Rayquaza45: What's up people? I now present chapter 8 to the readers. Please take the time to read AND REVIEW! I'm aware of how pathetic I sound but seriously, review! All new readers and even readers who've written reviews before! Just do it, come on :(
Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon or any aspect of it!
Chapter 8: Challenging the Dating Frontier
"Are you really sure they're not coming?" Ash asked.
"That's what May said." Lead answered. "It's just you and me tonight."
"Maybe we ought to come back again?" Ash suggested, desperately trying to get himself out of the situation.
"Let's not waste the night." Leaf smiled. "They said they'd take care of business."
Several moments of silence went by before Ash said anything.
"If that's how it is." Ash conceded.
The pier was probably the most couple-filled spot Ash had ever seen. Everywhere you looked, couples were spray painting their names, eating, hanging out and making out. Restaurants, gift shops, photo booths and boat rides littered the arena.
"How did I get myself into this?" Ash thought.
"So, what do you feel like doing first Ash?" Leaf asked him.
What was he going to say? What THE HELL was he going to say? This never happened to him before. His clear feelings for Leaf made the situation unbearable and yet desirable. Though other guys would kill for the chance to be with their girl, Ash was just a nervous wreck. Maybe the best approach was to start with something simple and easy.
"Let's eat." He answered.
"Just what I was hoping he'd say." Leaf thought.
The restaurant was called "Pier 2"; the name was a clear magnet to get couple to dine there. 2. Meaning that it was meant for two people to sit together. All the chairs were arranged around a table and they were all in sets of two and one table, also know as a table for two. As Ash and Leaf sat down at a window seat, at a table for two, of course, they opened up their menus. The waiter, a middle aged guy, wasted little time coming to take their order.
"Welcome to Pier 2." He said. "What can I get you two this evening?"
"Just water for now." Leaf said.
"Devil's Crush here." Ash said.
"Very well then." He said as he wrote on his notepad and left.
"Ash?"
"Yes?"
"What's a devil's crush?"
"A drink that tastes even better than it sounds."
"Sounds pretty good to begin with."
Eventually, the waiter returned with their drinks. Placing the drinks on their tables, he set his tray aside. Ash's drink was a sparkling yellow color in a tall glass with a lemon slice on top, loads of ice and a twisted straw. Leaf's received a glass of sparkling water that seemed like it could've come from the snowy alpines of Sinnoh.
"Is there anything I can get you two now?" He asked.
"Leaf?"
"Whatever your most popular item is." She said.
"Same." Ash told him.
"Very well then." The waiter said as he picked up all his stuff. "Thank you."
The next few minutes were relatively quiet. Ash simply sipped his drink and avoided direct eye contact with Leaf. Leaf, on the other hand, stared outside the window at all the couples on the pier enjoying themselves and enjoying their time together. She then decided that she had to make conversation in order to enjoy herself.
"So, Ash." She smiled. "Where have you been on your pokemon journey so far?"
He had to stop drinking in order to answer. "Well I started in Kanto just like you did."
"I know, we both got our starter pokemon from Professor Oak." She said. "But what happened after the tournament at the Indigo Plateau?"
"Well…I went to the Johto region afterwards and competed in the Silver Conference." He went on. "After that was Hoenn, where I competed in the Ever Grande Conference. Then I returned to Kanto for the Battle Frontier."
"You won that, didn't you?" Leaf asked.
"Yeah, that's right." Ash said, finally showing signs of cheering up. "It was a real challenge."
"I know the feeling." Leaf replied. "I won the Sinnoh Battle Frontier."
"What!" Ash said, his reaction mixed with surprise but excitement as well. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah." She said, wearing her heart-melting smiling. "But it was unlike anything I've ever done before."
"I hardly ever heard of the Sinnoh Battle Frontier." Ash stated. "Where is it exactly?"
"It's on the Battle Zone Island." Leaf said. "I went there and obtained all the prints."
