Disclaimer - I don't own Pokemon or any of its characters; only the idea belongs to me.
Somethings, Never Change
Cerulean City, 13th November
It was well past eight when he joined Misty while she made her last round to check-up on Gym Pokémon and turn-off the lights.
After a quick lunch and long explanation about their journey so far, Misty had caught up on the situation; she only wished she had another way to deal with it.
"You know, roaming about like this when everyone is supposed to go to bed will only cause panic amongst my sisters, right?" She calmly asked as she checked up on Dewgong and patted him on his head, the Pokémon nuzzled her hand a bit before diving back into the tank for the night.
"I just want to know what you have decided," Gary asked, lending her some help in checking the ventilation of the tanks.
"Gary" Misty started and flicked two of the three lights off & turned towards him "I told you before only, as much as I believe something like this is happening; I cannot just leave everything and get on road just to satisfy my curiosity. The league season is at its peak and many trainers will be coming in for their gym battles; I need to be here for that"
"You and I both know that's a bullshit reason" Gary rolled his eyes as he left the room and crossed into the hallway "You are just being a scaredy cat right now, nothing else"
"Why are you so hell bent on me joining anyways?" She huffed as she walked past him towards the living quarters. "You have already gathered quite a platoon for your mountaineering adventure. You don't need me there"
"That's where you are wrong, you know more about the area than anyone here does" Gary muttered falling in steps with her "You were the one who pointed out the ruins behind Mt. Moon to be like the description made in the book. Obviously, your help will be very important."
"I don't know Gary." She stopped and looked at him giving a small smile, "My gut is telling me to completely ignore this, so that is what I am doing"
"What's with you, ashy and guts" Gary groaned, Misty gave him a sharp look with an eyebrow raised at the mention of her best friend.
"What's with Ash?" She asked.
"He also said something along the same lines, though his was a bit of mess" Gary sniggered.
"So, he does have self-preservation instincts" Misty chucked as well and again started towards her room.
"But his actions are not" Gary pointed out "I mean I told him he could turn back from Lavender Town itself, but he still followed me here"
"Sounds like him, alright"
Frustrated that she was not even considering joining the group, Gary decided to take on a different approach. If spending time with Misty had taught him something, it was that she had strong instincts of a mother-hen and she would do anything to make sure her friends stay out of danger. She has time and again proved to be the support system to those near her; that mostly was evident though her travels with the Raven-haired teen whom she called her best friend.
"But not taking any action while knowing something wrong could be going on, doesn't sound like you" Gary said as he came to stop in front of the guest room that was assigned to him & the boys, "I mean the Misty I know would have had her bag ready by now knowing her friends are heading head first into some unknown scenario; it was bad as is with me – for all that I can do for my curiosity but now we even have Ash in the mix; Arceus knows that boy needs someone to pull his ear and stop him from climbing the mountain like an Aipom." He looked at Misty, who now seemed to give his words some consideration, for the final blow he tried to sign out loudly and said, "Anyway, we will meet soon if we survive our trip to Mt. Moon and beyond. Night Red!"
He did not even wait for her to answer as he opened the door and entered the room, a smirk pasted on his face. Goh, the only awake occupant of the room, looked at Gary with raised eyebrows not understanding what all that conversation was about. Gary in turn gave him a two fingered salute and made his way to his already laid out sleeping bag.
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Cerulean City, 14th November, 4AM
"Is everyone ready?" Tracey asked, as he secured his backpack and turned to face others. They were in the lobby of the Cerulean city Gym, about to head out for their trek to Mt Moon.
"Almost ready," Gary said as he looked at his watch. "Just a few more minutes."
"Did you forget something?" Goh asked
"Not something, but someone will be joining us" He replied. And Goh suddenly remembered the snippet of conversation he heard last night, knowing who he was talking about and what that was all about
"Who?"
"Me." Mistry entered the lobby followed by Daisy.
"But what about the challenges?" Daisy asked, looking a bit scared at what was about to come. Because Misty joining the group would only mean one thing.
"You will handle them, of course" Misty smiled sweetly at her sister, but it soon turned into a sinister smile as she hugged her sister goodbye "And you know right, what will happen if I find out the badges were just handed out to any challengers without a proper battle?"
"Yes, of course" Daisy shrieked at the tone. Misty was scary when she wanted to be, and the elder sisters had learned it the hard way.
"Then let's get going, what are we waiting for?" Misty turned towards the door and led the group out of the Gym.
