When they finally reached Pallet Town, Ash faced the inevitable fate of all trainers who pass through their home town.
"Oh, look at you!" his mom said, pinching his cheek. "All grown up now, huh, Ash?"
"Mom…" Ash groaned. "You mean I wasn't grown up when I left?"
"Be fair, she's got a point there," Pikachu quipped. "Of course, I'm not sure you have grown up much…"
"And now you're getting after me too," Ash said, fighting down a smile. "Oh, yeah, that reminds me, mom – I should introduce you to the Pokémon I've caught!"
"I've already heard about most of them," Delia told him. "Mostly Dratini, I think? And one that Professor Oak has been tearing his hair out trying to find in the fossil record."
"Yeah, I met lots of Dratini in the Safari Zone," Ash agreed. "But, uh, actually one of my Pokémon already left to help protect some Butterfree… and another one teleported away one day. That was because of a Jigglypuff, though."
"Technically correct," Misty supplied.
Ash looked at her. "What's technical about it?"
He blinked. "And why are you holding popcorn?"
"We want to see what it's like when someone else finds out about this," Brock told him.
Delia looked a bit baffled.
"Anyway, so, this is Pikachu, and you've already met him," Ash resumed, scratching the Electric-type on the cheeks. There was a bzzzp as stray voltage jumped across, and Ash chuckled.
"Whoops… anyway, I went up into Viridian Forest, and that's where I got my first two Pokémon! One of them's the one that left, sort of, but the other one is – you remember that bird Pokémon I fed mochi?"
Delia blinked. "Wow, that's surprising!"
"Yeah, she just let me capture her without any problems," Ash added, and sent out Zapdos.
Delia's mouth fell open.
"Thank you for all the mochi," Zapdos told her. "It's better than the store stuff."
She quirked her head at Ash. "Think we can get some while we're here?"
"I'll have to ask," Ash said. "Anyway, after that my next Pokémon was Charmander!"
He scowled. "Some jerk tried abandoning him, but they were stupid as well as being a horrible person because he grew up really strong!"
He sent out Charizard, as well, just to demonstrate, and Delia recovered her aplomb enough to congratulate Charizard on indeed looking like a very strong Pokémon.
"The next one I got was actually one I got as an egg," Ash said. "He's kind of a rare Pokémon, as well."
"Relative to what?" Delia asked, faintly.
Ash opened the Pokéball, and an adolescent Lugia came out.
"Huh?" he said, inspecting the Pokéball. "No, I don't think that's right… I did meet Silver a couple more times, but I didn't actually catch him. He kind of misses my games console."
The Lugia vanished with a flash of red light, and was replaced a moment later by Keldeo.
"Zorua," Pikachu sighed.
"Oh, yeah, probably," Ash agreed. "I run into Keldeo every so often, but I didn't catch him either. He's just another friend… can you come out properly this time?"
Keldeo returned to the Pokéball, and this time he was replaced by the enormous rainbow-feathered form of Ho-Oh.
Pikachu jumped off Ash's shoulder and bapped him in the leg. "Enough."
"Come on, Pikachu," Zorua whined. "My whole thing as a Pokémon is pretending to be other Pokémon you might commonly meet."
Pikachu's mouth worked for a moment.
"...point," he said eventually.
"Oh, and then there's the Pokémon I got in the Safari Zone!" Ash said. "First, there's… I think it's Entei today?"
The Safari Ball opened, and nothing came out.
About two seconds later, a blur of yellow, purple and black blazed up before sliding to a halt in front of Ash.
"Sorry, I was late," Raikou said. "Did Entei leave already?"
"You're going to have to explain that some day," Pikachu warned her, as Ash gave Raikou a long scratch under the chin and the big Electric-type Legendary's tail wagged.
"Can't hear you, too busy getting scratches," Raikou replied, then overbalanced with a thump.
Ash was about to continue, but the ground jumped slightly.
A moment later there was a whoom from the direction of the Oak Ranch, and a cloud of smoke rose into the sky.
As did Dracozolt.
The Fossil landed with a crash about fifty feet away, picked themselves up, and shook their head before dashing over to Ash. "Oh, hey, you're back! By the way, is that Psyduck yours?"
"Psyduck is Misty's," Ash told them.
