Chapter 7: Night 6-Unraveling
Misty's POV
It was early the next morning when we left, as at that time even the sun was still sleeping. The rain came down softly on our heads. It almost seemed like kisses from heaven. I looked up and gazed at the sky, which was filled with clouds that were slowly clearing. It seemed like in the end we both got what we wanted, Ash got his wish of traveling at night and I got mine of not being rained on so much.
And so we biked out of the city, me on my bike and Ash on his, Snowflake riding almost effortlessly sitting on Ash's handlebars. It has been a long time since I even left Cerulean, I guess over the years I have become a bit of a hermit crab, but better late than never I suppose.
The rain started to come down a bit harder as we left the city, but Ash and I were still able to bike pedal next to each other. I looked at Snowflake, who seemed to the one having the most fun, with her bright smile and blue eyes as if eager to see what was ahead. To be honest having her around gave me much more confidence, almost as if nothing could go wrong.
Up ahead of us I could see the top of Mt. Moon on the horizon, but nearer to my frame of view I could see a plastic blockade, with a red detour sign and an arrow pointing to the right.
"Oh no are they still doing construction on this old road?" I asked despondent.
"C'mon Mist, you know they've been working on this road for a while. Don't worry, I know a shortcut," Ash said.
"Really? Is it more reliable than the where the detour is leading us?" I asked.
"Oh yeah it's really fast. Oh by the way, you brought your bug repellant spray right?" Ash said to me, a slight smile forming on his face.
"Yeah I brought it, hey wait we aren't going through the forest are we?!"
Ash shook his head slowly. "I still can't believe after all this time, you're still afraid of bugs."
My body began to shake, I'm not sure if it was from the cold or just the fear of getting close to a bug, but I angrily took out my spray and began to spritz it all over me.
"Shut up Ketchup, like you've never been afraid of anything when you were a child."
Ash smiled again as he caught the spray bottle I threw at him. "Well there was this on time when I was young and this Rattata that had crawled out from our floodboards somehow ended up in our refrigerator. I remember mom opening up the door and this Rattata comes flying out like a Pidgey and scared the crap out of her. I swear I don't think she went in the kitchen for like a week."
"That doesn't count," I said, taking the bug spray back from him, "That's a moment your mom got scared not you."
I rolled my eyes as Ash tried to explain how "scared" he actually was and ignored him by riding off into the Viridian forest sidetracks. Of course, I sort of immediately regretted this decision, after all being in the forest late at night, during a rainstorm all alone was not how I wanted to spend my morning.
Once Ash and Snowflake caught up with me Snow, curiosity once again getting the best of her, wanted to ask me a question.
"So Misty, how did you become afraid of bugs?"
I turned around to face her, and her bubbly smile, placing one of my hands on the seat.
"Well," I began, "You see when I was little one of my sisters, I still don't know who, thought it would be funny to place a Weedle in my bed sheets while I was sleeping. I woke up the next morning to a Weedle staring at me in the face. I think the little bugger was more scared than I was because it sprayed its webs all over me. I was covered and it took my sister all day to pry it off of me. And I've been afraid ever since."
"That doesn't sound all too scary to me," Ash teased.
"Did I mention I was five? That's a lot for a little girl to go through! Not to mention the Gyarados incident…" I shivered.
"Gyarados?" Snowflake repeated.
It was then that I realized it probably wasn't worth telling that story at the moment. "Alright let's keep going, the faster we can get out of these woods the better."
And so we pedaled on, the rain petals still falling on us. It was sort of a quiet out, all that could be heard was the sound of our tires crushing the leaves beneath them. As five minutes turned to ten, another crack on the thunder whip was heard from above, bringing in a mighty gust of wind through us. I could hear a small flock of Pidgey flapping their wings, as if washing themselves with the fresh falling water. I thought this would be smooth sailing, until the wind snapped a tree branch off which had nearly fallen on top of me, but only ended up landing in front of me. It startled me so much I had to brake myself just to prevent rolling over it and messing up my tires.
