Chapter 41, everybody, and Happy New Year! As you can see, I am not dead! *dodges tomatoes* Yes, well…I've had the next several chapters for this plotted out for months, but every time I tried to sit down and work on it I'd do a few lines of that and then skip ahead and do a whole chapter for a scene that doesn't come up until way on down the line—things like Erika's battle, Sabrina's battle, Lavender Tower….The final chapter is even written all the way out, so at least I know where I'm aiming—it's just the matter of filling the rest of it in. Finally got so aggravated with myself that I sat my happy rear down and told myself to write the next chapter while I was downloading some things—ended up getting five pages written that night, so success. And we'll get plenty of nice updates once I finish stringing everything together….Long story short: will probably be spending all of January focusing on my active stories, so things will be a bit sporadic, but they'll be getting done at least, and hopefully we won't see another half-a-year between updates. :P
Jakeroo123, thanks for the review! I do remember Team Rocket trying a Tamato Berry, so I'm inclined to agree there. It is questionable when the show doesn't even follow its own logic….
11JJ11, thanks for the review! Nope—break out the champagne! :D Too true, too true….
Clow Angel, thanks for the review! I'll be honest, I was laughing the whole time I did that chapter because I knew what the reaction would be. So, apologies. ^^; I think that about ninety percent of the humans in the original series lacked common sense….
Hunter Redflame, thanks for the review! Yes….I was cackling to myself the whole time with the Dratini encounter—I'm sorry, but I'm glad you enjoyed how it went. Hopefully this next chapter satisfies!
ChangelingRin, thanks for the review! This is true—and that is true. And that is also true. Thank you, I shall! :D
XT3100, thanks for the review! Yes, but to be fair he would be in a couple of years anyway—Pokémon training and all. :\
Johnny Spectre, thanks for the review! Hmm, do I want to take that bet….
IceDragonGirl36, thanks for the review! Ah, so I wasn't the only one to think so. Agreed on both counts—and I think she might have had a traumatic experience as a child…or maybe the original show just figured "Girl = hates bugs." I read that the guy who came up with Pokémon liked to catch bugs when he was a kid, so maybe he ran into that a lot (the world may never know…).
Shukkets, thanks for the review! I would be careful with telling a kid with several powerhouses that….
Hall Gowrt, thanks for the review? Not soon, but I do have it scripted. :)
Zaralann, thanks for the review, I'm glad you like it! :D
Philly cheese dude, thanks for the review! You and quite a few people, it seems….
Heaven's Archer, thanks for the review! I'm glad you've been enjoying it! :D
AverageHiveMind, thanks for the review! Love to see nice long ones, they're such fun to read through (not that I don't appreciate all reviews, because I do). 3 Glad you feel that way—I've actually never been fond of cold dark Ash fics, so it's good to hear that someone else feels that way (not to knock them, but it's not my cup of tea). Oh yes—and yes! It seems that quite a few people agreed with Ash on that point. Aha, I was looking forward to everyone's reaction to that. :) Thanks, and hopefully this next chapter was worth the wait!
Garm88, thanks for the review, and glad you like it! :D
JuptileNamudori253, thanks for the review! Yes, slowly….
Kazikamikaze24, thanks for the review! Quite a few people were, actually….
Thanks for the review, Anonymous Person! Me too, although I think that stigma comes from the fact that in the original Japanese translation the Dark type is referred to as "Evil type." This is true, Zorua is adorable.
Forgotten Slacker, thanks for the review! Hopefully I can continue to please. :)
Greatazuredragon, thanks for the review! Haha, yes—or maybe the Elite Four is the second stage, with the mega evolution being the Champion. ;) Ah, I had a lot of fun writing that scene and imagining people's reactions….
