Chapter 7: Interlude [Ash Ketchum]

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His big brother was the coolest!

These words were forever stuck on loop in the young, restless mind of Ash Ketchum as he bounced in place on the living room couch to watch yet again one of his brother's spectacular Conference battles. Particularly, his match against that purple haired bug guy from his bro's Top 32 match. When watching it live together, Gary mentioned something about his bro's opponent being super skilled because of his dad.

Not like it mattered anyways because like Ash said wholeheartedly believed back then, Luke wouldn't lose! That purple guy might have had an awesome Scizor (Kamina was still way more awesomer!), but he certainly was no match for Asch! None of his pokémon were, the Charizard swept the entire opposing team of highly trained bug-type pokémon with tactical precision.

The way that Asch fished out that slippery Shuckle that used Dig to create lots and lots of holes to hide in while sniping at him with Rock Blast while leaving the above field an active minefield of Stealth Rocks. That Fire Blast that decimated the booby-trapped rocky battleground and cooked the Shuckle beneath it was just WHOA!

And the way that Asch caught that bulky Heracross's Megahorn, ignited itself with Flare Blitz, took it up into the air and slammed it into the ground using his whole body was just WOW!

Ash certainly couldn't take the footage of Asch wearing down purple guy's speedy Scizor. Those hit and run tactics were annoying to watch as he mostly had his Scizor, Blade, (Kamina was a way cooler name for a Scizor) use Double Team and Agility to make it difficult for Asch to keep track of it while whittling the Charizard's strength down with an onslaught of dirty Metal Claws.

Hehehe! Too bad for purple guy that his brother had the power of "degrees" on his side. Giving Asch the command to forgo tracking the Scizor by sight, his bro insisted that his Charizard acquiesce to his instructions when retaliating, and boy was it amazing to see Asch perfectly connect a Fire Blast, Dragon Tail, and Fire Punch in tandem against such an agile pokémon.

No, it was amazing that his brother could even keep track of the Scizor to give such accurate angles for Asch to strike back in. Ash was fast to ask his brother to teach him the awesome power of the "degrees" when he, his mom, and the Oaks visited the Indigo Plateau to watch Luke, Daisy, and Joey compete in the Final Rounds. Once the words "Math" spilled out of Luke's mouth, any interest in learning the ways of "degrees" died.

Still, Ash would always laugh at the final clip of purple guy's worn out Scizor looking astonished as it came face to face with Asch's point-blank Fire Blast while swinging a Metal Claw mid-attack.

"AND THAT'S IT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! With a blistering display of intense firepower and tenacity, Red Trainer Luke Ketchum from Pallet Town emerged victorious against Green Trainer Shingo Sengo from Azalea Town with another flawless score of 3-0!"

"Yeah! Go, Luke!" The young boy happily jumped off the couch and threw his arms up into the air, hoping that the televised image of his smiling exhausted brother would hear him. His cheer loud was enough to earn a mild huff of annoyance from his mother's Persian, Cleo. It didn't matter if he was watching a live match or an old recording, Ash swore that he would always cheer for brother; his fervor only grew once he told Luke this.

"Ash, having you always cheer for me is the greatest motivator that you can possibly imagine. Knowing that you're there to support me, there's no possible way that I'll lose." His brother's words resonated with him so much that he wholeheartedly decided to give it his all to cheer him on no matter what. As a future Pokémon Master that was child's play for him. He might have nearly lost his voice in his attempts to outcheer the crowds of the Stadium, but his vocal support was no less passionate than the other masses.

Throughout the preliminaries, this young rookie has shown amazing prowess with not a single loss of his pokémon! Could this be nothing but beginner's luck or could we all be seeing the prelude to something more!? Such answers will be revealed in the Finals where we'll see the very best compete and vie for this year's Victor of the Indigo Plateau!"

"Of course, it's not beginner's luck! Luke's just that good, right, Cleo!?" The apathetic Persian yawned and lazily snuggled itself in the smaller couch occupying the side of the living room.

"There's no way he could have lost with all of us there to pump him up!"

Ash truly believed that his cheers carried his brother through the Final Rounds and had even told Gary off for not following his example since Daisy lost in the Top 8. Mom had given him a stern talking to with even Luke getting disappointed with his behavior, so Ash begrudgingly apologized to Gary for their fight. Then he was sharply told by his bro to mean the apology and to give it again while also apologizing to Daisy for his insensitivity.

He did so more genuinely afterwards, and alongside Gary chose to cheer Luke on for his next two final matches. Ash was downright ecstatic (and a smidge smug) once Luke had even defeated the opponent that knocked Daisy out of the tournament. It proved him right and meant that his brother was going to win the Indigo Conference as the youngest trainer in the history of the Plateau to be the victor.

Except that didn't happen because in the end he lo-.

"No!" Ash vehemently shook his head and hopped off the couch. "That doesn't count!" The result of that final battle was completely bogus! His big bro was obviously the better trainer and would have won the final match had he kept Asch in his party like the past battles. "If he were on the field, Asch would have taken that dumb monkey out, no problem at all! Right, Cleo and Sylvie?"

