Well, I finally got this thing written even though the insoiration came from Nathien Madien waaaaay back when The Unbelievable Lightness of Seeing aired in the US [i managed to catch that today for the first time as well which was nice!] Anyway, from his simple comment, came this. Hope ya like it ^^
Rating: PG - Just kissing here, nothing more!
Wanna See My Lure?
‘Finally.’ thought the mature young lady who lay upon the banks of a serene lake that twinkled in the bright sun light. She had been waiting weeks for this trip and finally, here she was, fishing at her favourite lake in the beautiful sunshine without a care in the world, especially as she had left Psyduck at the Gym.
A warm gentle breeze rustled the leaves on the trees, creating a calming melody to back up the harmonies of wild pokemon, lulling her to sleep. Who cared if she didn’t catch anything today? She’d just stay there until she did, whether it took days, weeks or even a full month. With no Pokenav signal, she could just use that as an excuse for not contacting her sisters.
To her left, away from her line that trailed lazily in the water, the pokemon she had brought with her, Caserin, her sister’s Luverin, Politoed, Corsola and Azurill, were relaxing in the fresh water. Her little break was as much one for her pokemon as it was for her, being able to reside in fresh flowing water for a change rather than the water that existed in the tanks.
The world was quiet until a rustling could be heard, directly behind her from the bushes near the path that danced around the trees to connect main road to the lake. She was too comfortable however to move and identify the source, leaving it to the senses of her pokemon if danger lurked there. The rustling stopped when a tall man stepped out of the bushes, almost tripping but correcting himself before coming to grief. Casting his eyes, hidden beneath the wide rim of a panama hat, he took in the sight before him. The lake still gleamed the way he remembered with the deep blue of the water contrasting with the vibrant green of the grass connected the two. He had visited the lake many times over the last few years and it never changed in its beauty in his eyes, regardless of the time of year. Always, he had come alone and never met a soul there, but this time, there was a young woman. She had the brightest red hair, free from any constraints and trailing through the stems of the grass. Her pale complection shone as the yellow rays fell upon her perfect features and closed eyes. One hand suddenly moved to shield the eyes from the glare, hiding the rest of her face from view. Shaking his head slightly, the stranger moved around the lake to take his place a few feet to the right of the young woman. As he made himself comfortable on the soft grass, he removed his fishing rod from over his shoulder and deftly launched the end far into the lake.
At the noise of the reel unwinding, the young woman peeked out for the corner of her eye at the new arrival while her pokemon paused in their play for a moment to take in the identity of the stranger. Moments later however, the splashes as the result of their game continued as they easily forgot about the new arrival. To Misty, she could see he was wearing a large, shapeless cloth which covered his shoulders and fell down to around his knees, hiding the vast majority of his body from view. What little she could see of his trousers displayed that of worn jeans and well used trainers. His facial features were completely hidden in the shade of the Panama hat he was wearing.
She closed her eyes again while relaxing in the sunshine but she couldn’t help but feel slightly annoyed by his presence, even though she had no right to be as it was a public lake where anyone was entitled to fish in the waters. It was just that she wanted to be alone in a place that held a very deep sentimental feeling for her. As the warm rays begin to wash over her, Misty soon forgot all about the new arrival as all the traces of tension caused to her by the life at the Gym begin to melt away.
Not an hour had gone by when the stranger’s rod jerked violently, almost ripping it out of his hands to signify a catch on the end of the line. Stirring from her state of complete relaxation, Misty shaded her eyes with her hand to watch the young man fight for a moment with his catch and fling the creature on the end up into the sky to land beside him on the bank. He made a disgruntled noise once seeing his catch was a small Goldeen and quickly removed the end of his line from its mouth and sending the creature back into the crystal clear waters. Moments later, his line flew through the air again to pierce the surface of the water and sink out of sight.
