Ash's Pokémon Journey

The Blackthorn city gym challenge

After helping Lance stopping the red Gyarados and earned his seventh gym badge, Ash heads off to Blackthorn city, the location of the last Johto gym, and he heard that the gym leader, named Clair, uses dragon types. While on the way, Professor Elm visits Ash again and asked him to take care of a Pokémon egg, which lost it's parent from poachers not too long ago. Knowing that the baby will need someone to take care of it, Ash accepted and vows to help it grow. When the egg hatched, it was revealed to be a Larvitar, and Ash pulls out his Pokédex to find out more about it. Pokédex: [Larvitar is the Rock Skin Pokémon, and it normally hatches deep underground and takes a long time before coming to the surface.] the little one was scared at first, but eventually Larvitar was warming up to Ash and the others, and saw Phanpy as his big brother figure as he too was a baby Pokémon, but a bit older in a way. Having near Blackthorn city by now, Ash and his friends were near a river. But they stopped when they a girl being chased by Cassidy and Butch, who all stopped they ran into the group. Cassidy: "Oh great... them again..." Ash: "Cassidy and Biff!" Butch: "I told you last time!, the name is not Biff!, it's Butch!" Brock: "Whatever your name is, you got no right on chasing a poor girl!" Cassidy: "Oh she's not just any girl... that there is a Pokémon." Ash: "What?" Misty: "Yeah right, I think you got hit on the head from your blast offs too many times." Butch: "We're not stupid!, that Pokémon is only disguised as a human so no one would get her, but we know better as we witness her transformation ourselves, now hand her over or else." Ash: "Human or not, you're not taking her on my watch!" the girl was amazed by this, as the boy was willing to stand up to Team Rocket for her, even though they only just met. Cassidy: "If you don't get out of our way, then we'll force ya to!" Butch: "Actually, let's just do that now." so with that, the Team Rocket duo sent out their Raticate and Primeape to attack, but Ash was ready, and sends out Pikachu to let out a powerful Thunderbolt attack that sends the Team Rocket duo and their Pokémon flying out of the scene. Of course when the group were out of danger, a Gyarados appeared, with a woman, who was in fact Clair (voiced by Megan Hollingshead), riding on it's back. Clair: "Let that girl go or else!" Ash: "You're not getting her!" Clair: "Gyarados, Hydro Pump!" called out Clair, before Gyarados did just that, only for the girl to step forward and transformed into what looked like a red and white dragon Pokémon called Latias, and she was using her psychic powers to send the Hydro Pump attack away from Ash and his friends. Ash: "What the..." Clair: "She... protected them?" Latias: [Are you okay?] Ash: "Yeah... but uh... you're really a Pokémon?" Latias: [Yeah... I'm a Latias, and I have the ability to change my form into a human... so people won't try to catch me... I hope you can understand that...] Ash: "Sure, and I like your name, and your power's really cool too." Latias: [Wait... you can understand me?] Ash: "Yeah, I have the ability to talk to Pokémon, though I don't really know how I do it..." that was when Clair came up to the group. Clair: "So... you weren't trying to steal Latias?" Ash: "No, I only protecting her from Team Rocket, and you?" Clair: "Same thing, it's my duty to protect the dragon types here, as well as the Blackthorn gym leader." Ash: "Wait... you're the gym leader?" Clair: "That's right, and I take it you're a challenger?" Ash: "Yeah, it's the reason me and my friends came, when we saw Latias here and tried to help her." Clair: "I see... well I must apologize for attacking you." Misty: "Don't worry, we know now that you were just trying to protect Latias." Brock: "Uh, I'm Brock, may I have your phone number?" Clair: "Sorry, but my duty as protector of dragons comes first as well as being the gym leader of Blackthorn city." Brock: "Oh man..." Misty: "Anyway... what's so special about Latias that Team Rocket wants to catch her?" Clair: "Well the thing is, Latias is a legendary dragon/psychic type Pokémon for starters, and her kind are normally native in the Hoenn region." Ash: "Really?, a legendary?, like Ho-oh or Lugia?" Clair: "Yes, so you heard of those two?" Ash: "Well... more or less..." Misty: "Whoa... a legendary... that would explain a lot..." Brock: "But wait... the