Author's note: I was torn in continuing this or write a Halloween fanfic, but since I had no idea what to do with the latter, I decided to continue on with this. Though I won't be able to write on Tuesday or Wednesday due to preparations for Halloween itself. But I will write again tomorrow and then Thursday and continuing on until the Pokemon Side is finished, and then I'll post the Epilogue that ends "Sailor Moon and the Ice Age Meltdown" all together.
I don't own any rights to Sailor Moon, Ice Age, Pokemon, Shrek, Cardcaptors or Kingdom Hearts. I only own my OCs such as Lusie/Future-Mini Moon, Tommy Dashboard and Stump.
Chapter 4: Misty's Doubts.
Wasting no time as news spread out far and wide across the Valley, everyone, residents and non-residents began to pack up their belongings and then began to make their way towards the other side of the Valley to this so called tree that could save them all. Problem is, since cars and buses don't run here, everyone had to do it on foot.
All of them including the Sailor Team unaware that this was part of a mysterious goal, because observing people walking by were two more figures in Black coats from the far side. One was a tall middle-aged man with short blonde hair and short beard with pierching blue eyes named Luxord, and a younger man, maybe in his late teens or something with a mullet-hair style and blue eyes named Demyx who was known as the 'Slacker of the Organization'.
"Man, this is totally boring. There's no way in a million years we'd get these people's hearts without a Keyblade, and how does the Superior know if there are three new ones here if we haven't spotted any yet?" Demyx complained.
"We have yet to confirm of these new wielders. On the other hand, these people's heartless and nobodies could be a big help." Luxord explained, shrugging. He then pulled at Demyx's hood and began to pull him away, saying, "Let's go."
"H-hey, hey, hey!" Demyx cried out, frailing to try and failing to pull himself free.
All around everyone was evacuating, Nurse Joy and Chansey guiding everyone to the right direction after making sure all of the Pokeballs containing Pokemon were transfered to the Pokemon Center in New Bark Town, very young children trying to convince their grandpa to leave, two of them pulling futilessly to get him out, the other two trying to convince him that they have to leave, but he, being a senile, grumpy old man, refused as he wanted to stay in the old, desperate need to be repaired house he'd been born in and lived all of his life.
A family of four were a bit slower...with the father heaving a large statue of a Nidoqueen on his back and complaining to his wife who refused to part from it, saying that it was a gift from her mother.
"Okay guys, keep going." Ash instructed everyone passing, with Misty and Pikachu gesturing the people and Pokemon on the right path and trying to make sure no one got left behind.
Just then, from a tree behind them, Crash and Eddie appeared next to them while hanging upside down. Their sudden appearance violently startled Ash, Pikachu and Misty who cried out in alarm before the three of them glared at the Possums who snickered, trying not to laugh.
"Hey! Don't do that!" Ash glared at the two rodents.
"Aw, relax, Dude. It's not like this is the first time we've escaped a flood." Crash said casually, not even sounding the least sorry.
"Even though we nearly drowned before, but then again being alive again is more fun than being dead." Eddie added, smirking.
Ash gave them a skeptical look, while commenting sarcastically, "Could've fooled me. I'm surprised you guys didn't actually drown."
"Ash!" Misty scolded, glaring at her friend. "Look I know these two twins are trouble makers, but what you said isn't very nice! You can't be sarcastic at a time like this!"
"You're right. Sorry." Ash muttered, feeling guilty for that. He couldn't seem to help his bad mood. First Ellie, Crash and Eddie came into their lives which resulted in Sailor Moon and the others to be sent back in time again, then Axel's reapperance that had thrown all thoughts of him being dead out the window, and now everyone in the Valley had a flood coming. This wasn't a good day at all and Ash had a feeling that the rest of the week will be worse if they manage to survive this.
The twins, ignoring Ash's sarcasm, dropped down from the branch and landed neatly on the ground, with Crash asking Misty, curiously, "So Misty, is it true that you really have three older sisters?"
"I always thought humans only had one or two siblings." Eddie added, though he whispered because he didn't want to cause anyone to get suspicious.
"Hey, if you master brains, try working on sensitivity." Diego suggested in annoyance as he joined the rest of their friends.
"I guess it depends on how many a mother can produce. Ash wouldn't know because he's the only child to his parents." Misty answered with a shrug, not sure how to answer the question.
