"I AM SO SICK OF THESE WOODS!" came Misty's loud squeal when another Weedle came up to rub at her legs, she was terrified beyond believe and it was beginning to wear down the others' patience for her. Eventually, with tears in her eyes, she turned back to Ash and Serena. "...When are we getting out of these disgusting woods?"
"Well, assumingly," Serena said as she opened her pokedex's map function. "If we continue going straight, we'll be in Pewter City long before night fall," that seemed to give Misty some relief, as she breathed in and out. "Don't worry, just stay close," at this, Serena put Delta on the floor and stated. "Flare up your tail a bit, girl. It might scare away the Weedle that keep bothering Misty."
On command, Delta's tail flame burst up significantly more. Any wild Pokemon nearby began looking more freaked out and backed away. Seeing this, Misty definitely relaxed significantly and chose to stay close to the little Charmander. Even though she had just made the command, Serena was already back to scanning her pokedex for the local Pokemon. In fairness, she didn't think she would catch anything here as she assumed they were all bugs like Caterpie or flying types like Pidgey and Spearow. But when her pokedex stated a cute little grass Pokemon like Budew, she was curious. "Sinnoh sound?"
"What?" Ash asked, turning to his best friend with confusion in his eyes. Clearly he didn't understand what she was referring to. On hearing his confusion, she called him over and pointed at the screen. "Maybe it means you have to play music from the Sinnoh region and they'll come out. Hand me the pokedex," she did and waited a second, as he tuned it. Moments after, a calm track was heard playing. It was soothing and serene. "I believe it matches up to most of the music up north in Sinnoh, its quite a cold region with a lot of history."
"Bu?" the voice Serena had wanted to hear chimed in, and she turned to see the cute little grass bud staring up at her as it clapped its red and blue vines together in a melodic way as if reacting to the music that the pokedex was playing. "Budew bud," the critter than began to dance upon realizing what its vines were clapping too, clearly excited to hear music from its native region.
"Aww, how cute," Misty commented, complimenting the baby grass type's movements and joyful attitude. She turned to Serena with curiosity, before asking a simple question that would probably easy to guess the answer to. "Are you planning to catch it?"
"Yep," came the response, as Serena turned to Ash with a smile on her face. "Thanks for this," she then walked over to Budew. The happy creature stopped bouncing and looked up at her with curious eyes. There was no fear, just curiosity. Even after Budew saw the Charmander that had stepped to join Serena's feet. "Hello there, little one," the girl knelt down in front of the grass type with a smile on her face. "Want to join me on my journey?"
"Bu...." it seemed like the grass type was thinking for a moment, before running back into the bush and leaving Serena confused for a moment as to what was going on. When the little baby walked back out of the bush, it had a cute star piece held by a vine that protruded from its little body. "Bububu!"
"Does that mean?" to test what her thoughts were telling her, she held out a poke ball for the Budew to touch. In all fairness, she didn't want to have to hurt a Pokemon to catch it. It was easier to let them join of their own free well. If Budew chose not to join her, she would be perfectly fine.
"Bu!" another vine emerged from the Budew's back as it touched the pokeball with it. A flash of red light absorbed it into the ball, as it dropped to the floor. Shake once.....twice....thrice. And click, the light flashed and then the ball glimmered a little. Almost instantly, Serena released the Budew from the poke ball and smiled. "Budew!" the critter smiled back, happy to be on the team.
Noticing the star piece more carefully, Serena knew it would be tearing to carry all the time and wanted to make it easier. Opening her bag, she pulled out a piece of string and smiled. "Little one, can you hand me your star for a moment? I'll give it straight back," after a little cry, the vine reached over to hand Serena the star piece. After some work, a necklace-like structure was formed. Carefully, Serena wrapped it around the vines on Budew's head and let the star hang down between the grass type's eyes. "There, now it'll be easier for you."
A bright smile emerged on the Budew's face as it bounced into Serena's arms and cried out in succession of what could only be assumed to be a thank you. Patting the grass type's head, she could only answer with a. "Your welcome," before releasing Bubblegum from her ball. "Alright, Bubblegum, Delta. Meet your newest teammate," after that, she took her pokedex back from Ash and scanned Budew as she thought of a name.
Budew, the Bud Pokemon. Over the winter, it closes it bud and endures the cold. In spring, the bud opens and releases pollen. The pollen scatter can induce harsh sneezing and runny noses.
