Fyre Red: Yes, I suppose so. He's going to be leaving next chapter, not staying long at all. Neither is Misty, if you were wondering. It's okay.

Sorry this took so long to update. As people may have noticed, I've updated my Mario & Sonic story. And this chapter is long, though I admit that I wrote it all today.

Chapter 12


(Luigi)

Our heroes arrived in Cerulean City as the sun reached its zenith; and decided it was high time to stop at a Pokemon Center to eat. When they arrived, they were all, save Luke and Luigi himself, introduced to something new: how Luigi ate at a table.

Not to say that his table manners were bad, he was actually quite polite about it. Rather, it was the sheer magnitude of how much he ate when given the chance. By the end of their meal, Luigi had managed to devour five large bowls of various kinds of pasta, an entire pizza, four peaches, half a pound of lettuce, three milkshakes, a whole apple pie, a mango, a bag of cashews, and was working on a 10-pound hunk of cheese when they left for the Cerulean City Gym.

"Where did you learn your eating habits?" Tracey asked, wondering where Luigi put all of it.

Luigi chewed his bite of cheese, and swallowed. "My brother." As soon as he finished talking, he took another bite of cheese.

"Where does it all go?"

Luigi shrugged, continuing to eat his cheese as he walked.

"I can't believe that anyone can eat more than you, May, and Team Rocket put together," Brock whispered to Ash.

"Me neither," Ash was dumbstruck, though that wasn't really anything new.

"Pi-kachu..."

Luigi somehow managed to finish his cheese before they came across the Cerulean Gym. It was a large, dome-shaped building, brightly colored and with a huge model of some sort of white seal atop it.

Tracey knocked on the door, and the group was greeted by three teenage girls.

"Like, wow!" One of them, with long blonde hair and dressed in a red dress. "Tracey's here! Hi, Tracey!"

"And, like, Ash too." The one with short pink hair and an orange dress said. "And Pikachu! Like, so cute!"

"Oh, look, it's that guy who, like, tries to hit on us every time he's here." The third one, with long blue hair and a green dress, said. "And some new kid."

"Hello," Luigi said, waving. "I'm Luigi."

"Like, why don't you all come inside?" the blonde-haired one asked, leading them inside. "We've got, like, food."

"I don't think Luigi needs any more," Brock chuckled. "And on that note... YES! I'D LOVE TO COME INSIDE YOUR HOME AND EAT YOUR COOKING! AND MAYBE THEN WE CAN SHARE A ROMANTIC DINNER FOR FOUR! AND HOPEFULLY GET MARRIED AND LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER BECAUSE I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND-"

Suddenly, a large blue frog-like creature popped out of one of Brock's Pokéballs, its arm glowing as it jabbed Brock in the butt. Croagunk grabbed Brock's foot, and dragged him back out of the gym.

Ash noticed Luigi's expression. "He'll be fine," he reassured him.

"Pika..."

"Am I missing something?" Luke asked.

Unfortunately, that cause the blue-haired girl to notice him. "Omigosh! It's, like, a shiny Raichu! SO CUTE!" She grabbed Luke and raised her up to face level. "How are you, little guy? Where'd you come from?"

"Luigi? What's going on?" Luke asked. "Oh no... She's going to-" His sentence was cut short as the blue-haired girl started hugging and squeezing him, mumbling about how adorable he was.

"Um..." Luigi trailed off, not sure how to react. "Miss..."

"Violet," the girl said, continuing to hug Luke.

"Violet. Would you mind... Well, letting go of my friend? He doesn't seem to like this very much." Indeed, Luke seemed quite nauseous.

"Oh! Totally!" Violet set Luke down, and he scrambled to hid behind Luigi.

"I'm not a plush toy!"

"Pika-pika."

"... Oh. Well, at least you can share-"

"Pi-kachu."

"And you eloctrocuted her? That's not very nice!"

"Thank you," Luigi said. "Um... I'll let them do the talking now."

"We wanted to visit Misty," Tracey explained. "Thought it might be nice. Ash, Luigi, and Brock are traveling together, and I met up with them while on my way, so... We decided to pay a visit!"

"Yeah!" Ash agreed. "And Luigi wants to have a battle!"

