Ch 30: Muddy water

Ash and May had stopped at the edge of route 120 when it became to dark to fly. They slept in the open with pikachu and Charizard out in case wild pokemon came toward them. Early the next morning Ash was up and had gone to a nearby stream.

Ash was in the water under a small waterfall. Ash was on his knees as the water splashed on his head from the small waterfall. Beside Ash was Lucario who was doing and aura exercise with him.

Ash and Lucario were both feeling the aura of all the living things around them. Doing these exercises with Lucario helped both of them get both physically stronger and gain a stronger affinity for feeling aura.

Lucario and Ash both got up for their next aura exersise. This one involved them conjuring an aura sphere back and forth between them. Ash and Lucario did this for ten minutes before they left the river. Ash dried himself off with a towel he brought. Lucario sent him an aura message saying that they were both getting better.

Ash responded with a message saying that he agreed. When they were both dry Ash returned lucario and headed back to the campsite. When he arrived he saw May and PIkachu were up. "Doing another little Aura session with Lucario" May said.

"It is helping me and Lucario get a better connection with our aura. Plus it's helped us both physically" Ash said. "I've noticed" May said blushing. Pikachu laughed a little when he saw Ash blush too. "According to the map we're now on rout 121 and there is a small town nearby on the Welton river a few miles to the northwest" May said.

"That's good we can stop there and get some more supplies" Ash said. Ash and May followed the map until they reached the town on the map. The town had a worn out sign in the front that said Welton town.

The town itself looked very dirty and not figuratively. The ground was covered in mud and dirt. There were no paved roads just old houses made of wood. Most of the people in the town looked very dirty as well.

Their cloths and skin had either dirt or mud coving them. The pokemon in the town were just as dirty. "What is with these people?" May said quietly. "I don't know , I think we should get to the pokemon center and leave" Ash said.

When they got to the pokemon center Ash and May asked asked nurse joy to look at their pokemon. "Your pokemon are fine" Nurse Joy said handing them their pokeballs back. Pikachu jumped from the counter to Ash's shoulder. "Nurse joy, pardon me for asking but Why is everything in this town so well" May started.

"Dirty" Joy said. "Yeah" Ash said. "Well you see it all happened a few years ago. You see our town is very secluded from other towns and cities. Our entire water supply came from the Welton river for as long as we could remember" Joy paused for a moment when another person came in and asked her to look at his Poochyena.

Whe nurse Joy came back out she resumed talking. "Sorry about that well anyway, a few years ago we don't know why but this section of the Welton river became muddy. As time went by it only got worse and worse. Because of it we have to ration our water supply very carefully" Joy said.

"Why not go to a cleaner section of the river?" Ash said. "We tried, but every time our boats try go down the river they are attacked by a group of mudkip and Marshtomp who have moved in" Nurse Joy said. "Well Mudkip and Marshtomp moving into a muddy section of the river makes sense" Ash said. "They clearly must have claimed the river as their territory and thus attack any trespassers" May said.

"Local trainers have tried to fight the mudkip and marshtomp but there are just to many of them. Every time we think we make any progress their ringleader just sends more our way" Nurse Joy said.

"Well maybe we could help" Ash said. "That's very kind of you , but these are very aggressive and violent pokemon. They destroy any boat that goes out into the river" nurse joy said. "I can't imagine how bad it must be to have to ration an entire town's water supply. Please let us help you" May said.

"Alright if you really want to a local named Allen Franton might take you out into the river" nurse Joy said. Ash walked over to the phone and contacted professor Oak. "Oh hello Ash if everything alright?" Oak asked. "For me yes , but professor I was wondering if you could send me Sceptile" Ash said.

"Of course just send me one of your other pokemon and I'll send you Sceptile" Oak said. Ash put Torterra's pokeball and sent him back to Oak. A few moments later Scepile's pokeball arrived in the transporter.

