Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon because that belongs to Nintendo.
"Talking" = Speech
"(Pokéspeaking?)" = Pokéspeech
'Thinking' = Thoughts
'Telepathic speech' = Telepathy
"So, do you think Yellow caused the explosion or do you think Yellow was the victim of the explosion. Or you know, they're completely unrelated?" Ash asked Leaf, Yellow seemed to be able to take care of herself so her being the cause of the explosion wasn't completely out of the picture.
"Yes Ashy, the girl who takes the protection of nature seriously decides to just blow up the environment. Yes, that makes a lot of sense, don't you think?" Leaf replied, slightly aggressive almost completely forgetting that she tried to walk out of this a few minutes ago.
"The explosion came from pretty far away, don't you think?" Ash said as they passed the nth oak tree, "I doubt we'll make it on time at this speed and Riolu is exhausted from escaping that swarm of Beedrill."
"Well since we'll be running for around twenty minutes, have you got anything interesting to talk about. I have a story, but I thought you should go first," Leaf said realising that they would be running for quite a while.
"Not really, I'm just waiting for our upcoming trek through Mount Moon. The Clefairy family are pretty good normal types with their wide movepool and whilst their base stats aren't extraordinary, they're solid. That and the fact that they're so well-balanced that they can take on pretty much anything and still have a chance of winning," Ash said, there wasn't exactly anything important that came to mind other than the fact that Arceus had told him he would find a legendary, who still hadn't appeared.
"Alright then, so you know I moved to Sinnoh but I doubt you knew where it was exactly. So anyway, I moved to Celestic Town because my mum said that it was 'quiet yet intriguing.' The town had these ruins that were pretty cool. So I walk in their and look around and because I'm a small child in large ass cave, I get shown out. Good decision to make sure that small child does not get lost in the cave and die." Leaf said, before hearing another explosion.
"You know, I think Yellow's gonna be pretty badly injured if she wasn't the cause of the explosion," Ash said, the second explosion was a little to the left so they both turned slightly as they kept their speedy jog.
"Yeah, we should probably go faster!" Leaf said before continuing her story, "So anyway, I decided to be a rebellious child and went full Solid Snake to sneak out my house and into the cave. Definitely the peak of my stealthy career."
"You had a job?"
"Does it look like I can get a job, Ashy? Seriously, I'm too young to be hired for something, unless we're talking about acting or being a one-man sales company, which I've done both of. Now seriously, stop interrupting me or we'll be where the bomb is before I get to the meat of the story!" Leaf said, sighing before continuing her story again, "So, I sneaked in their like a pro. I went into the cave, which was pretty large I'm adding, and started exploring because, as I mentioned earlier, it was pretty fucking big. So anyway, I was looking around for something interesting because there had to be something cool in this large ass cave. So I kept searching and I found these tablets with weird runes. They weren't English or any language that use symbols similar to the forms of Unown. So I was watching it, wondering whether or not I should take one to see if it had any value when this tall blonde girl came behind me and..."
"Hah, don't mess with us or we'll have to hurt you again, little girl!" a gruff voice said, seeming to be only twenty or so metres away.
The two became silent as the crouched and started walking as lightly as possible towards the voice. The owner of the voice was definitely a threat, who else threatens a little girl?
"Look, you're the ninth person to try and stop me. I blew two of them up with Chuchu's Thunderbolt. Please stop trying, you're only hurting the environment... and yourself if Chuchu get's particularly vicious," the two heard Yellow say.
Ash looked at Leaf with a grin, her logical conclusion that Yellow wasn't the cause was thrown out the window. Yellow seemed to have this pretty figured out but, just in case, Ash and Leaf walked over to the gruff voice, being careful to stay hidden in the shadows and foliage.
Once the two were close enough, they realised that the gruff voice belonged to a Team Rocket grunt and a grunt that didn't seem as much of a pushover as the ones they had fought in the Pokémon Centre.
"Alright then, Chuchu, Thunderwave on that Nidorina!"
"Nidorina, dodge with Quick Attack!"
"Keep trying Chuchu!"
Ash and Leaf could just make out the Nidoran rolling to the side with white trailing behind her. They also saw the yellow electricity trying to paralyse the Poison-type Pokémon.
The Nidorina kept dodging the sparks until one of them grazed her ear causing her to freeze for a second as sparks crossed over her body.
"Chuchu, throw her senses off with ThunderShock to the head. Make sure that you don't hurt it badly."
Ash and Leaf were confused at what Leaf meant but after the ThunderShock hit Nidorina, it started shaking with its head swivelling around as if it had been spinning for an hour and then suddenly stopped.
