The PokéLife Chose Me

Season 2, Episode 4

'The Sensational Sisters Are Wet'

Ash's Gym, Pallet Town

The heat of the midday sun radiated the dusty paddock like an aura, permeating the ground with a summer haze that sizzled to the sound of the insect's chirps. The sound of peak summer were interrupted by the crack of a sledgehammer on wood, followed by the thick, heavy sound of pierced, packed earth. The impacts came at a slow and steady pace, creating a steady rhythm that came out of the boredom of labor being spiced up with the urge to play. The thump for a percussive beat, and the whistle and grunt from the laborer, his exhausting task turned to joyous song.

Even his body had limits, as the hot sun and sweat stained shirt reminded him. He set his sledgehammer down and tossed his sweaty shirt off. In the water trough, filled to capacity by his latest acquired Squirtle earlier in the morning, he splashed water over his suntanned skin. Only when refreshed did he spare a minute to look at himself. He was never much of an athlete, but the months of hard labor gave him muscles he didn't have before. This was a man getting fit through labor, a slow rebuilding of himself to reflect the progress of his pokémon gym's construction.

Both the change in himself, and that of his passion project long delayed by years of celebrity, gave him a sense of completion.

What wasn't complete was his paddock. Pounding in posts worked wonders for his physique, but made for slow progress. His partner was the experienced laborer who could have explained the concepts of a post holer and a pneumatic hammer to save them time, but in his absence Ash made due.

He thought about getting more cement for the post base until he heard a vehicle stop on the asphalt of his newly laid parking lot. He finished washing himself and casually walked over to meet the new visitor.

When a tall redhead with a tomboyish haircut and a business suit came out of the car Ash's face lit up with delight.

"Hey there Pikachu!" The electric rodent stopped the hamster wheel connected to the cement mixer to wave hello and greet the new arrival with a squeaky 'pikachu!'.

"Misty!" Ash called and waved, with Pikachu hopping on his shoulder to join them.

"Ash!" She cried out, though with less cutesy enthusiasm than she displayed with his companion. "How have you been!? I haven't seen you since..."

"..the Pokémon World's Tournament! It's been too long!"

Doused or not, Ash still sweated, prematurely halting Misty's hug on her old friend. His attempts to hug back were artfully dodged and countered with a swat to the back of his head!

Nursing a giant goose egg pulsing out the back of his noggin, Ash sheepishly apologized, "Sorry. I've been building all day."

"I can tell." Her dry delivery lightened up. "You're getting strong. And your gym's really coming along."

"Sure is!" Ash proudly stated. "I just got the parking lot paved. The main building and indoor arena is complete. The outdoor arena's already been leveled and marked, and the Tauros pasture's almost done. After I finish the paddock we'll start construction on the PokéMart and the Pokémon clinic. When that's complete Pallet Town will have it's first fully-integrated Pokémon gym!"

"About time too!" Misty shot a wry look. "You're not looking to put my gym out of business, are you?"

Ash shook his head. "Noooo! Not a chance! Well, maybe Viridian City Gym."

"The one that always ends up as a Team Rocket front?"

"Yeah, that one. I think some rich banker's kid owns it now. But yours? Never. How is your old gym doing?"

Misty gave a shrug. "I don't know. I've been travelling the last several years looking for exotic water pokémon to add to the aquarium. I left my sisters to run the place."

Ash gave a sympathetic wince. "Ohhhhh nooooo..."

"I know, I know!" Misty threw her hands up. "But they ditch me all the time! Vacations, world tours, beauty pagents, spa days, plastic surgery, any excuse to me with all the responsibility. Now they're not so busy. They can take on the workload for a change!"

Ash chuckled, stepping back a safe distance before any further talk triggered her redheaded wraith. "I dunno. Your sisters aren't known for their smarts. Are you sure it was wise to leave them in charge?"

"They've run the gym before, Ash."

