Episode 41. Ha! I bet you didn’t think I’d get this far.
Ash: Hi! Another little bit from me!
Shadow: Hey! Did I say you could do this?
Ash: *big puppy dog eyes* Aww….
Shadow: *Sweatdrop* Never mind, never mind, carry on.
Ash: Anyways, in case you’re wondering, changing cards takes a lot of energy, so that’s why I have to sleep so much!
Pika-chan: *Snicker* Well, you sleep quite a bit without changing ‘em.
Ash: Pika-chan! *Mortified*
Pika-chan: Hi to all of my worldwide fans! Another visit from the Eternal Winged Pikachu of greatness! *Wink, wink*
Shadow: Maybe I should just let them talk from now on…
Ash: Wish me luck!
Pika-chan: See ya!
Shadow: Ja ne! The fic will begin shortly!
Disclaimer: Shadow does not own pokemon. Shadow does not own pokemon. My spell has been cast. *Holds up hypnosis pendant* you will not sue me!
Notes: Timeline wise, about two and a half weeks after the last Episode. Ash is now on his way to Saffron, with Giovanni’s blessings and some help.
Note: As always, <> indicates telepathy, ** indicates thoughts, and italics indicates translated poke speech.
DARK APPRENTICE ARC BEGINS
Episode 41: A badge, money, and giant teddies, oh my!
“Bye!” Ash said, as he waved to Giovanni. During his two-week recuperation stay in Viridian, Giovanni had taught him a lot of useful battling techniques and pokemon information. Plus, Giovanni had given him a very useful belt called the AIPL (Advanced Identification Pokemon Locater), which consisted of a black circle attached to six plates, with lots of buttons on it (the locator part), four strips of dark red leather which fastened in the back, which could each carry twelve poke balls, and a miniature laptop as well.
“Goodbye, Ash! Good luck defeating the Saffron Gym leader!” Giovanni said. “I expect you to win!”
Pika-chan also waved good-bye. Giovanni was a really good cook! It hadn’t been bad at all!
Ash walked over to the city limits and released his flying type. “Come on Storm, let’s go!”
Storm materialized in a spray of rain. Pika-chan applauded.
“That was really good, Storm! Let’s fly!”
Storm nodded as Ash and Pika-chan climbed on. Then, she took off.
“And please don’t do too many loop-de-loops this time.” Pika-chan pleaded. “I’ll be sick!”
If you wish, Storm said, tinkling laughter filling the air. Then, she began to fly above the clouds.
Pika-chan shot Ash a relieved look when Storm flew along a smooth, level course. * Ah, thank Mew. *
Ash looked amused. < So, Pika-chan is afraid of heights? But you have wings, right… > the wind ruffled his hair as he smiled.
Pika-chan chose to stay silent until they landed in Saffron.
When they got there, Ash went straight to the gym, because he had already healed his pokemon in Viridian. * I’ll fight Candice some other time. Besides, she seems swamped already, with so many challengers. *
Sage Chow had not located the pokemon card master in Lavender Town, much to his relief and dismay.
“I am glad he is not in that horrible place, but where is he? I must inform him of this problem.”
Sage Chow sighed. “I suppose I shall have to scry again.” He headed over to a pool of still water and drew another chalk circle.
“Tell me, where is the Card Master now?”
The mirror shimmered, showing Ash standing in front of the Saffron City gym.
Sage Chow sighed. “At least it is a relatively short walk from Lavender to Saffron…”
Meanwhile…
Todd watched morosely. He didn’t enjoy being dead! It was so boring! For some reason, his future was still being discussed. He was unable to go to heaven, but he wasn’t bad enough to go to hell. This usually meant that the person in question would be reincarnated.
Finally, a girl with long blue-green hair that fell to her feet in shadowy waves beckoned him over.
“The Fates have decided your situation, and they have decided to reincarnate you.”
“As what?”
“You’ll see… and don’t worry, you won’t start off as a baby!” She said, winking teasingly.
Todd felt himself falling. The last thing he noticed before he blacked out was that he wasn’t a bug…
Saffron City Gym
“Althea, I challenge you for the Soul Badge!” Ash said.
A girl with dark brown hair down to her waist, amber-colored eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses, and dressed in a purple jumpsuit jumped down from a fancy ‘throne’. Ash blinked. The ‘throne’ was very ugly… blue and orange striped.
“I am Althea.” She said in what was meant to be a deep, spooky voice. It would have probably freaked anyone else out, but Ash was used to hearing Sabrina speak in monotone, so he wasn’t very impressed.
Pika-chan felt Sabrina tap into her mind. < She is purposely trying to mimic my style! >
< Oh. Well, I hope your taste wasn’t this bad to begin with! > Pika-chan sent.
Sabrina mentally slapped Pika-chan. < Are you implying that I have bad taste? >
Pika-chan shrugged. < Never mind. >
“This shall be a one-on-one battle.” Althea said primly. “Choose your pokemon. Choose wisely, I warn you.”
“Skymew, I choose you!” Ash said. He smirked at the look on Althea’s face. “What better to fight a psychic pokemon with another psychic pokemon?”
Sabrina slipped from Skymew’s mind and watched silently. < This may prove interesting… >
Skymew happily did a few midair acrobatics, as she was glad to be out of the confines of the poke ball.
