Last-Time
After their short rest, Ash offered his friends to put them into their pokeballs if they wanted to rest some more (getting straight-up denials from Loki and Raizan), and once he got their approval he quickly put both Kaiserin, Jin, and S. Snivy into their respective pokeballs. He then shrunk each Pokeball and attached them to his belt before putting on his jacket and his bag, before leaving his room. Both Loki and Raizan went to sit on his shoulders, and the three of them left the center, Ash returning his key and saying goodbye to the nurse as he exited the poke center, hoping that today will be a little calmer.
"WAIT UP!'' Those hopes were crushed when he heard the familiar screeching and immediately booked it to the viridian forest before Misty could screech at him for nothing again.
"GET BACK HERE YOU OWE ME A NEW BIKE!" she screeches, running after them like a crazed woman…..well, a crazed woman of her standards.
Now
Ash kept on running, zooming right past Route 2, jumping over many gates and ledges. Both Raizan and Loki were running right next to him, the both of them jumped off of Ash's shoulders once they left Viridian town, so as to make it easier for their friend to run, from what, well….
"I SAID GET BACK HERE" that, they were running from that. the orangette known as Misty Waterflower, who had previously tried to get 'her' Pokemon back was now hunting them down to pay for her destroyed bike.
The group kept on running, entering the viridian forest in less than 30 seconds. they continued running till suddenly Ash accidentally ran into someone, causing him and the other person to collapse to the ground.
"Ow/Ow," they both say, Ash pushed himself up and off the person, but before he could ask if the person was alright, he heard the familiar screech of the orangette, which caused him to drag the fallen person into the bushes a few feet away and quickly covered their/her mouth and made a shhh-ing motion with his hand. Loki and Raizian joined them as they hid away in the bushes, just in time as Misty had just arrived where Ash and the other person were.
"god damn it, where the hell did you go, you know it is impolite to leave a girl stranded in the middle of a demon-infested forest," Misty growls stomping her foot. suddenly she feels something crawl up her leg, looking down she turns pale and sees a weedle slowly crawling up her leg. letting out a horrified screech, which caused Ash, the mysterious person, Loki, And Raizan to cover their ears. Misty shook the weedle of her leg and kicked it into the bush where Ash was, and ran off in the other direction, screeching loudly in fear. once she was far enough away everyone uncovered their ears and Ash looked worriedly down at the injured weedle.
"Are you okay, it's a stupid question i know," Ash states, when receiving a deadpanned look from the weedle. Ash quickly pulls out a potion from his bag and starts healing up the weedle, offering the wild Pokemon a berry for letting him heal them.
"There we go, hope that feels better now. think you could alert the other Pokemon out here about her. as I don't know if that was a once-off or not." He asks the small bu Pokemon, who nods.
"of course, thank you for healing me and for the berry. am going to alert the colony about that human. I will make sure to alert them not to attack you or the other human next to you," The weedle states before slowly inching his way deeper into the forest. once the Pokemon was away, Ash stood up slowly and held his hand out to the person he knocked down and dragged with him.
"Sorry about that, knocking you down and dragging you into the bushes," He states, apologizing to the person in front of him. said person nodded and accepted his hand, and slowly rose to their feet.
"It's alright, I'm guessing she was hunting after you?" the person, female from the way the voice sounded, stated. Ash couldn't tell the gender as the person was wearing a rather large robe, and they had a rather androgynous face. Ash nodded, as the four of them left the bushes.
"yeah, she's a bit psychotic, she's been hunting me since I arrived in Viridian forest," He explained, not giving full details. The robbed female just nodded. before looking down and gasping looking at Raizan.
"Is this Pikachu yours?" they ask, to which Ash nods but stands in front of his friend.
"yes he is, he's not for trade though," he states, causing the girl to wave her hands in dismissal.
"no-no-no, I wasn't thinking of asking that, and I'm not really into electric Pokemon. you see I'm a Pokemon Witch, I study magic from the past and use it to help my Pokemon when need be," she explains, causing Ash to raise an eyebrow. he had heard about PokeWitches before, but they were rather rare to see, and rarer to interact with.
"Really, no offense, but don't Pokewitches try to keep themselves hidden?" Ash asks, causing the girl to sigh and rub the back of her head.
