All for You

Chapter 49

After aura training, Ash headed to the stadium. His only aura training had been reviewing his skills; he wanted to be fully energised for his battle with Paul. 

After skillfully dodging all the press on campus (being able to tell exactly where they were using aura helped), Ash entered his side of the battlefield, Pikachu on his shoulder.

The stands were packed with students and spectators, who all cheered for the battle. Ash scanned the crowd for Serena, who turned out to be sitting next to Dawn. He smiled and waved, and she smiled and cheered.

He looked across the field and saw Paul. They met in the middle of the battlefield and shook hands.

"I can't wait to see how much stronger you've gotten, and how your bond has grown with your pokemon." Ash said excitedly.

"All I want to do is get this battle over with. You haven't changed. The only thing I want to do here is battle your Lucario."

Ash took a step back in shock. He thought Paul had changed since their last battle; he guessed not. 

"Well, at the very least, this will be a very interesting battle." Ash finally settled on replying. 

They each took to their sides of the field.

Ash and Paul selected their pokemon at the same time.

Paul threw his wordlessly and out came Honchcrow.

"I choose you!" Ash didn't throw at a ball, but instead Pikachu ran off his shoulder.

"Pika!" He said excitedly.

"This will be a three on three pokemon battle!" The ref said unhelpfully.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. "Pikachu, thunderbolt!"

"Honchkrow, use fly." 

Honchkrow flew up in the air, but not until after he had been tagged by Pikachu's supereffective thunderbolt.

"Keep a close eye on the sky, Pikachu!" Ash turned his attention up, but the sun was pretty high up in the sky still and it was hard to see in the sky. 

That's why Ash missed when Honchkrow came down on a poor, unsuspecting Pikachu.

"Pika!" Pikachu said, pained. 

"Pikachu! You alright?"

"Pika-chu!"

"Alright, electroweb!"

Pikachu created a net of electricity and hurled it at Honchkrow.

"Dark pulse." Honchkrow sent a dark pulse flyling at Pikachu, completely ignoring the super-effective electroweb that landed on it and decreased its speed.

The dark pulse was a direct hit on Pikachu as well, though, who was sent flying back by it. But so far, Honchkrow was looking worse than Pikachu, since Pikachu's moves were all supereffective.

Ash gritted his teeth. It looked like he was winning so far, but he was sure Paul had a plan.

He was right. "Honchkrow, use fly and sky attack!"

Ash took a step back. Honchkrow flew up in the air and started charging a powerful sky attack, and the fly would effectively use up the wait time.

He grit his teeth. Pikachu wouldn't be able to attack Honchkrow from up there, so his only option was to find a way to dodge or ease the move.

After thinking for a moment, he smiled. "Pikachu, use electroweb on top of the field!"

Pikachu grinned. He created a large electroweb that spanned from one side of the arena to the other, creating a giant web above both the competetor's heads.