Chapter 19
If a slight breeze was the only downside to this beautiful day, it was sure to be a great one. The sun was shining warmly up above – not too hot and not too cold – and the path before them was clear of obstacles and difficult travels.
They weren't the only ones enjoying the sun. As promised a couple days ago, Chikorita was riding on Ash's shoulder. Its face was completely content as the sun's warm rays beat down on it, and it looked as happy as it could be, in comparison to when they arrived at the Pokémon Center some time ago. Ash, of course, was relieved that his Chikorita was in a much better mood.
But Chikorita wasn't the only Grass-type Pokémon that was basking in the beautiful weather. As the pair – and Chikorita – moved along the path, movement caught Ash's eyes to the left, and he perked up and saw three Bellsprout wiggling their skinny bodies in the sunlight behind some bushes. "Hey! Look at the Bellsprout!" Ash pointed out.
"Chika!" Chikorita added, gazing its red eyes at them.
"Hey, there's some Vileplume over there as well," Gary said, looking to the right of the path. Ash followed his gaze, and indeed, there was a pair of the red-petaled Flower Pokémon. "Breathing in their Stun Spore is not on my agenda today."
"Wow! There's a couple of Gloom over there!"
"There sure are quite a lot of Grass-type Pokémon that live around here, huh?" And as Gary said this, they looked ahead to see a Grass Pokémon on the path that stood out amongst the others. It was bright pink, with a pair of weeds rising from its head. It looked at them with zero worry in its small, beady eyes as it bounced from foot to foot up the path like gravity wasn't a thing at all.
"Hoppip! Hoppip! Hoppip!" it chanted with each skip.
"Hey, I think I know that Pokémon," Gary stated. "I think it's called a Hoppip."
"I can see why," Ash commented as it stopped some feet in front of them and tilted its head curiously at them without its wide smile fading.
"Hop?"
"Chika!" Chikorita crooned from Ash's shoulder.
"Let's see what Dexter has to say," the black-haired Trainer said, and retrieved the electronic Pokémon encyclopedia from his jacket pocket before bringing the device to life.
"Hoppip, the Cottonweed Pokémon. This hopping Pokémon is light as a feather, and can be lifted by the gentlest breeze." As if to prove the Pokédex's point, a slight wind gusted, and though Ash and Gary barely noticed it, Hoppip was lifted off the ground and drifted lazily through the air. The wind picked up, and it floated higher and higher like a child had just accidentally let go of a helium balloon, and back the way it had came.
"Wait!" Ash cried, putting away his Pokédex and running after the Hoppip. Gary followed him, and with their eyes locked on the flying Grass Pokémon, they ran off the path and onto the grass where they followed feet below it. Though Hoppip had been carried off against its will, it didn't seem too concerned about it – and in fact was having the time of its life as it was carried up and down by the breeze like it was riding an invisible roller coaster. "Wait up! Don't worry!"
"We'll catch 'ya!" Gary added.
But there was someone up ahead of them that was also trying to do the same thing with a different Hoppip. A young girl with turquoise hair was swinging a long net back and forth, and jumping while swinging in an attempt to grab at Hoppip floating just out of reach. The Hoppip looked down with a wide smile at the girl like it was playing a game, but the gentle breeze pushed it down slightly, and she was able to jump up and catch the Grass and Flying Pokémon in her net. "One down, and one to go!"
As she rested on her knees and put the net containing the Hoppip on the ground, the one that Ash and Gary had been chasing floated down aimlessly on her head. She looked up as the Hoppip climbed out of the net, and she reached up and brought the Pokémon down onto her lap. "Well, it's a good thing I didn't lose my head while I was chasing you, or you wouldn't have had a place to land," she chuckled.
"'Scuse me," Ash spoke up as they approached her. The girl's shoulders tensed up for a brief instance, and she swiveled her head around and smiled up at them.
"Oh, hi! You surprised me."
"Sorry. We were chasing that Hoppip to make sure it didn't get blown too far; is it yours?"
"It is," she answered, and stood up, placing the Hoppip that had landed on her head with the other one she had caught with her net. "My name's Mariah."
"My name's Ash," Ash introduced. "So do both of those Hoppip belong to you?"
