After staying in there for a day, they decided to go off to continue on their journey again from Professor Birch Laboratory, the Pokémon around Ash also some change in them.
In addition to his Pikachu, Ralts, Togetic and Dratini, the four main Pokémon that are always around him now, there are also his Torkoal and Duskull, both of who have recently been caught by him by complete luck.
Next, the group headed towards the high Fortree City. The journey was quite far from where they were, essentially half away into the mainland Hoenn Region. The group re-planned their road again and chose a more interesting route, then being forced to be plunged into the deep forests of Hoenn again.
The main thing the group always had to go through in their journey was always these damn forest.
Now, May suddenly and unexpectedly proposed a practice match to Ash, using her Torchic.
This most likely stemmed from after she saw the newbie Torchic in Professor Birch Laboratory's being trained for their future Trainers, and thinking that the same newbie Torchic that Ash gotten much later than her had already evolved in its next form, she started to worry about the future of her own Torchic.
"Alright then, I will humor you, love. Stand by for battle, Torkoal!"
It was broad daylight now, and the more nocturnal and Ghost-type Duskull was seeming to have trouble moving around in all this light. He had always been used to the dark place of his home back in Littleroot Forest. And now since it was a special training for May's Torchic, it was more appropriate to use Torkoal, which was also a Fire-type Pokémon than the Ghost-type Duskull.
Ash likes to use the same type of Pokémon as his partner to practice their synergy with each other. Just like his Charizard who was now finishing his special training in the Charicific Valley, his other Pokémon's in the backyard of Professor Oak Laboratory are also continuing to make their moves adjustments and do one-on-one training under the notes and instructions he gives to his Slowking every time he makes a call to the Professor.
"Torrr..."
Hearing that he will be going to help Torchic with his special training, Torkoal was immediately moved to tears and spit up his very thick smokes again.
This guy was emotional in everything he did, which was cute in a sense.
"Torchic, we have to work hard!" May encouraged her confused looking Torchic, "Use Ember!"
However, when Torchic's Ember hit Torkoal she'll, Torkoal didn't react at all, it seemed that he hadn't even felt the attack. Truth be hold, Torkoals shell was a little hotter than Torchic's Ember. Instead of being disappointed, Torkoal spit up his smoke again, cheering loudly for Torchic, his good friendoo.
"Torchic, Torkoal is too powerful in his defense, Torchic, we have to use the skills that Ash taught us last time!" May's heart hardened in preparation, with Ash's power and all of his experience helping her out, of course she would make good use of what her boyfriend was providing her.
After hearing May's words, Torchic also showed a new more serious expression, one that even he didn't he quite possessed.
"Torchic, use your new Flame Charge attack!"
That's right, it was the move that Ash had originally taught to his Combusken to power up his speed, along with it being a decently powerful move. Ash made his Combusken learn this attack when he was still a Torchic, this move was used repeatedly to build up the speed and strength on its legs for his future evolution into a Combusken and then to a powerful Blazeiken, so May naturally wanted to learn this form Ash to improve her own Torchic and his future evolutions.
Of course, now that Ash's Combusken has completed his evolution, there are many new skills that are needed to be better practiced and improved more with time.
Flame Charge was also one of these moves that needed to be improved because of the ultimate form of this move, Flare Blitz!
However, May and Torchic are special, they can sometimes do it without any major issues happening while other times they can't even control where the flames appears to make the move stronger.
However, they are working very hard to improve on their current level.
This was also related to the fact that May had previously focused most of her energy on her Beautifly and Skitty to get them ready for their Pokémon Contests.
The training foundation of her Torchic was not as solid as her other two Pokémon's, even though Torchic was the very first Pokémon that she had ever owned.
It was the same this time, being very close to ding the move correctly. Torchic stomped hard on the ground and new hotter flames appeared to be burning on its body.
"That's right, come on, hold on and let your energy burn to increase the power of your flames!" Ash looked at the flames on Torchic's body, nodded slightly, and quickly gave more advice to let Torchic get a better hang on his new move.
Unexpectedly, the flames went out out of the blue, and Torchic stopped while breathing heavily. His physical strength was far inferior to Ash's Combusken when he was still a Torchic.
This was another of the reasons why Ash's Combusken didn't like May's Torchic much, as he sometimes too lazy to even try to train his body and the lives he knows. This was the complete opposite of Ash's, who always trains when he has the chance.
