Okay, how typical is this. No updates for a few months, and when I do update, it's crap. Seriously, folks, this chapter isn't much more than a quick diversion and some semblance of character development. Hopefully I can get to the league finals… eventually… Anyhoo, enjoy.
—
Ash glanced at his alarm clock. 8:30 in the morning, be at Professor Oak's by 7:00, he was doing fine.

Wait—
"AAAAAH!" he screamed, jumping out of bed. "I overslept again!"

Before he could run downstairs, Misty grabbed him by his shorts and pulled him back down onto the bed. "I set your clock two hours ahead last night, sleepyhead," she said. "Be quiet; you'll wake up the kids."

Ash blushed and scratched the back of his head. "Oh, that makes sense now."

Misty didn't need to worry about the kits, however. The usual suspects, Ember and Dreamer, were already running around downstairs with Delilah and Pikachu attempting to keep them in line. The girls, Dewdrop and Sunrise, were watching Mimey perform a few of his tricks. Ash got out of the bed, stretched, and tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. When he finally managed to clear his vision he saw Sparky walking slowly into the room.

"Eev," he yawned before curling up in his spot on the floor.

"Good night?" Ash said. "What are you talking about?"

Sparky looked up at him slowly and said, "Vee?"

Ash groaned. "Misty," he said, "we've got to teach our kids English." He concentrated for a second and addressed Sparky again, this time in Jolteon.

"So, what do you mean by 'Good night'?"

Sparky didn't even bother to open his eyes. "Isn't it night?"

Ash looked out the window. It had to have been sunrise at least a half hour ago. "Not the last time I checked, no."

Sparky was too tired to even shrug. "Good morning, then."

"Did you stay up all night again?" Misty said, managing to convey the persistent-mother tone even in a pokemon language.

"Yeah, I…" Sparky trailed off.

"We'll talk later," Misty said, shifting back to English. "You need to get going."

Ash nodded as he grabbed his trademark hat and went out the door.
—
"Sparky, Mom says to come back inside the den," Sunrise said to her brother.

"Yeah, okay," Sparky said absently, not moving or even breaking his gaze from the night sky.

Sunrise could tell when she was being ignored. "Sparky, Mom said!"

"Huh?" Sparky finally turned to look at his sister.

She sighed. "Mom says to come in."

"What?" He ran over to her, and the two of them began walking back towards the den. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I told you a hundred times."

"Did not."

"Did so."

"Did not!"

"What do you do out here, anyway?" She looked up at the sky, or what little of it she could see through the trees.

Sparky stopped. "I'm just listening."

"Listening to what?"

"Everything." He looked up and caught a glimpse of the crescent moon through the leaves. "The stars, the moon, the trees…" He stopped when he heard Sunrise snort in disapproval. "What," he said with more than a little indignation, "don't tell me you don't hear it."

"No, stupid," she said, turning away from him and continuing back towards the den. "Besides, nothing happens at night."

Sparky followed her at a distance. "Nothing happens during the day, either," he muttered.
—
Ash plowed through the doors of Oak's lab at 6:59 sharp.

"Ah," Oak said with a smile. "Early for once, are we, Ash?"

Ash grinned and flashed a "peace" sign. "Would you expect anything else, Professor? After all, we've got a job to do!"

"Nice to see you have your old self back," Oak said. He produced a clipboard and handed Ash a sheet of paper from the middle. "You'll be handling H through M. All you need to do is give them their pokedexes, pokeballs, and let them choose a starter. You might want to give them a little advice on which one to pick, eh?"

"Maybe," Ash said. "What if they want a pikachu?"

"Tell them no. Not only were you a special case, but I don't have any to give this year."

Ash nodded. "When are they supposed to get here?"

Oak looked at his watch. "Half an hour. Usually they don't come until 8:00, but this year I had to make the exception since there's so many people coming."

"Okay," Ash said. He started to walk towards the table labeled "H – M" but stopped before he got there. "Professor?"

"Yes, Ash?"

"What did you mean, 'my old self back'?"

"Nothing personal," Oak said gently. "I just noticed that ever since you and Misty—well, came back from the dead, so to speak, you hadn't seemed to be quite as cheerful as you usually were before…" He trailed off.

Ash pondered the statement for all of two seconds. "I guess I just had a lot to think about," he said before shrugging it off and walking over to the table.
—
"Are you awake, Sparky?" Misty asked in Vaporeon.

Sparky didn't even open his eyes. "Am I awake when I'm sleeping? Or perhaps we're all dreaming? Either way we don…" he slurred.

Misty sighed. "What's five plus five?"

Sparky flicked an ear. "Brown."

"He's not awake," Misty muttered as she walked down the stairs. Clapping her hands briskly, she said in a raised voice, "Okay, Ember, Dreamer, Dewdrop, Sunrise—"

The four eevees stopped their activities and looked at their mom.

