A/N: Interest suggestion. That would make things more easier and readable. If you want to know the current standing of the Pokémon Ash and Dawn are carrying, along with what Dawn has recently caught, go to my profile page with each chapter post. Also, what's the correct color shading for the galactic grunts? I'm getting light blue and teal but that doesn't feel right. Thank you.
It was 8 pm two days after Ash has gotten his first badge, and two to three days since Dawn having captured a zubat, psyduck, geodude, onix, machop, and an abra via trade. The two teens just arrived at Jubilife City to go to go to the next place of Floaroma Town.
"I think this is the first time we've gotten to a city at night." Ash remarked.
"Yeah, most of everything happens in the day." Dawn agreed, yawning.
"Let's head to the Pokémon Center and rent a couple of rooms." Ash suggested.
"Okay." The two were about to head to the center when they heard some scuffling and yelling. Thinking there might be trouble, they ran to the source of the disturbance to find none other than Prof. Rowan and Lucas, whom held a defeated starly and bidoof. The perpetrators looked weird. They wore space themed grey and white suites and a yellow G in the center. They also had light blue colored hair shaped into bowler cuts.
"Now now, Prof. Rowan, you must comply." One of the thugs tried to reason. "Hand over all your research on you. Failure to comply will result in a painful time for your assistant since his Pokémon's been defeated. They were pitifully weak!"
"Professor Rowan!" Both Ash and Dawn called out. The stern man turned to them.
"Oh, Ash. Dawn. How's your progress going?" He asked as if he weren't being stuck up.
"Hey, Professor of Pokémon! Must you be so difficult? We're speaking business here! We demand you comply with our demands!" The other guy threatened. Rowan shouted at them with a booming voice,
"Shut up! Don't be stupid nuisances! I shall not be interrupted talking to my protégé! Don't think you're strong because you're in numbers! What is with those outlandish outfuits anyway?! You call yourselves grownups? Kids, don't grow up to be these sorry messes." Rowan lectured.
"Oh! You just had to make this personal, didn't you! Now we'll have to use force to get that research! You'll regret insulting Team Galactic!" The grunts yelled as they got out their Pokeballs.
"Dawn, you ready?" Ash asked, his fighting spirit rising.
"Oh you bet it is." Dawn agreed. The teens got in the middle of the grunts and the professor.
"Go, Glameow!" "Go, Stunky!" The grunts shouted, releasing a cat with a curly tail and a purple skunk.
"Luxio, I choose you!" Ash proclaimed, showing his blue and black lynx.
"Piplup, I choose you!" Dawn exclaimed, revealing a blue penguin.
"Heh, using my line?" Ash chuckled.
"What? You say it so often, and it's sort of catchy." Dawn defended.
"Enough! Stunky, use Poison gas!" One grunt ordered. The skunk turned around and farted out dark green gas.
"Piplup, use waterspout!" Dawn retaliated. Piplup shot out a heavy amount of water over the battlefield, washing away the gas and covering all four of the Pokémon in water. This made Glameow snarl and shook itself to get the water off.
"Luxio, use spark!" Luxio ran ahead so that it wasn't too close to Piplup and jumped before charging with electricity and slamming into Stunky, zapping it more powerfully than usual. It was defeated in one shot.
"Glameow, use scratch!" The other grunt demanded. Extending it's claws, it landed a blow against the lynx, making it growl in some pain but didn't receive much.
"Piplup, use bubble!" Dawn instructed. Piplup sent a barrage of bubbles from its mouth at the cat at its eyes, distracting it.
"Luxio, spark again!" Ash commanded. Crackling with electricity again, it bashed into the cat, beating it in one move as well.
"How is this possible?! Us losing to a couple of kids?!" One grunt cried out.
"This won't do. The mission is a failure." The grunts returned their Pokémon. "You leave us no option. It's time to retreat for now. We shall do so because Team Galactic is benevolent to all!" From all around, from the South and North, police cars surrounded them. Officer Jenny stepped out, along with her growlithe.
"Halt! Put your hands behind your heads and get down on your knees. You are under arrest!" Seeing no way out, they were forced to comply and be arrested. Once they got in the car and were taken away, Officer Jenny went up to the four carrying a notepad.
"Do you mind if I ask you some questions?" She asked politely.
"I'm sure that will be no trouble." Prof. Rowan said.
"Who were they?"
"The lot called themselves Team Galactic."
