New Beginnings
By: Misty101803
Part: 10
Category: AAMRN

Disclaimer: Yo no poseo Pokémon. Oh, sorry, wrong language. I don't own Pokémon. And I don't own The Pokémon Tower. It belongs to the Jolt Master, I think. This story was written in February 2004.

Today is the big water Pokémon competition but Ash, Misty and Pikachu are still in bed. Soon, Misty opens her tourqoise eyes slowly until they are fully open, but the room is still a little blurry. After a couple of seconds the blurriness has passed and she sits up in her bed looking around at the room.

'How did I get here?' Misty thought. 'The last thing that I remember is I was watching the sunset with Ash and then the next thing I know I'm here.' Misty looked over at Ash's bed to see if he was there. He was and so was Pikachu sleeping soundly right next to him near his head.

'He's so cute when he's sleeping,' Misty thought. She looked over to the clock by the bed and it read 8:03. Misty then decided to get up off the bed and she headed straight for the bathroom; she had to use the toilet. Once she was done she turned on the sink and started to wash her hands. Although, because of its sensative ears, this was too loud so Pikachu soon woke up. It imediatly looked over to Misty's bed and saw that she was missing so it started to nudge its head up against Ash's head in an effort to wake him up.

Ash was awake within a few seconds and the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was Pikachu.

"Hey Pikachu; good morning. Did you have a nice rest?"

"Pika pika chaaaa," it yawned.

"That's good," Ash said as he sat up in his bed. The sink water wasn't running anymore so when Ash looked over at Misty's bed he said,

"Where's Misty?"

Misty then came out of the bathroom and said,

"I'm right here Ash. Good morning."

"Good morning Misty. Sleep well?"

"Yeah, I just have one question. How did I get here?"

"What?" Ash said surprized at her question.

"The last thing I remember was you and I watching the sunset together and the next thing I know I'm here. So I ask again, how did I get here?"

"Oh well you see it's like this," Ash began to say scratching the back of his head with his right hand, but just then Psyduck popped out of its Pokéball.

"Psy duck?" it said confused with a dazzed expression of complete cluelessness on its face.

"Psyduck!! What are you doing out here?! Don't come out untill I call you out!!" Misty screamed at it.

"Psy duck duck duck!"

"Oh, I wish I had a Pokéball with a lock on it!" Misty yelled. She then walked over to her red bag and looked around in it for Psyduck's Pokéball.

"Yes, I found it," Misty said holding the expanded Pokéball in her right hand high above her head. She turned to Psyduck and said, "Now Psyduck you know I love you, but you have to learn to stay in your Pokéball like a normal Pokémon. Okay?"

"Psyduck psy."

"Okay. Psyduck return," Misty said then Psyduck turned into a crimsion red energy beam and returned into its Pokéball. Misty then made the Pokéball smaller by tapping it once with her finger. Finally, she walked over and put the Pokéball back into her red bag.

"Oh Psyduck sometimes I just can't stand you."

"You just have to train it to stay inside its Pokéball Misty."

"What do you think I've been trying to do for the past couple of years Ash. But Psyduck is just too stupid to follow my commands."

"Hmmm...then I guess you'll just have to wait until it evolves. It's kind of like having a Magikarp that's worthless until it evolves into a Gyarados."

"Yeah but the trouble is is that just like any Magikarp, my Psyduck is too pathetic to train. It just can't win battles unless it uses its Psychic attacks."

"I'm sure that you'll train your Psyduck to stay in its Pokéball and maybe even evolve into a Golduck."

"Thanks Ash. That's nice of you to say."

"Misty you're a great trainer. If anyone can make your Psyduck evolve it would be you." Misty was just about to open her mouth again but Ash interupted and said,

"Hey Misty look at the time. You should get in that shower now if you plan on having enough time for breakfast."

Misty took a look by the bed at the clock. It read 8:07. "Oh you're right. I'll talk to you later about this thing with me watching the sunset before I'm asleep and me waking up here," then Misty walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. But a couple of seconds later she unlocked it, came back out and without saying a word grabbed her red bag and then returned to the bathroom and locked the door once again.

