Somehow, and none of the friends could actually explain how, having Zapdos along to fly up into the air and check out where they were didn't actually help.

It was partly that Zapdos could tell them Cerulean was 'that way' but didn't necessarily know where they were meant to go relative to 'that way', and partly that they always seemed to get into unusual situations, but after encountering a pit trap and a whole team of Squirtle (one of which had eventually decided to join them, giving Misty another Pokémon that could battle on land) they'd found themselves in a fog bank… and then, after walking down a path which had no junctions or diversions on it, outside a lighthouse.

"Cerulean Cape lighthouse," Ash read off. "Uh… where's Cerulean Cape? I guess it's near Cerulean, but…"

"...how we managed this, I have no idea," Brock admitted, looking at the map. "Unless we're going to try swimming around Kanto and coming at Vermilion from the sea, that is."

"Don't reject that idea just yet," Misty muttered. "Though… I'm starting to think Ash just sort of gives off this… field of lostness."

Butterfree made a squeaking noise, like she was trying her level best not to giggle this time.

"Well, maybe we can go inside until the fog clears up?" Misty added.

There was a flash of light from behind them, and Ash looked around. "Huh? What was that?"

"Where am I now?" a voice asked.

"Oh, Keldeo!" Ash said, brightening. "It's been a while since I've seen you!"

Keldeo's form appeared out of the fog, cantering at first but then slowing down to a walk. "Ash! But this isn't anything like where I normally meet you."

He looked up at the lighthouse beacon sweeping through the fog overhead. "That's new. Is that your new house?"

Brock and Misty exchanged a look.

"Ash," Misty said, slowly. "Is this a Pokémon you've known for a long time?"

"Well, kind of?" Ash replied, frowning. "I met him a while ago but he's usually travelling."

"Which is a lot harder than you'd think," Keldeo informed them. "I've been trying to find my way back to Unova, but it's really hard to navigate."

Misty put her hand on her forehead.

"Did you learn how to map read from him?" she asked, sighing.

Then the door to the lighthouse opened, revealing someone stuck in a big suit, and Keldeo used his horn to help cut the suit off.

"Okay, so, what's the deal with this guy?" Squirtle asked, jerking his head to indicate Bill. "He's an expert on Pokémon, and he doesn't recognize one by sight?"

"To be fair, he didn't exactly get a good look," Bulbasaur replied, thinking. "And there's a lot of Pokémon which aren't easily recognizable. Or they can look like other Pokémon."

Pikachu came bounding over. "Yeah, I kind of know a lot about that stuff. Watch!"

He posed.

"...that's the worst Wartortle I've ever seen," Squirtle said, after a few seconds.

"But you did recognize it as a Wartortle," Pikachu replied, dropping out of the pose. "What do you think of that?"

"I think it's kind of… weird, honestly," Squirtle admitted. "You know? It doesn't seem like the sort of thing a normal Pokémon does."

"I joined up with Ash only a few weeks ago," Pikachu said, flicking his ears. "In that time… well, all kinds of things I wouldn't begin to have expected before have happened. And I'm starting to think that I wouldn't have it any other way."

There was a blare from the foghorn, answered by a sound through the night mist, and Butterfree suddenly appeared from his Pokéball before flying for the window.

"Excuse me, urgent business," the Bug-type announced, opening the window with a brief blast of psychic energy before slipping through the gap.

"Wonder what that's about," Bulbasaur said, and then the sky outside lit up.

"Flash!"

"I've never even heard of a Dragonite that big before," Brock said, as they left the next morning. "I know some Pokémon are bigger than normal, and if you train a Pokémon well they can end up bigger if that's what you focus on, but I didn't think even a specialist Pokémon breeder could get a Pokémon that much bigger than normal."

"You mean a Pokémon breeder could end up making Pokémon stronger, too?" Ash asked, fascinated. "How would that work?"

"Actually, I'm kind of curious about that too!" Butterfree admitted. "The word sounds like it means one thing, but what Brock's saying sounds like it means another thing."

"Ew," Keldeo decided, sticking his tongue out at the Bug-type.

"Oh, well, Pokémon breeders don't really focus on battling," Brock told him. "It's all about raising Pokémon, sometimes from eggs, and about making sure they get the right environment to give the result you're after. And about picking the right Pokémon for it, too, because if I tried to turn Bulbasaur into a really big Venusaur I'd run into a problem straight away!"

"Oh, yeah, right," Ash said, nodding. "The whole Venusaur thing. He already said he was trusting you to not make him evolve."

