Careless

Ash wasn't a spy.

Really, he wasn't a spy at all, but that never mattered much to him. After all, he wasn't a girl but he dressed up like one often enough. He wasn't a genius but he had his moments. He had decided a long time ago that just because he wasn't something, or it was physically impossible to do something didn't mean he shouldn't try to do it because the gain would always be greater than the loss. When you're trying to do something you can't do, you typically end up looking like an idiot. But everyone already thought he was an idiot and their opinion on that front couldn't go any lower. He could only earn more respect.

Trying to be a sneaky spy didn't earn him anymore respect. It earned him giggles but he didn't care. The point was about ten minutes after the previous chapter completed Ash rushed off and began hiding in the shadows, observing everyone carefully. He was waiting for the moment when everybody changed. There had to be a time when it happened, when Misty went from happy to sad to creepy to cool and everybody nodded along to it. Now that there were Legendaries involved, he felt safer. He knew what he was dealing with and he had dealt with these plenty of times before.

"Pikachu," he said, hiding behind a potted plant that clearly didn't cover him. "When does everything change? Not all deep and stuff change, but when everyone forgets what happens and Misty gets a weird new personality. When does that happen?"

She shrugged her little mousey shoulders.

"I thought you knew all of this!"

(I sleep too, you know. It's probably after I fall asleep, after everyone falls asleep. I don't mess with Legendaries unless you ask me to. It's against my religion. You have no idea how badly my mother would tug my ears if she knew the things I had done to the gods and goddesses. The sheer amount of disrespect…and me! Saving Legendaries. I was the most promising in my group, but no one ever dreamed I'd do something like that. I'd love to go back and see their faces now.) She sighed dreamily.

"What if I stayed up all night?" said Ash, only catching 'awake' in her little rant. "That's what I'd end up doing anyway. But how would I know? I can't tell when they're sleeping when everything changes. Well, maybe with Misty this time around because her glasses would probably vanish. But what if they don't! What if I stayed up all night for nothing?"

(The Legendaries will probably come. Since they're the lake ones and the pokedex says…) She froze, realizing there was a better way to get her point across, and bounded into his lap, nosing at the pocket where he usually kept the thing. They had seen them all before, not only that, but the pokedex usually had any information other people had gathered, it was sort of the Wikipedia of the pokémon.

He pulled it out with a laugh, petting her back and pulling her away from her pocket assault. With a laugh of: "Alright, I got it! Jees, Pikachu. Relax a little!" he handed it over to her, and her little paws scrambled over it, slamming onto a scroll arrow and waiting while the pictures went through. Her eyes were better than Ash's, she could see more pictures a minute (it was one of the reasons television was so confusing for her) and it wasn't hard to see each pokémon that flashed by. It was a little annoying that there were so many pokémon recorded and she was quite sure these would be at the end, but she could wait. A minute or so wouldn't make a difference.

The lake creature appeared and she removed her paw triumphantly, staring up at him as he picked the 'dex back up.

He read quietly, "Uxie, the Being of Knowledge…is said that it gave humans intelligence to improve the quality of your life…Yadda, yadda, yadda…legends…blah…and it is said that it can wipe the memory of those who see…Memory wiping. That explains how everyone wouldn't remember anything! Uxie could erase their memories and fill 'em up with new ones, right? The being of knowledge wouldn't have any problems doing that."

Pikachu stretched out her paw and tapped it again, her heart pounding in her chest, changing to the next pokémon. (There's two more of them, emotion and will, if I remember my stories right.)

"Two more?" Ash repeated. She nodded once and he plunged on. "Mesprit, the Being of Emotion…taught humans the nobility of sorrow, pain and joy…lives in a lake…leaves its body to fly…Nothing else interesting. In here, just about losing your emotions completely, but that's not right. That's not what's been happening. Maybe it can mess up your emotions too. It wouldn't be all that weird considering all the other weird stuff."

Another click from Pikachu and the final being appeared. "Azelf, the Being of Will…sleeps at the bottom of the lake…keeps the world in balance…blah, blah, blah. Nothing in here says anything about it! It's got something to do with will. What's 'will' anyway? I don't get that. Anyway, I know it's these guys. So now I know what to look for! I've seen them before too. Maybe they'll remember me."

