Ash answered the phone just after it had started ringing. "Oh, hello, Professor!"

"Ash, there you are," Professor Oak said. "I heard you'd made it to Viridian City. How's your first day gone so far? Seen any interesting Pokémon?"

"Well, I got a bit held up on Route One," Ash replied, thinking back over his day.

There'd been a storm, and there'd been the Spearow, and then Ho-Oh had flown overhead…

"Oh, I saw some really aggressive Spearow!" he said. "That's interesting, right?"

"It's a little concerning," Professor Oak admitted. "But yes, Spearow are rarer than Pidgey. And how are you getting on with your Pikachu?"

"We're kind of getting to know one another," Ash answered. "We haven't had a proper trainer battle yet, but he seems pretty strong."

"Excellent," Professor Oak said. "Well, my boy, let me know if you run into any trouble."

A few days later, in Viridian Forest – with a smoking Pokémon Centre behind them – Ash was getting ready to catch his first Pokémon.

"Okay, Pikachu, ready for this?" he asked.

"Sure," Pikachu replied. "What are we going for?"

"Well, you're an Electric-type," Ash said, thinking. "So you have trouble with, um… Grass types and especially Ground types. But I guess there aren't many Water or Ice types around here, so it'd be good to get a Bug or Flying type…"

He shook his head. "But what really matters is finding a Pokémon who's up for it, right?"

Pikachu nodded firmly. "Right!"

"How the heck are you able to understand that Pikachu so well, anyway?" Misty asked. "You've known him for, what, four days?"

Ash shrugged. "I dunno… I guess you just have to listen right? Then it's a bit like understanding someone when they talk in complicated words, you get the easy ones and work out the hard ones from context?"

He looked around, scanning for any sign of a wild Pokémon. "It's like when Pokémon are battling, I think? They know the obvious bits, but you can help with the hard bits. And they all understand us without needing to be told."

Misty frowned, thinking about that, and Ash pointed. "There! That Caterpie!"

The Caterpie in question had just lowered itself on a String Shot, dropping to the ground in front of them, and twitched its tail as it regarded the group.

It certainly seemed to want a fight.

"Do you have to catch a Bug?" Misty griped.

"Well, I'm going to see how well Caterpie does!" Ash answered. "Let's start off slow, Pikachu!"

"You got it!" Pikachu agreed, cheeks sparking, and lowered his stance a little as he faced off against his opponent.

He flicked his tail, and a Thundershock flashed out. Caterpie immediately used String Shot, grounding out most of the attack into the web of silk, then flicked its head around and sent the electrical web flying right back at Pikachu.

"Whoops!" Pikachu said, jumping to the side. "Okay, this isn't just an ordinary Caterpie!"

"I know," Ash agreed. "That move was pretty impressive… watch out in case it's got any other tricks!"

"What is it with you, Ash?" Misty asked. "Why do you always end up in these weird situations?"

"What's weird about this?" Ash replied. "It's a wild Pokémon that's strong. Wild Pokémon tend to be strong, right?"

He shrugged. "I've seen them all the time."

"That's really more of a you thing by the sound of it," Misty said.

While they'd been talking, Pikachu had been moving back and forth trying to figure out his opponent.

The electrical silk webs were kind of hard to get past, but Pikachu didn't think they were impossible… it was just hard to actually prove his guess.

Then Caterpie rolled into a wheel shape and charged him, hitting him hard enough to send him flipping backwards, and Pikachu skidded to a halt on the forest floor… then dodged just before a stream of String Shot hit him.

"Pikachu, onto the tree!" Ash called, and Pikachu promptly did so – running over to a tree trunk, scampering up it, then throwing an attack down from above.

Caterpie still stopped it, but it sounded like Ash had a plan…

"Now, keep up the Thundershocks and jump down on a random side!" Ash instructed.

"Right!" Pikachu agreed, realizing the plan, and sustained a tricky barrage of attacks.