"Prints?" Ash asked.
"Oh yeah." Leaf said, evidently remembering something. "The Sinnoh Battle Frontier awards special prints while I've heard the Kanto Battle Frontier awards gold symbols."
"That's awesome!" Ash said. "So what else have you done?"
"Well I really messed up at the Indigo Plateau and only made it into the top 32." Leaf said, sadly remembering her failures.
"That's exactly as how far Gary went." Ash remembered.
"That's when I knew I had to work harder. So I decided to go to Hoenn and train there. I spent a lot of extra time there than I did anywhere else on my journey and I made it into the top 2 at the Ever Grande Conference." Leaf explained.
"You made it into the top 2!" Ash asked in amazement.
"Yeah, I guess that'd have been when you were in Johto." Leaf said. "And after a while I went to Sinnoh and competed in the Sinnoh League."
"And how'd you do there?" Ash asked.
Leaf smiled. "I made it into the top 8."
"That's good!" Ash said. "So after that is when you went to compete in the Sinnoh Battle Frontier?"
"Yup." Leaf laughed. "And eventually, I came to the Johto region to compete in the Johto League. But when I found out about this tournament, I just had to compete."
"Then you found Gary and the rest of us, right?" Ash asked.
"Yeah. I signed up for the tournament and then I noticed you and Gary going to register a few days later." Leaf explained. "That's when I saw you guys in the Battle Tower with Dawn and Brock."
"I remember that night." Ash said. "I gotta thank you again for letting us stay at your vacation house."
"What are friends for, Ash?" Leaf rhetorically asked, wearing that same heart-melting smiled.
He just stayed silent, now knowing what Leaf expected him to say. Soon after, the waiter returned with their orders.
"This is the most popular item in our restaurant." He said, lifting the top off the plates revealing them to be laced with Foie Gras and featuring an omelet and a side of sausage. "Is there anything else I can get the two of you?"
"Leaf?"
She simply shook her head, allowing her beautiful brown hair to swish subtly.
"Thanks. We'll signal you if there is."
"Very well then." He said. "Thank you and we do hope you enjoy."
Ash wasted no time eating, but kept himself in check. He had finally begun to understand his situation; he was set up on a date. There was nothing he could do about it now, but he'd have to stick with it since he was in public and Leaf seemed really happy.
"This must've been what Gary and the others were discussing back at the house." Ash thought.
Gary and Brendan must've spilled the beans about his history with Leaf to the girls. Everything worked out perfectly, Leaf and himself going first, the last minute business about the tournament, everyone else going out to get it, Brendan asking to borrow Pikachu, May calling Leaf to make it look like something had really come up at the Battle Tower.
They'd really thought of everything. Well, almost everything since he'd kept his pokeballs with him. Seemed strange that Gary would forget something like that, but stranger things have been known to happen.
Without even thinking about it, Leaf and Ash had managed to clear their plates, which the waiter took notice of. He then came to the table holding two bowls of ice cream.
"These are on the house." He said, putting them in front of Ash and Leaf.
"Thanks."
"Shall I bring you the bill?"
"Leaf?" Ash asked, which was met with a nod. "Sure."
"Service is surprisingly fast." Ash said.
"Sure is." Leaf said, already knowing the reason why.
Not long after, Ash and Leaf had a fun little fight about who got to pay the bill, with the final decision having been Leaf giving into Ash's demand to allow him to pay, fortunate that he'd kept his wallet.
As they left the restaurant, a familiar boy wearing a gold and blue hat backwards spoke to the waiter who'd been at Ash and Leaf's table and slipped a curiously high-valued note into his pocket.
"So…..what can we do now?" Ash asked, walking along side Leaf, staring out into the dark night sky.
"How 'bout we just take a walk?" Leaf suggested, knowing Ash's answer.
It hadn't been too long since Ash and Leaf had arrived, but there seemed to be even more couples now than before. The vast majority of them were holding hands with one another, making Leaf slightly jealous.