(That's probably why they're here, because of those lasting impressions you tend to leave,) she said, leaping onto his shoulders while he stumbled to his feet. (I know you don't understand me, Ash, but I wish you wouldn't do this. They could really hurt you, especially if they're as moody as the legends say, you could be really messed up. I wish you'd just wish the old Misty back and move on with your life.)

As always, Ash had only a vague idea of what she meant, a vague notion of the worry in her voice, and gave her a reassuring pat on her head before heading upstairs and sitting on his bed 'til nightfall. He rarely left, twice for a bathroom break and once for a drink break, but aside from that his butt continued to sink into the covers, warming a single spot while the rest would stay cool, not that he thought he's get to feel it. He doubted he would see anything and he was nearly positive he wouldn't get to sleep.

"What are you doing? Misty asked as she walked in the room. "You haven't moved since-"

"Five. That's six hours. I've been playing games on my pokedex to pass the time. I'm staying up because Legendary pokémon are going to come in at any moment and completely change your personality and memory and all that junk. We're powerless to stop it, and everyone but me is going to forget, but I'm really hoping I'll figure it out tonight."

"So…why are you telling me? I'm just going to forget it by tomorrow, right?" she probed.

He shrugged and returned to his game. "Nothing better to do. I was a little lonely because Pikachu keeps coming and going and I wanted someone to talk to. Games get boring really fast. You can't move around enough to keep 'em interesting. It's why I hardly ever use them. Plus, if you'll probably forget all this in an hour I don't really have anything to lose. I mean, what's the point of lying about it?"

She muttered and shook her head at him, "You're getting freakier every day."

"If you were sitting on this bed, playing 'Who's That Pokémon' for the forth time in a row and actually remembered everything that's going on, you would think that's really ironic." He grinned at her. "Really ironic."

She smirked. "You know what ironic means?"

"Vaguely."

"You know what vaguely means?"

He paused, considering a good way to phrase his definition. He pause caused his score to tick away, the timer counting down as he focused very hard on a black spot on the far wall. "I guess it means you don't actually know, but you think you're smart enough to fake your way through a conversation about it."

She chuckled. "That's not even close."

He frowned back. "That's not what the dictionary says, but it's what people mean when they say it. All I know is that I'll be so glad when you're not a genius anymore. It'll be nice when all you can do is solve riddles again. Even though I probably won't win any of the arguments, it'll still be pretty nice."

She walked off then, because boys were weird and Ash was weird and despite her now genius IQ she was still young enough to forget that she was just as weird as anyone else. She changed into her pajamas, fell asleep, and Ash continued to click away on his tiny electronic device. He had at least another hour to kill and after all the time he's spent there a little more wouldn't hurt.

He finally decided he would wait until ten 'til twelve and then turn his game off. He would then wait in his bed, hoping not to fall asleep and hoping the creatures would come soon. Perhaps a better idea would be to lay down and pretend to be asleep rather than risk them poking their head in the window and seeing him wide awake. However, Ash had planned enough as it was and it would have been eight kinds of miracles had he made a perfect plan outside a pokémon battle.

Thankfully, the Legendary was rash and had had it too easy for too long. With caution flung to the wind, Ash watched Mesprit fly through the window and focus its sights on the snoring redhead, reaching a tentacle forward as if to touch her, which seemed very repulsive to him. In fact, it seemed so repulsive he felt he had to stop it immediately. With his heart in his throat and his stomach in knots, he made a hasty plan. He would carefully crawl out of bed, oh yes, quiet as a mouse he would crawl forward, and he would then reach into his bag and pull out a pokeball. The thing would probably pop out, but it would be delayed enough that he could wake Misty up and get her out of there.

Then Pikachu sneezed and Ash was so startled he leapt forward, heading straight for the Legendary beast in front of him. If it had been a normal creature, the force of Ash's body slamming into its side surely would have brought it to the ground. However, with its Legendary might keeping it stationary, the boy continued forward, snapped back by his attempt to bring Mesprit down with him, and slammed into the floor with a very loud sound, though nobody else in the house twitched in their sleep.