"Yeah... into the ground." Ash lamented. "Their business model was synchronized swimming and the occasional pokémon battle. How are they expected to run a gym with that?"

"I know, right? That's why I'm revitalizing the Pokémon aquarium." Misty's shoulders slumped as she sighed. "I know they can't run a gym if their life depended on it, but I needed to get away. You know what they're like! It was bad enough when they were famous and I was the loser little sister. Now that I'm successful and they're the washed-up has-beens they've been even more insufferable!"

"You have my sympathy." Ash drolled. "I only have my mom and an ex-criminal just off a twenty year competition ban on my staff. And he's out regaining his badges."

"Wait, the guy who punched his opponent in the middle of a duel?"

"The same..."

"Wow."

"Yeah. But he has a good heart... kind of. And he's trying to turn his life around." Ash turned from serious to lighthearted. "We had a great battle together! Really worked out our differences!"

"Oh yeah! I saw that on PokéTube. How'd he get so close to beating you?"

"I might have gone easy on him."

Misty narrowed her eyes. "Really?"

Ash slinked back, ashamed. "Okay, maybe not. Even if he's not a pokémon master he's really good, honest!"

She exhaled sharply. "Go figure you'd almost get your butt kicked by a bush league trainer. I shouldn't be surprised, though. You always had your blind spots, but you always have a way of turning enemies into friends. You'll always be you, Ash."

"Heh heh... thanks Misty!" Ash removed his ballcap and scratches his head. "So, how long are you visiting?"

Misty replied, "Just for the day. Then I'm driving back to Cerulean City to work on my gym."

"Just don't expect much, okay?"

Misty scoffed, "I know my sisters have the collective IQ of an Oddish, but I left it running so smoothly even they could do it. Seriously, with all the business and maintenance outsourced all they had to do was battle and swim. It would take an act of god to turn the Cerulean City Gym into total..."

"SHIT!"

The Reichsmotor Menschenbeweger hippy van stopped to a smoke-belching halt in front of a sorry sight.

They were at Cerulean City Gym, but not as they once knew it.

The large, circular water park was in a dilapidated state. Once in soft, cheerful pastels, the sun-faded paint peeled and curled, exposing rotten grey wood and rust-streaked bare concrete. Grimy windows, untouched by rags or window cleaner for months, hid the scattershot papers and spread out office and building detritus seen in its darkened entranceway. The big, smiling Dewgong, the gym mascot arced prominently over the entrance, now looked ratty and torn as the elements chipped its plaster and tore its canvas coverings, a single eye, held together by an electrical cable, drooping out like the mutilated undead.

And on the front entrance were two faded pieces of paper. The first was notice from the Maranzano Collections Agency regarding outstanding debts on the gym's mortgage, the important parts in Arial Black Bold, the most menacing of fonts.

There was another notice written in black marker.

This was not on Rory Traynor's mind as he lamented his luck. "Son of a Stantler-knuckled cock slut! It's closed!"

Gogo the Dragonite, her ponderous bulk shifting the hippy van until it shocks swayed it from side to side, sang in her species' whalesong. "MMMmrmrrrrrhhhhh?" ("Fuck! I don't get to fight today?")

From the open door of her hippy van, travelling companion Phyllis Greene shouted, "Gee, what gave you that idea? Was it the locked doors or the fact it looks like methheads squat here?"

"Actually it's fenty, fuck you very much." Rory kicked aside a discarded naloxone kit out of frustration. "And sweet monkey Jesus it's not that either! There I was, building a gym in the middle of stumblefuck prefecture, one I have to share with the local hero of all people! Meanwhile there's a perfectly good gym in a major city I could have fixed up for pennies on the dollar! God I feel like a fucking chump!"

"Yeah." Phyllis mumbled. "That's what makes you feel like a chump. That alone. Exclusively."

"Damn right! And because the Pokémon League doesn't update its maps now we're stuck! The Cascade Badge is still official. How the hell am I gonna get one if the damn gym's shut down?!"

