A.N. Sorry for the late update! Going through a period of the dreadful writer's block. :/ Thanks for reading! I promise to do my best not to be overly detailed on minor things such as breakfast so that this story can get moving! Feedback is more than appreciated and welcomed. I just wanted to get back in the groove of writing and will make the next chapter longer due to a long twist ahead!
Disclaimer: I own nothing in regards to ownership of Pokemon except merchandise!
Ash looked over at the clock on the nightstand to see that it was 6:42 in the morning. The lights were already pouring underneath his door and he stretched as he positioned his body upright. Dratini was in her signature spot by his legs and the other three were on the floor; Riolu already doing exercises.
"Good morning, young Ash," said Riolu through telepathy as he momentarily stopped his routine. "I am glad that I did not sense any unpleasant dreams."
"So am I," commented the boy as he rubbed his head. He began to put on his clothes and yawned once again. He reached over to his pants and saw something sticking out of the pocket. He looked and saw that they were the tickets he got yesterday. "Wow, I totally forgot about this," he trailed off as he was about to put his pants on. He took off his socks and examined his foot. There was a little dried up blood, but not much, so he decided to go ahead and clean the area before starting his day. After doing so he got dressed and decided to put all his Pokemon in their balls until he reached the cafeteria. He walked over to the counter and was greeted by the smile that covered Nurse Joy's face.
"Hi, Nurse Joy, have you seen Erika?" asked Ash.
"Actually, yes; I saw her walk out of the center at about twenty minutes ago," said the nurse.
"Well, I shall think about that later," said Ash to no one as he headed for the lift that lead to the cafeteria. He went inside it and went to the basement where it was surprisingly crowded at this early hour. It was a buffet and they had a bar with a wide selection of berries for Pokemon, which trainers were feeding their beloved comrades. Ash ordered a different variety of berries for his four friends and a stack of pancakes with turkey bacon. Once the food arrived, he let out all four of them, noting that Clefairy seemed much more placid and collected today, and they began to indulge on their most important meal of the day.
"I wonder what Erika could be doing now if Nurse Joy saw her leave not too long ago?" thought Ash as he let out a long sigh of concern.
"She might be getting fresh air since it is a nice day," commented Dratini through telepathy as she munched on some more berries. "At least, for now."
"What do you mean 'at least for now'?" asked Ash as he took a bite out of the bacon.
"Well, I'm detecting rain in the forecast later today," she answered as she resumed her breakfast. Riolu nodded in confirmation that he felt the same. "The exact time, I don't know, but those who can detect aura, such as Riolu and me, can feel the atmosphere changing."
"Well, that should give us even more motivation to start as soon as possible," said Ash as he patted his stomach in satisfaction. "I just hope Erika's okay; I mean, she is old enough to take care of herself, but..."
"Clefairy," said the little fairy Pokemon as she patted her trainer's leg. It was enough to bring a smile to anybody's face, which Ash calmly did with a small chuckle.
"You're right, I'm just getting a little worked up is all," he said. "Is everybody satisfied with breakfast?" They all nodded. "Okay, now's a good enough time for us to train before our battle with Misty first thing tomorrow morning." He recalled all four of them and got up after leaving a tip and headed towards the lift and released another sigh as he pressed the button.
"It sounds weird to say this, but I'm addicted to her smile; it's so...relaxing," thought Ash as he stepped out of the elevator and headed to the door without any drama, unlike yesterday. He loooked at the clock that was directly above the door and saw that it was 7:50. As soon as he stepped out, a hot humidity immediately, rushed over his body, the kind that he was familiar with: the one that indicated that a major storm was approaching, but he did not see any clouds in the distance. Many young trainers were also leaving nearby houses in the suburbs to explore the city for Pokemon before the midday heat kicked in.
"Now, let's see..." said Ash to himself quietly as he looked around. "Should I battle a trainer or search for a new Pokemon? I haven't even battled using Clefairy yet, so it may be a good idea to let her out and experience one, whether a trainer or wild Pokemon. I still have a little over two hours before the show starts, so I should stay nearby. I saw a saw a large field and forest near the western outskirts of the city that we drove past yesterday on the motorbike, so-"
All the sudden, a loud noise in the distance caught Ash's attention. He looked across the river and saw the guard who was keeping watch in front of the mysterious dungeon turn around and opened the heavy metal gate. Ash could not fully make out who the figure was, but he saw the back of his clothing which consisted of a black cape.