"Yes, both of them are mine; and I have more of them, too," she said. "My house isn't too far from here; why don't you come back for a rest and I can show you all of my Hoppip." Ash and Gary agreed, and with Mariah leading the way, they headed back to her house with her Hoppip tucked securely under her arms so they wouldn't fly away again.
o 0 o
A quaint cottage in the woods was where Mariah led them to. The property size was huge, and she didn't have any neighbors within sight at all. In front of her yard was a large net that stretched three times as high as her house, and there were also various devices on both the top of it and the roof of her house.
She brought them inside the net, and let her Hoppip go, and when she did, more came out and they conjugated together, smiling at the happy reunion. "Wow, you have seven Hoppip?" Gary counted as Mariah grabbed a bucket of feed and threw some to the Grass Pokémon.
"Sometimes it seems more like seventeen," she joked, and knelt down after filling her palm with more food. "Now there's plenty for everybody." The Hoppip all converged together at her hand and they all munched on the pellets.
"You sure have a lot of thingamajigs up there, Mariah," Ash observed, his brown eyes glancing up at the devices on the red shingled roof of her house. There was a weathervane in the shape of a Pidgeot rocking back and forth with the breeze, a large antenna that looked like it belonged at an electric company instead of on her roof, and a few other pieces of equipment carefully balanced. "You must do something here besides training Hoppip."
"Wanna see?" she asked with a chuckle.
After she finished feeding the Hoppip, she brought them into her house. It wasn't very big, and everything was laid out in one room, aside from the bedroom upstairs. While she went off to make tea for the pair and herself, they sat themselves at the table in the middle of the room, but their eyes stared at the various equipment that was even in the house. It looked like massively complicated computers to Ash, resembling those at Professor Oak's laboratory that boggled his mind. They stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the wooden background of the cabin.
As Ash's eyes wandered around in interest, he saw Gary also doing the same thing, and he wondered what was going through his rival's head as he took all this in. Chikorita, however, didn't seem the least bit interested, and simply curled up on its Trainer's lap and nuzzled against his stomach.
Mariah finally came back with a pot and poured the brown liquid into their cups before sitting down and folding her fingers together. She watched as Ash and Gary pondered the machines around them before speaking up. "All of those instruments on the roof help me do my job. I'm a weather forecaster, and the equipment you saw gives me data on weather conditions so I can make accurate predictions."
"Cool!"
"It's hard enough being a Pokémon Trainer, let alone having a full-time job as well," Gary commented, bringing the cup to his lips.
"The reason I train Hoppip is so they can help me predict the weather." Both of the boys from Pallet widened their eyes, and their heads shot in her direction.
"Hoppip can predict the weather?" the auburn-haired Trainer sputtered. Mariah chuckled and gestured for them to follow her back outside. Adjusting the pink scarf that was tied around her neck as though in anticipation of the wind, she led them back to the inside of the net that she kept her Hoppip in. Sure enough, they were in there, but the Hoppip didn't run up to them like they had when they first arrived. Instead, they sat in the center of the grass and huddled closely to each other. "Now watch closely; the wind's gonna pick up any second!"
"How do you know?"
"Did your instruments tell you that?" Gary asked, looking up at the various devices up on her roof, but they were unmoving.
"I know because Hoppip always cluster together like that just before a wind." Sure enough, a brisk wind blew through the holes in the net, and the Grass and Flying Pokémon huddled more closely together, but two of the Hoppip lifted off the ground and floated into the air.
"You're right, Mariah; there's the breeze," Gary stated, watching as the Hoppip drifted lazily through the air without a care. But because of the net, they were caught and safely fluttered down to the hay that lined the bottom of it.
"Hoppip..." they sighed with content as they landed on their backs.
"That breeze would only rate a two on the Hoppip scale."
"What's that mean?" Ash asked.
Mariah turned around and faced them as she explained. "It was only strong enough to pick up two Hoppip, so it rated a two on the Hoppip scale."
"Interesting..." Gary murmured, rubbing his chin as he glanced down at the remaining Hoppip that disbanded now that the threat of the wind was gone.
