Lance: Dear me…
Phantomness: This is turning out odd
Ash: Work hard!
DISCLAIMER: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfic belongs to me
Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks
Chapter 3
“Metal Claw!”
Aron nodded as he felled the wild Geodude. This is easy!
“I’m glad.” Ash smiled.
Aron shimmered proudly. Master is happy, yes?
“Hai!”
It was so nice living with Professor Birch. The man wasn’t married, but he was good at making pokemon fun, at least in the week Ash had been living with him. Of course, he was also a Professor…
“Hey Ash!”
Currently, Birch was… running from a wild Poochyna?
“I could use some help here!”
‘Right!” Ash grinned. “Aron, use Mud-Slap!”
Poochyna blinked at the mud in its eyes and started running around in circles blindly.
Ash ordered a Tackle attack.
There went
a Poochyna… no, make that no. Ash threw a poke ball and Poochyna was caught!
Birch shot him a grateful
look. “Thanks, Ash.”
“Why didn’t you have any pokemon with you Professor, I mean uncle?”
“Well, Silver, what do you mean by that?”
“Are you only studying pokemon in the wild?”
“Yes.”
“So I’m not supposed to capture them?” Ash gulped. “Oops.”
“I didn’t mean that! It’s also easier to perform studies on captured pokemon.” Birch said. “Thank you.”
“Oh! Er… you’re welcome.”
“However, you’d better keep them hidden. It’s a good thing that as a researcher I can carry quite a few…”
“Thank you Uncle!”
“No problem, Silver. Now, if you really want to go capture and train, you’ll need a special license…”
“Can I? I’m only seven…”
“Well, hmm…” Birch snapped his fingers. “Got it. I can get you a temporary license as my aide.”
“That’s so cool!”
“You’ll have to help me with my experiments though.”
“That’s fine.”
So that afternoon, Ash helped Birch – or tried to. After he spilled 12-molar hydrochloric acid by accident, damaging a piece of the tiled floor, Birch sent him outside to watch the pokemon on his small reserve and observe them as his job.
There weren’t many…
A Skitty and a Beautifly played tag while a Surskit floated in the water.
Apparently Birch was not a collector like Oak.
Nearby, a Snorlax snoozed, but that was about it.
Ash watched for a while, and drew some pokemon pictures. It was relaxing…
“Find anything?”
“Skitty wags her tail before she pounces, like telegraphing.” Ash reported. “And Beautifly’s wings aren’t really… powdery blue, that’s just the effect of light… They’re actually red and yellow and blue.”
“That’s interesting, I never noticed that. Good work!”
Ash grinned. “Thanks, Uncle.”
It wasn’t
even a stretch to say that. It felt right. Kind of… after all, he didn’t want
_OAK_ as his relative!
Yuck.
Even if Oak were nice to Gary, he didn’t think he liked the man at all. He could be really mean!
Ash banished the thought. It was better not to think about bad things.
He was sure his mommy and daddy were in a much better place. That was what grandfather Blaine said.
Why disbelieve it?
Strange how revenge was only focused on Oak, but then again, he probably did not realize that his parents had been murdered. Yet.
After all… what did he have to lose from blind faith? Nothing now. It was precious, this naiveté…
Although it had already been shattered by Oak’s mishandling.
No matter. He’d get his comeuppance soon enough…
Ash vowed revenge already.
Time passed peaceably enough at the Birch residence. Ash helped Birch with his studies, caught and trained pokemon, and got a special license at age 9 to leave home… with full researcher support of course!
Birch wrote a few pages to the Houen council, and they approved and acknowledged his decision.
Why not?
The boy seemed okay… and he was smart enough, what cared they that there was another trainer out there?
More profit!
The Pokemon Centers had a $1000 yearly subscription. You could use the Centers for healing at any time, but…
There were a limited number of slot days where you could live there. It saved space. Very smart of them!
More money paid meant more night stays at the Center. It fit as equivalent trade this time.
“Ash.”
“What is it Grandfather?” Ash asked. * Yay! I’m so glad he came to see me! *
Blaine had visited secretly, just this once, before Ash went journeying.
“You’ll need a pokédex from Oak.”
Ash winced at that. * Oh no… what if he finds out? * “Is that safe?”
“I don’t see any other way around it. Without a pokédex you can’t compete in the leagues.”
“That’s stupid!”
“It’s costly too. Also, trainers without pokédexes are limited to having only four pokemon which puts them at a disadvantage in any case.”
“Oh no…”
“So how are your pokemon?” Blaine looked up as a Black Charizard soared overhead. “Well! He evolved?”
Ash grinned. Charizard waved.
“Plus, Aron’s a Aggron now.”
“Excellent training you put in these two years.” Blaine said, as he watched the others. Mightyena, Scyther, and Absol were engaged in a three-way battle, even though Ash wasn’t giving any directions.
Dodge attacks from one, fire attacks at the other one…
Difficult, but it built strategical thinking.
End Chapter
Completed 10/4/04