"Who was that guy?" Ash muttered under his breath, Unfortunately, no one was around to answer his question and he shrugged it off, deciding to head west as he had recently decided. He looked across the river at the guard who blandly returned his look with a face that could be translated as "There's nothing to see, so move along." After about four minutes of walking, Ash finally reached his destination and scanned the field for any potential trainers or Pokemon who would serve as a good warm-up for the next day. He saw a bug catcher like Akio who was currently training a Caterpie and a Metapod, and a girl who had a cute little Jigglypuff frolicking through the field and laughing; it made him feel good that people could get along so well with their Pokemon.
The field did not harbor any promising Pokemon, as most of them were weak targets such as Pidgey, Sandshrew, Ekans, and Nidoran of both genders. Well, maybe not entirely weak; Nidoran male and female respectfully evolve into Nidoking and Nidoqueen, who both happened to be quite uncommon, and they did need a moon stone, which he posseed, but...was catching Clefairy the proper thing to do? Granted that he saved her from the clutches of Team Rocket, he did not wether or not she would be happy with him as a trainer.
He stepped out of the field and proceeded to go to the forest, or more like a thicket; it was no where near as dense as Viridian forest, so it would virtually seem impossible for him to get lost. The "forest" was well-illuminated in contrast to Viridian forest, so it was a lot easier to see the Pokemon that roamed the area. The diversity near the entrance was unsurprisngly limited to just bug Pokemon, mostly Caterpies, Weedles, Metapods, Kakunas, and even a few that Ash had never seen before.
"I wonder ifI should annoy the Kakunas and make them evolve to Beedrill?" said Ash quietly. "At least that would give my team a good challenge and know how to deal with Beedrill in the future if Erika isn't around. Speaking of whom, I wonder where she had gone off to early this morning."
At this point, the humidity was getting almost unbearable, but that was expected in late August in the morning. About 25 minutes have passed and Ash was about to just give up and come back in the evening when the heat subsided (assuming that it had already rained like Dratini predicted) until he saw something lying on the ground. He went over to it and investigated it.
"Say, this looks like one of those TM's like Brock and Ben gave me," he said as he turned it around. It had a yellowish hue and he thought that maybe it was an electric move since ice punch was a frosty blue and rock slide was an earth grey color. "I wonder if anybody is missing it?"
However, being the curious boy that he was, and remembering the advice that Brock had told him about it being capable of used infinitely many times, he figured it would be no harm if he used it (assuming any of his team members were compatible) and then set the disk back where he found it.
"Okay, so they said that you place the Pokeball in this circular dent," he said as he took out the first Pokeball, which happened to be Clefairy. "Let's see what happens when I..." He placed it in the dent and the box beeped.
"Thunderbolt is compatible with Clefairy. Now processing data," said the machine with an electronic voice similar to that of his Pokedex.
"Cool," said Ash as he took out Dratini's Pokeball. "If she can learn thunder wave, I don't see why she couldn't learn thunderbolt!" He placed it on the dent and the machine started talking.
"Dratini is capable of knowing only five moves. Her current moves are: 1, wrap, 2, leer, 3, twister, 4, slam, and 5, thunder wave. Which move should Dratini forget in order to learn thunderbolt?"
"Hmm," thought Ash. "Twister and thunderbolt are both special moves, and thunderwave is guaranteed to inflict paralysis. Slam is a powerful physical attack and wrap renders the target immobile like thunderwave. I think I am gonna make her forget...leer!" He pressed number 2 and the machine began making different beeping noises compared to when Clefairy learned it, plus it took about 10 seconds compared to Clefairy's 3.
"Dratini has forgotten leer and has now learned thunderbolt," responded the TM before inactivating. Keeping his promise, Ash set it back where he found it and examined both of the females' red and white balls. It then gave him idea; he also had ice punch and rock slide, and he believed that Riolu was capable of knowing them. Once he was finished, the LCD screen displayed Riolu's current moves: Quick Attack, seismic toss, force palm, ice punch, and rock slide.
He tossed them and let the three of them come out.
