Hi everyone, it's time for the Chapter 26.
I've had a couple of people ask me whether I'm abandoning this story and the answer is no. I'm not going to abandon this story, it might take me a while to update but I will update eventually. Like I've said before I don't have as much time to write as I want and like most of the other writers on this site I have trouble with getting the ideas on the page.
I was asked a while ago about giving Ash a rival for while he's in Kanto and I'm not but I did get a message a little over a month ago from nWoreviewer, giving me an OC with a really interesting backstory. I've introduced the OC in this chapter and they'll appear again around the time of the League.
One last thing before the Chapter, I'd like to thank everyone who entered the poll. The results were the majority of people saying that I had the power levels of Ash's Pokémon right, I will make sure that Ash's older Pokémon show a clear difference from any Pokémon he catches now or the newer ones he got from his father (within reason).
Right that's enough of my babbling, let's get to the real reason you're here on with the story
Chapter 26
A Necessary Battle
All eyes turned to Meowth after his outburst, he was panting slightly and glaring at his former teammates. Meowth shifted his gaze a little, flicking his eyes towards Ash.
"Now I know why you were annoyed every time we showed up. First time this has happened to me and I'm already sick of it." The Scratch Cat Pokémon said with a sigh. He turned back to look at Jessie and James, "You two realize how stupid this is? You're attacking a Gym, even though Sabrina's Pokémon from this battle are tired there's still going to be a lot of Pokémon here that she can call on."
"That's true, I have quite a few Pokémon just as strong as the ones I just battled with." Sabrina said.
"We've done this before." Jessie said to Meowth.
"Yeah and remember how all those times ended?" Meowth retorted, Jessie and James pouted but stayed quiet. "Now to send you two packing." Pikachu and the other Pokémon started to move forward but Meowth held up a paw. "No, this is my fight. I have to do this." Ash was about to protest when Lucario stopped him.
Meowth is correct, he wants to prove to himself that he has changed. This is a test of his resolve, he wishes to show how far he's come and how he has changed since joining you. Lucario said but only Sabrina, Anabel, Ash, May and their Pokémon could hear him. Team Rocket only saw Lucario look at Ash and shake his head.
"What happened to your voice? You're speaking properly now." James asked Meowth noticing the difference in his speech.
"I spent some time with Professor Oak and he helped me learn to talk properly." Meowth answered, though it was mostly Ash's mother who helped him.
"We're not going to battle you Meowth," Jessie said, "We've got a bone to pick with the Twerp, we only recovered from that attack he used on us a week ago." Jessie and James called out Arbok, Weezing, Yanmega and Carnivine. Meowth walked forward and fixed his former teammates with a hard stare.
"You're battle's with me, I'm on Ash's side now and that means I'm going to send you blasting off." Meowth said as a growl rose in his throat, his claws grew longer and glowed white. Meowth charged forward with a roar to attack shocking the Pokémon in front of him.
(Pokémon Language Translator Activated)
"We don't want to fight you Meowth." Arbok hissed as she slithered out of the way of Meowth's Slash attack. "Don't make us hurt you."
"I don't care what you have to say, either you lay down or you fight. They're the only options you've got." Meowth retorted as he swung around with an Iron Tail catching Weezing off guard. As he landed back on the ground Meowth was hit by Carnivine using Bullet Seed, he was send sprawling across the ground but he got up and ducked under the next volley of glowing yellow seeds. Meowth ran forwards dodging each blast of seeds as his claws took on a dark purple energy, when he was close enough Meowth slashed across Carnivine's body with Night Slash. Jessie and James were surprised to see Meowth using new moves and battling in a way they'd never seen him do before. Previously Meowth was limited to Fury Swipes, Scratch and on one occasion Bite but here he was using Slash, Iron Tail and Night Slash among other moves. A few years earlier they remembered that Meowth had said he could use Night Slash but wouldn't because it was too scary. Jessie and James briefly shared a look, they had no idea what Ash had been doing but he'd completely changed Meowth, the normal type was dodging and countering like he'd been doing it for years.
The Twerp's turned Meowth into real battling machine. James thought. After getting over her initial shock Jessie started to call out attacks to her Pokémon, telling them to attack Ash but Meowth kept jumping in to either stopping Arbok and Yanmega from creating the attacks or destroy/deflect the attack that had already been fired. All the way through the battle Team Rocket's Pokémon were trying to reason with Meowth, to get him to stop attacking them and re-join the team but the Scratch Cat Pokémon ignored them and kept fighting, taking hits and pushing through the pain to keep going. It was obvious to everyone that even though he kept going Meowth was getting tired, even though he'd gotten stronger he still lacked the strength and stamina that his opponents had.
"Arbok, Wrap Meowth!" Jessie shouted. "Yanmega use Sonic Boom on the Twerp." Arbok glided across the floor and was about to coil around Meowth when he quickly spun to face her and shot a Dark Pulse from his coin. Meowth then sprinted towards Yanmega dropping onto all fours to get more speed, out of the corner of his eye he saw Weezing coming in for a Tackle attack. Waiting until the last second Meowth jumped into the air and pushed off of Weezing to get more speed. Carnivine floated up to catch Meowth with a Bite attack but missed as Meowth spun into an Iron Tail to springboard him into Yanmega's line of fire. Meowth took the Sonic Boom straight to the chest and had the wind knocked out of him as he crashed to the ground.
"Arbok, Gunk Shot. Yanmega, Ancient Power on Meowth." Jessie commanded.
"Weezing, Sludge, Carnivine, Bullet Seed." James added. The four Pokémon charged their attacks quickly as Meowth slowly started to lift himself off the ground.
"Meowth please, this is your last chance to change your mind." Yanmega said pleadingly not wanting to hurt her friend anymore. Meowth lifted his head gradually struggling to meet the Ogre Darner Pokémon's eyes.
"I'll never go back, NEVER!" Meowth used the last of his strength and pushed himself to his feet and quickly charged up one last attack. He felt the coin on his head start to hum with energy as it glow with dark purple energy, as Team Rocket's Pokémon released their attacks he fired a Dark Pulse. Reaching deeper into himself then he'd ever done before Meowth put everything he had into the Dark Pulse but under the pressure of the attacks coming towards him his Dark Pulse was being forced backwards. Meowth knew that he was on the verge of collapse as the attacks edged closer, he'd nearly given up when a stream of crackling yellow electricity joined his own attack. The Thunderbolt was joined by a beam of icy blue energy and another beam of black energy edged in red which Meowth recognized as Night Shade. The four attacks were given another boost as a ball of blue energy with a pink tinge and another ball of deep blue energy, all of these attacks combined threw Team Rocket's assault back causing it to explode in mid-air.
