Ride With The Tides

Chapter 1: Blame

Tourist Island, Orange Archipelago.

Ash, Pikachu, Jax, Gardevoir, the Ralts Twins, Misty, Togepi, Jessie, James, Meowth, and Jigglypuff (who had piloted the blimp to safety when she realized that there was no one else onboard) all woke up once they realized that the blimp had safely landed. Jax helped Gardevoir up, then immediately checked on the Twins.

"Is everyone alright?" Jax asked, breaking the cage open by bending the bars like it was nothing, surprising everyone.

"Did he just bend the bars?" James asked in surprise.

*Line Break*

Later, after everyone climbed out of the ruined blimp, Team Rocket made their getaway as Jax helped Gardevoir and the Ralts Twins down. As Ash moved to help Misty, who was currently holding Togepi, she sent a glare his way, shocking h enough to back down. Once Gardevoir, the Twins, Misty, and Togepi we're safe on the ground, Jax then addressed the entire group.

"Is everyone alright?" Jax asked.

"Yeah, me and Pikachu are fine, Jax," Ash replied.

"Pika!"

"Jigglypuff!"

"Oh, there you are, Jiggles," Jax said, picking up the Jigglypuff that followed them everywhere.

"Hey, Misty," Ash said. "Is Togepi alright?"

"Togepi is just fine, no thanks to you!" Misty shouted.

"Whoa, hold on now, Misty-" Jax said, trying to cool the tension before she said something that he knew she would regret for the rest of her life.

"No, Jax!" Misty countered angrily, then set Togepi on the ground. "You wanna know why Team Rocket keeps stalking us?! Why they keep fucking with us?!"

"Misty, calm down ple-" Jax tried to say, hoping to defuse the situation peacefully.

"Because this dumbass had to go play hero!" Misty shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Ash. Togepi, scared of how his mommy was being cruel to his daddy for no reason, immediately ran over to his big brother Pikachu for comfort. "If it weren't for him going and making an enemy out of Team Rocket that night at the Viridian City Pokémon Center, we wouldn't constantly be stalked by them! We wouldn't be having our Pokémon stolen all the time!"

"Now hold on just a second!" Ash shouted back, pointing an accusing finger at Misty. "I seem to recall you being just as involved in that incident as I was!"

"Only because you stole my bike and destroyed it!" Misty shot back.

"Ohhh, here we go with the bike again!" Ash fired back. "That's all it ever is with you! My bike this, or my bike that! It's not like Pikachu was injured or anything and there was a psychotic flock of Spearow after me and him or anything, so of course I would have been able to leg it to Viridian City! Yeah I might have been the one to piss them off, but I bet you would have done the same and stole my bike if I had one if Goldeen, Staryu, or Starmie had been in Pikachu's position or, Arceus forbid, if Togepi had been born back then and he was in Pikachu's position!"

"Well, at least I can take care of my Pokémon unlike you!" Misty fired back shoving him, making Togepi cling to Pikachu for dear life.

"You can't even do anything for Psyduck!" Ash shot back, getting in Misty's personal space. "You haven't helped him learn how to swim, you haven't taught him not to rely so much on his headaches in battle, you haven't even taught him to not escape his Pokéball whenever you aren't calling him out!"

"You can't even get Charizard to listen to you!" Misty shouted. "You haven't earned his respect, and because of your incompetence, you lost the Indigo League!"