CHAPTER 7: Trial by Waterflower
"Well, Ash, I'm flattered that you'd come to me with this issue," smiled Cairn, "but why didn't you try the pokémon centre first?"
"Oh, they're not sick or anything, Professor," Ash explained, glancing down at the two pokéballs in his hands, "they've just been acting weird around each other ever since my battle this morning. I thought you might be able to figure out what's up between them."
"I see…" his crinkled brow raised upwards. "Well, I'll certainly do my best! It'll be quite a refreshing change to examine a couple of non-psychic pokémon for once. In any case, it's nice to see you again, young man."
With a nod that conveyed the feeling was mutual, Ash released his two troublesome pokémon on the laboratory floor in front of him. They looked around for a second, then immediately turned to face opposite directions.
"Magnificent," Cairn remarked. "A totodile and a krookodile, both at an impressive level. And, I have to commend your krookodile for its sense of style!"
A cocky smirk formed below the smug pokémon's sunglasses.
"Toto?" Totodile rasped as he looked across the room, spying a familiar face locked in some kind of glass bubble.
"Wanna see your old buddy Psyduck, Totodile?" Ash asked. "You, too, Krookodile – come say hello!"
It was the former that moved first, and as a result, the latter did not budge an inch. His eyes, however, followed the energetic little croc around with nary a blink.
"Ah," Cairn nodded. "I think I'm beginning to see the problem here."
"Really?" said Ash.
The professor hmm'ed in confirmation. "Despite being native to different regions, the totodile and sandile evolutionary lines share a common ancestry, way back to prehistoric times. They're different in a lot of ways, for sure, but one blatant similarity is the need to assert their dominance."
"Dominance? What do you mean?"
"It's a primal impulse, coded right into their DNA," he lectured with obvious enthusiasm. "In the wild, these species are governed by an alpha – a leader, if you will – and any member of the pack may challenge the alpha for the right to take its place. Now, as Krookodile is a fully evolved pokémon, this instinct is far stronger, whereas Totodile's more playful nature comes from its relative youth. Regardless, it could be that your little group of pokémon is seeing its very own power struggle as we speak."
Ash took a moment to piece the fragments together. "Wait, so you're saying Totodile and Krookodile are challenging each other to be the alpha?"
"It's certainly one possibility, yes," Cairn confirmed, "though I feel my other theory is much more likely."
The pokémon trainer looked over at his two temperamental friends as he waited for the professor to elaborate. While Totodile happily danced in front of Psyduck's tank, Krookodile just stood with his head down and his arms crossed, evidently listening in on the conversation but making it look as if he wasn't.
"Since Krookodile is a third-stage evolution and Totodile has yet to evolve, I believe that the former is acting on a kind of ingrained paternal instinct," Cairn said in a hushed voice. "It sees Totodile as its responsibility, and the standoffish behaviour it is showing could be its way of sizing up its new 'pupil', so to speak. Dark-types aren't my area of expertise, but even I know that they're not without a great capacity for compassion."
This idea really seemed to rattle the attentive Intimidation Pokémon. He roared his name in outrage and grabbed Professor Cairn by the collar of his lab coat, lifting him half a metre off the ground.
"Krooooook…" he leered through his tinted shades.
"Aaaayeee!" Cairn cried. "N-Now, now, Krookodile, no need to get upset, it was – ooh, ouch! – just a theory!"
"Krookodile, return!" Ash shouted. The huge red crocodile was sucked into the pokéball, leaving his captive momentarily suspended in mid-air before he dropped down to the floor with a thud.
"Are you alright, Professor?" he asked.
"Oof!" the professor winced as he stood. "Ah, no harm done, Ash. Your krookodile really is quite a character, eh?"
"Yeah," he laughed as he also returned Totodile. "So, what should I do?"
"There's nothing much you can do, I'm afraid. Aside from a good diet and a lot of exercise, the best thing for them is just time."
"Maybe I shouldn't have taken that buddy system advice, after all," Ash frowned.
"Buddy system?" Cairn raised his eyebrow. "Whose advice was that?"
"THAT'D BE ME!"
Skipping through the lab doors came Macy, whose rambunctious personality left the passive scholar rather startled.
"Oh, erm, hello there," he said in surprise. "Are you Ash's girlfriend?"
"Not yet!" she grinned, pinching Ash's cheek. "Ashy here's playing hard to get, but I can tell I'm wearing him down."
"Uhh…" the boy uttered, shivering involuntarily.
"Macy's the name, don't wear it out!" She inhaled deeply. "Mmm, what's that smell?"
"That'll be the gracidea mist from Psyduck's capsule," Cairn explained. Macy rushed over and pressed her face to the glass.
"Hey, this is Misty's psyduck!" she squealed. "You're the talk of the town right now, little guy. Oh, I hope you get better soon!"
Professor Cairn used this opportunity to resume his conversation with Ash. "Say, that reminds me: wasn't Misty training with you earlier?"
Ash's expression suddenly turned glum. "Actually, that's partly why I came to see you, Professor. She said she'd come back to train with me after she was done checking the plans for her gym, but she never did."
"Oh?" he questioned. "Well, Misty was here just an hour ago. I assumed she'd come straight from your training!"
"She was here?"
Cairn appeared curiously sympathetic. "Yes. She was with the architect in charge of designing the new Cerulean gym. Adrian, I think he was called. Quite a charming fellow, if a little on the shy side."
"The architect?" Ash repeated. "You mean she ditched me to spend the whole day with this Adrian guy, whoever he is, and she didn't even tell me?"
His fists clenched, and he ground his teeth in frustration. "Thanks, Professor," he grunted. "Gotta go."
Ash was out the door before Professor Cairn could even attempt to stop him, followed quickly by a frantic Macy.
"Hey, where d'you think you're going, Ash? Wait for meeeeeeeeeee!"
Biting his lip, Cairn stared across at the open door. He ran a hand down his face and sighed with a mix of remorse and anxiety.
"This cannot end well."
A few excuses and a lot of diversions down side streets were required to get rid of Macy for the night, and even then, he'd only managed it by agreeing to meet her again the following morning. Upon opening the penthouse door, a wave of amber sunlight from the huge window momentarily blinded him, and once his eyes adjusted, he noticed that the main living space was completely unoccupied. Surely it was too early for everyone to be in bed?
"Misty?" Ash called tentatively towards her bedroom door. A peculiar rustling sounded from within the room, then the door opened just wide enough for the occupant's head to fit through.
"Oh, hi, Ash," said Misty somewhat tiredly.
"Where were you?" he immediately asked. "I thought you said you'd come back after you were done looking after the plans!"
"It took longer than I thought," she shrugged. "And I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but at this stage, Ash, I really shouldn't have to handhold you during your training anymore."
He blinked in disbelief. "I don't need you to handhold me! You just told me you'd come back, and you didn't!"
