Chapter 11 - Cerulean Calls

They reached Cerulean City not long after lunch and headed straight for the Gym. "You better beat 
them quickly cos I don't want to hang around here longer than we have to!" saig Misty as she opened
the door to the Gym with her back. "At least there isn't a show on for once!" Bracing himself for
the sisterly onslaught that was bound to begin once Misty's sisters saw him and her alone, Ash 
followed Misty into the entrance to the Gym.

"Oh my god! Like, Ash it's like so good to see you!" squealed Daisy as the three sisters came into
the foyer, spying the couple. "It's like so sweet to escort Misty back!"

"Oh, um...yeah...acctually I was here for a Gym battle..." Ash replied, rubbing the back of his head
where numerous bumps lay as evidence of travelling with Misty. 

"Well like, ok, you can like, battle Violet if you want." said Daisy. "Do you like, want to battle
now?"

"You up for it Pikachu?" he turned to his pokemon. 

"Pika!"

"Now's great!"

"Well like, come on then!" they followed Daisy through to the battle pool where Violet and Ash took
their respective places while Daisy stood half way along the pool as the referee. "Ok, this will
be a like a three on three battle with like, no time limit." she looked to Violet who as the Gym
leader was obliged to release her pokemon first, revealing Starmie. Thinking carefully, Ash reached
for a pokeball to release Grovyle. "Ok you can like, begin!"

"Starmie, water gun!" 

"Leaf Blade!" 

Grovyle was too fast for Starmie, it's water gun attack splashing harmlessly into the water. Landing 
on the platform behind Starmie, Grovyle slashed it's back with his glowing leaves, sending deeper 
into the water. 

"Rapid Spin!" ordered Violet.

"Bullet Seed!" countered Ash.

Flying out of the water from behind Grovyle, Starmie bagan spinning like a blur, sending water 
everywhere and catching Grovyle by suprise. After crashing down onto the pad, Grovyle turned over 
onto his back and shot many hard seeds at lighting speed into Starime, sending it right off course 
to crash into the arena wall. Ding-dong, ding-dong flashed Starmie's jewel.

"Starmie is like unable to battle, Grovyle and, like, Ash win this round!" announced Daisy while
Misty and Lilly applauded politely, Misty flashing a brief smile at Ash, boosting his confidence.

"Thanks Starmie, go Dewgong!" Violet released the happy clapping pokemon which performed a sumersault
upon entering the arena.

"Bullet Seed!" started off Ash with increased vigour.

"Headbutt!"

Dewgong lept into the water,avoiding the bullet seed attack and swimming through the water to gain 
momentum before ramming it's head straight into Grovyle's chest, sending him backwards into the water.
Grovyle's head resurfaced to glare at the clapping Dewgong on the pad in front of it.

"Bullet Seed!"

"Ice Beam!"

Grovyle's barrage of bullets hit Dewgong in the face, momentarily blinding it. The Ice Beam went 
off, missing Grovyle's head but freezing the water behind it. Once the bullet seed attack stopped,
Dewgong immediatly found it's target and froze Grovyle into the water around it. Desperarly Ash
called for a Leaf Blade attack, hoping to break the ice while Violet called for a headbutt. Unable
to move and retaliate, Grovyle recieved the full brunt of the headbutt attack. Grovyle sank beneath 
the water before his fainted body rose to the surface to be returned to his pokeball. 

"Go, Cawphish!" Ash brought his only water type into play.

"Cawphish Caw!" cried the red lobster as he emerged from his pokeball onto a floating pad, shaking
his claws up and down to face his opponent on the other floating pad.

"Crabhammer!"

"Aurora Beam!"

The brilliant different coloured beam waved through the air towards Cawphish, but missed when the red
pokemon jumped in the air and scuttled over the water to smash into Dewgong's head.

"Dew, dewgong ong" it struggled to sit up again but was denied the pleasure by a bubblebeam to the 
face, sending it crashing onto it's back and out for the round.

"Dewgong is like, unable to battle!" announced Daisy. "Violet, you have, like, one more pokemon
while Ash still has like, two!" beaming at her sister while their Dewgong was returned. 

"Go, Seaking!" The orange goldfish pokemon appeared in the water, flopping about weirdly.

'this'll be easy!' thought Ash, a grin spreading over his face. "Cawphish, Vicegrip!"

"Dive under and come back up for a Horn Attack!" 

Cawphish's attack missed, grabbing only water as Seaking dissappeared under the depths. Unknown of 
when or where Seaking was going to attack, Cawphish stood on a pad, looking all around it, panic
evident over his face when - WOOSH! Cawphish and the pad were sent sailing through the air as Seaking 
came from beneath. Cawphish fell into the water with a heavy splash.

"Cawphish, Bubblebeam!"

"Dive again and use Horn Drill!"

