Imagine if Ash said that the way he does in Indigo/ Orange Islands. Bro just happily says, " Ash keeps faaaaaaaainting!"

Dun du dun tun dun!

Ash stood in the doorway of the observatory, rooted to the mat. What happened to the observatory?!

It looked like Gary had one of his Pokemon battles in there.

" Aaaaaaaaaaash?" A voice called. " Is that you?"

Ash didn't reply.

" Ash?"

A hand with a purple sleeve waved an arm in front of Ash. 

He didn't move.

" Ashy?"

When Ash didn't respond, the person furrowed their brow and touched Ash. 

He toppled over.

The person sighed. " Great."

Then he turned. " HEY GRANDPA?"

A guy wearing a red shirt under a white coat ran. " Yes, Gary?"

" Ash is... Frozen."

Professor Oak arrived at the scene in a hurry, his lab coat flapping behind him as he skidded to a stop next to his grandson. 

"What do you mean, frozen?" Oak asked, slightly out of breath.

Gary gestured at Ash, sprawled out like a knocked-over statue. "I mean, he's not moving, not talking—nothing. I touched him, and he just... toppled over."

Oak knelt beside Ash, waving his hand in front of his face. "Ash? Ash, can you hear me?"

There was no response. Ash's eyes were wide open, staring blankly into the distance, almost as if he were stuck in a trance. Oak sighed and rubbed his temples.

"This must be a stress reaction," Oak concluded. "What exactly did you say to him, Gary?"

Gary crossed his arms, frowning. "I didn't say anything. He just walked in, saw the observatory, and—well, he froze."

Professor Oak finally took a moment to look around the observatory. Papers were scattered everywhere, chairs were overturned, and various gadgets were strewn about as if a tornado had blown through. It did indeed look like Gary had been doing some "aggressive" training or battling with one of his Pokémon.

"Gary," Oak said slowly, "what did you do to my observatory?"

Gary shrugged, looking a little sheepish. "I was just doing some experiments with Electivire. You know, testing electric currents on different frequencies. Then it got a little out of hand..."

"A little?" Oak raised an eyebrow, gesturing at the wreckage.

"I'll clean it up, don't worry," Gary muttered. "But can we deal with Ash first?"

Oak sighed and nodded. "Right, right." He stood up and pulled out his phone. "I'll call Nurse Joy. Maybe she'll have some idea on how to snap him out of this."

While Oak dialed, Gary knelt beside Ash again, poking him in the cheek. "Hey, Ashy-boy. Come on, wake up."

No response. Ash remained stiff as a board.

Gary groaned and waved a hand in front of Ash's face again. "Pikachu, help me out here."

Pikachu, who had been standing nearby looking concerned, jumped up onto Ash's chest. "Pika, pika!"

It nudged Ash's face with its nose, but Ash remained unresponsive. Pikachu's cheeks sparked, and before Gary could react, it gave Ash a small jolt of electricity. Not enough to hurt him—just enough to wake him up. At least, that was the plan.

Instead, Ash remained frozen, and Gary recoiled in surprise.

"Wow, not even a Pikachu shock can snap him out of it," Gary muttered. "This must be serious."

Oak, still on the phone, looked over and sighed. "This might take a while. Nurse Joy says she's on her way. In the meantime, Gary... try not to make things worse."

Gary shot him a look. "Worse? How could I possibly make it worse?"

Oak pointed at the mess around them. "You have a track record, my boy."

Gary rolled his eyes but got up and started tidying up the observatory while they waited. Pikachu stayed by Ash's side, determined to keep watch over its trainer.

As the minutes ticked by, Oak occasionally glanced at Ash, hoping for some sign of life. But Ash stayed in his trance-like state, completely frozen to the spot.

"Maybe it's the shock of seeing the mess," Oak mused aloud. "Or maybe something else entirely..."

Gary, now holding a pile of scattered papers, muttered under his breath. "If I'd known this would happen, I would've cleaned up earlier..."

Finally, the door to the observatory creaked open, and Nurse Joy entered with Chansey in tow. She took one look at Ash and blinked in surprise.

