Back to me!
I couldn't really help myself with that cheer. I was just feeling awesome! I beat Brock! ...Okay, it was only Gym #1, but come on!
Just as I was thinking that, Ash and Pikachu walked up, with determined looks on their faces. "Hey, Ash! Guess who just won!" I proclaimed, showing him my brand-new Boulder Badge!
"Wow, you beat Brock! Congratulations! Now I know I'm going to win!" he declared, walking up to the door. Uh oh. Did I just make him more overconfident than he already was?
"Err, wait a second! Do you want any advice on how to approach this?" I asked. Ash scowled at that. I get the feeling Misty already tried, but aggravated him in the process.
"I don't need any stinkin' advice!" he angrily said, before walking into the Gym. I shook my head at that. He'll learn eventually, but not for a while. He's still...sigh...just a kid. That line...I don't have anything against Iris, but that one line aggravates me because it reminds me just how badly they screwed Ash up in Black and White. For crying out loud guys, he had just gotten to fourth place in Sinnoh and beat a Darkrai and a Latios with a non-optimized team! Even if Pikachu's electricity had been sapped away, he should have still been able to beat a Snivy! ...Okay, that's enough of that. I should really get going so I can heal Eevee.
As I walked back to the Pokémon Center, I couldn't help but think about the whole Nickname thing. Should I go ahead with it or not? On the one hand, it'll make them easier to identify. ...On the other hand, I don't think I'm that creative with nicknames, all things considered.
Still, something else has been bugging me. Arceus called me here for some reason, but just what is that reason? He refuses to tell me what it is, after all. All he said was to look for things weirder than usual. But just what does that even mean?
Speaking of, he told me to "live my life". So I guess I should start planning what to do next. Well, obviously, the next Gym is Cerulean, since I'm definitely going to stick with Ash through Kanto. Gym Leader is Misty...Water-types...shouldn't have too much problems with that*. Bunch of appearances from Team Rocket. Wonder if they really are that ridiculous? Should I do something about them? On the other hand, they did help out a lot when push came to shove. They're certainly more successful when they're doing things legit.
Oh! And can't forget about catching new Pokémon! Wonder what I should catch? Obviously not Legendaries, since they're kind of Big Things in the Anime. I definitely want cool ones though, like Houndoom or Gallade or Hydreigon! Er...but maybe later. This is Kanto after all. What are some cool Kanto Pokémon I can catch?
I was so engrossed in this that when I came to the Center, I walked right into the glass wall with a smack! Owwww... Inside, I could see Misty getting her Pokémon back from Nurse Joy. One look at me and she started laughing her ass off. Yeah yeah, laugh it up. I'm going to wipe the floor with you in Cerulean!
I rubbed my face as I walked in the proper way. "Shut up, Misty," I told the laughing hyena (er...laughing Mightyena?) of a girl.
Still, leaving that all aside, there is one thing I want to do before leaving Pewter…
Surprisingly, Eevee was all healed up much quicker than it had taken before. I guess it was because Nurse Joy didn't have as much of a backlog as she did before. I accepted Eevee's Pokéball from her, clipping it to my belt. You know, I've never really liked belts in general, but what does that have to do with anything?
"Hey, have you seen Ash?" Misty wondered. That's right, Ash just up and left her, didn't he?
"Well, he's at the Gym. He'll probably turn up later," I said halfheartedly. I was a bit busy thinking about what I was about to do and whether I should really go through with it. ...Screw it. Just go with it.
"Well, he better show up soon!" Misty complained. Oh, you are totally worried about him, don't even try to deny it.
"That'll probably depend on how long his Gym battle is. You know, I tried to give him some advice but he brushed me off," I noted.
"He did the exact same thing when I offered to let him borrow some of my Water-types!" Misty huffed. "I bet he doesn't even know what he's doing!" she added.
I shrugged at that, not really seeing any way to argue. I did decide to point out at least one strategy he could have thought of, if only to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"Well, if he spams Butterfree's status moves and Confusion attack, he can probably win. Rock-types don't usually have a lot of protection against non-physical attacks," I pointed out.
"Maybe. I doubt he thought of it though," she said disdainfully.
"Meh. Whatever. Like I said, he'll turn up. Anyway, I gotta do something right now, so I'll be back later," I told her.
"Alright. What's it about?" she asked with natural curiosity.
"Just need to talk with my Pokémon," I said evasively, before leaving. Yeah, I definitely needed to talk with them…
I let Eevee and Spearow out of their Pokéballs in a secluded area near the Center, where nobody seems to pass by. While Spearow gave me a nod, Eevee looked at me inquisitively. Right, she was knocked out by Onix, so she didn't know if we had won or not.
