Chapter 3!!!!

Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfic belongs to me. Do not take my work. That would be considered plagiarism.

Notes: ** for thoughts, <> for telepathy, and italics when pokemon speak. If you haven’t noticed, this is AU, Kanto.

Shoyko: Oh I hope they have noticed.

Phantomness: Me too… I’ll try not to make this dark.

Shoyko: *drinking a latte*

Chapter 3

They kept walking, healthy green grass crunching slightly underneath Ash’s blue-and-white sneakers. The wind swished through the branches of the imposing trees around them. Viridian forest really was very pretty.

Slightly ahead, a Weedle was busy feasting on a patch of tender, succulent poison oak. That was interesting…

Did that explain how Weedles got their poisons?

Butterfree flapped her wings and looked at Weedle. Ash nodded, putting a finger to his lips.

Silently, the butterfly hovered over the grazing caterpillar, before Sleep Powder drifted out of her wings.

Ash took careful aim with a poke ball and tossed it. Weedle was caught!

“Yay! We caught our first pokemon, Butterfree!”

Butterfree wiggled her antennae into the ‘V’ formation and smiled. Ash made the peace sign back at her.

Nice!

They would be a team and gain the championship together!

“You’re great, Butterfree! We might not be special, but we’ll work together and become the best team ever!”

Butterfree smiled. This was more than she had expected. She gave Ash another hug, and then they walked onwards. After twenty minutes, Ash released his Weedle, which had woken up.

Weedle yawned.

“Hi, Weedle.”

?

I’ll talk. Butterfree quickly said.

Who are you?

Hmm, well, I’m your new teammate.

I… was captured?

Yes.

Oh… Weedle paused. I was captured. Why? Most trainers don’t like bug pokemon…

Mine does. Well, ours now.

Oh.

Weedle took a good look at Ash. Well, he looked not very different from most humans, except smaller…

He didn’t smell bad or evil…

He kind of smelled like food. Odd.

Weedle tilted his head up as he nudged Ash’s foot.

“Er… hi?”

You are my new master?

Ash nodded. * Wait! I understood that! *

“Yes, I am.”

Weedle looked like he had been given an electric shock. I… I can hear you!

“I can hear you too! How odd?”

Butterfree frowned. That was odd. How come Ash could understand weedle but not her? Was there something wrong? Or…

Weedle clambered onto Ash’s arm when he sat down on the grass. You smell like food.

Food. Poison Oak. He still had rashes all over his arms. “I think I understand.”

Care to enlighten me? Butterfree asked, a bit miffed at being left out.

“It’s the poison oak!” Ash exclaimed. Weedle translated. Butterfree just looked kind of confused.

Poison Oak?

Yes! He’s been near it. I can understand him because I eat poison oak all the time, and now he has some on him too.

Her eyes blinked a few times. * When did Master – Ash fall in poison oak? I can’t remember… *

Still, she did see the red spots.

Weedle wouldn’t lie about this. It had no reason to. Did that mean Ash’s ability only lasted as long as he had that red rash?

Life was very strange.

So what now? Weedle asked. You will train me?

“Yes.”

Great! Let us begin!

A wild Kakuna was encountered. Weedle fought bravely, and although it took nearly fifteen Poison Sting attacks, the Kakuna finally fainted.

Wild Kakuna usually only knew the move Harden. It was quite bizarre how that worked. They also took weeks to evolve instead of days.

Trade-off though, they were the ones with peaceful lives.

Weedle munched on some more grass as Ash took a lunch break, making himself a grilled cheese sandwich.

It was rather easy. He put a piece of bread with cheese on it on a plate, took out his magnifying glass, and focused the sun’s rays onto the food.

In a few minutes, the food would be cooked. He had no fire pokemon and no matches as of now, so it was the best way.

Butterfree sipped nectar from some daises delicately while Weedle consumed more plant matter.

So when did you evolve?

Today, actually…

That’s cool! I want to evolve soon too!

Really? Why?
To fly of course!

Looked like those two bugs had something in common. Butterfree nodded sympathetically. The hardest part is the cocoon.

When you can hardly move…

But you have to fight or else you can’t evolve fast…

He’s not too bad, Ash.

I like him well enough.

After this short conversation, both bugs returned to their feasting on herbaceous growth. Said method cut the cost of feeding and maintenance down by a large chunk.

Grass was everywhere! So were flowers, except in the winter. But in the winter they could eat pokemon food.

They just didn’t like it as much.

Ash finished his sandwich, collected his pokemon, and continued trekking deeper into the forest. More bugs awaited him!

End Chapter

Completed 9/19/04