'Whooo. That was close,' Ash thought.

"Now what Pikachu. What should we do?"

"Pi ka chu," it said shrugging its shoulders.

"Hmmm..." Ash said thinking of what to do until the competiton begins. He went over and sat on the bed then Pikachu jumped up beside him and layed down. Ash could now hear that Misty had turned on the shower and the water was rushing out.

"Well I don't want to stay here and listen to Misty take her shower," Ash said standing up. "Lets go Pikachu."

"Pika pi!"

Ash walked over to the door and opened it quickly. When he did, he was surprized at what he saw.

"Oh hi Ash. I was just about to knock," Natalie said.

"Natalie, what are you doing here?"

"You know when a girl comes to see a boy the usually boy says, 'Natalie it's so good to see you again. How are you?' Natalie said with a lower voice trying to imitate a boy.

"Oh sorry. I was just surprized to see you as soon as I opened the door. "How 'bout we start over," then Ash cleared his throat.

"Natalie it's so good to see you again. How are you?" Ash repeated what Natalie had said.

"Oh Ash it's good to see you again too. I'm just fine. And what about you?"

"Oh I'm doin' great, just I'm bored."

"Well then why don't we get out of here and do something untill the Kojho begins."

"What's the Kojho?"

"You mean you don't know and it starts in less than three hours. You're lucky you have me to tell you."

"You mean the Kojho is the water Pokémon competiton?"

"No duh Ash. Lets take a walk and I'll tell you all about it."

"Alright, come on Pikachu." Pikachu quickly ran out to the hallway to wait for its trainer. When Ash closed the door he turned around and locked it with his key card and then left to go up on deck with Natalie and Pikachu.

Once in the elevator Natalie was about to open her mouth to say something but then something happened that niether of them expected. The lights in the elevator quickly shut off and then the emergency lights quickly snapped on. And while this happened the elevator stopped short. Ash, Natalie and Pikachu were now stuck in the elevator.

"What was that?" Ash asked.

"The elevator stopped," Natalie said. Then she walked over to the emergency button and pushed it a few times to see if anything would happen although nothing did happen.

"Oh this can not be happening. The Kojho is gonna start soon! I can't be stuck in here!" Natalie said emotionaly.

"Don't worry Nat, we'll get out of here. I bet they already know what's wrong and they're sending someone down to help us right now," Ash said trying to reasure her.

"Nat? Ash don't call me Nat; my name is Natalie."

"Oh sorry Natalie. But I'm sure that we'll be out of here soon."

"I hope so."

"Well how about you take your mind off of this by telling me more about the Kojho?"

"Okay, but it's kind of long."

"It's okay, we're not goin' anywhere any time soon."

"Ash! I thought you said that we'll get out of here soon?"

"And we will. Just forget about it. Tell me about the Kojho."

"Okay, here goes. It stands for: Kanto, Orange, Johto, Hoenn and Ohnee. And for some reason they left out 'region' and 'islands' in the word."

"That's a weird way to make up a name for a competiton," Ash said.

"Yeah. I heard that the one who started it had started his journey as a Pokémon trainer in Kanto, then moved on to the Orange Islands, traveled to Johto, went on to Hoenn, and finally traveled to Ohnee. And when he came back he bought a ship from all the money he had won from winning the Ohnee League and becoming a Pokémon Master. And now that he was a Master he didn't need to travel anymore with his Pokémon or train with them or win badges anymore. After he had the ship, and a lot of passengers had started traveling on it, he started the Kojho to represent his journey starting from Kanto and ending in Ohnee."

"But why a water Pokémon competition?"

"Well since he was a captain of a cruise ship now he was always at sea so it seemed perfect to make it a water Pokémon competition."

"I wonder who this guy was?"

"No one knows. It happened so long ago that now it's kind of just a ledgend, kind of like the Ghost of Madien's Peak. I've never seen the ghost, and I bet that rock was just carved by someone a long time ago and then this whole legend started for some reason."

