I suspect some people didn't believe me about regular updating, but here I am, updating not once but TWICE within a week. So not like me at all.
Regardless, here be chapter 7 of 10.
_Recap_
Episode Title: Scourge of the Earth
Closest town/landmark: Mount Moon
Distance travelled: 160km
Pokemon mentioned: Eight
Near death experiences experienced: Two (one re-experienced)
Pokemon evolved: One
Being first in line for the 'facilities' on the other side of Mt. Moon: Priceless.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokemon, I just like to use their characters for my own sick and twisted needs.
Ash: The Last Stand – Where You Are
"Ok. Thank you," the seventeen year old (almost eighteen) said with polite decorum before ending the call that had come to her via her Pokégear.
Her once baby, and recently evolved Pokémon watched her carefully as the girl took a deep breath, holding her tiny paws over her extra-sensitive ears as she waited for her adopted mothers scream.
"He's coming! He's coming! He's coming! He's coming!" Misty screamed excitedly, bouncing around the room with a wide grin and spinning herself and Zuri around in circles.
"Daisy!" she screamed, after taking another deep breath, running all over the house in search of her oldest sister.
"Out here," Daisy replied.
Misty ran out to meet her, finding her sister outside staring unabashedly at the arse of a shirtless handyman. The strangest thing about this was the fact that they had just had the grounds landscaped two weeks ago so his presence was in no way accounted for.
"Daisy, I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be doing here," the handyman complained. He waved at Misty who tried not to shudder; sometimes Daisy's 'fascinations' really disturbed her.
"Just keep looking Tracey, I'm sure you'll find it," Daisy replied somewhat distractedly, not even looking up to greet Misty.
"Daisy, what are you doing?" Misty asked, raising a suspicious eyebrow at her sister.
"I'm like supervising," Daisy retorted, a slight blush gracing her cheeks now that had had been found out.
"But we just . . ." Misty began, but shook her head, not wanting to waste valuable seconds on her sister's perversion. "Never mind, there are more important matters to deal with right now. Ash is going to be here in three days, two if he doesn't get lost or distracted, and I have nothing to wear."
Today was the 19th of August, and so by Misty's clever calculations, Ash would be there by the 22nd at the latest, and she was beyond excited to see him. It had been almost three weeks since she had left him in Pallet Town, and the better part of that time had been spent fantasizing about all the things she knew wouldn't happen but hoped would when they met again.
"You're right," Daisy replied, hugging Misty empathetically before turning back to the handy man. "Tracey, take a break. I'll be back."
"Did you still want me to clean the Gyarados tank?" he asked, pulling his shirt back on to Daisy's displeasure.
"No it's fine," Daisy replied with a smile and a knowing glance at Misty. "I'm sure it can wait a couple of days."
"Did you do it?" Ash asked Brock urgently, his eyes sparkling with hope, mischief and excitement.
"Yes," Brock replied simply, watching at the sixteen year olds excitement seemed to bubble over and he sped around the clearing doing some kind of crazy victory dance and collecting Pokémon in his wake. (A/N: Think back to when Ash caught his first Pokemon and its a bit like that)
"Why is he acting like ten year old on a sugar high?" Dawn asked, looking up from an article on pre-teen heartthrob Gideon Viridian. "And I should know," she added, putting on her most mature voice, "because it's only a fairly recent development for me to be not ten."
Brock simply watched for a few moments, as Ash seemed to pick up speed. Pikachu joined in Ash's little dance, making various cheers of 'Pikapi' and 'Pikachupi' to what sounded suspiciously like the K-I-S-S-I-N-G rhyme he remembered from his childhood. Given what Brock understood of Pikachu's native tongue, it was an appropriate sentiment.
"I could tell you, Dawn," he said solemnly, finally turning to Dawn with concern in his eyes, "but I'm kind of hoping he'll figure it out for himself."
"Aw c'mon, Brock," Dawn replied, trying to wear him down. "I promise I won't tell."
Brock refused to budge. "It's for your own good, Dawn. I don't want to burden someone so young with this knowledge. The temptation to tell will be too great and one day you'll just snap and wrap your hands around his neck and start shaking him until he finally gets the bloody picture!"
All eyes in the area turned to Brock as he finished his outburst, panting heavily from the exertion.
"Or something like that," he added sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. It was a habit undoubtedly picked up from spending too much time with Ash.
He looked at Ash, and Ash looked back at him, and the two shared a look that seemed to convey something quite sincere.
"Hey, uh, Dawn?" Brock questioned, glancing at their young female companion for a moment. "Do you mind leaving me and Ash alone for a moment?"
