Adventures Reloaded - Chapter 2 (Patreon)

It was as he and Machoke both made their way into the Viridian Forest that Ash noticed something odd. He'd been going through all the information the pokedex had on the Machop to Machamp line, researching all he could about the species as a whole when he saw it.

The entry on the Machoke himself. At first, it looked all fine. Listing the details of his pokemon such as his height, weight, moves, being registered under himself as his trainer but then he found a little something extra at the bottom.

Pokemon Species - Machoke

Nickname - N/A

Gender - Male

Height - 5'08

Weight - 183.6 lbs

Attacks Known - Low Kick, Karate Chop, Seismic Toss, Knock Off

Ability - Guts

Level - 14

Level!?

As far as Ash was aware, a numeric value for a pokemon's strength level was completely fictional. The only place that still used used such things were places like Poketech Academy, and only for the general point of maturity a pokemon could learn specific attacks and such.

That was completely stupid.

Giselle way back then had harped on and on about about Pikachu having to be at least level twenty five to learn Thunderbolt. Except, Pikachu had known Thunderbolt since the moment they met. And according to her starter pokemon were always level five.

That was the last he heard about it.

But really, level 14? That was a bit insulting for a Machoke wasn't it? Especially with all that training Ash made it go through to learn the Z-poses.

He remembered playing the old pokemon games where you went through Kanto starting from Pallet Town. Getting a starter of either Squirtle, Charmander or took like ten minutes to get to level 14 after you beat up a few Metapod or Kakuna.

And he had a Machamp once in the game. He knew Machop didn't evolve into Machoke until level 28, so what the hell?

Speaking of Machoke - a deep hiss of annoyance behind Ash caught his attention. Turning his head so that one amber eye peered back behind nim in curiosity, he watched as the Machoke struggled to contain a small ball of flame between his large hands. Every moment or so it would fluctuate, spreading across one of his hands before beginning to putter out, causing Machoke to hurriedly center the flames in between his muscular hands once more.

"Still not much luck eh?" the raven haired trainer questioned with a smile.

Machoke looked up at him from his intense concentration on the flickering flames between his palms before grunting and getting back to work.

He'd come to realize Machoke wasn't much of a talker. They got along pretty well and Machoke himself was actually outside of fighting a rather kind pokemon. Last night the pokemon had even offered to sleep beside him and share body heat since the gym was so cold.

Until he made a fire at least. That was when he told Machoke the attack he wanted him to learn in preparation for the forest. They'd work on the electric variety on their way to Cerulean.

Fire Punch was what he was trying to teach the fighting type. It was a bit of a bother though. Since he had no fire types or fire attack users on hand, he'd had to through his own effort make a campfire and get Machoke to collect some of it.

The task was to get a feel for the inner energy of the flames yet at the same time hone his control over those flames. Using his inner energy to nurture the fire, keep it from growing too big, yet at the same time keep it from pittering out. And in the meantime, try spreading it across his hands so the fighting type could actually shape it over his fist when the time came.

Plus, it would help for later on when Machoke went to learn Flamethrower.

Ash wondered what he should teach the fighting pokemon next after Fire Punch and Thunder Punch, 'Mega Kick?' Machoke had little experience using his powerful legs despite their potential. Teaching him Mega Kick and getting him used to fighting with both upper and lower body would much better prepare the fighting type for when Ash got around to teaching him Close Combat.

The odd thing though, was that Viridian Forest was pretty much dead. They hadn't run into a single wild pokemon. And any sounds were rare if there were any at all.

"Where are they all?" Ash wondered to himself aloud. Usually you couldn't go two minutes without tripping over a Caterpie or Weedle. Finding grass types like Oddish and Bellsprout happily prancing around or finding a hiding spot to wait out the inevitable buzzing sound heard in advance from an approaching Beedrill swarm.

Beedrill were everywhere in this forest. By far the most abundant pokemon. Butterfree were much more peaceful and usually migrated out quickly after evolving. Meanwhile Beedrill's just swarmed together in massive groups and controlled the territories were they lived.

