A/N. Here's Chapter 9, Episode 8. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything!

Episode 8: Flying Evolutions!

It was around lunchtime when Ash and Brock finally stopped to take a break from their journey to Celadon City, in the forest somewhere outside of Lavender Town. The day was clear and sunny, the air nice and warm as Brock got to work cooking. Ash sat off to the side, all of her pokémon outside of their pokéballs relaxing in the grass. The young eight year old leaned back, resting against the solid form of Lampi, with Rayo and Aqua resting in her lap.

"Hey Ash." The young girl looked up at the sound of the man's voice, quirking an eyebrow in silent response, "It's gonna be a while before lunch is ready, why don't you take the others and go train for a bit, I'll call you when everything's done." Ash paused for a moment, staring into the clear, blue sky as she mulled over the idea in her head. Finally she nodded her head in agreement, tapping both the electric and water-type in the head gently so that she could get up without worry of sending them flying off her lap. All the pokémon, except for Rayo and Fantasma, were quickly returned to their pokéballs as Ash stood up, motioning for the remaining two to follow her into the nearby trees.

"See ya Brock!" Ash called back before she disappeared into the dense vegetation, Brock waving over his shoulder even though he knew the girl hadn't seen it.

"Viento! Use Gust, Rayo Thunderwave!" Ash called out to both pokémon. It might have seemed overdone, even Ash could admit that, but she was taking on a Caterpie, a bug-type pokémon only found in the Kanto and Johto regions, with two of her own pokémon. There was a reason behind her slightly overwhelming madness though. She had heard of something called a Tag or Double Battle back at the Pokémon Center in Lavender Town. Ash was pretty sure it meant the same thing basically, but she could never be quite sure. This was, though a bit on the extreme side, practice for that. She figured it'd probably work better if she was going against two pokémon at the same time, but so far she'd only seen this Caterpie.

"Pie!" the poor bug-type cried out in pain as it failed to evade the two oncoming attacks. Now heavily weakened and paralyzed, all the little bug-type could do was twitch in slight pain on the ground. Ash quickly threw one of her pokéballs, catching the bug-type without much of a problem. Quickly running over, she picked the pokéball up, taking her backpack off and setting it on the ground as she quickly got to work healing her newest pokémon.

Once the little bug-type was fully healed and healthy again, Ash sat down in front of what she had now figured out was a girl* Caterpie, thanks to her pokédex.

"How about we name you Mariposa?" Ash asked the little bug-type, memories falling back to a time when she had seen the final evolution of a Caterpie. The pokémon squealed in response, obviously happy with her name. Ash grinned, the excitement of the little thing feeling contagious, when suddenly, the little bug began to glow. Ash blinked in shock, about to panic when Fantasma's cool and calm voice broke through her rushing thoughts,

"Don't panic Ash dear, this is natural for us Pokémon. I keep forgetting that you've never seen a pokémon evolve before." Fantasma said, voice dripping with obvious amusement at her trainer's actions.

"Evolve?"

"Yes, once a pokémon reaches a certain…'level'…of strength, they evolve. During evolution, a pokémon's type can change, abilities, everything. One thing is for sure though; they will grow stronger as a result. There are certain pokémon though, that no matter how strong they become, will not evolve like others. There are pokémon like Rayo, a Pikachu, that need a certain item to go about the process, and some just do not evolve at all." Fantasma explained, watching with a sedated interest as Mariposa changed shape. "Bug-types are well known for their quick evolution, it doesn't take much in all honesty. That doesn't make them any less stronger than any other pokémon out there. It just makes them easy to train." She finished just as Mariposa had finished evolving.

"Cool!" Ash called out, a wide and happy grin on her face as she looked over her newly evolved pokémon. If she remembered correctly, Mariposa had evolved into a Metapod; it wouldn't be long before she was Butterfree and had the freedom to move again. Ash was about to stand up again, putting Mariposa back into her pokéball, when a voice suddenly came out of nowhere.

"Excuse me, Miss?" a little girl ran up to her, panting slightly from having been running around a lot by the looks of it, "Are you a pokémon trainer?"