"Why?" she asked, giving them a curious look.
"Just some guy stuff," Brock replied, smiling wanly at her.
She sighed and picked up the magazine she had discarded in her attempt to get Brock to reveal Ash's secret. She muttered disdainfully to herself as she exited the clearing, complaining about guy stuff and boys being weird.
"If only all boys could be like you, Gideon Viridian . . ."
Brock and Ash silently sat down on the log that Dawn had vacated, a heavy tension settling between them.
"You know I'm not completely clueless," Ash told Brock quietly, looking down at the ground. "I mean, I didn't get it at first, but even I have my moments."
"Got what?" Brock asked him seriously, giving his friend a warm smile.
"What you were saying before we left, about how I was finally discovering girls," Ash explained, still not looking up. "It's not really like that, because I've always noticed that some girls were pretty, just not really in the same way you did. But it got me thinking, 'cause I couldn't really stop thinking about it . . . well . . . not 'it' really, so much as . . . Misty I guess."
"Anything in particular you want to share?" Brock asked helpfully, an almost knowing smile forming on his lips.
Ash blushed; he couldn't help himself. Thoughts of Misty tended to do that to him. "It's just . . ." Ash stuttered awkwardly. "I'm really excited about seeing Misty. Like really excited. And that's not exactly normal is it?
"And when we were in Sinnoh, the thing with the lure? That wasn't really normal either?" he continued, giving Brock a look that was halfway between daring him to argue and praying he would.
"I don't suppose it was 'normal'," Brock shrugged thoughtfully as he massaged his chin in a familiar gesture, "at least not in a friendly sense."
"Misty makes me weird," Ash complained, shaking his head at the thought. "And she makes me feel weird. Like my stomach feels all squirmy like I've eaten something I shouldn't have, but in a nice way. And my heart starts beating really fast like I've been running for ages, but all I've been doing is looking at her. And sometimes when she smiles I feel sort of dizzy and light, and none of it really makes that much sense.
"I figure I'm either allergic to her or I must like her or something," he finished determinedly, a little nod accompanying his confession. "And I really hope I'm not allergic to her."
Brock couldn't help but laugh at that comment. Trust Ash to think love was a symptom of some sort of aversion to his best friend. He could sense from the way that Ash was talking, that the young teen wasn't exactly ready for the whole truth, but he could at least help Ash some of the way.
"I'm pretty sure you're not allergic to Misty," Brock told him, putting a comforting hand on his young friends shoulder. "So I guess that means that Misty is more than just a friend."
"I guess it's not so bad," Ash shrugged, a small almost wistful smile on his lips. "If it had to be anyone, I'm kinda glad it's Misty 'cause she's not really like other girls, you know? I mean, she's really sweet and pretty and stuff, but she's also really brave and stubborn and she's the kinda girl you can have adventures with and have fun with."
Brock's smiled again, his happiness for his friends evident in his whole countenance. "She sounds almost perfect when you put her like that," he said warmly. "So what are you going to do about it?" he asked, his manner almost fatherly.
Ash blushed heavily and turned his gaze towards the ground once again. "I didn't exactly think that far ahead," he admitted anxiously. "I guess I should tell her that I like her, but I don't know what I'd do if she didn't like me back."
"I bet she does," Brock offered encouragingly. "I had a feeling you liked her, and I've got the same feeling about Misty. That's got to be something, right?"
"Right," Ash confirmed, although tone of his voice didn't quite match the conviction intended by the words. "Right," he repeated.
And with that sentiment he was left to contemplate the strange transition of their relationship. When he first met Misty, the two hadn't even been friends. Sure they had been intrigued by each other, and even he had been painfully aware of how pretty she was, but they weren't friends by any stretch of the imagination.
But eventually they did become friends. At first they were kept together by a debt (a debt he had been more than capable of satisfying by the time he got to Cerulean), but at some point along the way it stopped being about the bike and they realized they actually had a lot in common, and actually had fun together when they weren't trying to kill each other.
'But at what point did it become more than that?' he wondered to himself. When did he stop seeing Misty as his best friend and start thinking about her in the romantic sense? When did he stop thinking about how 'icky' it was to hold her hand, and start wondering what it would be like to kiss her? When did his thoughts, which had always revolved around food, sleep and Pokémon, start to share their space with the redheaded girl who seemed to fill his days and nights in equal parts?
All these questions seemed to run sporadically through his head, when it suddenly occurred to him – the biggest question of them all.
At what point did Misty Waterflower become almost as fascinating as Pokémon?