It was kind of tiring to throw that many attacks at once, but it meant that Caterpie had to keep the electroweb attack thing up and that blocked their view of Pikachu.

Pikachu landed on the opposite side of Caterpie from Ash, and swung his tail hard to knock the Bug-type into the air. The impact seemed to knock Caterpie for a loop, and their opponent flipped through the air twice before landing with a thump.

Ash promptly threw his Pokéball, and Caterpie vanished inside with a swirl of light.

The 'ball twitched a couple of times, then clicked.

"All right!" Ash said. "I caught my first Pokémon!"

He opened up the Pokedex. "Let's see what it says…"

The device beeped. No data.

"...wow," Pikachu said, panting. "That thing sucks."

"I mean, really," Pikachu said, a few minutes later, as he finished the snack Ash had fished out as a reward. "It can't identify a Caterpie?"

"I know," Ash admitted. "I might need to ask Professor Oak about it when we get to Pewter… and it means I can't check Caterpie's moves either. You might be able to learn that electric one!"

"Ooh, good point!" Pikachu agreed, his ears perking up.

Misty shook her head. "I guess maybe he only included good Pokémon."

"Hey!" Ash protested. "That's my first captured Pokémon you're talking about there! I wouldn't be rude about… um… whatever your first captured Pokémon is," he finished, a bit lamely.

"Nice," Pikachu sniggered.

"Anyway, we can just ask," Ash said, opening the Pokéball, and Butterfree emerged in a flash of light.

Misty, Ash and Pikachu looked at the Butterfree.

Then each other.

Then the Butterfree.

It giggled.

"That's got to be a record," Misty said. "Most Pokémon take ages to evolve, and I know Bug-types evolve faster but not that fast."

"Well, I guess maybe Butterfree wanted to get to the point it could battle as well as possible as quickly as possible," Ash replied. "Oh, actually, Butterfree, are you a boy or a girl Pokémon? Or do you not really prefer either?"

"I kind of prefer both!" Butterfree trilled. "It depends how I feel which I'll use, but just say either, I won't care!"

"Gotcha!" Ash nodded. "So, I got a Bug type, next up is a Flying-type!"

"Isn't Butterfree a Flying-type?" Pikachu asked.

"Well, yeah, but she's also a Bug type," Ash answered. "And I'm pretty sure the next gym is a Rock type gym, so having mobility is good but it'd also be good to have a Pokémon that's not super weak to Rock."

That made sense to Ash, anyway. Butterfree had a bit of a fit of the giggles over it though.

"So how are you going to find a Flying type that isn't also a Bug type?" Misty asked. "Oh, maybe Butterfree could fly up and look?"

She crossed her arms. "And while she's at it, she could find us a way out of this stupid bug infested forest!"

Much to Misty's pleasure, Butterfree did in fact find them a way out of the stupid bug infested forest.

The only downside was that it took so long that they had to spend another night there anyway.

"I'm kind of amazed your mom managed to fit so many packed dinners into your bag," Misty confessed, as Ash began sharing the food around. "How did she do it?"

"Some kind of weird Mom ability or something," Ash replied, shrugging. "I kind of did my best to learn, but it's really hard… actually, Pikachu, Butterfree, how good are either of you at cooking?"

"I'm not exactly very good," Pikachu said. "Depends what you think of scorched berries."

Butterfree flapped into the air, turning through a complete slow roll so he was upside down half the time, and considered that carefully.

"So, this 'cooking'," he said. "How do you do it? I assume fire is involved."

Ash tried not to laugh. "I… yeah, I guess that means it's me or you cooking from now on. Or we buy something in Pewter City?"

"I guess so," Misty said. "Like, just a suggestion here, a bike."

"Ouch," Ash winced. "Point taken…"

There was a sharp cry overhead, and something flitted through the darkening sky.

"What was that?" Misty asked, her hand going to her belt. "That might be a Flying-type, but if it is then we could be in trouble – it sounds big."