It straight, chest puffing out with fury and thundered, "If you weren't the Chosen One-"

"I am," Ash said quickly, feeling like he would be in a heap of trouble if this wasn't the case. "I am the Chosen One, and I'm really good at it. I've saved the world loads of times and the time they told me I was the Chosen One I…I…did what I was supposed to! There were orbs and birds and talking slowkings and I almost died and a prophecy really screwed me over. I really am the Chosen One."

It paused, nodding to itself as it mulled it over. "Sounds like Chosen One stuff to me. You can keep your emotions. If you weren't I would have taken them away and left you a lifeless husk. It really sucks being a lifeless husk, but, you know, you wouldn't really care because you wouldn't have any emotions. I think mine isn't that bad of a curse, really. I mean, you don't care anymore so you can't feel bad about it."

"Thanks for not doing the husk thing. I don't think I'd like that."

It beamed, rarely used to being thanked. "You're welcome, but you wouldn't not like it. You wouldn't feel anything about it."

"Right and…and I'd be really thankful if you didn't change Misty tonight and just changed her back to normal." he said, smiling his best smile.

"I wish I could, because I really like you, but you have to learn your lesson first. If you tell me why you want Misty changed back to normal, I'd be happy to do it. Then you'd be happy. And you can only feel happy because I gave humans happiness. You should be very grateful to me, for that and for not turning you into a husk. I do that to almost everyone you know. I think I might not do it even if you weren't the Chosen One."

"Really? That's awfully nice of you."

"Though I probably would."

(Isn't that wrong?) Pikachu demanded, leaping onto Ash's shoulder. (Legendaries like you are supposed to be role models. I mean, you're just under Arceus! You should be the creatures that tell little ones what to do. Punish if you must, but don't you think you've gotten a little out of hand? You're using Misty to teach him a lesson, punishing her because of something he did wrong. Shouldn't you find a better way to do this than hurting people he cares about? For goodness sakes, even if she was his mate she's still a living being! You can't mess with life like this.)

"I don't care about Misty," Ash argued.

(That's nice, Ash. Well, Legendary?)

Mesprit hovered unsteadily in the air, seeming to move up and down and back and forth a little faster than usual. "Well, with that in mind, I can't really stop at this point. I have to keep going. I mean, what's the point of stopping now? I've already messed with her so it won't make a difference. And…and I really like people, I really do, but this always seems to be the best way to get their attention! I promise to try extra, extra hard not to screw her up."

(You weren't trying before?) she yelped.

"I, uh…See! That's a positive thing! I learned a lesson today and probably won't mess with people like this ever again! I mean, you helped future generations! And…and…and I was trying extra hard before, but, I mean, if I had screwed her up before it'd be kind of sad, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. Now I know it'd be really sad if I did because she didn't even do anything wrong."

"It wouldn't be sad!" Ash cried. "It'd be terrible!"

Mesprit snorted, shaking its head and relaxing a little more once again. "Well, I wouldn't say that. I mean, there's so many of you I don't think one would be all that tragic, unless she's the Chosen One. She's not the Chosen One, right?"

"I just told you I was the Chosen One!"

"Maybe she's another one." It shrugged. "Sometimes we accidentally get one or two at once. Stranger things have happened. You would know. Anywho, if you went all this to stop you just have to admit you like Misty the way she was."

Ash's face wrinkled up. "But why would lying help?"

"It's not a lie, you idiot. This is why we're trying to teach you a lesson!" It carried itself higher, prouder, looking like the kid who had just become king of the mountain before he saw the kid behind him crawling up to push him right off. "I'm a Legendary of emotion, you know. I can see your feelings. There's no use hiding anything from me. I'm like an emotion detector, except you can't fool me ever."

"So?"