Meowth fell to one knee and slowly managed to look back over his shoulder, Pikachu, Glaceon, Gengar, Gardevoir and Lucario were all stood there in battle stances. Pikachu walked forward, stopping next to Meowth.
"You're part of the family now, and a family fights together. You don't need to prove yourself to anyone, not even yourself. You're one of us now, take a rest cause I'll need you in a minute." Pikachu said with a small smile on his mouth, Gardevoir gently pulled Meowth to his feet and moved back with him, while Glaceon, Gengar and Lucario moved up next to Pikachu. Meowth teared up a little at Pikachu's words and seeing them step up to help him.
"Pull yourself together." Gengar teased, looking back at the Meowth slightly. Meowth fixed him with a glare but Gengar just chuckled and turned to fully face his opponents.
"I've got the snake, you guys take who you want." The other Pokémon nodded and charged into battle.
Lucario went for Weezing, sending a flurry of Bullet Punches into the Poison Gas Pokémon before he could react, Glaceon attacked Yanmega with Ice Beam as she tried to restrict the speedy bug types movements and Gengar did what came naturally fading in and out of sight scaring Carnivine and keeping the grass type on his toes, metaphorically speaking, as the Shadow Pokémon attacked from different angles. Pikachu was dashing around Arbok using Iron Tail to deflect her attacks and Quick Attack to try and tie her in a knot.
The doors of the battlefield burst open as one of the Gym assistants ran into the room, he stalled when he saw the battle happening but quickly snapped out of it when Sabrina called out his name.
"Sebastian, what's wrong?" Sabrina asked, she wasn't going to read his mind as she didn't want to invade his privacy however she could sense the panic in his mind from just a cursory telepathic glance. Sebastian was a Gym assistant that worked at Silph Co. on the days he wasn't at the Gym.
"There's been a break in a Silph Co. Mistress Sabrina. The Master Ball plans have been stolen." He answered, panting for breath as he'd ran from Silph Co. to the Gym. Team Rocket looked away and tried to look innocent, whistling a tune.
"You two actually did it?" Meowth said surprised, drawing attention to himself.
"What do you mean?" Sabrina asked. Meowth took a deep breath as Gardevoir used Heal Pulse on him to help him regain his energy.
"Team Rocket's been trying for years to get the Master Ball plans but Silph Co. always has them under heavy guard, the only time they're even remotely vulnerable is on the rare occasion that a Master Ball needs to be made. From the information that Team Rocket had I know that plans are kept on a USB drive in a sealed vault. When a Master Ball needs to be made the plans are couriered to the factory in Kalos, that's the only place with the equipment to bring the pieces together the machines are exclusive patents for that particular factory. The plans are put in a suitcase and handcuffed to the courier, they then get in a helicopter and fly from the roof of Silph Co. to the airport. It sound simple enough to steal but the thing is there's more than one courier and more than one helicopter. Once the plans are put into one of the suitcases by Silph Co.'s president he leaves the room and another person goes in to mix up the suitcases after that the couriers go into the room and pick up a suitcase. None of them know whether they have the plans or not, they then go to the roof and get in the helicopters. The pilots are all given a random envelope, when they're in the air they open it and that tells them what airport they're going to. When they get to their airports they get on the plane and once the plane has taken off the pilots of the planes open an envelope they've been given that tells them where they're going and only one is going to Kalos. It's nearly impossible to work out which courier started out with the plans and then with all the decoy helicopters and planes it's even harder to find the plans." Meowth paused to take a breath as everyone stopped and listened to him, even the Pokémon who had been battling, he ignored the glares he was getting from Jessie and James and continued.
"When the plans eventually get to the Pokéball factory they're under even heavier guard then when they're in Silph Co. after that they people are called in to help build the Master Ball. All different types of scientists and Pokéball makers are brought in to create the separate pieces, like the guy in Johto who uses Apricorns but not all the pieces that are built are used. When the pieces are finished there's one person who looks at the plans and makes a list of the pieces they need, once he's written the list it's split into pieces and each piece is given to a different person who go into the room of the finished pieces one at a time and pick out the piece that's on their piece of paper, once they have their piece they put in into the machine that puts it all together. When all the pieces are chosen the last person pushed the button to start the process and leaves the room, once the ball's finished the machine puts it into a new suitcase with the plans and shuts it. This new suitcase has a digital lock along with a biometric scanner so it can only be opened by the president of Silph Co. and like the start there's more than one suitcase. The process after that is the same as getting the plans to Kalos, the guy who wrote the list has it wiped from his mind by a psychic Pokémon so he can't tell anyone about the plans. As for the leftover pieces that weren't used a fire type Pokémon is sent into the room and told to destroy everything that's left on the table and the pieces of the list are thrown into a fire just outside the door as the person leaves. Team Rocket learnt this through bribes, intimidation and some more unsavory methods." Meowth took another breath as he finished, finally turning to meet Jessie and James' glare. "You two just stole the plans using my plan didn't you?"
"We adjusted it now that our trio has become a duo." Jessie answered. "James and I acted as a distraction while Victreebel stole the plans with his vines." While Jessie had been talking Sabrina scanned her mind and found that the USB holding the Master Ball plans was in James' pocket. The Psychic telepathically asked Geng (Ash's Gengar's older brother) to go and use Thief on James to get the plans back. Geng slipped into the shadows and appeared behind James, carefully taking the USB out of his pocket. An angry hiss from Arbok followed by a short blast of Poison Sting brought Jessie and James' attention to Geng just as he got the USB and started to rush back to Sabrina.
"Yanmega, Air Slash that Gengar!" Jessie shouted, Yanmega followed the order immediately and hit the Shadow Pokémon causing him to drop the USB. There was a moment of silence where no-one moved just looking at the USB to each other and back to the USB before all hell broke loose. Pikachu made it to the USB first but soon lost it when Arbok swung her tail round and batted Pikachu away, Yanmega dove down and snagged the USB out of the air she had to go straight into evasive maneuvers as attacks were launched at her. Gengar appeared in front of her and used Scary Face causing the bug and flying type to drop the USB, James was close by and grabbed the USB before it hit the ground. He turned to run but was cut off by Ash, James swung a punch but Ash ducked underneath it and threw his own punch into James' stomach. James staggered back from both the punch and surprise that Ash was fighting back, recovering James surged forward grabbing Ash's wrist and squeezing causing the raven haired trainer to drop the USB.
