A/N sorry for the long wait to the people that have been reading this, but also thank you to all of you who have been reading this, it means a lot that I have people who like the story I've been writing.

Disclaimer – if I didn't own Pokémon when I started, why would I now?

"Insert words here" normal voice

'Insert words here' thinking

"Insert words here" machine voice

"Insert words here" telepathy

Ch 4 A day in viridian

Leaving the forest behind them, Ash and Cynthia arrived at viridian city as the sun started to go down. As the pair made it into town they were stopped by a voice shouting at them, "Stop".

Looking in the direction the voice originated from, they noticed it belonged to a woman with blue hair and brown eyes (don't quote me on this) the most noticeable feature though, was definitely the police uniform she had on.

Not wanting to have any trouble with the law, both Ash and Cynthia complied and waited for the woman to come over to them. "What are you two doing out at this hour?" she asked the two of them with suspicion on her face as she looked over them.

"Well we just got into town so is there some kind of problem ma'am?" Cynthia asked, making sure to be as respectful as possible.

Looking at the state of Ash's clothes, the woman thought about it and came to the conclusion that it was the most likely case, besides; the thieves reported by the nurse at the Pokémon center were older and had a Meowth with them. "Sorry about that, we just recently had an attempted break in at the local Pokémon center, so the force is still on high alert" she explained, receiving an understanding nod from both of the young trainers.

"It's alright ma'am" Ash said, understanding the need to be alert with thieves running around.

"Anyway, my name's Jennifer, but everyone just calls me Jenny" the woman introduced herself.

"It's nice to meet you, my name's Ash Ketchum, from Pallet town" Ash introduced himself, "this is Pikachu" he continued, knowing the electric Pokémon would want to be introduced as well.

"So you're the other trainer that left Pallet this week, if you wanna catch up to the others, you'd better pick up the pace" Jenny said with a slight grin on her face. She then turned to face Cynthia waiting for her introduction.

"My name's Cynthia Shirona, I'm from Celestic town, in the Sinnoh region" at this, Ash realized that he hadn't heard Cynthia use her last name since he met her.

"If it's no trouble I would like to see some ID please" Jenny asked politely.

"Of course" Cynthia replied, before fishing out a pokédex that she had in a pocket on her coat. Ash took note that it looked far different from the red box that was Dexter, figuring it was a different model from his.

" I am Dextine, programmed by professor Rowan for Pokémon trainer Cynthia Shirona, to provide her with information and advice regarding the training of Pokémon, if lost or stolen, I cannot be replaced." Spoke a distinctly female voice from the scanning device.

"Alright, that will be enough for ID" Jenny said after verifying the photo ID on the device. "So where exactly are you heading too? It's a bit late to be leaving town now." She asked.

"Well we were planning on staying at the Pokémon center and then gathering supplies for travel in the morning" Cynthia said, as she was the one who had the most experience travelling.

"Well if that's the case the Pokémon center is down the road from here" Jenny said pointing a ways down towards a building that stood out even from the distance they were standing at. "I'd give you a lift, but during the attempted theft yesterday, my bike was destroyed" she said glumly. Though they thanked her for the offer, both Ash and Cynthia felt like they had just been handed a miracle for some strange reason.

"Thank you for the help" Ash said politely as the pair of trainers started on their way towards the Pokémon center.

Within roughly 10 minutes, they stood in front of the doors to the Pokémon center. As they walked in the doors, a woman wearing a nurse's uniform with red hair in two ring-like pigtails and blue eyes.

Smiling kindly at them, the woman asked "hello, welcome to the viridian city Pokémon center, how may I help you?"

"We would like to rent a room for the night if there are any available" Cynthia spoke up, hoping that at least one room was free.

"of course, I just need to check which rooms aren't in use at the moment" the Pokémon nurse said before turning her attention to the computer at her side, typing at a few keys.

As this was happening, Ash looked around the building, taking note of the look of the place. The area they were currently standing in was mostly empty, with some benches and tables off to the sides, clearly for trainers to wait for their Pokémon. He also noticed a sign that hung above a hallway, reading cafeteria. There was a stairway that led towards the rooms, such as the one they were renting for tonight.

