Chapter 10 :Butterfree Bye Bye and Questionable Sanity.
"Why me buddy why me?" Ash asked Bolt in a stressed out voice. In the time she was separated from her friends she found herself in a number of odd situations. Beauty contest to help a man to pay for his boat, facing off against hired thugs so said man could actually pay, then it was a giant Tentacruel leading an army of Tentacool attacking a city that was thankfully stopped by the rangers and a trainer from some place called Sootopolis City who reasoned with the giant Pokémon. Then that Ghastly at Maiden's Peak... Speaking of which-
"Why are you following me?" Ash asked to the Pokémon hiding under the illusion of an old woman with wild hair.
"To get the story of the soldier that your family knew." The Pokémon said.
"Its an old story. I can not give you any useful information and besides its not a uncommon thing to have a family witch a soldier in it."
"But not a common flower in this region, is it little lady? You knew the name of the flower in her stone hair and called her the same thing"
"I only said that I would call her Gracidea because of the flower first. Then you started to following me. I didn't know about her story until after I told you the story of the soldier that helped part of my family generations ago. Zeke in Lavender Town would know more because he used to talk to my mom about all the stories from my family history. "
"Ah, but you are headed in that direction anyway so I may as well tag along." the ghastly chuckled.
"Can you atleast change the illusion so that it matches with your actual gender?" Ash asked. She wasn't bothered by him choosing that look it was just that she felt that she was going to slip and call him a her at some point.
"I can do that child but I actually enjoy going around and seeing humans reactions to an old hag with spiritual power being near them. Wary of mistaking my gender young one?" The sheepish grin and the girl rubbing her neck gave the answer plain and clear. The Pokémon let loose a laugh. "I'm a very old Ghastly little girl, I have taken to going around in many forms. Besides it's a prank that never gets old. That's extra funny coming from a girl going around dressed as a boy though."
Ash sighed at the ghost types comment. "I wasn't always like this. I used to be able to go around as myself a lot when I was younger. But for some reason boys and girls have a stubborn idea of what boys and girls should act like. The parents and older siblings that grew out of that way of tried to discourage that train of thought but it didn't do much good. So being the young tomboy introvert I was I desided to dress as a boy, then deal with that and the bullies that would pick on me for my so called dad not being there with my mom. Over time they kids my age seemed to forget I am a girl and I just got comfortable dressing like a boy. It was kinda like..."
"Your boy persona is like an armor against the other children and their opinions of you?" Ghastly said earning a hesitant nod. The Pokémon let loose a little snort. "You know there are a lot of great therapists in Saffron City."
"With all of the problems that pop up for the people with psychic powers, I don't doubt it. I'll ask the gym leader when I get there fir a recommendation. "
Bolt glanced over at his Bug Type friend who was flying next to their trainer. "Well at least she admits that she needs at least some help. But still what's with the whole gender expectation thing?"
"Not sure. Maybe its just a human thing. I don't know of many Pokémon types that judge another on something as silly as gender. Yeah some act a bit weird but its usually a personal, species or environmental thing." Blu said with a shrug while using Confusion to bend and twist the left over silver powder from a Silver Wind he did earlier.
"Guys I will remind you that I am right here." Ash said with a sour tone in her voice. Bolt winced and scratched the back of his head a few minutes after that his ears twitched. He stood up a bit straigter. "Hey I think we are reaching the spot where the Butterfree migration starts. I smell a group of humans and a whole lot more Bug Types. "
The Butterfree lost his consitration and the silver dust faded away."Drat." He said his voice becoming nervous. Ash took out her camera and used the boom to get a better look at the gathering in the distance.
Yup that's it all right." She said before putting the camera away and pulling out a make shift backpack small enough for Butterfree to wear. She had made it from the purple bandanna she had gotten a while back. She then took Blu into her arms and started to carry him." Now in the bag is some medicine I taught you about, a small container of juice and that small trinket we got back at the festival. Remember to eat healthy, try to stay out of trouble, keep up with your exercises and dang I sound like my mom right now. Any I want you to find a mate and live happily. I...I am not gonna cry right now. Your going to find a mate and off to start a family and I am going to be happy for you." Ash was near tears at the end of her little rant. She had just reached the group of people. Some gave her weird looks but there was a lot of understanding looks to with varying degrees of calmness. It was a couple hours later when Ash rode up in a hot air balloon with a slightly older trainer who had a more timid Butterfree then Blu. Both watched their bug types. Blu had a few females come up to him already because of his bizzar coloring. His arms and feet were the normal color but his eyes were purple, his body white and his wings were a royal blue. He wasn't intreseted though and gentally told them no. His new friend seemed to be fond of a another Butterfree but was to timid to go up to her on his own. Blu sighed before pushing the timid one back.
"Come on sweetie you have to go back out there if you want to find a mate." A pink Butterfree said to a normal one.
"But the last few times I tried the males didn't even spare me a glance." the other female Butterfree said in sorrow.
The pink Butterfree sighed in both exasperation and slight annoyance.
"Hey!" one males voice called out to them. They turned to see one oddly colored male pushing a jittery normal one their way. When the two were close the blue winged Butterfree pushed the other close in front of them. "Go on." he said to the other male with a slight shooing motion tword the females. Pink sighed if this was another male looking to be her mate then he was going to be disapointed. Suprizingly to her the more nervous Butterfree flew over to her friend and started to do a mating dance that showed not only that he was timid and shy but kind and generally intreseted in her.
The female Butterfree perked up before watching him for a bit. Soon she began to dance with him.
"Well they look like they're going to be a good mating pair. My name is Blu and you are?"
