Chapter 28
Continuing their journey to Goldenrod City, the location of the next Johto League Gym, the two Pokémon Trainers were walking on a path that snaked alongside a large precipice. At first, there was only the woodsy shades of brown and green painted in their vision that they had long since been accustomed to that blended into the background. But then a building at the bottom of the cliff seemed to almost beckon them with its pink and purple coloration, and their eyes were drawn to it instantly.
"What do you think they use that building for, Brock?" Ash asked, peering down the part of the ground where the edge broke off to get a closer look. Not only was the building a round shape – like a half a soda pop can buried in the ground – but the front was also free of trees and had a few structures that looked as though they had been ripped from a playground, showing that it was at least used recreationally.
"Hmm, good question," Brock pondered, standing beside his friend. "From the looks of it, it might be a..." His sentence was cut off by a loud scream, and his flailing limbs made Ash jump back out of both shock and fear that he was going to get hit accidentally. "On my neck! On my neck! Something cold and wet and weird just dropped on the back of my neck! Get it off me, quick, get it off!" Ash didn't dare get close while his traveling companion was freaking out, but before Brock could steady himself after spewing those words, his foot stepped closer to the cliff and the weakened ground crumbled beneath his shoes, and before either of them knew it, Brock was swallowed in the yawn of space below.
Brock's scream filled the woods, and a breath of horrified air escaped Ash's gaping maw. Luckily enough, Brock didn't fall straight down; the cliff was a bit at an angle, so after falling onto his backside, the Pokémon Breeder slid down the rocky terrain like a child would a long slide. Still, it was still very dangerous, and Ash needed to get to the bottom of the cliff safely so that he could make sure his friend was all right. Leaving Brock behind before he hit the ground, he ran to retrace his steps, remembering there was a fork in the path some distance away. If Ash was correct in his assumption, the other path would take him straight to the building.
And just a few minutes later, Ash reached the front of the building. Running up to the right where the cliff he stood above overlooked them now, his eyes scanned for Brock lying on the ground. But he didn't find this; instead, he found Brock upright and holding the free hand of a young girl with dark blue hair. As per usual, the girl looked both uncomfortable and surprised by his advances, but Ash was mostly exasperated. Looks like his friend was fine, after all.
"Brock, I think maybe you hit your head a little too hard," Ash interrupted, completely ruining the mood that Brock thought he was bringing. Quickly shoving the Pokémon Breeder out of the way, Ash gave a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of his head with a gloved hand bashfully as he looked up at the older girl. "Sorry; Brock can get a little weird sometimes. And falling over a cliff doesn't help." The blue-haired girl let out a sigh of relief, and when she did, Ash's eyes traveled downward. Now that both of her hands were free of Brock's grasp, he saw that she held a small blue Pokémon tightly in her arms. "Hey, what is that Pokémon?"
The girl looked down and smiled. "It's a Wooper! And this building happens to be a preschool just for them."
"A preschool just for Wooper?" A smile of understanding washed over Ash like an ocean wave – it explained why the building looked the way it did.
Opening her arms, the small blue Pokémon leaped out and bounced happily without a care in the world over to a small man-made pond opposite the cliff, and it was then that Ash realized that the Wooper was the reason that Brock had fell over the cliff – it had somehow climbed down onto his neck and into his vest. "Upa!" the Water Pokémon said happily as it swam with its head bobbing above the water, and joined the many other Wooper that were doing the same.
"I love Wooper, and when I was younger I babysat them all the time," the young girl explained, kneeling down and looking at her Pokémon fondly. "Then one day I found this pond, which is a perfect place to raise them. Pretty soon, the Wooper just started coming, and I ended up building this preschool."
"Upa!" they all chanted. Knowing that they were being talked about, the blue Water Pokémon all turned to face the newcomers, looking up at them with small, bright eyes and wide smiles that stretched from antenna to antenna. The way they cocked their heads in unison, it was impossible not to bring a smile to anyone's face.
"Let's check 'em out," Ash commented, and retrieved his Pokédex from his pocket.
"Wooper, the Water Fish Pokémon. Though they prefer to live in cold water, these appealing Pokémon forage for food on land. They are kept warm by a layer of insulating body fluid. Wooper is the pre-evolved form of Quagsire."
"So, these are what the Quagsire come from," Ash murmured. He encountered Quagsire early on in his journey through the Johto region, all the way back in Cherrygrove City. He was traveling with Gary at the time, and they had their GS Ball stolen for a ritual the Quagsire partook in.
