Episode 32: Ghost Hunter – Part 1
Episode 32 in my Fan Fiction series about the Pokémon journey of Ash and Angie. Involves some MorpheusShipping (Ash and Angie liking each other) so if you don't like that idea, perhaps you might want to stop reading here. The rest, I hope you enjoy this fan-fiction.
"Not now... Pikachu...." a rather sleepy Ash mumbled.
Ash had turned in early the night before, after eating a little bit too much of Angie's delicious dinner, she prepared for him to celebrate winning the battle against Paul. Those cooking lessons Brock gave her, before they left Sinnoh, had certainly paid off, and being a big fan of nice food herself, Angie took quite some pride in being able to serve a decent meal herself now. After a goodnight kiss, everyone had gone inside their respective tents, to get the necessary rest.
"Please... let me be... just a little longer..." Ash mumbled again, without opening his eyes.
"Ash Ketchum, the sun is up for hours now, so you get out of bed right now, you hear me!" he suddenly heard a familiar voice yell in his ears.
"Whaa!" Ash yelled, as he sat straight up in his sleeping bag, "you're not Pikachu!"
"I'm glad you can see the difference," Angie answered, her face rather straight.
"Did you er... have you... been in here... very long?" Ash stuttered, as he slid a little deeper down inside his sleeping bag, feeling a little ashamed of Angie seeing him in this way.
"No, of course not, you silly!" Angie answered surprised, "but I had to choose between Pikachu shocking you, letting Dewgong hit you with a water type attack, or wake you myself. So which one do you prefer, mister?"
"Uh... you of course," Ash quickly answered.
"Right answer," Angie said, as her features softened again. "Now, if you want to cover some distance today, you'd better get dressed."
"Ahum..." Ash made a sound like he was clearing his throat.
"I have seen you with less on already, so what's the fuss about?"Angie teased him.
"You have?" Ash asked, as his eyes became bigger and he started to blush a little.
"When we were swimming of course, but I'll wait outside, naturally, if that makes you feel better" Angie said, giggling about Ash's shyness.
She stepped outside, to give the young trainer a little more privacy. "And everyone thinks only girls are like that..." she thought, smiling, "but it is kinda cute also." While waiting for Ash to get dressed, Angie started to wonder. She didn't often think about the far future, since usually she and Ash just rolled from one adventure straight into the other. "Will we still be together over, say, ten years from now?" she asked herself. If she looked deep inside, everything about being with Ash felt right. "Sure, he can be so stubborn at times, and at bit 'inflammatory' when there was some difference of opinion about a matter, or when someone questioned his abilities." But she had to admit he wasn't the only one guilty of those flaws. Anyone who tried to push her around, thinking she was just a weak girl, usually paid for this assumption. Most boys back at school had learned that, either the easy way, if they were smart, or the hard way, if they weren't.
She tried to imagine how it might be like, if she and Ash really would stay together. Would they really take over her parents's daycare, like her mom and dad suggested when Ash left Solaceon Town, before he went out to challenge the Sinnoh League? Angie had reacted very agitated back then, when her folks told her she should marry Ash, and take over the family business. Of course it was not that she disliked the idea of being with Ash at that time, but the fact that her parents seemed to decide for her, that was what made her rebel against the thought. "And what if Ash would have heard them suggesting these things?" was what flashed through her mind back then. He did sneeze at the same moment her parents talked about those 'wedding plans' for her daughter, so at that moment, she feared Ash might have overheard those words about him and Angie. But since Ash never mentioned this later on, after they got together, he probably never noticed how her parents seemed to be have been planning their future. "Mum and dad are okay, but sometimes..."
"Hey, dreamer! I thought you were in such a hurry to get going?" she suddenly heard Ash say, waking her from her thoughts. "Is there anything wrong?"
"No, I was just thinking... Come on, let's get some breakfast!" Angie brushed away Ash's concern.
Although both had been eating a sumptuous meal yesterday, no one had any trouble with munching away breakfast. After that, they packed their gear into the backpacks, and went on their way. Even though it was technically already autumn, the weather was still holding it's own, with just a few clouds, and plenty of sunshine. With the weather so in their favor, Ash and Angie were able to make some nice progress. Shinx and Pikachu were walking a little ahead of their trainers, meanwhile talking animatedly with each other. Suddenly Pikachu stopped chatting, and quickly turned around, blocking the path for Shinx and the others.
"What is it, Pikachu?" Ash asked.
The electric Pokémon pointed with it's tail towards a place a few meters ahead of them, where a lot of branches and leaves were covering the path. Normally, that wouldn't be so strange, considering the time of year, but in this case there were no trees close to the path, and apart from this somewhat circular spot, the entire path was clear.
"Do you see that?" Ash whispered, pointing towards the suspicious looking spot.
"Oh... yes. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Angie whispered back.
"I've got an idea," Ash said, blinking with one eye towards Angie.
"I get what you mean..." Angie replied, smiling at Ash.
"It sure is a nice day, right Angie!" Ash said, louder than necessary.
"Yes, you are right!" Angie answered, also raising her voice.
Meanwhile, behind the bushes on the other side of the road...
"Do you hear that? They are getting closer, and then..." James said.
"Shouldn't we have put some more leaves around the entire path, to camouflage the trap better?" Jessie wondered.
"Well, we could, if you would have helped as well, instead of just watching us do all the hard work," James remarked.
