May was working hard on her moves, "Come on Torchic, Beautifly! Let's try it again."
Torchic used ember again, "Tor chic chic chic."
Beautifly used silver winge to combine with ember, "Beeeeeaaaa."
May cheered at the orange and bright silver fireworks, "Yeah, that's what I am talking about. You two will take the opening by storm, don't you think Honchkrow?"
Honchkrow opened his eyes from his perch, "Krow!"
May looked at him worried, "Honchkrow... "
Ash was busy preparing to challenge the shadow gym, "Again! Come on, Treeko. You can do it."
Treeko narrowed his eyes at the trainer, "Ko."
Lucario, -Try again Taillow. Bravebird is a powerful move but before trying to learn it, you must learn Aerial Ace.-
Taillow pointed at him, "Taill tai taillo?"
Lucario, -Fearrow and Pidgeot always asked me to help them train, that's how I know.-
Taillow flew up nodding, "Taillow."
Kingler had joined them as well much to Max's delight, "Kingler!"
Corpish, "Corpish!"
Gou, "I have done it! I caught new Hoenn region Pokemon."
Ruby chuckled, "I wondered when you will start doing that again."
Gou, "I have not given up on it, yet. I am going to create a massive online library with what I know about the Pokemon. I know, Ash's route guide map is already picking up traffic with so many people using it more and more. His books too, actually."
Ruby, "Yeah, who would have thought Ash was the one writing that book aside from the horror ones?"
Gou, "He created a world completely different from each other with it's own beasts and magical creatures in it. I hear the debate about the pheonix has taken a new turn ever since the movie came out."
Ruby laughed, "I am not surprised."
Molly, "Phew! Done for today."
Mudkip, "Kip!"
Shroomish, "Shroom."
Lotad, "Lo lo lotad."
Molly laughed, "You sure are energetic, Lotad."
Max plopped down beside Gou, "I am so exhausted, but it is the good kind of exhaustion."
Gou grinned, "It has been a while since we got the chance to train multiple days without something inteferring our private training time."
Ruby, "Understatement! Looks like Ash is finally allowing his Pokemon to try out the reaction moves, under limits of course."
May joined them, "The reaction moves do look tempting but the destructive results are a bit much, in my opinion."
Max, "Which is why he put a strict ban on it's use, right? Just look at that poor tree."
The group shivered as they looked at the destruction the tree Ash decided to use as a practice target for his Pokemon suffered. May looked at Honchkrow who was eyeing the training and destruction with a sharp glint in his eye. She felt some sweat form on her neck, if Honchkrow decided he wanted that type of training, she might have to end up listening to one of Ash's long lecture. Do not get her wrong, she understood why it was necessary and that Ash worries, but that does not mean Ash could not be scary when in lecture mode. It was like facing her angry mom when he starts going off on them. Maybe, she should think of other training schedules for Honchkrow and spring it on him first, then he would not be tempted by the training in front of him. May nodded to herself as she tuned in back to what the rest of the group was discussing. She noticed Ash had stopped his training too and was now preparing their meal.
May, "Let me help."
Ash, "Sure! Awww ~ Thank you, Abra."
Abra, -Welcome Meema.-
Max, "Skitty seems to be adjusting well."
May, "Yeah, she is very active, that's for sure."
Gou, "We are in the outskirts of Fallarbor town. We will most likely be seeing smaller towns and Pokemon centers more now."
Ash was adding the spices to the shabu - shabu pot, "As expected, we are almost out of groceries too. So, shopping first after booking a room."
May, "Yeah, I need to shop for toiletries too."
Molly, "I will join you in that."
Gou was working on the meat, "We are out of meat too."
Ruby, "Not surprising that, considering all of our Pokemon enjoy eating meat as well."
Ash, "Agreed! Are the eggs ready, Max?"
Max, "Yup, are we having tonkatsu?"
Ash, "Yes, we are."
Molly, "Tonkatsu is easily becoming one of my favourite dishes."
Ruby, "You seriously got better at making Hoenn based dishes, Ash. I am really impressed."
May nodded, her mouth watering at the dishes, "It is just as good as mom's cooking."
Max was watching the tonkatsu fry, "Yeah, despite being on the road all the time, we eat like we are at home. I don't know anyone who can brag about that outside of a few high level trainers out there."
Ash smiled listening to their comments as far as he remember Hoenn was based on Kyushu Q region, with some foreign influence. He just needed to remember how the shabu - shabu and tonkatsu were made and relearn it. After eating a hearty meal it was rounded with honey sprinkled Castella cake though the cake went by a different name in the region. Max and May were enjoying the food saying it was really good while Molly was enjoying the new food experiences which was different from Jhoto and Kanto. Gou was always happy to eat delicious food and helped with the clean up after the meal was over. They stayed a few more hours training before entering the Fallabor town area. They travelled and ran into a very strange situation, a boy dressed up as a Zangoose was trying to catch a Zangoose? They were pretty taken aback by the situation and looked at each other.
Max, "Should we intervene?"
Molly, "That looks kind of dangerous to me."
Ruby, "Let us observe for now. If things get dangerous, Sceptile here will interfere."
Ash, "Yeah, we do not know the whole situation after all."
Gou, "This should be interesting to record."