"Aww, dang it! We failed again, and we were so close too!" May felt let down again for a moment, but did not give up and continued to push on forward with her Torchic.
"Babe, let Torchic follow Torakoal during his training period. After all, he will evolve into a dual Fighting-type Pokémon in the future, and physical strength is very important. And Torkoal can be the perfect partner to improve Torchic's attack with his own defense. This can also improve my Torkoals defense in the long run." Ash gave her some suggestions with a few small peck to her lips.
"Torkoalllll..." Torkoal was moved again in pure happiness.
"You two are so in love over there!" Suddenly, a man and woman dressed in luxurious and glamour clothes came to Ash's and May's side. Brock was cooking up some food while Max was helping him out with the fire.
"My name is Oscar!"
"And my name is Andi!"
Seeing a beautiful blonde girl like Andi, Brock's eyes suddenly filled with love, "So beautiful!"
"We can see the deep love between the two of you. We have something to ask you. Please accept our challenge in a Pokémon Battls!" These two seem to have a good tactic understanding with each other, they even say the same things at the same times.
Ash will never refuse an invitation to have a battle, especially when it could help him and May figure something out.
"But what we are proposing is not an ordinary battle, it is a Pokémon two-player cooperative match to test the tacit understanding between two people, especially loving couples like you guys and us."
It's a two-on-two battle, but instead of one Trainer commanding two of their Pokémon's, it has been increased to two Trainers commanding one Pokémon each. Very similar things with some changes to the number of Trainers and Pokémon's, but these two things can bring emmense change to something like a Pokémon battle.
It sounded very interesting, so Asg and May looked at each other and decided to accept this new challenge as a couple.
"Miss Andi, please let me, a talented Pokémon Breeder and your new massive fan, be the referee!"
Boom!
The Poké Ball on Brock's waist exploded on its own, which was very reminiscent of something that will happen to Brock very commonly in the future.
Spinda actually jumped out and hugged
Brock's leg. His next words of how loyal he was going to be for her immediately stopped, and he honestly announced the start of the battle without anything else to add.
Spinda doesn't hurt him physically, she just makes sure that he is single, and for the foreseeable future.
Now that Pokémon are supposed to be released, Ash and May decided to use their Torkoal and Torchic to get a better understanding of their synergy.
The Pokémon used by Oscar and Andi turned out to be a Nidoking and Nidoqueen couple. And at a glance, one can tell that these two people have trained these two Pokémon's since they were in their Nidoran stage. It was very obvious that their Bond Value was very high, and the tacit understanding between them was also some of the best one can find in the wild.
The most important thing is that these two Pokémon's were Ground-types and could restrain Ash and May's two Fire-types.
"May, you can do whatever you want to them, and I'II make out a formation for you! This will test what I have taught you all this time." Ash didn't panic at all by seeing these two fully evolved Pokémon's that were also stronger in types, he planned to give May more opportunities to fight and get a broader sense of her strength and intelligence in a battle, especially in a battle like this where she had to consider what her and her partners Pokémon's can do.
The more intense a battle is for a Trainer, the more they are likely to gain some insight in their power from this.
"Okay!" With Ash being by her side, May was finally able to be at ease, well some what. Even if the two Pokémon in front of her are of a much higher levels, she was not afraid to going all out.
"Torchic, use your Ember attack!"
Torkoal didn't move to attack like Torchic was, and Torchic took the lead in attacking according to May's orders. This time it performed exceptionally well in fomg so, and Ember's temperature was even higher than the usual that they practiced with.
However, such flames were nothing to the likes of Nidoking and Nidoqueen, who were known for their very strong defensive powers.
"Nidoking/Nidoqueen, use your double Dynamic Punch!"
Oscar and Andi took action at the same time. The movements of these two Pokémon were unsurprisingly very consistent with each other, and they got ready to Torchic with their strong fists.
"Noo, Ash!" Seeing that her Torchic was in very much danger, May quickly called out to Ash.
However, Ash did not seem to be panicked by their thei combined attack, "Sun Smokescreen!"
Torkoal usually spit up a thick layer of Smokescreen from his nostrils whenever he moved. Now that he purposefully activated the move, the smoke immediately enveloped Nidoqueens and Nidokings bodies.
When everything went dark, they immediately stopped attacking and felt parts of their body was being slowly burned.
This was a newly created move by Ash, especially made for his Torkoal and maybe his other Fire-types when was has the chance.
