Catching Up To You
(part 3 of 7)
by Maeyan (maeyan@mailcity.com)
DISCLAIMER: While I have traded many pieces of paper for their goods,
I have no ownership or rights to the characters, etc of Pokémon.
If they're looking for new owners, however I get dibs on Gary!
Part three:
-----------
They made it to the cabin just as the rain began in earnest. The storm soon settled in for a long night and they made plans to do the same. The rain hit the roof of the cabin shelter with tinny splats, running down the rails and into the rain barrels as the group of Pokémon and trainers ate sandwiches and fruit. Then came the ghost stories and a few more Pokémon tips from Misty before they finally tumbled into their sleeping bags. Misty sighed as her mind refused to sleep. Ash. She had to think of something besides that man. He took up her days, couldn't she at least stop thinking of him at night, too?
"Mark and Kim; think of them," she muttered to herself. "No resemblance at all to Ash and me, so why does seeing them make me all weepy and nostalgic?" Suddenly Misty realized the answer: she was old. It felt weird, and she snuggled into her sleeping bag. She didn't want to be the wise grownup, responsible for...
"Misty?" the tired whisper came from Kim's corner. The girl was curled up with the Pokémon, one arm around, Misty was proud to see, Squirtle. Another Water-Pokémon trainer in bud.
"Yeah, Kim?"
"You make..." a yawn "...a good teacher. Thanks for teaching us so much about Pokémon today."
Misty smiled. A teacher? Imagine me a teacher... "You're welcome, Kim."
"Are you going on to Pallet ..." another yawn "...in the morning?"
"Yes..." Misty hesitated, half-afraid of the way the question hung in the air.
"O..." Yawn "...kay. G'night."
Misty smiled. She wasn't sure how long it would take her to fall asleep tonight, but she was positive that she wasn't going to dream about Ash. She'd dream about something happy, she thought. Rain. Rain was nice and happy. It made the flowers grow. She'd dream about the rain, she decided.
-----------------
"Pikachu's with the bags." Ash climbed
onto the rock beside her and put his
arm around her shoulders. "Togepi, too.
Well," he said softly. "At least it's a
beautiful sunset they're blasting off
into. I'm glad it finally stopped raining."
Misty turned in her sleep, the tears slipping to the floor unheard. But her dream continued, and in her dream, she smiled, content just to sit with him again. She knew she was dreaming, and that this had already happened, but she pushed that part aside and let herself fall back into the memory
as the again-defeated Team Rocket disappeared
into the golden red glow in the distance.
"Yeah. This is a nice place. And this
stream makes it a nice place to set up
camp." She waited and when Ash didn't
reply, she tilted her head to look at
him. "Ash?"
He wasn't looking at the sunset. His
dark head was bowed and she followed his
gaze to the water. Her eyes connected with
those of his reflection and her heart
seemed to beat that much harder when she
saw the intensity in his face. "Ash...?"
she repeated.
"Misty. We've been together for some time
now, and uh..." he seemed to lose his place
in his own thoughts and she held her breath.
Surely he wasn't about to say *that* was he?
She shivered a bit and his arm tightened
around her as he lifted his face to look at
the real her instead of the reflection.
"Uhm. And you've always been there for me...
from the beginning, I mean. And you're my
best friend besides Pikachu. No. You're more
than a friend. I can't tell you how much
you mean to me. And uhm. I was uh thinking
recently..." He pulled his arm away and time
seemed to run backwards as she watched him
squirm beside her. "About the uhm future
and stuff and uhm..."
She shivered and woke enough to pull her blanket closer. He looks like he did the day I first met him, she thought wildly and barely half awake. Why didn't I notice that back then? Like a small boy - so determined and yet so very scared.
Ash's face was flushed and she had to bite her
tongue to keep from "answering him" before he
even completed his question.
"And uhm, well, I was wondering if you would
do me the favour of uhmm..."
She leaned closer and reached for him.
