The Calm Before The Storm

The Calm Before The Storm

"………that's when we found the cave exit behind the waterfall." Misty related her and Ash's experiences in the cave to the others, careful to omit certain details.

They had set up camp in a clearing not far from the waterfall. Misty, Gary, Brock and Duplica sat around a large fire as Brock prepared their meal. Brock and Gary had erected a tent earlier where Ash was now resting, Pikachu keeping him company.

"How's Ash holding up?" Duplica was still stunned after Misty's revelation.

"Not too good. He's trying to put on a brave face, but he's understandably upset." Misty informed her.

"What are we going to do with him?" Gary asked as Brock began handing out bowls.

"What do you mean?" Brock handed Gary a bowl.

"We have to get to the temple. Like Brock said, we don't know how much time we've got. He's gonna slow us down."

"We can't just leave him here!" Misty stood.

"How did I know you were going to say that?!" Gary faced her.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what it means!"

"Oh for God's sake Gary-"

"Shut up!" Duplica screamed, jumping up. "We won't solve anything by arguing! Lets just stay here tonight and see how he is in the morning!"

"Duplica's right." Brock took a bowl and spoon. "We'll decide what we're gonna do in the morning." He began walking in the direction of Ash's tent.

"Who made you leader?" Gary called after him.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Duplica teased. "Remember what happened the last time you said that?!" She followed Brock.

Ash lay on his back in the tent. Pikachu slept on his stomach, snoring occasionally. He heard them fighting. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but he knew it was about him. He had become such a burden.

Was this what it was going to be like for the rest of his life? People arguing about who had to baby-sit him? What was he going to do once he got back? He couldn't be Pokémon Master any more. What would he do? All his life he had thought of doing nothing else, he was completely lost.

He heard a rustling indicating someone had entered the tent.

"Hello?" He was embarrassed by the quiver in his voice.

"Hey Ash"

Brock. Good. He had always looked up to Brock as a brother. He could talk to him.

"Hey Ashy-boy!"

And Duplica, well, she was good at lifting his spirits, usually.

He sat up and turned to the direction their voices had came from, inadvertently dislodging Pikachu.

"Hey guys! Good to see…..well, hear you."

"We brought you dinner." Brock placed the bowl in Ash's out-stretched hands.

"How you holding up?" Duplica sounded uncharacteristically serious.

"Not too bad. So…..what's the plan for tomorrow? What time are you moving out?"

"Ash, we're not leaving you here alone." Duplica touched his leg, startling him.

"You have no choice. I'll only hold you back-"

"Don't be an idiot, Ash-"

"Calm down the both of you. We already decided we'd discuss this in the morning. You should get some rest now, Ash. Come on Duplica" Brock led the protesting Duplica back to the campsite, leaving Ash with his own thoughts.

He looked out over the plain. An excited crowd stared down at him. This was it, the Pokémon League Final. Gary stood opposite him, a confident smirk placed firmly on his lips.

His hand went to his belt and removed a pokéball.

"Pokéball, go!" He flung it onto the field. To his complete astonishment it turned around mid-field and began to fly back towards him. As it did it enlarged and opened, engulfing him.

He screamed banging his hands against the walls of the pokéball. Blood ran from his knuckles as he furiously attacked the shrinking pokéball.

He became conscious of it moving. It stopped with a jerk, knocking him to his knees.

"Huh, I caught Ash!" Gary's voice was muffled through the cybernetic walls of the pokéball.

"What a weak pokémon!" Misty sighed bitterly. "Destroy it!"

"With pleasure!"

Ash felt increased pressure on the walls of the pokéball. It began to shrink and crack. It began to crush him, breaking and crushing his bones.

Ash screamed out in pain and fear. He bolted up right in the tent. He was saturated in sweat and breathing heavily. Wearily he lay back on his sleeping bag.

He hadn't had that dream in a long time, not since the night before his match with Gary. Misty hadn't been in it before, though.

"Ash? Are you ok?" a soft voice called to him.

"Misty?"

"I'm here."

He felt her sit down beside him. "Are you ok?" she repeated.

"Just a dream." He replied, closing his eyes.

They remained silent for a few minutes.

"Go back to sleep." Misty began soothingly stroking his forehead like she had done so many years before. She knew it helped calm him.

Ash sighed contentedly. He used to love when Misty did this. Suddenly he became angry. Why was she tormenting him? "Why are you doing this?" he asked.

"Doing what?"

