7 We meet Ritchie
Ritchie was currently using Sparky against a random trainer's poliwhirl, and just landed the finishing blow.
"Wow. He uses a Pikachu just like Ash did, and it seems pretty strong too." Brock
Eh, it doesn't seem that fast, and it's electric attacks are weaker than mine before I had evolved. Now it would be even easier to defeat it.
"Hey can we have a battle?" Ash asks as he approaches Ritchie.
"Huh? Oh ya sure, Sparky is a little tired but I'm sure he could do another battle. Right Sparky?" Ritchie
"Chuuu!" (Of course!)
"Do you not have any other Pokémon?" Ash
"I do, but none of them could take on a Raichu right now, besides I just assumed you wanted to battle your Raichu against Sparky." Ritchie
"I would, but if Sparky is worn out I wouldn't want him to face Raichu. He's my strongest also. What other Pokémon do you have?" Ash
"Just a Metapod and Charmander right now, I'm on my way to Vermilion for my first gym battle." Ritchie
"Oh really? I just came from there and earned my 3rd gym badge." Ash says as he opens his coat to reveal his 3 badges. "We're currently on our way to Saffron to get the 4th badge."
"Wow, 3 badges. You must be pretty strong." Ritchie
"Ya you could say that haha." Ash says while rubbing his finger under his noses and laughing. He really need to come down a little, he's getting overconfident.
"How about i battle your Charmander with mine? I have a Butterfree but I'm not currently carrying it with me. Metapod could battle my Sandshrew, squirtle or Bulbasaur though if you want?" Ash
"Uh Metapod only knows stringshot and harden right now, but I wouldn't mind facing your Charmander with my Zippo." Ritchie
"Great! Lets battle then." Ash
Both call out their Pokémon and get ready to face off. I'm pretty sure Charmander should win easily considering Ritchie never had a Charizard in the show, but you never know what could happen.
"Charmander use flamethrower!" Ash
"Zippo, counter with your own flamethrower!" Ritchie
The flames were pretty even, but Charmander started to push Zippo's flames back. That's when Ritchie called for zippo to roll away and use smokescreen. The next second the field was covered in smoke, and Ash and Charmander get ready for anything.
Zippo shot another flamethrower out of the smoke but it was slightly off target, just barely missing Charmander. Charmander shot back his own flamethrower into the smoke and since it was following the source of Zippo's it scored a minor hit.
Another effect of the 2 flamethrowers was dispersing the smoke, so as soon as Charmander could see zippo it charged forward with a thunder punch. The thunder punch caught Zippo and Ritchie off guard, giving Charmander a free hit and sending Zippo rolling.
Charmander continues his barrage of attacks with a mega punch as soon as Zippo was trying to stand up. Sending Zippo back to the ground, where he again struggled to get up quick enough. Ash called for a flamethrower and so did Ritchie, but this one was obviously one sided with Zippo being so tired. This resulted in Zippo being knocked out and Ash winning the match.
"Wow, good job Charmander you did great! You're punches are coming along amazing!" Ash praised Charmander.
"Hey Ritchie that was a good battle. Good luck at Vermillion against Surge, I hope to see you at the Pokémon league or sooner, so we can have another battle." Ash
"Ya Ash, and next time I'm gonna beat you." Ritchie said confidently.
"I look forward to our next match." Ash
With that they shook hands, and expected to go separate ways except for one little detail. The only place to heal your Pokémon nearby is where we planned to stay the night.
"Haha, this is a bit awkward. I guess we'll be seeing each other for just a little bit longer." Ritchie chuckled
"Ha ya. You should hang out with us anyway, Brock makes great Pokémon food and not to mention people food." Ash
"Ahh I couldn't intrude." Ritchie
"Don't worry about it. I'd be happy to cook for you and your Pokémon! As long as I can take a look at them. I'm training to become a Pokémon breeder and it would be nice to see the difference between your Sparky and what I remember from Ash's Pikachu. As well as both of your guy's Charmanders." Brock
"Uh thanks then I guess." Ritchie
I walked up to Sparky, and decided to talk to him.
"Rai rai." ( That was a good match against the Poliwhirl, but you need to strengthen your electric moves. Or make sure you're so fast that you're almost impossible to hit.)
"Pi pika." ( Says the one who evolved just to get stronger, I don't need any help from you.)
This cocky little mouse, do I come off like this to others?
"Rai chuu." (I was able to defeat Surge's Raichu as a Pikachu. You're not as strong as you think.)
"Pi pi pika?" ( Why would you evolve if you beat your evolution, doesn't that mean you're stronger?) he tilted his head quizzically.
"Rai rai." (While I was better than his Raichu, it's because Surge evolved him too soon. Before it could learn all its speed moves as a Pikachu. I learned mine, so I've only seen benefits from evolving so far. I still make sure to practice my speed though.)
Sparky seems to mull that over a bit, before flaring his electricity in his cheeks.
"Chuuu!" ( Lets have a battle!)
I flare my cheeks in return and agree.
"Rai." (Fine, take your position.)
"Hey Ash, Ritchie. It looks like your Pokémon are about to fight." Brock
"Raichu is everything okay?" Ash asks and I simply reply with a nod which Sparky does as well to Ritchie.
