here's part 2. I know part 1 sucked a bit, and nothing much happened, but this is probably gonna be a fairly slow starting story(sorry!). Anyway, please send feedback so i know how to improve! Normal Disclaimer: I still don't own Nintendo. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 2: The reunion ends, the plot begins Ash, Brock, May, Misty and Gary walked quickly up the mountain path. The path itself was actually a narrow road, but they hadn't yet encountered a single car, and so the group were stretched out across it. The sun was beginning its journey downwards towards the western horizon, which was inconveniently enough in front of them. Brock and Gary were walking together on the inside of the road, next to the nearly sheer mountain face. May was next to Misty in the middle of the road, and Ash was on the outside edge, next to a small wooden fence, which consisted of short stakes driven into the ground, with a bit of wire connecting them. Ash was still amazed that Misty and Gary had joined the group. As he walked along, he had been talking to Misty; unfortunately, they seemed to have run out of conversation topics, and were now walking along in an uneasy silence, while Brock and May were chatting away. Gary seemed deep in thought; the prospect of travelling with a bunch of people who, up until very recently he had referred to as 'the losers' might have been making him uncomfortable. Suddenly, Gary yelled out to Ash, "Hey, Ketchum, before I forget, your mom said to make sure you had plenty of fresh 'you-know-whats'" He grinned, still enjoying any opportunity to make Ash squirm, despite the fact that they had made up after Ash had defeated him in the Johto league, while Ash turned bright red. The entire group started to laugh. They had all, at one point or another, been asked by Delia Ketchum to keep an eye on her son's 'you-know-whats'. Suddenly, there was a loud screeching noise from round the bend up in front. A Lorry came shooting round, with no other warning than a loud honking once it was already too late. May leapt out of the middle of the road, but it was Misty and Ash who were in danger. Ash had frozen in terror, caught like a rabbit in headlights, but Misty somehow managed to leap sideways, propelling both herself and Ash over the dubious fence, and down the mountainside, into the deep, dark forest below. "Ash! Misty!" Yelled Brock, once the lorry had rushed past. He ran over to the edge of the road, and seemed quite ready to jump off, in pursuit of his friends. Gary and May held him back. “Look how steep that mountainside is! We'd better send out a pokemon to get help!" advised Gary. "But we don't even know how they are! They could be injured!" "Well, which pokemon did Ash have with him?" asked Gary. "If he had Charizard, he could probably just fly straight back up" "No, Charizard is at Professor Oaks! I don't think he has any pokemon that can fly. You're right, we need to get help, and fast! Zubat, I choose you!" The pokeball opened up, and out came a small batlike pokemon. "Zubat, go and get help! Fly to the nearest town, see if you can get officer Jenny!" "Wow, this really must mean a lot to him" said May, "He hasn't gone all red and goofy, even at the mention of Officer Jenny!" Zubat raced off in the direction in which they had been going, as there were no towns for several miles back. * * * * * Ash finally came round. It was dark down here; well, up here actually. He realised finally that he was stuck in a tree branch. He was sore all over, and was sure to be seriously bruised, but he didn't think he had any broken bones. He still had his backpack on. "Pikachu?" he said over his shoulder. "Pika!pika pi!" came the reply, which sounded relieved. He looked down. The ground was forty metres down from here! It would be possible for him to climb don the pine though, just no easy. He began to move slowly, and painfully down the tree. Suddenly, he remembered Misty. "Misty!" he cried out. 