The Heatwave move was combined with the hiding properties of Smokescreen to fully enclose the opponents and make sure they are unable to do much of anything while also getting damaged by the small burns happening on parts of their bodies.
"Shoot!" Oscar and Andi exclaimed together. Since now that they couldn't see or yell out to their Nidoking and Nidoqueen, how can they direct them to fight?
And even if they really hear it, whag if they launch an attack and accidentally hit their other companion?
"Torchic, use Ember!"
"Let me add some fire to yours, Torkoal, Flamethrower!"
Even though Ember's power was of a much lower level, Flamethrower's power had further increased its own. The newly combined fire pillar penetrated the thick smoke and hit Nidoking hard in one of its weekend spot from the previous burn damages.
"KING!"
Nidoking immediately cried out in pain. Not only that, he also fell into a more serious condition of burn than the previous ones.
"Noo, Nidoking!" Oscar suddenly became worried when he saw his Nidoking being so injured.
"May, focus on continuing to attack that injured Nidoking!" Ash made a quick decision on the spot. The two of them fought as if they were one single person, well more like Ash was the brain while was controlling the hands, so all they needed was a simple word to convey each others instructions to the other to understanding.
"Okay, Torchic, let's go for your Flame Charge!" May really gave the orders to her Torchic to use Flame Charge again at such a time.
She was going to fully trust in her Torchic's abilities to pull this off.
And Torchic didn't let May down. While at the beginning, he struggled to continue his spend on the ground, he gradually began to wrap himself into a fireball to increase both his power and speed stat.
"Nidoking/ Nidoqueen, use your destroyer Hyper Beams!" Oscar and Andi also used their ultimate move.
The two destructive Hyper Beams were perfectly integrated in terms of power and strength with each other, which also shows how much they had to train together to do something so amazing, especially with extremely powerful moves like Hyper Beam.
"Torchic, come on! You can do it!" At this moment, the flames on Torchic's body were burning like never before. Torchic gritted his teeth and ignored the destruction that the incoming Hyper Beams front of him was doing.
May also did g stop Torchic as she saw that Ash was watching all of this very calmly, and she had the highest trust in her lover.
Finally, Torchic successfully used Flame Charge and rushed towards Nidoking and Nidoqueen. Like May had thought, he completely ignored the destructive Hyper Beam that was about it hit him.
Ash smiled slightly, of course he would not disappoint May and her Torchic, "Torkoal, burn it out! Overheat!"
This was the decisive move that puts Torkoal's full strength on the line. At the expense of harshly lowering his Special Attack, the power of the Overheat had increased to its current limit.
Torchic's Flame Charge hit the already very seriously injured Nidoking hard in the weak point that Ash had told her about.
"Great, Torchic, we successfully used Flame Charge!"
And the terrifying pillar of fire of Torkoal under Sunny Day had also defeated the double destructive Hyper Beam and had also knocked Nidoqueen away.
"Both Nidoking and Nidoqueen lost their ability to fight, meaing Torkoal and Torchic won this battle, so the winner of this match is the team of May and Ash!"
"TOR..."
This was the victory roar of Torkoal.
"Big Bro, look!"
On their way to Fortree City, Max suddenly screamed out after seeing something. The PokéNav that he got from Joseph Stone, the President of Devon Corporation, in his hand suddenly failed to receive any signal, and the compass in Brock's hand also failed to show anything.
Now they were in a dark forest, without knowing where to go and where they are. It was obviously still broad daylight, but there was not even a trace of sunlight under the dense canopy of trees.
Since arriving here, Ash summoned his recently caught Duskull and started training with him in his moves. Duskull was the main representative of the Ghost-type Pokémon's present in the Hoenn Region, and thus having left many legends here and there about there mysterious ghostly powers.
The special abilities of the Duskull line are actually very similar to those of the Gastly line. They can float in the air, turn their bodies transparent and penetrate most solid objects and the likes. Especially that they both like to prank on unsuspecting humans, more Duskull than it's evolutionary forms.
There are also legends that they like the cries of children and take pleasure in making the scared humans cry. In the Hoenn Region, there are many parents will always scare their children with tales like this.
The most famous one is that children who don't obey their part will be taken away in the dark by Duskull.
Duskull was also the first true Ghost-type Pokémon that Ash had actually caught for his team.
Annihilape was more like an welcomed but accidental encounter.