'She must have used the electricity to throw off Nidorina's balance and hearing... so she somehow was able to get the electricity into Nidoran's brain and make it's hearing stop for a while,' Ash thought as he saw Nidoran collapse with little to no damage on Nidorina.
"She won't be able to stand or hear for an hour so I suggest returning her to a Pokéball. Now leave, I'm getting bored of all you annoying people, just go back to your base and stay there," Yellow said, causing Ash and Leaf to have a bit more respect for the small blonde, after all standing up to a Team Rocket grunt and then talking to them as a superior takes some bravery.
"It's good that I didn't just bring Pokémon!" they heard the grunt say as he pulled out a gleaming blade, "I'll just kill you myself!"
The man was only able to make one step before he felt a sharp pain in his back. He turned around to see a Pikachu with a metal tail hopping away from him.
He wasn't dead, but was feeling a lot of pain and sprawled on the floor. That was good enough for Ash since he came out of where they had been watching and grabbed the knife from the Team Rocket member.
Leaf came out as well before slamming her foot down on the hand the grunt held the knife with quite a lot of force. She heard a few cracks coming from the hand and had a satisfied smile.
Ash looked at the man with a blank face simply saying, "People really need to look at knife crime in this area. I've witnessed knife attacks twice in the same hour!"
Yellow looked a bit confused before realising that Ash and Leaf had come here, "Oh, erm... Hi, Ash and Leaf. I didn't think we'd see each other this soon but that doesn't really matter. Why did you come here?"
"An explosion with a large smoke cloud appears where our friend was going and we're expected to not try and help?" Leaf said in mock confusion.
Ash laughed at Yellow's confused face, "By the way, were you the one that caused the explosion since Leaf is doubting your abilities?"
"What, no I wasn't!" the brunette retorted before facing Yellow's accusing glare, "I just thought that since you wanted to protect nature and the environment, you wouldn't... well, blow it up."
Yellow stopped the glare before saying, "That's a fair point. It's just that they kept bringing Pokémon that I couldn't neutralise without doing some damage. In fact, the attack was able to do a lot of damage to them so I think Chuchu did pretty well."
The small yellow mouse enjoyed the scratch behind the ear before seeing Pikachu and sprinting towards Ash's Pokémon. Pikachu didn't see this coming since when Yellow's Pikachu jumped to give Pikachu a hug, he didn't notice and fell on the floor with Chuchu on top of him.
"So Yellow, did you know that this forest has a bunch of knife crime. I was attacked twice in the same hour! First, this bug catcher who was cosplaying as a samurai appeared and tries to slice me with a katana and then a member of a crime organisation tries to stab someone else. The League should make a diversion from Viridian City to Pewter City. Well, I guess you could go west into the trees but those are unmarked on the map so it would be harder to make our way there." Ash said, needing to rant about the samurai who had bugged him (pun not intended.)
"Did you say a guy cosplaying as a samurai? Damn, that guy is annoying! He tried to slice that dumb sword of his through a Caterpie since he wanted to challenge it. Anyway, other than that, has anything interesting happened. I've kinda been getting bored. I was going to do some errands to look after the forest but they're always completed by the Pokémon inhabiting the forest before I'm even close to starting. I know I'm in a lush, beautiful forest and all but the Pokémon here are protecting it really well and... I guess I'm trying to find a purpose," Yellow said, looking at the ground and scratching her head sheepishly.
Leaf smiled and laughed slightly, "Isn't that what we're all looking for? I mean, being a trainer isn't the greatest long-term career. You barely make anything from most trainer battles. It's just that it allows us to see all the career and job opportunities that are to do with Pokémon such as Gym Leaders, Co-ordinators, contest judges, Pokémon breeders, Pokémon Rangers, Pokémon doctors-"
"Doctors? What, you mean like Nurse Joy?"
"Yeah. Being a Pokémon doctor is pretty simple, you know... a Pokémon doctor is a doctor for Pokémon."
"Huh, being a healer. Ash, Leaf... I think I've found my calling!" Yellow said energetically, running towards some trees that had a few oran berries at the top, "If I start early, I can make this happen!"
Ash had a small smile on his face, "Hey Yellow, I know you a pretty independent person and all, but I was thinking that maybe you should join us. After all, having a healer would benefit all of us a lot!"
Leaf waited for Yellow to reply and snickered at how Ash had been ignored and was still continuing to call out for the blonde due to her new drive to be a healer... Or maybe because she was climbing the fourth tree after collecting berries and jumping off of the top with a scream. The pain in her legs was probably making her ignore it.
