Okay, so, Iron Tail!" Butterfree said. "Fortunately, you've got a really helpful advantage if you're going to learn Iron Tail, Pikachu."
"What's that, then?" Pikachu asked.
"A tail, really," Butterfree told him. "It's surprisingly useful, though not actually essential."
He fluttered down to look at Pikachu's tail. "So there's two parts to it, and the first part is being able to use your tail as a weapon. You already did that Tail Whip when you caught me, so that's part of it, but with Iron Tail you can use the edge just as well as the flat."
Pikachu was actually kind of surprised by how useful that was.
Somehow, he'd expected Butterfree's lessons to be less… helpful.
"So it's more like… this, then?" he asked, chopping his tail across.
"Yeah, like that!" Butterfree agreed. "But let's get started on the second bit, with the Steel type energy…"
While Pikachu was taking his lesson, and Ash threw a rubber ball for Zapdos to target with precise Thundershock attacks, Brock sidled over to Misty.
"You know that he's going to Cerulean next, right?" he asked.
"I'm aware," Misty agreed.
"And that's your gym?" Brock pressed. "Do you have a plan for that?"
Misty looked a little worried. "...I've been thinking about it," she admitted. "The annoying thing is he probably does deserve the Cascade badge, but I refuse to let him earn it without a fight."
Brock nodded. "Right," he said. "I just wanted to make sure you knew about that – all of that – and what it would probably mean."
She sniggered. "Maybe I could just leave my sisters to do it… actually, there's an idea…"
"What's that?" Brock asked.
"Nah, I'll explain later," Misty said. "Don't want to spoil the surprise!"
"Well, if you're sure," Brock decided.
He watched as Ash tripped over running after a rubber ball, then picked himself right back up again and said they'd better keep going. Zapdos seemed more amused than anything, and Brock shook his head.
"That is one weird trainer," he said. "But he's got a good heart, from what I've seen so far… and I kind of hope I can find out just how that Butterfree pulled that move off."
He shrugged. "Besides, I haven't actually had my Pokémon journey yet… and I may as well have one now!"
The three Cerulean Gym leaders exchanged glances.
"Well, all our Pokémon are too tired-" Daisy began, then saw that Misty was glaring at her. "...um… actually, I'll get my youngest sister to deal with you."
Ash frowned. "Which one's that?"
"That's me!" Misty said. "And, since my sisters have finally remembered I exist-"
"You're the one who left," Violet grumbled.
"-then I'm going to handle your badge challenge," Misty went on. "But there's special rules for this one!"
She pointed at Ash. "I've seen your Pewter Gym challenge, and, sure, you won the badge. But what was missing?"
Ash thought about it.
"...Zapdos?" he asked.
"I'm sorry, but what kind of answer is that?" Daisy blinked. "Why Zapdos for a Rock gym?"
Brock smiled. "I'm kind of glad other people are going to be experiencing those questions as much as me now."
"For this, Zapdos would have been worse," Misty told him. "What happened was that you beat both Pokémon with overwhelming force."
"Um…" Pikachu began. "I'm not sure she quite gets the idea of how a battle works."
"Pikachu's got a point," Ash said. "Isn't it okay to win a battle by having a stronger Pokémon?"
"It helps, but it's not the only thing you need," Misty told him.
She began pacing back and forth, and began ticking off the points she'd spent the previous two days coming up with. "Firstly, if you win with a much stronger Pokémon and that's all you do then you're getting into bad habits. The first time you run into a Pokémon that isn't easily beaten, you'll have loads of trouble."
Another point. "And it means you're not actually being a Pokémon trainer, because you don't need to train your Pokémon nearly as much as other trainers. That doesn't mean you need to get rid of your team, but it means you need to come up with ways to keep improving them."
"Oh, right!" Ash said, brightening. "So it's about making sure that I'm still challenging my Pokémon, and learning with them! That makes a lot of sense!"
Misty folded her arms. "I'm glad you see that!"
"Yeah, I do," Ash agreed.
After a moment where Misty considered the possibility that Ash was being sarcastic, and rejected it, she went on. "I can't make you do this on other gyms, but I can make you do it on mine! So, Daisy, Lily, Violet, you're going to be the judges!"
She cracked her knuckles. "We're having a Contest battle!"
"What's a Contest battle?" Pikachu asked, glancing at Ash. "Isn't Contest just another word for battle? Or for competition, at least."
"I think I saw them on TV…" Ash said, thinking. "I watched one once when Silver visited. They're… kind of like battles, but you get points for your attacks looking impressive as well as for beating your opponent?"
"And that's how we'll do it," Misty replied. "Except that we're only counting the points for flashy attacks. If you just have Zapdos knock both my Pokémon out in one move each, then it had better look really good."
"Why do you keep mentioning Zapdos?" Daisy checked.
"Okay, um, hold on?" Ash requested. "I want to check with my Pokémon who I'm going to use."
He sent out Butterfree and Zapdos, and headed over to the corner of the room.
"...oh, that's why," Daisy said to herself. "...that's fair."