Yeah, so...It's been six years. And apparently, Ash had a Dragonair and a Lucario in the anime. Huh. Oh well, I'll still resume as I have been. I'm gonna try to keep Chapters around 3000-5000 words with maybe occasional long ones of 8000 words. Time just keep passing and I had forgotten a LOT in this fanfic, and I will hope to try to gradually keep writing.

This story was last updated on October 26, 2016!

Ash's stomach was still aching a bit from the eating contest he participated in yesterday. But, he had a good feeling that once he started heading west to go down Cycling Road to Fuchsia City, he would burn off the excess calories he consumed. He felt his pants tighten and he yawned as he woke up, smiling as he saw Dragonair, Riolu, Zorua, Cubone, Scizor. He kept his Rotom in the ball because he did not want the mischievous Pokemon to escape and wreck havoc on the Pokemon center, so he kept it in its ball where it belonged.

"Well, today's the day that we are going to a new adventure-Fuchsia City," Ash said to his Pokemon and rubbed the heads of Riolu and Zorua. He had to be cautious with his Pokemon as he was perceived as being too soft with them, but at the same time, he wanted them to know that he had a lot of empathy for them and felt they were all deserving of love. He smiled at the soothe bell on Riolu's neck and said to him, "How close do you think you are to evolving, Riolu? Not that I'm in any particular hurry, it's just that you seem like you've been wanting to enhance your aura abilities."

He was eager to see his buddies get stronger, but he wanted them to experience the evolution when they felt it was ready. Considering Dragonair desperately wanted to grow wings and fly, her evolution seemed entirely natural and Ash had no feeling of guilt.

"I'd say it's reasonably close," the fighting type said telepathically as he nodded at his trainer. "I will hopefully evolve in the upcoming week or so, but I do sense that it isn't much further until that day comes. I am eager to understand your emotions more and allow us to bond."

Ash smiled at that and he remembered just how long they had come. He still remembered seeing the small Pokemon digging through his backpack that one day and just how far he has come along and he was eager to move forward with some evolutions. But he knew for a fact that Dragonair was going to remain this way for a while. He would do anything to make his starter attain her dream of flying and still had the rare candies, but he figured he would wait until she was in her 51 or so level, which was still quite a long way.

"Let's get on out. I'm not having breakfast today since I ate so much yesterday," chuckled Ash as he put the five in their Pokeballs. He was eager to get out of the Pokemon Center so he could take Dragonair out again since it felt just so right having her outside by his side. He missed when she was smaller and could wrap her side around his neck like a scarf, but she had grown too big for that now, which was a bit of a shame. Even if she wasn't too heavy, and thinking back, Ash realized that it wasn't the smartest thing to have a dragon type readily visible to everyone, considering the interest he gained from that very wealthy man. He really hoped the original Dratini personality persisted after turning into a Dragonite because Ash had heard before that some Pokemon become very arrogant and unsympathetic to their trainers once they evolved. He wanted and enjoyed living in a world in which they trusted one another and had love and respect.

"Good morning, Ash," Erika said calmly. "Are you ready to get started for Fuchsia City?"

"You bet I am! Do you need to see your mom in the hospital?"

"Oh no, she's been discharged and has headed back home, so she will be okay." She nodded with a smile on her face. "I got a call from her not long after you turned in for the night, but I wasn't sure if you wanted to be bothered or not so I figured to tell you in the morning."

"I appreciate the consideration, but I'm more pleased that your mom is able to go back home!" Ash chirped with enthusiasm, a small look of embarrassment on his face as he wasn't aware of just how loud he was being.

"Same." Erika giggled at how pleased she was that her mother was back home. "So. In order to head from here to Fuchsia City, we need to head west to Route 16, travel south along Route 17, which is Cycling Road, and then east on Route 18. All in all, it's about 48 km, as Route 16 is 20 km, Route 17 is 20 km, and Route 18 is just 8 km."

"Wow, 20 km on a bicycle?" Ash asked. "How long would that take?"

"Hmmm. It depends on how tired we get because riding a bike is more tiring than people think. Maybe an hour and a half? It's already 8:32 in the morning, and if we get started after breakfast in 30 minutes, we can probably reach Cycling Road by about...maybe 1 pm? I'd say that it is quite possible we could reach Fuchsia City by around 5 or 6 pm. Maybe have the gym battle tomorrow."

Ash was thinking about Sabrina and challenging her again. He didn't like how Erika automatically assumed that he would potentially lose if he were to challenge her, but a lot of things that the teenage had said indeed came true. Additionally, Ash was starting to feel a bit caved in with all the skyscrapers and wanted to enjoy nature a bit, so he figured this was the best thing to do for now.

