A Different Path
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"A Different Path" Ash/Pikachu/Charmander mental link
"A Different Path." Pokémon Speech
Chapter 7: St. Anne
The three trainers headed down to the docks, as Misty wanted to see the large cruise ships. Pikachu was sitting on Ash's shoulder as always and Charmander was walking besides him, seeming a little nervous so close to water. "Wouldn't it be great to be able to go on one of these," Misty asked, looking around.
'Yeah, unfortunately we don't have that kind of money," Ash said, taking a look at the large ships.
Misty nodded sadly knowing her friend was right when they walked past a booth and the woman manning it called them over. "Any of you young people interested in a game?" she asked as the three walked up.
"What type of game?" Brock asked.
"One dollar and you get to spin the wheel behind me. Depending on what number it lands on depends if you get a prize or what prize you get," the woman said with a smile.
Brock took out a dollar, figuring 'why not?' "Do you two want a go?" Brock asked his two younger friends, but they both shook their heads. Brock spun the wheel and it landed on the number 13. "So did I get anything?"
The woman looked down at a list. "You won three tickets aboard the St Anne," The women announced, handing Brock the tickets and shooing him away.
"That was lucky," Ash said as Misty's face lit up.
"Yeah, really lucky. Come on, let's go," Brock, said with a smile and the three of them headed for the boat. What the three didn't know was that the women was a Team Rocket agent and they were in for trouble.
As they neared the entrance for the boat, Charmander freaked out. "Ash, can you return me?" Charmander asked, not really liking the idea of being on a boat outside of his Poké Ball.
"Sure thing," Ash thought back returning Charmander and putting the Poké Ball away. When the crewmember checked their tickets Ash asked him if there was a Pokémon transfer device on board. There was one, but he had to use it before they left dock.
Ash found it in no time and waited for a bit until he was able to call Professor Oak. Oak picked up not long later. "Well hello, Ash. What can I do for you?" Oak asked and then Shellder jumped into view. "I swear she knows when I mention you and comes running."
Ash laughed as he said hello to Shellder. "I want to transfer for Krabby." Ash saw Shellder face when he said Krabby and he couldn't leave her there. Besides he had made her a promise to take her back on the team after the gym and he wouldn't break that promise. "And Shellder." That made the little Pokémon happy. "I'm going to send you Peter, my Geodude, and my Nidorino. They both had hard battles yesterday and could use a break."
Oak nodded, going to get the Poké Balls and Pokémon. It didn't take long to transfer them and say goodbye. Not long after Ash hung up, one of his Poké Balls burst open and Shellder appeared. The Pokémon jumped right into Ash and Ash barely caught her, nearly falling over as he did. "I missed you too," Ash said as the little Pokémon cooed in his arms.
He found Misty and Brock near some kids comparing their Charmander tail flames. "Hey, Shellder," Misty said greeting the Pokémon. "So that's what you ran to do."
"I also got Krabby. I figured we're on a boat; might as well have my Pokémon and I want to test Krabby out in battle," Ash said and Shellder made a noise. Ash didn't even need Pikachu to tell him that she wanted to battle. "You can battle too."
"Well, the battle fields are over here," Brock said, pointing to a map in his hands. "You should be able to find opponents there." Ash looked at the map, nodding.
"What about you two?" Ash asked.
"I'm going to take a bit of a break from battling and training and check out the shops on board," Misty said with a smile. "Good luck." Misty patted Ash on the back before walking off.
"I'm also going to check out some shops. They have a breeding station on board," Brock said. "Have fun." Brock walked off.
Ash looked at his Pokémon. "I guess it's just us," Ash said, walking to the battling fields as the ship took off.
Misty had headed towards the shops, checking everything out. She was having fun just browsing, but did end up buying some new clothes. As she was walking past one booth, suddenly a pokemon was thrown at her so fast she barely caught it. It took her a moment to realize it was a Magikarp.
She was then thrown into the seller's speech about how valuable Magikarp were. She knew it was a scam. She knew Magikarp weren't worth much money at all. They were usually a good Pokémon for water trainers for the sheer power of their evolved form Gyarados, but Misty had been afraid of that pokemon since she was small. She was about to say no, but then she looked at the Magikarp. It looked so depressed. It must not be fun to be owned by this guy, constantly thrown at people, and then rejected.
"50 dollars," Misty said when the guy said she could have it for 200. She knew the guy was about to refuse. 'Where is your business license?" Misty then asked, surprising the guy. "You know I'm from the Cerulean gym. I can get people on the phone pretty fast."
