CHAPTER 1: A Ruinous Reunion
The small clock on the Cerulean City gym's front desk read 12:08pm as three glamorous women swaggered through the glass doors, cups of takeout coffee in one hand and expensive handbags slung over the other.
"And you'll never guess who was at the party last night…" squealed Violet, her two sisters leaning in closer.
"Only, like, Brad Van Darn, star of Ultra Maximum, and his adorable little smoochum!"
Daisy and Lily grabbed each other in excitement. "Ooh! I hate you so much right now!" Lily cried with a smile from ear to ear. "What's he like? Is he single? Man, I wish he'd take me to the ultra maximum…"
"Gorgeous; yes; and in your dreams," the blunette smirked in answer to all three questions.
Lily fumed. "Oh yeah? Like, you're just jealous because you know for a fact if I'd been there he'd have only had eyes for me!"
"And even then, that'd just be because the most beautiful sister wasn't there," Daisy winked.
They turned to her. "Hey, you can't be, like, saying stuff like that anymore, Little Miss Engaged!"
"Oh stop," she giggled, holding up the radiant diamond on her left hand.
"Do you, like, know how much he paid for it?" Violet asked impishly. "Because anyone'll tell you that your man only loves you as much as he's willing to spend on you!"
"Gotta say, Dais, never thought you'd fall for someone like him," Lily said. "But you're, like, so totally cute together! Oh, tell us the story again! Please, please, please?"
Rolling her eyes playfully, Daisy flipped her coffee cup into a nearby bin and scooted behind the front desk as if it were a lectern for a grand speech.
"Okay, so you know that, like, dreamy seafood place on the waterfront?" she started. "Well, he took me there for our, like, five-year anniversary, and after dessert the band started playing my favourite song, and then he got down on one knee and-"
The eldest Waterflower sister's magical tale was abruptly cut off by the slamming of the arena doors a few feet away. Seconds later, out came a young boy who sped past the trio in tears, followed by a slender, redheaded woman with a decidedly tired look on her face.
"Nice to see you making friends, Misty," teased Lily, while Daisy and Violet sniggered. "What'd you do this time? Let him read your diary?"
A murderous look was sent the pink-haired sister's way.
"This is, like, the second time this week you've KO'ed a newbie so bad you made them cry," Daisy pointed out. "Can't you just go easy on them a bit?"
"What, and make the gym a laughing stock like it was when you three were running it?" Misty spat back. "I don't just hand badges out willy-nilly like you do, you know."
"Jeez, no need to, like, bite our heads off!" exclaimed Violet.
The youngest of the sisters sighed, releasing most of her residual irritation. "Ugh, never mind, just tired," she mumbled. "What are you all doing lurking out here in the foyer anyway? No wonder no stronger trainers ever come to challenge me if you're always standing here scaring them away!"
"Like, au contraire, little sis," Daisy sneered in the least convincing French accent imaginable. "If we're here in the doorway, people are sure to flood in to meet the beautiful Sensational Sisters, right?"
"Ooh, ooh, Misty, did you hear?" Lily interjected. "Vi met the Brad Van Darn last night! Don't you just wanna, like, strangle her?"
"Huh," was all she said, much to her sisters' disappointment. "I met him too, once."
"You did not!" Lily gasped in amazement.
Misty nodded. "Mhm, back when we were travelling in Johto. It was Ash, Brock and I who convinced him to include Smoochum in his movies in the first place."
"No fair! You two have already met him and I'm the one who, like, wants to meet him the most!"
"Better luck next time, Lils," Violet said, sticking her tongue out at her younger sister.
"Well, not that this isn't fascinating or anything," Misty began dryly, "but I've got to get back to work."
Not giving them the chance to object, the young woman turned to head downstairs to the underground aquarium level of the gym.
"I'll, like, never understand her," Violet chuckled to herself. "Who'd pick doing boring old work over talking about boys?"
"Beats me," Lily agreed. "Anyway, get on with the story, Daisy!"
Another few minutes in and the story was interrupted yet again, this time by a large, winged pokémon landing on the cobbled front path. It roared with relief as a handsome young man stepped off its back and stretched out his limbs dramatically. Daisy, Violet and Lily popped their heads around the corner to watch the scene.
"Like, speaking of boys…" Violet slavered. "Who is this dreamboat?"
"Hey, get your own, I saw him first!" Lily growled.
Daisy, however, remained silent. There was something familiar about the way this person carried himself: the childish spring in his step, the messy hair poking out from around his cap, the…pikachu…perched on his…shoulder…
"Wait, is that…?" She squinted her eyes to get a closer look, jumping up thereafter and clasping her hands over her mouth.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" she repeated hurriedly, dancing around on her tiptoes.
"What? What is it?" Lily asked.
"Do you know who that is?" Daisy replied. When they each shook their heads, she beckoned them closer and whispered the answer in their ears.
"You're serious?!" Violet's eyes grew wide. "But he's so…so…hot!"
"Guess you'll just have to, like, make do with Van Darn," Lily sniped bitterly.
"He's coming, he's coming!" Daisy cried. "Everybody act normal – pretend we haven't seen him!"
Ash breathed in deeply. The air in Cerulean City was a far cry from that of Pallet Town: crisp and salty, all the flavours of the water that defined this one-of-a-kind place.
"It's still just how it looked when Misty and I were kids, right, buddy?" he remarked as he looked up at the gym. Yellow and pink stripes reached all the way up to the domed roof of the satisfyingly circular building, and the gigantic dewgong-shaped metal plate above the doorway smiled brightly over at him with its cartoonish face.
"Thanks a lot, Charizard." He patted his pokémon affectionately. "You take a good long rest."
After returning it to its pokéball, Ash made his way across the front porch, his chest tightening strangely when he heard the distinctive chime of the automatic front doors. The foyer was empty…save for one person he instantly recognised.
"Hi, Daisy!" he greeted cheerfully.
"Good afternoon, sir, and welcome to the Cerulean gym!"
Ash's glee ebbed away in a matter of a second. "Uhh…"
"Can I help you with anything today?"
Although the blonde behind the desk was a natural born actress, this particular act was seriously testing her ability to keep a straight face.
"Huh? Daisy, don't you remember me? It's Misty's friend, A-"
"If you're here for a battle I can see if our gym leader has a window in her schedule. Name?"
"It's Ash! Come on, I travelled with your sister for five years!"
Daisy looked up. "Okay, Flash, it says here there's a slot available in three hours time."
Ash could have sworn he heard laughter coming from somewhere close. "Not Flash, Ash!" he disputed, his eye twitching. "Look, can't I just talk to Misty?"