Misty was up early the next morning, dressing comfortably in a pair of black and white 'dolphin' shorts and a large white button up shirt secured with a sash over her swimming togs. She pulled her hair into two plaits either side of her head and pulled a familiar red and white cap onto her head. With a satisfied nod at her appearance, she headed downstairs to start her breakfast.
It was always difficult getting up early on a Friday, especially when she knew that Saturday meant a two hour sleep in, but she had her morning duties to fulfil before the first stream of trainers came through. It was seven o'clock – a definite accomplishment for Misty –giving her three-hours before the gym opened. That gave her plenty of time to feed and groom her Pokémon, check the equipment, tidy the battle arena, and prepare her Pokémon for battle.
Reaching for her treasured tea set, she brewed herself a nice cup of tea. She still wasn't sure if she liked the taste of tea, but she liked her tea set and as far as she knew, there wasn't really anything else she could use it for. The man from the league had laughed at her silliness, but had promised to bring her some jasmine tea, which he assured her she would prefer the taste of. Hopefully he would visit her again before Ash came and then they could have tea together.
'Needs more sugar,' she thought absently to herself, ignoring the many voices that had told her that you do not, under any circumstances, put sugar in herbal teas. As ambivalent as she felt about tea, she knew for sure that the substances was positively unbearable without sugar.
"What I go through for that boy," she mused aloud as she sipped her drink thoughtfully. If anyone else had sent her a tea set it would have been immediately shifted to the recesses of some cupboard to simply gather dust until she could safely tell the person it had been accidentally damaged in some way and throw it out. This tea set had managed to avoid such a fate merely because of its sender rather than its own innate properties.
With breakfast completed, she moved on to her gym duties. Gyarados, Staryu, Politoed, and Seadra were all at the Pokémon centre getting a tune up, so feeding and grooming was going to be a breeze. Knowing that Ash was on his way, she had sent her strongest Pokémon to Nurse Joy to ensure that they would be in the best condition when her friend arrived.
Dewgong greeted her cheerfully as she approached the water habitat. This alerted the other Pokémon to her presence, and they began to clamour for her attention. Zuri raced over to meet her – the newly evolved marril had decided that now she was evolved, she was old enough to stay with the other Pokémon, but that didn't mean she didn't miss her surrogate mother.
Water Pokémon were pretty low-maintenance in terms of grooming provided that you kept their habitats clean, so the task was not all that daunting in spite of the numerous Pokémon she had to tend to. Gyarados tended to take up the majority of her time most mornings, as he was a complete and utter softie at the end of the day and tended to clamour for her attention more than any other Pokémon. Not that anyone ever believed her when she said so.
Next came cleaning – her most dreaded job. She didn't do it first because she despised it that much, but she knew that if she saved it 'til last it wouldn't get done at all, and so she always did her cleaning right in the middle. It was, after all, the most logical point to do the cleaning, as it would be silly too set things up and then clean. They hadn't had too many bad battles of late, so things weren't looking too shabby.
Setting up wasn't too much effort either. Because her sisters despised refereeing (other than when her opponent was "totally cute" AKA Gary Oak), they had invested in a computer programme to keep track of the matches and that had to be configured daily to ensure there were no mistakes. The rest of it seemed to set itself up, and it was just the simple matter of ensuring that nothing was broken or on the verge of breaking.
With a warm sense of pride, Misty found all of her tasks completed by 8:30am, so with a good hour and a half to spare, she decided to work on training Zuri and Psyduck. As she was sure she was about to make a breakthrough with the yellow duck, one of her sister's voices sounded over the intercom.
"Misty Waterflower, like, to the reception," either Daisy, Lily or Violet called. "There's totally a trainer here to battle you." This messaged was followed by a giggle that caused Misty to roll her eyes – her challenger was apparently a cute one, which was probably the only reason her sisters were letting him get away with coming outside of opening hours.
Misty was not so easily swayed, as there was only one boy she had any intention of bending the rules for. She made her way to the reception, Zuri and Psyduck following at her heals, squaring her shoulders as she prepared herself to forcibly remove the challenger, regardless of whatever protests her sisters raised. There was no way she was battling anyone before she was properly ready no matter how good looking they were.
She spoke calmly as she entered the room, a note of arrogance in her voice. "I'm sorry if your hopes have been raised," she intoned not even glancing in the trainer's direction, "but I will not take any challenges outside of opening hours. If you're happy to wait an hour, I'll make time for you later."
"Aww, but Myst," the trainer whined, waiting for her to look in his direction. "Here I am, half-killing myself so I could get here early and surprise you, and you refuse to even say 'hi' for another hour."
Misty couldn't help but squeal the familiar voice, making her way to the pouting sixteen year old as fast as her legs would carry her.
