Chapter 8( VIII)- The Pain of Hearts

The skies were dark yet inviting, the moon was out along with the stars. The air was breezy and fresh. It
was the dark night freshness. It was life. The distant howls of the Arcanines and Growlithes could be
heard in the russles of the Viridian Forest.
As the moonlight shone down upon the porch of a stadium through the open field, a silouhette was seen standing agains the railing. Hair fluttering in the gusts of air along the breeze.

Misty stood there, watching the night sky. All alone.
She was thinking about him.
Ash
Ash Ketchum
Where was he now? On another journey?
Why was she thinking about him?
It went back to last year, when the two had last met.

***
"Com'n Pikachu lets go and check out the new pokemon they added to this place!" Ash said with enthusiasm
She watched him from behind the stalls, hidden away from him in a scarlet dress and a face shawl.
"Ash.." she whispered to herself.
"You know pikachu, that lady in the red is selling chocolate pokemon shaped candies, how about we try some eh?"
"Pika, Pii"
He walks towards the stall, unknowingly.
{} Its him, he's coming this way, did he recognize me? No, he just wants to buy the chocolate{}
"Um.. Hello Miss, can I please have six candies?", he asks her.
{} Have me {}
"Of course, five candies coming up. What shapes do you want?", she says turning away.
{} He's so handsome, he looks smarter, or maybe its just me {}
"Oh, WOW, we get to choose any shape?", he asked excitedly.
"Almost As..Sir!", she caught herself.
"pika", the yellow mouse twitched its ears.
"Well, lets see, I want one Charizard, One Typhlosion, One Noctowl, one articuno, one Ursaring, and one
PIkachu!", he did not suspect anything.
"C..Coming right up!", she starts to make the candies.
"And you pikachu? Also six? Heh Heh , all Pikachu shaped you say, fine ok! Miss.."
"Also coming up!", she turned around.
She was wearing a red wide tight neck top that came up only till her naval. She had on pants that were
slit on the sides all the way up but attached at waist and at the leg cuffs. It was a skin tight black pants.
She finished making eleven candies as the attached part of her pants at the waist broke and slipped down.
{} Oh no {}
She had decided to go without her shorts she usually wore, and now she was in her tiny underwear.
Ash looked around and saw that nobody had noticed yet. He put pikachu on the counter and jumped over
the stall.
{} Is he going to do something....{} a horrible thought crossed her mind.
"Miss, here have my pair, quick, I'll cover for you until you change!", Ash said as he took out his extra
pair of jeans from his backpack.
She blushed and as she took the jeans, her face shawl slipped off revealing her face.
"M..M.Misty?", he asked stunned.
"Ash, i didn't want you to see like this!", she said.
"Um..sorry", Ash said softly and then suddenly grabbed her and pushed her against the wall of the
building that the stall had been set up against. He pressed against her, his body was pressing against her
till her naval. She was amazed and disgusted and was about to kick him in the place where it would hurt him the most when and explosion rocked the pavement where Pikachu had had been. Pikachu had managed to avoid it. It was a carrier Charizard that suddenly dropped from the sky and hit hard on the pavement.
People milled around and saw that the fire on the Charizard's tail was very very low indeed. A man
whipped out his cell, and called the Pokécentre. Then he asked for a poke-doctor in the crowd. Three
women and two men stepped out and immediatly began assessing the situation, checking for hazards etc.
Ash sighed and turned around. Misty at the same time had taken off her other pants and put on the jeans. She had buckled the waist and was just about to look up when their lips met.
Ash stared at Misty, expecting something harsh, rude and painful.
Misty looked at him, expecting her to do something harsh, rude and painful.
But she didn't do anything, she just put her arms around the shocked Ash's neck and pressed on his lips.
Ash was stil dumbstruck.
The pink lipstick was on his lips.
Then she pushed away from her and batted a red strand of hair that had come into her eyes. She had tears
in them.
He hadn't hugged her back and then he just stood there contributing nothing to that kiss. She meant
nothing to him. Nothing
"Misty.. I", that was all her got to say before she took off towards who knows where.
He stood there staring after her and then at the ground.
***

