'This boy's good. But he would have fared better if Pikachu had evolved into Raichu, though,' he thought, mildly confused at why Ash never evolved Pikachu.
"Go, Pikachu! You can do it!" Serena cheered from her seat with unbridled enthusiasm. Her arms in the air waved in excitement.
She was absolutely loving the attention Ash was getting from her school. A sense of pride welled within her.
But…
She got a little peeved when her ears picked up some female students' comments of the Kanto boy's roguishly-handsome appearance. A pout became present on her face and her cheeks puffed up like manju buns.
Her friends and mother saw this and were amused at the honey-blonde's cute reactions.
"YOU CAN DO IT, RED! YOU PROMISED ME!" she cheered with all might, with an emphasis on the promise part.
A possessive creature the girl was. As if she was a dragon warning others so back off from her treasure.
And everyone got the message.
Grace could not help but snicker at her daughter's jealous and possessive nature. After all, she was only 11.
Typical behaviour for a girl in love at her age. But that made her even more endearing in Grace's eyes.
With a smug grin, Serena returned watching the battle with sparkling blue eyes.
"[Swift]!"
"Pika!"
Rays of translucent stars formed around Pikachu and blasted towards the real Beedrill.
However, Akira had seen through Ash's actions.
He knew that the boy would figure out [Double Team]'s weakness, although he did not expect Ash to find out that quickly.
Regardless, it was within his expectations, and it served its purpose.
[Double Team] with [Pin Missiles] was all a ploy to get Pikachu to reveal all 4 of its moves. [X-Scissor] was his main attack to finish off Ash's first Pokémon.
[Swift] was also accounted for since Akira knew Ash would have to use a ranged move that was not Electric-based due to [Pin Missiles].
The blonde boy then narrowed it to [Swift] being Ash's only viable move since Pikachu as a species normally only have Electric ranged attacks, so [Swift] was the obvious play.
Now that his presumptions were correct, he revealed his fourth move.
"Break through! [Twineedle]!"
Beedrill complied and aimed its lance-like arms forward like a diver. Destroying every ray of stars that came its way.
The stars broke apart like glass, and the yellow bee began making its way towards Pikachu.
Akira now saw his win condition.
'[Twineedle] is not gonna cut it. His Pikachu is rather durable,'
'I need to finish it off with [X-Scissors]!'
With his path to victory now complete, Akira looked towards the opposing Trainer.
Ash had his eyes covered by the visor of his red cap. And Akira took it as a sign of acceptance.
"It doesn't matter even if you found the right one," Akira gloated confidently.
"Don't underestimate my Beedrill!"
A cocky grin plastered on the teen's face.
However,…
The raven-haired boy replied to him with his signature toothy grin.
"It's you…"
Beedrill was shocked as it stopped to where Pikachu was. Only to find no Pikachu.
The electric mouse had vanished.
"Who shouldn't…"
Suddenly, a yellow lightning bolt burst across the battlefield. And towards Beedrill.
And Ash looked forward. Revealing his crimson red eyes.
Locked eyes with Akira. And unknowingly, towards a camera that was filming the match to a certain region.
"UNDERESTIMATE MY PIKACHU!"
"PIKAPIKAPIKA!"
Pikachu then tackled the yellow bee with his body armoured with incredible amounts of lightning.
Ash then stretched his hand towards the camera unknowingly, as if he was pulled by something. And called out Pikachu's ultimate attack.
"[VOLT TACKLE]!"
Boom!
{ It's you… }
The crowd in the hall watched in confusion at Pikachu's disappearance.
{ Who shouldn't… }
Their eyes glued onto screen when a yellow blur appeared on screen. As well as the expression of the 11-year-old Trainer.
His fiery red eyes and his roguish toothy grin.
{ Underestimate my Pikachu! }
With a pose, the boy called out his move.
{ [Volt Tackle]! }
Boom!
The dust cloud settled and a fainted Beedrill laid on the battlefield.
The audience in the hall cheered loudly. Excitement built up in their voices.