"Wait a second. If this was so long ago, this can't be the same ship that he bought. It looks too new."

"Your right Ash. As the legend goes, after he bought that first ship, the Kojho was so popular and he got so much more money that he started his own cruise ship company and then all of his ships that traveled to Ohnee from then on would host the Kojho."

"Why only when traveling to Ohnee though?"

"Well since it takes so long to get there, what better way to pass the time then to hold a Pokémon competition."

"Yeah, you're right. This guy must have been really smart."

"He could have just loved Pokémon a lot. Considering that if it wasn't for Pokémon he would have never gotten all the money to start the ship company or the Kojho at that matter."

"Yeah, you're right. You know I was at Maiden's Peak one time," Ash said.

"Did you see the ghost of the maiden?"

"As a matter of speaking I did. My friends and I ended up finding out that the ghost was actually a Gastly that could talk."

"A Pokémon can't talk Ash; you're lying to me."

"No I swear. It could transform itself into anything and it almost beat us because it was so powerful."

"Then how did you beat it?"

"Actually we didn't need to do anything. The sun rose and Gastly disappearred and I never saw it again."

"Yeah right Ash."

"It's true."

"Whatever you say Ash."

"Why don't you believe me?"

"Ash, listen to what you are saying. You sound crazy."

"If you've been to as many places as I have on my travels, then you would believe me."

"What else have you seen."

"Oh, well, uh, hmmm, there's so many," Ash said scratching his head. "Oh I got one. This one time when I was in Lavender Town trying to catch a Ghost type Pokémon, a chandelier crashed onto Pikachu and I and we died."

"Okay, now I know you're lying. You couldn't have died; if you had then you wouldn't be here right now."

"Hey, wait on a minute. I'm not done telling you the rest." Natalie just stared at him waiting for him to continue.

"Well after we had died, the ghost Pokémon: Gastly, Haunter and Gengar, took us on a trip around Lavender Town. Although it wouldn't last because after we were done, the ghosts had the power to put us back into our bodies. And that is why I'm here now."

"Sure, next thing I know you'll tell me that you have seen the legendary Pokémon Ho-oh."

"Well..."

"Oh no. You didn't!"

"Actually I saw it twice. The first time was the first time I left my home town, Pallet Town, on my Pokémon journey with Pikachu. And the second time was right before I traveled to the Hoenn region."

"I'm sorry Ash, but I just can not believe you. No one has seen Ho-oh; or atleast anyone that's aloive today."

"Except for me and Pikachu of course."

"Hm!" Natalie said closing her eyes, and crossing her arms while turning her head away from Ash. Then she turned to Pikachu and asked,

"Pikachu is this true? Did you die and become a ghost and see Ho-oh?"

"Pika pika." it said nodding it head.

Now turning to Ash, Natalie asked, "Ash, did you train your Pikachu to lie? You're worse than I thought!"

"What!? Of course I didn't. Pikachu is telling the truth; why can't you just believe us?"

"Because a little proof wouldn't hurt Ash," Natalie said now putting her hands on her hips. "Do you have a single shred of evidence to back up your crazy stories?"

"Oh course I do. I, uh, well that is to say..."

"A ha! I knew it!"

"I swear to you we did those things. I may not be able to prove being a ghost or seeing Ho-oh other than just what we say. But Misty was there the day we were at Maiden's Peak. She can tell you what you want to hear."

"We'll just see...that is if we ever get out of here in time for the Kojho."

"We will, now can we talk about something else now?" Ash asked.

"Not just yet I have......" Natalie said trailing off.

"Uh, Natalie?"

"Okay Ash, lets change the subject."

"Wait, what!?" Ash asked surprized at what he heard Natalie say.

"Yeah, forget about all that. I've got a better idea. How about we talk about love instead?"

"Love!? Why love?"

"Why not Ash? Got something to hide?"

"Me!? No! Okay, lets talk about love. Uh, what should I say?"

"Well for starters do you love anyone?" Natalie asked eagerly.

