Viridian City Challenge?

The gang stayed at Brock's place for the night and in the morning they went back to traveling, much to Brock's siblings' displeasure, it was a quite literal tearful goodbye.

But they stopped and let Brock go when he promised he would be back for the holidays at least.

So with that, they went on their way traveling through the woods of Route 2, of which nothing notable happened other than Scizor, Beedrill, and Kitty the Butterfree getting out to visit their original home again.

Also, Beedrill might have gone and made the local Beedrill population submit to her but he couldn't be sure.

Anyway, besides the Pokemon and the usual, Ash finally took a look at the Keystone he got, he put it in the Jar with all that glowing water that seemed to be making the Blastoisinite, when he put it in the Jar was filled to the brim, but now it was about halfway.

That genuinely made him confused, the jar was airtight and there wasn't any spilling, so the only explanation was that the Keystone absorbed the water somehow, and it kinda looked like some of the cracks fixed themselves up, the thing was holding together on its own.

He wasn't sure about if he could use it or how many times, but it was a good thing to keep in his back pocket.

Anyway, after a few days of traveling they finally got back to Vermilion City, Yellow took the chance to reminisce about the scenery as it was only about mid-day.

"It feels so nice to be back, I wonder if Uncle Wilton is home yet?" Yellow mused.

"I mean do you want to go check?" Ash asked.

"Can I?"

"Wh- why are you asking me? I'm not your caretaker, you're older than me, do what you like," Ash said, stretching his arms behind his head, making everyone remember this girl who didn't even reach Ash's shoulders was the second oldest of the group.

"O-oh, right," Yellow said, holding her finger to the bottom of her chin.

Brock looked at the sky, "I mean, I think we should check the Gym at least, are you planning to challenge it right away or do you have some training you want to do?"

Ash shrugged, "I mean yeah why not, we did train quite a bit on our way over here, I should be able to just win right away and get it over with,"

In truth Ash on the inside was sweating, 'If it goes like the anime or even the game with Giovanni using his ground team he should win no problem, but if he brings out Mewtwo, then problems will start,'

"So what about you Yellow you wanna go check with us or you wanna go check if your uncle is back?"

"Hmm, I guess we should go to the Gym, Wilton might not even be back yet," Yellow said

"Alright then let's go."

The walk to the Gym was relatively short, the town was bigger than the game or anime showed but even still it wasn't hard to find the biggest building in town, as they walked up they saw the large place that looked like a museum with even the marble columns along the side.

However, in front of the doors, there weren't any Roman-style guards like there were in the anime, which means either there weren't any or it was still closed.

He didn't bother waiting for formalities as he tried the door, and it seemed like it was locked, just then he heard a whistle from one of the columns.

When he looked at it he saw Green leaning against one of the columns, "Hey you having any luck?"

"Huh, so I guess you did get here before me, and considering you're not rubbing it in my face I assume you haven't gotten the badge."

"Phhh, try not even getting in the place, I got here a few days ago but it was closed, a shame the bet doesn't end until after one of us gets that badge." Green sighed.

Then from behind both of them, they heard the sound of a car horn, when they looked they saw Gary parking by the building as his cheerleaders jumped out and started to chant as he approached them.

"I guess I am last, but considering Green isn't smiling I'm guessing it's not open yet?" Gary said.

Ash nodded as Green looked offended, "Hey what's that supposed to mean, I'm not that bad am I?"

Ash and Gary looked at her before turning back to each other, "So how long have you been here?"

"I just got here, apparently Green has been here a few days,"

As Green was being annoyed she looked down as Yellow was comforting her.

Gary sighed, "Well I guess, they're not here and we all are, so how are we deciding who gets to challenge first."

Just as Green was about to turn around to put her 2 cents in, they heard the sounds of footsteps across the marble flooring they were on.

"Oh, hello there," a man who had a suitcase and a nice suit said as he walked forward revealing himself to be Giovanni.

Yellow looked up and saw him, "Mr. Giovanni, What are you doing here?"

That caught everyone's attention, especially Ash since as far as he could remember he didn't know if they ever interacted before 'that' happened in the Manga.

Giovanni looked at Yellow and gave a kind smile, "Oh, Yellow, it's good to see you, how's Wilton doing these days?"

"He's doing good, though I don't know right now since I just came back from an adventure!"

