Locked Away, Chapter 27
Misty was ushered inside of the house with gratitude and favor rather quickly, Delia was very hospitable, nothing at all like Ash had described her. Delia had served Misty tea while they sat in the living room. She was watching the news, reading a crappy romance novel that Misty wasn't unfamiliar with, and over all, acting totally normal.
"How many sugars do you take in your tea?" Delia asked, while walking back from shouting after Cole, who was upstairs playing in his bedroom. Still shocked, Misty's mouth opened and closed as she tried not to stare at Delia like a magikarp.
"..N-none, thank you." Misty hummed while accepting the tea as it was. Delia took a seat in the chair beside Misty's.
"So how have you been? I don't recall you being the shy type at all."
Misty blinked once, and then twice; and then deduced that who ever this was, it wasn't Delia, that, or whoever saw Ash wasn't Delia, because this was a new level of weird behavior that Misty had never witnessed before, and Misty had three sisters. She knew weird!
"Oh.. Sorry, I'm just a little nervous. I have a lot on my mind you know, with the new job and...stuff." She tried, trying to sound as natural as possible. "I've been well, and how about yourself?" Misty asked, leaning in to watch Delia's tone and expressions.
"Oh, I've just been wonderful. The gals at the gardening club are starting a knitting club, and you know how much I love to knit—do you still have those mittens I made for you?"
"...No." She answered nonchalantly as the rapid thud of footsteps ran down the stairs.
"We have gues—Oh, its you." Cole muttered, seeing Misty sitting where he clearly expected to see Ash. Misty smiled weakly, and while Delia was rambling on about the knitting group she was in, Cole approached Misty with a kind of disappointed look until she winked at him and held her finger to her mouth for Cole to be quiet.
He obeyed, and found his way to the couch to sit beside her.
"Cole, this is Misty Waterflower, she's the gym leader of Cerulean City." Delia introduced happily with a pleasant, almost motherly smile.
"Are you?" Cole asked, his disappointment replaced quickly by amazement. "Can you show me some moves?"
Misty grinned at his enthusiasm. "Sur-"
"No!" Delia snapped quickly, and both Misty and Cole looked at her with wide eyes. She cleared her throat. "I mean, Cole, that's rude to ask."
For only a moment, Misty saw it with the quick snap, the callous nature of Delia; but more importantly, she saw it in Cole's features. A heavy tension hung over their conversation after that, and Delia tried to fix it with a shaking hand scooping sugar into Misty's tea—though she said previously she wouldn't like any.
"It's just that he has too much school work, and he already spends so much time playing with his video games." Delia cooed, regaining her composure as she smiled cheerfully at Misty once more.
"Does he?" Misty asked to keep the conversation on track, while Cole sat there emptily, crossing his arms. Misty hadn't noticed it before, since she wasn't as familiar with Gary back then—but Cole was the spitting image of the new professor, his hair was the same auburn shape, he wore the same purples and grays—his eyes were even hazel, and his skin was pale.
...but his mannerisms, those were Ash's. One hundred percent. The thought brought a smile to her lips, and she took a sip of her tea to muzzle it, only to shudder and set the glass back down immediately, recalling the three teaspoons of sugar Delia shoveled in.
"Oh, dear. I'm so sorry. I'm not used to having guest over anymore." Delia mumbled, taking the tea glass and pouring Misty a new one and setting the other aside. "I don't know what came over me, truthfully." She added quickly and then offered another smile.
"So what brought you out here?" the look Delia gave Misty spoke louder than the woman's words; 'how did you get my address' and Misty knew that.
"I was driving by and I saw the name. I know Gary Oak, and he told me you married into the family. I thought I would come say hi." Misty lied, though it wasn't her most convincing tell, with awkward pauses between each sentence, however, Delia didn't question it.
"Oh Gary, he's been such a dear since..." She stopped, her facade breaking before another smile fell on her lips. "Cole, why don't you go show Misty your video game collection and I'll finish up supper?"
"Sure!" Cole said happily while shooting out of his seat, his small hand wrapped around Misty's and yanked her up the stairs after him. She stumbled forward, laughing lightly as she did while Cole skipped to his room. The entire house smelled of cinnamon, unlike the gym which was perfumed from woman's clothes and chlorine, Delia's house smelled more like a home than she could have ever imagined.
However, it didn't feel that way.
Once Cole had dragged her into his bed room, he released her hand and spun on his heels to face her; his excitement was replaced with worry, and his eyebrows knit.
"Did something happen to Ash?" Cole asked quickly and Misty blinked and shook her head.
"No, why would you think that?" She asked and Cole shrugged.
"He wasn't with you." He questioned while sulking back to his bed where she saw the three baby pichus sleeping on the foot of his bed, and the female pikachu sitting beside them. Her ears twitched in response to Misty having entered the room. Cole pet the female pikachu's head while Misty took a seat on the chair beside his desk.
"He's out on an adventure." Misty tried to assure him with a sincere smile, but Cole didn't perk up much. He had the infamous Ash-puppy-eyes down to a tee.
"I thought you two were traveling together?" he muttered, flicking the game in his hand while his shoulders bobbed.
"We were, but he needed to go alone, you know? To find all of his pokemon he lost." Misty added, trying to keep a smooth voice for the frail boy. Cole cracked a smile.
"Has he found any?" He asked happily and Misty chuckled.
