"To be great is to be misunderstood."

(Yes, I know Viridian Forest is after the city itself when you start from Pallet. However, in my head, Viridian is kinda smack-dab in the middle of the forest. So you have to go through it to get to the city.)

The flock attacked with a fury beyond logic. For an entire flock to be so focused on a single target was unheard of, but Oak had warned of unreasonable aggression towards Ash's abnormal aura. Pikachu stood his ground in front of the trainer, sending Thundershock after Thundershock into the flock, birds dropping with every flash. Ash took advantage of the electric mouse's distraction to grab a short, thick stick from the side of the trail. He held it by his side as he stood behind Pikachu, not wanting to disrupt the Pokémon's focus. The flock didn't falter as members fell, but surged towards the mouse who dared stand between them and their goal.

Pikachu, of course, relished the challenge, at least for a while. However, the effort of the continuous attacks began taking its toll. The mouse faltered, and the Spearow attacked. Pikachu braced himself, cheeks sparking weakly, waiting for the onslaught of beaks and talons. But the electric crackle died as Ash stepped in front of the Pokémon and swung the improvised club straight into the lead Spearow, sending it tumbling into the brush framing the trail.

Ash, however, was just one human against a Pokémon swarm, but despite talons tearing at his clothes and skin, and the Pecks and Fury Attacks the stronger members of the flock sent his way, he kept swinging the club, keeping every bird away from the fallen Pikachu.

The electric mouse watched in shock at the trainer protecting him. Despite how Pikachu had been treating the Trainer, Ash was standing between the two forces, protecting Pikachu at his own expense. Perhaps, despite his strange aura, this human was worth giving a try. As Ash staggered from a particularly malicious Peck, Pikachu jumped onto his shoulder, then flung himself into the flock. Said trainer had to shield his eyes against the Thunderbolt Pikachu unleashed on the unfortunate remnants of the Flock. He lowered his arm just in time to see a small yellow body fall amongst the rain of brown-feathered, slightly smoking ones.

"Pikachu!"

Ash threw the stick aside, running to the fallen mouse who had just saved him. He scooped Pikachu up gently and looked north, towards Viridian. Suddenly the three miles left felt that much further. So, hoisting the bag higher on his back, blinking blood and rain from his eyes, Ash ran.

-TBAM-

Nurse Candice Joy looked up from the picture of her dozens of identical cousins, interrupted from her mourning for the missing Julie Joy, at the trainer who just entered the center, and gasped. The young man was soaking, clothes nearly torn to shreds, with scrapes, and gouges, and bruises showing through the tears, with a Pikachu in similar, but better, shape, unconscious in his arms.

"Please, help him."

And the trainer passed out too, Pikachu still held tightly in his arms. Nurse joy paused, blinking at the sight.

"Chansey!"

-TBAM-

Despite the rain, and up until that evening, Misty Waterflower had actually been enjoying the day. With Staryu hovering overhead like an umbrella, she had biked quickly through North Viridian Forest and through the town itself, stopping for a quick bite before continuing into the South Forest. She had gone a couple miles before dusk began settling, and she saw flashes in the distance, along with the distinctive cries of a Pikachu. She had retrieved her Staryu, who was tired after hovering all day, and headed straight for the source, excited to catch it despite her water mastery. Pikachu were rare, and catching one could lead to a valuable trade eventually.

She stopped long enough to see the flock of Spearow against a beaten-up trainer and a fallen Pikachu, before the little mouse had let loose a devastating Thunderbolt, which not only took out the birds, but arched towards the metal of her bike. Both girl and machine were hurled back from the force, though the bike took the worst of it, leaving Misty singed and disoriented, but otherwise okay. When she was mentally recompiled, she looked up and watched the trainer running towards Viridian. She stood, shaking in anger and residue electricity.

"Don't you run from me!"

-TBAM-

As Ash 'slept', he dreamed of his father. Not that he had ever met the man, or ever heard stories, or even knew what he looked like, as his mother never told him, and there were no pictures of the man. Instead, Ash dreamed of what he had long-ago established would be the 'memory' of his father. Ash imagined a tall and strong man, with kind eyes and untamable hair like Ash's own. The man would smile as he picked Ash (who was always a toddler in those dreams) up and spun him around, both man and son laughing as the world circled around them, blurring into a slew of colors until they fell, Ash on top of his 'dad', and they would both lie there, looking up into the blue, cloudless sky, smiling. The two would turn to look at each other, and that's when Ash always woke up – right before he could see what he dubbed his 'father's' face.