"Follow it and use Crabhammer!"

Seaking hid under the water as the bubbles harmlessly hit the surface and Cawphish followed it under
the waves. Nothing could be seen until a bright flash of light appeared, sending water up in tidal 
waves, indicating the two attacks had met. Two dark shapes appeared under the water. One was Seaking, 
returning for oxygen while the other was a fainted Cawphish.

"Cawphish is, like, unable to battle! Seaking, like, wins!" cried Daisy. 

"See, I told you we could, like, train the pokemon ourselves!" said Lilly to her little red haired 
sister. 

"Yeah, I think you're forgetting who's been running this place the last few years!" glared Misty 
from under her fringe, turning back to the battle to see Pikachu hopping forwards to take on Seaking.

"This is like, the last round! The trainer of the last pokemon standing, like, wins!" excalimed 
Daisy as she began the last round.

"Pikachu, let's wrap this up with a thunderbolt!" cried Ash, pointing at Seaking.

"Horn Drill!" 

The horn on Seaking's head began spinning rapidly. When the electricity hit the horn, it was sent in
all directions, doing little to no damage to the water pokemon. 

"See, we like worked out how to like, protect the pokemon from electrical attacks!" informed Violet.

"Pikachu, Iron Tail!"

"Water Pulse!" 

A ball of water appeared above Seaking before being sent straight at Pikachu who was forced to use
his Iron Tail attack to slice through the water and prevent him being hurt. Shooting forward with
a Quick Attack, Pikachu was forced to follow Seaking under water to deal it any damage. Both burst
through the surface, panting.

"Thunder!"

"Jump out of the water!"

"Get it!"

In an attempt to avoid the strong attack, Seaking tried to leap into the air. However it 
underestimated Pikachu who was able to send his attack straight up, putting Seaking out of the match
and onto the dish of the day. (A/N: mmmm fried Seaking! wonder what that tastes of...? probably 
chicken!)

"Seaking can no longer, like, battle. Ash and Pikachu are the winners!" cried Daisy, raising her arms
into the air.

"Alright, well done Pikachu!" he praised his pokemon as Pikachu lept into his arms, soaking his 
jumper. "Heh heh, thanks buddy!"

"Pikachu!" he shook his coat in an attempt to dry himself off before hopping onto his customary 
place on his trainer's sholder.

"Well done Ash." said Violet, approaching from around the pool. "I can now present you with the 
Cascade badge!" she held forth the drop shaped badge.

"Alright! We got the Cascade Badge!" he held it aloft in his victory pose before being brought back
down to earth when Misty commented,

"Yeah, big victory, against my sisters!" resulting in a face fall.

"Like, shut up Misty, a victory against us is still, like, a victory. Anyway are you two, like, 
staying for dinner?" asked Daisy.

"No, no we've...ummm...got to get to the pokemon centre to heal Ash's pokemon! As well as mine
acctually, there in a bit of a bad state so we'll stay with them, right Ash?" Misty hurridly tried
a plan to get them out of spending any more time with her sisters. 

"Errrm....*ow!* yeah we do, I want to check that Pikachu's ok!" he said, catching on when ribbed by
Misty's unobvious elbow. "Right buddy?" he whispered so the girls wouldn't hear.

Catching on faster than his trainer, Pikachu went all limp and fell into Ash's arms, pretending to 
be in need of medical attention.

"Well, like, ok then. Take care of our little sister Ash!" giggled Daisy before Ash was forcefully
removed from the Gym by his red headed companion.

"Phew...I thought we were going to be stuck in there all day!" said Misty when they were outside the
Gym before she checked the pokemon she'd taken earlier, making sure her sisters hadn't "borrowed" one
that she may need later. "Great, they didn't even try to take Psyduck!"

"Yeah well, it wouldn't be a journey if he wasn't with us! Come on, let's go to the pokemon centre
anyway, I think all our pokemon need a rest." replied Ash as Pikachu hopped back on his sholder.

Making their way through the town they approached the centre, entering to see Nurse Joy and her 
Chansey behind the desk.

"Hello Misty, it's good to see you again. I take it you've let your sister's pull their own weight 
at the gym." she said with a smile.

"Yeah, that and someone has to keep him out of trouble!" she said, pointing at Ash while placing her
pokeballs on a tray to be handed to the nurse for healing. 

"Hey, I think it was you who wanted to come along." mentioned Ash, similarly placing 5 pokeballs with
Pikachu on top on another tray and handing it to the nurse. 

"Well, as long as you all look out for each other, I'm sure you'll be fine. Your pokemon might take
a while to heal as they all need a health top up and I think your Grovyle it still a little too cold
from some ice attacks." said the nurse as she did a quick scan of the pokeballs and Pikachu.

