CHAPTER 2: Home Away From Hole
Her arm was bright red at this point. It ached and burned, but she would not stop pinching it. This was all just a bad dream; it had to be. Any minute now, she was going to wake up in her staryu pyjamas, throw her alarm clock across the room, yell at her sisters for leaving the hall light on all night, and then go about her day as usual. Plus, Ash Ketchum of all people had come to Cerulean City specifically to visit her – how on earth could this be real?
And yet, it was, for that minute never came. Before her on the coffee table was a generous bowl of soup, untouched and barely even looked at, and though the TV was showing a romantic film she would normally have been engrossed in, her glazed eyes could not distinguish actor from scenery. All she could think about were those gut-wrenching sounds of the gym being ripped apart, the screams of her terrified pokémon echoing through the halls, the cold blue eyes of the one who caused it all…
This waiting was maddening. How hadn't she heard anything yet? Only ten minutes ago had she stopped pacing around, and even then only for fear that she would wear a groove in Delia's new carpet. There was nothing she could have done if she'd stayed, and she accepted that now, but being here when her pokémon needed her the most – it still felt selfish, like a betrayal they themselves weren't even aware of. She shut her eyes tightly. Her poor Gyarados, Caserin…Psyduck…
"Misty, dear, I've found some of Ash's old clothes for you."
When her vision refocused, Misty saw Delia standing over her with a neatly folded pile of old T-shirts and jeans.
"It's not much, but I thought they might do until we can go and get you some more clothes at the store," Delia suggested. "And your sisters are welcome to look through them too; that is, if they'd be willing to wear this sort of thing…"
"Thanks," she uttered purely out of habit.
The doting woman let out a truly saddened sigh. "Oh, Misty, I wish there were more I could do to help you."
She placed the clothes down on the free sofa cushion and leaned over to kiss the top of the forlorn girl's head. Misty began to tear up instantly, but tried her hardest not to let any of them fall.
"I'll let you get some peace now," Delia chuckled lovingly. "If you need anything, I'm just in the kitchen, okay?"
As she turned to leave, Misty suddenly felt rather conflicted. While admittedly not much company at this current time, she certainly appreciated the distraction Delia's presence offered her from her nightmarish thoughts. To her left, she noticed a spoon of soup hovering close to her mouth, attached to which was a stiff-jointed, marionette-like arm. A small speck dripped onto her bare thigh, but she was too numb to feel any pain from it.
"Mimey, aren't you supposed to be helping me with the washing up?" Delia called over in a lighthearted 'warning' tone.
"Mr. Mime!" the peculiar pokémon acknowledged cheerfully, abandoning the spoon and wobbling over to her side.
The kitchen door clicked shut a few feet behind her. Realising she was back in the company of herself, Misty tilted her head backwards on the sofa to stare lazily up at the ceiling. For the longest time, she traced the maze-like wallpaper pattern with her eyes, imagining herself slaloming through the zigzagging lines and sliding along the smooth swirls without a care in the world. It was calming, restful, a much-needed catharsis for all the upset she had been subjected to that day. That was, until she stumbled upon a corner section resembling the ghostly appendages that had laid waste to her home, and put a stop to the activity within the second.
Too tired to move, yet too anxious to sit still. The sensation was strangling, a purgatorial contradiction that dulled all her senses while simultaneously making her hyperaware of her surroundings. A familiar floral scent wafted over from the pile of clothes to her right, which, despite her best efforts, eventually soothed her enough to reclaim some of her former composure. To Misty, the gentle fabric softener aroma was synonymous with the Ketchum household; Delia smelt of it, as did Mimey to some extent, but where she remembered it from the most were her days travelling the world with Ash. He'd always complain that it was "too girly", and she'd always laugh, or get annoyed, depending on how the day had gone. Turning her head towards it, she picked up on a note of something else in the mix, something heartier and less artificial. There was a pleasing kind of 'warmth' about it, if it even made sense to describe a smell in such a way. Nostalgia washed over her instantly, coupled with a tingling feeling that expressed itself across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. But just as she felt the urge to lean in closer, a sound from the next room made her jolt in surprise.
"Just had another call on the videophone," Ash stated plainly. "It was May this time. She was crying so loud I could barely tell what I was saying to her."
Misty sighed into her hands, but kept her eyes on the floor.
"How're you holding up?" he tried again. Pikachu bounced onto the clothes pile next to her and nudged her arm with his tail.
"Pikachupi?" he purred in concern.
"I'm fine," she droned, hoping that would shut them both up.
"You should really turn your pokégear on, Mist," Ash suggested softly. "Everyone's worried sick about you. Iris and Cilan even called to check up earlier, and they've never even met you."
Apparently still not getting the message, Ash shoved the clothes aside and sat down beside her. "And why are you watching this? Isn't that only gonna make you feel worse?"
In her fluctuating daze, Misty hadn't even noticed that the film on the TV had ended. She followed Ash's pointing finger along to the screen, upon which was a newsreader standing in front of a before-and-after image of her destroyed gym.
"No casualties have been reported thus far; however, we have just received word that at least one pokémon is confirmed to be in critical condition and is receiving urgent treatment at Cerulean City Pokémon Ce-"
Ash jumped as Misty's fist slammed down onto the 'standby' button of the remote.
"Misty," he whispered, tentatively but with complete sincerity, "you can't keep this all to yourself. I know how much you've lost, but-"
"Do you?" she snarled, unable to stop herself. After a disappointed sigh, Ash spent an uncharacteristically long time forming his next words before he vocalised them.
"Look, I guess what I'm trying to say…is that you don't have to do this alone, you know?" He gave her a small smile. "Me, Mom, Pikachu, all our friends…we're here for you."