"Hey, Ash?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you feel like taking a picture?"
A picture. A picture had started the entire revelation. Like the golden apple to Troy, everything started over something tiny. Though he'd liked Leaf long before they took the picture, that single picture had lead to everything that had happened recently.
"Sure."
As they approached the photo booth, another couple exited. The guy was noticeably laughing his head off while his girlfriend did the same, one could only wonder what they'd been doing earlier that night. Ash inserted his change as he and Leaf entered the booth. Leaf sat on Ash's left and took off her hat.
"Please hold still for the photo." The automated voice instructed. "The pictures will be taken when the countdown reaches zero."
"Ash, take off your hat." Leaf softly told him.
"You want me to take off my hat?" Ash asked, in surprise.
Leaf was actually blushing, but the darkness in the booth made it hard to tell. "I think you look nice without it."
"I'd feel pretty strange without a hat, but I guess since it's a photo." He said, finally taking off his hat.
"Say cheese." The automated voice said as the countdown reached zero.
Neither Ash nor Leaf said cheese, but they both smiled as four pictures were taken. The automated voice said nothing more so they went outside to collect the pictures.
"They turned out pretty nice." Leaf said, taking them in her hand.
The first picture was one of Ash and Leaf together, smiling in a basic way. The second picture was essentially the same as the first. The third one featured them slightly closer than the first two but their smiles remained the same. The fourth picture was an entirely different story, however. Ash and Leaf were sitting very close together, Leaf held her head really close to Ash's and wore her heart-melting smile while Ash smiled too and had his hand on her left shoulder. Both their eyes were glistening. He'd evidently been okay with the closeness and not wearing his hat.
"I knew you looked good without a hat." Leaf told him.
Ash shrugged. "I just enjoy wearing them."
"You didn't always wear hats." Leaf pointed out.
"I've been wearing them a lot since I started my journey." Ash said. "I think it'd be weird for me to stop wearing them."
"Fair enough." Leaf said. "Alright then, why don't you tell me where you wanna go next?"
Ash's choice of destination was a rollercoaster situated at the far end of the pier. Since he'd started to enjoy himself, he'd do what he could to make this the best night of both his and Leaf's lives.
Purchase of tickets, which resulted in another minor discussion about money which Leaf managed to win, waiting in line and waiting for the previous ride to end had the time change to 9:00pm. Soon after the ride ended so Ash and Leaf boarded and sat next to one another.
"3…2…1…GO!" The ride conductor shouted.
The ride had failed to go too fast in the beginning but started to speed up after a minute or so. At that point, the ride climbed up a steep track and went down it at what seemed to be 100MPH.
Leaf put her arms high up in the air and started shouting her head off in happiness while Ash kept his arms firmly grabbed on to the railings and did everything in his power to avoid wetting his pants.
As the ride ended 10 minutes later, Ash walked off the ride wobbling around while Leaf walked off with little trouble.
"That was terrible." Ash complained, walking around clutching his stomach.
Leaf put her hand on his shoulder from behind, causing him to blush. "You suggested it."
"How did your hat stay on through the entire thing?" Ash asked her?
Leaf just shrugged in response before noticing something. "Ash! Your hat's missing."
The time was now 9:45. Ash and Leaf had spent a long time searching around the area for his hat. Just when they were about to give up and Ash was coming to terms with possibly having to use another of his hats, a Corsola appeared in front of them, dancing around with Ash's hat on.
"That's my hat." Ash yelled, running up to the Corsola. "Let me have my hat back, please Corsola."
Rather than let Ash have what belonged to him, Corsola decided to have fun and tease Ash while wearing his hat.
"Ash." Leaf called out to him. "Try battling it."
"Battling it?" Ash asked. "I don't wanna hurt it."
"Just go easy on it then." Leaf asked. "You still have some pokemon with you, right?"
"That's right." Ash said, reaching back and pulling one out. "Come on out!"