"Were they carrying weapons?"
"No, just Pokémon."
"What were they trying to achieve?"
"They were trying to take my research on Pokémon evolution."
"Ah yes, I know of you Professor Rowan. Everybody does. Even though you appear fine, is any one of your hurt?"
"My Pokémon were defeated, but these two came around before they could assault us." Lucas explained. Officer Jenny turned to the two teens.
"Have you encountered this kind of thing before?"
"No. This is the first time we saw those kind of men." Dawn answered.
"Did you have any time to do anything other than intervene?"
"No. We had about half a minute before they would get hurt." Ash answered.
"What kind of Pokémon did they have? Gangs such as them tend to have the same weapons or Pokémon."
"A glameow and a stunky." Dawn replied.
"I have no more questions at the moment. I just need your names and means of contact if I have anything more to say." She requested.
"Ash Ketchum, and we don't have phones, and my laptop does not have Wi-Fi outside of cities."
"We can talk about that in a minute." Officer Jenny replied to Ash.
"Dawn Berlitz, and I don't even have a laptop."
"Lucas Paulson, and I'm never far from Prof. Rowan, so contact with me might be unnecessary."
"Shawn Rowan, and you should have my number in your database since I'm so important."
"Thank you for your time. We'll make sure we bring this gang to justice. Ash, can you come with me please?" She asked. He nodded as he went with her. She turned to Prof. Rowan.
"I can't believe they tried to take your research. That's really unforgivable!" She cried out.
"It's all over, so you can relax now. Still, thanks to you two, nothing negative came out of this situation. I appreciate that. Kudos to your battle skill. How is your progress?" He asked. Dawn perked back up.
"We're doing great. I we have a collectively captured data of 14 Pokémon. And Ash has gotten the coal badge from gym leader Roark."
"Hmph! He want to be Pokémon Champion?" He asked pleasantly surprised.
"Yeah. He never said how long, but that's his dream."
"It's been a while since I gave a Pokedex to someone with that goal in mind. You two are sure to encounter a lot of Pokémon. In other words, it will be of great help to my research. You're both free to do as you wish. Take care now." Rowan bid farewell before departing. Lucas uttered gratefully,
"Thanks."
"You're welcome." Dawn replied happily. Ash then came back to her as the police were leaving.
"Okay, how about we go back onto our adventure? I sure could battle some trainers to get over what just happened." Ash suggested.
"Sure." Dawn agreed, but before they could leave, they were approached by a news woman and camera man they didn't notice.
"That was nicely done! Truly excellent! We're from Jubilife TV. I'd like to give you something for letting us see such a smashing battle." The news woman gave Ash an ultra ball and a max revive. "Again, thanks for the battle." She said before the two news people left.
"Huh, I got a reward out of it. Maybe we should do this whenever there's trouble." Ash joked, bumping his elbow into her.
"And make it double? No thanks. Let's just leave this to the authorities." Dawn lightly objected, chuckling.
"Good point. Let's leave it to the police. Anyway, let's go." Ash shrugged."
"Sure."
Two days has passed as they travelled on Route 204. Dawn in the meanwhile caught a wurmple early on and was now battling a budew a few minutes before 2:30 PM on a sunny day.
"Star, use tackle again!" Dawn instructed as the bird rammed itself into the budew weakening it enough. "Go, Pokeball!" She threw the sphere at the Pokémon to absorb it and it wobbled three times before clicking. "Yes, we caught a budew!" She went to pick up the Pokeball and scanned it.
"Budew, the Bud Pokémon. Sensitive to changing temperature, it is said to bloom when it feels the sun's warm touch." The ball then promptly teleported away.
"Well done Dawn." Ash congratulated. Dawn giggled.
"Thanks." It was then that they caught the whiff of something brilliant.
"Oh my, what's that smell?" She sighed contently.
"I don't know, but this is the sweetest smell since last Thanksgiving. Mom's cherry pie." Ash hummed with fondness.
"Cherry?" Dawn questioned.
"I like apple but cherry's mom's specialty." He explained. Taking a whiff itself, Star took off into the air, circling around telling them to follow her.
"I think she wants us to follow her." Dawn understood. The two teens followed the bird before they found themselves in the beautiful town of Floaroma. It had flowers for several miles once they came upon the sight, with buildings littered around sparingly. Sunflowers, orange osmanthus, red roses, etc. It had a lot of brightly colored flowers.