"What exactly happened here?" Nurse Joy asked, walking over to Ash.

Gary scratched the back of his head. "Uh... he saw the observatory, freaked out, and then—well, you see the result."

Nurse Joy knelt next to Ash and examined him. She then turned to Chansey, who handed her a small flashlight. She waved it in front of Ash's eyes, but there was no reaction.

"Well," Nurse Joy said after a moment, "he's not unconscious, but he's definitely in some kind of shock."

"Can you fix him?" Gary asked, sounding more anxious than he usually did.

Nurse Joy smiled softly. "I'll do my best. Chansey, prepare the medical kit."

Chansey nodded and waddled over with the kit, ready to assist.

Meanwhile, Gary hovered behind her, still feeling a little guilty. "You think he'll be alright?"

Nurse Joy chuckled. "I'm sure he'll be fine. He just needs a little time to snap out of it. This kind of reaction can happen when someone gets overwhelmed."

Oak, relieved that Ash was in good hands, leaned back and chuckled. "Well, I think we all learned a valuable lesson today."

Gary raised an eyebrow. "And what's that?"

Oak smiled. "Keep your Pokémon battles outside the observatory."

Gary groaned. "Yeah, yeah, lesson learned."

 Ash slowly blinked his eyes open, his body still stiff from the frozen state he'd been in, he groaned, "Oh my god, I just had the craziest—"

Then, mid-sentence, his eyes locked onto the wreckage of the observatory once again. Papers strewn everywhere, chairs overturned, and Gary's Electivire standing by innocently. Without warning, Ash froze all over again, his body stiffening as he stood in place, eyes wide and unblinking.

Gary, watching this unfold, slapped his forehead with a loud smack. "Are you kidding me?" he muttered in frustration. He then looked at Professor Oak, who was trying—and failing—to suppress a smile, and Nurse Joy, who had stepped back, her hands on her hips, clearly amused by the situation.

Gary shook his head and marched over to Ash, grabbing him by the arm. "That's it, I'm taking him outside before he freezes up again."

Pikachu hopped off Ash's chest just as Gary hoisted Ash up and started dragging him toward the door. "Come on, Ashy-boy, some fresh air will do you good."

As Gary pulled the stiff, unresponsive Ash out of the observatory, Misty, who had been waiting outside, saw the scene and raised an eyebrow. "Uh, what happened?"

Gary groaned as he continued to tug Ash's frozen form out of the door. "Same thing as before. Saw the mess, froze up, and now I'm hauling him out like a human statue."

Misty rolled her eyes and followed after them. "You'd think after all the crazy stuff we've been through, a little mess wouldn't faze him."

Gary glanced back at her, still dragging Ash. "I guess some things never change."

Finally, as they made it outside and into the fresh air, Gary dropped Ash onto a patch of grass, wiped his hands, and sighed. "Alright, Ash, get a grip. You're outside. No observatory in sight."

Ash blinked a few times, as if the fresh air was helping him reboot. He slowly turned his head, taking in the peaceful scenery around him. "W-What happened?" Ash asked, a bit dazed.

"You froze up," Gary replied, crossing his arms. "Twice."

Ash groaned, sitting up and rubbing his head. "Man, I just saw that mess and... bam. I don't even remember what I was thinking."

Misty laughed, shaking her head. "Well, you're fine now. Try not to look at the observatory again unless you want another brain freeze."

Gary snorted, glancing back toward the observatory. "And for the record, I wasn't the only one responsible for the mess. It was an experiment!"

Ash, finally back to his senses, gave Gary a half-smile. "You know, somehow I'm not surprised that you're involved."

Gary raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Who else could cause that much chaos?"

Ash chuckled, dusting himself off. "True. Next time, maybe keep the 'experiments' away from places that have valuable equipment."

Gary rolled his eyes. "Noted. Now, let's get back inside before Grandpa thinks we've gone missing."

As they stepped back into the observatory, Ash immediately noticed how spotless it looked. The wreckage from Gary's "experiment" was gone, and everything had been neatly put back into place. Ash sighed in relief. "Oh, good. It's all clean now," he said, visibly relaxing.

