Vrey, very, very, very sorry for the wait. I feel like I've been neglecting this for years. A mixture of family crisis, a near death experiance and recovery have kept me from this, but I promise to be more careful in the future.

After a longer wait than I thought it would be, here's chapter four

Please don't forget to R n' R

Chapter four: Two's a Pair

She had heard before how easy it was for trainers and their pokemon to get lost in Viridian Forest but it was nothing like getting lost in it for herself. The motive to go had begun simple enough, go to Viridian Forest, catch some insect pokemon, go back to the pokemon center for something to eat. If she had know how hard it would be tracking common caterpie and weedle in a large forest with plenty of shade, food and water; everything a growing insect needed, she would have brought a lunch with her. Roary wasn't much better, though he had better luck spotting the very cleverly camoflaged pokemon then she did. Eventually, she had caught two weedles and four caterpies for herself, she had left the metapod and kakuna alone, telling Roary that if you caught a wiild crysalis pokemon it knew no attacks, if you trained a caterpie or a weedle until it evolved into its cocoon form, it knew how to tackle. Roary had kept that in mind when searching for his own insect pokemon. They were now walking back to the city, having grown tired from their walk and with weary altered pokemon following; Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur walked at their trainers heels, since they were the ones who had faced the insect pokemon they were all the more ready to go back to the Pokemon Center for some rest and something to eat. "I didn't know Caterpie and Weedle could be so tough." Roary said, as he and Kei came into view of the safe house between the Forest and Viridian City.

"I had no idea Viridian Forest was so big," Kei added "I had heard about it of course, but you don't understand til you experiance it." There was an agreeing 'char' from somewhere near her feet as Charmander nodded to show he shared her sentiments. Bulbasaur and Squirtle were too sore to say much at all, and maybe a bit too sleepy for their own good.

"I knew I should have got some when I came through here first, but oh well." Roary said, mainly to himself but Kei listened to him anyway. Kei stopped when she heard something snap behind them, turning she saw a pikachu run across the worn pathway in a hurry to get to a berry bush. The little yellow pokemon payed no attention to the trainers, prehaps it hadn't seen them, it seemed quite focused on eating the mostly ripe fruits like it hadn't eaten in ages. Kei was immediately gripped with excitement, she had always wanted a pikachu, Ash and Pikacu were the ones to blame for that.

"At last! Charmander, you ready?" Kei wispered down to her red friend, Charmander nodded and walked forwards silently. Kei waited for a few more seconds before putting her plan in action. "Charmander, Fire Spin!" The pikachu didn't see the pillar of fire until it was too late for escape; the cries of the electric mouse pokemon stopped and turn into an angry shout as a bolt of electricity came shooting out of the fire spin towards charmander. "Quick! Out of the way!" Charmander leapt to the left, out of the blot's way as the fire spin began to reside, showing a burnt and singed pikachu, battle ready and it's red cheeks sparking with pent up static.

"Pika, Pikachu!" (('That hurt, you reptillian freak!')) the pikachu screamed at Charmander, seeing that she wasn't facing a normal charmander. Charmander just waited for his trainer's next command. The pikachu raced towards him in a Quick Attack, Kei's voice said to dogde and once again Charmander sidesteped leaving an Ember attack in the pikachu's path. The hot embers burnt the pikachu's sensitive paws sending it to the ground and Kei sent a pokeball at the wounded pikachu; it tried to get out of the ball's path, but its paws hurt too much, it had no choice but to become a trainer's pokemon. The red glow faded as the pikachu inside the ball gave up its struggle and was then swiftly transported to the laboratory back in Pallet Town. Charmander spun around and ran to Kei to receive a hug of gratitude from his trainer.

"That was great Charmander, you're getting faster." Kei complimented, "Come on, let's get back to the Pokemon Center."

"Well, here they are." Professor Oak opened the pokeballs so that Kei and Roary could see the new pokemon, the boys were peering over the top of the table so they could see as well. The caterpies and weedles had gone through the change while being transported to the lab, the caterpies now stood on their backmost legs which had developed into muscled, very short, stump-like limbs attached to the segment of the body which made the pelvis, two more segments made the abdomen and a large segment supported the head and four shoulders where four strong arms grew, the head was human shaped but the caterpies had retained their large eyes and the antenne grew from the forehead, the caterpie markings had remained the same but were a bit more brighter. The weedles were pretty much the same but were slimmer and looked more agile then the caterpie they stood next to, the stinging tail had gone and instead they had somekind of spurs on their stumpy legs and the horn on their heads had moved to the forehead and looked more like a curved rapidash horn.

