Author's Note: The trick gender bending in the last chapter was mainly done just because of the many people worried about me making Brock or Professor Oak girls. Personally just so you know I feel the same way nor will I be changing any male characters into female ones in this story, except for possibly Pikachu since there is some debate that she is potentially male with arguments for either side. However since it's still debatable, I chose to have Pikachu be a girl as I've always seen her as one. Thank you.

Chapter 8

Ash had done everything he could in preparing for Brock. Now it was all up to fate and Misty.

Misty as she walked alongside him seemed to realize just how important she was. This was her moment, her time to shine or fail.

However despite the pressure she appeared confident, carrying her newly evolved body as if she was in total control and unconcerned.

"You ready?" He asked her as they approached the gym.

"As I'll ever be," She answered.

As they walked into the gym, he had to face a junior gym trainer first with his Pokemon before he could actually challenge Brock.

He used Ivy to take the junior trainer and her Geodude out and then moved on to Brock.

Brock was waiting for him.

"I Ash Ketchum, challenge you to a battle for the rights to your gym badge," Ash declared.

"I accept your challenge," Brock agreed, "I'll be using my Onyx Stonia."

"Then I'll use my Wartortle Misty," Ash answered.

Brock let out his Pokemon, the girl Onyx giving a rather determined look at Misty.

Misty sent back a look of her own as if to show she wasn't intimidated by her.

As soon as the battle began, Onyx rushed Misty, probably hoping for a quick and easy knock out.

Unfortunately for her, Misty managed to dodge it and leap out of the way.

"Just be patient Stonia," Brock warned his Pokemon, "a rock Pokemon learns to be patient, yet strong."

A sound mantra, but not one he or Misty was going to employ, Ash thought.

"Water gun!" He commanded Misty.

She let loose a spray of water, hitting Stonia in the face.

Stonia certainly seemed weakened by the attack, but was still keen on going.

"I got this Brock," Stonia insisted as she rushed in, trying to swipe her tail directly into Misty.

Misty got nailed and sent flying, but she managed to break her fall by letting loose a stream of water at the ground just before impact.

"Are you okay?" Ash asked her.

"I'm fine," Misty insisted as she managed to get up.

"Go for another water gun," Ash suggested.

"Will do," She replied going in for another attack.

This time however Stonia dodged it before going after her.

"Stay back!" Brock commanded his Pokemon.

Maybe Stonia just had rocks in her ears, but she didn't listen, ramming her head into Misty's chest.

He'd actually been hoping for this and Misty knew just what to do if it happened, she let Stonia hit her and then just held onto Stonia's head as best she could.

Misty then let loose another water gun directly onto Stonia's head.

At such close range, the water attack did some heavy damage, the water pressure enough to wear down her opponents thick exterior.

Stonia tried to shake Misty off, but Misty still managed to hold on until finally Stonia collapsed, having had all her energy wiped out.

Misty was panting, obviously exhausted, but still extremely pleased that she had won.

"I won!" She exclaimed as loudly as her remaining energy would permit.

"Good job," Brock said with a smile, not all upset that he lost, "it appears my Pokemon was too impetuous, likely from having won so much. I think this might help her be more cautious."

"Well Misty did most of the work, but I'm still glad we won," Ash claimed.

Brock gave him a funny look before admitting, "you know, the interesting thing is, I feel like I know you from somewhere, I just haven't been able to shake the feeling since I met you yesterday."

He was surprised but he only told him, "I guess I just have one of those faces."

"Perhaps," Brock answered, "well at any rate, I'd like to reward you with the Pewter City Gym Badge!"

He held out the small gym badge pin, and Ash decided, "why don't you go get it Misty? You've earned it."

Happily, Misty did as he suggested and went over and took it.

"Brock did you lose?" A woman asked from over the balcony of the stands.

He did a double take. It was a woman with dark skin and black hair like Brock's, but otherwise didn't look a thing like him.

Ash guessed that she was one of Brock's wives.

"I can't believe I missed it too," She commented, "you almost never lose."

