Chapter 9: Companions
– No one's POV –
The man in the orange suit leaned back in his chair and took a puff of his cigar. The glow from the embers threw dim light onto his face, making his appearance all the more intimidating.
"Well?" he asked, blowing out a cloud of smoke.
An agent, who'd been standing in front of the man's desk waiting silently to give his report, gulped before answering.
"Sir, we've received intel from our undercover agents. Our plan failed, sir." The agent stood completely still and upright, afraid to move even an inch for fear of angering his boss who was well known for taking bad news well… badly.
The man in the orange suit took another deep puff. "and the boy?"
"Escaped sir" the agent said hoarsely.
"I see. Well what did we learn? I hope that our time and resources were not… wasted on this effort" with every word the man stroked a Persian, which appeared out of nowhere to his side.
Sweat began to bead on the agent's forehead as his eyes widened at the sight of the large cat. "the… the boy's trainer file, proved difficult to decipher at first. Some of his info had been put under restricted access but with our technology we were able to bypass the security measures."
"and? What did we learn?" the man repeated the question.
The agent then pulled out a folder he'd been tightly holding and threw it onto the desk which the man reached out and grabbed. The folder contained a printed version of the trainer file he'd wanted. The first page included basic information as well as a typical ID photo that was required of all registered trainers. The photo was a simple head shot of a smiling, raven haired boy with lightning shaped marks on his cheeks. Looking at the photo attached to the file he compared it to another that one of his other agents had taken of the one they were searching for. The same photo he'd also given to his assets on the inside. The photo was taken at the recent Lily of the Valley conference, during the attack they'd launched on the league. In the photo, the silhouette of a boy could be seen amidst a glowing blue light. Although the picture was blurry, it appeared to be the same boy as the one in the profile he held in his hand.
"So, he is the one. His file proves quite… interesting. It seems he's been quite the thorn in our side for a while now." The man observed as he flipped through the pages slowly.
"Yes sir. Although we could not retain all his information sir" the agent admitted.
"I thought you said our technology was able to decipher all his information?" the man glared, his Persian began to hiss beside him and bared its sharp teeth.
The agent flinched at the threat "Yes sir it was, but his file was incomplete. Even the league does not have the information sir."
"And what information would that be?" the man asked intrigued.
"His past sir. Before he became a trainer, there was no record of an Ash Ketchum living in Kanto. There are some blanks in his journey logs too sir, periods of time that are unaccounted for."
The man lent his elbows on the desk and folded his hands together, resting his chin on top. "I see, it appears there's an even greater mystery to Mr. Ketchum than I originally thought" he mused. Turning his chair so that the agent could no longer see his face he spoke again, "bring him to me, and prepare the tests".
"Yes sir!" the agent saluted and quickly exited the room, the door banging loudly behind him.
The man stared at the photo still in his hand and narrowed his eyes.
"Rooow Row?" His Persian purred rubbing its head underneath his remaining free hand.
"I believe the tests will show us some good results if the boy is connected to that man" the man sneered evilly before scrunching up the photo with his fist.
– Paul's POV –
Paul was not enjoying his stay in Kanto thus far. He had always wanted to visit; the region had cool pokémon, and a lot of famous people he was interested in meeting, not to mention it was home to the official Pokémon league headquarters. Sinnoh had its own league of course, but none of the other regions could really match up to Kanto's league which was the first to be established and therefore, inherently the best.
Unfortunately for him because of a certain hat-wearing, Pikachu owning, super powered, idiot he was currently trekking through Route 1 trying to find his way to Pallet Town where he hoped he could find the others.
In the past he'd probably have chosen to simply leave, go back home to Sinnoh and train until they started the Lily of the Valley Conference again. But there was no way in hell that he was gonna let that runt get captured and killed before he got a chance to properly defeat him in battle.
Now that he'd learnt of Ash's past achievements and true abilities, Paul was keen to test himself against his real strength. Particularly against that Charizard of his that he'd read about; according to his trainer file, Charizard was Ash's strongest pokémon in terms of fire power (no pun intended).
But he couldn't have that battle if he couldn't find the stupid trainer in question. Route 1 was supposed to be an easy path for beginning trainers and Paul was having trouble. How humiliating. He blamed it on having to waste time hiding from league agents and emergency services that passed him, but in truth?
He was just really bad with directions.
