Location — Pallet Town
In the forested area near Pallet Town, Red was training alongside his Pokémon all by himself.
This place not only had the complex terrain of a forest, but was also surrounded by streams and slopes, located at the upper reaches, enjoying the most natural air—making it a great natural training ground.
Ever since the battle at Mount Hideaway with Bruno ended, Red resumed intensive special training the very next day. Today's main training targets were Milotic and Sylveon.
However, at this moment, the two Pokémon had already started a jealous quarrel. Without needing Red to give any orders, Milotic and Sylveon were already preparing to attack, determined to knock the other down to prove their own strength.
"Watching girls fight is always the most interesting."
A pair of red lights suddenly appeared within Red's shadow, followed by a ghostly face emerging, occasionally revealing a sinister grin.
The eerie face gradually floated out from beneath the shadow, and in an instant transformed into the appearance of Thousand-Year Gengar.
Thousand-Year Gengar skillfully took out a bag of popcorn from within its body, comfortably stuffing it into its mouth, and even handed some to Red.
"Boss, want some?"
"Looks like you're pretty relaxed?"
Red teased. As if thinking of something, he turned and used Teleport, disappearing from the spot, heading toward the courtyard of Professor Oak's Laboratory in Pallet Town.
"Hm?"
Just as Thousand-Year Gengar scratched its head in confusion, in no time at all, Red reappeared, now with two additional figures beside him.
"Kadabra is one thing, but why is even Dratini here?" Thousand-Year Gengar asked in confusion, its mouth twitching as if it had already guessed Red's intention.
The two Pokémon beside Red were naturally the silver Kadabra and the purple Dratini. Like Thousand-Year Gengar, both were rare shiny Pokémon.
A lineup of shiny Pokémon that would cause an uproar in the outside world appeared surprisingly ordinary within Red's team—after all, these three weren't his only shiny Pokémon.
"You looked too relaxed, so I figured I'd have you train these two little ones. They're just about ready to evolve anyway," Red said casually, snatching away the popcorn from Thousand-Year Gengar's hand, ignoring its resentful gaze.
"I haven't even eaten much yet…" Thousand-Year Gengar complained.
(This thousand-year-old geezer is seriously disgusting…) X2
Kadabra and Dratini simultaneously looked speechless at the still-acting-cute Thousand-Year Gengar.
Moments later, after seeing Red walk toward Milotic and Sylveon, Thousand-Year Gengar suddenly became imposing, looking displeased at Kadabra and Dratini.
"It's all your fault, you two little brats. Now I can't even eat popcorn. I'll have to train you properly!"
Hearing Thousand-Year Gengar's "threat," Kadabra and Dratini both rolled their eyes.
(It's obviously because you were too lazy that the master noticed you…) X2
Though they thought this, under Thousand-Year Gengar's pressure, the two Pokémon wisely chose to stay silent, not daring to argue, afraid of having their training intensified.
"You'll never defeat me!"
At this moment, Milotic and Sylveon were locked in an intense battle.
Standing in the middle of the stream, Milotic spoke unhappily, casting a jealous glance at Red who was approaching.
Milotic had originally thought today would be a day of one-on-one training with Red, but unexpectedly Sylveon had been brought along as well.
As a result of the two Pokémon's jealous rivalry, the commotion even attracted the attention of Thousand-Year Gengar, who loved watching excitement, unknowingly drifting away from Milotic's ideal scenario.
"What? Can't you even share a little? The warmth in the master's arms isn't something that belongs to just one Pokémon!"
Sylveon said jealously, immediately swinging its tail to use Swift.
With the boost from the Pixilate Ability, the originally Normal-type Swift was converted into Fairy-type, increasing its power to 1.2 times.
But that wasn't the end of the boost. Swift then received another enhancement from the Adaptability Ability, doubling its power again to reach a terrifying level.
Yet Milotic showed no panic, calmly opening its mouth to use Water Cannon, as it also possessed the Adaptability Ability.
A powerful torrent of water burst from Milotic's mouth, gradually forming a thick water column that forcefully shattered the incoming star-shaped light waves, continuing forward to strike at Sylveon.
Seeing this, Sylveon immediately chose to dodge. The rock it had been standing on in the stream was directly shattered by the terrifying impact of Milotic's Water Cannon.
(What terrifying power!)
Sylveon looked in shock at the shattered rock, its cautious gaze locking onto Milotic's next move.
Suddenly, Sylveon's eyes lit up, emitting a sparkling glow as it used Baby-Doll Eyes, intending to reduce Milotic's attack.
(The effect of Baby-Doll Eyes is to lower the target's Attack by one stage. The Arceus version changed it, but after thinking about it, I'm using the original version's effect.)
"Looks like Sylveon doesn't understand how powerful Milotic's Competitive Ability is…"
Red muttered while watching, feeling a trace of pity for what Sylveon was about to face.
Having its Attack forcibly lowered by Baby-Doll Eyes, Milotic—extremely competitive—instantly became displeased. With the boost from the Competitive Ability, its Special Attack sharply rose by two stages.
Downstream area
At the same time, after realizing there were no shortcuts in the so-called secret manual, Ash temporarily became diligent and asked Brock to assist him in self-training.
Ash sent out Pikachu, while Brock sent out Vulpix.
"Pikachu, use Thunder Shock!" Ash ordered.
Since it was just sparring practice, Ash instructed Pikachu not to use full power, focusing only on training the speed of move execution.
Seeing the electric current approaching, Vulpix quickly dodged, jumping onto a rock behind it.
"Vulpix, use Flamethrower!" Brock commanded.
Blazing flames gathered in Vulpix's mouth. Seeing this, Pikachu also immediately gathered electricity, preparing to counter with Thunderbolt.
Just as Pikachu and Vulpix's attacks were about to be unleashed, the Jigglypuff that had been plaguing Ash and his group with sleep-inducing songs suddenly appeared, casually standing between the two battling Pokémon without any sense of caution.
Seeing this, Ash and Brock quickly urged Pikachu and Vulpix to stop, afraid of accidentally injuring Jigglypuff.
Although they had sometimes suffered from Jigglypuff's singing, it had never truly harmed them, so Ash and Brock didn't want to see it seriously hurt due to an accident.
To avoid hitting it, Pikachu and Vulpix simultaneously changed direction, redirecting their electricity and flames toward the rocky slope on the left, instantly causing a violent explosion.
The explosion, accompanied by thick smoke, attracted the attention of an archaeological team not far away.
"So impressive. I didn't expect Pikachu's strength to have reached this level—it can actually shatter that rock face," Ash exclaimed, feeling proud of Pikachu's current power.
At this moment, Ash also secretly felt glad that he had chosen to wake up back then and follow Red to undergo special training.
If not for that training, Pikachu might not have reached its current level of excellence.
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