Alter Persona

Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Don't own pokemon... except the guidebooks.

Misty endured the silence between Ash and herself. Much as she wanted to find out more about his relationship to the notorious organisation, she knew that another word would make him snap at her again. And there was an air of forbidding she wasn't inclined to breech.

His red eyes didn't help much. It reminded her of demons or monsters from cartoons she had seen. It didn't seem all that bad when he wasn't frowning, but when he did, he looked scary. Yet she kept stealing glances at his face. There was something about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"Hey Misty."

She quickly pulled her eyes away from Ash and focused on whoever had called her even though she already knew who it was, by the voice. "Hey Gary," she replied, smiling. When she first met him, she had thought him to be an arrogant bract who always had things his way. Years of interaction, however, gave her an insight to his other side. Sure. She still thought him an arrogant brat, but at least he was tolerable than back then. "Ash, meet Gary oak, grandson of professor oak," she introduced. "Gary, this is Ash whom I found a few days ago."

Ash nodded in acknowledgement. Gary did likewise and scrutinised the man. Misty immediately realised that Gary was going to say something provocative. "You must be pretty weak to be unable to fend off your assailants. Not to mention that you needed a woman to nurse you back to health. Pokemon or people, I could've taken care of them before they tried to do anything."

Ash narrowed his eyes slightly but said nothing. Misty knew that Ash's pokemon was anything but weak and if the stories he heard from Brock and Erica were even half true, Ash would be about as strong as his pokemon. "Give him a break, Gary. He's just recovered."

Gary's eyes widened in mock horror. "Oh I'm sorry. Did my words hurt you anywhere? Your ego, perhaps?" he sneered and started laughing.

Gary's words had struck a nerve and Ash suddenly felt himself wanting to either grab him by the collar, throttle him and threaten him, or simply draw his dagger and throw it at him. His fist clenched and made a cracking noise but only Misty noticed it since Gary was laughing too hard to notice anything.

"Cut it out, Gary," Misty growled, know that Ash was armed and hence not nice to provoke. Well, armed or unarmed, he's still not one to be angered. "Shove off before-"

"I let my pokemon take care of you," Ash told Gary crisply, clearly. Misty turned to Ash in shock.

"What?! You can't...!"

"So I'm to be scared of your pokemon now, huh?" Gary had a look of mock fear now. "Go ahead. Let's see if they can get past my pokemon first," he smirked.

"Stop it. Now," Misty interjected sharply as she planted herself between the two men. She's had enough of being ignored. "Gary, no more snide remarks from you." She jabbed a finger at the hollow of his shoulder. "And you better not release your pokemon here. I will not tolerate you ruining the house," she turned and did the same to Ash. "Am I clear?" her voice was dangerously low.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Gary sighed. "So, Ash, think that your pokemon are good? I challenge you to a pokemon battle later after dinner."

"So be it," Ash accepted the challenge.

'Hoo boy. Gary's really in for it now,' Misty thought to herself. "Let's go. I haven't introduced you to Professor Oak yet," she told Ash, a growl in her voice. She was not happy about the two's initial meeting.

Ash glowered at her but followed. Now instead of uncomfortable silence, there was an atmosphere of subtle anger between them. The duo headed upstairs where the lab was. Ash had expected the lab to be filled, but hadn't expected the pokemon to be running all over the place freely. Once more, he had something to compare between this place and Team Rocket's lab.

"Togepi, Professor Oak," Misty greeted the moment she reached the top of the stairs. The baby pokemon trilled and waddled over to Misty but stopped to peer up at Ash when it saw him. "This is Ash, the one I found a few days ago," she introduced as the professor came over while she picked up her pokemon.

"So you're Ash. Nice to meet you," Professor Oak picked up his cup, his other arm occupied by files.

"Thank you for accommodating me," Ash replied, and the professor had been distracted by the cold coffee in his cup and had called mister mime to refill his cup.

"That's no problem, actually," Professor Oak took the refilled cup. "This place has expanded but there isn't really many people coming up around here. Brock would, occasionally, and Bill too. But not one else, besides them."

"That's one of the reasons why Brock and I like to visit this place. It's peaceful and quiet," Misty added. Her anger at Gary and Ash's reaction to Gary's words had cooled down slightly, but there was still an edge to her voice. "Besides, we get to learn to interact with pokemon as well as to learn all the pokemon's strengths and weaknesses."