Ash stopped next to me, looking at me a bit worriedly. "Are you alright?" He asked.
I took a deep breath. "I'm fine," I said with an aspirated breath. Then a bit more calmly I said, "Ash where is the exit to this place? We've been traveling for like twenty minutes now it shouldn't be this long."
I could see Ash's eyebrows furrowing, his eyes clouded with worry. "Misty, usually this path I walk only takes me five or ten minutes...usually."
"It is because of the rain? Did we make a wrong turn?" I asked.
"We haven't made any turns, we've been going straight this entire time," Ash clarified. "All we can do now is keep going. We should be out soon."
He began to ride ahead a bit and I followed, until I could see this bright light out of the corner of my left eye. I turned to the left, but I had little time to react as I felt this huge force push me backwards, pushing me into the trunk of a tree with my bike nearly crashing on top of me.
I could hear Ash and Snowflake screaming my name as they ran over to me. Ash crouched down next to me and looked at me. "Are you alright?" I heard him say.
All I could do was slowly nod. It felt like I just got hit by a car, and it seemed like every part of me became paralyzed, in total shock of what was going on around me. Then, just like another bolt of lightning, I could see another bright flash of light coming towards us. But I didn't have the strength to scream, nor the energy to point forward and warn Ash of our impending doom. Before I even knew it, I felt my body lifting off the ground, as if an unknown force was carrying me. There was so much light in my eyes I thought for sure that I was on my way to heaven.
And then, I became surrounded by impeding darkness, as I fell hard to the ground below.
The next thing I knew, besides the overwhelming silence, I felt that I was slowly being lifted again. I tried to break free and find my way around, but I couldn't even see let alone feel what was actually around me. I felt so groggy, like I got hit by a freight train, and my body was going to collapse any second. I could hear voices. Then I voice I felt like I should remember. Ash? Was it Ash? Where are you, Ash?
I tried to speak but it was like either my mouth was too dry, or maybe I just couldn't hear my own words. I felt like I was underwater, being held by a mysterious force, and hearing muffled voices around me, but being unable to react.
C'mon Misty, I willed myself, don't go out like this. I shook my head, at least I think I was shaking it, and tried to stand up on my own feet, problem is I couldn't move my arms. What was I being held by?
"Let her go you bastards! She has nothing to do with this!"
Well that's definitely Ash's voice. But why was he angry? I slowly opened my eyes, my dark world becoming filled with color, well gray color anyway. First thing I saw was the grass beneath me, only to realize that I have been standing this whole time, I could see trees in front of me and the rain coming down from above me. I tried to move my arms only to realize that they were being held back by this stringy, hard substance that felt like a cord, curling around my hands.
Another voice spoke up, an unfamiliar male voice, "You still don't understand do you? You don't realize the situation you are in? This girl...or should I say pokemon, is nothing but trouble to our society! You understand that don't you?" He grabbed Snowflake roughly by the hair, pulling her off the ground.
Her strangled gasp caused me to scream out involuntarily, "Please don't hurt her!"
Ash turned to me, wide eyed, "Misty! You're alright thank goodness!" He turned back to the man who held Snowflake by the hair. "She's not a pokemon you idiot! She's just a human girl!"
He smiled viciously, such a dark smile that was only complimented by his long messy dark hair. "You are determined to defend her aren't you? Or are you just stupid? Perhaps this will change your mind…" He brought out a small device from his blue pants pocket, it was small and rectangular, almost like a pokegear.
"You see this," he continued, "Is our special GPS tracking device used for our pokemon. All we do is place a chip in the pokemon's body and we can track its whereabouts for as long as we want, well at least until the chip dissolves anyway. It's quite handy."
He placed the tracker near Snowflake's trembling body, moving it downward until it neared the pit of her stomach, where the chip that was placed inside her had began to glow a bright yellow. Ash and I both stood in silence, no longer able to defend the fact that Snowflake was actually a human girl.