Ash and James started to trade blows, moving around the USB careful not to step on it. The Pokémon kept trying to get to it but the opposing force would stop them, Sabrina wasn't able to get a clear enough line of sight so she couldn't use her abilities to get the USB. Gardevoir was stood out of the way watching carefully at where everyone was moving and kept Meowth out of the battle while he was still recovering. James slowly managed to get Ash to step away from the USB and Jessie dashed in grabbing it and making her way towards the hole they'd made in the wall. Just before she reached the exit she fell forward causing the USB to skid across the floor, raising her head Jessie was May pick it up and throw it into the air. Jessie got up quickly and tried to get hold of May before she let go of the USB but was too late. She was greatly surprised when May grabbed her outstretched arm, pivoted on the ball of her foot and threw Jessie to the ground. Jessie and James followed the USB's path and saw it stop suddenly in mid-air, James had to turn his attention back to Ash as the trainer tried to get him into an arm lock. After Jessie had hit the floor May moved out of the way and out of the fight, she'd only run it when she saw Jessie about to escape and tripped her up. The USB was surrounded in a bright blue light, Gardevoir had caught it using Psychic and gave it to Sabrina.
"Anabel, would you mind calling out Metagross?" Sabrina asked when the USB was safe in her hands. As she turned to talk to her cousin Arbok had launched a Poison Sting attack at her, before she had the chance to react Gengar jumped into the attack and took the hit immediately responding with a Night Shade attack knocking Arbok back. Gengar glanced back at Sabrina and his trademark grin widened, Sabrina thanked him as he faded away and appeared behind Carnivine punching the grass type in the back with an Ice Punch.
"Sure." Anabel replied, a little confused why Sabrina had asked her to do it and shocked at how calmly Sabrina carried on after what had just happened. Anabel took a Pokéball from her belt and let the Iron Leg Pokémon out. Sabrina walked up to the steel and psychic type placing the USB on the Pokémon's cross, directly between the eyes.
"Metagross could you use Protect for me please?" Sabrina asked, Metagross glanced at Anabel who nodded and a green transparent dome of energy surrounded him. "There, I think the USB is safe for now. Shall we join the party?" Anabel nodded and send Espeon into the fray while Sabrina's eyes narrowed slightly and her hair started to spread and float, the attacks that Team Rocket's Pokémon started to veer off course due to Sabrina's interference forcing them to retreat. After a couple of minutes Team Rocket's Pokémon were backed up to the hole in the wall with Jessie, James joined them a minute later thanks to a kick to the stomach from Ash. When Ash was about to call out a final attack Pikachu stopped him, Ash looked at the electric type and understood why he'd been stopped.
"Meowth, can you come here?" Ash asked, the Scratch Cat Pokémon came forward and looked at Ash. Pikachu jumped to the floor and smiled at Meowth.
"You said it was your fight, so you get the final shot, you end it." Pikachu said stepping to the side and all the Pokémon watched to see what Meowth would do.
"You said I was one of you now, I was part of a family and families fight together. So we'll end this together as a family." Meowth said to Pikachu getting a nod in reply. Pikachu's cheeks started to spark as he looked at Team Rocket, a smirk appeared on Meowth's face as he saw the shock in their eyes as his coin started to crackle with electricity. "Guess what I can do." He said just before he fired the attack along with Pikachu's, the two streams of sparking electricity fused together and crashed into Team Rocket sending them blasting into the air. Due to their shock (pun unintended) at Meowth using Thunderbolt they'd forgotten to even say their signature exit line.
(Pokémon Language Translator Deactivated)
They waited a few minutes before Officer Jenny arrived and asked what happened, Sabrina explained and said that she'd keep the Master Ball plans safe until Silph Co. had repaired the damage from Team Rocket's attack and fixed the hole in their security. Meowth offered a few ideas but quickly stopped talking when Officer Jenny glared at him and he remembered that the Jenny in Pewter City had said she was telling all the other Jenny's about his deal. Officer Jenny started to accuse Meowth of being part of the attack but stopped as Ash spoke up against her.
"Meowth has changed, he fought Team Rocket by himself to prove it, he helped me save May when Team Rocket kidnapped her, he saved me from a wild Pokémon attack and during the actual break-in Meowth was sat in here." May, Anabel and Sabrina all nodded in agreement to his first and last statements while only May nodded to the others as Sabrina and Anabel didn't know about them. May could feel their eyes on her and knew that she'd have to explain it to them later. Officer Jenny backed down but it was obvious that she was still suspicious of Meowth, after a few more questions about what happened and some pictures taken of the scene the police left and Sabrina lead everyone back to her living room so that they could rest. A Pokémon healing machine had been installed in her Gym due to its distance from the Pokémon Centre so she offered to heal Ash's Pokémon at the same time as her own. Ash accepted the offer and left the Pokémon he'd used in the Gym battle on the machine to recover, he was going to return Meowth to his Pokéball but the Scratch Cat Pokémon said that he didn't need to use the machine and would be fine after a little while.
When they had settled down and Sabrina had placed a quick call to the Pokémon League letting them know her Gym needed some repairs they started talking. After a little while May asked a question that had been bugging her since the start of the battle.
"How come you and Ash didn't repel each other again?" She asked Sabrina. The Psychic smiled at the question and after sipping her tea she answered.
"Due to the fact I knew Ash was here I was able to counteract the effects by suppressing the energy that my abilities produce." Sabrina explained.
"I did the same with my Aura, when I made it visible there was hardly any power in it." Ash added, he could see the question on Anabel's face so he told her the basics of him being an Aura Guardian.
"How long have you had those Pokémon Ash?" Anabel asked changing the subject, she could feel that Ash didn't really want to talk about his Aura so she decided bring up a topic.
"Butterfree was the first Pokémon I caught during my journey, I let him go so he could start his own family a few months after that and found him again three years ago. Some things happened while he was out in the world, I can tell they still bother him but Beautifly's helping him get through it along with me, May and all of our Pokémon. Grimm and Houndour…Houndoom have only been with me for a few months, I'm actually a bit surprised that he evolved so soon but I have been training him since I got him and he's been working hard so I shouldn't be that surprised. Grimm was plenty strong when I got him and he's only gotten stronger since then." Ash explained.
"You said got." Sabrina said looking over the lip of her teacup.
"Huh?" Ash replied confused.
"You said you 'got' Grimm and Houndoom. Not caught, 'got'."
"What's the difference?"