Pikachu was on alert as well, and Ash shook his head. "Don't worry, Pikachu – Misty. That's nothing to be worried about."

He looked down at his packed meal, then picked out a skewer of dango. "Hey, down here!"

"Ash, what are you doing-" Misty began, then chopped the words off in astonishment as a yellow-and-black Zapdos swooped low overhead.

The big Legendary banked around, flaring its wings to slow down, and hovered for a long moment before touching down just next to Ash.

"It's been a while, huh, girl?" Ash asked. "Nearly three weeks!"

Zapdos nodded, crooning, and Ash gave the Flying-type a scratch behind one of her spines.

"...three weeks is a long time?" Misty asked. "For… I mean, what?"

"I'm as confused as you on this one," Pikachu said.

Misty didn't understand him, but at the same time – on a deep, fundamental level which transcended language – Misty understood him.

"Want some dango?" Ash added, and Zapdos nodded before delicately taking one of the offered pieces of dango.

Then she looked at Pikachu, and Butterfree, and cawed a question. "Are they your team?"

"That's right, I'm a proper Pokémon trainer now!" Ash agreed. "I've got my starter Pokémon, and another one too!"

"And have you got more dango?"

"No, sorry," Ash apologized, letting Zapdos have the last two off the skewer. "Not after that… I might be down to store-bought too, even after we resupply in Pewter City."

"What is happening," Misty inquired. "I mean, what?"

"In that case, I'll just have to make sure you don't forget to buy some," Zapdos decided. "Store bought might be worse than your mom's, but mochi is mochi and this way I can get some every day."

"You mean-" Ash began.

"Of course I do," Zapdos interrupted. "Come on, get a Pokéball and let's get this sorted out!"

"So, how was your first week with your trainer, Pikachu?" Pikachu asked himself, as Ash got out a Pokéball and expanded it out. "Not bad, really. My trainer's got three Pokémon so far and one of them's a Legendary."

That sent Butterfree into another giggling fit, which lasted all the way through Zapdos vanishing in a blaze of white light.

In Pewter city the next day, Ash made sure to get plenty of dango.

Pikachu was sort of interested in what it tasted like – he'd never really tried anything like that before – so when Zapdos emerged from her Pokéball in a flash of white light to try something out, he hesitated for a moment before taking a deep breath.

She was just another Pokémon, really. A big, powerful Pokémon, but clearly not an unapproachable Pokémon… if only because his crazy trainer had apparently been doing just that on a regular basis for months or years.

"Is it okay if I try some?" he asked. "To see what it's like, I mean."

The other Electric-type looked at him, then nodded. "Sure. This is just the taster anyway."

It was a lot bigger than a taster to Pikachu, but then again Zapdos was a lot bigger than Pikachu so that kind of made sense.

"How is it compared to Ash's mom's stuff?" Pikachu checked.

"Not quite as good, but there's more of it," Zapdos said, after careful consideration.

Pikachu reached out to take one of the skewer, then, but one of them miscalculated something and there was a loud bzzzzrt that ended with Pikachu's cheeks glowing bright red.

"Oops," Zapdos winced. "Sorry."

"My head tingles," Pikachu said, distinctly.

"Careful, guys," Ash called, from where he was feeding Butterfree some aburi. "We're headed to Pewter Gym after lunch, so don't overeat or you might get a stomachache."

The Pewter City gym leader turned out to be called Brock, and he said the rules were that both sides used two Pokémon.

"Any other rules?" Ash asked. "This is my first one of these, so I want to get it right!"

"Well, you can swap Pokémon whenever you want, but it has to be when the Pokémon isn't in danger of being knocked out," Brock told him. "So if you return a Pokémon that's about to be hit by an attack, it counts that that Pokémon was withdrawn and you can't send them out again."

Ash nodded. "What about using, you know, potions and stuff?"

"You can, but you have to be the one who calls the time out," Brock said. "And there's a limit of one per match."

"Right," Ash agreed. "I don't have any anyway, but I thought I'd ask. All right, let's go!"

