A Pokémon Fanfic is nothing without awesome moments, and Reset Bloodlines is no exception.
Main Story
- The first time we see a glimpse of Ash's bloodline powers is when he defeats an unusually aggressive swarm of Spearow and Fearow by accidentally using Counter while protecting his Pikachu.
- How does Misty demonstrate her powers to Ash in Chapter 4? By using Whirlpool on a swarm of Beedrill, which puts them out of commission. Doubly so since she's afraid of bug-types.
- During the gym battle against Brock, the Pikachu vs Onix fight. Pikachu managed to beat Onix with an electric attack, again! This time without sprinkler hax, but by repulsing a Bide attack right back. After it had been powered by several Iron Tails.
- Ash is willing to fight a Gyarados to save Misty. Luckily, it was Misty's from the old timeline, and had been saved by her as a Magikarp, so it wasn't necessary, but in the S.S. Anne Interlude, he applauds Ash's guts for doing that and says that he has his approval to become Misty's mate.
- All Pokemon present to fight the Sensational Sisters for managing to defeat Pokemon meant (in theory) for Badge 8 trainers. Special points go to Charmander for defeating a Kingdra and Pikachu managing to defeat Dewgong, the sole Pokemon among them that actually had a decent amount of fitness.
- In her first encounter with Misty, Iris managed to knock back her Poliwrath with a Dragon Claw. Rather impressive, especially since unlike Daisy's Poliwrath, Misty's is in good shape.
- Chapter 15 had Goomy be responsible for Ash and co. escaping from Hunter J's airship. How? By blowing a hole in it with a supercharged Bide attack!
- Plenty during the Battle Dome Tournament:
- Ash's Snivy defeated Solidad's Slowbro, which was at a much higher level than her. This is especially awesome, since unlike the Sensational Sisters, Solidad is a competent trainer and her Pokémon are actually in shape.
- Solidad may have lost to Ash, but her Slowbro deserves credit. It tanked a ton of Contrary boosted Leaf Storms and was the first Pokemon in the fic to use more than 4 moves.
- Red makes a spectacular come-from-behind victory against Misty's Gyarados.
- Though he uses Victory Sight in his battles, Red is good enough to fight without it if forced to. When Ash makes his ability go haywire, he's still able to win after a hard fought battle.
- Erika's effortless defeat of Morana firmly establishing that Poor, Predictable Rock was not in effect. It was enough to even impress Paul, who in context was before this immensely annoyed at her and was certain she was avoiding a fight because she was afraid of losing.
- Misty and Iris rolling over two of the Invincible Pokémon Brothers. After all the trouble they caused her in canon, it's pretty cathartic to see them get humiliated.
- Ash getting into a one-on-one fight with a Kangaskhan, and winning.
- Ash managed to defeat Erika's rain based strategy, by using Rain Dance himself! It all but makes Erika have a blue screen.
- Pidgeotto evolving during her battle against Erika's Vileplume, and winning her trainer a Rainbow Badge.
- In Chapter 23, Snivy finally learns Aerial Ace. To make it even more awesome, she evolves not long afterwards.
- Also during Chapter 23, Iris was the only member of the group at the time to fight her opponent and not be curbstomped. Ash quickly got frozen to a wall and Misty spent most of it being held down by shadows. It's entirely possible that she would've beaten Evanna even without Yanma and Butterfree's timely intervention.
- Red's fight against Lilo was close enough that during the averted final round she was ready to use a Z-Ring. Do note that Red had yet to win his gym badges while Lilo is implied to have completed her trials and is an experienced trainer.
- Dan does well enough against Sabrina that despite losing, she decides to spare him. Keep in mind: she was a Gym Leader going all-out, and he still managed to impress her.
- In chapter 24 Ash tells his Pokemon that if something goes wrong in the tournament he'll simply break into the Safari Zone and get his Tauros back. When Ash declares he is not going to lose any more family, his Pokemon, he means it.
- In pure Ash fashion, he uses Yanma's unique traits to great effect in Chapter 26. Yanma being heavier than Bellossom allowed the former to pin down the later. Yanma's wings also dispersed the spore attacks Bellossom when it tried to counter attack. Ash later mentioned that Yanma prefers to fight Physically than its line's preference for Special attacks, and found a way to help Yanma be more effective.