"Hey, girls, and Riolu, great to see you three," he said as the two females began to rub his left leg with affection, Dratini more so than the little fairy since she knew him longer. Riolu immediately started doing some foot work with clenched paws ready for action.
"Ooh, Ash, I'm feeling really pumped right about now. I need to let loose some steam," spoke Riolu to his mind.
"Same here," agreed Dratini with a nod.
"Fairy, Clefairy, Clefairy," said the very light pink fairy.
"I'm glad that you said that, Riolu, because what we're gonna do now are some training exercises," explained Ash. "As you three already know, I've taught some technical machines to you that contain new moves. Our battle with Misty is tomorrow, and we need to devise a good strategy within an hour and half before the performance of the Sensational Sisters."
"Let's get started!" cheered Riolu through telepathy.
"Right! Riolu, this exercise may hurt your fists a bit, but it's the only way to really bring out your full potential," advised Ash.
"No problem, like you humans say, 'No pain, no gain.'" responded the bipedal canine with a smile.
"All right, I want you to get on the top of that hill and use use rock slide. Then, run down the hill and try to break them with ice punch when you're at the bottom to add extra momentum," ordered Ash. "I'll take you to the Pokemon center afterwards if your hand hurts to bad."
"All right, sounds like a good challenge," said Riolu with a chuckle. With a quick attack, he bolted up to the top and initiated rock slide by summoning a few spherical boulders of about 45 pounds to drop down. He quickly ran as fast as he could back down the base of the hill and transferred the heat in his hand to the environment as his fist began to glow icy blue. He lunged his fist at a boulder, causing it to stop and encasing part of it in ice. The other boulders rolled down past the four living beings and went into the forest and a few seconds later, they heard a thud; they must have collided with large trees and stopped. Riolu removed his fist and Ash stood silent for a minute.
"Riolu, are you okay?" asked the raven-haired boy.
"Yeah, I feel fine, but I'm sorry I couldn't break it," he apologized as he massaged his slightly damaged paw.
"It's okay, it's all part of training," reassured Ash. "Dratini, Clefairy, ready to do some training with thun-" he started before all the sudden, he heard it. The sound of those familiar beating wings. "BEEDRILLS!" he shouted at the top of his lungs as they were exiting the forest; there must have been at least 15 of them. He saw that there was a nearby stream at least 10 feet deep; although the doctors told him to stay out of water, it was either this or face the wrath of the Beedrills.
"Come on, into the balls!" ordered Ash. Dratini, Riolu, and Clefairy shook their heads.
"No, we will use our new attacks to protect you and stop them," said Dratini through telepathy.
"Right! Let's do it! Dratini, Clefairy, use thunderbolt at full power to stop the first wave of them! Fight however you like afterwards. Riolu, crush them with rock slide and stop 'em with ice punch!"
The bodies of Dratini and Clefairy, the latter with clenched fists, began to glow a yellowish tinge and they released a huge blast of electric charge at the Beedrills, stopping about 8 of them. The rest of them and more flew past the fallen and began to go after Ash.
"Scyther, I need you to be my bodyguard!" yelled Ash as he released the mantis. "Wing attack them!"
"Scyther!" shouted the mantis. His wings glowed white and he threw two shock waves at two Beedrills who where charging Ash; luckily, the attack connected and he was saved.
"Thanks a lot, buddy," he said with a smile. Scyther nodded. Ash looked out how the others were doing; around Riolu lay about five fallen Beedrills, threre of them were underneath heavy boulders and two were frozen from the ice punch. Around Dratini and Clefairy were about 10 other Beedrills besides the ones that they had hit with thunderbolt. Dratini had conjured up several twisters and knocked down a lot of them while Clefairy was double-slapping the crap out of a Beedrill that she had sung to sleep. Scyther was still slicing and dicing some with wing attack. No more were exiting the forest, so it was safe to say that they had defeated the swarm.
Ash looked into the forest and saw...
"Erika!" he shouted with joy as he saw his indigo-haired companioin. She easily could have heard Ash's voice, but she did not acknowledge it. Ash began to wonder why she was walking around so aimlessly and distracted, especially when there was a Beedrill swarm!
"Erika, you gotta get outta there! There might be more Beedrill!" warned Ash. He vigorously stumpled over to Erika and saw that a Beedrill was approaching her from behind! She gingerly moved her head with a small giggle.
