With Courage I Will Face

Arc I: Viridian

Chapter Four: First Encounters


Pikachu, the Mouse Pokemon and the middle stage evolution of Pichu and Raichu. Its nature is to store up electricity. Forests where nests of Pikachu live are dangerous since the trees are so often struck by lightning.

Ash's Pokedex beeped as it stopped reading Pikachu's dex entry out loud. Ash looked down at Pikachu and they both shared an awkward smile at the idea of more trees being struck by lightning. Having finished getting ready, Ash decided to take the opportunity to scan Pikachu with his Pokedex. That was the general information, so Ash scanned Pikachu further.

This Pikachu has the ability Static. Another beep, and Ash clicked a button.

This Pikachu has access to the attacks ThunderShock, Tail Whip, Growl, Nuzzle, Charm and Thunder Wave.

"That's a lot of attacks to know right away, I knew you were strong." Ash noted. Pikachu chirped happily.

"I'd say we're just about ready to head out." Ash noted as he tucked his Pokedex into his inside jacket pocket. "How about you, Misty?"

"Just another minute!" Misty called from the bathroom, followed by the sound of a blow-dryer.

"Better hurry up, Officer Jenny wanted to see us as early as possible." Ash mimicked her voice when she said the same thing to him when waking him up this morning.

"You could just go, y'know. She didn't say she had to see us together." Misty shot back, having heard him over the sound of the blower.

"She didn't say not-together." Ash answered dryly.

Misty rolled her eyes, not that Ash could see, but did settle for hair slightly more damp than usual as she put the blow dryer back under the hotel sink. She grabbed a hair tie off her wrist and put her hair up into a pony tail and stepped out of the bathroom, waving her arms out.

"Here I am, let's get a move on then." Misty grabbed her red drawstring off her bed while Ash slung his backpack over his shoulder and adjusted his hat.

Pikachu leapt onto Ash's shoulder and the group exited their complimentary hotel room.


"I'm sorry to make you come down here so early, especially after the late night, but I needed you to give official statements on the incident." Jenny said as she sat with Ash and Misty in her office.

Both Ash and Misty were given a pad and pencil to write down the events as they understood them. It would take less time and be easier for Jenny to revisit while letting the trainers continue moving.

"We understand Officer Jenny." Misty replied. "Besides, I definitely skipped over a few things last night since I was so tired."

"Me too, there's a lot I forgot about and that I don't know if it's important." Ash added, rubbing the paper with his eraser.

"Write it down even if you don't think it's important. I'll be the judge of that later, not that I expect much to come from this." Jenny sighed. "Team Rocket's been causing a lot more trouble lately in areas they haven't before. There's not much immediate action to take here I'm afraid, except for rebuilding the Pokemon Center."

"I wish there was more we could do." Ash muttered.

"Don't worry about it, saving those Pokemon last night was more help than I could've asked for. We'll just have to keep a closer eye on Team Rocket and be more prepared going forward. We learn something new from every encounter, no matter how quick or small." Jenny said.

The phone in her office beeped. She pressed a button to answer it, hearing Joy on the line.

"The Pewter City Pokemon Center received all our transferred Pokemon safely. They'll be safe there for a little while until ours gets reconstructed. Until then I can perform immediate heals in the replenishment chamber, but anything more serious and we'll have to send them somewhere else." Joy paused and sighed. "And of course, we don't have the ability to put up trainers at the moment either."

"Understood Joy, thank you for the update. I'm here with Ash and Misty giving their written statements, but I'll stop by later and assess the damage again in person. We'll figure it out soon." Jenny encouraged.

"Right. Tell those two I said thanks again, they were a big help. See you later, Jen." Joy hung up with a click.

"I think this is everything I can remember, Officer Jenny." Ash put his pad on her desk.

"Yeah, I think I'm tapped out too." Misty agreed, mirroring him. Jenny nodded, skimming the pages briefly.

"Well, that's all then. I have no more business with you, you're free to leave town and all that." Jenny winked at them. "But be careful out there, and try to stay out of trouble, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am!" They answered in sync.

