Chapter 20 Jessiebelle

Ash and friends smiled as the simple notes of the flute washed over them.

"So, did you like the little concert?" The hippie asked them. "Do you have any food, by the way?"

Ash nodded. "We've got a day or so of trail rations spare, I think."

The hippie's eyes widened in gratitude. "Thanks!"

"Not a problem. We normally go shopping in Celadon thanks to Pidgeot. I don't think we ate any trail rations since the point Brock joined us."

"Well, dudes, that's really made my day. Peace!"

"Actually," Ash said, an idea coming to him, "Where will you be in a couple of weeks? Because I think I know someone who'd love to work with you on her music, as soon as we meet her again."

"Far out. What makes you think so?"

"She's a Jigglypuff, and all the people she sings to fall asleep. If you backed her with your Poké flute, then it wouldn't take effect."

Misty nodded. "Nice idea, Ash! I was wondering what we were going to do about her."

The other thought for a moment. "A song that wakes you up and puts you to sleep at the same time sounds trippy. I'll hang around here for a while, so look for me sleeping under the stars. Or playing my flute for the wild Pokémon to hear."

"Got it."

Ash sidled over to the Snorlax, and flicked him on the ear with a blue-glowing finger. "Wake up, you great lump."

The Snorlax promptly rolled over and narrowly missed crushing him.

"Hey, look. Thorns. How did this go again?" Misty asked.

Wake the Snorlax up and it eats the thorns, clearing the blockage.

"Meh." Ash pulled out a Poké ball. "I prefer the easy solution. Charizard, burn them off. Try and save as much as you can, though."

"So you want me to just break the stems?"

"Basically, yeah."

Riolu rolled his eyes. "Ivysaur, just shove a Worry Seed down its' throat."

Everyone blinked.

"That works too." Brock said, then frowned. "Wow, there are a lot of ways to wake a Pokémon up, now that I think of it. Worst comes to worst, there are cheap and readily available medicines for it."

"I keep saying it, humans are unimaginative sometimes."

Charizard shrugged. "I'll take the chance to stretch my wings."

"You're kidding. This place is full of gang members?"

Yes. It's basically Yojimbo.

Ash frowned. "I don't think I ever saw that."

"Honestly, Ash!" Misty said. "I'd have thought you'd see that film. It's a classic."

"Any violence?"

"Yes, what do you think? It's about gang warfare."

"Misty? I left home when I wasn't yet eleven. And you've met my mum."

Misty conceded the point with a nod. "But I still think you should have at least heard of it."

Ash shrugged. "Think we could sort this one out by Thunder Wave-ing everyone in the town?"

"Good start, yeah."

"Why? What were we doing wrong?"

Ash took a deep breath. "Becoming a Gym Leader is an expression of competence, confidence and the ability to follow a philosophy. The funding involved is so that people can give up their normal jobs or travelling to instead test people. It requires that people be willing to give it their all and make it work. Oh, and not to attack people on the street."

Misty nodded along. "That said, if you want to form a gym that can take advantage of your old skills, I suggest rolling with the city name and creating a Dark type gym. I'm not aware of one in the entire region."

"Yeah! And the gym's philosophical test would be about seeing past deceptive tactics and striking true! Hell, if you do that then solving a simulated gang-fight situation might even be a good test of ability to cope!"

The two prospective gym leaders lay unmoving on the floor, still trapped by electricity.

One of the Joys, revealing herself from disguise, agreed. "If you get yourselves some Dark types between you, that might well work. Two gyms, both needing to be beaten to get the badge, being in truth halves of one. I like the way you think."

Misty quietly slapped Brock in the chops with Goldeen to prevent him making another scene.

The Kaz leader glanced at the other. "We have no choice here, right?"

"Basically not."

The trio looked at the carnival. "Skip it?"

"Skip it. No way do I want to be forcibly recruited by some magician..."

"Oh, thank you for helping me with my Paras! I'm so sorry to impose like this…"

Ash sent out his first Pokémon for the fight, choosing to pre-empt the Rockets also looking on.