"That was amazing! [Volt Tackle], was it?" Calem cheered out in passion.
"Is that an original move?! That's so cool!" Tierno exclaimed with stars in his eyes, still unaware of his crush's infatuation with Ash.
"It looked like a combination of [Quick Attack] and [Thunderbolt]! Pikachu was so fast the camera couldn't see him properly!" Trevor followed up with awe in his voice.
Sycamore could only look in amazement at what he saw.
An 11-year-old boy had just created a whole new move by combining 2 existing ones.
It was original in the sense that an attack like that was the first of its kind. It was like an Electric variant of [Flare Blitz].
However, since no move resembled that of [Volt Tackle] in the list of moves that existed, the referee had no choice but to allow it. Since it was technically allowed.
[Wild Charge] was the closest but Ash had trained Pikachu to master [Volt Tackle] to the point where they managed to bypass recoil damage. Therefore, it was a different move despite being similar in nature.
"What an extraordinary child! To think that he could create such a powerful move like that! Marvellous!" the man exclaimed excitedly.
Grace was also amazed at Ash's performance like everyone else. She was cheering the boy as loudly as she could.
But then…
Everyone, or more specifically the guys, observed all the girls' expressions.
They were all blushing. Blushing at the sight of Ash's roguish grin and blood red eyes.
The sight of him was too much for the young girls' hearts and their minds went overdrive.
'He's sooo cool.'
'I think I found my type.'
'Why can't the boys in our school be like that?!'
Thoughts like that raced through the pubescent girls' minds.
But one of them was even more extreme.
'HAWAWAWAWAA…'
Serena had shut down at the sight at Ash's expression. Her face was tomato red and had a smile that had been twisted with excitement and infatuation.
Extreme infatuation.
Her brain squealed with extreme delight.
Delight of how handsome her love had grown to be.
If not for the last remaining piece of reason holding herself together, she would have jumped and hugged the screen.
Shauna then slapped Calem on the shoulder.
"Ow!"
"Why can't you be like that more?!"
"Whaaa…?" Calem asked nervously with a sweat drop.
But as a battle nerd, he could not disagree with Shauna's view of the raven-haired boy.
He was the same age as them but already someone who was competing in the tournaments of the strongest.
Not to mention, defeating 8 Gym Leaders to participate in such an event.
"I wanna be like that someday,"Calem muttered in awe.
The friends turned to Serena and was even more amused.
The girl was failing to contain a loving smile and clutched onto Ash's handkerchief tightly.
Fantasizing about hugging him again. Just like the good old days.
"You're so lucky to have such a badass boyfriend, Serena," Calem teased with a smirk.
But the honey-blonde was way too happy to care and instantly nodded with her eyes closed, still fantasizing.
Everyone was amused at how smitten and in love the Ice Queen was. Something the Kantonians would call 'dere-dere'.
And now, the match was about to resume.
{ Beedrill is unable to battle. Pikachu wins. }
{ Tamer Akira, please send out your next Pokémon. }
"You did it, Pikachu!" Ash exclaimed happily.
"Pikapi!"
His first victory in the Preliminaries. The first to come.
While Ash was hi-fiving his partner, Akira recalled his Beedrill.
'What was that? [Volt Tackle]? Is that his original move or something?' Akira thought, questioning what in the world was [Volt Tackle].
'…Heh. Kid's good.'
"Red of Pallet Town, huh?" the blonde teen called out to the raven-haired boy.
"You got me good, man. I didn't think you had an original move as a fifth," Akira praised the boy, a grin plastered on his face.
"Thanks! But its more of a combination of [Thunderbolt] and [Quick Attack], though…" Ash thanked sheepishly while scratching his nose.
"You're good, kid. Come on, let's continue!"
"Let's go! Just one more to go, Pikachu!"
"Pika!"
Unbeknownst to Ash, someone was spectating him from behind.
An orange-haired boy wearing a black shirt.
Chapter 26: Preliminaries (2)
Gary Oak entered the scene.
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