"This would be my wife Lashonta," Brock introduced, "she would be my 5th wife and my 2nd human one."

She then smiled warmly at them and invited, "we should have you over for lunch."

"Agreed," Brock said, extending his own invitation, "come on."

"Let's go Ash!" Pikachu said happily.

"Alright," He agreed.

At least it would let him know more about Brock in this world.

He accompanied Brock and Lashonta back to their home which was just a couple blocks away.

Admittedly Ash was shocked by the size of the house. Obviously all the dwelling were a lot larger than normal, but this one was absolutely massive.

He soon found out why.

There appeared to be tons of women and children all running around all over the place, some human and some Pokemon.

Most of the Pokemon were rock Pokemon, but there was a scattering of other types as well.

Funnily enough this house actually reminded him of Brock's family in his coma world with all his younger siblings.

Except even that could not have prepared him for this. It was absolute bedlum.

When they got inside the kitchen, a Lickitung woman appeared to be dishing out bowls of soup to various members of the family.

The Lickitung woman kept her very long tongue inside her mouth, but when a small boy tried to sneak a cookie from the cookie jar, she hit his arm with it.

"Not until you've finished eating all your soup Jasper," She admonished, much to Jasper's disappointment.

Brock then came up to her and briefly explained about inviting them over.

She didn't seem at all bothered by it, although he supposed with all those mouths to feed already, a few more really wouldn't make much of a difference.

They ate their soup, which turned out to be a nice hearty stew with Pikachu and Misty talking to some of Brock's wives while Ash talked to Brock.

"I can't believe you manage to keep control of your family," Ash couldn't help but note.

"Well it does get kind of crazy a lot of the time but I wouldn't have it any other way," Brock replied as he looked around proudly at his huge family, "what about you then Ash? You got any aspiration of maybe having a family of your own?"

"Eventually," Ash answered, "although I really hadn't given it much thought."

Brock leaned in and said, "well between you and me, I'm pretty sure that Pikachu of yours likes you and I wouldn't be surprised if you like her back."

"Likes me?" Ash questioned.

"Looks like you're still in the denial stage," Brock observed, "trust me it goes away fast. One moment you're getting your first Pokemon then bam...you have several kids together, I've seen it happen many times."

"Is that what happened to you?" Ash asked him.

"Sort of," Brock explained, "truth be told I wasn't really all that good around girls when I was young. I just spent all my time Pokemon training and battling. Of course then some of my Pokemon decided to help me out... and well...let's just say the help worked a little too well."

"I can't imagine," Ash said, "I mean Pikachu and Misty have always been my friends and..."

"That's even better," Brock replied, "sometimes its hard for me to keep up with all the members of my family but I do the best I can. I'm really just trying to counsel you as I can see you how you might become a bit popular with the ladies as well one day. From what I can tell you're a great trainer with a lot of potential."

"Thank you," Ash said gratefully, not sure what else to say.

"So where will you go now?" Brock asked him curiously.

"Cerulean City I guess," He answered.

"Well if you're going to go that route," Brock said, "you're going to need to pass through Mt. Moon. You might want to go right through the mountain then as quickly as possible and during the day time. The Clefairy can get a little moon crazy if you know what I mean."

"Moon crazy?" Ash questioned.

Brock glanced around at some of his kids nearby and said, "I don't think I'd better explain what it is in front of the kids."

"Gotcha," Ash said, not entirely sure what Brock meant, but guessing that it was sexual in nature.

After talking a bit more, Ash decided to be on his way, and Brock and several of his family members wished them goodbye.

As they walked away, Pikachu asked, "how come you didn't tell Brock who we really were Ash?"

"It just didn't seem right," He told her, "this Brock seems very happy and evidently very busy. He doesn't need to go traipsing around the world like he did when we knew him, especially since it would take him away from his family."

Pikachu nodded before saying, "well I suppose that's true, but he probably would have been a big help."

"Well hey, I've already got all the help I need right now," Ash claimed as he put an arm around each of them.

"We do make a pretty good team don't we," Misty agreed.