Thanks for the review, Guest! Yes….Hopefully the wait wasn't too long…. :P
Thanks for the review, Guest! Yes, well…hopefully we'll be starting the year off on a better note. ^^;
Tilty bbb, thanks for the review! Glad you like it, and hope to continue to please! :D
Mindmaze, thanks for the review! It is kind of lousy the way she treats him, but considering her personality in the beginning, it kind of works? I mean the first season was mostly Misty harping over her destroyed bike, even after a point where it should have been clear to her that Ash couldn't pay for it. This is true about Ash, but keep in mind he's also used to Darkrai taking care of himself—Misty's continuing shortness might be her losing sleep. *shrug* The topic will definitely come up later with Misty getting over herself, but not for a while, unfortunately. Glad you like the sandcastle chapter though. :)
Thanks for the review Guest! And glad you found that amusing. ^^
JadeDragon100, thanks for the review! Oh thank you, and glad you like Darkrai's characterization (and how he's influencing Ash)! :D Well the good news is, another update is here, and hopefully I'll be entertaining a more regular update schedule again soon. Yeah, Darkrai, screw that thing up! :D
Laconeko, thanks for the review! Haha—and that's a good one, can I use it? :3
CrownOfMarigolds, thanks for the review! I'm glad you've been liking the story so far—and the personalities, especially Darkrai. I know—he's always portrayed as so serious, so writing him this way has been fun. :D Also glad you like Team Rocket here—and to answer your question: I go off the grid for about six months between updates. *bricked* Actually, I write about three pages a day, and I do have something of an outline for this story in my head—it would probably be better for me to write it down like I did for my other story The Frost King, but so far it works. Hopefully this update fills the void, and thanks again! :D
Pokémon © Game Freak; Nintendo
And now, for something completely different:
In other news, the Y2K scare is apparently unfounded, as the Porygon and Rotom have not somehow mishandled their internal clocks and sent us back to the stone ages. Residents are informed that they can now stop stockpiling canned goods, batteries, and ammunition. Seriously, please stop.
Ash passed on going back to the Safari Zone the next day—he really didn't want to run into those people again.
So that led to their next course of action: heading down Route 15 until it swung north again and to Lavender Town, where they would hopefully pick up a Ghost type to combat Sabrina's Psychics in Saffron City.
"Okay," Brock said, reading a guide book as they walked, giving the turning for the Safari Zone a cursory glance as they passed it. "There's a lot of Oddish and Bellsprout and Venonat up this way, if you feel like picking up another Poison type—"
"Please no bugs," Misty muttered.
"There's also Pidgey and Nidoran, and Krabby if you feel like fishing."
"It might take a while to get to the water again though," Ash said, looking back. "That's not until Route 12, is it?"
"You can hit some fishing spots before there, but Route 12 is the best bet," Brock said, flipping through several pages. "We should run into Stone Town and Neon City before we hit there, though."
"Okay," Ash said, stretching his arms above his head. "But the good news is, we've got like, three routes between us and Lavender Town—and I kind of need another bug, Misty. Right now I need a Bug type or a Ghost type if I want to go up against Sabrina."
"Or you could just try to train harder on your way," Misty pointed out, as the trail angled into the woods. "I mean, you did beat me with a Magikarp, of all things."
"Is she still going on about that?" Darkrai asked, drifting out of the woods behind Misty and scaring a yelp out of her.
"Don't DO that!" she squawked, dancing away from him as she spun around.
"Do what?" Darkrai asked blandly.
"Guys, it's going to be a long haul, I don't want to be hearing you two going at it the whole time," Brock said mildly, not looking up from his guide book as he walked.
"he started it," Misty said, pointing.
"And I don't care who started it, I'm finishing it."
Ash tried very hard not to smile, figuring that wouldn't be very helpful right now. Instead he pulled a Pokéball from his belt and released Vee, who ran circles around an unimpressed Pikachu before skidding to a halt next to Ash, sitting up on his hind legs and yipping.
"We're going to be walking for a while today, so I was wondering if you wanted to walk with us," Ash said to Vee, putting the ball back on his belt. Mostly because he was certain the Eevee wouldn't say no.
