Charizard beats its massive wings and quickly lofts into the air, narrowly evading Gary Oak's high-velocity Rollout.
"Rock Slide."
Watching Charizard retreat to the sky, Gary decisively commands Golem to unleash a rock avalanche! He came fully prepared with anti-air countermeasures!
"Golem!"
The elemental rock energy within Golem's core erupts outward, materializing massive boulders around it that launch directly skyward! The rocks rain down toward Charizard like a localized meteor shower, prompting Ash to yell out:
"Slice through them with Air Slash! Then target the ground right beneath Golem!"
"Roar!"
Hovering in the sky, Charizard beats its wings furiously, unleashing a barrage of crescent-shaped white blades of light! The light blades carve through the falling boulders like knives through paper, slicing them cleanly in half before continuing downward to strike the exact foundation where Golem is standing!
"Boom!"
The solid earth of the Rock Field is pulverized by the impact of the Air Slashes! The footing beneath Golem shatters completely, causing the rock titan to lose its balance and stumble hard to the ground!
"Now, Dragon Rage!"
"Roar!!"
Charizard opens its massive jaws, condensing a sphere of brilliant energy crackling with draconic electricity before firing it downward like a comet! Caught completely off-balance, Golem has zero room to maneuver and takes the full brunt of the Dragon Rage head-on!
As the dust and debris clear, a heavily battered Golem is revealed to the audience. It struggles to prop itself up to continue fighting, but its footing gives out, and it collapses forward with swirling eyes.
Another clean, decisive knockout! Charizard lands back on the field, snorting a small puff of smoke with a thoroughly arrogant expression. Is that all?
Type advantages mean nothing if your stats are high enough to bridge the gap completely. If the opponent's skills can't land a clean hit, they're getting taken out the moment contact is made. Under these conditions, a four-times type disadvantage or an eight-times disadvantage makes no difference at all!
"Come back, Golem… I never expected your Charizard's baseline level to be this high. The type gap was completely erased by raw stat superiority!"
"You've truly grown, Ash…"
"But… the next Pokémon you're facing is completely different from the last two!"
"Go, Blastoise!!"
Gary Oak unleashes his final partner—Blastoise! This is his starter and his absolute strongest companion! In terms of training level, it stands fully equal to Ash's Charizard, and it holds a massive natural type advantage. This time… the structural odds are entirely in his favor!
[Lance: Here it is! The classic showdown—Blastoise versus Charizard!]
[Diantha: Watching Ash and Gary duel with Blastoise and Charizard is exactly like looking at the historical records of Red and Green… Is this a genuine convergence of destiny?]
[Flint: The exact same matchup—Charizard versus Blastoise—and the ending will yield the exact same result: Charizard's victory… Destiny really loves its loops!]
[Green: Tsk, it looks like my alternate-universe counterpart isn't competitive enough!]
Green easily deduces the final outcome of this battle from the comments around him—meaning that in this alternate timeline, his counterpart lost to this world's version of Red…
Seeing Gary Oak bring out Blastoise against Ash's Charizard triggers a deeply repressed, frustrating memory for him. Back when he fought Red for the Indigo Plateau Championship, the final phase of their battle came down to these exact two Pokémon…
What a complete embarrassment! Holding the title of Champion for less than an hour remains the absolute black mark of his entire career!
[Red: Look closely. From this exact match onward, the trajectory Gary takes in this world begins to diverge from yours.]
[Red: Although Gary loses this specific match, it forces him to find the calling that truly suits him. Of course, that is Gary's path within the log timeline; in our current reality… his future choices haven't been set in stone yet.]
[Green: What do you mean by that? What do you mean, his true path?]
Green doesn't even care to snap back at Red for suddenly speaking up. He is far more intrigued by the underlying meaning of Red's words.
[Red: Think back to what Gary murmured under his breath when he recalled Nidoqueen just now: 'There won't be a next time.']
[Red: In the subsequent chapters of the archival logs, Gary transitions into becoming a full-time Pokémon Researcher. Meaning, after this specific tournament concludes, Gary changes his entire career path. Do you understand now?]