"Buizel," an otter like Pokémon proclaimed, releasing itself from its Pokéball in the middle of her path. Misty's attention was immediately diverted.
"Oh my gosh!" she cried, "aren't just you the cutest thing I've ever seen?"
"What about me?" Ash moaned despondently to himself as Buizel strutted proudly in front of her. As Misty cooed over his cuteness, Buizel began to speak animatedly, allowing Misty to scoop him up in her arms as he spoke.
Brock and Dawn were prone to gape as the usually standoffish water Pokémon allowed Misty to cuddle him, and even went so far as to cuddle her back. Even Dawn, who was at one point Buizel's trainer, had never received such affection from the creature.
Ash frowned at the scene, although for reasons other than what you might think. He was trying to pay attention to what Buizel was saying and thus, what he was doing trying to butter up to HIS love interest. "No that can't be right . . . " he muttered to himself.
"What's wrong, Ash?" Brock asked, sending Ash one of his knowing glances that was actually rather premature and unwarranted in this case.
"Buizel," Ash replied, "I think he just said she was a 'tiny water goddess' but it's not quite goddess. No wait . . ." he trailed off to listen again. "He just said it again 'tiny water goddess, jealous . . . jealously guarded by hatted one'. I think I'm the 'hatted one'."
Brock and Ash both considered the words, but it was Dawn that figured out what it meant. "It's not 'goddess'," she said, smiling at herself for so cleverly coming to conclusion. "It's 'idol' like a representation of a god."
Ash stared at her in confusion, not quite understanding, but Brock quickly picked up on what she was trying to say and burst out laughing. "I still don't get it," Ash mumbled helplessly, which only caused Brock to laugh harder.
"Well, Ash?" Dawn asked smugly. "Do you have any representations of Misty? Maybe something 'chibi' and a-LURE-ing?"
"Um, no," Ash lied, his cheeks going red as he glanced at the others to see if they were onto him. He glanced at Misty, hoping she hadn't heard.
"Ash, I can't believe you have such a sweet Pokémon," she said, finally attending to her friends. "You're almost as cute as Pikachu," she told Buizel, playfully tapping his nose and causing the otter to blush conspicuously. Pikachu bristled a little, only quelled by the fact that she had qualified her remark.
"Sweet?" Ash gaped. "He stole my lure and KO-ed like fifty Pokémon before anyone could catch him. Buizel's so far from cute he makes Charizard look gregarious."
"Oh, I bet he's just shy," Misty replied, running her fingers through Buizel's soft fur. "How could someone as sweet as you do all those things?" she cooed. "I'm sure you're just exaggerating, Ash," she added, looking up briefly.
Ash almost growled at the statement, recalling an unwilling Buizel back to his Pokéball. "C'mon, Myst," he suggested, "I challenge you to a Pokémon battle, and we'll see just how 'sweet' Buizel isn't."
Misty rolled her eyes. "Don't you think of anything but battling?" she asked sarcastically, misinterpreting his sudden compulsion to do battle for disinterest in her personally. She felt somewhat put out by the fact that the first thing he wanted to do upon seeing her was engage in a Pokémon battle.
"Of course I do," Ash argued back, blushing as he realized just what had been accompanying his usual thoughts of battling and Pokémon of late.
"Well I'm not going to battle you, Ash," she told him, her voice taking on a superior quality as she moved her hands to her hips. And then, in an incredible display of maturity, seventeen-year-old Misty Waterflower poked her tongue out at her sixteen-year-old friend.
Ash did not take this obvious challenge lightly, taking a step towards her and entering a fighting stance. "Oh yeah?" he asked moodily. "And why not?"
"Because my Pokémon are with Nurse Joy," she replied.
"What kind of gym leader sends all their Pokémon to Nurse Joy in one day?" he asked bemusedly, a condescending note in his voice.
"The stupid kind," she replied. "No idiot would do such a thing."
"I think I get it." Misty feigned shocked at this, and he glowered at her. "You've sent your strongest Pokémon out, and you know you haven't got a chance against me without Gyarados."
"Excuse me!" she cried in response. "Any of my Pokémon could wipe the floor with you in the blink of an eye, Ketchum. It just so happens that I promise Gyarados the honour of kicking your scrawny little ass!" She took a step forward so that their faces were inches apart – neither knew how they had managed to get so close in the course of their argument. She raised her head defiantly, daring his response.
Part of Ash was sorely tempted to throw the scrawny line back in her face, but he knew it would be a lie (the rest of him was slowly calculating the exact movement it would take to unsuspectingly meet her mouth with his). Misty was anything but scrawny, and that thought made the anger and frustration that was fuelling their argument waver considerably.
