Chapter 46
It had been just over a year since Ash walked through Route 1 with his Squirtle. Wet behind the ears from his first day of being a Trainer, he couldn't wait to get out and see the world as his journey of – hopefully – becoming a Pokémon Master unfolded before him. But now, with Brock by his side this time, he couldn't wait to get back home. He missed his mom a lot, and knew she missed him, too. Ever since his dad left, all they had were each other. And when they came across a telephone booth off to the side of the main path, Ash knew he had to tell her the good news.
The line rang for a few minutes before her smiling face showed up on the screen, and his face lit up instantly. "Hi, Mom! It's me! I'm coming home and-" But he was interrupted when the auburn-haired woman began to speak.
"Thank you for calling the Ketchum residence," she greeted with a bow. "No one's able to take your call at the moment, so please leave a message after the beep and we'll get back to you as soon as we can."
"It's the answering machine," Ash realized with a silly chuckle. The screen went blank, and a faint ringing buzzed in the receiver pressed to his ear as a party ball popped with a message that read 'BEGIN'. "Mom, it's Ash, and I've got a surprise! You're gonna have a visitor, and it's me!"
He hung up, and the pair of traveling Trainers continued onward to Pallet Town. But it seemed the closer they got, the more Ash was drawn back to it like a magnet, and he soon found himself walking faster and faster until he let out a laugh and broke into a run. His traveling companion knew that Ash was excited, so he chuckled, but called after him. "C'mon, Ash!" Brock protested lightly, trying to keep up with the black-haired boy.
"I just can't wait to get home!" Ash called back over his shoulder.
"Well, at least wait for me!" The words fell on deaf ears, however, and Ash only stared with his dark eyes looking ahead.
"I should be able to see Pallet any second now!" he said mostly to himself, but then suddenly collided with something unseen. It felt like he had hit a wall, but there was nothing in front of him from what he could see. Nevertheless, the pain he felt was real, and a sound was released from his throat between clenched teeth. "That really hurt…"
"What's wrong?" Brock questioned once he finally caught up to Ash. The Pokémon Trainer peeled himself from whatever it was he had slammed into and rubbed his cheek before turning back to Brock.
"I ran into this wall," he explained. Brock's eyebrows came together in wonder, but when he stepped forward to investigate and tapped his knuckle against it, it all came together for him.
"Hey!"
"See?"
"Hm… an invisible wall…" Brock murmured, curling a finger around his chin. Both of them thought back to the Fuchsia Gym and how that place had invisible walls everywhere. But this was the middle of a path. How could an invisible wall have gotten here?
Ash looked up, trying to see how far the wall went up, but then something in the air caught his eye. "Hey, what's that thing?!" Brock gasped and looked up. Strangely enough, a white and magenta Pokémon that resembled a clown was scaling the invisible wall, as if it could see it. They both stared at it for a moment – it had yet to notice them, or if it did it didn't acknowledge them – and Ash reached his hand into his pocket. "I'll check Dexter."
"Mr. Mime, the Barrier Pokémon," his Pokédex recited, bringing up an image of the Pokémon. "It uses pantomime to make actual walls appear. Because it is rarely discovered, information about this Pokémon is extremely limited."
"A Mr. Mime, huh?" Ash asked rhetorically with a small grin curling his lips. "That's awesome! I just found a really rare Pokémon without even looking!" He put away Dexter and replaced it with an empty Poké Ball. "Now, I'll catch it with my Poké Ball and-" He reared his arm back as he spoke and aimed carefully up at the Psychic Pokémon, but before he could throw it – or finish his sentence – he was cut off by another voice.
"Please, stop!" a female voice spoke up. The pair turned around to see a young woman wearing a tamer's outfit, and she looked sadly at them while holding a Poké Ball in her own hand. "Won't you please let me capture that Mr. Mime?"
"No way! Why should I?!" Ash shot back angrily, glaring back at the woman. "I'm the one who saw it first!"
