Chapter 18 A Loss and a Gain
The next day found us lounging lazily on the sofa, watching TV and eating the delicious snacks Ms. Ketchum readily provided us with.
But, sadly enough, it wasn't meant to be a lazy and undisturbed day.
Right in the middle of some PokéProgram about Rattatta's thieving urges, the phone shouted out persistantly to be answered, "Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call! Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!"
This sudden interruption of the mostly silent room caused all of us to jump, our faces looking like that of a herd of Stantler caught in a car's headlights, but Ash finally got ahold of himself and hopped up to answer it, turning on the viewscreen.
Professor Oak's face appeared, "Hello, Ms. Ket- Oh, Ash! I was hoping I would find you here!"
"Uh, what is it Professor?"
"I have terrible news! The Bulbasaur that I was going to give to one of my students -her name is Sandra, and she's a lovely little girl- has been stolen! My other students have already gotten *their* Pokémon, and it was the last one left, and I was holding it especially for her -because she had a dentist appointment and wasn't able to get there on time-! I don't get another batch of Pokémon for beginners until next year, and if Sandra doesn't get one, it will absolutely break her heart!" It was at this point that the Pokémon Professor held up a picture.
It was a cute girl who looked small for her age. She had Jumpluff-green hair up in pig-tails...and it was very obvious that she was a Grass-Type Pokémon lover.
Her Ponyta-tails consisted of bright flowers as decorations with bands the color of freshly grown grass, her green shirt had a huge Victreebel in the middle of it, her yellow shorts had a Chikorita on both legs, her watch had a cheerful smiling Hoppip on it, and her shoes were green with Tangelas on the sides as well as colored shoelaces that were designed to look like the Tangelas' vines.
Celebi fluttered over curiously, just in time to see the picture. It happily cooed something unintelligable.
"Could you please provide me some kind of solution?" Professor Oak looked desperate, something I could tell Ash was not used to seeing him as. It was obvious things like this didn't happen often to him.
"I could look for the thieves-" Ash started, but was cut off.
"But what if you can't find them?" Professor Oak queried.
"Celebi?" the Grass- and Psychic-Type inquired.
"Huh?" Ash turned his eyes to it. It whimpered, and he caught on.
It was kind of amazing, really.
The kid didn't understand Pokémon, except for what Pikachu said, but he was still able to feel what they were thinking even as they spoke. If I didn't know better I would have thought he was psychic. Maybe he was a Mew in another life..."You wanna be her Pokémon?"
Celebi nodded, and I rushed in to explain for it, not wanting Ash to feel rejected for the wrong reasons. Right now Celebi's a weaker Pokémon, and doesn't want to be pampered or anything by a Pokémon trainer with strong Pokémon. She would be very happy with a little girl who was just starting out on her Pokémon journey, so that Celebi's level could begin with her trainer's, and they could grow in strength together. That was part of the problem with Joey as her trainer.
Ash looked at Celebi, "Are you sure this is what you want?"
Celebi slowly nodded.
Ash stared off blankly into space as he mulled it over, then sharply turned his head to the Professor, who wasn't quite sure what was going on. "I have a Pokémon she can have."
"That's very nice of your Ash, but you see, she's rather pick-"
"It's a Grass-Type...I take it she likes Grass Pokémon?"
"Why yes, very much, but-"
Professor Oak was interrupted by Ash again, "Can I give it to her, and see if she likes it?"
"Why yes, I suppo-"
Ash cut him off again. I smirked. He was really pushing his luck. "I'll have my Pokémon Teleport us over."
"I wasn't aware that you had a Pokémon that could Tele-" Professor Oak *almost* managed to finished a sentence.
"Oh. I've had this Pokémon for a while."
I chose this moment to float over in front of Ash so Professor Oak could see me.
"Oh, a Mew!" He was proud of himself for saying a full sentence. "That is indeed a rare Poké-"
"We'll be over there in a jiffy!"
And so we were.
When we got to Professor Oak's lab we saw the little girl sitting beside Professor Oak on a red bench with her hands over her face, crying.
She heard us suddenly appear, and looked up with a gasp.
"Mew?" I furrowed an imaginary brow. Why-?
Oh.
I giggled. Yes, I could understand why she would be frightened or amazed...Or whatever her sudden intake of air meant.
Three humans, a big bird, a flying cat, an electric mouse, a flying onion bulb, three small birds pecking at each other, and a presently crying egg being comforted by one of the humans would be enough to make *me* gasp in wonder at first glance.
Okay, I'm very easily amused. So sue me.
