Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Longest Road! During the last chapter, after having a long struggle of getting his Red Tajiri signed hat back from a Pokemon, Ash added a new addition to his team: a Primeape! And now, Ash, Misty, and the others will arrive in Celadon City, where they are going to do a little shopping spree before the gym battle. One of their first stops will be Scissor Street. What will our heroes find there? Hopefully some more adventure! Anyways, it is time for the twenty-sixth chapter of The Longest Road, everyone! Let's get going!
It was December 8th, 1998, and Ash, Misty, Brock, Sabrina, Pikachu, and Vaporeon have arrived in Celadon City. They came into the Pokemon Center outside of where most of the shops in the city, they were greeted by a Nurse Joy wearing a hat with a pale green symbol on her hat.
"Good evening, and welcome to the Pokemon Center!" the pink haired nurse said to our heroes, "Would you like me to heal your Pokemon?"
Ash and the others nodded as they handed her their Pokeballs, and Pikachu and Vaporeon jumped onto the counter. As Nurse Joy took the Pokemon from our protagonists, Misty asked her a question.
"Nurse Joy," she said, "we are here for the gym, but what else is there to see in Celadon City?"
The nurse just smiled before taking the Pokemon to a room in the back of the Pokemon Center. When she returned, she was holding four maps of the city, and told Ash and the others, "Here is a map that shows all of the highlights of Celadon City."
"Thanks," Ash said before he went to go sit down with his map and plan out his time in Celadon City with his friends.
The next day, December 9th, 1998, Ash, Misty, Brock, Sabrina, Pikachu, and Vaporeon headed into the city.
"Alright," Brock said, "Since Celadon City is the one biggest cities in Kanto, I say we should split up to try and take in the entire city."
"Good idea, Brock!" Ash said. Pikachu hopped on his trainer's shoulder, then he, Misty, and Vaporeon went one way while Brock and Sabrina went the other way.
As Ash and Misty went through the city, they hit a lot of the famous shops in Celadon City. Their first stop was a perfume store, but they did not last very long in there before the two got kicked out because Ash said he did not like the perfume. To be fair, it was not entirely his fault, as they were shoving it all into his personal bubble. The two then decided to hit a manga store two blocks away, but before they could get there, Misty stopped dead in her tracks.
Ash decided to stop too to see what she was looking at, and what interested her about it. It looked like it was a poster for some fashion line. But it seemed like the fashion line was not for humans, but Pokemon, as shown by the Koffing and the Ekans in outrageous clothing on the poster. Under the banner were the words: "Salon Rocket."
"How about we check that place out, Ash?" Misty suggested to her boyfriend.
"I'm not sure, Mist," Ash said, as the "Rocket" part of the name sounded oh too familiar.
Misty just laughed at her boyfriend, "Don't be a wimp, Ash!" she said as she grabbed his arm and dragged him into the Salon Rocket, with Pikachu and Vaporeon right behind them.
As they walked into the store, they did not notice a pair of light brown eyes watching them from a nearby bush. The Pokemon, a red fox with six tails instead of one, popped out of the bush and ran towards the salon, as she could just since the danger that Ash and Misty were going to get themselves into, and how much it would ruin one of their appearances.
When Ash and Misty walked into the salon, a woman with magenta hair and a man with blue hair greeted our heroes. She said to them: "Hello, trainers, I see that you two have come for a makeover?"
Misty nodded and handed the strange woman her Pokeballs, but Ash could see that the woman was a particular member of Team Rocket, as was the man she was standing beside! He tried to tell his girlfriend not to do it, but Misty was not listening to him, as she wanted her Pokemon to look pretty.
"Oh, I will not only make your Pokemon pretty, miss but also yourself!" the man said, taking the Pokeballs off of Misty's belt and placing them in a box behind a desk. His partner also picked Misty's Vaporeon off of the ground and put her into the drawer as well.
"What are you going to do to her?!" Ash shouted, with a couple of people staring at him.
"Oh, you will see, boy," the woman said before looking back and saying, "You will see."
Ash huffed and took a seat in the waiting area. He picked up a magazine to kill some time, and that was when Pikachu asked if Misty was going to be alright. Ash just sighed and told his yellow partner that only time would tell.