"Pinkamena but most mon call me Pink." Pink said to Blu.
"It's a nice name. Do you mind if I fly close to you for a while? A lot of female butterfree keep flying up to me and want to mate just because of my odd coloration and I would like I bit of a break. "
"Trying to use me as a decoy? Or is this a sneaky way of you trying to become my mate?" Pink said with a teasing tone but a bit of suspicion.
Blu blinked before he realized why she would ask that. "No! Of course not! I just wanted to talk and maybe become friends. I want to talk a bit other butterfrees before I find a mate, I want some friends I could introduce to my trainer before we all fly off officially in a few hours so that she'll know I will be safe. My method of finding a mate would be to talk, become friends, see if we feel happy with each other then do the dance to ask her to become my mate. Besides it would be a bit awkward for me to go up to a female I just met and did the mating dance. No matter how much the dance reveals about a butterfree." Blu said with a blush on his face. Pink looked at him and relaxed at his honest nature.
"Your trainer must really care about you. What is she or he like?"
"She's great although it can be confusing with her mood changes. She acts like a memma a lot but she can be a grill sergeant when it comes to train. Other times she can be the person that just vinishes in a crowd. She raised me since I was just an oddly colored caterpie. I even helped her win a gym badge."
"She sounds interesting. I personally never had a trainer. I'm a wild Pokémon from Pink Island. Every thing is practically pink there. I flew away from there a while ago and have been traveling alone or with Flurry Petal over there for a few months time."
"That's interesting. I come from Viridian Forest. I didn't see many others with different coloring like me and I was a bit shier then I am nowadays. Not that the other caterpie and weedle didn't try to get me to open up more then. It was just my personally and the world was so much bigger back then."
"I was a spitfire when I was small. I think my brothers were relieved when I seemed to mellow out when I evolved. I was still pushing myself to be the strongest I could be."
"I rather be a Pokémon who acts as backup then a front liner. I would be a frontline if the situation calls for it though."
"I'm the opposite. " Pink said an amusement.
" They look like their doing well." Ash said as she continued to watch Blu and the other butterfree. It has been an hour and only a few trainers in hot air balloons continued to follow the bug types.
"Eyup, but for some reason I feel like something bad is about to happen." The trainer that let her ride in the hot air balloon he rented said. His name was Ben.
"You too?" Ash asked in worry.
A loud explosion rocked through the gathering of the bug types. "Damn it! I hate it when my feelings are right!" Ben cursed lloudly as a large net shot out and caught a large gathering of butterfree in it. He moved to look over the side of the balloon to see were the nets and explosion came from. "We go at least nine humans and Pokemon each. Two fire, two electric, four ice and a flying type!"
"Tools?!"
"A few low grade bombs, some nets a track and a tank of knock out gas!"
"Damn, and they probably have more Pokemon too." Ash pulled out a pokeball. "Nova use Whirlwind on the Pokemon those guys have then uses Sand Attack on the men. Keep repeating if they send Pokemon out and use Wing attack on the bombs if you can't dodge! Bolt go with Nova and attack the Pokemon or bombs missed!" the pikachu and Pidgeotto nodded and Bolt jumped on Nova's back before flying off to do as told.
"Talon, Fang help those two out!" Ben called out a Fearow and Arbok The Arbok quickly wrapped itself around the flying type loosely. Talon soon was following Nova's lead. "I'll try to get us down there quickly. There are six trainers other then us here but from what I see most of then either aren't fighters or don't have a full team with them."
"Dang it!"
"Those piece of-"
"Pink! Don't attack reacklessly ! I have a plan but I need you to call it out and lead the charge !" Blu said before quickly telling her his plan. Pink nodded.
"Listen all butterfree we must protect but ourselfs and our fellow butterfree! Those that know Confusion and Psybeam take that net and shred it up then make a safe passage for our trapped companions! Those that know Stun or Sleep Powder find some mon with a Gust attack that could carry the powder from a distance! Those with String Shot cover bad people the best you can and don't let up! Everyone unify in this so that our future families themselves will have a safer mating migration in years to come!" Pink shouted. The other butterfree took haft a second before following orders with both determination and hope.
"Holly Ho-Oh, it's like a Butterfree army going to war." Ben said as the bollon slowly flew over closer to the poachers but still to high up.
Ash saw a poacher pulling out a gun and aiming it at Blu and Pink. She saw red. "Oh no you don't !" she growled before flipping herself over the edge of the basket and drop kicking the man.
"Are you nuts?!" Ben called out in panic as Ash herself let out her other Pokemon and started attacking with them.
It was an hour later when both Blu and Pink were leading the now full gathering of butterfree off. Leaving the tied up poachers in the hands of the good humans. Ash growled from were she was standing. Ben shook his head at the kid. He then turned to the poachers. "You guys picked the wrong group of Pokemon to try and capture."
"Don't we know it. Can you move the kid back, she bites like a Growlithe with something to prove."
Ash bared her teeth at the man causing said man to whimper and Ben to shake his head in exasperation again.
Ghastly reappeared behind Bolt in his old woman form is a raised eyebrow wondering what happened while he stayed back to make some money on some rather gulible trainers.
"Blu you trainer is absolutely nuts" Pink said with a bit of amusement.
"Yep, wouldn't have wanted her any other way though. "Blu said with a small laugh.
"Hey Blu I've been thinking."
"Hm?"Blu turned his head to look at Pink. As soon as she was sure he was looking directly at her she started doing the butterfree mating dance.
Blu blushed shyly, shocked at first before doing the mating dance with her.
Disclaimer : Don't own Pokemon, obiviously. I am sorry for any spelling or grammar errors and hope you enjoy the chapter.