Disclaimer: I'm not Dead…yay!
Chapter 11: Filler up
Ash crept into the Pokémon Center. It was too early for anyone to be awake yet, so Ash went down the hall with the rooms for trainers to stay in for the night. There were only four rooms, but Ash had no idea with one to go in. Upon realizing this, Ash walked into the lobby to look at the clock. 4:30. It's still too early for anyone to be up. I know they must have gotten a room, but which one. As Ash debated this, he leaned against the counter of the Pokémon Center. Then, Ash had an idea. There had to be a sign in sheet somewhere right?
Ash looked around cautiously before jumping over the counter. Once on the other side, Ash began looking through the shelves under the counter. Let's see, a few pokéballs, some spare aprons, some Tylenol bottles. Ah ha, a clip-board. Ash took out the clip-board and read the title. 'Room Occupation'; perfect. Now let's see, Brock, rooms #3 and #4. Well that narrows in down, but I still don't know which one is the one Brock's staying in. Ash went back into the hallway and stood between rooms #3 and #4.
Ash walked up to room #3, and placed his ear against the door. He stood there for a while and, upon hearing nothing, repeated the process with #4. As he began to listen, he heard the faint sound of mumbling. Listening harder, Ash wasn't able to deduce much, except that the voice was deep. Deciding to take the chance, Ash opened the door and peeked inside. To his relief, he saw Brock sound asleep on the lower bunk of one of the beds.
Ash sighed quietly, and sat on the bed opposite to Brock. Pikachu rolled off of Ash's shoulder and flopped down on the pillow, trying to get as much rest as it could. Ash just smiled and scratched Pikachu's head. Then Ash heard the mumbling sound again. He turned to see Brock hugging his pillow affectionately. "…zzz…Why hello Nurse Joy…zzz…fancy meeting you here." Ash chuckled under his breath. Even in his sleep, Brock only thought of girls. "…zzz…so how about you and I…zzz…get together later for a nice dinner…zzz…Wait, Officer Jenny, what are you doing. I didn't mean it…zzz…no I'm sorry, don't lock me in jail." Ash had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing. Even in his sleep, Brock only thought of girls, but the end result doesn't change either. Ash calmed down and leaned against the wall behind the bed. He pulled his hat over his eyes and tried to get as much rest as possible.
A few hours past by and people were beginning to stir. In room #3, a certain psychic feline was starting to wake. Espeon was lying beside Anabel as they both slept soundly. As Espeon was waking up, his stomach began to growl slightly. Not one to wait to be fed, Espeon jumped to the floor. Using his psychic abilities, he abruptly pulled Anabel off of her bed. With a thud, Anabel landed flat on the floor. Anabel sat up slowly, eyes still half closed. Espeon had to act quickly, so he jumped into Anabel's arms, knocking her over once again, and began to lick her face lightly.
Anabel was still half asleep but she got the picture. If she wanted sleep, Espeon had to eat. She reached over to her bag, which was sitting by the bed, and pulled out a Sitrus Berry. She set the Berry down next to Espeon, who began to happily eat it. You know, you could have gotten that yourself," Anabel stated groggily.
'Yes, but what fun would that be,' retorted Espeon. Anabel just shook her head and started to get back into her bed. Unfortunately, she wouldn't make it.
"GOOD MORNING," rang throughout the room, which caused Anabel to stand abruptly, knocking her head on the bunk above her. Anabel sat on the floor of the room clutching her head, but now fully awake. Then the "GOOD MORNING" sounded again, and Anabel located the source as coming from Dawn's bunk. There was some motion in the bed as Dawn sat up. Anabel saw her hit a button on her watch then begin to yawn and stretch.
"Ah, what a good night's sleep," Dawn said to herself. Dawn glanced at the floor only to see Anabel sitting there with her hands on her head staring at her. "Oh, Anabel I didn't see you there. Wow, you must get up early a lot to have beaten me awake."
"She's right, most people sleep till a decent hour," came an irritated voice from the bottom bunk under Dawn. Zoey began to sit up rubbing her eyes. "Seriously Dawn, do you have to get up at six o'clock every morning."
"Hey, if you sleep all day, then you'll miss out on all the fun stuff in life."
"You two do this every morning. Can't you just both compromise," the last person in the room, May, had decided to step into the argument. "Zoey, you want to sleep in and Dawn, you want to get up early. So why don't you just get up at like seven thirty or eight."
