Hey there, it's time for another update.
You know how when you write, it sometimes feels like the characters in the story are standing next to you, watching over your shoulder and shouting out complaints and ideas? Well right now Ash wants to know when the spirit bastard is going to die, the spirit wants to know when he gets to take over the world and why Ash doesn't wear more depressing emo clothes, and May keeps poking me in the side wanting to know when she and Ash will kiss and now Ash is blushing furiously while the king points and laughs at him.
I don't own Pokemon. And I'm pretty sure I don't own the voices in my head either.
.:.Eight.:.
Meowth didn't dare sleep at all during the night. He spent most of his time holding his breath, hoping Ash wouldn't hear him. Whatever was going on with Ash, Meowth wouldn't take the chance that Ash might throw him over the side of the balloon. He watched from his hiding spot how Ash had spent most of the time directing the balloon to go to god knows where, making Meowth wonder where Ash had even learned how to pilot a hot air balloon.
Eventually, sometime in the early morning, "Ash" had sat down in the basket, facing away from Meowth and had supposedly fallen asleep. Meowth wondered if he should dare move and see if he could turn the balloon back to Pallet Town...but then again, since he had no idea where they were flying over, then that didn't seem like a wise idea.
Ash had not seemed to give any clue as to where he was heading, except for the occasional, "Almost there", which would be followed by a very creepy laugh.
"Dat's it. I need ta find out where I am anyways." he said after a long moment when he was sure that it was safe to talk. He scooted out from behind the bags in the corner and stood up to peer over the side of the balloon.
He gulped when he saw water. Looking out over the horizon, he saw nothing but water everywhere. Great, now he was stuck in a balloon with a crazed Ash in the middle of the ocean. There was no chance of him surviving if Ash tossed him over the edge. He'd be dead before hitting the ocean bottom.
Why oh why hadn't I taken those swimming lessons?
He heard someone yawn behind him, no doubt that it would be Ash. The hairs on his back bristled as he turned to look.
Ash opened his eyes and found himself staring at the burner and pulleys of a hot air balloon. He blinked for a second, wondering where he had seen this particular balloon. A gust of wind rippled past, causing the familiar Meowth balloon to turn slightly and gave him a moment to see it.
What the...what am I doing in Team Rocket's balloon?
Ash nearly jumped up with a start, but lucky he hadn't and he might of fell out of the balloon. Ash stood up as slowly as possible, turning to peer over the edges of the balloon, which he was then greeted to seeing the ocean view that Meowth had been looking at a moment ago.
"Wha...What am I doing flying over the ocean?" he asked aloud. He lucky didn't even notice Meowth, who seemed to trek back to his hiding place. Ash sighed as he sank back down to the bottom of the balloon basket. Looking around, he noticed the bags that Meowth was hiding behind. A familiar red R was on them.
I guess I took Team Rocket's balloon...or more likely he did, since I can't remember. But why was Team Rocket even hanging around, and where am I anyway?
Be patient, you'll see soon enough, host.
Ash gasped aloud as he had heard this thought stray into his mind. Definitely the voice of the king. Ash tucked his arms around his legs, resting his head on his arms.
Great, now I'm not even safe inside my own head. I don't have anyone here to help me out of this one since I left. Brock, Max, Aipom, Pikachu, May...
He saw May in the forefront of his mind. He watched as the May from his imagination was smiling at him and saying something, yet he couldn't hear what she was telling him.
It's for the best. I can't let them, especially May, get involved. I know that she'll be angry with me for leaving without telling her, but at least she'll be ok.
Meowth watched from his spot how the twerp was sulking for Ho-oh knows what. Meowth could see that in a way that Ash was acting the way he usually does, except he seemed depressed. Although he was confused by the fact that Ash didn't even seem to know where they were, which wasn't good news to Meowth, because now that meant that there was little chance of getting back to Jessie and James.
A few Wingull flew by them. Ash decided to sit facing the ocean, peering over the side. He watched below him as Tentacool and Magikarps swam underneath him. Thankfully, the king didn't seem to even be listening to his thoughts anymore, as Ash couldn't sense him at all in his subconscious.
They're lucky, not to be having to do through what I am going through.
A low rumble escaped his stomach. Ash sighed. "Great, now I'm hungry, yet I'm stuck here across the ocean." he mumbled. Ash took his backpack off and started searching through it for something to eat. He finally found a package of rice balls that he remembered tossing into his bag when he had been preparing to leave. He ripped the plastic off and was about to take one when he heard a very low rumble. He raised an eyebrow.
Wait a minute...that wasn't my stomach.
It had been coming from the Team Rocket bags in the corner. Ash pushed them aside to find Meowth crouched down, hiding. Meowth quickly backed away from him, cursing himself for his empty stomach.
"Meowth? What are you doing here?" Ash asked.
"I...uhh...see, it's kind of hard ta explain." Meowth laughed nervously, but then Ash reached out and grabbed him by the arm.
"Then you better start explaining." he said. He didn't seem to notice how threatening that sounded. Meowth had been afraid of that.
"Well, me and Jessie and James were about to turn in for the night, I was sleeping in the basket and the two of thems were sleeping next to the balloon. You suddenly showed up and Jessie and James tried to fight ya, but then you went all weird on them and pushed them away like as if they were nothing! Then you took our balloon and yeah..." Meowth finished somewhat lamely. Ash let go of his arm and sat back down at his spot. Meowth stood staring at him, wondering if Ash was going to suddenly grab him and throw him into the ocean.
After a while, Ash started to munch on one of the rice balls. Meowth couldn't help but keep his eyes on the rice balls and his empty stomach seemed to make his hunger more apparent. Ash looked up from an unfinished rice ball at Meowth, who seemed to be openly drooling at it.