It was a secret that shamed him to his very core. He was good at traveling really, but more often than not he'd get himself turned around. The only reason that he managed to stay ahead of Ash in terms of travel time was because he used his pokémon as modes of transportation and only had to worry about himself while his rival had a group and travelled on foot the whole way.
After what seemed like forever, Paul emerged from the long, confusing, and totally hard route (something Paul thought was a completely apt and honest description of the path he was currently travelling) and found himself at the top of a hill, gazing over Pallet Town.
He immediately headed for what he assumed was Professor Oak's laboratory. If Ash was anywhere, he would he there.
He knocked on the door and waited impatiently. It opened a few moments later and Paul found himself facing a young man wearing a green t-shirt and red headband.
"Can I help you?" the young man asked, seemingly surprised to find someone on his doorstep.
"I'm looking for Professor Oak's lab, is this it?" Paul grunted.
The man narrowed his eyes, "Yes, the Professor is away at the moment. I'm his assistant. What business do you have here?" he asked suspiciously.
"I'm not here for the Professor, I'm looking for a trainer named Ash Ketchum, he's a goofy looking kid with a Pikachu. He would've been with a group of other train-"
"What do you want with Ash?" the young man interrupted, his face now flashing anger and weariness.
"Tch. Relax. My name's Paul Shinji, I was Ash's opponent in the Sinnoh League when it happened. I'm not here to hurt him."
The man looked him up and down but seemed to recognize him, or at least his name, and then visibly relaxed. "My name is Tracey Sketchit, I'm a friend of Ash's. You'd better come inside." He said, standing aside to let Paul in.
"Whatever." Paul brushed past him and put his hands in his pockets. "So? Where is he?"
"Ash isn't here" Tracey shrugged.
"What?! Shit. Then where the heck is he?" Paul demanded, outraged he walked all this way for nothing.
Tracey raised his eyebrows "Dawn was right about that wicked tongue of yours although to be honest I wasn't sure she was speaking about language at first" he winked while Paul burned bright red, whether from anger or embarrassment he didn't know and honestly didn't really want to find out if it meant having an internal battle in his mind right now. "He was here earlier with Brock and the others; I assume you know them too?" Tracey looked to him for confirmation and Paul nodded. "They all left a short while ago".
"Where to?" Paul sighed, deciding that where ever it was, he'd need to fly to catch up to them.
"Cerulean City".
A few hours earlier…
– Dawn's POV –
"We're going to Cerulean city!"
Dawn wasn't sure what kind of reaction Brock was expecting but it certainly surprised her.
Tracey broke into an even bigger grin than the one he greeted them with when they first arrived and Gary resumed his trademark smirk, the notion seemingly having resolved all his worries.
"Umm what's in Cerulean city?" She spoke up, not wanting to be out of the loop.
"Not what, WHO" Brock corrected wagging a finger.
Dawn rolled her eyes, but played along "Okay who is in Cerulean city?"
The three boys shared a look of both happiness and weariness, then turned to her all at once and said "Misty."
"Pikachupi!" Pikachu piped up, reminding everyone that he was still present.
The name rung a bell in the back of her mind. "You mean the one you guys used to travel with?" she recalled, remembering that before she met her current companions, they used to travel with someone else.
"The very same!" Brock nodded.
"Not to mention she's Ash's-" Gary began before being cut off from a quick slap to the head from Brock who'd moved to his side in an instant.
"Your jealousy was showing" Brock shrugged when the brunette glared at him.
"Hey I'm an injured guy here!" Gary protested, showing his bandaged hand to emphasize his point.
"Yeah and I'll make sure you stay injured if you don't shut up for two seconds" Brock warned. Gary gulped and stayed quiet, perhaps for the first time ever.
Tracey leaned in to Dawn and spoke quietly "you know for a doctor Brock can be very scary". She nodded in agreement.
"Anyway about Misty!" Brock cheerfully turned back to the two, who both sweat dropped at his quick change of attitude.
"She was our travelling companion on our first journey throughout Kanto, in fact she met Ash before I did" Brock explained.
"Really? So she and Ash travelled together alone before they met you?" She asked surprised; imagine 10 year old Ash Ketchum travelling alone with a girl. Then again, Ash was so dense that he probably never realized what situation he was in.
"Well you couldn't really say they were travelling together, more like Misty was following him around for a while" Brock chuckled at the memory.