"Caught means you caught then, got means you were given them. Who gave you Grimm and Houndoom?" Ash froze wondering if Sabrina was reading his mind. The Psychic chuckled lightly at the look on Ash's face. "I told you, your mind is shielded against me. Look at the walls, those certificates aren't for show. After you helped me regain control of myself I wanted to do the same for other people so I studied and now I have numerous degrees in Psychology and Psychiatry. Even though I can't get into your mind the way you talk and move tells me what I want to know. I can tell this conversation is uncomfortable for you but when you talk about it to someone it makes it easier, I can promise that I won't repeat anything that's said in this room and I'm sure Anabel will keep your secret as well." Anabel nodded as she leant forward in her chair. Ash looked at May for support and help, May put her hand onto of Ash's before speaking.
"Ash, this is your decision. If you want to talk about it then talk. It doesn't have to be everything but I do agree with Sabrina you need to talk to someone. So far there's only me, Misty, Professor Oak and your Mom that knows and to be honest you haven't really spoken to any of us about it apart from when you first found out." May said, Ash looked into her eyes and sighed.
"I got Grimm and Houndoom from my Dad, along with some other Pokémon." Ash went on to explain that he hadn't seen his father since he was three and had assume that he'd abandoned his family to carry on his own journey, how he'd gotten the letter from his Dad via Misty and found out about the Pokémon he'd been sent over the years, Ash chuckled lowly as he described the way Misty had verbally attacked his Mother and Professor Oak for keeping the Pokémon a secret and how he'd slowly been meeting and training the Pokémon. He talked for an hour stopping briefly when he and Sabrina went to collect their Pokémon from the healing machine, once he'd finished his shoulder felt a little lighter and he knew it was because he's shared the weight of what had happened.
"Give me your wrist." Sabrina said, Ash held his arm out and Sabrina took hold of his X-Transceiver entering her number. "I'm now going to be your doctor in all psychological matters, whenever you need to talk you call me." Ash just stared at her, forcing Sabrina to explain. "If you ever feel the weight of this or anything else weighing on you, you can talk to me and as your Psychologist I am bound by Doctor/Patient confidentiality." Anabel got out of her chair and walked over to Ash, putting her number in his X-Transceiver as well.
"I haven't got a degree like Sabrina but I think I understand emotions better than she does." The Frontier Brain said.
"It's true." Sabrina interrupted before letting Anabel carry on.
"But if you want to talk you get contact me too."
"May, you take our numbers as well, just in case." Sabrina said, May nodded and handed over her X-Transceiver so Sabrina and Anabel could input their numbers. "Ash, did you notice anything at the end of the battle?" The Psychic asked changing the subject away from the uncomfortable topic of Ash's father.
"Well, U-Turn changed colour if that's what you mean." Ash replied.
"I did wonder if you noticed, U-Turn started to change into Return but didn't do it fully so the two attacks fused together slightly. With a little training he'll get the hang of it, the amount of light it gave off shows how much of a connection the two of you share. Given the fact that you were apart for a few years it's surprising the amount of power the attack had, just thinking about what it would be like if Pikachu used it is terrifying."
Ash and Pikachu just stared at each other and thought about what Sabrina had said, the idea of their bond being used as power for an attack scared them a little.
Master, I must advice against using an attack like that. Lucario said interrupting their thoughts. Even though Return doesn't inflict any damage on the Pokémon that uses it like some attacks, the strength of the bond you share with Pikachu may cause some form of backlash due to the sheer amount of power involved. Ash nodded. Sabrina decided to change the subject of conversation due to the look on Ash's face, even though he knew the dangers Sabrina could tell he was still thinking about possibly using the attack.
"Due to the interruption after our battle I forgot to give you this." Sabrina turned her head to look at her desk and one of the draws opened as a rectangular box levitated out of it. The draw closed itself and the box floated across the room to land gently in Sabrina's outstretched hand. Placing the box on her lap Sabrina opened it and took out a gold coloured disc, she closed the box and put in on the small table next to her chair. Standing up Sabrina indicated for Ash to do the same. "I, Sabrina, Leader of the Saffron City Gym award Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town the Marsh Badge in recognition of defeating me in battle." Sabrina pressed the Badge into Ash's palm. "Take this Badge proudly and continue on your path."
Ash looked at the Badge in his hand and smiled but just as he was about to thank Sabrina she punched him in the shoulder.
"Ow! What was that for?" Ash said, rubbing his shoulder.
"For not bringing Gengar to visit sooner and don't say you weren't nearby I could feel Pikachu's mind a few times over the past few years." Seeing the look on Ash's face, Sabrina decided to explain. "I know that it was the same Pikachu because his thoughts almost always involved Tomato Ketchup." She finished with a slight giggle, Ash and May laughed while Pikachu looked at the ground sheepishly.
Glaceon rubbed her side against Pikachu's to try and cheer him up. He looked up at her and gave her a small smile, Glaceon's cheeks took on a light blush and on impulse she licked Pikachu's cheek. The ice type noticed a blush under the normal red of his cheeks and felt a sense of victory, it wasn't much but it was a start.
"Did Ash ever tell you how he came and asked if he could take Haunter with him?" Sabrina asked May.
"No, he didn't. He hasn't really told anyone about the things he's done while he was away training, he just says it'll ruin the surprise." May replied, Sabrina smirked as she saw the pleading in Ash's eyes begging her to lie about what had happened.
"When Ash came to me asking whether he could take Haunter I reminded him that Haunter was never his to begin with. When Haunter decided to stay with me I caught him so he was my Pokémon, Haunter did want to travel after being staying in the Gym of so long so I challenged Ash to a battle. If he won Haunter would go with him but if I won," Sabrina paused when she saw the begging in Ash's eyes get stronger but she was going to tell the truth, "Ash had to do whatever I asked for a whole week." Ash buried his head in his hands knowing the inevitable question that would come next.
"Who won?" May asked, suspecting what the outcome was by the way Ash was reacting.
"I did, Ash spent the next week running around Saffron City doing errands for me while wearing a T-Shirt saying 'I am Sabrina's slave.' and when he was in the Gym he wore a maid's apron." Sabrina said laughing at the memory, there was a moment of silence before May and Anabel burst out laughing as Ash pulled his hat down over his face and wished he was somewhere far, far away. "Once the week was over Ash took Haunter and basically ran out of the city. He'd call every so often and tell me how Haunter was getting on and when he evolved but never visited until today."
"I thought Haunter evolved when they were traded." Anabel said in a questioning tone.
"That's right but Haunter didn't want to evolve so he stopped himself and we didn't actually trade Pokémon I just transferred Haunter to Ash's trainer profile from mine." Sabrina answered.