"Yes, why?" Ash asked, getting down to the younger girl's level. The girl fiddled with her fingers for a bit, fidgeting under Ash's gaze before she finally responded,

"My name's Allisa, um…I was wondering if you could help me?"

"Nice to meet you Allisa, I'm Ash. What is it you need help with?"

"Um…My big brother…" the little girl began, face scrunched up in slight concentration, "He got into this fight with a bunch of really scary people…And he needs help…Can you help him?" It didn't take long for Ash to decide what she was going to do,

"Ok, take me to where your big brother is." Ash told the girl gently. Allisa nodded her head, quickly taking off in the direction she had come from, Ash and her pokémon not far behind.

"Haha! That's what you get for getting snippy with us, you brat!" a large man clad in black leather yelled out as he went to kick the injured boy laying on the ground. Next to him, a Bulbasaur and Oddish lay passed out on the ground, just as injured as, if not more then, their trainer. The boy released a pained grunt, whimpering in agony as the booted foot made contact with his already sore stomach. The man was about to kick the poor boy again, when he was stopped by the sound of a voice.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" Ash called out as she ran to stand protectively in front of the downed boy, the little girl on the other side of him.

"Big brother!" the girl cried out in horror at the sight of the boy.

"A-Allisa…" the boy managed to get out as he slowly lost consciousness.

"You guys are gonna pay for that!" Ash threatened, pulling out Viento's and Mariposa's pokéball. The man laughed mockingly, not seeing the threat in such a little girl, not when it was four against one. He motioned for the other three standing behind him to come up and help him teach another brat a lesson in why one shouldn't get in his way.

"Oh yeah? You and what army?" Ash grinned manically, eyes burning in rage as she threw the two pokéballs in her hand into the air, not wasting any time as she also sent Lampi and Rayo out as well. All four pokémon stood glaring at the opposition. The group of brutish men were not deterred however by the sight of the clearly incensed pokémon, sending out their own pokémon to combat all of Ash's.

"This one…" in seconds, Ash's pokémon had defeated all of the opposing group of pokémon. Ash sneering viciously at them the whole entire time. The leader of the group, though shocked and astounded by the show of power, was not to be deterred however as he sent out another pokémon, himself being the only one in the group with more than one.

"Go Nidoking!" the man called out, summoning the fully evolved poison-type pokémon.

"Lampi, Rayo, come back." Ash called quickly. If she remembered quickly, Nidoking was also a ground-type pokémon, meaning electric type moves would do nothing against it. Besides, Ash wasn't going to have all four of her pokémon waste their energy battling a gorilla and his pokémon.

"What scared you can't win?" the man taunted, trying to act big despite the fact that he was clearly losing.

"No, I just don't see the point in having my pokémon waste their energy dealing with a thug like you." Ash called back, not missing a beat, she didn't give the man anytime to order an attack, "Viento use Gust! Mariposa, String Shot!" both pokémon cried out as they followed their orders, attacking the opposing pokémon quickly. The Nidoking cried out in pain as the powerful flying-type move hit.

"Why you…Nidoking, brush it off and use Earthquake!" Viento quickly picked Mariposa off the ground, avoiding the attack easily. Since Viento was a flying-type, ground-type moves didn't work against him. Mariposa would be safe as long as Viento had her back. "Grr…Then use Mach Punch!" the man growled out when he saw the move fail. Nidoking wasted no time in his attack, but Ash was ready.

"Mariposa, Harden!" the attack was easily deflected as Mariposa took the blow for Viento, using her now hardened shell to defend against the attack. This caused the man to growl again,

"Fine if I can't hurt the pokémon…Then I'll hurt the trainer! Nidoking! Use Poison Sting on the girl!" Ash gasped as the attack came flying at her, eyes widening before she shut them tight, not wanting to see when they hit her. The expected pain never came though, she opened her eyes, gasping at what she saw. Viento and Mariposa both lay on the ground before her, having taken the attack for her. Ash's eyes were suddenly shadowed by her bangs, teeth grinding painfully together as her fists clenched tightly in barely contained rage. The air around her seemed to light up slightly before she turned a very cold glare on the man who had ordered that attack. The thug froze at the look in the eight year old's eyes, looking absolutely murderous as the rocks scattered around her feet began to float in midair. The surprises did not cease either, when both Mariposa and Viento started to glow. Both pokémon slowly stood up from the ground, the light becoming brighter and more insistent as they slowly changed shape. Viento and Mariposa were evolving.