“Kadabra, go!” Althea said.
Sabrina blanched. < She’s even copying my pokemon! > But she let Skymew decide what she wanted to do. Skymew immediately put up her bright blue bubble shield, as a precaution.
“Skymew, use Surf!” Ash said. * That’s going to be hard to dodge, even if Kadabra is a psychic. *
Skymew smiled and began filling the arena with water. Ash levitated himself a few feet up, so he wouldn’t get soaked.
“Kadabra, Teleport.” Althea said. Kadabra tried to Teleport out of the way, but it still got pretty wet.
“Now use Spark!” Skymew grinned as a beam of electric energy formed around her tail, before she whipped it around and threw it all out Kadabra.
“Eep! Kadabra, dodge!” Althea said, losing her composure. Usually, her challengers would get so freaked out that they would randomly throw attacks, but this one was different!
“Bubblebeam!” Ash commanded. At a close range, there was no way those bubbles could miss. He was right. The Kadabra was nailed easily and fell over, cross-eyed.
Althea reluctantly surrendered the Marsh Badge, some money, and the TM Psywave.
“Thanks, see ya!” Ash said, as he waved goodbye to Althea.
Sabrina was still fuming silently. * I can’t believe they gave my position to a copycat! Sheesh, what happened to originality? *
Ash happily skipped off. Suddenly, he bumped into someone.
“Oh, I’m sorry- TODD?!” Ash couldn’t believe it. This person had the exact same aura! But that was impossible!
Todd brushed a strand of shiny black hair out of his eyes. “Actually, you can call me Teresa.”
“You’re a girl?” Ash peered at Todd closely. Yep. It was definitely a girl, with medium-length black hair in three ponytails and indigo colored eyes. She wore red corduroy overalls and a shiny silver stretch top.
“Well, technically, yes.” Teresa said. “I’m mostly the same person, slightly different life experiences, and different pokemon, but otherwise, I’m still me!”
“How did this happen?” Pika-chan wanted to know.
< I believe that Todd should not have died during the Final Judgment. Therefore, he was given a second chance. > Sabrina said telepathically in all of their heads.
“Oh.” Ash said.
“So, what’s been happening?” Teresa wanted to know, as they walked along. “I still have a lot of pretty costumes for you!”
“Nothing much.” Ash said.
“Nonsense.” Pika-chan said. “I’ll tell you! Ash is working hard, trying to change the pokemon cards into ‘Ash cards’, and-!”
Ash sweatdropped. Teresa had gone all starry-eyed.
“I knew something exciting was going to happen! Don’t worry, I’ll make you lots and lots of pretty new costumes!”
“Oh no.” Ash said in an undertone.
He would have said more on the subject, but just then, something dashed out of the gym.
“What was that?” Ash said, hand automatically going to his star key.
Teresa noticed this and began dragging Ash into an alleyway. Ash sighed loudly.
“Don’t worry! I always carry around a couple!” She said, yanking cloth out of her front pocket. “Try this one on for size!”
Ash sweatdropped. But he took the costume from her.
When Ash came out, Pika-chan whistled. Ash wore a pale, sea green coat that followed his body but split into two halves at the waist, sort of like a coat with two wings at the ends. The cuffs and collar were white lace. Under this, he wore forest green leggings and a forest-green long-sleeved shirt, and his feet were encased in pure white leather boots.
“Woohoo! Looking good, Ash!” Pika-chan whistled. “I like it!”
“Whatever you say, Pika-chan.” Ash said, as he withdrew his key. “Key that hides the power of the stars, reveal your true form before me! Your master under the seal of contract Ashura commands you, Release!” Wind energy swirled around him and the key grew into the staff.
The shadowy form resolved itself into the form of… a gigantic teddy bear.
“No way!” Ash said in stunned disbelief. “This just keeps getting stranger and stranger! First a piano, and now a teddy bear?”
The Teddy Bear didn’t seem to mind his cries of annoyance, as it quickly tried to swat him with a gigantic paw.
“Arcanine!” Ash shouted in fright. The card didn’t even go through the speech, it just glowed and turned white as the wings on his staff temporarily changed. Immediately, Ash hopped on its back and they took off running as fast as they could.
“This doesn’t look very good…” Pika-chan muttered to herself.
The bear began knocking down buildings to try and reach them. Pika-chan sighed, irritated, but she was kind enough to erect an electromagnetic field around Teresa to protect her from any possible damage.
Teresa grinned impishly, flipped her hair, and focused her video camera to get a closer view of Ash’s battle.
Ash gulped. “This doesn’t look very good…”
“Quick! You have to find the energy source and disable it! Then, you can defeat the bear easily!” Pika-chan commanded.
“Easy for you to say…” Ash said. He closed his eyes and began concentrating. Soon, he detected an area of dark energy near its ear.
“The ear is its weakness!” Pika-chan said triumphantly.
“Scyther!” Ash said, transforming into the bladed pokemon and flying up towards the teddy bear, trying to hurt it.
But unfortunately, the bear swatted him with a giant paw and sent him flying into the roof of the Saffron City gym.
He didn’t get up.
End Episode 41! Ohohohoho! Shadow is evil! I need at least 9 reviews before I post the next chapter, see ya! Flames will be used to create Light, to blind Nelvana’s workers so they can’t dub anymore!