"You guys want to go to the park and check on Dad?"

The children yipped their ascent as Misty pulled a sky blue shirt over her spaghetti strap and walked out the door. She didn't even bother to try to keep the yelling, scampering, roughhousing kits in line apart from the occasional growl when one of them got to far ahead.

"Are you okay?" someone asked.

Misty jumped. "What?"

A mom in her thirties had stopped her minivan next to Misty. "You sounded like you were growling there," she said, pushing away a stray strand of blond hair.

Misty blushed. "Yeah, well…" She fumbled for an excuse. "You have to speak their language if you're going to keep them in line," she said, motioning towards the eevees.

The woman smiled. "I wonder if that would work for the monsters back there," she said.

Misty looked past her and saw two boys, one ten and the other around seven, roughhousing in the back seat.

"Good luck," Misty said with a smile and a wave.

The mom caught sight of Misty's ring. "Same to you; you'll need it." She pointed to her own before driving off.

Misty breathed a sigh of relief. "I already need it," she muttered.
—
"Are you really Ash Ketchum?" the boy asked.

Ash nodded. "And what's your name?"

"Jason Melville," he said proudly. "And I'm going to be the greatest Pokemon Master in the world!" He looked at Ash, caught himself, and muttered, "Well, except for you."

Ash scoffed. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, no one's ever going to be better than you; you're the greatest Pokemon Master there ever was!"

Ash just smiled. "You ever hear of Satoshi Tetsuma?"

Jason shook his head.

"He was one of the greatest Pokemon Masters of his time. He never had more than ten pokemon, but those ten were incredible. He trained them as hard as he could, and he loved them like they were family. And then one day, something amazing happened."

"What?" asked several kids, now crowded around Ash's table to hear the story.

"He lost."

The kids were speechless with disappointment. "That's it?" a girl said.

Ash nodded. "One day he went out for a battle, and someone beat him. It was a young person, not fifteen years old, or something like that. And just like that, the greatest Pokemon Master wasn't the greatest anymore. But that didn't bother him. He just went on training and doing whatever he did. He wasn't the best anymore, but he was the best that he could be, and that was good enough for him.

"So you see, being the greatest isn't as important as doing your best, giving it all you got. And who knows, you might actually be the best someday!"

Murmurs of ascent could be heard through the small crowd. "Excellent speech, Ash," Oak added. "But you're falling behind."

"What?" Ash looked at the crowd in front of his table, looked at his sheet, and blushed slightly. "Okay, Jason, here's your Pokedex, a few pokeballs to get you started, and what pokemon would you like?"

"A meowth."

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Haven't heard that one before," he muttered to himself. To Jason he said, "We don't have any meowths, just charmanders, bulbasurs, and squirtles."

Jason's face fell. "Oh, I guess I'll take a charmander, then."

"What's wrong with squirtle?" a voice asked over Ash's shoulder.

Ash didn't even turn around. "Because everyone knows that fire pokemon are a whole lot better than water pokemon, Misty," he said, winking at Jason. He handed Jason his charmander. "Don't let him out until you get outside; it's a little crowded in here. Take care of him. Be his friend, but be his trainer too. Now go have fun, okay, Jason?"

"Yes, sir!" Jason said.

"And don't get the spearows angry!" Misty yelled after him.

Ash sighed. "I hate being called 'sir.' Makes me feel old."

"And being married with six kids doesn't?" Misty whispered in his ear.

"Kits, Misty; we don't have any kids."

Misty smiled coyly. "If you say so."

Ash paled. "Are you—"

"No."

Ash sighed in relief. He turned back to the crowd in front of him. "Okay, who's next?"
—
Pikachu walked calmly out of the den towards Sparky, sitting as always with his nose toward the night sky.

"Everything all right, Sparks?" Pikachu said, taking a seat next to the four-month-old eevee.

"It was my fault," he said softly.

"You mean Blossom getting caught?" Pikachu said. "No, it wasn't."

"I told her not to go, but she went," Sparky continued. "I should have stopped her."

Pikachu sighed. "It's not your fault, Sparky," he reiterated. "She was ready to go, so she went." His eyes drifted up. "What do you do out here, anyway?"

Sparky opened his mouth to answer, then thought better of it. "Nothing," he muttered, getting up.

"Wait," Pikachu said. He glanced up at the sky and continued. "You're listening to them, aren't you?"

Sparky sat back down. "How did you know?"

Pikachu smirked. "I knew an umbreon once. Every so often I'd find him outside just staring up at the stars like you do."

Sparky lowered his head. "Well," he muttered, "I'm not an umbreon."

"You might become one."

"But I'm named after thunder," Sparky protested. "Lightning. I'm going to be a jolteon like Dad…"

"Do you want to be, or is it just because of your name?"

