Power-Up Punch?
When Red heard Ash call out that specific move, his stoic, stone-faced facade nearly cracked.
He couldn't stop himself from throwing Ash a bewildered look. Seeing the dead-serious expression on Ash's face, Red stayed completely silent. Relying entirely on his immense self-control, he managed to swallow the question burning in his throat.
Originally, when Red saw a boy his own age wearing a nearly identical outfit and wielding such a terrifyingly strong Froakie, he assumed the kid had some brilliant, unorthodox strategy. But looking at him now... why did he feel like this kid had literally just started his journey yesterday?
To be fair, Red had only been traveling for a little over a month himself. But in his mind, one month was more than enough time to graduate from being a total novice.
Boom!
The Power-Up Punch struck Crobat squarely.
It was not very effective...
"Fro!"
Froakie furiously whipped its head around and glared at Ash. It only just realized that Fighting-type moves were 4x resisted by Poison/Flying-types. Ash had genuinely ordered it to punch a Crobat! Sensing the deeply strange look Charmeleon was giving it, Froakie felt its blood boil. It had completely lost face in front of a fellow warrior!
Froakie's Attack rose!
Froakie's Friendship decreased!
Ash blinked. "???"
Ignoring Froakie's pitiful damage output, Charmeleon's Thunder Punch was an entirely different story. The Electric-type attack was super effective, dealing massive damage. More importantly, faint yellow sparks began to sporadically crackle across Crobat's wings, and the bat's face twitched as its muscles randomly seized up.
It was paralyzed by Thunder Punch!
"Damn it!"
Seeing his Crobat succumb to paralysis, the blue-haired Officer clenched his fists in frustration. His Crobat was undoubtedly a higher level than the two brats' Pokémon. But these two kids were absolutely freakish. Especially that stone-faced one... seriously, was that kid actually a rookie Trainer?!
If Red could hear the Officer's internal monologue, he would have proudly corrected him: I am a veteran Trainer with an entire month of experience.
Regardless, if Crobat hadn't been paralyzed, the Officer felt he could still pull out a win. But now that it was handicapped, as much as he hated to admit it, he was genuinely struggling to handle these two brats.
Should he switch Pokémon? He still had a Houndoom ready to go. It wasn't completely out of the question, but...
The Officer looked at the Froakie standing in front of Ash. Sure, the kid commanding it looked like a total idiot who didn't even know basic type matchups. But the frog itself was an absolute monster. And unfortunately, it was a Water-type.
No matter how dumb the kid was, there was no way he'd miss using Water-type moves against a Fire-type Pokémon, right?
If that Froakie landed even a single Water Pulse, the Officer was fairly certain his Houndoom would be instantly crippled. Throwing it out right now, especially with that terrifying, stone-faced kid watching like a hawk, would just be serving them free experience points.
And as for his subordinates...
The Officer quietly glanced back at the grunts standing behind him. He immediately looked away.
Forget it. Sending them in would literally just be feeding the enemy.
With that thought, the Officer subtly rested a hand on the Poké Ball at his waist. He had no other choice. Since he couldn't find a tactical advantage, he just had to force his way through.
"Crobat! Use Haze!"
"Cro!"
Crobat fought through the paralysis, flapping its wings to release a thick, obscuring fog over the battlefield. The Officer immediately issued his next command.
"Now, use Whirlwind!"
"Cro!"
"Don't give him the chance! Froakie, Quick Attack!"
"...Dragon Tail."
Ash and Red had absolutely no intention of letting Crobat complete its setup.
The paralysis had severely crippled Crobat's naturally high speed. This made it embarrassingly easy for Froakie, who already specialized in pure speed, to intercept. Froakie sliced cleanly through the Haze. It couldn't see anything, but since when was sight strictly necessary for combat? Tracking an opponent solely by the sound of the wind was a fundamental skill for any master swordsman.
"Fro!"
Froakie pierced Crobat's wing with its glowing blade. The agonizing pain completely disrupted the bat's attempt to use Whirlwind. At the exact same moment, Red's Charmeleon charged boldly through the dark fog. Its tail glowed with a blinding white light. Executing a mid-air spin, Charmeleon brought its tail crashing down directly onto Crobat's head.
"Cro!"
Crobat let out a pained shriek. Thick spirals replaced its eyes as it hit the ground. In the next second, a red beam of light pulled the unconscious bat back into the Officer's Poké Ball.
Simultaneously, a second Poké Ball popped open. A lean, vicious-looking Houndoom materialized in front of the boys.
"Damn it!" The Officer's face twisted into an ugly scowl. The situation had just shifted from bad to disastrous.
Even though Houndoom's level was comparable to Crobat's, its Dark/Fire typing put it at a massive disadvantage. Given the sheer combat prowess these two brats had just displayed, he had exactly zero confidence in holding them off with just one Pokémon.