Through a lifetime of fishing for pokemon, Misty knew that it was often down to luck if you caught something or not, but this new man had caught something in less than an hour and she had already been waiting for three. Putting it down to random chance favouring the stranger rather than herself, Misty resumed her relaxed position on the lake once glancing over at her now silent pokemon. All were fast asleep, Azurill’s tail and Politoed’s webbed feet remained in the water beside the two Luvdisc, cuddled closely together while Corsola lay next to Azurill, preventing her round little body from rolling down the slight incline into the water.
Less than half an hour had ticked by and there was another tug on the line of the strange man while hers remained lifeless in the sun. Sitting up properly and with an annoyed frown on her face, Misty watched at the stranger had to work a little harder to remove his latest catch from the water while still managing to stay seated on the bank, his large poncho like cloth staying stubbornly over him to keep his body from view. From the waters emerged a large Seaking, reddened scales dazzling in the sunlight as it flew through the air to land beside him as the Goldeen before had done. From what she could work out from his body language, the stranger was not pleased with his capture and in just a few moments the Seaking was returned to the waters from whence it came.
Feeling that it would be an intrusion to ask the stranger about his actions, Misty checked on her own rod which lay lifeless before her. Picking up the rod, she gave it a gentle tug to discover the end was firmly lodged within the depths. Glaring furiously at the line, she began to pull with more and more force until resorting to getting to her feet to lean her full weight against the thin cord. Suddenly, it snapped and she flew backwards, landing painfully on her bottom and falling onto her back.
Her eyes shot sideways to the strangely clad stranger as she heard him utter a heavily suppressed snort of amusement before returning to his normal pose, staring out over the water. Throwing a furious glare in his direction she reeled in what remained of her line and flicked through her box for a new lure while cursing her bad luck. That had been a new lure and had subsequently held a lot of promise of fruitful catches which now would never be possible. Perhaps she would ask Politoed or Caserin to have a look in the water later to see if they could find the lost lure.
Swinging the rod over her back and sending the end of the line in a graceful arc over her head to land into the water, she took up a similar pose to that of the stranger, staring out over the water. ‘If he gets one more catch before I do, I’m going to scream!’ she furiously though, glaring at the point where the thin wire connecting her rod to the surface of the water lay as though daring it to defy her wishes. For some reason, the arrival of another person had turned her favourite past time into a competition, one that she must win!
As the minutes ticket by, both she and the stranger refreshed the position of their lines, attempting to find a creature that lurked beneath the mass of water before the other. Suddenly, Misty’s rod was almost torn from her grasp such was the ferocity of whatever had taken the bait. Moving up onto her knees, she leaned her full weight back on the line, giving and taking a little to try and unset the beast at the other end. At her call, Politoed became fully awake and was up on his feet, ready and waiting for the order to attack once his foe was uncovered while her other pokemon sat up to watch. With one last heave on the line, her prey was uncovered to be, a tiny Magikarp, barely older than a few days.
Letting out a small scream of frustration she deftly removed her lure from the Magikarp’s mouth and flung it back into the water. Looking across at her pokemon, they shared a look of disappointment before her faithful friends returned to their sleeping positions in the sun. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, letting the scent of the lake wash over her and calm her inner self. Reeling in the rest of her line, she was about to return its end to the water when the stranger on the bank, who had remained interestingly uninterested in her catch, began to play with another creature on the end of his line.
As she watched for the third time, he pulled another fish, this time a rare and valuable Feebas from the depths. Her jaw dropped. The creature on the end of his line was one of the most valued water types she had ever heard of and it had been just a dream for her to ever see or catch one herself. But again, the mysterious man returned it to the water with a small shake of his head and a hidden frown.
“What did you do that for?” she couldn’t help herself asking. A Feebas itself was one of the ugliest creatures in existence, but a Milotic, what it later evolved into was stunning as well as a hugely powerful creature. To throw one back as if it was a common Magikarp was lunacy.
