Intermission: Charizard

"Hey, you. Yeah, you. No, not you. The other guy. Yes, you. Do you like tacos?" - Unknown

Professor Oak's Ranch is encircled by a barrier specifically designed to keep pokemon from getting out. Don't ask me how it works. It sounds stifling, like a prison or something, but there's so much space on the ranch that you don't notice until you bump into an invisible wall. And, there are plenty of other pokemon, so we never feel lonely. On the contrary, we're all quite comfortable living there, though some of us miss the call of adventure.

I guess that's partly why I left. That and the fact that the only non-human or -fire-type that I could casually call my brother has gone missing. In the midst of an outbreak of some fatal illness that the humans call "Poke-X," no less. Not a great name, but whatever.

I don't know how Snivy figured out that escape route, but I owe her big time. Not so much that I would let her come with me, no matter how strong she is or how badly she wanted to help. She's persuasive when she wants to be, but I refuse to have someone else to worry about. In the end, she angrily relented, merely telling me to "just be careful, you glorified campfire."

I love that bitch.

By now, I'm sure that Ash knows about my absence. Professor Oak always lets trainers know of anything significant that happens to their pokemon, and I'd say this qualifies. Ash is probably furious, but he'll change his tune if and when I find Pikachu.

That said, I've been at this since yesterday, and I'm not making any progress. I've asked anyone who would stop to listen, and all I learned was that several Pikachu lived in Viridian Forest. My own friend was born there, so I already knew about that, but it was something. Sadly, I didn't recognize any of those Pikachu, and none of them recognized me or the name Ash Ketchum. I even scanned for Raichu (a long shot, but you never know), but the few I found were dead ends.

I took flight after that, and now I find myself leaning against a tree just outside of some city and wondering what my next move is. I won't give up on Pikachu. No matter what. After all that he and Ash have done for me, I owe them that much and more.

"Why, you look like a fellow with a head full of thoughts." I look up and find a Butterfree clinging upside-down to the tree trunk and staring down at me with those huge red eyes. He skitters down until he is too close for comfort. I step away, and he stops when we're at eye-level. "I can relate. I got thoughts in my head too, yup yup."

Any other time, I would ignore him and move on. But, there's something about him… "Do I know you?" I ask. "You seem familiar."

Butterfree tilts his head at me and hums loudly. "Well, I've been told I got one of them faces." His huge white wings propel him off the tree, and he flies all around me, stopping in front of my face. "Though, you got something about you, yup yup. Curious. I don't recall ever meeting no, eh…"

"Charizard."

"That name." He clicks his tongue in rapid succession. "That there name."

We stand there, staring each other down. Clearly, we've met before, but where? Suddenly, I recall that Ash had a Butterfree on the team in his early days as a trainer. Said pokemon fell in love with a female Butterfree and left to go be with her. We were all sad to see him go, but we weren't going to deny him his happiness.

But, this can't be that guy, can he?

This Butterfree continues babbling. "Now, I knew a Charmander back in the day. Maybe that's why the name gets me. Sounds kind of similar."

"By any chance," I begin, suspicious now, "does the name Ash Ketchum mean anything?"

His eyes light up, and I have my answer. "Why, sure 'nuff! I used to bebop all over Timbuktu with that feller. His other pokemon too. Let's see. There was Pikachu and Pigeotto and that Charmander I mentioned-"

I laugh in both disbelief (because it's been years since I've seen this guy) and amusement (because he still talks your ear off). I tap a claw against my chest. "That would be me. I'm Charmander! Though, as I've said, my name is Charizard now."

I stifle another laugh as Butterfree's mouth drops open and he stares up and down at me. "Well, tan my hide! You got a heck of a lot bigger!" He flies around me, and I feel him land on my back. "Nice set of wings, too." He crawls along one wing, and I shake him off with a hard flap. He somersaults mid-air but flies back in front of me, undeterred. He crosses his arms and nods sagely. "Mm-hm. I'd say that's a mighty fine form you got there."

The praise warms me, but I reign in my ego, remembering why I'm out here. "Look, I'd love to catch up, Butterfree-"

He lets out a little gasp, the interruption grating me a bit. "Oh, duh! If you're here, that means Ash is too, right?" He twirls with glee. "Yeehaw! I'm as happy as a Psyduck without a headache!"

