Misty shivered in fear as she proceeded, step by step. They could be coming from anywhere, so she was extremely wary. The shadows shifted, raking on her already fraught nerves.
This was a dangerous situation, one that she may never recover from if the situation went bad. She considered writing a will for Ash to help her carry out, in the event that she didn't make it.
"Misty, are you ok?" Ash asked in concern. She was awfully tense and he couldn't tell why.
"Y-yeah, I'm perfectly fine! Don't worry about me!" she said with a false smile.
A branch snapped behind the orange-haired girl and she turned her head slowly. A small yellow worm with a red antenna on its head looked at her with an eye-smiles, both eyes closed in an upwards U-shape.
"Hi there!" the Caterpie said amiably. The little yellow worm made an effort to come across as friendly, on her first day of actively trying to find a trainer.
She had a dream! A dream to leave Viridian Forest and become a Butterfree with a Trainer! She'd seen the majestic butterfly Pokémon flying past occasionally, watching them enviously.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Misty shrieked, quickly running over to Ash and hiding behind him.
Ash raised an eyebrow. "Oh, that explains it. You don't like Bug-Types, do you?" Misty shook her head vigorously. Ash gave her a disapproving look. "You shouldn't react like that, Misty. I can understand that you have a dislike for Bug-Types, but it's inconsiderate to Caterpie's feelings. If you want an example, just imagine if some stranger thought one of your Water Pokémon was freaky and disgusting."
Misty put her head down in shame, never having thought about it like that in the past. Ash gave her some time to think about his words, opting to go to the Caterpie instead.
Caterpie was moping, a mini-storm cloud above her head and dripping tiny rain onto her head. "Well, that didn't go very well…boo," she said sadly. She looked back up and found brown eyes observing her.
She jumped back slightly in shock. "Hi, my name's Ash! You don't need to feel so sad, Caterpie, Misty didn't mean anything by her reaction! She just generally doesn't like Bug-Types, it's nothing against you. I think you're really cute, personally!" Ash said with a smile. "You know, you're pretty special too! You're a beautiful golden yellow, instead of the natural green, which means you're a Shiny Pokémon!"
Caterpie wiggled shyly. "Oh, he's so nice, trying to cheer me up! I'd thank him if he could understand me… I wonder if he'd be my trainer?" she thought out loud.
Ash smiled brightly. "I'd love to be your trainer!"
Caterpie wiggled in delight. "Oh, really! Wow, thank you so much!" she said joyfully. After a few seconds, she realized something. "Wait, you can understand me?! I thought humans didn't understand Pokéspeech!"
"Oh, normal humans don't. I have a special power that lets me understand Pokémon though. So, what do you say, do you want to join my team?" Ash asked happily.
"I'd love to!" Caterpie said enthusiastically, moving closer to Ash before suddenly pausing.
Ash tilted his head. "Is something wrong?"
The little yellow worm hopped twice. "We should make this real! I want you to battle me and catch me, just like a regular battle!"
Ash shrugged. "Alright then, whatever you want. Pikachu, be gentle."
The electric mouse nodded. Caterpie quickly shot string out, surprising Ash and Pikachu. It launched faster than they had expected.
"Pikachu, spin and dodge." The electric mouse jumped and twirled in mid-air, avoiding the line of string carefully. "Double Team and then Thundershock." Copies of Pikachu appeared and surrounded, confusing the little yellow worm. Pikachu quickly zapped her with a toned-down Thundershock, disabling Caterpie.
Ash rolled over Pokéball, opting not to bonk the precious little worm on the head. She disappeared into the ball and was captured without a struggle. He quickly let out his new companion, who affectionately crawled onto Ash.
"Thank you for catching me Ash!"
Ash smiled, holding her in his arms. He rubbed her head lovingly and she cooed in delight. Pikachu climbed back up to Ash's shoulder. Misty looked nervously at the little worm happily cradled in Ash's arms.
She walked tentatively over to the Caterpie. "I-I-I'm sorry for r-r-reacting that way to you earlier," she stammered apologetically.
Misty heard the little worm chitter happily in response. "She says that she doesn't mind and can understand your reaction. Caterpie forgives you and would like to be friends with you," Ash translated.