"Well, good news!" Dracozolt said. "I've worked out how to solve all your problems with making Psyduck a good battling Pokémon!"
They raised a claw to their chin. "Though I may also have given you exciting new problems instead. Just, um, don't tell him to use Sleep Talk if he's asleep and you like the building he's standing in."
"Can you keep it down?" Shaymin asked, crawling out of the flowerbed. "It was quiet around here until you started teaching that Psyduck half the moves in the universe."
Delia Ketchum decided it was time for a nice sit down.
It was about five days later that Ash finally managed to make time to challenge the Viridian Gym.
"So, uh… this is a Ground type gym, right?" he asked.
Giovanni frowned slightly.
"Yes, though if you're letting that decide what you use, you should remember that there's an exception to every rule about Pokémon types," he replied.
"Oh, I'm more asking because the one I was at on Cinnabar didn't use all Fire type Pokémon," Ash explained. "And it's something about the gym theme being okay? But this place doesn't have, uh, a floor made of earth or something, so I wanted to check."
He grinned. "Besides, I want to really see if I'm ready for the Pokémon League!"
His Pikachu nodded. "Cha!"
"Then yes," Giovanni said. "My entire team is, in fact, Ground-type."
It wasn't something he'd have been saying last week, admittedly… but that was last week.
"This will be a four Pokémon battle," he added. "Ready your first Pokémon. On three. Two. One. Now."
He opened with Nidoking, who was just the Pokémon to give anyone relying on Grass-types a bad time.
His opponent, on the other hand, opened with Raikou.
Giovanni stared.
"What?"
"Okay, Raikou, here we go!" Ash said. "Watch out for getting poisoned, and open up with Swift!"
Raikou shook out her mane, then flicked her tail, and a barrage of a dozen Swift stars went hurtling towards Nidoking. The Poison-type blocked, raising an arm and letting the attacks crash into it, and when they faded he was still there.
"Earthquake," Giovanni ordered.
"Extremespeed and dodge!" Ash replied.
Nidoking's tail crashed down on the gym floor, sending out a ripple that made the building shiver, and Raikou whirled before sprinting half the length of the arena.
One paw lifted off just before the earthquake pulse arrived, then the next landed just after it had finished passing, and when Raikou slowed again she'd completely avoided being hit by the attack.
"Great, it worked!" Ash cheered.
Nidoking began firing Poison Sting attacks, and Ash pointed. "Discharge to shield!"
A dome of thunder exploded into life around Raikou. It filled most of the room, crawling along the rafters and protecting her with a dense curtain of thunderbolts that shattered the Poison Sting, but none of the humans were even touched.
"Now, keep it up if you can, and use Extrasensory," Ash finished. "That's not just a Ground-type!"
"Mud Shot!" Giovanni called.
"Dodge!" Ash decided.
Raikou darted out of the way of the attack even as she fired Extrasensory, and the Mud Shot exploded when her attack hit – sending mud splattering the area Raikou had been, because she'd dodged in time.
"And he's using Earthquake!" Ash realized, spotting Nidoking's tail rising again. "Extremespeed!"
Now that he'd had time to recover his aplomb, Giovanni felt fairly satisfied with how he'd conducted that fight.
Considering the circumstances.
Nidoking was out, but towards the end all the mud and sand strewn over the floor had started giving Raikou problems with traction. It was just the sort of situation to let him regain the advantage.
"Come on back, Raikou!" Ash called, switching Pokeballs.
"Not bad strategy," Giovanni admitted. "Choose your next Pokémon."
"Already done!" Ash told him, holding up another Pokéball.
Giovanni sent out his Nidoqueen.
And Ash sent out a Zapdos.
"Oh, no, he's real," Giovanni said.
Mostly to himself.
"Stay up there so she can't hit you, Zapdos," Ash called.
"Smack Down," Giovanni said.
"Thunderbolt!" Ash countered.
Zapdos hammered the air with her wings, and sent a Thunderbolt lancing out at the Smack Down rock. It made contact with a bang, splintering the rock into a dozen pieces, and Smack Down shrapnel scattered across the indoor arena.
"No thanks," Zapdos said.
"Then use Mud Shot, and Poison Sting," Giovanni ordered.
"Steel Wing and block!" Ash said.
The Mud Shot didn't do anything – just flying through the air – and missed Zapdos completely as she rolled out of the way.
