Chapter 2: Stop Panicking! I'm coming to find you! - Ash, Brock and Misty
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The first thing that occured to Ash as he wkoe up was that the ground which he fell asleep on was much softer than he remembered. While he traveled, an old sleeping-bag that he'd nearly grown out of served as his matress, but it wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world. Whatever he was sleeping on now-shoot!-it felt like his bed at home, in Pallet Town!
But Ash was usually too grogy in the morning to see or think straight, so he brushed it off.
"Hey, Pikachu," He said, "You go wake up Brock and tell him to start breakfast; I've gotta do my chores." (And by chores, he meant waking up Misty, who had rescently developed a nasty habit of being hard to wake up.)
There was no relpy from Pikachu, but Ash didn't register that fact.
Why are there no birds chirping? Ash wondered as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. After so many years, he'd grown so acustomed to birds singing in the morning that he imediately noticed when they weren't there.
Maybe it's still too early or something, He thought, opening his eyes (now expecting to see a dark pre-dawn glade in front of him).
However, he opened his eyes to see that he was in a small room, brightly lit from the window to one side. For the most part, the room was a wreck; Ash couldn't remember ever letting his room get this dirty before (and he could remember times when he was a kid that his room had gone to hell in a handbasket).
Ash was so shocked that he yelped and tumbled two feet to the floor (he was, indeed, in a bed). What was worse, none of his companions were anywhere to be seen.
"Hey, Jerry, are you alright?" Someone called from another room. "It sounded like you just hit the floor."
"Who is that?" Ash called back, rubbing his sore head and not recognizing the voice he just used.
A really tall guy with scragly hair stuck his head in the door and surveyed the room. "You been cleaning in here, Jerry? You're room hasn't looked better in a while," He said.
"The room's a wreck, you moron!"Ash yelled, irked by this strange man's inability to see the mess. "Now who are you and why do you keep calling me Jerry?"
"...Did you have too much to drink last night?" The man asked. "Well, I don't really hold it against you: George is still passed out on the couch. He keeps muttering stuff about rockets and someone named Joy; maybe he found a new girl, eh?" The man said nonchalantly and left.
"Who's George?" Ash muttered, getting to his feet and walking to the door.
Outside the door was the main room of a pretty small apartment. About four feet away was a leather couch that looked almost new. Ash walked up to it and looked over the edge. As the weirdo-man had said, there was a fat, bald man passed out on the couch, snoring heavily.
So this is George, Ash thought, feeling vaguely disgusted and pitious for this poor man's physique.
"You hungry, Jerr? I was going to make something to eat," Weirdo-man said from the kitchen (which was only separated from everything else by little more than a foot or two of countertop).
Ash almost said yes, but something in his gut told him to make his own food and not trust anything that this guy made. "I'm not hungry," He lied, feeling his stomach complain about his answer.
The phone rang a second later. Weirdo-man went to answer it. Ash looked longingly at the kitchen, wishing that Brock were there to cook something trustworthy. With nothing else to do, he contented himself with listening to weirdo-man's side of the phone conversation:
"Hello?... Elaine? Is that you? You sound really freaked out... It's Kramer. I'm over at Jerry's place... What do you mean you don't know me?... Elaine, what are you talking about? You're not making any sense!"
"What's going on?" Ash asked.
"I've got Elaine on the phone," Weirdo-man said (but Ash didn't know who that was). "She claims that she woke up and she didn't know where she was, but she's back at her place. She told me that her name wasn't Elaine too."
"What did she say her name was?" Ash asked.
"She said her name was Misty. Where did she get that from?"
"Give me that phone!!" Ash yelled and sprinted across the room, snatching the phone from weirdo-man's hand.
"Misty? Is that you?" He asked the person on the other end of the reciever.
"Who is that?" The other person asked, sounding scared out of her mind.
"It's Ash."
"It doesn't sound like Ash."
"Well you don't sound like Misty."
"But I am! It is me!"