"Ash, be polite!" Brock hissed, grabbing the younger boy by the shoulders and pulling him back a step before smiling up at the young woman with a blush. "My name is Brock. I'm afraid my young friend's manners aren't… what they should be. Please, be my guest and capture that Mr. Mime."
"What?!" Ash yelled, and as he tried to fidget out of Brock's grip, the Pokémon Breeder only held him tighter so he couldn't escape. "Why does she get it?! It's mine! Let go of me!"
"Please miss, hurry up and capture it!" he called over Ash's angry protests. The commotion below grabbed the Mr. Mime's attention, finally, and it looked down to see them before smiling and leaping over the wall it had created. It landed on its feet and began to run.
"Wait, don't run away!" the blue-haired woman yelled, and raised her arm. "I need you, Mr. Mime; Poké Ball, go!" She threw the capture sphere, but it collided with the wall that Ash had hit upon the initial discovering of the wild Mr. Mime, and it fell harmlessly to the ground while the Psychic Pokémon disappeared down the path. She watched the Pokémon fade out of view before giving a defeated sigh and resting her cheek on the palm of one hand. "Oh no; now what'll I do..."
Instantly, Brock was beside the young woman, and he looked sternly at her with his arms crossed. "I'm sorry. It's all my fault Mr. Mime got away." The statement made her look at him with slightly-raised eyebrows. "Whatever your problem is, I feel it's my duty to help you solve it." Thrown off by his immediate offer to help, the woman in the tamer's outfit stared at him further before realizing she didn't have any other choice but to accept it. After picking up the Poké Ball that was on the ground, she agreed.
o 0 o
She led them a little up the path the opposite way that the wild Mr. Mime had run off to. There, in the middle of a big, green field, many smaller tents and trucks were all set up, and in the middle of them was a huge yellow circus tent set up with blue and purple stripes to further grab the attention of passerby's. Above the front entrance of the main tent, a large sign which featured many different Pokémon grabbed Ash's attention immediately, and he read it aloud with the excitement in his voice clear.
"Pokemon circus?!" he exclaimed as they walked past the circus tent. The woman brought them to mobile trailers off to the side where the performers stayed in, and stopped by a certain one featuring a Ponyta on the side of it before turning back to the pair and introducing herself.
"My name is Stella, and I'm the ringmaster of this circus."
"Cool!"
"You must really love Pokémon, so we have a lot in common!" Brock flirted, but this went unnoticed when three girls all wearing similar t-shirts featuring a circus tent all stepped out from one of the nearby trailers. They noticed the ringmaster and perked up.
"Stella!" a young girl with her dark green hair tied into low hanging pigtails spoke up. "How did it go?"
"Did you find a new Mr. Mime for the circus?" a second girl asked.
"Almost..." Stella responded sadly, defeat pulling her eyes to the ground. All three girls frowned along with her, and one still in the doorway of the trailer continued.
"What'll we do? Our Mr. Mime won't go on!" Ash and Brock exchanged confused looks, and seeing this, Stella pulled them away from the Ponyta trailer and brought them to another location. This trailer she brought them to was yellow and featured a Mr. Mime on the side of it. Stepping off to the side, she gestured to the window while still looking sadly at the ground, almost as if she were ashamed. "Look." When the two males peered in, it was clear why.
The inside of the trailer was built like a small parlor, and along with a TV beside the window, they could see a Mr. Mime sprawled out lazily on an orange couch. It reached into an opened bag of potato chips and munched on it mindlessly while it read through the magazine opened in front of it. The table with the potato chip bag had a soda sitting beside it, and the room was littered with empty snack bags and discarded magazines. "What's it doing?" Ash questioned with raised eyebrows.
"Seems kinda lazy," Brock commented.
"I'm afraid that's my fault," Stella admitted, and they pulled their attention away from the Mr. Mime back to her. "I wanted it to be perfect, so I trained it hard, night and day. Yesterday it quit right in the middle of a show, and now it won't listen to me at all."
"You were too tough, so it just gave up..." Ash deduced.
"Yeah..." The sad look was replaced with a determined one, and Stella raised her fists and clenched them tightly. "But now I have a way to get Mr. Mime to perform again: I'll just get another one to be its competition!"