"Not a problem. Hey, Charizard. Sorry, buddy, but you have to take a fall."

Charizard shrugged. "Whatever. I know how strong I am, and that's all that matters with strength."

"Really?"

"…no. But I can pretend, right?"

Ash chuckled. "If you say so."

Brock moved over to the side of the makeshift battlefield. "Paras vs. Charizard. Go!"

Charizard launched out a thin jet of flame, which washed over Paras…

To absolutely no effect.

On the sidelines, James' Abra exchanged a look with Brock's Ninetales. It worked, the Paras has your ability. How are you finding Effect Spore?

She looked herself over. "Strange. I feel sparkly…"

Back out on the field, Paras looked at itself in surprise. It wasn't on fire.

"Paras, attack!" Cassandra called. Paras obeyed by firing out a single Bullet Seed, which hit Charizard in the chest. Charizard promptly and dramatically collapsed.

"Don't overdo it…" Ash muttered to himself. "And I'll expect an explanation of that little fire attack, mister!"

Paras glowed and evolved into Parasect.

"Oh, thank you!" Cassandra gushed, before frowning. "Though I'm afraid I don't have a medicine to cure overacting."

Charizard groaned plaintively. "I feel so put-upon."

"Good morning."

The Pokémon that Ash was addressing, a Jigglypuff, startled at his words and scampered behind a bush.

"Hey, hey, calm down, I don't want to hurt you." Ash closed an eye for a second. Yep, Jigglypuff was shining with that peculiar light that indicated he knew her well enough to restore.

"Tell me, do you know why people don't often hear Jigglypuff songs all the way through?" After she shook her head, puzzled, he continued gently. "It's because they naturally know Sing. So their song puts people to sleep before they reach the end."

And with that, he patted her on the forehead, producing a tiny flare of blue.

"Remember us now?" he continued. "Don't worry, we have a plan to help you. A week or two ago, we met someone who has a Poké flute. And their music actually wakes people up."

Jigglypuff frowned, then pointed at her mouth. "I've still got a sore throat, you know!" she wheezed out. Ash was interested to note that his Aura translation trick had got to the point he could understand basically any Pokémon – possibly he still had to have at least passing familiarity with them, though, he wasn't sure.

"Not a problem. Brock? You found any good fruits yet?"

The Pewter man emerged from the trees. "Ash, I bought some in town yesterday. I'm not an idiot. Besides, it's early spring, too early for natural fruit."

Ash shrugged. "Have you seen the mess our weather patterns are in lately?"

"True enough. Here you go, Jigglypuff. Ash'll take you over to the man with the Poké flute as soon as you want."

Misty folded her arms behind her head. "Ah, Grampa Canyon. I remember this place."

Ash winced. "For me, it's a lot less positive, believe you me…"

"Oh, yeah, this was when you got kidnapped by the Aerodactyl. Wasn't that because they were woken by the explosion?"

Ash nodded. "It was. Lucky for us that Togepi's egg is far off enough compared to that underground cavern itself not to wake them. Hopefully."

A voice interrupted them. "Ashy! Good to see you!"

"Hi Gary! Wow, I like the look. Very Indiana Jones."

"Thanks. Grandad sent me here to check on prehistoric Pokémon habitats. Just because there are Aerodactyl flying around now doesn't mean we know everything about how they lived, you know?"

Ash raised a finger in warning. "Watch out for the underground cavern I fell into last time. There are some living but asleep specimens down there, and they'll be a big problem if they wake up."

"Got it. Was that in the data dump, Dee?"

No. I think Dexter was unable to keep track of where Ash was closely enough for it to be meaningful.

Dexter's voice came in. Dee, Gary, there's a professor in Kanto who has a few projectors-

"Already went and picked one up." Gary held it up. It was simpler in design than Dexter's, consisting of a simple purple-red sphere about two centimetres across.

Good to know.

Ash waited a second to see if there was anything else urgent, then hurried off to find the egg.

