Pokeshipping Week 2018

Reversed Roles

       

The Ash Influence

Misty Waterflower leaned her head back, deep in thought about the question that was asked of her.  Memories of years ago seeped into her head as she looked toward Dawn, the perpetrator for why old memories were now flooding her conscious.

"Well?" the other girl prompted.  Misty sighed.

"Ash Ketchum..." she breathed thoughtfully.  "Oh, how I miss him..."

"Tell me more about him – i-if you want to, that is," said Dawn delicately.  "Still," she added, "I didn't know that you traveled with Kanto's strongest Gym Leader!"

"Yeah, well, prior to that title though!" chuckled Misty lightly, smiling at the memory.  "I was twelve when I first found out, how he kept that secret from me and Brock for so long is a mystery in itself to me...never knew until we got the Gym and well...I guess I can't blame him, with a legacy like that it'd be hard to be proud of a Gym that was owned by the very leader of your worst enemy...Team Rocket's leader, Giovanni, is Ash's uncle..." 

Misty sighed once more, remembering when they had walked in and were greeted by Ash's mom, and remembered how shocked she and Brock were when they found out that the boy who was just a few months older than her was the nephew of a known criminal, and that the Gym's duties were unceremoniously – and rather disgracefully – dumped onto Ash's mother, and by proxy, Ash's to inherit...

Ash had been rather miffed at the time, Misty thought, but despite the boy's conflicted feelings he still gave it his all when he decided to finally give her a full battle as payback for his wrecked bike at the hands of her Togepi's Metronome.  The poor kid had only just helped her out of a muddy stream, when she stole his bike and fried it up, after that Ash followed her, not a day would go by where he didn't grumble about his lost bike, and his Pikachu and Bulbasaur were just as sour towards her over it. 

The day of their battle Misty dared to assume that she could've easily lost had her Seel not come through and evolved into Dewgong when it did, and was able to overcome Ash's Ivysaur, she thanked her lucky stars, though it was nothing more than a fluke, it had been lucky that Ivysaur was tired out from a previous battle with Team Rocket, and from battling her Pidgeotto.

"...In the end, he may hate what the Gym represents, but I'm glad he still gives the place his all, last I heard trainers are hesitant to even go there because the Viridian Gym doesn't have a set type, making his choices for battling unpredictable," said Misty, wistfully.  "That said, he's only got a handful of Pokémon at his disposal, but his strength is still to be reckoned with."

"...And what was it like to say...goodbye...?" asked Dawn cautiously after hearing about Ash's Gym.  "And the many years afterwards...?"  Misty averted her gaze, her Togetic cooed sadly, knowing full well how the teenage girl had first taken the goodbye...

OoOoO

How it had happened was almost a cruel joke, thought Misty.  After everything they'd been through, leagues, Team Rocket, the fall outs...all ended.  Not that it was entirely unfair, Delia Ketchum did deserve a break given that she was a young woman who had given birth at nineteen, and had to deal with a Gym must've been a recipe for a stressful early adulthood.  But it did still seem unfair to just announce that the woman had won a ticket to go abroad via a luxury cruise, then dumped the duties onto her son, who already hated the Gym...

"Well then..." said Ash, as the group reached the crossroads, one path lead to Pewter City, one to Viridian, and another to Cerulean... "I guess this is it."

"Yeah..." put in Brock, Misty and Ash's other traveling companion, or at the very least the longest standing one.

"Misty," began Ash.