The gang decided not to leave immediately, they stayed around to help Melanie take care of the Pokemon for a bit, and they were even starting to warm up to them.
Especially Ash and Yellow since they were cheating cheaters who used their cheats to get ahead of everyone else.
Eventually, lunch came and they made food for everyone again, this time the Pokemon were more than willing to go and eat. But this time Bulbasaur did show up to eat with everyone, albeit far away from them but he was there.
Melanie, after having gotten a good grasp of everyone's personality, came up with a plan of her own," So, You all never told me why you are all traveling."
"As You know I am traveling to be a Pokemon breeder," Brock said proudly, "I like taking care of and raising Pokemon more than actually battling."
"I am working to become a water type expert" Misty joined in.
Yellow looked a little embarrassed before she answered, "Well I don't know what I want to do so I joined so I can meet and befriend lots of Pokemon." Yellow said as she was feeding Clefairy.
"I am going to try to get to this year's Indigo League" he responded as he was spoon-feeding Weedle.
Melanie looked taken aback for a bit, "Wow that is quite the goal, do you think you'll be ready by the time it starts, the gyms are no joke you know."
"I don't know," Ash said, catching everyone by surprise. "But I've come this far and I've got nothing to lose so I might as well trust my friends."
The battle Junkies on his team cheered in unison while the rest continued eating.
Melanie laughed seeing his Pokemon's actions, "You're Pokemon seem to like you, and you treat them like friends as well."
"Of course, I do, why wouldn't I?" Ash answered, and the frog in the corner heard what he said.
Melanie smiled and took a breath before asking, "Ash, don't you agree that Bulbasaur would
be an excellent addition to your team?
Ash was surprised, he wasn't expecting things to turn out like this since team rocket hadn't shown their faces but he decided to play it off, "Yeah he sure would."
"What do you think about taking Bulbasaur with you?"
Everyone in the group looked at her in surprise, even Bulbasaur almost choked on his lunch as he heard her suggestion.
"Bulbasaur always stayed here to protect the weaker Pokémon. But this village is too small. The bulb on his back can't grow, I'm afraid that if he doesn't leave it will never bloom." Melanie said sadly.
"He needs to go out into the world now and I know you can take good care of him." Bulbasaur approached Melanie trying to reason with her, but she just picked him up.
"But what will happen to the village without Bulbasaur?" Yellow asked.
"Yeah, who's going to protect you?" Brock said.
"Bulbasaur has indeed done a great job, maybe too great a job, but the point of this village is not to keep the Pokemon here forever. After they recover, the Pokémon are supposed to leave. But it's too safe here, so none of them wants to go away."
"But I think it's important that all of them return to the wild. That's where Pokémon belong. So please do me this favor. Take Bulbasaur with you on your journey."
Everyone was quiet before Ash spoke up, "I refuse."
That supposed everyone including Bulbasaur and all of the Pokemon living in the village, Melanie tried to reason with Ash, "Please I promise he won't be a burden, he still needs to grow-"
Ash put his finger, "Please let me finish, I refuse to take Bulbasaur with me, but if he is willing to then I want to capture him instead of just taking him."
Bulbasaur heard this and if he was asked the same thing yesterday he would have probably rejected it in a heartbeat, but after getting to know them he was considering it himself.
Melanie smiled and breathed a sigh of relief, before looking down at Bulbasaur, "What do you say, do you want to battle?"
Bulbasaur looked at all of his friends in the village who were encouraging him to do it, "Buba" Bulbasaur nodded in excitement.
Ash looked at Weedle who was in his arms, "How about it girl, do you wanna try, we have been training." Weedle nodded as she jumped out of Ash's arms and got ready for battle.
The humans who were watching were surprised to see Ash send out Weedle, but Bulbasaur knew better than to underestimate his opponent.
Melanie looked like she was going to say something, but Brock put his hand on her shoulder, "We both know Ash may act childish at times, but he wouldn't challenge Bulbasaur unless he was sure."
All the Pokemon in the village gathered around to watch their friend battle. The battle initiated as Melanie called out, "Start."
Bulbasaur immediately took the first move and sent a Razor leaf toward Weedle.