"Oh, I get it," Butterfree said. "So the word's kind of because that's part of what breeders do, but it's not even most of it."

He giggled. "Humans are much worse at language than they think. Just because they can say lots of words doesn't mean the words are going to make sense!"

"What I want to know is what you're going to raise Eevee to be, Brock," Misty said, looking at the Cherish Ball that Bill had given to sort-of-all-three-of-them-but-mostly-Brock. "I bet they'd make a great Vaporeon."

"Well, I don't know Eevee nearly well enough yet for that," Brock replied. "That's the thing about an Eevee. It's a great Pokémon for a breeder because it's got so much potential, but that also means it takes loads of careful thought to work out what's best for them."

He stroked his chin. "Perhaps Eevee would like to be a Sylveon? I bet chicks would like a Sylveon!"

"And there he goes," Misty sighed. "Nearly managed a whole day that time…"

"Is that something he does often?" Keldeo asked.

"You have no idea," Misty replied. "Sometimes I think he's got a Cute Charm that's in reverse."

Keldeo considered that.

"I'm not sure how that would work, but okay," he said. "Oh, and, I should probably be heading off, I'd like to see if I can find a good map in Nimbasa City. It was nice to meet all of Ash's new friends!"

He looked around, judging the direction of the sun, then cantered off south. "Teleport!"

And he was gone in a flash.

"Did he say Nimbasa City?" Brock said. "I'm… pretty sure that's in Unova. South is about the only way that doesn't go closer to that."

"Definitely one of Ash's friends," Misty summarized.

"Say, Charmander?" Butterfree said, flapping her wings to stay alongside the Fire-type. "What move do you really want to learn?"

"Huh?" Charmander replied, looking around, then frowned. "Um… well, Pikachu's been telling me about Iron Tail, but I haven't got it down yet… you mean that sort of thing?"

"Not really," Butterfree shrugged. "That's a move that Pikachu can teach you, easily, but it's not the kind of thing I'm thinking of. The kind of thing I'm thinking of is a move you wish you could learn but think you'll never be able to."

Charmander thought about that.

"Well, umm… Ash said that we're heading to a gym which is about the Electric-type, right?" he said. "So… something Ground-type, maybe. I don't know what, though."

"Oh, I can work with that!" Butterfree announced. "Hmm… let's see… what about this one?"

She gained a bit of height, moving ahead of the rest of them, and Charmander hurried to keep up. Then she landed gently on the ground, lifted one of her feet, and slammed it into the ground.

A shock wave rushed out, rippling the ground like a wave, and something fell over in the middle distance.

"See?" she asked. "That's called Bulldoze! Or, if you'd rather, I could teach you this other one where you jump forward and do a spin and you can drill into the ground – it's kind of like flying underground if you do that. Watch!"

Charmander watched as Butterfree took off again, then whirled into a spin. Her wings seemed in some way irrelevant to what was going on, and she drilled a hole in the ground about as wide as her torso before popping back up again fifty feet away.

A Diglett popped out of the ground and shouted something, then vanished back inside, and Butterfree whistled innocently.

"Anyway," she said, after a few seconds. "That's the options, what do you think?"

"I think I never knew how versatile Butterfree were," Charmander decided.

"Oh, you're planning on learning moves?" Ash asked, as he reached them. "I was wondering if I should have Pikachu and Zapdos playing Thundershock tennis to speed up how fast they can send moves out, but maybe that should wait until we stop for lunch."

"Which move do you think I should learn out of those two, Ash?" Charmander asked him.

Ash thought about it as they walked.

"I think… Drill Run," he said. "That's a move which gives you whole extra places you can go that most Pokémon can't, and it speeds you up too!"

"You're not going to get me to learn a move that involves going underground, by the way," Pikachu said. "Just so you know."

Ash already didn't like Lt. Surge.

It could have been a lot of things. It could have been his brash attitude, or the way he didn't even sound like he was going to let Ash battle him.

It was probably the way he outright broke into laughter on seeing Pikachu, though.

"Okay, kid, I guess I'll have to teach you a lesson," Surge said eventually. "Two Pokémon a side, and one of them has to be that Pikachu of yours. You'll see what you're missing by not evolving him."

"He doesn't want to evolve," Ash countered. "Right, Pikachu?"

"Of course!" Pikachu nodded firmly.

"Then I'll just have to show both of you what you're missing," Surge decided. "Come on, kid, first Pokémon! Hurry up!"

Ash frowned for a moment, thinking, then went for a Pokéball on his belt and sent out Charmander.

