To Defeat the Master
Just to let all of you know, this is a AAMRN (Ash and Misty Romance Novel). This thing with her and Brock just wasn't working out. But don't worry, I'm still going to finish my other fanfic. (somehow) The time frame in this is a bit different. I didn't like the idea of Ash only being 10 when he started on his journey. 10 seems a bit too young to be going off by yourself, and he seems more mature than that anyway. So in this fanfic, Ash started out on his journey when he was 12. I'm asuming that Misty was about 13, and Brock was 15. The story is taking place when they are two years older than stated above. You'll have to read it to understand. The first part is actually Ash, thinking back to beating the gym leaders (past tense). The rest is all in the present. This story is NOT dirty or perverted. I put alot of work into it to keep it from being that way. If you ARE uncomfortable reading fanfics that are sorta mushy, then don't read this. Oh, and I have heard alot of rumors that Giovanni is Ash's father. It may not be true, but I'm using it in this story. Also, you'll see me mention Ash having Pokémon that he doesn't have in the show. It's only to be expected. Do you think Ash is going to go two years without catching new ones? Due to not knowing Gary's Pokémon, I can only mention one during the battle scene.
After all his trouble, Ash had finally made it to Indigo Plateau. Beating Blaine for a Volcano Badge was easy enough. After defeating Blaine, Ash and the gang had gone to Viridian to face his next challenge of the mystery gym leader. He had walked through the door, with Misty and Brock following. Jessie and James were standing beside a big man who sat in the shadows. Something about the man had seemed familliar to Ash. The first thing Team rocket had noticed was Pikachu, and James had squealed.
"That's the pikachu we were always after! We can finally get it for you!"
The mystery man looked like he was going to pound the two numbskulls flat.
"Ash? Is that really you?" He had said.
It had turned out that Giovanni was his father.
After beating his dad, and beating him fair and square, Ash, Brock and Misty had gone directly to Indigo Plateau. The first battle wasn't really that nice to him. He had gotten to Bruno before getting his rear kicked badly. It turned out that Pikachu's electricity wasn't very good against Bruno's rock pokémon. He knew he should have remembered the battle with Brock in his gym, but that had kind of slipped his mind.
The next day, after camping out nearby, they had gone back to Pokémon League, where Ash had actually got past Bruno with a lucky hit, and beat the rest of the Elite Four. They had congratulated him, but then he found out that he had another challenge to face. Gary. Gary had wiped the floor clean with him, with his first Pokémon! No wonder he had easily beat the Elite on his first try, where it took Ash two difficult tries. The other two trainers from Pallet had tried to beat Gary at least 50 times, but he remained unbeatable, and Ash had gone back every couple days to try his luck but to no avail.
Gary was the Pokémon Master for two years now. He had gotten to the top just before Ash did, and now he wouldn't let anyone take his place after defeating every single trainer that came by.
Ash yawned as he leaned up against the old bath house on the campground. All this remembering was giving him a headache. Tomorrow he was going back for the millionth time in two years, to try and get to the top. He was stubborn. It was getting dark fast, and he wanted a bath before going to sleep.
"Will you hurry up in there Misty!" He complained. He didn't want to stand there in the woods any longer than he had to. The old campground was abandoned, and nobody was allowed to use it for fear of the wild Pokémon that was rumored to roam around attacking people. Many people had disapeared and never been found.
Ash wasn't one for breaking the law, but what people didn't know wouldn't hurt them. Nobody knew they were staying there, so he didn't care.
"Will you be patient? I'm relaxing in here!" Misty's muffled voice called through the door.
Ash smiled a dopey grin and muttered to himself. He liked Misty. Actually, maybe alot more than liked. He was madly in love with her. But she didn't know. She probably wouldn't care. She'd probably only laugh at him if she ever found out.
When Misty felt good and ready, she would come out. Right now she was enjoying herself with a nice bath. She sighed and smiled to herself. Ash. Just thinking that name made her feel nice. She really liked him, but what could she do? Walk up to him and say 'Gee, Ash. I think I'm in love with you.' ? She'd die if he ever found out.
'He probably doesn't like me that way. To him, I'm probably just a good friend.' She thought.
She liked to bug him, to see his reaction, but sometimes the reactions were less than pleasing. He would yell at her, or whine at her. The only time they had even come close to hugging, was when he beat Bruno. She figured she had been in the bath long enough.
The door swung open, and Misty stepped out. Before Ash could move out of the way, she heaved a glass of water in his face.