And, now I have to burst his bubble. Lovely. "Actually, Ash isn't here."

"Oh." He deflates a little then shoves his dopey grin in my face. "Well, he can't be far behind, right?"

How am I supposed to explain this? He's so excited to see Ash again, that the last thing I want is to tell him that Ash is on the opposite side of the region (then again, I have no idea where I am right now). On a more selfish note, I'm going to get enough of an earful for leaving from Ash. And, assuming Butterfree hasn't changed too much, he's never exactly been known for his ability to shut up. A lecture from him could take a while. A long while that Pikachu might not have. Still, I have to tell Butterfree something.

"I'll give you the short version," I decide, pushing him back with my finger. "Team Rocket- Do you remember them?"

"Hard to forget them," he confirms. "You know, they're a peculiar bunch. I always wondered-"

"Anyway," I say before he can go off, "I wasn't there, so I don't know the whole story, but apparently Team Rocket managed to kidnap Pikachu. He got away, but no one's heard from him in a while."

Butterfree shakes his head and clicks his tongue again. "Ah, I do not miss those folks. Sure hope Pikachu's alright." He's not the only one. "So, Ash sent you off as a search party, huh?"

I nod, ignoring a twinge of guilt. But, what Butterfree doesn't know won't hurt him. "I'm going to assume that means you don't know where Pikachu is."

He shrugs helplessly. "My hands are tied, partner." Then, he gets an odd look on his face. "Say, where exactly did Pikachu get captured?"

I like the way he said that. "Not entirely sure," I say honestly.

Given the timeframe, I'd say it was somewhere between Vermilion City and Lavender Town, but that's a pretty wide range. And, for all I know, Team Rocket could have plucked Pikachu right off of the S.S. Whatsitsname. Ash didn't say. He'd been making that face he pulls out when he's holding on for dear life, so I doubt any of us would have asked even if we could use human-language.

Butterfree stares me down, sizing me up like we're preparing for a battle. I can practically smell the smoke, he's thinking so hard. I'm about to run out of patience when he says, "I'll tell you what. I might have something for you. But, if I scratch your back, you gotta scratch mine."

Seriously? I'm tempted to blow fire in his face. Chances are, Pikachu doesn't have time for me to do favors. Still, I reason, I doubt Butterfree would do this if it wasn't important. And, I need everything I can get if it means finding one of my oldest friends. "Fine. What do you want?"

"Let me come with you."

…I don't know what I was expecting, but I know it wasn't that. "Excuse me?"

Butterfree's face suddenly resembles Ash's when things get intense. I can almost picture Butterfree reaching up to flip a ball cap around. "I wanna come along with you, Charizard. Thing is, I've been off searching for Ash for a while now. You know where to find him, right?"

"Well, yes, but-"
"Then, I'll tell you what you wanna know if you bring me to Ash afterwards." He sticks out a hand, though it's not much of a gesture since he doesn't exactly have arms. "We got a done deal?"

Yeah, no. Under normal circumstances, I might go along with this, but I'll cover more ground on my own. Not to mention, I don't know how much Butterfree's kept up with training, if at all. I'm not saying that having a mate and probably kids could make him soft, but it would certainly be a distraction at least.

Come to think of it… "Don't you have a mate? What about her?"

Butterfree's face tightens, and I immediately regret mentioning it. He turns his head and twiddles his thumbs, er, fingers? "Uh, b-both my daughters have trainers now. I, um, I-I got nothing keeping me." No mention of his mate. I don't push the matter. He shakes his head, as if that will dispel whatever bad thoughts were in there. "L-look, I know it's been a long time since I left the team, but I'm tough. I can look after myself. I'll help with forging and I can battle and all that."

"Butterfree…" The implications about his mate make me waver a bit, but I'm not backing down.

But, neither is he. "Come on, Charizard!" He folds his hands desperately in front of him. "Please? Pretty please with tamato berries on top? I can't eat those things. Too spicy for me. For most folks, I reckon. But, I know you fire-types like them. Besides, the place I'm thinking of ain't all that easy to find if you don't know what you're looking for."