"I'll save you!" he shouted as he let go of his crutches and tackled her to the ground! Fortunately, the Beedrill missed by only about five inches, and the three other Pokemon finished it off so it wouldn't try to harm their trainer.
"Erika, are you okay?" he asked. She said nothing. "What's the matter with you? You could've-" He stopped himself when he saw that his hand was near the seat of her dress! He immediately sweat dropped and laughed sheepishly. Strangely enough, she did not slap him like most girls would; in fact, her face looked frozen.
"Erika, I am so sorry for touching you there!" apologized Ash, asking for her forgiveness. He then retracted his hand and felt something...oddly fluffy and soft on her dress. "What's this?" he said out of curiosity. He heard a warbly sound and a flash of light and Erika was gone!
"What is going on!?" he shouted a bit scared. The warbly noise and the light stopped and in front of Ash stood...
"Zoroa," said the Pokedex that he had just taken out, "the tricky fox Pokemon. Level: 18, gender: male. This dark-type is found normally in the region of Unova. They like to pull pranks on both people and Pokemon by disguising themselves into different species of Pokemon, as well as humans, with the use of illusion. They do it out of fun and mean no harm. While transformed, their tail remains and touching it reverts them back to them true identity."
"Yeah, that sure was fun," muttered Ash sarcastically. Despite the fact that this little black fox impersonated his dear companion Erika, the situation would have been a lot more humorous if there was not a deadly swarm of Beedrills chasing him! But he realized that this little canine did not mean any harm. Ash took another look at the dark-type and his other four Pokemon came to his side.
"Ash, are you okay?" replied Dratini with worried eyes.
"I'm fine, but I wonder why he changed into Erika...unless, she came by here not long before we did!" said Ash. "It says you are from Unova. How did you get here?"
"I did not mean to cause trouble, Ash," said the Zorua through telepathy.
"You can speak through telepathy just like Riolu and Dratini!" observed Ash. "Tell me about yourself."
"My trainer is from the region Unova like your red computer said," started Zorua. "We came here because he has family that lives here and he wanted to see the Sensational Sisters. My trainer is a bit, for lack of better word, incompetent. He's a kind-hearted boy that knows that we Zoruas are very mischevious and love to explore the area, but he never keeps me in a Pokeball and treats me like a pet and never battles with me. It's so boring living with him! He's still asleep now and I like to get out when he doesn't know it and return before he wakes up."
"Interesting," said Ash as he scratched his chin. "Tell me, why did you transform into that girl you just were?"
"Well, I was getting really bored and I saw her walking by through the forest. I guess she was searching for Pokemon. She was the only human around, so I then turned into her and decided to tease some of the bug-types around these parts. The boulders that rolled into the forest shook the trees and disturbed a colony of Kakunas, so I hid out of sight. I saw your skills from the bushes and you are a well-trained boy."
"But why were you just standing there frozen when the Beedrill was coming towards you?" asked Ash.
"I heard a rumor once that Beedrill attack only those who show resistance, so I stayed motionless," said the black canine Pokemon with telepathy. "I guessed that I was proven wrong. Thanks for knocking me out of the way, cause we dark-types are real weak to bugs."
"It's no problem, really," said Ash as he rubbed the soft head of the mammal Pokemon. "By the way, did Erika drop that TM?" He pointed to the box that was lying against a tree.
Zorua shook his head. "No, that was here before I got here, and-"
"Zorua!" said a boy of about Ash's age. (Looks like a Youngster from Gen 1 games).
"Hey, is this your Pokemon?" replied Ash a bit rhetorically since he knew more than likely the boy would say yes. Ash returned his four Pokemon
"Yeah, this is my Zorua," he said with a nod. "I started looking all over for you, Zorua. Come on, let's get ready for the Sensational Sisters' show. We have 35 minutes."
Zorua took a few steps back and shook his head no.
"Oh, come on, you'll like it," urged the trainer with a small chuckle. "Lily's so cute! I hope to get her autograph."
The black vulpine Pokemon still shook his head.
"Don't be like that. It'll be fun."
"I think your Zorua...doesn't want to go with you anymore," said Ash as he tilted his head down with disappointment.
"Is that true, Zorua?" said the boy with a frown. "Y-you don't wanna be my Pokemon anymore?"
