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"So, who's battling Leon?" Goh asks as he walks into the small living room. Professor cerise is sitting by the arm of the couch, typing something on his tablet. Chloe is sitting next to her father, scratching behind yamper's ear.
The three decided to watch the new pokemon battle with each other.
Professor Cersie looks up from his tablet. "I'm not sure. I forgot to look it up."
Goh shrugs and flops down onto the couch next to Chloe.
"Are we just waiting on ash?" Chloe turns to goh, tilting her head.
"No, ash said he had something to do," Goh says with a shake of his head "it's a shame. He would have great commentary."
Chloe gives him a blank look. "You sure that's not just the crush talking."
Goh's face erupts bright red "what! N-no! Why would you say that?!"
"Because you ask ash to describe anything, and all you get are excited sounds and barely put-together sentences," she deadpans to goh, who pouts. Professor Cersie, however, just nods in the background.
"Yeah yeah," goh rolls his eyes, turning to the TV. It should be starting soon.
"So, who do you think will win?" Professor Cersie questions the teens, only to get blank stares.
"Are you kidding?" Goh slowly blinks. "Leon has this one hundred percent."
"Why so confident?" The Professor questions, despite knowing the answer.
"Leon has some of the strongest pokemon I have ever seen. More news would have been on the guy facing Leon if he had a chance." Goh explains offhandedly. He is excited to see the fight, though.
The TV switches on, and the live show has started.
The two commenters start to discuss what they think will happen.
"Yeah, I'm excited for the battle, though it probably will be quick."
"And why is that john?"
Goh tunes out the commenters as he watches what's being shown on TV. The stadium is shown, but it's pretty empty, there are definitely a lot of Leon fans there, but there are many empty seats.
Goh tunes back into the commentary as he sees Leon stepping into the brightly lit stadium.
"And on the corner, we have Leon!" Leon poses for the camera, his cape gracefully flapping behind him.
"And on the other side! We have Ash Ketchum from Kanto!" The commenter states. Ash?! the boy in question Walks into the stadium with pikachu on his shoulder.
"Ash?!" The three on the couch balk. Ash is the one fighting Leon?!
"On one side, we have the undefeated world champion! And on the other side, we have the two-time champion of the alola region and the orange islands!" Ash is a champion? Ash has beaten two leagues? How did they not know?!
"He should have told us he was fighting. We would have bought tickets!" Professor Cersie exclaims, and Goh's mind is going crazy. Why didn't Ash tell them? They would have gone out and supported him! For now, all goh can do is watch his friend face off against one of the most renowned champions without anyone there cheering him on.
The two competitors shake each other's hands, then step back for the ref to step up.
"Will the competitors bring out their pokemon?" The ref's voice booms across the screen.
Leon pulls a Pokeball out and lets Charizard out in a flash of light. The fire pokemon appears, flying onto the field.
Ash shifts his head to pikachu. You can't hear what he said, but goh knows Ash well enough he can guess what he said.
"You ready, bud?" Goh guesses Ash said. Pikachu nods, both having a determined fire in their eyes.
"Then pikachu, I choose you!" Ash points to the field. Pikachu ran down his arm and jumped onto the area in front of Charizard.
The ref signals fight start, and the four tense, waiting for that thread to snap and the fight to get off to an explosive start.
Then the tension snaps.
"Charizard blast burn!"
"Pikachu, quick attack!"
A fire ring explodes out from Charizard as pikachu speeds up to a nearly unwatchable level.
"Electro ball!" Ash shouts out, and Pikachu pauses, building up energy in mid-air in front of Charizard.
"Dodge it, Charizard!" Leon orders and Charizard narrowly escapes the electro ball to the face.
"Wing attack," Leon says, his cape flapping to the wind.
Charizard flaps its mighty wings upwards and starts to dive toward pikachu, turning the wind around its wings to blades.
"Jump pikachu," ash orders, and goh blinks in surprise, just jumping wouldn't be able to dodge in time, plus pikachu is still in the air. By the time it touches the ground, Charizard will be there already.
But pikachu doesn't jump like most pokemon would. Instead, its tail turns to iron as it slams onto the concrete, using the momentum to jump above the Charizard, then using Charizard's head to launch off its second leap.