Misty leant around the door at an angle where Ash could see over her shoulder. Scattered all across her bed were dozens of blueprints, annotated concept drawings and other such documents, covering so much area that he struggled to even identify the pokémon print on her bedspread.
"Look, I'm really busy, as you can see," she snarled. "And anyway, you looked like you had plenty of company to me."
"Huh?" Ash mouthed, just as the door slammed right in his face. Standing there, barely five seconds elapsed before he heard Misty's voice pipe up again.
"Oh, and the architect, Adrian, is coming here in the morning, so I'll need the front room."
After that, silence fell, and the gobsmacked pokémon trainer was left alone to wonder just what the hell that was all about.
At the strike of eleven, the front door to the Waterflowers' apartment was met with three timid knocks.
"Good morning, Adrian!" Misty smiled as she beckoned in her guest. "Did you find the place alright? I remembered you worrying about getting lost yesterday."
"Oh y-yeah, it was fine," Adrian laughed. "I guess I was j-just overthinking."
Walking into the room, he flinched slightly as Daisy and Tracey came forward to greet him.
"Adrian Planner, I'd like you to meet my sister, Daisy," Misty gestured with an outstretched hand, "and Tracey Sketchit, one of my oldest friends."
"Nice to meet you!" they both chirped.
"H-Hi," Adrian awkwardly acknowledged.
"Daisy, can I talk to you for a minute outside before we start?" said Misty. Daisy nodded and stepped over to her side.
"You're g-going?" the meek architect inquired.
"I won't be long, Adrian. Besides, it'll give you and Tracey a chance to get acquainted in the meantime, right?"
Smiling, Misty led Daisy out into the hallway and closed the door firmly behind her.
"Oh my god, Misty," whispered Daisy. "You weren't kidding; he really does look like Ash!"
"I know," she mumbled, her head down.
"I mean, if his hair was, like, black instead of blond, and he was just a teensy bit shorter…"
"Yes, I'm aware, thank you," Misty snapped. The elder Waterflower sighed in foreboding.
"Why do I, like, get the feeling I know what you wanted to talk to me about?"
With a look of shock that quickly turned to defeat, the blushing Misty flung her hands up in the air.
"I'm just confused, that's all!" she groaned. "Adrian's nothing like I expected. We hung out at his apartment for hours yesterday, and-"
"Wait, you, like, went back to his apartment?!"
"Not like that." She rolled her eyes. "He was talking me through his designs. They actually made quite a lot of sense once he explained them, even if they're going to take a bit more growing on me. Sure, he's pretty shy, and awkward, and maybe a little hard to understand at times…"
"But you like him?" Daisy teased.
"Well…yeah, of course I do."
"Because he looks like Ash?"
"No! I mean, er, yes! I mean…ugh."
She massaged her temples, taking a breath to calm herself. "He's a really nice person, and I feel like we could be good friends – but he looks like Ash, and I can't help wondering: is that the only reason I was up half the night thinking about him?"
Daisy had seen the question coming from a mile away, if not exactly phrased in the way she'd expected. Answering this one would take some careful thought, indeed, especially considering her younger sister wasn't particularly known for her patience.
"…Right," she whistled through her teeth, "okay…erm…"
"Oh, so you don't know either," Misty huffed. "Well, that's just brilliant."
"Now, hold on a minute, sis," Daisy countered. "I, like, never said I didn't know. But first, tell me more about cute little Adrian, will you?"
She narrowed her eyes. "Is this you helping me, or are you just looking for gossip?"
When Daisy just giggled, Misty decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. "Well, er, after he got comfortable talking to me, I noticed that there's kind of an old-fashioned way about how he speaks. He describes things with such emotion and passion; it's almost like poetry to listen to."
"Mhm?" Daisy nodded, gesturing for her to carry on.
"And, I got the sense that he's quite a romantic, too. There were so many romance novels I recognised on his bookshelf, and his apartment was full of beautiful plants and scented candles."
"Scented candles?" her smirking sister cut in. "You sure he isn't, like, battling for the other team?"
Misty glowered irritably at her. "Yes, Daisy, I'm quite sure. He just seems much deeper than other boys, the kind who'd really listen and be there for you, and, well, I admire that about him."
With a confident nod to herself, Daisy knew exactly where to go next. "You know, Mist, that kinda reminds me of someone you told me about, like, a few years ago. That guy from the Orange Islands who asked you to live with him or something?"
"Rudy?" she identified with an immediate jolt. "That sure was a long time ago. Hmm, I guess they are quite alike in that way."
"You, like, also told me about someone before that, in the Indigo League. Robbie, was it?"
Misty scratched her head. "That doesn't ring a bell…" then she thought some more. "Wait, do you mean Ritchie?"
"Yeah, that's it!"
"What about him?"
"You said he was, like, basically a clone of Ash, right?"
"Erm," her face scrunched up, "not a 'clone', exactly. He looked and dressed kinda similar to him, but their personalities didn't always line up. Anyway, what's he got to do with anything?"
Daisy placed a hand to her chin. "Well, I was just thinking: Adrian's pretty much a combination of those two guys, wouldn't you say? He looks like Ritchie, and he acts like Randy, or, like, whatever his name was."
"Huh?!" Misty gasped. "I've…never thought of it like that. But why are you…?"
"You were friendly with those two boys, but you never, like, had any feelings for them."
"That's right," she said with a degree of anxiousness.
"'Cause they both had the same problem, didn't they?"
The redhead's stomach flailed and thrashed itself into an uncomfortable knot. She had a feeling where this was heading…
"Don't say it, Daisy," she warned, her cheeks heating up.
"They, like, weren't Ash."
Like the calm before the storm, there was but a momentary silence, bulldozed through straight after with a thinly masked verbal beatdown.
"Just stop!" she growled. "Every time you bring this up, and every time it's the same old crap I'm so sick of hearing! Can't you change the record, just once?! Ugh!"
Daisy shook her head whimsically. "Oh, give it a rest, Misty, it's, like, painfully obvious," she winked. "Plus, we've all read your diary, remember?"
Rather than risk her ire another time, the grinning Waterflower sister carried straight on. "Hey, did I ever tell you about the time I had a crush on, like, two identical twins at once?"
"No," Misty grunted, though secretly intrigued.
"Jason Hernandez," she sighed with nostalgia. "Man, he was sooooooo hot. He had, like, this million-dollar smile and these gorgeous blue eyes – the perfect guy. Everyone told me I should go for his brother, Mason, instead, because he, like, had his life together and was gonna be real successful and stuff. But you know, even though he was just as dreamy, I could never like him the same way I liked Jason, no matter how hard I tried. Wanna know why?"
She cocked her head as if to say yes.
"I eventually realised that even though Mason was everything my head told me I wanted, he, like, wasn't who my heart had chosen. And it's the same now! I mean, would anyone have thought me and Tracey were a perfect match on paper?"
Misty certainly couldn't argue with that. Her pokémon watcher friend and swimsuit model sister were probably the most unlikely pair she'd ever encountered.
