A Different Start, a pokémon fanfic

A Different Start

By Fox McCloude

Kanto region, Viridian Forest…

Misty Waterflower was very clear about her goal in life. As one of the heirs of the Cerulean Gym, from a very early age she learned to love Water-type Pokémon, and water-related activities, such as fishing, swimming and aquatic sports in general.

However, living for so long under the shadow of three older sisters, who boasted of being prettier and more talented than her, pushed her to look for her own path, and thus she decided to take some time to 'earn experience' in the outside world. That required traveling, going out to catch Pokémon and train them. Simple enough in theory.

But in practice…

"Aaaaaahhhh! Get away! Get away from me!"

Just like Misty loved Water Pokémon, there was one type she loathed, as they disgusted and terrified her: Bug-type Pokémon. Much to her misfortune, the shortest way between Viridian City and Pewter City was through Viridian Forest, which was chock full of them at every turn, and now she was running from a small yet dangerous Beedrill swarm, all of which were pointing their stingers at her.

"What the hell did I do to you?! Leave me alone!" she cried out, even if it was futile as they wouldn't listen to her.

Misty really hated bugs in general. Her Pokémon could deal with a Beedrill or two, maybe even three. But a while swarm? Nope, thank you very much. She had no choice but to run as fast as her legs could take her.

In her escape, she accidentally tripped over and fell to the ground. The swarm was coming at her like a squadron of planes about to blitz on their target, but she looked to a side and spotted a large hollow tree. Without missing a beat, she got inside, avoiding the stingers as the killer bees flew past her. She cuddled as deep as possible inside her hideout, clutching to her backpack and holding her breath, until the buzzing, little by little, ceased to be heard.

It probably wasn't more than a minute or two, but for her, it was like an eternity. She peeked her head out cautiously, exhaling a deep breath in relief when she saw them no more. She'd escaped by the hair.

"Oof… finally. Why does this stupid forest have to be filled with those disgusting bugs?"

Wanting to rest for a bit to catch her breath, she dropped herself backwards against another tree trunk, sliding down until she was sat on the ground. Unfortunately, hitting the trunk shook it, causing the tree to drop some berries, leaves, branches…

And something else right on her shoulder.

"Wee. Weedle…"

"Aaahhh! Get off, get off me!" She frantically flailed her arms around, shoving away the orange larva that dropped on her shoulder, a Weedle, only to run off without looking and crash into another tree, of which a tiny green caterpillar dropped too. "N-no, stay away!"

Once again, panicking, she jumped towards the tree she'd just bumped into, hanging onto the trunk as she waved her hand trying to scare away the Caterpie, who stared at her.

"Get out, get outta here! Stay away from me!"

"Pokéball, go!" an unknown voice suddenly shouted.

Next thing that Misty knew, a Pokéball thrown from who knew where hit the Caterpie, which turned into a red light to be absorbed by the sphere. It then shut close and shook once, twice, three times, until it emitted a *PING* and remained motionless.

That finally allowed her to look around and realize what happened. There, in front of her, was a boy who looked close to her age. He had messy black hair sticking out of a red and white baseball cap, and predominantly dressed in blue. Next to him, was a Pikachu who looked just about as perplexed, and who approached to see her with curiosity.

"You alright?"

"Uh…" was all that Misty could utter at the moment.

Once the 'danger' was gone, she could finally process the whole situation. The boy had thrown the Pokéball to catch the Caterpie, and that perplexed look in his face was probably because of her being hanging onto the tree's trunk.

Without uttering a word, the redhead slid down the trunk until she touched the ground again, approaching cautiously to take a closer look at the boy. He had slightly tanned skin, brown eyes and a pair of lightning-shaped marks on the cheeks that gave him a rather adorable appearance.

The redhead shook her head and slapped her cheeks, trying to dissipate her nerves. She had to say something, at least to thank him.

"Yeah, yeah… I'm fine. Thanks for asking."

"We heard some screams and Pikachu ran off to check it. Guess he thought someone needed help." The boy scratched the back of his head, and picked up the Pokéball he'd thrown before. "Was it just because of this Caterpie?"

Misty felt her cheeks burning up. Probably, the boy was thinking that she was screaming for nothing. She'd be annoyed, but given the way he'd found her, she couldn't blame him for assuming that.

"Of course not. For your info, I got scared because of a worm with a stinger head and…"

"You mean a Weedle?" he interrupted, before chuckling. "Oh come on. They got poison, but they're not dangerous if you don't provoke them."

"No! I mean, yes, but… agh! I was chased by a swarm of Beedrill, and barely escaped!"

