Hello, my friends! Welcome to the twenty-fourth part of The Great Pokeshipping Story Marathon! In the last part, Misty went to Pallet Town to help Ash through the loss of the closest thing to a father figure he had in his life, Professor Oak. I wrote it because my own grandfather died before I published Ashachu's Crush. Anyways, here is some GOOD news! Starlit Duck of "Super Koopalings" fame has been recording her stories and posting them to YouTube. And as the inspiration for my tale "Ending an Old Tradition," I decided to follow in her footsteps and start recording the 151 Pokeshipping Stories and posting THEM to YouTube! (Two shameless plugs in the same sentence, I know.) Anyways, Ash and Misty reading one of the stories is what inspired me to write story number 24! How will it go for them? Well, you have to read to find out the answer! Let's get going, everyone!
It was a warm summer day in the Kanto region, and it was the offseason for the Pokemon League. That left Ash Ketchum and Misty Waterflower with more time for one another. After all, with Ash being the Kanto League champion and his girlfriend being the Cerulean Gym Leader, that meant a lot of work for both of them. But the offseason meant they could spend more time together. Ash decided to stay with the Waterflowers at Cerulean Gym for the summer. The two and their Pokemon would go out for a day in and around the city. Right now, they were in the shopping district of Cerulean.
"Which store do you want to go and check out Mist?" Ash asked as they walked on the sidewalk past multiple storefronts. While Cerulean's shopping district was not as impressive as, say, Celadon's, it was still an excellent place to find whatever you needed.
"That bookstore over there looks interesting," Misty said. She pointed to a quaint little store with several books in the store window.
"Yeah," Ash said, "Let's go over there." They crossed the street and looked at the display. Right now, it was advertising a new book called "151 Pokeshipping Stories: A Collection of Stories Inspired by Kanto's Power Couple." They looked at the work, interested.
"Into that book?" a man asked as he walked by them. Ash and Misty looked and saw the man. He had long brown hair, glasses over his eyes, a short beard, and a green hockey sweater with the letter "N" on it.
"Yeah," Ash said, "We were going to buy it!" He then bumped his shoulder into Misty to encourage her to play along.
"Yeah," Misty said, "Can't wait to get back to the gym to read it!"
"So you are Misty?" the man asked her, "Cool!"
"I sure am!" Misty said with a smile, "I am just out on a date with my boyfriend Ash while it is the down season."
"I see…" the man said, "Anyways, my name is Christopher Kasper, but you can just call me Northstar. I was the one who collected all of the stories."
Ash smiled and shook his hand, "Nice to meet you, Chris. Mind if you sign our copies after we buy them?"
"Of course!" Chris said, "Just meet me by Carrie's Chicken House after buying your copies! It is the restaurant with the red sign!" He then headed off. Ash and Misty smiled.
"Well," Ash said, "Ready to get our copies?"
"Sure am!" Misty said. They then head into the bookstore and buy a copy each for 2160 Former Japanese Empire Yen.
Ash and Misty soon arrived at the restaurant Chris wanted to meet them at and saw him sitting at a booth. They sat next to him and smiled.
"Hello again," Chris said to the champion of the Kanto region and his girlfriend, "Did you get the book?"
Ash and Misty both nod as they show the man their copies and hand them over to him for signing. Chris smiled as he pulled out a pen and wrote in both: "For one half of the best couple of Kanto, from Pokeship." He then handed them back to Ash and Misty and asked if they read them yet.
"We will," Ash said, "And I am sure that we will like it!"
"Right," Misty said, "Maybe we will even read them to all of our adoring fans so they can hear these stories as well!"
Northstar smiled, "That's great to hear! I have been looking for someone to read all of the stories in this book for others. Mind if you two be the ones who do it?"
"Of course," Ash said, "As long as we are done before the League starts back up again."
"Yeah, it will be done by then!" Northstar said with a smile. He then wrote the address of where the studio where they would record it will be. He then handed the paper to Ash and Misty and told them to meet him there tomorrow.
"Alright then!" Ash and Misty said. They then took a sneak peek at the first story in the book to see what it was all about. And to their surprise, the stories were about THEM!
"Wow…" Ash said, "That many people ship us together?"
"Looks like it," Misty said with a smile as they continued to read. Most of the stories in the book did not actually happen to them in real life. However, they were okay with that because it was all a work of fiction.
The next day, Ash and Misty head to the recording studio and met up with Chris.
"We are ready to read the stories that you collected!
"That's great," Chris said as he gave them a smile, "Today, we will read the first three stories in the book, "Misty, I Choose You," "Water Trainer Ash," and "New Student." Are you two familiar with them to read them out?
Ash and Misty nod.
"Yeah," Ash said, "We will be happy to read them out loud for you and bring our passion into the stories!" Ash said.
Misty nods in agreement, "Yeah. I hope that we do well, Northstar."
"Okay then," Northstar said as he leads them into the recording booth. Northstar then went to sit next to the director of the production, "Okay, the director said to Ash and Misty through a microphone, Story 1, Scene 1, Take 1. Action!"