"At least I'm not the only one in the world." Ash commented, refering to examples like Amy, Raye, Lita, Mina, Dawn, Casey, Madison, Shrek, Rini, Lusie, Donkey, and maybe even Manny not having any siblings.
"At least I know my real name!" Misty snapped, startling her friend who flinched back slightly in fright, only for the same City trainer from earlier to pause when he, his Hypno and obviously four Gloom that he picked up from the flower fields not long after the evacuation began saw Misty and grinned.
"Glooms, look! The girl who thinks her name is Misty!" The City Trainer informed smugly.
"Glooooooom!" All four Glooms exclaimed in awe.
"Too bad she probably doesn't know who she really is." The guy smirked as he walked away with his Pokemon. Ash, Pikachu and Misty, shocked at the man's cold attitude, glared hard at his back.
"Take that back!" Ash yelled angrily. How dare that guy insult his friends like that? Now because of that creep, Misty will probably won't hear the end of this nonsense.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, you creep!" Misty yelled out at the retreating form of the City Trainer. What was with that disgusting man? Did he make it a living to insult people and trick them into thinking they don't know their real names?
"At least she knows what kind of species she is." Crash whispered to his brother who nodded in agreement.
"But we taught Ellie everything both of us and Mom know." Eddie pointed out, which caught the attention of Ash, Pikachu, Misty, and soon the rest of the Sailor Team who finally caught up with them and all regrouped. The only ones who weren't confused were Manny, Sid, Diego and Ellie.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Misty asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"You mean Manny, Sid and Diego never told you?" Eddie asked, surprised when he and Crash heard this, the latter and even Ellie also surprised while the aforementioned trio looked sheepish on that part.
"Apparently not. What does Ellie and this whole species thing go to do with anything?" Ash replied, skeptical. He then realized and added, "Come to think of it, we haven't find any trace of her brothers, either."
"Uh...this wouldn't happen to be the reason why Ellie can hang upside down like you guys and even climbs a tree?" Fiona asked, starting to place the pieces together and, considering that Ash was right, the former Princess's theory was becoming more and more likely.
Crash rolled his eyes, "Well, duh! She's our sister!" with Eddie nodding to confirm it.
"Your sister!?" Ash, Misty, Brock, May, Max, Dawn, Casey, Madison, Darien, Fiona, Lita, Mina, Raye, Amy and Kero exclaimed in shock and surprise, while both Pikachu and Piplup shared an incredulous glance. No wonder they couldn't find two more mammoth's because the there only two in the Herd and that were Manny and Ellie.
"That's right. Crash and Eddie our my brothers." Ellie nodded, before whispering, "I may be born as a Mammoth, but I was adopted and for years I thought I was a Possum until I met Manny and the others."
"Okay, that means...you totally forgot about what you really were?" Ash asked, skeptically. Ellie nodded to confirm his suspicions. Ash just groaned in dismay, already picturing the reactions of Sailor Moon, Shrek, Sailor Mini Moon, Donkey, Sakura, Puss, and even Manny, Sid and Diego when the nine of them first met Ellie, Crash and Eddie.
"This kind of sounds like when I hid from Ash the fact that my dad was the Gym Leader of Petalburg Gym in the Houen Region until I made a slip when I found him and Max arguing." May giggled sheepishly, earning her a pleading look from Ash and a slightly annoyed look from Max.
"Weird brother and sister acts." Sid shrugged casually, only to rechieve skeptical looks from the rest of his friends and he waved sheepishly at them.
Pikachu sighed, before catching sight of two familiar Pokemon running down the path towards where everyone is headed. Blinking, he realized it was two Pichu. Where did they come from?
The Pichu, apparently the youngest of the two, sensed something and noticed Pikachu staring at it, before sticking out it's tongue childishly at Pikachu who, insulted, childishly sticked his tongue out at his pre-evolved form, but when he opened his eyes again, to his confusion the Pichu was gone.
Was he hallucinating? "Pika?(Huh?)" Pikachu blinked.
Little did Pikachu know, he would be encountering that Pichu again soon.
