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Ash woke up, spitting out a mouthful of sand. He looked around groggily, his vision blurry and his head pounding. He was on a sandy beach, but he couldn't say where. He suddenly became aware of his backpack dangling from his arm, and the event which must have brought him here came back to him: getting caught in Gyarados' Dragon Rage attack, and getting separated from the others. At least Ash himself was still in one piece. "We made it, Pikachu... Pikachu?!" Ash said. He looked feverishly around the stretch of shoreline, and found no sign of the Electric Mouse. "Misty?" he called. "Brock?" But his human friends weren't around either.
Terror gripping his heart, Ash looked through his backpack. At least his clothes, Pokéballs, and other possessions were still there. Ash suddenly realized that his whole body was caked in sand, and his boxers - the only clothing he had on - was full of it. He had a towel, though, that was almost dry.
Ash took care of the first things first. He washed off the sand in the ocean, dried himself off, changed into a fresh pair of underwear, and put his clothes (also mostly dry) on. For such a beautiful beach, he was surprised - and grateful - that nobody else was around.
Now fully dressed and free of sand, Ash set out to find Misty, Brock, and Pikachu. He yelled their names until he saw a few menacing-looking Spearow in the trees, after which he searched in silence.
After the sun had risen considerably in the sky, Ash spotted someone lying at an awkward angle for sunbathing. It was pale-skinned girl wearing a bikini to match her red hair. "Misty!" called Ash, running over to her. He shook her gently. "Misty, wake up!"
After Misty was still unresponsive, Ash started digging through his backpack. Finding the Pokéball he was looking for, he let out the Pokémon inside. "Squirtle, I choose you!" Squirtle emerged from the Pokéball, standing next to Ash. "Squirtle," Ash instructed, "wake Misty up with some water on her face." His eyes widened, however, as Squirtle hit Misty with a full-strength Water Gun! "Knock it off, Squirtle!" he screamed. "That's enough!"
Misty woke up, coughing up the water. Her annoyed expression melted away when she realized who it was. "Ash!" she cried with relief, throwing her arms around his neck.
"Hey, Misty, watch it!" said Ash quickly. "You're... all covered with sand."
"Oh... yeah," said Misty, blushing slightly in embarrassment. "Let me go rinse off."
Ash sighed with relief as Misty walked down to the ocean. He was glad that Misty hadn't caught onto the real reason he'd rejected her hug. However, that reason reared its head when Misty had walked in deep enough for the water to reach her bellybutton. Right there, Misty stripped off her bikini to rinse it out, while Ash was transfixed as he saw her breasts come out. He could not, however, see what below her waist, as it was entirely obscured by the ocean waters.
For her part, Misty's reaction to Ash seeing her exposed breasts seemed different from her reactions to other such times. She was neither wearing a smirk nor making a point of Ash seeing her, both of which she'd done recently. Nor, however, did she revert to what she'd done when Ash had seen her sunbathing on the riverbank on the first day of his journey. When she noticed Ash staring at her, she blushed again and looked down, only speaking when she asked him for her towel.
When Ash heard her request, he jogged back to her bag to look for the towel so as to hide some of his own embarrassment. After finding it, his heart pounded as he turned around, but to his relief, Misty had put her bikini back on after getting out of the water. He handed it to her with eyes averted, saying, "Here you go."
"Thanks," said Misty in a small voice. "Why don't you go look for Brock and Pikachu while I dry off?"
***
Ash's search for Brock and Pikachu as noon approached was fruitless. Ash could find neither his oldest traveling companion nor his closest friend as he continued along the beach. Aware of the Spearow and unaware of any other Pokémon that might be lurking in the woods, Ash didn't dare call out for them. After getting back to Misty (now fully dressed) and having a quick, perfunctory lunch, the two trainers set out, having Butterfree and Pidgeotto alternate with scouting up ahead. Ash suggested finding a safe path into the woods at one point, but Misty shot him down, reasoning if they were to find any sign of civilization, it would be on the coast, and that Brock would have the sense to stick to the coast as well. However, they were eventually forced away from this plan by a cliff which faced them, perpendicular to the shoreline.
"Wha... now what?" asked Ash.
