Chapter 105, everybody! I don't guarantee steady updates for the rest of the year but I will try my best.

So back in the day someone left a review questioning why Ash didn't use the Pokédex to go in-depth on stuff and a few other things that left me staring at the review going he didn't even know that stuff in canon, why would he know it now? So a bit of this chapter is addressing that. Moving on...I can't be the only one who had to take a day after a vacation to get used to being home.

Also shout-out to the episode when Ash caught the Tauros being cut from the English version due to the one guy pulling a gun on them, which left a bit of a plot hole in the dub on when did he catch those. Also this was originally two chapters before I checked the wordcount and went better make it one. Saying that, the return of Charmeleon! It doesn't go well.

In other news: thanks to Dragonkeeper10, thor94, Guest, Guest, LongNightDragon, Cyan Quartz, BlastShooter87, Fogman66, and kazikamikaze24 for the reviews! As for the question of the barrier...you'll see. ;)

Pokémon © Game Freak; Nintendo


And now, for something completely different:

The Pokémon League would like to remind you that all properties within town limits must have their lawns maintained. Grass over five inches tall is not allowed, as it attracts wild Pokémon. Please keep your lawns trimmed.

Misty had been right: sleeping in his own bed had been excellent.

There was a weird bit of disconnect when he woke up in his room the next morning—had to take a beat to wonder if he had dreamt the whole thing before registering Pikachu and Vee sleeping curled up against him on his bed. Gingerly stretch, slip out of bed without waking them, wander downstairs in his pajamas, yawning as he followed the scent of breakfast.

"Morning, baby!" his mom greeted. "How'd you sleep? Glad to be back home?"

"Yeah, kind of," Ash said, sitting at the breakfast island. "I don't know, it's kind of weird to be back home after traveling so long."

"Did you miss your bed at least?" she teased.

"And your cooking," Ash said, beaming. "I mean, Brock's cooking is okay, but it's not yours—" Grinned when she put a full plate in front of him.

"Ghhh...what house is this?" Brock asked blearily as he sat up from the pull-out sofa (Misty had won the coin toss for the guest bedroom). "Hey, Ash—what is that? Breakfast?"

"There's lots of pancakes," Ash told him.

"Oh good food I didn't cook," Brock said, rolling off the couch.

"Sometimes that makes a lot of difference," Ash's mom confirmed. "So what kind of Pokémon did you catch on your journey? How are they growing? Pikachu's looking good, at least, and that Eevee is adorable."

"Vwee," Vee noised, pausing as he came downstairs to pose.

"That reminds me, I gotta get Frenzy back into my team," Ash said.

"After breakfast," Ash's mom and Brock said at the same time—exchanged baffled glances—

Ash had concerns about them exchanging fist bumps, resigned himself to hearing about his failings insofar as laundry was concerned for the rest of breakfast, all of which Misty wholeheartedly agreed with when she came down for breakfast. Would have expected Darkrai to weigh in with a snide comment though.

Where was he, anyway?


Misty and Brock were looking forward to heading to Professor Oak's after breakfast for entirely different reasons.

"As the premier Pokémon researcher in Kanto, Professor Oak probably knows a ton about Pokémon condition," Brock said. "He'd be great to get opinions from."

"I just want to hear about his opinion about Frenzy," Misty said, snickering. "Everyone's terrified of that bug."

"Including you," Ash pointed out.

"Including me, but I think you can agree that there's reasons for that."

"I guess it's understandable," Ash said, leading the way up the path to the lab doors. Waited for them to slide open—

"Hey, Professor Oak!" Ash greeted, blinking in surprise at the sight of the old man standing there and waiting for them, looking stern. "Are you okay?"

Misty went down laughing when Professor Oak demanded "When were you going to tell me about this bug!?"


In other news, Ash did not need the bad news that Gary was also here.

"You know, I had had hopes that you two would grow up a little and settle your differences while on the road," Professor Oak sighed as the two sniped at each other.

"They are ten," Brock pointed out.

"True."

"If we're measuring progress, then I've made a lot more than Ashy here," Gary said, turning up his nose and pointedly ignoring Ash. "How many badges do you have, hmm? Seven? Don't think the League's gonna let you in with one short."

"Like having extra badges isn't compensating for something?" Ash shot back. "Do you have the Volcano Badge, Gary? I don't think so!"

"Please, you got some knock-off at the tourist-trap store—"

Professor Oak whistled sharply, redirecting their attention. "Maybe we can settle this with a few metrics," he offered, waving them over to several machines. "See, everyone measures success differently—don't roll your eyes at me young man—and quality versus quantity may be one of those measurements, but so is personal growth and achievement."

"Meaning?" Misty said.