"I can't explain it, but the Wooper just give me a good feeling," the young woman told the pair. "We were just about to let out for recess – if you'd like to join us you're more than welcome to."
"I'd love to learn how you teach the Wooper!" Brock stated in interest.
The blue-haired girl nodded, her pigtails that cascaded over her shoulders like a pair of waterfalls bobbing along with her head, and she took out a small tambourine from the pocket of her dark blue skirt and began to shake it steadily. "All right, class! It's time for our recess!" The shaking of the instrument grabbed all of their attention instantly, and they all turned to stare at her as though enthralled in a trance. Then, she began to tap her finger on the drum part of the tambourine to a rhythm, and soon the Wooper began to sing along in unison.
"Upa, upa, upapapa! Upa, upa, upapapa!" they chanted, bobbing their heads back and forth along with the beats of the instrument.
The scene made Ash's heart melt, and he knelt down as though he didn't have the strength to stand. "It's almost like they're singing!" he observed, and rested his cheek on his hand, and looked at the Wooper in the front that the teacher had released into the pond. "That one is the cutest! It moves really cute, and it looks cute, everything about it is cute!"
"Very cute... I agree..." Brock murmured behind him, but he wasn't looking at the Wooper at all, but up at the preschool teacher who didn't know she was being watched so closely.
Now that all the attention was on her, the Wooper's teacher put away the tambourine and looked down at them. "Play in the pond now, but don't go too far. We'll start class again in a little bit." The Wooper nodded and uttered a response before dispersing, and she turned back to them. "Oh, I'm sorry. In all the commotion, I didn't even introduce myself to you. My name's Olesia."
"Nice to meet you, Olesia," Ash responded. "I'm Ash, and you've already met Brock." He gestured to the Pokémon Breeder who was staring like zombie at the blue-haired girl. "I'm traveling to compete in the Johto League."
"That's quite a goal," she replied with a small smile. "Then I'm sure you wouldn't be opposed to a small rest. Wait here; I'll get us some tea." Ash and Brock happily agreed, and Olesia disappeared in the front entrance of her building. Minutes later, she came out with a tray of food and drink, china, and a blanket.
Steam could be seen rising from the spout of the teapot, and she poured the light brown liquid into the open mouths of the cups while Brock spread out the blanket. "The Wooper have already had their snack, but I thought maybe you'd all like to have one, too!"
"Yeah!" Ash and Brock said at the same time, helping themselves to the cookies and tea in front of them.
"I hope the cookies are all right; I made them myself."
"All right? These cookies are perfect!" Brock complimented with his mouth full.
"Yeah!" Ash added, washing it down with a mouthful of tea.
"Thanks! That's very nice of you," Olesia thanked, and her smile never faded as she sipped her own cup of tea. Suddenly, the sound of ringing filled their ears, and her brown eyes flickered downward. "Oh, excuse me." A small cell phone was produced from the pocket of her jeans and she placed it up to her ear. "Good morning! Wooper Pond Preschool."
So as to not be rude, Ash and Brock stopped listening and instead focused their attention of drinking the tea and chewing on their snacks. The cookies were nothing fancy – just plain sugar cookies with a powdered covering – but Brock seemed to be entranced. "Ah, these cookies are as beautiful as she is..." Ash ignored his traveling companion as he tended to do when he got into moods like this, but a sudden exclamation from Olesia pulled both of them out of dream land.
"Oh no!" They both looked over to see an alarmed look raising the preschool teacher's eyebrows. "Oh, that's just terrible! What did the doctors say?" She was quiet for a moment as the person unknown to them spoke. "That's good. Do you need me to come over and take care of anything for you?.. Well, if you don't want me to, I'll give you a call a little later. Take care of yourself." The alarmed look only turned into worry as she pulled the phone away from her ear and cut the connection. "My poor mom..."
"Everything okay, Olesia?" Brock asked, and the blue-haired girl's eyes bounced up toward them, almost as if she only just remembered they were sitting with her, and then they fell back down.
"Oh... my mother lives in the next town, and she fell down the stairs and broke her leg," she explained. Ash and Brock gave a simultaneous gasp.
"How's she doing; is she gonna be okay?!"