- Many during Chapter 27:
- The biggest example has to be Ash having Pikachu destroying the battlefield to damage Lilo's Mudsdale enough to finish it off with one last Iron Tail. It actually had reaction shots from various other characters around the world.
- During the finals, where it was Ash and Red vs Paul and Gary, having problems against Paul's Torterra, Ash tells Red to give Charmeleon encouragement to get it to evolve, and to everyone's shock, it worked and allowed them to overpower Torterra and take the win.
- Paul's own skills cannot be denied. Yeah he's an ass, but he's good enough to figure out both Ash's and Red's biggest weaknesses as Trainers, that one has trouble dealing with the new, and the other has trouble dealing with the strong. During the fight he also reveals that Torterra is strong enough, especially after using Curse, to tank Servine's Aerial Ace and manages to stop Attract with Stealth Rock of all moves. Finally he reveals that Torterra is capable of using five moves, something that is reserved for really well trained Pokemon and something Ash hadn't managed yet at the time (and when Ash did start working on it, proved to be tricky to pull off, even with experience. In fact, that chapter makes Paul's efforts even better with the fact that Torterra's move pool contains both Stone Edge and Stealth Rock, which likely required additional effort to avoid having one replace the other).
- For off-screen examples:
- Betty Snyder made it to the Top 8 of her first league challenge.
- The person who defeated Betty, Black Gaimon, then went on to win the whole thing.
- Chapter 29, Ash's battle with Janine was exciting from beginning to end. Despite Ash having planned for several possible scenarios and chosen a team that would be best for dealing with her, Janine truly proves herself her father's daughter by setting up a Stealth Rock hidden with a Double Team, a move that pretty much cripples the Pokémon Ash had prepared for major advantage during this fight.
- And at the end, having run out of options, Ash brings out Sliggoo to face against Janine's Ariados. Turns out Sliggoo is deathly afraid of them (most likely after his capture by Hunter J), but at Ash's urging, he still fights on and evolves to Goodra in order to win.
- Phrasing it like that suggests that Sliggoo wasn't doing that well before the terror. Sliggoo was doing well against Ariados, using Hydration to counter Toxic Spikes and even paralyzed Ariados with Dragonbreath. It wasn't until Sliggoo heard Ariados and realized it was in fact an Ariados (as the fic noted Sliggoo was blind earlier) that trouble began.
- In Chapter 31, Ash's Pokémon begin their training to break their four-move limit. Some of them have already succeeded, like Pikachu, Charizard and Krabby, with Pikachu learning Wild Charge to replace Volt Tackle and Charizard regaining Seismic Toss. And even those who still struggle manage to learn powerful moves, like Ambipom getting Shadow Claw and Pidgeot Air Slash.
- Ash isn't the only one who's been working hard. Gary managed to clear the 50-Trainer Challenge set up by the Don George from Celadon, the first one to ever achieve it.
- Despite not being at the top of his game because of his rage, Ash manages to defeat Joshua in a full battle, without losing one single Pokémon.
- Since Misty doesn't take part in it, Jessie wins the Princess Festival tournament.
- Paul has a good moment of this in Chapter 32, deliberately using Gary's awareness of his Torterra knowing Stealth Rock to set traps that take out Gary's Pidgeot and Alakazam.
- Chapter 34:
- Sabrina gives Ash two choices: he can try and get one of her Marsh Badges on the top floor, or rescue Primeape in the basement. He manages to get both of them. A later chapter confirms that Sabrina registered the badge to him, indicating that she seems to view him as a Worthy Opponent.
- Even almost giving in to his anger, Ash holds his own while Dexter prepares an escape plan. The Pokédex brings every Pokémon Ash has caught so far to level the playing field against Sabrina's numbers. Special mention goes to Krabby, he makes his entrance by landing a Stomp directly on Sabrina herself and sending her "across the room" "and through a wall".
- Sabrina is determined to get Ash to use his powers against her and stop holding back. But when she thought he couldn't give her more surprises, he proves her wrong by creating a Psychium-Z and using Shattered Psyche with Butterfree's help to defeat her Mega Alakazam.
- When she seems on the edge of a Villainous Breakdown for being unable to get him to use his powers, his female companions, along with Belladonna and her lovers show up in the nick of time to get him out of there. Special mention goes to Aurora, who immediately freezes Sabrina in place to keep her from interfering with their escape.