"Yes and no, some of the more adept and experienced PokeWitches hide themselves, but since I'm in training I don't have much skill in hiding myself," she states. Ash nods along with the explanation, knowing he won't get more than that as PokeWitches are very secretive, heck the league doesn't believe that they exist, as there are so few that they interact with, many of the ones they see appear more like psychic trainers that anything else.
"Okay, look I'm sorry again about knocking you down, and for dragging you into the bushes with no warning. I hope you have everything that's yours." Ash apologizes once more and turns to walk away, but the PokeWitch steps in front of him.
"Wait wait wait, please could you help me, I'm in the middle of making a potion, one that will help a human understand the Pokemon language one of the ingredients is Pikachu fur, and am wondering if you will allow me to take a bit of fur from one of your Pikachu's," she states, bowing in front of ask in a pleading manner, causing him to lift his brow, as well as Loki and Raizan.
"you see, I've always been interacting with Pokemon since a young age, and have always wanted to understand what they were saying. so would you please let me have just a small bit of fur from one of them, pleasssseeee~~" the PokeWitch pleads clasping her hands together and giving Ash teary babydoll eyes. Those eyes cause him to Stiffen, before letting out a sigh.
"you should be asking my Pokemon if it's okay, not me even if i gave you permission, it's their choice more so than my own," he responds, looking down at Raizan, who just shrugs.
"I don't have a problem with it, as long as it is only a small bit of fur, don't want to have a strange patch of no fur on my body," Raizan states to Ash, before turning to face the poke-witch and nodded at her. Smiling brightly, she turned to Ash and bowed to him and then to Raizan.
"thank you, thank you both so much, i promise i will repay you both for this kindness one day, I swear it!" she states before gently kneeling and putting her bag down.
"Now let me just grab my vial and some scissors-" but before she could pull anything out of her bag, Ash quickly spun around eyes darting around. this spooked the PokeWitch, more so when Loki jumped in front of her and began growling. before she could question it, she was once again tackled to the ground while Ash and Raizan dodged to the left, just in time for multiple blobs of sludge hit the area where they were standing.
"Damnit James i thought i told you to be quieter,"
"Me! excuse me but look who's talking" A male and female voice could be heard arguing, causing Ash and his friends to groan, recognizing the voices. as Jesse, James, Meowth, and Koffing came out from behind some trees.
"Team Rocket," Ash growled out slightly, just as the three Rockets laughed back, and began their little chant. once they finished they strike a pose.
"What the heck do you clowns want, I thought that you three learned your lesson when you attempted to rob the Pokecenter yesterday," Ash states, entering a battle stance while looking over at Loki and the PokeWitch to make sure both were okay and saw that the poke-witch was now standing.
"Well, what you and that Nurse at the center said got to us," Jesse said, and James continued after her.
"Yea, what good would it be if we stole some small and weak Pokemon when we could steal stronger ones," he states, and then Meowth Nassaly voice starts up.
"And whose Pokemon to take then none other than the twerps' team," he states, showing his claws and letting them grow out rapidly using his furry swipe move. Ash proceeded to growl again, a bit more audible this time.
"And what makes you bozzos think that ill give my friends over to you," he growls out, Both Loki and Raizan growled out in the agreement. Raizan lets out some electricity from his cheeks, Loki mimicking that by slowly powering up a shadow ball.
"Easily, like this Koffing use Haze!" James shouts out as the gaseous Pokemon appears right in front of both trainers and releases a vicious plum of smoke, blinding them all and causing them all to cough harshly. figuring out the rockets' plan, they all ran out of the vicious plum of smoke. once they were all out of the smoke Ash took in a few deep breaths.
"looks like we got away, you all ok-" Ash asks standing and looks behind him and only sees Raizan behind him. Raizan also takes notice of the Missing Pokewitch and Loki.
"Shit, they must've run off in a different direction," Ash states, groaning. now, while Ash does know how to use and control his Aura, he is still learning a few things, one of which is tracking and tracing specific aura signatures. he can feel the Aura of everything within a 10-foot radius of where he is, maybe even 20 feet if he really concentrates but any further than that it's difficult.
"What do you think we should do, knowing Loki he should be able to find us quick enough by transforming into a nearby flying type, though that may make him get attacked by other trainers who want to try and capture him," Raizan states, causing Ash to nod in agreement. The Viridian forest was filled with trainers who are starting out, even if they have some weaker leveled Pokemon, they could still entrap Loki if they perform the right moves (String shot for example).