Type: Grass/Poison
Ability: Natural Cure - when this Pokemon is placed back into its poke ball, it is capable of healing itself from any status condition that has been inflicted.
Gender: Female
Nature: Jolly
Move(s): Absorb, Growth and Extrasensory (Egg move. Unlocked).
"So you're a little girl, how sweet," came the smiling response from the scarred girl, as she continued thinking of a nickname. "How about I name you..." she re-noticed the star pendent and smiled. But 'star' sounded boring, so what could she used as a synonym for star. Thinking up, she eventually had to smile as she recalled her birth language's words. Including the word for star. "How about Etoile? Do you like that?"
"Bububu!" it seemed like the jolly Pokemon was happy with her name, as she bounced up and down happily in Serena's arms. Serena pulled herself up and turned to her friends. Etoile stared at them curiously, before deciding that she liked them as she continued to energetically bounce in her trainer's arms.
"She seems really happy with you, Serena," Misty commented, looking at the bubbly Pokemon. but then she noticed Ash's Pidgeotto that stood near them, still looking unhappy with the new arrangement. "Unlike someone else in our group," it seemed like Pidgeotto either wasn't listening or just chose to ignore Misty. Either way, the trio of children were happy to have their newest member.
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Meanwhile, the Team Rocket pair were carrying around a tank made out of cardboard through the forest. On top, a Meowth sat lazily. He looked quite annoyed with the state of the tank. "Dis tank ain't goin' to protect ya from rain, let alone a herd of Beedrill. Ya know!" he yelled out, looking quite frustrated with their decision.
"Well, we had to make it from cardboard to lessen the weight," as if on cue, James spotted a Weedle chewing on the side of the cardboard. A clear sign that their cover wasn't going to work like they had intended. And that was when a wild Beedrill spotted them. "Yep...not going to work, your right!" He pulled out one of his poke balls and hurled it at the Beedrill with some hope of it capturing the attacking Pokemon.
After a few anxious seconds of Jessie and James watching the shaking Poke Ball, it eventually clicked, surprising both of them. It took a few moments and James picking up the Poke Ball to realize what had happened. "I caught a Beedrill, its such a villainous Pokemon for me. Don't you think?"
"Yep, but don'cha think it'll be hard to control?" Meowth questioned in return, looking pretty worried that Beedrill could still be hostile and attack them if released. The Weedle that had been chewing the tank had ran off, after seeing the thrown Poke Ball at the fear of also being caught by the trio.
"Probably," as if to prove it, James released the Beedrill from its ball. It flew in place, looking pretty docile as it watched its new trainer with potential curiousity. There was no anger or fear present. Which was a good thing, the Team Rocket trio assumed. "Use Twineedle on that tree," he indicated after recalling Beedrill's main signature move, pointing at a nearby tree.
Listening to the command, Beedrill did as requested and surprised the Team Rocket trio when he ripped the tree in two with his needles. Jessie looked pretty excited by the realization, before pointing it out to the others. "Looks like we have an obedient Beedrill on our side. James, request it to go find Pikachu!"
"Beedrill. Go hunt out a Pikachu. It belongs to a boy with black hair!" James commanded to his newest Pokemon, before the bee-like bug type began to fly off under the command. The blue haired boy then turned to his teammates with a grin on his face. "Now all we gotta do is follow him, he'll lead us straight to Pikachu!"
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"Hey, I saw that!" came a boy's cry from near the trio of children that were fawning over the new member of their group, causing all 3 to look to see a boy that was shorter in structure to them wearing a samurai's outfit and having a bug catching net attached to his back. Without giving them a chance to say anything. "You three are trainers, aren't you? If so, please battle me. Starting with you, blondie."
"Um.....I'm not a fan of...." she tried to explain, but was cut off by him throwing out a Pinsir without warning. Delta looked scarred, running behind her trainer without instance despite the type advantage. Whilst Bubblegum stood in front, looking serious and annoyed with the boy and his Pinsir's presence. Whilst Budew looked excited, like she wanted to battle. Knowing she had no choice, Serena sighed and handed Budew to Ash. "Look after her, she's too young to battle currently," then she looked down at her leg. "I know you're scared, sweetie. But please, for me?"
It seemed like the request did it, as the fire type awkwardly stepped forward before her trainer and opposite the Pinsir. On the side, Bubblegum watched intently as if planning something without letting her trainer know. Deciding to referee, Misty walked to the side of the trainers between the opposing Pokemon. She was at a safe distance away as she waited for a moment before nodding her head. "The battle between Charmander and Pinsir......shall began now!"
