Ash sighed as he stated, "Well, I did wanna help Mewtwo recover."
Misty nodded and responded, "As did I, because no one deserves what happened to him."
Ash nodded in agreement as he turned to Misty and confessed, "Although, I had to admit, Morty was hard to beat."
-Flashback: 'From Ghost to Ghost'-
Ash preparing for his fourth Gym battle against Morty and his powerful team of Ghost-type Pokémon by listening to his Pokédex's entry about Gengar. Unfortunately, the Pokédex states that details about Gengar are unknown. As Ash muses over battle strategies, Nurse Joy arrives with his Pokémon after healing them in the Pokémon Center. They talk about the difficulty of facing Morty's Ghosts and Nurse Joy suggests that Ash should use his Noctowl as a secret weapon. At the Gym, Morty has his Gengar demonstrate Confuse Ray to a group of young Trainers as an example of how to fight without using brute force.
Ash and his friends interrupt the lecture to challenge the Gym. Morty suggests that his students be allowed to watch and Ash gladly agrees. Meanwhile, Team Rocket floats along in their hot air balloon. James and Meowth are discussing James's use of his Treasure Detector to find treasures in Ecruteak City. Jessie groans that the device only ever finds junk and James fervently attempts to prove her wrong by displaying his prized collection of bottle caps, although he declines to explain what makes them so valuable. Suddenly, the device beeps loudly! They look over the edge of the balloon's basket to see that they are floating directly over the Burned Tower of Ecruteak.
They descend in the hopes of finding something valuable among the ruins. Soon, as Ash's battle with Morty is about to begin, Team Rocket follow the Treasure Detector right up to the Gym, where they see Ash through a window and then mention that they may leave Ecruteak with more than one treasure. Just then, the battle begins! Morty calls his Gastly forth and Ash choosesNoctowl in order to start off strong, a decision at which Brock and Misty are quite surprised and concerned. Ash says that he knows what he's doing, however. Ash has Noctowl begin with Hypnosis. Gastly dodges, disappearing in the process. Ash tells Noctowl to use Foresight to find Gastly.
Noctowl then attempts to Tackle Gastly, but Gastly easily dodges the attack again and again. After failing to Tackle Gastly, Noctowl tries to use Hypnosis; however, Morty orders Gastly to close his eyes to avoid being hypnotized and to use his Lick attack, which whips Noctowl out of the air. Ash returns Noctowl to its Poké Ball. Brock points out that this is a good strategy since Noctowl's Foresight will keep Gastly from disappearing and Ash can use Noctowl again later on if he needs to. As Jessie and Meowth watch through the window, they comment that the battle is much more interesting than digging for treasure.
James then shows up and shouts that his device revealed a valuable item hidden in a nearby building, which makes them forget about the battle for the time being. With Foresight keeping Gastly in view, Ash chooses Pikachu to replace Noctowl. Pikachu begins by using Quick Attack, which knocks Gastly far back. Pikachu then uses Thunderbolt, but Gastly dodges and counters with Night Shade. It's super effective, and Pikachu is unable to battle any further. After thanking Pikachu for his hard work, Ash next chooses Cyndaquil. Meanwhile, Team Rocket have discovered that the building indicated by the Treasure Detector contains a number of real valuables.
Just then, several Gastly materialize through a wall of the room. The trio turns around to see them and yells out in fright. Back at the Gym, Cyndaquil starts off with a Flamethrower attack. Gastly dodges, countering with Night Shade, which Cyndaquil dodges using Quick Attack. Gastly uses Lick but Cyndaquil just runs up Gastly's tongue and Tackles it, finally defeating it. Morty chooses Haunter as his second Pokémon. Cyndaquil tries to hit it with Flamethrower, but Haunter disappears and then uses Mean Look, which extinguishes Cyndaquil's back flames and forces Ash to use Cyndaquil until the end of the round.
Ash orders Cyndaquil to fire back up and use its Swift attack, which hurts Haunter. Haunter uses Hypnosis, which nearly works; but Cyndaquil counters with Smoke Screen. Through the Smokescreen, Haunter grabs Cyndaquil and then Licks it, ending Cyndaquil's ability to battle. Ash is now down to only his Noctowl. As the Gym battle rages on, Team Rocket sits in the other building, hallucinating about food at the Gastly's doing, which the Gastly think is very humorous. After Ash brings it back out, Noctowl uses Foresight to keep Haunter from disappearing. Noctowl follows this with a Tackle attack, but Haunter forces Noctowl to dodge its hands to avoid being grabbed instead.
Haunter then tries its Lick attack, which Noctowl dodges. The two Pokémon then each use Hypnosis and Confuse Ray, which become locked against each other; but Noctowl's Hypnosis loses the struggle and gets blown away, allowing Confuse Ray to hit Noctowl. The battle looks just about over when Noctowl appears confused after sitting back up. Haunter uses Night Shade but Noctowl Tackles it through the attack. The two collide and Noctowl emerges the victor. Since Noctowl's Tackle worked even though it was confused and the attack beat out Haunter's Night Shade, Brock says that it looks like Noctowl has learned Confusion, which Ash confirms with his Pokédex.