Though she was still looking away, Ash raised up his hand, letting it hang above her shoulder for a second or two. Misty soon felt his gloved touch on her tender skin, and jumped to her feet in frustration.
"I'm going for a walk," she exhaled rapidly, turning towards the front door and shutting it firmly behind her.
Normally, this wouldn't have deterred Ash for even a second, but although he still had every intention of following her, he suddenly found himself in two minds about doing so. He'd seen Misty sad plenty of times before, occasionally even to the point of crying, but never like this. Never in the whole time he'd known her had she seemed so…lost.
A hand on his shoulder halted his course across the living room.
"No, Ash," his mother said. She was smiling, though there were tears in her eyes. "Let her go. After all that's happened, I think Misty deserves this time to herself…"
Three hours earlier…
"Alright, get back! GET BACK, I SAID! This site is off-limits to everyone except authorised personnel; return to your homes immediately! That means you, sir! No-one crosses this line!"
Officer Jenny's aggressive orders were all but lost in the rabble that had amassed at the gates to the Cerulean gym. A ring of hazard tape surrounded the entire area, coupled with lines of police vehicles along the grass that obscured a lot of the scene from the prying public. Misty, sat in the back of an ambulance behind the 'roadblock', could only guess how many hundreds of people were out there, all no doubt hoping to catch a glimpse of something gruesome and brag of it later to their friends. But right now, that was the least of her worries.
She hugged the blanket the paramedics had placed around her closer to her body. Its rustling caught the attention of the concerned pokémon trainer sitting beside her, and she turned her head away the second their eyes met.
"Why do I have to wear this thing?" she grumbled impotently.
"I think the doctor guy said it's for the shock," Ash recalled from their recent medical examination.
Misty snorted disdainfully. "Yeah? Well what's their excuse?"
Across the lawn was another ambulance, around which were Daisy, Lily and Violet, having returned from whatever expensive shopping trip or pampering session they had been on; at this stage, she really didn't care enough to ask. The younger two were holding onto each other and bawling their eyes out, while Daisy was standing worriedly on her tiptoes, trying to peer over the row of police cars as if looking out for something.
"The only thing they're in shock over is having lost all their jewellery," she rasped, her voice steeped in venom.
Ash let out a morose sigh. It had taken so long for Misty to calm down after it happened; neither paramedic nor policewoman was able to console her, with one group having to literally hold her back to keep her from jumping straight down into the wreckage. Though it pained him immensely to see her like that, Ash had almost begun to wish she'd revert to that stage again, if only to spare her the agony of venting through anger and spite.
"Misty…" he spoke gutturally, eyes fixed on the sullen young woman beside him.
"And what's their problem?!" She pointed behind her at the crowd of onlookers. "I bet they're loving this! Nothing like a bit of gossip, eh?"
After another few similar remarks, the distraught redhead went strangely quiet, at which point Ash decided to cut to the heart of the issue.
"Misty, they'll find him," he said with absolute confidence. "They've been down there ever since they arrived; they must be close now."
He squeezed her hand in reassurance, and although she remained motionless, the action sent a trace of warmth through her otherwise catatonic body. Ash was about to speak up again, but was distracted by a sudden rush of shadows flickering past him.
"Tracey!" Ash called over, casting a side glance at Misty to gauge her reaction. To his surprise, she still hadn't moved a muscle.
The pokémon watcher kept running, however, barrelling over to the other ambulance where Misty's sisters were sat.
"Tracey, over here!" he shouted once again, only to watch his old friend crash straight into Daisy's waiting arms.
"Oh, Tracey!" she sobbed into his oversized shirt.
"I got here as soon as I could," he replied in a shaky tone.
Ash watched the pair incredulously. What on earth was he seeing here? Tracey and Daisy…hugging? He wasn't even aware they knew each other!
"Thank god you're alright," Tracey breathed, his eyes shut tight.
"I'm f-fine. You're, like, not getting rid of me th-that easily."
This was odd. Tracey was usually so docile, so unassuming…and Daisy, well, Ash honestly didn't realise she had this sort of emotional range.
"Guess you'll have to, like, take a rain check on your next visit, huh?" she laughed feebly.
"We'll figure something out," he responded in kind before turning serious. "I'm never letting you out of my sight again."
If Ash had been confused before, what really threw him for a loop was seeing the watcher and the Waterflower lean in for a long, lingering kiss.
Am I imagining this? he asked himself. Some kind of side effect of overexposure to psychic energy, maybe? He'd known crazier things to happen. But the longer he looked, the less stock he put in that theory. There's gotta be something going on between them, he concluded, but then what was all that stuff Misty was saying earlier, about him helping her and staying over and everything? Unless…
A tight knot formed in Ash's already queasy stomach. As if Misty didn't have enough on her plate today already.
"So, what the heck happened here?" he heard Tracey ask. "The news has been spouting so many crackpot theories that I don't know what to believe."
"We, like, weren't there," Violet hiccupped, thick streaks of mascara running down the length of her face. "Ask those two."
Tracey turned his head to where Ash and Misty were sitting and promptly darted over.
"I'm so sorry, guys, I didn't see you!" he expressed sincerely. "Are you both alright?"
"Yeah, we're okay," Ash answered for the two of them.
"What…I mean, how…?"
"Well, er, it's kind of a long story," the pokémon trainer admitted. "You see, we were having a battle, and-"
"It was Psyduck."
Her subdued voice was deep and multifaceted: the three words carried little to no energy, but through them ran an unmistakable vein of hurt and anxiety. Tracey's widening eyes flicked to the right.
"Psyduck?" he repeated. "What do you mean?"
