Go Satoshi Tajiri. He's rich and I'm not. I own squat.

Author's Note: Ok, back with Chapter 2! I'm just gonna keep doing how I do and I can only hope that you readers are liking it. Reviews are REALLY helpful, and much appreciated. If you actually have a minute... yeah, I'm sure you've heard it before so I'll spare you. Much Love!

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Time to Shine

Chapter 2

Genesis of Next

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The next two days completely came and went and before Misty knew it her calendar read Friday. Not surprisingly, Misty was a jumble. Was she packed? Was the gym going to be ok? Did she choose the right pokemon? On that note she went over to her desk to recheck her pokeballs. The thing with being the Cerulean City Gym Leader was that most of your opponents came in the form of rookie trainers; and when dealing with rookies you had to know how to hold back and which pokemon would just pulverize the typical Bulbasaurs/Charmanders/Squirtles. These were the pokemon she would be bringing to the Indigo Plateau.

Ring Ring Ring! Ring Ring Ring! Phone call! Phone call!

Misty was brought out of her reverie with a start. Now who in the hell would be calling her NOW? She still hadn't made a train reservation and really had to go in the next hour or so if she wanted to make it there while there was still daylight. Just goes to show that even the all great Misty Waterflower wasn't too keen on wandering around alone at night.

"Hello." She was met with Tracy's face on the other line.

"Hi Misty. I know that this probably isn't a good time for you, but I was hoping to catch you before you left Cerulean."

"I'm assuming you know about the tournament then?" Tracy grinned.

"The perks of working with a professor. But oh yeah! Me and Professor Oak are actually at Bill's house right now. We're going to be leaving here in a few minutes to head over to the Indigo Plateau and wondered if you wanted a ride up there."

A smile broke out on Misty's face. She hadn't seen Tracy in a while and the two of them always had a blast when they got together. It was an offer she couldn't refuse.

"You bet, Tracy! I'll just lock up the gym right now."

"Great. We'll see you in about 10 minutes then."

"Ok, bye!"

Ten minutes later Misty was outside of the gym with her bags and all. Well, more like her bag actually but who's counting? As she was going over her mental checklist for the umpteenth time a Jeep pulled up. Misty looked up and saw it was indeed her ride and she quickly hopped into the back. Before any hellos could be said Misty quickly shoved a pokeball into Tracy's hand. He gave her a questioning look and her next two words said it all.

"It's Psyduck."

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The ride was certainly pleasant enough. Misty got a chance to see how close Tracy and Professor Oak had become over the past few years, they acted as if they were family. In a way, they were. It made Misty laugh as she remembered how Tracy had originally been Oak's #1 fanboy. Who would've thought he'd be living his dream years later?

"Man Misty you are so lucky. Participating in this tournament practically puts you into the history books." Misty laughed and shook her head.

"No, it puts my pokemon in the books. And the illustrations done by you will be what gets put into the history books."

"Hahaha, we'll see about that one. Which pokemon did you decide to bring along anyways?"

All Misty could do was smile.

"Secret!"

Even though she denied Tracy's earlier words she knew that he had a point. This tournament was really going to blow up and be a big deal once the general public found out. Shit, if they were already alerting the people as prominent as Professor Oak then she had no doubt that this would eventually turn into the event to be at for the who's who in the pokemon world. All of the hotels were probably already booked by now and she was lucky enough to just be handed a room. It was pretty damn sweet once you thought about it like that.

But it wouldn't just come for free (in theory). She would have to put her best foot forward and show what she could do as a trainer. After all, all of her opponents would either be a Gym Leader or, even worse, a member of the Elite Four. Talk about unnerving.

She had met some of the other Gym Leaders on a few occasions. In fact, she was pretty well acquainted with all of the leaders from Kanto and Johto thanks to her travels with Ash. In terms of the Hoenn leaders it was a different story. Flannery from Lavaridge Town was actually one of her best friends, the two having met at some fancy shindig, but that was about it. She knew the faces and names, but had never actually really spoken to any of them one on one. Unfortunately, her main source of info was Flannery's gossip.

"Hello? Misty?" Tracy waved a hand in front of her face.

"Huh? Wha? What's going on?" Professor Oak turned around and smiled.

"We're in Pewter City. Take a minute to stretch your legs and buy some drinks, we're about to go through the Viridian Forest and I doubt you'll be able to buy anything there."