"Cool," Roary said behind her "where's Pikachu?"

"Hold on now, I can only carry so many pokeballs at a time." Oak said taking one more of Kei's ultraballs from his pocket and activating it. The red light that came forth changed into a slim creature that looked similar to the altered rattata, only its tail was a slim lightening bolt shape and its red cheeks were now mostly centered on the cheeck bones. The pikachu was female who was looking at them in the screen before looking down at herself, her azumaril like ears went up slightly in alarm and her red cheeks began to spark, her head now sported sport wild hair befitting to the fast and jittery nature of pikachus, she turned around and showed the brown lines on her back and the base of her tail. Seeing Kei and looking down to see charmander in the screen she began to scratch her arm nervously.

"Pikachu, pi?" (('I guess it was master that made us like this?')) she asked, not understood by the humans sitting and talking around them. Charmander nodded, deciding not to tell her that he had actually changed first hand from an accident, Pikachu looked down at her rodent feet and looked back up at Kei who was talking to the Professor. "Pi, pika, pika..." (('She's very pretty...'))

"Char, charmander." (('Yes, she is.')) he could see that Pikachu was trying to find the words for something else, but couldn't seem to find them. He sighed deeply and found them for her instead "Charmander, charmander, char, char." (('Don't worry about what you said, I am a freak in a way now anyhow'))

"Bulbasaur," (('How dare you say that,')) Bulbasaur said, having heard their comversation. "Bulba?" (('Kei still loves us doesn't she?')) Chamander just looked at him and Pikachu listened carefully "Bulba, bulbasaur, bulbasaur" (('Kei doesn't think we're freaks and to be honest that's all that matters, she continued to love us after our change and I'm sure she loves the new caterpie and weedle, and even you Pikachu the second that ball stopped glowing.')) Charmander just looked as though he had been slapped in the face by the hand of reason and Pikachu looked as though the brick of guilt had been lifted off her shoulders, she was standing up strighter.

"Pika, pikachu." (('Thank you, Bulbasaur')) Pikachu said, Charmander nodded and smiled, his flaming hair and tail burning brighter now he was feelling better. A beep sounded from the videophone and the Professor, Kei and Roary said their goodbyes.

"Look here you, I'm going to see if I can help mend your parents videophone so you can call them direct, call them next time." Oak said

"The phone's down?" Kei asked "I just called them yesterday, what happened?"

"It involves Pid." Professor Oak said dully. Kei immediately knew what was wrong with it now.

"How long did it take to get him out this time?" she asked with a bored 'I-shouldev'e-known' tone.

"Two hours" the Professor replied bringing out a ruined heap of wires and a videophone screen. "He caused quite a lot of damage, nothing that can't be fixed though. Right, call your parents tomorrow and me and Gary will take care of everything here, bye Kei, bye Roary."

"Bye Professor" Kei and Roary said at the same time as the screen blinked off. The two trainers and the boys got up from their seats and went towards their rented dorm rooms, all the while from a dark corner Team Rocket Grunt, Simon took photos of the strange pokemon and their trainer. Waiting for more orders from this new boss to send the photographs or attempt an abduction.

The Igglybuff Cafe had only just recently opened a couple of weeks before Kei and Roary had arrived in town but it was proving to be quite popular, especially for its cheap, tasty dishes and friendly service. Once the boys began to attract too much attention in the Pokemon Center they had gone into the city itself to find something to eat, they found the cafe and had taken a seat away from the window and fairly shielded from prying eyes. Ever since, they had come here for dinner and to talk about things that caught their fancy, today, it was about leaving the city. "My parents have always lived on Three Island and I beleive I'm the only one in the family who has ever come this far inland, I saved the money up to get a Free Passage Pass by battling the whimpy excuses for trainers on the Islands before comming here."

"Surely trainers aren't that bad from the islands?" Kei said after swallowing a mouthful of her toasted torchic sandwich.

"You obviously haven't been to the Seven Islands have you?" Kei shook her head to say no and gave Bulbasaur some of her milkshake. "All the trainers on the seven islands are about as useful as a chocolate ashtray on a motorbike, riding through a volcano, on a Summer's day with a magmar as a rider."

"That bad?"

"You have no idea." a few seconds abled Roary and Kei to take another bite from their meals before talking once again and it went to what they would be doing now. "I think I'll go back to Pewter City. From there I'll make my way back to Vermillion to go back home, I promised Mum I'd be back for my sister's birthday."

"Well hey, I'm going down those routes so why don't I follow you until you reach Hyti, I'm sure the boys would like to see you off too from the docks." Kei said, throwing her now empty milkshake into a nearby bin. "I'll get there faster as well since you've already been along the routes."