Ash's pokeball was thrown into the air and created a flash of light which manifested itself in his Sinnoh grass-type pokemon, Torterra.
"Tor!" The continent pokemon called out.
"I need your help, Torterra" Ash told it. "We need to battle that Corsola and get my hat back."
Torterra just looked at Ash in a very strange and comical manner, wondering why its trainer would use a pokemon as powerful as itself to battle a simple Corsola.
"Let's just finish this fast!" Ash called out. "Use leaf storm!"
"Torterra!" The continent pokemon shouted as it unleashed a barrage of leaves at the still-dancing Corsola, knocking it unconscious with little trouble.
Ash proceeded over to the unconscious Corsola and took his hat back. "Don't take what isn't yours."
Leaf approached Ash, having watched the battle from a few meters distance. "That's one powerful Torterra, Ash."
"Thank you." Ash laughed as he struck his pose of putting his hand behind his head.
"I guess we ought to take this Corsola to the pokemon centre." Leaf pointed out.
It was 10:00pm in the pitch black of the night when Ash and Leaf arrived at the Olivine pokemon centre. Ash carried Corsola there in his arms and handed it to the operating Nurse Joy.
"Nurse Joy, this is a wild Corsola." Ash explained. "Can you help it?"
"Oh dear." Nurse Joy worriedly said as she looked over Corsola's injuries. "Whatever pokemon did this must be quite powerful to have inflicted such damage."
"Well, you're right about that." Ash thought.
"Will it be okay?" Leaf eagerly asked her.
"Yes." Nurse Joy told them. "I'll keep it here overnight and treat it."
For the next 30 minutes, Ash and Leaf walked around the pier some more. The central challenge became trying to wade through the gangs of other couples who crowded the area.
"This is crazy!" Ash exclaimed.
"But it is a nice night to be out, isn't it?" Leaf smiled
"….Yeah."
"I'm gonna have to thank everyone for helping me pull this off." Leaf thought.
Eventually, lights in some areas began to shut off, the rollercoaster was shut down and the restaurant closed for the night, indicating that the pier was closing and that everyone was supposed to go home.
"I guess we ought to go back." Leaf said, putting a touch of sadness in her voice.
Ash sighed. "I guess. But I have to get one thing for Brendan first."
As they walked towards the house, Ash and Leaf contemplated the nights events in their heads. Ash, thought reluctant to admit that he had a good time, did. But as they walked back, Ash never even looked at Leaf. The only thing on his mind was Brendan taking Pikachu from him. How could he do something like that? It wasn't that Ash didn't enjoy the night, but everything that had happened had happened because Pikachu wasn't there.
Leaf noticed Ash's angry face as they walked back. Why was he angry? Did he not enjoy their first night alone together in years? Or was it something else? Did he realize that he'd been set up? Was he capable of realizing something like that? He'd been pretty dense when she knew him, but would he have still been the same? Was he upset that Leaf had resorted to trickery to get him to come along with her? Had she upset him that much? Or was it…something more that she didn't understand?
Finally reaching the house, Ash opened the unlocked door and found Brendan and May sitting on one of the two person couches while Dawn and Gary sat on the other one.
"How are you two lovebirds doing tonight?" May jokingly asked.
Neither Ash nor Leaf responded.
"Maybe the question ought to be 'who', right?" Brendan asked, earning him a moderate hit on the head from May.
"Hey, Brendan, I got you something." Ash said, angrily throwing him a bottle that hit him in the head.
"Ouch." Brendan said as he took the bottle, turning it around in his hand. "Lemonade?"
"Now you can get that free massage." Gary pointed out while laughing.
"Who massages you?" May asked.
"Can we come back to that?" Ash shouted. "What happened at the Battle Tower?"
"Nothing." Gary revealed. "We just needed an excuse to stay here."
"Wallace already told us back at the tower." May started. "The match specifications are coming out tomorrow."
"Where's Pikachu?" Ash asked, turning to Brendan.
