P.S. All credit to respective owners.


With Ash having his first capture under his belt, Noah figured he should step up and use this opportunity to get a new partner as soon as he could. Unfortunately it seems that Abra and Poliwag's battle scared off any potential fishing opportunities as none of the pokemon wanted a piece of Ash and Abra. Despite having no pokemon bite his line — sans the many magikarp despite using his best rod — Ash now had a leg up and that was enough for Noah to consider this a net gain. Besides, it's not like he needed to catch any of the water types around here, sure it would be helpful to have one, but Poliwag and Magikarp were probably the only two catches he saw unless the planets aligned and Arceus wanted to throw him a bone, Noah wasn't getting another Poliwag.

Noah wasn't the type to rely on divine intervention and began packing up, "Lets get to Viridian."

Ash noticed Noah getting up and handed him his fishing rod, "Thanks for letting me use this."

Noah gave him a smile, "It's fine, if you want another, beat some trainers, get some cash, and you can buy one."

Ash's hand dropped to his new acquisition, "I don't think I'll need one for now, Poliwag is enough for now."

"Hey… Speaking of Poliwag… How about you heal it up and talk to it before we leave?" Noah offered, "It might help you get it's loyalty, catching a pokemon and leaving it makes for a very poor relationship. You beat him fair and square, but that doesn't mean he will want to stay with yout. Forcing a pokemon to stay when it doesn't want to often makes them resentful of the trainer, and I have had to intervene myself when frustrations boiled over in my gym. I had to use force in the beginning because dragons value that over everything else, but I spent two years with my family, becoming a family." Noah advised, "Maybe give it a spray of some potion once we get away from here so you can prove your intentions are good."

Ash pulled out a potion from his bag and let out the unconscious water-type gently onto the ground.

When the water-type woke up and realized what happened, negotiations and deals were struck before the Poliwag willingly joined Ash's budding family for the foreseeable future.


Luck apparently did shine on Noah as they did come across a Nidoran.

The very same luck however, turned out to be a cruel mistress as the Nidoran was being beaten up by a Nidorino for some reason. Both of them were covered in scratches, bite marks, and poison stings before the Nidorino smacked its pre-evolution aside with its horn. While it seemed that the Nidoran had put up a pretty decent showing against its evolution, the simple jump in power due to evolution became too much for the Nidoran to overcome. Such was the way of pokemon, evolution wasn't there to add a new look, once a pokemon evolved, there was a significant jump in power that one needed to be aware of.

Ash mouth twisted in disgust as he realized the situation, and Noah couldn't blame the young trainer for the attitude. It was one thing to know of the cruelty of the wild and its varied inhabitants, it was entirely different to see it in action.

Nidoran usually lived in pack and was ruled by a Nidoking and Nidoqueen, the matriarch and patriarch of the pack would maintain control of the pack and make sure infighting with the pack was minimal roughhousing among the juvenile and actual training for the older members. It was even somewhat encouraged as the pack need to be able to grow stronger to have suitable successors. Once the two Alphas began to grow older to the point they were unable to effectively rule, they would making a pilgrimage of sorts — with their entire pack — to Mt. Moon to find moon stones and allow the prospective Nidorinos and Nidorinas to evolve to into their final evolution. After a brief time where the new Nidokings and Nidoqueens would battle for the right to rule the pack, the losers would leave to see if they could take over a new pack elsewhere. After the newly established Alphas conferred with the old, the new Alphas would take the pack back to where they used to be and the old Alphas were to remain in Mt. Moon to seek out 'The' Moon Stone and live out their twilight years under its influence. In most cases the pack more or less accepted the new leadership without much issue and the prosperity of the pack would be maintained until this cycle repeated.

Occasionally though, certain members of the pack were not allowed to remain, either due to overpopulation in the pack or just grudges between members. It was not like the Nidorino and Nidorina were picked at birth to rule, they were a whole army of potential Alphas to pick from the pack and sometimes that began to sow discord in the pack. Those ejected either fought on their own to evolve and then go to Mt. Moon alone to become their final evolution or try to become part of another nearby pack.

Hence one of the reason Viridian was completely surrounded by the species as there was a constant flow of nidoran traversing the place. There wasn't some sort of seasonal moment when an eviction happened and most Nidoran tended to try to avoid unnecessary fights with each other. Packs were generally all at different points in their leadership cycles and for the two to fight would only result in reduced chance of either of them surviving. It mirrored an issue that occurred when packs fought each other, no matter who won there was rather chaotic stint of disarray as recently combined pack tried to establish a new status-quo.

However there were some less-than-pleasant reasons for a pack member to leave, or be forced out by his family.

