The First Awakening

Chapter 5

Brock quickly unpacked, and looked around the room. It was an ordinary Pokémon Center room, with two bunk beds and a dresser or two. Then he looked at the room's occupants. And sweatdropped.

May was chasing her brother in circles around the room for looking in her backpack while she was going to the bathroom. He had apparently found something that was supposed to be kept a secret, probably a diary or something like that, while looking for May's new Pokémon. Because Max had been holding the backpack when May came into the room, the room was now strewn with May's clothes, personal belongings, Pokéballs, and Pokémon equipment. Not to mention the small mountain of stuff Max had put onto May's bed during his search.

"Definitely not ordinary Pokémon Center room inhabitants," he mumbled. Max and May stopped running and looked at Brock.

"You say something, Brock?" Brock shook his head, then ran out of the room, having forgotten to get his Pokémon healed. Max and May glanced at each other, wondering why Brock had just rushed out on them.

"Weird?"

"You said it..." Suddenly, they heard a crash in the hall. The siblings dashed over to the door, opened it, and found Brock lying on the floor, rubbing his head. Frantically apologizing to him was a pink haired woman in her early twenties wearing an unusual outfit.

"...I'm so sorry sir," she was saying. "I was trying to find you and your friends because I just remembered something - " Brock immediately jumped up and grabbed her hands.

" - not-a-problem-Nurse-Joy," said Brock, his cheeks flushing slightly. "You-can-run-into-me-anytime-you-like-Nurse-Joy-Max-and-May-are-over-there," he pointed to Max and May, who were standing in front of their open doorway, "but-I'm-so-much-more-interesting-than-them-Nurse-Joy..." He continued rambling as Nurse Joy slipped her hands out of his, sweatdropping. Before Brock could grab her hands again, Max grabbed his ear and pulled.

"You certainly seem to be Max," Nurse Joy said, pointing to the Pokémon enthusiast. She turned to look at the last member of their group, pointing to her as well. "And you seem just as May was described. Am I right?"

May nodded. "That's right, Nurse Joy. But…how do you know us? I don't think we met you last time we were here." The Pokémon nurse shook her head, allowing her ringlets of hair to whip back and forth across her face.

"No, I'm rather new at this, having just been assigned a few months ago. As for how I know of you—a young man named Ash told me that you three would be coming. He told me to - " Nurse Joy was cut off by the sudden attention that her explanation was receiving from Brock, Max, and May.

"Ash is here?" They asked, surprised. Nurse Joy nodded, and the trio of friends shared a silent cheer of joy.

"Yes, he is." Nurse Joy repeated. "Or rather, he was, but his Pikachu ran off while he was sleeping, and he went to go get it a few hours ago." The Pokémon nurse frowned. "Now that I think of it, he should have been back by now..."

"Where did he go?" The trio of travelers shouted frantically, waving their arms around. They weren't about to lose Ash so quickly, having just apparently caught up to him. Without knowing it, yes, but caught up with him nonetheless.

"The Sootopolis Gym. I'll show you the way after I heal your Pokémon," Nurse Joy said, happy, cheerful, and kind as usual. "I'll take them now." She held out some Pokéball trays for May to place her Pokéballs in.

"Oh, that's great Nurse Joy!" May said happily. "My Combusken was just in a challenging battle against my new Togepi, and they both need to be healed...um, Nurse Joy? Are you okay?" For May had just held out Combusken's Pokéball and Togepi to place in (and on) the trays. However, Joy had frozen and begun to stare at May in such a way that the Coordinator slowly pulled away, a bit shaken by the Pokémon Nurse's sudden, unexpected actions. When May looked around she saw that Nurse Joy wasn't the only one looking at her oddly; Brock had also stopped moving, and was staring at Togepi continually. Brock looked at Nurse Joy, and looked at Togepi. Then at Nurse Joy again. Brock then picked up Togepi, ignoring May's protests. He studied it, and quickly handed it back to May. He raced into the room, found his backpack, and took out a small tin labeled "Misty's Togepi Pokémon food." He rushed back into the hall, took a piece of food out of the jar, and handed it to the Togepi. It sniffed the brown pellet, trilled happily, then ate the food. Brock dropped the tin on the ground.