"let's just hope that we can find them near the end of the forest, going back will cause us to run into team rocket again, which can cause more problems than I would like us to go through," Ash stated and started walking towards the exit of the forest, Raizan quickly climbing onto his shoulders.
they continue down the path, both of them enjoying the peace and quiet around them. Both of them chatted a bit on strategy at the first gym, going over the plans of attacks and backup plans if the leader proves to be more of a challenge than both expect. they were finalizing the backup plan when suddenly Ash jumped to the side to dodge a downward slash of a sword, and before the attacker could say anything Ash quickly tackled the person, someone in samurai armor, to the ground gripping his neck and snatching the blade and pointing the sharp edge right in-between the attackers' eyes.
"Who the fuck are you," Ash snapped, eyes glaring at the person, who began sweating profusely at him. The samurai had a look of fear and some strange sort of pride before responding, feeling Ash's hand gripping his neck a bit tighter.
"I-I am the samurai of the viridian forest, I've been battling all the trainers that have come from Pallet town, wanting to test the new blood and see if they are worthy of being trainers," he states, looking right back into Ash's eyes. Ash proceeded to snarl and let go of the samurai's neck before tossing the katana a few feet away.
"You've got a damn deadly way of starting a fight, using a sharpened blade to initiate battles." He states stepping away from the samurai, not helping him up from the ground. the samurai got up a few seconds later and dusted himself off.
"we samurai are trained to initiate battles the olden way, any less would besmirch our honor, now do you accept my Challenge." the Samurai states, picking up his katana and quickly sheathing it.
"No, I was jumped by some members of team rocket and it caused me to get separated from one of my Pokemon in the confusion, am currently trying to head to the exit so that i can meet with them, sorry," Ash states and starts making his way to leave, but quickly stopped to cover his ears, Raizan doing the same as an ear-splitting screech ran out just ten feet from them.
"THERE YOU ARE!" Misty screeched out, finally finding him.
"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE LEAVING A BEAUTIFUL GIRL ALONE IN THE FOREST FILLED WITH DISGUSTING BUGS!" She screeches out stomping towards Ash about to give him a piece of her mind when a bolt of electricity singed the ground before her. Raizan began growling, his small fur was sticking up on end. Ash stood back up and glared harshly at the girl.
"Who the hell do YOU think YOU ARE, last time you tried to steal my Pokemon, not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES. I don't give people like you the time of day," He snarls out, a dark aura emanating from his body. Misty was about to screech back when the Samurai exclaimed at the both of them.
"SHUT UP, do you both hear that," suddenly loud buzzing could be heard all around them, the four of them looked up and saw that there was a swarm of Beedrill looking at them murderously, stingers dripping with poison. the Samurai proceeded to grab Misty's arm and then Ash's arm and began dragging them both far away from where they were. Raizan quickly dashed and jumped onto his friend's back and held onto him as they ran from the swarm of bee Pokemon. soon they all reached a wooden cabin, which the samurai kicked the door open and dragged them inside before slamming the door shut and locking it with a big piece of wood.
"Great, just great, do you both have a death wish," The Samurai snarled, and was met by a piercing glare from Ash and Raizan.
"Excuse me, but the only that could've caused those beedrill to hunt us would be this-" he points to Misty with disdain, causing said girl to let out a shrill of rage, "-idiots inhumane screeching, while i may have responded to her insults, i made sure that it was quiet enough that only you and anyone within a few feet of us would hear me, she had to screech like a damn banshee which could be heard all over the forest," Ash states, keeping his glare on the samurai, challenging to try to tell him he was wrong. The Samurai grumbled and growled, having no retort for that, but Misty, on the other hand, was beginning to make a retort, before feeling something crawling on her shoulder, looking over she let out another screech which nearly defeaned the other people in the cabin.
"GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF" She screeches swatting the bug Pokemon harshly off her shoulder and onto the wall, hurting it heavily. She ran to the other end of the cabin to get as far away from it as possible. Ash was about to give her a piece of his mind again, before feeling Raiza pull on his legs and point towards the curled-up insect, a Caterpie.
"Forget her, lets's check up on the caterpie," Raizan states, trying to get Ash far away from the girl before he Commits murder (Himself and Ash). Ash looked down at Raizan and then at the caterpie curled up on the ground, noticing that a bit of blood was coming out of it. Making his way to Caterpie, he knelt in front of it and gently ran his finger along the injured pokemons back, causing it to let out a loud whine of pain.