"But if I sleep too late I might miss something important," Dawn retorted.
"Dawn, so you slept through one contest. It's not the end of the world," May reasoned. Dawn hung her head, having been reminded of the terrible feeling she had experienced.
"All right, seven thirty wouldn't be so bad I guess, what do you say Zoey," Dawn asked. Zoey nodded her head in compliance.
Anabel had just been sitting there listening to the conversation, after the throbbing in her head died down at least. Wow, there sure is a lot of drama with this crowd.
'Tell me about it.'
Espeon, what have I told you about reading my thoughts whenever you want.
'Sorry.' Anabel just chuckled lightly and began scratching the purple cat's head.
Dawn looked down at Anabel, "So Anabel, what were you doing up so early anyway."
"Hmm, oh well, you see Espeon here wanted some early breakfast, so he decided to wake me up for a meal."
"Makes sense," said Zoey. "That's part of the reason why I don't let my Pokémon sleep with me."
"Well while you guys chit-chat, I'm going to get into the bathroom before Dawn," said May laughing slightly as she jumped from the top bunk and ran into the bathroom. Anabel and Zoey laughed as Dawn sat there pouting. It took awhile for all the girls to get through the bathroom, well it took Dawn awhile anyway, and once they were already to go they walked out of the room just as the clock read eight o'clock.
As the girls made their way into the lobby, they were met with a peasant sight. They saw Ash and Brock just sitting down to breakfast in the cafeteria. They all smiled and headed in too grab some breakfast of their own and join Ash and Brock. The conversation was mostly about Ash's excursion the previous night, which he gladly filled them in to the important details. After they had all finish, they began to discuss the plans for the day. Ash stated his plans first. "I was planning to spend today training for the gym battle tomorrow."
"Yeah that sounds like a good idea," said Anabel. But before she could ask to join him, she got interrupted by May.
"Well I was planning to spend the day shopping in town," May said. "I was hoping that Dawn, Zoey, and Anabel would join me." As she said each girls name she looked from one girl to the next. Dawn, always one to go shopping, quickly agreed. Zoey, not really much for shopping, decided to go anyway, as she liked to spend time with her friends. Anabel, not one for shopping either, was a bit hesitant about going. She would have rather gone with Ash to train, but in the end, and after much coaxing, she agreed.
"Well I have some supplies I'll need to pick up. So that covers the schedule for the morning, so how about we meet back here for lunch," suggested Brock.
Everyone nodded in agreement. But then Zoey spoke up to say, "But after lunch, I'm going to do some training for that contest." As she said this she eyed Dawn expectantly.
Dawn just sighed and said, "Yeah, I get it. I guess I'll be training too then." After that May also decided to join in the training. Anabel didn't have to worry about getting roped into this one, so she sighed in relief.
Ash spoke up once again, "And I'll be training again."
"I don't think so Ash," said Brock firmly. Everyone was staring at Brock, wondering why Brock wouldn't let Ash train. "We have something to cover. I promised to train you how to live on your own, and I'm going to keep that promise. This afternoon you'll be spending it learning the basics of making a simple meal." Ash was a bit taken aback by the sudden demand, but Ash agreed none the less, saying it would be fun.
That just left Anabel. She hadn't planned on anything to do on her own, but she wasn't too worried. An idea would come to her eventually.
Once they had made their way out of the Pokémon Center, they each went on their way. Ash headed south out of the city. Brock and the girls headed into town, but when they got there they went different directions, Brock going towards a general store and the girls towards a large clothing store. Brock entered the store, but it was mostly empty save for the person behind the corner, who was a guy. Without anyone interesting to talk to, Brock spent his morning looking through the store.
Anabel and the others headed into a large clothing store. May and Dawn were excited to go but, Anabel and Zoey, not so much. As they walked through the aisle of the store they eventually went their separate ways, with Dawn and Zoey headed to the younger section of the store with Anabel and May stayed in the older teen's section. Anabel decided to start off a conversation. "So May, why did you want me to come with you guys anyway."
"Well, I thought you might enjoy yourself. That and, judging from your clothes, you probably didn't bring any dresses with you on your journey, did you."
Anabel just stared at May for a moment until she slowly shook her head, signifying that she did not. May just smiled and pulled out a dress from one of the clothes racks. It was a long, purple dress. It was a simple dress with not much frippery, and it was also rather conservative, not revealing much skin. In short, it looked like the perfect dress for Anabel.