I'm wasting time, and I need that information. I sigh through my nose, deliberately blowing smoke in his face and taking more pleasure than I should in watching him cough and wave at the air. "Alright, you've twisted my arm. Tell me what you know, and I'll take you to Ash." Assuming he's still in Lavender Town. Assuming I can find Lavender Town…

Butterfree's eyes brighten. "Yeehaw!" he cries with a triumphant mid-air flip.

"Just one thing. If you're coming along with me, I want to make sure you're aware of something."

"Let me guess," he says slyly. He flutters closer and nudges my chest. "You're a big hot shot final evolution, and you work alone. That's why you're here all by yourself, right?"

Sufficiently annoyed, I push him off me. "Um. No. There's a deadly disease going around. As far as I know, it's isolated to Lavender Town and the surrounding area, but it could have spread. The humans call it Poke-X. Hear anything about it?"

"Poke-X, you say," Butterfree repeats. "No, I can't say that I have. But, it can't be that bad if Ash let you go off on your own." I must make some kind of face, because Butterfree squints at me. "He doesn't know you're out here, does he?" Busted. I try to stammer out an explanation, but he wags his finger at me like I'm a naughty hatchling. "Ah ah ah, I'm a father, Charizard. You cannot, I say I said, you cannot lie to me. I'll see through it easier than a Luxray staring at a window." He pauses at my blank expression. "Luxray can see through walls, hence the-the window- Forget it. You know what I mean."

I groan and run a hand over my face. "Fine. Ash doesn't know I'm here. But, he also doesn't know where Pikachu is. This whole thing would be bad enough without Poke-X. I mentioned it so that I know you'll know what to avoid."

"So, I am coming with you?"

"Only because it sounds like I'll need a guide. Now listen. From what I hear, Poke-X causes some sort of hallucination that makes you attack yourself and others. To be honest, I wasn't paying much attention beyond that, but- Uh, are you okay?"

His eyes are somehow wide and narrow at the same time, and there's a catch in the flutter of his wings that makes me worry he'll lose his hover. But, he shakes his head and blinks back to reality. "Sorry, I-I kind of zoned out there. But-but, I heard you. Heard you loud and clear, yup yup. M-makes you, uh, makes you hurt yourself…" His voice trails off, and he doesn't look at me.

The fear in his eyes isn't a fear of the unknown. It's a fear of the familiar. The way he spoke, the way his naturally loud voice grew alarmingly quiet; that's realization.

And, I have my own realization: he still hasn't mentioned his mate.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" I ask not unkindly.

"You know, Ash is probably worried to no end about you," he says suddenly. His voice is hard, but there's a fragility to it, like getting angry will keep him from breaking down. I recognize the tone because Ash also copes through distraction, and that can result in anger on his part as well. "Not to mention Bulbasaur and Squirtle and whoever else Ash has these days."

Oh, he has no idea.

As curious as I am, I'm not going to question him further if he's not willing to talk. I need to be on his good side, and I'm not going to count on simply being old friends to keep it that way. A lot of time has passed, after all.

It has nothing to do with some fear of saying something that will make him feel even worse, nor does it involve me generally sucking at emotions. Getting back to business is purely strategic on my part. Definitely.

But, something occurs to me that I have no choice but to risk mentioning. "You know, Ash is actually at work researching Poke-X."

Butterfree's eyes brighten with interest. "He is?"

"Yeah. I don't know all the details, but I suspect he's seen it up close and personal. If you rejoin the team now… Butterfree you would be on the front lines with him. And, that's assuming he keeps you with him throughout. Now that I think about it, he probably wouldn't want any pokemon with him at all right now." Granted, Ash did catch that Gardevoir, but Arceus knows what the circumstances were.

"He brought Pikachu."

"Pikachu went missing before Ash was recruited. Butterfree, I've never seen an infected pokemon, but from what I've heard, it isn't pretty."

"I know it ain't pretty!" Butterfree's hands are shaking, but the look on his face is fierce. A few passing Sentret and a Furret look our way, and Butterfree lowers his voice. "I think I might have seen it, alright? And…and, I know I'll never see anything worse." His voice started breaking at the end, confirming my suspicions. He pounds a fist to his chest. "I can handle anything, Charizard!"