Ash whipped around to spot that Cleo was currently absent from the smaller couch and had taken the opportunity to steal the entirety of the larger couch to nap on. "Hey, I was sitting there…" I grumbled at the napping Persian but knew better than to rouse her from her slumber. The Ketchum House hierarchy solidified the rule that if you got up from your seat, then it was free real estate. Yet Cleo was absolved from following that rule as enforced by his mom, who was the only one that the Persian willingly listened to.

Even his big brother deferred to this rule and enforced it upon his own pokémon that visited. He had once seen Sylvie try her hand at usurping the almighty top cat of the house when she had found Cleo lying on Luke's lap. Ash had felt so bad for Luke who got caught in the middle of that messy tussle. Blinking upon realizing the utter absence of one of his bro's pokémon, Ash looked around the room and parts of the kitchen that he could see from the living room. Sylvie was nowhere to be found, and that only meant one thing: she wanted to play hide-and-seek with him again!

He laughed to himself and felt a bit silly for getting so caught up in those battle recordings that he forgot his ultra special task of grooming Sylvie and Asch today. Not like you can blame him either since his cool older brother was such a dummy for leaving him alone while he got to go exploring the woods with his pokémon. His mom's punishment by grounding him was the worst torture imaginable to subject the energy filled six-year old.

The only thing that's keeping him from going mad from the boredom was the promise that he'd get to personally groom the awesome pokémon around him at home all by himself. Ash vibrated in place once his bro gave him the go ahead and promised to complete all of his homework before tackling the deed. He didn't bother checking his answers since he was assured that all of the extra games that Luke created to help him study would get him an easy A+.

With the homework out of the way, Ash went straight to grooming Asch and Sylvie before stopping to realize that he didn't eat his leftover breakfast, that he didn't get his post-homework break, and that it's been a while since he'd review his brother's second rematch battle for first Gym Badge at Pewter CIty that his mother recorded when they flew over on Gail, his mother's Pidgeot, to cheer him on.

Then watching that recording reminded him that he hasn't nearly reviewed enough of his brother's battles to prepare himself for when it's his turn to go on his own journey with his own super strong pokémon. That's why he had to look over his first match in the Top 256, Top 128, Top 64, Top 32, Top 16, Top 8, and semifinals. Ash still refused to even consider watching the final match. He persistently thought that Luke should have been the victor by default.

If only he would have used Asch…

Like in the Top 16 when he'd use Asch to…oh, right! Ash hadn't even gotten the chance to see that match today, and so rushing back to the couch, he reached over Cleo for the remote. Until the Persian's tail swept itself under his nose and put him through a sneezing fit.

"Hey, watch it, Cleo, don't you see that I'm in the middle of-!" Ash paused and failed to stop his mouth from gaping. "Oh right, Sylvie! She still needs to be groomed! Bye, Cleo!" The Persian huffed as the smallest human in the household left her to her afternoon nap in relative silence now that the loud child was gone.

Ash then proceeded to play along with Sylvie's "want" to play hide-and-seek by going through all the rooms in the house. He first went into his mother's room since it was one of the last places Sylvie would go, which made it the perfect spot to hide. Sadly, there was no sight of her. Not on his mom's bed, her bedsheets, her closet, and certainly not in her wardrobe. All that was in there was her clothes, and those weird things she wears on her chest. He covered his tracks by putting everything back into place as he once found it with "some" of the items he misplaced being a tad off in the placement and presentation.

Next, Ash checked the bathroom with no sign of the pink pokémon having been there. "Sylvie? Hellooooooo!" He shouted into the upraised seat of the toilet bowl before slamming it shut. His room was devoid of anything out of the ordinary since he couldn't find her under his dirty clothes pile nor his semi-clean clothes pile. His search took him to the backyard, the downstairs bathroom, and the guest room with no Sylvie in sight.

Which left one place left: Luke's room. Ash gulped once he stood before the imposing door of his big brother's room. The small sign with the glaring words "KEEP OUT!" made Ash almost reconsider entering for a nanosecond, before the alluring thought of getting to play with some pokémon override his doubts. He slammed the door wide open and shouted, "SYLVIE ARE YOU IN HERE!"

The call gave him the result he needed to indicate that shifting big lump underneath his brother's bedsheets wasn't a pillow. With a dramatic sigh, the Sylveon popped her head out with a less than amused look. Her eyes were half-lidded as she regarded Ash with a haughty sniff of her nose.

"Aha, there you are!" Ash chuckled and went over to the bedside to pick her up. "Whoa!" He almost stumbled with all of the extra weight that she was putting on herself by going limp in his arms. "That was a fun game of hide-and-seek Sylvie, but come on, I have to groom you now." Sylvie whimpered. "I know, I know, you want to play some more. We'll have more time for that after I'm done. We'll even bring Asch in to play…somehow…"

Unaware of Sylvie clicking her tongue at the mention of the Charizard, Ash wondered how he'd pull such a feat. His brother's starter wasn't going to move for anyone besides his own trainer. The few times that he's seen Asch move from his heated stone outside was whenever it rained or those few times where he and Luke would take off with his pokémon to go do some training. Ash pouted at the memory of all his requests to join them getting denied due to still being a bit young to be around them while they worked out.