"Recently, I've been studying the Hoppip more closely, and recording all of their behavior patterns. I believe they may be able to help meteorologists make long-range weather predictions!"
"So it seems that you're more of a scientist than a Trainer," Gary deduced.
"That's right. I just love exploring the relationship between my Hoppip and the weather. But I'll admit, it is a challenge to train my Hoppip and keep my weather research going, but being around them makes me so happy that it doesn't seem like work. Though it's not easy when I have to chase my Hoppip that a wind's blown miles and miles away."
"Sounds like the Hoppip keep you hopping!" Ash chuckled.
"You could put it that way!" Mariah agreed, hiding her smile behind her hand.
Movement behind her grabbed their attention once again, and the Hoppip chanted all together and gathered in the center once again. "The Hoppip are all bunched together again," Gary observed. "That must mean another breeze is coming." This time, the wind that blew was much stronger than the first one, and it managed to blow all of the Hoppip away, aside from one, that peeked up when it saw its friends had blown away, and ran after them with legs that were longer than a normal Hoppip. "Hey, that's a funny-looking Hoppip..."
Strangely enough the Pokémon had a lot more leaves on its head, and it wasn't quite as pink as the other Hoppip, and it bounced up on a large rock before turning around. Much to their surprise, the strangely-shaped Hoppip leapt from the rock and kicked its legs in the air before falling onto its face in the dirt. "Hey, what's the matter with this one?" Ash asked, bending and resting his hands on his knees.
"That one's a little bit different," Mariah told them, nervously folding her hands behind her back.
"Why didn't it fly away with the rest of them?" Gary asked as the Pokémon picked itself back up. When it did, it looked at them and a blue marking had appeared around its eye, looking like a bruise. But it wasn't a bruise at all.
"What did you go and cover all over your body, little one?" Mariah asked, kneeling down and taking out a handkerchief from her pocket. The strange Hoppip twisted and turned away from her hand like a toddler, but eventually, the pink ran off its body, revealing a blue body instead.
"That's not a Hoppip; it's an Oddish!" Gary realized.
"I know it seems strange; it's a Pokémon from the neighborhood," the weather girl explained. "But the poor little thing's spent so much time playing with my Hoppip that it's decided that it wants to be a Hoppip, too." As she said this, the Oddish ran across the enclosure and used its leaves to hoist itself up the net and climb it like a Mankey. "I've tried to tell it that it's an Oddish and it can't fly, but it's determined to fly like the Hoppip."
The Oddish climbed all the way up to nearly the top of the net before leaping off it. Ash's heart jumped in his chest as the Oddish cried out from the fall, but it landed safely in the hay below, thankfully. Despite not taking any physical damage, Oddish's red eyes still welled up with tears. "Oddish..."
"That's kinda sad," Gary murmured with a frown and his hands on his hips.
"I wish there was something we could do to help it, but I'm not exactly sure what we could do," Ash stated. "No way an Oddish can fly."
"Oddish, Oddish," the Weed Pokémon said, and glanced up sadly at the three. Walking up to it, Ash knelt down to look at it at its level.
"Don't feel bad, Oddish. You're a great Pokémon! And I think that you're perfect just the way you are." Oddish's leaves drooped like a plant that didn't get enough water, and Ash frowned. "It looks like that's gonna take some time to sink in..."
"Time that we don't have," Gary said. "Don't forget, we have to get to Azalea Town to deliver the GS Ball."
"Yeah, you're right..." Ash sighed, and stood up. "Thanks for showing us your Hoppip, Mariah."
"It's no problem, guys. Good luck on your journey," she replied. And she turned around to talk to the Hoppip, but as they had before, they were all gathered together. But suddenly, she froze as her eyes fell upon them. "Wait! Don't go! It's dangerous!"
"What do you mean?" Gary asked, looking down at the Hoppip.
"A huge windstorm is on its way," she explained, pointing down at the Hoppip – and now Oddish – that had gathered.
"How can you tell?"
"See?" Mariah pointed, and Ash and Gary followed her fingers with their eyes. "Hoppip only put their leaves together like that before extremely strong winds!" As Mariah pointed out, the Hoppip were gathered in groups of two or three, and they all had braided their leaves together. Even Oddish had intertwined its leaves with its friends. "It's very rare."
