Seaside Fumbles

MISTY WATERFLOWER blinked and did a doubletake. She wasn't sure if she had heard correctly. "Could you, um, say that again, Ash?"

The black-haired Trainer raised an eyebrow and gave a silent snort. "I said, 'would you like to accompany me on an expedition to see a Dhelmise in a wrecked ghost ship outside of Cianwood City?' and then you went silent on me."

"Ah, okay. Just wanted to make sure I was hearing correctly," replied Misty. "But why me?"

"For a start, Goh decided he wanted to go looking for Tauri instead of helping me with this, and-" he gave her a tiny smirk, "I figured that we'd need the greatest Water-type Trainer to assist us on such a dangerous adventure."

The Ceruluean Gym Leader felt her heart skip a beat, but she suppressed her emotions and smirked right back. "Aww, isn't that sweet? Finally admitting to what I really am, huh?"

But Misty was wrong. "Well, that was my plan," explained Ash. "But Wallace was occupied with the Hoenn League, so I just decided to ask the next best Trainer I know."

"Ash Ketchum, you dirty little liar-"

"Kidding, kidding. I'm kiddin', Mist!" laughed Ash as he waved his hand at her through the screen. Misty fumed with rage.

"Go jump off a cliff…"

"So, you want to come or nah?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'd like to go. When is it?"

"About a week from now. I'll send you the finer details by email. Anyway, I have to get going. I'll see you at Goldenrod harbor if we can't call again, oh, and I was still going to call you regardless, I wasn't going to ask Wallace, okay bye." And before Misty could answer his sudden incoherent speech, Ash had already hung up.

"Huh," was all that came out of the girl's mouth for a minute. Ash's call had really come out of nowhere. She'd heard recently that he'd become a research assistant at the request of Professor Cerise, a prodigy of Professor Oak's. Getting called out to help with some research had been very surprising.

"Still," she said quietly as she yawned and headed off to get herself some dinner, "even if it's just to go see some Pokémon, it's nice that we can spend some time together."

OoOoO

Time passed quickly. Misty's excitement grew and grew. The thought of seeing a Pokémon rare to the continent was an enticing prospect. She wondered how well the Alolan Pokémon was adapting to its new climate or if there were any more nonnative Pokémon species aboard the ship. That was all well and good, but seeing Ash was a reward enough – not that she'd tell him. They met at the port as arranged and were soon out at sea.

"Ah, this must be the place," said Ash and Misty together as the boat slowed down and they dropped anchor.

"Right," said research assistant Chrysa. "We'll go down with the submersible and use that to check inside the ship. If you two can monitor things from the outside, that'd be a huge help, and in case things go up sticks with Dhelmise."

"No trouble," Ash declared. "I choose you, Dracovish!"

"Go my blue sweetheart, Gyarados!"

Ash and Misty took the lead and swam alongside the submersible to the ship. It was large and very much in a sorry state, taken back by nature. Beautiful yet ominous and rife with tension.

"Careful," Chrysa advised over the two-way radios they had attached to their goggles. "We can't risk causing any instability with the ship, let alone angering Dhelmise. Let the sub in and stand by. Over."

"Roger that," said Misty. "Standing by. Over."

"Looks like it's just you and me then, Mist," said Ash as he pushed the sub toward the hole in the ship before swimming back her.

"Dracovish, Draco?"

"Sorry, buddy. We're just here to make sure things go right. You might not see any battling today.

Both Gyarados and Dracovish seemed discouraged by that. Misty decided to offer up a different perspective. "Hey, it's better that things go right instead of wrong, yeah?" The two Pokémon didn't argue but were still feeling down.

"I know, why don't we say hello to the native Pokémon?" That cheered them. Misty sighed inwardly; it was always nice how Ash could quickly come up with ways to appeal to Pokémon.

They went off, greeting schools of Goldeen and the traveling Tentacools.

Suddenly there was a commotion from the ship. First a shockwave that felt like an earthquake, followed by a burst from the hole where Ash had let the submersible inside.

"Ash? Misty?" said Chrysa frantically. "There's trouble. Dhelmise has started to attack the sub! Please go and see what's wrong. Me and the others are coming to retrieve the sub."

Ash quickly turned and began swimming to the ghost ship. As he approached, however, part of the hull disappeared and Dhelmise's anchor shot out in front of him. "Guh! So that's how it is…" said Ash grimly. "Dracovish, use Ice Fang!"

"Draco!"

"You go too, Gyarados. Crunch!" Both Pokémon went in but then dozens upon dozens of other Water-types like Tentacools and Seels shot out from both in and out of the ship. "I guess this must be their home! They must not want us disturbing them!"

"It's not like we mean them any harm!" Ash swam quickly out of the way as he said that. "Dracovish, come back!" His Pokémon came over but just then Dhelmise roared from within and more Pokémon emerged from the rocks. "You've gotta be kiddin' me…"

"Gyarados, Hurricane!" yelled Misty as the Pokémon went for her.

Dracovish meanwhile was taking care of the Pokémon attacking Ash and it. Ash monitored the situation; it was luckily going in their favor. Soon he saw the sight of Goh's Dewgong, whom he had left at the Cerise Lab for any missions he was needed on, and sighed with relief as that meant help was coming.

Then came some attacks, Ash got hit and as he disturbed some remains of the ship that had drifted away, he got a huge surprise! "MAR!"

