The Battlefield of Dreams
Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while, but my mind has been really busy with other things lately. To make up for my extended absence, I've got a rather special story for all of you…
This was written for an advanceshipping one-shot contest with the theme light(s). So here's what I've come up with.
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or Field of Dreams
Once upon a time, not so long ago, Ash Ketchum's journey came to an end. Having finished his travels in Unova, the final region of the Pokémon world, he returned home to Pallet Town.
Upon his return, he found that things were not like they used to be. Professor Oak had passed away while Ash was in Unova. Gary had taken over the lab. Most of the town's residents had moved away, and many of the houses and buildings had fallen vacant.
Two years after Ash returned to his hometown, his mother, Delia, became gravely ill. It developed suddenly. One day she was fine. The next, her body was struggling to function.
Worried about his mother's health, Ash quickly called in a doctor to examine her. The doctor's view on the situation was bleak. He diagnosed the condition as Shoeless Joe's Disease. According to the doctor, the condition was almost always fatal. Delia had a one in one million chance of surviving the next week.
Ash tried everything he could to get his mother's condition to improve. At the time, there were no known cures for Shoeless Joe's disease, so Ash resorted to home remedies. He tried everything from chicken noodle soup to herbal tea and acupuncture. Unfortunately, none of it worked. Just as the doctor predicted, on the last night of that week, Delia's heart slowly slowed to a stop.
Ash was devastated. It was truly traumatic watching as his mother's health slowly faded to nothing, leaving him without any parents. He couldn't bear to live in his childhood home anymore. The memories of his mother's slow death haunted him. He couldn't stand it. He had to find a new place to live.
Feeling sympathetic for his former rival, Gary offered Ash a place to stay. Ash gratefully accepted.
They worked out a perfect system. Ash helped Gary with his work in the lab, and in return Gary provided Ash with a place to stay. They lived that way for five years. Unfortunately, the good things in life never seem to last.
Since Ash moved in with him, Gary had continued his research. In those five years, he released several greatly controversial editorials on the research of other professors from different regions.
Everything he said in those documents was completely true. Unfortunately, when it comes to media, most people want to hear what they want, even if it isn't right. Unfortunately, that's especially true with topics as disputed as those that Gary had addressed.
People called his work scandalous and some people even went as far as claiming that he was conspiring to undermine society itself. Needless to say, the media wanted answers. For weeks, he was hounded my reporters looking for answers to their questions.
Finally there came a day where he reached his snapping point. He packed up his belongings and closed up the lab. He prepared to leave Pallet Town for good.
Worried about his friend, Ash voiced his uncertainties of Gary's plan. "Why are you doing this? What do you want?"
Gary closed the trunk of his convertible after he placed the last of his bags in it. "I want them to stop looking to me for answers, begging me to speak again, write again, be a leader. I want them to start thinking for themselves. I want my privacy." Gary explained as he climbed into the driver's seat of his car.
"So what are you going to do?" Ash questioned.
"I'm going to Goldenrod City. I've bought a small apartment there. Hopefully I'll be able to leave all this behind. If it doesn't work, I'll just keep moving on until it does." Gary started the car and paused. "It's been fun Ashy-boy." He said, and with those final words, he drove off.
Ash continued to live in Gary's former residence for several weeks, but the isolation quickly drove him into a state of depression. He quickly began searching for a way to ease his pain.
He began to ask his old traveling companions if they had a place he could stay. Misty had gotten married since she last saw Ash, and felt it would be awkward having him living in the same house as she and her husband. Dawn was still busy on her quest to become a top coordinator. Brock didn't have any space in his house, since he still had to take care of all his siblings. Ash hadn't been able to get hold of Iris or Cilan.
Things looked dark for the former trainer, but one day things started to look a little bit brighter. He got a call from May, the only one of his traveling companions that he had not tried to contact, asking if he wanted to stay with her and lead the Petalburg City gym. Ash gladly accepted. He bought himself a ticket on the first ferry to Hoenn.