"Before I say anything, I just want to say thank you. It's because of you two that we were able to win," I said graciously, showing them the Boulder Badge. Eevee leaped for joy at the fact that we had won it, while Spearow just rolled his eyes at her bouncing around. I'm getting the feeling that he's a bit exasperated by her.
...Right then. Time to get to what I wanted to do. "Anyway, on to what I actually need to tell you guys about. I've gotta tell someone about this, or I don't know if I can take it!" I've made plenty of mistakes, chief among them concealing the truth. If there's one thing I want to do now that I'm in the Pokémon World, it's be as honest as I can.
Just about as I was about to tell them about it, my phone buzzed, which caused all three of us to jump. Taking it out of my pocket, I saw that it was a message from Arceus.
Are you sure you want to do this?
"Yes, I'm sure," I spoke aloud, knowing that Arceus would very well pick up on it.
Alright then, if you're sure. But if I were you, I wouldn't go spreading the info around to everyone.
No duh. I'm not an idiot. Meanwhile, Spearow and Eevee were giving me weird looks. Right, they have no clue who I'm speaking to.
I took a deep breath. Here goes. "There's something you guys need to know about me. I'm...not from around here. And I don't just mean I'm not from Kanto, I mean I'm not from here. I'm not from this plane of existence. In the most simple terms, I'm an alien," I admitted. Both Pokémon were shocked at that. Spearow even poked me slightly with his beak as if trying to figure out whether he could tell if I was an alien that way.
"Now don't get me wrong, I'm still human! I'm just not from this World. I just wanted to let you guys know that. I needed to tell someone, or I think I would have gone insane," I admitted. "Anyway, in my World, Pokémon aren't real. They only exist in stories and games. I'm not sure why I'm here, but I know Arceus had something to do with it. Won't tell me what though," I said in frustration.
My phone buzzed again.
I told you, I'll tell you later.
"That's not good enough! I want to know why you ripped me out of my life and brought me here!" I yelled, glaring daggers at the phone as if it was Arceus himself.
Ugh...fine, I'll tell you...
Finally!
...after you get three Gym Badges.
Wha-? Gkh...GAH! "Oh, fine! Be that way! Some PokéGod you are!" I said in defeat. Eevee and Spearow were giving me wide-eyed looks at that.
"You see what I gotta deal with here?" I asked wearily, showing them the phone. Spearow just looked at it quizzically, but Eevee whispered something to him and his expression cleared up. He also looked slightly outraged.
But it was also clear from their expressions that this didn't change anything for them. Even though I'd only known them for this short a time, they still trusted me anyway? I couldn't help but smile. "Thanks, guys," I said graciously. It was then that I noticed the Sun setting. It was too late to go look for Ash today, so I guess the only thing I could do was let things play out.
"Come on, let's go back inside. It's getting late," I said, returning them back to their Pokéballs. With that, I stepped through the doors to the Pokémon Center.
Well, it was the next day, and Ash had returned, going straight for the Gym. Misty and I trailed behind him, Misty ranting about Ash's stupidity, as well as the stunt he pulled with the hydroelectric power plant. While I admittedly could have stopped that, I didn't. Because that's where Pikachu learned Thunderbolt, and I don't want to mess with things too badly yet. After all, while Pikachu would surely learn Thunderbolt on his own some time later, something told me that there'd be problems if he didn't learn it now.
But something about that was striking me. How did that happen to begin with? Pikachu's Ability is Static after all, not Lightning Rod. Unless... "Misty...is it possible for a Pokémon to have more than one Ability at a time?" I questioned.
"...Oh! Yes, actually! It's really rare though, not a lot of Pokémon do. Why?" Misty wondered.
"Well, Pikachu has Static for his Ability, we know that. But that stunt Ash pulled sounds like he was relying on Pikachu having Lightning Rod instead. Lightning Rod absorbs Electricity and boosts Special Attack, so it makes sense," I mused, rubbing my chin.
"But if that's the case, why did Ash's Pokédex say that Pikachu only had Static?" Misty point out.
...Good point. Hm...Oh! "The way I see it, there are two possibilities," I explained. "The first is that it's just a programming oversight, since most Pokémon don't have more than one Ability." Ash meets the guy who programmed the Kanto Pokédex in the Seafoam Islands, so we'll be able to ask him in person later.
"The second option," I continued, "is that Ash artificially induced the Lightning Rod Ability in Pikachu. Somehow." That is literally the only other possibility in my head.