“Not what I wanted.” He simply grunted, avoiding her eye contact while tipping his head to keep his face hidden from view beneath the wide brim of his hat.
Frustrated with his response, she angrily reset her line and he soon did the same, checking the pokeballs that rested under his large poncho in the process.
Over the next few hours, the stranger caught all manner of water-typed pokemon but released every one while Misty’s line remained as lifeless as the trees now that the gentle breeze had died. In the sun, she was beginning to grow excruciatingly hot and wanted nothing more than to dive into the blue lagoon before her. But first, she was going to catch another pokemon!
What was it down there that was preventing her line from catching the attention of a pokemon in the water. She had changed the type of lure many times, from the image of a small Magikarp to that of a piece of material that resembled some sea weed. Nothing was working yet the stranger caught everything. Each time he did so however, he managed to keep the identity of his lure a mystery to her so she had no idea what was so inviting to ever water pokemon in the area.
He had another catch but this time she didn’t even bother to look his way and watch. She heard the creature become lifted from the water with an almighty woosh and expected to hear the now familiar sounds of it being returned to the water, but it never came. Turning, she saw that instead of sending it back, the stranger was on his feet and already had a pokeball in the air to release a strange beast she had never seen before.
It came up to its trainer’s waist with four solid legs that were slightly green and a line of bushes on its brown shell. Its head had a tough beak and a protective helmet of the same colour as its shell. Its green undercarriage was protected by the shell and its overall appearance was that of a grass pokemon from a different region. Upon release it let out a deep cry and narrowed its eyes once spying its target before releasing a wild volley of razor sharp leaves from the bushes on its back.
Flicking her eyes away from the strange, turtle like creature, Misty gasped at the recognition of her favourite water pokemon in the world, a large Tentecool with a deep blue body and red rubies atop its head that gleamed in the bright sun. The two creatures broke out into a fierce battle that soon resulted in a highly weakened Tentecool to the extent that the stranger could sent out a pokeball and easily catch it.
She could sense that the strange man was smiling at his latest capture, rubbing the head of his grassy pokemon and collecting the pokeball as it lay still on the grass. His pokemon cried at its victory and playfully latched its beak onto the stranger’s poncho, threatening to pull it off it. Quicker than lighting, the man spun around and bent down to face his pokemon properly, speaking a few hushed words to it and returning it to its pokeball in a red beam of light.
“How have you done that?” Misty asked, incredulous that all he had been after was a Tentecool but had still had more success in half a day than she had know to experience in a whole week. Whether he wanted to divulge what type of lure he used, she was going to find out!
By this stage, the man had taken his place on the bank again and casually looked across at her while beginning to untangle the end of his fishing line and remove whatever was on the end of it before packing it away. “Done what?”
“Caught so many pokemon! I’ve done more fishing in just the last year than most people have done in a lifetime and I’ve never had so many bites in one day. What lure are you using?” she began to move towards him, her temper rising almost above a controllable level.
“So, you wanna see my lure?” he asked with a slightly cheeky sideways glance. Leaning away from the crazy girl, the young man finished undoing the knot which held his lure to the end of his fishing line and flicked it through the air to land in front of Misty, facing her. She gasped as her eyes widened to almost go past an un-human level. Sitting there, in the sun on the bright grass was a tiny replica of herself in a pair of denim short, yellow tank top, red suspenders and red trainers doing a small V for victory sign with the right hand. Rage like she had never known before began to course through her veins. She had given the very item to her best friend, a guy she had hoped to have had more contact with in the last few years but recently, had fallen off the radar with not a word from him in months.
Leaping to her feet, she produced from a pocket behind her a large block of wood on the end of a stick. This was her Mallet of Doom and, so far, she had never had a need to use it but now! This freak must have robbed her friend to get that lure or had a creepy enough obsession with her to fashion a new one based on her appearance a few years ago and for either one, deserved severe punishment of the worst kind.