"I don't believe it…" He said quietly. Then he turned to Nurse Joy. She turned to Brock. "We need to talk." They said at the same time. They went into Brock's, Max's and May's bedroom and shut the door behind them. When Max tried to open the door, it was locked.

"...really weird?"

"...you said it..."

A pinpoint of light appeared in the sky, as three figures fell from the heavens. "Ah!" Team Rocket cried as they crash-landed in a large field. James sat up. "Now where are we?" He asked miserably.

Jessie rubbed her head before dusting off. "Beats me, James. Meowth? What do you think?" She turned to their talking Pokémon companion. It was backed up against a tall many-branched tree, quivering with fear.

"Well, I tink we're surrounded by Pokémon!" Meowth shouted. James and Jessie shouted aloud and quickly stood up, looking around nervously. Meowth was right. Standing around the trio of evildoers were a good dozen Rattata and Raticate, maybe two dozen female Nidoran and Nidorina, and a half dozen Trapinch, all showing their teeth with evil grins. The ones at the back of the group scurried away. Soon enough, they came back with a slim young woman that—surprisingly—had wings coming out of her back. She took a look at the shaking team of troublemakers, then stepped back, ready to let her Pokémon do what they did best; attack.

"Rattata! Use Hyper fang!" She cried. "Raticate, use Super Fang! Nidoran, Nidorina, and Trapinch! Use Bite!" Immediately, the purple rat Pokémon pinned down Jessie; James was held down by their golden yellow evolved forms; Meowth had to deal with three different types of Pokémon trapping him against the ground. They all struggled, but to no avail. The fairy fluttered up into the sky and shouted as she raised her arms: "Now toss 'em!" Instantly, the toothy Pokémon sent Team Rocket flying. As Team Rocket took to the air they heard a faint cry of: "Be sure to brush every night! Bad teeth don't get quarters!"

Wallace pushed a bright blue ball covered with pictures of Goldeen back towards Misty's Pokémon - for somewhere around the twentieth time that day. Pikachu had decided they would play a game of 'Roll the Ball,' but Psyduck had the ball pushed (more like thrown, kicked, whacked, and tossed) at its head quite often, causing it to have large headaches. In turn, the headaches usually caused Psyduck to toss the ball 15 feet into the air with a Confusion attack. The ball would then usually land near Wallace. Psyduck's headache would disperse, and it would call for Wallace to give them the ball back. Unfortunately for Wallace's pocketbook, sometimes Psyduck's headache would create a Psychic attack, causing the ball to explode. They were on their ninth ball at the moment.

"DUCK!" An explosion occurred. Wallace sighed. Make that their tenth. He looked in the ball bucket. There was still an inexpensive-looking Staryu ball left. He rolled it over, and they began comparing Misty's Staryu to the one on the ball. Staryu began to strike poses, clearly showing its superiority.

'What could be taking Ash so long in there?' Wallace wondered. Then he smirked, an evil idea coming to mind. 'You know what? I think I'll find out for myself.' He quietly walked out of the room and towards Misty's bedroom.

He peeked into the room, and what he saw nearly made his jaw hit the floor. Ash was sitting next to an unconscious Misty, occasionally stroking her cheek or running his hand through her side Ponyta-tail. At one point, he even was playing around with the tie, half pulling it off before coming to his senses. Wallace shook his head. He pinched his arm. He pulled his eyelids out and let them fly back and hit his eyes painfully. The scene did not disappear, nor did it change before his eyes. This was really happening. Wallace got a small bit of what courage still lived in him after months around Misty, got out a camera so he could take a picture, and...

"Psy? Duck psyduck." Wallace clicked the camera shutter as he jumped 5 feet into the air.

"Don't do that!" He yelled, while somehow remaining quiet. Psyduck held out a popped ball decorated in Staryu. Wallace sighed. "Why'd you come to me about that?" He pointed at the door. "You'll disturb them." Psyduck floated into the air, its headache obviously having not worn off entirely, and looked inside.

