Chapter 2: In Which They Arrive in the Past and Things Begin to Get Confusing
"Ouch," said pretty much everyone as the Time Traveling Device (tm) landed with a thud on the ground. They stood up, dusted themselves off, and stepped outside. They seemed to be in a grassy field in the middle of nowhere.
"Where are we?" asked Misty, looking around.
"More importantly, where's Team Rocket?" Tracy added.
"And most importantly of all," Ash put in, "where's the nearest restaurant?"
Misty rolled her eyes. "You," she said, "have got a one-track mind."
"I do not!" Ash protested. "I think about other stuff, too!"
"Oh yeah?" said Misty skeptically. "Like what?"
"Like... uh... Pokemon battles! I think about those a lot."
"...Or you did, before you beat every single gym leader and elite trainer in existence. I still wonder how you did that, by the way, since 99.9 of the time you had no clue what you were doing."
"Pika," said Pikachu, as if to say "I might've had something to do with that."
"Pikachu!" exclaimed Ash. "I didn't know you'd come with us!"
Here it must be explained that Pikachu had become occasionally invisible due to an accident involving experimental machinery, explosive chemicals, two jars of jelly, and an old sock. Ash had left Pikachu at home, not wanting to put the Pokemon into a situation where if they failed, they'd be a lot worse off than just having their eyes go all spirally for a few minutes. However, Pikachu, not wanting to leave Ash alone to do something incredibly stupid, had invisibly followed them. Any questions?
Well, too bad, because we're continuing with the story anyway.
"It's really great to see you, Pikachu. But, you know, you really shouldn't be here. It might be dangerous," Ash continued, sounding slightly concerned. But only slightly.
"Pika," said Pikachu stubbornly.
"Well, I guess now that you're here we have no choice but to take you along with us," Ash told it.
"Pika pi!" Pikachu said happily, jumping onto Ash's head.
"Okay, you guys, we really should get going," Misty said, picking up her backpack which conveniently happened to have been there all along.
"Get going where?" asked Tracy. "We don't know where we are or where we're supposed to be."
"Well, we'll go find someone who can tell us either or both of those, then," Misty said. "We'll go... that way." And she marched decisively off in a random direction.
Ash, Brock, Tracy, and Pikachu sighed and set off after her.
They walked for a while in the random direction that Misty had picked without seeing a single person.
"You know, Misty," said Ash, "I'm starting to think that this was a really bad idea."
"Shut up," said Misty.
"I mean, we've been walking for hours and we haven't even seen a trainer trying to catch the giant bug Pokemon that always live in grass fields like this."
Misty sighed. "You are so immature, Ash." Then she looked around her nervously. "There aren't really giant bugs here, are there?"
"You never know," Ash grinned, "there might be."
But Misty's attention had been drawn away from giant bugs for the moment. Instead she was looking intently at a figure that was approaching them. The person was short and skinny, with orange hair that stuck out to one side, and she was wearing a yellow tank top, denim shorts, and red suspenders.
"I think... I think that's me," Misty breathed.