"I didn't know Pokémon could stop themselves from evolving like that."
"My Bulbasaur did it." Ash said, "He held his evolution back for years and he didn't use an Everstone, he did it through willpower. He was scared of evolving, I'm still not sure why but he got over it and he's a Venusaur now. He helps Professor Oak out at the Lab, he makes sure that all the Pokémon there get along and sorts out any problems they have."
"I should've made you do more because you didn't come to see Haunter while you were taking on the Battle Frontier." Sabrina said. She saw a question in Ash's eyes and answered it before he could ask. "You challenged Anabel which means you must've beaten the Frontier Brains before her and I know you came to Saffron City at some point."
"That's right I won my first Contest Ribbon here while Ash was taking on the Battle Frontier." May said. Ash mumbled an apology and they carried on talking about a number of different things or went and watched Sabrina take on more challengers until it started to go dark. Ash and May were about to leave when Gengar faded into existence in front of them and pushed a hand into each of them. Their eyes rolled back and they started to fall to the ground but Sabrina caught them with her powers. Gengar pulled their spirits out of their bodies and out of the Gym, up into the darkening skies.
Sabrina moved Ash and May's bodies back to the couch where they'd previously sat, May's head fell onto Ash's shoulder and Ash's head rolled on top of May's. The Psychic sighed as she watched the two other ghosts follow Gengar through the ceiling and into the approaching night.
"They're going to be gone a while maybe all night, might as well make them comfortable." Sabrina said putting a cushion behind each of their heads. Anabel walked out of the room, coming back a couple of minutes later with a blanket. She draped it over the pair and before she could stop herself Anabel placed a soft kiss on Ash's forehead. A sad smile was on her face when she pulled back, Sabrina waked over and put a hand on her cousin's shoulder.
"They say time heals all wounds but that's not true, it can however bring you something else. I think I should introduce you to the Champion, he never talks about it but I tell he's been in a similar situation to what you're in now. I'm sure you'll get along and who knows maybe something will come from it." Sabrina said.
"I don't know," Anabel replied, "I've never been a fan of being set up, Lucy and Greta have tried a lot for the past few years but…" The lavender haired Frontier Brain stopped talking when Sabrina put a finger on her lips.
"No buts, I'm going to introduce the pair of you. Call Scott and tell him you need to take a week off for personal reasons.
"Why?"
"The Champion is coming around in a few days, when he won the title from Lance he started to visit the Gym Leaders. When Lance was the Champion he wasn't that in touch with the Gyms just letting us do our own thing, which explains why the three sisters who ran the Cerulean City Gym before Misty took over nearly ran it into the ground, why Brock was overworked looking after his family and the Gym, why Surge was so brutal to his opponents, why Giovanni was able to run Team Rocket while he was a Gym Leader and how I was able to lose control and no-one came to try and help me. The Champion wanted to be in touch with the Gyms so that if any of us needed help or needed to be held accountable for something he'd know. He started coming around once a month checking the Gyms were running smoothly, that nothing was wrong and getting to know us as people not just as, I suppose you could call us employees, he befriended all of us although he knew Brock and Misty already from when he first compete in the Indigo League."
"Why do keep calling him the Champion?" Anabel asked, Sabrina laughed and started to steer her cousin out of the room.
"Out of habit, it annoys him that I keep calling him Champion and not Ritchie. It's a guilty pleasure of mine, I like doing things that annoy people. I'm going to introduce the two of you when he arrives and you are going to talk to him."
"I don't know, Scott mightn't be able to give me the time. The Frontier opens in a couple of months and there's still a lot of work to do."
"Maybe I didn't make myself clear, you ARE going to call Scott and get that time off, plus your mental barriers aren't strong enough to block me out. I know that you've all but finished your work and there's nothing else to stop you spending a week here with me." Sabrina grinned as she saw Anabel's resolve to not meet the Champion dissolve.
"Fine." The Salon Maiden sighed in defeat, "Where's your phone, I'll call him now."
"Next to the kitchen." As Anabel walked out of the room Sabrina couldn't resist one last comment. "Who knows if everything goes well between you and Ritchie he could make you into the Salon Woman."
"SABRINA!" Anabel shouted as her pale skin changed into a deep red. Her eyes slowly illuminated with violet light as her anger at the comment rose. Sabrina laughed and caught Anabel within her own abilities, holding the Frontier Brain still until her anger lessened enough to let her go.
"Not yet Anabel, you're not strong enough to try and battle me with your abilities. You need to be careful, that's the same sort thing that happened to me and I don't want you to go down that route. I'm sorry about that comment I just couldn't resist it."
"I understand, there's one thing I've always wanted to ask you though."
"What's that?"
"Do you make your Gym Assistants call you Mistress or is there some other reason for it?" Anabel ran out of the room before Sabrina could stop her, laughing at the red tint on the Psychic Gym Leader's cheeks.
"ANABEL!" Sabrina screamed before chasing after her cousin, leaving a group of amused/confused Pokémon alone with their two spiritnapped trainers.
Meanwhile
Ash was having some trouble getting May to calm down enough for him to explain that they weren't dead and only having a literal out of body experience.
"May, calm down. You're not dead, I'm not dead, nobody is dead. Gengar just wants us to play with him and the other ghosts, it's the same thing he did to me earlier." Ash said holding May's shoulder trying to keep her looking at him. A few minutes passed before the panicked look in her eyes faded and she got control of herself. "You okay now?" May nodded and Ash let go of her shoulders. "Look around." May did as Ash said and slowly turned around taking in the glittering lights of Saffron City below her. Her eyes widened as she took in the sight, it was beautiful. "Come on, Gengar wants us to follow him." Ash said grabbing May's hand and they floated after the Shadow Pokémon.
They flew through the night until they reached the place Ash and Gengar first met, Lavender Tower. When they reached the Tower Gengar went straight through the roof and Ash stopped to tell May it was alright and they would be alright before they both followed the ghost type. When they passed through the roof May saw Gengar going back and forth on a swing while Geng and Gastly were playing with another Pokémon, one May had never seen before. The Pokémon was small with a white body, a light blue flame and green eyes, May was about to reach out when Ash stopped her, May turned her head to look at him in confusion.
