Pokemon One-Shots and Headcanons

Pokemon Tech...In Kalos

I was just thinking, what if Ash ran into the infamous Pokemon Tech school (remember from the episode "School of Hard Knocks"?) in Kalos? How would being more mature have changed his interactions with Giselle, Joe, and the other students?

Ash and the rest of the Kalos gang were traveling through a forest filled with thick fog. Even Braixen's branch couldn't penetrate through the thick, silver mist. He tried sending Talonflame out to find the path, but the fiery bird Pokemon couldn't see anything either.
"Well, since it doesn't look like the fog will be letting up anytime soon, what do you say we just take a break for lunch?" Clemont suggested, looking exhausted from walking for so long.
"Good idea," Ash agreed as his stomach growled.
"One problem though," Serena spoke up. "We need firewood to cook food, but we don't have any."
"Oh yeah, that's right," Bonnie, Clemont's younger sister, said.
"Don't worry about it, I'll go get some," Ash offered.
Serena looked worried. "Ash, are you sure? You could get lost in the fog," the honey-blond girl pointed out.
But Ash wasn't worried. "It's okay, I won't go too far," he promised. "I'll be back before you know it."
Serena nodded reluctantly and Ash turned away into the forest, his loyal partner Pikachu on his shoulder. It was still difficult to see where he was going, so he made sure to walk slowly in case he bumped into something. Ash searched through the forest for firewood, but couldn't find any.
"Ugh. It would help if the stupid fog would lift," he grumbled to himself.
"Yeah, you're telling me," Pikachu agreed.
Suddenly, Ash heard what sounded like voices coming from somewhere to his left. Curious as to who else could be wandering around in the forest, he turned in the direction of the voices and started walking. After a few minutes, he came across a group of kids surrounding a boy on a treadmill. One boy was holding up a card of some sort.
"What sort of Pokemon is this?" he asked.
"A Pidgey," the boy on the treadmill answered.
"Ha, that was just a lucky guess. Okay, and what level does Pidgey evolve at and what does it evolve into?" the boy with the cards asked.
"I don't know," treadmill boy said, and the speed of the treadmill increased and he fell flat on his face. "Ouch..."
Ash had seen enough. "Hey, stop that!" he said angrily. "Leave him alone!"
"Yeah, back off!" Pikachu yelled, his cheeks sparking threateningly.
The other kids turned to look at him. Ash walked up to the boy who had been questioning the kid on the treadmill. He backed up slightly at the look on Ash's face.
"What's your problem? We were just trying to teach this loser about the Pidgey line," the boy sputtered.
"There's no need to hurt him like that just because he didn't know the answer," Ash snapped. "Are you all right?" he added more kindly to the boy who had fallen off the treadmill.
"Yeah, thanks," he answered, standing back up again. "My name's Joe."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Ash from Pallet Town," Ash answered before turning back to the other boy. "Listen, whoever you are, I don't know what you were trying to accomplish by doing that to him, but if you treat everyone that way pretty soon you won't have any friends left."
"That's right, you tell them Ash!"
"Serena?" Ash spun around to see his friends approaching them. "Clemont? Bonnie? What are you all doing here?"
"We came to check on you since you were gone a long time," Serena replied, glaring at the bullies. "But we didn't expect to run into the Pokemon Tech students too."
Now Ash was confused. "Pokemon Tech?" he repeated. "What's that?"
"It's the name of our school," one of the other students told him. "Trainers can come here and study to enter the Kalos league without traveling around the region to collect the gym badges."
"That's stupid," Pikachu remarked to Ash, who agreed silently. However, he didn't say that out loud.
"Oh yeah, I've heard of this school before. According to the brochure, the cost of tuition is one of the highest of any Pokemon school in Kalos," Clemont said, reading something from his Pokedex.
Oh great, so it's a school for snobby rich kids, Ash thought to himself. He should have known. It explained the quiz kid's attitude, after all. "Where is this st-I mean, where's this school anyway?"
"Right this way," Joe said, pointing to their right. Slowly, the fog disappeared and revealed a large institution. Ash looked at the school and back at Joe.
"So...how does this work exactly?" he asked.
"Well, there are three levels of trainers here at Pokemon Tech," Joe replied. "Beginners are the equivalent of two-badge trainers, the Intermediate class is at the equivalent of a four-badge trainer, and anyone in the Advanced class is the equivalent of a six-badge trainer."
Bonnie looked puzzled. "Hold on, but if none of you actually collect any gym badges, how do you know if you'd be at the level of a two-badge trainer?" she asked smartly.
"We have machines that simulate battles against each gym in Kalos," the boy with the flashcards answered. "Joe here has beaten the Santalune gym and the Cyllage gym."
Ash was really annoyed with this stupid school now. "How does a machine prove anything?" he exclaimed.
