297. Master Ball

Unknowingly, May, once just a rookie Trainer, already caught four Pokémon's of her own, and her newly caught Bulbasaur was also one that had a great fit with her from the very beginning.

But unlike Ash's Venusaur, or his Bulbasaur when he was first caught it when the past Ash had accidentally met it in that place for wild wounded Pokémon's. At that time, he was already an excellent specimen of a Bulbasaur that had seen the harsh realities of being an abandoned and wild Pokémon.

May's Bulbasaur on the other hand was very different, not only had she been staying in the large area of the Forbidden Forest, but she also protected by many other strong Grass-type Pokémon's, so she doesn't understand anything about the harshness of being a true wild Pokémon and thus had a very timid personality. This will test May to have enough patience and thoughtfulness to teach her the necessary skills that she needs.

This is what she must go through to become a real Top Coordinator.

After leaving the Forbidden Forest, Ash and his party AGAIN re-planned their route, and this time they came to a large lake.

It was rare to see such beautiful scenery in the middle of a dark forest, so May was in a obvious good mood. She seized the opportunity and started doing her own special training.

"Ash, what do you think of my Bulbasaur's skills?"

The skills Bulbasaur currently knows are nothing more than Vine Whip and Razor Leaf, which was not a versatile set of moves, but looking at May like this, she probably plans to use it in her Pokémon Contest that follows th standard move combinations to gain points.

Seeing May go off to practice by herself, Ash looked at the big lake and glanced at Brock from the corner of his mouth, "If Misty were here with us, she would definitely be clamoring to go fishing right about now, right, Brock?"

"Yeah, wr don't know how she is doing lately other than those occasional calls you make to her." Brock also smiled feeling a little nostalgic after thinking of their old friend.

Togetic came to Ash's side, and it seemed that she also missed Misty, who was like her mother. In the past, Misty would hold her with one hand even when she was busy fishing.

Seeing her be like this, Ash smiled and said, "Why don't we go fishing too? It's rare to encounter such a large and clear lake."

Brock readily also agreed to this.

Ralts and Togetic immediately cheered up after hearing their Trainer say this.

"Come out, Dratini, Torkoal, Duskull!" Ash had simply released all of his current Pokémon's with him. In this case, he might as well take a day off with them.

He than easily removed the Macho Brace he gave to Dratini and Torkoal to strengthen their bodies. When Torkoal heard about him getting a free day, he burst into his comman tears mode again. The recent training was really tiring for him, but that was ultimately for his own good wellbeing.

Duskull wasn't a fan of such an area where the broad daylight was downing on him, so he went back to rest up inside of his own Poké Ball.

Dratini happily jumped into the lake, but he didn't expect that the entire lake would be almost turned upside down and somehow now form a huge whirlpool in the middle without them knowing anything.

"Babe, what's going on?" May returned to Ash's side from where she was training, only to see a huge fish suddenly jump out of the water and trying to push Dratini into the air.

However, Dratini immediately used a Blizzard, freezing its big head into an ice cube.

"It's a Whiscash!" Max very quickly recognized the wild Pokémon in front of him, "This Whiscash is definitely bigger than a regular one I saw before in Dads Gym!"

"What are you doing to my Nero?" A tall, thin old man with gray silver hair appeared next to Asv and his group and asked them threateningly.

'Does this guy really call that wild Whiscash by a nickname?'

Dratini returned to Ash's and glanced at the lake with a new kind of disdain.

That fish was too big and could not be slowly suffocated by him yet, he will visit again when he becomes a Dragonite to end that smelly fish.

Ash gently touched the small horn on its head to comfort it. This was the future perfect Pseudo-Legendary that he is spending a lot of his energy, efforts, resources and time to train to the extreme, a real dragon warrior.

"Why do you call that huge Whiscash Nero?" Brock asked as the group sat down together.

The old man nodded, "That guy has lived in this place for more than a hundred years, possibly even more than that. He regards this whole lake as his territory as has been here for a long time!"

As he said this, the old man actually became enthusiastic, "And I, the legendary Fishing God Sullivan, who has been chasing Nero for over 50 years, am the greatest of them all!" He was very excited to announce this to the world.

"Doesn't this mean that you haven't been able to catch a Pokémon like Whiscash for more than half your life?" Max was really telling the truth, a hurting truth, but ultimately a truth nonetheless.

Hearing this, Sullivan was immediately heartbroken and shattered into pieces.

This time, it was May that hit Max on the head with her fist and scolded, "Max, you know you can't tell him the harsh truth!"

However, Sullivan ignored May's and Max's quarrelings and just threw them a bunch of fishing rods to their faces, "You kids just said you wanted to fish, right? I'll lend you these, hahaha!"

Not only did he just give them his fishing rods, but he also them various Pokémon-shaped fishing lures that were with him. He was really a fishing expert, carrying so many fishing rods with him and being able to perfectly hide them inside of him as if it was nothing serious.

However, Ash only wanted to fish because he missed his lovely girlfriend, Misty. So just for fun, he picked up a Pikachu-shaped bait and threw it out into the water.

