Final Preparations

"Alright you all," Ash called in the morning. He was in his usual training area in the Professor's ranch and in front of him were the team he had been able to assemble over the short run of his journey. "We have two months to train before going after Giovanni and conquering the Viridian City Gym. We need to be at our best because Giovanni's not going to make things any easier for us. We need to prove our worth and to do that we must do the one thing we do best: we must train."

As he said this, there was a cacophony of sounds that met his reply. It was their reply to him. They understood what needed to be done.

"If that is understood, start warming up. I have designed a new training regime. Flex your claws, stretch your wings, run round the clearing. We will be doing this for an hour."

The response was instant. Blaze took to the skies. He was subpar at best when it came to flying skills so he saw it fit that he start with the stretching of wings. Some like Primeape and Riolu took to running around the clearing, others took to jumping and stretching and even scratching their claws repeatedly on a surface.

As they did this, Ash went back to the previous notes that he had made about them, taking the time to analyse what was going on and updating the notes respectively as he watched them. After he finished the necessary adjustments, he joined them in the stretching. They would be going for a run after so he needed to be prepared for that.

An hour had passed since they started and it was time for their run. They would be going for a long one, from their clearing to the lab and back. Everyone would be running and no one was permitted to fly except in cases like Butterfree and Beedrill. Blaze shot a flamethrower when he was told that he wouldn't be allowed to use his wings.

"One… two… three!" as the words left his mouth they shut off with Primeape in the lead. He always loved physical training. Ash himself had promised not to use his aura to strengthen himself so he was not fairing very well.

-Break-

In the end Primeape won the race. Well it was pretty much expected seeing as the fighting type was the most interested in exercises.

After gasping for air and resting for about ten minutes, he decided it was time to go into the next part of their training.

"Well done everyone, stand strong because we won't be eating until it's one o'clock. I want you all to practice your moves. Just cycle through them and focus on increasing the speed of their execution. I'll be back shortly."

-Break-

It had been about a week since Ash and his pokemon began their daily training regime and so far it had been going well. They were in the midst of power training and Ash was working with Porygon. He had given others the moves they would be working but he needed to be familiar with Porygon's abilities as a monster.

"Psybeam."

The normal type made a digital noise as slowly psychic energy began to gather in front of what seemed to be its mouth. As it coalesced into an orb, Porygon released it as a beam and it crashed into a tree.

Ash looked at the damage. Impressive but not up to the standard of what he needed.

"Again."

Porygon proceeded to repeat the process and it was in exactly the same form as he had previously done.

He had seen what he wanted to see. "You have technique and enough control but you lack speed and power. I want you to go over psybeam over and over again until you get tired. Well, I don't know if a digital pokemon can actually get tired, or can you?"

Porygon made a digital sound.

"Oh… I see. Again."

As Porygon repeated the process, he turned to his Xtransceiver and started making notes. He was trying to compile a training journal in the process, at least it should be able to help other trainers develop as well.

Two hours had passed since this part of the training began and Ash had paired all of them up to spar with each other. He wouldn't be calling out moves so they would be fighting by their own merit. He had their names randomized by the Xtransceiver so it was the one doing the pairing.

"Primeape and Golduck."

The respective pokemon stepped forward and faced each other.

"Golduck has the first move. Begin"

The water type formed a water pulse and sent it hurtling at Primeape. Primeape dodged and his hands sparked with electricity as he lunged at Golduck. Golduck quacked as his eyes glowed a bright blue with psychic energy. The attack slammed into Primeape who had crossed his hands in an attempt to reduce the damage.

Golduck followed up the attack with a hydro pump but Primeape recovered faster as he flung himself out of the attacks trajectory before sending a focus blast at Golduck's form.

Golduck changed the trajectory of hydro pump as he destroyed focus blast and missed Primeape by a few centimeters. Without wasting time, a shadow ball escaped the duck pokemon. Primeape's arms sparked with electricity as he swatted the shadow ball away and lunged for Golduck.

Golduck stood still as Primeape neared him before using disable. The attack held Primeape in place and he was open to attack from Golduck. Smirking, or at least making his equivalent of a smirk, Golduck launched a hydro pump that hit Primeape square in the chest and sent him flying.

He stood on the defensive as the angry monster in front of him picked himself from the floor. There was a loud cry and a dark aura enveloped Primeape and he felt an unnatural force send him towards Golduck faster than the duck pokemon could react. As Primeape neared him, he reared a fist back as it sparked with electricity before letting the attack loose on Golduck's face.

Ash smirked. That was a fine use of pursuit on Primeape's part.

