Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon or any characters herein.
NOTE: I know, it's taken me forever, but I work so much now it's not even funny. The good news is I'll be able to buy my laptop soon. Anyway, here's the long awaited update.
-I reserve the right to make up my own variations to moves.-
"Max, are you sure you know where we are?" Ash asked the boy leading the way through the forest.
"Of course I know where we are, I have the map."
"Well, we've been walking through this forest all day! The sun is starting to set, and I really don't want to be stuck in this forest when it gets dark."
"Don't worry, Ash, We should be right here," Max pointed at a spot on the map, "Oh wait, we should be here."
"Let me see that map." Ash reached for the map and came to a stark realization. "MAX! You're holding the map sideways!"
"I am…..oh! I am." Max rubbed the back of his head and blushed.
Ash turned the map the right way, and gave it, and the forest around them a good look.
"I got it," He said, matter-of-factly, "We need to go this way." He pointed down a path to their right, and the two started to walk down it.
'We'll never make it out of this forest today now.' Ash thought to himself, looking at the map, trying to undo all of Max's damage. Max was walking with his head pointed upwards, looking into the clouds, when he heard a rustling in the bushes nearby. He stopped and looked the direction of the noise. He saw a bush slightly jitter, and leaned over, picking up a rock. He tossed the rock into the bush.
"Aipom!" An Aipom jumped out of the bush and onto the path, rubbing it's head with its tail-hand. It gave Max a ferocious look for hitting it with the rock.
"Uh-oh, Max, you made it mad." Ash said, laughing. "You better call out a pokemon, or it's gonna attack you."
"Yeah, right." Max reached to his belt, and pulled off a pokeball.
"Go, Mudkip. Mud slap!"
Mudkip slung mud in the Aipom's direction. Aipom swatted the mud away with it's tail-hand, and sprung itself towards Mudkip.
"Mudkip, jump!"
Mudkip did as Max said and flung mud, once again, down towards Aipom. The mud hit Aipom in the back of the head, crashing its face into the ground,
Aipom got up, rubbing it's face and jumped once again at Mudkip. It grabbed it with its tail-hand and threw it hard to the ground. Mudkip landed in the soft mud that it had thrown earlier, unscathed.
Mudkip was angry now, at being thrown to the ground, and let a burst of water out from its mouth. The beam of water hit Aipom straight in the face, sending it crashing against a tree.
"I didn't even know Mudkip knew water gun." Max said, stunned
Max reached into his backpack and pulled out an empty pokeball. He threw it at the Aipom, who was struggling to get up. It disappeared in red light, into the ball, and the ball rolled across the ground.
The ball tremored once.
Twice.
Thrice.
Then lie still. Max jumped up and down in excitement. Ash smiled, warmly, remembering his excitement at catching his first pokemon, a caterpea, if he recalled.
"Good job, Max." Ash said to his young companion.
"Thanks, Ash!" Max said, picking the pokeball up from the ground and putting it on his belt, before running over to Mudkip and picking it up in a hug.
"Great job, Mudkip, you were awesome!"
The Mudkip squealed with its praise and returned his trainer's embrace.
"Return, Buddy." Max smiled and called his pokemon back into its ball. Max turned on his heels and started to lead the two out of the forest. He walked with such a pride that Ash couldn't help but look at Pikachu on his shoulder, and laugh. Max didn't care, though. He was proud of himself, and he didn't care who knew it.
The sun had sunk lower since the battle, and now it was starting to get dark. Max had stopped leading and sunk back to stand close to Ash. He would never admit it, but he was still scared of the dark.
"I think it's about time we stopped for the day, Max."
"Nah, can't we keep going?" Max truthfully couldn't wait to stop and hide in his sleeping bag, but he wouldn't let Ash know that.
"No, we need to stop, while it's still light enough to set up a little camp. We can sleep in that field over there." Ash veered course, and stepped through a few trees into a field. He reached down to his belt and pulled a couple of pokeballs off.
"Mr. Mime, Infernape, come out." The two pokemon appeared in front of him. "Pikachu, join them and go get firewood." The pokemon obeyed Ash, and went off into the woods. Ash and Max pulled their sleeping bags off of their back packs and unrolled them on the ground. Soon, the pokemon had returned with enough wood to start a small fire. The piled it up, and Infernape embered it to blaze.