"Oh, she says she's just fine, and her leg's mending, but I know my mother. And I think she's acting like things are okay just so she doesn't get me worried. But I am." Sad, doe-like brown eyes looked at the plate of cookies that were now going untouched. "There's no one I can call who lives in her neighborhood, so I should go and see how she's doing myself, except..." Finally, her head pulled back up again, but she looked past Brock and at the small lake where the Wooper were all staring with wide smiles on their faces. "Except I can't just leave the Wooper here all by themselves. Now I just don't know what to do."
"You're gonna stop worrying and go see your mom, Olesia!" Though Brock's words were respectable, the way that he grabbed her hands into his was not.
"B-but-"
"The two of us can take care of your Wooper while you're visiting her."
"You... can..?"
"I'll keep a sharp eye on all those cute little Wooper, Olesia," he assured her, and stood up and flashed her a peace sign. "This is a job for Brock the super Breeder!"
Following his example, the rest of them stood up as well. "Oh, I couldn't ask you to do that!" Olesia replied.
"You don't have to ask us, Olesia; we're volunteering," Ash inputted.
Olesia seemed quite thrown off by their generosity and finally, a smile crept onto her face, and she folded her hands together to show she was grateful. "Well... thank you! I won't be gone very long."
They followed her to the front gate of the preschool, and there, she started up her red motorized scooter which was chained near the gate, and after putting her helmet over her head, she handed Brock a small notepad that featured a Wooper's face on the front. "Everything you need to know about taking care of the Wooper is right in that little book," she explained.
"No problemo!"
"Thanks, guys!" she thanked once again, and revved up the engine to her scooter before zooming away. "See 'ya!"
"Bye, Olesia!" Brock called back, and kept waving until she was out of view.
"I'll be back as soon as I can!" she threw over her shoulder before disappearing in the distance.
Brock finally let his arm drop and he turned back to Ash. "This is gonna be a piece of cake."
"Do you really think it will be so easy, Brock?" Ash questioned. When he dealt with the Quagsire back in Cherrygrove City, they were a handful and they weren't even his responsibility.
"I shouldn't have to remind you, Ash, that I'm an extremely experienced Pokémon Breeder," the former Gym Leader answered matter-of-factually with his hands on his hips.
This assured Ash more than he had been earlier, and a smile on his face curled his lips shortly after a breath of air released his anxieties. "And don't forget, we have that notebook."
"It's all right here," Brock agreed, holding up the notebook that Olesia had given him before she left. The pair headed back to the entrance of the school where they had left the Wooper in the pond. All the while, Brock's nose was deep in the small book filled with Olesia's handwritten notes, and he was muttering quietly to himself as he attempted to memorize the information in there, so he wasn't the one who gasped when they finally reached the pond. He was, however, the one who screamed the loudest when he peeled his eyes from the book and look down.
The pond was empty. All of the Wooper were gone.
"The Wooper!" Ash exclaimed, but he wasn't nearly as devastated as Brock.
"Every... one... of 'em... gone..." he murmured, his voice getting quieter with each word, and when Ash ran up to investigate, Brock collapsed onto his side.
"They're not underwater, either," Ash stated, looking more closely into the pond. Olesia had taken such good care of it that you could see all the way through to the bottom, so it was unlikely they were hiding in it. "Where could they have gone?!"
When his question was left unanswered, Ash turned around to see Brock laying on his side. Almost like he was when he mentioned Professor Ivy's name. "C'mon, Brock! Let's go and find them!" But as he turned, his eyes caught something on the ground. Something slimy was glistening in the sun leading out of the pond and onto the dirt. "It looks like a trail."
This statement was enough to bring life back to Brock's lifeless body, and he jolted up and looked at it closely. "Okay! We're in luck! The Wooper must have left these tracks!" Both him and Ash's eyes followed the slime trail slowly. "And they seem to lead... right inside the school building!" As observed, the trail disappeared through the opened front door of Olesia's school. "C'mon, Ash!"
"Right behind you!" the black-haired Trainer called, and hurried after Brock. Being careful not to slip on the slimy trail left behind, they followed it through the front door of the building and down the hallway. It wasn't very big, but most of the rooms had doors that were closed. The trail continued downward to a sliding door and disappeared behind it. Hot on its trail, Brock was the first to open the door, and when him and Ash's eyes laid upon the scene inside, they both gasped.