"Erm, Yellow!" Ash called out again with his shout falling on deaf ears.
"That girl has a strong drive to be the best! Just stop, Ash. We'll wait for her to finish," Leaf said, seeing that Yellow had no signs of slowing down, "So, do you want me to continue my story? She looks like she'll take a while."
"Yeah sure," Ash replied, sitting down since he knew that Leaf was right. Yellow wasn't going to stop after only raiding five trees of all their fruit. She had raided three oran berry trees and two pecha berry trees and it seemed like that wasn't enough.
"So anyway, I was reading the tablets and the blonde came behind me. So, me being a small innocent girl and the blonde being a tall, twentyish person in black clothing that screamed darkness. I decided to run. Why? Because, of course, I would fucking run if some tall woman was just staring at me like some demon stalker. Anyway, I was running from the woman because I don't like demon stalkers and, because I was running as fast as I could with no solid destination in my mind, I got lost."
"Shouldn't we stop Yellow from jumping off of those trees? It looks like it would hurt her legs," Ash said, interrupting Leaf to worry about Yellow's leg health. She must've broken a bone.
"Nah, she's fine!" Leaf said back before continuing her story, "So, now that I'm lost in a huge ass cave in the dark, I started caring less since my inevitable, inexorable death seemed to be nearing. Deciding that I didn't really have much to lose or give a shit about, I decided to try and talk to the blonde in black. I, like an idiot, decided to say something along the lines of 'My name is Leaf and I live in Celestic Town. Nice to meet you and I hope you don't kill me since it looks like you will!' Of course, as you can see, I didn't die in that place because tall, blonde demon stalker appeared to be a nice person and not desire for the deaths of multiple innocent youths. In fact, she was actually quite a famous person. Why don't you guess, I doubt you'll get it on your first try but-"
"Cynthia, champion of the Sinnoh Region." Ash said quickly, a slight bit of admiration and shock evident on his face, "Don't lie to me Leaf, was that really Cynthia? She's one of the most powerful trainers in the world second only to the current Pokémon master and she was extremely close to beating him in the previous tournament. She's a legend among Pokémon trainers!"
"And also your crush, it appears," Leaf said with a pout on her face, "Yeah, it was Cynthia."
"Whaaaa... You're not bullshitting me?" Ash said, ignoring the comment Leaf had made.
"Stop fanboying over her, she's not that amazing. And, before you argue, let me finish," the brunette said, annoyed at Ash being such a fanboy, "So, since the crazy, stalker person was actually the champion of the Sinnoh region, I decided that I would try and become friends with her. She promised that if I went back to bed, she wouldn't tell my mum about me leaving the house to explore the cave. I left the cave, with the help of Cynthia who knew the caves like the back of her hand, and went back to bed to fall asleep."
"Is that it, or what? Because Yellow really looks like she needs help!" Ash said concern on his face as he saw the girl now limping instead of running with the jumps from the falls taking a toll on her body.
"No Ash, focus on me! It's really starting to bug me out. So anyway, I thought that shady looking woman-"
"Cynthia!"
"Fine, Cynthia. I thought that Cynthia was a cool person and since almost everyone that was in Celestic Town was old and at least pentuple my age, I would become friends with her so I wasn't bored. So, after cleaning myself up and making sure that my mother knew nothing of the cave exploring I did the day before, I headed out to find Cynthia, who I later found out had come to Celestic Town both due to the ruins and the cave but also because Celestic Town was where she was born. So I was looking for Cynthia when I heard shouts from the cave. Apparantly, a rockslide had begun whilst loads of explorers and scientists were still in there. Deciding that it would probably contain a lot of adventure and excitement, I ran over to the cave (still not knowing that at least forty people would die in the rock slide.)"
"Wait, people died in that accident?"
"No, Ash, they were just squashed under a rock which crushed their spine, skull, any and all bones in the body and almost all of their vital organs. No, Ashy, no one died in that accident since we're all apparently superhuman!"
"I was just asking..."
"Don't ask obvious questions then, right? So anyway, an unsupervised child was able to both enter the cave alone at night once, and was then able to get into their again in broad daylight with everyone in their about to be or being crushed by boulders I made it in there (no surprise there) watched as a lot of rocks were falling out the ceiling and squashing and then rolling over human beings. Since I'm such a hero (we're forgetting when I was about to walk out on Yellow by the way-)"
"What!" Leaf heard a voice too high pitched to be Ash's say.
"Oh, erm, Yellow... Forget I said that, I'm just your teacher in manipulation, remember!"
