Ash's Pokémon Journey

Navel maneuvers

It was a nice day at the seas of the Orange islands, when Ash and his friends were riding on Lapras to travel to the next island. Tracy: "Hmm... we must be close to Navel island by now." Ash: "That's where the second member of the Orange crew is located, right?" Tracy: "Yes, I believe so." Brock: "I wonder what kind of challenge this one will have?" Ash: "What do you mean?" Brock: "Well you remember what Cissy said about the challenges the Orange crew gives are a bit different compared to the gym leaders in Kanto, right?" Ash: "Oh yeah... well whatever challenge awaits there for me, I'm sure it'll be interesting." said Ash, before they finally got to an island, and there was a sign that said 'Welcome to Navel island' on it. Ash: "Hmm... I don't see any gym buildings... or anyone for that matter..." Tracy: "Hey, there's someone coming." said Tracy, before a man, who was riding on a sail boat, came on shore and came up to the group. His name was Danny (voiced by Jim Malone), and he seems to be a challenger, at least that's what the group believes him to be. Danny: "Hello there, are you here to challenge the gym leader here?" Ash: "Yeah, that's me, the others are just here to watch, I take it you're here to challenge the gym leader too?" Danny: "You could say that, my name's Danny, and I can take you to where you'll have your challenge." Misty: "How kind of you." Danny: "Well of course, always happy to help out a lady." Misty: "My, you're a charmer." said Misty, before they others got to where the gym's gate should be, and when they got through, there was a cable car that leads to the top of the island's mountain. Pikachu: [Hey Ash, look at this.] said Pikachu, before Ash got to a sign that Pikachu was referring to. Ash: "What's this?" Danny: "Those are the rules, the gym leader only accepts challengers who can climb up the mountain without the aid of their Pokémon, otherwise they'll lose automatically, while the others will take the cable car." Misty: "Is that even safe?" Brock: "Well it does make it challenging..." Tracy: "And it will help Ash learn that there will be times that you have to do things without the aid of his Pokémon." Ash: "Well if those are the rules, I'll have to follow them... besides it's not like I'll be facing wild Pokémon while climbing right?" Danny: "Of course not, it's perfectly safe, I've climbed up the mountain many times." Ash: "Wow!, you must be a great climber." Danny: "I don't know if I'm that good, it's just that this mountain is not that hard to climb once you get the hang of it." said Danny, before he and Ash begin to climb up the mountain, while the others were using the cable car. Suddenly, while climbing up the mountain, the Team Rocket trio showed up and used a robotic arm with a rubber glove, attached to their balloon, to capture Pikachu. Ash: "Pikachu!" Jessie: "Finally!, we caught Pikachu!" James: "And we know the twerp can't fight back without breaking the rules of not using his Pokémon while climbing." Meowth: "Yeah, and there's nobody that can stop us, not even the dumb writer of this story!" said Meowth, before he turned blue and covered his mouth as he realized what he just said. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a lightning bolt hits the balloon and sends the Team Rocket trio flying while Pikachu landed into Ash's arms. Jessie: "You just had to insult the writer, didn't you?!" Meowth: "Sorry..." James: "This is why you should never mess with a story writer..." Team Rocket Trio: "Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" shouted the Team Rocket trio as they were blasting off into the sky and out of the scene. Ash: "Well that takes care of them for a while..." said Ash, before he and Pikachu continue to climb up the mountain, until they finally reached the top, where they see snow and ice. Ash: "Where's the gym leader?" asked Ash, before he noticed that Danny was standing on the other side of the battlefield. Danny: "That would be me." Ash: "Huh?!" Danny: "You see, I pretend to be another challenger to make sure the trainers are following the rules, I hope you can understand that." Ash: "Yeah, I guess that makes sense." said Ash, before Misty, Brock and Misty came to the scene with blankets wrapped around them. Misty: "I kinda figured Danny was the gym leader..." Brock: "Yeah, me too... guess us being former gym leaders or gym leaders in training would help us know who would be one." Tracy: "You two are gym leaders?" Misty: "Kind of, I'm training to be the gym leader of Cerulean city." Brock: "And I was the substitute gym leader of Peter city." Tracy: "Interesting..." Danny: "Now here's what you must do, it's a three round challenge, and the one who wins two out of three will win." Ash: "Got it." Danny: "Now the first challenge is to freeze a hot water geyser by using a Pokémon that knows Ice Beam." Ash: "Alright then, I choose Lapras!" called out Ash, as he sends out Lapras to freeze one of the water geysers, while Danny sends out his Nidoqueen. Both of the trainers' Pokémon used ice beam, but Nidoqueen managed to freeze her geyser first, allowing Danny to win the first round. The second round was to carve the ice into a sled with three Pokémon, so Ash sends out Pikachu, Bulbasaur and Charizard, while Danny sends out his Nidoqueen, a Machoke and a Scyther. Danny's team used brute force while Ash's team used Flamethrower, Vine Whip and Iron tail to carve the ice into the right shape, and Ash's team managed to finish it before Danny's could, allowing Ash to win the second round. Now the final round was for the pair to ride on the sled down the mountain to the beach with three Pokémon with them. Danny uses his own Geodude, a large Pokéball like Pokémon called Electrode, and his Scyther, while Ash uses Pikachu, Bulbasaur and Squirtle. For Danny to steer his sled, his Scyther does the steering, while Ash lets his Bulbasaur steer with his Vine Whip. As they went down, both sleds were going really fast, which excites both Ash and his Pokémon. Once the terrain changed from snow to rock, the sleds were next to one another, and Ash's sled got there first by an inch, meaning he won the challenge. Pikachu: [Did we win?] Ash: "Yeah!, we did it, little buddy!" said Ash with joy, before Danny came up to him. Danny: "Well done Ash, you certainly been a fun challenger, as proof of beating me, here is the Sea Ruby badge." said Danny, as he gives the boy the gym badge. Ash: "Thanks Danny... alright!, we got the Sea Ruby badge!" Pikachu: [Awesome!] Misty: "Well... two down... and two more to go before he can challenge the Orange league champion." Brock: "Yeah." Tracy: "This will be perfect to sketch." said Tracy, as he was making a sketch of Ash with his Pokémon as they were cheering for earning the badge. And so Ash has beaten Danny and earned the Sea Ruby badge, who knows what could be next for our heroes as the journey continues.