"Free!"

"Pidgo-pidgo!" the two pokémon called out as the light dispersed in a near blinding flash. A now fully evolved Pidgeot and Butterfree standing where Viento and Mariposa used to be.

"Viento, Mariposa, GUST!" The eight year old ordered without hesitation, the two pokémon growling out in response as they whipped up a tornado. The violent winds hit the man's Nidoking head on, sending it flying backwards and into the man and knocking both unconscious.

Just as quickly as the winds had picked up, they settled down, and Ash released a huff of indignation as she sneered down at the now out cold man and his pokémon.

"Serves you right for picking on a bunch of kids." Ash commented, turning away with yet another huff as she placed her attention back on the injured boy and Allisa. "Come on Allisa, let's get your brother patched up." Ash smiled at the little girl, who was gaping in awe at her after what she had seen.

"That was amazing Miss! You were so cool!" Allisa gushed as she watched Ash bandage her still unconscious brother up. "Miss Ash, Miss Ash! I want to be just like you when I grow up!" Ash smiled gently at the little girl, slightly put off by her blatant honesty.

"Hehe…Thanks." Ash said, laughing nervously as the little five year old continued to go on and on and on about Ash's apparent 'awesomeness'.

"Ugh…" Allisa's brother suddenly grunted as he finally came to, wincing in pain as he tried to sit upright."

"Careful." Ash warned simply as she helped the boy sit up.

"Thanks. My name's Keith, and you already met Allisa." Ash nodded in return, "I guess you were the one that saved me."

"Yep." Ash replied without hesitation, the boy huffed slightly before speaking,

"Sorry about getting you involved in that, I-" he was stopped from explaining as Ash held up a hand,

"You don't have to tell my why you were fighting with those guys. Just don't worry your little sister anymore." Ash told him before standing up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm hungry, it's past lunchtime, and I'm pretty sure Brock's tearing his hair out trying to find me. See ya, take care!" Ash said, waving over her shoulder as she left, Rayo in her arms and Fantasma's presence being felt somewhere above her head.

"Bye bye Miss Ash!" Allisa called back, waving enthusiastically, while her brother just gave a slight nod of the head.

"Where have you been?" Brock asked, looking really peeved. Ash gave a slightly guilty smile as she responded,

"Sorry, went out to train, and something came up. I'm here aren't I?" Ash explained as she went to go sit down. Brock huffed slightly in indignation before following the eight year old to the foldable table he had set up for lunch.

"Well, I guess I can let it slide just this once. Just please be more careful." Brock said, tone pleading as he took a seat across from Ash. The girl smiled and nodded her head, feeling content with their current setting,

"Ok, sorry for worrying you."

"So how'd the training go?" at that Ash couldn't hold back a grin,

"Better than expected, and I got a new pokémon to boot." Ash replied, tapping one of the pokéballs around her waist.

"I see." Brock replied, quirking an eyebrow as an almost knowing smile crossed his face. He to admit, she sometimes drove him up the wall with her slight disappearing acts, few and far in between as they were, but life was fun with her around. Maybe his dad had been right, maybe he could be Ash's older brother figure.

A/N. I hope you enjoyed the story. Sorry if it wasn't as great as the others, I tried my best, I promise. As for Ash's Butterfree, I know that in canon it's a boy, but I couldn't find a fitting name for it in Spanish that sounded like a boy, and Viento had already been used for her Pidgeotto, now Pidgeot. So I decided that he would be a girl instead. Mariposa, for those of you who don't know, means Butterfly in Spanish I think. Anyways, thanks for reading and please review! See ya!