Meanwhile, back at the stage area, Stump, being the dopey kind of guy, once again had the reed up his nose to use to breathe air while he was underwater. But as Stump dove back under with the reed over the water, he took a few strokes when he screamed as he saw something that then pulled him underwater fully as well as the reed, vanishing into deathly silence.
Well, almost.
"Stump? Come on, Stump. We haven't got all day, you know." Tommy Dashboard, who also lagged behind due to packing his stuff from his, uh, ahem, 'tour', called out to his missing assistant as he walked near the shore of the lake, unaware of what happened to his companion.
Just then something splashed out of the water and landed right in front of Dashboard who screamed in fright until he realized that it was; Stump's backpack. It seemed to be in one piece, but there was no sign of it's owner at all.
Seemingly concerned, Dashboard dunked his head underwater to see if Stump was having trouble, but spotted no sign of his assistant anywhere. Pulling his head out even though his short, white hair was now wet, Dashboard examined Stump's backpack before having an idea, putting his hat back on and dashed away with all of his things via cart being pulled by his Rampardos and Hippowdon, with their trainer carrying Stump's discarded bag as all three followed everyone else.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, new magic backpacks are up for sale!" He cried out, believing this is perfect for another bargain.
However, he was fully unaware that, with a brief glow of pink and red underwater that faded moments later, two black fish Heartless emerged, only to be quickly taken out by two more fish like things, only they were white, two times bigger than Manny, and if Sailor Moon's group were here in the Present, they would've noticed that these two looked similar in shape of Cretaceous and Maelstrom, only without mouths, and with the symbol of the Nobodies on their foreheads.
They then dove back underwater and began to swim away, under orders from Xigbar to track down the new Keyblade wielders as well as get rid of the Sailor Team before they could find out.
Meanwhile, at the cabin campsite village of the Valley which also looked like an ordinary town, Jessie, James and Meowth, having lost track of the 'Sailor Twerps', were venturing into the place where they were aware that it was...empty. The only sound they heard was the wind blowing.
Fully unaware of the upcoming flood.
"Hmm...this is awfully quiet." Jessie thought.
"Maybe a little too quiet." James agreed, becoming a bit worried.
"But not old enough to be a spooky ghost town. T'is place was filled with people and Pokemon a few hours ago." Meowth remarked.
But as Team Rocket continued to venture around the empty village, they were continously reminded of their hunger which made them groan in dismay.
"Of all the times for people to disappear, why couldn't have they waited until tomorrow?" James complained.
"Or even next week while we follow the Sailor Twerps?" Meowth added, moaning.
"I bet those twerps are on their way to New Bark Town and the Sailor Twerp went back to them already, all with food and full stomachs." Jessie groaned, hungry and annoyed. She and her two friends stopped while holding their bellies which grumbled loudly again and they all groaned in unison with sweatdrops, wishing for nearby restarunt, pizza joint or even a fruit stand. Anything that had food.
Until a sign next to them caught their attention and to their delight, it seemed their wish had suddenly come true; the sign of the Bakery hung gently swinging back and forth in the speck of wind.
"A Bakery!" James squealed happily.
"And where d'ere's a Bakery..." Meowth began, his mouth starting to water.
"There's all kinds of food people couldn't take with them." Jessie concluded, already tasting the delicious, soft bread and pasteries Bakeries usually have.
"Lunch time!" James and Meowth declared in unison.
Wasting no time and, despite no longer being actual members of the Team Rocket organization, the trio still had a habit in breaking into places where they shouldn't, and since there wasn't anyone around, they wouldn't get into trouble for stealing food which they needed more than anyone else right now. So Meowth used his claws to pick the lock and after a few minutes, it opened up.
Team Rocket cheered happily, "Time for some tasty bread!" and wasted no time in barging the doors open, ready to run in and steal and eat everything that was on the shelves.
But they stopped in the doorway and froze, their happiness quickly replaced with shock, confusion, worry and fear as it seemed they weren't the only ones who had the same idea. Because already inside(possibly through the chiminy), were a flock of Gligar who were beginning to munch on the food when they heard the doors open and looked to see that they had company and stared at the trio in annoyance of the intrution.
"What's a bunch of Gligar doin' here?" Meowth asked, puzzled.
"I'm not sure, but these Pokemon are native both here and in the Sinnoh Region." James recalled in thought.