"We have no choice," said Misty, frowning. "We can't climb that damn thing. We just need to go around. Let's follow the cliff to start."
"Okay." Ash led the way away from the beach, careful to keep the cliff in sight even as trees obscured their vision.
"Maybe we're the only people here," Misty said suddenly.
Ash stopped and turned around. "Why do you think that?" he asked her.
"Because of this cliff. Right at the top would be a really good place for a lighthouse, but there wasn't one there."
"So we're... on a deserted island?"
"Maybe. It's possible, but I don't know for sure."
"Do you wanna... I dunno, check the map?"
"Ash, Brock has the map, not me! Besides, we don't even know if this island is on the map, or if it's even an island at all."
"So what'll we do?"
Misty thought before answering. "I've got it. Let's go to the top of the cliff. We'll be able to see more of what's around us if we go there."
***
Although they followed Misty's idea, it was easier said than done. By the time they could find a part of the cliff where they could reach the top of the face and double back, the sun was well on its downward journey in the west. Well before they could reach the vantage point on the coast, night had fallen.
Cursing their luck, Ash and Misty had no choice but make to camp for the night before reaching their immediate destination. They again ate a quick meal before going to bed in their now-dry sleeping bags for the night.
With the day over, Ash found himself staring at Misty's pretty face. At least this was one part of Misty that he could look at without being embarrassed. Or on second thought, maybe it wasn't. Misty turned around and looked back, and Ash quickly averted his gaze, glad that Misty couldn't see him blush in the darkness. However, even this gladness evaporated as she spoke to him. "It's okay to look back, you know."
"Uhh... okay," said Ash. He looked Misty in the eyes as his unseen blushing intensified. However, he was sure that something else on his face would show his nerves in the incomplete darkness.
When Misty spoke again, it was in a hesitant voice that was full of pauses. "Ash... I know that... what happened... on the ship... was really awkward."
Ash gasped before responding. He didn't realize that it held the same weight with Misty as it held with him. "Yeah, it kinda was."
"I kinda didn't think... that you might not be comfortable... with sex stuff. I'm sorry."
"That's okay - wait! What do you want to do that for, anyway? It's only for married people!"
Misty snorted. "No it's not. I know Leaf told you that, but she probably heard that from her mom or dad."
"Yeah. So what?"
"So... well... parents usually say... sex is only for married people... even though it's... really not. You see, when adults or teens have sex... well, they can have babies... and parents just don't want us to have babies until... until we're ready."
Ash shook his head, trying to process what Misty had just told him. "So... how come YOU'RE saying sex isn't just for married people?"
"Because I found out... from my sisters. My parents left the gym a few years ago, when I was still really little, so it was just Violet, Daisy, Lily, and me for a while. And I... kinda heard a lot of stuff from them."
"So they have sex a lot?"
Misty looked away briefly before answering. "Yeah... kinda. They always, you know... talk about it at home. And they... well... they kinda ask me a lot about... about my sex life too. It's so fucking annoying."
"So why do people even have sex if they don't wanna have babies?"
"Duh, Ash! Because it FEELS good!"
Ash paused, thinking for a few seconds before answering. "No offense, Misty, but I haven't really known you that long. It doesn't mean you're not cool or awesome, but there's a lot of things I don't know about you. How do I know that the things you say about sex are for real?" He waited as Misty said nothing, shifting around in her sleeping bag. "Well?"
"Look, Ash... I wasn't gonna tell you this... but it's probably the only way to make you see. Remember when... Violet and Lily were talking... about that Gary kid... after we battled at the gym?"
Ash's eyes narrowed, and he answered slowly. "Yeah...."
"Well... Lily mentioned that she... gave Gary... some... kind of... extra-special treatment. What she meant was... she and Gary... had sex."
This news hit Ash like a ton of bricks. He felt a sharp twinge of jealousy at the news. In Ash's mind, just as Gary was ahead of Ash on his Pokémon journey, he was ahead of Ash in something else too. All he could say was, "Gary... had sex?" He looked at Misty, who nodded, looking like she'd juiced a lemon into her mouth. "Fuck... why does Gary have to get everything?"
"Hey... there are other things than... when you first... do it."
