Birds of a Feather

Writen by Arti Cuno

Part One:

"Wow! What's that?" Ash yelled out, shielding his eyes from the sun as he peered out into a grassy area along the road side.

With Pikachu perched on his head, Ash ran out into the field with Misty and Brock trailing far behind. Sitting on a tree branch was a blue bird that looked almost as if it was sparkling in the evening sunlight. Ash stopped just as he was only a few meters away from the shinning bird and set pikachu down beside him.

"Okay, Pikachu," Ash whispered, trying not to spook the bird before he could even attempt to catch it. "Sneak up to it and give it a thunder shock!"

"Ash!" Brock called out as he and Misty caught up finally. "Wait, you should check with Dex before you attack it, to see what pokémon is best suited to catch it!"

Ash nodded and waved Pikachu back before he attacked. "Okay then."

Ash took his backpack off of his shoulder and pulled out pokédex. Ash pointed Dex at the bird and waited for the information to be dictated.

"Articuno," Dex began as it showed a picture of the bird. "An ice and flying type pokémon. Extreamly rare, it is believed to be almost extinced."

Just as Dex stopped, Articuno looked up and stared down at the group, it's red eyes glaring straight down at Ash. "Articuno!" the bird yelled out and flew down attacking Ash.

Pikachu jumped in front of ash and charged up getting ready to fight.

"PIKA-CHU!" Pikachu yelled as he electricuted the bird along with Ash, Misty, and Brock.

"Pikachu..." Ash moaned.

Ash sat up and looked beside him to see the fainted bird belly up right beside him. The articuno was hurt pretty badly from the shock and wasn't even breathing.

"ARTICUNO!" a voice called out from the other side of the field.

Suddenly a blue haired girl came running across the field as fast as she could and followed by someone else.

Brock was at the bird's side and was triying to get it to breath again, but, before he could, the girl arrived and kicked him, litterally, out of the way. After she sat down with the bird the person that had been behind her caught up.

"GARY?" Ash yelled, staring wide eyed.

"Yo, Ash! I should have guessed," Gary snorted. "Only someone as dumb as you would kill and almost extinced pokémon! Some pokémon trainer you are!"

The girl propped up the Articuno's head and poured a potion into its beak. The bird woke up and seemed to be disorented but fine other wise. The articuno cooed and shook off as it stood up and the others looked shocked at the quick recovery.

"I'll have Pokémon HQ revoke your trainer licence for this!" she yelled. "And I don't think Professor Oak will like the fact that one of of his own trainers hurt an articuno!"

She stoked the bird's feathers then sat it on it's feet where it cuddled up to her legs beside her.

Gary smirked and looked at the three trainers. "So, nice way to impress the newest official gym's leader. Heh, she'll cream you good now. And from what I hear you've only gotten the cascade badge and boulder badge from these two cause they took pity on ya! And I won't even go near how you got some of the others..."

Ash began to growl and Pikachu charged up again. "Pi-ka..."

"Ash! Stop!" Misty yelled. "He has a point you know..."

"You never actually defeated either of us..." Brock agreed.

Ash fell to the ground and moaned. "You guys!" he snapped, getting up and shaking his fist at Brock and Misty.

Gary started to laugh. "This is rich! Hey, Ash. Let's see how bad you are. A pokémon battle, you and me. And then we'll see who's the better trainer!"

"Alright!" Ash exclaimed.

"Well, since Arti' here is the local gym trainer we'll have her be the judge of the battle," Gary said, taking a poké ball off of his belt.

"Arti'?" Ash, Brock, and Misty all asked at the same time.

Arti nodded, "I was named after an articuno. And my badge is the feather badge since I'm mostly a rare bird pokémon trainer. And with my birds I've defeated the Elite Four and earned the right to be called a Pokémon Master."

Ash and the others looked stunned. They hadn't run into an official Pokémon Master in their travels untill now. "A real Master...?" Ash said in awe.

"Enough already," Gary growled. "Two pokémon battle. Last one left standing wins."

"Okay, in that case," Ash said grabbing a poké ball. "Squirtle! I chose you!"

Gary snorted as he pulled a poké ball from his belt, "In that case... Go, Ivysaur!"

The two pokémon appeared from their poké balls and were battle ready.

"An Ivysaur!" Ash exclaimed "Um, plant and bug pokémon are strong against water pokémon..."

"Ivysaur! Vine whip!"