However, just as the Officer was desperately trying to calculate a way to use Houndoom against Ash and Red, a faint rustling sound came from behind him. A moment later, a capable-looking Team Rocket Grunt slipped up next to him and whispered directly into his ear.
"Executive Archer, the Moon Stone extraction is complete."
The Grunt had kept his voice incredibly low. But he severely underestimated the fact that both Ash and Red were borderline superhuman monsters when it came to their physical senses.
Their eyes narrowed simultaneously. They stared at the Team Rocket forces, their expressions shifting to absolute, deadly seriousness.
...Archer, who had been closely observing the two brats the entire time, suddenly froze.
Why did these two kids suddenly feel exactly the same?
They didn't even look that similar!
"Extraction complete? Excellent."
Archer quickly dismissed his confusion. Hearing the good news, a smug smile finally returned to his face.
"In that case, there is no reason for us to stick around in this damp cave any longer."
"We are leaving immediately."
"...Think you can just walk away?"
"Not a chance!"
In that exact moment, Red and Ash spoke simultaneously, their voices overlapping perfectly. Without skipping a beat, they both stepped forward and threw their arms out.
"Froakie, use Smack Down!"
"...Fire Blast!"
"Fro!"
First, Froakie drew its glowing blade and unleashed a rising, crescent-shaped wave of pure kinetic energy. A split second later, Charmeleon spewed a massive, blinding cross of condensed, superheated flames directly into the rising slash.
The white shockwave was instantly dyed a violent, scorching orange. The tips of the crescent slash violently expanded outward, branching into multiple fiery trails. From a distance, it looked exactly like a nine-headed, demonic dragon roaring as it breathed hellfire.
Combined Secret Technique: Nine-Headed Dragon Strike!
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!"
Seeing the apocalyptic inferno hurtling toward him, the color completely drained from Archer's face. Why were these two brats suddenly this overwhelmingly powerful?! But he didn't have time to question it. He screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Houndoom, use Overheat!"
"Hooowwwl!"
Standing like the true gatekeeper of hell, Houndoom felt no fear facing the towering flames. It would gladly sacrifice everything for its master. It bared its fangs at the incoming inferno, and a blinding, crimson light began to furiously gather in its maw. Houndoom's entire body glowed white-hot as it channeled every last drop of its energy.
In the next second, Houndoom unleashed a massive, concentrated sphere of catastrophic thermal energy directly into the approaching firestorm.
BOOM!!!
The sheer conculsive force of the collision was like detonating dozens of kilos of high-grade explosives. A violent shockwave, mixed with scorching winds and thick dust, swept violently through the cavern. Everyone instinctively threw their arms up to shield their faces.
As the howling winds finally began to die down, Ash and Red heard Archer's furious, fading voice echo from deeper inside the cave.
"You damn brats! Just you wait! I'll never forgive you for this!"
"Don't let them escape!"
Hearing the threat, Ash instantly knew Team Rocket was making a run for it. He immediately tried to sprint after them. But the moment he took a single step, an overwhelming wave of sheer physical exhaustion crashed over his entire body.
A few feet away, Red stumbled slightly, experiencing the exact same phenomenon.
"What's going on? Why am I suddenly so tired?" Ash gasped, leaning on his knees.
"..."
Red maintained his completely stoic expression, but deep confusion flickered in his eyes. He possessed incredible physical stamina. Since the day he started his journey, he had rarely, if ever, felt genuinely fatigued.
Glancing down, Red noticed that both his Charmeleon and the other boy's Froakie were also displaying distinct signs of exhaustion, though not nearly as severe as the Trainers themselves.
What exactly had just happened?
Red asked himself the question, and his mind immediately jumped to the absurdly powerful, logic-defying combination attack they had just executed. It wasn't as if Red had never participated in a Double Battle before. But he had never experienced a combined move that felt anything like that.
It was as if the two distinct moves had entirely transcended their original forms and perfectly fused into an entirely new, singular entity.
But how was that even possible?
Actually, the answer was fairly obvious.
He first eliminated himself as the variable. Red was just an ordinary guy, after all. And besides himself, there was only one other person involved in the synchronization.
Red stared blankly at Ash.
He recalled how effortlessly and naturally their commands had synced up just moments ago.
Red looked incredibly cold on the outside, but internally, he wasn't an aloof person at all. He could clearly feel the blazing, passionate thirst for battle burning inside of him. Most of the time, he just kept those intense emotions deeply buried. But during that brief clash, Red felt as if that fanatic, burning passion had almost completely erupted to the surface.
So... was this kid responsible for that?
Red looked at Ash, who was currently rubbing the back of his head with a goofy, clueless smile. Red's absolute certainty wavered slightly.
Hmm... maybe he just did it unconsciously?