I let my head fall, feeling my red stained hair touching my face. "You bastards…" I whispered.
"Now you see?" He said, a gratifying smile crossing his face, "This girl is none other than Jirachi, the infamous legendary pokemon! Isn't that right, Jirachi?" At this he grabbed her head and slammed it down to the ground.
"Stop it!" Ash yelled out. "You're hurting her! Let her go!" He tried to run forward but was being held back by two other men behind him. That's when I realized we were surrounded this whole time, and probably had no way of ever reaching the edge of this forest.
The man smiled, picking up Snowflake's unconscious body. He motioned to the men around us, and before we could even had a moment to prepare, we were already being dragged away. I had no choice but to come along quietly, but Ash on the other hand, was so loud and rambunctious I had to tell him several times to shut the hell up before they kill us. Nevertheless, we weren't hurt, and I couldn't help but wonder why. Were they preparing us for something?
A little while later we were placed in this bare cell, with hay and dirt on the floor chains hanging from the ceiling and metal bars on the one window we could see. The moon just barely peeked in through this window, creating a little light for us to see our surroundings.
Ash, still a ball of energy, quickly stood up and rubbed his sore wrists. "Those bastards," He muttered. "Dammit this whole thing was a fucking setup."
"You know, it doesn't help much to swear," I murmured.
Ash looked to me, his eyes like wildfire. "You know, it's almost as if you don't care about what they are doing to Snowflake right now! Who knows what could she could be going through, so scared and afraid, worried and alone, it pisses me off!" He stomped his foot, kicking up dust along the ground.
"And you think that yelling is going to solve all our problems? We have take a moment and think rationally about this, Ash. Otherwise we will never get out of here and Snowflake will be…" I trailed off, my lip quivering. I didn't want to think of her as dead, but at this point I couldn't help but think how she might end up, not to mention us.
Ash knelt down next to me. "Oi, Mist, don't cry look I'm sorry okay? I'm just really scared right now I just wanna get out of here and get to Snow already!"
I looked at him, smiling softly, "I know Ash, I know."
He let go of a heavy sigh and sat down next to me. "So," he began to whisper, "Got any ideas?"
I swear he's still such a kid, even at twenty-one. I silently shook my head no. This was answered with another heavy sigh, and a surprising moment of silence. I looked out the window, watching the clouds start to cover up the light of the moon, then I turned my attention back to the ground, carving my name into the dirt.
"You know I heard those group of men talking about a Castform," Ash whispered, breaking the silence again.
"Huh?" I said, snapping out of my thoughts.
"Well you remember Castform don't ya, Misty?" He replied, "It has the ability to change its typing and moves based on the weather. So that means that Castform was probably the one who caused that huge storm in the forest."
"So that move we got attacked by was-"
"It was probably Weather Ball," Ash replied again. Now it was my turn to sigh. We really were doomed from the beginning.
"I was also thinking, that maybe the reason why we were trapped in that forest for so long was because we somehow got confused and disoriented. I really doubt it was because of the rain and wind. Maybe a Confuse Ray attack, placed at the right opportunity, could be enough to silently throw us for a loop," Ash said.
"They knew we were going to take that shortcut, and were waiting for us the whole time! Ah, if only we were better prepared for this…" I said despondently.
"I'm sorry Misty, if only I had listened to you and left in the morning, we might have been better off. Dammit," Ash said, slamming his hand on the ground, pushing up another dust storm.
"It's not your fault," I said. "If they really were waiting for us they would have caught us either way, day or night."
We both sighed at the same time. "We really are screwed aren't we?" I said, a soft chuckle to my voice.
Ash placed his hand on his chin, while the other rested in his lap. Then, like a bolt of lightning, he shot up to his feet. "Maybe not, Pikachu and Venusaur are still waiting for us at the way point right? Then we might have a chance…"
He began to crouch down to the ground, taking a scoop of dirt and rubbing it through his hands.
"What are you doing?" I asked him.