The two made their way through the city, trying not to look in the direction of the crumbled Pokemon Center, until they reached the cities edge.

"Which way are you heading?" Misty asked Ash.

"Pikachu and I are heading to Pewter City, so I was thinking about cutting through Viridian Forest. It'll be quicker and we can do some training in there." Ash explained. "What about you?"

"I actually was thinking about going the same way. I'm on my way to Cerulean City right now." Misty told him.

"Really? That's where I think we're going next. My goal is to compete in the Indigo League, so I'm collecting gym badges." Ash smiled out at her. "Would you maybe want to travel together for a while?" He offered.

Misty pretended to think about it for a minute. Ash narrowed his eyes and took a playful step backwards, making to set off without her. She rolled her eyes and stepped forward with him.

"Sounds great." She agreed.

She looked at the wooden sign staked into the ground to their left. VIRIDIAN FOREST, the sign read, carved deep with a sharp object. She preferred traveling through it with someone anyway, she shivered at the thought of the bugs inside.

Ash seemed to have no such reservations and marched ahead. Pikachu looked at Misty, almost wearily, but turned his attention to the surrounding bushes while Misty kept pace with Ash.

"So, Ash, if you're challenging the Pewter and Cerulean gyms, are you running the big eight?" Misty asked.

"Absolutely! Me and my friends from home all decided to before we set out, we love a good challenge." Ash declared. "Gary probably already beat his first gym, knowing him." Ash muttered dryly.

"Your friends set out on journeys too? But you aren't traveling together?" She seemed confused. Ash shrugged, and Pikachu tightened his grip to stay on Ash.

"We decided it was better this way. We can't rely on each other our whole lives, and we all want to compete in the Indigo League. It would almost be unfair of us to know so much about each other by the time we get there." Ash sighed. "But I'm sure cross paths more than once, maybe you'll get to meet 'em."

"Pi." Pikachu interjected, his ears twitching. He glanced around.

"What is it, Pikachu?" Ash asked, halting in place. Pikachu chattered his teeth. "Do you hear something?"

Pikachu pointed up into a tree with his tail at a small green worm-like Pokemon. It crawled out onto a tree branch overlooking the path and stopped. It froze for a second before turning to look out at the travelers. It did not continue moving.

"A Caterpie! That'll be an awesome first Pokemon!" Ash cried. "Can you hit it with a ThunderShock for me, Pikachu?"

Jumping to the ground, Pikachu shot off a spark of electricity at the bug-type Pokemon. It took the hit full on and was wobbling side to side on the tree branch when Ash threw a Pokeball, hitting the bug before it fell out of the tree. The Pokeball was not as safe, falling to the ground after as it shook back and forth. It stopped after two shakes with a satisfying 'ping', signifying Caterpie's capture.

"Alright!" Ash yelled enthusiastically. He ran towards the Pokeball and picked it up quickly, smiling widely at it. He turned to Pikachu and Misty, who had two very different facial expressions.

Pikachu was smiling almost as big as he was, while Misty's smile was a thin line. He walked back to them, noting the way Misty leaned away from the Pokeball, but ignored it for now as he knelt to Pikachu's level.

"Go ahead and smell it, Pikachu. Our very first new Pokemon!" Ash presented Caterpie's Pokeball to his starter, who leaned in excitedly and smelled it, but not without a questioning look. Ash could only shrug. "You wanted to smell H- that feather yesterday, and my Pokedex this morning. I figure that's how you identify what's our stuff. Or you just like smelling stuff."

Pikachu was once again blown away by the level of care Ash was already putting into him as a Pokemon, having never even heard of a human so attentive before. He beamed up at Ash, knowing that he had made the right choice not to abandon him. Even Misty beside them was shocked, but neither of them noticed her current expression.

"Caterpie, come on out." Ash pressed the button slightly, opening it so Caterpie could appear in a flash of white light. The little bug Pokemon shook its head to re-adjust to its surroundings, but quickly smiled up at Ash. "Let's heal you a little bit first, I want to start battling with you guys sooner rather than later while we're in here."