There were so many Poison Sting attacks, on the other hand, that it was impossible to dodge them all – so instead Zapdos did just as Ash had commanded, using Steel Wing and blocking the projectiles with wide sweeps of her wings. Each sweep sent a dozen or more poison projectiles flying, but they found no purchase on her shimmering wings, and Ash grinned.
"All right, it worked like we thought!" he said.
"It's worked often enough against Arbok," Zapdos chuckled.
"Nidoqueen!" Giovanni called. "Hyper Beam!"
"Whoa!" Ash yelped. "Thunder to dazzle her!"
He threw up his arm to cover his own eyes, and Zapdos flashed her electricity through her own wings at the same time as dodging wildly. There was a brilliant white flare of light, one which got alternately stronger and weaker along with a rolling boom, and when Nidoqueen fired her Hyper Beam it only clipped the edge of Zapdos' tail.
"Now, Twister!" Ash called. "Spin it up, then ride it like Dratini does!"
A swirl of Dragon-typed energy whirled up around Zapdos, and she threw herself into it.
"Down towards Nidoqueen!" Ash shouted. "And Steel Wing!"
"Ice Punch!" Giovanni said.
There was a delicate crash of ice and a staccato c-c-c-claaang as Zapdos hit Nidoqueen with Steel Wing about ten times in a single second, but the Ice Punch dissipated the Twister and Nidoqueen nearly managed to hit Zapdos with it as well. The Electric-type recovered and pulled up, and Ash frowned for a second.
"Same again!" he called. "Twister again, this side of her again, clockwise spin again, Steel Wing again!"
"Ice Punch again, then," Giovanni instructed.
Zapdos hadn't seen what Ash meant, but followed his orders anyway.
Everything about the second attack run was exactly the same… except that, from Zapdos' point of view, Nidoqueen was now going past on the other side.
Where before every blow had hammered down onto Nidoqueen from above, now they were all coming up from below.
There was a c-c-c-c-claaang as Zapdos hit, and hurled Nidoqueen bodily into the air.
"Now, Sky Drop!" Ash added.
Zapdos pulled up, snagged Nidoqueen's tail in her claws, and did an up-and-over flip which hammered Nidoqueen back down with a wham that shook the floor just as much as the earlier Earthquakes had.
"You missed something," Giovanni pointed out, as he recalled Nidoqueen. "That last blow wasn't protected by steel, so your Zapdos is poisoned."
"I figured it'd end the battle anyway, and I've got someone else to use next!" Ash replied, with a grin. "Come on back, Zapdos, I'll get you some Pecha dango later!"
He clipped that Pokéball onto his belt, and shifted to another one.
Giovanni sent out Dugtrio.
Then he saw what Ash had sent out.
"…what on earth…" he said, staring. "That isn't even a real Pokémon."
Dracozolt waved at him cheerfully. "Draco-zooolt. Dra-ra-ra!"
"They say that they are too a Pokémon," Ash supplied. "Or, uh, something about how two halves added up to a whole one in the Jurassic and it had better be the same thing now."
"Dugtrio," Ash said, thinking out loud. "Okay, they're really fast, so… right! Dracozolt, let me know if I name a move you don't know!"
Dracozolt gave him a thumbs-up, cheeks sparking.
"Earthquake," Giovanni said.
"Aqua Jet!" Ash countered.
Dracozolt burst forwards, taking a glancing hit from the Earthquake, and smacked into Dugtrio with a cloak of water surrounding their whole body. The water vanished a moment later, but Dugtrio went skidding backwards – leaving a trench – before recovering.
"Another fast Pokemon," Giovanni decided. "Dugtrio, Bulldoze. Slow them down."
The ground trembled as Dugtrio used Bulldoze, ripping back and forth and disrupting the whole field – throwing up furrows to delay movement and possibly even trip Dracozolt up.
"You know that's your gym floor, right?" Ash asked. "Isn't it going to be hard to replace?"
"That's none of your business," Giovanni informed Ash. "Earth Power."
"Bounce!" Ash said. "Avoid it!"
Dracozolt crouched and sprang into the air, going high enough that the fizzing orange energy of the Earth Power went below them.
"Sandstorm," Giovanni added. "And keep using Earth Power."
Ash glanced at Pikachu, then nodded.
