Chapter 1

Water.

It filled her vision and pressed its existence into every millimeter of her body, like a coiling Arbok intent on squeezing the very life out of her. And it was not the comforting naturalness of salty sea water or fresh lake water, but the distinctly artificial taste of chlorinated pool water. That was what filled her mouth, flowed into her nostrils, and eventually found its way into her lungs.

It tasted like fear. When had water begun to taste this way?

A burst of irregularly shaped bubbles issued from her mouth as she was forced at last to expel what air was left in her lungs. Desperately, she struggled harder to free her hands and feet from the ropes that bound then together, the jerky movements of her body creating waves of resistance that rippled through the pool. She was better than this. She was a great swimmer, and she would not suffer the indignity drowning in her own pool. She kicked out in fury, using every ounce of her strength to twist and writhe against the wetness enveloping her in its suffocating embrace.

But the water did not relent, and neither did the hand that seized her hair by its side ponytail and forced her head to stay under the surface. Its grip on her hair was inescapable, and every jerky move she made tore several strands of hair from its roots, lighting her scalp on fire. She looked upward and saw the shadowy figure through the agitated surface of the pool above her. She could just make out a wavering outline of a red R emblazoned on the chest of the man's uniform. She squinted harder at her attacker, but the image was blurred by the choppy waves from her own struggle. A head full of spiky hair... an iron grip... a familiar face?

Her thoughts began to grow foggy from the lack of oxygen. Dimly she was aware that her thrashing was becoming weaker, that she was losing the battle.

If he could only... have some air...

He?

Who was he?

Ash Ketchum sat up in his bed with a sudden gasp, gulping down giant breaths of air like he had been sprinting away from a horde of stampeding Tauros. His chest heaved violently as he tried to suck in as much oxygen as possible, and he could feel the droplets of sweat clinging to his face. The wet sensation reminded him too much of the water in the dream. He wrenched the edge of the sheets up to his face and violently wiped the perspiration away.

His own hurried breathing was the only sound in the otherwise silent bedroom. He buried his face in his hands, and tried to steady his intake of air. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Slowly, his breath steadied, his mind eased, and he took in his actual surroundings. His bed stood in the middle of spacious room. A plasma TV occupied one wall, while a trophy case housing numerous trophies and medals from years of tournament victories lined another. The largest trophy of all stood precisely in the center of the display. It bore the label "LEAGUE CHAMPION."

He expelled an oversized lungful of air. He was not underwater at the Cerulean Gym, but in his own apartment on Indigo Plateau.

He was also, as it happened, not a 16-year-old girl, and he certainly was not Misty, who had been drowned five years ago by a Team Rocket assassin in her own pool.

"Pikapi?"

Pikachu had been stirred by Ash's noisy awakening, and the electric pokemon hopped somewhat tiredly onto Ash's lap, staring in some concern at his master's face.

"It's alright Pikachu," Ash said, in as steady a voice as he could manage. He reached out a hand to pat his best friend on the head. "It was just another nightmare."

"Chu..." Pikachu replied sadly, his ears drooping a little. Pikapi was always having nightmares.

"Don't worry, I've had enough of these nightly guilt trips too, Pikachu," Ash said, clenching his fists so tightly that he felt the painful pressure of his fingernails digging into his palms. "I am so sick of week after week of sitting around and not doing anything. I don't care what the League High Council says about my duties as Champion. I'm going to see Lance right now, and we're going to make him let us out of this pointless routine and into the fight against Team Rocket."

Ash threw the covers off of himself with a bit more violence than was strictly necessary. His feet hit the ground with a hard thump. He took a step forward, not even pausing to think about dressing in something more suitable than his pajamas before barging into Lance the Dragon Master's office, but Pikachu's small paws latched onto his ankle, pulling him back.

"What Pikachu?"

Pikachu gestured at the alarm clock on Ash's night stand. It read 4 AM.

With a look that said in no uncertain terms that he had no desire to wait outside Lance's office for five hours before the man showed up, Pikachu crossed his paws over his chest and glared at Ash.

"All right, but I can't get back to sleep now," Ash said. "I'm going to head to the training ground. Are you coming?"

In answer, Pikachu hopped back onto his own miniature bed next to Ash's, and pulled the covers over his little yellow body.

"Ok well, guess I'll meet you when I'm done then."