"Are you suggesting I'm lazy?" Jessie asked, raising her voice.
"Will you two be quiet!" Meowth hissed at his team mates, pushing both down with his paws.
"Aaaah! What is this!?" Ash suddenly shouted.
"Oh! I'm falling too!" they heard Angie shout.
"Pikaaaa!" Pikachu added.
"Yes! They have fallen into our trap! Pikachu is ours!" the Team Rocket trio shouted as they made a little victory dance before jumping out of the bushes.
But the trap was still covered with leaves, and there was no trace of Ash, Angie or Pikachu.
"Now, where did those twerps go?" Jessie wondered, while looking around.
"You don't suppose they have fallen through the leaves and branches and are in fact in the hole?" James suggested.
"Why don't you go check that out for yourselves!?" Ash shouted, as he and Angie jumped out of the bushes on the opposite side of the spot where the three villains had been hiding.
Standing between the trap and the place where Ash had appeared, Jessie, James and Meowth turned around, surprised to find the twerps somewhere else than they expected.
"Now, Grotle!" Ash shouted.
Ash's grass Pokémon quickly launched an Energy Ball at the Team Rocket members. It hit the ground just a few inches before their feet, knocking the trio over, and crashing down through the leaves and branches that covered the trap they made for Ash and Angie.
"Aauuwww...." James moaned.
"My poor tail!" Meowth cried.
"I don't know who is lying on top on me, but that someone better get of me fast, before I lose my patience!" Jessie shouted angry.
"Oops..." James said, as he jumped on his feet again, allowing Jessie to get up also.
"Well, at least we know this was a good trap..." Meowth sighed.
"Are you enjoying yourselves down there, Team Rocket?" Angie said teasingly, as she and Ash were standing at the edge of the hole.
"You twerps don't think this was an accident, now do you? We always try out new traps ourselves first," Jessie explained, trying to make their drop in their own hole seem like a planned action.
"Sure..." Ash chuckled.
"Oh, you don't believe us!?" Jessie answered, "maybe our Pokémon will help you see what we mean!"
The three Rockets jumped out of the hole, and tossed a few Poké Balls into the air.
"Go, Seviper!" Jessie said, as she released her snake Pokémon.
"You too, Cacturne!" James shouted.
As usual, James's spiky Pokémon was so overly glad to see it's trainer again, that it quickly turned around to lovingly greet James.
"Aaauuu! Cacturne, this is not the time and place!" James cried in pain.
"Stop fooling around and help me!" Jessie shouted, "Seviper, Poison Sting!"
"Cacturne, do Drain Punch!" James commanded.
"Would you like to do the honors today?" Ash asked Angie.
"Most certainly," Angie replied, "your Pokémon have seen plenty of action yesterday, and my team could use some exercise."
Angie quickly took two Poké Balls from her belt, and tossed them up. Linoone and Bulbasaur popped out.
"Linoone, do Headbutt, and Bulbasaur, Razor Leaf!" Angie commanded.
Seviper's movement was stopped by the stream of sharp leaves that Bulbasaur hurled it's way, and Linoone hit Cacturne head on with it's attack, sending it flying back to James, who caught his Pokémon, but was knocked over doing this.
"Do I have to do everything myself!?" Jessie shouted in rage.
But before Jessie could issue another command to her Pokémon, Angie had her Linoone do Fury Swipes on Seviper. The snake Pokémon was hurled backwards by Linoone's fast claw movements, and crashed into it's trainer.
"Bulbasaur, finish it with Solar Beam!" Angie shouted.
Since it was very sunny, Bulbasaur didn't need much time to get fully charged, and it fired a Solar Beam almost immediately.
"Uh oh!" the three Team Rocket villains cried in fear, as they tightly held on to each other.
The Solar Beam hit the ground on the spot where the three Team Rocket members were standing, and the resulting explosion sent them flying up high.
"One minute we are falling down, the next minute we are way up high!" James remarked.
"That's the story of Team Rocket, many ups and downs!" Meowth added.
"Well, then we should enjoy this up-moment, before the down-moment comes!" James replied.
"We're blasting off again!" all three now shouted together.
"Nice job Angie!" Ash praised her, as they watched Team Rocket disappearing in the sky.
"Thanks, you can see that you are not the only one getting stronger," Angie said, very proud.
Suddenly Ash felt a strange feeling come over him. He turned his head around. It was like something was drawing his attention, coming from his right side.
"What is it, Ash?" Angie wondered, as she noticed Ash suddenly behaved strangely.
"I... I don't know..." Ash stuttered.
Ash suddenly heard some words flashing through his mind. He had to concentrate really hard to focus on those, and closed his eyes to do so. Angie looked at him like she thought he had gone mad, so she clearly didn't hear anything. Then Ash could suddenly make out the meaning of the words!
"Help...me...!" it sounded, faint, but clearly enough...
(to be continued....)
My 52nd fan-fiction chapter. I apologize for any typing errors, or grammatically not 100% correct sentences. Remember, I am not a native English speaker or writer. I tried to make this story as close to the Pokémon series as possible, so that the characters will react roughly the same in this fictional story as they do in the series. Comments are always welcome, you can use the review function on this FanFiction site for that.
Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own any trademarks of Pokémon. Any similarities to the works of others is purely accidental, and not meant as an infringement on anyone's achievements.