Jessie on the other hand, having such a short temper and little patience, growled angrily at the group of Pokemon for stealing the food she and her two partners in crime were about to steal. "Hey, this is our food, you stupid pink bat-Pokemon! Hand over the bread, or I'll hand over my wrath!"
Though once again, she made the mistake of insulting Pokemon which usually landed her and her companions into trouble and the risk of blasting off. Because the Gligar hissed before gathering together and, to Team Rocket's horror, all unleashed a powerful combined Gust Attack. They screamed as they were hit by the Gust and sent flying back outside and way up into the sky.
"TEAM ROCKET'S BLASTING OFF AGAAAAIIIIN!" Team Rocket shouted loudly, disappearing into the sky like a twinkling star, again.
Which means that finding food for themselves was going to be a lot harder than they thought...as usual.
Well over a hill by now, the Sailor Team and all of the people and Pokemon were still heading towards the end of the valley which, if calculated right, would take the entire three days to get to, so they all hard to hurry to get there. Time wasn't on their side, however, as Sid saw even larger chunks of stone chipping off the dam as it continued to break due to old age before he noticed he was lagging behind and hurried to catch up to his friends.
But as the Sailor Team and the Herd travelled, passing by a meadow in the early afternoon, much like back in the Ice Age as Manny and Diego knew all too well, Sid couldn't help but tease Misty about her name, via singing which annoyed not only her but also their other friends too.
"~Some say that you don't know your name, and that you're really lame~-"
"Shut up, Sid." Manny ordered, annoyed.
"Okay." Sid shrugged.
Night-time.
"~Stop, hey, what's that sound? All the the Mistys are in the ground!~" Sid sang as the group passed up a hill at night, with the full Moon being their only light, and yet even that couldn't soothe the group due the Sloth.
"Stop singing, Sid!" Manny yelled, even more annoyed.
Early the next day.
"~If you think your name is Misty, You clap your hands~" Sid continued, clapping his paws twice.
Passing a forest on their second day of their travels, the group groaned until Manny couldn't take it anymore. This was a repeat of the teasing about him being the last mammoth in the ice age when, back then, he wasn't, only this time it was teasing about Misty and her name.
"Sid, I'm gonna fall on you like back 20,000 years ago, and this time, I will send you back to the Afterlife." He threatened in irritation, cutting the sloth off from singing.
"Okay, someone doesn't like the classics." Sid grumbled, but stopped none the less, and the group continued on in silence, deep into their thoughts about whether there was a boat to save everyone or not and about the mysterious figure who warned them about the flood and in Ash's case, about why Axel was here and if he and the other guy had anything to do with the situation that was happening.
But their thoughts came to a halt when Ash and the others noticed, to their confusion and then sudden worry that Misty paused with a very worried expression. It didn't take them long to figure out what she was thinking and were worried that she was starting to question her family's past and origin.
"What's the matter, Misty?" Madison asked, concerned.
"What if they're right? What if my name really isn't Misty?" Misty thought, worriedly.
"There's no way, Misty!" Ash pointed out to her stubbornly. "That guy must've got you mixed up for someone else."
"Misty, honey, don't listen to what that guy told you. He just doesn't know like your best friends do." Ellie told the dejected water Pokemon Trainer.
"Maybe, but what if Daisy, Violet and Lily know something and never told me?" Misty replied, still not certain even though she was grateful that her friends, both old and new, were trying to cheer her up.
"Aren't those names the names of flowers?" Crash asked, dumbfounded.
"Your name is named after 'crash landing', Crash." Eddie pointed out with a smirk, which caused his brother to lunge at him and the two then get into their bickering fight, causing everyone else, including the twins' sister to all groan in exasperation.
"If you ask me, Misty, I'd worry more about where that guy got that stupid idea from than asking yourself who you are." Lita pointed out, deciding to ignore Crash and Eddie's childish fight.
"Nah, I think he made it up. Besides, he was a jerk for saying stuff like that to her anyway." Manny shook his head.
"Totally agreed. Besides, a lot of people share all sorts of names, like how every other boy is named Jason and every other girl is Serena." Mina nodded in agreement, her arms folded to her chest.
"They're right, Misty. Your mama and papa would know too, right?" Lusie added. More than anything, she wanted to cheer Misty up as much as everyone else did.
