Chapter 7 "Look, there it is!" cried Misty as the trio crested a hill that overlooked Littleroot Town, the harbour and the sea. Houses clustered together around the pokemon centre while Professor Birch's lab could just be seen away to the east. Descending the hill, they made their way to the harbour to find that there was a ferry leaving for Viridian City later that afternoon. "Well, we've got some time to kill, how about we go see Professor Birch? If he's not out on field work again!" said Ash, keen to see the researcher again. "Sure, I really want to see the water starter pokemon!" said Misty, already wishing she'd been able to go round Hoenn to see the all the different types of pokemon that were still unknown to her. That and she'd missed Ash, but that was beside the point! "Come on it's this way" said Ash, venturing off in to the woods down a dirt road. Ten minutes later they stood before an impressive building with white washed walls capped by a yellowed roof. Rapping on the door, Ash called out "Hello, Professor Birch?" and pushed the door open to revel one of the Professor's assistant. "Ummm hello, can I help you?" asked the assistant in a nerdy voice. "Yeah, we were just looking for Professor Birch" replied Brock. "He's out on field work, but he should be back soon. I think he was getting some more starter pokemon though, so he might be longer than he should. He's not the best at catching pokemon!" informed the nerd. "Alright, thanks, but we have to get going, tell him Ash came by though." replied Ash. "I'm sorry you didn't get to meet a Mudkip, Misty." "That's ok, I'm sure I'll meet one soon." replied Misty. On their right by the track, the bushes began shaking. "W...What do you think it is?" asked Misty. "..." replied the boys too scared to reply. The bush began to shake with more ferocity, freezing the group in their tracks imagining a pokemon such as a Beedrill or Ursaring. Sniffing the air, Pikachu determined the pokemon present and gave the humans a look of utter distain before hopping into the bushes. "Pika Pikapi!" came from the bushes only a few seconds later, motivating Ash into advancing and peering into the foliage where he found Pikachu playing with a Mudkip, while a Poochyena stood by, barking. "Well, looks like we found a Mudkip!" stated Ash, smiling. "Awwww it's so cute!! Hello little one." said Misty, putting Azurill on the ground and offering her hand for Mudkip to smell. Tentatively, Mudkip reached forward, sniffed her hand and then rubbed up against her. "Hmmm I wonder what's upset this Poochyena?" said Brock, trying to get closer before it jumped away and continued barking. "I dunno..." said Ash, helpfully. Behind a tree, a figure appeared saying, "Alright, alright I'm coming! Oh, hello, who do we have here?" "Oh, hi there Professor Birch. It's Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town." said Ash, realising who the figure was. "Why Hello Ash, I wasn't expecting to see you here. Congratulations in the Hoenn League! Ah, well done in finding Mudkip, Poochyena! Come on little one, I've got a trainer coming and I'm going to need you to help the trainer choose their first pokemon." said the Professor to the Mudkip, who had just jumped into Misty's arms. "Oh, sorry professor" said Misty, holding out the pokemon for Birch. "Here you are." "Thank you miss, but why don't you hold onto him until we get back to my lab. That is if you have some time of course!" said Professor Birch while petting Poochyena behind its left ear. "Azu, Azurill!" chirruped Misty's baby pokemon from the floor, not wanting to be left out. "Come on Azurill, you can travel with me and Pikachu" offered Ash, bending down to collect the baby pokemon. "Oh, thanks Ash" Misty flashed a smile at him, causing a little colour to rise to his face while Brock and Pikachu exchanged knowing glances. Back at the lab, Professor Birch introduced Ash, Misty, Brock, Pikachu and Azurill to the Treeko and Torchic he had previously captured before taking the Mudkip from Misty's arms and setting all three down on a table, giving each a special bowl of Pokeblock. "The Hoenn starters are so sweet!" cooed Misty, enthralled by the baby pokemon. Clearing his throat Ash mentioned that they had better make their way back soon or risk missing their ferry back to Kanto. "Well, alright, I guess we are cutting it pretty fine already." she replied, stepping away from the starters and taking Azurill from Ash. "Where are you kids heading for?" asked Birch with interested "We're taking the boat back to Viridian City in Kanto." informed Brock. "Well, the new trainer shouldn't be here for a while yet, so I think I can give you guys a lift to the harbour in the jeep if you want" he offered. "Oh, that would be great, thank you Professor" replied Misty. "Bye Mudkip!" as all three pokemon were withdrawn to their respective pokeballs to wait for the trainer. "Right, let's go!" said Birch. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Thank you for the ride Professor!" called Ash from the side of the boat as it left the harbour. They had got to the harbour ten minutes before the boat was scheduled to leave but the Professor had insisted on waiting. "See you all again some day!" waved Birch before getting back into his jeep and driving off, back to his lab. Ten minutes later they had located their individual cabins on the third floor and reached a unanimous agreement to turn in early to be up, refreshed and ready to go home in the morning. "Well Pikachu," whispered Ash to his favourite pokemon, "I think we've done ok in Hoenn...who knows what we should do now, or where we should go. Any preferences? Some where new or somewhere old?" "Pika piiika..." the pokemon was already asleep. "Yeah, me too buddy, me too..." before he too, fell asleep. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Good morning Ash!!" "WAAAAAAAAAAH!" CRASH! Ash had forgotten to lock his door the night before...he and Pikachu had overslept...Misty hadn't... Ash became fully conscious to the sound of Misty, Azurill and Brock laughing their heads off. Even Pikachu was starting to giggle and it took Ash a while to realise the source of their mirth was him. Before waking him, Misty had carefully placed a cream pie on the floor, therefore when Ash woke with a start, he would land directly in it. "Hey, that's not funny!" he yelled, only re-doubling the laughter ringing round the cabin. "Go on, go on, get out!!" he stood and attempted to usher them out the door. Misty was completely helpless and had to be dragged out of the room, while Brock had remained in the safety of the corridor. Ash turned round to Pikachu and reached to pick him up to throw him out with the others, but reconsidered when the sparks began to emanate from his cheeks. With a sigh he muttered, "I didn't want to do this Pikachu..." reaching into his bag he withdrew the most unused pokeball he owned. It had a little lightning bolt on it. "Pikachu, get out or it's the pokeball...YAYAYAYAYAYAA...oops...should have seen that coming" he coughed. Furious, Pikachu had zapped Ash, before marching out, slipping on some cream pie and landing on Misty. Finally able to think, Ash began cleaning the room, washed and changed to join his companions for breakfast. "It's great to be back in Kanto..." murmured Ash, "You know, two years is a long time..." Just two hours after his rude awakening, the boat had docked in Viridian City. All three had disembarked and were at the main road. A sign pointed to the left with "Pewter City" while a sign pointed to the right with "Pallet Town". "Yeah, it is..." whispered Misty to herself. "Well Brock, I take it this is goodbye for a while." "Yep, I just hope Forrest has been able to keep my mum out of the gym!" he shuddered at the memory of his last visit. "Bye buddy, see you soon, you always do seem to pop up!" said Ash, turning to the older boy and shaking his hand. "See you guys soon! Pikachu, it'll be down to you to stop them killing each other, ok?" "Pikachu!" the little pokemon held a victory sign, showing he had understood and was prepared to do whatever necessary to do his duty! "Bye Brock!" waved Ash as Brock made his way off into the distance, Pewter City, and his home. "Come on Misty, let's go!" 15 minutes later, they passed by a spectacular building with a grand entrance. Columns lead to the main doors as two sets of stairs led up to the forum before the building, either side of a modest water feature. "Hey look Ash, the Viridian Gym has been re-built." said Misty, reading the plaque before the fountain. "Oh yeah, Team Rocket did a good job of destroying it. I wonder who the gym leader is at the moment..." mused Ash before turning back to the road ahead. They travelled along in silence for a while, both a little awkward at the situation before Ash suddenly stopped and reached behind him to grasp a pokeball from his belt. "Nearly forgot something! Charizard go!" he threw the ball in the air. "Raaaaaaaaaawr!" exclaimed the pokemon, freed from the confines of his ball before facing his trainer. "We're just outside Viridian City. This is the closest we can get to Johto for you to go back to the Charisific Valley." he looked up and smiled at the large fire pokemon, holding out his ball for him to take back. Charizard then bent down, received the ball before butting Ash in the chest with his head and taking to the skies, roaring his thanks before circling around towards Johto. Turning to Misty, he explained, "When I asked for Charizard to come, he was reluctant. He's so focused on making himself stronger and better. I promised that I'd let him go back when we were closest to Johto." and continued on walking. "That was really nice Ash." said Misty, smiling to cheer him up after having to say goodbye to one of his favourite pokemon again. "Thanks" And they continued on in silence, both glancing at the other, unsure of what to say. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The day was drawing to a close when the cheerful lights of Pallet Town hove into view, allowing the group a good view of the town, nestled between the mountains. "Well buddy, we're home again!" said Ash, smiling at Pikachu. "Come on, if we hurry mum won't have had dinner yet!" and he shot off down the hill. 'Well, some things haven't changed, including Ash's appetite!' Misty mused to herself before setting off after Ash at a more sedate pace, meeting him at his front door. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK "Mum, are you there? It's me, Ash!" said Ash through the door before it opened to reveal, "Mime, mime Mr Mime!" "Errr hi Mimey..." Ash looked warily at the pokemon in his green apron, eyeing the feather duster in his hand. From the kitchen, his mum appeared, wiping her hands on a towel. "Oh, there you are sweetie, it's so good to see you!" she moved forwards her arms outstretched. Ash then pushed past his mum's pokemon to receive her hug, face falling as she hugged Pikachu. "Ash, what are you doing on the floor! It's filthy and hasn't been swept since this morning!" she scolded. "Hello Mrs Ketchum, I hope you don't mind us here?" asked Misty who was still in the doorway, both she, Azurill and Pikachu were struggling to keep a straight face. "Of course not Misty, it's always wonderful to see Ash's friends!" smiled Delia. "Now come on, I had a feeling you would be back tonight and your favourite pizza is up and ready!" she walked back into the kitchen, closely followed by Misty, Ash, Pikachu and Azurill. "This is great mum!" stated Ash through a mouthful of pizza. "Do you need some help Misty?" referring to Misty eating and helping Azurill with her pizza. "Oh, no, I'm fine thanks Ash, Azurill loves pizza as much as you!" "Well Ash I think you're going to have to tell me about your adventures tomorrow, it's getting late and I can see you're all exhausted! I had Mimi tidy and organise the guest room for you Misty. At least this time none of you have to sleep on the floor!" "Thanks Mum, come on Pikachu, night Mist." yawned Ash before trundling up the stairs to bed. "Night Ash. Good night Mrs Ketchum." said Misty before she and Azurill made their way up the stairs after Ash. Before she fell asleep, Misty realised that that was the first time Ash had used her old nickname since they had met up. She drifted off to sleep with a small smile on her face, cuddled up to her baby pokemon. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Good Morning Ash." said Misty when Ash appeared down for breakfast. She and Azurill had joined Delia at the table before Ash's tousled figure, preceded by a flash of yellow excitement arrived at the table. "Pika pi kachu!" (Where's the ketchup!) Announced Pikachu, hopping onto his special chair and banging his paws on the table. Stifling a yawn, Ash went to a cupboard where Pikachu's store was usually kept and then sat down himself to tuck into some home made pancakes, moving his plate away from Pikachu as ketchup went everywhere. Glaring at his first pokemon he announced that after breakfast he was going over to Professor Oak's and see the rest of his pokemon, as well as give his current team a rest. "Great, I've finished breakfast and need a shower. Could you look after Azurill for me?" asked Misty, rising from the table. "Sure." he replied through a mouthful of pancake. "It's nice to have you and Misty around again. It's been so long since I've seen the two of you." smiled Delia. "Yeah, it's nice to see her again as well. Azurill!" he managed to catch the pokemon before she jumped into Pikachu's overly large bowl of ketchup. Laughing, he gently scolded the baby pokemon before sharing his pancake and chocolate chips, missing the smile shared between his mother and Pikachu. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Come on Misty! Let's go!" called Ash up the stairs. He was impatient to be off and had already had to wait another half an hour for Misty to appear. "Coming, coming." she said as she came down the stairs. The reason for her delayed arrival was clear as her hair was down and beautifully styled. She had changed her heavy duty walking boots to her old pair of trainers, along with a casual pair of cut off jeans with her yellow T-shirt to complete the outfit. It took a while for Ash to get going himself when she passed him, picked up Azurill and opened the door, suppressing a small smile of pleasure at Ash's current state of immobility. After a swift glare at a giggling Pikachu, he too followed her out the door, running to catch up with her on the track to Oak's. They continued along in silence until Ash was able to pluck up the courage to mention, "You look nice Misty" turning to smile, shyly at her. "Thanks Ash" she awkwardly returned the smile. The atmosphere between the two soon relaxed, allowing them to reminisce in their past capers. They were so engrossed in their conversation, it took a light shock from Pikachu to make them notice that they had already passed Oak's driveway. Embarrassed at making such a simple mistake, they travelled up to the door in silence. KNOCK KNOCK "Hello? Ash, well done in the Hoenn League! Oh hi there Misty!" said Tracey as he answered the door, Marill at his feet while trying to feed a baby Poliwag that constantly squirmed in his arms. "Hi Tracey, hi Marill, do you need some help with that Poliwag?" said Misty, moving past Ash to help with the baby pokemon, putting Azurill on the ground to see her real mother. "Where's Professor Oak?" asked Ash as Pikachu hopped past him to talk to Marill. "Oh, he's out in the reserve, I'll warn you now Ash, you're pokemon have been pining for you for a long time. Be careful when you enter! Thanks Misty, I've been trying to get Poliwag to settle down for the last hour, it just won't settle down." he said to Ash before turning to Misty who took the baby from his arms. To his annoyance, it immediately calmed down to suck on its bottle of milk. "How did you do that?!?" Tracey looked exasperated at Poliwag. "I guess it's just my charm and young pokemon can sense my kind and caring attitude towards them, along with experience." she grinned back at Tracey. "Sure, cept for the kind bit!" murmured Ash, intentionally only to Tracey, but Misty overheard. "What was that Ash? Do you mean to say I'm not kind?" asked Misty, beginning to get aggressive. "Maybe" he replied with caution. "Why you!" BAM! WHAM! THUD! "Ahh, I needed that, come on Tracey, let's find the Professor." and she walked away as Ash groaned on the floor, nursing the bruise from Misty's trusty mallet. Groggily, he got to his feet, glaring at his hysterical Pikachu who couldn't remember a time he had laughed so much in such a short space of time before following Misty and Tracy through the lab to the reserve. Catching up with the others, they walk through the reserve before Ash spied his Snorlax, lying by a tree, eating some apples. He soon notices his trainer and gave Ash a wave before going back to demolishing the apple tree. "Hang on, better let the others out to meet everyone. Go, Grovyle, Glalie, Corphish and Swellow!" he released his pokemon before telling them they could go where ever they wished within the reserve. Before any more instructions could be issued, a low rumbling can be heard, growing in a crescendo as Ash's various Tauros, Bayleaf, Cyindaquil, Totodile, Heracross, Noctowl, Kingler, Bulbasaur and Phanpy stampeded towards him. Misty, Tracey, Pikachu, Azurill and Marill had the sense to get out of the way as the excited pokemon charge into Ash, taking him along for the ride, with Bayleaf following in distress. Ash was enjoying the ride until the lake hove into view, directly in front of the charging Tauros. Before crashing into the water, the Tauros ground to a halt and veered away to the left, sending Ash flying for the water. "Bay!" a pair of vines grabbed him from behind and lifted him back to shore "Bay bayleaf leaf leaf bay!" She worriedly checked him over before rubbing affectionately against him. "Smooth there Ash. It's good to see you can control your Tauros!" mocked Misty as she walked over to him, the Poliwag now fast asleep in her arms. "Yeah, yeah!" he replied, getting up and brushing himself down before greeting Bayleaf properly and moving on to his other pokemon. "Hello? Who's there?" a voice said from the bushes as the silhouette of a man appeared. "Oh, Ash, Misty, hello there, I didn't know you'd come in!" the figure revealed to be Professor Oak. "Hi Professor. I hope all my pokemon have been behaving themselves for you." said Ash, looking up from petting Phanpy. "Of course they have Ash. Heracross has been priceless in his contribution to my research! Now why don't you all come in and have some tea. I'll be very interested to see your team from Hoenn." said Oak as he walked back to his lab, followed by the others. Immediately after entering the lab, Oak was thrown to the floor as Muk gave him a huge hug of welcome, much to Oak's protests. "Muk, get off the professor!" said Ash, trying to pull to sludge pokemon off the professor, only succeeding in getting a Muk hug himself. "Right, now tell me about your adventures in Hoenn!" they all sat down with some tea and a plate of cakes to hear of Ash's adventures. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was into the evening before Ash had finished his tales of Hoenn and he, Misty, Pikachu and Azurill were about to return to Ash's house. Before leaving, Ash turned to Oak to ask if there were any new leagues or competitions that he could enter. Needless to say, he was disappointed to find that there were no new challenges for him to try that the Professor had heard of. "Cheer up Ash, you could always do the Pokemon League in Kanto of Johto again. Succeed where you have previously failed!" said Misty on their way back to the Ketchum residence. "Yeah, I had considered entering the pokemon league again. Come on, race you home and no attacks to get faster, okay Pikachu?" "Pika!" he replied before running off in a head start against Ash, the others following behind. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Well, honey, it seems like I'll be saying goodbye again in the morning..." said Delia after Ash and Misty had explained their plans to leave the next day to tour around Kanto, entering the Indigo League by defeating the Gym leaders along the way. "Yeah, but at least we'll be closer this time. I will try to visit more than I have done!" replied Ash, picking up on his Mother's upset demeanour. "Of course sweetie, don't worry about me. I always knew it would be like this from the day you told me you were going to be a pokemon master...Well I guess I should start packing your things again. I'll make sure you have enough clean you-know-what’s!" she said brightly before leaving the room as Misty and Pikachu tried and failed to contain their laughter while Ash turned an interesting shade of red and sinking into his chair and out of site. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Goodbye honey, I hope to see you again soon!" said Delia as she kissed her son goodbye. "Take care of each other all of you!" "By Mrs Ketchum, thank you for letting me stay the few days." said Misty, her old red bag at her feet, now back in her regular attire. "Of course Misty, it was a pleasure to see you again! Bye bye!" she said as they walked off to Oak's lab before leaving for Pewter City. "Well, what pokemon are you going to bring with you Ash?" questioned Misty. "I'm not too sure...I'm thinking Grovyle, Corphish and Swellow from Hoenn, along with Pikachu. But I want to check out which pokemon the Professor is currently using in his research before deciding.” he replied. "By the way, which pokemon do you have with you other than Gyarados, Staryu and Azurill?" "I have Politoed and had to bring Psyduck. My sisters wouldn't let me leave him with them. Something about him being too much of a liability to himself and others..." They walked on in silence again until reaching the pokemon research centre, knocking on the door before entering the building and into the corral. "Hi Professor. I just came over to collect my pokemon before we left. Do you mind if I take Grovyle, Corphish and Swellow?" asked Ash as they found the professor and Tracey feeding the resident pokemon. "Of course that's fine Ash. As you can see, all you new pokemon have settled in well here. You're welcome to choose any other pokemon if you so wish but I would be very happy if Bulbasaur, Bayleaf and Heracross were to stay, for diplomatic and research reasons of course!" "Thank you Professor...WAAAA Muk!" he disappeared under a large quantity of slime pokemon. Giggling, he emerged saying "Well, it's nice to see you too! Oh, hello Phanpy!" The little pokemon had noticed her trainer lying on the ground and had come over to investigate. "Hmmm Professor, do you mind if I take Phanpy with me?" "Of course that's fine Ash. I think Phanpy is old enough to begin training as strongly as any other pokemon and it would benefit from spending more time with you." smiled Oak. "Bay, bayleaf bay?" Bayleaf nudged her trainer when she heard she was to stay at Oaks. "I'm sorry Bayeaf, but the Professor needs you for his research with your sweet scent! Don't worry, I'll be coming back more often to see you and the others" he petted her on the head, trying to cheer her up before following Oak back to the pokeball storage room. It took them a while to locate Phanpy's ball and quite a bit of polishing for it to look as respectable as the other pokeballs in Ash's current possession. Not half an hour later Ash and Misty were bidding good bye to Professor Oak, Tracy and the remaining pokemon and heading off in the direction of Viridian City.