Yellow gave Leaf another accusing glare before softening it and looking at Ash, "Anyway, I was able to find a lot of berries that are generally used for medicinal purposes. I've got oran berries, pecha berries and a few of both cheri berries and rawst berries. I even found three leppa berries and they're extremely rare!"
Ash had a large smile on his face at how hard Yellow looked when she was searching for berries, "Well done, Yellow! You'll be a professional Pokémon doctor in no time! But anyway, when you left, I asked you if you wanted to join me and Leaf on our journey through Kanto and the regions that will definitely come after it. So, the offer still stands, would you like join us?"
Chuchu nodded vigorously whilst Yellow did the same, albeit more gently and skipping the part where Chuchu lost her balance from shaking her head a bit too aggressively, "Definitely, I need Pokémon to heal if I want to become a Pokémon doctor/healer!"
"Cool, we needed a third person to join our group! A trio is a perfect size for a group so that any disagreements won't harm the group as a whole and you are the best person to be the third out of the people that we have all met, " Ash said with a relieved sigh, he didn't want to admit that he was expecting there to be a problem or disagreement between him and Leaf so a third rational (Yellow could be rational... probably) would be much appreciated.
Leaf looked at Ash in mock annoyance, "Wow Ash, really? You don't have any faith in me, do you? That's not nice, Ashy! If I wasn't a nice person, I would've pulled out some embarrassing blackmail. You remember the phase, right Ashy?"
"Hey, stop right there!" they a voice that was much higher pitched shout, "Anyone who gets in the way of Team Rocket must suffer the consequences!"
Yellow shrugged at this and gave the Team Rocket grunt a disappointed sigh before a quizzical look appeared on her face, "As much as we wanted you here, what took you so long? I beat that other guy over there way over ten minutes ago, so again, what took you so long? I don't want to incapacitate another Pokémon so just walk away."
The grunt looked a little confused, expecting Yellow to cower in fear, "Huh, well... Erm... I was kinda playing this really interesting video game and I didn't want to leave in the middle of a mission. That and I heard that our opponent was carrying Electric-type Pokémon so I went to get a Ground-type. Now, get blasted away by my Diglett!"
"Why do you have to know what Pokémon I'm using?" Yellow grumbled before rolling her shoulder backwards, "One of you two are going to have to take this! Chuchu doesn't have any non-electric attacks that will do anything, sorry!"
Ash stepped up to the battle and threw Bagon's Pokéball into the air, "I'll go. Bagon, let's go!"
"Diglett, use Earthquake!"
"Bagon, use Dragon Pulse on the ground to shoot yourself into the sky. Keep yourself up for as long as possible!"
Diglett started shaking, causing the ground around him to shake even harder. He would've caused Bagon to tumble onto the ground and be completely unbalanced, had the Dragon-type not done a front flip and released draconian energy out of his mouth to propel himself higher. Bagon tried to keep the beam going for as long as possible since the Earthquake was showing no signs of stopping.
"Use Sandstorm! It can't avoid that!"
"We've avoided that Earthquake! Now we attack, prepare Fire Fang whilst your diving towards Diglett! Use Dragon Breath to get rid of any rocks that get to close to you!"
Diglett started spinning with the dirt around it starting to be kicked up into the air and flowing around him violently. Diglett was thrashing around in the hole he was in as he kicked up enough dirt for the air around them to be clouded in a light brown. Once the aggressive tornado of sand was strong enough to satisfy Diglett, it stopped thrashing and waited in the cloud of dirt.
Bagon was diving straight into the dirt cloud, a purple flame below him which burnt any large clumps of sand that could harm him at the speed he was going at. His teeth caught on fire with the licks of fire seeming to fall off of his teeth and straight to the ground. Knowing that if missing and face planting into the ground would most likely crack his skull and certainly kill him, Bagon started to even himself out so he could slow his descent. He made sure that he fell fast enough where he would have a good amount of moment when he finally struck Bagon yet slow enough so that he wouldn't have a cracked skull if he were to miss.
"Use Mud Bomb, Diglett!"
"Keep the Dragon Breath going, Bagon!"
Whilst Bagon started exhaling the purple flames, Diglett started forming a brown ball in his mouth. The ball grew and was about to be thrown when Diglett felt a sharp pain on both sides of his head. The Mud Bomb that the Ground-type was charging had lost control, blowing up in his face.
Bagon loosened his teeth from Diglett's head, jumping off of his opponent and onto the ground directly opposite the small brown Pokémon. Bagon watched as Diglett was thrown back, widening the distance from one metre to around eighteen.