"Following him? Why? Weren't they friends?" Dawn creased her eyebrows in confusion.
"It all has to do with how they met. But you can ask for that story from Misty, it's much more entertaining from her perspective" Brock cheerfully answered. "At any rate, she's the leader at the Cerulean GYM so she should be able to help us out".
"She's a GYM leader?" Dawn echoed quite impressed. Ash really did have friends in high places. Sure she's not a champion like Cynthia or Lance, but she didn't have any GYM leader friends herself (she didn't count Brock since he was an ex-GYM leader and technically Candice was Zoey's friend).
"Not only is she a GYM leader but she's also one of Cerulean's Sensational Sisters!" Tracey helpfully added.
"Sensational Sisters? Oh I've heard of them! They're all models and actresses and performers right? Violet, Lily, and Daisy!" Dawn had read about them in her many fashion magazines. She used to blow through her allowance to buy as many as she could find and the three were featured quite often.
"Yep they're her older sisters. Misty is pretty different from them though. They're not as interested in running the GYM as she is. Daisy helps out sometimes but she's still pretty busy with all the tours they go on." Tracey said with a mildly dejected look on his face.
"Wow imagine being a sister to those three that would be just like super awesome!" Dawn sighed, her eyes shining in envy.
Brock and Tracey exchanged looks and laughed. "Misty would disagree. She gets stuck with most of the hard work. She's a great GYM leader though, thanks to her the Cerulean GYM is one of the toughest GYMs in the Kanto region." Tracey said proudly, his chest puffing up.
"Yep that Misty is one of a kind, now how about we actually get going to see her?" Gary said exasperatedly.
"Right!"the other three chorused together.
" Should we wake up Ash?" Dawn asked hesitantly. She was unsure what one was supposed to do with a person who'd just suffered from a panic attack and fainted. Were they supposed to wake them up? or was it like that sleep walking thing where you weren't supposed to disturb them? If they can't wake him could they move him? Questions whirled around her head and she looked to the older trainer for answers.
"Ash hasn't gotten a lot of sleep lately, I think it's best we let him rest for now" Brock explained, glancing at the young trainer who was still unconscious on the couch. "I have some sleep powder in my med kit, I'll give him some so he can hopefully have a peaceful sleep" he added, obviously thinking of the last time Ash had tried to sleep.
"Pi chu Pikapi" Pikachu nodded in agreement tapping Ash's forehead fondly with the tip of his tail which Dawn supposed meant he approved of Brock's idea.
"You sure? Won't he think it's weird that he fell asleep in his hometown and woke up in Cerulean city?" Tracey pointed out.
"Ash never liked to stay in one place too long. He would've been itching to leave here by tomorrow anyway." Gary assured, waving away Tracey's concern.
"Well how are we going to get to Cerulean city with a sleeping Ash? None of us can carry him all the way there and we don't have a pokémon that can take all of us." Dawn asked as she thought of all the pokémon they had in their possession. They had a few that could fly but not for very long and she'd never tried flying on her pokémon before. Plus someone would have to ride with Ash to hold him and what if he fell? A shiver went down her spine as she imagined an unconscious Ash falling to the earth from high in the sky.
"I have the answer to that right here!" Gary said proudly holding up something small in his hand.
"A key?" Dawn observed curiously.
"You still use that thing?" Brock asked in surprise at the same time that Tracey exclaimed "that's yours?!"
Gary held his nose high in the air "It's been a while since I used it since I decided to travel on foot for a while and then since I began my research I haven't needed it so Gramps said I could keep it here but it's been taken good care of and it's perfect for what we need!" He said in an ostentatious tone.
"What's perfect?" Dawn huffed, not liking being left out the loop.
"I'll show you" Gary winked and began to lead them down the hallway. He opened a door and walked down a couple steps before switching on a light. He'd led them to the garage which was empty save for a car shaped (duh) object hidden beneath a large piece of tarp.
"This" Gary paused for effect as he clutched the corner off the tarp "is how we're getting to Cerulean." With that he ripped the tarp away and Dawn finally saw what Gary was being so grandiose about.
A gleaming, sporty, red convertible was sitting in the middle of the garage, just screaming that the owner of the car was extravagant (or rather pompous) and rich. Gary, always the type to try to look cool, leaned against the hood with his eyes closed and used the car keys to unlock the convertible with a 'beep beep!'.