That was too bad. Ash had been hoping to catch one while they were in here. Beedrill were decidedly average like most bug type pokemon, but while browsing through their pokedex entry one day he'd come up with a plan to make one quite the formidable battler.

Their main aspect lay in speed. They were very fast. Then while their muscle and attack power wasn't that high on the list, the piercing power of their needle like hands was unmatched. A Beedrill lance could pierce steel even after just evolving. Really besides being average at best in all aspects, their biggest problem lay in defence.

They were glass cannons. Their fine bodies could not take damage well.

But after a bit of research, Ash had learned that not only could they still use Harden, they could actually learn Iron Defense. Capturing one and having it master Iron Defense would make it not only very hardy, but make their lances stronger as well when used in conjunction with the defensive technique.

A cry of triumph behind him made the raven haired boy turn around. He whistled slightly, impressed when he saw the sight of Machoke with one arm raised high and the fist in the air encased in a billowing cloak of red and orange flames.

A perfect attack to be used against most pokemon in the forest.

Then the flame flickered and die out moments later.

Machoke sunk to his knees in an instant, head bowed towards the ground in shame and Ash couldn't help but chuckle in amusement. He made his back back a bit and pat Machoke on the shoulder comfortably, "Don't worry buddy," He consoled his newest pokemon,"You almost had it there which is amazing considering you only started with this about two hours ago."

Which was true. They'd spent the night n the ruined Viridian Gym. For twelve hours they'd trained together to be perfectly in sync to get the Z-moves down. And while right now they were far from perfect, Ash was satisfied for now that they were use able.

Afterwards he'd set up his sleeping bag, and made some food for them both. In his case a few sandwiches and his pokemons, a in of Brock's patented fighting type muscle building chow. Machoke had loved it.

Then this morning they had set off, heading towards Pewter City. His plan was to take on Zapdos. So hi best bet was to catch more new pokemon and train them up. Get them used to fighting high level opponents in gym leaders, get them experience and such, then go after Zapdos.

Machoke sighed slightly but in the end grinned broadly, showing off those sharp and powerful teeth hidden behind his reptilian snout, jumping back up to his feet and ready to continue onwards.

'Still,' Ash mused, the biggest question was at the moment still - where the heck were all the pokemon of the forest?

They were nearly half way through the forest according to his pokedex map. They'd been walking through the forest for a good six or so hours, and it was already starting to get quite dark.

Something very odd was happening here.

Ash was just about to tell Machoke they were stopping to set up camp and that they'd make the rest of the way to Pewter tomorrow. That and that he'd likely be fighting the gym battle for the boulder badge by himself.

That was when he heard it though. The loud ringing noise, the tell tale sign of something hitting against metal and being repelled.

The trainer turned to Machoke, "C'mon," he urged, nudging his shoulder in the direction of the sound, "Looks like we've finally found something," Tehn he was off, hurrieldy walking in the direction of the sound.

Machoke grunted, but followed along obediently, still absently shaping the flames in his hands over one of if fists.

It took Ash a good thirty seconds before he reached the area here the sounds were coming from. The closer he got the louder the clanging sounds were and to go along with it now that he was closer were a myriad of deep grunts. Grunts from two separate voices.

He didn't even wiat for Machooke who was a few feet behind him, instead bursting into the clearing in full and taking in what was causing the noise.

Pokemon it turned out to be.

Two pokemon at that. A Nidorino growled almost savagely, its head bent down, horn pointed threateningly towards it foes, the poisonous barb itself glowing a dangerous white with what Ash thought was either a Horn Attack or Peck attack.

Nidorino's opponent of all things was oddly of all things a Kakuna. An outline of blue light lightered across the evolve form of Weddle's body. Iron Defense if Ash wasn't wrong. The glow died down but a moment later, a small flap opened at the chrysalis pokemon's face and from it the pokemon launched a barrage of purple jagged needles towards Nidorino.

The horned pokemon merely grunted, agility jumping to the side and avoiding the straight and narrow shot, allowing the purple pins of Poison Sting to stab into the grassy ground without issue.