This area was the kitchen, and it had a large infestation of Wooper. They were everywhere. On the counters, in the cabinets, on the floor, in the sink, and all of them were getting into some sort of trouble. Their tails wagged with happiness, and whether they knew they were being mischievous or not was irrelevant at the moment – they needed to get them. Ash's brown eyes darted around, bouncing from some Wooper on the floor that got into Olesia's cookie jar, to the ones on the counter that had ripped open a bag of Pokémon food and were mowing down. It was amazing how much trouble they could cause despite having no arms. "Guess they were hungry..." Ash murmured, blinking in disbelief.
Brock closed his gaping mouth and instead transferred his attention to Olesia's notepad. He flipped it open to a certain page and began to read out loud. "'Getting Wooper to behave: Wooper are more likely to behave when you show them affection, and food'." He quickly pocketed the book and smirked. "Well in that case, I'll show them Brock's super-delicious, super-nutritious, incredible-edible Pokémon Pellets!" He retrieved a brown paper bag from his backpack and held up the Pokémon chow. Instantly, all the Wooper turned their heads – some of them in mid-chew – and stared with interest at Brock. Olesia's Wooper, known by the heart-shaped blue stripe on its neck, was the first to approach without a hint of caution in its eyes.
Brock climbed down to eye level, putting his knowledge of Pokémon Breeding hard to work, and held out the pellet. "Okay, Wooper... I have some sweet little treats I know you're gonna love!" But instead of smelling his hand, the Wooper went up and sniffed his face, then began to lick his face. "See, Ash? I knew I could get control of them this way!" he said between laughs. Seeing the way that Olesia's Wooper wasn't scared, the other Wooper approached as well, and they all began to climb all over him and lick him as well. "That's it – come to Brock-y!" But they all kept coming, and climbing on his shoulders, head and arms. "Wait, stop!" Soon, the Pokémon Breeder was smothered in Wooper, and he was knocked over onto his backside, and only his arms could be seen flailing around amongst the blue, slimy Pokémon. "H-help me!"
Quickly, Ash began to pull the Wooper off Brock's writhing body, but this was a lot harder than it looked. Much like the Quagsire in Cherrygrove City, the Wooper were covered with a mucous film that made even gripping them difficult. But, with the two of them, they managed to get the Wooper back in line and off Brock. The Pokémon Breeder sat up, covered in slime himself and in desperate need of a bath, but he let out a sigh of relief as he crossed his legs. "A few more seconds and that could have turned ugly!"
"Hey Brock, listen to what it says here," Ash said. He had been thumbing through Olesia's notepad while Brock was recovering from the licking assault. "'Wooper will obey your instructions more easily if you use a... tambourine'?"
"A tambourine?" Brock parroted, craning his neck up and cocking his eyebrows. The former Pewter City Gym Leader stood up and scanned the kitchen. Fortunately for them, they found one sitting next to the sink amongst the mess that the Wooper had created. Brock picked it up and shook off some of the food crumbs that had fallen on it, and when he did, they both noticed the Wooper all perked up and cocked their head in his direction. He shook it again, and they cocked their head the other way. They were reacting to it.
"They like it, Brock!" Ash said with a smile. "Just like when Olesia was playing it earlier!" They both let the memory from earlier flood their brains, and a rejuvenated smile made its way across Brock's mouth.
In a rhythm that was as close as he could get it to Olesia's playing just an hour before, Brock began to shake the tambourine and let the instrument do the rest. The Wooper began to sway back and forth to the beat, and they too began to sang along as they had in the pond. "Upapa upapa upa upa up!" They chanted, as though hypnotized by the beating, and once Brock was sure he had them in his spell, he slowly made his way toward the kitchen door. His plan worked, and they all followed him in a single-file line, chanting the entire way. Ash picked up the tail-end of the trail, making sure that no other Wooper strayed from them, and together, they all headed back outside. When Brock stood next to the pond and continued to play, they all jumped in and swam with their head along the surface like a buoy.
"Interesting! Who knew that music soothed the savage Pokémon!" Brock observed as the last Wooper jumped into the pond with a plop.
"We did it! They're all back in the pond!" Ash stated happily.
"What a relief that is," the Pokémon Breeder said with a sigh. But as they watched the group of Water Pokémon swim with glee back and forth in the pond, they noticed that one of them was missing. And they both realized this at the same time, their eyes widening with horror.
"OLESIA'S FAVORITE WOOPER!" they both screamed at the same time.
Once again, Brock began to shut down, and he stumbled back, as if dizzy from spinning. "We... lost... Olesia's... Wooper..." In a repeat image of before, Brock's voice lost its luster with each word spoken, and he collapsed onto the ground before pulling himself into a fetal position.