Ash reached into his backpack, scrounging around for the shape of the potion bottle. It wasn't long before he found the purple bottle, showing it to Caterpie.

"I'm gonna spray this on you, it might sting where that ThunderShock hurt but it'll give you some energy back, okay?" He explained. He waited for Caterpie to nod before spraying him twice and tucking the potion back into his bag.

Before long, they set off deeper into the forest.


Between Ash's enthusiasm to collect his first gym badge and Misty's fear of the bug-type Pokemon lurking in the trees they both felt like they were making excellent time through the forest. Ash had stopped to have more battles than Misty really thought necessary considering they were all against bug Pokemon, but he made surprisingly quick work of them.

"Go ahead, Caterpie, use String Shot!" Ash cried out.

He was in one such battle now, using his Caterpie against his opponents Kakuna. Caterpie's String Shot spat at Kakuna. It was anything but an impressive speed, but Kakuna, being a cocoon, didn't have the mobility to dodge it.

"Great job, now pull yourself at it and use Tackle!" Ash ordered before his opponent could even get a word in.

Caterpie used the string as leverage to pull itself towards Kakuna, doing its best to tackle the cocoon with his little body. It worked well enough, with the Kakuna falling over after, unable to move.

"Well, I guess that's what I get for catching a wild one and battling with it before I checked it over." Matt, Ash's opponent, sighed out. "You're pretty good, though. That's a cool way to use String Shot."

"Thanks, we saw someone use it to throw earlier so I figured maybe I could do that in reverse. At least until Caterpie gets strong enough to throw anything." Ash waved off. "Let's battle again if we see each other in here again, okay?"

"For sure!" Matt promised and took off.

"I don't want to stay in here any longer than you do, but we should start looking for a place to camp." Misty noted the drop in temperature. "We've been walking all day; the sun is starting to set, and we still haven't eaten dinner."

Ash tried to look towards the sky, barely seeing it through the thick trees overhead, but could noticeably tell the sun wasn't overhead anymore.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Ash agreed. "We don't want to get stuck making dinner or camp in the dark, and who knows how long it'll take to find a good spot. But we might as well keep walking forward to look, no sense getting lost deeper in here, right?"

They did manage to find a small clearing soon after, a ways off to the side but not too out of the way of the path they were on. Ash did have to pass on a battle on the way, which he reluctantly did of his own accord.

"We can share these." Ash suggested, digging through his backpack. He pulled out the sandwiches his mom packed him, duly noting they seemed… crispier than before. "Hm, maybe not. Of all the luck, the only thing in here that got messed up by your ThunderShock was our sandwiches."

Pikachu sighed. So much for an easy meal.

"Lucky for us, I had the same thought." Misty giggled, pulling out two sandwiches from her own bag. She passed one over to Ash, who split his in half with Pikachu. Not wasting a moment, they dug in.

"I guess what's next would be a fire, right?" Ash asked. "Me and Pikachu can try and start one up if you want to get a few pieces of wood."

Misty nodded and stood up, stretching out her arms, before she disappeared into the brush. Ash and Pikachu concentrated completely on using a few twigs and rocks to spark a fire, while Pikachu loosely seemed to consider trying to attack it with ThunderShock.

Finally, Ash had embers coming out as he spun a stick in his palms when they heard Misty shout. The fire forgotten, Ash and Pikachu dashed in the direction she went off in.

It was only a few yards away they found her, standing opposite the Rocket agents from the day before, Jessie, James and their Meowth. Ekans had wrapped itself tightly around Staryu while Koffing lunged forward at Misty.

"Pikachu, ThunderShock!" Ash interrupted.

They both jumped forward, Ash skidding beside Misty while Pikachu went further, leapt into the air and fired off another arc of electricity that stopped the levitating Koffing in its tracks.

"What are you guys doing back here?" Ash demanded.

"What does it look like? We're stealing your Pokemon." James replied dryly.