Blue light surged within the four legged pokemon's eyes, icy blue veins of power replacing brown iris' and then Nidorino swept its head in an arch, launching a widespread ray of psychic energy to shoot off.

Kakuna hissed, string shooting from its mouth area again and attached itself to an over hanging tree branch, but before the caccoon pokemon could pull itself up the psychic energy swepped up over it and froze it in place.

A shriek of pain left its mouth area and then with a savage shout Nidorino heaved its head downwards and Kakuna was smashed into the ground with enough force to leave a small crater around its form. The evolved form of Weedle let loose a fet pitiful moans and wiggled a bit, but that was all it could do.

And all the while Ash had wathed wide eyed. "What the hell is going on here?" he blurted out in askance. He didn't actually mean to say it aloud, but the sight was too shocking for him to keep bottled up.

It caught the Nidorino's attention though and it turned towards him, a savage snarl leaving its lips. What was going on? Ash wondered. Why was this Nidorino so aggressive?

"Nido!" it snarled, brown eyes once again in place instead of icy blue psychic energy and then it short forward towards him, horn glowing a bright white once more.

Ash heard foot steps behind him and a plan formed in his mind within an instint. The pros of being a professional trainer with years of situations like this under his belt.

It took mere seconds for Nidorino to cover the distance between them. It was much slower than most pokemon he was accustomed to as well. But that just made Ash's job easier.

The second it was in range, the poison pokemon lunged at him, horn first. Ash rolled back at the last moment, falling under the poison type and then while it lunged above him, he struck up with two boot blad feet and crushed them into its stomach.

A pained gasp left its mouth, but it not no respite because as soon as he truck, Ash continued with an order for the fighting typing following behind him, "Knock Off!" he commanded.

The Nidorino didn't even get the chance to glimpse the one that finished it off. As Machoke came down with all the fury of a pokemon who's trainer had been attacked, bringing down a fist crackling with black lightning and pulverizing the Nidorino into the ground hard enough to leave the ground shaking.

As athetlic as he was, Ash didn't even need the use of his hands or feet to get back up and just threw himself upwards with his back muscles up on to his feet, dusting himself off as he turned to look at his pokemon and the one they'd just taken down together. "What the hell was that about?" he wondered once more.

Either way, he knew he couldn't leave something that aggressive prowling the Viridian Forest, his world or not. A lot of newbie trainers came through this way and this thing could have seriously hurt them if it had run into them,

Grabbing a pokeball from his pocket, Ash pressed the red and white sphere to the downed pokemon and sucked it in. It didn't even put up a fight. Just letting off a little ping for a successful capture.

"Now let's see if we can find anthing out shall we?" the raven haired trainer mused. He brought up the pokedex and hit the scan fanfunction while pointing it at the pokeball.

"Nidorino, the Poison Pin Pokémon. The evolved form of the male Nidoran. Its highly developed horn is extremely powerful."

Pokemon Species - Nidorino

Nickname - N/A

Gender - Male

Height - 3'02

Weight - 48.6 lbs

Attacks Known - Horn Attack, Peck, Double Kick, Confusion

Ability - Hustle

Level - 16

Level 16! This thing was higher even than Machoke! And not to mention it knew Confusion as well? A psychic type attack? How the heck did that happen?

More importantly, once again a wild pokemon had appeared around the vicinity of Viridian where they weren't known to roam. Nidorino were known to travel in large herds out on the open plains. Why would this one be alone and in the Viridian Forest at that?

And that aggression. Machoke had been very aggressive when they first met as well he remembered, but had been to injured to put up much of a fight against his advances. Not to mention once again it knew an odd move out, Machoke with Knock off and now Nidorino with with Confusion. And on top of that, both pokemon were certaintly quite a bit bigger than the average race of their species.

The question was. Was someone behind this, or was it just coincidence?

He shook those thoughts off. Right now there was once again another important factor going on at the moment. The injured Kakuna.