"Woah," Goh says, stars surely in his eyes. He's never seen a fight like this, especially as Leon's Charizard flaps its wings widely to stop before it slams onto the ground.
"Electro ball!" Ash orders, lifting his clenched hands, a little shine of the watch-like thing he always wears on his wrist. This time on the watch, instead of the slight indent there usually is, there's a little yellow gem inside. Strange, but goh quickly shifts his attention to the fight, not wanting to miss a second.
Pikachu's electro ball hit its mark and hit Charizard flat on its back before Leon could tell Charizard to dodge.
Pikachu lands on the ground, out of breath slightly.
"Quick attack, then iron tail!" Pikachu accelerates to Charizard as Leon tells Charizard to fly upwards.
Goh realizes that Pikachu can't fly, so if Charizard goes high enough, Charizard can fire off long-range attacks without issue. And it seems Ash does as well due to the calculated look in his eyes.
"Flamethrower Charizard!" Leon orders and Ash seems to get an idea.
"Quick attack, Fast shock!" Part of the flamethrower hit Pikachu's leg, but besides that, it dodged. Then pikachu started to throw thunderbolt after thunderbolt. Using a quick attack, pikachu bounced from thunderbolt to thunderbolt, quickly jumping up to where Charizard was.
Did pikachu just jump onto lightning bolts?
Goh didn't have enough time to process it as Pikachu and Charizard came face to face.
"Tail sweep!"
"Iron tail"
The two tails meet like a clash of swords.
"Thunderbolt!" ash yells, and Leon's eyes widen quickly, telling Charizard to get out of there.
Pikachu's thunderbolt hits. The two pokemon fly apart, and pikachu quickly gets back up, a little roughed up.
Charizard, however, seems slightly worse but still fighting.
Charizard is called back before the Pokeball grows, and Leon throws Charizard back out, who was now gigamaxed.
"And it's over for pikachu now!" One of the commenters shouts over the screen.
But Ash looks like he's been waiting for it.
"Flame thrower!" Leon shouts, and Ash orders Pikachu to dodge it.
"Electro web, make it big!" Pikachu starts to charge a gigantic web before throwing it. Charizard manages to dodge it somehow. The web unfurls above half of the stadium, a giant wall of electricity blocking off half the field.
Pikachu bounces off the web and towards Charizard when Ash orders it to do it again, narrowly dodging a tail whip from the giant pokemon.
It's like watching a giant fight an ant.
The electro web misses again, creating a huge barrier. Just what is Ash's plan?
Charizard tries to hit Pikachu, only for Ash to call another quick attack missing the tiny mouse.
A few more rounds of the electro web stunt came and went, no web ever hitting Charizard, but it does surround it.
Charizard doesn't have much room to fly anymore. It can only fly about a couple dozen feet away in any direction. That may seem like a lot but to a gigamaxed pokemon? It's practically just a foot.
Pikachu is bouncing from web to web like a pinball confusing Charizard as it tries to find it.
Leon is sweating, and Ash has Leon on the ropes?!
Goh glances over to the other people on the couch professor cerise has abandoned the tablet he was previously using, full attention on the screen. Chloe looks more invested in a pokemon fight than he thinks he has ever seen of her. Even the usually excitable pokemon yamper has stopped squeaming around Chloe's lap to watch.
Ash calls a quick attack, and goh turns his attention back to the screen.
If pikachu could barely be seen before with pikachu using a quick attack, you couldn't even see the pokemon.
"Iron tail!" Pikachu appears behind Charizard, hitting the back of the pokemon hard and fast. Charizard stumbles, but it doesn't do much to the giant pokemon.
Pikachu disappears again, and goh realizes what Ash is doing.
"He's chipping away at Charizard," Goh gasps, watching as pikachu disappears in a blur before reappearing at random spots as ash orders hit Charizard blind.
Leon seems worried as he watches this looking for a way out.
"Flame thrower, hit ash much as you can!" Leon orders, and Charizard does. The pokemon's fire spreading throughout the air.
