So, why'd you call us out here? Pikachu asked.

And why didn't you want me to bring the rest of the team? Ash asked. He, Pikachu, and Bulbasaur were standing in a clearing on a cloudy spring afternoon.

The kidnapping was two days prior and the group made sure to put as much distance between them and the bulbasaur garden as possible since then. They'd set up camp for the day and started training when Bulbasaur had approached Ash and asked for him and Pikachu to follow him out into the forest.

I figured we needed to get some things out of the way, Bulbasaur answered, turning around to look Pikachu in the eye. I said and did some things earlier that we probably should deal with.

You were dealing with evolution nonsense, Pikachu said, waving a hand. We can forget about-

No, I don't think we should, Bulbasaur said, looking Pikachu square in the eye. I ain't gonna be a coward about this. He took a deep breath. I'm sorry I said those things, but I also meant them.

Ash glanced over at Pikachu. The electric-type sighed and stepped forward. He looked Bulbasaur dead in the eye, black meeting red, before speaking.

Look, I know I can be hard to get along with, Pikachu said to Bulbasaur. And I know that not every pokémon appreciates my attitude. But it's the way I square up to take on the world and I'm not going to change that.

You get on just about everyone's nerves like that, Bulbasaur replied.

Yeah, well, you get on my nerves too, Pikachu shot back, his eyes narrowing. You can be a stubborn ass half the time and the other half the time you're just a grumpy ass.

I ain't that bad! Bulbasaur said, looking over to Ash.

I'm not getting involved in this until I have to, Ash said, holding up his hands.

Don't try to bring Ash into this, Pikachu snapped.

What, afraid he'll back me up? Bulbasaur retorted. Honestly, I'm surprised he managed to get anywhere in his journey, what with both being able to speak properly and having you for a starter. I figure most woulda just given up.

Hey! Pikachu protested. At least I never tried to kill Ash, unlike another paranoid asshole I could mention!

Ash decided that now was the time he had to jump in before they started trading more low blows.

Pikachu can be annoying, Ash said, causing the pokémon in question to shoot a glare at him, but he's also very loyal. I know I've told you the story about the tyranitar before.

Yes, when he summoned lightning, Bulbasaur rolled his eyes.

No, when he came back to face near certain death to try and save me, Ash corrected him. And came up with a plan for Metapod and Pidgeotto to help. As I've said, he's loyal, and he's also smart, and he cares about us all a lot.

And while his attitude isn't great, Ash continued, I'm not going to insist that he change it. We've all got flaws and we've all got to learn to put up with the flaws that we can live with in each other.

But, yes, again, he can be very, very, trying, Ash went on, giving Pikachu a sidelong glance. I'm not insisting, but I am asking. Do you think you could tone it down a little? Just a little?

I can give it a try, id- I mean, Ash, Pikachu said, rubbing the back of his head with one hand.

Thank you, Pikachu, Ash said.

I guess I can try to be less of an ass myself, Bulbasaur said, still looking down.

Thank you, Bulbasaur, Ash said.

I still think you'd fry good though, Pikachu smirked at Bulbasaur.

And I still think you need to be knocked off your perch from time to time, Bulbasaur glared back at Pikachu.

Save it for a battle, you two, Ash said, sighing and rolling his eyes. A battle with each other, I mean.

The two pokémon gave a low chuckle at that.

Ash's nightmares had waxed and waned in the time since Saffron city and reached a new high two weeks after the incident in the bulbasaur garden.

Per usual he was hounded by dark shapes, simultaneously human and inhuman, loping on the ground on all fours, terrible fire in their mouths. They chased him through a forest, only it was a city, and then back to a forest whenever his attention slipped from his surroundings.

The child ran past the bodies of people and pokémon alike, most of them dead or dying and all of them familiar. Ash couldn't name any of the faces but somehow knew they were his friends. Some were burned, some were slashed and bleeding, and some were crushed and mangled.

The dying wailed at him as he ran by and the dark shapes' howls sounded like words that he couldn't make out. Trees and buildings cracked and toppled and Ash just got out from under them before they crushed him, but the dark shapes were always behind him whenever he looked.

A nidoking composed of shadow shoulder-checked him out of nowhere and everything spun. Ash found himself laying by the edge of a cliff with windows on the face. Fire and water raged below while people and pokémon killed each other.

Soundlessly and yet still howling, one of the dark shapes picked him up and brought Ash to its face. The boy tried to kick and struggle but he felt like he was entombed in a muk and could barely manage to wiggle. Ash didn't want to look into the red and black fire in its mouth but he was always looking straight into it no matter how he turned his head.

