Chapter 11 – Grassed Up
why did i work on this story?
help me
-Route 7-
Ash frowned at the pokeball in his hand. "I feel like I haven't caught a Pokemon in a while."
Bulbasaur shook his head on his shoulder. "Ash, you've caught three Oddish, a Ponyta, two Teddyursa, a Basculin, and a Pikipek. In the last hour."
A Pidove fell out of the sky and landed on the pokeball. It shook for a long moment, then dinged happily.
"Much better," Ash said happily.
"Why do I even bother?"
-Later-
Brock looked up as Misty sat down next to him. "Hey, what's up?"
Misty stared blankly at the vista below them. A small creek burbled past, trickling down the mountain into the verdant valley. Above them, there was an explosion every few seconds as Ash 'trained' his Pokemon. "Do you ever wonder why we're here?"
He stared at her. "No? I mean, we walked here. And biked. And rode that stupid convertible until Ash crashed it. And there was that one time we traveled by montage..."
"No, not like that," she said, shaking her head. "I mean, why are with Ash?"
Brock frowned. "I'm not sure I understand."
Misty pulled her arms around her legs. "I mean, before he destroyed my bike I lived a perfectly normal life, right? Mean sisters, the gym, my water types… Now here I am, a twelve-year-old gym leader following around a ten-year-old kid, we see a legendary Pokemon every other day, all of our Pokemon can talk to us, and we've blown up three different gyms."
"I guess I never really thought about it," Brock said. "I mean, I was so ready to go on an adventure for once that I never really thought about it."
An Aggron soared through the air and crashed into the valley. Squirtle leaped after it, screaming, "FOR TEXAS!"
Misty sighed. "I got my bike back. I caught a Psyduck. Hell, I even got to be a Feebas for a week before you guys remembered I existed. This stupid journey has nearly killed me more times than I want to count. I'm exhausted, hungry, I left my credit card in Lavender Town, and every notion I had about the universe is shattered. Why am I still here?"
"AFTER IT!" Ho-oh took off from the mountain top, swooping down with Ash on its back towards the valley. A flood of Pokemon followed him to varying degrees of success, joining in the epic battle royale in the valley.
"He still hasn't said anything about the time he lost in Vermillion," Brock murmured, and Misty shifted closer to him so she could hear. "I called Professor Oak to ask how Nidoran was doing, and Oak said that he was unregistered from Ash's account. I think he must have released him."
Misty frowned. "I don't get it."
"You're both kids, Misty." She tried to protest, but he held up a hand. "Whatever happened that made life around him so crazy, it isn't going away any time soon. Whether he knows it or not, we're his stability. He needs us, and I think we need him to."
Her eye twitched. "I don't need a little brat like him!"
"Sure." Brock fingered one of his pokeballs pensively. "This can't last forever, though. Someday, something like Vermillion is going to bring him back down to earth, and he's going to need us there when it happens."
"Are we foreshadowing over here or having a deep conversation?" Bulbasaur asked as he settled down next to the duo.
Mistry shrugged. "Shouldn't you be down there destroying the forest with everybody else?"
"Nah, I prefer to try and retain my sanity," the Grass-type said, propping up his head with his vines. "Besides, I'm pretty sure Squirtle has that market cornered."
"FEAR ME, FOR I WIELD THE POWER OF GODS IN MY SHELL!" Squirtle hollered as he ascended to the astral plane.
"Squirtle, you don't have to do this!" Ash called as he and Ho-oh climbed towards him. When Squirtle didn't react, he changed tacts. "You can't ascend today, it's taco tuesday!"
Squirtle released his heavenly power and bounced onto Ash's shoulder. "To Valhalla we go!"
Brock nodded sagely. "You might be onto something here."
Misty just sighed again. "Why does the one who always makes the most sense have to be a plant dinosaur?"
-Viridian Forest-
"Karpus, go!"
"CE-"
"Karpus, come back! Nidoran, use peck!"
Nidoran charged at the Caterpie and slammed it backwards. Before Caterpie could respond, Nidoran flipped around and launched two quick kicks into the bug's side. Caterpie squeaked as it flew backwards into the bush, knocked out.
"Yes!" Gary cheered, giving Nidoran a broad grin as he and Rattata rushed to congratulate him. "That was awesome, you learned Double Kick!"
"Yay Nidoran!" Rattata chorused, happily rubbing up against the poison type.
Nidoran smiled back at his trainer and teammate. "That's a fighting-type move, right? Can we fight the rock type gym now?"
Gary nodded enthusiastically as Karpus let himself back out of his pokeball. "Why do you keep switching me in and out?" the fish grumbled.
Gary glared at his starter. "Because until you learn tackle, you're useless in battle, but you'll never learn tackle if you don't participate."
The Magikarp blinked at him, then jumped back off the ground and re-entered his pokeball.
"Awesome, let's go fight Brock!" Rattata exclaimed.
"One problem." Nidoran looked around, then back at his team. "Where exactly are we?"