Well. On second thought, maybe you shouldn't. It's hard for cats to get lawyers...
"Shh," Misty tried to comfort Togepi, as Ash walked over to Sandra with Celebi hovering behind him. "Hey, I got a Pokémon for you."
"Go away!" she sniffled.
Professor Oak turned to her, "Now now, Sandra. I'm sure you'll love the Pokémon he has for you." His eyes went back and forth between Lugia, the three legendary birds, and me. He certainly loved the Pokémon *Ash* had...
Samuel Oak stood up, motioning for Ash to take his place. Ash did so, and Oak went over to examine Lugia, muttering things like, "Fascinating."
Lugia just looked at him, after sharing a knowing glance with me.
"Hi, Sandra," Ash greeted.
"What do you want?" She was still sad about the theft of her Pokémon.
"You like Grass Pokémon, right?"
"Yeah. So?"
"Would you like a Grass- and Psychic-Type Pokémon?" Ash asked.
Her forehead creased in thought, "But there is no Grass/Psychic Pokémon!"
"There is too. And I have her right here!"
Celebi popped up beside Ash's head as he held out the two foot Pokémon's Pokéball for Sandra to take.
"Aww! It's so cute!" Sandra squealed as she snatched the Pokéball greedily away. "And I can have it?"
Ash smiled, "Yep! You can have her!"
Sandra held out her arms invitingly to her new Pokémon, and Celebi flew over to her, "Selly!"
Sandra laughed. Then she looked at Ash gratefully, "Thank you so much! When I heard my Bulbasaur was stolen, I was absolutely devastated! Now I have an even cuter Pokémon!"
With that said, she leaned over and kissed Ash on the cheek.
Needless to say, Ash's face turned beet-red, and Misty's mouth gaped open in surprise. "Prrriii?" Togepi had stopped crying, and was now bewildered.
Giggling, Sandra hopped up, and ran over to a nearby house that appeared to be her own.
Ash and Celebi exchanged a long, heart-felt stare. "I'll miss you," Ash managed. "You haven't even been my Pokémon that long, but it feels kinda like it..." His mood changed to stern, "You had better be nice to her and obey every single command without question!"
Celebi nodded solemnly, "Selly."
She then flew over to Ash and hugged him with her leaf-like arms. He embraced her smaller body back.
Celebi seemed to be in thought for a moment, then, with a strange planty giggle, kissed the cheek that Sandra didn't, and flew over to the spot where its new trainer was patiently waiting.
Good-bye, I sent Psychically.
Celebi waved, then she and her new trainer went inside.
Ash sighed, "I'm gonna miss her."
"Oh, I dunno, Sandra's kiss wasn't *that* great," Misty teased.
Ash flushed, "No, I meant-"
I grinned, We know what you meant.
Later that night, Ash, Pikachu, and I went out for our traditional star-gazing activity.
The backpack was brought out, but nobody got the two eggs out of it this time.
Peaceful silence reigned, until Zapdos came outside complaining rather loudly.
What is it this time? I asked exasperatedly.
"Dos! Zapdos zap zap!"
[Moltres! She singed my tail!]
At this point Moltres made her entrance, "Mol*tres* trace molt!"
[Only *after* he shocked me!]
"Zapdos-dos dos!"
[But she pecked me on my ribs!]
"Moltres, trace molt!"
[That wasn't me, that was Articuno!]
"Cooo-nooo!" a voice yelled from the doorframe.
[I didn't do it!]
I smiled gently, Children, children. It is time for bed. Stop your constant bickering and complaining, and go rest.
"Molt-"
[But-]
No but's.
Subdued, they reluctantly flew back to their nest inside.
Ash looked at me, "Do I wanna know what that was about?"
Pikachu shooks its head, "Pika."
We turned our gazes back upward.
Again quiet ensued, and again it was broken.
But this time it was by the loud sound of something cracking.
Pikachu swiftly appeared at the backpack's side and unzipped it.
The starred egg hopped out, bouncing around widely. It then stilled, oddly enough.
Pikachu tried to pounce on it, but the second he was about to succeed it moved out of his reach.
While Pikachu continued tried to get to the only partially cracked egg, I checked on the black/rainbow one. It was vibrating, and making a humming sound. It looked like it was about to hatch, but somehow I knew that it would not do so tonight.
I glanced back at Pikachu who was still failing at grounding the egg.
"Mew!" I decided to join the game.
Even the joint efforts of a Psychic cat and electric mouse could not stop it from moving, so, laughing, Ash joined in.