"Well if you're sure I guess have at it." Ash
"Give it your all Sparky." Ritchie
With that the match began with Sparky starting off with a quick attack, trying to get around me. I just waiting but prepared my own quick attack, he's really not that fast yet. I would say he's about my speed before I battled Brock.
He finally goes in for a hit, but I dodge and counter with a thunder punch. This launches Sparky back to his side of the field and he's already visibly injured due to not being used to such a strong electric attack.
"Rai Raichu?" ( I thought you were better than me? You're done after one hit?)
"Pi! Pika!" (Grrr! I'll show you!)
Sparky sends his full power thunderbolt my way and I just let it hit me, it was a decent thunderbolt, but not enough to damage me. This seems to surprise Sparky, but he shakes it off and starts another quick attack.
This time he just charges straight for me before starting to switch from side to side in an attempt to confuse I suppose. I quickly activate quick attack and then immediately switch to iron tail aiming for his legs and tripping him.
"Rai." ( I'm faster that you, you can't beat me in speed.)
"Pikachuu!." (But I can't beat you in power either!)
"Rai." (You're right. You can't, but you can try.) I respond while nodding.
This seemed to irritate Sparky as electricity started to randomly release from his cheeks and he was growling. I better knock him out quick before he does something stupid. Before he could even move I used Volt tackle and dashed straight into him, sending him rolling and effectively knocking him out.
"Wow Raichu, you've really gotten stronger. But did you have to play with Sparky like that?" Ash
"Rai rai." (Yes. I did.) I nodded seriously to Ash and then got back to my food. We had a long journey tomorrow after all.
"You did good Sparky take a nice rest." Ritchie
"Man if Surge's Raichu is like that I don't know if I'm ready." Ritchie
"Ah I would worry about it. Ash's Raichu is a special case, he was able to defeat my Onix and Geodude for his first match when it was a Pikachu." Brock
"Ya I didn't even have a chance when he challenged me in Cerulean." Misty agreed solemnly
"Wow. Just as a Pikachu beating an Onix and Geodude? That's crazy right?" Ritchie
"Haha, Raichu and I are just that good." Ash boasted haughtily.
"You shouldn't have to worry about Surge too much anyways. While his Raichu is powerful, it-." Brock was cut off by Ritchie
"Wait don't tell me! It wouldn't help me much if I went into it already knowing how to beat him. I won't be able to say I beat him on my own, in my own way." Ritchi said resolutely.
Ash nods at this and speaks. "That's a great way to be Ritchie. I'm sure you'll do great!" He holds out his fist towards Ritchie. Ritchie returns the gesture.
"Thanks Ash." Ritchie
"Well it's getting late, we should all probably go ahead and sleep. We all have lots of traveling to do in the morning." Brock
"""agreed.""" Ash, Misty, and Ritchie responded.
The next day we said our goodbyes to Ritchie and his Pokémon, though Sparky still seemed a little upset about losing he also said his goodbyes.
"Rai." (Good luck against Surge and his Raichu.) I held out my tail to Sparky.
"Pika." (Thanks.) He hesitated at first before reaching out his tail as well and shaking it.
We looked back multiple times as we walked, to catch the last glimpse of them before they disappeared into the opposite direction of the trail.
"He's gonna be really. I can't wait to battle him again." Ash
"Ya he will be, you better keep getting better or he may just surpass you." Brock
"Ya, we're going to keep getting stronger and stronger until we're the strongest. We'll defeat him and Gary! Isn't that right Raichu?!" Ash says passionately.
"Rai raiii!" (Of course! We will become the strongest and win the Pokémon League!)
With that we continued our journey to Saffron, so that we could get our 4th gym badge and be half way through our gym challenges. Which means it's time to up our training and get these starter Pokémon to evolve already, as well as Sandshrew.
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Chapter end
Sorry for the pretty much filler episode, but I saw some people say I was rushing it, and I had already planned for us to meet Ritchie here. It just wasn't going to be as long as I accidentally ended up making it. I also don't know if I got his or Sparky's personality right. For some reason I remembered Sparky being way too confident or something.
I might need to make an auxiliary chapter for all of Ash's Pokémon that has all their moves. Because I have so many moves I want them to learn in my head but I can never remember if I actually had them train it yet or not lol. I have the memory of a goldfish after all or maybe "a magikarp" would be better.
Also I do want to thank you all for the power stones, but I would honestly like to ask you all to not give them to me. I'm doing this for fun, and I'd hate for you to use your power stones on me and then I just lose motivation for the story one day.
Not saying it will happen anytime soon, but just in case I'd rather you all use your stones on another story. Thank you if you have though.
Lastly more people were okay with Pikachu evolving than I thought, so thank you for that. Some also wanted him to be Alolan and while I heavily considered a wacky scenario in where that happened. I felt like with all these moves I'm pulling from the future I've kind of derailed the anime enough, and I want to at least stick to only the Pokémon that we've seen in the show.
Same will happen in Johto, only Johto and Kanto Pokémon will make an appearance. I just like it that way. And while one of my favorite Pokémon fics has an chimchar when they begin their Kanto journey, I'd rather mine not do that.
Rejoice! Next chapter we get to see Butterfree again! Yay! I personally hated that Butterfree never made a reappearance in the show because I loved Butterfree in Pokémon stadium 2.
Hope you enjoyed. -SS