"Brock, you can't just fall apart every time something happens!" Ash scolded lightly. It worked, but not like Ash thought, and the Pokémon Breeder just slid up to the edge of the pond holding the tambourine and shaking it lightly in his hand.
"Woop, woop... Woop woop woop..." he murmured with each shake of the tambourine. Though it wasn't quite as energetic as it had been in the school, it still grabbed the Wooper's attention and they still bopped their heads to the instrument's jingle.
Ash looked at the scene with his hands on his hips and a pitied look on his face. In this state, Brock was useless, but at least he could distract the Wooper and make sure any others didn't escape with its cohort. "Stay here, Brock," the Pokémon Trainer told him. "I'll go and try and find Olesia's Wooper." Brock didn't acknowledge him in his depressed state, and Ash turned on his heel and went back into the school.
Following his footsteps, he made his way back into the kitchen where he had seen it for certain. "Maybe it's somewhere in here still..." Ash murmured. His eyes scanned the area. It was still a mess from the earlier invasion of the Water Fish Pokémon, but a big crash drew his attention to the stack of dishes on his right. There were plates stacked almost to the ceiling, but a large amount of them were still in the sink, and that's where the crash had originated from. A big, blue head rose from amongst the ceramic plates and looked directly at Ash with a wide smile.
"Upa? Upa."
"There it is!" But as the Pallet Town native took a step forward, the Wooper jumped out from the sink and onto the windowsill. "Wooper, wait!" he yelled, now running forth. He reached the counter and lunged, but the Wooper jumped, knocking over a flower vase in the process. As Ash stumbled back, reeling from the pain of hitting his stomach against the counter, his arms reached out completely out of reflex and caught the flower vase before it smashed on the linoleum floor.
However, he didn't have time to rest before Wooper bounced its way over to the leaning tower of dishes, and hopped atop them like hopscotch boxes. The dishes swayed back and forth when it jumped off them, and Ash quickly got to his feet and lunged as a few of the porcelain plates plummeted. "Look out!" he cried, and landed flat on his stomach. He managed to catch the couple of plates between his hands, and let out a sigh when the plates on the counter stopped swaying as well.
A pressure on his head forced his chin against the floor, and he looked up once again to see that Wooper was hopping away as if this were a game to it. The Water and Ground Pokémon jumped back up on the counter, and Ash, still lying on his stomach, held up a Poké Ball and threw it. "Chikorita! Follow that Wooper!" The ball burst open, and the Leaf Pokémon appeared in a matter of seconds before taking off after the Water Fish Pokémon.
"Chikori! Chika!" it cried, running after Wooper and running parallel with it on the floor while it was on the counter. Olesia's Pokémon ignored it and bounced past a basket of sharp silverware. Upon passing it, its tail wagged and it knocked down the basket, sending the forks and knives tumbling down in Chikorita's direction. "Chikah!" it screamed, trying its best to stop. Ash's eyes forced shut and he heard the sound of impact, but when he opened them, Chikorita had just barely escaped being stabbed multiple times, and the only thing lying on its head was the wicker basket. Relief was so overwhelming for it that the Grass Pokémon collapsed.
"Are you okay?!" Ash exclaimed, jumping up and scooping his Pokémon into his arms. Its little heart was beating in its chest a mile a minute, but otherwise it was undamaged. Standing up and placing Chikorita on his shoulder, he ran after the trail of slimy footprints. The mischievous Pokémon had hopped out the door leading out of the kitchen and through the hallway before leaving through the front entrance, so Ash followed them.
Unfortunately, the trail ended with the dirt, but it wouldn't be too hard to find a blue Pokémon in a green and brown background. Right? Ash's head looked back and forth. "It ought to be..." he trailed off, but then his eye caught something. Along the same cliff that Brock had tumbled down at the beginning of their day, Wooper was hopping up its side. "Oh great... For not having arms, that Pokémon sure did get high." His eyes turned back momentarily to Brock, who still had his knees tucked against his chin and was shaking the tambourine just enough to make noise, before looking at the cliff and knowing what he had to do.