- Chapter 36 reveals that in the aftermath of the Saffron battle, Krabby, Roggenrola and Servine all evolved!
- Amber's father figuring out how to save her by making her new body a Bloodliner, a breakthrough that no one else in universe has. As the scene also introduced Mewtwo he dies soon after we learn this, but it's impressive nevertheless.
- Ash and Goodra using Rain Dance to defeat Blaine's Magcargo. Topped a bit later when Ash manages to catch Goodra after a move sent the dragon-type flying.
- Blaine certainly put quite the challenge for Ash. His Mega Houndoom manages to take out Primeape, Boldore and Goodra (who admittedly are exhausted from their previous fights), and Pikachu barely manages to beat it.
- Charizard's fight with Magmortar. Truly a testament of how much stronger he's become compared to what he had been at that point in the previous timeline.
- During Chapter 39, Charizard tells Ash to create a Z-Crystal so they can defeat Misty and her Blastoise. Surprisingly, he does, and Charizard then goes to perform a Breakneck Blitz, strong enough to pierce through Blastoise's Protect and defeat Blastoise.
- Speaking of which, the Ash versus Misty fight in general: bar the generally comedic Bulbasaur v Psyduck fight Misty gave Ash a pretty strong challenge each time and got two wins off out of the five matches seen (the sixth being ambiguous, with Misty also having the nice showing of Gyarados having over four moves). Despite Ash being stronger, she showed a better battle than her sisters did.
- The same chapter has Giovanni's plan for Ash: He wants him to be The Paragon and an inspiration for young bloodliners to prevent them from going into crime and competing with Team Rocket, as well as a lightning rod to channel existing bloodliner criminals out of Team Rocket's way. As he put it What better shield for Team Rocket from Bloodliners who might compete with us than a Bloodliner hero?
- Pikachu using the Z-Move Breakneck Blitz on Oak's Dragonite, which it only withstands due to a combo of Multiscale and Horn Drill.
- Iris' Axew defeating Mandi's Exeggutor with ease. To top it off, he evolves after doing so.
- A Zapdos attacks Ash and the others while they're training. While the result of the battle was unclear, it ended with Ash creating an Electrium-Z.
- Crossing with funny: when Dexter refuses to help Anabel set up a blog, she manipulates the device into agreeing, by suggesting he's refusing because he can't and forcing him to prove her wrong.
- Despite not being able to use it to its full potential, Jeanette manages to make good use of the Beedrillite she borrowed from A.J, and successfully wins a Scizorite for herself.
- Even if he didn't use his full strength, the way Ash was able to hold his own and defeat Alexander Silph's Alolan Pokémon was fairly impressive, especially considering he was using Pokémon Ash had never seen before and the Pokedex wasn't giving him as much help as usual due to conversing with Alexander's own A.I.
- On the flip side, Alexander got his Golisopod to dodge a Z-Move using a move as simple as Substitute.
- Kaia hasn't let her blindness slow her down one bit: she's only one badge away from qualifying for the Indigo League.
- Chapter 42 has an impressive closure to Ash's Kanto Gym Challenge. To wit:
- First, when Butch and Cassidy try to stop him from entering the Gym, Ash is quick to make short work of them. Gigalith shows off her new power beating a Tentacruel and a Primeape, and then Togepi takes out a Hitmontop!
- The battle proper against Giovanni starts, and the Team Rocket boss doesn't pull any punches. Squirtle manages to defeat a Rhydon, and manages to tie with a Dugtrio despite being tired from the previous bout.
- Yanma takes out Giovanni's Marowak, making good use of his speedy moves, even performing a pseudo-Seismic Toss to finish it off. Moreover, he fights so well against a Steelix, Giovanni ultimately chooses to use Explosion just to force a tie.
- Giovanni's Pokémon deserve credit too. His Marowak manages to take out Kingler and his Nidoking defeats the lead Tauros. Keep in mind these are Pokémon who have the advantage from their memories of the previous timeline, yet they went down without a single victory in the match.
- Last but not least, the Serperior vs Rhyperior final battle. Rhyperior puts up a strong defense tanking out every single attack Serperior dishes at him. Ash only manages to win by figuring out a way to get an Attract to work on Rhyperior, but that seals the deal, earning Ash his final badge.
