Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Longest Road! Last time, Ash battled a group of brothers who focused on all of the (Kantonian) Eeveelutions to determine to fate of their younger brother's Eevee. Ash ended up winning, and Mikey didn't have to evolve his Eevee, and if you ask any Pokemon fan, if you don't evolve Eevee, you are officially sad. And now, Ash and the gang are going to meet up with a pair of trainers that we didn't see since Chapter 18, Gary Oak and Leaf Green. What will happen? Well, only one way to find out! But first, I would like to take some time to respond to a guest review. Thanks for the tips for making the battle in the last chapter a little more action packed, but I wanted to makeTime for the thirty seventh chapter of the Longest Road!
Oh, and to one user, I don't care if only three people, one of whom cannot speak English, like my story. I will continue it until it is completed or until the day I die.
It was January 19th, 1999, and Ash, Misty, Brock, Sabrina, Pikachu, and Vaporeon were walking through the woods and talking about the adventures that they have had over the past week. One notable one was on January 15th, 1999. That was when they attended a Pokemon magic show. The show was rather dull, so the magician offered Ash and Misty to try and help him out. And then, the magician was fired halfway through the show, so it was just up to Ash and Misty to try and get through the entire show. Needless to say, hilarity ensued. Then, a day after Ash and Misty's magic show that was no better than the one who was originally hired to do it, one of Ash's Pokemon got sick, and they stopped by an herbalist with a Paras to try and make him feel better. To try and knock some of the spores out of Paras, Ash told his Pikachu to try and use the weakest electric type move that he had, and if you watched that episode, then you already know the rest.
"What level was that Paras at to go down so easily?" Vaporeon asked Pikachu.
"Well, Paras don't exactly have the best special defensive stats and all, but…" Pikachu told the Bubble Jet Pokemon, "I think that Paras was about half way from evolving into a Parasect."
Vaporeon nodded as they, their trainers, and those other two trainers (again, Brock and Sabrina, no offence) continued their walk through the forest. After walking for about twenty minutes, they ran into a pair of trainers, literally. When Ash looked up to see who the trainers they ran into were, he let out a low growl. It was Gary and Leaf!
"So, Ashy boy," Gary taunted the ebony haired trainer, "How was your journey so far?"
"Good," Ash responded to his rival, "How was yours?"
"It's going great" Gary told Ash as he took out his badge case to show Ash and his friends all of the badges he has earned throughout his journey in the Kanto region. But when Brock saw them for the first time, he noticed something was off with how many badges Gary has earned.
"Excuse me Gary," the squinty eyed man told Ash's longtime rival.
"What is it, Rocky?" Gary Oak asked.
"One, do not call him Rocky," Misty told Gary, "And two, I believe he was asking how the hell did you have TEN badges when their are only eight?!"
"Oh, simple Red," Gary said, "I am just a better trainer than your boyfriend."
This did not go down with Misty, as she pulled out a mallet and began hitting Gary over the head with it. She ranted and raved at him on three things. "One, Ash was not her boyfriend, he is just a boy and a friend. (And yes, they kissed for the first time in chapter 20, but Misty just wants to keep it from Gary, at least for now.) Two, he was better than Ash because of the number of badges he had, because it would have been obvious that he cheated to get badges nine and ten. And three, Don't. Call. Me. RED!"
"But red is the color of your hair, red" Gary said before Misty hit him on the head as hard as he could. She then shouted at him that the specific shade of her hair is tangerine, which was a shade of ORANGE, not red. The two then began fighting one another, causing a large cloud of dust to form around them. Ash ordered Misty's Vaporeon to try and calm the two down with an Aurora Beam, thinking that it would freeze them solid. Only, it didn't work, as he forgot that Aurora Beam doesn't freeze opponents. It had to take the combined work of Brock, Sabrina, and Leaf to separate the two from fighting one another.
"Come on, you two," Ash told his rival and best female friend as his other friends, and Gary's traveling companion, carried the two off to the Pokemon Center. When they were finally separated, Ash and his friends sat with Leaf in the Pokemon Center lobby and started to talk to her about how their journeys were going.
"My journey is going well with Gary," Leaf told her childhood friend.
"Is he treating you as good as I would have treated you if you decided to go with me instead of him?" Ash asked.
