Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon

The Training Begins

Ash found himself back in the living room of his house. His friends were all there as were his Mother, Professor Oak, Gary, Paul, Trip, and several other people he knew from his travels. They were all glaring at him. Before he could say a word they all started to yell at him.

"You never win a league you should just quit being a trainer."

"You need to stop wasting everyone's time on you."

"You need to grow up and get a real job before you end up like your Father."

"You should give your pokémon to me I'll train them right."

"NO! I won't give up my pokémon or my dreams I won't let you!" Ash shouted back,

"I at least make it to the league. Not many can do that and I've been top eight or higher since Johto that's not a bad record."

"But your not WINNING!" They shouted back in turn.

"Why do you even CARE?" Ash yelled. Why did they all even come here if they thought he sucked so much?

"You don't have a choice here Ash."

"So you leave us with no choice." Brock pulled out a kitchen knife and stabbed Delia in the throat she collapsed and preceded to bleed to death while Ash watched in shock. The entire room started to twist and warp by this point.

"If you won't give up…"

"THEN DIE!"

His 'friends' and rivals now looking like deformed parodies of themselves released their pokémon who didn't look much better. Ash flees outside only to come face to face with all his pokémon with Pikachu in front. They were also glaring at him.

"You guys too?" Ash said unable to keep the hurt out of his voice. Finding he was surrounded on all sides Ash's mind was a whirling of confused thoughts. What was going on? Why was this happening?

"Pikachu use thunderbolt!" Misty ordered.

"Charizard use flamethrower!" Max said following suit.

To Ash's shock the two pokémon complied. The last thing he saw was Pikachu launching a thunderbolt at him.

XXX

Ash's eyes snap open as he wakes up finding himself in the cabin he shared with Ritchie and Morrison. Pikachu was snoozing next to him.

"It was just a bad dream." Ash relaxed. Sure he and his friends had a fight, but he knew they'd never try and kill him. Or his Mother, especially his Mother they all knew better then to press that button. His Mother would never tell him to give up on his dreams either. Embarrass him in such ways that'd make him want to crawl under a rock and hide for the rest of his life yes, but hurt him? No. His pokémon harming him (well seriously harming him anyways) was just out of the question he wasn't even going to waste a thought on it.

"Ash? You awake?" Ritchie was poking his head through the door.

"Uh yeah?" Ash said he was pretty sure he wasn't going back to sleep after a dream like that.

"Well its time for breakfast. Come on."

Food? Ash only had one thing to say to that.

"How much can I eat?"

XXX

Breakfast was held in a mess hall. The whole training area was set up like a campground.

Ash found himself sitting between Ritchie and Morrison while Tyson and Harrison sat across from them.

"So Ash is there anything you'd like help with?" Tyson asked.

"Help with?" Ash asked between bites of food.

"You know with your pokémon, one thing we do here is help each other improve, critique each other's techniques, bounce ideas off one another, figure out how to overcome our weaknesses, that sort of thing."

"We try to keep the rivalries around here healthy. We had to ask a few sore losers to leave." Harrison explained.

"Though a few still show up again to cause trouble." Morrison muttered.

Several faces of less then pleasant trainers he has met including himself in his early Kanto days flashed through Ash's mind.

"…I won't ask." Ash told them. He then took a few minutes to think about Tyson's offer of help. Where did he and his pokémon need to improve? He looked over at where his pokémon were playing and running around with some of the others' pokémon and something caught his attention. Torterra was having trouble keeping up. The giant tortoise could only steadily plod along after the others.

"Speed, I mean I have trouble with pokémon that aren't very fast like my Torterra." Ash explains.

"Yeah I can see that." Harrison nods, "do you have any ideas about how to fix it?"

Ash thought long and hard about that before coming up blank.

"Nope."

"Don't worry Ash, that's what the society is for!" Morrison told him.

"Have you consider rock polish?" Harrison asked. "You can use it to speed up ground, rock, and steel type pokémon."

Ash's eyes brighten upon learning this.

