Chapter two: Law breaking
The next day Ash and Misty were the first to wake up. "Good morning honey." Misty said.
"Good morning Misty." Ash said. They kissed in bed then they got up and dressed for the day.
"I better wake up the children they mustn't be late for school." Misty said leaving the room. She went into Ashley's room first. "Ashley time to wake up."
The little girl rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "Morning Mommy." She said.
"I'll help you brush your hair after I get you brother up." Misty then went into her son's room across the hall. "Mist, get up sweetheart."
Mist yawned and got out of bed but still looked half asleep. "Good morning Mom."
"I'll leave you to get dressed." Misty said. She went back to Ashley's room and began to brush her daughter's hair.
"Why don't you grow your hair long Mommy?" Ashley asked. "I bet it would look real pretty."
"I might try that. Do have your show and tell ready?" Misty asked.
"In my backpack." Ashley said with a smile.
After everyone got dressed and had breakfast it was time for Ash to go to work and for Misty to take the children to school. "Have a good day at town hall Honey." Misty said.
"Of course Dear." Ash worked as a file clerk for the town government.
"We'll see you at home." Misty said.
"Bye Daddy" the twins said.
"Have good day at school. Love you." Ash said.
When Mist, Ashley and Misty got to the school waiting out front were two of their friends May and Drew's son Norman who was named for his grandfather and Dawn and Paul's daughter Penny. "Mist do you have something good for show and tell?" Norman asked. He had brown hair green eyes; he wore a green shirt and brown shorts.
"You bet its real cool." Mist said.
"Ashley; are you show everyone your violin and play a song for everybody?" Penny asked. She had Blue hair done in pig tales and brown eyes. She wore a red shirt and overalls. While most of the women and girls of Sweet valley usually only wore dresses Penny and her family lived in one of the farms at the outer edge of town and was dressed in the best way to help out around her home.
"My show and tell will be a surprise." Ashley said. "But I will say that I am getting better." Ashley did play the violin but she still was an amateur. Then the school bell rang.
"You kids better hurry you don't want to be late." Misty said.
"Yes Mommy." The twins said.
"Yes Mrs. Ketchum." Penny and Norman said.
Later in class it was time for show and tell and it was Mist's turn. "I found this arrowhead in my backyard." He said holding it up for the class. "Sometime long ago before the outbreak someone used to live here. For all we know this belonged to the first person ever to live in Sweet Valley."
There were a lot of wows and awes from the class. "Very good Mist, you found something of our town history." The teacher James said. He was married to Jessie and had an eleven year old son name Borden and a five year old daughter name Lizzie. He now wore glasses.
"Thank you Mr. Fundsworth." Mist said proud.
"Now it's Ashley's turn. What do you have to show us?" James asked.
Ashley walked up to the front of the class and pulled out the Pikachu doll from her backpack. "This is Pikachu. Mommy and Daddy made him for me and my brother when we were babies. He is one of the Pokemon that used to be in the world." Ashley said. "He is our favorite toy because we can pretend that we are trainers like Daddy and Mommy were."
James had worried look on his face. "Uh Ashley how about you stop right there. It is almost recess time."
"Yes Mr. Fundsworth." Ashley smiled.
As the children began to go outside to play James stop Ashley and Mist. "Will you two mind if I held onto Pikachu for awhile? I also need you to stay after school for a bit."
"Did we do something wrong?" Mist asked with a panicked look on his face, the children of the town never disobeyed an adult out of fear of spankings.
"No, no, you did nothing wrong I just need to have a talk with your parents about Pikachu. I think the Mayor would like to meet him too." James reassured. They nodded and Ashley gave James the Pikachu doll. After they left James looked at the doll. "After all this time in a way I finally got you and now I have to be the one to report the crime of two who often stop me from committing crimes. He went to the hall and picked up a phone on the wall. "The Mayors office, please and tell him that I am reporting a crime.
After school Mist and Ashley did what they were supposed to do and did their homework. Then they heard a knock on the classroom door. James opened the door and let Ash and Misty in. "Hello James." Misty said.
"Thank you for coming." James said.
"I have to admit I a little confused." Ash said. "When you called me at my office I was worried that they might have gotten hurt."
"No they're fine." James s said.
"Then why did you hold them after school? I find hard to believe that they could have done something wrong. We did everything good parents are supposed to do." Misty said.
"We had you come because of what you did wrong, not your children." The voice belonged to a tall older man with thinning white hair in a white suit and black tie.
"Mayor Needle." Ash said. "I'm afraid we still don't understand."
"Show them." Mayor Needle said. James took out the Pikachu doll from behind his desk.
"Mr. Fundsworth told me that your daughter brought this to show and tell today. She said that the two of you made this for them seven years ago." The Mayor said.
"Yes, we wanted them to have a toy that would belong to both them so they would learn to share." Misty said.
"However this toy also would encourage interaction with a real Pokemon."
"But Mr. Mayor what's wrong with that? All the Pokemon are gone now!" Mist said.
"Mist don't talk back to a grown up!" Ash told his son.
"Yes Daddy. I'm sorry Mayor Needle." Mist said.
"It's quite all right. The boy is upset. Now will you both come to the town square and take responsibility for this act in front of the community?" The Mayor said.
"Yes sir." Ash said.
"It is the least we can do. If it weren't for you everyone in town would be dead." Misty said.