"Wash all that sand away, Dracozolt!" he ordered. "Rain Dance!"
He pointed. "And use Hydro Cannon!"
"Dig," Giovanni snapped, and Dugtrio dove underground just before the Water attack hit.
"Electric Terrain!" Ash followed up.
"You'll have to come up with something harder than that to stump me!" Dracozolt chuckled, and stamped on the ground. Electrical energy fizzed and crackled, running along the gym's wet surfaces, and Giovanni scowled slightly.
"Now, Earthquake!" Ash said. "Give him a taste of his own medicine!"
Dracozolt started jumping up and down like the Gym floor was a trampoline, shaking it with every impact, and Dugtrio popped back up before darting in to swipe at the Electric-type's ankle. The blow connected, but Dracozolt quite visibly didn't care.
"Finish him off with Freeze Shock!" Ash commanded.
Dracozolt opened their mouth mid-jump, and two seconds later the centre of the gym was host to an elaborate ice structure with electricity buzzing and whining around the spiked edges.
"I'm not sure what type that Pokémon is, but I'm fairly sure I can do something to deal with it," Giovanni said, recalling the knocked-out Dugtrio.
"Dracozolt's Electric and Dragon," his opponent supplied. "But I'm switching them out too, for my fourth and last Pokémon for this battle!"
Giovanni had to admit to feeling some relief about that particular switch-out, and sent out his Rhyperior.
The only question was what Ash was going to use last of all.
"Pikachu, your turn!" the trainer promptly said, giving his shoulder-partner a boost out onto the field.
"...what now?" Giovanni asked.
The moment he landed, Pikachu's tail went down to touch the ground.
The entire Electric Terrain quivered, and then it – along with the electricity fizzing around the edges of the Freeze Shock impact site – drained down into Pikachu like water down a drain.
His cheeks lit up brilliant red, and Ash pointed. "Thunder!"
"You bet!" Pikachu agreed.
He used Thunder.
It was super effective.
"Have your Pokémon even heard of the Type Chart?" Giovanni demanded, as Rhyperior slowly fell sideways.
"Yeah?" Ash asked. "I thought the best way to make sure I was ready for the League would be to see if I could beat a Ground gym with an Electric team!"
"Pi-kaaaaa!" Pikachu said.
"Though, yeah, Pikachu thinks the Type Chart needs a change anyway," Ash added. "Who do we speak to about that? Professor Oak doesn't seem to know."
"How'd it go?" Misty asked. "Sorry we couldn't come along."
"That's fine," Ash said. "I know you've got Psyduck to deal with… did you have a chance to use him in a test battle yet?"
Misty waved her hand. "It took twenty minutes to get him to go to sleep, but then the first move he did from Sleep Talk made him rise up in the air, take aim, and pummel Squirtle into the ground like a tent peg."
"We think it was Fly," Brock added. "So there's definitely a bonus from the unusual."
"That's the spirit!" Ash grinned.
"Oh, hey, Ash," Gary called. "You were challenging Viridian Gym, right? What did you think of that crazy Pokémon the gym leader has?"
"Crazy Pokémon?" Ash repeated. "Uh… I'm pretty sure you've got most of his Pokémon. Unless you mean the Rhyperior?"
Gary looked blank. "What? No, when I was in there he had a Mewtwo."
Dracozolt's Pokéball burst open.
"I've been discovered!" they announced, turned into Mew, and teleported away.
After a moment, Misty pointed. "See? I told you that was Mew."
"What was Mew?" Gary asked.
"That," Misty said, waving. "You saw it, didn't you?"
Gary shrugged. "To be honest, I just saw a giant crime against palaeontology shout something and vanish. I kinda assumed reality had reasserted itself and didn't look any closer…"
"Won't you need their help to sort Psyduck out, though?" Ash checked.
"I think they've done enough," Misty muttered. "Anyway, you're going to be training for the League, right?"
"That's right!" Ash agreed.
"Two uninterrupted months of Ash training all his Pokémon," Brock said. "...that wasn't meant to sound ominous, it just came out that way."
Misty snorted. "Honestly, I just spent half an hour with Psyduck. Just Ash training them might be safer."
AN:
I enjoy writing a lot of this fic, but writing the Viridian Gym battle was really fun.
Partly because I got to start with Raikou and escalate. To Pikachu.