Teaching Iron into Ya'
"Hello." Humans
"Pika-chu." Pokémon addressing humans
"Hello." Pokémon addressing Pokémon
The week had, without any incident, ended on Friday for the Pallet Town group. However, Ash's spirits had not lifted. He remained through the week rather uncharacteristically sullen and withdrawn. At school and at the lab, he barely interacted with anyone and robotically went about his tasks. Pikachu, normally a great asset in anything involving Ash, was equally sullen over the loss. Yet, as soon as they walked in the doors of Oak's lab for the evening, he rushed over to them. His body was covered in sweat and his hair frazzled.
"So glad you could make it. Please come this way! I need your assistance urgently!" Oak hastily said, before rushing off to the back.
"What's got you in a tizzy, gramps!?" Gary asked as the group rushed off after him, though Ash was behind the rest.
"One of my former students sent me a recently caught Rhyhorn! I tried to get it back in its Pokéball, but it refuses. And it's been far too ornery to just let it out with the rest." The Professor explained as he brought them into one of the back rooms.
The room was quite large and clean, with monitoring stations and several corrals for Pokémon that needed to be isolated. In one of them was a rather large and burly quadruped, with its back spikes rising above the steel barred fence. Its wide, stout body was coated in a thick, gun-metal grey shell, almost like it was encased in metal like a Steel-type. However, it let out a bellowing roar, showing the shell in the flickering light to be organic in nature. Its wide, single horned head turned to look at them with eyes burning with rage. Seemingly the mere concept of being corralled to be an offense to it. Before anyone could do anything, it swung its massive head into the fence of the small corral, sending out a metallic clang echoing through the room.
"That's a big Rhyhorn…" Lillie said, before pulling a small smartphone out of her bag, clad in white with snow and flower stickers on it.
"Is that the newest model Rotom phone?" Gary asked in shock.
"Yeah, why?" Lillie asked, only for the boys to grumble under their breath about money. "Anyways, let's see if anything in the Pokédex can help us with this."
"That sounds like a great idea, Lillie. I'll see if I can't work my magic as well." Isaac replied with a smile, before slowly walking towards the corral.
After a bit of poking around in the Pokédex app, Lillie finally found the entry for Rhyhorn. "Rhyhorn, the Spikes Pokémon. Its powerful tackles can destroy anything. However, it's too slow-witted to help people work. Caution is advised in most situations." Her Rotom Phone explained in a relaxed, silky-smooth voice.
"You know, I'd make a joke about that at Ashy boy's expense, but we have to stop this thing from breaking out." Gary said as took his Squirtle's Pokéball off his belt. "Come on out, Squirtle!"
"Squirtle Squirt!!" The Blue Turtle cried out triumphantly.
"Don't do anything yet!!" Isaac called out, getting between the Turtle Pokémon and the rampaging Rhyhorn.
"Well, if you're going to do it, do it already! That thing looks like it's ready to eat the fence for breakfast!" Gary yelled back.
Closing his eyes, Isaac put his hand out towards the Rhyhorn. His hand and body began to glow with a faint, sky blue light. As this happened, the Rhyhorn also began to glow with the same sky-blue light. Soon, it looked at Isaac and slowly began to calm down. As this happened, Isaac began walking towards it with his eyes closed before placing his hand on its forehead as soon as he reached it. Closing its eyes, the Rock-type Pokémon began to relax as Isaac opened his eyes.
"There you go, girl." Isaac gently said with a smile as he began to pet it, the sky-blue light slowly fading away.
"Feel funny." Came the rumbling, dull voice of the Rhyhorn into his head.
"Am I the only one still weirded out by how he does that?" Ash asked the others.
"You and me both." Gary replied, crossing his arms. Squirtle however stood there disappointed.
"Aw man. I wanted to Water Gun it." Squirtle grumbled.
The Rhyhorn glared at Squirtle at that and snorted angrily, only to then begin to relax again as Issac gently scratched it on its head. Its back leg began to kick with joy, shaking the ground lightly with each motion. However, as he did that, he noticed another presence near him. Looking down, Isaac saw a curious Snowy looking up at him.
