Another Training Day

Sometime after the Fortree Gym battle...

Ash decided to spend the day training his Pokemon. May thought about that too since a Pokemon contest was coming up and she wanted to practice for it. So the gang agreed that they would stop traveling for the day.

May decided to train with her Swablu, Combusken and Bulbasaur. Her Swablu was female and she knew Sing, Peck, Fury Attack, Safeguard, Mist and the egg move Feather Dance. As May didn't do well with Bulbasaur in the Rubello Contest, she intended to work hard with Bulbasaur this time. Combusken had certainly grown up since it was a Torchic and it started to become a strong Pokemon for May. In addition to Peck Combusken knew Ember, Fire Spin, Quick Attack, Scratch, Double Kick, Sky Uppercut and Slash.

With Ash, he was training his Breloom and Nuzleaf. Breloom and Nuzleaf had gotten stronger after they evolved from Shroomish and Seedot. Aside from knowing Tackle, Stun Spore, Poison Powder, Leech Seed, Bullet Seed, Sludge Bomb, Spore, Headbutt, Sunny Day and the egg move Wake-Up Slap Breloom also knew Synthesis, Mach Punch, Counter, Sky Uppercut and Energy Ball. For Nuzleaf it knew Bide, Sunny Day, Nature Power, Solar Beam, Explosion, Synthesis, Bullet Seed, Energy Ball, Razor Leaf, Brick Break, Dark Pulse and the egg move Quick Attack. As for Brock, Max and Tomo, they were also spending the day with their Pokemon.

But they weren't the only ones that were taking the day off training their Pokemon. Jessie and James also decided to train their Pokemon. Meowth was complaining that they should be working on plans to steal Pokemon for the boss. Jessie explained that stealing Pokemon was the reason why they needed to train to get stronger.

"The reason we get beaten by people is because their Pokemon are stronger than ours." She said.

"Yeah and sure you Meowth, a Pokemon, would know the only way for our Pokemon to get stronger is to train." James said.

"And you Meowth should train too." Jessie noted. "You may act like a human, but you are still a Pokemon."

Meowth couldn't think of an argument so he went off to train as Jessie and James got to work on their Pokemon. James had a new Pokemon on his team; a Chimecho. Chimecho was a light blue psychic type Pokemon with red markings, a yellow globular growth and it looked like a wind chime. He caught it the other day.

Meowth walked into the woods.

"I'll show them." He said. "If I train myself then I will show them that I can be tough like the other Pokemon."

He was thinking about what to do when he heard a thumping noise.

"Sounds like someone is whacking a tree very hard." He said.

He went to see what the noise was and then he found out what was making the noise. It was a Zigzagoon and it seemed to be using Headbutt on the tree.

"What are you doing?" Meowth asked the Zigzagoon.

Zigzagoon explained to Meowth in it's Pokelanguage that a Linoone was teaching the Zigzagoon how to use Headbutt and Swift.

"I see, you are practicing now before you learn those attacks from Linoone right?" Meowth questioned.

Zigzagoon nodded yes. Just then Meowth had a idea.

*'That's it.'* He thought. *'I could ask the Linoone to teach me Headbutt and Swift. My species can learn those two moves and then I can show them off to Jessie and James.'*

He asked the Zigzagoon if he could go with him to see the Linoone because he wished to learn Headbutt and Swift too. Zigzagoon agreed.

Zigzagoon brought Meowth to a location in the forest where they're many Zigzagoon and Linoone. Zigzagoon introduced Meowth to the Linoone who was teaching Swift and Headbutt and the Linoone agreed to help him learn Headbutt and Swift. Meowth was warned that the training would be tough but he was willing to go through it.

Meanwhile the gang was enjoying some lunch. But then something strange started to happen. May noticed that a rice ball was moving all by itself among the grass.

"We've got ghosts!" She cried.

"What are you talking about?" Ash questioned. "That's a Kecleon."

He pointed to a red stripe that was moving among the grass.

"Kecleon can't hide their red stripes when they are invisible." He punched the ground with a flaming fist, startling the Kecleon and then it revealed itself.

"See." Ash said.

"I do." May replied.

She took out her Pokedex.

"Kecleon, the Color Swap Pokemon. Kecleon is capable of changing it's body colors at will to blend in with it's surroundings. There is one exception - this Pokemon can't change the zigzag pattern on it's belly."