"I saw this on a documentary once," He explained, "Lost pokemon were able to find their masters by picking up on their scents in the air. If I used the combined scent from me and this place and blow it in the air, my pokemon might be able to pick up on it and find us!"
I rolled my eyes. "Ash, it's a nice thought, but I doubt that will-"
"C'mon just trust me on this," He interrupted me, rubbing more dirt in his hands. He then scooped up all the dirt he could in the palm of his hands, cupping it gently as he walked to the window, and then gently blew on it until it was out of his hands and flying out the window. He then went back to the same spot and started to repeat the process.
"Are you going to help me?" He asked, a sad little puppy dog look on his face.
I rolled my eyes again in annoyance, but seeing as I had no ideas myself, I had no choice but to help join the cause. Who knows, Ash's braindead schemes always seemed to work before...sometimes…
After blowing all the dust we could through the barred window, we could do nothing more but sit back in our abysmal surroundings, unsure of whether or not we would even survive tomorrow. We both leaned backs on the wall, my head on Ash's shoulder as his head leaned back and touched the wall. My mind couldn't help but drift back to memories of my mother, and my sisters, and how I was beginning to wish I could have taken that money sooner. Maybe I could have bought a nice mansion somewhere. What would be a good city to live in? Celedon? Vermilion? Maybe Fuchsia, since it's by the ocean. Ah who am I kidding, maybe I should have lived dangerously and just left the region altogether. I guess in the end my sisters had good intentions, even though they went through it in a selfish way in my eyes.
We sat in silence for the next few minutes, until Ash's voice softly rang across the room.
"So, do you have any regrets?" He asked.
"Huh?" I said.
"You know, any regrets, about life and whatnot?" He said again.
"About life? Too many to name. I guess if I had a choice I would have prevented my gym from going under," I replied.
"But then you would have probably never met Snowflake," Ash suggested.
"Maybe. Okay maybe I could change...all those crappy guys I went out with," I said.
"Oh yeah! Like that guy, uhm Harold, who was secretly married to his cousin, remember him?" Ash exclaimed, slightly chuckling.
"Oh geez," I rolled my eyes again, "Hey that guy was pretty okay, I actually liked him."
"Until he married his cousin right?" Ash teased.
"I didn't know that until after we broke up," I said.
"Was that before or after you called his house just to call him a dense, dim-witted, dufus?" Ash asked, starting to laugh.
"Maybe a little after…" I said, beginning to smile myself. "Oh c'mon like you never had a girl who wasn't a little off."
"Please," Ash started, "At least my women didn't have an inferiority complex, like that guy with the mohawk who had that motorcycle remember?"
"Oh really, what about that girl with the sixth toe?" I retaliated.
"She also had a third nipple, but don't ask how I knew that," Ash replied.
"Alright, alright, so we all made our mistakes and had our fair share of screwups, but at least we learned from them. At least I have anyway, and maybe I have moved a bit fast in my relationships, but I learned to go a bit slower than I was before," I said.
"So have I believe me," Ash agreed, "Besides, there's no need to go so fast anyway. If only we would have taken our time earlier, maybe all of this would have never happened."
I sighed, "Maybe, but no one can really be sure."
There was another few moments of silence, until Ash spoke again, "You know how nice it was to have her around? It was like all my worries sort of went away with her near me."
I nodded slightly, a bit glad for the change in subject. "I know what you mean."
"It was weird," Ash continued, "Almost like I was a dad taking care of my child, it felt so unreal you know?"
I nodded again, humming softly.
"It made me wonder if I could ever have a child someday. I never thought of that before, but you know what, I kind of wouldn't mind if I did," he replied.
It was at this that it felt like small sparks going through my body. I never thought in a million years that Ash would even think of having children. I couldn't help but want the same thing over the past few years, but such is a fleeting dream.
I moved my head off his shoulder, sitting up straight and placing my hands in my lap. "I guess a part of me has always wanted a family," I replied, "I guess that's why I jumped so much from guy to guy. But I couldn't even find a person worth marrying let alone having a child with."