"I get it!" Brock realized. "That'll make your Mr. Mime jealous, and it'll start performing again."
"Right!"
"Stella, I'm gonna get you a new Mr. Mime today!" Brock promised, and the blue-haired tamer seemed taken aback by Brock's declaration.
"Do you think you really can, Brock?"
"I guarantee it!"
"Can I count on you?"
"They don't call me 'Brock the Rock' for nothing!" he replied, raising his arms and flexing like a bodybuilder would, and gave a boastful laugh, which only resulted in Ash giving Brock a half-lidded, annoyed look.
"Brock, it's gonna be tough to catch that Mr. Mime, y'know..." the Pokémon Trainer pointed out, but Brock didn't seem too concerned, and simply looked down and chuckled darkly.
"I don't have to catch a Mr. Mime..." he said, turning back to Ash and his eyes sparkled mischievously. "...if I can make one..."
This, in turn, made Ash raise one of his eyebrows. "What? How are you gonna make a Mr. Mime?" Suddenly, Brock jumped in close to Ash and chuckled in a way that Ash stumbled backwards instinctively.
"I'm very glad you asked me that, Ash, because I think there's a way you can help me..." the Pokémon Breeder answered cryptically, holding his hands up so his fingers were inching toward Ash.
"What... kind of help... do 'ya have in mind...?" Ash asked nervously, but instead of responding verbally, Brock clapped his reaching hands on Ash's shoulders, and the Pallet Town boy's scream could be heard throughout the entirety of Route 1.
o 0 o
Inside the tent, standing in the middle of the ring, Stella and Brock stood with smiles on their faces. Brock's arms were crossed, and he nodded with a smug smile on his face while Stella was grinning from ear to ear. "Brock, he's perfect!"
"I think this may be the best Pokémon I've ever raised!"
Across from them, a Mr. Mime stood with a blank smile on its face looking at them, but then the Psychic Pokémon raised its hand and raised a fist at them. "What do you mean the best Pokémon you've ever raised?!" it said without moving its mouth, and it reached up and plucked off its head, revealing that it was Ash in a costume. The boy was sweating underneath his backwards cap, since the costume barely provided any air-holes for him to breathe, and took in a breath of fresh air before continuing his angry rant. "I don't see why I have to be the one who gets stuck wearing the doofy Mr. Mime costume!"
"I'd love to wear it, but I'm just too tall!" Brock told him, standing with his hands out like a Mr. Mime would, but his tone of voice only made Ash look at him with narrowed eyes.
"I won't do it. I'm not gonna dress like a clown..."
"Oh, please, Ash! You've got to! It's my only hope!" Stella begged.
"I know, but..."
"You've gotta help her out, Ash," Brock urged.
"But I don't even know how to do any of Mr. Mime's tricks!"
"Don't worry about that, Ash! Stella will use her gentle, compassionate training techniques to teach you everything you need to know! Isn't that right, Stella?"
"Leave everything to me!" the ringmaster assured him, and smiled sweetly down at Ash. "I'll have you doing Mr. Mime's act in no time at all!"
"Gee, I don't know..." Just then, the three girls who talked to Stella earlier who had been listening in off to the side all swooped in and folded their fingers in plea.
"Please say yes, Ash! Please say yes!" they all chanted at the same time.
"I'd mean so much to all of us!" the girl with the green hair added as a footnote, and the boy couldn't help but feel a blush creep up his neck and settle on his cheeks.
"Well... I guess it might be fun to be in the circus!" Finally talked into playing the role, Ash placed the Mr. Mime head back over his own, and he only had time to adjust it back into place before suddenly, a shadow fell over Stella's face, and her voice echoed in the tent in a drastic change from how she had just talked to him moments before.
"All right, let's see what you can do! Hi-yah!" she yelled, and produced a whip from the back of her uniform. With a flick of her arm, the cord cracked just by Ash's foot, and the boy flinched backwards out of pure shock.
"Hey, watch it with that whip!"
"It'll whip you into shape, Ash!" Brock joked as Ash steadied himself again.