"Pinsir, use Focus Energy," the Pinsir closed its eyes and focused for a moment, collecting his energy together. Serena was unsure how to counter this, she didn't know what the move 'focus energy' could do and she was already panicking. Battles weren't her thing, she didn't want to see Delta get hurt. Battling team rocket to protect the Pokemon was one thing, but a trainer battle was another.
But she awkwardly chose to make the command, trying to recall what Delta had in her arsenal as she shook. "Use Ember..." she called, awkward. It seemed like Delta picked up on the awkwardness as she shook as well, before firing off the Ember towards the Pinsir. With the weak attack, Pinsir could swiftly dodge after finishing focusing up his energy. This caused his trainer to smirk happily.
"Use Vice Grip!" the move came in strong, grabbing Delta around the waist. Scratches were ripped into the Charmander's body by the thorns on the Pinsir's pincers. It seemed to do a lot more damage than Serena was expecting, as she looked panicked. Frozen on the spot without a clue how to counter the Vice Grip that was encasing her poor Pokemon. She could hear Delta's cries of pain, and it hurt her so much.
"Serena!" Ash called out, noticing her confusion and panic. He had to let her know about the move that Pinsir had used. "Focus Energy increases a Pokemon's chance to do more damage in a single blow, you have to be more careful," this only caused more worry to enter Serena's eyes as she realized that she had let Pinsir get a major advantage.
"Delta!" she gasped, noticing some blood drip down Delta's body from the cuts. It wasn't the worse pain, but Serena looked panicked more at the sight of the blood as flashbacks filled her mind. But she counted her breath, trying to calm herself down. "Use Ember on the pincers," she called out with a gasp.
Despite the pain, Delta listened to the command and breathed out her hot fire onto the pincers that trapped her. The fire burned at Pinsir, causing it to let go off the poor fire type. Through the pain, she waited for Serena's next command with fear still present in her eyes. "Use Growl, Delta! Quick!"
Yelling out a mighty growl, Charmander waited a moment as the Samurai noticed that his Pokemon's attack had fallen. Yet, there was no complaint in his voice as he began to state in a matter-of-fact voice. "Simple girl, don't you know that a critical hit ignores stat changes like the attack drop. Use Bug Bite!"
As Pinsir's large mouth approached Delta, Serena suddenly had an idea and yelled out. "Use Ember, direct it at Pinsir's mouth!" as Pinsir's mouth grew wider for the attack, Delta breathed fire into it and burned the Pinsir's tongue. This dealt enough damage to effectively knocked the Pinsir to the ground, in pain. It was then that Bubblegum got involved without warning, using a rapid Scratch to finish off Pinsir.
"Oh my....Pinsir," the boy gasped, before recalling his fainted Pokemon without making a complaint about the sudden attack from Serena's 2nd Pokemon. Stepping towards Serena, who was hugging Delta whilst spraying potion over the fire type's injured body with a look of worry in her eyes. However, the Samurai looked pretty impressed and began his compliment. "I wasn't expecting you to win that, mighty impressive."
"T-thank you," Serena said as she finally calmed down, noticing that Ash was behind her now and rubbing her back in a calming motion. Deciding to finish saying what she wanted to before the battle begin. "I'm...not really into Pokemon battling though, I don't want to see my Pokemon get hurt......"
"Well," the Samurai rubbed the back of his head, realizing his error in requesting her to battle without giving her a chance to response. "I'm sorry for asking for a battle...I never listened to what you said," when he saw Serena's smile of forgiveness, he turned to the other 2. "Either of you wish to battle?"
"I wouldn't mind," Ash stated with a grin on his face. He looked like a little kid, who had just received a Pokemon as a Christmas present. This caused Serena to smile, happy to know that her crush was ecstatic. "I've been waiting to have a casual battle for a while now!"
"Alright then. I still have 2 more Pokemon. So a 2 on 2 battle?" the Samurai asked, already knowing the answer. He held his two Poke Balls in waiting for Ash's response, he was also pretty excited for the battle. Curious to see what Ash could bring to the battle, and the Pokemon that he owned in his aseranl.
"Alright then," Ash looked at the Pidgeotto that had been watching the last battle with him intently. She looked interested for sure. Even though he already kinda knew what the answer would be, he chose to ask the flying type the question anyway just to be safe. "Wanna have a go, girl?"