Zorua implied his telepathy so that both Ash and the other boy could understand. "Even though I am a Pokemon, to you, Jake, I am your pet. You spoil me with toys, soothing baths, and gourmet meals. I mean, I had a lot of fun and enjoyment in the beginning, but...I just don't think I'm cut out to be a pet. The routine of being a stay-at-home Zorua doesn't please. I want to go on a journey, like Ash here."
Jake gasped and his eyes almost seemed to water. "Is...is that what you truly feel? That I'm a bad trainer?"
"No, of course not; you just don't make me feel like my true self," explained Zorua. "I love you a lot, but I just don't feel like this lifestyle you provide is not my calling."
"If that's the way you feel, I guess I can release you into the wild and let somebody else take care of you," said Jake sadly.
"Wait, I have an idea," said Ash. "Why not have a battle to release your strength and make it interesting?"
Zorua wagged his tail and nodded.
"Okay, let's get this started!" said Ash as he took out a Pokeball. "Go, Clefairy!"
The little normal-type (she'll remain normal type throughout the whole story and future stories) came out of her ball and jumped around with glee.
Zorua arched his back and lunged straight towards Clefairy with extended claws and raked them across Clefairy's stomach. She squeaked and flinched at the pain.
"Clefairy, you stood up against Beedrill today! You can fend off Zorua!" said Ash. "Sing and double-slap him!"
"Clefairrrry!" she began to sing as she continuously said her name in a soothing voice. It was enough to help someone suffering with insomnia.
Zorua, on the other hand, had plenty of energy and he had burrowed underground to defend himself from the song. He dug another hole and appeared above ground and his body began emitting a black energy towards Clefairy! It collided with her and she fell backwards, but not defeated.
"Wow, I didn't know Zorua knew dark pulse!" said Jake with a smile.
"All right, it may be a gamble, but use metronome!" ordered Ash.
Clefairy wiggled her fingers in a mesmerizing fashion back and forth, causing Zorua to sit there with an open mouth in awe as if in a trance. This continued for about ten seconds and Clefairy stopped..
Ash and Jake both gulped since metronome did not have any limits as there were well over 500 known moves. Clefairy spit out a round green-like object from her mouth and flung it at Zorua. Zorua did not move since he thought it was just going to hit him softly and do nothing else, but what happened was quite different. The object landed on Zorua's head and extended vines that wrapped his whole body, leaving him temporarily paralyzed!
"Oh! Leech seed!" said Jake surprised.
"Zorr!" shouted Zorua in pain as he felt his strength dwindling.
"Clefairy, use double-slap at full power!" ordered Ash.
Clefairy rushed over to Zorua, who still had his health sucked from leech seed, and started slapping Zorua like there was no tomorrow. This continued for about five seconds until Zorua could no longer stand the pain.
"Pokeball, go!" said Ash as he threw it at Zorua. The ball shook for about four seconds until it clicked shut. Ash walked with his crutches and bent over to pick up the ball. "I just captured a Zorua!" he cheered as well as Clefairy.
Jake walked over to Ash and put his hand on his shoulder. "Take care of my little buddy, okay? Make sure he gets plenty of exercise and don't let him out of the Pokeball when you go to sleep or he may run away."
"Okay, I'll make sure to give him all the proper attention like I do to my Pokemon," said Ash with a nod.
"Hopefully one day I shall see you again. I live in Striaton City in the Unova region."
"I am sure that one day we will meet again," reassured Ash with a smile. "Now, if you don't mind, I've gotta get to the Pokemon center and heal my friends before the Sensational Sisters. We just battled a swarm of Beedrills and got a lot of training in!"
"Whoa, I bet you're quite exhausted already," said Jake. "Right, I'll see you soon in front of the Cerulean gym!"
The two boys made their seperate ways. Ash headed to the Pokemon center and saw that Erika was sitting rather comfortably in a nice arm chair.
"Hey, Ash, where have you been?" asked Erika as she walked up to the boy who had already made his way to the counter.
"I could say the same for you," said Ash as he handed the five balls to Nurse Joy. "Did you catch any Pokemon?"
"Unfortunately, no, I didn't encounter any grass-types that suited my taste. And I see that you've got five Pokeballs!" exclaimed Erika. "What did you catch?"