"Alright miss Shirona, here is the key to your room, it will be room 29, have a good night" spoke nurse joy with the kindness she was known for.

Smiling, Cynthia took the key from the nurse "thank you, you have a good night as well" turning around she took note of Ash looking around before she walked over to him. "Ash, come on, we have our room for the night."

Snapping out of his tourist like state, Ash followed Cynthia as she started towards the stairs, since he had no idea where the room was. After they made their way through the hall at the top of the stairs to their room, they both walked into the room.

The room was fairly simple, with a pair of double beds on the sides of the room with a door on the right that lead to the bathroom. Deciding to get changed for bed, Ash and Cynthia set their bags on the beds that each had claimed, Pikachu jumped onto the bed, landing beside Ash's bag to let his trainer get changed to go to sleep.

Cynthia made her way to the bathroom to change, leaving Ash to change in the bedroom. He didn't really have much to wear since he hadn't thought about how damaged his clothes would get on his journey, so he had only a regular t-shirt and shorts to wear for the night. Shortly after he had changed and was putting his things to the side so he could lie down on the bed, Cynthia left the bathroom; Ash had noticed that she hadn't really gotten anything that different from normal in terms of her night clothes. She was wearing a black shirt that had slightly longer sleeves to keep her warmer than a normal t-shirt would, while she was wearing a pair of pants that had a pattern somewhat like Gabite's horns. He couldn't help a smirk at this, since he had noticed that she loved almost anything that had to do with the gabite family.

Having finished the setup for their beds, Ash and Cynthia lay down in their respective beds, both wishing the other a good night sleep.

Next morning…

As the sun started to rise and shine through the window, Cynthia slowly started to wake herself up. Looking over at Ash, who was sleeping like a rock, she couldn't help but be reminded of how she would always sleep in when she was starting her journey. 'I guess all rookies have that habit' she thought, deciding to wake him up after she finished getting ready for the day, she made her way to the bathroom to take a shower. After finishing said shower, Cynthia walked back into the room dressed in her daily clothes and began wondering how to wake Ash up. "Ash, its morning" she stated while shaking him lightly, not having any idea how to start trying to wake him up. Unsurprisingly, she got no reaction from him, though Pikachu was definitely awake, if the irritated look on his face was anything to go by.

'Why do I have to get stuck with the job of waking him up all the time' Pikachu thought to himself, since he had been waking Ash up every morning since they had started getting along. Continuing his mental rant he slowly rose from his spot on the bed.

Cynthia watched the little mouse stand up next to Ash and got slightly nervous when she saw his cheeks start sparking. "Uh… Pikachu, hold on…" she started to say, worried about the mouse's method for waking Ash up. "CHUUUU!" the mouse continued as if he hadn't heard anything and proceeded to shock his trainer, which had results instantly.

Ash had been sleeping peacefully, not really worrying about anything around him, when he was woken up by the feeling of Pikachu shocking him, which he noted was becoming a bit too familiar. Ash shot himself out of the bed, and proceed to fall over and start twitching on the floor, groaning in pain as he looked at the mouse sitting on his former resting place. "Why?" was the only thing he said as he stared up at Pikachu, "pi" the mouse said with a deadpan look on its face, that Ash took as him saying "are you really asking that?". With a sigh Ash got up and went about getting himself ready for the day, as he knew that there was no way that he would be getting back to sleep. He then noticed that Cynthia was standing a little ways away from the bed, with a look that was somewhere between worried and amused. "Morning" he greeted with a sheepish smile, which she returned with a similar greeting.

After Ash had woken up and proceeded to take a shower, He and Cynthia walked down to the cafeteria to get themselves, and their Pokémon something to eat for breakfast. As they sat down with their food, Ash noticed that Cynthia looked like she was thinking on something. When he was about halfway through his food, she spoke up, voicing her thought. "Hey ash?" she asked hoping to start the conversation.

Finishing the food in his mouth as Cynthia had drilled into his head for the past few days, Ash replied to her question, "ya?" he said. He noticed she seemed a little nervous about asking him whatever she wanted to ask.