"What!? Me love someone!? No, not me. That stuff is for other people," Ash said very defensively. He was getting really nervous now. Ash was beginning to sweat, cross his arms and move around in his place. And Natalie could tell that something bothered him. On top of that, Ash began to blush and Natalie was not making it any easier.

"Oh, well," Natalie said walking in closer to Ash. "Then you won't mind if I do this," and at that moment Natalie kissed Ash right on the lips and then she threw her arms around his neck. It was such a shock that Ash nearly fell down, but he rested himself against the wall of the elevator. Ash and Natalie were so caught up in the kiss that they didn't even notice that the elevator started to move again and then the doors opened up on deck in front of about a half dozen people. They were still lip locked when everyone saw them together.

"Oh my; well look at this; what's goin' on here?; oh how cute!" were said by the people standing not three feet from Ash and Natalie. Then Natalie finally let go of Ash after what seemed to be an eternity to Ash. Since they were right by the buttons Natalie then pushed one of them and the doors closed again. Finally, a few seconds later Natalie pushed the "Stop Elevator" button and the elevator stopped short again.

Ash was still so shocked that he couldn't even say anything. Pikachu tried to talk to the statue of Ash but nothing happened so it did what it thought was the only thing it could do. So it backed up and yelled,

"Piiiiiiiiiikaaaaaaaaaaachuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!" while it shot off a Thundershock at full power. It didn't want to over do it because they were in an enclosed space. Surprizingly the Thundershock did almost nothing. The only thing that had changed was that he was a little chared and burned.

"Hey Ash," Natalie said as she waved her hand in front of Ash's blank eyes. "You in there? I didn't know my kisses had that effect on a guy. If I did I wouldn't have kissed him so long."

Pikachu tried again with another Thundershock: "Piiiiiiiiiiikaaaaaaaaaaachuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!" it screamed as an electric bolt erupted from its body and hit Ash head on. But it was no use; Ash was still in complete and utter shock at what had happened.

So then it tried a third time: "Piiiiiiiiiiikaaaaaaaaachuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!" and finally Ash snapped out of his shock, shook off his dizyness and looked around with a confused expression as if he didn't know where he was any more. Finally Ash caught sight of Natalie and just had enough strength to ask,

"Why? Why did you do that?"

"Because that's what you do when you love someone, Ash. Don't you know that? Oh yeah, you don't love anyone so you wouldn't know," Natalie said with a smile on her face.

"You what?"

"I love you Ash. Do you love me?"

"Wait, hold on. I just met you yesterday. I gotta have some time to think about this, okay Natalie?"

"Well, okay. I can wait. Just don't take long to think about it. How about you tell me after the Kojho is over at least. It shouldn't last for more than a few of days so I think that that will give you more than enough time to think about this little incident. What do ya say, Ash?"

"Okay. That's fine with me. After the Kojho."

"Excellant Ash. Now in the mean time how about we do that again?" Natalie said trying to get closer to Ash again, but just in time Ash maneged to push her away.

"Remember, after the Kojho," Ash said to her.

"Oh, okay. Then what now?"

"I don't know. You got me into this mess. Are you gonna get us out of it?"

"Don't worry Ash; how long is it gonna take anyway? The first time it was what? Twenty minutes? We'll get out of here in no time."

"No time; right."

But it turned out that it took them a lot longer than the first time to get Ash, Natalie and Pikachu out of the elevator. In fact about two hours later they were still stuck in the elevator waiting to be rescued.

"No time huh?" Ash asked angry at Natalie.

"Hey, how was I suppossed to know it would take this long. And anyway you were still in shock at the moment so I wasn't about to drag you out, so I hit the button to give you time to snap out of it."

"But we've been in here for who knows how long? For all we know the Kojho could have already started!" Ash said loudly.

"It's not my fault that you didn't bring a watch," Natalie said.

"And I was suppossed to know that we would be stuck in an elevator for some-odd hours!"

"Hey it's not all that bad ya know. We do have eachother."

"It's not like I wanted to..." Ash began to say but then the elevator started to shake.

"Hey what's goin' on?" Natalie asked.

