Ash wasn't expecting much when he entered Vermillion's market, that included being nearly knocked over by a mess of orange hair. He staggered a bit, as his legs accustomed to the new weight. Ash looked down with a smile, he knew who it was.
"Misty.", Ash said as he kneeled down and hugged his adoptive sister back. She was still so small. Too small for his liking.
After a while, Ash straightened up and watched as Misty looked at his face and gave him a large, cute smile.
"Where's Julia and Adam?" Ash asked as he ruffled her hair, while looking around for his friends. Misty gave a small giggle, but answered, while trying to avoid his hand.
"They went to get some supplies and told me to wait here. Then I saw you." she said, as she lead him to the part of the store Adam and Julia were.
It was rather easy to find them. In fact it was they who found them.
"Hey Ash! Over here!" Julia waved her hand, catching his attention. Adam was by her side, his arms heavy with multiple bags weighing them down.
"When did you get here? We would have met you at the Pokemon Center." she said, as she laid Adam by an outstretched arm. Ash let a serious face settle on him before he said anything.
"I was delayed, by a problem.", he said, letting a drip of malice into his voice. Julia stopped for a brief moment, and saw the seriousness on his face.
"We can talk over dinner. You can stay over in our room.", Julia said, with a hint of finality, to silence any retorts or remarks he may have came up with. She walked past him, slightly touching him with her longer hair. It had really grown out in the span of a month.
'A month. Its only been a month.' Ash thought.
It had only been a month since they began their pokemon journey. A month since they were gifted with their loyal starters. A month since Ash left his cold-hearted mother, and a loathing town to bring respect and glory to himself. A month since they entered a world full of monsters.
A month since they had to tackle an evil and hateful world, as children.
Ash snapped out of his thoughts, as he felt Misty pull on his armor. He looked down at her, and notcied Misty tugging on his arm. Ash looked up and saw Julia and Adam were waiting for them by the exit.
Without a second thought on why he was there in the first place, Ash followed them out the door, Misty holding his hand.
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From what Ash had learned from Nurse Joy, Ritchie had moved to a Pokemon Center near the port where the Gym was located, so he could train his team and beat Lt. Surge when he returned, and the Oak siblings had taken a boat to Fuschia. So staying with Julia and Adam would be the best option for lodgings.
Ash relaxed into the couch, watching as his pokemon, with the exception of Dratini, played with Misty. He didn't know what they were playing, but it seemed Misty was enjoying herself.
Julia and Adam were putting the final touches on their dinner, as they placed a large pot of steaming stew onto the table, and began placing bowls and silver ware onto the table.
When dinner was finally served, they all enjoyed generous amounts of the meaty stew. Julia's cooking, once again, was successful to feed Ash's and Adam's almost insatiable appetites. And, it was able to put Misty to sleep.
Off course, Ash and Adam weren't hesitant to feed the larger pieces of meat to their pokemon. Smaug and Tyrunt greedily gulped down the delicious meat, their draconic traits showing with their love for meat.
While they ate their dinner, they kept the conversation from going too dark, fearing Misty would know what was happening outside Vermillion's safe stone walls.
But when dessert was served and Misty was put to bed by Ash, promising to save some for her in the morning, their talk turned much more serious.
"What happened to your armor?" Adam asked, as he began to eat a slice of oran pie. Ash remained silent as he gave an eager Smaug a piece of the delicious morsel.
"The Abominations.", he answered. He slowly ate the piece of pie, savoring its taste and the warm feeling it brought to him, as he relaxed into his chair.
"What? Those things never did that much damage to you armor." Julia said, her hand intertwined with Adam's, as they listened to Ash talk.
"Not this one. This one was much larger than the others we faced. Stronger too." Ash said, grimacing as he remembered the pain when his arm was broken. The bruise was still there, but it was healing fast and nicely.
"How did you kill it?" Adam asked as he took a swig of cold oran juice.
"I didn't. Lt. Surge's men did."
"Really? What happened next?"
"We were injured badly by the beast, so we were taken to Fort Ozone to receive medical care."
"Who is we?"
"Gary, Violet, and a new friend named Ritchie."
"You guys aren't at each other's throat?" Adam asked in surprise.