"Snowy! Get back here! It's dangerous!" Lillie shrieked in shock.
"I think the situation is under control. Ash, open the door to the outside. Gary, and Isaac get the gate ready. Hopefully, she will behave herself." Professor Oak replied, before giving out orders.
"Yes sir!!" The boys said in unison and got to work.
Gary and Isaac rushed to the corner of the room and dragged out a metal gate. As they worked to fashion it to the corral, Ash grabbed the bottom of what Lillie thought was a wall. Then, with a single heave the door opened like a garage door, letting in natural sunlight into the room. Finally, once the gate was ready, the boys opened the door for the Rhyhorn. She took a few steps out, before turning to look at Snowy. To everyone's surprise, she gave the baby a lick before waddling out into the grassy plains behind the laboratory.
"Well, with that crisis over, you kids are free for now." Professor Oak explained. This got the lot excited, with even Ash perking up at that.
"You have to teach me how to do that some time, Isaac." Ash said.
Isaac smiled at his friend. "Sure. If you don't mind a lot of meditation." He replied.
"Never mind. Besides, you still haven't explained what you meant after I lost to Brock." Ash answered.
"Simple. I know you refuse to catch a Pokémon just to win a battle, so I have a much simpler solution. We teach one of your Pokémon a new move to help deal with Brock." Isaac explained to his friend.
"A new move?" Ash asked in surprise.
This caught both Gary and Lillie off guard. "Did you not think of that, Ash?" Gary asked his friend in surprise.
"Yes! … Maybe. You can't prove anything…" Ash replied sheepishly, clearly embarrassed.
"Well, that's a bold face lie. I wish he told me that sooner." Pikachu said a huff, crossing his arms on Ash's shoulder.
"Back on the topic. We need a new move for one of Ash's Pokémon to help him deal with Brock. And I think I have just the one…" Isaac replied before kneeling and pulling a small, metallic gray disk similar to a CD and a strange device out of his backpack.
The device was a piece of headgear with a display screen, five buttons, and a red elastic band that seemed to go around the head, neck, or limb, adjustable for size. At the center of the band was a small white disk player box. To most of them, the device seemed innocuous, except for one.
Lillie's eyes went wide at seeing the device. "Is that a TM?" Lillie asked in shock.
"And a Move Tutor machine to put it in, Lillie." Isaac explained with a smirk.
"That looks dumb." Pikachu muttered to himself.
"Can I try?" Snowy asked excitedly, jumping up and down in excitement at it.
"Maybe some other time, Snowy. This time, we're using it on Pikachu." Isaac told the Alolan Vulpix, petting her gently.
Pikachu's eyes widened at that as the other Pokémon came out of their Pokéballs to see this. As Pikachu's reaction came loud and clear.
"You are not putting stupid that thing on my head!" Pikachu snapped out in embarrassment.
"I don't know. It fits you." Zaraki teased, getting chuckles out of most of the other Pokémon.
"Pikachu. This is the only way you guys are going to be able to beat Brock. So, it's either that, you go in your Pokéball to do it from there, or you just keep losing to Brock." Isaac explained.
Pikachu gained a contemplative look at that, as if he were weighing his options.
"Pikachu!" Ash snapped out in frustration.
"What!? I'm thinking!!" Pikachu snapped back at his trainer.
"Pikachu." Ash sternly said.
"Fine… But I won't like it." Pikachu huffed, before looking away from his trainer.
"School taught us TMs only have one move inside. What move does this one have?" Ash asked curiously, a glimmer of hope in his sullen eyes.
Isaac chuckled evilly. "Iron Tail." He told his friend and the electric Mouse Pokémon.
This caught everyone off guard until Gary finally spoke up. "Okay. Where did you get that?" Gary demanded.
"I know a guy, let's leave it at that." Isaac replied with a smirk.
"But this is great! With a Steel Type move, Pikachu can actually harm Brock's Rock Types!" Lillie said excitedly.
"Alright Isaac. Do the thing." Ash explained.
"I also have Steel Wing, just in case we need it." Isaac replied, pulling out another metallic gray CD disk.
"And how did you… let me guess. You know a guy?" Gary replied with a groan.
