Chapter 55, everybody! Someone evolves this chapter! :D

Also, nerding a little about game logic with badges and how it might translate into the anime version—kinda crosses over with Pokémon Adventures, since that kind of runs on the logic that badges do things. Also, logical reasoning for why we have HMs and badges as gatekeepers. And theorizing on evolution biometrics, and yes video games are good for you. Good stuff.

Also quoting Surviving Jack—that was a good show WHY did they only give it one season?

And now for something completely different in the review responses: SPYRO 101, Urdeadnotbigsurprise, I am vegito, Dragonkeeper10, 10speed12, thor94, Ardtornismyname, talesfanjmf, Axccel, Johnny Spectre, forward-smash, SkeletonBisque (of course!), magical fan18 (ah, a fan of good taste :D), and DOOT76, thanks for the reviews! Nidorino evolve via Moon Stones, but now I want to see what their Sun Stone evo would look like….

Pokémon © Game Freak; Nintendo

In other news, the recent fad of eyebrow-less trainers seems to have stemmed from poorly-trained Fire types, which have been flaming their trainers. The Pokémon League would like to remind everyone to train their Fire types properly, with a focus on etiquette. The Pokémon League would also like to announce that fire extinguishers are to be added to the list of Essential Trainer Travel Gear (ETTG) starting in June.

One of the benefits and drawbacks of nearing civilization was running into trainers again. A benefit, because it was quick money and EXP, a drawback because Darkrai couldn't travel out in the open with them now.

Also a drawback because most of the kids he was running into weren't presenting much of a challenge. It was getting to the point that Ash was throwing out Pokémon with type disadvantages, mostly to give them some practice against such an opponent. Right now, Charmander was up against a Geodude, easily dodging the rocks thrown at him and actually doing some damage with his fire attacks.

"All right, Charmander," Ash said, balling his fists. "Flamethrower again, and then use Scratch on it before it cools off again."

"Dodge it, Jeff!" the kid yelled. Geodude moved to dodge—

But Ash had been training Charmander on his speed along with the rest of his team—outspeeding a Geodude at this point was child's play. Geodude got fried again, Charmander connected—the Geodude rolled away, rocked once, didn't get up.

"Geodude is unable to battle," Brock observed. "Ash and Charmander win!"

"Ah man, bogus," the kid muttered, returning Geodude before handing Ash a few dollars. "You're not gonna win next time!"

"If you say so," Ash said, trying to keep his expression neutral as the kid left, muttering about the nearest Pokémon Center. As soon as he was gone, Ash turned to Charmander, grinning.

"You did great, Charmander!" Ash exclaimed, causing the little fire lizard to bounce up and down, chittering excitedly. "Totaling a Rock type!"

"A Rock type that was at least a dozen levels under you, but still," Brock said, smiling at them both. "Keep training like that, and you might be able to counter a stronger one."

"Hear that Charmander? We're one step closer to totaling the League!"

"Char char!" Charmander cheered—

And then started glowing.

"Woah!" Ash yelped, jumping back—Charmander's glowing body started to morph, grow—

And then the light burst, leaving behind a different orange fire lizard in its wake. "Chaar!"

"Wow!" Misty said, as the Pokémon formerly known as Charmander examined himself. "Charmander evolved!"

"Aw, man, look at you Charmander—I guess Charmeleon now, right?" Ash asked, dashing over to look the larger orange lizard over. Taller, with a crest extending from his head and longer arms ending in sharp claws—oh wow….

Charmeleon looked at him briefly before making a huff noise and looking away.

"Sorry," Ash said, figuring he was miffed at Ash getting his species name wrong. "It's just going to take a little bit of getting used to. But look at you! You're amazing!"

Charmeleon huffed again before yawning and curling up. Snores emanated from him moments later.

"I guess evolution takes a lot out of you," Ash mused, before pulling Charmeleon's Pokéball out. "All right then, return, Charmeleon! Take a good long rest!"

The next day Ash released all his Pokémon when they broke for lunch, earning cheers at being out and about once again—the exceptions were firstly Frenzy, who didn't get worked up about anything.

The second was Charmeleon, who was still snoring.

Ash stared for a long moment, looked to Patches and Lenny, his other evolved Pokémon, before turning to call Brock.

"Brock! How long does a Pokémon need to rest for after it evolves?"

Brock looked up from his cooking, diverted his attention long enough to point a threatening spoon at Darkrai before answering.