"It was a warm day in Pallet Town, a small town in the Kanto region, and everyone there was doing fine. Especially the kids who came all across Kanto to the professor's lab to spend one month learning about all of the unique Pokemon who live in the region. Everyone was excited to be there. Well, everyone that is, except for a little orange-haired girl. This little girl came from Cerulean City, and she did not want to be here. She was picked on by several bullies and even injured on the knee by one of them. She ran into the forest and was now crying up a storm. She didn't know how to get out of the woods. She also knew that there were many species of bugs in these woods." Ash read aloud as he smiled.
He remembered the meeting of one of his friends in the woods that day. And while it was not Misty he met, he was happy to meet the girl he did meet. Even if they were not as close as they were as before.
"Why?!" she asked nobody in particular, "Why did my mean sisters decide to send me away for the summer?!" Of course, this was a rhetorical question. She knew that her sisters were looking for a place for her to stay. And of course, they couldn't have their parents look after Misty, as they were both dead." Misty then read from her script.
Of course, her sisters were not that mean. They still respected their sister, even if they loved teasing her. But it was all a part of the script, so she had to follow it.
"Excuse me?" the girl heard the voice of a boy her age say, "Is something wrong?" The girl looked up and saw a boy in a yellow shirt. His skin was tanned, and his hair was black with brown eyes."
Ash knew that part was right. Ash would always help Misty when she was in danger while on their journies. And if they met when they were younger, he would have certainly helped her like the girl he did when he was seven.
"NO! Leave me alone!' the girl exclaimed," Misty read from her passage.
"But the boy saw a mark on her leg and decided to help her out. He took the handkerchief that was around his neck and wrapped it tightly around her leg. 'There, all better,' he said, 'My name is Ash, by the way. Ash Ketchum. What is yours?" Ash said.
Ash smiled. Ash has had a virtual memory of both Misty and Serena that involve handkerchiefs. No wonder why his fans who think he, Serena, and Misty should be a threesome call the ship "Handkerchiefshipping"
"Misty,' Misty said as she wiped the tears off of her eyes, 'My name is Misty Waterflower," Misty told from her script.
"That is a lovely name," Ash reads off of his page, "Now, come on. LEt's get out of these woods so that my mother can help tend to your wounds, Misty. I live right next to the lab, you know."
While Ash never introduced his mother to Serena in real life, he had a feeling that he should have. But on second thought, no, as he thought Delia would ship the two of them together. And as he was destined to be with Misty, that would be bad.
"Cool,' Misty said as she and Ash ran out of the forest and toward's Ash's house," Misty said.
"And cut!" the director said as Chris went into the booth, "Good job on the first scene, you two!"
Ash and Misty smiled as they asked if there was anything they could do to improve their performances.
"Nothing," Northstar said to the duo, "You have both been doing perfect!"
"Great!" Ash said, "Now let's get to the next scene!"
"Yeah!" Misty said in agreement.
Chris nods as he went back to the director's booth as the next scene in the first story began.
Ash and Misty spent the rest of the offseason recording the 151 stories that were written about them. And they enjoyed reading what their fans wrote about them. Most of the stories were really good, but there were a few stinkers in there as well. But anything that made their fans happy would surely make them happy as well.
One day, a special day when Ash and Misty had time off of the league, they decided to take a walk through Cerulean City. They saw many people either reading 151 Pokeshipping Stories or listening to something with earbuds on. They saw one of them was sitting alone.
"Do you want to go and talk to her?" Ash asked his girlfriend.
"Of course," Misty said with a smile.
The two trainers sat across from the girl, who looked up and saw Ash and Misty.
"Hello there," she said to them. "Are you Ash and Misty, the subjects and readers of 151 Pokeshipping Stories?"
"Yes," Ash said as he looked at the girl. She looked familiar...
"And who are you?" Misty asked the blond girl.
"My name is Serena!" the girl said.
"Serena, as in the girl I met at summer camp?" Ash asked her.
Serena nods, "I am surprised you remembered me!"
"OF course I remember you, Serena!" Ash said to the girl, "You were the girl I helped out in the forest!"
Serena smiled, "Cool, I just listened to a story where it was your current girlfriend as the girl you met there instead of me!"
"No hard feelings?" Misty asked her.
"Not really," Serena said to Misty, "In fact, your reading of the stories has officially converted me to Pokeshipping!"
Misty smiled and hugged Serena before saying, "That's great to hear, Serena!" They continued to talk about the stories as they smile.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Also, be sure to check out me reading these stories on YouTube! Look up "151 Pokeshipping Stories," and the video for the first one should be the original video to pop up! Be sure to watch, like, comment, and subscribe to the Northstar Pokeshipper YouTube channel! Let's expand the Northstar Pokehsipper brand to well beyond this site! Anyways, this week's question is, what is your favorite audiobook? My favorite audiobooks were the ones for the 'Magic Tree House Series' by Mary Pope Osborne (Which were read by the author herself). I listened to them all the time while in the car with dad (Which was a lot, by the way). Anyways, I will see you next time, we hope you enjoyed this unabridged production of 151 Pokeshipping Stories, and dare to Pokeship!