Whee~!

Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfic belongs to me!

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks

Recap: Last episode, Ash got the Thunderbadge, tried the Surfing contest in Fuschia but didn’t win, Magikarp evolved to Gyarados, and Lance tried to help him with his financial problems.

Chapter 5

 

            It was a twenty-minute flight to Cinnabar.

            “Well, there’s the gym.” Lance said, pointing to an imposing red brick building. “I wish you lots of good luck!”

            “Thanks, Lance.” Ash said, waving goodbye.

            Inside, he found Blaine industriously trying to finish a mountain of paperwork.

            “Um… excuse me, sir.” Ash said. “I heard that you needed junior trainers?”

            Blaine’s head shot up. “Yes. Yes. I do.” He grabbed a sheet of pale green paper off his desk. “Here. This is the application.”

            “Thanks.” Ash took a clipboard out of his backpack along with a black pen, and began filling it out.

            It was quite simple. Name, Age, pokemon, number of badges…there were only about eight or nine personal questions. The rest of the page was taken up with training-related questions. Thirty-six of them!

            Ash chewed on his lower lip as he began filling out the form.

            Does Butterfree evolve? No.

            What is TM 01? Mega Punch.

            Rattata evolves into Raticate, True or False? True.

            And the like…

 

            He handed Blaine the completed application forty-five minutes later. The man nodded, checked the answers, circled two that were wrong, and said it was good enough. He showed Ash how to run the riddle machines, and then stationed him in the gym.

            “I’ll pay you $110 a week. You work four hours a day, Sundays off. Sound fair?”

            “Sounds fair.” Ash said, grateful to be getting any cash at all.

            That done, he settled in.

 

            A week had passed. A few junior trainers would show up each day, Ash would direct them to the quiz machines. If they guessed wrong he’d battle them. It was always amusing to see them gape when his water pokemon took down their pokemon.

            Just because Blaine ran a fire-type gym didn’t mean Ash used fire-types! It was _quite_ amusing to see trainers bringing in ground or rock types…

            They always fell to his pokemon.

            In any case, one smart trainer finally figured it out and brought a Magnemite. It was a noble effort.

            Ash laughed.

           

            “What’s so funny?” Gordon demanded.

            “Ah, you’ll see. Go ahead.”

            “Magnemite, use Thundershock!”

            “Wooper?”

            The pokemon yawned as he used Earthquake. Magnemite fainted!
            “No! It’s impossible!” Gordon paled to an ashy shade. Ash smirked.

            “Water-types are weak to electric!”

            “But ground is strong to electric.” Ash reminded him.

            “Grr… you must have cheated!”

            “Why do trainers always assume their opponent is cheating when they can’t figure out how he won?”

            “Because that’s the way they are.” Blaine said, walking in.

            Gordon immediately challenged Blaine.

            “Suppose that since I’m out here I might as well…” The gym leader blandly stated. “All right then. Rapidash, go!”

            “I choose you, Pinky!”

            A geodude burst out. Ash valiantly attempted to keep a straight face at Gordon’s choice of nicknames.

            However, it was quite… difficult.

            Chuckles forced themselves out despite his earnest efforts.

            “Pinky, use Rock Throw!”

            Rapidash jumped around avoiding all falling rocks. Not a single hit, despite the multitude of stones falling.

            It was truly pathetic.

            Blaine yawned.

            Ash applauded, earning a dirty look from Gordon. “What? If you can’t even beat me, how can you defeat a gym leader?”

            “That’s different!”

            “Nonsense, he is one of my junior trainers.” * Actually, the only one I have at the moment, but that’s not the point. He does a good job. It’s almost cheap what I’m doing, but oh well, he’s happy with the money. *

           

            “Pinky, Explosion!”

            Rapidash countered with Fire Spin. Geodude exploded, but it was far from enough to take the fire horse down.

            “Try again in a few months.” Blaine advised Gordon.

            “No! I refuse! Go, Squirtle!”

            “I see you’ve traded away your Onix for this…”

            “What? How’d you know?”

            “Lucky guess. Rapidash, Overheat!”

            Squirtle wailed painfully before dehydrating and passing out.

            “Cool move.” Ash whistled.

            Blaine smiled. “Thanks, kid. How are you doing with the machines?”

            “Oh, pretty well.” Blaine was testing out a VR game for Silph. It was supposed to simulate a pokemon journey and worked very well.

            Ash was currently in the equivalent of Fuschia.

 

            The boy had potential; anyone could see that! Well, Blaine had known him for a month, but still… A pity he confined himself to using only water-types. Was there some significance?
            “Ash, when is your birthday?”

            “Oh… um, August 10. Why?”

            “I was just wondering if I should give you a raise.” Blaine quickly filled in.

            “You don’t have to.” Ash said earnestly. “You’ve done so much for me already…”

            “What do you mean? The job?”

            “Yes.”

            “It’s nothing.” Blaine smiled. “You think too lowly of your skills.”

            Befuddled looks were his answer.

            “You’ll understand when you get older.”

            Ash nodded. “Blaine, I might leave in a few months to continue my journey; I’m not sure I want to stay here forever.”

            “I understand.”

           

End Chapter

Completed 10/27/04

Ash: Hmm…

Phantomness: I didn’t make you related to Blaine in this life.

Pika-chan: *nods*