"Misty! Why did you do that?!" He sputtered.
She laughed at him.
"You wanted a bath didn't you?"
He grumbled loud enough for her to hear, and as soon as she disappeared back to the fire pit, he had to grab the door to keep from falling over. He loved it when she did things like that, and every time she tormented him, he felt dizzy. He knew from Brock's girl-craziness that it meant he was lovesick.
Ash returned from his bath to see that Brock was already asleep. Misty was sitting back-to by the fire, scratching the ground with a stick. She had written her name, and something else that he couldn't make out. A twig tripped him up, causing him to create a racket in the dry leaves as he fell. Frantically, Misty scribbled out whatever it was that was inscribed in the dirt.
Ash scrambled to his feet and wiped the leaves from his damp hair. Misty wanted to see if he was ok, but the only thing that she could think to say was a smart comment.
"Have a nice trip?" She smirked, but secretly felt like slapping herself.
"Yeah. Thrilling." He pushed past her and sat down on his sleeping bag.
Misty glanced at him, then curled up in her sleeping bag. She was asleep almost instantly.
Rubbing his knee, which hurt from the fall, he sighed again, and glanced over at Misty. How could he let two years go by without telling her how he felt about her?
Ash kicked off his shoes and socks. He was just about to zip himself up into his sleeping bag, when he got an idea. It was an idea he had quite a bit, but used it very rarely. He crawled over to Misty and laid down on the grass beside her. He sometimes did this, just to be near her. He never touched her, for fear of her waking up and causing a commotion. He had only done this twice before, she had never awoken, and neither had Brock. He'd hate to see what would happen if either one of them did.
Feeling pretty certain that she wouldn't wake up, he dared to touch her face.
Misty stirred, and Ash pulled his hand back.
'Don't wake up! Don't wake up!' He chanted in his mind.
Of course, it was Murphy's Law. Anything that can go wrong, will, and at the worst possible time.
Her eyes slowly opened and as she saw him there, she let out the loudest shriek in the history of the world!
Ash jumped back, afraid that she would slug him like she had done lots of times before, but instead she leaped out of her sleeping bag, and backed over to the log by the fire.
Miraculously, Brock slept through Misty's screaming, and didn't even stir. Brock could sleep through the end of the world.
"What the hell are you doing, Ash?!" She whispered, frightened.
"I- nothing Misty! Honest! I just-" How could he tell her that he just wanted to be close to her?
Now Misty was scared that she had upset him, because it looked like he was about to cry.
"Ash? What's the matter? Why are you crying?"
Ash turned away.
"I'm not crying!" He sniffed.
"Damn! I did it again! Why do I have to keep hurting his feelings?" Misty mumbled to herself. "Ash, come here."
He stood up and shuffled over to where Misty was now on her feet.
"What were you thi- I mean, why were you uh.." She stammered.
Ash sighed.
"Misty, I- I have to say something to you. I mean, I've been meaning to tell you but I just.." He trailed off as he started to lose what courage he had just gathered a minute ago.
All the worst possibilities came into Misty's mind. 'He likes someone else...' 'He's going to go back home and I'll be stuck going back to Cerulean...' Before he said anything to her, she had to tell him how she felt about him.
"Hold on Ash. I can't take this. I have to tell you something first, and you'd better listen. I- I like you, Ash. Actually, I love you. A lot. So you can laught at me now. I don't care." She stomped her bare foot on the ground to make her point.
Ash cracked a grin. He wasn't going to laugh at her! Why would he?
"Really?!" On sudden impulse, so fast Misty didn't know what was happening, Ash grabbed her arms and pulled her against him. "This is so great! Misty, what I was going to tell you is that I love you too! And I was finally able to tell you after all this time!"
Misty's blue eyes widened in surprise. She had known him for quite a while, but she didn't know he was hiding a big secret like that. He always acted like she was just a friend and nothing more. He should have gone into the movie business, instead of Pokémon. An actor, that's what he was. A damned good one too. But she knew he wasn't acting now.
When she first met him, he was a couple inches shorter than her. Something must have happened because he was now at least an inch taller than she was, now.
She laughed softly and put her arms around his neck to hug him.
"Why did we wait so long to tell each other?" She whispered.
He slid his arms around her waist, hugging her back.
"I don't know. Scared, I guess." He sighed as Misty rested her chin on his shoulder.
Misty looked up into Ash's dark brown eyes. Almost black, but they expressed a lot. Ash wobbled, dizzy again, and almost fell. Misty caught him.
He blushed.
