A/N: Hey guys, welcome to chapter 3! I'm sorry I haven't updated at all. I have health issues, so I haven't had much time to work on this story. This will not be cancelled though. I'd like to expand on the "Smart" Ash. When I say this, I mean he's smarter in terms of pokemon. He's still dense when it comes to love and is very naive when it comes to general knowledge. I'm also going to start answer questions in the A/N's.

espeon44: Will Ash have a travel mate? Will it be a girl? Will Ash date?

Ash will have travel mates, yes. Brock, Misty, and one more person will join. Who it is, is a surprise though. Ash will not date yet. You have to remember, he's 10. He'll probably starting dating by Hoenn MAYBE Johto.

ultimateCCC: Was Houndour officially Pokéball protected?

Nice eye! He has not been Pokeball protected, no. Maybe that will come into play...

thor94: Do you plan something with meowth about ash being his human counterpart?

No I do not. There are other people who are able to speak to pokemon. Annabel, Sabrina (pretty much all psychics), N etc. I may have a bonding moment between the two, about being out casted or something. Not sure yet.

Now onto the story!

Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon.

Key:
"hi" -speech
"hi" thought
"hi"-pokemon speech(translated)
'hi' telepathy

Chapter 3: The pokemon trainers!

As Ash and misty continued down the road they heard a scream. "Pidgeeoo!"

There was a pidgeotto being abused by a few trainers. "Hey, stop it!" Ash yelled, "You're hurting her!"

Ash starting running over to the pidgeotto, only to be stopped by the trainers. "Whadduya think you're doing kid? We found this pidgeotto, it's ours. Now beat it!" the leader said whilst walking over to Ash.

"Never! Pidgeotto, it's okay, I'm gonna get you out of there. Just hang on!"

Pidgeotto and the trainers stared at ash. The trainers thought he was just an idiot trying to pronounce pidgeotto, but pidgeotto heard him loud and clear, and let out a soft cooing noise.

Ash grabbed a potion out of his potion to heal the pidgeotto. The men noticed this and started
advancing toward ash, only to be stopped by a growling houndour. "Get out of our way you mutt! Go raticate!"

"Raticate!" "What is it master?"

"Raticate, use hyper fang!"

Raticate launched towards houndour, biting him with as much strength as he could muster. Houndour howled in the intense pain. Pikachu ran forward to help, only to be tackled by the other 3 trainers' pokemon. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't do anything in a 2v4. Then a powerful gust of wind started. Pidgeotto could be seen flying next to Ash using her gust attack. "Pidgeotto use quick attack!"

Pidgeotto launched toward them dealing quick damage. Pikachu and houndour realized what was happening, and joined in with flame thrower and thundershock.

After a few minutes, the 4 trainers' pokemon could be seen on the ground fainted.

Ash turned to pidgeotto, "Thank you for helping us. Would you like to join us?"

"Pidgeooo. Pidgeotto, pidge" "Yes. I would like to stay out of my pokeball, if that is okay."

"That's fine," Ash responded.

"You won't get away with this! We're going to report you to the authorities!" the leader said as his group ran away.

Ignoring what he had said, Ash looked toward his pokemon, "Are you guys okay? You seem pretty worn out"

They just nodded a little, being tired from the attacks the used and took. Houndour gave pikachu a look that said, "We need to talk later." Pikachu returned the look.

Ash and co. continued down the path, whilst pikachu and houndour started talking. "We need to get stronger if we don't want Ash to get hurt. I don't think he's going to stop doing this for pokemon," houndour said.

"Yeah," pikachu agreed, "I don't think ash will want to train us. he's adventuring to make friends and have fun, not to participate in pokemon battles. We'll have to take in upon ourselves when he's not awake, so not to worry him"

"Agreed"

"Hiya!"

A samurai jumped out of the bushes and tried to point a sword at Ash's neck, but houndour shot a flamethrower at him before he had the chance.

"What do you Think you're doing?! That sword could get someone killed! What do you want anyways, our pokemon? People like you disgust me!" Misty yelled.

The Samurai was quick to respond, "N-no! I swear that's not it! My name is Samurai and I've come to challenge the last pokemon trainer from Pallet town. Do either of you know him?"

Ash got out of shock and responded, "Yeah, I'm him. But why do you want a pokemon battle? Doesn't that just give them unnecessary harm?"

"Who cares?" Samurai started, "They're just pokemon. They can get healed easily! You must be scared. You only have a puny pikachu after all."

Ash was getting agitated. "How dare he call pikachu puny?! We'll show him!" "Pikachu, wanna fight?"

"Pi!" "Yeah!"

"Okay then, Pikachu I choose you!"

"Go, Pinsir!"

"Pikachu let's start off with a thunder shock!"

"Dodge," Samurai said calmly.

As the lightning went towards pinsir, he just sidestepped.

"Dang it. Pikachu get him with a tackle!"

