Feather Badge

Today the gang arrived in Fortree City where Ash could obtain his sixth gym badge. Fortree City was different compared to other cities because everyone lived in tree houses instead of buildings. Apparently this city was one of those quiet forest settlements where humans and nature coexist. To Ash, Tomo and Brock this reminded them of Arborville in Johto because it was nearly the same as Fortree City. Ash and the others headed for the Fortree Gym, which was a temple with a lot of steps. But the gym assistant Zachary explained that the gym leader Winona was helping out at the feather carnival. The feather carnival was an annual festival where the people of the city celebrated flying type Pokemon. Apparently flying type Pokemon were the favorite Pokemon type in Fortree City. Ash didn't mind waiting until tomorrow to battle Winona; he had a fun time at the carnival and it gave him enough time to figure out what Pokemon he was going to use for the gym battle. Ash also found out that Winona used flying type Pokemon and she owned a Skarmory which was twice it's normal size, it was big enough for people to ride on it. Winona was a woman with lavender hair and the pale blue and white clothes she wore made her look like a pilot.

The next day the contest ended and Ash and Winona headed to the gym for their battle. The battlefield was located at the top of the gym; it was outside rather than inside. Ash and Winona stood on elevated balconies around the battlefield. Zachary explained that the gym rules were that it was a three on three Pokemon battle. Winona prayed to the sky to guide her in this battle; Winona actually worshiped the sky in addition to loving it. Then she called out her first Pokemon, a Altaria.

"Oh wow, it's a Altaria, a dragon/flying type Pokemon." Max said.

May looked Altaria up on the Pokedex.

"Altaria, the Humming Pokemon and the evolved form of Swablu. Altaria dances and wheels through the sky among billowing, cotton-like clouds. By singing melodies in it's crystal clear voice, this Pokemon makes it's listeners experience dreamy wonderment."

"So my Swablu evolves into that huh?" May asked.

She sent out her Swablu and told it to watch the battle carefully.

"I'll be using you in battles soon Swablu, so pay attention to this." Swablu chirped as if to say 'okay'.

Ash released his Milotic to battle.

"So it's a battle between two beautiful Pokemon." May said.

"Water types usually aren't strong against dragon types, but there's no doubt that Ash knows what he's doing." Max noted.

Ash ordered Milotic to start it off with Dragon Pulse, but Altaria dodged it. Apparently Altaria was one of those fast Pokemon. Then Winona ordered her Altaria to use Dragon Breath.

"Use your special move Milotic." Ash said.

The move was of course Mirror Coat and as soon as Dragon Breath hit Milotic it bounced off and struck Altaria.

"That Mirror Coat always makes me say wow." May said. "I hope that I will earn a Pokemon that can learn that."

"Yeah me too." Max added.

Winona was also surprised by that move, but she kept on going.

She ordered Altaria to use Peck. Altaria, being really fast, was able to peck Milotic lots of times.

"Use Safeguard Milotic." Ash said.

Milotic glowed green and it stopped Altaria from pecking it any more.

"Now use Blizzard." Milotic blew a strong cold wind which hit Altaria.

Due to it being a dragon/flying type, Altaria took a lot of damage from the ice type move.

"Altaria use your Sky Attack." Winona said.

Altaria powered up while a white aura surrounded it's body and then it flew straight into Milotic with a direct hit. Milotic was injured by the attack, but was still willing to fight.

"Wow that Sky Attack was incredible." May said.

"Sky Attack is one of the strongest flying type moves." Max noted.

Winona ordered her Altaria to use Dragon Breath again and Ash ordered his Milotic to use Hydro Pump. Milotic and Altaria struck each other with their attacks. The two Pokemon panted for a moment, but then they fell to the ground in defeat. So this was a draw.

Winona was impressed with Ash's skill as a trainer and returned her Altaria. Her next Pokemon was a Pelipper. Ash returned his defeated Milotic and sent out his Manectric. As Pelipper was a water/flying type, an electric type would be more effective.

"Use your Steel Wing Pelipper." Winona said.

Pelipper's wings glowed silver and then touched the battle ground. At that moment it was hit by Manectric's Thunderbolt. But it didn't do a lot of damage. Because Pelipper was using Steel Wing, the attack acted like lightning rods, which is the reason Thunderbolt did less damage than normal to Pelipper. Ash decided to do something else; he ordered Manectric to use Swift. The stars struck Pelipper and it ended up stopping using Steel Wing and let go of the ground.

"Use Hydro Pump Pelipper." Winona said.

Pelipper fired Hydro Pump and the attack hit Manectric.

"Use your Thunderbolt again Manectric." Ash said.

While still being hit by Hydro Pump, Manectric fired a Thunderbolt. The electric type attack struck Pelipper very hard as it was no longer using Steel Wing and it fainted. So Ash only had to defeat one more of Winona's Pokemon and then he would win the badge.