Stella pulled her whip back and stretched the cord in her other hand in a threatening manner. "Okay, let's see some pantomime!" she ordered.
"P-p-pantomime?!"
"That's right, now stop talking and start miming! Yah!" She cracked the whip by Ash's foot again. Once again, the boy flinched back as the whip got dangerously close to the costume's curled shoe, and he raised his cartoon-like gloved hands and did his best imitation of a Mr. Mime pantomiming that he could once he regained his composure.
"If these are her gentle training techniques, I know why Mr. Mime quit..."
"No!" Stella's scream interrupted his muttering to himself. "Put more feeling in it!"
"How can I put more feeling into acting like I'm touching a window?" he murmured once again, but not saying it too loud out of fear of what she would say if she heard him.
"You think Mr. Mime's gonna be jealous of that?!" she criticized, and struck her whip forward once again. Ash screamed as the whip threatened to bite his toe, and tried his best to mime once again, but the ringmaster was tough and countered. "Wrong! Again!" Another strike of the whip, and a scream from Ash. "Again! Faster! Go go go go go!"
o 0 o
Fireworks signaled the start of the circus that day, and Ash had never been so glad to hear them before in his life. Stella's gentle techniques made him able to learn Mr. Mime's act, but much to everyone's chagrin, Stella's own Mr. Mime didn't come out from its trailer at all. In fact, when Brock went out to see if it was even curious, he mentioned it didn't even bat an eyelash that another Mr. Mime had taken over.
But their plan hadn't completely failed, since Ash now knew Mr. Mime's act, and could at least attempt his way through the performance for the day. With hopes that Stella's Mr. Mime would at least come see him during an actual show and get jealous, Ash tried to ignore the buzz of the crowd that flooded into the tent and made their seats in the stands all around.
"Ladies and gentlemen, and children of all ages!" Stella's voice boomed through the speakers in the tent from her microphone hidden in the clown outfit she wore. "Here are the stars of the Pokémon Circus!" The audience cheered and clapped as the green-haired employee led a Ponyta and a Rapidash out into the main stage. A flexing Machoke followed suit, and close behind it was a Tangela and Exeggcute. The brunette employee rode a large Dodrio in a showy and glittery outfit of her own, and Stella soon came back, and her and Ash stepped out waving to the crowd.
Lucky for the Pallet Town native, the helmet blocked out most of the audience, but he could hear Stella talk at his side. "We've got a full house today!" she said happily, but Ash didn't share in her enthusiasm.
"That's great..." he murmured as he looked around the audience in an attempt to find Brock, who was in the crowd watching the performance. But instead of finding his traveling companion, his vision focused on another familiar face that made him flinch back. "Hey, that's my mom!"
"Ash, be quiet!" Stella hissed, and the costumed Trainer threw his comically-large hands over the mouth of his mask instinctively.
"Oop!"
The pair joined the others in the center ring, and Ash hastily copied the other Pokémon and bowed with them. He had been given a crash course on his performance as a Mr. Mime, but didn't know what else the show entailed.
The rest of the crew went back behind the scenes, and a very eager Ash watched the circus tricks behind the scenes best he could with the mask covering his face. The Rapidash and Ponyta jumped through hoops – and even lit some of the hoops on fire for the grand finale. The Machoke was the bodybuilder, and lifted a series of weights. Eventually, it even lifted a thousand pound dumbbell by removing the power-save belt. Next out were Tangela and Exeggcute. The blue Grass-type used its various vines to juggle the Exeggcute, eventually making-believe it dropped the broken egg and broke it itself. The penultimate act was Dodrio, and a circular cage was brought out along with it. The Dodrio and the girl who had rode the Dodrio out in the opening ceremony both entered the cage, and she stood still in the bottom while the Triple Bird Pokémon raced around and around the globe-like encasement. The audience ooh'd and aah'd as it ran so fast that it was able to run around on the ceiling and the sides of the wall, all the while missing the human in the cage by inches.
