บท 64: Start of the Training Arc

As soon as Marshadow disappeared a lot of the dark energy surrounding the Pokemon disappeared, not all of it though Charizard was currently wearing an Arbok like a scarf.

Cross was currently groggy and on the floor holding his head, "What happened?"

"You don't remember, you got your mind taken over you idiot." Ash was crouching and flicked Cross's head.

"What took over, by what, how long?" Cross was still groggy to talk but was coming to his senses.

"It was Marshadow, and you were probably corrupted back when we were in the town."

Sorrel walked up and asked, "Wait so Marshadow did this, why would it do that isn't it meant to guard the rainbow wing?"

Ash shrugged, "Why are you asking me I barely know what I'm going to do in the next 20 minutes, maybe there is a mistranslation in the legend, or maybe we were late and he wanted to speed up the process, or he might be evil each one are valid options" Ash was nodding along to himself.

"Wait so then this entire time Cross was being controlled by Marshadow, that explains why he was such a jerk," Verity incorrectly concluded.

"Wel-" Ash tried to say something before he was interrupted.

"Yes no one could be that cruel to Pokemon, that is the only explanation," Sorrel also incorrectly assumed.

"You see-" Ash was interrupted again.

"I don't know what is happening but If what you guys say is true then that has to be the explanation," Cross also concluded.

Ash just flipped his hands in the air and started walking to the rock, Bonji who was hiding behind some fallen rocks peeked out seeing most of the fighting had died down, and finally walked over to watch.

Ash signaled Charizard who was currently choking the snake, and pointed towards Lycanrock who was still trapped in ice. Charizard slammed Arbok into the mountain, leaving the imprint of its face, and walked over to free the wolf as Ash walked away.

Ash just jumped up onto the glowing rock and stabbed the feather into it, immediately a wave of rainbow energy erupted out and any Pokemon that were still aggressive calmed down.

A rainbow formed through the mountain and Everyone was mesmerized watching it, Bonji looked over through the mountain, "When a rainbow flower blooms upon Rainbow Rock, Ho-Oh shall appear."

As soon as he said that from the rainbow a bird came flying majestically, and as it flew overhead it released a green glow healing everyone's injuries.

Verity looked happy seeing their Pokemon were healed, "Looks like everybody's healthy again!"

"And that's the power of Ho-Oh!" Bonji said

Once Ho-Oh finished flying it landed on top of the crystal and looked over everyone.

"Wow Ho-Oh is really standing in front of us," Sorrel said.

"Indeed, this is the destiny of the rainbow hero!" Bonji said

Cross was looking over Lyconrock and Incineroar, he was also looking at what would happen next.

After a moment of awkward silence, Ash spoke up, "So what now?"

Everyone blinked, releasing what he said, "What do you mean it's Ho-Oh and you're the rainbow hero." Sorrel said and Bonji nodded along.

"Okay, but what do I do, Throw a Pokeball, battle it, try to climb on top and fly on it, because I know for a fact I can't do any of those things, well I can but they won't work."

Bonji looked down, "I don't know I never got this far, I just assumed whoever received the feather would know.

"I mean I could talk to it, it doesn't seem to want to attack us which is good," Ash said

"Yeah see if Ho-Oh wants anything," Verity said as she pushed Ash forward.

Ash gave a side eye and Verity gave the dumbest face she could give, Ash sighed and moved closer, "Hey Ho-Oh remember me we met back in the forest, you gave me your feather."

That seemed to get Ho-Oh's attention so he continued, "So is there something I'm meant to do here?"

Ho-Oh didn't answer, but he did go into his feathers and pull out 2 feathers, one was a similar rainbow feather, but there was also a second silver feather. Both feathers flew out and curled around Ash's hand forming a ring on his index finger.

The ring was silver with different colored accents, and as soon as Ho-Oh gave him the ring it started flying away into the rainbow.

A full 5 seconds of silence happened where everyone wondered what happened and Ash looked at the ring he got, it looked pretty and he could feel something about it, so it wasn't just a nice-looking ring. He tried to take it off to look at the inside but it wouldn't come off.

He started struggling to pull on it, then jammed it between a rock and started pulling but the only thing that happened was that he fell over. When he looked back at the ring it had a scratch but it immediately fixed itself.

Eventually, everyone walked to Ash's body and looked at him, "So that happened," Sorrel said.

"You're telling me, I guess I have a ring now, at least it's not on the ring finger, would be weird trying to explain that."

"I mean it looks pretty," Verity said.

"That's what I thought," Ash said, finally getting up and returning most of his Pokemon to their balls.

"Well I guess we should get off this mountain," Cross said.

"Yeah," Verity said before looking at Bonji, "What about you, are you coming down with us?"

"No no, you young people shouldn't dwell on this old man, besides now that I have some new material I have a new thing to do."

