What a Guardian Angel!
by Liv Valle and Joshua Falken

Thanks to BenRG for beta read this fic

Author's notes: The following story is of the Humor genre. Although it deals with religious concepts (such as angels and the spirit realm) it does not represent a serious commentary on religion or on the beings that may inhabit the spirit realm. It is intended only to be a comedy, no more. If you are easily offended by stories with a religious aspect or that treat religious concepts irreverently, you are strongly advised NOT TO READ THIS STORY. Joshua Falken, Liv Valle and Ben Russell-Gough cannot accept any liability for distress or offence that this story may cause.

Chapter 3
by Joshua Falken

Cadet Angel Giselle Sagan walked over to Misty Williams' room, which was beside Ash's room. She had left Light Hope, who was trying to wake Ash up from his faint. She would really like to know why he was so surprised...

"Worry about that later! Now I need meet his friend," she thought, smiling.

Giselle entered and saw Delilah talking with a clear blue eyed, orange-haired girl. The face was nice and her eyes had an impatient, but intelligent, shine in them. She was very pretty, in the cadet's opinion. Delilah introduced them. "Misty, this is Giselle, Ash's cousin. Giselle, this is Ash's friend, Misty."

The Trainer from Cerulean City looked at the angel in a slightly distrustful manner. Since when did Ash have a cousin? And, Misty had to admit, such a pretty one?

"I am Ash's cousin." The purple-haired girl said in the same tone with that had spoken to Delilah earlier. She had noticed that Misty mistrusted her, but she lacked enough experience in human relationships to understand the reason: Misty was jealous of her.

"You are Ash's cousin." Misty repeated in a dazed tone of voice.

Giselle smiled and extending her hand. "It's nice to meet you, Misty!"

The orange-haired trainer looked at for Giselle for a moment and then she also extended her hand, disarmed by the open smile of the newcomer girl. "Nice to meet you too, Giselle!"

==========

Meanwhile, Light Hope was rapidly driving himself to distraction while trying to wake Ash up. He had already yelled, licked his face, tickled his foot with his luxuriantly furry tail and even asked Pikachu (as soon as he stopped hiding under the sheets) to use a light Thundershock on him. Nothing had worked! Well, he clearly had no choice but to use the Eevee species' most feared and powerful attack...

Light Hope landed in the bed and generated his disguise. If somebody entered in the room, they would just see a Pikachu, an Eevee, a Chikorita and a comically cross-eyed unconscious boy. "Well... here we go!" Light Hope leaned forwards to touch his wet nose to Ash's cheek. Ash awoke with a surprised start. "About time, Mr. Ketchum!" Light Hope exclaimed.

The young trainer looked at for Eevee for an instant, and then he fainted... again.

"Well, I believe that that might be a little more difficult than I initially thought," Light Hope murmured. Pikachu and Chikorita covered their eyes in disbelief.

"Chi-ko..."

"Pika..."

=============

Brock Harrison, the Pewter City Gym Leader, was sitting in the waiting room and awaiting the return of Mrs. Ketchum. He was still trying to understand what had happened at the mine... At that moment, the door of the room opened up and Brock forgot completely about mines, injured friends, strange facts and everything else.

He only had eyes for the wonderful violet-haired girl that was standing beside Mrs. Ketchum. Before anyone could say or do anything, he was already holding Giselle's hands lovingly. And she, of course, did not understand anything. Why did this young man have such a strange expression on his face?

"Hello, young lady!" Brock said, a bit too loudly. Little bubbles seemed to form in the hair around his head and Giselle could swear she could see little valentine's hearts in his eyes. "What is your name?"

Completely confused, she stuttered. "Gi-gi..."

Brock dropped to one knee and kissed Giselle on the back of the hand. "Gigi?" he sighed lovingly "Such a beautiful name for such a beautiful young lady!"

"No! My name is Gi-Giselle!"

A little embarrassed but not at all surprised with Brock's reaction, Delilah introduced them. Giselle swallowed dryly: he was Brock Harrison. Eros had warned her about this guy. Ash's best friend had fallen in love with every Officer Jenny, Nurse Joy and remotely available young woman in the Indigo, Johto and Orange Regions! Now she understood why he was all red: he had fall in love with her! What was she supposed to do now?

"OUCH!" Went the Pokémon Breeder's reaction to Light Hope biting his leg.

"What was that for, Light Hope?!" Giselle exclaimed, sensing the Pokémon's anger. "Excuse me, Brock! I think my Pokémon is a little jealous!" She looked at her partner and supervisor. "You bad Eevee!" She picked up the scowling normal-type and went to an empty room, while Delilah helped the Gym Leader.

"Light Hope, what was the idea of biting that poor man?"

"The idea was to protect you and keep you focussed on your mission!" Light Hope snapped in reply. "Which, may I remind you, is to protect Ash Ketchum. It is not to help that pathetic human solve his emotional problems! Besides, you know as well as I do that it is forbidden for our kind to fraternise with mortals!"

"I was not trying to solve anyone's emotional problems!" Giselle protested.

"Then why you two were hand in hand?" Light Hope asked suspiciously.

Now, Giselle blushed. She rubbed the back of her neck and laughed nervously, a large droplet of sweat appearing at the side of her face. "He caught me by surprise!" she said quietly.