"Uhh...do you want one?" Ash asked awkwardly as he held out a spare riceball. He was getting uncomfortable from the way Meowth was staring at his food. Meowth took the riceball from him and started eating it slowly, to make sure he savored the taste of it, sense he had barely eaten before and didn't want it to be all gone. The two of them had sat in silence for the rest of the time, Ash staring over one side of the basket while Meowth hung out on the other side, hoping that something would happen to get him out of here.
"Ash is missing."
May couldn't believe it when Brock had woken her up and told her that. She remembered how last night she had felt Ash in the room. She had dismissed it as a dream.
But now...
"Was he...was he there to say goodbye?" she muttered to herself. Brock and Max didn't hear her as they had left with Pikachu and Aipom to search for Ash. They had started to head for the woods, hoping that he didn't get too far. They had found that he had left all of his Pokemon behind, so they took a quick stop to pick up four of Ash's pokemon. Just in case anyway, if they found him that is.
Brock decided to hang back by May while Max was ahead following Pikachu and Aipom, who were trying to pick up Ash's scent.
"May."
May looked around to see Brock flash a small smile. "Don't worry about him too much. You know how he is. We'll find him and figure out what's wrong."
"I sure hope your right Brock. I don't know what I would do if we didn't find him." May said quietly, trying to hold back tears that were threatening to come. But then she quickly waved her hands as if to cover her true meaning behind that. "I mean, he's my best friend and all and I'm sure we would all be worried if he was gone without telling us." she said quickly. Brock watched her for a minute before deciding that now was not the time to confront her about how she really felt about Ash.
Brock, being one to know something about romance, had been watching for signs between those two for quite a while, and towards the end of Battle Frontier, they had become more pronounced than ever, especially when he saw Ash's reaction to her idea of leaving for the Johto region.
Speaking of which, in spite of recent events, tomorrow would have been the day that May and Max would leave to go back to Hoenn to visit their family before May would head off to the Johto region. Max was going to stay with his parents, wanting to help out with his father's gym. And Brock of course would be visiting with his family before eventually meeting up with Ash in the Sinnoh region. (The two of them had found out about it from a visit to Professor Oak's)
Anyway, he had noticed the way the two of them would stare at one other, talk to each other more, their hands would touch and they would pull back blushing. Even if they wouldn't admit it aloud, he knew that they both were constantly thinking about the other. It almost felt like he had suddenly fallen into the middle of a romantic story where two characters won't tell each other how they feel because they don't know if the other loves them or not. And he had been given the role as the matchmaker to poke them both in the right direction.
"Guys, Pikachu found something!"
Brock and May looked up to see Max pointing ahead. Pikachu and Aipom were standing over something, poking it slightly. When the others caught up, they found something quite strange.
A few supplies lie here and there, and right in the middle of it all, Jessie and James were sleeping on the ground among their things. They must of not of noticed how close they were together when they fell asleep.
"Ahem.", Brock coughed loudly. Jessie and James immediately snapped awake, jumping away from each other to stand their ground.
"The twerps!" they shouted as they pointed at the group. Pikachu sparked a little bit as Max said coolly, "The twerps indeed. Are you guys going to go into your daily routine of starting a complicated but sure to fail plan to steal Pikachu?"
"Don't we wish, if we had all of our supplies that were in our balloon." James said shortly.
"Hey, where is your balloon anyway?" May asked as she pointed out where their balloon had been the night before.
"Don't play dumb with me; I know you twerps know where our balloon is, along with Meowth." Jessie snapped at her. Before May and Jessie could fight (AN: That would be so awesome to see a catfight happen between them) Brock, being the voice of reason in the group, interrupted them.
"Why would we know where your balloon and Meowth is?" he asked.
"Because the main twerp of your group showed up here last night and stole our balloon with our friend Meowth in it after fighting with Jessie!", James said. Mime Jr., who had been hanging around James's legs, nodded its head in agreement. (AN: Nearly forgot to include it in this)
Well, that definitely got their attention.
"Ash was here?"
"He stole your balloon?"
"He fought with Jessie?"
"Pika-pi pika pi chu pi?"
Well, that last one needed translation, but the point was that they were all surprised at Ash taking Team Rocket's balloon.
"But where would he go with it?" May asked. James suddenly turned to Jessie with a weird triumphant smirk.
"And you said that putting tracking devices on the balloon was a waste of money and time." he said as he fumbled through their remaining things and found a small remote with a screen.
"That's because it was." she said under her breath.
"Anyway, we do have a way of finding Ash." James said, for the first time actually saying Ash's name.
"But how are we going to catch up to him?" Max asked. Jessie suddenly scoffed.
"What do you mean 'we'? You're not coming with us."
"Yes we are. Ash is our friend." May snapped at her.
"And he has our stuff. And Meowth too." Jessie quickly added. Brock stepped between the two of them.
"For now, I believe that we are going to have to have a truce. Arguing isn't going to get us anywhere closer to finding Ash." Brock said, Max nodding next to him.
"For once, I actually agree with the smart twerp." James nodded. Brock sent a glare at him before Max returned to his previous question.
"How are we going to catch up to him?" he asked.
"We'll just use the back-up balloon." Jessie shrugged as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. As Jessie and James started putting stuff together and materials for a second balloon, May raised an eyebrow.
"You have a back-up balloon?"
"You would be surprised at how many balloons we have that have been popped, burst, ripped, set on fire, or electrocuted." James shrugged.
And there is the chapter for you. I think James is really cool in my opinion.
My computer is telling me that this is the longest chapter so far. Yay for having more ideas and being able to make my chapters longer.
An actual plot is about to happen soon in the next chapter. Be prepared.
R&R everyone. Before the king destroys the world and starts making Ash wear nothing except black and buckles! (Although that would be hot...-drools-)