"Duck!" It shouted, shocked. Wallace covered its beak, but the damage was done. Ash looked up and around, then quickly stood up, not wanting to be seen performing such an affectionate movement towards Misty. He had heard enough theories about his supposed 'love for Misty,' and he didn't need anyone finding any more supposed 'proof' about it.

Then Ash took a look at the time on the Golduck clock. He looked towards the doorway, where Wallace and Psyduck were nervously hiding: Wallace sweating bullets at the thought of Ash finding them and Psyduck suffocating from the tight grip Wallace had on its beak and throat. Ash moved toward the door, then took a double take. "Ah! It's that late?" He cried quietly, just like Wallace had moments before. He started to head for the door, and Wallace quickly pulled Psyduck out of the way. Ash burst into the hall and rushed to the battle room. He grabbed Pikachu and raced out of the gym.

Wallace pulled Psyduck off his shirt, then pulled himself off the wall. The gym leader walked over to the door and eyed the dust stream that was Ash. He walked back inside, and into the doorway of Misty's room. He looked down at her, then at his camera. Wallace walked out of the room, muttering something about 'this being too perfect' as he eyed his camera promisingly.

"Nurse Joy, we've got a problem," Brock began, suddenly serious and unperturbed by the fact that Nurse Joy was right in front of him, and there was no ear-pulling munchkin or redhead to be seen. He pulled out a few chairs for the two of them to sit on, as he felt that there would be a long talk ahead of them.

"We do indeed," she added as she sat down into a folding chair. The Pokémon Nurse looked up at Brock as he looked down at her. She waited until he sat down and was comfortable, at which time she spoke.

"I know that Togepi." They said simultaneously. Brock was surprised at Nurse Joy's comment. "How could you know it? That Togepi belongs to my friend - "

" - Misty Waterflower." The Pokémon Nurse finished for Brock. He gaped in surprise. "How - "

"She actually works at the Sootopolis Gym. She's Wallace's assistance." The pink-haired nurse explained.

"What?" Brock shouted, standing up and knocking over his chair. Why would Misty have just left her gym without telling either of her two best friends in the world? It was just so…unlike her. Then again, they hadn't spoken for some time now. Brock had just figured Ash had made Misty mad, or she was really busy at the gym. He couldn't forget how rough it was running the gym himself, after his dad had left.

"Please Brock," Joy insisted. "Calm down. The real issue here isn't how we know Misty. It's how we're going to tell May that Togepi doesn't really belong to her." Brock's eyes widened as he realized the situation they had.

Brock walked up to May, calm as could be. "Hey, May. We need to talk." May sat down under a tree, and Brock joined her.

"Sure, Brock." May said, equally serene. "What about?"

"Well, you see, your Togepi actually belongs to a good friend of mine. So, you have to give it back." May stood up, her eyes turning to flames in her anger as she clenched her fists and glared at Brock. If looks could kill, Brock would have been dust five minutes ago and the sequoia behind him would have fallen on top of those ashes with a giant hole in the middle of its trunk.

"What are you talking about? I caught my Togepi fair and square! Who are you to tell me what to do with it?"

As May continued to ramble on in Brock's mind, he winced in the real world. "Yeah...she wouldn't take that very well. When May gets mad enough, she could almost rival Misty." Brock sat back down. "So what we need..."

"...is a plan." They began to discuss possible ways of informing May of her Pokémon's true ownership, not realizing how close she was to finding out that very moment.

Wallace brushed a blue lock of hair out of his face, and looked at the glossed piece of paper in front of him. He smiled. The picture showed Ash sitting next to Misty and brushing his finger along her cheek. Both of them were blushing slightly; Ash at the knowledge of what he was doing, Misty unconsciously at the physical contact. Wallace's smile broadened even further. Ash never blushed. Ever. At least, so his source said. Which meant only one this about this photograph: this was pure gold. The scenario was perfect as well: Misty would suffer romantic torture from all these people and he would get off scotch-free, a nameless, anonymous face in the crowd. Wallace took a look at another piece of paper lying on a nearby table. He would have killed to get this sheet, but Pikachu had handed it to him right after it shocked him at their first meeting. On it was the following:

Pokéshippers

Gym Leaders

Brock

Misty's sisters

Daisy

Lily

Violet

Danny

Rudy

Other People

Melody

Tracey

Nurse Joy of Vermilion City

Team Rocket

Jessie

James

Pokémon

Togepi

Pikachu

Psyduck

Meowth (Team Rocket)

He couldn't very well give this to Psyduck; the water type had no e-mail address, and it had already seen the scene in any case. Wallace also doubted Pikachu or Togepi having e-mail addresses either; Brock or Tracey would have to show them the image. That left ten people and one Pokémon to e-mail (how Meowth managed to get an e-mail address, Wallace couldn't explain). Wallace took the picture and placed it on his computer's scanner. A white light going back and forth across the scanner showed the picture was being loaded. Wallace pulled the file out of a folder and opened his e-mail composing software. The Gym Leader attached it to an e-mail and began to type the e-mail addresses; there would be quite a few. Togepi had handed him the list of e-mails secretly at their first meeting, though he did not know why at the time. Now, apparently, was the time.

"waterflowerblonde-at-gli-dot-not, waterflowerredhead-at-gli-dot-not, waterflowerbluehair-at-gli-dot-not," he muttered. "navelracer-at-gli-dot-not,legendmaiden-at-pe-dot-con, prepare4trouble-at-tr-dot-con, &makeitdouble-at-tr-dot-con, meowththatsright-at-tr-dot-con, sketchr-at-pe-dot-con, trovitadancer-at-gil-dot-not, thunderhealer-at-pe-dot-not...a lot of Pokémon Enthusiast users, aren't there?" Wallace spoke aloud. "A ton of Gym Leaders International users too. I guess the two of them had met a lot of gym leaders, with Ash entering so many competitions. Their reactions to this e-mail certainly will be interesting."

He continued typing a message, while reading it aloud to check for error. " 'Hello, people! Whether accidentally or purposely, you have somehow affected these two young ones in a way that makes it so you deserve to be the first to see this photo! Sorry if you wished this wasn't real, but I assure you of its authenticity. Enjoy!' " He paused, then looked the message over. " 'And e-mail to any other Pokéshippers you may know.' That sounds right." He moved the mouse slowly, so as to save this moment in his memory for posterity, and clicked the 'send' button. Wallace logged off his computer. Misty would kill him for this, but only if she found out. Besides, it would all be worthwhile in the end.

Max looked over at the door. Moments ago, Brock and Nurse Joy had entered that room and locked that door. Even more recently, Max had heard a shocked cry of "What?" come from the room, shouted in Brock's voice. But now, only a slight murmur could be heard.

Max looked down at the container Brock had dropped. It read 'Misty's Togepi's Pokémon Food - Highly revolting to all other Pokémon.' Max took off his glasses, rubbed them with his shirt, and looked at it again. When the words were the same, Max rubbed his eyes and looked again. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. If this label was to be believed, May's Togepi was this 'Misty' person's Togepi as well, whoever 'Misty' was.

"Wha'cha looking at, Max?" May asked suddenly. Max jumped up, then hid the jar behind his back. Max had forgotten his sister had just gone to the bathroom. He swore to himself that he would never let May see the tin; she would be devastated if she figured out what it meant.

"Nothing!" He said quickly. A bit too quickly for anyone to believe to be true. Especially when the one the "nothing" was said to was related to the speaker. Siblings can always see through such lies; May was no exception.

"Sure..." May said, obviously unconvinced. She sneakily opened Bulbasaur's Pokéball and signaled with her right hand for it to get the jar with a vine whip. The Seed Pokémon succeeded in its mission and handed over the goods to its trainer.

"Agh!" Max shouted upon discovering his hands were empty. "May, don't!"

But it was too late. May was already reading the label, and she wasn't looking too happy about it...not happy at all...