Gary, Misty and Brock made small talk for several minutes about their respective specialities and where they overlapped – including why Kabutops sometimes seemed immune to electricity – before Ash arrived back from his jaunt with an egg cradled in his backpack.

Misty turned. "Is that-"

"Yes. I didn't want to bring her back until you were there to see it." Ash explained.

"Thanks, Ash. You do think of the right thing to do sometimes."

Gary hid a smirk. "Praise indeed."

"She's a harsh taskmistress…" Ash said, playing along.

Brock simply nodded. "There's a reason I'm not head over heels with her."

The three boys looked at Misty, who was beginning to produce a visible blue flare of Aura. Ash gulped. "That can't be good."

Gary stroked his chin. "Best strategy: restore her Pokémon and run."

"I agree." Brock said formally, then Ash caressed the shell of the egg, set his backpack down as it erupted with light, and all three ran hell-for-leather.

Misty forgot her anger, staring at the face of perhaps her most beloved of Pokémon. Others felt to her like allies, comrades… Togekiss (as she had learned her little Togepi had evolved into shortly before the end) felt like a daughter.

"Hello, Misty. It's been a while – but I don't mind. I'm just glad to see you again… mum."

Her face began to tear up. "Just – come here, you."

Squirtle nodded to himself, then turned to Ivysaur. "Doesn't that just make you shed manly tears?"

"Oh, give it a rest. I'm just happy for them."

"Nobody said I wasn't. You know me."

Ivysaur agreed. "Though you have a funny way of showing it sometimes…"

"Oh, come on! You know you want to make disturbingly camp comments all the time!"

"Stop pushing character roles on me! I am not Leeron!"

A few days later, in a really rather nice district of Kanto…

Ash looked up. "That's strange. Why are there helicopters all over the place?"

Togekiss floated up into the sky. "I'll keep a look out on them."

Misty nodded to herself. "That's right, Togekiss can sense emotions to some level, so she should be fine. Well, that and they have great defensive potential."

James sighed heavily. "You have to be kidding."

"Wish I was, James. Dey're after you."

One has to wonder why Jessiebelle wants to marry you for your money – she has enough for a private army?

"Who cares? Now there's nothing I can do to get her off my back!"

Jessie frowned. "What about if you show her you're not interested in women?"

He frowned. "But I am. What gave you that idea?"

Meowth produced a list of events, mannerisms and speech tics. "Ya want ta go through all da evidence? Let's start with dat Moltres costume of yours-"

"Okay, fine. Can we use that?"

Could be tricky. Someone like her is going to treat any suggestion of disinterest as evidence she needs to cure him.

"Oh, screw it." James made a throwing away gesture with his hand. "I don't care about the riches, let's just shove off to Cinnabar until this quiets down."

On it.

bink

"Well?"

Togekiss floated back down. "Nothing, except that none of them are even the remotest bit happy."

"Never mind then. Might be the SDF on manoeuvres or something, getting thrashed."

"No Pokémon."

"Yeah, some people think technology can supplant combat Pokémon. I think they're at least a few decades away, though – even with Team Rocket style mecha."

Riolu leant back slightly. "And as for Hunter J's – well, we proved how that goes."

"For us. That time. Some of the crazy equipment out there is getting really close, remember the stories we have about Shamouti?"

"Yeah… but you won that one!"

"True. We did." Ash grimaced. "But it was very close, and we can't count on luck this time. We need to plan for that, though we may as well wait until the Mewtwo incident and the League are over before we begin."

"Oh, what now?" Ash asked, exasperated.

In front of them on the path was a Farfetch'd.

Riolu promptly jumped down from Ash's shoulder. "I challenge you to a duel! It's been too long since I met another who fights with bokken, I want to see how I have improved!"

The Farfetch'd thought it over, nodded, and raised its' leek to a guard position.

Riolu formed a facsimile of a bone with his Bone Rush technique, taking several seconds to slowly craft the bone so as to follow the same method Cubone had used.