Misty smiled a little sadly at the 40th Century's Moon Princess, and stated, "Thanks for the encouragement, Lusie, but my parents died when I was just a baby."
"Your parents died when you were that young?" Ellie asked, shocked. And she thought she had been young when she lost her parents.
"Yeah, though as I said yesterday, my sisters told me that they abandoned all four of us for some reason. But deep down, I think it wasn't the case." Misty replied.
The entire conversation came to a complete and sudden halt when the ginger-haired girl felt something brush against her leg. Something...horribly familiar that caused her to freeze up all together, becoming stiff in paralyzing fear. Quivering, she looked down and saw one of her greatest fears, which in her opinion was on the top of her fear list.
A Caterpie, adorable looking and generally one of the sweetest Pokemon in existance, was gently rubbing her leg in curiosity. It was adorable...but to Misty, it was like a monster.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" She screamed hysterically in absolute terror, before running in high speed to the right so fast that she could outmatch a race car, leaving behind a trail of dust, just to get as far away from the Bug-type Pokemon as possible, with all of her friends watching as Crash and Eddie saw what happened and stopped fighting, staring at the thirteen year old's retreating form.
"Misty, hold on a second!" Ash cried out, as he and Pikachu both hurried to catch up to her.
"It's only a Caterpie!" Darien called.
"Uh, guys? I think we have another problem...!" May squeaked, pointing at the left, which the reason why she now sounded nervous as even Caterpie shrieked before running away. When everyone else turned to see what's wrong, they all flinched as, to their horror, a swarm of Beedrills began to fly right towards them.
"Uh, yeah. I forgot to mention; this area is home to many kinds of Bug Type Pokemon." Casey admitted nervously. Sure she had a Beedrill herself thanks to Ash giving it to her when he caught it in the Bug Type Pokemon contest last year, but that didn't mean all Beedrills were friendly.
"Gee, thanks for telling us now." Diego said sarcastically.
"There's too many of them!" Amy cried out.
"There's only one thing to do!" Mina declared, and paused dramatically for a moment, before screaming aloud, "Run for it!"
No one argued there, and Crash and Eddie both leaped and held onto Ellie's tusks as their sister quickly ran into the same direction as Misty, Ash and Pikachu ran off into. Manny in the meantime accidentally knocking Sid with his tusk and as the sloth held on, the Mammoth running with Sid screaming in alarm before he hurried to climb onto his friend's back so he wouldn't fall off. Everyone else followed as quickly as possible while they were being chased by the Beedrills.
When Misty, Ash and Pikachu heard the buzzing, now the latter two were panicking and ran faster, not intending on getting stung by the Beedrills when they had enough problems to worry about.
"Why do bugs have to exist in the first place!?" Misty cried out hysterically.
"The same way why everyone and everything else exist in the first place!" Ash replied half-sarcastically, now right behind her while Pikachu ran along side him.
"What's wrong with Misty!?" Ellie asked, panting as she and the others continued to run and try to escape from the Beedrills. "I mean, those guys behind us, I can understand, but a little Caterpie?"
"Let's just say that she has bug-phobia and leave at that!" Lita cried out as she ran.
"She's been afraid of bug Pokemon for as long as we've known her!" Casey added.
But as all of them came into the clearing, none of them realized they were heading for a cliff which wasn't steep or that high, but the Sailor Team all lost their footing like a domino effect and slid and went sliding and rolling down the hill, screaming before hitting the bottom of the lower part of the woods, crashing into each other. Except for Sid who, due to the impact, was inadvertedly flown off as he screamed girlishly. He hit the ground twice before sliding to a stop in front of a small tree and a set of flowers that sat on the ground.
Fortunately, the Beedrills flew over them while unaware that their victums had managed to, in a way, escape. The Sailor Team all groaned as they felt bruises and sighs of relief at the close call.
"Is everyone okay?" Manny asked, wanting to make sure that they were alright and was glad that they were as they replied that they were fine before standing up as did Sid who then got a good look at what he landed in front of and realized that it wasn't a tree at all, or even a small bush.
It was, to his and everyone else's surprise, a hand-made wooden handmade cross on the ground near a lake which was connected to a waterfall underneath a log bridge to the other side. On it, is a bunch of flowers tied on it along with the flowers on the ground, with a photo of a family of a mother and father, with five children, though one part of the photo is torn off of the mother's left arm.