"Would you calm down?"
"..."
"Look: tell me where you are, and I'll come find you, okay?"
"I don't know where I am. I just found this list of numbers next to the phone over here and dialed the first one, hoping for some help. Do you think that first guy might know where I am?"
"He might. I'll ask," Ash said, turning to face weirdo-man. "Do you know where she is?" He asked.
"...You've gone crazy," was all that weirdo-man said nervously, backing away slowly.
"Look, you, I know you know where she is. You've got to help us."
"Yeah... I should call the phyciatric ward," weirdo-man said, going to get the phone book.
Apparently, Misty had heard the entire exchange, because she started panicking again. "Don't let him call the phyciatric ward! Don't let him do it!"
"Shut up!" Ash screamed at her. "Can you at least tell me what kind of building you're in?"
"I think it's an apartment."
"How high up?"
"Maybe... three stories?"
"Is there a number by your door in the hallway?"
"...I'll go look...317."
"Is there any sort of landmark I should look for on the street?"
"There's a bakery across the street from here. Look for that.
"Can you see any of the street signs?"
"No.
Sorry."
Ash sighed; with this little information. finding
Misty would take some time. But he had to go forth and find her. And
he still didn't know where Pikachu or Brock were; maybe he'd find
them along the way.
"I'll see what I can do. It may take me a while, but I'll find you. Just don't go anywhere," Ash instructed and hung up the phone before Misty could ask any questions.
Weirdo-man walked up to the phone with the phone book in his hand as soon as he heard the phone hang up. Ash figured that weirdo-man would give the phyciatric ward "Elaine's" address, so he decided to lie in wait and then dash out the door as soon as he had it. He leaned against the couch and stared blankly at George, who appeared to be waking up.
George woke up, sat up and stretched with a speed and vigor that Ash thought was unusual for such a fat little man. It was also strange that George suddenly bolted to his feet, looking around the room with a dazed and confused expression on his face.
"Are you alright, George?" Ash inquired, worried in spite of himself.
"Who..." George muttered, turning around to face Ash. A brief moment of silence passed between them; and then George lunged at Ash from the other side of the couch, pinning him to the floor.
How does such a fat guy have so much energy!? Ash wondered as George started to stangle him.
Weirdo-man had just found the number for the phyciatric ward as Geroge attacked Ash; he began dialing the number faster than he was going to before.
"What did you do!?!" George screamed at Ash. "Where are Ash and Misty!? And what did you do to my voice!? Tell me now!!"
Ash quickly peiced the clues together and realized that he didn't have to search for Brock afterall. Somehow, he managed to push his enraged friend off of him and back away a little bit.
"Dude, would you calm down? It's me, Ash."
"You lie! What did you do with him?"
"Brock, I'm not joking. Get a hold of yourself."
"If you're really Ash Ketchum, tell me something only Ash would know."
Ash thought about it for a minute. "...We had a war over an egg that hatched into a pokemon that Misty got in the end, and it was a togepi."
"No one knows about that but Team Rocket," Brock agreed. "How did we get here? And why do you look so goofy?"
"Same reason you're so fat, I guess."
"WHAT!?!"
Weirdo-man was having trouble listening to the conversation and the person on the phone at the same time, and he was getting really freaked out.
"I think that three of my friends have lost it," he told the nurse on the other end.
"What are their addresses?"
"I'm here with two of them at--"
"We can track the address from the phone number. Who's the other person?"
"She's lives in the apartment complex at the corner of 17th Street and Marshal Avenue, fourth floor, room 317. How fast can you be there? She sounds really gone."
"We'll get
there as fast as we can; New York is full of crazy people. Meanwhile,
keep your friends detained. Don't let them leave, 'kay?"
"Can
do. thank you so much."
Weirdo-man turned back around to explain the situation to "Jerry" and "George". But they weren't there; the door was open though.
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I don't think that phyciatric right. And I'm pretty sure that Elaine's address is wrong; I've never heard what her address is.