"Well," She said while opening her purse and removing a wade of neatly folded letters. "Why don't you read and find out?" She asked, watching his eyes light up like the sky.
"These are all for me?" He asked, taking them from her hands and flipping through them.
"Yeah, Ash tends to write a lot." Misty laughed, wondering how he found the time for it, given his busy schedule. "Gary was supposed to bring them by sooner, but he never made it back to Viridian City after Ash and I were here last. I brought you all the letters he had, too."
Cole's face softened as he held the folded papers, and stroked them gently with his thumb. "Wow..." he mumbled, having believed up until that point that Ash had forgotten about him—and since the trainer did not, his entire disposition change. Misty grinned at the reaction.
"You know, though. I have something even better than letters." Misty taunted him, and his eyes snapped to meet her with such bewilderment that she grinned even wider and took one of the letters out of his hand. Removing a pen from her purse, she wrote down quickly the number she might have already memorized, and handed the letter back to the young boy.
"You can call him, too."
It took every inch in Cole's body not to squeal as he looked at the written numbers, and then threw his arms up and tackled the young woman into an odd hug. Squeezing her at the waist and burying his head just below her chest.
"Thank you so, so, so much!" He cooed happily, breaking away and spinning on his heels. "I can't wait to talk to him again, and to see how pikachu's doing!" He chirped. Misty smiled at that, though she didn't make a remark until her smile had long faded.
"Cole, do you know what's wrong with your mom?"
As if killing his mood with a sniper shot to the head, he turned to look at her with a sullen expression. His feet pranced on the floor, and his eyes fell on the open door, checking for his mother before he lowered his expression.
"...She gets phone calls. I don't know from who, but she never lets me talk to them." He mumbled and swallowed hard. "I...I don't think they're very nice. Dad used to yell at them, but then...Now mom just acts strange. She doesn't leave the house anymore." Cole mumbled quietly, shifting onto his bed where he collapsed in thought.
Misty's face contorted. "Cole, they're not hurting your mom, are they?" She asked quietly, but Cole quickly shook his head.
"I don't think so. I've never seen them, they just call every once in awhile."
Misty rolled her shoulders. "And you don't know who they are?" She asked quietly, but Cole shook his head quickly and then inhaled.
"How was she after," Misty's eyes shifted to the door, where she thought she heard someone coming up the stairs. "Well, you know?"
"She cried for a few days. Wouldn't talk to me... she doesn't let me battle pokemon, or watch any information about it—she hates when Gary comes to visit, too." he very quietly lowered his head. "...When pikachu left, she was even more sad, but she never talks about it. She just... goes back to being happy like how you saw."
Misty's face softened, as if she could relate partially to the story, and she clasped her hands together over her lap. ",..Has she always been like this?" Misty wondered, tilting her head to one side.
A spark flashed through his eyes, a pure determination in his eyes as she sat up to smile at Misty. "No way, when dad was around she was always laughing! She always let me pretend battle, and we used to have pictures of Ash everywhere! When we moved from Pallet Town she was pretty sad...and... then dad..." Cole looked down at the palms of his hands which were resting in his lap, feeling the sharp sting of tears behind his eyes and the quiver of his lips. Misty watched him with slow, agonizing pain, and her heart snapped. She stood up, clenching her fists as she approached him on his bed and squat in front of him. On her walk over, she had removed a pokemon, and smiled widly.
"Why don't I show you a few tricks?" Misty suggested, winking at him. "We won't tell her."
"Really?" Cole asked as his eyes lightened up, the tears slowly evaporating.
"Yeah, really."
XOXS
A month later, Misty was still shaken up about the events. She had tried on several occasions to get Ash to answer her phone calls—but he was either incapable of working a phone, or intentionally screening her calls. She guessed the later, due to several events.
When she got letters from him, sent from Goldenrod City, he tried to argue that he "didn't have service" but if he didn't have service, he wouldn't have known that she tried to call in the first place. Really, she didn't understand his issue. Misty also knew that he was full of it because Cole, who she visited from time to time on the weekend would tell her all about the long conversations he had with his 'older' brother.
And if she was making a lasting impression on Cole, she knew that Cole talked about her—so how was he dense enough to think she would believe some terrible excuse like "no service".
Oddly enough, Delia made it perfectly clear that Misty was welcome back whenever she wanted—but the redhead wondered if that would change the moment that Delia discovered that Misty actually knew everything about Ash. Was the one who helped Ash, took him in when Delia turned him away?
Cole made sure that Delia had no clue what so ever, since he enjoyed her company when she would travel between Cerulean City and the Indigo Plateau for final meetings revolving around her acceptance as an Elite Four member. Her time spent in Viridian was also time spent watching Dr. Abby from a distance, and visiting Agatha. The odd time, she would meet Brock there, and he would discuss his conspiracy theories with Misty and Agatha at the nursing home—which had become their "home base" if Misty was being honest.
Misty was at one such meeting now, sitting on Agatha's rocker while Brock wrote words onto a white board and Agatha made snide remarks about the Pewter City gym leader.
"But Brock, Ash said that Sinnoh was a safe haven, and Paul helped balance out the inequality between coordinators and battlers; so we can't say all Elite Four members are crooked."
Brock whipped around at her, staring at her with his squinted eyes while Agatha, who was leaning back in her recliner, pointed at Misty.