After several tries, we had it pinned to the ground, then it just flew up into the air.
"Mew!" I cried out in surprise.
"Pi?" Pikachu was confused.
The egg hovered teasingly above our heads.
"Huh?" Ash looked up at it.
With only a second of hesitation I rushed over to catch it, but it fell, careening to the ground.
"Pi!" Pikachu cried, trying to get to the egg before it smashed to the ground.
He was successful, partially.
It hit the poor Electric Pokémon's head, then bounced back up into the air.
Then it started falling again, and Ash managed to catch it.
"Whew," he sighed.
It started wiggling out of his grip, and making a sharp, snapping sound.
Ash let it go on the soft grass, and it remained in one spot, a large crack running down its starred surface.
The crack revealed nothing to us, so we watched carefully to see what kind of Pokémon it was, awed.
The egg suddenly stilled, absolutely motionless.
We all held our breath. Was it going to hatch?
POW!
Whatever it was punched a big hole in the egg with its little dark paw.
Strong little thing.
It then started moving its paw back and forth, creating a larger hole.
The night hid its identity, and all we could see of the egg and Pokémon was a bunch of black and the egg's white stars.
After a little more enlargening of its escape from its shelled prison, it hopped out, rolling head over heels and coming to a stop in front of Ash.
Our eager eyes watched with anticipation.
It was black.
It was also balled up, so we had no clue what it looked like, other than that it was small and had paws.
It opened its bright blue eyes, and as it did so a white star appeared on its forehead, and a crescent moon on its chest. When it blinked curiously at us the star and moon disappeared and reappeared.
It uncurled, stretching, and I gasped.
It looked just like a miniature black Mew.
Author's Notes: Thanks for the reviews! If I don't get any reviews every couple chapters I begin to freak out and think it's boring everyone...
Hehehe, it's really fun to use Pokémon in the way we use our animals in the English language. ...Did that sentence make sense? Well, what I meant was things like "Ponyta-tails" instead of "Pony-tails" and "Stantler in the headlights" instead of "Deer in the headlights"...
Just humor me, kay? :D
Oh oh oh!! If you're interested in seeing my Mew creation then gimme your email and I'll send you a picture of it!! I spent forever coloring in a regular Mew (lol) and making a star and crescent moon...But it's cute!!!
The next day found us lounging lazily on the sofa, watching TV and eating the delicious snacks Ms. Ketchum readily provided us with.
But, sadly enough, it wasn't meant to be a lazy and undisturbed day.
Right in the middle of some PokéProgram about Rattatta's thieving urges, the phone shouted out persistantly to be answered, "Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call! Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!"
This sudden interruption of the mostly silent room caused all of us to jump, our faces looking like that of a herd of Stantler caught in a car's headlights, but Ash finally got ahold of himself and hopped up to answer it, turning on the viewscreen.
Professor Oak's face appeared, "Hello, Ms. Ket- Oh, Ash! I was hoping I would find you here!"
"Uh, what is it Professor?"
"I have terrible news! The Bulbasaur that I was going to give to one of my students -her name is Sandra, and she's a lovely little girl- has been stolen! My other students have already gotten *their* Pokémon, and it was the last one left, and I was holding it especially for her -because she had a dentist appointment and wasn't able to get there on time-! I don't get another batch of Pokémon for beginners until next year, and if Sandra doesn't get one, it will absolutely break her heart!" It was at this point that the Pokémon Professor held up a picture.
It was a cute girl who looked small for her age. She had Jumpluff-green hair up in pig-tails...and it was very obvious that she was a Grass-Type Pokémon lover.
Her Ponyta-tails consisted of bright flowers as decorations with bands the color of freshly grown grass, her green shirt had a huge Victreebel in the middle of it, her yellow shorts had a Chikorita on both legs, her watch had a cheerful smiling Hoppip on it, and her shoes were green with Tangelas on the sides as well as colored shoelaces that were designed to look like the Tangelas' vines.
Celebi fluttered over curiously, just in time to see the picture. It happily cooed something unintelligable.
"Could you please provide me some kind of solution?" Professor Oak looked desperate, something I could tell Ash was not used to seeing him as. It was obvious things like this didn't happen often to him.
"I could look for the thieves-" Ash started, but was cut off.
"But what if you can't find them?" Professor Oak queried.
"Celebi?" the Grass- and Psychic-Type inquired.
"Huh?" Ash turned his eyes to it. It whimpered, and he caught on.
It was kind of amazing, really.