- In the first half of Mewtwo Strikes Back, Casey Snagem and his Bond Phenomenon Chesnaught manage to land a couple solid blows on Mewtwo.
- Using Ash's Dominion Bloodline, he and Charizard manage to beat Mewtwo's Charizard, leaving Mewtwo stunned speechless.
- The climatic Originals vs Clones battle in the second half is full of these. Some highlights:
- The originals, being inferior in raw power to the clones, level up the playing field using smarter tactics to gang up on their foes and their (initial) numerical advantage for teamwork.
- All throughout the battle, Lucario fights one-on-one against Mewtwo, and manages to hold his own and land several hits on him!!
- Anabel manages to use her Mind Control abilities to briefly throw Mewtwo off, giving Lucario several openings to land several hits.
- The crowner: when Mewtwo withstands Ash and Pikachu's Gigavolt Havoc, Yellow joins in, and powers Pikachu up to boost his base Thunderbolt. Then, Ash uses his own bloodline to stack up the power even more when using another Gigavolt Havoc, turning it into a Mega-Gigavolt Havoc, that finally overpowers Mewtwo!
- Chapter 45 gives Ash a rather big milestone. How many rookie trainers can boast of defeating an Elite Four-level Pokémon in a one-on-one battle?
- Pidgeot managed to catch Machamp off-guard a few times to land her hits, and Hitmonchan only won against Pikachu because he activated Endure at the last second before Pikachu fired the Gigavolt Havoc. Ash might have lost the other two bouts, but he still impressed Bruno enough that he commends his trainer skills.
- Ash manages to defeat the "Rookie Crusher" in the second round of the Indigo League, who's beaten every rookie he's faced in twenty years. He did so without losing any of his Pokemon (though Yanma was on the bad end of a Curb-Stomp Battle before getting out of it with U-Turn and taking no knock outs.) Goodra in particular took out two of his Pokemon and could have easily fought the third if the dragon had been up for it.
- The highlights of the round, where Ash once again faces against Joshua:
- Raichu not only willingly battles for Ash, she wins against Joshua's Magneton without breaking a sweat. The best part, she pulled off a Dig move using her tail as a drill to take Magneton down.
- Ash's Exeggutor uses a Confusion/Psyshock combo to keep Joshua's Arbok from attacking at all, and does so without a single scratch.
- The crowner, when Joshua has his Fearow intentionally fly close to Ash to throw him off, Ash punches Fearow out by himself. As Joshua was deliberately cheating the referee rules in Ash's favor, so Joshua is disqualified and banned from League competitions for a year. To top it, Serena could watch it on TV!
- The fourth round, Ash is in trouble against Locke's Avalugg, a Pokémon with high defenses and powerful attacks, and sets up a hailstorm to use its Ice Body to recover any damage it receives. Who defeats it? Squirtle, using Aura Sphere blasts at point-blank range.
- Ash's fifth round match against Kaia has them for both sides. Not only Kaia found ways to work around her blindness to become a trainer, but she shows her Pokémon are pretty well-trained and capable of making effective decisions on their own, making things much harder for her opponents. She actually manages to find counters for some of Ash's own unorthodox maneuvers on the fly, such as using Torment to prevent Pikachu from using Volt Tackle as a defense against her Crobat's Toxic. Meanwhile, Ash too manages to adapt and counter her, like having Pidgeot trap Crobat in a Hurricane before attacking from above so he can't escape.
- Ash's future Dragonair/Dragonite clearly packs as much power as in canon, even being able to give Charizard (who at this point is one of Ash's main powerhouses) a run for his money, and forcing him and Ash to get creative.
- Paul's battle against Jeanette was pretty good from beginning to end, but the caper is definitely Torterra defeating Mega Scizor by the hair, and all the handicaps (type disadvantage, decreasing power with each use of Leaf Storm, and lack of speed and mobility to dodge the attacks). A testament to Torterra's sheer power, nuff said.
- The main event of Chapter 49, Ash vs Cross:
- Kingler manages to force Cross to switch Incineroar out, and defeats a Lurantis. A Lurantis with Contrary.
- Muk does pretty well against Lycanroc too. While he loses, he does leave the Rock-type so beaten up that Charizard finishes him off with a single Flamethrower.