"Well I was wondering if you would mind if I traveled with you for a while" Cynthia asked while she was hoping that he wouldn't mind, since she had nothing else that she could do. After all, she didn't really make a lot of friends while she was travelling, since she wasn't exactly the friendliest person to be around. She really was ashamed of how she had treated people prior to her challenge to the champion; she had been so overconfident that she was unbearable to be around for any more time than necessary.

Ash looked at Cynthia and noticed the hopeful look in her eye as she asked to travel with him, "uh, I don't really have a problem with it" he started "but it seems like I'd just be slowing you down along the way, so why do you want to travel with me?". He hoped that he hadn't offended her, but he really had no clue why someone would willingly weigh themselves down like she was talking about doing.

"To tell the truth" Cynthia started, sounding somewhat depressed, "I don't have anything else to be doing since I'm focusing on travelling for the time being".

"That sounds kind of like an excuse to me", Ash's response surprised her since it was a bit more insightful then he usually seemed to be. Seeing the surprise on her face, Ash chuckled " I might seem dense, but I did pick up some things from home you know" he said.

Truthfully Ash had mostly picked up his skill in reading excuse thanks to Gary, since the arrogant jerk had never been able to admit defeat, or even a tie, in anything in his life. Ash had gotten so used to picking apart Gary's excuses for his loses, that it had just become something he did naturally all the time.

"Well I guess it is kind of a flimsy excuse huh?" Cynthia chuckled at how easily she was figured out. "to tell the truth, I'd much rather be travelling with someone else, since I've travelled solo enough already." Taking the silence as a que to continue, she resumed talking "honestly, I was really anti-social while I was travelling, so I didn't exactly make a lot of friends that I can just travel around with."

"Well I was just kind of wanting to know about why you were wanting to travel with me, seeing as you are a lot more experienced than me." Ash said. "Like I said though, I really have no problem with you travelling with me, who knows; you might be able to teach me some more along the way."

After hearing this, Cynthia smiled gratefully at Ash, finished with their conversation, the two went back to eating their food. Once they finished their breakfast, they took their trays to be cleaned, and looked at the clock to find that it was roughly 8. The two trainers then decided to take care of buying their supplies for when they would be leaving to continue travelling later that day.

Later…..

Ash, Cynthia and Pikachu were walking towards the counter of the Pokémon market, or poke-mart as it was commonly known, with the few things that they were planning to buy. At first, Ash had no clue how they were supposed to pay for all of this, until Cynthia once again showed Ash another helpful bit of information regarding his career as a Pokémon trainer.

It turns out that the pokédex served as not only a trainer ID, but also as a way to access a trainer's bank account. Starting out, trainers had $3000 in their account that was used to pay for supplies and other such things. The trainer from then on had to earn their own money, be it from battling other trainers, getting a job, or by winning misc. prizes. When Ash asked how the account kept track of all the money that was gained or lost, Cynthia explained that a division of the Pokémon league, kept records of all trainers, and that each account was linked to the trainer record, and the system kept track of all transactions that occurred.

After explaining the system and ensuring that Ash understood it, Cynthia walked up to the counter and handed her purchase to the clerk. She had heard about the Pokémon that were around the woods and bought herself a half dozen antidotes to be on the safe side, as well as a few paralyz heals and some potions.

"Your total comes to $2400" the clerk said in a nearly emotionless, and clearly bored, tone. Cynthia handed the clerk her pokédex, which the clerk ran across a scanner by the computer at the counter before handing it back to her.

After grabbing her purchase, Cynthia walked over to a bench that was by the door, and started to put the items into her travelling bag while she waited for Ash to finish his own purchase.

Ash had followed the example Cynthia had set, though to a lesser extent, only buying 3 antidotes, a single paralyz heal, two potions. However, Ash also included 5 pokéballs in his purchase, in case he found any particular Pokémon he liked.

The clerk scanned the items and rang up the total "your total comes to $2100" he repeated in the same tone of voice. Ash handed his pokédex over for it to be scanned, and took his purchase after he got the pokédex back.