"Well let's give an example—according to the Pokédex data Gary has caught more Pokémon and more different Pokémon species than Ash—"

"Ha," Gary shot at Ash.

"Let me finish. Ash has caught quite a few Pokémon," Professor Oak said. "But they're mostly Tauros from the Safari Zone," he continued, gesturing to thirty Pokéballs with a safari pattern on them.

"When did I catch those?" Ash muttered to Brock.

"You know, I can't recall," Brock said, scratching his head.

"Ash has seen more Pokémon and registered them in his Pokédex, though—including quite a few from other regions," Professor Oak said. "But Gary has, on a whole, leveled his Pokémon more roundly and thoroughly than Ash has."

"Ha!" Gary said to Ash, sticking his tongue out.

"I don't see how this is helping," Misty muttered to Professor Oak.

"And what makes you say that?" Ash asked.

In response, Gary pulled a Pokéball off his belt and released the Pokémon inside.

"Holy Tauros," Ash muttered when the light resolved into a Kingler. "That Kingler's huge!"

"Of course," Gary said, nose up in the air. "I make sure to rotate my team, and I've used the Pokédex to its fullest in determining how best to raise them."

"The Pokédex can do that?" Ash asked blankly.

"Of course," Professor Oak said. "The Pokédex tells you everything about your Pokémon—it takes all the pertinent data scanned by the Pokéball, such as height, weight, and relative age, determines basic abilities, quantifies biometrics to determine stats, uses those biometrics to determine which stats it could excel in…."

Ash worried that he had stopped being able to register what all Professor Oak was saying after the few moments. "So…it does…what, exactly?"

Professor Oak looked like he was about to have a fit. "How can you not know this!?"

"Because I'm pretty sure it wasn't explained to me." Ash was fairly certain he'd remember his brains leaking out his ears.

"Wasn't explained—I'm certain I did!"

"I think you were more focused on telling me how to take care of Pikachu without electrocuting myself."

"That may have been it," Professor Oak said, loosening his grip on his graying hair somewhat. "But you knowing that would have made the past year a lot easier on you, I would have thought."

"And you wouldn't have such dinky loser Pokémon," Gary muttered, smirking.

Ash gave that some thought, gave Kingler an appraising look. Water type at the end of the day.

Ash looked at Pikachu, pointed at Kingler. "Use Thunder Shock."

"Pika!" Pikachu said, smirk on his face and cheeks sparking as he coiled to spring.

"Not in the house," Professor Oak ordered. "And typing isn't everything—a high-enough level Pokémon with strong enough stats could overpower a type disadvantage. We'll need to go over all that, I think—a remedial course, of sorts."

"But I thought trainers were exempt from school," Ash protested.

Professor Oak gave him a look.

"Okay, fine," Ash muttered.

"Well, seeing as how I already know this, I'm going to go train—smell you later, Ash," Gary said, giving Ash a jaunty wave before returning his Kingler and leaving.

"Are you certain you and he are related?" Brock asked Professor Oak.

"Pretty sure," Professor Oak said. "Gary takes too much after his father for me to believe otherwise."

Ash grimaced, glaring after Gary before turning to Professor Oak. "Thanks for everything, Professor, but I've got to go train—if Gary's whole team looks like that, I'm major behind."

"Hold it—while you're here," Professor Oak said, not looking happy. "Do something with that Charmeleon of yours—it's been very disruptive, attacks other Pokémon at random, and has all around been a pain in the behind. My Arcanine has been keeping an eye on it, but I don't have to tell you she's getting on in years and doesn't need to be chasing a young Charmeleon around if its trainer, I don't know, trains it?"

Ash blinked—the Professor had gotten really irritated in a short amount of time. "It's that bad, huh?"

"It's terrible."

Ash nodded, resigned. "Don't worry, Professor—I'll take care of it."


Within short order, Ash was walking the ranch, searching for a flash of orange. Pikachu and Frenzy were flanking him.

"There you are!" Ash declared finally, spotting Charmeleon napping on a rock. The orange lizard cracked an eye open, saw who it was, and dismissed him with a puff of smoke, settling back down to sleep.

"I hear you've gotten lazy," Ash said, hands on his hips. "And I hear that when you're not lazy, you're just mean. What's wrong with you? What happened to the nice Charmander you used to be?"

Charmeleon rolled onto his back and gave a gesture that would have been very rude had it been done with a human hand.

"I told you I'd come back when I was a better trainer," Ash continued. "I said I'd come back when I could do you the justice you deserved. You know what? That definition changed—I am going to give you the justice you deserve. I'm going to give you your just desserts."

Charmeleon rolled again so he was facing Ash, inhaled—

Ash narrowly dodged the burst of flame. He didn't need Darkrai to translate—Charmeleon didn't care if Ash had progressed as a trainer.

