The Deepest Blues Are Black
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. Satoshi Tajiri does. I'm just writing a story.
Author's Note: Sorry this was so long in coming, I've been spending a lot of time writing my other fanfic Remnants.
Chapter 4
Misty and Ash came out of their room bright and early, around eight AM. They were already showered and dressed, and wore big grins on their faces. They made their way down to the hotel's restaurant, where Brock and Pikachu were waiting for them at a table.
"You two certainly looked pleased. I wonder what you got up to last night." Brock said with a sly grin.
"That's none of your business, Brock." Misty said, trying to sound angry but not quite pulling it off.
"I ordered you guys your favourites, hopefully they're still your favourites after all these years."
They sat down, a waiter bringing them their food almost immediately.
"Wow! Great service!" Ash cried happily.
Ash's eyes lit up when he saw what the waiter had brought him. A massive cheeseburger, perfectly proportioned, with just the right amount of mustard and ketchup. He began to drip saliva from the corners of his mouth, so Pikachu quickly took Ash's napkin and tucked it into his shirt, where it caught each drop. Misty shook her head in disgust, then quietly and with dignity tucked into her Eggs Benedict. After the first bite her eyes narrowed as she contemplated the taste. Brock waited eagerly for the response.
"This might be the best eggs I've ever had!" She yelled, a big smile on her face.
Brock grinned triumphantly.
"What are you so happy about? You didn't make these, the restaurant chefs did." Ash said, a little puzzled.
"Actually," Brock grinned lopsidedly, "I did make these. I asked the chefs if I could use their kitchen, and they said it was fine as long as I made two of everything so they could have some."
"That makes a lot of sense, actually." Ash said, enjoying his huge cheeseburger.
More like a cheese-mountain burger, Ash thought greedily.
Suddenly they heard footsteps approaching them. Misty turned around to see two chefs standing next to Brock.
"That was the best Cheeseburger and Eggs Benedict we've ever had! You simply must give us your recipe!"
Brock smiled, arms folded in triumph. Ash swore he saw a split-second glint in his toothy grin.
"I'd be happy to."
They all finished their meals, and returned to their rooms to collect their gear before heading into Mt Moon. Brock and Pikachu entered their room, Brock patting his belly and letting out a satisfied burp. Misty scrunched her face in disgust.
"And he wonders why he's still single." She muttered.
Ash shifted his gaze guiltily, suppressing his own burp.
They entered their own room, and Ash sat on the bed, watching Misty as she packed up her bag. He couldn't help but admire everything little thing about her; the way she knelt down to put things away, the way she brushed her hair out of her eyes, the way she adjusted her top self-consciously. He smiled as he thought about how he'd never noticed these things years ago. Misty turned around, noticing that he wasn't packing.
"What are you doing?" She asked, a little bit of anger creeping into her tone.
Ash just smiled wider.
"I was just admiring you."
Misty smiled and walked over to him, climbing onto the bed. She straddled him, sitting on his belly, and cupped his face in her hands. Ash got a little hot under the collar as Misty leaned down with awesome flexibility and kissed him.
"Come on, there'll be time for this later." She winked, and got off the bed to finish packing.
Ash sat up, a little disappointed, but looking forward to this 'later' she spoke of. He walked over to his bag and started mashing his gear into it, done in a matter of seconds. He picked up his belt of pokéballs and quickly put it on.
"Ready to go?" Ash asked.
"Just give me a sec." Misty said, looking for her own pokéball belt.
Ash grinned cheekily, holding it up and dangling it. Misty frowned.
"Give me that." She said, snatching it away from him and putting it on.
Ash strolled up behind her as she was adjusting it, grabbing two handfuls of Misty's barely-covered ass. She squealed in surprise, jumping a little.
"Ash! Stop being so cheeky!" She giggled. "We can do that later..."
Misty grabbed Ash's hands and removed them from her bum, sliding them up to her waist. She tilted her head to the left, inviting Ash to kiss it. He did, and she let out a girlish giggle.
"Come on, Ash! We can't do this all day, we have to get going. Brock and Pikachu are waiting for us."
She spoke the words, but wasn't sure she quite wanted to believe them. Ash looked a bit disappointed, disconnecting himself from her and walking towards the door, taking her hand. Misty gave it a squeeze, then stopped walking just as they reached the door. She looked up at him, and looked right into his eyes. Ash was almost instantly hypnotised by her beautiful gaze.