"There's also the Safari Zone. Maybe we could stop over there before facing the gym leader and catch us something interesting," Ash said with more optimism. "I don't have any advantages over poison types, if the leader uses those types."

He was completely blown away by the utter randomness of Caroline's Pokemon at the last gym battle and thought to himself that maybe he should not focus on just one type. If Koga was to use Poison, he would best use Cubone and perhaps level him up to Marowak. He hadn't really used the small ground type since the battle with Lt. Surge, and he was hoping to find some more Pokemon along the way. He needed to cover more bases and find more diversity, like a fire-type, since he did not have anything that was strong against steel, ice, grass, or bug moves, other than Scizor's wing attack and metal claw. Still, he had to think of the hard choice of whom to send to Professor Oak once he caught someone else, and he was seriously considering getting rid of Rotom.

"Oh yes, there are certain Pokemon in that zone that are not found anywhere else in Kanto," Erika confirmed to Ash. "Let's get going, yes?"

The two of them left for breakfast and then they exited Celadon City, eager to finally leave the metropolis that seemed so enclosing from the tall artificiality of buildings.

"Wait a second, I just remembered something," Ash told Erika.

"What is it?"

"We don't have any bikes to take for Route 17. We still have those vouchers from the man at the Vermillion City fan club," Ash stated. "But it's so far away to go back there."

"Hmm. You're right. We'd have to go east to Saffron and then north back to Cerulean, and that would take several hours. They may not even allow us to take the bikes on the bus, unless they are those collapsible bikes that fold up."

"Well, shoot," Ash interjected.

"Hey, I heard that you are trying to get a bike, huh?" a male said. He was pretty tall, probably hovering around two meters. "There is a bike shop right before you get onto cycling road. There are part of the Cerulean franchise, so I'm pretty sure that they can take your vouchers."

"Really? Thank you so much or telling us this!" Ash chuckled, glad to know that their adventure wouldn't come across a roadblock. "By the way, do you feel like having a battle?" He was itching for some action, and he decided to make the first gesture.

"You're welcome and you know what, why not? I got some time to spare, so why not just a one on one?"

"Sounds fine with me," Ash agreed.

The man took a ball of his hip and shouted, "Let's show them what we're made of...Arbok!"

Ash gulped as he saw the long cobra Pokemon. He would gain a type advantage with Cubone, but he didn't know how far Cubone was from evolving to take on strong opponents easily like this Arbok. Still, he imagine the small ground type was likely bored with just staying in his ball all the time.

"Right, I choose you...Cubone!" Ash called out as he threw his Pokeball and let the small Pokemon come out.

"Hmm. Interesting choice. But one thing that I've learned is that the size of the Pokemon is irrelevant and it all comes to how well the trainer is coordinated with their Pokemon. You may provide an interesting battle or this could end quickly. Let's just see what you got, kid!"

"Cubone, give that Arbok a headbutt!" Ash ordered. The man had his arms folded and observed the small Pokemon rush towards the seemingly colossal snake.

"Whittle that Cubone's health with a wrap attack."

The Arbok extended his tail outwards and dodged the headbutt and wrapped about three feet of his body around Cubone and lifted him up high. Cubone's arms were wrapped and he couldn't use his bone!

"Excellent. No bonemerang or bone club from you," the man chuckled.

"Oh yeah, why don't you give 'em bubblebeam!" Ash commanded.

"What?!" the man gasped. "Arbok, launch Cubone into the air and counter the attack with poison sting!" The man was not expecting a special attack like that as he wanted to beat Cubone by squeezing him until he fainted, so he had to think cleverly. Arbok launched Cubone about ten feet into the air and then fired a large cluster of purple needles towards the bubbles that were heading for him. The two collided and neither of them sustained any further damage. "Not bad, kid, not bad."

"That was a good way to counter bubblebeam!" Ash praised the man. "Let's keep away from Arbok and launch attacks from a distance. Try to use bonemerang!"

"Using Cubone's signature move. I had a feeling that you would use such a move like that. Use gunk shot!"

The man meant serious business and he was not afraid of getting really aggressive with his began to eye the bone that was heading towards him and he shot out a garbage sack o filthy trash that was hit from the bone, deflecting it and hurling pieces of garbage out on the ground. Erika gasped at what she saw, very taken back at how the man used a move that was completely destructive to the environment.

"How inconsiderate of you and your Pokemon to use such a move like that and litter the area!"

The man just let her words go from one ear and out the other, completely focusing on the battle that was in front of him and nothing else. He was in a grove and was interested in seeing what this little Cubone could do. Ash was not appreciative of the mess that Arbok created, too, but he had to pay attention to his Pokemon and win.