"If you insist. One moment, please," Daisy said robotically, placing her finger on a button next to her.
"Misty, you have a very special guest here to see you!" she sang into the microphone.
"Yeah, well unless you're gonna come and scrub these pokémon tanks for me you can tell them I'm a little busy right now," her tinny voice came back through the speaker.
Ash chuckled inwardly, but at the same time, the tightening in his chest returned at that very moment. He could barely remember the last time he'd heard his best friend's voice. Disgruntled or not, it was kind of…nice.
"Oh, trust me, I think you're gonna wanna make time for this one," Daisy giggled.
"Daisy, I swear, if this is another one of your attempts to set me up with some guy…"
"It's not, it's not! Well, not exactly…anyway, just, like, get up here!"
Her finger slid off the button and moved up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "The gym leader will be right up, sir," she stated all business-like, causing Ash to both sigh with relief and grunt in annoyance.
The silence that followed was not pleasant at all. Ash slouched against the counter, examined his fingernails, made peculiar popping sounds with his mouth, anything to distract him from the fact that Daisy hadn't taken her eyes off him in the last three minutes. That, and the laughing he could hear earlier was gradually getting clearer and more frequent, until suddenly, after about another minute…
"AHAHAHA OH GOD I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE!"
"What the…" Ash was uncharacteristically lost for words as Misty's other two sisters unfolded themselves from underneath the desk, sides splitting with laughter.
"You should have, like, seen your face!" Violet spluttered.
"Misty's really gonna have her hands full with you!" coughed Lily.
"Wait, so you know who I am now?" Ash finally caught on.
"We always knew, silly!" said Daisy. "Like, how could we forget Misty's little boyfriend?"
The young man's face reddened like a newborn wurmple. "B-Boyfriend?" he stammered. "W-Wait, I'm not…"
But before he could elaborate further, a pattering of light footsteps in his left ear caused him to turn towards the staircase less than ten feet away. On the ceiling above it was a shadow, one that changed shape and size with every step the person casting it took. It was slightly eerie at first, but soon Ash was able to make out the shape of a distinctive side ponytail, and his heart began to pulsate in his chest. Faster and faster the beats became, to the point where they were almost in sync with the sound of the footfalls. He felt nervous…why would he be nervous?
"Alright, Daisy, I'm elbow-deep in goldeen crap down there so whatever this is, make it qui-"
Then she saw him. And he saw her. Their eyes locked, and their bodies tensed. The rag she was holding slipped from her hand and bundled up on the tiles at her feet. And for the most drawn-out of moments, their anxious breathing was all that could be heard.
The Sensational Sisters waited with anticipation for one of them to crack. Were the two of them holding guns, the scene would almost be akin to a Mexican standoff.
"Pikachupi!" Pikachu eventually called over from atop the front desk. He made a move to leap towards his dear friend, but thought better of it when he saw the look on her face. Misty certainly didn't need a gun to make her feelings known.
"Hey, Misty," Ash waved innocently, clearly not seeing what his pika-pal was seeing.
In the blink of an eye, Misty dashed forward and grabbed the startled man by the collar.
"HEY?!" she shrieked right in his face. "THREE YEARS IT'S BEEN SINCE WE'VE SEEN EACH OTHER – THREE YEARS! – AND ALL YOU CAN SAY IS 'HEY'?!"
He was taller than her now, as their sudden proximity allowed him to see – but in no way did that make his best friend any less intimidating.
"M-Misty, I…"
"No, wait! Actually, it's more like five years if we don't include your quaint little flyby home visit from Sinnoh! Just as well I was there visiting your mom anyway, wasn't it? Did you never stop to think, 'hmm, I'm about to leave home again for Mew knows how long, I wonder if there's anyone I know around here who'd be kinda ticked off if I didn't go to see them first?'"
Ash felt wounded by her words. This wasn't exactly the hero's welcome he'd been promised.
"Hey, I tried to write as often as I could!" was all he could think to defend himself with.
"What, every six months? I had to call your mom or Professor Oak every few weeks to check that you weren't dead!"
"I was travelli- oww!" Misty's grip on his jacket tightened.
"Can it, Ketchum!" she brusquely snapped. "You think you can go for years without visiting me and then just stroll in one day expecting me to be over the moon? I'm betting you hand out 'best friend' titles like they're RageCandyBars, but I sure as hell don't, and where I'm from, best friends don't even think about hanging each other out to dry like this!"
"It's not like that!" he bit back, shaking himself free of her hold.
"Oh please! How long are you going to hide behind that dumb travelling excuse, huh? Well just so you know, Mr. Pokémon Master, I haven't been sitting by the phone all this time like some loyal growlithe puppy waiting for you to call; I'm a respected gym leader now with her own life and responsibilities, so see if I care!"
Ash sighed, his body going limp. "Misty…"
"No," she exhaled with no emotion whatsoever in her voice. "I don't know you anymore, Ash. Whatever you're here for, I can't help you, so just go."
It looked and sounded like a definitive end to the conversation, as she'd intended it to be. But Misty just couldn't find it in herself to walk away. Across from her, Ash was having the same problem, though for a markedly different reason. In his best friend's eyes he saw a complex mix of emotions; they danced and swirled, aptly illustrating her gradual shift from anger to something much more profound. The look of hurt highlighted the green in her viridian irises, and although he didn't particularly like to see her upset, the intense colour had him completely immobilised, entranced in a way he'd never quite been before…
"Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss…!" the apparently suicidal Lily whisper-chanted.
That more than did the trick. Ash and Misty sprung apart within a second, turning their backs on each other with arms crossed and faces crimson. The Sensational Sisters cackled all the more at the pleasingly nostalgic sight.
"Hmph," Misty huffed, seemingly too agitated to bring the pain this time.
"Pikachupi?" A light tapping on her bare shin caused her to look down at the yellow mouse at her feet. She wordlessly bent down to cradle the affectionate pokémon in her arms, holding him tightly to her chest.
"Misty, I know I've been a lousy friend to you," Ash said solemnly. "I didn't realise it had been that long – really, I didn't! But hey, I'm here now, right? We can still try and make up for lost time before I leave again; whaddaya say?"
Misty turned her head slightly to the side, but purposely not so much as to meet his gaze.
"Oh for Mew's sake!" Daisy cried out. "Gee, sis, talk about, like, looking a gift horsea in the mouth! You've missed this guy like crazy – don't deny it, I can, like, see it in your face – and now you're going to turn him away? He said he's sorry, Misty! Also," she walked over and pinched the young man's cheek, "he looks real grown up now, don't you think?"
