"We're lost," Misty complained.

Ash sighed. "I know."

"We're lost, in a forest," Misty continued, twitching. "A forest that's supposed to be an easy main road."

"You've mentioned this already, Misty," Ash pointed out.

"We are lost. In a forest. Full of Bug Types!" Misty finished. "I'm quite proud I haven't freaked out already, thank you very much!"

"This isn't freaking out?" Pikachu asked – though, fortunately for all concerned, Ash was the only human present who understood him.

"I get the point," Ash sighed again. "I'm sorry we're lost, Misty. I'm sorry we've been in here for a week. I'm sorry that the last of the other Pallet Town trainers went past four days ago."

He winced. "Uh… while I'm thinking of things to be sorry about, I'm sorry we didn't ask her for directions… and that I keep weirding you out whenever Pikachu and I practice."

"Can you blame me?" Misty replied. "You're trying to teach Pikachu to be a Fighting type, you're trying to teach yourself Electric type attacks… even for you, this isn't normal."

"No, it's Fighting and Electric," Pikachu said.

Ash did his best not to laugh at that. "Well, I am also working with Pikachu to improve his Electric attacks. That's normal for Pikachu."

"Yeah, about that," Misty said. "I don't know where the details are going, and frankly I'm not sure I want to, but you're trying to turn something into an electrical version of Hyper Beam! I'm a Water-type Gym Leader, so I'm not too happy with the prospect."

Ash sat down, because it was about the only way to be sure they weren't getting any more lost, and looked through the forest with Aura Sight – only to spot something blazing with grey-green light, off in the distance.

"Misty, I think I see something," he said. "It looks like another Bug-type, but it's lit up like you were or like the Rockets were."

Misty shook her head, then realized what Ash meant. "Oh, right, you think it might be your Caterpie? Or Butterfree, then?"

"I think so," Ash agreed. "So, let's go and find out!"

Misty thought about Butterfree. It had been a long while ago, now, but she did remember him. He'd been nice, for a… well, for a Bug. And he'd evolved quickly.

No reasonable girl could consider butterflies creepy, could they?

Yeah, she could handle this…

At that point, though, Misty realized a flaw in her actions.

"Hey, Ash, wait up!"

By then, Ash was confronting a difficult moral issue.

Well, most trainers wouldn't even think about it, presumably, if they were in a situation like this. Which they wouldn't be, because Ash's situations were absolutely absurd. But even then, Ash wasn't sure what other trainers would think.

Because they weren't him.

He might have been overthinking this.

What Ash was actually wondering about, though, was whether he should try challenging Caterpie to a battle, and if he should have Pikachu go all-out or not.

Ash had been proud of Pikachu since they'd got started… mostly… but even though he'd never forgotten Caterpie's strength and determination he still had to face the fact that Pikachu was a lot stronger now than Caterpie had been then.

Then an idea hit him.

"Hey, Pikachu?" he asked. "Can you hit Caterpie with a Thunder Wave as soon as I point him out?"

"No need, I remember his scent," Pikachu replied. "And what he looks like. It's enough to recognize him, or it should be."

"You can?" Ash asked. "I guess I didn't think about that."

"I was a wild Pokémon, remember?" Pikachu asked. "Most Pokémon have better senses of smell than humans, and for wild ones… it's a survival skill out here."

Ash felt vaguely uneasy. "I, uh… I don't really know what to say about that, Pikachu. The idea of you needing survival skills is… it's weird and I don't know what I think about it."

"I get what you mean, Ash," Pikachu replied. "But… if it helps, intelligence is a survival skill too. Most of the Pokémon that humans actually see are the smarter ones, who don't think that humans are… giants, if they're small. Or evil, or whatever."

He thwapped Ash in the back of the head with his tail. "But I'd rather be with you than anywhere else, Ash."

"Thanks, Pikachu," Ash said. "That means a lot to me."

"Yeah, and I need to remember to tell you, now that I can. Now… there!"

Pikachu's cheeks flared up, and he flicked his tail to send an arc of lightning at one of the Caterpie on a branch. The other two scattered, and Ash closed his eyes to check.

"Yeah, you're right," Ash said. "That's him."

He walked over to the little Bug-type, and gently touched his antenna.

A spark of blue flashed at the contact, light filled the clearing, and Butterfree flew off the trunk.

"Hello again, Ash," he said.

"Okay, what the heck?" Misty asked, coming to a halt and putting her hands on her thighs to recover. "I heard that!"

"You understood Butterfree too?" Ash asked. "I'm actually surprised I did at all, I had to train Pikachu in Aura a bit to get that working and I don't understand the other Pokémon nearby… and you can't understand Pikachu yet, either?"

"That's why I'm so confused," Misty agreed.