"Actually, in this case, I know a gal." Isaac replied with a grin.
"You're a sassy bitch, you know that?" Gary asked.
"Language!!" Lillie snapped, covering Snowy's ears, leaving the poor baby quite confused.
"So, who's first? Pikachu or Pidgeotto?" Isaac asked, picking up the machine.
"Pidgeotto? Do you want to learn Steel Wing?" Ash asked his Pokémon.
"Oh, please go first." Pikachu begged the bird Pokémon.
"For the honor of my comrades, I shall agree to go first." Pidgeotto replied proudly.
"As much as I'd like to get revenge… I don't think its gonna work out so well…" Butterfree dejectedly said.
"Don't be so down, Butterfree. You fought well and did great. Take pride in that." Yokozuna told the Bug and Flying Type.
This caused Butterfree to smile. "Thank you." Butterfree replied gratefully.
Pidgeotto soon stepped forward towards Isaac. The boy gently attached the device around Pidgeotto's neck, before fiddling with it to make sure it was not too tight. Then he took out the TM for Steel Wing, labeled 47 on the disk, before slotting it into the device.
"Now this is going to get a little uncomfortable while the machine downloads the information on the movie into your brain, Pidgeotto. But try to tough it out, okay?" Isaac gently said to the bird Pokémon.
"Of course. It is still weird to have a human understand me…" Pidgeotto said before finally the machine came to life.
The machine then whirred to life as it began to beep and glow with a faint, metallic silver light. Pidgeotto's eyes widened as the information began to download into his head. Soon, it closed its eyes to take in the information, attempting to relax.
"Alright, now we just need to decide which move to get rid of so that Pidgeotto can learn Steel Wing. Is Wing Attack okay, Ash?" Isaac asked, looking back at his friend.
"That makes sense. Trade one wing move for another." Ash replied, giving him a nod.
Nodding, Isaac pressed a button on the display of the headgear, causing the metallic silver light to glow brightly. Once the glow faded away and the machine shut down, Pidgeotto opened his eyes.
"There. Now that wasn't so bad, right Pidgeotto?" Isaac asked with a smile as he unhooked the machine from the bird Pokémon.
"That was… strange…" Pidgeotto muttered before shaking its head to get its bearings.
"Alright, Pikachu. You're up." Isaac said with a smile.
"Do I have to…?" Pikachu whined.
"Do you want to beat the giant rock snake?" Ash asked sternly.
Pikachu then thought back to how he was defeated. Remembering the humiliation he suffered at the hands of Onix. His eyes then burned with a fire of determination as he turned to face Isaac.
"Put that thing on my head, weird human!" Pikachu roared out, sparks dancing off his cheek sacks.
Isaac smiled. "That's the spirit, Pikachu!" He replied before starting to hook the machine up to the electric Mouse's head.
After a similar process to Pidgeotto, only instead adding a CD that said 23 on it, the display soon was on and ready. Ash and Isaac then leaned down to look at the screen that displayed Pikachu's moves.
"I think Fake Out makes sense to be replaced." Ash explained.
Isaac nodded in response. "Agreed. It's the least necessary move in his move set." He replied, pressing the button to replace the move.
"Aw, but I like that move…" Pikachu groaned.
"You would, you little rat." Ruffian snarled.
The machine then began to glow brighter as it began the teaching process. Pikachu's eyes went wide and stared off into the ether as it worked. Ash and Isaac swore they even saw lines of code going through the Electric Mouse's eyes. Until, finally, Pikachu snapped out of it and shook it off.
"What did I miss?" Pikachu asked, looking all around.
"Alright, there we go. Pikachu's got Iron Tail now. Now Pidgeotto and Pikachu just need to practice perfecting their new moves." Isaac told Ash and the two Pokémon.
"Come, smaller friends of the sky! Let us begin the sparring!!" Pidgeotto cried out before taking to the sky.
Isaac chuckled. "Well, it looks like he's eager to get started." He replied with a grin.
"He always was an ornery one." Gary chipped in.
"Butterfree, Ruffian. Don't keep him waiting now." Lillie said with a smile.