"Ash, I just wanted to say..." She trailed off, her gaze dropping to the floor. "I'm glad we're on this journey. And I'm glad that...we finally happened. I've never been this happy before. I don't know if I even know the words to tell you how I feel."
Ash just kissed her again; a long, soft kiss that seemed to last an eternity.
"That's what I was going to say." Misty smiled sweetly, her face a light shade of red.
They were interrupted rudely by Brock pounding on the door.
"Come on, you two! We've been out here waiting forever!" Brock complained.
"Pika!" Pikachu grunted.
Ash and Misty looked at each other, smiling guiltily. They opened the door, and Brock saw they were holding hands, fingers firmly interlaced.
"Spare me." He said. "Let's get going."
Pikachu glared at Ash, then jumped on Brock's shoulder.
"Aw, come on buddy! You understand, right?"
"Pika. Chu." Pikachu shrugged, then turned back around.
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The four travellers exited the hotel, Ash paying the bills for everyone. Brock and Misty thanked him, Ash insisting that it was nothing. They made their way to the entrance to Mt Moon, noting how little it seemed to have changed since the last time they'd been here.
"Something's wrong here." Brock noted.
"I don't see anything." Ash said blankly.
"That's what I mean. It seems way too quiet. Last time we were here, we were attacked by all those Zubat." Brock reached for his belt, producing a pokéball. "Go, Crobat!"
The Crobat emerged, flapping wildly.
"Crobat, fly on ahead of us. If you notice anything strange, come back and let us know." Brock commanded.
Crobat did as it was told, flying on ahead of the others, disappearing into the darkness.
"All the lights are gone. Last time we were here, the whole place was decked out." Ash noted.
"Good. The Pokémon that live here don't appreciate light. That's why they're in a cave." Brock said, suspicion rising quickly to the forefront of his mind.
They walked quickly, following the walls of the cave until they heard a roar coming from up ahead. The roar sounded desperate, like a big Pokémon being hurt. Suddenly Crobat returned, and screeched something that Ash and Misty didn't understand.
"Let's go, I think something's in trouble up there." Brock said.
They ran off after Crobat, the darkness of the tunnel giving way to pale light as they neared a large open area of the cave with a small hole in the roof. When they reached the large open area, they stopped cold.
"Who are you? What are you doing here? Can't you see we're busy?" said a woman in a tight black uniform.
Ash looked up, trying to fathom what he saw before him. It was an Onix and a Graveler, both tied up and struggling while several others all dressed in black uniforms were attempting to do something to them.
"What are you doing to these Pokémon?" Misty yelled.
"That's none of your business. Now leave quietly, or I'll be forced to take you out. Don't make me enjoy hurting you." The woman's face contorted into an evil-looking grin.
"No way. I'm not going to let you do anything to hurt these Pokémon." Ash said angrily, holding a pokéball.
"They won't be hurt, not for long anyway. But I can see you aren't going to leave. So I'll just have to hurt you until you change your mind." The woman said. "Go, Venusaur! Crush these pests!"
A huge Venusaur came out, at least a quarter again the size of a regular one. Misty took a step back in fear. Ash and Brock just stood there defiantly. Brock went to make a move, but Ash stopped him.
"No way, Brock. This Venusaur would take all your Pokémon out without any trouble. I don't want you to get hurt. This is my fight now."
"Got it. I'll take care of the rest of them then." Brock ran off, taking Misty with him, and approached the other group of uniformed people.
"Charizard, this one's yours!" Ash yelled, throwing Charizard's pokéball.
It hit the ground and opened, releasing Charizard and returning to Ash's hand. Pikachu stood next to Ash's feet, watching intently, studying the Venusaur in case he had to fight as well.
"Venusaur, Solarbeam!" the woman yelled.
Ash smiled. There was no way the Venusaur could gather enough light to make a Solarbeam in the time it would take for Charizard to take it out.
"Charizard, Fire Blast!" Ash commanded confidently.
Charizard roared, tilting its entire body backwards before thrusting forwards, letting loose a huge blast of fire at least as big as itself. The blast hit the Venusaur head on as it was still trying to gather enough light. Clearly, whoever this woman was, she didn't have a great deal of battling knowledge.
The flames cleared, leaving the Venusaur completely charred. But it didn't stop gathering light, it simply roared angrily and leaped into the air, aiming its huge flower right at Ash.
"What?! That blast could've melted a concrete wall!" Ash exclaimed.