Misty nodded and hopped out of the car. She went over to the local Pokemart and grabbed a couple of lemonades. As she waited in line to pay she looked out the window... and saw the Pewter City Gym. It was a happy sight, and reminded her of memories long past. Flint, Brock's father and current leader of the gym, had probably left by now and hopped a train straight to the Plateau. She had never really seen the guy fight, and it would definitely be an interesting match when the time came.

"Um Miss, are you ready to pay?" Misty jumped.

"Oh yeah, sorry, eheh."

She quickly paid and went back to the Jeep. Tracy and Professor Oak were nowhere to be seen, but Misty figured they were just still out. They would probably be getting back soon, she figured, so why not just stay here and wait? Luckily enough, getting inside the car was just a matter of climbing into the back. When the pair still didn't show up Misty decided to kick back and maybe make her position a little bit more comfy. And while it was a good plan in theory Misty failed to take into account all of the missed hours of sleep she'd been dealing with due to the pre-tournament jitters. Before she knew it Misty had gone and fallen asleep.

You know, fear is quite the interesting thing. It's this horrible ball of burn that gets triggered by the most random of things. For some, it's heights. For Misty, it was BUGS. Creepy crawly little monsters that pretend to look cute and harmless but were really crazy axe murderers in disguise. Oh yeah, Misty knew the truth. She also "knew" that she had found a way to come to grips with this fear. Avoid them like the little plagues they were! A very simple plan that was practically foolproof. All she had to do was stay away from forests and tall grass; and, considering she was a water trainer, it was pretty easy to do.

However, nothing could prepare her for waking up in the middle of the Viridian Forest.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

"Misty?" Both men asked.

"GET THEM AWAY! DON'T LET THEM ANYWHERE NEAR ME! I HATE BUUUUUGS!"

Misty quickly took her jacket off and threw it over her head like a shelter and proceeded to look through her bag. Tracy could just watch as his friend quickly rifled through her bag. Every once in a while he could hear a mumbled "insect" or "pest" or even "squirmy bastards." Misty gave a girly squeak of happiness and emerged with a pokeball in her hand. With a maniacal grin on her face Misty stood up. Tracy and Professor Oak exchanged a look, but by then it was far too late.

"Go Gyarados! Use Hyper Beam and make this path bug free!"

The water dragon nodded and did as it was told. It gathered the energy inside its mouth and released it in a mighty Hyper Beam that would make any of Lance's pokemon jealous. The Hyper Beam flew down the pathway, instantly knocking out all of the unsuspecting Caterpies and Weedles. Newbie trainers then popped out of the bushes and threw their pokeballs, each scoring free bug pokemon. Misty sighed and smiled, suddenly feeling a lot better. Who said she couldn't conquer her fear of bugs?

Professor Oak cleared his throat.

"Um Misty, I don't really think that a Hyper Beam was necessarily the best course of action--"

He quickly shut up as Misty and Gyarados both turned their head to look at him quite menacingly.

The rest of Viridian Forest was smooth sailing. With no bug pokemon in sight Misty was feeling back to normal and resumed her earlier conversations with Tracy about anything and everything. Eventually, the Viridian Forest came to an end and Misty was only all too happy to say goodbye. Emerging from the forest was very interesting, though. Misty hadn't really realized how long they had been traveling for. By the time the Jeep had reached the outskirts of Viridian City the sun was already starting to set.

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Misty was happy to see Viridian City. It had been a seriously long time since she had been there, but the city always brought a smile to her face. Since it was so close to Pallet Town but an actual city at the same time, Viridian City was always a pitstop when Ash would visit home. But, as nice as it was to reminisce, Misty was starting to seriously get confused. They had already missed the turn to the Indigo Plateau and instead had just went straight into town. Why make a pitstop here, she wondered, when the Indigo Plateau was only 30 minutes away?

"Um, excuse me Professor Oak. But, where are we going?" He chuckled.

"Just picking up one more straggler."

Before she could ponder on his words they pulled up at the Viridian City Gym. Misty smiled, now that had been one hell of a gym battle for Ash. But Giovanni had long since vacated this Gym, right? Now that she thought about it she couldn't really remember who the Viridian City Gym Leader was. The position had been passed around to a few different people, but it seemed like no one was too keen on staying. But why would this involve Professor Oak? Oh well, she would know in a minute or two anyways; seeing as someone was now walking towards the car. Hang on! That wasn't...

