An hour later Brock was searching for a parking spot near the large theater where the show was being held. With no luck he had no other choice but to park on an island of grass. His Ford struggled to scale the curb but after a couple of seconds of pressing hard on the gas the car eventually conquered the raised pavement. Before climbing out of the car Brock handed Ash his ticket. They quickly hopped out of the vehicle to be sure they would have enough time to find their seats. The two smiled eagerly as they gazed up at the towering aquarium

As they followed the sea of people flowing into the theater, Brock said, "Sorry if the show ends up being lame but the after party will totally be worth it, and you can't get into the after party without a ticket or an invitation."

"There's an after party?" Ash asked with a raised brow.

Brock looked at him in shock. "Didn't I tell you?" Ash shook his head. "I heard whoever runs the show hosts a huge party in some secret location afterward. And you know what that means? Lots of booze and lots of babes." Brock grinned while nodding. "Not everyone knows about it though. It's exclusive to the youngest and hottest people in town."

Brock was tall, tan, and muscular: everything a guy could hope to be. His eyes were on the narrow side and his dark brown hair was short and jagged. He wore an orange short sleeved shirt and brown corduroys. His smile was white and dazzling. His appearance reeked charm but his personality- not so much. Although Brock was a pretty attractive guy he never had luck with women, which was unfortunate for him considering he loved women.

Ash had been friends with Brock since he could remember. He wasn't sure how the twenty-two year old was able to avoid getting drafted the last four years, but he was grateful for it.

The two found their seats among the crowd. The theater was enormous with rows of seats encircling a giant tank of water, which sat in the center of the room. Seaweed, other ocean plants, and rocks all sat at the sandy bottom and at the top of the tank was a high stand with a diving board on it.

The lights dimmed, the crowd hushed, and the performers dove off the diving board and into the tank. Lots of different types of water type Pokemon were included in the show and performed astounding tricks for the audience. There were three girls that held most of the spotlight. They all looked very similar, except one had bouncy red hair, one had curly blonde hair, and the third had straight black hair. All three were thin and beautiful. They wore sparkling mermaid costumes and the length of time they were able to hold their breath underwater was impressive.

Brock nudged Ash in the side and whispered, "Check out those girls. Pretty hot, am I right?"

An hour and a half later the show ended and it received a thunderous round of applause. The three women waved and bowed before exiting the tank and disappearing behind a curtain.

"What I would do to get with one of them," Brock said and stood from his seat. He could not wait any longer to get to that party.

Through word of mouth, Ash and his impatient friend were able to find the location of the after party. Amazingly, it was beneath the theater itself. Behind the curtain the three girls disappeared behind were a door to their dressing rooms and then a case of stairs. Once everyone in the audience had exited the aquarium, those who knew about the after party descended the steps, and upon entering everyone was forced to show a ticket or invitation to the bouncer.

The underground room was quite the spectacle. The walls were all just giant fish tanks, with dozens of different and colorful sea creatures swimming around inside. A bar sat on one side of the room and a stage on the opposite side. Sets of tables were scattered through out and not a single wine rack hanging from the ceiling had an empty slot. A man played the piano with much zest while a trumpeter, trombonist, bassist, and female singer accompanied him. The band played lively, catchy music in order to get the party going, and it took barely any time for the revelry to begin.

Ash could hardly hear himself talk over the loud music, chatter, and drunken laughter. The room was so crowded it was impossible to stand anywhere without people touching you. Everyone had an open bottle in their hand and a smile on their face. Some how, Ash found himself grasping a shot glass at the bar. Brock stood next to him along with the three girls from the show. The five of them tapped their shot glasses against the counter and counted to three before gulping down the shot. It was Ash's first time tasting alcohol and it slightly burned his throat as it slowly slid down. The taste wasn't too pleasant but he wasn't going to let that prevent him from having a good time.

Soon enough Ash consumed a few more drinks and the rest of the night became a blur. He felt like alcohol's puppet. He felt like he couldn't control himself from taking more shots and popping open more bottles. He felt like he couldn't control himself from dancing with strange girls and even giving one a peck on the lips. But most of all he felt like couldn't control himself from watching the redhead singing up on stage.