"Pikapi?"

The Pikachu's intervention dragged puzzled looks from both, and she noticed how it pulled his pants' leg. Then, it made a gesture that the redhead for a moment thought was an almost perfect mimicking of a Beedrill's face, using its ears as antennae and all.

"Of course, we heard them buzzing a while ago. So they were chasing you? Good thing you didn't get hurt. I know how it feels, to be chased by a flock of savage Pokémon."

The empathetic tone in his voice made Misty feel less annoyed for his previous mocking comment. He seemed not to be as bad after all, if he felt some sympathy for her.

"Well, where's that Weedle? Maybe I can still catch it."

"No!" she shrieked, before realizing she'd sounded a little louder than she wanted. "Look… I'm grateful you caught that Caterpie, but you better forget about the Weedle. Who knows if it alerts its friends or something. And I don't wanna be chased by another Beedrill swarm today."

"If you say so." The boy half-smirked. "Well, if you're okay, then I'll be on my own way. Bye!"

"Hey, wait!"

She didn't know what urged her to say that, but when the boy had taken his first steps, her body moved on her own. When she realized, she had reached out with her hand, in a clear gesture to ask him not to leave yet.

Once more, she felt her cheeks burning up. It was embarrassing to ask him this, but at the time she didn't like the idea of being left all by herself in that forest. She didn't want to say out loud that she was a bit scared in front of a boy she'd just met.

"If you don't mind… could I accompany you, at least until we get out of the forest? It's not like I can't take care of myself, but…"

She wanted to say something else. Maybe that the forest was full of bugs, and thus she was afraid of traveling alone through it. But it was hard to squeeze the words out of her mouth.

"Pikapi?"

"Huh? What's the matter, you want her to accompany us?"

Misty saw how the boy glanced at his Pikachu. That was unusual, a trainer asking his Pokémon for its opinion? However, the Pokémon's gesture made her feel a little bolder, and she knew what to say.

"I'd… feel safer with someone watching my back. Of course, I'll do the same for you."

"Well, in that case I don't see why not. You heading for Pewter City too?"

"Yeah, I am," she replied, a little more relieved now. "Sorry for the bother."

"Ah, don't worry." The boy approached her with a smile. "My name's Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town. And this is my partner, Pikachu."

"Pika pika, Pikachu," said the electric rodent, in what she guessed was a greeting.

"I'm Misty, nice to meet you," the redhead replied, smiling as well.

Right then, one of the nearby bushes started to shake, making them both get a bit wary. A second later, out came a bird Pokémon squawking and flapping around, causing Misty to involuntarily jump behind Ash. The Pikachu reacted hopping onto its trainer's shoulder, as Ash looked up and followed the flying bird with it.

"Hey! That was a Pidgeotto! Come on, I have to catch it!"

"Oi, what the…? Whoah!"

And without further words, Ash grabbed her by the hand, before running after the bird, ignoring the redhead's protests as she was forcibly dragged by the arm.

Right on the moment their hands intertwined, Misty felt a slight current going across her arm, and then extend all over her body. Something told her it had nothing to do with the Pikachu, but with this boy named Ash, but she wasn't sure what it could be.

Little did she know, from now on, they would walk a path together, even beyond Viridian Forest, or even beyond their next destination in Pewter City.

FIN.

Author's notes:

What's up, people? Well, well, here's another of the minishots I've thought off recently. Wish I had this idea back during the PokéShipping Week in 2018, for Day 6 as the theme was "Role Exchange". As we all remember, Misty saved Ash in the first episode when she fished him and Pikachu out of the river, and while taking a nostalgia trip I bumped into one of the roles of Mayumi Iizuka's (Misty's voice in the original Japanese), which is Tron Bonne from the Mega Man Legends saga. Given that I like to make allusions to the voice actors of my favorite characters, I based this on Tron's introductory scene where Mega Man saves her from a dog, to make this scenario of Misty being "saved" by Ash (technically she was no longer in danger, but he did get Caterpie off of her, plus he did come when he heard her cries, so it's close enough I'd say). Something to show them off to a better start, with no bikes fried, or slaps in the face. In fact, another idea I got came from a song performed by Mayumi as Tron, whose letter could easily fit with Misty, and it'll serve as basis for another minishot of this pairing that I'll post soon. If anybody feels curious about the song, it's called "Love Letter", which I think would be pretty self-explanatory.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed it. Special thanks to Shadechu Nightray for her beta-reading and the suggestions to spruce it up a little, until next time, take care!