"You're just jealous that you're not on our level yet," one of the other students, this one a girl, sneered.
Serena smiled sweetly at her. "Actually, Ash already has all eight badges," she informed the girl, who looked stunned. "And he won them all legitimately."
"Wow," Joe breathed. "You have eight badges?"
"Yeah, I just got my eighth one recently," Ash said, rubbing the back of his neck and chuckling. Then he turned to the girl. "Let's go inside. I want to check these...machines out for myself."
The girl looked surprised. "Oh-uh, okay," she stammered. "Come on, follow me."
Ash and his friends followed the girl inside the building. Inside, they saw several machines that looked like arcade games all lined up in several rows. Bookshelves filled with textbooks lined the walls, and there were several students sitting at a table reading.
"Here," the girl said, logging onto one of the machines. The screen showed an image of Wulfric's Avalugg. "Now just choose which Pokemon you want to battle with."
"Uh...okay," Ash said skeptically. He decided to go with Talonflame. An image of his fire-type appeared on the screen, along with an icon asking which move he wanted to use. He selected Flame Charge and was surprised when he knocked out Avalugg in one blow.
"Wow, you really are strong," the girl marveled.
"But the battle in the game was nothing like real life," Ash disagreed. "In a real gym battle against Wulfric, no one would ever be able to win that easily."
"How would you know?" one of the boys asked.
"Weren't you listening earlier? He said he's already battled against him," the girl scoffed.
"Oh yeah...sorry," the boy said sheepishly.
"Don't worry about it," Ash said dismissively. "So who's in charge around here anyway?"
Joe pulled a picture of a girl out of his pocket. "This is Giselle, she's the head student," he said. Ash took a quick look at the girl in the photo. She had wavy dark hair and brown eyes the same shade as her hair. She wasn't bad looking, but Ash privately thought that Serena was prettier.
"Wow, she's so pretty," Bonnie gasped, going starry-eyed at the sight of Giselle.
"Giselle's usually training right about now, so if you want to talk to her you'll have to wait," Joe said apologetically. "She should be finished in about an hour, though."
Ash didn't want to wait for an hour to talk to some schoolgirl, but he didn't want to interrupt her training session either. "All right, I can wait," he agreed politely. "I'm just going to do some research on this school while I wait..."
"I'll come with you," Serena offered.
Together, Ash and Serena found a computer and started reading about Pokemon Tech. As they read, they found out that some students had been held back for years because they couldn't graduate, the result being that some of the students were quite old. In addition, only four students graduated every year on average.
"That's odd. Unless they have real battles to test the students' strength, there's no reason the graduation count should be that low," Serena remarked, looking over Ash's shoulder. "And just why would there still be sixty-year-olds here at this school, or any school for that matter?"
"Here's something else too," Ash said, looking at some of the names of the graduates. All of them had gone on to participate in the Kalos league, but none of them had gotten very far. "None of the students who got to participate in the Kalos league have ever made it past the first round."
"So that proves that this school is nothing more than a joke," Serena clarified.
"Yeah, seems like it," Ash agreed.
"Well, are you surprised? Any place that claims an arcade game can simulate a gym battle has to be a sham," Pikachu spoke up.
Just then, they heard Clemont and Bonnie arguing with one of the students. They logged off the computer and ran back over to their friends and found them standing on opposite ends of a small battlefield in the room next door.
"Huh, so I guess they do have real battles here," Ash remarked before turning to Clemont. "What's going on here?"
"This kid thinks that he can beat the Lumiose gym without challenging me to a real battle," Clemont said angrily, glaring at the boy on the other side of the field. "So we're having a battle to see if he can prove it or not."
"Yeah, go for it Clemont!" Bonnie yelled.
"You can do it!" Serena cheered.
Ash, however, had a better idea. "Clemont, why don't you let Bonnie battle?" he suggested.
Clemont looked startled. "Wha-Bonnie?" he asked.
Ash nodded. "Sure. After all, I'm sure she'd like to defend the honor of your gym too," he replied. Not to mention I doubt these idiotic Pokemon Tech students are good enough to beat her either, he added silently.
Bonnie was jumping up and down excitedly. "Oh please big brother, can I do it?" she begged. "I promise I'll win!"
Clemont looked at his younger sister and sighed. How could he say no? "All right Bonnie, I'm counting on you," he agreed.
"Thanks, Clemont!" Bonnie said happily. She moved to take her brother's place on the field as Clemont stepped off to stand next to Serena, Joe, and the other students.
"I can be the referee," Ash offered, moving to stand next to the midway point of the battlefield. "The battle between Bonnie and...uh...."
"Mark," the boy said. Ash nodded.