The kid didn't understand Pokémon, except for what Pikachu said, but he was still able to feel what they were thinking even as they spoke. If I didn't know better I would have thought he was psychic. Maybe he was a Mew in another life..."You wanna be her Pokémon?"
Celebi nodded, and I rushed in to explain for it, not wanting Ash to feel rejected for the wrong reasons. Right now Celebi's a weaker Pokémon, and doesn't want to be pampered or anything by a Pokémon trainer with strong Pokémon. She would be very happy with a little girl who was just starting out on her Pokémon journey, so that Celebi's level could begin with her trainer's, and they could grow in strength together. That was part of the problem with Joey as her trainer.
Ash looked at Celebi, "Are you sure this is what you want?"
Celebi slowly nodded.
Ash stared off blankly into space as he mulled it over, then sharply turned his head to the Professor, who wasn't quite sure what was going on. "I have a Pokémon she can have."
"That's very nice of your Ash, but you see, she's rather pick-"
"It's a Grass-Type...I take it she likes Grass Pokémon?"
"Why yes, very much, but-"
Professor Oak was interrupted by Ash again, "Can I give it to her, and see if she likes it?"
"Why yes, I suppo-"
Ash cut him off again. I smirked. He was really pushing his luck. "I'll have my Pokémon Teleport us over."
"I wasn't aware that you had a Pokémon that could Tele-" Professor Oak *almost* managed to finished a sentence.
"Oh. I've had this Pokémon for a while."
I chose this moment to float over in front of Ash so Professor Oak could see me.
"Oh, a Mew!" He was proud of himself for saying a full sentence. "That is indeed a rare Poké-"
"We'll be over there in a jiffy!"
And so we were.
When we got to Professor Oak's lab we saw the little girl sitting beside Professor Oak on a red bench with her hands over her face, crying.
She heard us suddenly appear, and looked up with a gasp.
"Mew?" I furrowed an imaginary brow. Why-?
Oh.
I giggled. Yes, I could understand why she would be frightened or amazed...Or whatever her sudden intake of air meant.
Three humans, a big bird, a flying cat, an electric mouse, a flying onion bulb, three small birds pecking at each other, and a presently crying egg being comforted by one of the humans would be enough to make *me* gasp in wonder at first glance.
Okay, I'm very easily amused. So sue me.
Well. On second thought, maybe you shouldn't. It's hard for cats to get lawyers...
"Shh," Misty tried to comfort Togepi, as Ash walked over to Sandra with Celebi hovering behind him. "Hey, I got a Pokémon for you."
"Go away!" she sniffled.
Professor Oak turned to her, "Now now, Sandra. I'm sure you'll love the Pokémon he has for you." His eyes went back and forth between Lugia, the three legendary birds, and me. He certainly loved the Pokémon *Ash* had...
Samuel Oak stood up, motioning for Ash to take his place. Ash did so, and Oak went over to examine Lugia, muttering things like, "Fascinating."
Lugia just looked at him, after sharing a knowing glance with me.
"Hi, Sandra," Ash greeted.
"What do you want?" She was still sad about the theft of her Pokémon.
"You like Grass Pokémon, right?"
"Yeah. So?"
"Would you like a Grass- and Psychic-Type Pokémon?" Ash asked.
Her forehead creased in thought, "But there is no Grass/Psychic Pokémon!"
"There is too. And I have her right here!"
Celebi popped up beside Ash's head as he held out the two foot Pokémon's Pokéball for Sandra to take.
"Aww! It's so cute!" Sandra squealed as she snatched the Pokéball greedily away. "And I can have it?"
Ash smiled, "Yep! You can have her!"
Sandra held out her arms invitingly to her new Pokémon, and Celebi flew over to her, "Selly!"
Sandra laughed. Then she looked at Ash gratefully, "Thank you so much! When I heard my Bulbasaur was stolen, I was absolutely devastated! Now I have an even cuter Pokémon!"
With that said, she leaned over and kissed Ash on the cheek.
Needless to say, Ash's face turned beet-red, and Misty's mouth gaped open in surprise. "Prrriii?" Togepi had stopped crying, and was now bewildered.
Giggling, Sandra hopped up, and ran over to a nearby house that appeared to be her own.
Ash and Celebi exchanged a long, heart-felt stare. "I'll miss you," Ash managed. "You haven't even been my Pokémon that long, but it feels kinda like it..." His mood changed to stern, "You had better be nice to her and obey every single command without question!"
Celebi nodded solemnly, "Selly."
She then flew over to Ash and hugged him with her leaf-like arms. He embraced her smaller body back.
