Chapter 4
				3..2..1, Ready Or Not Here I Come

“Ash’s house!?”
Misty watched as the painter opened the gate to the Ketchum residence and walked to the 
back of house where the backyard was.
Misty was in a state of shock and confusion.
‘Why is the painter guy at Ash’s house? Could he be...no that’s not possible.’ Misty tried 
to quickly dismiss any thoughts of the painter and Ash being one and the same. 
‘That would be ridiculous, Ash isn’t a painter, he is a Pokemon trainer,.... isn’t he? 
Oooohh, I have to get to the bottom of this, all this Ash stuff is driving me crazy!’
Misty walked up to the Ketchum house. The house still looked the same way it did 4 
years ago when Misty had stayed there for two months while Ash was training for the 
Johto league. The house brought back memories of a happier time when it was just Ash 
and Misty, best friends.. ‘Forever.’ Misty thought sadly as she rang the doorbell.
She didn’t have to wait long as the door suddenly swung open to reveal...
“Mr. Mime,” the Pokemon greeted.
Another voice was then heard from inside the house. “I told you to put the fertilizer in the 
back and-oh I’m sorry I thought you were someone else, can I help you?”
Now standing next to Mr. Mime was a middle aged woman with brown hair tied up in a 
bun. The woman wore a pink blouse with a long blue skirt and a apron tied around her. 
“Mrs. Ketchum don’t you remember me?”
Mrs. K. looked Misty over but still held a confused expression on her face.
“I’m sorry, I don’t...” Mrs. K. then looked down and saw the Togetic in Misty’s arms and 
it all started to fit together. “Red hair, blue eyes, carries a Togetic, Misty? Is that really 
you dear?” Delia stated as she smiled lovingly at Misty who nodded her head at the 
surprised woman. Delia then embraced her in a hug.
“I can’t believe it, look at how much you’ve grown. You’ve become quite the beautiful 
young woman.”
Misty blushed at the compliment. 
Above Misty and Delia’s heads a long yellow ear, that poked out of the second floor 
window, twitched as it listened in on the conversation. Pikachu knew that it’s master now 
was in big trouble as it ran towards Delia’s bedroom which had a window facing the 
backyard.
Ash hummed the tune to Mezase Pokémon Master as he scattered the fertilizer over the 
dirt.
“Pika, Pikapi, pikachu, chu, ka, pi,” Pikachu chattered away nervously.
“Whoa buddy, calm down, what’s wrong?”
“Pikachupi, chupi, kachu” It stated giving Ash a worried look.
“Here? Now? With my mom?” Ash questioned in total disbelief.
“Pikachu,” Pikachu confirmed with a nod of his head.
“I have got to get out of here before she sees me.”
“Pika chu pi”
“I can’t go around the house she might spot me. Maybe if I....”
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Misty now sat in the living room of the Ketchum house chatting with Delia.
“Really, a Water Pokemon Master, just like you always wanted.” Mrs. K.  said to Misty.
“Yup, it took a while but I finally accomplished my goal.”
“Well you should be very proud of yourself. When you were younger I could see that you 
had a lot of talent.”
“You really thought that?”
“Of course Misty, you were a dedicated and skilled Pokemon trainer even then, I knew 
you would make it, it was just a matter of time.”
“Thank you, it means a lot that you believed in me.”
Mrs. K. gave Misty a heartwarming smile.
“So I assume you’re in Pallet Town because you are going to be part of the team Prof. 
Oak has put together to stop Team Rocket.”
“Yes, but how did you know? I thought that was top secret?”
“Hmmm....oooh, I uh, well you see....I..”
“What am I thinking, Prof. Oak tells you everything.”
“YES!”
Misty jumped back a little surprised at the outburst of Mrs. Ketchum.
“I mean, of course he does we have known each other for years, even before Ash was 
born”
‘Ash.’ Misty remembered the painter who is still probably in the backyard.
“That reminds me, can I speak to Ash, is he in his room?”
‘Maybe if I act like I know he is here then...’ Misty’s thoughts were interrupted by Mrs. 
K.
“Ash?! .....Oh,...I- I’m sorry dear but Ash isn’t here, he hasn’t been home in months, 
nope, not here.” Mrs. K. quickly stated sounding overly nervous.
“Are you sure, because I saw a Pikachu and-“ 
“Misty there are many wild Pikachu around here.”
“Yes but this Pikachu had a arm full ketchup packets.”
Mrs. K. didn’t know how to respond. Everyone knows Ash’s Pikachu is probably the 
only one in the world that has a craving for ketchup.
‘I can’t believe Ash was so careless, and he was worried about me blowing his cover.’
“There was one other thing I wanted to ask you Mrs. Ketchum.”
“Yes dear?”
“Who is that man in your backyard?”
Mrs. K’s eyes grew wide in shock. ‘She saw him, now what am I going to do?’
“There’s no man in my backyard,” Mrs. K. stated hastily.
“I’m done with the gardening Mrs. Ketchum, if you don’t need me for anything else then 
I’ll just go.” The painter that Misty saw going into the backyard before entered the room. 
He stared at her and politely, smiled and bowed. 