"I am a bit psychic, if it helps?" Butterfree said. "Lots of Butterfree learn it as they grow up, not sure why, but I worked on it to get stronger. Maybe that counts."

"It's not like we understand this stuff," Pikachu said.

"It's great to see you, Butterfree," Ash smiled, holding out his arm, and Butterfree landed on it. "Some weird stuff is going on again, so… I'd love to have you with me, but it's up to you. And it's up to you if you want to have a battle first or something."

"Oh, that would be great!" Butterfree said. "I haven't had a chance to show off in a year or so!"

"Let's see what you've got, old friend," Pikachu replied, cheeks sparking.

Butterfree took off again, and Ash glanced at Misty. "Okay, so… run for it, Misty!"

Ash ran for the nearest tree, and Misty decided to follow suit. A moment later, Pikachu's Thunder and Butterfree's Bug Buzz collided with a bang that shook the trees and sent a rain of leaves pattering towards the forest floor.

"I don't remember him being this strong, Ash!" Misty called to him from behind her tree.

"He's been protecting a swarm for years!" Ash replied. "I have no clue what he can do now!"

Overhead, Butterfree began weaving in a complex pattern, glowing with power as each motion went faster than the last, and back on the forest floor Pikachu began crackling with electricity as he charged himself up with both regular power and Aura.

"That's new," Pikachu said, as Butterfree charged up. "I don't think I've seen it before."

"Quiver Dance, it's nice," Butterfree replied. "I guess you've got new tricks too?"

"That's right!" Pikachu agreed, throwing out a ball of electricity, and lined up for a moment before using his tail to slam it upwards in Butterfree's direction.

Butterfree did a roll and wingbeat at the same time to climb suddenly, sending out a cloud of Stun Spore from his wings, and the Electroball attack exploded on the spores instead of connecting with Butterfree himself. Some of the side-blast still got through, though, and Butterfree's wings lit up as he switched from Quiver Dance to something else.

Pikachu wasn't sure what he was dealing with for a moment, until the clouds parted and the sky lit up with the light of the midday sun.

"That's new too," Pikachu decided.

"Agility!" Ash called, and Pikachu did just that – speeding up suddenly, making himself a harder target for whatever Butterfree had planned.

"Incoming Solarbeam!"

Pikachu jumped out of the way of the first blast, but Butterfree kept it sustained – sending down a continuous beam of intensified sunlight which came blazing across, tracking it in the direction Pikachu had dodged, and Pikachu put on an extra burst of speed before sliding to a halt.

"Take this!" he said, using Iron Tail, and diverted the Solarbeam right back up at Butterfree.

The attack itself didn't do much damage, but the sudden flash of light startled Butterfree and made him flap backwards – breaking the attack, and making it so he lost track of where Pikachu was for a moment.

Pikachu didn't waste the time, and darted over to the nearest tree before scampering up it to the lowest branch. Still moving fast, he jumped off it right at Buttefree, only for the Bug-type to hit him with Whirlwind and send him slamming right back to the ground again.

"Oof!" Pikachu said, rolling over twice, then surrounded himself in a Counter Shield of electricity just in time to avoid being hit by another smashing Bug Buzz. "Right, wasn't sure if that would work but I had to try it."

He turned to Ash. "Thanks for not giving it away!"

"No problem!" Ash replied. "Look out!"

Butterfree used Psychic, this time, and a pulse of energy hammered down where Pikachu had been a moment before.

"Thundershocks!" Ash suggested.

Pikachu liked the sound of that, and fired out a continuous barrage of Thundershocks. Most of them missed, Butterfree dodging and weaving with a cloud of Powder moves around him to soak up some of their strength, but that also meant that he couldn't focus on the other things he was trying to do as well.

Pikachu, meanwhile, was only trying to move at the same time as attack, and got to one of the bigger trees in the area. This time he went around the far side of it, breaking off his barrage of attacks just as he did so, and Butterfree made a humming noise.

Then used Solarbeam again, this time aimed at the tree itself.

The tree shook, but it didn't hit quite hard enough to either knock it over or force Pikachu out of hiding, and Ash started calling out. "He's opposite you… from there he's going left! Getting closer – now he's going right…"

Butterfree turned to Ash. "Is it cheating if you're only giving one of us advice?"

"Good point!" Ash admitted. "Force of habit!"

There was a voltage fizz from the far side of the tree, then Pikachu darted out with electricity flowing over his fur. He jumped again, this time spinning forwards with an Iron Tail, and Butterfree used Whirlwind again.

Just before the attack connected, though, Pikachu used his Counter Shield – and sent it out further than before, far enough to envelop Butterfree. Then it was dragged along with him, and Butterfree had to follow along or get hit by the electric attack.

"Smart," the Bug-type said. "I like it."

His wings glowed with psychic power, and Pikachu formed a second layer of Counter Shield over his fur.