BANG! She put all the energy and force she could muster behind the weight of her mallet to bring it down upon his unsuspecting head as his hat was so large it blocked the identity of the item in her hands from his view. His yelp was full of such shock, surprise and agony that it alerted all her pokemon to their feet and even caused a large stirring of the surface of the water as something poked its head above the water for a moment before sinking back down.
“Who,” BANG “the,” BANG “hell,” BANG “do you,” BANG “think,” BANG “you,” BANG “are?” she screamed, bringing her mallet down as hard as she could on any part of his body she could reach as he frantically backed away with on hand trying to block the blows and remove his hat at the same time. The last time her mallet made contact with his body, it caught the front of his hat and flipped it off his now heavily bruised head to reveal his identity.
Unruly black hair covered his head and his slightly tanned skin was already beginning to colour at the heavy bruising. He had chocolate brown eyes that held both a mixture of fear and a hope that she would stop her physical barrage upon him. The poncho still covered his clothes but under the large collar she could see the top of a black shirt with a white collar that stood up of its own accord.
Upon recognising the stranger, she gasped and dropped her mallet, where it manages to land on his foot, one of the places he hadn’t had injured, yet that is. “Ash, what the hell are you doing here?” she screeched at him, falling to the ground beside him with her legs on either side of her. She had half a mind for hitting him again with her normal mallet but for once, decided he’d just taken enough pain, for now of course.
“Ehehe, hi Misty,” he bashfully smiled rubbing the back of his head. “I went to the Gym last week but your sisters had told me you’d already left to come here. What took you so long to get here? I’ve been waiting for at least three days.”
“I stopped off in Viridian on the way here to see a friend. What are you doing in Kanto? I thought you were in Shinou or whatever that place is called.” She explained and immediately brought the conversation back to the reason why he was here and not hundreds of miles away. She was pleased to see him, but this was just weird!
“It was my mum’s birthday so I came back to see her and wanted to see you at the same time. But I had to wait for you first so Brock and Dawn are going to be annoyed…” he tailed off, only remembering his travelling companions who he had left in Hearthome City two weeks ago with the promise he’d be back 3 days ago. Oops.
“Oh…” replied Misty, a little disappointed with his explanation and hoping for something more than what was apparently true. A silence began to gather until Misty looked around, remembering something. “Where’s Pikachu?” she asked when there was no sign of the little rodent.
With a cheeky sideways grin, Ash yelled his best buddy’s name across the lake, wincing as his head throbbed suddenly. There was a small disturbance in the water, between where their two lines had been resting and a yellow head with a pair of yellow and black tipped ears appeared. “You can come out now.”
The little shape vanished beneath the water again and soon re-emerged a few feet away from the bank. As he bounded out of the water, Pikachu spat out a black mouthpiece that connected to a small red cylinder, the source of his oxygen and reason he was able to remain under the water for so long. Standing on all four of his little paws for a moment between them, Pikachu shook his coat briskly, showering the two teenagers with drops of cold water before greeting his red haired friend. “Pikachupi!”
“It’s good to see you too Pikachu.” She smiled while welcoming his hug and gathering him up into her arms for a moment. Soon, all Misty’s pokemon were wide awake again and gathered round Pikachu to greet their old friend as well as make a new one in the case of Caserin and Luverin who had never met the little rodent or his renown trainer. Hurrying away, the creatures soon began a game in the shallows of the lake, allowing the trainers to have a hopefully non violent talk. “You still have some explaining to do young man.” She poked Ash’s poncho and Panama hat to illustrate her point. “What was with the whole attitude and stuff?”
Ash remained silent for a moment, playing with a shoot of grass. “I guess I didn’t want you to know it was me.” He mumbled, avoiding her eye contact. In all honesty, he had no idea why he hid his identity from her. It had just seemed like such a great idea a few days ago but now seemed so stupid.