"Ok, thanks Nurse Joy, we'll come back later." said Misty, heading for the door.

"Hang on, I told my mum I'd call when more often." he replied, rubbing the back of his head and 
heading for the phone booth.

RING RING...RING RING...

"Hello? Oh hi there Ashy, how are you?" said Delia as she recieved the call.

"Hey mum, I'm fine, just wanted to say that we're in Cerulean and I've got two badges so far." he 
replied, taking a seat on the stool while Misty hovered behind him.

"Hello Mrs Ketchum." she waved to the screen.

"Well, I'm glad to see you didn't get lost. I hope you're taking care of each other, and Pikachu of 
course."

Remembering last night, Ash struggled to prevent a light blush rising to his face "Errr yeah, we 
will."

"Well, I suppose you want to get on rather than chat to your mother. I'll see you soon and talk to 
you sooner I hope." said Delia, giving her son a stern look before the cheerful smile returned. 

"Thanks Mum, bye!"

"Bye Mrs Ketchum!" said Misty. She turned to the door as Ash put the phone down and spied some 
familar silouhettes on the other side of the glass. Spinnning round, she grabbed Ash and made a run
away from the front door, opening what she hoped to be an escape route before shoving Ash in first
then following, quickly closing the door behind her. It was a closet.

"Hey, I was ju- mfff" Ash began until Misty's hand covered his mouth. Hurridly she whispered,

"My sisters just came in. I do NOT want to talk to them!" she glared through the darkness hoping to
get her point across. Wedged up between Nurse Joy's coats they listened to Daisy, Lilly and Violet
talking to Joy. Misty's body went rigid when they asked after her but thankfully Nurse Joy wasn't
going to reveal their presence, saying she hadn't seen Misty or a boy matching Ash's description,
adding they must have continued on for another centre. The closet was suprisingly hot and Misty
suddenly realised her hand was still covering Ash's mouth. Hurridly she remove her hand and shrank
away from her best friend, pleased for the darkness to hide her blush.

"If I didn't know you properly Misty, I'd be very curious to know what you and a boy are doing in
my closet." the door unexpectadly opened to reveal Nurse Joy, a small smile on her face. "Don't 
worry, your sisters have gone." she walked away to prevent herself laughing hysterically in front
of the two teens who had identical bright red blushes over their faces.

"Ehehe thanks Nurse Joy, I think we'll go for a walk." Misty said, nervously. She dragged Ash towards
the door, telling him he could call professor Oak later. 

Outside the centre, he straightened his clothes before mentioning, "Geez, I've forgotton how much 
physical abuse you have to suffer when travelling with you!"

"Well sorry for not leaving you to the wolves that are my sisters!" Misty retorted.

"It would have been nice to know where I was going to be dragged off to before I was!"

"If I had tried to explain what was going on, we'd still be standing there when they walked up and
acosted us!" she yelled, hitting him over the head with her hand before storming off yelling "See
you later, there's some stuff I have to do!"

'Hmph, always a pleasure with Misty' thought Ash, walking off in the opposite direction wishing 
Pikachu was with him. He needed that furry little mouse to help sort his head out. Wandering about
the city, he had time admire the city for it's own beauty rather than rush through it in search of
that next badge or away from the Sensational Sisters. Throughout the city, water was the main 
feature. The Cascade Hotel, The Roaring River Resturant and The Bubbling Brook Cafe to name a few
examples while fountains bedecked every square and featured in every window. He could see the real 
beauty of water when portrayed in so many different ways and could easily understood how Misty fell 
in love with everything water after living in a city such as Cerulean.

Taking a seat in the park, he gazed at the fountain of water where stone liknesses of a Poliwirl, a
Goldeen and a Starmie shot water over a stone human figure seated beneath the trio. Gazing at the
human he noticed she sat upon a rock, her face and hands upturned to watch the criss cross of 
water as it flowed above her. Upon closer inspection he noticed that the figure was not human, but a 
mermaid, her tail curved around beneath her over the rock. Taking a closer look at her face, she had 
hair that shimmered in the light reflected through the water, making it appear real.  A chain of 
stone pearls held her hair off her face. Un-noticed, the skies had clouded over and the last patch 
of sunlight that remained on the mermaid's face vanished as large drops began to fall from the skies.
Ash didn't noticed the change in the weather until one drop landed on her face, trickling down and 
giving her the illusion of crying. Shaking himself out of his reverie he got to his face just as the 
skies truley opened. The rain was so fierce his vision was obstructed and he begame completely lost, 
searching for the pokemon centre. 

Setting off into the rain again after sheltering under an awning of a shop, he didn't see anyone 
until he crashed into them, ending up in the gutter by the pavement. Sitting up, he rubbed the 
back of his head where he'd hit it on the ground and looked over to see a familiar figure doing 
exactly the same.

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