"Hey, aren't they...?" May began as she, her friends and little brother approached to get a better look at what they realized was a grave or memorial of sorts. She recongised four of the children, all of them including the fifth being girls.
"Daisy, Lily, Violet with a baby Misty?" Casey finished. She was right; in the photo were indeed Misty when she was just a baby, and her older sisters who, in the picture, looked about eight or something. Holding the baby in one arm was a woman who looked beautiful and a spitting image of Misty, but with longer hair down to her waist, wearing pearls and sea jewels, and white summer dress. Standing next to her was a handsome man with blonde hair that matched Daisy's.
But in front of the two adults was a ten year old girl with orange hair, but loose and carved slightly, resting on her shoulders, wearing a blue jacket, white T-Shirt and blue shorts, giving the photographer two victory signs with a beaming smile.
"Those two grown ups must be their parents." Madison remarked, and she was right. Considering how Misty and her sisters were together and looking quite happy, it made sense. It also had the Sailor Team realize this may be where Misty's parents had died, or maybe had a memorial in their memory at some point. At the moment, none of them knew which was the right answer or if it was something entirely different.
"Wow, Misty. Your mother looks just like you." Sid remarked to the ginger-haired girl, noticing the resemblence, before cooing at Misty's younger self, "Aww, and you looked so adorable as a baby."
"What's this?" Crash asked as he and Eddie hopped off Ellie's tusks to get a closer look. All three of them, still being new, had no idea what this meant. It looked too realistic to simply be a cave drawing.
"It's a photo of Misty and her family." Lusie explained, "A picture taken by a camera. That's this machine that takes realistic pictures of people and everything else as part of remembering certain things in the past since most things don't last forever."
"But if Misty's the baby, who's that girl with the others?" Eddie pointed out to the oldest girl in the photo.
It was a good question, everyone else thought, until they noticed writing underneath the photo which was faded over the years, very likely due to the weather patterns and that no one has even bothered in keeping an eye on it. So the group got a closer look at it to see what the message said.
""In...the Memory of...Peter, Sylvia and...Twelve year old M-Something Williams"?" Fiona read, becoming shocked and surprised. She then sighed as she grumbled, "The name of the letter M's faded too much, I can't make it out what it says."
"M...then that means..." Dawn realized with shock and dismay.
"So...that twelve year old girl is..." Brock continued with his heart aching a little.
"The older sister that man said?" Amy concluded, shocked.
"So there are two Mistys?" Sid asked, saddened.
"Maybe it's something entirely different and that guy got the two M's mixed up." Mina tried to point out, but even she didn't sound convinced by this new revelation.
For the entire time ever since finding this memorial site of what Misty now realized as the resting place of her mother, father, and...oldest sister she never got the chance to know, she didn't say a single thing at all. Her heart broke at the truth that the man was right all along; her named really isn't Misty, and while she was indeed the true youngest sibling, her three older sisters who were still alive never told her about any of this. Not even saying that her current name wasn't her real name, and instead renamed her after their oldest sister who they obviously felt betrayed them along with their parents, angry because she and their parents had died.
And took most of that blame on Misty herself despite loving her. Maybe that was why she was always the runt, picked on and getting less, because of her hair colour and resemblance to their late mother and late elder sister.
"But...if that's the case, then what's this Misty's real name?" Crash asked, jerking a thumb at Misty, unaware of the girl's heartbroken expression.
Tears in her eyes and wanting to left alone to her thoughts to calm down, Misty began to walk away over and small hill, disheartened.
All thoughts of their discovery immediately ceased, the rest of the group couldn't help but become worried and now once again feeling bad for their friend.
"Misty?" Sid inquired, worried.
"I...I just need to be alone a while, guys. You go ahead. I'll catch up later." Misty replied in sadness, walking away into the woods.
Yet what she is about to find on her own would only lead to more questions and seeking out more answers on this new journey while Ash and the others would soon be unexpectedly encounter two more surprises.
A/N: Sorry for the cliff hanger again. But in the next chapter, Ash, Misty and the others would be encountering someone who will be joining them on their journey to the boat, someone who will have a big connection with our favorite Water Pokemon Trainer.
See you in the next chapter!