"The point is, Misty, we all think we've got a 'type', us girls. For you, it's really smart, sensitive boys like Adrian, I can tell. But one day a guy always comes along who's, like, way different to that, and you don't understand why but you just know, deep down in your heart, that he's the one. Anyone come to mind?"
"I'm not stupid, Daisy," Misty sighed impatiently. "Ugh, fine. It's been so many years since I've seen him that, well, I guess I began to wonder if I still felt anything for him at all, and wasn't just clinging onto some old childhood crush. But suddenly he's back in my life again, and there's this feeling in my chest, something so strong – I just don't know what it is. And now, there's someone who looks just like him-"
"There, that right there!" Daisy cut in. "You're looking for Ash in other people, sis. That's not going to help anyone, especially not you. Why don't you, like, do yourself a favour and just cut out the middleman?"
She broke off with a sisterly smile, leaving the confused young woman to wrestle with the advice she'd just been fed. In the confusion, admitting her most guarded secret hadn't been nearly the feat Misty thought it would be.
"Ash…" she murmured. But even after that, there was still a crinkle in her brow. "I don't know, Daisy. You've given me a lot to think about – but Adrian's still inside my head, and I really feel like I need to be sure."
With her eyes pointed to the ceiling, Daisy quickly came up with an idea. "Then why not ask him out to dinner tonight?"
"Dinner?" the stumped Misty clarified. "As in a date? But why?"
"Well, not a date, per se, you don't wanna lead him on too much – trust me, I've been there! But once you, like, get to know him better away from all this gym stuff, maybe you'll feel less conflicted about this whole situation, don't you think?"
The prospect was strangely daunting to Misty; despite her age, she'd only ever been on two or three dates, and never once had she played the initiator. But the uncertainty she felt was sorely unneeded on top of all of her other worries, so if this was the best way to alleviate it, then she'd be prepared to give it a shot.
"I guess it could help me iron out a few things," she thought. "Okay, sure, why not? At the very least, I'll probably get a free meal out of it."
"That's my baby sis," giggled Daisy, "and hey, who knows? Those guys could be in there right now talking about the exact same thing!"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
To say that Adrian was uncomfortable was the grossest of understatements. New people, an unfamiliar place, an inescapable situation – any one of these would have given him trouble on its own, and here he had all three. Making the first move in conversation was definitely not his forte, so in the silence he was forced to loiter awkwardly around, keeping his eyes busy by pretending to show interest in the paintings near the doorway. Naturally, Tracey found the man's behaviour very odd indeed.
"There's no need to hang around in the corner, Adrian," he smiled over at him. "Here, come and have a seat. I don't bite, honest."
Though his first instinct was to decline, Adrian hesitantly slipped into the seat opposite the pokémon watcher, wringing his hands in anxiety.
"So, how long have you worked for the Pokémon League?" Tracey asked.
"Oh, er, n-not long," he replied. "I'm m-mostly freelance."
"Sounds like an interesting job," he chuckled. When Adrian only smiled in response, Tracey deduced that perhaps small talk wasn't the most sensible tactic here.
"I hope you don't mind if I sketch while we wait for them to come back in," he said, picking up the pad on the seat next to him.
"Oh, n-no, that's fine," Adrian nodded. He watched Tracey pluck a pencil from his bandana, tucked just out of sight behind his greenish black bangs. As soon as it met the paper in his hands, the enigmatic architect's eyes brightened.
"That's an Ilex Fineliner, isn't it?" he asked with uncharacteristic confidence.
Tracey looked up. "Sure is. It's the Farfetch'd gauge, made with authentic Azalea Town charcoal. How'd you know that?"
"Oh, I used to use them all the time in high school," he answered. "I think I prefer the Fearow-eye gauge these days, though. The lines are so much crisper."
"Ah, but they're also famously fragile. I go with the Farfetch'd ones because they're so much more reliable on the road."
Adrian grinned with intrigue. "Huh. I guess I've never thought about it from a traveller's perspective before." He shuffled further forward on his seat. "So, you're an artist, then?"
"Well, not professionally or anything," he chuckled, "but yeah, it's always been a hobby of mine. I help Misty out whenever she needs painting done, too – or, well, I did, when she had a home."
"Mind if I have a look?" Adrian gestured towards the sketchpad. Tracey gladly handed it over, watching humbly as this seemingly kindred spirit pored over his work.
"They're all relatively new," he pointed out. "Shame a lot of my other books went down with the Cerulean gym."
"Oh man, that's too bad," the man sighed. "Wait, why'd you keep them at Misty's gym? Did you used to stay there often?"
"Well, I am engaged to her big sister, after all."
Adrian dropped the pad into his lap. "No way!" he exclaimed. "You and Daisy? I'd honestly have never put the two of you together. Um…no offense, that is."
"None taken," Tracey laughed. "We hear that a lot. I guess it's true sometimes that opposites attract, right?"
Their dual chuckling rang out for a second or two, dying away into a silence that was, to their surprise, not wholly unpleasant. Still, that didn't stop the cogs in Adrian's head from turning, for he suddenly found he had a lot of questions.
"Hey, er…Tracey, was it?" he spoke up moments later.
"That's me," the pokémon watcher grinned.
"You've known Misty for a long time, haven't you?"
"Oh, you can say that again. It's coming up to eleven years, now! Why do you ask?"
"Well…" he averted his gaze, his face reddening, "it's just that I've been a big follower of the Indigo League for years, and the Cerulean gym has always been one of my favourites. I…never thought I'd one day meet the Misty Waterflower; she's not at all how I expected her to be. I'd feel stupid asking this to her directly, so, um…"
"You want me to tell you more about her?" Tracey deciphered, which was confirmed with a shy nod. "Sure thing."
And tell him he did, right from the very beginning. The focus was, of course, on their adventures in the Orange Islands, but the twenty-five-year-old man had heard his old friend's Kanto and Johto tales enough times to be able to relay most of them with ease. Adrian was riveted, absorbing every last detail with absolute fascination. Despite this, there was something about hearing these amazing stories that saddened him a little, and whether it was his own lack of adventure or, indeed, lack of companionship, he could not be sure.
"But then, after the Johto League, she got a call from her sisters saying they were off on a trip around the world," he concluded. "Her bike was fixed, too, so she was forced to leave her friends and go back to being a gym leader full-time. I heard it from Brock that it was an incredibly sad day, especially for her and Ash."
Adrian frowned. "That must have been horrible for her." He then stroked his chin. "It sounds like she and this Ash guy are pretty close, huh?"
"Very," Tracey agreed. "They may fight like meowth and growlithe whenever they're together, and Misty's got a ferocious temper to match…"
"Yeah, I figured that one out, alright," he interjected, shivering.
"…but I'll tell you this: you'll never find a deeper bond between two people this side of the Milky Way."
"Wow," Adrian murmured in thought. "So, are they…?" With a few bizarre hand gestures, he clumsily attempted to get his point across.
