A Promise Between Men

(A.N. I added pictures to go with everyone who was introduced lst chapter, so check them out if you want. Just remember that they are all aged up to appropriate ages.)

"So Gary, is there anything fun to do in Kanto?" Victor asked curiously.

"Not really... I mean, I myself haven't left Pallet before going on my journey." Gary said with a sigh, as if the conversation were troublesome.

"Well there's the city of water, Cerulean, which is home to the Waterflowers." Tracey supplied before continuing, "There's also Celedon city, known for the flowers planted by Erika and her students as well as the massive department store. Then there's Saffron city, home of the Silph co and the most technologically advanced city in Kanto. Then there's the Safari Zone in Fuchsia city, the Seafoam Islands, Digleett Cave, Viridian Forest, Cinnabar Island, and the Sevii Islands."

"Hmm.... I'll have to check all of that out one day." Hilbert said thoughtfully

Currently all of the guys from the earlier meeting, sans Ace and Ash, were gathered together as they discussed their home regions and such. The girls had also gone off on their own as well, probably to go shopping and whatever else women did when they got together. None of them knew, and they didn't really want to know.

"What about you Lucas, Barry? What's Sinnoh like?" Tracey asked the duo eagerly.

"Well first there's Mt. Coronet right in the middle, which you can see from EVERY corner of the region, no matter how far you go. But the view above ground has got nothing on the view below. We have something called the Grand Underground, which is a network of tunnels spanning under the ENTIRE region, in which there are numerous caverns big enough to house entire ecosystems." Barry exclaimed excitedly.

"True, it IS very beautiful down there, but I much prefer the beauty of Lake Verity. It's so large that you can't even see the shore on the other side, and there's a mysticism about it that I've loved ever since I was a kid. Plus it was where we began our journey." Lucas gave his opinion, while holding up the pokeball that housed his starter pokemon, Torterra.

It was a fond memory, as he and Barry went to the lake and were attacked by a couple of Starly. While that in itself was not so fond, what was was when the suitcase professor Rowen and Dawn accidentally left behind fell open, revealing the pokeballs that housed Chimchar and Turtwig. Obviously Lucas chose Turtwig, and Barry took Chimchar.

"For me the most beautiful place in Hoenn is a toss-up between Meteor Falls and Mt. Chimney. Though I know for a fact that Swampert loved the forest around Fortree city the most. It's almost always raining there." Brendan said as he recalled the aforementioned scenery fondly.

"What about Badges? How many do each of you have?" Ethan asked them, before pulling out a case and opening it to show them all of the Badges he had collected. "I've got five of them myself! I just need the Mineral Badge, Glacier Badge and the Rising Badge before I can participate in the Silver League Conference!"

"Nice. But I think I have you beat." Brendan said as he flashed his own case, which had six Badges inside it. "After I challenge Tate/Liza, I should have my seventh!"

"Not bad~! I WOULD have seven already, but the Gym Leader of Snowpoint dity wasn't there when I went to challenge her." Barry said cockily, while Lucas nodded in understanding beside him.

"Wow. I only JUST managed to get my fourth Badge before getting on board the SS. Anne." Victor said as he and Hop showed their Badges as well.

"Humph. I was able to get six Badges before leaving Kalos." Calem said with an air of superiority.

"Well, Alola doesn't have any Gym Leaders, so we don't collect Badges there." Elio said wryly, feeling a little put out by the achievements of the others.

"HA! So did we!" Nate exclaimed as both he and Hilbert flashed their own Badges since the two of them had been traveling together for a good portion of their respective journeys. After all, Hilda and Hilbert were twins, while both Rosa and Nate were their cousins.

"What about you Gary?" Max asked with a smirk, already knowing the answer.

"I only have three Badges, mainly because I waited in Vermillion for the SS. Anne after getting the Thunder Badge." Gary said, showing them his own as well.

Max of course was too young to challenge the Gym Leaders, and Tracey was more focused on helping professor Oak while Arven already expressed he had no interest in challenging the Gyms of Paldea. And naturally everyone else also planned to add to the number of Badges they got while aboard the SS. Anne, just like Ace.

Speaking of...

"By the way, how many Badges does Ace and Ash have?" Lucas asked curiously.

"They both have three Kanto Badges like me, but Ace also got the Fog Badge from Morty a while back." Gary said with more than a little evnom. He was still annoyed that Ace managed to get ahead of him as far as regional Badges go.

"And where are they?" Elio asked while glancing around curiously.

"If I know Ace, then they are definitely training." Gary said without any hesitation.

"Training? On the SS. Anne?" Victor asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, that guy is a training nut. It's all he does when he's not traveling or hitting on girls."

"Huh..."

"""..."""

"Lets go check it out."