Ash looked at me closely, as if trying to see something in my eyes, but I had my head down at the time. He sat up too, stretching a little. He started to laugh a bit, which actually ticked me off a little.
"What?!" I snapped.
"No, no its just, I didn't think we would ever be on the same thinking level, especially bout such a crazy topic like having children," Ash said, a smile gracing his face. "How come we never talked about this?"
"Well would you really want to sit down with me as I tell you I would like to have a child with another guy?" I responded. "It's not proper dinner conversation you know."
"I know, it's just, you think you know a girl, and then she goes from being a tomboy to having children," Ash said, "It's a bit startling."
"Well, don't worry, it will never happen anyway," I retorted.
"What? Aw, don't worry, we'll get out of here and things will be fine," Ash reassured me, patting me on my back.
"No, I mean...I mean...I am unable to have a child," I whispered.
I glanced at Ash to see his eyes widening in shock. "Wait, what?! Seriously?" He asked.
"C'mon you think I would lie about something like that?" I asked back, clearly getting aggravated.
"Gosh, I'm sorry Misty," Ash murmured, sadness evident in his voice, "I didn't know...I mean why? Did something happen?"
I looked up at the ceiling as I sighed heavily. "Well I guess it was 'bout four years ago," I began. "I felt sort of out sorts for some reason so I went to the doctor. So when they did some tests on me they found this little...well very small sort of problem...and it was essentially harmless so they removed it."
"You mean like a tumor?" Ash interrupted.
"It was benign," I stated, "And so small that it was easy to remove. But the only side effect was that a part of my reproductive system had to be removed as well, so I probably won't be able to have any children."
Ash sighed angrily. "I just can't believe you didn't tell me this sooner. Why wait until now to say something?"
"Ash, your mother had just died from ovarian cancer, do you really think I would want to tell you that I might have the same? I didn't want to put you through that much suffering," I said.
There was another moment of silence. Ash placed his head down, looking as if he was about to cry. I placed my arm around him, bringing his head to my shoulder. I saw him shut his eyes really tight and I ran my fingers through his hair.
I smiled slightly as he breathed heavily. "I'm fine," I assured him. "I'm completely fine. Besides I thought of adopting, but the only guy I actually suggested it to dumped me because he wanted a child that was rightfully his. I know it sounds selfish, but for some reason I guessed you might think the same way. I'm sorry."
Ash looked at me, tears threatening to fall from his soft brown eyes. "You think I really care about that? Men who think that way are nothing but shallow assholes! I love you too much to ever leave you for such a stupid reason."
I felt my heart skip a beat. "Wait, what?"
I felt Ash flinch a little, and then he sat up quickly, shyly looking away from me. "Well I mean," he started, "I mean I love you like uhm, like a fish loves water! Or maybe like ice cubes love a good soda? Or something like that...I guess...you know?"
I smiled slightly, hiding a small laugh behind my hand. "I know what you mean, Ash. I love you too."
My heart began to beat faster as he looked at me and smiled. We've been together for so long, I guess eventually being together would be like second nature, but I didn't think about actually being together as a real couple. Well I guess that's a bit of lie. When I was younger I did have a huge secret crush on him, this I'm not afraid to admit, but when Ash came to live with me it was more like a best friend situation, or like a sister helping a brother. But maybe I've always had feelings for him, just hidden behind our own sadness. Ah well, as the saying goes: misery loves company.
I leaned back against the wall, and Ash did too. We both sighed deeply at the same time, and noticing our acts, we looked at each other and smiled. He has such a cute smile, but I couldn't think about that right now. After all, we were still trapped in this place. I leaned forward, sliding my hands through my reddish brown hair.
"Ahhh, this is so aggravating!" I nearly screamed out. "I want out now!"
"Don't worry, Mist, I have faith in my pokemon! They'll be here any minute now just watch!" Ash stated exuberantly, pumping a fist in the air.