"Pokémon evolution is a buildup and release of energy," Brock explained. "Unless they evolve under duress, an evolved Pokémon should be pretty peppy for a few days after evolution."

"Are you threatening me with a spoon?" Darkrai asked, hands propped on his hips. "And furthermore, that's a pretty gross oversimplification of the whole thing."

"What do Darkrai evolve into?"

Darkrai blinked. "Nothing—we're perfect as is."

"Then what do you know about evolution?"

Darkrai glowered at him. "You're lucky you can cook."

"I am indeed," Brock said, going back to stirring.

Darkrai hmphed at the dismissal. "I don't need to put up with this—I'll bother you instead," Darkrai decided, coming over to float next to Ash.

Ash decided to take the opportunity to point at Charmeleon. "He's been like that since yesterday."

Darkrai looked him over before turning to the rest of Ash's team. "Who wants to learn Wake-Up Slap?"

"Pika pi," Pikachu noised.

"And since when has that ever stopped you?"

Five minutes later, Pikachu had slapped his tail against Charmeleon repeatedly, and while not as strong as an official Wake-Up Slap, it succeeded in waking Charmeleon up.

"Sorry about that, Charmeleon," Ash said, stepping in between Pikachu and Charmeleon when the latter went to bite the former. "But you've been out for a day, and we don't want to fall behind in training, right?"

Charmeleon narrowed his eyes at Ash.

Darkrai yanked Ash backwards—why quickly became evident when the glowing afterimage of a Slash passed in front of his face. Where his head had been seconds previously.

"Gya gara!" Lenny roared, baring his teeth and bashing his tail angrily against the ground as he loomed over Charmeleon. Charmeleon's response was to shoot a torrent of flame at Lenny.

"Hey! Guys! Cut it out!" Ash protested, as Pikachu, Patches, and Vee joined the fray. Pretty soon, five of his Pokémon were fighting, Frenzy sitting placidly in their midst. "Guys! Quit it! You're not supposed to be fighting each other!"

"How do you usually have them train again?" Darkrai asked, scratching his face.

"Mock-battles are different—this is outright infighting! Guys! Quit it!"

Nothing doing—Charmeleon was holding everyone off at once, but only because the others didn't want to actually hurt him. Once they got over that….

Frenzy was still sitting there placidly in the middle of their arguing.

"Frenzy!" Ash called. "Make them stop!"

Frenzy blinked—

And then ramped up with his usual battle cry.

"I…probably should have been more specific," Ash muttered, scratching his face.

On the positive side, Frenzy was doing what Ash wanted: herding everyone away from each other and spitting angrily when they protested—even Lenny, outsizing Frenzy by a good twenty feet, quickly backed away from the hissing Paras.

The only one who didn't was Charmeleon, who snorted angrily when Frenzy faced him—smoke came out of his nostrils.

"You're about to have toasted bug," Darkrai pointed out.

Ash quickly planted himself between Charmeleon and Frenzy.

"Come on, Charmeleon, knock it off," Ash said. "You all are teammates. You can't be fighting."

Charmeleon directed his attention to Ash, who quickly moved a leg to prevent Frenzy from going around him on his mission—

And then Charmeleon inhaled.

Instinct of the formless kind drove Ash to dive to the ground, somewhat squishing Frenzy beneath him as he clasped his hands over his hat and plastered himself to the grass, hoping he didn't injure Frenzy somehow.

But that worry did not make him miss the way the air above him got mighty hot.

"Okay," Ash muttered, face still on the ground. "I think it's safe to say we have some issues."

Frenzy wriggled out from under Ash as he heard the rest of his Pokémon start up their vicious arguing again. The arguing turned to yelps as he sat up—Frenzy was unharmed, Ash had apparently missed his mushrooms, and he was currently separating everyone again in that Frenzy way of his. Good.

It meant he could turn all of his attention on Charmeleon.

"What. The…." Ash stopped, grasping at the air as words failed him. "What the Muk was that!? You don't just flame people! And you certainly don't just attack out of the blue like that! What's wrong with you!?"

Darkrai yanked Ash away again as Charmeleon charged him.

Charmeleon growled before barking out something at Darkrai, who was setting Ash down next to Lenny.

"Because I do what I want," Darkrai answered. "And by the way, what crawled up your vent and died?"

With that, Darkrai started floating away—absolute dismissal.

Which completely enraged Charmeleon.

"Darkrai, look out!" Ash yelled as Charmeleon released a Flamethrower.