Primeape decided to take the initiative as both fists glowed an ethereal white as he crossed both of them in front of him in an x-format. Golduck noticed this and responded by crossing his glowing hands in the same format. Both cross chops met each other in the center of the field and the attack resulted in an explosion that launched both monsters backward, with Golduck taking the brunt of the attack due to not having enough time to recover. The plus side was that he had more stamina than Primeape so he used that to his advantage.

An ice beam escaped Golduck's mouth with the intention of freezing Primeape's legs to the ground. Suffice to say the least, he was successful in his attack. Seeing his triumph in successfully freezing Primeape, he used disable for proper measure to ensure that he couldn't break free from the ice.

Golduck took the time to charge up a hydro pump with the intention of ending the fight. After fifteen seconds of charging, the powerful jet of water shot across the field and made its mark on Primeape's chest, sending the fighting type flying.

"That's enough," Ash said as he ended the fight. "Good job, the both of you."

-Break-

Another week had passed and Ash was watching one half of his pokemon go up against his elites. The instructions were simple. They were to attack with every move available to them and the elites were only permitted to dodge.

"Ashy-boy."

Turning his back, the raven-haired trainer saw Gary walking up to him.

"How's your training coming along?"

"I'm getting there," he responded as Blaze ducked under a flamethrower.

"I have been thinking about something and I actually kind of relayed it to Leaf and she was in agreement with me."

"What's that?"

"It's basically a rip off of what your dad did back when he was younger. We'd like to take the remaining year before the League kicked off to travel around and train in different areas."

Ash blinked. He did remember his father's story about becoming Kanto champion on his first battle with the elite four. He kind of disappeared for about two years and as it would later turn out, he was training in Mt. Silver.

Looking at it, it wasn't such a bad idea. Perhaps he might just…

"I know that look in your eye."

"What look?" he asked all innocently.

"I knew it was a good idea telling you about it."

"It's a good idea alright, so good that you're going on the journey with Leaf."

Gary watched his best friend burst into laughter after he made the statement. "Laugh all you want Ketchum but that's just one of the reasons I came here. Gramps called for us. The new trainers are here apparently and he would like for us to help out."

"That seems rather interesting," Ash said as he stopped laughing. "It'll be best for us to head there now. Take a break guys!"

With that said, he and Gary set off for the lab.

Reaching the Professor's lab, Gary and Ash met Leaf who was also waiting on the Professor.

"Daisy, where's Gramps?"

"He's in his study."

"Thanks Daisy."

Gary taking the lead led them through the house before opening the door to the study. In there was Professor Oak waiting for them and in front of him were three kids, two boys and a girl.

Ash took a good look at them. The girl was a brunette with brown eyes. The first boy was black of hair with black eyes that had a gray tint to them. The second boy was a brunette that reminded Ash a little bit about Gary and he had gray eyes.

"Finally, you're here."

"Good evening Professor," Ash, Gary and Leaf greeted.

He stood up from his chair and walked towards both groups. "I am feeling nostalgic seeing you all together. Reminds me of the first time you lot started working under me. Let me get to the point. The League this year was scheduled to hold for two years and as a result, if trainers from the year preceding the conference can meet up the requirements, they would be encouraged to participate in the league too. This brings me to the three of them," he said gesturing at the three kids in front of me.

"I want you to meet Chase, Elaine and Trace and just like you lot were last year, they'll be studying under me in hopes of becoming full-fledged trainers."

All three kids waved as Professor Oak called their names and Ash, Gary and Leaf waved back.

"Unto why I called the three of you here, I want you to help me teach and prepare them, and if they are able to get your approval, I'll be throwing in a special treatment."

"What kind of special treatment?"

"Let's just say, should they do well, I'll be giving them two starters as opposed to one."

Six jaws hit the ground at the same time, metaphorically of course.

"Two starters? I'm feeling jealous." Leaf couldn't help but mutter out.

"Professor, isn't that a little bit too much."

"I'd think not, and to make things fair, that's why you lot will be acting as judges and supervising their training."

"So, what you mean to say is you will be giving them two starters only with our approval?"

"That is correct Leaf."

"That's awesome," Gary said as he pumped his fist.

Ash was quiet, observing the reaction of the trio and suffice to say, they were beyond shocked. He gestured to the Professor who took the liberty of snapping the three out of their temporal shock.

"What do you think about that Chase, Elaine and Trace?"

It seemed hearing their names did the trick and all three were snapped back to reality.

"T-that would be great Professor."

"Yes I'd – we'd really love that."

Trace nodded in agreement.

"Great," Oak said as he clapped his hands. "With that being said, who would you like to work with?"

Ash understood what the Professor was doing. He was pretty sure Gary and Leaf had an idea on what was going on.