Finally, it was Ash and Stella's turn. With anxiety settling in his stomach, both him and the ringmaster made their way out onto the ring. He wasn't an actor, let alone a pantomime, so this would be exceptionally hard to pull off.
The routine they were to play was a simple one: clown-Stella was a cop interrogating Mr. Mime. Mr. Mime were exceptionally good at miming, of course, so they both had to improvise since Ash couldn't actually create a box to block Stella out. For the most part, the act went all right. But it wasn't perfect, since at one point Ash fell onto his backside when pretending to sit on a chair. The audience laughed, thinking it was part of the routine, but Stella's eyes flashed in a way that was only visible to the Pallet Town native, and for the first time that day, he was glad he was wearing that stupid Mr. Mime costume so it would hide his embarrassed blush.
The routine was only five minutes long, but to Ash, it felt like an hour. But when the routine was finished, the audience cheered and applauded, and Ash could feel a weight lifted off his shoulders. He had done it. The rest of the circus performers came out once again, and everyone bowed as they soaked in the applause and cheers, and they finally retreated into the back while everyone in the stands started to clear out of the tent.
"Stella! Ash!" Brock's voice called, and everyone looked up as Brock appeared through the folds of the tents. "Stella, that was a great show! I don't think anyone could tell the difference!"
"I certainly could," Stella said sternly, and Ash inwardly flinched, though it mostly went unnoticed. "But, did our plan work?! Did Mr. Mime come out?"
"Um, well..." Brock began with a small smile. "I saw him peek out from the back when you and Ash were out!" Stella's face was unreadable, though it was certainly hard to do so in the first place with the make-up on her face, but she seemed a little upset. "Hey, Mr. Mime came out of its trailer, at least, so our plan wasn't a complete failure!"
Stella smiled sadly at Brock's attempt to cheer her up, but before anything else could be said, another figure appeared from the main area, and Brock and Ash gasped instantly. "It's Ash's mom!" Brock exclaimed, seeing the auburn-haired woman shyly walk in. She smiled at Brock, and then looked at the Mr. Mime.
"Ash... is that you?" Mouths dropped at the question, and Ash hesitated for just a moment before plucking the head off his own.
"Mom! How did you know?!" he exclaimed, breathing in fresh air for the first time since the show began.
"I knew it," she smiled. "A mother always knows her baby, and when I saw Brock come back here, I knew it was you." She rushed up and embraced him, pulling his head close to her despite being covered in sweat.
"Mom, you're embarrassing me!" the dark-haired boy protested, though he couldn't hide the smile on his face. He hadn't seen his mom since he left on his Pokémon journey, but she still smelled just as he remembered – like home.
o 0 o
The pair of traveling Trainers felt bad for not being able to fully help Stella, but the show was over, so there was nothing further that they could do. So at Mrs. Ketchum's suggestion, Ash, Brock, and Stella all traveled to Ash's home in Pallet Town for a home-cooked meal. Not having his mother's cooking in a year, Ash accepted without a second of a doubt.
Luckily, Pallet Town wasn't too far away from the circus's location, and before they knew it, the three of them were sitting in the dining room of the Ketchum residence. "I'll have lunch ready in just a minute!" Ash's mother told them happily as she disappeared into the kitchen, and in no time at all, a huge buffet was brought out within the half an hour. Despite Stella being there, Ash felt right at home, and devoured his food as fast as he could. While they ate, they explained the situation to Mrs. Ketchum as to why Ash was wearing the Mr. Mime costume in the first place.
"So your Mr. Mime has decided it doesn't want to perform in the circus anymore?" Mrs. Ketchum elaborated with a frown, and Stella shook her head. "Well, that's quite a shame. But Ash, you really did a great job! I don't think anyone other than me would have realized you weren't a Mr. Mime!"
"Gee, thanks for saying I make a good clown..." Ash murmured with annoyance, and everyone laughed.
"Ash, you sure are lucky to have such a great mom!" Brock complimented, and the woman squealed with delight and covered her blushing cheeks with porcelain hands.
"Oh, my!"