It focused in, double checking. Yes, there was definitely some romantic feelings towards the girl there, and they were just large enough that they had to be noticeable. He had to get excited when she walked in the room, thought about handholding and kissing and all the other silly stuff humans tended to think about. Still, he certainly didn't look like he was lying. The creature tried to clarify, asking, "You're the one who came up with lightning armor? You're the infamous Ash Ketchum who saved the world a million times and continues to come back from the dead?"

He nodded. "Yup."

"I'm the legendary of emotions. I'm going to ask you a question, no one can find out your answer but your pokémon and me. I can see all your emotions and there's no way you could ever hide them from me. So I'm going to ask: do you like her?"

"No! For the millionth time no!" he shouted, blushing to the roots of his hair.

"Uncanny."

(Isn't it though?) she agreed with a sigh.

"Well, I've told you everything I can, and I don't even mean everything I'm allowed. I mean, I told you the answer and you still don't get it. You need someone else to tutor you because there's no way I can help you anymore. I have to go and help change everyone for you tomorrow morning. So, well, just do the right thing and everything will go back to the way it's supposed to be, I promise."

"But-" Ash began, taking another step forward.

"Silly boy, stop being so curious!"

With a tap to his skull, Ash suddenly didn't care very much. In fact, he hardly cared at all. The subject didn't seem very interesting anymore. He just wasn't curious about the whole thing. With his curiosity gone, he was now able to realize he was exhausted from staying up so late and getting so excited. So up he crawled back into his bunk, curling up and falling asleep instantly, leaving Pikachu to bound over to him, back fur bristling.

(What did you do to him?)

"Took away his curiosity. Don't worry. He'll have it back by the morning."

She turned away, giving his cheek a little lick. (He better.)

"Is that a threat?" it asked. "You're not supposed to threaten me. May I remind you your powers come from-"

She spun back, fur completely puffed out now. (Arceus! You are a minor godling, and my strength did not come from you. I've taken on far bigger beasts than you and I've won against them too! Ash comes first, always, and much before a godling like you. If Arceus had to make a choice I wouldn't doubt that you'd die before Ash would! He better be back to normal by morning or I'll tell everything I can and they'll come after your head.)

It sighed. "I promise that he will."

(He better.) she snorted, then softened as she turned to look at him. (He'd better.)

Thankfully, he was. He woke up with only Pikachu beside him that morning (who continued to snore on), and he thought for a while about his wish. He was pretty sure he had wished she wouldn't care, and he was a bit nervous as his imagination carried him away. There were a lot of things she wouldn't care about anymore. Maybe she wouldn't care about her pokémon, or battling, and he was sure she wouldn't care for him or any of their friends. Maybe she wouldn't care about living anymore. She wouldn't kill herself, would she? No. Mesprit had promised Misty wouldn't be screwed up.

…Well, Mesprit had promised it would try extra, extra hard, which suddenly seemed much less assuring then it had last night.

Still, he didn't want to get out of bed and find out. Although it was bad enough to see a dead Misty in his head it would be a hundred times worse to see it for real. But he couldn't stay in all day. He had to check things out for himself, had to make himself breakfast, had to move on with his life. These were all things he hated very, very much, and he would have preferred to stay in bed had it even been a normal day. So, grumbling and groaning to no one in particular, he swung his legs out of bed, touched his feet to the floor and wandered down the stairs.

"Morning, dear," Delia said, smiling. "How'd you sleep?"

"Didn't." He walked over to a chair and fell heavily into it, his head falling back and eyes sliding closed. "Couldn't. Not until late at twelve and now I woke up and it's only eight."

"Eight hours of sleep, how terrible." She chuckled. "Didn't you try warm milk?"

"Too tired to move."

Which obviously wasn't the case, but you can't just tell your mother that your best friend has recently been taken over by Legendaries from a far away region who seem to be trying to teach you a lesson or just have some fun and you have no idea how to prevent it all from happening.

After all, when you start saying crazy things like that, most mothers would either check you into a mental hospital or check for a fever. Delia would whistle and reply with a "that's nice dear" in an attempt to shield herself from the many, many times Ash got into trouble. Ash didn't want to make his mother any more nervous (or have any more mysterious gaps in her memory where she had blocked away the bad thoughts) so he politely kept his mouth shut.