And then he was falling, windows streaming past, fire and water and killing rushing up to meet him-

Ash opened his eyes and saw the interior of his tent, lit by faint traces of the spring dawn, and just lay there appreciating the constant stability that only reality can provide after an intense dream. Pikachu was curled up on his chest and Ash took comfort from the weight.

He knew he was still tired, could feel the pull on his eyes, but Ash had no desire to risk dreaming again. After five minutes of laying there, he got up and started the day.

They reached the coast later that day. They had found an official path in the forest and followed it until they emerged from the trees to a long sandy beach, the waves gently reaching up the shore and receding, leaving white seafoam on the sand. The path continued south-west, snaking through wispy tall grass and by beaches covered in small dunes of white-yellow sand.

"Ah, smell that sea air," Misty said, arching her head back and taking a great big whiff as a breeze blew in from the sea.

"Eh, it's nothing special," Brock said.

"Isn't it just salt?" Ash asked, stifling a yawn.

"Heathens, the lot of you," Misty said, shaking her head. "How can you not appreciate all this water… and all the water-type pokémon we can find in it?"

"I don't see any," Ash said, scanning the waves and resisting the urge to rub at the bags under his eyes again.

"Well, yeah," Misty said. "We'd need to go diving or fishing to find them!"

"No thanks," Ash said. "Fishing seems like a real mean way to meet pokémon."

"Well, unlike fish, pokémon are smart enough to know what the lure is," Misty pointed out. "And we don't use hooks when fishing for pokémon. We just need something to catch their attention down there."

"Alright," Ash shrugged. "But it also seems boring."

"Of course you'd think that," Misty sighed. "You probably just want to dive after them."

"As long as you don't mind going underwater, I can't imagine many who wouldn't prefer that," Brock said. "Especially if you can rope a pretty person of your preference into joining you so you can ogle them in a wetsuit."

"I'll get a hose," Misty growled.

Maybe I could use electroshock therapy? Pikachu suggested from Ash's shoulder.

"Eh, maybe later," Ash said. "Where's the nearest pokémon center? We should stop by one soon."

"It should be about ten miles north of here," Misty said looking at her pokégear. "There's a small town."

"We can probably get to it tomorrow morning," Brock said, looking at the sun, which was starting to sink under the horizon. "Unless you'd rather travel in the dark."

"Nope," Misty said immediately. "It would be too easy for someone to slip, hit their head, and fall into the water, especially since some of us, Aaron, didn't get enough sleep last night. Stick to day unless you're an experienced hiker and swimmer."

"Oh, okay," Ash said.

They set up camp back in the forest, in a nearby clearing. Brock cooked as usual and Ash and Misty took care of the dishes.

Ash let out a yawn while working on cleaning a plate. He tried to avoid thinking of his most recent nightmare, but his mind kept circling back to it.

Sometimes that was a good thing, such as when he realized that most of the bodies had the faces of strangers that he had only thought had been his friends. Or how ridiculous the cliff with windows was in the light of day.

Other times it made things worse, such as when Ash realized that many of the people who had been fighting below had been children, the dead children he had seen in the apartment building in Saffron. Or why his nightmares included both falling buildings and falling trees.

"How's Squirtle's training coming along?" Misty asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"Good… I think," Ash answered, thankful to be distracted from his musing on his nightmares. "I'm keeping him as an all-rounder. He's been getting better at his drills."

"Have you practiced underwater battling?" Misty inquired.

"Uh… no…" Ash said. "Should I?"

"Since you're a generalist, you should have a pokémon capable of fighting in just about any terrain," Misty told him. "And you should especially have one pokémon capable of retrieving you from an underwater situation and getting you to land, in case you're ever stranded at sea."

"Brock doesn't have a pokémon like that."

"Brock's not a generalist," Misty told him, rolling her eyes. "There's a much smaller probability of him ending up needing to fight underwater. You, on the other hand, if your journey so far has been indication, are willing and able to go just about anywhere. If you ever decide to go explore an island chain or move somewhere coastal, having a pokémon who can operate under water is a must."

Ash thought for a second. She wasn't wrong about him wanting to go just about anywhere…. Ash was pretty sure that he actually wanted to go everywhere.

"Okay, I should do that," he told Misty. "How do I do that?"

"Have him do some underwater movement drills and target practice," Misty explained. "He needs to get used to how being submerged will affect his aim. Do you know if he was born underwater?"

"Uh… no clue."

"Well, try to find out," Misty went on. "If he's lived underwater before then he just has to get familiar with it again. If not, then you have even more training to do."