“Oh…” she replied, a strange feeling of shyness washing over her which she had never felt before in his presence. Searching for something more to ask she inquired, “What was that pokemon you used to catch the Tentecool?”
Part 2 in next post...
Rating: PG - Just kissing here, nothing more!
Wanna See My Lure?
‘Finally.’ thought the mature young lady who lay upon the banks of a serene lake that twinkled in the bright sun light. She had been waiting weeks for this trip and finally, here she was, fishing at her favourite lake in the beautiful sunshine without a care in the world, especially as she had left Psyduck at the Gym.
A warm gentle breeze rustled the leaves on the trees, creating a calming melody to back up the harmonies of wild pokemon, lulling her to sleep. Who cared if she didn’t catch anything today? She’d just stay there until she did, whether it took days, weeks or even a full month. With no Pokenav signal, she could just use that as an excuse for not contacting her sisters.
To her left, away from her line that trailed lazily in the water, the pokemon she had brought with her, Caserin, her sister’s Luverin, Politoed, Corsola and Azurill, were relaxing in the fresh water. Her little break was as much one for her pokemon as it was for her, being able to reside in fresh flowing water for a change rather than the water that existed in the tanks.
The world was quiet until a rustling could be heard, directly behind her from the bushes near the path that danced around the trees to connect main road to the lake. She was too comfortable however to move and identify the source, leaving it to the senses of her pokemon if danger lurked there. The rustling stopped when a tall man stepped out of the bushes, almost tripping but correcting himself before coming to grief. Casting his eyes, hidden beneath the wide rim of a panama hat, he took in the sight before him. The lake still gleamed the way he remembered with the deep blue of the water contrasting with the vibrant green of the grass connected the two. He had visited the lake many times over the last few years and it never changed in its beauty in his eyes, regardless of the time of year. Always, he had come alone and never met a soul there, but this time, there was a young woman. She had the brightest red hair, free from any constraints and trailing through the stems of the grass. Her pale complection shone as the yellow rays fell upon her perfect features and closed eyes. One hand suddenly moved to shield the eyes from the glare, hiding the rest of her face from view. Shaking his head slightly, the stranger moved around the lake to take his place a few feet to the right of the young woman. As he made himself comfortable on the soft grass, he removed his fishing rod from over his shoulder and deftly launched the end far into the lake.
At the noise of the reel unwinding, the young woman peeked out for the corner of her eye at the new arrival while her pokemon paused in their play for a moment to take in the identity of the stranger. Moments later however, the splashes as the result of their game continued as they easily forgot about the new arrival. To Misty, she could see he was wearing a large, shapeless cloth which covered his shoulders and fell down to around his knees, hiding the vast majority of his body from view. What little she could see of his trousers displayed that of worn jeans and well used trainers. His facial features were completely hidden in the shade of the Panama hat he was wearing.
She closed her eyes again while relaxing in the sunshine but she couldn’t help but feel slightly annoyed by his presence, even though she had no right to be as it was a public lake where anyone was entitled to fish in the waters. It was just that she wanted to be alone in a place that held a very deep sentimental feeling for her. As the warm rays begin to wash over her, Misty soon forgot all about the new arrival as all the traces of tension caused to her by the life at the Gym begin to melt away.
Not an hour had gone by when the stranger’s rod jerked violently, almost ripping it out of his hands to signify a catch on the end of the line. Stirring from her state of complete relaxation, Misty shaded her eyes with her hand to watch the young man fight for a moment with his catch and fling the creature on the end up into the sky to land beside him on the bank. He made a disgruntled noise once seeing his catch was a small Goldeen and quickly removed the end of his line from its mouth and sending the creature back into the crystal clear waters. Moments later, his line flew through the air again to pierce the surface of the water and sink out of sight.