"Seems that we are evenly matched. I like this a lot," the man said. "Hehe. Use sludge wave!"

Ash gulped. Sure, it was a poison move so it wouldn't do as much damage to his Cubone as it likely would, but that move sounded powerful. He took a moment to think and said, "Dig underground!"

Cubone did just that, immediately heading for underground, and managed to avoid the attack. He began to maneuver quite well through the earth and dodged some of the incoming poison that was filling up the tunnels, but he saw his window of escape was getting smaller. He could detect where Arbok was and immediately emerged from the ground, as well as some of the poison coming out like a purple-black geyser that spewed onto Arbok. Luckily it didn't affect Arbok Much but it splattered onto Cubone, poisoning him.

The man gritted his teeth, angered at what was going on, but was relieved to see that his enemy didn't come out unscathed. If he was able to keep the Cubone distracted for a while, he could possibly cause him to faint from poisoning.

"Not bad, kid. Not bad at all. It seems we are both in a situation. You've inflicted some fairly high damage onto Arbok with that dig, and your Cubone's gotten poisoned."

"This battle's getting started," Ash told the other with a clenched fist. He had to figure out a way to get in a bonemerang and finish off the battle, so he needed to find a way to predict what the cobra was going to do. "Bubblebeam!"

"Hmm. Break it away with your poison tail, and hit Cubone with that attack," the challenger said. As Cubone fired the barrage, Ash thought to himself,

"If his tail is being used to hit Cubone, then he won't be able to dodge bonemerang. Wait for it..." As Arbok popped the bubbles that glittered when they burst, Ash realized it was limiting visibility, so this was his opening. "Bonemerang!"

The glowing tail was heading for Cubone and he threw the bone. It whizzed past Arbok, but it would catch him on the rebound. The venomous tail slammed into Cubone, knocking him back and rolled on his side. He was down to his last bit of strength since it was a critical hit. Arbok was completely vulnerable and the bone came back and conked him on the back of the head! He let out a loud hiss and fell over sideways, swirls replacing his eyes.

After three seconds of no cooperation, Erika said, "Arbok cannot battle any further. Ash's Cubone is the winner!"

"All right!" Ash cheered as he went over to his Pokemon. He picked up and hugged Cubone who was in visible pain, but Cubone's body was engulfed with a white light. Ash saw the form change and it was a Marowak!

"Awesome! Cubone, you finally evolved!" Ash cheered. He took out his Pokedex.

"Marowak, the bone keeper Pokemon, and the evolved form of Cubone. This ground type has overcome the sadness of the loss of its mother and has a temperment that is not easily broken. It is skilled at using its bone for a weapon and can K.O. enemies with it."

Ash did notice that the bone Marowak was carrying was quite a bit more powerful and larger. He was eager to see how Marowak would perform in future battles.

"Maro..." began the Pokemon with triumph, but evolving did not rid him of his poisoning. "...wak..." he fell over with swirls in his eyes, too!

"Looks like it was draw; your Arbok was able to poison and cause Marowak to faint," Ash told the man.

"Oh, no, Arbok had already fainted, so you win!" the man told him. "That was a fun battle." He reached into his back pack and took out a stick an extended it and it had a point out the end as well as some trash bags as well as some soap and gloves. "Now, to clean up the mess I made."

Erika was quite surprised to see this, as she was about to scold the man for such a callous attitude to the environment. Ash took out one of the max revives that he obtained from the scientist at Mt. Moon and let Marowak have it, watching the Pokemon spring back to life. He was glad to see his Pokemon doing better, but he knew the other deserved a rest, and with a pat on the head, he tapped Marowak and the other got sucked back into the ball.

"Ahh...that felt great," Ash said as he waved goodbye to the man who was dissolving the sludge. "I feel ready for a bike ride after this."

The two of them headed along the Route 16 and sure enough, there was a Bicycle shop right before the winding bridge that consisted of Cycling Road.

"You know, maybe while we are cycling, Gyarados and Dragonair can follow behind us," Ash told the other. The two aquatic Pokemon were on good terms with one another, as the Gyarados that attacked Ash in the lake was just confused and not used to being gigantic. He had no intentions of being malicious towards humans, despite the fierce reputation that they had acquired.

"Sounds like a good idea," Erika said. "But let's make sure nobody sees us first and they should hide under the shadows of the bridge. It may make it more difficult to tell what it is compared to being out in the open."

The two humans finally were able to reach the bike shop at the beginning of Cycling Road and they went inside with other trainers. There were about ten other people in the shop and they were browsing around. Ash wondered if these trainers had gone to the Pokemon Fan Club in Vermillion City, too.