Misty nodded with a hesitant smile, willing to try, but still affected by her dislike of Bug-Types as a whole.
Eventually, the group stopped to rest in a small clearing. Ash took a quick scan of Caterpie, nodding at the expected moves of Tackle and String Shot. The evolutionary line as a whole weren't versatile in the least until they reached Butterfree, which is when everything opened up.
"So, for now, we should just focus on training your base stats!" Ash said happily.
Caterpie tilted her head in confusion, not quite understanding what was going on. She felt a hand on her 'shoulder' and turned to see Pikachu, shaking his head with a pitying expression.
"Good luck. You're going to need it," Pikachu said grimly.
"What do you mean by that?" Caterpie asked innocently. Suddenly, she shivered and a foreboding feeling filled her body. Ash smiled at her, but Caterpie sensed something dangerous behind that smile.
"Let's get started. Pikachu, you too." Pikachu screamed and tried to run away, but a rope latched onto his foot and dragged him backwards. "Oh, come on, Pikachu, it's not that bad!"
Misty watched with amusement and settled down to see how Ash trained.
…..
Pikachu lay on the ground on his back, limbs sprawled and body limp. He panted heavily, sweating buckets onto the floor. "You. Are. Evil."
"Isn't that a little too harsh on them, Ash?" Misty asked, pitying the two Pokémon.
"Oh, they'll be fine! Isn't that right, Caterpie?"
The little yellow worm was curled up in Ash's lap, taking a much needed rest. "I'll be fine! I'll train to be the best Butterfree in the world!" she said with determination.
"That's the spirit!" Ash cheered, petting the little worm lovingly.
"That's no fair…you went easy on her…" Pikachu groaned from his spot on the ground.
"I train you guys to your utmost limits. Any more would've hurt Caterpie, since she's rather young and untrained. You, on the other hand, can handle more, so I think it was appropriate," Ash retorted.
Misty took a look around at the messed up landscape. String covered multiple trees as a result of Ash training Caterpie in becoming more proficient with the technique. She could now spew more string at a faster rate and with more force. The rest of Caterpie's training mostly involved conditioning.
Pikachu's training was more destructive, needless to say. Circular burn marks scarred the first few large rocks near the camp. The rest each now had large spherical indentations ingrained into them. Ash put Pikachu's electric proficiency to the test in teaching him a move that was rather recently created in the Unova Region.
Electro Ball. The projectile electric attack that concentrate electricity into a ball of whirring energy, damaging the opponent based on how much faster Pikachu was than its opponent.
As the attack took some charge up time, particularly quick Pokémon could attempt to interfere with its windup, decreasing the power if released at all. For a Pokémon as quick and electrically-talented as Pikachu, he would be hard matched to find an opponent that could stop him. It was a perfect fit.
The electric mouse was rather satisfied to have learned the technique, even if it was followed by Ash's demonic physical training.
"Hey Ash, when are you planning on trying to talk to Fearow?" Pikachu asked randomly, the topic wandering into his mind.
Ash stood up, gently placing Caterpie on his head. "I was actually going to do it right now, thank you for reminding me." He unclipped the Pokéball from his belt, but snapped his fingers as he realized something. "Lucario, up and battle ready."
Ash took Caterpie off his head and back into one of his arms. The Aura Pokémon jumped off the tree branch he was sitting on, understanding what Ash wanted.
He tapped the button on the Pokéball and released Fearow from the Pokéball. The large bird of prey let out a cry and flew up, hovering in the air. It eyed the Caterpie in Ash's arms.
"The human has finally released me from the ball…that Caterpie looks rather tasty..." the Fearow said, revealing it to be a female to Ash.
Most Pokémon researchers and trainers had methods of differentiating gender, though some tended to be rather obscure details on the Pokémon's physiology.
Conveniently enough, Ash's Aura Speech technique translated Pokéspeech into a voice of the matching gender, sound basing itself on different factors of the Pokémon itself.
"Caterpie isn't food for you, Fearow. She's the new member of our team."
Fearow was interested that a trainer could understand their language, but ignored it.
"Hmph…a weak Pokémon for a weak trainer. Pitifully fitting. Don't expect me to listen to you," she said haughtily.