"How did—"
"—I know just what to look for. It wasn't that hard. After seeing your outfit, it was clear that your favorite color was purple. And after seeing your nightgown, I could also see that your tastes were more conservative than say Dawn." At this statement, both girls started to laugh.
"Alright," said Anabel, still giggling lightly, "but why would I need a dress anyway."
"Oh, you never know when you might need a dress," answered May did some browsing for herself, they headed to the shoe's department to get some matching shoes for the dress. After ten minutes of back and forth, May gave in and let Anabel pick out a pair of flats, as opposed to the heels she wanted her to get.
The two headed to the front of the store to get in the check-out line, just as Dawn and Zoey were headed there as well. Dawn was carrying one small bag, while Zoey was loaded like a pack mule. The sight certainly was amusing. "Wow, Zoey, I didn't know you were such a shop-a-holic," May said giggling.
Zoey just glared at her. She knew May knew that none of the purchases were hers. The four girls all got in line for the check-out and waited as Dawn paid for her massive amount of items. Once they were done they all headed back toward the Pokémon Center as it was quickly approaching eleven thirty.
Meanwhile, south of Cerulean…
Ash found a large clearing for his training to take place. He took three of his pokéballs in hand and released his Pokémon. Out came Primeape, Nincada, and Gible, with Pikachu jumping off of his shoulder to join the lineup. "Alright guys, it's time for some training. We have a Gym battle tomorrow and I want us to be fully prepared for this match. Alright, Gible and Pikachu, I want you two to train together. Gible, you need to work on hitting a faster opponent, and Pikachu, you need to handle fighting Ground-types a bit better."
Gible and Pikachu nodded and headed off to begin training. "Alright, now, Primeape. I want you to help train Nincada. Work on boosting his Attack power, he'll need it for the Gym battle." Primeape nodded and turned to Nincada.
"All right, small fry. It's time for me to pump you up." Primeape looked at Nincada expectantly, but Nincada just stood there, staring blankly. "Hey, weren't you listening. Time to get to work. Primeape was once again ignored. This caused Primeape to get angry. Very angry. Primeape began to scream loudly at the smaller Pokémon. This finally got through to the Bug/Ground-Type Pokémon, who began to run in fear as Primeape began to charge, and the two of them ran off into the distance until they were out of sight.
"Not quite what I expected but I suppose beggars can't be choosers. Now that only leaves one thing." Ash took out the fifth and final pokéball from his belt and threw it into the air. It released a small, brown, furry creature. It yawned and began to take in its surroundings. It looked around until its eyes eventually came toward Ash. It stared at Ash for a few moments until it gave off a happy cry, and ran towards him. "Wow, an Eevee," said Ash, "those are rare. I wonder why Bill would just give me one." Ash decided not to think about it too long and reached down to stroke the small creature.
Ash sat himself against a tree, still tired from his excursion earlier. Ash took out his Pokédex and scanned the Eevee. Ash looked at the move list for the small Pokémon. "Tail Whip, Helping Hand, Sand-Attack, and Growl…no wonder bill couldn't fight Gible. This thing has no offensive attacks. Well I guess training it will have to wait till later." The Eevee looked at Ash curiously, wondering what he was doing, before it decided to leap at Ash, curl up, and lay down on Ash's lap.
Ash was a bit surprised. Normally, a Pokémon that belonged to someone else, who finds itself in a weird location with a complete stranger, wouldn't just immediately be comfortable with said stranger. But that's not why Ash was surprised. Ash was surprised by the sight off in the distance. Pikachu was running around spastically with Gible attached to his tail. Running toward the madness taking place there, was Nincada with a still enraged Primeape on his tail. Nincada and Pikachu collided, which caused Gible to fly off of Pikachu's tail toward Primeape, causing him to trip and land on Nincada and Pikachu. By this point, Ash was laughing pretty hard at the sight before him. "Well I guess that's enough training for now," Ash thought to himself, still lightly chuckling to himself. He stroked Eevee a few times before recalling it back into its pokéball. Ash made his way over to the pile that was his Pokémon, and recalled three of them as Pikachu climbed onto his shoulder slowly. Ash began to head back north toward Cerulean.