"Wha? Hey, I didn't-"

"Like, totally!" the yellow-haired one said. "But Misty, like, has a challenger right now. He, like, thinks that just using a fire Pokémon is, like, totally a good strategy!"

"And, like, he talks more outdated than we do!" The pink-haired one added.

"We're, like, not supposed to let people know that's, like, intentional, Lily!" Violet reminded her sister. "It's, like, part of our image! Like, tell them, Daisy?"

"Your name is Daisy?" Luigi asked the yellow-haired one.

"Like, yeah. Why?"

"Oh, nothing," Luigi said. "I just know someone named Daisy."

"Is she like me?"

"... Not exactly," Luigi said, remembering the slightly insane and incredibly boisterous tomboy princess.

"Hang on..." Ash said, having just processed something Lily had said. "The challenger... Is his name Mikey, and does he yell stuff like 'Yo', 'Mondo', and 'Groovy' a lot?"

"Like, totally!" Lily said. "How'd you know?"

"I've met him," Ash said simply. "I wonder-"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THAT'S YOUR ONLY POKEMON!?" A voice, very familiar to Ash, Tracey, and Pikachu, yelled.

"Misty," Tracey sweatdropped.

Luigi quickly opened the door marked as 'arena' and dashed in to see what was going on, and everyone (even Brock, who had somehow recovered and gotten inside) followed to see the scene that was inside. The arena itself was actually a rectangular pool in the center of the room, strange as that may seem.

On the close side of the arena was a boy, dressed as though he was a wannabe gangster. A red cap, jauntily perched backwards on his head, with a flame symbol clearly visible on the front; a flame-print shirt, baggy jeans, and flame-print sneakers. He was petting a strange mammal, long and thin with navy blue back fur, a creamy colored belly, and flames shooting out of its back. Luigi assumed that he was the 'Mikey' Ash had mentioned.

"Yo, Yo's the only Pokémon I've ever needed, dig?" Mikey asked. "Ya see, Yo here's a hop above the rest, a real stomper."

"Mikey," The girl on the other side said. She seemed to be about Ash's age, and was dressed in a yellow tank top, red suspenders, short denim shorts, and what Luigi thought was a frankly bizzare placement for a ponytail in her orange hair. "'Yo' is a fire-type Pokémon, and, according to what you've just told me, your only Pokémon. This is a three-on-three battle, which means you need three Pokémon, preferably with a type advantage each to their name, not one Pokémon with a disadvantage!"

"Hey-ho, we'll turn this battle rightside down!" Mikey boasted. "We can flip-flop the sides of this battle, problema nonexista!"

"Are you trying to be incomprehensible?"

"No, no, not at all, signora," Mikey said. "Outrageous! No, I'm groovy, I'm cool, I'm frosty. Just want to have a mondo-fun battle!"

"... If you say so," Misty sighed. "Fine. Here's my second Pokémon, Horsea!" She threw a Pokéball, and out popped a large blue seahorse that settled into the water.

"Horsey, send a bubble at that Quilava!"

"Yo-ster, flipside up and flopside down with the groove!" Yo, as the creature seemed to be called, jumped up over the bubble Horsea had sent at it, and glowed before slamming down into the water creature with hyper speed.

"Interesting use of Quick Attack, I must say," Misty said. "Horsea, Water Gun!" Horsea sent a stream of water at the quilava.

"Yo, a-press down the stars!" Yo responded to Mikey, jumping up and opening its mouth the breathe a stream of stars at the Horsea.

"Dodge it!" Misty yelled, and Horsea complied, barely getting out of the way of the oncoming Swift attack.

"Hey, that's not afair!" Mikey yelled. "Swift is supposed to have funky-mondo accuracy!"

"Perfect accuracy or not, it can still be dodged," Misty said. "Might not be easy, but definitely within the realm of the possible."

"Crag. Let's make with the baby eyes, Yo!" Yo winked, and pink hearts flew from it to Horsea, surrounding the seahorse Pokémon and... Having absolutely no effect. The hearts fizzled out.

"... What?" Mikey asked, dumbfounded.

"You do know how Attract works, right?" Misty asked, hands on her hips, "Or do you use it like my friend Ash-" At this point, she actually noticed that Ash was standing in the gym, and did a double-take before ignoring him and continuing with her sentence, "-does, always sending it at Pokémon the same gender as yours?"