Walking over to the door and sitting down at the bench by Cynthia, Ash started to put the newly bought items into his backpack. After finishing his organizing, Ash stood up and looked for a sign that could direct him to where he would be able to buy himself some new clothes to finally replace his current damaged ones. After eventually finding the sign, Ash walked into a clothing store that was down near the end of the right side of the market. After looking over the clothes in the store for about 10 minutes, Ash finally realized that he had absolutely no clue what he was looking for, since he hadn't gone clothes shopping before, and he didn't know what was what. While he was lost in thought, Pikachu sat on his trainers shoulder, looking around the store in his infinite boredom.

While Ash was lost in thought, Cynthia walked up behind him, noticing him standing there and not really paying attention to anything. Tapping him on the shoulder Cynthia made her presence known to Ash, "you know I'm kind of hurt." She started as she watched Ash jump from her startling him out of his thoughts. "I would have thought you'd like my opinion" she finished with a smirk as Ash faced her with a bit of an irritated glare on his face. Pikachu couldn't help but chuckle at the ease with which the blonde girl had surprised his trainer.

"Well I don't really have a clue what I should be looking for, since I don't know what would be good for travelling" Ash said as he gestured to all the clothes nearby. "Do you think you might be able to give me a hand with finding some clothes?" for whatever reason the smile on Cynthia's face filled Ash with a sense of dread that he truly had no idea where it came from.

Later…..

'This is INSANE!' Ash thought to himself, as he continued to try on clothes that Cynthia offered him. He had been following this process for over an hour, first Cynthia would bring him something to try on, then she would wait for him to change into said clothing, and he would then come out and stand there for a few moments while she looked him over. Overall, the situation brought Ash to a single conclusion 'I'm never going shopping with a girl ever again' he thought. He couldn't understand how she was still so enthusiastic about this; he had started getting worn out within 10 minutes of this.

"Try this on, it's the last thing that I found" Cynthia said snapping him out of his thoughts, while she handed him a few clothes. Thankfully they hadn't spent the last hour just looking over clothes, but they had found a few things that did seem to suit Ash, and had spent most of the time finding clothes so that he had more than a single outfit to wear for all occasions.

Ash walked out with the last few pieces of clothing on, and stood there for Cynthia to give him her opinion." Well the shirt doesn't look to bad, but the jeans seem to baggy." She said. Ash may have found it to be exhausting to go through all of this, but he knew that Cynthia wasn't trying to make things difficult.

In the end, Ash walked out with three similar outfits, one of which he was wearing so he could get out of his old clothes. He was wearing a dark grey t-shirt with sleeves that reached a little past his biceps. In place of his old jeans, he was wearing a pair of darker pants that were somewhat darker than grey but not quite black. Over his t-shirt, Ash wore a light dark blue coat with a somewhat thin stripe of black running along the sleeves that reached to just above his wrist. One of the few things that ash still kept from his old outfit was that he still wore a hat. Walking towards the counter, a hat had caught Ash's eye, and he bought it regardless of what would be said about it. The hat itself wasn't anything particularly special, it was a black cap with a white band around the front of it, again it wasn't anything special, but Ash wanted it regardless.

Walking out of the store, Ash glanced at the watch that Cynthia had all but forced him to buy, on account of it doubling as a compass due to his terrible sense of direction. He noticed that it was now just after ten, which left them with very little to do since they weren't planning to leave just yet, so with nothing better to do, Ash, Cynthia and Pikachu began to look around the town to kill time.

Shortly after they were looking around, Ash noticed a couple of people that were standing around a building, which after looking at the building itself, he realized it was a school.

"Alright, pay attention to the battle, I'll be asking for observations afterwards" came the voice of a woman standing in front of the people that were now confirmed to be students. At the talk of a battle, the two trainers' curiosity was peaked, so they made their way over to the crowd to observe the class. "Now Alex, if you'd please join me on the field." The teacher said to the man that was standing next to her.

The woman looked to be in about her mid twenties and had dark brown hair that went to her shoulder blades in a neatly trimmed haircut. She wore what one would expect on a standard teacher, a grey suit that would look exactly the same if one were to set it next to a dozen others like it. The man standing next to her looked around twenty, and had slightly messy black hair, he wore a similar uniform to the teacher, but had a nametag the marked him as an assistant. Overall, the two were fairly standard.

"Uh…well you see…" the man, Alex, stuttered nervously, struggling to look the woman in the eye.

"Yes?" the woman said in a calm tone.