Caterpie looked down sadly. Ash narrowed his eyes, annoyed that Fearow hurt the little worm's feelings. 'Well, I'll just knock out three things at once then.' "Fearow, how about this. If you don't acknowledge me capturing you while you were chasing Misty, then let's make a deal. I will battle you with Caterpie. If you win, then I'll release."
"And if you win, you'll keep me against my will?" she mocked.
Ash shook his head. "If I win, I'll let you go if you want me to. I'd like for you to consider traveling with me though."
"Ash, are you sure about this? That's a bad type match-up for you," Misty worried.
"I believe in Caterpie. We have a chance."
Fearow stared at the trainer with hidden surprise. She had expected a less mature response to her taunting. It made no difference. She would beat this trainer and his bug down.
"A-are you sure about this, Ash? I don't think if I can do this…I only know two moves…and she's a Flying-Type…" Caterpie whimpered.
Ash brought her up face-to-face and hugged her reassuringly, confidence shining in his eyes. "Caterpie, it doesn't matter how many moves you have or what type you are…anybody can win a battle if they train hard and use their smarts. At the very least, just give it your best!"
Caterpie nodded, invigorated by Ash's words. She turned around to face the bird of pretty, fire in her eyes.
Fearow's eyes glowed eerily red, glaring to intimidate Caterpie.
"Caterpie, String Shot, Web Style, now!" Ash's voice snapped the worm out of her fear. She immediately started to shoot string, twisting and shaking her head rapidly. The line of string quickly grew to an entire web, startling Fearow.
The bird of prey quickly dove to the ground, narrowly dodging the high speed web. She recovered from the shock and attacked. Rising back up, Fearow dove straight towards Caterpie, tucking in her wings and spinning violently, beck aimed to stab into the worm. Drill Run.
"Caterpie, quick, use String Shot on the branch and pull yourself away." The Drill Run slammed into the ground. Caterpie propelled herself onto the branch by swinging with the swing. "Great job, now String Shot both wings and pull yourself in while she's recovering."
Fearow tried to get up turn around quickly, but her risky move slowed her down. Two large strings attached to her wings, reducing her mobility even further. "Tackle with momentum, now!"
Caterpie jumped off her branch and reeled herself in. She added a twist, like Ash showed her, and spin-slammed her body into Fearow, making the bird of prey call out in pain. She flapped her wings angrily, tossing off Caterpie and turning to strike.
Suddenly, the worm's eyes snapped out-of-focus as she spewed silk directly upwards. It quickly fell back down, wrapping around her and enveloping her in a bright white light. Fearow recoiled backwards in annoyance.
Ash smiled as the light subsided. A red Metapod faced Fearow now, a happy look in its eyes. "Yay, I evolved! Just one more time and I can be a Butterfree."
"Awesome, but let's not lose focus now. Harden!" Metapod glowed red, stiffening herself to raise her defense.
Fearow, mind still clouded with annoyance, furiously stabbed her beak repeatedly, to little effect. A vein popped up on her head. She flew away slightly before rushing back, white energy coating her body. Fearow suddenly vanished from sight.
"Oh, Aerial Ace." Ash's eyes flickered, tracking the bird of prey's motions easily. "String Shot and pull yourself to the right, now."
Metapod obeyed immediately, starting to skid across the ground. Fearow reappeared, striking a glancing blow on the red Cocoon Pokémon. Metapod got slapped into the tree, but recovered quickly.
"She's putting up quite the fight. Ash is truly a great trainer to utilize Caterpie/Metapod's capabilities to such an extent," Lucario commented. Pikachu nodded in agreement.
"Ok, that's enough! No more messing around!" Fearow shrieked.
She wound up for an attack again, body once again coated with white light. Fearow herself also began to spin fiercely, beak glowing with energy. "I'm not losing here!" Fearow shrieked.
The bird of prey drove herself past her current limits, not allowing Ash and Metapod any time to react. She charged, determination to win evident in her features, collision imminent with the Cocoon Pokémon.
Metapod closed her eyes to brace herself for the hit, but smiled. She'd put up a good fight with Ash.
'You fought well, but you lose…' Fearow thought to herself.
If she was being honest with herself, she had fun fighting with the little worm and the trainer. Shepherding the local Spearows and harassing starting trainers was no fun.
