Ash and the gang had been in Viridian Forest for a few hours now. The forest was littered with trees, bushes, webs, Bug Pokémon, and more Bug Catchers, whom Ash promptly defeated with ease. Though Bulbasaur still refused to battle, he did walk with the group outside his Pokéball. Ash noticed that the Pokemon was particularly interested in all the battles he had with the Bug Catchers. Slowly but surely, his grass type was healing. That said, Ash had no plans on using Bulbasaur at the Pewter City Gym. The grass type had no formal training experience and even if he did decide he wanted to battle soon, Ash didn't feel like there was enough time to properly train him.
Ash was interrupted from his thoughts when he heard a growl coming from his stomach and the onset of hunger pangs. Seeing a clearing up ahead, he and his Pokemon settled down for a late afternoon lunch. After all the battling they had been doing, they certainly deserved it.
Ash was nibbling on his sandwich, while his Pokemon were eating some berries, when he heard a rustling in a nearby bush. Turning his head towards the noise, he saw a small Caterpie pop out of some bushes. To his surprise, the small Pokemon crawled right up to him and started nudging his leg.
"Uh... Hey there, Caterpie. Do you want something?" asked the confused boy. Caterpie cried out looking at the sandwich in the boy's hand. "Oh. You want some food huh?" Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his Pokedex to analyze the small Pokemon.
According to Dexter, the Caterpie knew Tackle and String Shot. It also had a Jolly Nature. Reaching into his nearby bag, Ash pulled out a Sitrus Berry and held it out to the small Pokemon. "Here you go, Caterpie! It's nice and sweet and I think you will like it."
With an appetite and speed that surprised Ash, at least compared to the other Caterpie he had seen, the little Pokemon greedily devoured the berry in no time flat. Giving a loud yawn, the little Caterpie then fell asleep at Ash's feet...
Ash didn't know if it was the cute way the Pokemon snored, all the Caterpie he had defeated from the Big Catchers, or the fact that he hadn't captured a new Pokemon since he left Pallet, but he really wanted this Caterpie. Still, it didn't feel right just capturing the little guy as he was sleeping. Ash was about to nudge the little bug type awake when he heard the cry of a Pokemon above him, and it sounded like the Pokemon was closing in fast.
Ash looked up and saw a cream and light brown bird with a red mane diving towards them with its eyes on Caterpie. He identified it right away as a Pidgeotto, Pidgey's evolved form. Without thinking, Ash grabbed Caterpie and dove to the right, just missing the sharp beak of the bird Pokemon as it hit the ground hard.
By now, Ash's other Pokemon were moving, aside from Bulbasaur, who looked on with wide eyes at the trainer who saved his Pokemon. Pikachu and Charmander launched theirselves at Pidgeotto. Pikachu shot off a quick Thundershock, which the speedy bird Pokemon barely dodged as it started to fly back into the air, but Charmander jumped up and was waiting for the bird. With a vicious Metal Claw, Pideogotto was slammed back towards the ground. This time, Pikachu's Thundershock didn't miss and the bird Pokemon was down for the count.
Having recovered, and not wasting any time, Ash fired off a Pokeball at the downed bird, sucking it into the capsule. Unable to offer any resistance, Pidgeotto was easily captured as the ball dinged. Ash being Ash, didn't focus on that immediately, though. Instead, his attention turned towards his Pokemon and Caterpie.
Seeing that Pikachu and Charmander were high-fiving one another, and Bulbasaur appeared unharmed, he turned to the Caterpie, still in one of his arms. The small bug type looked in awe at the human who had risked his hide to save him.
"Are you ok, Caterpie?" asked Ash with concern as he gently put the Pokemon down. Caterpie responded by nuzzling his leg.
"Well, that's good," Ash sighed in relief. "Before that happened, I was going to ask you a question. How would you like to come along with us on our journey? We train long and hard, but we're still good buddies. What do you say?"
Caterpie cried out in joy and nodded its head rapidly.
"Great, Caterpie!" Ash beamed. Ash grabbed one final Pokeball and gently tapped it to Caterpie's head, sucking up the small bug type. The ball dinged right away as Caterpie was indeed happy to come along.
Ash finally looked towards the Pokeball on the ground with his other new Pokemon. Walking over to it and picking it up, he couldn't help but chuckle. No new Pokemon since Pallet Town and all of a sudden he catches two at once! What great luck! He should probably keep Pidgeotto and Caterpie away from each other for a while, though, or at least until Caterpie evolves, which should be soon since Bug Pokemon go through the process quickly.
"A well fought battle and admirable companionship you display with Pokemon. Your Pikachu and Charmander must be well trained to have reacted so fast without your command," said a voice behind Ash.