"Easy now lil one, just checking to see how bad your hurt. can you tell me anywhere else is hurt?" Ash asks silently, quiet enough so that only the Pokemon could hear him speak in Pokespeech. Caterpie couldn't be shocked due to the immense pain they were in.
"M-my back an-and head where she sm-smacked me," the bug pokemon whined out, trying its best not to move to not increase their pain. Ash nodded and removed his bag and gently pulled out a potion.
"alright little one, I'm going to pick you up and try to heal your wounds okay, I'm going to move you around a bit to make sure that i heal the serious injuries okay?" Ash states, gently lifting the bug Pokemon onto his lap and gently spraying the potion on the injuries it sustained, the potion quickly worked its magic and began to heal the Pokemon, but not to full health as the injury was a bit more extreme than expected. luckily Ash had some herbal remedies for such injuries and brought out some bandage wrapping and slowly lathered the caterpies back with the paste before wrapping them up in the bandage.
"There we go, how does that feel," He asks, getting a small chirp from the bug Pokemon.
"Better, thank you, nice human," she states, gently nuzzling Ash's arm before flinching slightly as its head was still in pain.
"Easy now, try not to move around too much okay, ill unwrap you in the morning and spray you again, that should fully heal you." He states, before looking over and glaring at the Oragnette, who was shouting about getting rid of 'the disgusting bug'. the Samurai had been trying to quieten her down, to no avail. with a sigh he quickly chopped the back of the girl's neck, knocking them unconscious. he proceeds to roll out one of the extra futons he has and lays her down on it. before heading over to Ash and kneeling in front of him. Raizan had his fur up and was getting ready to attack at a moment's notice.
"Care to explain what that was about," he asks Ash, causing him to scowl and gently scratch Raizans head. he then proceeded to explain how he met her and how she tried to steal his Pokemon as she believed that they belonged to her and continued this until he proved it after showing her, Officer Jenny, and Nurse Joy his Pokedex which showed that they were his. and now she was running after him for no other reason than to annoy/harass him most likely. after he explained, the Samurai sighed.
"That's troublesome, either way, what you both did was incredibly stupid, her more than anything. but you continued the problem that lead to the beedrills almost swarming and possibly killing us. you can spend the night here, by the morning the beedrill should've calmed down enough to leave us be." he states and stands up and makes his bed, and falls asleep, seeing that he was left on his own to set up his bed, he took out his sleeping bag and unrolled it on the floor before pulling out a small cushion for the caterpie to sleep on.
"sleep on this for tonight, it's better than sleeping on the floor with your injuries," Ash states and goes to take a look out the window, only to see that the swarm of beedrill was still searching the area for them.
'Hopefully, Loki and that Poke-witch doesn't run into team rocket or those beedrill,' he says to himself mentally before heading back to his sleeping bag and getting inside to sleep/Meditate. once he was deep into his meditation Both Raizan and Caterpie began to talk.
"How are you feeling?" Raizan asked, trying to make small talk with his fellow Pokemon, getting a small sniffle from the wrapped-up Caterpie.
"Alright, I guess, not in as much pain as before but still sore, why did she have to hit me so hard~" The small bug Pokemon lets out a bit of a whine, and Raiza lets out a scoff.
"she's just one of those bad humans, she tried to steal one of my friend's Pokemon believing she owns it without catching it," Raiza states and then walks over and sits next to the caterpie.
"How did you stay on her for so long without her noticing and why did you try to follow her," He asks, before looking out the window and watching the moon slowly rise into the sky along with Caterpie.
"I wanted to be her friend, she looked scared and lonely, so i thought i could help her, but all she did was scream and throw things at me when i tried to approach her the first time. After that I just hid in her bag to try and not make her afraid of me, but when i came out when she started shouting she just slapped me to a wall." She doesn't turn to look at Raizan and continues to watch the moon rise through the window.
"I wish i could evolve, then maybe she won't be so scared of me anymore and then maybe, just maybe i can live out my dream, i want to evolve into a Butterfree one day so that i can fly to the moon." She states, before gently curling up as the moon soon passed the visibility of the window. Raizan looks down at her before heading towards Ash's sleeping bag and falling asleep on top of it, Ash following suit after 2 hours of meditating.
To Be Continued...
Sorry for the long wait everyone, this chapter took a bit more time to plan out, as well as correct most of the grammar within it. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and if you have any suggestions on what should happen in the next chapter or when Ash and his team finally faces Brock please do let me know.