"Try to avoid it, pikachu!" Ash says as they continue the relentless assault on the champions pokemon.
Ash and Leon shout two different orders to their pokemon.
"Thunderbolt!" Ash yells to pikachu.
"Flame thrower!" Leon yells to Charizard.
The two attacks meet in the middle creating a giant explosion.
Dust covers the stadium as they desperately try to see what happened.
As the dust settled, they saw two pokemon lying down, Charizard ungigamaxed wrapped in an electro web, shocked, and knocked out.
Pikachu shakily stands.
The ref shouts his call.
"Charizard is unable to battle. Ash Ketchum wins!"
The crowd goes nuts.
Ash won.
Against Leon.
"Holy shit," goh mutters, not looking away from the screen.
"I know" is all Chloe responds with.
"He won. He actually did it." Goh dumbfoundedly states.
"I know," Chloe repeats, sounding about as dumbfounded as he felt.
They watch as pikachu runs to Ash, quickly being hugged and cradled, as Ash undoubtedly tells pikachu how cool it was and how good of a job it did.
Leon pulls Charizard back into its Pokeball.
The two competitors meet up in the middle.
They shake hands before Leon goes behind Ash. Ash looks confused, but as Leon pulls off his cape and wraps it around Ash, he seems to understand what's going on.
The crowd quiets as they watch what's going on.
Ash kneels onto one knee as Leon places his crown on Ash's head.
Ash stands up, the cape a bit too long and dragging on the floor, and the crown a bit too big and slumping down over one of Ash's eyes.
"Give it up for your new world champion!" Leon shouts, reaching for Ash's wrist.
"Ash Ketchum and his partner pikachu!" Leon pulls Ash.s arm up, declaring Ash the victor.
Ash is grinning stupidly, just like he always smiles. Goh melts a bit as the camera zooms into Ash but quickly covers it up.
When asked to give a statement, Ash said, "thank you so much, everybody!"
Then Leon and Ash walked out of the stadium to get their pokemon healed.
The live camera on the stadium panned over all the live fans who were going crazy at Leon's loss.
"He did it," Goh mutters quietly to himself. "Holy shit, he actually did it!"
The camera switches to the carpet, where reporters swarm the entrance for either competitor to come out.
While they wait for something new to go on tv, the three watchers look at each other.
"Ash just became world champion," Goh says quietly, but in the near silence of the room, it came out loud, the only sound coming from the tv.
"Ash and pikachu just took out a gigamaxed pokemon with no special moves." Professor cerise mutters, shocked.
Chloe seemed to be gaping at the tv.
"Why didn't he tell us he was fighting?!" Goh whines, "we could have seen it in person!"
"Just how strong is that Pikachu?" Professor Cersie questions, Chloe still frozen.
No one talked much after that. Instead, they watched the tv, their minds running a mile a minute.
Then Leon came out, looking strange without his cape or crown.
"Leon! Leon! How do you feel about your loss?" One of the reporters asks, and Leon grins.
"I can't wait to see what he does. That kid is going places," Leon says, shaking his head.
"Going places? Hasn't he already gotten to the top?" Another reporter questions, and Leon lets out a bark of laughter.
"You think he will ever stop reaching for the next thing? You clearly haven't met the boy." Leon says before hopping into his car and being driven away.
They only have to wait a few more minutes for Ash to leave and be ambushed by reporters.
"Ash Ketchum! How did you do it? How did you beat Leon?" A reporter asks, and Ash gives his usual vague answer he always gives when asked about how he does something.
The reporters swarm Ash before he somehow gives them the slip and disappears.
Professor Cersie takes a deep breath holding it for longer than he probably should before turning to the teens.
"Okay, we can congratulate Ash on his win tomorrow. How about we go to bed?" The professor concluded. Goh and Chloe looked at him in disbelief.
"Yes, I know, exciting fight, but it's nearly midnight, and the two of you need sleep. Chloe, You have school in the morning." The professor reasons and the two begrudgingly get up.
Goh is pouting as he heads off to bed.
He slipped into the top bunk as his mind was rushing.
Ash just beat Leon?! How did he even beat Leon's gigamaxed Charizard? And he didn't tell anyone he was fighting. Why? Aren't they best friends?
