Pokemon: Bond Evolutions of Pokémon

Although it is only the the first Pokémon Contest Ribbon for May, it was still one of the most important milestones on the way to realizing her dream.

After getting out of the Fallabor Town Pokémon Center, she kept holding onto her Ribbon collection box, looking at the ribbon medal as if they were her everything, dancing and jumping up and down in multiple occasions.

"Don't worry about her." Ash and Brock both laughed at seeing Max being a little concerned about his older sister, "She just got her very first Ribbon after participating in her second Pokémon Contest. Thsi shows just how much great potential she has in this, so let her be happy while she is still in her early stages of development."

May's progress was obvious to all, establishing to her boyfriend, Ash. She is becoming more and more proficient and has even caught her third Pokémon with her own efforts. That little Skitty she recently caught is also very cute and perfect for May and her Pokémon Contests.

Hearing Ash's words, May rushed over and gave him a kiss on the lips, "Ash, thank you, it's all your credit!"

Brock couldn't handle it anymore and began to weep. Max had to comfort him again and again.

She really learned a lot from Ash's experience, and Ash has been taking great care of her.

Hearing this, Ash smiled and kissed her back. "This is all because of your own efforts, May. There are still 4 more Ribbons left before you could participate in the Grand Festival, so work hard. And also don't forget about me, even though I'm your boyfriend, I'm not going to go easy on you."

After leaving Fallarbor Town, as planned, the group was now heading to Lavaridge Town for Ash's third Gym Badge.

The two towns were in fact very close to each other, with only Mt. Chimney being there to block their east road. Now the group was about to cross the Fiery Path at the bottom of Mt. Chimney.

"It's up to you, Torchic!" There are many fire Pokémon living on Fiery Path, which made great sense, this is also a very good place to train Torchic and his Fire-type energy.

Ash's Torchic's growth rate was much faster than May's, almost anyone could see it with their naked eye. After all, their training is completely incomparable.

Although Ash does help May to train her Pokémon's, he doesn't do too match as they are her Pokémon's, not his. This is also for May's future growth as a Pokémon Coordinator. She had to learn to train her Pokémon's properly at some point, Ash is just helping her get there because he cares for her deeply.

As soon as his energetic Torchic came out again, he ran deep into the Fiery Path, opened his mouth and spat out his Embers and accurately hit a Slugma.

"That accuracy is good enough." Ash couldn't help but praise him when he saw its movements, "Now, Flame Charge!"

Torchic turned into a small fireball and rushed towards Slugma, easily avoiding the latter's own Ember and hitting it hard. Although there was no clear damage shown because of Slugma's own Fire-type and its magma body, it was still a well enough effective training method for his Torchic in his early stages.

Watching the battle between Ash's Torchic and Torchic, May behind him couldn't help but worry, "Babe, are you sure that there won't be any problem?" She said while looking very concerned, "that Slugma seems to be of a very high level."

"This is the only way to achieve the maximum training effect. You need to battle and defeat those stronger than you to truly make a breakthrough." As he said, Ash suddenly interrupted the training and took Torchic back, "Ho, looks like we have guests here!"

The group saw a dozen or so Slugma suddenly coming out of the depths of one of the nearby caves, surrounding their group with some resentments in their eyes.

May and Max obviously panicked by seeing all of this, "Big Bro, what should we do?"

"There's not much Torchic can do against all of them at once. Torchic isn't that strong yet, but this one is!" Ash smiled and threw another one of his Poké Balls, "Dratini, stand by for battle!"

The summoned Dratini suddenly disappeared in front of everyone's eyes, and then saw a flashes of green light, and all of the Slugmas disappeared one by one in front of everyone's eyes like they were not even there at the first place!

When fighting against wild Pokémon's like these Slugmas, Dratini's Dragon Tail attack can force them to go back to where they belong.

Hell!

"Thats amazing!" The crisis was solved by Ash before they could even think of anything else, leaving May and Max with nothing but admiration.

Brock had long been used to such things but he still can't believe that this is the same Ash he knew.

Since Ash was training his Torchic along the way, May also summoned her own Starter Torchic and decided to train him like how Ash is training his.

When it was almost dark, the group happened to pass through a hole in the Fiery Path and prepared to find a suitable place to camp out in the night.

Walking out of the cave was a grassland, and they soon found a Berry Tree. Not only that, but there was also a Numel lying under the tree, which was the form of the Camerupt that Ash had fought before before it evolved.