It was sunset at the town square and everyone was there. "Friends and members of this community, Ash and Misty Ketchum stand here before you today guilty of a crime against this very same community. They have made an object that would put our children and the rest of us at risk. Not only that but they hid it from all of us for seven years." Mayor Needle said holding up the Pikachu doll. The adults in the crowd had a disappointed look on their faces "Do either of you have anything to say in your defense?"
Ash spoke up. "It was my idea. I wanted my children to have something of world we had before. I didn't want the dear Pokemon friends that we all made to be forgotten."
"I also wanted our children to have a piece of their past. I made this toy because I wanted them to learn to share like how we used to share this world with the Pokemon." Misty said tears welling up in her eyes.
"Those are very good and noble intensions. However noble intensions are still no excuse for breaking the law." The Mayor said.
Ashley spoke up crying. "Please Mr. Mayor I don't understand. Why would them making Pikachu for us be bad?"
Mayor Needle crouched down to Ashley's level. "Sweet little Ashley, I understand why they did what they did but you see we are not sure if all the Pokemon died. The world outside this valley is a wasteland because of their disease and we have to keep them out with the pulse posts at the edge of the valley. Having reminders of living with the Pokemon might make someone want to leave Sweet Valley so that we can be friends with them again but that is too dangerous. There is nothing more toxic or deadly than a Pokemon. A single touch could infect you and then you could spread it to the rest of the community. We must not let a longing for the past endanger us. We must stay focused on the community, our future. It is here that we gave mankind a second chance I will not waste it. It is because of this I made this though but firm decision." He then lit a small bon fire. "This doll will be destroyed so that it may no longer tempt our precious children. He then threw the Pikachu doll in the fire. "And as for the Ketchum's I have no choice but to sentence them to be imprisoned." The people gasped. "For one day. It is a short time and record of this crime will last as long as this community does." For Ash and Misty this meant public humiliation that they could never live down.
As Misty and Ash were being lead to the small town jail Brock walked up to them. "Don't worry Lucy and I will take care of Mist and Ashley." He said.
"Thank you Brock." Misty said. Ash felt too ashamed to say anything.
"Lucy, please go to their house and get some pajamas and some of clothes. I'll help them settle in for the night." Brock said to his wife.
"Yes, darling." Lucy said.
"Okay kiddies you going to come with uncle Brock now. We'll get you soothing to eat and don't worry you'll be able to go home after school tomorrow and have dinner with your mom and dad same as always." Brock said trying to comfort them. As they left Ashley and Mist looked back to the fire and the pair of beads that were once their dolls eyes.
Brock made a soup for Mist and Ashley and his ten year old daughter Freda and nine year old son Mark were very nice to them but nothing could seem to cheer them up. They barley spoke and couldn't stop crying. "It's time for bed little ones don't worry everything will be better tomorrow." Lucy said.
Brock rolled out some sleeping bags in the living room but the twins couldn't fall asleep. They heard Brock and Lucy talking. "It's so hard to believe that Ash and Misty broke the law. We have known them from before the outbreak. They never did anything against the law." Brock said.
"I'm worried for their children. They have to live with this shame that will be passed through the generations." Lucy said.
At that point they closed the door. "It's time we had our treatment." Brock said as they put on the visors.
At the town jail a fellow townsman came to Ash and Misty. "The Mayor said just because you're here you shouldn't suffer by missing your treatment. He said he had these configured especially for you." He said as he handed them two visors. He left and they put them on without a word. "Never break the law again. The community loves you. The laws are their for the sake of the community. Let go of the past."
Back at Brock's house Ashley came to a conclusion. "This is my fault. If I never brought Pikachu to school Mom and Dad wouldn't have gotten into trouble." She said.
"No it's worse; they only broke the law when they made that doll for us. If we were never born they would never have broken the law." Mist said.
"We should have been punished not them." Ashley said crying.
"And we could cause more problems for everyone; we got to leave town for everyone's sake." Mist said crying too.
"But the only place to go is past the pulse posts into the…wasteland."
"Don't worry; I won't let anything happen to you out there." Mist reassured. They changed into the clothes the were going to wear the next day walked out the front door and made their way up the nearest hill and up by on of the pulse posts. They were white with big flat tops and flashing red lights. These posts surrounded the valley.
"Mist, this is as close we ever got to the edge of the valley. If we go past here then that's it. We can never come back. If we do we could kill the whole town." Ashley said scarred.
Mist gulped and took a step past the boundary. "Not coming back is sorta the idea right? Take my hand and we can face what's out there together." Ashley took Mist's hand and for the first time the children left the safety of there town. It was dark in the woods past the town border but the children knew what was there. Withering trees and bare dry land, what they didn't know was if any of the plague carrying Pokemon were near by if there were any at all.
That was until they heard a sound the never heard before. "Hoot Hoot. Hoot Hoot." It was coming from above them.
"Was that a Pokemon?" Mist asked scared.
"I don't know but let keep an eye out and find some place to sleep." Ashley said.
They kept walking until up ahead of them they saw a pair of eyes caught in the moonlight. "Zig, Zigzagoon." The creature said the kids screamed and ran in fright but the Pokemon just looked at them wondering why they were so scared.
"There are Pokemon out here!" Ashy screamed.
"Don't let them touch me! Don't let them touch me!" Mist screamed. They kept running and running but tripped on a root and fell. The twins from Sweet valley then fell asleep from exhaustion. So they slept under the stars of the strange outside world.