"You have a point, but each region is still their own individual board, as well. Just because we have a board of executives who monitor and watch all of the leagues to make sure they correlate to some level, doesn't mean regions can't have differences. For example, Dawn and her mother were two very distinct coordinators, they're well known in the public and highly liked—if the Elite Four of Sinnoh continued to deny their terms, they whole region might have revolted against them." Agatha directed with a nod of her head. Brock nodded equally as fast.
"Thus, why T.R. Has been-"
"Brock, we still don't have proof of that." Misty jabbed in right away while he deflated and collapsed into the chair.
"But it makes so much sense!" He argued, and both Misty and Agatha shrugged.
"That doesn't make it true."
"I wish Ash was here, he would agree with me!"
"You barely know him!" Misty snapped with a playful snarl and Brock stuck his tongue out at her.
"Just because he doesn't call you." He managed.
A vein popped on her forehead and she stood up to really jab him in the shoulder when Agatha put her cane between the two of them. "Knock it off children. Don't make a scene." She warned them with narrowed eyes.
Misty sat back down and glared at him while he looked at the board which was compiled data from him, Misty, Agatha, and the pieces from Ash. In reality, they had no more than what they started with, just more theories; the biggest one, however, pertained solely to Delia, and who was 'keeping' tabs on her. More than that, they each had an inkling that the late professor didn't die of natural causes, like the media stated. When Misty told them about the phone calls directed at him, Agatha was able to make a brief point that Team Rocket did try to recruit leading officials, and that would include the pokemon professor of the region.
After a pregnant pause shared between the trio as they wracked their brains to determine who was behind these terrible allegations; Misty crossed her arms and bit her lip childishly.
"Does he call you, Brock?"
The older man looked at her surprised, seeing her childish expression, and then chuckled briefly before laughing loudly, a sentiment shared with Agatha, that Misty didn't find quite as funny.
To be truthful, had it not been for his persistent need to send her letter, after letter, she would have thought that he forgot about her. Ash called other people; but wouldn't call her, and she struggled to wonder why. As if reading her thoughts, Brock wiped a tear of glee from his eye.
"No, he doesn't call me, either." the man said. "I'm afraid I would have no idea what to say to him even if he did. We aren't as close as you two are."
Misty smiled at that, recalling that Brock didn't really know Ash at all, and what he did know, was because of Misty and Agatha—not from the boy himself. Even still, it was comfortable around these people, as if Misty knew them a lot longer than she would have ever admit to.
For once in her life, she felt like a real twenty-two year old, hanging around someone her own age, with decent friends, and while, yeah, there was the whole Team Rocket scenario playing over her head, and her best friend was a coma-patient arsonist, she could have had it worse.
"When do you start training to become an Elite Four member?" Agatha asked, changing the subject and cutting Misty out of her thoughts.
Misty inhaled shakingly. "I leave tomorrow. I'll be spending a few months at the Pokemon School of Saffron City where I'll learn the most recent rules and regulations; then I have to take a test about water pokemon."
Brock's eyebrows furrowed. "You don't have to battle anyone?"
"Not that I'm aware of." Misty said honestly. "I think it's weird, too." She admit shortly after. Hiring someone as an Elite Four member who isn't trained to actually battle would be a nightmare—but they could have also been relying on her statistics as a gym leader.
"Man," Brock hummed. "Who am I going to conspire with after you leave for that?" He whined halfheartedly while Misty shot him a devious glare.
"Maybe I'll call you—or maybe I'll take a note from Ash's handbook and send letters instead." She mocked, trying to use her best Ash voice that made both companions roll their eyes.
"You should keep in contact." Agatha advised seriously. "It's easy to get swallowed up once you get into the big leagues, and if what we've been discussing has been more than a tea party, you shouldn't be alone." Agatha paused, looking between Brock and Misty very sincerely.
"I don't want to see anymore pokemon trainers go missing." She added, and Brock, who was a bit more emotional than Misty, sniffled, and hugged the elderly woman.
"Thank you, grandma!" he mumbled into the hug, only to be met with a swift hit over the head by her cane, knocking him away from her.
"I didn't say you could touch me!" She hissed angrily, causing Misty to chortle.
From the hallway near them, Dr. Abby held her clipboard close to her chest, listening in to the last of their conversation before very slowly turning and walking away. Looking at her notes, she removed the information she had just obtained from the conversation between them, and tore it off before tossing the note into the garbage, leaving whatever meeting they were conducting between them, as she stalked back to her office unseen.
XOXs
Johto region shared many similarities to Kanto, so when Ash started his travels through the region, the pokedex made quick work of any unanswered questions he might have had regarding pokemon. Since he no longer needed to stalk cafes and pokemon centers, he made a habit out of gathering information about his pokemon in advance using the search engine provided by the pokedex. On the road, the first pokemon he found was bayleef, a pokemon who almost crushed him with her large monstrous sized body; like charizard, the grass pokemon had stayed close to where Ash found her at, mainly because she knew that Ash would come back for her.
From there, he made his way though Cherrygrove City and Violet city, taking the time to pass through Azalea town, until he reached route thirty four, which was a swamp in comparison to the rest of the water areas he had been around; the murky water was home to the crocodile pokemon totodiles, and his evolved forms. Not many trainers bothered to venture so far west, but Ash dared—with his team slowly coming together, what couldn't he do?