"For you, 50 will do," the guy said suddenly and Misty smirked, knowing that would work. The Magikarp seemed excited as it was then returned to a golden Poké Ball and once again thrown at Misty as Misty gave the money. "No returns or refunds." the guy shouted as he suddenly ran away.
Misty looked down at the Poké Ball in her hands and scratched the top. The gold paint came off onto her finger. Misty shook her head, taking a rag out of her bag to clean the rest off as she went to go find her friends.
Ash had used Shellder against a Nuzleaf. He hadn't known what pokemon it was when he battled since his Pokédex said there was no information available, but Shellder had won. Ash had also learned that she had mastered her aurora beam and learned Ice Beam while at the lab.
Afterward Ash went to talk to the trainer to find out more about the Pokémon and learned it was a pokemon from the boy home region of Hoenn. That was the reason Ash's Pokédex had no information since he had a Kanto Pokédex.
The next person Ash battled was a girl with a Raichu. Ash knew using Krabby would be stupid, and Pikachu really wanted to battle a Raichu having missed out on it during the gym. The match had ended in a tie though and Pikachu kept mumbling about how next time he saw a Raichu he would win.
Finally he came across an older man with a Raticate who seemed to be on a winning streak. "I'll battle you," Ash said, coming up and releasing Krabby.
The man ordered a Super Fang, but Ash had Krabby easily dodge it. "Use Bubble on the field," Ash ordered and Krabby let out a lot of bubbles, covering the field and blocking Raticate's vision. "Now Vice Grip." Krabby ran through the bubbles while Raticate was confused and looking around and grabbed onto him. "Now…."
Before Ash could finish his command the man yelled to stop the battle and surrendered. Ash was confused as the man returned his Raticate, gave him his prize money, and walked away. Krabby himself was disappointed he didn't get to knock his first opponent in a battle with his new trainer out.
"You did great, Krabby," Ash said picking the small Pokémon up. "You're amazing; a little more training and you'll be ready for a gym battle." Krabby's eyes widened at this praise from his trainer.
"He really did do good. That Krabby is a born battler," Brock said, surprising Ash since he didn't know Brock had come up.
"What happened to your eye?" Ash asked seeing a black and blue bruise on Brock's eye.
"Oh, boys don't like it when you confess your undying love for their girlfriend," Brock said, just shrugging it off like it was nothing, and Ash looked at him like he was crazy.
That was when Misty walked up, still getting the gold off her Poké Ball. "Mist, why is part of your Poké Ball gold?" Ash asked and Misty explained about the Magikarp seller and how she bought the Magikarp after some negotiation.
"I couldn't just leave him there," Misty said after she was done with her story and the Poké Ball was finally completely free of the gold paint. "So I have a Magikarp now and if I train him right, he won't go wild when he evolves."
Ash smiled at his friend. "You can do it," Ash told her. "Now I'm hungry. Let's go eat."
The boat had an open buffet for guest. The trio got some food and Ash gave Pikachu and Krabby something, deciding to wait until later to feed the rest of his Pokémon. The group was happily chatting with each other when the man with the Raticate Ash defeated walked up.
"There you are; I've been looking for you," the man said with a smile, confusing Ash since the two barely knew each other. "I really like your Krabby. Did you like my Raticate?"
"He was cool," Ash said.
"Well since you like my Pokémon and I like your Pokémon why don't we trade?" The man offered and Krabby looked up, worried, not wanting to leave his trainer, but afraid Ash would get rid of him.
"I wouldn't trade this Krabby for anything," Ash said and Krabby had tears in his eyes. His trainer really liked him. The man tried to get Ash to trade for a few more minutes, but Ash refused and the man walked away.
When he was gone Krabby jumped onto Ash's lap and hugged him as good as a crab could hug a human. Ash smiled even though Krabby's claw was kind of digging into his side. "Thanks pal," Ash said patting his head.
Krabby turned to Pikachu. "Shellder said you have a mental link with our trainer. Can you tell him my name is Rudolph?"
"Sure, " Pikachu said, relaying the message to Ash.
"I didn't know Pokémon had names," Ash replied, shocked since Krabby was the first pokemon who mentioned a name.
"Some do, some don't," Pikachu answered back.
"Well, tell Krabby I'll call him Rudolph from now on," Ash said and Pikachu told Krabby, who seemed happy and went back to eating his food.
After the meal, Ash returned Rudolph to his Poké Ball and the three humans and Pikachu spent some time looking around. It was about a half hour later when Team Rocket attacked, unfortunately led by the idiot trio.
Pikachu decided to not let the large group of Team Rocket grunts stop him from shocking the three in the middle of their motto. Ash tried not to giggle when it looked like Jessie and James's co worker seemed relieved not to have to hear the rest of the motto either.