"The battle between Bonnie and Mark will now begin," he continued. "Each trainer will have the use of one Pokemon. The match will end when one side's Pokemon is unable to continue. Trainers, please send out your Pokemon."
"Dedenne, show them who's boss!" Bonnie yelled. Dedenne hopped out of Bonnie's bag and took her place on the battlefield.
"You're going to regret making the first choice. Weepinbell, let's go!" Mark ordered, tossing out a Pokeball. A bell-like plant Pokemon materialized on the battlefield and began a staredown with Dedenne.
"Dedenne, you know what to do," Bonnie ordered calmly. Dedenne sent a powerful jolt of electricity towards Weepinbell, knocking the dual grass and poison-type out cold.
"That's it! Weepinbell is unable to continue, so the match goes to Dedenne and Bonnie," Ash declared.
"That was anticlimatic," Serena whispered. "What were we doing this for again?"
Meanwhile, Mark recalled his Weepinbell, looking confused. "But Weepinbell is a grass-type and should be able to beat an electric-type," he muttered.
"But the opponent's Pokemon is from a gym and has more experience than Weepinbell, you should have known that, embarrassment," a voice said snidely.
"Giselle," Joe whispered.
Ash turned around to see the girl from the photo in Joe's pocket entering the room. She walked up to Mark until she was standing right in front of him.
"However, I won't hold it against you. After all, you've proven yourself to be a decent trainer," she continued, and Mark looked even more confused now. "But as for you," she added, turning on Joe next. "I heard about your abysmal performance today when answering questions about the Pidgey line. I am the head student at the most prestigious school in Kalos. No one else has my beauty, my grace, or my elegance. I want to help all my fellow students achieve the same level of brilliance. But you're a weakling. Get stronger or everyone will turn their backs on you. Understood?"
Joe looked shocked as Giselle turned around and started to walk away. However, Serena stopped her before she could get very far.
"Hold on! A true friend wouldn't turn their back on someone who needs their help!" she protested. "If you really want to help everyone here get better, you should actually help them and not make fun of them. You may look pretty, but your so-called beauty is only skin deep."
"Jealousy isn't pretty either," Giselle said smugly.
"Is she always this full of herself?" Ash asked Joe.
"She is, but she's beautiful, isn't she?" Joe asked. Ash then saw that every boy in the room minus Clemont was staring at Giselle with something akin to a dreamy expression on their faces. At Joe's question, however, every head in the room turned to Ash to see what his answer would be.
"Not really," he said dismissively. Serena looked happy to hear that. Giselle, on the other hand, looked as though he'd just slapped her in the face.
"What did you say?" she shrieked. "That's it! I challenge you to a battle!"
"But Giselle, Ash has eight badges," Joe told her.
Giselle, however, just smirked. "And I'm almost the equivalent of an eight-badge trainer, so our strength should be about equal," she replied. "I'll prove it too. Ash, do you have any water-type Pokemon on you?"
"Yes, I do," Ash replied, wondering what that had to do with anything.
"Good. Then you can use whoever your water-type is, and I'll use this one," Giselle said, pulling out a Pokeball. "Go Solrock!"
"Why choose a rock-type?" Bonnie asked.
"My Pokemon are at an advanced level. No water-type could ever beat Solrock," Giselle said arrogantly. Ash just smirked at her naivety.
"All right, if you're so sure about that then let's see you deal with this. Greninja, I choose you!" he called out, tossing his frog-ninja Pokemon's Pokeball. Greninja took his place on the battlefield and stared hard at Solrock.
"Greninja, use Water Shuriken," Ash ordered.
"Take this!" Greninja called to Solrock as he fired a Water Shuriken attack towards the psychic and rock-type. Much like Weepinbell in Bonnie and Mark's battle, Solrock was knocked out in one hit.
"What was all that about?" the frog-ninja Pokemon asked his trainer. "Could you not have found someone who would have given us a better battle?"
"She thinks she's as good as a trainer with eight badges even though she's never fought a real gym battle before," Ash stage-whispered to Greninja, who snorted.
"Eight badges? Please, I wouldn't even give her one."
"You cheated!" Giselle snapped angrily.
Ash folded his arms. "Really, and how is that?" he asked coolly.
"No water-type Pokemon could beat Solrock, so that thing can't be a water-type," Giselle said, pointing at Greninja who looked rather offended at being called a "thing".
"Greninja is dual water and dark-type," Ash admitted.
"See, you did cheat," Giselle said smugly. "Dark-types aren't a thing, so why should I believe that your-Greninja, did you say?-is a water-type?"
Now Ash really thought this girl was stupid. "Of course he's a water-type. He's the final evolved form of Froakie, so he has to be," he countered. Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie all nodded in agreement. "And how do you not know what a dark-type is? They exist in just about every region!"
"The textbooks don't say anything about dark-types!" Giselle snapped.