Winona's last Pokemon was a Swellow, but this Swellow was shiny. Instead of being the normal navy blue and red, this Swellow was green and orange, but the white feathers were still the same.

"You okay to fight again?" Ash asked Manectric.

Manectric nodded to say yes. Winona ordered her Swellow to use Aerial Ace and Manectric was hit fast and hard.

"Try to hit Swellow with your Ice Fang Manectric." Ash said.

Manectric's fangs glowed icy blue and it tried to bite down on Swellow, but it was too fast.

"Manectric knows Ice Fang?" Max asked.

"Oh yes, Manectric knows a lot of moves." Tomo said. "He knows Leer, Howl, Thunder Wave, Spark, Thunderbolt, Quick Attack, Headbutt, Swift, Bite and the egg moves Crunch, Ice Fang, Thunder Fang and Fire Fang. My Electrike knows the same moves too."

May, Max and Brock were impressed by that. Winona ordered her Swellow to use Hyper Beam. Ash tried to tell Manectric to dodge the attack, but it was too late. Manectric was hit by Hyper Beam and fainted.

"Wow I didn't expect that; that Swellow knows Hyper Beam." Max said.

"I wonder what Ash will do now." May said.

Ash only had one Pokemon to use now.

Ash decided to use Swellow now, so this was a Swellow vs Swellow battle.

"Why is Ash using Swellow and not Pikachu?" May asked.

"Since this is a flying type gym Ash wanted to use Swellow for this gym battle." Brock explained. "He likes battles that have a Pokemon with the same type."

"I look forward to this battle Ash." Winona said.

Apparently she liked to fight against other opponents who also had flying type Pokemon. The elevated balconies rose high above the battlefield; as this was a flying vs flying type Pokemon battle, Winona wanted to have this battle higher in the sky. Ash noticed how windy it was and he told his Swellow to be careful.

Ash ordered his Swellow to use Aerial Ace and Winona told hers to do the same. The two Swellow were tackling each other like crazy.

"Okay Swellow use your Hyper Beam." Winona said.

Her Swellow was just about to use Hyper Beam, but Ash ordered his Swellow to dodge it with Quick Attack. Thankfully Swellow was able to dodge it before the Hyper Beam could hit him.

"Ash was lucky this time." Brock said. "But that Swellow has better battling experience in the sky than Ash's."

May and Max feared that Ash may end up losing this battle. Even Brock and Tomo decided that this was a difficult battle for Ash. Ash discovered right away that Winona was a strong trainer and her Swellow was pretty tough. He had to think of something or he would lose. Suddenly he noticed something; he realized that the wind was picking up the dust on the battlefield. This gave him a bit of an idea.

"Swellow dive towards the ground." He said.

Ash's Swellow dived towards the battlefield at full speed and Winona's Swellow did the same to go after Ash's Swellow. It was like two biplanes heading towards the ground at full speed.

"They're going to crash!" Max cried.

The gang had no idea what Ash was thinking. As soon as the two Swellow headed towards the ground, Winona ordered her Swellow to use Aerial Ace. Then Ash ordered his Swellow to hit the ground with Wing Attack. As soon as Swellow hit the ground with Wing Attack, he made a lot of dust fly everywhere, making it look like a Sand Attack. Because of the dust, Winona's Swellow lost it's concentration of it's Aerial Ace.

"Okay Swellow use your egg move; Brave Bird." Ash said.

A blue flame aura surrounded Swellow and then he tackled Winona's Swellow hard. Winona's Swellow was hit hard by the attack and it fell to the ground, defeated. Zachary declared Ash the winner of the gym battle.

May and Max were surprised by Brave Bird; they had never seen it before. Brock explained to them that Brave Bird was the second strongest flying type move next to Sky Attack. He also explained to them that trainers and Pokemon had to be careful with the move Brave Bird; Pokemon who use Brave Bird take recoil damage after using it, so this move was a little bit dangerous. It was the same with Double-Edge, Volt Tackle, Flare Blitz and Wood Hammer because the users of these moves would take recoil damage after using them. Tomo was happy to see Swellow use Brave Bird. He explained to the others that Swellow tried to use it when he was still a Taillow, but was never able to do it right.

"It was probably because Taillow was a small bird Pokemon and could only master it when it evolved into Swellow, because it's a bigger bird." Brock said.

Winona returned her Swellow and thought that this was the best gym battle she ever had. She congratulated Ash and thanked him.

"I enjoyed this battle as much as you Winona." Ash replied.

Winona presented Ash with the Fortree Gym Badge. This badge was called the Feather Badge and it was a whitish-green color and in the shape of a bird's wing. So Ash had six gym badges now.