Luckily, totodile was still around, older, much older, his blue scales which were light and gorgeous in his dreams were now battle torn. Long gone were the days when the pokemon would dance happily around the area, instead, when the pokemon approached Ash, he was able to catch totodile only after winning in a battle against it.
Luckily for him, he had pikachu, which was strong against water types. Soon after, he explored north to the lake of rage, taking him to the end of February, and through Goldenrod City. Like Saffron City, the capital of johto was enormous, and from most mountains in the region, Goldenrod City stood true to its name; it looked like a glowing mass in the distance.
Since Ash didn't waste time visiting pokemon center to pokemon center; he drifted away from the pull of sociability, and retrained his body and mind to work with his pokemon. Hours not spent traveling were spent training, and times after that, he caught up with his little brother and wrote letters mindlessly trying to align his confusing thoughts with what he was trying to say on paper.
Also, thanks to his pokedex, he had a sure way of removing certain pokemon from his list—he still looked, of course, but pokemon like herecus, the bug pokemon, had a short life span, as did noctowl, the bird type pokemon, and cyndaquil, the weasel pokemon. However, totodile, bayleef, and donphan, who were more closely related to large mammals, had longer life expectancy; just as Agatha had written for him previously.
Ash felt like he was lucky in Johto—finding three of the seven pokemon he captured in the region in such a short time. When he started toward Hoenn in the middle of March, his luck wasn't so great. First off, the boat ride there was painstakingly slow. He refused to allow charizard to fly over the ocean, especially after spending so many hours flying Ash around on his back. While the stubborn dragon refused to admit, he was tired.
When Ash finally arrived in Hoenn, he knew right away what Drew was talking about regarding contests; the entire region was under a full lock down—which meant pokemon battling was temporarily banned. Apparently, the tropical island had been home to great strife revolving around the mistreatment of coordinators and battlers, and the favoritism between the two of them. People started rioting in the street, and petitioners flooded the central region offices, where the Elite Four, and champion stayed. Needless to say, the region was in shambles and trainers were leaving by the boat fulls in the direction of the mainland regions; Kanto, Sinnoh, and Johto.
Ash tried to help when he could, his pokemon were very adamant, but in the end, their results were minimal, and people never stopped needing help. Instead, they returned to their normal goal; gathering the rest of his missing pokemon.
Ash wasn't so lucky here; he found torkoal in the presence of another trainer—a good trainer, and didn't muster the courage to break up the group. However, swellow, and corphish were nowhere to be found along the paths he traveled, if the pokedex was correct, and his time line was accurate, swellow would have only had a five year life expectancy, where corphish spent most of their time migrating through the ocean—he would, like torterra, be a pokemon that Ash came back for when summer rolled in.
In the mean time, he discovered that the pokemon "snorunt", and other pokemon whose natural habitat was the islands around Hoenn, were on the verge of extinction following the eruption of a volcano near the Izable island, which turned the group of islands around the Hoenn region, into a mountain of rock from cooled laava. Some people complained that they could still see the fire burning in the distance when the sun went low enough.
Ash's last stop in Hoenn was the Petalburg woods, where he searched for treecko, or sceptile. While he was under the belief that his pokemon evolved in his dreams the same way they evolved in the real world, a part of him might have made the evolutionary disbursement differently depending on his feelings at the time. For instance, charmander didn't evolve in the real world until Ash was five years into his coma, but in his dream world, charizard was the first fully evolved pokemon that Ash ever owned. He wagered the inability to contain charizard was directly related to the fact that charizard was only fully evolved in Ash's head, and not in real life.
Through his march through Petalburg Woods, he outwardly wondered to pikachu and togepi if he should stop in at the gym. Sharing old stories of May and Max with togepi, while pikachu chimed in his own memory of the events. Most of the time, they lined up, but pikachu liked to point out how unreal some of Ash's adventures were.
"That's what made them so much fun." He told pikachu, getting a distance, saddened look from togepi.
"Togeiiii?" It asked, citing the equivalent of 'isn't this fun?'
Ash laughed a little. "Yeah... I just wish we could find everyone." Ash hummed sadly, recalling the few pokemon he had caught. Most of them went directly to Gary's once he captured them, since he reached his max of six shortly after changing over charizard and bulbasaur's pokeballs. Ash tried to keep the newest editions to his team with him more than the earlier captures, only so they had time to re-bond as master and pokemon.
"Pikaka!" Pikachu hummed from Ash's shoulder, causing the trainer to peer down at togepi, who was looked older than a baby now, Ash thought he almost looked too big for his shell.
"Maybe we will stop in for just a minute." Ash mumbled at pikachu's request as he turned from the woods, and towards Petalburg City were spring had already started to turn the leaves their famous shade of pink.
XOXS
Before heading to the Petalburg gym, he decided to clean himself up—mostly because he looked like a wild, and beaten animal in his rags of clothes, and so he found himself at the pokemon center where he checked into a room long enough to clean himself. Exhausted from his long journey already, and with the random heat waves associated with spring, Ash found little comfort in the pokemon centers small, quaint room. Togepi and pikachu waited patiently for him to shower and clean himself up, but not without causing minor forms of chaos.
With Ash quietly distracted, his pokedex was left unattended,which meant the two pokemon were fully capable of contacting whomever they wanted from his list.
"Brrriii~" The egg chirped while pikachu clicked on the contacts application, to find that Ash had exactly three numbers saved: Gary, Misty, and Cole's. While neither pokemon truly read human text, they recognized names. Togepi rolled forward, pressing against Misty's name where a small box opened.
