Part 3- Misty's Goodbye



The man held out his fingers half an inch apart. Then he closed them together.

"If there was only someone else to take this mission," the man said angrily,
"you would have been that close to losing your entire job as an agent."

The girl bowed her head and said nothing.

"First," said the man, "he almost gets hit by a car. Then, he comes 5 seconds close
to drowning and you weren't even there. Now he gets beat up by two men larger than
even me and Surge put together, and hit in the lung that was swollen, and is now
laying in a hospital bed and Lord Knows if he's dead as we speak? My goodness, you
yourself didn't prevent any of that from happening, he did himself, him and his friends,
and most of the time, you were the cause!"

"There you go again, blaming things on me! What about you, huh? Why can't you be
there for him? It should be you in my place! Nobody's perfect!"

"God is perfect!"

"Well, I'm not God!"

"Obviously!"

"Exactly! And besides, no one lives forever anyway," she mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing. Not like you'd agree with what I did just say."

"Listen, I'm getting fed up with your attitude and your 'little mistakes'.
You're not even trying!"

"Not even trying? Sir, I've been on your stupid little missions for years, and everytime
something goes wrong, who do you blame? ME! I'm tired of this, okay? It's really
not fair that when something happens, I'm always responsible!"

"Exactly! You are responsible, it's your job to be responsible!"

"Well, you know what? I quit!"

"Are you stupid or something? You know damn well I would have fired you a
long time ago, but I can't, and I can't let you quit!"

"And why not?!"

"Because you signed the contract that said, and I quote:

BY ALL MEANS will I accept any mission given by my boss, and fulfill them thoroughly
with the least amount of flaws possible."

"And it's so obvious you wrote that contract," said the girl. "Listen, either when
this mission is through you let me quit, or we'll take this to court!"

"Fine. This is your last mission. I have no problem taking you out of business here."

"You know, you are heartless, you're unfair, and you're just...just plain unreasonable!
It's no big wonder you left him and expect someone else to be there for him," she
said as she walked out of the hidden base.

The man shot her an angry glare, but part of him told himself that it was the truth.








"Ash?"

"Yeah..."

"Ash...Ash, look at me," said Delia. "Are you getting high or something?"

"This is nothing but medicine," said the nurse who was recently injecting medicine
through his arm with an IV. "It's making him drowsy. He might rest until a minute
after I pull it out."

"Oh," said Delia as she watched Ash close his eyes with a peaceful look on his face.
The only time she could get Ash to open his eyes was when she called his name, but
it would only be for about a second before he closed them again.

(I remember an IV that got me drowsy...I love that stuff ^.~)

[knocking]

"Come in," said the nurse. It was Misty.

"What took you so long to come from the house?"

"I...um...fell in the lake and had to go take a bath, then change and come here,"
lied Misty.

"Oh," said Brock.

"Hey Mom?" asked Ash.

"Yes, honey?"

"Can you go get my gameboy back at the house? I'm kind of bored."

"Anything for you, sweetie," she said as she kissed him on the forehead and left.

"Brock--"

"I know. I'll go with her," said Brock as he left.

That left Misty sitting next to Ash, who was laying down, facing the ceiling. He
looked over to Misty.

"You've been crying."

Misty looked up at Ash. "What?"

"You've been crying," Ash repeated in the same tone of voice.

"It's not that important--"

"There, all finished," said the nurse as she took out the IV and left the room.

Ash looked at Misty again once the nurse left.

"There something you wanna tell me?"

"When the time is right," Misty said.

Ash sighed. "It really is up to you."

Misty nodded. "So, Ash, when was the last time you saw your father?"

Suddenly, Ash's eyes darkened, but for some reason...Misty totally expected that.

"My dad is like Brock's...only worse. He thinks we're all ashamed of him because
he failed to become a master. The only thing I'm ashamed with him of is leaving
like that. One thing my dad doesn't know is that no one's perfect. He thinks everyone
can do everything everytime, perfectly. He blames things on people when it's usually
his fault. Doesn't even deserve the title 'dad'. I have no idea where he is or what
he's doing, and I openly admit that I don't really care. He doesn't care about what
I'm doing or what Mom's doing anyway, so I shouldn't care about him. I bet he doesn't
even know if I've been alive."

"Oh Ash..."

Tears came to Delia's eyes after she heard her son's speech through the window.



2 months later...



"Great party."

"Wonderful party," Ash said to Brock as he joined him for a cup of
punch. Brock noticed this.

"Everyone!" Brock shouted. "Ash is about to drink! Come and prepare a
toast!"

"Brock," Ash moaned halfheartedly. Brock laughed as everyone gathered
around Ash's table.

"A toast," they all said, "to our new greatest pokemon master, Ash Ketchum!"

They collided cups and cheered as they drank. Ash shrugged and drank too.

"Hey, where's Misty?" asked Ash.

"About time you noticed she's been gone the whole day. She's waiting for
you at the fountain. She wants to talk to you."

"Oh," said Ash. "Okay." Then he left.



When he got there, he saw Misty sitting down, filing her nails. When he
came closer, Misty felt his presence and stood up as he approached her.

"What's--"

"Ash, I just wanted to say goodbye and...I don't think I'll ever see you
again."

"What? What are you--"

"I said goodbye!" she said as she ran up to him and kissed him hard on the
lips. Ash was shocked as he put two fingers to his mouth and looked at
his fingers. When he looked back up, she was gone...


TO BE CONTINUED...