"Like what?"
"Like knowing how... to do it... the right way. Or doing... a lot of different things."
"What are you talking about?"
Misty paused. When she spoke again, she looked close to tears. "I can't really explain. It was really hard... just to tell you all that stuff. But... ummmm... I can show you... you know, if you... really want me to."
Before he knew it, Ash sat bolt upright inside his sleeping bag. He was surprised, but this was an energizing surprise. It felt like one of Pikachu's electric attacks, only without the pain. "Can you show me now?"
"No. It's really late. We need to sleep. And by the way... I'm not really... in the right mood."
"What do you mean, you're not 'in the right mood?'"
"You're gonna know. I can't really explain it, but... you'll just know."
***
Ash and Misty woke up fairly early the following morning. The warm weather and the length of the day notwithstanding, there was still a tiny bit of dew clinging to the grass. As they ate a light breakfast, Ash felt weird, almost like he'd eaten something that had gone bad, but he had no stomach ache. He was unsure if it had anything to do with the absence of Pikachu - after all, he'd gone to sleep without the Electric Mouse by his side for the first time in a couple of months - or the conversation he'd had the previous night with Misty. Or perhaps it was both. Whenever he caught Misty's eye, the pretty girl would always give him an encouraging smile or make a positive comment.
After breakfast, Ash and Misty continued their trek to the place where Misty had proclaimed to be good for a lighthouse. When they got there, Ash gasped, his breath gone from the view. An expanse of forest covered the ground beneath, with a strip of golden beach in each direction separating it from the smooth, sapphire-blue sea. "Wow..." he gasped.
"It's beautiful," agreed Misty, "but we're looking for Brock and Pikachu, or at least someone who can help us find them. And... there's no town or anything. There aren't even any people on the beaches."
"Alright. Let's keep going."
Misty grabbed Ash's arm as he took his first step. "Holy fuck, Ash! Can you just stop and think for a second?"
"What do you mean? There's nothing here, so let's keep going until we find Brock and Pikachu!"
"Keep going where? Maybe there's no town, but let's see if we can find something."
"Like what?"
"Like that." Misty pointed down the slope of the hill. Set into the woods and away from the coastline such that it must have only been visible from where she and Ash stood was a makeshift structure of some kind. It was painted a dull green color, as if it was meant to blend in with its surroundings.
"Alright. Let's go there."
Ash and Misty walked hurriedly down the hill, making for the small, temporary-looking structure. Ash's feet felt like they were racing faster than his mind. His heart apparently concurred, as it was beating as if he was in the middle of a marathon. With the structure coming into view again after disappearing below the tree line, Ash quickened his pace further.
Suddenly, with a feverish hiss of "Shit!" Misty yanked Ash to the side, pulling him into a nearby clump of bushes. Ash opened his mouth to ask was it was all about, but Misty clamped a hand over it. "Quiet!" she whispered. "Look!"
Ash looked in the direction in which they'd been walking. Two men stood on either side of the door, eyes peeled for any disturbance. Their black uniforms with red R's on their fronts were identical to the ones worn by the Pokémon thieves on the St. Anne. He and Misty had stumbled upon a Team Rocket hideout!
Misty put a finger to her lips, and then walked on her tiptoes away from the den of criminals. Ash's curiosity, however, was getting the better of him. He peered around the trees, waiting for the guards' eyes to turn away. At his first opportunity he slipped behind the next tree, which was on the same plane as the door. Ignoring Misty's whispered and barely audible curse, he tiptoed around to the back, where he heard two male voices and saw a dim light emitting from a window.
"How the fuck do you want me to trust you with an important mission if you've already fucked up the last one?" said a voice. Ash had heard the voice enough times to recognize it immediately. In the duo of crooks he'd encountered in the Viridian City Pokémon Center, in Viridian Forest, at the Cerulean City Gym, and most recently aboard the St. Anne, this was the man who had caused him so much trouble so far.
"How do you expect the mission to go if the plan sucks dick?" countered a second man. This man's voice was easy to recognize. It was scratchy and hoarse, as if he was permanently suffering from a bad cold. He'd both given Ash, Misty, and Brock tickets to the St. Anne and threatened the captain not to interfere.