[Green: ...]
My alternate-universe self gave up active battling to become a researcher? Is this a bad joke???
Come on! I am Green—one of the absolute top-tier trainers in our world, the strongest Gym Leader in Kanto, and a pinnacle figure that aspiring trainers strive to challenge! In this timeline, my counterpart chooses to step away from the frontlines to become a researcher.
[Professor Oak: Everyone has their own callings, and the Gary in our current reality hasn't made that choice yet. Besides, being a researcher and a high-level trainer are not mutually exclusive—at least, not with the unique talents you two possess.]
Both Gary Oak and Green possess a rare, innate genius for Pokémon husbandry and cultivation.
An ordinary person certainly couldn't manage the massive workload of being an active researcher while maintaining a championship-tier team, but they aren't ordinary… This is exactly why Gary still possessed Championship-level capabilities during the Masters Eight tournament archive.
Green calms his racing thoughts, absorbing the massive influx of timeline data before refocusing on the screen.
Regardless of what happened in the archive, the future of the real world is still open! He will make sure to keep this world's Gary firmly on the path of an active trainer!
At the very least... he shouldn't just retire from professional tournaments immediately after losing to Ash, right? If you're going to transition careers, do it after a massive victory, not a loss!
In the Footage—
Facing Blastoise, Ash wastes no time and has Charizard open the exchange with a powerful Flamethrower! Even if a Water-type inherently resists Fire, it doesn't mean the attack deals zero damage. Now that the weather is clear and Rain Dance is gone, Flamethrower is the perfect opening move to test the waters!
"Blastoise, Rapid Spin!"
Gary Oak's Blastoise doesn't possess the blistering agility of Scizor, but in exchange, its raw defensive bulk is the highest on his entire team!
Furthermore, it has developed a specialized defensive technique: Rapid Spin! By utilizing a high-velocity rotation paired with its incredibly dense shell, any incoming attacks that fail to pierce its kinetic momentum deal virtually zero damage!
The scorching torrent of flames slams into the spinning shell and is deflected outward, showering the surrounding rocky field in bright sparks.
Blastoise leverages the forward momentum of the Rapid Spin to steadily close the distance between itself and the hovering Charizard.
"Blastoise, Hydro Pump!"
The spinning shell grinds to a precise halt as Blastoise extends its limbs. The two massive hydro-cannons mounted on its back lock onto Charizard, erupting with two surging pillars of pressurized water that drench the Fire-type dragon completely! The direct hit from Hydro Pump inflicts massive, super-effective damage!
"Excellent! While it's disoriented, use Rain Dance!"
Gary Oak seizes the opening to shift the weather back in his favor. This isn't just to boost his Water-type output and suppress Charizard's Fire-type moves; it's also because his Blastoise possesses the Rain Dish ability! In rainy weather, it will continuously regenerate its stamina! In a prolonged war of attrition, Charizard will inevitably run out of steam!
"Don't let him set it up! Stop it with Dragon Rage!"
Before the terrifying implications of a rainy environment can manifest, Brock had already warned Ash about the tactical danger, and Ash himself experienced the sheer pressure of fighting under Rain Dance during his Blackthorn Gym match.
Context Note: Just a quick heads-up for the gaming community—don't get tripped up thinking moves like Dragon Rage or Seismic Toss have fixed parameters here. In the anime universe and structural reality, moves like Seismic Toss or Dragon Rage don't inflict rigid, static values like they do in the games. It's exactly like the Light Metal ability—while mostly useless in a standard game format, it acts as a phenomenal agility multiplier for Scizor within an organic combat environment. The exact same rule applies to Dragon Rage and Seismic Toss; their destructive output isn't a fixed number, but scales directly based on the Pokémon's overall level, execution speed, and raw physical output.
🌟 The story is already written… waiting to be unleashed. Claim early access on Patreon: Patreon.com/kazama677
🔓 You hold the keys to bonus chapters:💬 10 reviews ignite 1 bonus chapter🔷 100 Power Stones summon another
🔥 Your power determines how fast the tale unfolds