Ash picked up the pokeball and left the center with May. They asked around Welton and eventually found Allen Franton. Allen lived in a small shack near the edge of the muddy river. Allen was sitting on the porch carving a pierce of wood with a mudkip laying next to him.

"Excuse me are you Allen Franton?" May said. Allen looked like he was in his late 40's. He had brownish hair that was starting to gray. Blue eyes and a face with dirt stains on it like the other people in town. "Yeah, what's it to you" he said. "We're here to help with the mudkip problem" Ash said.

"Are you now, well that's awfully kind of you but you don't know these mudkip like I do" Allen said as he continued to whittle. "I tried at least a dozen times to get to the clean section of the river with my boat. Every time I bring a countermeasure against them and it never words. Only thing I have done is caught one of the mudkip" Allen said pointing to the mudkip laying down in front of him.

"I really think we can do this, we've handled worse" Ash said. Allen sighed then looked back at his town for a moment. "I guess everyone could use a little more water. Ok just give me a few minutes to get my boat ready" Allen said.

Later Ash and May were at the edge of the muddy river with Allen. Allen's boat was made of wood with eight large barrels tied to the side. "If we make it to the clean section of the river we'll fill up these barrels" Allen said.

He started the motor as Ash and May got on. Ash let out Sceptile who stood in the center of the boat. Sceptile hadn't seen May in some time, as soon as he saw her he hugged her lifting her up. "Sceptile it's good to see you to" May said. "Sceptile we need your help keeping pokemon away from this boat" Ash said.

Sceptile nodded then stood ready to fight. "Pikachu if you use electric attacks on them when there is so much mud in the water it won't be very effective. Wait until they're out of the water" Ash said. "PIkachu" Pikachu said nodding.

Allen continue to drive down the muddy river for another fifteen minutes with no trouble. "I don't get it where are all of the mudkip and Marshtomp?" May said. "This is the spot they like to come out" Allen said. He pointed ahead to a group of half sunk boats.

"Oh" May said. "This is it guys get ready" Ash said. "Sceptile"Sceptile said. "Pikachu" Pikachu said. As the boat drove by a sunken boat two mudkip and a marshtomp peared their heads out of the water. "Marshtomp" Marshtomp said. The two mudkip quickly swamp at the boat and used mudshot.

Their attacks hit Ash and Allen almost knocking them into the water. "There on the left!" Allen said. Ash and May turned to see the mudkip coming at them. " Quick Sceptile use bulletseed" Ash said. Sceptile opened his mouth and unleashed bulletseed at the two mudkip.

The mudkip went under the water to avoid the blow. The two mudkip got to the side of the boat and raised their heads out to use another attack. As soon as they did they saw Sceptile right in front of them. Sceptile used bulletseed again knocking them back into the water.

The marshtomp came after the boat and used water gun hitting the side of the boat. Ash and the others head a crack. "Oh no!" Allen said. He rushed over to the crack and started using his tools. "Pikachu use thunderbolt" Ash said. "Pika chu!" Pikach shouted as he launched his attack. Marshtomp went back under the water.

After a few second he came back up and used another watergun. "Sceptile use bulletseed" Ash said. Sceptile's bulletseed went through the water stopping it and then continuing on hitting Marshtomp.

Marshtomp went back under the water. After a minute he jumped up and at the boat. "Sceptile leafblade" Ash said. Sceptile jumped at the marshtomp and slashed him with leafblade. The Marshtomp fell back into the water. "Well this if father than I've ever gotten" Allen said.

They could now see the clean section of the river. "There it is!" May said. Just then a pair of mudkip and another marshtomp jumped up and all used mudshot. "Look out!" Ash said. Allen did a sharp turn barley avoiding the mudshots.

"Pikachu use thunderbolt!" Ash said. Pikachu launched a thunderbolt at the them but they were back in the muddy river by the time it got there. Moments after they landed back in the river, the two mudkip and the marshtomp jumped back out and used mudshot hitting and destroying one of the barrels.