"Well my Pokémon are all injured at the moment from an accident while I was training them yesterday" Alex said somewhat hurriedly.

Sighing, the woman looked at Alex "and you didn't think to tell me this before class why?" she asked, starting to look angrier as the conversation went on.

"It slipped my mind when I took them to the Pokémon center." Alex said

"Well, see to it that it that it doesn't happen again" the woman said, sighing again the woman began to think over what to do now. 'I have everything put together, but I can't have the demonstration without someone else to assist me with it.' She then noticed Ash and Cynthia standing by the class 'bingo'. "excuse me" she started, when she had their attention she continued "you two aren't part of the class, so I was wondering if you might be able to help me with the demonstration that we're supposed to be holding" at this she shot an annoyed look at her assistant.

"Well, I don't see why not" Cynthia said, after she started thinking it over.

"Excellent, my name is Helen Frost" the woman introduced herself.

"I'm Cynthia Shirona" Cynthia introduced herself.

"My name's Ash Ketchum" Ash introduced himself.

"It's nice to meet you" Helen said sincerely "would one of you join me on the field out here?"

"Ash, you should go" Cynthia said

"Wait why me?" Ash said, slightly panicked.

"This will be a good chance for you to get practice as a trainer" Cynthia said calmly.

At this point, Ash knew he was cornered, since there was no real flaw in Cynthia's logic. "All right" he said in a resigned tone.

Stepping out onto the field, Ash stood next to Helen, unsure of what to do at the moment. He noticed that the class was comprised of little kids that looked to be just starting trainer school. Following the instructions given by Helen, Ash walked over to one of the edges of the field, while Helen took her place at the other.

"All right Ash, what we're going to be doing is showing the class what they will be doing in a battle." Helen said, slightly louder so he could here from the other side of the field. Seeing Ash's nod of confirmation, she continued "we're going to have a simple one on one battle alright?" Again Ash nodded.

"I'll be the judge of this match" Alex spoke up from the sideline. "This will be a match between Ash Ketchum of…" he trailed off since he didn't know where Ash was from.

"Pallet town" Ash stated simply.

"Ash Ketchum of Pallet town" Alex finished his earlier statement. "And Helen Frost of viridian city" he said introducing Helen. " this will be a one on one Pokémon battle, with no time limit, and will be decided when one side is no longer able to continue" Alex finished.

"Pikachu you're up" Ash said looking at the mouse on his shoulder.

"Pi" Pikachu responder as he jumped from Ash's shoulder onto the battlefield, and waited for their opponent to reveal their Pokémon.

"Alright then" Helen said as she pulled out a pokéball, "go Machop" she said as she tossed the ball into the air.

The ball opened and released a flash of light that began to take the shape of the Pokémon inside. When the light finished taking its form, there stood a small humanoid that stood at around 2'07". It had grayish blue skin and three rip-like stripes on its torso. It had a tail that looked especially like a reptile, which was further shown with its somewhat lizard-like features on its face. On the top of its head were three crests that reached from the back of its head to its forehead.

Taking the opportunity, Ash took out his pokédex and pointed it at the Pokémon to scan it.

"Machop, the superpower Pokémon, machop loves to work out and build its muscles, it is never satisfied, even if it trains hard all day long. It passes time by lifting boulders." The red box said as it read the information to Ash. Ash didn't like the sound of that at all.

"We'd better keep our distance Pikachu" He said after the pokédex finished reading the information off.

"Pika" Pikachu nodded at this, since it was clear that Machop was very strong

"The battle between Pikachu and Machop will now begin" Alex said loudly as he took a step further back from the battlefield.

"Machop, use karate chop" Helen ordered immediately.

The fighting Pokémon rushed towards Pikachu with its arm flexed, showing it ready to swing for a lot of damage.

"Pikachu dodge it" Ash stated, which the mouse complied with by jumping to the side as Machop brought down it's left arm in a chop.

"Machop, use low kick" Helen ordered.

Standing up, machop started to run towards Pikachu again and when it got close to him Ash ordered Pikachu to dodge and use quick attack. Pikachu again jumped out of the way, and on landing, rushed towards machop to hit it with a full body tackle.