Brock did know about Giovanni, he met him during some of the Gym leader meetings though he never talked to him directly, "Umm, Yellow do you mind introducing us?"

Yellow looked back and slammed her fist on her palm, "Oh right, well this is "Mr. Giovanni, he and Uncle Wilton are good friends," then she turned to Giovanni, "And Mr. Giovanni, these are my friends!"

Then she held up Chuchu, "And this is Chuchu, she is also my friend!"

Chuchu: "Chu!"

Giovanni noticed both Pikachu when he walked up but he thought nothing of it, "Well good to meet you all, but if you don't mind me asking what are you all doing standing out here?"

Gary spoke up at that, "Well we're waiting for the Gym leader, but it seems like they're not here."

Giovanni analyzed Gary then looked at Green and finally looked at Ash, "Well what a coincidence then."

"What do you mean?" Misty asked

Giovanni pulled out a key and went to the door, unlocking it and opening the large doors, "I am the Viridian gym leader."

Everyone followed him inside, although Ash on the inside was looking around not fully trusting anything. The Cheerleaders, Brock, Misty, and Yellow went up to the bleachers to sit down and wait to see what happened, meanwhile, the trio followed Giovanni.

Giovanni walked past the field, "Sorry for the inconvenience, it's just there has had so much to do this year, and with Team Rocket things have just been really complicated."

Gary scoffed as he said that, "Tell me about it, we had to take care of those losers a few times, first the S.S. Anne then on Cinnabar island."

Giovanni raised his eyebrow, "You all have faced them,"

Gary raised his hand to the side of his face as he smiled, "Yeah, those guys were really annoying, but we got our revenge for the S.S. Anne."

Giovanni nodded, although Ash noticed he also squinted his eyes as he turned back to keep walking, "Well that's impressive, especially at your age."

"But enough about that, I'm sure you 3 are here for a battle?"

Gary spoke up, "Yes we are, and I'll be going first."

Green elbowed him, "Hey why do you get to, I was here first, I should get the first battle."

As the little jabs were going back and forth Giovanni gave a kind smile, "Well if it makes no difference to you may I have a suggestion?"

Gary and Green stopped arguing as they looked at him, "What do you have in mind?"

"Well I just got back so I don't exactly have all my Pokemon, and since I heard from Blaine that you all recently got his badge as your 7th," Giovanni said, completely lying about hearing it from Blaine.

Green nodded and looked proudly, "Yeah, and we just need yours to qualify for the league!"

Giovanni chuckled, "Well unfortunately the Pokemon I use for the 8th Gym badge aren't ready, and they're not likely to be ready for another 2 weeks, and even then I will only have enough for 1 battle at a time, so I have a suggestion."

"I'll use one of my stronger Pokemon against all 3 of you, you all can get 6 Pokemon and get to fight me with as many at one time, and to make it even I'll get to Mega evolve, does that sound fair!" Giovanni said with a smile.

Ash immediately felt red flags in his head, but before he could say anything Green and Gary looked at each other and both said, "Alright!" Making Ash want to sink into the ground.

Green continued, "But if we win that means we'll all get the badge right?"

Giovanni nodded and just to prove it he grabbed 3 badges and placed them on a nearby table to the side, "No strings attached, no anything, if you want they can even count for the Gimmick challenge."

Ash felt his eye twitch as he looked at his friends, how could they not realize this was so clearly a setup it wasn't even funny.

Gary looked at Green, "Let's do this, the one who gets the last hit wins the bet!"

"Deal!" Green said as they shook hands, completely leaving Ash out of the conversation.

Giovanni smiled, "Excellent, then let me prepare, get to your side and I'll start shortly."

With that, Giovanni went walking to his side and went into a door that presumably went up to a nearby podium.

Ash tried to make them see reason but it didn't seem like they heard him, just wondering what Pokemon they should use. And dragging him onto their side.

A few moments later Giovanni walked out. He was now wearing 2 gloves that had a keystone on each, "Are you all ready!"

"You bet, prepare to lose!" Green said, clapping a Pokeball with her other hand.

"Very well then release your Pokemon!" he said as the area from underneath the podium started rising, immediately Ash, Gary, and Green threw out their Pokemon, Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur repeatedly.

As the gate opened everyone looked down trying to see what Pokemon it was, even Gary's cheerleaders were silent looking at the scene.