After a short moment, Misty sighed into Pikachu's fur. She hated it when any of her sisters actually talked sense. About missing him, of course…definitely not the other thing…
"Fine," she grunted as she pulled Ash by the wrist in the direction of the living quarters, "but you're helping me with this cleaning. Come on, I need to change out of these clothes."
Violet and Lily squealed wickedly. "Ooh, taking him upstairs already, are we, Misty?" Violet grinned. "Gonna treat your boy toy to a little striptease?"
"Shut up!" she shouted back to them, her pale cheeks thoroughly alight.
"Yeah, yeah, just keep your bedroom door open, eh, girl?" Lily joined in. "And Ash…" she winked seductively at him, "if you, like, get bored of our little sis, my room's just down the hall…"
A slam from the door upstairs was all the response they got.
The stairs led straight up to the living room, which Ash and Misty traipsed through in an uncharacteristic and undeniably awkward silence. As they reached the middle, Misty turned towards her 'guest', still appearing rather devoid of emotion.
"I'm gonna go change in the bathroom," she stated. "Stay here, and don't break anything."
A moment later, Ash and Pikachu were alone in the long and empty room. They sat down on one of the sofas arranged in a U-shape behind them, the former whistling absentmindedly. Ash being Ash, however, it wasn't long before boredom set in, and he soon found himself idly wandering around from corner to corner.
The upper east wing was like a bungalow of sorts: surprisingly small, but inviting in a nice, homely sort of way. He'd only been up here once before, almost eleven years ago during Misty's brief stint as a mermaid in her sisters' water show – but everything was still exactly as he remembered it. I wonder if she's still got the costume, he thought to himself before dismissing the image straight away with a hurried shake of his head.
Figuring Misty would be ages yet, Ash ventured out into the hall with Pikachu in tow. In contrast to the tiled floors of the public parts of the gym, the upstairs level was furnished with reddish brown carpet, and framed photographs hung daintily on the walls. Directly opposite him was one of two people he didn't recognise, though on closer inspection he guessed them to be Misty's parents (the woman's red hair was a dead giveaway).
A brief look in the guest rooms revealed nothing interesting – in fact, it looked as if they hadn't been used for quite some time. Tiptoeing back the way he came, Ash noticed a slightly ajar door at the other end of the hall. It had to be Misty's room, as she'd headed in that direction when she left. He chuckled furtively. Misty wouldn't mind if I had a quick peek, right?
He swung open the door and gasped in amazement. The room was…tiny. A wardrobe and a small desk were crammed snugly together in one corner, and the door scraped against the end of the bed as he opened it wider. It was far less than what a gym leader, his best friend, deserved – but then, her sisters had always treated her like dirt. Perhaps this was once the result of some cruel joke on their part.
A small wooden picture frame on the bedside table caught Ash's eye as soon as he entered the room. It was face-down, which struck him as odd, given the otherwise spotlessness of the place. He sidled up to the side of the bed, feet squashed in as far as they would go, but just as he began to extend his arm out to the object…
"Ash?"
Never had a quicker one-eighty been performed in human history. "Oh, er, Misty, I was just- oof!"
The air was knocked right out of him as Misty wrapped her arms around his waist and mashed her head into his chest. Ash stumbled backwards from the impact, panting ever so slightly. The embrace was strong, but not uncomfortably so, and once he realised what was going on, he felt himself relaxing almost completely.
"I'm sorry," she spoke into his jacket. "I didn't mean a lot of what I said just there. I guess I just needed a little while to process this."
She cleared her throat. "Thanks for coming to visit, Ash. Really, it's so great to see you."
They broke apart gently, and Ash's cheeks virtually caught fire when he took in his friend's new 'outfit': a royal blue bikini top and a pair of diminutive jean shorts.
"N-No problem," he smiled shakily.
"That being said," Misty folded her arms, "get out of my room before I have Politoed DoubleSlap you out."
Ash complied without protest.
"So…the aquarium, huh?" She nodded. "Bet I can get there first!"
He and Pikachu then tore past her in their haste to make it to the staircase. Misty just stood for a second, her eyes closed and her hands behind her back. A kind of nostalgic giggle slipped out from her throat. Ash had truly never changed in all his time away, and for that, she couldn't be more grateful.
Once down in the aquarium, Ash and Misty found, to their relief, that any animosity between them had simply vanished into thin air. The moment they got down to work, an innocent back-and-forth steadily grew into a full-blown conversation, and before they knew it, they were the best of friends again. Indeed, it was just like old times.
"And that's where we first met Alder," Ash continued from within the van-sized goldeen tank. "He's been the Unova League champion for decades. Really great guy – even if he kept calling me Ashton…"
On the other side of the glass, Misty burst out laughing. "A-Ashton?!" she wheezed. "Oh man, I've gotta remember that one! Hey, you missed a spot over there. Clean it up for me, will you, Ashton?"
"Not funny," he pouted. "Why have I gotta be inside this thing while you and Pikachu get to stay out there?"
"My gym, my rules. Serves you right for skipping out on me all these years."
"Hey, I wasn't skipping out on you! I just, er, well, got so caught up in my journey, and-"
"I know, Ash," she chuckled. "I'm just messing with you. Now hurry up; once we're done with this one we've got Psyduck's little wading pool to clean. Tracey's been helping me teach him to swim, you know. I never thought I'd say this, but I think we're almost there!"
The young man shivered involuntarily. "Oh yeah…" he said, more to himself than to her. "Professor Oak told me yesterday you'd invited Tracey to the gym. Does he, you know, come over often?"
"Yep, he visits a couple of times a week these days. He's been a great help."
"And he stays the night all those times?" Ash probed, a distinct urgency in his voice.
"More often than not, yeah. Why?"
Ash felt a flush of cold wash over him. "Well, um…" he hesitated, "just wondering, that's all. You know, since the guest room wasn't set up or anything, hehe."
"I'll thank you to not go snooping around in my rooms, Ketchum," Misty tutted. "And he doesn't sleep in there anyway, hasn't for years. If we're going to be related soon I can't very well treat him like a guest, now can I?"
"I guess you're right, Misty. After all, we've known Tracey for- HUH?!"
His mouth dropped open, and he quickly held it shut for fear that his somersaulting stomach would fall out of it. What was that she'd just said? Did it mean what he thought it meant? Just like that, there was that image again from this morning; he didn't know why it angered him, sickened him so, but it did, and he had to get to the bottom of it.
Misty beat him to it, however. "Wait, you haven't heard?! Oh my god, I was sure either Tracey or your mom would have told you the news already!"
It can't be, he kept telling himself. But every word she was saying sounded more and more like a confirmation. And the smile she was wearing didn't exactly help matters. Please be wrong about this, please be wrong about this…
"Ash?"