"That's a Litwick May, they have a tendency to drain energy from any people around them and while we're spirits I wouldn't want to get too close unless we're sure that Litwick can control themselves." Ash cautioned. May nodded and pulled her hand back. Looking around the room Ash and May saw that there were a lot of different ghost type Pokémon around them, a Shuppet was playfully chasing a Duskull around, a Mismagius was using a couple of attacks to entertain the younger ghosts by making the attacks into different shapes or letting them explode like fireworks and a Yamask played hide and seek with a group of Gastly, Shuppet and Misdreavus. Gengar called out to all the ghosts telling them that Ash and May were friends who wanted to play with them, the ghosts cheered and immediately pulled the two trainers into their games.
They played for hours, the Litwick that May had reached out to did have control over their ability to drain energy from people and was at May's side constantly through the night. Ash was chasing Gengar around after the ghost stole Ash's spectral hat, this eventually turned into a game of Keep Away between all the ghost and May. After much running and failed attempts Ash finally managed to retrieve his hat but diving and catching it in mid-air, he did however forget to use the ability to float to stop his momentum and crashed into May sending both of them to the floor. Due to being spirits it didn't hurt so Ash and May were laughing until they realized how close their faces where.
"Sorry." Ash said as he scrambled to his feet, holding a hand out to May to help her up.
"It's fine, don't worry about it." May said taking his hand and getting up, thankful that the fact she was a spirit meant she couldn't blush. May noticed a clock on the wall and was shocked by how long they'd been out of their bodies. "I think we need to get back to the Gym Ash." She said pointing to the clock, Ash turned and saw the time.
"I guess you're right. Gengar, it's time to go." The Shadow Pokémon frowned but floated over to Ash and May ready to follow them back to Saffron City. Ash took May's hand again and the floated through the roof and started to make their way back to their bodies in the Saffron City Gym.
As they left the Tower Ash paused and let go of May's hand, she turned and saw Ash was looking north towards the Rock Tunnel. Just beyond the Lavender side of the Rock Tunnel nearly at the horizon there were streaks of light shooting through the sky coming from the ground.
"It's gorgeous." May said as she watched the lights. "Do you think anyone else can see it?"
"No," Ash said, "The only reason we can see it is because we're spirits at the minute and it's a bad sign."
"What do you mean?"
"Those lights are blasts of unstable Aura and a powerful one. Whatever's doing that is in trouble and needs help, I can't do anything like this though I need to get back to my body." Ash looked at May sadly, "I need to go and take a look, I know it'll take a while but…" Ash stopped talking when May put a finger in his lips.
"It's alright Ash, if there's people in trouble then we need to go and help them."
"We?" Ash mumbled past May's finger.
"You're not leaving me behind, besides who'll save you when you get in trouble." May smirked at him, "Now come on, the sooner we get back to our bodies the sooner we can help those people." May grabbed Ash's hand and pulled him towards Saffron City again. Neither trainer nor the ghost type that accompanied them noticed that they were being followed.
Ash and May floated down through the roof of the Gym and Gengar returned them to their bodies. The fact that they were out of their bodies for so long plus the fact that they'd been playing with the ghost Pokémon for hour meant that they didn't even wake up once their spirits were back where they belonged, falling asleep straight away. Gengar noticed that all the other Pokémon were asleep, he resisted the powerful urge to wake them up and simply nudged Gardevoir so her head rested on Lucario's shoulder before going to sleep himself. A few minutes later something else came down through the ceiling and rested on May's lap, making itself comfortable before joining everyone else in the room and going to sleep.
The next morning
Ash groaned as he woke up inhaling a pleasing aroma of Rawst Berry, confused he opened his eyes and realized that his head was resting on top of May's. He suppressed the urge jump away as he didn't want to wake May, he notice that as May breathed her hair swayed back and forth. He slowly took his arm from underneath the blanket that covered them and moved some of May's hair away from her face and put it behind her ear, his fingertips gently brushed her cheek as he pulled his hand back. May yawned and slowly her eyes flittered open she turned her head and saw Ash's face, not fully awake she gave him a sleepy grin.
"Morning." She said and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. The kiss only lasted a second but that was long enough for Ash's brain to stall and for May to realize what she'd just done. Thinking quickly she looked at Ash properly and seeing the blank look on his face she said. "I meant to kiss your cheek, you turned your head." Ash, still trying to restart his brain, nodded his head in agreement.
"Sorry." He said. Ash was about to stand up when Lucario put a paw on his shoulder.
You may need to wait a moment before moving Master. Lucario pointed to May's lap with his other paw and both trainers looked down to see the small sleeping form of Litwick.
"She must've followed us back from Lavender Tower." May said gently picking Litwick up trying not to wake her. Ash pulled the blanket away and stood up, stretching his muscles before he folded the blanket and put it on a nearby table. He then took the Candle Pokémon out of May's arms so she could get up and stretch before passing the sleeping Pokémon back to her.
"Geng Gengar Gar Gen Gengar. Gar Gar Gengar Geng Gengar. Gar Gen Geng Gen Gar Gengar." Gengar said when he saw Litwick in May's arms.
"Any chance of a translation?" Ash asked looking to Lucario.
Litwick turned up at the Tower a few weeks ago. She ran away from her trainer as soon as she hatched. Gengar's brothers found her wandering around in front of the Tower and took her in.
"Why did Litwick run away?" May asked. Gengar just shrugged his shoulders.
He doesn't know.
"Why did you run away from your trainer?" May directed her question to the small Pokémon who slept in her arms.
"We can try and find out when Litwick wakes up." Ash said, just as he finished speaking Sabrina walked into the room.
"So you're both awake, did you have fun at the Pokémon Tower?"
"Yeah we did." Ash replied, "We were followed back though." He gestured to Litwick, Sabrina stepped forward to look at the sleeping ghost and fire type.
"This is a Shiny Litwick, you can tell from the colour of the flame." Sabrina smiled at May, "Litwick must really like you May, usually her flame would burn you or steal away your life force especially as it's touching your skin." May looked shocked she hadn't realized that the flame was directly on her skin. All she felt was a gentle warmth on her arm, she'd assumed it was because Litwick's flame was near her arm not actually on it. Before anyone else could speak a quiet yawn was heard, looking down they saw that Litwick was waking up.
"LitLit." She said cuddling into May's body.
"What did Litwick say?" Ash asked Lucario.
Mama. The Aura Pokémon replied. May smiled brightly and hugged Litwick causing the tiny Pokémon to giggle happily as May did the same.
"Litwick," Ash said, getting the attention of everyone in the room, along with the other Pokémon who were waking up. "Why did you run away from your trainer?" Litwick looked at Ash in confusion.
"Pika Pikachu." (Translation – "Let me try.") Pikachu said jumping on to Ash's shoulder so he could see Litwick. "Pikachu Pi Pikachu PikaPika PiPi Pika?" (Translation – "Why did you leave the one who hatched you?")