"Bagon, I want you to set fire to the Sandstorm with a Fire Fang and Dragon Breath combo! You're resistant to Fire-type attacks so you should be able to withstand the attack, " Ash called out, quickly getting an idea and wanting to see how it would play out in a battle.
"Diglett, hang in there! Use Earthquake again!"
Bagon used Fire Fang before setting the dirt and sand around him alight when he added a Dragon Breath in. As the flames started spreading through the cloud of dirt, Bagon dodged the Earthquake by using a Dragon Pulse like he had around four minutes ago.
Whilst Diglett had started another Earthquake, his trainer realised that it was futile since the Earthquake wasn't damaging Bagon at all, "Alright Bagon, use Earthquake again and then use Dig!"
Ash and Leaf burst into laughter at this, confusing both the grunt and Yellow. Diglett ignored this since he used another Earthquake to start shaking the ground aggressively before digging into the ground which was still shaking vigorously. The Ground-type soon realised that it (or more specifically it's trainer) had made a mistake, but not before being quite deep underground. The Pokémon thought that it would be buried underground (odd for a Ground-type who kept most of his body underground) but he was completely wrong. Instead of being buried, it was thrown straight towards the sky whilst taking massive amounts of damage.
Ash just snickered at the grunt's mistake which had cost him the match, "You do know that using Earthquake after Dig or whilst the Earthquake is still going on causes the user if the Dig to receive double damage, right?"
The grunt returned his Diglett quite hastily before muttering something about brats and leaving with the classic 'This isn't the last you'll see of me!'
With the grunt gone (and not any more grunts from the looks of it,) Bagon was about to be returned back to his Pokéball when Leaf asked where Bagon was from causing Ash to start telling her about where Bagon have been found, "Despite being a pseudo-legendary, Bagon aren't that rare since they appear in loads of places such as the Hoenn Region, the Sinnoh Region, the Unova Region, the Kalos Region and the Alola Region. Of course, there are most likely many other places that they can be found but these are the places that we know about. The most famous Bagon hotspot is definitely Meteor Falls in the Hoenn Region due to the fact that an entire colony of Bagon were found deep in a cave behind the waterfall that tourists would come to admire. The colony were found pretty recently and whilst there are many of the rare pseudo-legendary in that area, most of the group are still there since the cave is pretty hard to access and it's behind a waterfall that crashes down constantly."
Leaf looked at Ash with a bewildered look, "You could've just said 'Bagon usually don't appear in either Kanto or Johto' but that was good too."
Yellow quickly picked up Bagon and started feeding the berries she'd picked earlier to Bagon. The healer-in-training then asked for Ash and Leaf to send out all of their Pokémon so that she could heal them all with the berries and psychic powers. The two had their Pokémon healed by Yellow before they got back onto the path, looking for either the exit or a Pokémon that they were interested in adding to their team.
"Holy shit, that was a huge Pidgeotto!" Leaf said in shock. As they were on the path, they saw a huge bird fly across the path and both were sure that it was strong from its sheer size and bulk.
"I think this is gonna be my first catch whilst I'm on my journey, " Ash replied as he adjusted his baseball hat and started running after the bird with the two girls trailing behind.
"Ash! I don't think you should go after that Pidgeotto. I'm sure I remember it from somewhere and, if it is the one I'm thinking about, we should probably cease are search immediately!" Yellow called out to Ash, who was already preparing himself for his first capture.
"I'm not giving up Yellow! I'm catching that Pidgeotto, it's too good of an opportunity to give up!" Ash said back, the size of the Pidgeotto and the speed at which it was flying must be showing how strong it was, "I want it to join my team, and I'm not giving up until that happens!"
"But Ash! It has to be the Pidgeotto that was terrorizing the other Pokémon. It's too aggressive and strong for you to successfully make catch it. Just give up, we can catch another Pidgeotto if you want one so bad!" Yellow said, this time taking some of Ash's attention off of the strong Flying-type they had seen.
Leaf, deciding that she should have a go at catching it as well, also shouted, "Yeah Ash, give up and let me catch it. I'll have two powerful Flying-types and a friend for Spearow, I'm not giving this up!"
"Guess we'll have to settle this quickly, " Ash said, balling his hands into a first, "Rock, Paper, Scissors, go!"
Whilst Ash had been shaking his fist, Leaf had sprinted ahead of him, making it clear that whoever was able to get to the Pidgeotto first would be able to catch the Pokémon that had gained their interest. Ash, not being a slow runner from all of the races with Riolu, sprinted towards the brunette who had made a small distance between them.