"Well, if it brightens you up I made pancakes," she said cheerfully. "I made you smiley face pancakes! There's eggs and bacon and sausage for you too, if you like. Everyone else already ate. Brock and Dawn went off to the mall and I don't have any clue where Misty went. They said they'd be there until late, so you're free to go after them after breakfast. I'm sure you'll have plenty of fun."

"I don't really like shopping," he argued. "I just wanna go to bed."

"I understand, dear."

He paused, watching his mother set the smiley face in front of him. It was a small stack of pancakes with two eggs for eyes, a sausage nose, and a piece of bacon turned up in a smile. After a bit of contemplation, Ash calmly flipped the bacon over so the face was sad, and (although accidental) poured his syrup in rivers of tears flowing down its pancake cheeks. Ash decided the pancake was trying to sympathize with him and would gladly give its pancake life to make him feel better.

Finally, he spoke, wishing he had chosen his words more carefully: "Misty…she's not dead or anything, is she?"

"Of course she's dead, Ash."

"What?" he cried, his fork freezing on the way to his mouth and the pancake's egg eyes seeming to widen with alarm.

She chuckled to herself, continuing to clean the plates in the sink. "Weren't you the one who told me she was an emotionless zombie just the other day? If she's a zombie, she's dead. Which reminds me, Ash, have we got an escape plan for if zombies ever attack? I don't think we do. You need to be prepared if there's a zombie apocalypse. I don't think I can let you leave the house again until you're fully prepared."

He blinked, trying to relax. "You want to talk about zombies?"

She smiled again and sat down, ruffling his hair. "I want to get your mind off of whatever made your pancake cry. I think talking about the undead could sway your attention for a little while. Now, tell me, what weapons should we use?"

Zombies were a comfortable topic for him. Aside from the fact that she was an emotionally dead zombie, he didn't have to think about Misty. He could think about his mother and how lucky he was to have a mother as fun as she was, who would sit down and discuss how to protect himself from the undead for an hour and a half, all to keep his mind off something she wouldn't force him to talk about. He really did love his mom.

At the end of the conversation, with his undying love in mind, he told her: "You're awesome."

She picked up the plate with a smile and wandered to the sink. They clattered lightly as she dumped them in and went about her scrubbing. "I love you too, sweetheart. If you still want to talk, I'm here."

"I think I ought to find Misty," he murmured halfheartedly. He traced his finger along the color in the wood. "I should see how she is. It seems to me like she's going to end up doing something bad since she's an emotionally dead zombie and all. I mean, you don't want anyone to kill themselves or something like that, even if it's someone you don't know. It's always really sad."

She sighed, scrubbing a dish a little harder than it needed to be scrubbed. "You can't crack her open, Ash. I know it's exciting to try and fix someone as messed up as she is, but there are some people who just can't be changed."

He chuckled. "Oh, I'm pretty sure she can be changed."

"Ash," she said warningly.

"I hear you mom," he said, swinging out of his chair. "I hear you loud and clear!"

He heard her, sure, but he didn't really listen. He immediately rushed off to find the zombie, but he couldn't think of a good place for an uncaring person. If you didn't care, there really wouldn't be somewhere you wanted to go. She could have been deep sea fishing for all he knew. The only place he thought you could find someone uncaring would be in front of the TV, but she wasn't there when he checked. After searching the house and the grounds, he raced back to the kitchen, then tried to think of a good question that would help him locate Misty.

His mother was sitting at the kitchen table, biting a nail absently as she focused in on her romance book. She looked up at him briefly when he charged in, then turned back without much thought. "She said it was too hot, if that helps. She might have gone some place to get cool."

"Maybe she went to the beach."

"No. She would have gone with Brock and Dawn. She left at the same time as them. The beach is on the way to the mall, remember?"

"Not really."

"I'm surprised she wasn't in the cellar. That's where she usually is, especially when it gets hot like this. It's the coldest place we have."

"The bomb shelter? Why'd she go there? It's so creepy down there! She hates creepy places like that!"