XXX

Torterra was watching the other smaller and faster pokémon play and despite the initial attempts to include him he opted to sit out after it became clear he wasn't suited for tag.

He knew he was already green being a grass type, but he was starting to feel green with envy too.

"Hey Torterra?" The massive tortoise cocked his head to the side at the sound of his trainer calling for him.

"How would you like to become fast again?"

XXX

"Learning rock polish requires concentration. You need to concentrate on the feeling of your body becoming smoother."

"Would it help if we gave him a cleaning to help him know what sort of feeling to concentrate on?" Ash asked.

"Hey whatever works for you everyone learns their own way." Morrison said. The two then turn to look at the tortoise that they noticed was quite large.

"…I'll get the towels."

XXX

"Alright Torterra concentrate imagine you're becoming as smooth as a crystal. That all resistance just fades away. That you can just slide across the ground. That you are a rock in a stream."

"Morrison?"

"Yeah Ash?"

"I think he gets it." Ash motions to Torterra who was giving a 'can you let me focus' look.

"Sorry."

Torterra closed his eyes and become to imagine he was becoming as smooth as a crystal that all resistance was fading away, that he could just slide across the ground, that he was a rock in a stream. He could feel it! He could feel himself getting faster! Excited Toterra decided to try a run.

He then shot forward and crashed into a tree, and another tree, then a large boulder, and another tree after that.

Ash and the others cringed each time they heard a crash.

"Uh, next lesson: how to stop." Tyson said then cringed at the sound of another crash. Ash had taken off after Torterra at this point yelling for the tortoise to slow down or stop with Torterra yelling back what was probably torterran for 'I can't!'

"Well I wasn't expecting we'd get it right on the first try anyways." Morrison sighed. Another loud crash, another round of cringing.

XXX

Three hours later they had manage to get Torterra to master the art of stopping. Not that it helped with his momentum which kept him going though it wasn't a complete disaster as being unable to stop at all caused.

"With a little more practice Torterra should be fine." Tyson said.

"What kind of mobility do you think will be able to get?" Ash asked as they watched Torterra run around.

"Don't expect much agility, think of Torterra as a battering ram. Slow and steady, but powerful." Tyson advised, "Also, I uh watched your battle in Sinnoh. You should drop rock climb. Giving your opponent the high ground in battle rarely ends well."

"Yeah I can see what you mean." Ash said after thinking it over for a few seconds. Torterra's battle record had gotten worse after evolving.

"I don't think Torterra can learn any but for your other slow Pokémon you could also use priority moves. They let your Pokémon attack faster then the opponent." Morrison suggested.

"I'll look into that later." Ash told him.

XXX

After finishing lunch Ash went to a clearing to let his Pokémon out to stretch their legs. Ash still found it kind of amazing that he had met and fought every member of the MSTS before.

"So Ash do you have all your Pokémon with you?" Ritchie asked joining him and the two sat on a log watching the pokémon frolic around.

"Not everyone I left Butterfree and Pidgeot at Oak's since they have families to take care of." Ash explained.

"And yet you brought thirty tauros. Where did you catch thirty tauros?" Ritchie pointed to the herd that was grazing a few feet from them.

"Safari Zone."

"…You're the reason they're so rare aren't you?"

"I didn't do it on purpose!" Ash protested.

"What, did they do keep intercepting the ball every time you threw it?"

"Well…." Ash started to say.

"Seriously?" Ritchie exclaimed elbowing Ash in the side before the two broke out into laughter.

"So, want to have a battle?" Ash asked still grinning.

"Sure!"

The two got up and started rounding up their pokémon. However, over in the bushes three sets of eyes watched them and proceeded to plot.

XXX

It would be a lie to say Ash wasn't excited to battle Ritchie again to have a proper three-on-three-battle with him after that disaster of a match back at the Indigo League? Now to say he was completely ecstatic would be perfectly accurate to sum up his current mood.

"You ready Ash?" Ritchie called from his side of the clearing.

