Chikorita

After Stantler was caught, they kept going on their journey after stopping to rest in town they kept going, along the way, Stantler didn't want to go back in his Pokeball yet, so he would be out walking next to them, and since Stantler was still a baby Ash could just put the deer over his shoulders when he got tired.

And along the way, he checked it in the Pokedex.

—-

[Stantler(M)]

[Nature: Lonely (+Atk, -Def)]

[Ability: Intimidate, Hidden Ability: Sap Sipper,]

—

 He also checked Heracross since he never looked at him earlier.

—

[Heracross(M)]

[Nature: Relaxed (+Def, -Spe)]

[Ability: Guts, Hidden ability: Moxie]

—

Overall, both were not bad, and he could work with this, the natures were…fine, they weren't the best, but not the worst, nothing the mints can't fix, although the good ones like Jolly, Timid, Adamant, and Modest where still growing, which explains why they where so hard to get, such big effort for 1 or 2 if he didn't have his cheat then he wouldn't bother.

Anyway, the point is he had some ready, but it wasn't urgent, so he was saving them and planting more so he never had to worry about it later, even if some of his Pokemon *cough**cough* Abra *cough**cough* needed it.

Besides that, he started more serious training, Falkner was his first target, so even though he was training all his Pokemon, he pulled some select few out, 

First, there was obviously Crystal Onix, who he trained in HP, not defense, just HP and Attack, the reason being that Onix already has high defense, and he liked a meat shield over a rock also. Remember that thing about preserving the Mints, yeah, forget about that because Ash gave this thing a Jolly Mint.

Its nature was Calm, which isn't the worst, but it is the most useless nature due to Onix's laughable special defense, although due to this being Crystal Onix, it did get an extra 50 in its stats, so its attack and special defense aren't as bad anymore, but it's still not good.

Anyway, next, he was taking in Lapras, who was much simpler, just Special Attack and Speed, there was not much to say after that.

Now, the last pick was a curveball; he was bringing in Fuecoco, yes, a fire type, but there is a reason for this. Anyway, he trained Fuecoco in specifically HP and special defense, with a little in regular defense, mainly since once he evolves, then Attack won't be a problem at all.

Also, you may notice that Ash was only preparing 3 Pokemon back when he battled Brock it was a 4v4, it's not that he was planning to 3v4, but something Brock told him a while ago.

{Flashback}

This was during the time Ash and Brock were on the ship heading toward the Orange Islands; Ash was watching the vids of the Gym Battles over in Johto to get ready. Currently, he was watching the ones for Violet Gym.

Although it was interesting, Falkner wasn't the Gym leader in these; it was Falkner's father, Walker, a man who looked to be in his 30s and wore a pilot uniform with his ace Skarmory.

The battle he was watching was Walker's official last battle before he retires and passes it on to Falkner, something he only knows happened because Walker posted on Pidgey way too much and leaked he was retiring.

But there is something else; Ash vaguely remembers that in the Manga, this wasn't how it happened; Walker disappeared, and so Falkner took over. He wasn't sure because, in the Manga, he was attacked by Suicune and presumed dead, but that wouldn't make sense now because- GAH…this is all so confusing.

But that's beside the point, what Ash found interesting was that in every 1st gym battle team, it was a three-on-three, and they had items, unlike how it was back with Brock, where it was a four-on-four without items he looked through most of the Kanto leaders and most of them their first battle was a three on three.

Ash looked at Brock, "Hey dude, I gotta ask, why did you use 4 Pokemon instead of 3 with items? From looking at other 1st Gym battles, they almost always do it that way"

Brock scratched his cheek, "Well, you see…hehe, per League rules, Gym leaders are allowed to add another Pokemon in exchange for the challenger to get to do the same as long as neither uses held items, and well…let's just say Pewter doesn't have many shipments of Held items I can use."

"The person selling them was a girl, and you hit on them, so she refused to do business with you, right," Ash said bluntly.

"Yeah, pretty much, but hey, it was harder, right," Brock said, trying to defend himself.

"No, dude, it would have been way harder if it was a 3 on 3 and you used items, I didn't have any back then, the only thing making it a 4 on 4 did was make it easier for me!"

Brock scratched his head, "Well, I admit, it may be an easter challenge, but it does force any trainer to get past me to have to train up more Pokemon to get strong, if they only had 3 Pokemon that were strong, they would lose since they wouldn't have a 4th,"

Ash shook his head and rubbed his temple, "Dude, don't defend yourself like this, seriously I love you, man, no homo, you're like the brother I never had, but I can't defend you for that, Misty I get she wasn't a gym leader she just didn't have items, you were the official one you don't have an excuse,"

{End of flashback}

—-

So yeah, Brock was in the minority with how he did his gym, it's not likely most other Gym Leaders will do the same, so Falkner would probably only use 3 Pokemon with Items. But if he doesn't, he's always like Snorlax or something.

As they kept walking, they eventually reached a Mountain near the outskirts of Violet City, the path split, going right would lead them to town, and to the left was up the Mountain, where they could see it was snowy due to the high altitude.

As they were walking, Ash kept his eyes peeled for any sign of what he wanted when suddenly Misty called out to him, "Hey, why don't we go skiing! I've always wanted to, but Kanto doesn't have big mountains like this!"

Brock smiled as his imagination started going wild, "Great idea, Misty, Maybe there are many beautiful ladies in the ski resort on vacation! So Many…beautiful…ladies ...."