"Pidgo!" the excitement in the Pokemon's voice was enough of an answer for Ash, as he indicated for her to take her spot across from the samurai where Delta had stood not long ago in her battle. She looked pretty ecstatic as she waited on her opponent releasing a Pokemon from his poke ball.
"Beedrill, come on out!" the bee-like Pokemon emerged from the poke ball, looking fierce and battle ready despite the evident type advantage that was going on. After Misty made the call for them to begin battle, the samurai quickly seized the opportunity to get the upper hand. "Use Twineedle!"
"Counter it with sand attack!" Ash was equally as fast, Pidgeotto setting up a screen of sand before flying around at high speeds. With the lack of accuracy in the heavy sand, all of the twineedles missed their intended target. "Now use Gust!" the heavy flapping of Pidgeotto's gust attack sent Beedrill flying to the ground as the sand cover faded.
Despite the super effective blow, Beedrill got back into the air with angry in his eyes. "Beedrill, use Fury Attack!" the bug type flew close to Pidgeotto and began stabbing furiously at Pidgeotto's body, who weaved in and out of each blow until one eventually stab through her wing without warning. This left her vulnerable, on the ground with a damaged wing.
"Pidgeotto, return!" Ash gasped, knowing she was at a disadvantage and knew it would be better to use Pikachu or Metapod now. As he pulled out his poke ball, he turned it on and waiting for the red light to recall Pidgeotto in to where she would be safe. At least, that's what he thought.
"Not so fast, Beedrill. Use Pursuit!" the Beedrill quickly interrupted the red light that recalled Pidgeotto, attacking her with a high powered hit before she was fully recovered. For the watching Serena, the cry of the flying type hurt her ears and made her worry for what Ash intended to do next.
This caused Ash to clench his teeth after Pidgeotto was fully returned to her ball with frustration at not realizing that Beedrill might know Pursuit, but who would he use to finish off Beedrill. He had to chose one, as it was only a 2 on 2. Pikachu or Metapod. "Pikachu, do you want to?" he looked at his little buddy.
"Pi-ka," came the response, along with a shake of the head. Whatever the reason that Pikachu had for not battle, it didn't matter as the answer had narrowed it down for Ash as he pulled out Metapod's poke ball and threw it out. Maybe it was a stupid decision, but it could also get Metapod some experience to help him evolve into Butterfree faster.
"Metapod, use Electroweb!" the same electro-powered web as he used as his previous form spat over the Beedrill, and lasted a lot longer than he had before. And the damage remained a lot more serious, fainting the Beedrill after the damage it had taken previously from the gust. "Good work, Metapod!" came the compliment, which Metapod looked happy to receive. Well as happy as a cocoon with eyes could look.
"Return Beedrill, you did good. Mighty impressive," the boy complimented before throwing his next poke ball. "Go Metapod!" he called, releasing a Pokemon near identical to Ash's. Well besides the color. Ash's Metapod was a brilliant viridian green like the leaves surrounding them whilst the Samurai's Metapod was a bright orange like the trees in Autumn. "Metapod, use Harden!"
"Metapod, use Electroweb!" the two Metapods began instantly, the orange Metapod began to glow as it hardened its defense up whilst Ash's Metapod threw the electrofied web all over the other Metapod's body. Since the damage wasn't based on Metapod's physical defense, it still did the same damage as it would have before. "Now use String Shot!" Ash's Metapod was quick to listen to the command, making a lasso out of his web before shooting it towards the differently colored one.
However, before the lasso hit, something strange happened. A Beedrill ran down and grabbed Ash's Metapod without warning. "What!?" Ash gasped upon noticing the seemingly wild Beedrill that now had hold of his Metapod. "Metapod return!" he called, directing the light towards his Pokemon. However, it never connected as Beedrill ran over before two darkened figures as well as two other Pokemon. "Who's there!?"
"Why, you know us, boy," the male's voice called, as the light of the sun cleared over the field to reveal Team Rocket. Ash immediately looked frustrated to say them again, would they ever leave him alone? Yet, it seemed like Team Rocket didn't care for his feelings as James instantly made their wishes known. "Hand over Pikachu, or we'll bring you trouble."
"No way, Team Rocket! Give Metapod back!" Ash growled out, with a similar response from the electric rodent himself. Both of them were frustrated and wanted their partner back. That's when Ash noticed his buddy's already sparking cheeks, Ash just made the command easier by yelling out. "Pikachu, use Thunder Shock!"