Hoenn region?, what would a legendary from Hoenn be doing here?" Latias: [Well... my late brother and I were born in this region after we lost our parents to a flood... then one day... my brother, Latios, the male counterpart of my kind, gave up his life to save me from Team Rocket... ever since then... I've been all alone... at least until I got here and met Clair... but still... my poor big brother...] said Latias as she began to cry a bit, before Ash placed his hand on her head, trying to pet her for comfort. Ash: "I'm really sorry Latias... you been through a lot..." said Ash, before he told the others what Latias said. Misty: "Oh the poor thing..." Brock: "Losing a sibling is very hard to bare..." Clair: "So... you can talk to Pokémon?" Ash: "Yeah... though I'm not sure how I do it though, I had this gift since I was little..." Clair: "Interesting... I never met any human that can actually talk to Pokémon before... but I have heard stories of a special group of people that had this ability, I can't remember what they were called however." Ash: "So I'm not the first human in history to do it?" Clair: "No, but there has not been one for a long time." Ash: "Hmm... hey uh Clair, I hope you don't mind... but would it be okay for me to have a gym battle with you?" Clair: "Sure, now that I know that Latias is no longer in danger, I have the time to do so, but be warned, I won't be beaten so easily." Latias: [Can I watch you battle?] Ash: "Sure, and Larvitar would be out to watch too." said Ash, before the scene changed to the group inside a gym building without a roof, where Clair and Ash are ready to have their gym battle. Ash's friends, along with Latias and Larvitar, were sitting on side lines to witness the battle. Larvitar: [So this is the gym battle daddy was excited about?] Latias: [Ash is your daddy?] Larvitar: [Yeah, he hatched me from an egg, along with my brother, Phanpy, so far he's really great to hang out with.] Latias: [I'll bet he is.] so with the chat done, the battle between Ash and Clair begins. The battle was indeed tough, much tougher then the other gyms he went before in Johto, as Clair's dragon types, including her Dragonair, were high level Pokémon. But thanks to Ash's determination, and his powerful Charizard, Ash was able to beat Clair and won the match. It wasn't long before Clair gave Ash the Rising badge. Clair: "I'm very impressed on how well you raised that Charizard of yours, perhaps in the future, you can be a great Dragon type master." Ash: "But I don't want to be a master of just dragon types, I want to be the greatest Pokémon master of all kinds of Pokémon, I mean why only try to master one kind when you can master all types?" Clair: "I see... well I'm sure you'll do well with all of them, and you certainly do well with Dragon types too as you earned the Rising badge." Ash: "Thanks Clair... alright!, I got the Rising badge!" Pikachu: [Awesome!] sometime later, Ash was getting ready to leave, before he tripped on a rock and a few of his empty Pokéballs fell out of his pocket. Misty: "Are you alright?" Ash: "Yeah, I think so." Latias looked at one of the empty Pokéballs, and that was when she made her choice. Latias flew down to the Pokéball and opened it, allowing it to capture her, much Ash's surprise. Ash: "What... just happened?" Clair: "I'm not 100% sure... but I think Latias wants you as her trainer." Ash: "Me?, but you're much better with dragon types than me... in fact I haven't even caught a dragon type before." Clair: "Maybe... but I think you earned Latias trust after you saved her from Team Rocket, and it looks like she's about to go." said Clair, before the Pokéball that had Latias inside glowed and vanished without a trace. Brock: "Oh yeah, since Ash already has a team of 6, Latias is transferred to Professor Oak." Ash: "Uh... I hope he won't get a heart attack on seeing that I caught Latias..." Misty: "Well there's no turning back now, and now that you got all 8 of the gym badges, you can compete in the Johto league." Clair: "But I think it's best you don't use Latias in the league at least until you train her to be strong enough to defend herself, last thing you'll need is some people like Team Rocket coming after you." Ash: "Got it." and so Ash has not only beat Clair and earned his final Johto gym badge, but he also caught a little Larvitar and a Latias. Who knows what could be next for our heroes as the journey continues.