63Welcome to a story. The story of an e-mail, a gym battle, and the reuniting of two old friends. But these friends aren't any normal people. They have a destiny that they are blissfully unaware of. This is the beginning of that destiny; the beginning of a dangerous, possibly deadly journey they must undertake to fulfill their destiny. This is:
The First Awakening
Chapter 1
A small band of travelers walked down the dusty trail. Two of the humans had rather bored expressions on their faces, while the other two seemed positively elated. Of the two moping boys, one was noticeable younger than the other. He wore mainly green, his green running shoes scuffing the dirt on the road and sending up a cloud of dust. He looked as though his deep yellow backpack was weighing him down considerably by the way he was slumping over, his black-rimmed glasses almost falling off his nose. The other glum looking fellow had a brown, orange and green outfit on; by the look on his face, you could tell there was a long story behind his tight-shut eyes as to why he was so morose. His blue and white shoes were practically hoeing the path; a farmer could just come along, plant some wheat in the trenches, and his fields would have two straight lines.
The other two trekkers were almost complete opposites of our first two characters in mind-set. One was a teen boy clad in blue, except for a black hat with a green Pokéball design, and a pair of black and green fingerless gloves that were holding a small polished and painted piece of metal out in front of him. He was obviously in high spirits about it. The last human member of our group, and the only female, stood just behind him, decked out in red, white, and navy blue. As she laid a hand on her hips to get a better look at what she held in her hand, she brushed against a yellow fannypack resting lazily on her waist. She was looking happily at a smaller piece of metal than the one belonging to the boy, polished and shining in the bright daylight. Glued to the back of the metal was a silk-like ribbon tied into a bow. As the two gloomy boys looked on, the two cheerful ones jumped into the air, shouting praises for themselves.
"Yahoo! My fifth ribbon!"
"And my eighth badge!"
"I can enter the Hoenn League!"
"I can compete in the Grand Festival!"
"Hooray!" The youngest boy looked up at the brown haired man beside him, squinting through the glare the sun made on his glasses.
"What's got them so happy?" The older teen smiled down at the boy.
"Oh, they're just excited, Max. And you can't blame 'em. They've come a long way, and now they've as good as reached their goals. It's alright for them to celebrate a little." The boy we now know to be called Max shrugged.
"I guess you're right, Brock. But don't you think they could at least stop celebrating long enough to head in the right direction?" The young man we now know as Brock looked in the direction Max pointed. The two overly-cheerful members of their group were jumping and bouncing of into the distance on the left fork of the path that split shortly ahead of where Max and Brock were at the moment. Brock quickly grabbed a small yellow device out of Max's hands, pressed a few buttons, and peered at the screen. He tossed it back to Max and raced down the path the trainer and coordinator were jumping down.
Max scrambled tokeep the Pokédex fromhitting the ground as Brockcalled out to the others, saying,"May! Ash! You're going the wrong way!" Upon hearing of this sudden turn of events, the boy fell flat on his face. A yellow, mouse-like Pokémon rushed over to his side, crying its name softly. The boy got up, reassured his Pokémon, and dusted off his hooded vest and its double sided pocket. When he looked back at Brock, the girl was already there, and they were both waving impatiently at him to hurry up.
"C'mon, Ash! We haven't got all day!" Ash waved at his friends, then raced his Pokémon over to them. When he won the raced, it playfully shocked him with an low powered-electric charge. They got back to where Max was and started down the right fork of the path, hoping to reach a city before nightfall. Soon enough, they had to sit down to lunch, and the conversation eventually wound up at the items in May and Ash's hands.
May looked at her ribbon happily. "Wow. My fifth ribbon. I can't believe I finally got it! It was really hard to win this ribbon, but I think I really earned this one." She looked up at her traveling companions, her eyes shining. "Now, it feels like it'll be a piece of cake to win the Grand Festival! I can't wait!" Max slid up next to her and looked at her out of the corner of his eyes.
"Yeah...unless you have to battle Drew again." May turned to Max, flustered, and starting crying out bold challenges against the green-haired coordinator, declaring her obvious superiority to him in all ways. Max seemed to doubt her, and provoked her so much on this topic that she began to chase him around the campsite, now crying threats towards her sibling. Brock smiled fondly at the two and muttered something about the old days. He then turned to Ash, who was so absorbed with his most recent badge that he had not noticed the conversation around him, and was ignoring the confrontation of siblings that was circling him.
"What about you, Ash?" The breeder wondered. "How did this water Pokémon gym match up to…her?"
Ash chuckled. "Well, I can tell you one thing," he said. "Adan was certainly a lot nicer than her. And what a battle he gave me!" He held up his Rain Badge so that it would reflect the light, then sighed happily. Max paused for a moment next to Ash, panting from the sudden physical exercise he was experiencing as he joined the conversation momentarily.
"They were awesome battles, Ash." The Pokémon fanatic commented breathlessly. "Adan's Sealeo and Seaking made a powerful team during the double battle, and Luvdisc, Whiscatch, and Milotic, made a really powerful team for the three-on-three"
"Yeah, well…Pikachu, Snorunt, and Corphish took care of the doubles round no problem, and Grovyle, Swellow and Pikachu did great in the three-on-three, even with Milotic using Recover all the time." Ash said, brushing aside the comment as if he was already Pokémon Master, and lowly gym leaders were no challenge. May skidded to a stop and placed a hand on her hip, furrowing her brow in frustration.
