Somehow, and none of the friends could actually explain how, having Zapdos along to fly up into the air and check out where they were didn't actually help.
It was partly that Zapdos could tell them Cerulean was 'that way' but didn't necessarily know where they were meant to go relative to 'that way', and partly that they always seemed to get into unusual situations, but after encountering a pit trap and a whole team of Squirtle (one of which had eventually decided to join them, giving Misty another Pokémon that could battle on land) they'd found themselves in a fog bank… and then, after walking down a path which had no junctions or diversions on it, outside a lighthouse.
"Cerulean Cape lighthouse," Ash read off. "Uh… where's Cerulean Cape? I guess it's near Cerulean, but…"
"...how we managed this, I have no idea," Brock admitted, looking at the map. "Unless we're going to try swimming around Kanto and coming at Vermilion from the sea, that is."
"Don't reject that idea just yet," Misty muttered. "Though… I'm starting to think Ash just sort of gives off this… field of lostness."
Butterfree made a squeaking noise, like she was trying her level best not to giggle this time.
"Well, maybe we can go inside until the fog clears up?" Misty added.
There was a flash of light from behind them, and Ash looked around. "Huh? What was that?"
"Where am I now?" a voice asked.
"Oh, Keldeo!" Ash said, brightening. "It's been a while since I've seen you!"
Keldeo's form appeared out of the fog, cantering at first but then slowing down to a walk. "Ash! But this isn't anything like where I normally meet you."
He looked up at the lighthouse beacon sweeping through the fog overhead. "That's new. Is that your new house?"
Brock and Misty exchanged a look.
"Ash," Misty said, slowly. "Is this a Pokémon you've known for a long time?"
"Well, kind of?" Ash replied, frowning. "I met him a while ago but he's usually travelling."
"Which is a lot harder than you'd think," Keldeo informed them. "I've been trying to find my way back to Unova, but it's really hard to navigate."
Misty put her hand on her forehead.
"Did you learn how to map read from him?" she asked, sighing.
Then the door to the lighthouse opened, revealing someone stuck in a big suit, and Keldeo used his horn to help cut the suit off.
"Okay, so, what's the deal with this guy?" Squirtle asked, jerking his head to indicate Bill. "He's an expert on Pokémon, and he doesn't recognize one by sight?"
"To be fair, he didn't exactly get a good look," Bulbasaur replied, thinking. "And there's a lot of Pokémon which aren't easily recognizable. Or they can look like other Pokémon."
Pikachu came bounding over. "Yeah, I kind of know a lot about that stuff. Watch!"
He posed.
"...that's the worst Wartortle I've ever seen," Squirtle said, after a few seconds.
"But you did recognize it as a Wartortle," Pikachu replied, dropping out of the pose. "What do you think of that?"
"I think it's kind of… weird, honestly," Squirtle admitted. "You know? It doesn't seem like the sort of thing a normal Pokémon does."
"I joined up with Ash only a few weeks ago," Pikachu said, flicking his ears. "In that time… well, all kinds of things I wouldn't begin to have expected before have happened. And I'm starting to think that I wouldn't have it any other way."
There was a blare from the foghorn, answered by a sound through the night mist, and Butterfree suddenly appeared from his Pokéball before flying for the window.
"Excuse me, urgent business," the Bug-type announced, opening the window with a brief blast of psychic energy before slipping through the gap.
"Wonder what that's about," Bulbasaur said, and then the sky outside lit up.
"Flash!"
"I've never even heard of a Dragonite that big before," Brock said, as they left the next morning. "I know some Pokémon are bigger than normal, and if you train a Pokémon well they can end up bigger if that's what you focus on, but I didn't think even a specialist Pokémon breeder could get a Pokémon that much bigger than normal."
"You mean a Pokémon breeder could end up making Pokémon stronger, too?" Ash asked, fascinated. "How would that work?"
"Actually, I'm kind of curious about that too!" Butterfree admitted. "The word sounds like it means one thing, but what Brock's saying sounds like it means another thing."
"Ew," Keldeo decided, sticking his tongue out at the Bug-type.
"Oh, well, Pokémon breeders don't really focus on battling," Brock told him. "It's all about raising Pokémon, sometimes from eggs, and about making sure they get the right environment to give the result you're after. And about picking the right Pokémon for it, too, because if I tried to turn Bulbasaur into a really big Venusaur I'd run into a problem straight away!"
"Oh, yeah, right," Ash said, nodding. "The whole Venusaur thing. He already said he was trusting you to not make him evolve."
"Oh, I get it," Butterfree said. "So the word's kind of because that's part of what breeders do, but it's not even most of it."
He giggled. "Humans are much worse at language than they think. Just because they can say lots of words doesn't mean the words are going to make sense!"
"What I want to know is what you're going to raise Eevee to be, Brock," Misty said, looking at the Cherish Ball that Bill had given to sort-of-all-three-of-them-but-mostly-Brock. "I bet they'd make a great Vaporeon."
"Well, I don't know Eevee nearly well enough yet for that," Brock replied. "That's the thing about an Eevee. It's a great Pokémon for a breeder because it's got so much potential, but that also means it takes loads of careful thought to work out what's best for them."
He stroked his chin. "Perhaps Eevee would like to be a Sylveon? I bet chicks would like a Sylveon!"
"And there he goes," Misty sighed. "Nearly managed a whole day that time…"
"Is that something he does often?" Keldeo asked.
"You have no idea," Misty replied. "Sometimes I think he's got a Cute Charm that's in reverse."
Keldeo considered that.
"I'm not sure how that would work, but okay," he said. "Oh, and, I should probably be heading off, I'd like to see if I can find a good map in Nimbasa City. It was nice to meet all of Ash's new friends!"
He looked around, judging the direction of the sun, then cantered off south. "Teleport!"
And he was gone in a flash.
"Did he say Nimbasa City?" Brock said. "I'm… pretty sure that's in Unova. South is about the only way that doesn't go closer to that."
"Definitely one of Ash's friends," Misty summarized.
Please drop some power stone