"If you would be my second. Y'know, for the
Pokémon Restoration Act? They know you so
well, you..." his words were cut off as her
hand, originally intended for a soft caress,
shoved him from the rock and into the water.
She watched him sputter for a moment then
jumped from the rock to the shore; she
shifted Pikachu and lifted Togepi slightly
and managed to free her bag from beneath the
sleeping Pokémon.
"Hey Misty? What was that for?" Ash hollered
as he staggered his way to shore. She threw
her bag over her shoulder and stalked off
towards a clearing they'd passed on their
way to the stream. "Misty!"
Serve him right if the Pokémon woke up and
attacked him for disturbing their naps, she
thought, an image of an electrified Ash
being teleported back into the water by the
battle-exhausted Pokémon made her feel a
little less angry, but not much better.
She couldn't believe what had just happened.
Here they were ALONE for once in an extremely
romantic situation and he asks her if she
will agree to claim his Pokémon if they ever
get stolen!
She should keep going and just leave him.
She'd been traveling with Ash for how long,
now? And the closest she'd gotten to a
confession of love was 'You're more than a
friend.' She should leave and just try to
forget him. How fitting that she'd pulled
him from the water at their first meeting,
because now she would leave with him in
the water.
Except that she had to go back for Togepi.
And that meant waking him up and trying to
explain why he couldn't play with the other
Pokémon anymore, with Pikachu...
She sighed and dropped her bag. Who was she
fooling? She wouldn't leave. She couldn't.
And not just because of Togepi.
She did need to get a bit of time for herself
though, she realized as she heard Ash
approach. Time to get her act back together.
She'd been so close to actually admitting
what she felt for him. She turned at the
sound of his step behind her and saw that
he was carrying the still sleeping Pikachu
and Togepi. He paused, a look of utter
confusion on his face as he started to
ask her once again, what was wrong.
"I'll go and uhm, get some firewood, if
you'll set up the tent. I think it's going
to rain again tonight." She tried to smile
and managed a feeble grin.
He nodded slowly, still visibly perplexed,
as she dropped her bag and ran into the trees.
Escaping.
Misty's eyes opened and she ran her hands over her face. The dreams... Memories were more like it. What were they trying to tell her? She tiptoed her way across the small room and opened the door. The rain had slowed, but was still softly making it's way down from the bright moon above. Just like that night. She closed the door and wandered back to her sleeping bag, thinking back. It wasn't a bad memory after all. Let's see, she mused...
She gathered the firewood but, unable to actually
return so soon to Ash's company, she left it at
the edge of the clearing - not even making sure
he saw it - and then she was gone again. This
time to the water where she exhausted herself
with swimming, she relaxed and floated for a while
longer, concentrating her remaining energies on not
straying too far from the bank in the darkness. She
finally pulled herself from the water, when the night
really began to settle in. She was wrinkled and pruney,
but at least she was sure of herself once again. She
loved water for many things, including the way it
relaxed her when she was upset. She loved it almost
as much as she loved Ash.
She tucked the thought back into its box and dressed
quickly. The wind started to pick up and she could
almost smell the rain that was indeed on its way. She
managed to make it back to the campsite before it
started to fall. Apparently Ash had found the sticks
she'd left him, as a fire was dancing brightly a few
feet from the large tent they'd long ago purchased
against the weather.
"Hello, Ash? I want to apologize for being..."
her words trailed off as she lifted the tent
flap and saw only Pikachu and Togepi eating a
late dinner. She ruffled Pikachu's head and
warned them against staying up too late
despite their naps, then grabbed a towel and
an umbrella and headed back into the rain to
look for Ash.
She found him sitting on the rock. She stood
back and watched him for a few moments. Just
absorbing the image, recording it. As she
drew near, she saw he was watching his
reflection again, and she squashed a moment
of jealousy, but of the water or of him, she
wasn't quite sure.
"Ash?" She stopped about a foot away from the
rock. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over
me..."
"Why don't you leave?" He said it softly, but
it hit her like a brick wall. He was asking her
to leave. Her mouth hung open as she stumbled
to find a response.