"I see," Ash answered with indifference. "And why are you still keeping a broken storage unite?" he pointed to the broken down hunk of machinery. Most of the time, broken down storage units were cleared out and thrown away.

"That unit still contains one pokeball. I can't throw it away since I still haven't extracted it. Bill's been helping to try to take it out, but it seems like it's stuck in the machine or something. Each time he comes around, he tries to get it out but it doesn't seem to work, no matter what he tries," the researcher answered, sipping the coffee. "You're welcomed to take a look at it though. If you'll excuse me, I've got to carry on with my research. Hope you enjoy tinkering with it and hope that your stay here would be fruitful," he finished and returned to his seat in front of a computer, the pokemon crowding around Misty.

"You think you can fix it?" Misty glanced at him as she played with the pokemon. Ash only shrugged and knelt down in front of the machine and starting to fiddle around with it. Misty went back to playing with the pokemon, knowing that he wasn't likely to say anything much now.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Bleep," the machine beeped, capturing the attention of the other two occupants.

Ash pushed the keyboard on which he had been typing on for the past few minutes as the motors whirred. He turned to look at the professor, whose face wore a stunned expression, before turning back. He immediately regretted it as a red and white orb slammed into his face, knocking him flat on his back.

Misty went over and grabbed his hand, pulling him back into the sitting position. Professor Oak picked up the ball, a pokeball with a lightning bolt etched above the little circle, and turned it around. Ash merely felt relieved that he wasn't wearing his glasses.

"Interesting," Professor Oak muttered, still turning the ball around. "I could've sworn that I lost this pokeball years ago." Ignoring Misty's curiosity and Ash's glare at the offending orb, the professor went on. "This used to be the pokemon of my late neighbour's son."

"So are you going to let it out?" Misty kneeled next to Ash as Togepi clambered over Ash's legs.

"I don't think I would be letting it out anytime soon. When I first gave it to Ash, it was unpredictable, too easily angered and won't listen to anyone or anything. And it's so strong that I doubt we can hold it in check," Professor Oak cautioned.

Ash snapped to attention at the mention of his name and frowned. Ash was the name of the professor's ex-neighbour, both of whom died three years ago. In an accident. Was it really that coincidental? Or was Giovanni telling the truth? Ash couldn't bring himself to believe Giovanni's words.

"Okay," Misty glanced at Ash slightly, then made a face as her stomach growled. "Well, if there's nothing else, let's go get dinner!" she suggested. The two men blinked at her words, but before either could say anything, Ash found himself being dragged along. "No complains from you. You're not fully recovered yet," she added.

Ash sighed a little but followed her anyway. Besides, he wanted to get ready for the challenge issued earlier. Not that he really had to.

"By the way, nice job on the machine just now."

The complement from Misty was so unexpected that Ash had to pause and let it register. "Thank you," he acknowledge.

Another pause.

"I apologize."

"What for?"

"For my earlier confrontation with Gary Oak."

"Oh."

A short period of silence.

"You weren't totally at fault there," Misty bowed her head slightly. "I should be the one apologising instead. I shouldn't have lost my temper."

"You need not apologise. Gary is an asshole," Ash said instead, making Misty look up and smile.

"Yeah. I guess you're right," she giggled. "He's an arrogant bat, but he's easier to be with once you get to know him."

Ash could only shrug at her comment. He wasn't one to do much socialising. And he didn't take insults kindly as well. Ash felt that at best, he and Gary would be nodding acquaintance.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Gary was already waiting for them when Ash and Misty entered the battle arena. Proudly, the pokemon trainer-researcher displayed his team. Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Arcanine, Pidgeot, Blastoise and Umbreon stood at attention, waiting for their master's orders.

"Nice to see that you're not a coward as well as a weakling," Gary directed to Ash.

"You're so full of yourself, Gary," Misty returned wearily. Ash lightly brushed back his cloak, extracting his two pokeballs. Flinging his hands up, the pokeballs opened to release the creatures held within. As she had expected, Gary retreated slightly. "Surprised?" she smirked as she patted Halgre's foreleg. The pokemon made a low rumbling noise from it throat, giving Misty a sideways glance.

"Size doesn't matter in a pokemon battle. It's the skills of both pokemon and trainer," Gary retorted, taking his place on one end of the arena. "Take your position, Ash."

"Would you care to be the Judge for this battle?" Ash asked the woman who shook her head. She was contented with sitting down to simply watch the battle. Ash took his place, his pokemon trotting after him. "Very well. I will use only Halgre and Eidra."

