The 23 challenges

Chapter 10 (Edited)

It was a unique day, given that Ash was travelling to the third landscape the vast ocean. However, during the trip, Ash meets the third trainer from Z town a girl name Zoe with her Squirtle. 

Ash met her by accident and it seems that she is the complete opposite of Dean being reserved and a little shy. This attitude reminds Ash of a certain childhood friend but he pushes that aside for a while as he now has a new problem, trying to get Zoe to see the Water Gym Leader, Tribit. 

"Can we not, I can train on my own for this," said Zoe trying to avoid the help as it required talking to another person. 

"You need help Zoe, you have no idea what you are doing with Squirtle, and if you are scared to talk to other people I can help you with that," said Ash trying to reason with the stubborn girl. 

However, Zoe heard the last part and was interested due to having Ash do the talking. 

"Fine... but we need to actually get to the ocean landscape first," said Zoe now willing to see the Water Specialist.

As they travel to the ocean landscape, Ash was thinking about a good old friend wondering how she was doing. He thought about the memories they had and smiled. While Ash was thinking about the memories, Lucario smirked knowing what his trainer is pondering about.

(After a good 3-hour walk...)

Ash and Zoe now arrive at the Ocean Landscape and are surprised to see the actual beauty of the Vapour Ocean. The Vapour Ocean was like nothing else with many geological specialities that made it special.

Unlike most of the beaches of the other Regions, the beaches of the Vapour Ocean were full of many boulders creating tidal pools which has much smaller Water Pokemon living in them to be healthy before the high tide comes. 

There were many exotic and unique Pokemon there with Zoe having a strong sensation to catch up but failing to do so with Ash noticing that Zoe is not very experienced with battling. However, she is very cunning and smart on Pokemon moves but Squirtle does not know how to pull off the move leading to many funny and embarrassing moments that Ash would call 'Rookie mistakes'.

 But Ash did not voice his words knowing how Zoe would react if he did create a bigger problem than Zoe not wanting to talk to the Water Gym Leader Tribit. 

"So are you going to get the gear to get to the Water Gym," said a guy appearing in one of the tide pools scaring the hell out of her and making Ash almost laugh knowing about it with his aura. 

"Ahh!!!! W..w...who are you?!" said Zoe screaming as if the man was going to take her life away. 

"Wait no it is a misunderstanding this is Tribit the Water-type Gym Leader," said Ash trying to make sense of the situation. 

"Ahh! Wait really he is the Gym Leader of the Vapour Gym?" said Zoe not aware of the insult that pierced Tribit's heart. Leading to Ash sighing and patting Tribit on the back. 

"It's okay Tribit that is not what she meant okay," said Ash trying to help with the Water Gym Leader's confidence and morale. 

"No it's okay I had more interesting and more extreme cases before," said Tribit now standing to face both Ash and Zoe. 

"Well that's intriguing but can you tell us more about the gear to get to your gym please," said Ash currently calming down from the holdback laughter at Zoe's expense. 

"Very well we would need diving gear as the Gym is located underwater being at the centre of the Vapour Ocean," said Tribit not seeing the shocked face from Zoe and the intriguing face from Ash wanting to know about how the battle would take place.