"Machop counter with karate chop!" Helen shouted. Machop spun around with its left arm prepped for another chop, which was unavoidable this time. The chop connected with Pikachu's face, and sent it flying through the air with a cry of pain.

"Pikachu, you okay?" Ash asked his Pokémon, wanting to make sure he was okay to continue. Upon receiving the all clear from Pikachu, Ash made another order "Pikachu use thundershock!" with a spark of electricity, the mouse fired a miniature lightning bolt at Machop. Due to the speed and suddenness of the attack, Machop had no time to even try to dodge, taking the bolt head on, and the superpower Pokémon cried out in pain as electricity ran through its body.

After the attack was over, Helen decided to take a different approach, "Machop use focus energy" she commanded. Complying with the order, machop closed its eyes, and slowly, to Ash and Pikachu's surprise, the muscles on Machop's body slowly began to pump themselves up more.

Not wanting to run any further risk, Ash decided act, "Pikachu use thundershock again". Once again, the electric mouse fired off the bolt of electricity. To the surprise of both trainer and Pokémon however, Machop showed hardly any reaction this time.

"Sorry Ash but we're more prepared this time" Helen said with a slight chuckle. "Machop, use karate chop once more" she ordered. The superpower Pokémon's eyes snapped open and it charged at Ash and Pikachu, significantly faster than before.

"Pikachu dodge it!" Ash yelled in panic. Pikachu barely managed to dodge the swift chop from the fighting type, but both noticed with growing horror as the attack struck the ground it left behind cracks a small ways out from a hand shaped indent where Machop's arm had struck. Realizing the risk that Machop presented now, Ash called out to Pikachu "thunder wave!"

Hearing the order that had been given, Helen's eyes widened already knowing that they would have little to no chance of victory if that hit. "Machop, before it's finished, hit it with karate chop" with a grunt, the fighting type rushed towards Pikachu with its arm raised to deliver a final chop.

"PIIIKAAAACHUUUUU!" the mouse yelled as it released the electricity at the last second, causing Machop's eyes to widen as it was dropped almost instantly due to the close proximity to the charge.

Looking at his opponent, Pikachu could only sigh in relief at how close he had cut it there. Ash was equally relieved at his friend managing to pull off the attack 'that was way too close' he thought as he looked at how close Machop had gotten before falling down.

Alex looked over to Helen, and she gave him a nod. Taking the confirmation he raised his right hand "Machop is unable to Battle, Pikachu wins. The winner is Ash Ketchum from Pallet town." He declared.

The class cheered at the exciting match, bringing Ash and Pikachu both back to the present, as they had forgotten that they were doing a demonstration for a class.

Helen walked over to Machop and raised the pokéball "return Machop" she said, which was followed by a thin red beam connecting the pokéball to the Pokémon. Machop disappeared in a flash of red, and Helen put the pokéball away. "Thank you for your help with the demonstration Ash" Helen spoke up.

Ash blushed lightly from the comment, "it was no trouble at all Helen that was a tough match though" he said with Pikachu agreeing completely.

Helen smiled at the trainer and Pokémon duo, "that may be, but you really helped me out there." She said sincerely. "I would like to have a rematch though some time in the future" she spoke, her eye's taking on a slightly competitive gleam.

"Definitely" Ash said with a smile on his face. "Well we need to be going on our way" he said as Pikachu resumed his favorite spot on his trainer's shoulder. "I'm glad I was able to help you out though" he said before walking over to Cynthia who had a smirk on her face. "What?" Ash asked seeing the smirk.

"And you were nervous" Cynthia said with a small laugh.

"Well I did almost lose that match" Ash said as they started walking towards the forest to resume their trip.

"That may be the case, but you are better than you give yourself credit for." Cynthia said as they walked past the border of the town and entered the forest.

A/N that's all for chapter 4

I never really thought I'd say this but I think I can safely say that I know what writer's block feels like. I really wanted to continue this but I didn't have anything that came to mind when I tried to type something for a while.

Also, I'd like to know what needs work, so as always, constructive criticism is welcome so long as it isn't just people flaming me.

If anybody would be willing to beta this, I'd really be grateful for it. Because honestly I think it could only turn out better.

Thanks for reading

Akkeiton