When Misty came out of the back room, Ash looked up to see how her makeover went, and he could not believe what he saw: Misty's face looked like she was a clown! The hair on the side of her head was tied up into a bun, and two more strands of hair were tied up to cover her forehead. They were all connected by strings that had a green square and pink heart pattern. And on her face, Ash could not believe the makeup that the people put on her: there were a lot of designs on her face, but Ash could only make out a star shape, a shape that looked a bit like the Cascade Badge, and, most recognizable, a huge red nose!
"So, Ash?" she asked her boyfriend, "How do I look?"
"Uh…" Ash said before thinking of an appropriate response. He thought up the lie, "You look beautiful!" The man and woman who gave Misty her makeover gasped.
"You think she looks beautiful?!" they said, but in their normal voices, not knowing that their cover was going to be blown.
Ash nodded before looking at them and asking, "You are Team Rocket, aren't you?!"
The man and woman gasped before pulling their disguises, causing everyone in the salon to stare at them.
"Prepare for trouble, you brats, after every Pokemon's makeover," Jessie said.
"Make it double, it will be time for a fashion world takeover!" James said.
"To protect the world from devastation!"
"To unite all people within the nation!"
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reach to the stars above!"
"Jessie!"
"And James!"
"Team Rocket blasting off at the speed of light!"
"So surrender now, twerps, or prepare for a fight!"
"Meowth! Dat's right!" Meowth said, jumping in front of his friends.
Everyone in the salon screamed and tried to run out of the door, but they did not get the chance too before James pulled out a rope, formed a lasso, and tied everyone except for Ash up. Jessie then took the girls that they captured and set them onto a big table, except for Misty, as she was on her chair, tied up with rope. The TRio laughed and explained to the captives that they could not do anything now, as they were all tied up, and without their Pokemon, who they were going to give to the boss.
"Think they are helpless?!" Ash shouted at Jessie and James, as he taunted them with his Pokeballs and sent out his Gengar to try and do some damage to TRio's Pokemon.
James accepted his challenge and sent out his Koffing. When Koffing came out of his Pokeball, he unleashed a bit of gas, and it ended up on some of the captives, but Misty got covered in the black stuff the most.
Ash gave the first order of the battle and told Gengar to use Night Shade against James's Koffing. The ghost delivered a purple screen towards the Koffing, but it did minimal damage because it was at a low level. James told his Koffing to use a Smokescreen attack on Gengar. It expelled black gas from its pores which got all over the salon, and while it blinded Gengar like intended, it also got Misty dirtier! Gengar decided for an aerial attack, but when he crashed back into the ground, he missed Koffing by a mile.
Ash returned Gengar to his Pokeball and sent out a Pokemon he knew could deal with Koffing, his Butterfree. He thought about sending out Primeape, but he did not want to see how that would go. James decided to give Koffing a rest as well, and Jessie sent out her Ekans to deal with Ash's bug and flying type Pokemon. Ash told Butterfree to use Confusion. Butterfree unleashed pink energy at the snake, and it did a lot of damage to it. But it was not good enough to finish the poison type. Jessie told her snake to use Poison Sting on Ash's Butterfree, which the snake did. And to make it a lot worse for Ash, the poisonous barb went straight to Butterfree's heart, poisoning him.
"Butterfree, return!" Ash said as he recalled Butterfree to his Pokeball. Ash did not know what to do next. He did not have any Pokemon that were willing to fight left on him, and Team Rocket's Pokemon are kicking his ass right now.
Just then, without warning, an Ember attack came flying by Ash and Team Rocket. They dodged it, and the small ball of fire ended up on Misty, burning her slightly. If anyone were to see her now, they could see that she was very close to her breaking point.
Ash and the Team Rocket trio looked out of the door to see a small fox Pokemon standing in the doorway, a Vulpix. She cried her name before getting into a battle position, ready to give Team Rocket a beating to help the two lovebirds out.