A deep rumble shook the sky in the distance, and Mariah's head shot in the direction it had come from. Dark clouds were starting to roll in, and an eerie silence fell over the forest all around them. Ash could no longer hear the scouring of wild Pokémon as they had as background noise all day. "Please, help me bring the Hoppip inside!" she requested, scooping up a pair of them in her arms. Gary and Ash both took a Hoppip – with the younger boy tucking Oddish under his arm as well – and they all retreated into Mariah's cabin.
As soon as the young girl dropped her Hoppip, she rushed over to her computer and brought it to life. Likewise, as soon as the Hoppip were on the floor, they and the Oddish all gathered together in bunches again and folded their leaves together. Fingers flying over the keys as if she had been doing it her whole life, she looked at the data that was laid out on the monitor. "All my instruments confirm exactly what my Hoppip have already told me: there's a tornado heading this way!"
Ash and Gary gasped, and their mouths dropped open in horror.
o 0 o
While Mariah was busy alerting the county of the incoming tornado, Ash and Gary worked with an adrenaline-fueled energy to do their best and board up all the windows. They worked non-stop, with fear being a great motivator. It seemed with each hammer strike, the clouds above would get darker and darker. Soon, the only light in the house was from the monitors that glowed from Mariah's computer.
The Hoppip were frozen in the center of the room like statues, barely making a sound as they all stood huddled together with their leaves intertwined with each other. They didn't sound scared, but also didn't make a peep either.
"I've never seen a twister this big," Mariah said, her voice quivering as she translated the data and maps before her. "It won't be long before it hits us full-force!" Her head whipped around, and her amethyst eyes were glittering with a fiery determination. "We all better take cover under the desk right away!"
The power quickly shut down no sooner had the words left her mouth. Feeling his breath hitch in his throat, Ash and Gary gathered all of the Grass-type Pokémon at their feet and piled under the weather girl's work desk. The sound of their breathing was booming in their ears, and the feeling of his heartbeat felt like a drum was beating inside him. Soon, the wood that comprised the cabin began to groan, and Ash held his Chikorita closer to his chest in his arms while the Leaf Pokémon tucked its head against his chest. The whole foundation shook more violently with each passing second, but the feeling of helplessness was overwhelming and drawing sweat to both him and Gary.
Now that the storm was upon them, the Hoppip all let out moans of anguish, all of them shivering in the center of the three humans. Just then, a loud crash sounded above them, and Mariah screamed in fright as the roof was ripped off the cabin. The cyclone of wind was now roaring in Ash's ears and threatening to take him off his feet, and within seconds, the desk that was providing them cover was also sucked up into the air. Ash barely had a chance to vocalize his fear when the lightweight Hoppip were sucked into the air as well.
"Hoppip!" they all cried.
"Oh, no! My Hoppip!" Mariah screamed, barely audible in all of the noise. Despite this, she reached up and grabbed at thin air in an attempt to grab any of them at all, but the attempt was far too late. But from the sudden jerking motion of her standing, her feet started to rise into the air, and the twister threatened to take her spinning as well.
"Mariah!" Gary yelled, jumping up and wrapping his arms around her waist before pulling her to the ground once again.
Mariah was saved, but there was a new figure rising into the air: Oddish. With flailing legs, Oddish's red eyes glittered with panic as it rose higher into the air. "Chikorita, grab it with Vine Whip!" Ash shouted. His voice was barely audible in his own ears, but luckily enough, Chikorita was able to hear the command, and two green vines sprouted from the buds around its neck and shot up, grabbing Oddish just in time before it cloud fly away. Pulling the Weed Pokémon in close, Ash closed his eyes and let the wind blow around him while holding onto both of the Grass Pokémon as tightly as he could.
The rest of the storm went by like a blur. The twister could have stayed over them for hours, or it could have just been a couple more seconds. Time was unreal in that moment, and all he knew was to do his best to keep his grip on the Pokémon in his arms while at the same time try and do his best to stay grounded.