Misty looked up, giving her two friends their first unobstructed view of her tear-stained face. "His head, it was…" she struggled to say, "…had to…get the pokémon out…"
"Wait a minute…" he stopped her as he took a moment to piece together the fragments. "You're saying Psyduck did this?! That's…I mean, I've seen what he can do with a strong enough headache, but this…I-I don't…"
Ash stood up. "It's true, Tracey. We watched it happen – right before he teleported us outside."
"Wow…" he exhaled dizzily. "Well, at least you weren't in there when it came down. Psyduck got out too, right? Tell me he's not-"
But the look on their faces said it all.
"Oh my god," he gasped. Without warning, he turned around and sprinted towards the gym, stopping only when he reached a second, more pronounced line of police tape.
Ash instinctively began to follow, looking over his shoulder to see that Misty had made a move to stand also. They stopped at Tracey's side, and as the sight below them came into focus, the three former travelling companions found themselves powerless to do anything but stand and stare.
This was the first time Ash had been this close since before help had arrived. The image had stayed with him to an unsettling degree, but no mere memory could be as horrifying as laying eyes on the real thing for a second time. Where the gym used to be was a cavernous, dome-shaped crater that sloped down several metres into the ground. The shape of it was unnaturally smooth, its edges cut with impossible precision, as if a perfect sphere of earth and sky had somehow been snatched out of existence. It was also notably off-centre, leaving a few slivers of the underground level on the fringes of the hole largely untouched. If his coordinates were right, he estimated that the centre of the 'implosion', as it now seemed to make more sense to call it, had been somewhere around the back of the pool area. The left side, beneath the bleachers – right where Psyduck was injured…
"Ash! Misty!"
No sooner had Ash torn his eyes away from the scene than an arm wrapped itself tightly around his neck.
"Goodness, my poor babies!" Delia wailed with both Ash and Misty virtually in a chokehold. "You could have been killed! Do you know how worried I was? Oh, but I'm so glad you're safe!"
"Can't…breathe…" the slightly blue Ash spluttered.
When her hold eventually loosened, her two former captives were surprised to see Professor Oak and Alexa standing behind her, a few paces away.
"Confound it, Tracey!" admonished the professor, his face flushed and his grey hair dishevelled. "Did I not tell you to slow down back there? Not all of us can weave through a crowd with your youthful dexterity, you know."
Tracey hung his head in embarrassment, but thankfully it seemed his mentor had quickly forgotten about his fatigue.
"Egad…" he said breathily as he took in his ruined surroundings. "What in the world could have caused this?"
As Tracey attempted to elucidate, Misty felt a cold chill spiral up and down her spine. If she had to listen to that haunting explanation one more time she was either going to scream or throw up – or an unsightly combination of both. Shifting back towards the hole that used to be her home, her eyes landed on the bomb disposal unit desperately trying to push their way through the nest of boulders at the bottom. Their thick hazmat suits were intimidating, but as soon as she'd heard the term 'psychic residue' floating around, she knew she had to be grateful the police had decided to call in the experts. Even so, this was little comfort when they seemed no closer to finding her poor Psyduck. She prayed he was still alive – or even there at all.
"Misty, I'm so sorry about all this."
A soft voice jarred her from her thoughts just as a fat tear rolled down her cheek. The hand of the person in question reached over to wipe it away.
"Delia, I…" she started, then cut herself off in favour of rushing into her mother figure's arms.
"There, there." Delia stroked the back of the girl's orange hair. "That's it, just let it out."
"I'm so w-worried about him," she whimpered.
"I know you are, dear. We all are. It's okay."
"I sh-should never have let him out of his p-pokéball. This is all my f-fault…"
"Oh, Misty, how can you say that? Nobody in your position could have predicted this; you expect far too much of yourself!"
"Yeah, Mist," Ash joined in over Delia's left shoulder. His innocent expression somehow made Misty feel calmer for a brief moment. "No-one's blaming you for anything. You were really brave facing up to Psyduck like that."
Misty looked straight into his eyes. Ash Ketchum paying her an actual compliment? Though she could easily chalk it up to stress and adrenaline, hearing something other than a sarcastic comment or scathing remark from him was always as pleasant as it was rare.
"Th-Thanks, Ash," she said with a watery smile.
"Come on, let's get you something to drink," Delia suggested, holding Misty around the shoulders as she began to walk them back to the ambulance.
"Keep clear, keep clear! We have located the missing pokémon! Repeat: missing pokémon is being brought to the surface! Urgent medical attention required!"
Misty's stomach vaulted with every word the megaphone spewed out. From the pit emerged a number of workers, each struggling to clamber up the near-vertical incline due to their cumbersome garb. They threw down a length of cord and gradually began to pull up a rectangular, frame-like object on the other end. Although its blinding aura made it hard to identify straight away, Misty soon saw it to be a stretcher, and when a glimpse of yellow flashed over at her from within the azure glow, she shook herself out of Delia's arms and bolted towards the edge of the crater as fast as she possibly could.
"Psyduck!" she cried, tears returning to her eyes.
"Whoa there, ma'am, it's too dangerous to get any closer," said a faceless workman blocking her way.
"I'll show you dangerous if you don't let me through right now!" she screamed at him. Even behind his mask, the man seemed taken aback.
"It's alright, cadet," a compassionate voice sounded out from behind her. A second later, Nurse Joy of the Cerulean City pokémon centre stepped into her field of view. "Ms. Waterflower is the Cerulean gym leader, and this pokémon belongs to her. She has my permission to stay."
The worker nodded somewhat inscrutably before going about his business elsewhere.
"Thank you," Misty whispered to the caregiver she had come to know quite well over the years.
After a smile of acknowledgement, Nurse Joy crouched beside her battered patient with a stethoscope and another high-tech device that Misty did not recognise.