"I mean, there have been plenty of towns where
you've been offered jobs or where you could have
settled down. Places where you could have gone
on and done your own thing - followed your own
dream instead of mine. Why haven't you left me
yet?"
"Uh." She blinked and couldn't believe the
relief that flowed through her; she silently
vowed to kill Ash's grammar teacher the next
time they were in Pallet. She wasn't sure what
to say, still, though, in response. He turned
and faced her.
"Why haven't you left me like all the others?"
She stared at him. He was soaking wet and in
the dark, it combined with his black hair to
give him an entirely too-desperate look. She
didn't know what to say and fell back on the
one excuse that had served her so well after
he'd finally offered to restore her bike:
"I want to be a Water-Pokémon Master," she
whispered and suddenly it sounded a very
ludicrous idea. A fake answer designed to
hide a deeper motive. She winced, hoping
he would accept it as he always had.
He didn't. "You don't battle, Mist. Unless
you're pushed or taunted, or Team Rocket
forces your hand."
She wondered how long ago he'd noticed, but
decided to hold her bluff. "We're never
anywhere that I can challenge anyone. My
Pokémon don't fight well outside of the
water and that means coastal towns and gyms.
I battled when we were in the Islands."
He frowned at that. "And, since I'm not carrying
water Pokémon at the moment..." his fragmented
sentence hung in the air between them. "Thank
you," he finally said as he jumped from the rock..
Misty fell back asleep, the memory of Ash's words and accompanying smile driving away the tears for the rest of the night.
-----------------
Misty and her new friends woke almost eerily cheerful. They parted ways in the bright and amazingly dry morning. Mark and Kim heading off to start their adventures and Misty... well. Misty shifted her pack and tried not to remember her current mission. She hoped that it wouldn't be much of an adventure, finding Ash and knocking some sense back into his head. She clenched her fist for a moment, almost able to convince herself that all she had to do was turn the next bend in the road. That she'd see him sitting on some boulder waiting for her, laughing at how long he'd been there. But she made the turn in the road and the one after that and the one after that and he was never there.
Others were, though. Friends she hadn't seen in ages, wanting to know how she was and how was Ash and where was he these days? She was forced to stop and make up something to tell the friends she wasn't close to, and for those who knew better, there was nothing she could do but tell her story. Reactions ranged from pity to worry to confusion and she could understand all of them. From all of them, she brought away a promise that should they run into Ash they would definitely let him know she was looking for him.
Despite how it seemed, not everyone she met was a friend. There were also the strangers looking for directions and perhaps a battle. Sometimes they recognized her - she'd been with Ash at every Indigo League tournament in at least the past six years, and quite a few other televised Pokémon events as well. It was hard to refuse them all, but she managed to battle as little as possible. She blamed it on the Pokémon, on the fact that they were getting irritable and feisty.
Which was almost true. A few days after meeting Kim and Mark, Pikachu began to have trouble sleeping. Squirtle's feet were doing better, but the shoes made him slower than before. And Bulbasaur. Misty never expected to have trouble with Bulbasaur, and so it took her a while to recognize that there was something wrong. They were only a few days out of Pallet Town when she finally noticed that he wasn't eating. She returned from a bath in the lake to find him curled up, hiding half under a bush. When she called him, he didn't move, so she left him there until supper was ready. When he still didn't join her and the others, she carried his food dish to him and set it beside him. He turned towards it slightly, but refused to eat.
Now worried, she offered him everything in her pack and he refused it all. "Bulbasaur? Please?" She was crying. Really crying. She hadn't cried like this since... Help. She had to get help. She reached back into her pack and pulled out her Pokédex, sending a silent prayer of thanks to Professor Oak for the birthday gift so many years ago.
"Many Pokémon become ill from eating wild berries and nuts in areas that are not their natural habitat."