"Oh, Ash, didn't you check?" she sighed in an exasperated tone, setting her book down. "She always goes downstairs!"

"Aren't there bugs down there?"

"I don't think so. She probably wouldn't see them if there were." She blinked, her hands coming from the book and coming up to her mouth, which had slowly fallen open. The thought had never occurred to her before, but she did remember that Misty was afraid of bugs. Why would someone with a fear of insects go some place that had to be teeming with them, if not of the pokémon then of the animal variety? It seemed awfully illogical.

"Yeah. Real strange," he agreed, missing the point as he almost always did. "Who hangs out in a bomb shelter?"

"People being attacked during a war and Misty. I just can't believe I've never thought of the bugs before! You're right, Ash. It doesn't make any sense for her to hang out down there. We should hear her shrieking and running around every few minutes if she's hanging out down there."

"If Misty really doesn't care about anything, she'd make a great soldier. Too bad there's no way we could ever test it out. I bet you could shoot her and she'd just keep going until her body wasn't capable anymore."

"But she wouldn't have any drive to fight because she wouldn't care." She chuckled at her son's surprised face, proud that not all her logic had slipped away from her. "Go check in the cellar, Ash. It's where you should have checked first."

"Bomb shelter!" he cried back, rushing out the door.

The air was fresh and bright, but he wouldn't get to hang out there for too long. He had to race around to the back and yank open the two metal doors that led down to their basement. Down there, the air was thick with humidity and smelled old and rotten. He could hardly stand staying down there for too long when he was a kid and had to make frequent trips outside during his bomb shelter games. But, he guessed, if she didn't care it wouldn't be a bad place to get cool.

He glared into the darkness. There was a light bulb in there, but he guessed she hadn't care enough to bother to turn it on. If she wasn't down there, he didn't much want to creep inside. The smell would be worse, and after the time he found a dead something or other he held a slight fear of the place. So, instead, he called out and hoped she would care enough to call back. "Misty, you down here?"

"Yeah."

"Shouldn't close the doors behind you," he reprimanded, looking at the shadows to try and find her. With the direction of her voice, he guessed it was on the wall to his right. "You could get stuck. You could end up dying before anyone would have realized you were down here. You can't hear much from outside when the doors are closed."

"Whatever."

"Not whatever, I'm serious. Mom used to yell at me about it all the time."

"Okay, I could die, whatever. It was hot and it's cool when the doors are closed. So I closed the doors. It's not rocket science. I only do whatever my basic needs are. Eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, get cool. I'm not gonna put a lot of effort into it." She sighed. "I don't care enough for that."

"Well, don't do it anymore. It's really dangerous, and we care if you die." He still couldn't see her, and he wasn't sure if his eyes were adjusting or not. Either way, he didn't think it would matter much if he could see her. She probably would have an expressionless face. Still, there was still a spark. She wasn't a lifeless husk today, and she had to care about some stuff if she wanted to get cool and eat and things like that.

"Alright. I'll try not to since you're so worked up about it."

He frowned. "I hate you."

"Great."

His frowned deepened more, and he tried a different strategy: "I love you."

"Even better."

"Let's get hitched."

"As long as I don't have to move, pick a date."

"You really don't care, do you?" He sighed, sitting down on the grass. "I can't believe there's nothing that you care about. Everyone has to care about something. You'd just die if you didn't. I mean…come on, Misty. Isn't there anything you care about? Anything that'd make you react somehow. There's got to be emotions that are extreme enough to push through all this! I mean, they can't change everything!"

"Don't care."

"Don't care, huh? Don't care about me, don't care about how anyone. You don't care about what they say or think or what you say or think and you don't care whether or not fairies are real or what the square root of negative one is or anything. You don't even care about the spider on the ceiling right above your head."

A moment later, she had shrieked and streaked across the room to hide behind him and his cocky smile. There were definitely wide eyes and an open mouth and deep fear in her face. There was definitely emotion there. She still had her fear, and that hadn't changed. Despite how radically different the uncaring Misty was from the regular one, there was still a shred of her left. They had to leave her something in order not to screw her up.

"It's funny how it sounds an awful lot like you care."