"Lit Litwick." (Translation – "Bad man scary") Litwick replied trying to huddle closer to May. "Lit Lit WickLit Lit. Wick Lit, Wick Lit Wick." (Translation – "Bad man felt wrong. Ran away, stay with Mama.") As the two Pokémon spoke Lucario translated for the people in the room, Anabel had entered the room as Pikachu started talking and Sabrina had quickly told her what was happening.
Pikachu asked Litwick a few more questions about how the 'bad man' felt wrong but the Candle Pokémon couldn't explain it, though Gengar could.
"Gar Gengar Geng GarGar Gengar." The Shadow Pokémon said. "Gengar Geng Geng Gar GengarGar."
Gengar says that Ghost types have an innate ability to sense what is in the souls of others. Young ghost types can't control the ability until their older. Lucario said translating Gengar's explanation.
"I guess Litwick's going to be part of the team then." Ash said, May nodded in agreement.
"I'll need to send one of my Pokémon to Professor Oak, I want to spend some time with Litwick seeing as she's only a baby." May said and started to think about which Pokémon to send to Professor Oak.
"A message came for you earlier, the Director of Silph Co. wants to see you both." Sabrina informed them.
"Why?" Ash asked, Sabrina just looked at Ash a little surprised he couldn't work it out for himself.
"Maybe because we helped keep the Master Ball plans safe?" Meowth said as Pikachu slapped Ash across the back of the head for being an idiot.
"Oh yeah." Ash chuckled sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "When does he want to see us?"
"As soon as you're ready to go and see him." Sabrina answered.
"You just need to go to the Silph Co. building and they'll let the Director know you're there." Anabel said, Ash nodded in understanding
"Follow me and we'll get you some breakfast, then I think you should go back to the Pokémon Centre to get changed before you head over to Silph Co." Sabrina said leading Ash, May and their Pokémon to the kitchen. After they'd eaten Ash and May thanked Sabrina for her hospitality and went back to the Pokémon Centre. Once they'd gotten changed May sent Vulpix back to Professor Oak's Lab and caught Litwick, the Candle Pokémon was captured willingly and quickly released herself from her new Pokéball. Ash sent Butterfree, Houndoom, Grimm and Gengar back to the Lab and called Elekid, Magby and his two Eevee's onto his team.
When they'd collected their things from their room Ash and May made their way to the Silph Co. building, after getting directions from Nurse Joy. After walking for about half an hour they arrived at their destination, Ash held the door open for May, Lucario and Meowth. Gardevoir had returned to her Pokéball due to the amount of people around her, it scared her and she'd asked Ash to let her return to her ball. Ash did what Gardevoir asked, proud that she'd been able to deal with her fear of people for as long as she did.
Entering the building the group walked over to the main reception desk and told the receptionist that the Director had asked to speak to them. The receptionist called up to the Director's office and asked the group to take a seat. They sat down and a few minutes later the Director's secretary came and led them into a private elevator that took them to the top floor where the Director's office was located.
Exiting the elevator the secretary led them to a small waiting room, there was someone else already in there. It was a man who looked about 20, he had short spiky brown hair and red eyes. He was wearing a black shirt, red vest, blue pants and a pair of red and black trainers. May's attention was caught by the man's gloves, they were fingerless like Ash's but each held a jewel-like stone on the back that caught the light. A Houndoom lay curled up at his feet. He nodded a greeting to Ash and May after staring at Ash's face for a second as if he was trying to place it. The secretary asked Ash and May to wait as she went into the Director's office to tell him that they'd arrived, she returned a minute later and ushered the group into the Director's office.
"Please take a seat, can we get you anything? Tea? Coffee? Something for your Pokémon?" The Director asked. Ash and May declined while the other man asked for some water for his Houndoom, the secretary left the room and came back a minute later with a bowl of water for the dark/fire type. "I suppose you're each wondering why I asked you to meet with me, the reason is that I wanted to thank you all for helping to recover the Master Ball plans. You, Mr. Shamrock, were in the building and managed to get the thieves out of the building before they could steal a Master Ball we had on the premises and then you stayed to help the people who had been hurt in the attack. Mr. Ketchum and Miss Maple, both of you were instrumental in the actual retrieval of the plans, from the account I heard from Sabrina you fought the thieves not just with your Pokémon but physically."
The other man, who Ash and May now knew as Mr. Shamrock, looked at the pair with an interested gaze. He reached his handout to the pair.
"Mike Shamrock." He said introducing himself, Ash shook his hand and introduced himself before May did the same.
"Silph Co is indebted to all of you, I want you to have these." The Director lifted a box out from behind his desk and opened it. "I've heard that you specialize in fighting type so I have a couple of items that will interest you Mr. Shamrock." The Director pulled out a Black Belt and a full set of Vitamins. "I also have something for each of you Mr. Ketchum and Miss Maple." The Director then lifted out two pieces of stone. "These were given to Silph Co. for research purposes by Devon Corp. That research has been completed so I give you these in thanks."
"Thank you for these but there's no need to give me anything. I just did what anyone else would do, I was only here to pick something up for someone." Mike said.
"To be honest me and May didn't know about the Master Ball plans until someone came into the Gym to tell Sabrina. Team Rocket actually blasted a hole through one of the walls to try and steal our Pokémon." Ash said.
"When we heard they had the Master Ball Plans we knew that we needed to get them back." May added.
"Be that as it may, you all still did Silph Co. a great service so I must insist that you take these rewards." The Director said getting out of his chair and passing the Black Belt and Vitamins to Mike and offering the stones to Ash and May.
"Well, if you're sure. Thank you." Mike said taking the Black Belt and Vitamins from the Director and putting them into his bag, Houndoom put his snout into the bag and sniffed the items. Ash and May thanked the Director and took the pieces of stone from him, now that they had a closer look they saw that the pieces of stone were fossils. The one Ash held had a circular dome in the centre and a few smaller raised areas surrounding the dome, May's fossil had a triangular raised area with one side having an exaggerated wave pattern resulting in four 'peaks' between the other edges.
"One's a Skull Fossil and the other is a Sail Fossil. There is a lab on Cinnabar Island that can resurrect the Pokémon for you." The Director said, Ash and May thanked the Director again as did Mike and they left his office. As they waited for the elevator to take them back to the ground floor Mike asked a question.
"Have we met before?" He said to Ash, "You look familiar."
"I don't think so." Ash replied.