"Won't you ever admit that a gym battle was actually challenging, Ash?" May questioned angrily, bothered that her friend would act so annoyingly superior, especially when he normally was so humble.
"Why should I if they never are?"
"I know quite a few gym leaders that would contradict you on that statement, Ash. Myself included." Brock argued.
"Name one, besides you." Ash challenged, upset that Brock would try to ruin his moment of glory and pride.
"I'll name five easily: Sabrina; Lt. Surge; Brawly; Erika; and her." Brock proclaimed. Ash sweatdropped.
"Okay...so I have lost once in a while...but not always! And I didn't lose to her!"
"Right...you just didn't win. Just like you didn't win against me, or Sabrina, or Erika..."
"Oh, be quiet, Brock."
"Was Ash just given some of his badges?" Max wondered disbelievingly. Brock answered for Ash.
"Well, Ash battled me with only Pikachu. I was a rock gym leader. You can imagine how it went." He explained. "He lost the first time. The second time, he battled with Pikachu again, and this time a Thunderbolt's sparks set off a fire alarm, which soaked Onix through. Even though Onix was vulnerable to an attack, Ash forfeited. I considered it to be such a noble thing to do that I gave him the badge. I thought he deserved it, after all he'd done."
"Oh...I don't think that would be fair...but that's your decision, I suppose...So who was 'her' ?" Max asked, making quotes with his fingers as he spoke.
"Yeah. Where did 'her' come in to this story?" May asked, her curiosity piqued as she also made quotes in the air with her blue and white gloved hands.
"She was the second gym leader Ash faced. They had a two-on-two battle, and she won the first round: Butterfree vs. Staryu. The second round of Pidgeotto vs. Starmie was interrupted by Team Rocket, so they never finished the match. The other gym leaders of that gym gave Ash the badge for saving their gym."
"Was it the Cerulean Gym?" Max asked, confused.
"Yep." Brock confirmed.
"The Water Pokémon gym of Kanto?" Max questioned.
"The one and the same."
"Why wouldn't Ash use Pikachu?" May queried. "Wouldn't it have won easily?"
"It would be the most logical choice." Max agreed.
Ash suddenly spoke up. "Pikachu refused to battle a friend. It wasn't as obedient back then as it is now. Right, Pikachu?" Said Pokémon rubbed the back of its neck, embarrassed as to how silly it had been as a youngster.
"A friend?"
"So you knew the Cerulean Gym leader?"
"Yeah..." Ash became quiet again, apparently deep in thought.
"So, which one did you know?" Max asked, his curiosity piqued.
"How many are there, Max?" May asked, curious. Ash and Brock had spoken briefly of a girl they traveled with for a long time before coming to the Hoenn region, and if this was the girl...well, who knew? Maybe they'd meet someday. She wanted to know who this girl was.
"There are three: Daisy, Violet, and Lily Waterflo - "
"Four."
"What?"
"There are four Cerulean Gym leaders, not three"
"That's not what the Pokénav says in its gym leader database as of last year - "
" - well, it's wrong!" Max backed up, startled by Ash's sudden outburst.
"Okay, okay Ash...if you say so..." Ash was looking angrily at Max. You could almost say he was glaring at the young Pokémon enthusiast, which was a first experience for Max from this pretty even-tempered Pokémon training friend of his.
"Pikapi..." Pikachu said, trying to calm Ash down. "Pichupi chu Pichapi pi chu Pikachupi...pi chu pika." Ash relaxed a bit.
"I know, Pikachu. It isn't their fault. I just get upset when people talk like that about her...like she doesn't count. You know that. And you do too, Brock." Ash turned towards his breeder companion.
"Hey, man...I didn't know you were so protective of her behind her back...you certainly weren't like that when we traveled with her..." Brock almost snickered, but not quite. It was more of a snort of suppressed laughter. "What's happened to cause this sudden change in attitude?" Ash flushed.
"...be quiet, Brock." He cleared his throat. "What's the closest town, Max?"
Brock looked over at his Pokémon trainer friend. The conversation topic may have been changed, but something was up with Ash. He refused to actually say what had happened to him, but something most definitely had happened before Brock had returned to travel with him. It was almost like...he didn't trust Brock with his secrets anymore.
Before long, the group had decided to travel back towards Sootopolis City for a short visit, as it was the fastest way to both the Grand Festival and the Hoenn League. They found a ferry that was headed towards the island Sootopolis City was located on, and ordered themselves tickets through the Nurse Joy at Pacifidlog Town, where the ferry would ship off.
And Ash still didn't speak much...
A week later, the group had stopped for the night in a clearing by the roadside, on their way to Pacifidlog Town. According to Max, they should be within a day's walk of the town; less, maybe. The embers of the fire from dinner were glowing very weakly. All the sleeping bags were filled, and the soft sounds of sleeping people resounded through the night. All was still, with the exception of rising and falling chests of those deep in sleep. All but one, that is.