"For a battle? Always!" Ash replied before sending out his first pokémon.

"Squirtle I choose you!"

"Happy Go!"

"Squirtle use hydro pump!" Ash ordered. The tiny turtle proceeded to do his Gamera impression and flew at Happy water gushing from every hole propelling him forward.

"Happy dodge and counter with psybeam!" Ritchie ordered.

"Don't let up Squirtle!" Ash called.

Both pokémon were in the middle of complying with their instructions when they were blindsided by a hitmonchan and a hitmonlee sending both sprawling to the ground.

"What?" Ash said startled by the interruption.

"Oh no don't tell me its those three again." Ritchie groaned as he headed over to check on Happy who was out cold. Squirtle was still conscious, but there was a bruise on his head.

"Who Team Rocket?" Ash asked as he helped Squirtle up.

"No, its-" Ritchie started to explain only to be cut off by a taunting trio of laughs as three figures emerged from the bushes.

"That's rights it's us the Invincible Pokémon Brothers! Kim, Kai, and Kail!" The three posed dramatically as they said their names.

"I recognize you! You're a friend of that no good redhead!" Kim points at Ash.

"Redhead? You mean Misty?" Ash questioned.

"Yeah that chick got us banned from the pokémon league just because we challenged her for leadership of her gym." Kai said. Conveniently leaving out why they were banned.

"O-kay…" Ash said slowly still angry but trying to understand, "and you interrupted our match why?"

"Do you even remember who we are?" Kail asked.

"Sorry, no. Who are you guys again?" Ash said. The brothers' all face faulted.

"They're a trio of idiots who spend their time either challenging us or sneak harassing us when they're feeling particularly spiteful." Giselle said as she walked into the clearing a cross look on her face. She had wanted to see how Ash had improved since she last battled him.

"So they're jerks." Ash concluded.

"Pretty much. They come around every couple of weeks to pester us because we can challenge the league and they can't." Ritchie sighed.

"We're standing right here you know!" Kail said.

"We can explain our motivations just fine on our own!" Kai added.

"So why are you here this time?" Ritchie asked.

"Again, it was thanks to her we can't even battle at gyms anymore." Kim said pointing at Ash. "If we thrash her friend up that'll teach her for messing with us!"

"So what you're using Ash as a proxy for your revenge then? How petty." Giselle sniffed. The three brothers bristled at this.

"I'll show you petty." Kim snapped.

"I'll take all three of you on. No one else, just me." Ash offered. Everyone looked at Ash.

"Seriously?" Kim, Kai, and Kail said together.

"Seriously." Ash confirmed. The three brothers got into a huddle and whispered briefly amongst themselves before breaking and lining up.

"You're on!" Kim said. Next to him Kai let out Hitmontop to join his fellow hitmons.

"Then let's start." Ash replied evenly.

"Hitmobchan use comet punch!" Kim said.

"Hitmonlee use high jump kick!" Kail said.

"Hitmontop use rapid spin!" Kail said.

"Pikachu use thunderbolt!"

Down came the lighting and up went the three not so invincible pokémon brothers.

"We're not Team Rocket, but were blasting off anyways!" The three shouted before they disappeared into the distance.

XXX

"Sorry we weren't able to finish our battle Ritchie." Ash told him. It had been a few hours since they took care of the three brothers; it took time getting down from the mountain to the center in Silver Town, and then they had to wait for Happy and Squirtle to be healed from their injuries.

"Well, I'm sorry I have to leave now." Ritchie replied.

"Hey you need to go if you want to catch your flight to Unova don't let me hold you up." Ash said.

"We will have a proper battle one day I promise." Ritchie held out his hand, which Ash took and gave a good shake.

"It's a promise."

XXXX

A/N: There might possibly be a running gag involving something always going wrong whenever Ash and Ritchie try to have a battle. Sort of as a nod to what happen at the Indigo League with JJM's interference.

This will not be the last we see of the three idiot brothers nor will they be the last COTD to be causing trouble for Ash and his new friends.