Minutes later, the Pallet Town Trainer was scaling the side of the cliff with Chikorita on his shoulder and clutching on tightly. While the Wooper had made it look as easy as pie, this was sure taking a toll on Ash, especially trying to rush up as fast as he could in order to keep up with the Water Pokémon. The black-haired Trainer was about halfway up when Olesia's Pokémon reached the top, and it peered down over the cliff and bounced up and down with happiness seeing that Ash was still giving chase. The face that Ash had thought was adorable at their arrival was now the bane of his existence.
"Upapapa!" Wooper said, turning around and bouncing away once Ash got a good distance closer to the top, and as Ash pulled himself up, Chikorita jumped off his shoulder and took off after Wooper.
"Chika! Chikori!"
"Don't let it get away!" Ash told his Pokémon.
The pair ran as fast as they could to try and keep up with the little Water Fish Pokémon, but their running was nothing in comparison to its playful hopping, and despite having little legs, it seemed to know just how fast to hop in order to continue to stay one step ahead of them. Luckily, it was a shade of bright blue, so it wouldn't be easy to lose in the forest, despite it weaving between the trees in an attempt to lose them. But at this point, Wooper was going farther and farther away from the school, getting Ash worried. He hadn't been this far out, and had no idea where he was going. Hopefully once he finally caught the Wooper he would be able to find his way back.
The trees finally parted, but what laid out before him did not please him in the slightest. There was a huge canyon swallowing up the earth below, and the only thing that connected the two was a rickety wooden bridge. The danger hadn't yet settled into Ash's brain, and all he saw was the Wooper hopping from plank to plank without a care in the world. "Upa! Upa! Upa! Upa!" It sang with each hop, like a child on a jump-rope singing a rhyme.
"Let's go!" Ash said to his Chikorita, and ran out onto the bridge, but it was when Chikorita cried out and stayed behind anxiously that he took in his surroundings.
"Chikori!" it cried in warning, holding out one of its paws to stop him. He stopped, and when he did, he felt his body sway from being suspended in the air. A groan of the plank at his feet made him look down, and the cold chill of anxiety played a song of horror down his spine. A yelp of fear escaped his throat.
Almost on the other side of the bridge, Wooper turned around and saw that the game it thought it was playing was put on pause, and bounced up in down in place, almost as if asking why Ash stopped pursuing it. "Upa?"
Not wanting its Trainer to go out on his own, Chikorita slowly stepped out onto the wooden planks after him. Both it and Ash's eyes were glittering with nerves as they slowly made their way across the unstable bridge. Ash held onto the rope handrail as tightly as he could. If his hands weren't covered by gloves, he knew the skin underneath them would be white as bone.
Stopping to take a breather, he placed his hand down on the wooden plank in front of him, and much to his dismay, the wood crumbled beneath his touch. His eyes widened as he watched the wooden splinters fall through the air and get swallowed up by the distance, and his jaw unhinged in a silent scream. But then he heard movement in front of him and looked up to see Olesia's Wooper hopping closer to him. Blissfully ignorant to the danger around it, Wooper frowned and cocked its head at Ash, asking what he could be so upset about.
Intertwining his arm through the rope support as a safety precaution, Ash slowly reached his free hand out with his palm up to the Water and Ground Pokémon. "Nice Wooper... come here, Wooper..." But Wooper simply stared at him with a blank smile, and soon its mouth opened happily.
"Upa!" The game was back on. And it excitedly jumped from plank to plank. Wooper wasn't exactly heavy, but any bit of movement seemed to make the bridge utter its final cry, and the rope bridge soon began to swing back and forth in the air. Panic filled Ash's chest, but the Wooper hopped out of reach and backtracked its way back toward its original destination.
"Wooper, come back!" Ash yelled, but the Wooper ignored him and continued hopping away from the Pallet Town Trainer. "Chikorita, catch that Wooper before it gets away!"
"Chika!" the Leaf Pokémon cried with determination, hurrying forward past its Trainer. Using its Vine Whip, a pair of vines reached out from the buds sticking out of its neck and they coiled around Wooper's body. This only managed to stop it for a second, however, as the Wooper seemed barely phased and slipped out of Chikorita's grip and onto the rope handrail. Without a single hint of fear, Wooper ran along it as though it were a tightrope.
"Upaupaupaupa!" it cried happily, but Ash wasn't happy at all.
"Hey, Wooper! Get down off of there!" he shouted. In his mind's eye, he imagined the worst, but thankfully, Wooper made it to the other side of the bridge and jumped down and onto the ground without any issues. A sigh of relief escaped Ash's mouth as the bridge quickly began to calm beneath him. "At least Wooper made it..."
