Bulbasaur thought it was gonna be a fine day. He was a bit sad that Charizard was called back by Ash since they have yet to catch up for everything – Bulbasaur was just glad that he was able to reunite with Ash's original six barring Squirtle – but Professor Oak had said that it was only for a bit. So that's okay, for the most part.

What he's really sad about was his peaceful days being over because Heracross hadn't pestered him for two days due to Charizard always accompanying him. Like an automated response, Bulbasaur whipped up his vines and hit the incoming Heracross before the bug landed on his bulb. Butterfree and Pidgeot exchanged amused and exasperated looks.

"Must you really do this every day? We've had two days of peace," muttered Bulbasaur. Heracross merely sent his version of a peace sign.

"Scram!"

Heracross flew back to the trees to find sap.

"You know, I don't get Heracross," said Butterfree. "There is more delicious food than Bulbasaurs' bulb, no offense of course Bulbasaur. He does know that, right?"

Bulbasaur frowned. "Doubtful. Maybe. I don't know. At this point, I don't wanna know."

This resulted into Butterfree giggling while Pidgeot let out a trill that made it sound like she's laughing. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," said Bulbasaur in mock derision but couldn't quite keep the smile growing in his face.

"Hi, Bulbasaur! Hi, Pidgeot! Hi, Butterfree!"

Bulbasaur managed not to jump out of surprise as Gible sneaked behind them. Pidgeot noticed Gible was alone which was a cause for alarm. She exchanged looks with Butterfree. The two of them distantly remembered Rufflet's quirk when it comes to battling and shuddered.

"Oh, hey Gible! Weren't you supposed to show Rufflet around? Where is he anyway?" asked Pidgeot as she was getting a bad feeling in her gut.

"Gible lost him," said Gible simply, a hint of disappointment there too. "Gible was walking and when Gible turned around, Rufflet not there anymore."

The three oldest Pokemon of Ash Ketchum looked at one another and chorused, "Oh, no."

As if on cue, a loud squawk reverberated in the ranch:

"Whose crazy bird is this going around challenging and attacking everyone?!"

Swellow was not aware that he was going to encounter a small, battle-crazed bird Pokemon and be disturbed from his sleep this early in the morning, so excuse him from squawking a little too loud—he got dived bomb from his perching spot! That actually hurt him. But before he can reprimand the Pokemon, it already went to attack Noctowl and Staraptor and then flew away to find more Pokemon.

Swellow watched Noctowl's heavy, protruding eyes looking at the direction the small Pokemon had taken. While that didn't say much to your everyday Pokemon, he knew from that look that Noctowl was annoyed and irritated, particularly because the owl was just about to go to slumber.

Flapping his wings to stay in the air, Staraptor sighed tiredly. "Please don't tell me Ash caught himself a battle-crazed Flying type…"

Noctowl hooted, "He did. He definitely did. Ash is earnest, but I do wonder sometimes if he's doing things to mess with us."

The three of them swooped down to the gathering of Pokemon that had gathered to follow the bird. Mostly, Ash's Pokemon.

"A new playmate, yay!" cheered Totodile, ignoring the fact that he got bruised on his snout for a prospective playmate.

Buizel was the opposite. The weasel waved his arms wildly, his hands formed into fists as he ranted, "Oh, he wants a battle? I'll give him one! Let me at 'im!"

Primeape, a lot calmer these days because of his training, agreed: "Ditto."

"Oh, now I know why that personality seems familiar," muttered Kingler, hearing Buizel and Primeape. "He's a Pokemon version of Ash in his neophyte days."

Kingler chose not to mention that all of Ash's Pokemon are battle-crazy to different degrees. Excuse him for having a sense of self-preservation!

The rest of the gathered Pokemon turned slowly to Kingler. Kingler blinked and sweatdropped before saying, "What? You all don't agree? Ash challenged me to a fight with a stick."

"Oh, no. We perfectly agree…" hedged Bayleef. "it's just that… it's unusual to use the word neophyte? Most of us would just use newbie."

Corphish blinked. "What's a neophyte?"

Immediately sensing the trouble it will cause, Sceptile covered the crustacean's mouth and whispered violently, "If you get Muk discussing about neophyte for hours, I will personally make sure to attack you every day. And Bayleef already simplified it, it means newbie."

Everyone that was near Corphish and Sceptile sweatdropped as their gazes found the sludge. Luckily, Muk was conversing with Torkoal and had not heard Corphish. For all of Muk's quirkiness, he was one of the most intelligent and articulate Pokemon in the ranch who can go on long-winding talks. (You can't not be intelligent after years of listening and pestering Professor Oak.)

"Well, I have never been more thankful for Torterra's patience until now," said Gliscor from his position up in the sky, watching Rufflet from an advantageous vantage point.