"Yep, nothing can stop us," Pikachu replied, "next stop: Cerulean!"

"Well I guess we'd better be going then," Misty said.

For her their next stop would be a bit different. She'd have to confront her sisters about having turned into a Pokemon and she was still trying to figure out just what she would say.

He couldn't blame her. He was still trying to figure what he himself would say to them.

POKEMONPOKEMON

They spent the next several days traveling to Mt. Moon and got to the entrance late in the afternoon. While they could have pressed onward, they opted to stay and wait until early morning as Brock had suggested in order to get through the cave before nightfall hit again.

Yet just as he was getting to sleep, he heard a noise and then suddenly he saw someone put an arm over Pikachu's mouth.

He let out a yell, instantly awaking Misty as well as his other Pokemon, who while they were in their Pokeballs, could still recognize a cry for help and pop out on their own if they wished.

Before the intruder could blink, they were suddenly surrounded as his Pokemon closed in.

They released Pikachu and seemed to try and make a break for it, but Jessie had already wrapped her body around them and tripped them up.

"What's the big idea?" A woman's voice complained.

"I could say the same thing," Ash said as he got out of his sleeping bag with Pikachu.

"Who are you?" Jessie demanded.

"I'm Stinky," She answered.

"That sounds like a terrible name," Pikachu said.

"Well it's the name my master gave me all right," Stinky replied.

He took a moment to look over Stinky. She had purple, bubbly skin, was rather rotund with no real curves to speak of, and he had to admit, smelled horrible.

If he had to guess what kind of Pokemon, she was, he would say that she was a Koffing.

"Who's your master?" Misty interrogated her.

"That would be me," replied a familiar voice.

He turned to spot James of Team Rocket, looking the exact same as he was used to seeing him, Team Rocket uniform and all. At his side was a familiar Meowth."

"You should have just let Stinky take your Pokemon, it would have been a lot easier for you," James insisted, "now I'll have to take all of them since now I know just how valuable some of your Pokemon are."

He was currently looking over at Jessie the Dratini, who admittedly was rather rare and valuable as a Pokemon.

For once however Jessie was looking at him with disgust on her face, clearly not wanting to have anything to do with him.

"Yeah, we'll totally clean you out, now hand over your Pokemon," Meowth added.

"I already told you you weren't allowed to speak," James told Meowth with a scowl, "I own you got it?"

Meowth nodded.

"I just can't seem to get you to shut up," James said before turning his attention back to them, "well as I was saying, you'd better surrender now or prepare to fight."

"Meowth that's right!" Meowth couldn't resist saying much to James' annoyance.

James took out about 30 pokeballs and released them all at once using some sort of button device.

To his surprise, out came out around 30 more Koffing that very closely resembled Stinky.

"Hey you can't have more than one Pokemon of the same type," Misty pointed out.

"I'm a criminal remember?" James said with a grin, "the rules don't apply to me and I've got my own way around them."

"Well, it doesn't matter," Ash told his Pokemon, "go knock out all those Koffing."

The good thing was they all appeared relatively weak so he was hoping he and his Pokemon could take care of them. Besides if James was anything like he was before, he wouldn't be much of a challenge."

"Use smog!" James commanded his Koffing.

Each of them let out a long stream of gas from their mouths as well as some from their butts.

While not lethal it was certainly foul smelling and it would certainly make it difficult to fight.

Pidgey began to try and gust it back towards the Koffing and keep it away from, but she alone couldn't manage to prevent it getting to them.

However it was his mom who saved the day as she let out a burst of flame from her mouth.

With that much gas in that amount of space, the fire reacted as it should, causing the air to light on fire, using the gas as fuel.

Suddenly all the Koffing practically ignited and burst into flames, getting knocked out at once.

By the time the air had cleared James was then the only one left standing and when he saw what had happened he tried to run.

However he did not get far before Jessie went and grabbed his leg with her tail and pulled him to the ground.

"I'm really starting to see the advantages of this thing," Jessie commented as she swished her tail.