Finally, the absence of the storm was apparent with only a ringing left in their ears, and they finally pulled their eyes up. The sun was shining through clouds above as though nothing had ever happened, but from the state of the cabin – or lack thereof – it was apparent that they didn't just imagine it. "Your house is destroyed..." Gary murmured. While the walls for the most part were still upright, the roof was completely gone and bits of trees and branches from the surrounding areas were strewn about the panels on the ground. This was, of course, among the bits of glass and debris from the surrounding windows and now destroyed computer equipment.
"Yeah..." Ash agreed, and him and Mariah both stood up.
"At least Oddish was lucky," Gary murmured, looking down with a smile at the blue Weed Pokémon beside Chikorita. "But I hope the Hoppip are all right."
"Well, the only way to find out is if we find them and make sure they are, Gary," Ash proposed, and then turned to the weather girl. "Is that okay with you, Mariah?"
"Sure! Thanks for volunteering." They left the confines of the cabin without having to open the door. It was off its hinges and laying on the front porch on its side. Mariah held back a breath of air as she looked at her yard. There were bits of wood everywhere. Trees were fallen all around, and the net she had set up to keep the Hoppip in was gone. Their shoes crunched any excess glass hidden in the grass as they walked, and they only managed to go some distance before they found something.
"There's the roof!" Ash commented. It was mostly in one piece, but the instruments that had been on top of it were crumpled like an empty pop can.
"At least it didn't land on anybody," Mariah said with relief. But in her arms, the Grass Pokémon began to fidget restlessly.
"Oddish seems worried about something," Gary observed.
"Yes, it wants to start looking for its Hoppip friends right away," she told him with a smile. "Oddish is always very caring and concerned about the Hoppip. About a month ago, we had a giant thunderstorm and one of them got caught in it, and I couldn't find it anywhere. But Oddish found it and brought it home to me."
"Oddish-Odd," the Weed Pokémon murmured as it snuggled closer to Mariah. Ash and Gary gave the smallest hint of a smile, and with that, they were off to go find the Hoppip. They followed the trail of destruction away from Mariah's property with Oddish in the lead. They walked until Mariah's house was no longer in view before Oddish stopped and its head looked back and forth. Closing its eyes, the Weed Pokémon let its leaves flow in the wind before spinning on its heel and looking at Mariah. "Oddish! Oddish-Odd!"
"The wind's blowing in this direction, so you think we should go this way?" she asked, pointing to their left. Oddish nodded so enthusiastically that its whole body looked like it was bouncing up and down, and it took off in a run into the woods. The three all looked on with smiles they couldn't help but wear and hurried after it. "It's not unusual for the Hoppip to get stuck up in the trees," Mariah explained, and all three of them kept their eyes in the branches above.
Suddenly, Oddish stopped and looked back and forth once again as it had before, and it glanced up and waved its leaves upward. "Oddish!" Following its gaze, the three saw the first of seven Hoppip jammed between two branches, its little feet kicking back and forth to no avail.
"Hoppip..." it moaned in distress.
"Look, there's one of the Hoppip!" Ash pointed out.
"Now we just have to get it down," Gary said, and Oddish agreed by jumping high in the air and flailing its legs.
"You just leave this to me," Ash assured the Grass Pokémon, and turned to his Chikorita resting on his shoulder. "Chikorita, get it down with your Vine Whip."
"Chika!" his Pokémon agreed, and reached up with its vines that sprouted from its neck. It only took a small amount of pressure to get the Hoppip free, and Chikorita gently brought it down and into Mariah's arms.
"Thank you, Chikorita," she thanked.
"Six more to go," Gary said, and Oddish bounced on its feet before heading off down the woods further. They soon came across a river, and Oddish once again used its leaves to sense which way the wind was blowing, and led them downstream. They only walked down for some time before Oddish stopped and pointed forward with its leaves.
"Oddish Oddish Odd! Oddish Oooddd!"
The three humans gasped when they saw what Oddish was pointing at. "There's another one! It's stranded!" Mariah squealed. Like the Hoppip before it, it was jammed between two branches, but these ones were sticking out of the water, and its face was being tossed and turned in the racing waters.
"Hoppip!" it cried, but was quickly cut off by water rushing past its face.
"If we don't save it fast, it'll get washed away!" Gary exclaimed.