Noctowl uses its new move on Haunter and easily wins. Finally, it's Gengar's turn. Noctowl uses Confusion while Gengar uses Shadow Ball; the Confusion attack hits the Shadow Ball, making it explode, showering everyone with dark energy. Gengar disappears and, when Noctowl tries to use Foresight to find it, starts forcing Noctowl to repeatedly dodge its Night Shade. Misty is surprised that Gengar can attack while it's invisible and Brock says that Noctowl won't win without using Foresight. Ash thinks for a moment and then tells Noctowl to send Confusion through the building. This reveals Gengar and Noctowl is able to use Foresight on it.
Gengar attempts to use Shadow Ball again, but Noctowl stops it with a Tackle attack. After hitting the ceiling and falling to the floor, Gengar is now unable to battle. With no more Pokémon to fight against, Ash and Noctowl have won! Before the group heads out, Morty admits that Ash may actually have seen Ho-Oh. He then hands over the Fog Badge. Just before the credits, Team Rocket is seen running away from the haunted building, complaining of what a ghastly nightmare the day has been.
-End of Flashback-
Misty smiled at Ash's confession, she knew that Morty was hard to defeat since she saw the battle. Ash had such a struggle with the whole Johto League, although he did pretty well.
Ash asked her, "What did you think of that Nurse Joy that specialized in Water Pokémon?"
-Flashback: 'The Joy of Water Pokémon'-
Ash and his friends stare upon a Pokémon Center across a fairly large river. It seems to be popular for its specialty of caring for Water-type Pokémon. As they look, Pikachu notices something from the water, which a person in a full scuba suit holding a Goldeen comes out. The person speaks and two Chansey come along with a fish tank. Given the sign, Nurse Joy is behind the suit. She puts the Goldeen in the tank and the suit opens up the top half part. Brock does the usual thing he does whenever he encounters a Joy. Misty seems to look up to her as well, because of the specialty of caring for Water Pokémon.
Joy goes off mentioning her work to them, and gives a short admiration of Pikachu for a while. Soon afterward the Pokémon appear to be fighting, but in reality seemingly Pokémon training or of some sort. They seem to be using the same ability on one another. Team Rocket is spying on them a little ways, in a Tentacruel submarine. They plan to get the Pokémon in the center but are cut short when a Tentacruel mistakes them for another. Brock gets out a book that has a story written by a Joy, but really it was written by the current Joy's grandmother. She explains that this place used to be a wasteland, uninhabitable by anybody and that she was finding out the cause.
Brock asks her to sign the book but Joy doesn't want to do so. Brock gets out another book written by a Joy, but that one was Joy's mother. She explains that she helped the Grimer and Muk that poisoned the area get out. But seemingly, enough with the small talk, just want to get business over with. Meanwhile Team Rocket, still in their Tentacruel sub, finds their way into the Pokémon Center via a pipeline. Pikachu gets a refresher from the healing machine and settles to Ash. Misty wants her Pokémon treated so she asks Joy if she would. Surprisingly, Joy backs away scared, leaving everyone puzzled.
She goes off saying that she hates Water Pokémon quite a few times. So finally she explains about what happened. She was out with her mom looking over some Water Pokémon by the river in a boat. A Remoraid pops out and squirts her in the face for a while and Joy (younger one) falls into the water. Joy's mother tries to help but more Remoraid gather around and squirt Joy back up. Joy's mother tries to tell her that it's alright, but Joy can't seem to get the fright out. Joy can't seem to help out Misty and Misty is starting to get annoyed by that. But in the mean time, they go over to where most of the Water Pokémon are and take a look around.
Scanning around are a Goldeen, a Tentacool, few others and at the end, a Gyarados, who seems to have a "neck" problem. They are in separate tanks with a large pool in the middle. Misty shudders at Gyarados, but Ash likes Gyarados for its power. Joy agrees with Misty and they go on with that for a while. When all of a sudden, Team Rocket appears from the pool, fooling Ash with the Tentacruel disguises. They go off with their motto, being fancy and trying some water acrobatics. Finally they hop back in and attempt to grab Pikachu, but Pikachu dodges. So Team Rocket grabs Pikachu with the rest of the tentacles and try to go off, but Pikachu does Thunderbolt. Jessie and James start talking about how obviously this wasn't a good idea and Wobbuffet comes out, starting off a shock to all of them, blowing the sub up.
A few pieces of debris fly one hitting Gyarados' tank, another hitting a valve opening to the outside. Team Rocket get flushed out along with Gyarados's water and Joy's scuba suit. Gyarados starts writhing in pain for a while. Joy takes a stand and decides to help out Gyarados for now, even without her suit. She goes up but gets butterflies in her stomach, but she persists. She calms Gyarados down and the Chansey get another cast for Gyarados and place it on. Soon afterward, Joy collapses from the holding all that shock. Afterward, Joy still says she doesn't like Water Pokémon, but as a Pokémon nurse, she has to try her best.
Misty gives her some encouragement and the gang heads off to their destination.
-End of Flashback-
Misty confessed, "I had to admit that she did surprise me that she didn't like Water types when I love them so."
"Just like me loving you so," Ash stated, getting Misty to turn as red as her hair.
Ash chuckled as he softly kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear, "I love you, Mist."
AK1028: Well, that's the end of chapter 25! Tomorrow, I'll be with TimPrime1 which is why I'm updating everything today so please enjoy all of my updates! Please read and review! And always think outside of the box!