Pokemon: Return of the Kanto League
Team Rocket Arc (started on Homesick or Homebound)
Chapter 26
Trouble All Around, II
Ash's POV
It was the next day, it was surprisingly sunny out, in contrast to the mostly cloudy days. I found Pikachu laying upside down next to my leg and Misty on her cot next to my bed.
I checked the clock. It was only 7:30.
Mom must be cooking downstairs. I guess I'll get ready and see what she is making.
I quietly left the room with a change of clothes to keep the sleepyheads from waking up. I entered the bathroom, showered, and got dressed. As I left, I unlocked and opened the bathroom door, to see Misty on the other side, emerging from the bedroom.
"Morning, Mist," I greeted.
She rubbed her eyes, then smiled.
"Good morning. A little surprised to see you up and ready quite so early," Misty responded.
"Bathroom's open if you need it," I offered as I stepped into the hall.
Misty looked down at herself, aside from the suspenders and the top being a bigger size, she slept in the same clothes from our Kanto/Johto journey. She smiled as we both silently noticed it.
"I'll be fine for now. I don't need to change and I shower at night, so I'll do my hair and other stuff after breakfast," she answered, motioning toward the stairs.
Pikachu scurried out of the bedroom and climbed onto my shoulder.
"Morning, sleepyhead," I said, rubbing his head.
"Pikapi..." He groaned, in a tired daze.
We walked down the stairs to see Dad (who was finally out of his room) sitting at the table, reading a newspaper and Mom cleaning the kitchen.
Dad looked up to see us.
"Hey, you three. Nice to see you this morning," he greeted.
"Morning, Dad."
"Pika!"
"Good morning, Mr. Ketchum," Misty greeted back.
"No need for that much formality, call me Red, Misty," Dad responded.
"Okay, Red," Misty said, sounding awkward.
I chuckled to myself.
Mom turned to us, and the kitchen looked as if she was just starting breakfast.
She had a stressed and surprised look in her eye.
"Oh, I didn't know you two were awake. I should've started breakfast," Mom said, scolding herself.
"It's okay, Mom. I can help-"
"No, no. I got it. You two sit down at the table and relax. Breakfast will be ready in a few."
I sighed.
"Ok. Don't go too fast."
We sat down at the table, as an awkward silence grew.
In about 10 minutes (of silence, might I add), breakfast was ready.
Mom brought out eggs and potatoes, and went back in the kitchen to finish cleaning.
Misty stared at us as Dad and I chowed down on our food before she could grab her plate.
"Like father, like son," she said, with a small smile.
I rolled my eyes as I kept eating.
Within 5 minutes flat, I had two very full plates in my stomach.
Misty, still only halfway through her plate, chuckled.
"If you were a normal person, I don't think you'd be able to eat anything for the rest of the day."
"We have our date today, right? I wouldn't eat too much."
"You still aren't full, are you Ash?"
"Nope. Gotta save some room."
Dad was lying on the couch, groaning as he ate three plates, all of which were bigger than mine.
"Soooo fuulll..." he groaned.
We laughed at his stomach pain as Mom gave him stomach medicine.
After breakfast, Misty went upstairs to finish getting ready as I sat watching Pikachu eat his breakfast and thinking about what happened to Dawn.
She's just randomly gone. I mean- I know what happened to her with Team Rocket in the Reverse World where they took Dawn and used Giratina to keep us in line. So it may as well be Team Rocket, right? No. It HAS to be. I don't see anyone else doing it at this point.
We were only a day away from leaving to Sinnoh to save Dawn and Kenny, so I had to survive that day. I knew I should have liked going on dates but this was on my mind. I was going to have fun, whether I liked it or not.
Unsurprisingly, Misty was taking awhile. I was already ready, so it was a pain to wait. I was becoming impatient, but kept quiet. I turned on the TV, which helped me wait. It was still about 9:45 at that point, but we wanted leave early as we were walking instead on taking a car.
Misty didn't know where we were going, but I had ideas, but they were on the other side of Pallet Town. Pallet had spiked in population and businesses since I left at 10 years old, but still looked sort of the same.
After fifteen more minutes pass after the last thirty she was in there, Misty finally emerged. As always, she was pretty, but I wanted to leave.
Misty still wore the Kanto like clothes with the suspenders from so long ago, which threw me back in my mind to that time.
I stood there, silent as she walked down the stairs.
"Ready to go?" she asked, taking me out of my trance.
"Yeah," I responded.
I turned to my parents.
"We're going out, we'll be back in a while," I told them. My dad nodded and my mother had that look the mothers do when their kids are growing up.
"Pikapi!" Pikachu said, climbing on my shoulder as I opened the door.
Misty was already near the road as I shut the door and followed.
Misty looked back as I caught up with her.