Without responding, Ash refocused his eyes on the cloudy glass before him, then proceeded to scrub away at it as frantically and animatedly as possible.
"Done!" he shouted ten seconds later. "Now, where's the next one?"
He vaulted over the side of the tank, looking anywhere but at Misty as he waltzed on through the corridor. Inevitably, though, he only made it a few steps before something small and pink in his path sent him flying.
"Luv," it muttered dizzily.
"Caserin!" Misty cried. "Are you okay? What are you doing out of your pokéball? Ash, you stupid klutz, watch where you're going!"
The excitement of seeing an unfamiliar pokémon instantly snapped Ash out of…whatever that just was. "Hey, a luvdisc! I didn't know you had one of those, Misty!"
"His name is Caserin," she smiled. "I caught him when you were in Hoenn. Daisy's got one too: Luverin. They're madly in love."
She giggled girlishly at her last statement, but Ash didn't seem to notice. Currently, he was more preoccupied with the fact that Caserin was staring him right in the face – and glowing.
"Does he…always do that?" Ash looked up at Misty, who shook her head.
"No, I've…I've never seen this before," she whispered, walking closer.
"Pika!" Pikachu waved amicably. The levitating little love heart did not so much as blink.
"Luvdisc…" he murmured in what sounded like a mixture of joy and fascination.
Still sprawled on the floor, Ash shuffled into a cross-legged position and pulled out the high-tech Unova pokédex that had been digging into his ribs.
"Might as well make the most of this before I get my new Kalos one," he said to himself, pointing it at the inquisitive Caserin. Its dual screen slid into position, and a stock photo of the species in question appeared on the display.
"Luvdisc, the Rendezvous Pokémon," went its colourless voice. "Luvdisc lives in the tropics, preferring to nest in warm, shallow seas. It is said that a couple finding this pokémon will be blessed with eternal love."
With a gasp of instant understanding, Misty covered her mouth with her hands, turning away before Ash, Pikachu or Caserin could see the enormous blush on her face. Ash, meanwhile, simply shrugged.
"Huh. That's pretty cool."
As he got to his feet, Ash noticed a shape emerge from behind one of the empty tanks. Its tubby yellow hands were on its cheeks, and its wide beak was stretched into a knowing grin.
"Psyyyy," he quacked over at his mortified trainer.
Misty rushed towards her teasing pokémon and hoisted him up to eye level by his back feathers.
"Psyduck! Get back in your ball now!" she screamed. Still blushing like crazy, she added in a subdued snarl, "And mind your own business!"
"Whoa, Misty, take it easy," Ash intervened. "Hey, Psyduck. Long time, no see."
The addled duck stared at his hatted addressee in confusion. "Psy?"
"Hmph," Misty yielded, returning Psyduck to his pokéball before he could cause her any further embarrassment.
Ash cracked his neck with a small groan. "Misty, we've been cleaning for ages now. Can't we do something else? Ooh, hey, we should have a battle!"
"Welcome to my world, Ash," she said with a dry smile. "But sure, I'll battle you. I believe I heard my dear receptionist say you booked a challenge session in, ooh…three hours time, was it?"
With a wink, she thrust a mop into his hands and sauntered smugly away.
"Ha-ha, very funny, Misty," he scoffed – until it dawned on him. "Wait, where are you going? This is a joke, right? You can't be serious…oh come on, Misty! MISTYYY!"
"Well, Ash, fancy seeing you here," a rather-too-amused Misty purred upon seeing the exhausted young man stagger through the doors to the pool.
"Sadist," he puffed, the echo of the huge arena carrying it straight over to her.
"Ooh, that's a big word for you, Mr. Pokémon Master!" she mocked. "Careful you don't hurt yourself before our battle, hmm?"
Despite her attempts to wind him up, Ash couldn't help but break out into a grin. He knew from experience that Misty's flippant, sarcastic side was reserved only for him, and was relieved to see that in all this time she hadn't lost her edge.
It was now approaching five in the afternoon, and the boiling sun blazed through the high windows of the Cerulean gym pool, illuminating everything from the stands to the diving board to the crystal-clear body of water separating the gym leader from her worn-out challenger. Pikachu watched from the poolside with Misty's baby azurill.
"Pikapi! Pikachupi!" he cheered.
"You can't wish us both luck, Pikachu!" Ash countered. "Whose side are you on anyway?"
"Aww, leave him alone, I think it's sweet," Misty cooed. "Thanks, Pikachu!"
"Pi," he acknowledged bashfully.
The redhead locked eyes with Ash over the pool. "So, two-on-two alright with you?"
"You betcha, Mist!" he cried back, his energy returning to him in a heartbeat.
A familiar fluttering skipped around in Misty's chest. This was the first time Ash had called her that since he had been there. She'd almost forgotten how sweet it sounded coming from his mouth.
"Alright then…" she enlarged a pokéball in her hand and lightly kissed the surface, "go, Politoed!"
"Politoed, Politoed, Politoed!" the lime green Frog Pokémon chanted as it materialised on the floating platform.
In a similar move, Ash produced a pokéball of his own. "Leavanny, I choose you!"
As the flash of light faded, the spindly insectoid pokémon gave a graceful bow.
"Ladies first," Misty winked. "Politoed, Water Gun!"
A steady blast of water shot out from Politoed's mouth, hitting its unprepared opponent dead on and soaking it from head to toe. Leavanny just shook it off, however, largely unaffected.
"A grass pokémon, eh?" Misty deduced. "Seems you've learned some things after all, Ash!"
The focused young man didn't rise to her taunt. "Leavanny, Razor Leaf!"
"Jump and use Headbutt!"
As Leavanny fired dozens of sharp leaves across the pool, Politoed leapt at the last minute above the flurry, did a quick somersault in mid-air and landed back on the platform. It then proceeded to hop from pad to pad with its head down like a battering ram.
"Wait for it…" Ash said under his breath. The energetic frog was getting closer and closer, but his pokémon stood firm, awaiting his command.
"Leavanny, dodge to the side!"
At the last minute, Leavanny neatly swivelled its body around, narrowly avoiding the attack.
"Follow it up with X-Scissor!"
"Leava'anny!" it acknowledged in its peculiar 'drunken' voice. It raised its arms into a cross shape, then slammed them into Politoed's back in a harsh slashing motion. The force of the attack coupled with Politoed's ongoing momentum sent the pokémon flying into the water.
"Politoed!" Misty cried.
Ash watched as the water rippled around at his feet. The constant movement made it hard to pinpoint exactly where his opponent had disappeared to.
"Keep your eyes open, Leavanny," he forewarned.