"That's just something that happens a lot."
"Are you sick?"
"N-no! It's nothing! Really!"
"Maybe you're just tired. It's late."
Ash took her comment for an excuse to explain it.
"Uh, yeah. That's all it is. I'm just tired."
He sat down on the ground with his back against a log, and Misty sat too, cuddling up to him. There they fell asleep.
Ash opened his eyes to see Brock grinning down at him.
"She finally told you, Ash?"
He was surprised to see Misty still snuggled against his chest. He had forgotten all about the night before while he slept.
"Uh, yeah..." He was also surprised to know that Brock had known about Misty's crush on him whereas he didn't. Ash wanted to get up, but didn't think he could without waking her. He motioned helplessly to Brock.
"Well, she has to wake up sometime, and now is a good a time as any. Besides, I'm going to make breakfast." Reasoned Brock.
Lightly, Ash shook Misty awake. As her eyes slowly opened, she also seemed surprised to be where she was.
"Hi." She murmered, smiling slightly.
"Hello yourself." He grinned. "Brock's making breakfast. Today is a big day. I have to beat the Elite Four again, and this time I'm gonna beat Gary. I hope... Oh, and about last night, I'm really so-" He was cut short by Misty, who spoke.
"I'm really grateful, Ash. About last night anyway. And happy too, and if you hadn't...um- done what you did, then we still wouldn't know."
Ash hugged her as he helped her up.
"Yeah. You're right about that."
"Poor sap. It must feel terrible to get all the way to the top and then go down in utter defeat by me, Gary Oak." Gary told the reporter, who was there to film Gary's many battles. News had gotten around that he was unbeatable, and they had sent reporters, cameramen and film crew to tape his battles that day. 6 already, and there were at least 14 more lined up to fight the Elite Four. About 3 out of those 14 will get past the Elite Four to try their luck with Gary. Nothing was rigged, and the battles weren't fake to please the viewers. All of the fights were real, much to every trainers disapointment.
Gary glanced up at the wall, where there was an electronic list of the people battling the Elite Four. Whenever someone was beat, their name would disappear off of the board. The top name told him the next trainer who would battle if they got past the rest of the Elite Four. Some girl named Lilja.
Now he had almost finished defeating the girl who looked about 12 years old. He had already totaly anialated her ditto, and two other pokémon with his first one. She had pokémon of which he had never seen before. A water one, and a fire one. He was now fighing against an ice one that looked like an eevee evolution. Then there was that one Pokémon she had that just sat beside her and didn't fight. It was a funny looking critter, sort of like a pikachu, but with weird features, and a flamin' rear end. He asked her why she didn't fight with her pika-thing, and she went berserk.
"Are you crazy?! It's not for battle! It's too powerful! Would you battle with this?!" The pika-thing grinned and sparks flew from it's cheeks, it's tail flared brighter, and it's paws dripped water. A tiny sample of it's great power. She stood there waiting for him to answer and when he didn't, she sighed.
'I gotta get one of those things!' was what he was thinking though.
Then he beat her.
She must have been crazy herself. Beating her was the biggest challenge he'd had all day. And it wasn't even that difficult.
Looking up at the list again, he watched in glee as the girls name went dark. Then he noticed something.
"What?! Not again! I practically have to slaughter that guy everyday!" Gary slapped his head in exasperation as he pointed to the second name from the top and chuckled insanely.
"Who?" Asked one of the off duty film crew.
"Ash Ketchem!"
"Haha! We did it Pikachu! We defeated Lance again! And thanks to Dratini too!" He picked up Pikachu and Dratini and hugged them.
"Chu!"
"Now comes the hard part, Ash. You have to beat Gary." Brock sounded worried.
"Aw, bring him on! I have to beat him this time!"
Ash went through the all-too-familliar doors that took him into the all-too-familliar room with Brock and Misty right behind him. As he entered, he caught a glimpse of a girl with dark reddish hair walking out another all-too-familliar door. Ash knew that door well. 'The LOSERS exit' is what Gary had called it. And the way he said it, it sounded like all the letters in the word were capitalized.
"Ash! Well, well. Here we go again! And this time you brought your friends to drag your carcass away when I'm finished with you! Loser from Pallet!"
"Oooooh Gary! Can't you drop it? Why do you always say that?!"
"Because It's soooo true! Anyway, you should forfiet right now, because I ain't wasting my precious time on you. I'll just beat the pants off of you anyway!"