"All right, that's it," Ash groused. "Pikachu, zap him off that rock."

Pikachu did so, prompting Charmeleon to jump off and assume a cocky battle pose in front of Pikachu.

"No," Ash said. "You're not facing Pikachu—you're facing Frenzy."

Frenzy stepped forward as Pikachu stepped back.

"You've got the type advantage here," Ash said. "And I'm only going to give Frenzy one command. You win, then you win—I won't bother you again. But if Frenzy wins, then you've got to do things my way. Understand?"

Charmeleon aimed another burst of flame at him, which he dodged.

"Frenzy?" Ash asked; the Parasect stood at attention. "Teach him a lesson."

Frenzy only ever obeyed direct orders from Ash, so he wasn't sure how the Parasect would take such an open-ended statement.

He needn't have been worried, he realized—Frenzy ramped up to his hind legs and shrieked, like he always did when preparing to attack. Charmeleon stepped back, startled—

And then Frenzy rushed him.

Ash sat with Pikachu on Charmeleon's old rock and watched the beatdown. It became evident very quickly that Charmeleon wasn't nearly as good as he thought he was—and that Frenzy had a mean streak buried somewhere under that giant mushroom. Every time Charmeleon tried to get up, Frenzy would slap him back down—his Slashes and X-Scissors were laced with his effect spores, which meant that Charmeleon was getting extra pain per hit.

Ash had intended to let it go on for as long as possible, but within a minute, he couldn't take it anymore. "Frenzy, that's enough."

Frenzy backed off, leaving a surprised Charmeleon on the ground.

"So you're not the big tough Pokémon you thought you were," Ash said. "That's no surprise—Frenzy beat you because Frenzy had training. So, you want to train with us, now that you see what you could do with some effort?"

Charmeleon looked at him, then looked away with a huff.

Ash glanced at Pikachu and shrugged. "Suit yourself—we'll be training by the lake when you're ready."

Ash turned to leave, Frenzy and Pikachu following—

He heard a deep inhale, glanced over to see Charmeleon facing Frenzy with a major Fire Blast ready—

"Frenzy! Look out!"

Frenzy, to his credit, did not look about—instead, he leapt clear out of the way. The attack struck the ground harmlessly.

Pikachu made an angry noise at the decidedly underhanded attack—even Darkrai would have called it underhanded, it had been an attack made with the intent to kill—but Ash was already right in front of Charmeleon, fists balled and so angry he could hardly speak.

"What was that?" he spat finally. "You can't win in a battle so you decide to cheat outside of one? I thought maybe we could work together, be partners, but you know what? Forget it—you're as bad as Damian. Yes, I went there," he hissed upon seeing Charmeleon's stricken look. "Don't bother training with us, Charmeleon: you've proven to me that—that you're a no-good dirty rotten scoundrel. You don't even deserve to be called a Pokémon." With that, he threw Charmeleon's Pokéball down, turned and left, making sure his back was exposed. Go ahead, make his day. "Go ahead and break your Pokéball if you want," Ash tossed back. "I don't care anymore."

And with that, the trio left, hopefully leaving Charmeleon with a hollow feeling deep in his chest. Or maybe he was celebrating—Ash wasn't sticking around to find out, unable to stick to the steady walk he had planned on.

Because truth be told, Ash did care, and he probably spent an hour crying in the woods, Pikachu comforting him while Frenzy stood by—considering his Effect Spore, Ash didn't mind. Frenzy showed his solidarity by sticking around. Probably.

The next hour was spent wandering around the woods until he didn't look like he had been crying his eyes out, Pikachu on his shoulder while Frenzy followed. He was lost in thought, regretfully replaying that last confrontation with Charmeleon.

"Do you think I did the right thing?" Ash asked Pikachu for what had to have been the fifth time.

"Pika," Pikachu said, rubbing his cheek against Ash's. It resulted in a tingling feeling, which at the very least was distracting.

"Arf!"

Ash blinked and looked up, closing his right eye—the vision in that one had become blurry from Pikachu's nuzzle. The Professor's Arcanine was standing in front of him, silver and gold medals glinting in the dim forest light.

"Hi," Ash noised, unsure what to say.

Arcanine nodded and then sat down, tilting her head so she was looking up. Ash followed her gaze to see that it was getting late—he'd have to get home soon.

"Arf," Arcanine said, laying down and then indicating her back. The message was clear: get on.

"I talked to Charmeleon," Ash said, wanting to get things off his chest before returning to civilization. Arcanine nodded, prompting him to continue. "He…I think he hates me, and I don't know why. I can't help but think I did something wrong somewhere."