"I'm so sorry, Psyduck," Misty mumbled almost inaudibly. Through the intense light, she could make out a series of cuts and scratches across his whole body, all radiating out from the tremendous head wound that had set in motion this entire calamitous situation.
"Is he…?" she hated to ask, but felt it couldn't wait any longer.
"Yes, he's alive," Joy said flatly. Misty sighed with such intensity that it caused her sides to ache.
"…but his life signs are extremely weak. Something seems to be interfering with my equipment, so I can't get an accurate readout here. Hold on."
From a case on the ground next to her, the pink-haired woman produced a syringe filled with translucent liquid. She flicked the needle a couple of times, then injected the solution into Psyduck's arm, taking extra care to avoid touching him with her bare skin. In the space of a few seconds, the blue glow around him had almost completely dissipated.
"What was that?" Misty asked.
"Just a mild sedative. For pokémon with psychic traits, the mind can remain active long after the body stops functioning."
"Can I…?" the young woman made a move towards him only to have her hand slapped lightly away.
"No, no, mustn't touch," Joy warned in a kind of apologetic manner. She looked back at her handheld device, which was now flashing and beeping.
"I've never seen anything like this. The cave-in certainly explains the bruising and lacerations, but…that can't be the whole story. This…'energy', whatever it is, it's not natural, and frankly, it scares me. How could you let your pokémon get into a condition like this?"
Misty had seen many members of the prolific Joy family lose their tempers before, and every one of those times had something to do with the mistreatment of pokémon. That said, she never imagined she'd one day find herself on the receiving end of it.
"I couldn't help it!" she insisted, more upset than angry. "It all happened so fast, and-"
"Well, in any case, there's no sense in worrying about that now," Nurse Joy interrupted with a sigh. "I need to get him to the pokémon centre immediately."
She nodded. "I'll come with you!"
"No, I think you'd be better off staying here with your family and friends."
"What?! But I can't just leave him!"
The sympathetic nurse placed a hand on her shoulder. "Misty, he's going to need intensive treatment. There's no telling how long that will take, and I'm sure Officer Jenny will want to question you and your sisters at some point. I'll call you as soon as I have an update on his condition, I promise. Until then, make sure you look after yourself, okay?"
Her head drooped, and her eyes dulled in defeat. "I…guess," she said. "Thanks."
The next several minutes were something of a blur. It seemed almost surreal to watch the blaring ambulance disappear down the street, taking Psyduck away from her yet again when she had only just got him back. All of her other pokémon were going with him, so at least he wouldn't be alone – but that didn't stop her wishing she could be there by his side too, a silent presence in his time of need to let him know everything was going to be alright.
"Nurse Joy will take good care of Psyduck, Misty, that I can assure you."
When Misty heard Professor Oak's words of comfort, she suddenly realised she had wandered back over to where everyone was standing. The two groups had seemingly merged into one, with her sisters talking to Alexa and Pikachu trying to distract Azurill from the distressing scenery with a game of peekaboo.
"I know," she agreed, smiling bashfully when she saw everyone turn to look at her.
At that moment, Officer Jenny appeared from behind the nearest ambulance. The exertion of having to shepherd a mob of nosy locals was showing clearly in her cheeks.
"Looks like the crowd's beginning to thin out," she stated. She then approached Misty, who shrunk a little in the imposing woman's presence.
"It's Misty, isn't it?" The young redhead nodded hurriedly. "We're just about ready to finish up here. Do you and your sisters have anywhere to stay tonight?"
"Um…" she began, before Daisy jumped in.
"What about the lab? There's, like, hundreds of rooms there, right, Trace?"
"Yeah, that's a great idea," Tracey confirmed after a quick courteous glance at Professor Oak. "All four of you are welcome to stay as long as you want."
Meanwhile, Ash crept closer to his mother and whispered a few words in her ear. The forty-one-year-old smiled in agreement as she cleared her throat to speak.
"Alternatively, Misty, you could always come to stay with Ash and me. It's the least we can do."
Misty was touched – especially after seeing how much Ash's face lit up at the prospect – yet remained inescapably conflicted.
"Delia, I…thank you, but I really think I ought to stay close to my pokémon," she finally said.
Ash stepped forward. "Come on, Misty, you heard Nurse Joy say there's nothing you can do for them just waiting around. You can come back here first thing tomorrow if you want. I'd just, well," – he blushed slightly – "hate for you to be alone right now, you know?"
With everyone staring at her, this decision was far harder than it needed to be, but her discomfort aside, she loathed to admit her best friend had made a good point. Despite still being somewhat unsure, she eventually felt herself give in to reason.
"Okay."
"Pikachupi!" squeaked Pikachu happily at her feet.
"Glad that's settled," Officer Jenny affirmed. "Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital first?"
"Yes. I'm fine, honestly."
"Well, in that case," her white-gloved hand gestured over to a police car on the grass, "all that's left to do is to take a statement from each of you down at the police station. If you'll kindly follow me…"
"These shocking images are brought to you live from Cerulean City, where a tragic accident has levelled the iconic Cerulean pokémon gym, home of the world-famous Sensational Sisters, leaving much of its aquatic life seriously injured. The cause of the accident has yet to be revealed, though conspiracists are already offering theories ranging from gas leaks to terrorist attacks by the likes of…"
The report was showing on every television set in the window of the small electronics store. Hardly a soul was about, a rare occurrence on such a mild evening in midsummer Viridian City. From across the plaza trudged three surreptitious figures dressed in long trench coats and hats, their shoulders hunched from exhaustion. The display in the window caught their eyes instantly, and their faces were soon pressed up against the glass as they strained to hear.