He pointed. "Pikachu, you first!"

"Ash, are you sure that's a good… idea…" Misty began, then trailed off. "Well, it's the only Pokémon you have which Rock types wouldn't be really good against, technically…"

As Pikachu walked onto the field, rubbing his cheeks slightly, Brock raised a Pokéball. "If you're new, kid, then let's see how you deal with Geodude!"

"...or he could have Rock and Ground types," Misty added.

Pikachu looked peaky, and Geodude folded his arms before coming closer. "Uh… hey, are you okay? Your trainer isn't making you battle while you're ill, is he?"

"No, I think I just ate too much," Pikachu said, a bit indistinctly. "Uh…"

He took in a deep breath, then sneezed, and a bolt of lightning as wide as his tail hit Geodude with a bang that rattled the windows.

"Ow," Geodude announced, and fell to the ground with a whud.

"...what the actual heck?" Misty demanded. "Did that just – that just happened, didn't it?"

She pointed. "Ash, your Pikachu just electrocuted a Ground type!"

"How did that work?" Butterfree demanded, hovering just behind Ash's shoulder. "That shouldn't even have begun to work!"

He gestured with a wing. "I mean, moves is one thing, but that was a Thundershock, or maybe a Thunderbolt? Those moves don't work on Ground types! That's not how that even-"

As the Bug type kept ranting, Pikachu shook himself out.

"I feel lots better now," he said. "Phew!"

"Ash, you should probably pull Pikachu back," Misty advised, watching as Pikachu jumped away from another attack by Onix. "Whatever that was that got Geodude, it's not happening again."

"I guess… yeah, you're right," Ash admitted. "I kind of… well, who do I send out… Pikachu, come back!"

"Fine," Pikachu said, jumping out of the way of Onix's latest Slam just to show he could, then came bounding over to Ash's side of the arena. "I really want a move that will work consistently on Pokémon like Onix, though."

"We can work that out later," Ash assured him. "Uh… Butterfree, do you know any moves that are good against Onix?"

Butterfree's wings fluttered much faster. "Oh boy, oh boy! I know some great moves against Onix!"

"You should really know what moves your Pokémon has," Brock chided.

"Yeah, I know, but my Pokédex keeps giving me errors when I try," Ash answered. "And when I ask Butterfree she says it's not the time to list them off."

"Actually, I was saying we haven't got time to list them off," Butterfree corrected. "It'd take, like, a day? And you'd need loads of notepaper too… anyway!"

She fluttered out into the arena, facing Onix.

"All right, Onix, watch out for a Solarbeam!" Brock warned. "Get ready to interrupt her charging!"

Butterfree zipped straight forwards, towards Onix, and did a backflip.

And used Iron Tail.

"...what," Pikachu asked, succinctly. "Just happened."

"That was neat!" Ash said. "Uh… what type was that move?"

"Steel!" Butterfree said. "It was Iron Tail!"

"But you don't even have a tail!"

"I don't see why any Pokémon should let that stop them," she sniffed.

"You saw that as well, right?" Misty asked. "There was this long silver tail that appeared for a moment?"

"Pokémon are amazing," Ash said. "Well done, both of you!"

Then the gym wall fell in.

"Prepare for trouble!" announced the loudspeaker attached to an enormous robotic Weedle.

"So, uh, Boss?" Jessie said, some hours later after the soot had been washed off.

"You know that kid we were going after?" James added. "The one with the Pikachu which blew up a Pokémon centre?"

Giovanni stared down the video phone at them.

"He's got a Zapdos too!" Meowth finished.

Giovanni kept staring down the video phone at them.

"...so, um, we're going to try and get them from him," Jessie said. "Unless you tell us not to. And, we'll… let you know how it goes?"

After a long pause with nobody saying a thing, Giovanni ended the call.

AN:

So yep.

This is up to the end of Ash's boulderbadge challenge.

It should be pretty clear that Ash has an idea of a way the world works. And it seems to agree…