It has been a few days since Ash, Sorrel, and Verity left the cave in the direction of the mountains. Ash decided to drop off some of his Pokemon in his private PC for the time being. Now there is a difference between going to the PC and being sent to Oak.
The PC is sort of a personal space where Pokemon could relax as much as they want without battling, while Oak would just let them roam the fields in his ranch. He could also choose to make it private so no one could see what was in it, which was a plus when he gave a few of his Pokemon a vacation.
After he sent some of them to relax, he was left with Pikachu, Clefairy, Abra, Weedle, Nidoran, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander still with him, though he could always pull them out at any moment's notice.
Along the way, he continued trying to get Nidoran and Weedle to evolve while also making his starters catch up to the rest of the team. At night, he would drag Lucario away to practice more stuff with Aura and then heal him after he was done with him. Overall, a lot of progress was made with everything.
Charmander got the most attention since he was the newest member; considering his ability and current Nature he would be a mixed attacker with a current focus on physical and would start practicing special later. Surprisingly, Charmander was pretty close to evolving, at least more than Bulbasaur or Squirtle.
He would give them training regiments, prepare their food, give them poke blocks, and then make them work on their control over their STAB element. Meanwhile, he would continue brainstorming new ideas and studying his new information, leading him to his newest idea.
They were currently staying in a small town for the night, and they all went out for dinner at a nice restaurant with their Pokemon out, and Ash was writing in his usual notebook that both Sorrel and Verity had looked at before. Sorrel was intrigued by his training regiments and specific diets, and Verity was confused about them. Explaining it to her made her start thinking about something, but she never said what.
"What are you making this time Ash?" Sorrel said as he was eating pasta.
"Well, I have been trying to understand something specific for a while, electromagnetism." Ash said catching both of their interests, "You see if you add electricity at a very specific frequency to metal it causes the poles to face the same direction creating magnets."
"However, if you add a different frequency of electricity to the magnet, you get an electromagnet, and it has been that part right there that has stumped me for a while," Ash said as he showed a rough sketch of Pikachu using an iron tail and writing with different possible frequencies and calculations.
Sorrel looked very intrigued, "Fascinating on paper it seems simple but I can tell from all the work you are putting in that it is anything but."
Verity on the other hand looked a bit dejected seeing things she couldn't understand. She got up from the table and grabbed Piplup who still hadn't finished eating, "Hey guys, me and Piplup are done, we are going to head back to our room, see you guys tomorrow."
Before Ash or Sorrel could say anything Verity already walked off, and Squirtle started eating Piplup's food.
"Do you think she is like that because of us?" Sorrel asked, staring at Verity's plate which was only half eaten.
"Probably,"
"Should we say something?"
"Probably not, let's be realistic if we try it will probably make things worse,"
The rest of the night finished without much else happening and the next day they continued journeying along the way Nidoran and Weedle were beating up a bunch of random Pokemon along the way.
The day eventually turned to evening and everyone decided to stop, it was Ash's turn to cook so Sorrel and Verity would set up the camp.
Meanwhile, at the side, Nidoran and Weedle still wanted to battle and since they had been fighting together they decided to have a battle themselves, Ash noticed them but decided to let them do their thing as Squirtle sat down next to Charmander and Bulbasaur and pulled out some popcorn to enjoy with his homies.
Their battle began with them being about 10 feet apart and Nidoran closed the distance by dashing forward throwing his horn forward as it started glowing.
Weedle who had been practicing with nothing but her webs the whole time waiting for her to evolve could now make webs as thin as wires and as strong as metal, using the webs she zipped out of the way leaving one thread behind.
Nidoran caught himself and decided to jump aiming to kick the worm, but as he was in the air Weedle shot out a thread that wrapped it around his legs and slammed him into the ground, and as Nidoran was starting to get up Weedle sent electricity through the webs getting Nidoran by surprise.
Nidoran refused to take that lying down so he jumped up using his arms and ripped through the wabs on his legs deciding to send an ice beam at Weedle.
Weedle started spitting a large amount of web onto the ground leaving a mound in front of her to protect herself as the Beam hit the threads and froze them leaving her safe. She continued to zip around Nidoran leaving behind small threads as she did.
When she got above Nidoran she sent a web to grab him and pull him up once Nidoran got up, she used a bug bite to his side and threw him back down,
Nidoran got up starting to get frustrated and decided to charge a Thunderbolt, at this point Sorrel and Verity noticed the battle between the two Pokemon, they were going to try to stop it until they noticed the Pokemon sitting down and watching.