That question got him the most worked up.
Ash doesn't have to tell him everything but challenging the world champion of pokemon fighting to a battle? That's important!
Goh's mind continues to race even as he feels himself falling asleep.
Goh yawns before shifting to his stomach.
Guess he'll ask Ash tomorrow. Goh thinks as he drifts off to sleep.
Meanwhile, in alola.
Kukui is exhausted. The baby likes to wake up in the morning and cry.
So Kukui barely blinks awake as his phone starts to nearly vibrate off his table.
Burnet shifts next to him, sleepily asking him what it was.
Kukui yawns, picking up his still-shaking phone.
"Some kid named ash just beat Leon," Kukui says, turning off his notifications and putting his phone back down.
Too sleepy to really do anything, he doesn't notice Burnet going rigid.
Kukui starts to drift back to sleep before he's woken up by his wife asking him something.
"Hm?" Kukui sleepily mumbles.
"Ash? Ash Ketchum?" Brunet asks and kukui nods.
"Our boy? With the pikachu?" Kukui's eyes snap open as he realizes what she's asking.
He immediately sits up and opens his phone again, Burnet leaning on him as she squints at the bright phone screen.
"Ash is the new world champion," Kukui says, eyes wide. Burnet is much the same.
"When did that even happen?" Burnet asks, rubbing her eyes and suddenly looking way more awake.
"That fight we DVRed, apparently ash was fighting and won," Kukui says, rechecking the news. The notification has gone from only about 50 to 400 when they've been awake.
Kukui and Burnet glance at each other, a shared thought crossing their brains.
"I'll set up the DVR," Burnet says, hopping out of bed.
"I'll get the cocoa," Kukui says, doing the same as his wife.
And just five minutes later, they're sitting on the couch with hot cocoa in their mugs, watching Ash walk out onto the field.
They sit there with rapt attention as the fight starts.
Kukui watches as ash slips into his natural habitat.
The pokemon ring.
Ash is definitely a gym bug, grew up mostly at pokemon gyms.
Kukui goes speechless as Pikachu jumps from thunderbolt to thunderbolt.
Then Kukui grins. That is such an ash plan.
Kukui cheers quietly as he watches his boy battle against Leon.
A loud thunderbolt is heard, and Burnet and Kukui hear their child crying.
Burnet looks at the tv to the back of the house, where their is child crying inside.
Kukui pauses the TV, and Burnet looks at him in thanks before heading out to calm the baby.
After a minute, the sound of a crying baby stopped, and Burnet returned, holding the now quiet, bundled baby in her arms.
Burnet quickly sits back down, and they unpause the tv.
Their breaths catch as Leon gigamaxes his Charizard.
Kukui grumbles slightly as the commenter basically tells them Ash will lose. Despite the high odds that Ash will lose.
But Ash has a penchant for turning fights around in the blink of an eye.
And that's what Ash does. Kukui quickly catches onto his plan, and it's pretty solid. Using Charizard's size against it is a good move.
Burnet blinks confusedly at the screen.
"What is he doing?" Burnet asks. Kukui grins, not giving anything away. The two were surely going to nerd out and overanalyze the fight so much.
The plan dawned on Burnet as Pikachu hit the Charizard in the back.
Burnet glances at him, grinning proudly. Kukui nods, his own parental pride blooming in his chest.
The two quietly cheer Ash and Pikachu on as Leon struggles.
You can tell by the look on his face. Ash has a chance.
And he takes that chance, Leon is desperately trying to get out of the trap and finding no way out, and then they meet in one significant attack.
They hold their breath as they wait for the dust to settle, their ecstatic grins once they see Charizard wrapped in an electro web knocked out.
Burnet looks down At lei.
"Hey lei, look" Burnet shifts lei to see the screen
"that's your big brother up there," she coos, and Kukui melts.
Brunet tears up at Ash being crowned, and Kukui hugs her.
"I'm just so proud of him!" She cries, and Kukui nods in understanding.
When morning comes, Kukui will definitely call Ash and congratulate him.
For now, all they can do is grin as they watch their son become the pokemon world champion.