"It's true! This food is fantastic! You'll have to give me the recipe for these eggs!" Brock said, but before anything else could be said, a knock sounded from the back screen door. A confused look danced across Delia Ketchum's face.
"I wonder who that could be. I'm not expecting any visitors..." The older Ketchum excused herself from the table and went to investigate, but when she was out of sight, she gave a cry. "Stella! Ash!" Immediately, all three hopped to their feet and hurried to the main parlor to see what was going on. On the other side of the glass door was a Mr. Mime. A big smile was spread across its face as it peered in through the glass, looking up at Mrs. Ketchum with interest. "Stella, I think your Mr. Mime followed us!"
"That's not my Mr. Mime!" Stella pointed out, blinking in confusion.
"Hey, that's that wild Mr. Mime from earlier!" Ash recognized, and immediately, both him and Stella pulled out Poké Balls from their pockets. Seeing this, the wild Mr. Mime flinched back and ducked behind Mrs. Ketchum despite being covered by the sliding door.
"Now, hold on a minute," Ash's mother said sternly enough to make both Trainers lower their arms. Surprising everyone, she opened the door, and the Mr. Mime slowly peered its head in.
"Mime?" it stated, and took in a whiff of the freshly-cooked food before its smile spread wider and its nerves melted away. "Mime, Mr. Mime!"
The auburn-haired woman looked at the Pokémon in thought, and then a knowing smile spread across its face. Taking it by the shoulder, she brought the Pokémon into the living room and sat it down. "I think I know why this Mr. Mime is here. You're hungry, aren't you?"
"Mr. Mime?" the Psychic Pokémon questioned with a cocked head, not even glancing at the others who were watching off to the side with looks of wonder on their face.
Disappearing into the kitchen, Delia brought out a plate of curry and rice, as well as some chicken drumsticks and a flan for dessert and placed them on the table in front of where Mr. Mime had sat. "Here you go!"
"Mr. Mime..." The Barrier Pokémon looked at the spread of food and blinked in confusion.
"I have plenty more if you want seconds!" she offered. The Mr. Mime blinked once again before picking up the main dish and a spoon.
"Mr. Mime?" it uttered before scooping a handful of food onto the spoon and into its mouth. It chewed for a moment before a big smile stretched its lips from ear to ear. "Mime!" It then began to eat without hesitation, and Mrs. Ketchum chuckled at the way it ate.
"You eat much more polite than my son does!" she told it.
"H-hey!" Ash exclaimed, speaking up for the first time since Mr. Mime had entered their house. The sudden outburst from the Pokémon Trainer surprised the Psychic-type, and it quickly jumped up and ducked behind the black-haired Trainer's mother. He raised his eyebrows at the fact that it had hidden behind his mother for protection, but quickly shook these thoughts away and looked at the wild Pokémon. "Mr. Mime, I have some friends at the Pokémon Circus that could really use your help! It would be great if you could go there with us!"
"Miiiime!" the Mr. Mime frantically replied with its head shaking back and forth, but Ash's mother knelt down to look at the Psychic Pokémon at eye level and a sweet look on her face.
"Please help my son, Mr. Mime," she requested. "I'll make you a big dessert if you do!" Instantly, the wild Pokémon perked up at her bargain, and it quickly nodded.
"Mime!"
"Thanks, Mr. Mime!" she thanked, and embraced it. Much to their surprise, the wild Pokémon hugged her back.
"Mr. Mime!"
"I'm supposed to be the Pokémon Trainer..." Ash murmured in annoyance after witnessing this.
o 0 o
For the second time that day, Ash and Brock found themselves at the traveling Pokémon Circus, but this time, with Mrs. Ketchum and their new friend Mr. Mime accompanying them. Ash almost felt bad, knowing firsthand the rough training that Stella commanded. At least he did until he saw how much Mr. Mime had warmed up to his mother. The two were practically inseparable during the trip back, which only sparked a complicated jealousy in the Trainer – both as a son and as a Pokémon Trainer. Nevertheless, he could see how much his mother adored the Psychic Pokémon, and as they walked inside, he grabbed Stella's attention.