Arcanine inclined her head, thinking, and then leaned forward and licked his face.

"Gaack!" Ash noised, not expecting the slobber.

"Pika pika!" Pikachu rejoined, tugging on Ash's ear. He jumped on Arcanine's back, faced Ash, and then started gesturing—pantomime was the best they had done without a translator, but Ash could get the gist.

"Yeah," Ash noised, looking down. "I guess…I guess it's a bit silly, to be thinking like that—Pokémon training requires that both Pokémon and trainer want to work together, right?" he asked, looking at Arcanine. Arcanine nodded. "So I guess forcing the issue or feeling bad isn't going to help, is it?" Arcanine shook her head.

Ash bowed his head, thinking.

"All right then," he said, getting on Arcanine right behind Pikachu. "Come on, Frenzy."

Frenzy climbed up behind Ash, and then Arcanine was off, racing back towards Professor Oak's lab.


When describing their training schedule, Ash had been glancing around, like he hoped for a glimpse of orange.

Pikachu didn't hold out such hopes.

And if he did show his scaly face again….

"Listen," Pikachu said, when Ash finished and turned to address an approaching Professor Oak.

Within short order, he had explained the whole situation to the rest of Ash's group.

Needless to say, they were appalled—Pokémon knew and understood fighting to win; to hear it called playing dirty was a foreign concept. But to continue a battle when it was clearly over, with intent to kill without the need for food, just to do it…it spoke droves about Charmeleon. His cruel streak had devolved into something worse, it seemed.

"So," Pikachu finished. "That's it. He's done. He shows his face here, don't even give him the time of day. If he says anything, ignore him. If he tries anything, give him a beatdown. He's got to learn he isn't nearly as bad as he thinks."

A random Rattata had eavesdropped on the conversation. "If that's what evolution does to a 'mon, I don't want to evolve."

"Here here," Pikachu agreed.

"Evolution doesn't cause that," Patches said. "I mean, look at me—I evolved, and I'm fine."

"Or me," Lenny said. "Gyarados are known for being vicious—did I act out when I evolved?"

"I don't know—I was in my Pokéball at the time."

"That was a rhetorical question."

"Oh."

"Ah-hem," Pikachu noised, bringing the attention back to himself. "Then it's agreed—Charmelon is 'Pokemana non grata.'"

Everyone nodded, and pretty soon they were all practicing with the training regimen that Ash had set up.

Personally, Pikachu thought that Ash was just having everyone practice their moves right now, seeing as how that was the most strenuous thing going on right now. But this was important, they had to practice to beat the smug out of Gary Oak.

And to show that stupid Charmeleon what it looked like when you actually worked.

Boy I hope that loser-lizard's watching right now, Pikachu thought, hitting a sapling with such a blistering Thunder Shock that it turned to charcoal.

Imagining the tree as said loser-lizard helped his mood, somewhat.


The loss of Charmeleon hurt just a bit more than Ash cared to admit, hence him focusing on training the rest of his team, this time using the Pokédex to hopefully its full advantage—Ash didn't have the heart to tell Professor Oak that he thought the device to be a piece of junk most of the time, although finally having the National 'Dex installed definitely improved it in his estimation.

"Considering the number of Pokémon you've seen, it seems fitting," Professor Oak told him. "And consider it a gift for getting into the League. Lt. Surge told me about sponsoring you to make up for the missing badge," he added at Ash's confused look.

So now, at least, he was focusing on training his team—or he would be, if Gary hadn't swung around again to be needling. Especially considering they were supposed to be eating lunch.

"All right, that's it," Ash declared finally, putting his fork down—turned to face Gary. "If you're so hot, then prove it."

"Oh please—I can take you anytime, anywhere!" Gary shot.

"Well why not right here right now?" Ash countered. "Unless you're too much of a Wimpod to do it."

Gary glared at him, glanced at his grandfather.

"It would be nice if you two finally resolved your differences," Professor Oak said. "And a Pokémon battle might be just the way to do it—you two have always disagreed on how to train Pokémon, a battle with your strongest team might settle matters once and for all."

Gary glanced back at Ash, considering. "Not your Paras. And fine, I'm game."

"What's the matter, scared of Frenzy?" Ash asked, grinning cheekily.

"That thing just isn't normal, all right?"

"You're on. Oh by the way, Frenzy's a Parasect now—so I can totally still use him, since he's not my Paras."

Gary glared at him. "Using it is a cop-out."

"See, that's what you think—"

"Boys!" Professor Oak yelled. "Outside, to the battlefield, resolve it there."

Ash and Gary glared daggers at each other before finally relenting and heading out the door.

"Full team versus full team all right with you?" Gary asked.

"Yes," Ash said. "We'll total you no problem!"