"Leav…Leava…Leava," it muttered with every turn on the spot it made.
"Getting antsy, Ash?" crooned Misty from the other end of the room.
"How about you quit stalling and find out?" he quipped back.
"Oh, we're not stalling," she said with a grin. "Now, Politoed!"
With a huge splash, Politoed sprung out of the pool behind the startled Leavanny.
"DoubleSlap!"
Just as it turned around, Leavanny was buffeted by quick strikes from the still-airborne Politoed. The final blow knocked it off-balance, and it teetered delicately on the end of the platform.
"Leavaaaa!" it yelped in shock.
"Alright, Politoed, one more Headbutt should do it!" Misty commanded.
"Poli!" it concurred, backing itself up to charge.
Think, Ash, think, Ash's mind screamed at him. In a few seconds it would all be over. Unless…
"That's it! Leavanny, grab onto Politoed with your String Shot!"
The Nurturing Pokémon spewed out a line of sticky thread that immediately wrapped tightly around Politoed's arm. Though saved from falling into the pool, Leavanny took the full brunt of the incoming Headbutt attack, and flew up into the air taking its tethered attacker with it.
"Huh?" Misty exclaimed. "Politoed, break free!"
The two pokémon wrestled in mid-air. Politoed tried to bite through the glue-like substance, eventually managing to sever all but one bond. Ash, taking this as his cue, inhaled deeply.
"Leavanny, Energy Ball!"
Leavanny positioned itself underneath Politoed, a sphere of shining green energy forming from its mouth. When it reached the size of a grapefruit, the ball burst against the swirl on Politoed's chest, blasting the pokémon upwards like a shot from a cannon. A few seconds later, after Leavanny had elegantly landed on its feet, the fatigued Politoed dropped like a stone right into the middle of the pool.
"Oh no!" Misty called in alarm.
The motionless figure that surfaced thereafter was more than enough confirmation that Politoed was out for the count.
"Yeah!" Ash celebrated. "Way to go, Leavanny!"
"Leava'anny," it reciprocated.
"Great work, Politoed," Misty smiled. "You deserve a long rest."
After the red light from her pokéball had safely engulfed her tired pokémon, the young woman looked back over at Ash. "Well, I've gotta say, that was a pretty impressive move."
Ash grinned. "I've done a lot more training since we last battled together." The thought of this made him grin wider. "Don't think Psyduck's gonna pop out to save you like in the Whirl Cup, Misty, because I'm not aiming for his head and letting you win this time!"
"Oh, will you let that go already?!" she huffed. "And anyway, I'm way ahead of you there."
She pointed to her right, where the aforementioned duck was standing on his tiptoes to watch the fish in the tank under the stands.
"I let Mr. Troublesome out before every match now," she explained. "That way he can't jump out and sabotage my battles, and he gets a front row seat for all of them! Isn't that right, Psyduck?"
As he heard his name, Psyduck lost his balance and toppled over onto his back.
"Duck?" he squawked blankly.
"Anyway…" Misty swiftly continued when she heard Ash chuckling, "you're not gonna be laughing when you see who's up next, Ketchum!"
She detached another pokéball from her belt and, once again, brought it to her lips before throwing it. "Pokéball, go!"
The light that spilled out of the capsule gradually took on a monstrous, serpentine shape. When it finally died away, the tremendous weight of the roaring blue dragon caused great waves of water to slosh over the sides of the pool.
"Alright, Gyarados!" Ash beamed. "This is gonna be fun! Okay, Leavanny, Razor Leaf!"
Leavanny obliged, releasing a fresh batch of pointed foliage towards the intimidating Gyarados.
Neither Misty nor Gyarados flinched. "Flamethrower!" Misty shouted.
"Vanny?!" gulped Leavanny, as if knowing its fate was sealed.
From Gyarados's gaping maw came a terrifying screech, followed by a scorching plume of orange and red. It incinerated the Razor Leaf attack as soon as it made contact, and before Ash could react, his dual-type bug and grass pokémon was blanketed in the devastating quadruple-damage blast.
"Leavanny, no!" Ash cried out.
When the flames subsided, it came as no surprise that the charred Leavanny was lying in a crumpled heap completely incapacitated.
"Thanks, Leavanny. Return," he said glumly.
"Gyarados's Flamethrower comes in so handy against grass-types," Misty stated proudly. "It's our secret weapon."
Ash smirked. "Yeah, I bet that trick goes down a treat with your gym challengers."
His remark suddenly reminded Misty of all the children, like the one earlier that day, whose bug or grass pokémon she had mercilessly trounced with that very attack over the years. Seeing them get upset made her feel guilty every time, but at the end of the day, her gym wasn't the second strongest in Kanto for nothing.
"I don't go easy on them just like I'm not going easy on you," she retorted. "I'm waiting, Ash."
There was a syrupy, almost flirtatious tone to her voice, one that made Ash's heart skip a beat, but his mind sharply flicked back to their battle.
"Okay…go, Unfezant!"
Once released, the majestic bird spread her greyish wings in a show of power.
"Ooh, looks like it's flying versus flying this round!" Misty observed.
Ash raised an eyebrow. "Wait, Gyarados is a flying-type?"
"Ugh," she sighed, holding her head à la Psyduck. So much for him having learned anything. "Hydro Pump, Gyarados!"
The Atrocious Pokémon arched his body back to summon a torrent of water from his belly.
"Unfezant, dodge it!"
The water rushed past Unfezant's ear as she took flight, hovering at eye level with her opponent.
"Keep going, Gyarados! Hydro Pump again!"
"Unfezant, fight through and use Aerial Ace!"
On Misty's command, Gyarados's huge burst of water turned to quick successive jets that provided something of an obstacle course for Unfezant to weave through. The latter swooped left and right, up and down, managing to get in fairly close with only a few minor clips from the Hydro Pump attacks. Without slowing down, the avian pokémon began to glow white as it nosedived towards its foe.
"RAAOOO!" wailed Gyarados upon contact. The attack was a direct hit, dealing a moderate amount of damage.
"Counter with Flamethrower!" Misty instructed.
But Gyarados did not move. His gaze was fixed on the entrance to the gym, visible through the double doors that Ash had left open. The temperamental serpent began to breathe heavily. His keen eyes never deceived him; yet, for but a passing moment, he thought he had just seen…
"Gyarados? Gyarados, what's wrong? Snap out of it!"
And snap out of it he did, much to her surprise. He turned his attention back to the pool with a vigorous growl, as if nothing had ever happened.
"Well, er, okay then," Misty stammered. "Flamethrower attack!"
Ash responded straight away. "Unfezant, blow the flames back with Gust!"