He was right in that regard—Vee yipped, tumbled backwards, rolled upright and started bounding around everyone, running up the trail a few yards before doubling back, colliding with Pikachu and rolling him before bouncing around the beleaguered yellow mouse, lowering his front and wagging his tail as he tried to cajole Pikachu into playing with him.
"Ka chu," Pikachu protested, rolling back upright and shaking himself.
"Agreed," Darkrai said, floating around Ash, apparently deciding that Misty was being too recalcitrant to be entertaining. "You might want to monitor his sugar intake—it's like dealing with you in miniature."
"It's called enthusiasm," Ash protested.
"Having the attention span of a Ninjask is called 'enthusiasm'?"
"You know, if you're going to be like this, you might as well find somewhere else to be," Misty said, pointing at Darkrai. "No one needs your attitude."
"Ah, but then your life would be insufferably dull, and then where would you be? Besides, last I checked, your attitude wasn't much improved."
Ash noticed Brock giving him a look, shrugged helplessly in response. Brock came to walk beside him as Darkrai and Misty got at it again.
"There are a number of things I want to discuss, starting with the fact that you've been around this guy since you were five," Brock said in an undertone, apparently not wanting Misty or Darkrai to hear.
"Yeah," Ash said, rubbing his neck. "But Gary was worse."
"Okay," Brock said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "It's important for you to know that hanging around with Darkrai because he's less nasty isn't a good alternative. Weren't there any other kids your age? Adults? Lonely Pidgey?"
"Uh…well, the uh, the guys all followed Gary's lead, girls all have cooties—"
"Trust me, they won't for much longer. Continue."
"And Mom didn't exactly want me messing around with wild Pokémon by myself after that one kid got mauled by Spearow."
Brock pointed at Darkrai. "That counts as a wild Pokémon."
"Yeah, but wild Pokémon usually don't talk."
"That's because you're too poor to actually pay attention," Darkrai countered, not missing a beat as he went back to insulting Misty—and then dodging the mallet she brought into play.
Brock indicated Darkrai again as Vee ran circles around them, still yipping and trying to get Pikachu to play with him. "Okay, I'll give you that one, but we are talking about an extremely acerbic personality here."
"I don't know what that means," Ash said.
"If words were acid, his could dissolve a Metagross."
"Okay, that gives me a clearer picture."
Vee dodged through their legs again, leaped over Pikachu, who ducked and chittered at him—
And then they both went still, ears perked up—looked away, Pikachu standing up on his hind legs—
And then they both dodged into the brush.
Everyone stopped, stared after the rustling noise.
"What was with that?" Ash asked.
"I don't know," Brock said, already trying to wade through the brush after them. "But we'd better get them back before they get into trouble." Struggle some more…."Dah, this isn't working. Does anyone have a Pokémon that knows Cut?"
As it turned out, Bulbasaur knew Cut—he shook himself a little upon being released, nodded at Brock's order, spared a moment to give Darkrai a look that would have frozen Moltres before slicing through the underbrush.
"Perfect!" Brock said, as the twigs and leaves fell before Bulbasaur's assault. "Keep going as far as you can, and as fast as you can—we have to figure out what Pikachu and Vee are up to before they get into trouble."
Pikachu leaped over fallen logs, squeezed under fallen branches, navigated through mazes of twigs, following the sound that he and Vee had both heard. Occasionally, he'd pass tufts of beige fur—where Vee had gotten his ruff caught in his haste to find the source.
"Slow down!" Pikachu called ahead. "Show a little caution, please! Or self-preservation."
"But you hear it too, right?" Vee asked, stopping only for a moment to address Pikachu. "It sounds like a LOT of Pokémon!"
"Which could be a bad thing," Pikachu returned. "I'm only looking because I want to see if it's worth our time."
And because something about the chittering and chattering up ahead sounded familiar.