"Why not, me and Hot Spot could use the company." They finished their meals and spilt the bill between them before walking back outside, into the open air and making their way back towards the Pokemon Center where they would pack their stuff tonight, and be away by the morning. The boys were rearing to go, they were ready for Viridian Forest one more time. And, of course, Kei's mind was focused on the pokemon breeder Ash had told her about, perhaps he knew something about the boys strange transformation.

Hopes of going stright to bed were soon cancelled when they arrived back at the Pokemon Center. A young girl with a chicorita on her shoulder had asked for a pokemon battle and wasn't showing any signs of leaving without having one, Kei had eventually agreed, just so she and the boys could get some proper sleep. The blonde girl introduced herself as Melanie, a local trainer who had heard about Kei and the boys from a friend, as they walked onto the small arena outside the Pokemon Center. Melanie took her position at the far end while Kei stood with her back to the Center's doors. Roary and a large crowd had already gathered to watched. Melanie went first and Chicorita jumped down off her shoulder, Charmander stepped forward his usaul calm expression. Their was a moment stand-off, seeing which of the trainers would break first and Melanie took it.

"Chicorita, razor leaf!" she shouted, the green pokemon obeyed and sent a flurry of sharp leaves at Charmander, who stood his ground; trusting his trainer's commands.

"Ember!" Kei shouted, just before the firt leaf struck him. The force of the wind as he whiped his powerful tail around blew the leaves back and the sparks that flew from his egnited tail made them catch fire, right onto Chicorita, who was able to drag itself from the rest of the lighted leaves. "Scratch it, Charmander! Before it can get up." Before Chicorita knew it Charmander had brought his sharp claws down on her leaving a nasty mark on her side. Melanie quickly gave another command.

"Poison Powder, weaken him Chicorita!" Chicorita smacked its large head leave right into Charmander's face, the poison stinging his eyes and burning his lungs. Chicorita, fought the pain of it's side and attempted a tackle attack while Charmander still couldn't see.

"Ember! To your left!" the flames hit their mark causing the small grassland pokemon to faint near her trainer. Charmander staggered his way back to Kei, and fell into her arms. He was weezing and his eyes looked red, and some of the purple powder still lingered on his face from when he tried to rubbed it off. "Sit down Charmander, you did great." Melanie had quickly called Chicorita into a pokeball so she could be healed later and waited for Kei to call her next pokemon. Kei took a ball from her belt and released it, the red beam metralised into rattata. Malenie picked a ball form her belt and threw it onto the pitch, the ball opened and flew back to her hand, the red beam formed into a snake. Ekans looked at the altered ratata from his curled up position and just stared. "Rattata Quick Attack!" Kei shouted, rattata stayed glue to the spot, the look Ekans was giving her was terrifying him, she didn't even hear Kei she was so scared.

"Ekans use wrap!" Melanie shouted, Ekans slivered forwards quickly before rattata began to move again had the rodent pokemon in his coils before Kei could give another order.The more Rattata struggled the more Ekans squeezed making the small rodent light-headed from lack of air.

"Rattata bite it!" Rattata opened her mouth and brought her buck teeth down onto the serpents side, making Ekan's hiss and undo his wrap. "Tackle!" Rattata heard her trainer shout and now she could breathe again made a dash for the snake.

"Poison Sting!" Melanie ordered and as rattata struck, Ekans snapped his jaws down on his attacker delivering the poison. Rattata fell and fought to get up, but the poison took effect and she was soon too weak to get up. Kei called her back and placed the ball back on her belt as she called Pidgey from another ball. Ekan's was still recovering from the attack Rattata made and Pidgey saw his chance to tackle him before he saw. He struck the snake at a vital point and Ekans reared, trying to get a bite on Pidgey. His head fell to the ground as he fainted and Pidgey settled in his trainers outstrectched arms. Clapping erupted and Melanie walked up to Kei carrying her Ekans sucurely in her arms. "Thanks for the fight, I hope Charmander and Rattata get well soon." The young trainer handed Kei a four pack of Super Potions saying that she didn't have enough to give a money reward.

"The same for Chicorita and Ekans and don't worry, potions and more usefull." Malenie nodded and went back into the Pokemon Center as Kei and Roary helped steer a dizzy Charmander to the poison control room of the Pokemon Center, where one of the many chanseys was already waiting for them.

Back outside, Simon sat on a bench near the Center's arena and checked all the pictures he had got of the fight on his digital camera, the Boss only wanted pictures for now. He had said they wouldn't try an abduction... for some time anyway.