"Good to know you joined us, Red" Gary sniggered as they made their way to the bus stop. The bus will take them to the outskirts of the city, near the base of Mt Moon. Misty only glared at him in return
"Oh!" Ash exclaimed as he fell in step beside her. "Should have known it was you who would believe Gary, other than me that is"
"Yeah, because we are just as crazy as he is." Misty rolled her eyes.
"And there is another one of the crazies, Oh joy!" Leaf muttered. There was something about Misty that Leaf did not like. This was their first-time meeting, but since yesterday Leaf found her not so pleasing. She was too smooth a talker than was natural, not to mention the girl had a short fuse and would blow up every so often. Both the qualities, Leaf was not a big fan of.
Misty heard the comment but decided not to retort. For her, the other girl was just a nuisance, someone who thought the world was below her. If it helped, Misty tried to avoid such girls at all cost.
Suddenly, there was a tense atmosphere that drew on the group, the weight of which made their short bus ride to the base of the mountain difficult.
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Mt Moon Base, 14th November, 9:30 AM
When they reached the base of Mt Moon, they set up a small camp discuss their further strategy.
"You are telling me - we are going on a rabbit hunt without a plan? This is plain insane" Leaf had huffed when they had got off the bus, that made them all stop and agree to what she said. That's how they found themselves sitting in a small circle, with a map of Mt Moon and surrounding, throwing around ideas.
"We can't go through the mountain, it'll only take us to the other side of it, to Pewter City. We need to head to the north" Gary told them as he pointed to the hilly area on the map.
"We could take this route -" Misty pointed out a small path barely visible on the map, "It's not a concrete road, it's mostly just caused by Pokémon going around, but it should lead us to the northern ranges"
"But if I'm not wrong, the Northern ranges of Kanto consist a cluster of 20 or 30 mountains. Do you even know which one among those are we searching for or even that is all up in the clouds?" Leaf asked, looking at Gary.
"That's true" Goh nodded in agreement, ignoring the jab at Gary. It was fun to see someone put Gary in his place ever so often, and as much as Goh loved to see it first hand, they had important matters to attend. He can always enjoy that after they are done with this mystery.
He looked at the data he had on the said Mountain ranges and the map laid out in front of them, "It also says that the estimated time of going around all these mountains without any interruption is total of four months and three weeks. And there are small herds of all sorts of wild Pokémon that has taken refuge in this ranges – which we are bound to run in at some point in time, so the time then increases to seven months give or take."
"We don't have that much time, it's 14th November, so only one and half month until new year's"
"I know" Gary said as he pulled out the book and shuffled through it for a few pages, "As it is mentioned in this book, the Rings bear enormous amount of energy, pulsating and lively. So, it always has the living surrounding it no matter what. It also takes up a lot of space for its rotation, so it should be spacious. In essence, we are looking for a big mountain with abundance of flora and fauna."
"We can't decide that from just this map, we will need to survey the area ourselves to gather more information" Misty sighed, she was still looking at the map, thinking of something.
"We could do an arial racoon, have a look at the area and then we can see which all big mountains are covered in trees and such, which then we can scout out. That should reduce our search time" Ash said, the area on the map looked big, so even with arial search, it would take them quite a lot of time.
"We can shortlist the areas as whole too" Goh said, he placed his Pokénav in front that showed the image of the area they were looking at "This is live satellite image of the area, we have a few green patches here that we can look and completely avoid the ones that are barren"
But something caught Gary's attention – "Why is there such a big barren spot right in the middle of the Mountain range?" He asked, comparing the Map they had and the satellite image, both having a significant difference
"Gary" Misty asked, her gaze fixed on the Time Clock book "If your theory is correct and someone did mess with the Time clock and the rings are no longer in motion, then that means the Ring lost its energy, it won't be pulsating anymore" She said, then pointed out to the barren patch. Goh recollected a piece of conversation form before.
"Time is like a flowing river; It has to keep moving no matter what." He looked towards Tracey "What happens, Tracey, when water stops flowing and comes to a standstill?" He asked
"The water turns stale" Tracey replied
"So, what will happen to time?" Gary asked
"It can't grow stale, that's for sure" Goh replied
"The time doesn't turn stale, but the energy that keep's flowing with time also stops. In turn ending all the life energy present in the region, in essence losing the life energy altogether" Goh said out loud, answering the unasked question.
"That would turn our whole search plan upside-down" Ash looked at others for a nod of confirmation, which he received from Gary and Goh.