None of the guys argued the suggestion as they immediately headed towards the same arena that Ace and Barry had their battle at earlier. It was the spot with the most space on the ship after all, though there were a couple more smaller arenas elsewhere on board.

They didn't need to check them though, as they readily found a crowd waiting for them at the main arena.

*CRASH!*

"""!?!"""

The group of guys hurried forward, elbowing their way through the crowd of people as they heard what sounded like intense combat going on instead of training, followed by a gout of whitish flames that went up into the air.

When they got to the front of the crowds though, they were stunned by what they saw.

"CHAAAAAAAAAAR!"

In the middle of the arena was a battlered and bruised white Charizard, which was being attacked on all sides by several pokemon, a Golem, Onix, a Miltank, and a Lucario. All while numerous bandages covered areas of the Charizard's body, along with objects that they recognized as weighted bands wrapped around it's legs, arms,and even it's tail and wings.

Meanwhile Ace and a Chansey were also there, standing to the side watching on impassively while Ash was lying on the ground next to him, chest heaving while Goh tried to get him some water.

"What IS this...?" Arven uttered in disbelief.

"Training." Gary said as if it were obvious, neither he nor Tracey being surprised in the slightest.

"You call THIS training?" Ethan asked incredulously.

"Right?! This just looks like a one-sided beating taking place." Celem stated.

They weren't the only ones though.

"That poor Charizard..."

"How could he do that to his own pokemon?"

"He should be ashamed of himself!"

Such comments could be heard here or there from amongst the crowd that was watching Charizard being beaten, making Gary scoff at them.

"Idiots. None of them can see what's actually going on." He sneered.

"What do you mean?" Brendan asked.

"Look at Charizard."

All of them did as he said, actually taking a good look at the pokemon in question, specifically his eyes.

What they saw there was fierce determination and fire that refused to be extinguished, no matter the abuse he suffered. Even when he got hit by two Rollouts from Miltank and Golem, before getting Slammed by Onix's rocky tail and then hit by Lucario's Extreme Speed and Bone Club combo, Charizard never faltered or recoiled.

Instead, Charizard would send a powerful Flamethrower of Fire Punch right back at them, with flames so intense that Golem and Onix would even start glowing slightly.

"That Charizard doesn't know the meaning of 'give up'. Blastoise and I battled it back when they were still a Charmeleon and Wartortle, and the bastard nearly WON. Not only that, but apparently he even began training to take less damage from water afterwards, just so he could get back at Blastoise. I'd bet my trainer license that right now it's preparing for a rematch against Nemona and her Lycanroc."

"It trained to resist water...?" Arven uttered in disbelief. He wasn't the only one though.

"Not entirely. But it can definitely resist water far better than a fire type has any right to. I even saw it swimming every chance it got on our way to Vermillion."

"""..."""

No one had any idea how to respond to that, or the scene playing out in front of them. But then, something happened.

Right after Charizard took a particularly bad hit from Onix, it looked as if he might actually go down. But then, his entire body began to glow.

"That's Blaze!" Max exclaimed in awe, before things quickly grew out of control.

A red aura exploded outwards from Charizard's body, like a massive raging inferno, while the flames on his tail became engorged and more flames gathered in his mouth. But on top of all of that was the HEAT.

"Kyaaaaa!"

"It's so HOT!"

"Get away!"

Cries and exclamations sounded as the crowd around them quickly dispersed to escape the heat, but the guys simply stood there, transfixed at the scene taking place before them.

"Now Charizard!" Ace declared suddenly, speaking for the first time since they arrived.

Immediately Golem, Onix and Miltank all retreated despite having some sort of defense from fire type attacks, either from being rock types or the Thick Fat ability, while Lucario shot in to fight Charizard in close combat instead.

The two of them then began to trade blows with one another, Lucario moving at high speed while using Bone Club, while Charizard appeared pitifully sluggish as he used Fire Punch with both hands.

"That's it. Now hold it Charizard!" Ace continued, giving Charizard encouragment as the two of them fought.

"Keep it up as long as you can!"

Despite the encouragement though, the red aura surrounsing Charizard soon began to diminish while the flames on his tail and mouth began to shrink.

After all, Blaze, as well as Torrent and Overgrow, was NOT a surefire way to win a battle. It was a last second boost that MIGHT activate when the pokemon in question was on the verge of being defeated.

It could be said that Charizard was running well past mere fumes at this point, even after he had already been defeated once today.

So it was no surprise to any of them when Blaze ended entirely before Charizard fell to one knee, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. But it was a testiment to his strength and sheer will that he did NOT pass out, even after all of that.

"Alright Chansey, go ahead." Ace said suddenly.