"Etoile, use Extrasensory!" Serena suddenly yelled out, without warning. Ekans and Koffing got in the way of their trainers protectively, as Budew's psychic attack made contact with them as Pikachu charged his electricity up before releasing it. The powerful psychic move followed by the electric move was enough to take down the 2 poison types, but Beedrill was still a problem as it held onto Metapod.
"Beedrill!" James suddenly yelled without warning, revealing to the children who owned the Beedrill, before making a loud and clear command of his own. "Use Twineedle!" dropping Metapod, the Beedrill listened to the command from its trainer and ran towards the Pokemon that Ash and his others owned.
However, none of the Pokemon had to attack as Metapod suddenly charged forward and slammed into Beedrill's back with a tackle. This resulted in the now angered bee turning around and directing his Twineedle onto Metapod's shell, piercing the hardness. Ash looked horrified in that instance and ran to grab Metapod.
The gaping hole looked horrifying to look at, and made Ash assume the worse for his poor bug type. Was he seriously injured, Ash was panicking. However, a light emerged from the cocoon without warning as a figure emerged from the shell. Wings fluttered out, as the now empty shell rotted away. Flapping its wings in the air was now a fully grown Butterfree, that looked angered with Team Rocket. On command, Ash's pokedex turned on and scanned the newly evolved Pokemon like it had done earlier that day.
Butterfree, the Butterfly Pokemon. Its wings are covered in toxic scales. If it finds bird Pokemon going after Caterpie, Butterfree sprinkles its scales on them to drive them off. It loves the honey of flowers and can locate flower patches that have even tiny amounts of pollen.
Type: Bug/Flying
Ability: Compound Eyes - this Pokemon's moves will have a larger chance to land, even after the effects of accuracy lowering moves.
Butterfree has learned Gust, replacing Harden on his moveset.
"Good work, Butterfree!" Ash smiled, before turning to Team Rocket with eyes of anger that seemed to frighten the pair as they realized that the cocoon had evolved into the now much more powerful butterfly that flew above them. Knowing what to do almost instantly. Ash called out his command. "Butterfree, use Gust on Beedrill!"
Flapping his newly formed wings at rapid rates, heavy winds began to pick up and slammed into Beedrill. Despite the newly evolved power, it was more than enough to knock the already injured Pokemon out. This frightened Jessie and James enough into leaving, making another promise to return to steal Pikachu in the future.
Turning to his friends after the team's departure, Ash smiled and showed off Butterfree to them with a smile on his face. Even Misty didn't look uncomfortable in the butterfly's presence as she reached over and petted his head with little fear. "Good work, Butterfree. Ash, he looks beautiful in this form."
It seemed that Butterfree enjoyed the compliment as he let out a happy. "Free!" in response, flying around happily. He then flew back around them over and over, happy as a button. At least until Ash recalled him to his ball to rest. Which he accepted gratefully, the surprise of evolving had worn him out for sure.
"Mighty impressive, kid. You handled your Butterfree so well after it evolved, it clearly seems to enjoy your attention," the Samurai complimented, before turning to his orange Metapod that remained on the floor. "I still have some work to do, but maybe one day if your ever passing through the Viridian Forest again. We can battle, I would love to do a Butterfree versus Butterfree fight one day."
"You bet!" Ash said with excitement in his voice. He was clearly happy with that thought. "But we need to get going, the battle was fun. But we need to get to Pewter City before dark, right?" he turned to the other two, earning a nod from Serena with a verbal response of a similar manner to the physical one. "You heard the lady," a blush emerged on Serena's face at being called lady that was missed by everyone else except Bubblegum, who smirked at the realization that her trainer had a crush. "We gotta get going."
He began to run on the spot, as Serena and Misty walked on ahead. He waved, joined by his partner Pikachu, back at the boy and his shiny Metapod. A wave in response was certain, as Ash called back a goodbye. "See you around! I won't ever forgot about your battle request, don't worry!"
"Good luck on your journey," called the response, causing Ash to smile happily as he continued walking with his friends to the exit of the forest. What would his battle against the gym leader entail, he couldn't wait to find out. That was for certain.
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Ash's Pokemon
Pikachu (Male)(Brave)
Butterfree (Male)(Modest)
Pidgeotto (Female)(Bold)
Serena's Pokemon
Charmander (Female)(Timid) Nickname: Delta
Shiny Sentret (Female)(Serious) Nickname: Bubblegum
Budew (Female)(Jolly) Nickname: Etoile
Misty's Pokemon
Staryu (Relaxed)
Starmie (Quiet)
Goldeen (Female)(Sassy)