Some were killed by other members after being considered too dangerous a rival or too weak to contribute and that what was happening here. Personally, Noah didn't think it had to do with this Nidoran being too weak to be a part of the pack, far from it in fact. Its body and horns were large for its species and if anything this seemed to be a case of trying to make sure a potential rival wouldn't become too strong. From what wounds Noah could see on the Nidorino, the Nidoran had not taken the attacks lying down and gave as good as it got. The world of pokemon — despite multiple claims that they were loving partners waiting to join up — still contained the basics of needing to remove potential threats from oneself in the wild. Whether that being a member of your very own family didn't matter at all, intelligence could lead to perceived cruelty no matter what people said.

Either way it didn't change the fact that Noah didn't want to let this moment go and lightly ran his fingers over Surya's poke ball in warning as he approached.

The pokemon inside wiggled his ball in response to the touch, jostling all the balls and warning the pokemon within that there was a potential fight about to happen and they needed to be ready.

"Hey." He called casually, motioning for Ash to keep his distance.

The Nidorino head snapped up to look at the human and immediately venom began to bleed from from its horns, sizzling loudly as a few drops touched the ground. It bared its teeth and growled at the interloper, if the human continued to advance he would attack and not show any mercy. The Nidorino may have been tired from the fight it was just in, but it was no pushover if that was was the human thought. Ash mouth dropped at the sheer stupidity of the Dragon Trainer, one didn't approach an angry pokemon like a Nidorino unless you had a death wish or wanted a fight on their hands. Ash palmed Abra's poke ball and frantically relayed the situation to Abra through their telepathy; Abra getting ready to fight the moment Ash released him.

"Now before you gore me, I have no intention of fighting you at all." The human called, arms held half-up in a universal gesture of surrender, "I was just thinking that if you hurt the little one anymore, he probably won't make it. So instead of that unpleasant idea… how about an alternative that would help everyone?"

The Nidorino seemed to pause at that, wondering what the human was going to do if it wasn't here to fight.

Thank Arceus that most pokemon seemed to have a instinctive understanding of 'human speak' as a professor once told Noah when he was given his charmander.

"How about I take him off your hands?" Noah offered easily, "No fuss, no muss, just making sure your position is more secure."

The Nidoran that was wounded stared at the human.

It wanted him?

Even after seeing it in such a state?

Even after losing to its competitor and about to be killed?

"The way I see it, we all come out of this the better if you allow me to take him." Noah reasoned agreeably, "You don't have to worry about this Nidoran evolving and surpassing you anymore, Nidoran doesn't die and gets healed instead, and I get my first new member of my family, taking him away from here and with and the infinitesimally small chance of him ever returning to challenge you in the future."

The Nidorino seemed to consider for a long time as Noah stood still with no motion to advance towards them as he waited for the answer from the pokemon. Nidorino had to admit the human's offer wasn't a bad deal in any way, in fact it was beneficial on all side. The Nidorino knew that despite his evolution this pack member had much more potential than he had in the beginning. The alpha wasn't chosen by those who evolved first, but by those who were the strongest and best-suited. If this Nidoran had been allowed to evolve, there was a very good chance he would be picked, reducing his chances to be the new alpha. He also didn't particularly want to kill one of his packmates, but he needed to make sure that he remained the strongest Nidorino of the pack. If the human did take this possible competition away, the Nidoran would probably grow attached to the human — as most pokemon did for some unfathomable reason — and lost interest in leading a pack at all over protecting the human in the future.

And well… he wouldn't need to kill the human either, so less effort on his part.

Noah saw the gears turning and waited patiently for the pokemon to figure out if there were any downsides to the arrangement. Regardless of that decision though, Noah was not letting the Nidoran die and he wasn't about to leave without finding a way to take care of this situation either. If the Nidorino wanted to be stubborn about trying to kill the Nidoran though, it would find out six separate reasons why going further would drastically reduce his chances of living. Finally, the Nidorino seemed to nod at this before snorting in agreement, growling at the beaten Nidoran one last time, and loping off into the forest.

Ash stared, "Wha… How?"

How in the hell did Noah pull that off?

Noah ignored Ash sputtering and pulled out a potion from his bag before kneeling next to the injured pokemon, "Hey. Would you mind me applying some medicine to make you feel better and heal you up? I'll admit, it will sting bit at first, but you'll much better in a bit once the pain relief sets in."

The Nidoran weakly tilted its head in agreement and Noah gently sprayed the various wounds on the pokemon, making it hiss at the initial sting before the pain swiftly faded and its aching pains began to abate. Ash quietly stepped forward and looked at Noah as though he had grown a second head, sprouted wings, and revealed himself to be a Mr. Mime in a very convincing costume. Most people wouldn't have even tried something like that, wild Nidorino were volatile by nature and one that was angry was basically holding a sign that said 'run away as fast as you can'. Eventually the Nidoran was able to sit up but Noah didn't stop and continued to tend to any injury he could see, a content smile on his face.