Grabbing a quick change of suitable clothes and his pokeballs from his apartment, Ash practically sprinted the entire way through the Indigo Plateau complex to the state of the art battle training facility.

Skidding to a halt in front of the key bad, he waited his access code into the door and waited impatiently while the smooth metal doors glided open.

"Welcome back to the virtual battle simulation facility, Master Ketchum," the computerized voice said.

"Thanks," Ash replied pointlessly, knowing that the computer wouldn't acknowledge his response anyway.

The control panel flashed up with the settings for the battle simulation. League scientists had developed the virtual reality apparatus not only to realistically mimic the sights and sounds of a pokemon battle, but also to unleash real pokemon attacks by tapping into vast stores of elemental power.

But the primary objective of the simulation room was not to prepare trainers for winning recreational pokemon battles, it was to prepare League operatives for battling Rockets. In addition to several standard Rocket Grunt simulations at various level of difficulties, the computer contained a complete set of all the League's known data on real, high-ranking Rocket agents, their pokemon, and their battle strategies.

The red text on the top of the screen prompted, "Please select your opponent."

Bypassing the options for battling multiple standard Rocket Grunts at once, Ash scrolled through the list of top Rocket agents until he came to the very bottom. The last two entries entries bore the rank "Rocket Commander" and a flashing red warning icon next to their names.

"Warning: Access Restricted. These simulations have high likelihood for serious injury or death if attempted with under-leveled pokemon."

Without hesitation, Ash selected the first of the two names: "Rocket Commander Gary Oak."

Maybe he was being a bit stubborn and illogical, always choosing Gary on the simulator. When they were younger, Gary had been Ash's most hated rival. Then there was that period of rapprochement in their early teenage years, when both boys had come to respect the other and a genuine friendship had grown between them.

Or so Ash had thought.

It was this period of friendship that made Gary's decision to join Team Rocket not just a reinstatement of a rivalry, but a betrayal. To make matters worse, Ash learned about Gary's allegiance to Team Rocket only a few months after Misty was murdered by a Rocket. Suddenly everything in Ash's life seemed to line up. The League were sworn enemies of Team Rocket. His childhood dream to become League Champion was now not only an ambition, but a means to complete his two new goals: take revenge for his murdered friend and crush his oldest rival.

That Gary. Just thinking about him roused a fiery hatred within Ash. He always stood in the way of everything Ash had ever wanted, a perpetual rival. Ever since the first time they had fished the same old empty pokeball out of the lake as children.

Now here it was, more than a decade later, and Ash and Gary's rivalry was still very much alive, except now the stakes where higher, and the lives of Kanto's citizens hung in the balance.

Or, they would have, if Ash was ever allowed to leave League headquarters and fight Team Rocket face to face.

With a frustrated growl, Ash watched the progress bar on the screen as the simulation finished loading, and entered an empty virtual battle chamber. At this hour none of the simulation rooms were being used, so he picked the largest one he could find.

The virtually generated Gary already standing on the other end of the room was slightly taller than Ash. He leaned casually against the back wall, hands in the pockets of his Rocket Commander uniform. His spiky brown hair was still arranged in the same style it had been when they were kids, and he wore the same overconfident smirk that Ash had seen a million times. How could the computer know the details of his hair style and facial expressions? For a moment, Ash amused himself by imagining a love-stricken League spy mooning along after Gary, sketching his mannerisms and writing unnecessarily detailed descriptions of his appearance.

Hologram-Gary pulled a pokeball out of his back pocket and enlarged it in his hand, snapping Ash out of his musings. The computer simulation did not speak, but Ash could almost hear his old rival in his head.

"Ready to lose again, Ashy-boy?" sounded like something Gary might say if they ever met in person again. "You think when I beat you this time, you'll finally go away for good? I'm not counting on it. The odds are certainly not in my favor."

Spurred by his own imaginary goading, Ash wrenched a pokeball from his belt with incredible speed. Simultaneously, he and Gary threw their balls forward. With a familiar click, and two flashes of light, the battle began.


"Six months!"

Ash brought his fist down onto the table in a fit of frustration. The resultant bang rattled a few pens sitting on Lance's desk, and a the small ceramic figurine of a dragonite jumped precariously several millimeters into the air. Lance himself, however, did not move a muscle.