“Hello, it’s nice to see you again Miss.”
“Nice to see you too.” Misty blushed slightly.
Mrs. Ketchum was totally confused and a little embarrassed as she has obviously lied to 
Misty.
“Oh you mean that man in the backyard, heh, heh, yes he is...just..somebody-“
“That she hired to help her with the gardening,” the painter completed the sentence.
“Yes exactly,” Mrs. K. said a little too happily as she pointed a finger at the painter.
“I had hired him to bring me a bag of fertilizer back from the nursery and help me tend to 
my garden.”
“Oh, well I thought you were a painter, not a gardener.”
“Well I do all sorts of different things around town, that’s how I make my living.”
“Oh, your on odd-jobber.”
“I guess you can say that, yeah. So Mrs. Ketchum is that all you need me for?”
“Yes you can go now, you’ve done an excellent job, thank you very much.”
Mrs. Ketchum showed the gardener/painter to the door while giving him a sly wink.
“Um,” the man cleared his throat and held his palm out. 
“There is the matter of payment.” He grinned mischievously.
Mrs. K. gave him an extremely annoyed look as she went to get her purse.
She came back and handed him a twenty.
“Uh, it was forty dollars.” The gardener/painter raised an eyebrow at Mrs. K.
Mrs. Ketchum looked like she was about to kill him as he continued to grin like an idiot.
“We have to make this convincing.” He whispered to her as she grumbled and handed 
him another twenty.
“It was a pleasure ladies, and remember Mrs. Ketchum if there is ever anything else you 
ne-“
‘Huh, guess I was wrong twice today, but still the Pikachu...’ Misty thought as she 
watched Mrs. K., who practically slammed the door in the gardener/painter’s face cutting 
him off mid-sentence. 
“Well I guess I better be going too.”
“Really? So soon? I was hoping we could chat a little while longer.”
“I would have liked that but it’s been a really long day and sitting on your comfortable 
sofa has made me realize just how tired I actually am.”
“Oh all right dear it was wonderful seeing you again” Mrs. K. gave Misty a big hug.
“It was wonderful seeing you too.”
“Now listen, you have an open invitation to come visit me any time you want, we could 
have tea, coffee, lunch, dessert, dinner, anything you want.”
Misty giggled at Mrs. Ketchum’s hospitality, she had been acting really weird since 
Misty arrived but now she seems to have recovered and was acting her usual cheery self.
“I’m sure I’ll take you up on one of those someday soon. Bye.”
“Bye dear” Misty exited the house as Mrs. K. closed the door behind her.
Mrs. K. sighed as she leaned against the door. 
‘I hate lying to that girl, why can’t he just tell her who he is, he doesn’t have to explain 
everything.’
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Half a mile from the Ketchum residence in front of a Pokemon center a smiling young 
man spoke excitedly to his Pikachu. 
“That worked perfectly Pikachu,” Ash stated.
“Pikachu,” Pikachu agreed.
“Plus we got 40 bucks to spend on whatever we want.”
 “Pika, pika.”
“No we are not going to buy ketchup with it.”
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A little bit down the road a tall redhead holding a Togetic seemed to be talking to herself.
“Well so much for my theory huh Togetic?”
“Toge, toge”
“I was so sure that was Ash’s Pikachu, oh well I guess there is more then one Pikachu 
that eats ketchup, maybe it’s a Pallet Town thing. Whoa I almost forgot, my Pokemon are 
totally wiped out from the training session they had today with Prof. Oak, I better get 
them to the Pokemon center. 
Misty then noticed that the Pokemon center was a block away.
“We’re in luck, the Pokemon center is right up ahead.”
Misty walked up to the Pokemon center and was about to go in when she noticed the 
gardener/painter was there too. He seemed to be talking to someone on the side of the 
road.
Misty cautiously walked a little closer to get a better look at who he was talking to.
“Maybe mom was a little mad, but she’ll get over it, I was just trying to make it realistic 
so we could fool Misty.”
‘Fool Misty? How does he know my name? Did he say mom?!’
“Pikachu, chu pika.”
“Yeah your right Pikachu we shouldn’t spend the money, I have enough trouble without  
my mother being mad at me. She made me paint her bedroom, the hall, and wallpaper the 
kitchen when she was happy to see me, imagine what she would have me do if she was 
mad at me.”
“PIKACHU! ASH KETCHUM, YOU BIG, FAT LIAR, I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU!
Ash jumped in shock as he finally noticed the screaming redhead behind him.
“Misty! I, I um, I mean, Ash Ketchum? Who is he?”
Misty stood, eye twitching, ready to pull out her mallet any minute now.
She approached him as he backed up into a corner.
“All right, I will give you three seconds to tell me the truth, if you don’t confess by then, 
well, you know me long enough to know what will happen,” Misty said as she waved her 
mallet in the air.
Ash just stared at her, too frightened to move. 
“One”
‘I can’t tell her. If I tell her this then I’ll have to tell her everything’
“Two”
“Pika,” Pikachu said worriedly. He didn’t want to see his master turn into a pile of goo.
‘It’s already pretty obvious, just tell her and get it over with’ 
“Thr-“
“All right, yes okay,....yes.”