A look of determination furrowed his eyebrows together. If Wooper could make it, he needed to as well. "C'mon! We can't lose it now!" he told Chikorita. The Grass Pokémon nodded and it began to run in the direction Wooper went, and – swallowing his fear – Ash did the same. He only ran a few steps before he heard a snap behind him, and his head whipped around to see one of the ropes had broken apart. While Chikorita made it safely across, Ash let out a scream as the bridge collapsed under his feet. The bridge snapped completely in half, but Ash thought fast and his hands flicked out faster than he could have thought possible and wrapped tightly around them. The half of the bridge swung in an arc downward, and finally stopped by hitting the cliffside. It was a sticky situation, but at least Ash wasn't at the bottom of the cliff in pieces like some of the wood that broke apart.
"Chikori!" Chikorita cried from above, looking down in horror but slightly relieved to see that its Trainer managed to hold on.
"Chikorita! Think you can pull me up?" Ash called, and Chikorita nodded. Extending its vines from its neck, they hastily wrapped around Ash's waist and the Leaf Pokémon hoisted him up. After a few painstaking seconds, Ash was finally back on solid ground at long last. "Thanks, Chikorita." He could just about kiss the ground at how happy he was to be back on solid footing, and Chikorita accepted his praise by rubbing against his pantleg. "But we can't lose that Wooper! We have to get it now!"
"Chika!" his Pokémon agreed, and together, they headed off toward the direction that Chikorita last saw Wooper disappear to.
o 0 o
Lucky for them, Wooper managed to stay along the path, and after just between a half an hour and an hour of searching, they finally managed to stumble across it. The Water Fish Pokémon had been distracted by a small cluster of mushrooms that were growing out of the base of a tree and was munching on them. Not wanting to alert it and know that Ash was closing in on it, the Pallet Town Trainer pushed a raised index finger to his lip and looked at Chikorita. And then, stepping on his tippy-toes so as to not make too much noise, he crept up behind it. "Nice Wooper... Keep eating those yummy mushrooms... That's it..."
Just then, Wooper's head whipped around, the stem of a mushroom sticking out of its mouth, and it looked at Ash in mid-chew, with one of its trademark blank smiles on its face. Both of them stared frozen staring at each other, both waiting on the other to make the first move while Ash didn't even breathe.
Unable to take it any longer, Ash jumped forward with a loud yell, and reached his hands out. He managed to wrap them around Wooper's body, but as it had done with Chikorita, its filmy surface made it extremely slippery, and the Water Fish Pokémon easily leapt out of his grip. Ash had only a moment to cry out, but it was quickly interrupted when he slammed face first into the tree that Wooper had been crouched in front of. "Upa!" Wooper cried happily when it landed on the ground once again.
"Slipped away..." Ash murmured, and rolled on his side while his face screamed in pain.
"Chikah!" Chikorita declared, standing its ground angrily in front of Olesia's Wooper. Wooper turned back to the Grass-type Pokémon and simply smiled at it. "Chika, Chikori!"
"Upapa!" It sounded as though Chikorita were arguing with Wooper, but the Water and Ground Pokémon had absolutely no qualms at all.
All the while, Ash lay on his back, staring up at the sky and waiting for the pain in his face to subside. As he did, a strange droning filled his ears. At first, he thought that he had hit his head a lot harder than he originally thought, but after some time, he noticed the sound began to get closer. Peeling himself off the ground, he looked up to see that both Chikorita and Wooper were looking in the same direction, and following their gaze, he saw that the source of the noise was a motor. The motor of Olesia's scooter.
"Hey, Ash!" Brock called from behind Olesia. He had an arm wrapped around her waist, and wore a matching helmet to the blue-haired girl, but his was blue instead of red.
"It's Brock and Olesia!" Ash stated, a smile curling his lips both from happiness and relief. The two pulled up beside Ash, and Wooper began to bounce around with glee and then hop away. "Boy, am I glad to see you! This Wooper is quite a handful. No matter what I do, I can't get it to slow down."
"Don't worry, I'll get Wooper back," she assured him, and took the helmet off her head calmly despite the fact that her Wooper just disappeared into the bushes some distance away. "Hey, Wooper! Playtime's over! Let's go see our friends, okay?!"
"Upa!" At the sound of her call, Wooper's head perked out from between the leaves, and it nodded with glee.