"Oh-hoh," Tracey sniggered as he caught on. "No, no, they're just friends, currently."
"Ah," he acknowledged, although rather curious about that last word. "I wouldn't have thought someone like Misty would be single."
"Someone with her gym leader distinction, you mean?" asked Tracey, his eyebrow raised.
"Er…y-yeah, that!" Adrian stuttered, red in his cheeks once again.
"Well, now and then a challenger asks her out on a date," he explained, "but she's always maintained that her pokémon and her gym duties keep her too busy to get involved with someone. Between you and me, though…" with a smirk, the kindly watcher leaned forward, "that's definitely just an excuse. I happen to know that Misty's only ever had her eyes on one very special guy."
A strange flutter sent the architect's heart pumping uncontrollably. "Who is it?" he almost whispered.
"Like, sorry about that!" Daisy sang as she and Misty burst back into the apartment. "Hope you didn't miss me too much, Tray Tray!"
"Ehehe," Tracey winced through embarrassed laughter.
Unbeknownst to any of them, as soon as the door shut behind Misty and Daisy, a worn-out pokémon trainer stepped out of the lift and strolled briskly along the corridor.
"Surely Misty's gotta be done now," Ash said to himself.
"Pika Pikachupi," Pikachu answered for him.
"Huh? They're still in there?"
He pressed his ear to the door, through which several muffled speakers could be heard.
"Adrian, there's something I want to ask you," Misty's voice shone through immediately.
"Okay?" came a frail-sounding squeak.
"Do you want to go out for dinner with me tonight?"
A short pause elapsed. "D-Dinner?" he repeated. "Like…a d-date?"
"…But I've been wrong before…" mumbled a voice that could only have belonged to Tracey.
"Just a friendly meal to get to know each other better," said Misty, "since we'll probably be working together for quite a long time."
Ash flinched so violently that he almost headbutted the door. Had he heard that right?
"Really?" Adrian said. "Y-Yeah, of course, th-thank you! So, um, what time should I…?"
"How about seven by the big fountain?"
"S-Sure!"
The pokémon trainer outside held his head in disbelief. Misty was asking out a man she'd known for all of a few hours? Something about the idea both angered and sickened him.
"Well, you two have fun tonight," Daisy chirped. "Shall we, like, talk about these plans, then?"
A gasp could be heard from within the room.
"Oh, shoot, I left my portfolio in the lobby! Sorry, I'll be right b-back!"
Ash barely had a second to step back before a lanky, yellow-headed man sprung through the door in front of him.
"Oops!" he yelped as he narrowly avoided crashing into Ash. "S-Sorry!"
Then on he ran, straight towards the lift at the end of the hall. Catching his balance, Ash watched the figure shrink into the distance, and subsequently turned back to the door. Or, he would have, if a faint little cry hadn't floated over to his unprepared ears.
"I've got a date!"
"That's it," he grunted in a toneless rasp. He threw his hat to the ground, took in a hoarse breath and stormed roughly off down the stairwell.
When it came to going out in the evening – not that the opportunity came around all that often – Misty always made a point to be fashionably early. Of course, being this early tends to lose its fashionableness when the one you're meeting arrives even earlier than you, and, reaching the plaza's fountain centrepiece at precisely 6:45, the surprised girl found that this was exactly the case.
"Adrian?" Misty said to get his attention. "Wow, you must have been eager to get here."
He grinned jokingly. "Oh, I just left early because, um, I wanted to be sure I had the right fountain."
"But this is the only fountain…" she pondered confusedly.
The man noticed Misty's peculiar gaze scanning over him. "Am I overdressed?"
Yes, extremely, her mind dictated to her within the second. By comparison, in only a modest blue sundress and floral sandals, she looked as if she were going to an outdoor music festival – clearly, her efforts not to lead him on had gone down like a lead drifblim. Still, she thought, the formal look was rather fetching on him. His usual turquoise shirt had been swapped out for a crisp white one, which paired very well with the dark grey suit jacket that hugged his slightly hunched shoulders. A long purplish tie completed the ensemble, so snug around his neck that it looked to be almost cutting off his blood supply.
"Maybe a little," she giggled. "You look very smart, though."
"Th-Thanks," he grinned, then bashfully looked her up and down. "Erm, you…you're, um, also, eheh…"
"It's alright, Adrian, you don't have to say anything," she smiled patiently. "Now, shall we get going?"
They found a nice, cosy little restaurant just on the fringes of the Indigo Plateau square, tucked away between two monstrous clothing outlets that occupied half the street. The place was adorable, and, as an unfortunate result, oozed romance from virtually every nook and cranny. To Misty's annoyance, this 'trial evening' was starting to look more and more like an actual date – but it was too late now to turn around and go somewhere else without arousing the poor boy's suspicions.
"Good evening!" trilled a cheerful waitress once they sat at a table in the middle of the room. "Can I get you two lovebirds something to drink?"
Adrian practically blushed himself into a catatonic state, leaving Misty to do the awkward negotiations.
"We're not a couple," she said as amicably as she could. "I'll have a soda, please. Adrian?"
"Oh, u-um," he spluttered, "s-same, thank you."
When the woman walked off, Misty turned back to Adrian to see a menu squashed up to his face, obscuring him right down to the shoulders. His fingers were noticeably trembling around the sides, and every so often she could have sworn she saw him peeking over the top of the paper at her.
"Are you okay?" she asked softly.
He dropped the menu to the table, wearing an expression with notes of both panic and shame. "Oh, I'm f-fine, Misty. It's just, well," he sighed unevenly, "honestly, I've never been in a situation like this before."
"Having dinner with a friend?" she asked, despite being almost certain that wasn't what he meant.
"You…think of me as a friend?" Adrian squeaked, his face sweltering. "Even though we've only known each other for two days?"
Misty smiled. "Of course. I befriended people in a lot less time than this during my journey. When you know, you know, right?"
Though filled with warmth at this declaration, the gentle man quickly seemed to stiffen back up. "What I meant was that I've, um, never been out alone with a girl before."
"Never?" Misty gasped. "Not even once?!"
He shook his head with a little smile. "People usually find talking to me really…trying. I don't mean to be such a pain, honest, but that's the first impression girls seem to have of me, and, well, no-one's ever been able to see past it to get to know me better."
"Well, those girls sound like total jerks," she asserted. "There are far worse things than being shy, Adrian. A lot of women find it an attractive quality, in fact."
"Not from my experience," he deadpanned. "But…thanks. I'm glad I haven't totally scared you off just yet."
"Unless you're a diehard fan of carrots, peppers and bug pokémon, I highly doubt that's going to happen," she smirked. Adrian snorted, his eyes wandering down thereafter to the floor.
"Here you are," said the waitress, handing over their two drinks. Misty looked up to see that she was accompanied by a second server, a teenager with red in her cheeks and a goofy smile on her face.
"I don't mean to disturb you," she said, "but I recognised you as soon as you came in. You're Misty Waterflower!"