"You want us to pick?" Trace asked as he processed the Professor's words. He simply nodded in response.

All three kids glanced at one another as they contemplated the choice that was presented to them.

Leaf noticing their glances decided to speak up. "You can play rock-paper-scissors to decide who goes first."

They were quiet for some time before they decided to try the rock-paper-scissors and Elaine ended up winning. She had the first pick.

She ended up choosing Elaine, Trace chose Gary and Chase chose Ash with somewhat of a sigh.

"Good. Now that that's taken care of, you can take them individually and show them around. Their lecture will begin tomorrow."

Ash watched as Gary and Leaf walked out with their trainees before gesturing to Chase.

"Nice to meet you Chase, my name is Ash Satoshi Ketchum."

Ash held out a hand as he said this and Chase it took it eagerly.

"Nice to meet you Ash."

"What'd you say we go out back to where my pokemon are?"

"That would be nice." Ash noticed the excitement in his eyes as he responded to that question.

-Break-

As they made their way to Ash's location in the corral, Ash decided to make little conversation along the way.

"Tell me Chase, what's your favourite starter pokemon?"

"Hmm… that would be Squirtle."

"Squirtle huh? You must be a huge fan of Blastoise then?"

"Yes. I'd love to have a Squirtle as a starter."

"That's nice. What are your thoughts on Charmander?"

Chase looked like he was in thought. "I don't have much of a preference for them though."

"… and what path do you want to take as a pokemon trainer?"

"I want to be someone who dominates in league battles."

"I see there's ambition in your eyes. Hopefully that would be enough to appease Blaze."

Chase seemed to stop in his tracks as they neared Ash's clearing. Coincidentally, there was a roar at that moment.

"Who's Blaze?"

He turned back to look at Ash who had a smile on his face. "My Charizard."

Ash had trouble keeping his cool as the look on Chase's face was beyond priceless.

"Settle down guys," he said as he walked into the clearing. "We have a special guest today. I thought I should introduce him to you lot before we go about our other activities."

Chase stood close to Ash as he took sight of the array of pokemon in front of him. Excitement shot to his brain as he saw Ash's Blastoise but before he could do anything, he was met with Blaze's powerful glare.

"This is Chase. He wants to be a pokemon trainer and the Professor has assigned him to our care. We will be responsible for his preparation to becoming a trainer that will one day rival us. I will have to ask you all for your assistance in teaching him."

A cacophony of sounds resounded in the area as they agreed to assist him to the best of their abilities.

"Continue your training everyone except for Blastoise, Venusaur and Blaze." While the rest went about their respective activities, the aforementioned pokemon stayed behind.

"These are the Kanto starters: Venusaur, Blastoise, and my starter Blaze."

All three behemoths in their own right stared at the boy their trainer presented to them.

"What do you say Chase? Are you interested in getting to know them?"

Chase gulped as he nodded, an intense excitement not leaving his eyes.

-Break-

Over the past days, Ash, Gary and Leaf had been imparting knowledge alongside the Professor on their protégés and needless to say it had been a fun experience.

Besides learning how pokemon battles worked and typing relationships amongst pokemon, they made sure they got enough experience in mock pokemon battles with their pokemon, mostly individual battles but at times joint battles with each other.

Besides the occasional battles, Ash and the others shared their stories concerning battling and even stories regarding pokemon encounters amongst the trio and taught them the importance of type matchups in battles.

Pokemon care and grooming was not neglected including the importance of healthy pokemon diet and a whole bunch of other things to go in-line with being a pokemon trainer.

Roughly a month had passed and Ash stood facing Chase who was engaged in a mock battle between Butterfree and Beedrill when Gary came running.

"Guess who just got the Earth badge." As he said this, he showed Ash the badge he had gotten from Giovanni earlier today.

"Look who's in a rush to get to the league or is it perhaps the journey with Leaf. How'd the battle go?"

"I won't give you any details of the match though but Blast was the MVP of the match. He gave Giovanni a run for his money but I have to admit, Giovanni's ground types are a pain to deal with."

"I'd expect that from him," Ash said as he watched the battle unfold between Chase and Beedrill versus Butterfree. "I guess I have to prepare for my battle tomorrow."

"Have you thought of the pokemon you'll be using for the battle?"

"Pretty much glossed over the matter. I do have a couple in mind so I guess I will just have to use a balanced team though. Blaze won't be battling for certain, at least not until the league."

"That seems doable. Besides, you've got two water types on your team so not having your starter shouldn't be a big disadvantage to you."

Ash nodded as Butterfree sent Beedrill flying with a confusion attack.