Whirling around, Ash saw a boy dressed up in full Samurai regalia, complete with a Katana. It was probably the most bizarre thing Ash had seen on his journey, and Ash's face showed it.
"I see you too are impressed by my battle armor and blade," replied the boy with no sarcasm. "I seek the trainer from the town of Pallet. Would that happen to be you?" questioned the boy.
Even more confused now, Ash answered honestly. "Uh, yes? How did you know..."
"I have found you at last!" said the oddly dressed boy leaping in the air with sword in hand and swinging it towards Ash at full speed.
Shocked and unable to react, Ash tried to shield himself with his arms and closed his eyes on reflex. No blow came though, and his eyes opened back up to see the blade had stopped short of him and struck the grass.
"I am known as Samurai," said the boy, acting as if he didn't nearly skewer the other human being in the clearing.
This time Ash interrupted the other boy; he was pissed. "I DON'T CARE WHO YOU ARE! WHAT KIND OF IDIOT SWINGS A SWORD AT SOMEBODY ACTING LIKE HE'S ABOUT TO SLICE THEM IN HALF, ONLY TO SHRUG IT OFF?"
Samurai looked back with indifference. "Perhaps I have overestimated you, if you are going to respond with such heated emotion. I have experienced two fine battles with other trainers from Pallet Town and was told that one more would be passing through, and so I waited. Maybe I wasted my time," pondered the boy out loud.
Having completely forgotten about his literal close shave, Ash jumped onto the fact that this boy must have battled Gary. "What? You fought two other trainers from Pallet Town? How did the battles go?" Ash asked curiously.
With no shame whatsoever, Samurai replied. "I was crushed." Ash face-faulted at this.
"However," started the Samurai with determination. "I will avenge my losses and will do it by defeating you now. I challenge you to a battle!"
If Gary crushed this guy, I can't do anything less than that, thought Ash as he recovered from his earlier face-fault. Looking the Samurai in the eyes, Ash answered.
"I accept your challenge, Samurai, but I think you will find yourself going 0-3."
"We will see," said the other boy as he took his place opposite Ash. "Pinsir, I choose you!" yelled the boy as he sent out his Pokemon. A giant brown beetle with an oval mouth and two white horns appeared on the battle field.
Ash was about to call for one of the two Pokemon standing by his side, but another Pokemon interrupted.
"Bulba! Bulba!" cried out Bulbasaur in an aggressive manner. This turned the heads of Ash, Pikachu, and Charmander.
"Bulbasaur? Are you saying you want to battle?" asked Ash with a little bit of hope in his eyes.
"Bulbasaur!" affirmed the grass type.
Ash couldn't believe it, but if Bulbasaur was choosing now to come out of his shell, he wasn't going to say no. "Awesome! Then Bulbasaur, I choose you!"
Bulbasaur stepped onto the field in front of Ash, while Pikachu and Charmander stood back, watching with interest. Like his other significant battles before, time seemed to slow down for Ash as he formulated a strategy. He had looked over Bulbasaur's attacks with Dexter shortly after taking ownership of the Grass type. Bulbasaur knew Tackle, Growl, Leech Seed, and Vine Whip. Though fierce looking, Pinsir didn't look like it had seen too much action, which meant it probably didn't know any of the bug moves that would be super-effective against Bulbasaur, but Ash would still be cautious. Pinsir did outspeed Bulbasaur, but if they could get close, Ash had a way to win.
Time sped back up and Ash took the initiative to call out the first attack. "Bulbasaur, use Vine Whip!" Two vines shot out of Bulbasaur and came straight for Pinsir.
"A waste of time," said the Samurai. "Pinsir, use Harden!" Pinsir's body firmed up with a light glint, signifying its defenses had increased. Right after this happened, the vines slammed onto Pinsir's body, doing minimal damage.
"Good job, Bulbasaur! Keep slamming those vines against Pinsir; we'll wear it down!" which Bulbasaur proceeded to do.
"You fool! Revealing your strategy in front of your opponent is a novice move," laughed the Samurai. "Charge in, Pinsir, and use your Bind attack!"
Pinsir pushed through the vines and began to charge towards Bulbasaur with its horns spreading apart to prepare the Bind attack. There was the mistake Ash was waiting for.
"Recall your vines and stay still, Bulbasaur," Ash calmly said. The grass type obeyed, trusting its trainer completely.
Pinsir was a few feet away when Ash made his move. "LEECH SEED! RIGHT ON THE OPEN SPOT BETWEEN PINSIR'S HORNS AND THEN JUMP OUT OF THE WAY!"
Samurai screamed for his Pokemon to dodge, but it was far too late. Bulbasaur launched a Leech Seed from the bulb on its back and it connected just where Ash wanted it. The projectile hitting Pinsir's head threw off his concentration just enough for Bulbasaur to dodge the Bind. That's when the Leech Seed sprouted vines all over Pinsir's body and began to zap the energy from the giant beetle, transferring it back to Bulbasaur.