"Are we just going to sit back and let them steal our Pokémon?" Ash yelled when the grunts tried to use hoses to suck up their Poké Balls. Ash put his hands over his belt to stop his from going. "Are we Pokémon trainers or not?"
There was a big cheer as people started to release their Pokémon. Pikachu went off to join a group of Pikachu who were using Thunderbolt. Ash released Shellder, Krabby, Bulbasaur, and Scyther right away and then saw a group of Charmander.
"Hey buddy, I know you don't like being on a ship but I could use you out here," Ash thought to his Charmander, who he got a reply from of "Let me out."
Ash released Charmander, who joined the others in a Flamethrower. Ash saw Misty and Brock had released the Pokémon they could to help out as well. Ash then went and grabbed an umbrella from a nearby shop and used it to knock one of the grunts with the machines out and released the Poké Balls he managed to steal. Other trainers were also grabbing other objects and going after the grunts while their Pokémon took out the grunts' Pokémon.
Pikachu saw the idiot trio hanging around with their Pokémon out and called Shellder and Krabby over. "Combination attack!" Pikachu called, letting his cheeks spark. Shellder used Water Gun, Krabby used Bubble Beam, and Pikachu used Thunderbolt; the three attacks colliding to hit their target, sending Jessie, James, Meowth, Koffing, and Ekans flying off the boat and landing on a piece of wood in the middle of the ocean.
Once their leaders were gone, the grunts decided to ditch the plan and escape. There was a cheer of victory as Team Rocket left and everyone went to collect the Poké Balls that had been stolen and return them to their owners.
Ash returned his pokemon, expect for Pikachu, thanking them for their help, as did Misty and Brock. The victory was short lived though, soon after Team Rocket was gone, the weather turned bad and the ship started to rock violently.
"No need to worry," The captain came out to say but it wasn't too convincing as he suddenly got on a lifeboat and left.
"What happened to the captain goes down with the ship?" Pikachu mocked and Ash tried not to laugh.
"We have to get to a life boat," Misty said, knowing exactly why the captain had known to leave. During their battle with Team Rocket, a couple of holes were put in the ship in very bad places. With the weather turning like this, there was no way the ship was going to stay afloat.
The group headed for the dock, but there was a major panic and everyone was running through there. Ash, Misty, and Brock held onto to each other not to get separated and Pikachu held on tightly to Ash's head to not fall.
Once on deck they were heading towards a lifeboat when the boat violently shook and Ash tripped, getting knocked overboard. Misty tried to hold onto his hand to pull him up, but it was too much and she got pulled overboard as well, shortly followed by Brock who was also trying to pull them up.
Once in the water, there was a bad current that started to pull them. Misty, who the best swimmer among them, knew she had no shot alone. She reached for her Poké Balls, wanting to release Squirtle, Goldeen, and Staryu, her best swimmers, to help them, but picked the wrong Poké Ball and released her Magikarp who splashed around.
"Sorry, Magikarp," Misty mumbled trying to return him but before she could, the current pulled her under.
Magikarp watched as the only trainer who was ever nice to him was pulled under and knew he had to save her. He went swimming towards her but at the rate he could swim he knew he would never make it. He needed to get to her though and he willed more power and then suddenly started to glow. Soon he was a large Gyarados and easily made it to Misty, getting her on top of his head before surfacing.
Misty had seen Magikarp coming towards her and saw the glow. Not long later she was on top of him, safe and coughing out water. She looked at the Poké Ball still in her hand and at the Gyarados. Fear rose in her, but as she looked at him and knew he had rescued her, she knew she had nothing to fear from her Gyarados.
"Ash and Brock," Misty said. "We need to find them."
Gyarados didn't know the two, but if his trainer wanted them he would find them. Swimming as fast as he could in the direction the current was going he looked around. Misty was the one who spotted them.
It seemed Ash had managed to release Krabby and Shellder. The two weren't strong enough to swim the two humans and one Pokémon anywhere but they had managed to keep their heads above water. Krabby was holding up Pikachu by the arm and Ash by the hair, also managing to keep Ash's hat on. Shellder was under Brock's head keeping him up.
"Them," Misty said, pointing at them and Gyarados wasted no time getting the two humans and three Pokémon on his back.
Ash, Brock, and Pikachu were unconscious. "Ash," Misty said, going over to him. He was still breathing, which was good. "Come on Ash. Wake up," Ash coughed up some water and looked to see Misty's face very close to his. Misty backed away after a second, a little embarrassed.
"Are we on a Gyarados?" the two heard Brock say and noticed Brock and Pikachu were both up.