"I'll find out," Ash said, making a mental note to ask Squirtle about it and then thought about what new drills he could come up with for Squirtle.

Squirtle was already running combination endurance, speed, and accuracy drills half of the training days and working on power and strength training the other half. Ash tried to think if he would need to introduce a new day into rotation or if he could just adapt the pre-existing drills to work underwater…. Except that would defeat the purpose of the speed and accuracy drills, because they were increasing his speed and accuracy on land…

So, Ash would have to come up with more drills for Squirtle and figure out how to fit them into his regimen… along with some new drills for Primeape, to better teach him Close Combat without him accidently doing a different move… and new drills to help Bulbasaur master using Energy Ball now that he knew and the same for Pikachu with Iron Tail…. And Pidgeot was probably due to learn a new move…. And then there was an idea with Butterfree for another variation on Sleep Powder….

Ash was just so tired… he needed more sleep… a change of pace to see if it couldn't shake him out of his nightmares…

"I need a break…" Ash yawned. He had so much to do.

"A break from what?" Misty asked, blinking, as she scrubbed the last scraps of food out of Brock's cooking pot.

"From training," Ash moaned, letting the plate he had been washing slip into the hot water. "And stuff."

"Ah, yes, 'stuff'", Misty drawled.

"Life," Ash shrugged. "I just don't want to worry about training for a couple days."

"You know, since it's on the coast, the town that the town with the pokémon center might be a resort town," Misty told him, drying off the pot she had been cleaning. "With your advancement from Saffron and everyone's draft pay, we could stay there a week without worrying about our wallets."

"What do you do at a resort town?" Ash asked.

"You swim, you tan," Misty listed, "if you're old enough you drink fancy drinks that come with fruit umbrellas, you go on tours, if you're like Brock, Violet, or Lily, you try to score dates, you try restaurants, and you nap."

"Uh… isn't it too cold… to uh, tan?" Ash asked, resuming scrubbing the plate he had been working on. Tanning was a human custom that had never made sense to him. If you wanted to nap in the sun, why did you need to take off all your clothes?

"Not according to Daisy," Misty muttered, sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth. "But I don't share her frankly insane views. I'll just take the opportunity to swim and maybe go diving."

"I'll go ask Brock if he's okay with it," Ash said, putting the plate back in the water and rushing back towards the campfire.

"Don't just leave me with the rest of the dishes you jerk!"

Brock showed enthusiasm for the idea, though said enthusiasm waned when Misty reminded him that they would be visiting before the tourist season started and therefore less chances to score dates with pretty women visiting for the summer.

"Well, it will be a break from cooking," Brock sighed. "And maybe, just maybe, there will be a lovely maiden who decided to beat the rush who decides to stay at our hotel, just down the hall, and we'll bump into each other on the first day and then we'll hang out and-"

"Alright, down boy," Misty rolled her eyes. "Enough with the sappy fantasies or I'll have Staryu make a bucket of water to dump on you."

"You have no romance in your soul," Brock sniffed, looking down his nose at her.

"You've got enough for the both of us," Misty said, rolling her eyes again.

They had an uneventful night. Ash had another nightmare, but barely remembered it when he woke up bright and early the next morning. He started packing before the teenagers arose, leading to groans as Brock and Misty were woken up far too early for their liking.

They made good time to the pokémon center, getting there before lunch. The three of them handed their pokémon to the male nurse at the front desk (Brock sighing about the lack of a Nurse Joy) and looked at the brochures in the lobby to pick out a hotel.

"This one," Brock said, stabbing a finger at one of the many pieces of paper the trio had dumped on the coffee table in the lobby that they had claimed. "It's by the beach and has access to some local restaurants. We could even get them to deliver if we're feeling lazy."

"If you want," Ash shrugged.

By the time they finished booking their hotel room the nurses were done tending to their pokémon and then they were able to settle in. They all laid on the surprisingly soft beds, staring up at the ceiling, hands folded on their chests, lounging in silence.

"So, what should we do first?" Ash asked.

For their first day in the town the trio spent several hours on the mostly deserted beaches, swimming in the clear chill waters while Pikachu played in the sand. Misty found a shop that rented snorkeling gear and found a guide to the best spots to find water-type pokémon and other aquatic life.

They got to see a small krabby colony scrounging around for food, a group of binacles feed off of a flock of fish that wandered too close, a reef where small fish cleaned both bigger fish and a goldeen.

Sometimes it's easier to let them do it instead of finding another pokémon, the goldeen had told Ash when he noticed the human's quizzical look. Not that you can understand that.