Ash sat up in his sleeping bag, looked around to make sure that no one was awake, then took something out of his hat. He unfolded the object and rubbed its cloth between his fingers while he looked up at the stars. After a few minutes, he couldn't ignore the cloth in his hands, and held it above his head, letting the glowing coals shine a feeble amount of light on the pink and red hues of the square of cloth. He sighed deeply, looking at the handkerchief with a bemused look on his face. What did she mean? Ash rolled over in his sleeping bag to face Pikachu in the miniature sleeping bag beside him. "I'm so confused," he breathed, holding up the handkerchief. "What do you think she meant?"
"Ash?" Ash half jumped up in his sleeping bag, quickly hiding the handkerchief back inside his hat.
"Prepare for trouble!" A menacing voice said menacingly.
"And make it double." A slightly less menacing voice rhymed in a slightly less menacingly way.
"To protect the world from devastation."
"To unite all peoples within our nation."
"To denounce the evils of truth and love."
"To extend our reach to the stars above."
"Jessie."
"James."
"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light."
"Surrender now or prepare to fight."
"Meowth! That's right!"
"Team Rocket!" Ash, May, Max, and Brock shoutedright on cue. They looked up at the hot air balloon that contained three of the most evil people they knew of.
"Pi pikachu!" Added Pikachu.
"Do you mind?" May grumbled, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. "We were trying to sleep..." Team Rocket almost facefaulted, but became very angry.
"How dare you!" Jessie shouted, her magenta hair-covered head twice as big as normal.
"You cannot simply schedule a Team Rocket attack!" James added, shaking a white gloved finger at the teens.
"Yeah, 'specially when we worked so hard tinkin' up a dis plan!" Meowth held up a giant rubber hand connected to a giant coiled spring.
"Didn't they use this one before?" Brock whispered loudly to Ash. Team Rocket overheard and almost fell over.
"This is a new plan!"
"We worked really hard thinking up of it...right, Meowth?"
"Yeah, we worked hard tinkin' it up, jus' not recently." Jessie and James half-fell out of the balloon, only barely hanging on to the side of the basket.
"Now it's hello Pikachu" - the hand grabbed Pikachu - "and good-bye, twoips!" As Meowth finished his statement, Team Rocket managed to climb back into their Meowth balloon and began to fly off, yelling to Meowth about being original.
"No! Pikachu!" Ash shouted as he began to run down the path near their campsite. Brock, Max, and May followed suit, Max grabbing Ash's backpack as he passed it. They soon came upon a large body of either fresh or salt water. Team Rocket's Meowth balloon continued across it, the criminals aboard it cackling in glee at their apparent victory. Ash dove into the water and swam after them. Brock called out Mudkip and Max found Corphish's Pokéball. Brock started swimming after Ash, while Mudkip and Corphish helped Max and May travel through the choppy waters. May swallowed some of the water accidentally and immediately spat it out. Definitely salt water. Thankfully, land was soon in sight. By the time May and Max were on shore, Brock was kneeling on the beach, panting slightly. Ash, equally exhausted, was driven on by his need to save Pikachu. He reached for his Pokéballs, but discovered to his dismay that he had left them in his backpack at the campsite. He continued calling out his electric Pokémon's name, though there was practically nothing he could do to save it.
Once May was dried off, she was ready to get to work. "Let's go, Bulbasaur!" May shouted, throwing a Pokéball. Out popped a blue-green Pokémon holding a flower. "Razor Leaf!" Bulbasaur let loose an incredibly sharp leaf that cut through the spring holding Pikachu captive. This caused Pikachu to fall out of the balloon and straight into Ash's arms. They tumbled down a small hill and into a small pocket of earth shaped to easily fit a person lying down.
"Okay, Pikachu," he said, releasing his electric buddy from the glove it had been held captive in. "Thunderbolt!" Pikachu complied, and the Meowth balloon exploded with a bit more of an impact than normal, sending Team Rocket flying.
"Look's like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"
"Great job, buddy," Ash said, rubbing Pikachu's fur. He looked back towards the top of a small hill, on which May and Bulbasaur were standing. "You guys did good, too!" Ash shouted to them. May seemed to have not heard Ash, because she continued to look around, as if she was searching for someone. Soon Brock and Max joined her on the hill. She talked to them, and they began looking as well, all thoughts of sleep forgotten.
"I guess they can't see us," Ash noted, rather observant for once. He turned around.
"Well, we could always go into the town over there, Pikachu," he said, pointing towards the lights up ahead. "They might have a Pokémon Center we can spend the night in, and we can wait for Brock and the others to find us there. It's better then spending a night out in the cold..." He looked down at his yellow mouse Pokémon friend. "What'd'ya say, Pikachu?"
"Pika pika."
"Well, lets go!" The Pokémon and trainer headed off into the night, hoping to find some shelter at a familiar place.
This may be my first story in quite some time, but I think I've got it off to a good start. Please review now that you've finished reading; suggestions are always welcome, and I'm quite open to criticism. Jaa, mata!
gladdecease