"Hi, Woopee!" Olesia greeted ecstatically, and she held her arms open, and much to Ash's surprise, the Wooper jumped straight into her arms. After all that time he had spent running around and trying to get the Water and Ground Pokémon, that was all it took.
"I don't... believe it..." Ash murmured, blinking as if his eyes were deceiving him.
o 0 o
Once everyone was all corralled together and back at the Wooper preschool, Olesia watched the Wooper swimming in the pond with significantly less anxiety in her face than she had when she left. She had gone to visit her mom, and when she saw that all was well, she headed back right away. "We're all glad to hear your mom's leg is out of the cast; and that she's up and around, Olesia," Ash said to her.
"I'm so glad I got to see her," the preschool teacher replied. "But I'm sorry you had such a bad time with the Wooper while I was away."
"It turned out to be kind of fun," the Pallet Town native brushed off with a chuckle.
"We were just happy we could help you out, Olesia," Brock added. "And, as a Pokémon Breeder, I'm very impressed with the way you handle your Wooper. You've got to let me in on your secret formula on raising Pokémon!"
"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to disappoint you, Brock," she told him with a small laugh, and looked down at the Wooper in her arms. "There isn't any big secret to raising Wooper – at least none that I've discovered yet. I think they just seem so surprising because no one expects something so adorable to cause so much trouble."
"You're right," Ash agreed. "You can't judge a Pokémon by the way it looks." He looked down into the pond to see all the Wooper were now perfectly in line now that their teacher was back, and were all smiling up at her. But a flash of movement in his peripheral vision pulled his attention back to Olesia, where Brock was holding one of her hands once again.
"Say, maybe I could stay here and we could teach each other all about Pokémon," Brock offered with a flirtatious smile. "And maybe... maybe we could learn all about each other in the process."
"I think we're beginning to overstay our welcome as it is, Brock!" Ash piped up, pushing the Pokémon Breeder away from the clearly uncomfortable girl. But as she pulled herself together, she brought a hand to her lips and covered a giggle.
"Oh, guys!" she called after them as they began to head toward the front gate. "Thanks again for helping me! And you're welcome at the Wooper Pond Preschool anytime!"
"See 'ya, Olesia!"
"Don't miss me too much!" Brock shouted, trying to hide the tears that were falling down his face. And with that, the turned the corner to the gate, and continued on their way to Goldenrod City.
Ash:
Party:
Blastoise (Poké Ball) (m)
Moves: Skull Bash, Dig, Hydro Pump, BubbleBeam
Bulbasaur (Poké Ball) (m)
Moves: SolarBeam, Vine Whip, Razor Leaf, Tackle
Heracross (Poké Ball) (m)
Moves: Horn Attack, Leer, Take Down, Fury Attack
Chikorita (Poké Ball)
Moves: Razor Leaf, Tackle, Vine Whip
Cyndaquil (Poké Ball)
Moves: Flamethrower, Tackle
At Professor Oak's Lab:
Tauros (Safari Ball) x2 (m)
Moves: Fissure, Horn Attack, Take Down
Kingler (Poké Ball) (m)
Moves: Water Gun, Bubble, Crabhammer, Hyper Beam
Muk (Poké Ball)
Moves: Poison Gas, Sludge Bomb
Primeape (Poké Ball) (m)
Moves: Thrash, Mega Kick, Scratch, Seismic Toss
Pidgeotto (Poké Ball) (f)
Moves: Gust, Quick Attack, Whirlwind, Double-Edge
Stantler (Poké Ball)
Moves: Hypnosis
Training at Charicific Valley:
Charizard (Poké Ball) (m)
Moves: Flamethrower, Fire Spin, Skull Bash, Slash
Kanto Badges:
Boulder Badge
Cascade Badge
Thunder Badge
Marsh Badge
Rainbow Badge
Soul Badge
Volcano Badge
Earth Badge
Diamond Badge
Indigo League Rank: Top 4
Johto Badges:
Zephyr Badge
Hive Badge
Brock:
Party:
Onix (Poké Ball)
Moves: Tackle, Bind, Dig
Geodude (Poké Ball)
Moves: Seismic Toss, Tackle
Zubat (Poké Ball)
Moves: Whirlwind, Supersonic
Psyduck (Poké Ball) (m)
Moves: Tail Whip, Water Gun, Disable, Confusion
Vulpix (Poké Ball) (f)
Moves: Fire Spin, Flamethrower, Agility, Quick Attack