Once Noah managed to deal with most of the injuries, he pocketed the half-empty bottle to address the pokemon, "So if your wondering if my offer about joining up with me was sincere, it was. I — in a way — just started my journey in this land and would really appreciate it if you could come with me. I won't force you, but I would really love to have a new member in my family and we all would do our best to get you as strong as possible. I can already see your potential to be incredible and I really want to help you be as incredible as you can be. Would you like that?"

The Nidoran searched Noah's face for any sign of deceit and — finding none — shuffled closer and gently pressed the side of its head against Noah's knee, careful not to poke him. This human saved his life if nothing else, an Nidoran's instincts to get stronger were telling him this human would be able to make good on his promise. Besides, he was essentially evicted from his pack and that Nidorino would not let him live a second time if he returned, so there wasn't many options that seemed as appealing as this human's.

Noah smiled and drew out an empty ultra ball, "This may feel a bit weird but just relax and don't fight it, okay?"

He pressed the ball against the pokemon's snout, sucking the pokemon in and rocking gently in Noah's hand before it let out a silent ping.

"Welcome to the family." He said softly to the poke ball.

"Wow…" Ash mumbled, still dazed from the lack of fighting, "How… How did you do that?"

Noah shrugged, "I was simply being reasonable and respectful while I made a good offer."


With both trainers satisfied with their current acquisitions to their teams, they made tracks towards Viridian.

As it turns out, the population of spearow didn't like humans walking the path to Viridian and decided the best way to dissuade the group of two was to flock around them and make a lot of noise. It wasn't something either Ash or Noah considered unexpected as most of time freshly minted trainers tried to catch them and therefore the flock that ruled over the trees around Pallet were not okay with human trekking through their turf. It probably didn't help that both Noah and Ash had captured pokemon while in the flock's territory which — to them — probably thought of it as a sign of things to come. Abra would only be annoyed at the constant din, so Ash kindly kept him in his poke ball with so he could get some peace and quiet. And Noah had no need to call on his pokemon either as he didn't feel particularly threatened by the birds.

Naturally, neither Ash or Noah were bothered by the noise as Ash had been ready for it and Noah had spent two years roughing it the wilds around Umbal City with his teammates. Things didn't get problematic until they heard a sharp and much more angry and loud cry from the trees that were behind them. They looked up and realized that maybe they should've paid a bit more attention to just how large the flock was getting. Above on a particularly large tree, a rather large Fearow was glaring down at them and Noah got the distinct impression he was angry at their audacity to ignore his flock's attempt to drive us off. He spread his wings and cried out as all the spearow began to fly into the air around their presumable leader, eyes locked onto the trainers.

Ash took a step back, eyes wide in fear while Noah glared, his hands tapping the release buttons on his poke ball

Six dragons erupted into existence and Ash saw for the first time saw a glimpse of of what a Gym Leader's personal team really was. All of Noah's pokemon were larger than what most would consider fully grown, each one trained and carefully raised to be the absolute apex of their species. Ash had already met the steel goliath that was Girac, and had a vague recollection of Astarot's massive bulk standing in front of the Pikachu that had attacked him in the Lab but never saw any other of Noah's team. Surya was a behemoth of a Charizard, his very body let out small tongues of fire as his tail blazed with a white-hot flame that burned like a star. Grunu may have have been a dragon with fighting-typing that could be hurt by flying-types, but the fearsome Kommo-o's body was corded with muscle for crushing enemies with precision and grace, glaring balefully at the Fearow with eyes that promised nothing but death. Ash had never seen a Dragapult till now, but its ghostly energy that was rising in a distorted cresendo unsettled Abra even from his poke ball. Drakon glared balefully, his wings spreading as his swaying tale another indication of the focused anger that he was directing at the flock.

This was the power Ash would need to cultivate if he had any chance of being able to be called a true pokemon master.

This was the mountain to overcome.

The Fearow looked startled and apprehensive at the sudden appearance of six pokemon, each of them powerful enough on their own that they would solo the flock and Fearow even if they all ganged up on it. It may have been a big threat in these forests to any rookie trainer, but the sight of a Charizard and Dragonite reminded him of a similar pair that circled the small town nearby and made it very clear that any attacks would not be tolerated in any capacity.

"I think it would be best if you left us alone." Noah called out mildly, "Also, try to take it easy on others passing through here, we have no inclination to catch any of yours."

The Fearow considered this and the spearow definitely didn't want to tangle with the dragons that stood before it. It nodded curtly and cried out, the flock dispersing as the Fearow sounded the retreat.

Ash watched as the spearow flitted through the trees in an attempt to make sure they seemed undetected.

Noah sighed and his team dropped the hostility as they all relaxed.

Ash gulped.

Wow.