"... Horsea's a boy?" Mikey asked, clearly not having thought of that. Horsea seemed offended at Mikey's question.

"... YES!" Misty yelled.

"... Oh. Right. Um... Yo, let's take it to the fridge! Or the oven, in this case! FIRE BLAST!" The flames on Yo's back flared up, sending a powerful asterisk-shaped wall of flame towards Horsea. This time, Misty was a bit too surprised to tell Horsea to dodge.

Type effectiveness aside, Yo was quite a strong Pokemon. There was a reason Mikey had never needed another one. Horsea was knocked out by the attack, and recalled by Misty.

"Impressive..." Misty trailed off. "Let's see if you can take this! Go Staryu!" She threw another Pokéball, this one containing a sea-star like creature with a strange red gem in its center.

Mikey burst out laughing, his sunglasses nearly falling off. "That's your last line of defense? Seriously? I mean, come on! You sent out Starm-"

"Staryu, Swift."

"Huh? Yo, counter with your own!" Yo did so, and his Swift managed to be just a bit more powerful than Staryu's, who got hit with a single star.

"I wanna learn that..." Luke whispered. Luigi made a note to try and figure out how to teach him the move.

"Follow up with BubbleBeam!" Staryu sent a stream of bubbles at Yo, who dodged deftly.

"Nice try," Mikey said. "But I've trained Yo in the mondo art of dodging everything! I totally got plenty of experience!"

"Really..." Misty said sarcastically. "I really doubt that. Staryu, Rapid Spin!" Staryu jumped out of the water, and began spinning rapidly towards Yo.

"Finish this off with our second-best!" The flames on Yo's back grew larger and larger, before he shot an geyser of fire from his head at Staryu, scorching the poor sea star and taking it out in one hit.

"... What." That was the only response Misty had to seeing a trainer who had started but a week before, with no other Pokémon but his Quilava, have taught said Quilava to use Eruption.

"Oh yeah! Who da man?" Mikey turned around and began dancing. "I am! In your- Hey, Mista Tree-K! I'd challenge you to a battle, but I think Yo might be a bit tired. As soon as I get my Cascade Badge-" Misty threw it at him irritably, and he deftly caught it without turning around "-Toodles!" He picked up Yo, and ran out the door without a second thought.

"So... Ash," Misty said, walking over to the boy. "What brings you here?"

"My friend Luigi wants to-"

"No, I don't," Luigi interrupted. "I'd like to learn a bit more about battling, and I'm sure that Luke and Casey - my weedle, it's around somewhere - would, but I would prefer not to at the moment. Some tips would be nice, though."

"I'm not really up to a battle at the moment any... How long has Brock been flirting with my sisters over there? Anyway, back on topic. I'll get him in a minute. About how good are you at battling?"

"Terrible."

"... Does the word 'Type Advantage' sound familiar to you?"

"Ash explained that," Luigi said, neglecting to mention that he hadn't gotten any of it.

"Good, so he can do something right. When you're able to, use a Pokémon with a defensive advantage, or with a move that has an offensive advantage. For instance, don't use your Raichu for a Ground-Type opponent. Be creative with which moves you use, too - Don't focus too heavily on offense or defense; and remember that almost anything can be used offensively if you know what you're doing. Improvise. Also, remember that the best way to avoid damage is to not get hit at all."

"Oh, that I know," Luigi said. "I'm used to dodging, countering, etc. in... uh, karate."

"Oh, so you're a bit of a martial artist?" Misty asked. "Good! You can use that. It can be very helpful to teach your Pokémon some of your own style if you can. Easier cooperation and all that. That's all I've got for now, sorry. I have to eat lunch and deal with you-know-who." And just like that, her mood changed and she stomped over to remove Brock from her sisters in her signature fashion: dragging him out of the room by the ear.


"Our agent has reported information on he boy's whereabouts. He's now accompanied by a Gym Leader and an additional trainer."

"Good... Good. All for the better. And our enemy's plans?"

"They don't know who the boy really is yet. They know he's somewhere in the world, but they haven't figured out who he is."

"Very good, very good."

"Should we make our move yet?"

"Very soon. We need to see what move our foes make."