The solarbeam shot out lightning-fast straight at Ash. He just stood there, totally stunned, not comprehending what was happening. Charizard roared, taking flight. He flew in and swooped, picking up Ash and Pikachu and dropping them several feet away, escaping the blast.
"Charizard, are you alright?" Ash asked as Charizard landed nearby.
Charizard nodded, letting out a small roar of 'affirmative'.
"Okay then. Let's try this again! Try a flamethrower! But focus it as small as you can, right at the Venusaur's head."
"Ha! You already tried that, and it didn't work. Now surrender. Don't make me hurt you again, kid." The woman leant on one leg, her arms folded across her ample chest, her expression hidden behind big dark sunglasses.
"Maybe you should take off your sunglasses, 'cause I'm no kid. Do it, Charizard!" Ash yelled.
Charizard roared, oozing power and confidence. He closed his jaw until only a small gap was visible, and shot out a brilliant beam of fire, only a few centimetres wide. It shot out and struck the Venusaur right between the eyes before it even had a chance to register the attack. The Venusaur screamed and pawed desperately at its face before fainting.
"I don't believe it...who are you, anyway?" the woman cried, her jaw dropped and arms slack by her sides.
--------------------------------------------
"Let them go. Right now. I'm not going to tell you again." Brock commanded, pointing to the Onix and Graveler.
"And what makes you think we're going to listen to you? Who do you think you are, anyway?" One of the uniformed people asked, a look of disdain on his face.
"Well, this here is Misty, the leader of the Cerulean City Gym, and I'm the leader of the Pewter City Gym. So you'll be letting them go now, or I'm going to have to show you how we got our positions."
The man smirked.
"You obviously have no idea who you're dealing with. Take my advice: run. Get out of here while you can, and take your pretty little friend with you."
"No more talk! Let them go right now! Starmie, go!" Misty said angrily.
Starmie appeared in a flash of red, its core glowing brightly.
"Starmie, rapidspin! Free Graveler and Onix!"
Starmie launched itself at the two imprisoned Pokémon, spinning extremely fast and picking up speed. It sailed past them, cutting the ropes holding them like a knife through butter.
"Great work!" Misty called happily. "You two, get out of here as fast as you can!" She said to Graveler and Onix.
The man who'd done all the talking so far had turned red with rage, and threw a pokéball in Misty's direction. A Shellder appeared, and it looked furious.
"That's gotta be the same Shellder that Sarah fought." Brock said. "Crobat, Supersonic!"
Crobat let out an inaudible scream. The Shellder looked shocked, quickly becoming disoriented.
"Right. Now use Wing Attack!"
Crobat swooped down at the Shellder with incredible speed, its wing beginning to glow as it picked up speed.
"Shellder, ice beam!" the man yelled.
Shellder immediately snapped out of its confusion and launched a thick ice beam straight at Crobat, which knocked it out of the air instantly. Crobat wasn't frozen, but it was very badly hurt.
"Good idea." Misty said to herself. "Starmie, use ice beam on all those other uniformed guys. Don't stop till they're all frozen solid from the neck down!" She commanded, and Starmie obeyed.
"What are you doing? Stop that right now!" the uniformed man yelled, charging over towards Misty.
"Crobat, return! Go Forretress! Rollout!"
Forretress began spinning on the spot, then touched down, taking off at an incredible speed straight at the Shellder. It struck, sending the Shellder flying dozens of metres away straight into the cave wall. It hit the wall with a loud crack and fell to the floor, out cold.
Meanwhile, Starmie had frozen all the other uniformed people.
"That ought to hold them for a while, at least until we can tie them up." Misty said, dusting her hands off.
"Let's go see how Ash is doing with that Venusaur." Brock said, and the two of them took off towards the main battle.
"I don't believe it...who are you, anyway?" the woman in the tight black uniform cried, her jaw dropped and arms slack by her sides.
She was clearly the leader of this group. If the guy with the Shellder had been extraordinarily strong, then this woman had to be stronger. And that meant that either Misty, Brock and Ash were really tough, or that Sarah was nowhere near as strong as she was making out.
"First you tell me who you are." Ash demanded. "And who you're working for, and what you're doing here."
"I can't tell you that...you understand, right? They'll kill me if I tell anybody, even though I want to." She looked genuinely frightened and apologetic.
"I don't believe you. You had the choice not to get involved, and you did. If you wanted to tell us anything, you would have by now." Ash said angrily.
The woman walked over, head down and body slumped in defeat.