"Stella, do 'ya think you could be a little more gentler on Mr. Mime than you were on me?" he asked lightly and carefully.
"I guess that all depends on how quickly Mr. Mime gets the routine," she replied bluntly, and nerves clutched Ash's stomach. What had he just signed the poor wild Pokémon up for?
Everyone stood off to the side while Stella and Mr. Mime stood in the center of the arena. Ash and Brock traded a glance of worry as Stella gave her first orders. Beside them, Delia waved to her new friend. "Good luck, Mr. Mime! You can do it! I believe in you!"
"Mime-Mr. Mime!" it waved back.
"All right, Mr. Mime! Let's see your pantomiming skills!" Stella began. The Barrier Pokémon's beady eyes glanced at Mrs. Ketchum, who nodded in encouragement, and it began to do what its species did best: mime. It raised its hands and rocked back and forth as if standing behind a wall. Already, Stella was already showing considerable restraint and heeding Ash's request since at this point, she had taken out her whip when it was Ash. However, her impatience got the best of her quickly. "Faster, Mr. Mime! You've got do better than that! I want to believe it!"
"M-mime!" The raised volume in her voice surprised the Psychic Pokémon, but it did what it was instructed and began to rock and wave its arms just a bit faster. Even it wasn't sure what to do to make it more believable.
"My Mr. Mime isn't even going to leave its trailer if you don't pick it up! You need to show it how it's done!" Stella yelled, her voice reverberating off the tent. Mr. Mime flinched again, and a nervous look now settled on its face as its hands lowered slightly. It stopped and looked over at Mrs. Ketchum.
"She's kinda harsh, don't you think?" Ash's mother commented, her own look of worry pulling her eyebrows down while one of her hands covered her mouth so the ringmaster wouldn't hear her.
"Don't worry! Stella knows exactly what she's doing!" Brock assured her, though Ash disagreed.
"If she did, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place..."
Mr. Mime stopping its pantomime didn't sit right with the blue-haired ringleader, and with one swing of her arm, she unhooked the whip that was tied underneath the tailcoat of her uniform and struck out. A loud crack from the cord cut through the silence and into Ash's worst memories just below Mr. Mime's feet. "I never told you to stop! Keep going, now!"
"M-m-m-mimmmeeee!" the wild Pokémon cried, now absolutely terrified, and stumbled backwards in shock. The older Ketchum stood up and gasped, and when she did, Mr. Mime turned to her and quickly got to its feet before hurrying toward her.
"Get back here now!" Stella barked, and pulled back her arm before throwing the whip forward to use it to grab Mr. Mime and drag it back. Ash had one leg on the barrier to leap out and help Mr. Mime, but as he drew in air to call out, a flash of pink and white appeared between Mr. Mime and Stella. In a blink of an eye, Stella's more chubby Mr. Mime appeared, and its large hands danced up and down before it. The cord of the whip struck and cracked against thin air, or so it seemed, but Mr. Mime had placed a barrier in front of it so the whip would fall to the ground. Everyone's eyebrows hit the ceiling, and the wild Mr. Mime stumbled to the ground and looked back at its savior.
"Mime?"
"Mime, Mr. Mime!" Stella's Mr. Mime assured it with a smile. Its voice was much deeper than the wild Mr. Mime. Turning back to its Trainer, it glared at her. "Mime! Mr. Mime-mime!"
"Mr. Mime!" Stella breathed, and then smiled. "You came out of your trailer!" Though the happy look wasn't reciprocated.
"Mr. Mime!" it barked at her. When the ringleader stepped forward, it stepped to the side and waved its hands wildly in front of it once again, creating another Barrier attack and making the wall twice as wide.
"M-Mr. Mime? What are you doing?" she questioned.
"Stella, don't you see?" Ash questioned as his mother ran out to comfort the fallen Mr. Mime. "It's protecting Mr. Mime. You're too harsh on your Pokémon, so they don't want to obey you because of it. Trust me, I know just like the others."
"But I have to be harsh, Ash, don't you see?"