"She actually knows how to read?" Greninja whispered to Ash.
"You can't rely on books for everything," the raven-haired boy said coolly.
"Grr....I bet that Pikachu couldn't beat my strongest Pokemon," Giselle growled. "I challenge you to another battle."
"Fine, if it'll shut you up," Ash agreed.
"Not here though, outside," Giselle decided. "That way the rest of the school can watch."
Ash, Clemont, Bonnie, Serena, Joe, Mark, and the other students followed Giselle out to a battlefield in the back of the school. Soon, they were joined by at least twenty other students. Ash heard all of them whispering about how Giselle was going to win and had to keep himself from laughing.
"Against that Pikachu, this should be a piece of cake. Go Cubone!" Giselle shouted, tossing a Pokeball. A canine Pokemon with a skull over his head appeared on the battlefield. Ash realized that she had purposely challenged him to a battle with his Pikachu so she could counter with a ground-type. He wasn't worried, though. Pikachu had beaten ground-types before, after all.
"Clemont, aren't ground-types immune to electric attacks?" Serena asked.
"They are, but this is Ash we're talking about. Let's see what he comes up with," the Lumiose gym leader responded.
"You should listen to the girl, but you'll pay the price soon enough," Giselle taunted him. She was getting really annoyed with this boy now. He didn't fall head over heels for her and didn't respond to her taunts. He just stood there, his arms folded with one eyebrow raised.
"If you're quite finished with that pointless banter, I suggest we get this started," Ash said calmly. "Pikachu, you're up."
"This should be easy!" Pikachu said, hopping off Ash's shoulder.
"All right then, use Leer!" Giselle ordered.
"Just look away, Pikachu," Ash countered.
Pikachu did as he was told, and to everyone's surprise Leer was ineffective. Ash sighed at the looks of shock on all the Pokemon Tech students' faces. Even Giselle looked stunned.
"Come on, if a move requires eye contact all you have to do is make sure your Pokemon isn't looking their opponent in the eye," he said in exasperation. And this was the girl who claimed to be the equivalent of an eight-badge trainer! "It's called common sense."
"Why, you! There's nothing about that in the books!" the dark-haired girl said angrily.
"You know, I'd feel sorry about the way this school or whatever is obviously setting her up for failure if she wasn't such a prick," Greninja remarked from beside Ash.
"That's why you have a brain...or at least I assume you do since you seem to be alive," Ash said coldly. "Just figure out how to use it and you'll be all set."
"Cubone, use Bonemerang!" Giselle screamed, at the end of her rope with this boy.
"Knock it back with Iron Tail, Pikachu," Ash ordered. Pikachu's tail glowed silver as he sent Cubone's bone flying back towards the little doglike Pokemon, knocking him hard on the head. Cubone keeled over, unconscious.
Immediately, all the students started whispering excitedly to each other. They couldn't believe that someone had beaten the top student at their school and her strongest Pokemon so easily. Serena, Bonnie, and Clemont were cheering for Ash and Pikachu. Cubone, meanwhile, woke up and started to cry loudly.
"That mean Pikachu hurt me!" he whined as Ash and Pikachu sighed.
"Don't cry Cubone, you tried your best. Now return," Giselle said, recalling Cubone to his Pokeball. "I lost..." she muttered.
"Giselle?" Ash addressed the dark-haired girl. Giselle looked up at him.
"How did you do that?" she asked. "Pikachu's an electric-type, so Cubone should have beaten him easily. He's immune to electric-types, after all."
"No. Cubone is immune to electric-type moves, not the Pokemon themselves," Ash corrected. "Notice how none of the moves Pikachu used were electric attacks. Any electric-type Pokemon can beat a ground-type with the right moves."
Giselle and the other students looked stunned.
"Your school relies too much on textbooks and false battle simulators," Ash continued. "Textbooks can give you a good foundation, but that's all they do for you. A trainer has to work with their Pokemon to develop their own battling style instead of relying on type advantages or levels."
"I guess that's something to think about," Giselle murmured. She reached out to shake Ash's hand. "Thanks for the battle, Ash."
"It was fun," Ash agreed, dropping his impassive face and smiling at her for the first time.
Giselle smiled back at him. "Good luck at the Kalos league," she said.
"Yeah, thanks. I guess I'll see you there then?" Ash asked, remembering what Joe had said about eight-badge trainers at Pokemon Tech being eligible to compete in the league.
Giselle, however, shook her head. "No. I'm going to travel around the region and go to all the gyms. Fight in a real battle," she replied. "I might not collect them in time to participate, but I'll do my best."
Ash was pleased to hear that, since it meant she really was trying to change her ways. Nodding to Giselle and the other students, he turned and walked off the Pokemon Tech campus with his friends, ready to get back on his journey to the Kalos league.