4/14… no, 15 (just turned)- Why in the freaking world am I writing a Pokemon fanfic? To be completely serious, the last time I really watched Pokemon was back during the very first episodes of Johto.
I guess this is the influence of the people from the AL. Now I have ANOTHER fic to work on. A curse on your families!!
Wow, and I say I forget everything from freshman year. Must be Mab. A curse on your family, too! BOTH your families!!!
Cripes… and I don't even like Shakespeare…
Well, all that said, please excuse me if my knowledge of Pokemon is not up-to-date… .

Pay no heed to the strangeness of the first part of this chapter.

Anomaly
Chapter 1- "Why is there a Slowking in a tree…?"

It was a beautiful day, and Ash, Misty and Brock were on their way to a random city, probably one with a gym. So, they were wandering aimlessly in a forest, since they seem to spend a great majority of their time in forests anyway.

They were probably lost, also.

But note that all of this is merely probable, and they might as well NOT be where they were just said to be. Use your imagination if you want.

Gee, this sure is a great start to this story, isn't it?

Okay, seriously now. Ash, Misty and Brock are walking through a forest, trying to find their way to a city. It doesn't matter WHICH city, because they're NEVER going to make it there. That's right, they're not. Why? Simply because Ash is leading the way.

"Okay, now…" Ash turned the map ninety degrees, so that it was upside-down. "Now we turn… left…" At that, he turned right. Misty sighed, but figured that they were going the right way anyway (since the map is upside-down and left would be seen as right anyway). Brock seemed to be unfazed by all of this, but would occasionally cut in if Ash started leading them into a potentially life-threatening situation.

Scratching his head, Ash peered at the map. "We should be coming up upon this road soon."

"Ash, that's a river."

"Oh yeah…"

Pikachu giggled at his foolishness.

Misty rolled her eyes and looked up towards the sky… only to see something rather odd. She tapped Brock's shoulder and pointed to a tree. "Hey Brock, what's that?"

Brock followed her pointed finger. "Well, that's a tree."

"I know THAT!" She slapped him upside the head and pointed again. "What is that in the tree?"

Seeing the object of her concern, Brock raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "That's… well, it looks like… but it can't be…"

"Hey, it's a Pokemon!" Ash quickly lost interest in the map and came to look at what his two friends were staring at. "Isn't that a Slowking?"

Indeed, there was a Slowking sitting in the uppermost branches of a tree, looking rather… deranged.

Misty cocked her head in confusion. "But why is there a Slowking in a tree…?"

"It looks kind of sick…" Brock scratched his chin, thinking. "We probably shouldn't do anything, though. It might do something drastic if we come closer, so it's best to leave it be."

Ash blinked. "That's it, Brock? We're just leaving it here?"

"Pikaa?"

"No, I think we should just make our way to the nearest city as soon as possible, then tell Nurse Joy and let her handle it… So quick, get us out of this forest, Ash!"

"Oh, come on!" The redhead pushed Brock out of the way and grabbed the map. "You just want to see Nurse Joy. And besides, Ash shouldn't be navigating, anyway!"

That's right! What in the world was I thinking? I had Ash handling the map… stupid author!

"Fine, Misty!" Ash shrugged, smirking. "If you think you can do any better, you take us through this forest!"

Misty flushed in anger. "Well, it's not that hard to do better than you!"

"Guys, let's just get out of here."

"I'm trying, Brock." She adjusted the map as Ash snickered in the background. "Okay, well, first of all, we need to backtrack to the place where we saw that big rock…" The three started walking off, making note of where they had seen the Slowking.

"Sloooooooooowww…"

They suddenly heard a loud thump, and turned around to see that the Slowking had fallen out of the tree, landing on its head.

Ash gasped. "Do you think it's…"

He wasn't able to finish his question, because at that moment there was a bright flash and the tree lost consciousness.

The three, I mean. Not the tree.

Haha! I lied! THAT'S the real reason they'll never make it to the random unknown city that probably has a gym but maybe NOT! Okay, I'll keep telling the story now.

***

Ash's eyes fluttered open, and he quickly sat up to look at his surroundings. Pikachu, who had been lying on his chest, was thrown off, landing roughly on the grassy ground.

"Kachuuu!" it exclaimed, annoyed.

"Sorry, Pikachu." Ash rubbed his head and saw that they were in a field- which was odd, because there had been no nearby clearings in the forest that they were in previously. A few meters away from him, Misty and Brock stirred and awoke as well.

Brock stood up. "Hey Ash, do you have any idea where we are?"

"No…"

Misty pulled her backpack off and was pleased to see that Togepi was still sleeping peacefully, as it had been before. "Well, I don't remember this field being anywhere near the forest we were in before we passed out."

"Yeah, I don't remember this field, period." Ash stood up and walked a few paces to get familiar with his surroundings. Climbing over a small hill, he saw a village with people bustling about. "Maybe they can give us some information."

The trio headed down to the little town, hoping to maybe find a Pokemon Center or some sort of familiar landmark. They didn't see anything that they could recognize, but after a while, they did notice something odd about where they were.

"There aren't any Pokemon to be seen…" mused Brock.

"Excuse me!" Misty got the attention of a man walking down the road. "Do you think you could tell us where the nearest Pokemon Center is?"

The man stared at her, bewildered. "A pocky-whassa?"

"A Po-ke-mon Center," she repeated slowly. "It's where you heal your Pokemon… You do have a Pokemon Center nearby, don't you?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Po-kay-mon? What in the world are those?"

Well, there you go. I hope it doesn't stink too badly… Anyway, this story is slightly inspired by a Yu-Gi-Oh fic that I really like, but I'm planning on this being different from it… doesn't seem that way yet, but it will be, I promise! ^^;;;

Anyway, read and review! Of course, you've already read, since you're down here. Or are you really strange and read from the bottom to the top? Anyway, review if you like! ^^