Flames erupted from Gyarados's mouth just as Unfezant began to violently beat her wings. The two attacks closed in on each other, but neither the former's fire nor the latter's air current could overpower the other.
"Just a little more, Gyarados!" Misty encouraged.
"You too, Unfezant!" Ash paraphrased. "Give it all you've got!"
For almost a minute, both pokémon clashed with fearsome tenacity – but Unfezant's furious wing flapping demanded a lot more energy from her than her opponent's fire spitting did from him, and pretty soon the force of her Gust attack began to peter out.
"Gyaaaaah!" she screeched as the flames singed the tips of her wings. The Proud Pokémon struggled for a while to maintain her altitude before the searing pain forced her to drop down into the water below.
"Unfezant, you okay to go on?" Ash asked concernedly.
"Ayyargh," she cawed with a curt nod.
"Big mistake going in the water, Ash," Misty sneered, her hands on her hips. "Gyarados, use Whirlpool!"
Gyarados jerked its body forwards to the centre of the pool, where it began to swim in rapid circles around the disorientated Unfezant. Once the whirlpool was self-sustaining, he glided back to his original position to watch his victim flail about in the maelstrom of his own making.
"Unfezant!" Ash shouted rather impotently.
What Misty hadn't counted on, however, was that despite the harshness of the attack, the immersion in water had a profoundly soothing effect on Unfezant's burnt wings, and soon the relieved bird was able to find a stable rhythm on the surface of the whirlpool.
"What was that, Mist?" Ash countered smugly, earning him an irritated glare.
He then looked back down to his pokémon. "Okay, Unfezant, give 'em a taste of your Air Cutter!"
One by one, Unfezant launched a barrage of compressed air pulses, each X-shaped projectile flying straight towards Gyarados's body. The enormous pokémon was knocked backwards a little by every subsequent hit.
"Nice job, Unfezant!" Ash praised. "Think you can manage one last Aerial Ace?"
"Kyaaaah!" she affirmed. Once again, a white glow enveloped her, and with one forceful flap of her wings, she commenced her aerial charge towards her foe.
Misty could sense what Ash was up to, and moved to counter immediately. "Hyper Beam, Gyarados!"
A small bead of orange energy started to swell inside the sea dragon's mouth. The immensely powerful attack took a few seconds to charge to its full capacity – coincidentally, around the same length of time Unfezant needed to reach her target. It was going to be close. Ash gritted his teeth, while Misty clenched her fists in suspense. Then, for a shadow of a second, their eyes met, a silent consensus that the fate of the battle was now out of their hands. All they could do was wait…and hope…
BOOM!
The two attacks met in an explosion of orange and white. Both trainers had to shield their eyes from the thick smoke that filled the arena, rendering the victor unknown for another few agonising moments. When the air finally cleared, two synchronised gasps ushered in a silence that neither Ash nor Misty quite knew how to break – though that may have been because the former was still looking all around in confusion. Then he looked down.
Unfezant was lying flat on her back at his feet.
"Argh, dammit!" he cursed. "It was so close too!"
Misty stopped congratulating her triumphant gyarados. "Now, Ash, what would your mom say if she heard you using language like that?"
In typical Ash-like fashion, the only thing he could think to do was stick his tongue out at her.
"Oh, don't be such a sore loser," she grinned as he returned Unfezant and made his way over to her. "I haven't had a battle that exciting in ages."
Ash wasn't really disappointed, however. In truth, he felt much the same. "Yeah, I kinda forgot how similar our battling styles are," he chuckled bashfully.
The young gym leader matched his awkward laughter with her own, and naturally, this brought the conversation to a swift grinding halt. Every so often they caught each other's eye, which became so excruciating after a while that Misty, in a clandestine effort to hide her blush, reached forward and snatched the hat off Ash's head.
"Ooh, I've never seen this before!" she teased as she perched it on top of her own head. "How many postcards did you have to send in for this one, eh?"
"Hey, give it back!" Ash whined. "My mom just made that for me!"
"Uh-uh, mommy's boy," she winked. "I think it suits me a lot better. Don't you think so, Pikachu?"
"Pika!" he approved from the sidelines.
Ash's faced reddened from the humiliation. "Misty, come on, quit playing around!"
"Make me," she sassed, holding the cap upwards out of his reach.
On the inside, Ash was grinning from ear to ear. Now there was a challenge if he'd ever heard one.
"Hey, I didn't know you'd caught a tentacruel!" he said in shock, his eyes looking behind her.
"Huh?"
She turned her head, falling for it hook, line and sinker. Ash took this as the perfect opportunity to grab her around the waist and tackle her down to the ground.
"Yaaahh! Ash, s-stop, get off!" she giggled uncontrollably. She squashed the hat underneath her, after which Ash resorted to tickling to try and pry it out (for the sake of her own sanity, she was thankful she'd put something else on over her bikini top before the battle…).
Gyarados swivelled himself around to watch the playful scene between his mistress and her hatless human companion. But in doing so, his sharp eyes went wandering yet again, this time to the top of the stands. The shape passed by like a shadow, a fleeting spectre, but he knew what he saw, and his highly trained mind was sent careening into overdrive. Memories of those two – no, three – figures made his blood boil, his nostrils flare, his scales quiver. No longer would they bring harm to he and his family. They had to be extinguished here and now, and he was going to be the one to do it.
"RAAAAAAOOO!" came the most guttural of shrieks the Atrocious Pokémon could manage. Both fire and water sputtered from its mouth as it thrashed around in an inconsolable frenzy.
"Gyarados?!" cried Misty, getting to her feet.
The enraged serpent spared a passing glance at the two young adults during its rampage.
"Gyarados, wait, we were just playing! Look, I'm fine, see? It was just a game! You need to calm down, Gya-whoa!"
Misty ducked her head, narrowing avoiding Gyarados's swinging tail.
"Misty, what's gotten into him?" Ash shouted.
"I don't know!" she replied, both panic and frustration in her voice.
"Try returning him!"
She nodded, reaching for her pokéball. "Gyarados, return!"
The red light shot towards its target, but Gyarados simply shook it off.
"Oh no, not this again!" she exclaimed.
"What do we do now?" asked Ash.
Before Misty could even hazard a guess, Gyarados spiralled his upper body around like a spinning top, crashing his head violently into the base of the diving board.
The dented metal creaked and groaned. Ash and Misty were dead silent, powerless to do anything at this point. With every metallic squeak came a new droplet of dread in their stomachs, a feeling of nausea that made it impossible to predict what would happen next. When it eventually came to a stop, they both let out a sigh of relief. Though this turn of events had seemingly come out of nowhere, at least the worst appeared to be over now.