"You could see where they relocated. Look on the door."

"Dafuq?"

"Right next to the collection notice, dumbass."

"Well, violate me with an Oddish." There it was. Written in black marker, under a sun-faded picture of the Sensational Sisters (who looked not bad in their photo for women in their forties, not aged a day since twenty), was a note notifying any visitors the Cerulean City Gym relocated, complete with name and directions. "It's all right here."

"See? No problem."

"Big problem." He snatched the picture from the wall. "It's signed 'The Sensational Sisters'. I don't think Misty's in charge any more. Kinda throws our plan out the window."

"Not really. They're not Misty, but they're still the same family. Now where do we go?"

"It's at a pond near the Kanto Power Plant." He snatched the picture off the wall. "At least we'll know who to look for. Now let's move! We're going to..."

"...Rank Richard's Lagoon."

Rory and Phyllis surveyed the scene with a sense of disappointment. The lagoon portion was a misnomer. It was more of a slough, a watery marshland of choking weeds, overgrown grass, and mud-colored brambles surrounding a small, festering pool of sickly green shaded algae.

Some call the marshy area teeming with life. Rory called it 'Fucking disgusting', and that was before the addition of old rubber tires, floating garbage, and a run-down shed with a tin roof and a driftwood dock extending into the foul muck.

"It smells like dick in here." Phyllis pressed a handkerchief over her nose to mask the smell.

"That's no surprise." Rory wrinkled his nose. "The waste treatment plant and the Kanto Power Plant really fucked up the ecology. It's a great place to find grimers and koffings. Anyone else? They'd have to be pretty stupid or desperate."

"Hey! That's our home you're talking about! What are you doing here?!"

The objection came from one of the three bathing-suit clad women emerging from the shack. While Rory's ears detected the lilt of an attractive if middle-aged woman, his eyes registered even faster that a voice could whiscash a person faster than the brain could register.

Lily could have been a poster-child for anorexia, as her swimsuit hugged visibly starved ribs. Her bony arms struggled with her hairbrush, caught in the tangles of frazzled, fire-engine red hair, whose roots exposed grey like the dull, weathered planks of their dock. The blonde sister, Daisy, proved she was twice the woman she used to be by being... twice the woman she used to be, as her ratty blonde hair ringed cheeky jowls and her bathing suit strained to contain her flab. And then there was Violet, probably the only sister with a semblance of a once-beautiful shape, with implants like flotation devices, and a flat, featureless face which looked like her skin was stretched over a mannequin's head.

Rory took a look at the photo of what they were, and looked again at the women they became, and uttered, "You're the Sensational Sisters?"

Daisy replied in a throaty growl. "Damn right!"

"Leaders of the Cerulean City Gym?"

Lily answered, "We sure are!"

"World-famous water performers and water pokémon specialists?"

Violet voice rasped a smoky, "The very same. And we don't have copper pipes any more so you can leave, methheads!"

He took another look at the photo, just to be sure. Then back to their shabby surroundings and shabbier selves. Then he looked at himself. Worn jeans, a battlejacket festooned with aged patches, and Phyl dressed up like an old hippy. He could see the resemblance, but took it personally. "Jesus Christ." Rory rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I was gonna challenge you all for the Cascade Badge, but I see you've got enough troubles of your own. What the fuck happened?"

While Phyllis and Gogo collapsed in giggling fits, Rory inadvertantly set off the Sensational Sisters like a dropped grenade. Their faces turned hostile, though it was much harder to tell with Violet, who spoke first. "What happened?! WHAT HAPPENED?! I'll tell you what happened! Our no good runt of a sister ran off to go 'find herself', leaving us with all the work! You know how hard it is to run an aquarium and a gym?! HUH?!"

Daisy jowled, "Then business went down even though we were hotter and better than ever! The staff refused to work 'cause they wanted 'minimum wage', 'better work life balance' and 'sick days'. We're entertainers. We don't get that stuff, why should they?!"