"This." He took her hand from his forehead. "Why are you……..pretending you care about me?"

"Ash, I do care about you." Misty sounded wounded.

"Not enough. Not as much as him." He couldn't bring himself to say Gary's name. "Although, I must congratulate you on a most fitting punishment. Suitingly ironic."

"Punishment?" Misty asked in shocked anger, retracting her hand.

"Ash doesn't pay enough attention to me," He mimicked her. "I'll show him! I'll run off with GARY!"

"I did not run off with Gary! I meet him over a year ago. You think I was caring on with Gary while I was with you?"

"It wouldn't surprise me! You always were fickle. Once any guy paid you a complement you were off begging at his feet! I suppose it reflects badly on me, though. You'd rather be Gary's whore that my wife! I-"

His next speech was cut short by Misty sharply slapping him across the cheek. His eyes closed in shock, he brought his hand up to his stinging cheek.

"Don't you ever, EVER speak to me like that again!" Misty was breathing deeply and rapidly, whether from shock or anger he couldn't tell.

He turned to face her, armed with some equally hurtful remarks. He opened his eyes as he prepared to speak, only to begin laughing.

His laughing became almost hysterical as he stared at her, unnerving her.

Suddenly, he grabbed the sides of her face and gently began brushing back her hair with his hands.

"Ash?" She asked nervously.

"I can see!" He exclaimed, examining her face as if for the first time.

"I'll go get Brock." A cold voice informed them.

They turned to see Gary's retreating form, silhouetted against a large moon.

"I better go too." Misty stood and looked down at Ash. He was too amazed at the wonder of his own hands to acknowledge her and she walked out of the tent without a word from him.

Once out of the tent, she was overcome with emotion and collapsed to the floor, crying. What had happened to Ash? He used to be so caring. How could he think those of her? Did he actually think she had been two-timing him with Gary?

She heard the others enter the tent. Wiping her eyes she followed them inside.

Brock was sitting in front of Ash, holding up his hand before his eyes. "How many fingers?"

"Three?"

"Correct! This is great! How did you get your sight back?" Brock began shining a flashlight into Ash's eyes.

"Hey, stop that!" Ash pushed the flashlight from his face. "I…ah…..just woke up and I could see. It was kinda blurry at first but everything is getting clearer."

"Yahoo!" Duplica sat in front of him and began waving her hand before his face.

He took her hand and pulled her into a rib-crushing hug.

"PIKA!" Pikachu jumped up and down on the sleeping bag.

"Hey! come here!" Ash relinquished his hold on Duplica and took up his favourite pokémon, swinging his round.

Misty felt removed from the celebrations. She exited the tent to find Gary standing by the waterfall, staring at the moon. Slowly she walked up to meet him. She slipped her hand in his and squeezed it gently.

He didn't respond but simply starred into the night sky.

After some minutes he turned to her. "Do…..do you love me, Misty?"

She was taken aback by this. "Of, of course I do!" she disguised the quiver in her voice well.

Gary looked at her sadly for a moment, then resumed staring out over the jungle. She rested her head on his shoulder.

"You're not going to run off with Ash, are you?"

"Gary! I can't believe you'd even ask that!"

"It's just, when I see you two together I….I can't help feeling…….Promise me you won't leave me for him!"

"Do I have to promise you?! Don't you trust me?"

"I don't trust him!"

"So? That doesn't mean-"

"Sush! Did you hear that?" Gary cut her off and looked around him.

"Stop trying to change the subject! I-"

"Misty shut up for a second, ok?" He moved away from her and seemed to be looking for something.

She glared at him for a second before a slight rustling caught her attention. She scanned the jungle for any sigh of the source of the noise. Gary looked intrigued. Professor mode, she thought sarcastically.

Sighing, she rolled her eyes at him, before something moved in her peripheral vision.

Slowly, she drew her eyes above her. The leaves of the trees swayed and shook.

"Gary?" She whispered, edging closer to him.

"Huh?" he replied loudly.

Suddenly the branches began creaking and groaning as they cracked and split, crashing to the ground. A giant spinarak rapidly descended from the bows. It was at least seven metres long and two high. Green venom dripped from its fangs, hissing and bubbling as it splashed onto the ground. It began to advance on them, it's vacant black eyes glistening sinisterly.

Gary stood in front of Misty shielding her with his body. The spinarak continued advancing on them until it had them trapped. Impossibly steep cliffs surrounded them on every side.