"Sceptile use bulletseed!" Ash said. Sceptile opened his mouth and shot seeds at the 3 pokemon, but they were safely in the river by the time the attack reached them. "They're too quick" Allen said.

Ash grit his teeth for a moment then had an idea. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes feeling the aura of the pokemon around him. He saw the two mudkip and marshtomp moving and knew where they were going to jump. Ash then used an aura message to tell Pikachu where they were going to jump.

As soon as the mudkip and Marshtomp jumped out pikachu used thunderbolt and hit them. "You got them!" Allen said in disbelief. The mudkip and Marshtomp swam away allowing the boat to cross over to the clean section of the river. "The clean area huh I almost forgot what it looks like" Allen said.

For the next halfhour Ash and May helped Allen load up the barrels with water. When they were filled Allen moved the boat back toward Welton town. "We still have to be careful, their little ringleader is still here" Allen said.

"Ash use his aura to find him" May said. "Good idea" Ash said. He closed his eyes and felt the aura of all the living things around him. At first he didn't see any abnormalities until he felt something big moving toward them.

"Guys there's something here" Ash said. Moments later a massive swampert came out of the water and used muddy water rocking the boat and knocking Allen into the water. "Help!" Allen said. The swampert began moving toward Allen with bad intentions. May rushed over and tried to pull him in.

Swampert jumped out of the water at Allen. "Sceptile use bulletseed!" Ash said. "Scep tile!" Sceptile said unleashing bulletseed. The attack hit swampert and knocked him off his path. Swampert went back under the water and circled around the boat.

In the meantime May and Ash got Allen back into the boat. Ash sat down and closed his eyes to feel the Aura of the pokemon around him. He saw the swampert's aura and it was very troubled. The swampert was very tenacious and very obsessed with controlling his territory. It became clear to Ash that the swampert would never stop even if they did knock him out.

"May even if we beat him he's just going to keep coming back at Welton" Ash said. "Your right what are we going to do?" May said. The swampert jumped up and over the boat hiting sceptile with hydropump and knocking him into the water. "Sceptile!" Ash said.

The swampert dragged him under the water then hurled him up and hit him with mudshot. Sceptile got back to the boat and grabbed Ash's hand. Ash pulled him back into the boat. Ash closed his eyes and saw where the swampert was. "There is only one way we can end this" Ash said.

Ash sent an aura message to Sceptile telling him where the swampert was going to be. When swampert jumped out of the water at the boat Sceptile jumped at him and used leafblade. The swampert landed back in the mud on his back.

"This ends now!" Ash said. Both sceptile and Pikachu stood beside Ash ready to strike. "Pokeball go!" Ash said. He threw a pokeball and hit the swampert. Swampert went in and the pokeball sat on top of the muddy water flashing and shaking.

"Come on" Ash said. After another minute the shaking stopped and the pokeball flashed one more time. "You caught him!" Allen said. "Yeah I caught a swampert!" Ash said. The pokeball then vanished as it transported itself to professor Oak's lab.

The mudkip and marshtomp saw what had happened. After seeing their leader get caught they all swam away. Back at the pokemon center Ash was talking with professor Oak. "Your swampert arrived safely here. And I must say he isn't getting along with others quite yet" Oak said.

"I'll have to do some work with him" Ash said. "I'm still very proud of you two for helping Welton. Because of you they can get to the clean water freely" Oak said. "It was the right thing to do" Ash said.

After having Pikachu and Sceptile looked at by nurse Joy , Ash and May were ridding Charizard over route 121. "We should get to Lillycove city by tomorrow" Ash said. "That was a very kind thing today you did with those people" May said.

"You helped just as much as I did" Ash said. "Come on Ash it was your pokemon and your doing that we succeeded" May said. "I just saw people that were in trouble and just did what came naturally to me" Ash said.

Ash felt May put her arms around his shoulders and turn his head. She kissed him and the two remained in the position as Charizard continued toward Lillycove city.