Misty raised an eyebrow, slightly amused. "Well, that was quick. I guess Professor Oak really pulled things together."

Gary smirked. "Yeah, it's like magic. Now maybe Ash can stop freezing up every time he sees a mess."

Ash chuckled, finally feeling at ease. "Yeah, yeah, I think I'm—"

But just as he said that, Ash headed towards the bathroom. The moment he opened the door, his eyes fell on the bathtub. It was wet. Water was everywhere. There were puddles on the floor, and for some reason, the faucet was still dripping, ever so slightly.

And just like that, Ash froze again.

His body stiffened, and he stood there, wide-eyed, staring at the puddles on the floor. His mouth hung open, and he didn't move a muscle.

Gary, who had been following Ash closely, stopped right behind him. He groaned, throwing his hands up in frustration. "Oh, come on! Not again!" He put his hands on his hips, glaring at Ash. "The bathroom, Ash? Really? It's just water!"

Misty peeked around the corner and immediately understood. She slapped her forehead. "Oh no, not the bathroom... You have got to be kidding me!"

Gary pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to keep his patience in check. "Great. Just great. My best friend is officially a sack of potatoes."

Misty chuckled despite herself, shaking her head. "Well, at least potatoes don't freeze up every time they see a bathtub."

Pikachu looked up at Ash, tilting its head. "Pika?"

Gary sighed and walked over to Ash, waving a hand in front of his face. "Yoo-hoo, Ash! You gonna snap out of it, or should we drag you outside again?"

Ash didn't even blink.

Gary sighed, looking to Misty. "Wanna help me drag him outside?"

Misty shrugged with a grin. "We might as well. At this point, we should just carry him everywhere."

With that, Gary grabbed Ash by one arm, and Misty took the other. Together, they began to pull him back towards the door, with Pikachu trotting along beside them.

As they dragged Ash, Gary muttered, "You know, when I imagined being the best Pokémon trainer in the world, I didn't think I'd be spending half my time dragging a frozen Ash Ketchum out of bathrooms."

Misty laughed. "Well, you signed up for it when you decided to be friends with him."

Gary sighed dramatically. "Yeah, lucky me."

Thirty minutes later, Ash was wrapped snugly in a thick, fluffy blanket, sitting on a couch in the corner of the observatory. He looked like he'd just survived a harsh winter storm, even though it was a mess of wet puddles that had sent him into his frozen state.

Gary, sitting beside him, was rubbing Ash's shoulders, half-annoyed but mostly resigned to the situation. "You're fine, Ash. It's just water. You survived a thousand Pokémon battles, but one wet bathtub nearly took you out."

Ash, still looking a bit dazed, sipped from a mug of hot chocolate Gary had given him. "I swear, it was... it was the way the water was just everywhere. How does that even happen?"

Misty, sitting across from them with her arms crossed, rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, Ash, it's called a leaky faucet. You need to toughen up. You've literally battled in rainstorms!"

Ash sighed, pulling the blanket tighter around himself. "It's not the same! At least rainstorms make sense."

Gary smirked and kept rubbing Ash's shoulders, trying to coax him back to full awareness. "Yeah, sure. It totally makes sense that a guy who's been electrocuted hundreds of times by his own Pikachu is scared of a leaky faucet."

"Pika-pi!" Pikachu chirped in agreement, jumping onto Ash's lap and giving him an encouraging nuzzle.

"See, even Pikachu gets it!" Misty added with a teasing grin.

Ash groaned, still holding his mug as if it were a lifeline. "I don't know what's worse, the bathtub or you guys not letting me live it down."

Gary gave him a good-natured pat on the back. "Well, you did freeze in front of a wet floor, so it's kinda hard to forget, Ashy Boy."

Ash glared half-heartedly at Gary. "Don't call me that!"

Gary chuckled and threw his hands up in mock surrender. "Alright, alright. But seriously, are you good now? I don't want to have to drag you out of another bathroom later."

Ash let out a long breath and nodded. "Yeah, I think I'm good now. No more bathroom freezes."

Misty smirked. "We'll see about that."

Ash shot her a look but smiled in defeat. "Okay, okay. I deserved that."