I've never had a mate (some casual flings with Alpha Charla back in Charicific Valley, but I don't think that counts), but I've seen pokemon lose their own mates. It's one thing if it's natural causes. But, I've seen stronger pokemon than me left as complete wrecks from the sudden, unexpected loss of their significant other. I'll give Butterfree some credit; he's on his feet, in a manner of speaking, and he's not wallowing in grief. That I know of, at least.

But, I don't know what would happen if he saw Poke-X in action. Again, from the sound of it.

I shouldn't. I shouldn't ask, but I can't stop myself. "Your mate had it, didn't she?"

I half-expect him to crumble to the ground and sob into the grass. Instead, he scrubs at his huge eyes, retaining that broken determination. "Look. When I lost Flutter, I was in a real funk. I watched my gal tear herself apart, and nothing I tried could stop her. We'd flown off on our own, so the hoard wasn't around to help out. Telling everyone what happened was the hardest thing I ever did. I'm just glad our girls had already left with their trainers before all that."

Butterfree…

He goes on, lost somewhere I could never find him. "I was mad at the world, and I hated myself for not saving her, and nothing felt right anymore. The hoard was kind to me, but you wouldn't have wanted to see me then. Then, one day, I finally got sick of the pain and asked myself, 'Butterfree, when's the last time you were really happy?' Flutter wasn't an option. Our girls were off on their own-"

"And, you thought of Ash," I realize.

He blinks back to reality. If he's embarrassed for revealing all that to me, he doesn't show it. "Now, I never forgot him, but I hadn't thought of him that much since he let me go. So, I said my goodbyes, and here we are."

I want to respond, but nothing comes to me.

"You say Ash is looking into this?" he confirms.

"Yes," is the only sound I can make.

Butterfree gives me a firm nod. "Then, I absolutely have to find him. I want to figure out what happened to Flutter."

This guy has more fortitude than I gave him credit for. My resolve finally crumbles. In a perfect world, I'd be at this on my own, with no one else to watch out for except Pikachu. And, when he turned up, I'd deal with whatever state of mind and body he'd be in. We'd make our way to Ash, and then everything would go back to normal. Or, as normal as things can be for our family.

Sadly, if Butterfree's story is anything to go by, the world isn't perfect.

I find my voice. "Pikachu comes first. Then, I'll take you to Ash."

"Right. Absolutely." Butterfree clears his throat. "When I left Butterfree Hoard, I stumbled across another hoard. This one lives in a big meadow deep in the woods. Kind of a hidden gem. You don't even really notice it by air if you don't think to look for it. And, even then, the trees are bent all funny, so it doesn't look like much-" My turn to clear my throat. "Sorry. Anywho, the hoard's chalked full of pokemon of all kinds from all over the place, and I ain't just talking Kanto. They take in folks who've had some kind of trouble, you see."

"Sounds promising."

"And, they're led by an alpha." He pauses dramatically then leans in, as if revealing some big secret. "An Alpha Raichu."

The evolved form of Pikachu. "Even more promising. Are they nearby?"

"About a day or so's travel by air, I reckon."

That's not so bad. "And, you think Pikachu might be there?"

Butterfree shrugs. "Well, I was there a few days ago, and he wasn't, but he could be there now. And, even if he ain't, someone might know something. Like I said, them folks are from all over, yup yup."

It's not a guarantee, but it's the only lead I have. "Good enough. Lead the way."

Butterfree salutes the best he can. "Yes, sir!" We take to the skies. "I think you'll like Alpha Raichu," he says over his shoulder. "She's a tough cookie, but she's real nice, yup yup."

As we fly, he goes on about the hoard, and I take mental notes. At least, I try to, but his chatter snaps between important information (like there also being an Alpha Vulpix living there) and random crap (like every single color of every single flower) so quickly that it doesn't take long for me to tune him out.

Regardless, hearing so much about this hoard makes me think of everyone back on the ranch. I'm sure Snivy told them why I left, but that won't stop them from worrying about me. I'm sure Ash won't be the only one yelling at me when I get home. But, it doesn't matter. Finding Pikachu will be worth every harsh word.