"He's on your bed." Brendan told him. "Sorry for ta-."
"What's wrong with you?" Ash scolded him.
"Ash!" May asked him in a surprised tone. She'd never seen Ash get that angry.
"Didn't you guys have a good time?" Dawn asked, trying to mellow out the situation.
"We had a great time." Leaf told her, hoping her words would stop the anger.
"You'd better not ever do that again." Ash sternly told Brendan, ignoring Dawn and Leaf.
"Alright dude, I won't, I swear." Brendan said, trying to calm Ash down.
"Alright." Ash said, relieved but still somewhat upset. "What next?"
"Tomorrow, somebody goes back to the Battle Tower and gets the information." May said.
"How's Brock holding up?" Ash asked.
But everyone was hesitant to answer, until Gary spoke up.
"He hasn't left his room." Gary told him. "He's barely made any noi-."
Akogare ni oshitsubusarete
akirametetan da
hateshinai sora no iro mo
shiranai de
"Sorry about that." Brendan said, answering his cellphone. "Go for Brendan!"
"I don't know why May did."Ash thought.
Brendan spoke on the phone for several minutes in the living room so everyone stayed quiet, upset at his blatant lack of courtesy. Finally, he got off.
"What?" He asked everyone as they looked at him.
"You could've taken the phone somewhere else." Gary pointed out.
"Never mind that." Brendan responded. "That was Lucas; he says the match information is being posted tomorrow at 11:00.
"Good to know." Leaf said. "Now what were we talking about?"
"We need a way to find out what's wrong with Brock." May said.
"Let me take care of that." Ash said, reassuringly as he knocked on Brock's door. "I'm gonna come in, Brock."
And he went in.
"What's he gonna do?" Dawn asked.
"He knows Brock a lot better than the rest of us." Gary stated. "He knows what he's doing."
Leaf paid no attention to their words and simply went to her room. Only May noticed her leaving. Heading to her room, she knocked on the door.
"Leaf." May called. "Can I come in?"
It was now 10:45am the next day. Brock was back to his normal self, well, as normal as could be. Everyone had already eaten. May was out on the field training with Leaf, Brendan was watching TV and Dawn had gone with Gary to the Battle Tower to get the match specifications that were due today morning. Brock and Ash joined Brendan in his TV watching later on.
"They're airing your match, Ash." Brendan said.
As the stream of water chased the electric mouse across the field, its trainer came up with a final plan.
"Pikachu! Jump over Staryu!" Ash ordered.
"Pika?" The mouse said as it obeyed its trainer and jumped over the sparkling core pokemon.
"Now!" Ash started. "Use volt tackle from where you are in the air!"
"PikaPikaPika... Pi-ka" The electric mouse repeated as it slammed into its opponent with the force of its attack as well as the gravity aiding it on its way down from the air. The force of the shock was enough to knock Staryu out.
"Staryu is unable to battle." The referee announced. "Pikachu is the winner and goes on to the third preliminary round."
"Using volt tackle from the air must've been pretty difficult for Pikachu." Brendan commented.
"Pikachu's done it a few times before." Ash coldly responded.
At that, Gary and Dawn returned from the Battle Tower with a sheet of paper in hand and spread it out over the living room table, blocking Brendan's view of the TV.
"What's wrong with you?" Brendan shouted.
"Oh now you recognize bad manners." Gary sarcastically responded. "Dawn, can you call Leaf and May in here?"
"So did you meet up with Lucas?" Brendan jokingly asked Gary as Dawn left the room.
"What?"
"It's pretty clear dude."
"What is?"
"You're jealous."
Gary's eyes widened as his muscles started expanding slightly. "I am not jealous."
The reaction earned a laugh from all three of the guys.
"I bet." Brendan laughed.
"Cut it out guys." Brock said. "They're here."
"Just what did Ash say to him yesterday?"Brendan asked himself.
Leaf, May and Dawn came to the room.