"Well what do you think?" Gary asked, clearly waiting for praise.
"You were a spoilt child" Dawn stated very matter of factly.
Gary fell anime style while Brock and Tracey were in tears from laughter.
"I'll have you know I was a perfectly well behaved child and was rewarded for being so! Actually I got this car thanks to Ashy boy!" Gary sniffed.
"Really? I never heard that before" Brock commented.
"That's because he doesn't know it" Gary sniggered "it would kill him if he did. See Gramps and I made a bet when I first left of my journey that if Ash hadn't caught even one pokémon by the time he got to Viridian City, he'd give me a million dollars!"
"No way. For real? Who'd make a bet like that?!" Dawn asked appalled at the thought that such high stakes would be gambled for such a trivial thing.
"I don't know why Gramps would gamble on Ashy boy when he's a total idiot but hey I got a cool car out of it so I'm not complaining" Gary shrugged with his trademark smirk "besides it turned out to be pretty useful for us now!"
Dawn couldn't disagree with that. The car would definitely be a lot faster and Ash could rest in the back seat.
"I wish I could go with you guys but someone has to stay to look after the pokémon" Tracey said with a sigh of disappointment and wistfulness.
Brock put a hand on his shoulder "you've done more than enough. Thanks a lot Tracey you really helped a lot." The older trainer said gratefully which Tracey returned with a smile.
"You could be more help in the future" Gary spoke up making Tracey look towards him. "We'll need to be able to swap our pokémon a lot, but the league can stop us from doing that normally so I want to use the UTS".
"The UTS? But that's just an experiment that the Professor has been working on, we've only got the prototype it's not actually running yet!" Tracey argued.
"It'll have to do. Don't worry I'm confident in my Gramps skills. I've looked over his notes and I think it'll be ok. Plus Bill worked on it too right? That guy is a genius who invented the first transporter system so if he's in on it then I'm liking our chances"
"Umm what's the UTS?" Dawn asked. Brock also turned curiously for the answer not having understood what the two researchers in training were talking about.
"The UTS stands for the Underground Trading System. The Professor and Bill, the famous researcher, have been working on it for a while. The idea was to trade your pokémon for another pokémon without knowing anything about it. Kind of like a lucky dip. It was supposed to be a way to get new kinds of pokémon so trainers could test their skill against training pokémon they know nothing about." Tracey explained.
"Well how will that help with transferring pokémon?" Dawn asked, not quite following their train of thought.
"The system is still a work in progress" Gary was the one to speak this time "they have a prototype set up which means it's not yet registered with the league and therefore they can't track us if we want to switch our pokémon like they would be able to if we used the regular transfer system. Since we'd be the only ones using it, we know exactly which pokémon we'll get." When Gary spoke like this, he actually sounded rather intelligent. 'Just like a real researcher' Dawn thought to herself.
"How will we know sorry?" She asked embarrassed that she wasn't listening clearly.
"Well usually when you put your pokémon in, it would go into a big pool of pokémon that other trainers have put up for trade, and the system would randomly select one from the pool which would be your new pokémon. But since it's just a prototype and we'll be the only one's using it, the pool will only be made up of two pokémon, the one I'm putting in, and the one I'll be receiving. So I can put in one of my pokémon that I'm carrying, and Tracey can put in one of my pokémon from here, and I'll know that those two will swap for sure." Gary clarified calmly, not at all deterred by her lack of understanding the first time.
"But if it's supposed to be a trading system, how can you trade with yourself?" Brock pointed out.
"That's the beauty of this new system Brock. It's new. It hasn't been programmed to recognize a change in trainer ownership yet. Right now all it can do is swap one pokémon from one place, with another pokémon in another place. Really at the moment it is just a transfer system rather than a trading system" Gary smirked once more, quite satisfied with his plan.
"So now we'll be able to swap our pokémon without the league knowing where we are or what we're doing!" Brock realized happily.
"But my other pokémon and Brock's other pokémon aren't here at the lab so how will we get our other pokémon if we need them?" Dawn asked, worried that she wouldn't be able to make use of the brilliant system.
"I can link the system up to other computers, I'll be able to connect it to Brock's home and to Professor Rowen's lab" Tracey offered.