"A Pokemon from a distant region; he was actually a trainer's, but the trainer made the Pokemon feel...uncomfortable, for the lack of a better word," explained Ash as he clipped all five to his belt.
"Have you got the tickets?" she asked.
"Right here," he said, flashing them in front of her face with a grin.
"Great, let's get going before we get caught in the midst of a crowd," said Erika. Ash nodded and they both walked out.
It was already 9:48 and the masses of people surrounded the entrance of gym, as if it were the entrance of a store during the discount period before Christmas.
"Are they really this popular?" asked Ash, although the question was a bit rhetorical.
"Yes, they normally run out of tickets in the first week they go on sale."
"Cool, it must be exciting," said Ash as he showed his ticket to a man at the door. They followed the line of people and waited until they reached the doors where the two trainers showed the tickets to the doorman. They did not know where to go, so they just followed the group of people until they reached the gym floor which double overed as a theatre for the multitud of spectators. They finally found a spot in the bleachers of the stadium and sat down; nearly ever spot was taken and the people of the audience was conversing among themselves.
As soon as the time reached 10:00, the lights began to dim and a voice on a PA system said: "Ladies and gentleman, we are proud to hold the water Pokemon rendition of 'The Enchanted Mermaid Princess'!" (it's based off a children's book in their universe) "Also, no Pokemon are harmed in this production physically or mentally."
A few people murmured at the last comment, oblivious to the fact that they did not read this part in the pamphlet that they were given upon entering the arena. All the sudden, the tiles around the pool began to move and a huge water-filled glass tank of dimensions the same of an olympic diving pool rose from the floor. It was quite a spectacle for Ash and everyone else.
The voice on the PA resumed: "Okay, so once upon a time, in the beautiful coral reafs off the coast of Seafoam Island existed a lovely mermaid who made friends with all the water Pokemon in the area." On the 10 m diving board stood Lily in a mermaid costume. She hopped to the edge and placed a breathing apparatus over her mouth (like they used in anime) and jumped in. A lot of water-types began to swim around her, such as Shellder, Cloyster, Vaporeon, Goldeen, and a few others Ash didn't know. "Her best friend, Poliwag, kept her company on the many fun-filled hours." Lily then got into a large clam shell and its lid closed, indicating that she was sleeping.
"The water Pokemon are cool, but to me, this show is getting kinda boring. At least the tickets were free," thought Ash to himself. "The only reason why I'm really here is because they gave them to me and Erika for free. Other than that, I would be out training with Dratini and the rest. Maybe I should give them the illusion that I'm paying attention and come up with a strategy of how to defeat Misty. I really could just shock them with Dratini or Clefairy's thunderbolt, but I should be fair and let Zorua have a go. Plus, I don't want Erika to see thunderbolt, cus she may think I stole it, and I have a feeling that attack may be useful one day. I just have an odd feeling about here."
After Ash had finally finished thinking, he saw that Violet had entered the water wearing a scuba suit equipped with an actual breathing tank and a mask. He also saw that she pulled out a toy dagger from her waist.
"The pirate no longer wanted to put up with the mermaids lack of cooperation and decided to take action into her own hands," said the voice on the PA.
"Since you aren't listening to reason," began Violet, "maybe you'll change your tune when I take your Poliwag hostage!" She took out a gun from her waist and fired it at Poliwag who was trying to flee. But the gun sent out a nest that wrapped up the poor Poliwag and she grabbed it. She then transfered the tadpole Pokemon into a metal cage that could not be broken by ordinary Pokemon and laughed as she pointed the dagger at Poliwag. The other Pokemon of the coral reef surrounded Lily and Violet with angry looks on their faces.
"No!" cried Lily with theoretical tears in her eyes. "Please release my Poliwag. Why would you hurt such a sweet Pokemon? She's never done anything to you!"
"Call off your other friends and show me the treasure unless you want your friend here to have a very bad day!" Violet said angrily as she very gently poked Poliwag's spiraled stomach with the toy dagger. The audience began to whisper among themselves in fear of the outwardly defenseless, poor Poliwag who secretly was having a lot of fun.
"I guess I have no choice," sighed Lily. "I couldn't live with myself without Poliwag. Let's just get this over with."