"I'm sure I've seen you before, give me a minute and I'll remember." Mike thought for a minute as the elevator arrived and as the doors opened he clicked his fingers. "I remember now, It was about a year ago. You were asking Cynthia for advice, we only passed each other so we didn't actually meet. Cynthia talked about you, she said you've got a lot of potential." They entered the elevator as Mike continued to talk. "I recognize both of your names now, you helped Cynthia get together with Adam, I want to thank both of you for that she's been happier than ever. Though I think Adam might have something to do with that." Mike smirked, one of his Pokéballs opened and a Lucario appeared smacking him across the back of the head. "Ow! Why did you do that?" The Lucario just stared at him. "Alright I know why but did you have to do it in front of people?" The Lucario just folded her arms and huffed as she turned away.
May was stifling a giggle at what had just happened while Ash thought back to when he went to ask Cynthia for help.
"I think I remember you know. It's nice to meet you properly Mike." Ash said holding his hand out. Mike smiled and shook it.
"Likewise." The elevator doors opened and they all walked out into the lobby, Lucario walked up to Mike's Lucario and held his paw out. Mike's Lucario did the same holding her's palm out and a spark of Aura flashed between the two.
"So how do you know Cynthia?" May asked, Mike stiffened slightly at the question.
"Cynthia helped me out a few years ago and since then we've sort of become family, she's like a sister to me. Always nagging me, telling me to do stuff and OW!" Mike turned to his Lucario holding his head. "Again? Really?" May had a feeling there was more to Cynthia and Mike's history but didn't push it.
"What were you doing here when Team Rocket attacked?"
"I was picking up a computer program for Cynthia, it's supposed to be able to translate dead languages by comparing them to all known languages." Mike answered rubbing his sore head. "From what you said to the Director I take it you're going to compete in the Indigo League." Mike said to Ash, the raven haired trainer nodded. Mike grinned before speaking again. "So am I, if what I've heard from Adam and Cynthia is true you're a strong trainer. I can't wait to see if that's true when we meet in the League."
"Why don't we battle now?" Ash asked reaching for a Pokéball, Mike chuckled before answering with a smile.
"Two reasons, one we're inside a building and two I want to battle you when we're both at full strength and I doubt either of us have our strongest Pokémon on us right now I know I haven't."
"Oh yeah." Ash rubbed the back of his neck.
"Where are you two headed now?"
"We're going to the Power Plant." Ash said, "I want to do a little training with Pikachu and my other electric types." I wasn't technically a lie, he was going to do some training but it would be a byproduct of stopping the strange Aura. Mike looked at Ash's face for a second before nodding.
"Mind if I tag along for a little while?" Mike asked, "I'm going into the Rock Tunnel to do some training myself. I've heard a lot of good things about you two from Adam and Cynthia, I want to those things firsthand. If you don't mind." Ash and May looked at each other and then back to Mike.
"Sure you can come with us, any friend of Adam and Cynthia is a friend of ours. We just need to stock up on some stuff before we're ready to go." May said.
"Same here but I need to go back to the Pokémon Centre to get one of my Pokémon from Nurse Joy. He pushed himself too hard in training and did a little damage to his shoulder, Nurse Joy said it just needed to be rested for a couple of days. I asked her to keep Infernape at the Pokémon Centre cause I wouldn't have been able to keep him still that long. A girl asks him to do something outside of a battle and he'll bend over backwards to do it for her, me on the other hand not so much. He'll do it but not as well as he would've if a girl had asked." Mike's Lucario went to hit him again but stopped when Mike turned to face her. "You know that's true so I shouldn't get hit." Mike's Lucario hesitated for a minute before lowering her hand, Mike turned back to Ash and May leaving his Lucario the chance to hit him. "OW!" May stifled a giggle and started to walk towards the doors.
"Come on, if we want to get moving we should go now." She said over her shoulder as she left the building. Glaceon followed at her heels before the other Pokémon followed her leaving Ash and Mike watching their Pokémon abandon them.
"Hey! Wait up." Ash and Mike shouted as they ran after May and the Pokémon, they got outside and say May going one way with Glaceon, Litwick and Ash's Pokémon while Mike's Lucario and Houndoom went the other way towards the Pokémon Centre.
"Meet at the north gate in an hour?" Mike asked.
"Sure." Ash replied they then ran after their prospective party.
"What are we going to do?" May asked as Ash came alongside her.
"What do you mean?" replied Ash.
"We're going to investigate that strange Aura and we can't really tell Mike that so what's the plan?"
"Mike's going into the Rock Tunnel so he's going to leave us before we get to the Power Plant. There's nothing to worry about besides he's friends with Adam and Cynthia so he'll be a good guy." Ash's X-Transceiver started to buzz and after struggling with it for a minute May took hold of his wrist and opened the message that had come through.
"It's from Adam." She said, "He says that Mike's a nice guy though he can be a bit of a smart ass sometimes. Mike's had a hard life before he met Cynthia and not to question him too much about it as it still bothers him." Another message came through just as May finished reading the first one, she opened that and her eyes widened when she saw what it said. "Adam says Mike can tell when someone lies to him so be careful with your Aura."
"It's okay." Ash said seeing the look in May's eyes. "I told Mike I was going to do some training with my electric types at the Power Plant. I didn't lie I am going to do some training, it's just that I left out the fact we're going to look into that Aura at the same time. Now come on we need to get our supplies, we're meeting Mike at the north gate in an hour."
"Who taught you to do that?"
"Do what?"
"Lie and tell the truth at the same time."
"Adam and it's not lying. It's, what did he call it?, omitting the truth. Adam does it to annoy people." (AN That's actually true, I do do that. It's my way of having fun.)
May shook her head and took hold of Ash's hand as they made their way to the Pokémart. She briefly wondered if Cynthia knew about Adam's little habit before turning her focus back to the present and what supplies she might need.
An hour later they made their way to the north gate and found Mike waiting for them, they greeted each other and started to walk out of Saffron City.
"I take it you got a text from Adam." Mike said.
"Yeah we did. How did you know?" May replied.
"Just a hunch, Adam's always had a habit of looking out for me. We're a lot alike." Mike went quiet and neither Ash or May pushed the subject. They walked in silence for a couple of minutes before Ash asked a question.
"What's your goal? I want to be a Pokémon Master and May wants to be a Top Co-Ordinator, what do you want to be?"
"Fighting type member of Sinnoh's Elite Four, that's my goal." Mike replied. They travelled to their destinations talking about past adventures and future plans. Not knowing what might happen next, and that was half the fun.
And that's it, hope you liked it.
As always let me know what you think.
Until Next Time
Basic Trainer