"Hold on, Misty!" Gary reached for a pokéball. Before he could reach it, the spinarak lashed out at him with one of it's long legs. He sailed through the air and landed with a sickening crack. He remained motionless like a rag-doll , bruised and beaten.

Misty screamed as the spinarak continued advancing on her. It's fangs were mere centimetres from her face. She squeezed her eyes shut and gripped the cold, stone cliff, bracing herself.

A blood-curdling shriek forced her eyes open and she witnessed the spinarak bathed in a yellow-orange glow. It turned from her and began to move away. She tried to escaped but it still blocked her path.

"Pikachu, thunder NOW!"

She saw a yellow streak of light as the electric pokémon leapt into the air and prepared to attack. Before it could launch it's attack, a stream of white, stick web erupted from the front of the spinarak, engulfing Pikachu.. Pikachu flew through the air until it was stopped when he sticky web latched onto a tree.

"Agh! Pikachu!" Ash moved his hand to his belt to retrieve a pokéball but the spinarak again launched it's web attack. Ash sailed through the air and was stopped abruptly by the trunk of a tree.

Brock and Duplica arrived on the scene just in time to see Ash impact a tree next to them. They had no time to react as they too were engulfed in sticky web.

The spinarak again turned it's attention to Misty, cowering behind it.

She was crumpled in a corner, sobbing hysterically. It moved forward, it's long legs twitching eerily. It towered above her as it prepared to strike. She pulled herself into a ball and prayed to whom ever was listening.

Her pleas were interrupted by an unearthly screeching. She looked up to find the spinarak screaming and fawning about. She noticed what appeared to be someone on it's back. The spinarak twisted and contorted it's body in a desperate attempt to dislodge the figure. The flash of metal in the moonlight caught her attention, as the figure raised a knife above it's head and then brought it down with unimaginable force, impaling the spinarak. The spinarak screamed in pain, forcing Misty to cover her ears. The figure ripped the knife out of the spinarak's torso, spraying greenish-red blood every where. It brought the knife down again and again until the spinarak finally collapsed and stopped moving.

Misty stood, trembling. "Who is it?" She called to the figure.

He looked up, blood and sweat staining his face. "It's me Misty. Gary." He cautiously got off the fallen spinarak and walked over to her.

She whimpered before collapsing to the floor, her body wreaked with sobs.

He dropped the knife and dropped to her, cradling her petite body as she cried, releasing all the built up tension from the past few days.

Brock managed to free himself from the webbing and helped Duplica out of the cocoon she had been incased in.

Pikachu thundershocked it's webbing, destroying it, and causing it to fall like light snow. It dropped nimbly to the jungle floor and began to remove Ash's webbing.

Brock helped Pikachu but cutting away most of the webbing with a penknife.

"Ash, quit struggling. You're only getting more stuck!" He warned.

"That thing attacked Misty. I..eh..we have to see if she's ok!" He insisted.

Once he was free he took of in Misty's direction. Climbing over the dead spinarak he scanned the area for any sigh of her.

He found her in a corner, clutching Gary tight. They both seemed lost in each other, detached. Misty was crying into his chest, while Gary was smoothing her hair and speaking quietly to her. Ash looked at them sorrowfully for a second before turning and slowly walking in the direction of camp.

Hey! Sorry that took SO long to get out. I'm studying for oral French and Irish exams at the moment (EW!!) and doing a show so I don't have much free time. I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. I know it was short and didn't really contain anything of real importance!

Next Chapter: Show down at the temple. And resolution between Ash and Misty??? Wait and see!

I have just one or two things to add, ok? Ok, I know some people don't like GAMRN (I'm not a fan myself!) but this ani't one! I know Gary was kinda the hero of the chapter (saving Misty) and Ash was a bit of a baddie, but I'm trying to show how hard it is for Misty to just up and leave Gary! So bear that in mind!

I also know some people dislike characters being written out of character. I know the characters don't act like this in the ainme, but I'm trying to show how I think those characters would act if they were in these situations. One of the biggest faux pas seems to concern Gary. I believe Gary has more depth than in the ainme. I know people that stuck up (poor me!) and all have reasons for it, usually it's masking insecurity. So, that's the angle I'm taking on Gary. I'm not saying it's the correct way to view him, it's just my way.

Anyway, as always reviews are welcomed (and encouraged). Thanks for reading!

P.S. I don't know how to fix the "big white space" sorry! If anyone knows how, please tell me.

You can e-mail me at: anachia_1@yahoo.co.uk