- Charizard finally getting his revenge against Incineroar. The spar with Dragonair paid off, as the trick he pulled then (channeling the energy of one attack into a different limb to turn it in another) came out pretty useful when Incineroar thought he had him pinned so he couldn't cancel his Thunder Punches.
- Chapter 50 has Ash, Anabel and their Pokémon fighting off Moltres. Especially of note that Anabel succeeds in performing a Z-Move as soon as her Eevee evolves to Espeon, and they impress the bird enough that it gives Ash a new Z-Crystal as reward.
- Misty's entire run throughout the Whirl Cup Qualifier. She managed to make it all the way to the finals, defeating several trainers with a lot more experience than her. And even despite losing to Fergus, he still acknowledged her as a Worthy Opponent enough to be looking forward for a rematch in the real Whirl Cup.
- Chapter 52, the rematch between Gary and Paul. The battle could have gone to either of them, but Gary ultimately proves victorious, through a combination of The Power of Friendship (in the form of the help he received from Ash and the twins), as well as taking advantage of the water battlefield with Blastoise. While Paul acknowledges that he was defeated partly because of bad luck due to the field change, he grudgingly admits that Gary had improved since their last match.
- Chapter 53 finally gives Ash the chance to face Otoshi after missing it out in the old timeline. Otoshi proves his skills by using Tangrowth as a Damage-Sponge Boss that complicates things for Ash so much that he's forced to use a Z-Move to finally take it out, and also manages to put Gigalith to sleep and thus leaving Ash with only four battle-ready mons. Then, when Ash disrupts Otoshi's first attempt to activate Marowak's Break evolution with the Rain Dance clouds, he finds another way to trigger it using Electric Terrain, and it's only through the combined efforts of Goodra, Tauros and Farfetch'd that he finally goes down.
- Chapter 54 pits Red against Alexander Silph. The latter believes that using a gimmick team composed of foreign Pokémon against Red is his best bet, but the latter has undergone enough Character Development to learn to adapt better to the unknown. In the end Red finally wins, and to top it off without relying on his Victory Sight!
- Chapter 55 has Ash face Dan in a Top Eight battle. Despite such moments as Granbull's use of Roar taking out Primeape when he's summoned by surprise, Dan tricking Ash into "wasting" a Z-Move by using Roar again to banish Pikachu back before he can complete the move, or Dan surprising Ash with an early use of Typhlosion (thus tricking Ash into assuming his final Pokemon will be Ampharos when it's actually Octillery), Ash manages to defeat his opponent and advance to the semi-finals.
- Johanna winning the Grand Festival despite being up against a Mega Evolution.
- Even as a child, Cynthia had plenty of badass moments during her Gaiden:
- She was an Adventure Archaeologist, and found several ruins.
- She took on a gang of older kids, and won.
- The crowner was taking on a hostile Spiritomb with a hammer.
- Clemont & his Shinx managed to free themselves and escape the van they were in by getting the robot guarding them to hit itself through Deadly Dodging.
- Casey Snagem shows why he is a Retired Badass when he uses Bond Phenomenon with his Chesnaught to defeat Gary during their battle. Even before that point he had complete control of the fight.
- Whitney has one of the highest win percentages for a Gym Leader in the world, and it shows during her Interlude as she dishes out Curb Stomp Battles left and right.
- Falkner found Ho-Oh and fought it. Sure, he did get curb stomped, but still it set the bar for later Legendaries.
- Wally, despite a worsening condition, managed to cross Hoenn and track down Brendan for one battle. With one Pokemon.
- Shadow Pokemon got a strong debut in Clay Interlude. They made such an impression that a series of one-shots following Team Cipher's activities followed suit.
- Those one-shots are going to culminate in a climax that pits Alola against Team Cipher.
- Dakim may not be a Bloodliner, but that doesn't change the fact he's strong enough to punch a freaking Shadow Metagross hard enough to cause it pain.
- Argenta is such a skilled trainer she manages to win 399 battles in a row with one Pokemon.
- During his one-shot, Guzma manages to give Shadow Pokemon their first real loss on-screen. Keep in mind that even Clay, a gym leader, was unable to achieve such a feat.