That's why he'll do a super amazing job grooming the two and prove how competent he was a future prospective trainer. Ash had heard stories from his mom about how his brother proved to groom her and dad's pokémon when he was two years younger than him. So, it should be a given that he'd be capable of doing things just as good as Luke.

He struggled to drag Sylvie downstairs due to her letting her body go limp and drag itself on the floor. Sheesh, she really hates to lose at hide-and-seek. Not like he could know since he's a graceful loser like his older brother. Taking the smaller couch since Cleo was still lounging on the "stolen" bigger one, he laid Sylvie across his lap and nabbed the hand brush from the nearby coffee table to begin stroking the beautiful pokémon's fur.

Slow and steady, gently run your fingers through spots that have yet to be brushed to check for any tangled fur, avoid digging the brush too deep to avoid scratching the skin. Pokémon care was the only thing on Ash's mind, usually he'd love to think of how cool it would be to groom and watch another recording of Luke's conference battles, but he'd learnt his lesson from last time. H-He didn't mean to hurt Sylvie and almost brushed off all the fur between her shoulders.

Ash was scared that he'd made the pokémon hate him for his screw up, then Luke reassured him that Sylvie was only mad and didn't hold much of a grudge toward him. That made everything go back to being okay but that only led him to being scolded by Luke and strictly taught the basics of grooming pokémon properly. If he wanted to be a Pokémon Master, then he'd need to practice proper hygiene for any pokémon that he befriends.

Ash took the advice like Magikarp to water and diligently practice. He didn't get all of what Luke was teaching him, but he got most of it and made do with practicing on Angel. The Blissey had always been like an overly accommodating nanny for him, so she didn't mind if he screwed up here and there, that was just how patient Angel was with the unruly Ketchum.

And so as he sought to redeem himself, Ash groomed Sylvie to the best of his ability. It wasn't perfect yet he accomplished what needed to be done and Sylvie actually looked pleased… Okay, so he wasn't fully sure of himself since beyond the few annoyed huffs from his overzealous brushing, she didn't react all that much.

Still, he had to ask once he was finished. "There you go Sylvie. Did that feel better?"

"Syl…" The Sylveon yawned, scratched her ear and rolled her eyes before nodding at him.

"R-Really? I mean, ahem, well I'm glad!" Ash happily exclaimed, doing a fist pump to the side while Sylvie just groaned and rolled her eyes at the younger brother of her trainer. Were Ash more observant, he would have notice that the Sylveon was less than impressed with his subpar grooming since his hands were properly washed, he barely untangled some of her fur, and his brush strokes were too shallow.

Still Sylvie wasn't about to displease the boy and earn more ire from her trainer, so the best she could do was leave the boy to go off in his own little world.

"Alright! That's one down, now let's go out to see Asch!" Too caught up in his success, Ash missed the ugly sneer on Sylvie's face as he began dragging the now disobedient pokémon out through the front door to greet his brother's trusted ace and starter, Asch. Though he didn't expect to have to greet the Charizard and his two friends trying to feed him.

"Heeeeeeey, Asch~! Here, Mr. Greene gave us some Pecha berries in town. Hope you like them!" Blossom, the brunette wearing a green hair pin, happily gave her offering to Asch near his heated stone. Sadly, the Charizard simply gave it a glance before shaking his head and returning to his nap.

"H-Huh, what's the matter, Asch, aren't you hungry?" Blossom sputtered in disbelief, a little hurt from the rejection.

"If he was, he obviously wouldn't just eat any random berry given to him." Gary rolled his eyes and bit into his own sweet Pecha berry.

"W-Whoa, seriously?" Blossom gaped then pouted. "But don't Charizard like Pecha berries? Charly ate all of the ones I gave him at home."

Gary smirked. "That's because your dad's Charizard isn't quite picky about what he eats like this one."

Hearing enough, Ash closed the door, and laid Sylvie on the floor to confront the two "intruders". "Hey, what are you guys doing? You can't just come in here and feed Asch like that, you'll end up ruining his diet!"

"Huh, oh look it's Ashy boy." Gary lazily waved at the boy while Blossom in contrast beamed and happily swung her arm back and forth in the air.

"Hey, Ash! Look, we brought you some Pecha berries! Here." She hurried over and handed him one.

"Oh wow, thanks Blosso-." Ash stopped mid-thanks and narrowed his eyes at her. "Wait a minute, don't change the subject!"

"Eh? What subject?" Blossom tilted her head in confusion while Gary sighed in exasperation.

"You know what subject!"

Blossom frowned. "No, I don't!"

"Yeah, you do!" Ash shouted back.

"No, I don't!"

"Yes, you d-!"

"Sylveon…"

Ash and Blossom never did get to continue their argument since Sylvie had enough of it by wrapping her ribbon-line feelers around their mouths to shut them up. The soothing waves that they emitted calmed the pair of children down enough for her to release them and strut over to the far edge of the front lawn, opposite to where Asch laid.

"Err…um…so what just happened?" Blossom blinked.

"I…um…don't know. I think I was mad that you guys were feeding Asch those Pecha berries even though he doesn't like sweet stuff." Ash scratched the back of his head with much more clarity in his tone. "Plus, Luke left me in charge of feeding him, so you guys could mess with his diet if you just feed him all willy-nilly."

"Oh…" Blossom blinked again, sucked in her lips and bowed her head. "S-Sorry."

"O-Oh, thanks." Ash blinked in surprise before something Luke had taught popped into his head; then he bowed his head back to his friend. "And I'm sorry for getting mad at you like that without being pacific…"

"Specific." Gary corrected with a snort.

Ash pouted at him before bowing his head back to Blossom. "Without being specific."

Walking up to the two of them, Gary laughed. "Wow, I can see why Gramps wants to study that Sylveon. Being able to make you two actually shut up and communicate is a miracle. The feelers are a little creepy…" Gary pointedly looked away from the Sylveon glaring at him. "But it's still a pretty useful ability to have, y'know."

He crossed his arms and slyly looked at Ash and Blossom. "What I wouldn't give to have that power on hand. Just hanging out with the two of you can be a real hassl-."

""Shut up, Gary."" Said Ash and Blossom.

"No." The youngest of the Oak household pulled his eyelid down and stuck his tongue out at the two of them. Followed by his two friends to the house's nearby storage shed, Ash begrudgingly allowed them to help move the heavy bags of pokéfood to the front yard. He could have handled it himself without their help, but since they were offering, he couldn't quite refuse.

During the tedious process, he learned that they came to visit him since they thought he'd be lonely from his grounding and also since his house was the only one out of the trio that had a functioning Nintendo Switch with Pokken Royale on it. Heh, it took a lot of convincing (begging & crying) to his mom, but she finally bought the game for him. He'd gladly whoop them as Charizard but he had a job to finish and so he promised to play when he was done since they did technically help him out.

Still, he would not allow them to help any further than that. With everything prepared for their meals, Ash had to remind himself that Asch still needed his grooming to be done. Instead of a brush, Ash brought over a washcloth + towel set with a large basin of warm water. Blossom was amazed that Ash could lift the basin by himself and praised him which made the boy puff out in pride, but unfortunately when walking out the door, he almost tripped and was saved from the embarrassment of falling by Gary.

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"Thanks, Gary!" Ash laughed in relief.

"Just be careful next time…" Gary groaned as he took the other end of the basin and carried over to Asch.

"Hey!" Ash protested. "I can move it my myself, y'know."

"Clearly…" Gary rolled his eyes then whispered. "…you can't."

That had Ash growling mad and about to spit back something to retort that until another pair of hands grabbed another end of the basin. "Hey guys, don't leave me out! Let me help too!" Blossom wailed as she pushed the basin and the two feuding boys outside that not only knocked them down but also tipped over the basin on the cement sidewalk. Now water was everywhere, and Ash was deathly pale once he saw a large crack on the basin.

"T-That was Great Granny Delilah's basin." Ash gulped and buried his face into the grass, unable to see the gaping looks on his. "Mom's going to kill me."

"I-I'm sorry?" Blossom weakly apologized.

"Too late for that…" Gary grumbled and sweatdropped.

It was a good thing that Ash had a brilliant idea, or he would have been in serious trouble by leaving the issue alone. He just had Blossom take his brown paint and coloring markers to cover the mess up. Out of the three of them Blossom possessed the best coloring skills, so Mom would never suspect a thing. Hehehe, it's so ingenious!

"She's not going to fall for it…" Gary deadpanned.

Ash decided to ignore that since Gary was obviously jealous that he hadn't thought of the plan himself.

"Why do I have to be the one to fix it by myself?" Blossom pouted and angrily scribbled over the white branching crack on the basin.

Ash ignored that comment for obvious reasons. So, collecting another bowl, which was plastic this time, Ash was now finally prepared to administer Asch's grooming. Now Ash had to say that tending to Asch was way less stressful than grooming Sylvie. His brother's starter was lax with the idea of letting him wash his body whenever Luke was nearby watching over him, so he was both relieved and joyed that Asch would continue doing the same for him when alone.

Now counter to his common belief, Charizards don't despise water despite it being naturally against their elemental affiliation. They have to be doused or utterly pounded by huge amounts of water to set them off, but if you just used a washcloth that's damp, not drenched, with warm water then they won't bat an eye over it. Using cold water was a no-go since Charizards need to keep their body temperatures up lest their flame begins to dim, and using hot water could be a danger to the groomer since the Charizard's body heat will naturally heighten in response and make it too hard for the average person to touch.

So warm water was a natural middle ground for scrubbing Asch's scales. Ash's strokes were firm and gentle as he began with Asch's arms, his midriff, legs, back of his wings, his wings, and his big old belly. The Charizard huffed from enjoyment and shifted in place on his warm rock slab, Ash relished how good of job he was doing and began to work the Charizard's tail until Blossom gasping broke his concentration.

"Hey be careful! You shouldn't use water next to Asch's tail like that, Ash!" Blossom gaped in horror at the sight of his wet rag nearing the healthy flame on the other end of Asch's tail.

"Huh, why?" Ash and Gary, who was hunched over behind him watching the grooming procedure, were confused at the girl's distress.

"B-Because you could accidentally extinguish it a-and then Asch will…" Blossom gulped then drew a line over her neck to send her message across.

"No, he won't." Ash shook his head and furrowed his brow.

"Yeah, he will, remember in Miss Bitters class, she says that a Charmander's life is linked to it's flame and were it go out then-!" Blossom shivered at the implication.

"Hold on, whaaaaaat?" Ash was dumbfounded.

"That's not how it works, Blossom." Gary shook his head.

"W-Wait, really!?" Blossom exclaimed. That only gave Ash the perfect moment to shine with all of the accumulated knowledge that his brother shared with him in regard to his pokémon.

"Yuh-huh! My big brother says that a Charmander's entire evolution line-!"

"Charmanders, Charmeleons, and Charizards won't die if you drop water on their tails. The heat emitted from their flames is a good indicator of their strength and overall health. You could even dunk Asch in a pool of water and still fail to even cause his flame to fizzle out. It's only when the Charizard is naturally going away that their flame dies along with them." Ash growled at Gary's know-it-all smirk as he stole his thunder.

"Wow, Gary, you're so smart!" Blossom gushed.

"Heh, that's only natural, Blossom." Gary relished the praise while Ash glowered and rubbed his washcloth on Asch's back in repetitious circles.

Stupid Gary, Ash thought. He was supposed to be showing off how smart he was! Ash continued to stew in his jealousy until a more pressing topic was brought up by his two close friends. "Wow, Ash, you're really good at that."

Mood cheering up, Ash grinned. "Thanks, Blossom! I mean, Luke did teach me everything he knows!"

"Meh, I could do a way better job of this than Ashy-boy here." Gary chimed in.

"Yeah right!" Ash snarled and jumped back to stare his best friend down. "I'm way better! In fact, Luke actually trusted me to groom his pokémon by myself for the first time. So, what do you think of that huh?"

"I think that you're filled with hot air, chum." Gary stuck out his tongue. "Besides, it's one of the basics to properly tend to your pokémon like this. If you can't even do this much yet, then you're obviously going to be subpar at best!"

Ash didn't know what "subpar" meant but hearing Gary call him that just made him madder.

"Anyways, I've been given the chance to groom Dad and sis's Arcanine by myself for a long time now." Ash growled at the youngest Oak's bragging while Blossom just continued to eat it all up.

"That's so cool, Gary! Neither mom nor papa lets me even groom Charly or Tiamat. Hmph, mom says its because I'm too impatient!" Blossom pouted.

"I'm just built different, Blossom." He smugly grinned at Ash. "Isn't that right, Ash?"

A hundred ways to respond went through Ash's head before a Nasty Plot began to form in his head. Fine, Ash thought, if he wants to show off then let's see him attempt to do this.

"Then prove it." Ash crossed his arms and jutted his chin out.

"Prove it?" Blossom queried.

"Heh, fine then step aside and let me show you how to properly clean Asch." Ash snickered as his best friend held out his hand for the rag.

"Nope, you're not grooming Asch." It was his responsibility and there was no way he'd give Gary the credit when Luke returns. "You're going to groom Cleon."

Both of his friends looked at him oddly with Gary seeming a little…unimpressed.

"You're mom's Persian?" He crossed his arms.

Ash nodded.

"The one who always lazes around like Asch whenever we come over?" Blossom asked.

"Hey, Asch doesn't laze around! My bro just says he's recharging his batteries after all the battles he's been through during the Conference and that one accident at Viridian." Ash stubbornly defended.

"Ash, he fell back to sleep." Ash followed Blossom's finger to notice that yes, his brother's starter did fall asleep during their conversation.

"See? He's recharging his batteries like I said!"

"Yeah, sure." Gary rolled his eyes. "Anyways, what makes grooming this Persian so special, huh?"

Ash's grin grew. "Because apart from my mom, not even my brother has managed to groom Cleo."

Blossom was mildly confused and curious while Gary stood a bit straighter than before, Ash didn't miss the latter's reaction. To Ash, his big brother was amazing, and he was glad that most people knew that too. He always had the top marks in his class, even outranking Prof. Oak's own granddaughter and being the first student to be chosen out of his year to be placed under the tutelage of Prof. Oak. Plus, all of that kept getting dwarfed when he became an actual trainer with all the cool new pokémon evolutions he found out about like Sylvie, Thor, and Jubilee! Luke just making it to the Finals as a rookie was just a culmination of all of that.

He was just that awesome and that's just how awesome Ash will be when he grows up too!

Even though his best friend can be an amazing know-it-all sometimes, even Ash could see that Gary viewed Luke with that sort of admiration too. Not even the coolest kid in school could deny that most of his feats were dwarfed by Ash's oldest brother. So, the chance to at least have something to brag about dangled over Gary's head.

The Oak crossed his arms and looked the other way from Ash's growing smirk with his foot impatiently tapping the ground. "Do you know where your mom keeps the brush?"

And like that, Ash was able to fully convince Gary and an extremely curious Blossom to undertake the task of grooming Cleo, his mother's ornery Persian. Cleo was always that grumpy cat pokémon that would always be napping, eating, or watching the family with some form of interest before getting disinterested. She did let him and Luke pet her, but taking care of her fur was a whole different matter.

Like Sylvie was to Luke, the same could be said for how Cleo would only allow their mother to tend to her. Though the Persian may not have gotten violent with Luke when he attempted to groom her, she'd most certainly make the ordeal hard enough to make even his brother deem it to be a lost cause. That's why Ash happily hid his huge grin as Gary and Blossom (who's sadly collateral) followed him inside, leaving Asch and Sylvie on their lonesome. It was a simple task to run upstairs, grab his mom's hairbrush from her room, and run back downstairs.

Handing it to Gary, Ash did at least try to warn his friend but the amount of gloating and refusal to even need his advice pretty much sealed any form of concern that Ash had for his fate. He was still 50/50 about Blossom but she seemed determined to help out despite not knowing what had Gary so fired up.

And so, the pair futilely dove in on the couch where Cleo was napping, Gary with the brush in hand and Blossom with her arms stretched out to hold her down in support. From there things predictably fell apart much to Ash's amusement. Cleo was slippery, neither Gary or Blossom could get a hold of her and those few moments where they did, they were not saved the clawful wrath of the Persian. Ash laughed at Gary getting smacked across the living with a low powered Tail whip while Blossom used that distraction to jump on Cleo's to pin her down.

That was not a good move because like that cool mechanical Tauros machine that they set up for the Pallet Summer Festival, the big kitty cat sent Blossom flying and knocking over the large couch.

The chaos soon began to die down once Gary and Blossom decided that getting scratched for pushing the Persian's patience wasn't worth the effort. Heh! Of course, this was to be expected since brother himself couldn't do it (and by extension Ash too), then these yahoos weren't ever going to get closer to doing it either.

"See?" Ash puffed up his chest in pride as he brought out the disinfectant from the cupboards.

"T-This proves noth-ouch!" Gary hissed as his friend sprayed him and bandaged one of the deep scratches.

"Stings…it stings everywher-owowowow!" Blossom wailed as it was her turn to get the dreaded spray. Ash wondered if he ever did as much bellyaching as the two of them whenever he had mom or Luke patch him up, then dashed the thought because he's a big boy now, and they never cry just like Luke.

…Ash glanced at a lone photo atop a small shrine on the other side of the living.

…Well, sometimes like Luke…

Y-Yeah, big boys can cry sometimes, and he cries a lot! Luke even says that there's no shame in crying, so he cries all the time.

…Wait?

"Did I really just think that?" Ash blinked.

"Also said it out loud too, Ashy-boy." Gary and Blossom laughed.

"Rrgh! Shut up!" Storming off in a huff, Ash leaves while ignoring Blossom's cries for help by sticking on more bandages. Those two jerks! Too embarrassed to even defend his own slip up Ash forces himself to remember that dumb old Blossom forgot to bring in all of his coloring stuff, so he stepped outside to find them currently in the use of one snickering Sylvie.

"Sylvie what have you done!?" Ash wailed as all of his hard work on Asch went down the drain as many demeaning and childish looking black marks all over his body was attributed to dripping black paintbrush and black marker in the Sylveon's feelers.

"Sylveon~." With the air of "innocence" The Sylveon simply dropped her tools and strutted past the gaping younger brother of her trainer. Using one of her feelers, she helped the poor young lad close his jaw before retreating upstairs, no doubt to return to Luke's room.

Stumbling over and doing his best not to wince from all the cuts that he's suffered, Gary sympathetically clicked his tongue and clasped a hand over Ash's shoulder. "And the sad thing about it too? Asch was asleep through the whole thing."

"Ah! Charging his batteries!" Ash may have been dealt a strong blow with his hard work ruined, but he wouldn't concede that much, especially to Gary. A shouting match begun between the two of them about which was true until Blossom broke it up at the insistence that they clean up the mess they made inside and wash off the scribbles on Asch after they finally played some Pokken Royale.

Suddenly the argument about who was right became who could garner the most wins between the two, and thus the games began. Ash's obvious choice was…Lucario because Blossom always guns straight for Charizard and Gary chooses to play as Machamp. Playing against Blossom was straightforward as they would focus on battering the other's player character until they're sent off stage, but Gary was a dirty cheater! He keeps grabbing either of them when they're in the middle of a heated match!

"Spammer! Cheater!" Ash growled.

"Yeah, at least let us finish duking it out then join in!" Blossom hissed.

Gary relished in his tenth victory and laughed at the two of them. "Hmph! It's a battle royale you two. If you're going to just ignore me to battle amongst yourselves, then don't be surprised if I feel a little left out."

Ash and Blossom blinked, looked at each other and oddly looked considerate.

"Yeah, that's true…" Ash solemnly nodded.

"It was pretty rude of us to keep you out of it." Blossom apologetically bowed her head.

Gary smirked. "Good now let's get on with the next rou-."

"To make up for it, Blossom and I will go after you first then fight each other." Ash seriously nodded much to Gary horror.

"Wha-?"

"Yup that sounds like the perfect thing to do keep him from feeling left out." Blossom nodded.

"Now wait a minu-!"

"Okay, Blossom it's your turn to choose a stage and remember to flank Machamp from behind, his grappling moves only affect one opponent at a time."

"Right, Ash and you make sure to keep going for the legs, Machamp lower body defenses are just as weak as their lower body attacks."

"No, wait a minute why are you two suddenly so in sync and-hey, wait, don't just go after me out of the blue! Hey, are you guys listening this isn't fair!" Gary wailed as his two friends ganged up on him for 5 matches straight. They all eventually grew hungry by then and decided to have themselves a snack of chips, cookies, and popcorn while watching some good old Pidgey Rangers against the diabolical Spearow Rangers!