Samurai smirked at this. "Wait for it pinsir, wait for it; now, vice grip!"

Just as pikachu got there, pinsir grapped him and start squeezing.

"Oh no what do I do? Pikachu can't use tackle when pinsir's holding him. Wait! that's it!"

"Pikachu thunder shock!"

Pikachu let loose a a thunder shock, successfully making pinsir let go.

both pokemon stared at each other.

Ash/Samurai yelled, "Tackle full power!"

Both pokemon started charging at each other. Then pikachu's body was engulfed in a bright white light. Everyone knew what happened. Quick attack. Both pokemon collided as a cloud of dust picked up.

Everyone was watching, waiting, for something to happen. As the smoke disappeared, only one pokemon was left standing. Pikachu.

"Yeah you did it pikachu!"

"Pi-Pikachu!" "We won!"

"Don't get too excited yet," Samurai said. "I still have one more pokemon. Go, metapod!"

Samurai through his pokeball into the air as a beam of light escaped the ball, releasing metapod."

"Metapod?"

Ash took out his Pokedex to scan the Pokemon.

Metapod, the Cocoon Pokémon. Metapod's vulnerable body is surrounded by its hard shell, which protects it while it waits to evolve.

"Wanna keep going pikachu?" Ash asked"

"Pi." "Yeah"

"Okay then, pikachu quick attack!"

Pikachu stared bolting down, with a white light engulfing him.

"Harden," Samurai stated simply.

Pikachu hit metapod over and over again, but to no avail.

"Pikachu, thundershock!"

"Metapod, dodge then tackle!"

Right when the lightning was about to hit metapod, he jumped to the right and ran toward pikachu with a tackle. Having just battled, pikachu was taken out with just the one hit. "chaa," pikachu cooed as he fell back faint.

"Pikachu!" Ash yelled as he ran over to pikachu and scooped him into his arms, "It's okay, you take a nice rest," Ash said as he set pikachu down.

"It's not over yet! Go, houndour!"

"Hound!" "Okay!"

"Houndour, tackle!" Ash commanded.

"Metapod, harden!" Samurai countered.

Just like with pikachu, houndour's tackle did nothing.

"Erg, use flamethrower!"

"Dodge it metapod!"

A burst of flames erupted from houndour's mouth, only for metapod to dodge. "Quick metapod, tackle!"

"I'm not going to fall for that again! Houndour use ember!"

Samurai realized what was about to happen, "Quick, dodge it!" but it was too late.

The ember nailed metapod, knocking it out instantly. The super effective attack proving to be too much for him to handle.

Samurai sighed, "Well I guess you win. Metapod return!"

"We did it! You were amazing houndour! You too pikachu!" Ash celebrated.

"Compared to you, I am the novice. I hope we may face again in the future," Samurai said.

"Yeah," Ash greed, "Me too."

Ash and co. continued toward Pewter City, but night started to fall. Realizing that it was too late to keep on walking, they opted to set up camp. "Hey misty, do you know how to cook?" Ash asked.

"No, I thought you knew how to cook," Misty responded.

"Well I do, but it's not very tasty. I'll try though." Ash said.

Ash got some berries out of his bag, a knife, and a pot. Ash set the pot on the ground and headed over to a stump. He took out the berries and started chopping them so they would be easier to eat. "Hey misty, could you get some water and firewood? We're going to need it for the stew," Ash told her.

"Okay Ash, I'll go do that."

About 20 minutes later, Ash and Misty could be seen eating the stew. They agreed it wasn't that bad.

-In the morning-

"Pikachu, pidgeotto, caterpie, wake up. It's time to start training," houndour whispered.

"What? Oh, right, training. Well, this is for Ash I guess. Come on guys, let's go," Pikachu responded.

"Pikachu, pidgeotto, I want you two to run throughout the forest, get your agility and speed up. Caterpie, use string shot for as long as you can, and use tackle as hard as you can. I'll use my flamethrower for as long as I can, and work on my tackle. if any of you feel like you may evolve soon, stop training. We don't want ash to know we're training ourselves. It will only worry him," houndour announced.

It was about 3 hours later and everyone except for caterpie was exhausted. Caterpie felt like he might evolve soon. They could all feel the strength they had gained, but it was time to go to pewter city.\

A/N: I know, a horrible place to stop. This was also pretty short, but I needed to get it out. The battles had to be short, remember that the pokemon aren't very experienced yet. They would need more stamina to go on longer. Also, I was thinking about ash's original team and realized that he couldn't have all he pokemon as in canon. I'll be doing something with houndour not being pokeball protected, or I'll take out one of the original pokemon. Let me know what you guys think for this. If you want a pokemon taken out, tell me which one. Houndour will not be taken out. I know I have been doing one anime episode per chapter, but that will be changing. Each chapter will be 2-3 episodes worth. Like always, R&R! This is jay4921, signing out!