Leaf nodded before telling Ash and his friends, "Yeah, and although we did fought a couple of times down the longest road, we usually make up by the end of the day."
"Hey Leaf," Brock asked, "What kind of Pokemon did you and Gary catch since we last saw you two?"
Instead of just telling Ash, Brock, Sabrina, Pikachu, and Vaporeon, Leaf decided to release all of her Pokemon out at once. She had the Ivysaur, Wigglytuff, and Nidoqueen she had on the SS Anne, as well as a new Pokemon, a Ninetales.
"Cool!" Ash said before deciding to send out all of his Pokemon. He grabbed all of his Pokeballs, and out came Butterfree, Clefable, Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Dragonite, Haunter, Primeape, Muk, and Tauros. They all went to go interact with Leaf's team. Clefable immediately started to talk to Wigglytuff, and asked him how he was. He told Clefable that his journey with his trainer is going good, and that her traveling companion has added a Arcanine to his team, who, when they were just a Vulpix and Growlithe, Ninetales refused to let Gary capture unless Leaf caught her as well.
"They must seem to LOOOOOOOOOOVE another then, don't they, Wiggly?" Clefable asked the Balloon Pokemon.
He nodded before asking Clefable what she has been up to since the SS Anne chapters of the story.
"Oh, nothing much," Clefable said to Wigglytuff, "I have spent most of the last nineteen chapters in my Pokeball, mostly because Northstar has forgotten about me and has to look back to his own list of characters to acknowledge the existence of me, and by extension, any Pokemon he didn't catch in the canon or play a huge role in the Kanto portion of the anime, and only remembered that I was necessary this chapter because you and your trainer were in it." Clefable told Wigglytuff.
"Alright," Wiggly told Clef, "I helped Leaf win a couple of gym badges, one she didn't even have to battle for!"
"Erika's Rainbow Badge?" Clefable asked. Wigglytuff nodded and asked Clefable how she knowed. She went on to explain how Ash made Erika lose her position as gym leader for exposing what she has done to trainers who disagreed on her opinion on her perfume, plus the fact that she was a lesbian.
"Wait," Wigglytuff said, "I thought that gays and lesbians can be trainers now."
"Yeah," Clefable told the Balloon Pokemon, "But that law only happened because of what happened down in Celadon. And no, the law was not created in the first place because Northstar is a homophobe, the region of Kanto just hasn't figured out the whole "gay rights" thing yet."
The two pink Pokemon continued to talk for another ten minutes before their respective trainers walked up to them and told them they were going to check in on Gary and Misty. Clefable and Wigglytuff nodded before they were returned to their Pokeballs with all of the rest of their Pokemon (except for the Pokemon who are named "Pikachu" and "Vaporeon", of course) and began to walk to the rooms Gary and Misty were in.
"Are you ready to apologize to Gary for what you have done to him?" Ash asked his best female friend.
"I dunno, is Gary ready to apologize to me?" Misty asked.
"We'll see," Ash said as Leaf entered their room, with her hand around Gary's arm.
"Although I still want to fight you, I am sorry for what I have done to you, Red" the professor's grandson said to Misty, only to get glares from everyone in the room.
"Well, Gary," Ash said to his rival, "If you really want to continue fighting with Misty, how about you two have your Pokemon do it tomorrow?"
"Well, alright," Misty said as Gary and Leaf left the room, leaving her and Ash to discuss their strategy to try and defeat Gary and Leaf.
It was early in the morning on January 20th, 1999, as Ash, Misty, Brock, Sabrina, Gary, Leaf, Pikachu, and Vaporeon headed out onto the Pokemon Center's battlefield. Ash, Misty, and their two main Pokemon went onto one side of the battlefield, and Gary and Leaf went onto the other. Brock and Sabrina, who would act as the battle's referees, walked to a side of the battlefield in between Ash and Misty's teams and Leaf and Gary's. They went on to explain the rules of the battle. It would be a team battle where each trainer was only allowed two Pokemon, and no replacements until the Pokemon on the battlefield has fainted. Brock ordered all four of the trainers to send out their first Pokemon. Gary sent out his Arcanine. Leaf sent out her Ninetales. Misty sent out her Starmie. And Ash decided to send out his Muk to try and take out Gary and Leaf's pair of fiery fox Pokemon.