"Prove it then, Myst. Prove you don't need Gyarados to beat me," he said smugly, stepping out of his fighting stance and crossing his arms across his chest. "As a gym leader you are obliged to accept any challenge regardless unless you have no Pokémon capable of battling. You've got plenty of Pokémon, just not the ones you want."
"What?" she asked, surprised that Ash had been able to control himself and come to such a logical conclusion. "I don't have to prove myself to you."
"You are a gym leader, right, Misty?" he asked her teasingly. "And I am a challenger. And according to the rules, you have to accept my challenge, just like Brock did."
Misty's eyes narrowed as she scoffed loudly. "I may have to accept your challenge, Ash Ketchum," she muttered, "but as a gym leader, I may also set the rules of said challenge."
"So what are you going to do about it?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow in her direction, but keeping his coolly confident stance. His heart raced in anticipation of her next move.
She smiled an almost cruel smile, her eyes lighting with glee. "I'm making a new rule," she replied, "and as such, I determine that you, Ash Ketchum, may not challenge me to a gym battle unless you complete as series of . . ." She paused to find the right word, "tasks, to my satisfaction."
Ash returned her scoff. "Like the Orange Crew?" he suggested, clearly unimpressed. "I doubt anything you set me could be as bad as Danny and that damned volcano."
She just continued to smirk.
"We'll see, Ash. We'll see."
~ to be continued ~
So Cerulean is kind of going to be a big deal as you can tell by the fact that it is the first location to be broken up into several chapters/episodes. It's kind of the romance arc, so if that's what you're into, then these next few chapters are for you!
Special thanks goes to Anonymous Pokemon Fan whose review has helped me feel somewhat more secure in my choice with regards to the egg received in the last chapter. And I love your Ash=Magikarp analogy.
Now, another out take. This was intended to take place after Brock's comment about Ash's denseness, but I decided it didn't quite work as a diary entry as it would require far too much introspection on Ash's behalf and instead wrote the lovely man-to-man scene you see between Ash and Brock. It was also one of the first things I wrote for this story, so I'm not sure that it fits the style of the rest of it.
. . . OUT TAKE . . .
Log: August 19, 3016
Saw a blue rattata today. Kind of cool actually as I've never seen one that colour. Dex didn't have anything to say about it so I sent our location along with an image to Prof. Oak so that he could update the stats. Didn't have chance to try and catch it – the thing was so spooked at seeing us that barely had time to take picture.
Was quite little for a rattata – perhaps a baby rattata. Wonder if maybe all rattata start off blue and change colour as they age. Might be worth mentioning theory to Prof and Tracy to see what they have to say about it.
Only 10 km from Cerulean – should be at PC in a few hours. Kind of nervous to go battle – no surprise there given whose gym it is.
Brock thinks I don't know what he's talking about, but I do. Just don't want him to know that I know, if you know what I mean. How could I not know? Not like he's being subtle about it!
He thinks I 'like' like Misty. To perfectly honest, think I might 'like' like Misty too. Why wouldn't I? Misty's pretty and smart and funny and really fun to be around . . . even when she's trying to kill me with that mallet of hers.
Kind of had to work it out after Dawn was hassling me about my lure. Don't know why she got so obsessed with it, but I didn't have an answer when she asked me why I wouldn't even let her see it.
Now I do, well, sort of. At least I think I do. Not really sure how to put it into words or anything, but I know that Misty is the answer, although what that means in itself is beyond me.
Tomorrow I get to see her. You know it's been six months since I've seen her in person; that's a long time not to see someone you really like.
We talk on the phone all the time, and we're constantly emailing each other. She tells me about all her gym battles and I tell her about all the Pokémon I see, and sometimes we talk about other stuff that have nothing to do with Pokémon, strange as that seems. I think I spend more time on the phone to Misty than I do Ma – something Ma and Brock and constantly bringing to my attention.
Both of them suggested that I should get misty to remind me about changing my 'you-know-what's'. WHAT THE HELL BROCK! No wonder he hasn't got a girlfriend. You DO NOT mention your UNMENTIONABLES to the girl you potentially like as more than a friend!
See what I mean about his subtlety.
Misty wasn't initially intended to be in the first chapter, but was added later for my puerile enjoyment (thus the six months thing). I was going for Bridget Jones style of diary entry so its not really consistent with the previous entry, which seems kind of bad.
You know what's kind of a weird coincidence, the date I choose for Ash's is birthday is only like three days before Red's. Just thought that was strange even though they're not technically the same character (because Red actually ages) but still . . .