That was, until Gyarados slammed into the pillar a second time.
"Oh god, it's coming down!" Ash yelled, instinctively grabbing Misty by the arm. "Get back!"
The structure hung on by a thread of bent metal, wobbling from side to side, before giving way completely and beginning to tip almost in slow motion over to the left side of the pool. Ash and Misty, on the right side, were in no immediate danger. However…
"PSYDUCK!" Misty screamed, her darkened eyes wide like saucers. "PSYDUCK, GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
"Psy?"
The unaware duck looked around for but a second. Mistress was there, as was the Hatted One. Their arms were flapping like sky rattata, and Mistress was leaking from the eyes. Then came a crash, a tingle…and everything went dark.
"Oh god, oh god, oh god…" whimpered Misty, tears blurring her vision.
Beside her, Ash dug frantically through the mess of warped metal at their feet. "Ahhhfff," he winced every time he caught his hand on a sharp piece of debris.
"Psyduck!" Misty bellowed into the wreckage. "Psyduck, can you hear me? Say something!"
Pikachu, who had rushed over in the wake of the incident, reached up to touch the distressed girl's hand with his paw. She looked down at him with a forced smile, then went back to obsessively surveying the scene.
"Please be alright, you stupid duck," she whispered to herself.
At that moment, Ash's head emerged from inside the ruptured pillar.
"Misty, I see him! Quick, help me lift this!"
Her eyes snapped upwards, and she leapt to her feet. At Ash's instruction, she placed her hands underneath a thick metal panel, watching him do the same on the other side.
"Ready?" he said. "One, two, three!"
Their knuckles were white around the extremely heavy sheet. With a chorus of strenuous groans, the two puffing pokémon trainers managed to slowly edge the object upwards, wisps of dust spilling out from a dark opening underneath.
"Now, Pikachu, g-grab Psyduck!" Ash panted. Pikachu immediately darted into the hole, disappearing for but a second before dragging out with him a motionless yellow body. As soon as he was clear, Ash and Misty let the slab thud back down to the floor, crying out in exhaustion.
Misty knelt down in front of her battered pokémon. His feathers were speckled with dust and grease, and his beady eyes were shut tight.
"I told you to…get out of the w-way," she sobbed, her tears splashing onto his bill. "Oh, Psyduck…"
Ash placed a hand on her shoulder. "We need to get him to the pokémon centre, quickly."
She nodded, still clutching Psyduck tightly. Moving to stand, she stroked his head in a motherly sort of manner, her pale fingers flattening down his ruffled plumage. When she suddenly felt moisture on her fingertips, she gasped sharply, and looking down only confirmed to her the image she had instantly imagined.
"Ash…his head," she choked out. There was an immense gash to the right of his black comb, about an inch in width and stretching down to just below his eye. The area around it was purple and swollen, and a small trickle of blood steadily oozed from the centre of the wound.
As more tears escaped Misty's eyes, the equally shaken Ash turned her around to face him. "Pokémon centre, Misty. Now."
The young woman did not need to be told a third time. She lifted the unconscious Psyduck fully up into her arms, but only made it one step before a peculiar feeling stopped her in her tracks.
"What is it, Misty?" Ash asked urgently.
"I…can't move." She struggled for a moment, but to no avail. Her limbs felt strained, like something was pulling on them from behind, and a kind of staticky sensation caressed her entire body. It was then that Misty felt a slight stirring from the pokémon in her hold.
"Zzhhhyy…"
"Psyduck?" she murmured.
"Pika chu?" repeated Pikachu worriedly.
The stirring gradually turned to writhing, and his nonsensical droning became more and more coherent.
"Pzzyy…jrugck…"
By this point, Misty could move again, albeit very stiffly, as if caught in a fierce wind. She made another dash for the exit only to jump in fright as Psyduck began to convulse.
"Do something!" she shouted at Ash. As he moved in, however, he found he could not get close. His arm felt 'repelled' almost like a magnet; the harder he tried to reach out, the stronger the force became.
"Is Psyduck doing this?" he cried above the duck's ramblings.
But his answer came seconds later, when an earth-shattering drone forced them to cover their ears in pain:
"Psyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…"
The voice had an otherworldly echo to it, increasing in volume and pitch from a bone-chillingly low starting point.
"Psyduck, snap out of it, please!" Misty begged with tears returning to her eyes.
"…yyyyyyyyyyyyy…"
The convulsing stopped, and Psyduck slowly floated out of Misty's arms, levitating in place before them.
"…yyyyyYYYYYYY…"
His cry had reached a deafening pitch. He raised his arms up, heralding an eerie, momentary silence. And that was when his eyes shot wide open.
"…DUCK!"
Ash, Misty, Pikachu and Azurill were blown backwards across the gym, landing hard on the ridged pool floor.
"Owww…" Ash coughed.
Misty scooted over to him. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." He picked himself off the ground. "Wh-What was that?!"
The redhead squinted over at her injured Psyduck. She'd seen fragments of his untapped psychic abilities before – the transcendent voice, the pure blue glow of his eyes, the awesome power of his attacks – but this was something else entirety. It didn't inspire, it didn't delight…no. This scared her.
"His headache," she whispered dazedly, "it must be out of control…"
"Pikapi!" squealed Pikachu, pointing frantically forwards.
"Psyyyy-duck!" he boomed again.
A spherical shockwave of transparent energy pulsed outwards from his body. It expanded endlessly, smashing against the ground, the walls, the pool (which more than calmed Gyarados down), and the high ceiling. The latter made a sickening cracking noise at the second of contact.
"Psyduck!" Misty screamed. "Please stop this, Psyd-urghff!"
Another shockwave knocked the wind right out of her. Above her, tiny rays of light shone down from the haunting gaps in the ceiling, the pieces crumbling more with each passing second.
"Misty, this whole place is gonna come down!" Ash warned. "We need to get out of here!"
"NO!" she bellowed. "I'm not just going to leave him!"
As if by fate, the section of ceiling above them gave way, sending huge clumps of stone plummeting towards them.
"Look out, Misty!" Ash cried. He instinctively dove towards her, pushing her through the doors and into the foyer just as the lethal precipitation made impact in their previous spot.
When Misty opened her eyes, Ash was lying firmly on top of her. He crawled off before she could see to it herself and held onto her by the shoulders.
"Misty, are you okay?" She nodded, noting the concern in his eyes.
He looked back at the doors, which were now essentially barricaded with rocks. "We're not going to leave him, Misty, I promise. But we need to get all the other pokémon out first!"
Hearing those words both reassured and alarmed her. With all that was going on, she'd barely even thought of how many dozens of pokémon were in danger right now.
