Chapter 4

I hadn't expected to be delayed on our trip to Viridian any longer which is why I was surprised when I saw Ash. He carried bulbasaur facing over his shoulder who whipped vines at 3 pidgeys chasing them. One of the 3 dodged the whips and released a gust that swept up Ash and Bulbasaur, luckily flinging them closer to me and Michelle.

"Michelle help Ash and give Bulbasaur a potion." I demanded as I continue staring at the pidgeys. They now just hung in the air observing us, mostly Ash where Michelle knelt treating his cuts and scrapes as Bulbasaur shook off the slight stun from a hard fall.

"Ash are you okay?" Michelle asked as she finished bandaging the last scrape. None of them were serious by any means but she didn't know how infections worked in this world.

"Alright Pidgey, Charmander looks like we have our first battle! Pidgey you run interference, any attack that's not a tackle they send you deflect with a gust. Don't get hit. And Charmander they'll realize they can't get you from range quickly be prepared because you'll have to be fast and accurate. Aim for either the wing joints or the head with your scratches."

They both nodded, Pidgey taking flight from my shoulder and Charmander stepping forth from my side. I turned back to the others and locked eyes with Pikachu.

"You keep Michelle safe. Got it?" Pikachu tilted his head and flicked his ears before nodding and took a ready stance in front of Michelle, Ash and Bulbasaur.

"Thanks." I nodded as I turned back around the first of the pidgeys sending a sand attack flying at Charmander that Pidgey dutiful blocked with a gust even sending the sand filled gust back at the group of pidgeys. They dodged and this time 2 of the pidgeys sent out gusts while the 3 rd charged for Charmander. Pidgey could only focus on one at a time so it targeted the biggest of the gusts.

"Charmander one's going for a tackle on your left. Remember you have to time your scratch at the perfect time!" Charmander nodded as it hopped and ran out of the path of the second gust, the flying attacks kicking up a dust cloud that obstructed Charmander's view but he didn't panic. I had already told him what to do and for some reason he already trusted me completely.

The Pidgey came swooping in and I watched as Charmander brought back his right claw ready to scratch. Mentally I repeated over and over in my mind "wait for it, waaaait for it." And then as the Pidgey was just a foot away at the same time I thought it Charmander launched his attack at the bird. He missed his mark of the head he was aiming for but still caught in square in the chest and slammed it to the ground. It began to roll to get back up but I wasn't going to let that happen.

"Now use-" only I was cut off as Charmander was blind sided with a tackle by one of the other pidgeys. It seemed in the brief moment I had lost focus on Pidgey they had blitzed it with tackles and now Pidgey was on the defensive, flying around. I cursed internally at how dumb I was, this wasn't like double battles in the games where I just give an attack and then wait. This is real now and the battles don't have turns or the fairness of 2v2s. I should have realized that when I saw Ash getting chased by 3 of them damn birds.

"I'll help you mister!" Out of the corner of my eye I see Ash standing beside me. He and his Bulbasaur had serious expressions on their faces and Bulbasaur stomped at the ground as it growled at the birds.

"Alright I'll be counting on you. Does Bulbasaur know any spore or powder moves yet?" I ask before quickly directing Charmander and Pidgey again. The 3 pidgeys were now wary of Charmander and didn't dare come back down for a physical attack, relying purely on their gusts and sand attacks. I could see my Pidgey was beginning to tire from deflecting so many attacks and Charmander was growing frustrated and being landlocked.

"Charmander use smokescreen, Pidgey use gust to blow it at the other pidgeys." I called, knowing it wouldn't be a long term solution but it would buy us some time. Ash had just stowed his Pokédex back in his pocket and I refrained from shaking my head at the fact he hasn't thought to check Bulbasaur's moves beforehand.

"Bulbasaur knows stun spore, tackle and vine whip, but I don't know how I'm going to get close enough for it to work!" He cried to me and I just shook my head.

"Don't worry about that just have Bulbasaur use it at full power, produce as much as possible. Pidgey swoop back quickly!" Ash nodded and bid Bulbasaur to begin using stun spore. The obeyed quickly releasing orange spores into the air right as Pidgey returned.