"Chansey, chance!" His Chansey cried as a pressure the guys didn't even realize was there seemed to lift from the arena, and she went to start healing Charizard along with the Miltank.

"What was that?" Brendan asked.

"Probably his Chansey using Gravity on the entire arena to make the training harder on them." Gary said nonchalantly, earning yet another round of incredulous looks.

"He's insane... This guy is genuinely insane." Nate uttered.

"Nah. Insane is when he himself also trains alongside his pokemon and fights with them as well. All while wearing weighted bracelets, boots, and a vest."

Jaws had all collectively fallen to the floor as the entire group gaped at Ace in disbelief, while Gary and Tracey both nodded slowly in affirmation.

"Its not so bad once you get used to it." Ace himself said suddenly, surprising them as he looked over in their direction. He then approached them while Charizard was resting and said,

"You all need to remember, the League and the Gyms are basically side quests for me. My true goal is the Legendaries and criminal organizations, so standard training won't cut it for us."

By this point just about everyone else had fled to escape Charizard's flames, so they were the only ones present around the arena. And as such, the group was silent as they digested what Ace told them.

"He's got a point..." Lucas muttered, to which the rest of the guys slowly agreed.

By this point they had battled against the criminal groups in their home regions a couple or more times, but they had never done anything to the scale that Ace had. So it made sense that the scale of their respective training regimens would also be completely different as well.

"So are you just gonna stand there gawking, or are you pussies gonna join in?" He asked with a smirk.

"Who are you calling a pussy?" Brendan asked as he readily stepped forward.

"You better not complain when we take your training style, and whoop your ass later!" Nate declared as he got fired up.

"Oh please. Like any of you can beat my team. But that reminds me..."

Turning serious all of a sudden, Ace stuck his fist out at the others.

"We all heard the rules they're going to use for the ILT, so lets agree right now. NONE of us will challenge each other during the preliminaries. There's plenty of other trainers on board that we can battle. Instead, we'll wait until the finals so that when we battle it'll actually matter."

"Humph. If none of you can even make it to the finals, then you're not even worth my time." Gary said as he put his fist out to meet Ace's.

"Count me in!" Ethan said as his fist met the other two.

"Alright. Lets dominate the finals." Brendan said as his fist met theirs, though Ace noticed that he was his focus.

"Hell yeah! I'm in!" Barry exclaimed excitedly.

"Always so eager. But I'm in as well." Lucas said wryly, even as they both put their fists in.

"I'm always in for a challenge!" Nate declared.

"You can count me in as well." Hilbert smirked as the two of them joined the rest.

"Sounds like fun." Celem said as he joined in as well.

"A little competition sounds fun." Elio said with a smile of anticipation.

"I agree. What about you Hop?" Victor asked.

"Of course I'm in! I gotta show Leon he's not the only Champion in the family!"

"Wait a second! Don't forget about me!" Ash declared, standing up from where he had collapsed after Ace's earlier training.

The thirteen guys stood in a circle, all with their fists in as Max, Arven, Tracey and Goh watched from outside.

"Alright then, we'll all fight to make it to the finals. And thats where the REAL battles will begin." Ace declared.

"""YEAH!"""

Their promise made, the group then broke to have their first joint training session.

(A.N. Comment if there's any characters you want to see participating in the tournament for some of them to battle against, either from the games or anime. I have some in mind already, but won't say no to a few suggestions.)

***

"Haaa..." I sighed after parting ways with the rest of the guys, who were all incredibly sore and worn out after just a 'little' bit of training. To the point that they all immediately returned to their rooms for some rest.

Some may say it was foolish for me to teach others my way of training, both myself and my pokemon. But in this instance it was necessary due to all of the threats each of us may be facing in the future.

Plus I might get some real rivals out of it as well.

Instead of heading straight back to the room, I made my way to the restaurant to order food to be delivered there for the girls and I, sending a message to May as I did so to see what they wanted.

The answer I got back though was rather...unexpected.

"We don't need anything, the rest of us already ordered room service and had it delivered to the suite. See?"

The message was followed by a picture that made me cock a brow, as it showed the girls all gathered in a circle playing what looked like strip poker since all of them were in various states of undress. From Selene, who appeared to have only lost her shirt, to the others that were attired only in a mismatch of clothes, like Lyra being naked under her overalls, or Serena with only her skirt left so that her breasts were exposed. Poor Lillie though, as she was the only one completely naked.

Obviously none of them appeared to have noticed May taking the picture, otherwise none of them would have let her send it. Something I was grateful for, as I got quite the feast for the eyes out of it.

"Something good?" Asked a sleepy yet sensual sounding voice.

"Professor Ivy." I said, looking up towards the source to see the sexy professor standing in front of me, clad only in her bikini with her lab coat and a towel hanging on an arm. "What are you doing here?"