Misty flinched at the waitress's enthusiasm, then nodded uneasily. "I sure am," she laughed.
"You're, like, my hero!" she squealed. "When I heard about your gym, I cried for two days straight. I'm so glad you and your poor Psyduck are okay!"
The mention of Psyduck caused the redhead's smile to fade a little. "Well, one of us is," she mumbled.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, I didn't think," the girl inhaled in remorse. "I left flowers for him yesterday and this morning. He's quite famous now, you know; everyone in Indigo Plateau is rooting for him!"
"Is that true, Misty?" Adrian whispered across the table. The waitress's eyes snapped to the left.
"Hey, your boyfriend's a real cutie," she giggled. As the blushing artist froze over again, the original waitress poked her colleague disapprovingly in the side.
"Stop bothering them and just ask!" she hissed out of the corner of her mouth. The younger waitress recomposed herself with an unnaturally wide grin.
"Sorry, sorry, I'll leave you guys to it now," she expressed, "but first, my friend and I really just wanted to ask: can we please have your autograph, Misty?"
Frankly, knowing that this was all they wanted was something of a relief to the flustered gym leader. Even more surprising was that the items they produced for signing were not photos, not notepads, not any of the usual stuff; rather, a pair of collectible trading cards, each featuring a mirror-edged print of Misty's psyduck. There was something quite flattering about the gesture, and she had to wonder whether they had done it on purpose, for seeing him so happy and carefree on those photos took her right back to when their lives were free of danger and distress, and everything was alright. With the help of Ash, Professor Cairn, Adrian and everyone else, she held out for the hope that it would be again.
When Misty handed back the precious signed cards, the waitresses took hers and Adrian's food orders – a seafood platter and a Unovan pasta dish, respectively – and scuttled back to their posts with a duet of excited giggles.
"Wow," mouthed Adrian. "That was…different. I expect you get that kind of thing all the time, though, right, Misty?"
"Not really," she answered airily. "People are usually more interested in meeting my sisters. But, I guess, ever since Alexa wrote that article about Psyduck…"
"People are taking more notice?" he suggested. "As it should be. I'm glad everyone finally knows the, er, real story about you and the gym now." He scratched at his nose. "For what it's worth, my brother and I believed in you all along."
"Thanks, Adrian," she purred. After a little pause, she placed her hands energetically down on the table. "So, speaking of getting to know you better: tell me something about yourself."
Though it took a couple of attempts, Misty's conversation starters were amazingly effective at bringing her shrinking violet of a friend out of his shuckle shell. The chatting was lighthearted at first, but gradually turned deeper and more personal as time went on. And by no means did it peter out over time, even when the food arrived – though Misty did find it peculiar how little of it Adrian seemed to be eating.
"…But I gave up the bassoon when I started high school," he shrugged. "I don't think I'm really the performing type, hehe."
"I tried to learn the piano for a while before I went on my journey," Misty added sheepishly. "In the end, I got angry and…kind of smashed it with a mallet."
Adrian choked a little on his drink. "Oh my g-god!" he spluttered, grinning. "How'd you get away with that?!"
"Oh, I wasn't having lessons or anything, we had a piano at the gym for my sisters' shows. It was a good way to pass the time between my homeschooling and playing with the pokémon."
"Being a gym leader sounds like quite a responsibility," Adrian puffed. "I can't imagine not having gone to school."
"It's not just gym leaders, Adrian," clarified the redhead. "More and more people are leaving home before high school age every year." She tilted her head to the side. "Your brother must have been pretty young when he left on his journey."
He snorted in confirmation. "Yep, he was out the door the minute he turned ten. That's Cormac for you. Can't sit still for more than five minutes without going totally stir crazy."
"Sounds just like Ash," Misty laughed. "I think they'd get on like a house on fire."
Adrian only nodded, suddenly feeling at a loss for words. Misty noticed the pause and quickly thought of another question. "Hey, so how come you didn't go on a journey of your own?" she asked. "Didn't you want to be a pokémon trainer?"
The question seemed to fluster him, as he immediately abandoned his meal and sat bolt upright.
"Um…" he stammered, "to tell you the truth: yes, I did. The idea of being on an endless adventure, exploring new places and finding all sorts of weird and amazing pokémon…sounds like the perfect life."
"Then why didn't you?" she queried.
He smiled a rather defeated smile. "My parents thought it'd be a waste of my talents if I put an early stop to my education. They said my future was in academia, not pokémon training, and that I should stick with what I'm good at."
"Really? They said that?"
"Yeah. I was angry at them for ages. But, you know, once I started high school and went down the architecture route, I realised that they were right all along: this is the life I was always meant to live."
"I bet that must have been a wakeup call," smirked Misty. "Don't you miss that childhood dream?"
Adrian shrugged. "Eh, it would have been nice. But I'm just not cut out to be a pokémon trainer, I know that now. And, if I hadn't been an architect, I, um, might never have met you, so…"
"Talk about a dream job," she laughed, with part sarcasm and part appreciation.
"Besides, it's too late, right? Whoever heard of a twenty-five-year-old starting out on a pokémon journey?"
"It's not too late at all!" Misty refuted. "I met plenty of people on my journey who were just starting out, and a lot of them were way older than you!"
Though he said nothing, the brightening of his eyes sufficiently got his amazement across. "Heh," he carried on, "knowing me, I'd probably fall into a river an hour in and have to be fished out."
Misty grinned. "Ha! You're not going to believe this, but that's exactly how I met Ash."
"It was?" Adrian said, suppressing a sudden shiver.
"Yeah! He got chased right off a waterfall by a flock of spearow, and I caught him on the end of my fishing line."
"Mm…" he mumbled, covering it up with, "I guess you should call him Splash instead, huh?"
While he internally rolled his eyes, the woman opposite him burst into a wheeze of laughter. "Oh my god, Adrian, that was terrible," she giggled at her blushing friend. "Though I've gotta say, I'm surprised how quick you are for a quiet guy."
The look on his face suggested he'd heard that a lot, and saw it more as an insult than a compliment. Nevertheless, he seemed not to have taken offence. "You talk about your journey a lot, Misty," he stated. "Do you miss it?"
"My journey?" She stopped laughing. "Oh, um, well, I suppose I do, a little. I love being a gym leader, don't get me wrong, but…"
"It doesn't have the same excitement?" Adrian finished for her a second time.
She nodded. "Every day on the road was different. We lived for months off of Brock's divine home cooking, I caught so many beautiful pokémon, and with Ash keeping me on my toes, there was never a dull moment." Her lips curled upwards. "Or a quiet one."
It was then that the waitress reappeared to take away their plates – convenient timing, as far as Adrian was concerned, as he found he had nothing to say once again. Misty had mentioned Ash at least six or seven times since they had arrived, and for someone as prone to overanalysing as he was, he knew there had to be a correlation in there somewhere. Peculiarly, despite the fact that he was alone with Misty and had her undivided attention, the constant repetition of this particular name made him feel almost like a third wheel in a group of two.