"Oh my god. I've never seen such a fantastic town before." Dawn gasped.
"Yeah. The biggest flower bed we had was just that; a bed." Ash admitted. "How about we let out all our Pokémon? Let them play a bit." He suggested.
"That sounds like a wonderful idea." Dawn cheered as they got out their Pokeballs and threw them. Out came Ash's Turtwig, Staravia, Bibarel and Luxio, and Dawn's Piplup, Bebe, Sparky, Krikky and currently Onix, one of her two captures back in Oreburgh City. Star also
"Alright, guys. We're here to take a break from battling. Just have fun in the grass and go wild. Just don't destroy the flowers." Dawn explained. All of them nodded or cheered and went off on their way. From then on, Ash and Dawn played through the flowers, observing and looking up which type of flower it was with Ash's laptop. After that, Near a lake, Dawn was teaching Ash how to skip a rock. It happened when he saw her do it, reaching nine skips, so when he picked up a random rock and threw it, it just plunked.
"Hahaha, is that how you skip rocks?" Dawn giggled.
"Well nobody ever taught me." Ash whined.
"Don't worry Ash, I can teach you." She offered.
"Really? Thanks." Ash said gratefully.
"Now, the first step is choosing the right shape of rock. Not just any rock will do. Look for a rock that's flat and smooth." She suggested. Ash looked around and found one. He picked it up. "Good. Now show me your hand." She requested. He showed her his hand holding the triangular rock. She then began moving his fingers. "You want to hold it with your thumb and middle finger, and hook your index finger around the edge. Keep the thumb over it, not on the corners." She turned Ash to look at the lake. "Now, I can do it standing up, but since this is you're first real throw, we'll have to start off low." She pushed him down so that they were both on their knees. "Now, as you throw, aim for the opposite shore of the lake. The aim is quickness not strength. Finally, make it spin so that it can skip. The quicker it spins, the better. You spin it with a snap of your wrist. You got all that?"
"Yes."
"Good. Now... ready..." Ash steadied his arm. "Aim..." He gazed to the opposite shore. "Fire!" Dawn ordered. Ash released, watching it skip a total of five times. "Five isn't so bad for the first time." Dawn commended.
"Thanks Dawn." Ash chuckled as they high fived. They were interrupted as they saw many birds fly over in V formations. Pidgeot, Fearow, Swellow, and Staraptor with accompanying prevolutions of themselves following suite.
"They must be heading South for the winter." Ash observed.
"Down to Kanto and Hoenn?" She asked.
"Likely." It was then that they heard crying. They turned to the noise and soon saw a girl who had her kite caught in a tree.
"Oh, did that mean tree eat your kite?" Dawn asked sympathetically.
"Don't worry, I'll get it." Ash determined as he walked up to the tree, took off his backpack and started climbing up the tree.
"Ash, be careful!" Dawn cried out in worry."
"No need to worry, Dawn. Barry and I climbed trees all the time in Twinleaf. He usually beat me, but nine times out of ten he fell off." Ash explained. A woman walked up to Dawn and the girl.
"Lily, did you get your kite stuck in the tree again? Wait, what's he doing?" The mother asked, seeing Ash climbing through the branches.
"Getting the kite free." Dawn answered.
"Oh I hope the dear doesn't hurt himself. We usually get a ladder to remove it. He didn't need to." The mother stated.
"Almost... almost..." Ash was struggling as he could almost grab the tail of the kite from the longest able branch that could support him. He budged forward, getting it and laughing, but the branch snapped under his own weight and fell to the ground.
"Ash!" She cried out, running to aid him. Ash groaned as he used his arm to prep himself up and looked at the kite, all torn from the branches due to his falling. When he looked at Lily, he turned away in shame."
"Sorry Lily." He apologized.
"It's okay. You got hurt. I'm sorry you got hurt for me." She looked down, looking sad.
"Hey, I've been through worse. I nearly got a concussion from a geodude a while back. I'm a tough guy." Ash assured. Lily looked impressed.
"Wow, a geodude? You must be super tough!" Lily exclaimed impressed.
"Alright, let's see if we can make another kite back home." The mother ushered as she dragged Lily away.
"Goodbye mister!" She called out. Ash waved.
"She was nice."
"Yeah she- Ash, you're bleeding!" Dawn alerted. Ash looked to see a scrape on his knee through a hole in his pants, stained in red.
"That ain't good." He stated as he started lightly hissing from the pain.
