Chapter 161: Search for the Hidden Grotto
The sky was dark from the night sky, Ash was riding on Pidgeot with Ivysaur on the saddle with him.
He had already returned from a very successful negotiation for further use later, and of course, although he might not have anything right now the little friend he left there should keep him informed.
Anyway, after he returned he dropped off Pikachu with Yellow and the others and he got to the sky to start looking for 'that', and of course, Ivysaur was the only one that could lead him there.
Although being in the sky is brutal for all 3 of them, Ash could close his jacket and Ivysaur had Thick fat but Pidgeot was suffering from the weird sudden temperature changes.
Anyway, Ash knows the general location but not specifics, and that's where Ivysaur steps in leading the charge and searching for pheromones or smells…honestly whatever Grass types use to communicate.
It took a bit of time, about an hour to be exact but eventually, Ivysaur caught something in the air, pollen. Finally, Pidgeot was allowed to get down on the ground and go back to his Pokeball to get warm again.
Meanwhile, Ash looked at Ivysaur, "Lead the way."
"Ivy!" he said as he started following the pollen
The woods themselves seemed to be fine, there was the occasional random vine that came out of nowhere but nothing he couldn't get past, which makes sense, unlike Ivysaur most of them must be getting ready for hibernation.
What you may ask, well it's obvious; Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, and Venusaur. That's right he was searching for the hidden forest.
According to what we know about, Pokemon tend to go to locations if they have the same energy as they do, an example is obviously a grass type that likes being in the forest, but we also know there is another part to it, Mega energy.
There is a possibility that he may be able to find a Venusaurite, and even if he can't, a Miracle Seed would be just as useful.
As Ash was thinking, Ivysaur caught his attention when he stopped moving and turned over revealing the sanctuary at last with the large Tree in the center and nearly a hundred different Grass frogs preparing for the winter.
Ash looked at the Tree and ignored the Venusaur couple that were clearly the leaders due to the fact they were stronger than all the rest the Tree itself was almost oozing out energy.
He pulled out the broken keystone and knelt down to get close to Ivysaur as he mumbled, "I hope this works with this."
He clenched his fist holding it and brought it close to both of them as he concentrated his Aura to scan the area.
He knows from the anime that you can sense mega stones using Keystones and having a bond with said Pokemon, so as long as there is still enough energy in the Keystone then…
Then in both of their minds, they say that not only was the tree overflowing with Mega energy, it had 3 Mega stones, although they were all the same kind.
When Ash and Ivysaur snapped back to reality they took a moment to recover and then Ash looked towards it, "Let's have some fun."
But as Ash took a step he felt a tug on his arm, looking down. Ivysaur was looking up at him, "Ivy-Ivysaur? [What are your intentions here?]"
Ash just smiled down at him, "Relax I'm not going to do anything that will destroy this place, in fact, it would be better if we could handle all this with no conflict."
Hearing that Ivysaur's grip loosened as he followed Ash, also felt as if he recognized this place.
Ash on the other hand scanned the 2 Venusaur couple in the front, and surprisingly a smaller Venusaur lying near the base of the Tree
–
[Venusaur(M)]
[Ruler of the Forest - Royal Command, Resilience, and Dominance]
-
[Venusaur(F)]
[Nature's saint - All healing moves give 50% extra health with a 75% buff]
–
[Venusaur(F)]
[Ruler of the Forest]
–
Ash stared at them and whistled, "Yeah this would be quite the problem if we fought them, especially with all the other ones around."
Ivysaur looked up, "Ivy [Why do I feel like you're going to do something stupid.]"
"Oh don't be ridiculous, why would I do something like that?"
{37 seconds later}
Ash didn't want to start an entire war in the forest, being completely honest he would not win, there is no if's, or's, or whatever he would get stomped. So instead he would say a message to them.
Which was what he did, to make sure the king Venusaur got the message. A simple message, five words.
"Venusaur, I've come to bargain!"
Ivysaur covered his face with a vine wondering if it was too late to just leave.
That finally got all the Grass frog's attention as they all turned to him, especially the two biggest Venusaur, now that he got a good look at them he saw that the king stood at 3.2 meters while the regular Venusaur would only be around 2.0 meters.
The Venusaur king immediately looked at him with rage and screamed, "SAUUURRR!!!"
As that left the king's mouth Ash felt the air get heavy around him and Ivysaur himself had to sprout vines in the ground to not get blown away as eventually he stopped and looked with rage.
"Venusaur, Venu-saur! [You human brat, you dare enter our sacred lands after everything your kind has done!]"
With every word that left the king's mouth the sheer strength felt, Ivysaur himself was struggling to even remain standing.
But Ash stayed up, "Look I have no idea what happened, but we came here to make an offer."
But the Venusaur seemed unamused, "Venusaur! VENUSAUR! [You don't know what you did! After what you humans did, TOOK MY SON!]"
Ash remained standing as Venusaur yelled, "I see…."
Venusaur still looked at Ash with anger then saw Ivysaur with him "Venusaur [And you, are you with him]"
Ivysaur seriously considered it for a moment then sighed, "Saur [Yes, I brought him here]"
Venusaur looked angry, "Venusaur! [So you betrayed your own kind!]"