"Holy cowterpie…" exclaimed the shortest of the trio. "Is dat what I think it is?"
The taller man to his left looked down puzzledly. "I don't know, Meowth. What do you think it is?"
On their other side, the magenta-haired woman rolled her eyes. "Idiots. It's the original twerpette's gym."
"No way! Hey, we ain't been there since you foist cracked out dat tutu, eh, Jimmy boy?" remarked Meowth.
"Ah, such a memorable debut," James reminisced. "We don't see much of the redheaded twerpette these days. Oh, she was a peach. This is awful!"
"D'ya think she left da stove on or something?"
"If you morons would put a sock in it, maybe we'd find out!" snapped Jessie, cupping her hand to her ear.
"According to Officer Jenny of the Kantonian police force, only two people were in the building at the time of the incident: twenty-two-year-old Misty Waterflower, the leader of the gym, and her best friend, twenty-one-year-old Ash Ketchum, a pokémon trainer from Pallet Town who placed in the Top Eight of the Vertress Conference just months ago. The pair suffered only minor injuries and are expected to make a full recovery."
Meowth threw his paws up in exasperation. "So dat's where da twoip and Pikachu went! What was all dat baloney about goin' to the Kalos region last night then?"
"Don't ask me," James shrugged.
"Wooobbuffet!" bellowed Wobbuffet as it burst out from its pokéball.
"With you on the team again we've got all the baloney we'll ever need!" Jessie barked, returning the excitable blue punching bag and crossing her arms angrily.
Turning back to the screen, James stroked his chin. "Hmm, it's not like the twerp to dawdle around like this before a journey. When has he ever chosen to visit his twerpy friends over travelling?"
"And the original twerpette of all people," Jessie added. "Wait, you don't think…"
"Ooh!" the blue-haired man squealed. "Could it be our Pikachu-owning adversary is in the midst of a passionate realisation?"
"Heheheh, maybe he ain't as dumb as we thought!" chuckled Meowth.
"Long time coming if you ask me," Jessie commented rather bitterly. "There were times I could barely stomach the tension between those two back in the day. Hang on, isn't that them, in that corner just there? Where are they going?"
In the background of the news report, two haggard, dirt-covered young adults could be seen being ushered into the back of a police car by Officer Jenny. The vehicle quickly drove away out of shot, and as the camera zoomed out to refocus on the gym (or what was left of it), the engrossed trio found themselves lost in thought.
"Such a senseless waste…" James spoke up after an odd moment of silence.
Meowth cocked his head to one side. "What's eatin' you?"
"I always rather admired the architecture of that place. It reminded me of the decorative fountains in the courtyard of my parents' estate, where the servants would take me as a child to feed the water pokémon who lived there. Seeing them splash and swim around really had a way of letting me escape from the repressive, millionaire lifestyle I had to face in my salad days."
"Yeah, it must have been really hard for you," Jessie deadpanned. "Although, now that you mention water pokémon…"
She turned her attention back to the many TV screens in front of her:
"Due to the uncertainty surrounding the nature of this incident, the site has been deemed hazardous and will be cordoned off in the interest of public safety until further notice. More on this story as it unfolds."
"James," she crooned, "are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I don't know, Jess," he admitted for a second time. "What are you-"
"Oh, not this again!" The irked woman raked her hands through her hair, then quickly fixed it with a hairbrush she plucked seemingly out of nowhere. "The pokémon, James, the pokémon!"
"Huh?"
"Ugh. Look, we know the twerps are out of the picture, we've just seen it for ourselves. But no-one said anything about the twerpette's pokémon being moved, now did they? I bet there are dozens of rare water pokémon in that gym just waiting to be stolen!"
"Whaddaya mean, Jessie?" Meowth inquired. "There ain't even any gym left to steal from!"
"Only as far as we can see," she replied confidently. "What about those end bits there? And that whole bit at the front? Nice try, Officer Jenny, but you're not fooling me that easily."
James appeared dismayed at the idea. "Really, Jessie, can't we just give them a break this one time? I know we're the bad guys and everything, but stealing their pokémon right after all this, doesn't it seem kind of…heartless?"
"Oh, don't be so soft!" Jessie snapped at him, causing him to flinch dramatically. "This is a perfect opportunity and I say we go for it!"
Meowth twirled a whisker around his stubby paw in thought. "The boss'll sure be happy with us if dis woiks…but how're we gonna pull it off if you's ain't got no pokémon no more?"
"You heard the news just now, right? The whole area's going to be closed off after tonight, which means there'll be no-one around to see us sneaking in. We don't even need pokémon for a job this simple – it'll be like taking candy from a togepi!"
"And then we use da pokémon we steal from da twoipette to capture Pikachu!" Meowth rounded off.
"Hahahaha! I like how you think!" cackled Jessie, while a now fully on-board James punched the air. "Time for these troopers to take one for Team Rocket!"
"Yeah!"
A harsh knocking on the glass sent the trio jumping almost a foot off the ground. When they looked over, the face of a gruff, bearded man could be seen poking out between two of the television sets.
"This isn't a movie theatre, you know," he grunted in a muffled but gravelly voice. "Either come in and buy something or get moving!"
"EEEEEH!" shrieked James as the threesome hurtled at breakneck speed down the street and into the darkening horizon. "Looks like Team Rocket's wimping out again!"
That night…
The tree she'd picked to sit in was one of the tallest around for miles. Even as the sun began to set over the charming little town of Pallet, Misty could still see far, far out into the distance: the quaint clusters of houses; the acres of farmland stretching out in every direction; Cinnabar Island and the Seafoam archipelago way across the sea; even the mysterious Mt. Silver marking the border between Kanto and Johto. On any other day, the site would be miraculous, awe-inspiring, maybe even a little nostalgic. But today was not a day for wonder or magic or anything of the sort. Today was a day for sadness, and sadness was exactly what she had to spare.