Ash wanted a bike that could be folded up so it was a lot easier to carry. Erika just wanted to rent a bicycle as she did not know whether or not she would need it. They were not cheap, either, as the cheapest ones started off at around ¥30 000. And some even went as high as ¥120 000. She completely forgot momentarily that she had a voucher she could exchange for a bike.

"Do you need help finding anything?" Asked a saleswoman as she looked at Ash and Erika with a small smile on her face.

"Do you have any of those bikes that fold up to make it easier to carry?" Ash asked.

"Why, yes, we do," said the woman. "These models just came in and they are quite popular amongst trainers. They are capable of holding up to 100 kg and it folds down to 8 kg, making it easy to carry with you. I'll give you a demonstration on how it folds." The woman began by folding the pedals at a 90-degree angle and pulled an twisted a few other things and in about 30 seconds it was completely collapsed to well under half its size.

"And if you store it in the PC, it will remain in the shape that you put it in for convenience!" The woman continued. Ash found this very useful, as he did not want to have to carry it everywhere. He would likely store the Bicycle back in the PC once he arrived at the Pokemon Center in Fuchsia City.

"That's cool! I think I'll take this one," Ash said as he pointed at the one the woman was demonstrating. It was silver and white with a black seat and handle bars and pedals that matched it.

"Very well then," she said as she took the bike over to the cash register and pushed some buttons in order to scan the bicycle. "Okay, young man, that'll be ¥50 000."

Ash looked in his backpack and he handed her the voucher.

"Oh, I see you've seen Richard Smith in Vermillion City, huh?" She said as she input the code for the voucher and handed the bike to Ash.

"Yep, I can't believe he just gives away these to people who listen to him," Ash commented.

"He's a very self-conceited rich man who feels better when people listen to him," the Cashier said. "Still, we occasionally get these but it's more common that the store in Cerulean City sees these vouchers as most people don't feel like coming this far to get one when it's not far from Vermillion to Cerulean."

"Indeed, that makes sense," Erika agreed as she went up to the register and gave her voucher in exchange for a folding bicycle like Ash's. She would store it in her PC when she didn't need it, either, but she wasn't sure how much she would need it after this journey. Thankfully, she had gotten some tennis shoes from home and a jogging suit to better accompany the journey compared to her dress that she wore when she first met Ash.

Once Ash and Erika left the shop, Ash chuckled.

"This is so cool. I can't believe we got these bikes for free! All just from listening to a man brag about his Pokemon."

"That is quite an usual tradeoff, giving random people a Bicycle just so that they will listen to him flatter himself," Erika said with a bit of contempt. "He must be quite lonely to do such a thing."

Ash and Erika headed out and waited for some trainers to leave and they took out their Pokeballs that contained their serpentine Pokemon.

Erika let out her Gyarados and the water Pokemon was quite pleased to see her. Ash was glad to finally let Dragonair get some fresh air instead of being confound to the Pokeball. She dove into the water and was right next to Gyarados, both of them eager to see one another, both of them were great battle partners and wanted to see each other grow.

Ash mounted his bicycle and watched Erika get on hers. They began to head south along the huge bridge, occasionally passing trainers along the way while the two Pokemon below were swimming in the cool water. The were well hidden underwater, but Gyarados' body outline was much more visible to the fellow trainers who were riding their bikes, and that was okay, because Ash did not want his Pokemon visible and potentially gain any more attention than necessary. Gyarados was the faster swimmer of the two, but they had to make sure not to stray too far away from their trainers.

"How you holding out, Ash?" asked Erika as they kept pedaling. Even though it had been a while since his foot had fully healed, she still had to make sure that he was doing okay.

"I'm doing more than great!" Ash said. "Why you ask?"

"I was just thinking about how your foot limited your movements. Even though it's healed, I just wanted to make sure that there are no further complications from doing a different activity like bike riding."

Ash was grateful to have a companion like Erika; he only hoped that he was good enough of one for Erika, but he assumed she would just leave if she didn't enjoy traveling with him. Although it was not bothering Ash's foot, travelling by bike was a lot more diffidcult and physically taxing than it seemed. Most of the trainers going past were fit and young and carrying off conversations with one another. They passed a distance marker and it said that they were still 14 km from Fuchsia City. Things were going quite smoothly until...

"Hand over the Dragonair, twerp!"

Don't worry; I'll make sure that Ash loses some important battles in the future. But I like battles where win Ash wins, it feels deserved and his Pokemon are probably about one hit from losing. I don't like writing fanfics in which it literally takes one hit and they're out, on either side. I'm open to suggestions as to unique Pokemon Ash could find in the Safari Zone.

I'm also still trying to find a direction with this story, too.