It took a while for Ash to make it back up to Cerulean. By the time he got there, it was already twelve o'clock. He made his way over to the Pokémon Center to see that all of his friends were already there. He headed in, got some food, and joined his friends for lunch.
Bill was tired. He had spent the entire morning patching the holes in his lighthouse. He had to get the job the done quickly just in case of inclement weather. He had called for a repair company in Cerulean to come fix it but they could only schedule him a week from now. He had made good progress and only one hole was left. He turned to grab more wood from the pile he had brought with him up on the roof, but he had apparently used the last piece already. "Just great, now I'll have to go get more from the ground," Bill grumbled some more as he made his way to where the ladder was. Or at least where the ladder should have been. When he got there, he saw that the ladder had fallen to the ground below and that he was now stuck on his roof with no way to get off. "Now what am I going to do."
"You could ask for help," came a voice from below. Bill peered over the edge of the roof to see who was talking.
"Oh, it's you," said Bill to the owner of the voice. It was none other than the cloaked man himself. The cloaked man began to lift the ladder off of the ground and put it against the roof. Bill made his way down the ladder to the ground. "So," Bill said as he reached to the ground, "may I ask why you're here again."
"What, I can't visit," said the cloaked man. Bill just gave him a skeptical look. "Alright fine, I just wanted to see if you gave him the Pokémon I told you to give him."
"I told you I would. If you thought I wouldn't then why would you trust me in the first place?"
"I suppose you make a decent point. Can I expect you help in the future?"
"Well, I don't know. This little event has caused me quite the property damage."
"I told you I would compensate for any damages."
"Yeah but I still don't know if I trust you all that much."
"I'll convince the league to allow you to leave this lighthouse."
"You have a deal."
"Good, the first meeting will be in a week, at the Viridian Gym. I still have one person to convince to join."
"Alright, I'll see you there," Bill said. He then said good-bye to his guest and walked around the corner to grab more wood for his patch job on the roof. The cloaked man just chuckled lightly and began walking away from the lighthouse, his next destination being Cerulean.
Speaking of Cerulean, Ash and friends had finished their lunches and had split up for the afternoon, planning to meet again for dinner, which would be cooked by Ash. Dawn, May, and Zoey headed to the back of the Pokémon Center to begin preparation for the upcoming contest, and Brock had convinced Nurse Joy into letting him borrow the center's kitchen. That just left Anabel to herself. She decided she would take a walk in the nearby park.
It didn't take long for Anabel to make it to the park. Once there, she made her way over to a large tree near the edge of a hill overlooking a meadow. She released Espeon as she knew he would enjoy the idea of lazing around in the shade. The two of them sat in the shade for a while just staring at the meadow. Nothing interesting was happening and that was just fine for them. Of course, the calming atmosphere would end soon. Out of the woods on the other side of the meadow came a boy. He appeared to be about seventeen, but his hair was larger than his head. At least that was what Anabel thought to herself. She wasn't really bothered by the appearance of another person, until a familiar figure also stepped out of the woods. It was the man in the cloak she ran into in Celadon.
They were talking to each other in the middle of the field. Anabel was too far away to hear much of what they were saying. The two of them kept walking closer until they were just within earshot. "So, tell me Gary, will you help me," Anabel heard the cloaked man say. The boy, who was apparently named Gary, just stood there for a minute. He eventually reached out his hand, which the cloaked man shook. "Good, the first meeting is in a week, at the Viridian Gym. I hope to see you there." Gary just shook his head and pulled out a pokéball releasing a Pidgeot. He jumped on the bird Pokémon's back and took off.
The cloaked man just stared into the distance as he flew off, shaking his head. He then turned to where Anabel was sitting. He stared at her for a moment before turning around and heading back into the woods. I wonder what all that was about.
'If it doesn't concern us then I don't care.'
I suppose your right. No need to worry about what doesn't involve us. Anabel and Espeon continued to sit in the shade for a good while until Anabel decided it was time to leave. She recalled Espeon and headed back to the Pokémon Center. When she got inside she could see her friends surrounding a table with a pot on it. She walked over to them to see what they were doing. "So why is everyone staring at a pot of soup."
"It's not just any pot of soup," said Brock, "it was made by Ash. And if I say so myself I think it turned out…decent."