Now that she thought about it, it did seem childish of her to have turned off her pokégear, especially since she was expecting a call from Nurse Joy at some point. The incident had left her feeling exposed, naked, like an open wound for the murkrow to come and peck at, and being so forthright with her feelings was not something she particularly relished, even at the best of times. But then, she supposed she should probably be grateful that people clearly cared enough about her to want to make sure she was alright.
Flicking open her pink, watch-like device, Misty winced as a telling notification immediately filled the tiny screen:
52 missed calls.
She'd feared this would be the case. Scrolling through each individual call, she counted thirty-seven from her friend May alone, apparently every bit as frantic as Ash had implied earlier. Brock had tried to ring her six times, Dawn had made three attempts, Max another two, while the remaining handful were from unknown numbers. The attention was flattering to an extent, but mostly it just served to bring the guilt flooding back in. She knew there was no excuse for ignoring her friends like this, no matter how she felt. Worse still, not one of these calls was from the Cerulean pokémon centre, and old-fashioned though it may it have been to think this way, no news was not good news to her. She wanted to know, and every second she didn't know felt like a Fire Punch to the gut.
For a long time, all she could think to do was stare forward, watching the distant tide froth and ripple in a display of unfettered, chaotic beauty. Just when the sky had begun to grow darker, she heard a slight rustling at the foot of the tree, which she dismissed as a passing pidgey or something until she felt her pokégear vibrating in her pocket.
"What," she groaned into the receiver, not a trace of a question in her voice.
"Mind if I join you?"
From her elevated viewpoint, he appeared oddly small, yet his face was clearly visible from the light of the device he was holding. In his brown eyes she detected both concern and something more playful that would normally have made her smile. Fully aware he was going to come up regardless of her answer, she ended the call and gestured her assent with an upward flick of her head, making sure to throw in a quick eye roll for good measure.
"How did you know where I was?" she asked as Ash climbed up beside her on the branch.
He brandished his own pink pokégear with a grin. "It's my mom's. She told me they can track each other, so I tried it out. Good thing you decided to turn yours on after all, hmm?"
Misty didn't answer, though another roll of her eyes aptly got the point across.
"I should be angry, shouldn't I?" she said after a few awkward minutes, still staring off into space.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"It's been years since we've had any sort of accident like this. The worst thing I can remember recently is Daisy forgetting to order the pokémon food one time. Then you show up out of the blue after three years, and suddenly everything I've built since I became the gym leader is lying in ruins in a hole in the ground."
For once, Ash sensed he could read between the lines. "Misty, if you want me to leave you alone…"
"No, don't go," she said purely instinctively. In truth, Ash's presence was quietly comforting, despite her not being in much of a state to entertain at this time. "I said I should be angry…but I'm not. I know this isn't your fault."
He smiled in understanding, and soon another phase of silence was upon them. There seemed little need to talk, as both knew exactly what the other was thinking about. Still, the longer it went on, the more Misty began to realise that a bit of company might be just what she needed right now.
"Ash, can I ask you something?"
Her voice was soft and inoffensive, a vulnerability that Ash had seldom heard from her before. As she looked over at him, he could see a faint bruising around her eyes and cheeks, presumably from the pounding she took against Psyduck's energy blasts. It had always struck him as remarkable that his best friend could be so strong, so guarded, yet so empathetic and emotional at the same time, and her willingness to put herself in harm's way for her pokémon was the most perfect example of that.
She watched him nod his head warmly and took in a shallow breath.
"All of this around us – the hills, the mountains, the lab, your mom's house – do you still consider it home?"
The pokémon trainer's brow raised up at the question. "Well, er, yeah. Why would you ask that?"
"I was just wondering," she said, "since you spend most of your time travelling, there'd really be no need for you to think of Pallet Town as your home if you didn't want it to be, you know?"
"Erm…not really," he replied in confusion.
She looked down at her legs, which were swinging back and forth underneath the branch. "When I ran away from home, I had no intention of going back, ever. I hated it in Cerulean City, stuck in the gym with no friends, no parents, and three much older sisters who did nothing but pick on me day and night. Then I met you, and…" she turned away to hide the red in her cheeks, "we started having all these amazing adventures together. Every night we slept in a different place, every day we were on the road training or visiting all these beautiful towns, and over time I realised that Cerulean City didn't have to be my home anymore. I was a traveller; home could be anywhere I wanted it to be."
With another sharp inhale, she looked back around to the front. "But when I had to leave…I suddenly didn't have that option anymore. Being a gym leader meant staying in one place, raising my pokémon alone and waiting for trainers to wander in asking for a battle. I was unhappy for a really long time. But you know what? Eventually I found myself starting to like it; the regular routine, the responsibility of being a gym leader, the way people waved at me around town, and I knew then, for maybe the first time in my life, that the Cerulean gym was my true home. Now that it's gone, I…"
Ash took in her every word with genuine fascination, his heart sagging when she seemed to choke up slightly on her last sentence. It really was hard to believe that the building he had first stepped into when he was ten years old – the domed ceilings, those reddish brown carpets, Misty's tiny room – was now but a memory.
"And you know the worst part?" she continued, a humourless laugh slipping out. "I can't even bring myself to care about any of that right now. Not when…"
Once again, her voice died in her throat before she could finish. Thankfully, Ash could tell what she was trying to say, and tentatively reached over to pluck one of Misty's hands away from her face, letting it drop to her side as he held onto it gently.
"Misty, it's alright," he reassured her. "I'm worried about Psyduck too. I promise, as soon as we get up tomorrow, we'll go back to Cerulean City so we can check up on him."