Darkrai paused, didn't move out of the way as the torrent of flame washed over him.

And he was still there when the flames stopped, slowly turning to glare at Charmeleon as he nonchalantly patted a stray flame on his arm out.

"I was waiting for you to make a mistake that stupid," Darkrai said flatly.

The next thing any of them knew, Charmeleon was flying across the field, colliding heavily with a tree across the way and startling Misty out of the book she had been reading.

"What the!?" she squawked, prompting Brock, who had been watching bits and pieces of the affair, to look over.

"Pikachu," Pikachu said.

"Vee vee," Vee agreed.

And then Charmeleon was recovering and charging across the field, roaring an angry battle cry.

Darkrai flexed his claws, affecting a battle stance, waited until Charmeleon got close before viciously backhanding him, sending him rolling tail over snout across the way.

Charmeleon was undeterred, jumping back up and running back, snarling something angrily, reaching back and bringing his claws down in a Slash attack—

Darkrai calmly floated to the side just enough for Charmeleon to miss, before catching his hand and slamming him against the ground. Repeatedly. And then flinging him away again.

"Had enough?" Darkrai asked. "Or didn't the stupid get knocked out of you yet?"

Charmeleon snarled weakly, stood, got ready to charge again—

Ash stepped between them—

Charmeleon didn't slow down.

Darkrai grabbed Ash, pinning his arms, picked him up and plopped him to the side, released him and backhanded Charmeleon again in one smooth practiced motion.

"You," Darkrai said to Ash. "Stop stepping in the way of a battle. It won't end well for you."

"Charmeleon, knock it off!" Ash said, leaning around Darkrai to address Charmeleon.

Charmeleon simply got up again, flexed his claws, and charged once more.

Ash returned Charmeleon without another word.

"What's the matter with him?" Ash asked, looking at Charmeleon's Pokéball.

"And why did you do that?" Darkrai asked. "I had him in the crushing grip of reason."

"I'll give you that there was a crushing grip, but I don't think it was of reason."

"Peh," Darkrai noised, crossing his arms and looking away. Okay, that was one Pokémon expert not being helpful.

So Ash presented the problem to Brock, who fortunately had watched most of what went down.

"Ash, check Charmeleon on your Pokédex," Brock ordered.

Ash blinked before pulling the device out and doing so. "Okay, now what?"

"What level is he?"

"Fifty-one—wow. I didn't think he got up that high already."

"You have been using him a lot lately in your battles, and Pokémon that weren't yours originally tend to grow faster. Unfortunately, I think he's grown too much too fast and has gotten away from what you can handle."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Firstly, you're a trainer in your first year," Brock said, ticking his points off on his fingers. "Secondly, the Charmander line are known for being willful and hard to train anyway. Thirdly, you don't have enough badges to be able to control a Pokémon over level 50."

Ash looked at Darkrai, who gave a palms-up gesture.

"What do badges have to do with anything?" Ash had to ask.

"Allow me to demonstrate," Brock said, one finger up.

A few moments later, Brock had impossibly procured a whiteboard and a marker and was rapidly writing information out on it.

"Where on earth did he pull out a whiteboard from?" Misty had to ask.

"I think from his backpack, but I have no idea how it fit in there," Ash said.

"The man has incredible packing skills," Darkrai said, poking around in Brock's backpack. "I think I found the lost city of Pokélantis in here."

"No wonder Brock was so upset about his backpack being trashed at the gym."

"Done!" Brock said, finishing up with a flourish before turning to the rest of them. "Okay, basic breakdown of why earning badges are important.

"There are three reasons behind badge-earning," Brock said, holding up three fingers. "Firstly, to field out those who are not serious contenders from the Pokémon League, thus increasing the quality of trainers that do make it to the Indigo Plateau. Secondly, the earning of badges allows trainers to use Hidden Machines—or HMs—out of battle. This here prevents trainers from accessing areas where higher-level Pokémon roam, and thus give them some semblance of staying where the level is appropriate."

"Seems legit," Ash said.

"The third reason, and the reason most pertinent to your situation, is that badges are a symbol of power, both to other trainers and your Pokémon."

"Point of order," Darkrai said, raising a claw. "Name one Pokémon that cares about those little pieces of tin."

"Ah, but they aren't just little pieces of tin. Pokémon gym badges—I don't know how, so don't ask—give off special biometrics that affect Pokémon and their perception of you. Darkrai, how do Pokémon determine if another Pokémon is stronger than them without battling?"