"Oh please, I can't believe I wasted my time blowing dust out of a window! I should have just kicked my way out to begin with!" I stood up, walking fiercely over to our caged door. I clenched my fists by my side. "I bet if I kick it hard enough, I could create a wedge for us to crawl out of.
Ash stood up and ran next to me. "Misty don't, I don't think you have enough power to kick down a metal barred door," he said.
"Oh really?" I retaliated. "Then just watch me!" I lifted my foot up, swung it backwards and pushed it forward with all my might. Just at the moment when I could hear my foot colliding with the door, there was a loud explosion from right behind us.
Shocked, Ash and I turned around to see dust flying everywhere and rocks flying through the air. Ash tried to shield me by pulling my body close to his and ducking us down, almost to the ground. We closed our eyes to shield us from the smoke, but when we opened them we got a shocking but pleasant surprise. There, amidst the fallen debris, was Pikachu and Venusaur, staring at us and seeming relieved that we were okay.
"I-I don't believe it…" I murmured.
Ash smiled confidently, placing his hands on his hips. He looked to me and smiled knowingly, sticking his tongue out at me.
"And now," he said, "Now you can never doubt me again."
He ran over to his pokemon, giving them gentle pats on the head. "I'm so glad you're both here, I just knew you would find us!"
I rolled my eyes as I heard their cries of joy, sliding my foot along the ground a little. As much as I enjoyed trying to kick that door down, I won't admit how much my foot hurts like hell right now. I guess it could fit in the top ten things to regret doing.
I smiled, but it instantly fell once I heard yelling from the hallway. I turned to the door and then turned back to Ash.
"Ash, I think we have a small situation here!"
Ash turned back to me, with another large confident smile, "Don't worry, that's why the dream team is here! Pikachu, Venusaur, are you ready?"
Both pokemon nodded, Venusaur shaking his leaves a little, and Pikachu letting loose some sparks from his cheeks.
Ash nodded, then pointed to the door. "Go for it you guys!"
The next thing I knew, Pikachu's electricity collided with the leaves of Venusaur, crashing through the gated door and nearly coming down on three guards who entered our private dungeon. I ducked and dodged out of the way just in time, but just as a turned around to yell at Ash for being so careless he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me along with him.
"Let's go! Pikachu! Venusaur!" Ash yelled. We ran out the door and down the hallway, Pikachu jumping on Ash's shoulder and Venusaur waddling along behind us.
"Ash where are we going?" I asked, trying to keep up with his sudden burst of energy.
"I don't really know but I figure this place is so small, she has to be here somewhere right?" Ash answered.
Turns out he was right, I couldn't argue as we turned one corner, and then another, finally running into a group of guards who were blocking a large metal door. Ash rushed forward, despite my efforts to pull him back, and commanded Pikachu to use Thundershock on all the guards without much thought. The guards fell backwards and ran away, giving us opportunity to head straight in.
I would have told Ash to wait while we think up of a strategy, but to be honest after spending a few hours in a cramped cell only to be nearly beheaded by a flying rock thrown at me by a Venusaur, I was a bit tired of waiting myself.
"Pikachu, iron tail!" Ash commanded.
Pikachu jumped up once again off of Ash's shoulder, his tail sparkling bright as he shouted his name. Pikachu jumped high and came down swift and hard, his pointed tail practically sawing the door in half, causing it to come crashing to the ground.
We ran in to realize that the room was actually a huge laboratory. There were machines and wires everywhere we could lay our eyes on, but we couldn't help but notice the huge contraption in the middle of the room, a large glass case with a tiny girl wrapped inside.
"Snowflake!" We yelled, both running closer to her. We stopped however, when we noticed there was someone standing by the glass cage, with short black hair and a white coat.
"Shit, it's him! The one who captured us, and the one who came over to our house the other day," Ash said.
I breathed in heavily and clenched my fists. This was not going to end well. The man turned around slowly, and I could see a wide smile on his face.
"Well now," he began to say, "It looks just you're just in time for the finale."