"Ok well then there is the only thing to do in this situation," Ash said as he put Pikachu in his bag and then put his arms around everyone.

"What is that?" Sorrel asked.

"To jump."

"""" What"""" everyone said before Ash jumped back where there was a cliff and everyone started falling.

Everyone was screaming even Lucario was panicking, and Bonji looked down the mountain as they were falling with his eyes wide open. But when they got low they popped out of existence, Bonji realized Ash had something to do with it but he didn't know what so he just sat down and looked into the sunset.

"Young men and women, live on! Just keep on living on! And if you do, a path will open for you! The future is bathed in a rainbow-colored light!"

Back to Ash, they appeared in front of a Pokemon center below the mountain, completely fine. Everyone was currently reeling from their experience meanwhile Abra got out of Ash's Jacket and sat on his shoulders.

"Warn somebody!" Verity grabbed his collar and started shaking him around.

"Where is the fun in that?" Ash said with an innocent face.

"Don't play coy, you know what you did," Cross said.

"Wow, I don't even know what that word means," Ash said.

Sorrel composed himself, "There is no point in dwelling on it."

Everyone calmed down, "Well I guess I'll be on my way then," Cross said as he turned to Ash, "I don't remember whatever battle we did but I'm going to get even stronger. And someday we'll battle again, Just don't lose to anyone before then."

As Cross started walking away Ash called out, "Alright then I better see you at this year's league."

"I'm afraid this is where our paths must part as well. I'm off to learn about the legends of Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres." Sorrel said.

"I think I'm going to head on back home. I'd really like to see my mom!" Verity said.

"Oh that reminds me, Sorrel give me your tablet for a second," Ash said, Sorrel handed him the tablet and Ash put some information in,

"Here you should visit this place sometime, Lucario is about to reach that age where they need to return to Rota. I put in some stuff for you and my number so we can stay in contact."

Sorrel thanked Ash, and suddenly Verity also stepped forward, "Hey I need that too," Both Ash and Sorrel looked at Verity when she said that.

"Wow, how formal, at least take us out to lunch first before you try to hit on us, at the same time nonetheless, how shameless," Ash said also fake fainting into Sorrel.

Verity blushed hearing that, "No it's so we can stay in contact"

After getting a laugh out of Sorrel, Ash gave Verity his number and Sorrel did the same.

"Tell you what if you guys wait for me I promise we'll meet again," Ash said

"I'll hold you to that word," Sorrel said.

"Alright, I better see you in Sinnoh sometime," Verity also called out.

And just like that, they went their separate ways as Ash teleported back to the Pokecenter where this side adventure started.

"Good work Abra, soon you will be ready," Ash told her as he put her back into the Pokeball, then he released Charizard.

Before he did anything he sent a photo of Charizard over to Damian, it hadn't even been 10 seconds before he texted back, the message mainly consisted of asking how he was and if he was doing well, but he also said he transferred a bit of money and to consider it a small apology and that he was preparing something better.

Ash pulled up his account and almost choked seeing how much money he sent over with a note saying 'Don't worry it's my father's money. ;)' Ash sighed looking at it, with the amount he just got he could probably feed all of his Pokemon for a year, thankfully he doesn't need to use it he is still burning Oak's money.

Eventually, he walked over to Charizard, "Let's fly. I have wanted to do this for way too long," Ash said, jumping on his new fire dragon lizard. He also pulled out some headphones and pulled up the only song fitting for this moment.

"🎵 Free bird, yeah!🎵" Ash yelled as he was soaring through the clouds moving back to Vermilion City as the guitar solo hit.

After a few minutes of cycling the city, they finally landed next to the gym, Ash finally pulled his Pokemon out of his PC since everyone caught up more or less.

And as soon as everything was ready he went up to the gym and kicked the door down.

The loud band was heard through the gym and in front of him was Surge, "Old man, you said it yourself let's start training."

"Who are you calling old? I'm only 38!" Surge yelled back at him.

"Fine then if you want to train I'll make you so strong you won't lose to anyone, both in Pokemon and your physical, but you better be ready because now that we are going to start I'm not letting you leave," Surge said, cracking his knuckles and approaching Ash.

For the next few days Ash and his Pokemon would be trained in Surge's Gym, Pikachu was trained by Raichu, and Ash was trained by Surge, even teaching him on how to fight.

Specifically, he was taught the Unovin's military martial art called Kali, which was a real-life fighting style that involved fighting with staffs and knives, but more importantly, was all about incapacitating your opponent as fast as possible. But he also learned some Lerdrit, which was a close-range fighting with the body's "nine natural weapons," including the hands, feet, knees, elbows, and head.

Meanwhile, Pikachu was being beaten by Raichu and improving his effectiveness with his electricity.

Everyone else was Tortur-I mean trained by the rest of Surge's Pokemon, the day would end with everyone having to eat way more than they are used to, so they could 'bulk' and then sleep, then the next day they would restart.