"How about I make it worth your while..." she trailed off, looking up at Ash seductively, her finger tracing its way down his chest lightly. She put her other hand behind Ash's back and drew herself in, her large boobs touching his chest while her other hand stroked his face. Misty's face turned purple and her hands formed into tight fists.
"If you promise to let us go, and not tell anyone about this, I promise I'll do anything you want in exchange..." she trailed off again, her hand drawing Ash's head down in order to try and kiss him.
Ash broke off, wiping his face in disgust.
"Get away from me. How dumb do you think I am?" He yelled.
"You don't know what you're getting yourself into, kid." The woman spat angrily.
Misty stomped her way up to her, her shoulders rising and falling and her face an unhealthy shade.
"What do you want, princess? Your shorts too tight or something?" The woman looked Misty up and down, sniggering.
Misty half-turned, rearing back her right fist. She spun back around, landing a powerful hook punch straight into woman's face. She cried in pain and stumbled backwards.
"Dammit, you little bitch. Now you're getting on my nerves." The woman seethed.
"Don't ever touch my boyfriend again. First you threaten us, then you try and seduce him, and now you're threatening me. I've had it!" Misty yelled.
She walked over to the woman, holding the rope Starmie had cut from Graveler and Onix. She tied it tightly around the woman's wrists and ankles.
"OW! What do you think you're doing? This HURTS!" she complained.
"Making sure you don't get your dirty, slutty fingers on Ash or anyone else ever again. You can wait here with your little friends for the police." Misty said, feeling better every time she heard the woman groaning in pain from Misty's vicious binding.
"Alright, Misty!" Ash cheered. "Way to stick it to her!"
"Thankyou." Misty said, walking over to Ash. She turned to face the woman again. "Now don't go anywhere, will you?"
"Ha ha ha." She grunted sarcastically.
"Pikachu, stay here and make sure none of them move. We'll be back with the police in a little while." Ash said.
"Chu!" Pikachu said excitedly. He waddled off to the woman, standing in front of her face.
"Chuuu!" Pikachu looked wild with excitement, electricity sparking madly from his cheeks.
The woman winced in fear as Pikachu waited for an opportunity to shock her.
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As Misty, Brock and Ash reached the exit to the caves, Graveler appeared.
"Hey, Graveler. What's up?" Brock asked.
Graveler grunted a few times, an ecstatic look on its face. It moved forward and embraced Brock, who didn't seem to notice that Graveler was a rock Pokémon and being hugged by it would cause most people to be in pain.
"It's no problem, bud. I'm glad to have helped." Brock laughed.
"Maybe you'd like to come along with us." Ash suggested.
Graveler jumped up and down excitedly, shaking the ground beneath it.
"HA! I guess that means, yes, right?" Brock smiled.
The Graveler reached into Brock's belt and pulled out a pokéball. It threw the ball into the air and it landed on its head, absorbing it into the ball in a brilliant flash of red.
"Well, that was easy." Brock said, surprised at Graveler's intelligence.
Ash pulled out his PDA and pressed a few buttons on it.
"I'm gonna call Gary and tell him what we saw. You guys should call Officer Jenny in Pewter." He said.
"Right." Misty said, producing her own PDA.
"Gary Oak here. Oh, hey Ash. What's happening?" Gary's face appeared on the screen.
"We just ran into some trouble here in Mt Moon. A bunch of people dressed in black uniforms."
"Black, huh? Bad guys nearly always dress in black." Gary nodded.
"They used a Shellder and a Venusaur, both extremely strong. We're gonna try and send them to you so you and the Professor can examine them."
"Okay, sounds good. Are they gonna be alright? I don't want them to destroy everything." Gary asked, looking a little worried.
"It'll be fine, just use stun spore on them."
"Hmph. Easier said than done. But okay, I guess that would work." Gary admitted, "Fine, you send them over to me and I'll let you know what I find out. Have fun, Ash."
"Later, Gary!" Ash said, and pushed the Disconnect button.
"Officer Jenny will be here in a few minutes, and she's bringing a police van and some reinforcements." Brock reported.
"Awesome. We're gonna have to send Shellder and Venusaur to Gary so he can take a look at them. Maybe find out exactly what they're doing to them to make them so strong." Ash said.
"Sounds good to me. Let's head back in there and get those Pokémon back in their balls then." Brock said, leading the way back into the caves.
A few minutes later Officer Jenny arrived with a full police escort, and promptly loaded the uniformed people into the van.