"Yeah my Gyarados," Misty told them, shocking the two. "Magikarp evolved to save me and then he saved both of you."
"Well, thank you Gyarados," Ash said patting the sea serpent's back and checking to make sure he had all his Poké Balls. Brock and Misty checked their belts as well. Luckily, nothing was lost and Ash returned Shellder and Rudolph. "So where are we?"
"I don't know. We got dragged pretty far," Misty told him, looking around. "Gyarados, can you look for land?"
It took maybe a day of searching before they found an island. Gyarados let them off at the dock and what seemed to be a worker ran up. "Only people allowed on this island are ones who come from our boats," the girl said angrily and Gyarados growled at her, making her back off.
Misty held up her hand to Gyarados as they explained what happened with the Saint Anne. The girl had clearly heard of the wreck before, and she calmed down. "So where are we?" Brock asked.
"The Island of Giant Pokémon. It's an amusement park island. Half the island has our very large robot Pokémon and the other half is a normal amusement park." the girl answered. "You can use the guest phones to call home and let everyone know your okay."
The girl held them into the office and pointed out the phone for them. All three decided it was best to call home and Ash went to call his mom. She had heard about the Saint Anne and that Ash had been lost at sea and was so relieved when he called. It was a couple of minutes of his mom worrying about him and then reminding him not to forget to change his underwear before he hung up.
Pikachu was laughing from his spot. "She does that to you a lot," Pikachu said as Ash dialed Professor Oak who seemed surprised and happy to hear from him.
"I'm glad you're okay, my boy," Oak said.
"Thanks," Ash said. "How are Nidorino and Peter doing?"
"Your Nidorino is wonderful. Always helping out and is really great," Oak said. "Peter, on the other hand, is a handful. He keeps trying to start fights with everyone, except the water Pokémon." Ash nodded, having expected that.
"Sorry. I tell him to be good, but he does tend to do that," Ash said and then noticed a Nidorino walk in. 'Is that my Nidorino?" It was confirmed when Nidorino heard Ash's voice and came running towards the monitor, knocking Oak out of the way. Ash smiled. "Hi, it's good to see you. How are you liking being at Oak's lab?"
Nidorino stared talking and Pikachu translated. "He says he misses everyone but is enjoying a bit of relaxing and he likes Professor Oak."
Ash smiled. "Well, don't worry, I'll be taking you back on the team sometime soon, but for now I'm going to leave you and Peter there for a bit."
"He says he understands," Pikachu said.
"Continue training and help Professor Oak keep Peter in check," Ash requested and then Professor Oak took back the phone.
"So what gym are you…" Before Oak could finish, Misty walked up, clearly mad.
"My sisters are real pains," Misty growled, not noticing Ash was on the phone. "Can you believe what they said?"
"I don't know what they said," Ash told her, a little lost on what Misty was complaining about. He knew she was calling home from one of the other phones, but was shocked her sisters got her this upset.
"A little more information would be helpful," Pikachu added.
"I told them I got a Gyarados and they said that I would never be able to control a Gyarados and that I should just send him to the gym to be in their shows. Then they had the nerve to ask when I was sending my Pokémon to them because they could really use my Staryu for one of their shows. I told them to back off, but when I send my Pokémon there, they are not going to be able to train. My sisters will have them working for their shows and I just don't know what to do."
"Maybe I could help," Misty was shocked when she heard Professor Oak's voice and turned around. She turned red, not having realized Ash was still on the phone. "I could set it up to have your Pokémon transported to the lab."
"Really?" Misty asked.
"Yes, I have areas here for water Pokémon to train and swim. I'm sure your Pokémon will be happy when they are here," Oak said.
"Thank you, professor," Misty said with a smile.
Professor Oak didn't some typing on the computer for a few minutes. "It's done. I'm going to have to make you a Pokédex and send it to the Saffron City pokemon center. Until you get it your Poké Balls will lock when over the limit and you'll have to send them to me," Oak explained. " You're specializing in water Pokémon, right?"
Misty nodded. "But I do have a Gloom," she added.
"Well instead of giving you the standard Kanto Region Pokédex, I'm going to give you a specialized one with all known species of water Pokémon in it. I'll add Gloom and its evolved form information in as well. If you catch any other non water types, it can always be added."
"Thank you again," Misty said and Ash said his goodbyes before hanging up. "Well, that worked out nicely."
"Yeah it did," Ash said with a smile and then Brock walked up.
"So none of the girls here want to be my girlfriend," Brock muttered, making the two roll their eyes. "But I got us tickets to the amusement park. I wanted to see the giant robot pokemon show, but apparently there is technical difficultly. The manager also included in a special band that's usually only for VIP so we can cut the lines. Said it was because of everything we've been through."
