96 Lavender

Wow you guys are fast, anyway here you go

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It was currently night and they decided to get hotels this time since the Pokemon center was out of rooms since Saffron was the most visited town.

They currently booked a room that connected into 4 separate bedrooms so they all had a lobby they could all go to.

Ash walked out after taking a shower and was drying his hair with a towel, he went into the Lobby to find Brock looking through his Phone doing research for the competition.

Ash sat down in a nearby chair and Pikachu jumped up and made himself comfortable on his lap.

"So how is your research going?"

"Let's just say I wish I didn't procrastinate so much when we were traveling."

"Yesh that's bad, well the offer for my help is still out there."

"I appreciate it but I want to achieve my dream on my own, if I end up winning but it turns out that it was because of you guys then everything was useless."

"Well you might want to word that differently but I understand, it is probably different than my whole thing, well how about a piece of advice."

"Sure that's fine, I think, whatever it is can't make much of a difference so shoot."

Ash leaned on the chair he was on, "Remember poke blocks, well they have a secondary effect, one that they were originally designed for but mostly forgotten by everyone except top coordinators."

Brock finally took his eyes off his phone and looked at Ash, "Really, What is it?"

Ash smiled and shook his finger, "You should figure that out yourself, I will say there is no downside but there is a limit so work fast."

As soon as he said that Misty and Yellow walked out of their rooms and into the Lobby, Misty held her egg wrapped in her jacket.

Misty plopped into one of the chairs, "Ahh hot water is so nice, We should go to a hotel every time we get into a new town."

Yellow also sat down but she didn't have her hat and was trying to dry her long hair with a towel, "Yeah it is nice but wouldn't it cost a lot."

"Well, 1. We don't have to worry about money Oak is sponsoring me. As long as it can be considered a 'business' expense I can buy whatever I want, and 2. Not every town has nice hotels Misty, heck in my hometown there aren't any hotels." Ash said leaning back into his chair.

"How can you be so fun yet such a killjoy at the same time," Misty said slouching into the couch

"It's a technique trained over centuries, I must be true neutral at all times or I will lose it," Ash said, looking deeply into nothing.

Misty rolled her eyes and looked over at Brock, "Hey Brock, what have you found out?"

"Well as far as I can see most of these competitions have a variety of different competitions ranging from riding to cooking, this one in particular is split into 2 rounds, firstly we bathe and groom a random Pokemon that the Judges give us."

"That one will be easy for you right, you always tend to our Pokemon," Yellow said excitedly.

"Right but the second one will be a small battle with our Pokemon to see our bond, and that's the part I'm nervous about," Brock said, slightly worried.

"Why, you're a former gym leader so it should be a breeze for you?" Misty asked.

"Well yeah but look at my team, most breeders have a diverse team and I still have a mostly mono-rock team and Zubat is catching up but I am not all that good with flying types, since you know birds and rocks," Brock said.

"Well, it didn't say you have to win, just that you're testing the bond, and your Pokmeon love you so cheer up," Yellow said, trying to get Brock to calm down.

"Yeah you're right, but winning would probably also give some points ri- ow." Brock was stopped by Misty giving him a chop on the head.

"Stop that you, don't stress out about it, if you do you'll end up worse, and even though it would be funny to watch you fumble it, you still are our friend so calm down," Misty said also taking away Brock's phone

Brock smiled, "Yeah guess you're right, but can I get that back?"

"Fine but no more stressing about it, I'm serious," Misty said, returning the phone.

Ash was watching everything unfold and checked the time, Pikachu was currently sleeping on his lap.

"Alright, I'm going out," Ash said, picking up his mouse and putting him on the couch.

"Why, where are you going?" Brock asked.

"Yeah, I was just about to order a bunch of stuff I can't even pronounce from room service." Misty also asked.

"I was going to fly over to Lavender Town," Ash said.

"Why can't it wait?" Misty asked

"Do you want to deal with more ghosts?"

Everyone shivered a bit, "Good point, come back before tomorrow."

"Right, I will, don't worry Charizard is fast, but don't wait up, especially you Brock you need to be 100% for tomorrow, take care of Pikachu by the way!" Ash said, grabbing his jacket and leaving.

After Ash got out of the building he hopped on Charizard and flew out of the city, then he landed and had Charizard spam Dragon dance as he did something.

Back when he was training with Lucario they practiced a certain technique.

–

Flashback no Jutsu

[Are you sure of this technique, I have never heard anything about it.] Lucario asked Ash.

[Yeah according to what I have heard it should be possible, if either of us can do it is a completely different story.] Ash said as he looked through the information in his head.

From the knowledge he received, there were a lot of techniques, most of them were left unfinished meaning that Sir Aaron never got the chance to perfect them. But Aura is the counterpart to Chakra so he should be able to use the concept from the studio next door.