"But the land could have gone barren for any other reason too, there are tons of Pokémon staying in the region, it could have been anything that could have caused that" Leaf countered
"But we could be on a right path with this thought process too" Tracy pointed out
"It's still worth looking at just in case" Gary replied.
"It will also save us a lot of time than going around all the trees and Pokémon" Ash said "One mountain is way less effort to search than the whole mountain ranges"
"Let's scout it out then!" Goh enthusiastically exclaimed, already making plans to add more Pokémon to this arsenal and everyone began to pack up
"It's going to be just waste of time" Leaf huffed. Misty being the only one who heard what she said, was irritated at the former's attitude.
Misty did not understand the other girl at all. From what she has heard form Ash on their small Bus ride, Leaf was one of the other three who started her journey on the same day as Ash, but she never participated in any Leagues or Contests.
Leaf was aloof, she joked about everything and anything, but never dived deeper into any conversation; whenever she spoke it was mostly to either just make an offhanded comment or to mention how ridiculous this whole journey was.
Well, Gary did say she was only in this to prove he was wrong, but to Misty it felt like there was more to it than just what was being shown.
"You don't seem to like her very much" Ash was walking by her side as they made their way around Mt Moon, the others were walking a few paces behind, Leaf being the last one; Misty just wanted to keep as much distance between them as possible. Though she did not expect Ash of all people to notice that.
"What gave you that impression?" She asked and Ash chuckled in reply.
"I know you like the back of my hand, Mist" He smirked "You are very easy to read"
"Whatever" She rolled her eyes. A few seconds later, a small smile crept on her face.
It's been a long time since the two spoke face-to-face; when Ash first started his journeys without her, he would just send a message or a letter – but those were far and few in between, sometimes they would get on a call but even that was a rare sight. That changed as he started to settle a bit more – with academy in Alola and for research in Vermillion, his messages and calls increased. They would often get on call for hours, describing everything and anything that happened between the two calls, it was nice to be in contact with him often, it reassured her that nothing has changed, they are still best friends.
She sighed at her own thought process. Yeah, best friends.
"Leaf doesn't mean any harm" Ash continued, walking leisurely "She wasn't always a silent child; believe it or not, she was the loudest of the three of us, very friendly and sweet too." He told her, which Misty did not believe at all but she did not interrupt him either "I don't know what happened, but when we turned six, she slowly closed herself off from everyone. She never used to get out of her house, stopped coming to school and even to Prof's lab. Gary and I had to drag her out of there just so she could have some human interaction. After that, things happened and slowly we all drifted apart. Before we knew it, we were all 10 and ready to begin our journey" He sighed, as if remembering a very helpless situation
"She never wanted to go on a journey either" He said, Misty turned her head to him, now intruded as to why the other girl even left the town if she didn't want to at first, "When she said that, Prof Oak tried to understand her reasons, Mom tried to check if she was okay overall; but nothing seemed to make her talk."
"Then why did she?"
"No one knows" Ash shrugged "Just the day before we were to leave for our journey, she came in to Prof's lab and told him that she will be setting off to her own journey the next day and to keep her a Pokémon. I think no one asked her for her sudden change in heart, just happy that she was going on a journey herself." Ash sighed again, and gave a small smile to Misty, which looked awfully pained to the latter "When I didn't see her for years on road in any form of tournament, I felt like we drove her away, that it was our fault for pushing her too much that she left. I tried to look for her in every region I went, but never found her. I'm just glad she is okay now though. It eases my conscious knowing nothing bad happened to her"
Misty understood the type of guilt that was weighing Ash down for this whole time. Reciprocating his smile, she gave a small pat on his shoulder, letting him know that she understood him.
"I'll try to get along with her." She said, because that was the whole point of Ash telling her this. He always wanted all his friends to get along with each other.
"I know you will" He gave her a big smile, Pikachu giving her a thumb's up from his trainers shoulder.
Suddenly they both realised they were at a dead end, others halting a few steps behind them coming to the same realisation.
And as history has witnessed many times, they turned an accusing glare towards each other.
"You got us lost!" Ash accused her
"Don't blame me! It was you who was leading anyways, so it's your fault" Misty huffed
"I thought you knew where we were going! And now we are at a dead end" Ash yelled and faced her, ready for the fight if it came
"Quit acting like I'm the only one who is to blame. You are the one who has time and again got us lost over the years" She turned towards him too, fists balled, ready to punch him any moment
"I did not!"
"Did too"
"Did NOT!"
"DID TOO!"
The others sweat dropped at the two. Tracy only sighed.
"Somethings, never change."
Fin