Ash returned his pokemon into their balls, save Pikachu, who just lie down on Ash's sleeping bad and sprawled out with a sigh.
"Ash, I'm hungry." Max said, as his stomach started to growl.
"Didn't you save any food from lunch?"
"No, I was too hungry."
Ash unzipped his backpack and pulled out the extra sandwich he'd bought back in town. It was supposed to be his dinner, and he thought that Max, the smart kid, would have been smart enough to buy an extra for himself. He tossed the sandwich over to Max.
"I can't take this, it's yours!"
"I insist; I'm not even hungry." Ash lied.
"Are you sure, Ash?"
"Yea." As said with a smile.
Max unwrapped the sandwich and started eating. Meanwhile, Ash pulled out some pokemon food to feed Pikachu. The sun was almost below the tree line now, as Ash zipped himself and Pikachu up in his sleeping bag.
Ash was about to drift into slumber when he heard a slight whimper from the other side of the fire. Max tried to stifle his mouth, but the darkness was creeping over him. It wasn't the normal darkness of the inside of a house; the clouds overhead were rotating and casting shadows from the moon all over everything around him. He let himself whimper again, or, more less, couldn't help himself.
"Max?" Ash knew what the kid was whimpering about.
"Yea, Ash?"
"Are you scared of the dark?"
"A….a…..a little."
Ash sat up and unzipped his sleeping bag.
"Well, come over here."
Max was only too happy to oblige and slid out of his sleeping bag, dashing over beside Ash.
Ash sat up on his knees and grabbed the sleeping bag from Max; he unzipped it, and put its zipper in his sleeping bag's zipper, and zipped them together.
"Thanks, Ash." Max smiled and slid into the sleeping bag. Ash slid in next to him and Pikachu curled up next to them.
"Ash?"
"Yea, Max?"
"I don't know what I would do without you on this journey."
"You would have made it just fine."
"I doubt it."
"Yea, me too." Ash chuckled.
"You jerk." Max laughed with Ash.
The two lie, looking up at the stars. Ash was about to fall asleep when Max broke the silence again.
"Hey, Ash?"
"Yes, Max?" Ash wanted to sleep, and was starting to get slightly annoyed.
"Can I scoot in closer; I think I heard something in the woods."
"It was probably just a crackle in the fire."
"Please?"
"Sure." Ash agreed and Max scooted closer to him and latched on his arm. Ash smiled and finally drifted off to sleep.
A Dodrio crowed somewhere off in the distance, waking Ash right as the sun was coming up. He slid out of the sleeping bag carefully, not waking Max, who was snoring heavily next to him. He listened to he morning closely, and heard a waterfall somewhere behind him. He walked to his backpack and pulled out a bottle of all purpose shower wash and a towel and headed to the source of the sound. He emerged through a small patch of trees and was in awe at the sight.
Being alone in nature as long as he had been, training and living, for the year prior to his visit with Max, all alone, save for his pokemon team had given him a deep appreciation for all things in nature. He inhaled the smell of the stream and the morning dew when he felt Pikachu walk up behind him.
"Hey, Buddy. I'm sorry I left you all alone, I was just gonna take a bath in the waterfall."
"Pika!" Pikachu exclaimed happily, before running and diving into the stream. He resurfaced and shivered, causing Ash to chuckle at his pokemon's antics. Ash looked around for any signs of civilization, and, seeing none, stripped of all of his clothes and walked up to the top of the waterfall. He ran and dived off into the lagoon. He resurfaced and shivered as well, and Pikachu laughed at him.
He swam to the edge and grabbed the shampoo, squirted some in his hand and ran it through his hair and over his body. When his body was used to the water temperature, he swam under the water, rinsing himself off. When he came back up, he looked at Pikachu, and splashed water his way. Pikachu dived under to dodge, surfaced, facing the other way, and used his tail to splash water at his trainer.
The two were too busy splashing each other to notice the boy standing at the edge of the woods. Max looked on at the boy in the stream. He wasn't sure why he was watching Ash like this. If anything, he should think this was sick, but for some reason, he couldn't take his eyes off of Ash's body. Max wished he would come back out of the water, he didn't want to see just his torso.
Ash swam to the surface of the water and walked out to where his towel lay on the grass. Max sunk back in the woods, not wanting Ash to see him. He watched Ash drag the towel all over his body, and ran back to the camp site when Ash started back.