"We 'talked' with the Professor." Ash said, remembering the long story Professor Oak gave them about what happened the night Ash's father abandoned Pallet Town.
"Well that's good. What happened at Fort Ozone?" Julia asked.
"We were attacked, by Team Rocket and the Abominations.", Ash said grimly.
"Both? How many?"
"I don't know how many men Team Rocket sent, but for the Abominations. A horde of 10,000 tried to take Fort Ozone."
"What! 10,000! How can such a large force go unnoticed for so long!"
"That's not all. After we drove away the horde, a new type of beast attacked us."
"A new beast?"
"Grey winged beasts came from the North, their leader was almost a hundred feet long! And it was powerful. I am only alive because Zapdos arrived and fought it off."
They remained silent for a moment, before Julia spoke up.
"Were sticking with you for the rest of our journey. Apparently you don't know when not to enter a fight.", she said, a bit of anger and anxiety mixed in her voice.
Ash wilted a bit at her tone, but a kind expression replaced the worried one.
"What about this? We take a break from this madness. A day at the beach would do nicely, don't you think?" she asked in a kind voice, that bothe Ash and Adam couldn't say no to.
"Sure." They both grumbled, both unhappy about the loss of a prescious day of training.
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The group found themselves on a open, lonely beach. Off course there were people at the beach, but they had found themselves a nice isolated area in the more rural part of Vermillion's beach side.
While Misty went instantly to the crashing waves of the sea, along with Mael, Staryu, and Krabby. She held Goldeen's poke-ball in her hand and released the large, horned fish into the water. Misty was at home at the sea, enjoying herself as she played with her water pokemon. Mael had ventured to the deeper part of shore, ordered by Ash, deterring any pokemon that may pose a threat to her.
Ash and Adam were setting up their little beach camp, laying down a large mat to sit on and placing a beach umbrella to shield them from the sun. They had left their armor back in the Pokemon Center's room, much to their dismay about safety, but they had settled in only brining their weapons.
Julia was setting up a nice little picnic, neatly organizing a variety of cold sandwiches, drinks, and small desserts, right next to a pile of neatly folded towels. Once the picnic was all set up, she reclined against a folding chair and pulled out a book.
Her pokemon were all over the sandy shoreline, Eevee playing around with Beedrill, a newly evolved Butterfree, and her two newly caught pokemon, a Nidoran and a Nidorina. From what Ash had learned Nidorina was the pacifist of the duo, while Nidoran craved for the thrill of battle.
Apparently, he was a bit of a power house too. He couldn't match up to the diversity Eevee had and the power she had gained over the course of their journey but he had a move set that could topple most other pokemon on his level.
Adam's Ekans, Spearow, and his starter Luxio were lazying around the beach, enjoying the free day they got from their constant training. He hadn't caught any new pokemon for his team, but his current one was enough to challenge Ash's.
Smaug had found himself a patch of warm, dry sand and had made a makeshift bed. He was quietlty enjoying a peacful nap, wrapped in a blanket of soft, warm sand.
Tyrunt was busy, digging holes all over the beach side. His strong legs, and small arms were apparently very useful in digging. Ash had noted that to himself, to use that during battle.
Ash reclined further into the sand, enjoying the warmth that it provided. It had been too long since he had a good relaxing day, he secretly thanked Julia for thinking up of the idea but wouldn't voice it, knowing how the girl would verbally toy with him, telling Ash how he should listen to her. Nope, Ash would never let that happen.
Ash peeked open one of his eyes to keep an eye on Dratini. The blue dragon was lazily slithering towards one end of the beach. As long as he didn't go too far, Ash was fine with him.
Dratini was the hardest pokemon, he had, to train. He just didn't listen to him. Maybe it was a combination of arrogance or trust, the dragon just didn't listen. And Dratini was powerful.
Powerful enough to stand up to Smaug, when they did fight. The only thing that he lacked was experience.
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The day at the beach was relaxing and Ash genuinely enjoyed it. He and Misty had stood up to the mighty waves that crashed against the shores of Vermillion. They and their pokemon had built a towering fortress of sand. So all in all, it was a good day.
Ash was helping clean up their little site, when the thought crossed his mind.