"Awesome," Ash and Misty said together and followed Brock to go get their bracelets to get on the rides.
Once at the amusement park area, Ash released Charmander as well, sensing he was getting impatient in his Poké Ball. Brock ran away from them the minute he saw a beautiful girl to flirt with.
"Aren't you going to go pull his ear or something?" Ash asked Misty. Whenever Brock got too friendly with a Joy or Jenny, she went and pulled his ear to take him away.
"Think I'm going to let him be this time. Don't want to ruin my good time to prevent him from talking to every girl here," Misty joked and Ash laughed.
The two went off together, getting on some rides first and then going to play some of the games. Ash got a lot of points on a game where you threw balls about the same size as a Poké Ball at a target. Enough points to get a Blastoise stuffed animal. Misty won a little Charizard stuffed animal at a fishing game.
Ash held out the one he won to her. "For you," he said with a smile.
"I love it," Misty said, taking the stuffed animal and hugging it. She then took out the little Charizard she got. "Here, from me to you." Misty gave it to Ash.
Ash smiled. "Thank you. It's great," Ash told her, putting it away in his bag.
Misty then caught sight of the biggest roller coaster in the park. "Come on, let's go," Misty said, dragging Ash along.
"Misty, I don't think so," Ash said, backing away.
"Come on! What, are you scared?" Misty joked and then saw Ash's face. "You are. Come on. We're going on."
Ash didn't want to, but couldn't seem to argue with Misty. Pikachu jumped off his shoulder and sat down with Charmander. "We'll wait here," Pikachu said, sitting by the exit of the rollercoaster.
"Traitors," Ash thought back as the two pokemon laughed at the look on their trainer's face as he was dragged onto the roller coaster. When they got off though, Ash didn't looked scared or horrified. He looked excited.
"That was awesome. Let's do that again," Ash said and Misty laughed, joining him as he went back on.
The day passed by and at the end of the night, Ash was returning Charmander again as they got back on Misty's Gyarados, following the direction the park employees gave them.
Ash's Pokémon(+ means still learning)
Scyther (Sarge) (M): Vacuum Wave, Quick Attack, Leer, Focus Energy, Pursuit, False Swipe, Agility, Wing Attack, Slash, Razor wind, X-Scissor+ Egg Move: Steel Wing (Locked).
Geodude (Peter) (M): Defense Curl, Tackle, Mud Sport, Rollout, Rock Throw, Magnitude. Egg move- Hammer arm (unlocked)
Pikachu (M): Thunder Shock, Thunder Wave, Quick Attack, Thunderbolt, Iron Tail, Agility, Thunder+ Egg Move: Volt Tackle (locked)
Shellder (F): Tackle, Withdraw, Icicle Shard, Razor Shell, Protect, Aurora Bean, Ice Beam. Egg Move: Water Gun (unlocked)
Nidorino (M): Leer, Peck, Focus Energy, Double Kick, Poison Sting, Drill Run, Fury Attack, Horn Attack. No egg move.
Bulbasaur (M): Tackle, Growl, Vine Whip, Poison Powder, Sleep Powder, Take Down, Razor Leaf, Sweet Scent, Growth, Double Edge and Worry Seed. Egg move: Nature Power (semi-unlocked)
Charmander (M) : Growl, Scratch, Ember, Smokescreen, Flamethrower, Metal Claw, Fire Fang, Flame Burst. Egg move: Dragon Rush (Locked)
Krabby (Rudolph) (M): Mud Sport, Bubble, Vice Grip, Leer, Harden, Bubble Beam, Mud Shot.
Misty's Pokémon:
Staryu: Harden, Tackle, Water Gun, Rapid Spin, Recover, Bubble Beam, Gyro Ball, Camouflage. No Egg Move
Seel (M): Headbutt, Growl, Water Sport, Icy Wind, Encore, Ice Shard, Ice Beam, Drill Run. Egg Move: Signal Beam.
Goldeen (F): Peck, Tail Whip, Water Sport, Supersonic, Horn Attack, Flail, Water Pulse, Aqua Ring. Egg Move: no egg move
Gloom (F): Absorb, Sweet Scent, Acid, Poison Powder, Stun Spore, Sleep Powder, Giga Drain, Mega Drain. Egg Move: Razor Leaf(unlocked)
Squirtle (M): Tackle, Tail Whip, Water Gun, Bubble, Bite, Rapid Spin, Protect. Egg move: Aqua Jet
Gyarados (M): Tackle, Thrash, Bite, Dragon Rage