May, "It is an interesting situation albeit dangerous one. However, you are not allowed to try it, Max, Molly."
Molly looked embarassed, "Who, me? I would never dress like that."
Max pouted, "But it looks like fun."
May frowned at her sibling, "Max look, this guy has obviously been doing this for a while but we never tried it at all. Even with Skitty, I had to battle and prove I am a capable trainer."
Max sighed, "Yeah, I hear you, sis."
Breloom crossed her arms, "Bre loom bre bre."
Abra giggled, -Breloom says, she will ground you, if you even try it.-
Max, "Protective much."
Breloom huffed, "Breloom."
Ash approaced the trainer, "Hi there, we were observing you. My name is Ash."
The trainer jumped from his celebration, "Oh, hello to you too. Sorry, I did not notice you guys there, like at all."
Ruby smirked from behind the dark haired teen, "I can tell. Congratulations on capturing your new Pokemon. It was a very unique way to do so."
The trainer became flustered, "Champion Ruby Sir... I mean it is nice meeting you. My name is Nicolai, nice to meet you... Wait, I already said that."
Gou, "Relax, he won't bite. I am Gou, by the way."
May giggled, "My name is May."
Max, "And mine is Max."
Molly, "Hello, please call me Molly."
Nicolai grinned, "Nice to meet you all. I can't believe you saw that."
Max, "No need to be embarassed, that was a pretty awesome way to capture Pokemon."
Molly nodded, "Yeah, I would not have thought about dressing up as a Pokemon to catch a Pokemon out there."
Nicolai felt his face warm, "Well, it works for me. I want to show everyone there is more than one way to catch Pokemon. Especially if they want Pokemon outside of battle parameters."
Ruby, "That is interesting. What is it that you do exactly, Nicolai?"
Nicolai, "Me? I am a student. Well I am on a break right now."
Ash, "Oh? A student?"
Nicolai nodded, "I am studying to become part of the Ranger force. One of our objectives is to catch Pokemon without battling them."
Max, "So, that's what that was."
Molly, "It was so cool. Do you have other Pokemon too?"
Nicolai, "Um... Yeah, I have a Zigzagoon I caught in a similar way before Zangoose."
The group gathered around their new friend and they talked about their Pokemon and their plans for the future. Nicolai was apparently challenging the Gyms to harder and harder levels of battle to train himself and his Pokemon for his future Ranger work. This surprised the two siblings as they did not know challenging the Gym for reasons outside of the badge was actually possible. As had hinted at it but they did not know Ranger training was included in it too, their father certainly never had a Ranger approach him. Ash smiled as the talk became more and more animated and Gou pointed out a restaurant in a nearby town. Ash invited Nicolai to join them for dinner as it was getting late. The green haired boy was about to decline when his stomach let out a growl of hunger.
Ash grinned, "Come on! Let's go order dinner."
Max, "We can exchange stories over food."
Molly, "Maybe camp out together."
Nicolai, "Yeah, sounds fun."
Ruby, "Great! We can tell each other what we have been upto that way."
Max ran ahead to the restaurant to order food with Molly right behind him. Ash and Gou went after them to make sure they did not order the restaurant empty. Not like it was possible but with how many mouths they had to feed, it was in the realm of possibility. While they were enjoying the company James was having quiet the situation on his hands. The blue haired man had joined Team Aqua as one of Meowth's old friends, but just like him, Jessie his beautiful wife had joined Team Magma. Now, they were in a stand off facing each other and battling over a tome that both sides wanted. They would have to do this carefully, Jessie's Hypno was ready to teleport the tome to safety but it would have to be believable. Not to forget, a higher member of Team Aqua and Team Magma were both here directing the rookies. Jessies was also having similar thoughts, this would get messy and their positions in the two organizations.
Jessie, "Hey boss Flan, what do we do?"
Flan, a ravenette sighed, "What else is there to do? We battle! Let's go Houndoom!"
Jessie, "Okay boss, let's go Dustox."
James, "Boss Marik, looks like we have to fight."
Marik, "Grunts, take position. James stand by to grab the tome and run."
James paused, "Alright boss, got it!"
Team Aqua and Team Magma started a raid battle against each other. In fact, the only positive that Jessie and James saw about this situation was the fact there was no one else around the secluded area they were in. It would be completely problematic if there were people especialy civilians around during a raid battle between two very dangerous teams. James battled against the other grunts while Jessie was battling the only woman in Team Aqua. It was an unspoken rule that women in either organizations were responsible for dealing with the women from the enemy group to avoid honeypot traps. Of course, it mostly worked since both sides had proud battlers who preferred people from their wn organizations. Organization pride James decided was quiet the terrifying factor, though he is in no position to judge them, considering he is also a proud member of Team Rocket. Well, the main Team Rocket under Giovanni not Gonzales who actually created more destruction instead of results.
Jessie, "Boss, the tome."
Flan cursed, "Did one of you take pictures?"
Rok, a green haired grunt spoke up, "Boss Flan, I took some pictures."
Flan, "Alright, let's get out of here. A destroyed tome is useless anyway."
Marik, "What about you lot?"
James, "I made my Porygon take pictures too. Not sure how much help it will be compared to an actual tome though."
Marik nodded, "Better than nothing. We should leave, no doubt this battle caught someone's attention."