"Seriously?" Surge sniggered. "Are all of your Pokémon titchy? Electabuzz, go!"

"The sad thing about this is that it turns out our families are actually kind of good at the Being a Gym Leader thing," Misty sighed. "And that's keeping in mind that your parents basically just left you to take care of, what, ten siblings while also running the gym yourself?"

Brock sighed. "Well, I would say that I didn't ever insult any challengers… but I will say that one who brought nothing but a Metapod was kind of an idiot."

"I kind of think Ash's Metapod would have beat the challenge, but that's just me," Misty said, as they watched the battle begin.

Electabuzz was opening with Thunderbolt attacks, making Charmander dodge left and right and left again – Ash giving him advice and hints on when to dodge and how to dodge, at first, then keeping an eye on Electabuzz's attack patterns and letting Charmander know when it was safe to throw in attacks.

"Anyway, what's wrong with insulting a challenger?" Misty asked. "I said a lot of things about Ash, and I even meant most of them."

"Yeah, but you're his friend," Brock said. "That kind of makes it okay. Ask anyone with siblings, the same thing applies… but Surge is insulting his Pokémon, without knowing anything about what they do."

"...is it okay that I'm now sort of disappointed Ash didn't go for a two-Electric-types gym challenge?" Misty checked.

"Left!" Ash called, and Charmander skipped out of the way – balancing on both hind legs and a tail, then sliding slightly with one foreleg down to shed momentum. "And… Flamethrower!"

Charmander inhaled and shot out a jet of flame, which washed over Electabuzz and covered him up. The Fire-type's hope that maybe he'd won went away quickly, though, when Electabuzz charged up before shooting another Thunderbolt right back – one which caught Charmander a glancing blow on the leg.

"Charmander, are you okay?" Ash called.

"I'm fine!" Charmander replied, wincing slightly. "It stings a bit, that's all."

He wouldn't have given up even if it had hurt a lot more, though. Charmander had only been with Ash a few days so far, but it was already… it was something he couldn't put into words, but Charmander knew that Ash was… a good person.

Simple as that.

It was just something about him. He'd never do anything like what Charmander's previous trainer had done, and that meant that Charmander would never let him down.

Electabuzz' horn crackled again, and Charmander waited for the order – and Ash gave it.

"Down!"

Charmander threw himself at the ground, with that subtle twist Butterfree had taught him, and bored into the ground like a drill. There was a crunch sound as he went through the gym floor, which was kind of embarrassing for a moment because that hadn't occurred to him yet, but a moment later he came right back out again and hit Electabuzz squarely in the chest.

"Now, Flamethrower!" Ash ordered, and this time Charmander was attacking from point-blank range.

The force of his attack hit the already stunned Electabuzz hard enough to send him reeling back, and the blast just cancelled out Charmander's momentum so he could land lightly back on the floor.

It had still taken a lot out of the Fire-type, and he panted for a bit before looking up to see how Electabuzz was doing.

Much to Charmander's relief, he was out cold.

"Huh, that's a lot better than I was expecting," the Gym Leader admitted, recalling Electabuzz. "Raichu!"

"Don't feel you need to keep going, Charmander," Ash called. "Come back if you want."

"I'll keep going!" Charmander insisted.

"Actually, kid, you need to recall your Charmander," Surge said. "Remember, you need your Pikachu to come out. Do your Charmander a favour and hold him in reserve."

Charmander wanted to insist, but… sighed, and returned himself.

"You seem pretty confident, kid," Surge noted, as Pikachu bounded out onto the field. "Don't you know evolving a Pokémon makes them stronger?"

"It doesn't always!" Ash insisted. "I was talking with Butterfree about it, and he said that while evolution makes a Pokémon stronger it depends on the Pokémon – some of them, it stunts their growth, too! So Pikachu can learn moves without evolving that your Raichu can't!"

"Talking with Butterfree about it?" Surge repeated, then shrugged. "Whatever you say to your Pokémon isn't my business, kid. My business is making sure people don't get the Thunderbadge! Raichu, get him – Thunderbolt!"

A jet of electrical energy flashed out from Raichu's tail, and slammed into Pikachu. It sent him backwards a step, his cheeks lighting up, but then the blast ended and Pikachu was still standing.

The smaller Electric-type smirked.

"Zapdos hits harder," he said, then darted forwards. His tail shimmered as he used Iron Tail, knocking away Raichu's tail, and Surge's Pokémon used Mega Kick to fight back. The impact sent Pikachu into the floor, not far from where Charmander had torn up the floorboards, and Pikachu rolled for a moment before flicking out his tail and using it to bounce himself upright.