"You'll never catch me, Ash!" Leaf said, turning around to stick her tongue out, "I doubt you're fast enough to... Even... C'mon, why does this have to happen now!"
Ash laughed as he passed his friends, sticking his tongue out as he saw Leaf had fallen into a shallow hole. He kept on running, knowing that Leaf could easily climb out of it. Ash took advantage of Leaf's sudden stop and was able to get a strong lead before Leaf had finally climbed out of the whole with a look on her face that screamed 'You're a dead man walking.''
Yellow was running alongside Leaf since Ash was too fast for her to keep up with him and she didn't want to be running by herself in case they all got separated. She could just see the Pidgeotto in the distance, the bird descending and probably about to touch the ground. Wait, no, wasn't there a steep hill in a few metres? This was the part she knew the least about. There was nothing interesting in the West part of the forest which was where they were headed.
"What-" the two girls heard Ash say in front of them before hearing the sound of dry leaves and twigs crunch as Ash started rolling down the hill.
Yellow laughed slightly, "I guess there was a steep decline after all. Erm Yellow, I know a quick detour that we can take."
"What-" Leaf said, having ignored Ash's fall and rushing past Yellow. The brunette tripped whilst she was running down the hill and was somersaulting down the hill, slightly slower than Ash. She inwardly cursed as she realised that Ash was still ahead of her, she could take the pain of the sticks jabbing into her back but she would never let Ash best her.
Whilst Yellow was taking the detour (a less steep decline that would only take an extra minute) and Leaf was still rolling down the hill, Ash had picked himself up and sprinted again. He saw the bird he was after descending and sped up so that he could have a chance to capture. He could see Pikachu, who had fallen off of his shoulder during the roll, using Quick Attack to hop onto his shoulder.
Leaf seemed to expertly jump out of the roll, running much faster than she had before. She wouldn't let Ash get that Pidgeotto, who she could see was about to land around 150 metres away from Ash and about an extra ten from Leaf. Making a last-ditch effort to reach the Pokémon, she started hammering her feet on the ground and was closing the distance quickly.
"Pikachu, use ThunderShock to do some quick damage!" Ash called out, Pikachu was probably close enough to have a chance of damaging the bird, "Try and move the ThunderShock around so we do some chip-damage as a minimum."
Leaf was about to call out Bulbasaur but quickly realised that the Grass starter wasn't fast enough to keep up with her. Deciding that she would call Bulbasaur out once she was close to Pidgeotto, she kept on running. She took a quick glance behind her, Yellow was at least seventy metres behind her. Leaf sighed, knowing that Ash was first and was, most likely, going to catch that Pokémon before she would. The girl slowed down to a slow jog and kept at that speed until Yellow was able to catch up.
"Pikachu, Quick Attack to close in on Pidgeotto! Use an Electro Ball to do some extra damage. Pidgeotto should be retaliating soon. I want you to keep your eyes on him whilst you close in."
Pikachu, after using ThunderShock, became a yellow blur, darting straight down the path whilst the Pidgeotto he was targetting turned to see their attacker.
Pikachu kept on runnning and, like Ash had told him to, kept his eyes on the Pidgeotto. He was only 30 metres away when Pidgeotto started pursuing him with a white tint. He could tell that Pidgeotto wasn't as fast as him and tried to outrun his pursuer.
As Ash was getting closer to Pikachu, he noticed that the Pidgeotto was retaliating with a Quick Attack. Ash grinned, knowing that this Pidgeotto had a fighting spirit which was beneficial for a trainer.
"Pikachu, change of plan. I want you to keep on running, try and get into the trees and evade that Pidgeotto. I don't want you to hide too far away from the main path. Electro Ball to distract it and then Quick Attack away, you'll need a lead to begin this game of hide-and-seek!
Pikachu nodded, he jumped in the middle of his sprint and twisted in the air. Once he had flung the ball of electricity at Pidgeotto, Pikachu twisted in the air and pounced into a shaded area behind around the path. Pikachu climbed up a tree, hiding in the leaves that were covering the top of the tree. He poked his head out of the leaves before quickly pulling it back in. Pidgeotto was close to the tree he was hiding in so he would have to move.
Ash could tell that Pidgeotto would find Pikachu in around a minute, "If Pidgeotto is about to find you, use ThunderShock and Electro Ball, then find another place to hide!"
Pikachu nodded, despite knowing that Ash couldn't see him, and climbed up his tree. Once he was above the Flying-type, Pikachu released a stream of electricity at Pidgeotto, who was taking more damage every minute.