"Hold it," Pikachu said, catching up with Vee and grabbing the tip of his tail. "Heel up, catch your breath—sneak up on whatever it is. You don't want to barrel right into the middle of a pack of hungry Arcanine, do you?"
"They wouldn't eat me, would they?" Vee asked, much quieter now; he was pressed closer to the ground—good. It meant what Pikachu was saying was sinking in. "I mean, that's what wild Pokémon do—we're trained 'mons."
"They might not be—most likely what we're hearing is wild Pokémon."
"But…they'd respect that, right? That we have trainers…that we're not lunch? Right?"
"We don't know that," Pikachu told him quietly. "That's why we sneak in and sneak up on whatever it is. From downwind, so they don't smell us; quietly, so they don't hear us. Get in close, listen in on them, and if they don't sound or look friendly we sneak back the way we came no harm no foul. Understand?"
"Wow," Vee breathed, sounding awed as he nodded. "You're really good at this."
Pikachu rolled his eyes—that was generally what happened when you were a wild-born Pokémon: you either got really good at survival skills or you got really dead, really quickly.
"Come on," Pikachu hissed, inching forward. "Follow my lead, and remember: quiet."
Vee nodded, belly-crawled behind Pikachu as he minced through the underbrush, hissing quietly when his ear or tail or fur snagged on a particularly nasty twig that apparently had nothing better to do than draw blood—following the sound of chattering Pokémon, keeping his ears flat even though they wanted to perk up at every new voice; perked ears would just offer too tempting a target for those twigs and get tangled up and then that'd be that, he'd might as well be a sitting Psyduck. Carefully placing his paws so they made nothing more than whispers on the forest floor, wincing when Vee put his paws down a bit more heavily, despite the Eevee's care to mimic Pikachu as closely as possible—he heard Vee hiss and looked back, saw that Vee had his fluffy tail snagged on one of those stupid twigs he was going to fry every last one of them if he got the chance—
"Don't struggle," Pikachu counselled. "Flatten down, back up a little bit, try twitching your tail."
Vee followed his instructions, managed to get free with a minimum of noise and one tuft of fur less. Pikachu nodded, motioned for him to squash himself flatter, inched forward again. They were getting close…he could determine individual words now….Sounded fairly benign, talking about migration movements and what berries were growing where and those stupid humans trespassing on our territory and ruining everything YEESH. Pikachu could definitely understand that last sentiment.
They reached what felt like the last bit of cover—Pikachu stopped Vee with his tail, peeked through the leaves….
Scattered throughout the clearing, with several poised as guards, several others grooming or napping or keeping an eye on the younglings—familiar shapes, far beyond the familiarity of species—
It was his troupe.
Pikachu immediately forgot all caution, forgot everything he said to Vee about being careful and all that—he only had one thought as he burst through the leaves.
"Mom! Dad!"
Bulbasaur was being more conservative in his use of Cut now, sniffing at the ground before slicing up a foot or so of brush, sniffing again before repeating the process. Occasionally he would hold up a tuft of beige or brown fur—Vee's.
"Well, at least we know they went this way," Ash said, accepting another tuft.
"What made them run off like that though?" Misty wondered, a lot calmer now that Darkrai had (at Brock's insistence) flown up and ahead on what he said was a wild Swanna chase; looking up at the dense canopy, Ash could understand that sentiment.
"If I had to guess, Vee heard something and Pikachu ran after him," Brock said, keeping them a respectable distance back from Bulbasaur's flailing vines.
"Pikachu seemed to hear it too though," Ash pointed out. "And he kind of took off at the same time Vee did."
"I did say I was guessing."
"Bulba," Bulbasaur noised suddenly, stopping and holding up a vine. Jerked his head when Brock looked at him, indicating the brush before them. They stood there quietly for a few moments.
Misty was the first one to speak. "Did you hear that?" she asked quietly.
Ash tipped his head, an action mirrored by Brock. "Yeah," Ash said. "It's Pikachu!"