"Oh great! I love lemonade!"

And with that Gary Oak grabbed Misty's lemonade and downed it in one gulp.

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To say shocked would be an understatement. It had to have been at least 2 years since the last time she had seen Gary Oak. She had heard about him, sure. But what was a pokemon researcher doing as a gym leader? If she was in a calmer state of mind she just might ask him about it but this wasn't the case. The Jeep was now back on the road and already the two seemed to be clashing. It wasn't exactly surprising, they were both quite the stubborn hotheads; and this is just how stubborn hotheads said 'hello.'

"Would you move your stupid legs!"

Misty then tried to move the legs that Gary had casually propped into her lap.

"Aw geez Red, if you wanted to feel me up all you had to do was ask!" Misty fumed.

"MIS-TY. M-I-S-T-Y. Not Red, you insufferable pig!"

Misty was 2 seconds away from turning the "Oak Pig" into Gyarados chow. And, if not that, she was ready to wring his neck real hard. Feeling him up, yeah right! SO she might've felt a little more thigh then was absolutely necessary. But she sure didn't put her hand there initially! Stupid Gary Oak. As if the heavens above felt her wrath, she suddenly heard her phone beep. She temporarily forgot her anger to see what was up with her phone. As it turned out she had a new text message... from Tracy.

Mist-

He's really not that bad of a guy if you actually talk to him. He's only teasing, believe me, I've known him for a while now. Just try to forget about his history with Ash and give him a fair chance. Please?

-The Handsome Man-Stud in the Front Seat

She rolled her eyes as she read his choice of name. But did he actually have a point? Was she being a bit unfair to Gary because of his relationship with Ash? And even more to the point, if she was going off of preconceived notions wouldn't that mean she was failing in her promise to herself. How was she supposed to get over the "Ash Era" if she held grudges that weren't even hers to begin with. Well, that settled it. New chapter, Take Two!

"Listen Gary, I don't really want to fight with you. Shit, I don't even know you! So can we just, I dunno, start over?"

"You know, I really can't say no to a pretty lady." He sent her a wink.

She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

"Whatever you say, Oak."

Much to Misty's surprise the two of them actually hit it off pretty well. Gary really was a smart guy, and she figured that all of the rumors about him being an up and coming professor were true. He seemed to know everything about everything pokemon; but, oddly enough, seemed to always change the subject when she asked him what it was that he was studying in particular. Whatever, it was probably some man pride thing. It was during one such change of topic where he asked the question that she knew would come but wasn't really ready for.

"So, what's the deal with you and Ash anyways?"

She raised an eyebrow and looked at him. He stared right back. She could tell that he really wanted to know, it really was a hot topic; she even saw Tracy slightly turn in his seat to better hear her answer. It was an odd thing, really, she had always kept her Ash feelings to herself. She didn't really discuss it with anybody, not even Brock, yet here she was about to answer Gary's question. She couldn't explain it but it was just really easy to talk to the guy... even if he was an insufferable flirt.

"I'm not with him, if that's what you're asking. I liked him, as I'm sure you know, but he was always too focused on pokemon to take notice of ANY female, let alone me. I don't blame him, though, being a Pokemon Master is his dream. I just got fed up with waiting around for him."

"So it doesn't have anything to do with the girl he's traveling with now, May was it?"

"Well, I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt. But no, it's not because of her. I just woke up one day and realized that there are tons of other fish in the sea that I completely ignored because of Ash. Let's just say that I'm ready to go fishing."

Their conversation was cut short as the Jeep finally reached the Indigo Plateau. By now the sun had set and the group (Professor Oak especially) was kind of weary from all of the driving. They got out of the car and grabbed any bags that were brought along and the group went into the hotel. Luckily enough, the lobby was empty and there was no line at the reservation desk. Card keys were distributed and the rooms were in opposite directions. The Oaks, of course, were rooming in the Presidential Suite whereas Misty was assigned a Deluxe Suite. She didn't really know why they bothered giving her a Deluxe Suite to herself, but who was she to argue?

"Well, I guess this is goodnight then."

Misty gave Tracy a hug and then turned to Gary.

"I guess I'll see you later, Gary." He grinned.

"Count on it."

She rolled her eyes and headed to her room. She was really tired and all she wanted was a soft bed. A lot of things had happened over this past day and she would think about it in the morning. But for now, sleep was calling.