A tear rolled down her cheek as she recalled the memory. She still had those jeans of his.
She could still fit in them, yet she never wore them again since that day.
She went off the field and into her room. She flopped down on the bed and decided that she needed a bath.
So she stripped down, took her towel and went into her bathroom. She turned on the water and added the
bath salts, the ones with fragrences. She mixed the water and then slid into the water after hanging her
towel on the rack.
She rested her neck against the head rest and relaxed, or so she thought.
She was still thinking about him.
At last she got up suddenly from the water, bubbles dripping from her hair and her chest. She ran into the
room without her towel and picked up the phone. She started dialing a number, and went back into the
washroom and closed the door. She sat on the edge of the bathtub. It felt cold despite the bathroom was
filled with humid air.
She dialed a number, the phone rang, but she disconnected and dialed another number.
The phone started ringing. Misty wrapped the towel around her.
*Click*
"Snorrrk..Hello?"
" Brock?"
"Yes, who am I speaking to?"
"Misty!"
"Oh, Hi Misty, long time since I heard from you two!"
"Us two?"
"Well, yeah, You and Ash!"
"WHAT?"
"Where are you?"
"In my bathroom so no one can disturb me. Why?"
"Uh-Humm. Ash with you?"
"OF COURSE NOT!"
"Ok, if you say so!"
"BROCK!"
"Just Kidding!"
"Anyway if Ash were here, which he isn't, he wouldn't be in my bathroom, not that he would be in my
bedroom either, since he isn't here, which he won't be!"
"Misty, whats wrong?"
"Oh, yeah, the thing is that something weird is starting to go around here!"
"Why what happened?", Brock asked wide awake.
"A couple of Nurse Joys that were missing from the surrounding areas were missing.."
"OH NO"
"...and it seems that they finally found them.."
"Phew!"
"... but their bodies were horribly mutilated and some of them were even...y'know"
"Oh my goodness, this is disastrous. Its saddening and hurting news, and what do u mean they were even
...y'know?"
"..um..taken advantage of!"
"Misty, I'm going to come over to Cerulean City two days from now!"
"Sure, are you coming by train or.. what?"
"Nope, no train, Steelix!"
"What? What do you mean?"
"My Steelix can carry me to Cerulean City!"
"I never knew you could ride on steel/ ground type pokemon!"
"Now you do Misty! Anyway, I have to go *Yawn*!"
"Ok, Brock. By—"
"Misty, Wait!"
"What?"
"Why did you call me?"
"I..I..its nothing important, not now.."
"Nonsense, I know somethings on your mind. I have travelled with you and Ash for a long time and I
know more about you and Ash than anyon—"
"Why'd you stop?"
"Its Ash isn't it?"
"Huh!"
"It IS Ash!"
"N..no", Misty's voice faltered
"Misty, what happened?"
"Nothing!"
"Oh, I can tell from the tone of your voice that something happened!"
"Brock, its nothing I tell you!"
"Misty, how long will you hide it inside of you?", Brock asked sadly.
"Wh..what do y..you mean?"
"I mean you and Ash. I mean, obviously you two have feelings for each other and yet neither of you can
admit the—"
"NO, ASH DOES NOT MEAN ANYTHING TO ME. I don't mean anything to him!"
"Misty, MIsty, Misty, What ever are you talking about? I know that Ash would rather throw his life away
than ever abandon you!"
"THats because....we're only friends!"
"Y'know Misty, its not possible to talk to you now. You're mind is made up, not to reveal anything. I'll
talk to you after I come there. Bye"
"Bye Brock", Misty said in a quiet voice
"And Misty.."
"Yeah?"
"Be careful, I don't want what happened to them to happen to you, Bye!"
Click
She put down the phone and then got up and drained the bathtub. She wrapped her hair in a bun and
walked into her room tightly wrapping the towel around her breasts and naval. She went to her wardrobe
and took out her night gown. She put on a blood red satin gown that was a gift from Ash on her sixteenth
birthday. He couldn't come so he just sent her the gown.
She had appeared quite uncaring at the party, but after it was all over and she was all alone in her room
with her presents, she was very saddened in the heart. Back then she hadn't seen or heard from Ash since the incident in the marketplace till that moment. In a way, she still hadn't heard from him.
Misty, dried her hair and then went over to the window and opened it. The cool summer night breeze
swirled inside her room wrapping around her. She gazed into the brightly illuminated sky full of distant
hydrogen combusted helium formed in the form of heat energy on a massive scale.
Two tears ran down her cheeks, making her look so hurt, so pained and yet still managing to precariously
stay within her character.
She felt so vulnerable, that if someone had come and comforted her she wouldn't have had resisted. Yet
no one had come and she stood there. She hadn't seen him in two years. A whole two years. She
wondered if he still remembered her. It was almost her seventeenth birthday in a month and five days. She
wondered is he was seeing anyone. She wondered if he was actually working. She wondered if he had any
recent battles lately. She wondered if he still cared.... about her.
The remoraid clock struck two in the night, the breeze warmed the room in a pleasant way, and she stood
there looking against the stars. A tear fell on her robe, and spread a little. It would probably stain if she
didn't remove it withing twelve hours, yet she stood. She stood against the stars staring out into the wide
universe that might hold her destiny....she knew she shouldn't, yet she did.....she cared.