Yay! I'm glad has a new way of doing things; I had no idea that it saved old reviews when you deleted a chapter! I don't have to scour my e-mails to find them all now. -smiles-

I think this is a pretty close update…for me, anyway. -sweatdrops- Here are your replies…

Warlordess: Ah…I guess I forgot to put that in, and didn't notice. Well, Togepi can only Teleport so many tines before it exhausts all energy. At the moment May found it, the li'l egg was recovering from having completed multiple Teleports in a row. And the egg was lacking in energy anyway, having left so suddenly that it could not prepare itself or supply any food for later in the trip. That's kind of why the battle was so short; Togepi used up its energy in one Metronome…and I kinda was really bad at doing battles back when I wrote it. And I was too lazy to try and rewrite it. -sweatdrops- Me, lazy…go figure. -smirks- You really think Wallace reacted like you would? That's funny—I never thought anyone would act so ridiculously. Of course, I don't mean to say that you in your amazingly high supremecy to me are ridiculous. -sweatdrops- You is far to kind to me; I am nowhere near to your greatness, even if you disagree. However -strikes noble pose- I will attempt to not fail you! -falls over- I'm not very good at this "noble pose" thing, am I? -laughs-

TogepiStars: -cheers- New reader! Hoo-rah! I attempt to come close to how the anime is in reality. Sadly, I think I add too much humor. However, no one complains, so I am alright with it. -smiles- I explained above why the battle was so short—I originally wrote this like…um…-checks-…August or July of last year. I only just decided to post it here now, and there have been only minor changes…I'm glad you think it will be interesting to find out. Spelling errors? Grammatical errors? Where! -searches- I don't see anything! Oh! You're still here? -sweatdrops- Sorry, I'm like fifth in line for title of Grammar Guru or Spelling Police when it comes to desperately looking for the errors. And fixing them. I'm glad you thought it was hilarious. What about this chapter? Did I make a good choice in 'toothy Pokémon' for the Tooth Fairy? Misty wake up? I had that once…but it didn't work out for the story in its entity, having Misty know how romantic Ash suddenly became…and here's more to read!

Ri2: Probably because your name is so short. I read some of your story; quite nice, with a bit of—is that Altoshipping? (I forget the name)—and much darkness. I didn't have time to read past the first chapter or two, and the fact that I didn't get to see the movie with Latias in it doesn't help in me understanding it. However, it seems to be written by a very good writer. -winks- Hmm…an excellent idea, and I imagine it would have worked better. However…this way makes it seem like a huge conspiracy against Team Rocket by demi-godly creatures of childhood instead of just one Santa's revenge. I believe you are correct in your rememberings…poor her. You liked that? Good for me; I added that part spur-of-the-moment in my editing for posting. You're welcome; I found that to be the easiest spot, so when I did my other edits I added it in. Ash finished his sentence, where he was explaining why he was crashing into Wallace at the gym in the first place. I accidentally put a divider line between them somehow. If you'll check again, you'll see I changed it. I'll try my best!

Hakajin: So, you didn't realize that this was S-CoL until after you read your way through the first four chapters. -eyes water- I had no idea this story slipped so easily out of your mind. And yet you say its good! -sobs river tears- You are much too kind to me! And I will!

Antithesis: Togepi's trying to get back to Misty. It knew already (thanks to continued contact with Pikachu) that Ash was heading back to Sootopolis. So it figured that if May was going to Ash, she would unintentionally be going to Misty, where Togepi could recuperate and regain energy before going back to meet with the Supreme Togetic. And possibly hitch a safer, less battle-filled ride. I had it in talk before editing, but I decided to remove Pokémon talking and summarized the explanation. I suppose it is unlike Ash, but was he not the least bit romantic around Giselle or someone else? -shrugs- Regardless, I made him slightly romantic for this one scene.

RoseRosa: Thanks. I'm glad you like it. I am.

Michael Bulaich: Thanks. Will do. -lighter-

Please go down to your left, press and depress your mouse on the purple-blue button there, and tell me how I'm doing. Also, kudos to any and all whocan matchup the e-mail addresses to their counterparts on the list. Also also, kudos to your patience if you read through the e-mail addresses. To get them to show I had to have Wallace sound each 'dot' and 'at' out. -sighs- That took awhile.

Jaa, mata!

gladdecease