"Hey, where'd you go?" Max asked when he saw Ash emerge from the woods wearing only a towel.
"There's a waterfall over that way, I was taking a bath. I left the shampoo over there for you."
"Thanks, Ash." Max jumped up and ran to the waterfall, wanting get an early start on getting out of the forest. He took off his shirt and pants, and looked around before taking off his underwear. He folded his clothes and lay them in the grass. He walked over to the water and put one toe in, and shivered before continuing into the water.
Ash walked quietly to the top of the waterfall and leaned against the tree. He made up the excuse for himself, that he was just keeping an eye on the boy, but he couldn't lie to himself, there was something deeper there. He watched the boy wash himself and swim around. He felt a deep want for the boy. He knew he shouldn't, and he knew he was sick for it, but he'd grown an attachment to the lad when they had traveled together before, and had missed him dearly when he left, and that had driven him to the seclusion the year prior to Max's tenth birthday. While he had grown a lot stronger and closer to his pokemon, he had felt that he had grown further from humanity, which was the reason he had decided to join Max on his journey.
He had been too lost in his thoughts to notice that Max had finished bathing and was heading back to the camp. He hurried back and somehow beat Max there.
"You ready to go, Max?"
"Sure, just let me get dressed."
Max dropped the towel, and didn't seem to notice how wide Ash's eyes got in surprise.
"Getting a little open, there, aren't we?"
"What do you mean?" Max said, pulling up a pair of briefs.
"Just dropping your towel right in front of me like that."
"Ash, we took a shower together, you're my best friend, we shared a sleeping bag last night, and I doubt I have anything to hide from you." Max half way lied. He did have something to hide, but not in that sense.
"That is pretty true," Ash laughed, "We shouldn't have anything to hide from each other." Ash lied, as well.
The boy finished dressing and the two of them rolled up their sleeping bags, packed them, and picked up their things, heading back onto the trail, and towards the next city.
The trees had started to thin and Ash and Max had picked up heir pace, excited to get out of the forest. Max was overly excited for his first gym battle, and Ash was pretty excited to watch him.
The dirt soon turned into bricks and a sign read "You have reached Alizarin Town, the honey capital of Abboth"
"I can't wait to win my first gym badge."
"Whoa there, Tiger, you can't battle on an empty stomach."
Max agreed and they headed off to a restaurant claiming to have the best honey biscuits in Abboth.
"I guess they weren't lying when they say this is the Honey capital of Abboth." Ash said, holding the door open for Max. He walked up to the counter, and the waitress turned and greeted them.
"Hey, I haven't seen you two around before, are you new?"
"We just came out of the forest." Max said, proudly.
"You came out of Alizarin forest?"
"Yep!"
"Well, that means, your meal is on the house."
Ash and Max smiled at each other and ordered the biggest breakfast they had.
"So, what's a honey biscuit, ma'am?" Max asked the waitress.
"Oh, honey, don't call me ma'am, my name is Adrian, and taste it, then you'll know."
Ash and Max both bit into a biscuit, their faces lighting up at the sensation of sweet perfection on their tongues.
"So, what are you boys doing coming all the way through the forest?"Adrian asked.
"I'm gonna beat the gym leader here, and get my first gym badge."
"You are? That means you'll have to beat my brother, Adric."
"Your brother's the gym leader?"
"Yep, he uses normal type pokemon."
"Is he good?"
"You bet, he is the gym leader, after all." Adrian smiled at Max, pinching his cheek, causing him to blush, and a little jealousy to stir in Ash.
The two finished their free meal, and Max even talked Adrian into giving them some food to go.
"Okay, but only because you're a little cutie." She had said.
Ash, Max, and Pikachu walked together, with full stomachs, to the town's gym.
The doors to the gym slid open before them, and they stepped into to a large room with a blonde man of about 24 standing in the middle of the gym, He wore a black jacket with a white shirt underneath and a blue jeans. He was playing patty cake with a Clefable, and seemed to have a strong connection with it. He saw the two and turned to face his challenger, still holding the Clefable's hand.
"Are you Adric?" Max asked.
"I am who they say I am. They say I am Adric. So, I must be Adric." He smiled at Max and Ash.
"I'm Max."
"And I'm Ash."
"Are you both going to be challenging me today?"
"No, Sir, only I am." Max stepped forward, but Ash pulled him back.
"Are you sure you want to challenge him now, you may want to train some more."