Hearing this, Quilava muttered, "We all best hope that it won't stop pestering Torterra for a while, or else we'll have bigger problems to face."

"What do you mean?" asked Torkoal, finally breaking away from his and Muk's conversation.

"The Tauros incident and the Snorlax incident," gritted Donphan, making everyone wince and glare at Glalie and Gliscor who had caused them.

(Gliscor and Glalie thought it would be a good prank to freeze the terrain and then send minor tremors—they found out it wasn't.)

"In our defense, we didn't know their reactions would be extreme…" defended Glalie weakly.

"Of course, you didn't. But you still tried," said Heracross crossly.

"Okay, ladies and gents, where's Rufflet?" asked Bulbasaur as he strode at the clearing where they had gathered with Pidgeot, Butterfree, and Gible in tow.

"Oh, he's off pestering Torter…" – Gliscor's eyes bugged out as he turned to see Torterra sending him an apologetic look only to see Rufflet on his way towards the Tauros herd – "RAAAAAA he's making his way to the Tauros herd."

Everyone froze before Pidgeot took off, followed by Staraptor, Swellow, and Noctowl. Butterfree, Gliscor, and Heracross made a move to follow but Bulbasaur reined them in. "Let the birds handle it, I'm sure Pidgeot has a plan."

"What's the plan?" asked Staraptor as he kept up with Pidgeot. He hadn't felt this thrill of flying ever since Ash left them in the ranch.

"I have none," trilled Pidgeot, flapping her massive wings to cover quite a distance.

Swellow whistled, "Oh, so we're just winging it. My kind of plan."

The other three stopped moving mid-air and stared blankly at Swellow, who blinked at them in return. Noctowl broke the silence, saying, "Seriously, a pun at this time?"

Pidgeot just shook her head – in amusement or exasperation, no one knew – before gathering up speed to catch up to Rufflet. The eaglet was near the Tauros fences when the large figure of Pidgeot stopped him in his tracks as the larger bird pivoted to a stop in front of Rufflet. The other three birds followed shortly after.

"Alright, you fledgling, you've had your fun causing quite the ruckus here but that's rather enough," lectured Pidgeot in a stern voce, while the other three birds were slowing down to a halt around them.

"I've yet to challenge those bulls!" protested Rufflet, rebellion glinting in his eyes. He wasn't weak! He was strong! He can challenge them!

"Yeah, sorry kid, no can do. You can mess with anyone here but the Tauros and Snorlax," chirped Swellow, gaining glares and blank looks from the others. "Okay, it's not good messing with anyone in here, especially the Tauros and Snorlax."

Rufflet asked, quite sincerely, "Why?"

"Because when you get them truly mad, you'll regret it," says Swellow.

"Right," said Rufflet, dubious and doubtful.

"Seriously, Swellow?" said Noctowl in annoyance, his attention fully shifted from Rufflet to the swallow.

Swellow flared his wings, as If holding them up. He defensively replied, "What?"

"You're bad at this," said Staraptor, before turning back to Rufflet who wasn't in his place anymore, only a draft of thin air. "Hey, where'd the little eaglet go?"

A loud, reverberating cry was loudly heard in Oak's ranch as Rufflet, foolishly following through with his plan, had been trampled by the Tauros as he landed a Quick Attack to the herd leader. Not one to back down to a challenge and their listlessness at not having eaten yet and being agitated at early morning, the Tauros immediately launched a Giga Impact, landing a hit before Rufflet could squawk his battle cry.

"Mess around and find out, I always say," Swellow quipped, making Rufflet bawl even more. The three other birds glared at Swellow, prompting the swallow to raise his wings, "Alright, alright, I'll stop. I just can't stop myself making smart comments when it's easy to."

"Well, it's easy to pummel you into the ground too, did I do it?" retorted Staraptor, making Swellow gasp in shock and betrayal.

"Betrayal from one of my kin!" intoned Swellow, gaining a whack from Noctowl. Pidgeot, the largest of the group, whacked him and Staraptor with her large, and admittedly heavy, wings before puffing her chest out, "You two are seriously not helping."

The two looked appropriately abashed while Rufflet was still crying his eyes out.

"Hey," called Noctowl. "If you stop crying, we might give you pointers on how to battle and use aerial maneuvers," bribed Noctowl which abruptly stopped Rufflet's crying.

Rufflet looked at Noctowl as if he hung the stars in the sky. "Really?"

"We might," stressed Noctowl, wondering if it was a good idea saying that before looking at Pidgeot for guidance.

"We'll give you a pointer or two but promise us you'll start listening earnestly to us and heed our warnings about the ranch Pokemon," said Pidgeot, looking straight at Rufflet's eyes. At this point, no tears were coming out of Rufflet's eyes and he had composed himself enough to nod enthusiastically to Pidgeot.

"Well, that settles it. Alright, so here's a move that will hit the opponent no matter what…"