'How could I have forgotten!' he thought, as he kept on yelling, "Misty! Are you ok?!" "Of course im not ok, you idiot! I've just fallen off a mountain!" yelled back Misty, from down below. "You sound just like normal!" he replied, inwardly relieved. "Just hurry up and get down here! There might be - Aaaaaaaargh!" The scream pierced through the night. Ash was so shocked that he let go of the tree, and began to fall again, hitting every single branch on his route to the forest floor. "Ow!...Argh!....Ooof!" He finally cleared the branches, and fell down all the way to the floor. Well, almost. He looked down to see Misty underneath him. "Uh, sorry Misty, I'll get up now!" Ash said nervously, fully expecting to be whacked by the famous mallet. He got up quickly, and looked round at Misty, who just lay there, her eyes fixed on the caterpie which was crawling slowly away from her. After Misty recovered from her bug experience, and had stopped yelling at Ash, they began to take stock of their surroundings. They were right next to the base of the mountain, in some kind of dense forest. They decided that it would be best to wait in the area for help to arrive. "It's really dark, d'you reckon its night time already?" asked Ash. "Well, the trees are really thick, they might just be covering the sunlight. Also, we're in the mountains shadow. And we'd have heard from your stomach if it was past dinner time!" "Actually, now that you mention it I am kinda hungry..." Misty rolled her eyes, and gave an exasperated sigh. "Come on, there's a cave right here at the foot of the mountain which we can use for shelter." she said. * * * * Meanwhile, back at the roadside, Brock, Gary and May were getting worried. Zubat had been gone for over an hour now, and Brock was getting agitated. Even Gary was getting quite nervous. Finally, he decided to take matters into his own hands. "Right, May, you wait up here in case help arrives. Brock, we're going to go down there" "But how?" "If you look up ahead a little bit, it doesn't look that steep; in fact, it looks like it would be quite easy to climb down" "Why didn't you mention this before?!" "Calm down, I only just noticed it myself!" He walked over, and stepped over the'fence'. Brock followed him. "Is it really such a good idea leaving May up here by herself?" "I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself!" snapped May."Besides, i've got my pokemon with me." "Well, if you're sure..." With that, Brock followed Gary down. At first, the going was fairly easy. Then, the slope levelled out to a flat platform, which extended for a couple of metres, before becoming a near vertical drop for almost 100 metres. There were only a few trees growing right next to the mountainside, so they could see all the way down. "Don't worry Brock, I've got just the thing!" Gary walked over to a short tree which was growing on the platform. "Hmmmm, looks sturdy enough" he said, and reached into his backpack. He pulled out a length of rope, and then another, and then a third. "It's a long way down, so we'll have to tie them together!" he said. "Wow, you came well prepared! Ash just carries a blanket and a change of, uh, clothes, which his mom packed for him..." "Hah! No need to specify! And just cos I'm the same age as Ash, doesn't mean I'm quite as dense, or immature" said Gary, in his famously superior tone of voice. For once, Brock was almost prepared to believe it, as Gary went to work tying one end of the rope to the tree. * * * * Quite deep inside the cave, which was, fortunately, empty, Ash had manage to light a fire, with his cyndaquil. He rummaged through his pack, and managed to find some chocolate bars, which he shared with Misty. As they ate, sitting down by the fire, Ash started to talk. "How did you survive the fall, Misty? I managed to get stuck in a tree-" "Which was all down to luck, not any skill of yours, I might add" cut in Misty. "Yeah, sure, so...how did you survive?" Misty laughed nervously. "I...got stuck in a tree..." Ash grinned, and then suddenly looked serious. "I...I just wanted to say thanks for saving me back there, and I'm sorry that you're stuck down here now..." He trailed off nervously. There was no reasoning with Misty when she got angry; normally an apology in a situation like this would just have been greeted with a whack from the mallet. This time, however, Misty just looked at him. After a while, she said, "Thats ok; you don't think I'd just stand there and let you get killed, do you?" "Huh...?" Ash was confused by the turn this conversation had taken. Not only was Misty not hitting him, but now she was blushing! "Er..." he started to say, when Misty cut him off abruptly, "I mean, you're my...best friend" she finished, looking at the floor to avoid making eye contact. Ash was feeling really uncomfortable now, and so he said, "I'm real tired, I think I'll go to sleep now!" He leant back against the cold rocky wall, wishing that Brock didn't have all the sleeping bags in his pack. He shuddered from the cold, despite the glowing embers of their fire. Misty walked over, and said, “Are you OK Ash?" "I'm just a little cold, that's all..." "Well, my blanket is quite big...we could share it, if you like..." She started blushing again, going even brighter