Then it was Lily's turn. "We couldn't find help, so things fell apart and nobody wanted to visit anymore so we had to relocate near the only that isn't either developed or totally ruined!"

"Uhhhh huh." Rory rolled his eyes, at this point bored of the sister's woeful story. "It sounds like you all have a lot to deal with. Maybe I should talk to the one in charge, right? Where's Misty?"

Violet fumed, "We're the ones in charge, not that little runt! We gave her a useless title like 'operations manager' and pawned off all the boring stuff to her. Then she had to go all Eat-Pray-and-Love on us, and when we asked for her help she told us, 'Figure it out, it's not that hard.' Well it'ss hard!" She framed her botoxed face, vogue style, with her fingers, "You try keeping this beautiful while running a business!"

"I gained weight from the stress!" Daisy screamed.

"Me too!" Lily joined in.

"You wish, toothpick! All you gained was an eating disorder!"

"And you lost the ability to count calories, miltank butt!"

"Okayokayokay, FUCK!" Rory snarled. "Look, I'm here for a Cascade Badge. That's it! Can I earn one, or do I have to listen to your sob story for the next several hours?!"

The Sensational Sisters looked at each other and blinked vacantly. Violet spoke up first. "Ummm, we don't 'do' that any more."

"We do water ballet." Daisy chimed in.

Lily capped it off. "We've expanded our repertoire to include more... adult displays." She slid the strap of her bathing suit down off her shoulder.

"Like the Cirque de Soliel in Vegas, only better!" Daisy grabbed the straps of her swimsuit as if ready to rip them off, strongman style.

"Ugh!" Rory recoiled in disgust, grabbing a pokéball and tossing it into the reeds. "You know what? Fuck it. Raichu, I choose you!"

A wake cut through the water like a scythe, and out emerged Raichu, the Alolan variant electric rodent riding on it's surfboard-shaped tail, a triumphant squeak of 'RAICHU!' celebrating its electromagnetically charged dash of freedom.

Daisy said, "Looks like we're doing this after all. Violet, Lily, take care of this loser."

"Uhhh, I dunno, looks like came prepared." Lily said.

"Stop being children and tag-team his stupid ass!"

"Right! Seaking, I choose you!" A gigantic fish pokémon's horn emerged from the water like a periscope.

"Whoa! Time out!" Phyllis interjected. "You can't gangbeat trainers. League rules."

Violet raised her chin and sniffed, "Can someone tell that ugly old hippy to mind her own business?"

Phyl clenched a pokéball in her trembling fingers so hard the plastic shell creaked. "Someone wanna ask that leather-faced bitch if she wants to fight me, 'cause I'll throw down!"

"Awwww..." Violet, her face lacking the ability to express human emotion, dripped condescension from her voice alone. "Don't hate me 'cause I'm beautiful. The only thing getting thrown is the truth right in your face, hag! Dewgong, I choose you!" From out of the water, Dewgong flipped gracefully and dived back in.

"Honey, I wouldn't even hatefuck you with your daddy's dick! Tangrowth, I choose you!" Out from Phyllis' pokéball came a shaggy plant pokémon wearing a floppy Rastafarian hat. It planted its feet while its bloodshot eyes aimed murderously at the gracefully swimming Dewgong.

Rory declared, "All right, let's kick out the jams! Raichu! Thundershock!"

Phyllis shouted, "Tangrowth, infestation! Make 'em itch!"

"That's your tagline?"

"Fuck off. Yours is worse... oh shit,, they're starting!"