"Pikapika?" the mouse questioned while pawing at numbers, sending gibberish to the redhead; any shapes that were familiar, like hearts and stars, and money signs.
When the first message was fired off, the two mischievous pokemon giggled to themselves, gleeful of what would happen—but a reply never returned their gibberish, so they essentially spammed the woman with weird smiling faces, and an abhorrent amount of random letters.
"Do you two really think May and Max would be at the gym still? I mean, it belongs to their parents, not them." Ash hummed while walking out of the washroom, drying his hair with the white towel provided by the pokemon center. When he walked out and was met with that giggling faces of his two pokemon, his face paled.
"What are you two doing?" He grumbled, approaching the two of them who both rolled away, laughing like maniacs as he scooped up his pokedex to view the damage. His face drained of any tan he had developed over the last couple of months, and he threw up his arms.
"Are you serious?" He grunted, and glared between the pokemon as he tucked the phone away, hoping that Misty wouldn't bother reading the messages at all. Misty famously called them "pocket texting" or "pocket calling", therefore, given the messages were mostly incoherent babble, she might not even bother him about it...or she might, and in such a case, he mentally was not ready to speak with her.
Ash swallowed hard, staring down at his pokedex once more, as if awaiting a text from her—but when it didn't happen right away, he shook his head viciously, and then returned to the bathroom to finish dressing himself, making sure to bring his phone with him.
"Pika!" The mouse teased chummily while togepi pleasantly smiled beside the mouse, sharing a brief high five.
XOXs
Petalburg gym hadn't changed the slightest since Ash saw it in his dreams. It was still a small looking town house, with trees surrounding the area. While Ash stood much taller than his ten year old coma-self, he very small in the area on the outskirt of town. Ash shouldn't have been here, not really. He had already agreed to himself that he wouldn't tell anyone else about his dreams until he knew what they meant himself—he wouldn't be distracted from his journey again.
However, here he was, staring down the sign which clearly read "closed".
"Well, it's now or never I suppose." Ash hummed while he tossed his ever growing ponytail over his shoulder, and popped the collar of his blue jacket. It flew in the wind behind him as he stuffed his hands into his pockets with both togepi and pikachu at his sides. He marched directly to the doors, but then hesitated before his hand reached the door handle.
"I'm sorry, Max, I told Bianca I would meet her there!" A female's voice shrieked from the inside, causing Ash to retract his hand as the door flew open, and a brunette rushed out of the door, smacking directly into Ash. He stumbled backwards, but didn't fall over. After months of hiking, he had greater poise, and instead steadied the woman before him before taking a nervous step back.
"Sorry about that, I was just about to go into the gym." He muttered weirdly, pointing past her to the door, but she paused, her crystal blue eyes staring up at him, awestruck.
Her initial thought was simple as she tucked her hair behind her ear and looked at him with curiosity. The boy before her with long raven hair, chocolate eyes and standing at least six foot was...adorable.
"Hi there." Her personality flipped as she raised a gloved hand. "I'm May. And what's your name?" She asked, extending her hand to greet Ash.
His face flushed automatically and beside him pikachu's jaw dropped. She was much older, still wearing a red bandana, and black tights, but she also had on a pokemon 'ranger' insignia necklace that was the most apparent item on her body. Ash grinned at her after regaining his wits, and straightened his hat in response.
"I'm Ash Ketchum." He mumbled, listening to the sound of something in the house shattering at the call of his name. His eyes shot forward, peering past the woman and into the house where he saw a tumble of a green blur fill his vision, before running directly into him.
The wind was knocked out of him in an isntant as a pokemon about the size of Ash when he was ten rammed itself into Ash's stomach. He gasped and staggered backwards, everything going black while May gasped and shrieked all at the same time.
"MAX!" She yelled. "Your pokemon just killed someone!" She screamed dramatically, stomping her foot. From the depths of the gym, a boy no taller than May rushed forward, wearing a pair of black glasses and an outdated green pokemon shirt and brown long shorts.
"Don't be a drama queen!" Max choked as he came forward to view the scene himself. "You know sceptile only likes me..." Ash he saw the vision in front of him, where an unconscious man was being fanned by his grass pokemon, he rubbed his neck.
"...oh."
"SEE, and he was a cute one, too!" May shouted, stomping her food. "I told you to keep sceptile in his pokeball!"
"Well sorry most people know that the gyms are closed! What was he even doing here?" Max shot back at the girl who immediately moved forward to pinch her younger brother's cheeks.
"He's obviously not from here. Look at his other pokemon, idiot." She growled while pikachu and togepi sighed in unison. Ash groaned, holding his stomach and sputtering a form of his existence, but the arguing siblings didn't seem to notice that he sat up, and was watching the two of them.
"Well if someone wouldn't just storm out of the gym whenever she felt like it, I wouldn't have to have sceptile out all the time!"
"What? Are you afraid of the boogey-man Max? You're seventeen!"
"So!? You know there are weird people in the world."
"Guys." Ash started, holding his stomach while sceptile keeled beside Ash, apologizing for his accidental full-front attack.
"Let me tell you that they are not going to bother you, nerd boy, you only have like two pokemon, anyways! Why would anyone take you?" She threw up her arms, crossing them shortly after to make her point. Max stewed in response.