"Let me help you to a tree." Dawn offered as she picked Ash up and assisted him to a tree. She laid him down and looked at the bleeding wound. "We'll have to disinfect it." Dawn remarked as she dug into her bag and took out some disinfectant and gauze.
"I know this will sting. Just get it over with." Ash said with some apprehension. Dawn nodded as she tipped the bottle's neck closer to the wound before a clear liquid poured over it, causing him to wince and stiffen before releasing the tension over some time. Ash then proceeded to rip off some of the pant leg of his pants and dried away all that he could. Dawn then took the gauze to wrap it around his knee and finished in a couple of minutes.
"Wow. Is there anything you're not good at?" Ash joked.
"Keeping you safe." Dawn admitted. Ash looked at her shocked.
"What?"
"This is twice now you've gotten hurt on this journey. I could've prevented you from being injured from that geodude or could've provided you a softer landing with flowers or something. I just..." Dawn started sobbing. "...I just don't want to see you get hurt." She cried letting tears trail down her face, holding her palms to her face. Ash didn't know how to respond, bit after mulling it over in his head, he leaned forward to grab hold of Dawn's body and drew her close so that she rested on his midsection. She almost stopped sobbing to look at Ash.
"Dawn, it's not your fault. I was careless that first time and I was unlucky this time. These things happen. If you were with Barry, he'd get himself a new bruise or scrape every mile under your watch. Just because I'm hurt, don't think it's any failure on your part. It's me, got it?" He asked with so much compassion in his tone and eyes. Dawn could only rest her head back down and sniff before nodding. Ash smiled until he heard a rumbling noise. They looked to not only see the weather has shifted to be a dark cloudy grey, but all the Pokémon was running towards them avoiding a sudden rain chasing them.
"Ah, they don't want to get wet!" Ash realized. Dawn went to her bag and took out two Pokeballs each time, returning her Pokémon, but he himself didn't have his Pokeballs as his backpack was still over at the other tree. Seeing this, she said,
"I'll be right back." She ran off for his backpack before he could say wait, and got swarmed by his Pokémon.
"Hey guys. Didn't want to get wet, huh?" He inquired, glad to see his Pokémon but was sad that the moment was ruined. Dawn returned with her jacket, scarf and beanie drenched from the sudden downpour and gave him his bag.
"Here you go." She puffed, panting just a little bit.
"You didn't have to." Ash insisted.
"It was the least I could do. Just return your Pokémon." Dawn sighed as she took off her boots to empty out the water. Ash only nodded as he returned his own Pokémon before looking to see Dawn removing her jacket and scarf, showing off the same white shirt/black tanktop combo, but this time the white shirt was see though, showing fair skin underneath. The tank prevented anything being revealed, but with her taking off her beanie and socks to wring them out, he couldn't help but bleed from his nose.
"Ash, what's wrong?! You're bleeding again!" She cried out once she noticed. Ash then realized and frantically dug into his bag for the tissues, but they were damp from the brief exposure.
"Dang it." Ash cursed as he wiped his nose on his hand.
"What's wrong?" Dawn asked again.
"Nothing is wrong, but there is something." Ash admitted, figuring now was just as good as any.
"What?" His female companion asked curiously.
"I think you're hot." Ash said just loud enough to let her hear.
"Hot?" She repeated, blushing.
"Yeah, hot. Or attractive, good looking, other stuff." A few seconds of silence passed before she asked,
"How do you see me as attractive?"
"You have such nice looking legs, your clothes are fasionable. You're face is cute. I like your hair when its down considering how much its decorated. You're blue eyes." He listed off.
"Wow. No one's ever said I was pretty except for my parents. I really appreciate your words, Ash." Dawn thanked whole heartedly, her heart pounding.
"You're welcome. I didn't want to say my feelings too early or it might've come off as creepy or whatnot." He explained.
"After being with you for a week, there's nothing creepy about you." Dawn giggled as she scooted closer to him. "I actually think you're good looking yourself."
"Yeah?" He asked, never really concerned with how he looked before.
"Yeah. Your grin when you're happy, that intense stare when you're serious, your hair. I like how you look."
"...Thanks." Ash said, starting to grin uncontrollably, but turned away so that it wasn't too obvious. Dawn knew better though. They watched the rain fall together, listening to it's soothing melody of water coming down, making their eyelids heavy... and their thoughts... becoming... bliss.