Raichu cut the surface of the water and looked around for a target. He briefly found the Seaking's horn and shot lightning in its direction. Quickly, the horn dived seconds before the lightning hit the water. Not seeing an electrified Seaking belly-up on the surface, Raichu, growing frustrated, began to shoot lightning blind into the water. As it detonated its electric charges, suddenly his surfboard-like tail struck the Seaking's giant horn. Raichu skipped across the water like a stone, landing in the muck and reeds of the shore. While it shook off mud and dirt, its laments of pain turned to screams of surprise as the Seaking bit down on its tail and dragged it back into the pond, leaving nothing but disturbed growth and furrows of paw-clutched mud.

Tangrowth's spasms shook off clouds of gnatty little insects, flying forwards like an inky swarm at Dewgong. When it flopped on the surface of the pond the insects dove in to swarm and bite. Other than a blink of its eyes and a shake of its slender body, the Dewgong was undisturbed. The insects, on landing on its cold surface and finding nothing but dense white fur and thick, blubbery skin, began to freeze and die off. The rest of the incoming infestation swarm went for the one bodily weakness in Dewgong, flying for it's mouth, not smart enough to see the formation of chilled air deep in its throat until it released an ice beam, destroying the infestation swarm and striking Tangrowth's side. It howled in pain as the plant being's shaggy dreadlocks froze solid on one side of its body.

"Damn, we're getting our asses kicked. Seriously, why'd you pick a plant type?" Rory said, indignantly.

"What?" Phyllis shrugged. "These bitches are one-type wonders. We should be mopping the floor with 'em."

"Yeah, only she didn't bring out a water type. She brought out an ice type! You didn't think they'd see their one weakness coming and prepare for it?"

"Ohhhhhhh..." Phyllis looked down at her hands. "Yeah... I do stupid shit when I'm angry."

"Just that?"

"Okay... also when I'm high. I had some 'shrooms while we stopped at the Cerulean City gym."

"You were driving high?!"

"Dude, I always drive high."

"What should I expect? You're perpetually high! Christ!"

"Hey! I'm not the one who tossed a Raichu who can't hit the broad side of Daisy's ass with LIGHTNING of all things!"

"Ease up! It's his first time."

"You took an inexperienced Raichu into battle against a gym leader?! You don't just dive them into the deep end on their first day! What the fuck?!"

"Okay, enough!" Daisy said. "Sisters... finish 'em!"

"RIGHT! ATTACK!" Violet and Lily spoke in unison. With momentum on their side, the sister's pokémon pressured Tangrowth and Raichi with punishing assaults, keeping the two opponents off balance. Raichu breached the pond's surface, gasping for air until it was dragged down again, while Tangrowth, stiff from multiple ice beams, couldn't even move, except for two dreadlocks somehow not encased in ice.

It wasn't looking good until Phyllis had some inspiration.

"Crisscross." Phyllis said.

"What?" Rory answered, confused.

"You know, what we talked about in the van. If they counter our types... switch opponents. Crisscross! And the other thing."

"What other thing?"

"You know... the Misty thing. She has a temper. I bet the whole family does!"

"Oh! Right!" Rory said in a loud voice, "Attention you has-been bitches! It's been fun, but now it's time to prove the only one that wants to fuck you is probability. Raichu, tail whip!"

An exhausted Raichu breached the pond's surface and grunted its squeaky battlecry as its tail whipcracked out of the water, taking with it a Seaking biting down upon it.

"Vine whip 'em like he's a Sensational Sister at an S&M party!" Phyllis commanded. The Tangrowth's remaining dreads shot out, smacking the Seaking on its side, lashing it's trajectory away until it flopped uselessly in the grass. While Tangrowth kept whipping the Seaking on the tailfin, Raichu crawled out of the water and mud to face off against the Dewgong. It didn't need a command to know what to do next. A thunderbolt fried the ice pokémon, knocking it out instantly.

"Two sister's down!" Rory dusted off his hands. "One to go."

"Better hurry before the smell of fried Dewgong hits her nose." Phyllis jested.

Rory chuckled. "Yeah. She's lookin' pretty hungry..."

"Must not have eaten in the past hour."

"Shit, the past minute..."