Ivysaur flinched as Venusaur's glare seemed to tear through him, but Ash stepped in between them, "He has nothing to do with this, so are you willing to hear me out, I even have a peace offering."
Ash pulled out a bouquet of rare flowers and the mints that he may or may not have asked Erika for, and square in the center was a special flower that was grown from Erika's own Venusaur, the special flower in question looked very similar to a Titan arum.
The king Venusaur looked uninterested but the queen and what Ash can only assume to be their daughter became intrigued, extending out a thick vine to grab it and bring it closer, Ash didn't resist.
The 2 female Venusaur brought it close to them and admired the beautiful assortment of flowers, even some of the smaller Bulbasaur seemed to want to get in closer to admire the smell.
Venusaur looked annoyed, "Venusaur- [Fine, since my wife is intrigued by your offering, I will allow you to speak.]"
As he said that Ivysaur breathed a sigh of relief as he looked back up at Ash, who seemed unbothered.
But on the inside Ash was sweating profusely, 'Oh boy, Oh boy, Oh boy… alright you're not dead yet just focus and play your cards right, just relax.'
Ash took a breath, "Alright, I came to request the chance to have a stone from that tree."
Venusaur squinted his eyes but didn't seem furanose, "Venusaur, Venusaur [You wish to have one of the royal stones, there are only two ways for our kind to receive them, they may either be born into the royal family, or they may challenge the heir to a battle.]"
As he was saying that Ash finally noticed something there was another Mega stone on the king's flower.
Venusaur continued, "Ven-Venusaur [Normally we wouldn't let outsiders even know about this, but since your offering intrigued my wife I will allow you to challenge my daughter, but only Ivysaur will be allowed to challenge her.]"
Ivysaur shakily looked up towards Ash, "I-Ivy? [Your not serious right]"
"Hey relax, you're not fighting the king, just the Princess you'll be fine," Ash reassured him.
Ivysaur looked over and saw the Princess Venusaur stomp on the ground and stare towards him, making him mumble as he walked up, "I-i-ivy [I'm going to be executed by my own kind]"
Ivysaur and Venusaur stood opposed to each other as all the Grass frogs gathered around to watch the battle and the king raised his vine and counted down before lowering the vine indicating for the battle to start.
Venusaur started out by shooting a [Sludge Bomb] into the air and embedding her feet as they started falling towards Ivysaur.
"Ivysaur dodge then [Growth]," Ash commanded
Ivysaur started dashing back and forth avoiding the dark purple balls of sludge as he dodged his flower and started blooming.
"Now [Venoshock]!"
As Ivysaur was running around his flower began glowing dark purple, then he started shooting dark purple blobs of poison hitting Venusaur in the sides.
Venusaur didn't really like that so she stomped on the ground repeatedly before hitting the ground with both of her feet at once, sending splinters of the ground flying at Ivysaur.
Ivysaur managed to dodge most of the stones but did get chipped in the side, making him fall back to Ash's side, meanwhile, Venusaur stomped and shot a [Sunny Day] into the sky.
Ash looked up and saw the new fake sun, "Ivysaur use [Vine Whip] and grab Venusaur and [Grass Knot]"
Ivysaur's vines shot forward and latched onto Venusaur's front legs catching her by surprise, then Ivysaur pulled back causing her to lose footing and fall to her face.
Venusaur forced herself up with the vines still grabbing onto her arms, she summoned a [Razor Leaf] from her flower to be shot towards Ivysaur and cutting the vines, then when she was able to get up she dashed towards him and jumped into the air aiming to land a [Body Slam].
"Ivysaur get out of the way!" Ash yelled, causing Ivysaur to just barely move out just in time, but Venusaur didn't stop.
When she landed a vine was already extended and grabbed onto Ivysaur's back leg catching him by surprise as she raised him into the air and used a [Power Whip] to slam Ivysaur into the ground.
Ivysaur actually got knocked out for a second but then was woken up by Venusaur slamming him into the ground again and throwing him to the side.
Ivysaur managed to get back up after all that but he was definitely looking worse for wear looking at the Venusaur in front of him.
Ash looked over at Ivysaur and Yelled once more, "Don't give up now, use [Energy Ball] and eat it."
Ivysaur heard Ash's voice and remembered something, then from his mouth a dark green orb formed as it began to be brought back into his mouth.
Venusaur saw this and raised her foot to stomp on the ground once again, this time shooting forward a [Earth Power] that fractured the ground rushing towards Ivysaur's feet.
When the cracks got to Ivysaur they caused an explosion, but when it cleared Ivysaur was nowhere to be seen
Then out of nowhere, Ash yelled out, "Now point blank [Solar Beam]!"
Ivysaur appeared again behind Venusaur already charging his flower, when Venusaur turned to see him Ivysaur was almost a foot away as he shot a boosted Beam directly to Venusaur's face engulfing her and actually pushing her back.
When the beam fizzled out Venusaur was pushed back a few feet but still up, but that last attack didn't feel nice as she looked forward with anger and stomped on the ground using her strongest move, [Frenzy Plant].
Venusaur's body was surrounded by a light green aura as she stomped on the ground. Giant, spiky roots then came out of the ground surrounding Ivysaur and wrapped him into a dome, and began to squeeze.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone