RIP TO CHARLIE KIRK
Some might have not like him, but that doesn't give them the right to take another human beings life because of politics.
They deserve life behind bars.
My heart goes out to his family, and may he rest in peace.
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"Big Brother!"
Just when Ash won his double battle in this round and was about to see his lover Winona, who finished her job and came here to cheer for him, a very familiar voice suddenly rang to his ears, someone he hadn't seen in a while.
After making sure he had heard it right and looking at the right place, he slowly walked off the stage and got a cute little hug from the girl who rushed over in his arms, "Molly, did you miss me?"
"Of course I did. Big Brother, you were so awesome out there. You won so easily again in this match. You're definitely even stronger than you were the last time I saw you!" Molly also noticed Ralts jumping on Ash's shoulders after he came back to their side, "Hey there, my name is Molly!"
"La ral!"
Ralts seemed to understand her kind heart and jumped to stand on Molly's shoulders. She could feel just how happy this young lass was by seeing Ash. Additionally, Molly also had the special talent of being able to get along with many Pokémon, it doesn't matter if they were wild ones or not, they were all her friends at the end of the day.
Taking Molly to the family rest area in his arms, Ash looked at Professor Hale who came with his daughter, "Professor, how come you ate here? Mom said before that you and Molly didn't have time to come!"
Professor Hale smiled bitterly and said, "Originally, yeah, that was the case, but Molly saw your Growlithe on TV and insisted on coming to see you and play with it. I had no choice but to cancel the meeting and asked the others for a change of date to bring her here."
Hearing this, Ash finally understood. He looked at Molly and said in a dejected voice, "So you are here to see Growlithe, not me? Wow, talk about a bummer."
Even though he said this, he didn't really mean it, he knew his younger sister well, so he still pulled Growlithe's Poké Ball out to let it meet Molly.
"Haha, of course I'm here to see you as well!" Molly giggled, she was genuinely very happy to see her big brother, it's just that she really wanted to pet Growlithe's soft fur.
"Wow, you're so adorable! Growlithe, nice to meet you, I'm Molly!" For some reason, Growlithe, who obviously didn't want to talk to anyone other than Ash, actually licked Molly's cheek as a way of swaying hello.
Not far away from them, May and Max looked at Ash and Molly interacting, "Sis, so that's the little girl that traveled with Big Bro and Brock during their Johto Journey! I'm so jealous that she can play so well with Growlithe while I can't even pet it. It's obviously the first time they've met, yet it's been so much nicer to her than us!"
"I remember Ash saying that she has a special charm that can allow her to get well with most any Pokémon's, even some of the more violent ones…" May finally saw what Ash meant before when he recounted his experience with unique powers and meeting people with them.
It turned out that what her boyfriend said was not a lie at all, maybe even an understatement considering how much Growlithe is not a fan of letting anyone other than Ash touch it.
Molly really liked Growlithe as a species, and she brought it up several times during their trip saying how much it resembled Entei, but Ash had never seen a good one to join his team. Now that he finally got one that fit his match, Molly naturally had to come meet it.
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While Molly was playing with Growlithe, he took May to pick up Winona, who came to cheer for him after finishing her work for this season.
The two girls got along very well, despite only talking to each other via the PokéNav.
As their lover, Ash was naturally delighted to see this, so he also took this opportunity to introduce his Mom to Winona.
And everything went just as he expected, Delia crying out in happiness and getting to know another of her future daughter-in-laws.
And naturally she made May join them.
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"Dear viewers, the preliminary tournament has finally entered its third round! Whoever wins this battle to advance to the final tournament, will it be the renowned Pokémon Trainer Ash Ketchum or Trainer Clark?" The tournament commentator immediately changed the atmosphere of this battle, or tried to as most everyone knew what the end result will be.
But a man gotta do what he gotta do.
However, something unexpected happened.
"Clark! Clark!" As soon as he finished speaking and giving out the brief introductions, there was a surprisingly loud roar of cheers from a certain audience section. This section predominantly belonged to a group of middle-aged women, who all wore a dedicated cheerleading team, showing some sights that many people honestly had no interest in seeing.
Seeing this, Ash couldn't help but look at the section of the audience where his family and friends were, watching them getting to know Winona better.
"From what I've heard, this Clark character's fighting style is very... unique. Some people even call him "The Conductor!" Max took out his PokéNav and gave some information about the opponent Ash was facing.
"Honestly, when it comes to a flowing fighting style, Ash is more than what this so-called 'Conductor' can do!" May was not worried that her lover would lose in the battle at all.
"Yeah," Winona nodded from next to May while unconsciously pushing up her chest, "Ash's performance in this year's Grand Festival is more than enough to show that."
"But this Clark… Why is he so popular with that group of women?" Brock comments from next to Gary, who were both looking quite disgusted with Clark's cheerleaders moving fat causing an earthquake in their section.
Yeah, they agreed that Clark does look like a nice young man, but not enough to warrant his fans being a nuisance to everyone. Honestly, what did he do to get them as his fan?
"Big Brother, come on! You can do it!" Molly sat in Delia's arms and shouted at the top of her lungs.
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"Um, hello, nice to meet you; my name is Max!" Max came over to get to know Molly better, as Molly was about the same age as he was, but she seemed a little awkward about it.
Molly turned to look at Ash's commanding form in the field and said with a playful smile, "I heard about you, you're the kid who often gets taught by Big Brother with his iron fist of love."
"Uh…" After hearing this, Max returned to his sister's side and sat down angrily. "Kid?? She's also a kid!"
May looked at the innocent Molly and was stunned. The way this girl jabs at people was very similar to how her Ash did it. No wonder Ash considers her his little sister.
"Stand by for battle, Flygon, Torkoal!"
Ash took the lead in sending out his Pokémon so there would not be any grumbles like this last match.
Yes; there were murmurs and grumbles about the last match he sent his Pokémon's in.
Not to mention that since he had advanced to the third match of the preliminaries, the strength of his opponents were also amongst the more experienced ones. He was a little worried that sending out one of his newer, weaker Pokémon's would lead to a bad ending, so he decisively chose his high-level Flygon and paired it with his Torkoal to provide fire reinforcements and a defensive line.
Additionally, recently, his Flygon has been going through hell and coming back over and over again under the "kind" training of Rayquaza.
Although Rayquaza itself knew that it wasn't the strongest yet, the inherent knowledge it has to strengthen itself is a huge help to the others.
Flygon's extraordinary fighting ability was just going up, and so was Torkoals. Ash just had to make sure that he would enter the final rounds, so he went this way.
Seeing Ash's two Pokémon's, Clark didn't seem to panic at all, after all he hadn't seen the battles of these two yet, Ash hadn't had the chance to enter them in anything major.
Instead, he took out his band conductor's baton and said with a pleased expression, "Looks like this will be a wonderful concert. Please, Charizard, Quilava, let's set our performance stage!"
The Pokémon on the opposite side surprised Ash a little.
Although the strength of the Charizard was incomparable to that of his one, the one that can go toe-to-toe with Legendary Pokémon's, its size was still slightly larger than that of his Charizard at the beginning.
And these two are experts at their Fire element. It seems that Clark was also very lucky like him to catch these two Royal Starter Pokémon's.
"Let the battle begin!"
It seemed that Clark, as his fans called him the elegant conductor, was not going to attack first, so Ash was happy to oblige, "Sand Tomb! Smog!"
Flygon floated in the air, and with a flash of white light, several quicksand pits appeared on the battlefield where it glanced at it. This was one of Trapinch's specialties. During his journey, Ash passed through a maze made by large numbers of Trapinch, so he got the idea of this.
And his powerful Flygon immediately understood this and got to practice, and it showed. It can now manipulate it better than ever, even trapping them underneath.
After evolving, Flygon gained new wings and the ability Levitate, but he was also still a Ground-type. His control of Ground-type skills have become increasingly sophisticated under the training of Ash and Rhyperior.
Not only that, Torkoal also got ready by spitting up a thick purple mist toward the center of the field, which was full of poison.
Traps were laid both above and below the ground, but Clark kept up his composure, he waved his baton, "Charizard, use Heat Wave, Quilava use Flamethrower!"
The fiery hot wind of Charizard not only dispersed the poisonous mist but also increased the power of Quilava's Flamethrower.
However, all Flygon did was flutter his wings and that was all that needed to be done, the attacks lost their power.
"Sandstorm! Inferno!"
Clark on the opposite side finally showed a frown on his face, not only because of the high level of the Flygon and Torkoal, but also because he realized that Ash was simply playing with him, barely commanding his Pokémon's but still ahead.
He heard that Ash was very popular for his battle command style, but he had no idea it was to the point of being independent, something he unfortunately still couldn't do with his Pokémon's.
"Charizard, take Quilava and fly up!"
Clark's order was actually quite solid, and the reaction speed of his two Pokémon in completing it was also pretty good. The moment they took off and left the floor, powerful fire energy spewed out from the ground, and the ground, which was originally riddled with quicksand pits, was further damaged, now turning some small parts of the girls with sand into glistening glass. Not to mention that the red-hot quicksand seemed to light up the entire battlefield like a wildfire was happening.
From the high stadium seats, it looked as if red flowers were beginning to bloom on the field.
However, this was not the work of Clark's two Fire-types, but the work of Ash's Torkoal. It was constantly using Heat Wave and light Eruptions to seep its energy into the ground to give it better mobility.
"It's amazing! Ash's continuous attacks made Clark unable to fight back, firing him to plan a sky battle!" The two commentators watched the battle very carefully, trying not to pick sides. However it was hard to do, as most of Clark's attacks were easily resolved by Ash before it could even do anything and instead be counterattacked.
May was the one of the most excited, as it reminded her of the time where she practiced alongside him for something similar, "I knew I recognized that from somewhere. We practiced this, a version of his combination attacks. He truly deserves to be a Top Coordinator." She said gleefully.
"That's pretty good, I call it Ultimate Combination Style of Two Elements of the Hidden Land: Glistening Quicksand Inferno of the Land Dragon and the Fire Turtle!" Gary instantly made up a name for this.
Winona gave him a side eye, "Okay, Minato."
Clark finally panicked as he couldn't land or attack from the sky, if he dropped, he would be hit by scorching sand and glass, and if he doesn't, he gets brutally molested by Flygon, "What the hell am I even supposed to do now? I can't control the rhythm at all!"
Charizard had to take off with Quilava again and run for their lives, but Flygon ignored them and came for their squeezed checks, "The last move, Dragon Tail!"
Flygon suddenly appeared in front of Charizard, and the ferocious Dragon Tail hit it on its long draconic neck.
BOOM!
How would the already injured and tired Charizard withstand such an attack while also carrying its partner?
He was knocked from the air to the ground, right into the hot quicksand inferno. Even though its Fire-type gave it some resistance to fire, the rocks and glasses didn't.
"Charizard! Quilava!" Clark couldn't help but shout out in worry.
He finally understood why Ash played with him for as long as he did, it's simply because he wanted to try out something new, nothing else!
He could see it in Ash's eyes, his so-called conducting style was just showmanship that only cares about form, not true momentum control.
Ash was the real conductor, not him.