"I'll use only Arcanine and Umbreon. No time limit," Gary declared. "Arcanine, you go first," he directed. The dark type pokemon leapt into the arena nimbly.

Eidra entered the battle area as well, regarding Arcanine with a hint of arrogance. Communication between trainer and pokemon was not necessary. Ash wanted his pokemon to think and act by themselves. Eidra stood his ground and waited for Umbreon to attack.

"Arcanine, agility!" Gary commanded. The tiger like leaned back slightly and disappeared as it started running. Occasionally, streaks of orange indicated that Arcanine was circling Eidra. "Body slam!"

Eidra huffed as it sidestepped nimbly away from the attack, knowing that at Arcanine's speed, it would not be able to adjust in order to ram Eidra. It's tail swept towards the place it stood less than a second before, slamming into Arcanine, throwing it back.

Gary couldn't believe that such a large pokemon could be so dexterous or so fast. "Arcanine, bite it!"

The orange pokemon growled angrily before it leapt at the dragon, fangs and claws bared to inflict maximum damage. Nonchalantly, Eidra took to the sky, and created a wall of fire, causing Arcanine to yelp and fall back before it got burnt. However, it quickly found itself unable to move as Eidra enclosed it in a ring of flame.

"Arcanine! Use sky spin slash like we learnt in training!" Gary commanded.

Arcanine crouched in preparation to leap. It carefully watched Eidra as the flying pokemon circled him. Then, it jumped. It flew over the wall of fire and did a somersault in midair, striking Eidra across the chest before landing on the ground.

Eidra roared in pain as it landed, a furious look in its eyes. Ash frowned. Eidra rushed at Arcanine with a speed which astonished both the tiger pokemon and its trainer. Arcanine barely missed the dragon. However, it did not expect that Eidra would extend its claws to slash at Arcanine as it rushed past.

Arcanine howled as Eidra recovered, and took to the air once more. Quickly, it tried to execute the sky spin slash move again. But Eidra wasn't going to fall for the same trick twice, grabbing onto Arcanine in midair.

Roaring, Eidra gave it an angry glare, before opening its mouth to bite off the pokemon's head.

"Eidra. Stop," Ash's voice caused the pokemon to freeze. "This is a battle. Not a hunt. You do not kill another trainer's pokemon," he ordered, much to Misty's surprise. She thought that he won't give a damn about it. "Return," he added.

Eidra glared at Arcanine once more and huffed, before dropping it to the ground unceremoniously. It lumbered back to Ash's side when it landed.

"I apologise for my pokemon's rash actions. I allow it to fight by instinct, which can make it much more aggressive than most pokemon," Ash explained. "Halgre would not pose such a problem though. That is, if you aren't afraid of getting your Umbreon injured," Ash looked at Gary as the researcher rushed to Arcanine's side to check on its injuries. The single slash Eidra had given Arcanine was merely a glancing slash by Ash and Eidra's standards. But it had cut rather deeply into Arcanine's side. It wasn't serious, though.

"Nah. I'm experienced enough to know if my pokemon can handle the battle. And I don't think yours even broke a sweat," Gary looked at the dragon warily. "I concede. But how did you train your pokemon? Where did you get it? I've never seen either of them before! I know my grandfather would be very interested to observe them..."

Misty smiled from the sidelines as Gary slipped into researcher mode. At least they weren't treating each other as enemies now. Happier than earlier, she picked up Togepi and left the arena.

Author's notes: The battle wasn't written well. I guess I wasn't in the mood for writing the battle... but I hoped you enjoyed it, though. Most of this is the character development stage. But things grow complicated as the story progressed.

Anyway, thanks for your support, people. I'm very happy to know that my story is actually enjoyed by people.

Nick Johnson: I've been great, and I just finished my final exams. I'm willing to answer your questions as long as it would help you understand the fic. For your information: 6: Ash is not on an island at the start. He was in a dream. 7. You'll find out more about the island later in the story. Way later. grins evilly 8. What kind of island? It's an island, dude. Anyway, like question 7, more will be explained in the future. 9, 10 and 11. You'll find out everything next time. I'm not going to spoil the story by telling you everything. 12, 13 and 14. Yes, they're scientists. They are Team Rocket scientists. What kind of scientist? They cloned Ash. So what do you think? I hoped my answers satisfy you. Still, you'll probably have to wait for me to be in the mood before I can write well, so don't expect the next chapter to come out so soon.

Thanks for all of your support, readers. Cheers!