"Okay," she stated resolutely. Climbing to the top of the rock pile, she located her fainted Gyarados and returned it without a second thought.
Ash then beckoned her back over to the aquarium stairs. "Let's split up and meet back here when we've got everyone."
The winding corridors of the aquarium were a wreck. Each tremor caused untold amounts of damage to the tanks and enclosures housed down there, not to mention their shaken inhabitants. Five minutes later, Ash, Misty and Pikachu (with Azurill trailing behind) reconvened at the foot of the stairs, each carrying an armful of pokéballs.
"Is that everyone?" Ash asked.
Misty did a quick count. "There's one missing!" she panicked. After a moment of tense thought, she clicked her fingers. "Caserin! He hasn't been in his pokéball since this morning! Oh god, where is he?"
Ash dumped his pokéballs in the container they'd left by the front entrance. "Let's go find him!" he exclaimed, grabbing Misty's arm and running back through the aquarium.
"Caserin!" they shouted. The lights were flickering wildly, making it very hard to see. "Caserin, where are you?"
"Luv!" came a weak cry from down the hall.
"Come on!" Misty yelled, now leading Ash by the arm.
In a cramped office on the south side of the building, they found the petrified luvdisc tangled up in some netting and unable to break free.
"Just stay still, Caserin. We're gonna get you out," Misty smiled meekly.
"Pikachu, Iron Tail," ordered Ash. The electric mouse stepped forward, his tail glowing white, but just as he readied his swing, another shake of the building caused him to lose his balance and slice through a nearby file cabinet.
"Are you crazy?!" Misty barked at him. "We're trying to save him here, not cut him in half!"
Ash knew this was not the time to argue. Instead of disputing it, he knelt down next to the ensnared Caserin and began to tug on the tough mesh.
"Don't worry, Caserin," he said in a similar tone to Misty's earlier, "I'll have you out of here in no time."
But Caserin seemed preoccupied. As with before, his heart-shaped body began to glow a warming pink hue, and his beady eyes were riveted to Ash's in a hazy, almost infatuated gaze.
"Luvdisc." He shrugged off Ash's hands, earning him a pair of confused looks.
"Caserin?" Misty questioned.
The second after, Caserin breathed in deeply, then fired an impressive stream of ice onto his wiry shackles. The netting froze instantly, and with one rapid movement, crumbled to nothing below its floating former captive.
"Alright, Caserin!" Ash cheered measuredly. Misty swiftly returned him to his pokéball and turned to her friend.
"Psyduck," she simply stated, to which Ash nodded in understanding. They bolted around to the stage door of the arena, entering carefully through the unobstructed staff entrance.
"Oh my god," Ash gawked once they were back upstairs. The pool was practically filled with huge boulders, the seating in the stands was in pieces, and almost all of the roof had broken away, causing the evening sunlight to splurge across the otherwise morbid scene.
Misty was not prepared to wait any longer. "Psyduck!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. The levitating psychic turned lifelessly to face her.
"You've got to stop this, Psyduck!" she persisted. "I can help you if you just let me in!"
She made a move to close the gap, but a suffocating blast of wind brought her to her knees.
The saddening display prompted Ash to release Charizard and beckon him close.
"Charizard, get Pikachu, Azurill and the other pokémon out of here," he said flatly. The gallant pokémon nodded with complete seriousness.
"Pika pikachu!" Pikachu contested immediately.
"Don't argue, Pikachu!" he snapped back.
Pikachu's ears drooped, but he knew his trainer had a point. He helped Azurill up onto Charizard's back before hopping on himself, and soon the three pokémon had safely escaped through the hole in the roof.
"You go too, Ash," Misty said without looking at him. "Psyduck is my responsibility."
"I'm not going anywhere," he replied confidently.
Misty took in a deep breath, summoning all of her inner strength as she prepared to engage Psyduck a second time.
"Look at me, Psyduck," she said as calmly as she could. The energy blasts pounded on her skin, but she would not back down.
"You know me," she continued, moisture playing at her eyes once again, "and I know you. And this isn't you, Psyduck. Please come back to me."
Ash stood behind his determined friend, catching her every time she stumbled. Psyduck watched the two with no decipherable expression, his features not so much as twitching while Misty soldiered on.
"I know you don't want to be doing all this…but we can help. Nurse Joy will give you the best treatment around; she'll have you back to your old dorky self in no time, you'll see!"
The force became more painful with every step she took. As she got within a metre of the pokémon, the young woman could barely keep her eyes open.
"I'm not leaving you, Psyduck," she half-said, half-cried. "I know I give you a hard time, but it's only because of how much I care about you. Come with me. We can fix this…"
Her words trailed off as she started to lose consciousness. She was so close now. Psyduck finally reacted, drawing in his arms as if to charge up a powerful attack. His gaze was locked with hers, and just for a second, as she stared at his pupil-less eyes, she could have sworn she saw a peculiar flicker in their ominous blue glow. In that moment, he had looked straight into her, his eyes sad and sorrowful, a look of sincere emotion that passed by like a hoppip on the wind.
"Psyduck…"
Misty reached out, only for Psyduck to close his eyes and mutter indistinctly. A lone tear, bright blue in colour, ran slowly down his beak. Before Ash and Misty's eyes blinked an unnatural flash of white, and suddenly they were outside on the front path of the gym.
It took a while for the pair to find their bearings. Misty, still in her outstretched pose, fell forwards onto the grass, but soon jumped back up and pelted towards the gym.
"Oh no you don't!" she growled through her tears. "Don't you dare do this to me, you dumb duck!"
But as she said that, a terrifying crackling noise echoed out from within the crumbling stone dome, halting her movement instantaneously. Looking forward, Misty watched helplessly as a web of airy tendrils burst forth from the centre of the building, penetrating through every inch of the exterior and then suspending the separated pieces in mid-air like a kind of concrete snow globe.
Ash caught up to Misty, and without thinking, they grasped each other around the shoulders in both fear and shock. Neither wanted to stand here and do nothing – but at this stage, there was nothing else that could be done, and deep down they both knew that. With another harrowing rattle, the tenuous rock sphere began to collapse in on itself, each object imploding as though being sucked into a black hole. The wind it produced was fierce, throwing up grass, leaves, dust and smoke into the air, and though the stomach-turning sounds could still be heard, everything was soon obscured in this thick, impenetrable veil.
"PSYDUCK!" Misty wailed in floods of futile tears.
A final shockwave sent a splash of blue spiralling off into the air. The smoke cleared, the dust settled, and the two wordless friends dropped limply to the ground.
The Cerulean gym was gone.