"Where are we going first, Ash?"
"I have somewhere in mind. Let's go," I answered, taking her by the hand and running toward the forest.
Pikachu ran beside me, with Misty just behind me, hand in hand.
We are stopped as we encountered a somewhat large fence.
"Did the fence get bigger or something? Whatever," I said.
"Are we going to have to go another way around?" Misty asked.
"No. I'll help you climb over," I responded, finding a grip and beginning my climb to the top. Pikachu hung on my back, holding me back a little, but not enough to keep me from reaching the top.
I successfully made it to the top of the metal, only using two horizonal bars on the fence for the long way up.
I sat at the top, looking down.
"You are going to have to climb, at least to the first bar so I reach you," I yelled.
Misty seemed a little hesitant at first but began the climb.
She took a little bit, but reached the halfway point, allowing me to grab her hand. I then pulled her the entire way up the fence. We sat there for a minute. I looked down to see how I was going to get off the very high fence.
I threw my leg over and grabbed onto one of the poles. I threw myself off the fence as I slid down the pole. I jumped off as I hit the halfway point.
I landed on my feet and stood up. I turned towards the fence to see Misty up there, looking down at me.
"C'mon, it's not as hard as it looks!" I yelled.
"Okay! I'm coming down!" She yelled back.
She threw herself over, as she was about to fall before snatching the pole and sliding down. Misty then jumped off where I had previously and landed next to me.
"Alright, it's not that much further. C'mon," I told her, grabbing her hand and beginning to move once more. She nodded back.
After a few moments, we finally reached our destination: the schoolhouse.
"Where are we, exactly?" Misty asked.
I sighed.
"This is where you and I grew up before we lost our memory of one another."
"Is this also where we met?"
"Yes, Misty. You didn't fish me out of the lake that time. As far as I can remember, I approached you."
"What do you mean? How do you remember that but not me?"
"I don't know. I just remember approaching a girl six years ago, nothing after and nearly nothing before, it just stuck. Based on those pictures, that memory was by the time we met."
"Those two years must've been good after looking at those pictures."
"I assume they were. Sometimes I wish my memory never went away, just to see. But if I were given the choice between keeping or losing my memory in the past, I wouldn't know what to pick. I probably wouldn't have what I have today."
"I hope a few of my old memories come back someday. It'd be good to know what I was like. I never wanted to know until now."
"Perhaps my mother or your sisters could tell you. I was told I acted the exact same then I did when I left for my journey."
Misty sighed.
"Sadly, I don't think that'd be good enough. I'd want to know myself, Ash."
"I wish I could grant that wish, but we don't know if or when your memories will come back."
I looked into her eyes.
"Besides, if you had those memories, we may not have what we have or know the others."
I got closer to Misty, stepping in for a kiss, the other end doing the same.
It was silent as we separated, while Pikachu just sat there.
We entered the school, doors oddly unlocked.
We decided to have some fun. Pikachu climbed back and forth on the old monkey bars and Misty followed. I decided to climb the tree Gary and I used to race on to see who could get to the top first. It was a lot easier now, as I had grew a lot taller since then. I got to the top before Misty began climbing after me. She nearly fell down halfway up the tree, which reminded me of one of the earliest memories I still had.
It was the first time Gary and I tried to climb the tree, and I was right behind him. I accidentally grabbed his shirt when I was about to make it, and he shook me off. I landed on top of Leaf, who attempted to catch me.
After an hour and a half of running around the schoolhouse, I was getting hungry.
"Hey Mist, I think it's time we go to-"
"You're hungry, aren't you, Ash?"
"Yes..."
"Where will you be taking me?"
"There's a really good steak restaurant in Upper Pallet Town. I haven't been there in so long. It's a bit of a walk, but it's worth it."
"Okay, let's go," Misty said, with a cute and curious smile.
"Pika!" Pikachu cheered, indicating that he remembers the place.
We took a shorter way out, down a trail through the back of the school. After going through the small forest, we were in the middle of Pallet Town. People were everywhere, walking up and down the street, tending to their business.
"It's quite crowded for Pallet this time of year," I pointed out.
"Seems like it. Last time I was here, Pallet was tiny and nearly empty," Misty added.
We kept walking for about 15 minutes, as Misty looked in the windows of the shops around us. We eventually reached the place and went inside. There weren't many people in there, which meant we didn't have to wait to get a table.
We were seated, as I immediately picked up the menu to see what and how much I wanted.
Misty chuckled at my lack of reluctance and carefulness as I plopped in my chair and put the menu in front of my face.
There was about 5 minutes of silence as I picked out what I wanted from the menu.
I knew what I wanted and by the time a waiter came along to ask us about drinks, so I ordered their biggest steak. Pikachu, on the other hand, ate ketchup on a plate. Misty ordered a salad and a small, lean steak, already having her mind on her weight despite being thin as a stick. I didn't care much as I hadn't thought I reached that age where I actually gained weight with the exception of growth.