- Arnold and Laila, who are just around 11-12 years old, willingly stand up to Butch and Cassidy, and in doing so inspire the rest of the citizens to chase them and the rest of the Rocket grunts out of their city.
- Plenty in Twenty Gyarados Bill Gaiden:
- In less than a year, the titular character went from an unremarkable fisherman to the greatest threat to Johto. Twenty Gyarados Bill was such a powerful Trainer that Johto had to deploy their military against him.
- And during the battle between Twenty Gyarados Bill and the army, led by General Javelin and supported by Elite Four Denki Tekina:
- Bill steals Javelin's Key Stone, and successfully Mega Evolves First, his starter and most powerful Gyarados, on his first try.
- Denki's Electrode manages to score the good guy's first win by getting one of Javelin's Dragonite to toss him into Seventh's mouth where he proceeded to use Explosion, killing the Gyarados.
- Denki Tekina shows just why he's an Elite Four by also managing to Mega Evolve his Ampharos on the first try after being given Javelin's spare Key Stone and his Ampharosite.
- Sure it was because he drew the short end of the stick, but one soldier and his Vaporeon definitely had some serious balls to provoke several Gyarados specifically trained for maximum power to lure them into a trap.
- In the end, Denki Tekina and his Ampharos gave their lives to defeat Twenty Gyarados Bill and First in a Mutual Kill.
- In the main story, a Pokemon being able to break the four-move limit is the sign of a well-trained Pokemon. First used at least six during the final battle.
- Bill went on a rampage in the first place because he was constantly mocked and laughed at by his peers, who all called him a nobody who would never amount to anything. He then proceeded to prove them dead wrong.
- Astrid managing to take down Vermell's Mega Steelix, despite it being her first Mega encounter. Even if it did take all she had and cost her the league, she didn't go down with a whimper.
- In Oak's Summer Camp Gaiden:
- Serena may not like Rhyhorn Racing much, but she's still good enough to stop Ash's ride when the Rhyhorn goes out of control.
- In the ending, Joshua is caught cheating, and after how much of a Jerkass he's been throughout the Gaiden, it was incredibly satisfying to see him expelled when he was this close to getting what he wanted.
- A.J. defeats Erika and gets the badge during Erika Interlude, also showing he was one of the nicer males Erika had to deal with after she lifted her ban.
- In Sanpei Interlude, Capriccio had set up a Xanatos Gambit, so that even if they failed to get the Froakie eggs, Team Cipher still got information on the Bond Phenomenon.
- Gardenia Interlude pits the title character and Sho against the Old Chateau Ghosts. Despite being up against supernatural villains, they managed to destroy the anchor letting them stay in the living world and save Cheryl.
- Blaine manages to defeat Raymond's entire team using only his Growlithe. Even when he sends out three Pokémon at once, it doesn't do him any good. It just goes to show what happens when somebody doesn't take a Gym Leader seriously.
- In Looker Interlude, Blake shows of his Teen Genius credentials by putting several clues together that puts Interpol on Team Cipher's trail to Orre.
- Even as a child, Skyla proves herself a talented Trainer by developing a new move for her to use in battle. A Weather of War move that grants Flying-types an advantage, and it gives challengers like Betty Snyder a tough time.
- Ash and Misty providing the Pokemon Tech students huge slices of Humble Pie during the Giselle one-shot with a series of Curb Stomp Battles.
- Luana manages to drive off the hostile Pokemon trio on her own, even managing to deal permanent damage to the Rhydon leader, who is christened One-Eye as a result.
- Tommy confronting Sabrina, which impresses even her, where before, he was largely unremarkable. Unfortunately, it also led Sabrina to conclude that her way of doing things worked.
- Velvet shows her innovative tendencies when she works out a few modifications to the Z-Move poses to get more utility out of them.
- During the later part of the Big P Pokemon Race:
- Faced with several Wartortle, Ponyta felt a surge of determination that he must win the race for Lara, and manages to evolve.
- Dario tries to hinder them with an explosion that results in a huge boulder blocking their path. Ash tells Rapidash to use Flare Blitz, and they blast through the boulder.
- The crowner, Ash instinctively uses his Super-Empowering ability to give Rapidash the final boost it needs to claim victory!