Ivysaur's vines extrended and whipped out at squirtle. Squirtle dodged and fell to the ground with a hard thump. He then rolled back onto his feet and looked ready to attack back.

"Squirtle! uhh... Bite!"

Squirtle ran up to Ivysaur and bit at its neck. Ivysaur growled and shook Squirtle off throwing him back to the ground.

"Ivysaur! Leech seed!"

Ivysaur's flower on his back spit out seeds that attached onto squirtle and drained him of his energy. Squirtle yelled out as his energy was being drained from him.

"SQUIRTLE!" Ash called out.

Ash reached for his poké ball and called squirtle back. I could use Charazard... Ash thought as he held the poké ball with Charazard in it. But... will he listen to me?

After a long pause Ash desided.

"Alright!" Ash nodded to himself as if he'd found the answer to an unanswerable question. "Charazard! I chose you!"

Misty and Brock gasped as Ash let Charazard out. After the last few attempts to control Charazard they'd all agreed that he was too powerful to be used.

"A charazard?" Gary yelled out. "Holy cow!"

Charazard came out of the poké ball and started down at the Ivysaur. Charazard looked like he was waiting for a command from Ash but before anything was said the fire pokémon used flame thrower on Ivysaur and roasted him.

"Ivysaur! Come back!" Gary called. "Go, Gyra- AHH!"

Charazard wacked Gary aside with his tail and continued to beat him uncontrolably.

"Charazard! Stop!" Ash hollored. "Stop, now!"

Charazard continued his attacks and picked Gary up and squeezed him. "Stop you dumb lizard!" Gary yelled out, then screamed in pain as he was being crushed harder and harded.

"Go Articuno!"

Everyone looked to see Arti call on her bird that Ash had tried to catch only minutes before. The bird flew up above the dragon and circled about it's head.

"Aritcuno! Ice beam!"

Articuno began to glow then a beam shot towards Charazard and froze him solid.

"Moltres! Zapdos!" Arti screamed out into the field. "To me!"

Suddenly a fire bird shot up into the sky and came flying towards the battle. From the other side of the road, an electric bird came to join the battle also.

"Zapdos! Thunder!"

The stubby winged Zapdos flew onto Charazard's head and shocked the dragon, through the ice it had covering it, to the point that it was unconcious. Then the Moltres started it's fire spin attack before it was told to. Ash could tell from the way the birds worked together to control Charazard that Arti deserved he rank as a Pokémon Master, and beating her for a feather badge would be tough.

"Charazard! Return!" Ash called after Moltres melted the ice. Ash lowered his head then looked at the poké ball. "Why won't you listen to me Charazard...?"

Arti's birds all landed around her and Gary and were giving Ash's group strange looks. "Don't worry," Arti told her pokémon. "They're not going to hurt you anymore."

Misty came up to the articuno and petted it's crest. "You're a cute little, um, big, pokémon aren't you?"

The birds only reply was a squak and gust of ice cold wind.

Pikachu walked up to the Zapdos and poked it curiously. Pikachu wasn't used to having other electric pokémon around him. Sure, they had run into other electric pokémon on their travels but he was facinated with this one bird. Pikachu cocked his head aside and blinked while Zapdos ignored the smaller pokémon.

"Pikachu." Ash called, kneeling down.

Pikachu ran to Ash and jumped upon his head. "Pikapi! Pika!"

Arti sighed, "Come with me. We can go to the town where your pokémon can recove at the poké center." Arti then turned to Ash. "I need to talk to you about that Charazard of yours too. It isn't safe for an unskilled trainer to have such a-a brute."

Ash lowered his head again and followed Arti and the others as they headed towards the town. Ash didn't know what town it was around here, Misty had said they were going one way while Brock had said another. And they were fighting right up untill Ash had spotted the articuno now cuddling upto Arti.

"See? I told you he was a looser!" Gary chuckled, putting an arm around Arti. "Pure, luck he got this far! I'd love to see him make it to Indigo Plateau just so I can see the Elite Four beat the pants off of him! And if he gets lucky and beats 'em, then I'll just have to kick his rear myself since I'll be a Pokémon Master myself by then!"

I'll show you, Gary, Ash thought. I'll win this feather badge and make my dream of being a pokémon master come true! Then I'll be the one laughing at you as I beat you and all the other trainers of the world!

Ash continued his train of thoughts as they walked along. With Pikachu right beside him, he trailed behind the others keeping his head hung in shame.