Misty closed his mouth and was too excited to be annoyed, "Careful there, Brock you're starting to drool,"

Yellow looked like she wanted to nod and try having fun, but she also knew Ash was kind of leading the way, so she held her mouth shut for now.

Ash saw her struggling and chucked, "You don't have to ask me for permission, half of the journey is having fun, I think we need that after what happened over in Kanto,"

Misty sighed, "Oh yeah, S.S. Anne, the Black something, Cinnabar island, and whatever happened in Viridian, not to mention Team Rocket, I want my vacation,"

Ash chuckled as they made their plan to go skiing, "Didn't I take you to the Island of Squirtle as your reward for dealing with that, or did you forget because you went feral,"

"Hey, I wasn't that bad…." Misty said before looking at Yellow, "Right?"

"I had to carry you out. I put you on my back," Ash said, testing Misty, "And not to mention what you said, and I quote, 'Being normal, who needs it? I have Squirtles; while you were being normal, I was catching Squirtles!'"

Misty blushed into her hands, remembering how she acted, "Ok, I get it, just stop bringing it up, and you better not have told my sister about that, they'd never let me live it down…"

Ash gave an evil smile, "You know I didn't even think of that, not a bad idea,"

Misty ran over, grabbed him by the collar, and started shaking him, "No! Don't you dare! Please, anything but that!"

As Ash was constantly being shaken….again, he tried talking, but it was hard with the back and forth motion, "Oh…k…just….sto….shaking….me!"

But Misty only stopped when they heard a squeal of a Pokemon, which is when Misty stopped shaking Ash, and they looked around for the source of the noise. 

Up ahead, there was a Chikorita resting on the grass, napping. She knew they were there, but she didn't do anything yet. She was lying lazily on the grass, spreading the big leaves above her head and basking in the sun.

At this moment, Pikachu climbed out of Ash's backpack after he got woken up from his nap and jumped out, stumbling over to a tree and throwing up from being shaken so violently.

"Hey, look at that, it's another Chikorita!" Brock said, "This one seems different though,"

Ash pulled Misty's hand off him and walked over to Brock, "Yeah, around these parts, there is a clan of warrior Chikorita, and they're protected by the league, you're not allowed to go in the woods to go get them, you can only try to capture them by waiting for them to exit the forest."

Yellow, who was taking a picture with a Pokedex, smiled, seeing it, "It's so cute, hey Ash, are you going to catch it!"

Ash smiled back, "You know me so well, yep, I call dibs," Ash said as Brock and Misty were considering trying their luck, but since Ash had done a lot for them, they stood down.

Ash looked over at Pikachu, who was still throwing up, and sighed, "Well, he's out, what a drama queen, he can run at the speed of sound but can't handle a little brain trauma,"

Ash grabbed another Pokeball, "Alright then, let's do this, Fuecoco!"

From the Pokeball, Fuecoco stomped out, jumping around happily, "Coco!"

"Alright, Fuecoco, let's have your first battle!" Ash said, giving a thumbs up, and Fuecoco nodded happily and waddled forward, seeing Chikorita.

Chikorita saw this and got up and was ready for a fight, even if she knew she had the type disadvantage, she wasn't backing down as she dragged her foot in the dirt.

Ash waved his hand, "Alright, let's start this, [Ember]"

Fuecoco's cheeks puffed as he spit out a small fire, throwing it at Chikorita, Chikorita saw this and waved her leaf and dragged it across the ground before using that momentum to swipe away at the fire.

Chikorita then shot a [Razor Leaf] at Fuecoco, sending out three leaves.

Ash smiled, seeing this was getting interesting, "Alright then, counter with [Round]!"

Fuecoco took a breath and then started singing loudly, creating a sound wave that collided with the leaves, making them lose momentum, and then it hit Chikorita, making her stagger.

Ash continued the attack, "Now get in close and [Bite]!"

Fuecoco took a running start and jumped up, only then did Chikorita look up to see the fire croc falling on her. She tried to dodge, but it was too late, and Fuecoco bit down on her leg as she tried to jump out of the way.

Chikorita grunted in pain but raised her head as a [Energy Ball] was formed in her mouth, and she shot it out, hitting Fuecoco point blank, but Fuecoco tanked it and didn't let go.

Ash flipped his thumb down, "Alright then, let's end this, Fuecoco [Ember]"

Fuecoco, while he was still holding Chikorita in his mouth, charged up the fire and shot it point blank at Chikorita, making her fall back and out of his mouth.

Ash smirked as he grabbed an empty Pokeball and threw a curveball. Chikorita saw it coming and tried to use her leaf to block it, but Ash was prepared for that as the ball curved in mid-air due to the spin Ash put on it, hitting Chikorita in the side of the head instead and making her go in.

1 Roll, 2 Roll, 3 Roll, *Ding*

Chikorita was captured.

As Ash went over to take the Pokeball and his friends were congratulating him, from the sky, a boy riding a Skarmory came down and landed in front of Ash. He had blue eyes and blue hair, which covered his right eye, and wore a blue jacket. Ash recognized him as Falkner.

Falkner jumped off Skarmory and looked at Ash, "Wait right there, I need to ask a few questions…"

They all blinked in surprise, Misty was the first to walk up, and in her aggressive tone, "Hey, who are you to tell us what to do!"

Falkner didn't seem to be annoyed, in fact, he expected this, "I am Falkner," he pulled back his jacket, revealing a Police uniform underneath, "And I am with the Police,"

He looked back at Ash as Misty froze she just opened her big mouth to a Police officer, "There have been reports about Pokemon poachers, I need to ask you a few questions about that Chikorita you captured and your trainer license,"