The technique in question was making clones, actual clones that had a body not like Double team clones. Theoretically, the process should be similar to Shadow clones or Wood clones, just separate the energy and sever to split them, then push apart and…

As soon as he did that a puff of smoke appeared and There was a ... Clone? It was milky white and barely standing up, it also was thin as paper and looked half dead.

Lucario was laughing in the corner and Ash looked at the Clone, he touched it, it was real but he didn't know why it turned out like this, feeling his reserves he was at about ¾.

He tried to dispel it but nothing happened so he punched it a few times until it disappeared, something he noticed was that he wasn't hit with a wave of information, he could still see everything the Clone could which was disorienting but not something he couldn't get used to or just block out.

Lucario was still laughing so Ash looked at him with an Evil smile, [I don't know why you're laughing, we still need to train, and I'm feeling particularly ready today.]

Lucario stopped laughing and tried to escape but couldn't get away and was dragged away.

Flashback end

—

A lot of time passed since then and he had almost mastered it but there were some flaws. For starters, they weren't perfect replicas and couldn't have all his body parts, not a problem that just meant no genitals. The second thing was they kinda had and didn't have a conscience, it was complicated but he found a workaround. And finally, they did have a time limit before they popped, but it wasn't a problem it was long and he could just replace them.

So Ash finally did the same process, separate the energy and sever to split them, then push apart and…

A clone appeared in front of Ash, it looked almost perfect with a few differences but that didn't matter, he wanted to test one final thing, he reached into his pocket dimension and pulled out a Berry to take a bite out of it, then put it back in.

The clone then pulled out a portal as well and reached in to find the same Berry with the bite mark and tossed it back to Ash.

"It worked, this means I can abuse this," Ash said rubbing his hands together, then he turned to his clone that was just standing there and looking around.

It wasn't standing stiff, it did look like a person, slightly fidgeting and looking around, Ash pulled out a trench coat and a scarf and handed it to the clone.

"You're me, so you know the plan, get out of here," Ash said.

"Fine, but I want rights," the clone said, putting on the clothes and starting walking.

At the same time, Charizard was done dancing so Ash jumped on and started flying over to Lavender town for two reasons, firstly he wanted a ghost type to make his operation easier, but also he wanted to find Mr. Fuji to confirm some things.

Lavender and Saffron were very close, it only took a few minutes to arrive.

Landing in the town he immediately saw most people walking home and some walking towards the tower so he just blended in with the crowd.

The tower in question is known as the Pokemon Tower, a large seven-story tower for burying deceased Pokemon, on the lower levels are the actual graves that people are allowed to visit to pay their respects, but the higher floors are the ones Ash is interested in because that is where ghost Pokemon are.

Walking into the tower he is greeted by the sight of people crying and paying respects to their deceased Pokemon, he doesn't do anything about them it was best for them to move on by themselves.

As he got to the higher floors it became significantly more foggy, and at one point he felt a touch on his shoulder only to look back and find nothing. But he knew that meant he was close.

When he moved up to the next level he immediately took a big step to his left avoiding a falling chandelier. Immediately after the fog in the room started making a vortex around him, but he really wasn't worried, he poured some Aura into his eyes so he could see everything.

And just as he thought Ghost Pokemon mainly Gastly but there were a few Haunter circling around him. He immediately started scanning them looking for one he wanted.

He was looking for one that would keep Levitate once they reached their final form because prior to generation 7 Gengar would have the far superior Levitate instead of now where it was changed to Cursed Body.

Cursed Body wasn't bad but Levitate was better, that Ground immunity on a Poison type was far too valuable to give up so he started scanning and released Scyther to get rid of the rest.

He kept scanning and taking down ghosts

–

[Gastly (M)]

[Levitate --> Cursed Body]

[Gastly (F)]

[Levitate --> Cursed Body]

[Gastly (F)]

[Levitate --> Cursed Body]

[Haunter (M)]

[Levitate --> Cursed Body]

[Gastly (F)]

[Levitate --> Cursed Body]

—

But still nothing so he continued moving up to the next floor and looked through everything until a blue Gas cloud caught his attention, so he moved his dex to look at it.

—

[✨Gastly✨ (F)]

[Nature: Jolly (+Spe, -SpA)]

[Ability: Levitate / Cursed Body]

[Moves: Confuse Ray, Lick, Hypnosis, Hex, Curse, Ominous Wind]

–

"Not bad at all, well kinda bad Nature but that can be fixed later, Scyther that one right there." Ash pointed at the fog in the mist and Scyther nodded, then flew past all of the fog taking down more ghosts as he moved across them, he finally reached the Gas and delivered a knock-off straight to the back.

The Gastly got knocked out of her gas form and a blue halo appeared around it, Ash started walking towards him so she thought to get away by going intangible and through the floor, but it didn't work.

So when Ash got next to her she was sweating bullets, looking up to see Ash cracking his knuckles and Scyther sharpening his blades towering over her with tons of other ghosts on the ground.

Then for the next minute, there was a jumping so atrocious that it made how he got Abra look like Talk no Jutsu.

And eventually Gastly submitted and went into the ball.