I understood that- Ash said, accidently letting out his held breath so he could speak, forcing him to surface. He dove back down to finish his sentence -perfectly well.

What in the- the goldeen began, before Ash had to surface for air again.

"Aaron, what are you doing?" Brock asked, noticing him surfacing and diving in quick succession.

"Nothing," Ash replied and then tried to casually swim away. Brock gave him a strange look, but didn't push the matter any further.

After snorkeling they went back to the hotel room, Brock and Ash shivering the whole while. They ordered delivery, Ash and Misty fed their pokémon inside the room, while Brock fed his outside, and then they turned on the TV.

They ate their food while watching movies and Brock managed to get Ash to admit that the pokémon center food was bad in comparison (not that it would stop Ash from looking forward to their buffets after a long time travelling).

Finally, they went to sleep and as Ash lay on his soft bed, Pikachu snoring away on his chest, he thought that he had made the right call with this vacation.

That evening, he didn't have any nightmares.

The trio of humans hit the beach again the next morning, but to their surprise, it wasn't as deserted as it had been. A golden-haired man and a green haired woman were out tanning, despite the spring chill.

Misty winced.

"I'm on the other side of Kanto and yet I can't escape Daisy's ilk," she groaned.

"Crazy's everywhere," Brock muttered.

Ash just shrugged. The trio passed the duo by on their way to the water and when they walked by the green haired woman started. She lowered her sunglasses, looking at them with blue eyes and then she sat up.

"Oh, you're Brock of Pewter city, aren't you," she said. Her voice seemed vaguely familiar to Ash, but he couldn't think of where he had heard it before.

"I think you're right, Jill", the golden-haired man said, propping himself up on his elbow and lowering his sunglasses. He had green eyes.

"Of course, I'm right, Jack," the woman said and then turned to Brock. "You're the former gym leader from Pewter City."

"Huh, never thought I'd be recognized this far out from Pewter," Brock said as the trio came to a stop. "You two from there?"

"No, but we saw you when we passed through," Jill said.

For some reason the duo and their voices made Ash think of a meowth. He had no clue why he thought that. He had only met a few meowths and the only one he had seen around humans was that talking one in Pewter City with Team Rocket.

That was probably it, Ash decided. He must have heard the duo's voices somewhere in Pewter City, probably in the pokémon center, either before or after the Rocket attack.

Ash still didn't know why he was thinking of that crazy human talking meowth instead of something else from Pewter, like the Hard Rock Café, but he didn't care enough to figure it out.

"What were you doing in Pewter?" Brock asked.

"We were on a business trip," Jill answered.

"We were trying to making a splash with our presentation, but things blew up and got sticky," Jack added. "So much for that work with Silph…"

"Good thing I guess," Misty said, "what with what happened."

"Err… I guess," Jill said with a shrug, her face twisting into an expression of discomfort.

"Well, it certainly could have gone better on our end," Jack sighed.

"What are you doing away from Pewter City?" Jill asked Brock.

"I retired as gym leader and now I'm just traveling with some friends," Brock shrugged.

Ash blinked and a light flush came over his face. He hadn't heard Brock refer to him as a friend out loud before. He had figured that the three of them were friends by now, but it felt different than when he made friends at school, except for maybe Gary.

"Did you have the same idea as us and come to the beach to work on your tan before the beach season really started?" Jack asked, leaning back again.

"What is up with you people?" Misty groaned. "It's too cold right now!"

"If you want to look your best, then you have to work for it," Jack said, preening. He gestured down at himself. "Art requires suffering and this body is a work of art."

"Preach it," Jill said, also laying back.

"Well, have fun lying around in the cold then," Misty said, rolling her eyes.

"Have fun swimming in the cold," Jill said in a falsetto.

AN: I'd like to thank Amationary for beta reading.

Once again I have to ask myself, am I being too obvious or not obvious enough? Then again this chapter that has hints that make sense to my weird brain, in the headspace I'm currently in, but might not make sense to anyone else... Or maybe the hints are so obvious people will be insulted by them.

Onto another topic, I remember the naivety of youth, when I released my last chapter and thought to myself "CW, even though you're going to be dealing with REDACTED, REDACTED, REDACTED, finishing up with work for the year, hosting a visiting relative, and dealing with the holidays, you can also start rebuilding your buffer!". Somehow I failed to see the obvious and I did not make anywhere near as much progress as I would have liked.

So there's going to be another long gap between chapters. The next chapter of Symbiotic will be released on March 9th 2022. I'm skipping February to continue working on my buffer (and to deal with REDACTED).

Anyway, don't forget to leave a review!