Food Poisoning? She looked from the Pokédex to the lethargic Pokémon and sighed with relief. It wouldn't require a trip to a Pokémon hospital. She scanned the information offered regarding herbs and healing potions that could be made from ingredients in the wild, and then closed the Pokédex once again. Since she didn't know what he'd eaten, the best thing for now, apparently, was just to let his body flush itself out. Well, she thought as she stroked the Pokémon's chin, it looked like they were pitching here for the night.
She didn't mind the extra day it took for Bulbasaur to feel up to walking again. For some reason, the closer she got to Pallet the more afraid she got. There was a feeling of urgency in the air, like if she didn't hurry she was going to lose... to lose... Well, to lose.
And when Misty found herself at the outskirts of Pallet, at the road that led either into town or to the Oak Pokémon Research Lab, she did admit to herself that she was afraid of what she'd find out here. She had a feeling that this was not going to be the ending she was hoping for, but she threw that feeling to the bottom of her aching feet and squashed it. They were finally here! "Lunch can wait a bit, can't it guys?" Misty asked her friends, grinning at the chorus of responses and at Pikachu, who stepped away, leading them down the path. Despite their rumbling stomachs, they headed straight for Professor Oak's front door.
"Professor? Hello!" Misty called as she knocked. "Professor Oak? It's me, Misty..." The door swung open suddenly, startling Misty. The three Pokémon jumped behind her as a tear streaked face loomed up in front of them.
"Where's my son? Where's Ash?" Misty recognized the face and voice as Mrs. Ketchum, and she really began to worry. Ash's mom didn't know where he was?
"Uuhm..." she managed, before Mrs. Ketchum was pulled back into the lab and Professor Oak appeared, no trace of a smile on his face.
"Delia, let the poor girl inside. Sorry, Misty, she's a bit upset at the moment and when the scanner showed it was you at the door, well, we were hoping you had Ash with you. Come in." He looked at the Pokémon peeking out from behind her and his frown deepened.
To Be Continued...
-------------------------------
DISTRIBUTION: Please respect my (limited) copyright and ASK
permission to borrow this story. This will be posted to my website
(http://draxonious.tripod.com/), fanfic.net, fanfic.org, the AAMRN
yahoo group and the PFFML yahoo group.
Please send any feedback to maeyan@mailcity.com
(part 3 of 7)
by Maeyan (maeyan@mailcity.com)
DISCLAIMER: While I have traded many pieces of paper for their goods,
I have no ownership or rights to the characters, etc of Pokémon.
If they're looking for new owners, however I get dibs on Gary!
Part three:
-----------
They made it to the cabin just as the rain began in earnest. The storm soon settled in for a long night and they made plans to do the same. The rain hit the roof of the cabin shelter with tinny splats, running down the rails and into the rain barrels as the group of Pokémon and trainers ate sandwiches and fruit. Then came the ghost stories and a few more Pokémon tips from Misty before they finally tumbled into their sleeping bags. Misty sighed as her mind refused to sleep. Ash. She had to think of something besides that man. He took up her days, couldn't she at least stop thinking of him at night, too?
"Mark and Kim; think of them," she muttered to herself. "No resemblance at all to Ash and me, so why does seeing them make me all weepy and nostalgic?" Suddenly Misty realized the answer: she was old. It felt weird, and she snuggled into her sleeping bag. She didn't want to be the wise grownup, responsible for...
"Misty?" the tired whisper came from Kim's corner. The girl was curled up with the Pokémon, one arm around, Misty was proud to see, Squirtle. Another Water-Pokémon trainer in bud.
"Yeah, Kim?"
"You make..." a yawn "...a good teacher. Thanks for teaching us so much about Pokémon today."
Misty smiled. A teacher? Imagine me a teacher... "You're welcome, Kim."
"Are you going on to Pallet ..." another yawn "...in the morning?"
"Yes..." Misty hesitated, half-afraid of the way the question hung in the air.
"O..." Yawn "...kay. G'night."
Misty smiled. She wasn't sure how long it would take her to fall asleep tonight, but she was positive that she wasn't going to dream about Ash. She'd dream about something happy, she thought. Rain. Rain was nice and happy. It made the flowers grow. She'd dream about the rain, she decided.