Through a lifetime of fishing for pokemon, Misty knew that it was often down to luck if you caught something or not, but this new man had caught something in less than an hour and she had already been waiting for three. Putting it down to random chance favouring the stranger rather than herself, Misty resumed her relaxed position on the lake once glancing over at her now silent pokemon. All were fast asleep, Azurill’s tail and Politoed’s webbed feet remained in the water beside the two Luvdisc, cuddled closely together while Corsola lay next to Azurill, preventing her round little body from rolling down the slight incline into the water.
Less than half an hour had ticked by and there was another tug on the line of the strange man while hers remained lifeless in the sun. Sitting up properly and with an annoyed frown on her face, Misty watched at the stranger had to work a little harder to remove his latest catch from the water while still managing to stay seated on the bank, his large poncho like cloth staying stubbornly over him to keep his body from view. From the waters emerged a large Seaking, reddened scales dazzling in the sunlight as it flew through the air to land beside him as the Goldeen before had done. From what she could work out from his body language, the stranger was not pleased with his capture and in just a few moments the Seaking was returned to the waters from whence it came.
Feeling that it would be an intrusion to ask the stranger about his actions, Misty checked on her own rod which lay lifeless before her. Picking up the rod, she gave it a gentle tug to discover the end was firmly lodged within the depths. Glaring furiously at the line, she began to pull with more and more force until resorting to getting to her feet to lean her full weight against the thin cord. Suddenly, it snapped and she flew backwards, landing painfully on her bottom and falling onto her back.
Her eyes shot sideways to the strangely clad stranger as she heard him utter a heavily suppressed snort of amusement before returning to his normal pose, staring out over the water. Throwing a furious glare in his direction she reeled in what remained of her line and flicked through her box for a new lure while cursing her bad luck. That had been a new lure and had subsequently held a lot of promise of fruitful catches which now would never be possible. Perhaps she would ask Politoed or Caserin to have a look in the water later to see if they could find the lost lure.
Swinging the rod over her back and sending the end of the line in a graceful arc over her head to land into the water, she took up a similar pose to that of the stranger, staring out over the water. ‘If he gets one more catch before I do, I’m going to scream!’ she furiously though, glaring at the point where the thin wire connecting her rod to the surface of the water lay as though daring it to defy her wishes. For some reason, the arrival of another person had turned her favourite past time into a competition, one that she must win!
As the minutes ticket by, both she and the stranger refreshed the position of their lines, attempting to find a creature that lurked beneath the mass of water before the other. Suddenly, Misty’s rod was almost torn from her grasp such was the ferocity of whatever had taken the bait. Moving up onto her knees, she leaned her full weight back on the line, giving and taking a little to try and unset the beast at the other end. At her call, Politoed became fully awake and was up on his feet, ready and waiting for the order to attack once his foe was uncovered while her other pokemon sat up to watch. With one last heave on the line, her prey was uncovered to be, a tiny Magikarp, barely older than a few days.
Letting out a small scream of frustration she deftly removed her lure from the Magikarp’s mouth and flung it back into the water. Looking across at her pokemon, they shared a look of disappointment before her faithful friends returned to their sleeping positions in the sun. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, letting the scent of the lake wash over her and calm her inner self. Reeling in the rest of her line, she was about to return its end to the water when the stranger on the bank, who had remained interestingly uninterested in her catch, began to play with another creature on the end of his line.
As she watched for the third time, he pulled another fish, this time a rare and valuable Feebas from the depths. Her jaw dropped. The creature on the end of his line was one of the most valued water types she had ever heard of and it had been just a dream for her to ever see or catch one herself. But again, the mysterious man returned it to the water with a small shake of his head and a hidden frown.
“What did you do that for?” she couldn’t help herself asking. A Feebas itself was one of the ugliest creatures in existence, but a Milotic, what it later evolved into was stunning as well as a hugely powerful creature. To throw one back as if it was a common Magikarp was lunacy.
“Not what I wanted.” He simply grunted, avoiding her eye contact while tipping his head to keep his face hidden from view beneath the wide brim of his hat.