"We?" she whimpered, shivering as Ash's thumb traced circles on the back of her hand. "I thought you said you were going to Kalos?"
Ash smiled sadly. "Oh come on, Misty, I can't just up and leave after everything that's happened! Like it or not, I'm staying here with you until all of this is sorted out."
"You mean it?" she sniffed in disbelief. "You'd put off your journey for me?"
He squeezed her hand a little tighter. "Of course I would, Misty. You're my best friend."
Perhaps he'd imagined it, but Ash's right arm suddenly felt a lot warmer, leading him to think that Misty had moved closer to him. He cleared his throat to mask the strange shortness of breath that soon befell him.
"Oh, and for your information, I don't hand out 'best friend' titles like RageCandyBars," he added in a playfully pouty tone. "But man, I could really go for one of those right now. They're all the rage, after all!"
A faint sound came from his friend's direction, one that Ash wasn't sure was a grunt or a giggle. Given the circumstances, he decided to go with the safe option and lay off some of his quirkiness.
"I mean, sure, so Brock, May, Tracey, Dawn, all of those guys, they're all my best friends – but you're my best best friend…you know? Well, I guess there's Gary too, but that was more before I started my journey. Hey, I bet you didn't know this…"
He patted the trunk of the tree with his free hand. "The morning after you and Brock left to go back home, me and Pikachu walked to the edge of town and sat in this exact tree for hours."
Misty's head craned upwards. "You did?"
"I didn't really know what to do with myself right after the group split up. It was all I'd known since I first started travelling. I missed both of you a lot, but then Brock ended up coming back pretty early in my journey through Hoenn, so I suppose I always, well…" he pulled his cap slightly over his eyes, "missed you more."
Her head had been spinning before he had even begun to speak; now, she could barely see straight. "I…thank you, Ash," she gasped, and with a light nudge of his shoulder, covertly turned her secret appreciation into playfulness. "I guess great minds think alike, huh?"
Ash grinned as a flash of emotion passed across Misty's face. "Was that a smile?"
"No…!" she shot back, embarrassed.
"It was, I just saw it!"
"No it wasn't! I just had something in my teeth, that's all!"
"Oh, that old chesto berry. Sorry, Mist, but you definitely smiled."
"I did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
The argument wasn't quite as heated as usual, perhaps owing to their tiredness or the fact that neither had any real reason to be angry at the other. After a while, the sparring stopped abruptly, and the two friends looked away from each other with sheepish smirks on their faces.
Guess I win, Ash snickered internally. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Professor Oak's laboratory only a few hills away. He wondered how Misty's sisters were settling in without their four-poster beds and silk sheets and everything else he imagined them having back at the gym. They'd be complaining to no end, he presumed, but Tracey would make sure they-
His stomach jolted, and a nauseating coldness clawed through every bone in his body. In all of the commotion, he'd almost forgotten. She was going to flip, big time. And just when her mood was starting to improve, too – oh, this was surely going to finish her off. It was the last thing on Earth he wanted to do, but he knew this couldn't wait. He had to do it now, or she'd murder him all the more for keeping it from her.
Drawing in a long and painful breath, the nervous young man shuffled around to his unaware friend.
"Misty, I…" he began, his gloved palms starting to sweat, "I've got something to tell you, and you're, um, not going to like it."
Her hand freed itself from his, and she shuffled slightly away from him. "What is it?" she asked in sincere alarm.
"It's, well, er," he stuttered, scratching at the back of his head, "it's about Tracey."
"Tracey?" she repeated. "What about him? Has Violet thrown a tantrum at the lab or something? What?!"
Ash knew she couldn't have been appreciating the stalling, considering all the bad news she had received already today. With another jagged breath, he decided to just go for it.
"Remember earlier when we were sitting in the ambulance waiting for my mom to get there?" She nodded anxiously. "Well, um, you weren't looking, but I saw Tracey go straight over to your sisters, and he, er, he and Daisy were…" he braced himself for the eruption, "…kissing."
Misty blinked. "So?"
The remark confused him immensely. "Huh? No, I mean really kissing, like, you know, on the lips and stuff!"
"Yeah, I know what you meant. So what?" she said, not even batting an eye.
Now he was even more confused. "So…aren't you upset about it? I thought you said he was helping you and sleeping over all the time and everything!"
It took longer than Misty cared to admit before she understood. Naturally, she overthought it at first, but then when she remembered this was, in fact, Ash, and not someone with an actual brain, everything quickly started to piece together. And she found it hilarious.
"Oh n-no," she giggled, said laughter building by the second. "T-Tell me you didn't!"
Ash had no idea what to make of this. "What's so funny?" he cried out. "I'm being serious, Misty, I saw it!"
"Th-This is why you were acting s-so weird when we were cleaning the aquarium?! And wait, did you ask me to stay at your house so I wouldn't be…oh m-my god, I think I'm g-gonna pee myself!"
"Misty, what's going on? Am I missing something here?" Ash exclaimed, completely floored by her nonchalance.
She calmed down somewhat after this, wiping her eyes with her arm. "This whole time, ever since you got back from Unova," she gurgled, "you thought Tracey and I were…involved?"
"You're not?" he yelped in response.
"No!"
"Then what the heck was all that about today?"
Still giggling every now and then, Misty placed a hand on the muddled boy's shoulder.
"First of all, Ash: Tracey and Daisy have been dating for over five years. I've honestly lost count of the amount of times I've told you that already. A few months ago, Tracey proposed to her, and they're getting married sometime next year. With me so far?"
Ash bobbed his head in acknowledgement, thinking it best to keep quiet for this part.