With a pair of nods, the two smaller flying types took to the wing after him. As they began sparring with each other up in the sky, Pikachu then turned to look at the other Pokémon to see who would like to spar with him. At that both Blaze and Zaraki stepped forward.
"And now, I shall apply my master belt in shovel fu to this brand-new move!" Pikachu cried out.
Zaraki cracked his knuckles. "Let's do this, Pikachu!" The Pig Monkey Pokémon replied with an eye smile.
"We shall help you master Iron Tail in no time at all, Pikachu." Blaze said with a smile of her own.
Pikachu then charged forward towards them at blinding speed, his tail beginning to glow white behind him. He then leapt high into the air above them, swinging his glowing tail at them as he did. However, as soon as it contacted Zaraki, everything went wrong. Instead of Zaraki taking the hit as he should, Pikachu felt a sharp pain in his tail. A feeling like he stubbed his toe on the door corner in the middle of the night and soon was on the ground in pain.
Isaac adopted a thinking look at that. "Hm… maybe we should build up the strength in Pikachu's tail and Pidgeotto's wings before we have them attempt the moves in practice." He said, looking up at Pidgeotto to see him also fail as a white glow on his wings faded away.
"Right." Ash said with a sigh.
"Cheer up, Ashy boy. They have the moves. Now they just need to build up the strength to use them and practice." Gary replied with a smile, gently patting his old friend on the shoulder.
As soon as Gary finished that sentence, he was struck by a Thunder Shock coming from Pikachu. Everyone turned to look to see Pikachu glaring daggers at him, still clearly in pain from his failed use of the move.
"Whyyyyy…?" Gary groaned out before falling over.
"I ask that every day." Ash sighed in sympathy.
Soon Ash and his friends came back with ropes for Isaac's training. They tied one rope to Pikachu's tail and one each to Pidgeotto's wings, before tying the other ends to a set of rocks. Then, with coordinated movements, they began to swing their tied appendages up and down. This went on for hours, with most of the other Pokémon falling asleep while the humans focused on this. The only break the pair got was during lunch.
As the sun began to dip into the afternoon, the two were finally freed from their ropes to try again. Pikachu panted and fell onto the ground, while Pidgeotto could barely stand. Yet, with significant effort, the noble bird Pokémon took to the air to try his new move. He locked in on one of the rocks they tied the ropes to and dove down. His wings, at first, began to glow white before finally glowing metallically. Then Pidgeotto slammed his left wing into the rock, slicing clean into it. When he landed back on the ground and furled his wings, the rock split in two as the top half slid away from the bottom.
"Alright, Pidgeotto!!" Ash cheered out.
Pidgeotto turned his head up proudly, rather pleased with himself at his progress before smiling as he was picked up by Ash. Seeing this made Pikachu rise from the ground. Despite panting, he then focused on one of the larger rocks. Making a run for it, his tail began to glow brightly before he leapt into the air. With a rolling spin, he swung his tail down fiercely at the rock, but the rock did not break. Instead, the air was soon filled with the shrill sound of Pikachu's voice.
"OHHHHHHHH! I think I broke something that time!!" Pikachu cried out in agony, falling to the ground clutching his tail.
"I'll go get the medical kit." Lillie said before rushing off.
Ash rushed over and held Pikachu in his arms. As the rest of them looked on, Yokozuna looked down at Snowy to give some words of wisdom.
"And that, child, is why you do not rush headfirst into something before you are ready. Least of all without professional supervision." Yokozuna sagely told the baby Alolan Vulpix.
"OOOOOOHHHH…" Snowy said in amazement.
"This day can't possibly get worse!!" Pikachu shrieked.
After Pikachu let out his shriek of exasperation, they all saw the rock he hit begin to move. To their shock, and swiftly their horror, it was not a rock. The hulking, spiky, and now irritated form of a Rhyhorn shook itself off and looked at them. As everyone recognized it as the one from the morning.
"I stand corrected. It can." Pikachu groaned.
"Everybody runs for it!!" Ash cried out as the Rhyhorn let out a roar.