Upon arriving in Petalburg City, Ash heard May's story. Her parents had moved out when her dad retired from the position of gym leader. Norman left May in charge of the gym because Max was still on his journey.
Being a coordinator, May wasn't the best gym leader around. She rarely won any matches, and after a particularly long string of losses, May started looking for someone to redeem the Petalburg Gym's tarnished reputation. That's why she invited Ash to live with her.
Ash was able to do what May hoped. The gym saw an increasing number of victories as Ash worked to restore the reputation of the institution.
Once again, things looked bright in Ash's life. Life finally felt normal to him again. At least, as close to normal as it could get, but things didn't remain that way. Once again, things changed drastically for him.
He walked in to the kitchen to find May.
"What's the matter?" May greeted him when she noticed the expression on his face.
"What would you say to me if I told you I heard a voice speaking to me?" Ash inquired.
"That depends." May responded with a small chuckle. "What did the voice say?"
"If you build it, he will come." Ash replied.
"What does that mean?" May questioned. "If you build what? Who will come?"
"I don't know." Ash replied, with a sheepish grin. "The voice didn't tell me."
"So what are you going to do if you don't even know what the voice wants?" May asked.
"Well I do have an idea." Ash began. "I think it wants me to build a battlefield."
"What makes you think that, Ash?"
"Well, when I heard the voice, I saw an image, like a mirage, and it was a battlefield." Ash explained.
"Why do you need to build a battlefield?" May posed. "We already have one in the gym."
"No, I mean like a stadium." Ash clarified. "With room for an audience, and lights, and the whole nine yards."
May was going to argue, but she saw the look of determination in Ash's eye and knew that it would be impossible to persuade him. "Okay." May replied after a brief silence. "Let's build a stadium."
They did just that. They tore down the gym and tore up the yard. In that place, they built an enormous stadium, fit for the Pokémon league. It had room for an audience, a concession stand (which was always kept well stocked) and a set of bright white stadium lights.
Every night Ash left the stadium lights on when he went to bed in hopes that he would come. Every morning, he woke up to find that he had not come.
May doubted that he would ever come. "Ash, we've waited long enough. No one is going to come."
Every time May said something like that to him, Ash would reiterate. "If you build it, he will come."
For six months, May put up with Ash's actions. For half a year she let him leave the lights on all night long, only to find that the stadium was empty every morning. Finally, she reached a point where she would put up with it no longer.
"Ash, this is getting ridiculous. We've waited six months for him to come, and he hasn't shown up yet." May commented. "It's time to turn the lights off."
Ash looked crestfallen when he heard her say that, but slowly he came to terms with her decision. "I know." He said. "I was just so convinced that this would work and something radical would happen. I let this get out of hand." He explained. "I'll go shut the lights off."
He began walking towards the control box that contained the switch for the lights. He was about to shut them off when May grabbed his arm.
"No." She said. "Leave the lights on."
"Why?" Ash questioned. "Just a minute ago you said it's time to turn them off."
"I know." May began. "But I realized something. I realized that you truly believe in this. You want this. I know now that it means a lot to you, and if you believe in a cause, I'll gladly stand behind you the whole time and way." She explained.
"That's just what I wanted to hear." Ash replied with a sly smile.
"What?" May questioned. She was truly shocked by his response.
Then something happened that changed her life forever. Ash got down on one knee. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring. Right then and there, he proposed to her.
"And that's the story." Ash's oldest grandson explained to the movie producer he had been pitching the idea to. "What do you think?"
"Is it true?" The producer asked.
"Yeah." Ash's grandson said with a small smile. "It's true."
So what do you think? How did I do? Was it confusing to you?
My goal with this story was to show that, when it comes to romance, Ash isn't necessarily as dense as he may seem.
Also, in case anyone's curious, I did watch Field of Dreams right before I wrote this…
Anyways, I'm eager to hear what you thought of it.
-Dr. Phil E. Sophical