Verity still turned to Ash, "Hey Ash your Pokemon are fighting aren't you going to do anything about it,"
"Why they are just training? Besides we have my cooking assistant Clefairy to heal them after they finish," Ash said as Clefairy jumped in front with a small chef hat.
Nidoran shot the lightning bolt toward Weedle, but she threw one of her conductive webs causing it to change course leaving her safe. At this point, her preparations were done as she grabbed a thread close to her and jumped down.
Nidoran saw this as his chance and charged his horn to get ready to charge, but as she reached the ground Nidoran couldn't move. Throughout the battle, Weedle was setting up thin thread-like webs, and when she jumped down she tightened them leaving Nidoran wrapped and trapped.
Seeing her chance she started using her webs as a conductor to send more electricity into Nidoran, which he couldn't dodge.
Nidoran wanted to break out, he did not want to lose, he was a prince, he was the prince he couldn't lose, he wouldn't lose. As he thought that to himself he started glowing and growing, and when the light went away he evolved into Nidorino.
Ash'd dex dinged as it updated while he was cutting some vegetables and Clefairy was mixing a bowl of pink batter.
—
[Nidorino(M)]
[Nature: Mild (+SpA, -Def)]
[Ability: Poison Point Hidden ability: Hustle]
[Current moves: Focus energy, Confusion, Protect, Toxic spikes, Stealth Rock, Thunderbolt, Sludge Bomb, Dig, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Sucker Punch, Venoshock, Rock Slide]
[Royal Gene.]
—
No one had time to think as Nidorino ripped himself out of the webs and dashed forward blasting rockets along the way as his ability came into effect, Hustle, sacrificing precision for power as he launched himself forward.
Weedle dodged some of them but got hit by most of them sending her back, she was going to send another electroweb to retaliate but before she could Nidorino appeared behind her giving her a sucker punch and sending her back onto the dirt.
As she was getting up Nidorino opened his mouth and started charging up another move, so Weedle sent a web and closed his mouth.
Nidorino ripped the webs and sent a purple-pink ring at Weedle hitting and making Weedle keel over, but forced herself up.
She got up and started spraying webs around herself to form a cocoon shell that slightly glowed as Nidorino sent another Ice beam.
The beam hit the cocoon freezing it over into a solid ball then he ran forward horn first and shattered through it, he looked around and from behind him, she lowered herself as not a Weedle but instead finally a golden large Kakuna.
Ash looked over as his dex updated again as he was currently having Charmander help him by shooting fire into a wok. And Clefairy tried her hand at baking with the batter, getting dirty in the process.
—
[✨Kakuna✨(F)]
[Nature: Docile ]
[Ability: Shed Skin]
[Current moves: String Shot, Poison Sting , Electro web, Bug Bite, Poison Web, Iron Defence]
[Queen Bee Mutation]
—
Kakuna and Nidorino were both already getting tired from the prolonged battle, Nidorino started charging up a Shadow ball as Kakuna started swinging and used Iron Defence to throw herself at Nidorino.
The Shadow ball wildly missed and Kakuna bashed into Nidorino pushing him back as Kakuna sent another thread to grab his arm and try to pull him forward.
But Nidorino took this chance and let himself get caught, as he then sent a Thunderbolt through the silk catching Kakuna by surprise as she was electrocuted by it, Nidorino pulled her to him turning the tables before he slammed her into the ground then at a tree, giving Nidorino the victory.
At that moment a Ding ringed as a timer went off as Ash finished everyone's dinner as Clefairy was still trying to finish her cupcakes.
"Well I see everyone had their fun, anyway come on grab Kakuna and bring her here," Ash said as he started plating everyone's food.
Nidorino grabbed Kakuna by the threads and dragged her over to Clefairy who was still staring at her cupcakes so she just put her hand out and did a quick Heal Pulse then waved them away.
Sorrel and Verity looked at each other wondering how often this happens, which Ash answered with, "More than it should less than you think". Which answered more questions than it should.
Ash handed out everyone's food and after everyone was done Clefairy passed out her cupcakes with too much frosting that vaguely looked like a Clefairy if you squint at it, it was pretty good though.
After Which everyone went to sleep except Ash who healed his Pokemon some more and then dragged Lucario away, both figuratively and very literally. The next morning there were very mysterious claw marks leading away from the camp that were probably nothing.
Everyone just got up packed up and left the camp continuing the journey while training on the metaphorical road.
But secretly a certain Pokemon was following them, focusing on getting to Ash. or more specifically the Rainbow Wing, it knew it was meant to be the guardian of the Rainbow Wing but something called out to it making it want the wing for itself, so it watched and waited to see when it could influence Ash's mind.