"I'm a perfect beauty just the way I am!" Daisy objected.

"Perfect alright. Perfectly rotund. Like a globe." Rory quipped.

"Her belt size must be the Tropic of Capricorn." Phyllis added.

"I've had enough of your body shaming!" Furious, Daisy screamed, "gyarados, hydro pump, NNNOOOWWW!"

Rory took a step back out of caution. "Wait, since when was there a live gyarados on the field... HOLY SHIT!"

His step back turned into a full tilt run as he and Raichu scrambled out of the way of a huge wave of water and muck. A column black and green filth shot high into the air, and out from it came the crimson head of a gigantic water serpent. It let out a roaring bellow as its head tracked for targets. Catching the Raichu out in the open, it reared back, its throat swelling until it expelled a massive stream of water with enough pressure to rend a trench through the muddy ground. Raichu and Tangela, in the path of the blast, were propelled screaming into the bushes, until they crashed and screamed no more.

Rory and Phyllis returned the fallen pokémon to their pokéballs. Phyllis gasped, "That's a shiny gyarados."

"Yup." Daisy flashed V for victory with her fingers. "The one Raichu spent the last several minutes bombarding his home with lightning bolts, and all it did was make it mad. And like us, his dragon rage only makes him stronger. You better surrender now before the real beatdown begins!"

Slack-jawed, Phyllis uttered, "On a scale of one to infinity how fucked are we?"

"RRRRRRRROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!" gyarados' scream cut through the air like a distorted contrabass cranked up to maximum volume and amplified by nuclear-powered speakers. It aimed its angry eyes straight at Rory and shrieked once more, its fishy breath blasting Rory backwards.

He had his answer. As remote as going to prison and leaving it still an anal virgin.

But not entirely hopeless.

Rory picked himself up and patted his Dragonite on the back. "Gogo, you're up!"

Gogo shook her head and backed away. "Mmmrrrhhhh? MMRMRRRRR Mmrrrhhhf hhmmmfff!" ("What?! That thing's huge and it wants to kill us! No fucking way!")

Rory watched as Gogo lost her nerve. He spoke up, quick and fierce. "GOGO! Listen to me!" He pointed to his eyes, then to hers. "You gonna let that pussy punk bitch bully you after whipping your teammate's asses?"

She hesitantly shook her head. "Mmmrrr?" ("No?")

"Then listen good. You're a strongass water dragon who stood up to the best in the world and held your own. That's an inbred shiny gyarados with weakass water attacks run by a trio of pissed-off entitled hoes sharing the same brain cell. We've got this! Now get in there so we can KICK JABBA THE SLUTT'S ASS!"

"Okay, that's the last time you make fun of my weight! gyarados, bite! Shake her like a chew toy!"

Gogo had time for one whalesong 'Mrh?' before the Red gyarados clamped down on her chest and dragged her up above the pond, furiously shaking its head and whipping the howling Dragonite back and forth. Soon, the Red gyarados swung the ragdolled Dragonite in a nausea-inducing circle, while the Dragonite struggled to get out of its mouth.

The fight wasn't looking good for his rattled and grappled companion. Rory ordered, "Gogo! Stop fucking around and dragon claw its ass!"

Snapping out of her dizziness, Gogo scrunched her face in determination, raised her one free arm, and raked the Red gyarados in the face, cutting through scales and leaving rends on the creature's face. It let out a contrabass bellow of pain, spitting out Gogo and turning its wounded face away.

"Hah!" Rory sensed the turning of the tide, and couldn't help but be a little cocky. "Dragons are weak against other dragons, and I bet you don't have nearly enough dragon attacks."

Clenching her fist, somehow synchronized with her sisters doing the same, Daisy growled, "Now that you mention it all together, girls!"

"Dragon rage!" They shouted in unison.

"Oh shit! Gogo! Fly! Evade!"