Fearow registered Metapod's final expression, before her attack landed. Pride and joy. Exhilaration at her own performance. 'Could...I be like that?'
Metapod waited for the strike to come. 'Will it hurt a lot? I'll be fine though…daddy wouldn't let me get hurt too much! Daddy…daddy?' She felt a warm feeling inside. 'Yea, my daddy. He takes care of me, he loves me…he'll fulfill my dream with me!'
Metapod waited, unable to dodge in time. Thoughts flew quickly through her mind. 'Any second now…' The whirring came closer. 'Pretty soon.' Even closer. 'Ok, better brace myself!'
Metapod waited, but nothing came. She peeked through her eyes. Fearow hovered in front of her, flapping her wings slowly. "For one who was recently a Caterpie, you're strong. How?"
Metapod was startled by the sudden change in tempo, but the answer was simple. She didn't take even a second to register an answer.
"Ash. It's all thanks to Ash. He trained me to become faster, stronger, taught me how to use my given abilities to their fullest potential, and led me through the battle. Without him, I wouldn't have lasted nearly as long," she answered seriously.
"I see…" Fearow turned to face Ash.
Before she could say anything, a giant net burst out from the trees, snatching up both Metapod and Fearow. Lucario and Ash both switched on their Aura Sight immediately. The Aura Pokémon quickly grabbed Pikachu and jumped away, avoiding an imminent sneak attack.
Ekans burst out of the ground, following by Koffing. They stalled Pikachu and Lucario, leaving Fearow and Metapod to be dragged away.
Misty released her Staryu to help rescue the two captured Pokémon. She soon found the gesture to be unnecessary.
Ash jumped into action, fury adorning his face. He did not take kindly to people kidnapping his friends. He rushed forward, body enveloped in a layer of white energy, while his arms were completely enveloped in light.
Ash vanished from sight for a moment before reappearing, slicing through the net with his arms. He grabbed the cut net and the white aura began to steam off of him.
Misty and Fearow gaped at the sight. Metapod's eyes were shining with admiration. "Wow, daddy's so strong!"
He heaved and reeled in the net and everything attached, bringing a medium-sized robot into view and slamming it into the ground. Ash heard the groans of Jessie, James, and Meowth as they tumbled around inside of their mecha.
"Well, he's not going to give us time to do our intro, is he?" Jessie stated obviously.
"On the contrary Jessie, he looks rather angry with us," James replied.
"Will you two mugs stop yappin' and get to nabbin' the Pokémon!?" Meowth shouted, annoyed at the duo.
They pressed a few buttons, sending out two robotic arms to snatch the two injured and exhausted Pokémon. Fearow had put in a lot of energy to stop her full-on charge. The hand reached in to grip Fearow, giving in to her fate.
Suddenly, she felt herself pushed out of way. She looked back to see Ash getting grabbed by the mechanical claw. He shot a large blue ball of energy at the claw reaching for Metapod, knocking it away and preventing them from grabbing the red Cocoon Pokémon.
'Why?!' Fearow thought in shock.
"Why you little brat!" Jessie shrieked.
"We'll show you not to mess with Team Rocket!" James pressed another button, sending an electric current through the mechanical arm.
Ash grunted in pain, but withheld easily enough. Pikachu's Thunderbolts hurt more than this. That wasn't to say the spectators weren't worried though.
"Daddy!" Metapod shrieked. "Stop hurting him!"
A bright light engulfed her again and her cocoon shattered. A Butterfree with green eyes and pink limbs burst out from the remnants of her last form, flapping her new wings fiercely.
"Let him go!" she shouted, eyes glowing an eerie green. The air twisted and warped around the Team Rocket trio, giving them massive headaches. In their confusion and pain, they accidentally hit another button.
The claw released Ash and he turned to Butterfree, who flew into his arms. "Daddy, you're ok!" she chirped happily.
"You're calling me daddy now? Well, whatever, I don't mind. Congratulations on your evolution!"
Butterfree smiled, but slumped into Ash's arms, tired from her exertion and two evolutions. He set her down carefully, turning to Team Rocket, who were holding their heads in pain.
Ash whipped out a rope and lassoed the trio while they were vulnerable, trapping them and tossing them onto the ground.
