Chapter 13
"So... what now?" asked Ash.
"Bed, then Z-moves in the morning?" asked Pikachu.
"That sounds good," said Ash, "what do you guys think?"
"I'm fine with that," I replied.
"Me too," said Latias.
"Yeah, that's fine," said Latios.
"Alright then," said Ash, "let's get some rest."
The next morning we woke up to an alarm clock that Pikachu had tampered with to make it smell like curry. Needless to say, Ash woke up in an instant and was immediately disappointed.
"Pikachu!" said Ash, "I thought I told you I hated food-scented alarm clocks?"
"You did," said Pikachu, "but it's the only way to wake you up without shocking you. Would you prefer that next time?"
Ash groaned. "But it's only 6:00!"
"Don't forget," said Latios, "Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf told us Team Galactic is very powerful and none of us are that strong yet,"
"And," said Pikachu, "we have no idea how long it will take to get that Z-move down,"
"Alright," said Ash, "let's get started!" His stomach rumbled. "Uh, after breakfast,"
After a nice breakfast from the Pokemon Center, we flew to a nice clearing in the forest which Ash deemed perfect for training.
"Alright guys," said Ash, "let's start! Pikachu, use Thunderbolt on that rock!"
"Hey Michael," said Latias, "want to try Psychic again?"
"Sure," I said, eager to get full control over my new skill.
"Ok," said Latias, "this time I think we should do it a little differently, what do you think brother?"
"Yes, I think I have the perfect idea," said Latios.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Since the rocks didn't seem to work too well," replied Latios, "we're going to do a different kind of training. I'm going to use Psychic to try to force you downwards while you try to stay up. Don't worry, I'll make it so the Psychic doesn't hurt you,"
I hesitated for a second before nodding. After all, anything seemed better than blowing up more rocks. "Sure," I replied.
"Ok," said Latios, "on the count of 3 1... 2... 3!"
I cringed as I felt an immense force pushing me down. I put more force into my levitation to maintain my balance but it was still very hard to stay up. The feeling was like trying to run up a steep hill with a bag of rocks tied to my back. Eventually, after managing to stay up for about a few minutes (though it felt like hours), I collapsed on the ground, thoroughly exhausted.
"Wow," said Latios, "I didn't expect you to last that long, you did really well for your first try."
"Yeah," said Latias, "that was great!"
"Thanks," I said, breathing heavily as I shakily re-enabled my levitation.
"Now that you've done that," said Latios, "why don't you try to move that rock over there?"
"Are you sure?" I asked, "I haven't done any other training since I blew up all those other rocks,"
"Just give it a try," said Latias with a glimmer of knowing in her eyes.
"Alright," I said focusing on the rock Latios had pointed out. To my surprise, I felt much more in control of it and was able to even relax a little as I moved it.
"See," said Latias, "being under a lot of pressure really helps focus your mind,"
"Yeah," I said, setting the rock down, "that felt much easier,"
"I think you might be ready to try a psychic-type attack now," said Latios.
"What do you mean by psychic type?" I asked, slightly confused.
"Well, all attacks have different types," said Latios, "for instance, Pikachu's Thunderbolt is an electric-type attack, and Dragon Claw is a Dragon-type attack. Luster Purge is a psychic-type attack, so doing some more training might let you have better control over it."
I nodded, absorbing the information. "So what other psychic-type attacks are there?" I asked.
"There's Psychic, of course," said Latios, "and other psychic-type moves that we can learn are Zen Headbutt, Confusion, and Stored Power. Psychic and Luster Purge tend to be the most powerful though."
"So how do I learn Psychic?" I asked.
"It's not too hard," said Latias, "remember how you blew up the rocks?"
"Yeah," I said, wondering what that had to do with learning Psychic.
"Well," said Latios, "the main thing is controlling that power so you attack your opponent's mind. You have to mentally force the Psychic so you can damage your opponent,"
I cringed. Blasting someone with a powerful beam was one thing, but attacking their mind?
"Don't worry," Latias smiled at me, "it doesn't permanently damage them. It's only enough to hurt them for the period of the battle."
"Alright," I said, relieved that I wouldn't hurt anyone too much, "but how do I train for that?"
"That's probably enough for today," said Latios, "for now let's just do some endurance training, doing too much in one day can lead to exhaustion especially when it involves doing things with your mind,"
I agreed and trained with Latios and Latias for a few more hours. Around noon, we heard Ash calling us.
"Hey guys, time for lunch!"
"Comming!" said Latias as we flew to Ash.
"So," said Pikachu, "how did the training go?"
"Pretty well," I said, "next time we battle, I'm going to win!"
"I wouldn't be so sure," said Pikachu, "Ash and I did a lot of training and we almost have that Z-move down!"
"How do you know?" asked Latias.
"Well," said Ash, "the crystal on the Z-ring flashed a few times during our training but I don't really know how we're going to figure it out without actually using the move,"
"Didn't Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie say you just had to find a tempo for it or something?" asked Latios.
"They did," said Ash, "but I can't seem to find a tempo at all, it's hard to find where to start,"
"Well," said Latias, "maybe we can all train together after lunch. Latios and I did a lot of training with Michael already,"
"Good idea!" said Ash, "now... where should we get lunch?"
After a nice lunch at (by Latias' request) a local pizza restaurant, we continued training for most of the afternoon, stopping occasionally for a break or two. I felt that that training was getting easier and even though it was hard work it was really fun. I could see all of what Pikachu had told me earlier was true. Ash was a great trainer and took training with his Pokemon very seriously.
"You know," said Pikachu jokingly after Ash had fallen into a bush trying to help Latias learn Dragon Pulse, "I think the reason I'm so strong by now is by knowing exactly how not to use the moves you taught me,"
"Well, it was going great until that bush decided to appear behind me," retorted Ash as he dusted himself off.
"That was actually pretty good," said Latios, "if all trainers were like you I'm pretty sure most Pokemon would want to have trainers,"
"How many of your Pokemon decided to come with you by themselves anyway?" asked Latias.
"Well," said Ash, "if you don't count the Tauros, I think over half?"
"What do you mean by 'the Tauros'?" asked Latios.
"We were traveling in the safari zone," said Ash, "and Team Rocket challenged us to a competition to see who could catch the most Pokemon. I was trying to catch a Rhyhorn but a herd of Tauros kept running in the way..."
"So you mean..." said Latios.
"Yep," said Pikachu, "Ash ended up using all his Pokeballs on every single Tauros in that herd,"
"Does that mean you won the competition?" asked Latias.
"I did win," said Ash, "but Team Rocket was trying to catch this Dratini so they threw a bomb into a lake."
"Thankfully the Dratini evolved into Dragonair and chucked the bomb back at them," said Pikachu.
"Speaking of Team Rocket," said Latios, "weren't they the ones who tried to take over the DMA at Altomare?"
"Well they're from the same team," said Ash, "but these are different people. Ever since I started my journey they've been trying to steal Pikachu. We manage to blast them off every time though,"
"Yeah," said Pikachu, "I think we've blasted them off about 200 times by now,"
"They've survived that?" I asked skeptically.
"Somehow they do," said Ash, "we launch them straight into the sky every time but they always seem to survive,"
"If they try to steal Pikachu all the time then how come we haven't seen them?" asked Latias.
"I was thinking the same thing," said Ash, "I mean, I thought they would show up by now. Maybe the region traveling threw them off..."
"Ash. Do. Not. Jynx. It." said Pikachu.
"Right..." said Ash sheepishly, "come on guys, let's get some food!"
Welp, that's a wrap!
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