"Weedle use String shot to dodge then Electro web." Weedle immediately jumped into the air and released threads to zip through the leaves, then she sent a glowing Yellow web towards Bulbasaur, which wrapped around and shocked him.
Although it didn't do much due to resisting damage its purpose was to restrain Bulbasaur, "Now pull him in and use Bug Bite."
Weedle whipped her threads causing Bulbasaur to go airborne and pulled in and as soon as he was in range, Weedle delivered a neutral bite dealing more chip damage.
Bulbasaur however, now that he was close, released his vines and used vine whip and threw Weedle farther back, then sending a Magical Leaf to hit Weedle again.
Although it was resisted, any damage when your base health is 40 is big, however, Weedle started to get up and started glowing, and growing, then a cocoon formed around her in a bright white light.
And as soon as it seemed to start fading, Weedle broke out and came out much different confusing everyone. Instead of evolving she instead came out much bigger and her head spike was also leaking more Poison.
She was big enough that she could be worn as a scarf, this confused everyone but they were still in a fight. Now there is a move that the Spinarak line gets that Weedle really should get but they don't called Toxic Thread.
Now normally Weedle wouldn't get this move, but after training and replacing the electricity in the electro web with poison, she created a bootleg version that Ash dubbed, "Poison Web"
A purple thread was released from Weedle's needle on her head that also started restraining Bulbasaur, now even though Bulbasaur was part poison that just meant he couldn't get Poisoned, not that he was resistant to it.
At this point, Bulbasaur was restrained and in bad shape, so Ash threw the Pokeball, it rolled until the satisfying 'Ding' was heard. And the Pokedex updated.
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[Bulbasaur (M)]
[Ability: Overgrow Hidden Ability: Chlorophyll→ Thick fat]
[Current moves: Vine Whip(Basic), Growth, Razor Leaf(Basic), Magical Leaf(Basic)]
[Mutation detected….Protector of the weak]
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Ash picked up the ball and released Bulbasaur, who was still wrapped in the web so he helped him get out of them, afterwards Bulbasaur went to all of his friends to say goodbye one last time.
Melanie went to the group to say goodbye since they were preparing to leave, "Have a safe trip" she said while also turning to see Bulbasaur saying goodbye to all of his friends.
"I promise to take care of Bulbasaur," Melanie smiled as Bulbasaur started approaching her.
Melanie leaned down to pet Bulbasaur, "Bulbasaur, thank you for watching over us."
"Uh, Melanie, I've been thinking," Brock said a bit nervous.
"Yes?"
"Well, since Bulbasaur is leaving, I wouldn't mind staying and helping you out," Brock said while blushing.
"It's very kind of you but we'll be okay." Melanie said not understanding what Brock meant, "I wouldn't want to keep you from all of your wonderful adventures."
"Oh. Yeah, I guess you're right." Brock said a bit embarrassed, as Misty was snickering in a corner.
"Hey Melanie, why don't you give your Phone number to Brock, I'm sure Bulbasaur would love to see you again and only Brock has a phone" Ash suggested.
"Oh that's a great idea of course," Melanie said as she walked towards Brock to exchange numbers. And in a corner, Misty gave Ash a high five.
After they started walking off Bulbasaur looked back and said goodbye to everyone with a smile on his face.
And Brock who was looking at Melanie's number and patted Ash on the shoulder, "Thank you,"
"Don't worry about it, I just followed the rules of the Bro code," Ash said.
"Oh, that reminds me," Brock went into his bag and pulled out the fixed Jacket, "Here's your Jacket back."
"Oh thanks," Ash said, putting it back on.
"What about your gloves?" Yellow asked.
"I have more than one pair," Ash said as he pulled out a new pair of gloves from his bags, "I also have another Jacket, did you think I only had one change of clothes."
Everyone looked away from Ash, "D-did any of you bring more than one change of clothes".
Everyone started Whistling and looked away, " *Sigh* When we get to the next town we are getting all of you more clothes."
Everyone agreed as they continued walking but Ash was wondering something, 'I wonder what Team Rocket is doing, those three idiots haven't shown up in a bit so they have to be doing something either really bad or really stupid.'
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Question for you guys, What makes an OC unlikeable in a story, is it just their existence, when they are a one-shot character, When they become a love interest, when they show up in more than one chapter, etc?