"Well…" Sparky's voice fell to a hush. "It's what he wants, isn't it?"

Pikachu shook his head gently. "I hate to say this, Sparky, but Pikapi is awful at picking names.When your parents went to name you, they probably just picked random things that they thought of. And besides, look at me; I—" He caught himself and quickly corrected his story. "I mean, my trainer never gave me a proper name, so I just go by Pikachu. We just don't get very good names, that's all."

"But what does Dad naming me have to do with you not having a name?"

"Eh-heh…" Pikachu fumbled for an answer. "Well… your father's trainer didn't give him a very good name, so your father isn't used to giving good names. That's all." He sighed. "The point is, he'll be happy with whatever you want to be. Jolteon, vaporeon, umbreon, whatever."

Sparky nodded and looked back up at the sky. "Why do Mom and Dad fight all the time?"

Pikachu grinned. "Because they love each other a whole lot." When Sparky looked confused, he continued. "Your parents have known each other a long time, and as far as I can remember they've had arguments like this." He motioned back toward the den where the sounds of the latest non-argument were drifting out. "You have arguments with your brothers and sisters, don't you?"

"Yeah, but—"

"It doesn't mean you don't love them, right?"

"Well…" Sparky pondered the last point.

"Still…" muttered Pikachu, "it'd be nice if they didn't argue quite so much…"
—
"I mean exactly what I said: We. Have. Two. Weeks. Worth. Of. Money."

"And why don't we have more?"

"Well, I'm sorry, Misty, but I hadn't planned on not having a job for six months and having the League bail on me because they thought I was dead."

"So you're blaming me?"

"I never said that!"

"You meant it!"

"Oh, so you're psychic now?"

"I never said that!"

"Look, why do you contradict everything I say?"

"I don't! You just hear me when I do!"

"Like right—"

Misty and Ash turned toward the wall. Five eevees and a pikachu were lined up, four of the eevees in rapt attention while the fifth eevee and Pikachu were digging through a bowl of popcorn.

"Is that kettle corn?" Ash asked.

"Pika," Pikachu answered with an nod.

Ash glanced at Misty. Misty sighed and said, "Fine, we're done. Just save me some."

Ash grinned and grabbed two handfuls of the popcorn. He handed one to Misty and said, in a much more calm voice, "I can call Silph tomorrow and see if they're still going to make good on that endorsement offer."

Misty nodded. "That'll work for the time being. What kind of job were you going to get with the League again?"

Ash sighed. "Sort of a poster-boy type thing. They'd just want me in there to make announcements and that sort of thing. But, since we were MIA for so long, they gave the job to Gary."

Misty nearly spit out her popcorn. "Gary? Are you serious?"

"I am. Apparently he's been doing really well this past year; they say he's a favorite to win the championship. Of course, that could all change once I show up, right Pikachu?"

A muffled "Pikachu!" answered him.

"Besides," Ash said with a shrug, "that's not exactly a high-paying job. I mean, if it was just the two of us, it wouldn't be too much of a problem, but now that we've got a family to take care of…"

Misty chewed her popcorn thoughtfully. "I guess you're right," she said. "I could try to get back into the rotation at Cerulean, but that's such a long way away…"

"Well, they're going to be looking for a new Viridian gym leader… maybe I could… you know…"

"After you win the championship?"

"What?" Ash looked frantically around. "Where's a calendar? Misty! How much time do we have? We gotta start training! Pik—"

Misty clamped her hand over his mouth. "It's been three days since you last checked. You still have enough time."
—
It took another twenty minutes to get everyone ready for bed. Sparky, as usual, protested, while Ember and Dreamer kept roughhousing. Finally, most of the chaos had turned to order—or at least some semblance of it.

"Ash," Misty said after the couple had gotten into bed, "Silph is in Saffron, right?"

"I think so," Ash said. "Why?"

"If they want you to come in, do you think we could go see my parents afterwards? Cerulean's just north of Saffron…"

Ash shrugged. "I don't see why not. Any particular reason?"

"Well… I think we kinda scared them when we first got home. I mean, we weren't expecting them to be there, and they definitely weren't expecting us, and it all just kinda…"

Ash chuckled. "Sure thing, Mist. Funny though…"

"What?"

"Well, my mom didn't seem to be that wierded out by the whole thing. I mean, she kinda balked at first, but it certainly seemed like she's warmed up to it by now."

Misty nodded. "Good night, kids," she said to the pile of fur on the floor.

A chorus of "Eevee" came from the pile, as well as a stuttering, "G-g-good night."

Ash and Misty sat bolt upright. "Okay, who said that," Ash said.

Ember poked his head up and reiterated, "G-good night, mom and d-dad."

Ash grinned at Misty. "Well, looks like we've got something else to work on."