"But...HOW?!" Misty spluttered. I just shrugged, not like I could explain it. I'm just guessing at this point. At any rate, we'd arrived at the Gym. Misty and I walked upstairs to the spectators' balcony, waiting for the match to begin. Brock's siblings also joined us up there. The eldest of them was undoubtedly Forrest, who would run the Gym after Brock left for Hoenn, but I couldn't really tell you the names of the others.
The match...was pretty much how it went in the Anime. I winced a bit at Ash sending out Pidgeotto. He really should have sent out Butterfree instead. Confusion would have taken care of things. I did have to raise an eyebrow at Pikachu zapping Geodude into submission though.
"How did Pikachu manage to punch through Geodude's Ground typing?" I questioned Misty.
"Um...I don't know. I guess that crazy idea of Ash's worked," she shrugged. That doesn't explain how it punched through an immunity! I'd also question why Geodude is flying...but it does that in the games too sometimes. By that time, Brock had sent Onix out. Pikachu, in fear of Onix, launched Thunderbolts all over the place. One of them almost hit me in the head, but I managed to duck. I'm not sure if Anime Physics would protect me the same way they'd protect everyone else, but I'm not going to test it right now.
"Hey, watch it!" I yelled, but I don't think they heard me. Onix used Bind on Pikachu, attempting to subdue him that way. Pikachu used Thunderbolt, but since Onix is, of course, Ground-type, it didn't really do much other than set the roof on fire slightly. Brock told Onix to stop, because he does have a heart, the big softie. And then the sprinklers went off and doused Onix, letting Pikachu Thunderbolt it into submission.
...You know, people give that even more flack, but I personally see it as the sprinklers acting as a makeshift Soak attack. And since Soak changes the Type of the affected Pokémon to pure Water, then it makes perfect sense to me. Then again, Soak didn't exist in Gen 1, so I guess I can see where the flack comes from. Definitely a Hilarious in Hindsight moment though.
Ash was about to finish Onix off, but Forrest and the rest of Brock's siblings started dogpiling him, pleading with him to stop. I couldn't help but blink at that, I swear they were right here two seconds ago! Damn it, Anime Physics, make sense! Anyway, they managed to talk Ash out of it, and he left, Pikachu in tow.
Misty sighed. "I don't believe it. He finally gets a lucky break, he decides to be a nice guy too," she lamented.
"Hey, being nice is a good thing!" I countered, shamelessly ripping off Mega Man Battle Network 6...at least I'm pretty sure Lan said it in 6. I know it was in the Battle Network series though.
"Anyway, that thing with the sprinklers seemed a bit like a makeshift Soak attack to me," I commented.
"I know, that's why I told Ash to attack," Misty mentioned. She did? Upon seeing the dumb look on my face, her own went deadpan. "I was sitting right next to you!" she yelled.
"Um...oops? Sorry, that's a bad habit of mine," I apologized. I really need to work on that.
Misty just rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's get going before we lose Ash again," she said.
"Right."
We finally managed to catch up to Brock and Ash near the outskirts of Pewter leading onto to Route 3. Seems like Ash was trying to lose Misty. Why would he do that? ...Oh yeah, the bike thing. That's still the only reason Misty is following him. And-
Wait, where did they go? I looked up from where I was looking around to see them running off. Hey, wait a minute!
"Hey!" I yelled, rushing after them. Why the heck are they running so much when it's night time?! Oh look, there's Team Rocket in their hole they fell into! I decided to avoid stepping on them, so they could have at least some of their dignity left over.
"Sorry about my friends!" I yelled over my shoulder, before rushing after the trio I was chasing. As it turned out, they had finally stopped running about a 100 feet ahead.
"Hey...why did you guys just take off like that?" I panted, trying to catch my breath.
"You didn't hear Ash say that the only person worth talking to was Brock?" Misty questioned. I blinked. He said what?
I shot Ash a dirty look. "Dude, not cool!" I criticized. Ash proceeded to look anywhere but directly at me. Figures...
Meanwhile, Misty was giving me a suspicious glare. "Did you space out again?" she asked critically.
"Eheheheh...what are you talking about?" I dodged sheepishly. "No I didn't!" Yes I did. Well, at any rate it was getting late, so we decided to make camp for the night. As we did, I pulled out my Boulder Badge to look at it. One Badge down...7 more to go for Kanto. I wonder what's going to happen in Mt. Moon tomorrow?
...I guess I'll find out.
Episode 05 - Fin
Bit short, but Pewter City is finished! Onwards to Mt. Moon and beyond.