Seeing this, Brock and the other two also started fishing respectively, but soon the two siblings lost all the patience they had, so Max insisted accompanied May to train her Pokémon's.

Togetic and Ralts were also very excited at first, but soon they fell into Ash's lap and fell deep asleep.

Dratini jumped down again to beat up some of the wild Pokémon's in the water, and Pikachu and Torkoal were chilling by Ash's side, thinking of how far they came from what they were.

Ash and Brock were silent here, as they had experienced the need of having patience during fishing, but Sullivan, who was not far away from them, was catching one Pokémon after another.

There were Carvanha, Magikarp, Remoraid, and even a Gyarados that looked at him with a tired expression.

This Gyarados was defeated caught by him many many times over the decades. Sullivan even said that he knew this Gyarados since it was an Egg.

But he didn't seem to care about these Water-type Pokémon's at all. His only target was the century-old Whiscash he calls Nero, so he released them all back into the water, but gently to not hurt them.

It seems that he really was a good fisherman, and it is not like Max thought that he was too and to catch that old Whiscash, it was simply that the old Whiscash was anything but comparative.

Although Sullivan had no idea where and what kind of Pokémon's were near him as he was in the darker parts of the lake, Ash's eyes lit up when he saw a Pokémon that caught his attention.

It was the rare Feebas!

During the first real Pokémon Contest that Ash had ever participated in, he was kind of envious of Robert's Milotic and thought that if he ever had the chance, he must train up a Milotic of his own.

But wild Milotics are almost, if not even, more rarer in the wild than wild fully evolved Pseudo-Legendary from what Ash had found from his research about this. Even with the luck of protagonist that he possesses, he had never seen them before with another Trainer or in the wild. Even this Feebas was the first time he's seen one from their evolutionary line in the wild.

Now that he had seen it, he can't miss the chance!

Then it was decided, Ash change his goal from a chill day to catching this wild Feebas.

But unexpectedly, just when Ash had decided to catch this Feebas, the fishing rod in his hand that had been so silent suddenly showed a strong pulling force.

"Is it that Nero?"

Seeing Ash's fishing rod bent to the maximum limit, Sullivan immediately dropped the fishing rod in his own hand and rushed over, "Relax your fishing line quickly, otherwise it will be easily tore apart!"

"That's won't be necessary." Ash's whole body flashed with a new blue light, and his body now shone with a powerful premonition, as if the fishing rod had been strengthened with his own force.

Then Ash's power exploded in a burst, pulling the the underwater Pokémon out of the water and into the land.

"Yes! It's my Nero, this is what I was waiting for!" Seeing the century-old Whiscash being so easily fished out of the water by Ash, Sullivan became very excited and decisively threw his Poké Ball, "Go ahead! Hannah!"

What he sent out was a Flaaffy, which was the pre-evolution form of the Ampharos that Ash had seen so many times in his journey.

"Flaaffy, use Dynamic Punch!" Ash's head instantly turned to that direction when he saw this skill. He very well knew how good the Ampharos line was good at being a Special Attacker, but they were also known for being a bad Physical Attacker.

But, Sullivan, as a fisherman, it's not surprising that there was an Electric-type Pokémon near him. Probably in order to deal with Whiscash's Ground-type immunity to its Electric-type attacks, this Flaaffy learned how to use Dynamic Punch.

This Flaaffy, or Hannah, was quite powerful for a Flaaffy, as she actually knocked Whiscash away with one single punch. Then she avoided Whiscash's Water Gun and hit him with an Iron Tail to reduce his health even more.

Now was the time to throw the Poké Ball he had waited for years, decades.

"In order to catch Nero, I spent 50 years to get this Master Ball in my hands, and now it's finally time to use it!" Then there was a purple Poké Ball that Sullivan took out from his arms.

It was the legendary Master Ball.

The same Poké Ball that can 100% catch any Pokémon without failure, well at least in the games.

However, Sullivan was so proud that he actually raised the Master Ball and said while looking down at Whiscash, "Nero, I have been chasing you for more than 50 years, and now out long battle is finally coming to an end!"

As he spoke, he threw out his Master Ball, but he had already missed the best opportunity to capture it when it wasn't looking at him.

The Master Ball was actually eaten by this fat Whiscash in one single bite.

Suddenly, Sullivan was in a position that he had no idea of what to do.

After eating the precious Master Ball, this Whiscash actually wanted to run away, but Ash was not willing to let him do that. His eyes flashed with a dark pink light and trapped him Nero in one place, Whiscash was now unable to even move.

Then Ash hung it upside down, with its big head facing down, and with a slight lift, the Master Ball was spit out.

Ash took a blue Great Ball from his collection, caught the old Whiscash, handed it to Sullivan, and said with a smile, "Mr. Sullivan, how about I trade this Great Ball for your Master Ball?"

"Absolutely YES! You can take it, you don't even need to ask me! Thanks to you, I finally completed my decades worth of dreams!"