-----------------
"Pikachu's with the bags." Ash climbed
onto the rock beside her and put his
arm around her shoulders. "Togepi, too.
Well," he said softly. "At least it's a
beautiful sunset they're blasting off
into. I'm glad it finally stopped raining."
Misty turned in her sleep, the tears slipping to the floor unheard. But her dream continued, and in her dream, she smiled, content just to sit with him again. She knew she was dreaming, and that this had already happened, but she pushed that part aside and let herself fall back into the memory
as the again-defeated Team Rocket disappeared
into the golden red glow in the distance.
"Yeah. This is a nice place. And this
stream makes it a nice place to set up
camp." She waited and when Ash didn't
reply, she tilted her head to look at
him. "Ash?"
He wasn't looking at the sunset. His
dark head was bowed and she followed his
gaze to the water. Her eyes connected with
those of his reflection and her heart
seemed to beat that much harder when she
saw the intensity in his face. "Ash...?"
she repeated.
"Misty. We've been together for some time
now, and uh..." he seemed to lose his place
in his own thoughts and she held her breath.
Surely he wasn't about to say *that* was he?
She shivered a bit and his arm tightened
around her as he lifted his face to look at
the real her instead of the reflection.
"Uhm. And you've always been there for me...
from the beginning, I mean. And you're my
best friend besides Pikachu. No. You're more
than a friend. I can't tell you how much
you mean to me. And uhm. I was uh thinking
recently..." He pulled his arm away and time
seemed to run backwards as she watched him
squirm beside her. "About the uhm future
and stuff and uhm..."
She shivered and woke enough to pull her blanket closer. He looks like he did the day I first met him, she thought wildly and barely half awake. Why didn't I notice that back then? Like a small boy - so determined and yet so very scared.
Ash's face was flushed and she had to bite her
tongue to keep from "answering him" before he
even completed his question.
"And uhm, well, I was wondering if you would
do me the favour of uhmm..."
She leaned closer and reached for him.
"If you would be my second. Y'know, for the
Pokémon Restoration Act? They know you so
well, you..." his words were cut off as her
hand, originally intended for a soft caress,
shoved him from the rock and into the water.
She watched him sputter for a moment then
jumped from the rock to the shore; she
shifted Pikachu and lifted Togepi slightly
and managed to free her bag from beneath the
sleeping Pokémon.
"Hey Misty? What was that for?" Ash hollered
as he staggered his way to shore. She threw
her bag over her shoulder and stalked off
towards a clearing they'd passed on their
way to the stream. "Misty!"
Serve him right if the Pokémon woke up and
attacked him for disturbing their naps, she
thought, an image of an electrified Ash
being teleported back into the water by the
battle-exhausted Pokémon made her feel a
little less angry, but not much better.
She couldn't believe what had just happened.
Here they were ALONE for once in an extremely
romantic situation and he asks her if she
will agree to claim his Pokémon if they ever
get stolen!
She should keep going and just leave him.
She'd been traveling with Ash for how long,
now? And the closest she'd gotten to a
confession of love was 'You're more than a
friend.' She should leave and just try to
forget him. How fitting that she'd pulled
him from the water at their first meeting,
because now she would leave with him in
the water.
Except that she had to go back for Togepi.
And that meant waking him up and trying to
explain why he couldn't play with the other
Pokémon anymore, with Pikachu...
She sighed and dropped her bag. Who was she
fooling? She wouldn't leave. She couldn't.
And not just because of Togepi.
She did need to get a bit of time for herself
though, she realized as she heard Ash
approach. Time to get her act back together.
She'd been so close to actually admitting
what she felt for him. She turned at the
sound of his step behind her and saw that
he was carrying the still sleeping Pikachu
and Togepi. He paused, a look of utter
confusion on his face as he started to
ask her once again, what was wrong.