Ekans and Koffing followed soon after, eyes swirled from getting knocked-out from Pikachu and Lucario.
"Alright, crisis averted. I'll call Officer Jenny to see what we should do," Ash stated, activating his Pokégear. Misty looked to Staryu apologetically and returned her Pokémon.
Fearow watched Ash anxiously. She decided to speak up. "Why…why did you protect me like that? I was defiant, proud, and vicious towards you and Metapod…" Caterpie's stubborn fight, Ash's battle intuition and personal strength…it was enough to force her to re-evaluate her thinking.
"All of my Pokémon are a part of my family and a friend/comrade to the end, Fearow, like it or not. In exchange for your company on this journey, my journey to be the very best, I will treat you well, train you hard, and risk my life to protect yours."
Fearow made up her mind there. She would stay with Ash, become stronger, and repay him.
His Pokégear connected to the Viridian Police Station. "Oh, hello Officer Jenny? Yes, I'm aware that Team Rocket were bailed out. They're actually with me right now." Ash continued to speak, being questioned by Officer Jenny. "Oh, yes, we're perfectly fine. We're working something out actually."
Misty, Lucario, and Pikachu raised eyebrows, but left it to Ash. They could trust in his decisions. Misty had a different bone to pick anyway.
The call ended and Ash turned around. Fearow walked up to her trainer, head bowed down.
"If you would still accept me as one of yours, I would like to join you, Ash. I'm sorry for my behavior earlier…"
Ash stopped her with a warm hug. "Welcome to the family, Fearow. We're kind of small at the moment, but I hope you'll feel comfortable with us."
"You have some explaining to do, Ash Ketchum…" Misty said, hands on her hips.
Ash scratched the back of his head. "Well, there's not much to explain. I have Aura powers, I got taught how to use it by Lucario. My Aura, unlike Lucario's, can expand to different types, though I primarily use the Physical moves. There's not really much else to say?"
Misty opened her mouth, but really couldn't find any words to say. After a moment or so, she just sighed. "Well, that's pretty cool, I guess. I probably shouldn't have been surprised after the whole 'I can speak to Pokémon' thing."
Lucario smirked off to the side at how nonchalantly she dispelled one of Ash's greatest fears. Being rejected for his powers.
Ash smiled at the orange-haired girl, then started to rummage through his backpack. "Well, it's getting kind of late, so how about I make us dinner!"
Misty and Pikachu nodded vigorously while Lucario went off to find his own food. Butterfree and Fearow looked at each other, confused as to Pikachu's reaction.
"Oh, that's right, you haven't had one of Ash's meals yet. His homemade Pokéfood is delish!"
Ash started to hum as he made stew and prepared the Pokéfood.
…..
"Oh…what hit us?" Jessie groaned as she stirred awake.
"I did and I will again if you don't stop trying to kidnap my family and friends," Ash answered.
"Gah!" Jessie, James, and Meowth gasped in surprise, turning their heads to see the young trainer sitting on the ground, legs crossed, and looking at them.
They looked around in worry, trying to find Ekans and Koffing. "Where are our Pokémon?!" James asked.
Ash bonked him over the head, putting a finger to his lips. "Shhhhhh….people are sleeping." He pointed at Misty's sleeping bag and Pikachu curled up on his own bag. "Ekans and Koffing are fine. I split a Super Potion between them. They're sleeping behind you, as well."
Jessie and James turned to confirm, sighing in relief when they saw their Pokémon sleeping safely. Ash observed them carefully.
The genuine worry in their eyes. The loosening of their muscles in relief. Meowth's automatic gesture of putting his paw to his heart.
"What're you starin' at?" Meowth asked.
Ash shrugged. "I don't know. You three are different from what I expected."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Jessie said in confusion.
"What expectations did you have for members of Team Rocket?" James asked.
"Records from past encounters with Team Rocket list members of the organization as cruel and vicious characters. Sinister of mind and intent, they treat their Pokémon only as tools and a means to the end, with no companionship involved whatsoever. It would be far beyond most ordinary Team Rocket grunts to display the sort of worry you had for your own Pokémon, as well as even consider working with a character such as Meowth, a Pokémon able to speak the human language," Ash stated monotonically.