Back when he was traveling in the Kanto Regions and was at Saffron City, he had a good relationship with a Haunter from Lavender Towns famous Pokémon Tower, but the past him had left him with the Gym Leader, Sabrina the Psychic, from Saffron Gym.
Of course, he also never really caught that Haunter either.
Although his new Duskull was knocked down by Ralts' single Shadow Ball when he was first seen, his level is actually not low. It was more that his Ralts was with him for longer and had more power; consequently, Duskull was also weak to Shadow Ball, so that also didn't help much.
In truth, he had learned many different skills, such as Astonish, Shadow Sneak, Confuse Ray, Night Shade and other Ghost-type skills. In addition, he and also learned how to use the powerful Will-O-Wisp move under Ash's careful training, especially when he almost completely burned down a forest when training.
Ash had to wake his Celebi up to restore the forest back to its usual state before some mining else happened.
At this moment, Ash was currently training him how to control the Will- O-Wisp flames he creates, just like the Dusclops belonging to the Phantom from before.
Seeing Ash's calm look, May was initially worried their situation, but she quickly calmed down and said, "Skitty, come on out!"
She summoned her soft Skitty and hugged the soft and cute fur of it, which made her feel more at ease.
However, Skitty actually jumped out of her arms and went into one of the bushes on the side.
"Skitty!" May called out, following Skitty towards the depths of the forest.
"Sis?"
When Max realized that May was gone, she had already reached the depths of the bushes and held her Skitty back in her arms. She suddenly noticed that the bushes in front of her were shaking a little, and then she heard a harsh growl, and a Skarmory suddenly flew out of the bushes.
'Why is a Pokémon like this is a bush??'
"No!" May subconsciously protected her Skitty under her body, but Skarmory actually took both her and her Skitty with her waistpasck as the reason and flew away with it.
"Big Bro, Sis is missing!" Max quickly found Ash for help.
Hearing this, Ash looked around, and sure enough, May's figure was missing. He was too deep into training his Pokémon's to keep an eye on her, his Pikachu was also sleeping after their special trading last night, so he also had g felt her absence.
Then a deep growl came from deep in the forest, and Ash's eyes quickly lit up with blue light.
"Don't follow me now!" Ash didn't even have time to take his Duskull back to his Poké Ball to rest up, and his figure disappeared in front of Max and Brock before they could say anything.
He was not using Psychic powers to use Teleport, he was simply too fast for their eyes, and while running, he came to a tall three-story wooden fence, and he saw that Skarmory had already flown over with May.
Such a height was certainly not a problem for Ash to keep up with.
Before the Pokémon Ranger or manager of the wooden fence arrived, Ash had already led his Pokémon's over it. Duskull had the easiest way to go directly through the wall and came to Ash's side again.
"No? A BOY had entered the Forbidden Forest! We have to go to the elder to tell it him quickly!" The two gatekeepers were frightened when they saw Ash appearing in this deadly forest, but they never believed that someone could escape from there. Well escaping from the forest with their whole body intact.
The Forbidden Forest was a forbidden area they guard under the Hoenn Pokémon Leagues orders. There were quite a few humans who broke into this area for illegal poaching, but they never returned with their full body as they were all attacked by many powerful Grass-type Pokémon's.
And sure enough, just when Ash took back his Duskull, a lot of Grass-type Pokémon's appeared in front of him.
There was the Oddish line, the Hoppip line, the Bellsprout line, and the Sunkern line.
They used combination moves like Stun Spores, Poison Powders, and Sleep Powders to attack Ash from all sides at the slightest movement from him.
"Togetic, use Safeguard!"
Ash set up a protective barrier, quickly moved out of the way, and headed towards the direction of Skarmory Flying.
"Skarmory, put down May!" Ash jumped onto a large treetop and chased Skarmory on the tree, "Pikachu, it's up to you!"
After chasing him close, Pikachu jumped into his hand. Ash used his strength and threw Pikachu towards Skarmory. Even without needing to use his Aura, he could do it pretty easily.
"It's Pikachu!"
May also saw Pikachu and knew that it was Ash who came to save her, and she immediately cheered by knowing her boyfriend was here to save her.
Then she saw a spark hitting close to where she and Skarmory were.
Although it intentionally missed, Skarmory was very frightened by this powerful light.
It dropped May on a high hillside and flew away from there.
"I'm saved!" May quickly looked at her Skitty in her arms, "Really, how could you be running around so carelessly!"