From the area stood a Pokemon, it was bipedal with a tough metallic armor surrounding it making it look like it came from a Gundam anime, from the little they could see they saw that the skin of this Pokemon was pure Black, and on each gauntlet there was a glowing stone each.

No one recognized the Pokemon except Ash, this was Armored Mewtwo, and now they had to fight it, despite the fact, that this was a 3-on-1 and they each had 2 Pokemon, he did not feel good about this.

"Let us begin!" Giovanni shouted, breaking everyone out of their trance.

Gary was the first to act, "Blastoise [Hydro Pump]"

Green followed as soon as Gary spoke, "Venusaur [Earth Power]"

Meanwhile, Ash sent Charizard a command with Aura.

Blastoise stomped his hands into the ground as his cannons started charging with water and Venusaur stomped on the ground causing energy to move forward quickly approaching as the water was also shot.

Giovanni looked at this and smiled, "Mewtwo"

With barely more than a flick of each hand the water was sent flying to the roof and the energy from the ground dispersed leaving little more than a crack.

"Now let me show you a real attack, Mewtwo [Psycho Cut]"

Mewtwo raised its heavily armored hand as he slashed down creating a pink blade that shot through the air and went towards them.

"Charizard now Iron Dragon's Claw"

Now you need to understand the set up Ash did before this, firstly Ash used a mint on Charizard, changing him from Brave to Modest since he can compensate with things like Dragon Dance, Belly Drum, or Swords Dance.

Speaking of which the command from earlier was for him to use [Swords Dance] as Giovanni was distracted.

With the call, Charizard's claw glowed a dark purple metallic color he clashed with the blade in the air, but even at +2 Charizard couldn't overpower it he could only weaken it as it exploded in front of him sending him back to the ground but still fine.

Giovanni raised his eyebrow, "Not bad, alright then I guess I can take this a little more seriously, [Power Gem]"

Mewtwo raised its arm as stones from the earlier attack raised and started shooting towards Charizard.

He didn't need a command to know that was bad so he started flying back up but it looked like the stones were just barely too fast and he would get shot out of the sky. Until at least a voice rang out

"Venusaur catch those stones!" Green commanded

Venusaur shot out multiple vines that changed into different stones, and although it couldn't stop them or redirect them to Mewtwo or anything like that, it did make it so Charizard just barely dodge all of them.

Just then Gary called out, "Don't forget we are also here, [Ice Punch!]"

Blastoise created a makeshift road from ice as he slid through taking the momentum and jumping, landing a punch at Mewtwo's side, although it didn't look like it did much of anything.

"Alright then, [Psychic]"

Mewtwo raised its arms as Blastoise was lifted up and was about to be thrown until Ash and Green called out.

"Charizard use [Dragon Dance]"

"Venusaur use [Solar Beam]"

Charizard started dancing a familiar dance aiming to raise his attack to +3 and his speed as well, as the purple glow appeared

Venusaur shot a beam from its flower that it had been charging since Charizard entered the field and created that [Sunny day] so the instantaneous beam hit Mewtwo in the arm forcing it to break concentration on the attack and Blastoise was free

Now that Blastoise was free Gary smiled and called out, "[Zen Headbutt]!"

Blastoise spun around in his shell as he retracted his cannons and went down directly onto Mewtwo forcing it to raise its arms to grab Blastoise from smashing it.

Just before Giovanni could make a command the Dance was completed and Charizard disappeared and reappeared next to the most defenseless Mewtwo, and Ash said one thing.

"[Shadow Dragon's Claw(Shadow Claw + Dragon Claw)]"

Charizard's claws glowed a deep black with shadows emanating from them that almost made it look like they were on fire, and before Mewtwo could react he slashed at him dealing the first good hit in the entire match and sending the thing sliding back clenching its arm.

Before Blastoise landed however Gary shouted, "[Ice beam]."

Charizard caught Blastoise as he sent his cannons out and shot a beam of Ice at Mewtwo freezing his arms and feet.

It actually looked like they had the advantage here, and the cheerleaders made it no secret as they started cheering.

Giovanni raised his eyebrow as he chuckled, "Not bad at all, well then let's take it up a notch," he then raised his hands revealing the Keystones as they shined with the light reflecting off of Mewtwo's armor.

---

That's right you have been hit with a surprise cliffhanger, you expected filler between the badges but instead, there was I cliffhanger-kun.

Now Just hand over your stones quietly, and I'll let the next chapter go.