"Ow, this is harder than I thought," Pikachu admitted, then checked his footing. "Hey, you haven't seen everything I picked up yet. Want to know what this one's called?"

Butterfree used Psychic, and the Counter Shield crackled as the attack hit. It sent Pikachu sliding backwards a little, but not enough to throw him off, and he smirked.

"Volt Tackle!" Pikachu announced, springing forwards, and an electric detonation filled the clearing.

"Okay, that was… impressive," Misty said, wincing as a stray bolt of electricity fizzed through the clearing. "Butterfree's really tough."

"Yeah, and I've got some great ideas about where to take his training!" Ash said, then had a sudden sense of foreboding. "Huh?"

He looked up just in time to see a paralyzed Pidgeotto land on top of him, then evolve to Pidgeot in a flare of white light.

"Wow," Misty sighed. "Sometimes watching Ash's luck unfold is really kind of astonishing."

Ash patted Pidgeot on her feathered back, both arms wrapped around the Flying-type. "I'm sorry for leaving you there so long, without checking on you."

He shook his head. "I wish I could say I was… but I just forgot. That's all there is to it."

"I don't have any hard feelings, Ash," she said, wrapping a wing around him in return. "You were busy, getting involved in all kinds of nonsense, and I was busy, keeping the flock safe from that Fearow."

"Actually, there is good news there," Ash replied. "I guess Gary caught him. As a Spearow, I mean, because of… you know, the fact we're in the past."

"Well, that's good," the Flying-type decided. "And being able to talk to you is good news as well. I've missed you, Ash."

"I've missed you," Ash replied. "Though I should probably go and make sure Pikachu and Butterfree are all right, they were showing off what they've learned to one another.

"Oh, should I do that too?" Pidgeot asked. "I've learned some very fun tricks over the last few years. Want to see a tornado?"

"I think that might be a bit much?" Ash said.

"What might be a bit much?" Misty asked.

"Pidgeot was offering to show me a tornado," Ash replied.

Misty didn't seem enthused.

"So, what now?" Misty asked, once Ash had officially caught both Butterfree and Pidgeot and was making sure neither Butterfree nor Pikachu had any serious scrapes from their battle. "You wanted to go somewhere near Pewter soon, right?"

"Yeah, I do," Ash agreed. "I don't think I've lost track of the date, we've got a bit of time… I want to make sure I actually can beat Brock's gym properly this time. It didn't go great last time."

Misty nodded. "That makes sense. I'm almost surprised."

"Hey!" Ash protested. "But yeah, I don't know if I'm going to battle Brock when he's reminded or not, but… I feel like it'd be a better challenge if he is. And his team's a lot tougher than it was then. So… we'll go in a couple of days, or when Pikachu's got the Aura trick down."

Pidgeot flared her wings. "I can take you both!"

"I know you can, Pidgeot," Ash said. "But even if you couldn't, just knowing which way to go would be great."

"Which Aura trick do you mean, Ash?" Misty checked. "There's so many you keep talking about."

"Force Palm," Ash replied. "It's a pretty simple Aura attack, it's just pulsing out the Aura when you're in contact, but if it's just electrically charged it won't really work. At all. Especially not on a Ground type. Unless…"

He shook his head. "No, that's not reliable enough – so, anyway, Pikachu's working on splitting his Aura to use it in battle properly. And at the same time, I want to make it so I can pull up more Aura myself… the better I get, the more useful it is, and maybe I can start understanding wild Pokémon."

That made Ash look puzzled. "Or, well, Pokémon that aren't mine? I couldn't understand Arbok and Weezing, it's weird."

"Oh, yeah, it has been nice not being bothered by them every couple of days," Misty admitted. "They'll show up eventually, right?"

"Probably," Ash shrugged. "Though I must be getting better, since I understood Pidgeot."

"What Ash isn't saying is how much of a pain the training is," Pikachu said, glancing over at Butterfree. "It's basically punching trees while I try to get to the point that one of them is being hit by blue Aura and it breaks."

"Huh," Butterfree mused, thinking about that. "That reminds me of that guy with the Sandshrew. Remember him?"

"Oh, yeah, him," Pikachu agreed. "Maybe that guy did have a point?"

"You!" a voice called, making them both jump. "Are you the fourth trainer from Pallet Town who was going to come through here?"

Ash looked at the Bug Samurai, then at his finger. Which was pointing squarely at Misty.

"No," Misty said. "I'm from Cerulean City."

"I'm the one from Pallet Town!" Ash introduced himself. "Ash Ketchum!"

"Aha!" the Samurai replied. "Then I must challenge you, just as I did the others!"

He reached for his sword. "Unless you have no honour?"

"I've got honour!" Ash replied quickly. "I just want to ask, are you sure about this?"