The next morning came and Ash found he was unable to move or simply open his eyes. He couldn't help but groan in agony for it felt like he was buried under a pile of bricks and couldn't escape. Light flooded his eyes and what were at first blurry outlines eventually made themselves clear. The first thing he saw was the face of a girl. And fortunate for him, she was a very attractive girl. In fact, he immediately recognized her as the redheaded singer from the jazz band. He then noticed she was naked under the bed sheets and so was he. Oh my god, I had sex last night? Wow, good thing I can remember it, he thought.

All of his attempts at hoisting himself off the bed were unsuccessful. He wanted to figure out where he was, but as long as he felt like this that wasn't going to happen. He figured he definitely wasn't at the underground bar anymore. They must've been in the girl's bedroom, which was at least better than being butt naked on the street.

Ash picked himself off the bed, mouth carelessly hanging open, and scanned the floor for his clothes. He took a step forward which turned out to be a bad idea. He stumbled into the nightstand and practically knocked over the lamp on it. Luckily, he caught it, himself, and managed not to wake up the girl. Ash held his head. The strange lack of sensation yet immense amount of pain he felt was unlike anything he ever experienced before.

"Oh god." His words slurred together like his tongue was swollen.

He spotted his clothes scattered on the floor, leading up to the bed along side articles of female clothing. Ash managed to bend over and pick up his clothes without throwing up everything he ate yesterday. After getting dressed, Ash was close to fleeing the premises and never coming back. He was already embarrassed that he slept with this girl and didn't remember, although she was extremely beautiful. She looked to be around the age of twenty. She was slender and had flawless, pale skin. Her hair was more of an orange-red and about shoulder length. Her eyes, from what he remembered from last night, seeing her up on stage, were enchanting and unlike any other blue he had ever seen. Score one for Ashy boy.

He wasn't sure if he was supposed to wait for her to wake up or just avoid all of the awkwardness and leave. He wanted to go but something truly horrible stopped him. A gold band with a shinning diamond was wrapped around her left ring finger. Not only did he have sex with this girl, but he got engaged to her as well? Ash could no longer breathe. His throat felt like it had caved in on itself and his pounding headache from his hangover intensified. His stomach fell to the floor and his eyes shot out of his head. If his mother wasn't going to kill him before she was definitely going to now. How was he going to explain this to her? And how on earth Ash got the ring he had no idea, but he knew now he had to stay and wait for his fiancé to wake up.

The girl rolled onto her opposite shoulder and let out a faint, drowsy exhale.

"Oh good, you're up," Ash observed.

She turned onto her back and an annoyed look came across her face, although she kept her eyes shut. "Not exactly."

"Well too bad. We have to talk about that monster sitting on your finger."

Ash pointed to the ring, but it didn't matter. The redhead was still attempting to get some more rest despite Ash's pestering. The hungover teen trudged over to her side of the bed and did his best to shake her awake without vomiting all over her. Finally, after rubbing the crusts from the corners of her eyes, the girl glared up at him angrily.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

Ash took her left wrist and waved it around. "Yeah, you can help me by getting this thing off your finger."

The girl groaned in annoyance before sitting up in bed. Ash raised his hand to shield his eyes from the exposed woman.

Ash turned his head away. "Do you mind?"

The redhead pulled the sheet over herself. "God, you're acting like a child."

Ash put his hand down and fixated back on the ring. "I said take that ring off! Whatever happened last night was a mistake. I do not want to be engaged to you and you do not want to be engaged to me."

"You can't tell me what to do!" she scoffed in disgust.

Ash threw his arms up in the air. "If I'm gonna be your damn husband I can tell you what to do all I want!"

The redhead covered her wide yawn with her hand. "Wait a second, I'm sorry, but can I at least put some clothes on before I start arguing with some stranger?"

He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "I thought you'd never ask."

Ash turned his back as the blue eyed girl retrieved some clean clothing from her closet. Why couldn't I have left before I saw the damn ring? Me and my stupid morals.

A minute or two passed and Ash was growing impatient. He wanted to sort out this whole ordeal before leaving this town and never looking back. He then wondered where Brock was at the time. He hoped with all his might that Brock didn't leave without him. He hoped that the car was still at the aquarium parking lot, parked up on the grass. He hoped his mother wasn't going to feed his remains to the Hoenn soldiers for being gone so long. But most of all, he hoped he really wasn't engaged to this stranger.

"Oh, by the way, so we're not 'strangers' anymore, my name is Ash."

"The name's Misty. You can look now."