Quickly clipping his new pokemon's ball to his belt, Ash rushed over to the downed poison bug pokemon and gently scooped it up. It chittered, trying to get away but was in no shape or form to try. He laid a soothing hand at the top of its carapace and rubbed gently, "There there little buddy," the amber eyed teen whispered softly to the pokemon, keeping his tone ever so gentle, "I caught the Nidorino, he won't be able to hurt you again."

At the mention of Nidorino being captured, the chrysalis pokemon stilled and seemed to relax a bit into his warm embrace. People often asked how he knew they did that when chrysalis pokemon were covered entirely in hard shells. But to Ash, it was just kind of instinctive and experience he'd gained when raising his Butterfree way back when.

"Now don't worry," he told the pokemon in his arms, "Me and my buddy Machoke here are going to get you patched up and heathly again." He pointed at Machoke who kind of gave an awkward wave.

He was an awkward guy. Liked to train and fight. Didn't have much thought for anything else in that noggin of his. Very pleasant pokemon once the initial aggression had been seen through as well.

He reached the side pocket of his backpack, the space he'd moved the super potion to after last night, he'd had a funny feeling e'd be needing it on hand and surprise surprise, he did. He grasped the orange and red bottle tightly and held it up to Kakuna's body, "Now this will sting for a moment," he said, "Butit'll take care of all your injuries." Thankfully, all the ouchies this pokemon had a the current moment were physical bruises and a few scraped places.

He sprayed over the pokemon's bobd and predictably it jerked slightly, hissing in displeasure for a few seconds. Wild pokemon always had that reaction to their first healing spray. But as the wounds began to sizzle and heal, Ash doubted it would mind baring with the few seconds of stinging pain.

He placed the super potion back in the holster pocket on his bag and then stood up. Setting Kakuna down beside the tree it had been trying to escape into earlier with String Shot before it had been caught and brutally slammed to the ground with Confusion.

He pat the pokemon one last time on the head, gave it a fond smile and then waved Machoke on to follow behind him, "There we go little guy," ash said with a kind smile, "Now don't go picking any more fights with guys like that Nidorino till you're a big and powerful Beedrill alright?"

And with that they were off.

They didn't even get a few feet away before panicked cries came from the Kakuna, "Ka-ka-ka!" it rattled. Kakuna's mouth was actually the most tightly bound of all chrysalis pokemon Ash remembered Brock telling him once.

He turned around, worry filling him for a moment thinking that another aggressive pokemon like Nidorino had shown up. But no, it was just Kakuna wriggling against the tree, dark black eyes panicked.

Ash was about to make his way back over and see what was wrong when the middle staged pokemon erupted into a bright, familiar white light. The raven haired teen had to fight off a grin of nostalgia, how many times had he seen Kakuna evolve? The first memorable time saving Metapod when a whole swarm of them evolved and Butterfree evolved from Metapod.

Good days man, good days. He missed his first ever captured pokemon. Wondered and hoped he was doing well with his mate wherever they were.

Kakuna's size grew. Thin legs took form, large buzzing wings and twin lance like objects for arms. In the chrysalis pokemon's place now fluttered a Beedrill, "Hey that was quick!" Ash gushed with a laugh, Machoke beside him gave an awed nod and thumbs up, "Guess you'll have noving to fear now eh?"

To his surprise though, Beedrill buzzed on over beside him and rose one of its lance stingers. Ash saw Machoke tense at his side but waved him off, sensing nothing malicious about the action. With bright happy red eyes, the newly evolved pokemon poked one of the pokeballs at his belt, and then at itself.

"Ah," Ash realized and was almost kicking himself for not realizing sooner, "Wanna come along with us then?" he asked.

Beedrill nodded its head, but Ash frowned, "You realize I captured that Nidorino too as well right?" he asked, "You'll have to be around him."

"Bee-beedrill!" Beedrill shook its head vigorously. Then pointed one lnace arm off to the side. It glew a bright white before an arrow of white power exploded forward as a projectile and stabbed deep into a tree, leaving a large gouge behind.