"They can sense it," Darkrai said, scratching at his sawtooth ridge absently.

"They can sense it. Through the marvel that is technical science, these badges give off those same vibes. In addition, certain badges can actually affect the stats of Pokémon—like the Boulder Badge raising the Attack stat, for example."

"How?" came from at least three different sources.

"I have no idea," Brock admitted, shrugging. "What I'm explaining to you was explained to me at one of the gym leader committees by a gym leader named Blaine, back when he still attended those meetings."

"I must have missed that one," Misty said.

"Blaine being the one who went postal and is in hiding?" Ash asked.

"That's the one," Brock said. "Anyway. Through whatever science powers the badges, Pokémon stats and perceptions are minutely affected. Every gym badge will cause Pokémon up to a certain level to obey you, in increments of ten, with the effect stacking, starting with the first badge, which makes Pokémon up to level twenty obey you. With the eighth official badge, all Pokémon, regardless of level, are supposed to obey you—but since no one since Red Satoshi has beaten Giovanni and gotten the Earth badge, this hasn't been verified, and it could be that Red was such an exceptional trainer that he could command level 100s."

Ash shuddered minutely at the mention of Red Satoshi, but waited for Brock to continue.

"Moving on," Brock said. "Ash, you have four badges—so: twenty, thirty, forty, fifty," he said, counting off on his hands. "Starting at level fifty-one, Pokémon—specifically Pokémon that don't have you registered as the original trainer, will be less likely to obey you."

They waited, and when it became clear Brock was done, Ash gestured helplessly.

"This isn't just Charmeleon being less likely to obey me," Ash said. "This is like a switch got flipped—he went from being a nice little Charmander to…to…."

"A Mudbray's behind?" Darkrai suggested, having mostly lost interest in the conversation and currently grooming himself.

"Pretty much."

Brock considered this. "Well…this started directly after he evolved, correct?"

"Yeah."

"A Pokémon's basic chemistry and biology undergoes shifts and changes when they evolve—most of the time, it's pretty stable, but in other times, under extenuating circumstances, it's not. Charmeleon was abused as a Charmander, very nearly died at one point—that could have affected his evolutionary chemistry, and when he evolved, that became known."

Ash tipped his head, digesting this. "So…he was always going to have this happen?"

"Possibly. Charmeleon right now probably isn't even fully aware of all this—he's just obeying what his instincts are telling him, and right now his instincts are flawed. Unfortunately, it'd take a much more experienced trainer to deal with him right now—you could work with him, but if you do, you'd have to be devoting a lot of time to him right now, and you'd end up neglecting your team as a result."

Ash looked at the rest of his Pokémon, who all looked at each other.

"So what do I do?" Ash asked, looking back at Brock. "I can't just give up on him."

"My short fix would be to box him until you got a few more badges," Brock suggested. "Once that happens, Charmeleon would have no choice but to at least listen to you. Even then, you'd have an uphill battle on your hands."

"You're suggesting I put him on ice for the foreseeable future."

"To be fair, Charmeleon looked like he needed to cool off," Misty pointed out.

"Yeah, but I don't just want to give up on him!"

"Tell you what," Brock said, scratching his nose. "You've got until the next town to try and get through to him—I'll help you. You don't," he added, looking at Darkrai. "Right now, Charmeleon knows he was bested, and that he was bested by someone who wasn't even trying; he'll keep trying to attack you the moment he sees you, and I'm pretty sure Ash would rather have a disobedient Pokémon than a dead one."

"At least until you get a Flamethrower to the face and burn your eyebrows off," Darkrai pointed out.

"But my eyebrows are my best feature," Ash said.

"Ash, you get a Flamethrower to the face and your eyebrows will be the least of your concerns," Brock said. "You don't just mess around with a Fire type—or any type of Pokémon, for that matter. You're looking at mutilation if he decides to attack you and connects, or worse. And he has tried to attack you."

All right, fair point.

"Okay," Ash said. "Let's at least try, at least until we get to the next town."

"All right. But first—lunch."

"Finally, something sensible," Darkrai said.

They reached the next town, and nothing neither Ash nor Brock had tried had worked.

Which meant that Ash had to go with Brock's suggestion.

"Okay, look," Ash said, holding Charmeleon's Pokéball close to his face—he figured this was the best way to talk to Charmeleon without having fire shot at him. "I know you're not really fond of me right now, but trust me, I'll get better—I'll be the trainer you deserve, honest."