"Oh, it is on!" Jessie said. James sent out his Koffing, and he got next to Jessie's Ekans to help the snake out. Jessie ordered a Poison Sting attack from her Ekans, and James told Koffing to cover the Poison Stings with his Smokescreen. The two Pokemon obeyed, but Vulpix countered them both with a Fire Spin attack, causing a mini explosion inside of the salon. Pikachu decided to take advantage of the blast and snook behind the desk to free Vaporeon and the rest of Misty's Pokemon. He hid in the smoke caused by the explosion and hammered on some of the drawers of the desk, careful not to attract the attention of Jessie and James. Eventually, he came across the drawer that Jessie and James put Vaporeon in.
"Oh, thank you, Pikachu!" Vaporeon said as she kissed him on the cheek. She then got out of the drawer and helped Pikachu get the rest of Misty's Pokeballs out before they went to go free Misty and the rest of the TRio's captives.
When Pikachu untied the rope that bonded Misty to the chair, she thanked him by petting him on the head before running right through the area where the wild Vulpix and the TRio were fighting, causing her to get slightly messier. And she got out of the battle area just in time to see Vulpix use Fire Spin on the bad guys, and for them to launch into the air and scream "Looks like Team Rocket is blasting off again!"
Misty took a look at Ash and asked him if she looked alright. He just smiled and said that she might need a bath once they get back to the Pokemon Center. They decided to head their now, but not before Misty got down to her knees and thanked the Pokemon that helped them from Team Rocket. Vulpix rubbed her head against Misty's as if to say "Thank You" to her.
"You know what?" Misty said, "I am going to capture you." She then grabbed out a Pokeball and threw it at the Fox Pokemon. It went in, and the ball started shaking, only to end after shaking for ten seconds.
As Misty picked up the Pokeball, Ash decided to ask Misty something: "If you love water types so much, Misty, then why are you catching a fire type?"
"Just because I want to catch something, Ash," Misty said as she got back up and started walking to the Pokemon Center.
After washing up, Misty met up with Ash, Pikachu, and Vaporeon in the waiting area of the Pokemon center. It took her two hours and ten baths to get completely clean, but Misty looked precisely the same way she did before she got the makeover from the TRio, with a little help from the battle. Ash went up to greet Misty, which she accepted. They looked at the time. It was a little bit past six o'clock.
"It looks like it is a little too late to hit the manga store," Ash said, his head hanging low. Just then, Brock and Sabrina came through the door of the Pokemon Center, greeting Ash and Misty.
"How was your time looking around Celadon City?" Brock asked the raven-haired trainer and his girlfriend. They went on to explain how they stopped one of Team Rocket's schemes at a salon with the help of a wild Vulpix, and how Misty decided to capture it.
"What did you and Sabrina do, Brock?" Ash said before getting in his face and asking "Kiss each other?"
The older, squinty-eyed man shook his head. "It is a long story on what we did, but it all ended with me accidentally catching a Psyduck."
"Well, are you up for a trade, Brock?" Misty asked. Since Psyduck was a water type, she wanted her hands on one of them, even if it meant that it would be a disobedient Pokemon since she wasn't going for badges like Ash was.
"What Pokemon do you want to give me Misty, your Vulpix?" Brock asked the tangerine, haired girl. She nodded, and the two rushed to the trade room, leaving Ash and Sabrina alone.
"You didn't enter the perfume store by any chance, did you Ash?" the green-haired psychic asked our protagonist.
"Yeah, I entered one right before we stopped Team Rocket."
Sabrina had a concerned look on her face. "It looks like my prediction was right."
"What do you mean?"
"In case you forgot, the reason the gym leader denies your battle request is because you have a different opinion on perfume. I also forgot to tell you that an important person in the gym works at the perfume store."
And with that, the twenty-sixth chapter of The Longest Road is complete! This chapter and the next one were difficult ones to plan, as I decided to do Pokemon Fashion Flash before Hypno's Naptime. Anyways, next time, I will explain what Sabrina and Brock did while Ash and Misty were dealing with the TRio. And a big shout out to Phantom Darkari, Redder45, SkeletonBisque, summer490, and viking69 for favoriting this chapter. And if for the rest of you, remember to favorite, follow, and review, as every single one of them means a lot to me! I will see you next time, let's try to reach 100 favorites, and Dare to Pokeship!