Frustrated with his response, she angrily reset her line and he soon did the same, checking the pokeballs that rested under his large poncho in the process.
Over the next few hours, the stranger caught all manner of water-typed pokemon but released every one while Misty’s line remained as lifeless as the trees now that the gentle breeze had died. In the sun, she was beginning to grow excruciatingly hot and wanted nothing more than to dive into the blue lagoon before her. But first, she was going to catch another pokemon!
What was it down there that was preventing her line from catching the attention of a pokemon in the water. She had changed the type of lure many times, from the image of a small Magikarp to that of a piece of material that resembled some sea weed. Nothing was working yet the stranger caught everything. Each time he did so however, he managed to keep the identity of his lure a mystery to her so she had no idea what was so inviting to ever water pokemon in the area.
He had another catch but this time she didn’t even bother to look his way and watch. She heard the creature become lifted from the water with an almighty woosh and expected to hear the now familiar sounds of it being returned to the water, but it never came. Turning, she saw that instead of sending it back, the stranger was on his feet and already had a pokeball in the air to release a strange beast she had never seen before.
It came up to its trainer’s waist with four solid legs that were slightly green and a line of bushes on its brown shell. Its head had a tough beak and a protective helmet of the same colour as its shell. Its green undercarriage was protected by the shell and its overall appearance was that of a grass pokemon from a different region. Upon release it let out a deep cry and narrowed its eyes once spying its target before releasing a wild volley of razor sharp leaves from the bushes on its back.
Flicking her eyes away from the strange, turtle like creature, Misty gasped at the recognition of her favourite water pokemon in the world, a large Tentecool with a deep blue body and red rubies atop its head that gleamed in the bright sun. The two creatures broke out into a fierce battle that soon resulted in a highly weakened Tentecool to the extent that the stranger could sent out a pokeball and easily catch it.
She could sense that the strange man was smiling at his latest capture, rubbing the head of his grassy pokemon and collecting the pokeball as it lay still on the grass. His pokemon cried at its victory and playfully latched its beak onto the stranger’s poncho, threatening to pull it off it. Quicker than lighting, the man spun around and bent down to face his pokemon properly, speaking a few hushed words to it and returning it to its pokeball in a red beam of light.
“How have you done that?” Misty asked, incredulous that all he had been after was a Tentecool but had still had more success in half a day than she had know to experience in a whole week. Whether he wanted to divulge what type of lure he used, she was going to find out!
By this stage, the man had taken his place on the bank again and casually looked across at her while beginning to untangle the end of his fishing line and remove whatever was on the end of it before packing it away. “Done what?”
“Caught so many pokemon! I’ve done more fishing in just the last year than most people have done in a lifetime and I’ve never had so many bites in one day. What lure are you using?” she began to move towards him, her temper rising almost above a controllable level.
“So, you wanna see my lure?” he asked with a slightly cheeky sideways glance. Leaning away from the crazy girl, the young man finished undoing the knot which held his lure to the end of his fishing line and flicked it through the air to land in front of Misty, facing her. She gasped as her eyes widened to almost go past an un-human level. Sitting there, in the sun on the bright grass was a tiny replica of herself in a pair of denim short, yellow tank top, red suspenders and red trainers doing a small V for victory sign with the right hand. Rage like she had never known before began to course through her veins. She had given the very item to her best friend, a guy she had hoped to have had more contact with in the last few years but recently, had fallen off the radar with not a word from him in months.
Leaping to her feet, she produced from a pocket behind her a large block of wood on the end of a stick. This was her Mallet of Doom and, so far, she had never had a need to use it but now! This freak must have robbed her friend to get that lure or had a creepy enough obsession with her to fashion a new one based on her appearance a few years ago and for either one, deserved severe punishment of the worst kind.