- After the Big P Pokemon Race, just as Dario accuses Ash of cheating and almost attacks Lara for speaking against him, Anabel teleports in with good timing, bringing along with her Misty, Iris, all their Pokemon, and two of Dario's cronies. Misty and Iris force the cronies to tell the truth, and Dario becomes exposed as the cheater he is.
- In the Brock & Lucy Gaiden, Brock gets back to being a gym leader after training with Lucy. His first battle shows that his efforts have borne fruit. To be more specific, he defeats all four of the challenger's Pokémon with only two of his own. He later shows that this wasn't a fluke, because over the next two weeks, he has a victory rate of 93 percent.
- Ultima Interlude has several on Fitz's part:
- Near the brink of death, he manages to figure out how to pull off a perfect Hydro Cannon.
- Despite everything William Stronger did, Fitz still had the moral strength to try to save him when the latter was about to die.
- In his interlude, Sho succeeds in Mega Evolving his Manectric, giving Volkner the best battle he had in a while and earning the former the Beacon Badge and the offer to be trained by Volkner. It even made Volkner happy, a real achievement.
- In the Laramie Gaiden, Leeroy and Jenkins, despite their rocky start, manage to embrace each other's philosophies and work together to survive until they can escape the island. Jenkins in particular manages to take to heart Leeroy's philosophy of growing stronger with Pokémon, getting a Pidgeot not only to befriend him, but to Mega Evolve on the first try.
- Even though they had no chance of winning whatsoever, the Lono twins manage to hold their own against hundreds of wild Pokémon in Poni Island of all places, until they finally take a chance to escape. Considering that at this point they're just starting their trials, that's pretty impressive.
- In the Charmander Interlude, Kaia, despite being blind, still manages to get back on her feet and become a trainer.
- In Pokemon G-Men Interlude:
- Lance and Krysta successfully stole a lot of files from Team Rocket to assist in taking them down.
- Frey managed to save a young Bloodliner girl from the Bloodliner Hunter.
- A trio of Bloodliner superheros managed to thwart Team Rocket at Goldenrod when the team tried to derail the train.
- Doubling as funny, the fact that the Dude gets to troll MissingNo without even trying.
- In Ritchie Gaiden, the title character manages to defeat Joshua's Spearow with Charmander's Dragon Rage attack in spite of the fact Joshua was both cheating and had his Pokemon longer than Ritchie.
- Maylene shows why she was the worthy candidate to become Gym Leader and heir to the dojo over the predecessor's own son by beating said son in both a Pokemon battle and a sparring match. Even when the latter gives her a sucker punch after he lost and continued to attack her, she manages to hold her own and win.
- Doubling as funny, but Misty faked enthusiasm and passion convincingly enough to get the Magikarp salesman to fall for her ruse hook, line and stinker, and got him to give her his contact details so she could report him to the authorities. Clearly if her family was more encouraging, she could have been a good actress.
- In the Jane Jackrum Interlude:
- The title character, when push comes to shove, manages to Mega Evolve her Pidgeot, quickly making short work of several Cipher Peons and two Shadow Pokémon, giving the Rangers the means to research them and find the way to revert the process.
- Top Ranger Sven gives the Cipher peons who call Jane a "bloodliner freak" and an "abomination" a good Shut Up, Hannibal!, telling them they have no right to call anyone that considering the unspeakable things they're doing with Shadow Pokémon.
- In Kangaskhan Kid Gaiden, not only does Tommy manage to adapt to life in the Safari Zone, but he manages to train the Safari Zone Pokemon to stand up against the Nidoking that's been terrorizing them.
- Clair manages to sweep a challenger's entire team, using only one Magikarp.
- Lorelei and Frey show their Battle Couple credentials by taking on dozens of Team Rocket Agents and Pokemon, and not only win, but win so dominantly that even the leader who was most confident of their success realised how far in over their heads they were before they finished.
- More generally, Frey being so powerful speaks volumes about how powerful the G-Men are.
- Agatha returns to Drowning Woods to catch all of the Ghost-types so they won't harm anybody ever again. It's specially cathartic to see the Gengar who killed Agatha's brother Tony reduced to a shadow of its former self and about to get its just desserts.
- The Black Arachnid may be a thief, but there's no denying he's pretty good at exposing people who are way worse than him and had it coming. Save for the items he has taken away, to some he could actually be considered a real hero.