"Oddish!" the Weed Pokémon cried, and without a second of a doubt, leaped forward to jump into the river. Luckily, before it could be washed away in the stream, Ash clamped his hands around the Grass Pokémon's body.
"Not so fast, Oddish!" he told it, pulling it back onto land. "We don't want you to get washed away too." As they had before, Ash turned to the Pokémon on his shoulder and commanded his Chikorita to grab it with its Vine Whip.
"Chikah!" it stated, and managed to get Hoppip safely into Gary's arms. The poor Cottonweed Pokémon was soaked to the bone, and its leaves slumped over its face heavy with water, but it looked very relieved to be out of the water.
"Now we have two!" Ash cheered while Oddish danced happily beside him.
"Chikori!" Chikorita added with a grin.
Mariah's Hoppip jumped from Gary's arms and shook its body free of water as its Trainer knelt down and smiled at it widely. "That's a relief," she said, and they continued on their trek.
o 0 o
After some time of walking, Oddish led them out of the woods and into various grasslands similar to the ones they had first encountered Mariah in. With a Hoppip each in Gary's and Mariah's arms, they stopped when Oddish did, and the Grass and Poison Pokémon swiveled back and forth on its heel. "Oddish looks like it's looking for something," Gary observed.
Finally, Oddish stopped and jumped excitedly while flailing its legs in the air. "It sure is all hopped up," Ash chuckled with a hand resting firmly on his hip.
"Looks like all that hopping it does to keep up with the Hoppip really paid off," the auburn-haired Trainer stated with a small smile. "Its jump is the best I've ever seen from an Oddish."
"That's true!" Mariah giggled.
"Hopping isn't gonna help us find the other five Hoppip, though..." Ash murmured.
"Chika..."
"Oddish?" The Pokémon's questioning tone grabbed their attention, and they looked down only to see Oddish looking straight up and hopping excitedly. "Oddish! Oddish!" They followed its gaze to see one of Mariah's Hoppip flying through the air. It had yet to notice them, and its twin leaves were spinning around and around like a helicopter's propeller.
"Hey, there's one!" Gary realized.
"Let's follow it!" Ash suggested, and they all ran after it, calling out to try and get its attention. They were just beyond the edge of the forest once again when Hoppip heard them calling for it. It stopped hovering and looked down with a wide ear-to-ear smile.
Suddenly, a single brown vine shot out from the treetops nearby and wrapped itself around Hoppip's foot. Before any of them could even react, the vine retracted into the foliage, dragging the Hoppip with it.
Ash blinked, unable to believe his eyes with how fast Hoppip was snatched up. The poor Pokémon didn't even have time to make a sound. A series of reactions rang out from them, and before long, Oddish was charging in head-first into the forest. "Oddish, wait!" Mariah called after it.
"What was that?!" Ash exclaimed, running after Oddish while the others followed it.
"Whatever it was, it isn't good," Gary stated grimly. And it wasn't long until a bit after they entered the forest did they realized what it was.
"Look!" Ash yelled as he skidded to a stop. Amongst the browns and green backdrop of the forest, the pink of the Hoppip stuck out. And there wasn't just one – there were five. They were strewn up in the trees, wrapped in vines and suspended off tree branches. They were fidgeting and attempting to escape from their bindings.
"Odd-odd!" Oddish cried. It too saw its friends, and ran ahead to try and get to them, but suddenly, something large and yellow jumped in front of it with a high-pitched screech.
"A Victreebel!" Gary reported. But that wasn't all. A Weepinbell bounced beside the Victreebel as well, and both had eyes locked directly on the newcomers. Behind them, a sea of Bellsprout and Weepinbell were fast asleep. "I've read about this! I think this is an evolution ritual. They plan on draining the Hoppip's energy so the others can evolve!"
"Give me back my Hoppip!" Mariah demanded, and as she took a step forward, the wild Victreebel let out a shriek and sent forward a warning Razor Leaf. Mariah stepped back instinctively and the razor-sharp leaves stuck into the dirt where her foot was seconds before.
"It looks like they're not gonna give up the Hoppip too easily," Gary stated.