"What's the matter, Adrian?" he heard her call over. "You look troubled."
Snapping out of it, the anxious man cleared his throat. "S-Sorry," he sighed. "I just, erm, had a b-bit of a stomachache for a s-second there. It's g-gone now, ehehe…"
"You're stuttering again," she said in concern. "What is it? You're not still nervous around me, are you?"
His face sagged like a vanillite in a steam room. "Please don't t-take it personally," he pleaded. "I'm always n-nervous, whoever I'm with. It c-comes and goes, but I know it puts people off that I can n-never be truly comfortable around them. You don't, um, h-have to stay if I'm making you uncomfortable."
There was a frustrating ambivalence with which Misty processed this information. On the one hand, she knew he couldn't help it, and had had only the nicest of intentions since the moment they'd met. But on the other, she had hoped, particularly in a setting like this, that she'd be able to break through this shyness he held so deep within him. It was very hard not to take it personally, despite what he'd said. Uncomfortable perhaps wasn't the right word, exactly, but a certain notion of doubt had been born in her mind that moment, one she was powerless to overlook. Though admitting such made her feel incredibly guilty, the very thing that had endeared him to her in the first place was now starting to look like what might drive an impassable wedge between them – and through no-one's fault but her own.
"I'm not going anywhere, Adrian. It's alright," she said, albeit unsure of whether she actually believed that. "It's alright."
"There it is," grinned Jessie through her binoculars.
"Dat's it?" Meowth questioned. "I thought you said dis joint was da cream o' da crop!"
"It does look like it could use a little TLC," commented James.
"The map says this is the right place," she clarified, "Indigo Labs. Now, all we need to do is slip in there unnoticed, grab the twerpette's- DUCK!"
As a group of unassuming pokémon trainers walked by, Jessie pushed her two teammates' heads down into their bushy hiding place across the road.
"Er, shouldn't that be 'psyduck', Jessie?" James suggested as he popped back up.
She slapped a palm to her forehead. "That's not what I meant! Ugh, forget it."
"I still say dis is stupid," Meowth grumbled. "Why's we doin' this in broad daylight instead of waitin' till sundown?"
"Well, we would've been here last night if someone hadn't dropped a s'more in the balloon's burner and cost us a whole day in repairs!"
"Ehehe…" the Scratch Cat smirked guiltily.
"Besides," Jessie continued, "if we wait any longer, Cassidy will get there first and take all the glory. Again."
"How d'ya know they ain't been here already?" he said.
"You've seen how long they spend planning their "A-squad attack strategies," she imitated in an exaggerated sneer. "By the time they even leave the base, we'll have snatched up Psyduck and be heading straight for the big leagues!"
"Hear, hear!" cried James peculiarly. "It just so happens that I've packed the perfect disguises for this mission. Why waste time breaking and entering when you can simply stroll in through the front door?"
And so they did, entering the building under the veil of James's so-called 'perfect' apparel: a matador's uniform, a suit of armour complete with helmet, and a shimmering pink taffeta ball gown – for himself.
"Well, so much for blending in," Jessie garbled through the echoing metal visor.
"Big deal," Meowth hissed, the wings of his black hat flapping as he looked up. "There ain't even anyone here to blend in for!"
"How odd," James stated. "I thought the place would be crawling with brainboxes!"
"In that case, I'm taking this thing off," Jessie grunted. The clunky helmet popped off over her head, her trademark red locks uncoiling out the back like a roll of carpet.
"Hey, there's a light on in dat room!" Meowth pointed down the hall.
"That must be it," she nodded. "Ladies first."
Jessie took but three steps along the sunless corridor before falling headfirst down an unseen flight of stairs. James and Meowth, having been close behind her, soon shared the same fate.
"Oof!" they cried as they crashed through the lab door and landed in a splayed heap. Meowth stood up and massaged the conical lump on his head.
"Ain't these schmucks ever heard of a light switch?!" he growled. "Dis dump's darker than a barbecued boldore!"
"Ahhh," inhaled James pleasurably. "I recognise that scent. Gracidea, I believe. They used to grow-"
"On your parents' estate, we get it," Jessie snapped. "If it weren't for that frightful ex-fiancée of yours, I'm starting to think you'd never have run away from there in a million years."
Meowth, also picking up the aroma, followed his keen sense of smell (in spite of having no nose) over to the bulky apparatus against the left-hand wall.
"Hey, you guys, point yer peepers over here!" His three feline digits directed their attention to the glass chamber housing a sleeping old adversary.
"There he is!" Jessie whispered.
"Is he asleep?" wondered James.
"More like out cold," Meowth posited. "A building fallin' on ya's gonna take a bit more than walkin' off, even for a pokémon. Poifect time ta swipe 'im!"
All in agreement, the trio turned fully to Psyduck's enclosure. Meowth pounced up to the console, and Jessie and James crept steadily closer to the fragrant glass capsule, careful not to trip on any of the trailing wires along the floor. With barely a metre to go, a harsh creaking sound stopped them dead in their tracks, followed by the clash of two thick metal cables slapping down from the skylight.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" yelled Jessie as the contemptable blonde and her green-mopped partner abseiled down to the floor.
"Well, look who it is," Cassidy cackled. "I must say, Jessie, dear, that outfit does nothing for your figure. Then again, what would, right?"
"Grrrr…!" she foamed, her face turning red.
"You bozos musta took a wrong turn," sneered Butch, "'cause I KNOW you ain't here to try and pilfer that pokémon before us!"
"And what makes you so sure, Bung?" James cut in.
"It's Butch, you moron, Butch!" fumed the man, a manic fire in his eyes.
Cassidy laughed again. "Oh, you are, aren't you? How cute. Well, I'm sorry, darlings, but that psyduck is coming with us – boss's orders. If you don't like it…" she twirled a pokéball around on her finger, "you'll have to take him from us."
Without vacillation, Jessie unclipped her own pokéball and prepared to launch it forward.
"Jessie, we's ain't got time for dis!" Meowth hissed up at her. "Let's just grab psyduck and scram!"
"No way!" she spat back. "If Cassidy and Booger want a fight, they've got one! Go, Girafarig!"
The impish Girafarig took form on the tiles between the two groups. It kicked its front legs up in the air while its tail looked around with a menacing grin.
"Graaaaa freeeee!" it whinnied in excitement.
"You too, Mareep!" James declared, lobbing his pokéball forwards and cooing when his fluffy new companion emerged.
"Have it your way," shrugged Cassidy. "Let's go, Sableye!"
"Shuckle, come on out!" Butch mirrored.
Their pokémon stood directly opposite their foes, primed in their respective attack and defence poses.
"Okay, then," Jessie snarled, "Girafarig, use…! Uhh…"
As Butch and Cassidy began to snigger, Jessie swivelled around to her teammate. "James, what moves does this overgrown piñata have?" she whispered urgently.
"Just a sec," he nodded, fumbling around in the cleavage of his gown.