"And no funny business, if you know what's good for your little amphibian Pokemon," said Violet with a smug look.
"I almost hate to admit it, but this is getting really interesting," thought Ash to himself. He turned to look at Erika who had her hands clasped over her mouth in shock, the suspense clearly having a more powerful affect on her.
Both Violet the pirate and Lily the mermaid swam to a corner of the pool where a Tentacruel, whose tentacles where wrapped around the treasure for safe keeping, eyed the two humans and the trapped Poliwag who winked at the jellyfish. A few people in the audience chuckled at the playful Poliwag's antics. With the force of all 80 tentacles, there was no way the Tentacruel was letting go of his treasure.
"The Kraken was a relatively peaceful Tentacruel who also engaged in many fun-filled hours with the mermaid, but come night time, his purpose was to fend all invaders off from obtaining the treasure.
"Kraken, you must hand over the treasure to this pirate or she'll kill Poliwag!" said Lily with anxiety. The Kraken did not obey his mermaid friend and held onto the treasure even tighter.
"Kill?" replied Violet. "I was just gonna take your Poliwag and sell her on the market, I don't have it in me to kill."
"That's the story they always say," thought Ash. "Now, I want to give the element of surprise to Misty. Since I know that she is going to use water-types, a full-out thunderbolt may work, but...A true master knows to use strategy versus an obvious type advantage. Mmm, still tired. Might...doze off a little..."
Erika looked over to her side and saw that her raven-haired friend had been snoozing for a while. She elbowed him gently, causing him to gasp and wake up. Daisy was in the water wearing a prince costume with her hair tucked in to look a lot shorter.
"The handsome prince of the neighboring lagoon did not want the beautiful mermaid to be harmed so they began to fight over the treasure and the Poliwag," said the voice on the PA.
"Release the Poliwag, now!" said the prince as Daisy pulled out a fake rapier from her waist and pointed it at Violet.
(I'm gonna get to the end of the play now because it's irrelevant to the story. Sorry to disappoint.)
The room flooded with applause as the play finally came to the end. The pool lowered back into the ground and returned to its normal state and the three teenage girls got out and took a bow to all their adoring fans. Some of the more love-struck boys even threw bouquets of roses and other beautiful arrangements at them, which they graciously accepted. The jam-packed audience then left the bleachers and headed for the exit of the stadium and the arena was completely empty in about fifteen minutes. Ash and Erika remained seated so that they wouldn't get trampled on by the masses.
As soon as they left, Ash and Erika made their way down to the pool where the three girls stood with smiles on their faces and plenty of flowers in their arms.
"What a spectacular performance of theatre!" said Erika was her hands clasped together. "I loved how the mermaid's Poliwag and the prince's Marril fell in love just like their owners!"
"It was surpringly good, I'll admit," smiled Ash.
"I'm glad that you liked it!" said Violet with a warm smile across her face. "I loved that book when I was a child, so I made a few alterations to make it more creative."
"This show is one of our biggest sell-outs up to date, and the critics are sure to praise us," said Daisy with a smile. "We use the money we get to finance the gym, and-"
She got interrupted when all the sudden, slow clapping echoed across the walls of the room. They looked across the room and there stood a girl with orange hair in a side pony-tail, denim shorts and a yellow tube-top. She walked in view of Ash, Erika, and the three girls. The three girls gasped.
"Misty!" said the three sisters.
"Bravo! Encore! Again, again!" Misty said with a hint of sarcasm. "If it isn't like my sisters to bask in their glory. Keep in mind that I am the gym leader here and I also help bring in the money to keep this water show going."
"Um, like, what are you doing here?" started Lily with a confused look. The other two older sisters nodded. "You said you wouldn't get home until, like, later this afternoon."
"Change of plans. I was having a strong urge to get back to the gym and use these new water-types I just caught."
"Let me be your first challenger, Misty!" said Ash. "I'm Ash from Pallet Town and I accept your challenge."
Misty giggled at the boy with a smirk on her face. "Very well, Ash. Why not have a two-on-two battle?"
"You're on!" said Ash.
A.N. Okay, that was a warm-up chapter since I have been having a bit of trouble thinking of what to write. Next chapter will involve the gym battle (all of it) and the twist that throws Ash off course from what would be considered canon to both anime and even the game! Have a nice evening/day!