"Sinnoh, probably, if my luck is anything to go by," Gary mumbled. Spinning around, he pointed in a random direction. "Let's go that way!"
-Pallet Town-
Professor Oak sighed as his counter for the number of Pokemon Ash had caught rose to 1,237, then looked out the window. "Why is my grandson in Pallet Town again?" he wondered aloud, then shook his head and went back to planning how to escape the country and move to Alola.
-Celadon City-
"Celadon City!" Brock exclaimed, gazing at the city around them. "Know for it's tall buildings and fragrances!"
Misty closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. "It smells so good," she swooned, rocking back and forth.
Most of Ash's Pokemon seemed to agree, but Bulbasaur seemed unmoved. "Eh. Nothing's ever going to smell as good as that time I lived in a Sunflora and Cherim colony for a month."
"Who cares about a stupid smell? I wanna go challenge the gym!" Ash exclaimed.
Misty exchanged a long long with Brock, then said, "Oh, come on Ash! Live a little, we can not be battling for five seconds." She grabbed his arm and started pulling him towards the nearest shop. "I can smell Eau de Feebas!"
"Misty…" Ash whined as she pulled him off, Charmander and Squirtle bickering about soap operas on his shoulder.
Brock sweatdropped as he watched them go. "I think we need to call in an intervention on her Feebas obsession," he mumbled.
Bulbasaur nodded. "She's lived with it for a long time, Brock. It's going to be a steep uphill battle but I think with enough determination, she can overcome her addiction."
"Pika," Pikachu agreed.
They came into sight of the store Misty and Ash had disappeared into, Brock stopped short. A trail of drool trickled down his chin. He seemed to be lost in thought as he watched the perfume salesman crowd around his friends inside, then a spark lit up in his eyes. "Where did the harem medallion go?!"
While Pikachu, Bulbasaur, and Brock wrestled over the medallion outside, Misty was busy cradling a bottle of perfume with a cartoon image of a Feebas to her chest. Ash's utter disdain for perfume and girly things was pushed to the side as he watched her. "Is she going to buy it?" he asked Charmander.
"Perhaps we should do it for her," Charmander suggested, "Unless we want to watch her fish side to take over again."
Ash shuddered at the thought.
-Flashback-
The restaurant owner looked from Ash and Brock to the fish tank. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave the premises and never come back.
Bulbasaur nodded as he pulled Misty out of the tank with the vines. "Yep, I think that's for the best."
"HEY, PUT ME BACK! THAT WAS MY UNCLE FILBERT IN THERE, YOU-"
-Suicune's Show-
Entei growled thoughtfully. "Who knew Feebases knew that many curse words?" he reflected.
Suicune just shook her head in despair, muttering, "K+, K+, K+," to herself over and over again.
"There, there." Raikou patted her sister on the back gently. "Maybe you should retire and let the two of us take over."
"AND LET YOU CORRUPT MY CHILDREN?" she shrieked, launching a hydro pump into Raikou's face.
"Hey, we all know I'm the sane one in our family!"
The battle that ensued was too graphic to be described on a children's TV show.
-Celadon City-
Misty stared at the smoldering ruins of the Celadon City gym, then at Ash, then back at the gym. "Okay, so I get how we destroyed another gym – don't let a ten-year-old use blast burn, been there, done that. What I don't get is how the hell did Ash Ketchum end up in a dress?"
Brock thought about it for a second. "I bet he pissed off the gym's trainees with his hate of perfume, causing them to ban him from the gym, then got assistance from Team Rocket in creating a disguise so he could infiltrate the gym and beat Erika."
Bulbasaur sighed. "Actually..."
-An Hour Earlier-
"I bet you won't wear a dress during your gym battle," Charmander said smugly.
Ash gaped at him. "No way, I'm not a girl!"
His Pokemon smirked. "See? I told you, Squirtle."
An evil glint rose in Squirtle's eye. He leaned closer to Ash and whispered, "u won't."
"Fine, I'll do it!" Ash yelled, then marched off to the nearest shopping mall.
"Oh, Trubbish."
-Hall of Origin-
Arceus sighed deeply as he relaxed into his throne, the Hariama he had hired making its was through his deep body massage.
"Sir, you have 17,864 prayers, 1,293 world-threatening problems, 36 Ash Ketchum incident reports, and 3,298 instances of fourth-wall breaking," Musharna said as she floated towards him as fast as possible (not very fast) and stopped, panting, by the dias.
Arceus lazily waved a leg at her. "Make the Lake Guardians deal with it, I'm busy."
Mursharna squeaked in acknowledgement and sprinted out of the hall (about as fast as a leisurely Darumaka, if you asked Arceus).
"Why did we let him hire a non-legendary as his assistant?" Coballion muttered to Terrakion.
The other legendary just shook his head.
So apparently this story is still alive? Not sure how that happened, review!
Love,
Your Pachurisu Overlord (Allie)
