A pokemon failure or not

Misty flipped back her short autumn orange ponytail and blinked at her pokemon, Psyduck, with her deep blue eyes.

"Psyduck, listen to me now. Pay very close attention!" She leaned in and gave her wide-eyed yellow duck pokemon the evil eye. She took a deep breath, and then she jumped up and shouted out: "Confusion attack, Psyduck!"

There was a long pause as Misty stared at Psyduck and Psyduck stared back at her. He held his head and stared, wide-eyed, at his trainer. Wind blew right at them in the silence.

"Psy?" He asked finally, cocking his head confusedly.

Misty slapped her forehead angrily.

"Psyduck! Why can't you just do what I ask you to do like a perfectly normal pokemon??" Misty said irritably.

Ash, a black haired boy from Pallet town with his beloved Pikachu, came over to her, laughing.

"Come on, Misty, you know you can't always blame Psyduck! Remember what they say, if the pokemon isn't behaving, then it is the trainer's fault." Ash told her.

"Pika, pika!" Pikachu agreed.

Misty put her hands on her hips and faced her friend. She jabbed her index finger straight at Ash's face angrily.

"Ash Ketchum, you know just as well as I do, that Psyduck is no ordinary pokemon. He may be a water pokemon," Misty paused as she clasped her hands together and as her eyes began to sparkle, "and water pokemon are so cute and beautiful and loving and the absolute best kind of pokemon in the world," her eyes stopped sparkling after that and her hands regained their places at her hips. "But he is absolutely not cute or beautiful or loving in any way! He doesn't even answer to my commands!"

Ash continued to laugh. "I'm sure he's perfectly ordinary, Misty, unless," his eyes bulged. "UNLESS HE'S EXTRAORDINARY!"

Misty sighed in annoyance. She crossed her arms and turned her back to her pokemon failure and her taunting friend.

"Boys are so full of it," she declared, and began walking away after she returned her Psyduck.

"Hey Misty!" Ash called. "You should really give Psyduck some credit you know! He did listen to you and everything!"

Misty ignored him and went over to Brock, gym leader of Pewter City.

Brock was brewing something that smelled suspiciously and deliciously like chicken with Whiscash fish oil.

"Hey Misty, lunch is almost ready, just wait a moment, okay?" He asked.

Misty sighed. Brock wasn't in the mood for talking, then. She walked over to the lake where they were camping next to. She threw out a pokeball and yelled: "Go Seel!"

Psyduck popped out of its pokeball immediately, holding its head.

"Psy?" It asked.

"Not you! Don't come out whenever I call out a pokemon, okay? Now return, Psyduck!" She held out his ball and returned him back to the safety of the tiny ball.

"Now, go Seel!" She called out again, and this time a cute white Seel pokemon appeared in a red flash of light and dived into the lake.

When it resurfaced, Misty announced that they were going to have a small training session.

"Go Seel, show me your head butt attack at that rock!" She ordered.

Seel jumped up obediently and dove headfirst at the rock in the middle of the lake. There was a satisfying crunch as the rock split in half.

"Good job, Seel!" Misty praised her pokemon. "And so much better than that pokemon failure Psyduck," she added under her breath.

"Seel?" Seel questioned, splashing the water with his fins.

"Aahh… nothing! Now, aurora beam!" Misty commanded.

A bright colorful and powerful blast blasted from Seel's horn and accidentally hit a flying butterfree.

"Free!" Butterfree cried as it fell out of the air.

Misty gasped in horror. What had she done?

"Seel! Catch that Butterfree and bring it ashore. Now!" She yelled frantically, hoping desperately that that butterfree was okay.

Seel, hearing her command, swam towards the falling butterfree. Butterfree's big red eyes were closed in fear as she flapped her wings frantically but it was no use, if Seel didn't save her, she was going to drown.

"Seel!" Seel shouted determinedly and caught Butterfree successfully on his back and swam quickly back ashore, to Misty, careful not to let butterfree touch the water as he swam.

He finally stopped at Misty's feet and she picked poor Butterfree up and cradled her in her arms.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, Butterfree! Good work Seel, thanks a lot. Return, Seel!" She said, admitting Seel back into the pokeball.

"Lunch's ready, guys! Ash, Misty, release all your pokemon and come over for lunch!" Brock called to them.

Misty threw out all her pokeballs in a rush and hurried over to Brock.

"Brock! Help! Seel accidentally aurora beamed this poor Butterfree! It's in bad shape. What do I do?" Misty cried.

Brock dropped his soupspoon and went to look at Butterfree. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"I see, well, this Butterfree looks pretty bad indeed. Your Seel must be very well trained." Brock congratulated her, and then quickly realized what he was saying at such a time. "Oh! Sorry! As a pokemon breeder, I must take care of this butterfree."

Brock noticed Psyduck hanging near the big soup pot and called to him.