Ash smiled, "Point taken." Beedrill wasn't just a defenceless cacoon now.

"Well alright then, if you're sure." Ash said. Pulling out another pokeball, he enlarged it and without ceremony touched it to Beedrill's chest. The dual typing of bug and poison was sucked inside and the ping of successful capture was let loose in an instant.

"One more time I suppose," Ash mused, pulling his pokedex out once again and aming it at his newest pokemon's pokeball, then he hit scan.

"Beedrill, the Poison Bee Pokémon. Beedrill fly quickly and attack using poison stingers on their forelegs and tail."

Pokemon Species - Beedrill

Nickname - N/A

Gender - Male

Height - 3'03

Weight - 65 lbs

Attacks Known - Poison Sting, String Shot, Iron Defense, Twin Needle, Pin Missile

Ability - Sniper

Level - 10

Well at the very least, one of his pokemon matched up with normal data. Kakuna evolved at level 10 in the games. They learned Twin Needle instantly upon evolving. Poison String and String Shot were obviously from his time as a Weedle and Pin Missile a newly learned attack upon evolution, nothing new there.

The odd thing out was Iron Defense. Uusually Kakuna just learned Harden upon evolving. Was his just lucky, or might it have been a move evolution? They sometimes happened under duress in Ash's experience - Ember becoming Flamethrower, Water Gun becoming Hydro Pump - did Harden become Iron Defense due to Kakuna now Beedrill needing to defend himself against Nidorino and his aggressive attacking?

He did find himself smiling though when he realized that all that effort into researching Beedrill had paid off and he hadn't even really needed to do any work or train Beedrill to learn Iron Defense at all. Nidorino done it all for him.

The thought of Nidorino caused that smile to die an instant death though. It occurred to him, that there was no way he could a pokemon that aggressive out into public with him when they reached Pewter City, which was kind of annoying since he may need the poison type for the gym battle. He highly doubted he could teach Beedrill Brick Break or Solarbeam in the span of a day after all.

He'd need to hopefully break the middle stage poison type of its aggressive stance tonight during dinner. Otherwise, he'd just have to try and teach Beedrill Brick Break in the span of a night and he didn't really think he'd be able to get Beedrill to toughen up his small arms and lances to that degree in one night.

And it was night, so year Solarbeam was out of the question.

Ash smacked himself in the face with his palm, "Oh duh!" he realized, it was still day right now and would be for a for a few hours. Solbaream was more power related than ability. If Beedrill could handle it, well they'd be jamming.

"Come on out Beedrill!" Ash said, taking one of the pokeballs of his belt and releasing his newest pokemon out beside him and Machoke. The fighting type still had to work on Fire Punch after all.

Hours later when night fell and it was time to set up camp. Ash patiently waited and let Machoke set up the fire for this night. Allowing the fighting type a few minutes to generate flames around his fist and drop it into the pit of kindling and make up their camp fire.

Ash himself didn't bother with setting up his tent for the night. From what he could see, it didn't look like there would be any rain and even if there was, a light shower never hurt anybody, he'd had much worse and completely out of nowhere things happened to him travelling before, so a little rin would be a mild convenience at best.

He grabbed his sleeping bag and laid it down beside the camp fire, before grrabbing three of the stacked bowls in his bag and setting them out. While he went about setting up, Machoke sat before the fire, continuin with his training and getting a better feel for the heat on his hands.

Beedrill meanwhile buzzed around him in cruiosity, looking over every little thing he did with keen interest now that the sun was down and he had no longer had to learn to harness the energy rays of the sun.

Ash actually thought the newly caught pokemon done really well, even leveled up according to his pokedex. He even had this like, little pose he did when collecting energy from the sun and firing it. It was actually kind of both funny and cute at the same time.

He grabbed one of the jars of Brock's multi purpose pokemon food - patented so don't even try it Team Rocket - and filled the three bowls with it. Picking one up, he handed it to Machoke he took it in one hand absently.

Then he sat one in front of Beedrill and pointed towards the yellow pokemon, "This one's yours, so have at it." he said and went to move on.