She dashed skyward as soon as the Red gyarados' dragon rage left its mouth. The energy crackled, raising the ions in the air and the hairs on Gogo's body. She bent one wing while outstretching the other, an evasive manoeuvre learned from pidgeys used to evade predators. She plummeted in altitude and dove back up before she hit the pond's surface, and well before the Red gyarados could pull away from headbutting the surface of the pond.

Daisy shrieked, alarmed. "NO! Get up, stupid! Get up and dragon rage, before he..."

Rory cut her off. "Draco fuckin' meteor. Send it!"

The Red gyarados, dazed, half-blind, and maddened with rage, shot out of the water to reach its Dragonite opponent, only Gogo flew out of its reach. It saw the energies still build up in the serpent's mouth, and knew she had little time to counter the blow.

Until the sun was blotted and a streaking meteor. The Red gyarados, laser focused, battered stupid, and nauseated by months in it's disgusting home, was hardly in the frame of mind to appreciate the energies of destruction about to come down on its head.

But it felt it as a blinding flash and a crushing blow as a force that killed the dinosaurs detonated, lighting the sky in a fiery flash that turned the pond into a destructive tsunami wave. gyarados slammed into the ground as water demolished the Sensational Sister's shack.

By some miracle the sisters were still standing, but the Red gyarados, after having a cataclysm tossed upside its head, still twitched.

"Body slam, Macho Man style." Rory said.

Like the falling of an anvil, Gogo the Dragonite's elbow bashed the Red gyarados' prone stomach, and it twitched no more.

Not a single person was unscathed. Deluged in mud and foul water, Rory extricated himself out of the mire that was the gym grounds. As Gogo landed and Phyllis emerged from the cover of a tree (remaining muckless), Rory strolled to the dock, somehow surviving the gym's destruction, to the three filth-encrusted Sensational Sisters, somehow still upright though in shock.

"Well, I guess I won." Rory said. "Can I have my Cascade Badge now?"

Violet threw the badge. "Here! Take it! Please, just go!"

It bounced off Rory's chest. He picked it up, wiped the grime off it, and put it in his battlejacket's pocket. "Thanks! You three fought pretty well. Listen, I know things got a little wild back there, and I got my own journey to finish, but after that if you're free and need help rebuilding your gym..."

"I said go you stupid ugly brute!"

"Alright." Rory backed away, hands in surrender. "Offer still stands. I mean, things got heated and stuff happened so I kinda feel like I should make it up to you..."

"FUCK OFF AND DIE!"

"It's not like I couldn't have predicted this..."

Misty stopped in the parking lot of the old Cerulean City gym. Her feet crunched on discarded glass pipes once she stepped out of her rented vehicle and surveyed the abandoned, dilapidated building. Part of her ached to see her family's gym in such a state of disrepair, decaying to the elements, the neglect of the bank who foreclosed her, and the prying fingers of the desperate looking for shelter and privacy. This was not how she wanted to remember their legacy.

Then again, it was her parent's idea to split the gym ownership, and her sister's idea to buy out her portion of the business when she decided to go 'find herself'.

While the Sensational Sisters bloomed young and wilted just as quickly, Misty used the years to better herself, both as a trainer and as a businesswoman. While her sisters squandered their legacy, she built her own. She spent the years as a world-ranked pokémon master, an explorer, a leading authority on water pokémon, and a businesswoman. The Sensational Sisters, she knew, didn't have the skills to resurrect their gym. Misty, however, did. She might have lied to Ash about the Sensational Sisters, but as far as she was concerned their downfall wasn't premeditated, it was predictable. No amount of preparedness was gonna stop it.

Satisfaction countered the bittersweet sadness of what became of her family's work as she took her smartphone out of her pocket and dialed the number found on the foreclosure notice.

"Hi... Maranzano Properties Limtied? Yes, I'd like to talk to someone about the old pokémon gym in Cerulean City?"

She would rebuild, and it was all according to plan...

TBC...