"Get him, Raichu!" Surge called, and Raichu charged – not moving quite as fast as Pikachu had, but still building up a lot of momentum before getting a Mega Punch ready.

Pikachu's tail flashed silver again, and he slashed it out to block – with a loud clang of impact – then ducked, and punched Raichu.

Surge's Pokémon left the building via the roof.

"...what the heck was that?" Surge asked, staring at the hole in his gym roof.

"I said!" Ash reminded him. "Pikachu can learn moves your Raichu can't! There's no way a Raichu could learn Sky Uppercut!"

"I mean, until I met Butterfree I'd have said there was no way a Pikachu could either," Pikachu said, rolling his shoulder to relax it. "But I'm not complaining."

He grinned, sitting back on the floor. "I bet even Kangaskhan would have been proud of that one."

After a lot of discussion, some arguing, and three separate looks at a map, plus the purchase of a compass, the friends set off for Celadon City.

"The gym there is Grass-type," Brock volunteered. "So she's good at dealing with both of us, but your team might be a bit better set up to handle her."

"I'm not so sure," Misty said. "I don't think Ash can handle a battle where he has the advantage properly."

"Hey!" Ash protested. "I can do those!"

"Ash, there you are!"

Ash looked up. "Huh? Gary?"

"That's me!" Gary agreed.

He wasn't going around in a car any more, and either his cheerleaders had got lost or they were at lunch, but he was standing in the road from Vermillion to Celadon with his arms crossed.

"And I hear from Gramps that you're not doing so well at catching Pokémon," he added. "I've already caught fifty Pokémon, but you've not even caught six!"

"Hey, quality over quantity!" Pikachu objected.

"Pikachu's right!" Ash agreed. "What matters is having Pokémon who make good partners with you and training them to be even better, not just piling up Pokémon!"

"Then let's see which of us is doing better at that," Gary said. "I challenge you to a Pokémon battle!"

Brock and Misty, in perfect and undiscussed unison, stepped back.

"Sure!" Ash agreed. "What are the rules?"

"Two Pokémon each!" Gary decided, after a moment. "You probably haven't got many more than that. Including a Flying-type!"

He sent out a Fearow with a flash of white light, which took off to hover and let out a screech of challenge. "Mine's big enough to carry me around, now!"

"Oh, I've got one of those too," Ash said, reaching for his belt.

Butterfree came out of her Pokéball and immediately began sniggering.

"…a Butterfree, huh?" Gary asked. "It is a Flying-type, I guess, but it's not able to carry even you, Ash!"

"No, she just came out by herself," Ash explained. "She does that a lot. I actually meant Zapdos!"

"And that..." Butterfree began, as Fearow stumbled over his words trying to explain to Zapdos that actually the earlier screech of challenge had been meant for someone else entirely, "...is why I was giggling."

"I'm actually kind of interested in the next bit of this battle," Pikachu said. "Are you planning on taking part?"

"Depends who Ash picks, really," Butterfree said. "I won't insist."

She fluttered higher to get a good view, then noticed something in the sky and her antennae flashed.

Her Psychic caught the plummeting object, which turned out to be a Raichu.

"Did someone get the number of that tram?" Raichu requested, hazily.

"I'd better go and give him back to that Gym Leader," Butterfree said. "I won't be long!"

A day later, by the side of the sea and with thousands of migrating Butterfree fluttering together in a swarm as the sun dipped towards the horizon, Ash swallowed hard.

"I'll miss you, Butterfree," he said.

"I'll miss you, too," Butterfree told him, eyes shimmering. "But… these Butterfree need to be safe, and that's something I have to do."

"You're right," Ash nodded, and swallowed again. "If Team Rocket could get their hands on all those Butterfree it'd be…"

He shook his head. "Just stay safe while you're keeping them safe, okay?"

"You bet I will," Butterfree agreed, and rose slowly into the air to join the swarm.

"Well, that's that job sorted out," Butterfree said to himself, about lunchtime. "One Butterfree swarm, nice and safe!"

If there was a more effective way to keep some Butterfree safe than teaching every last one of them Flamethrower and half of them Hydro Pump, Butterfree didn't know what it was.

"Now, hmm…" he added, and changed shape with a pop – becoming a bright pink feline Mew. What should I be next?

He twisted his tail into a coil. Punching things sounds fun!

AN:

Three badges down, five to go.