This time was no different. Ash groaned as the blurry world tried to right itself as he opened his eyes, head pounding, skin stinging and painful. As he blinked sleep away, the dull steel of the inside of a Pokémon Center recovery room came into focus, as did a steady beeping and the dull hum of the harsh lighting that illuminated the room. He looked to the right and discovered the heart monitor that was the source of said beeping, along with an empty chair and shut door. To his left hung I.V. bags, dripping a slow rhythm into the line attached to his hand, which (surprisingly) still had the wristband on it. Gritting his teeth, he removed the needle from his skin, and the clasp on his finger, wincing as the machine to his right let out an indignant alarm at the apparent sudden death of its patient.

The room spun as he stood, listing to the side as his legs shook weakly. Despite this, Ash made his way to the door, leaning heavily on the wall. The door opened with an indignant squeal of aged hinges, and the trainer winced at the noise. The room he'd been put in was one of the first in the hall, close to the entry/waiting room and front desk. The sun was shining through the small windows, interrupted periodically by leaves and branches swaying in the wind that was scratching the Center's thin front doors.

In the other direction, the hall continued back, splitting into two sections, the E.R. and I.C.U. Ash followed the hall to the intensive care, his obvious dependence on the wall lessening with every step. Quick peeks through the door windows let him know whose room was whose, and Pikachu's room was at the very back of the hall. The door to the recovering Pokémon's was much better kept than the neglected one to Ash's room, and swung open smoothly, with only a whisper of noise as the cool breeze of the room mingled with the warm air of the hall. Neither Pikachu nor Pidgeotto, who was perched, healthy as ever, on the hanging fluorescent light hanging in the room, stirred at the trainer's entrance, or when Ash quietly lowered his shaking self into the hard chair in the corner.

Pikachu resembled Ash in that he was covered in bandages. Pokémon healing was leaps and bounds ahead of human care, due to all the battling that was the center of their culture, but even then there was only so much science and Chansey nurses could do. Sometimes time really was the best cure. Despite the bandages though, Pikachu was looking well-rested and sleeping soundly, although both mouse and bird had shifted slightly and scrunched up a little as Ash's unnatural aura had entered.

The trainer managed to doze off in the ridiculously uncomfortable chair, though that was probably from the heavy medication still in his system than anything else, and woke to an irate pink-haired nurse glaring down at him. Ash blushed, and cringed.

"H-hi there, Nurse Joy. How are you?"

The look the nurse gave him sent chills down his neck. Health-care professionals were, in his opinion, two-edged knives. They could heal, yes, but that knowledge also gave them an underestimated ability to cause harm. If you can put someone together, you must first know how to take them apart. Ash knew this, and, though he probably wouldn't be killed at the moment, the look he was getting was not promising.

"Not happy, actually." The nurse replied, then sighed. To Ash's surprise, she came in the room, and sat down beside him. Chansey, who was standing outside the door, gave the aspiring trainer a harsh glare for a pink orb, and refused to come in further. Nurse Joy relaxed her own glower, instead adopting a curiously distanced face as she looked at the injured Pokémon in the bed.

"He's tough, that one. We barely convinced him to leave you once you passed out. He woke up when you fell; took Chansey ten minutes to convince him we could help."

Ash say back, carefully hiding his surprise at the Pikachu's sudden dedication. It would be a normal, if slightly stronger, reaction for most Pokémon, if the trainer was strong enough, but for the electric mouse to suddenly change its obvious opinion of him?

"Will he be alright?" Was all Ash responded with, going with the 'strong trainer' presumption the Nurse already had. She nodded.

"He's nearly healed already. All he needs to do is wake up, and he's good to go. I'd recommend you stay here until you're as good as he is," She said, turning to face him. "but I get the feeling you'd ignore me. So for now, I'll just ask you to take it a little slower than you obviously have. Spearow are mean little… well, you're not the first person here who's gotten on their bad side, though you're definitely one of the worst cases."

Ash nodded, and looked down at his bandaged arms. The cloth was still a pristine white, though he knew once he left that would soon change. On the bed, Pikachu let out a soft yawn, and opened its beady little eyes, which immediately focused on its trainer.

"Pika-pi!"