"If you could live anywhere in Kanto except your current hometown, where would you move?" I asked.
"Probably here in Pallet, as I am familiar enough with it and it's quiet on the side most people live in," Misty answered.
"What about you?" she asked.
"I don't know. Kanto has many places to leave. I'm a small town boy, so I'd pick either Viridian or something simple like Pewter or Cerulean," I answered.
Misty looked a little angered by my answer, but not for the reason I thought.
"What makes you think Cerulean is simple, Ash Ketchum?!" She asked.
At this point, I knew I changed and didn't argue back like we used to, but in a playful tone.
"I dunno, Misty. Seems like a place for simpletons to me," I answered.
"Oh, you take that back," she threatened.
"I will. What I really meant by simple was that people close to me live in Pewter and Cerulean. It's also close to this home so I wouldn't miss Pallet too much."
Misty blushed in the way she does when we're all gushy and in embarrassment.
"Oh, stop it."
Of course, that was a dense moment for me.
"Stop what?" I asked, in a confused tone.
"You'd move to Cerulean for me?" She asked, either trying to clarify and clear up the density or trying to make me say something sweet.
"Yeah," I answered, confidently.
This made her blush more, nearly making me laugh.
After a while, food came and I absolutely devoured. Once more, by the time I finished Misty was halfway done.
"Geez, and I thought you began to resist the urge to devour food in record timing," Misty told me, in a slightly concerned tone.
"My stomach and stick for a body will never stop eating a lot fast," I responded, almost burping.
A little bit of time passes and we leave, with me, to Misty's surprise, paying the bill.
There was one more place I was to take Misty, which was intentionally near the restaurant.
There was a dirt road off the main streets, that went right through the middle of a giant field full of flowers, which I knew Misty would love to see.
I had Misty close her eyes and lead her as we were approaching the field, with Pikachu making sure she didn't fall.
"We're getting closer now, alright, open your eyes," I said.
She opened her eyes and was amazed.
"Oh my... It's beautiful. I don't think I've seen this side of Pallet," Misty expressed.
"Yeah, it's usually a place couples go-"
I was about to be interrupted.
"Hey! You two!"
We turned toward a man with a vest and two pokeballs.
"Misty K. Waterflower and Ashton J. Ketchum, I have been sent to retrieve you and bring you to my employer at once!"
"He's from Team Rocket," I whisper to Misty.
"Like hell I'd let myself or Misty or go with you!" I yell at the slender mercenary.
The man was tall and somewhat masculine. He had slicked back blonde hair with a soulpatch below his bottom lip. His voice wasn't deep but it sounded evil.
"Looks like I'll have to take you by force!"
The man threw out an Electabuzz and a Manectric.
I took one of my Pokeballs out, and prepared to throw it.
"Bulbasaur, go!"
As the ball soared through the air as Bulbasaur emerged.
Misty had only one Pokemon on her: Gyarados.
"Go, Gyarados!"
The battle had begun and the mercenary made the first move.
"Electabuzz! Quick Attack that Bulbasaur!"
It was very fast for an Electabuzz, as it hit Bulbasaur before I could react.
"Bulbasaur, counter that with a Vine Whip!"
Bulbasaur barely hit Electabuzz, but did enough damage to keep it from getting away unscathed.
"Gyarados! Use Flamethrower on Manectric!"
The Electric wolf-looking Pokemon was then buried in flames, but jumped out without taking too much damage.
"Manectric! Thunder!"
Manectric then sent a wave of electricity at Gyarados, hitting right on the head. Gyarados pull through, but took a lot more damage than expected.
"Bulbasaur! Tackle the Manectric!"
The grass-type jumped on top of the Manectric before it could escape, pinning it down.
"Now, finish Manectric with Leech Seed!"
Bulbasaur seeded the Electric-type sucking away it's fighting power.
"Gyarados! Hydro Pump!"
Gyarados spray a massive flow of water at Electabuzz, but Electabuzz was affected much by it.
"Electabuzz, Thunder Punch!"
Electabuzz charged at Gyarados, its fist surrounded by electricity.
It hit Gyarados front and center, electricuting it severely.
"Again!"
It struck again.
"Again!"
It hit again, leaving me with no idea what to do about it.
A/N: Hi, long time no see! School is finally over so I became free to finally write this overdue chapter! I'm not too busy during summer so I should be able to write. The third part to Trouble All Around should (and hopefully will) be out soon. This Team Rocket arc may last a while, but I'm trying to make it as interest as I possibly can. Please RR and suggest what should happen next after this arc is over. Thanks for reading and sticking with me!
Stay cool,
bakercomics