* * *

Duplica strolled around the wide water gardens. No not gardens under water, garden as in grassland near
the water that was for water pokemon to rest outside of the water.
Duplica had left her Mini-Dit and Ditto in the lodging because those two were having fun imitating food
and making the other pokemon accidentally try to eat it only to change back and give the poor victim
pokemon the scare of its eating life.
Duplica walked for an hour now. It was early dawn, and not many pokemon were awake. She found out
that the food service had nothing to do with the waking up of the four sisters.
She saw a Wooper cranking its head to the left and then to the right, backwards and then to its feet. It was
exercising. She smiled.
And then suddenly as it suddenly stopped and walkted into the bushes to do somne business, the flashback
hit her like a can of tuna on the head from a 20-feet cliff.
She remembered back to yesterday when she had arrived. She remembered the time when she had arrived at the train station and when Misty had come to meet her at the platform. She remembered the malacious
laughter that sounded within minutes of her arrival. She remembered the horrible story the old woman
had told all of them. She realized that it was all very real.
She had always felt that she was pretty sensistive. She was always wounded inside whenever anything
bad happened, yet she never told her feelings to anyone.
Duplica had a story, a story that she had not wanted related until absolutely necessary, but now with the
return of the Darks, she would have to tell it. She would have to give away the secret. She would have to
give in.
She stared around the and saw that a few pokemon were stirring. She strolled by casually and then walked
into the steam room. The steam room was indoor yet kinda like outside. The entire grassland and the
relatively small water bodies were inside a protective glass case all over and around the land. The house
itself was the second largest structure in the land. The water performing arena was the largest structure.
The sunlight was able to penetrate through as well as the air. It was some special kind of selectively
permeable material of a alloy called anaquada. The steam room was to the left side of the gardens. This
was the second steam room. The first one was deep in the mini jungle, partly underground.
Duplica, for some reason knew this and then walked into the jungle.
A curious Poliwag watched Duplica go inside the junge and decided to follow. But as soon as it reached
beginning of the jungle, there was no trace of Duplica. Not even footprints. Confused the Poliwag went
back to the water to doze of for a bit before breakfast.
Now deep in the jungle, the grass suddenly bulged and flopped, then irregularly changed into the form of
a teenager wearing a green jacket with white pants. Her eyes flashed azure for a bit and then subdued. She
walked to the old steam room and opened the room.
She walked inside and reached into her pocket.
Suddenly a glow illuminated the entire room and then a power of immense energy was felt throughout the
junge and the waters. The alertness suddenly came and then the scream of a strangled pokemon.

(to be continued)
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Hopefully this chapter wasn't too sappy.
Anyway, like always, send any comments or
suggestions to dark_death2@hotmail.com.

Next Chapter: Duplica's Insight Sight
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