"So you got the match specifications?" Leaf asked.
"Yeah." Gary said. "Take a look."
The tournament schedule was laid out. All the boxes for the quarterfinals and above were blank. Only the round of top 16 blocks had names revealed. The rulebook stated that the round of 16 was to be a double battle. Ash, Lucas, Leaf, May and Gary were all to battle unknown trainers for their round of top 16 but that was only their battle.
The match specifications showed that the third match of the round of 16 was to be a battle between Dawn and Brendan.
"I'm fighting first?" Ash said as he looked at the schedule.
"Seems that way." Leaf told him.
"So I'm battling you, Brendan?" Dawn asked in moderate surprise.
"I guess so." Brendan responded.
"This is my chance to get him back for calling my pokemon pitiful!" Dawn thought.
"It seems that matches occur simultaneously." Brock read aloud from the information at the bottom of the page. "Ash and Lucas are going first and second, but they will be battling different opponents at the same time on a different field."
"My battle isn't against anyone we know." Leaf pointed out. "And the battle that happens at the same time is against two unknowns."
"My battle is at the same time as May's." Gary pointed out.
"Don't sweat it." May cheerfully said. "There's always the TV telecast."
"I'm not going easy on you." Brendan jokingly told Dawn.
"Good." Dawn said, looking at May. "If I was your girlfriend and you took it easy on my friends, I'd dump you!"
Everyone went into hysteric laughter, except Brendan who kept an icy cold stare on Dawn. Ash was rolling on the floor laughing his head off.
"Alright people, grow up." Brendan said calmly. "When do the battles start?"
"Tomorrow at 12:00 noon." Dawn struggled to say, having kept laughing.
After teasing Brendan for a few more minutes, Ash went outside to train for the upcoming matches. Ash's training had been going on for a while, longer than most days. It had gotten to the point that anyone else who wanted to train would have to be willing to stay up late. It was now approaching 5:00pm and he'd been finishing up for the day.
"Glalie, use ice beam on Snorlax!" Ash commanded. "Snorlax, use protect!"
"Snor." "Glalie!" The pokemon shouted as they acted. Glalie's icy blue beam was absorbed by Snorlax's protective barrier and nullified.
"Great job, guys." Ash said. "That's it for today."
The next day, at 11:45, the gang had proceeded back to the Battle Tower in order to have their matches. Ash was taken to the preparation area by the referee and Tucker on the 45th floor. The entire room was green. As Ash looked at the pokeballs in his hand, and Pikachu by his side, he looked up at the door which was to open automatically if his match were to begin.
Leaf, Brock, May, Dawn, Brendan and Gary all stayed in the stands near the exit since they'd have to leave for their battles eventually.
Ash sat on a chair in his green preparation room, mentally preparing himself for his battle.
"Will the trainers please enter the battle field now?" A voice said as the door in Ash's dressing room opened.
"Let's go for it." Ash said while walking through the door into the field surrounded by thousands of cheering Olivine City residents sitting in the stands high above the field.
"Pika!" The electric rodent cheered from Ash's shoulder.
Rayquaza45: So how did you guys like that? Hope you're getting pumped for the battles, 'cause they're up next! So did anyone think there wasn't enough romance? Well fear not, cause this isn't the only chapter that'll be dedicated to it, there's gonna be alot more later on. So remember to review the chapter now that it's done. Even if you've done it before, I'll always listen to what you have to say.
Next time: Chapter 9: The Top 16! The Real Battles Begin!
So I got a job for all readers. Tell me a pokemon you think Leaf should have in her party? Tell me what you'd suggest when you write your review. The only rules: no starters, nothing already held by a main character and no legendary pokemon (but that should go without saying), alright? For the sake of clearance: when I say 'main characters', I mean anime characters who are in the story in addition to other main characters from the anime like Paul or Tyson. I know you're gonna want to review now, but give me your feedback AND suggestion.
Till next time, people!