Ash glanced out of the transfer booth to make sure Misty and Brock were still on the other side of the Pokémon Center and talking to Nurse Joy before continuing.

"This wasn't my idea," Ash said in an undertone. "I'm willing to try until I'm blue in the face, but we both have to admit Brock has a point—we need some time away from each other. So I'm going to send you to Professor Oak's—temporarily. Once I get a couple more badges, I'll bring you back to the team, but right now we have to admit that Brock's right—I'm not a strong enough trainer for you right now, and you deserve a strong trainer." Deep breath. "So…you'll like it at Professor Oak's, he's got a lot of room for you to train, and if you ask nicely, I'm sure his Arcanine will teach you some really kicking fire moves. So…don't worry, you'll be back with the team before you know it."

And thus, with a heavy heart, Ash contacted Professor Oak's lab and told the aide that answered that he'd be sending Charmeleon to them.

"Oh how wonderful," the aide said upon him telling them that. "Don't worry, we'll take good care of him!"

Ash smiled, but couldn't shake the feeling he had failed somehow.

Brock, at least, didn't dismiss Ash's thoughts entirely out of hand when he brought it up later.

"Failure is a part of life," Brock said. "You can't succeed at everything—sometimes you run into a problem you can't conquer. It's like—you ever played video games?" Ash nodded. "Say you're up against a big boss that's a way higher level than you and it crushes you—do you go back and try again, or do you go off, train, raise your level, get better gear, and then go back and try again?"

Ash considered this. "Well, when you put it that way…."

"Exactly."

"Hold on," Misty said. "Did you just use a video game example to prove a point?"

Brock looked supremely pleased with himself. "Don't believe everything you hear about video games rotting your brain."

Which led to them hearing—over the rest of lunch—about different studies that showed how beneficial video games were. Ash was more than a little glad that Brock wasn't quite as droning as Professor Oak tended to be, and ended up finding the whole conversation fascinating.

And on the positive side, it got his mind off of Charmeleon for a while.

Charmeleon's absence was most notable during their next meal on the road.

Usually, Ash would have Charmander light the fire for Brock, since it was faster than messing around with a flint or matches.

Without a fire type, they were back to square one. They had no matches, since they hadn't bothered with restocking them, and they were out of practice with the flint.

"Okay," Brock groaned, upon trying and failing once again to get the fire lit. "Ash, look everybody up and see who can learn a fire-type move."

Pikachu didn't. Vee, Patches, and Frenzy all could learn Sunny Day, but it was a TM move and not really helpful at this juncture. Lenny, surprisingly, could learn Flamethrower, Fire Blast, and Inferno, but the first two were TM moves and the latter was a move tutor move, and since it wasn't his typing, it'd take longer than an hour or two to learn.

Geodude could learn all the fire moves Ash's Pokémon could, and Fire Punch too, which was pretty cool, except for the fact that they again ran into the problem with the TM/move tutor/non-typing issue. Onix could learn Sunny Day, Bulbasaur could…okay, Sunny Day was apparently popular….Zubat—could learn Sunny Day, which made no sense for a Zubat. And Heat Wave, which made less sense.

Oddish could learn Sunny Day, which was ceasing to surprise Ash. Squirtle, Horsea, Staryu, Goldeen, and Tentacool all did not learn any fire-type moves, which also did not surprise Ash.

Which left the one Pokémon whose moveset was a mystery to them.

As one, they looked at Darkrai.

"Do I look like my name is Zippo?" Darkrai demanded.

"Like your name is what?" Ash asked.

"A Zippo is a brand of lighter," Brock said.

"That would be useful right about now."

"Enlighten us," Misty said, crossing her arms tightly. "Do Darkrai learn any fire-type moves?"

"Maybe," Darkrai said, scratching underneath his sawtooth ridge. "If I were properly motivated."

Brock fished out and held up an Oran cake.

"Fine," Darkrai said, taking the cake from Brock. "Just this once, but you losers need to find alternate means of lighting up—I won't encourage this behavior."

And with that, Darkrai pointed his claws at the pile of wood. Said claws started glowing before shooting a blast of bluish flame at the wood pile. It was crackling in short order.

"Wow," Ash said, eyebrows askew. "What was that?"

"Will-O-Wisp," Darkrai said simply, blowing on one of his claws like James Bonsly did his guns.

"I'm going to have to use a Burn Heal to put that out, aren't I?" Brock asked.

"You wanted a fire, and now you got one. Stop whining."