[Check Out My P4treon For +30 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!! And get chapters before publishing them here for free on my p4treon][https://p4treon.com/ThePlotHoleRefuge]
===
Early one morning on the way to Veilstone City, Ash, who had woken up early, was training with his Pokémon.
"Scizor, Steel Beam!" Ash shouted, pointing at a huge rock nearly a story high in front of him.
"Sciz~"
Scizor slammed its two crimson steel claws together and began to channel the metallic energy within its armor, quickly condensing the metallic light representing the Steel-type into its claws.
Finally, it transformed into a silver-white metallic beam that shot out at an unimaginable speed.
Boom~
Accompanied by a loud explosion, this silver-white energy pillar directly destroyed the boulder in one hit, turning the massive rock into powder and leaving a huge circular crater in the ground.
"Well done, Scizor! You finally learned this move!" Ash walked over happily and praised it.
"Sciz~"
However, Scizor was not in good condition at the moment. Because of the shot it just fired, it was gasping for breath, clearly exhausted.
This was precisely the side effect brought by the powerful Steel-type move, Steel Beam.
As the strongest Same-Type Attack Bonus move for Steel-type Pokémon, Steel Beam has a power rating as high as 140 in the games.
With great power naturally comes great side effects.
Steel Beam consumes nearly half of the user's stamina, which is a quite harsh condition for use.
In the Pokémon world, it is comparable to the Ghost-type's Curse.
However, he had the Viridian Power obtained through his 'cheats'.
If he really got into a major battle, he could rely on Viridian Power to restore Scizor's stamina, allowing it to use high-power moves like Steel Beam.
Just like now, he had already reached out toward Scizor from a distance, and a shimmering green glow representing healing lit up out of thin air, restoring Scizor's stamina.
"That move is so amazing~"
"Yeah~"
At this time, Dawn and Brock were standing aside as spectators. The scene of the boulder being blown up in one hit made Dawn full of praise.
"Of course it is~" Ash responded with a smile while 'milking' Scizor, while also secretly muttering in his heart, "One move costs nearly 500 gold coins, how could it not be expensive?"
That's right, as a super high-power Steel-type move, the price in the system shop was as high as 500, which was much higher than ordinary skills.
Ash, who was used to being poor, almost cursed when he saw such a high price.
If he hadn't seen his gold coin balance starting with a 7, he felt like his lungs would have burst from anger at the system shop.
But to be fair, even if the Technical Machine was expensive, he would still choose to buy it.
Because powerful skills like Steel Beam are very dependent on a Pokémon's talent.
If the talent isn't good enough, it's really possible they might never master the move.
For this, please refer to a certain Gible's Draco Meteor.
The 'cheat' method of using a Technical Machine directly shortens this process.
It's a bit expensive, but quite practical.
"Come back, Scizor!"
After a minute of treatment, Ash recalled Scizor, whose stamina was fully restored, and then recalled his other Pokémon one by one.
Having finished all this, the three of them put on their backpacks and prepared to continue forward.
However, they hadn't walked for long before Brock delivered some bad news.
"This is bad. There's no Pokémon Center ahead either. It looks like we'll have to sleep in the wild again for the next few days!"
Brock looked at the 3D map in his hand, giving a fatal blow to Dawn, who had been camping for several days in a row.
After all, for a beautiful girl who loves cleanliness, sleeping in the wild for a long time is quite a troublesome thing.
However, in Ash's eyes, Dawn didn't have any expression of regret at this time. Instead, she happily made a suggestion.
"How about we go to a hot spring? I have a childhood friend who happens to be at a hot spring nearby!"
"A hot spring, huh No wonder" Ash suddenly realized.
After the girl's reminder, he instantly recalled that Dawn had another 'best friend,' so it was no wonder she was so calm.
"A hot spring? That sounds great!" Hearing this, Brock immediately closed the map function on his watch.
Pika~
And the yellow-skinned rodent was already perched on Ash's shoulder, looking at Dawn with expectant eyes.
"Then let's head out, Go, go, go~"
Seeing that the two had no objections and Pikachu was looking impatient, Dawn immediately walked to the front of the group to lead the way.
Soon, under Dawn's guidance, they arrived at a hot spring inn consisting of rows of neat wooden cabins near the mountainside.
In front of the door of one wooden cabin, a red-haired tomboy, similar to Zoey, was communicating with three pink-nosed Swinub in front of her.
"Leona~"
Seeing her familiar childhood friend, Dawn waved her hands and shouted at the red-haired girl.
"Dee Dee~"
However, the other party's response made Dawn almost trip. An awkward smile appeared on her face as she said dissatisfiedly, "I told you not to call me Dee Dee~"
"Sorry, sorry~"
Since it was a best friend she hadn't seen in a long time, that behavior just now was purely an instinctive reaction.
After seeing that she had caused Dawn discomfort, Leona immediately apologized to Dawn, being much better at social interactions than Kenny.
At the same time, to divert attention, she pointed at the approaching Ash and Brock. "Who are these two?"
"These are my companions, Ash and Brock~" Dawn pointed at the two respectively, and then introduced Leona, "And she is my kindergarten friend, her name is Leona!"
After Dawn's introduction, they could be considered to have become preliminary acquaintances.
After a short exchange, Dawn suggested that they wanted to soak in the hot spring, but Leona was hesitant and didn't agree directly.
Seeing her acting so coy, Ash held back Dawn, who wanted to rush inside, and questioned Leona.
"Eh, the spring water is gone?" Dawn said in surprise.
After a simple conversation, they learned that the hot spring operated by Leona's family was gone; the spring source had stopped flowing, as if it had been drained dry.
Their whole family was now out looking for the reason why the spring water had dried up.
Leona was just mobilizing the Swinub, which are capable of searching for hot springs, preparing to find a new one.
"Then we'll help too!"
Ash took the initiative to offer. Even if he couldn't remember the details of the event clearly, he could roughly guess that it had something to do with the Team Rocket Trio.
Dawn and Brock also chimed in, making Leona thank them repeatedly.
Afterward, they followed behind the three Swinub to find a new hot spring.
After walking for only a short while, they arrived at the location of the new hot spring.
However, this was actually stolen from Leona's family by the simply disguised Team Rocket Trio. After being exposed by Ash, they actually had the nerve to demand evidence.
"Buizel, Hydro Pump~"
Under the surprised gazes of the three, Ash, seeing that reasoning didn't work, immediately sent out Buizel to use 'physical' reasoning, defeating Seviper and Vortente with absolute advantage.
Then, with one Hydro Pump, he sent the Team Rocket Trio flying before they even had a chance to say their lines.
They could only leave behind the phrase "We're blasting off again!" and then vanished into the horizon like a shooting star.