Celebi seemed to be in thought for a moment, then, with a strange planty giggle, kissed the cheek that Sandra didn't, and flew over to the spot where its new trainer was patiently waiting.
Good-bye, I sent Psychically.
Celebi waved, then she and her new trainer went inside.
Ash sighed, "I'm gonna miss her."
"Oh, I dunno, Sandra's kiss wasn't *that* great," Misty teased.
Ash flushed, "No, I meant-"
I grinned, We know what you meant.
Later that night, Ash, Pikachu, and I went out for our traditional star-gazing activity.
The backpack was brought out, but nobody got the two eggs out of it this time.
Peaceful silence reigned, until Zapdos came outside complaining rather loudly.
What is it this time? I asked exasperatedly.
"Dos! Zapdos zap zap!"
[Moltres! She singed my tail!]
At this point Moltres made her entrance, "Mol*tres* trace molt!"
[Only *after* he shocked me!]
"Zapdos-dos dos!"
[But she pecked me on my ribs!]
"Moltres, trace molt!"
[That wasn't me, that was Articuno!]
"Cooo-nooo!" a voice yelled from the doorframe.
[I didn't do it!]
I smiled gently, Children, children. It is time for bed. Stop your constant bickering and complaining, and go rest.
"Molt-"
[But-]
No but's.
Subdued, they reluctantly flew back to their nest inside.
Ash looked at me, "Do I wanna know what that was about?"
Pikachu shooks its head, "Pika."
We turned our gazes back upward.
Again quiet ensued, and again it was broken.
But this time it was by the loud sound of something cracking.
Pikachu swiftly appeared at the backpack's side and unzipped it.
The starred egg hopped out, bouncing around widely. It then stilled, oddly enough.
Pikachu tried to pounce on it, but the second he was about to succeed it moved out of his reach.
While Pikachu continued tried to get to the only partially cracked egg, I checked on the black/rainbow one. It was vibrating, and making a humming sound. It looked like it was about to hatch, but somehow I knew that it would not do so tonight.
I glanced back at Pikachu who was still failing at grounding the egg.
"Mew!" I decided to join the game.
Even the joint efforts of a Psychic cat and electric mouse could not stop it from moving, so, laughing, Ash joined in.
After several tries, we had it pinned to the ground, then it just flew up into the air.
"Mew!" I cried out in surprise.
"Pi?" Pikachu was confused.
The egg hovered teasingly above our heads.
"Huh?" Ash looked up at it.
With only a second of hesitation I rushed over to catch it, but it fell, careening to the ground.
"Pi!" Pikachu cried, trying to get to the egg before it smashed to the ground.
He was successful, partially.
It hit the poor Electric Pokémon's head, then bounced back up into the air.
Then it started falling again, and Ash managed to catch it.
"Whew," he sighed.
It started wiggling out of his grip, and making a sharp, snapping sound.
Ash let it go on the soft grass, and it remained in one spot, a large crack running down its starred surface.
The crack revealed nothing to us, so we watched carefully to see what kind of Pokémon it was, awed.
The egg suddenly stilled, absolutely motionless.
We all held our breath. Was it going to hatch?
POW!
Whatever it was punched a big hole in the egg with its little dark paw.
Strong little thing.
It then started moving its paw back and forth, creating a larger hole.
The night hid its identity, and all we could see of the egg and Pokémon was a bunch of black and the egg's white stars.
After a little more enlargening of its escape from its shelled prison, it hopped out, rolling head over heels and coming to a stop in front of Ash.
Our eager eyes watched with anticipation.
It was black.
It was also balled up, so we had no clue what it looked like, other than that it was small and had paws.
It opened its bright blue eyes, and as it did so a white star appeared on its forehead, and a crescent moon on its chest. When it blinked curiously at us the star and moon disappeared and reappeared.
It uncurled, stretching, and I gasped.
It looked just like a miniature black Mew.
Author's Notes: Thanks for the reviews! If I don't get any reviews every couple chapters I begin to freak out and think it's boring everyone...
Hehehe, it's really fun to use Pokémon in the way we use our animals in the English language. ...Did that sentence make sense? Well, what I meant was things like "Ponyta-tails" instead of "Pony-tails" and "Stantler in the headlights" instead of "Deer in the headlights"...
Just humor me, kay? :D
Oh oh oh!! If you're interested in seeing my Mew creation then gimme your email and I'll send you a picture of it!! I spent forever coloring in a regular Mew (lol) and making a star and crescent moon...But it's cute!!!