"Look how easy it was to get all those trainers on board the ship!" snapped the first man. "It was your good-for-butt-fuck-nothing squad that lost the damn battle! I'll advise the boss never to let you assist me again, Butch! Or should I call you 'Botch?'"
"The only one who's been botching anything is you!" shouted Butch as loudly as his hoarse voice would allow. "You failed at stealing the Moon Stone underneath Mount Moon, and TWO Pokémon Center heists, and now you couldn't steal a single fucking Pokémon from among hundreds of trainers. So maybe instead of 'James,' the boss'll have to call you 'Shames!'"
"That's insubordination!" James shot back.
A brief commotion followed, ending with Butch crying out in pain. "Don't ever try that crap again," said a third voice, which Ash knew to belong to the feline Pokémon accompanying James and his female companion. "If you do, you'll end up with a lot more than a couple of scratches."
Ash felt a tug on his arm. Looking, he saw Misty trying to pull him away from the hideout. "Come on, Misty, what's the big idea?" he hissed at her.
"We need to get out of here!" Misty whispered back urgently.
"No! I wanna find out more about these people!"
"We know enough! These fuckers are dangerous criminals!"
Ash dug in his heels as Misty continued tugging at his arm. She finally yanked so hard that he tripped over a nearby sapling. "Ow!" he shouted.
The voices from the hideout stopped. Still holding holding onto Ash's arm, Misty pulled upward, trying to bring the dark-haired boy to his feet again. "RUN!" she screamed.
Ash scrambled to his feet with Misty's help. Without waiting to be fully upright, he broke into a run, trying to put as much distance as possible between the goons from Team Rocket and himself. Where he was running, he didn't know.
"Well, well," said the smug voice of a woman, "so a couple of nosy little kids have wandered into our our land. You really need to pay attention to the signs to stay out of danger."
Ash looked up at the woman as he skidded to a halt. It was none other than Butch's orange-haired sidekick! She wasn't alone either; James's female companion, her unnaturally red hair as large as ever, was right beside her. "You idiots... again..." Ash panted. He'd intended to shout, but his breath was partially gone from the running he'd just done.
"The fuck are you talking about?" said Misty in what sounded like a loud whisper.
"You need to learn to respect your elders," said the red-haired woman.
"You're about to find out just how dangerous trespassing can be," said the orange-haired woman, holding up a Pokéball.
"They're MINE!" snarled the red-haired woman, knocking the other's arm out of the way. "Don't you DARE try stealing the credit from me and James!"
While the two women fought over the rights to apprehend them, Ash and Misty slipped away. Ash felt his lungs burn as he sprinted at full speed through the woods. Miraculously, he thought he heard the sounds of the criminals behind him fading. Finally, when their shouting sounded no louder than a murmur, the two of them allowed themselves a break, doubling over and panting.
"Why do you have to be such a fucking dumbass, Ash?" Misty demanded after catching her breath. "Me and Brock always have to pull us out of the shit you get us into! You're welcome for the millionth time!"
Ash opened his mouth for a retort, but he saw a giant light blue Pokémon with a pink flower on its back plodding toward them, and the words he said instead were, "Misty! Run!" It was his turn to grab Misty's arm and pull her away from the behemoth. He recognized it as a Vensaur - the fully evolved form of a Bulbasaur just like his - but he wondered how it had gotten so large. Venusaur weren't normally much taller than humans, but the flower on this one poked above the tops of the shortest trees in the canopy.
Misty suddenly knocked Ash aside in a dive just before a beam of white light hit where they had just been. "What the fuck was that?" asked Ash, his voice higher than usual.
"A Solar Beam, you -" began Misty.
"No, I mean what's a giant Venusaur doing here?"
"I don't fucking know! I don't even know where we fucking are! For all we know, Team Rocket could be breeding all these giant-ass Pokémon to take over the world!"
Ash looked daggers at Misty - is was bad enough to be in such a bad situation without her screams that it was all his fault - but an on-and-off shaking stopped the words right in his throat. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. Another giant Pokémon was approaching. This one was bipedal, and so tall, its waist was about the same height as the tree line. It was a dark gray color, it had a horn the size of Misty on its nose, and its eyes were glowing red.