"We'll get these guys back to the station and start interrogation immediately. We'll take care of sending those shadow Pokémon over to Professor Oak's lab, too." Jenny said.
"Thanks, Officer Jenny." Ash said with smile.
"And good work in there, all of you. Hopefully this'll give us some answers. We'll keep your names out of our 'official' report, and the press conference. Nobody will know you were even there."
"Thanks, officer. We'd appreciate that." Misty said.
"We have to get moving, but good luck on your journey. Hopefully we'll see you again before too long." Jenny saluted them, then sped off on her motorbike, the police van in tow.
"It's
a shame." Brock said.
"I know what you mean...all those people
doing such crazy things. They could do so much good." Misty said
contemplatively.
"No, it's a shame about that woman." Brock said, a serious look on his face.
"What about her?" Misty asked, totally confused.
"She was a good looking girl! It's such a shame she turned out to be with the bad guys. That uniform...it looked great on her! Nice and tight in all the right places-OW!"
Misty had slapped him right across the face.
"Don't you ever keep your libido in check?" She complained. "She was with the bad guys, and she's been arrested. That's all there is to it! There's a lot of girls out there who'd love to be with a nice guy like you, IF you stop being such a pathetic, perverted little boy!"
Brock's expression sobered. Misty was like the ultimate authority figure when she got like that, and all Brock could do was nod and agree.
"Now, let's get going! It's lunch time and I'm hungry."
Brock looked to Ash with a 'what did I do wrong?' expression on his face. Ash just shrugged with an apologetic look, and walked off after Misty.
"Ash is never like that, maybe you can take a page out of his book." Misty said, reaching for Ash's hand and smiling at him with that gorgeous, innocent face of hers.
They kept walking for about an hour afterwards until they found a nice enough spot to set down and prepare some food.
"Alright! Time for Brock to shine!" Brock said confidently, a pan in his hand.
They left him alone to prepare lunch, and Pikachu stayed behind with him to give him a hand. Ash and Misty walked off holding hands, dawdling down the banks of the Cerulean River.
"This is perfect. I wish we could do this forever." She said, breathing in a big breath of clean, country air.
"Yeah." Ash smiled, realising this was another thing he appreciated that he'd never noticed before.
Suddenly, Misty jumped into the air, landing on Ash's back.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
Misty just whimpered, hiding behind his back. She was scared out of her mind at something, but Ash couldn't see anything.
"Do something!" She cried in her most pathetic voice.
"But there's nothing there!" Ash pointed around at the grass on the river bank. "See?"
Misty just continued to whimper and sulk, grabbing hold of Ash's shoulders roughly and pushing him down to his knees.
"Misty, what are you doing?"
Ash was now on his knees, Misty cowering behind him, her hands gripping Ash's shoulder so hard that it hurt.
Then a green flash came out of nowhere, charging right at them. Ash let out a surprised cry and pulled them both onto their sides, escaping whatever it was. Misty screamed and jumped onto Ash's shoulders, her knees astride his neck.
"Get it away from me! Ash!" She squealed.
"I'd love to, but you're hurting me!"
Misty was so scared she didn't realise that she was sitting on Ash and squeezing him. Ash saw what was troubling her, though. Relieved, he lowered himself to the ground and got her off of him.
"Misty, please. There'll be time for that later." He grinned cheekily at her.
"ASH! This is no time for jokes! You have to do something!"
Ash threw a pokéball, and out came Squirtle.
"Squirtle, can you please scare that off for Misty?"
Squirtle nodded and went over to talk to the little Caterpie. Squirtle said a few words to it, occasionally pointing at Misty, who was still terrified and hiding behind Ash. After a little while, the Caterpie crawled off and Squirtle returned.
"Squirtle." He said with a nod.
"See? There was nothing to worry about. Caterpie was just wandering around. It was never going to hurt you." Ash explained.
Misty whacked him on the head, and Ash cried out in surprise.
"You know I hate bugs!" She squealed.
Ash rubbed his head, then saw her poor, frightened features. He felt sorry for her. In the past, he would have just laughed at her, but now all he wanted to do was hug her and make her feel better. He put one hand on her lower back and one on the back of her neck and hugged her tightly.
"I'm sorry." He whispered into her ear.
"It's okay...but let's get back to Brock now."
Misty, Ash and Squirtle returned to where Brock and Pikachu were making lunch, and were surprised to see someone they hadn't seen in a very long time. One of Ash's oldest friends; a trainer as good as he was.
"I don't believe it!" Ash cried happily.