"We're waiting," Cassidy teased in a singsong voice.
"Ah, here we are," James beamed, producing a deck of trainer cards and shuffling quickly through them. "Girafarig, the Long Neck Pokémon. Girafarig's moves are Stomp, Crunch, Agility and Zen Headbutt."
"Are they serious?" Butch mouthed with great amusement.
"Alright, Girafarig…" Jessie pointed forward, "use Stomp on Sableye!"
Though the pokémon's tail locked eyes with her on the command, the front head – and, consequently, the body – did nothing.
"Hey, didn't you hear me?" she growled. "I said Stomp, now!"
"Vreeeeheeeheee," tittered Girafarig, pretending not to have heard.
"Why, you little…!"
Leaping forward, Jessie angrily pushed against the defiant psychic-type's behind in an attempt to get it going. At this point, Cassidy and Butch were howling with laughter.
"Um, you do know that Stomp won't even affect Sableye, don't you, Jessie?" Cassidy purred once she caught her breath.
"She's right, Jess," James remarked timidly. "Sableye is part ghost-type, and ghost-types are unaffected by normal-type moves."
"Huh?!" She stopped pushing and feigned innocence. "Well, of c-course I knew that! I…meant Crunch! Girafarig, use Crunch!"
To her surprise, her wayward pokémon did not need a second instruction this time around. Perhaps less surprising was that the source of said attack, never mind its actual target, could have done with a little more clarifying.
"AYAYAYAYAYAYARGH!" came a stuttering scream as most of the redhead's red head disappeared into the chomping mouth of Girafarig's tail. "GET OFF, GET OFF, GET OFF, YOU STUPID-"
"Bahahahaha, they're killing me!" Butch guffawed.
"Focus, Bulb," tutted Cassidy next to him.
With a shake of his head, Butch regained his composure and stood up straight. "Shuckle, use Sludge Bomb on that stupid little mareep!"
"Shookoooo," affirmed the worm-like mollusc pokémon. Standing on the tips of its four stubby legs, Shuckle spat a fat globule of purple sludge right across the room. Mareep caught the majority of it with her face – and immediately burst into tears.
"Aaaaaah!" wailed James as the blubbering lamb barrelled into his arms. "Oh, you poor baby! Shuuuush, now, Daddy's got you…"
"Oh, brother," sighed Meowth. "Looks like we's got another Chimecho, alright."
Cassidy stepped forward. "Well, you three, this has been very amusing," she sneered, "but if you don't mind, we've got a job to do here, so let's wrap this up."
She looked down to Sableye. "Fury Swipes, go!"
Its claws unfurled, Sableye darted across the floor towards its opponents. Its steps started out fast, then mysteriously slowed with each subsequent footfall until the little jewel-eyed ghoul was unable to move. From the capsule in front of it spewed two beams of light, blue and unnatural. They lasted but a second, and everyone thought that they were safe…until a pummelling shockwave blew them clean out of the building.
The night had not been without its setbacks, Misty had to admit. But once the distraction of the food was out of the way, her companion had had no choice but to commit to attempting conversation, and as a result, the atmosphere quickly turned calm and amicable once again. Maybe she had been too quick to have her doubts about poor Adrian. It wasn't his fault he was so shy, after all, and there was certainly more to him than meets the eye – especially considering that what met her eye was the likeness of her polar-opposite best friend.
"Misty?" Adrian spoke up. "I just wanna say that I've, um, well, really enjoyed tonight."
"Me too," she smiled. "It was great to get to know the real you away from work, Adrian. Though…I still feel bad about ordering dessert without you."
"It's fine, it's fine, I told you!" he laughed off. "I'm just amazed you managed to finish all that ice cream."
"Well, it wasn't gonna eat itself," she winked a little sheepishly.
While Adrian looked around in slight awkwardness, Misty reached over and placed her hand gently on top of his. "You know, I think I feel a lot better now," she said with a little flutter in her voice, "about the gym, that is. You're a great guy, Adrian – I have faith in you."
The flushed man, whose breath had been stolen by the softness of her skin, could only cough clumsily behind his free hand. "Th-Thank y-you," he managed to splutter out. "I'll do m-my best, Misty. I pr-promise."
When all was said and done, the two new friends waited patiently for someone to come round to the table with the bill. However, as they soon discovered, many of the waiters were suddenly rather distracted.
"Do you have a reservatio-HEY!"
"Er, wait, sir, you can't go in there!"
Misty, startled but with piqued curiosity nonetheless, did not have to wait long to find out who was causing all this ruckus.
"Professor Cairn?" she said in surprise. "Are you alright? How'd you know I was here?"
He wiped his brow with a rubble-specked sleeve. "I tracked your pokégear," he panted. "Misty, we need to get to the lab right now."
"The lab?" she asked, her features darkening. "Professor, what's happened?"
"I'll explain on the way," he said. "Come on!"
She got up and left without a second's hesitation, leaving Adrian at a rather jarring momentary loss. He quickly dropped a few pristine banknotes onto the table and rushed out of the restaurant to join them.
"My PDA picked up an exponential psychic spike while I was out on my evening walk," Cairn puffed as they ran across the plaza. "I thought Psyduck might be having another seizure, so I rushed back as quick as I could. When I got there…"
"What?" Misty was growing increasingly alarmed. "What is it?"
"I…don't know. I couldn't see for all the smoke."
Her heart lurched in the most sickening of ways. She knew she shouldn't have been wasting her time on childish dinner dates when her pokémon needed her.
"Although, judging by the pattern of energy dispersal," Cairn added, "I'd say he wasn't alone in there."
Adrian's ears pricked up. "You mean someone broke in?" he postulated. "Who would do that?"
The trio turned the corner towards Indigo Labs seconds after, and, amongst the towers of black smoke and fleeing pedestrians, Misty promptly laid eyes on their answer.
"Well, there's always one that comes to mind," she groaned as a number of familiar heads popped out of the wreckage pile in front of the entrance. "Team Rocket."
"Get your butt outta my face!" Cassidy barked at James, pushing him roughly off the pile.
"Oooooh!" he yelped – both when hitting the ground and spying the redheaded twerpette glaring murderously at him.
"Team R-Rocket?" cried Adrian. "As in the cr-crime syndicate?"
"The same," answered Cairn, his tone both solemn and affronted.
The remaining intruders had clambered out of the debris by this point, and gathered back into their respective groups facing Misty and her friends.
"Now there's a face we ain't seen in a while!" Butch chuckled to himself. "Sorry, toots, but we gotta take that psyduck off your hands. Be right with ya, just as soon as we deal with these clowns."
Meowth bared his claws. "What's dat supposed ta mean, joik? You wanna throw down, I'll throw down!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!"
While the two teams squabbled, Misty leaned subtly to her left.
"If you've got pokémon, Adrian, now is the time to use them," she whispered.
"O-Okay?" he acknowledged uneasily. Nodding, she took in an angry breath.