"Stella, take it from me. I'm a Pokémon Trainer, and yes, I want my Pokémon to be the best as well so I understand where you're coming from. But I care about my Pokémon deeply, and know that in order for them to grow, I need to understand their needs as well." Stella was quiet for a moment. It seemed as though Ash's words had struck her. She looked from the dark-haired Trainer, and back to her Mr. Mime that was looking at her with a hardened look behind its barriers. Slowly, she fell to her knees.
"But... I do care about my Pokémon..." she murmured. "Is that what you think, Mr. Mime? That I don't care about your needs?" Mr. Mime nodded, and instantly, tears started to form in her eyes. "I-I'm... I'm so sorry. If you forgive me, I won't be so hard on you anymore."
Stella's Mr. Mime studied its Trainer before it finally lowered its arms, and the barriers in front of it disappeared. "Mime..." it said finally with a smile, and walked up to its Trainer.
"Y-you'll... forgive me?" Mr. Mime nodded, and she quickly wiped the tears from her face before embracing her Pokémon and now crying tears of joy. "Oh, thank you!" A blush appeared on Mr. Mime's face, and it hugged her back.
Behind them, Ash, Brock, and Ash's mother stood with smiles on their faces at the scene, the latter resting her hand on the wild Mr. Mime's shoulder. "Oh, I'm so glad," Delia said, and smiled down at the Psychic-type. "And it's all thanks to my little Mimey."
"Your Mimey?!" Ash echoed, flinching back.
"That's its nickname! Isn't it cute?" The black-haired Trainer was taken aback, and only let out a yelp as he looked between the two.
o 0 o
The sun was taking its final bow for the day and disappearing behind the familiar mountains bordering Pallet Town, and Ash and Brock were sitting in the dining room of the Ketchum residence. The table was empty, but the smell of food filled the household, being cooked not by Delia, but by Mr. Mime – or as it was known by her, Mimey. It wore a green apron which it adorned like a warrior would with battle armor, and standing beside it and smiling proudly while instructing it on what to do, Mrs. Ketchum was smiling from ear to ear.
"It's so nice to have a Mr. Mime around the house!" she squealed with her hands together in delight.
"Mr. Mime!"
"That Mr. Mime is getting to be like a member of the family!" Brock commented with a chuckle.
"Hey, Ash! Could I borrow one of your Poké Balls?" his mother asked, stepping out from the kitchen while leaving Mr. Mime to stir the stew that was being cooked on the stove.
"Uh, what for?"
"To make it official, of course! Mimey is officially part of the Ketchum team!"
"But I'm supposed to be the Pokémon Trainer!" Ash whined, and everyone gave a hearty laugh while the boy let out a defeated sigh.
-end-
Ash:
Party:
Blastoise (Poké Ball)
Moves: Skull Bash, Dig, Hydro Pump, BubbleBeam
Pidgeotto (Poké Ball)
Moves: Gust, Quick Attack, Whirlwind, Double-Edge
Bulbasaur (Poké Ball)
Moves: SolarBeam, Vine Whip, Razor Leaf, Leech Seed
Charmander (Poké Ball)
Moves: Flamethrower, Fire Spin, Skull Bash, Ember
Tauros (Safari Ball)
Moves: Fissure
Primeape (Poké Ball)
Moves: Thrash, Mega Kick, Scratch, Seismic Toss
At Professor Oak's Lab:
Muk (Poké Ball)
Moves:
Tauros (Safari Ball)
Moves:
Krabby (Poké Ball)
Moves: ViceGrip
Badges:
Boulder Badge
Cascade Badge
Thunder Badge
Marsh Badge
Rainbow Badge
Soul Badge
Volcano Badge
Earth Badge
Brock:
Party:
Onix (Poké Ball)
Moves: Tackle, Bind, Dig
Geodude (Poké Ball)
Moves: Seismic Toss, Tackle
Zubat (Poké Ball)
Moves: Whirlwind, Supersonic
Psyduck (Poké Ball)
Moves: Tail Whip, Water Gun, Disable, Confusion
Vulpix (Poké Ball)
Moves: Fire Spin, Flamethrower, Agility