"I'll go and uhm, get some firewood, if
you'll set up the tent. I think it's going
to rain again tonight." She tried to smile
and managed a feeble grin.
He nodded slowly, still visibly perplexed,
as she dropped her bag and ran into the trees.
Escaping.
Misty's eyes opened and she ran her hands over her face. The dreams... Memories were more like it. What were they trying to tell her? She tiptoed her way across the small room and opened the door. The rain had slowed, but was still softly making it's way down from the bright moon above. Just like that night. She closed the door and wandered back to her sleeping bag, thinking back. It wasn't a bad memory after all. Let's see, she mused...
She gathered the firewood but, unable to actually
return so soon to Ash's company, she left it at
the edge of the clearing - not even making sure
he saw it - and then she was gone again. This
time to the water where she exhausted herself
with swimming, she relaxed and floated for a while
longer, concentrating her remaining energies on not
straying too far from the bank in the darkness. She
finally pulled herself from the water, when the night
really began to settle in. She was wrinkled and pruney,
but at least she was sure of herself once again. She
loved water for many things, including the way it
relaxed her when she was upset. She loved it almost
as much as she loved Ash.
She tucked the thought back into its box and dressed
quickly. The wind started to pick up and she could
almost smell the rain that was indeed on its way. She
managed to make it back to the campsite before it
started to fall. Apparently Ash had found the sticks
she'd left him, as a fire was dancing brightly a few
feet from the large tent they'd long ago purchased
against the weather.
"Hello, Ash? I want to apologize for being..."
her words trailed off as she lifted the tent
flap and saw only Pikachu and Togepi eating a
late dinner. She ruffled Pikachu's head and
warned them against staying up too late
despite their naps, then grabbed a towel and
an umbrella and headed back into the rain to
look for Ash.
She found him sitting on the rock. She stood
back and watched him for a few moments. Just
absorbing the image, recording it. As she
drew near, she saw he was watching his
reflection again, and she squashed a moment
of jealousy, but of the water or of him, she
wasn't quite sure.
"Ash?" She stopped about a foot away from the
rock. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over
me..."
"Why don't you leave?" He said it softly, but
it hit her like a brick wall. He was asking her
to leave. Her mouth hung open as she stumbled
to find a response.
"I mean, there have been plenty of towns where
you've been offered jobs or where you could have
settled down. Places where you could have gone
on and done your own thing - followed your own
dream instead of mine. Why haven't you left me
yet?"
"Uh." She blinked and couldn't believe the
relief that flowed through her; she silently
vowed to kill Ash's grammar teacher the next
time they were in Pallet. She wasn't sure what
to say, still, though, in response. He turned
and faced her.
"Why haven't you left me like all the others?"
She stared at him. He was soaking wet and in
the dark, it combined with his black hair to
give him an entirely too-desperate look. She
didn't know what to say and fell back on the
one excuse that had served her so well after
he'd finally offered to restore her bike:
"I want to be a Water-Pokémon Master," she
whispered and suddenly it sounded a very
ludicrous idea. A fake answer designed to
hide a deeper motive. She winced, hoping
he would accept it as he always had.
He didn't. "You don't battle, Mist. Unless
you're pushed or taunted, or Team Rocket
forces your hand."
She wondered how long ago he'd noticed, but
decided to hold her bluff. "We're never
anywhere that I can challenge anyone. My
Pokémon don't fight well outside of the
water and that means coastal towns and gyms.
I battled when we were in the Islands."
He frowned at that. "And, since I'm not carrying
water Pokémon at the moment..." his fragmented
sentence hung in the air between them. "Thank
you," he finally said as he jumped from the rock..
Misty fell back asleep, the memory of Ash's words and accompanying smile driving away the tears for the rest of the night.
-----------------
Misty and her new friends woke almost eerily cheerful. They parted ways in the bright and amazingly dry morning. Mark and Kim heading off to start their adventures and Misty... well. Misty shifted her pack and tried not to remember her current mission. She hoped that it wouldn't be much of an adventure, finding Ash and knocking some sense back into his head. She clenched her fist for a moment, almost able to convince herself that all she had to do was turn the next bend in the road. That she'd see him sitting on some boulder waiting for her, laughing at how long he'd been there. But she made the turn in the road and the one after that and the one after that and he was never there.