"Of course I am!" Samurai said. "I swore to myself that I would battle all four of the trainers from Pallet Town, ever since I met the first! And found out that one of them, he wouldn't say which, smelled."

"That's Gary, all right," Ash decided. "I'm just asking because I've got a Pidgeot right behind me and this clearing's covered with scorch marks from the Volt Tackle my Pikachu used."

Samurai shrugged. "That's irrelevant. Samurai do not retreat from battle."

"I don't know what history books he's been reading," Pikachu said.

"I call the Pinsir!" Butterfree declared quickly.

"I'll handle the Metapod, then," Pidgeot said, her cool translated soprano carrying a hint of steel. "I think it's Pikachu's turn to rest for a while."

"This is going to happen, right?" Misty confirmed. "I'll handle being the referee, then, I am a Gym Leader. How many Pokémon do you have, Samurai?"

"Two," Samurai replied.

"Then it's two Pokémon on each side," Misty said. "Both of you send out your first Pokémon on the count of three."

It would be best not to contemplate the scenes of carnage.

"I am ashamed by my defeat," the samurai said. "I have fulfilled my pledge, but all it has shown me is how much further I have to go."

He looked up. "Why is your team so much stronger than the other three trainers from Pallet Town? The Charmander and the Bulbasaur at least had to work hard… and the Squirtle one, his Spearow was a bit worrying… but your Pidgeot is amazing, and your Butterfree is as strong as any Bug-type I've ever seen."

"Well… it's kind of complicated," Ash admitted, feeling kind of bad. "But the best thing to do after a battle like that is just to improve and do better next time. And, maybe catch a few more diverse Bug-type Pokémon?"

"I see," Samurai decided. "Well. Then I hope when our paths cross again, we have both improved enough that our match is more even… even if that does mean I'll have to improve a lot more than you."

"You'll do fine!" Ash said.

"You'll probably do fine," Pikachu amended. "Might do fine."

He paused. "Actually I remember you when you got started, Ash. He's in with a good chance…"

"Left, right!" Ash said. "Left, right! Keep that separation going!"

The only thing delaying them going to Pewter Gym any more was Pikachu getting this right, and without any need to keep moving through the forest in the vague hope of finding Butterfree, Pidgeot or the exit that meant all their time could focus on training.

For Pikachu, that meant graduating to rock punching.

"I'm trying, Ash!" Pikachu said. Thwack.

"Then try harder!" Ash said. Thud. "You need to keep the separation up!" Thwack. "That's why you're hitting a rock now!" Thud.

"And it's not easy to concentrate on two things at once," Pikachu replied, sweating. Thwack.

"You think I don't know that?" Ash asked. Thud.

"Of course!" Thwack. "Concentrating on one thing is hard enough for you!" Thud. "So two things isn't much of a step up!"

Thwack.

"I'm trying to make it so we can earn the Boulderbadge properly!" Ash shot back. Thud.

"Or you could just use Butterfree!" Thwack.

"But I want to use you, Pikachu!" Ash insisted. Thud. "We can deal with this!" Thwack. "It's like the Vertress Conference!" Thud.

"What happened at the Vertress conference?" Misty wondered.

Pidgeot chirped, shrugging her wings.

It wasn't like she'd know. Trees famously didn't get cable highlights of foreign Pokémon leagues.

"Ash, I love you, but you can be so STUBBORN!" Pikachu said, his fist smacking into the rock.

Which cracked cleanly in two.

"Well, you – did that just work?" Ash asked, his tone completely changing.

"I think so," Pikachu said, staring at his paw.

The rock made a sort of creaking noise, then the halves fell over.

"Yes!" Ash cheered.

"Take that, Steel types!" Pikachu said. "And Rock-and-ground types! And Ice-types, too, if they're Ground type as well! And generally speaking a lot of the Pokémon that Pikachu are bad at battling!"

"I'm still not sure what Pikachu's saying, but he seems very happy about it," Misty decided.

"Basically he's happy he can punch things now," Butterfree provided. "Possibly that he can do it and it'll work?"

"All right!" Ash decided. "Now, when do you want to learn Aura Sphere?"

Pikachu didn't reply, mostly because he was already asleep.

"...right," Ash added. "I guess we have been working long hours…"

To the north, a cloaked shape passed through a sleepy village high up in a mountain pass.

The figure moved quickly, and silently, ducking smoothly underneath two men carrying a plank before dodging away from a moving vehicle, always moving and never slowing.

Nobody in the village recognized them, or the cloak, and when a Staravia sent after them came back an hour later without having even found the stranger it simply became another mystery.

AN:

The main rewrite change here aside from general quality improvements was the Pikachu-Butterfree battle, which (unlike the first pass through) was not literally my first ever battle scene written of any significance.