The trio stared at him strangely. Ash shook his head. "Anyway, point is, you three actually seem like decent people, unlike the majority of the people in Team Rocket. Why did you three join Team Rocket?"
James, Meowth, and Jessie looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Ash.
"I guess we don't really have a reason not to tell you," James said slowly.
Three stomachs growled loudly and the trio looked down. "Oh, we haven't eaten in days…" Jessie complained.
Ash raised an eyebrow, but shrugged again. He stood up and walked away, the trio following him with their eyes. "Meowth, do you eat human or Pokémon food?"
"I can eat both, but I like human food more. Why?" the cat Pokémon asked.
Ash uncovered the pot on the set-up picnic table and brought over three bowls and three spoons. He ladled warm beef stew into each and grabbed a fresh piece of bread for each, before returning to the trio.
Jessie, James, and Meowth sniffed and started drooling slightly, having only eaten stale bread for the past few days. Ash cut the bindings and handed over the food. They took it graciously and began to eat. They tore at the fresh bread hungrily and slurped down large amounts of soup.
Comical tears ran down their faces as they ate. "It tastes so good!" they cried simultaneously.
While they ate, Ash brought over the rest of the pot, refilling their bowls as they finished and handing them some more bread. Eventually, the three had their fill, leaned back, and sighed in satisfaction.
"You're a good kid, Ash. Thanks for the meal," Meowth said sincerely.
"We haven't had a meal like that in who knows how long," James added.
Ash smiled. "No problem! So, will you three tell me your stories? I don't need it to be long, I just want to know what happened."
The trio shrugged and complied. "You could say that we all joined Team Rocket because we just didn't belong anywhere else."
"I'm a talkin' Meowth, kid. That ain't normal, I'm pretty sure you can understand that. I fell in love with a Meowth once in my past, but she rejected me, preferred humans to me. So, I tried to be more human-like, which is why I can talk like ya. When I went back to Meowzie, she called me a freak…so I decided, I couldn't mix in with my kind anymore. I joined Team Rocket 'cus my first words I spoke was 'rocket.' Might seem kinda weird, but it was all I had going for me."
"I used to be a rich kid, the only son of two millionaires. But when you have anything and everything you could ever want, you get bored. Life was really boring, except for playing with my friend Growlie, my Growlithe. Eventually, I got arranged to marry a girl named Jessebelle. I was fine with it initially, but she was really controlling and creepy." James shuddered. "So, I ran away. I tried a few other things, like joining Pokémon Tech and a bicycle gang together with Jessie at one point, but none of them fit. I ended up in Team Rocket."
"My mom was actually a Team Rocket operative, a pretty high ranking one too. One day, she disappeared during a mission and I was put into a foster home. I learned that she was on a mission to find Mew, but was never heard from again. I'll save you a sob story and just say I didn't have the best childhood. I did a lot of things through life, trying to become a Pokémon Nurse, enrolling in Pokémon Tech, being in the bicycle gang with James, working as a weathergirl, becoming a ninja…you get the point. Anyway, eventually, I ended up in Team Rocket too. Nothing else worked out for me."
Ash stared at the trio, seeing complete honesty as they told their stories. "Your boss doesn't seem to hold you in high regards, considering that you three were apparently starving before this. If I offered you guys a different job, would you guys accept? A job that I know you would keep? If you accept, you'll be able to avoid more jail time. On the other hand, you could serve the time for me turning you in, return to your boss, and then eventually get chased down again, living off of whatever food and money you can scrape up."
Even without the 'subtle' discouraging of continuing their current career, the trio didn't personally enjoy their current position.
In the event that Ash hadn't been so competent in capturing the trio and instead constantly did something like blasting them away, they would have hypothetically tried over-and-over again simply because of how desperate they were to earn something.
"We'd happily accept a different option," James stated. "What would this job entail?"
Meowth and Jessie listened intently.
"I'm sure you could help Professor Oak as assistants. Jessie, James, you both seem to like Pokémon at the very least. I'm sure with some review, your nurse training might help you out a lot, Jessie.
Playing with Growlie might help you in taking care of younger Pokémon, James. If not, you'd be able to learn enough to aid him regardless.