"Wow, thanks for the words of encouragement, Brock," Ash said sarcastically. Everyone scooped up a bowl and sat at a table to eat the soup. All of Ash's friends complimented him on how the soup turned out. Ash just smiled, and thanked them for the compliments. "So May, will there be any one interesting entering the contest."
"Hmm, well I know Drew won't be there. And I don't think that Kenny kid Dawn was talking about will be there either."
"What about Harley or Soledad."
"Nope, they're both in Sinnoh so they won't be around either."
"Huh, so no rivals for you guys in this contest, excluding yourselves that is."
"Yeah, but it'll still be kind of hectic with all three of us going at it," Dawn chipped in. "So Ash, have you run into anyone like Paul around here yet?"
"No, I haven't met anyone like that. Although Anabel is kind of a rival, I haven't run into anyone that's outright been like Paul, or Gary for that matter," said Ash as he thought about the old days when he would run into Gary from time to time. Ash just brushed it off and continued to eat his soup. Everyone else also finished their soup, so they all gathered in the Pokémon Center lobby to talk for a while and feed their Pokémon . Brock and Anabel were surprised to see Ash release an Eevee from one of his pokéballs.
"Hey Ash, where did you get an Eevee," Anabel asked.
"Oh, it was a gift from a friend of mine," Ash responded. Satisfied with the answer, Brock and Anabel finished giving out the Pokémon food and sat down with the rest of the group. Eevee looked around at all the Poké mon. It recognized a few of them from earlier, but for the most part none of them seemed familiar, except Anabel's Espeon.
'DADDY,' said Eevee as it charged toward Espeon.
'What was— ' and at that Eevee jumped on top of Espeon. 'Hey, what are you doing! Get off of me!'
But Eevee just held on screaming, 'Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy,' over and over again.
'What? No, I am not your father you deranged fur ball now if you would please. GET OFF!' But to no avail. This continued for awhile as everyone was laughing at the scene.
"Wow, that Eevee sure is an energetic little guy, huh?" said Ash.
"Girl," Anabel corrected.
"Huh."
"Your Eevee is not a guy, it's a girl. And a pretty young one at that, seeing as its acting like Espeon is her father."
"Interesting," thought Ash. Everyone went on talking for a while, after recalling all the Pokémon. Nothing of any note came up in the conversation, with the evening wrapping up quite nicely.
Everyone headed to the back hallway where the rooms were, and went into their respective rooms. Before they went in Ash asked, "So Anabel, do you think you're ready for the next Gym Battle?"
"I think I can manage," responded Anabel with a smile. Ash nodded and then headed into his room. Anabel entered into her room to see Zoey in her bed covering her head with her pillow as Dawn was pounding on the door to the bathroom which May was apparently already in. Anabel just giggled to herself as she sat down on her bed, thinking about the battle the next day. How hard could it be?
To be continued…
Hey look at that. I finally stopped procrastinating and decided to write another chapter.
I personally didn't think it was that good but what do I know anyway. And about the whole, taking FOREVER to with this one…I just had some things in life that were keeping me from writing. Couple that with my horrible computer (as if just to demonstrate this, during the final editing of this chapter, my computer overheated and shut down, forcing me to re-edit it over again) and you get massive amounts of delay. I won't promise regular updates, but I will try to get back to writing more frequently. What finally got me to write this chapter were a few reviews I got telling me to come back. I felt touched. I thank all of you for that, and I hope you will review this chapter as well.
So in this chapter…not much happened till near the end. We see the cloaked man has convinced Bill and Gary to join him. What purpose could he have for wanting their help anyway? I know, but you'll have to wait to find out (not too long hopefully…). We also see Ash with an Eevee. A rather childish Eevee. I wonder if that will become important.
I want to propose a few questions for those of you who review. I can't decide if I want to include the contest or not. If you want me to write that in I can I guess, but I don't find contests all that interesting. The other question was actually brought up in the chapter, do you want there to be an actual rival or just Ash vs. Anabel for the most part. Personally I think the idea of a rival is good if you pick the right one. I'll tell you now that the rival character I have in mind isn't actually in the anime (Pokémon Adventures, yes, anime, no, if that hints to anything). But again, I would like you, the readers to choose whether or not to do that.
I think I covered everything I wanted to so without further ado, I would like to ask all of you who read to please review, as it is much appreciated. I would love for you to tell me how I did on this chapter (even though I don't like it, feel free to be controversial).
Sincerely yours,
Twitch E. One