"Six months and all I've done is sit around at public appearances, attend fundraisers and listen in on boring meetings. I thought as League Champion I would... I dunno, do something!"

Ash gesticulated wildly with both his arms for further emphasis on this last word, nearly knocking Pikachu from its perch on his shoulder. His pokemon shot him an annoyed glare, but seemed to think the better of giving him a nasty shock.

In contrast to the agitated young man who had leapt to a standing position in his anger, Lance the Dragon Master sat almost entirely motionless, regarding Ash across steepled fingers with a look of calm interest. He waited patiently until he was quite sure that Ash was finished, then responded in a mild and soothing tone.

"The League does not bend to the will of one trainer, Ash, no matter how powerful he may be," Lance explained. "I don't have the authority to amend your situation alone."

"I need to be out there!" Ash insisted, now pointing emphatically behind Lance at the panoramic view that the floor to ceiling windows of the Dragon Master's office afforded them. Lance did not turn to look in the direction that Ash pointed. He had contemplated the view from his own office for long enough to know the intimate details view from its windows. From the edge of Indigo Plateau, a vast expanse of the Kanto landscape laid out under the mid-morning sun, fading gradually into a hazy and indistinct horizon line in the distance.

"You know that I cannot authorize that, Ash," the older man said gently. His steadily maintained composure seemed to calm Ash very slightly. Ash sank back into his seat, but the determinedly argumentative tone did not leave his voice. He leaned forward and spoke very quickly, desperate to make Lance understand.

"Look, when I started my journey, I wanted to be a Pokemon Master and Champion of the League because it had always been my dream as a kid. After Team Rocket started to rise as a serious threat five years ago, I trained harder than ever to become Champion because I thought it put me in the best position to fight back."

Ash sighed dejectedly. "Now it's been six months since I attained that goal, only to find that it's nothing but a meaningless title. I sit in on meetings, but I have no say in the strategies. I have to put in appearances at fundraisers, photo shoots, and fucking autograph signings, while every day people are dying in the fight against Team Rocket. Everything the League insists that I do is so useless! If being Champion means being the strongest trainer in Kanto, then why am I not out there fighting to keep people safe?"

"You are the crux of the League's image and its people's morale, Ash," Lance told him calmly. "The League feels obligated to keep you as safe as possible. They believe that you are of more use as a source of inspiration and an example than you are as a foot soldier. That is the motivation for these 'useless' tasks they are setting for you."

"Well I don't want to be their little mascot!" Ash yelled. "I wanted to become Champion to fight! I--"

He cut himself off abruptly and scowled as a sudden thought occurred to him.

"'They'?" Ash asked. "You're the leader of the Elite Four. What do you mean by 'they'?"

Lance merely smiled. He said nothing.

"Are you saying you don't agree with them?"

Still, the Dragon Master did not respond. A few seconds passed in very pregnant silence. Ash stared at Lance in disbelief, and Lance met his gaze squarely with an amused look and a knowing smile.

Finally, it was Lance who broke the silence, speaking very slowly, and very carefully.

"I am saying nothing of the sort, Ash my boy. I am only reiterating the prevailing opinion of the high-ranking officials in the League."

Ash seemed to deflate with disappointment. His gaze dropped into his lap, and Pikachu moved his small paw to pat his trainer's head comfortingly.

"However," Lance said. "I do happen to know, just in case you were interested, that a group of League trainers are investigating heavy Rocket activity near Cerulean City."

Ash looked up. He could not believe it. Was Lance really suggesting what he thought he was suggesting? Ash tried to search the other man's face for confirmation, but Lance was no longer meeting his eyes. Instead, the red-haired man was picking idly at an imaginary speck of lint on the hem of his cape.

"It's a pretty time-intensive investigation they're conducting out there," Lance continued in the casual tone of someone discussing the weather. "They'll be stationed out there for quite a while. More than enough time for someone traveling by foot to make it out there from Indigo Plateau. You know, if someone were to try to make that sort of journey."

Ash's face lit up like he was using a Flash attack. Pikachu jumped onto his head with an excited "Pika!"

"Thank you so much, Lance!" exclaimed Ash. "You will definitely not regret this!"

Lance smiled benignly back at him, and Ash was halfway to the door before he heard Lance speak up again.

"Wait."

Ash froze with his hand on the doorknob.

