Gotta Catch That One

Chapter 14: A Call Home

Ash woke up early the next morning, excited. They were going to start travelling again and he was finally going to get his eighth gym badge. He stood up and stretched. He saw Pikachu get up from where he'd been sleeping next to Ash. "Good morning, Pikachu." Ash said happily.

"Pikachu." Pikachu smiled.

Ash got changed and left the room quietly, careful not to disturb anyone, especially Serena. He glanced quickly at her before leaving the room and smiled to himself. She's cute when she sleeps. He went downstairs with Pikachu to go eat and to see his Pokemon.

He wolfed down his food quickly, then he and Pikachu went outside to the courtyard, so all the Pokemon could eat. Ash put out their bowls of food and sat down with Pikachu. He watched as Greninja and Delphox ate together, sitting very closely. He looked at Pikachu. "So, Pikachu," he said, "are you ready to get our eighth badge?"

Pikachu pumped his fist. "Pi!" He said confidently.

Ash jumped up excitedly. "Awesome!" He yelled. "Well then I think we should do some special training before the others get up. We wanna be in tip top shape for the Snowbelle gym."

Pikachu nodded and Ash's other Pokemon excitedly murmured agreement as well. They all wolfed down their food quickly, surprising the other Pokemon, and stood ready for Ash's orders.

"Alright." Ash said. "How about some one on one exhibitions?" He looked around at his Pokemon. "Noivern and Pidgeot?" He looked at his two biggest flying Pokemon. Each of them nodded and gave the other a quick look, sizing the other up. "Great, Pidgeot, you go the other side and Noivern, you stay here."

"Pidgaw!" Pidgeot said and he flew over to the other side of the courtyard. Noivern moved to his position as well.

"Alright, Pidgeot, use gust. Noivern, use boomburst." Each responded immediately. Pidgeot's wings flapped rapidly and Noivern's ears glowed blue and he sent the loud blast to his opponent. The gust attack made Noivern lose his balance in midair though and his attack went towards the Pokemon centre. "Pikachu! Quick, use thunderbolt to deflect!"

"Chu!" Pikachu launched his electrical energy at the boomburst waves and just managed to stop the attack from blasting a hole in the building.

Ash sighed in relief. "Whoa...that was close."

A window opened up above and Ash looked up to see a furious looking Serena. "Ash! Do you need to make loud explosions this early in the morning?"

Ash scratched his head nervously. "Um...sorry. I...was training."

Serena shook her head, looking exasperated. Bonnie appeared next to her, with Squishy on one shoulder and Dedenne on the other. "Did he blow anything up?" She asked.

Ash frowned. "No...Pikachu deflected it."

Serena sighed. "Yeah...it only sounded like he blew something up." She looked at Bonnie. "Well, I guess we'd better go down then." They turned away from the window.

Ash looked at Pidgeot and Noivern who had landed behind him. He smiled. "Awesome job, you two!" He congratulated them. "Those attacks were really powerful!" The two Pokemon looked at each other and then back at Ash with happy expressions. "I can't wait to get Noivern into his first gym battle." Ash said. "And Pidgeot, it'll be awesome to get you in one again. Last time would've been Viridian City. You were awesome there."

They continued to train while waiting for the others to get ready, eat and come outside. They tried to be quieter, by using more physical attacks. Ash had Hawlucha and Greninja swap karate chop and cut attacks. They both seemed to enjoy it, as they had a pretty good rivalry. Pidgeot and Talonflame tested out double edge and brave bird. Talonflame was doing pretty well, considering the size disadvantage. Noivern practised diving at Pikachu and Pikachu would attempt to jump and get onto Noivern's back. When Pikachu managed to do it, Ash thought of when Pikachu got onto Latios' back in his battle with Tobias in the Sinnoh League. He frowned. He still hated how he had gone so far in that league, only to get totally trounced.