Max started to grin like a clown and told his Loudred to get ready to fight.

"What are you doing Max?" May asked.

"What do you think I'm doing May?" Max questioned back. "I am going to catch this Kecleon. Kecleon are hard to find, so this is my only chance to catch one."

"He's got a point." Brock admitted.

So Max and Loudred got ready to catch the Kecleon.

At that time Jessie and James were taking a break with their Pokemon.

"I don't know about you James, but this is tough." Jessie said.

"Yeah, but some good things came out of this." James remarked. "Our Pokemon learned some new moves and they get stronger this way."

"That's true." Jessie admitted. "My Wingull here has learned new moves; it's learned Air Cutter, Aerial Ace and Steel Wing. And so has my dear Loudred; she's learned Ice, Fire and Thunder Punch."

"Exactly, and my Chimecho has learned some psychic type moves; Confusion, Psywave and Psychic. And thanks to some of my grass type Pokemon it knows Energy Ball now. I'm telling you Jess, at this rate we may end up stronger than Butch and Cassidy."

"I hope you're right because I would love to beat Cassidy in a Pokemon battle." Jessie said.

"Speaking of Pokemon, I wonder where Meowth went?" James questioned.

"I don't know, maybe he went off to train himself." Jessie shrugged her shoulders.

"That will make a change." James replied.

All the while Meowth was training hard with the Zigzagoon and Linoone to learn Headbutt and Swift. He kept getting bumps on the head because of hitting the tree so much with his head and he got cramps in his tail because he had to swing his tail around so much to learn Swift. Apparently the way Meowth and it's evolved form Persian could learn Swift was through the tail. Meowth wasn't willing to give up learning Swift and Headbutt; he wanted to learn those two moves even if it cost him his head and tail.

*'It feels strange this trying to learn a new move thing.'* He thought. *'I mean, ever since I learned to talk and walk, I never tried to learn a new move ever again. Especially since I'm not like other Meowth anymore. But truthfully I feel pretty good doing this. In fact I feel even stronger than I ever felt before and I feel that a power is waking up within me.'*

It was at that moment when the brown tuft on Meowth's tail started to glow and then stars came out of his tail; he had learned Swift at last.

"I don't believe it. I did it!" Meowth cried happily.

He swung his tail and performed Swift again. The Zigzagoon and Linoone saw that and congratulated Meowth for his success. Meowth then practiced on Headbutt and Slash some more and he learned them too.

"I can't believe that I really learned Swift, Headbutt and Slash." He said.

He turned to the Zigzagoon and Linoone.

"Thank you for helping me learn three new moves." He had never been so grateful in his life.

Zigzagoon and Linoone were happy to have helped Meowth. Soon Meowth decided it was time for him to get back to Jessie and James, so he bid farewell to the Zigzagoon and Linoone and left the area.

By now Jessie and James had finished training their Pokemon.

"I think we did brilliantly with our training Jessie." James said. He was smiling like a happy child. "All of our Pokemon have learned many new moves and my dear Shroomish evolved into Breloom."

James' Breloom was happy that it evolved from Shroomish too.

"I agree with you on that James." Jessie said.

She and James returned all their Pokemon to rest. Just then Meowth reunited with them.

"Where have you been Meowth?" James asked.

"Learning some new moves." Meowth answered.

He demonstrated his new Swift, Headbutt and Slash attacks. Jessie and James were amazed by that.

"Wow Meowth, I never thought I'd see the day that you would learn some new moves." Jessie said.

"It wasn't easy, but I did it after a lot of training." Meowth said.

"I take it you got my point when I said that training helps a Pokemon become stronger." James said.

"Yeah I get it, but we still haven't decided on our next move yet." Meowth said.

"Say no more." James said.

James took his laptop out and typed something in.

"I figured this Pokemon should be our next target." He said.

He showed a picture of a Kecleon on the laptop.

"This creepy lizard thing?" Jessie asked.

"That Jessie is a Kecleon, and it has the ability to become invisible by camouflaging around objects." Meowth explained.

"That's right and Team Rocket can use that ability to steal things." James said.

Jessie saw the point and the trio agreed to go and gather Kecleon.

At that time, the gang was preparing to leave and continue their journey.

"I feel ready for the contest now after training." May said.

"I feel happy because I have a Kecleon." Max said.

He and Loudred successfully captured the Kecleon.

"Yeah, but now it's time to go." Ash said.

So the gang left the area.