"Use gust on the spores toward the others. Don't worry about Charmander I have a plan." Pidgey immediately began flapping its wings to push the spore cloud toward the battle. Charmander was dodging gusts and was obviously beginning to tire as well. The pidgeys took advantage of that and all 3 sent a gust him at him leaving him nowhere to go except… his Pokéball. A wide grin spread across my face as the gusts hit nothing and the 3 birds were quickly blindsided by the cloud of stun spore. It took only seconds for them to drop from the sky paralyzed.

"Pidgey help Bulbasaur and finish them off and then come back for a break." It chirped happily and flew off where the birds and fallen, Bulbasaur chasing after at Ash's command. I turned toward him as I called Charmander back out who immediately sat on his butt when he saw the battle was over.

"Good job buddy, you did great and you deserve a rest. Here take a berry." I brought out an oran berry from my bag and Charmander greedily scarfed it down before laying on his back spreading out his body.

"Aren't you going to go catch one of those pidgeys?" I asked Ash as I rubbed Charmander's exposed belly, smiling at how I could feel the warmth and a rumble like purring through his scales. I looked up at Ash who was rubbing the back of his neck with a conflicted expression.

"Weeelll I would, but I didn't really do anything. I mean I just kind of did what you told me too and i just wouldn't feel right catching a Pokémon like that ya know?" I chuckled softly at his reply as I stood up, much to Charmander's disappointment.

"I can respect that Ash." I replied as Michelle came to stand beside me and I wrapped an arm around her shoulder, to which she wrapped hers around my chest.

"That was amazing Jace, now I see you why you always liked this stuff! Seeing the way you lead Charmander and Pidgey like that, and I can tell by their expressions that they were having fun too." I squeezed her closer for a brief second and then looked down at her.

"So do you want to start battling now?" She shook her head and laughed.

"No no, I think I'll still leaving the battling to you. I don't know if I could handle the pressure of knowing if chose the wrong thing Pikachu could get hurt." At that Pikachu leaped on to her shoulder and nuzzled his cheeks into hers. Michelle repaid the affection with scratching behind the yellow mouse's ears.

"Fair enough. Well I don't need the pidgeys either so I guess let's take some notes and send them and a video of the battle to Professor Oak. Were you able to get your angle, Michelle?" I asked to which she shook her head.

"No I was too busy tending to Ash and Bulbasaur. I completely forgot to record." She said regretfully and I waved it off.

"It's not big deal I had my Pokédex out and recording, that should be enough. Come on let's go check out those pidgeys." The others nodded and followed me where we found Pidgey and Bulbasaur standing proudly in front of the knocked out pidgeys. I let Pidgey's head as it jumped to my shoulder and chirped in appreciation. Soon me and Michelle began taking notes on anything that caught our eyes.

Gender of the pidgeys, 3 males.

Length of the wings as well as width. So on and so on anything that we would have kept track of on earth back at our wildlife rescue. We noticed that one of the pidgeys previously had its right wing if not broken at least fractured at some point in the past.

Once we were done we left 3 Oran berries behind for them and walked a little ways away up route 1 hopefully out of their territory.

Quick Author's note: sorry for the lack of updates. This last week has been spent preparing for a vacation that's lasting from Saturday all the way to next Saturday. Idk if I'll be uploading too much. If I get some down time I'll see about maybe pumping out a chap or 2. If I do it will likely only be for this fic unless I just get a walking dead itch and want to post the other one. I've also been thinking of starting a The Beginning After the End fic as that's the audiobook I was listening to on my flight. But we'll see. I haven't really decided what kind of story I want to write for it and plus I don't want to get bogged down with too many stories.

Anyways thanks for reading and see you next time. Also! Let me know if you liked the fight scene? Is there anything I should change or try? I know it might have been confusing with it being 3 pidgeys and Jace having a Pidgey, but that's why I kept the wild Pokémon lowercased (pidgey) and kept Jace's (Pidgey) capitalized and I plan to do it like that in the future as well. Anytime Jace is battling a Pokémon that he has that Pokémon (wild or trainer owned) will be lowercased.

Thanks again. Enjoy!