Instead of blaming her little kitten too much, May decided to wait here for Ash to come pick her up. The view here was very good, and the fresh breath from here was something she rarely felt, she knew that her boyfriend will definitely come here to save her.
"Bulb bul!"
Suddenly she heard a voice and turned around to see a cute looking Bulbasaur standing on the edge of the cliff, seemingly stretched out to reach something out there.
"It's a Bulbasaur!" May's eyes suddenly lit up with excitement. She had already seen the three Royal Starters from the Kanto Region form Professor Oak in Professor Birch's Laboratory, and she was especially impressed by the cute Bulbasaur she saw there.
Unexpectedly, the Bulbasaur slipped and was about to fall from its high place. May quickly caught her with her quick reaction and hands.
"Little one, it's too dangerous here for you." May pulled Bulbasaur down and put her on the ground. Unlike the extremely large and powerful male Venusaur that she saw Ash teleport back to him to do some training a few days ago, this one should be a girl, especially with the heart-shaped spots on her forehead, which only made her look even cuter. She was holding a beautiful looking flower on her Vine Whip.
Bulbasaur was originally very happy to be rescued by something, but when she looked up and saw that it was actually a human being that her father told her to be wary of, she immediately took two steps back with a look of horror on her adorable small face.
Seeing this, May smiled and said, "My name is May, I won't do anything bad to you, so don't worry."
Hearing this, Bulbasaur tilted her head a little, stretched out another one of her Vine Whips and rubbed May's face with it.
Perhaps sensing May's kindness, she immediately let down her guard and showed a cute smile.
However, the good times did not last for too long. The Grass-type Pokémon's patrolling these parts discovered the existence of May here and immediately gathered around to protect Bulbasaur, the daughter of their leader.
They all surrounded May. Their three types of primary powder moves were splashed out involuntarily, and they then followed up with attacks like Razor Leaf and Vine Whips.
This was the reason so many people never come out of this place, and even if they do, they come out with a body part or two massing.
May was so frightened that she quickly ran away under one of the larger boulders.
———————
"Pika!"
Pikachu fell from the sky and landed on Ash's shoulders. Ash had already detected May's location from her very familiar Aura and started climbing the cliff with his Pokémon's.
Togetic, who can fly, took the lead, appeared next to May, and set up a Safeguard to resist most of the attacks.
"Togetic!"
May immediately knew that Ash was close by, as Togetic never went too far from where Ash stayed at.
"May!" Ash quickly climbed to May's side, "Are you okay, babe?"
"I'm okay, Ash, thank you for coming to save me!" May stood up and kissed him in happiness.
Suddenly, all the Grass-type Pokémon's got out of the way, and the big BOSS of this famous Forbidden Forest appeared in front of Ash and May.
This was a Venusaur. Ash didn't expect to see a Venusaur in the Hoenn Region, especially a random wild one like this one. Ash was quite surprised to see it.
Next to this Venusaur was the Bulbasaur that May had just rescued. It was this child who probably called over her father, this Venusaur, here and explained it to him that they were good people and that they saved him.
Bulbasaur was no longer wary of May and handed the flowers she had just just picked to May.
Venusaur stretched out her Vine Whip and rubbed it against them, finally confirming that Ash and May were indeed good people, and the other Grass-type Pokémon also dispersed after getting the nod from their leader.
"I alredy miss my Venusaur." Ash said with a smile, looking at the Venusaur and Bulbasaur in front of him, even though the last time he physically saw and touched his Venusaur was literally just a few days ago.
"Ash, that Venusaur of yours is a giant. He's was such a gentle giant!" May was pulled away by the child Bulbasaur. When she heard Ash's voice, she turned around and smiled, with Ash by her side, she was no longer afraid of her safety.
Bulbasaur took Ash and May to visit this paradise belonging to Grass-type Pokémon's, but they had to leave here quicky, otherwise Brock and Max would worry that something really bad happened to them.
They quickly found a group of people who guard this Forbidden Forest and opened the door of this place.
"Bulbasaur, goodbye!" May was ready to say goodbye to her new friend in Bulbasaur. She understood that traveling was ultimately a process of meeting and parting ways, like the Swablu incident not long ago. Although there are some reluctances in her heart, she ultimately knew that sometimes they really were not meant to be.
But just when the gate was about to close, Bulbasaur, encouraged by her father, Venusaur, made up her mind and ran to May's side.
"Bulbasaur, do you want to come with me?"
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