"I think we're finally moving. I just hope the Kojho hasn't started yet."

"Yeah, me either."

Fianlly the doors opened and they stepped out on deck. It was a beautiful day.

"A perfect day for some battling," Ash said as he looked out over the ocean.

"If the Kojho hasn't started already that is."

"Oh that's right. We have to find out what time it is." Then Ash, Pikachu and Natalie started walking down the deck until they saw someone. A young girl with red hair walking in their direction.

"Ash!" Misty yelled from across deck. Then she started to jog towards Ash and Natalie. "I've been looking everywhere for you. The Kojho is gonna start soon."

"Oh well that's a relief. The Kojho hasn't started yet," Ash said.

"Ash, where have you been?"

"Well uh..."

"We we're both in the elevator a couple of hours ago and then it just stopped for some reason and we were stuck in there untill just a few minutes ago," Natalie said.

"Yeah, exactly. It was the strangest thing," Ash said.

"Well now that you're here you must be hungry. How about we all get something to eat?" Misty suggessted.

"Yeah, I'm starved. Where should we go?" Ash asked.

"How about The Pokémon Tower. It's not too far from here and anyway it's free since I work there."

"And since I have my Corsola with me."

"Okay, lets go," Ash said then they all started to walk towards The Pokémon Tower restaurant. After a few minutes they got there and were immediantly welcomed by Sean.

"Hi sis, Ash, Misty, Pikachu. Nice to see you again. Oh, Misty, do you have your Corsola with you?"

"Yeah," Misty said reaching into her pocket to get out her Lureball. "Corsola, come on out." Corsola came out of its Lureball with a bright white light.

"Cor sola!"

"Oh, excellent. Hello again Corsola," Sean said to Misty's Corsola.

"Sean. Sean! We came here to eat before the Kojho starts. We probably don't have a lot of time so can you make it quick?" Natalie asked.

Sean looked up from Corsola and said, "It would go faster if you helped me Nat."

"I told you to never call me Nat. My name is Natalie. So get it straight Sean!"

"Okay okay. Man, you're so cranky when you're hungry," Sean said. "Come on, don't forget I'm in the Kojho as well, and it's already 10:35, so we have about twenty minutes," Sean said to all of them.

They all went in and Ash, Misty, Pikachu and Corsola all sat down at a table and waited about ten minutes until Sean and Natalie came in carrying two trays each. On each tray was a plate with some food on it, a glass of juice and silverware. They set them down and they all started to chow down on the food. Basically on all four plates there were some eggs, bacon and sausage and all of the glasses had orange juice in them.

"Oh this is delicious Sean," Misty said.

"Well thank you. I wouldn't be in business long if the food here wasn't good."

Misty giggled at this comment. Ash just looked at her and thought, 'That wasn't even funny. Why did she laugh?'

After about another ten minutes everyone was done and ready to head off to the Kojho. Sean had closed the restaurant because he's in the Kojho so there wasn't anyone else in the restaurant except the four trainers and their two Pokémon.

"Is everyone ready to lose?" Sean asked.

"The question is are you all ready to lose to me," Natalie said.

"You'll have to get past me first," Misty said.

"Cor sola sola cor cor."

"As if any of you will get past me," Ash said.

"Pi pika chu."

They all headed outside and right before Sean left he locked the door of his restaurant, The Pokémon Tower. Then they all started walking towards where Sean said all of the trainers in the Kojho were suppossed to meet. Right now it was about 10:55, so they didn't have a lot of time. Luckily, Ash and the gang came up to a big crowd where a man, the captain maybe, was standing on a podium. The crowd had about a hundred or so trainers in it and was growing by the minute.

Finally it was 11:00 and the man on the podium was handed a megaphone and was about to say something.

"Look Misty101803, you're short-story "New Beginnings" is evolving into a full grown novel" is what Ash would say at this point in the story. I can't believe how big it's gotten. I can't wait untill the Kojho, pronounced co-jo, starts. It's gonna be so exciting; well I hope. Please review. I look forward to what you have to say. Gotta Catch Ya Later! Misty101803 signing off.