"Fine! I know who I'm going to use," Ash said, and drew a Poké Ball from his belt. "Go, Heracross!"
"Herla-croh!" Heracross spat as it emerged from its Poké Ball.
"Get in there, too, Nidoking!" Gary shouted with a swing of his arm. Seconds later, the large Drill Pokémon appeared from the light let out of the red and white sphere and roared beside Ash's Heracross.
The two Pokémon glared across at the opposing Grass Pokémon, awaiting for either the first move or command, but then Oddish trotted in front of Heracross and Nidoking. "Odd!" it said with determination. Despite being the smallest Pokémon of the group, it stood proudly. "Oddish!"
"What are you doing?" Mariah asked the smaller Pokémon.
"Does Oddish want to battle?" Gary asked rhetorically. Oddish looked back at them and nodded, then faced the enemy Grass-types once again. Angrily, Victreebel shot forward and rammed its body into Oddish. It was more of a warning shot than anything, and everyone's breaths hitched in their throats, but Oddish skidded on the ground unhurt and pushed off the ground. Seconds later, it rammed into Victreebel with a full-force Take Down attack that sent the larger Pokémon screaming and flying backwards. "Wow, its legs are really powerful!"
But Oddish wasn't done yet. It lowered its head and rocked its body back and forth. Then, glittering copper powder came twinkling out from the leaves on its head and drifted over Victreebel. "Oddish!"
"Oddish is using Stun Spore!" As the words left Gary's mouth, the Grass and Poison Pokémon seized up as Paralysis took over its body. Now that Victreebel was unable to move, Oddish launched itself forward and leapt into the air before delivering a powerful kick to the Flycatcher Pokémon. Victreebel let out one final scream before collapsing on its side on the forest ground.
"And Oddish is the winner!" Ash cheered with a fist high in the air.
Seeing that its friend was defeated, the Weepinbell beside it bounced forward to attack Oddish. Bending at the knees, Oddish let out a loud cry and jumped high into the air, almost like it could fly. Everyone looked up with a gasp, and Oddish lowered its head once again. This time, sapphire powder came pouring out of its leaves, and this enveloped Weepinbell's face. "Now it's using Sleep Powder," Gary said. Once the sparkling dust had disappeared, Weepinbell slumped over, and its eyes closed almost immediately – it had fallen asleep.
"You're doing great, Oddish!" Ash encouraged as the Grass Pokémon landed on the ground in front of them. Oddish didn't reply to the encouragement verbally, but raised its head slightly.
In an opposite move to the last two attacks, white sparkles from above drifted down into the leaves on Oddish's head. They gathered for a moment or two, but Oddish was unopposed since both of its opponents were inflicted with status conditions. Finally, the Weed Pokémon lowered its head and let out a cry, and a bright white beam of energy shot out from its leaves at the pair of Grass Pokémon. When it made contact, a huge explosion rocked the forest, and the Weepinbell and Victreebel both were swallowed up by the forest. "All right!" Ash cheered, once again throwing his fist in the air, but this time in victory. Gary and Mariah added to the cheers as well, and so did the Hoppip and Chikorita. But the happiest was Oddish, who was bouncing up and down like a bouncy ball and a big smile stretched across its face almost as big as a Hoppip's.
o 0 o
"I can't tell you how happy I am that you all made it home safely," Mariah said to her Hoppip now that all seven of them were in her vision.
"Hoppip! Hoppip!" they all cried simultaneously. They all looked happy to be back, and to not be dinner, either.
"This is certainly one of the strongest Oddish I've ever met," Gary complimented, looking down at the blue Weed Pokémon.
"Oddish!"
"If you ask me, any Pokémon that battles are hard as you do has a lot to be proud of," Ash said to the smaller Grass-type with his hands planted on his hips. "Even if it can't fly."
"Oddish?"
"And let's not forget how skillfully you used the direction of the wind to find Mariah's Hoppip in the first place," Gary added. All of the complimenting brought a red glow to Oddish's face, and it lowered its leaves to cover its face slightly. "Over my time as a Pokémon Trainer, I've learned that Pokémon are all different, and they're all good at different things."