Meowth, you would definitely be a great help, translating what Pokémon are saying for Professor Oak. He'd probably appreciate it if you would let him study you a little bit, see if there's something different about you that allowed you to learn human speech or if it's an effort-based thing."
James, Jessie, and Meowth glanced at each other and huddled up to discuss the option in-depth. Ash sat back and relaxed, thinking about what he would teach his team members next. It wasn't as if the trio were any real threat to him, even while distracted.
'Butterfree has many, many moves open to her now, but many of them are innately tuned to her, so I already have a set list to work with. Aside from that, conditioning will be continued as normal.
Pikachu has a solid offensive move set, great speed, and strong attack power, both physically and with his electricity. He's a glass cannon at the moment, however, so it'd be best to give him a few defensive balancing moves. He should be pretty close to learning Agility.
Fearow is speedy and a good physical attacker, so I'll complement her current attack power with some utility moves, then teach her some extra attack moves. She should be able to help Butterfree with learning aerial combat.'
"Hey, Ash, we've made up our minds," James called out quietly, snapping the trainer out of his thoughts.
"We'll take you up on the offer," Jessie answered.
"The boss won't even care if we quit, doubt he knows we even exist with our track record. So, what now?" Meowth asked.
Ash nodded and quickly scanned their emotions and thoughts with his Aura senses, checking one last time for their trustworthiness. Satisfied with the results, he asked about one of his major secret objectives.
"You can head off towards Pallet Town starting tomorrow. You'll probably need to avoid Viridian City, but you guys should be fine on finding your way there. I'll give you some money and food to last you on your way. When you get there, you two should probably buy new clothes, James, Jessie." They nodded. "Anyway, after that, find Professor Oak's Lab and I'll either be in Pewter City before or at the time you arrive, so I'll notify him myself. For food, you can either stay with Professor Oak or visit the fenced blue house with red ceiling tiles and a yellow mailbox. My mom lives there and she'll cook a homemade meal if you ever get tired of Professor Oak's ordered food."
"Wow, you're gonna help us out that much? You're a real pal, Ash!" Meowth shouted quietly, sparkles of admiration shining in his eyes.
"No problem. In return, however, I would like you three to tell me as much about Team Rocket as you can."
"Why do you want to know about Team Rocket?" James asked.
Conflict ran over Ash's face for a moment. "I…I'd like to know more about the organization, in the event that I ever need to face them or anything like that. Knowledge is power and all that, right?"
The trio nodded in understanding. "The boss of Team Rocket is Giovanni, the Viridian Gym Leader, though he's barely been taking place in Gym duties. I think I heard something about him taking on one last gym challenge later in the year to test some secret weapon. That's higher tier information though, not something we grunts would know about. We don't know anything else, sadly enough."
Ash clicked his teeth in annoyance. "Thank you for the information, you three. Here, I'll give you guys some spare sleeping bags I have with me. Get to sleep, the day's been rough for you."
He rummaged through his backpack again and tossed them the sleeping bags. He zoned out as they thanked him and set-up their beds, eager to get to sleep and excited for the future.
'Didn't get all of the information you were looking for?' Lucario asked, initiating telepathy.
'I would've liked to know where the main base of the organization was…' Ash replied without batting an eye.
'And what would you have done then? You won't be able to take on this mission alone, Ash. You'll need more aid. At the very least, you have a window of opportunity to capture Giovanni himself.'
'Yes, I guess so. We'll need more companions to make any big moves, anyway.' A feeling of joy ran through the mental link. 'But we're making good progress. Butterfree and Fearow, my cute daughter and my prideful younger sister.'
'You have a strange mindset for your relationship with Pokémon, Ash,' Lucario quipped.
'Were you and Sir Aaron not brothers? I don't see why I shouldn't treat Pokémon as equally as a human. Butterfree and Fearow are part of my precious family, along with you and Pikachu. And any future Pokémon that we meet and join with us will be no less.'
'And that is why I believe you will become a great man, Ash…good night.'
'Good night, Lucario.'
The link shut off and Ash turned to look at the radiant moon. A black silhouette was present in the outline of the moon before it suddenly vanished. Ash quirked an eyebrow, but shrugged. Eventually, he went to sleep. He had a good dream that night.
…..