Compared with the Camerupt he had previously fought against, this Numel was much more smaller and its response looked to be even slower than one would expect.

Suddenly, a Furrret appeared next to the Numel, and then heard a voice.

"So you are here, I have been looking for you for such a long time!"

A young lady, who was followed out by several Numel, appeared next to Ash and his crew. Although she was dressed in a simple farm dress, this could not hide her good looks at all. Brock was already ready to go all out for her!

After confirming that the Numel was fine, the young lady noticed Ash and the others,

"You don't seem to look like locals. My name is Julie, and I live in a ranch nearby, with all of these Numel!"

She seemed very open and introduced herself to everyone, very friendly and open.

Ash and his group introduced themselves, and of course, Brock had already rushed over.

"Hello there, my name is Brock! Miss Julie, in order to show my love, would you like to have some fun with my little warm thin—"

His words were getting more and more outrageous as the days went by. Ash and the others didn't even need to take up any action this time around. One of Julie's Numel came to him and immediately burned him so much that he screamed in pain.

It was a good sight to see.

Julie looked at the Numel who burned Brock, smiled and said, "Numel, when we get home, I will give you some extra delicious Berries to enjoy!"

Since they met, Julie invited Ash and his group to visit her ranch. After all, it was already getting very dark.

In return, of course Brock, who wanted to be loved by her, prepared a sumptuous dinner for everyone to devour.

The next day, Brock and Max helped Julie take care of the ranch.

May found Ash for some help, "Babe, my Skitty seems to like fighting, so I want to give her a chance."

Ash would not refuse a request for a battle, no matter who they came from.

Unexpectedly, Julie left most of the chores to Brock and Max, and happened to come across them talking about May's Skitty, "Why don't you consider battling against me? There has been no chance for me battle recently, how about it, May?"

Being able to battle different Pokémon is a valuable experience that new Trainers like May need very much.

"Then let me be the referee!" Ash smiled and took on the responsibility of being the referee after who knows how long.

May uses her Skitty like she promised, and Julie's Pokémon was the Furrret they saw before.

This is the Regional Rodent from the Johto Region, but there are also many place in the Hoenn Region where they can be easily found. This Furret was like tge sheepdog to Julie's ranch, helping her manage all of her Numels.

Their bond also looked to be very high.

"Listen up Skitty, first we need to carefully observe our opponents movements, and then..." Before Misty could even finish speaking, her little Skitty rushed out on its own, exactly like what her Torchic did before.

Seeing Skitty attacking so quickly, Julie also immediately launched a counterattack, "Furrret, use Tackle!"

Unexpectedly, just when Furrret rushed in front of Skitty, she suddenly turned around. The habit of cats is to catch up with all the thing they see moving away or close to them.

Especially when Furrets tail was like a cat's favorite thing, their cat-stick.

Skittys are sometimes seen to chase their own tail until they becomes dizzy and faints.

"Okay, stop!"

Furrret suddenly braked and knocked the chasing Skitty away with her tail.

May also launched a counterattack at this time, but Furrret easily dodged the Tcakle and Double Slap she knew would come during the combo.

She looked at Ash who was pointing at her pants, she suddenly realized something. She quickly took out the Pokédex she hadn't used in a while, and just like when she used it on her Torchic to see all of the moves he knew, this can confirm what move it can currently use. She had just discovered that herb Skitty can use a move called Assist.

"Okay, Skitty, use your Assist!" They saw a white light on Skitty's little paw, and then a small cluster of Ember hit Furrret.

But Ember was still not enough to deal with this Furrret.

"Try it again!" Ash suddenly said, breaking his role of being the referee.

May did as Ash told her, and this time the move used by Assist turned out to be the Silver Wind that her Beautifly knew.

However, Furrret still avoided this Silver Wind and knocked Skitty away with one more of her own move.

"Okay, let's stop here!" Ash stopped the battle before it could escalate.

Seeing Skitty chasing her tail again, May quickly asked Ash for his advice, "Ash, what is the use of Assist?"

"Assist is a move that can be use a random move from the moves your other Pokémon's can use." Ash explained slowly from what he had learned, "May, how to use such a skill depends on you as her Trainer."

For Ash, such a move is simply not that good in a real battle. It was all just based on luck.

He would much rather use Metronome as that skill was all luck, and the only one who knew this move was his Togeti. And he knows for a fact that his Togetic is much more luckier than he was.

If it were him, if he had Charizard on him, he would simply use his powerful attacks to defeat the opponent by force. There was no need for his luck to come into play.