Beedrill plopped down before the food, but turned his head to look at Ash and buzzed in a tone he'd come to learn meant curiosity. He was probably wondering what Ash was going to do now.

He smiled and patted the pokemon on the head affectionately, "I'm just gonna deal with Nidorino real quick okay?" he told hisnewest pokemon, "You enjoy your meal."

A buzz of displeasure was released at the name of his attacker, but Beedrill did not get up. Merely looked at Ash with wide, nervous eyes. He had seen how strong Nidorino was first hand after all.

But Ash merely chuckled, "No need to worry," he laughed, "Nidorino's a thousand levels to low to be able to take me on as he is now." he assured the bug pokemon.

Apparently his confidence was enough to assure his pokemon nicely since the newly evolved bee pokemon let him go on his way and turned his own attention back to his food.

Ash made his way to the center of the clearing, away from the other two and set Nidorino's own bowl down. He was honestly curious as to how this was going to pan out. And he was completely truthuful with what he said to Beedrill.

Yes Nidorino's horn was dangerous, an it had that surprise Confusion attack. But Ash wasn't worried, it was a poison type that didn't even know a poison attack. He could no doubt out muscle it and as he saw earlier, it was so much slower than what he was used to dealing with he could have ran circles around him with his feet tied together.

Actually, speaking of Nidorino's horn, that reminded him of something Gary taught him when he got back from Unova, the young OAk researcher had been tending to his own Nidoking and imparted upon him a few things about their species as a whole for if the time ever came he caught one of his own.

Thank you Gary!

Grabbing the pokeball from his belt, Ash released the pokemon inside. He didn't shout loudly, or exhubarantly, he merely stated, "Come out, Nidorino."

In a burst of light the pokemon appeared.

Nidorino appeared before him in all his spiny glory. A snarl on his lips. The pokemon caught site of him, merely a few inches away and stepped back to lunge.

Lesson number 1 - Established dominance. Who was calling the shots and who was the pack leader.

Before Nidorino could even get one step back Ash shot his hand out, quick as lightning and wrapped his hand tightly around the middle, forcing the pokemon to pause. It tried to tug, but this was where Ash's personal strength came in to play, and he meant it literally.

It tugged and tugged, snarled angrily and bucked but could not shake Ash's hand off. Finally, it settled on staring at him fearfully, as if acknowledging that he was that much stronger and could do what he liked with it.

Lesson Number 2 - Establish a rapport. Whether that be through free, a boss to his subordinate or something else.

Lesson Number 3 - The Nidoking line as a whole have a soft spot behind their most spined ear that when massaged gently gave them great bursts of pleasure and was very comforting for them.

Ash used lesson two and three at once. His hand left Nidorino's horn and immediately reached up over behind its ear. Ash felt the spongy flesh just as Gary had described it to him a while back. He rubbed along it softly and almost instantly, Nidorino collapsed on his hind quarters, leaning in to his touch as if in a trance.

"Hey there buddy," Ash spoke softly just as he had with Beedrill earlier, getting the pokemon to look at him through bleary brown iris', "I don't know what had you so riled up earlier, that had you so afraid." And it was afraid, Ash had seen it in the poison types eyes. It had been afraid and attacking Kakuna because it was afraid of being attacked itself he assumed.

That just made him wonder where the hell it and Machoke came from in the first place. And where the heck all the other forest pokemon were?

With his free hand Ash grabbed the third bowl full of food and held it up to the pokemon he was scratching behind the ear, "Come along with me, get some food in you and become my pokemon," he told it softly, "I'll make you strong enough that you'll never have to fear anything like you did before."

In the end, there really wasn't much else Nidorino could say in face to that now was there? And Ash's party grew to three within the span of two days and tomorrow he'd be heading off to take on the Pewter City Gym Challenge.

He wondered idly, would it still be Brock in this world? Was there another Misty? Was there another Ash Ketchum? He hoped that if there were he was nothing like his wimpy mirror world counterpart self.