"Ash, wait!" Brock yelped, as Ash leaped over Bulbasaur, throwing his shoulder ahead as he barreled through the rest of the brush—stumbled out into a clearing when the brush proved thinner than he had expected—
And found himself staring at a whole troupe of Raichu, Pikachu, and Pichu, with his Pikachu and Vee right there in the center.
Said whole troupe had frozen at his appearance, ears and tails pointed straight up, eyes locked on him.
Ash hesitated, half-raised a hand. "Um…."
Too much—every last Pokémon except the two in his name fled, bouncing away and into the brush opposite them, all of them barking and chattering and slipping through the bushes like it was nothing, Pikachu and Vee running after them and chattering, Pikachu skidding to a stop at the edge of the clearing, Vee stopping right about when he hit a prickly-looking bush.
Ash hesitated, looked back when he heard Misty and Brock working their way through, ran over to help Vee out of the bush.
"Pika pika CHU!" Pikachu spat at him, cheeks sparking.
"I'm sorry!" Ash protested, kneeling to better extract a struggling Vee from the bush. "You guys just ran off! What was I supposed to think?"
Pikachu glared at a nearby rock, cheeks still sparking—directed that glare to Bulbasaur when he came over and addressed Pikachu. Pikachu was still glaring by the time Ash managed to free Vee.
"Vee vwee," Vee noised, eyes looking wet as he huddled in Ash's arms, licking at several scratches marring his fur.
"It's okay," Ash said, petting Vee's head. "We'll get you fixed up and then maybe later we can practice Swift on that bush."
Vee seemed to like that idea, yipping fiercely at the bush that had attacked him.
"So what happened?" Brock asked, coming over to them, watching as Pikachu studiously ignored everyone.
"It was a bunch of Pikachu," Ash explained. "And Raichu and Pichu and—that was your family, wasn't it?" he asked Pikachu, the concept hitting him abruptly. "Oh man—Pikachu, I'm sorry…."
"Pika chu," Pikachu noised, now glaring at a rock by his feet, front paws crossed tightly.
"Well…we can find them again, right?" Ash asked, hating the fact that he had basically screwed up Pikachu's probably-touching family reunion. "We know what you'd be doing now, so we can stay here and…you know, not be big scary humans."
"Or loud ones rampaging into the clearing," Misty pointed out.
"I didn't rampage."
"A Rhyhorn had more stealth."
"You did kind of leap before you looked," Brock agreed.
Ash grimaced before turning his attention back to Pikachu. "So whadda you say, pal? We'll wait as long as we have to. Forgive me?"
Pikachu acted like he was having to consider it—or maybe he was considering it; frightening off his family was kind of a lousy move.
"Pi?"
Everyone looked up sharply—something small and yellow was peeking through the bushes.
"Pika!" Pikachu yipped, stepping forward—the yellow thing shied back, causing Pikachu to pause; he bounced around everyone before mincing closer to the small yellow thing in the brush. "Pika, pika pika, pi chu."
The little yellow thing gingerly came forward a step, then another, revealing itself as a Pichu, sniffing at Pikachu carefully before looking over at the rest of them. Ash sucked in a breath to tell it not to worry—Brock poked him in the back, stopping him.
"Bulba bulba," Bulbasaur noised, tossing his head at the rest of them. "Bulba saur bul, bulba."
The Pichu hesitated, looked back at Pikachu, who was standing up on his hind legs now, forelegs tentatively spread in a non-threatening pose….
The Pichu bolted from cover, slamming right into Pikachu's chest, clinging tightly and rubbing its face in his ruff, chittering nonstop as Pikachu hugged it.
"Aww," Misty noised softly—a sentiment Ash echoed, even if he wasn't going to say it.
And then they were surrounded by Raichu rivalling the size of Lt. Surge's Volt, all with angry expressions and sparking cheeks.
And all that aggression was aimed at them.
"Oh 'karp," Ash muttered.