Others were, though. Friends she hadn't seen in ages, wanting to know how she was and how was Ash and where was he these days? She was forced to stop and make up something to tell the friends she wasn't close to, and for those who knew better, there was nothing she could do but tell her story. Reactions ranged from pity to worry to confusion and she could understand all of them. From all of them, she brought away a promise that should they run into Ash they would definitely let him know she was looking for him.
Despite how it seemed, not everyone she met was a friend. There were also the strangers looking for directions and perhaps a battle. Sometimes they recognized her - she'd been with Ash at every Indigo League tournament in at least the past six years, and quite a few other televised Pokémon events as well. It was hard to refuse them all, but she managed to battle as little as possible. She blamed it on the Pokémon, on the fact that they were getting irritable and feisty.
Which was almost true. A few days after meeting Kim and Mark, Pikachu began to have trouble sleeping. Squirtle's feet were doing better, but the shoes made him slower than before. And Bulbasaur. Misty never expected to have trouble with Bulbasaur, and so it took her a while to recognize that there was something wrong. They were only a few days out of Pallet Town when she finally noticed that he wasn't eating. She returned from a bath in the lake to find him curled up, hiding half under a bush. When she called him, he didn't move, so she left him there until supper was ready. When he still didn't join her and the others, she carried his food dish to him and set it beside him. He turned towards it slightly, but refused to eat.
Now worried, she offered him everything in her pack and he refused it all. "Bulbasaur? Please?" She was crying. Really crying. She hadn't cried like this since... Help. She had to get help. She reached back into her pack and pulled out her Pokédex, sending a silent prayer of thanks to Professor Oak for the birthday gift so many years ago.
"Many Pokémon become ill from eating wild berries and nuts in areas that are not their natural habitat."
Food Poisoning? She looked from the Pokédex to the lethargic Pokémon and sighed with relief. It wouldn't require a trip to a Pokémon hospital. She scanned the information offered regarding herbs and healing potions that could be made from ingredients in the wild, and then closed the Pokédex once again. Since she didn't know what he'd eaten, the best thing for now, apparently, was just to let his body flush itself out. Well, she thought as she stroked the Pokémon's chin, it looked like they were pitching here for the night.
She didn't mind the extra day it took for Bulbasaur to feel up to walking again. For some reason, the closer she got to Pallet the more afraid she got. There was a feeling of urgency in the air, like if she didn't hurry she was going to lose... to lose... Well, to lose.
And when Misty found herself at the outskirts of Pallet, at the road that led either into town or to the Oak Pokémon Research Lab, she did admit to herself that she was afraid of what she'd find out here. She had a feeling that this was not going to be the ending she was hoping for, but she threw that feeling to the bottom of her aching feet and squashed it. They were finally here! "Lunch can wait a bit, can't it guys?" Misty asked her friends, grinning at the chorus of responses and at Pikachu, who stepped away, leading them down the path. Despite their rumbling stomachs, they headed straight for Professor Oak's front door.
"Professor? Hello!" Misty called as she knocked. "Professor Oak? It's me, Misty..." The door swung open suddenly, startling Misty. The three Pokémon jumped behind her as a tear streaked face loomed up in front of them.
"Where's my son? Where's Ash?" Misty recognized the face and voice as Mrs. Ketchum, and she really began to worry. Ash's mom didn't know where he was?
"Uuhm..." she managed, before Mrs. Ketchum was pulled back into the lab and Professor Oak appeared, no trace of a smile on his face.
"Delia, let the poor girl inside. Sorry, Misty, she's a bit upset at the moment and when the scanner showed it was you at the door, well, we were hoping you had Ash with you. Come in." He looked at the Pokémon peeking out from behind her and his frown deepened.
To Be Continued...
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