In Pewter city the next day, Ash made sure to get plenty of dango.
Pikachu was sort of interested in what it tasted like – he'd never really tried anything like that before – so when Zapdos emerged from her Pokéball in a flash of white light to try something out, he hesitated for a moment before taking a deep breath.
She was just another Pokémon, really. A big, powerful Pokémon, but clearly not an unapproachable Pokémon… if only because his crazy trainer had apparently been doing just that on a regular basis for months or years.
"Is it okay if I try some?" he asked. "To see what it's like, I mean."
The other Electric-type looked at him, then nodded. "Sure. This is just the taster anyway."
It was a lot bigger than a taster to Pikachu, but then again Zapdos was a lot bigger than Pikachu so that kind of made sense.
"How is it compared to Ash's mom's stuff?" Pikachu checked.
"Not quite as good, but there's more of it," Zapdos said, after careful consideration.
Pikachu reached out to take one of the skewer, then, but one of them miscalculated something and there was a loud bzzzzrt that ended with Pikachu's cheeks glowing bright red.
"Oops," Zapdos winced. "Sorry."
"My head tingles," Pikachu said, distinctly.
"Careful, guys," Ash called, from where he was feeding Butterfree some aburi. "We're headed to Pewter Gym after lunch, so don't overeat or you might get a stomachache."
The Pewter City gym leader turned out to be called Brock, and he said the rules were that both sides used two Pokémon.
"Any other rules?" Ash asked. "This is my first one of these, so I want to get it right!"
"Well, you can swap Pokémon whenever you want, but it has to be when the Pokémon isn't in danger of being knocked out," Brock told him. "So if you return a Pokémon that's about to be hit by an attack, it counts that that Pokémon was withdrawn and you can't send them out again."
Ash nodded. "What about using, you know, potions and stuff?"
"You can, but you have to be the one who calls the time out," Brock said. "And there's a limit of one per match."
"Right," Ash agreed. "I don't have any anyway, but I thought I'd ask. All right, let's go!"
He pointed. "Pikachu, you first!"
"Ash, are you sure that's a good… idea…" Misty began, then trailed off. "Well, it's the only Pokémon you have which Rock types wouldn't be really good against, technically…"
As Pikachu walked onto the field, rubbing his cheeks slightly, Brock raised a Pokéball. "If you're new, kid, then let's see how you deal with Geodude!"
"...or he could have Rock and Ground types," Misty added.
Pikachu looked peaky, and Geodude folded his arms before coming closer. "Uh… hey, are you okay? Your trainer isn't making you battle while you're ill, is he?"
"No, I think I just ate too much," Pikachu said, a bit indistinctly. "Uh…"
He took in a deep breath, then sneezed, and a bolt of lightning as wide as his tail hit Geodude with a bangthat rattled the windows.
"Ow," Geodude announced, and fell to the ground with a whud.
"...what the actual heck?" Misty demanded. "Did that just – that just happened, didn't it?"
She pointed. "Ash, your Pikachu just electrocuted a Ground type!"
"How did that work?" Butterfree demanded, hovering just behind Ash's shoulder. "That shouldn't even have begun to work!"
He gestured with a wing. "I mean, moves is one thing, but that was a Thundershock, or maybe a Thunderbolt? Those moves don't work on Ground types! That's not how that even-"
As the Bug type kept ranting, Pikachu shook himself out.
"I feel lots better now,"he said. "Phew!"
"Ash, you should probably pull Pikachu back," Misty advised, watching as Pikachu jumped away from another attack by Onix. "Whatever that was that got Geodude, it's not happening again."
"I guess… yeah, you're right," Ash admitted. "I kind of… well, who do I send out… Pikachu, come back!"
"Fine," Pikachu said, jumping out of the way of Onix's latest Slam just to show he could, then came bounding over to Ash's side of the arena. "I really want a move that will work consistently on Pokémon like Onix, though."
"We can work that out later," Ash assured him. "Uh… Butterfree, do you know any moves that are good against Onix?"
Butterfree's wings fluttered much faster. "Oh boy, oh boy! I know some great moves against Onix!"
"You should really know what moves your Pokémon has," Brock chided.
"Yeah, I know, but my Pokédex keeps giving me errors when I try," Ash answered. "And when I ask Butterfree she says it's not the time to list them off."
"Actually, I was saying we haven't got time to list them off," Butterfree corrected. "It'd take, like, a day? And you'd need loads of notepaper too… anyway!"
She fluttered out into the arena, facing Onix.
"All right, Onix, watch out for a Solarbeam!" Brock warned. "Get ready to interrupt her charging!"
Butterfree zipped straight forwards, towards Onix, and did a backflip.
And used Iron Tail.
"...what," Pikachu asked, succinctly. "Just happened."
"That was neat!" Ash said. "Uh… what type was that move?"
"Steel!" Butterfree said. "It was Iron Tail!"
"But you don't even have a tail!"
"I don't see why any Pokémon should let that stop them,"she sniffed.
"You saw that as well, right?" Misty asked. "There was this long silver tail that appeared for a moment?"
"Pokémon are amazing," Ash said. "Well done, both of you!"
Then the gym wall fell in.
"Prepare for trouble!" announced the loudspeaker attached to an enormous robotic Weedle.
"So, uh, Boss?" Jessie said, some hours later after the soot had been washed off.
"You know that kid we were going after?" James added. "The one with the Pikachu which blew up a Pokémon centre?"
Giovanni stared down the video phone at them.
"He's got a Zapdos too!" Meowth finished.
Giovanni kept staring down the video phone at them.
"...so, um, we're going to try and get them from him," Jessie said. "Unless you tell us not to. And, we'll… let you know how it goes?"
After a long pause with nobody saying a thing, Giovanni ended the call.