' Where's Dratini?' Ash thought to himself, as he placed his scabbard on his belt. He saw Dratini's tracks, untouched by the waves. Something must of happened, or Dratini had escaped with out his notice.
"I'll be right back." Ash said, beginning to run in Dratini's direction. Smaug followed after him, his powerful legs easily matching Ash's pace.
"Mael! Tyrunt!" Ash called out, catching the attention of his two other dragons. Tyrunt lept out of his newly dug out hole, hastily keeping up with Ash. Mael had popped out of the sea, and see him run, prompted him to hurriedly propel himself through the water, easily passing them with his speed.
A rocky cove of rocks, hindered them as they tried to pass through the hazardous rocks. Tyrunt easily made it through, his rocky scales protecting him from any sharp edges. As for Ash and Smaug, it took them a while but they finally made it though, albeit Ash was a bit cut up.
A while passed of hard running before they found Dratini, and a Lapras? Both were in shallow waters, unmoving, and surrounded by multiple jelly like bodies. Ash hurriedly rushed over to the two and found large streaks of purple flesh ran down each of their bodies. The flesh was welted red, and darker in some places. Occasionally they quivered in pain.
'What could have caused this?' Ash thought to himself as he began thinking what happened to them. Dratini could easily deal with any solitary wild pokemon, with the exception of any of the larger sea pokemon come to the shore. So it had to be in a group of pokemon.
But what pokemon had appendages that were used like a weapon? They were like tenta...cles.
"Tentacools." Ash said aloud.
"Mael! Watch the water!" Ash said, turning to Mael, only to find him blasting away large jelly-like creatures with large red gems on their heads. Tyrunt and Smaug leapt into action, already forming powerful Dragon Rage and Dragon Pulse. Ash backed up a bit, putting some distance between him and the poisonous pokemon.
Ash drew his sword, humming with its mysterious power. He could already picture what had happened to Dratini. Lapras must have been beached and the Tentacool had come to hunt the young water pokemon, seeing it as a easy meal. Dratini must have come to help the stranded pokemon, before he was overwhelmed by their sheer numbers.
"Smaug! Tyrunt! Keep them off me!" Ash called out as he returned Dratini back into his poke-ball. Smaug nodded, before he released a cone of green fire into the shallow waters. Instead of dying out, the green fire formed a wall in front of them. The Tentacools, murmured and grumbled in disagreement as the fire burned their bodies.
Ash reached into his satchel, but to his dismay, didn't find any poke-balls. He started panicing as he found no way to move the young Lapras.
Just has hopelessness dawned on Ash, the familiar red beam of a poke-ball transported the injured pokemon to safety. Ash turned his head, and nearly had a heart attack as he found Misty holding a newly caught pokemon.
The Tentacool grumbled in anger and started spitting huge wads of purple poison at Misty. Ash began dashing to Misty, but he was too slow. The poison would hit her.
Then a blue blur shot infront of Misty. Dratini. With pride and courage, he allowed the poison to hit him, and Ash could hear the hiss of the poison as it burnt through his scales.
Ash looked down at his belt and saw to his astonishment, to find Dratini's pokeball opened and empty.
Dratini swayed a bit, the poison dripping of him, before he fell to the sandy shore, defeated. The Tentacool launched another volley of poison at Misty, who was frozen in fear, but this time Ash was ready. He grappled Misty out of the way, but hissed in pain as poison hit his back and his arm. It burned and it brought tears to his eye because of the pain. Already his arm was blistering, and blood was pouring out.
"Come on! Everybody lets go!"" Ash said in pain, as he returned Dratini back to his poke-ball. Smaug and Tyrunt nodded before they raced back to him, he could see they were wounded too, but their strong scales had withstood the poison.
Mael was already dashing away from the area, which was quickly being swarmed by numerous Tentacools. With their vast numbers, there was no way they could fight them all off.
Luckily for them, it was only a short, though painful, run to the nearest Pokemon Center.
Lordofire here, that was painful to write. And I mean painful. Just as painful to read as to write. I'm sorry with the horrible chapters I've been dishing out recently, but school and writer's block is getting to me.
And with so many people following this story, its full of pressure. But don't worry,
The St. Anne, is coming up and I have big plans for it.