"For the same reason no one wants you! You pokemon hating weirdo!"
She gasped. "I don't hate pokemon!" She yelled, and Ash rubbed his head.
"Guys." He tried again, feeling his face twitch.
"You hate pokemon and you know it! That's why you don't like that I'm going to be a pokemon researcher!"
"I am a friggin' pokemon ranger, I think I would have to like pokemon to be in that job, don't you!?"
"You only joined the rangers so you could see the world and you know it!"
At that comment, May had grabbed her slightly shorter brother into a headlock, and pressed her knuckle against the top of his scalp with a scowl playing across her face while Ash returned to his feet and with the help of his pokemon, he shouted once more.
"GUYS!" he yelled in unison with togepi, pikachu, and sceptile, successfully ending their charades.
Blushing several shades, May released her brother and took a long look at Ash who was still wheezing from the blow to his stomach, and glaring between the two of them—before he broke into an odd, cheerful chuckle.
"Wow, do you greet everyone like that?" He asked, turning to sceptile and patting the pokemon on the head, the two siblings looked offended, though Max more than May, who covered her face.
"No, just you." Max chimed, huffing his chest out to look bigger than he was, trying to match Ash's height—something no one else had done before. "What's your deal anyways? Sceptile doesn't like other trainers." Max groaned while Ash raised an eyebrow and looked at the younger boy
"Oh." Ash said and glanced at the grass type which rubbed the back of his head. Ash looked once more at Max and then shrugged. "I'm just a likable person, I guess." He grinned, causing Max to flick his glasses.
"Hmph." He started. "Why are you here? The gym's closed."
"Oh Max!" May chimed, wrapping her arm around her brother's shoulders. "Don't be so rude. Your pokemon did just attack him."
Sceptile agreed, as if insisting that he, too, wanted Ash to stick around, and the blue haired trainer's shoulder dropped. He glanced up at May, who seemed overly giddy that a stranger, who was cute by her standards, was finally coming to visit. With dull eyes, Max sighed.
"I'm sorry sceptile tackled you. Would you like to come in for tea...or something?" Max grunted, and while Ash wasn't big on tea, he wouldn't turn down the invitation. Pikachu beat him to the punchline, jumping up on top of sceptile's head, while togepi scaled the five feet from the ground to hop onto Ash's shoulder.
"That would be great, thank you." Ash hummed, getting a strange look from the duo as they raised their eyebrows quizzically at one another in regard to Ash's happy-go-lucky persona.
XOXs
They gathered in the dinning room around the kitchen table where both pokemon, and trainers were welcome to sit. Pikachu and togepi practiced tossing pellets of pokefood into each others mouth, while sceptile warmly spoke with them in hushed tones—where pikachu filled the grass pokemon in on current events, Ash's coma, where Ash has been, and the events that lead up to their traveling to Hoenn.
Meanwhile, Ash spoke with May and Max.
"So, Ash, what brings you so far south?" She hummed, sitting closer to him, though Ash feigned complete obliviousness, a little disturbed that May, his may was hitting on him—the same way he was disturbed when Brock hit on Misty; but to a lesser degree.
Max, who was clearly still upset that sceptile had taken a strong liking to Ash so easily, was brooding on the opposite side of the table.
"Well, I'm looking for special pokemon that I haven't seen in years." he told them honestly, watching Max's face lighten up a little, but watched May's turn into a frown.
"Why? Are you planning on selling them, or something?" She uttered, and this time it was Max who kicked her under the table for wild accusations. Ash blinked, confused.
"Ah, no. Why would I do that?" he asked innocently, Max fidgeted in his seat.
"Poachers are bad here. Every region has 'em, but since battling has been outlawed, poaching is the new thing."
"Poaching?" Ash asked as his eyebrows knit together. "Why would people do that?" He grunted but the siblings shrugged.
"Easy money." The siblings replied in unison, but only Max continued; "Since we can't battle for money, that put a lot of trainers out of cash. They sell pokemon on the black market instead." Max answered as May rose to fetch the steaming tea from the stove. She returned juggling three cups, and the pot to the table.
"That's terrible..." Ash grumbled while he looked at the steam rise from his cup. Max nodded his agreement.
"It is, but that's what happens when the government stops trainers from training."
Ash hummed. "I've been meaning to ask about that, why has a regional ban been placed on pokemon battles?"
May grumbled. "Because coordinators didn't feel like they were getting enough freedom, which means everyone has to suffer." She said unhappily while dropping five teaspoons of sugar into her drink; Ash's eyes went wide as he watched. Max sipped his black, Ash didn't touch his at all.
"Doesn't sound like you like coordinators..." He grumbled, hearing the words himself, speaking to May, it sounded so strange.
She shrugged. "I don't mind them—really, there's only the one in particular I can't stand with his green hair and better-than-thou attitude."
"She has a crush on Drew." Max added after her tangent flatly, with a poker face to rival the gods.
Her face turned scarlet. "I DO NOT, MAX!" She yelled, though Ash snickered in the same way that pikachu did when someone did the same thing to him.
"I didn't know you knew Drew." Ash stammered, and then collected himself. They both narrowed their eyes.
They spoke in unison, a trait Ash was beginning to realize was relevant only to the siblings. "Do you?"
"I might have ran into him while I was in Kanto...and then again when I was visiting Sinnoh."
"You've been to so many places!" May exclaimed looking earnestly at him, though Max shook his head, flabbergasted.