"He caught you 'by surprise?'" Light Hope repeated in disbelief. "Giselle, your reaction times are twenty times faster than an average human's and you are telepathic! How in all of the Dark Regions could he take you by surprise?"

"Well... he just did," was all Giselle could say. It was the truth, after all. She had never experienced anything like that before in her existence. "I didn't expect him to react towards me in that way."

Light Hope looked at Giselle out of the corner of his eye, trying to keep a straight face at the young angel's obvious embarrassment and confusion. "All right, child," he said. "He caught you by surprise. But why, pray tell, did you not do anything? You were standing there completely frozen when I entered the room."

"Because I... I was caught by surprise..." Giselle repeated lamely. She looked completely disoriented.

Light Hope covered his eyes with his paws. This was shaping up to be a loooonggggg mission...

==========

Three days later, Ash, Misty, Brock, Giselle and Delilah were all back in Pallet Town. Ash was still trying to come to terms with the fact that the smiling violet-haired girl that now seemed to be glued at his side (much to Misty's dismay) was an angel.

What made this a little difficult was the incredible klutziness that she seemed to suffer from. On only the second day of Giselle's presence in the Ketchums' home, she had managed to destroy half of the crockery that his mother owned while trying to set the table for dinner...

Meanwhile, Giselle and Light Hope were trying to figure out how they could solve the unexpected problem that had cropped up. Brock had fallen completely and utterly in love with Giselle and barely left her alone for a moment. His cries for attention and his attempts to impress her were quickly taking on a disturbingly obsessive colour. While Giselle was trying to help Ash when a shelf in his bedroom came loose from its' bracket and banged him on the head, Brock made the wardrobe fall on him in an attempt to get her to help him instead. It is true that Misty, without knowing, was helping them. On more than one occasion, she pulled Brock away by the ear, saying: "Come on, Romeo, leave Ash's cousin alone."

The second unexpected problem appeared on the second day. Somebody had come to visit Ash. "So, Ash, I hear that rock-hard head of yours saved you when you took a tumble?" Gary Oak asked with an ironic grin.

The young trainer was already used to the rather acidic comments made by his... friend? No, Cordial opponent would describe better. Much better.

"Yes, Gary," Ash replied, rolling his eyes. Let Gary believe what he wanted. It wasn't as if Ash could tell him the truth. I mean, he couldn't tell about his having a guardian angel, could he?

"Well, I hope you don't use that as excuse for not entering in Indigo League this year," Gary said, unable to resist any chance at provoking Ash. Professor Oak's grandson had begun to respect his rival with passing of the years. But admit that? No way!

The two young trainers continued to exchange verbal barbs for a while, while Pikachu and Gary's Umbreon looked on at their antics in disbelief. At that moment Giselle entered the room. She had sensed Ash's growing annoyance and wanted to see if anything was wrong. Gary seemed to freeze for a moment before the stupidest smile that Ash had ever seen began to crawl across his face. Little bubbles and valentines' hearts seemed to appear in the air around Gary's head.

"Gary?" Ash asked, waving his hand in front of Gary's eyes. The brown-haired boy didn't reply to his childhood friend and closest rival. Instead, he rose, strode over to the cadet angel and he bowed deeply.

"Excuse me, but I don't think that we've been introduced," Gary said in a strangely shy voice. "I am Gary Oak, the future Pokémon Master." Gary turned back to Ash. "Ash! Where have you been hiding this this" Gary's vocabulary ran out. He didn't have the words to describe Giselle's appearance. "This girl?"

Giselle – who, of course, had no experience at all with dating or any other affair of the heart - just smiled innocently and extended her hand for a shake. "Pleased to meet you Gary. I am Giselle, Ash's cousin."

Instead of shaking her hand, the brown-haired boy had took it and kissed it. "Charmed, Miss Giselle," Gary said seductively. "You have brightened up our dull little town with your radiant presence!"

Giselle blushed brightly and she opened and closed her mouth without making any sound. Light Hope, who had come in behind her, and Ash were both astonished, but for different reasons. Ash didn't believe that Pallet Town's most arrogant boy could possibly fall in love, with his guardian angel no less, and Light Hope couldn't believe that there was other 'candidate' for Giselle Sagan's hand. The Eevee looked upward and thought. "Lord, with all due respect to you, I have to ask: don't you think that two candidates are too much for a single angel?"

Maybe it was Light Hope's imagination, but he could swear he heard a kindly chuckle and a voice saying: "Wait and see, my friend. Just you wait and see."

Finally, Giselle unfroze herself enough to react to her situation. "Uh... well... excuse me, Gary, but I think that Aunt Delilah is calling me!" She ran all the way to the kitchen, where she collided with Mimey, who was carrying a sack of flour. The impact made the sack explode and it seemed that either it had snowed in the kitchen, or maybe that Ash's Lapras had used her Blizzard attack. When Mimey cleaned the flour out of his eyes, he saw that Giselle had ran out of the house through the back door.
The angel stopped when she reached the banks of the Pallet River and sank to her knees, more confused and disoriented than she had ever been before in her life. "There are two mortal boys in love with me," she thought in horror. "Worse still I'm enjoying it! What do I do now?"

To be continued