BANG! She put all the energy and force she could muster behind the weight of her mallet to bring it down upon his unsuspecting head as his hat was so large it blocked the identity of the item in her hands from his view. His yelp was full of such shock, surprise and agony that it alerted all her pokemon to their feet and even caused a large stirring of the surface of the water as something poked its head above the water for a moment before sinking back down.
“Who,” BANG “the,” BANG “hell,” BANG “do you,” BANG “think,” BANG “you,” BANG “are?” she screamed, bringing her mallet down as hard as she could on any part of his body she could reach as he frantically backed away with on hand trying to block the blows and remove his hat at the same time. The last time her mallet made contact with his body, it caught the front of his hat and flipped it off his now heavily bruised head to reveal his identity.
Unruly black hair covered his head and his slightly tanned skin was already beginning to colour at the heavy bruising. He had chocolate brown eyes that held both a mixture of fear and a hope that she would stop her physical barrage upon him. The poncho still covered his clothes but under the large collar she could see the top of a black shirt with a white collar that stood up of its own accord.
Upon recognising the stranger, she gasped and dropped her mallet, where it manages to land on his foot, one of the places he hadn’t had injured, yet that is. “Ash, what the hell are you doing here?” she screeched at him, falling to the ground beside him with her legs on either side of her. She had half a mind for hitting him again with her normal mallet but for once, decided he’d just taken enough pain, for now of course.
“Ehehe, hi Misty,” he bashfully smiled rubbing the back of his head. “I went to the Gym last week but your sisters had told me you’d already left to come here. What took you so long to get here? I’ve been waiting for at least three days.”
“I stopped off in Viridian on the way here to see a friend. What are you doing in Kanto? I thought you were in Shinou or whatever that place is called.” She explained and immediately brought the conversation back to the reason why he was here and not hundreds of miles away. She was pleased to see him, but this was just weird!
“It was my mum’s birthday so I came back to see her and wanted to see you at the same time. But I had to wait for you first so Brock and Dawn are going to be annoyed…” he tailed off, only remembering his travelling companions who he had left in Hearthome City two weeks ago with the promise he’d be back 3 days ago. Oops.
“Oh…” replied Misty, a little disappointed with his explanation and hoping for something more than what was apparently true. A silence began to gather until Misty looked around, remembering something. “Where’s Pikachu?” she asked when there was no sign of the little rodent.
With a cheeky sideways grin, Ash yelled his best buddy’s name across the lake, wincing as his head throbbed suddenly. There was a small disturbance in the water, between where their two lines had been resting and a yellow head with a pair of yellow and black tipped ears appeared. “You can come out now.”
The little shape vanished beneath the water again and soon re-emerged a few feet away from the bank. As he bounded out of the water, Pikachu spat out a black mouthpiece that connected to a small red cylinder, the source of his oxygen and reason he was able to remain under the water for so long. Standing on all four of his little paws for a moment between them, Pikachu shook his coat briskly, showering the two teenagers with drops of cold water before greeting his red haired friend. “Pikachupi!”
“It’s good to see you too Pikachu.” She smiled while welcoming his hug and gathering him up into her arms for a moment. Soon, all Misty’s pokemon were wide awake again and gathered round Pikachu to greet their old friend as well as make a new one in the case of Caserin and Luverin who had never met the little rodent or his renown trainer. Hurrying away, the creatures soon began a game in the shallows of the lake, allowing the trainers to have a hopefully non violent talk. “You still have some explaining to do young man.” She poked Ash’s poncho and Panama hat to illustrate her point. “What was with the whole attitude and stuff?”
Ash remained silent for a moment, playing with a shoot of grass. “I guess I didn’t want you to know it was me.” He mumbled, avoiding her eye contact. In all honesty, he had no idea why he hid his identity from her. It had just seemed like such a great idea a few days ago but now seemed so stupid.
“Oh…” she replied, a strange feeling of shyness washing over her which she had never felt before in his presence. Searching for something more to ask she inquired, “What was that pokemon you used to catch the Tentecool?”
Part 2 in next post...