"Are you some kind of pokemon researcher, too?"
"Researcher?" Ash mumbled, scratching his chin. "No, though everyone keeps asking me that." he admit with a grin, watching both of their faces lighten up.
"Tell me, is he as much of an ass in person as he is on television?" May asked with a wagging eyebrow, though Ash could only narrow his eyes.
"I thought he was at first; but he's pretty decent. He saved me from getting punched."
May jerked backwards. "Punched? Are you a hoodlum?" May questioned while sitting back, when her hair moved from her neck, he could see the scar running up the side of her neck behind her ear and Ash blinked at it.
She noticed the stare right away, and covered the late injury with the palm of her hand.
"How did you get that?" Ash asked worriedly, though he already knew the answer. Dr. Abby mentioned that May had been in an accident during the start of the Team Rocket uproar in Hoenn, she just never specified what the accident was.
"It happened a long time ago, it doesn't matter." May mumbled, tucking her hands beneath the table, and glancing away from Ash. He looked to Max for answers instead, but he, too, was looking at the table, which had grown several times more interesting.
Ash paused for a long time, and then blinked up at May once more before smiling. "I had a friend once who told me you should wear your scars like a badge of honor." Ash tried, his words knocking them both out of stun.
"I have a few bad ones myself," he paused to reveal his right arm, which was littered with holes left over from the IV drips he had placed in his arms, and then pulled the color of his shirt down to show the neat vertical scar that he had in his neck when they had him connected to an old-fashioned feeder, which required a pump.
"Where did you get those? Are you a druggy?" Max asked while May stared at his scars with wide eyes.
"No." Ash laughed. "I'm a coma patient. I barely woke up." he said nervously, straightening the collar of his shirt once more while the siblings sat back.
"What's a coma patient doing here?" May asked skeptically, though her mood had clearly softened; relaxed.
"Like I said, I'm looking for special pokemon." Ash looked at sceptile, which had been in his own world with togepi and pikachu, and pat the pokemon's head. "And sceptile is one of those pokemon."
Max sat back. "He always has been a little strange—sleeping at odd hours of the day, whenever he felt like it. Sometimes he would even black out randomly." Max lowered his brows at the pokemon. "The pokemon doctors said he was narcoleptic."
Ash chuckled, grinning; having heard that story twice now, once when Cole described pikachu to him, and now with Max. "I don't doubt that." Ash said confidently.
"But only a few months ago, the sleeping spells suddenly stopped—and he's been perfectly fine."
"Max has been trying to study the phenomenon behind it, but he has no clue." May chimed in, with a grin. "he thinks he is a pokemon researcher." She added and Max felt a red blush crawl onto his cheeks.
"Someday I will be." He growled at May, who in turn rolled her eyes and took another sip of her drink. Ash smiled awkwardly.
"Why can't you be one now?"
"Because pokemon researchers need to study under a professor, and Hoenn doesn't have one right now since battling is outlawed." Max muttered under his breath and kicking on his feet.
"So why not go to another region?" Ash asked with a head tilt.
"Because other professors prefer to have someone from their region since they already know the pokemon." Max hummed with a prevalent sigh. Humming, Ash tapped his fingers on the table.
"I know a pokemon researcher who is always complaining that he needs more help." Ash offered, staring at Max; in turn, he glared at Ash.
"Why would you offer that? You don't even know me." caught in the glare, he realized May had taken the same stance—possibly growing distrust where trust had been forming, so Ash pointed to sceptile; his scapegoat.
"Sceptile likes you, which means I like you, too."
May scoffed at that. "That's a pretty old way of thinking."
"But it's true, isn't it? You can always tell who a person really is by how a pokemon acts around them." Ash said quickly, crossing his arms in his defense while togepi and pikachu nodded their agreements before returning to their business with sceptile.
Astonished, Max leaned forward. "Which professor?"
"Professor Oak, but I call him Gary. He's the new one from Kanto."
May clapped her hands together. "The cute one!"
Both men stared flatly at her, unimpressed as their lips pursed questionably while she rolled her eyes and sat forward on her crossed arms.
"I need girl friends." She hummed under her breath.
"You could ask him for me?" Max questioned, returning the conversation back to Ash,
The raven-haired boy nodded. "I can. I can also give him your number so that you can call him yourself." Ash twitched. "I'm not sure how friendly he would be though...but it doesn't hurt to ask." Ash admit while rubbing the back of his head. Max nodded eagerly.
"It doesn't! Thank you, Ash!"
"No problem, Max." Ash hummed naturally.
"That's funny." May mocked, eyelashes lowered. "We never told you his name."
Ash's face fell and he looked at the siblings who had so artfully played him. He blinked a few times, and then shook his head.
"What?" Ash questioned bitterly while May pursed her lips.
"What are you really here for, Ash? You're not from that stupid gang that tried breaking in last week, are you?" She grunted lowly, in the same voice Ash associated with Misty when she was angry. Ash shook his head, insulted.
"No. Why would I do that?"
"Because the gym leaders have been at some stupid meeting for the last month? Everyone thinks they can do whatever they want to the gyms now." Max grunted, crossing his arms. "Besides, look at your arms. You're probably just trashed and trying to steal money."
Ash narrowed his eyes. "Excuse me?" insulted, he growled, and in return, sceptile also rose to defend the trainer, alerting Max and May. Both pikachu and togepi rose as well to face the siblings.
