Chapter 19: In Which They Go Back to the Future

"Well," said Misty the next day, sitting in their room at the Pokémon Center again, "we've accomplished what we set out to do. We've stopped Team Rocket from taking over the world."

"This time, anyway," amended Brynna. "They might try again."

"Nah," said Ash. "They won't. They'll be too scared of me now."

Everyone ignored this comment, as it was far too stupid to deserve an answer.

"We really ought to go back... I mean, forward... now," Tracey said. "Since we've accomplished our goal and all that."

"Yeah, we should," agreed Ash and Misty. But Brock looked a little disappointed. "But in the future, in our time, Brynna's too old for me and I haven't gotten a chance to win her over yet!"

"I'm not too old for you," Misty said, in a lame and incredibly obvious attempt to get Brock to notice her instead.

"I've told you and told you, I'm not interested," Brock replied.

"Well, this is certainly a reversal of the normal situation," Tracey muttered.

"I'll just smile and nod and pretend that I know what the hell you people are talking about, shall I?" Brynna cut in irritably. "What's all this about going back to the future?"

Before anyone else could say anything, Ash launched into his story about how and why they'd come.

"...so then we pressed the red button and we landed on Erehwon Island, only it was Erehwon Island now, not Erehwon Island in the future, and then we walked, and then we walked some more, and then we didn't have lunch, and then we-"

"Yes, yes, I know the rest," Brynna interrupted. "Look, I've had about enough of this. Either you people are all compulsive liars, or you're insane, and I'm leaning towards the latter at the moment."

"Leaning towards what ladder?" said Ash confusedly. "I don't see any ladders."

"Oh, shut up, Brainless Wonder," Brynna snapped.

"My name isn't Brainless Wonder, it's-"

"Ash Ketchum, I know, I know. Anyway, I'm sick of you people and your crazy stories and your... your utter unscientificness. And now that you've saved the world or whatever crazy delusional thing you think you've accomplished, you can take your stupid 'invisible Pikachu' and go back to the future or wherever the hell you came from, or you can try and convince the police that it was Team Rocket who blew up half of Goldenrod two weeks ago, or you can fly to the moon to live with the Giant Machops from Space, for all I care. I'm going to Kanto to study to be a Pokémon Researcher, and none of you are coming with me. Goodbye." Brynna stood up, picked up her conveniently placed, already-packed bag, and strode towards the door.

"Nooo!" cried Brock, lunging for her and grabbing her by the ankle so that she couldn't leave. "What will I do if I can't be with you? You are the love of my life-"

"Go leer at a Nurse Joy, you oversexed, idiotic freak," Brynna said coldly, trying to shake Brock off. Brock looked devastated.

"Hey!" cried an enraged Misty. "No one talks to my Brock that way and gets away with it?"

"So Señor Squinty over here is a wimp and a coward as well as an oversexed idiotic freak with no eyes? He must be, if you have to fight his battles for him."

"I am extremely insulted!" yelled Misty, brandishing her mallet. "You can't say that sort of thing!"

"Oh yeah, and what are you going to do about it, Ms. Permanently PMS-ing?" Brynna challenged, pulling out a mallet of her own.

"You're one to talk," muttered Misty.

"WHAT WAS THAT?"

"Oh no... Meowthfight," said Tracey, and took shelter under the nearest piece of furniture. So did Brock. Ash, of course, stood stupidly in the middle of the room and wondered what was going on.

There was much scuffling and yelling and mallet-ing, and when the dust settled, Brynna was standing and Misty was lying on the floor with spirals for eyes.

"Sorry about that," said Brynna coolly. "I thought she was okay before she started getting all soppy about her Brocky-Wocky. But now, of course..." Brynna shrugged, made a face, and walked out the door. Ash stared stupidly after her.

"Is she gone?" asked Tracey in a hushed voice.

"Yeah," said Ash, loudly as usual.

"That's a relief," replied Tracey, emerging from underneath the bed. Brock followed a few seconds later, not looking quite so relieved.

"I thought she was my one true love! How could she say such terrible things about me?" he said melodramatically. "She-"

Whatever he had been about to say was cut short as he saw a Nurse Joy walk down the hall. He ran out of the room and dashed after her, shouting, "Nurse Joy, you have to help me! I'm sick! See, whenever I see your face, my knees get weak..."

((Yes, I did steal that line from that Brock song... I'm not very good at making up cheesy pickup lines for Brock. Sorry.))

He returned a few moments later, with a red blotch roughly the size and shape of Nurse Joy's hand on his face. "Why don't the girls I like ever like me back?" he groaned. Misty would probably have had something to say about this, but fortunately, she was still unconscious.

Several minutes later, Misty awoke. "Ooh, my head..." she moaned. "I feel like it's been stepped on by a Rapidash." She paused for a few seconds, and then said, "All right, I'm fine now. My five-minute-maximum injury time limit is up."

"Your what-what-whatty-what?" Ash asked, with his customary blank look.

"Never mind."

The four of them-

"PikAAA!"

-and Pikachu traveled back to Erehwon Island, where they'd left the Time Traveling Device ™, later that day (they traveled by plot hole). They got in, and Misty followed the instructions in the manual that Professor Douglas-Fir had left them in order to get back to their own time. They pressed the big red button that said 'Press To Go,' and landed with a thud and an ouch- several ouches, actually- in a room that they recognized.

"We're back in Professor Douglas-Fir's lab!"

If Brynna had been with them, she probably would have said something along the lines of, "Thank you, Captain Obvious," but she wasn't, so she didn't.

As it was, the only person who said anything was Brock. "That Name!" he whimpered, cowering and turning blue. "Don'tmention That Name!"

"I thought Professor Ivy was That Name," said Ash.

Brock tried to cower even more, found that it wasn't possible, and settled for turning a deeper shade of blue and saying "DON'T SAY THAT NAME!" again, even more loudly.

"They can't both be That Name," Tracey told him.

"Yes they can!" replied Brock defensively.

"Come on, Brock," said Misty irritably, "let's go. Maybe we can get out before Bryn... um, Prof... I mean... you know who I mean... sees us."

No such luck. Bryn... Prof... er, You Know Who had already turned around to see what was going on, and was just in time to spot the five of them as they exited the Time Traveling Device ™.

"It's the freaks!" she exclaimed, obviously surprised. "What are you doing here? I thought I was well rid of you six years ago!"

"Oh, I'm hurt," Misty said sarcastically. "Your comment wounds me deeply. Anyway, as for why we're here..." She glanced at Tracey, Brock, Ash, and Pikachu, who shrugged, cowered, stared stupidly, and went invisible, respectively.

"...It's kind of a long story," Misty finished.