"Can we trust Professor Rowen?" Gary asked seriously. Dawn nodded in response. She was sure that Professor Rowen would understand their situation and help them.
"Ok I'll send them a message and let them know, it'll be encrypted so the league won't know of our plan either. While I'm at it I'll send word to the Cerulean GYM about your arrival, I was due to call a while ago anyway. " Tracey said with a sort of faraway look on his face and left to find a computer.
"Due to call? Do you call them ofte- hey!" Tracey had already swept out the door before Dawn could finish asking her question which left her wondering just how often Tracey contacted the water pokémon trainer. At any rate they appeared to be quite close.
"Hey guys how are Tracey and Misty connected?" Dawn asked the two boys, still staring after the poke watcher.
"Tracey said he travelled with Ash before right? Well back then Misty was still travelling with Ash too. Nowadays Tracey makes frequent visits to Cerulean City. They're pretty close." Gary said quite happily while Brock simply sighed at his attitude.
"You're enjoying this far too much you know" he reprimanded the brunette.
Gary ignored the older trainer and walked lightly to the door, cheerfully spinning his keys around his finger. "I'll go get Ash, you guys make sure you're ready!"
Dawn turned to Brock one last time, "you sure about this?"
Brock did not smile but stared hard at the floor, "right now it's the best move we have".
– Misty's POV –
Misty stretched her limbs and yawned, she had just defeated another young trainer who was seeking the Cascade badge. He used his Nidorino and Beedrill against her Corsola and Goldeen. He managed to beat her Goldeen but Corsola made quick work against both his pokémon. He was quite good, he had all the right instincts but tended to get a little carried away and forget basic strategy. He reminded her of a certain raven haired trainer, who had the tendency to be pretty dense too.
"You guys did a good job today you deserve a good rest!" She praised her pokémon who after taking some potion, swam off to play with the other pokémon in the pool.
Misty watched after them smiling for a moment before sighing and pushing herself up, there was still a lot of work to do. They need to get lunch ready for all the pokémon and then they'd need to clean the tanks.
"Hey Daisy!" Misty called out, attempting to find her eldest sister so she could ask her to do her share of the work, "Daisy where are you?"
The blonde appeared from around the corner and gracefully skipped toward her younger sister.
"Like what's up Misty?" She sang with the heart winning smile which made her famous.
"Can you help me get the pokémon food? We also have to clean the tanks today and you promised to help me, it's a lot of work for just one person and the GYM apprentices all have the week off." Misty pleaded, hoping that for once Daisy wouldn't bail on her.
"Oh don't worry about that stuff little sis" Daisy said waving her hand as if she were also waving all the work away.
Misty sweat dropped and hung her head, of course Daisy would go back on her promise. Now she'd have to ask the GYM apprentices to come in on their week off to help her out. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost didn't notice that Daisy was still talking.
"Sorry what did you say?" Misty shook her head, turning her attention back to her sister.
"I said the boys can take care of it!" Daisy said, now checking out her flawless nails for any (non-existent) imperfections.
"The boys?" Misty echoed, not understanding.
"Tracey called earlier and said something about visiting so the boys can take care of it" Daisy said with a finger in the air as if she came up with the idea herself.
"Tracey's coming to visit?" Misty said, her mood perking up immediately at the news.
"Yeah and like he's bringing some other people" Daisy said nonchalantly.
"Others? Like who?" Misty furrowed her eyebrows, unable to think of who Tracey could be bringing, maybe Gary?
She heard the sound of a car screeching to a stop outside "sounds like they're here!" Daisy said cheerfully and went to the front door to greet them.
Misty followed closely behind curiously, keen to find out who the mystery guests would be. They were not who she was expecting at all.
"Brock!" She exclaimed in surprise as the older boy was the first to enter the GYM.
"It's good to see you again Misty" he smiled and wrapped her in a quick hug.
"Good to see you too Brock. What are you doing here?" She asked trying to peer around him to see who else had come along. She spotted a young girl with blue hair in a black and pink dress with a matching hat and boots shyly standing off to the side.
Walking over to her Misty held out her hand "Hi I'm Misty!"