"Pinsir, try to get that seed off your head! Use your Vice Grip to see if your claws could crush it!" Pinsir obeyed, but the base of its horns just couldn't quite get close enough to dislodge the seed. Meanwhile, Ash and Bulbasaur weren't wasting time.
"Fire off some more Vine Whip barrages just like earlier, Bulbasaur." After dodging, Bulbasaur had gained some distance from Pinsir and proceeded to further wear down his opponent with more Vine Whip attacks.
Frustrated, the Samurai tried the first thing he could think of to salvage the battle. "If we can't get rid of the Leech Seed, we'll have to knock out Bulbasaur directly. Charge back in for another Bind, Pinsir!"
Ash smiled. "Move your vines to either side of Pinsir and let it charge in a bit." Bulbasaur obeyed and the struggling Pinsir barreled towards the grass type. "Now bring your Vines back and grab Pinsir from behind! Use his momentum to send him flying and end this, Bulbasaur!"
The vines latched onto Pinsir from behind and, using the Pokemon's own momentum against it, Bulbasaur flung the beetle Pokemon behind himself, directly into a tree. The Pokemon hit the tree hard and sank to the ground.
"PINSIR, NO!" screamed Samurai. He quickly composed himself, though, and returned his fallen Pokemon.
"Great job, Bulbasaur! You were amazing!" Ash said as he kneeled down and petted his Pokemon.
"It appears you have great skill," said Samurai. "But I have one Pokemon left. Go, Metapod!" Out popped Caterpie's evolution in a hard green cocoon.
Wanting to give all of his Pokemon battle experience, Ash called Bulbasaur back, who joined Pikachu and Charmander on the sidelines.
"Go, Caterpie!" said Ash as he called out one of his two newest Pokemon. He might have considered Pidgeotto, but the poor flying type was completely knocked out thanks to Charmander and Pikachu.
"You dare use Metapod's pre-evolution against me? This battle will be mine!" cried Samurai.
Ash didn't bother to respond, or to formulate an immediate plan. He waited on Samurai to make the first move.
"Use Harden, Metapod!" A shine ran through Metapod's body as its defense grew.
"Tackle, Caterpie!" called Ash. The small creature crawled at a decent speed and rammed its body into Metapod, doing some minor damage.
"Ha ha! You shall never pierce Metapod's defenses. Use Harden once again!"
That was when it hit Ash... Metapod only knew how to use Harden. It was a bit odd, but then again, everything seemed to be with this Samurai guy. Ash decided to get this over with and called for his Caterpie to use Tackle over and over.
Samurai countered with more Hardens, proclaiming that his Metapod would never fall. It certainly took a while, but all the Tackle attacks added up, and fall Metapod did.
Ash was amused looking at the stunned expression on Samurai's face when, all of a sudden, Caterpie began to glow. A shining white light encompassed the small worm as its form slowly changed. The glow faded away revealing a freshly evolved Metapod.
At this, Ash jumped in the air with delight and ran to hug his new Pokemon. "Way to go, Metapod! I knew you could do it!" Metapod stayed there with what appeared to be a blank expression, but its eyes shone with happiness.
Samurai recalled his fallen Metapod and walked up to Ash and Metapod. "It appears I still have much to learn. It was truly an honor battling you Ash. I vow to train twice as hard and give you an even better battle in the future," said Samurai as he held out his hand to Ash.
Ash took his hand and shook it firmly. "Thanks for the battle, Samurai. Maybe work on the whole introduction thing, but I'd love to battle you again in the future."
Samurai handed over some prize money, the two exchanged pleasantries, and Samurai departed.
Ash turned to see Pikachu and Charmander congratulating Bulbasaur and Metapod for their well-fought battles. Things are coming together nicely, and the team is starting to forge some strong bonds, thought Ash.
The group packed up the remains from their lunch, and continued on the path towards Pewter City, drawing closer to that all-important first Gym Battle.
END CHAPTER
Quite a bit happened during this chapter. Ash entered Viridian Forest, caught some new Pokemon, and defeated Samurai. Bulbasaur even got over his trust issues with Ash, after seeing him risk himself for Caterpie. All in all, good progress was made.
Next chapter, Ash meets a strange man and his rocks, and does some more training to get ready for his battle with Brock.
AWMK3003 - Thank you for your review! Bulbasaur primarily enjoyed staying in his Pokeball as he still had some trust issues he needed to get over. As seen in this chapter, though, Ash's love for his Pokemon and desire to protect them won our grass starter over.
Shout out to my cousin who beta-read the chapter!