"No, I've got this, Ash."
"Okay, good luck, Kiddo."
Max walked to the middle of the gym, and extended his hand to Adric.
"No, no, no, not me, shake my Clefable's hand, first."
Max directed is hand to the Clefable who, briefly, took it's and fro, Adric's, and shook Max's, before returning it to Adric's. Adric the extended his hand and shook Max's hand.
"Do you wish to battle me now?"
"Yes, if you don't mind."
"Of course not. We'll begin."
Adric stood without another word and walked to the edge of the pokeball in the center of the gym. Max stood at the opposite edge.
"We will use three Pokemon, no substitutions."
"Who's going to be the referee?"
"We will referee our own match."
"Okay, first off, I choose Ralts!" He tossed a pokeball to the center, it bounced and released it's pokemon, before returning to Max's hand.
"I shall choose. Skitty."
Adric rolled a pokeball to the center; it released a cat like pokemon, and rolled back to Adric.
"Skitty, tackle!" Adric's voice changed, became authoritive.
Skitty ran forward at a high speed towards Raltz.
"Ralts, dodge it."
Ralts twirled in place and easily deflected the Skitty's attack.
"Confusion, Ralts."
The Skitty turned around right in time to get hit with a confusion ray. It was blasted back to the wall of the gym, but landed on it's feet on the wall, and bounced off quickly, bashing it's head into Ralts. It was moving at too high of a speed, and continued, after it hit Ralts, couldn't stick the landing, and flipped, hitting its head on the floor of the gym.
"Both pokemon are unable to battle."
The trainers recalled their pokemon and Max tossed the pokeball containing Aipom.
"Go on out, Sweety." Adric said, and the Clefable by his side walked out to the middle of the gym.
"Aipom, take it down."
"Clefable, double slap." His voice went back to its original, sweet tone.
The Aipom dove at Clefable, but the Clefable back handed it hard, and, with lightning speed, hit it again, and a total of two more time, before it flew across the room, and caught itself on its tail, springing itself back towards the opponent.
"Metronome."
The Clefable wagged it's finger, and suddenly, a burst of water came from nowhere, in the form of a hydro pump, connecting with Aipom, sending it into the wall, hard. The Aipom lie there, not moving.
"Aipom is unable to battle."
Max returned the Aipom to its ball and sent out Mudkip.
"Come on, Mudkip, we can do this. Tackle it!"
Mudkip dashed at Clefable.
"Double Slap."
Clefable backhanded the Mudkip before the tackle could connect, twirled and slapped it with its other hand, and hit it a total of three more times, before it got knocked back, and rolled across the gym floor. Mudkip staggered to its feet, stumbled a little, but regained its composure.
"Water gun, Mudkip!"
Mudkip sent a large burst of water at the Clefable.
"Thunder Punch."
"Thunder Punch?" Ash and Max said in unison, surprised.
Lightning gathered around Clefable's hand, and it dashed down the stream of water, fist first.
"Jump, Mudkip!"
Mudkip jumped high in the air, effectively dodging the punch.
"Hit it." That was all that Adric said, but Clefable kept running and dashed up the gym wall, kicking off and flying through the air, right at Mudkip.
"Mudkip, quick!" That was all Max had time to say before the thunder punch connected with his pokemon. Mudkip was sent flying across the room; it landed on the gym floor, unconscious.
"Mudkip, no!"
"Mudkip is unable to battle. I, Adric, am the winner."
Max recalled his pokemon into the ball and walked to the middle of the gym, looking at the ground. Adric walked into the middle as well, with a smile on his face.
"You battled well, Max."
"But, I lost…"
"But you did well."
"But….I lost…."
Max quickly shook Adric's hand and ran out of the gym, tears falling from his face.
Ash turned to run after him, but Adric was suddenly beside him, stopping him.
"Don't."
"But-"
"Let him cry it out. I was his first loss, wasn't I?"
"Yea."
"I thought so. Just let him cry it out. Give him ten minutes, then find him. He won't lose next time."
"What do you mean?"
Ash's words fell on deaf ears, as Adric was already in the middle of the gym, playing with his Clefable.
I'm not really sure about Adric. I wrote all of that without reall thinking. I think I may give him a good backstory and make him reoccuring. What do you think. And I don't think the next update will take so long.
Reviews are appreciated. Flames are accepted. Either way, you're reading my shit.