- Iris gets a few during her gaiden, in the encounters with some of her Pokémon:
- With Emolga, she forces her to run away for playing with Axew's feelings to get food, and she bumps into a vicious-looking Scolipede. Iris quickly fights it back and drives it away.
- With Excadrill back when he was a Drillbur, first she beats him up for kicking Axew out of his usual berry gathering spot. Then, when it turns out he did so because another Pokémon, a gluttonous Simisear, kicked him from his own home, she goes to give it a lesson too. Drillbur himself gets a bit of the action, helping her with a Mud Shot when the Simisear is about to overpower her with a Flame Charge.
- Despite his worries, the fact Drake has kept his undefeated streak for as long as his Interlude suggests (at least for a few years) is quite an achievement. Ash will most likely have it much harder than in canon when he gets to challenge him.
- Better than that: it's implied that Drake has never lost a battle, even before his title was gained.
- Pendula's skills deserve a mention as well. Keep in mind she's more a performer than a traditional battler, and still managed to give Drake trouble during their battle, and despite losing she made him work for his victory. We're talking about a guy whose strength is compared to Elite Four members like Siebold and Drasna.
- Steven is not only the strongest trainer in the Hoenn region: his diplomacy and negotiation skills are also notable, managing to get the Draconids to agree to a truce to face their common foe, as well as those Zenith grunts to spill the beans about their plans.
- Sawyer gets his moment too: with some help of Ryuga and Bagon, he causes a rock slide that turns the tide of the battle in the favor of the Draconids, catching the Team Zenith admins by surprise.
- The climax, all of it. The battle between Steven and Zevie was full of awesome, only capped off by the Near-Villain Victory the latter pulled off by transforming the Megalith into Mega Rayquaza. And Steven and his allies blasted the thing to pieces, just barely putting a stop to Team Zenith's plans.
- Accentus in the G-Men Gaiden. The fact he's able to take Pokémon attacks and still fight back without Pokémon of his own is pretty impressive. Pity he uses those abilities just for killing sprees...
- Frax and Velvet's fight in the Melemele Grand Trial Interlude. Both they and Hala give it their all and show not only that the twins earned their win, but that Hala has more than earned his title of Kahuna.
- The Oak & Hastings Gaiden has a few highlights:
- Agatha and her team stay to Hold the Line when a bunch of prehistoric Pokémon attack them, so that Oak and Hastings can continue.
- Later, Hastings almost pulls a Heroic Sacrifice for Oak, seeking to atone for his Capture Styler being used as a weapon for war. Fortunately, Oak prevents him from following through with it.
- They encounter an angry Mew, who is not happy to have intruders in its home. Despite being scared out of their minds, Oak stands up to it to make it clear they mean no harm, and he manages to convince it.
- And of course, they give their project a test run, when it's time to do or die. And it works. The Gaiden made clear that even when not acting out of malice, instinct is enough to make most Pokemon dangerous to humans and even their fellow Pokemon. The protagonists all nearly died to the Pokemon on Faraway Island who only saw them as food. And then, Oak and Hastings activated their device, and it pacified the dangerous Pokemon of the island, proving beyond a shadow of all doubt just how important Oak's and Hastings' achievement was, and why Oak received a lot of respect and admiration for it.
- A Team Rocket cell based on Five Island kidnaps Yellow to use as bait for Red and steal his Pokémon. Not only Red manages to fight his way through the entire warehouse and defeat a good amount of Pokémon, but Yellow herself breaks out of captivity to save him in the nick of time during the climatic battle against Deacon, the admin in charge. And to top it off, Siebold shows up with two Jennys to arrest him, putting an end to their operations.
- The Glitch War has the following:
- Guzma proves himself Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth, not only resisting ZZAZZ's possession, but by driving the fragment out by himself with pure rage. Keep in mind that most of the other characters whom ZZAZZ possessed or attempted to possess needed external help to break out of it.
- For ZZAZZ's credit, the powers his fragments gave to their victims is nothing short of impressive. It gave Latios the strength he needed to perfect his Luster Purge, and turned a random Zenith grunt into a very real threat for Steven Stone and his Metagross!
- Lastly, MissingNo's efforts to take out ZZAZZ, and the method he uses to get rid of him for good: trapping him in the Bad Future Wes came from, with no way to return to the past to cause more way.