Swiftly, the massive, spiked Pokémon lowered its horned head and charged. Neither human nor Pokémon stood in its way as it charged, for each step shook the earth. Blaze was the last of them to get out of the way, barely doing so before the Rhyhorn plowed through a nearby tree. The tree gave next to no resistance to it, as it swiftly snapped like a toothpick. Once the Rhyhorn realized they weren't in front of it anymore, it stopped and turned around before charging again.
"Squirtle! Use Water Gun!" Gary cried out.
"Squirtle Squirt!" Squirtle cried out before shooting a blast of water at the Rhyhorn.
The font of water hit its mark, causing the Rhyhorn to roar in pain. However, it didn't stop its charge. This time, however, Snowy tripped in her attempts to escape. Pidgeotto tried to swoop in to save her but couldn't muster the strength in its tired wings. Seeing this, Pikachu leapt out of Ash's arms and began to run directly towards the charging Rhyhorn.
"Pikachu!?" Ash called out in disbelief.
"Stay away from the kid!!" Pikachu cried out as its tail began to glow brighter as he ran.
"Then I'll mow you down instead, rat!" The Rhyhorn roared out in fury as she increased the pace of her charge.
Pikachu panted heavily as he ran, sweat pouring down him. Yet, despite the exhaustion setting in and the burning pain in his limbs, he still ran. His tail shone bright like a great beacon as he sped towards the Rhyhorn. He then leapt towards her, and in a blinding flash, Pikachu's tail glowed metallically like Pidgeotto's wings. As Ash watched this, he smiled at the sight before calling out to him.
"Hit it now, Pikachu!!" Ash cried out.
"Pi! Ka! Chuuu!" Pikachu cried out as he swung his metallic tail as hard as he could.
His metal coated tail slammed into the Rhyhorn's horn with a colossal crash. Yet, to everyone's surprise, the Rhyhorn's momentum was blunted and ground to a halt. Its neckless frame behind it was, for a moment, scrunched up like an accordion before straightening out again. It soon collapsed onto the ground in pain as Pikachu stood over it, panting heavily.
"And stay down." Pikachu panted before walking over to Snowy. "You okay kid?"
"I was so scared, Pikachu!" Snowy cried out before tackling Pikachu to the ground, snuggling into him.
"... You only get away with this 'cause you're cute." Pikachu said with a tired sigh.
However, before the others could celebrate, the Rhyhorn stood up again. But instead of trying to charge again, it dipped its head and walked away. Pikachu smiled as Ash rushed over and picked both Pikachu and Snowy up in his arms.
"That was amazing Pikachu! You did it!" Ash cheered as he hugged his partner.
Pikachu smiled proudly as Isaac walked up and rubbed him on the head. 'Nice going, little guy." Isaac told Pikachu with a smile as Lillie walked back in with the first aid kit.
"What happened!?" Lillie shrieked, seeing the mess around her friends.
"Pikachu learned Iron Tail in the nick of time and saved Snowy from a charging Rhyhorn." Gary explained.
"A what!?" Lillie cried out in concern, running up to scoop Snowy out of Ash's arms to check on her.
"It was the one from earlier that Isaac calmed down." Ash explained.
"Are you okay, Snowy? Did you get hurt?" Lillie asked, fussing over her partner.
Snowy nodded to the first question, before shaking no to the second. "Vulpix Vul Vul." Snowy replied.
Lillie sighed in relief before looking at Pikachu. "Thank you, Pikachu…" She said with a smile, patting him on the head.
"You're really doing a good job at getting over your fear of touching Pokémon, Lillie." Gary said with a small smile.
"I don't know, I think we can test that further. Pikachu. Jump in her arms." Ash chipped in with an evil grin.
"Hah?" Lillie asked in confusion.
"Pika!!"" Pikachu cried out before jumping into Lillie's arms.
With a terrified shriek, Lillie froze up and fainted standing. Isaac sighed and shook his head at the two's antics.
"I'll get the smelling salts…" He groaned before heading over to take the first aid kit from Lillie's frozen hands.
As Ash and Gary chuckled at Lillie's predicament, Gary noticed Ash's sullen tension begin to slacken. He had two Pokémon with moves to take on Brock, he regained some of his confidence, and he was in better spirits. Now all he needed was a second attempt. Which would be easier said than done…