"Don't forget the official League fundraiser in Viridian City on Saturday. The League expects you to put in an appearance."

Rolling his eyes, Ash opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. "Don't worry, I'll be there," he called over his back. "But I'll be taking a break from public appearances after that."

"Of course," Lance replied. "I'll be sure to inform the High Council of your decision, but..." He rustled the paper on his desk purposefully. "It might just happen to slip my mind until after you leave from Viridian."

A grin plastered itself on Ash's face as he bolted from Lance's office. He was so intent on hopping the next train to Viridian City right at that moment, that he ran face first into another person.

THUMP!!

A flurry of papers flew upwards into the air settling in a cloud of white leaflets around Ash.

"Owwww," he complained rubbing his head.

"Pika PiKACHU," Pikachu scolded. Ash assumed this meant that he only had himself to blame.

"Hello to you too, Ash," said the man he had run into. Ash looked up and smiled at the familiar face.

"Hey Tracey! Sorry about that..."

Tracey gave a short laugh, pulled himself from the floor, and started the process of gathering up his sketches from the floor around them. "Don't worry about it. Still the same old Ash, huh? Always in a rush."

"Oh I have good reason to be this time," Ash said, grinning wolfishly.

"Sale at the nearest restaurant?" Tracey asked.

"I resent that," Ash said.

Unfortunately for Ash, his stomach chose this moment to give an ill-timed and extremely loud growl.

"Uh, although I guess I wouldn't say no to a bite to eat," said Ash, feeling a little embarrassed.

"I was actually going to have a late breakfast myself, want to join me?" asked Tracey.

"Definitely!"

After helping Tracey gather up his latest sketches, Ash and Pikachu followed their friend to a restaurant not far from Lance's office.

At midmorning, the breakfast rush had cleared out of their chosen restaurant, but it was still too early for the many League employees in the Indigo Plateau complex to start enjoying a lunch break yet. Only a few patrons remained in the restaurant, finishing the last of their meals. Ash and Tracey settled into a table near a window.

"You seem to be in a good mood, Ash," Tracey remarked as he scanned the menu.

"I'm glad I ran into you," Ash said, still smiling. "I'm going on a journey, Tracey!"

Tracey nearly fell out of his chair.

"What?! I thought you were tied down in League engagements here and in Viridian for the foreseeable future," Tracey said. "Isn't that kind of your job as League Champion?"

"I'm rewriting the job description," said Ash casually, leaning back confidently in in his chair and reaching behind his head with both hands.

"Uh-huh," Tracey said suspiciously. "And how exactly are you doing that?"

"Pikachu and I are going to travel to Cerulean City and join the League task force investigating the Rockets there," Ash answered.

"WHAT?!"

"Yeah, don't tell any of the League High Council."

Tracey gaped at Ash in silence.

"Can I take your order?" asked a pretty young waitress. As Ash looked up, she recognized him and a blush crept into her cheeks.

"An omelette with the works for me, I had a pretty intense training session this morning," said Ash, full of confidence and bravado. "And an order of the breakfast pokemon food special for Pikachu."

He nudged Pikachu, who closed his eyes and said "Pikachu!" happily. Ash smirked inwardly to himself. Pikachu's cuteness was a surefire way to pick up girls.

The waitress blushed a deeper shade of crimson and let out a little giggle.

"And for you sir?" she asked, turning to Tracey.

He was still gaping at Ash, open-mouthed.

"Uh, Tracey, she's waiting for your order," Ash said, waving his hand in Tracey's face.

"I'm not hungry," said Tracey finally.

"But you said--"

"I know what I said, and now I'm not hungry anymore," snapped Tracey in a very un-Tracey-like way. He shoved the menu back into the hands of the very confused waitress. She walked away muttering something about rude customers.

"Aw, what'd you have to do that for, Tracey?" asked Ash. "She was cute."

"Don't change the subject, Ash," said a very annoyed looking Tracey. "What do you mean you're going to go fight Team Rocket? You know the League would never allow that."

"Yeah, that's why no one's going to know until I'm gone," Ash said easily. "Don't worry, it was Lance that suggested I go anyway."

"Really?" Tracey's raised eyebrow suggested that he thought Lance hadn't approved of this late breakfast, let alone a journey across Kanto.

"I'm serious. That's what he said to me in his office."