"HEY!" The bickering stopped instantly. "Let's get one thing straight: nobody is taking Psyduck anywhere, you hear me? If you don't clear off right this second, my friend and I are gonna blast you so high that Arceus will have to look up to see you!"
Jessie's eyes narrowed at the friend in question. "James, does that blond dork remind you of anyone?"
"Hmm…" He also looked closer. "Huh?! I thought that was the twerp!"
"Da twoipette's definitely got a type, alright," Meowth laughed knowingly.
Misty, meanwhile, was getting more and more annoyed. "Hey, quit muttering!" she snapped. "Staryu, go!"
"Hyaa!" exclaimed the faceless Star Shape pokémon as it appeared.
"I'll deal with Cassidy and Dutch," she said to Adrian. "You take care of the other three, okay?"
Once again, the boy only nodded timidly. "Er, c-come out, Timburr!"
He limply chucked the pokéball down at his feet, out of which came a short but vascular being shouldering a thick wooden beam.
"Let's make this quick," Cassidy smirked. "Sableye, use Shadow Ball!"
"Staryu, dodge and use Water Gun!"
Staryu jumped just as the crackling black ball whooshed underneath it, then shot a furious blast of water right in Sableye's face.
"Alright!" Misty encouraged. "Now circle around and hit Shuckle with your Double-Edge attack!"
In mid-air, the agile star spun itself into a blur and clashed straight into Shuckle before it even had the chance to defend itself.
"Ooof!" Butch coughed as his heavy, shelled pokémon landed right on top of him. While she had a minute, Misty looked over to Adrian, who seemed to have been standing there doing nothing.
"Adrian, what's going on?" she asked, a little impatiently.
"Um, s-sorry!" he replied. "Timburr, use Focus Energy!"
The musclebound grey biped hunched over, grunting slightly as power swelled up inside of him.
"Jess, try another of Girafarig's attacks," James suggested.
"Ugh, worth a shot," she shrugged. "Girafarig, Zen Headbutt!"
While its legs kicked energetically, the white part of Girafarig's face began to glow a pulsing blue. It charged with impressive vitality – but not at Timburr or Staryu. Rather, to Jessie's chagrin, the nearby lamppost.
Clang! went its horns against the metal pole. The blue energy split into multiple arcs, forking wildly in every direction like a kind of psychic thunderstorm. Many of them were concentrated in Staryu's area, creating quite a challenge for the Cerulean gym leader.
"That's it, Staryu, keep dodging!" she spurred on as Staryu tried its best to avoid being hit. One small thread struck Timburr square in the chest, causing Adrian to panic.
"Aaaah, Timburr!" he wailed, his hands pressed up to his mouth. "M-Misty, I need h-help!"
"I'm a little busy right now, Adrian!" she tutted with a strain in her voice.
"Err…"
Improvisation was not his strong suit – but for Misty and Psyduck, he'd certainly try. "Timburr, use-"
"Sableye, another Shadow Ball, go!"
The attack was a direct hit, despite there being plenty of time to dodge. The fragile Adrian's confidence was ebbing by the second.
"I can't do th-this, Misty!" he shouted.
"Yes, you can!" she shouted back. "Timburr's been storing all that energy, so everything depends on its next attack. You have to tell it what to do!"
"B-But I…I don't kn-"
"DAMMIT, ASH, JUST DO IT!"
And then, just like the ringing of a gong, all the noise and chaos around them was completely swallowed up in those five echoing words. They looked at each other, eyes of confusion, shock and distress locked together in one uncomfortably drawn-out stare. Misty, in particular, felt deeply disturbed by what she had just heard herself say. Why did she call him that? What really was her 'goal' in instigating this tag battle? Now was not the time to ruminate, and she knew that. But this had somehow changed things for her, compromised everything in a matter of second, and on the day that she was supposed to finally see clearly, she suddenly felt more foggy than ever.
"Magcargo, Body Slam!"
A smudge of orange and grey whooshed past them, crashing into Girafarig and knocking it straight out. Seconds later, approaching footsteps could be heard from behind.
"I had it!" Adrian grumbled, hurt and humiliated.
"Had what, your finger in your ass?" Macy grinned. "Don't sweat it, hot stuff. Double Team, Magcargo!"
The lava snail gave a gurgling cry before releasing a swarm of light-based clones from its shell.
"Shuckle, find the real one with Sludge Bomb!" Butch ordered.
Many of the clones fizzled out as successive gobs of sludge ploughed through them. Macy scuttled in front of Misty, who crossed her arms and began to mutter under her breath.
"Now, Flamethrower! Send these chumps packing!"
"You too, Staryu!" Misty butted in, also stepping forward. "BubbleBeam!"
From each of the Magcargo clones burst a scorching jet of fire that engulfed Sableye, Shuckle and the unconscious Girafarig. Coupled with Staryu's barrage of bubbles, the attacks brought about a smoky explosion, throwing both the pokémon and their trainers high into the air.
"This is all your fault!" Cassidy whined at Jessie in mid-air. "What're we going to tell the boss now?!"
Meowth looked over. "Well, you's are probably gonna get there real soon, because…" The whole group inhaled in preparation.
"WE'RE BLASTING OFF AGAIN!"
When the smoke cleared, Macy turned around to face the rest of the group with a wide smile on her face. Adrian stood off to the side, his head hung low.
"Long time no see, Misty!" she trilled. "That was awesome!" She leaned in slyly. "Hey, who's your friend?"
"What are you doing here?" Misty said in mild disgust.
"You're welcome!" Macy shrugged, though still with a smirk. "I'm in town for the Indigo League. Didn't Ash tell you?"
As fate would have it, another arrival on the scene diverted the group's attention before Misty could answer.
"Oh my god, are you guys alright?" Brock said, his hair slightly damp with sweat.
"Pikachupi!" squeaked Pikachu on his shoulder.
"We're fine," Misty replied plainly. "Where've you been?"
"And come to think of it, where's Ash?" Macy added.
Brock eyed Adrian curiously as he opened his mouth to speak. "Ash has been with me. He fell asleep in the apartment just as I heard the explosion."
"He's asleep?" Misty queried. "At nine o'clock at night? What's up with him?"
"Um…" he scratched his head, "it's kind of a long story. Maybe it should wait until morning."
A short silence rang out among the group. "So, what now?" Macy said.
Professor Cairn cleared his throat. "Psyduck needs our attention," he declared. "Shall we, Misty?"
The excitable Johto girl clapped her hands together as the two of them vanished into the lab. "Well, looks like my work here is done!" she giggled, turning on her heel. "See ya round, Brocko!"
"Uh, yeah, see you," Brock mumbled. When she caught Adrian's eye, the mischievous woman made sure to exaggerate the sensuality of her walk.
"Till next time, cutie pie," she winked, then disappeared off into the sunset. Adrian watched as she left, a new feeling of curiosity piling itself atop everything else his mind had hurled at him this wholly unusual night.
"Cutie pie?"