Pikachu walked over to the side of the path, off centre from the two of them. "First to three touches, and I want a clean match."

Both participants barely reacted to Pikachu's voice, nor to his eyes taking on the green shimmer of Detect. They simply stared at one another, until-

A twig fell. They charged at one another, leek meeting bone with a snapping impact.

Farfetch'd gave ground first, using the force of Riolu's push to spin out of the way and fire an Air Cutter from his leek. Riolu barely managed to dodge in time, and countered the next Air Cutter with a carefully aimed Vacuum Wave that cancelled out the increased air pressure.

"I said a clean match!" Pikachu shouted desperately. If they heard him, it was only evident in their next pair of blows blasting him backwards into the trees.

"Wow, they're really going at it…" Brock muttered to himself.

Ash shrugged. "I don't consider it anything to be worried about until they start using elemental attacks."

The green glow of a Leaf Blade lit his face for a second, before Riolu countered by throwing the power of a Blaze Kick behind his bone strike.

"Okay, maybe when they start hitting with them."

Riolu went flying, his skin crawling with dark energy for a second, then shook it off and wrapped his bone in electrically composed Aura.

"I think we've established by now that I don't mind at all. Riolu can take care of himself."

Keith watched with astonishment. His Farfetch'd could use moves like that? Okay, so much for stealing to make a living.

Pikachu walked unsteadily back into the clearing. "That's right, in this finals match between Pikachu and Floor, the winner is…"

Ivysaur emerged from his Poké ball, snapped out a vine and caught Pikachu before he collapsed.

Squirtle shot past him, glasses at the ready. "I want some of this action!"

Rolling his eyes, Ash tossed Dexter's projector out. "Mind keeping track for them?"

Not at all. Stand by: ready. Set up.

The Porygon's physical form materialized. I'm impressed, they're not ganging up on one another.

"You do know them, right? None of them are likely to think like that."

True.

Squirtle snapped his shades around behind his back to block a blow headed for his tail, then duplicated them with a flash of Aura to catch Riolu's bone in crossed blades. "Hey, hey, HEY! Listen up, you two! I'm the mighty Squirtle, and there's no way you're going to get me with a simple attack!"

Riolu channelled Aura into his bone and smashed the duplicate shades. "How's about a Rock Smash?"

"Irrelevant!"

Farfetch'd launched into a combination that ended with a strike across Squirtle's shell… doing basically nothing. "Hah! My manly spirit prevents any damage!"

His other opponent frowned. "Actually, that was a Fury Cutter. It'll just get more powerful from now on."

Angry at Riolu for revealing his trick, Farfetch'd switched his attention to the Emanation Pokémon and began a series of increasingly nasty Fury Attacks mixed with Fury Cutters and the occasional Frustration.

Told you he was angry.

Squirtle sighed. Looks like I'll have to calm them down.

He threw his arms out to either side, letting them bubble up with a skin of water, and faced the other two battlers.

"Even when lacking an appropriate speech, I will prevail! Double drill break!"

Farfetch'd and Riolu froze, turning to Squirtle.

"Does he do this all the time?"

Riolu sighed. "Yep. Nice meeting you."

A tidal wave of water backlash erupted from that spot on the path, forcing the nearby trainers to run to higher ground.

Misty wrung out her socks. "Well, that went well…"

Togekiss floated next to her. "I'll never understand why you react like that to getting wet. You are a primarily Water trainer, after all."

"It's simple – I don't wear clothes that can take the water all the time."

"Ah, okay, got it. I still have to get used to this whole clothes thing, I'm afraid that when I was with you I wasn't really paying attention."

"Never mind, you get a second chance at that now. We all do. Which reminds me, last time didn't you hatch around now?"

"It's… yes, you're right. Next week."

Misty began planning. "Right, let's see how we can make your birthday something to remember…"

AN: Jessiebelle. A gold digger who can hire a private army.

Well, nobody said it had to make sense.

And with regards to the technology issue, I think that Pokemon mostly do still outmatch machines in the setting - film villains notwithstanding.