"Ash, this vendetta you have against Team Rocket, it's really not healthy to make the fight personal."

The smile that had seemed so permanent a second before disappeared from Ash's face.

"They made the fight personal five years ago, Tracey," he said darkly.

Tracey gave a small sigh. "I miss her too, Ash, but don't let it cloud your judgment. The work that you do here for the League may seem frivolous, but it's essential for political reasons. I'm just saying. You have a good life here. I've seen you these last couple of months, and you seem to be enjoying yourself. You've got it all, girls, glory, and a more than generous salary. Why give it all up on a kamikaze mission? Bringing down Team Rocket won't bring back the people they've murdered."

"I know that," Ash muttered quietly. "I am happy here. This is what I've wanted since I was a little kid, League Champion, but what I need is to be out there. No one else should have to die like she did, and no one else should have to lose someone like I did either."

There was a slight pause.

"You've grown up a lot, Ash," Tracey said, a vague note of pride in his voice.

"Thanks, Tracey."

A few more seconds of silence passed between the two of them.

"And I can tell you've grown up by reading the tabloid reports on your exploits, you dirty womanizer," joked Tracey, a mischievous grin settling itself onto his face.

"Heeey," said Ash, holding his hands up in surrender, a small, cocky smile returning to his own expression. "I can't help it if the ladies love me. I'm not ten years old any more, and there are perks to being the League Champion after all. No need to let any of them get too demanding though, I can have another one as quickly and surely as Pikachu can bring down a Magikarp."

Their waitress chose that moment to return with Ash and Pikachu's food. She slammed the plates down on the table unnecessarily hard and this time muttered something about egotistic men as she left.

"Of course, no one can win them all," Ash admitted.

Tracey laughed as Ash picked up his fork and proceeded to inhale all the food on his plate.


As the closest city to the League stronghold at Indigo Plateau, Viridian City was easily and safely accessible by train even with the threat of Team Rocket looming over the rest of Kanto.

On the platform for the express train to Viridian, Ash was struggling to navigate the churning throng of people trying to embark and disembark. He pulled his baseball cap down over his eyes. Sometimes he hated the public recognition that came with being the League Champion. He would really prefer not to be swarmed with autograph and photograph requests when he was already running late.

"Last call!" the conductor shouted over the disconcerted chatter of the surrounding crowd.

Ash pushed the surrounding bodies a little harder. Unfortunately for him, so did a business woman wielding a briefcase behind him. As she rushed by, her briefcase slammed into his backpack.

With a muffled "Pi-ka-CHU!" Ash received an all too familiar electric shock.

"Pikachu!" he hissed in annoyance over his shoulder, hoping that his voice would travel into the open zipper at the top of his backpack.

Ash tried his best to ignore Pikachu's mutinous mutterings as he boarded the train. When he had slid safely into a window seat, he placed his backpack on his lap and unzipped the biggest compartment. He was greeted with a very annoyed looking electric rodent.

"Sorry buddy, but you're too easily recognizable," Ash said.

Pikachu crossed his paws over his chest and pointed out that he looked exactly like all other Pikachus. If either of them were recognizable, it was Ash.

Rolling his eyes, Ash pushed his backpack under the seat in front of him. "Look, at least the train looks pretty empty. You can have your own seat."

Although he grumbled something about this being poor compensation, Pikachu leapt off Ash's lap toward the aisle seat next to them.

"Pi?"

Pikachu's stopped falling mid-leap, his paws several inches above the fabric of the seat. A pair of hands had snatched him out of the air.

"I believe this is my seat," said a dark haired girl who dropped with an unceremonious thump into the empty seat next to Ash, holding Pikachu out in front of her.

"Chuuu," Pikachu growled unhappily. His cheeks crackled with electricity.

Recognizing this warning sign, Ash grabbed Pikachu back from the girl. Unfortunately for him, Pikachu chose the moment he was safely back in Ash's arms to discharge.

"Aaah!"

"Pika... chu," Pikachu said apologetically, rubbing the back of his head.

"Ash Ketchum?" the girl asked.

Still frazzled by the electric current that had run through his body seconds before, Ash nodded automatically.

"Funny, I expected the League Champion to be a bit more imposing," she remarked. The insult snapped Ash out of his dazed state.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded, turning to face the girl directly.