"Ok, Gary! I'm ready to fight you now! And I'm going to win too! You can count on that!" Ash declared as half the people in the room started to chuckle.
"I wonder what's so funny..." Brock pondered. The people in the roon were starting to scare him. Maybe they were rabid or something.
"No one has ever beat Gary! What makes you think that you can?!" A large man eating a pastry bellowed, crumbs flying.
Ash took offence to the remark, and with a surge of bravery, walked up to Gary and stuck his fist in Gary's face.
"Are you gonna fight me or not?!" He hollered, making his point clear.
"Sure, I'll fight you. It'll be fun to make you beg for mercy again!" Gary sneered, reminding Ash of a certain battle where he had Ash on his knees, litterally.
Ash practically crawled over to the other side of the floor, he was feeling so low. Why did Gary have to put him down so much? Sure he was a better trainer than him, but that was going to change. Right now.
"NO! Arcanine!" ASh yelled as Gary beat his third Pokémon with his Eevee. With just his Eevee, Gary had beat Ash's Marowak, Magmar, and Arcanine.
Things weren't going well for Ash. So far, Gary had only used Eevee, but now that Eevee was getting weak, he called it back.
Finally, Ash beat one of Gary's Pokémon with his Dratini, but then Gary had knocked out Dratini with one hit using his next Pokémon.
Ash then called out Pikachu, who beat three more of Gary's with the help of a super potion.
Now it was two against two. Gary's Pokémon hurt Pikachu bad enough that Ash had to call it back.
Now all Ash had left was Charizard. In the past, Charizard had never listened to Ash. In the first battle with Gary, Charizard had turned on Ash. Since then, he had never brought Charizard back to Pokémon HQ with him. He had decided that this would be a lucky battle, and brought Charizard along this time.
Ash ordered Flamethrower against Gary's Pokémon. Charizard turned to look at Ash, then at it's opponent. It seemed to be considering attacking, but then decided to disobey again. Instead of Flamethrower, it used Growl.
Growl did minimum damage to Gary's Pokémon. Gary was starting to panic. No one had ever beat him down to only two Pokémon.
"This is interseting, Gary." The TV guy muttered. "He's putting up a good challenge for you."
The fat guy eating pastries started choking. Another guy handed him a drink.
"I don't believe it! This kid is quite good!" He coughed.
Ash was getting his hopes up, but if Charizard didn't obey him soon, he wouldn't have a very good chance of winning.
"Come on, Charizard! Flamethrower please! Listen to me!" Almost taking pity on Ash's incessant wailing, Charizard obliged and toasted it's opponent.
"Alright!" Ash now had Gary down to Eevee.
"Hmp." Gary didn't seem to mind. Nobody had ever beat his Eevee. And he was certain that no one ever would.
Eevee used Take Down on Charizard, knocking a healthy amount of hit points off. But Eevee was also hit with the recoil of the attack. Since it's energy was low to begin with, it was now even weaker.
"Charizard, you can knock out Eevee with Ember!" Much to Ash's disapointment, Charizard didn't follow orders. It used Bite instead.
But it did the trick, and Eevee fainted on the spot.
Ash looked dumbfounded for a second, then the weirdest look crossed his face. Up he leapt, yelling and laughing.
"IN YOUR FACE, GARY OAK!" He shouted, even though Gary was in the same room. "NOW WHO'S THE LOSER FROM PALLET?"
The head TV guy was also stupified.
"Did you get that?" He asked the cameraman.
"We're on live! The camera's still rollin'!" The cameraman chuckled.
"Live? This is live?" Gary hollered. "YOU MEAN THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE JUST SAW ME GET MY ASS KICKED BY THIS PATHETIC LITTLE WIMP?!"
Ash had the strangest grin on his face the whole time. Watching Gary freak out made him even happier. He walked over to where Brock and Misty were standing, turned and stuck his tongue out at Gary. Flapping his hands by his ears, he looked like a goof. And he was on live TV! With a rush of adrenaline, he spun around so he was face to face with Misty and kissed her full on the lips. Both were surprised to get a little more than they had bargained for, but neither complained.
Sitting peacefully at home, Ash's mom watched the Pokémon battles on television. Was that her little boy? What a nice knockout!
"Yay! Ash! He won!" Ash's mom was estatic. Then she saw Ash making faces at Gary. "What the heck is he doing?! He's making a fool out of himself! WHAT!?!?" She had just seen her darling little boy kiss that girl! And not just a little peck either! She rolled her eyes. Oh well. Her son was now a Pokémon Master, just like he set out to be.