"I was just about to grab a bite to eat before heading back to my room for the night." She explained.

"Oh. Mind if I join you?" I asked, figuring I would give the girls some more time to themselves.

"Sure. I would enjoy some company." She said, before sashaying her way to a table in the restaurant in a way that drew more than a few eyes to her glorious bikini-clad ass. Mine included.

I followed her and took a seat opposite of the sexy professor, picking up a menu as I did so.

"So what's good?"

"I'm not entirely sure myself. I boarded the SS. Anne back in Johto only a few days before yourself. But this was excellent when I had it last night."

"I see, thanks for the recomendation."

I ordered the dish that professor Ivy recommended while she ordered something else to try, along with a couple of drinks.

"So I hear you're not only a trainer of the League, but also an honorary Ranger and an official Breeder as well?" Professor Ivy asked as we waited for our food.

"Yeah. Though my plan was just to become a Ranger associate in order to hear about any emergency situations that may develop, they made me an honorary Ranger due to my excellent scores and performance during the physical test. As for joining the Breeder Association, I did that in order to have access to the best possible resources for my pokemon, plus it would also make selling pokemon products a lot easier. Like the honey I'm getting from my hive of Combee."

"Indeed. There are numerous perks to being an official Breeder. I make use of them quite often in my research, which mostly revolves around breeding pokemon and studying their genetic makeup. I especially look into the gentic differences between regional variant pokemon, like the Alolan Muk you said you got earlier, and the specifics on parents passing down the alpha gene to their children."

"Interesting... I've got a few alpha pokemon myself, but three of them I know for a fact inherited their alpha genes from their parents. Plus I do intend to breed my new Muk with my remaining Grimer once it evolves."

"I would very much like to see that data when you eventually do. As for the research into the alpha gene, I already confirmed that it passes from parent to child. But that begs the question, WHERE did the gene originate from, and WHAT determines which child it passes down to? As I've already confirmed that not every child of an alpha becomes an alpha themselves. Nine times out of ten only a single descendant will inherit the alpha gene, while the other one is split between the gene not passing down at all, and a second child inheriting it as well."

"How fascinating..."

"Indeed. If you wish Ace, as one breeder to another, I would be willing to share some of my data if you would be willing to help in my future research regarding genetics. It would be especially appreciated since you apparently have a few alpha pokemon."

"That would be much appreciated professor Ivy, and I would be more than happy to assist you in your future research when I have the time."

"Please, just call me Ivy."

"Very well then, Ivy." I said as she flashed a smile in my direction, right as our food arrived.

...

*BANG!*

I slammed the slutty professor up against the outside of her suite door, my lips pressed against her own in a fervor of lust and desire.

Ivy linked her arms around my neck while her legs wrapped around my waist, making me support all of her weight as we continued making out. To help in this endeavor, my hands went straight for her ass to squeeze it before they moved to the side of her hips.

A couple tugs of some strings later, and her bikini bottoms fell to the floor to make her naked from the waist down.

"We aren't even inside yet..." She gasped while pulling her lips away from my own, the edge of her mouth curled upwards in a humorous smirk.

"And? If I want, I'll just fuck you right here all night!" I growled at her, before removing her bikini top as well so that she was now completely naked.

"Oh my~! Well, we don't really want to trouble the neighbors." She said without any concern regarding her nakedness, even though anyone could come along and see her at any moment. "Right coat pocket."

In response to her sultry whisper in my ear, I used my psychic power to retrieve the key from her coat on the floor beside us, and opening the door before doing the same with the rest of her discarded clothes and towel.

Once inside I literally threw her across the room onto her bed, where she waited for me naked as the day she was born. I slammed the door shut behind me before stalking towards the bed, slinging my bag down at the foot of it before peeling off my shirt, and then my shorts.

Ivy's usually sleepy looking eyes widened in mild alarm when I exposed my lower half, before they adopted a mischevious gleam as she licked her lips in anticipation.

"I see now why you have so many young girls following you around like a bunch of lost Growlithe." She remarked while leaning back and spreading her legs to make herself ready.

"It's not about the size of your tool, but how you use it. I'm gifted in both." I stated while putting a knee on the bed and crawling on top of her, my hands going straight for her breasts while I lined myself up between her legs.

"I hope you're ready, because once I start I don't stop anytime soon." I told her, before pushing myself into her hot and steamy folds.

"Ahhh...!" Ivy gasped as I filled her, burying myself into her inch by inch until I felt my tip prod against the opening to her womb.

I left it sitting there for a beat, before pulling out until only the tip was left inside.

"Lets study PLENTY of reproduction and genetics tonight Ivy." I whispered into her ear, before slamming myself back inside her once more.