"I thought you said you wouldn't even want to steal Pikachu!" Ash retorted. Jessie and James both hesitated.

"It doesn't matter what we want, Team Rocket's mission is so steal Pokemon so that's what we're gonna do!" Meowth interjected for them. His claws grew out again, using Fury Swipes as he ran at Pikachu with Koffing.

"Staryu, can you use Rapid Spin?" Misty asked.

Staryu grunted, attempting to spin its body but nothing moved. It was being held too tight in Ekans' Wrap attack.

"Caterpie, I choose you!" Ash tossed Caterpie's Pokeball. "Let's even these odds, use String Shot on Ekans!"

Caterpie spat out silk once more, aiming at Ekans' forehead. Jessie laughed as the attack landed, attaching to the snake-like Pokemon with no trouble.

"Koffing use Tackle attack!" James ordered.

"Don't forget Meowth!" Meowth cried, charging forward as well.

"You can't let them stop Caterpie from freeing Staryu, it's out best chance." Misty whispered. Ash nodded.

"Pikachu, protect Caterpie! Use Growl! Caterpie, pull yourself at Ekans and use Tackle!" Ash commanded.

Pikachu placed itself in front of Caterpie and glared out at the Rocket Pokemon, snarling as best he could while sparking his cheeks threateningly. It made the charging Pokemon hesitate for but a split second, but it was enough for Caterpie to pull itself quickly towards Ekans, effectively throwing itself into the snakes head.

"Ekans, Bite that worm!" Jessie scowled.

Ekans bent down as best it could while constricting around Staryu and grabbed Caterpie by the tail. Ekans viciously shook the bug-type back and forth until it had mercy, throwing Caterpie up into a nearby tree.

"Oh no, Pikachu!" Misty shouted in worry as Pikachu was slammed into by Koffing and slashed at by Meowth.

"This is what happens when twerps want to play hero." Jessie mocked.

"Nobody here is playing except for you two! Pikachu, use Nuzzle!" Ash countered. "Caterpie, use String Shot on Ekans again!"

Pikachu's cheeks sparked right away, with Koffing and Meowth being close enough that the electricity jumped onto them immediately. They each watched as their bodies were circled by more yellow sparks. Paralyzed. Meanwhile, Caterpie was hesitant to attempt the same strategy as the last time it didn't go so well for the little bug, but seeing Pikachu overcome his own obstacle gave Caterpie enough confidence to try again.

"Misty, get ready to have Staryu used Harden." Ash warned. "Okay Caterpie, jump down! I'll catch you, don't worry!"

The same shocked face appeared on nearly every being in the forest, with only Ash and Pikachu remaining focused on the task at hand. Caterpie, still not understanding, hesitated but could not see a better solution offered and jumped back off the tree branch. Ash leapt forward, catching Caterpie in his arms and cradling it into his chest.

Pikachu took advantage of everyone's attention on Ash to unleash a ThunderShock on the paralyzed Meowth and Koffing. Their cries of pain got Jessie and James' attention moments later, only to be snapped back to Ash yet again as Ekans screeched in surprise as Ash pulled on the String Shot himself, using it to hoist Ekans and Staryu into the air with the tree branch above as leverage.

"Staryu, Harden!" Misty seized her moment.

Staryu's body tensed all over, becoming more rigid and tight.

"Caterpie, Tackle 'em one more time!" Ash cried out, pointing towards Ekans. Caterpie darted down Ash's arm and launched forward the few meters into the air, smacking into Ekans again and squashing it between the Tackle and Staryu's Harden.

Ekans had finally had enough, loosening its grip on Staryu to the point that the Star Shape Pokemon dropped to the ground. It was mostly unharmed from the drop due to Harden but seemed to enjoy stretching for a few seconds before readjusting its attention.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's illegal to jump into a Pokemon battle?" Jessie shrieked at Ash.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's illegal to steal Pokemon?" Ash shot back.

"You really shoulda seen that one comin', Jess." Meowth lamented with a sigh.