Ash spun around to see the redhead looking as radiant as the night before. In that short amount of time Ash had his back turned for, Misty was able to make herself look as good as new. Ash couldn't say much the same about himself.

"So before you get your panties in even more of a bunch, listen: you don't have to worry."

Ash raised his pointer finger. "Yeah, see, I disagree."

Misty placed a hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to worry because I'm not engaged to you."

Ash watched the woman exit the room with his jaw dropped. He wasn't sure if she was joking or not. But he was sure that his head started to pound again and his stomach flipped upside down. So now he had sex with a woman that was going to be marrying someone else? And note, she didn't seem too upset that she had just cheated on her fiancé.

"Wait… what?" Ash chased after her.

He followed her down the stairs which led them to the kitchen. Even though the two were bickering the whole way, Ash was still able to notice how surprisingly opulent her house was. It was practically a mansion. The two then fought all through breakfast, although Ash refused to eat anything. In the midst of their squabbling, they were interrupted by shrill cries coming from outside. Ash peered out the large bay window at the front of the house to see the blue sky being overwhelmed by black smoke. This was all too familiar to him.

Misty gripped Ash's arm tightly. "Ash, what's happening?"

"It's a raid."

"What?" she gasped.

"Cerulean City is being invaded. We have to go now."

Ash dragged Misty out her front door. She yanked her hand from his grasp. "What are you doing? Don't you think it's safer inside?"

"Are you brainless? These are Hoenn Soldiers. They specialize in fire type Pokemon. When they see a house this nice they will burn it to the ground without caring whose inside. They can't have any threats to them as long as they occupy a town whether it'd be someone with wealth or someone with power."

Misty began to breathe heavily in a panic. "Then what are we supposed to do?"

"Calm down, it'll be okay. Just run somewhere safe and hope no one kills you." After that, Ash quickly descended the front steps, leaving Misty standing there.

"Oh, like that's supposed to calm me down."

Ash picked up the shining, red bike lying at the bottom of the steps.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Misty hurried down her front porch.

"I'm borrowing this," Ash told her as he swung his leg over.

"But wait, that's my bike!"

Ash shouted over his shoulder, as he pedaled away rapidly, "I'll give it back someday!"

For now, Ash had to throw all of his worries about Misty to the back of his mind. He had to focus on finding Brock and their car. If their car was destroyed then they'd have no way out. And if the Hoes found out they were Kanto teenage boys from a different town, then they would be in quite the pickle.

As Ash rode through the streets of Cerulean City his memory of where the theater was located slowly came back to him. The roads were empty though, and that concerned him. When Pallet got invaded people were running through the streets screaming and men dressed in maroon were marching toward the nearest edifice to burn it down.

Eventually, the almost empty parking lot came into view and Ash spotted the car parked up on the grass. As he approached the entrance of the parking lot, without thinking, Ash just hopped off the bike in the middle of the street and dashed towards the vehicle. All he could think about was finding Brock and getting out of there.

As Ash reached for the door handle he heard a loud crunch from behind him. He whirled around after being startled, his back pressed up against the car, to see that a robust winged beast had crushed the bike as it was stomping through the city causing terror. A man with a scar running down his chin and neck was walking beside the monster, cackling as buildings finally began to catch fire. Rage, shock, and utter hatred coursed through Ash's veins. His muscles tensed and his back stiffened after immediately recognizing this as the man who had burned down his house when Ash was a child. How badly Ash wished to run over and beat and strangle the man.

"Ash, is that you?"

A muffled voice from inside the vehicle brought Ash's attention back to reality. To his surprise, it was Brock, who had apparently passed out in his Ford after the intense party the night before. Brock opened the door and Ash quickly shoved him out of the driver's seat while ironically asking him to move over. Brock's head wound up near the floor and Ash swiftly snatched the keys and revved up the engine.

Brock was able to fix his positioning in his seat in time to see the frightening sight of a man's face smacking into the windshield of his precious car. After suffering major whiplash, Brock stared at Ash in pure shock. His best friend was gripping the wheel so tightly his arms were shaking. He swore he could see steam being expelled from Ash's nostrils like he was a furious Tauros preparing to charge. A crack in his windshield and some splattered blood indicated that Ash had seriously hurt this man.

After a long moment, which consisted of nothing but the two boys catching their breath, Brock just asked, "What the hell, man?"