"OH FUCK!" yelled Misty. "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" She kept cursing at the top of her lungs as she ran away from the giant Pokémon, Ash hot on her heels. As they ran, the trees seemed to be thinning. "OH FUCK SHIT FUCKING DAMN IT!" She skidded to a halt as the hulking gray Pokémon closed in.
"COME ON, MISTY!" Ash screamed just as loudly. "We have to keep going!"
"We can't can't run out of the woods! That thing's gonna catch us if we do that!"
Ash didn't bother replying. He just grabbed Misty by the hand and pulled her toward the area which was clear of trees. It was easier than he'd expected; she seemed to have gone limp in her grim anticipation of what had been about to happen.
As soon as Ash dashed out of the woods, still pulling Misty like a large car pulling a trailer, a crowd of people greeted him. Their faces showed mainly shock and horror, and a young woman with a sky-blue uniform and long, flowing, light brown hair was in front. "What are you kids doing there?" she shouted. "Get back behind the fence this instant!"
"HELP!" Ash shouted as he sprinted toward the fence mentioned by the woman. "THERE'S A GIANT POKÉMON BEHIND US!"
"Young man, there is absolutely nothing to worry about!" snapped the woman impatiently. "Just get over this fence on the double!"
Ash sprinted to the fence and vaulted it. Even Misty found the wherewithal to clamber over. The two of them turned to keep running, but they turned back around as the woman who had just reprimanded them gasped.
The massive, gray, menacing-looking Pokémon was coming out of the woods. It was clear that whatever the crowd had expected, it was not this. Like a wave breaking on the shore, the people in the assembled crowd ran away, screaming. Ash and Misty were about to run as well, but a familiar voice caught their attention.
"Go, Geodude! Mega Punch those legs!" Ash and Misty whipped around, stunned. It was Brock! They looked again at the base of the behemoth as Geodude hit its legs with a flurry of punches. Ash squinted. Something looked very strange....
Ash couldn't think about it, however, as a powerful bolt of electricity hit the giant Pokémon where Geodude had already attacked it. Ash started running toward the source of the electricity when he realized what it was. "Pikachu!" he shouted. He stopped and whipped around as something hit the ground with a loud CRASH!
Ash and Misty looked at the giant Pokémon, which was now lying on the bare ground just behind the fence. Fires were burning in several places on its body, and metal beams and gears were visible inside. They gasped in realization that the giant Pokémon was actually a machine.
"Ash! Misty!" Brock called as Pikachu ran over.
"Brock! Pikachu!" Ash called back, catching the Electric Mouse as it jumped into his arms.
"You guys are okay!" Misty shouted. "We were so worried!"
"So were we," said Brock and all of them converged.
"What's WRONG with you kids?!" an angry voice screamed. "Look what you did to our Rhydon! We have to close the park now!"
The crowd was giving them all angry looks. Ash started sweating, but Brock spoke up. "Miss, the mechanical Pokémon at this park are not supposed to come that close to the fence!"
"That doesn't matter!" yelled the woman. "If your friends hadn't been behind the fence in the first place, this wouldn't have happened!"
"That's not true!" Brock rebutted. "I was here as a little boy when some kid did just that! The mechanical Pokémon had to be shut down to get him out, but none of them chased him out here like that Rhydon chased my friends!"
Taking advantage of the woman's hesitation, Misty put in, "Not to mention that we found a Team Rocket hideout in the woods there!"
"Didn't your parents ever teach you not to lie?" the woman demanded, though she was clearly flustered.
"It wasn't a lie!" Ash shouted. "They were there talking about how they tried to rob all the trainers on the St. Anne!"
"And we were all caught in a Dragon Rage from a Gyarados out in the ocean," said Brock firmly. "That's how my friends ended up in the woods back there in the first place."
The buzzing of the crowd like so many angry Beedrill was still going on, but Ash could tell that they were now on his side thanks to what he, Misty, and Brock had said. Sweat was now pouring down the young woman's face, and her eyes were wide. In a much softer and more timid tone than they had heard so far, she said to them, "Come with me. I'll take you all to my supervisor's office so we can work something out."