The girl smiled and shook her outstretched hand. "Nice to meet you Misty I'm Dawn." Dawn gave her a curious look and cocked her head slightly "you know I feel like I've seen you somewhere before…"
Misty sweat dropped and hoped she hadn't seen that magazine article her sisters forced her into doing which included a rather risqué photo of her clad in only a skimpy bikini (something not usually to her taste but her sisters had picked out especially for the shoot). Rationalizing that the article probably hadn't made it all the way to Sinnoh she gave the girl a big smile and continued before she began to think her as daft for taking so long to respond. "Dawn? Oh I've heard all about you! If you and Brock are here then does that mean-"
"Pikachupi!"
Misty broke into a wide smile and kneeled down in time to catch the tiny yellow pokémon who'd run into her arms.
"Pikachu! I missed you so much!" She laughed and hugged it tight.
"Pika Pikachu Pipipi!" Pikachu cooed nuzzling into her shoulder.
"Hey guys I think you're kinda forgetting the reason why we're here in the first place!" another voice spoke from the back of the pack.
Misty looked up and her jaw dropped in shock at the sight of Gary Oak carrying an unconscious Ash on his back. "Ash!" She immediately stood up and ran over to the pair. "what happened?!" She asked in a panicked tone, wondering just what sort of craziness Ash had to have gotten involved in this time to justify the group travelling all the way to Cerulean when he should be in the Sinnoh region for the conference there.
"Don't worry he's just asleep" Brock reassured, coming over to help relieve some of the weight from Gary. "For now do you have somewhere we can put him down?"
"He can stay in one of our waiting rooms follow me" Daisy spoke up who, for once, was not the centre of attention.
She led the group of trainers down the aquarium-like halls to a waiting room where Brock and Gary quickly lay Ash down on a couch.
"I'll grab him a blanket" Daisy offered and left the room, leaving Misty alone with the three remaining conscious trainers.
"So" she began and crossed her arms, "start talking."
– Ash's POV –
Ash was awake although he didn't open his eyes straight away. Once his mind had cleared enough for coherent thought the first thing to pop into his mind was that he actually slept. No nightmares at all. He hadn't felt this well rested since before the Lily of the Valley conference started. He was quite enjoying the feeling and was considering just dozing right off again when he suddenly felt an ominous presence hovering just above him.
Ash wearily opened his eyes to see a face peering down at him.
"Wah! Brock! What the hell are you doing?!" he yelped in surprise.
"Language!" Dawn scolded from across the room.
"Sorry Ash, I saw you waking up and I was just trying to check up on you!" Brock said sheepishly. "So how are you feeling?"
"Uhh ok I guess. What happened again?" Ash asked scratching the back of his head with his hand.
"Well you sort of fainted during your battle with Gary" Brock admitted shooting a glance at the brunette who was sitting on a chair across the room.
"I did? Sorry about that Gary! I guess I was more tired than I thought!" Ash laughed apologetically. Gary did not respond however and instead clenched his fists. It was at that point that Ash noticed the bandages.
"Hey what happened to your hand?"
"Nothing" Gary mumbled, turning away and crossing his arms in a broody fashion.
Ash narrowed his eyes and turned back to Brock instead "what'd he do to his hand?"
"He punched a wall" Brock shrugged.
"Brock" Gary growled in warning which Brock ignored.
"What? Gary why'd you do something stupid like that? I thought researchers were supposed to be smart" Ash teased, sticking out his tongue.
"Oh yeah? Well I don't know many pokémon masters who can't finish a battle because they faint like a little baby." Gary retorted haughtily. Ash flashed with anger and turned away from his supposed best friend with a huff. He missed the look of guilt on Gary's face and the looks of understanding and sympathy that his other friend's offered him.
Deciding that Gary must be in one of his moods that revert him back to his previous jerky self , Ash turned to the other two, after something about the scene they were in came to his attention.
"Uhh how long was I out? Please don't tell me I've been in a coma again." Ash sweat dropped after taking in his surroundings. He was in an unfamiliar room, lying on a couch with a blanket over him.
"Well… it wasn't THAT long… a couple hours… you would've woken up sooner but you looked so tired so Brock used some sleeping powder that he had on hand and well…" Dawn explained helplessly with a very forced expression.
Ash looked at the three suspiciously "Okay… then where exactly am I?"
His answer came in the form an angry, red headed girl barging through the door.
"YOU BETTER EXPLAIN YOURSELF RIGHT NOW ASH KETCHUM!"
Sorry guys! Been a long time. I've put up two chapters to make up for it though! Hope they satisfy you!