"Wow!" yelled Ash as a Mareanie popped out at him from the rubble.

"Mareanie!" It lunged at Ash, hugging his face hard with its spikey tentacles and sent him into a panic. As the Mareanie let go, it had pulled the oxygen mask and goggles off. Ash held his breathe but it went to waste when a drifting Tentacool fired a Poison Sting that shredded a small tear into his gear, piercing his skin, causing him to let all his air out.

Misty heard a commotion, looked over, and panicked on seeing Ash's situation. She had Gyarados clear a path and swam quickly over to Ash just as he was fumbling the mask back on.

"Oh Mew, oh Mew," muttered Misty as she helped him, placing the mask's band back around his head before reattaching his goggles.

Ash groaned oxygen flowed into his lungs. "Ugh… Thanks, Mist." Just then, Chrysa and the other hired hands arrived on the scene, summoning their own Pokémon to help with the situation.

"You have to get back to the ship for medical aid…"

"I know. Dracovish, look after things here, okay?" He gave a "Draco" in agreement. Then Ash cringed as the poison sent painful signals down his nerves. Misty gave him a gentle push up before informing Chrysa over the radio that Ash was pulling out. With some effort he began to swim back up. Then Misty followed him. "What are…you… Misty, I can make it on my own."

"I know," she replied, watching him swim unevenly yet consistently toward the surface, "but I'm helping anyway."

"You…don't…have to…"

A shockwave was felt, before they heard the cry of Dhelmise as it was attacked by one of the researcher's Pokémon. "Come on, before things get ugly," said Misty, before grabbing Ash around his waist and pulling him up quicker.

"I…told ya…I'm fine…"

"Poison travels up the bloodstream quicker when you move, it's better this way."

Ash didn't answer, he found breathing too hard and just quietly accepted Misty's help. They reached the surface. Misty pulled Ash into the boat with help from Pikachu before beginning to administer aid. She held Ash's hand tight when he cringed from the disinfectant touching the wound.

By the time she finished, Ash was pale and breathing hard, but only from the pain. "Jeez," said Misty, "leave dealing with Poison-types to your Pokémon."

"It surprised me, that's all…"

"Just be careful next time."

"I'll keep that in mind…when the next Beedrill hive chases me."

"Yeah, yeah." Misty then sat down next to Ash and just stared at him.

"I'll be fine," he said upon noticing her. "You should really get back to Chrysa and the others."

"No. I'm staying here with you."

"I told you, I'm fine…"

"No!"

"But didn't you come to see Dhelmise?"

"Compared to making sure you're okay? You've just been poisoned, Ash!"

"It's your chance though to get a good look at a rare Pokémon in the Johto region!" wheezed Ash. "Remember all the buzz around Harrison? Blaziken was hardly a common sight and…"

"I'm not going."

"Are you sure? I mean, it's why you came along, right?"

Misty paused before muttering in a quiet voice, "I joined because of you."

Ash faltered when he heard that. He blinked a few times before turning his head toward her. "Me?"

"Yeah. I mean…I was just…y'know… Ugh…when I heard you came home from Alola and joined Professor Cerise's lab, I thought I'd at least get a few visits from you now that you're close by. I was just missing you, that's all."

"Ah, I…I see…"

"Pikachupi…"

"Sorry. I really must've messed things up then by letting this happen to me."

"You're one to talk. I seem to remember you going headfirst into a lot of things and ending up injured."

"Yeah…" said Ash with a tired smirk. "Everyone tells me I should cut that out."

"You should. Think about what others want of you. You and I barely get much time to talk and here you go putting yourself in danger." Ash didn't reply. Misty sighed to herself and allowed herself to be honest. "I miss you a lot sometimes, y'know…"

"I miss you too. You're not alone in that feeling. How about…when we get back to Kanto, would you like to go to a ramen place with me?"

"You mean it?"

"Yeah!" he said with as much energy as he could through the poison. "To make up for missing out on Dhelmise."

"His minds on Pokémon as per usual," Misty said to the sky.

"Mm. But…I do think of you, too," said Ash. "Really, you're right, we should be hanging out more. That's...kinda why I asked for your help, I just wanted to see you, too." Misty didn't reply and just stared quietly at Ash. "So…we good to get ramen and hang out?"

"Yes," she said a bit too quickly, "we are. Even though we're technically hanging out already."

"Yeah, yeah, I s'pose we are. I…I just meant, more like a…a…"

She considered for a moment, unsure if she ought to say it, but decided to. "Date…?"

"Yeah, that's…more or less what I mean."

"Awesome. Then…we have a date, I suppose." She felt her cheeks burning red but didn't stop herself from blushing.

"I…would've asked you to go for ramen afterwards anyway," confessed Ash. "I kinda realized I was thinking of that this morning. Just as an excuse to be with you more beyond just helping with this."

"Ash Ketchum…you sure have a weird way of saying you want a date."

The Trainer from Pallet Town just snorted and went red. "You got a problem with that?"

"Well…given that I've got a date to look forward to after this…no, not really," replied Misty softly.

"Awesome." Ash game a small smile before sighing. "Still, I could've done without the poison."

"Yeah, that's true," laughed Misty. She gently poked his shoulder. "Now then, just you hold it together. We've got a date coming soon and you better be feeling okay when it's time – don't fumble on me like you did back there."