Ash didn't reply, instead he slammed on the accelerator. The car bounced, almost causing Brock to hit his head on the ceiling, as it ran over the highly ranked soldier Ash had just barreled into. Breathing even heavier and faster, Ash sped away from the crime scene as more and more of Cerulean City was consumed by flames.

"Once again… what the hell?" Brock shrieked, his heart pounding out of his chest as he clung onto anything he could. "You just ran a dude over!"

Alls Ash could say was: "Yeah, I know."

"Well then, answer this question for me… ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?"

"Quit yelling!" Ash punched Brock roughly on the shoulder without taking his eyes off the road.

Brock tried removing Ash's hands from the steering wheel. "I can't let you drive anymore! You have clearly lost it and you cracked my windshield!"

"Can't you just trust me? I promise I won't run over anyone else."

"Well, that's a relief." Brock crossed his arms and sat back in his seat, indicating he'd given in. "Where are we going anyway?"

"To pick someone up."

"Get in the car," Ash demanded.

He barely brought the vehicle to a stop in order to let Misty climb inside. She looked even more panicked than before while Brock had a puzzled expression plastered across his face, most likely due to the fact that he didn't know who this person was.

"Ash, who is this strange girl that just got in my car?" Brock asked, pointing his thumb at the redhead.

"I'm Misty," she panted, out of breath from the stressful situation.

"Brock." He offered his hand. "Nice to meet you."

Misty went to shake it but was practically tossed onto the floor because of Ash's hasty driving. The raven haired teen was zigzagging through the city, trying to avoid fleeing citizens and destructive soldiers. Brock and Misty were being thrown around in the back seat, their skulls smashing against the windows and bonking the ceiling. At one point Brock was sprawled across Misty's lap and the two laughed awkwardly.

Misty gripped the arms of her seat so firmly her knuckles colored white. "Ash, I know this is going to be hard for you, but could you try to drive like you're not a crazy person?"

"Good luck with that," Brock muttered.

"Slow down this instant!" Misty ordered.

Ash turned the wheel sharply, causing the tires to screech against the pavement. "Do you want to die, woman?"

"No but I don't think I have much of a choice as long as you're the one driving!" The blue eyed girl leaned forward and flicked his ear with much force.

"Hey!" Ash cried, batting her hands away with his own.

Brock finally separated the two. "Will you keep your hands to yourself? The man is trying to drive!"

Soon enough Ash's reckless driving caught the attention of some Hoenn soldiers. The men mounted their Rapidash and Arcanine in order to pursue the trio. Streams of fire blasted at them every so often and Ash did his best to evade the attacks.

"Hey." Misty looked around and in the trunk of the car. "Where's my bike?"

"Oh, uh-"

Crash. The airbag instantly popped out of the steering wheel and whacked Ash in the face. Brock rubbed his nose after it hit the head rest in front of him while Misty rubbed her neck from the sudden whiplash. Something had stopped them dead in their tracks, and it had to be huge. Once the airbag deflated Ash was able to glance at whatever crushed the front half of Brock's car. All three of their jaws dropped when they saw it was the orange winged beast, the Charizard that belonged to the man Ash had run over. The creature had impeded the moving vehicle with its bare claws.

Brock buried his face in his hands when he saw the damage done to his car. Ash was shaking in pure terror. Was this Charizard going to ruthlessly set their car on fire and leave them to burn to death? He certainly hoped not. But the terrifying thoughts and stressful situation clogged his throat so he could no longer breathe. Then, everything went black.

A/N: At first I thought this chapter sucked, but after reading it a couple times it's not as horrible as I thought. I had a lot more fun writing this chapter than the first one, and when I have more fun sometimes it worries me that I may have been slacking off. Does that ever happen to you?

You'll begin to discover that I LOVE leaving cliffhangers, even if it is the cliché blacking out one.

Fun fact: in the very first draft of this chapter (I've written several) Ash slept with Daisy, Misty's older sister, rather than the redhead herself.

And if you noticed, kudos to you, because that is indeed the EXACT same dialogue Ash and Misty exchange when Ash steals her bike in the TV show. I did that on purpose, because I love cheesy stuff like that :]

Liking the story so far? Well, stay tuned for the next chapter where Ash learns he can't just run over anyone he wants with a car. Thanks so much for reading this! I hope you decide to stay tuned for more!