"Secondly, me and Tracey?! Eww! I mean, no offense to him, and I'm so happy for him and Daisy, but he's really not my type."
"So you've got a type?" he couldn't stop himself from asking.
"Shut up. And thirdly – and I can't stress this one enough – mind your own busin-AAAHH!"
With her exaggerated body language came an excess of movement atop the narrow branch, and Misty slipped backwards over the edge, landing spread-braviary on the grass like a face-down staryu.
Predictably, this was Ash's cue to burst into his own laughing fit (but not before a heavy sigh of relief at the previous conversation). He leapt down to her side and extended a hand out to her, which she begrudgingly accepted.
"You were saying?" he said cockily.
"I was saying you're the dumbest person I've ever met, Ash Ketchum!" she barked in humiliation. "A slowpoke could've figured that out faster than you!"
She poked him roughly in the chest. "Don't ever scare me like that again! Next time you have 'something to say', ask yourself whether or not it's stupid before you say it!"
"Ow! I'm sorry, okay?" he retorted.
"Whatever," she snapped, before breaking out into a coy smile. "If you really want to make it up to me, you can answer me this: did Iris and Cilan know who I was because you told them about me in Unova?"
Ash, having expected a harder question, was more than happy to respond. "Yeah, I guess they did."
A distinct pinkness rose to Misty's bruised cheeks. "Really? What did you tell them?"
"That you're a loud-mouthed battle-axe who calls me names and hits me over the head with a mallet," he grinned, following it up with, "In other words, just the good stuff."
"Very funny," she stated sarcastically. "But thanks, I guess."
Ash smiled, then looked out over the now greyish hills before them. "We'd better head back home before it gets really dark," he suggested. Edging closer to Misty as they walked, he tapped her on the shoulder and sprinted further up the path. "You're it!"
"Ash, I really don't have the energy right now," Misty sighed across at him, shaking her head in exasperation.
"Aww, don't be like that, Mist!" he shouted back. "If you don't join in, I'll call Brock and tell him about that time you wet your sleeping bag!"
And thus, the chase was on. "DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, KETCHUM!"
Only Pikachu was awake to greet them when they finally reached the house. With flushed faces, tousled hair and grass stains all over their clothes, one could draw some pretty startling conclusions – but after the day they'd had, the curious mouse decided that perhaps they deserved the benefit of the doubt.
Ash awoke the following morning with a major crick in his neck. Tradition demanded that he give up his bed for Misty, which he had been willing to do, but at the time he'd forgotten how unforgiving the fold-out bed in the guest room was. At least it saved him the trouble of having to set an alarm clock, as it was 7:48am right now, and there was no way he was going to get back to sleep.
After the usual tedious morning procedure, he trudged downstairs to find Misty waiting for him in the kitchen. Seeing her dressed in one of his old white T-shirts was something of an out-of-body experience, though at the same time he couldn't deny it kind of suited her.
"Morning, Ash," she smiled at him.
"H-Hi," he stammered involuntarily.
"Oh good, you're up," Delia observed as she entered the room. "Misty was just telling me that you're planning to go back to Cerulean City today. Tracey called late last night; he said he's taking Misty's sisters to shop for essentials like clothes and whatnot, and asked if you'd like to join them."
"Sure, sounds like a good idea," he stated. "But Misty and I are going to check up on Psyduck and the other pokémon first, right, Mist?"
"Yeah…" she affirmed, all of a sudden sounding a little uneasy.
"Quite right, too," Delia agreed. "Oh, I do hope the poor dear is alright."
"So do I," Misty murmured, mostly to herself.
Ash picked up the backpack he had left next to the door. "Are you ready then, Misty?"
"You're going now?" asked Delia. "But what about breakfast?"
"We'll pick something up in Cerulean," he shouted back. "It's important we get to the pokémon centre as quick as we can!"
Pikachu bounded onto his shoulder, while Misty scooted over to his side.
"Thank you," she mouthed to him, a sincere smile on her face.
Turning around, Ash threw open the door and was immediately stopped in his tracks by a tall man in a black suit and tie standing on the doorstep.
"Er…" he hesitated.
The man narrowed his eyes at the young man. "Pardon me, sir," he droned, "but is there a Misty Waterflower here?"
"That's me," Misty said, stepping into view.
"I apologise for calling at this early hour, but my superiors insisted that it couldn't wait."
"What couldn't wait?" she asked.
With bated breath, the redhead watched the man reach into his jacket pocket and pull out an off-white envelope adorning a decorative wax seal. He thrust it in her direction, and she warily accepted it, her fingers running over the velvety red insignia.
"What's this about?" she inquired.
"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say, ma'am," he replied flatly before tipping his hat. "Good day."
As the mysterious man's car disappeared up the dirt road, Ash, Misty and Delia stood in the doorway crowding around the bizarre letter.
"What's it say?" an eager Ash pried.
"I haven't even opened it yet, doofus," Misty riposted. Preparing to do just that, she carefully snapped the seal away from the parchment, lifting up the flap and unsheathing the ornate, gilded-edged paper that lay inside. Her eyes skimmed across the page, growing darker and wider with every subsequent word she absorbed. Neither Ash, Delia nor Pikachu made a single sound, too wrapped up in this increasingly unbearable suspense. When Misty had finally read all she could take, the envelope slipped out of her hand onto the floor, and her legs turned to jelly beneath her.
"Misty, whatever is it?" Delia gasped, while Ash rushed forward to catch his stunned friend before she fell. "Is something wrong?"
In a half-crouching position, Misty took a number of panicked breaths with her hands resting on her bent knees. The moment she looked up, her face had completely changed.
"It's the Pokémon League," she drawled in a lifeless monotone. "They're taking me to court."