"Some Pokémon have super-hearing, like Marill or Zubat," Ash brought up. "Some have great Water attacks, like Blastoise!" On his shoulder, Chikorita's cheeks puffed out slightly, and seeing this out of the corner of his eye, he chuckled nervously. "Or Grass attacks like Chikorita."
"Some Pokémon may be great with Water Gun, and another might have a strong Razor Leaf or Quick Attack," Gary continued. "But nobody is good at everything. You're not a Hoppip, but your kick is the best one I've seen in a long time."
"Plus, you get to use Stun Spore and Sleep Powder! And even real powerful attacks like SolarBeam!"
"Are you listening, Oddish?" Mariah asked the blue Pokémon, and it turned to look at her. "You're special just the way you are, Oddish, and you'll always be special to me." Oddish's ruby eyes sparkled with appreciation, and a red flush turned its cheeks violet.
"Odd-odd-odd-dish!" Oddish cried, jumping into Mariah's arms. She hugged it tightly and smiled.
"Of course I do! From now on we'll think of you as an honorary Hoppip that's a little... 'Oddish'."
"Odd!"
o 0 o
As the sun was beginning to set on their second day of being there, they stood in front of Mariah's house. It was together as best as it could as a temporary solution of boards holding the roof together after lifting it up with all of the Grass Pokémon and their Vine Whip attacks. At least Mariah would have a roof over her head while waiting for the actual repair team to come out. "Thank you," she said, surrounded by her Pokémon. "You've all done so much for me. You even helped me fix the house!"
"We were happy to do it!" Ash said to her, and although he would never admit this out loud, his arms and body were completely exhausted from the hard work they had put in the last day.
"Good luck on your journey!"
"See you later!" Ash shouted, and both him and Gary threw a wave over their shoulder.
"Take care, everyone!" And sending them off was a chorus of Hoppip – and one honorary Hoppip as well.
Ash:
Party:
Blastoise (Poké Ball) (m)
Moves: Skull Bash, Dig, Hydro Pump, BubbleBeam
Bulbasaur (Poké Ball) (m)
Moves: SolarBeam, Vine Whip, Razor Leaf, Tackle
Heracross (Poké Ball) (m)
Moves: Horn Attack, Tackle, Endure
Chikorita (Poké Ball)
Moves: Razor Leaf, Tackle, Vine Whip
At Professor Oak's Lab:
Tauros (Safari Ball) x2 (m)
Moves: Fissure, Horn Attack, Take Down
Kingler (Poké Ball) (m)
Moves: Water Gun, Bubble, Crabhammer, Hyper Beam
Muk (Poké Ball)
Moves: Poison Gas, Sludge Bomb
Primeape (Poké Ball) (m)
Moves: Thrash, Mega Kick, Scratch, Seismic Toss
Pidgeotto (Poké Ball) (f)
Moves: Gust, Quick Attack, Whirlwind, Double-Edge
Stantler (Poké Ball)
Moves: Hypnosis
Training at Charicific Valley:
Charizard (Poké Ball) (m)
Moves: Flamethrower, Fire Spin, Skull Bash, Slash
Kanto Badges:
Boulder Badge
Cascade Badge
Thunder Badge
Marsh Badge
Rainbow Badge
Soul Badge
Volcano Badge
Earth Badge
Diamond Badge
Indigo League Rank: Top 4
Johto Badges:
Zephyr Badge
Gary:
Party:
Venusaur (Poké Ball) (m)
Moves: SolarBeam, Vine Whip, Razor Leaf, Mega Drain
Arcanine (Poké Ball)
Moves: Take Down, Fire Spin, Fire Blast, Flamethrower
Nidoqueen (Poké Ball) (f)
Moves: Rock Smash, Hyper Beam, Mega Punch, Double Kick
Nidoking (Poké Ball) (m)
Moves: Horn Attack, Earthquake, Tackle
Pinsir (Poké Ball)
Moves: Fury Attack, ViceGrip
Hoothoot (Poké Ball)
Moves: Foresight, Peck
At Professor Oak's Lab:
200+ Pokémon
Kanto Badges:
Boulder Badge
Cascade Badge
Rainbow Badge
Seven unknown Badges
Indigo League Rank: Winner
Johto Badges:
Zephyr Badge