Pikachu did a backflip, twisting whilst upside down, and then threw his Electro Ball at Pidgeotto. He rolled as he landed, quickly running to another tree which was both much larger and had a thicker bush of leaves surrounding it. Once he climbed to the point that was covered the best, the yellow mouse came up with an idea. The Electric-type used Iron Tail on one of the branches that crossed over into the tree he was hiding in.
Ash smiled as he saw a branch being thrown out of one of the trees. The branch bounced off of another tree before tapping Pidgeotto's side. He knew that Pikachu had thrown the stick and, with surprising accuracy, was able to make the stick seem as if it was thrown from another tree.
Pidgeotto fell for Pikachu's trick, inspecing one of the trees away from Pikachu. It flew in a loop-de-loop, becoming enveloped by a white glow. It then started flying through the tree, going in and out of the tree to find where Pikachu was.
Said yellow mouse was snickering before freezing and charging up another ThunderShock. When he was snickering, he made enough noise for Pidgeotto to hear him. Pikachu sighed, hiding wasn't as good of an idea as he thought it was. Pikachu did a back flip out of the tree (trying to look as cool as possible) before shocking the bird.
Ash understood that evading Pidgeotto wasn't as effective as he thought it would be, "If we can't hide from Pidgeotto, we'll have to attack head on. Pidgeotto outperforms you in every stat except speed, use your speed to do a flurry of attacks. Let's start off with a Quick Attack followed up with an Iron Tail!"
Pikachu covered himself in a white glow before circling Pidgeotto, waiting for an opening. Pidgeotto stayed in its place, flapping its wings and hovering. They were both waiting for the other to attack. Pikachu, not being the most patient, flipped and hit his tail on the ground to gain some height. Pikachu gave his tail a metallic sheen before swinging it down with momentum and force.
Pidgeot was about to swerve out of the way but was unprepared for the speed Pikachu attacked her with. She was also unprepared for when Pikachu landed ontop of her wings, almost crashing due to the unexpected extra weight.
"ThunderShock!" Ash shouted, Pikachu had the advantage with him being able to attack Pidgeotto but not vice versa and that was an advantage Ash would utilise, "Focus all the electricity at Pidgeotto and prepare for a bumpy ride!"
And a bumpy ride it was, Pikachu's extra weight and the pain of constant electricity flowing into the bird's body caused the flight to be less than calm. The cream-coloured bird was ascending steeply, trying to shake Pikachu off but to no avail. Pikachu hung on for dear life, trying to keep the ThunderShock going as he tried not to fall to the fround and end up with more than pain in the morning.
"Electro Ball! Let's get the extra damage! We need some more damage before I throw a Pokéball.
Pikachu charged up another ball of electricity at the tip of his tail before flipping his body around, throwing the Electro Ball... straight into Pidgeotto's head.
Pikachu screamed as he fell with Pidgeotto, the ground and some unbearable pain awaiting them both.
Ash was little shocked at how quickly that battle ended, "Pikachu, try and slow your fall! Pidgeotto should start flying before you hit the ground. Try and position yourself so that you land on them."
Pikachu had slowed his fall a considerable amount, giving Pidgeotto a light shock to wake the bird up. Pidgeotto woke up with a jolt (pun intended,) realising that she was about to fall to quite a few broken bones. She looked up to see where the shock had come from and, seeing that it was Pikachu, slowed herself so that the yellow rodent could land.
Pikachu smiled as he landed, "(Thanks for not letting me break all my bones!)"
Pidgeotto chirped in acknowledgement, trying to keep its descent stable from the extra weight of Pikachu. The Flying-type, whilst shaky, was able to land safely and without any damage, on either her or the Electric-type she was carrying.
Once Pikachu had hopped off, Pidgeotto became airborne again. Pikachu had a wide grin as he realised the battle was still going to go on. The two gave the other one last look before hopping away from eachother and putting ten metres between them.
"So the battle is still going to continue, huh. Alright then, I want you to use ThunderShock in short bursts. Follow it up with a point-blank Electro Ball."
Pikachu released another stream of electricity although the attack was much shorter and was highly concentrated. The Pokémon then charged an Electro Ball at the tip of his tail. The ball of electricity was flung less than a metre from Pidgeotto with the attack hitting its mark (to no one's surprise) and with Pikachu landing on both feet.
"Pidgeotto is still attacking!" Ash called out, seeing that Pidgeotto did a loop-de-loop and would try and make this battle as close-range as possible.