"Gary and Leaf's team get the first move!" Brock shouted, "Battle, begin!" Both Gary and Leaf ordered their hot dogs to use Flamethrower on their opponents. Misty ordered her Star Shape Pokemon to defend Muk by using its Water Gun attack. While the Water Gun canceled Arcanine's Flamethrower, It didn't do much against Ninetales' flames. Ash told his Muk to use Minimize to try and dodge the oncoming flames. Muk shrank down in size and began to move towards the two fire type Pokemon under the commands of his trainer. The Muk then grew back to his normal size and ensnared his opponents in a purple, gooey mess. Mitsy told Starmie to use a Hydro Pump. A large amount of water came rushing towards Arcanine and Ninetales. Being encased by Muk, they had no chance to escape and got soaked, and then they fainted.
"Both Arcanine and Ninetales are unable to battle!" Brock shouted.
"Gary, Leaf, send out your next Pokemon." Sabrina told Ash's rival and his traveling companion.
Gary sent out his Nidoking wile Leaf sent out her Nidoqueen. They both ordered their poison and ground types to shake it up with an earthquake attack. Ash gulped, as he knew that Muk could not stand a chance against ground type moves like Earthquake. He told his pile of sludge to go on top of Starmie, but he got thrown off and right towards the two Nidos. They bounced him in between their stomachs, causing a lot of pain for the poison type.
Sabrina yelled at Gary and Leaf, and ordered that they stop their Pokémon from hurting Ash's Muk. When Muk hit the ground for the last time, Ash returned him to his Pokeball and sent out his Charmander. Misty told her Starmie to use Surf, hoping that it would take out both of the Nidos at the same time. And while it did a sizable amount of damage to the two Pokémon, it was not quite enough to get them down. And it also did some damage to another Pokémon on the battlefield: Charmander! Ash ran towards the Lizard Pokémon and asked him if he was alright. Charmander nodded before something began to him. He was encased in a powerful white glow. Inside of the glow, Charmander began to change. He grew taller and his skin took on a deeper shade of red. His head changed shape slightly and his claws began to grow sharper. Inside of his body, the flames that he was able to breath grew hotter and hotter. When he stopped glowing, Charmander was not a Charmander anymore. He has evolved into a Charmeleon! Ash congratulated his new Charmeleon for evolving, and ordered him to finish Nidoking and Nidoqueen off with a Slash attack. Charmeleon did in fact take Nidoking and Nidoqueen out, but not with Slash like Ash asked him to do. Instead, he used a Flamethrower on not only Nidoqueen and Nidoking, but on anything else in his eyesight as well. Brock and Sabrina began to yell at Ash to return Charmeleon to his Pokeball immediately.
"Charmeleon! Return!" Ash shouted as he attempted to return the evolved Pokémon to his Pokeball. It took him a couple of tries, but he eventually got Charmeleon back in his ball before he could do any more damage. After he did that, he shook his hand with Gary and Misty shook her hand with Leaf.
"That was a great battle, Ash," Gary told his rival.
"Thanks," Ash said before asking what he and Leaf were going to go do now.
"Well, in a couple of days, there is going to be a special fossil dig," Leaf told Ash and his friends, "And you are welcome to join us if you are up to it."
Ash looked at Misty, then Brock, and finally Sabrina before telling Leaf that they were going to be joining them. Leaf nodded before they all headed into the Pokémon Center for some rest. After all, it is going to be a long day tomorrow.
And with that, the thirty-seventh chapter of The Longest Road is now complete! Next time, Ash, Misty, and the gang are going to go hunt for some fossil Pokemon! What will they find? Well, we have to wait for next time. But before we go, I would like to announce that I have a new poll up for you guys to vote on: Should I take a break from the Longest Road to do a series of Pokeshipping oneshots or not? Voting begins the moment this story goes up, and closes at 7 am Central time (8am Eastern, 6am Mountain, 5am Pacific) on October 19th, 2018. And a huge shoutout to Animeluver4life23 for favoriting this story! And if you guys didn't favorite, follow, or review yet, it would be highly appreciated as they all mean a lot to me as a writer. I will see you next time, let's fire things up, and dare to Pokeship!