It was a marathon, so they all had a ball just sitting down and relaxing after the hectic day they've been through. Though Ash couldn't help but feel as though he forgot to do something. He cleaned up the house a bit with his friends, so there couldn't be anything else that needed to be done. Also, the Red Pidgey Ranger looked to finally be close to defeating his arch nemesis the Red Spearow Ranger.

He couldn't possibly miss this monumental mome-!

*DING-DONG!*

No way was he going to miss-!

*DING-DONG!*

To miss-!

*DING-DONG!*

Miss-!

*DING-DONG!* *DING-DONG!* *DING-DONG!* *DING-DONG!*

Ash chose to ignore the doorbell and kept his eyes glued to the television until some popcorn was thrown at his face by Blossom who was getting fed up with the growing string of the door bell's ringing.

"Answer it!" Blossom spoke through a mouthful of popcorn.

"No, this is the best part!" Ash grumbled.

"What if it's someone important?" Gary chimed in from his place on the big couch opposite Blossom.

"Don't care. Wanna watch Red Pidgey Ranger triumph over-!"

*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*

The trio jumped from their seats in fright at the sudden loud banging that replaced the annoying doorbell ringing. With this much noise, they couldn't possibly ignore it now.

"M-Maybe they'll go away if we wait it o-?"

""Go!"" His two friends unanimously pushed him off the couch and toward the door.

Ash almost threw a tantrum with how unfair they were being to him, but he supposed that he couldn't enjoy his show until the issue was dealt with. So, with an annoyed huff, Ash was greeted by some random girl whose scowl was SUPER deep and seemed to be wearing some black spandex with a cape. Man, that cape looked cool, almost as cool as the ones the Pidgey Rangers wear.

Ash sure wished he could convince his mom to buy him that one day, if not her, then he'll just ask his bro. After all, he did get Ash his super-duper awesome special edition hat, so a cape shouldn't be that hard to get.

"Is this the Ketchum Residence where Luke Ketchum presides?" Uh…

"W-What?" Ash blinked up at the girl and for a moment felt a bit intimidated as those blue eyes of hers turned a bit fierce. It was like a pressure was exerting itself over him until it just stopped.

Now the lady wasn't looking at him, except back at Asch who chose now of all times to be awake! Ash would have admonished the Charizard before realizing that he forgot to clean off all the paint and ink that was all over his form. Whoops!

Well at least Asch was awake after recharging enough of his batteries, but this lady was still weird. She took one long look at Asch while Asch simply stood up from his heated stone to regard her in a considered manner. What was going on?

Ash blinked.

The strange lady made a humorless huffing sound to break the silence. "His Charizard being in front of your home aside and covered in such…unique art aside, I would still like some confirmation about whether Luke Ketchum lives here. The staff at that subpar café said so after I defeated one of their rank."

Café? Does she mean down at his mother's café, Ash thought in query before something else popped up in his head. Hold on, she wants to know if Luke lives here, but why? Also, why does she look so familiar?

"Yeeeeeeah…why?" Ash slowly examined the lady and began going through the contents of his hyperactive memory to piece together who this was.

"Good. Then I'd like for you to call him out here for me then. I have some…unfinished business with him that takes precedent…" Ash tuned her out and got himself a real good look at her. Mean scowl, weird skintight spandex, sharp teeth earrings (ew…), and blue hair & eyes.

Wait, blue hair and blue eyes?

Something clicked in Ash's overworked mind as he put two and two together as memories of physically watching a related conference match along with the match's recordings a bajillion times helped pieced together that-!

"Hey, you're that blue girl who go swept by my bro in the Semi-Finals of the last Conference!" Though blunt, his delivery made the lady's scowl further deepen as the clattering and surprised squawking of Blossom was followed by Gary's own loud vocal surprise of "WHAT!?"

His friends practically materialized by his side as they took in the newcomer, Blossom was in awe while Gary only shot the blue lady a dirty glare.

"Whoa! So, she's one of the trainers who made it to the Finals? That's so cool!" Blossom squealed.

"Yeah, but not as cool as Luke!" Ash puffed up his chest in pride. "He managed to defeat her 2-6 when he brought out Sylvie."

"Amazing!" Blossom's eyes sparkled.

"Blossom, you saw the match on television, you should already know this." Gary groaned.

"R-Right…um, but uh, oh! I remember that your sister faced her in the quarter finals, Gary!" Gary narrowed his eyes at the girl, who began to fumble with her words. "I-I mean she did a great job to make it that far! I'm just drawing a blank on how many pokémon she was able to take out in that rou-."

"One." Gary glowered and looked to the side.

"O-Oh…" Blossom wilted then began to panic once Ash started opening his mouth.

"Hah, well Luke-mmmph!"

"Ash, no!" Blossom hissed.

"AHEM!"

All three turned back to notice that the lady was still there, except her patience seemed to be waning by each passing second.

"Enough. Since it's been confirmed that Luke Ketchum does indeed live here, I'll ask again if he's currently present on the premises. If not, then I'll be on my way, but if he is…" The lady then tightly clenched her gloved hands so tightly that the kids flinched back as the sound of her fingers cracking had put them off.