"Well let's tie him up with a real rope," He suggested.

Before he could however, James and all the Koffing suddenly disappeared in a burst of red light.

"What just happened?" Misty questioned, "they were all just there and now they're gone."

"Yeah, and James was human, he shouldn't have disappeared like that," Pidgey argued, "I didn't sense anyone fly over and grab him real fast either."

He was about to suggest his own theory when he spotted one more figure now running away.

"They didn't all disappear," Ash told them, "Meowth is escaping!"

Each of his Pokemon rushed off after the fleeing Pokemon, with himself trying his best to catch up.

They followed him into the cave of Mt. Moon where he was fleeing.

Yet as soon as he entered, he was momentarily stunned as he saw a very interesting display.

Perhaps a couple dozen Clefairy were assembled, only they were all naked and female, except for one male Clefable who was also naked and standing in the center of them.

He looked away, now blushing, guessing what they were probably doing.

Some of the Clefairy seemed to notice them however.

"Ooh, come to join in the fun?" A Clefairy invited.

Since he was still looking away he could only hear rather than see what was going on, but one of them must have approached Meowth, because she said, "you're rather ugly, but lucky for you I'm not too picky."

A moment later she exclaimed, "eww...that's gross! You're a eunuch."

"Hey, I had an accident all right," Meowth complained.

Whatever happened next he wasn't sure, only that he heard a few punches and slaps land and Meowth making a few cries of pain.

Next thing he knew someone was escorting him back out.

"What just happened?" Ash demanded of Misty, who had taken him out.

"Well evidently that Meowth did something that made that Clefairy upset because she knocked him out cold before he disappeared as well," Misty admitted.

"It's certainly very strange, that disappearing act," Professor Ivy agreed as she seemed to be thinking really hard.

By now all of his Pokemon were now back out of the cave.

Pikachu was last as she asked him curiously, "Ash what were those Clefairy doing?"

"They were...well...having sex Pikachu," Ash admitted, now blushing.

"It sure looked like they were having a lot of fun," Pikachu noted, "can we do that?"

"No," He answered, now blushing even redder.

"Those Clefairy can get a little crazy at nights and in close proximity to Moon stones," Professor Ivy cautioned, "I wouldn't recommend any of us staying for one of their orgies even if it might be a bit...enlightening."

After talking for a bit more, none of them could really figure out what had happened to James or his Pokemon so they decided to call it a night.

Jessie however decided to linger for a bit to talk to him alone.

"That was him wasn't it," She asked of him, "that James you told me about."

By now he had told her about how he had known her in his coma world...with the extra assurance that he did not hold it against her, which he really didn't.

Jessie seemed to be nothing like her coma world counterpart.

Evidently she was still a bit bothered by it however.

"Yes," He was forced to admit.

"What if I end up...with him again and join Team Rocket?" She asked worriedly.

"Do you want to be with him?" He questioned.

"Absolutely not, He seemed absolutely disgusting to me," Jessie easily answered.

"Well then there you go," Ash said, "besides by now I have absolutely no doubt that you are truly a good person and would never join an organization like Team Rocket."

Jessie looked touched.

"Thanks Ash," Jessie said, seeming pleased by his response, "I really like being your Pokemon."

"Well I like having you," He told her.

She reached in and gave him a hug to his surprise, but which he returned.

He felt her tail touch the bottom part of his leg, feeling slippery but also warm.

Although she didn't seem to mind having a tail, he supposed she would be getting her legs and feet back when she became a Dragonite...if he ever managed to make it that far, he still had a long way to go.

Once they had broken from their hug, Jessie suggested, "I think I'd better stay out of my Pokeball and be near you tonight...you know...just in case James or one of those Koffing come back."

While he didn't think they would, he nodded, grateful for her desire to make sure he was kept safe.

The irony was certainly there, Jessie now helping to stop Team Rocket from trying to steal his Pokemon, but he still trusted her nonetheless.

Finally, he went back to bed with Pikachu, Jessie and Misty nearby as he then went and got some sleep.

Please Review.