Chapter 4: The Attack of Pidgey
(Fourth update!! Please collect, flowers!!)
“During our break, let’s learn a little about Pokémon. Just now we mentioned that Caterpie evolves into Metapod, and Metapod evolves into Beedrill.”
“So, everyone, do you know what type of Pokémon Beedrill is?”
Everyone sat on the grass, listening to Professor Oak’s question. Most of the children loved Pokémon, but they were currently only at the stage of enjoying contact with Pokémon.
They didn’t know a lot about Pokémon, and they only learned some things when Professor Oak mentioned them. Many children answered according to common sense.
“Bug Type!!” Some already knew, and others answered that way after hearing just now that Caterpie was Bug Type.
“You’re right. Beedrill is indeed a Bug Type Pokémon. But Pokémon have more than one type, so Beedrill also has the Poison Type in addition to Bug Type.”
“So when you’re in the wild, don’t provoke Beedrill. Its Poison Sting is very powerful. In the future, if you become Trainers and are attacked by Beedrill, be sure to look for a Pokémon Center nearby for treatment!”
Most of the children who attended the summer camp dreamed of becoming Trainers in the future, so Professor Oak was also responsible for teaching them some basic common sense.
“Yes!” the children responded seriously.
“Then… let’s ask a harder question. Do you know what Beedrill’s ability is?”
This question stumped most of the children. Even many adults don’t know this kind of question, let alone children.
“Swarm!”
“Swarm, Sniper!” Only two people spoke up.
The two voices rang out at the same time. One was Gary, as Professor Oak’s grandson, he knew more than other children. The other was Ash.
As a time traveler, he naturally knew more than Gary. At least, more than the present Gary.
“Oh? Ash actually knows about Hidden Abilities. It seems you’re a good learner of Pokémon knowledge!”
Hearing their answers, Professor Oak was quite satisfied with his grandson. He was even more surprised by Ash’s answer. The children of today couldn’t even identify all the types, and he was just asking a question casually.
Just like the teacher said, the last question on the test would be a bonus question. If you got it right, you would get extra points. If you got it wrong or didn’t answer it, it wouldn’t matter. He didn’t know that these children would be able to understand the ability question.
But both Gary and Ash knew. It’s not strange that Gary knows. As a Pokémon professor’s grandson, this is expected, but Ash not only knows but also knows about Hidden Abilities.
Ash knew that so-called Hidden Abilities were called Dream Abilities in the terminology of his previous world’s game. Some Pokémon could only have one or two abilities.
In the fifth generation of the game, there was a Dream World where you could get Pokémon with Hidden Abilities.
But that’s in the game. In the anime, it’s not so mysterious that you could bring Pokémon from your dreams into reality. But it’s still possible for Pokémon to directly have Hidden Abilities.
Of course, no matter what the ability is, only one can exist. Dream Abilities are just relatively rare, but they’re not necessarily useful either.
“Professor, what’s a Hidden Ability?” One of the children suddenly asked when they heard this.
“So-called Hidden Abilities are some relatively rare abilities. Some Pokémon will have some uncommon abilities. Professor Juniper in Unova is an expert in this field.”
“But so far, even Professor Juniper hasn’t been able to fully analyze all Pokémon’s Hidden Abilities.”
“Abilities are very useful in Trainer battles, so if you become Trainers in the future, you have to pay special attention to your Pokémon and determine what abilities they have.” Professor Oak explained about abilities and looked at Ash approvingly.
“Wow!” The children all looked at Ash. Because he said things that even a professor-level figure wasn’t completely familiar with, it made them feel very impressive.
“Humph!”
Gary, seeing the limelight being stolen by Ash, was a little unhappy. He turned his head away in a haughty way, but he was secretly thinking to himself: This guy clearly didn’t know anything about this stuff before. He even made mistakes about the basic type matchups. How come he’s so good now?
“Alright, remember all of this. We’re going to prepare to leave for the training grounds now!” Looking at the time, Professor Oak told the children as they had rested enough.
“Yes!” The children’s energy quickly recovered, especially since they were very interested in these things, which were much more fun than going to school. It made them even more excited for this summer camp.
Fluttering, fluttering, fluttering!!!
“Hmm?” Just as they were about to leave, suddenly a sound rang out. Professor Oak subconsciously stopped in his tracks.
“What’s that sound?” The surrounding staff also sensed it and subconsciously spoke up.
It sounded like something was flapping. The children also stopped and looked at the staff in confusion. At this time, a voice suddenly came from the forest.
Gah! Gah!
“That sound is… Oh no!” Professor Oak, as a Pokémon professor, naturally identified the sound immediately.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!!!
Just as Professor Oak was about to speak, countless dark shadows darted out from the forest, flew into the air, came to the clearing, and surrounded everyone. They then looked down at everyone.
“It’s Pidgey!”
“How come there are so many Pidgey? We didn’t find these guys during the inspection earlier!” The staff was also surprised to see the astonishing number of Pidgey.
Before holding the summer camp, they had inspected the location. Although there were Pokémon inhabiting the road, most were not too threatening. At that time, they didn’t find any large groups of Pidgey.
“Don’t say anything else, protect the children! Leave quickly!” Professor Oak remained relatively calm and immediately shouted to the staff.
The children had never seen such a sight. Most of them were like the story of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” – they loved those Pokémon that were close to humans and cute, but they had never seen these ferocious Pokémon. At this time, many of them showed expressions of fear.