"Get it out! Get it out! Kill it, put it outside, I don't care! Wait! Don't put it outside! I'm outside! Just…just make it go away!" she cried, clutching to him tight.

"Scared?"

"Terrified!"

"I think I found a mistake in this whole crazy plan. I can't wait to tell Pikachu."

"Could you just kill the damn spider already!"

"Misty, I can't see. It's too dark in there." He turned and grinned at her frozen face. "Not that you care, right?"

"I don't care."

He smirked. "Liar."

And with that, he left. He was very proud of himself, having figured out that there was quite a loophole in the Legendaries' plans. He felt very smart, and immediately raced up to tell Pikachu about it. No need to tell Brock anymore. He didn't want to have to convince Brock every day. Sure, he couldn't understand pikachu speak perfectly, but he still thought that she was more helpful or at least better to talk to. She seemed excited enough when he filled her in, and was happy to go to the mall with him so he could meet up with the rest of his friends.

He discovered that he still hated shopping, but he didn't mind it as much. He was much too excited to be grumpy and both his friends picked up on it. The mall became a playground soon enough, and a lot more fun was had than just picking out items to waste their money on. It was, in fact, the kind of fun that the mall didn't like and kicked them out for, but the beach tolerated just fine. And when the sun went down and they were through splashing in the surf, they raced back to the house, where they went to bed.

"I cracked the case and now I'm going to catch the murderer. I'm like the best detective there ever was and no one's ever gonna remember or believe me when I tell them what happened, but it won't matter, because you'll know and I'll know, right Pikachu?"

(Hopefully we'll both remember, but you won't do much of anything if you sleep in until night. You ought to go to sleep, Ash,) Pikachu scolded, curling up by his hip. (If I'm this tired you have to be twice as much.)

"Careless Misty was way too boring. I think I want her to care," he remarked to himself, closing his eyes. A moment later he sprung up straight, crying, "I wish she would care! I want her to care about me!"

(And you wished again,) Pikachu pointed out dryly.

"Mewdammit, I just wished Misty would care!" He slammed his palm into his forehead. "And that means there's something wrong with me on loads of levels."

(I can-)

"No comments from the peanut gallery," he muttered, falling back in bed and glaring up at the ceiling. "I may have wished, but it doesn't matter, because I'm going to solve the mystery. I'm going to put everything back the way it was and everything's going to be perfect. I'm going to play the game my way, and I'm not going to let them push me around. I'm going to set all this right, Pikachu. I have to."

His heart fluttered nervously in his chest and he tried to breathe slow to calm it. It wouldn't settle down. It wanted to get out of the situation as bad as he did, and he really couldn't blame it. He didn't know if he could win a mind game, if that's what this was. He wasn't good at mind games, and it didn't make him feel right that it was someone else's fate he was gambling with. He didn't want Misty to lose out because he wasn't good enough. He had to win it, because he couldn't pay the price if he lost. He just had to win.

"I have to."

One of my stories was stolen recently. :D That's so friggin' awesome! Not only was it stolen, but people knew it was stolen! I feel so famous! Thanks to everyone who reviewed the stolen story! I really love my reviewers, I really do.

TO REVIEWERS: You don't need to give me ideas for the next "emotion". I have this all laid out, it'll be ten chapters, and I need these specific ones. This is because I'm A) trying to get Misty farther and farther from her actual self and B) it's not all that easy to give something Ash would suggest in the dialogue. I have to lead into it, and that's a little more challenging then it looks. I'd appreciate it if everyone stopped suggesting it.

FOR THOSE WHO CARE: -sniffles- Why do all the things I hate get the most praise? I mean…you all know this story is basically crap, right? In terms of description and character development and plot and in characterness and all that jazz it sucks. I knew it would too, because it's a fun idea, an interesting idea, but I wouldn't call it a good idea. Heck, for the past few chapters it was the same basic formula (get a new emotion, react to it, talk with Brock, go on a date, wish for a new one, hate self) and then I tried to change it up…and everyone freaked on me! I love you all to death, I really do, it's just thought provoking.