"We may be criminals, but we can play by some rules when we want to when they're convenient for us!" James added.

"Well, when it's convenient for me, I step into the battle to help my Pokemon! Especially against crooks like you!" Ash declared.

"Look James, he's doing that thing again where he stands up to us." Jessie noted airily.

"That's getting old real fast." James nodded rapidly.

"What would you two know about getting old real fast?" Misty muttered under her breath.

Before Jessie or James' heads could grow to a comically large size to shout back at Misty, the young girl commanded a Tackle from her Staryu, getting the ball rolling again. Staryu slammed into Ekans, throwing it back into a tree while Jessie and James frantically reached for Ekans and Koffing's Pokeballs.

"Ekans," Jessie started.

"Koffing," James mirrored her, pointing out his Pokeball.

"Return!" The purple Pokemon were pulled back into their Pokeballs quickly as Jessie roughly grabbed Meowth by the tail.

"This isn't goodbye, twerp!" Jessie taunted, flashing a peace sign with the hand that wasn't holding Meowth.

"Think of it more as a 'see you later!'" James finished, tossing down a smoke bomb.

Grey smoke filled the wooded area and Ash, Misty and their Pokemon coughed through it. It only lasted a few moments, just long enough to obscure the Rocket's escape, but they were relieved when the smoke cleared, and they were left alone once more.

"Those guys are really starting to get on my nerves." Ash muttered.

"Pi-Pikachu!" Pikachu agreed, scampering to Ash's feet.

"We should probably get used to it, sounded like they were planning on seeing us again." Misty noted with a sigh. "So much for avoiding Team Rocket like Nurse Joy wanted."

"Let them come back, we'll be ready next time. Right, Pikachu? Caterpie?" Ash asked his Pokemon for affirmation. They both grunted their agreement, and the ground made their way back to where they intended on setting up camp.


"I never woulda guessed you were afraid of Bug-type Pokemon. You hid it pretty well in front of Caterpie." Ash commented.

They were tucked into sleeping bags now, a fire between them as they looked into the night sky.

"At first I was just pretending, but I really do appreciate Caterpie's help in rescuing my Staryu." Misty replied. "Maybe not all bugs are so bad." She paused. "The rest of you bugs better stay in those trees though!" She added quickly.

Ash, Pikachu and even Caterpie couldn't help but laugh in amusement.

"We should be out of here tomorrow; you won't have anything to worry about then." Ash supplied.

"Pikachu, Pikapika." Pikachu cut in. Ash chuckled.

"Not that there is anything to worry about at all is right, Pikachu. Even bug Pokemon are still just Pokemon." Ash added. Misty could only shrug.

"Either way, I'll rest much easier when we're out of this forest. I'm turning in, goodnight, Ash." She replied, eyes closing lightly.

"G'night." Ash replied kindly but didn't close his eyes yet. He stared up at the night sky.

"We're well on our way, Pikachu, Caterpie. I'm proud of you guys for your work today." Ash complimented them. Pikachu moved from beside his sleeping bag to up near his head.

"Chaa." Pikachu squeaked out, rubbing their cheeks together again. Ash laughed, feeling bits of electricity pass through. They bothered him none; he could only feel the warmth of his partner.

"Piii." Caterpie agreed, wiggling down from a tree stump so curl up in the spot vacated by Pikachu.

"G'night, guys." Ash said, and he finally closed his eyes and let sleep overcome him.


I've returned! It's been a long couple weeks guys but I didn't forget about ya!

I hope the beginning isn't going to slow for anyone, this is the first time I've done a complete retelling. Hopefully chapters will be longer soon too, but I didn't want to speed through the set-ups just yet. There's a lot of information to get across in the beginning. Hope to see you all next time!


VincentFS: wow you're right, I didn't realize YOU were writing this story. I look forward to reading your new chapter next week!

Eduardo Quiroz: Ash will not be a full Co-ordinator or even evenly split like Nando, but Ash will have more contest experience than in canon.

justsomerandombastard: way down the line, probably