"Then I wish for you to bring him to me. Right. Now."

Ash's eyes widened as he realized what all of this meant and cursed the fact that his brother wasn't there to accept it. Struggling to piece together a response, he simply let his instincts take the wheel.

*SLAM!*

""Ash!"" Gary and Blossom screamed.

"I panicked." Ash sucked in his lips as he locked the door he slammed. He gulped at the thought of how super mad that lady was about now.

"Obviously!" Gary angrily admonished.

"S-So what now?" Blossom queried as the trio gathered up in a huddle and quietly began to form a plan.

"What else? Tell her to take a hike because Luke's obviously not here to give her a rematch. Can I do it because I really want to tell it to her face." Gary growled.

"But if we do that then we'll miss out on the chance to see a cool battle!" Ash argued.

"Luke needs to actually be here for a battle to even happen, lame brain." Gary rolled his eyes.

"Plus, we don't know when he'll be back to accept the challenge." Blossom sighed.

"Unless he told you the specific time that he'll be back." Gary asked.

"Nah, he said he'll only come back if he's done patrolling or just wants to go back to his room to crash since he doesn't have to work at the café today. Huh, I'm surprised he's not back yet." Ash blinked in surprise while Gary disappointedly shook his head.

"I'm sure glad my sis wasn't here to hear that."

"But guys that only leaves us with either trying to stall her or make her leave!" Blossom frowned.

"Let's make her leave." Gary instantly suggested.

"B-But-." Ash started but his friend shut him down.

"Luke's obviously not going to come on time so just tell her to beat it." Gary said.

Ash frowned and thought as hard as he could. How can he create a scenario to keep that lady here until her brother returns. It's not like he could just be in two places at once. After all there was only one Luke Ketchum…

Wait a minute.

A devious smile grew formed on his face that had both of his friends suspicious.

"What's that look for?"

"Oh, nothing~. Just wait right here until I come back to get Luke!" Ash dashed up the stairs.

"But he's not here!" Blossom cried as Gary deeply sighed and went straight to the kitchen.

Dramatically, Ash pushed against the hallway's walls as he ran, jumped, and glided across the wooden floors to reach Luke's room. With haste, he slammed open the door, ignoring the surprised yelp coming from Sylvie hiding under the bed sheets and opened Luke's closet. He rummaged through his clothes, tossing out all manner of clothing that didn't fit with the plan he had formulated in his head.

A red mask with a black cowboy hat? Tossed over his shoulder.

Luke's old sneakers? Swung backwards to be thrown into his chair.

A pair of his underwear that he was too lazy to put in his drawer?

"Syl-!"

Bundled up and thrown onto his bed.

"-veon~!"

Ash blinked at the weird noise before continuing his singular pursuit for…aha!

And like that Ash Ketchum managed to procure Luke's old red jacket, his goggles and backpack. He dumped the contents of the large backpack on the ground and rolled up the large sleeves of the jacket. He had to look as authentic to pass off as his brother. Looking himself over in the mirror, Ash placed the finishing touch on his look by incorrectly strapping the extra pair of goggles over his hat.

Now he looked like a one-to-one copy to Luke!

"How do I look, Syvlie?" He whipped his head around to spot the pokémon…wearing his brother's underwear as a hat except she seemed to be laying on her side with her limbs twitching. What happened to her? Could he have surprised her with how identical he looked to Luke?

Either way, Ash gnabbed her since she was the crutch that did help his brother defeat that blue lady outside. Stumbling downstairs, he ran past his friends and slammed open the door where the furious blue lady stood. Her attention was drawn away from her staredown with Asch to now address him. Well, she seemed to flinch back at the sight of Sylvie before seriously regarding him.

"And just what is thi-?" The lady started, but Ash would have none of it. This was HIS moment, Luke's moment.

"Aha, it's YOU! Well, if you're back for a rematch then prepare to taste defeat for I, Lucas Delilah Ketchum, hereby accept your challenge!"

"What?" The blue-haired lady croaked in disbelief.

"Now let us battle! Sylvie, I choose you!" Lacking her pokeball, Ash tossed Sylvie in the hopes that she'd land on her feet.

*PLOP!*

She didn't.

"Sy-Sylveooon~!" She just kept on making those weird, muffled noises through his bro's boxers while breathing heavily. Ash noticed Asch giving Sylvie a look of utter disgust and disappointment before shaking his head and laying back down onto his heated rock to simply observe the trainwreck in front of it unfold.

"What?" The blue lady repeated with more disbelief in her tone at the sight of the twitching Sylveon.

"Er…um…" Ash coughed then daringly pointed at her. "And there's more where that came from…from…" He began to sweat once he realized that he didn't have a name to put to her face. "You! Release your first pokémon so we may do battle in the most epic of fashion!"

"…What?" The lady croaked again.

"Well this is going to be fun." Gary mumbled through a mouthful of something. "Popcorn?" He offered to Blossom who were watching everything on the front steps of the Ketchum Household.

"Ooh~! Yes please!" Blossom cheered and began stuffing her face as she joined her friend in watching Ash get into a screaming match with that mean blue lady. Poor lady, she already lost the battle when she chose Ash to be her opponent...