Pidgeotto dove down towards Pikachu like a bird swooping down to catch its prey. Pikachu, who was almost up, threw a ThunderShock which missed entirely. Pidgeotto started to bank to the left before spinning like a drill with it's wings having a mettalic sheen.
Pikachu, surprised by the Steel Wing, was easily hit by the attack and recieved quite a lot of damage. Pikachu then turned his head to Ash, sure that his trainer would have a strategy to beat Iron Tail.
"Alright, if Pidgeotto has Steel Wing, it must've come into contact with a TM. Alright, that means that Pidgeotto's possible current moves have expanded a lot. So Pikachu, I want you to focus these attacks on your tail. Let's go, ThunderShock, Electro Ball, Iron Tail and Quick Attack!"
Pikachu got on all fours with his tail pointing upwards. His cheeks sparked before a ThunderShock left his tail, barely missing Ash. He tried again and focused a ThunderShock to stay in his body. That succeeded, causing Pikachu to do an uppercut in the air out of victory. What he hadn't noticed was that Pidgeotto had been about to attack him when he did the uppercut, slamming his fist into Pidgeotto's face.
"I think you might've used a Thunder Punch, one of your egg moves... not what I expected but I'll take it. Pikachu, use Iron Tail and then focus the electricity like with Thunder Punch!"
Pikachu gave his tail a metallic sheen, indicating that he had used Iron Tail, before using ThunderShock. Electricity started zapping around him, burning the grass near him. Pikachu tried to focus the electricity into his tail and his tail had a very light yellow tint. Ash would've called it a success if the electricity and the yellow tint didn't fizz out after a few seconds. Pikachu quickly sidestepped, Pidgeotto had tried to attack him.
"We'll see what we can do with focusing electricity. Alright, let's use a ThunderShock and then an Iron Tail!" Ash called out knowing that Pikachu had been sitting like a duck whilst Pidgeotto had been trying to attack with Quick Attack.
Pidgeotto had been flying around, using Quick Attack to gain enough speed to do a lot of damage. The speed had allowed it to avoid the ThunderShock that Pikachu had used to attack him. Once the attack had dissipated, Pidgeotto swooped down struck Pikachu with the Quick Attack.
"Pikachu, steady yourself with an Iron Tail. Then, I want you to use ThunderShock. I think Pidgeotto will be going down in a few more attacks, let's take it down as soon as possible!"
Pikachu slammed his tail into the ground, stopping him unharmed. Pikachu's cheeks sparked as the mouse's body was covered by electricity which struck the air Pidgeotto had been flying in only half a second ago. Pikachu stopped that bolt and sent another, this time only a metre ahead of her. Pidgeotto passed through the ThunderShock, trembling in the air as he passed. Ash Ash had said before, the bird would be going down in a few attacks.
The bird, making a last-ditch effort to knock out Pikachu, ascended steeply. Pikachu, smirking with the grin of someone who knew victory was coming there way, sent another ThunderShock that passed just under Pidgeotto. The Electric-type aimed a little higher, shooting another bolt of electricity at Pidgeotto was hit by the attacks and started descending, beak forward so that it could attack Pikachu.
"C'mon Pikachu, let's finish this! ThunderShock, let's go!"
Pikachu looked upwards, Pidgeotto would take around ten seconds to reach him. Pikachu's sparking cheeks seemed to glow as his entire body had gained a two-meter coat of electricity. The sparks started to focus on Pikachu's back, the sparks that flew across Pikachu's back were brighter and seemed to jump off of his back.
Even though Pidgeotto had been plummeting without any control for a few seconds, Pidgeotto was able to straighten itself and dive with a bright white glow. As she closed in, she spun in the air with her wings having a metallic sheen. The bird looked like a drill as it was about to go straight through her opponent.
She was close, only two seconds away when she felt a sharp pain flow through her body. She fell to the ground, crumbling in a heap. Pikachu sighed, seeing that his attack had hit its mark. He lied down with a grin, making a light squeal as he relaxed on the ground.
Ash walked up to the two Pokémon with a Pokéball in his right hand. After giving Pikachu a scratch on the cheeks (returned by a squeal of approval,) Ash lightly tapped the Pokéball on Pidgeotto's head, sending the Pokémon into a place where it could rest. Ash placed Pikachu on his shoulder whilst giving a sigh of satisfaction, he had caught his first Pokémon on his journey.
So Yellow is joining Ash and Leaf on their quest through Kanto. Ash has caught his first Pokémon (after Leaf has already caught three counting Primape.)
But anyway thanks for reading and, in the next chapter, we should be in Pewter City, ready to get their first Gym Badge. C'ya guys!