She was a few inches shorter than him, slim and dressed modestly in a dark shirt with gray cargo pants. Her black hair was arranged into a single long braid, but wisps of it flew out rebelliously, as if discontented with this attempt to restrain it. Gray eyes peered unblinkingly out from behind thick, dark lashes. To Ash, they looked stone cold and carefully devoid of emotion. He had the impression that they were intentionally closed off from him, as though this girl had some great secret about her, that no one was allowed to know. He stared a little harder at her face. She was pretty... and was there something very familiar about her?

"I have been sent by Lance the Dragon Master for your protection, should you meet any danger on your journey." Her voice cut through his thoughts with its business-like tone. Ash groaned inwardly. He should have known that Lance would not allow him to just merrily skip his way out of League obligations so easily.

The girl discreetly produced a League identification card and the official seal of the Dragon Master and passed them over for Ash to examine. He looked down at the documents in his hands. The ID card looked exactly the same as his own official League ID. There was a picture of the girl, but where the name should have been, there was only the word "CLASSIFIED."

"For the purposes of this assignment, you may address me as Agent Mina," she said, as though sensing his unasked question. "I am an agent from the League's Secret Operations Division specializing in stealth and personal security."

"I've never heard of a Secret Operations Division," he mused absently.

"Yeah, that would be the point of the 'Secret' part," said Mina, her matter-of-fact tone sliding easily into sarcasm.

"I'm the League Champion," Ash protested, feeling his annoyance rising. Who did this girl think she was anyway? "I think I would know about the existence of an entire division."

"You'd think so, wouldn't you," she said in mock agreement.

"Look, I really don't need protection, especially not from a scrawny little girl."

Her eyes lit with intensity, and she looked like it was causing her significant mental effort to restrain herself from hitting him. Her lips were pressed into a thin line, and her clenched fist was drawing out some rather intimidating lines of muscle definition on her bare arms. Ash could almost see the internal battle, her desire to maintain a cool professional detachment battling against her desire to smash his head in.

As far as he was concerned, the several moments of tense silence punctuated only by the steady clickety-clack of train wheels on tracks meant that she had lost the argument. Ha. Score one for him.

When she spoke again, it seemed as though her professionalism had won the battle over her temper. In a smooth and unnaturally even tone, she said, "Nevertheless, it's now my job to protect you. My mission was assigned by Master Lance, so you don't have the authority to dismiss me."

"Are you saying I'm stuck with you?" asked Ash.

"Yes."

"Lovely."

He made a mental note to go to the bathroom five minutes before they arrived in Viridian and slip off the train before she noticed his absence.


She watched the landscape outside her window scroll slowly to a stop as the train pulled into Viridian station. Ash's ploy to lose her was laughably transparent. He had taken his backpack and Pikachu with him when he left for the bathroom, hardly necessary objects for a man to relieve his bladder.

Still, his absence afforded her with the opportunity to put in a call without being overheard, so she had only graced his departure with a curt nod.

Viridian City was the end of the line, so all she had to do was wait patiently as her fellow passengers filed down the aisle and out of the train, slipping into a confined space between compartments when the coach was quite empty. She checked quickly for potential eavesdroppers. Finding none, she keyed in a number onto the communicator strapped to her wrist.

"Rocket Commander Oak," a deep voice on the other end of the line answered.

"It's me," she said. "I've made contact."

"Excellent, how is he?"

"Annoyed with me and attempting to run away."

"So just like old times, huh?"

Her emotionless exterior cracked with a small smile. "I guess some things never change," she allowed.

"Make sure you keep close tabs on his political leanings. It's vital that we get a good handle on what his opinions are," the man on her communicator ordered.

"Agreed."

"Tread carefully. Remember that this mission is the culmination of all our years worth of infiltration."

"I'm aware."

"Don't reveal any unnecessary information until we're sure of his position."

"Got it."

"And Misty?"

"Yes?"

"Watch your emotions. I know that he means a lot to you."

"Meant a lot to me," she corrected. "Five years apart is a surefire way to get rid of a little crush."

"Whatever you say," the man on the other end replied. "Just be careful."

"Thanks. Bye Gary."


Disclaimer: Anything that sounds familiar, I don't own.

AN: How come Ash always gets to be the badass one? I think Misty deserves a chance :) This is my first pokemon fanfic. I'd love to hear feedback and constructive criticism in the form of a review!