A Champions Beginning

Feeling The Flow Of Battle!

"The point of this exercise is to understand a pokemons attacks."

"Understand?"

"Yup, watch." Ash sat down in the sand, back to the water.

Water rushed towards the boy, forming a large wave as it drew near. Ash didn't seem to notice, and if he did; he certainly didn't care very much. The water crashed against his back, and at a glance it seemed that he had been swallowed whole by the wave. Serena gasped as she watched it consume the boy, Clemont looked puzzled and worried at the same time. Bonnie for her part simply swallowed hard, realizing that she was going to be doing that as well.

When the water finally receded into the ocean once more, Ash sat unmoved on the sand. When he opened his eyes again, he saw everyone staring at him like he was insane.

"What?"

"Leave it up to you to come up with such a crazy way to train..." Clemont chuckled. 

"It's mot mine," Ash shook his head, "Actually it was taught to me when I got beat really bad in Hoenn. Brawly, the Gym Leader that beat me, showed me that I had so much to learn back then. I still do really..."

"So why did you sit in the wave? And how'd you not move?" Serena asked, cocking her head to the side slightly.

"Well, when Brawly said he couldn't show me what I had done wrong, my pokemon and I sat on the beach for days. That was when we realized that the waves were what Brawly had wanted us to learn from, not him. At first we tried to outrun the waves, but that didn't teach us anything at all. Then we tried to fight them, but we got knocked down; but I never gave up until the end."

Ash smiled at Serena before continuing,  "We tried to move with them instead of just running or fighting them. We combined both ideas into one. If we gave for a second as they hit us; so that we knew just how strong they were, and then tightened up and held fast; the waves just went around us."

"Woah..." Bonnie muttered, "I have a lot to learn huh?"

"Well," Ash grinned at the young girl, "Sit with me then."

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Ash, Bonnie, and their pokemon all sat in the sand; they were soon joined by Clemont and Serena along with their pokemon as well. All of them, minus Charizard, sat in the sand as the water crashed around them, at first everyone but Ash, Pikachu and Sceptile were forced away from the beach and into the water.

Slowly, others stopped being pulled out into the water. First it was Greninja, then it was Braixen, then came Sylveon along with Gible and Dedenne. Then came the rest, except Bonnie and Fen, her Fennekin. 

"You have to feel the wave." Ash told her, still sitting beside her as night rolled around, "Let it consume you, show no fear."

"Right."

Water forced Bonnie to the ground once more, coating her face with wet sand. An irritated groan escaped the young girls lips as she glared at the ocean. And still, she climbed back onto the metaphorical Ponyta that Ash had brought before her. Water came again, and this time she lasted a moment longer before her face, met the sand. Ash sat beside her and spoke, to Bonnie; what he said was amazing.

"Everyone struggles at first, what makes a trainer is how many times they get back up. No matter how many times the world pushes you down, and it'll happen a lot Bonnie; you have to keep standing back up."

Bonnie looked astounded for a moment, and the half awake Serena that sat watching them from the camp went wide eyed. Ash simply smiled at the water for a moment, "So come on Bonnie; get back up."

Ash and Bonnie went back at it after that, and the younger trainer managed to stay upright. Then Ash stood with his back to the water, and larger waves met his silent challenge. The waves dug out the sand around him, but never knocked him down; and soon Bonnie stood as well as she allowed the waves to hit her. And yet she never budged.

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The next day brought similar training, but it brought battles with it. Sceptile and Ash stood across from each other.

"Like I said before Bonnie," Ash began, "It's all about trust."

Sceptile swung a Leaf Blade at his trainer, and at the last second Ash stepped to the side; back bending as he narrowly avoided the attack. Then, much to everyone's surprise; he swung his own fist at Sceptile. The grass type simply dodged the attack, and they traded blows back and forth. Bonnie noticed after a few moments that they weren't just moving against each other, they were like the waves; give and take.

Sceptile swung and Ash would let himself be loose and calm until it was almost over, then he would tense up and move away. Bonnie watched as they continued, then she was set to join in with them. Soon, everyone had joined Ash's training; each person and pokemon paired up with Ash or one of his in a rotation style.

"Do you understand now Bonnie?"Ash asked the girl, "It's all about Feeling The Flow Of Battle!"