"I understand that bad things have happened, but I'm not trying to steal from you." he paused, "I'm trying to help you." He added for effect, but May and Max looked at him defensively.
"Then how did you know Max's name?"
It would have been easy to lie, "I heard it when you screamed at him earlier" or, "The gym leaders kids are well known around here", but instead, Ash took a seat calmly and placed his hands on the table.
"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me." He offered in spite of himself, and pikachu sat back.
"pika pikachu." The pokemon muttered, questioning Ash who shushed him.
"Try us." Max and May said once more in unison, clearly impressed by his composure.
Ash smiled faintly and swallowed, remembering as clear as day what happened with Brock. But now, he was visiting with Misty, and working together—maybe the same thing could happen with these two?
..What was the worst that could honestly happen? "Well... like I said, the short form would be to say that I was in a coma for ten years and...I had dreams that resembled the real world, and real world people." Ash glanced at sceptile, who bowed his agreement. "In those dreams, you two were in it, and so was sceptile, and a bunch of other people and pokemon—the pokemon I met in that world seem to remember me, like sceptile, but I've learned that the people, you guys, have no idea who I am—crazy, huh?" out loud, it sounded crazy, and he knew that, so he had prepared himself for their denials the same way that Brock had, but instead, they looked at him.
"...No, we've heard crazier." Max hummed, smiling.
"At least you were honest." May added while running her hand through her bandana.
Ash's face fell. "What?" He gaped.
"That's not uncommon, a lot of people have dreams like that—maybe it's not as famous in other regions, but Hoenn has many cultures that view dreams as a part of reality." Max muttered, straightening his glasses to prevent a gleam.
"Really?" Ash asked. "So you two don't think I'm crazy?" his voice pitched cheerfully, but May snickered.
"I think your crazy." She said sardonically while lifting a finger. Max rolled his eyes.
"I think it's interesting, and if that's what you believe—who am I to say that you're crazy?"
"You just like him because he has friends in high places." May mocked him, while she pinched Max's cheek. He glowered, and squirmed from his sisters touch.
"I do not!" He squealed, rubbing his cheek painstakingly while Ash smiled in return.
"...You guys." He hummed, closing his eyes. "Thank you."
XOXS
Ash was happy to admit that the fourth and fifth numbers that he was able to add to his pokedex belonged to May and Max. While they weren't his versions of the duo, they were still closely related. They were still who he remembered them as, the same way Dawn, Brock, and Misty were. Enough of the same, but different.
In the end, he chose to leave sceptile with Max. Not because he wouldn't have enjoyed the pokemon's company—but because Max needed him more right now. The way it sounded to Ash, Hoenn wasn't exactly the safest area in the world, and he would be damned before leaving the two with no protection at all.
He dusted off the grass pokemon, and as a parting gift, removed his hat and tipped it onto the pokemon's head.
"Watch out for them, okay? You seem to have been doing a good job of that, anyways...but... I did miss you." Ash said confidently while the pokemon moved forward to hug his former trainer. May and Max watched the scene amusingly. The sun faded into the background as Ash parted with the pokemon so that pikachu and togepi could share their goodbyes.
"You know," May said with a charming smile. "You can visit whenever you like." She wagered with a joking wiggle in her eyebrow. Ash laughed awkwardly and took a step back.
"I think I'll be okay," He rejected her, watching her left cheek puff up in a pout. He continued, "but in the meantime, I'll call Gary about that understudy, Max." Ash said quickly while putting his hands on his hips. Max smiled and nodded.
"Thanks, I would appreciate that." he said while he watched Ash shoulder pikachu and togepi, and start back down the path leading into the Petalburg Woods.
"Hey, good luck Ash!" May cried while cupping her mouth with her hands. Ash waved at them with a grin on his face and Max felt a weird chill run down his spine.
"...He was a little familiar, wasn't he?" Max uttered, breaking the ice between him and his sister. May stared silently for a moment, and then smiled with her eyes closed.
"Do you think maybe that's why you believed such a crazy story?" May laughed while fanning herself and walking back into the gym, knowing that she missed her 'date' with Bianca, and would likely never hear the end of it. Max stomped his feet.
"It wasn't a crazy story!" Max argued.
"So you believed him?"
"At least he was harmless, besides, sceptile liked him!" Max chanted, pointing to the pokemon for emphasis as it laughed at his trainer. May cleaned her ear with her pinky finger in a mocking way, and narrowed her eyes.
"If you say so."
In the distance, Ash could still hear them bickering, and shook his head, laughing at the two of them as he tapped the pokeball to release charizard. Where soon enough, he would be on his way to the Orange islands.
Author's Note
Treecko was caught in the petalburg woods, which is (shocker) right next to petalburg gym, I don't doubt that a picky pokemon like treecko wouldn't have allowed another trainer to capture it outside of someone he knew already, and I always found that treecko and Max got along really well in the anime so... yeah.
Regarding May and Max's belief in Ash's dream. Just based on their character personalities, they are the two that I could see going: "Okay, yeah, I don't care if your crazy so long as you're a decent person." you know? They don't have a position of power like Brock, where they have to think about whether or not someone is trying to get something from them, and they're not in a seat of high popularity like Dawn, either. I dunno, I thought it worked for them.
Had quite a few time skips in here, as well; so I hope nothing was confusing.