"Hey Psyduck! Do you mind passing out the bowls and putting soup in each of them? Thanks!" Brock hurried away with butterfree to his bag, searching in it for his pokemon spray.

Misty threw back her bright orange head and laughed loudly. Brock sure is silly, Misty thought, highly amused, stupid Psyduck can't do something like that because it's just stupid! It can't even answer her commands for an attack!

Well, the stupid little pokemon failure Psyduck was actually doing what Brock told it to do. It started handing out bowls to all the pokemon and Ash, and poured the perfect amount of soup into every one. Misty's eyes widened.

"What! How did you do that? You can't even do an impressive tail whip attack!" Misty exclaimed, remembering the foolish little tail wiggles Psyduck had done when she called out tail whip attack.

Ash grinned at her. "Well, I guess this teaches you a lesson, Misty, that all pokemon perfectly ordinary, or extraordinary, or just good in different ways."

Misty crossed her arms again and pointed her nose in the air. Suddenly, there was a crash and Ash started yelling at his Aipom for stealing his hat and spilling his soup all over the ground.

"You nutty monkey pokemon! Stop fooling around; can't you act like a perfectly normal pokemon? Seriously, Aipom! No, don't you make funny faces at me, you're monkey cake! Get back here!" Ash yelled, chasing after his pokemon.

Misty laughed. "Now, look who's talking?"

Ash ignored her as he continued to chase his naughty Aipom around. Brock soon returned with a sleeping butterfree.

"I think it's fine now, don't worry. I sprayed it, and gave it some nice cold water. After a night's rest, I'm sure it'll feel better." Brock assured her.

Misty let out a relieved breath. Even though butterfree wasn't a water pokemon, which was the only type of pokemon she loved, she still felt responsible for Butterfree's condition.

"Thanks Brock, I'll take it from here." Misty took the Butterfree from Brock.

She found the softest grass patch and set Butterfree over there. She found a big leaf and wrapped it around the pretty bug pokemon. Now it could have a good night's rest.

"Oh no! Pikachu!" Ash's voice yelled from somewhere behind her.

Misty whipped around to see the trademark big meowth Team Rocket balloon and the laughing Jessie and James and Meowth with Pikachu in an electricity-proof case.

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all people within our nations,"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie,"

"James,"

"Team rocket blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

Meowth jumped up and added: "Meowth, that's right!"

"Ah ha, ha, ha! We've got Pikachu, we've got Pikachu!" They sang triumphantly.

"Bye, bye!" Jessie called to them, waving her hands gleefully.

Ash threw out a pokeball, which happened to be bulbasaur.

"Go Bulbasaur! Razor leaf!" Ash ordered.

"Bulba," Bulbasaur answered quickly and sharp leaves flew from his bud very quickly.

Team Rocket was to busy celebrating their success to notice that Bulbasaur's razor leaf was popping their hot air.

Once popped, Ash commanded Bulbasaur to use vine whip to bring Pikachu back. Suddenly, Jessie's Arbok hit Bulbasaur's vines and Bulbasaur withdrew them.

"Oh no!" Misty raised her hand to her mouth.

Just as she said that, Psyduck popped out of its pokeball. Psyduck accidentally tripped in its hurry to get out and get moving, it knocked its head very hard on a sharp rock pointing out of the ground.

"Psyduck!" Misty ran over to help the little crying duck up.

Psyduck grunted, pain in his headache greatly increasing, and then, his eyes glowed blue. Pikachu glowed blue as Psyduck lifted it back to Ash and back to safety.

"Wait!" Meowth cried, as they blew away, again. "You cheater!"

"Hey, I'd say the same about you!" Ash called to them as he hugged Bulbasaur and Pikachu at the same time.

"Thanks Psyduck! I guess you are a great pokemon after all!" Misty gave Psyduck a hug.

"Hey, Psyduck, I'm really sorry about saying you were a pokemon failure before. I guess you're not, since you're a really good help with the soup and bowls and everything, plus when you get a really bad headache you have a very strong attacks like confusion and disable and all that. So, yeah, that's it." Misty sighed heavily.

Psyduck cried out gleefully and attached itself to Misty for a happy celebrating hug of the first apology from Misty, ever.

"Ha, I knew you'd come around sometime, Misty." Ash said happily.

Misty raised her fist at his face. "Oh no, not yet. Don't make me angry, you remember you still owe me my bike!"

Brock came over and laughed with Ash. After a while, Misty grudgingly joined in.

"Oh, the sun's setting! Why don't we all go to sleep now?" Brock suggested.

"Sure! I'm so tired!" Ash agreed quickly, and snuggled into his sleeping bag.

Brock started tidying up his cooking equipment and Misty sighed. It was time for bed.

She returned Psyduck to its pokeball and snuggled into her sleeping bag and drifted off to sleep…

To be continued…