red, if that was possible. "Just for warmth, you understand? Don't get any ideas!" Ash was now seriously bemused. "What?" "Don't worry" she sighed, "I forgot who I was dealing with here." * * * * I was getting dark as Gary was just about to start lowering himself down on the rope, when he heard voices talking from up above, where May had been standing. He recognised one of the voices as hers, and from the look on Brock's face, he deduced that the other was officer Jenny. Or at least an attractive woman. He sighed; Ash hadn't been exaggerating about this guy... He looked up to see May start to lead none other than officer Jenny, with her Growlithe, and two Machokes bearing a stretcher. Down the slope towards them. Then, all of a sudden, May lost her footing, and fell, rolling down the slope with surprising speed. Ignoring Brock's gasp of shock, he let go of the rope and leapt across, managing to catch May's arm just as she flew off the flattened ledge. Grunting, he managed to pull her up. She was pale with shock, and couldn't say a word. "Th..Th..." she managed to gasp out. "Are you alright?" asked Brock, all concern. She finally managed to catch her breath. "I..I'll be fine, thanks..G...Gary" she stammered. She sat down to recover. Gary and Brock, meanwhile, were receiving a stern lecture from Jenny. "Do you have any idea how foolish it was for you two kids to come out, alone on the mountainside, at night!? Anything could have happened..." She trailed off, looking nervously at Brock, whose face was filled with adoration. "..." he said "We were just worried about our friends" said Gary. "And I was well prepared! Nothing would have happened!" He was indignant. "I understand that you were worried...why is your friend looking at me like that?" "Oh, he has...a problem..." "Really? I would never have guessed... Anyway, what you two did was unbelieveably stupid...and very brave, I suppose, in the circumstances." "...!" said Brock, overjoyed at the praise, as Jenny went to inspect the drop down. Once Jenny had set up her proper abseiling equipment, They all went down apart from May, who decided to remain up at the top with Growlithe. They reached the bottom of the mountain, and looked around. "Look!" said Gary, pointing at a nearby cave opening. "There's a faint glow coming from in that cave!" "I'll bet thats Ash and Misty!" said Brock, who finally seemed to have recovered from the sight of Jenny. They walked over to the cave cautiously, hoping that the two trainers would be inside, not some angry wild pokemon that they just woke up. Gary reached the cave mouth first, and looked inside. A fair distance into the cave, he saw Ash asleep, sitting back against the cave wall, and Misty also asleep with her head on his shoulder. They were huddled together under a thin blanket. He grinned in a predatorial manner, wishing that he had a camera. "Brock!" he whispered, "Come and take a look at this!" Brock also grinned when he saw the scene, relieved that no-one appeared badly hurt."Anyone got a camera?" "Thats just what I was thinking!" said Gary, "That would annoy Ketchum so much; he'd go crazy" Jenny, smiled at the two sleeping kids. "How cute" she said, before walking over and saying, "Excuse me? Mr Ketchum? Miss Waterflower?" Ash and Misty woke up abruptly, and looked with bleary eyes into the torchlight, and grinning faces of offocer Jenny, Brock and Gary. "Hope we're not disturing anything here!" said Gary smugly. Ash and Misty began to blush furiously. Before they could say anything more, Jenny asked them "Are you both OK? Does anyone need any medical attention?" Ash finally found his tongue, "No...I..uh, we are both fine, and so's Pikachu" He looked over to where Pikachu was still sleeping, snoring gently. "Well, that's a relief" said Jenny. "Ok, let's get out of here. I'll give you guys a trip down to the nearest town, Dewford Port." * * * * At Dewford Port, meanwhile, the clouds were covering the crescent moon, as a dark boat pulled gently up to the pier. Three shadowy figures, a man, a woman and a cat-like pokemon got out, shortly followed by a fourth, powerful looking figure, well built, and with an aura of command. They looked towards the famous Dewford research centre, unaware that they themselves were being observed by yet another silhouette... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok, I know, nothings happened! Don't worry, something will hopefully happen next chapter. If not, you can sue me! Please review, sending tips, praise(unlikely, but hope springs eternal!) and flames(amusing ones only, please) to: timthesuprememaster@hotmail.com